Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Leraje]

More shooting = more salvage.

[$iljanus]

Let's light them up!

[Zenn7]

Contract-wise, you could probably argue it either way and it'd depend on how good our lawyer was vs how good their lawyer was and which way the Comstar arbiter leaned at the time.

Can we have a lawyer simulation? I think that would be riveting stuff.

I OBJECT!

I still remember the one business law class I had in college. We'd have 1-2 page reading assignments, I'd fall asleep 3-6 times trying to complete those. I did better reading accounting text books and staying awake!

[NickAragua]

Contract-wise, you could probably argue it either way and it'd depend on how good our lawyer was vs how good their lawyer was and which way the Comstar arbiter leaned at the time.

Can we have a lawyer simulation? I think that would be riveting stuff.

I'd want to use Shadowrun rules for that, just so that it's appropriately convoluted. e.g. Roll 19d6 with a target of 7, adding 1 die for each point in "knowledge or research: command clause subcontracts". The number of successes can be added to the negotiation or bribery roll of 14d6 or 32d6 respectively, with target numbers of 11 and 15 respectively, modified by your "polishing comstar knob" active skill.

[gbasden]

I'd want to use Shadowrun rules for that, just so that it's appropriately convoluted. e.g. Roll 19d6 with a target of 7, adding 1 die for each point in "knowledge or research: command clause subcontracts". The number of successes can be added to the negotiation or bribery roll of 14d6 or 32d6 respectively, with target numbers of 11 and 15 respectively, modified by your "polishing comstar knob" active skill.

Brilliant!

[gbasden]

[X] Tell the Marvello rep to stuff it, cease fire
[] Keep shooting, maybe we can get them to surrender unconditionally instead

I still want to be able to surrender and walk off the field when we need it.

[AWS260]

[X] Tell the Marvello rep to stuff it, cease fire
[] Keep shooting, maybe we can get them to surrender unconditionally instead

I still want to be able to surrender and walk off the field when we need it.

Yes.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Accept ceasefire - 2 + 5 = 7
Keep shooting - 4 + 2 = 6

Zenn7 sighs. The rep does make a good point - if we take the rest of these guys out, they won't be messing with us later.

"Look, uh, CorpSecOff Finsrud, I don't know how you corporate guys do it, but we generally accept cease fires, or at least make a good faith effort to negotiate before we keep shooting."

"That's Corporate Security Officer Third-Class to you, merc."

"Yeah, that's too long. Anyway, if you want to keep shooting on your own, go ahead, but we're going to let these guys go and call the salvage and recovery crews in."

The Marvello liaison has enough situational awareness that he elects not to take on a heavy tank lance and mechs by himself. The light mechs and tanks that made it past us approach Beta-Hunter's position, but are unwilling to engage a dropship and a heavy mech lance.

------------

February 24, 3045
Unzmarkt Resources Limited Human Resources Processing Facility

"I still wish they wouldn't call it that." Cylus muses. "I'm pretty sure they're not turning people into slurry in there, but..."

"Yeah, I know." Xwraith says with a head shake.

Scrub sighs. "Great pep talk guys, now let's focus. We've got a tank company and a light-heavy mech lance coming in and we'd better take them out of here quickly before they do too much damage or leave too many presents."

Scrub finds herself wishing that this particular raid didn't come in the dead of night. But at least she took the pre-caution of recalling Gamma-Probe from their patrol, so we'll have some backup. We've also got a corporate security Clint with us, which won't be much help, but hey, anything's better than nothing.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Right, no setting the place on fire to light our way." Scrub mutters to herself.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Some faster and slower incoming hostiles. No visual yet, just sensor contacts.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

A couple of lighter units, a Spider and a Wasp, jump in, hoping to get some harassing shots in on us. Cylus smirks - instead of shooting the Wasp, our mechwarrior just blasts the building out from under it. The bug mech teeters on the debris, allowing Scrub to target it with PPCs to blow off the right leg and left arm, and then the whole thing collapses.

"Ooh, shit." Cylus thinks, recalling that we're supposed to protect this facility.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Gamma-Probe arrives from the north, moving to engage "loose" units there, a couple of hovercraft to start with. The Vulcan disables a Maxim hover transport, while Cujo sends a most of an SRM/6 salvo from the Wolverine's launcher up a Scimitar hovertank's tailpipe, causing its engine to more or less drop out the bottom. AWS takes a glancing AC/5 round, but armor holds.

Scrub lights up an approaching Panther with her Warhammer's searchlight, and then the long and medium ranged weapons - PPCs, medium lasers and SRMs. One of the PPCs blasts a chunk out of a building as the Panther moves to cover, as do a couple of the Artemis-enabled SRMs, but the mech's left arm winds up stripped of all armor. With help from Xwraith's more accurate ER laser and LRMs, the hostile mech drops to the ground. The nearby Spider melts a little armor off our Warhammer, then mostly avoids Xwraith's kick, losing only all the armor from its left leg.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

AWS jumps to a cluster of trees, watching as a Harasser sends some SRMs in the Phoenix Hawk's direction, missing entirely. A well-placed laser punctures the hovercraft's armor, at which point the driver zips off the field rather rapidly. As rapidly as possible with one of the propulsion fans lying on the ground in a melted puddle of slag.

