Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Isgrimnur]

leaves one of these on each of Delta's pillows

[Zarathud]

Never get in the tub.

[Paingod]

That was... totally unexpected.

Ouch.

[Madmarcus]

Ouch is right.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Waterbad.WaterbadWaterbadWaterbad

[NickAragua]

February 10, 3033
While Delta lance is getting torpedoed, Gamma and the liaison move to prevent an enemy force from activating and making use of an orbital tracking station. Of course, when we get there, they get there too. "They've got a remote connection set up already! Take them down fast!" calls out Lt. Scrub.

The opfor is mostly light mechs - Ostscouts, Spiders, Locusts, etc. There are a few heavier mechs in support, including a Hunchback, a Dervish and a Warhammer 6R. Gamma is Lt. Scrub (Warhammer), Cylus (Phoenix Hawk), Xwraith (Thunderbolt) and Hyena (Striker), with the liaison joining the party in a Valkyrie. We'll need to rout these guys before they finish their "system hacking download" or whatever.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The opfor is already on the outskirts of the facility, *bleep bloop*-ing around. Most of them stay out of LOS as much as they can, although we do see one Locust stumble to a knee as it blows out an actuator. Most actuators.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Some of the enemy units move to engage our heavies to the north and our lighter units to the east. The Hermes III really gives it to Hyena with dual large lasers, but eats a pair of PPCs from Lt. Scrub's Warhammer in return. Xwraith exchanges fire with a Locust over a short building, scoring a head shot and severely damaging the right "arm" (which is really a machine gun on a swivel in a Locust) with medium lasers. To the east, the liaison gets beat up by the nearby Locust, but Cylus gets behind it and slices off the left "arm" with the large laser.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Lt. Scrub and Xwraith take a nice, cool bath. Even though it's hot tub water at about 50 degrees celsius, it's still good enough to help the heat sinks dissipate fusion engine heat. A lone Stinger hops on top of a building in front of them, but Xwraith is on the ball, cutting its right torso section to ribbons with lasers and some LRMs. The little bug mech hops away almost immediately. A Locust runs over to harass them, but only manages to plink the water around the Warhammer.

To the east, Cylus Maxii engages a Spider with lasers, breaching the left torso armor with the big hand-held cannon in the right hand.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The opfor makes a push, lighter mechs running out up close while their heavier units hang back. Our heavies to the northwest take relatively little damage, most weapons fire either zorching by or hitting the water. We inflict some damage, Xwraith breaching armor on a Locust's right torso, Lt. Scrub scoring some hits on a Wasp's arms and legs, while Hyena works on a Clint, melting armor off the left leg with the PPC and hitting dead center of mass with the AC/10. Cylus and the liaison fire at a Stinger, breaching right torso armor and nearly taking off the left arm. Cylus then deftly dodges kicks from the other light mechs around him, and takes the Stinger's right leg off with a boot.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

For a brief moment, Cylus wonders why the nearby Locust has elected to flee the field, but the smoke pouring out of its legs indicates severe actuator damage. The downed Stinger remains on the ground, its arm having fallen off after a failed attempt to get up. It's time to engage that slowpoke Warhammer, then help out the heavies if possible. The Warhammer gets hit with a large laser, but the armor is thick enough to absorb the energy. The liaison takes several shots, including a PPC and a medium laser to the center torso, breaching armor and damaging the gyro, sending the mech to the ground. Somehow, the enemy Spider misses a kick and falls down right next to the liaison's Valkyrie.

