Let's play: Battletech via MegaMek

[Zenn7]

[] Take them immediately - we've got three fighters, so it'll be a little dicey
[] Call for backup, Beta-Strike - three more of our heavier fighters, least engagement time
[X] Call for backup, nearby militia flight - two fighters of indeterminate quality, medium engagement time

While I'd love to have Beta-Strike, that sounds like it's going to leave us too little time on target.

Not so sure about that (back to the idea that time on the target is only good if we have the firepower to do something about it), but hard to say. I could go either way, but definitely not just take them immediately. We never do THAT well in aerospace fights.

[El Guapo]

[] Take them immediately - we've got three fighters, so it'll be a little dicey
[X] Call for backup, Beta-Strike - three more of our heavier fighters, least engagement time
[] Call for backup, nearby militia flight - two fighters of indeterminate quality, medium engagement time

Honestly I would say either Beta-Strike or retreat / do not engage, personally. On with the militia, 3 of our fighters + 2 unknown militia fighters doesn't seem like a match for four heavies and four light fighters.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Beta-Strike: 4
Militia Flight: 2

The flight commander on the scene briefly considers asking the militia guys for help, but, historically speaking, militia guys suck. So, she calls down to the surface to get Beta-Strike up there as well. Gamma-Strike has to change vectors a bit, so by the time Beta-Strike is in position, they'll have maybe one or two passes at the dropship before it hits atmo and anti-air coverage.

We've got plenty of up-armored Lightnings between the two flights. The Lightnings will concentrate on the dropship with their AC/20s, while the Lucifer and Stingray will swat flies.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our Lightnings make their attack runs on the Gazelle, gouging out chunks of armor from its port side. One of our Lightnings gets pretty beat up by escorting fighters, and our Stingray is able to only inflict minor damage on the Stuka.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A few separatist fighters have trouble controlling their craft and drift as they chase after our Lightnings, which keep after the Gazelle. AC/20 shells continue pounding the dropship's port side, blowing out a cargo bay door, which results in a non-trivial amount of newly-unsecured cargo spilling out into the vacuum.

Our Stingray hangs back to absorb firepower from the heavier enemy craft, which it does just fine, but also takes a beating, which causes the engines to sputter and the aero jock to lose control of his fighter temporarily. She does manage to work a Seydlitz fighter over with the Stingray's large lasers and a medium, frying a laser and severely warping the interior structure of the lighter fighter.

Round 3:
[image feed lost]
AC/20s continue pounding the Gazelle, one of our Lightnings scoring a hit on the nose as well. Several unidentifiable armored vehicles spill out of the main vehicle bay as another hull breach registers from a medium laser. Our other Lightning blows off a couple of weapons mount, leaving the hull integrity on the dropship's port side highly questionable.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

With its armor a distant memory, our Stingray peels off. The escorts will probably be able to catch up to our Lightnings now, but it's likely to be a little late for the Gazelle. Autocannon rounds jam the vehicle bay door while a laser over-penetrates through the hull breach on the port side and blows a chunk out of the main cargo bay, spilling a significant amount of cargo (later sensor estimates show about ~300 tons, while the Gazelle's cargo capacity is 800 tons). A missile bay also gets blown away.

The dropship puts on a final burst of main engine power and begins atmospheric descent, leaving our fighters behind just as Beta-Strike arrives. We'll consider this engagement a qualified success - we caused severe damage to the Gazelle, causing it to lose about 40% of its cargo, as well as five tanks it was transporting, not to mention the damage to weapon bays and multiple hull breaches. Also, none of our aerospace fighters took irreparable damage (although the Stingray winds up having to do a "landing gear unassisted" landing). The Lightnings will be back in action pretty quickly, the Stingray will probably take a couple of weeks to fix, apparently some "support strut" got bent, which gets the tech in charge of repairs very agitated and ranting about re-welding this joint and this node.

Delta company has been making some progress conducting reconaissance and intelligence gathering regarding our pirate targets. Because we didn't do too well with stopping the separatist dropships from landing, a militia-held armor staging facility in Delta's assigned search sector comes under attack and the militia moves to abandon it. This is a problem for us, as we were supposed to pay that place a visit and take a look at the sensor data recorded by their patrols.

Our main decision point here is whether we request a dropship ride from the militia or take our second Union (it's impractical for our mechs to cross several hundred kilometers of water). The militia would probably be happy to give us a ride since we'd be helping bail out one of their bases, but would be extremely unhappy if said dropship got shot up. And also the quality of the dropship crew is unlikely to be any good. The Moonraker has a veteran crew and will kick ass and take names, but, of course, we'd be risking one of our rides. We could also forego this battle, but our pirate search will become that much harder.

[] Take a militia dropship, don't want to risk our valuable assets
[] Take our dropship, we can't really rely on militia scrubs
[] Skip helping the militia on this one

[Zarathud]

We have the tools, let’s use them. Better than letting some chump crash us.

