Here we go:

T1 – I lose init. Each force grabs a copse of woods to hide in. This is a campaign, so losses like arms and legs being zarked have a major impact. Ammo and armor is in stores, but not a bunch of extra legs and such. We focus our fire on their Ryoken. Our Awesome hits the engine on their Ryoken after cracking its CT.

T2 – We lose again. Our Crusader hits the Ryoken’s gyro. Our Wasp nails the CT and hits the engine twice more and takes out the engine. Our BattleMaster sheared off the LL of their Loki. Their Thor’ hits a gyro and engine on my Warhammer. Their Loki falls and hits its engine, but our Warhammer doesn’t.

T3 – We win init. I went overheat with some of my mechs, expecting an alpha strike, but only the Warhammer is damaged with anything of concern to me. I can pull out now, and we took out one mech and legged another, but in a few days, the engine damage is healed. Let’s push and see what happens. Their Loki tried to stand but failed. I pull my Warhammer back behind some heavy woods, since I can’t risk ejecting. Our Dragon hits ammo on the RT of their Loki, and that’s a RT gone and a RA on the ground. Their pilot blacks out. They hit the PPC on our Banshee. That’s two mechs we’ve destroyed, essentially, since the Loki won’t be able to move away from here and the pilot is blocked out anyway. Let’s keep pushing.

T4 – We win init. We focus fire on their Masakari. A lot of head hits this round. Magnus’s ER Medium Laser from his Dragonfly nails the Masakari in the head. A group of LRMs nail our Catapult in the head. Their Vulture nails the Cat for a LRM15. Our Cat responds by launching LRMs at their Masakari – boom head. Dead Masakari after the head is destroyed. A second hit through a lot of woods on my Warhammer staggers it with a hip hit. In combination with the gyro hit, it falls, as does our Cat. Their pilot does not wake up (they need a 10 to do so).

T5 – We lose init. With kills of a Masakari, Ryoken and essentially a Loki, we essentially have momentum. On the other hand, they are internal in lots of places. If they leave, they are giving us a Masakari, Ryoken and Loki in salvage. Losing a Masakari is a big deal, but they still have triple Vultures, and a Gladiator and Man o War in the assault range. Here is my situation:

Awesome – Internal in two places, PPC hit, has 68 points of armor left on the front.
Banshee - Has lost at least 5 ton of armor
Warhammer – Savaged
Catapult – Savaged

Now, that’s it. I could spend a few turns making it hard for my foe to take these guys out while my Crusader, BattleMaster and more tear through another couple of clan mechs, but this is still far from over. I hate to leave salvage behind, but I have to.

We fade. It should take them two-three days to fix the Ryoken’s engine and another day or two for the gyro and then half a day for the armor.


We won and killed an elite leader and his mech plus and the Loki is unfixable.


That night, we recuperate. It will take two days to repair our mechs with all of our techs working on them.

The following day, we move out, and we create another ad hoc scout company from the scout lances from Phaeton, Trinity and Mustang companies. If we run into trouble we want speedy backup. While jumping and running through a thick area, the Bears spring a surprise on us. Out from cover burst the first of ten squads of elementals. Battle has begun.

Our scouts:

FS9-M Firestarter JR7-F Jenner CMT Comet COM-2D Commando
JVN-10N Javelin VND-3L Vindicator PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk HER-2S Hermes II
OTT-7J Ostscout PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk SDR-5V Spider CDA-2A Cicada

This is their Elemental Power Armor. It comes with ten points of armor, an ER small laser in one hand, a powerful gripping claw in another and two shots of SRM missiles.

There are ten squads of five elementals each.

In order to simulate being caught, we are beginning in the center and they around the edge. We are also on a smaller map to simulate being caught in a trap. We’re just on a little 12x12 grid for the map. Their goal is to hit and fade me. If they can take out a mech or two, that’s beauty for them, and with two loads of SRM ammo, they can hit very hard the first two or three turns. Then they leave.

T1 – We lose init. There’s virtually no cover. We literally surround one squad with six mechs. If I give them a lot of targets to shoot, hopefully they’ll spread their fire out too much. Our Javelin kills that troop we surrounded. SRMS hit our Firestarter in the head thrice. Our Ostscout kicks and kills a trooper.

T2 – We lose init again. The spread fire out between five of my mechs, and didn’t do enough damage to any of them to take them down. Good stuff. I want to speed them up this round to make them harder to hit while giving targets of opportunity for other mechs. We use the tactic to surround another one. Our Jenner takes a hit on a medium laser. Our Jav gets hit on an SRM6. They hit both the a Phoenix Hawk’s engine and gyro once. Our Jav kicks and finishes off the squad we surrounded. Two kills for the Javelin.

The elementals didn’t get push they wanted, and they’ve used up most of their SRM missiles. In the next turn or two light mechs would start falling, but we are ahead and would likely kill moist of their elementals before they did any serious damage to us.

-2 elemental squads for them.

Experience: Raquel Sanchez, in the Javelin, gains a piloting skill. This makes her a veteran officially.


By the end of the third day, they are down five mechs and 2 elemental squads. One mech comes back online in a few days.

During the night, we send out ECM equipped mechs with elementals on them. It’s time for our next ambush. We slice many trees in the thicket part of the forest near their camp. We cut deeply into them near the bottom. They are carefully balanced and should fall with only a little force. Our Elementals rig up some chain to connect several trees together. We will flee down this area, and then as they chase us, pull out and drop the big, heavy trees on top of them.

We set up the trap, and then move in. It’s later evening/early morning, and PPC fire from two Griffins launches into the area where their sentries are around their camp. Immediately, their sentries start moving towards us, but they are radioed back, and they don’t leave the edge of their camp. Well, if they aren’t going to leave, then we’ll teach them why. Suddenly, 18 PPCs from two Awesomes, Warhammers, a Goliath, a Panther and Griffins lance out. The mech on the edge of the camp loses boh legs - a Dasher.

-1 Dasher

Now they are coming. I know that they have range and damage on us, so I included mechs in this battle that have PPCs. Due to their damage and range, they inflict some respectable wounds even on clan mechs.

They begin to pursue us with 712th Assault Trinary, which was doing scout and sentry duty. Their OmniMechs are picking up the pace, but we have organized a healthy retreat with PPCs as cover. As they close, suddenly, LRM fire from Whitworths and Catapults arrive my jump capable missile boats. It’s not that much, but it is enough to keep them back. It also makes it appear like these were the surprise, a few extra missile boats. Standard defensive formations against the spread of missiles is to group yourself together and go through, since missiles spread all over the place.

They start marching towards us and they are getting close when our Elementals begin to pull the chains. Does it work? Yes it does, and trees rain down on their company. A few are battered beneath the wood, but not enough. Beagle Active Probes have been added to their OmniMechs and they are fleshing out our positions.

It appears that 4 mechs of their Trinary were damaged of significance – an Uller lost a LL and LA, and a Black hawk was pinned underneath three trees that crossed over it. Another fell right into the cockpit of a Loki and took it out. The fourth was damaged badly, but not internal anywhere.

Facing our PPC and LRM laden mechs, (the good ones), they choose to retreat a bit. They are still in scanning range, but not in weapons range. They are certainly calling for reinforcements. We can’t unearth the Black Hawk for salvage – the operation would take too long. Once again, we have to leave their wreckage to them. However, we managed to take out their Loki and Uller, and also damage a Black Hawk to an unknown degree.

-7 mechs, and -2 elemental platoons.

Please note that since they’ve won salvage, they may be able to start fixing up mechs. For example, they have a Dasher missing both legs. If we destroy Dasher’s CT in the next engagement, they could use the legs on the wounded Dasher and get that back up and running – getting salvage is very important is this sort of campaign, and so far, we’ve got tremendous momentum, but we need to start collecting items.

Dec 18 – After not seeing each other for a couple of days, we discover one of their Dragonflies near our caves system, it appears that they have finally located our base. We prepare some traps for them, much like we’ve done before when guarding caves – we place a case of SRM and LRM ammo by the entrances. We can fire into them and ignite them if needed for protection or defense.

Dec 19 - We send out Trinity and Defender Companies for scouting. While out there, Defender Company comes across a pair of scout mechs from the clanners off to the distance. They run and we choose to let them go, fearing a trap (there was none). They come back with their full trinary in just 20 minutes and we have a battle at the delta of a river. There is a ton of water here, and not much dry ground.

This is the 63rd Assault Trinary again. They have their Ryoken back.


Dasher Prime
Dasher D
Gladiator Prime, elite
Man o War B
Dragonfly B
Fenris Prime
Vulture Primex2
Vulture C, elite
Ryoken C
Uller Prime
Thor C


It looks like the Loki pilot moved into the 2x gauss rifle equipped Vulture C. This is a mutual engagement. What that means is that no one has an advantage over another in terms of the strategic campaign. Either group may leave at any time. Additionally, either side may run a mech off the edge of the field in which you started in order to retreat with it. It is doubtful that either side will want to push too much, but it is also possible that we will have a slugfest that lasts forever.

Here is their Uller, a 30 ton scout mech with 6/9 movement. This one has er ll, lb 5-x, streak srm 4 and small pulse.



They have a BV of 14000 more than we do.

This is the map we are playing on, River Delta 2. Sometimes I use created maps and sometimes random maps made by MegaMek. I usually use randomly generated maps for hills, trees, rubble and such, but these for other things- drop ports, coats, deltas, the fun stuff.

T1 – We win init. One of their mechs risked going waterward and got breached, but I don’t know which mech or what sections, so I can’t see it. They destroy the RT of our Comet. That sucks, one mech down. Our Warhammer hits the gyro on their Dasher D. Otherwise, just exchanges of fire.

T2 – We lose init. I hop some mechs, like the Griffin and Thor into the center heavy woods in the middle of the map. It appears that the breached mech was their Man o War, breached in RA and LL, which means no gauss. Our Stalker hits and destroys the RA of their Dasher D. Their Executioner Prime destroys the CT of our Comet. Their Dasher D falls under the damage and the gyro hit into the water and the CT is breached, it is out of commission.

T3 – We lose init. We are only getting small fire lanes, so we have to split our fire among many different targets. I hope my Thor and Phoenix Hawk next to their other Dasher. The Dasher’s RT is destroyed by our Thor. It also nails a pair of hip and leg actuators. It falls. Our Phoenix Hawk kicks it and destroys its H. We’ve now taken out two of their20 ton mechs to one of ours.

T4 – We win init. Our Orion nails the LT of a Vulture Prime and ignites ammo and its gone. It falls. That’s the only wound of significance this round. Our BattleMaster is internal in four places.

T5 – We win init. Their Vulture rises. We hop our Jav next to their Ryoken I hop our Thor next to their wounded Vulture. Our Thor’s Ultra AC 20 hits twice and one of those blows off the Vulture’s H. We also destroyed its RT. Their Ryoken nails our Griffin’s LA and destroys it. Their Vulture Prime nailed the H of our Griffin with a large pulse laser but nothing was damaged. A leg actuator on my BM is hit.

T6 - We win init. I run my BM off the board. This was a horrible map for a BattleMaster – woods and streams. It doesn’t have the jump capability to get over the water, it does have the speed to go down and come back up in a single turn so it would expose itself by staying in water and it doesn’t have the long range weapons to just sit back and snipe like our Warhammer and Atlas and Stalker are doing successfully. On this map, a panther would be better, with the same long range weaponry but better mobility. So I used the BM as a damage sponge, and exposed it a bit and took fire round and round. IT did its job very well. Our Orion’s SRM4s get two engine hits on their Ryoken. Their Ryoken hits a leg actuator on our Jav. Our Jav responds by destroys their LT and hitting their head with SRMs and blacking out the pilot. Our Warhammer’s PPC nails the right torso engine on their Vulture C. Their Man o War opens up our Griffins Right Arm and nails the shoulder and PPC. Both their Ryoken and Vulture fall to the ground. We kick the Ryoken but nothing beyond some damage to a leg.

T7 – We win init – yay. At this point, if I were the clans, I’d flee. They have 9 mechs left, two are on the ground, one has an immobile pilot and is out of commission. However, they keep pushing, so we need to push back. I hope our P Hawk next to the downed Ryoken and hope to blow the H off. The Man O War falls. We jump the Thor next to it. Their Vulture Prime has an engine hit and RA destroyed by our Stalker. Our Hermes adds a gyro hit. My Thor hits two engines on their Man O War. Their Thor blows off the LL of our Jav. Their Ryoken awakens.

T8 – We win again. Our Whitworth pilot takes damage twice from their Uller Prime’s LB 5-X. Their Fenris Prime destroys the Javs RT and CT. The Orion gets a third engine hit on their Ryoken. Missles from our Whitworth fly into exposed circuitry on their Man O War and hit the engine twice more, and it shuts down. I’ve basically traded a Griffin, Comet and Javelin for a lot of mechs.

T9 – We lose init. They have 7 mechs of an original 12. They have lost two Dashers, a Vulture a Ryoken and a Man O War. There other mechs have four with external armor but none too bad. Our Thor is out of Ultra AC 20 ammo. They are clans, and they will push. I eject my Griffin pilot. I need to keep materiel right now, and I have this. I wish I had ejected my Jav, in retrospect. Nothing happens but shaving armor.

T10 – We win init. Col Matthews Atlas nails an engine on their Vulture C’s CT. The Stalker destroys the LA of their Vulture Prime and hits the gyro once. Our Hermes falls under an onslaught of weapons and lands in the delta, and its CT section is breached and it is out the fight and shutsdown. Their Vulture Prime does the same, falling down and breaching both its RT and LT and it shuts down too.

T11 – Without any leadership to pull them back, they keep on. We win init. That’s a trade I’ll make every day – Hermes for Vulture. Our Atlas blows up the LA of their Uller Prime. Our Warhammer falls after taking double gauss slugs from their Vulture C.

T12 – We win init. I stand up our Warhammer. Our Atlas destroys the RL and LT of their Uller. Their Fenris launches an attack and hits an engine on my Warhammer. Their Vulture C cracks it again with two gauss’s, one destroys the RT and the other gets two engine hits and a gyro hit. Dead Warhammer. Our Whitworth destroys the CT of their Uller. Well, we traded mechs again, and this time, we traded down, a good solid heavy mech for a fast little light guy.

T13 – They keep coming. As they take out my mechs, they are probably getting happier. We lose init. My Stalker is now out of LRM 10 ammo. Their Thor’s Ultra AC20 cracks my Atlas twice, and one hit nails the LRM 20. Our Thor destroys the engine on their Vulture C after getting two more engine hits. Their Gladiator destroys the Stalker’s RT and it falls. Again, we’ve traded one mech for another. However, we have four more mech companies, they have just two more mech trinaries.

T14 – They continue to push. We win init. I stand the Stalker. Their Thor is now out of AC20 ammo too. I hop our P Hawk to their Thor. Missiles fly from my Whitworth to their Gladiator’s H but just ring the bell.

T15 – We win init again. I hop my Thor to theirs. Our Thor’s RT is destroyed. They also hit an engine on our Atlas. Meanwhile, that Atlas destroys the LT of their Dragonfly with an ER LL. Their Thor falls from the damage and breaches it’s CT. Dead Thor. They pull out and we win.

Dasher D – gyrox1, RA destroyed
Dasher Prime – RT destroyed, H destroys, two actuators hit
Vulture Prime missing H, LT, RT
Ryoken missing LT, enginex3,
Man O War – enginex4, breached leg and arm
Vulture Prime, missing LA, gyrox1, breached RT and LT .
Uller Prime, H, LL, RA, RT
Vulture C – enginex4
Dragonfly B LA
Thor C, breached CT,



Comet RA, RL, LL, LA, LT, H
Griffon missing LA, PPC hit,
Javelin LA, LT, RA, RL, H
Hermes CT breached
Warhammer, one gyro, three engine, missing RT
Stalker missing RT
Thor C RT destroyed


They have a Dragonfly, Gladiator and Fenris survive. The Dragonfly is out of the campaign until they can replace its torso and arm.

Because breached mechs bring with them water into the mech under water, the ejection system does not work. Therefore, we have captured the Vulture Prime and Man O War and Thor C pilots. We make them bondsman.


Gustave, veteran, 2/3
Rebecca, veteran, 2/3
Sigurd, veteran, 2/3



Our injured mechs are out for a while or the rest of the campaign. We get the salvage.

Dec 20 - The next day, the wounded Ghost Bears make a fateful decision, they are losing this campaign. They now have just two mechs in the 63rd and 12 in the 712th and 14 in the Command Trinary, plus 13 squads of Elementals. 28 mechs and 13 points of elementals. They decide that this needs one major push, and perhaps they can break out of the slump. They know where we are, so they order a full attack. They know we have three exits, so they split the elementals and send the elementals to blow up two of the exits. Their mechs will all assault the middle entrance/exit.

It’s a clever plan, and I roll dice to see if it works. The first exit is destroyed. The second is as well. The mechs are coming. We order all of our forces into the cave and then wait for them to enter. It will be a killing zone. They left us the biggest entrance, and it’s about three mechs wide. Suddenly, three wide, mechs start pouring in. We order energy weapons to fire, to show that we are doing what they expect. When roughly half of their force is in, we launch an attack at the ammunition crates on either side, and the explosion drops the cave entrance. We are completely sealed in. The collapse was slow enough that no mechs were caught, but only 15 mechs are inside, vs three companies - Trinity, Phaeton and Delta. Mustang is out double checking the others 15 vs 36 is bad odds even for clans. We lance fire into their mechs. PPCs and large lasers dance into them. We order no ammunition used save in case where we have tons of ammo like an LRM5. The outside mechs are firing at the rocks and we can see them blast. It takes five rounds to blast open the rockslide. During that time, ten of their mechs are destroyed. We offer them hegira, with just 18 mechs left, and they accept.

We have defeated the Ghost Bears. We gain a company of second line mechs, but they won’t arrive for a couple of weeks.

Let’s look at salvage and fixing stuff:

750k armor
1.2 mill ammo

2.25 mill to fix the parts on mechs I can buy

Comet and Jav loss: 2.5 mill

We can’t buy parts to fix the Thor C that lost its RT but we do fix up the other Thor C and just switch them. The RT does count for battle loss, and it and the equipment in it were valued at 1.75 mill

How much we paid: 4.2 mill

How much we got back from Battle Loss at 25%: 2,112,000

Total Paid: 2.087 mill

Salvage:

Thor C, replacing damaged Thor C.
Vulture C – all fixed
Ryoken C – fixed with spare Ryoken parts in storage

Dasher – we tried to move the RA from the Dasher Prime to the Dasher D to fix it, but we couldn’t get it to work – rare, but it does happen. Instead, we’ll take the RT and H from the Dasher D and put it on the Dasher Prime.

Then we have in our salvage pieces with Company One on the other planet Dasher pieces that will fix this up. In a month we’ll have the Dasher D up and running.

We fail to fixed the Man’o’-War’s engine. Even though we should have been able to have it up and running without any part,s we simply aren’t able to fix it. Perhaps our clan techs with Aleph Company will be able to. (I roll, and nope, they are unable as well (I rolled a 3 on 2d6). Annoying.

I move the parts from it to one we have with Aleph Company that needs a LT and LA. We move them from this chassis.

The Vulture Prime is not fully fixed by my guys, but the breaches are fixed by the clan techs in a few months. We spice a LA onto it and it’s good as new.