The heavies are in a bit of a brawl, surrounded and taking fire from all angles. Lt. Scrub's armor holds up for the most part, except for when the enemy Hermes puts a laser through the left torso section, damaging a small laser and popping a heat sink. Hyena runs up behind it and the enemy Jenner and lets rip with the AC/10, severing the Hermes' head. Then, he lets loose with a kick at the back of the enemy Jenner's chicken legs, crunching the knee joint and forcing the smaller mech to the ground. Lt. Scrub takes a kick from the nearby Wasp, which breaches armor and floods the right leg, forcing the heavy mech under water.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

With some difficulty, the liaison gets up, as does our Warhammer. Lt. Scrub lines up a PPC shot on a Wasp running up to harass Hyena and blows off its left torso. Hyena, meanwhile, opens up on the Clint, disabling its AC/5 and breaching the left torso, then giving the nearby Wasp a matching destroyed right torso with a one-two punch combo. Cylus takes some damage from the Spider, losing a jump jet, but knocks the Warhammer over with laser fire and a boot. Normally it wouldn't be a problem for a large mech such as a Warhammer, but with several damaged leg actuators, the mechwarrior just isn't able to compensate.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Lt. Scrub falls back, favoring her mech's damaged left side, inflicting severe damage to the Clint's left arm with a PPC. Xwriath drills the enemy Hermes from the rear with medium lasers, managing to breach the right arm armor. Cylus continues harassing the Warhammer, getting a solid head shot with the large laser, then disabling the right leg with a kick. With a groan, the enemy mech falls over.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Suddenly, the enemy force begins to retreat. Between getting lasered and booted by the Spider, the liaison checks the network readouts. "Shit, they've got their data! Our dropships better be ready to repel attackers!"

We get a few more shots in as they fall back, Cylus knocking out on of the nearby Spider's leg actuators with a large laser shot. The Warhammer can't get up, but does fire a PPC off at Cylus, missing badly. The Phoenix Hawk retaliates by planting a boot on the right torso and stripping some armor, then pointing the large laser at the cockpit, to let the enemy mechwarrior know that it's time to give it up.

Our dropships come down to pick us and the salvage up (we claim the legged Warhammer and the Spider that Cylus disabled), and then nervously watch the scopes while continuing to search for our actual contract objectives.

[Hyena]

Well damnit. At least we were able to take a few out, right?

[Cylus Maxii]

Woot. Does that me that we will have a 2nd Warhammer running soon?

[NickAragua]

Yep. Just needs a new leg, which we should be able to get back on Outreach.

[NickAragua]

[Using an experimental build of Megamek containing code I wrote to enable the bot to handle spacecraft using the "advanced space flight" rules]

December 12, 3033
Well, our paranoia regarding our space assets wasn't entirely unjustified. Alarm klaxons go off all over the Union as Captain Barry orders everything strapped down. According to him, there are twelve enemy aerospace fighters approaching, escorting what appears to be two dropships. The fighters are a mixture of lights and mediums, while the dropships are a pair of Mules.

Our lineup is a Union, a Mule, a pair of Lucifer fighters and the enemy Leopard. This is going to be rough, but they've got our number so we can't avoid having to engage. The bridge of the Union gets quiet as crew members activate ECM systems. The plan is to keep our craft close together and concentrate fire. Large craft provide a "sensor shadow" for smaller fighters next to them, and can also use ECM to disrupt enemy targeting on adjacent spacecraft.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We advance, thrusting slowly forward. We have a slight range advantage, so we'll try to maximize it here. One of the enemy fighters drops out of formation as its engines sputter. Good job to their maintenance techs on that one.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Our ships let loose with LRMs as we approach, targeting the Mule at the front of the enemy formation and a Lightning fighter which strays a little bit out of the ECM envelope. The Lightning takes two solid hits to the nose and the pilot loses control of the ship.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

It appears that the Mules are not actually interested in engaging our craft, as they burn at top speed to pass our ships. The empty space is suddenly filled with high energy beams, projectiles and missiles as enemy craft move to engage our formation.

