Vote Results:
January 5, 3052, 0846 hours
Tairakana Plains, Luthien
Moley winds up arranging to trade two clan mechs and give up the "disputed" Mad Dog. The Kurita representative seems happy to let us have a five-ton "credit" for any future exchanges, which immediately makes our mechwarrior suspicious. But the suspicion is overcome by the happiness of getting to drive a Thor. Well, once the techs pull out the nearly-destroyed engine, fix it to the tune of 1.4M C-Bills, another 250k C-Bills to fix the gyro. We're talking a few weeks of work. And then there's the matter of the armor mounting points being incompatible with any Inner Sphere armor tech, so some more time in the shop afterwards, not to mention the needed adjustment to weapons for better combat endurance (only 10 shots for the LBX autocannon?). But eventually...
To help the Kurita guys, we've sent Gamma-Striker lance, substituting Xwraith in a Thunderbolt 7M for Stefan. Led by Wolf in a modified Grasshopper 5J, we've also got SgtSoldier in a Phoenix Hawk 3D, and a Rifleman 3C with LBX autocannons. The air support is Delta-Intercept lance, with a Hellcat II, a Starfire and a Sholagar.
The Kurita force is a "standard" mix of heavy mechs with an assault and a couple of mediums sprinkled in. Their chatter indicates they're performing a "hit and run", but the emphasis is likely to be on the "hit" - they're just not going to be doing that much running.
The clan force as we join the fight is two "stars", a total of ten mechs. Seeing two Hellbringers (Loki) is always a relief, as they're relatively easy to take down. The Summoner (Thor) is always a pain, but if we can take it down maybe we can get some spare parts. There's a Nova (Black Hawk) with its intimidating laser array, and a Warhawk (Masakari). We haven't seen one of those yet: it's an 85 ton mech packing four, count them, four extended-range particle cannons. Any mech facing one of these should be seriously concerned, even if it does look like it'll occasionally shut down when firing all of those PPCs.
There's also the standard Timberwolf (Mad Cat), Mad Dog (Vulture) and Stormcrow (Ryoken) lineup, plus an Adder (Puma). This particular Puma has a large pulse laser, two medium lasers and an LB-5X autocannon; it's squat but its arm and torso arrangement prevents meaningful torso-twisting. It's also the only light mech in the group.
Round 1:
Long-range fire is exchanged between both sides. LRMs and longer-ranged lasers connect between the clan and Kurita force, removing armor and causing a couple of mechs to stagger. Particularly useful information is that the Mad Cat to the south has a gauss rifle. Striker lance takes position behind a hill, hoping to get the drop on the clanners if they close in. Wolf snaps a shot off at the Nova, briefly connecting the Grasshopper's large laser with the mech's right torso to flake some armor off.
Round 2:
"Incoming aerospace." our Rifleman pilot calls out. "Spread out."
Wolf scoffs. "Incoming clan mechs. Up and over, now!"
Wolf, Xwraith and SgtSoldier briefly look up, relieved that the two pairs of clan fighters aren't dropping their bombs on us, then we get into a general melee with four clan mechs as the inferno gel splatters across the battlefield.
Our Rifleman takes multiple hits from a Nova in the back, a substantial amount of armor flaked off by the lasers. Wolf and SgtSoldier focus their fire on the Hellbringer in the front, Wolf's aim thrown off by two PPC blasts and some LRMs from the Warhawk way in the back. Wolf and the Hellbringer in front of our Grasshopper exchange kicks, most of their leg armor disappearing.
Round 3:
"Allied aerospace incoming! Back to the inferno smoke!" Wolf calls out, seeing an opportunity for our mechs to get some better cover. Those clanners may have caused a couple of the Kurita mechs to overheat pretty badly (in fact, to the south, the Kurita Cyclops' ammo cooks off, while the Archer behind is is basically just shut down), but the billowing smoke also provides better cover for us if we can get back to it.
"Swear to god, if those goddamn dracs drop cluster bombs on us... " Xwraith mutters, watching the flight trajectory of the incoming Kurita bombers.