[gbasden]

We have the tools, let’s use them. Better than letting some chump crash us.

Agreed. Take the Moonraker.

[Cylus Maxii]

Agreed.

[X] Take our dropship, we can't really rely on militia scrubs

[Zenn7]

We have the tools, let’s use them. Better than letting some chump crash us.

Agreed. Take the Moonraker.

We need to start up an auxiliary company to provide this sort of support without risking our rides...

[AWS260]

We have the tools, let’s use them. Better than letting some chump crash us.

Yep.

[Hyena]

We have the tools, let’s use them. Better than letting some chump crash us.

Yep.

Yep to the yep.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Use our own dropship - unanimous

The mechwarriors of Gamma-Probe lance (Cujo, AWS, Drazzil and the fourth guy) and Delta-Ranger lance (Madmarcus, Archinerd, Freyland, Paingod) are horrified at the thought of trusting their lives to some unknown militia crew (some on account of being spoiled, some on account of remembering what it was like to have to rent a ride), especially for a combat drop. So, they file aboard the Moonraker. Delta-Ranger gets dropped off southwest of the tank base to head off a couple of mech lances, while Delta-Probe and the Moonraker proceed to the base directly. We might not prevent the militia from abandoning it, but if we can push the separatists off, we should be able to at least get the militia to grant us access to their sensor logs as agreed.

The use of our dropship allows us to arrive and unload just as the separatists begin their push. We even manage to not flatten half the base when the dropship lands. The militia are packing up the last of their equipment and personnel and moving them out on civilian vehicles, guarded by a light tank lance. The base auto-turrets are still operational, though they're going to be of limited use. Although that quad LRM/5 turret looks like it'll be able to put the hurt on any approaching units from long range, and anyone getting into range of those SRM and laser turret is going to have a bad time as well.

The attacking force (minus the two mech lances diverted by Delta-Ranger is a heavy tank lance, a medium mech lance (Phoenix Hawk, Griffin, Enforcer, Rifleman) and a couple of lances of light/medium tanks. Should be doable, especially with dropship support.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We approach from the southeast, while the bulk of the separatist forces come in from the southwest. The militia is still penned up inside the fairly sprawling facility, so it'll be a little while before they engage each other. Hopefully we'll have time to pick off the loose Condor and Rifleman. We exchange some symbolic fire with the hovertank, but nothing hits.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

"Take out that Rifleman!" Cujo orders, mindful of the enemy mech's potential impact against our dropship which has lifted off and is going to relocate (slowly, as is the domain of spheroids) to a better position for fire support. A flurry of lasers and a salvo of SRMs flies out towards the designated mech, blasting off large chunks of armor and knocking it to the ground. Cujo takes an AC/5 round from the Condor, but armor holds.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

AWS and Cujo break off after the Condor, severely damaging its hover skirt and propulsion fans while Drazzil and the Vulcan work on the Rifleman. Drazzil deftly avoids the enemy mech's lasers while flaking off some armor, then the Vulcan really drills into the back of the 60-tonner, cracking open the engine shielding with laser and MG fire. The large and medium lasers that it fired really don't help keep the heat down, showing one of the design's glaring weaknesses.

A brief glance to the southwest of the base shows a fire has started.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

The mechwarrior in the Rifleman wastes little time in yanking the ejection lever.

"PPC carrier, 9 o'clock." Drazzil calls out. Depending on who you ask, a Shreck PPC carrier is either an evolution on the idea of an AC/2 carrier or a cheapskate's Awesome. Either way, it's got three PPCs, making it something that one should absolutely not fool around with.

Which is why most of our units break north to finish off the Condor, which they do with plenty of lasers.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Drazzil avoids the Schrek's particle beams and charges right on top of it, preventing it from targeting his Phoenix Hawk. He scores a laser hit on the nearby LRM Carrier as well, while flaking armor off the heavier PPC carrier with a boot.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The Moonraker comes down (safely, there's only a little crunching) just south of where we're engaging the carriers and a Maxim that has decided to join the party. The LRM carrier blows up right away, while most of the other tanks start pulling back.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

There's not much for our mechs to do, as anything they consider targeting gets blown away by the Moonraker's guns, including the Shreck, a Maxim hover transport and the Manticore. We note signs of on going battle as well, as AWS observes a Maxim rammed into a tree to the west.

Having nothing better to do, Drazzil stomps a couple of infantry into the ground as they ineffectually fire their shoulder-mounted SRM launchers at the rapidly moving mech.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Drazzil and AWS move north, following Cujo to engage the rear of the separatist armor, leaving the lone Scorpion LRM tank for the Union to destroy (which it does with fireworks as a PPC and a couple of autocannon bursts light up the tank's ammo bins.

