Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Zenn7]

[X] Abort the command center raid
[] Abort the supply depot assault

Agreed for sure on aborting the command center. If those heavy fighters are going to be flying cover over the supply depot as well, I vote for aborting both. 5m for some stupid flea parts is a hell of a lot cheaper than losing a lance of mechs.

Any chance we can send the Striker to the Supply Depot? Either way, abort the command center.

[NickAragua]

March 14, 3042
Asuncion
Rebel-held Supply Depot

"... I repeat, Striker Lance, abort your run on the command center." comes the transmission from Scrub. "Probe Lance, use your discretion."

"Understood." Lt. Bosse replies as she throttles up her Ostroc. "Move in. Watch the LRMs from that Longbow."

Probe lance's faster Phoenix Hawks and Vulcan move in on the supply depot, with the Ostroc trailing close behind. The defense is pretty light - a lance of tanks (with some PPC and AC/10 toting heavies), plus a Longbow and an Ostsol.

As a refresher, a Longbow is basically an 85-ton LRM Carrier with 50 LRM tubes. And a small laser for an afterthought. Armor's pretty light for an 85-tonner.

We get the drop on the rebels, so we'll be able to get into the base itself pretty quickly and use it for cover.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our mediums (and the one heavy) run and jump into the base. The Longbow gets off an LRM salvo at the Vulcan but thankfully the hornet swarm of LRMs goes wide, kicking up dirt.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

One of our Phoenix Hawks fires up its jump jets, sailing over to the east, and a Cicada comes up behind it, blasting through the rear armor with a medium laser. Our Pixie retaliates with a laser to the right weapons mount, stripping the thin armor off of there. A Cicada just doesn't have much meat to it.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The bulk of our lance moves in to the south, with AWS engaging a laser turret, which turns out to be pretty tough. A Maxim zips in, unloading an infantry platoon, which turns out to be an unfortunate decision, as our Vulcan runs up - lasers disable the Maxim while the flamer and MG eliminate the infantry, only taking a stray MG burst.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

AWS cringes as an LRM salvo from the Longbow strips armor off the Phoenix Hawk's left arm, but holds the mech upright long enough to land a laser blast on th enearby Ostsol's center of mass.

To the south, our other Phoenix Hawk disables a couple of rockets mounted on a rotating turret. Well, it's something anyway.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The enemy Ostsol steps on a building and our Vulcan takes an opportunity, jumping in behind the enemy mech to bring the structure down to the ground, and the mech with it. It'll take a little more than that to bring down the 60-tonner, but the Vulcan does manage to deliver a solid curb stomp that takes out half of the heavy's arm actuators.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Well, that's going to be a couple of Phoenix Hawk left arms that we'll need to replace - AWS loses his to the Ostsol as it gets up while the other Hawk loses it to the nearby Patton tank's AC/10. Well, technically, it's just the shoulder actuator frozen up, but that makes it as good as useless.

The Vulcan jumps south, avoiding most of the fire from a strafing Seydlitz, then taking the top off the nearby laser turret.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

AWS takes a beating from the strafing aircraft and the already-unbalanced mech goes down. Our main success this round is a kick to the back of the Longbow by our Ostroc, breaching left torso armor.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

AWS manages to get up enough to keep away from the Brutus' turret, delivering a laser blast to a Vedette just as it's completely blown apart by the Vulcan, then kicking the tank.

Our other Phoenix Hawk kicks the Longbow in the back of the head, shaking the mechwarrior around a bit.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

AWS' mech looks like a colander at this point, so our intrepid mechwarrior kicks in the jump jets and zips out to the south. The other Phoenix Hawk loses the rest of the actuators on its left arm while the enemy Ostsol blows off the Vulcan's left arm. Well, an MG isn't that big a loss anyway.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The less-beat-up Phoenix Hawk disables the Patton tank with a large laser blast, taking it out of the fight.

Our Vulcan decides to finish its business with the Ostsol, which has been running around the rooftops taking laser pot shots at us. A few judicious shots at important-looking structural elements, and the building comes down with the Ostsol. Sure, the Vulcan's heat spikes, but it was worth it to take the arm off the other guy.

The Ostroc continues picking at the Longbow, taking the time to kick the leg out from under the nearby Cicada. Said leg breaks and the enemy 40-tonner loses one of its lasers on the way down as well.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

As the Ostroc breaks away to cool off, the mechwarrior hears a horrible grinding sound - the Cicada tries to get up but the cracked leg can't take it and the mech falls down, letting out a huge cloud of steam and dirt from the breached center torso. Our mech takes a couple of MG rounds from the nearby Vedette which jam a shoulder actuator, then eats a lot of lasers from the Ostsol that managed to get up. The Vedette takes a retaliatory kick to the left side, breaching armor, and grinds gears out of there.

The rest of our mechs have jumped away to cool off briefly.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Cicada bails out, which is probably a good idea since his gyro is basically out on the ground at this point.

Our Vulcan jumps in behind the Longbow, firing medium lasers at its rear section - the left-side missile launchers come off and our mechwarrior is pretty sure he hit an ammo bin, but it doesn't go off - must have been empty. Still, that mech is disabled.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

The matchup is now tilted in our favor - all they've got is a slow Brutus with our Phoenix Hawk running circles around it, and the Ostsol, which is still pretty dangerous. Which is why our Vulcan lets the Longbow begin its slow, ponderous retreat and moves to engage the lighter mech.

Correction, our Phoenix Hawk no longer has to run circles around the Brutus after stomping out the engine.

At this point, the Ostsol disengages as well, leaving its disabled tank buddies behind - a Vedette and the Longbow get away, and the fighters stop strafing us now that we don't have any ground units to disract from them.

We search the supply depot up and down, but no Flea parts. On the plus side, we salvage the Cicada - we'll strip it form armor and replacement actuators for the Vulcan. The tanks technically belong to the planetary militia, so we let them take those.

The other good news is that the supply depot has a good amount of spare parts for 65 ton mechs.

---------------------------

"Holy balls, Vari." Scrub tells Cylus as her subordinate pays her a visit in the Moonraker's medbay. Her leg is covered in bandages. "I thought you were the patient, cautious one. What happened?"

"Aerospace gnats, Zanthe." Cylus answers. "I figured we could make one more push, get those fighters to stop harassing the other lances." the mechwarrior chuckles. "I guess they did."

Scurb sighs and nods. "Sure. At least we got that depot. Look, just... let's try and avoid taking short lances of new recruits in light mechs on suicide missions going forward."

Cylus smirks. "Hey, come on, nobody even died! I even kept my mech in one piece." followed by a "meaningful" look.

Scrub chuckles in response. "True. I'll miss that bucket. Drove it for eleven years. And now it's in small chunks across some random hangar or in some poor guy's breakfast cereal."

"How was your visit to the local apartment building?" Cylus claps the captain on the shoulder.

"Not a fan." Scrub answers, looking at her leg. "Could have been a lot worse though."

--------------------------------

As a result of this action, a lot of our mechs got pretty beat up. The Thunderbolt is all good, as we can buy the parts locally. We've got the parts to fix one of the Phoenix Hawks, but have four other mechs will require new arms: Cylus' Grasshopper, the Vulcan, the other Phoenix Hawk and the Valkyrie. We'll probably skip the Valkyrie for now as it was a "spare" mech anyway.

We'll also need to acquire a pair of replacement mechs. It's a seller's market around here, but business is booming pretty well. We consider a few options from legitimate sources, mostly from a merc company liquidating their assets after getting walloped by rebel forces. Yeah, guys, we've all been there.

Crusader CRD-3R. 65 tonner with good weapons, average speed, good armor and heat issues. Direct from the Kallon Industries factory right here. Almost like new. We've got access to factory facilities here, so we'll probably refit it to a 3L with reduced MG ammo count. 5.1M C-Bills

Enforcer ENF-4R. Nothing complicated here. Relatively slow 40 tonner, jump-capable, decent armor and weapons. Heat issues. 2.8M C-Bills

Wasp WSP-1A. More like Wasp WSP-1 PASS.

Stalker STK-3F. Nothing wrong with lumbering 85 tons of solid metal loaded to the gills with guns. 7.4M C-Bills.

Panther PNT-9R. A little light for us at 35 tons, but beggars can't be choosers. 2.3M C-Bills

JagerMech JM6-S. Ugh... JagerMech. Our mechwarriors have some opinions on this mech chassis, and they're the same as our opinions on the standard Rifleman. Pass.

