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Xwraith shoots Leraje a dirty look.
"Hey, if you ever want a leadership position, you have to learn to lead." Leraje adds with a shrug.
Xwraith frowns. "I never said I wanted a leadership position."
Leraje grins. "Yeah, well, sometimes the leadership position wants you. Now get to it."
---
"A Hunchback?" Lucy asks Xwraith as the two mechwarriors walk towards the Thunderball's outer hangar door, the Overlord-class dropship looming menacingly over the surrounding terrain. "I am partial to the Hunchback IIC design myself, it is an excellent ambush mech."
Xwraith giggles, an uncharacteristic reaction for the forty-two year old mechwarrior, looking around at a salvage crew walking a flatbed truck loaded with busted-up mechs towards the nearby Jumbo. "She thinks she's getting a clan mech." she says, laughing and pointing a thumb towards Lucy. The salvage crew doesn't laugh, not understanding the context of the joke. Plus, most of our techs tend to think of the mechwarriors as weirdos. The sentiment is usually reciprocated, but the two groups work together well enough.
"No, no, it's just a regular Hunchback. Well, we upgraded it a little, so it's better than the original 4G; and even better than the 5M, we stuck some extra ammo in there so you don't run out after five seconds." our mechwarrior explains. "But if you think you're getting jump jets and twin ultra-20s, you're sadly mistaken."
Lucy looks crestfallen. "I see."
Xwraith claps her on the shoulder. "Look on the bright side, kid, we're almost done with our contract here anyway, we'll be gone soon enough. Now, let's go meet your tech team. But before you do... " Xwraith fixed Lucy with a pointed stare. "... I'm watching you. Remember that."
---
May 14, 3054
The distribution hub itself is quite well-defended. Our recon patrols identify multiple stars of light and medium mechs, supported by ground attack tanks (including some that appear to have been salvaged from the local planetary militia). There are also two mixed heavy/assault mech stars.
Trying to hit the facility all on our own would be... inadvisable - we don't have the capability to take down that kind of force concentration. But what we can do is raise enough of a ruckus that we pull most of the defenders away. A well-disciplined Inner Sphere force would never... well, they'd be less likely to leave a strategic objective to go chase down some sensor contacts. But our liaison suggests that, if we issue a challenge while calling the genetic quality of the mechwarriors stationed at the distribution hub into question, they might take it personally.
So, we bring Gamma and Beta lance (Wolf/Hellbringer, TheMix/Mad Dog, Backwash/Griffin, 9B/Archer; Zenn7/Awesome, Siljanus/Mackie, Atrophy/Annihilator, CJ/Victor), backed up by a short lance of heavy tanks - two Manticores and the Schrek PPC Carrier. The liaison tells us he has arranged for a lance of heavy tanks operated by the local resistance fighters to participate in this diversionary attack as well.
TheMix's Mad Dog was having some trouble with one of its LRM magazines, so it's coming in a little short on LRMs, but is in pretty good shape otherwise. One of Atrophy's LBX autocannons still hasn't been repaired, but three LBX/10s is still a pretty good number of LBX/10s.
Gamma and the tanks will attract attention, with Beta moving in once the clanners have committed to the engagement. All of this should give El Guapo's Alpha Lance time to move in on the distribution hub and take it down.
Round 1:
Spoiler:
However, two of the LRM Carriers get blasted to bits, while the Manticore is forced to cover the withdrawal of the third.
"Stupid bastards are always either too early or too late." TheMix muses.
Round 2:
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Round 3:
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Round 4:
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Round 5:
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Round 6:
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Atrophy helps work on the damaged Crab, blasting it with a couple of LBX pellets - it's left arm looks a little sluggish and throws out sparks, indicating actuator damage. Zenn7 zaps it as well, particle streams crackling through the left torso armor, while CJ adds a gauss slug to the center of mass.
Wolf runs south, immobilizing a localized ECM source - a Zephyr hovertank - by melting through its drive and lift fans with the Hellbringer's lasers. A substantial amount of firepower is directed at our mech, but mostly goes wide, with only a few shots hitting. Still, the Hellbringer's leg armor turns yellow.
Round 7:
Spoiler:
"Right, that's enough of that." Zenn7 transmits. "All units fall back on Beta's position and withdraw. Alpha Lance will have to make do with the time we've given them."
"We definitely got their attention." TheMix comments, ducking down as lasers come in from all corners, firing pulse lasers of his own back at a Hussar, nearly cutting off its left arm.
