Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Send fighters ||||
Forget it |||||

Lich smirks. "Yeah, that's right. Get outta here."

---

Delta-Ranger's Phoenix Hawk spends a significant amount of time chasing down that APC, keeping up with the vehicle over the course of several hours. Eventually, we are able to vector Akalon's Gamma-Probe lance to take over before our mechwarrior passes out from exhaustion.

At which point, Gamma-Probe lance is intercepted by an ad-hoc force; two tank lances and a "mixed" mech lance - two heavies, a medium and a bug mech. No way we're getting past this pile-up to keep chasing the APC without a fight, and the incoming aerospace fighters make it impractical for AWS to go airborne to keep chasing. Luckily, this engagement is happening close to an allied mech patrol - thanks to us having secured that mech repair depot earlier, our allied merc buddies are able to back us up.

Which is going to be difficult with a pair of aerospace heavies bearing down on us.

"Think I should transform into aero mode and intercept them before they get here?" AWS asks "It'll be a difficult fight, but I think I can outmaneuver them. Although maybe I shouldn't, because it's two heavies and they'll shoot the crap out of me. But it's better... "

"Nara." Akalon stops AWS. "Relax. Stay low."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We close in on the hostile vehicle formation, long-range weapons fire being pretty ineffective. One of our Phoenix Hawks has to fire up its AMS though, eliminating a small group of missiles coming in from an LRM carrier.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

SgtSoldier chases down the J. Edgar hovertank that's been giving his Phoenix Hawk an annoying time - a couple of pulse laser blasts cause the vehicle to "dip" as it crosses a body of water. The lift fans suck in a bunch of said water and, before long, the hovertank is emitting bubbles as it sinks while the crew clambers out.

Our other Phoenix Hawk takes a slight beating from LRMs, the LRM Carrier having found its aim a little better this time.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Akalon fires the third set of laser blasts at the LRM Carrier - this time, something breaks inside because it stops swiveling around and firing swarms of missiles at our mechs, and starts spewing smoke instead. Though not before pelting SgtSoldier's Phoenix Hawk with a batch of long-range warheads, one dinging the cockpit area.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

AWS looks over at the "transform" lever and yanks it - this is nice, wide-open terrain and "air-mech" mode is just what the doctor ordered for maximum evasion.

The hostile Vulcan engages one of our Phoenix Hawks, but neither the weapons fire nor the attempted kick to connect from either party, except a couple stray machine gun rounds from our mech.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

An AC/5 round grazes Akalon as he feather's the Vulcan's jump jet to land behind the fellow Vulcan. The lasers don't connect, but our mechwarrior does manage to douse the fellow 40-tonner in a cloud from the flamer, heating it up a little bit.

AWS is pressed back against the LAM's seat as the acceleration from air-mech mode kicks in, allowing it to nimbly avoid all incoming fire while connecting a blast from the snub-nose PPC with a Scorpion tank.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Incoming aerospace!" Akalon calls out. "Everybody under water, now!"

Our mechwarriors hop into appropriate-depth water rather quickly - getting strafed by heavy aerospace fighters doesn't smile on anyone. Except for AWS, who just avoids the fighters' flight paths entirely, zipping around underneath.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

"So..." SgtSoldier asks, watching the bubbles float to the top of the lake past his cockpit. "How long are we gonna be down here?"

Akalon checks his sensors. "Another thirty seconds, then the heavy lance will get here."

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Then, the fighters zip out, coming around for another pass. "You know what, never mind, up and over." The Vulcan's low profile helps keep incoming damage minimal, even when shots do connect, they tend to connect to little bits of armor rather than center or mass. We don't inflict much damage either, but this is more of a holding action than anything else.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

"Hey, I thought I said stay on the ground." Akalon calls out, firing the Vulcan's weapons array at a pair of Scorpion tanks. One eats a the laser blasts, the other eats a long pull from the flamer, its treads fusing - a snub-nose PPC blast from AWS doesn't help.

"Sorry." AWS pipes up. "I got bored."

Round 10:

Spoiler:

"Hey, nice, friendly assault lance!" SgtSoldier calls out.