It's a little hard for us to get to the smoke cover when the clan units move to the top of the hill between us and the smoke. So we do the next best thing, which is get in their rear arc. SgtSoldier blasts the damaged Hellbringer in the right torso and left leg with the Phoenix Hawk's pulse laser as he lands the jump, melting an LRM/20 launcher and multiple leg actuators (the Loki A has a different weapons loadout).
One of the Sholagars drops its load of cluster bombs, managing to hit the Thor and Black Hawk, with only one bomblet landing on our Rifleman. The clan aerospace fighters , most having dropped their bomb load, engage the incoming Kurita aerospace fighters, scoring a couple laser hits, but it doesn't prevent the second Sholagar from coming in and dropping its bombs as well. The first round of cluster bombs just did some armor damage, but the second one... well, the Summoner loses its LRM/15 launcher and takes multiple bomblets to the head, while the Nova takes a leg breach.
Then a Shilone flies in, dropping its bombs. The Nova's left leg comes off as it tries to move forward, its left torso throwing sparks as the left arm flies off.
Wolf takes advantage of the chaos to blast the nearby Loki center of mass with the Grasshopper's lasers and streak SRMs, smirking as a laser contacts the ammo bin in the center torso. Most clan mechs are durable enough to survive ammo explosions, but not the Loki, with its full ton of machine gun ammo sitting next to the reactor.
One last load of bombs eliminates the Summoner as well, the 70-ton mech's head and left side disappearing under a cloud of explosions.
The other Hellbringer returns fire, causing an ammo explosion in our Rifleman, which blows the right arm off, but CASE directs the blast out the back, limiting the damage to the right side. And the left side of the mech also disappears. But the engine and gyro are still perfectly functional, leaving our mechwarrior just one option: to run as fast as possible.
To the south, a Kurita Archer is eliminated by ammo explosion.
Round 4:
"Damn, what a meatgrinder." Xwraith comments.
"Target that Hellbringer, bring it down now." Wolf orders. "Then we'll move southwest and take the Warhawk."
The order is basically unnecessary though, as Wolf jumps in behind the Hellbringer, as it stomps down the other side of the hill and puts a large laser through its back, blasting the ammo bin containing anti-missile system rounds and scattering bits of the 65-ton mech across the side of the hill.
One of the clan fighters decides to release its inferno bombs on a Kurita Archer - a very effective strategy as Archers have relatively poor cooling systems, and are pretty susceptible to inferno attacks. This will effectively shut that poor mech down for at least twenty seconds. Another Kurita Archer takes a hit to an LRM bin from a different clan fighter, signaling some serious casualties for our Kurita allies to the south.
One of the Kurita Shilones retaliates, blasting the Puma in the south. The light clan mech has an especially wide engine, which means that when it takes a large number of LRMs sequentially to the left side and they go through armor, that hurts.
Xwraith fires up at a clan fighter flying overhead, landing an LRM salvo on the nose. The fighter doesn't seem too damaged, but it still corkscrews into the ground. A brief glance at the Warhawk we were planning to engage shows it blasting the nearby Kurita griffin's left arm off with a pair of PPC shots.
Still, the Kurita forces rally and are able to knock a Vulture down, causing heavy damage to its right side while stripping a lot of armor off a Ryoken.
Round 5:
[camera feed disrupted]
"Cavalry's here, boys!" Our aerospace fighters announce as they enter the area.
"And girls." Wolf corrects the aero jock. "Hellbringer down. Move forward and engage the Warhawk."
"Any chance we can get that ECM turned back on?" SgtSoldier wonders.
A pair of Kurita aerospace fighters joins us, strafing the Warhawk. Their attacks don't do too much damage, and neither does Wolf's large laser, but at least that's armor taken off. One does manage to breach the right torso, filling the air with blue mist briefly as one of the heat sinks explodes. Surprisingly enough, all of this is enough to bring the 85-tonner down to the ground.
One of our aerospace fighters, a Starfire, gets behind a light clan fighter blasting it in the tail pipe with its signature ultra autocannon and some lasers. The enemy fighter lurches then detonates in mid-air.
