June 23, 3032
Several kilometers northeast
As Lt. Scrub's Gamma lance begins the attack on the data center, Xwraith's Thunderbolt just flat out refuses to start up, while sensors show a lance of light aerotech fighters closing in. Facing almost two lances of light and medium mechs, stationary defences, and three nasty assault tanks, she calls in Delta to even out the odds a little bit.
It'll still be five turns of extremely uneven fighting, so we'll need to be cautious initially.
Gamma lance is Warhammer, El Guapo in a Griffin and Hyena in a Wolverine.
Round 1:
As usual, sprawling building complex. Good place for a data center. Lt. Scrub opens up on the Devastator tank down the street, hitting with both PPCs, while avoiding fire from a Locust coming down a side street. That Behemoth is ridiculous. Twenty LRM tubes in the front, and bristling with SRM tubes all around. Plus, a pair of turret-mounted AC/10s and 12 SRM tubes there. Armor can easily absorb three PPC shots on each side. The downside? It has two movement points. So, it's not really going anywhere.
Round 2:
We advance down the main streets, keeping cautiously out of range of the enemy units. El Guapo exchanges fire with a Locust, taking a laser to the arm, then nearly blowing its leg off with a PPC. Lt. Scrub continues working on the Devastator tank, as the vehicle backs up. Some damage to the treads is evident.
Round 3:
We take an intersection near the data center.
Round 4:
Lt. Scrub fires at an overly aggressive Scorpion tank (SRM variant), stripping armor off of and jamming the turret. Hyena engages a Von Luckner tank, causing heavy tread damge with lasers and SRMs while ducking the return fire.
Round 5:
Delta arrives and gets into the fight immediately. Lt. Scrub continues working on the Devastator, keeping out of its AC/20 range and gouging chunks out of the armor. Archinerd comes up from behind and fires a "devastating" LRM salvo, breaching the front armor and disabling one of the SRM six-racks.
Hyena jumps around the Von Luckner tank, taking some fire from the surrounding units but slicing off an LRM launcher with a medium laser, then grinding down the left side treads with an SRM salvo, disabling it.
Freyland runs in from the north, exchanging fire with an enemy Jenner. Their weapons loadout is actually nearly identical, but Freyland's SRMs find a weak spot in the Jenner's weaker armor, one dinging the gyro. The 35-tonner falls over.
Madmarcus goes to the only safe place near the Behemoth, right on top of it, and begins prying the turret off.
Round 6:
The Jenner has trouble getting up. It crunches itself on the ground several times, then the mechwarrior blacks out.
Madmarcus, El Guapo and Freyland fire at a Scimitar hovertank, Madmarcus' large laser cutting through the front plate, which completely deflates the thin air cushion separating the hovercraft from the ground. Combined with a PPC from El Guapo and a couple of medium lasers from Freyland, the tank grinds to a halt on the pavement. Madmarcus takes some return fire and a kick from a Locust in addition to the Scimitar's SRMs, but it's mostly sand-paper.
Hyena really thought that the Von Luckner's crew had abandoned the tank, but the vehicle makes a counter-argument with an AC/10 burst, so we'll need to take it down permanently.
Round 7:
The situation degenerates into a melee. Not sure how that Locust to the west wound up on the ground, though.
Hyena, El Guapo and Paingod focus fire on a building as an enemy Griffin lands on top of it. Despite all the firepower, the building miraculously remains upright (one structure point short of collapse!)
Lt. Scrub splits her fire between the immobilized Von Luckner (which unloads on her mech as well, scoring solid hits) and the nearby Valkyrie, which also takes lasers and SRMs from Archinerd. Madmarcus gets lucky as the Behemoth unloads on him, but misses. Freyland forces an enemy Firestarter to duck with an LRM salvo, then him and Hyena play soccer with the Von Luckner.
The Valkyrie takes a punch to the center torso from Lt. Scrub, then loses a leg as Archinerd cracks the internal structure on the right one.
Round 8:
Those two prone mechs are kind of blocking the way, which is annoying. The Jenner pilot knocks himself out again. An enemy Panther jumps around to the back of Lt. Scrub and scores a couple of good hits with SRMs, but takes a couple of lasers all around, plus MadMarcus is on the case.
Freyland finishes off the stationary Von Luckner with a few medium lasers to the weakened right-side armor, although the Behemoth gives our Quickdraw a good whacking with an SRM salvo. Paingod continues the work Madmarcus started, trying to pry the turret (or anything, really) off the Behemoth, while El Guapo and the enemy Griffin trade kicks. Except the other guy misses.
Round 9:
After taking a full LRM salvo to the torso, the Valkyrie tries to get up, but having only one leg makes it difficult, and the mech slips, knocking the mechwarrior out with the impact. Lt. Scrub takes advantage of this by cracking the armor on the center torso and damaging the engine shielding with lasers.
