Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[El Guapo]

Eventually, Leraje gets around to asking Zenn7 - why *don't* Isgrimnur and El Guapo like each other?
[] "Hell if I know, they never did, and it's been almost eighteen years since they first met."
[x] "One's a Kurita, the other's a Davion, what do you think?" Also, Isgrimnur can't handle how unbelievably handsome El Guapo is, plus he way overreacts when people almost shoot him in the back."
[] "I uh, try not to get into people's personal business."

Agreed.

[Isgrimnur]

I'd offer to provide some melee training, but I doubt my methods would translate well to other mechs.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

No idea - 1
Kurita vs Davion - 2

Zenn7 chuckles. "I don't really know why the boss keeps them in the same lance. They've been sniping at each other ever since El Guapo signed up back in '27. That was back when we were hanging out in the ass end of the Free Worlds League, working against Canopian-backed raiders and rebels and other malcontents." He looks up wistfully. "Simpler times."

"Canopian? Like the Magistracy?" Leraje asks, incredulously.

"One and the same. We shot El Guapo out of his mech at some point - as I recall, he was part of some merc unit at the time. The two of them just looked at each other, didn't much like what they saw." Zenn7 shrugs. "I can't argue against their performance though, they've kept the boss alive more times than I can count."

"Did they still have those stupid little Vedettes running around everywhere back then?" the younger mechwarrior asks, curious.

"They definitely did." Zenn7 nods with a smile. "They were even less of a threat back then, nobody had figured out to rapid-fire those autocannons yet, like they do with the ultras."

"Doesn't that cause them to, uh, blow up?"

"Absolutely. Well, statistically speaking, only one out of every thirty six shots. But if you're some scrub in a Capellan militia, and you've got a cell in a Maskirovka facility waiting for you if you don't stop that lance of seventy-ton mechs, do you think you, or they, are going to care?"

Both mechwarriors shake their heads.

-----------
June 27, 3045
15km outside URL transfer facility 44-A

Meanwhile, the rest of Gamma Company is having their own issues, facing down a medium mech company with substantial tank backup bearing down on a URL facility. Some of Larry's mechanized infantry have moved in to intercept and stop said hostiles, but they've got no chance on their own. That's where Gamma comes in. Gamma-Probe will harass the rear of the enemy column in an effort to slow them down, while Gamma-Battle enters from the direction of the facility we're defending to the east and rolls things up. We're also bringing in our gauss rifle infantry to help hold the back field, just in case.

Round 1-4:

Spoiler:

Cujo winds up having about half a minute to get her lance set up in some lakes along the hostile column's route, with one of Larry's Wasps taking position there as well.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Once the hostiles pass by, we'll come out. Cujo's got her finger on the comms button to send out the signal. Except that a Griffin jumps in the water right next to her Wolverine. She fires her lasers, but everything whiffs as the Wolverine gets booted in the chest, before the Griffin jumps back out.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Scrub, Xwraith, Cylus and Angel arrive at the east end of the map. It's likely it'll be up to them to block these two lances of mechs. Meanwhile, Gamma-Probe's comms and sensors get jammed. AWS' Beagle Probe is able to cut through the noise so that we're able to maintain both, but it's still obnoxious.

Drazzil takes a shot at the Griffin that kicked Cujo's mech, while Cujo targets a different one. Underwater combat is a little confusing, with a lot of steam coming up out of that lake, but Drazzil scores a couple of laser hits on his target.

Round 7:
[Camera feed lost]
AWS and Akalon break water surface to run into some woods nearby, as does Cujo, taking out a Galleon tank with an alpha strike, the Wolverine's leg heat sinks absorbing the extra heat while armor absorbs some incoming autocannon fire. AWS works on a Galleon tank as well, cutting through it with a couple of well-placed laser blasts.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Akalon, AWS and Cujo work on a cluster of armor, the mechs having passed by. Akalons' lasers immobilize one of the Vedettes, while Cujo's disable a second, adding a six-pack of SRMs. AWS cracks through the rear of a third Vedette, an AC/2 variant with a longer but narrower barrel, sending a fountain of liquid hydrocarbons spraying out the back of the tank as it stops moving.

Drazzil is a little slow coming out of the water and takes some armor damage, but a large amount of the incoming splashes into the water, sparing the Cronus the worst of it.

That leaves about two tanks in that group, with another smaller group of tanks making their way through the woods to the north.

The URL infantry report engaging enemy mechs and taking "moderate" casualties, which basically translates to nobody's hosed them all down with MG fire yet.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Cujo's lance continues working on the loose armor at the back of the hostile column, Akalon taking out another Vedette with a laser salvo from the Vulcan's torso-mounted energy weapons, while Cujo smokes another one area a six-pack of SRMs to the fuel tank (and lasers for armor breaching). The Wolverine takes a little return fire, but nothing serious. AWS is unable to seal the deal on the LRM Scorpion, but that tank is basically helpless at short range against a Phoenix Hawk.

The URL Wasp does some pretty awesome work, shooting the armor off the back of a Trebuchet, then causing it to trip and fall into the nearby lake, where the breached section is promptly flooded.

The infantry start screaming about "Firestarters" and "flamers", which Gamma-Battle lance gets to witness first hand, and are fairly powerless to do anything about, their shots all going wide.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Not helpless: a Demolisher rolling into the area, backed up by a Rhino, a Partisan and a Pike.

A Demolisher, for those who don't recall, is basically two AC/20s on a slow-moving turret, while a Rhino is a pair of LRM/20s with multiple short-ranged support weapons. The Partisan and Pike are both 80 and 60-ton autocannon platforms respectively, mostly designed for anti-aircraft work, but quite able to take on mechs in a pinch. These guys are going to be trouble, but are pretty slow, so Gamma-Probe should be able to stay clear of them in this terrain until other business is taken care of.

Cujo orders her lance to disengage from those for now, and instead take out the remaining tanks to the north, a process she beings by plowing through the remaining armor on AWS' former target, putting an errant SRM through the engine block. AWS, meanwhile, has moved on to a Hetzer to the north, jumping in behind the wheeled assault gun and scraping half its wheels off with the Phoenix Hawk's foot as the mech runs by.