The good part about having an Atlas show up on the field is that it really attracts a lot more attention than a couple of Phoenix Hawks and a Vulcan. In fact, the hostile Eagle circles around and gives it a good zapping with PPCs and lasers, knocking the 100-ton mech over. It pays for that, though, losing a PPC to anti-aircraft fire from the allied Rifleman and Orion, both mechs equipped with specialized anti-air targeting systems.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

"Whoa!" AWS calls out, as the Stuka bears down on our airborne LAM. Our mechwarrior/aero jock quickly reacts, banking around and coming around on the hostile fighter's seven o'clock position.

Weapons fire connects from both sides, damaging armor, but no critical damage is inflicted this time around.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

The Stuka makes a strafing run on the Atlas, connecting with a lot of its guns; the Atlas just kind of shrugs it off. This allows AWS to get in some good shots with the LAM's lasers and snub-nose PPC, while the allied Orion connects with LRMs to the back of the fighter, which starts belching smoke from its engine.

While the hostile Hunter support tank is busy firing LRMs at the allied Atlas, Akalon drills it with the Vulcan's lasers, melting through to the core of the vehicle. Our mechwarrior looks in puzzlement as the Atlas' icon on the radar display disappears, and takes a second to rotate the Vulcan north to see what's going on.

For some reason, the 100-ton mech is lying face down on the ground, with a skid mark leading away from the head. Somebody must have gotten in a lucky head shot.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

The Stuka peels off, bits of the aircraft flaking off, leaving it just the Eagle in the air. AWS can't pull off the high-G maneuver required to turn around rapidly enough and decides to circle around a little more slowly.

The hostile Stinger moves to give SgtSoldier a hard time, our mechwarrior replying with a couple of pulse laser blasts to the head to remind the other guy that he's dealing with a "bug hunter" mech.

Round 14:

Spoiler:

After Akalon plows a few laser blasts into the Scorpion, the tank's engine finally gives out.

The Eagle comes back, making a strafing run on the allied mechs - the allied Orion opens up with its autocannon, but takes a hit, presumably to an ammo bin, and its right arm and most of the right torso disappears while the ejection seat fires.

SgtSoldier and our other Phoenix Hawk team up on the Stinger. Lasers and machine gun rounds fly between the three mechs. Long story short, the smaller mech's head is crushed.

The hostiles, having "taken out" an Atlas and an Orion, appear to be satisfied with their performance and depart - we're not really in much shape to chase them down. The APC has also taken the opportunity to give us the slip.

Akalon sighs and shakes his head. "We're just not that good at subterfuge."

Salvage is "standard quality", just spare parts and ammo; Akalon got a "mission ace", racking up five total kills. Granted, they were all dinky little tanks, but still. We took some minor armor damage and a little structure damage, but we're ok. Our merc buddies are gonna have a rough time though, with their Atlas missing a head and a pilot while the Orion's right arm is blown off. Good thing they've got repair facilities nearby.

---

That being said, there's really only one installation nearby that the APC could have disappeared to. It's not on our target list, and it's defended by a heavy mech lance, an assault tank lance, some lighter units and fixed defenses. Beta-Hunter lance is in position to "recon" the area, Steiner-style, supported by a pair of hovertanks; a medium-weight allied mech lance is also available.

[] Move in and finish up this APC business
[] We're investing too much resources in this nonsense

[El Guapo]

[] Move in and finish up this APC business
[X] We're investing too much resources in this nonsense

Without some specific indication of what's in that APC...doesn't seem worth it, especially with what's at that base.

[NickAragua]

On that note, what does our aerospace stable look like? We might want to angle our next contract the way of someone who sells a lot of those to upgrade our fleets, they were really useful against the Clans.

We've got mostly heavies and mediums - Stingray F-92 and Lucifer LCF-R15/20 for space superiority and bombing; Lightning LTN-G15 for some AC/20 action to punch through dropship armor; a few Shilones for bombing; and some miscellaneous fighters (an odd Vulcan with a gauss rifle and an up-armored Chippewa with a number of weapons stripped out in favor of more armor). Most of our fighters that need them have been upgraded with aerospace double heat sinks - pre-clan invasion we were able to buy up a motherlode of the things, so tech-wise, we're way ahead of the curve in the aerospace fighter department.

[TheMix]

[] Move in and finish up this APC business
[X] We're investing too much resources in this nonsense

Without some specific indication of what's in that APC...doesn't seem worth it, especially with what's at that base.

I agree

[TotallyNotEvil]

Aren't you guys the least curious to find out what has the other side pulling in so many resources, tho?

[TheMix]

Sure. If they'll tell us.

