Vote Results:
Akalon takes Gamma-Probe lance and approaches from the northeast, distracting all ten of the clan mechs. That's going to be pretty rough, but meanwhile, our Long Toms, Griffin and Angel's Flashman can hang out in the southeast and shell the firebase without being counterattacked.
Round 1:
"Well, that distraction worked a little too well." Drazzil remarks, jumping his Cronus into some dense woods to try to avoid the incoming fire. A little 30-tonner mechs runs up and plants a burst from its right arm autocannon and a laser into the Cronus' center of mass. Drazzil rakes the Cronus' laser over a Ryoken's left leg, while AWS nails a different one in the back with the Phoenix Hawk LAM's snub-nose PPC.
Our Long Toms start shelling away.
Round 2:
A massive ammo explosion comes from the firebase, indicating a direct hit by one of our Long Toms on a firebase building.
Delta-Probe exchanges fire with the bulk of the clan force, coming out roughly even in terms of damage, but we can afford it less.
Round 3:
A Ryoken comes over to attack our Long Toms, disabling one. Ideally, our Griffin and Angel will be able to deal with it, but they have trouble scoring weapons hits.
Meanwhile, Delta-Probe lance has a pretty good round, being able to avoid most incoming fire. A little 20-ton mech actually hops into the water behind AWS, firing its lasers underwater, but not inflicting enough damage to breach armor. Our mechwarrior hops upwards
Round 4:
The Ryoken keeps trying to move towards our Long Toms, so Angel takes a knee and zaps the 55-ton mech with the Flashman's laser array, the laser tracking towards its left leg and breaching armor. The Flashman takes some damage in return, but no armor breaches.
Akalon breathes out as a gauss slug spangs off the Vulcan's cockpit just a couple of meters above the glass - any lower and that would have been it. The Vulcan's left arm comes off as well as a PPC blast just rips it right off.
AWS jumps back, firing the LAM's snub-nose PPC at the tiny 25 ton mech engaging him. It hits the left arm, blasting an SRM launcher off, then our othe Phoenix Hawk disables the arm entirely. The nearby 30-tonner (designated an Uller) takes a kick to the right leg from our Phoenix Hawk LAM, breaching its armor there.
Round 5:
[camera feed disrupted]
"Dammit, Delta, where are you. We need some serious backup here!" Akalon calls out.
"Ten seconds out, comes the response."
Akalon smirks. "Probably won't be here in ten seconds.", firing up his jump jets and landing to minimize exposure to the hostile mechs, a gauss rifle slug flying overhead.
Our 3D Phoenix Hawk takes an engine hit, though, sending its heat spiking a little more than the mechwarrior would like.
On the plus side, our Long Toms take out another of the strong points, leaving just two.
Angel's opponent gets around the back of the heavy mech, but our mechwarrior still swings the left arm around and nails it in the head with a large laser, taking off most of the armor and about half the cockpit glass.
Round 6:
"Probe-One, Probe-Four, pulling back." Akalon informs the now-arriving Delta-Ranger.
"Great! Targets destroyed!" Our force commander calls out as the last of the Long Tom rounds land in the strong point, flattening the remaining structures.
The allied hovercraft zip on to the field alongside Delta-Ranger. A PPC shot from a Black Hawk immediately punches through the right side of one, taking it out. Its Saracen buddy skids off the field and books it. The other two, at least, stick around for now.
AWS takes a hit from a rapid-fire autocannon to the left arm, blowing out an actuator and throwing our mechwarrior's aim off against the nearby Dragonfly, although it still loses left leg armor from a kick.
Our retreating Phoenix Hawk takes a couple of lasers blasts from the Vulture, but its anti-missile system engages and destroys the few LRMs flying in its direction.
To the south, Angel continues blasting away at the Ryoken as it tries to deal with our two mechs, working on the left leg some more with lasers and fusing the hip joint, which becomes telling when the 55-ton mech attempts to move forward and keels over to the right instead.
Round 7:
[camera feed disrupted]
"Well, now that everyone's here..." Akalon pipes up. "Objective accomplished, everyone pull back." He punctuates this by firing the Vulcan's lasers at the nearby 25-ton mech. The little mech's armor has already taken significant damage, so a laser is able to find its way past the remains of said armor and into an SRM ammo bin. As usual with these clan mechs, the ammo blows out the back, but it still causes severe damage and wobbling.