Scrub's lance is engaged by light and medium mechs heading east at a breakneck pace. Angel and Xwraith manage to land a couple of hits on a Phoenix Hawk, while Cylus scores a single laser hit on a Stinger. Scrub's Locust target proves exceptionally hard to hit, as she only scores grazing hits with PPCs.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

Angel and Xwraith's target flits off into the woods, leaving them looking for another. Luckily, it's a target-rich environment. The two pick a Scorpion. No, not the tank, the quad mech, a pretty rare sight these days. With a PPC and an SRM/4 and the ground speed of a Phoenix Hawk, it actually catches an undeserved bad rap, although the heat management could use improvement. Also the ability to absorb multiple laser blasts from heavier mechs, as our mechwarriors aim is spot on. The quad mech staggers and drops down, the loss of a couple of tons of armor too much even for a normally stable quad.

Scrub sends a PPC whizzing at the Locust that's escaping her Warhammer, blasting off one of its weapons mounts, reducing the bug mech's firepower by half, then focuses the rest of her weaponry on an approaching Wolverine as it fires back ineffectively, blasting chunks off the 55-tonner's right torso armor.

Cylus gets the drop on a Firestarter as it jumps in - the Grasshopper's armor absorbs the lighter mechs lasers and machine gun bursts, then our mechwarrior goes to town, melting armor with lasers, then cracking a leg with a well-placed kick. One of the impacts on the 35-tonner connects with an MG ammo bin, scattering the anti-infantry mech to the four winds.

Drazzil disengages from the Phoenix Hawk that he's been dancing with for the last twenty seconds (with neither mech managing to score any meaningful damage).

Cujo finishes off the last of the light and medium tanks to the west, the poor Vedette exploding as an SRM flies through an armor breach caused by Akalon's Vulcan earlier and now has to make the call on whether to coninue pursuing the mechs engaging Gamma-Battle lance or try to take on the assault tank lance to the southwest. Akalon takes some long-range fire from the aforementioned assault tanks, but none of the ordnance actually hits before the Vulcan scampers out of sight.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

Drazzil jumps south, continuing to chase the Dervish. A Zephyr hovertank gets in the way, and eats some lasers and SRMs, the air cushion going out from under it after a particularly rough hit. That's another hovercraft down, and some pretty good loot to boot - the Zephyr sports a TAG, Narc and ECM.

Xwraith takes careful aim with the ER laser and blows the right arm off an escaping Stinger, then scraps a large amount of armor off a Phoenix Hawk's left leg. The Stinger breaks off to the south, having lost its only meaningful weapon - a medium laser. Angel continues firing at the Scorpion - the enemy mech gets up and zaps Scrub with its PPC, then loses one of its legs to the Flashman's large laser. A second large laser from the bulbous 75-tonner goes through the quad mech's now-non-existent torso armor and detonates the SRM ammo stored in a torso section, making that chassis a little bit more rare in the Inner Sphere.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

Larry's liaison Wasp continues its relatively solid performance, taking out a Scimitar hovertank that had gotten lost in the woods.

Gamma Battle lance makes a dent in hostile armor while putting out a large amount of firepower, but taking on mechs is a little harder than stomping tanks, which shows itself as we're unable to score any mission kills. Except for one - Angel does manage to crack the Shadow Hawk's autocannon with a couple of laser blasts from the Flashman. While the classic 55-tonner stumbles around trying to maintain balance and run off at breakneck speed, the Flashman puts out a foot, and the Shadow Hawk's right leg separates from its body.

Round 14:

Spoiler:

That Locust that got away earlier almost gets past our lines, but then takes a gauss slug from our crew-served gauss rifle, losing a leg and pitching over into the water. Whoops!

Xwraith pursues a Dervish, bowling it over with laser fire and a body check before the lighter mech can get away. To the north, Scrub blasts an arm off a Wasp LAM as it zips by. Good luck flying off without that.

Round 15:

Spoiler:

Scrub and Angel give chase, Angel circling around to the south of a patch of woods while Scrub heads north. Angel's Wolverine target avoids all of the Flashman's fire, but then our mechwarrior flinches as a blue lightning bolt slams into the 55-ton mech from the right, and it explodes - Scrub's PPC shot struck true. Her short-range weapons savage the Wasp LAM - the little mech doesn't quite make it out of the area as it's perforated by lasers, SRMs and machine gun rounds, somehow managing to go down to only a knee after almost a third of it is simply blown off.

The remaining medium mechs are able to get away - Gamma-Probe doesn't quite finish off their Dervish buddy, and neither are Cylus and Xwraith. In addition, a pair of Phoenix Hawks, another Wolverine and a pair of Griffins make their way off the battlefield, learning from their fallen Locust buddy. This presents a problem, as we'll need to assign forces to chase them down. Gamma-Probe is one possible choice - Gamma-Battle can't keep up with the medium mechs and is better suited to securing the area and making sure that the assault tanks don't try to circle around and help out. The main problem is that Gamma-Probe is a little beat up - Drazzil and Cujo's armor are both in the yellow and red, and they'd be outnumbered two to one.

Another option is to pull our newly-formed Ad-Hoc lance (name designation pending) from guarding another nearby facility. They're a fresh ground-bound heavy lance (Warhammer, Grand Dragon/Fury, Hunchback, Rifleman RFL-3C). They'll be able to run the jumpers off pretty easily, but then we run the risk that this was just a feint to get at the other facility.

[] Gamma-Probe lance - difficult fight using damaged mechs
[] Ad-Hoc lance - easier fight using fresh mechs, risk of damage/sabotage to another facility we're supposed to defend.

[$iljanus]

[] Gamma-Probe lance - difficult fight using damaged mechs
[ X] Ad-Hoc lance - easier fight using fresh mechs, risk of damage/sabotage to another facility we're supposed to defend.