Cujo lasers another Scorpion in half while the Vulcan jumps into the main fray in the center of the base and takes out a Darter scout car. The center of the base is a bit of a mess, with a beheaded separatist Phoenix Hawk slumped over a bunker and an Enforcer jumping away as fast as its jump jets can carry it, but a couple of militia tanks and an industrial mech on the ground and in pieces, along with what looks like helicopter wreckage and a major fire burning in the southwest of the base. The arrival of our forces behind them (and the rapid elimination of better than a lance of units by our dropship) prompts the rest of the separatist forces to retreat.

We get paid about 2.4M in salvage - the militia made out like bandits on this one, getting a virtually intact Rifleman (other than some "minor" engine damage) and a Phoenix Hawk that's going to need a new head but is fine otherwise. Our dropship and mechs took minor armor damage, but armor is entirely in the green and yellow, with about 33% ammo expenditure (not a big deal considering Cujo's Wolverine is the only mech that has a weapon that needs ammo, an SRM/6 launcher).

Delta-Ranger reports engaging the pair of mech lances, a light and a medium lance as a storm front closes in. The separatists look like they're screening rather than fully committing to the engagement. Chances are our guys can take them without assistance, but we also have an opportunity to corral the separatist forces retreating from the base where we just repelled them and defeat the whole group in detail for more salvage money. Of course, doing that will delay our acquisition of sensor data, which is why we came to this area in the first place.

[] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

[El Guapo]

[X] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

Seems like more fun.

And speaking of more fun, can we do an orbital drop at some point? Seems like that would be a blast.

[NickAragua]

And speaking of more fun, can we do an orbital drop at some point? Seems like that would be a blast.

That statement is correct.

[Cylus Maxii]

[X] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

Seems like more fun.

And speaking of more fun, can we do an orbital drop at some point? Seems like that would be a blast.

Agreed.

[AWS260]

[] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[X] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

Let's stay focused on the task at hand, people.

[Zenn7]

[] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[X] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

Let's stay focused on the task at hand, people.

Focus - we go off playing around, someone will slip in and blow the place up or delete what we are looking for or just entrench themselves.

Besides, the sensor data only tells us where they came in. The longer we take, the older and less relevant that sensor data will be.

[Drazzil]

[X] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

[El Guapo]

[] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[X] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

Let's stay focused on the task at hand, people.

Focus - we go off playing around, someone will slip in and blow the place up or delete what we are looking for or just entrench themselves.

Besides, the sensor data only tells us where they came in. The longer we take, the older and less relevant that sensor data will be.

Ok boomer.

[gbasden]

[] Sensor data can wait, let's go kick some more ass and collect more salvage money
[X] Let the retreating separatists go, get what we came here for and clear out

Let's stay focused on the task at hand, people.

This.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Chase the separatists down - 3
Let the separatists go - 6

"We've got what we came for." Madmarcus orders. "Disengage and return to designated nav point."

There's some grumbling from Delta-Ranger's mechwarriors who didn't get in on the action.

One last engagement for the week is Gamma-Battle lance responding to a militia request for assistance - it seems that another one of their armor staging areas has been seized by the separatists. They are planning on re-taking the facility, but want us to prevent the hostiles from looting it. We normally wouldn't care much, but we want more sensor data recorded by militia patrols so we don't have to blindly march our mechs through the hinterlands and random island chains.

In addition to Gamma-Battle lance (Scrub in her shiny new Warhammer, Hyena in a less-shiny and not-so-new Atlas, Cylus in a Grasshopper and Xwraith in the Thunderbolt), Isgrimnur and Stefan will be joining the fight in their Hatchetman and Catapult respectively. Gbasden and El Guapo's mechs are in no shape to participate in a pitched battle, with the Awesome having a major armor breach and internal damage in the right torso while the Marauder's leg actuators are still being dryed out.

The separatists really brought some serious firepower to take this staging ground, including a heavy mech lance consisting of an Archer, a Marauder, a Grasshopper. And a Clint. Also present, two lances of light mechs and a two lances of light tanks/hovercraft. They've got their units looting the base and a group is already moving out to the north as Gamma-Battle lance arrives. They've also got a couple of the base turrets under their control, although it's a fairly minimal number.

Hyena pats the main console in the Atlas' cockpit. "Come on baby, don't let me down."

Round 1:

Spoiler:

Our units approach from the west side. It's going to be a bit tough to prevent the looting units from escaping, but douable. A nice, cool storm rolls in, helping our mechs keep cool in the undoubtedly heated fight coming up.

Cylus engages a Marauder, running up to it and carving over a ton of armor from the front of the separatist mech with the Grasshopper's medium lasers as it firs on Hyena's Atlas in the distance to the north. The Atlas easily absorbs an AC/5 round, then fires at a nearby Savannah Master as it zips around. The lasers and AC/20 all miss, but enough SRM/6 warheads hit that the light hovercraft is disabled.