Three of our othe mechs team up on a 30-tonner equipped with a rapid-fire autocannon - AWS takes some internal damage from it, but the incoming fire, mostly from our Griffin, but from AWS' snub-nose PPC as well, drops it on its back. Sensor scans show that it basically has no armor.
One of our standard Phoenix Hawks also rips the arm off another fast 25-tonner, which appears to have contained the entirety of the mech's offensive weapons (it does have some equipment on the left arm, but it looks like anti-missile systems and a TAG laser).
To the south, Angel's target Ryoken gets up, but is forced back to a knee immediately as our Flashman doesn't let up - the hip damage slows the clan mech down so it can't keep tracking our mech.
Round 8:
One of the allied Scimitars plows into a tree and is immobilized, the crew bailing out right away - although it doesn't do them any good as a nearby clan mech just guns them down.
With three of the clan mechs retreating and the rest mostly hanging back, we have a reasonable shot at clearing out of here with relatively little damage.
AWS breathes a sigh of relief after being able to feather the Phoenix Hawk LAM's jump jets just right to disrupt its movement pattern and avoid a burst from an incoming rapid fire AC/20.
Round 9:
One of our mechs, an upgraded Griffin, doesn't quite make it - its left leg crumples under assault from a rapid-fire AC/20 operated from a Ryoken, and it goes down to the ground.
Round 10:
The Griffin actually makes it up off the ground, but then the enemy Vulture launches a full LRM volley and blasts through its left torso, disabling the oversized XL engine.
It *could* have made it off the field with a broken leg, a little limping never hurt anyone, but making it off the field without power is another thing altogether.
Overall, that wasn't too bad - we mostly took some armor damage, and a few blown out actuators. We did lose one of our Long Toms and the 1DS Griffin, which is a shame, but otherwise, we did a pretty bang-up job, leveling the firebase (and probably all the battle armor guys that were likely camped out in the buildings) and crippling three of the clan mechs. We also lost two of the militia hovercraft, but that's less of a concern for us.
The mechwarrior in the Griffin was unable to clear the field and was captured, while two of the Long Tom crew members were killed when their vehicle was disabled. Akalon winds up benched with a sprained leg, while AWS gets forehead stitches.
---
Zenn7's brief nap is interrupted by a comms tech knocking on his door. It takes him a few seconds to blink his eyes open, but he gets it done, staggering over to the comms terminal, where the video call is routed. Our liaison is on the line, an apologetic and resigned look on his face.
"I understand you're in charge of the Overlords for the time being, Captain."
Zenn7 shakes his head to clear it. "Yeah. Let's skip the pleasantries."
"Fine. I've authorized the release of the rest of your payment. The HPG transmission has already gone out." the liaison states.
"Uh... is this about the dropship assault?" our acting CO replies.
"... kind of. There's been a new development." the liaison sighs. "We've negotiated a withdrawal of our forces from this world - the Falcons have apparently had enough combat on the ground and their Star Colonel has threatened to use their warships to initiate orbital bombardment. We just don't have anything to counter that." He smirks. "Your people pushed them back pretty hard."
"Great." Zenn7 replies, frowning. "We'll just pack up and leave then - without a break in the fighting, we're no longer combat effective anyway."
"I think not, Captain. The General only negotiated, uh, what's that term, 'Hegira' for our forces. You've been surrendered as, uh... what did that guy call it, 'Isorla'."
"I don't think I've been exposed to this type of Steiner humor before." Zenn7 states.
"It's not a joke. You, and the remaining planetary militia, are to stand down and surrender yourselves." the liaison says. "I'm sorry, but that's the way it has to be. You have eight hours to comply."
The transmission cuts. Zenn7 punches the wall next to the comm terminal.
---
Discussion among the command staff (held in the medical bay, since three quarters of said command staff are either stitched together or have missing limbs) is animated. Without the 10th Donegal and 12th Star Guards, there's no way we can hold off the Falcons, especially if they decide to use their warships. And also, we've gotten paid, so we no longer have a reason to be here - we can pack everything up in the eight hours and burn for our jumpship, which is still at the jump point. However, with several warships maintaining a blockade, trying to escape carries a significant risk of everyone dying. We could probably plan our route so that we only get intercepted by one warship, but a warship is a warship.
[] Accept the surrender and stand down
[] Load up and run the warship blockade