Let's Play: Battletech via MegaMek (G2)

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Air support - unanimous

"All right, try not to scuff the paint on that new mech." Moley tells Hyena.

You can't see inside the cockpit, but given the way the Warhammer is basically hopping back and forth, our mechwarrior is pretty excited.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Moley frowns watching the sensor blip from a single one of our aerospace fighters (a Sparrowhawk) close in. "Hey, where's the rest of your guys?"

"Sorry, Lieutenant, it's just me. Rest of the flight got intercepted and is engaging now."

"I thought we took the airstrip out?" Moley asks, disappointed.

"Yeah, me too." the aero jock replies.

Moley sighs. "Whatever, you got some bombs? Marking designated targets."

A pair of Arrow IV missiles go flying super wide, missing our mechs by several hundred meters. The Sparrowhawk takes some anti-aircraft fire, including a series of LRM impacts that make Moley wince watching them, but drops its bombs on target. A Chaparral artillery piece is blown up, while a pair of nearby tanks get flipped over, and debris bends the main gun on a third Vedette firing upwards. Our aero jock levels off, however.

Hyena adds to the chaos by targeting a Thumper artillery piece with the Warhammer's extended-range PPCs and fusing the right-side treads - under fire by a 70-ton mech, the crew bails out almost right away. A pretty good start.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Hyena moves forward, weathering a storm of missiles as LRMs and SRMs come flying in, including one that hits the head and rattles our mechwarrior a little. Hyena directs the Warhammer's pulse lasers at the offending Harasser, prodding it with several beams of coherent light which connect to the lift fans, settling the hovercraft down to the ground. A spare PPC shot brings down a building housing a triple laser turret.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Moley chuckles as an Arrow IV comes flying in - our mechwarrior stops the Thunderbolt short, letting an Enforcer and a Packrat approach, and the two units eat missile blast radius. Including the artillery piece that fired the missile in the first place. "Good shooting there guys, with aim like that, we don't even need bombers."

Our Blackjack punctuates this by collapsing a building with fifteen LRM tubes on top of it with a PPC blast. Our Sparrowhawk comes around for another pass, knocking another LRM launcher off another building, but eats missile fire from the nearby Hunchback. "Armor breach, left wing. I'm dry on bombs. Pulling out." the aero jock informs us.

"No problem, kid, good shooting. Thanks for the help." Moley responds.

Hyena, meanwhile, runs up to engage a Griffin at point blank range. Weapons fire isn't too effective, although our mechwarrior does manage to plant a streak SRM onto the lighter mech's head. Crunching signals the loss of armor on the Griffin's left leg as it uses said leg to block Hyena's kick - both mechs lose some armor, but the Griffin loses a lot more.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The remaining Arrow IV platform seems reluctant to try to fire its missiles at Moley and the Blackjack at near-point-blank range, but it's got an ultra autocannon and a couple of lasers for short-range firepower. The gunners aren't very good, but still. Moley wipes some sweat off his brow as the Thunderbolt clears the slight inferno that's started up in the tree cluster he was using for cover. A large laser from our mech cuts a stray Packrat in half even as a surprisingly accurate PPC shot from the Griffin to the north melts armor off the Thunderbolt's center torso. Moley's jump has brought our mechwarrior very close to the remaining Arrow IV platform, so a kick breaks through the armor plating on the left side, giving the crew a breath of burnt air.

Hyena moves to engage the Griffin, briefly getting distracted by a Pegasus hovertank pinging short range missiles off the Warhammer's armor - the return fire doesn't do much to the hovertank, either missing the nimble craft outright or doing negligible armor damage. The Griffin's mechwarrior uses the opportunity to dodge aside, avoiding Hyena's kick while backhanding the Warhammer in the chest.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Enforcer, although beat up from the Sparrowhawk's earlier bombing run, subs out for the Griffin in engaging Hyena's Warhammer, while the Pegasus continues to plink away with SRMs. The Enforcer winds up with a PPC-induced center torso armor breach for its trouble, as well as most of its left leg armor gone.

Moley and our Blackjack move east, aiming to take out that last Long Tom and the LRM turret so we can be done with this and clear out.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Hyena moves back to engage the Griffin as it and the Trebuchet from inside the building cluster team up on our Blackjack, inflicting several armor breaches. The 55-tonner's armor holds up, but is looking pretty thin across multiple location.

"Damn, it's gonna take a while to pry this tin can open." Moley mutters as the Long Tom artillery piece refuses to even acknowledge the relatively small amounts of armor flaking off of it.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Moley jumps southeast, sparing two laser blasts at the last remaining LRM turret, taking it out.

Hyena's Griffin loses our mechwarrior briefly, and the Enforcer is back in play again. An SRM from that annoying little Pegasus blows out one of the Warhammer's small lasers, but a building gets in the way of a couple of shots that would have hit the legs, the same going for a laser from the nearby Trebuchet. Hyena opts for the simple way of eliminating the Enforcer, a couple pulse laser blasts through the back. The 40-ton mech seizes up and drops to the ground, black smoke pouring out from multiple melted holes. Still, the Warhammer's armor is now entirely in the yellow, which Hyena reports in a characteristically quiet voice.

"Right. Pull back west. Four and I will finish opening up this Long Tom, then we're done here. Two, cover Three." Moley responds.

"I'll do what I can, but, I've got an Archer blasting away with LRMs and a Javelin crawling up my ass." the BattleAxe responds.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

A Galleon tank rolls up underneath our Blackjack as it pulls out to the east and stitches blasts from its turreted pulse laser across our mech's right torso, carving the right arm off as our mech gives a few parting shots to the Long Tom.