So, let's pick two mechs.
[] Crusader
[] Enforcer
[] Stalker
[] Panther

[gbasden]

So, let's pick two mechs.
[X] Crusader
[] Enforcer
[X] Stalker
[] Panther

[AWS260]

So, let's pick two mechs.
[X] Crusader
[] Enforcer
[X] Stalker
[] Panther

Yes.

[xwraith]

Yeah we need some tonnage

[X] Crusader
[] Enforcer
[X] Stalker
[] Panther

[Zenn7]

Yeah we need some tonnage

[X] Crusader
[] Enforcer
[X] Stalker
[] Panther

Good call.

[Hyena]

Agreed on all of the above.

[Cylus Maxii]

Unanimous so far..

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Pretty unanimous, Crusader and Stalker.

"You know what, Brad?" Scrub tells Hyena. "You take the Stalker. I think I'm done being stuck on the ground. I want jump jets on my next mech."

Hyena raises an eyebrow. "I dunno boss. I keep getting blown out of my mechs. Even the Striker, and I've had that thing almost as long as you had your Warhammer. Had the ass-groove in the pilot seat just right and everything."

Scrub sighs and puts a hand on her fellow temporarily dispossessed mechwarrior's shoulder. "Yeah, I know. Well, if we ever find a Highlander, it's all yours."

-------

The merc company asset liquidation also leads a pair of replacement aerospace fighters - a Stingray and a Lightning. Combined with the acquisition of the Crusader and Stalker, that gets us back up to fighting strength. Kallon cuts us a deal on parts for the Thunderbolt and Crusader, while Earthwerks supplies armor and weapons systems - a machine gun is a machine gun, after all, and armor plating is pretty universal.

April 5, 3042
Asuncion
Zenith Jump Point

While we're busy refitting and repairing, our jumpship comes under attack. We've been rotating fighters between there and planetside, so it just happens to be Gamma Strike's turn - that's two Lightnings and a Stingray, plus a Corsair from the local recharge station. The Lightnings are all about AC/20s while the Stingray packs a PPC and two large lasers for mid-range firepower.

The hostiles paint our fighters and open fire, while a shuttle waits at the far end of sensor range. Presumably they plan to destroy the jumpship escorts, then try to capture it.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

A Seydlitz makes a pass, and eats a PPC to the nose from our Stingray to discourage it.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The Seydlitz angles in, slipping past two our fighters to engage a Lightning - the lasers rake the aft section, blowing out the engine. A second of our Lightnings is on the enemy craft's tail, blasting most of its right wing off with an AC/20.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Thrusters are out, I'm drifting." Strike Two calls out. Strike one isn't doing too much better, that "clutch" move to get on the Seydlitz' tail briefly costing it and forcing the aero jock to concentrate on not spinning. Still, the attack has discouraged that particular light fighter and it goes to maximum burn, trying to clear the area.

"What the hell!" the jumpship captain calls out over comms. "They're firing on us!"

Things turn a bit sour - in addition to the Jumpship getting attacked, the hostiles move in to finish the drifting Lightning, while the Stingray eats an AC/20 burst to the nose, shaking the aero jock around.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Strike One in the Lightning #2 isn't doing too hot, losing both wing-mounted lasers to an AC/20 burst from the enemy Lightning. However, both our Stingray and said Lightning inflict heavy damage on the attacker, who loses it and drifts off (hopefully permanently, but we'll settle for temporarily).

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The hostile Corsair is the only one in the area, as the other fighters are decelerating for another pass. Our Stingray takes a beating, with various systems flashing red including fire control and the landing gear, while the Corsair loses two wing-mounted lasers and starts drifting, giving our fighters an opening. The Lightning removes pretty much all the enemy craft's aft armor with the AC/20 and its remaining laser, then our Corsair buddy blasts the engine pretty good.

It takes the hostiles about a minute to decelerate and come around for another pass.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Lucifer continues blasting away at the jumpship, although, thankfully, doesn't hit the jump sail or anything fragile or exposed. The jumpship isn't entirely defenseless, having a battery of lasers for defense against meteorites, but they have had enough and turn it on the enemy craft, zapping it in the nose.

Our Corsair buddy burns "north" and scores a hit on the Sparrowhawk's cockpit, discouraging the pilot a little bit.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

So the thing about Jumpship armor is that it might not be Warship-grade armor, but it can still resist the blast from a small laser.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

The enemy Lightning comes back, but Strike One is ready, and times a roll and an engine burn perfectly to get on its tail, blasting armor off the right wing with the AC/20. It takes a little damage from the Sparrowhawk's small lasers (the other weapons miss), which, in turn, eats a PPC and large laser from Strike Three, flying the Stingray.

Our jumpship helps out as well, blasting the Sparrowhawk in the right wing with a laser battery.

Round 14:

Spoiler:

Strike One lets the Lightning go, focusing on the Sparrowhawk instead, blasting at its engine with the AC/20 and remaining laser. The hostile craft shudders and the engine sputters out, drifting off.

Looks like the damage to the hostile Lightning was pretty severe, as its autocannon explodes.

The allied Corsair continues trailing the Lucifer, picking away with lasers.

Round 15:

Spoiler:

The enemy Lucifer is unable to shake the Corsair, continuing to take damage.

Round 16:

Spoiler:

That Lucifer is tough, but is slowly being whittled away.

A Seydlitz goes for a strafing run on the jumpship but whiffs as our Lightning nails it in the tail with the AC/20.

Round 17:

Spoiler:

The Seydlitz goes zipping off, firing at our Stingray on the way out. The Stingray retaliates by blowing through the light fighter's armor and burning out a pair of heat sinks.

The Lucifer continues getting pounded.

Round 18:

Spoiler:

That about does it. The Lucifer drifts off, out of control, as the Seydlitz zips off. The hostile Lightning could theoretically come back, but chooses not to, and the shuttle fires up its engines and burns off.

The Lightning's engine is completely blown out, but other than that, the damage is repairable with our spare parts. We have to ship a replacement in from a couple of systems over, so it'll take a while to get here, but it's fixable. We wind up having to ship it in from off-world (along with a few actuators for Cylus' mech - we pulled a spare one from the Warhammer we salvaged, but Warhammers don't have hands).

Elsewhere, Alpha continues training FedCom rookies on Acamar while Beta and Delta are still en route to Connaught and are expected to arrive May 25.

Gamma company also gets an offer for a recon raid. It appears that a representative from the Draconis Combine is concerned about FedCom hiring mercenaries to train a cadre of new mechwarriors, quite possibly to stage raids into Combine territory. They want us to travel to the contract location, find out what's happening, identify the forces involved, and report back. Quick, in and out, pays 14.2M C-Bills, which isn't too bad.

"Now" Scrub's message to Alpha via HPG continues, as she isn't quite successful in suppressing a snicker, "Here's the part where you honestly couldn't make this stuff up. The contract location is Acamar. And I don't think the guy has any clue."

So, the Draconis Combine wants to pay us to provide a recon report on the troops Alpha is training on Acamar. It's a bit against the spirit of the contract, and we're not usually in the habit of double-dealing (except for that one incident involving our employer trying to deploy nerve gas against civilians), but it is tempting to get 15M for basically no work. Of course, if we don't do it, there's a good chance the Combine rep will hire some other mercs to do the exact same job.

[] Take the 15M, provide intel to the Combine. May piss off our FedCom employers on Acamar if they find out.
[] Take the high road, say there's a "conflict of interest". Decent chance of Acamar getting raided in the near future.

[Hyena]

[] Take the 15M, provide intel to the Combine. May piss off our FedCom employers on Acamar if they find out.
[X] Take the high road, say there's a "conflict of interest". Decent chance of Acamar getting raided in the near future.

As much fun as it would be to hose those bastards over, I think we need to back off. We can warn our guys, however, and perchance extract a bit of revenge...

[Zenn7]

[] Take the 15M, provide intel to the Combine. May piss off our FedCom employers on Acamar if they find out.
[X] Take the high road, say there's a "conflict of interest". Decent chance of Acamar getting raided in the near future.

As much fun as it would be to hose those bastards over, I think we need to back off. We can warn our guys, however, and perchance extract a bit of revenge...

Hmmm... let's send Gamma to reinforce Alpha and make for a nasty surprise for the raiders?

[NickAragua]

[] Take the 15M, provide intel to the Combine. May piss off our FedCom employers on Acamar if they find out.
[X] Take the high road, say there's a "conflict of interest". Decent chance of Acamar getting raided in the near future.

As much fun as it would be to hose those bastards over, I think we need to back off. We can warn our guys, however, and perchance extract a bit of revenge...