Scrub and Xwraith move southwest, fending off continued attacks by the Spider, with pretty good success - the light mech loses one of its arms to a PPC, then Xwraith cracks its left leg in half as it staggers for a little too long.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Probe-three here, heads up." AWS reports. "Sensors show two aerospace fighters closing in, and I've got a bigger blip about a minute out, looks like a dropship."

And, indeed, a pair of aerospace fighters come screaming in - a Riever and a Slayer, both heavyweights (though the Riever is much heavier). Gamma-Probe is able to clear their flight vector, but Gamma-Battle is in the middle of the facility, so not so much. Drazzil takes advantage of the distraction caused by the incoming fighters and uses the Cronus' SRMs to immobilize the second Harasser as it moves to cover its retreating buddy.

Scrub doesn't heed the warning in time, being busy sinking a Pegasus hovertank, and her Warhammer eats the worst of it. First, taking some fire from the Slayer, which is absorbed by the armor, then taking an AC/20 burst from the Riever, which blows off the Warhammer's left arm. Some follow-up SRMs crack her mech's left leg open at the hip, and the remaining PPC cracks open when the mech hits the ground. Her searchlight winks out as well.

Xwraith does manage to score a solid ER laser hit on the Riever, which causes the aerospace fighter to briefly lose control as it zips off into the distance while the wingman circles around for another attack run.

Cylus jumps north to engage the Panther, failing to score meaningful damage with the Grasshopper's lasers, but scraping the jump jets off the lighter mech's right leg.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Cylus pursues the Panther as it hops over some buildings, taking its right leg off with the Grasshopper's laser array.

The Slayer tries to make another run on Scrub's downed mech, but without an easy searchlight to shoot at, fails to inflict any meaningful damage.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

To the northwest, Drazzil finishes off a stray Bulldog tank, breaching its armor with lasers and a boot, while the Vulcan immobilizes a Hunter support tank.

The remaining enemy forces, a couple of tanks and a Warhammer, despite their aerospace buddies' success against Scrub's Warhammer and incoming dropship, decide to head out. AWS' beagle probe identifies that the dropship (a Leopard) is following suit, as are the aerospace fighters.

The two mechwarriors we wind up capturing (the guy in the Panther got away) were hired by the Unzmarkt Environmental Liberation League, nothing surprising there.

Scrub can thank Weisman that the guys who upgraded her Warhammer didn't replace the internal structure with endo-steel, that'd be pretty damn hard to find replacements for around here. Thus, we can use parts from the Archer we salvaged from Beta company's last battle to repair the fairly severe damage. Still, the whole operation will take the better part of three weeks, so Scrub will need to drive a different mech while her normal ride is splayed out in a hangar bay.

The Panther, Spider and Wasp wrecks sell for a total of about 2M C-bills, which isn't a bad haul. What is bad is the damage we did to the facility buildings. There's not really any way we can pretend the eco guys did it, since Gary's guy was right there recording the whole thing.

Gary shrugs ("whatever, shit happens") and suggests that we can make good on it either via battlefield salvage or just pay for the repairs, which are estimated at 1.5M C-bills. We've got an Orion that we salvaged from Beta-Assault's last battle that we're drying out right now alongside Zenn7's Awesome. It's a bit beat-up, but the sticker price is ~3.3M (actual sale price may vary). But on the plus side, it'll probably get more use in the hands of Gary's corporate security guys than it will sitting in one of our mech hangars.

[] "Donate" the Orion that Beta-Assault salvaged from their last battle
[] Pay off the 1.5M C-bills in cash

[AWS260]

[] "Donate" the Orion that Beta-Assault salvaged from their last battle
[X] Pay off the 1.5M C-bills in cash

We're not running a charity here.

[Leraje]

[] "Donate" the Orion that Beta-Assault salvaged from their last battle
[x] Pay off the 1.5M C-bills in cash

Or sell them the Orion in question at a 1.5m discount.

[$iljanus]

The Orion is probably worth more than 1.5 C-bucks so I’d use some of the cash we made off of the wrecks to cover the damage instead.

[Zenn7]

[] "Donate" the Orion that Beta-Assault salvaged from their last battle
[x] Pay off the 1.5M C-bills in cash

Or sell them the Orion in question at a 1.5m discount.

If we really have no use for the Orion, this looks like a good option. If it's not an option, then cash. We can get a lot more than 1.5M for it (maybe not the 3.3M sticker, but significantly more than 1.5M).

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pay off in cash - 2
Sell Larry the Orion at a 1.5M discount - 2
Donate Orion - 5

After one of our mechwarriors makes the suggestion about selling URL the Orion at a discount, Larry nods. "An Orion for only one and a half million C-bills? Sign me up."