If we can’t just let them trundle off into the alien sunset let’s form an ad hoc lance for a better shot at winning.

[Leraje]

Can we redirect Gamma-probe to the facility that AD-Hoc is guarding to show the flag while AD-Hoc is dealing with the escapees?

[NickAragua]

Can we redirect Gamma-probe to the facility that AD-Hoc is guarding to show the flag while AD-Hoc is dealing with the escapees?

We can, but there will still be a window where that facility is left uncovered.

[gbasden]

Can we redirect Gamma-probe to the facility that AD-Hoc is guarding to show the flag while AD-Hoc is dealing with the escapees?

We can, but there will still be a window where that facility is left uncovered.

I think we have to take that chance - feeding our own into a meat grinder to maybe save Larry's skin isn't a great option. Also, can we extend an offer to Larry's Wasp pilot? That was some excellent work!

[AWS260]

[X] Gamma-Probe lance - difficult fight using damaged mechs
[] Ad-Hoc lance - easier fight using fresh mechs, risk of damage/sabotage to another facility we're supposed to defend.

We got this.Woo-hoo! Ride or die!

[Leraje]

[] Gamma-Probe lance - difficult fight using damaged mechs
[ X] Ad-Hoc lance - easier fight using fresh mechs, risk of damage/sabotage to another facility we're supposed to defend.

If we can’t just let them trundle off into the alien sunset let’s form an ad hoc lance for a better shot at winning.

Agreed.

[Zenn7]

Can we redirect Gamma-probe to the facility that AD-Hoc is guarding to show the flag while AD-Hoc is dealing with the escapees?

We can, but there will still be a window where that facility is left uncovered.

I think we have to take that chance - feeding our own into a meat grinder to maybe save Larry's skin isn't a great option. Also, can we extend an offer to Larry's Wasp pilot? That was some excellent work!

This. After all, if this was the diversion, not sure our ad-hoc lance can survive the main attack alone!

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Ad-hoc lance - 4
Gamma-Probe - 1

Scrub orders Gamma-Probe to head over to the facility that Ad-Hoc lance is guarding while ordering Ad-Hoc lance to move and intercept. It doesn't work out too well - by the time Ad-Hoc lance gets there, the bad guys are all over the base, having met up with a reinforced tank lance and compromised the static defenses.

We do get some backup from Larry's guys, though. A pair of Slayer aerospace fighters are vectoring in. Additionally, a Stinger LAM that we'd salvaged from an earlier battle and sold to Larry's people has been repaired. The STG-A10 is a solid 30-ton mech. Lightly armored, but packs a medium and four small lasers. Just hope the pilot's good.

The other good news is that the hostile mechs occupying the base haven't had a chance to repair, so as long as we keep our heads on our shoulders, we should be able to take them.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

A hellstorm of fire opens up as our lance closes in. Our Hunchback's aim is thrown off a little, so the AC/20 doesn't hit the Phoenix Hawk landing nearby, but the worst of the damage is avoided when the enemy Wolverine is distracted by short-range fire from Fury's Grand Dragon. The target Phoenix Hawk loses its right arm armor to a kick and has to take a knee, leaving it pretty vulnerable.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Fury and the Hunchback run in to engage at close range. Fury targets a Trebuchet with the Grand Dragon's lasers, scoring some major damage - one of the lasers goes through a "weak spot" in the center torso armor (where the Hunchback's AC/20 hit) and shreds the engine shielding, while the other fuses a hip joint. The 50-ton mech goes down, the mechwarrior inside must be sweating pretty good at this point. Fury then follows up with a kick at the wildly firing nearby Phoenix Hawk - the lighter mech's shots go everywhere but at one of our mechs, then its left leg comes off.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The lieutenant's Warhammer pulls back, having taken an armor pounding. The Rifleman moves northwest, rotating its arms backwards to blow the PPC arm off a Griffin that takes a little too long to aim its guns at the Warhammer.

Fury moves to cover the Hunchback, but its AC/20 gets blown out anyway by an opportunistic Phoenix Hawk and Wolverine. The Wolverine loses a heat sink from a right torso breach inflicted by Fury's lasers, but isn't able to seal the deal on the Phoenix Hawk's leg after having to lose some arm armor to block the Wolverine's kick.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Warhammer almost makes it off the battlefield. A PPC shot here, an armor breach there. Right arm PPC gone. Just a few more meters and then it can get over the hill. Then one last LRM salvo from a Dervish comes in, knocking our mech over. The damaged machine keels over to the right, and the remaining SRM ammo blows.

The Dervish doesn't make it, though, as the Rifleman tears it apart with autocannon fire, blasting *its* SRM ammo bin wide open.

Our Hunchback disables a Drillson hovertank, while Fury continues working on the nearby Wolverine, scoring a headshot and another armor breach on one of the arms.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The air support finally gets there. Hopefully, they'll do something useful.

Fury continues dueling the Phoenix Hawk, having attracted its attention with a laser blast that fuses the right hip joint. Lasers and machine gun fire melt the Grand Dragon's armor, but fail to breach. The damage hip joint reduces the enemy mech's mobility, allowing one of Larry's Slayers to crack the leg entirely with a salvo from its wing-mounted rocket pods. The Hunchback takes over on the hostile Wolverine, gaining a brief altitude advantage and kicking its head off like a loose soccer ball, while mashing the console commands to dump its now useless AC/20 ammo.

To the west, our Rifleman takes out the damaged Griffin, blowing its LRM ammo bin with a well-placed autocannon shot. Maybe well-placed isn't the best word, when you cover the entire torso with autocannon rounds and there's an armor breach, something's going to go into that ammo bin.

The Stinger LAM from Larry's force fishtails a bit as the pilot fumbles an airmech mode turn, but still manages to disable a Pegasus hover tank before getting a bit busted up. And by a "bit busted up", I mean a Dervish nails it in the back with an LRM salvo and the gyro stops working.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The aerospace fighters leave coming around for another pass, while the LAM plays possum. Fury and the Hunchback take out an annoying little Hunter tank that's been pelting us with LRMs, although Fury takes a hit to the right arm from a Griffin, taking out its PPC. The mechwarrior in the Hunchback, with a sigh of relief, finishes dumping the AC/20 ammo.