Our Schrek gets a clan transport chopper zipping in to unload some infantry next to it - the gunnery crew wastes no time in frying two of the troopers as they zipline down. This is a distraction however, as a clan Jenner (although it's mass reads a good amount heavier) zips up and unloads streak SRMs into our tank, blasting away enough treads that it gets mired in the ground and is no longer able to move.
Zenn7 switches targets, blasting away at a mech identified as a Night Hawk. Both of its arms are fried by the Awesome's PPCs, which should drop its firepower a good amount.
Siljanus, meanwhile, targets the Crab again, knocking it down to the ground with another pair of PPC shots. CJ hops down into a small depression where a "Lightning" hovertank has attempted to hide from our assault mech, but one of our Manticores has already gotten to it, blasting through the skirt with an SRM salvo and immobilizing it.
Round 8:
Spoiler:
9B backs her Archer up, firing LRMs at an approaching Zephyr to cover TheMix as he retreats north - half the salvo strikes true, but it's enough - the hovertank sends a cloud of metal chunks spraying out the back and carves a ditch in the ground before grinding to a stop. TheMix takes a few shots, including an armor breach, but no critical damage and returns fire, breaching armor on a Hussar. Not that that's particularly hard, given that it's an ultra-fast light recon mech, but still.
Round 9:
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Round 10:
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"Too bad we're not." Wolf retorts.
Siljanus takes out one of the pursuing hovertanks with a well-placed PPC that shears off its left drive fan, causing it to circle around crazily before mashing into a nearby rock. The Night Hawk has been continuing to plink away at us with its large laser, so Zenn7, conserving heat, places only two PPC blasts into its torso - with previously registered engine damage, the loss of a torso section forces a shutdown, taking the mech out of action.
Backwash has nothing better to shoot at, so fries a couple of clan infantry searching through our Schrek's wreckage, hopefully allowing the tank's crew to clear the battlefield while the clanners are paying attention to the mechs.
Round 11:
Spoiler:
Backwash and Siljanus disable another pursuing Zephyr hovertank, and then we're in the clear.
"All right, Alpha. We've bought you an extra two minutes." Zenn7 sends over long-range comms. "Good luck."
---
Lucy and Xwraith monitor the action in real time in our Overlord.
"Quite the cowardly trick." Lucy comments. "But effective."
"Yeah." Xwraith replies. "At the end of the day, we're just here to do the job and get paid. If fighting Star League quality assault mechs isn't part of the contract, there's no reason for us to do it."
Lucy's face wrinkles. "How do you sleep at night, when you fight for money, rather than an actual worthwhile cause?"
Xwraith shrugs, smirking. "Just fine, on top of my giant pile of money."
"Plus, it's not just for money. We're a team, we look out for each other. We even used to have... " the mechwarrior pauses. "... well, never mind. You'll hear about that later. Suffice it to say that even if you are loyal to a cause, or a nation, or a principle... you're not going to get your loyalty returned. Not in the Inner Sphere. Maybe out there in clan space, it's different, but I doubt it." Xwraith scoffs. "Your codex said you fought in two Trials of Position. What was the second one for?"
Lucy frowns, looking down on the floor. "I don't want to talk about it."
Xwraith smirks. "I thought not."
---
Alpha Lance is about to hit the distribution depot. Thanks to Beta and Gamma lance's efforts, it will be some time before that swarm of clan mechs and tanks gets back there, leaving it only moderately defended - a lance of hovertanks and a heavy mech lance - three Black Knights, an Exterminator and a Sentinel. No front-line stuff, thankfully, but the heavies will be a mouthful. And a few automatic stationary turrets, but those don't really count. Except the quad medium laser, we'll want to watch out for that.
What did El Guapo bring for the attack?
[] Two Chaparral Arrow IV artillery vehicles
- No TAG capability, but artillery will be useful to take out stationary targets.
[] Two Meteor-class conventional fighters, with fuel-air bombs
- Non-zero risk of them getting shot down on the way in and out, but if they can drop their bombs, that distribution center is going bye-bye
[] Pair of hovertanks
- A little extra all around firepower
Also, battle armor or infantry support is available for this mission:
[] Use Waddles to deploy minefields along the base approach
-Hovercraft won't be affected, but maybe that heavy mech star could use a little less leg armor
[] Crew-served field guns
-Kind of fragile if the clanners decide to shoot at them, but can do some damage too
[] Standard battle armor
-A little on the short-range side, but could be useful in keeping hovertanks off of Alpha
