Vote Results:
"Negative. Two, four, disengage immediately." Zenn7 orders after a moment's thought. "Return to our side of the river."
"Although... " he adds, slyly. "No reason we can't keep shooting across the river."
Which is how the retreating Goblin winds up getting blown up by our Schrek, while the retreating Cataphract catches a gauss round from our Executioner; Atrophy lets rip with the Annihilator's LBX autocannons and disables a retreating Patton tank, the pellets completely jamming up its treads.
The salvage is ok - we get the wreck of an Archer and multiple other mechs, while our mechs suffered minimal armor damage. The loss of the Demon tank and its gauss rifle stings a little, but we'll be ok, it's not like we can't buy another one nowadays. The Archer is especially good, because that gives us a few appropriately-rated actuators and structural elements to let us repair Hyena's old ride - the Warhammer 7S - and bring it back into service without having to visit a factory.
October 30, 2052
While tracking down the Leopard's location, Alpha-Ranger lance (accompanied by a little Falcon hovertank buddy) is intercepted by a lance of heavy tanks. Alpha Ranger is Lich in a Timber Wolf, plus a Dervish, a Griffin and a Quickdraw.
Just a lance of heavy tanks. Three Manticores and a Partisan. Literally, that's it.
Round 1:
The tanks are understandably reluctant to actually engage a medium-heavy mech lance. But if they're having doubts, it's a little too late for that.
"Should have kept on driving." Lich comments.
Round 2:
Lich cranks the Timber Wolf's speed to the maximum, sprinting as far as he can, which turns out to be a mistake, as a couple of the tanks decide not to stay in cover entirely and open fire instead. Luckily, our lance leader has three other mechs backing him up with LRMs, which suppress the Partisan and Manticore and prevent them from inflicting any damage on the Timber Wolf.
Round 3:
The Partisan in the back of the enemy formation is Lich's target, and it eats both of the Timber Wolf's PPCs as well as multiple laser slashes, the vehicle more or less falling apart after that beating.
The rest of the lance focuses fire on a Manticore, immobilizing it with lasers and short-range missiles.
Round 4:
The remaining two tanks attempt to flee, one disabling our Falcon hovertank on its way out with a well-placed PPC shot to the skirt. Lich has no interest in letting any of them go, so while the rest of the lance cuts the turret off the northern Manticore, Lich delivers a PPC and long-range missile-fueled beating to the southern one, slowing down.
"Still can't get over how you can fire these clan launchers at point blank range." Lich comments.
Round 5:
"Hold on, all units, try to miss that last guy. And lose line of sight if you can. Ranger-Three, fire up that ECM and active probe, and let's tail him to see where he goes." Lich orders.
We make a big show of blasting the ground all around the no-doubt shell-shocked Manticore, then follow it at maximum sensor range.
... aaaand they lead us to an Overlord-class dropship on the ground.
Overlords are, as we've experimentally established multiple times, monstrous in combat, whether in space, in the air, or on the ground. We have no idea who this belongs to, why it's here, on this random mining world, or where its complement of mechs and aerospace fighters is (all that we're seeing guarding it is a company's worth of tanks, plus a swarm of non-combat units loading and unloading stuff).
However, if we are able to secure said dropship, that would enable us to either get the parts we need to fix our Jumbo, or, even better, "acquire" a second Overlord. Our fellow mercs can be seen salivating over this as well, and are willing to commit a heavy mech lance along with a medium tank lance to help us. We'd still want to bring something hard-hitting that preferably out-ranges the Overlord so that we can pound it from range without entering anything resembling its optimal weapons range - Moley's Alpha-Urban, Leraje's Gamma-Battle and Wolf's Gamma-Striker lances fit the bill (we'll have to swap out the injured guy in the Rifleman from the latter). Actually, we'd probably want two of those on board. Of course, if we deploy a whole company, that'll leave our dropships vulnerable to counter-attack, since there's an Overlord's worth of mechs out there somewhere.
Or, we could forego this somewhat foolhardy idea and go for the easier Leopard target.
Pick up to three, or the "none" option:
[] Alpha-Urban lance: Moley/Summoner, Hyena/TimberWolf, Caesar, Moneyshot/Hunchback
Good long-range punch; the Hunchback won't be getting much action.
[] Gamma-Battle lance: Leraje/Warhawk, Grasshopper, Catapult, Xwraith/Thunderbolt
The Catapult has a damaged actuator for one of its missile pods.
[] Gamma-Striker lance: Wolf/Hellbringer, Bass/Stormcrow, Rifleman, Stefan/Trebuchet
The Rifleman (or the pilot) will have to be swapped out, the pilot is nursing a broken arm.
[] Let's not risk attacking a random Overlord
It belongs to some unknown faction, and we don't know where all of its mechs are.