Clan Items:

ER PPC
Streak SRM 4
LB 5-X

In a few weeks, our mechs arrived, and we bargained for three of each weight class:

Light:

Peregrine
Vixen
Locust IIc


Medium:

Shadow Hawk IIc
Griffin IIC
Hellhound


Heavy:

Galahad
Grizzlyx2


Assault:

Warhammer IIc
Kraken
Highlander IIc


This is clearly their way of clearing out some stuff in mothballs. The Highlander IIc is old and the Kraken is not a design that appeals to me. I mean, we’ll take them, and this might even be a good company for an elite Shadow-like profile.

December 25 – Five of Wolf’s Dragoons and 2 of Kell Hounds arrive at Luthien, the capital of the Draconis Combine, on loan from the Federated Commonwealth, in order to prepare for a coming assault from Nova Cat and Smoke Jaguar to take the greatest prize yet in the Clan Invasion.

December 31 – By the end of the year, Laser Heat Sinks are introduced by Jade Falcon, the Silver Bullet Gauss Rifle has finished development for the FedCom, and serval mechs are introduced included Kressly Warworks Attila and the Wolf Trap, the new Hornet and more.

What happened when level 2 tech came back is that some field refits were done, and some factories retooled to make new designs incorporating the new technology into old designs. Some factories has ceased production because they didn’t have the parts for level 2 tech, and they’ve been restarted, so really old mechs, like the Guillotine and Hermes are coming back. However, new designs are also starting to roll off the presses – including the Wolf Trap, Mauler and our own Attila.

By the end of this month, Clan Wolf had taken 18 more systems, the Ghost Bears 4 more, the Jade Falcons 3 more, the Jaguars 5 more, The Steel Vipers took Twycross and took 2 others form the Inner Sphere (and some from Jade Falcon), and Nova Cat took 2. The 5th wave has already resulted in another 35 worlds falling to the clans. Of those, 10 are from the FRR.

Essex Training Academy

We have no graduates from the Essex Training Academy, as they all wanted to return for a 4th year. We have 13 enrollees.


Year 4 - 8
Year 3 - 6
Year 2- 12
Year 1 - 13


January 1,3052 – A giant flotilla of WarShips arrives in Vorarlberg.


January 4, 3052 – The assault on Luthien begins, two Nova Cat Galaxies and three Smoke Jaguar galaxies are attacking.

January 6 – At the end of two brutal days of fighting that raged across the war and pitted 21 Inner Sphere regiments against the clans, the combined Davion/Kurita forces manage to win a staggering victory on Luthien.

EVENT – Jan 7, 3052 – After winning the Battle of Luthien in part due to the help from mercenaries and a hated enemy, relations between the two states begin to relax and the “Death to all Mercenaries” decree of the Draconis Combine is relaxing. Soon, they will take on more mercenary contracts.

Jan 8 – In a private meeting, ilKhan Ulric Kerensky shares with ComStar Precentor Martial Anastasius Focht (previously known as Frederick Steiner) that the clans ultimate goal is Terra itself, held by ComStar. ComStar can no longer be neutral, and even helpful towards the clans.


Jan 9 - We get a communication from Khan Natasha Kerensky, telling us that the entire Alpha Galaxy of Clan Wolf has arrived to oust us from Vorarlberg. They will not allow a mercenary unit to keep it. With just a handful of companies, and with two companies already gone, this is not going to be a successful defense. Alpha Galaxy has four clusters, and each won has three or four trinaries of mechs and elementals, but mostly mechs. That’s, a rough guess, 200 mechs. (each cluster had 40-60 mechs, and there are four clusters.

The simple fact is that Wolf will use overwhelming force to completely destroy our garrison and take the planet. They are not ashamed, and they will not bid their forces down again against us – they are loaded for overkill.

We negotiate a peaceful withdrawal. We will move to garrison a fall back planet – we are moving to Halesowen, on the border with the Dracs and right by Skandia, but Skandia is well defended, so we are going to help this lightly defended world.

Jan 13 – Braham Essex and his group arrive at Predlitz and have issued a batchall for 10 clan technicians from Ghost Bear. We show them we are a small, 12 person mech company and send all of the details,

They have responded and sent us their location. They want to fight in some abandoned hills. They have mostly second-line and garrison mechs. They are vets. If they win, they want us to turn over our ten elemental warriors, which we agree to. 10 for 10 is a perfectly acceptable number.

Ghost Bear Garrison


Dragonfly Prime
Mad Cat A
Man o War Prime, elite
Marauder IIc
Kodiak, elite
Peregrine
Locust IIc
Griffin IIc
Hunchback IIc
Galahad

These people will use physical attacks, because the IS has been using them on the clans for a while. The clans are a bit meaner after taking a year off to focus and come up with new plans.

This is a powerful binary, led by a pilot is one of the Ghost Bear’s own special mechs, the Kodiak, a 100 ton beast. It has an Ultra AC20, ER Large Laser, 2 SRM6 Streaks, 8 ER Medium Lasers, 17.5 tons of standard armor, 4/6 movement and 20(40) heat sinks. It’s nasty:

The map has just rubble and hills.

Here we go:

Turn 1 – we win init. The hills split our fire from one half of my mechs onto their Marauder IIc and their Man O War. Braham Essex’s AC 20 from his Orion cracks the Marauder right in the CT – a good start. Their Locust IIc goes internal and his an SRM on the Thug.

T2 – We win init. We have a real melee on the left side where the hills come together. These mechs are all next to each other – Their Peregrine, Dragonfly, Locust IIc, and our Highlander, Orion, Shootist and Flashman. I expect to focus some fire on these guys to take out one or two this turn. I hop the Starslayer over to get some damage in. The very first shot to hit the Locust IIc is Braham’s modified Orion’s AC20 and it destroys the CT. Our Highlander takes three AC20 hits from the Hunchbacks double ultra AC 20s and is not internal anywhere. Our Lynx fires an ER PPC at their Galahad and hits an engine, gyro, and gauss ammo. (Gauss ammo does not explode). A gauss from our Highlander nails their Marauder’s LT and hits both engines there. Their Man o War nails a shoulder actuator on our Blackjack. No one falls, although 8 mechs took 20 or more damage this turn on both sides combined. Our Flashman kicks and destroys the RL on their Peregrine.

T3 – We lose init. I run my Flashman behind their Hunchy IIc. I move the Shootist next to it too, and our Orion next to their Marauder IIc. We won the last melee, let’s see how far we can push this. Our Flashman destroys the LT of their Hunchy. Our Shootist takes the AC20s this turn. A cluster of missiles from the LRM 20 by our Griffin nails the head of their Kodiak. Their Peregrine gets a limb blown off critical on the Thug, whose RA is now gone. No one falls. Our Thug kicks and destroys the LT of their Peregrine. Out Shootist kicks an actuator on their Hunchy.

T4 - We win init. I hop our P Hawk behind their Man o War. Braham’s Orion gets behind their Kodiak. Their Kodiak destroys the LT and RT of our Thug after hitting it’s ammo and being saved by CASE. Our Highlander destroys the LA and LT of their Dragonfly. Our Lynx destroys the Peregrine’s RA, and his it gyro and engine once each. Our Talon reaches back, fires an ER PPC and shears off the H of their Man O War. Their Galahad falls and the pilot blacks out. Our Thug falls. I run my Talon by the Mad Cat, and hop my P Hawk to it as well.

T5 – We win init. I eject the Thug pilot. I jump the Lynx by their Galahad to try and snipe off the head. It only hit the head once with a Medium Laser. The Highlander dances a Gauss slug into the CT oftheir Marauder IIc and hits a gyro. Our Shootist destroys its RL and RT and destroys the Mad IIc with a shutdown of the engine. The engine explodes, and the Lynx takes damage, as does the Galahad, who loses its LT. Our Flashman destroys the Hunchys CT. Before it goes, it fires an ER Medium Laser into the head of our Flashman but Rachel Perry shakes it off. Their Griffin IIc punches the head of our Lynx and goes internal but hits nothing. The Galahad pilot misses the 7 he needs to waken.

T6 – We rock init. Their Peregrine tries to stand, fails, falls down and blows off its other leg. I run the Talon behind their Mad Cat. I run my Orion and Flashman above and next to their Kodiak. Our Flashman took two shots from an Ultra AC20 and is still standing. Our Shootist destroys the Galahad’s H with a carefully aimed pulse laser. Our Lynx destroys the Griffin IIc’s RA. The Talon destroys the Mad Cat’s LA. Our Flashman kicks in the Kodiak’s Head and it is a dead mech.

T7 – We win with tactical genius. We off the four remaining Bear mechs hegira and they accept. They limp and hobble off the three mechs they have left - Griffin IIc, Mad Cat and Dragonfly. All three were damaged and missing limbs.

We have won another 10 clan techs.

Locust IIc RT, LT, RA, LA, H, RL, LL
Peregrine missing LT, RL, LL
Man o War, missing H
Marauder IIc, gyrox1, enginex3, missing RT, RL.
Galahad missing H and LT
Hunchback IIc H, RA, RT, LA, LL, RL
Kodiak missing H


Thug, reattach RA, LA, replace RT and LT.

The pilot in the Peregrine is captured and made into a bondsman of Braham.

Annika, veteran, 2/3


The Money Stuff:

We spend a lot to get my Thug back and working – Case, torsos, arms, SRms, loads. 1.525 mill. We also spend 650k for armor and 150k for ammo. AC ammo is cheap and this company has a lots of energy weapons. Only the Griffin has LRMs.

After 25% off, we pay 1,744,000

Salvage:

Man O War Prime – We sent it to Aleph Company, where they pull the H off the one we got with the broken engine and move it to this one.

The rest go into our salvage and sent to Aleph Company.

It will take about a month to get the parts and repair the Thug.

Jan 18 – We blast off Predlitz

Jan 31 – By the end of the month, Wolves have taken 4 systems, including the one from us. The Bears have grabbed another quartet of systems as well. The Jags took none, losing at Luthien and losing a lot of material has stymied their assault momentarily. The Nova Cats grab 4 as well. The Vipers and Falcons are bickering with themselves and their push has slowed.

Feb 8 – Our unit arrives at the Halesowen system, and discovers it fell to the Bears. We are ordered to the nearby system of Maule to see how things are faring there.

Feb 10 - The Wolves have attacked the FRR world of Skandia. It will fall shortly.

Feb 15 – Romano Liao and her consort are slain by Candace Liao in their sleep after they tried to assassinate her and her husband (and did kill him). Sun-Tzu Liao gains the throne.

Feb 21 – We arrive in the Maule system and it just fell to the Bears yesterday. Skandia has fallen. We are ordered to Utrecht, which has no major garrison of any sort at all.

Feb 23 – Braham arrives at Casere and demands for a Trial of Possession for ten more suits of elemental armor and ten bondsman for it. They have none, so he asks for a Trial for 10 each of every clan energy weapon. They accept. They want the captured Kodiak back, because that’s a totem mech that they really appreciate, and Braham agrees, although he’ll have to ship it back.

The Bear office decides to send out heavier elements in order to stop us. Just one light and two mediums. A 100 ton mech, a 85 ton mech, two 80 tonners, a 65 ton, 60 ton, a 70 ton rounding things out.

The Bear Garrison Binary:

Kraken
Grizzly
Warhammer IIc
Marauder IIc
Rifleman IIc
Shadow Hawk IIc
Man O War B
Peregrine
Vulture Prime
Black Hawk A



All are vets.

Here is their Peregrine, a 35 on light mech with 6/9/6 movement, a large pulse laser, two medium pulses and 6 tons of armor.

They have 5000 more BV

Here we go, in an open rocky field.

T 1 – We roll init. We focus a lot of fire on their Grizzly. Our Thug gets hit in the RL by their Peregrine and hits an actuator, and then blows up the LT on their Grizzly. Our Talon adds an engine hit on the Grizz. Our P hawk falls.

T2 – We win off tactical genius. I stand up our P Hawk and run 7 with it. An Orion’s AC20 to the Shadow Hawk IIc’s RA destroys it. Their Kraken hit the Thug in the head with one of its many AC 2 UltrasA large laser from our Flashman nails an engine in their Grizzly. Our Lynx fires in an ER PPC and h destroys the Grizzly’s RT and then some damage rolls over and destroys its CT. Out Thug falls and hits a shoulder.

T3 – We lose init. Time to eject the Thug pilot. I run my Flashman to their Shadow Hawk IIc. Our Shootist destroys the RT on the Shadow hawk IIc. LRM missiles from Brahams Orion nail the head of their Warhammer IIc for three damage. Their Kraken hits the head of our Flashman. A leg actuator on their Vulture is nailed by our Lynx. Their Peregrine hits na engine on our Flashman. Their Vulture falls and destroys is LT and RA. Our Flashman falls and hits the engine.

T4 – We win init. The two engine hits on the Flashman have it overheat and thus much slower, and it has two engine hits an XL engine with exposed left and right torsos. I eject it. I get our Shootist to the rear of their Warhammer. P Hawk in the back of their S Hawk IIc. Our Highlander nails the hip on their Vulture. Our Griffin destroys the Vultures RL and RT and gets an engine kill. Their Man O War goes internal on our Phoenix Hawk and nails the ER Large Laser. Our Orion punches the Warhammer twice in the RA.

T5 – We win init. Braham runs the Orion behind their Rifleman IIc. Shootist behind their Kraken. Their Marauder IIc destroys the RT of our Shootist. Their Black Hawk destroys the LL of it. Our BJ destroys the LT of their Shadow Hawk iic. Their Shadow hawk falls and destroys its gyro with two hits and the pilot blacked out too. Our Highlander falls. Braham punches the Rifleman in the head. It falls.

T6 – Init is ours again. I eject the Shootist. Our Highlander rises and runs three hexes. I hop our BJ by their WH iic. Our Highlanders destroys the LA of their Rifleman IIc. The Lancelot destroys the RL. Our BJ destroys the Warhammer IIcs RA. Our Talon destroys the LA of their Peregrine. The Lynx his the LPL of the Peregrine. Both Rifleman and Warhammer tumble. A BJ kick destroys the Warhammer’s LA.

T7 – Loss of init. Their Rifleman fails to stand, falls again, and their pilot blacks out. Braham runs up next to their Marauder IIc. Our Griffin nails a gyro on their Warhammer IIc. The Lynx hits their Marauder’s ER PPC on the RA. He also hits the head with a Medium laser. Our Talon’s ER PPC destroys the LL of their Peregrine and it falls. So does the Warhammer. Braham’s Orion double punches the H of their Marauder once and crushes it, dead mech. Our Highlander kicks and destroys the RT of their ‘Hammer.

T8 We win because of tactical genius. We offer them hegira. With a unconscious Rifleman pilot, W Warhammer on the ground and missing both arms and a torso (and has just two MPLs lefts), a legged Peregrine, a pristine Kraken and just lightly dusted Black Hawk, we’ve won this. They accept.

Grizzly LA, RL, LL, RA, H
Vulture Prime missing LT, RT, RA, RL, enginex3
Shadow Hawk IIc missing LT, enginex2, gyrox2, RA, RT
Marauder IIc missing H, PPC hit
Rifleman IIc - Missing RL and LA, enginex1

To repair: Thug RT; Shootist RT, LL;

We have won 10x SPL, MPL, LPL, ER PPC, ER LL, ER ML, ER SL.


Costs and Stuff:

Ammo – 200k
Armor – 650k
Pieces for Thug, Shootist – 1.855 mill


Total Paid After Discount – 2.028



Grizzly – We use the H and RA to fix the one in storage with Aleph Company, but not for two months

Shadow Hawk IIc – Ditto this getting fixed with pieces we have from another Shadow Hawk IIc

Marauder IIc – We weren’t able to move the head from the other one to this one, but we are able to move the RT and RL to the other one from this one.

Bondsman –

Chester, veteran, was the Shadow Hawk IIc pilot
Mabel, veteran, was the Rifleman IIc pilot

Feb 25 – We blast off Casere

Feb 27 – While moving troops to the front, the Ghost Bears divert a cluster to Kempten, and they issue a batchall. Col. Matthews responds and this time, the Beras are more amenable to a simple 1:1 battle again for the planet, since the last time they went full Cluster it was decimated.

We will be sending Captain Jason Thomas, a 2/2 pilot, Edge:2 in his Atlas AS7-D. The commander of Trinity Company has selected a pasture for battle.

They will be sending a Masakari A with a 1/2 elite pilot. This is what we want our Atlas to do:

Okay, here we go:

Jason is on the east edge and their pilot on the left.

T1 – Just maneuvering, following by some peppering of Jason’s mech by the lasers.

T2 – Jason runs to their Masakari and the foe moves as well. The Atlas’s LRMs nail them, and an er large laser lances into Jason’s CT and gets a through armor critical there. It hits the gyro twice.

Dead mech.

Damn, that was…fast.

We are allowed to recover and fix the Atlas, but we lost Kempten. Man, I was hoping for a bit more.

Feb 28 – By the end of the month, Precentor Martial Focht has selected the sight he intends to use against the clans. It’s a backwater, lowly populated planet in the Rasalhague Republic, with very little import to anyone. In a few short months, it will be the biggest name in the Inner Sphere.

Wolf has captured 8 systems, Bear 4, the Falcon and Viper none, Jaguars 2, and Cats 2. Another 16 systems have fallen

Mar 2 - We blast off from Kempten. There are no systems near us that are free, and the closest free system, we think is Diosd, which is 5 jumps away and by the time we get there, it should be late April. – who knows.

Mar 5 – Our forces that garrisoned Vorarlberg and have been moving to fid a world to garrison have arrived at the Utrecht System. The Bears are in system and the planet has already surrendered to them before they even landed a mech.

We are sent to Altenmarkt

Mar 12 – Altenmarkt has fallen to the Wolf. We move on.

Mar 20 – From Altenmarkt our forces originally on Vorarlberg have arrived at Ramsau and it has not fallen. We land on the planet a few days later. It has no defense beyond a few aging warriors.

Mar 31 – By the end of March, Precentor Martial Focht has entered tentative negotiations with ilKhan Kerensky about his plan, and they have been accepted and he leaves for their ship.

Wolf takes no worlds in March. The Bears take 5. The Cats grab another. The Jags another another.

The Ghost Bears came back reinvigorated, it was felt hat they had lost something of their own camaraderie, their own sense of family. It was what made them unique, and they felt they lost it, and a renewed sense of purpose dawned on them, and they have returned with a much different clan.

Apr 2 – Braham Essex and his forces arrive at Vorarlberg, but the Wolves here are not interested in batchalls right now, they are preparing for something. He blasts off for Kempten.

Apr 10 –Kempten’s Bears are also preparing for something, and the ilKhan has recommended that no additional battles be fought right now. Essex will return.

Apr 12 – Wolves arrive at Altenmarkt, and it’s another full galaxy. They issue a batchall, and again say, they’ll send everything they have if they have too, and destroy the world and yadda. After consultation, the government wants to surrender and we are granted to leave, and we head to the next system on our list, Tukkayid, no, our liaison tells us instead we’ll be going to Dehgolan. Our contract ends on May 1, but we’ve been told to expect extension under the Emergency Powers Clause.


