Well, there's our answer.
Round 20:
"Dammit, no ejection pod." our mechwarrior says through gritted teeth.
Siljanus' Mackie rocks under laser fire from the Zephyr hovertank, and our mechwarrior vomits as neurofeedback from the gauss rifle's explosion hits him. He still manages to take the leg off the Wasp that tries to land behind him using a PPC shot.
To the north, Isgrimnur hops over the Blackjack as it gets up, the two mechs exchanging some short range fire, then the Blackjack losing a leg as our mechwarrior cracks it. The 45-ton mech stops moving once it hits the ground and Isgrimnur moves on, snapping a shot off at a Thumper turret next to Siljanus - taking the gun emplacement out, along with the whole building.
Round 21:
"Pretty good for mercenary dogs."
Siljanus wipes the puke off himself as best he can and turns one of the Mackie's PPCs and two lasers on a nearby Vedette, blasting through the armor.
Round 22+
Once Siljanus blasts a couple of PPC shots through the remaining Zephyr hovetank's armor, things quiet down. The Orion and Zephyr scampers off (although Isgrimnur glances down the street at the Orion and watches with amusement as the mech slips on pavement and drops to the ground, exploding).
The BattleMaster, another medium mech and the remaining Behemoth also depart without firing any further shots (probably because the Behemoth ran out of ammo). We wind up having to disable a couple more automated turrets before they cease fire and we can call in our salvage crews. In the end, we're able to recover all of our mechs and tanks, except the Merlin.
Isgrimnur really put the Thug to work on this one, scoring eight kills, including a mech, three tanks and four turrets, splitting the MVP with the guy driving the Grasshopper, who took out a heavy and an assault mech, along with an assault tank.
---
"Let me see if I understand this correctly." Zenn7 says, looking at El Guapo as the mechwarrior stands at attention in Zenn7's office on the Moonraker (despite us having an Overlord, which has more space and doesn't always smell like feet). "A couple of mechwarriors in your company had a conversation with one of our prisoners."
"Uhuh."
"This prisoner, a very hostile Kurita samurai type, suggested that our fellow mercenaries, which we have been contracted to bail out and assist, are not just here to acquire biotech research samples or prototypes."
"Uhuh."
"So you moved up the time table for an assault that we'd been planning for a few days, foregoing air and artillery support, just so that you could ask our fellow mercenaries to send in extra forces to back you up, so that these two mechwarriors could infiltrate their landing zone and poke around in containers said mercenaries had seized from an enemy base, that our mechwarriors were curious about."
"Right so far."
"As a result, you completely lost a mech and two mechwarriors, with two of our heavy mech lances basically out of action for the next couple of weeks, in addition to a pair of tanks."
"That's what my report says, yes."
Zenn7 sighs, rubbing his eyes. "I assume, then, that your mechwarriors were able to successfully infiltrate and discover the contents of these crates, and that there was something really good in there, like Star-League era two-ply toilet paper, or perhaps Star League hot sauce, or blueprints for warships that we could manufacture."
El Guapo smirks. "Well, I don't know about that toilet paper. But I'm pretty sure that we're here to steal battle armor prototypes."
Zenn7 raises an eyebrow.
"Cylus' lance brought back some containers with spare parts and equipment; Moley and Hyena observed similar parts and equipment in the Dislocators' landing zone. The Dracs are definitely working on trying to copy the Clans' power armor designs. The question is, what do we do with this information." El Guapo continues smirking. "I'm thinking more money from our employers. You know, to help keep us from uploading this stuff to the HPG network. I hear the Dracs and Feddies are trying to make nice, what with the invaders, it'd be a shame if there was some kind of diplomatic incident."
Zenn7 rolls his eyes, but would be lying if he said he wasn't tempted by the possibility of us getting our hands on some battle armor.
---
Pvt. Hayden "Thud Mk III" Parrel was with the company for four years, racking up eight kills over eight missions, including a Jade Falcon Dragonfly mech. The twenty seven year old mechwarrior originated on Epsilon Indi in FedCom space, just a few jumps off Terra.
Pvt. Nadezda "Stefan Mk V" Sikora was with the company for only a year, with seven kills over five missions. Originating from Skokie, she joined our organization after being poached from a disbanded Rasalhague unit (of which there are a lot these days). She got her shot in back at the clans, surviving the bloodbath at Zoetermeer.
Zarathud, let's pick your replacement:
[] Cpl. Loren Burgess. 37 years old, unspecified origin. With the company for 9 years. 10 missions, 14 kills. Currently drives a Catapult but itching to upgrade to something heavier (like an Awesome). 2 gunnery, 3 piloting. Currently in Gamma-Battle lance, but Leraje is willing to trade for a new recruit. Expert at mech maneuvering.
[] Pvt. Wai-Ha Wu. 25 years old, from New Earth (FedCom space, just one jump away from Terra). 3 gunnery, 4 piloting. Prefers AC/20s to any other type of weapon (meaning is likely to drive a Hunchback or a Victor).
Stefan:
[] Pvt. Allen Nattore. 39 years old, unspecified origin. With the company for 17 years. 27 missions, 34 kills. Currently drives a Trebuchet TBT-3C in Gamma-Striker lance. 2 gunnery, 3 piloting, expert at night and swamp fighting.
[] Pvt. Bonie Khachaturian. 28 years old, from Unzmarkt (we've been there). With the company for 6 years. 16 missions, 12 kills. Currently drives a Phoenix Hawk in Gamma-Probe lance. 3 gunnery, 3 piloting, no particular expertise.