Scrub targets one of the enemy mechs retreating with cargo, but only scores a single PPC hit on the right leg, where the armor holds. The refitted Warhammer's heat sinks easily keep with the heat load, however.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

Xwraith moves southeast, carefully watching as a Firestarter hops on top of a building housing a rocket launcher turret. A few shots to the structure causes it to collapse under the weight of the light mech, bringing both the mech and the turret down. The Firestarter's still active, but on the ground. Our Thunderbolt takes a few LRMs from the nearby turret, but armor holds.

Hyena and Scrub chase an escaping mech, with most of Hyena's shots going wide. Scrub, however, lands a PPC shot through the center torso, severely damaging the engine shielding and blowing out a heat sink. The heat slows it down considerably, allowing our mechwarriors to move on to other targets.

Cylus goes after another looting mech, flaying armor from it with the Grasshopper's lasers. The Grasshopper's foot reaches out, knocking the "Dig King" over, although some armor flakes off our mech as well. Once said Dig King hits the ground, its left arm comes off.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

A looting ScavengerMech kool-aid-mans it through a building. Xwraith watches with some amusement a loose girder sticking out of the mech's engine block, then jumps after it anyway, staying clear of the pack of light mechs moving in to swarm our Thunderbolt. The ScavengerMech doesn't seem that damaged by the couple of laser blasts, but then multiple explosions rip the mech apart for no visible reason.

A Stinger jumps in next to Cylus, hoping to get a few licks in. Unfortunately for it, instead, our Grasshopper puts a pair of lasers through the bug mech's center torso, including the large laser, which takes it out of action.

Heyna moves south, opening up on the Marauder as it comes into range. The AC/20 scores a solid hit, breaching the enemy heavy's right torso armor and disabling the autocannon there. In return, the enemy mech disables our mech's AC/20 with a couple of direct laser hits.

To the north, Scrub takes the gyro out of another mech fleeing with looted components, leaving just two looters to go. The poor mech faceplants, crushing the mechwarrior inside.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

Isgrimnur and Stefan arrive from the east, quite timely as the battle is starting to heat up.

"Anybody axe for reinforcements?" Isgrimnur can't help himself. "Sorry."

Hyena's Atlas rocks a bit under fire from multiple SRM-equipped units and falls over, the mech groaning as the adjacent Marauder absorbs laser fire then delivers a kick to the left torso.

Cylus blows the other arm off the escaping Dig King, greatly reducing its cargo carrying capacity, then kicks an adjacent Javelin as it fires on Hyena, knocking it to the ground with leg actuator damage. Scrub puts two PPC blasts into another Javelin that skylines itself to the south.

At this point, we've accomplished our goal, so it's time to retreat. At least for Hyena, who's getting a bit pounded.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

Xwraith hangs out in the woods, our Thunderbolt biding its time. A Clint jumps in adjacently and takes a full laser salvo to the front, losing its right arm and most of its right torso.

To the north, Scrub and Cylus move back to back to cover Hyena. Scrub cores out the Javelin that Cylus knocked down earlier, while Cylus and Hyena work on the Marauder, with mixed success - it dodges most of the incoming fire while putting a PPC into the Atlas' center torso. Armor holds, though.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

Once the Grasshopper moves in, it's time for Xwraith to run off. A Thunderbolt can do a lot of things, but take on a Grasshopper at point blank range is not one of them. A Firestarter gives chase and takes a medium laser to the foot, having to go down to a knee to retain stability.

To the east, Isgrimnur collapses the building housing an SRM/6 turret he'd jammed earlier. The rest of the weapons fire passes with nothing much remarkable occurring.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

"Disengage and fall back. We're done here." Scrub calls out, mindful of her lance's increasing damage levels while the hostiles remain standing. Mostly. We got our objective accomplished, which was to stop those mechs from escaping with loot. They can use military mechs for it as well, but mechwarriors can be a little fickle about carrying cargo.

Stefan does just that, disabling a Saracen hovertank with the Catapult's lasers as he goes. Isgrimnur finishes prying the engine out of the Manticore he's been working on for a little while and acknowledges the order.

Hyena whales on a nearby Javelin, then takes a headshot from a nearby bug mech, blacking out momentarily, long enough to send the Atlas to the ground. Cylus blasts said Javelin from behind as well, taking off its left arm and torso, then stomps a large chunk of a Pegasus hovertank off, slowing it down. Scrub finally causes serious damage to the Marauder, putting a PPC shot through the center torso. The enemy heavy had been busy blasting away at Hyena, so combined with its PPC heat, that mech's going to be a sauna.

Xwraith breaks northwest as well, the Thunderbolt ditching the Archer and Grasshopper stalking it, and breaks a Firestarter's leg to reduce the amount of pursuit.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

Judging by the chatter, Isgrimnur and Stefan can tell that the retreat isn't going well. "Let's stick around for a minute." Stefan suggests, kicking the Catapult into maximum speed.