The clans have agreed to fight a proxy battle for Terra on the planet of Tukkayid. Each of the 7 invading clans will have two cities as targets. Each clan is to take and hold both of their targets, and once one side agrees to retreat, the winner is declared. If a majority of clans are the victor, then the clans win not only Terra, but ComStar agrees to be their administrative arm. If they lose then they may not continue the invasion for 15 years.

The battle will begin on May 1.

In early April – Wolf took 2 systems, Jaguars 2, Bears 1.


May 1 – The Battle of Tukkayid has begun. By the end on the 20th of May, 5 of the 7 clans had lost to ComStar, with Falcon given respectable loss for inflecting worse losses then they sustained but never taking a city, Ghost Bear a marginal victory and Wolf a victory. This is the largest battle in recorded history. No other battle comes close in the history of the Inner Sphere.

Also on May 1st, the Primus of ComStar Myndo Waterly enacts Operation: Scorpion. This is an attempt to take control of the entire Inner Sphere by hijacking and interdicting all HPG communications, calling for insurrections on all worlds with ComStar garrisons, and clan held worlds, and more. It was leaked by a spy in the high circuit of ComStar who gave the Inner Sphere leaders a heads up. Upon his triumphant return from Tukkayid, Focht would assassinate Myndo Waterly and place Sharilar Mori as the new Primus.

May 25 – Sun-Tzu Liao has been betrothed to Isis Marik, daughter of Thomas Marik.

May 31 – With no more clan invasion on the map, the Free Rasalhague Republic has been reduced to just six systems. Tukkayid is ceded to ComStar to use as a training grounds and the front line of the next invasion. We are not extended further.


Contract:
Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Length:1 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2, x1.5 for clan contract
20% Bonus


We pay 10.618 mill for our salaries and upkeep for 13 months

We make, salary wise – 98.655 mill

Then add in the bonus: 118 mill

-10.618 mill
-10 mill for academy

97.546 mill


We now have a huge war chest.

Everybody will arrive back home on EE by Sept 10. Then it’s time for restocking, refitting, and more.



End of Chapter 2, The Invasion

June 3 – In protest of what she feels is Focht’s coup of ComStar, Precentor Demona Aziz leaves ComStar and invites all of those who feel similarly to leave as well, and found a new order based in the Free Worlds League called Word of Blake. As Primus Mori reforms ComStar into a more secular organization, more and more of those who embraced the religious nature will defect to Word of Blake.

June 16 – The Free Worlds League has agreed to allow Word of Blake to run their HPG stations instead of ComStar. Thomas Marik is named Primus-in-Exile of Word of Blake. Behind the scenes, this is because Thomas is secretly a ComStar spy and most definitely not Thomas Mark.



June 17 – Hanse Davion passed away from a stress-related heart attack

EVENT – July 1 – With many of the biggest victories of the Inner Sphere against the clans being done by mercenaries (Grey Death Legion beat Jade Falcon on Pandora, Kell Hounds on Twycross, them and Wolf’s Dragoons on Luthien, us on Thule and several other worlds) the glory of mercenaries is at an all time high. Enrollment is much easier, especially for large units that have tradition and valor, such as us, Eridani Light Horse, 21st Centauri Lancers, McCarron’s Armored Cavalry, 12th Vegan Regulars, etc.

Aug 1 – After a successful year of selling Attila’s, Kressly has doubled the speed of production of their line and now makes two a year. We purchased two more of the Attilas.

We give several pieces of Clan Tech to Kressly to dissect and look at. It should help them down the road, but not now of course. We give them one of the Vulture prime chassis to work with, plus one each of many weapons and equipment, such as double heat sink, beagle active probe, and more. This is a massively valuable gift and a leg up on the competition. As a result, the relationship between Kressly and Kilts and Commandos gets even closer.


Braham has his Orion modified again. With the help of both some clan techs and elite techs, here is his new Orion:

ON1-AbeC

75 tons, Orion
4/6
Max Armor
14/28 with Clan Double Heat Sinks


Clan Gauss Rifle in the RT with two tons of ammo 1 heat and 15 damage.

Clan ER PPC in the CT. 15 heat and 15 damage

Clan SRM6 in the LT with one ton of Ammo and Clan CASE. 4 heat

3x ER Small Lasers, one in H, and other two in LT. 2 heat each, total 6.

The total heat this bad boy makes with weapons is 26, and running is 28. It will always run cool.

The leader gets the best toys to play with.


Our Clan Techs manage to take the H and arm from a Rifleman IIc to get a Loki Prime up and running.

A Puma Prime is brought back online by using parts from the Peregrine chassis.

Black Hawk Prime is restored with a Hunchback IIC H

We tried to move the LT from the Kodiak to the Daishi chassis we can’t, because the Daishi has a regular standard chassis. We can purchase parts for it! We purchase parts for the Daishi to get it up and running

(These all have clan endo chassis, and at the same weight are compatible)

I spend 2.88 mill to restore the Javelin and Comet from pieces.

Clan ferro-fib armor is now something our clan techs can modify IS ferro-fib armor to fit on their machines. It can’t be duplicated on a machine and has to be done a bit at a time, so we can replace clan ferro fib with IS stuff as armor erodes.

September 15 – It’s time for some R&R and reorganization and refitting and more.

We have salvaged 31 of their mechs, plus the 12 we won. That’s 43 clan mechs we currently have. Some of them are quite sustainable, like the Rifleman IIc with no ammo needs, and lasers we have a ton of in stock to replace as they are destroyed.

The problem is that we can only splice clan pieces onto clan technology, except for mechs without endo steel – such as the Kraken (which sucks as a mech, btw). If we take a few clan mechs into our next contract, and a Vulture Prime is head shot killed by an opposing force, what do we do? I have a few chassis I can move the H from to replace it, but it’s a finite supply. Eventually, the only way we can get supplies is by fighting the clans. Do I launch an attack independently every so often to force them to fix my mechs? Level 2 tech is barely available on the market right now, and it would be a long time before clan tech is equaled. These are risky mechs to pilot.

On the other hand, using clan tech mechs with my great pilots and our great battle tactics would allow us to cut a swath through most inner sphere mechs. We would devastate.

What to do?

My plan is not field all 43 mechs. Take those that are easily sustainable, like the Daishi, Highlander IIc and perhaps even a modified Kraken. Then take those that have endo steel but shouldn’t prove too difficult, like Rifleman IIc, Black Hawk Prime, Puma Prime, my 2 Dasher Ds, Dragonfly B, and Vulture C with the twin gausses. Gauss ammo is the same. We can’t get Streak SRM6 or SRM4 ammo, and we’ve just figured out how to turn regular AC ammo into ultra ammo.

Alpha Regiment – Col. Matthew Humphries


Myth Super-Battalion

Heliades Company - Veteran
Styx Company - Veteran
Tethys Company - Regular
Typhon Company – Elite


Star Battalion

Defender Company – Elite – Matthew Humphries gets the Daishi Prime
Cinq Company - Veteran
Brawler Company – Veteran


Heater Battalion

Delta Company – Elite
Trinity Company – Elite
Laser Company – Regular (renamed from Lance Company) We added Jav 10N, Trebuchet and Cataphract 3D





Beta Regiment – Col. Martin Fitzgerald


Ganges Battalion

Phaeton Company – Elite
Boxer Company – Veteran
Rebel Company – Veteran


Amazon Battalion

Mustang Company – Elite
Hex Company - Veteran
Raven Company - Veteran


Rheims Battalion


Aleph Company - Veteran
Butler Company – Regular
Sabre Company - Elite



Bruiser Company and Shadow Company and 2 squads of Elementals – Col. Braham Essex

Aerospace Company

Tank Battalion and extra Company

Let’s look at the new companies:

Raven Company


Lt. Meagan Jones, elite, ATA-2 Attila *
Steve Strongsparrow, veteran, HBK-4G Hunchback
Lenny Atusco, veteran, BLR-1D BattleMaster
Gina Catorri, regular, DRG-5N Dragon *

Sgt. Gerry Handly, veteran, Arc-2R Archer
Matilda Green, veteran, MAD-3L Marauder
Bertha Ovango, elite, CRD-3D Crusader
Mike Jenkins, veteran, WHM 6-L Warhammer

Sgt. Gus Haddock, elite, JVN 10-F Javelin
Heather McKinnon, regular, CMT Comet
Robin Shevchenko, veteran, PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk
Becky Finnigan, regular,WLF-2 Wolfhound *


*- designates a level 2 tech mech


We purchase the BM, Dragon, Crusader, Warhammer, Phoenix Hawk and Wolfhound. It cost us 33 mill.

Butler Company


Lt. Rachel Invande, elite, ATA-2 Attila *
Bob Green, Regular, TDR-5S Thunderbolt
Mei Ling, Regular, CN9-A Centurion
Jonathan Ude, veteran,VTR-9A Victor


Sgt. Gloria Juarez, veteran, LGB-7Q Longbow
Hunter Diaz, Regular, GLT-5M Guillotine *
Zuzan Tasker, Regular, TBT-5N Trebuchet
Giselle Minard, Regular, RLF-3N Rifleman

Sgt. Hamir Raglit, Regular, VL-5T Vulcan
Harley Wilson, Green, LCT-1E Locust
Summer Wilson, Regular, COM-2D Commando
Geter Jaani, Regular, JVN-10F Javelin

I purchased everything but the Attila and Locust. I spent 49 mill.

Sabre Company

Lt. Andrea Demirovic, elite, ATA-2 Attila *
Gustave, veteran, Grizzly
Amaury Vassili, Elite, BLR-3M BattleMaster *
Michael, Elite, Ryoken C


Sgt. Miroslav Kostadinov, elite, Supernova
Helga, veteran, Galahad
Kevin, veteran, Vulture Prime
Martin O’Conner, elite, HTM-27T Hatamato-Chi


Sgt. Tiego Chan, elite, Shadow Hawk IIc
Irene, veteran, Dasher D
Wangari Maathai, elite, JVN 10-F Javelin
Allen Hussein, elite,


I bought the Jav and PXH-3k for 11 mill total

Bruiser Company


Lt. Patricia Kaas, elite, AS7-K Atlas
Chester, veteran, Highlander IIc
Mabel, veteran, Gladiator A
Evan, elite, Warhammer IIc

Sgt. Sevil Aliyeva , elite, Rifleman IIc
Rachel, elite, Vulture C
Annika, Veteran, Marauder IIc
Aysel Teymurzadeh, Elite, ARC-4M Archer


Sgt. Nika Heteron, elite, Dragonfly B
Rebecca, veteran, Peregrine
Sigurd, veteran, Dasher D
Belinda Robertson, elite, Phoenix Hawk-3K *


I bought the Phoenix Hawk 3K and Archer 4M for 17 mill. This is another company that will be teamed with Shadow, all elites and the best mechs. I wanted IS pilots in charge of the clanners for now. Just to help them acclimate. These two companies have the elementals with them as well.

We recruited people from Outreach that were elite and a couple of veterans. The rest are members of our graduating classes. The one name people are clanners.

Total spent on companies: 110 mill.

We spent some time on outreach recruiting, and this will not resemble our unit until the end of the year.

It’s good that we were able to get to two full regiments of mechs, plus four companies of tanks, one of aerospace fighters, and two extra-special companies, with infantry, garrison, and more.

While recruiting, we get lucky and recruit one of the few assets out there – The Union DropShip Amalgamated Bliss.

EVENT – October 1, 3052 – With the destruction of most of the FRR, it’s not hiring mercenaries much. With the slacking of the Draconis Combine’s previous Death to all Mercenaries order, it is hiring more. ComStar wants to hire to shore up defenses due to massive losses at Tukkayid, and the Word of Blake is here now, and looking to hire to add to their small but growing roster. Here is our new hiring chart:

2 - FedCom
3, 4 – Word of Blake
5 – Cappellan Confederation
6 - ComStar
7 - Federated Commonwealth
8 - Free Worlds League
9 - Draconis Combine
10 - St. Ives Compact
11 – Free Rasalhague Republic
12– FedCom

Very nice stuff, Abe! Looking forward to more!

Tell

Oct 12 – We have to kick out Jonathan Wesley, a regular MW in Boxer Company. He was a discipline case. We promote regular graduate from the academy Nathan Taylor to his spot.

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company -
Styx Company -
Tethys Company –
Typhon Company –
Defender Company –
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company –
Delta Company –
Trinity Company –
Laser Company –


Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company –
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company –
Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company -
Aleph Company –
Butler Company –
Sabre Company -


Bruiser Company -
Shadow Company -

Aerospace Company-
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison
Delta Company – EE, garrison
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla -
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss –



Everything is at EE until the end of the year, when people head out for contracts again.

We go ahead and sign Tank Battalion to a garrison contract with the major mining interests here on the planet, the ones we protected earlier this year, despite not having a contract. Here is Tank Battalion’s contract:


Tank Battalion Garrison:

Salvage: Exchange
Salary: x1.1, x2.1, x0.9
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 years
Transport: N/A

Ends on October 15, 3055

Thanks!

October 29 – We honor the Fall of Thule

December 18 – We honor the fall of Andurien

December 31 - This year saw the introduction of Thunder LRM munitions, the first of many new munitions for missile warheads in development to reach production. The Inner Sphere Standard Battle Armor is introduced by many companies and generally available. It attempts to mimic the Elemental Armor as much as possible, but it’s not great at it. The Grey Death Legion used Gray Death Standard Battle Armor in Pandora in their victory over Jade Falcon.

The biggest technological mech introduced is the Raptor. This is a Combine OmniMech, using Inner Sphere technology to create the modular nature of an Omni. This proves that the IS can make Omnis, and more will roll off the lines in the next ten years.



Essex Training Academy

We have 8 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 11 enrollees for next year. Of these 8, all are at least regular, 3 are veteran and 1 elite.


Year 4 - 6
Year 3 - 12
Year 2- 13
Year 1 - 11

During the end of the year, Steel Viper took several worlds from the FedCom in order to bolster their possessions. They can’t go past the Tukkayid line, but they did take a few more planets.

The Inner Sphere is reeling. The Dracs, FedCom, Rasalhagues and ComStar have all lost tons of materiel, and Word of Blake wants some and the Caps want some in order to get back to what they were before the 4th Succession War. With everybody gasping for materiel, good mechs like the Attila are gobbled up. Everybody needs mechs.

Because of this need, mechs are being rotated from the garrison to the front lines. Garrisons are losing mechs and relying solely on vehicles and infantry for defense. As such, the number of Objective and Extraction Raids is up. Destroying a rival’s warehouse, stealing equipment, and more have become very popular with interests both private and governmental. The number of Raid contracts is at an all time high.

EVENT – On Dec 31, 3052, Thoma Marie Essex chooses to enroll in MechWarrior Academy. She has shown great skill on the agro mechs and jumping mechs, and early results show her to be a crack shot as well. However, in order to get some distance between her and the unit. Several schools offered her, including the Robinson Battle Academy, Nagelring and Legionary Training Academy on Andurien. Our allies in the Draconis March (Robinson) and Andurien have made sure she has a place to go. She was declined the NAIS, which was a bit puzzling. There must be a political thing going on. The Nagelring is the best one, but it’s also a bit…clique-y. There’s defiantely a have and have not thing ging on. Good grads from it include Victor Ian Steiner-Davion and Morgan Kell. However, this has diminished with the Fed Com pushing towards less social officers and more competant ones. As such, Thoma Marie Essex has enrolled at The Nagelring, located on Tharkad. She will graduate on December 31, 3055, where she will move to a training cadre for a year before finished on December 31, 3056.

Jan 1, 3053 – We announce that Kilts and Commandos are taking contracts again.


End of Interlude II– The Invasion


The new map of the IS can be found here in detail: http://iscs.teamspam.net/pdf/iscs_3052.pdf

It’s here in general: http://iscs.teamspam.net/povray/iscs_3052.20020918.jpg




We take a look at the contracts offered:

Word of Blake wants a Garrison
ComStar Objective Raid
Draconis Combine Defense against Clans
FedCom Security

We take the ComStar contract. They want us to hit a corporation in the Free Worlds League and destroy a facility that they believe is supplying the Word of Blake with materiel. When the schism occurred, Word of Blake took most of the intel officers ComStar had, and the few that remain are suspect. ComStar kept most of the military, however. Because of the large number of spies that Blake is suspected of leaving behind, this is an operation supported and planned solely by the ComGuards.

They want us to hit Gomeisa, a very quiet planet, with very little to offer save that its only 4 jumps away, and they make a material from ore mined on planet which is a component in Ferro Fibrous Armor. This conversion facility is so upstream of ferro fib armor that it is very lightly guarded and Gomeisa is so quite that is had no regular Marik forces on it at all, just the local militia, which includes only a handful of mechs total for the entire planet.

The FedCom wants security for a planet right next to the Steel Vipers for 6 months until they can get more troops rotated there. The planet is Tomans, and its 9 jumps away and they want at least a battalion. If we fight against clans during our stay, we get an extra 50%.

We decide to not take the Drac or Blake contracts.

Tomans Security, Myth Battalion


Salvage: Shared
Salary: x1.2, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if clans
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 6 months
Transport: Full

They will arrive on March 10, 3053. Let’s roll. There are no assaults by Steel Viper during this time, and they rotate off nice and quietly on September 10, 3053, and they return on November 29, 3053.

Money:

196198 paid each month to my four companies in Myth Battalion.

For a year – 2,353,536

With remuneration, we made 3.414 million after payment in salary and stuff.

Alright, let’s do the Objective Raid by ComStar. We are sending Sabre Company for their shake-down mission.


Sabre Company, Objective Raid for ComStar

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x4.0, x1.6,
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Independant
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: Full
22.5% Bonus

We arrive on Gomeisa on Feb 16.

Feb 16 - Our rented DropShip drops off Sabre Company at a local DropPort. The facility we want to hit is in this town, roughly five miles.

Feb 20 – After scouting the area, we believe that the ComStar intel is right, and that only vehicles garrison the facility. It’s more that ComStar thought though -0 they believed it was a company, but it’s about 20 vehicles. We intend to do this though. We rent extra space on the DropShip for the way home – expecting salvage from vehicles.

Nothing on this planet looks new, certainly not the tanks. This should be easy.

Feb 24 – We leave our DropShip around mid-afternoon and move hot to the complex. There are no mechs in the area, and we are a complete surprise to everyone

We arrive at our destination in a half hour, after making sure not to trample cars or people. The garrison was informed of our coming and they are waiting for us in a giant ferrocrete loading section of the facility. Our goal is to destroy these guards and then destroy the facility.

We are facing 20 random tanks. It would take too long to list them. You’ll recognize them from previous attacks.

T1 – We lose init. We run the Ryoken right up to a Drillson Hover Tank. Our Jav joins. Here we go:

Our Attilla ATA-2 immobilizes a Striker Light Tank.

After taking two gauss shells from our Galahad, the Shadow Hawk IIc destroys the engine on their Von Luckner.

Four clan ER Large Lasers lance from the Supernova to destroy the Shrek PPC Carriers LS. Earlier, it had hit with all three PPCs on our BattleMaster.

Our Ryoken C destroys the Drillson’s LS with very accurate fire from its pulse lasers and LB 10-X. That’s our first kill by an ex-clanner.

Our Vulture Prime destroys their Harasser Missile Platform’s front side. That’s our second kill.

