Right now, it looks like we've got the Vasps' tech reward.
Isgrimnur's Hatchetman won't take too long to fix, but we need to rotate Alpha-One in to defend the dropship. So, our techs fire up the long-range Atlas, and Isgrimnur gets to go for a test drive.
Gamma-Two has an injured mechwarrior, so they borrow AWS from Delta-Two and join Gamma-One in defending the supply depot.
Delta-One's mechs wind up being too badly beat up to field - our techs are ready to spin up some spares just in case.
June 25, 3040
Beta-Two easily runs off a group of Vasp tanks and mechs making a run at the Sparrow, taking minor damage in the process and bringing back a Scorpion by way of salvage. No, not the crappy tank, the crappy quad mech. After taking a bunch of leg damage, Beta-Two's Orion put an SRM through the enemy mech's cockpit, taking it down.
As Beta-Two polished off their opposition with ease and barely expended any ammo or took any damage, they'll be coming in for backup off their patrol shortly.
Beta-Two ran off the lighter units, but heavier stuff is still coming in - the Vasps have a heavy and a medium mech lance, along with two heavy tank lances. Quite enough to give the dropship a hard time, so it's good that we've got the long-range Atlas on the field to keep the bad guys at a distance. The other good news is that Beta-Two will be coming in behind the enemy units, so we should catch them in a solid pincer.
Round 1:
The two opposing forces fire off long-range weapons towards one another but miss.
Round 2:
Enemy units close in. Gbasden targets a Rifleman, hitting with two out of three PPCs, one to each arm. Isgrimnur burps out a string of rounds from the Atlas' AC/20 and fires the PPCs, plowing through a Vedette's armor, while shrugging off a few Archer-launched LRMs. The tank is a little out of its depth and begins to retreat.
Round 3:
The Rifleman's right arm comes off under sustained PPC fire. That's a couple less guns firing our way.
El Guapo scores a PPC hit on a distant Grasshopper, while Isgrimnur continues to shrug off light missile fire. An LTV-4 hovertank zips in to fire its PPC and SRMs at the Atlas, but takes a laser to the front, rocking the crew a bit.
Round 4:
As the LTV-4 struggles to reverse and get out of the line of fire, Isgrimnur turns towards it and blows it away with PPC and autocannon fire.
Round 5:
Isgrimnur grunts as an LRM from a salvo makes contact with the outside of the Atlas' cockpit, shaking him around. The enemy LRM-equipped units have been staying out at range, lobbing missiles in, mostly ineffectively, but sometimes the sun shine's on a dog's ass. Our return fire does a bit more damage, although we only strip armor and cause minor tread damage.
Round 6:
The Rifleman backs up out of gbasden's range, so he turns the Awesome's guns on a Grasshopper as it tries to approach. One PPC shot hits, stripping most armor from the left torso (someone must have hit it earlier, a Grasshopper can usually take two PPC shots)..
El Guapo takes over firing at the Rifleman, blowing out a laser from the left torso with a PPC and putting a gauss slug into the center torso. The impact forces the lighter mech to the ground.
Despite two PPC shots and an LRM salvo from Stefan (which, to be fair, missed), an SRM Carrier manages to make its way forward, backed up by a Hunchback and other short range units, while long-range units support them with LRM fire.
Round 7:
This time, Isgrimnur's PPCs destroy the SRM Carrier entirely.
Stefan's mech beeps at him, indicating that his LRMs have run dry, after he puts his last salvo into a Bulldog, cracking treads.
The Rifleman struggles up from the ground, only to take two PPC shots and a gauss slug from El Guapo. The PPCs crack the right torso, while the gauss slug plows through the weakened center torso armor, ricocheting off the engine shielding. The enemy mech stays upright, but it's done - with the engine damage, all it can do is fire its single AC/5, unless the mechwarrior is feeling cold.