What I don't want to do is risk and potentially lose a bunch of resources only to find out that it wasn't that big a deal.

[Zarathud]

Not often we have a chance to bag a drop ship. Do it.

[Zenn7]

Do we have any clue what could possibly be in there based on where it came from and what we know about the planet/opposition?

If we think there's a chance it could be good/exciting, go for it.

If we think it's not going to be highly valuable/good/exciting nah.

If we have no idea... let's go find out!

[$iljanus]

Do we have any clue what could possibly be in there based on where it came from and what we know about the planet/opposition?

If we think there's a chance it could be good/exciting, go for it.

If we think it's not going to be highly valuable/good/exciting nah.

If we have no idea... let's go find out!

I like the way you think!

[Leraje]

My inner Steiner always in favour of proper recon.

[Zarathud]

My inner Steiner always in favour of proper recon.

Maximum Tonnage!

[$iljanus]

My inner Steiner always in favour of proper recon.

Maximum Tonnage!

HEAVY METAL

[El Guapo]

Sure. If they'll tell us.

What I don't want to do is risk and potentially lose a bunch of resources only to find out that it wasn't that big a deal.

Yeah, I mean, it could be top secret prototype triple heat sinks. It could also be the local commander's mistress.

[gbasden]

My inner Steiner always in favour of proper recon.

Agreed!

[TotallyNotEvil]

Sure. If they'll tell us.

What I don't want to do is risk and potentially lose a bunch of resources only to find out that it wasn't that big a deal.

Yeah, I mean, it could be top secret prototype triple heat sinks. It could also be the local commander's mistress.

It could even be a boat!

My inner Steiner always in favour of proper recon.

... We should put together an all-Atlas lance. We can do it, we have the technology.

[$iljanus]

Sure. If they'll tell us.

What I don't want to do is risk and potentially lose a bunch of resources only to find out that it wasn't that big a deal.

Yeah, I mean, it could be top secret prototype triple heat sinks. It could also be the local commander's mistress.

And that’s the excitement of it! Who knows what’s at the bottom of that Cracker Jack box!

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Move in and finish it up ||||||||
Quit while we're ahead (behind?) ||||

October 15, 3052
Unspecified Surface Facility
Sakhalin, Federated Commonwealth

"Right. Hunter lance, let's move in and seize this facility. See if we can track down that escaped APC." Siljanus informs the rest of his lance. Our four mechs are the Mackie, a Grasshopper, a Guillotine and TheMix's new Mad Dog. We're supported by a pair of Falcon hovertanks, and a lance of curious allied light/medium mechs, with another allied medium mech lance coming in shortly.

There's a significant number of hostile turrets - large lasers, LRM racks. There's a lance of heavy mechs, and an assault tank lance, backed up by a few lighter units. The APC's sensor signature is nowhere in sight, but that doesn't mean anything - they could have just turned the engine off.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Hey guys, wait for... " Siljanus begins. "Never mind." He stops, realizing that a 100-ton Mackie advising a pair of bug mechs, a Phoenix Hawk and a Griffin to slow down isn't really going to be helpful. "Hunter lance, engage at optimal range, use your discretion. There's a lot of AC/20s in there."

Our mechwarrior rolls his eyes as one of the base turrets starts by taking an allied Wasp's leg off. To add injury to injury, the little bug mech falls over, crunching its right arm off as well. A single rocket flies out of the base as well, connecting with an allied Griffin. Against an un-armored target, that would have been a devastating hit, but we're talking about a battlemech, so it's little more than scuffed paint.

Siljanus squeezes the trigger to fire the Mackie's PPCs and gauss rifle, completely wrecking a structure housing a large laser turret. "Hope that APC wasn't in there." Our mechwarrior comments with a chuckle.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

TheMix's target, a Drillson, temporarily leaves line of sight by zipping into a gully to avoid the murderous pulse laser barrage issuing from the Mad Dog. That turns out to be a mistake, as an allied Stinger LAM hops into the gully behind the hovertank, and our mechwarrior watches with amusement as a very large explosions blossoms upwards shortly after.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

A hostile Phoenix Hawk intercepts one of our Falcons as it zips by the base, but TheMix is on it, blasting it in the right arm with the Mad Dog's pulse lasers, the limb nearly coming off. An unlikely source damages the Falcon's motive systems as it avoids the Phoenix Hawk's fire and a stomp, some LRMs coming in at an oblique angle.