They quit and leave. They have no desire to continue after losing 5 of their 20 tanks in one turn plus facing clan mechs. We announce to the facility that we will be destroying it in 10 minutes allowing evacuation time. Meanwhile, we order some mechs to carry back the salvaged tanks.


Striker Light Tank, immobilized
Von Luckner, destroyed engine
Shrek PPC Carrier, LS destroyed
Drillson LS
Harasser Missile Platform FS

We pay 50k to fix armor.
We pay 450k to get these five tanks up and running again.


We made 1.382 mill

We will return on May 15

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Styx Company - Return on Nov 29, 3053
Tethys Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Typhon Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Defender Company –
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company –
Delta Company –
Trinity Company –
Laser Company –


Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company –
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company –
Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company -
Aleph Company –
Butler Company –
Sabre Company – Return on May 15, 3053


Bruiser Company -
Shadow Company -

Aerospace Company-
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla -
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss –

Rewind

Feb 1, 3053 – Contracts!

St. Ives Compact wants Riot/Garrison contract
Dracs want Obj Raid on Jag World
Extraction Raid by company

The company is a Davion Holding that wants us to raid Caps on the world of Masterson. It’s relatively quiet, 6 jumps away, and we can have a group there by April 27. They want us to grab a mech chassis that is being worked on in secret on the world and bring it back. It’s something called a Huron Warrior.

We will be sending Raven Company for their first mission. The expected defense is just infantry and that’s it – anything else would be suspicious. We go in, we break some heads, and we grab the mech chassis and head out.


Raven Company, Extraction Raid for Company

Salvage: Exchange
Salary: x1.1, x2.4, x1.6,
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: Half


The Drac’s Objective Raid is on Kabah, and it would take waaay to long to get there and do the raid, so we say no.

The Compact wants a company for Riot Duty/Garrison on Vestallas for 4 months. They’ve had some restless demonstrations and such due to Pro-Liao propaganda in the wake of Sun-Tzu’s rise to power in the Capellan Confederation. A unit can be there on June 24. We contract Butler Company to do their first contract.

Butler Company, Riot/Garrison for St. Ives

Salvage: Exchange
Salary: x1.3, x2.8,
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Command: House
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 4 months
Transport: Full

They will arrive on June 24. We roll for each month. After four months, nothing happens and they return. They will come back on Jan 5, 3054.

Money: 463,588 spent for the year for Butler. We made 55k total.

We send out Raven Company. The intel is spot on and we return. Due to the half transport aspect, we lost 722k.

Raven returns on Dec 10, 3053.

Apr 30 – We arrive at Masterson, a bit behind schedule

May 5 – After a lot of scouting, we have narrowed down where we think the Huron Warrior chassis is being worked on.

May 12 – We have confirmed that the Chassis is at a warehouse on the other side of ht eplanet.

May 25 – If we had just blasted off and moved ot the other DropShip, people would have been suspicious, so we blast off, returned to the JumpShip, and relanded.

That night, we break out and move for the warehouse. Infantry scatter and we find a chassis being worked on. We grab it, bring it back, and run into no problems at all.

May 26 – On the way out, we run into some fighters ,but they aren’t able t keep up and drop off.

Rewind

March 1 – Contracts:

Company wants: Security
Free Worlds League wants: Defense
Free Rasalhague Wants: Obj Raid
FedCom wants: Cadre

Let’s look at the last first. The FedCom wants to pay a unit that fought the clans to go to a world in the Lyran half and help train the local militia how to fight clans. The goal is to land at Kelenfold and help out the locals for 8 months. Cadre duty is very easy and very cheaply paid. We decide to send Laser Company, formerly known as Lance. Their Lt. Akwasi Oppoku defeated the clans in a one on one battle with her Attila. They know the clans very well.


Laser Cadre Contract

Salvage: N/A
Salary: x0.75, x2.6, x1.3
Support: 50% Straight Support
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 8 months
Transport: Full

We will arrive on Kelenfold on June 5. Our contract will end on February 5 and they will return on April 21, 3054. They are not allowed to fight as per their contract.

We make 816k. We spend 665k for 16 months of upkeep and salary, so we made 151k.

The Objective Raid the FRR wants is actually, surprise surprise, not on a clan held world. They want us to hit the Drac world of Trolloc Prime. They are 7 jumps away and it would take us . It’s near the border and well guarded. We will take Bruiser and Shadow Company, and our own transport – The Scots Flotilla Merchant-class JumpShip and two Unions – Serendipitous Victory and Robin Hood.

The goal is to get in, and destroy the stolen FRR technologies that are being taken apart and studied in a Drac lab.


Shadow/Bruiser Objective Raid on Trolloc Prime

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4.0, x1.1
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 100% Repaid
17.5% Bonus

We will arrive in the system on June 16 and land on the planet on June 24th.

Let’s roll.

June 23th – We arrive on planet a bit earlier than scheduled. Our intel is not up to date, and it appears that the FRR stuff has been moved to several locations on the planet, and not just one. Shadow Company has the Union-C and the Elementals on one side of the planet and Bruiser is on the other.

June 25 – We believe that FRR tech is in three places. One is in the largest city on the planet – Davis City. Davis is a trading city, and it’s also the capital and home of the major planetary university, which is where some of the FRR tech is being taken apart and researched. We believe this will require a covert mission, and not mechs.

We are still looking for the other two locations.

June 28 – We’ve found the other two. The planet has very little in the way of mining, but there are some nice tin deposits that bring in little cash. Due to the low value of tin, they were not mined in the last few hundred years, but now the planet needs money. The tin mines are built around an industrial center, and we believe that several items are being researched in one of the buildings there.

The other is in a central garrison location, and there FRR weapons are being broke apart by the techs.

The garrison location is near Bruiser Company and no one is near the tin mines.

July 12 – We launched and landed our DropShip and are in the large city. We use FRR contacts to get access to the university. We set up ten elementals around the perimeter to assist if needed. After penetrating, we discover a simple lab. With overwhelming force of arms, we breaks into the lab, kill the scientists, and destroy the FRR technology, and then leave. No one is alerted until after we are gone. The first one is done.

July 14 – Patrols comb the streets of Davis City and all DropShips were not cleared for two days while they searched for the saboteurs. Eventually they find nothing and we are allowed to leave. Meanwhile, Bruiser Company is getting ready.

Brusier Company is attacking the garrison just as our clan Union-C does a hit landing just outside of the tin mines and Shadow Company breaks out.

Shadow Company, led by Braham Essex in his new Orion.

Out come the mine defense. It was supposed to be vehicles and infantry only, but it is reinforced with a lance of mechs and another mech.

Their mechs:

Goliath, Veteran
Wolverine 7K *, veteran
Rifleman
Panther
Stinger 3G variant

Tanks:

Scorpion Light Tankx2
Hunter Light Support Tank
Saladin Assault Hover Tank
Goblin Medium Tank, green
Vedette Medium Tankx2
Zhukov Heavy Tank
Bulldog Medium Tank
LRM Carrier
Sturmfeur Heavy Tank, veteran
Ontos Heavy Tank

Infantry:

Foot SRM Platoon
Laser Jump
Flamer Jump
SRM Motorized
Laser Motorized

Everybody else is a regular unless noted

The BV is 15k vs 36k for us.


This is our Shootist. It’s a 70 ton mech designed as a command mech but replaced by the BattleMaster. They were created 400 years ago. This one is a normal one, and it comes with an ER Large Laser, an AC20, two medium pulse lasers and a small laser. It has ferro-fib armor and almost max protection. It moves 4/6 and disperses 13/26 heat. It’s a very good mech, and it’s basically an upgraded Hunchback with more armor, better support close-in weapons and a long range weapon. You could modify it with a Gauss Rifle instead of the AC20 to make it a long range mech but I like it as a mech that charges in, firing its ER LL to warm an opponent and then dashing it with AC20 fire, 2 tons of ammo (plus CASE). It’s a mech that actually uses level 2 tech well.

Here we go:

T1 – We lose init. An LRM from their Goliath nails our Thug in the head. Our Lancelot hits the ammo on their Zhukov and it ignites. An ER PPC from our Phoenix Hawk knifes into the right side of their LRM Carrier and follows the gauss slug that hit that side earlier. It’s destroyed, dead tank. The Starslayer immobilizes their Scorpion Light Tank. Braham’s Orion’s ER PPC and Gauss meet to blow off the front side of a Vedette. Our Thug falls

T2 – We win init. I stand up the Thug and run away with it. This time I move some of my fire to the mechs. Our Griffin destroys the RT of their Panther. That’s a PPC we just claimed in the RA. Our Flashman destroys a Saladin’s Right Side. Our Lynx destroys the Wolverine’s LA.

T3 – We lose init. The Grif takes out an Ontos’s Front. After taking a lot of hits, including an engine hit from an Elemental squad, their Rifleman falls over and blows up its RT. They retreat, we destroy the empty buildings and take the salvage back to the Union C before others come in


LRM Carrier, left side destroyed
Scorpion Light Tank, immobilized
Vedette, front side
Saladin Right Side
Ontos, FS
Panther RA
Rifleman RA


Experienced Gained:

Braham Essex, gained Gunnery:Laser a little bit easier to hit with energy weapons now
Ricardo Diaz, gains edge: 1, Flashman pilot

It should take roughly 350k for ammo and armor for my boys and 250k to get these tanks up and running.

Now, the other side.


Simultaneously, out comes Bruiser Company. Intel about the garrison is dead on, and a company of mechs warm up as we approach:

BattleMaster
Stalker
Hatamato-Ku, veteran *
CRK-5003-2 Katana, veteran *
ON1-K Orion
Thunderbolt
Dragon
CN9-D Centurion *
PXH-3k Phoenix Hawk, veteran *
Jenner
Locust 1M variant
Enforcer


This is not a bad company by any means. Here is the Katana, an old Star League design called the Crockett which was acquired 25 years ago when ComStar gave the Dragon a bunch of mechs, mostly stripped down, in order to bolster their defense against the Davion attack soon to come. It has been renamed the Katana and they have been duplicated and are now being manufactured. This is a later Drac design with level 2 tech, including an LB 10-X, but that’s it, not even double heat sinks or endo steel. In addition to the LB 10-X, it features 2 large lasers, 2 SRM 6s and 2 small lasers. That’s a pretty spicy 3/5/3 85 ton mech.

T1 – We lose init. We are fighting on rocks and rough terrain outside of the garrison. Our Rifleman IIc destroys the LA of their Jenner. Our Vulture C launches two gauss rifles at the Jenner and they destroy its RA, RT and CT. We focus a lot of weapons at their Katana and finally our Dasher hits its hip and lower leg actuator. Then our Warhammer IIc destroys its LL entirely. It falls. Meanwhile, that stupid Locust variant is sent spinning after our Gladiator destroys its RA and RT.

T2 – We lose init again. Their Locust pilot tried to rise, fell and knocked itself out. Our Marauder IIc destroys their Phoenix Hawk’s LA. Our Warhammer IIc hits the AC5 ammo on their Hatamato-Ku and it goes up! We aimed at the head of their immobile Locust with the 3 large pulse lasers of our Gladiator, and one hits and tears it off. Dead mech. Their Centurion falls. Our Phoenix Hawk’s ER PPC lances into their Katana and destroys the other leg. Our Marauder IIc kicks and hits the machine ammo on their BattleMaster, and it blows up. Our Gladiator kicks and destroys the RT of their Centurion, and due to an XL engine it is destroyed.

In two turns, we’ve destroyed 58% of their fighting force. Boom! They move to retreat, and we have a few mechs go ahead and blow up their garrison buildings while the rest grab salvage for the ride home.


Jenner LL, RL, LT, H
Hatamato-Ku RA
Locust 1M, missing H, RA, RT
BattleMaster LA, H, RT, RA
CN9-D Centurion missing RT
CRK-5003-2 Katana missing both legs

The cost to our people would have been roughly 100k.

To fix up the Locust (and make it a 1E) and Centurion and Katana costs 2.22 mill


We head back out and will arrive back on October 2.

Money: We made 350k after all costs are deducted. We also made nice surplus.

Rewind:

April 1 – We’ve spent some money meanwhile making mechs like a Comet, Archer and BattleMaster from the spare parts we have.

FedCom wants Defense Against Clans for a year. Nope.
Corporation wants Cadre/Garrison
Corp wants Extraction Raid.


The company that wants Cadre/Garrison work is Pandora – Red Devil Industries wants us to train their own security for anti-clan techniques and to garrison their company for 6 months in that time. They are one jump from Clan space and the Falcons attacked on planet once already, so the need is great. They want a full battalion. That’s fair. We’ll send them Col. Matthew Humphries’s Star Battalion, Defender, Cinq and Brawler companies.


Star Battalion, Cadre/Garrison Pandora

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.1, x1.5 if we fight clans
Support: Full Support
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 6 months
Transport: Full


We will arrive on August 12. The Contract ends on February 12, and our group will return on June 15, 3054.

After speeding through, we discover that no clans attack.

Money Stuff: Our pay for 6 months is 5.367 mill. We paid our guys, for 16 months, 2.884 mill. We made some decent cash.

The Extraction Raid is from the St. Ives Compact. A company there wants us to hit and take technology from the Capellan system of Madras. That’s about 6 months away, so a company sent to do that would be gone for, roughly, a year. For just one raid. No thanks.

Laser Company returned.

May 1 roster

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Styx Company - Return on Nov 29, 3053
Tethys Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Typhon Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Defender Company – Return on June 15, 3054
Cinq Company - Return on June 15, 3054
Brawler Company – Return on June 15, 3054
Delta Company –
Trinity Company –
Laser Company –


Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company –
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company –
Mustang Company –
Hex Company –
Raven Company – Return on Dec 10, 3053
Aleph Company –
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054
Sabre Company – Return on May 15, 3053


Bruiser Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053
Shadow Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053

Aerospace Company-
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Star River -
Scots Flotilla - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Serendipitous Victory - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Amalgamated Bliss –

Contracts –

The Magistracy of Canopus wants an Objective Raid – too far away
FedCom wants Pirate Hunting – where? Issaba, waaaay too far away to care
Marik wants Recon Raid – could be interesting – target? Wasat – very close by too – but the FC doesn’t like it when we do contracts against them
Marik also wants an Objective Raid against the Caps. Target Aldertaine, 9 jumps away – 3.5 months-ish
ComStar wants an Objective Raid against the Marik/Blake world of Bernardo. Very close too.

Let’s look at the Recon Raid first

Wasat has been under the control of the Federated Suns, Free Worlds League, Capellan Confederation and others like the Tikonov Free Republic and FedComs. It’s right in the middle, and thus heavily guarded. The Free Worlds League was unable get a foothold on the planet with intelligence, so they need someone to scout out the defenses. We agree to take it if they keep it on the d/l.

We will be sending Aerospace Company, the Star River and Aleph Company, plus four platoons of veteran infantry from the garrison and a few tricks.



Aleph Company, Aerospace Company, Star River, and Infantry Platoons

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3,
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
15% Bonus





We arrive on Wasat on May 28 (one jump away). We begin to do recon. Wasat has three major military installations, and it has both FedCom troops and a planetary garrison. We have repainted our DropShip and mechs with the color scheme of Vinson’s Vigilantes. Might as well get them in trouble and not us.

June 3 – Our infantry have mapped out several important strategic areas to bring back to our employers. New buildings, new areas to fight in and such.

June 10 – We have the maps of their garrison in a city done.

June 17 – All maps are done, now we need more.

June 30 - After preparing, we send out our company of mechs. They are storming through an industrial center after jumping off the DropShip that had been there for days. They fire harmlessly into the ground and so forth. Meanwhile, Aerospace Company is launched from another DropShip at the same place and flies out, strafing and causing problems. We watch how quickly their fighters arrive, and count the fighters with our infantry and two Boomerang Spotter Planes – silent unmanned planes that can glide and hide from radar while also snooping and with over a have ton of surveillance equipment.

Meanwhile, armor and vehicles begin to arrive on the ground, and we get to count them all. We enter our own DropShip, which is not the one we left, and load everything up and blast off very quickly. Our fighters create a screen, and then land with a DropShip that launched from another DropPort and blast off.

The recon is done. We arrive in Irian, meet with our employer give them our data and collect our stuff, and repaint our mechs and head back.

We should Return on Aug 1, 3053

We made 1.8 mill after salaries and such.

Let’s look at the next May contract.

ComStar wants an Objective Raid on Bernardo. With such a small army, Word of Blake is stretched very thin. They just want us to land, attack the HPG station on planet, destroy the ComGuards, and leave it operational. They have just 1 company of mechs, guaranteed, and we are tasked with removing it from the Blake-ists.

We decide that this is a good contract for one of our heavy hitters – Trinity Company.

Trinity Company Objective Raid on Bernardo

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3,
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
12.5% Bonus


Bernardo is two jumps away and we can be there on June 13.

Meanwhile, let’s do the economics for the other contract:


Marik wants us to hit Aldertaine. We can be there on Sept 2, and then hit the planet. They want a minor ore refining plant destroyed, and it shouldn’t be guarded too heavily. We are to wear the colors of Davion Mercenary unit The Blue Star Irregulars. The Caps and Marik are allies, and this is done on the Davion border in order to push the Caps closer.

Sounds like a job for…

Delta Company and Aerospace Company, Objective Raid on Aldertaine


Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x3.7, x1.3,
Support: Battle Loss 25%
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: Full


I’m diverting Aerospace Company to Aldertaine.

Arrive on September 2


Let’s do the Bernardo contract first.

June 13 - We arrive on planet easily enough via contacts in ComStar. The HPG is in the capital, and we get out. Trinity Company hits the ground hot. This is just a smash and dash. We charge the HPG and out came the ComGuards, but ComStar’s intel was off. Instead of a company of mechs, we have a reinforced company - 16 mechs. Let’s take a look.


CRK-5003-1 Crockett *elite
OSR-2D Ostroc * elite
CHP-3N Champion * (Made for Tukkayid, and taken by WoB) regular
STN-3L Sentinel * veteran
Wasp, green
Spider, veteran
UM-R63 UrbanMech * elite
Firestarter, regular
CRB-27 Crab * regular
Orion, green
Cyclops, elite
HBK-5M Hunchback *green
PNT-8Z Panther variant, veteran
ASN-23 Assassin * regular
BL9-KNT Black Knight * (another refit made for Tukkayid), green
Goliath, elite

These 16 mechs are all over the spectrum in ability level. It’s an ad-hoc unit.

This is a Goliath, which each of us has. It’s a one of the few quad mechs, with 2 LRM10s, a PPC, and 2 Machine guns. It’s not a good mech. It does have a solid amount of armor, but that’s it.







Now, BV wise, this is supposedly close. We are at 23746 and they 22593. However, being behind by 4 mechs is rough, and 9 have level 2 tech. This is not easy.

Now, BV wise, this is supposedly close. We are at 23746 and they 22593. However, being behind by 4 mechs is rough, and 9 have level 2 tech. This is not easy.