Hyena works on one of the target buildings, pumping lasers and SRMs into it, with Freyland helping out as well. El Guapo takes Paingod's place on top of the Behemoth, but it's a damn tough tank.
Round 10:
The Panther continues harassing the Warhammer, as Lt. Scrub plows PPCs into the Behemoth's left side. That armor is starting to look a little thin now. Madmarcus would have plowed a perfect SRM salvo into the Locust, but it runs behind a building, and half the SRMs hit that instead. Freyland hops over to the Behemoth to take his turn, firing at the Firestarter meanwhile. A laser drills into the right arm, zapping an actuator and the laser barrel there. The left leg on Lt. Scrub's Warhammer is looking a little thin after an autocannon burst and some SRMs from the Behemoth, so she'll be stepping back.
Freyland's boot crunches the last of the armor on the left side of the Behemoth, sending a machine gun barrel flying, and it starts very slowly trundling away.
Round 11:
The Valkyrie's pilot wakes up and powers down his mech before climbing out. The Panther continues harassing our mechs, firing SRMs at Archinerd. Unfortunately for it, Hyena and Lt. Scrub focus fire on the building that it landed on, and the structure collapses. The debris and impact shear off the Panther's right side. Paingod eats a couple of autocannon rounds from a nearby turret, returning the favor with a PPC shot and a boot, the PPC shot melting down one of the AC/5 barrels. Madmarcus gets around the back of a Locust, inflicting damage with lasers, but surprisingly not penetrating armor. Lucky little bastard!
Round 12:
The guy in the Jenner wakes up and bails out. Then passes out from the heat. The Firestarter covers his Panther buddy's retreat by firing at El Guapo's Griffin - a stray machine gun round shorts out the PPC, but not before the heavier weapon critically weakens the building on which the Firestarter had landed, causing the mech to drop to the ground into a pile of debris. Hyena chases down a 1E Locust, legging it with SRMs, then curb stomps it to crush the right torso. Freyland and Archinerd finish off another target building as well.
Round 13:
Locust pilot bails out, and the Firestarter and Griffin begin to screen the enemy retreat. We'll let them go, sure. After taking a couple of pot shots. Madmarcus nails the Firestarter, stripping armor from just about every location with lasers and SRMs, although his cockpit turns into a sauna. Archinerd follows up with his lasers and SRMs, blasting off the right torso section, forcing the smaller mech to take a knee. The enemy Griffin jumps on top of a building, hitting Lt. Scrub's Warhammer with SRMs, but the building is collapsed in short order by fire from Hyena's weapons and El Guapo's LRM launcher. It's a long way down (10 levels) and the mechwarrior blacks out. Paingod and Lt. Scrub torch the last of the target buildings to complete the mission. An enemy Locust tries to run by us, but is perforated as just about every mech turns its guns on them, with Paingod scoring the kill.
We "surgically" remove the mechwarrior from the Griffin and call in salvage. Gonna be a good haul. We claim the Von Luckner and Griffin because we need replacement PPCs and load the rest up into the employer's Mule. Lt. Scrub's Warhammer and El Guapo's Griffin won't be operational in time for next week, but hopefully we won't have an "all hands on deck" battle.
We also have another spare Griffin. Just in case, you never know. One of the salvage guys also steals a random coolant truck. It's not worth much, but it does have a bunch of armor plating on it, which we strip. As for Xwraith's Thunderbolt, turns out the techs needed to reboot one of the computers. The one controlling fusion engine temperature readings. It kept saying the fusion core was at 8600k for some reason.
The next week is quiet. Everyone gets a chance to chill and catch up on their entertainment of choice, or just sit in their cabin and stare silently at the walls. Nobody goes outside willingly for some reason. Maybe it's the combination of 50+ degree temperature and thin atmosphere.
Madmarcus can improve gunnery or piloting (currently both at 3/3). Any preference?
At this point, even the liaison agrees that we've more than fulfilled our contract requirements. So, unless the Dracs attack us directly, we're going to sit tight for the rest of the contract duration. However, El Guapo informs us of a dire development: we're about to run out of Battlestar episodes. Normally, we'd just run a unit out to comms range of the local HPG station, but the Dracs are really serious about their comms jamming. We can't even get in contact with the Star Guards, let alone the HPG.
The liaison proposes that we make an HPG run with two objectives: One, grab the latest download of TV episodes. Two, call for early pickup so we don't have to sit here for another two months, waiting for the scheduled rendezvous. Optionally, if we find them, we'll blow up any Drac jammers. We'll probably have to fight through a bunch of Dracs to get there, though.
So, anyone up for a GM-ed mission?