Hyena disables a Vedette with pulse laser fire, while lightly brushing a nearby Warrior with a blast from one of the Warhammer's PPCs. The helicopter survives, but will need some work on its rotor.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The Javelin jumps up to Hyena, intending to try to work on the damaged left leg, but Hyena has a better idea and runs the Warhammer south to blast away at the back of a Trebuchet. But the mech jukes at the last second and the energy weapons fire goes wide, while the streak SRM launchers emit that annoying triple beep indicating a failure to lock on. Our mechwarrior does rip pretty much all the armor plating off the back of the Trebuchet's leg, however.

Our Blackjack, meanwhile, eats an extended-range PPC from the Griffin to the center torso and crumples to the ground.

Moley stomps on the nearby Long Tom after administering some laser fire, cracking its treads and melting the barrel elevation mechanism.

The first question is as usual: the job's done - artillery is disabled or routed, all the storage structures are gone. This place is no longer usable as an artillery firebase. We do have a mechwarrior trapped in the Blackjack's wreckage, so if we bug out, he'll be on his own. With a destroyed center torso section, the double heat sinks in the Blackjack's engine are lost, which is a shame. Our high-tech Warhammer's armor is entirely in the yellow, so sticking around to fight it out means taking on the risk of losing more high tech toys. The other two mechs are in pretty good shape. As far as bad guys go, they've got a beat-up Pegasus, that annoying little Galleon and a pair of helicopters. Also, an infantry squad equipped with what look like "zeus heavy" rifles. For mechs, they've got an Archer with a PPC-induced armor breach, a Griffin with a breached left leg and yellow armor, a Trebuchet with a breached leg, and a more or less intact Javelin, plus a pristine Hunchback (a variant with twin LRM/10 launchers).

[] Stick around to ensure we recover the Blackjack's mechwarrior
[] Pull out, good luck buddy

The second question is obviously more important. A "hat trick" among mechwarriors is when you knock out three or more units in rapid succession. It's pretty tough to pull off without artillery or aerospace fighter-dropped bombs, because you have to split fire or accidentally skid into something or step on a bridge that has multiple tanks on it or some other unlikely scenario. Moley may have achieved that when he took out the Packrat and crippled the "Huey" - the Packrat had an infantry squad inside that was fried when the large laser critically hit the infantry compartment, so that was technically two kills. Do we count the Huey as a kill (it certainly was a mission-kill), even though it was able to drive off the field under its own power?

[] Hat Trick!
[] No, that's not a hat trick, your kills can't drive off under their own power

[TheMix]

[X] Stick around to ensure we recover the Blackjack's mechwarrior
[] Pull out, good luck buddy

Again, no skin in the game. But so far we've been following "no man left behind". Though it sounds like this time it may be a really bad idea to stick it out. So I yield to those in the field.

[] Hat Trick!
[X] No, that's not a hat trick, your kills can't drive off under their own power

I probably don't have enough experience here to chime in.
But, personally, I wouldn't count the first as a double. Taking out a vehicle with a squad in it seems like it should only count once. As for the second, I'm okay with counting a kill if the target is out of the fight.

[El Guapo]

[X] Stick around to ensure we recover the Blackjack's mechwarrior
[] Pull out, good luck buddy
[X] Rescue commando force go!

[] Hat Trick!
[] No, that's not a hat trick, your kills can't drive off under their own power
[X] No, you only get credit for the vehicle, not for the contents of the vehicle.

I pretty much agree with Mr. TheMix, i think, but have some slight modifications.

Seriously, isn't there a way to send in some type of rescue squad via Chinook or stealth blimp or something, and then just provide that squad with cover fire (and then bug out as soon as the squad is away)?

[NickAragua]

You know what, we do have a "search and rescue" unit just for this purpose. It's more Ostscout and very light helicopter rather than blimp, but it might do the trick. Just have to figure out how to get it into the scenario without too much hassle on my end.

[$iljanus]

You know what, we do have a "search and rescue" unit just for this purpose. It's more Ostscout and very light helicopter rather than blimp, but it might do the trick. Just have to figure out how to get it into the scenario without too much hassle on my end.

I like this option! If we need to fight it out in the end I’ll still support that option since it would kind of suck being the one guy who doesn’t get a rescue attempt.

[El Guapo]

I should also add on the "hat trick" question that if it's generally accepted that you get credit for an infantry squadron killed inside of a vehicle kill, then I would go along with awarding the hat trick, even if that general rule seems silly.

[TheMix]

I should also add on the "hat trick" question that if it's generally accepted that you get credit for an infantry squadron killed inside of a vehicle kill, then I would go along with awarding the hat trick, even if that general rule seems silly.

Agreed.

[Leraje]

I should also add on the "hat trick" question that if it's generally accepted that you get credit for an infantry squadron killed inside of a vehicle kill, then I would go along with awarding the hat trick, even if that general rule seems silly.

Agreed.

2-for-1 kill is far more efficient (and entertaining) than 2 single kills


[x] Stick around to ensure we recover the Blackjack's mechwarrior but pull damaged Whammy to extreme range.

[x] No, that's not a hat trick, your kills can't drive off under their own power, go and jump a on it a few times.

[Zenn7]

I like Guap's "gogo rescue rangers" idea, but if that's not an option, we'll fight and rescue are person.

Hat trick? Yeah, I question the contents counting as a second kill. As for the exiting vehicle, do those count as kills for skilling up and stuff (like when we see our kill count?) If yes, it counts, if no, it doesn't count.