To the west, our Rifleman blasts the right arm off the second Dervish, removing an SRM launcher and a laser from the fight (and the rest of the mech as it turns out - it turns and fires up its jump jets, disengaging). Our mechwarrior follows up with a boot to the torso of a Phoenix Hawk clambering up the nearby incline, knocking it back down to where it started.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Our Rifleman continues keeping that Phoenix Hawk down on the ground while the Hunchback and Fury move to reinforce. Fury takes a brief detour, as the Phoenix Hawk that she legged earlier has somehow managed to struggle up and melts some of the Grand Dragon's armor off with its lasers. Fury breaks the second leg, putting the persistent mech down for good this time.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The poor Phoenix Hawk just can't catch a break, getting up again, only to be continually pounded by the Rifleman's autocannons. This time, the mechwarrior blacks out as the 45-ton mech hits the ground. The enemy Griffin nails Fury's Grand Dragon with a PPC shot to the left arm, rendering it nearly useless. The Grand Dragon still has a pair of functional lasers in the torso section and 60 tons worth of mass (give or take a few tons of armor) to throw around, so it's still in action.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The Griffin is the only combat-capable enemy unit left on the field - of the intact ones, the Dervish is fleeing, the Phoenix Hawk is motionless on the ground and the Trebuchet to the east is basically just standing there, hoping to bleed off engine heat. Well, there are the two Scorpion tanks, but, well, you know.

Larry's aircraft make a fairly useless pass over the battlefield, although they do attract a PPC from the Griffin, saving us a little armor. But the enemy mechwarrior makes up for it by ringing the Rifleman's bell with a one-two punch while avoiding Fury's kick.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Our Hunchback lasers one of the remaining Scorpions into slag, while Fury works on the Griffin, running by its way-too-close PPC shot and melting armor with lasers.

The Griffin takes stock of the situation and decides he's had enough, firing up jump jets and leaving the area after a parting kick to the Hunchback.

Five medium mechs in salvage in exchange for a Warhammer isn't too bad, although given their state, those three Phoenix Hawks will barely combine into one.

Fury's definitely earned her nickname, putting in an excellent performance in the Grand Dragon with two mech kills and multiple assists, while displaying relative coolness under fire. The Grand Dragon got pretty shot up though, with both arms requiring complete rebuilds - that'll run us at least a week of work in the shop, possibly more.

After reviewing the battle ROMs, our new recruit definitely gets bumped up from private to Corporal, but Scrub suggests a fast-track promotion to Sergeant (and administration of the appropriate training) and putting her in charge of the lance. Of course, promoting someone too fast may wind up invoking the Peter principle (i.e. promoting them past their competence).

[] Promote Fury to Corporal
[] Promote Fury to Sergeant (great for morale, may wind up backfiring)

Also, we've got a few spare mechs that we can use to fill Ad-Hoc lance up to four. Let's pick one:

[] Archer ARC-2R(F) - "Isgrimnur Special" Archer, with four medium lasers and two LRM/20s, all forward. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Archer ARC-2K - Kurita variant Archer, with two large lasers and two LRM/15s. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Ostsol OTL-4F - A classic 60-ton mech, two PPCs, fast speed, average armor.
[] Ostroc OSR-3C - Another Ost series, 60 tons, with three large lasers. Needs a replacement head, which we'll have to pull off one of our 60-tonners that are boxed up on the Mule.

We'll also need to chase down a convoy of looters that's escaped the facility that we briefly left un-guarded.

[Leraje]

[x] Promote Fury to Corporal
[] Promote Fury to Sergeant (great for morale, may wind up backfiring)

Also, we've got a few spare mechs that we can use to fill Ad-Hoc lance up to four. Let's pick one:

[x] Archer ARC-2R(F) - "Isgrimnur Special" Archer, with four medium lasers and two LRM/20s, all forward. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Archer ARC-2K - Kurita variant Archer, with two large lasers and two LRM/15s. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Ostsol OTL-4F - A classic 60-ton mech, two PPCs, fast speed, average armor.
[] Ostroc OSR-3C - Another Ost series, 60 tons, with three large lasers. Needs a replacement head, which we'll have to pull off one of our 60-tonners that are boxed up on the Mule.

We'll also need to chase down a convoy of looters that's escaped the facility that we briefly left un-guarded.

[El Guapo]

[x] Promote Fury to Corporal
[] Promote Fury to Sergeant (great for morale, may wind up backfiring)

Also, we've got a few spare mechs that we can use to fill Ad-Hoc lance up to four. Let's pick one:

[x] Archer ARC-2R(F) - "Isgrimnur Special" Archer, with four medium lasers and two LRM/20s, all forward. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Archer ARC-2K - Kurita variant Archer, with two large lasers and two LRM/15s. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Ostsol OTL-4F - A classic 60-ton mech, two PPCs, fast speed, average armor.
[] Ostroc OSR-3C - Another Ost series, 60 tons, with three large lasers. Needs a replacement head, which we'll have to pull off one of our 60-tonners that are boxed up on the Mule.

We'll also need to chase down a convoy of looters that's escaped the facility that we briefly left un-guarded.

Agree.

[AWS260]

[] Promote Fury to Corporal
[x] Promote Fury to Sergeant (great for morale, may wind up backfiring)

Also, we've got a few spare mechs that we can use to fill Ad-Hoc lance up to four. Let's pick one:

[] Archer ARC-2R(F) - "Isgrimnur Special" Archer, with four medium lasers and two LRM/20s, all forward. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Archer ARC-2K - Kurita variant Archer, with two large lasers and two LRM/15s. Heavy armor, average speed.
[x] Ostsol OTL-4F - A classic 60-ton mech, two PPCs, fast speed, average armor.
[] Ostroc OSR-3C - Another Ost series, 60 tons, with three large lasers. Needs a replacement head, which we'll have to pull off one of our 60-tonners that are boxed up on the Mule.