Granted (after discovering that the Archer parts are incompatible with Scrub's Warhammer), we wind up taking a couple of leg actuators and structural elements off the Orion before handing it over, but the main part is the chassis, which is still intact.

February 27, 3045
Marvello Diversionary Ops

We rotate Delta Company in to the Marvello contract for "continued diversionary operations against competitive and subversive elements".

At night, we wind up being instructed to engage a mixed mech company (light, medium and heavy lance) backed up by a pair of light tank lances. Delta-Ranger calls in Delta-Sweep as well. Marvello's got a liaison in a Warhammer ("Corporate Security Officer Second Class Martinsen"), and four aerospace conventional fighters for support.

Delta-Ranger will engage first, then Delta-Sweep will move in behind the hostiles. We only have to keep them busy for a couple of minutes - just long enough to present a credible threat. If we can take them down quickly, so much the better, but it's unlikely against that kind of mech tonnage.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Delta-Ranger advances as fast as they can, using jump jets. The Warhammer will be quite far behind.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Advance elements of the hostile force.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Delta-Sweep moves in from the northeast, engaging trailing elements of the hostile force. Someone over there has a searchlight (money's on the Warhammer to the west) and uses it to light up our units. Luckily, we only take a few SRMs as a result, but our weapons fire proves fairly ineffective as well, except for Delta-Sweep's Cronus, which kicks over a Saladin hovertank.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The enemy Warhammer continues tracking Delta-Sweep's Cronus with its searchlight, but even being lit up, our mech is too nimble for the hostiles to hit. The attention focus gives Delta-Sweep's Griffin an opening to blast the nearby Harasser with its large laser, melting through the left side of the hovercraft.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Delta-Sweep's Griffin uses its large laser to take out the Warhammer's searchlight, greatly reducing the amount of firepower coming our way. Well, it's still coming our way, just much less accurately.

Delta-Ranger's liaison buddy lights up a Wasp LAM from a distance with its searchlight, letting us getting some shots in. LRMs from Paingod disable the light mech's medium laser, leaving it with a single LRM/5 launcher for armament - not much of a threat there.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Whoop whoop, here comes the air support. One of the fighters, a Meteor, actually does pretty well - the liaison lights up a distant Locust, enabling the allied fighter to blast the bug mech's head with its AC/10. Not quite a kill, but some good ventilation for the mechwarrior. Combined with LRMs from Paingod and Freyland, the mech falls over.

Freyland flips the Quickdraw's arms backwards and uses the lasers mounted there to leg the Wasp LAM as it jumps over to harass Paingod, who stomps on the lighter mech's left arm for good measure.

To the northeast, Delta-Sweep's Phoenix Hawk takes out an LRM-equipped Scorpion tank, easily avoiding the long-range weaponry.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The poor guy in the Locust has trouble getting up and cracks his gyro housing on one of the several attempts. Delta-Ranger leaves him alone, opting to engage a lone Crusader to the west. Delta-Sweep takes a little armor damage from LRMs, but nothing serious.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Freyland hunts down the Wasp that's been taking pot shots at our Quickdraw, blasting off about half of its right side with the Quickdraw's laser array.

Paingod, meanwhile, takes advantage of the Crusader being lit up to score a head shot on it with a PPC, nearly taking the head off entirely. Combined with LRMs from Archinerd and a couple of lasers and SRMs from Madmarcus, the large machine goes down.

To the northeast, Delta-Sweep's Cronus exchanges fire with a nearby Stinger, then rips its right leg off (along with most of its right torso section) when it gets a little too close and goes in for a kick.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Delta-Ranger has moved to the west of the main body of the hostile force. Freyland picks off a Scorpion tank with a mobility kill. The rest of Delta-Ranger continues delivering ordnance to the Crusader, but the heavy mech's armor holds up.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The allied Meteor takes out the Scorpion tank that Freyland was targeting, annoying our mechwarrior greatly. We disable the Crusader's right arm, but the mech keeps fighting for now.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

Our engagement timer is almost up, so we begin pulling back. Madmarcus gets in behind the Crusader and takes the damaged head off, courtesy of Paingod doing most of the work earlier with a PPC, while Freyland blows away a Scorpion tank.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Paingod is on fire with that PPC today, scoring another headshot, this time on a Warhammer. The mechwarrior inside gets knocked out and the mech falls to the ground.

Round 13:
"Engagement time is up." the liaison informs us. Which make this is a good time for us to leave. Not bad, we took out pretty much their whole screening force and one of the heavy mech, as well as delaying them long enough for Marvello to get their forces into position. The bad guys wind up aborting whatever they were planning to do.

Two weeks later, between Marvello and our forces, we run down the remainder of the group Marvello is trying to take out. It's quite a substantial force: we're looking at a reinforced company of mechs (two light lances, one medium lance, one heavy lance) backed up by almost two companies of tanks. Mostly crap and hovertanks, but a few heavies in the mix as well.