Speaking of our kill counts, can we see an updated count when we're done with this campaign? Just a curiosity thing.

[AWS260]

[] Stick around to ensure we recover the Blackjack's mechwarrior
[x] Pull out, good luck buddy

If they can't get away, we'll have to get them back in a prisoner exchange, but that's not the end of the world. We've done it plenty of times before.

[] Hat Trick!
[X] No, that's not a hat trick, your kills can't drive off under their own power
[X] No, you only get credit for the vehicle, not for the contents of the vehicle.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Stick around ||||
Pull out ||
Put the search + rescue squad to work |||

Hat trick |||
Not a hat trick ||||||

Moley sighs. "Search and Rescue, are you guys on station? I think we're going to need you here. Home in on these coordinates, extract downed mechwarrior."

"Roger that. Cover for us while we get in there." Comes the response.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Moley's main proble right now is dislodging that Hunchback that's got direct line of site on the Blackjack's hulk. But first, to get rid of that annoying little Javelin jumping around - four lasers to the right side for an armor breach ought to help. The light mech staggers but remains upright.

Hyena bolts south, snapping off a PPC shot backwards at the pursuing Trebuchet to discourage it, zapping off a small amount of armor.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Hyena turns the Warhammer around briefly, firing a PPC shot and two pulse lasers into the pursuing trebuchet, breaching armor on its left leg.

To the north, our BattleAxe has been dueling with an Archer for a while, the two mechs exchanging medium-range fire as the BattleAxe hops between two clusters of trees to minimize its exposure. The damage is strating to tell on the Archer as its armor drops lower and lower.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

Our BattleAxe takes a brief break from focusing all its attention on the Archer to send a six pack of SRMs at a Pegasus hovertank zipping around, immobilizing it with several missile impacts. The Pegasus pays the favor back with a laser blast and an SRM salvo, but our mech is still mobile afterwards.

Hyena grunts as an LRM salvo from the Griffin impacts the Warhammer's damaged left leg, frying several actuators - our mech stumbles but our mechwarrior is able to deliver a counterattack, shearing the Griffin's left leg off with a PPC shot. Somehow, the Warhammer remains upright, but that leg is definitely going to need replacing.

Our search & rescue crew begins their approach as Moley engages the Hunchback, blasting out a leg actuator and spraying fluid from a melted heat sink with the Thunderbolt's lasers. Our mech takes some armor damage too, but is fine for now.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

"That Hunchback still there?" The Ferret's crew asks.

"Yeah, one sec." Moley responds, trying to get a good angle on the 50-ton mech that seems to have made it its mission to secure the Blackjack's wreckage.

Hyena slowly creaks the Warhammer further to the south, trying to retreat, but actuator damage is slowing our mech down and allows the Javelin to jump in and take a pot shot. Luckily, the leg holds, despite some structural elements getting blasted away.

On the plus side, our BattleAxe zaps an annoying little Warrior attack helicopter with one of the mech's PPCs, removing it from the field, with the exception of some scraps.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

Moley ducks out from behind a building, sparing a shot for a Galleon that's decided to help its Hunchback buddy out. The Galleon is safe, but the Hunchback takes multiple laser hits from our Thunderbolt plus a large number of missiles from our newly-arrived Warrior VTOL while the Ferret unloads an infantry squad to pry the Blackjack's cockpit open. The Hunchback can't handle all the armor loss and drops to the ground.

Hyena continues getting harassed by the Javelin, scoring another PPC hit on the enemy mech but loses another leg actuator. Despite having no working actuators left in the right leg, the Warhammer remains upright, a testament to the mechwarrior's skill (at this point, the piloting action is basically "lock the leg and drag it").

Round 14:

Spoiler:

"Got him. Evacuating now." comes the report from the Ferret.

"Right. Pulling out. Everybody rally on the Warhammer." Moley orders.

Hyena takes an SRM hit to the left leg, looking with concern at the structural integrity indicator slowly going down, but relief comes from an unexpected source - our Warrior helicopter unloads a salvo of missiles on the Javelin, destroying its right torso section and blowing the right arm off.

Round 15:

Spoiler:

Our BattleAxe breaks south as well, splattering a platoon of rifle-equipped infantry trying to get a potshot on the mech - using high-tech Artemis-enabled SRM ammo is a little overkill on an infantry squad, but it does the job. The distraction costs our BattleAxe as the SRM launcher is disabled by LRM fire from the enemy Archer which hasn't forgotten about it.

Moley turns towards the Galleon again, blasting it with lasers - it's been giving our mechs quite the hard time for a while and an armor breach convinces the crew to disengage. The Trebuchet zaps Moley's mech with a few lasers as well but armor continues to hold, given our Ostscout the opportunity to disable the Trebuchet's left leg, forcing it to keel over to the right and crunch one of its LRM launchers.

At this point, the Hunchback and Archer (and hostile Ferret) opt to disengage, leaving us in control of the field. Pretty good for a search & rescue run.

Hyena turned out to be the MVP this run, getting six kills, including two mechs: a legged Griffin and an the Enforcer. The Griffin turns out to be excellent salvage - it's a GRF-3M, and is basically the same design as the standard Griffin, but with everything turned up to 11. Double heat sinks, extended range PPC, LRM/20 launcher... and a left-torso-mounted small laser for some reason. We'll definitely be making use of that one - it's no clan tech, but it's pretty good.

The search & rescue unit won't be available for the rest of the week, but they definitely pulled their weight on that one.

---

Sometime after the mission, Moley and Akalon have a discussion regarding hat tricks.