Let's give the kid a shot.

Also, PPCs>LRMs.

[Zenn7]

[] Promote Fury to Corporal
[x] Promote Fury to Sergeant (great for morale, may wind up backfiring)

Also, we've got a few spare mechs that we can use to fill Ad-Hoc lance up to four. Let's pick one:

[x] Archer ARC-2R(F) - "Isgrimnur Special" Archer, with four medium lasers and two LRM/20s, all forward. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Archer ARC-2K - Kurita variant Archer, with two large lasers and two LRM/15s. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Ostsol OTL-4F - A classic 60-ton mech, two PPCs, fast speed, average armor.
[] Ostroc OSR-3C - Another Ost series, 60 tons, with three large lasers. Needs a replacement head, which we'll have to pull off one of our 60-tonners that are boxed up on the Mule.

We'll also need to chase down a convoy of looters that's escaped the facility that we briefly left un-guarded.

Agree.

Right mech, but give the rookie a shot. We did that with me and it has only been a moderately piss-poor decision. :p

[gbasden]

After reviewing the battle ROMs, our new recruit definitely gets bumped up from private to Corporal, but Scrub suggests a fast-track promotion to Sergeant (and administration of the appropriate training) and putting her in charge of the lance. Of course, promoting someone too fast may wind up invoking the Peter principle (i.e. promoting them past their competence).

[] Promote Fury to Corporal
[X] Promote Fury to Sergeant (great for morale, may wind up backfiring)

Also, we've got a few spare mechs that we can use to fill Ad-Hoc lance up to four. Let's pick one:

[X] Archer ARC-2R(F) - "Isgrimnur Special" Archer, with four medium lasers and two LRM/20s, all forward. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Archer ARC-2K - Kurita variant Archer, with two large lasers and two LRM/15s. Heavy armor, average speed.
[] Ostsol OTL-4F - A classic 60-ton mech, two PPCs, fast speed, average armor.
[] Ostroc OSR-3C - Another Ost series, 60 tons, with three large lasers. Needs a replacement head, which we'll have to pull off one of our 60-tonners that are boxed up on the Mule.

I don't want to gainsay Scrub if that's what she thinks is right. I'd like her to spend some extra time making sure Fury is ready for the responsibility, though.

[$iljanus]

Sgt. Fury just sounds cool.

And I'll go with the first mech choice.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Archer ARC-2R - almost unanimous
Archer ARC-2K - 1
Ostsol - 1

Corporal - 5
Sergeant - 4

"We'll keep an eye on her." Gbasden says during the 'performance review' meeting. "But let's not go too crazy. If she's good for it, she'll get the promotion and a lance slot in no time."

Scrub nods, recalling a time in the distant past when she and a now-deceased boyfriend had run off from the Free Worlds League and started a mercenary company without having any clue what they were doing.

"Now, about that Archer..."

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

Beta-Hunter tracks down the escaping looters. It's basically a bunch of tanks, but it looks like they stole a mech from Larry's facility as well. Not just any mech, either, a Banshee. Scan reads it as a real museum piece BNC-1E. Which basically packs the same load as a regular Banshee, except it's got a couple of medium lasers and is much slower. Questions as to where Larry got it will have to wait until we recover it.

If we can recover it without it blowing up, obviously. Larry's comments are pretty clear - "I want that mech back, no ifs, ands or buts".

One of Larry's security dudes, driving a Dragon is coming along with Beta-Hunter for the ride. Gamma-Probe corrals the looters into "unfavorable terrain" - pretty dense woods. Their hovercraft are going to have a lot of trouble getting through, as are their tanks, so Beta-Hunter should have a field day.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Hyena, Siljanus and Leraje advance through a clearing heading east, with Wolf a little bit to the north and our Zephyr leading the way. The Dragon is way to the south, just in case someone tries to sneak through there.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Yep, their hovercraft are having a hard time getting through the woods. Both because of crashing into trees and because our Zephyr hovertank zaps a light hover scout out of existence with more high-powered lasers after failing to TAG it.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The Zephyr TAGs a coolant track in the back, then begins turning around as a pair of Hetzers open fire on it, whiffing with their AC/20s. The targeting data allows Siljanus to score a couple of hits on said coolant truck with LRMs, but that doesn't quite cut the mustard.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Wolf spots a LoaderMech trying to sneak around the north and opens up with long-range weapons. The Orion's autocannon blasts apart trees, but the LRMs strike true, disabling the right leg and left arm, causing the industrial mech to topple over.

Our Zephyr continues its reign of terror, zapping a hover APC as it lobs some LRMs at our mechs.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Hyena's Archer produces a melodic tone as it achieves missile lock on a distant Hetzer, and our mechwarrior lets the LRMs fly, immobilizing the assault gun by direct application of explosive warheads to the left-side wheels.

Our Zephyr is on a roll today, zipping around and zapping things with its lasers. The latest victim is a Maxim hovertank, which takes two hits and then goes under. To the south, Larry's Dragon disables a Vedette trying to sneak by as well.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Hyena immobilizes the Coolant truck milling around next to the disabled Hetzer, putting the Archer's LRM launchers to work. Then Siljanus' LRMs come screaming in, blowing the thing apart. A little too much english on that one, guys.

Leraje's Guillotine rocks a bit as a solidly delivered SRM salvo pockmarks the armor, but then the Harasser is cut to ribbons by the Guillotine's lasers, with the ashes scattered by SRMs.

Our Zephyr takes out another tank, this time a Hetzer, with precise laser shots to the wheels.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

A trio of mechs, including the Banshee, catch Wolf by surprise as our mechwarrior fords a river, avoiding almost all of the Orion's fire.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

A Vedette trundles out of the woods towards the shoreline, taking aim at Wolf's Orion, then promptly explodes as the Banshee "accidentally" (?) steps on it. Our mechwarrior shrugs, then focuses attention on two things: keeping the Orion upright as lasers flake off large amounts of armor and knocking down the Locust with autocannon and SRM fire. Both happen successfully. To help make sure the Locust stops, the Orion also wrenches one of its weapons mounts off.