The good news is that Marvello's committing a reinforced medium lance: three Griffins and a Hunchback, led by a Thunderbolt. Also, in the way of the hostiles is a river, which will be tough for their mechs to cross and impossible for the tanks. The bad news is that we're going to need to throw some serious forces at this to take out the targets.

We're definitely bringing Beta company for the actual fighting, as they are our heaviest force. We'll need to decide on deployment and what kind of support units we bring. The hostiles will be deploying to the south and attempting to advance north.

Spoiler:

Bringing in our infantry is one option, although the terrain isn't really suited for them. There are some woods that they can use for cover, but that's a lot of mechs and tanks that'll be driving through. Another option is to lay up to three hexes worth of mines. Last time, we guessed wrong as to where the bad guys would go, so the mines went to waste, but there's a lot more target density this time around, so *someone* is bound to step on those mines.

Which lance deploys from the south with the Marvello guys?
[] Beta-Assault (2x Awesome, Victor, Thunderbolt)
[] Beta-Hunter (Guillotine, Stalker, Orion, Archer, Zephyr hovertank)

Does the southern force engage immediately or wait until the bulk of the enemy force passes? (The northern lance will move to the north side of the river and engage from there)
[] Engage immediately and hit the middle of the column
[] Delay engagement and hit the rear end of the column

Support
[] Deploy infantry (where?)
[] Deploy minefields (where?)

Also, anybody want to grab the Flashman?

It's a 75-ton mech, average speed. Packs two large lasers, five mediums and a flamer. Armor is not at maximum, but heavy. It's rugged, meaning that maintenance costs are effectively halved, which is pretty good.

[Zenn7]

Which lance deploys from the south with the Marvello guys?
[x] Beta-Assault (2x Awesome, Victor, Thunderbolt)
[] Beta-Hunter (Guillotine, Stalker, Orion, Archer, Zephyr hovertank)

Does the southern force engage immediately or wait until the bulk of the enemy force passes? (The northern lance will move to the north side of the river and engage from there)
[x] Engage immediately and hit the middle of the column
[] Delay engagement and hit the rear end of the column

Support
[] Deploy infantry (where?)
[x] Deploy minefields (where?)

Also, anybody want to grab the Flashman?

It's a 75-ton mech, average speed. Packs two large lasers, five mediums and a flamer. Armor is not at maximum, but heavy. It's rugged, meaning that maintenance costs are effectively halved, which is pretty good.

Assuming the red triangles at the bottom are the enemy. Place the mines about 3 hexes above the left most arrow.

[NickAragua]

Assuming the red triangles at the bottom are the enemy. Place the mines about 3 hexes above the left most arrow.

They are, but that's only four out of thirty six.

[Leraje]

Which lance deploys from the south with the Marvello guys?
[] Beta-Assault (2x Awesome, Victor, Thunderbolt)
[x] Beta-Hunter (Guillotine, Stalker, Orion, Archer, Zephyr hovertank)

Does the southern force engage immediately or wait until the bulk of the enemy force passes? (The northern lance will move to the north side of the river and engage from there)
[] Engage immediately and hit the middle of the column
[x] Delay engagement and hit the rear end of the column

Support
[] Deploy infantry (where?)
[x] Deploy minefields in front of left-most red arrow.

[Akalon]

Quick question: Is there any way to get added to the mechwarrior roster in the future?

I followed the link from SV to here and just joined up, so any recommendations for a good read (besides this let's play/fic) on here?

[$iljanus]

Which lance deploys from the south with the Marvello guys?
[] Beta-Assault (2x Awesome, Victor, Thunderbolt)


Does the southern force engage immediately or wait until the bulk of the enemy force passes? (The northern lance will move to the north side of the river and engage from there)

[x] Delay engagement and hit the rear end of the column

Support
[] Deploy infantry (where?)
[x] Deploy minefields in front of left-most red arrow.

[NickAragua]

Quick question: Is there any way to get added to the mechwarrior roster in the future?

I followed the link from SV to here and just joined up, so any recommendations for a good read (besides this let's play/fic) on here?

Sure - details next update. As for other reads, I recall somebody did a Fallout 2 playthrough which was pretty awesome.

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

South edge deployment
[X] Beta-Hunter - 1 + 3 = 4
[X] Beta-Assault - 2 = 2

[X] Delay engagement and hit the rear end of the column - 2 + 3
[X] Hit the column immediately - 1

[X] Deploy Infantry in the 5 hex area of forest that is north of the river. - 3
[X] Deploy 2 minefields in the clear space between the southermost forest and the big patch of rubble, deploy the third minefield to the left of the largest rubble area - 3
[X] Deploy minefields west of southwest rough patch - 3

Zenn7 and Leraje have plenty of time to think this plan over, with a lot of discussion going back and forth. They finally determine that Beta-Assault will dig in with the infantry on the north side of the river, while Beta-Hunter and the Marvello guys wait for the main body of the enemy force to commit then clamp on them like a vice grip. Beta-Fire will be standing by in case we need extra support.