"Of course it's a hat trick! Three mission kills, totally counts." Moley exclaims.

"No way you could have known about the guys inside the transport. It has to be three confirmed kills, by direct shooting. Can't be a side effect!" Akalon responds.

"First of all, that was by direct shooting - laser went right through that infantry compartment. Also, what about if I blow up a fuel tank and get three kills that way, pretty sure that counts." Moley embellishes the story by making a 'pzzhhewww' sound effect and an explosion gesture with his hands.

"I guess. But they can't just drive off the field afterwards, that's not a kill. It doesn't even go on your kill board!" Akalon counters, confidently.

"Well, that's true." Moley responds, sadly acknowledging the point.

---

With the two support facilities taken out, the competitor excavation crews appear to have figured out what we're doing. We're observing a convoy leaving what looks like a dig site, which is still being supervised. Our liaison looks at the recon footage of the excavation site and points to a particular paint job. "That's the guy!"

"Who?" Zenn7 asks, not quite sure what's being discussed.

"The guy. He's putting all the funding together for these mercs. Not all of them, but this group. We take him out, and they're out!" The liaison responds, pacing excitedly back and forth.

"What about these tanks and mechs that look like they're getting packed up and moving out?" Zenn7 points to the second blip on the map.

"We can't take the chance that they've got some of our stuff. We need to take them out. And uh, obviously, they need to be intact. No ammo detonations on the designated targets. If there's any Star League loot in one of those and you blow them up, it's coming out of your share."

How much do we really care about that?
[] Not at all - we prefer to preserve our assets, especially since we've been getting plenty of high-end loot anyway
[] Some - we'll make an effort to disable units when possible but won't go out of our way
[] Grudgingly, a lot - even with the loot we've got, having access to a large cache of Star League tech trumps potential damage to our assets

AN: The ability to add units to a MegaMek mid-mission really helps me expand the storytelling options I've got.

[TheMix]

How much do we really care about that?
[] Not at all - we prefer to preserve our assets, especially since we've been getting plenty of high-end loot anyway
[X] Some - we'll make an effort to disable units when possible but won't go out of our way
[] Grudgingly, a lot - even with the loot we've got, having access to a large cache of Star League tech trumps potential damage to our assets

I kind of feel like we've been chewed up enough. I have no interest in taking more damage. We'll survive with less loot if we have to. I don't think it's worth risking the lives of our forces.

[Zenn7]

How much do we really care about that?
[] Not at all - we prefer to preserve our assets, especially since we've been getting plenty of high-end loot anyway
[X] Some - we'll make an effort to disable units when possible but won't go out of our way
[] Grudgingly, a lot - even with the loot we've got, having access to a large cache of Star League tech trumps potential damage to our assets

I kind of feel like we've been chewed up enough. I have no interest in taking more damage. We'll survive with less loot if we have to. I don't think it's worth risking the lives of our forces.

Agreed.

[Leraje]

How much do we really care about that?
[] Not at all - we prefer to preserve our assets, especially since we've been getting plenty of high-end loot anyway
[X] Some - we'll make an effort to disable units when possible but won't go out of our way
[] Grudgingly, a lot - even with the loot we've got, having access to a large cache of Star League tech trumps potential damage to our assets

I kind of feel like we've been chewed up enough. I have no interest in taking more damage. We'll survive with less loot if we have to. I don't think it's worth risking the lives of our forces.

Agreed.

Agreed.

[El Guapo]

How much do we really care about that?
[] Not at all - we prefer to preserve our assets, especially since we've been getting plenty of high-end loot anyway
[X] Some - we'll make an effort to disable units when possible but won't go out of our way
[] Grudgingly, a lot - even with the loot we've got, having access to a large cache of Star League tech trumps potential damage to our assets

I kind of feel like we've been chewed up enough. I have no interest in taking more damage. We'll survive with less loot if we have to. I don't think it's worth risking the lives of our forces.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed.

[$iljanus]

How much do we really care about that?
[] Not at all - we prefer to preserve our assets, especially since we've been getting plenty of high-end loot anyway
[X] Some - we'll make an effort to disable units when possible but won't go out of our way
[] Grudgingly, a lot - even with the loot we've got, having access to a large cache of Star League tech trumps potential damage to our assets

I kind of feel like we've been chewed up enough. I have no interest in taking more damage. We'll survive with less loot if we have to. I don't think it's worth risking the lives of our forces.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed.

Agreed.

[moleymoleymoley]

Agreed, gutted about the hat trick but it's the right decision

[AWS260]

"We can't take the chance that they've got some of our stuff. We need to take them out. And uh, obviously, they need to be intact. No ammo detonations on the designated targets. If there's any Star League loot in one of those and you blow them up, it's coming out of your share."

Unless it's stipulated explicitly in our contract, holding us liable for lost cargo in a convoy that we've been asked to *attack* seems like B.S. We may need to get the Overlords legal department involved in this one.

[$iljanus]

"We can't take the chance that they've got some of our stuff. We need to take them out. And uh, obviously, they need to be intact. No ammo detonations on the designated targets. If there's any Star League loot in one of those and you blow them up, it's coming out of your share."

Unless it's stipulated explicitly in our contract, holding us liable for lost cargo in a convoy that we've been asked to *attack* seems like B.S. We may need to get the Overlords legal department involved in this one.