Round 8:
Beta-Two arrives right behind the dithering Vasp units. The confusion this introduces makes for a prime opportunity for Alpha-One to charge forward as some enemy units turn around to face the new arrivals.
A Brutus Assault tank packing forty LRM tubes moves up to cover the Rifleman's retreat, forcing El Guapo to switch targets. It absorbs a PPC, two medium lasers and a gauss round, although bits of tread peel off under fire, and one of the Marauder's lasers melts a sensor cluster.
Beta-Two's Orion disables a Manticore with an LRM salvo, as everyone else opens fire. Lots of armor peels off, but no critical damage.
Round 9:
Stefan jumps up to a Bulldog, cutting away armor off the front and left sides with lasers. The tank's LRMs ping Isgrimnur in the dome a second time, rattling our mechwarrior around a bit, but then it ceases fire and books it. One of Stefan's LRM racks gets blown away, but no big loss as he's already expended all his missiles.
Gbasden takes aim at the Stalker-lite (4P) and blasts off its right missile rack with a couple of PPC shots.
Beta-Two's Stalker reports taking heavy damage as a lance of Vasps concentrates fire on him.
El Guapo looks with incredulity as the Brutus absorbs another dose of PPC, laser and gauss fire. That is a lot of armor.
Round 10:
The Brutus finally goes down. Actually, it's still intact but at least it's got multiple armor breaches and has stopped moving and firing.
Beta-Two focuses fire on an Archer to good effect, blasting off the left arm and causing hip damage, while the Stalker swats one of its harassers, knocking a Trebuchet to the ground.
Isgrimnur opens up on the Stalker-lite, scoring a good hit on the right torso with the AC/20, then he sees a flash of bright blue and it's lights out.
Round 11:
Stefan hops around, hitting a Vedette's ammo store with the Catapult's lasers. He takes an AC/5 hit to the same LRM rack (well, it can't get any more disabled than it already is), then stomps another Vedette flat.
Gbasden gets a revenge kill on the Stalker-lite, hitting it in the back of the head to stagger the mechwarrior with one PPC shot, then putting two shots into its rear torso to detonate the SRM ammo stored there.
Beta-Two's Flashman keeps firing at the downed Archer, disabling its right torso section and the missile rack there and severing the right arm.
At this point, having only five non-crippled mechs left to our seven, the enemy force loses its will to fight and begins a fighting retreat. Both Archers and the Rifleman get away, although only one of the Archers is even remotely combat effective. The Trebuchet gets perforated but manages to escape as well. The Hunchback gets legged and takes a headshot, while the Grasshopper is barely holding together as it limps off the battlefield.
We get medical personnel in to see if Isgrimnur survived. Good news, he did. It's just a concussion. And both the right arm and right leg are broken. And he may have gotten a little burnt too, but it's a little hard to tell the difference at this point. The doctor aboard the Sparrow tells him the recovery time is going to be about six weeks and suggests that it's not a good idea to intercept mech-grade high-energy laser beams and short range missiles with your body. "Try the armor next time." Isgrimnur glowers.
The Atlas is out as well, not a big deal since it was a "spare" anyway, but we need to rebuild the head and that requires factory access.
We grab the Archer and Hunchback (it's a silly non-AC/20 variant) for salvage and will load the tank wrecks into the Jumbo for sale once we re-establish a secure route. For now, they'll just sit outside. The Sparrow is untouched this time.
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The upshot of all this is that the retreating mechs run to a rally point, where their crippled units continue on to what looks like a dropship staging area while several mechs and tanks organize a rear guard. Alpha-Two will be taking them on, with backup from any of Alpha-One and Beta-Two. Stefan's Catapult is pretty beat up and out of LRMs, and Beta-Two's Stalker has armor mostly in the yellow and red (and there's a big hole in the cockpit where a laser punched through without killing the mechwarrior). But that still leaves us with six mechs in pretty good shape to help Alpha-Two out. Reinforcement is a no-brainer.