The Marvello liaison (CorpSecOff 2nd Class Martinsen, the other guy having apparently been re-assigned) agrees to the plan. Seems that he'll be driving a Thunderbolt this time - apparently the Warhammer developed a fault in its targeting system.

Then it all goes to pot. Beta-Fire reports being engaged by hostiles and is unlikely to be finished any time soon, and the main enemy force shows up almost as soon as the infantry are done laying mines, leaving our troopers only the option of scattering and hiding - without mech support, out in the open, they'd only get massacred. Beta-Assault isn't entirely in position yet, either.

On the way to the river, one of the hostile Panthers jumps straight into a minefield and loses its leg, while a Wasp loses both legs. A Warhammer takes some major leg armor damage but remains standing, while a Wasp LAM loses all of its leg armor and falls over. So, pretty good return on investment on those mines.

Round "1":

Spoiler:

Beta-Hunter and the Marvello guys engage the tail end of the enemy column, and it's a major furball right off the bat.

Leraje fires up the Guillotine's jump jets, jumping into a sparse cluster of trees to engage a Von Luckner and take its AC/20 out of action early. The mech's lasers cut into the tank's side armor and while the armor itself is mostly intact, an SRM makes it through a small armor breach and turns the engine into a black smoke machine. The Marvello Hunchback nearby targets an AC/2 carrier with its many, many lasers (it's a 4J, a Swayback variant). The Hunchback takes a solid facial from a nearby SRM Hetzer and a Bulldog, its front briefly covered in explosions, but armor holds up. The Von Luckner itself fires at a nearby Marvello Griffin, nearly taking its left arm off and knocking it to the ground, where the arm does snap off upon impact. The Swayback goes down as well from volume of fire.

The Marvello liaison opens fire on a nearby LRM Carrier, blowing it away with the Thunderbolt's impressive weapons array as it fires at Hyena.

Siljanus takes multiple autocannon rounds and SRMs from a nearby Bulldog, returning fire with the Stalker's weapons array. The Bulldog's armor is punctured and treads flap as a Crusader targets Siljanus as well, the assault mech rocking under the missile assault.

Hyena's Archer moves forward, puncturing the armor on a Scorpion tank, although our mechwarrior's efforts to launch LRMs at an escaping light mech prove less fruitful, due to sudden actuator damage from an LRM salvo emerging from the already doomed LRM Carrier. Our mechwarrior has to bring the mech to a knee to avoid faceplanting.

Our Zephyr hovertank zips north and just as quickly zips back, having taken a few lasers to the hover skirt.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Man, there's a lot of stuff happening. First, Beta-Assault finally shows up. They're still out of position (and, in fact, one of the hovertanks has already gotten across the river), but at least they'll have a chance to engage the hostiles. The hovercraft doesn't last very long, as a PPC from Zenn7 catches it center of mass, turning it into wreckage.

Beta-Fire's Trebuchet arrives as well, having broken off from the rest of Beta-Fire as the slower units continue their engagement. It's lost about a ton of armor and used up a good number of LRMs, but is in good shape otherwise.

Hyena gets up from a knee and cuts apart a nearby Scorpion tank with the Archer's lasers, but incoming firepower forces the Archer to a knee again.

Wolf backs up and teams up with the Marvello Thunderbolt to engage the Crusader. The Orion's autocannon blasts the enemy heavy's right torso, allowing the laser to pop a pair of heat sinks. The unbalanced enemy mech takes a kick from the Marvello Griffin, separating its right leg just above the knee, at which point it falls over onto its weakened right torso - the impact sparks up an LRM ammo bin, and you know the rest. It *is* a Crusader after all.

Leraje steps back as the Marvello Hunchback gets up and opens up on the nearby AC/2 carrier, destroying the lightly armored vehicle. The allied mech gets nailed by long and medium-range firepower from the Bulldogs to the north though, taking a hit to the gyro and falling over again.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Hyena grunts, forcing the Archer back up, and squeezes the trigger on the LRMs as his targeting computer gets a lock on the escaping Wasp LAM to the north. The little mech has braved the minefield, but Hyena's LRMs finish off its right leg.

The liaison's Thunderbolt keeps up its performance, taking out a Bulldog tank with a laser through the fuel tank.

One of the downsides of working alongside people you haven't worked with is that they don't necessarily know how to coordinate target selection with you, which is why Leraje nearly jumps when a full salvo from the allied Griffin to the south comes straight at him. Turns out it was at the Bulldog he was about to kick, but still.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The guy in the allied Hunchback tries to get up. Leraje watches as the mechwarrior can't compensate for the wobbling gyro and faceplants. The mech's sensor contact winks out.

Another piece of good news, the Vedette that's been pegging autocannon rounds at Hyena drives north and hits one of the remaining mines, taking off the front half of the vehicle. Actuator damage slows Hyena down, so the Archer will take a little while to catch up to the fight.

The liaison keeps on trucking, disabling an SRM Hetzer before it can unload too much of its SRM salvo at an allied Griffin's back.

