Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 6:27 pm

Nice work!

Keep probe but sell dragon

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 7:14 pm

Stefan Stirzaker wrote: ↑Wed Nov 27, 2019 6:27 pm Nice work!

Keep probe but sell dragon

This is good.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Wed Nov 27, 2019 7:42 pm

Keep both.

Gotta catch 'em all!

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:26 am

AWS260 wrote: ↑Wed Nov 27, 2019 7:42 pm Keep both.

Gotta catch 'em all!

This!

Zarathud · Post by **Zarathud** » Fri Nov 29, 2019 3:39 am

Just keep catching Awesomes. They’re that good.

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:06 pm

[X] Keep the probe, mount it on one of our units

[X] Keep the Grand Dragon

xwraith · Post by **xwraith** » Fri Nov 29, 2019 8:59 pm

Cylus Maxii wrote: ↑Fri Nov 29, 2019 2:06 pm [X] Keep the probe, mount it on one of our units

[X] Keep the Grand Dragon

Agreed

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Sat Nov 30, 2019 1:21 am

Why don't you guys send some of the more exotic sensor stuff my lances way? It'd be helpful to the guys on point to see the enemy before they see us.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:09 pm

Before we leave Basalt behind, we have one last chat with Captain Ben Allred.

"... sorry about your mechwarrior." Zenn7 finishes to an awkward silence. We don't really care about the poor scrub in the Marauder, and, apparently, nobody in the RCT does, either.

"Well, anyway." Ben continues after a perfunctory nod. "I see you folks have grown your company quite a bit over the last few years. What happened to Zanthe... er... Lieutenant Pappathanssiou?"

Zenn7 smirks. The relationship between those two was neither out in the open, but it wasn't really well-concealed, either. "Captain." he states. "She's in charge of Gamma Company. They ought to be finishing up a garrison contract on Asuncion now."

The captain lights up. "Is she going to be heading back to Outreach when you leave?"

Zenn7 shrugs, a bemused expression on his face. "Come on. I'm sure you can afford a couple of C-Bills for an HPG message to ask her yourself."

Ben sighs. "Yes, I suppose I do."

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

"It's been good to see you." Scrub tells Force Commander Lyuba Adnan as Gamma Company packs up to depart Asuncion, their replacements having arrived. "Maybe we'll run into each other again soon."

FC Adnan nods. "Indeed. Hopefully not over the barrel of an autocannon." she smirks.

Scrub shakes her head. "Hope these Earthwerks guys set up something other than Flea production seems like such a waste."

Lyuba smirks. "I'm... pretty sure the Fleas are just an excuse to manufacture weapons and armor without having to pay licensing fees."

Scrub nods. "I guess so. Just a little nervous going back to Outreach."

"That's... unrelated. Why nervous?" Lyuba responds with a raised eyebrow.

"Got a message via the HPG a couple of days ago. An old boyfriend of mine contacted me, says he wants to try to work things out again."

"What happened last time?"

"He wanted me to quit being a merc, I wanted him to quit working for FedCom."

"Think anything's changed?"

"I don't know."

Lyuba hugs Scrub, giving her a sympathetic look. "Well, I'm sure as hell not the person to ask about re-kindling old relationships. Best of luck to you and yours."

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

Outreach
May 15, 3043

Gamma Company turns out to have arrived about a month ago. We get to work doing refits and slight organizational adjustments.

First off, we begin by taking AWS' Phoenix Hawk, pulling the machine guns and ammo, and installing the Beagle active probe. This will greatly improve Gamma-Probe's recon capability without having to use the Ost series of mechs (which are great for recon, but could do better when it comes to actual combat).

Cujo moves from Delta-Sweep to take over command of Gamma-Probe lance [author's note: to consolidate player characters]. The "Looking forward to working with you, let's keep the cross-service beatings to a minimum" greeting receives a hearty "yes ma'am" followed by some shifty eyes.

With great relief, Cylus climbs back into the cockpit of a salvaged Grasshopper, spending several hours tweaking the settings to get them "just right". The chair doesn't have the same ass groove, but our mechwarrior will have a few months to work on that.

Hyena makes the choice between staying in the Wolverine and moving to one of the following mechs (taking into account our mechwarrior's strong preference for ballistic weapons):

Rifleman RFL-3C: A sixty-tonner with two AC/10s is right up his alley. El Guapo has nothing negative to say about this type of mech, other than it can't withstand a 30-ton aircraft crashing directly into it at top speed.

Marauder MAD-3R (modified): with the AC/5 ammo moved to a less vulnerable location, this one is less likely to blow up than a factory-model Marauder.

Hunchback HBK-4H: With the AC/10 as a primary weapon, this well-armored fifty-tonner is a solid front-line trooper mech.

Champion CHP-2N (modified): We've got a Champion sitting in our warehouse. This is a sixty tonner packing an AC/10, 2x medium lasers and an SRM six-rack. It's pretty fast and has medium armor (once we took out the dumb small lasers).

Atlas AS7-D: Bog-standard Atlas, packing an AC/20 and the works. Our mechwarrior is a little bit leery of climbing into it, though - this particular mech has a history of chewing up its mechwarriors, which, combined with Hyena's bad luck streak, makes him suspicious.

We assigned the Zephyr hovertank Gamma acquired as support to Beta-Hunter lance: they've got a Stalker and an Archer, so the TAG will come in handy for some long-range indirect LRM support.

We also start looking around for contracts, as we have probably about nine months before our hired survey crews finish their work, and sitting around doing nothing for that long doesn't really smile on us.

Contract 1:
The Thako Corporation, a major Federated Suns agricultural concern is looking for a fairly sizeable force to mount a "covert" extraction raid on the world of St. Robert. It seems that the planet is currently experiencing significant civil unrest, to the point where approximately half the planet has been seized by rebels, who've amassed a significant amount of firepower by hiring mercenaries and looting planetary militia depots. To counter this, the planetary militia have seized assets belonging to the corporation, and there's a desire to have said assets extracted. Apparently data relating to the growth of various crop types in various gravity environments is worth hundreds (?) of millions of C-Bills. The trick is that the company does not want to be seen hiring a batallion of crack mercenaries driving battlemechs to stomp around on random FedCom worlds, so they'll funnel our funding through either the planetary militia or the rebels, and it will be our responsibility to extract designated assets while pretending to work for our faction of choice (they insist on "house" command).

After looking at it, we estimate that we'll need four companies' worth of mechs to overcome the various local combatants. Our brief research indicates that the rebels can be rated as regulars with C-grade equipment while the militia can be rated (generously) as green with F-grade equipment. St. Robert is a .95g world with less than half water coverage. But hey, it's got an A-grade HPG for some reason, so we'll be able to keep up with our spaceflix no problem.

Nitty gritty details:
"House" command
100% salvage
10% battle loss compensation
55% transport cost coverage
Regular/C or Green/F opposition
10 months travel time, one way
3 months expected combat operations
135M expected pay - 80M expected expenditures = 55M expected profit

Seems a little icky, but salvage is good. We'd have to pick a side, too: working for the rebels against the local government will be a turkey shoot, while fighting the rebels will be a little tougher. But, it's entirely possible that introducing a batallion of mercenaries into the mix will prompt regional FedCom authorities to respond, one way or another. The other caveat is that this is in the eastern sticks of Federated Commonwealth territory, so we're unlikely to actually see any decent salvage, and we'd be sending most of our company (80%) off for the better part of a year.

Contract 2:
The Zenith Combat Group, a mercenary outfit operating in the southeastern Federated Suns, has put out the call for mercenaries willing to "take up the banner of righteous justice", blah blah blah etc. Long story short, it's a garrison duty contract over in Mararn. And if we thought St. Robert was out in the sticks, it will take over a year just to get to this place. Pickings sure *are* slim. What's there to defend? Mostly research facilities and the various local industries supporting them. They're mercenaries, so they understand quite well the desire to avoid being micromanaged, so we'd be assigned a liaison and work with them as necessary, defending against various pirates, raiders and "forceful" espionage. We would also keep all salvage that we acquire.

We'd be sending two companies out there for a total of four years - 14 months to get there, 22 month contract duration (apparently, that's how long ZPG estimates they'll need to have their forces rotate off-world), then another 14 to get back. Crazy. But they're paying a significant chunk of change, so it may be worth it to spin off a couple of our companies (e.g. the newly-formed Epsilon, and elements of others). Our research indicates on-going low-level civil unrest on the world, and the reported quality of ZPG's personnel and equipment "leaves a little to be desired", as El Guapo describes it.

Maran itself is a pretty standard Terran world, a little dry with only 47% water coverage and only .8g. There's a B-class HPG, so we won't be totally isolated there.

Nitty gritty details:
Liaison command
100% salvage
60% battle loss compensation
45% transport cost coverage
Green/F allies
Regular/C expected opposition
14 months travel time, one way
22 months contract duration
750M expected pay - 250M expected expenditures = 500M expected profit

A solidly profitable operation, and a good way to get some of our lesser-used forces some combat experience, probably. The civil unrest is a little worrying, as is the awful quality of allies.