Leraje's aim is disrupted as the Guillotine takes quite a few hits from the laser carrier in the woods, resulting in the trees our mechwarrior was using for cover catching on fire.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

As Leraje jumps towards the cluster of tanks around the laser carrier, the Zephyr and Hyena move to support him. Hyena blows the Hunter tank apart with a well-placed LRM salvo, while the Zephyr takes a bath after its motive systems are perforated by the laser carrier. Though not before causing a major armor breach on the enemy unit.

Wolf hops up to the riverbank, engaging the Banshee and exchanging fire with the assault mech as it drops into the river, avoiding the mech's clumsy punches while delivering a solid kick to the right arm, crunching armor.

With the Dragon crushing a Scorpion tank to the south, the rest of the hostiles begin retreating. Including the Banshee.

"Hey, not so fast there pal. We're bringing you back. Well, maybe not you, but the mech for sure." Wolf calls out over the general frequency.

"Come and get me if you can, punk." comes the taunt in return.

[] The rest of Beta-Hunter lets Wolf have a duel, only keeping others from interfering
[] Focus fire and bring the Banshee down

[Leraje]

How much armour is ONI missing?

[NickAragua]

Every location is either full or ~15-20 points of armor. Banshee's right arm is almost breached but is close to full otherwise.

[Leraje]

Every location is either full or ~15-20 points of armor. Banshee's right arm is almost breached but is close to full otherwise.

Let Wolf have his fun then as long as he stays out of melee range.

[$iljanus]

Play the beginning of Beat It over loudspeakers and let the two mechs square off.

TWO MECHS ENTER! ONE MECH LEAVES!

[Zenn7]

Every location is either full or ~15-20 points of armor. Banshee's right arm is almost breached but is close to full otherwise.

Let Wolf have his fun then as long as he stays out of melee range.

Think the Banshee out-masses the Orion by a significant margin, but wth, have fun/g'luck Wolf.

[Leraje]

Think the Banshee out-masses the Orion by a significant margin, but wth, have fun/g'luck Wolf.

By 20T to be exact. Except Banshees other than 3S are under-gunned crap, surpassed in their "glory" only by Charger.

[Zenn7]

Think the Banshee out-masses the Orion by a significant margin, but wth, have fun/g'luck Wolf.

By 20T to be exact. Except Banshees other than 3S are under-gunned crap, surpassed in their "glory" only by Charger.

I was thinking that, but couldn't remember for sure.

[gbasden]

Every location is either full or ~15-20 points of armor. Banshee's right arm is almost breached but is close to full otherwise.

Let Wolf have his fun then as long as he stays out of melee range.

[Hyena]

Every location is either full or ~15-20 points of armor. Banshee's right arm is almost breached but is close to full otherwise.

Let Wolf have his fun then as long as he stays out of melee range.

Think the Banshee out-masses the Orion by a significant margin, but wth, have fun/g'luck Wolf.

This. Plus, the Orion can probably walk backwards faster than the Banshee, so just stay outside medium range and pepper from afar...

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Let the duel happen - 4
Focus fire and bring the Banshee down - 7

Wolf briefly plays the scenario out mentally:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

That's the best case scenario - our mechwarrior can keep the Banshee from regaining the riverbank while repeatedly kicking it in the upper torso section (to shortcut the process, Wolf imagines planting a solid Orion kick to the Banshee's head). The worst case scenario is that it gets up out of the river, in which case, the Orion is going to have a tough time out-punching the assault mech. "Little help here, guys, this Banshee's being uppity." Wolf calls out.

Once LRMs from Hyena's Archer and Siljanus' Stalker start landing, the Banshee's mechwarrior changes his tune pretty quickly, especially once he gets knocked on his ass into the water. "Hey, hey, whoa, I give up."

We spend some time fishing our Zephyr out of the river - the crew were all able to climb out and swim to shore, their pride a little wounded but no casualties. No major damage to the rest of our mechs.

The Banshee is certainly an old-looking mech. Wolf's tech team takes a look at the scan data, and that design dates back to before the Star League (all the way back to when the Terran Hegemony was around, so it's a really old mech). It's actually a little more heavily armed than the standard Banshee, packing an extra two lasers on top of the standard PPC/AC5 combo. The tradeoff is that it's got the speed of an Orion. Seems that Larry's been engaged in some archaeological activities too.

We also strip a beagle probe off one of the Hetzers, it's always good to have a spare. That Lyran Hetzer-Scout design is a success, ad everyone and their cousin appears to have one now. Very typical of Lyran thinking - well, we've got an assault gun, let's put a sophisticated sensor package on it and call it a recon vehicle.

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

The next few weeks are a little calmer. Dropships and jumpships come and go across the system, and we get our first survey reports from Dowles. The hired survey crew investigated a particularly promising-looking cluster of buildings that hadn't collapsed. It turned out to be an abandoned residential complex (it's hard to tell from first glance with some of this Star League era engineering). If we ever need to house another thousand people in pretty spacious apartments, this complex requires only minor repairs. And for us to re-establish sanitation and power generation systems, plus provide food for people who'd live there. Well, it's something.

Scrub's Warhammer and one of our Assassins develop a weird glitch with their diagnostic computers. Both appear to have a phantom extra SRM ammo bin. The techs have gone over the two mechs in detail, and nobody's hidden any extra SRM ammo bins somewhere in the chassis, or any secret explosives or anything. Freaking computers.

Meanwhile, the Gauss Rifle on El Guapo's Marauder keeps throwing out its coil. It's fixable, but we'll need to give that thing a solid overhaul when we get back to civilization. More civilization than is out here anyway.