The Union fires off the most ordnance, scoring multiple hits on one of the Mules. A PPC finds its way to the enemy dropship's life support system, while an LRM salvo blows out one of the cargo bay doors, spilling out crate after crate of unidentifiable material. A laser battery targets some of the weapons system's on the enemy dropship's right side, sparking up the SRM and laser bays there. Additionally, a single laser nails a Thrush fighter in the nose, damaging the fire control system as it fires on one of our Lucifers. The pilot is unable to hold it together and the spacecraft goes ballistic. Lucifer Two dogfights with the Marik Stingrays, delivering a large number of laser hits to one, but eating a PPC to the tail from another, losing control of his fighter.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Both of the Mules disengage, and we are unable to pursue, with all the fighters buzzing around. The enemy Thrush disengages as well, between missing most of its nose section and the fire control system being little more than a couple of sparking wires.

The out-of-control Lucifer takes some damage but holds it together, using its rear-facing medium laser to give the pursuing fighter second thoughts. Our dropships stick together and pummel the pursuing fighters, while the other Lucifer gets the drop on a Stingray and lasers the cockpit, giving the pilot a good thrashing.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

A large portion of the fighters zip out and brake to come around for another pass, while some of their buddies stay in the area. The aero jock in the Transit fighter to the "south east" probably regrets that decision, as it eats an incredible amount of focused fire from three dropships and is evaporated.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

It's awfully lonely out here, but that fighter actually did a good job staying out of most of the dropship firing arcs. Too bad it's by itself and we've got fighters of our own. He catches an autocannon burst from the Mule, and the engines sputter out. Have fun with the slow ballistic trajectory!

Round 7:
The out-of-control Lightning fires an AC/20 burst, damaging the armor on the Leopard's rear arc. However, between our Lucifer getting in from the back and almost lighting up the fuel tank, and a solid laser salvo from the Leopard, the fighter disintegrates.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

It doesn't look like they're coming back. We deliver a last long-range weapons burst to a Stingray that continues to loiter, reducing the hull integrity to the point where the it breaks up.

As the Marik forces clear out, the liaison's Leopard conducts salvage operations on the destroyed enemy spacecraft drifting through space. They're all unfixable, but pretty good scrap. Well, it's good to build up credit for salvage that we actually want. Damage to our spacecraft is minor, and fixed within the day. Even though we're in orbit, it's not too hard to do a spacewalk and weld some armor plates on. And it turns out that our dropships' LRM launcher magazines are located internally, so our dropship crews don't even have to go outside! Amazing the things you learn.

We track the Mules as they come down but lose them over the horizon, as our orbits take us in different directions. It's a shame, they were probably bringing supplies and reinforcements to the Marik guys down there, so we can expect to see more Marik mechs down there. Well, at least they didn't *all* get there. There'll be about 3000 tons of random crates burning up in the atmosphere over the next couple of days.

I'm taking suggestions for ship names for the Union, now that it's survived its baptism by fire.

[Paingod]

Powerball?

[Archinerd]

No, Thunderball!

[Archinerd]

...but it's in space so maybe it should be Moonraker. And since Delta lance spends a weird amount of time fighting submarines maybe it should be renamed Thunderball?

[Freyland]

A fully-functional sphere-shaped space-borne armored habitat with unbelievable firepower? What to call it?


"That's no moon..."

[xwraith]

My Other Dropship is an Overlord

[Zarathud]

Overlord

[Hyena]

Overlord.

[Paingod]

The Big O

[Isgrimnur]

The Big O

[El Guapo]

...but it's in space so maybe it should be Moonraker. And since Delta lance spends a weird amount of time fighting submarines maybe it should be renamed Thunderball?

I kind of like Moonraker.