The allied Phoenix Hawk takes a good amount of damage at stumbles to the ground.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The Savannah Master is pretty fast, but, usually, throw enough firepower at it and it'll evaporate. This time, though, one of TheMix's pulse lasers connects, but the little hovercraft just keeps zipping along. It's all our mechwarrior can do to spread his arms in frustration.

Siljanus, meanwhile, stays at maximum weapons range, engaging a couple of tanks and watching the allied Griffin blow down another laser turret building while some LRMs immobilize our damaged Falcon.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Siljanus' PPCs finally punch through the Devastator tank's right-side armor (after four hits on the same section) - the twin AC/20-packing tank grinds to a halt and black smoke starts pouring out.

As additional allied mechs come in from the north, our Falcon swings around in that direction and promptly proceeds to eat a few LRM salvos, becoming nearly immobilized in the process.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Siljanus switches targets to a Victor, blasting it in the back with a couple of PPC shots but failing to breach armor. Maybe if another shot had hit, but the "fuzzies" and built-up heat from continuously cycling the PPCs prevent that from happening. TheMix targets an Ontos heavy tank next to the Victor, breaching its rear armor with pulse laser and LRM fire.

To the north, our Falcon is disabled by a hostile Champion, having been worked over by an autocannon and laser fire. Not to mention the turret-launched LRMs, an additional portion of which finishes the tank off.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Our Grasshopper finally nails that stupid little Savannah Master after it had managed to avoid TheMix's and our Guillotine's fire for a considerable amount of time. Maybe if it had some backup, but that's the story of a Savannah Master's life.

An autocannon round pings off Siljanus' armor. Our mechwarrior frowns, observing the somewhat foolhardy Vedette responsible. "Y'all really wanna ride that train?" he asks. "Fine." The Vedette disappears under PPC fire, the gauss rifle slug somewhat superfluous.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

While the mercs to the north got in a good start by eliminating the two LRM turrets, the remaining mechs up there have regrouped and are making life harder - the hostile Victor cores a Firestarter out with an AC/20 burst to the center of mass, while the allied Cicada's engine and gyro are shredded, leaving it completely unable to move. The merc Vulcan retaliates with a pulse laser to the Phoenix Hawk's center torso - the mech having already taken some damage, this causes an armor breach and the pulse laser detonates the MG ammo bin. All in all, an impressive amount of fireworks, though not entirely in our favor.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

But it doesn't matter, we're literally outnumbering the hostiles now, and they start moving to the north, attempting to break out. It's pretty successful - the "cool" allied Vulcan eats an AC/10 round to the left torso from the Champion, the medium mech scattered to the four winds.

Siljanus opens up on a Crusader that TheMix targeted last round, further melting armor with PPCs - the 65-ton mech remains intact, but drops to a knee. TheMix switches targets to the Grasshopper, inflicting some armor damage with a pulse laser and LRM salvo.

With nothing to stand in their way, the heavy mech lance can escape to the north with little problem. We've taken only light damage, but have no reason to pursue them. Time to rip the base apart and find that APC.

---

"I got a proposition for you." the dispossessed mechwarrior states as we supervise the salvage crews hauling away wreckage and combing the base.

"I'm listening." Siljanus replies, leaning against the Mackie's thick foot.

"I've got refit schematics for the Vulcan VT-5M that I'd be willing to share with you guys."

"In exchange for..."

"All salvage from this base. It's mostly crap, right?" he says, shifting back and forth on his legs.

"If you say so." Siljanus says. "But we can just buy the refit kit?" he asks, confused.

"Sure, but can you get a direct line to buy the double heat sinks and endo-steel stuff without blowing house royalty?" the other mechwarrior asks with a crooked smile.

Siljanus thinks about it for a second. It's likely the other guy wants whatever is on that APC, to the point where he's willing to cough up 11 double heat sinks. The VT-5M is a pretty good variant of the Vulcan - it packs a large and a medium pulse laser instead of the (very badly misplaced) AC/2 and medium laser; endo-steel structure gives it the necessary weight savings while double heat sinks keep it cool. It's no 5T or Akalon refit, but it's pretty good.

But we'd be giving up the "mystery box" - no way that this guy wants to trade a bunch of double heat sinks for some crappy tank wrecks and turrets.

[] Keep the mystery box
[] Take the VT-5M refit schematics and the ability to buy the relevant parts

[Freyland]

Door #1, please.

