Vote Results:
Over the next couple of weeks, the Cyclops gets repaired - the techs reattach the leg, replace the AC/20, bolt armor back on, then box it up and wheel it into the Jumbo. The tank maintains patrol outside.
The memorial service for the killed infantry is somber and kind of awkward. We never really experience casualty rates like this, so everyone is still in shock, even the folks that didn't really interact with the gauss rifle guys. Needless to say, El Guapo looks heartbroken.
Over the next three weeks, we get some downtime, as things have quieted down. For us, at least. Civil unrest in a nearby major population center has reached a boiling point, resulting in a running fight through a city between two lances of light mechs and "vigilante"-operated civilian equipment, causing major damage to the buildings and multiple casualties.
By the end of the year, our excavation crew makes good progress on Site Green. The report on what they've recovered is pretty disappointing, though - there are no intact units, and it's basically a bunch of spare parts - and not very rare ones at that. A 1-ton gyro is probably the most expensive thing we've found so far. We load up a convoy with what we've recovered and get ready to move out.
December 31, 3045
Site Green Transfer Area
Beta Company is in charge of defending the transfer - Beta-Hunter is conducting the initial part of the escort, with Beta-Fire lance taking over mid-route while Beta-Assault defends the last leg of the trip. Our loading zone comes under attack by an assault mech lance, backed up by a medium mech lance and an assortment of tanks. Beta-Hunter calls Beta-Fire in for backup, but we'll have to hold down the fort until they get here.
Round 1:
Beta-Hunter is badly out of position - the staging area is under attack, while we're probably a minute to the southeast, being screened by a couple of light tanks, which we'll ignore for the most part. Our Zephyr, which discovered the assault lance, gets disabled right away by laser fire from a Griffin 1S and SRMs from a Stalker, which means, if we want to recover it, we'll have to rout them long enough to get the engine fixed. The crew power down and abandon the vehicle for now, although the powering down part has already been done for them for the most part.
Round 2:
Wolf disables one of the screening units, a hopelessly outclassed Vedette which can't get a good bead on our Orion with its lone autocannon. Lasers and SRMs blast treads off both sides of the tank, immobilizing it.
Round 3:
Wolf's aim is thrown off a little as a salvo of LRMs dings our Orion in the head, but Hyena steps up and melts the drive fans on the offending Saracen with a shot from the Grasshopper's PPC.
"That's the screening force gone, now we need to haul ass.", Leraje states.
Round 4:
"Don't. Move. A. Muscle." is the sage advice from the tank commander. Reasonable when you're immobile and surrounded by four mechs whose mechwarriors have itchy trigger fingers.
One of the convoy units reports being disabled by a Javelin.
Round 5:
Beta-Fire arrives from the north-east, bringing some relief to the convoy - the Marauder (the Marik prototype with binary lasers) "sneaks up" on an SRM Carrier and blows it to bits with a laser shot and SRM salvo, while our Trebuchet disables a pursuing Drillson hovertank, although not before it gets an SRM salvo off on a cargo mech, blowing off an arm.
Round 6:
Another of the convoy units gets blown to bits by an enemy Hunchback. Beta-Fire's Trebuchet fires LRMs at long range at the enemy mech, a good cluster of hits disabling the menacing autocannon and cracking a hip actuator, knocking the enemy mech to the ground.
Round 7:
Beta-Fire's Vindicator blows away a Galleon tank pursuing the rest of the escaping convoy elements, which look to be in the clear for the most part, except for a couple of VTOLs buzzing around and the Javelin. Beta-Fire's Crusader finally destroys the Galleon it's been dancing with for the last half a minute, moving on to other targets.
Round 8:
Notice the little "b" next to the Battlemaster's name plate. That's not just an "alternate design", re-arranging weapons for a little more efficiency or something like that. That is a Star League royal mech. The "b" packs a pair of extended-range PPCs and a large pulse laser, has endo-steel structure, double heat sinks, the works.