The Kurita forces report taking out a Mad Dog, which is good news as those mechs have a lot of firepower, although they lose their Marauder to an ammo explosion.
Round 6:
"Finish him o... shit." Xwraith exclaims, noting the arrival of five more clan mechs. We'd been expecting them, but were hoping to take care of business before they got here.
Wolf moves forward, slashing the Warhawk's head with a large laser blast, though failing to breach the armor, then following up with a streak SRM, one of the missiles also landing on the head. An allied Shilone takes this moment to blast the 85-ton mech's left arm, which goes limp, taking two PPCs out of action, although it's still able to deliver a PPC blast to SgtSoldier's left leg, removing all armor from that location. Our Starfire is able to come in for a follow-up strafing run, and the Warhawk's right torso throws sparks, indicating major equipment malfunction in that location, but pulse laser fire from a Mad Dog down below nails our fighter in the engine.
Anti-aircraft fire forces one of the allied Shilones to withdraw and the other to slam into the ground, basically disintegrating on impact, while the Kurita forces report crippling a Stormcrow (they call it a Ryoken, of course).
The Warhawk can't take all the damage and drops to the ground, the mechwarrior bailing out.
Round 7:
SgtSoldier's Phoenix Hawk targets a smaller 30-ton clan mech, designated a Kit Fox. Despite the target's speed, our mechwarrior lands two large laser hits on it, causing two armor breaches. This staggers the smaller mech, allowing Xwraith to land some laser hits on it; the lock-on indicator for the Thunderbolt's streak SRMs beeps and our mechwarrior squeezes the trigger, sending the two warheads towards the Kit Fox - the second one blasts open a bunch of engine shielding and shreds the gyro somewhat, dropping the little mech to the ground.
Wolf jumps into a small pond, blasting a nearby 25-tonner with the Grasshopper's lasers. It moves pretty fast but still takes a right arm armor breach.
To the south, the Kurita forces report disabling another Stormcrow ("It's a Ryoken, dammit!")
Round 8:
One of the clan mechs, a Puma, manages to escape the field.
Wolf and SgtSoldier engage a Stormcrow, scoring a couple of hits, while a Kurita Sholagar flies by and blasts the right arm off a Mist Lynx, which includes a pair of SRM/6 launchers.
To the south, a pair of massive blasts signifies the demise of a Kurita Stalker.
Round 9:
SgtSoldier loops around an advancing Nova Cat Mad Dog, blasting chunks of armor off its rear torso and the right arm. Combined fire from our Phoenix Hawk and a Kurita Sholagar brings the 60-ton mech down. SgtSoldier stomps on its back, cracking an LRM launcher and some engine shielding.
The Nova Cat units focus on the Kurita Archer that's been trying to cool down for the last minute and a half, just as it finally emerges from the hellish inferno. Wolf jumps in and zaps the Mist Lynx with the Grasshopper's large laser, frying its left leg and dropping it to the ground. Still, the Archer is now missing its right arm and has almost no armor left.
To the south, the Kurita guys don't sound like they have too many mechs left, but then again, neither do the clanners. One of the clan fighters wobbles and is definitely out of control, so that's good as well.
Round 10:
Wolf moves forward, finally achieving the dream of using that inferno smoke as additional cover, but takes a lser hit to the right leg from an Ice Ferret, losing a hip actuator and spraying heat sink fluid all around, while the Mist Lynx bursts a heat sink the Grasshopper's left torso. An allied Sholagar ruins the Stormcrow's aim with a laser to the right shoulder, fusing the joint. The Mist Lynx struggles up, but Xwraith is on the ball with the Thunderbolt's large laser, zapping it center of mass and sending it crashing back down.
Underfire from SgtSoldier and Xwraith, the Mad Dog goes down again. This time, Xwraith crushes its left leg with a stomp, ensuring it won't be getting up again. With a little more enthusiasm than necessary, as the impact also cracks the remaining LRM launcher and the engine shielding. Again.