[$iljanus]

Sure for all we know we may have captured a year’s supply of what passes for Turtle Wax in this universe but I’m really curious about that APC. Would suck though if a rep from ComStar Verizon happens to show up wanting whatever bauble is in the APC.

Keep the mystery box please!

[Zenn7]

APC and contents is ours, they can have the rest of the crap for all I care.

If Comstar Verizon shows up, think we might fair a little better now a days than we did the first time. Plus, they're less likely to care now that tech is so much more all over. At I'd think so.

[El Guapo]

Can we trade it for what's behind Door #3?

Yeah, let's keep the mystery box at this point. The Vulcan stuff sounds nice but not game changing.

[Leraje]

Unless the alternative is an unlimited access to Clan parts, we should keep the box.

[TheMix]

Not gonna dissent here. Tell him we aren't interested. Let's see what's actually here. I don't trust his assessment. If it's really all crap, then why the interest in a trade? I call BS.

[AWS260]

Mystery box!

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Mystery box - unanimous

"Sorry, no can do, pal." Siljanus responds. "We'll see if we can hook you up with a spare Vulcan though, that one you lost looked pretty sweet."

The other mechwarrior doesn't look too happy about it, but there's little he can do at the moment.

There's very little damage to our mech lance, although we did lose a Falcon. That's ok, though, we have a replacement. It's little consolation to the three crewmembers that didn't make it out of the wreckage, but we, uh, have replacements for those too.

After we comb through the wreckage of the facility, we do find the APC. The contents are... confusing.

---

Meanwhile, Beta-Assault lance is dispatched to take out one of the two remaining targets on our list. With WestOrEast's Hatamoto-Hi still missing a cockpit, we decide to cycle in our "downgraded" Executioner. The rest of the lance is Zenn7 in the Awesome, CJ in the Victor and Atrophy in the Annihilator, giving us overwhelming mass and firepower. To make up for our lack of speed, we've brought three Drillson hovertanks to help herd strays and take out lighter units; or just eat firepower that we don't want hitting our expensive (and, in one case, irreplaceable) assault mechs.

This particular location, in addition to being some kind of ore processing plant, also holds a lance of assault mechs with some "lighter" mech and tank backup. So this will be a great chance for our assault lance to shake out again. The main opposition is two Victors - a pair of assault-class autocannon-toting jumpers; a Longbow - the very definition of a missile boat; an Awesome, just like ours, but probably with a worse gunner; and also a Grasshopper and some other lighter stuff.

Technically, there's an allied assault lance coming in, but by the time they get there, the fight will likely be over one way or the other.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Long-range weapons open up as the two forces approach each other, with Zenn7 and our Executioner focusing on a Demolisher tank (although the assault tank is heavily armored, so it's not so easily taken out), while CJ uses the Victor's gauss rifle to take a chunk out of an SRM turret within the facility complex. LRMs ping off of Atrophy's mech to little effect.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Zenn7 continues targeting the Demolisher - with a little help from our supporting hovertanks, the Awesome's PPCs punch through the assault tank's armor, eliminating it.

Our Executioner moves forward, avoiding the last autocannon blasts from the doomed tank and takes out a Hetzer, eliminating another source of AC/20 fire from the field.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Our Drillson lance zips forward - one of the two hostile Victors on the field points its assault-class autocannon and puts a round through one of the hovertanks, breaking it in half. Our weapons fire this round isn't terribly effective, although CJ does land laser hit on the Ostsol.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

CJ's Victor rocks as he jumps northwest to avoid the laser carrier closing in - the productive Victor on the other side scores an AC/20 hit on our mech, nearly cracking the right leg armor while brushing our mech's head with a laser blast. Our mechwarrior replies with a gauss slug to the right arm, exposing the structure there. Our Executioner moves forward as well, blasting the hostile Victor in the back while sparing a few LRMs for the laser carrier, destroying the lightly-armored but threatening vehicle.

Zenn7 fires into the mess, his new target a Drillson hovertank trying to pass underneath CJ - its drive fans don't survive two PPC zaps and it kicks up a cloud of dirt as it plows into the ground.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

With steam and heat waves coming off the enemy Victor, it'll have to go easy on the weapons fire for a bit to cool off. Or risk its ammo lighting up. So Zenn7 isn't too worried when the assault mech bounds southeast, calmly putting three PPC blasts into its upper half.