A pair of Locusts continue harassing Hyena's limp mech. Cylus cores one out with repeated lasers to the engine, but can't get the other one, which puts a foot through the Atlas' rear torso as it lies face down and detonates the AC/20 ammo. The ejection seat doesn't fire.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

Despite the loss of the Atlas, the momentum of the battle has changed.

Scrub motions south, with Cylus tailing her Warhammer. The Locust that took out Hyena follows her and gets a couple of lasers to the gyro, sending it flopping to the ground.

Isgrimnur jumps south, blasting a Scorpion tank to bits with the Hatchetman's autocannon and medium lasers, splashing down in a small pond. Stefan runs into the base as well, taking a building out from under a Wasp as it lands, sending the bug mech to the ground on its back.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

Xwraith disables a badly out of position AC/2 carrier with a series of laser blasts as Scrub and Cylus advance to back up the Thunderbolt. They're harassed by a Saracen which escapes major damage.

To the east, Isgrimnur takes over on the Wasp, jumping in as it gets up and knocking its left arm off with the hatchet, which causes the bug mech to flop over face first.

Round 11:

Spoiler:

The Wasp somehow manages to get up and runs up behind Stefan, at which point he turns the Catapult around and blasts the bug mech with its four medium lasers while firing the last of his LRM ammo at a Manticore tank. The Wasp explodes as its SRM ammo detonates.

Xwraith takes out the Skulker as it flees Scrub's PPC fire. Cylus cuts the annoying little Saracen hover tank in half.

At this point, the separatists have three functional mechs left plus a Manticore tank and a couple of half-destroyed auto-turrets. Their mobile units retreat pretty rapidly, leaving the turrets to be easily dispatched.

Cylus, Scrub and Xwraith walk their mechs over to the debris left from Hyena's Atlas. There's not too much left of it. Scrub shakes her head as she climbs out, breathing in the acrid stench of burnt mech and tank, watching an infantry patrol rounds up the crew from the nearby Pegasus and Savannah Master and pulls a captured mechwarrior out from the nearby Locust. She opens her mouth, then closes it, trying to process the situation.

"Seems that two curses don't cancel each other out." Cylus states.

We only have time for a brief funeral, as civil war waits for noone. Sgt. Brad "Hyena" Bandara joined this company in August 3029, meaning he has served with us more than fourteen years, surviving the 4th Succession War, the Ronin War and the War of '39. He's driven just about every type of mech, from a Centurion to a Wasp, but his favorite was the Striker, a pretty rare mech we salvaged off a raid on a Capellan world. Although he managed to conceal it fairly well, his last year with us was marked by fairly severe depression due to the loss of said mech, not helped any by the major concussion incurred during that loss. He participated in 88 missions, with 137 kills. Among his more notable accomplishments are two kills on Awesomes, and the elimination of both a Marauder and a Warhammer during a single battle. He was 32 years old.

Who's going to take Hyena's place in Gamma Battle lance?
[subject to player override]
[] Lt. JG Evdokiy Mahaev - 31 years old, male. Born in the Draconis Combine. 3/3 veteran, melee specialist, will be driving the Grand Dragon.
[] Cpl. Zea-Chin Cao - 27 years old, female. Mercenary brat. 3 gunnery/4 piloting veteran, forward observer, drives our upgraded double heat sink Archer.

The militia pay us about 5M C-Bills for the salvage, which is an ok haul, if a little bit on the bug mech/light tank side. They do wind up with a Manticore missing an engine.

Scrub's upgraded Warhammer runs into trouble - the spare ferro-fibrous armor that the Earthwerks guys hooked us up with when they refitted it is incompatible with the attachment points on the mech. "I can put it on" the tech tells Scrub "but it'll just fall off when you start running." She'll need to climb into a different mech while the techs work it out. Given her preference for PPCs and the preferred weight class, it looks like she'll be driving a Marauder. Not El Guapo's souped up gauss machine, just a standard one. With the ammo bin relocated to a less exposed location. Or she could climb into one of the old-school 6D Warhammers. The capabilities of the two mechs are rather similar - the Marauder is a little more nimble and has advanced communications equipment but isn't as good at heat sinking, while the 6D Warhammer is a straight up brawler with lots of armor and better heat sinks, but no comms equipment.

[] Scrub takes a Warhammer WHM-6D
[] Scrub takes a Marauder MAD-3R (modified)

Our main decision coming up is whether to participate in the militia's rather ambitious plan to attempt to end this conflict quickly. It seems that the separatists are using a jumpship to ferry reinforcements and supplies in via a pirate point, but the militia have figured out where the pirate point is by backtracking separatist dropship traffic. They want us to send them two flights of aerospace fighters (and optionally, a dropship to carry their marines for boarding operations) and keep them ready. They anticipate that the jumpship will make another jump in system sometime late next week. Once it does, we'll wait for its dropships to detach, then move in with our fighters and dropship, overpower any local defenders and seize it. This will leave us with basically one flight of aerospace fighters planetside. We'll also need to carry out a few of ground engagements as we use the recovered sensor data to refine our search pattern.