Here we go:

We are fighting on a large ferrocrete slab, with some buildings here and there. This is the map we are on:

T1 – We win init. There’s not much to do but charge in and hope. This wins only when we destroy their forces or we choose to retreat or if they, instead of retreating they surrendered. I need to take out a mech fast. I don’t have the devastating weaponry of the clans backing up this company, and we in a dangerous place. If I take out a chump light mech, what have I done to their force? Not much. If I spend three turns taking out something like the Orion then I will lose. I need quick kills to even things. I think the best target are those mechs with XL engines. Those are: Champion and Black Knight. I need to target them. They do 42 damage to my Zeus, and we do not kill the Black Knight. We took off more than half of its external armor and yet didn’t go internal anywhere. I also peppered a Panther a bit from my Goliath and Rifleman because they had a better LOS on it.

T2 – We win init. I have an opportunity to jump my Phoenix Hawk behind their Crockett, but I’m not taking it – the mech is too well armored back there. I put it behind their Hunchy instead. Our T Bolt hits a leg actuator on their Black Knight and it falls down. Otherwise, just exchange of fir e- bad for me. This is exactly what we needed to avoid.

T3 – I win init again. Their Knight tried to stand, failed, fell and destroyed its RL. Their Orion skids and falls. Spider behind the Sentinel. Our Atlas destroys the LA and RA of their Champion. Our Goliath hits the LB10-X and engine of their Urbie, so they have no real weapons left on it. With its last shot, it hits a gyro and blows off the LL of our Hatchetman. The limb is on the ground. Our Trebuchet destroys the And LT and CT of their Champion with missiles. The Thunderbolt’s missiles nail the head of their downed Black Knight and the pilot goes unconscious.

T4 – We lose init. Their Orion safely rises. My Ostsol runs into their Wasp behind a building one:one and I open up with an Alpha Strike. Their Crocket takes out the CT of my Hatchetman, and others will destroys its RT and LA this turn. Our Ostsol destroys the LL of their Wasp. A kick destroys its RT and its RA is on the ground. That means it’s weaponless.

T5 – We lose init. They hop their Firestarter next to my Trebuchet. The Atlas destroys the LA of their Cyclops. The Cyke’s LL hip and foot actuators are nailed by our Goliath. Our Cicada destroys the LA of their Firestarter. The Cyke falls and hits its head. They set the woods on fire my Trebuchet was sniping from. Our Ostsol kicks in the Wasp’s Ct and takes it out. Our Spider kicks and destroys the RL on their Firestarter, It falls and the pilot blacks out. This was a good turn, we are starting to get an advantage. They are out of AC20 ammo for the Hunchy.

T6 – We win init. The Cyke stands and faces us. We try to hop our P Hawk u on a building behind the building their Panther is on, but the section the Hawk jumps on collapses and it falls. It destroys two jump jets. Our Spider and Cicada each hit the head of their downed ‘Starter once. The Atlas destroys the RA of their Cyclops. It’s gyro is hit by the Trebuchet. It falls and breaks its LL. The Cyclops is down because it is missing both arms and a leg and cannot move. Neither of their pilots wake up (each needs a 10)

T7 – We win init. We stand our P Hawk up. They run their Hunchy behind my Atlas. I jump my Spider behind their Orion. Their Crocket hits the LRM 15 on our T Bolt. Their Panther’s Large laser nails my Atlas’s head. Their Crocket falls and hits a foot and hip. Our Atlas punches the H of the Hunchback and destroys it. Nobody wakes up.

T8 – We win init. Our Atlas has about a quarter of its starting armor and is internal in four places. I run my Goliath and Rifleman up in an attempt to distract them. I run the Zeus to their Crab. Their Crockett hits an engine and destroys the RA of our Atlas. Our Ostsol destroys the Crockett’s LL. Their Orion goes internal and destroys the LRM ammo on our Atlas and it ignites and explodes. Our P Hawk destroys the LA of their Panther. Our P Hawk kicks the building out from under their Panther and it falls hard. No wake-sies.

T9 – We rock init. The stand the Panther. I run the T Bolt up and turn its right side to them, since it’s barely touched. For example 20 on the RA vs 3 on the LA and 24 on the RT vs 8 on the LT. These little tricks are how you survive in clear terrain. The Zeus is out of LRM ammo. Despite, it still destroys the LT of their Crockett. Their Goliath gets a limb blown off critical on the Zeus’s LA. It’s on the ground, ready to be used. Our Ostsol kicks and destroys the Crocket’s CT. Their Panther punches out a ML on my Cicada.

T10 – Init is ours again. Their Panther destroys our Spider’s LA. Our Ostscout destroys their Spider’s RT. Our Zeus’s lone long range weapon, its large laser, nails the Orion’s gyro once. Our Goliath hits the AC ammo on it and it explodes. Dead Orion. Once again, or P Hawk kicks and collapses a building their Panther is on, and it falls and brakes its RL.

T11 – We win init again. It’s like we’re having two battles. One with scout mechs in the buildings and woods above the field and rest with the heavy hitters below the field. In order to force my opponent to finally attack the Goliath, I don’t move it at all. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys their Panthers CT and causes an engine explosion. The explosion does 14 to the Ostscout, 3 to our Phoenix Hawk, 3 to the Cicada, 14 to their Sentinel, it hits the Sentinel’s AC5 ammo which explodes and destroys the Sentinel, and 7 to their Spider. And the building collapses. Their Spider was on top, It falls and hits its hip and lower leg on the right one. The Black Knight and Firestarter don’t awaken.

T12 – We continue to dominate initiative. We are out of AC5 ammo for the Rifleman. Our Goliath blows off the LL of their Crab. Our P Hawk hits the engine once and gyro twice of theirs.

T13 – We have lost init. We hop the P Hawk and Ostscout by their downed Crab. Their Assassin destroys the LA of my Ostsol. Our Goliath hits an LRM10 on theirs.

T14 – We win init. Their Goliath destroys the FLL of mine. Our Ostscout kicks and destroys the LL on their Urbie.

T15 – Win again. I run my Ostsol and Cicada up to their Assassin. Their Ostroc destroys the LT of my Goliath. Our Ostsol nails the foot actuator of their Assassin and it falls and hits a leg actuator too.

T16 – Who wins init? This guy! I eject the Goliath. I run our Spider up to their Goliath. Their Assassin rises. Their Goliath destroys the LT of my Cicada, Their Assassin adds a gyro hit. Our P Hawk destroys the RLL of their Goliath. The Cicada stays standing, but not their Goliath. Their Firestarter pilot actually managed to wake up.

T17 – We win init. They try to stand the FS, it falls, and the pilot blacks out again. Heh. I eject the Cicada pilot. Their Goliath rises. Our Zeus hit t he hip on their Gol’s FRL. Our Ostsol blows off the LL of their Assassin. Our Ostscout gets a gyro and two engine hits on their Goliath. Their Goliath falls, destroys its RT, and then hit an engine and gyro. A kick destroys the La of their Assassin.

T18 – We win again. Their Assassin tries to stand, falls, and the pilot is knocked out. The same with their Urbie.

T19 – We lose init. Their Crab manages to stand finally. I hop my Spider to it. Their Ostroc hits two jump jets on my Ostscout. Our Ostsol hits their Ostroc’s foot actuator. Our Spider destroys its LA. Our T Bolt kicks and destroys its LL. Our Spider kicks their Crab, it doesn’t even go internal, but the pilot blacks out on the fall.

T20 - We lose initiative. If we can take out the injured Ostroc this turn, then we win, because everybody else is knocked out. Their Ostroc tried to stand, fell, and shattered its RA. We surround it. We destroy the LT and RT and then our T Bolt takes out the CT. We’ve annihilated our enemy completely. We took out 16 mechs. Whew!

Rough battle but tactics in the end win out!

Tell

Firestarter, missing RL, LA
Champion – H, LL, RL
Wasp RA, RL, LT, LA, H
Cyclops missing LL, RA, LA
Black Knight missing RL,
Hunchback, missing H
Crockett LA, H, RL, RT, RA
Spider enginex1, gyrox2, missing RT, actuators.
Panther RA
Sentinel RA
Crab LL reattach
Assassin missing LL, LA
Goliath, destroys two legs,RT, enginex3, gyrox2
Urbie missing RL
Ostroc H, RL


Hatchetman LL, H, RA, LT, RL
Atlas LA,
Zeus, reattach LA
Spider missing LA
Ostsol missing LA
Goliath missing FLL, LT,
Cicada missing LT. gyrox1


Five captured Blake prisoners


Experience:

Sgt. Orpah Jones, in the Ostscout is now a Melee Specialist



The Money Stuff:

We will be spending 850k on armor alone
An additional 650k on ammo
To repair our Zeus, Spider, Goliath, Ostsol and Cicada will cost 3.82 mill

We will spend 5.32 mill to repair and fix things

For Battle Loss, we lost an Atlas and Hatchetman, minus the parts and 50% of that is 5,127,500

To fix the Firestarter, Crab, Cyclops, Urbanmech, Goliath, Assassin, Hunchback, Spider and Black Knight will cost us 5.9 mill including armor and ammo.

555k salary

We have paid 566k in salary this year.

Total: -3.453 mill

We lost an Atlas and Hatchetman and 3 and a half million. We gained UM-63 UrbanMech, Assassin, CRB-27 Crab, Firestarter, Spider, Cyclops, HBK-5M Hunchback, Goliath, and BL9-KNT Black Knight. It was totally worth it.

We purchase an ATA-2 Attila to replace their dead Atlas. The Hatchetman is replaced by their Hunchback. We are changing it to the 5N version that adds a ton of ammo at the expense of CASE and a small pulse laser being downgraded.

You don't see me take it to 20 very often, nope.

The AI is usually pretty good about some things. It knows how to position a mech to protect a wounded side. It knows when to move a mech adjacent to mine and up an elevation to try for that 1 in 6 chance to punt the head into the bleachers. It knows when to just stand still and snipe, but it does sometimes make really stupid decisions movement wise - it risks too much underwater and on ferrocrete and roads and jumping on buildings.

Shooting wise, it always selects the easiest target, and when choosing more than one, it can go with the lighter one or the more damaged one or the one others are targeting. Which all makes sense.

So I have to tactically work around it.

Now, let’s do the Delta Contract:


September 5 – We arrive at Aldertaine.

Sept 17 – It appears that the Marik intel is spot on, and the area is lightly guarded around the ore refining plant. With our Blue Star painted mechs, we unload and surprise everyone. This is clearly not a normal planet that sees a lot of mechs attacks.

Our mechs move out, and only a few infantry squads are in the way, and we easily muscle them aside and the plant is destroyed by energy weapons.

We move back out and head to our DropShip, but now, fighters are attacking. We knew this was a fighter heavy planet, so our own fighters fly out and begin to mix it up. In a few minutes, we have destroyed one of their fighters but our own Stingray is limping, so we return. We grab seats and blsat off.


We will arrive back home on January 21, 3054.

We made 769k

We pay 1.043 mill to Delta Company through Jaunaru and AeroSpace Company to the same. Plus we spent 30k on armor after our 25% off.

Rewind:


June 1 – Sabre Company returned last month. Contracts!


Garrison – Fed Com
Blake – Security
Retainer – FedCom
Objective Raid – Illium Naval Engineering on the Marik world of Ionus had discovered a spy base on the moon of a nearby system of Tongatupu, and wants us to destroy it.

Most mercenaries love long term contracts, and yet we try and keep it short. Why? You saw how much money we made on the 5 year 12 company retainer with the FRR. What’s going on?

The problem is lack of fighting. We got lucky with the FRR contracts, but aside from occasional pirate hunting or Drac raids, it was all quiet. If there had not been a clan invasion, how many mechs would we have captured? 12? 15? Not that many, certainly. This is the problem with a long term contract. In five months, we’ve done several raids and we’ve walked away with 12 mechs and tons of tanks. Sure, we’ve lot a couple of mechs too, but we’ve really made out. The short term deals don’t make money, but they mostly pay our costs while we gain a ton of materiel. For example, if we were to sell the 12 mechs we took, we’d make at least 60-70 million. That’s how much money we made. Making cash and converting it to mechs works, but this is faster and more fun!

On the other hand, our unit is getting too large for everybody to be participating in these raids. Perhaps a retainer with the FedComs wouldn’t be a bad idea. We permanently swap Laser Company and Butler Company.

We negotiate with the FedComs for Beta Regiment, retainer:


Beta Regiment, Retainer

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 3 years
Transport: Full
10% Bonus

We will travel to Fort Loudon to temporarily garrison the world after the Jade Falcons raided it and nearly destroyed a regiment of Blue Star Irregulars. We can be there on October 4, 3053. Aleph Company will join us there, and raven will be there Dec 15.

This contract will end on October 4, 3056

As of right now, every unit in Alpha and Beta Regiments is away. We have Defender, Cinq and Brawler returning in two weeks, so I look at the other contracts this month to see if any fit for one of them. We will be sending Defender Company in. Illium doesn’t mind a two week delay in order to sign Col. Matthew Humphries for a contract!



Defender Company, Objective Raid on Tongatupu

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.4,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
32.5% Bonus

We will arrive at Tongatupu’s moon on Oct 20, 3053.




October 20 – Right on schedule, Tongatupu’s moon is inhabited. Unlike many planets it didn’t need terraforming or anything, it’s just a habitable moon, with vast farmland and very little industry. Tongatupu is where all of the valuable industry, tourism and trading occurs, and all of the farming is done on the moon, a nice little division of labor. Because of the moon’s lower value, it has few military installations of any sort. It is fairly close to the capital world of Atreus, and a strong commercial world, so there is a good garrison force on the planet. The moon doesn’t get much at all.

That makes it a good place to hide a spy base looking straight at Ionus. Now, let’s find it. We have some intel which proves incorrect, so we have to find it ourselves.

Oct 31 – We found the spy post, and its under a small ridge of hills and aimed upwards. Despite the obvious military implications of the installation, there do not appear to be any troops around, which suggests this has a nefarious purpose – like scanning Ionus.

Nov 3 – After three days of constant study by our mechwarriors, we believe that the installation is guarded by a mixed group of various military installations that include infantry, armor, VTOLs, hidden gun emplacements, and probably at least a lance of mechs, based on our heat signature scanning.

Nov 7 – We have explored and now we are loaded up. The 13 mechs of Defender Company are churning farmland beneath them. We get close to the installation and suddenly an explosion tears up from the ground. Mines! We have to navigate mines while the defenders stat to pour out. Here is what we are facing:



Trebuchet
UM-60L UrbanMech variant (the one with an AC20)
Locust
Quickdraw
Griffin
3x Saladin Assault Hover Tanks with each one rocking an Ac20
2x Scorpion Light Tank
2x Pegasus Hover Scout Tank
LRM Carrier
2x Schrek PPC Carrier (each has 3x PPCs)
2x Manticore Heavy Tank
2xIS Standard Battle Armor SRM troops
4x Laser Motorized Platoon
2x Cavalry Attack Helicopter
Peregrine Attack VTOL

That’s one full company of tanks, five mechs, 6 platoons if infantry and 3 VTOLs – a full two companies of combined arms.

There are an unknown number of mines. No turrets though, we were wrong about that.

This should be fun!

This is their Peregrine Attack VTOL:

We are fighting in a quarry, depressed, in the earth, tons of rock and rubble and elevation.

Turn 1 – We lose init. Our Hunchback hits a mine. Col. Humphires in his Daishi destroys a Saladin. He took out the right side. The BattleMaster destroys another Saladin. Our Warhammer immobilizes the third Saladin. You know what my targets were the first turn! Our Thor immobilizes a Scorpion Light Tank.

T2 – We lose init again. Our Orion destroys a Scorpion’s front. Our Comet destroys the LA on their Locust. Due to damage, our Orion tumbles. Our BM punches and destroys the Locusts LT.

T3 – We win init. We stand our Orion and run next to their Pegasus. It is immobilized by the Orion’s weapons. Our BattleMaster destroys a platoon of infantry. Our Warhammre destroys the RA of the Locust. Our Stalker lights up the Urbies ammo. Boom! It also kills the infantry in the same square. Two kills. Their Locust falls.

The defenders fade. We destroy the spy post and grab our salvage before we go. We do hit two mines, but for minor damage.




Saladin, missing RS
Saladin missing LS
Saladin, immobile
Scorpion immobile
Scorpion FS destroyed
Pegasus immobile
UrbanMech RA, LL


We barely paid ammo and armor. We made 940k which pays to get these tanks refitted and the minor damages sustained.

Defender Company return on February 26 , 3054.

July 1, 3053 – Contracts

Company wants security
Dracs wants Assault
FedCom wants Riot/Garrison
FWL wants Pirate Hunting

Nah

July 20 – After a successful introduction of the Attila, Kressly begins developing another mech, they will call the Lineholder.

August 1 – 3053 – Contracts. Trinity is back with the Star River.

ComStar wants Garrison
Company wants Garrison
Periphery wants Security

ComStar would like Extraction Raid on a Blake facility in the FWL. Target – Alphard. They want a company to grab some materiel back that was taken from them when the Blakists left. All we have to do is punch into Alphard, grab the stuff from a warehouse, and pop out. Trinity is in the Star River and we can send them both. Trinity just did a contract for ComStar, so they are happy to have them do another.

We can be at Alphard on September 5.

Trinity vs Blake

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.2,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
10.5% Bonus


Sept 3 – We get there earlier. Time to see if the ComStar intel is on. Nope. We try and find the warehouse.

Sept 9 – Luckily their intel led us in the right direction to the right spot. ComStar expect a group of mechs, but there is nothing here and just shuck aside the paltry defense. We grab the material and return. On our way back, three companies of Blake mechs burst out from three different warehouses. We can’t stop and fight, there’s too many.

We run as fast as possible while some mechs fire backwards with large weapons. We lay down heavy fire in order to keep them away, but they push forward. They run into the fire and keep coming. That’s what I would do too. All of our mechs get out, save the Rifleman. It’s just too slow and with too weak of armor. It is quickly legged. We can’t stay, so we lose it and the MW.

-1 Rifleman and we lost Maeve Vega.

We replace it with an Archer from our garrison. We promote the elite MW that graduated to her spot. Say hello to Raphael Stevens.

Money: We make 516k. We spend 60k on ammo and armor.

Our battle loss is half a Rifleman. 2,430,000

We “made” 2.5 mill after costs.

We get back on October 12.

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Styx Company - Return on Nov 29, 3053
Tethys Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Typhon Company – Return on Nov 29, 3053
Defender Company – Return on February 26 , 3054
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company –
Delta Company – Return on Jan 21, 3054
Trinity Company – Return on October 12, 3053
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054


Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056


Bruiser Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053
Shadow Company – Return on Oct 2, 3053

Aerospace Company- Return on Jan 21, 3054
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Star River - Return on October 12, 3953
Scots Flotilla - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Serendipitous Victory - Return on Oct 2, 3053
Amalgamated Bliss –

Aug 12 – A lot of IS weapons research has gone in several areas. The Clan tech has helped speed up some research. Motivated by a powerful juggernaut of an enemy, the IS researchers will spend the next 20 years developing new technology. The major area of early research is on variable payloads for missile systems. Clan systems are much better than IS ones, so you counter that by having improved warheads. Some of it will really work, and some will not be that successful. Warheads with acid, upgraded electronic systems, smaller cockpits, and more. All of this experimental and new IS-only technology will generally be referred to in this dynasty as level 2.5 tech. In BT it is referred to as level 3 rules. We will be calling them Level 2.5 technology and integrating them into the campaign. Recently, a prototype BattleMech was tearing through Solaris VII arenas, and it features a torso-mounted cockpit, and several other new technologies, but these mechs were destroyed in Solaris City and taken back to the NAIS.