Also, I thought salvage on this world was fair game so we're pretty much robbing the competition. I think the corporate suit should be happy with whatever booty we happen to grab. Their "stuff" indeed.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

none |
some ||||||
a lot ||

"Sure, whatever." Wolf mumbles several hours later as the Grasshopper trundels across obnoxiously rocky terrain en route to intercept the convoy under discussion. Stefan's Trebuchet and SgtSoldier's Phoenix Hawk flank the lance leader while the LBX Rifleman, transferred from Leraje's Battle Lance, brings up the rear of the diamond.

Wolf tries to wait for the clouds to clear up a little so we can at least get some moonlight on the situation (Krakatau, the satellite, is freaking huge so fighting under it is almost as good as sunlight), but instead, clouds move in and reduce the lighting instead. On the plus side, this slows the convoy down and leaves them and/or their escorts open for a little aerospace bombing run. Two of our fighters will stay on overwatch in case any hostile aerospace fighters show up, while a Starfire will make repeated runs, dropping cluster bombs and working with its ultra autocannon and medium laser array to help out.

The escorting force is a lance of heavy tanks, a short light mech lance and a short heavy mech lance - including a Grasshopper, a Thunderbolt and an Awesome. So these guys aren't kidding around about convoy protection here.

"Avoid the Awesome if you can - if we can take out the anklebiters first and disable the convoy units, maybe that mech will call it quits." Wolf points out.

"Right." SgtSoldier calls out. "Go for the legs on those mechs!"

"And try not to squash that stupid little flatbed truck." Stefan adds, smirking. That last one's going to be a tall order, but maybe we can get it done if we can hit it with an SRM or something.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The party begins with a bombing run from our Starfire. It's actually pretty accurate, with most of the bombs hitting the intended cluster of heavy tanks (and Grasshopper), but the ordnance just doesn't get through the armor. Although, the Grasshopper does fall over. The Starfire takes some anti-aircraft fire but remains airborne.

SgtSoldier takes a snap shot with one of the Phoenix Hawk's extended range lasers, blasting and disabling a convoy mech's arm. With our preponderance of ER large lasers, a good option may be to hang back and snipe to whittle down enemy numbers.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Stefan and Wolf focus LRM fire and an ER laser blast on a Mining mech trying to advance under cover from an Awesome's PPC fire. The 80-tonner's shots have no chance to hit, while the mining mech drops to the ground from armor loss and damage to the right arm. At which point its internal combustion engine decides to "flare up" and a brief orange poof lights up the night.

"What the hell, we didn't even hit it that hard!" Stefan complains.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

LRMs start coming in from the distant tanks, although the missile clusters don't come close to hitting any of our mechs. Our Rifleman opens up with a single LBX autocannon, switching to cluster rounds, and blasts the flatbed truck. Unfortunately, the grouping on the pellets is a little too good, and the flatbed truck basically disappears.

Wolf performs an expert eyeroll.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Three, just go take out that loader mech on the right, then we'll pull out and call it a day. I don't care how much Star League loot there is in there, it's not worth it tangling with an Awesome and its buddies." Wolf orders SgtSoldier, who breaks east. The only shot that connects in this exchange is Wolf's laser to the leg of a Crosscut loadermech. The incoming and outgoing LRMs just provide fireworks.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

A couple of light mechs move to engage SgtSoldier as our mechwarrior can't resist hopping in behind an Ostscout just as it lands, in addition to planting a laser blast on the target Powerman's left torso. The armor holds, though. Our mechwarrior sweeps the Phoenix Hawk's leg, tripping the Ostscout up and bringing it down to the ground on the right.

"I got him!" Our Rifleman calls out as two solid shots from the mech's twin autocannons crack the ForestryMech's armor and cause severe engine damage. With the mech beginning to fall over with all the tell-tale signs of a disabled gyro, our mechwarrior asks "Wait, why was there an echo on comms?"

"No, I said I got him!" Stefan responds, just as the Trebuchet's LRMs fly in and completely annihilate the poor thing.

Another explosion lights up the night to the east, as our Starfire flies over and blast a Saladin with its lasers, the autocannon attack failing to hit - three tons of AC/20 ammo exploding doesn't really help keep the hovertank in one piece.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"You got that last guy?" Wolf asks.

"Yeah." SgtSoldier responds.

"Ok. Lance, pull out to the west. Three, finish your target, then break off at your discretion."

We send some fire the LoaderMech's way to help SgtSoldier out, with Wolf and Stefan removing an arm and a leg with laser and LRM fire respectively. With SgtSoldier's lasers landing as well, that mech now just has one leg and, predictably keels over. The Ostscout gets strafed by our Starfire as it gets up, with help from the Rifleman - the mech's left arm is shredded while a laser from our aerospace fighter hits the 35-ton mech's dome and knocks the mechwarrior out.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

With no way to get up or move, the LoaderMech's driver bails.

"Breaking off at my discretion." SgtSoldier reports.

"That better not be some stupid way of saying 'I'm going to take all these mechs and tanks on by myself in a Phoenix Hawk'." Wolf chides our mechwarrior.

"Nah, nah, I'm actually breaking off!" SgtSoldier pleads, laughing.

Round 8+
Other than SgtSoldier having to blast some armor off the pursuing Javelin with the Phoenix Hawk's lasers, our withdrawal goes smoothly.

We'll handle telling our employers about how that went in a little bit. Zenn7 takes the Beta Assault lance out himself to get a little exercise and take out the merc leadership for this particular excavation crew. The target is in a Bulldog tank, which isn't very impressive. And is defended by a swarm of light/medium tanks and hovercraft, which... also isn't that impressive. There's also a medium mech lance present. Since there's no "capturing" involved here, and there appears to be very little high tech goodies that we'd want to salvage (maybe that one Galleon tank with ferro-fibrous armor that's showed up on sensors), we can go all out.