Hmmm... let's send Gamma to reinforce Alpha and make for a nasty surprise for the raiders?

Not a bad idea, but Gamma is still under contract - that garrison duty doesn't end for another year or so.

[gbasden]

[] Take the 15M, provide intel to the Combine. May piss off our FedCom employers on Acamar if they find out.
[X] Take the high road, say there's a "conflict of interest". Decent chance of Acamar getting raided in the near future.

Give our forces a heads up for sure.

[Zenn7]

[] Take the 15M, provide intel to the Combine. May piss off our FedCom employers on Acamar if they find out.
[X] Take the high road, say there's a "conflict of interest". Decent chance of Acamar getting raided in the near future.

As much fun as it would be to hose those bastards over, I think we need to back off. We can warn our guys, however, and perchance extract a bit of revenge...

Hmmm... let's send Gamma to reinforce Alpha and make for a nasty surprise for the raiders?

Not a bad idea, but Gamma is still under contract - that garrison duty doesn't end for another year or so.

If Gamma's not available to foil the raid, how are they available to do the raid? (We know we wouldn't have to, but the Drac's wouldn't).

[NickAragua]

If Gamma's not available to foil the raid, how are they available to do the raid? (We know we wouldn't have to, but the Drac's wouldn't).

Gamma's not really available to do either - we would have probably gotten Alpha to do it, since they're there already.

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

"Sorry, conflict of interest. And let's let the FedCom guys know about it too."

March 17, 3042
Acamar
Tamarack Training Grounds

"Today, we will be conducting an exercise simulating an attack on a convoy." the Davion commanding officer informs the rookies. "5th recon lance and the militia's 14th light cavalry will serve as the defensive force, while you three will be riding along with a couple of veterans who will monitor you, provide helpful advice, as well as provide a credible opposing force for the convoy escorts, so they can get some training in as well."

"You'll also be coordinating with the 2nd artillery battery, four Thumpers. So it'll be an exercise in avoiding friendly fire incidents through excellent communication."

"Remember that, even if your weapons are de-powered or loaded with dummy ammunition, physical impacts carry their full weight. So this is considered a live fire exercise. Try not to kill each other too permanently."

The "very good sir"s done, everyone disperses to their mechs. For some, simulated combat feels real enough, but our more experienced mechwarriors can sometimes tell the difference, especially when it comes to autocannon fire. The mech just doesn't buck quite as hard when it's a simulated AC/20 burst coming in.

The "convoy" is composed of six vehicles of various kinds, defended by four Stingers (20 ton bug mechs) and a company of hovercraft (with a few light tanks and a pair of light helicopters thrown in). The "attacking" force is three of our mechs (a modified Crusader, a jump jet capable Trebuchet 5J and a Phoenix Hawk), plus three trainees: a Centurion, a Wasp and a standard Trebuchet. Our artillery support is already in place as well.

We start our mechs hidden behind a hill, we'll pop up to fire at the convoy as it approaches.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The hovercraft go zipping in, and it looks like the militia have decided to let their infantry get some training in as well. Good job ziplining off that helicopter, fellas. They're pretty fast, so we only score one hit, our Crusader pinging an APC with some LRMs while the streak SRMs fail to lock on and don't fire. Most mechwarriors like it because it conserves ammo and heat when you wouldn't have hit anyway, but some get pissed off at the perceived loss of control.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

We go "over the top", jumping in behind the approaching hovercraft. Our Trebuchet disables a Saladin with lasers, taking that highly mobile AC/20 out of action.

One of the convoy units, a Haulermech, isn't entirely defenseless and takes the arm off the rookie Wasp with a PPC shot. This unbalances the poor guy as he goes to kick a nearby Harasser, and now there's a bug mech on the ground, with little yellow birds chirping around the head of the mechwarrior inside as he wonders what the hell happened.

The other rookies - the Centurion and Trebuchet do a little better, destroying one of the convoy vehicles, something the computer in our Crusader identifies as a "Randolph". The Trebuchet takes a PPC shot to the head, nearly taking it off, and is helpfully reminded to be careful by one of our mechwarriors.

Our Crusader takes a little bit of a pounding from SRMs, but hurts a Pegasus badly, slowing it down to a crawl, then cleanly breaks the leg off the nearby Buster Haulermech as it's distracted firing at the rookie Wasp. Our Phoenix Hawk delivers a solid kick to the leg of the Powerman Loadermech nearby, ripping up every single actuator there. Unsurprisingly, both of the enemy mechs fall over, a crate falling off the Powerman's loading rack as it goes down.

The first artillery salvo goes sailing overhead.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The guy in the Buster wisely powers it down, right before the second artillery salvo lands.

"Friendly fire, friendly fire!" our Crusader pilot calls out.

"Yeah, they got me too." echoes the guy in the Phoenix Hawk.

Our mechs are a little better armored at least - the Phoenix Hawk takes a little damage, but the Saladin next to it is completely immobilized. The Crusader takes advantage of the confusion to put a laser through the nearby Harasser's engine block while firing LRMs at a distant Scorpion tank, taking it out as well.

Our Trebuchet jumps south, disabling a Pegasus hovertank while taking the left arm off a Stinger that's harassing the Crusader, the LRMs hitting for good effect. The bug mech gets its shots off though, nailing the Crusader's left shoulder actuator.

Our Phoenix Hawk recovers from the surprise artillery blast and lines up a large laser shot dead center of mass on the Powerman just as it finishes getting up. A hit to the gyro sends it right back down. Our mech takes a couple of hits from a harassing Stinger, but armor holds up.

Our little Wasp buddy gets up and immediately takes an SRM to the left leg, knocking out an actuator and a jump jet, then taking a laser form another Stinger which pops a heat sink.

To the west, the Centurion and Trebuchet team up on a Quasit MilitiaMech, the Trebuchet delivering a head shot. The Centurion spares an LRM salvo for an APC, most of which miss, but a trio punch through some weakened armor and the vehicle stops.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Our Crusader gets slightly mobbed by bug mechs and starts moving away. Then his damage alarms flash and the mech powers down. "Simulated ammunition explosion. Shutting down."

At least the rookies to the west took out that Quasit's PPC. Also, our Trebuchet stomps on a nearby Harasser to take it out of the fight, while the Phoenix Hawk removes some more leg actuators from the Powerman, just in case it tries to get back up.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

As our mechwarriors back up to the south to regroup, an artillery blast goes off near the Phoenix Hawk, hitting a Harasser as well. The computer registers the hovercraft as having no armor left. Other than that, things in the center stalemate a bit, with some damage inflicted by both sides, but nothing critical.

The Quasit gets a little beat up some more by the rookies in the Trebuchet and Centurion though and starts pulling out to the west.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Convoy objective achieved, sixty six percent of convoy units destroyed or disabled." our Phoenix Hawk mechwarrior announces, having taken over for the guy in the Crusader. "Pull out to the west. Strike Five and Six, cover us."

The Centurion and Trebuchet move east to the ridgeline to do so, observing with some amusement as the APC that managed to get away from us sideswipes a hill and stops moving.

The Phoenix Hawk is in trouble though, as the angered convoy escorts focus fire on him and take out multiple actuators on the damaged left leg. The right arm comes off as the mech topples.

Round 7:
[data feed lost]
The Pixie is given a breather as the allied artillery lands a dummy round in the middle of an attacking infantry platoon, while another round lands within thirty meters of a Stinger.

"Well, at least they're not hitting friendlies any more." our mechwarrior in the Phoenix Hawk comments, shortly before the mech powers off and keels over, informing him of "actuator damage combined with pilot unconsciousness".

Unfortunately for the opposing force, their single-minded focus on the Phoenix Hawk costs them, as another infantry platoon is "blown apart" by artillery, a hovertank is nearly immobilized and a Stinger almost loses a leg, and the artillery doesn't let up until we are clear of the area, disabling several more hovercraft.

The exercise supervisor debriefs everyone involved. The rookies did ok, although they could have stood to help out a little more. The convoy escorts get reamed, both for failing to protect the convoy (only one convoy vehicle got away) and for clustering together under artillery fire. The artillery guys get reamed for hitting friendlies multiple times. Our mechwarriors get a separate lecture from Gbasden about "preserving company assets". "Seriously, you guys would have gotten two mechs blown apart for a stupid little convoy guarded by bug mechs and hovercraft."

For the rest of the month, we continue less intense exercises, practicing artillery targeting and integration. The FedCom rookies also get some good practice on helping take apart and put together mechs.