September 1 – Contracts:

FedCom wants a Garrison
Dracs wants a security
Rasalhague would like Cadre/Garrison
St. Ives for garrison

Boring.

October 1 – Bruiser, Shadow and many ships are back tomorrow. Shadow will stay for a while, Braham has some work to do on Outreach for a few months recruiting. We’ve got a lot of tanks sitting openand he wants to recruit crew. What contracts are out there?

Garrison for FWL, O Raid for FWL – target is in periphery, Capellan wants Recon Raid. Interesting –target? Yunnah. Nice.

Ted decides to get out and stretch his legs by jumping in and taking over this assignment. He takes a surprise. Yunnah is sparsely populated, really just used for holidays and as a repair center for machine and man alike. It’s also a place for spiritual retreats. The Caps want us to recon out the system, to see what defenses they have – similar to what we did for the FWL a bit ago.

Brawler Company, Recon Raid

Salvage: Shared
Salary: x1.6, x3.4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 30%
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full


We will arrive on December 24.


Dec 24 – We have arrived with four platoons of infantry and some other spoilers. This planet has very little to guard save the repair facilities. It is on the border with the Caps being one jump away, so there are some important strategic reasons to keep it safe.

Dec 30 – After plugging around, we realize that there is just one Davion military base on planet. It’s right adjacent to the repair facilities. Ted’s Exterminator is moving about at night, getting good telemetries on the Davions.

Jan 5 – We have gotten all of the info we need. We have a count of the vehicles that have come out for garrison duty, and the same with mechs and infantry. The scanners in Ted’s mech have worked wonders and it’s been as quiet as a pen dropping in utter space.

Jan 9 – We blast off without any issues at all. We return on March 2, 3054

We made 100k on it.

Rewind:



November 1, 3053 – Contracts –

Company wants Security
Marik wants Pirate Hunting
ComStar wants Security
Marik wants garrison

Not interested – pirate hunting is way too far away. It’s lucrative salvage but too far away.

December 1 – Myth Battalion is back.

Marik wants Objective Raid
FedCom wants Riot Duty
ComStar wants Objective

ComStar wants us to do exactly what we did before, launch a company into Marik space and land on a Blake world and destroy the HPG garrison there completely. Sounds like a job for my clan mechs in Bruser Company.


Bruiser Company and Amalgamated Bliss

Salvage: Shared
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: Full
37.5% Bonus


We can arrive at their target, Abadan, by Feb 1, 3054.


Feb 2, 3054 – The major industry here is ordinance made for infantry. Rifles, pistols, grenades, hand held lasers, and more are all made here. The HPG station is actually in the civic center of government rather than by the industries. It’s more lightly defended by Marik.

Feb 4 – After scouting around, we see no major Marik defenders here, just the Blake ones. We move out and hit Blake hard. Here is their company:

BMB-12D Bombardier * regular
AWS-9M Awesome * veteran
WSP-1S Wasp * elite
SPR-5F Spector *elite
BJ-2 Blackjack *green
STN-3L Sentinel * veteran
ST-8A Shootist * elite
Rifleman, regular
Longbow, green
CTF-1X Cataphract, veteran
Shadow Hawk, elite
WVR-6M Wolverine, regular

This is their Spector. It’s an old star league era 35 ton mech, but Norse BattleMechs has introduced a new version that lacks the stealth armor of the Spector. This is that Norse version. It has a Guardian ECM, large laser, 2 mediums, 1 small, and 7/11/7 movement with an XL engine, 11/22 heat and 7.5 tons of armor. Even through max armor and mega fast speed, that XL engine is a pretty target.

But where are the hordes of Wasps and Fleas all critting at the same time! :D

Alons-y

1. We win init. Our Rifleman II c hits the head with a large pulse laser and nails both the life support and sensors. Our Vulture C launches a gauss bullet right into the H of their Bombardier and it falls. Their Shootist destroys the LT of our Phoenix Hawk. It shuts down from engine damage. If that had missed, our Warhammer IIcs ERPPC hit the head too and would have destroyed it. Their Awesome falls.

2. We win again. A gauss from our Atlas heads their Awesome. I focused a lot of fire on it, and I suspect it will get more destroyed. Eventually its RT and RL are also destroyed. Their Sentinel tumbles.

3. We lose init. Their BJ falls. I run our Dragonfly up to it. Our Atlas destroys the LT of their Wasp and our Rifleman IIc follows by blowing off its CT. For the third consecutive turn, a gauss ot the head kills a mech – the Shadow hawk by our Highlander IIc. Again, I was targeting it heavily, let’s see what else was destroyed – RL, LL, RA, LT. Our Dasher destroys the LA of a Sentinel. The Peregrine was savaged by their Shootist. Our Dragonfly kicks and destroys the RA of their BJ.

4. We win init again yay. I eject the Peregrine. The Warhmamer IIc ignites the LRM ammo in the Longbow and it explodes. We hit some weapons too, like the Cataphract’s ML and AC10. Their Sentinel opens up our Atlas’s CT and nails the engine once. Our Atlas kicks and destroys the LL and LT of their Sentinel. Our Warhammer IIc punches with the arm he didn’t fire with and goes internal, destroys the RT of their Cataphract.

5. We win. Their BJ tries to escape us by jumping on top of a nearby roof, the building collapses, and it falls and destroys its CT which causes an engine explosion and destroys more buildings and showers mechs with rubble and energy. Our Gladiator rolls a 2 and skids on pavement and falls. Their Spector’s RA was apparently sheared off in the explosion and its on he ground. Shootist LA destroys by Atlas. Rifleman IIC adds the LT. Our downed Gladiator adds an engine hit. We blow up most of the buildings with our Marauder and Vulture. Our Warhammer unloaded on their Cataphract and it falls, as does our Atlas. Our Warhammer IIc destroys the LL of their Wolverine.

6. We win init. With a pretty damage Atlas, I eject the pilot. I stand the Gladiator and use MASC to run away. Our Rifleman IIc hops next to their Spector. In fact, I just base a lot of their mechs. I expect this turn just to blow them away. Our Vulture destroys the LA of their Rifleman. The LT of their Cataphract is destroys by our clan-made Warhammer. Their Rifleman falls and destroys its LL. Our Highlander IIc kicks and destroys the RA, RT and CT of their Sentinel. The Marauder IIc’s foot blows through the LT of their Wolverine. The Gladiator destroys the RT of their Rifleman. We punch the head of their Spector and their pilot blacks out and the mech falls. We also punches and destroyed its LA. Since their Shootist was hiding in a building, our Vulture kicked the building down, and the falling debris hits the ammo and explodes the Shootist’s torso (CASE) and the pilot blacks out.



With no mechs on the ground, and all of the remaining ones well past the sell-bay date, they surrender if we’ll let the warriors go and take those blacked out. We agree and take their machines. Such as they are. (In real life BattleTech, these would have ejected. A Wolverine is missing its entire left side. The Rifleman is missing both arms and a torso. The Cat is missing both torsos and arms. People would want to keep material intact – life is cheap, mechs aren’t).

Bombardier, missing H
AWS-9M Awesome, missing H, RT, RL
Wasp RT, RA, LA, LL, RL, H
Shadow Hawk missing H, Rl, LL, RA, LT
Longbow RA, LA
Sentinel LA, H, RL
Cataphract RA, LA
Spector missing LA
Wolverine missing LT and LL
Rifleman missing RT, LL, LA
Shootist missing LT, RT, RA
Cataphract – missing RT, LT



Phoenix Hawk missing LT
Atlas with engine hit, other minor things like actuators and AMS.

It takes 350k for armor and 160k for ammo. To fix, just 2.56 mill is needed.

To get their stuff up and running will cost – 11.58 mill. We happily spend it.

Money Schtuff: We only made a bit more than 600k


We will return on Apr 30, 3054

Rewind:



Dec 18 – We honor the Fall of Andurien

Dec 31 – By the end of the year, many things have been introduced – old mechs like the Spector and new ones like the Daimyo and Bushwacker. We also see things like new battle armor – the Komodo Assault Battle Armor and the Blue Shield Particle Field Dampener shields for mechs are finished in development.


Essex Training Academy

We have 6 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 15 enrollees for next year. Of these 6, 2 choose not to stay with us, and the remaining 4 have 2 vet, 1 regular and 1 elite.

Year 4 - 12
Year 3 - 13
Year 2- 11
Year 1 – 15

We pay 10 million to the upkeep of the Academy and HQ.

This chapter has now done four years, and includes a lot. Let’s do something a little different for a bit.



End of Part 3 of The Invasion

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company
Styx Company -
Tethys Company –
Typhon Company –
Defender Company – Return on February 26 , 3054
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company – Return on March 2, 3054
Delta Company – Return on Jan 21, 3054
Trinity Company –
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054


Beta Regiment:

Phaeton Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Boxer Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Rebel Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Mustang Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Hex Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Raven Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Aleph Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Laser Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056
Sabre Company – Fort Loudon, end Oct 4, 3056


Bruiser Company – Return on April 30, 3054
Shadow Company –

Aerospace Company- Return on Jan 21, 3054
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla –
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss – Return on Apr 30, 3054

I want to rewind a bit and do Beta Regiment’s contract, through October 4, 3056. This will not involve what is going on in the IS, and instead will just look at Beta Regiment in the FedCom Retainer contract. I expect this will be the final chapter of The Invasion, and then we’ll move to the next chapter.

Oct 4, 3053 – We start our contract on Fort Loudon, a fairly industrialized planet with large herd animals native to the place called Enyx that are used for meat and leather. They are about the size of a wooly mammoth but look more like antelopes.

January 25, 3054 – After learning of us on Fort Loudon, a Jade Falcon JumpShip has arrived in the system and arrived. We beat the Jaguars, Vipers, Bears and Wolves. They want to test their mettle against us. They are happy to do the smaller battles we’ve done before. They can’t war for the planet, so they just want our CO as a bondsman if they win. We ask for their best warrior if we win, and they agree.

The Jade Falcons

Uller Prime
Uller D
Loki Prime
Loki A
Loki B
Thor Prime
Thor A
Black Lanner Prime
Masakari Prime
Hunchback IIc


The Jade Falcons really love their heavy mechs. They aren’t super big fans of the too heavy to move assault mechs and the too light to have good weapons and armor lights and mediums. They have two lights to keep it respectable and two mediums to do the same and assault to keep you guessing and then heavies a go go.

Their pilots are all clan elite


This is their Black Lanner OmniMech. It’s pretty exclusive to Jade Falcon, and they used them at Tukkayid to great effect. It’s a 55 tonner with 7/11 movements plus MASC so 7/11-14 movement. Add 8 tons of ferro armor and you’ve got a decent mech. The Prime version rocks an LRM 10, SRM 6, ER large laser, 2x er medium lasers and an ECM.



We are using Mustang Company. As a reminder, here it is:

CTF-3L Cataphract STC-2S Striker AWS-8Q Awesome CP-11-A Cyclops
WHM-6K Warhammer STK-3F Stalker MAD-Marauder RFL-5M Rifleman
FS9-M Firestarter JR7-F Jenner CMT Comet COM-2D Commando


The scout lance is a bit light for my tastes these days. But there are no medium mechs here – its all heavy metal after the scout lance. It’s 10 elites and 2 vets. The Rifleman, Cataphract and Cyclops are all level 2 mechs.

Their Bv is 44k, and ours is 36k. This will be tough,

We are fighting on a fairly open dry area, with roughs, modest hills and minor trees.

T1 - We lose init, We focus our fire on both of their Ullers. Our Stalker strips both arms off their Uller D. Our Rifleman nails the Ra of their other Uller. Our Cat destroys the LT of their D. Their Prime is headed by a gauss slug from our Cyclops and falls dead. I’m really pissed both our Commando and Marauder fell under damage. Both needed 4 on 2d6 to stay standing. Grrr. Our Warhammer lost about half of its armor. But, we took out two mechs, even light ones. We’ve got heavy armor. If I trade a Warhammer next turn for two Ullers this turn and whatever I damage next one, I’ll be happy.

T2 – We lose again. The remaining Kit Fox is weaponless, and thus the pilot ejects. I stand my Marauder and run with it. I am going to sacrificial bunt my Warhammer. I will hold it steady will I move everybody else. Normally I’d make another target, but I couldn’t move my Marauder much and it’s the light target, but it has much better armor than the Warhammer right now, so the ‘hammer is the choice. My goal this turn is to blow out the Loki Prime. Our Warhammer destroys the RA and RT of their Loki Prime. They blow off its LA and LT. They also destroy our Commando’s RT and hit its gyro and engine once each and it falls. So no one killed anything.

T3 – We win init this time. I eject the Commando. I eject the Warhammer too. It took the attack like I needed, and it actually survived. Amazing. Our Stalker destroys the CT section of the Loki Prime. They split targets among my other mechs, but I begin blasting armor off the Masakari.

T4 – We win init. I run my Awesome up by a Loki B. Our Stalker hits two engines on their Loki A. My Awesome takes three AC20 shots from a Hunchback IIc. They destroy the LT of my Marauder and the LA of my Cataphract.

T5 - We win init. We have to shift targets back to their Masakari after they make their moves. Our Awesome destroys its RA and our Cyclops its Left one. Our Marauder destroys its targeting computer. The Awesome is now bereft of its RA and RT and falls.

T6 – We win again. With no weapons, their Masakari ejects (nothing is left but physical attacks, yet we have not physically attacked them, so their rules of engagement prevent a mech from losing all weapons from a physical engagement.) Since it’s overheated and I can’t move it, I eject the Awesome. Our Cyclops destroys the RA of a Loki A. An LB 10-X from their Thor hits my Cataphract and two shells hit the H and Lt Gabriel Williams passes out. Our Stalker nails a Loki B’s engine once. Our Marauder, damaged and wounded, still manages to destroy the engine on their Loki A and it shuts down. Their Loki B falls and destroys two more engine sections and it is gone too. Our Rifleman destroys the LL of their Loki B on the way down. However, their Black Lanner destroys the LT of our Cataphract, and it shuts down (XL Engine). Our Striker fell.

Both Lt. Williams in the Cataphract and Sgt. Dragomir Osmochescu in the Warhammer are out, so Sgt. Nombeko Prismall, in the Firestarter moves in and takes command.

T7 – With four mechs left, including a Hunchy with no ammo, we offer them hegira, and they accept. We tell them that they were much stronger than some of the clans we fought, and they tell us that they, begrudgingly, respect despite, because we never broke zellbrigen, we used batchall honorably, and we fought with honor, such as when the Warhammer sacrificed his own mech for our unit.

We gained a bondsman, their best MW pilot. Meet Connor Ward, elite, 1/1, Edge:3.


Uller Prime missing H, RA
Uller D missing RA, LA
Loki Prime LA, LT, H, LL, RL
Masakari missing RA, LA
Loki A, enginex3
Loki B enginex3, missing LL



Warhammer, missing LA, LT
Commando missing RT, enginex1, gyrox1
Marauder missing LT
Cataphract missing LA, LT


We were unable to fix the Commando gyro and have to replace it. I have to pay 4.87 for everything – armor, ammo and pieces for wounded mechs. With a 50% battle loss, we pay half. We also get a huge bonus contract wise because the Falcons came at us.
Just like before in the FRR, Aleph Company still has all of our spare clan parts. Let’s look:


Uller Prime – we had both a H and a RA in our stock and this is up and running

Loki A – we fixed the engine

Loki B – LL from the one killed, we fix engine

Masakari A – We move the H and a T to a chassis we have in storage to get it up and running. This will take 6 weeks to perform.


Clan Tech:

ER PPC
3x ER ML
Beagle
ECM
Targeting Computer (for 2x ERPPC, 3x ERML, 1xMG)
4x A-Pods
Anti-Missile System

March 10 – Someone lands to raid a nearby logging company with tanks. We are tasked with defending the world, and commander tells us to send someone out to stop them. Within five minutes we have Rebel Company in the air (we have one company in a DropShip at all times for a fast response). Despite that, we are too far away and they have destroyed a few LoggerMechs and taken something from a warehouse. The armor has disappeared and several attempts to find them with local fighters and our mechs are unsuccessful.

June 28 – A Clan JumpShip arrives in the system

July 4 – The JumpShip has left

August 13 – Another raid against the logging company is occurring, but this time, we are waiting for the tanks. The armor is racing towards the company, and suddenly, Hex Company pops up a pair of klicks away from the company and before they arrive. They are too close to run away, so battle is joined.

As a reminder, here is Hex Company:

BLR-1G BattleMaster DRG-1G Grand Dragon VND-1R Vindicator KTO-18 Kintaro
ON1-K Orion BNC-3E Banshee WTH-1 Whitworth ENF-4R Enforcer
SDR-5V Spider PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk THE-S Thorn COM-2D Commando

This is a bit light for a lot of work, but good for here – 3 lights, 5 mediums, 2 heavy, 2 assault. This probably needs better balance. It also needs a Javelin 10F. It’s hard to have a scout lance that doesn’t rock one. I generally prefer a 3:1 or 4:0 ration of jumpers to non-jumpers in scout lances, and this is on 2:2 and the Thorn is not a good mech, I’m surprised I still have it here. I want to evolve this soon. Fighting these guys should be okay, but I don’t want this unit to run into clans.

This is our Enforcer. It’s a FedCom standard mech that weighs 50 tons, and has two big weapons – a large laser and AC10. It has a small laser as a backup weapon and 4/6/4 movement with 9 tons of armor- pretty close to max for a 50 ton mech. It has 12 heat sinks.



Our foes:

4x Savannah Master
3x J Edgar Hover tank
2x Harasser Missile Platform, both veteran
4x Pegasus Hover Scout
4x Maxim Heavy Hover Transport
4x IS Standard Battle Armor SRM troopers, all veteran

The troopers are each on a Maxim. This is a very fast unit, and it’s clear why they were able to strike quickly before. The Logging Camp is near a small inland lake and thus we are fighting near a wooded coast.

We are on the north and they the south

T1 – We win the init. Their infantry hops off the transports to move into some woods. Smart. They are speeding their Savannah Masters across the water and up to my Thorn. They only have two skids, but one results in a Harasser Missile Platform going right off the field and it escapes. A J Edgar slides into the woods and breaks its hover movement system. A Maxim’s LRM5 nails the H of our Vindicator. Our Grand Dragon immobilizes a Maxim. Our Whitworth destroys the LS of a Savannah Master. Our Thorn kicks and destroys a Savannah master’s LS. A Banshee kick on a Maxim stuns the crew for a turn. A Spider kick immobilizes a Pegasus.


J Edgar immobile
Maxim Heavy immobile
Savannah Master LS
Savannah Master LS
Pegasus immobile

Their infantry grabs handhold and they dart off, and leave. They are too fast to catch up too and they darted over water anyway, so we can’t catch up to them, but we can spend just 750k to get these up and running.

Good job Hex.

I replace its Thorn with a Comet. That’s better. It’s still too light, but we’ll worry about that later.

Dec 23 – We have been approved for a raid on the Viper world of Jabuka. Jabuka is the closest clan held world to Terra. It has the best Vipers available, and we are asked with hitting it just to remind them we can. We are to chose a company to head out to face the Vipers.