Hopefully taking out its support units will be enough to get it to withdraw, otherwise we're in for a tough fight.
Leraje avoids some LRMs coming from the east, the sources being a Stalker and a Longbow. We'll keep our distance and attempt to engage the softer targets.
Round 9:
Wolf fires some LRMs to get the Battlemaster's attention. They neither hit nor attract attention, but it was worth a shot.
The Javelin goes after one of the last convoy units in the area (there's another cargo mech sneaking around the south, so he should be pretty safe). Our Marauder blasts the light mech with two blazer shots, overtaxing our machine's heat sinks but knocking the enemy mech to the ground, where it crushes its left arm.
Round 10:
Beta-Fire is going to have some trouble with the big guy unless Beta-Hunter can spring themselves loose and get over there. Wolf switches targets for a moments, pounding the damaged Hunchback with autocannon and LRM fire, while Hyena covers Beta-Hunter's rear by engaging the Griffin 1S.
Round 11:
"Oh, right. Shit." Wolf comments as the Battlemaster finally stops taking long-range shots at Beta-Fire and turns its attention towards our Orion. The Battlemaster is a little surprised initially, and only scores a single laser hit, while our Orion delivers a laser and SRM salvo, the autocannon burst going wide. "Hope you guys are backing me up, otherwise this is going to be a short fight." Wolf comments over Beta-Hunter's frequency.
Beta-Fire's Marauder blasts the Javelin up close with a solid salvo from the SRM launchers, knocking its left missile rack out and a bunch of other components besides. The light mech has had enough and pulls out.
Round 12:
"You know how sometimes you get really focused on the giant 85-ton Star League assault mech that's blasting away at you with PPCs and Weisman knows what else? I got behind a little hill, dodged the PPC and large laser, the green lasers go wide too, then next thing I know, I'm flying through the air with my mech split in half." Wolf tells the story some time later.
"What happened?" asks an incredulous Hyena. "I was busy with that Griffin, I didn't see."
"Little piece of shit Vedette dinged me with a pair of SRMs and blew my ammo bin!"
"You gotta be kidding me."
"Nope." Gbasden says. "I've had it happen to me. Jumping around in my Thunderbolt, and suddenly I'm looking through a hole in a plasterboard wall in some poor guy's apartment building. Little autocannon round got right through the center torso armor, blew the whole thing to bits."
Isgrimnur nods. "Yep. I was there. Had to pick him up, too."
"At least we got a big enough piece of that Hunchback that it decided to retreat." Wolf comments with a head shake.
Round 13:
Leraje moves up, taking Wolf's place and engaging the Battlemaster, the two mechs exchanging a solid volume of fire. Our Guillotine takes two hits from the assault mech's extended-range PPCs, but applies enough lasers that the armor loss unbalances the other guy and he's forced to take a knee to avoid falling over entirely.
Beta-Fire's Trebuchet takes out one of the two remaining Vedettes in the area.
Round 14:
Beta-Fire's Crusader blows up the Vedette that got Wolf('s Orion), while Hyena continues engaging the Griffin. Our Grasshopper inflicts heavy damage, blowing out a leg actuator and a torso-mounted heat sink. Additionally, Hyena's presence there holds Beta-Hunter's rear flank against the assault lance to the east, which stays at long range and engages with LRMs and PPCs, but is unable to inflict much damage. The rest of our mechs concentrate fire on the Battlemaster, bringing it down to the ground again.
As the enemy mechwarrior struggles up, we receive chatter on the general frequency requesting a cease fire. It's not a bad idea, we've got a disabled tank and a bunch of our tech crew that we need to bail out, not to mention Wolf needs a pickup (Siljanus is on it). Plus, if we keep fighting, we're a little beat up and there's a fresh assault lance over to the east of us. But that Battlemaster "b" really is a nice mech...
[] Fine, cease fire it is.
[] That's a nice mech you've got there, and you just blew up one of ours...