To the north, Beta-Fire's Trebuchet disables an approaching Pegasus hovertank with LRMs. Zenn7 blasts both arms off a Stinger that hops into a small pond, that'll help convince him to leave.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Moley engages a Phoenix Hawk trying to get by Beta-Assault, flinching briefly as a laser brushes across the Thunderbolt's head, but manages to keep the lasers on target, then delivers a kick, knocking the Pixie to the ground.

LordMortis sends a gauss slug in the direction of a Stinger, the metal sphere severing the bug mech's right leg.

To the south, Leraje exchanges fire with a Warhammer, while Wolf and Siljanus take out a Plainsman hovertank with combined autocannon and large laser fire.

Beta-Fire's Trebuchet reports losing its right arm armor, and pulls back to the north - those Galleon's can't cross the river here anyway, so Beta-Hunter can mop them up.

Zarathud's mech heats up quite a bit, firing at a distant Quickdraw, which dodges the incoming PPC blasts. The coolant truck is on the job though, spraying our mech with unbelievably toxic coolant fluid and letting our mechwarrior keep up the rate of fire.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Marv-Three, wait, that's a..." Hyena calls out, then sighs and shakes his head as an allied Griffin steps on one of the land mines, nearly blowing its right leg off - actuators hang loose as the mech stumbles to the ground. Our mechwarrior sighs and fires LRMs at a Warhammer as Leraje backs up to let fresher mechs take the point - the Guillotine's left torso armor is basically melted swiss cheese at this point. Between the liaison's Thunderbolt, a Griffin and Leraje's large laser, the Warhammer drops to the ground, unbalanced from uneven armor loss.

Zenn7's mech gently reminds him of the rising heat levels, to which he responds by firing all three of the Awesome's PPCs. "Core temperature at..." the computer starts, before our mechwarrior slams his fist on the (reinforced) override button. The target of the PPC blasts, a Commando, explodes as one of the blue lightning bolts goes into an SRM ammo bin. A few retaliatory SRMs ping off the Awesome's armor, but it's not a concern.

Zarathud is kept frosty by the coolant truck's ongoing spraying, allowing our mechwarrior to blast an approaching Quickdraw with three PPCs. The subsequent impact with the ground knocks out the 60-tonner's LRM launcher.

LordMortis puts a gauss slug through a Saladin's front - thicker armor be damned, it doesn't matter with a hypersonic metal sphere - the hovertank is destroyed.

Wolf makes a "from downtown" shot against a Manticore tank, dropping out its engine block with a surpisingly well-placed LRM salvo.

Siljanus fires at the back of a Panther moving towards Beta-Assault, knocking it down into the pond where it lands.

Moley lands the final blows of the fight, breaching the target Phoenix Hawk's armor in multiple places and blowing out a pair of jump jets.

Being pressed on all sides and having lost over half their force with little damage inflicted in return, the hostiles surrender. Salvage isn't that great - we blew all the good stuff to bits, and this Marvello liaison negotiates with the opposition.

This brings the Marvello contract to an end, with quite a substantial payoff. They've crushed quite a few competitors and wind up hooked up with some pretty good salvage. The liaison asks if we want to undertake a supplemental security duty contract - their offensive operations may have ceased, but they could use an extra lance to help guard their on-planet facilities over the next four months in case anyone decides to retaliate.

[] Sure, we'll take 75M over 4 months for a single lance
[] That's enough working with these guys

--------------

Our mechwarriors have demonstrated a marked improvement in their skills across the board. Time for individuals to make some calls.

Siljanus, Archinerd, AWS - improve gunnery or piloting? Both from 3 to 2.
[] gunnery
[] piloting

Leraje
[] improve gunnery 3 to 2
[] improve piloting 3 to 2
[] improve strategy 0 to 2 (faster lance arrival times on missions)
[] improve tactics 2 to 3 (deploy more infantry or mines when possible)

Moley -
[] improve gunnery 2 to 1
[] improve piloting 2 to 1
[] gunnery specialization, energy - remove penalty to firing non energy weapons

Cujo -
[] improve gunnery 2 to 1
[] improve piloting 3 to 2
[] roll random 3-point special pilot ability

Zenn7
[] improve piloting 2 to 1
[] improve strategy 2 to 4 (faster lance arrival times on missions)
[] improve tactics 3 to 4 (deploy more infantry or mines when possible)

Zarathud
[] improve piloting 2 to 1
[] improve gunnery 2 to 1

[gbasden]

This brings the Marvello contract to an end, with quite a substantial payoff. They've crushed quite a few competitors and wind up hooked up with some pretty good salvage. The liaison asks if we want to undertake a supplemental security duty contract - their offensive operations may have ceased, but they could use an extra lance to help guard their on-planet facilities over the next four months in case anyone decides to retaliate.