Contract 3:
Asalau's Assayers, a survey company operating from Outreach have put out the call for a subcontract. Apparently, they've been hired to (re-)survey the world of Hechnar and need a couple of lances of mechs to fill their dropships and round out their force. According to historical data, Hechnar was a bit of a flashpoint during the Amaris Civil War and was later captured by the Free Worlds League, but data is nonexistent afterwards. Presumably, the planetary population went extinct for one reason or another, or migrated away.

Describing the Avengers as a "military" group is a bit of a stretch, as their mech roster appears to consist of some seriously old equipment, a mixture of civilian mechs and units that haven't been produced since before Ian Cameron became the "First Among Equals". So, their assertion that they need security is pretty understandable, as the crap they're fielding couldn't stand up against a lance of Fleas, let alone actual mechs. They're offering full salvage rights and battle loss compensation, and will even give us a ride on their jumpship free of charge. Not that that matters much, Hechnar is one jump away from Outreach. We will have to babysit their "mechs" however while they carry out their surveys. Nobody's sure why they expect to get hassled during a survey operation of an abandoned world.

Nitty gritty details:
House command
100% salvage
100% battle loss compensation
100% transport coverage
Green/F- allies
unknown opposition
1 week travel time, one way (mostly the burn to Hechnar orbit)
3 months expected survey duration
110M expected pay - 35M expected expenditures = 75M expected profit

The straight up pay is fairly minimal, but so is the investment of our time and resources.

Contract 4:
The Lothian League (queue Scrub saying "who?") has been on the receiving end of harassment from the Circinus Federation, a glorified pirate band (but multi-planetary in nature). *Those* guys, we've fought before, they're kind of pushovers. They've put out a call for mercenaries to wage guerilla warfare on Deidre's Den, a world way in the back of CircFed territory relative to the League, the goal being to destabilize the world and pressure CircFed to quit raiding Lothian worlds by "kicking them in the gribblies", as the Lothian representative puts it.

Our estimate is that we'll need a full batallion (three companies) to accomplish their state goals. We'd be working with discontented locals who've been getting oppressed by CircFed "military" forces and taking direction from them. The CircFed forces are reportedly hard-bitten veterans, although their equipment is strictly average (and, furthermore, periphery crap). This is another very long term contract, expected to take about three years, between travel time and work on-planet. Being a guerilla contract, it means we'll have some serious difficulties bringing in supplies as well. The pay and salvage are pretty stellar, though. The support clause indicates they expect us to take some serious damage, as we'll be getting paid 200% of our monthly expenses rather than battle loss compensation.

Nitty gritty details:
"House" command
90% salvage
100% straight support
35% transport coverage
Regular/D allies
Veteran/D opposition
5 months travel time, one way
24 months expected contract duration
750M expected payment - 250M expected expenditures = 500M expected profit.

Pays very well, but sends a significant number (60%) of our personnel into hostile periphery territory (way out west) for an extended period of time with little support.

Contract 5:
The government of Newtown Square would like to retain a batallion of mercenaries (three companies) at their call for a period of a year. They're not saying what we'd be doing exactly, but chances are we'd be doing a mixture of "errands" and garrison duty (errands being having to fly off to nearby systems or local planetoids to blast pirates or whatever, since that's all that's out there).

A little investigation yields that, since Newtown Square is way in the northwest of the Lyran Commonwealth, nobody's ever bothered to properly garrison it, so the local planetary militia is basically random farmers and construction workers using their industrial mechs on the weekends. There haven't been any reports of any military action in that area, either (not since the Rim Worlds Republic was a thing anyway), so why the local planetary governor would suddenly feel a need to fork over a couple hundred million C-bills for a bunch of mercenaries is a bit of a mystery. Maybe he broke up with his pirate girlfriend.

The main area of concern is that we would be integrated with the planetary militia, which, given their quality level, would be pretty awful if we got into actual combat. But why would that happen? The 100% battle loss compensation indicates that our employer does not expect it to happen, or at least does not expect any meaningful combat to take place.

Nitty gritty details:
Integrated command
70% salvage
100% battle loss compensation
100% transport coverage
Green/F- allies
unknown opposition
12 months travel time, one way
12 months contract duration (with optional extensions possible)
340M payment - 160M expected expenditures = 180M expected profit

This pays relatively well, but commits 60% of our company to the northwestern boonies of the galaxy for two years.

Contracts 1, 4 and 5 are mutually exclusive, since they commit a large chunk of our force for an extended period of time. Pickings have become pretty slim for non-shady contracts since peace has broken out, so another option is to sit around for another month and see if we can scare up something better. A lot of these contracts will send some or most of our company out to the boonies for a year or more, which may impact our ability to move quickly on any opportunities revealed by our hired survey teams. On the other hand, we could simply extend their contracts, allowing them to widen their surveys. Here are some options our command staff is considering:

[] St. Robert corporate extraction raid (80% force commitment, 13 months), Hechnar survey (10% force commitment, 4 months)
[] Lothian League guerilla ops (60% force commitment, 34 months), Mararn Garrison (40% force commitment, 50 months)
[] Newtown Square retainer (60% force commitment, 24 months), Mararn Garrison (40%, 50 months)
[] Skip the bigger, super-long contracts, take the Hechnar survey (10% commitment, 4 months)
[] Send some NPCs off to Mararn (40% force commitment, 50 months) and Hechnar (10% commitment, 4 months), look for other contracts
[] Write-in

Hyena: pick replacement mech (or not) [subject to owner override]
[] Stay in the Wolverine, stick with what works, a little lighter than the rest of the lance
[] Rifleman, watch out for falling aerospace units
[] Marauder, a little weak on the ballistic weapon front
[] Swayback, kind of weird for a Hunchback not to have an AC/20
[] Champion, historically has not done well in combat for us
[] Atlas, do two curses cancel each other out?

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 8:57 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:09 pm [] St. Robert corporate extraction raid (80% force commitment, 13 months), Hechnar survey (10% force commitment, 4 months)
[] Lothian League guerilla ops (60% force commitment, 34 months), Mararn Garrison (40% force commitment, 50 months)
[] Newtown Square retainer (60% force commitment, 24 months), Mararn Garrison (40%, 50 months)
[x] Skip the bigger, super-long contracts, take the Hechnar survey (10% commitment, 4 months)
[] Send some NPCs off to Mararn (40% force commitment, 50 months) and Hechnar (10% commitment, 4 months), look for other contracts
[] Write-in

Hyena: pick replacement mech (or not) [subject to owner override]
[] Stay in the Wolverine, stick with what works, a little lighter than the rest of the lance
[x] Rifleman, watch out for falling aerospace units
[] Marauder, a little weak on the ballistic weapon front
[] Swayback, kind of weird for a Hunchback not to have an AC/20
[] Champion, historically has not done well in combat for us
[] Atlas, do two curses cancel each other out?

Let's keep ourselves open and stick Hyena in something that most capitalizes on his abilities.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:49 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 8:57 pm
NickAragua wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:09 pm [] St. Robert corporate extraction raid (80% force commitment, 13 months), Hechnar survey (10% force commitment, 4 months)
[] Lothian League guerilla ops (60% force commitment, 34 months), Mararn Garrison (40% force commitment, 50 months)
[] Newtown Square retainer (60% force commitment, 24 months), Mararn Garrison (40%, 50 months)
[x] Skip the bigger, super-long contracts, take the Hechnar survey (10% commitment, 4 months)
[] Send some NPCs off to Mararn (40% force commitment, 50 months) and Hechnar (10% commitment, 4 months), look for other contracts
[] Write-in

Hyena: pick replacement mech (or not) [subject to owner override]
[] Stay in the Wolverine, stick with what works, a little lighter than the rest of the lance
[x] Rifleman, watch out for falling aerospace units
[] Marauder, a little weak on the ballistic weapon front
[] Swayback, kind of weird for a Hunchback not to have an AC/20
[] Champion, historically has not done well in combat for us
[] Atlas, do two curses cancel each other out?
Let's keep ourselves open and stick Hyena in something that most capitalizes on his abilities.

I agree with both of these options - none of the contracts seem amazing and I wouldn't want to strand a ton of our forces at the hind end of nowhere. The Rifleman seems like an excellent choice as well.

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:26 pm

I concur.

El Guapo · Post by **El Guapo** » Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:31 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:49 pm
Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 8:57 pm
NickAragua wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:09 pm [] St. Robert corporate extraction raid (80% force commitment, 13 months), Hechnar survey (10% force commitment, 4 months)
[] Lothian League guerilla ops (60% force commitment, 34 months), Mararn Garrison (40% force commitment, 50 months)
[] Newtown Square retainer (60% force commitment, 24 months), Mararn Garrison (40%, 50 months)
[x] Skip the bigger, super-long contracts, take the Hechnar survey (10% commitment, 4 months)
[] Send some NPCs off to Mararn (40% force commitment, 50 months) and Hechnar (10% commitment, 4 months), look for other contracts
[] Write-in

Hyena: pick replacement mech (or not) [subject to owner override]
[] Stay in the Wolverine, stick with what works, a little lighter than the rest of the lance
[x] Rifleman, watch out for falling aerospace units
[] Marauder, a little weak on the ballistic weapon front
[] Swayback, kind of weird for a Hunchback not to have an AC/20
[] Champion, historically has not done well in combat for us
[] Atlas, do two curses cancel each other out?
Let's keep ourselves open and stick Hyena in something that most capitalizes on his abilities.
I agree with both of these options - none of the contracts seem amazing and I wouldn't want to strand a ton of our forces at the hind end of nowhere. The Rifleman seems like an excellent choice as well.