Once we get the HPG transmission from Gamma, Alpha spends some time making estimates for when a raiding force could potentially get here - travel time between Asuncion and Acamar is about a month, and it's almost four days burn to the standard jump points. Thus, we can estimate arrival time some time in early May.

We spend a little time talking to our FedCom commander about the potential upcoming raid. While he's willing to hire us to deal with this raid, he has a fairly limited "discretionary budget" and doesn't really want to commit too much of the training cadre to it if he does hire us. However, he's got some access to "the good shit", as he puts it, so we may opt to purchase high tech equipment available to FedCom once we deal with the raid. We don't know exactly what forces it'll consist of, but since we'll still have to have some of our mechs running training exercises (the FedCom commander doesn't want to interrupt those), chances are we'll be stretched pretty thin.

El Guapo remarks that it looks like the guy is trying to "Tom Sawyer" us.

The high tech equipment available for purchase includes:
XL Engines
Double Heat Sinks
ER Large Lasers, ER PPCs, Pulse Lasers of various kinds (very limited numbers of, probably Combine salvage)
Listen-Kill warheads (although any worthwhile opponent has probably patched their ECM software by now to neutralize those)
LB-10X autocannons + ammo
Ultra/5 autocannons + ammo

Let's choose our payment:
[] 13M C-Bills
[] Help dealing with the raid, reduced ability to buy advanced equipment
[] Increased ability to buy advanced equipment

[Zenn7]

The high tech equipment available for purchase includes:
XL Engines
Double Heat Sinks
ER Large Lasers, ER PPCs, Pulse Lasers of various kinds (very limited numbers of, probably Combine salvage)
Listen-Kill warheads (although any worthwhile opponent has probably patched their ECM software by now to neutralize those)
LB-10X autocannons + ammo
Ultra/5 autocannons + ammo

Let's choose our payment:
[] 13M C-Bills
[] Help dealing with the raid, reduced ability to buy advanced equipment
[x] Increased ability to buy advanced equipment

We seem to have a substantial amount of money (never too much of course). Better tech seems like it would be more useful than more money sitting in our warchest.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Advanced Equipment - 2
Reduced Advanced Equipment + Help with raid - 2

"What kind of help are you guys thinking of?" The FedCom commander asks.

"Either tie us into your sensor network so we can see them coming and get out mechs where they need to be, or actual hardware."

"Ok, let's play it by ear."

April 16, 3042
Asuncion
Earthwerks National Park

Striker and Probe lances catch a column of rebel tanks in a night ambush as they move towards an Earthwerks facility. Our jump jets give us a major edge in maneuverability. Our liaison insists that we capture the commander - a Brutus assault tank. Normally, a Brutus packs a pair of PPCs in a turret, but this one appears to have been modified with LRMs. It's also the heaviest enemy tank on the field.

Striker initiates the battle - Lt. Vazquez in the Cronus, two rookies in a Jenner and Wolfhound, Tess in the Griffin and the liaison in a Wasp. Well, that's three units that'll be effective here anyway. Probe will be joining in within the minute.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The Wolfhound's lack of jump jets will limit its ability to participate, as, even at top speed, the mechwarrior is starting to fall behind. He *could* go faster, but the mech's terrain avoidance system won't have time to work then, so there's a good chance of falling into a pit or tripping over a really big root or something and faceplanting.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Light autocannon rounds come zipping in from across the battlefield as a Bulldog draws a bead on the Wolfhound with its twin AC/2s.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

"Hey, look at this, we've got a single Valkyrie coming in! Take him down!" The Lieutenant says, but nobody else can actually get a shot off.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

"There's the commander." the liaison calls out.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Our Wolfhound takes a hit from an AC/2, and while we're actually able to take shots now, nothing else lands. The Valkyrie takes advantage of the darkness and its very good mobility to jump in, but our liaison is on the ball and dings some armor off one of its legs. This is somewhat embarrassing, as none of our guys have gotten any damage in yet, at all.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Probe lance, swing around the north and take out that LRM Carrier and the Bulldog. Striker lance, get stuck in." The Lieutenant says, lasering the front of a Manticore, then kicking through the armor of a Scorpion tank before sidestepping to avoid a kick from the Valkyrie. It overbalances and winds up scraping dirt with its left arm.

Our Jenner rookie scores a laser hit on a Saracen followed up by a boot, breaking off chunks of the skirt, but most of the weapons fire from us misses, while all the enemy fire goes wide as well.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Our Cronus continues working on the Manticore, but it's a tough tank. The Brutus is basically useless at this point, since we're way inside its minimum range, and our Griffin begins working on it, taking armor and treads off with a boot.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

As Gamma-Strike continues brawling with the tanks to the south, Probe closes in on the long-ranged units.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

AWS continues the fine tradition of attracting enemy fire, but Probe's Vulcan jumps over to the Manticore that was being worked over earlier and takes out the engine with a couple of laser blasts. While the Bulldog is distracted pelting AWS with SRMs, Probe's Ostroc jumps in and forcibly disconnects its engine with a boot.

To the south, our Cronus continues kicking armor off of tanks, removing some from the Hetzer.

Our Jenner whiffs a kick on a Hovercraft and has to take a knee.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The Jenner takes a bit of fire, absorbing several lasers from a nearby Liao-variant Vedette as it tries to get up, but not enough to knock it back down again.

To the north, AWS, the other Phoenix Hawk and the Ostroc avoid a salvo from the LRM Carrier (some of which hits the Wolfhound way in the back), then the three of them play soccer with it.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

"Targets eliminated, moving to support." AWS reports.

Round 12:

Spoiler:

A Scimitar, having taken a few too many stomps while completely unable to hit any of our guys, bugs out. At this point, it's basically a foregone conclusion - our mechs bounce around like hyperactive children, taking small chunks out of the rebel tanks, then jumping away before the tankers can react effectively.

Round 13:

Spoiler:

"Wow, this Brutus is tough. That armor doesn't even look dented!" AWS remarks while emptying an MG burst and a laser into it.

"Yeah, you're not kidding." the guy in the Cronus responds. "I've been pounding on it for the last minute and a half!"

"No, wait, there's an armor breach!" the Vulcan's mechwarrior reports, as the assault tank finally stops trundling around and smoke starts pouring out.

"Right, keep an eye on the crew. Let's mop up the rest of these treadheads."

We take out another two tanks as the rebels retreat, leaving their commander behind - AWS gets a Saracen hovertank while the other Phoenix Hawk takes out a Goblin. Our salvage crews haul back most of the tanks, the LRM Carrier and Manticore for the militia. We'll actually sell the salvage back to the militia (or whoever) as well after stripping any armor, ammo or components we need. It winds up going for about 5M C-Bills, not a bad haul.

The crew of the Brutus tries to pull an "I'm Spartacus", then, when that doesn't work (the commander is the one with relatively clean eyes but soot all over the rest of his face, as he was looking through a periscope when the armor got breached), the commander offers to arrange a prisoner exchange to get our other captured aero jock back.

"What about our aircraft?"

"There wasn't really much left of them to haul away."

"You know, Lieutenant." AWS remarks, "Aero jocks are a dime a dozen. Especially asshole blond Rasalhague ones. Didn't we already recruit a replacement pilot, the one who's really good at dropping bombs, at least in the simulator since we haven't actually..."

"Christ, Nara, I get the point." Lt. Vazquez interrupts.

"... but then again, I can't really tell one tanker from another, either." adds Clint from Probe lance.

[] Turn the captive tank commander over to our liaison for a ride in the Wasp to parts unknown. Say bye bye to our missing aero jock.
[] Ask the liaison if we can keep the commander. Who knows, he might be sympathetic.
[] Keep the commander without asking, pass one of the other guys off as the commander. Like they'd know the difference.

While we're making decisions, the jumpship requests another supply run of spare parts from planetside that are necessary to continue repairs. We acquire said parts, then send the Moonraker up. Our sensor operator is on the ball and spots telltales from a whole mess of pretty heavy duty fighters closing in - a total of ten heavies, which will probably make hash out of our two escort fighters and the dropship. The good news is that we're still pretty early in the transit burn, so we could just turn it around.

[] Plow through, we want to get that jumpship fixed ASAP and are willing to take a risk to get it done
[] Abort, jumpship repairs will be delayed, but keeps our dropship safe

[Zenn7]

[] Turn the captive tank commander over to our liaison for a ride in the Wasp to parts unknown. Say bye bye to our missing aero jock.
[x] Ask the liaison if we can keep the commander. Who knows, he might be sympathetic.
[] Keep the commander without asking, pass one of the other guys off as the commander. Like they'd know the difference.