Our dropship computer finally finishes decrypting that Star League data storage device. Seems that Unzmarkt was a way-stop for some of General Alexandr Kerensky's SLDF divisions when they headed coreward. The had established a few sites where they stored supplies. And, more importantly, BattleMechs. Some have no doubt been looted already, but it may be worth checking out the others. Our analysis notes seven sites, and based on correlating the manifests and some of the mechs we've observed around here, plus our own "archaeological investigations", three of them have already been cracked open, but another four have not. At least that we're aware of.

It may be worth checking out as opportunities present themselves. Which they do, now that it's pretty quiet and we've got a free company of mechs kicking around on R&R. Of course, poking around old Star League bases is likely to attract attention whether we want to or not, so another option is to cash in our chips now.

[] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

[Leraje]

Scrub's Warhammer and one of our Assassins develop a weird glitch with their diagnostic computers. Both appear to have a phantom extra SRM ammo bin. The techs have gone over the two mechs in detail, and nobody's hidden any extra SRM ammo bins somewhere in the chassis, or any secret explosives or anything. Freaking computers.

Are we sure that pilots are not hiding spare SRMs under their ejection seat in an attempt to weaponize it?

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

[Zenn7]

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

I'm assuming we don't think we can get anything really useful from Percentor Yong (not money, but either something to help our new home world out or some new mechs/tech toys or something). Like, maybe we could persuade Comm-star of this new outpost being set up that would be an ideal place for one of their HPG (?) comm systems (might be nice if we can communicate with our base a little more rapidly?).

If we can, then give it to Percentor Yong if we think we can get anything worthwhile. A shiny, Star-League era Locust for example, while a new mech, with some minor noteworthy stuff I'm sure, not interested thanks.

Ask Larry - might be able to scratch 1 of the 4 off the list.

[AWS260]

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

[gbasden]

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

Sure.

[$iljanus]

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

Sure.

Take a look with Delta and ask Larry over a few beers about the Banshee.

[Cylus Maxii]

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

[Hyena]

[x] Delta-Company is currently on "off-duty" rotation, let's have them do a recon pass at one of the facilities.
[] Sit on this for a while and think about it
[] Give it up, send the data to Percentor Yong

We're also mildly curious about where Larry got that ancient Banshee.
[x] Ask him about it
[] None of our business

Sure.

Take a look with Delta and ask Larry over a few beers about the Banshee.

All of this.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Have Delta Company check it out - unanimous

Ask Larry - 8
Don't Ask Larry - 4

August 8, 3045
Unzmarkt Low Orbit

It's a big day for the aerospace arm of URL's corporate security force. Several flights of aerospace pilots are "graduating" our training course. This final exercise is a mock battle to secure control of a weather satellite while escorting a flight of bombers to their destination. Incidentally, we're also going to use its surface imaging systems to see if we can get a good high res picture or 400 of the bunker site locations we've discovered. But for now, time to put these rookies through their paces. Our fighters will be playing the role of bombers on this one.

Our flight commander reminds everyone - "Exercise transmission: remember the objectives. The 'blue' force needs to a) keep at least two bombers non-crippled and b) drive off, 'destroy' or 'cripple' half the green force. Good luck and do well. End exercise transmission."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

What a beautiful parade-ground formation around our "bombers". We're going to not offer any helpful advice for the furball to come, as this is their show. The "opfor" can be seen on sensors and comes in as a disorganized mess.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Half of our formation goes evasive while the other half tries to provide cover. Our Lucifer zips in next to a Thrush, blasting most of the circular fighter's armor off and taking out multiple heat sinks, but takes a laser hit to the nose from a distant Shilone and winds up having to target weapons "manually" going forward. The Thrush drifts, out of control and the fight for the time being.

Our Lightning rakes an autocannon burst across a Sparrowhawk, taking a grazing hit to the right wing from a passing Cheetah, our fighter shaking as the avionics system simulates taking a hit. One of the trainees in a Sholagar zaps the Cheetah in retaliation, damaging its sensors.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The furball continues, with the "hostile" heavies moving in. One of our Lightnings turns around, avoiding the AC/20 burst from an identical hostile craft, while blasting away at the persistent Thrush. The light fighter's hull reads as mostly destroyed, so the rookie fires up what's left of his thrusters and burns away from the fight. Not very successfully, the Thrush just kind of spins in place and drifts off. Our other Lightning zeroes in on the hostile Lightning, blasting it with simulated AC/20 fire, which disables the enemy autocannon and sends it flying into the void, thrusters flaring erratically.

The allied Sholagar that got the Cheetah previously puts another solid shot on the enemy Lucifer's rear, causing its engine to "flare" and bailing our Lucifer out in the process, although our heavy still takes heavy damage, still retaining enough firepower to send the enemy Shilone drifting out of control as well.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The "hostile" formation has scattered due to battle damage and excessive enthusiasm. Other than a Cheetah picking on our isolated Shilone and the Cheetah tailing our Lightning, there's not much action that happens. The hostile Shilone and Lightning continues drifting off and spazzing out respectively, robbing the lonely Cheetah of any support, allowing our Lightning to close in and deliver an AC/20 blast up the tailpipe, virtually crippling the spacecraft. Our allied Shilone gets the drop on the Cheetah chasing it, forcing the aero jock to lose control during its evasive actions.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"You know, normally, the escort bomber is the one that needs protection." Our Lucifer pilot reminds the guy in the Shilone, delivering two laser blasts at maximum range that send the light fighter into an uncontrolled drift. "And you three, red 1 and red 2, you're late. Missed the whole fight."

"Dumbasses." our pilot adds after terminating the transmission.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

A brave, but ultimately futile gesture. The light fighter "breaks up" under fire from four of our fighters.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

"Hey, Blue Six, you want to quite whacking off back there and get back into formation?"

Round 8:

Spoiler:

"Sorry, Blue Seven, just had to finish up."

Just in time too, as a pair of Thrushes come zipping back into the fray. One of the skirts to the side while the other gets a faceful of large lasers from our Lucifer, basically frying its sensors.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Despite the major damage, both Thrushes focus on our Lightning, administering a quick series of laser blasts as they zip by then decelerate for another pass. Our aero jock's computer informs him that the cockpit has taken a hit and that one of the lasers has been disabled. The flight stick vibrates accordingly.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Somebody should have hit the thrusters a little harder. When you're within that green line for a Lightning, it means you're within range of an AC/20. The Thrush's computer powers it down, as it is now officially "space debris".