[NickAragua]

February 22, 3033
Yep, those mules were definitely carrying boxed-up mechs. As we orbit overhead, we detect a full two companies of mechs - lights, mediums and heavies, marching along the surface. They're going somewhere, and we want to figure out where. The plan is to set up an ambush. Delta lance will harass them while Beta gets into position along their projected route. The Union drops the two lances off then burns for orbit, to come back later.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Delta has some time to get a head start on the enemy force, and moves to slightly more favorable positions that aren't completely exposed. An advance group of medium mechs runs in and we exchange some long-range fire to no effect.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Well, here comes the party. What we're going to do is hide out in the lake to the west and wait for them to pass by (they seem to be in a hurry, carrying crates and whatnot). One of the enemy mechwarriors driving a Guillotine gets a little bit surprised and blows out a pair of actuators, falling to the ground. Archinerd puts some suppression fire on the crowd with LRMs and scores some hits on a Trebuchet's right arm, causing heavy damage to the armor.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Glub glub glub.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Glub glub glub. Good thing our guys don't actually have to hold their breath.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

With the bulk of the enemy force past us, Delta gets up from their hiding spots. Maybe it was ill-advised, as a Marik Javelin is on the ball and drops an SRM salvo on Madmarcus, damaging his left arm actuators. Despite taking a large amount of fire, he manages to knock the nearby Orion down to its knees.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

This is a little more manageable. Delta lance engages the walking trashcans and downed Orion, scoring some solid hits, but not breaching armor.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Beta lance arrives to the north, as a Hermes "Mercury" variant (way to mix your pantheons, assholes) tries to run by. He takes five PPC shots, four medium lasers and two AC/2 shots. While only losing some minor equipment (machine guns and hand actuators), that's enough to knock the little bastard to the ground. Archinerd gets up to get a shot off but has to spend most of his time avoiding incoming fire, so he only gets a few LRMs in on a nearby Exterminator.

Freyland works on one of the Urbanmechs, carving up armor with lasers, then cracking joints and actuators on the left leg. That thing's not going anywhere.

Now, you'd think an Exterminator would be a good mech, and on paper it sounds great. Four medium lasers in the arms, a small laser plus a machine gun for up close work, and an LRM/10 launcher to let the bad guys know you're there from long range. With a 5/8/5 movement profile and 176 armor, it's pretty tough and fast. Trouble is, only ten heat sinks means that it can't actually apply all that firepower. It's a relatively new design, too, only debuting in 3007.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

There are a few enemy mechs still active to the south - Madmarcus and Freyland each break off to engage one by running around the back as the hostiles struggle to get up and move with damaged actuators. Archinerd and Paingod team up on a limping Rifleman, knocking it over. It gets back up in a bit though.

To the north, the bulk of the faster enemy units gets to where Zenn7, Zarathud and LordMortis are trying to blockade. The Mercury manages to struggle to its feet and runs off to the north, trailing bits of armor and structure. LordMortis gives it a farewell laser blast to breach the rear armor, then our Blackjack detonates the on-board machine gun ammo, scattering bits of fleet-footed god all over the battlefield.

The dual Awesomes concentrate fire on a Clint, causing severe damage and bringing it down to a knee.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Not sure we'll be able to get all these guys, but it should be enough. Zenn7 blows away the left half of a Wasp, while Zarathud's PPCs have less effect on the Clint that managed to get up from the previous turn's assault, although the Blackjack does blow off an arm.

Archinerd and Paingod switch their fire to the limping Warhammer nearby, Paingod getting above it to break through the rear armor and crush a small laser with a boot.

Further south, Madmarcus and Freyland team up on the Guillotine, Madmarcus melting off armor with lasers while Freyland gets around the back and blows out the armor and gets into the right torso section with lasers and SRMs, knocking the enemy mech down.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

A Thunderbolt runs in on our Blackjack, unloading lasers, machine guns and SRMs. The armor holds up, but yikes. Then comes the boot to the left "arm" (which is basically just a glorified mount for the AC/2 there), and that goes spinning off. Zenn7 and Zarathud scores some PPC hits but nothing crippling, while the Blackjack breaches the damaged Clint's center torso to crack the engine shielding. Not enough to prevent it escaping though.

Madmarcus goes back to working on the Orion, getting behind it and putting SRMs into the weakened rear armor. The shots hit the engine and gyro, knocking the mech over and the mechwarrior out. Freyland blasts the Guillotine in the back, then kicks the right leg out from under it, forcing it to the ground.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Guillotine is outmanuevered but not helpless, still able to put some lasers into Freyland's Quickdraw to breach the center torso armor. Freyland retaliates by taking the left leg off with a series of laser blasts. The mech flops to the ground and the mechwarrior blacks out.

Archinerd, Paingod and Madmarcus focus on the Rifleman, melting and blasting through armor in multiple places. Archinerd then cracks the slightly larger but less nimble mech's leg, and the mech collapses. The Blackjack and Zarathud prevent a damaged Trebuchet from clearing the field entirely, knocking it to the ground with lasers and PPCs.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Archinerd's left torso ammo bin makes a 'clunk clunk' sound as the last of the LRMs in there empty. Too bad half of that salvo goes into a small hill in front of the Exterminator instead of into the Exterminator itself.

That poor Trebuchet just can't catch a break, getting dinged with enough ordnance to prevent it from leaving, as multiple PPC shots and an AC/20 burst take off the right arm and eat into the right torso. Its Thunderbolt buddy though, no problem. The Warhammer gets dog-piled by Madmarcus and Freyland, winding up on the ground.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

LordMortis takes a hit to the right torso, putting his AC/20 out of action right after it burps up its last stream of shells. Zarathud takes the arm off the offending enemy Hunchback, and then our Blackjack puts a laser through the center torso section to ding the engine and gyro. As the Trebuchet struggles to its feet again, Zenn7 blasts it in the right torso with a PPC, detonating the LRM/15 ammo. Guess he won't be making it.

Round 14:
Madmarcus and Freyland continue circling the downed, but active Warhammer, with Madmarcus finally getting through the tattered armor and structure with a six-pack of SRMs to explode the larger mech's SRM ammo bin. Paingod and Archinerd prevent the Exterminator from moving along, knocking it down with PPC and LRM fire. To add insult to injury, the arm it was using to brace itself against the impact of the ground snaps off. The enemy Wolverine to the north dodges concentrated PPC and laser fire and looks to be just about clear, but that Hunchback SP is screwed.

We receive pickup coordinates and hoof it before the enemy mechs regroup. The area remains too dangerous for salvage operations, as a) about two lances of enemy mechs managed to get away relatively undamaged and b) half the "disabled" mechs on the ground are actually fully functional, just with blown-out leg actuators. Honestly, if it wasn't for being able to hide in those hot tub-temperature lakes, we would have been hosed. We give some parting shots to the remaining intact mechs, complete with tracking beacons attached to some of the ordnance. This way, we can find out where they're coming from.

It's looking like two dropship names have emerged as popular options:

1) Moonraker
2) Overlord

Place your votes, gentlemen!

[El Guapo]

Moonraker.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

Moonraker

[Zarathud]

Overlord

[gbasden]

Overlord

[Madmarcus]

Moonraker

[Archinerd]

Moonraker.

Now, you'd think an Exterminator would be a good mech, and on paper it sounds great. Four medium lasers in the arms, a small laser plus a machine gun for up close work, and an LRM/10 launcher to let the bad guys know you're there from long range. With a 5/8/5 movement profile and 176 armor, it's pretty tough and fast. Trouble is, only ten heat sinks means that it can't actually apply all that firepower. It's a relatively new design, too, only debuting in 3007.

Also, boss. I didn't want to say this in front of the grunts and make you look bad so I'm sending you this encrypted message on the true origins of the Exterminator. There's a lot of battlemechs out there so I'm sure this isn't new info, you just slipped up a bit with everything on your mind.

ENCRYPTION_PROTOCOL_OMEGAOMEGA_MERC_COM_EYES_ONLY.txt

Spoiler:

The Exterminator is a BattleMech that was designed in 2630 for the most dubious, but necessary, of purposes: headhunting. The Exterminator was outfitted with a special Null Signature System, heat baffles and, in some cases, a Chameleon Light Polarization Shield. These advanced systems allowed it to easily infiltrate enemy lines. Once the Exterminator had breached the enemy's rear, its mission was to find and destroy as much of the enemy's command structure as possible. This mission profile included attacking Mobile Headquarters, field bases and command level officers. Rather than be part of the standard formation, Exterminators were attached to a regimental or higher headquarters unit, often as a fifth member of the command lance itself, before being assigned to individual units. A regiment was considered lucky to have more than one Exterminator, and it was not unusual for its parent unit to pull all assigned Exterminators and pool them for a specific mission.

It was widely believed that the Exterminator had not survived the fighting of the First Succession War as there were lances whose sole mission was to hunt down and destroy this type of 'Mech (coupled with the destruction of General Systems' primary factory on Caph in 2793). In 3007, Kallon Industries (Nanking, Capellan Confederation), looking for a replacement for their aging Wolverine, recovered blueprints for the Exterminator and immediately modified the design so that it could be built using the technology readily available. The result was a BattleMech not only far less effective than the original, but below the capabilities of even the Wolverine it was meant to replace. Only twenty-five of these Exterminators were produced and none survived past the Fourth Succession War, making the design effectively extinct in the Inner Sphere.[4]

[Zenn7]

A little late for name suggestions but "The Union Jack" with of course, it's mate (when we get another union dropship "The Union Jill".

[Hyena]

My vote goes for Overlord.

[Paingod]

Between the two, I lean towards Moonraker.

[Zenn7]

Between the two, Moonraker.

Overlord being a larger dropship class, I just see us getting harassed everywhere we go with that name...

"Aren't you a little short for an overlord?"

[El Guapo]

Moonraker.

Now, you'd think an Exterminator would be a good mech, and on paper it sounds great. Four medium lasers in the arms, a small laser plus a machine gun for up close work, and an LRM/10 launcher to let the bad guys know you're there from long range. With a 5/8/5 movement profile and 176 armor, it's pretty tough and fast. Trouble is, only ten heat sinks means that it can't actually apply all that firepower. It's a relatively new design, too, only debuting in 3007.

Also, boss. I didn't want to say this in front of the grunts and make you look bad so I'm sending you this encrypted message on the true origins of the Exterminator. There's a lot of battlemechs out there so I'm sure this isn't new info, you just slipped up a bit with everything on your mind.

ENCRYPTION_PROTOCOL_OMEGAOMEGA_MERC_COM_EYES_ONLY.txt

Spoiler:

The Exterminator is a BattleMech that was designed in 2630 for the most dubious, but necessary, of purposes: headhunting. The Exterminator was outfitted with a special Null Signature System, heat baffles and, in some cases, a Chameleon Light Polarization Shield. These advanced systems allowed it to easily infiltrate enemy lines. Once the Exterminator had breached the enemy's rear, its mission was to find and destroy as much of the enemy's command structure as possible. This mission profile included attacking Mobile Headquarters, field bases and command level officers. Rather than be part of the standard formation, Exterminators were attached to a regimental or higher headquarters unit, often as a fifth member of the command lance itself, before being assigned to individual units. A regiment was considered lucky to have more than one Exterminator, and it was not unusual for its parent unit to pull all assigned Exterminators and pool them for a specific mission.

It was widely believed that the Exterminator had not survived the fighting of the First Succession War as there were lances whose sole mission was to hunt down and destroy this type of 'Mech (coupled with the destruction of General Systems' primary factory on Caph in 2793). In 3007, Kallon Industries (Nanking, Capellan Confederation), looking for a replacement for their aging Wolverine, recovered blueprints for the Exterminator and immediately modified the design so that it could be built using the technology readily available. The result was a BattleMech not only far less effective than the original, but below the capabilities of even the Wolverine it was meant to replace. Only twenty-five of these Exterminators were produced and none survived past the Fourth Succession War, making the design effectively extinct in the Inner Sphere.[4]

Seems like a good collector's item, though.

[Archinerd]

Hey, that was encrypted!