While we're making decisions, the jumpship requests another supply run of spare parts from planetside that are necessary to continue repairs. We acquire said parts, then send the Moonraker up. Our sensor operator is on the ball and spots telltales from a whole mess of pretty heavy duty fighters closing in - a total of ten heavies, which will probably make hash out of our two escort fighters and the dropship. The good news is that we're still pretty early in the transit burn, so we could just turn it around.

[] Plow through, we want to get that jumpship fixed ASAP and are willing to take a risk to get it done
[x] Abort, jumpship repairs will be delayed, but keeps our dropship safe

Why would we plow through given the extreme sounding likelihood of not making it through and making for a REALLY LONG delay of our delivery?

PS: how do the companies here EVER get anything shipped? We seem to get hit frequently enough trying to.

[AWS260]

[] Turn the captive tank commander over to our liaison for a ride in the Wasp to parts unknown. Say bye bye to our missing aero jock.
[X] Ask the liaison if we can keep the commander. Who knows, he might be sympathetic.
[] Keep the commander without asking, pass one of the other guys off as the commander. Like they'd know the difference.

[] Plow through, we want to get that jumpship fixed ASAP and are willing to take a risk to get it done
[X] Abort, jumpship repairs will be delayed, but keeps our dropship safe

It can't hurt to ask nicely, but try to pull on over on our client seems like a bad idea.

[gbasden]

[] Turn the captive tank commander over to our liaison for a ride in the Wasp to parts unknown. Say bye bye to our missing aero jock.
[x] Ask the liaison if we can keep the commander. Who knows, he might be sympathetic.
[] Keep the commander without asking, pass one of the other guys off as the commander. Like they'd know the difference.

While we're making decisions, the jumpship requests another supply run of spare parts from planetside that are necessary to continue repairs. We acquire said parts, then send the Moonraker up. Our sensor operator is on the ball and spots telltales from a whole mess of pretty heavy duty fighters closing in - a total of ten heavies, which will probably make hash out of our two escort fighters and the dropship. The good news is that we're still pretty early in the transit burn, so we could just turn it around.

[] Plow through, we want to get that jumpship fixed ASAP and are willing to take a risk to get it done
[x] Abort, jumpship repairs will be delayed, but keeps our dropship safe

Why would we plow through given the extreme sounding likelihood of not making it through and making for a REALLY LONG delay of our delivery?

PS: how do the companies here EVER get anything shipped? We seem to get hit frequently enough trying to.

This definitely seems like unfriendly space - have we pissed off the locals? Agreed on the two options as well.

[El Guapo]

Space FedEx rates are absolutely through the roof because of this.

[AWS260]

Feels like the canonical delivery service ought to be LaserShip, which would explain a lot.

[NickAragua]

We've only pissed off some of the locals, namely the FedCom-backed rebels. And the civil war is eating up all the law-enforcement resources.

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Ask the liaison nicely (almost unanimous)
Abort the supply run (unanimous)

"Sure, let me check with the boss." replies the liaison. He hangs out in the Wasp for a few minutes, then climbs back down. "Yeah, you can keep him. We'll take the other guys." He returns to supervising the salvage crews as we haul our share of the loot and prisoners back.

----------------------

The Moonraker's captain makes the decision pretty quickly, upon hearing the sensor reports. "Ok. Engineering, shut down main engine. Helm, bring the ship around one-eighty degrees, then re-initiate main engine burn. We're turning this boat around. Those pale-skin brittle-bones on the jumpship are going to have to wait for their spare parts."

The jumpship repairs wind up being delayed by about three months as a result, but at least our dropship doesn't get shot up.

----------------------

May 1, 3042
Asuncion
Prisoner exchange rendezvous point

The captured tank commander sends out a transmission on the general frequency, arranging for a prisoner exchange. We send Probe Lance to carry it out, with the captured tank commander riding shotgun in the back of a Dervish that the local militia guys insist on sending along with us.

While waiting for the rebels at the rendezvous point (with extremely high winds threatening to knock over any mech that's not properly braced), things go pear-shaped. We're not entirely sure what happens, but there's a lot of grunting and screaming over the comms, followed by a scrambled transmission from the Dervish, then some more grunting and screaming. The militia guy informs us that the captured tank commander "has become indisposed", while, at the same time, sensor blips close in and weapon lock alerts blare away.

"Forget this." calls out Probe Lance's lieutenant. "Everyone bug out."

There's not really much shooting due to the high winds, but Probe Lance is able to get out of there pretty quickly, losing their pursuers in the swirling dust with no damage.

After that little escape attempt, the captured tank commander appears non-communicative, so we hand him back over to our employer for a little capture bonus. Only a few thousand C-Bills, but better than him trying to lead our guys into an ambush.

---------------------------

May 14, 3042
Acamar
Raider Landing Zone

We're tied into the planetary sensor network (an "ad-hoc" mixture of weather satellites, ground-based installations and a couple of active sensor stations on the nearby moon), so we get a good idea of when a raiding force lands on Acamar. It's non-trivial in size, with at least two dropships that jump in via pirate point and manage to avoid the aerospace defenses to land. While our more rookie members and artillery battery continue training, our (mildly stir-crazy) veteran units initiate aggressive patrols.

Command Lance spots a light recon group moving in on one of the training compounds and moves to intercept. We'll need to run them off quickly before they can report back. It's a little annoying, as they're trying to be really stealthy, moving in at night and during a hail storm.

The Command Lance is an Awesome (Gbasden), a customized Marauder (El Guapo), a Catapult (Stefan) and a customized Hatchetman (Isgrimnur). The enemy recon unit is pretty light - two light and medium mechs, plus a lance of light and medium tanks.

Round 1, 2:

Spoiler:

The recon unit spots us coming and intensifies their sensor sweeps. A round from El Guapo's gauss rifle theoretically passes somewhere near a Maxim as it crosses a river, destroying a solid patch of scrub grass. A follow up pair of PPC shots and a burst from Isgrimnur's autocannon don't do much better.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

El Guapo adjusts his aim and lands a gauss slug directly on the front of the Maxim.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

As El Guapo rotates the Marauder to target a Hermes with PPCs (hitting with one), Isgrimnur jumps into the river and caves in the front of the Maxim with an AC/10 burst. A Stinger jumps in, trying to harass our Awesome, but Gbasden simply sticks out the left arm (the one with the giant mace-like fist) as the bug mech lands and put said fist through the head. There's nothing left of it, and the 20-ton mech collapses into a pile of salvage.

The infantry that clambered out of the Maxim don't even bother sticking around, they just run right off the field.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

We engage the "main body" of the enemy force, scoring a couple of laser and PPC hits, with Stefan bringing a few LRMs to bear as well, but score no armor breaches. At least none of our mechs get damaged.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

El Guapo ignores the incoming pitter-patter of LRMs and the Hermes' short-range fire, lines up the gauss rifle and lets rip, the slug going all the way into the lighter mech's right torso. A couple of laser blasts from Isgrimnur's Hatchetman take off more armor, forcing the Hermes to the ground, at which point Isgrimnur brings down the Hatchet to take off the left arm. Granted, that one only has a flamer, but that mech is still in pretty bad shape.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

The Hermes struggles to its feet and begins moving off the battlefield, but El Guapo has other concerns, as the Panther jumps in behind him. A little deft footwork prevents any damage.

To the east, Stefan jumps his Catapult behind the enemy Blackjack, breaching its rear armor and knocking it over.

Isgrimnur's target somehow manages to avoid getting completely smashed to bits, avoiding incoming weapons fire and the hatchet blow.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur snarls, stomping into the woods and directing the Hatchetman's autocannon at a nearby Scorpion tank, sawing it in half. By the time he swings left to take another shot at the Hunter, it's been blown away by Gbasden.

El Guapo moves rapidly through the woods, taking aim at the Blackjack as it gets up - a PPC and a gauss slug combine to take off the right section of the torso, sending the attached autocannon spinning off into the distance. Somehow, the machine remains standing, even after Stefan blows out a jump jet on the right leg. Not for long though, as our Catapult delivers a kick before the enemy mech can jump away, knocking said leg off and toppling the Blackjack onto its back.

The Panther's aim at Gbasden's Awesome is thrown off by El Guapo's kick, which nearly knocks off a leg.

The remaining enemy units (all two of them) run off at maximum speed. Isgrimnur and Stefan would be able to keep up with them, but El Guapo and Gbasden would fall behind. Our units are basically undamaged and have used less than a 25% of their ammo.