I agree with Hechnar survey. Hyena should just pick whatever mech he wants out of those. Rifleman seems like a solid choice, though the Atlas (notwithstanding the 'curse') is also a fine choice.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 12:27 am

El Guapo wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 10:31 pm
gbasden wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 9:49 pm
Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 8:57 pm
NickAragua wrote: ↑Mon Dec 02, 2019 7:09 pm [] St. Robert corporate extraction raid (80% force commitment, 13 months), Hechnar survey (10% force commitment, 4 months)
[] Lothian League guerilla ops (60% force commitment, 34 months), Mararn Garrison (40% force commitment, 50 months)
[] Newtown Square retainer (60% force commitment, 24 months), Mararn Garrison (40%, 50 months)
[x] Skip the bigger, super-long contracts, take the Hechnar survey (10% commitment, 4 months)
[] Send some NPCs off to Mararn (40% force commitment, 50 months) and Hechnar (10% commitment, 4 months), look for other contracts
[] Write-in

Hyena: pick replacement mech (or not) [subject to owner override]
[] Stay in the Wolverine, stick with what works, a little lighter than the rest of the lance
[x] Rifleman, watch out for falling aerospace units
[] Marauder, a little weak on the ballistic weapon front
[] Swayback, kind of weird for a Hunchback not to have an AC/20
[] Champion, historically has not done well in combat for us
[] Atlas, do two curses cancel each other out?
Let's keep ourselves open and stick Hyena in something that most capitalizes on his abilities.
I agree with both of these options - none of the contracts seem amazing and I wouldn't want to strand a ton of our forces at the hind end of nowhere. The Rifleman seems like an excellent choice as well.
I agree with Hechnar survey. Hyena should just pick whatever mech he wants out of those. Rifleman seems like a solid choice, though the Atlas (notwithstanding the 'curse') is also a fine choice.

Given the "Subject to Owner Override" tag, I didn't think we were mandating anything. Just giving advice.

Hyena · Post by **Hyena** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 1:08 pm

I can do either the Rifleman or the Atlas. If the rest of the lance is assault, I'm afraid the Rifleman would fall short, but I'm just afraid of the Atlas in general. However, mama always told me, if I got bucked off a horse, shoot the damn thing and get another one just like it and treat it better.

I'd like to give the Atlas a second shot, but if everyone else thinks the curse is real, I'll stick with the Rifleman.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 4:46 pm

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

After some discussion, we decide not to send our troops out into the sticks. We've got some cash to burn, so we can hang out for another month. We'll need to decide who to send over to Hechnar to babysit the survey guys.

We move Pvt. Karla "Wolf" Mellum and the Orion over to Beta-Hunter lance, sending the Atlas currently there to Epsilon Assault, increasing the indirect firepower that can be applied once the spotter tank with TAG does its thing.

A few mechwarriors of no particular note retire, leading to an almost complete reshuffling of Delta-Recon lance, at least in terms of personnel. We wish them well, and, honestly, it's just as well - of the four people who retired, most were in their 40s and still rated as 'regular'. The severance pay is worth it to get some more dynamic mechwarriors in those cockpits.

The Atlas is a venerable machine. The one Hyena climbs into has had its cockpit hosed out many times, and, honestly, there's probably not a piece of the mech that hasn't been replaced at least once. This particular one has had its rear-facing medium lasers rotated forward for maximum forward firepower. While it gives up a little bit of rear arc deterrence, those two lasers never actually stopped anyone from jumping into an Atlas' rear arc. Hyena sits down in the command seat and taps the handle with his hand. "Think we're gonna get along, pal?"

The Warhammer refit for Scrub proceeds apace. We also work on some of our aerospace fighters. A Centurion from Delta-Air has developed unrepairable problems with its heat sinks, so we sell it for scrap and move the relatively recently purchased Samurai there instead. Our modifications are basically centered around reducing the weapon count to within the aerospace fighters heat capacity and removing rear-facing weapons.

The Hechnar survey group basically has a spare Union, so we're able to send twelve mechs and two aerospace fighters, which is roughly one of our companies. Some options we consider:

Updated TO&E:

Spoiler:

[] Send Epsilon Company (NPCs, no detailed battle reports, if any battles occur)
[] Send Gamma Company, minus Striker Lance, supplemented by Beta-Hunter lance
[] Send some other combination of three of the following lances:
Alpha Command
Beta Assault
Beta Hunter
Gamma Battle
Gamma Probe
Delta Ranger

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

"Hey Stefan, check out this radio show!" El Guapo calls out to Stefan as he walks by. The transcript:

Slick: "All right, let's take another call, this is 888-635-8255, that's 888-MEK-TALK. Hello, you're on Mek Talk!"
Caller: "Hi, this is Justin from Thorin."
Slick: "Justin, eh? What do you do over on Thorin?"
Caller: "Well, I teach xeno-botany at the local university, and I'm in the planetary militia."
Slack: "Xeno-botany, eh? You got a lot of non-terran plants over there on Thorin?"
Caller: "You'd be surprised!"
Slack: "Not really. The other day, a guy offered to sell me some xill-weed." [laughter] "I don't do drugs, though."
Caller: "Gonna be honest with you, that's not a drug, that's a laxative."
Slick: "You sure you didn't buy any, Slack?"
[Laughter]
Slick: "So, Justin, what do you have for us?"
Caller: "So, I drive a Vulcan."
Slick: "Two-Tee or Five-Tee?"
Slack: "What's the difference?"
Slick: "A six-ton paperweight versus three medium lasers."
[Laughter]
Caller: "Right, I've got the one with the paperweight. So yeah, I've been wondering, is there any kind of adjustment I can make to improve it without having to take it to a factory?"
Slick: "Get a 5T?"
Slack: "And they say people call us for useful advice."
Slick: "Ok, so *assuming* you don't have several million C-Bills in your other pocket and don't have a discount coupon for a factory refit from Coventry metal Works. I've got a couple of ideas."
Slack: "Do they involve getting a different mech?"
Slick: "Surprisingly, no. So, it's got the Sperry-Browning MG, right?"
Caller: "Right."
Slick: "So if you go back and look at where the ammo feed attaches to the weapon, you'll see these two caps. Those are actually connection points for hooking it up to the coolant system!"
Slack: "Are you going to tell him to bypass the firing rate limiter?"
Slick: "You betcha. So what you do, is you have your tech run a couple of lines from the nearest heat sink over to those caps and hook 'em up. Then you gotta download software update 83-C for the fire control board."
Slack: "As opposed to 83-B, you don't want that one."
Slick: "Unless you like ammo explosions."
[Laughter]
Slack: "So what that'll do, is it lets your Sperry-Browning fire at maximum rate. But the reason they put that rate limiter on there in the first place is that the barrel melts when you fire it too fast for too long, which is why you have to do the cooling system hookup."
Caller: "So what, it'll heat up my mech?"
Slack: "And how. Now it won't turn your Vulcan into an Atlas or anything, but it gets you a good amount of extra punch for when you jump in behind some slowpoke."
Slick: "And if the rapid fire doesn't get him, the ammo explosion will!"
[Laughter]
Caller: "Well, thanks for the tip, I'll take a look at it with my tech!"
Slick and Slack: "Good luck!"
Slick: "Well, you've done it again, having wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Mek Talk."
Slack: "And even though Morgan Kell goes into seclusion at a monastery every time he hears us say it... this is Outreach Public Radio."

[bonus internet points for anyone who gets the inspiration for this radio show]

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

June 1, 3043

Two more contracts come up. Both kind of "out there".

Contract 1:
Extraction Raid
Baron Richard Jonesworth III, esq, of Inner End, would like to hire a mercenary group (he seems to be willing to pay for a company's worth of forces at most) to "recover a kidnapped family member". Apparently, one of his daughters or nieces or something has been taken to the planet Valasha in the Outworlds Alliance. The 3D holograph of him shakes a fist and says that "it's probably that damn Baron Volkerswencker IV".

Valasha and Inner End are both mineral-producing worlds. Valasha is kind of hot, but low-G world with a population of only 44 million people.

Baron Richard Jonesworth III has absolutely no military force to contriubte to this operation, but is willing to foot the bill for jumpship travel. Furthermore, he's willing to pay out 100% battle loss compensation. Curiously, the salvage percentage is 60%, so the underlying subtext is that he wants us to shoot the place up and bring back a bunch of mechs. Or at least spare parts.

The trouble is that Valasha is 26 jumps from Outreach, so it will take 7 months to get there. We estimate that a company of mechs should be able to handle the local garrison and recover any designated personnel within three months. On the plus side, reports say that the locals are driving "periphery quality" equipment and are so green there's grass growing behind their ears.