The militia is pretty adamant that they keep the jumpship, but say they will happily compensate us for its capture.

"You mean you're gonna pay us half a billion C-Bills?" Scrub asks, incredulous.

"Minus the costs of any repairs, of course." the militia rep responds.

[] Let's not get involved in this jumpship nonsense
[] Help capture the jumpship, but let the militia use their own dropship for troop transport
[] Help capture the jumpship, give the militia marines a ride on one of our Unions

[Hyena]

Stuff, stuff, I die, stuff stuff.

[X] Lt. JG Evdokiy Mahaev - 31 years old, male. Born in the Draconis Combine. 3/3 veteran, melee specialist, will be driving the Grand Dragon.
[] Cpl. Zea-Chin Cao - 27 years old, female. Mercenary brat. 3 gunnery/4 piloting veteran, forward observer, drives our upgraded double heat sink Archer.

With a name that almost anagrams into things like "meathead", "haymaker", "hematoid", and "Medieval", how can I NOT be a melee specialist?

Here's to not getting concussed into CTE-induced depression and incompetence on the battlefield!

[Zenn7]

Stuff, stuff, I die, stuff stuff.

[X] Lt. JG Evdokiy Mahaev - 31 years old, male. Born in the Draconis Combine. 3/3 veteran, melee specialist, will be driving the Grand Dragon.
[] Cpl. Zea-Chin Cao - 27 years old, female. Mercenary brat. 3 gunnery/4 piloting veteran, forward observer, drives our upgraded double heat sink Archer.

With a name that almost anagrams into things like "meathead", "haymaker", "hematoid", and "Medieval", how can I NOT be a melee specialist?

Here's to not getting concussed into CTE-induced depression and incompetence on the battlefield!

I would have picked the other one for you, but this is your call. Enjoy it!

Somehow, I think Scrub likes Warhammers and would stick with a Warhammer over a Marauder.

Help capture the jumpship, but they can use their own dropship (not risking our dropship on their plans/abilities).

[Isgrimnur]

Well, that went pear-shaped in a hurry.

[Hyena]

Stuff, stuff, I die, stuff stuff.

[X] Lt. JG Evdokiy Mahaev - 31 years old, male. Born in the Draconis Combine. 3/3 veteran, melee specialist, will be driving the Grand Dragon.
[] Cpl. Zea-Chin Cao - 27 years old, female. Mercenary brat. 3 gunnery/4 piloting veteran, forward observer, drives our upgraded double heat sink Archer.

With a name that almost anagrams into things like "meathead", "haymaker", "hematoid", and "Medieval", how can I NOT be a melee specialist?

Here's to not getting concussed into CTE-induced depression and incompetence on the battlefield!

I would have picked the other one for you, but this is your call. Enjoy it!

Somehow, I think Scrub likes Warhammers and would stick with a Warhammer over a Marauder.

Help capture the jumpship, but they can use their own dropship (not risking our dropship on their plans/abilities).

Out of curiosity, why? Honest question, I have no real intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of those two particular mechs. I literally went off the fact that it's a dude (petty, I know), and I thought having a melee specialist would have been cool.

[Hyena]

Well, that went pear-shaped in a hurry.

As soon as I patted the cockpit I knew I was in trouble...

[Zenn7]

Stuff, stuff, I die, stuff stuff.

[X] Lt. JG Evdokiy Mahaev - 31 years old, male. Born in the Draconis Combine. 3/3 veteran, melee specialist, will be driving the Grand Dragon.
[] Cpl. Zea-Chin Cao - 27 years old, female. Mercenary brat. 3 gunnery/4 piloting veteran, forward observer, drives our upgraded double heat sink Archer.

With a name that almost anagrams into things like "meathead", "haymaker", "hematoid", and "Medieval", how can I NOT be a melee specialist?

Here's to not getting concussed into CTE-induced depression and incompetence on the battlefield!

I would have picked the other one for you, but this is your call. Enjoy it!

Somehow, I think Scrub likes Warhammers and would stick with a Warhammer over a Marauder.

Help capture the jumpship, but they can use their own dropship (not risking our dropship on their plans/abilities).

Out of curiosity, why? Honest question, I have no real intimate knowledge of the ins and outs of those two particular mechs. I literally went off the fact that it's a dude (petty, I know), and I thought having a melee specialist would have been cool.

I don't have particularly great knowledge of either mech, but Nick's description of the Grand Dragon didn't sound impressive, and the Archer is usually good for LRM support and up close with Medium Lasers iirc. The double heat sinks will let you fire away and cool tech - always fun to have the cool tech get in play!

But you are right that the Grand Dragon is much better melee.

[Isgrimnur]

But you are right that the Grand Dragon is much better melee.