[X] Sure, we'll take 75M over 4 months for a single lance
[] That's enough working with these guys

[Leraje]

[x] Sure, we'll take 75M over 4 months for a single lance
[] That's enough working with these guys

--------------
Leraje
[x] improve gunnery 3 to 2
[] improve piloting 3 to 2
[] improve strategy 0 to 2 (faster lance arrival times on missions)
[] improve tactics 2 to 3 (deploy more infantry or mines when possible)

Tough call between improved gunnery and strategy, though I'm leaning more towards gunnery.

[AWS260]

[] Sure, we'll take 75M over 4 months for a single lance
[X] That's enough working with these guys

--------------

AWS - improve gunnery or piloting? Both from 3 to 2.
[] gunnery
[X] piloting

[$iljanus]

I'll take a gunnery boost please!

And I don't mind earning 75 mill but won't be disappointed if people vote otherwise.

[Zenn7]

[x] Sure, we'll take 75M over 4 months for a single lance
[] That's enough working with these guys

Zenn7
[] improve piloting 2 to 1
[x] improve strategy 2 to 4 (faster lance arrival times on missions)
[] improve tactics 3 to 4 (deploy more infantry or mines when possible)

Been so long, thought I might have maxed out!

Piloting is good, but getting to the fights in a more timely fashion seems immensely more useful.

[Isgrimnur]

Not like we have anything else lined up, and I doubt the base is finished.

[El Guapo]

[X] Sure, we'll take 75M over 4 months for a single lance
[] That's enough working with these guys

Unless we have something better for them to do.

[Zarathud]

Gunnery. The only answer for an Awesome.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pass - 5
Take the supplemental contract - 5
Tie breaker (1d6: low = pass, high = take it. Result: 5, take it)

"What would we be guarding anyway?" Zenn7 asks.

"Spaceport. Technically, the planetary government owns it, but they've leased it to us to operate, which has some local groups and a few of our competitors a little irked. Of course, we just wiped most of them out, but you never know who's going to come out of the woodwork. Your Beta-Fire lance didn't get all of their opponents did they?"

Zenn7 shakes his head. "No, they just blew up a Crusader, the rest got away."

The liaison laughs. "I'm surprised there are any Crusaders left in service. Must be a nightmare to drive one of those things with all the ammo bins they have."

Zenn7 smirks. "I wouldn't know, my mech doesn't have that problem. Anyway, fine. One lance, four months, seventy five million C-Bills. I'll have our legal people contact you to negotiate exact terms." our mechwarrior pauses, seeing the expression on the liaison's face. "Don't look at me like that, we don't do informal or verbal contracts. You're talking about hiring probably a hundred fifty plus tons of war machines, operators and all their support staff, and we want to make sure we're treated fairly. Which we have been so far with your organization, so I don't expect to see any problems, right?"

This leaves us with two lances "free", which is almost as good as we can get given our contract terms with URL and the planetary militia. Even better, the militia contract is up in May, which will free up another lance. The militia guys haven't really had much to do despite all the fighting, as none of it has targeted "publicly owned assets" or whatever other terminology they use to denote that it's none of their business and nobody's asked them to deal with it.

-----------------

Scrub looks at the Warhammer propped up in the Moonraker's hangar bay, with the techs putting finishing touches on it, then glances over at Lt. Evdokiy "Angel" Mahaev.

"Well, Lieutenant. Looks like your request to upgrade mechs has been approved." she gestures over at the Flashman in the next bay over, and then the Grand Dragon walking out. "I think you'll do better in the flashbulb, honestly. That Grand Dragon has enough heat management to deal with to give a samurai an anyeurism."

Angel smirks. "Thanks, ma'am. Looking forward to trying it out. Think I'm going to talk to the techs about getting that rear laser rotated forward."

Scrub nods. "Good idea. Never understood the point of butt lasers myself." She smirks. "Says the girl who drives a Warhammer and can swing a PPC to the rear."

[Angel drives a Flashman in Gamma-Battle lance]

----------

"So then Akalon jumps over with the Vulcan, and all I see is flames and sparks. Next thing I know, an infantry dude on a buggy comes roaring out of the smoke, but this guy's having none of it and gives him a kick. I still owe him a C-Bill." Drazzil claps Pvt. Nicholas "Akalon" Dvorak on the shoulder.

AWS raises an eyebrow. "What, because the buggy went between your mech's legs and there's some Lyran tradition where you owe someone money if they get a football through your legs?"

Drazzil nods. "It's not Lyran, it's Capellan. Russian to be specific. But jeez, you don't have to take all the fun out of it."

"So, you finally gave him a nickname, huh?" Cujo asks, walking by the lounging mechwarriors.

AWS sighs and nods, looking over at the bay housing Drazzil's Cronus, recalling the bay's previous inhabitant. "It seemed fair."

Cujo pats AWS' shoulder before moving on. "Yeah, I get it. Carry on."

[Akalon drives a Vulcan VL-5T in Gamma-Probe lance]

-------------

"So, look, just because the Stalker is an 85-ton lumbering behemoth doesn't mean it can't go up a hill. It's got the actuators for it, you just have to update your software so you can rotate the leg joints manually." Wolf tells Siljanus.

