Spoiler:
A Caesar and a Wolverine emerge from some tunnels to the east, engaging Thud and WestOrEast. The Caesar and Thud battle it out - Thud's Hunchback takes multiple pulse laser blasts to the right torso, greatly reducing armor there, sending a burst from the AC/20 scaping against the heavier mech's right leg. Still, Thud gets the worse of it and has to drop to a knee to avoid faceplanting. Our mechwarrior does manage to scrape some armor off the Caesar's head on the way down. WestOrEast is the recepient of multiple attempts at kicking, but fires up the jump Griffin's jump jets, hopping over the clumsy attempts.
To the west, a lone Penetrator has the bad luck of coming up against Lich's Timber Wolf and Cylus' Grasshopper - it blasts armor off our 75 ton clan mech with pulse lasers. Lich's counterattack causes a center torso armor breach - our mechwarrior fires off some LRMs as well, but the Penetrator's anti-missile system spits minigun rounds out, shooting the warheads down almost as soon as they come out of the Timber Wolf's missile rack. The Penetrator, unbalanced by the loss of so much armor, drops to the ground, snapping its right leg off on the way down. Lich plants the Timber Wolf's foot on the mech's left torso, crunching a bunch of armor to ensure it stays down - the mechwarrior takes the hint and powers down, subsequently climbing out.
Round 10:
Spoiler:
Thud struggles to get the Hunchback up while getting pummeled by the Wolverine and Caesar - alerts wail as multiple armor breaches are registered on the torso, and our mechwarrior can see blue coolant fluid spraying out as several heat sinks are hit. The Hunchback gives as good as it gets, blasting through the Caesar's left torso armor with the AC/20 - this causes the heavy mech to stagger and opens it up to a PPC shot from WestOrEast - a blue mist surrounds the mech as it powers down and topples over onto the riverbank.
Round 11:
Spoiler:
To the north, El Guapo engages a BattleMaster, backing up as the hostile assault mech emerges from behind a building - clan weapons give the user an advantage at long range, but don't inflict *that* much more damage; so short range is not where you want to be against pulse lasers. The Dire Wolf's pulse lasers, autocannon rounds and LRMs chatter against the assault mech's armor, to not much effect. The Battlemaster returns fire with LRMs, also to little effect, but the mechwarrior is unable to keep it upright due to the incoming firepower.
Round 12:
Spoiler:
To the east, WestOrEast and Stefan manage to peel the Wolverine off of Thud - as it's distracted engaging WestOrEast's Griffin and dodging a PPC blast, Stefan puts a laser through its SRM ammo bin. The left arm goes flying off into the distance and blow-out panels in the back redirect the blast, but the XL engine shuts down, dropping the mech into the river.
"All right guys. There's three of you, one shot to crap, and six of us, including a bunch of clan tech." El Guapo calls out over the general frequency. "Power down, and you get to keep your mechs once the war is over." He pauses. "Or, we can do this the hard way."
For once, the hostiles choose to do it the easy way. Perhaps watching a Dire Wolf take a BattleMaster apart in about twenty seconds helped.
---
Shortly, the Dragoons Civil War comes to an end. Alpin Wolf, lured into an "unfavorable combat situation" by Maeve's forces and the machinations of "THE Wolf" (and, apparently some personal taunts), is killed in a duel between her Thunderbolt and his Thor (which everyone in our company agrees is just embarrasing - getting beat by a lighter and crappier-tech mech).
With the death of their leader (or figurehead, depending on who you ask), the "rebel" Dragoons stand down and re-acknowledge Jaime Wolf's authority over the organization. It will take them some time to rebuild from the losses they took. As for a lot of the smaller merc companies that chose to become involved, this was a complete meatgrinder and there's a lot of dispossessed mechwarriors (and machines missing mechwarriors) out there, and a lot of techs suddenly looking for work. We took a good amount of damage, losing a substantial portion of our combat vehicles and crews, but avoided losing any mechs. Losing a mechwarrior stings, and we have to dig into our clan tech stores to replace some of the damaged equipment, but in the end, we came out pretty well.
9B, disappointed by the infighting within the Wolf's Dragoons, offers to join us permanently - she's not one of their home-grown mechwarriors, and while the tech is good, the organization is just too big. And, she admits during the conversation, she doesn't really want to work any more with the actual clanners that they've let join. We assure her that we'll still be fighting against the clans when the opportunity comes up.
Considering our role in helping the Dragoons out, we do get a good pick of salvage as everyone sorts through the wreckage. In addition, we're keeping all the standard-tech mechs and the tanks that we salvaged, including an Alacorn tank (you know how a Schreck PPC carrier has three PPCs? Replace the PPCs with gauss rifles).
Here are our choices, including mechs that we opted not to salvage from previous battles. Pick 3 (1 due to banked salvaged, 2 due to victory here)
[] Wolverine WVR-7D;
This 55-ton jumping mech is a straight upgrade to the original WVR-6R - packing an Ultra AC/5 and a medium pulse laser along with a MASC system to make it go faster. An XL engine and ferro-fibrous armor allow the spare mass for all these upgrades, while CASE prevents total destruction in the event of an ammo detonation (it'll still shut down though - the XL engine sticks out too far). This particular one will need a rebuild of its left torso section, and we'll need to dry the left arm out. These make an excellent choice for our version of "recon" lances.