Nitty gritty details:
Independent Command
60% salvage
100% battle loss comp
100% transport cost coverage
Green/C opposition
7 months travel time one way
3 months expected combat operations
170M expected pay - 20M expected expenditures = 150M expected profit

Pays ok, but takes a company out of action for a year and a half into a "low supply/no comms" situation, as Valasha doesn't even have an HPG station.

Contract 2:

Chief Executive Collins-Murtadi-Bajwa (of the Collins-Murtaid-Bajwa Aero-Med-Tech Congolomerate based out of the south-central Lyran Commonwealth) wants to hire a significant mercenary force to assist his "contracted corporate security forces" (mercenary goons) in "extracting sensitive information" from a competitor in the Free Worlds League, located on the unremarkable world of Edmondson. The main distinguishing feature is the 1.28G, so we'll be blowing out actuators left and right (for real this time, as opposed to in a practice environment). The icky corporate stuff and high G aside, this is a straightforward "recon in force" mission.

If the reconaissance was being conducted by two batallion-strenght companies of underpaid mercs.

Nitty gritty details:
"House" Command
50% salvage
100% straight support
100% transport cost coverage
Regular/B allies
Regular/F expected opposition
4 months travel time one way
3 months expected combat operations
340M expected pay - 40M expected expenditures = 300M expected profit

The going rate for a reinforced batallion of mercenaries sure has gone down these days. The pay is ok, although the high G is going to be annoying. At least our buddies will have high quality equipment.

The two contracts are mutually exclusive.

[] Take the Valasha extraction raid
[] Take the Edmondson "recon" "raid"
[] Good god these options suck, let's wait another month

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 7:52 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Tue Dec 03, 2019 4:46 pm Vote Results:
Spoiler:
Hechnar survey - almost unanimous
skip longer contracts - 5
Lothian League - 2
St. Robert - 1

Hyena's mech:
Rifleman - 6
Champion - 1
Atlas - 1
Owner override: Atlas
After some discussion, we decide not to send our troops out into the sticks. We've got some cash to burn, so we can hang out for another month. We'll need to decide who to send over to Hechnar to babysit the survey guys.

We move Pvt. Karla "Wolf" Mellum and the Orion over to Beta-Hunter lance, sending the Atlas currently there to Epsilon Assault, increasing the indirect firepower that can be applied once the spotter tank with TAG does its thing.

A few mechwarriors of no particular note retire, leading to an almost complete reshuffling of Delta-Recon lance, at least in terms of personnel. We wish them well, and, honestly, it's just as well - of the four people who retired, most were in their 40s and still rated as 'regular'. The severance pay is worth it to get some more dynamic mechwarriors in those cockpits.

The Atlas is a venerable machine. The one Hyena climbs into has had its cockpit hosed out many times, and, honestly, there's probably not a piece of the mech that hasn't been replaced at least once. This particular one has had its rear-facing medium lasers rotated forward for maximum forward firepower. While it gives up a little bit of rear arc deterrence, those two lasers never actually stopped anyone from jumping into an Atlas' rear arc. Hyena sits down in the command seat and taps the handle with his hand. "Think we're gonna get along, pal?"

The Warhammer refit for Scrub proceeds apace. We also work on some of our aerospace fighters. A Centurion from Delta-Air has developed unrepairable problems with its heat sinks, so we sell it for scrap and move the relatively recently purchased Samurai there instead. Our modifications are basically centered around reducing the weapon count to within the aerospace fighters heat capacity and removing rear-facing weapons.

The Hechnar survey group basically has a spare Union, so we're able to send twelve mechs and two aerospace fighters, which is roughly one of our companies. Some options we consider:

Updated TO&E:
Spoiler:
Alpha Company
Command company

Command Lance
Elite
Major Rayhan "Gbasden" Ashimov - Awesome AWS-8Q
SMj An "Isgrimnur" Taalib - Hatchetman HCT-3F (modified)
MSg Patrick "El Guapo" Allain - Marauder MAD-3R (modified)
Cpl Manny "Stefan" Campos - Catapult CPLT-C1

Battle Lance
Veteran
Lt. JG Ragnhild bin Najm al Din - Merlin MLN-1A
PFC Ben Kalkman - Trebuchet TBT-5J
PVT Maureen McKiernan - Dervish DV-6M
PVT Yuki Sato - Ostsol OTL-4D (modified)

Urban Combat Lance
Veteran
Lt. JG Kazuyuki Sato - Crusader CRD-3L (modified)
CPL Kieran Michailovic - Blackjack BJ-1
PFC Nicolas Reichel - Trebuchet TBT-5J
PVT Ok-Hwa Park - Whitworth WTH-1

Strike Squadron
Veteran
Ensign Arnwlle Schumann - Shilone SL-17
Sp Brit Egglestone - Lucifer LCF-R20
AbSp Matthias Baune - Corsair CSR-V12

Beta Company
The heavy metal
Assault Lance
Elite
Cpt Yu-Bao "Zenn7" Ting - Awesome AWS-8Q
SMj Song "Zarathud" Jiang - Awesome AWS-8Q
Cpl Hoshi "Moley" Higashi - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE
Pvt Ratan "LordMortis" Suryanarayama - Victor VTR-9B (modified)

Hunter Lance
Veteran
Lt. JG Demesu Jafar - Guillotine GLT-4L
Cpl. Zea-Chin Cao - Archer ARC-2R (modified)
Pvt Karla "Wolf" Mellum - Orion ON1-K
Pvt Tyra Drusse - Stalker STK-3F
Zephyr Hovertank (Royal)

Fire Lance
Regular
Lt. JG Elizabeth Bolam - Marauder MAD-4X (Marik Prototype)
Pvt Dermott Snow - Vindicator VND-1R
Pvt Allen Nattore - Trebuchet TBT-5N
Pvt Tessa Eng - Crusader CRD-3L (modified)

Strike Squadron
Regular
Ensign Lurdes Tarquini - Lucifer LCF-R20
PO2 Daniel Stephens - Lightning LTN-G15
Sp Gillaume Jaouen - Lucifer LCF-R20

Gamma Company
General Purpose
Battle Lance
Elite
Cpt Zanthe "Scrub" Pappathanassiou - Warhammer WHM-6Rb
Sgt Brad "Hyena" Mandara - Atlas AS7-D (modified)
Cpl Varada "Cylus" Sunondo - Grasshopper GHR-5H
Cpl Iiro "Xwraith" Rintala - Thunderbolt TDR-5SE (modified)

Striker Lance
Regular
Lt. JG Ramon Vazquez - Griffin GRF-1N
Cpl. Loren Burgess - Champion CHP-2N (modified)
Pfc. Bhadrasrenya Jannavi - Hunchback HBK-4G
Pvt. Catriona Dellas - Crusader CRD-3L (modified)

Probe Lance
Regular
Lt JG Zofia "Cujo" Kubo - Wolverine WVR-6M
PFC Clinton "Drazzil" Mavroudis - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1D
Pvt Nara "AWS" Cutillar - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (modified)
Pvt Nicolas Dvorak - Vulcan VL-5T (modified)

Strike Squadron
Veteran
Ensign Leslie Leshtchenko - Lightning LTN-G15
Sp Aneko Kiyomizu - Stingray F-90
AbSp Loc Do - Lightning LTN-G15

Delta Company
Recon
Ranger Lance
Elite
Captain Shi-Wen "Madmarcus" Xu - Wolverine WVR-6M
SMj Mab "Paingod" Orme - Griffin GRF-1N
Sgt Kesia "Freyland" Hauli - Quickdraw QKD-4H (modified)
PFC Nori "Archinerd" Goto - Dervish DV-6M (modified)

Sweep Lance
Veteran
Lt. Bettina Bosse - Ostroc OSR-2M
PFC Sixten Wisth - Phoenix Hawk PXH-1 (modified)
PFC Tom Chagares - Griffin GRF-1S
PFC Gregory Molnes - Cronus CNS-3M

Recon Lance
Regular
Lt JG Sebastian Jackman - Firestarter FS9-H (modified)
Pvt Martha Kanaris - Assassin ASN-21
Pvt Isabelle Framnes - Ostscout OTT-7J
Pvt Chris Mitchelle - Firestarter FS9-K (modified)

Interceptor Squadron
Veteran
Ensign Dave Malavika - Cheetah F-10
Spc Lenka Modry - Cheetah F-10
Spc Trevor Turner - Centurion CNT-1D

Epsilon Company
Expansion Group
First Lance
Warhammer WHM-6K (Olesko)
Wyvern WVE-6N (modified)
Catapult CPLT-C1
Thunderbolt TDR-5SE

Second Lance
Sentinel STN-3L
Griffin GRF-1S
Hunchback HBK-4G
Rifleman RLF-3C

Assault Lance
Stalker STK-3H
Longbow LBG-7Q
Warhammer WHM-6D (modified)
Atlas AS7-WGS (Samsonov)

Air Lance
Icarus II ICR-1S
Hatchetman HCT-3F
Centuron CN9-A (modified)
Clint CLNT-2-3T
Samurai SL-25
Seydlitz SYD-7Z