"What about when you have to step into or out of water?" Siljanus asks.

"Same difference, just slower."

Siljanus looks pleased. "I always thought that automated balance control system was too damn slow. Wonder why more people don't override it."

Wolf chuckles. "How long have you been driving that Stalker, four years?"

Siljanus nods.

"So you've got some experience in it, then. Imagine some rookie fresh out of the academy trying to manually rotate the ankle joint while going up a hill, getting shot at and trying to hit a moving mech six hundred meters away at the same time."

"Yeah, I see your point."

[Siljanus gains "Terrain Master: Mountaineer", making it quicker to go up and down hills. Wolf already had it, and was able to pass on the knowledge.]

--------------

The next month is pretty quiet. Nobody attacks the Marvello facilities, engages the planetary militia or anything owned by URL. Larry even has time to get his trailer cleaned up. Logistically speaking, we continue buying up fuel-air ordnance, but it's unexpectedly tough to source for some reason. We're able to secure the services of an aerospace pilot and re-fill Alpha Company's air support, so that works pretty well for us. We're still here until February of 3046, and then there's the half a year of travel time, but everyone's looking forward to checking it out.

In April, Epsilon company reports that the facility on Dowles has completed construction on schedule. They send videos and pictures, it's pretty nice. Housing and amenities for ~1000 people, a nice big 15-meter wall surrounding the compound, mech and tank hangars, a couple of runways for aerospace fighters and aerodyne dropships, and several landing pits for spheroid dropships. The command center looks pretty solid. It's hooked up to all the wall-mounted sensors and has so many transmitters wired to it that you'd have to level the entire complex to prevent out going transmissions. Or set up a wide-area jamming field, and good luck with that.

We consider directing Epsilon to hire surveyors to take a look and start systematically evaluating the various abandoned and overgrown structures scattered around the planet in cities and otherwise to see what, if anything can be done with them. These facilities will range from mines to refineries to research and manufacturing complexes. Hell, if we're lucky, we may find a military facility or two. This will be a lengthy project, and thus costly. Our current estimates are about 1.5M per month per survey crew hired, with approximately 50 crew-months worth of work. We could hire more crews to make things go faster, but that introduces overhead costs from management and the risk that the extra survey crews will pilfer some of the results of their surveying (as we don't currently have the personnel on planet to monitor more than a couple of dozen people). We can always add more survey crews later as well.

[] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

[Leraje]

[x] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

[Akalon]

[x] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

Edit: Sorry if I'm doing it wrong I'm used to SB & SV's system.

[Zenn7]

[x] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

Edit: Sorry if I'm doing it wrong I'm used to SB & SV's system.

You're fine.

And yes, as long as Epsilon can monitor 1 team to reasonably ensure no pilfering, might as well get started. Can hire more when we get back.

[$iljanus]

[x] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

Edit: Sorry if I'm doing it wrong I'm used to SB & SV's system.

You're fine.

And yes, as long as Epsilon can monitor 1 team to reasonably ensure no pilfering, might as well get started. Can hire more when we get back.

This is reasonable. And I like how we can ramp things up in the future.

And I'm a Terrain Master! I want a T shirt with that on it!

[El Guapo]

[] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[X] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

Go big or go home!

[El Guapo]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pass - 5
Take the supplemental contract - 5
Tie breaker (1d6: low = pass, high = take it. Result: 5, take it)

Where are all these other votes coming from? Do the bots get votes too? Is there ballot stuffing?

The people demand answers.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pass - 5
Take the supplemental contract - 5
Tie breaker (1d6: low = pass, high = take it. Result: 5, take it)

Where are all these other votes coming from? Do the bots get votes too? Is there ballot stuffing?

The people demand answers.

I'm running this in parallel on a second forum here: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/t ... ies.56473/

The bots definitely get votes and there absolutely is ballot stuffing.

[El Guapo]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pass - 5
Take the supplemental contract - 5
Tie breaker (1d6: low = pass, high = take it. Result: 5, take it)

Where are all these other votes coming from? Do the bots get votes too? Is there ballot stuffing?

The people demand answers.

I'm running this in parallel on a second forum here: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/t ... ies.56473/

The bots definitely get votes and there absolutely is ballot stuffing.

I feel like you've been cheating on us.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

[] Get the surveys started, take it easy but safe (1.5M/month, 50 months = ~4 years completion)
[] Get the surveys started, hire an extra crew (3.3M/month, 25 months = ~2 years completion)
[X] Get the surveys started, hire three extra crews (7.2M/month, ~12 months completion)
[] Hold off until we can get back and supervise properly

Go big or go home!

+1

[NickAragua]

I feel like you've been cheating on us.

Nah, baby, we just friends, honest.

[Zarathud]

The leader of a mercenary army learns to shake their tale wherever and whenever there is an audience.

[Leraje]

I feel like you've been cheating on us.

Nah, baby, we just friends, honest.

LOL