We've got the ability to kind of hem these guys in to an interception point of our choice, and decide upon an abandoned industrial complex. First, we can get some infantry up there and either have them set up firing positions or set up some serious minefields then fade away before the hostiles get there. As far as more substantial fire support, we can bring in some aerospace fighters (and load them up with fuel-air bombs) or artillery (with a pair of TAG hovercraft for support and designation), or we can bring in some heavy armor (we've got a Demon tank and a Manticore ready to go and can probably hook up another heavy/assault tank in fairly short order).

Infantry:
[] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

[Leraje]

Infantry:
[x] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[x] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

We should play to our strength - blowing things up and setting what remains on fire.

[El Guapo]

Infantry:
[x] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[x] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

We should play to our strength - blowing things up and setting what remains on fire.

Yeah, this makes sense, assuming our nuke blimps aren't ready yet.

[AWS260]

Infantry:
[x] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[x] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

Give the arty crews some more target practice.

[Zenn7]

Infantry:
[x] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[x] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

Give the arty crews some more target practice.

I like the aerospace approach, but this seems like a good time to let the arty get some practice.

[TheMix]

Infantry:
[x] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[x] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

Give the arty crews some more target practice.

Assuming the experience will actually benefit them (not sure how that works here), then I'm onboard with them getting better.

[$iljanus]

Infantry:
[x] set up minefields
[] set up firing positions for field guns

Big guns:
[] Aerospace bomber flight, fuel-air bombs.
[x] Artillery, with TAG hovercraft support.
[] Heavy armor

Give the arty crews some more target practice.

Assuming the experience will actually benefit them (not sure how that works here), then I'm onboard with them getting better.

Sounds good!

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Minefields - unanimous

Aerospace |||
Artillery ||||

"Really?" AWS stares at the commlink, hearing Zenn7's response to the suggestion of bringing the artillery. "Wow, nobody ever listened to me on this stuff before."

Akalon smirks. "Give yourself some credit, not all your ideas are bad."

"Well, I'm glad you think so!" AWS beams. "Now, about installing these networked targeting systems... "

---

Zenn7's assault lance trundles forward, supported by a pair of Zephyr hovertanks. Our infantry have set up the minefields to the north and cleared out, so now it's just a bunch of our mechs and hovertanks.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our artillery begins firing homing rounds as the hovertanks and mechs advance. The hostiles move towards us, and the minefields.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A Vedette hits one of our minefields and its treads slip off entirely. The indicators also blink off for a minefield we'd set up to the west, meaning something there has hit one. Hostile units engage our mechs and hovertanks with long-range autocannon fire but nothing connects.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

A Hetzer and another Vedette fall victim to our minefields. The crew on the eastern support hovertank is mildly amused by this, as they were just about to TAG that Vedette.

Zenn7 advances down the central "street", blasting away at a Condor hovertank with the Awesome's PPCs. The hovertank may be 50 tons, but its skirt stands no chance against concentrated charged particles delivered at high temperatures and melts, letting all the air out and immobilizing it.

To the west, our Victor takes a couple of LRMs flying in from over some buildings, including a few to the dome, but remains upright. To the east, our Hatamoto-Hi has a little trouble with a trio of hovercraft that basically flew right over our minefields and is unable to deliver any permanent damage.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"Target spotted!" Our Victor pilot reports. "... aand he just hit a mine."

The Victor and Flashman team up to take out a Scorpion tank, while our Hatamoto-Hi uses its pulse lasers to track the rapidly-moving Scimitar hovertank and melt through the armor around its rear drive fans, frying them.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Another pair of tanks fail to navigate our minefields, a Galleon and another Vedette. At this rate, there won't be much left for our mechs to blow up.

Our Victor takes a couple of autocannon rounds, lasers and SRMs from the Condor and Scimitar zipping around to the north, returning fire with its gauss rifle. The nickel-iron slug punches through the Condor's armor, allowing lasers and SRMs through into the interior and turning it into slag.

Zenn7 smirks with amusement as an SRM pings off his Awesome's armor, then directs three PPCs at the offending Scimitar hovertank, the lightning melting armor and internal structure, though stopping short of completely wrecking the vehicle.

A Warrior attack helicopter buzzes our Hatamoto-Hi, distracting our mech from its Vedette prey to the north with autocannon and MG fire. This proves costly for the helicopter as pulse lasers blow its tail rotor off, sending it into an uncontrolled spin which ends on the ground, the fuel tank detonating on impact.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Our Zephyrs continue to fail to designate targets for the homing Arrow IVs, but one of them does manage to disable a Saracen hovertank zipping around, putting several lasers through its skirt and frying lift fans. The other one has to dodge a Dervish trying to disrupt its TAG activity, but that leaves our Victor the opportunity to jump behind said Dervish and cut its left leg off with a couple of well placed lasers (the leg looking a little weak, possibly due to having stepped on some mines previously). The 55-ton mech keels over to the left, at which point its left side disappears as an SRM ammo bin goes off.

With their leader dead (from a minefield strike, embarrasingly enough) and their ground units getting massacred, the remaining hostiles beat feet, retreating to the north. Zenn7 nods and smiles, letting the Awesome's heat sinks have a little break.

---

"... so that covers our adjustments to artillery deployment doctrine." Zenn7 finishes.

"Is it going to make them any more useful?" El Guapo asks.

Zenn7 shrugs and lifts his arms in resignation.