[Zenn7]

But you are right that the Grand Dragon is much better melee.

He asked why - not sure why that is a naughty/snooty response, but it wasn't intended as such. That was just my opinion.

[Isgrimnur]

As a Hatchetman pilot, it’s my duty to cast aspersions on anything that claims to be good at melee.

[Hyena]

Zenn has me convinced. I'll play the lady in the Archer.

[Freyland]

Hyenetta!

[Zenn7]

As a Hatchetman pilot, it’s my duty to cast aspersions on anything that claims to be good at melee.

Ah... failed to recognize your roleplaying. Good job!

[Isgrimnur]

[Hyena]

Hyenetta!

That's CORPORAL Hyenetta to you, sir!

[Freyland]

Hyenetta!

That's CORPORAL Hyenetta to you, sir!

Teehee.

I actually don't remember my rank, atm. But actually my character is female too, so....

Freya!

[El Guapo]

IIRC my rank is Supreme Commander.

[AWS260]

IIRC my rank is Supreme Commander of the Blimp Force.

Fixed.

[LordMortis]

Hyenetta!

Naruto!!!!

[El Guapo]

IIRC my rank is Supreme Commander of the Blimp Force.

Fixed.

Honestly, I would take that.

[NickAragua]

Vote Results:

Spoiler:

Cpl. Cao becomes Hyena Mk II - player choice

Scrub takes Warhammer - 1
Scrub takes Marauder - 3 (pending mechwarrior evaluation of unit's actual battlefield performance)

Help capture the jumpship, use militia dropship - 1
Help capture the jumpship, use own dropship - 3

Scrub looks at the Marauder skeptically. "Well... it does have two PPCs." she finally says. "I'll see how it does in the field."

After some discussion, we volunteer the use of the Moonraker. One of the first parts of this ambitious plan is to move some of our units to within striking range of an orbital tracking station, distracting the garrison and allowing a militia strike team to slip in and sabotage the facility (we're not told how due to operational security requirements, which is either a positive sign of militia competence or a negative sign of their distrust of us depending on your perspective). The garrison is numerous but not very threatening on an individual basis - it's a light mech lance backed up by two companies of tanks, mostly light and medium units.

Delta-Ranger lance gets the job. If they can whittle the separatist force down, so much the better, but really they just need to engage them for a couple of minutes to present a credible threat, then pull back.

Round 1:

Spoiler:

We engage the hostile garrison in a swampy, marshy lake area, moving forward to meet their hovercraft picket.

Round 2:

Spoiler:

A Savannah Master zips in along a pair of helicopters and eats a pair of lasers from Freyland's Quickdraw, followed up by a PPC from Paingod's Griffin, which more or less disintegrates the little hovercraft. Return fire trickles in but doesn't have much effect.

Round 3:

Spoiler:

The "slower" hovercraft move in to engage our units. Freyland and Archinerd engage a Saladin hovertank, melting through its armor with lasers. One of Freyland's streak SRMs also briefly knocks the AC/20 out of alignment, long enough for the autocannon's ordnance to pass by harmlessly. Our mechwarrior breathes a sigh of relief. Archinerd takes the time to watch another Savannah Master zip by. It misses with its laser then cartwheels over as the Dervish's foot comes down directly in its path.

Round 4:

Spoiler:

It's Archinerd's turn to sweat a little as a pair of Saladins move in on our Dervish. The mechwarrior takes cover in some woods, but it's still a tense moment. Luckily, the 'badump badump' of two assault-class autocannons is all that is heard, and not the impact of high-caliber shells on mech armor. The Dervish helps the Saladins miss by knocking out the weapon stabilizer on the front of the closest one with a couple of SRMs.

A pair of hovercraft move to engage Freyland, with Madmarcus jumping in to help out. Neither group inflicts much damage other than armor loss, although Madmarcus takes a couple of SRMs and MG rounds.

Round 5:

Spoiler:

The Drillson and Maxim retreat, although the Drillson's driver is a little too enthusiastic and wraps his hovercraft around an old-growth tree. The Maxim, though peppers Madmarcus' Wolverine with SRMs, greatly annoying our mechwarrior, who sends a full alpha strike at the hovercraft, immobilizing it by cutting off the left side of the skirt and then breaching its armor to boot.

Freyland takes out one of the two nearby Saladins, lasers cutting the hovertank into small strips. Its final AC/20 round thankfully flies right by Archinerd's mech.

A Firestarter jumps in, cutting inside Paingod's PPC arc and lets rip with its weapons. Most of said weapons miss, except for a flamer (making Paingod grateful to have held fire from the PPC) but it does score a solid kick on the Griffin's left leg while ducking under the counter-punches. Armor holds, however.

Round 6:

Spoiler:

The Firestarter continues chasing Paingod, and gets an unpleasant surprise from Madmarcus' Wolverine, the two mechs exchanging laser blasts. Paingod is ready for the lighter mech's attack this time, dodging and throwing a punch which strips armor off its left arm, while Madmarcus almost removes the right leg entirely, leaving the armor breached and structure dented.