Do we:
[] Pursue the routed enemy units - chase them down before they can escape and report back to their landing zone
[] Resume patrol - this may not have been the only group attempting to infiltrate the training grounds

[Isgrimnur]

Split the party.

[El Guapo]

I would say pursue as long as we (Isgrimnur and Stefan) have a reasonable chance of catching them. If so, is there anything me and Gbasden can usefully do in the meantime? Maybe meet up with other patrols?

[Zenn7]

I would say pursue as long as we (Isgrimnur and Stefan) have a reasonable chance of catching them. If so, is there anything me and Gbasden can usefully do in the meantime? Maybe meet up with other patrols?

Chase them, have GB and Guap continue patrol (the other 2 will catch up).

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Awesome and Marauder resume patrol.
Hatchetman and Catapult pursue.

May 15, 3042
Training Grounds northeast of previous engagement
Acamar

"This is Urban Lance, we are engaging unidentified hostile units. Attempting identification. Request backup, there's a medium lance of mechs here." comes the report, the coordinates of the transmission flashing on the mini-map in the cockpit of Gbasden's Awesome.

"Understood, Urban. Command Lance on the way." Gbasden responds. "Command-Three, Four, what's your status?"

"In pursuit and closing." Isgrimnur reports. "They're looping around to the east."

"Oh, really." Gbasden answers with a grin - it seems that the escapees are heading toward the on-going battle Urban lance finds itself in. "Ok, Urban, try and keep your rookie alive. You're going to have a little extra company shortly, but then we'll close the trap."

It appears that another enemy patrol has tried to penetrate our perimeter. Urban lance has taken a rookie on patrol with them, to give the poor guy a few pointers about night-time fighting. Our mechs are all jump-capable, but the poor scrub has a Phoenix Hawk... a salvaged Kurita variant. What do the Kurita guys do to "specialize" their Phoenix Hawk? They take off the jump jets and machine guns and give it an all-energy loadout, add a couple of heat sinks and bolt on the maximum possible amount of armor. That's great, makes it a pretty tough customer, but it sure is tough to maneuver at night.

Regardless, Urban and the hostile force are a little bit inter-mixed, and Urban needs to get detailed scans on all the targets (while preferably also staying alive and running the hostiles off). When Command Lance arrives, we'll be able to crush the opposition, as it's a medium mech lance backed up by a few light tanks.

Urban itself is a jump-capable Crusader, a Blackjack, a Phoenix Hawk 1D, and a Trebuchet 5J.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Urban lance's Crusader starts the party off by coming out of some woods and blowing the turret off a nearby Vedette with a laser and a couple of streak SRMs. Enemy counterfire is ineffective, while our guys are busy running their targeting reticles over enemy units until it beeps and identifies in the warbook.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A (relatively) small explosion lights up the terrain to the southwest, as our Phoenix Hawk rookie pal detonates a Darter Scout car's fuel tank. Not to be outdone, our Phoenix Hawk stomps on a Savannah Master as it tries to make a strafing pass, muttering about "stupid anklebiters".

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Our mechs continue hopping around, inflicting a little damage. The Crusader gets punched in the back of the leg by an Assassin, while our guys melt a little armor off some of the tanks. The only enemy unit we haven't taken a detailed scan off of is the enemy Panther.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Our Phoenix Hawk jumps in to do just that, taking an AC/10 round to the right arm, the armor shattering but doing its job one last time.

The Crusader gets a series of solid hits on the nearby Centurion, blasting through its center of mass and hitting the gyro. The 50-ton mech wobbles and falls over, faceplanting into the ground, struggling briefly before it stops moving.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Our rookie reports taking some fire as the raider Wolverine jumps south to engage him. Well, good thing that 1K has a lot of armor, then.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

"Company coming from the northwest." Urban-four announces from the Phoenix Hawk. "One Vedette and a beat-up Panther."

Urban-One in the Crusader acknowledges, then sends a flight of LRMs screaming at a Hetzer as it fires its autocannon at our rookie Phoenix Hawk buddy. He evades that one by jumping down a "short" cliff, but gets picked on by a Wolverine and a Wasp, taking a little armor damage. He manages to avoid a kick by stepping to the side, causing the Wolverine to fall over.

"Urban-five here, need a little backup!", he calls out. "Uh... wait, never mind. They're pulling back."

The hostiles leave their disabled Hetzer and the downed Centurion behind and flee before any elements of the Command lance can arrive. Well, a Centurion isn't a bad mech to salvage, and this one is in pretty good shape - just a little gyro damage, nothing that can't be fixed with a couple hundred K C-Bills worth of parts.

We've also wound up capturing about ten prisoners, including the mechwarrior driving the Centurion. Looks pretty beat up, between all the falling over and the faceplanting.

We do manage to track the retreating enemy units to their dropships - a Union and a Gazelle. It looks like they're packing it in and getting ready to leave, probably not having expected our opposition. We briefly contact our employer, who stresses that assaulting these dropships is not part of our contract - we've run them off without them having gotten any real info that we can tell - they've only been on-planet for less than a day and we've run every one of their recon groups that we've detected off. Hell, their dropship engines are probably still hot.

Now, dropships are great salvage, but are pretty difficult to assault. Especially two of them, and they're not un-guarded, with at least a medium mech and a medium tank lance, plus whatever else they've got in those hangars (at most two mechs and probably five more tanks of fifty tons or less).

[] Take the opportunity to get some serious salvage, but risk serious dropship-induced damage to our battlemechs.
[] Let them go - the job's already done.

[Isgrimnur]

I don't relish attacking a dropship. Again.

[AWS260]

It's tempting, but discretion is the better part of valor.

[Zenn7]

The temptation goes down a bit if we don't get a chance to re-armor/reload.

2 of our 3 lances have already suffered some armor damage and have expended some ammo.

And I doubt the Fedrats are sending any assistance along.

Plus, in order to keep honoring our commitment here, I rather imagine we need to be able to field some mechs, can't have most/all of them in the shop.

For so many reasons... hard pass on the dropships.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Let the dropships go - unanimous

"All units, monitor hostile departure, but do not engage unless fired upon."

The raiders don't make us wait very long, boarding their dropships within several hours and burning for orbit.

Once the dropships leave, Alpha Company gets paid. Only about 10M C-Bills, but we get granted priority access to purchase a limited amount of advanced tech available to the Federated Commonwealth. Plus, the local base commander insists on unloading some prototype equipment derived from captured Kurita salvage - pretty standard deal, the equipment prototypes will gather telemetry, and we're expected to report on their performance as well as hand over the telemetry data. And we pay for the equipment, too.

To abstract the decision-making process, we have 23 (or 27, depending on our choices) "points" of equipment that we can buy, rated as follows in the format "Equipment (point value)":
[] Double heat sinks (1)
[] XL Engine of choice (10)
[] Listen-Kill warheads (1/ton)
[] LB-10X autocannon (5), ammo (1/ton)
[] Ultra/5 autocannon (5), ammo (1/ton)

The experimental equipment is all salvaged Kurita lasers, and we'll need to pick one:
[] 1 ER Large laser
[] 1 Large Pulse laser
[] 1 ER PPC
[] 2 Medium Pulse laser
[] 4 Small Pulse laser
[] Forget the energy weapons, get another 4 points of FedCom equipment

A few words on the equipment:

The pulse lasers generates a ton of heat but is extremely accurate, making it great for rookies (as long as they don't overheat their mechs). Their range is a little on the low side though, reduced by as much as 33% for the medium and large versions.

The ER Large has slightly better range than a standard PPC while generating more heat and doing less damage. Xwraith is happy with his, but that's because of a recovered Star League-era improved cooling jacket that brings its heat down.

The ER PPC generates an unbelievable amount of heat, but has the advantage of charging up a lot faster, so being at short range is not a disadvantage. And also, it's "extended range", with about a 25% range improvement, so it can shoot almost as far as an AC/2. We wouldn't be able to fully equip an Awesome or anything.

The energy weapon prototypes generate a substantial amount of heat, so if we plan on using them, we'll need to invest heavily in double heat sinks.

XL Engines drastically reduce mech engine weight, allowing us to use the saved tonnage on more armor, equipment, etc, but are pretty bulky. Normally, taking substantial damage to a side torso section doesn't disable a mech, but it does with an XL. Still, they're pretty good.

LB-10X is lighter than the standard AC/10 by a ton, has a longer range and can fire standard or cluster rounds, which have wider scatter but are more likely to hit the target.

The ultra AC/5 is heavier than the AC/5 and has a longer range, but is capable of rapid fire. Well, technically, you can rapid-fire the AC/5 as well, but that tends to cause catastrophic jams. An ultra can jam, but it won't explode on you.