Space Assets
Invader-class Jumpship
"Moonraker" - Union-class Dropship
"Sparrow" - Union-class Dropship
Jumbo-class Dropship
3x Lucifer LCF-R20 escorts
1x Shilone SL-17 escort

Additional Ground Assets
4x Long Tom Artillery
Gyroslug Rifle / Support Laser infantry platoon, with Maxim (SRM4) hover transport
LRM jump infantry platoon, with Maxim (SRM4) hover transport
SRM jump infantry squad, with Ferret Scout VTOL and Warrior H-7C
[] Send Epsilon Company (NPCs, no detailed battle reports, if any battles occur)
[] Send Gamma Company, minus Striker Lance, supplemented by Beta-Hunter lance
[] Send some other combination of three of the following lances:
Alpha Command
Beta Assault
Beta Hunter
Gamma Battle
Gamma Probe
Delta Ranger

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

"Hey Stefan, check out this radio show!" El Guapo calls out to Stefan as he walks by. The transcript:

Slick: "All right, let's take another call, this is 888-635-8255, that's 888-MEK-TALK. Hello, you're on Mek Talk!"
Caller: "Hi, this is Justin from Thorin."
Slick: "Justin, eh? What do you do over on Thorin?"
Caller: "Well, I teach xeno-botany at the local university, and I'm in the planetary militia."
Slack: "Xeno-botany, eh? You got a lot of non-terran plants over there on Thorin?"
Caller: "You'd be surprised!"
Slack: "Not really. The other day, a guy offered to sell me some xill-weed." [laughter] "I don't do drugs, though."
Caller: "Gonna be honest with you, that's not a drug, that's a laxative."
Slick: "You sure you didn't buy any, Slack?"
[Laughter]
Slick: "So, Justin, what do you have for us?"
Caller: "So, I drive a Vulcan."
Slick: "Two-Tee or Five-Tee?"
Slack: "What's the difference?"
Slick: "A six-ton paperweight versus three medium lasers."
[Laughter]
Caller: "Right, I've got the one with the paperweight. So yeah, I've been wondering, is there any kind of adjustment I can make to improve it without having to take it to a factory?"
Slick: "Get a 5T?"
Slack: "And they say people call us for useful advice."
Slick: "Ok, so *assuming* you don't have several million C-Bills in your other pocket and don't have a discount coupon for a factory refit from Coventry metal Works. I've got a couple of ideas."
Slack: "Do they involve getting a different mech?"
Slick: "Surprisingly, no. So, it's got the Sperry-Browning MG, right?"
Caller: "Right."
Slick: "So if you go back and look at where the ammo feed attaches to the weapon, you'll see these two caps. Those are actually connection points for hooking it up to the coolant system!"
Slack: "Are you going to tell him to bypass the firing rate limiter?"
Slick: "You betcha. So what you do, is you have your tech run a couple of lines from the nearest heat sink over to those caps and hook 'em up. Then you gotta download software update 83-C for the fire control board."
Slack: "As opposed to 83-B, you don't want that one."
Slick: "Unless you like ammo explosions."
[Laughter]
Slack: "So what that'll do, is it lets your Sperry-Browning fire at maximum rate. But the reason they put that rate limiter on there in the first place is that the barrel melts when you fire it too fast for too long, which is why you have to do the cooling system hookup."
Caller: "So what, it'll heat up my mech?"
Slack: "And how. Now it won't turn your Vulcan into an Atlas or anything, but it gets you a good amount of extra punch for when you jump in behind some slowpoke."
Slick: "And if the rapid fire doesn't get him, the ammo explosion will!"
[Laughter]
Caller: "Well, thanks for the tip, I'll take a look at it with my tech!"
Slick and Slack: "Good luck!"
Slick: "Well, you've done it again, having wasted another perfectly good hour listening to Mek Talk."
Slack: "And even though Morgan Kell goes into seclusion at a monastery every time he hears us say it... this is Outreach Public Radio."

[bonus internet points for anyone who gets the inspiration for this radio show]

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

[] Take the Valasha extraction raid
[] Take the Edmondson "recon" "raid"
[X] Good god these options suck, let's wait another month

Car talk.

I guess the ideas I presented earlier were untenable. That's okay!

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Tue Dec 03, 2019 8:38 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Tue Dec 03, 2019 4:46 pm The Hechnar survey group basically has a spare Union, so we're able to send twelve mechs and two aerospace fighters, which is roughly one of our companies. Some options we consider:

Updated TO&E:

[x] Send Epsilon Company (NPCs, no detailed battle reports, if any battles occur)
[] Send Gamma Company, minus Striker Lance, supplemented by Beta-Hunter lance
[] Send some other combination of three of the following lances:
Alpha Command
Beta Assault
Beta Hunter
Gamma Battle
Gamma Probe
Delta Ranger

----------------------
[] Take the Valasha extraction raid
[?] Take the Edmondson "recon" "raid"
[?] Good god these options suck, let's wait another month

Let Epsilon get some experience.

Do we think anything worthwhile might be coming up? Any rumors of stuff happening? If not, Edmondson is the shortest thing, need to make some money. 11 months isn't too much longer than our surveys have left (8 months?).

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:22 pm

Car talk.

I guess the ideas I presented earlier were untenable. That's okay!

Love that show.

Actually, AWS' Phoenix Hawk is in your lance, so your has a Beagle Active Probe now. The royal Zephyr's TAG system doesn't really benefit a bunch of mechs with direct-fire weapons, so it was attached to Beta-Hunter lance which has three mechs with major LRM components.

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Epsilon Company is dispatched to Hechnar under the command of Captain Britt Moring (with an umlaut above the o). At least the ones that can fit on a Union - the ground component of the "air lance" is left behind. They're projected to arrive on Hechnar on June 19th and start operations on the 23rd. Nominally, the contract ends on September 20th, and from there it's a couple of weeks to travel back to Outreach. Should be a milk run.

News Update:
"The world of Lima has been raided by forces associated with the Draconis Combine. The raid appears to have been repelled, but we do not yet have a full report on the extent of the damage, or whether the raid was sanctioned by Draconis Combine regional or national authorities."

"Irian Battlemechs Unlimited has announced the release an upgraded version of the venerable Hermes battlemech. According to them, the mech is now faster than ever, thanks to the addition of Myomer Accelerator Signal Cicuitry. The mech's armor and internal structure have been upgraded to ferro-fibrous and endo-steel respectively, allowing the designers to cram in a Beagle Active Probe.

We contacted Daniel Allard of the Kell Hounds, and he had the following to say:
'Well, it's definitely a reconaissance mech.'"

July 1, 3043
We spend the month training, relaxing and looking around for new work. It eats into our reserves, bringing us down to around 1.92B, but we've got plenty of cash to burn.

Here's what we turn up:

Option 1:
A House Kurita representative is offering a contract to determine the disposition of "pirate forces" on the world of Moore that have been raiding Draconis Combine territory. This is a Federated Commonwealth holding, so, diplomatically speaking, the Combine can't be seen sending troops into the area. Our job would be to locate the pirates and, preferably, wipe them out. The slightly weird part is that they want us to turn over any salvage that we acquire, for which we will be compensated. Our evaluation, after reviewing the force reports is that we'll need the rest of the company to do this.

Obviously, it would be best if we got this done without engaging any actual FedCom forces, which we should be able to do. Although, it being a border world (in fact a kind of salient into Kurita space, truth be told), the local garrison commander may get nervous about a batallion of heavily armed mercenaries showing up to hunt "pirates".

Moore is a beach paradise, but with a lot of industry and one and a half billion people. So, despite having 86 percent water coverage, there's enough place for a batallion of mechs to stretch their legs. A lot of the industry is located on Zed, a giant (almost earth-sized) "moon". The planet itself is a nice and hot 35 degrees C at the equator.

Nitty gritty details:
"House" Command
50% salvage (exchange)
60% battle loss compensation
100% transport cost coverage
Regular/D liaison(s)
Regular/C expected opposition
1 months travel time one way
1 months expected combat operations
65M expected pay - 35M expected expenditures = 30M expected profit, plus salvage

This is a pretty quick contract. The exchange salvage is annoying, but we're only there for a month, so we should be able to bring enough supplies to handle any problems. We do have a Jumbo-class dropship, after all. The upside of exchange salvage is that the actual profit will probably be a little bit higher than our estimate.

Option 2:
We're contacted by a Baron Volcker von Straubenfuhmber, who would like to hire a whole lance of mechs to supplement his palace guard for a whole 15 months. Normally, we wouldn't bother with such small crap, but we have a spare lance of unassigned mechs from Epsilon company who could use the action. We'd basically be responsible for actually implementing patrols and the usual garrison duty tasks, only receiving "broad general instructions". We'll be working alongside with the planetary militia and will generally have command authority when it comes to operations involving our units.

Ballynure is a world pretty deep within the former Lyran Commonwealth, far from any front lines, so we shouldn't expect much action. Given the nature of garrison duty, we'd probably send along two mech lances and rotate our units as necessary.

Nitty gritty details:
"Liaison" Command
30% salvage
100% battle loss compensation
100% transport cost coverage
Regular/F allied forces
unknown expected opposition
3 months travel time one way
15 months expected "combat" operations
29M expected pay - 2M expected expenditures = 27M expected profit

Seems like a pretty straightforward way to make some money, unless the place comes under any kind of serious assault or winds up having a pirate problem. The salvage isn't that great, it's probable that the baron wants to build up his militia a little bit after we leave.

Option 3:
Another "deep periphery" contract - actually similar to option 1, except that it's the Free Worlds League that wants someone to locate (and destroy, if possible) a pirate group. Except that, instead of being four jumps away, this is all the way to the southwest, in the Magistracy of Canopus. Since we've already settled on not sending large chunks of our force off to the periphery, we'll pass on this one.

We can also pass on all of this and chill for another month. We've got capital to burn. On the other hand, politically speaking, it doesn't seem like there's any major action on the horizon. The major powers of the inner sphere are still licking their wounds from the war of '39, and don't appear to have much of a taste for more at this time.

[] Take the quick recon raid
[] Take the low-force-commitment garrison duty contract
[] Pass, look around for another month

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:42 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:22 pm

[X] Take the quick recon raid
[] Take the low-force-commitment garrison duty contract
[] Pass, look around for another month

This seems like a good filler activity while we wait for something more appealing. I am assuming we can't do both?

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:45 pm

We can do both.

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 6:24 pm

[X] Take the quick recon raid

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:01 pm

NickAragua wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:45 pm We can do both.

In that case, both. Make the Epsilon slackers pay their way.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Wed Dec 04, 2019 8:14 pm

gbasden wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 7:01 pm
NickAragua wrote: ↑Wed Dec 04, 2019 4:45 pm We can do both.
In that case, both. Make the Epsilon slackers pay their way.

100% this! Besides, they need some experience too.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Thu Dec 05, 2019 4:20 pm

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

We pack up the rest of Epsilon company and a spare lance of mechs/mechwarriors we had kicking around and send them off to Ballynure.

En route, they get a somewhat tempting offer from the Ballynure planetary militia (delivered via private HPG message from the militia commander), who wants us to send one of our lances off into the planetary hinterlands to help hunt raiders which have been causing problems for the local industry.

We'd be getting paid about 3.3M C-Bills for 5 months of work, and get 20% salvage rights. It's not great, and will cause problems if either of our lances takes casualties, but hey, it's money.

[] Take the raider hunting subcontract
[] Pass on it, we will only barely have enough forces on planet to deal with it and our garrison duties

We also receive the news that our jumpship's repairs have been unsuccessful ("How hard can it be to properly replace an extremely rare and large jumpship component without a proper shipyard anyway?"). Again. At this point, it may be worth considering cutting that crew loose. From our perspective, they're not really making us any money and eating up a ton in maintenance costs and crew salaries, not to mention the cost of the stupid K-F drive initiator component we had to source. At 1M C-Bills per month, we're losing quite a bit of money there. It's not catastrophic, but it's pretty annoying.

On the other hand, Invader-class jumpships (or, any jumpships for that matter) don't exactly grow on trees, and it took us a lot of time and effort to find this one (not to mention the 676M we paid for it initially)

[] Cut expenses, consider looking around for a different jumpship
[] Keep the jumpship crew around for one more repair attempt (another seven months) then revisit the issue

We decide to accept the pirate hunting contract. It'll be good to have some cash flow and the contract will be over quickly enough (there's no extension clause, our legal department checked) that we won't be getting stuck there. Once Comstart confirms that the money is in escrow, we pack it up and get going.

August 7, 3043
Moore System
Nadir Jump Point

We jump in to the nadir jump point (that's where the recharge station is, makes it easier on our hired jumpship crew), and right away, the place is a giant mess. Comms traffic indicate that some faction or other of Skye Separatists has seized control of various facilities around the planet and are doing a pretty good job of standing off against the "Moore Skye March Militia" (Moore SMM from now on).

As a bit of historical background, the region of Skye is about a quarter of the former Lyran Commonwealth, specifically, the southeast quarter, closest to Terra. Historically speaking, it seems like every other day some group of folks or other feels like they could do without having Tharkad (or, more recently, New Avalon) tell them what to do and launch an armed uprising. Usually, those get put down pretty quickly, sometimes even without massive civilian casualties. Apparently, they've seized multiple militia armories and facilities and captured a significant amount of equipment (up to and including several dropships). Their areas of control also include the areas where we have concluded we'll start our search for the pirates, so our pirate search will be a little easier if we start there.

The Moore SMM isn't exactly a top-notch outfit, but they are a border militia unit for a recently captured world, so they're fairly on the ball for a militia unit. We'll have to take some territory from the separatists first, so it'll be a harder fight, but, on the other hand, they're the legitimate arm of the Federated Commonwealth here.

We'll need help from one of these factions to locate the pirates, and they are unlikely to allow us to just zip around in their airspace and search for random pirates. We're not entirely sure who has the upper hand, and there aren't any reports of major atrocities coming up from groundside. Neither faction is able to pay us actual contract money, although they'll provide logistical support to the best of their ability and pay us for any salvage we recover from the opposing side. And let us fly in their airpsace and engage in ground operations.

[] Help out the Moore SMM
[] Help out the Skye Separatists

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:39 pm

[X] Pass on it, we will only barely have enough forces on planet to deal with it and our garrison duties

Do Both:
[X] Consider looking around for a different jumpship
[X] Keep the jumpship crew around for one more repair attempt (another seven months) then revisit the issue

[X] Help out the Moore SMM

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Thu Dec 05, 2019 8:25 pm

Pass on it

Keep the dropship at all costs. You did spend 600M on it right?

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Thu Dec 05, 2019 9:44 pm

Cylus Maxii wrote: ↑Thu Dec 05, 2019 5:39 pm [X] Pass on it, we will only barely have enough forces on planet to deal with it and our garrison duties

Do Both:
[X] Consider looking around for a different jumpship
[X] Keep the jumpship crew around for one more repair attempt (another seven months) then revisit the issue

[X] Help out the Moore SMM

These are good. If we have to choose between looking around and keeping the jumpship, keep the jump ship for now, but don't see why we couldn't at least look around while we're fixing again.

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Fri Dec 06, 2019 2:38 pm

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

"Our apologies, but we are unable to take on additional work at this time with the forces we have available." comes our reply. It's tempting, but not really worth the risk to take on another subcontract.

Our reply to the jumpship captain is a terse "keep working on it."

We'll start looking around for jumpships for sale as well, just in case.

Our final message is to the planetary militia, requesting landing coordinates.

August 7, 3043
Satellite Uplink
Moore, Skye March region

The first thing we learn about this planet is that the atmosphere isn't exactly "shirt sleeves" - apparently there are a lot of mildly toxic/allergy causing particulates in the atmosphere due to extensive heavy metal extraction operations. Despite repeated warnings, several mech bay crew members wind up in the medical bay with "mild to moderate lung irritation" as we begin unloading our hardware. It's not immediately fatal, but does mildly reduce our astech count - if we get really swamped, we'll have trouble keeping up.

The separatists are pushing pretty hard, so we'll have our hands full stabilizing the situation. There are two major areas of action as we land:

The militia is abandoning a salient that's being pressed hard on all sites, so we'll be sending a couple of lances of mechs to get there fast and help screen the retreating forces. Delta-Ranger and Gamma-Probe get that job.

Meanwhile, Alpha Company will deploy to assault a satellite uplink and prevent the separatists from looting a recently captured tank depot.

For now, Beta and Gamma company will be held in reserve, but we'll deploy them as becomes necessary.

The satellite uplink facility is the first thing to get hit. The Battle Lance draws off a picket force, leaving Command Lance and a supporting militia Warhammer to tackle the uplink. Our pal informs us that we'll also have a pair of militia aerospace fighters providing air superiority and/or air support as necessary. "Ideally, we'll rout the defenders and capture the facility, but either blowing it up or meaningfully engaging the garrison will do fine as well."

"So we can just shoot some PPCs in the air and go back?" El Guapo asks.

"Well, not quite. We do need to actually engage the enemy forces." the militia liaison responds.

"Right, what's the ETA on that air support?"

"Sixty seconds."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Artillery incoming. Keep it moving, people." Gbasden reminds everyone, as he targets a Hunter light support tank with the Awesome's PPCs and blows it to bits.

The Maultier hover APC sounds fancy, but really it's just a normal APC carrying an infantry squad or two. A Maxim zips forward as well with the other hovercraft, but El Guapo nails it with a PPC blast and a gauss slug through the right side, cracking the heavy hover transport in half. Stefan's LRM salvo scatters the dazed infantry clambering out to the four winds - those guys won't be going anywhere.

Some light autocannon rounds and LRMs come our way, but nothing hits. Good start.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Command-Three, Command-Four, move south around the base and see if you can take out those artillery batteries." Gbasden directs Isgrimnur and Stefan. "Command-Two, I'm getting swarmed." A Phoenix Hawk avoids all three of the Awesome's PPC blasts, although our mechwarrior manages to fire the head-mounted pulse laser at a hover APC as it moves to drop troops off. The results are unpleasant for the lightly armored hovercraft as the air comes out from its hover skirt. The infantry don't do that well, either, eating either pulse laser or foot, depending on how close they are. It's just a squad so they scatter to the four winds pretty rapidly.

El Guapo responds by plowing a pair of PPC shots through an approaching Saladin's left side, leaving the hovertank a wreck.

Stefan hops down the hill, turning to fire at a Condor hovertank (neither unit scoring much damage) while Isgrimnur runs by that scene, moving rapidly to engage a Wasp hanging out in the woods to the south. He takes a laser to the right leg, then swings the hatchet left to right, severing both of the bug mech's legs, the landing from the jump giving that swing a little more power.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Ugh." Gbasden grunts as an artillery shell lands in the woods next to him, blasting armor off the mech. He blasts the Phoenix Hawk with just a couple of PPCs to cool off, but its armor holds. As does the Awesome's as SRMs from the nearby Warrior helicopter pepper away.

"On it, boss." Isgrimnur acknowledges as the Hatchetman bounds southeast. That upgraded XL engine really puts itself to work, letting our mechwarrior go way faster than a Hatchetman normally has any business going. He sends an AC/10 burst at the nearby Thumper artillery piece. It doesn't hit the barrel, but it does hit the ammunition storage. The whole structure collapses. Isgrimnur frowns as a Stinger blasts his mech from the right side with a laser, then swings the hatchet backhanded, cracking through the bug mech's torso. It flops over like a marionette with its strings cut, indicating severe gyro damage.

El Guapo blows through a Galleon tank's armor with a PPC and watches with a amusement a Condor hovertank in the distance crash into a tree as the driver tries to avoid a PPC shot from the allied Warhammer. Well, at least he got that part right.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Gbasden has to move out of cover as more artillery shells zero in and takes an AC/20 round to the right torso from a Saladin. Our weapons fire isn't very effective, and a Wasp avoids Isgrimnur's weapons fire and hatchet to land a laser hit on our mech.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"Air watch alert!" the liaison calls out in the Warhammer. This is just as an artillery shell lands basically right on top of El Guapo's Marauder, breaching the left leg armor. The section floods and the mech goes down. The amount of cursing emerging from underwater is substantial.

Gbasden watches the Marauder take a swim and sighs, turning the extended range PPC on the Saladin, blowing away the right-side armor, then stomping on a Vedette, which miraculously survives. The hovertank books it under cover from a strafing fighter - a couple of SRMs and LRMs from the Defender breach the Awesome's weakened right torso, blowing out a heat sink. Then, Stefan's LRMs catch up to the annoying little fighter and batter it, blowing chunks out of the bottom - it corkscrews into the ground and the pilot just barely manages to eject before it contacts the dirt and disappears in a fireball as all the on-board ammo blows.

Inside the base, Isgrimnur avoids fire from an SRM turret (which turns on Stefan, not very successfully) and splatters a Scorpion tank with weapons fire and a solid slam from the hatchet.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

El Guapo takes another artillery shell, but the armor holds up this time. Still, time to leave. The allied Warhammer eats a shell as well, blowing out one of its lasers from the back, the armor already weakened from a Condor chewing on it for a while with its machine guns.

Gbasden moves into some heavier woods, rotating his damaged right torso away from the enemy units, but still turning the mech a little to the left to put a PPC into the damaged Vedette as it sends another SRM into the damaged torso section to destroy another heat sink. The tank's ammuntion (all of it) explodes once the PPC makes contact, annihilating it.

The allied air support arrives, driving off the other Defender, while Isgrimnur works on the Sniper battery, slagging one of the barrels with a laser then brushing the rest of the assembly off the roof of the building with the hatchet. "Artillery neutralized." he reports.

"About goddamn time." El Guapo mutters, water pouring out of the leg as he steps out.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Stefan has had just about enough of the Valkyrie and Wasp that have been plinking away at him and turns his attention to the Valkyrie firing up his jump jets and getting in behind it. The Catapult's lasers slice off the Valkyrie's LRM launcher, leaving it with just a flamer for weapons. Isgrimnur's last laser helps knock it over to the ground. Temporarily, but still. What's not temporary is the removal of the nearby Wasp's legs by direct application of hatchet.

El Guapo experiences a little bit of schadenfreude, as the Sniper's last artillery shell arcs in on where he just was. Sure, it strips the armor off his right leg, but it also nails the annoying little hovertank that's been harassing him and the allied Warhammer, causing it to sink. The Marauder's PPCs turn against a Darter scout car zipping around Gbasden's Awesome, evaporating its rear section. Our Awesome is busy planting three PPCs into the Phoenix Hawk, knocking the 45-ton machine over.

A lance of medium tanks shows up to the southwest, but it's unlikely they'll make a difference at this point.

The allied Slayer continues chasing off the Defender, while the Chippewa loops around and disables a Rommel tank with a strafing run.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

"Careful in that lake, there's a big hole about ten meters... " El Guapo begins as the Warhammer moves to take his spot. "... never mind." our mechwarrior sighs as the allied mech stumbles in and its indicator on the sensor display winks out. Then he's got more things to worry about as the Vedette lance to the southwest opens fire with their autocannons. Luckily, they miss for the most part. Some SRMs from the nearby Warrior helicopter breach leg armor, but the mech remains standing.

Gbasden tracks the Phoenix Hawk as it gets up, blowing through its left torso with a solid PPC shot. Then the Chippewa cirlces around and nails the center torso with an LRM salvo, along with a couple missiles to the head, which knocks the pilot out and spikes his heat. The gyro damage is unnecessary at that point, but the mech keels over.

The Vedette lance and a couple of other tanks retreat, leaving the facility to us. It's a little beat up but captured.

Gbasden's Awesome has a large hole in the right torso and a couple of missing heat sinks, while El Guapo's mech has lost a large amount of armor and needs to have the left leg drained and myomer bundles dried out. Isgrimnur 's Hatchetman and Stefan's Catapult are solidly in the green.

Between the two legless Wasps and the Stinger with a crunched gyro, the militia guys ought to be able to put together a bug mech. They'll also be getting a beat-up Phoenix Hawk which will probably take several weeks to fix and a Rommel tank, which ought to be easily repairable and will add a much-needed AC/20 (and, uh, an LRM/5 launcher plus a small laser) to their available firepower. Plus a couple of light hovertanks. The salvage compensation comes to about 2.7M C-Bills

We're able to fish the Warhammer out of the water, and it's intact - just needs to have pretty much all equipment in the center torso drained and a medium laser replaced, but the militia liaison will be fine. If a little humiliated. "I warned you about the goddamn pit, didn't I?" El Guapo scoffs.

We also capture a bunch of prisoners. A few we turn over to the militia, some get a brief (or not so brief) vaction in our medical bays (a few broken ribs and limbs, and one broken spine from when a guy fell out of a helicopter), but a few express a desire to get off-world. Of course, they might be angling for sabotage (or even may be the pirates that our actual employer is looking for, trying to make a run for it).

[] Hand them over to the militia, let them sort it out
[] Do some interrogation ourselves, keep them in custody for now

Capturing the satellite uplink will let us access whatever satellites are available for surveillance, and also lets the militia get a close look at what's happening in orbit and beyond. They detect a pair of dropships coming in from pirate points, escorted by aerospace fighters launched from the local moon. The militia apparently have a Fortress-class dropship, which they'll be launching to intercept the closest incoming hostile. It seems like a little overkill, the separatist dropship is a Gazelle. Which carries, what, fifteen light tanks? They're concerned the escort fighters may damage their fortress though, so they ask if we'd be willing to detach a flight of aerospace fighters to help out.

[] Sure, we could use any salvage money we get, and not having to deal with an extra reinforced company of light tanks would be nice groundside.
[] No, it's a freaking Gazelle. You can probably take three of those with a Fortress, and a company of light tanks won't really make much of a difference.

Cylus Maxii · Post by **Cylus Maxii** » Fri Dec 06, 2019 4:52 pm

[X] Hand them over to the militia, let them sort it out

[X] Sure, we could use any salvage money we get, and not having to deal with an extra reinforced company of light tanks would be nice groundside.

Stefan Stirzaker · Post by **Stefan Stirzaker** » Fri Dec 06, 2019 5:29 pm

as above, so below
[X] Hand them over to the militia, let them sort it out

[X] Sure, we could use any salvage money we get, and not having to deal with an extra reinforced company of light tanks would be nice groundside.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:08 am

[X] Do some interrogation ourselves, keep them in custody for now

[X] Sure, we could use any salvage money we get, and not having to deal with an extra reinforced company of light tanks would be nice groundside.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:33 am

gbasden wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:08 am [X] Do some interrogation ourselves, keep them in custody for now

[X] Sure, we could use any salvage money we get, and not having to deal with an extra reinforced company of light tanks would be nice groundside.

Lets verify for ourselves these are not our primary target pirates.

Drazzil · Post by **Drazzil** » Sun Dec 08, 2019 4:55 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:33 am
gbasden wrote: ↑Sat Dec 07, 2019 2:08 am [X] Do some interrogation ourselves, keep them in custody for now

[X] Sure, we could use any salvage money we get, and not having to deal with an extra reinforced company of light tanks would be nice groundside.
Lets verify for ourselves these are not our primary target pirates.

+1

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Mon Dec 09, 2019 2:29 pm

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

August 8, 3043
Low Atmosphere
Moore, Skye March

"Understood, kommandant. Our aerospace fighters will be on the way shortly."

This will be a good chance to try out our up-armored aerospace fighters. We spent a lot of our down-time on Outreach removing the basically useless rear-facing weapons in favor of neutralizing heat and increasing armor. It's not a dramatic improvement, but it should be an incremental one - we'd be hard pressed to find an aero jock in our company that would argue for keeping rear-facing weapons, as that has never deterred anyone from coming up on a fighter's tail.

We send up Alpha-Strike and Gamma-Strike. The Gazelles come in at such an angle that the Fortress is barely able to intercept one, and it has already reached a. For the most part, we'll be doing the work.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The calm before the storm.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Alpha-Strike, engage but stay information."

Our fighters give a good accounting of themselves, blowing out weapons on lighter separatist fighters. Everything remains airborne, but an Owl light strike fighter takes a pair of large lasers from our Corsair and nearly falls apart, the light craft peeling off. The Owl is not very impressive, sporting just a single SRM/4 launcher, but every little bit helps.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Alpha-Strike break right!"

Our fighters continues staying in formation, breaking off to the right as a large hornet swarm of light fighters tries to head them off. We stay just outside of the range of the Gazelle's main guns. Our Corsair blasts an Imperial Eagle conventional fighter pretty good, lasers cutting off most of the armor on the little fighter's nose and left wing. That sends the aircraft out of control and into the ground, where it forms a nice crater. It wasn't a very big threat, with a little more impressive than the Owl, with two SRM/4 launchers and two machine guns. Compared to the firepower hefted by real aerospace fighters, it's pinpricks, though.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

A "Golden Eagle" goes down under the guns of our Shilone as we close in on the Gazelle, plowing into the ground and turning into a fireball. It's a more long-ranged design, with ten LRM tubes and a pair of SRM tubes, although kind of a moot point. Uh, hope there wasn't anyone in that building.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

As much as we'd like to stay in formation, it's time to split up. Our Shilone continues plinking Golden Eagles out of the sky, causing one to break up in mid-air with a full application of lasers and LRMs.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The pattern continues, our Shilone firing at enemy aircraft while our Lucifer and Corsair continue pounding on the Gazelle. Our Lucifer takes some major engine damage and has to peel off, but so does theirs.

Round 7,8:

Spoiler:

Not much to say here - we're going to keep whaling on the Gazelle as long as we can and try to pull back before any of our fighters get shot down. The Gazelle takes some damage to the thrusters, but remains airborne.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The Gazelle rattles under the last couple of shots, but hits the burners and keeps going, venting a few metal chunks.

At this point, our fighters begin to take unacceptable amounts of damage, so we pull them out. We did destroy three separatist conventional fighters, but our quarry evaded us. The militia Fortress was unable to catch up (which is fair enough, it's a giant metal ball trying to catch up to an aerodyne dropship), so we're going to wind up with another reinforced company of tanks to deal with. And, unless we stop the second Gazelle up in orbit, that's going to go up to two and a half companies.

The Shilone and Lucifer get patched up pretty quickly, the Corsair will be out of action for a while, as the landing gear turns out to be inoperable (the aero jock did a "belly landing" to get home).

Our interrogation of captured prisoners determines that they're not pirates. We do get some interesting information about a raid that the separatists are planning on a supply depot that the Moore SMM maintains on Zed (the moon). If we send a lance out there, we have a good chance of holding it, which will let the SMM provide us with a little extra logistical support. Of course, since it's a two-day burn, the lance we send will be unavailable for the rest of the week. We can either ask the militia to give us a ride or take one of our Unions (but of course, said Union will also be unavailable for the rest of the week).

[] Forget the supply depot, we're not that hard up for logistics
[] Send Beta-Assault up on a militia Leopard
[] Send Beta-Assault up on one of our Unions

AWS260 · Post by **AWS260** » Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:08 pm

[] Forget the supply depot, we're not that hard up for logistics
[] Send Beta-Assault up on a militia Leopard
[X] Send Beta-Assault up on one of our Unions

Never underestimate the importance of logistics.

Zenn7 · Post by **Zenn7** » Mon Dec 09, 2019 9:51 pm

AWS260 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:08 pm
[] Forget the supply depot, we're not that hard up for logistics
[] Send Beta-Assault up on a militia Leopard
[X] Send Beta-Assault up on one of our Unions
Never underestimate the importance of logistics.

Agreed, especially on a long term contract, not sure we're on a front line world in terms of resupply.

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Mon Dec 09, 2019 11:32 pm

Zenn7 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2019 9:51 pm
AWS260 wrote: ↑Mon Dec 09, 2019 4:08 pm
[] Forget the supply depot, we're not that hard up for logistics
[] Send Beta-Assault up on a militia Leopard
[X] Send Beta-Assault up on one of our Unions
Never underestimate the importance of logistics.
Agreed, especially on a long term contract, not sure we're on a front line world in terms of resupply.

+1

NickAragua · Post by **NickAragua** » Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:36 pm

We're only expecting to be here for a month or so, just long enough to find our pirate (or "pirate", depending on who you ask) targets. But extra logistical help never goes amiss.

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

The only real point of discussion turns out to be whether to get the militia to give us a ride or go ourselves. The problem resolves itself when the militia rep offers to refuel our Union free of charge at both ends of the trip. So, Beta-Assault (Zenn7, Zarathud, LordMortis and Moley in Awesome x2, Victor and Thunderbolt respectively) climbs back on board the Sparrow and burn for orbit.

August 9, 3043
Moore CMM Supply Depot
Zed, Moore System, Skye March

The moon is pretty low-G, though not much lower than the planet. It also has a bit of a testy atmosphere. Beta-Assault gets there way ahead of the attackers. The incoming force is... underwhelming. It's a medium-heavy lance: Enforcer, Centurion, Blackjack, Marauder.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our Awesomes power up and step out from behind some buildings as the enemy lance approaches. The Marauder takes a combined four PPCs and falls over.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Its buddies rush to its defense, but the Marauder takes another five PPCs, this time melting most of the armor off the torso and limbs.

Moley and LordMortis team up on the Centurion to the northeast, Moley scoring good hits against the lighter mech's center torso, causing it to fall backward.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 and Zarathud briefly switch targets to the Blackjack as the Marauder continues to struggle to get up. Zarathud takes a PPC and a laser, but armor holds up. The same can't be said for the Blackjack, which experiences an armor breach and wobbles around before falling over, one of the leg actuators visibly snapping out.

LordMortis and Moley close in to melee range with the Centurion and Enforcer, using the bulk of their mechs to good advantage. The Enforcer winds up on the ground after multiple laser hits from Moley's Thunderbolt, while the Centurion isn't quite able to get up. Both take heavy damage from curb stomps.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Enforcer manages to struggle up off the ground, sacrificing its left arm to do so. The rest of the enemy mechs remain grounded, but continue firing, so we're going to give them another salvo of weapons fire and boots. The Enforcer goes back down as Moley circles around and just about disables the left leg.

Round 5:
The guy in the Centurion completely wrecks his mech trying to get up, eliciting a look of disgust from LordMortis as he turns his attention to the other targets. The Enforcer? Nope, bailed out. The Blackjack over west? Nope, bailed out. The Marauder? Sure.

The enemy heavy struggles to get up one last time, firing a PPC at Zenn7 to melt off a little armor, but then takes a bunch of PPC and laser fire from all our units. The left leg gives out and the mech falls over, crunching its left torso and the "traditional" ammo bin there, blowing up.

The militia gets some good salvage out of this one, a "mostly intact" Blackjack and Enforcer, and Centurion spare parts. They pay us a total of 3.5M C-Bills for the whole batch. Plus, we capture all the mechwarriors.

Our mechs took some moderate armor damage, but nothing serious, so, overall, it was a worthwhile exercise.

Gamma-Strike is about to engage the second Gazelle heading for the planet. As they get close, sensor contacts resolve to four heavies and four lights escorting it. We can either engage immediately or hold back while we get reinforcements in there. Reinforcements can either be Beta-Strike, a flight of three heavier fighters, or a pair of militia aerospace fighters of indeterminate quality passing within comms range. Waiting for the reinforcements will lower our engagement time with the dropship, meaning it'll get away quicker. How do we want to handle this?

[] Take them immediately - we've got three fighters, so it'll be a little dicey
[] Call for backup, Beta-Strike - three more of our heavier fighters, least engagement time
[] Call for backup, nearby militia flight - two fighters of indeterminate quality, medium engagement time

gbasden · Post by **gbasden** » Wed Dec 11, 2019 4:32 am

NickAragua wrote: ↑Tue Dec 10, 2019 12:36 pm
[] Take them immediately - we've got three fighters, so it'll be a little dicey
[] Call for backup, Beta-Strike - three more of our heavier fighters, least engagement time
[X] Call for backup, nearby militia flight - two fighters of indeterminate quality, medium engagement time

While I'd love to have Beta-Strike, that sounds like it's going to leave us too little time on target.