"Why don't we ask the artillery guys how we should deploy them?" Leraje suggests.

"No, that's crazy talk." Zenn7 says with a smirk. "You know, we got along just fine back in the day without all these treadheads and tube brains and mosquitoes. Just a few people in battlemechs, doing what they need to do." He sighs and shakes his head. "Anyway, our employers' people are going over that dig site, seeing what the other crew dug up before we got there. Now..."

A chime beeps, indicating an urgent message from the comms station, routed all the way via comms satellite from the local Hyper-Pulse Generator. Our force commander looks over at his data pad and frowns, reading the incoming message marked with as many "urgent" icons as the data pad can display (and then probably some more).

---

From: jwolf@wolfs.dragoons.merc.net <routed via ComStar nodes lc-81; lc-95, lc-15, cs-00 ...>
To: yting@octopus.overlords.merc.net

Greetings, Major.

Congratulations on your promotion. I'd like to once again thank you and your company for the intelligence you shared at Outreach and your efforts against the Clans on Zoetermeer. I hope you have used the intervening time to build your company up to full strength, because we are now calling upon you to honor your agreement to participate in efforts against the Clans.

We have received intelligence indicating that the Clans are planning to resume their attacks on Inner Sphere space. One of the worlds that will be targeted is Luthien, the capital of the Draconis Combine. House Davion and Steiner have hired the Wolf's Dragoons and the Kell Hounds mercenary regiments to help House Kurita defend their capital world. Despite House Kurita's very checkered history with those of our profession, we intend to carry out this job to the best of our ability, as this is bigger than any personal vendetta.

You are requested to arrive on Luthien no later than the end of December.

See you there.
Jamie Wolf

P.S. Use 512-bit asymmetric encryption when responding. ComStar is watching.

---

Zenn7 frowns, doing some mental math, then shaking his head. He looks over at Freyland. "Hey, how long to get to Luthien from here?"

Freyland thinks for a second. "If we leave now? Ten days to jump point here, hundred days of constant jumps assuming none of the jumpships break down, then another ten days burning towards the crown jewel. Why, we got somewhere to be?"

Zenn7 nods, forwarding the message to the rest of the command staff at the meeting.

So, we've been called up to help defend Luthien from the clans. The pay will be astronomical and the salvage spectacular, but we'll be up against a force of clanners that are attacking the capitol world of one of the five Successor States, so it's not going to be a walk in the park. Do we go?

[] Yes, "No Guts No Galaxy"
[] No, slink back into mediocrity "No Guts No Galaxy"

We do have this existing contract that we have to finish up. Suddenly, our time window has gone from "almost three more months" to "ten days at most" (we really don't want to miss the party at Luthien). We've got a couple of opinions expressed on the matter, ranging from "let's ditch" to "let's call up Epsilon Company" to "let's push hard and see if we can run everyone else off this rock real quick". Calling up Epsilon Company sounds like a good idea, except it'll take them three months to get here, by which time all the Star League stuff will be gone one way or the other. But, someone suggests leaving behind a company's worth of mechwarriors and mechs. We're a little short on mechwarriors, but have plenty of spare mechs and can likely hire replacements en route to Luthien.

Some options, or if anyone has any ideas, speak up:
[] Pack it up, ditch the current contract; employer pissed, no further loot, no further risk to our assets, full strenth at Luthien
[] Push hard over the next ten days, then depart; going to be pretty tough, as there are still at least three groups of mercs and treasure hunters running around.
[] Push hard over the next ten days, depart, leaving a company and some spare mechs behind; Gives the extra company a "head start", but they're still going to have a tough time and will need to get pretty creative. Still a better chance of fulfilling the contract than the other two options.

[El Guapo]

[X] Yes, "No Guts No Galaxy"
[] No, slink back into mediocrity "No Guts No Galaxy"

Some options, or if anyone has any ideas, speak up:
[X] Pack it up, ditch the current contract; employer pissed, no further loot, no further risk to our assets, full strenth at Luthien
[] Push hard over the next ten days, then depart; going to be pretty tough, as there are still at least three groups of mercs and treasure hunters running around.
[] Push hard over the next ten days, depart, leaving a company and some spare mechs behind; Gives the extra company a "head start", but they're still going to have a tough time and will need to get pretty creative. Still a better chance of fulfilling the contract than the other two options.

On the first question, I'm not sure whether the strikethrough on the "no" means that's not actually an option, but either way it's go time - we don't want to miss out on he action.

On the second one, who gives a shit about this stupid planet, and there's plenty of Star League level tech where we're going. And I don't love the idea of taking a lot of damage or weakening ourselves right before taking on the Clans. We might as well offer to make some calls and see if we can find a replacement mercenary group to take over, or maybe offer to do a bombing run or two on the way out, but that's about it.

[Leraje]

[X] Yes, "No Guts No Galaxy"
[] No, slink back into mediocrity "No Guts No Galaxy"

Some options, or if anyone has any ideas, speak up:
[X] Pack it up, ditch the current contract; employer pissed, no further loot, no further risk to our assets, full strenth at Luthien
[] Push hard over the next ten days, then depart; going to be pretty tough, as there are still at least three groups of mercs and treasure hunters running around.
[] Push hard over the next ten days, depart, leaving a company and some spare mechs behind; Gives the extra company a "head start", but they're still going to have a tough time and will need to get pretty creative. Still a better chance of fulfilling the contract than the other two options.

On the first question, I'm not sure whether the strikethrough on the "no" means that's not actually an option, but either way it's go time - we don't want to miss out on he action.