Listen-Kill warheads are nice, but run out pretty quick (well, the good ones anyway, we still have tons of listen-kill SRM/2s and LRM/5s kicking around) and any modern ECM defeats the advanced homing systems with ease.

Once we finish up the cadre duty contract, we get paid for that as well - at that point, it's the end of June. Our Long Tom crews have really pulled it together (except for a few guys who couldn't hack it and decided to leave our employment). Alpha will have earned ~25M C-Bills after all is said and done. Not quite the paydays we were seeing back in '39 or the Ronin Wars (or the 4th), but money don't stink. Well, for the most part.

Stefan announces his retirement, having struck up a relationship with a local resident and taken a job offer training rookies for FedCom. With 83 battles and 114 kills under his belt (18 of them mechs) over the course of 15 years, the 39-year-old mechwarrior excelled in the operation of jump-capable mechs, and got pretty good with the kicking, too. Having driven everything from a Vulcan to a Grasshopper (and even having taken a ride in Xwraith's Thunderbolt once), his heaviest mech kill was a Warhammer. He even managed to overcome the odd case of pyromania. Mostly.

Who's going to be Stefan Mk II and drive the Catapult?
[] PFC Leon Eng - 27 years old, male, 3 gunnery/4 piloting, expert in rough weather conditions
[] PFC Ok-Hwa Park - 37 years old, female, 3 gunnery/4 piloting, expert in ground maneuvering

-------------

May 28, 3042
Connaught, Free Worlds League
100km north of dropship atmospheric entry point

Beta's arrival on Connaught does not go unnoticed, and a Fury-class dropship with conventional fighter escorts and a couple of aerospace fighters moves to intercept. Not wanting to become embroiled in a risky dropship-on-dropship battle, we send out Beta-Strike and Delta-Interceptor to discourage them as our dropships fire up their retro engines and begin their descent. A Fury is not the nastiest dropship in existence (our Unions have more guns), but it's optimized for atmospheric operations, while our Unions are basically big balls and have the maneuverability of a stuck pig.

Hawk, our long-time buddy and Lyran liaison, has a Seydlitz deploy from his Leopard-class dropship as well to help us out. Beta-Strike is two heavies and a medium - a Stuka (customized with an Artemis IV fire control system for the nose-mounted LRM launcher), a Lucifer and a Lightning. Delta-Interceptor is three light fighters, so their job will be to keep the gnats off our heavies while they make attack runs on the dropship.

We make our interception over a major city, so the locals are going to get a fireworks show, and possibly some aircraft crashing down into the streets. Sorry.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

"Contacts, dead ahead. Eight fighters, one dropship." calls out the lieutenant in charge of Beta-Strike. "Engage the fighters first, we have some room".

Round 2:

Spoiler:

The seat cushions in our fighters get a good workout as they fire up their engines to maximum "safe" acceleration. It's possible to go faster, but usually you save that for when you really need it, because the aircraft starts vibrating - in space, if you mess up a maneuver or push your engines too hard, no big whoop, your craft just drifts until you fix the tumble and restart the engines. If you mess up a maneuver in atmo, that can cost you.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Time to start the furball, as a pair of lighter aircraft dart in. Our Stuka pilot looks forward to trying out his Artemis IV, except that the diagnostic screen displays a very encouraging message - "incompatible ordnance detected, reverting to standard fire control." He grunts in frustration and opens fire with what he's got anyway. The little fighter hits the Stuka with a couple of lasers, then disintegrates in mid-air as our Lightning brings its AC/20 to bear. Another fighter, a Thrush gets a few more good hits in on our Stuka as well, and nobody's able to catch him.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

We're just about at maximum weapons range to fire on the dropship, but we still want to clear a few of the fruit flies away first. These Meteors are pretty nasty, packing an AC/10 for enough firepower to bring an aircraft down. But this Meteor proves to be no threat, as our Stuka fires its large lasers, puncturing armor and detonating the on-board SRM ammo, which causes the Marik fighter to disintegrate. The Stuka takes an AC/10 round and a few LRMs from a Defender, and rattles around a bit, but the aero jock barely even notices.

Our buddy Seydlitz moves to intercept said Defender, nailing it in the tail with the lone large laser, but takes an AC/10 burst from another Meteor. The Lyran aero jock manages to hold it together. The Marik guy in the Defender does not, and spirals downwards at a pretty good clip, exploding as it hits the ground, and collapsing a building. Whoops.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

"Right. Break and attack. Stay clear of that nose." Beta-Strike's lieutenant reminds our heavies as we begin firing on the Fury. Lasers, missiles and autocannon rounds score and pit the dropship's armor, as the enemy fighters open up on our heavies, trying to keep them off. The Stuka takes an autocannon burst and SRMs to the left wing, stripping armor there, but it holds.

Our smaller fighters each pick a target and open fire. Delta-Interceptor's Cheetah takes a good chunk out of the Meteor targeting the Stuka, blowing off an SRM launcher with a laser. Our Centurion gets a good shot on the other Meteor, with several lasers hitting the cockpit. The Marik pilot probably blacked out, because his aircraft does a couple of spirals then slams into the ground, detonating once it hits.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

One of our light fighters strays into the firing arc of the Fury's weapons bays and pays for it, taking multiple hits and blowing out sensitive equipment. Our heavies continue laying into the dropship, with the Stuka taking several laser and autocannon shots from the swarming enemy fighters. A Meteor takes some laser hits from one of our Cheetahs as our light aircarft gets on the conventional fighter's tail and blazes away, blowing chunks off the engine and an SRM launcher. This time, everyone retains control of their aircraft, though.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Our Cheetah takes another blast from the Fury, losing a medium laser, but managing to bring down a Stingray as it loops around for a pass on our heavies. The dropship tries to turn, but our heavies easily keep up with it, staying away from its weapon bays.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

The Fury pulls up, momentarily losing our Stuka, but not the rest of our heavies, then takes a couple of shots to thre thrusters and starts losing altitude quite reapidly.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

The only enemy fighter left in the air is a Thrush, with two remaining Meteors pulling away as fast as they can. This leaves the Fury totally uncovered (not to mention completely unable to evade), and it breaks up into two pieces as our Lightning puts in the finishing burst with the AC/20.

The Thrush gets a good working over from our light fighters, losing control of the aircraft as lasers poke through armor and at the internal structure. The pilot manages to level it out before hitting the ground, then accelerates rapidly away - we let him go, as our objective here is complete.

A pretty good start to the raid overall, taking out a dropship. Granted, "only" a Fury, which doesn't really have much carrying capacity - four infantry platoons and eight light or medium tanks, but still, better to not have extra tanks dropping in while we're trying to work.

Not much to salvage here, and it seems inadvisable to take our salvage crews into the city anyway when the planetary population isn't exactly friendly to us. Our dropships land and we begin deploying patrols to secure the immediate area, as well as attempt to locate our target.

[El Guapo]

I would suggest two XL engines, three double-heat sinks, and an ER PPC.

I could also be talked into two XL engines and seven double heat sinks, if they have that many.

[Stefan Stirzaker]

[] PFC Leon Eng - 27 years old, male, 3 gunnery/4 piloting, expert in rough weather conditions

The other one was a bit long in the tooth and would retire soon, and besides, who doesn't like a walk in the rain? Any reports that Eng has a fascination with flamers is totally wrong and a slander!

Any four flamer firestarters need a pilot?

[Zenn7]

I would suggest two XL engines, three double-heat sinks, and an ER PPC.

I could also be talked into two XL engines and seven double heat sinks, if they have that many.

Thought we had to equip double heat sinks as 10 minimum? 7's not so much use.

Get ER PPC
1 XL, 10 double heat sinks and either 1 LB10x w/ 2 tons of ammo or more double heat sinks and maybe still some LB10x ammo for the gun we already have.

We should put the ER PPC on mine or Zarathud's Awesome (we are PPC specialists) - and probably the double heat sinks so we can fire it and still fire the other 2 regular PPCs from time to time?

[El Guapo]

I would suggest two XL engines, three double-heat sinks, and an ER PPC.

I could also be talked into two XL engines and seven double heat sinks, if they have that many.

Thought we had to equip double heat sinks as 10 minimum? 7's not so much use.

Get ER PPC
1 XL, 10 double heat sinks and either 1 LB10x w/ 2 tons of ammo or more double heat sinks and maybe still some LB10x ammo for the gun we already have.

