Vote Results:
Cylus looks at the Quickdraw. Our mechwarrior knows that the Grasshopper can take a stock Quickdraw pretty easily, even if it's got a couple of hovertank buddies. Whether there's any good loot in those crates that are now mostly abandoned on the ground? Well, we wouldn't know until we crack them open.
So that's the call Cylus makes. Our Archer blasts a small laser turret off the top of a building, while Cylus squashes a Galleon tank that gets in the way. The Quickdraw loses a leg, then blows itself up trying to get up, while a Harasser gets squashed flat. The only real damage on our end (other than major internal damage to the Delta-Recon Lance mechs) is a leg actuator on Cylus' Grasshopper.
We call in the salvage crews to recover the disabled allied merc vehicles as well as the cargo, picking up several notable sealed metal containers, as well as four Artemis IV guidance systems.
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"Wow, maybe moving up the attack timetable wasn't the best plan." El Guapo notes, approaching the target facility. For a corporate biotech storage facility, this place has an awful lot of turrets. And assault tanks. We count three Behemoths and a Demolisher, a short assault mech lance (a Hatatmoto-Chi, a BattleMaster, and an Orion), plus a light-medium mech lance and assorted medium and heavy support tanks.
On our side, we've got El Guapo's Heavy Lance and Siljanus' Beta-Hunter lance, plus we brought some heavy stuff from our end: a salvaged Schrek PPC Carrier and a Demon tank. We also have a lance of allied merc armor.
Round 1:
We move up down some streets, exchanging long-range fire. Thud and El Guapo each score a PPC hit on a Rhino fire support tank, while Isgrimnur works on a Manticore, blasting armor off its right side with the Thug's twin PPCs.
The Rhino is what one would call incredibly tough, being basically 80 tons of armor and LRMs. Normally the way to deal with one is to get close, but we don't currently have that option.
Oh, and our Demon tank gets immobilized by a bunch of stray LRMs. Good job there, guys. At least it gets a gauss shot off on the Manticore, pinging a slug off the turret.
Round 2:
As the Demon's crew bails out, Isgrimnur jumps into an alleyway to the side, intending to avoid the firepower about to come his way. Our main force, meanwhile, focuses fire on the Rhino, intending to take the damn thing out. Despite taking three PPC and multiple laser hits, the damn thing just won't die. But thankfully, our Guillotine puts its foot through a weakened armor section, destroying the assault tank and taking its fifty LRM tubes out of action.
The allied Drillson gets disabled by a PPC coming down a cross street, fired off by a Hatamoto-Chi coming from the south. Annoying. El Guapo returns the favor slightly by swatting a Galleon with one of the Marauder's PPCs and a burst from the autocannon, then breathes a sigh of relief as the Rhino falls apart.
Round 3:
"Let's... not linger at that intersection." Thud muses, watching the Drillson's crew scramble out of their disabled hovercraft.
Isgrimnur watches with some amusement as an artillery round from a Thumper intended for him lands on top of the Manticore that he'd started working on earlier. The weakened right-side armor can't take the force and buckles, letting a good amount of force into the heavy tank's propulsion system. Our mechwarrior takes the opportunity to take a pot shot at one of the artillery turrets in the southeast of the compound instead, barely even noticing the bug mech kicking the back of the Thug's leg.
Other than that, a few LRMs ping off our armor (although our Schrek takes some heavy armor damage and will need to pull back to avoid getting blown away).
Round 4:
[camera feed damaged]
The Schrek doesn't make it, the crew having to bail out after an Orion down the street pings it.
El Guapo engages the Orion, forcing the slightly shorter-ranged mech to sidestep into an alley to avoid major armor breaches.
Round 5:
El Guapo blasts the LRM Carrier that's been sandpapering our armor away, frying the vehicle with a PPC blast. That's sixty less LRM tubes firing our way. Some missiles and a PPC blast from a turret come our mech's way, but armor holds up.
Round 6:
Our Guillotine takes some serious LRM fire as some jackass paints our mech with targeting data and basically every LRM-equipped unit opens fire. It doesn't come out too badly though, our 70-tonner only takes an armor breach on the leg and loses a heat sink.
Isgrimnur takes the opportunity to blow the top off the triple PPC turret that's been keeping us bottled up in that intersection, while El Guapo pumps a pair of PPC blasts into the Pike that's been pinging AC/2 rounds off our Marauder's armor.
We hear some incoherent screaming over comm and Thud sees a massive explosions to the south. Apparently we'd forgotten about it, but an allied Maxim over there was engaging some hostile forces and its ammo lit up.
Round 7:
"Hey, Hunter Lance, you coming or what?" El Guapo asks, watching Thud's Awesome take a few LRMs as the two mechwarriors zap armor off the Orion that's decided to step out. Isgrimnur exchanges fire with a Blackjack, then crushes a Vedette immediately after landing the Thug right next to it.
Round 8:
"Yeah, sorry. We're here. Let's get this show on the road."
Siljanus' lance arrives from the southwest, with the exception of Stefan, who runs in behind El Guapo. Our Grasshopper and Mackie focus on the Behemoth that's in the way, PPCs and a gauss slug rattling the tank.
A Manticore rolls around a corner, thinking to get the drop on Isgrimnur as he hops his Thug back to one of his two favorite alleyways, but instead catches most of a twelve-pack of SRMs, along with a PPC. The turret jams, while the right side treads are shredded.
Round 9:
Siljanus' lance moves into finish the stunned Behemoth. "Watch out, Heavy, you've got an 80-tonner and an assault tank coming your way." our mechwarrior gives El Guapo the heads up.