On the second one, who gives a shit about this stupid planet, and there's plenty of Star League level tech where we're going. And I don't love the idea of taking a lot of damage or weakening ourselves right before taking on the Clans. We might as well offer to make some calls and see if we can find a replacement mercenary group to take over, or maybe offer to do a bombing run or two on the way out, but that's about it.

Agreed. Clan loot is better than SL. Good idea about sounding for replacement merc unit.

[El Guapo]

I'm sure that Yuri's Discount Mech and Catering Company would do a great job with the remainder of this mission.

[TheMix]

[X] Yes, "No Guts No Galaxy"
[] No, slink back into mediocrity "No Guts No Galaxy"

Some options, or if anyone has any ideas, speak up:
[X] Pack it up, ditch the current contract; employer pissed, no further loot, no further risk to our assets, full strenth at Luthien
[] Push hard over the next ten days, then depart; going to be pretty tough, as there are still at least three groups of mercs and treasure hunters running around.
[] Push hard over the next ten days, depart, leaving a company and some spare mechs behind; Gives the extra company a "head start", but they're still going to have a tough time and will need to get pretty creative. Still a better chance of fulfilling the contract than the other two options.

On the first question, I'm not sure whether the strikethrough on the "no" means that's not actually an option, but either way it's go time - we don't want to miss out on he action.

On the second one, who gives a shit about this stupid planet, and there's plenty of Star League level tech where we're going. And I don't love the idea of taking a lot of damage or weakening ourselves right before taking on the Clans. We might as well offer to make some calls and see if we can find a replacement mercenary group to take over, or maybe offer to do a bombing run or two on the way out, but that's about it.

Agreed. Clan loot is better than SL. Good idea about sounding for replacement merc unit.

Agree.

Also, seems like this is a prior commitment. And one that trumps the current contract. I didn't follow the last thread, but this is a Big Deal(TM), isn't it?

[$iljanus]

So no 3rd rate merc outfits fighting by our side and some nice Clan salvage for the taking. $iljanus approves!

And let’s blow this joint and get off this rock. Perhaps some high level functionary from Wolf’s Dragoons can smooth things over with our soon to be former employer, citing our prior commitment to save the galaxy.

[Zenn7]

[X] Yes, "No Guts No Galaxy"
[] No, slink back into mediocrity "No Guts No Galaxy"

Some options, or if anyone has any ideas, speak up:
[X] Pack it up, ditch the current contract; employer pissed, no further loot, no further risk to our assets, full strenth at Luthien
[] Push hard over the next ten days, then depart; going to be pretty tough, as there are still at least three groups of mercs and treasure hunters running around.
[] Push hard over the next ten days, depart, leaving a company and some spare mechs behind; Gives the extra company a "head start", but they're still going to have a tough time and will need to get pretty creative. Still a better chance of fulfilling the contract than the other two options.

On the first question, I'm not sure whether the strikethrough on the "no" means that's not actually an option, but either way it's go time - we don't want to miss out on he action.

On the second one, who gives a shit about this stupid planet, and there's plenty of Star League level tech where we're going. And I don't love the idea of taking a lot of damage or weakening ourselves right before taking on the Clans. We might as well offer to make some calls and see if we can find a replacement mercenary group to take over, or maybe offer to do a bombing run or two on the way out, but that's about it.

The major leans over your shoulder, and scratches out the no option boldly an clearly. "Yes, that means it not actually an option."

I actually think we should push hard for 10 days and depart. Probably won't complete the mission, but we can maybe get our newbs a little more experience and decrease the loss of good will for leaving.

And spend the 10 days looking for a replacement for us.

[TheMix]

If we do that and incur losses and or substantial damage, will the travel time be enough for us to repair? I feel like showing up all beat up isn't going to go over well.

[NickAragua]

Expected travel time is ~3.5 months. Our techs usually wrap up any repairs on non-destroyed units in two-three weeks, tops, and that's if you have a "monty python black knight" type of situation. The main concern would be losing a substantial amount of units to center-torso/ammo bin/artillery blast radius kills (losing the center torso means the mech can't be repaired) or taking a lot of mechwarrior injuries.

[Zenn7]

If we can't take the local stuff here w/o losing mechs/too many serious injuries, we're gonna fail badly against the clanners anyhow.

So I vote for 10 days push hard, good training.

[AWS260]

If we can't take the local stuff here w/o losing mechs/too many serious injuries, we're gonna fail badly against the clanners anyhow.

So I vote for 10 days push hard, good training.

This. We'll have plenty of time en route to patch up mechs and hire on warm bodies to fill the seats.

[TheMix]

Expected travel time is ~3.5 months. Our techs usually wrap up any repairs on non-destroyed units in two-three weeks, tops, and that's if you have a "monty python black knight" type of situation. The main concern would be losing a substantial amount of units to center-torso/ammo bin/artillery blast radius kills (losing the center torso means the mech can't be repaired) or taking a lot of mechwarrior injuries.

Okay. Then it sounds like it might be worth the risk to get some experience.

[El Guapo]

If we can't take the local stuff here w/o losing mechs/too many serious injuries, we're gonna fail badly against the clanners anyhow.

So I vote for 10 days push hard, good training.

This. We'll have plenty of time en route to patch up mechs and hire on warm bodies to fill the seats.

It's more the cost-benefit analysis here. The Clan battle matters a lot and has a lot of risk (and potential reward). But this contract doesn't matter much in the long run. Why risk some random schmuck getting a lucky crit on one of our great mechs loaded up with advanced tech over this?

[AWS260]

Are you a mechwarrior or a mechaccountant?