Freyland's frustration at the streak SRM launcher not firing is somewhat reduced when our mechwarrior gets a two-fer. Lasers blast a hole through the nearby Warrior's rotor assembly, which causes it to crash to the ground and explode in a fireball. Meanwhile, a salvo of LRMs from the Quickdraw's launcher flies over towards a distant Hunter support tank that's only just now attempting to make its approach and causes the tank to slip its left-side treads.

Round 7:

Spoiler:

Archinerd moves back up, firing short range weapons at a Saladin while sparing a few LRMs at a platoon of infantry unloading on Freyland with small arms. The LRMs scatter the infantry, sending them running for cover (the ones that survived the impact), then our mech gets rocked and the pleasant computer voice announces that the center torso armor has been breached. Probably from the AC/20 fired by the remaining Saladin.

The Saladin doesn't last long after that, getting blown to bits as one of Freyland's lasers makes contact with the fuel tank. The streak launcher doesn't fire again. The Quickdraw takes a couple of lasers from the nearby Firestarter, as the light mech does its best, then jumps up to avoid an incoming kick. Paingod is rewarded with a satisfying crunch as the Griffin's one-two punch rips the Firestarter's left arm off.

Madmarcus steps back into the woods, the Wolverine having drawn some fire, and puts a couple of lasers through the second Warrior helicopter. The first laser stops its blades spinning, while the second hits the ammo bins, creating a solid fireworks display.

Round 8:

Spoiler:

"Ranger-Four, pull back to the south." Madmarcus orders. We don't need our Dervish getting taken out by a lucky engine hit now that there's no armor on the center torso. Which is great until a Saracen hovertank comes after our mech.

Freyland gets fed up with the Firestarter jumping around and fires up the Quickdraw's jump jets, stretching the mech's systems to their limits in the low gravity. It pays off, and our mech is able to deliver a laser salvo followed up by a boot to the right leg, disabling that limb and sending the 35-ton mech to the ground. "Try jumping without a leg."

Paingod has no other important targets, so picks off a few infantry with a PPC blast and LRMs as they attempt to move towards the nearby woods. With only six guys left who aren't smears or flash prints on the ground, the rest of the platoon decides to run off.

Round 9:

Spoiler:

A couple of bug mechs jump in to help out their Firestarter buddy, but it's too late - he's already bailed out.

Round 10:

Spoiler:

The militia team radios in to let us know that they're done, and we begin pulling back. The Saracen gives chase and is wiped out when Freyland connects some SRMs with its fuel tank. Madmarcus kicks the leg out from a pursuing Wasp, leaving the hostiles with just one Stinger for pursuit. The prospect of which apparently isn't encouraging. The rest of their armor appears stuck on the far bank of a relatively narrow river ("only" 90 meters or so) and is either unwilling or unable to pursue.

Especially after a Galleon tank gets "helped" into the river when some LRMs blow a sand embankment out from under it and the Stinger loses a leg.

At that point, we don't even have to retreat, the separatists pull back, allowing us to secure the area so that militia salvage teams can do their work. So, in additon to sabotaging an orbital tracking station, we get 1.8M C-Bills in payment for salvage, which is a nice little appetizer for the jumpship payout. Our mechs only took armor damage, although we did use a good number of LRMs.

-----

"I swear, that streak launcher never fires when I press the button!" Freyland complains afterwards.

"That's because it'll only launch when the targeting computer is 99% sure the missiles will hit." The frustrated tech counters.

"Well, then it should let me know about it." the indignant mechwarrior doesn't let up.

"It did, but you got annoyed with the beeping. So I disabled the alerts. You can't have it both ways, ma'am."

Freyland sighs. The Quickdraw is still a pretty well performing mech, especially with all the upgrades we've made to it over the years. But the streak launchers drive many a mechwarrior nuts, what with their refusal to fire when "come on, I had that shot!"

------

We've got two elite mechwarriors who have enough experience to become even more elite: Isgrimnur, driving a Hatchetman and Zarathud, driving an Awesome.

Isgrimnur has two options:
[] Improve piloting (from 2 to 1), a non-trivial consideration given the mech he's driving
[] Improve gunnery (from 2 to 1), which you also can't go wrong with

Zarathud has a few more options, although the mechwarrior has reached the age of 50 and is thinking about hanging up the neurohelmet for good after this contract:
[] Improve piloting (2 -> 1)
[] Improve gunnery (2 -> 1)
[] Gain Sniper special ability (halves range penalties)
[] Gain Terrain Master special ability (reduced movement costs, other bonuses for chosen terrain)
[] Gain universal "Human Technical Readout" ability (improved critical chances vs all unit types)

[Isgrimnur]

We will go with piloting. The head of the company seems to like high-G planets.