Our finalists are Phaeton, Mustang and Sabre

Phaeton is not as light as you think, with just a Panther and Javelin 10N as a light mechs. It also has a ton of mediums and heavies – Phoenix Hawk, Vindicator, Hermes II, Griffin, Warhammer, Catapult, Rifleman and Thunderbolt. Just two assaults – Atlas and Awesome. 7 elite, 4 vet and one regular. The heavies are solid, and the assaults are great, but I just don’t know if this company brings enough heat.

Mustang is mostly elite and has some heavy metal. We just used them against the Falcons.

However, I’m leaning Sabre. This is exactly what companies like Sabre were created for.

Sabre loads up. We also take all of the chassis that we’ve captured.

Jan 15 – Sabre arrives at Jabuka and issues a batchall to the Steel Vipers. The goal is just to hit them, so we demand that Viper fix up all of the chasses that we’ve captured but couldn’t get running. That’s a lot of mechs for us, but not that much for them other than work and some spare parts. They agree, but they want us to turn over all of the captured chassis if we lose. That seems fair, so let’s do it.

As a reminder, here is Sabre:

ATA-2 Attila, Grizzly, BLR-3M BattleMaster, Ryoken C
Supernova, Galahad, Vulture Prime, HTM-27T Hatamato-Chi
Shadow Hawk IIc, Dasher D, JVN-10F Javelin, PXH-3k Phoenix Hawk


Steel Viper’s units:

Fenris B
Uller Prime
Black Hawk Prime
Battle Cobra Prime
Daishi A
Man O war B
Vulture C
Loki A
Loki D-Uk (with Ultra AC5, ER Large Laser, 4x medium pulses, 1 er small laser)
Crossbow Prime


This is their Battle Cobra Omni, a Viper exclusive that weighs 40 tons, has 6/9 movement, does not have an XL engine, 10/20 heat sinks and 6.5 tons of ferro fib armor. Their prime has 2 large pulse lasers and 2 small pulses. I really like the design and the Alternate Config B replaces the LPLs with ER PPCs for massive firepower (but bad heat). This is actually my favorite variant of the BC.

The BV is virtually identical. They are ahead by 32.

They know our reputation for using terrain to our advantage (see videos of our victory over the Falcons) so they have chosen a flat plain, with a gentle slope.

T1 – We lose init. Their Daishi hits and destroys the RT of my Javelin and hits the engine once. Our BattleMaster destroys the LT of their Uller. Our Dasher hits its engine twice and it shuts down. Our Grizzly hits the gyro on their Crossbow and destroys its RA. Our Hatamato-Chi hits a gyro on their Loki A. Their Loki and Crossbow fall, as does our Jav. Their Crossbow hits an engine and gyro. Dead Crossbow. Our Attila lost more than half of its armor. When someone falls and kills themselves, I usually assign the kill to the obvious one. The Crossbow was destroyed due to two gyro hits, the first was the Grizzly and the second was terra firma. Thus, the Grizzly is given the kill. This doesn’t always work – if a mech was hit by five opponents, fell due to damage taken, and breaks its head wide open and destroys its own cockpit, I can’t assign a kill to just one, but when I can, I do. Two mechs out in one turn - Beauty!

T2 – We win init. I eject our poor 13 overheat Jav. My Scout Lance Shield worked again. Remind me some time to talk about my various strategies for victory. I hop our Phoenix Hawk behind their Loki. Their Fenris nails the H of my PXH with a er medium laser. Our Shadow Hawk IIc hits it in the H with an SRM2 Streak and then a glancing blow from a ER LL from the PXH on the H too. Our Ryoken destroys the RL of their Fenris. A medium pulse laser from their Loki to our Galahad’s H means lots of people are being scared by H hits this round. Both our Shadow Hawk IIc and Galahad tumble.

T3 – We lose init. I rise the Galahad. Their Loki A falls. Our Dasher’s lasers seek and find the AC5 ammo on their Loki and It explodes, destroyed RT. Their pilot blacks outs. Our BM’s RA is destroyed by fire from their Daishi. Their Gladiator nails our Galahad, opens up the CT and hits the gyro twice. Dead Galahad. Our LB 10-X from the Ryoken destroys the other Fenris leg, it’s LL. It’s now legless and destroyed.

T4 – We lose init. I run the Dasher by their Daishi. Our Attila nails the H of their Daishi with an ER PPC and goes internal but comes away with nothing. Their Daishi is equally blessed, as its gauss nails the H of our Hatamato-Chi and kills the MW. Before he dies, he nails the engine once and head once of their Loki A. Our Dasher goes internal on the rear left torso armor and hits ammo, boom! No more LT or LA. The pilot takes feedback damage and blacks out. Our Grizzly this its Ct and this the engine twice and it shuts down. Our Supernova destroys the LA of their Loki A. It responds by nailing na engine one and MPL on our Ryoken

T5 – We win init. We have 9 mechs to their 5. Our BattleMaster and Attila have had some serious external armor scoured from them, but that’s it. Their Loki A has lost its best weapons. The Black Hawk and Gladiator are untouched. The lighter Battle Cobra is dusted and internal in a torso. The Vulture C is scoured of armor too. It’s clear that we are in front. I expect to end the Loki A or Battle Cobra this turn, and perhaps both. The best they can hope for is to finish off a BattleMaster or Attila. I offer them hegira, but they want to continue for now. So let’s keep going. Our BM hits an engine on their Vulture. Our Shadow Hawk IIc takes out its LL. Their Loki hits another engine on our Ryoken. The RT of their Battle Cobra falls to ER Large Lasers from the Supernova. Our Vulture destroys the LT of their Loki A which is an engine overload, and then two more engine hits. Our PXH blows up the LT of their Vulture.

Now they accept hegira.

Loki D-Uk missing RT,
Uller Prime missing LT, enginex4
Crossbow missing RA, gyrox2, enginex1
Fenris B missing both legs.
Daishi A missing LT, enginex4,
Battle Cobra Prime RA
Loki A, enginex5, missing LT, LA
Vulture C LA



Jav missing RT, enginex1,
BattleMaster RA
Galahad gyrox2
Hatamato-Chi missing H
Ryoken enginx2


We captured the Loki pilot, bondsman, and Daishi pilot:

Stacy, 1/2, elite
Foster, 1/2, elite

It costs us 3.025 to fix and replace everything. 1,512,500 post contract

These guys are not part of our agreement with the Vipers. They are not fixed, but every chassis we brought with us is fixed. It takes about a month, but at the end, we have some pristine mechs. Most of Sabre are ex-clan so they are not unaccustomed to life with the Vipers for a month.

Stacy will replace our dead pilot and pilot a Rifleman IIc. We send the Hatamato-Chi back to our garrison. Foster is given a Masakari Prime, and we’re sending him to bolster Aleph Company.

Besides those two, we got: 4x Vultures, 2x Galahad, 2xMad Cats, Kodiak, Peregrine, Marauder IIc, 2x Pumas, Uller, Fenris, Ryoken, Thor and Man o’ War It’s a lot for me, but it’s not a lot for the Vipers, who just gave us some tech time and spare parts. It would be like a level one tech challenging us for the right to give them a few boxes and crates of level 2 tech weapons and parts, plus the tech time to fix their mechs. It’s not much for us, but huge to them. The same is true here. We’re happy, because we added 20 clan mechs to our rolls. But we already had these chassis and such.

We also manage to get their Loki A up and running after refitting Loki limbs from our spares.

July 5 – We get news that the planet has undergone some serious internal dissatisfaction with the local rule and an uprising has begun on planet. We do not have a contract with the local government, but with the Federated Commonwealth. We are ordered to keep the peace but not to attack the citizens. We begin doing riot duty on the planet. A few mechs out at a time help to keep order by showing force. Some infantry have been attacked by citizens, but our job is not to intervene on one side or another, but to do our best to keep peace.

July 7 – Both sides are becoming increasingly hostile to us. The government feels that we should be getting involved on their side despite our FedCom commanders clear instruction not to. Meanwhile, the upset members of the populace just see us as the military arm of the government that props up the local government.

July 10 – Some small arms fire opened up on the citizens near our main base on planet by the government. They were not violent, but just protesting peacefully. 23 people were killed. This is getting ugly

July 17 – After a week of lower violence as an homage to what many are called the July Massacre, violence begins again.

July 18 – Tonight, a police headquarters was destroyed by several rogue industrial mechs that moved it and destroyed it. We get cries from the government to take out their mechs, but our commanders still tell us to decline. We are not to escalate – and attacking and destroying industrial mechs is escalating.

July 21 – Today, a full fledged riot has engulfed the city. Stores are being broken into, people are turning over vehicles, and more. The local police are simply not enough to handle the situation. We have been ordered in to clear things up. Rebel Company is already on patrol and they move into the city and round up people. We are painted as the villain by the rebels.

July 28 – After another week of riot control, we notice a blip on the screen. Suddenly, a large number of industrial mechs from their herding have appeared, and they are destroying the town, they’ve already destroyed a few buildings. We are ordered to go out and end their threat. Boxer Company is on patrol and ordered in.


Boxer Company:

BLR-3M BattleMaster WHM-6D Warhammer TDR-5S Thunderbolt ZEU-6T Zeus
ARC-2R Archer RLF-3N Rifleman GRF-1N Griffin CLPT-C1 Catapult
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk CMT-1 Comet JVN-10F Javelin HER-2M Hermes II

Here are our foes

15x CattleMaster


This is the CattleMaster:




CattleMasters are made for herding. They are a 25 ton mech with 4/6 movement, just 1 heat sink, an ICE engine, and industrial armor. It has three machine guns and two small lasers. It also has a cargo bay inside the torso.

With its weapons, these folks have delusions of grandeur, and it’s our responsibility to fix that.

T1 – We lose init. Our BattleMaster destroys their one CattleMaster’s RA. Our Warhammer hits the ammo on one and it blows up. Boom! The Zeus destroys the RA of another. Our Catapults gets a limb blown off critical on one LA. Two of them fall.

T2 – We win init. The H of a Cattlemaster is destroyed by our BattleMaster. Our Warhammer takes out another LT - our T Bolt blows up a RA, the Zeus gets a triple engine hit on one – Archer – La, Rifleman RA, Catapult LT, PXH blows off a RL, our Comet hits the gyro twice and engine once on one and knocks it out – Jav – RA, two CMs fall and explode.

With that, they flee



CattleMaster LL, LAx3, RL RA, Hx2, RT
CattleMaster missing H
CattleMaster enginex3, missing RA
CattleMaster, enginex1, gyrox2

We fix the engines and gyros. We use a H and RA to fix the broken one sand we have three CattleMasters and parts. We sell the remaining parts for 200k. A full blown CM costs 850k roughly.

Experience: Warhammer pilot Sekhar Mamidi is getting Edge: 1



After we easily handle the mechs in the riot, things start to calm down a bit.

Aug 6 – The local government agrees to some concessions and the rebellion largely subsides. There are a few minor incidents that still occur, but mostly things peter down. The government gives money and homage to the families killed in the July Massacre.

Dec 10 – A battalion of our troops is being dispatched to Kelenfold. Kelenfold has recently had several raids on minor industries from unknown corporate raiders and we are being sent to bolster their forces. Ganges Battalion is on route

Dec 30 – They arrive on Kelenfold

Jan 14, 3055 – Ganges has arrived and is up to speed. (Phaeton, Boxer, Rebel)

Feb 1 – Kelenfold experiences a volcanic eruption near a settlement and we are sent to help get everyone clear.

Mar 3 – While out scouting, Steve Ovango, a mechwarrior in Hex Company’s thunder lance notices something unusual on his mag scanners. He takes a closer look and discovers a hidden cache of weapons on Fort Loudon. They are personnel weapons, not those for tanks, mechs, etc. They look to have been here at least a few years. They are turned over the gorvernment.

June 3 – On Kelenfold, raiders arrive as predicted. They’ve been on the world the entire time, and they’ve timed an attack against the change in guard between the normal planetaria milita mechs and ours. A bunch of mechs swing out and start moving. Phaeton Company is out and on guard, so they move in. Within 20 minutes, we’ve closed to their mechs, only to find that they aren’t battlemechs at all, but just agromechs running and moving like battlemechs. Meanwhile, we get info that a local refinery is being attack by mechs. We leave the agromechs behind and move out. 30 minutes later, we arrive at the factory and discover that is was never attacked. An emergency message was sent and then communcatiosn cut to prevent any double checking. After an hour of chasing phantoms, we miss the strike on a major communications center in the area. We were totally outmaneuvered.

June 5 – With a communications reduction blackout still in effect, we come across a battle while out scouting. A local refinery is being attacked by infantry in unusual power armor we don’t recognize. We move Rebel Company in, and the refinery explodes and the power armored troops melt into the twilight before we can get there.

June 10 – Just as the communications centre is restored, a bomb that had bene placed there waiting for juice explodes and it’s again dead for a while. These guys are sharp.

June 11 – Rebel Company runs into their guys again, this time they turn and move to attack. Out from the thick brush come a horde of armor units and infantry. Scanners ping 30…no…40 units at least. Rebel’s Firestarter jumps in front and uses its flamers to set the thick brush on massively on fire in just a few seconds (imagine what two tons of napalm and flamethrowers does to thick brush) fire and then they run behind the cover.

June 15 – A planetary militia mech unit was completely destroy by a deadfall trap by a bluff that resulted in the entire bluff falling on the company.


June 17 – We finally manage to engage the enemy, after a surprise attack by the local conventional fighters drops fire and forces them our way. Phaeton Company will be engaging.

This is Phaeton:

AWS-8Q Awesome WHM-6L Warhammer TDR-5S Thunderbolt PNT-9R Panther
GRF-1N Griffin AS7-D Atlas RFL-3N Rifleman CLPT-C1 Catapult
JVN-10N Javelin VND-3L Vindicator PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk HER-2S Hermes II

They have 15 tanks and 6 platoons of regular infantry.

T1 – We win init and we are fighting in a quarry, a depression in the earth with rocks and rubble slowing movement . They move in. We drive large wedge into the heart of their troops to split them on our rock. Our Awesome gets an ammo explosion on their Harasser Missile Platform. A Zhukov takes some serious damage from both the Atlas and Catapult and survives. A Schrek PPC blasts the RA of my Vindicator off and spins it on the ground. Our T Bolt ends a Maxim’s left side.

T2 – We lose. I eject the Vindicator. Our PXH kicks in the side of their Zhukov. We immobilize a Hunter Light Support Tank and a Bulldog. Missiles from our Catapult explode the fuel tank on a Patton. Our Hermes II kicks a Striker Light Tank’s front and destroys it.

Their vehicles speed out. We pepper a few with PPCs but we don’t take out any. We take back our salvage and damaged Vindicator.



Maxim left side
Immobilize Hunter, Bulldog
Zhukov right side
Striker front



To fix: Vindicator RA

We pay the money to fix these up easily enough. Our Vindicator takes just 500k to get up, and 250k we spend.

How did I not see this latest update til now? Great read!

Thanks!

June 20 – Spy Sattelites discover a guerilla base that our foes are in. The militia move in, and take out the base and roughly 40% of their remaining forces. It appears that these were sent by another nation – many suspect the Draconis Combine, but we are unsure. Yeah, prior to the clans and Rasalhague’s existance the Dracs might make sense, but now? What would they have to gain? We suspect Blake or ComStar.


Aug 5 – After planet is scoured by the militia, we are ordered back to Fort Loudon.

Sept 10 – Ganges Battalion is back

Jan 1, 3056 – We had a fairly quiet year last year, all things told.

Feb 15 – A battalion of mechs suddenly bursts from four Mule DropShips that were on planet for a while. It looks like they were converted for military transport. They plunge into the capital city and destroy a factory completely, decimating the defenders. We are ordered out, and our Rheims Battalion is in the city. Each company is in a different place. The closest is Aleph. They are moving swiftly through the streets they know well, but the yare not able to get to the attackers in time, and they have reboarded and break off. They fly away in four Mules, bu one of the Mules is brought down by the local fighters, and we are ordered in to take out the company of mechs that was in that Mule. Aleph and Sabre are too far away so Laser is up. Laser moves the 12 klicks to their downed Mule. Around it we see several mechs, and they move to attack.

As a reminder, Laser is the new name for Lance Company. Here they are:

ATA-1A Atilla CTF-3D Cataphract CTF-1X Cataphract OSR-2C Ostroc
LGB-7Q Longbow TBT-5n Trebuchet GRF-1N Griffin ARC-2K Archer
JVN-10N Javelin LCT-1E Locust CMD-2A Commando SDR-5V Spider


And here are the mechs that survived the crash of the Mule.

Wasp WSP-1S *
Wolf Trap *
STC-2D Striker *
Banshee
JagerMech
Archer
DV-7D Dervish *
Penetrator *
Hunchback
Merlin
1A9 Charger

This is their Penetrator, a mech that came off the assembly line in 3053. It is a solid heavy mech deisgn with 12/24 heat, and 4/6/4 movement. It features 2 ER Large Lasers for long range combat and 6x medium pulse lasers for close in. Both make 24 heat exactly, so except for movement, either firing mode is compeletely dispersed. Plus it does not have an XL engine – it’s very well designed.

They are all vets

We have roughly 500 more BV than they do with an extra mech.

T1 – we lose init. Nothing but a minor exchange of fire.

2 – We lose again. More exchange of fire. A few thing shit of minor consequence and my Trebuchet’s LRM15

3 – Losers again. I jump our Jav next to their W Trap. The Ostroc nails the head of their JagerMech with a large laser and the pilot blacks out. Their W Trap LA is blown to pieces by long range missiles form an Archer. Our Longbow gets a limb blown off crit on the RA of their Archer. The Jav hits two en gine spots on their Trap’s engine. Our Cataphract falls. Our Jav punches the Wolf Trap an hits a third engine – dead Wolf Trap. Our Attila punches the Dervish in the head and all of the armor is gone there.

4 – We win init. I run our Locust behind their Wasp. My Cataphract rises. I fire a bunch of MLs with my Attilla in order to try and decapitate their JagerMech. Their Wasp destroys the LA of my Locust. My Attila does H the JagerMech. Our Cataphract 1X’s RA is destroyed by their Striker. Their Archer nails the Ultra AC5 on the Cataphract. Their Penetrator destroys its RT. Their Archer tumbles. Lots of kicks, but the only person to fall – their Hunchback.

And with that, they surrender to the local government. Man, I wanted that Penetrator.


Archer RA
Wolf Trap, enginex3
JagerMech H



To Repair:

RT, RA Cataphract 1X
LA Locust

3.15 mill for repair, ammo and armor

We fix the Wolf Trap, yay.

Oct 4, 3056 – Our contract is up, and it’s time for the pay pay. The FC is interested in bringing us back, but I don’t know if we even want to. I need to know what else is happening, so its time to flash back.

But first, the money!

This was our contract:

Beta Regiment, Retainer

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3,x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: House
Remuneration: No, x1.05
Length: 3 years
Transport: Full
10% Bonus


This is how much we pay our regiment in one month:

489,794

That means, if you were to sell a Battlemech for 5 mill, you could pay for your company for 10 months. Mechs are not cheap, life is.

For three years, we pay 17,632,224

We made, in salary, 204,801,831

187 mill after pay and upkeep. This money is not available until after October 3056.



End of Part 4 of The Invasion

How to fight against foes, Abe’s five biggest tips for BattleTech generally and MegaMek specifically.