The Victor's lasers set the woods Zenn7 was using for cover on fire, but inflict no damage to the Awesome itself. And it won't be firing its autocannon anymore anyway, as Atrophy's LBX cluster rounds find their way to the 80-tonner's breached right arm, wrecking actuators and the autocannon itself.

Zenn7 winces as a laser from an Ostsol to the north melts pretty much all the armor off his Awesome's cockpit, but this does give our mechwarrior a chance to observe our Executioner knocking over the Longbow to the north. All this maneuverability really reduces the Executioner's effectiveness in the firepower department.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Our Executioner takes the opportunity to jump around the back of the Longbow. On the way there, the mechwarrior fires a gauss slug at the Ostsol harassing Zenn7, putting it through the back of the lighter mech's head - it drops to the ground instantly.

The Longbow fires LRMs at CJ - most miss, but a small grouping hits the head, shaking our mechwarrior around a little more.

Zenn7 backs up as the Grasshopper and Victor close in, with Atrophy providing suppressing fire - the Grasshopper winds up on the ground.

Our hovertanks put in a little more work to the north, collapsing a couple of turret-housing buildings and blowing out some of the Longbow's heat sinks, which can't be that great for him given that he fired all his missiles and lasers just now.

A quick check of the situation shows that the facility is basically leveled now, so our job here is done. Two of our mechs - CJ's Victor and Zenn7's Awesome have no armor left on their heads, so a stray shot from pretty much anything will take them out [AN: "only" ~1/36 odds per incoming shot] but other than that we're in pretty good shape. The hostiles still have the full assault lance, the Grasshopper and two lighter units, while we still have two hovertanks.

So we can either pull back - our job is done, but we miss out on any salvage from this battle and lose the destroyed Drillson's surviving crew. Or, we keep pressing - we could use some spare parts for 80 and 85-ton mechs. Parts for medium and light mechs are a dime a dozen, heavy mechs a little less common but we usually don't have a problem getting parts for those, but the assaults, well, we usually have to place orders at a factory.

[] Pull back - job's done
[] Press forward, get a little bit of higher-weight salvage.

---

El Guapo and Moley stare at the contents of the APC we brought back to our dropship landing zone. "I don't get it." Moley says. "Looks like four gigantic missiles. You can fit five hundred LRMs into these containers, easy."

Hyena taps Moley on the shoulder, whispering in his ear. "Right, sorry. Four hundred eighty."

El Guapo shrugs, running his finger over the label on one. "B-a-r-r-a-c-u-d-a-M-K-5-1. Batch 82. Galax." He reads out loud. "That's over in Davion space. Barracuda. Never heard of it. Is that like an Arrow IV for people with uh... missile launcher overcompensation issues? Seems more like a Steiner thing."

"Much bigger than an Arrow IV." Moley says with a shake of his head. "And those are pretty damn big. What the hell kind of mech would even carry a launcher big enough to fire off one of these?"

Hyena taps Moley on the shoulder again, showing him a datapad and emphatically tapping something displayed on it.

"Huh. Guess they've got a few more of these stashed here at these coordinates." Moley states. "You want we should take a couple of lances and grab that stash?"

El Guapo thinks for a moment.

[] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.
[] Hell no. Whoever lost these will come looking for them, and we don't want to be part of the trail.

[TotallyNotEvil]

[X] Pull back - job's done
[X] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.

They are bigger than Arrow IVs? What are these?

[Zenn7]

[] Pull back - job's done
[X] Press forward, get a little bit of higher-weight salvage.

[X] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.
[] Hell no. Whoever lost these will come looking for them, and we don't want to be part of the trail.

Let's get us some spare parts. They got an Awesome and mine may be in need of a new cockpit (and presumably pilot at that point) soon.

Maybe these are some sort of space warship missiles. Whatever they are, they're valuable, let's grab them.

[TotallyNotEvil]

You guys have literally zero head armor. A handful of shots that go your way have good odds of completely decaptating your mech and killing your pilot.

I don't think some salvage is worth losing almost superhumanly good pilots. And hell, losing two mechs could turn the entire engagement in their favor.

[TheMix]

I'm with TNE. We will eventually get more replacement parts. But we can't replace the pilots. And if we lose one of the two to a poor roll, we'll probably lose the entire engagement. Not worth the risk.

And I agree with Zenn on the other question:

Maybe these are some sort of space warship missiles. Whatever they are, they're valuable, let's grab them.