[] Caesar CES-3R; Left torso destroyed, pulse laser destroyed
[] Caesar CES-3R; Head, left torso, right arm destroyed; lower leg actuator damaged, 2 pulse lasers, ER PPC destroyed
We already have one of these 70-ton mechs, so the novelty value has worn off. It brings a PPC and a gauss rifle to the table for long-range firepower, and four medium pulse lasers for close up work (two of which we'll have to rotate forward). Armor protection can be described as "average", which isn't that great for an "average-mobility" mech. An XL engine allows room for all this equipment and extra double heat sinks which can't quite keep up with the full weapons load. CASE is included as standard, which is pretty nice and makes the mech more durable over the long term. We've got two we can ask to have - a less beat-up one and a more beat-up one. The latter, we're more likely to actually get, but it's more spare parts than anything else.
[] Penetrator PTR-4D; right leg destroyed, cockpit destroyed
A 75-ton monster, this would almost be classified as a disco-mech if it wasn't for the anti-missile system installed in the center torso. Otherwise, it's got two extended-range lasers in the arms for long-range firepower and six medium pulses in the torso for short-range. Double heat sinks allow for bracket fire, while jump jets give good maneuverability options. A standard fusion engine, internal structure and standard armor greatly improve maintainability.
[] Enforcer ENF-5D; left torso/arm destroyed, left hip damaged; all weapons destroyed
This 50-ton mech is at the lower end of our desired mass, but it's a significant upgrade over the original model, which was kind of slow and dumpy if we're being honest. An XL engine and ferro-fibrous armor allowed the designers to crank up the maximum speed by 20% so it can keep up with the Griffins and Wolverines of the Inner Sphere, while the autocannon has been upgraded to an LBX model. It's still got the large laser in the other arm and a dinky little small laser to fill that last half ton. With its speed profile, it can now fit into our recon lances, but this one is pretty beat up.
[] Hatchetman HCT-5S; right torso destroyed
This upgrade to the original Hatchetman uses an XL engine to increase speed so that it can actually catch up to the mechs its trying to whack with an axe. At least that's what Isgrimnur Mk I would have suggested. What this version does instead is use the mass savings from the engine and ferro-fibrous armor to max out the armor and replace the two standard medium lasers with three pulses, while changing the standard autocannon to an LBX. Still, this 45-tonner can't quite be ignored, especially in the hands of someone who knows how to swing the hatchet properly.
[] Bandersnatch BNDR-01A; head destroyed, LRM/5 launcher destroyed
This 75-ton mech from one of our earlier battles is apparently based on the Marauder chassis, but has nothing in common with it otherwise. Packing twin LBX autocannons and fifteen LRM tubes for long-range firepower, it brings six medium lasers to the table for short-range work. The many, many tons of ammo are protected by CASE and double heat sinks keep things relatively cool. The XL engine gives it average speed, while the armor protection is... average at best. This particular one will need a new head.
[] Warhammer WHM-7M; right torso destroyed, medium laser, SRM/6, MG destroyed
This 70-tonner is a reasonable upgrade to the standard WRM-6R model; the PPCs have been upgraded to extended-range models, one of the machineguns has been replaced with anti-missile systems and the heat sinks have been upgraded to doubles. Lack of CASE retains the risk of ammo blowing everything sky high. This one is missing about half of its guns and the right torso section. We'll probably have to do some customization work on it, since everybody agrees that there's no need for a full ton of machine gun ammo next to the reactor.
[] Warhammer WHM-7S; Right torso, left torso destroyed
This is basically two ER PPCs and a thin sliver of a mech. In principle, it's got two pulse lasers and two Streak SRM/2 launchers as well as two small lasers; double heat sinks allow much improved weapon operation. Certainly a lot less ammo to blow up, but CASE would have been nice.
[] Stalker STK-5M; cockpit destroyed; SRM/6 and Narc launcher destroyed
This upgrade of the venerable and respected assault mech doesn't do anything fancy. The heat sinks have been upgraded to doubles (although heat management is still required), while the large laser count has been reduced to just one. Instead of the second laser, it has a Narc launcher (currently inoperable) and all the many many tons of ammo have been upgraded to be able to home in on the Narc beacons. Lack of CASE probably means it'll blow sky high especially since half the ammo is stored in the arms.
[] Rifleman RFL-5M; cockpit destroyed, left arm, left leg destroyed
A simple but effective iteration on the original 3N, this replaces the standard autocannons with ultra versions (while keeping the same amount of ammo, meaning it runs out even faster) while upgrading the heat sinks to doubles, which solves the Rifleman's main problem. CASE prevents the autocannon ammo from blowing the entire mech to bits.
[] Orion ON1-M; left torso, left arm destroyed, right shoulder actuator damaged; half weapons load destroyed
By installing an XL engine and double heat sinks, the designers were able to solve the classic model's overheating issues while adding a lot of extra firepower - the LRM launcher has gone from 15 to 20 tubes, a Narc launcher was added to tag hostiles for all the Narc-capable ammo this mech fires, and the autocannon was upgraded to an LBX. CASE prevented this particular one from being annihilated by redirecting the force of the explosion out the back when all the SIX TONS of ammo stored in its left torso blew.
[] Marauder MAD-5D; left torso destroyed
Similar to the 3D model, the 5D mounts twin PPCs (one in each arm), two lasers and a dorsal large laser. All lasers are pulse models, while the PPCs are extended-range. For some reason, the designers also stuck a streak SRM/2 launcher into the left torso along with a ton of ammo. Which was promptly detonated when we engaged that mech. Luckily, CASE prevented its total destruction. An XL engine and double heat sinks allow the operation of all these weapons.
AN:
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