To the east, Isgrimnur hops on top of a Demolisher tank, avoiding its twin AC/20 firing arc while blasting the top off a quad laser turret to the south - the turret and a Manticore team up on Thud, bringing the Awesome to the a knee as it returns fire - somehow, between it, El Guapo's Marauder and Stefan's Merlin coming up from behind, the three mechs still manage to not disable the lone heavy tank.
Round 10:
"Oh shit, behind us!" Stefan calls out. Seems that we missed a lance of hovertanks somewhere, backed up by a Brutus assault tank with twin PPCs, coming up right behind most of El Guapo's lance. Not great.
"Well, there goes any chance of a hit and run." El Guapo remarks.
Round 11:
Thud finally takes down that obnoxiously tough Manticore. All the PPCs in the world can't seem to penetrate the tank's armor, but when Thud fires the small laser instead of a PPC to manage heat, the little (by comparison) beam goes right through a hole in the armor and fries the crew.
Our Guillotine loses a leg to one of the tanks coming up from behind, the lasers from a Zephyr slicing through the upper leg and hip joints to wreck the limb entirely and drop our mech to the ground.
El Guapo's mech takes a pounding as well, losing armor in multiple locations and blowing out the autocannon. Smoke pouring out of the mech, our mechwarrior disengages and breaks down an alleyway, stomping over the top of a short building.
Round 12:
[camera feed damaged]
Our Guillotine tries to get up, but fire from the Hatamoto-Chi and supporting tanks keeps our mech down. Stefan jumps back to support, blowing away a Hunter tank to the north with a blast from the clan-spec PPC and a laser. That doesn't help the Guillotine much, as it loses most of the right side to being curb-stomped by the Kurita mechwarrior driving the Hatamoto-Chi.
Round 13:
"Sorry boss, my mech is done. Bailing out." our Guillotine's operator reports.
The Orion isn't having any of El Guapo's "I'm retreating" nonsense and gives chase. Our mechwarrior responds with a pair of PPCs to the right section, blowing off the fellow 75-tonner's right arm.
Thud's Awesome loses both arms to indirect LRM fire directed by a Zephyr that zips by. And also the mechwarrior gets knocked unconscious, falling over.
The only positive things that happen are that Stefan disables a Manticore tank with a blast from the "ol' reliable" clan PPC, frying its left-side treads, while Siljanus' Guillotine buddy takes out a Tokugawa tank with laser fire.
Round 14:
Siljanus' Guillotine pal blows up a building containing a whole bunch of LRM ammo, silencing a turret in the process.
The Orion abandons attacking El Guapo for a moment, going after easier prey - Thud's Awesome. A pair of lasers hit the assault mech in the head - the auto-ejection seat fires, but whether the mechwarrior is in one piece remains to be seen. El Guapo's attempts to stop the Orion don't work out too well, either.
To the south, things are going pretty well, though. Our Grasshopper, after half a minute of prying off the turret, finally finishes off the Behemoth, while Siljanus looks at an SRM Carrier coming around a corner, mouths "aw hell no", and runs up to splatter it.
Round 15:
[no camera feed]
Other than El Guapo spending a couple of seconds finding and hitting the "dump ammo" button for the AC/5 ammo, nothing much happens.
Round 16:
El Guapo gets lucky, and the Pegasus/Zephyr team comes by to blow off his mech's right arm and most of the torso only after the AC/5 ammo finishes clattering to the ground. Stefan runs up behind the Pegasus and takes it out with "Ol' Reliable", though, while El Guapo's mech will eventually get put back together.
Round 17:
[camera feed damaged]
Siljanus steps away from an incoming Thumper round and uses the Mackie's weapons to blow away a dual PPC turret. The only problem is that the mech heats up pretty bad, but we'll take a cooling break.
To the east, Isgrimnur finally finishes off the Demolisher which has been greatly restricting his movement with suppression fire from the AC/20s. It was a duel for the ages - two lighter mechs constantly picking at our Thug, which would jump in, take a crack at the assault tank, then jump out. But now the main source of trouble is gone, and our mechwarrior cracks his knuckles.
Round 18:
Isgrimnur charges at the Blackjack, firing SRMs to slow the lighter mech down, one of the missiles making contact with the cockpit. This lets our mechwarrior close in and nearly crack the 45 tonner's leg.
To the south, Siljanus pivots, blasting the nearby Bulldog's engine block out.
[Camera feed, Heavy-One, terminated] [Camera feed, Hunter-Three, terminated].
Round 19:
"Captain, what the hell's going on down there?" Siljanus asks, watching El Guapo's status indicator fuzz and wink out.
"Doesn't look too good, Lieutenant." Hunter-Two reports. "Looks like his mech just dropped to the ground. Can't get in contact with Stefan, either."
"Ugh." Siljanus looks at the situation. There's still the Hatamoto-Chi active, plus what looks like a BattleMaster and another assault tank out there, although they've been strangely reluctant to join the fight so far. Additionally, there's another hovercraft and a Vedette. At this point, we've got a Mackie with a big hole in the cockpit and a large chunk of its armor gone, plus two 70-tonners that are in pretty good shape, and Isgrimnur's Thug which is firmly in the yellow. Basically three options here:
[] Pull back unilaterally, leave our mechs for later.
[] Suggest a cease fire so we can retrieve our disabled mechs and merc tanks (they might not go for it).
[] Keep shooting, we might pull out a win.