[$iljanus]

[X] Pull back - job's done
[X] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.

They are bigger than Arrow IVs? What are these?

I don’t want to risk some good pilots or mechs to chase salvage but…

We definitely need to get our hands on some more of those big missiles…

Hmmm, my intel dug this up: https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Barracuda

[Leraje]

[X] Pull back - job's done
[X] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.

They are bigger than Arrow IVs? What are these?

I don’t want to risk some good pilots or mechs to chase salvage but…

We definitely need to get our hands on some more of those big missiles…

Hmmm, my intel dug this up: https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Barracuda

I fully support this. Loot is good, but charging in with unarmoured cockpits is unwise

[AWS260]

[X] Pull back - job's done
[] Press forward, get a little bit of higher-weight salvage.

[] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.
[X] Hell no. Whoever lost these will come looking for them, and we don't want to be part of the trail.

If we could actually put them to use, I'd say yes, but we don't have anything that can mount these bad boys. Let's just find an eager buyer for the handful in the APC and leave it at that.

[El Guapo]

[X] Pull back - job's done
[X] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.

They are bigger than Arrow IVs? What are these?

Agreed.

Also, can we save some of these missiles to try to reverse engineer how to make them? As well as launching platforms for them?

[$iljanus]

[X] Pull back - job's done
[X] Hell yeah. Somebody will probably pay good money or hook us up with Star League tech for these.

They are bigger than Arrow IVs? What are these?

Agreed.

Also, can we save some of these missiles to try to reverse engineer how to make them? As well as launching platforms for them?

I like this possibility of upping our technological game if we can make and use these oversized missiles! (And think of the potential profit if we become a distributor)

[El Guapo]

Also, can these missiles be mounted on blimps?

[Captainwolfer]

Also, can these missiles be mounted on blimps?

Not unless you call a dropship a blimp.

[Zenn7]

Also, can these missiles be mounted on blimps?

Not unless you call a dropship a blimp.

Spelljammers (D&D in space)

Wasn't there some game/book/show that used blimp/airships to travel to the moon or Mars?

[gbasden]

You guys have literally zero head armor. A handful of shots that go your way have good odds of completely decaptating your mech and killing your pilot.

I don't think some salvage is worth losing almost superhumanly good pilots. And hell, losing two mechs could turn the entire engagement in their favor.

Absolutely this. No salvage is worth losing those pilots and the risk definitely outweighs the rewards. Going after the missiles, though, sounds like a plan.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pull back - job's done |||||||||
Keep going - |

Hell no |
Hell yeah ||||||||||

Zenn7 looks at the enemy mechs moving to disengage, feeling tempted by the possibility of high-weight mech salvage. But in the end, pragmatism wins out - no head armor on two mechs means even a stray laser will take them out and kill the mechwarriors inside, so he orders the rest of the lance to pull back.

"Hey, where's the fight?" comes a transmission from the allied merc lance.

Zenn7 thinks for a moment. "Who the hell... oh, right. Forgot you guys were even supposed to show up."

The arrival of the allied mercs convinces the rest of the hostiles to cease trying to pull their and our tanks off the field. Without the assault mechs, salvage is the usual crap, plus spare armor and ammo. One of our Drillsons is totaled, but we have more where that came from.

---

El Guapo looks at the Barracuda missiles. "Yeah." He repeats. "Go get 'em."

Moley nods, then gets things moving.

When we get there, it gets complicated.

We've got Moley in the Summoner, Hyena in the Timber Wolf, Moneyshot in the upgraded Hunchback, and a Caesar, backed up by a pair of Falcon hovertanks.

There's also a heavy mech lance approaching from the same direction we are, IFF reading as friendly. They appear to be with the allied merc units. Both of us are approaching from the south.

A Union-class dropship lands to the north and disgorges a lance of medium mechs, accompanied by a number of tanks coming in overland.

The stash itself is defended by a bunch of crappy turrets that won't last very long. For now, we cooperate with the allied merc units as usual, but their presence here is extremely suspicious.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

As our lance and the allied mercs move north, the first thing that happens is a massive explosion way to the north of the stash, right next to the dropship. All chatter on our end is stunned silence, then we move on.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"What. Are. You. Doing." Moley states slowly as he watches a Ferret VTOL rapidly close in on our advancing lance. A quick blast from the Summoner's LBX autocannon perforates the ultra-light helicopter as it drops closer to the ground. Several infantry troopers manage to jump out before the aircraft explodes, but are buried in a salvo of SRMs from our nearby Falcon.