[El Guapo]

[NickAragua]

Looks like Moonraker wins.

The captain does a space walk and bounces a bottle of wine off the hull to commemmorate the occasion. Just kidding, it's not wine, it's some kind of moonshine that some of the more bored techs and mechwarriors are making in a still somewhere near the engine room. They call this particular disgusting substance "coolant fluid".

Reviewing the sensor logs and battle ROMs, the Exterminator we encountered was a 4A. So, in other words, the crappy Capellan knockoff. There was also a Guillotine in there, which would be a nice mech to add to our collection.

Patching up our mechs takes less than a day (except for the Blackjack, which will be out of action for the rest of the contract due to the left autocannon mount being damaged beyond repair). We left a couple of recon cameras on the battlefield as well, and watching the Marik guys putz around is something else. The first day, they only get one tech team out. The techs get a Marauder up and running (it just needed some actuators replaced), but there are ten disabled mechs on that field (including some with gyro and engine damage), and even our tech teams would be hard pressed to fix them all in a timely fashion. And that's on a habitable world. These guys have to wear breathing and cooling gear (or can't work during the day due to the 50C+ temperatures). On the second day, they get another tech team out, and manage to fix the gyro on the Orion. And so on and so forth. It takes them until next Tuesday to get all their mechs up and moving again.

March 3, 3033
We track the homing beacons until they stop moving, then put the Moonraker down in a valley a pretty good distance from where they stopped and send Delta on a recon run to see what's going on. Atmospheric conditions prevent our dropship from taking off for the next couple of days, so we run each remaining lance on patrols in eight-hour shifts while keeping systems on standby. Alpha Lance is out when the Marik forces attack. Three lances of mechs, mostly mediums and heavies. About half of them are the guys that Beta and Delta disabled in the last battle.

Delta is too far out to return, and by the time we scramble Beta, Gamma or the aerospace fighters, the fight will be over one way or the other.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We're located just below a ridge, which should provide some good cover for our guys.

El Guapo opens up with all long-range weapons on a Warhammer as it climbs up the ridge to the south, blasting away large chunks of torso armor with PPCs and autocannons. A Griffin that's ahead of all its buddies exchanges fire with the Union, hitting with no problem. The Union hits back with some LRMs, but comes out behind in the exchange.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

It becomes pretty obvious what the opfor is planning to do as weapons fire arcs out towards the Moonraker. Lots of shots impact, while most of our shots go wide. A PPC on the dropship shorts out as well.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur forgets that *all* of his Hatchetman's jump jets are in the legs, so he's going to get to chill in that water for a while. The larger units in the opfor remain at long range, which is unfortunate. An enemy Champion, though, decides to run right up there. It pays off though, as we can't shoot for shit for some reason this time around. It does take some damage from the dropship's close-in weapons, but nothing penetrates armor. Gbasden and El Guapo do score some PPC hits on the distant Warhammer, but its armor continues holding.

An enemy Hermes fires both large lasers at Isgrimnur, but only boils hot tub water instead. Isgrimnur retaliates by putting an AC/10 round in the right torso. The liaison takes some PPC hits from nearby enemies but remains upright, breaking through the Champion's leg armor and damaging an actuator.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Champion and a Spider move in close, while the rest of the opfor continues hanging back. El Guapo and Gbasden target a Crusader, knocking it over with concentrated PPC fire, while the Moonraker plasters the Champion with shorter ranged weapons, taking off the right arm. Stefan scores a good LRM hit on the enemy Warhammer, reducing leg armor to nothing, while the Champion takes a weak punch to the armorless right leg.

Things are not looking good for the dropship, with left side armor reduced quite a bit.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"This is Moonraker, we are initiating emergency lift off. Stand clear to 180 meters. God I hope the engines don't blow."

"What?!"

"Oh, shit, sorry, left the mike on. LIFTOFF!"

Gbasden, El Guapo and the liaison scramble as the dropship fires a gigantic plume of fusion fire into the ground.