We should put the ER PPC on mine or Zarathud's Awesome (we are PPC specialists) - and probably the double heat sinks so we can fire it and still fire the other 2 regular PPCs from time to time?

That loadout is 31 points - 10 (XL) + 10 (heat sinks) + 4 (ER PPC) + 5 (LBX10) = 2 (LBX10 ammo).

So, assuming that Zenn7 is right about minimum 10 double heat sinks, then 1 XL (10) + 10 heat sinks (10) + ER PPC (4) + either 3 double heat sinks or 3 LB-10X ammo.

[AWS260]

Keep it simple:

2 XL Engines (20) + 7 tons LB-10X ammo (7) = 27

[El Guapo]

Keep it simple:

2 XL Engines (20) + 7 tons LB-10X ammo (7) = 27

Double heat sinks are amazing, though - they let us, you know, keep firing our weapons.

[NickAragua]

It winds up being pretty hard to reach a consensus on the re-constructed LosTech (requiring several HPG transmissions back and forth). El Guapo puts forth a pretty convincing argument for double heat sinks. Isgrimnur and Freyland swear by their XL engines. Hyena tearfully recounts the joy of firing the LBX autocannon, although he points out that there's no sense in buying the ammo without at least one of the autocannons themselves and that Gamma has plenty of LBX ammo aboard the Moonraker. Zenn7, as usual, is a proponent of the PPC.

We do have some clear losers, which are the lasers, the ultra autocannon and the listen-kill warheads, so we discard those as options.

Zenn7 spends some time aboard the Sparrow evaluating the performance of the extended range PPC. For several hours, mutterings of "that's not right" and "incorrect" and "why would they do that" can be heard from within the simulator pod. Our resident PPC expert concludes that his expertise at firing standard PPCs won't quite apply to the extended-range model: the firing delay is slightly different, the energy dissipation curve isn't the same, the heat curve is way off...

A couple of the techs (and Zenn7) remind everyone that you need at least ten double heat sinks to upgrade a mech to use those, since those first ten "line" the engine. Like a winter-climate mammal's fur covering, except the fur is made out of ultra-toxic compound that's painfully fatal if ingested (and not too pleasant on skin contact either).

[the Weapon Specialization - PPC pilot ability doesn't apply to extended range PPCs]

In the end, we coalesce a couple of concrete plans.

[] XL Engine (10), ER PPC (4), 13x double heat sinks (13)
[] XL Engine (10), 12x double heat sinks (12), 1x LBX/10 autocannon (5)
[] 2x LBX-10 autocannon (10), 13x double heat sink (13), ER PPC (4)
[] Alternate write-in with some combination of XL Engines, double heat sinks, LB-10X autocannon and ER PPC

While we think about it, let's jump back to Asuncion for a bit, where our jumpship comes under attack again.

-------------------------------

May 22, 3042
Asuncion, Free Worlds League
Interception point en route to drydock facility

This time, our sensor operators are on the ball, and see the bad guys coming, so our jumpship can deploy its defending units - currently a pair of R20 Lucifers, an R15 Lucifer (the flying brick) and a Shilone - all heavies with mixed armaments. The Union is escorted by a six-pack of light fighters, and we detect an additional two sensor blips vectoring in.

We'll need to stop that Union before it can get to the jumpship and board, otherwise, we're going to have some serious trouble.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

The other good news is that the guys at the drydock aren't looking forward to having a hostile Union unload a bunch of space marines or whatever and make a mess, so they send out an aerospace fighter to help. A Cheetah. Uh, thanks.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Here they come. Our aero jocks will need to do a really good job matching velocities to maximize the amount of time they have to spend shooting at that dropship.

The allied Cheetah gets shot up pretty good by a Seydlitz and drifts off, so that's helpful.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

Well, great job guys. Instead of intercepting the dropship, we get bogged down by the stupid escort fighters. Except for our Shilone, which winds up missing its shots as it dodges a batter of laser fire from the Union. We do manage to shoot up quite a few of the escort fighters at least - a Sabre and a Seydlitz get pretty chewed up (how many times can you hit the damn landing gear anyway?)

Round 4:

Spoiler:

That Union's just about left us in the dust (you can almost hear the captain saying "eat my thrusters" or something similar). A Sabre has the misfortune of vectoring in front of one of our Lucifers as it attempts to make a pass and eats several lasers, damaging internal systems.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

We exchange one last round of fire with the escort craft before they peel off, some heading for the Union, other for parts unknown.

Our fighters pursue the Union, which slows down just long enough to let out a couple of platoons of EVA-suited infantry who swarm the jumpship and let a couple of the more damaged fighters dock. It then pours on the thrust to clear out before our fighters catch up.

Of course, the capturing infantry are going to have the same problem that we have, meaning that the jumpship simply doesn't work. There's a series of transmissions that we intercept back and forth between Asuncion and the jumpship, probably them trying to figure out what to do. It'll take a while to decode them, as they're encrypted, but we manage to work out the source and destination, approximately - a cluster of facilities which include a familiar airbase, and a heavily-defended command center that we opted not to attack (due to having gotten our clocks cleaned by the supporting aircraft, and being unable to field air cover of our own due to the rebel-controlled anti-air defenses).

The other complicating factor is that a jumpship flotilla arrives at the zenith jump point and cuts loose multiple heavy duty dropships, which burn hard for the planet. It appears that the Free Worlds League has had enough of this rebellion nonsense and has sent a substantial force to put them down. So we're on a timetable, as things will become unpredictable once they set down - the rebels might order the guys on board the jumpship to sabotage it further, or maybe kill the crew, or the Marik guys might seize it for themselves.

Scrub, Hyena, Xwraith and Cylus sit down and try to figure out how to deal with this. We don't have too many options, but they all basically boil down to sending the Moonraker over to retake control of the jumpship - it should arrive just as the Marik forces hit groundside - while our ground forces hit the rebel command center in an attempt to either seize it outright or capture whoever's in charge and get them to relinquish our dropship. We'll leave our aerospace fighters to continue covering the Earthwerks facilities, especially since the rebel-held air defense systems are still functional so we can't really use our aircraft anyway.

The observed defenses at the command center include a battery of Thumpers and a lance of assault mechs, plus an assortment of lighter units. We'll probably also see fighters coming in from the nearby airbase. Our choice boils down to either just going for broke on the command center, or trying to take out the air base first. The main problem is that if we hit the air base (which is defended by a fairly substantial number of tanks and medium mechs) and need to repair and reload, then we may not have the time to hit the command center and risk the guys who've seized the jumpship doing something stupid.

One thing the command staff agrees on is that we'll send the whole of Gamma, twelve mechs, as attacking these places piecemeal didn't really do the trick previously.

[] Hit the command center, deal with enemy air support as best we can and get it over with
[] Hit the air base, then hit the command center

Regarding the incoming Marik dropships
[] Contact the incoming force, see if they can do anything to help us out - they may attempt to extract concessions in exchange, of course
[] Better do this on our own

[El Guapo]

[X] XL Engine (10), ER PPC (4), 13x double heat sinks (13)
[] XL Engine (10), 12x double heat sinks (12), 1x LBX/10 autocannon (5)
[] 2x LBX-10 autocannon (10), 13x double heat sink (13), ER PPC (4)
[] Alternate write-in with some combination of XL Engines, double heat sinks, LB-10X autocannon and ER PPC

[X] Hit the command center, deal with enemy air support as best we can and get it over with
[] Hit the air base, then hit the command center

Regarding the incoming Marik dropships
[X] Contact the incoming force, see if they can do anything to help us out - they may attempt to extract concessions in exchange, of course
[] Better do this on our own

I think we should contact the Marik forces, but we need to be somewhat careful what we say. Not contacting them at all seems too risky - don't want them regarding us as hostiles and dropping everything on us. I don't think we should mention that we're trying to recover our jumpship, though, as they might get it in their heads to take it for themselves.

[AWS260]

[] XL Engine (10), ER PPC (4), 13x double heat sinks (13)
[] XL Engine (10), 12x double heat sinks (12), 1x LBX/10 autocannon (5)
[] 2x LBX-10 autocannon (10), 13x double heat sink (13), ER PPC (4)
[X] Alternate write-in with some combination of XL Engines, double heat sinks, LB-10X autocannon and ER PPC

27x double heat sinks.

[X] Hit the command center, deal with enemy air support as best we can and get it over with
[] Hit the air base, then hit the command center

Regarding the incoming Marik dropships
[X] Contact the incoming force, see if they can do anything to help us out - they may attempt to extract concessions in exchange, of course
[] Better do this on our own