"Anyway." Moley sighs, continuing north.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

One of the turrets fires back at a hostile Condor hovertank - it must have hit something good, because the hovertank blows up. Meanwhile, a Packrat attempts to approach the cache, but is blasted apart by SRMs from one of the turrets - the infantry inside it, too.

Hyena splits fire between a Wolfhound (with PPCs) and a Striker tank (with pulse lasers). Neither target is destroyed, but the Wolfhound takes a hit to the left torso, frying one of its lasers.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Hyena and Moley bust around the buildings housing the cache, hoping to cut the hostile tanks and mechs off and stop them shooting at the buildings. Hyena watches with great amusement as an SRM turret from the cache opens up on a nearby Locust, blowing the little bug mech's right leg clean off with a full twelve SRMs.

A Bulldog to the north explodes as a couple of rockets fly out at it, but a Vedette manages to take one of the turrets off a building.

Hyena winces as a laser from the other Locust brushes against his Timber Wolf's very prominent cockpit. Our mechwarrior maintains focus, though, blasting a Warrior attack helicopter hovering off in the distance with a PPC, evaporating it, while several pulse laser blasts stitch across a light hovertank, cutting iits rear section off entirely.

Moley targets Hyena's Wolfhound pal, blasting through its left leg armor with LRMs to blow out the foot actuator, forcing the 35-ton mech to a knee.

Round 5:
[camera feed damaged]
As Moley hops back to provide covering fire, the Wolfhound tries to move west to get away from Moley and Hyena. There are two problems with this move. First of all, a round of SRMs from the heroic SRM turret blows out one of the 35-tonner's actuators, slowing it down. Second, it can't actually move fast enough to get away from Hyena. And third, it runs into Moneyshot's Hunchback, which promptly saws the lighter mech in half with its AC/20.

This leaves Hyena free to take apart a second Locust, leaving large chunks of bug mech spread out over a wide area.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Moneyshot almost hops the Hunchback away as one of the downed Locusts abruptly lurches and blows up to his right.

Hyena, meanwhile, chases the "royal" Zephyr, intending to finally get rid of the annoying ECM field - the hovertank's lasers fail to connect with the Timber Wolf, while the mech's pulse lasers have no problem shaving the hovertank's drive fans off.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

"Falcons, you're too close to the Union. Back it off." Moley advises.

They do, but our Caesar takes their place. Luckily, this particular Union's gunners aren't too good, so the LRMs simply impact all around the mech instead. A large chunk of hostile vehicles go down - Moley blows through a Bulldog's armor with a PPC shot from the Summoner's right arm, the Caesar disables the Pegasus, Hyena fries a Savannah Master with pulse lasers, while Moneyshot shreds a Manticore's treads with the Hunchback's monster autocannon. The allied mercs get in on the action as well, destroying a Striker light tank.

With a single medium tank lance left to screen it, the Union begins its liftoff sequence. This is where things have the potential to get a little back-stabby though.

"Urban lance commander." the "allied" merc lance leader transmits. "I think we all know why we're here, so let's cut to the chase. We want in on this loot. Give us a fair share, and we'll all walk away happy."

Moley thinks about it for a second. Our lance is in pretty good shape, having taken very little damage other than a ding to Hyena's head - the armor is still intact. We still have a reasonable amount of ammo, except Moneyshot, who's already blown through 60% of his AC/20 ammo.

The "allied" mercs are basically pristine, other than having used a few LRM salvos to help. They've got three Archers and a Crusader, plus a Wyvern (a kind of lackluster 45-ton mech), plus support in the form of a laser carrier and a Manticore.

That, and the Union has only deployed 4 mechs so far, so it's possible more might emerge.

So, we could cut the mercs in on whatever loot we find here.

Or we could tell them to go pound sand. They're not likely to be happy with that.

[] Cut them in - 50%
[] Tell them to slag off; probably results in a fight

[AN: This battle had a few "statistical anomalies". First of all, four hostile units self-destructed from their autocannons blowing up using the 'rapid fire autocannon' rules; second, that SRM/4 turret in the middle of the cluster got like three kills, including a mech; we ought to hire the targeting software that runs it, lol]

[Captainwolfer]

I don't think its anywhere close to worthwhile fighting the mercs over these missiles.