The guy in the Vulture bails out pretty quickly after that and we're left with a Stormcrow and an Ice Ferret trying to clear out to the west. We give a symbolic pursuit, but are unable to keep up with the faster clan mechs, and neither are the Kurita units to the south.
Overall, we can *probably* consider this a victory, in that the clan force got badly beat up and couldn't advance through this sector.
Wolf lets out a breath as the clan units break for it. Another day, another battle where we all survived.
Getting a 1:1 trade with clanners isn't too bad, although the weight of units lost skews heavily in the clanners favor. Out of the twelve mechs they started with, the Kurita guys have five functional ones and most of their losses are irrecoverable ammo detonations. We didn't escape unscathed either: our Starfire took an engine hit and isn't combat-effective until that's fixed, while our Sholagar has to do "belly-flop" landings since the landing gear has been knocked out.
Mech-wise, Wolf's Grasshopper took a hip hit, so it's not coming back into the fight any time soon. The Rifleman lost basically everything but the center torso, although at least we're able to recover the LBX autocannons. Xwraith's Thunderbolt and SgtSoldier's Phoenix Hawk just took some armor damage, should be fixed up within the day.
The Kurita forces claim the Summoner (in slightly better shape than the one we traded for, but not by much), a pair of Stormcrows, and a Nova, and a Mad Dog.
We claim a "Bashkir Prime" aerospace fighter (thanks to Xwraith), the Warhawk (our Starfire pilot gets the kill credit), the Mist Lynx wreckage (Wolf got that one), and a Mad Dog (just missing an arm and a leg).
We'll need to figure out if we want to do any salvage trading, keeping in mind we owe Kurita 5 tons and are trading at a 2:1 tonnage exchange rate.
The Bashkir Prime actually survived its crash landing pretty well. Well, it won't ever fly again since it's bent in half, but the on-board equipment did ok. It has a pair of ER Medium Lasers, an ER Small and a Streak SRM/2 launcher with a full 50 tons of ammo.
The Warhawk is missing its right torso and left arm, and one of the PPCs is completely blown out, along with the LRM launcher and the targeting computer. Not to mention the heavy engine damage and needing to replace two of the clan-spec heat sinks. With some work and removing the debris that was the targeting computer, as well as replacing the ferro-fibrous armor, it can be re-constituted.
The Mist Lynx wreckage isn't much to look at, at this point it's basically two ER Medium Lasers and a clan-spec active probe, so if we keep it, it's for spare parts.
The Mad Dog we're claiming is missing a medium pulse laser and an LRM/20 launcher along with its left leg and right arm, but the rest of the weapons are intact and we could get it working, though, for logistics reasons, the ferro-fibrous armor needs to go.
Of the stuff the Kurita guys have, we may want the Summoner, Nova and Mad Dog. With two "partial" Summoners, we should be able to put together one. Same goes for the Nova and Mad Dog.
Trade-in (2:1 ratio, we owe 5 tons)
We get:
[] Summoner: 70 tons
[] Mad Dog: 60 tons;
[] Nova: 50 tons;
We give:
[] Bashkir: 20 tons
[] Mist Lynx: 25 tons
[] Mad Dog: 60 tons
[] Warhawk: 85 tons
[] Write-in one or more of the other clan mechs we already have
With the exception of the Nova, we'll have to trade everything in to get one of the other mechs, or give the Kurita guys some of the mechs we already traded for.
---
Meanwhile, just a few kilometers from the just-wrapped-up battle, a medium-heavy clan trinary engages yet another reinforced company of Kurita mechs. It would be pretty even odds, if it wasn't for the extra ten Elemental squads. We'll need to send at least two lances to help, or one aerospace flight (with some fuel-air bombs to clear toads quickly) and a mech lance. Or maybe get some artillery in there, but the way we wind up getting intermixed, it might not work out too well. Hell, we're lucky the Kurita aerospace fighters were so spot-on with their bombs.
We've got 1 aerospace flight and 9 mech lances left
[] specify number of aerospace flights
[] specify number of mech lances
[] artillery support instead?