"Retreat and evade, we'll rendezvous later!"

This kind of exposes us to incoming fire, but we should be able to get clear. Gbasden puts a couple of PPC shots into the Champion, taking care to keep his heat low. The second one blows through the right torso armor and dings the AC/10 there, putting the heavy weapon out of action. Combined with El Guapo flipping his arms over to get some medium lasers on it, the Champion's pilot can't keep it up right and falls over.

Isgrimnur takes a back shot from an enemy Hermes, which dings the engine, but manages to keep his footing even as he gets pummeled by PPCs and SRMs. A boot from the Hermes cracks the engine shielding again, sending the mech's heat to dangerously high levels.

The Warhammer takes more LRMs from Stefan, and has almost no front armor left as a result. The liaison breaks the arm off a Spider harassing Stefan, as we begin our sprint off the battlefield.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The Champion appears to have had enough and pulls back. You can almost hear the collective howl of disappointment from the enemy force as the dropship zips off, but they renew their pursuit. Isgrimnur's heat spikes as he jumps clear of the enemy Hermes, the cockpit turning into a sauna. Not going to be much more jumping going on with that mech until we fix the engine.

As Gbasden fires his PPCs at a harassing Spider, blasting the armor off the right leg, one of the Griffins lines up its PPC on Gbasden's mech, and sends a PPC bolt flying over the right shoulder directly into the head. The Awesome stumbles, then drops to its knees and pitches forward.

We continue our retreat behind a ridge line, where the terrain flattens outand we're able to outrun the enemy force. They are unable to keep up - their slower mechs just because they're slow and the faster mechs due to actuator failure in the low gravity and blistering heat. Isgrimnur is forced to shut his mech down and hide underwater in a hot tub pool.

When the dropship eventually swings around to pick Alpha and Delta up, we have to have some other mechs drag his mech out, as the water flooded his center torso section. Delta's recon run was a dud - the Marik guys must have detected the tracking beacons and dumped them into the ocean.

The Moonraker's captain calls Zenn7 (as the acting CO) into his office a day later. "This transmission has been going out on open frequencies for the last couple of hours."

"This is Lieutenant Colonel Geoff Ferrero to the mercenary dropships orbiting our planet. We have captured your commander and repelled your incessant raids on this system. It is time for you to leave. We offer you unobstructed passage out of the system and the return of your commander, who is unharmed. Mostly. We'll be keeping his mech, however, as compensation for the damage you have caused. Think it over carefully, as his life hangs in the balance. Respond on this frequency. Ferrero out."

So, what do we do?

1) Accept the offer. This will definitely be a contract breach, and the liaison probably heard the transmission too.
2) Tell the Marik guy to suck eggs and try to bail our mechwarrior out (even though we have no idea where he is, and he'll probably get executed if we screw it up).
3) See if the liaison has any suggestions (hint: he doesn't give a rat's ass)

[El Guapo]

Who exactly is the commander, and how much do we like him? And what are our odds of succeeding against the Marik forces generally? They seem to be handing us our asses repeatedly (though a lot of that seems to be bad luck, which may not repeat).

[NickAragua]

Gbasden (digitally) signs the salary and share dividend payouts.

Pretty long odds. They can most likely track our dropships and they have at least twice as many mechs on planet as we do.

Edit: And we really have absolutely no idea where their bases are.

[El Guapo]

How big is the pain of breaching the contract?

And who is next in line for commander?

[NickAragua]

We take a ding to our Dragoons Rating (probably not enough to bring us down from A), and possibly forfeit the money paid to us so far (around 46M, the current war chest being 182M) depending on the results of ComStar arbitration. It'll also be harder to find work with the future FedCom - we have a pretty good track record still, so nobody's going to blacklist us or anything. Probably.

Next in line by seniority is either Zenn7 or Lt. Scrub.

[Madmarcus]

The team broke me out so I vote for going after him if we can get some intel. I'd vote against just random attacks hoping to find him.