Round 11:

Spoiler:

With the hostile Lightning being flagged as destroyed after it fails an attack run on our "bombers", and another Thrush "crippled", we call the exercise.

There were some good performances in that exercise, with only one of the cadets "flushing out" (a guy flying a Stuka who didn't fire a single a shot, except at a "destroyed" fighter, then spent the rest of the fight trying to get back within weapons range). Whether these aero jocks are ready for "prime time" as corporate security, well, only time will tell.

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

"Rocks, paper, scissors... shoot. Vazelos!" Scrub exclaims as she loses the best-of-three against Zenn7. "Fine. I'll do it."

So off she goes, into the beer-can-infested trailer, shoveling an empty "Defiance-Lite" off a fold-up chair before sitting down and delivering the report. Larry appears satisfied with the results, tossing another "Defiance-Lite" her way. Scrub wrinkles her face. "Thanks, but you got anything stronger?"

"Sure." Comes the response, along with a "Defiance-Heavy". Other than the label, there's not really any difference in the taste, as far as Scrub is concerned, it's still horse piss. Better than "coolant fluid" from the dropship stills though.

"So we looked over the scan data for that Banshee... " Scrub begins.

"Yeah, it's a real museum piece." Larry says with a nod. "I'm hoping to get some factory time over on New Oslo so they can upgrade the armor, then my security team will be good to go. I know I get the reports, but how're the security guys working out? Think they'll be ready by the time your contract is up?"

Scrub nods. "Yeah. They're getting a lot better, now that we've flushed out the uh... less dedicated individuals. So listen, where'd you get that museum piece?"

Larry gets a grin. "Wouldn't *you* like to know. Maybe I'll tell you if you do me a favor."

Scrub makes a face. "Ew."

Larry rolls his eyes. "No, no, not like that. Look, I've got some, uh... friends. Coworkers. Uh, subordinates. Anyway, somebody's shanghaied them. They got a message out to me a couple of days ago - they're planning to break out, but could use an escort. I'd say you need a fast, light mech for the job. I know it's not strictly in your contract description, but if you help me out, I'll tell you where I got the Banshee."

"I'll think about it." Scrub says.

[] Do Larry the favor of helping his ... people ... out.
[] Getting into a mech fight is a pretty steep price for what is probably the coordinates of an empty, looted bunker.

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

Meanwhile, Delta-Company moves to check out some of those facilities. One has already been cracked open. Of the other three, one is an unopened, overgrown set of heavy-duty bunker doors that Delta-Sweep is unable to breach. The second one, Delta-Recon is unable to locate, while the third one is guarded. By a lot of mechs and tanks.

Delta-Ranger is detected and needs to make a break for it, pursued by light mechs and hovercraft. They've got one of our new recruits training in a spare Dervish, and, for some additional cover, we've got Delta-Intercept on station. We've finally got in a shipment of fuel-air bombs, and while they won't be too effective in this atmosphere, it's still a good trial run.

Spoiler:

It turns out to be unnecessary - Delta-Ranger loses most of the pursuers in dense woods, not even slowing down as they plow through a couple of stray Vedettes while Paingod shoots down a trailing helicopter.

Spoiler:

We do get a good trial run of the fuel-air bombs. Our light fighters deliver the ordnance to a cluster of light mechs chasing our force and the results are pretty good - four bug mechs taken out completely, with heavy damage to a Griffin and a mech that our aerospace fighters' sensors identify as a Night Hawk.

The Night Hawk is a Star League - era Battlemech design. With pulse and extended-range lasers, it's basically required to use double heat sinks, while an extra-light engine allows it to mount nearly the maximum possible armor protection for its 35 ton chassis. Our friends must have pulled it out of the bunker that Delta-Ranger was looking at. And if there's a Night Hawk in there, there's probably other good loot too.

[] Commit forces to seize the bunker (we've got four spare lances and an aerospace flight that aren't committed to our current contract)
[] Last chance to back out

[Leraje]

[] Do Larry the favor of helping his ... people ... out.
[] Getting into a mech fight is a pretty steep price for what is probably the coordinates of an empty, looted bunker.

Do we even have anything "light" in our roster?

[x] Commit forces to seize the bunker (we've got four spare lances and an aerospace flight that aren't committed to our current contract)
[] Last chance to back out

Since they fired first - stomp them into mud in the name of "operational security". That's the official reasoning, unofficially - we just want the loot.

[Zenn7]

[] Do Larry the favor of helping his ... people ... out.
[] Getting into a mech fight is a pretty steep price for what is probably the coordinates of an empty, looted bunker.

Do we even have anything "light" in our roster?

[x] Commit forces to seize the bunker (we've got four spare lances and an aerospace flight that aren't committed to our current contract)
[] Last chance to back out

Since they fired first - stomp them into mud in the name of "operational security". That's the official reasoning, unofficially - we just want the loot.

They're obviously hostile with that shoot first attitude, let's light'em up.

If we have anything that we think might be able to do Larry's favor, sure, let's help. What do we have that's "light"??

[AWS260]

[X] Do Larry the favor of helping his ... people ... out.
[] Getting into a mech fight is a pretty steep price for what is probably the coordinates of an empty, looted bunker.

Do we even have anything "light" in our roster?

A Phoenix Hawk is close enough. Send me in, Coach!

[x] Commit forces to seize the bunker (we've got four spare lances and an aerospace flight that aren't committed to our current contract)
[] Last chance to back out

[gbasden]

Since they fired first - stomp them into mud in the name of "operational security". That's the official reasoning, unofficially - we just want the loot.

Do we have any idea who these mechs belong to? I'd hate to shoot up a bunch of Comstar forces. Except I guess we already did.

OK, fine, assault the place. And help Larry if we can.