1). Rotating Targets. Your opponent will tend to target a mech that is the easiest to hit. While that’s not always the case, it usually is. They will concentrate their fire on mechs that are easy to hit. That makes sense. What I do is I rotate my targets. I’ll have one mech move a smaller number of hexes than others, or perhaps even keep it still, in order to get it targeted. Often I’ll just have it two hexes in front or something. By doing this, you rotate their fire through several mechs. I’ll rotate in high armor mechs first, like BattleMaster’s and Atlas’s, then guys like Thunderbolts and Warhammers. Eventually it’s Crusaders, Archers, and Hunchbacks if we get that late.

2). The Sacrifice Play. Related to the above, sometimes you have a mech that is damaged, and you wan’t to eject. But, you are tilting on the edge. If you eject it now, they will rain fire You will likely lose parts and even the mech itself, but you keep the fire from falling on your other mechs. I’ve used this most often against the clans in the first few turns, before I’ve killed enough of their mechs. I’ve left assault mechs missing a leg or something on the field and let them beat down on it to finish it off while I get a turn of fire virtually free. It’s worth the money lost.

3). The Flying Wedge – When I’m in open terrain, I make a formation I call the Flying Wedge. I put my assaults with good armor in front, then the next layer is light armored assaults (like a Victor) and heavies. Then in my third row are any other mechs I can’t sit back and snipe with. If I’m n a map with a handful of woods and nothing else, I’ll put the other units there. On a barren map I’ll just make a giant Flying Wedge with 7-9 of my mechs in it. I’ll run lights behind with higher number sot hit to keep them trucking until I need to run out to hit someone from close range. I’ll then move this unit in and out of the ideal range for weapons and such. It’s a great way to close with mechs like Hunchbacks and Kintaros behind a line of better mechs all moving at the same speed.

4). The Light Mech Shield – One of my favorite strategies. The goal here is to distract your opponent with these little guys while some sniper isn’t moving at all and hitting you from range. For example, I use Rifleman a lot because I find them, but I don’t like them that much. But they work against my foe. I’ll just put them in a light woods hex (or heavy if possible), and sit and snipe all game long. They’ll rarely target me. First because I’m likely to be using the Flying Wedge, and that leaves mechs in the open and usually closer. Thus easier to hit. Secondly, I use the Light Mech Shield. This requires fast scout mechs that are flying all over short range against my foes. For example, take our favorite scout mech, the Javelin 10F. It moves 6/9/6. When I jump at least 5 or run at least 7 that’s a +3 to hit me. It’s also a +3 for me to hit if I jumped and+2 for the run, but that doesn’t matter. Now, suppose that my Rifleman is sitting down stream at long range. That’s +4 to hit me. If my Jav 10F has run or jumped that +3 right by you, then it is 1 easier to attack the scout mech. That’s if the Rifleman is standing stone cold in open space. Now add a light forest to it or partial cover and it’s another +1. Even if the Jav jumps into light woods two spaces away from you, it’s a +4 for it and a +5 for the Rifleman. Which do you aim for? This is what I call the Light Mech Shield, it’s a way to grab the attention of your enemy so that they aim for and hurt weaker mechs, not stronger ones. This is done by good scout medium mechs too. This is also a real reason why I want scout mechs that jump in at least a 3:1 ratio. I need the Light Mech Shield active at all times. That includes maps with major terrain issues like trees and hills. Mechs that run real far are fine on open maps, like Locusts and Cicadas, but I prefer jumpers in most cases.

5). Fight at your battle level – Elite vs Regular – You need to know how to win against a regular unit as elites, and how to win against higher skilled opponents if you are not. I regularly use this strategy against the elite clan battles. When you are an elite facing a regular unit, you want to make the dice roll hard for both of you. For example, suppose you are at short range. If you jumped 7 and they ran 5, then you need a 7 to hit them and they need a 9 to hit you. You will win that battle. Always push your movement or the terrain to increase the difficulty for you to hit each other. I find that the Ai will often do the right thing and try to stay still to lower their to hit. That is the counter for experience. Going form a 7 to a 9 is a huge difference. Going from a 3 to a 5 really isn’t much of one. If you have less experience, you want to stand still. Grab some woods and just stop moving altogether. You don’t even need woods, just stop moving. If you don’t move you might drop their to hit number by 2-3, but hey, they were likely to hit anyway. If you don’t move you drop yours by 1-3, and that’s what matters. Who cares if you drop their to hit from 5 to 3 if you drop yours from 7 to 4 by not jumping 4 spaces? That’s how you win when there is an experience difference either way.


Four General BattleTech Tips

1). Always place your mechs with knowledge of where you are going to move them on the first turn. I know what terrain my sniper swill hide behind, who won’t move at all, where I’m moving my Flying Wedge too, where my scouts are going, and so forth.

2). Don’t hide from terrain, use it. Use monster terrain in the middle to split their forces and hit one hard while you hold down the other with fast scouts or distant snipers in beautiful positions.


3). Know when to focus your fire and when to fire on the best available target for each mech. I’ll focus when the numbers are there or I need to kill guys, but often I have two or three targets because I’d rather all of my forces have to hit 6s than some 8s because I forced them to fire at a guy who was closer to some but farther away than others.


4). Target the combination of easiest kill plus most weapons. I like to go for heavily armed but weakly armored mechs, like Commando, Jenner, Rifleman, Cyclops, Victor, Clint, and so forth. Taking these out removes a lot of weapons and can be done more easily.

January 1, 3054 – Here is our unit, minus those forces in Beta Regiment.

Kilts and Commandos Roster:

Alpha Regiment:

Heliades Company -
Styx Company -
Tethys Company –
Typhon Company –
Defender Company – Return on February 26 , 3054
Cinq Company -
Brawler Company – Return on March 2, 3054
Delta Company – Return on Jan 21, 3054
Trinity Company –
Butler Company – Return on Jan 5, 3054


Bruiser Company – Return on April 30, 3054
Shadow Company –

Aerospace Company- Return on Jan 21, 3054
Tank Battalion – EE- mining garrison complete on October 15, 3055.
Delta Company – EE, garrison,
Garrison and Infantry – EE, garrison,

Robin Hood -
Star River -
Scots Flotilla –
Serendipitous Victory -
Amalgamated Bliss – Return on Apr 30, 3054



As you can see, Delta, Butler and Aerospace Companies return this month. Shadow Company is on a temporary furlough while Braham Essex is at Outreach for a …project. That gives us 6 companies ready to head out and Delta on the way.

Contracts!

A company wants an Objective Raid
A company wants cadre/garrison work
Free World League would like us to go Pirate Hunting

None of those seem that appealing. What else?

Let’s look more closely at the cadre/garrison work. Orestes is the new capital of the Free Rasalhague Republic, and it is now the home of a new military academy, training centers, barracks, government, industry and more. Because all of these people are here, the local place is getting big. One of the major local companies is Odin Manufacturing. Among other things, it also has a BattleMech factory. They would like a unit that was successful against the clans (us) to come in and do some training, while also serving as garrison. They want a battalion of troops. Myth Battalion, which is actually four battalions, is available, and they’re okay with it.

Because the FRR has become a virtual protectorate of ComStar, they are using Odin for making mechs for ComStar, as well as lots of ComGuards around. We are considered the best mercenary unit in the IS for this role, and we are their first choice. I’d like to help out our friends in the FRR as well. They expect that the local manufacturing Janesek Industries (they make an aerospace fighter and parts) plus others will want the training, so they’d like a year. I’m okay with that for my friends.



Myth Battalion Cadre/Garrison:


Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.3, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Straight Support 50%
Command: Integrated
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 year
Transport: Full
32% Bonus

Orestes is barely two jumps from Fort Loudon, so we are very close to Beta Regiment. Close enough for friends on holiday to visit each other and such.

We begin at Orestes on Mar 21. Our contract ends on March 21, 3055. Let’s see what happens during our year

(In order to see if anything happens, each month I roll 2d6. If I get a10+, then something happens). Nope, it’s all free of stuff.

The Money

We spend 2.491 mill on our four battalions for a full 16 months.

We made 18.379 mill

Total made is 15.888 mill.

We will Return on June 5, 3055

February 1 – Contracts!

Dracs want garrison
ComStar wants Defense
Marik wants Objective Raid – target – Jacomarie, which would take us roughly 6-8 months to get to. No thanks.
Extraction Raid wanted by ComStar. They want the experimental prototype mech taken by Blake they were working on. It would take longer to make a new one than it would be to hire us to get it for them.

It’s on the Marik world of Sorunda. It’s an odd world to choose. Sorunda is the home of the Buddhist Religion in the Free Worlds League. It’s sparsely populated and heavily pacifist. Perhaps the quasi-religious Blakes find comfort in similarly minded monks.

I can have a company on world by April 29. It’s actually not that far away but it’s one of those annoying systems, like Thule, where the trip to the jump points from the planet is waaaay too far away.

ComStar is doing this through military channels to avoid their intel issues with Blake. Blake took all of the good intel, ComStar took all of the good mechs and warriors. They believe that Sorunda has at most a company of mechs, and probably a lot less than that. We’ve seen ComStar intel before. I send in the powerful Delta Company, just in case things go awry. We also are taking along all five of our SRM equipped infantry platoons with inferno and SRMs available as needed. We also refitted a mech in our garrison and will send it out too. Finally, we’ll take the Serendipitous Victory, because we need the extra space.



Delta Company, Extraction Raid for their Raijin Prototype

Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x4, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: BattleLoss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 1 month
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
25% Bonus



Apr 30 – We have landed on Sorunda. This world has few industrialized places big enough to work on a prototype of a mech, so it should be easy to figure out where it is.

May 5 – It was easy to find the mech, because it was out on patrol last night with a group of Blake mechs. The Raijin definitely looks different. We figure they were taking it through its paces. We will equip our infantry with inferno SRMs to overheat the Raijin and shut it down, while the rest of us take out the other units. We also have some help – we have a modified Firestarter. This is the one that we modified for Adele Thompson long ago, but we went back after double heat inks became common. It should help us overheat the Raijin, and it is being piloted by the elite recent grad from the Essex Training Academy called Denise Sanderford.


May 7- We have our infantry on watch, and the unit of mechs in coming through again. We place our infantry and mechs carefully around the area they have patrolled each of the last two days – you shouldn’t take the same route each night, this is basic level stuff. Perhaps the pacifists are getting to them, or perhaps ComStar really did keep all of the warriors.

They come down and around and walk right into our little ambush. Boom. Out pop our mechs and infantry, and they are surrounded. I radio on an open channel to the mechs that all we want is the Raijin, and we will let the rest go. We have 13 mechs to their 7 – the Raijin plus 6 (ComStar and Blake use units of 6 instead of 4 as their units). They raise their weapons, and Lt Miguel Juarez gives his prearranged signal “Five.” At that, lasers and PPcs lance into a light mech and destroy it in one salvo.

After a brief pause, they agree, and the MechWarrior in the Raijin jumps out. We let them leave. We grab the two limbs of their Mongoose that survived and walk away

That never works.

We check the Raijin prototype for traps , but find nothing our techs can’t clean up. An infantryman with some knowledge of mechs jumps in and we head back. Nothing else gets in our way.

We get on the DropShip and load up. It lifts, and suddenly, shakes. Fighters have arrived to protest our leaving. They must not realize what they are shooting at. The captain is given permission to fire, and our clan-tech Union C tears into them. It’s got more armor, more weapons and better weapons. Four of their fighters are destroyed in 30 seconds and the others fly off. We are not bothered again.


We made 350k. We have our techs give the Raijin a once over before turning it over to ComStar. It’s got light armor for a 50 ton mech, and an XL engine, so we feel it’s a bit too vulnerable for a PPC, 3x MPL, SRM6 and SRM2 streak. We turned it over and made cash.

Our people return on Aug 19.

Mar 1 – Contracts

Marik wants Defenses
FedCom wants Objective Raid on Altair - major Drac world, very close

Altair is regularly raided because the sun is very unstable, and it will often shut down all communications for extended periods of time –days, weeks, even a month or more are known. This makes it an ideal place to attack when the violent sun is undergoing one of its regular solar storms and flare activity is on the rise. The next power outage of note is set to occur on May 24, and to least last three days. They want us on Altair now, before the locals start getting more restrictive on trade. The planet is an underground maze of rich plant life and 3.6 billion people live here. There are a large number of bottled spring water and agriculture ventures, such as herbs and whatnot. The upper world is arid and dusty, but not a desert per se. The dry climate is conducive to manufacturing certain items, due to the lower content of water in the atmosphere. One of those things is ammunition and explosives. The Kurita Combine Munitions Factory makes a large number of these. They also make electronic components like targeting systems, and components for things like DropShips. They also make the F-500 Reiver aerospace fighter.

They want us to raid the munitions factory that makes explosives, and try to do as much damage as possible to it. It’s a large complex, and they would like us to take out the warehouse at least. We get a bonus 1 mill C-Bills for each building we destroy beyond the warehouse – and there are 7 total buildings.

We will be taking infantry and mechs and Aerospace Company and both the Scots Flotilla and the Star River.

We believe that the stealth oriented nature of this mission is not an option for Cinq – they are too light, and not a good choice for Butler, they are too inexperienced. Therefore, Trinity Company will be heading out. In addition, we will be sending a stealth-y surprise in the Exterminator. With our newest mechwarrior addition from Beta Regiment (where we send all disposed pilots) to our garrison – Connor Ward.


Aerospace Company and Trinity, plus Scots Flotilla, Star River, infantry, and Exterminator


Salvage: Full
Salary: x1.6, x3.7, x1.3, x1.5 if we face the clans
Support: Battle Loss 50%
Command: Independent
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 monthes
Transport: 100% Reimbursement
5.5% Bonus


We will arrive on Altair on March 30. We have painted our DropShips in Drac colors with a Drac symbol. This planet gets a ton of traffic. It’s easy for us to get lost in.

Apr 2 – Everything has worked, and we are berthed in the large industrial DropPort near the factory, plus near many other things. Their factory is a bit pushed back from this area, and inside a palisade-like structure

Apr 15 – Scouting has been promising, and we are ready to rock.

May 20 – We have everything ready for our plan. We’ve had 24-hour surveillance on the factory for a month now. The Combine garrison force on planet are the 3rd Dieron Regulars. They are a battalion of mechs that serve as the main garrison. In addition, there are various planetary units here, including regiments of infantry, some mechs, and lots of armor. Plus, the Factory has its own garrison – which appears to be exclusively armor. Here is the plan.

When the sun goes crazy, communications drop. At this point, we will have an infantry unit line several empty buildings in the industrial area with explosives. As distractions, we can blow up one of the three. One infantry platoon will hold out and detonate them. Just like communications won’t work, neither will remote control detonating, so they have fuses.

Our Exterminator will move out quickly. With communications down and scanners unable to pick him up, he will have a great deal of stealth available. He is in the DropShip that has Aerospace Company. He will get in a position, and then signal by launching his LRMs at a large fuel drum that is nearby on the DropPort.

At that point, our company of mechs will pop out of the DropShip and begin to move out. With the local garrison distracted, we will move into the industrial area and towards the company. We should be there in 20 minutes. Once we’ve made contact, we will signal back by having one of the infantrymen with us use the flare SRMs in his handheld SRM launcher. This will tell the infantry to blow up the first building, and hopefully help to keep away their units while we attack and take out the locals. Meanwhile, with all of these distractions occurring, we will scramble Aerospace Company. While we engage their forces in front of the company, they will fly over and strafe and destroy the buildings inside the factory. By waiting until we have fully engaged, they should have evacuated the area before our air strikes arrives.

When the buildings are destroyed, then we will break off battle if still engaged. Meanwhile the Exterminator should be providing distraction by occasionally striking and fading from the other forces on the planet. That’s our goal. Then we fade and leave. Remember, no one can communicate with any others . We have planned everything and reiterated it again and again for a month. We doubt they will be able to respond to our aerial units – they require a lot of coordination.

May 24 – The day has arrived. Here we go:


The sun’s flares ignite right on time, and communications flicker, and then a few minutes later go out. We wait ten minutes and then the infantry moves out to put up explosives. Another few minutes and the Exterminator is moving out from the DropShip that has our fighters. He moves stealthily out, and is not noticed.

LRMs fire out and all of the sudden there is a big BOOM as the fuel tank ignites. So far, everything is working. Out pops Delta Company, with some infantry in a few jeeps we rented following behind.

Fire crews are moving to the fuel tank, and everyone’s attention is focused on them. Our stealth should be working fine when…..no….are you serious?


Out burst mechs from three different DropShips, all nearby. They start shouting from speakers that “Hello Altair! Prepare to be raided by Hanson’s Horribles! We are going to take all that you have! Who wants some?”

We are on the DropPort where they are too, and we just look at each other. We move away, and Hanson’s does as well, but with their three companies of mechs, firing guns in the air and asking for combat, our stealth has gone In fact, we may risk being thought a fourth company of the Horribles. Idiot pirates or mercs or whatever.

Our infantry platoon has ignited the first building on cue, and it won’t help. Within a few minutes, we scan various units coming in. After looking around, we decide to take defensive postures around our DropShips. A mech runs into the DropShip with the fighters and delivers the news. Ten minutes later, we have hostiles fighting the Horribles as the local garrisons and the 3rd has arrived. This is the perfect distraction, but we are tied in and can’t leave – the way out is through the fight. More soldiers pour in, and we are spotted, and a company of the 3rd breaks off to attack us. We try to tell them that we don’t want to fight via radio, but they aren’t listening. Here comes the 3rd.

Meanwhile, the DropShip with the fighters takes off.


Because we are on the border with the FedComs and because we are one an industrial world raided regularly the 3rd are completely equipped with level 2 tech.


All veterans, save two are regular.


Wolf Trap
CGR-3K Charger
LCT-3S Locust, regular
SDR-9K Venom
Daimyo
CRD-4K Crusader
Mauler
PXH-3K Phoenix Hawk
SHD-5M Shadow Hawk
JR7-K Jenner
GOL-3M Goliath, regular
QKD-5K Quickdraw


As more and more specialized mechs are made for various houses, their units will look more and more unique. Back in lostech world, everybody haad virually the same mechs. A unit with a Locust, Wasp, Stinger, Wolverine, Griffin, Phoenix Hawk, Shadow Hawk, Crusader, Marauder, Warhammer, Archer, Atlas, BattleMaster, and such could be from anywhere. Mechs that were specific to a particular Hose were fairly rare – Panther, Jenner, Valkyrie, Enforcer, Hatchetman and just a few others. Through centuries of warfare, even those could easily appear in another militia. But now, with all of these new designs, you can tell a Liao force with Ravens, Snakes, Thunders from a Kurita force with Wolf Traps, Dragons, Hatamato-Chis and Daimyos. You’ll be able to tell the Anvil, Hammer, Apollo wielding Free Worlds League from the Penetrator, Salamander, Scarabus wielding Federated Commonwealth.

This is their Venom – it’s a fast light mech based on a Spider and made by the same manufacturer. It’s been made since 3050. It uses the same chassis and has similar speed. With an 8/12/8 movement, it uses an XL engine to have 4 medium pulse lasers and just 3.5 tons of ferro armor on a 35 ton mech.

Because we are fighting on a large Drop Port, we are using this map: