The Battletech Dynasty: Chapt. 5 - The Invasion, 3050-3056 - Completed
 

Hello folks and welcome to the 5th chapter of an ongoing dynasty I began in 2009 and I will now be picking up. I have envisioned a huge sprawling epic that goes from the creation of a mercenary unit in the forges of the Fourth Succession War until seizing destiny and then eventually changing the Inner Sphere of the better and avoiding the worst disaster to ever hit it.

This is chapter 5 of that story. This is, in part, the greatest era of BattleTech, when certain things happen that have been spoken of for a long time, but have not seen fruition. This is the end of the Exodus and the beginning of Revelation.

Welcome, to the next chapter of the BattleTech dynasty


You can find the first four here:



Chapter 1 - The Beginning, 3030-3038 - The Battletech Dynasty, Chapter 1 - 3030-38 - Front Office Football Central


Chapter 2 - War of 3039, 3039 - The BattleTech Dynasty: Chapt 2, 3039 - Front Office Football Central


Chapter 3 - Solaris VII, 3040-3042 - The BattleTech Dynasty: Chapt 3, Solaris VII, 3040-3042 - Front Office Football Central


Chapter 4 - The Explorer Corps, 3042-3049 - The BattleTech Dynasty: Chapt 4, Explorer Corps - 3042-49 - Front Office Football Central

How does this thing work?

This is a dynasty I started in 3030. That year began with a small mixed mercenary company of mechs, infantry and vehicles. During the past 20 years, we have won salvages, money in contracts, and more. We now have 1 full regiment of mechs and warriors stationed on the planet of Thule(one regiment is nine companies, or three battalions). We have one full battalion of mechs on the system Last Frontier. One company of elite mechs with high technology is currently on Outreach and another four companies are on our home planet- Epsilon Eridani. We went from one mixed company to 17 full companies of mechs, plus 21 mechs in our garrison. In addition, we have four companies of tanks, hovercraft and other military vehicles. We also have 12 platoons of infantry, and various support vehicles, like ordinance trucks, unmanned spy planes, VTOLs and more.

Twice before, I have gotten into the mood to play some more BattleTech and continue this storyline, to see where it goes. The first time, I did the 3030’s through 3038. I ended at the big year of 3039. Then I came back in 2010 and I did the War of 3039 and the moved through the 3040s and ended at the end of 3049. Four chapters of this story have been written, and I already know where it will go. I have completed chapter four – The Explorer Corps Years. Next up is the 5th of 8 chapters. Now the battles will come fast and fierce, and campaigns will start to be impressive.

It is not necessary that you have read the first four chapters, but if you like this one, you might as well check them out.

In order to run this dynasty, I am using four major sources:

1). The sourcebooks of various sorts. I have used a variety of books in the BattleTech and MechWarrior lines. In particular, Mercenary Handbooks, Maximum Tech and the Field Manual, plus the various Technical Readouts are the primary sources, although many others have been used heavily in the past (such as Brush Wars, Explorer Corps, War of 3039 and others).
2). MegaMek and HeavyMetal Plus. I use HMP as my software for editing and making mechs, and I can save in a format that MegaMek reads. MegaMek is freeware allows me to play against the computer under the actual rules of the game. The AI is adequate, but not greats – the main issue is that sometimes it makes odd moves and it doesn’t concentrate its fire as much as it should. That will be less of a problem in about three months…
3). The Internet. There are a lot of BattleTech sources out there. As much as possible, I like to look at a few – Sarna wiki, Inner Sphere Atlas, and Solaris 7 are the major sites I use.
4). My own made up rules. I regularly find that BattleTech has great and amazingly detailed rules for a lot of stuff, but not even close to everything. For example, when I’ve gotten a contract from someone, what are the chances that the intel received from the buyer is accurate? I have no way of knowing. So I roll dice. I roll 2d6, and if I get an 8 or higher, the info was off. The higher the number, the more off it was. Twice I’ve gotten 12s and I was unable to finish the mission. In both cases, the amount of mechs we were facing jumped massively. Once, we were asked to get a mech the Draconis Combine was working on, and they told us there were a couple of prototypes on this planet, so we land, and then run into a whole bunch of them on patrol – and they were way to powerful to take on! The other time, the info was completely wrong because it was fed to the Lyrans from a separatist movement in order to catch them doing something illegal when they hired us to take out a group of separatist. We ran into an entire regiment with our company of mechs 12vs 108 – not good odds. You’ve gotta make up charts and such. Chapter 6, or 7 we will have to make up a massive amount of rules for doing something there’s no handbook for.

I would like to at least get through Chapter 5 this go around. I expect it to take a while, but you never know!

A Brief History of the Clans


At the beginning of this dynasty, I gave those who were unfamiliar with the background of the Battletech universe a few posts of information that brought them up to speed. I am beginning this section of the dynasty with a quick history of clans, up until 3050. If you want more, check out chapter 1 for a lot of good detail.




Alexandr Kerensky was the noble general who defended the Star League successfully against the Amaris Coup, but saw the League fall anyway as the house lords seceded and stripped away his titles and Generalship.

Rather than continue the bloody civil war against the house lords, he instead took those troops loyal to him from the Star league Defense Force (SLDF) and fled. By some estimates, upwards of 80% of the SLDF left with him. He vowed to return someday. In his absence began the bloody Succession Wars, which would destroy planets, systems, and technology. Over the course of the next few hundred years, humanity would fall into a virtual Dark Age.

But what happened to Kerensky and his forces? What came of them?

After wandering the deep periphery for more than a year without finding a home, a small number of people mutinied and tried to go back home. Kerensky issues General Order 137, and then kills the rebels. Kerensky’s orders regularly read as more than a quick “Do this” and were full documents distributed and read by his followers. This one included what the clans refer to as the Hidden Hope Doctrine. This is the passage from 137 that is the HHD:

"Return to the Inner Sphere is impossible for us. Our heritage and our convictions are different from those we left behind. The greed of the five Great Houses and the Council Lords is a disease that can only be burned away by the passing of decades, even centuries. And though the fighting may seem to slow, or even cease, it will erupt again as long as there are powerful men to covet one another's wealth. We shall live apart, conserving all the good of the Star League and ridding ourselves of the bad, so that when we return, and return we shall, our shining moral character will be as much our shield as our BattleMechs and fighters."

The morale of his people was strengthened and after another year, in 2786, they arrived at a quintet of systems in an almost perfect pentagon, and hidden from the Inner Sphere by a nearby nebula. They were barely habitable, but the massive flotilla of Star League forces began to settle and colonize the Pentagon Worlds of Arcadia, Babylon, Circe, Dagda and Eden. (ABCDE in order – not very clever is the military mind)

The problems were two. The old cultural divides of the Inner Sphere began to manifest on the worlds as racial, ethnic, and house loyalties were found hard to die. The largest issue was the very large military class Kerensky had. Those that had followed him were almost exclusively warriors, and now many of them were farming, logging, building, mining, and doing the work of laborers. The combination of these people feeling unappreciated by Kerensky, pushed them further into their own pre-Exodus groupings.

The people who hailed from systems that belonged to the five Great Houses began to migrate as each of the five worlds became a mini-house for its own people.

At the age of 100, Alexandr Kerensky died in June of 2801. He left his eldest son, Nicholas Kerensky as his heir. The death of the legendary general that they had all followed, coupled with the previously mentioned struggles going on, led to a general rebellion among the Pentagon Worlds.

Determined not to let his father’s vision die, Nicholas began to move among the worlds and gathered those troops still loyal to him. Once again, a Kerensky left the current strife with only those loyal. The remaining five worlds warred for supremacy.

Nicholas found a wealthy planet much farther away and named it Strana Mechty. Learning the lessons of the first Exodus, here he created a brand new society, with warriors at the top. It was an ideal society for warriors. Gone were old loyalties and old divisions. He created 20 clans, named after various animals (one, Blood Spirit, was named after the esprit de corps among warriors) that he though suitable totems to demonstrate various aspects of being a warrior. There were five castes – warrior, scientist, merchant, laborer and technician.

He pushed for changes to the very way that people waged war. He moved the clans towards a system of fighting that put honor and cleverness at its forefront. His system minimized bloodshed and ancillary damages.

In July of 2821, with a full base of operations on Strana Mechty, his forces landed on the Pentagon Worlds. His warriors were better, since they were the ones who had won matches and had never been demoted to lower ranks. The Pentagon worlds had less materiel, and had been at constant war for years, and were ripe for conquering.

After taking the worlds, Kerensky’s clans began to settle nearby worlds of their own. He would join Clan Wolf, which would have the Kerensky bloodname as its own.

Over time, the clans would be reduced in number as a couple lost Trials of Absorption by others clans, and one, Clan Wolverine, was destroyed in a Trial of Annihilation. Remnants of Clan Wolverine would arrive back at the Inner Sphere, strike a base in the Combine to free prisoners and materiel, and then encounter ComStar. After encountering ComStar, they would join forces, and move to a few planets in the Inner Sphere but not on the star charts. ComStar made sure they stayed off. ComStar and Wolverine would become intertwined, with the best of both rising in the others. The best manipulators in ComStar’s history were Wolverine (but most in ComStar never knew it was Wolverine they were involved with)

Their society now has genetic breeding programs from their greatest warriors, competitions for bloodnames which are the names of the warriors who founded the clan, and more. In many clans, being trueborn means you have a much higher level of respect from everyone over the freeborn.

Over time, the clans have formed two philosophies around Kerensky’s words. One group calls themselves the wardens. They believe their task is to protect the Inner Sphere from disaster and from outside influence. The other group are the crusaders. They believe their role is to attack the Inner Sphere, reclaim Terra, and create a new Star league.

Each clan has at least a few wardens and crusaders, but the clans themselves lean one side or the other. At the time of 3050, the invading four clans count exactly one warden clan in their number – Clan Wolf. The next wave has one more warden among it – Steel Viper (but they are barely warden, viciously antagonistic towards the Inner Sphere).

With the crusaders rattling the sabers to attack the Inner Sphere, the wardens, led by Clan Wolf, suggested a compromise to send a few troops in as mercenaries to work for the various houses, and to be spies. These troops took the name Wolf’s Dragoons and became the Inner Sphere’s finest mercenaries, bar none

When an Explorer Corps vessel from ComStar accidentally arrives in a world run by Smoke Jaguar, the clan captures, interrogates, and pushes for a renewed invasion. Smoke Jaguar sells the ship as perhaps the first ship in an invasion fleet, and with that threat over their head, every clan save Wolf votes for the invasion. Operation Revival begins. The clans fight to see who will be in the invasion. The crusader clans, wanting to force this through, put Wolf clan in the invading forces automatically, because of Kerensky’s bloodname. The others fight, and at the end, several Trials of Refusal occur, and eventually the invasion corridors are drawn up.

Clan Jade Falcon will be invading the corridor deep into Lyran space. Clan Wolf will be invading space in Lyran and Rasalhague space. Clan Ghost Bear will be invading Rasalhague and Draconis space. And Clan Smoke Jaguar will be on the end, in exclusively the Draconis Combine.

For those interested:

Here are the books used so far in this dynasty:


BattleTech Compendium: The Rules of Warfare
Invading Clans
Wolf Clan Sourcebook
The Chaos March
The Periphery
The Explorer Corps
Solaris VII Boxed Set
Brush Wars
War of 3039
Maximum Tech
Tactical Handbook
Field Manual: Mercenaries
Mercenaries Supplemental
Mercenaries Supplemental II
Technical Readout: 2750
Technical Readout: 3025
Technical Readout: 3026
Technical Readout: 3050
Technical Readout: 3055
Technical Readout: 3058
Technical Readout: 3060
Technical Readout: 3067
Technical Readout: 3075
Technical Readout: 3085
Technical Readout: Vehicle Annex


(Later technical readouts often include specs on earlier mechs, such as the Merlin and Mackie)

Dramatis Personae (3050):




Colonel Braham Essex, 46, is a MechWarrior. Born the son of a military adjutant to the Capellan Forces on Acamar. His mother passed away in childbirth. Quite rare these days but not unheard of. Raised on his parent’s homeworld of Epsilon Eridani, Braham was raised a bit by his adopted family in the Capellan barracks. Although he spent some time on Acamar with his father, both his father and himself considered EE their home. Like many children, Braham wanted to be a MechWarrior from an early age, and despite the lack of family resources to purchase one, he was determined. When his father died in a raid on Acamar by the Dracs when he was 11, he continued to train and push harder and harder. After testing well enough to gain entry to the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov, he continue to push himself until he graduated as the best MechWarrior in his class of 23. With a high set of credentials and references, Braham was a recruit for the Northwind Highlanders, a house mercenary unit for the Capellan Confederation. During the Second Succession War, the Federated Suns captured the planet of Northwind, and House Liao used the atrocities committed by House Davion to cement the loyalty of the Highlanders, and pledged to them full independence should Liao recapture Northwind. Over the centuries, Capella failed again and again to capture Northwind, and the Highlanders continued to be among the elite units serving House Liao. Then, in 3028, Hanse Davion secretly contacted the Highlanders prior to launching the Fourth Succession War. He offered to give them Northwind in return to fealty to him. After discussing it for a long time, the Highlanders decided to leave their many years of service to Capella and pledged loyalty as a house unit of the Federated Suns (not even a mercenary unit any more). In return, Davion gave them an amount of freedom. A small minority of Highlanders chose to defect from the unit, believing that their contract with Capella should be honored. Among those defectors was Braham Essex. He defected and was assigned by the Capellan Confederation to fight with the veteran Blackwind Lancers.

The Fourth Succession War had begun. When Candace Liao falls in love with a Davion spy, she decides to use the war to declare the St. Ives Commonality now independent of the Capellan Confederation. This succession brings many military units from the CCAF with her, including the Blackwind Lancers.

Once again faced with choosing to defect from his unit or defect from his state, Braham Essex chooses to leave the Lancers. By now, the Tikonov Free Republic has been created, with one of the highest and most trusted military leaders, Pavel Ridzik, choosing to also vacate the realm he had served all of his life in order to create a new state. The planet of Epsilon Eridani joined the Tikonov Free Republic. In the wake of these dissidents, and two elite units Braham was serving leaving to join others, he realized that the Confederation was falling apart. With his own homeworld no longer a part of the Confederation, he felt his loyalty waning. Braham also felt no love for the St. Ives Compact, Tikonov Free Republic, or Federated Suns. Choosing instead to form his own mercenary company, the Kilts and Commandos, he left for Outreach, making some contacts with other disaffected MechWarriors from the Northwind Highlanders and the Blackwind Lancers.

At the age of 16, Braham Essex arrived at the Martial Training Academy on Tikonov. While there, he distinguished himself enough to warrant placement with the Highlanders, and he met Ted Izumo, an instructor. Essex has won the Liao Sunburst of Gallantry during battle with the Highlanders for the destruction of several enemy Battlemechs after his lance mates all fell, and completing the objective by himself. It is the most minor of Liao decorations and regularly given out.

After graduating from the Tikonov Academy, Essex served a full tour of duty with the Highlanders and had begun his second term with them when they left. He then served with the Lancers for most of his remaining term before they too defected.

In January of 3031, he took his first contract as the commander of the Kilts and Commandos, a new mercenary unit built from the disaffected from the old Capellan Confederation. Over time, he won various contracts, battles and campaigns, and built his unit to almost two regiments of troops.

He began by piloting his own a medium fire support mech he took with him when everything fell apart, a Dervish, but upgraded to a heavier Orion, which was lost in combat. Then he purchased a heavy and iconic Warhammer before moving to a Cataphract, a Liao design that had been used by the Governor of a planet that Braham killed while doing a contract for the St. Ives Compact.

The first high profile action the unit saw was in 3034, when the unit was contracted to fight alongside the Rasalhague Rebellion as they formed the Free Rasalhague Republic. As many elements in the Draconis Combine fought against this in the Ronin Wars, the battle pitted some Combine elements against themselves, the new Rasalhague units, fighting, and mercenaries. At the end of the War, most of the mercenary units had used minor clauses in their contracts to not help out the Republic, but Braham forced his unit to assist, and was rewarded with the Rasalhague Star. At the end, the FRR developed a dislike for mercenaries, and hired them rarely, but Kilts and Commandos is treated with respect and will eventually become one of the main FRR military forces in the mid to late 3040s.

After taking a contract in 3037 on the planet of Somerset, Braham’s Cataphract was destroyed in an ammo explosion. The ejection seat failed to function properly and Braham was flung from the wreckage. His body was broken, burned, bruised and bloody. After a long recovery, Braham lost his left leg and left arm, and they were replaced by myomer limbs. His skills degraded and he had the skills of a regular pilot again.

On Feb 3, 3038, Braham Essex emerged from almost a year’s convalescence and had been training and retraining with his troops on Epsilon Eridani. He began training with his unit again. While most of Kilts and Commandos joined the combined assault on the Draconis Combine in the War of 3039, Braham took one company and fought in the final year of the Andurien War and served at the Fall of Andurien, the bloodiest campaign in the first half of the 31st century. While there, he won the Andurien Epaulet.

After Andurien fell, Braham moved to Solaris VII and began a campaign as a gladiator MechWarrior. After showing some flash, Braham allied himself with Starlight Stables and worked his way up the system. He won a Grand Melee, placed in another, and climbed up the rankings to #8. His only duel he lost was to the #1 ranked MechWarrior. He is elite status again as a MechWarrior.

Receiving an interesting contract from ComStar, Braham chose to leave his Solaris VII career behind and led a company of mechs in a 5 year mission for the ComStar Explorer Corps, exploring beyond the periphery in the unknown. He came back recently, and has been organizing the unit, and moving most to contracts with the Free Rasalhague Republic.

After piloting mechs like Orion, Atlas, Hunchback, Jenner in the Solaris arenas, and an Awesome for the Explorer Corps, plus the Exterminator in a stealth mission, he is continuing in a modified Orion as the CO of a new Shadow Company, a powerful elite company with all LosTech mechs that operates independent of the command structure of his mercenary unit.



Braham Essex
State Academy, State University, Two Terms of Service.
Piloting Skill - 2
Gunnery Skill - 2
Influence - 3
Member Modifiers - -2 family, +3 friends, +6 unit

Age: 46
Decorated: Liao Sunburst of Gallantry; Rasalhague Star; Andurien Epaulet

Skills:

Edge: 5
Tactical Genius
Gunnery: Ballistic
Ace Maneuvering

Myomer Left Arm, Left Leg


The edge skill allows a reroll of any d6 roll in combat for each point I put into edge, and I have five points in it, allowing me to reroll a critical piloting skill roll or other game roll. The Tactical Genius ability allows me to reroll initiative at the beginning of each turn if I want.

Captain Ted Izumo, 72, XO of the Kilts and Commandos unit, Headmaster of the Essex Training Academy, and in charge of the garrison force on Epsilon Eridani. Although initially an academy dropout, Ted’s three tours of duty as a MechWarrior gave him some influence and experience. He was later offered a job as an academy trainer, despite never graduating himself, allowing his experience to be a teacher. As a trainer, he met Braham Essex and became one of his closest mentors. When his planet of Tikonov declared independence from Liao, the academy fired many of its trainers, including Ted. When he got a call from Braham Essex, he gladly chose to join the fledgling Kilts and Commandos as Braham’s main advisor.

Later in the 3030s, after the Essex Training Academy was formed, Ted semi-retired to run it, and build up the Headquarters for the unit, supervise and train the garrison force, and more. After Essex was defeated on Somerset, Izumo brought everyone back home to train, and regroup. He ran the unit for a year and a half until Essex was ready to take back over.

During the War of 3039, Izumo led the Kilts and Commandos against the Draconic Combine. He planned and won the siege of Fort Ea, and then fought against the Ghost Regiment counter-attack. He led and organized the defense of Breed on behalf of the Federated Commonwealth despite a local general who tried to reel him in. For his success in the Breed Campaign, Izumo was personally awarded the Robinson Medal of Valor by Field Marshal Sandoval. He also won the Dragon Slayer’s Ribbon as part of the campaign against the Draconis Combine.

After the War of 3039, he came out of retirement to lead an assault against the Lyran world of Westerstede after a company of ours was captured and subsequently abandoned by our employer. He continues to pilot the same Stalker he had when he came into our unit. He has also piloted the Exterminator in combat and the BattleMaster 2C in training recruits.

Ted Izumo

Piloting - 2
Gunnery - 2
Influence - 2
Member Modifiers - -3 family/+3 friends/+3 unit

Skills:

Edge: 4
Tactical Genius
Decorations: Dragon Slayer’s Ribbon, Robinson Medal of Valor

Sergeant Adele Thompson, 50, was born of a minor, but politically connected, noble on Epsilon Eridani. She was family-trained and then sent off to a private academy on Sarna. As a child, she met Braham Essex and the two were boyfriend and girlfriend for seven months while he was 12 and she was 15. Even then, she saw a mature and intelligent person behind the boyish exterior. After graduation, she was assigned to a garrison unit on Acamar, but met action when the Federated Suns attacked and decimated her unit. Her Crusader mech was destroyed and only her personal money prevented her from being one of the dispossessed as she found and purchased a Firestarter. With her unit destroyed and her homeworld no longer Capellan, she drifted to Outreach to find a new life as a mercenary before a chance meeting brought her and Braham Essex together again, this time as one of his new recruits to the Kilts and Commandos mercenary unit.

She is still a sergeant of the same lance she had when she started with Kilts and Commandoes 19 years ago. She had not excelled nor demonstrated a desire or ability to take full command. In 19 years she has destroyed 8 targets (mechs. tanks, VTOLS) total.

She married a local noble, again with contacts and of a minor nature.

She had a child with Braham Essex out of wedlock, and she is raised on Episilon Eridani largely by her step-mother and Ted.


Piloting - 4
Gunnery - 2
Influence - 1
Member Modifiers - +2 family/+2 friends/+2 unit


Adele, Ted, and Braham are the founding members of the Kilts and Commandoes unit.

Colonel Matthew Humphries, 40, is in charge of one of the regiments currently in service in the Free Rasalhague Republic. Operationally, he is third in command of K&C. He was in charge of a battalion of troops for the First Andurien Defenders and fought for ten years in the Andurien Wars. After his planet and duchy fell, he chose to defect, along with many other mechwarriors, to our unit. Over the past decade, he has risen in our ranks to run a regiment.

He is a distant nephew of Dame Catherine Humphries, the late Duchess of Andurien, and is something like 12th in line to the throne. He has seen the worst of war, and although still a warrior, he has no tolerance for endangering civilians from his men, or the enemy.


Elizabeth Walters-Essex, 44, CEO of Kressly Warworks. She is the granddaughter of Steve Walters, who bought the factory from the Kressly family years ago. She was the only child of her father, and has been the CEO of Kressly for most of her adult life, after her father died when she was a child and her grandfather died when she was 23 in 3029. She is a native of the planet and quite loyal to it. Ten years ago, she married Braham Essex after they spend a year and a half together while he was on planet recovering.

After spending a couple of years on Solaris VII to, in part, be near her, he took a contract and left the Inner Sphere for almost 6 years before returning for almost a year. Elizabeth has raised both her son with Braham and her step-daughter.

Under her watch, Kressly has become a leading seller of several tanks, with the Brutus Assault Tank their banner product. She has regularly discussed the possibility of opening up a mech line with her techs and K&C. K&C could field test designs and give comments. K&C have created a few field made mechs for their own use, and Kressly likes several of their designs, particularly the Attila.

Kilts and Commandos have been the garrison force at Kressly Warworks for more than a decade, and continue to do it. They get a 20% discount on any purchases from it.


Thoma Marie Essex, 13. The daughter of Braham Essex and Adele Thompson is being raised on Epsilon Eridani and by her step mother Elizabeth Walters-Essex and in part by Ted Izumo. 16 months ago, she began training on industrial mechs after expressing an interest in continuing in her parents’ shoes. She is already a good pilot of mechs, and will soon transition to learning weapons.


James Roderick Essex, 9. The son of Elizabeth and Braham is being raised on Epsilon Eridani by his mother and again, in part, by Ted. He has not, so far, expressed an interest in BattleMechs, but instead in Kressly Warworks and the tanks and components made there. .

Allies and Friends:

Leftenant General Pierre Benton – This local MechWarrior rose through the ranks of the Federated Suns military and then took an assignment in 3049 on his home world of Epsilon Eridani as the commander of the forces on planet. As a local, he has regular communication with his world’s favorite son, Braham Essex, and his unit. They coordinate defense of the local area, and run around in some similar circles.

Duke James Sandoval – After taking over the Draconis March in 3048 after his father died, former Field Marshal James Sandoval becomes the ruler of the systems that are next to the Draconis Combine. Our unit fought directly under James on Marduk in the War of 3039, and then got permission from Sandoval to attack the enemy on Breed rather than keep following the mewling orders of the on planet general. Since then, we’ve done contracts for Sandoval or his father several times in the 3040s. We also sold them a new Wolverine 7K variant with LosTech for them to analyze after we captured it.

Baron Jorgennson – A baron in the Free Rasalhague Republic whose family’s wealth is significant. We came across one of his deep periphery extraction teams on a LosTech rich planet. Later, Braham Essex would trade the location of a very old, and thence very valuable, JumpShip for a modern merchant class JumpShip for us. Recently, our troops have been sent to garrison several planets under his rulership in the corner of Rasalhague space.



Enemies:

Pada Vinson, CO of Vinson’s Vigilantes, we’ve had several run-ins with this mercenary group. We have fought them on Galatea and in the periphery. Each time, they’ve been a bit unprofessional. We were both working for the Free Rasalhague Republic during the Ronin Wars, but they broke their contracts and left. They have also sued a half a dozen people because they didn’t get the prime salvage they wanted in the War of 3039. They give mercenaries a bad name. Worst of all, while Essex was fighting in the Solaris VII arenas, he killed a young and rising mechwarrior piloting a mech when his attack destroyed an Atlas’s head. The cockpit went with it, and the pilot – Jason Vinson, was Pada’s son. Pada swore a death oath on killing Braham Essex.

Military Assets:


The Robin Hood, a Union class DropShip – auxiliary
The Star River, a Union class DropShip
The Scots Flotilla, a Merchant class JumpShip


After the local troops are rotated off for refit and repair once several raids by Periphery pirates reduced their number, we send a regiment of troops to garrison Thule. This regiment of mechs is under the control of Col. Humphries. Because we have an emphasis on company tactics and strategy, our components are interchangeable, and we regularly move companies in an out of regiments as needed. Here are the companies currently on Thule.

Aleph
Phaeton
Trinity
Delta
Cinq
Hex
Defender
Heliades
Brawler


We also have a battalion on Last Frontier, helping to garrison against Drac attacks.

Lance
Mustang
Tethys


As of January 1, 3050, Epsilon Eridani has these


Rebel, Boxer, Styx and Typhon mech companies
Tank Battalion and Vehicle Delta Company
14 platoons of infantry
21 mechs in our garrison
BattleMaster 2C in the academy, 13 students in the Academy
Ted Izumo and his Stalker
The Robin Hood Union DropShip
12 tanks
14 graduates of the Essex Academy in various mechs as needed. 12 are green, two are regular.
3 VTOLs

Other assets like Boomerang Spotter Planes, ordinance trucks, etc

Shadow Company is an elite strike company led by Braham Essex and is currently on Outreach.

Oman it's back!

Oh yes!

Thule, 3050. The Free Rasalhague Republic enjoyed fairly calm borders with the Federated Commonwealth and Draconis Combine. Both long-term enemies gained something by having a buffer state between them. The Republic features roughly 80 inhabited systems but only 15 mech regiments to hold it (plus tanks, infantry, fighters, etc). Because of this one full regiment and a battalion of our mechs have been placed on retainer contracts with the Republic. The major border issue is with the periphery that hold bandits, pirates, and rogues. Raids on the border worlds result in many damages.

Due to Thule’s proximity to both the Periphery and the Combine, and its isolation, in the far corner, it needs a full regiment for garrisoning. It is one jump away from just four inhabited systems, two Dracs, the pirate planet of Porthos, and one FRR system – Damian. With losses sustained by the 1st Hussars, one of those 15 FRR regiments, to several pirate raids, they have been rotated out and we have been moved to Thule to garrison it until they are able to return. Colonel Matthew Humphries is the CO of this regiment. Thule is one of several systems that fall under Baron Jorgensson’s purview.

(If you want a detailed map, go here: http://iscs.teamspam.net/pdf/iscs_3040.pdf - top center, zoom in much. For a less detailed map that just shows diplomatic lines, this will suffice: http://iscs.teamspam.net/povray/iscs_3040.20020918.jpg - we are in the top right corner of the top purple blob.)


Thule has three major continents, and has a rich water economy. Spring water from Thule is considered to have medicinal properties and a great taste, and it is bottled and sold as a luxury item. One of the continents is a great northern waste – Husavik. The next is Akranes, near the equator and the major agricultural center. The final one is Vik. Vik has the capital city, Thule City, a wide and very hot desert, and several large cities along the coasts.


Thule will become very important very soon.

EVENT - January 1, 3050 – The C3 computer has been completed by the Draconis Combine, and will be seen in the field this year. Due to the stigma it has for not being honorable, it will not take root for a years. It’s a great system for mech lances and very expensive.

Additionally, field refit kits with LosTech like double heat sinks, pulse lasers, and more have become wide enough that they are able to be purchased on the market by any buyer who has the C-Bills. They come with an additional 10% cost to mercenary units to represent the difficulty of getting them.

With this, since Braham Essex is still not undergoing a contract with Shadow Company, he uses some of the time on Outreach to look over the T&O of the mercenaries, and pick up some refit kits. Shadow Company already has 12 mechs with LosTech. These are one jump away at Epsilon Eridani. Rebel, Boxer, Styx and Typhon mech companies. Braham begins by reviewing these and seeing if there are refit kits out there, and if so, does he want them, and for how much.

The first thing Essex does is pick up a Gauss Rifle and ammo (400k) for the Cyclops in Styx Company. Swapping the AC20 for the Gauss is a common field replacement many are doing.

The only other mech in Styx Company to receive a field refit kit will be the Wolfhound, which will be getting an ER Large Laser and double heat sinks. To replace the 2x HS requires opening up the engine and pulling out the old ones. It will take a lot longer than the Cyclops. The refit kit for the WLF-2 will cost 300k.

That will take 2 weeks to do to Styx.

We are unable to find a refit for a Stalker in Typhon. I want to do a simple change to our Centurion, and I may come back, but it won’t be a simple kit. Boxer already has a LosTech BattleMaster – the 3M.

We make no changes to Boxer.

For Rebel company, we manage to purchase a 5N refit. This includes double heat sinks only. The normal 5M change drops a ton of ammo for the AC20 for CASE and to upgrade a Small Laser to a Small Pulse Laser. That gives you just 5 shots of the AC20, so we will keep the old configuration for 120k. IT will take two weeks. It could use some more modification, because it can drop three doubles to still have 10/20 heat, which is perfectly fine

We will not be making any additional changes:

820k for upgrades to three mechs, total time, two weeks. By the end of the month, they should arrive and have been upgrades.

What about those in the garrison?

Nothing other than a normal Cataphract appeals to me. I want to start pulling off AC10s for LB10Xs.


Time to modify the Cataphract and Centurion. This requires some die rolls. A BattleMech is a balanced and tested creature. To undue this is not guaranteed.

Centurion:

Remove the AC10 – RA, weighs 12 tons, uses 7 criticals
Replace with LB10X – RA, weighs 11 tons, 6 criticals

By being off in both weight and internal space used, this is not an easy task. I bring in my best techs. We succeed. This part can be done. We write the technical specs down. From now on, we can make this change automatically with Centurions.

Next:

I want to add another medium laser Right Torso. It already has two tons of ammo. This will add a critical section and a ton to that area. After several tries, we succeed. We may now make these adjustments to all of the Centurions we have. While I am here, I flip the rear facing Medium Laser in the Center Torso to the front. This succeeds easily. I have ammo in both the left torso (LRM) and right (LB 10X- AC). I try to move the LRM ammo to the right, plus a Heat Sink from the Left Torso. This is three tons and three crits. Very hard. I manage to roll a 10 with my elite tech, and he able ot do the work. This adds a lot of time.

Cost for LB 10-X and ammo and laser, move ML(R) to front, move ammo. – 475k

In documents, we will referring to this version of the Centurion as the CN9-FR for Field Refit. We will normally be using one ton each of regular ammo and it’s special shot. When using the buckshot version, it is easier to hit, and locations hit are rolled for. We roll on the LRM 10 chart to see how many of them it. It’s a great way to find a section of an opponent hat has been opened.

This will take my techs 4 weeks to refit.

Now for Cataphracts:

We were just barely able to make the same adjustments to a Cataphract, swapping in an extra ton of ammo for the LB 10-X. I also swap two rear facing medium lasers to the front. Again, a refit takes 3 weeks and 475k for everything. We will be calling this one the CTF-3FR. While working, I try to move the Medium Laser from the Left Arm to the Left Torso, where the ammo is. Success. I try to do the same with the Right Arm’s Medium Laser. Success as well. The LT now has three medium lasers, a heat sink, and two tons of ammo. The RA has a PPC and the RT the LB 10-X and a medium laser.

We pay the money and refit the Centurion in Typhon company and the Cataphract in Garrison.

Braham begins recruiting for some new people. I want to recruit an Aerospace Company. Our two regiment+ sized group has enough of a reputation to start recruiting. Braham gets three rolls a months and Ted has arrived for two more.

Green, medium, fighter and pilot
Regular, medium, fighter and pilot
Nothing
Nothing
Veteran, heavy, fighter and pilot

We’ll figure out fighters and names and such later, when the entire unit is assembled.

Now let’s see what contracts come in for my people. I have 5 companies not currently doing contracts, plus four companies of vehicles.

The Capellan Confederation is looking for assistance with a garrison somewhere
They are also looking for an Extraction Raid.

Braham contacts them about the second one. Extraction Raids are smash and grabs. Go get this and bring it back. The target could be an object, technology, a mech, or even a person. These are usually done behind someone’s back. They are often asked for by corporations, who want their stuff back. (or want secrets from a competitor).

The target is their own system of Bithinia. It’s on the border with both the Free Worlds League and the FedComs. It’s a major resort and tourist destination. They also mine iron and make steel, and have a small mech factory – Bithinian Ballistics. The CC has had a delivery of its supplies to the factory go missing, and intel suggests that it has been procured by a private company, which has stored it in an old iron mine, pending shipment off planet. The company is a joint Capellan and Marik effort, and the CC doesn’t want to ruffle political feathers by going in guns blazing to retake the supplies. So, they want to hire a mercenary unit to do it and keep them with a level of deniability.

Bithinia is 10 days from the jump point, and it’s 6 jumps away. It would take a company from Epsilon Eridani 2 months to get there. That’s not bad at all, so Braham takes the contract.

This will be Rebel Company’s shakedown mission.


Contract:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.6, x1.4
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 25% paid(1.2 mill total paid, so 250k received)

They gave us generous things in command, salvage, remuneration and salary so that they could drop support and transport costs and increase length.

With EE just one just from Outreach, communication by Hyper Pulse Generator is the same day easily, and that leads to Rebel loading up. They should arrive in the system on March 3rd, and at the planet on the 13th.

The garrison contract is for 3 years, and Braham is not interested.

In order to determine what my many units are doing, I have an updated roster of my units. It looks like this:



Aleph Company - FRR
Phaeton Company - FRR
Trinity Company - FRR
Delta Company - FRR
Cinq Company - FRR
Hex Company - FRR
Defender Company - FRR
Typhon Company -
Heliades Company - FRR
Tethys Company - FRR
Brawler Company - FRR
Lance Company - FRR
Mustang Company - FRR
Styx Company -
Boxer Company –
Rebel Company – Arrive at Bithinia on March 16th.


Shadow Company - Outreach
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion –
Delta Company -

Robin Hood - Assigned to Styx Company
Star River - In the FRR
Scots Flotilla - With Shadow Company

I will regularly update this roster with movements and such.

February 1, 3050 – Braham and Ted begin another round of recruiting on Outreach, and grab:

Nothing
Elite, dispossessed, pilot
Regular, light, pilot
Regular, medium, pilot
Nothing


New contracts?

St. Ives Compact, garrison
Magistracy of Canopus, Pirate Hunting
Outworlds Alliance, Guerilla and Planetary Assault
Magistracy of Canopus, Cadre/ Garrison

So, this month is Mr. Periphery month at Outreach, eh? Just for fun, I contact the Magistracy’s representative about the Pirate Hunting contract. They have been experiencing some raids by pirates from their anti-spinward direction, which they believe have been agitated and funded in part by the Marian Hegemony. It would take a company from EE 18 jumps to get to the border of the Magistracy, and then another 6 to get to the destination. That’s a total of 24 jumps there and back again. This would take, roughly, seven months each way. It would cost 3.45 million to pay for the jump there and back. For a contract that would only pay for a few months of hunting, we would be paying for the unit’s upkeep for probably a year without any compensation. To send a company away for roughly 16 months is just not something I feel comfortable doing.

So, no thanks periphery.

March 1, 3050 – Another month has arrived. What do the contracts look like now?

Capellan Confederation wants a Diversionary Raid. Very unusual. The goal is to hit someone or something while another thing is going on, and pull all of their attention away. Their target is the FedCom system of Lesalles, which is 5 jumps away and on the border with the Caps, and is actually one jump from Bithinia.

The others:

ComStar wants a security contract

Free Rasalhague Republic wants an Objective Raid. Target? Lyran system of Laurent, which is 12 jumps away. It would take three months to get there, and then an additional 8 days. We could have a
company there by June 27, 3050,.

Let’s do both raids:

Capellan Confederation, Diversionary Raid

They want us to hit Lesalles in full Capellan colors and the nation’s symbols on our mechs. They want the defenders to think we are Caps, and hitting them. Then they will move forces to hit us, while the Death Commandos will slip in and do whatever they need to so. We aren’t given that information.

Interesting. Let’s do it.

We will be sending Boxer Company on this mission, since they haven’t done one either.


Contract:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.8, x1.4
Support: 25% Battle Loss
Command: Liaison
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: 60% paid(900k total paid, so 540kreceived)



We will arrive at Lasalles on May 12, 3050.

Typhon will be sent to do the FRR contract. They want us to destroy a listening post on the fourth moon of Laurent.


Contract:

Salvage: Full
Salary: x4, x1.6, x1.1
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 2 months
Transport: 50% paid(1.8 mill paid, so 900kreceived)
10% Bonus

They will arrive at Laurent on June 27th


Here is the updated roster:

Aleph Company - FRR
Phaeton Company - FRR
Trinity Company - FRR
Delta Company - FRR
Cinq Company - FRR
Hex Company - FRR
Defender Company - FRR
Typhon Company – Arrive at Laurent, June 27th
Heliades Company - FRR
Tethys Company - FRR
Brawler Company - FRR
Lance Company - FRR
Mustang Company - FRR
Styx Company -
Boxer Company – Arrive at Lasalles on May 12th
Rebel Company – Arrive at Bithinia on March 16th.


Shadow Company - Outreach
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion –
Delta Company -

Robin Hood - Assigned to Styx Company
Star River - In the FRR
Scots Flotilla - With Shadow Company

More recruiting rolls:

Regular, medium, pilot
Nothing
Elite, medium, pilot
Elite, heavy, pilot
Green, light, pilot

What I like to do is jump ahead and do a contract, and then roll back and keep going overall. This month, Rebel company arrives at Bithinia, so I want to do that, figure out everything, play it out, resolve issues, and send them back. Then I’ll rewind if necessary and keep going.

March 16 – Rebel Company has arrived on Bithinia. The Capellans made sure that we could lands on planet. After getting our bearings, we meet a local contact who informs us that recent intel suggest that a mercenary company called Ambition’s Grave is guarding it for the company.

Mar 17 – After unloading, we move our unit to the cave system. The intel is right on, and we are facing a regular company of MWs. Here are the mechs of Ambition’s Grave:

2 lights
4 mediums
2 heavies
4 assaults

Javelin 10N
Commando 2D
Vindicator 3L *
Quickdraw 5M *
Bombardier, vet pilot
Whitworthx2
Phoenix Hawk, green pilot
Charger
BattleMaster
Banshee 3E
Cyclops, Vet pilot


*- These mechs are equipped with LosTech.

As a reminder, here is our unit:

ATA-1A Atilla
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
VTR-9A Victor
HBK-5N Hunchback
WHM-6R Warhammer
CRD-3R Crusader
RFL-3N Rifleman
WTH-1 Whitworth
JVN-10F Javelin
FS9-M Firestarter
CDA-2A Cicada
HER-1A Hermes

This is a weaker company mech wise. 8 of the pilots are elite, 2 veteran and 2 regular.

Here is our special field made mech, the Atilla:

85 tons
3/5 movement
22 heat sinks
263/263 armor

2xPPC, one in each torso
2xSRM6, one in each torso
7x Medium Laser, in torsos and head
2xtons of ammo, one in each torso.

It’s designed to punch holes from far away (that makes 22 heat if I’m running) and then when up close you can slide into all seven medium lasers (21 heat made) or use the SRM6s and 4 mediums (20 heat made) or even 1 PPC and two SRM6s and a medium laser (21 heat made). In a pinch, you can blow through more to go over heat.


This is the Whitworth, a mech that will see a lot of action today, since there are three on the field.



The Whitworth is a 40 ton fire support mech, with 4/6/4 movement, two LRM 10s and a few medium lasers for close combat if someone get too close or after the ammo runs out. It the lightest mech that I actually like for fire support roles.

I missed the first 4 chapters. Definitely gonna play catch-up now.

My strategy will be to take out the Vindicator for salvage and the Quickdraw. The Quickdraw is a poorly designed mech, especially the updated one. It has just 8 tons of armor and is armament is poor – just two front facing medium lasers, and LRM10 and a one-shot of SRM4, plus two rear facing Medium lasers. They usually jump right up to your guys and you can blow their 60 ton mech right off the field. After that, attacks of opportunity, but I always want good mechs over bad ones (Battle Master over Cyclops, Charger or Banshee; Bombardier, etc).

Here we go:

We are fighting near the caves that supposedly have the crates. There are a few small hills and trees, with a minor pond near the middle of the battle. We are coming in from the north and they from the south.

We lose initiative

Turn 1 - We deploy several of our assets on top of a small hill and into some forests. I find decent positions for a few of my snipers. After moving in and around stuff, we have several mechs in position into attack them, and vice versa. Their Bombardier nails my Attila and gets a through armor critical on the right torso and knocks out a PPC. Their BattleMaster’s PPC nails the head of my Thunderbolt and goes internal, but does not take out the head. We aren’t close enough for physical attacks and everybody is still standing.

Turn 2 – We win initiative. After cracking open their Charger with the Atilla, our Warhammer destroy its hip an lower leg actuators on the right leg and a shoulder actuator on the left arm. Srms from the Crusader hits two more leg actuators on the right leg. Later, our Whitworth hits the head of their Vindicator with some missiles, but everything is alright. The Charger falls and destroys its right leg.

Turn 3 – We lose init. I hop my Javelin next to one of their Whitworths and they do the same to mine. We pepper each other, but nobody takes that much damage this round. Everybody misses kicks.

T4 – We lose again. Lots of mechs base each other – heir Cyclops and Javelin to my whiteworth an Hunchback. My Cicada to their Commando. Our Cicada destroys the RL of the Commando. Their Cicada opens up my Attila’s RT and nails a medium laser. We focus some fire on their Cyclops when it move sup to use it’s AC20. Both my Victor and Hunchy hit it with teir own big guns. After opening up its CT, our Rifleman follows by nailing a gyro and SRM4. Their Commando and Cyclops both fall, as does my Whitworth after taking an AC20 and several Bombardier missiles. Our Hunch kicks the Jav and goes internal on a leg and nails a jump jet. Their Jav falls from the kick.

T5 – We win init. The Cyclops tries to get up, falls down, and blows off the left arm, its on the ground. Their Jav fails to stand. I get a Firestarter behind their Vindicator, a Jav in front of their Vindicator and I run a couple of mehcs to the downed ones. I run my Attila up to their Quickdraw. If I push it, it will fall into the water. Lt, Medini Sengupta in our Atilla completely destroys their Commando. Nothing survived from it. Our Rifleman tears into their grounded Jav and destroys is RA, LA and RT, and hits a gyro and an engine. It’s down. Our Hunchback hits the engine twice on their Cyclops after nailing it in the CT again with an AC20. Their Vindicator falls from all of the damage it took. Our own Javelin;s LL is destroyed by their Bombardier. We push their QD intro the water with the Attilla.

T6 – We win init again. Their Cyclops guy ejects. Our Jav pilot ejects after being surrounded by three of their mechs. We run a Victor next to one of their Whitworths. Their QD does not get up. We focus fire on their exposed P Hawk. Our Rifleman goes internal with a large laser there, but nothing happens. Their P Hawk falls.

T7 – We lose init. We all move a lot of mechs close together. The QD doesn’t even try to stand, but their P Hawk is up. Their Vindicator destroys the RA of my Firestarter. One of their Whitworths falls to a AC20 from a Hunchy after it blows out the RL. Our Firestarter takes out the RA of their Vindicator. No ER PPC – sad. A Medium Laser from the Attilla lances into the P Hawk’s head and shears it off. Dead mech. Our Victor blows into the gyro of their Vindicator. Our Crusader also destroys the LA and LT of the P Hawk. Our Warhammer gets an ammo explosion on the P Hawk, so it is completely destroyed. Their damaged Whitworth loses an LRM10 and a jump jet from our Whit-y. Their Vindicator pilot blacks out.

And with that, Ambition’s Grave signals their retreat. The QD stands and emerges from the water. We do not allow them to keep the mechs that were savaged, because we won the field of battle. Afterwords, we break into the mining complex. We hit a few mines, but nothing major, and we procure the shipment, bring it out on our rented DropShip, and then head back up to a commercial JumpShip, where the cargo transfers to another attached DropShip for the Caps, and we settle up. We sta in the area for a while, because we are on a 3 month deal. Nothing happens.

We leave and will arrive back at Epsilon Eridani on September 28, 3050

Welcome, welcome!

Cyclops, 2xengine,1xgyro, SRM4, reattach LA
Vindicator, 3L, missing RA, gyro hit 1x,
Charger, missing RL, hit two actuators on left
Javelin – Missing RA, LA, RT engine nad gyro each once


Our Jav – missing LL
Our Firestarter – missing RA


Armor – replacement at 15 tons
To fix – 10 tons for these downed mechs

Ammo – 170k – this was a pretty beam and AC heavy group, and the only expensive ammo is missiles. LRM10 ammo for the Whitworth and LRM15 for the Crusader and some SRM6 for various mechs was it.

To fix:

Cyclops: We fail to fix the engine, and will have to get a replacement (suck). We fixed the gyro, SRM4 and reattached the arm. Total time involved – 6 days. To fix it completely, including a new engine, would cost 2.5 mill (the engine on the Cyclops is one of the most expensive out there and clocks in at 2.16 mill).

Vindicator 3L, gyro is fixed, have to purchase a new arm plus ER PPC, which will cost, total, 520k and take just 3 days to fix and replace.

The Charger’s actuators are fixed easily. As a reminder, we are on a full salvage contract. Instead of replacing it, if we were to sell it, we could get the money we need for repairs, ammo, getting these others running, and to make money from the contract, instead of losing it. We could get 6.25 million C Bills after a missing leg, damaged armor, and a reduced price for purchasing it on the market (you can never sell for asking price for things, and this price is 300k less than it would actually cost to buy it). Let’s do it. Our contacts easily manage to sell it.

We fix the gyro and engine on their Jav. We remove its LL and move it to our own to fix ours.

We purchase a RA for our Firestarter. It costs 85k including weapons and armor and the arm itself.

In order to fix their Jav, now missing a LL, RA, LA, RT – it will take 405k – that includes weapons, ammo, materials, and armor.

Total cost to refit and fix everything I have, including missing armor, repaired parts, getting new mechs up and running and more:

3.93 mill

We sold the Charger and made: 2.32 mill


Here was our contract

Salvage: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.6, x1.4
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Command: Indy
Remuneration: Yes, x1.05
Length: 3 months
Transport: 25% paid(1.2 mill total paid, so 250k received)


We get this from the contract:

250k travel
163k Battle Loss (Armor and replacement limbs)
1,235,840 salary
+5% Remuneration

Total Made – 1,731,282

We spent:

1.2 mill transport
502,101 – Expenses and Salary for 9 months

Total received after expenses: 29,131

Including expenses and refits and sales: 3,959,131

We now have:

Vindicator 3L
Javelin 10N
Cyclops

How do you know if a mech is out of action? Excellent question:

1). If its ammo or engine explodes and the mech does too – a new piece of equipment called CASE will localize any explosion to the left or right torso. A mech that has an ammo explosion in the RT will not lose anything besides the RT and RA and can still fight (except for #3 below). Otherwise, ammo explosions = dead mechs. A mech with enough engine hits in one round can have that explode.
2). If its gyro is hit twice. The gyro stabilizes the mech, and two critical hits mean that the mech is unable to move.
3). If it has three engine hits. There are several internal spaces in the center torso for engine, and hitting it three times shuts it down. Each engine hit produces 5 heat per round. Extra Light engines also use three spaces in each torso (two for clans). If a torso section is destroyed, the engine shuts down. An ammo explosion in a mech with CASE and an XL engine will save he mech, but shut down the engine and it’s done for in the fight.
4). If the head is destroyed. The pilot likely died, the cockpit is gone, as is life support and sensors.
5). If the pilot passes out. This happened with the Vindicator above. Each time a pilot takes damage (from falling, damage to the head, shocks) they roll to stay conscious. A failed roll means they have to try and wake up at the end of each round. If they are passed out when the battle ends, you get the mech.
6). If the pilot dies. This is rare, but it is possible to deal enough damage to a pilot to kill them - usually through falls.
7). Very rare, but if you hit both sensors in the head, it’s blind. The mech can move, fire, etc – but does do purely on looking out the cockpit window. Most of the time, that’s the end.
8). If it’s knocked down, and cannot get back up – examples are blowing off both legs, or both arms and one leg. Mechs that are legged can stand up. They can barely move.
9). In the very rare occasion that one leg is destroyed and the other has all four leg actuators hit, the mech is immobile. Mechs that are on the ground and can’t get up can still fire their weapons, sometimes. (armless mechs can’t. for example).
10). The mech can shutdown from overheating. This happens in the old tech world, but now that double heat sinks are becoming more and more common, this happens less and less.
11). Mechs can be breached by water or vacuum. An area of the mech is breached and can’t work. If the center torso or head is breached, the mech is destroyed.
12). Destroyed the Center Torso of a mech destroys the mech.

The mech is recoverable in every situation but the first. However, overheating can lead to ammo explosions. Sometimes, enough engine hits can cause the engine to explode.

When ammo explodes here is what happens:

If the arm is still around, it is blown off and survives. Damage transfers to the CT and it is destroyed. (based on how much ammo is left, obviously). Mech pieces on the other side of the explosion may survive – Head, legs, torso and arm. I roll for each piece and I need a 9 for it to survive.

Although not too common, it is possible to survive ammo explosions. Suppose my Attila’s SRM6 ammo in the RT was hit late in the match, with only two shot remaining, and 18 points o’ internal damage left in that section. SRM6 ammo does 12 damage per round. It would deal 24 damage to the Attila, blowing off the RT completely, and only carrying over 6 to the CT< which it likely could survive. I’d say maybe 29 in 30 explosions in mechs without CASE take in out.

Now, what I want to do is fast forward and run the Boxer and Typhon contracts. Then I’ll rewind back to March and continue the story. I find it easier to do things like this, all at once, then to do a campaign, and stop midway to do a company with a quick contract somewhere else.



Boxer Company and Lasalles


May 11 - we arrive on planet late on the day of the 11th, one day ahead of schedule. The Caps want us to attack the local Federated Commonwealth in Cap regalia to drive them off. Normally I have been asked to not do missions against the FedCom, since EE is in FedCom space. However, we are just a diversionary raid.

May 28 – We were able to land in a small industrial dropport away from everything else, and then prepare an exit. We are going to move in and attack the local militia here, which is just tanks and infantry, and then do enough damage to bring the mechs down to the area.

We move in with Boxer:

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


This is also a company with 7 elite, 1 vet, and 4 regulars. The Comet is another of our field made mechs. We often find scraps of 20 ton mechc after battles, so we used them to make some 20 ton scout mechs by hand.

Comet
20 tons
5/8/5

4 tons of armor – the max

2x Medium Lasers
5x Small Lasers


This is our Javelin, a pretty solid light mech with good movement and good weapons

Here are the tanks and vehicles and infantry we’ll be fighting.

Partisan – elite
Vedette
2x Goblin Medium Tank
3x Scorpion Light Tank
2x Pegasus Scout Hover Tank
J. Edgar
Brutas Assault Tank
Patton
Drillson
6x squads of infantry., all veterans.

This is a cake walk. They will leave easily.

We’ll be fighting on open concrete with only a few buildings for cover. The goal is to tear into them, and destroy them as quickly as possible, so that they’ll flee and we can reload before the mechs arrive a few hours later, and the real battle begins.

Turn 1 – We lose initiative. The combination of the speed of their scout elements and our forces running forward means we are in close combat already. Our Battle Master destroys the front of a Scorpion. Their Partisan hits a LL on a Rifleman after going internal on a through armor critical. Our Warhammer immobilizes a Pegasus by taking out the movement system. Their Patton gets a glancing blow against the head of our BattleMaster. Our Zeus immobilizes another Pegasus with an LRM15. The Zeus kicks and destroys one of the immobilized Pegasus rear armors. It’s gone.

Turn 2 – W lose init. Their Drillson charges my Griffin. All of the piloting skills were made by us and them. You can sometimes skid on granite when running or flanking speed with vehicles. Our Rifleman immobilizes their Vedette. Thunderbolt’s RA is opened up and its LL hit once. Our W-Hammer hits the fuel on a Goblin and blows it up. Our Catapult immobilizes their Drillson. Their Jump Platoon, Flamer hits both an engine and gyro on the Thunderbolt. The T Bolt falls. The W Hammer kicks and blows up the Vedette’s machine gun ammo – boom! The Griffin kicks and destroys the front of a Drillson.


Drillson, repair front, movement
Scorpion, front
Pegasus, rear, movement
Pegasus, movement


To fix:

Engine, gyro, large laser on T Bolt
Large Laser on R Man

We cannot repair the Thunderbolt, so we wheel it off along with the tanks. We rearm, rearmor and get the other mechs into working order. We move them, not to the DS we landed on, but to another on the other nearby DropPort 25 klicks away.

5 hours later, three DropShips arrive, and each has a company of mechs on board. They unload and flank us in and keep us from our original DS, which they think we were planning on leaving. We begin to run as if caught in a trap. As they unload, they try to harass us. Several light mechs manage to catch up, but they don’t have the power so they snipe from long distance just to keep us honest. Eventually, they fall back as their slower mechs are unable to keep up. We make it to the DS and blast off. We were expecting them to cover the exit, but they didn’t think to do it (I roll these things just to see, but nothing happened on their behalf)

We covered a full battalion fir a half day, and our liaison thanks us.

We blasted off, and will arrive back at the JumpShip and return quickly. We have to return to Cap space first, and then jump back.

We can’t fix the second Pegasus. We manage to take a Medium Laser and two SRM6s. We fix everything else for 710k.

We have to buy a new gyro for the T Bolt, and everything else is fixed:900k

Total cost for fixing and rearming and rearmoring and gyro:

1.905 mill



Pay:

879,877 Salary
275k battle loss
540k transport

1,800,000 Total


Costs:

900k transport
478,287 salaries and upkeep
1.905 refitting, reammo, gyro, and armor

Total lost: 1.483 mill

Equipment acquired:

Drillson
Scorpion
Pegasus



They will arrive back on September 5, 3050.

Typhon Company, Laurent


June 19 – We arrive in system, Here’s our elite company, in case you forgot since the last time we played:



Typhon Company:

WHM-6D Warhammer
HBK-4G Hunchback
STK-3F Stalker
AWS-8Q Awesome
MAD-3D Marauder
CLPT-A1 Catapult
CN9-FR Centurion
OTL-4D Ostsol
PXH-1K Phoenix Hawk
GHR-5N Grasshopper
JR7-F Jenner
OTT-7J Ostscout


The pilots are 11 elites and 1 veteran.

We made like we were landing on the planet, move to the moon a the last minute, land, drop out, and fight in the vacuum. We move quickly to the base around the post, and out comes…our intel is wrong…it’s too high. When intel misses, I check to see if it underestimated or overestimated. I rolled a 10, so that’s a serious miss, but it’s an under miss (2-6 in undermiss, 7+ is over miss). It’s not a company of mechs, but a reinforced lance of mechs (that’s five).

Our foes:

Rifleman 5M, veteran, LosTech mech
Goliath
Griffin 1E (variant with 5 MLs and PPC)
Scorpion
Spider


One of the iconic mechs of all time is a Marauder, and this is ours:

With these forces so overwhelmed, I lowered the requirement to retreat. They won’t leave with 25 or 30 or 40%, but 10%.

Turn 1 – We lose init, and in 0.6 gravity and a vacuum, things are a little weird. Several mechs fall during movement – our Ostscout, their Scorpion and Rifleman. Our Jenner hopped behind their Rifleman and destroys its rear CT armor and the vacuum breaches and it is destroyed. It’s RA is breached by our Awesome as well. They immediately hope out and retreat. We destroy the listening post within an hour, reboard the drop ship with the Rifleman and head back before they can respond from the planet.


Rifleman 5M, breached

We fix the breaches, and get the mech for free.


We keep the Rifleman 5M because we made need it soon

Money Made:

775k salary
900k transport
25k armor and ammo

Money Spent:

50k armor and ammo
1.8 mill transport
430k salary and upkeep


Lost 455k


We will not be tracking back home just yet. I may need to go somewhere else instead.


Updated Roster:

Aleph Company - FRR
Phaeton Company - FRR
Trinity Company - FRR
Delta Company - FRR
Cinq Company - FRR
Hex Company - FRR
Defender Company - FRR
Typhon Company – Finished contract Laurent on June 28th
Heliades Company - FRR
Tethys Company - FRR
Brawler Company - FRR
Lance Company - FRR
Mustang Company - FRR
Styx Company -
Boxer Company – Return to EE on September 5, 3050
Rebel Company – Return to EE on September 28, 3050


Shadow Company - Outreach
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion –
Delta Company -

Robin Hood - Assigned to Styx Company
Star River - In the FRR
Scots Flotilla - With Shadow Company


Okay, here we go.

The reason I ran those three contracts was, in addition to being a merc, I wanted preambles to what is about to happen. I also wanted no interference as we move to the meat of the dynasty. It’s about to all happen now. Starting now, we aren’t doing minor little contracts for the powers across the inner sphere. Starting now, wars will begin, and despite a few pauses here and there, they will continue for the rest of the story.

We are about to be forged in war or blasted in war.



End of the Prelude for The Invasion

Mar 2, 3050 – An unusual trio of JumpShips arrives at the Nadir Point in the Thule system. The locals are quite worried because they don’t match any known configuration, and they are bigger than normal. JumpShips aren’t like BattleMechs. You could, theoretically, hide a BattleMech factory or come across a new mech in some cache from the Star Legaue that has fallen off the face of the map, there are hundreds of models out there. Jump Ships are largely beyond the technology of today. You can’t just design a new one, and there were never that many designs to begin with. Whoever has these configurations has a massive amount of wealth and military or mercantile power. Many DropShips have left the JumpShips and are heading to Thule. Thule is not your normal system, and it takes more than 20 days to arrive at the planet.

Mar 24 – The many DropShips have arrived at the planet and are in orbit. They have not landed. As the last arrive, a hail is received at the military base of that Colonel Matthews runs. The following conversation is held:

“I am Khan Theresa DelVillar, of the Ghost Bear Clan. Who defends this world, and with what forces?”

Several FRR people tell the Colonel not to answer, but he points out that these are hardly pirates and hardly any other IS group – he suspects the Minnesota Tribe. Matthew Humphries moves to the screen, and orders communication back. “I am Colonel Matthew Humphries of the Kilts and Commandos. I hold this world. Who is attacking?”

“I am the Kahn of the great clan, the controller of three galaxies of the finest troops in all the Clans. What forces will you use to defend this world, and where will you fight?”

Matthew ponders for a moment. “You’ll let us choose the location, so there will no fighting near cities or people?”

“Of course!” snaps Khan DelVillar angrily.

The Rasalhague liaison pulls Matthews aside and “recommends” not giving the information. Humphries points out that this is a new group, we know nothing of them. Brand new JumpShips? Roughly 30 or 40 DropShips in orbit, also many with new configurations? There have been rumors of something strange happening in the periphery? He doesn’t know what is going on, but he knows one thing - any chance to avoid civilian casualties will be ones he takes.

He orders the file of the regiment he has sent to the Khan and her many DropShips. After a moment, she looks down and quickly reviews them.

“Your mercenary unit appears to specialize in small group combat. While I would like to honor that, all three galaxies want to fight for Thule.”

Matthew ponders for four seconds, and then responds, “We could fight one galaxy per continent. I will send out three separate companies of mechs to each location we choose, far away from any population center or infrastructure. Whoever wins the best two out of three wins.”

“That is satisfactory. Where would you like to fight, and what companies will you choose?”

After looking over the rosters, Matthew selects three companies. He’s been on Thule long enough to know exactly where to fight for each of them. He sends the information on. While thinking about it, he pushes it.

“Now, what happens if we win? It hardly seems fair that you can attack us without us winning anything.”

“In addition to keeping whatever you can salvage, you have the right to name an equal prize if you win.”

“What would be equal to a planet?” Matthew thinks. “How about one of those ships you jumped in here with?”

“We value our WarShips too highly. They are worth a lot more than a planet. I could give you a DropShip if you are interested.”

“How about two DropShips, since you seem to have so many.”

“I believe a DropShip is sufficient. Our ships are much better than your own. ”

“Alright, that seems fine by me.”

“Bargained well and done.”

“Um…bargained well and done to you too.”

The plan:

Each company will face a bid of clan mechs. The people in each galaxy will bid, until the lowest bid wins. The warrior who bids the lowest amount of materiel will lands and face off against one of our companies. As the battle progresses, should the winning bidder feel it necessary, they may add to the battle whatever forces take them back up to the previous low bid without a loss of honor (although if they do that, they also won’t win honor). Suppose, for example, that one person wins with a bid of 5 mechs and 25 elementals. The next lowest bid might be 5 mechs and 30 elementals. During the battle, if they need the extra firepower they could grab those 5 elementals. Losing is always a loss of honor, and it is better to take the extra forces you have in reserve than to lose honor by being beaten. There is a lot of strategy and politics in the bidding process.

Each battle will be fought, and then an hour delay will take place while sides recalibrate, and then the next will happen. If one side wins the first two, the Trial of Possession is over.

Here are the places and companies Matthews has chosen:

The continent of Akranes, light forested area, Defender Company, led by Colonel Humphries himself. All elite, and the company has 13 mechs normally, but he will be leaving the Comet behind. He wants to see if they can start out right, and he will be doing that personally. Defender Company are the ex-Defenders of Andurien that joined our unit.

The continent of Husavik, snow, cold, Delta Company, 8 elites 3 vets, 1 regular. This is our next best mix of mechs and man.

The continent of Vik, desert, very hot. Trinity Company, 9 elites, 2 vets and a regular. It’s a bit lighter than we would like for what is clearly going to be a brawl.

What I need to do is figure out what the bids will be. Here is what I know:

1). The Ghost Bears are the second cockiest clan at the expense of common sense, (at this stage of their Inner Sphere experience).
2). They have a very low opinion of all things mercenary
3). They believe that the forces and opposition in the Periphery represents the Inner Sphere as well.
4). This is the first planetary assault against an Inner Sphere target for Clan Ghost Bear, they might bid low to be involved.

The combination of these four factors leads me to believe that the Ghost Bears will not be cautious with their bid, but instead very aggressive.

Going down to two stars is easy to see (one star is five points. A mech is one point, and 5 elementals are one point, so a star has five mechs or 25 elementals). That is an easy bid against 12 Inner Sphere mechs, mercenaries, and so forth. Someone will bid that down to one mech star and one elemental star. Will that win? We’re going to say yes. Normally, I’d suspect that it would go lower, but the Defender Company includes Colonel Matthews himself. He is the only person so far to actually bid for the planet, so that comes with respect for the title and the bid.

The bid for Delta Company is quick. It goes to 7 mechs. The same bid wins against Trinity Company. Each of those can bring in an addition mech, but the first bid cannot bring in anything more, because the highest bid was a tie (two stars to two stars, with the elementals being considering the lower bid due to their nature).

Defender Company will be facing 25 elementals and 5 front line OmniMechs. Delta and Trinity will each be facing 7 frontline OmniMechs. The battles are staggered and everybody will be watching.

Defender Company, without the Comet:

AS7-K Atlas (LosTech Mech)
HBK-4G Hunchback
ON1-V Orion
GHR-5H Grasshopper
BLR-1G BattleMaster
WTH-1 Whitworth
WHR-6R Warhammer
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
JNV-10N Javelin
GRF-1N Griffin
HER-2M Hermes II
FS9-M Firestarter

This is a fairly balanced roster, Inner Sphere wise, with two assaults, three heavies, five mediums, and two lights. We removed the 20 ton light Comet.

We will be entering the woods from the west, and they from the east. We have arranged to begin battle in a fairly confined space, so that the fighting will be fast and furious.

How clan battles differ:

1). The clans will push these battles to the max. There will be no surrender or leaving after losing a few mechs. In fact, I am ordering no end to the battle, and I will end it when I honestly believe one side or the other has actually won. Because they push hard, expect mechs to fall. This isn’t a campaign with tactical retreats. We can surrender at any time, of course

2). The clans will not engage in physical attacks - they deem them dirty. This may come to a head with Trinity Company, which has a Hatchetman.

3). Clanners want to fire one on one engagements in the field of battle. It is dishonorable for more than one foe to attack the same foe, unless that foe already attacked more than one themself. In fact, you will often see a side where one person fires at multiple foes, and then gets fired on by multiple enemies, but everybody else still engages in one:one combat. If a side violates this, everybody will. Because of this, scout mechs don’t have the same function to clans as they do to the IS, and stars do not fight as a coherent unit. (However, we can’t get MegaMek to abide by these rules of Zellbrigen, so they’ll just concentrate their fire like everyone else).

4). The clan mechs are massively better than anything the Inner Sphere has ever seen. They have longer ranges, weigh less, deal more damage, etc. Equipment, armor, XL engines, CASE, everything is better.

5). Elementals are highly trained and capable warriors in battle armor. They are a real threat.

6). Due to training and genetics, clan pilots are always one better at gunnery and piloting than the equivalent rank of IS pilot. Thus, an elite IS pilot is as good as a clan vet. The cap on skills by IS MechWarriors is 2/2, but the cap on clanners is 1/1.

For these contests, no pushing off the map is allowed.

These are the mechs that Defender Company has drawn: (The OmniMech each has two names, an IS name for it and the clan for it, the clan is first) – we’ll be using their Inner Sphere names.

Fire Moth aka Dasher, Primary Config, 20 tons
Viper aka Dragonfly, Alternate A, 40 tons
Mad Dog aka Vulture, Primary Config, 60 tons
Hellbringer aka Loki, Alternate B, 65 tons
Executioner aka Gladiator, Primary Config, 95 tons

Each of these pilots is elite 1/2

Each of the five points of Elemental Armor is veteran 2/3 save one is 1/2.

This is their Vulture, a 60 ton OmniMech with a lot of space for weapons, but not a lot of other stuff.

Just wanted to let you know I am enjoying this...I had to go back and read from the 1st to now, but it's definitely a good read.

The Battle Value is 26998 us and 26301 them. This should be very close.

Alons-y!

Turn 1 – We win initiative. Matthews isn’t sure what these toad like looking things are, but his best guess is battle armor – although they are bigger than any battle armor he’s ever heard of. Their Mad Dog Prime goes critical on my Orion and hits three actuators on the leg. Their Fire Moth Prime gets a through armor critical and nails the hip on my grasshopper. The head on the Grasshopper is hit three times with missiles from Elementals and the pilot blacks out. My Atlas destroys the LT, LA and LL of their Fire Moth/Dasher. The LL was blown off. It survives if we win. My Orion and Grasshopper fall. SO does their Dasher.

T2 – I lose init. I stand the Orion and spin it. Our Warhammer destroys the RT of their Dasher and blows off the RA and destroys the engine. Their Hellbringer focuses on e immobile Grasshopper and hits the gyro and engine each once. Their Executioner Prime destroys the CT of it, and our Grasshopper is gone. They out maneuvered me that turn.

T3 – We lose init. Our Firestarter hits the engine once on their Mad Dog Prime. The AC20 is hit twice on my Hunchy by their Mad Dog. My Atlas hits the engine on their Hellbringer. We miss some easy shots – 6 on AC 20, 5 on Gauss, etc. We kick elementals and the MD Prime.

T4 – We finally win init. Our BM destroys the LT of their Mad Dog, Our Atlas destroys its RT. Our Orion takes out the engine of the Mad Dog. An Elemental hits the LRM 10 on our Griffin.

T5 – We win init again. We kill a few Elementals this round, and my Whitworth falls after taking damage.

T6 – We lose init. I stand up the WW. Their Hellbringer blows off the LA of my Griffin. Their clan elemental hits the LRM10 in my WW. Our Warhammer ignites the LB5X ammo on their Hellbringer but CASE keeps it alive. Col. Humphries in his Atlas destroys the LT and CT of their Viper. We destroy four more troops in various squads.

T7 – We lose init again. Our BM hits the Gyro once and Engine twice of their Hellbringer. That’s three engine hits and it is destroyed. Elementals destroy the LA of my Javelin. Our jav destroys one of the elemental units. An Elemental hits the engine on our Orion.

T8 - We lose initiative. Our Atlas hits the machine gun ammo on the Gladiator and blows up the LT. We kill two more troops as well, one with a big ol’ Atlas kick.

T9 – We win init. The only weapon the E Prime has left is a Gauss. We kill seven troopers and the Firestarter takes out a squad. An Atlas kick kills an 8th trooper. With one mech with only a Gauss Rifle in one hand, and a handful of elementals left, they call it.


Dasher RA, LL
Vulture missing RT, LT, enginex1, LA, RA
Dragonfly, LA, H, LL, RL, RT, RA
Loki, missing LA, enginex4, gyrox1
Gladiator LA


Grasshopper H, RL, LL
Missing Jav LA

To fix – AC20x2, Hunchy; Orion three actuators, 1 e ngine; LRM 10 Griffin, reattach LA of Griffin, WW LRm10,


Well, we lost a Grasshopper and are down to 12 mechs (The Comet didn’t fight) – the pilot lived though.

We’ll come back later and look at replacemnts, weapons, fixing things and so forth.

Oh, and MechWarrior Michael Henry of the BattleMaster will now have Edge: 1

Thanks!

Delta, Husavik, the cold

Delta’s Company:

BNC-3E Banshee
AWS-8Q Awesome
WHM-6D Warhammer
DRG-1N Dragon
CRD-3R Crusader
BLR-1G BattleMaster
CLPT-C1 Catapult
BL-7-KGT Black Knight
SDR-5V Spider
PSH-1 Phoenix Hawk
HER-2S Hermes II
WSP-1A Wasp

Let’s see what mechs the Ghost Bears will be using:

Koshi, Prime
Dragonfly, D
Black Hawk, Prime
Vulture, Prime
Thor, C
Man o’ War, B
Masakari, Prime

It’s -10 degrees outside. The place we are fighting Is not snowed in, it’s a taiga with a small number of conifers and a gentle hill.

All of their pilots are elite 1/2.


This is their Masakari, a power 85 ton OmniMech

The Battle Values are 32925 us and 33779 them.

Their mech sizes are 25 tons, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 and 85.

T1 – We lose initiative. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Koshi. Their Thor hits a shoulder actuator on our Black Knight’s LA. Their Man o’ War destroys our Wasp’s LA. Our Phoenix Hawk has its RA blown off.

T2 – We win init. I stand up the Phoenix Hawk and run into heavy woods. We destroy the Koshi’s CT with the blast of a BattleMaster’s PPC. It’s RL was also destroyed by LRMs from a Crusader. Our Wasp’s H is sheared off by an ER PPC that deals 15 damage – Gauss Rifle level of damage. Samir Azif died. A through armor critical from a Catapult’s LRMs hits the Ultra AC20 on their Thor – nice!

T3 - We win init. The RA of our Banshee is destroyed in a blast of fire from several mechs on it. Our Black Knight hits a hip actuator on their Dragonfly. Both our Banshee and their Dragonfly fall.

T4 – They win init. We exchange more fire. The only major damage is their Dragonfly, which is internal isn both legs. We kicked it with a Spider and hit two more actuators. It fell again.

T5 – We win init. Our Dragon ignites the srm ammo in the LA of the Man o’ War. Boom! No more left arm, CASE prevents the mech from going too. The LRM 10 was also there, so all it has left is a Gauss Rifle. Their Black Hawk manages to destroy the RT and RA of my Hermes II. A massive BattleMaster kick destroys the left leg of their Thor.

T6 – The Thor tries to stand and fails. We pour fire into it and the BattleMaster kills it after hitting the gyro twice and engine twice on critical. Their Dragonfly is also taken down after missiles from our Crusader destroy both legs. An LRM 15 on our Catapult is hit twice and a foot actuator on the RL is hit. It remains standing.

T7 – A pair of ERPPCs from the Masakari lance into the Hermes II and hit the AC5 ammo. It explodes. Our Dragon’s AC nails the Masakari back and gets a through armor critical, nailing the targeting computer. The Awesome’s triple PPCs tear off the Black Hawk’s RT. A kick from a Phoenix Hawk takes down their Black Hawk.

With the Dragonfly, Koshi and Thor dead, and a one weapon Man o’ War, and no more ammo left for the LRM20s of the Mad Dog and now with a savaged Black Hawk and Masakari, they are reeling. They surrender and we call it.

We have on two of the three battle and won a DropShip. Let’s look at scraps.

Recovered:

Koshi, RT, RA, LT, H, LL
Thor, gyrox2, nginex2, 2xAc20 Ultra, missing LL.
Dragonfly, missing both legs
Black Hawk RA

Hermes II - LA, H


Phoenix Hawk – reattach RA
Wasp – missing LA, H
Black Knight – repair shoulder act
Banshee - RA
Catapult, LRM15, actuator


Winning stuff from the Clans is not like Inner Sphher estuff. We don’t have ammo for their weapons, their ferro fib armor is better than ours, so we can’t take their Dragonfly, and suddenly replace it with Inner Sphere legs. It has advanced Endo Steel beyond the endo we have in the Inner Sphere, so I can’t replace it. I can’t replace ferro fib armor and so forth.

We lost three mechs in the two matches, and one is recoverable. Let’s look overall at our salvage and discoveries and such:


We fix – Hunchy’s AC 20, Orion’s engine and actuators, Griffin LRM 10 and reattached arm, Whitworth’s LRM10, reattached P Hawk’s arm, fixed Black Knights actuator, and fixed both issues in Catapult.

We need to acquire Banshee RA, Wasp LA and H, and Javelin LA. Total cost:

1.84 mill

For armor, we’ll need 35 tons for the first match and 25 for the second. 600k. We blew through a lot of missile boats, and need 1.25 mill in ammo replacements (missiles are expensive).

Total for armor, ammo and replacements:3.69 mill This fixes our mechs and gets them back in order, but it does not replace the Grasshopper or Hermes II that are gone.



For reference, here is our contract with the FRR.

Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Length:5 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2 with a 25% bonus for long campaigns
12.5% bonus

We keep everything we find, and that looks really good now. It ends May 1, 3051. Twelve companies have this contract.

I get half of my battle loss, so I only lose 1.845 mill. Plus I get half the value of the two mechs I lost, minus their items. I make 3.55 mill as my 50% loss. Thus, I actually gain 1.705 mill.

We manage to fix everything in the Thor. We find an extra leg of the right size which will work (no endo steel) and we strip scraps of ferro fib armor from the pieces to shore it up. In two weeks, we will have a working Thor C for 450k.

We fix the Vulture engine.

I attach the RL and LL Dragonfly parts I took in the first battle with the damaged one. Both fit. In 5 days, I’ll have a working Dragonfly D.

We fix the gyro on the Loki, but not the engine. It will need replaced. Since it is a clan XL engine, we will be unable to replace it on the market.

My techs strips off Clan weapons and equipment from salvaged arms and legs. We get:

Clan Tech:


SRM 6x2
Artemis IV FCS
ER Medium Laserx9
ER Large Laserx2
1 double Heat Sink
Beagle Active Probe
Streak SRM 4 – half ton of ammo
Machine Gun




The OmniMechs that we just faced, and that we have two of now, are different sort of BattleMechs. They have built in pods and modules with universal adapters and circuits for various weapons and equipment. They can quickly and effortlessly switch configurations based on mission, pilot choice, and environment. Nobody owns things in the warrior caste, so a Vulture that one MechWarrior might take out would be very different than another Vulture being taken for a spin. This modular-ness makes clan weapons and equipment easy to take off various sections. It’s also easy to put things on, if I have clan tech items. Inner Sphere items like C3 Computers would have to be adapted to fix in these pods and work with these electronics.

We won a Union-C, a recently built Union with clan technology, clan weapons, and a bigger size to accommodate 15 mechs instead of 12 in the old Unions. We rechristen it the Serendipitous Victory. We’ll need to find a crew for it, which will take some time adjusting to new controls and such. It features 6 Gauss Rifles, 3 ER Large Lasers, 5 Large Pulse Lasers, 12 Medium Pulse Lasers and 3 LRM20s with Artemis.


Khan DelVillar makes sure that the Union-C is delivered promptly. She meets with Col. Humphries later that day. She tells him that she is impressed. No one else has answered the clan’s batchall in their invasion of the periphery or inner sphere, let alone actually manage to beat them. She advises him that other groups might do a Trial of Possession for Thule, but there is a history in the Clan of not going after the same thing over and over again I hopes of being lucky – so her three galaxies will leave Thule alone for a while.

Several of the Clanners are despondent. Humphries allows the Ghost Clan Galaxies to stay on planet for a few days, stretching their legs, fixing machines, and regrouping their plans. They are proud to tell him that they are Clan Ghost Bear, one of the 20 clans of Nicholas Kerensky, and his father Alexandr Kerensky. They aren’t interesting in giving history lessons, but it’s clear that one of the greatest mysteries of history, what happened to Kerensky’s fleet, has been solved. While it is clear that they have an odd culture, Humphries respects their restriction of war and combat to keep infrastructure and civilians safe. Both the Clan and Col. Matthew Humphries havea new respect for each other,.

Before they blast off, they let him know that they have taken systems in the periphery and there are no pirates left back there. They also have their spirits lifted when messages come in that they have taken three other Rasalhague targets – Holmsbu, Damien and Pinnacle. An assault on a Draconis system will occur in a couple of weeks.

Very nice, Abe! Back on board for more of the show!

Tell

I admit, that this is the first time the history of the Inner Sphere has changed as a result of the existence of Kilts and Commandos. Every other mission, assault, invasion or planetary defense has not seen the results change. Breed ended a month or two early because of Ted Izumo. Other than that, everything has been on the fringes of history. This is a change.

In real history, Thule was very tough to take, but the Bears managed it, but then lost it and had to retake it, and other world they left paltry garrisons on. You have to understand that having the clans coming from the great beyond is one of the great storylines of the entire BattleTech universe. In order to make the clans a serious juggernaut and threat, they had to portray them as virtually unbeatable. No assaults would lose for some time. The handful of victories would require guile, severe wars, and massive engagements. Those systems will become clarion calls for the Inner Sphere – Remember Wolcott and Luthien.

This is a war game. The universe is constantly at war, and the storyline is always pushing something forward as the next conflict. Even though it would make perfect sense for the cocky clans (everybody but Wolf) who are early on severely underestimating the Inner Sphere opponents to lose a battle here and there. You can bet that future battle with Col. Humphries will be rougher.

Also, most COs would not have trusted his enemies like Matthew did. I placed the one person in the Inner Sphere who would most want to trust them in order to avoid civilian casualties right in their way. Thule has emerged from a planetary assault with no damages and no deaths other than a few warriors. Figuring out what the clans wanted and working with it is just a bit off the cuff, but not that unreasonable. All of the evidence suggested that these were not pirates or an IS state, and only some unknown was possible. For his trust in the enemy, Col. Humphries was rewarded. He has sent a message to the battalion garrisoning Last Frontier.

Glad you are ready and happy!

EVENT - Apr 1 – Due to the current upheaval in the Inner Sphere, no mercenary contracts are available for the next three months.

April 2, 3050 – Ghost Bear forces blast off Thule and head to continue their invasion against the Inner Sphere.

April 4 – A message arrives from Baron Jorgensson. After losses to the clans on his other systems, the Clans have taken control and are changing government and systems and laws. It’s a radical shift of power. Of his systems he controls, only Thule remains free, so the Baron will be arriving in the system soon and on planet by the end of the month.

Apr 7 – It appears that ComStar has decided to assist the Ghost Bears in running their new systems.

Apr 11 – The invasion is worst than originally thought. Information has begun t pour in from the news networks. Other systems have been falling with speed. Seven more Rasalhague systems have fallen to Clan Wolf already. Rumors are that at least five systems have fallen in the Combine and the FedComs have lost at least five as well. New reports from Thule and victories here against the clans are making major news.

Apr 15 – Several major news networks have serious news programs about the ComStar collaboration with the invaders.

Apr 16 – A major biography of Col. Braham Essex and his Kilts and Commandos unit was a leading documentary story today. The only unit to actually defeat the clans is a mercenary unit from Epsilon Eridani.

Apr 23 – The Ghost Bears have jumped out of the system.

Apr 26 - A message has arrived at system commending Humphries and his people from Braham.

April recruited from Outreach by Braham and Ted.

Medium, regular, pilot
Elite, light, pilot
Elite, dispossessed
Nothing
Assault, green, pilot

Here is the new AeroSpace company, with 14 fighters:

Lt. Larry Rowe, elite, Transgressor
Sgt. Charlene Marshall, elite, CHP-W5 Chippewa *
Sgt. Steve Harrison, elite, SL-17 Shilone *
Elite, Meghan Gomez, CSR-12 Corsair
Elite, Sparrowhawk, SPR-H5, Anatoly Shevchenko
Green, Gustav Rivaldi, CHP-W5 Chippewa
Green, James Ovango, LTN-G15 Lightning
Green, Barbara Fleischauer, F-10 Cheetah
Veteran, LCF-R15 Lucifer, Cao Biyu
Regular, Sparrowhawk, SPR-H5, Gita Sharma
Regular, CSR-12 Corsair, Irene Gaines
Regular, CSR-12 Corsair, Ryan Fletcher
Regular, THK33-Tomahawk, Salva Mestina
Regular, F-90 Stingray, Molly Ensworth

I bought the ones in asterisks for the two dispossessed pilots. I spent 8.8 mill for them both.

Ted and Braham and Shadow Company will head back to EE for a rest of April with our AeroSpace company. They need to regroup and come up with a new plan


April 26 - Several other systems have fallen to the clans. As of right now, the best guess is that 25-30 (The real number is 33) systems have fallen, with news of another system that is taken appearing to come out every day.

April 27 – Baron Jorennson lands at Thule by using a pirate jump point. The Baron gets a look at the clan OmnIMechs we have up and running, and spends a day to give out some awards, the Rasalhague Star to each member of Defender Company and Trinity Company. Col. Humphries is awarded the Tyr Cluster. Everybody is talking about Matthew Humphries and Kilts and Commandos this month. It’s the only positive news, and people need good news right now.

Now it is time to plan the next level.

Both the Baron and Matthew believe that the Trial of Possession can be enacted by the IS just as it was used in defense by Matthew. Most other planets haven’t even responded to the batchalls by the clans. The Baron wants Matthew to take a battalion of troops and try to retake planets already taken. Since Thule can be targeted, we have to leave behind the bulk of our forces. The Baron brought some extra transportation with him, and he wants Matthew to leave within three days.

Our first goal will be to hit Damian, the only FRR system within one jump. From there, targets will be at Humphries’s discretion.

May 2 – We blast off from Thule, and will jump to Damian on the 14th. after arriving at a pirate jump to jump out. We’ll arrive at the planet by May 20th. Col. Mathews has been given operational command of a JumpShip and two Drop Ships.

He will be taking Defender Company, Trinity and Delta, since they are experienced and his best. A field promotion to Captain is temporary given to Lt Martin Fitzgerald of Phaeton Company, and he will be running the defense. He gets a detailed instruction on batchall and more.

May 8 – Inner Sphere resistance against the weak garrison units left by the Clans is growing and a lot of people are getting upset at ComStar helping to run these planets.

May 9 – New information arrives that more systems are falling. Thule gets the info quicker because it is so close to the action. Many of these systems are two or three or four jumps away, so the news is fast. Two months ago, the Free Rasalhague Republic had more than 80 systems. Today, it has around 65, and falling quickly.

May 10 – In order to push against the invasion, our battalion on Last Frontier is ordered to Trondheim and another force will be rotated in.

May 14 – We arrived at the Damian system at the nadir point. A message comes in from the planet. A mercenary company named Black Omen. They hid when the normal assault occurred and then came out and surprised and took out the clan garrison. Humphries decides to skip Damian for now and move to Holmsbu.

May 17 – A Ghost Bear WarShip jumps in at the Nadir Point, but is a bit off from this area, and in a few minutes, an asteroid hits it. Humphries gets to the command center and orders the captain to give him info. The WarShip was damaged, and it looks like a large DropShip was totally destroyed. Matthew Humphries orders communications established with the nearby ship and the DropShips readied for zero g. The captain refuses at first but Humphries reminds her that he is operational control, and that supersedes her rank. She continues to refuse, and Humphries has her relieved and puts a lieutenant in charge temporary. The lieutenant contacts the clan and Humphries introduces himself and offers his assistance. They recognize him, and accept.

Within 15 minutes, all three DropShips lift off from the JumpShip and head to the WarShip. Crew get out in zero g suits and help bring in people and open up material and seal holes. After a few hours, everybody realizes that the destroyed DropShip is a total write off. A full cluster of MechWarriors and mechs was in there, and that’s about equivalent to 40-50 MechWarriors. It’s a major hit to the Clan.

After Beta Galaxy recovers, in part due to Humphries’s aid, they tell him that they are here to recapture Damien. Humphries contacts the Black Omens and tells them to receive the Batchall and not to avoid it. They refuse too, and the lieutenant refuses to listen to Humphries’s operational command or higher rank. Humphries considers about possibilities. The Ghost Bears wouldn’t agree to a Trial of Possession for their other two DropShips. You couldn’t do one out here, because he doesn’t have command over the planet right now. The Black Omen is about to get hammered. Without the ability to catch the clans off guard, Humphries will move on.

May 22 – They jump to Holmsbu.

May 26 – After arriving at Trondheim, our battalion from Last Frontier discover that is was captured by Ghost Bear two days ago. They are being redirected to Radlje, just past Last Frontier. The Wolves are driving deep into Rasalhague space, and the news from the Draconis Combine and then the Federated Commonwealth is not encouraging.

May 28 – The Ghost Bears order a gathering at Damian to honor their lost cluster

May 29 – We arrive at Holmsbu and Humphries offers a batchall like he learned. He uses the exact same language, word for word. There is a trinary left on the planet as a garrison (10 mechs, 25 elementals). They will all be defending the planet. They want Col. Matthews to return their DropShip if he loses, and he agrees. It’s a black eye they’d like to erase. They will be defending a set of open land with a small number of hills and trees. Humphries decides to land Trinity and Defender companies one side of their trinary and Delta on the other side. He wants to separate their forces because three stars of their forces are too tough for one of our companies and yet they are used to fighting in groups of 5 as Stars, and not necessarily in 15, and we are used to 12 and not necessarily 24 or 36.

Humphries tries to push his troops toward each other, and expects that they’ll spin and attack the Delta, rather than face the two other companies. Once they begin to do exactly that, he orders the light and super fast elements of all three companies to speed out and around the clan mechs, drawing lines with fire and speed to keep them corralled. They easily manage to break out – they are just faster overall. Delta is able to keep a distance so they turn and move towards Defender and Trinity. Despite his attempts to split them, he is unable to do so.

It will be Defender and Trinity companies combined vs 10 OmniMechs and 25 elementals. This will be a major battle.

Trinity:

AS7-D Atlas
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
HCT-3F Hatchetman
ZEU-6S Zeus
OTL-4D Ostsol
TBT-5N Trebuchet
GOL -1H Goliath
RFL-3N Rifleman
OTT-7J Ostscout
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
SDR-5V Spider
CDA-2A Cicada

Defender:

AS7-K Atlas
HBK-4G Hunchback
ON1-V Orion
Thor C
BLR-1G BattleMaster
WTH-1 Whitworth
WHR-6R Warhammer
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
CMT-1 Comet
JNV-10N Javelin
GRF-1N Griffin
HER-2M Hermes II
FS9-M Firestarter

The elite Grasshopper pilot was given the Thor, with its Ultra AC 20


What will they have?
Dasher, Primary
Uller, Primary
Dragonfly, B
Dragonfly, Primary
Ryoken, Primary
Vulture, Primary
Vulture, C
Mad Cat, Primary
Masakari, A
Gladiator, D


Being on the garrison means you are among the worst MechWarriors, so these are all veterans, which is equal to our elite.

We will be on the east and they on the west

Here is their Dragonfly, a 40 ton fast mech that Ghost Bears love:

Turn 1 – We lose init. I try to move my troops to take the woods. Our Spider hits the Engine and a double HS on their Dasher. Our Warhammer nails an LRM20 on their Vulture Prime. Their Masakari hit s the engine on our Hatchetman. Our Warhammer falls.

T2 – We lose init again. The Rifleman trips and falls while moving. We stand our Warhammer up. Our Hunch hits the Upper Leg actuator on a Dragonfly. Col Humphries hits the engine on their Vulture prime. THE lower leg actuator and AC5 on our Rifleman is hit by a Dragonfly Prime. Our Zeus destroys the LT of their Vulture Prime. The pilot takes two damage from exploding LRM ammo and blacks out. The Goliath hits and destroys the CT section of their Dasher. The other Atlas kills two troopers. Our Goliath is savaged by their Gladiator and damaged PPC and LRM10 twice. Their Vulture Prime falls. We kick and kill two more troops with peoples.

T3 – We lose init. One of their elementals hits the head of a BattleMaster but its still okay. Our Firestarter finishes out a star of elementals. Their Mad Cat hits an engine on our Goliath. Their Gladiator nails an actuator on its front right leg. We kick and kill another trooper with our BattleMaster.

T4 – We win ini.t. Our FS kills two troopers, and our BattleMaster destroys the RA of their Dragonfly B. Our Orion opens up the Shoulder on their Uller’s RA. The Whitworth kills a trooper. Our Warhammer destroys the Uller’s LA. They jumped a Dragonfly over by our fallen Rifleman and get two engine hits and destroy its LA. An Atlas and Thor each kill troopers. Their Mad Cat destroys the RT and RA of our Trebuchet. A Vulture hits its engine once. AC20 is hit once on my Atlas by their Gladiator. That Atlas turns around and destroys a star of elementals. We kick and kill a trooper and our Spider kicks and hits the Upper Leg actuator on their Dragonfly B’s RL and it falls.

T5 – We win init again. Our BattleMaster takes out the RT and engine of their Uller. Our Zeus destroys the LA of their Ryoken. Their Mad Cat destroys the LA of our Ostsol. An Atlas kicks and destroys the RT of a Dragonfly.

T6 – We win init. One of the wooded hexes that had an elemental in it last turn was set on fire, and this tunr, while leaving, they were burned up and dead. Elementals hit our Whitworth’s head but no problems beyond that. Our Hermes II hits the engine on their Dragonfly Prime. Our Loki hits the ER PPC on the RA of their Dragonfly B twice and destroys its LL. Our Zeus destroys the head of their Ryoken. Boom! Our Thunderbolt destroyed the LA and RA of their Dragonfly B. The Hatchetman kills two troopers. Their Gladiator hits a hip actuator on Col. Humphries Atlas . Both leg damaged mechs fall. The Dragonfly is unable to stand back up with no hands and one missing leg.

T7 – We lost init. Our wounded Atlas rises. We move and tear into their mad Cat. Our Loki hits with an AC20 Ultra twice, once in the LL and once in the LA. Our WW kills a elemental. The Warhammer hits an engine and gyro on the Mad Cat. Our Hermes II destroys the RA of their Dragonfly Prime. An Atlas destroys the LL of their Mad Cat. Our Hunchback’s LA is destroyed by elementals and Gladiator. Our P Hawk destroys the RT of their Mad Cat and that’s three engine hits and it shuts down. Their Masakari hits the LRM20 on our Atlas. Our Whitworth and Ostscout each kill troops with kicks. Our Hatchetman nails the back of their Dragonfly Prime with its Hatchet and hits an engine.

They begin to leave the battlefield and we allow it. They had just two elementals and four mechs left, two of which were quite damaged. The Dragonfly Prime, Masakari, Gladiator and Vulture C with the two gauss rifles will be leaving.

Their Vulture Prime pilot never woke up. We’ve got ourselves a prisoner.

Vulture Prime LA reattached, enginex1, destroyed LT
Dasher Prime H, LL, RL, RT, LT, RA, LA
Uller Prime missing RT, enginex3m reattach RA
Ryoken, missing H, LA
Dragonfly B, missing LA, LL, RA
Mad Cat, missing Rt, engine x3, gyrox1,


To fix:

Hatchetman engine, Rifleman AC5 acutaor, 2x engine, missing LA; Goliath PPCx2, LRM10x2, enginex1, FRLx1; RA and RT destroyed on Trebuchet, 1xengine; AC20x2 Atlas; Ostsol missing LA; Atlas hip; Hunchback LA destroyed;

We have retaken Holmsbu!

Our prisoner is a MechWarrior named Magnus. Magnus is a veteran (for clans, 2/3). We have taken him aboard our DropShip for now. The Ghost Bears gather their things and leave later that day, but they never asked a about Magnus.



We fix: Hatchetman, Rifleman everything but LA, Goliath, Trebuchet engine, Atlasx2. We need – Hunch LA, Ostsol LA, Trebuchet RA, RT and Rifleman LA. Total costs: 1.655 mill. These will take 11 days to repair and 2 more weeks to reattach limbs. Local Holmsbu folks will help us speed that up considerably.

For armor and ammo – 750k

What we do is what Braham Essex calls a Rotating Target strategy. He would move one mech to an exposed position, and people would target it, and few would attack the other mechs. Then he’d expose another. This tactic works against the clans, but they do a lot more damage. In these battles, each time we’re losing body parts and weapons and going internal in three places. It’s crazy.

We only have to pay half, due to our contract: 1.5775 mill

Clan repairs:

Mad Cat Prime, fixed save RT and still unattached RA
Vulture Prime, fixed save destroyed LT and still unattached LA
Uller Prime, fixed, missing RT and still unattached RA
Dragonfly B – Attached arms from old Dragonfly parts, still missing LL

Items stripped from extra Dasher limbs:

SRM6
SRM4
2xER Medium Laser

We didn’t get any new stuff.

Our Thor doesn’t have the ammo for the Ultra AC 20, so I need to replace it

Experience:

Defender Company’s Firestarter pilot Orlof Magnusson is getting Edge: 1.
Trinity’s CO Captain Jason Thomas in the Atlas is getting Edge: 2.

Col. Humphries moves to meet with Magnus, who is currently in a locked room. Magnus looks up expectantly from his rest bed, where he is convalescing. He greets Matthew warmly. After talking with him, Magnus seems to expect that he will be joining Kilts and Commandos now. Due to the reputation that Humphries has with his people as an honorable man, Magnus tells him that captured personnel of any sort are usually taken as Bondsmen. They are given a bondscord and must re-earn their previous place and prove their new loyalty. Humphries agrees and cuts off a length of tassel from his dress uniform and binds it about Magnus’s left wrist. When Magus is deemed to be ready, the cord is cut. Some clans have three cords, but not all do. After being defeated in combat, Magnus is looking forward to joining Kilts and Commandos.

Over the next few weeks, Magnus will be Matthew Humphries’s attaché. He guides Matthew through various instructions about clan society, including the various Trials.

May 31 – News comes in of more systems falling.

June 3 – There are Ghost Bear Services at Damien, and no offensives are occurring right now.

June 5 – Our battalion arrives at Radlje from Trondheim, and begins to garrison it.

June 6 – The base armor and reloads and some refits are done to our mechs, and we lift off from Holmsbu again.

June 9 – Ghost Bear takes a vote, and they decide to keep pressing, despite their losses.

June 10 – By now, Can Wolf has taken 16 systems, Jade Falcon at least 20, Smoke Jaguar 15, and Ghost Bear 7, but they lost Holmsbu to us just now, so 6.

June 13 – Shocking images arrive today across the Inner Sphere as the Smoke Jaguars have destroyed the city of Edo on the planet of Turtle Bay after rebels struck several places. They used orbital bombardment to destroy it. That is a weapon not used since the earliest succession wars. More than one million people had lived in Edo.

June 14 – A WarShip has arrived at Holmsbu, and Ghost Bear is arriving to recapture the planet. At the same time, Humphries jumps out to Damian to get news.

June 15 – Col. Matthew Humphries and his unit has arrived back at Damian and gets the news that it was retaken by the Bears, and this time, they have left very large garrisons. We won’t be able to land and retake them in a simple Trial of Possession. They would use all of their forces to defend the planet. There could be 40-55 mechs there, and there is no way that Matthew’s 36 would win. They use the KF batteries to ump again.

June 16 – They arrive at Pinnacle, another system taken by the Bears that was once Rasalhague. Reports a while ago suggested that the Bears had put a small garrison here too. Holmsbu has fallen again to the Bears. Matthews moves towards the planet .

June 20 - Khan Jorgensson contacts Clan Steel Viper to garrison their worlds.

June 22 – Matthew arrives at Pinnacle in DropShips and issues a Batchall. It is received and they send back information about the defenders. They have 15 mechs. They want to fight in the nearby hills.

Humphries orders his troops down. All of the damages have been fixed, except for those to clan mechs. We have to send a different configuration of the Thor, since we have no more Ultra AC 20 ammo. Our techs were able to make regular AC20 ammo into Ultra AC 20 ammo after spending some time at it. We have ammo for the Ultra AC 20.

These are their mechs:


Dasher EUK
Dasher D (Nasty variant)
Uller, Prime
Dragonfly, Prime
Dragonfly, F- UK (With 4 SRM4s, 2 ER ML and 1 ER SL)
Fenris B
Fenris C
Black Hawk, D
Vulture C
Vulture Prime
Vulture F-Uk (Two large pulse lasers, 4 medium pulse lasers)
Thor A
Man o’ War Prime
Gladiator D
Gladiator I-UK (2 large pulses, 4 medium pulses targeting computer, AMS, ECM Suite


Everybody is a veteran (IS equivalent of elite).

Instead of using our normal units, we will be using Hammer and Anvil lances in each company (the fire support and close combat mechs). Due to the weakness of the scout units, we will not be using any scout lances. That gives us:

Defender:

AS7-K Atlas
HBK-4G Hunchback
ON1-V Orion
Thor C
BLR-1G BattleMaster
WTH-1 Whitworth
WHR-6R Warhammer
GRF-1N Griffin

Trinity:

AS7-D Atlas
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
HCT-3F Hatchetman
ZEU-6S Zeus
OTL-4D Ostsol
TBT-5N Trebuchet
GOL -1H Goliath
RFL-3N Rifleman


Delta:

BNC-3E Banshee
AWS-8Q Awesome
WHM-6D Warhammer
DRG-1N Dragon
CRD-3R Crusader
BLR-1G BattleMaster
CLPT-C1 Catapult
BL-7-KGT Black Knight

We’re going to man up and try to blast the clans off Pinnacle


Here is the Thor, which both of us now have. It’s a solid 70 OmniMech design with 5/8/5 movement.

The BV favors us by a lot now that we’ve dropped the scout guys. 61k to 51k

We start on the west and they on the east, they have a favorable side, with more tree cover.

Turn 1 – I win init. There’s a lot of weapons exchange, but eventually, some mechs get sliced. Our Whitworth nails the LA of their Dasher D and its destroyed. Their Mad Cat hits an Upper Leg actuator on a Rifleman. A Vulture Prime’s LT is destroyed by Col Matthews. Our Thor follows up and hits its eingine once and gyro once and it shuts down. Our Trebuchet destroys the LT and hits an engine in the CT of their Dasher D and it shuts down. That’s Thad Karmanlis’s 12th kill for us. Our Rifleman falls and hits its engine twice and gyro once.

Turn 2 - We lose init. After a lot of fire exchange again, Col Humphries’ Atlas destroys the LA of an Uller. Their Fenris C gets a engine hit.

T3 – We lose init. Our Black Knight destroys the Left Arm of their Fenris B. A BattleMaster hits he engine on their Gladiator I-UK. Our Orion hits the Head of their Man-o’War Prime with its Ac10, goe internal, and destroys the cockpit, killing the pilot. A Vulture destroys the RA of our Ostsol. The Ostsol destroys the MASC on their Gladiator D. Ou rWarhammer kicks and destroys the head of their Dragonfly F-UK. That was a pristine mech too, we had never targeted it until. I moved two mechs to try and punt the head. That was a good turn, I took out an untouched mech and a barely touched assault 80 ton machine.

T4 – We again lose init. I have successful flanked them from the front and the right side. I pushed them back and back and now I am surrounding their forces. Our BattleMaster destroys the RT and RA of their Dasher E-UK. Our Crusader’s missiles find an engine hit on their Gladiator I-UK. The AC5 on our 60ton Dragon lances into the Gladiator I-UK and destroys its LT. That shuts it down from three engine hits. However, our Huncgback follows up with AC20 ammo at the same time and destroys its CT section, so it is not recoverable. Col. Humphries’s Atlas fires a gauss slug into their Uller Prime and it destroys the CT. Our Trebuchet destroys its LT as well. Our regular Atlas also destroys its LL. Their Gladiator D tears into our Ostsol. They destroy its LA and LT, and then hit the engine three times and gyro once and shut it down.

T5 – We lose init again. I run my guys in as much as possible. Tightening the noose. Our Warhammer destroys their Fenris C’s head with his PPC. Co. Humphries lances an LRM 20 and Gauss Rifle at their Dasher EUK and it takes two more engine hits and shuts down. The Vulture C’s twin gauss rifles destroy the LA of our Hunchback. That’s the wrong arm to destroy on a Hunchy, it’s still got its AC20. Their Vulture F-UK hits the BattleMaster’s RA and gets a limb blown off critical, and it’s lying on the ground. Our Goliath destroys the LA of their Gladiator D. Their Vulture C falls.

T6 – We win init. We exchange a lot of fire. Our Dragon opens the center torso on their Vulture and hits the engine. One of the BattleMasters hits the head of the same Vulture and the pilot blacks out after the damage is dealt. Our Warhammer blows off the LA of the Vulture C and the Atlas destroys its LL. Our Loki then destroys its RT and the RA falls. One of our BattleMasters loses its RT to their Gladiator D. An Atlas falls.

T7 – We lose init. We offer our foes hegira. This is an offer of an honorable withdraw from combat. We learned it from Magnus. They accept. They have a Vulture that is savaged in four places and has just one point on its internal RT left (and a dead RA). They have another pair of savaged mechs in the Gladiator and Fenris. We have ever fired at their Black Hawk or Dragonfly. We have a lot more left.

Vulture Prime, LA reattached, LT destroyed,enginex3, gyrox1
Dasher D, destroyed LA, LT, enginex3
Man-o’-War Prime, destroyed cockpit
Dragonfly F-UK missing H
Gladiator I-UK LA, LL, RL, RT, RA, H
Uller Prime, H, RT, RA, RL
Fenris C, destroyed H
Dasher E-UK, enginex3
Vulture C LA and RA reattached, engine, RT and LL destroyed



To fix:

Ostsol RA, LA, LT, enginex3, gyrox1; Rifleman enginex2, gyro, actuator; Hunchback missing LA ; BattleMaster reattach RA, RT destroyed:

We have taken back Pinnacle.

We fix all of the things we can, and purchasing new parts for our mechs will cost us:2.65 mill. An additional 550k givesus the ammo and armor we need.

We pay 1.6 mill after 50% battle loss.

For the clan mechs:

We fix everything we can, including the cockpit. Here’s what we have left:

Man-o’-War Prime, up and running.
Dasher D, fixed after using parts from previous Dashers that survived.
Dragonfly F-UK is fixed and up and running after we replace the head with a salvaged one
Uller Prime, I used the salvaged Right Torso to fix one damaged earlier that needed one
Dasher E-UK, fixed the engine, and it is up and running, and it sucks – LB2X? That’s crap.
Vulture C, We cannibalize the RT and LL from the Vulture Prime and reattach the arms, which had the weapons.


Items:

2xLarge Pulse Lasers
4x Medium Pulse Lasers
Targeting Computer
Guardian ECM Suite
SRM 4
SRM 6


We also found unconscious MechWarrior, veteran named Irene. She’s a veteran and we make her a bondsman as well.


Experience:

Matthew Humphries is gaining Edge: 1
Bryson Abasi, the Thor pilot, is gaining Edge:11 as well
Madison Tolteca, our Warhammer 6R pilot in Defender company will also be getting Edge: 1
Thad Karamanlis, Trinity’s Trebuchet pilot, is getting Edge: 1 too

We will be staying on Pinnacle for a while and its new garrison force. We took Holmsbu, but we didn’t have the forces to keep it. We’ll try too here.

June 23 – Our garrison is now at Radlje . A large Ghost Bear task force has arrived at Last Frontier. For the next few days, the defenders will exact a massive toll on the Ghost Bears, and Khan DelVillar will die in the fighting tomorrow. After securing Last Frontier, Aletha Kabrinski is voted in as the new Khan. She will immediately declare the other Khan, Bourjon, incompetent. A vote of no confidence is held, and aerospace pilot Bjorn Jorgensson will be elected the new Khan and defeated Bourjon in a Trial of Refusal. This all takes places over the next few days, and again, it will slow down Ghost Bear’s attack.

June 24 – A Ghost Bear Drop Ship arrives at Thule for another attempt to take it. They issue a batchall. We had planned for this defense prior to Matthew Humphries leaving. Captain Martin Fitzgerald of Phaeton Company tells them that he will be defending this planet with just himself, in his Atlas, in a cornfield. If they lose, the Ghost bears have to give one pristine OmniMech – a Masakari. The Ghost Bears bid down to one elite MechWarrior.



Captain Martin Fitzgerald, 2/2, Edge: 2, Gunnery: Laser
Atlas AS7D

They are in a Gladiator Prime



This is their 95 ton assault mech:

One on One, here we go.

T1 – I lose init and we can’t see each other. I move to the center.

T2 – I win init and run into a copse of trees but don’t see him on the other side.

T3 – I win init and he runs to the edge of the trees. We can see each other, but not fire.

T4 – I lose init and move into some heavy woods and he moves closer. Our AC20 opens up his RA. We hit with both medium laser and 5 SRM missiles, one of which dings hit head. He misses with the Gauss Rifle and a ER laser, but hits with an ER Large Laser on my RT.

T5 – We lose init and stay standing still. He torso twists to protect his RA. AC20 to his LL, medium lasers ot LT and LL. Missed with an SRM6 and I tried a desperate LRM 20 and needed a 9 and missed. I take a Gauss to my RA, a glancing blow ER Large Laser to my CT and another to my LT.

T6 – We win init and he moves away from us. We run in right behind him. He hits my LT and LA each with an ER LL. Our AC20 hits his L and goes internal Medium Laser to the head, one to the rear armor and then 4 SRM6 missiles hit various places. We kick for 20 damage and his LL is destroyed and he falls.

T7 – We win init and he stands and spins. We move to his rear again. He hits our LT and RL with ER Large laser. AC20 to the Right Torso rear and its barely hanging on, but we didn’t hit any critical space with it. Two medium lasers lance out and hit, and our SRMs hit five places, and one hits some Gauss Ammo. It doesn’t explode Gauss ammo is just a metal slug. We kick him in his one leg, but he stays standing.

T8 – We win init. He tries to run and hide, but we find him. He hits the Atlas with everything but his Gauss and only hits legs. Our Atlas blows 20 into his Right Leg from an AC20 and hits with other weapons but no critical. He falls hard. Our kick tears into his right arm and goes internal. Martin offers hegira and the MechWarrior accepts.


We have won and again defend Thule. We gained a Masakari Prime in mint condition. That was Fitzgerald’s 20th kill, and he gets another edge.

We had decided to go for these smaller matchups because it appeared that the Bears would just increase their bid. This time they bid a 95 ton OmniMech and elite pilot over a 100 ton mech that didn’t even have LosTech, let alone clan tech. The BV was 2000 in their favor (3500 to 5500 or so).

Knowing this, we wanted to limit our losses by having one of our best pilots face them. We don’t think this trick will work that often, but it does make sense here.

June 27 – Our company from Laurent, Typhon, will be joining us on Thule, and should arrive on September 2.

The Ghost Bear clan has arrived at Radlje. They send out a batchall. We negotiate for two stars of elemental armor, that’s ten suits, if we win.


In order to prepare for this eventual assault, we moved some MechWarriors around with the three companies on planet. They are not the most experienced MechWarriors ever. We also switched a Quickdraw for a Locust. Now Mustang Company is as ready for the Clans as it can be.

The new Mustang Company:


ON1-K Orion
STC-2S Striker
AWS-8Q Awesome
HBK-4G Hunchback
WHM-6K Warhammer
STK-3F Stalker
MAD-Marauder
WTH-1 Whitworth
CMT-1 Comet
JR7-F Jenner
QKD-5G Quickdraw
COM-2D Commando

With 10 elite pilots and two veterans



With us having beaten the Ghost Bears several times, they are no longer going to reduce their bids for our Inner Sphere-ness. Now we are facing two full stars of mechs:

Dasher C
Puma D
Dragonfly D
Dragonfly B
Black Lanner Prime
Vulture D-UK (with two LB10X and 4x ER Medium Laser)
Loki B
Mad Cat D
Man-o-War B
Masakari A



The Mad Cat D is an odd combination with two rear facing SRM6 streaks, perhaps they know our tendency to run around the backs of mechs when possible. The Masakari A is nasty, with 2 ER Large Lasers, LRM 15, LB 10X, Streak SRM6. That is, in my option, the best variant of the Masakari.

This is their Mad Cat, probably the most iconic clan mech. They are used in Ghost Bear, but they are really used Wolf. Ghost Bear’s favorite heavy is clearly the Vulture. Which I like so that’s okay.

All pilots are elite (1/2) save for the veteran Dragonfly B pilot. They are heavily favored, the BVs are 24613 for us and 40174 for them.

Here we go!

Turn 1 – We lose init. The Black Lanner’s MASC freezes and it takes damage on its legs – two actuators are hit. Our Comet ran behind their Black Lanner and fires a laser into its rear CT and hits an engine. Their Puma destroys the RA of our Comet. Then their Dragonfly D destroys its CT. Our MechWarrior is injured on the way out and unconscious on the ground. The winner gets the prize. Our Awesome destroys the LA of their Dasher. Their Man-o’-War lances fire into our Quickdraw and hits the LRM ammo and it explodes! Their Masakari open up the right leg of our Stalker and nail a hip actuator and it falls. And destroys its leg.

Holy crap that was a bad turn. We need to turn this.

T2 – We lose init. We stand up our Stalker luckily it’s in heavy woods. Our Marauder opens things up by hitting the SRM ammo on their Black Lanner and its RT and RA are gone. Their pilot blacks out. Our long range weapons open up their Mad Cat and I ran in the Commando, and it follows with its many SRMs. A missile hits the LB 10-X ammo on the Mad Cat’s LT and that explodes – it also has two engine hits and a gyro hit. Their pilot blacks out too. Both unconscious mechs falls.

Well, I think we’re back in it, we just need to build on this momentum.

T3 – We lose init. Their Dragonfly B destroys the LA and LT of our Commando. Our Warhammer hits the upper leg actuator on their Mad Cat’s LL. Their Mad Cat hits the ammo on our Orion and it explodes. Our Commando hits two gyros and an engine on their Mad Cat. Dead Mad Cat. Our Awesome tumbles.

T4 – We lose init. We stand our Awesome back up. Our Awesome hits the hip actuator on their Masakari. Their Masakari hits the AC20 ammo on our Hunchback and it goes up.

T5 - We lost init. The Puma takes out the RA of our Whitworth. Our Stalker gets a Limb Blow Off critical against their Masakaris RL. Our Stalker and Whitworth fall under more damage.

T6 - We lose init again. We stand up the Stalker. I risk running my Jenner up against their Puma. Their Maskari fails to stand. As does our WW and our pilot blacks out – ugh. LRMs from our Stalker destroy the left arm of their Loki. Their Puma’s SRm2 streak ammo lights up from a PPC from our Mrauder. The RT is destroyed. Their Man-o-war destroys our Jenner’s RA and hits the hip and lower foot actuators on its LL. Our Jenner remains standing. Our WW pilot wakes up, but theirs do not.

T7 – We win init. That’s our first win this game. The Masakari fails to stand but it does spin so its facing us with its weapons. OurWW rises. The Strikers autocannon chews into the Dragonfly B and hits its engine. A PPC from our Warhammer swings into their Loki’s head and goes internal but only hits life support. Our Stalker destroys the LA of their Masakari. Twin PPCs jut from our Marauder into their Puma and destroy its engine.

T8 – We lose init. The manage to stand the Masakari. Our Jenner falls while moving. Another PPC lands from our Warhammer, and destroys the rest of the Loki’s head. Our Stalker alpha strikes the Masakari but only hits the engine once. Theor Loki destroys the LA of our Whity. The Man-o’-War destroys its RL and RT. Three PPCs knife into their Dragonfly B. One destroys its RA and another its LT. Both our Whity and their Masakari fall.

T9 – We win init. I eject the Whitworth pilot. Both our Jenner and their Masakari are back on our feet. Our Striker hits a hip and foot on their Dragonfly B’s right leg. Their Dragonfly D destroys ou rJenners LL and LT. Their Man O War destroys its RT. Our Marauder destroys the RT of their Masakari. Two hit on gyro and engine shut it down. Their Man O War, Dragonfly and our Jenner all say hello to the earth in a very intimate way.

T10 – We lose init. I eject our Jenner pilot. We focus our fire on their Man-o’-War. Our Marauder hits the lower leg actuator on its LL. Our Awesome adds a gyro and engine hit. It falls and hits its foot too.

T11 – We lose init. Their Glady rises. Just an exchange of weapons fire but their Gladiator takes so much damage that it falls and blows off its LL and hits its engine. We get on the transmission and offer hegira. One Dragonfly cannot rise, the Gladiator is legged and has one gyro and two engine hits, the Dasher is injured and has just an LRM5 left, and one Dragonfly is virtually unscatehed. Meanwhile, I have untouched Warhammer, virtually so Marauder and Awesome, and have damaged Stalker and Striker. They agree and leave the field.

That was a rough battle. We lost a lot of mechs, and a few were severely damaged, but we survived and kept Radlje from falling.

Vulture D-UK, destroyed LT, reattach LA, gyrox1
Black Lanner RA reattached, missing RT, life support, two leg actuators
Mad Cat LA reattached, LT destroyed; gyro hit twice, engine one, actuator,
Masakari A missing RT, reattach RA
Puma RA reattach, destroyed RT, engine x3,
Loki, missing H
Dragonfly B LA
Gladiator LL


Quickdraw LA, H, RL
Comet, LA, LT, LL, RT, RL, H
Orion RA, H, LL
Hunchback LA, H, LL


To Fix: Stalker’s RL. Commando’s LT, LA: Whitworth RA, RL, RT and LA; Jenner RA, LT, LL, RT reattach LA;


We capture two MechWarriors, elite (1/2) – Rachel and Evan. Both are taken as bondsman.

Fixing my dudes: This will take a lot. To fix those listed will cost:3.31 mill.

To rearm and re armor my guys will cost 950k:

I have to pay this: 2.13 mill

Now, I get compensation for my dead mechs:6,462,000 – This is the total cost of our lost mechs minus the pieces we recovered, divided by two.

We “made” 4,332,000

Now, let’s look at salvage.

We fix everything that doesn’t require a spare

Loki B – we take the head from the salvaged Loki we were unable to get up and running and put it here.


Clan Items:

ER PPC

I lost for mechs and got only one replacement, and that’s only after we get salvage sent from two jumps away. It will take a month to get my mechs back and in running order.


We gained 10 suits of elemental armor.

We are currently in “possession” of three worlds - Pinnacle, Radlje and Thule.

June 29 – Another clan WarShip jumps into Thule at a Pirate Point.
July 1 – News of Ghost Bear worlds being treated much better than other Clan worlds is a major leading story. They are having the people rebuild infrastructure and more. As a result, uprisings on Bear held worlds are much lower than the other worlds.

July 3 – Bidding for the right to attack Rasalhague, the capital, is won by Clan Wolf. The Invasion will begin tomorrow. Rasalhague will fall after bitter fighting destroys more than 70% of the buildings in Rasalhague City and destroys much of the world. It will fall on July 16.

July 5 – We get news that planets like Holmsbu and Damian now have Steel Viper garrisons, and they are quite large. Our opportunity to nip in and take them due to weak garrisons is gone. We just have to hold our three planets.

July 8 – A Drop Ship arrives at Thule from the pirate point. We get a batchall, but this time, it’s not from Ghost Bear.

“This is Star Captain Caslon Stiles of the mighty Smoke Jaguars. Since those idiot Bears can’t seem to take your backwater planet, we are here to capture it for the glory of the Smoke Jaguars. With what forces shall you defend this pitiful planet?”

Captain Martin Fitzgerald will be defending with his own Phaeton Company. He asked for a several OmniMechs if they win, but the Jaguars laughed at him. He carefully taunts them, “If the Jaguars are afraid of a little mercenary unit beating them…” and they agree to two OmniMechs. He wants a Gladiator and a Mad Cat. He is told that they don’t have any of those pitiful Gladiators, but they’ll give him a Masakari, and he agrees.

Just like the Bears did originally, they have no respect for a mercenary Inner Sphere unit. They will be bidding 8 OmniMechs.


Phaeton Company:

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-10F Javelin
CMT-1A Comet
PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk
HER-2S Hermes II

This group includes 7 elite, 3 vets and 2 regular.


The Jags

Koshi Prime
Fenris B
Ryoken Prime
Ryoken C
Vulture A
Loki D-UK (with ER LL, Ultra AC5, 4 Medium Pulse Laser and one ER SL)
Masakari B
Daishi Prime



Just one light mech. They are all elites (1/2)

This is their Daishi, a 100 ton mech with maximum armor and more than 50 tons of space for weapons. The one we are facing has four ER large lasers, LRM10, 4 medium pulse lasers, 2 Ultra AC5s. It is truly nasty. It is loaded for bear.

They are coming with heavy heat. Two assaults, two heavies, three mediums and one light. The mediums are on the heavy side (45, 55, 55) and the Vulture is always nasty. That Loki variant is hot. Masakaris and Daishis are amazingly powerful.

Battle value – 34k for them, 28k for us.

There’s always a strategic issue when fighting a team that includes a mech as powerful as this Daishi. Do I focus all of my weapons on it until it falls? I know that doing so could take a few turns of concentrated fire, which means when it falls, my foes will have several turns of taking out my mechs. On the other hand, suppose that we let it stay while we take out more vulnerable mechs until I outnumber the Daishi.. Can I honestly allow a mech as powerful as the Daishi to attack me for a large portion of the battle? Which is the greater sin, to not challenge it, or to challenge it too much? In this case, we don’t know that Daishi that well, so my guess is that the Masakari is the target of choice.


Our first battle with a clan not named Ghost Bear. Alons-y!

Turn 1 – We win init. We are fighting by a few small hills and woods, with a central river. We focus a lot of our fire on their Daishi because it is the easiest to hit. Our Awesome hits its head with a PPC and nails the life support. We lost a RT on our Comet from their Fenris B. Just for fun, I totaled up how much damage we dealt to their Daishi – 76 damage. That’s it. That’s not too bad I suppose

T2 – We lose init. We hop our Javelin 10F behind their Loki. They are focusing some fire on our Griffin. Our Jav goes into the Loki’s armor and hits the gyro once. It falls and destroys its LA. Just weapons fire. They moved their Daishi behind some woods and few of my mechs had lines of fire. Our Javelin misses a kick on the downed mech and falls. Hilarity ensues. Their Daishi took 45 damage.

T3 – We lose init. Their Loki rises and spins. Our Jav fails to stand up once ,but it does on a second try. Our Awesome hits the head of their Daishi and it has no more external armor. A Ryoken destroys the RT of our Javelin. The other Ryoken destroys both legs. Their Vulture destroys its LA, LT and CT. A completely destroyed mech. Their Loki took two engine hits from our Javelin before it wen Their Daishi took another 94 damage from us and it still is not internal in any place. A through armor ctical from their Fenris hits a PPC on our Awesome

T4 – We lose init. Our Awesome destroys the LT of their Loki and then hits the engine twice in the CT, putting it out of commission. Our T Bolt is the first to hit an internal component on their Daishi – an engine. Our Griffin hits and destroys the RT of their Vulture. Before it goes their Loki destroys the LL and CT of our Comet. Our Phoenix destroys the LT of their Daishi. We hit two double heat sinks on the Daishi. Our Atlas hits a foot actuator on their Vulture. Their Daishi destroyed the Comet RA before it goes. The Daishi goes overheat and shuts down (engine hits make 5 heat a turn, add the lack of het from the 2x and it was already going overheat from lasers, and shut down.)

T5 – We win init. I have armor about half way down on 5 of my mechs – Warhammer, Rifleman, Thunderbolt, Griffin and Awesome. Can we manage to take out the rest of the mechs, or did I spend too much time on the Daishi? I guess we’ll find out. Their Masakari hits two foot actuators on my Warhammer. Our Awesome gets a limb blown off, LA, on their Ryoken C’s RA. Okay, this is going to be confusing, so get ready. Our Catapult launched LRM15 missiles at their wounded Vulture. They hit the engine twice, and destroys the CT section. The engine has a cascade reaction and blows up. It was right by the downed but will reboot at the end of the turn Daishi. I hopped my Phoenix Hawk next to it and tried but was unable to take off its head. Our Phoenix Hawk takes 15 damage from the explosion. Their damaged Ryoken takes 7. But their Daishi takes 30 from it. It hits the Daishis gyro and engine each once, and that’s an engine shutdown on the Daishi. Both are down. Our Rifleman falls under the damage.

T6 - We win init. I stand my Rifleman up, go behind a one level hill and intentionally go prone so no one can see me this turn. I run my Griffin up on their Koshi. Our Griffin’s RA is blown right off and able to be reattached. The SRM6 on our Warhammer is hit. Our Griffin kicks and destroys the RL of their Koshi and it falls hard.

T7 – We lose init. I stand up our Rifleman and twist so I can aim and deal some damage. Their Koshi fails to stand. I run my Thunderbolt up to it. The RA, RT and RL of our ’Hammer is destroyed. Our T Bolt blows up the RT of their Koshi. After combat, a kick destroys the CT.

T8 – We lose init. I eject the Warhammer pilot. No one knows who’s winning this. They have a Masakari, two Ryokens and a untouched Fenris. We have an untouched Hermes II and Catapult, a savaged Rifleman, a damaged Thunderbolt, Griffin, Atlas, Awesome, Panther and Phoenix Hawk. They could easily finish a couple off this turn and swing things back their way. Last turn I basically lost a heavy mech and they lost a light mech. Not a good trade. I risk my P Hawk by jumping to their injured Ryoken C. Our Atlas’s AC20 hits the head of their Masakari and it falls down. Before it went, it hits the AC20 on our Atlas.

T9 - We lose init. Their Ryoken destroys the RL of our Griffin. Our Rifleman hits and destroys the CT of their Ryoken Prime. We used up all of the LRM ammo b your Catapult. With two mechs left, we offer them hegira, and they accept.

Loki D-UK, Destroys LT, LA, enginex5. Gyrox1
Vulture A RA
Daishi Prime reattach LA, enginex3, gyrox1, destroyed LT
Ryoken C RA
Koshi Prime RA, H, LT, LA, LL
Masakari, missing H,
Ryoken Prime H, LL, RL, RT, LT, RA, LA


Awesome PPC; Griffin reattach RA destroyed RL; Warhammer, actuators, SRM 6, replace RA, RL, RT;

Comet LT, LA, RL, H
Javelin RA, H;


We won a Masakari and Mad Cat Prime each

We permanently lost a Comet and Javelin.

We must pay to fix: 1.9 mill

Rearm and Rearmor: 820k

We gained 415k after our 50% battle loss kicked in.


Salvage:

We put the Vulture RA on a chassis that is missing it but is still missing other pieces too.
Masakari B, I moved a H from a Masakari chassis we have to this one.
Ryoken Prime – I had a Prime chassis missing a H and La, and we are able to move these two pieces to that. (I roll each time, but it’s not hard to make it – I need a 4 on 2d6, if I fail, I can reroll with a bettr tech, but it adds another week)

Clan Items:

ER PPC
Large Pulse Laser
ER Large Laser
ER Medium Laserx2
9x Double Heat Sink

Experience:

David Delgado, the Rifleman Pilot is getting Edge:1
Earl Ray Williams, in the Thunderbolt, is getting Edge: 2





The Jaguars leave Thule with their tail between their legs.

July 10 – After taking Polcenigo, the Ghost Bears will stop invading for a month while they regather themselves. They will bring in supplies, rotate in garrison clusters instead of front line units (and let Steel Viper go) and bring in troops to replace those lost in the collision with the asteroid around Damian.

July 12 – The Steel Vipers have bid for the right to attack the three worlds that we hold.

July 14 – A WarShip jumps into Pinnacle.

July 22 – We are hailed by Clan Steel Viper, who wants to take Pinnacle. Their batchall is different. Instead of asking us what forces we will be using, they inform us that they will be using a full cluster of troops.

Humphries looks at Magnus, and he says that this would only be done as an insult. He recommends responding with an insult. Humphries responds with, “As we can see, what the Bears have told us in true, the rusted snakes have no honor.”

They get pissed. Humphries pushes, “I’ll tell you what. You come down here and fight me personally. You win, you get Pinnacle. If I win, you have your techs fix up the mechs we’ve won from the Bears and I take you as a bondsman.”

The Star Colonel is quite pissed off, but agrees to fixing the mechs, but not to be a bondsman. Matthew assents, and he grabs the mech he wants. He normal mech is the Gauss Rifle, LRM20 and 2x ER Large Laser equipped Atlas. For this battle, he will instead be piloting the Masakari Prime he won earlier.



Our foe:

Star Colonel 1/2, Edge:2
Gladiator Alternate Config A

They have three large pulse lasers, four ER Medium lasers, and a machine gun. IT is also a fast mech with 4/6/4(8) movement.


Our Masakari does waste some space:


It has 4 ER PPCs, but can only disperse 40 a turn. Each one makes 15 heat. It also has an LRM 10 and a precious targeting computer.

Our BV is 5813 and theirs is 6971

The place we’re fighting on is a flat plan with some rocks and rough patches sin areas, but no terrain at all.

T1 – Col. Humphries wins init. He hits with two pulses and a nER Laser and we hit with an ER PPC and a LRM10 for 4 missiles.

T2 – We win init and continue to try to stay away from our foe. We nail his right torso with two ER PPCs and go internal and hit a double heat sink. We take two large pulse lasers to legs.

T3 – We lose init. We miss with both ER PPCs and hit with just 6 missiles. We get hit with every weapon they have.

T4 – We lose init. This time we hit with 2x ER PPC and LRM10 full missiles, but they miss, after we moved far away from the range o the large pulses. We’ve never been closer than 10 hexes.

T5 – We lose init. We miss with an ER PPC and then get a glancing blow with the other and missiles. Once again they hit with lots.

T6 – We lose init. We’re internal on the Right Arm. The Masakari is a lot more wounded than his Gladiator. We go to long range and only hit once.

T7 – We win init. Nobody hits this time, still at long range.

T8 – We lose init. We hit with 6 missiles and they with a Large pulse laser to the CT of our Masakari.

T9 – We lose init. They use MASC twice in a row to get close, and no failure. We hit their jump jet and upper leg actuator on the left leg. They open up the right arm more and hit the shoulder actuator there.

T10 – We win init. We are internal in both torsos and have just one internal armor left on the right arm. They try and hop away but we run up to them. Two ER PPCs meet at the center torso of their mech. Still haven’t gone internal there.

T11 – We win init. We fire two ER PPCs and they destroy the RT and RA of their mech. Three large pulse lasers lance into our torso, and one hits the RT and destroys it, and the other hits our CT, goes internal, and hits the engine twice more. Our engine shuts down. We have lost.


Steel Viper has gained the Masakari Prime and Pinnacle.

Ah well. We were winning that one too near the end.

July 23 – We blast off from Pinnacle.

July 25 - Rasalhague falls. The elected prince flees the planet, being screened by Tyra Miraborg and her 1st Drakons.

July 30 – We leave the system and arrive at Holmsbu. The Provisional Garrison Cluster of Ghost Bear has arrived here and the Vipers are gone. Humphries and Magnus have been discussing what to do, and have a plan.

July 31 – By the end of this month, Clan Wolf has captured an additional 9 systems, including Rasalhague itself. The Jaguars captured 3 more systems from the Dracs and the Jade Falcons four more. The total number of inner sphere systems under Clan control is 35 for Wolf, 1 for Viper, 29 for Falcons, 8 for Bears and 23 for Jaguars. That’s 96 systems all told that have gone to the Clans since mid March. Thule is now five jumps away from the nearest system not currently under the control of a Clan save Radlje.

Aug 5 – The Ghost Bears have arrived at Radlje and again issue a batchall for the system.

Since we lost so many mechs earlier, and we have few good pilots in few good mechs, Captain Gabriel Williams orders Lt. Akwasi Oppoku from Lane Company to fight solo in his Attila. The Ghost Bears mention they are tired of these minor skirmishes, and their warriors want war.

Captain Williams has been given the same intel that everyone else has. He knows how to work the enemy. He chuckles at the Bear’s claim, and says, “Can’t any one of your warriors beat one of ours?”

The Ghost Bear agrees, and nods. We ask for 5 of their techs if we win. We need help getting things like their armor, their ammo made, and more. They agree.



Akwasi is elite

They are sending:

Man-o’-War, C – with Ultra AC20, and 6 ER medium lasers

The Attila has two PPCs, 2 SRM6s, 7 medium lasers, max armor for 85 ton mech - 263/263

They have 211 armor out of possible 247 and they are a 5/8 mech vs 3/5 for the Attila.

Alons-y!

Hey there Abe. Just wanted to let you know you've got another loyal follower here. I'm an old-school BattleTech gamer who is looking forward to watching the Kilts and Commandos kick some Clan butt.

T1 – We lose init. Our battlefield is rocky, wit trees and a depression. We take 45 damage total and only dealt 5 from a glancing blow. Not an auspicious start.

T2 – We win init. We slice a PPC into its CT and it misses us (heavy woods).

T3 – We win again. We are hit by five medium lasers and miss twice. They set our hex on fire.

T4 – We lose init. We creep out of the fire and into an adjacent heavy woods hex. We lance a PPC into their head. We hit sensors and life support. I want to close to fire SRM6s to see if I can’t hit it again.

T5 – We lose init. We stand still and fire 5 medium lasers and two SRM6s at the foe. We hit with 5 lasers and 5 missiles. We get hit for 16 damage from lasers.

T6 – We win. They run, and we can’t change too much, so back to PPCs. We hit with two glancing blows. We are hit three times by lasers.

T7 – We win init. We mostly miss each other, only a glancing blow from us and two medium lasers from them.

T8 – We lose init. Their Man o war charges us. We miss with our SRM6s (only needed a 6) and hit with some mediums. They hit us too. We still aren’t internal anywhere, and they are only internal in the head.

T9 – We lose. We run up to them. They just twist. This is going to be a massive turn. We hit with 12 SRM missiles, but none hits the head for the kill. All of these lasers and missiles does hit their Ultra AC20 (it was out of ammo this round anyway) and engine once. They open up our left torso and hit a heat sink and laser. An ER medium laser hits the Attila’s head.

T10 – We win init. They move up a hill and we move to their left side and open up. We destroy the la.

T11 – We lose init. I stand still and go 5 overheat to fire all lasers and missiles. We destroy their LT. It falls to the ground, hits its engine, and the pilot blacks out. The engine shut down. Yay!

You got it!

We gain:

Man o’ war with enginex3, life support, sensors, destroyed LA, LT

Getting the sensors hit early helped us stay alive as it accounted for a few misses.

We captured:

Michael, elite, 1/2, made a bondsman

We also gained 5 techs, when they send over.

That was a real battle of fire for our own mech.

We’re told that the Ghost Bears want a bigger fight next time, and that these small proxy battles just aren’t going to keep cutting it. They do really respect that we won without using any physical attacks.

We fix everything but the sensors. The clan techs fix them however (if we didn’t have the clan techs, we would’ve had to replace them).

Aug 7 – We arrive at Holmsbu and declare a Trial of Possession for two stars of elemental warriors to be our bondsman, so we can use the elemental armor we have (we realized that normal IS people can’t use it, they aren’t big enough, and we need the genetically enhanced warriors). You can fight for anything. They want Humphries to stop attacking them for a couple of months. They send the specs on their provisional garrison. It does not have many front line OmniMechs.

They choose to fight on a old abandoned industrial area with a lot of pavement and some buildings. They send a supernova of forces for defense. A supernova is two stars of mechs and two stars of elementals – 20 units in all.

Magus has been assigned to Delta company and is piloting the Dragonfly F-UK. It’s replacing a lost scout mech.

Their mechs:

Gladiator, A – elite pilot, leader
Loki B, elite pilot, star leader too
Koshi B
Peregrine
Grizzly
Galahad
Griffin IIc
Shadow Hawk IIc GB variant
Rifleman IIc
Supernova

All pilots are vets. When the clans left the Inner Sphere, they took many IS era mechs with them. Refitting them and making new ones with clan technology seems like an obvious thing to do. Some of these venerable designs have worked for centuries, so upgrading them works. They may have different weights, movements, and weapons payouts, but they work.

The Peregrine is the only other light mech up there besides the Koshi. The assault mechs are the Gladiator at 95 tons, the 90 ton Supernova with its 6 ER Large lasers. The Galahad is a 60 ton mech with double gauss rifles. The Rifleman IIc rocks four large pulse lasers, the Shadow Hawk variant has double er large lasers, 3 small pulse lasers and 2 er small laser. Th Griffin IIc is just 40 tons and has 4 LRM 5 launchers, an ER Large laser and a backup er small laser. Even at 35 tons, the Peregrine rocks a large pulse laser and two medium pulses.


This is their Grizzly. It’s one of their totem mechs. It’s 70 tons with 4/6/4 movement. It comes with a large pulse laser, an LRM 10, a gauss rifle, a medium and small pulse laser, and 208 points of armor (out of possible 217). It’s a very good mech with serious long range punch.

All of the elementals are veteran except one elite and two regular.




We will be using Defender and Delta companies against these 20 enemies.

25 mechs on 10 mechs and 10 squads of elementals. We should have this, because they are not front line mechs or warriors.

How do you become a garrison warrior:

1). Age. As you get older, if you have not advance up the ranks, you will be put out to pasture, so to speak. A lot of older warriors end up in garrisons
2). Freeborn. Those who are not born from genetic enhancement, but instead from normal birth are usually ostracized and included here in garrisons.
3). Dishonored. If you have done something that offends your clan, this is where you may end up.
4). Out of favor. Perhaps you are just not that good. Or perhaps you are a warden in a Crusader clan, or vice versa. Or perhaps you are a political opponent of the new Khan. You could end up here, as a leader of garrisons.

Because of the lack of honor that comes with this assignment, the people tend to not be as good and also fight with chips on their shoulders . This battle is an opportunity for these people, and they will be taking it.

We start with our light and jumpy mechs by and around the buildings, and a large power mech group above, ready to move in one giant group.

T1 – We win init. Their Loki nails a PPC in the Banshee. We focused fire on the Gladiator but was too far away to hit with much.

T2 – We win init. Their Elementals are moving towards the buildings. Crusader missiles fly out and hit the head of their Gladiator and destroy the cockpit, dead Gladiator. Other than that, nothing else.

T3 – We win again. Their Peregrine falls while trying to jump on top of a building to get a great attacking angle on us, but the building fell. Their Rifleman IIc hits our Whitworth in the head with a large pulse laser. The Supernova hits an engine on our Thor. Our Firestarter pilot blacks out after getting hit in the head three times. I fire my Javelin and some others at a building that has some Elementals on top and destroy it. Our Spider falls after missing a kick.

T4 – We lose init. They set up Elementals on top of a lot of buildings for nasty killing zones. Their Supernova cracks our Banshee open more and hits a gyro and destroys its RA. Their Koshi gets two engine hits on our Javelin. Our Black Knight responds by destroying the Koshi’s LT. An engine is hit on the Firestarter. The Elementals destroys its CT section – dead Firestarter. Our Orion’s AC10 opens the head of their Supernova and hits the life support. The pilot blacks out. Our Jav destroys the CT of their Koshi.

T5 – I win init. I charge several mechs into the building near the elementals to take out a few of them – crusader, Black knight, phoenix hawk, and thor. Their Loki hits my Awesome’s head with an srm missile. Their Peregrine destroys my Spider’s LL. We killed several troopers in various squads, and a BattleMaster took out one. My Orion’s RL is destroyed. Our Spider and Orion fall. Their Supernova pilot fails to awaken

T6 – We lose init. The Javis 20 overheat, and there’s no way I can get back down with the engine hits so I eject. I don’t want an ammo explosion from the heat. I eject the Spider too. An entire building collapsed and the Peregrine and a Elemental unit died. Their Griffin IIc hits an engine on the Awesome. Col. Humphries’s Atlas shears off the head of their Rifleman IIc with LRM Missiles after the Awesome hit it with a PPC earlier in the turn.

T7 – We win init. Magnus and the Dragonfly hope behind their Griffin IIc and we have pushed their mechs in a corner. An Awesome PPC hits the sensors on their Loki’s head. Our BattleMaster hits the gauss in the LA of their Galahad, and it explodes and destroys the arm and the pilot blacks out. Our Dragon gets a limb blown off critical against their Griffin IIc’s la. A BattleMaster’s short range missile hits the head and rings the bell of their Shadow Hawk IIc. Our Huncy focuses fire on hit and blows up the LA from the SH IIc. Our Thor’s Ultra AC20 chews into their Loki’s RT and destroys it.

T8 – We win init. I keep Magus’s Dragonfly behind their Griffin IIc after they try and jump away. A Warhammer cracks the foot on their Grizzly. A BattleMaster hits the Loki’s engine five times and gyro once. Unfortunately, Warhammer PPCs snake in and destroy the CT. Our Thor destroys the LT of their Shadow Hawk IIc.

T9 –We lose init. We run out of LRM ammo for the Catapult this turn. Their Shadow Hawk IIC gets a missile to the head of our Crusader. A BattleMaster destroys a elemental troop. An AC20 from our Hunchback destroys the Grizzly’s head. Their Shadow hawk IIc tumbles. Neither of their pilots awakens.

T10 - We win init. Their Shadow Hawk IIc stands and moves away. An elemental hits the head of our Comet. A BattleMaster destroys the CT of their Shadow Hawk IIc. We also kill 6 more troopers in various squads. Our Wasp kicks and destroys the last trooper in a squad. A Griffin does the same. Their pilots stay unconscious. We radio and offer hegira and they accept.

Shadow Hawk IIc GB version, H, RT, LT, LL, RL, LA, RA
Griffin IIc - LA
Koshi B LA, RA, RT, LL, RL, H
Gladiator A – cockpit
Rifleman IIc – missing H
Supernova – life support
Galahad – missing La
Loki B – RA, H, LT, LA, LL, RL
Grizzly, missing H, RA


Firestarter H, LL, RL, LT, LA, RT, RA

Banshee, gyro, PPC hit; destroyed Ra; Javelin enginex2; Spider LL; Orion RL; Awesome enginex1;


Supernova Pilot, veteran, Kevin, now a bondsman
Galahad Pilot, veteran, Helga, now a bondsman
10 veteran elementals, bondsmen
After the battle, Magnus, who has proved himself, is no longer a Bondsman, but now a full member of K&C.


We lost a mech. We have to pay 400k even after battle compensation.

Salvage:

Gladiator A – up and running easily
Supernova – and this as well
Loki D-Uk – I use the extra pieces here to get this up and running.


Clan Items:

Beagle Active Probe
2x ER Medium Lasers
2x SRM6
ER Small Laser
Gauss Rifle


Experience:

Michael Henry, Defender’s BattleMaster, Edge: 2
Gia Alletelli, Hunchback, Edge: 1
Griffin’s pilot Marcus Jackson is getting Edge: 1
Estelle Galverson, Crusader, Edge: 2

Aug 13 – Lt. Rafael Gomez, who has been with the unit since 3030 has died of a disease that was discovered was too late to cure. He was an Archer pilot for Aleph Company and he was the one who took over after Braham Essex left. Michael Adkins is promoted to Sgt and Aurelia Jenson is giving command, in her Striker. Adele Thompson still has no desire to be promoted above her scout lance. The Archer is given to dispossessed MechWarrior Sergei Monotov, regular.

Aug 15 – After some quiet time, Humphries arrives at the Thule system.

Aug 16 – Ghost Bears have arrived at Radlje. They are moving to the planet.

Aug 18 – The Ghost Bears have returned from recalibrating their machine, and have begun to attack the Rasalhague system Vipaava.

Aug 24 – They arrive and issue a batchall.

They will be attacking with a full cluster. Nothing we say will change their mind. What will we use? The entire battalion. If we win, with this large of a battle, we want another DropShip.

They land in the swamp we have suggested for battle. All of our scout units have created an ad-hoc scout company that hits them from the east but quickly fades. They dispatch a binary to chase them down (binary is two stars, a star is five points, five fighters, squads of elementals or mechs). Meanwhile, our other forces are to the west. Missiles launch in from our fire support mechs and batter nothing but mire and plants. Their better sensors note where we are and have accommodated. They move the rest of their forces west towards us.

Our light company manages to elude the binary sent after them, without any weapons fire hitting anyone. Meanwhile, the other 45 mechs are slogging their way towards our 24 mechs. They break off into 15 mech trinaries and peel them off. We back up but have our backs to the worst section of the bog, and we’re too slow. Within fifteen minutes, our 24 mechs are surrounded on every side by 45 clan mechs.

With a minute, four of our mechs are destroyed and we haven’t damaged any of theirs. Tethys’s Griffin, Mustang’s Whitworth and Lance’s Banshee and Trebuchet have been destroyed. They offer us hegira, and with being as surrounded as we are, and outnumbers 2!: against superior forces in superior positions – we accept.


We have lost Radlje.

Aug 25 – Baron Jorgensson sent troops to grab tech from the damaged WarShip in Damian. They found nothing, it was already stripped by someone.


Aug 30 - After discussing it, the board of directors for Kressly Warworks has decided to expand into BattleMechs. With the video of a Kilts and Commandos Attila defeating a clan OmniMech in one on one combat making the rounds of the inner sphere, they are going to build them. The Attila will be updated with a bit LosTech, since that’s the hot new stuff. Since field trials are not necessary, adding a mech line to their factory will take roughly a year before they will be making the first one.

The new Atilla:

ATA-2 Atilla
85 tons, 3/5/3 movement
Maximum armor
17(34) double heat sinks
2xER PPC, one in each arm
3xSRM 6, all three in LT along with CASE and two tons of ammo
Medium Laser in H, 5x in RT, 1 in CT

Jump Jets in legs and CT. 2x HS are all over the place

Changes – weight saved from the switch to double heat sinks is used for jump jets and CASE and a 3rd SRM6. ER PPCS fit easily. We can jump and fire both ER PPCs without going overheat. When closed, we can fire all seven medium lasers and all three SRM6s and we make 33 heat. This assault mech will not go overheat. It does not have any expensive components like ferro-fib, endo steel or XL engines. It doesn’t need the weight savings. We had to remove the hand actuators to fix two double heat sinks in each arm.

Cost: 8.663 mill C Bills
Battle Value: 1,728

Compared to other mechs on the drawing board or just coming off in this era:

AS7-K Atlas, which is Col. Humphries btw, is 22.5 mill for 2175 BV
Albatross – 25 mill for 1650 BV
Stalker 5M – 8.25 mill and 1670 BV
Salamander – 18.4 mill, 1769 BV
Mauler – 1473 BV off 18.8 mill
Grand Titan 1820 BV off 29 mill

So the combination of value and cost is really good for the upgraded Attila.

Aug 31 – By the end of August, the Bears have captured two more systems, the Jaguars grab another, the Falcons add 3 and the Wolves take 4 more. 10 more systems have fallen to the inexorable Clan Advance.

Sept 4 – Humphries and his battalion arrive at Thule and are joined by Typhon Company. We now have 10 companies of mechs on Thule.

Sept 6 – The battalion from Radlje arrives in the Thule system

Sept 7 – The clan techs manage to fix the engine on the Loki Prime we captured a long time ago. Their next project is to move the arm from the Griffin IIc to a Dragonfly B chassis, which they say will be easy. After that, a Fenris C will be restored after getting a Shadow Hawk IIc head grafted to its body as a replacement.

Sept 10 - We meet with Baron Jorgensson to discuss possible battle strategies. We want to do more than just sit here and wait for an invasion. And yet, we have no support from the rest of Rasalhague, and the Baron wants to send us to help on the front lines. The Bears are attacking three more Rasalhague systems right now, and the Wolves are taking two more. Rasalhague systems as far away as Kandis are falling. We are five jumps away from the nearest free system – Spittal, but it is right next to three systems currently fighting Bears – by the time we arrived, it would likely have fallen already. There’s just not a lot of options. We will wait for the battered battalion from Radlje to arrive to get fixed up, and then we need to figure some things out.

Sept 15 – Thule had been left out for a while, but a clan JumpShip arrives in the system. It’s just a JumpShip, and not a full blown WarShip. We get news that the Bears took Pinnacle from the Vipers.

Their bondsmen do not give us military information on the clan, which we are okay with. They won’t give us information on home planets, defenses, that sort of thing – just information about things like culture, language, the Trials, and more. That’s fair, we know that if one of ours is taken as a bondsman, the clans would not expect sensitive information to be given. These clan techs we took aren’t giving us schematics to build our own OmniMechs, but they are helping us repair them an getting them ready.

We are going to shift our language. Previously, we have referred to Star League/Modern era technology as LosTech, the new clan level of technology as ClanTech and the old 3025 era without any special terms. Now we will be calling them level 1, level 2 and level 3.

Level 1 Tech:

Small, Medium and Large Lasers
SRM 2, 4, 6
LRM 5, 10, 15 and 20
PPC
Machine Gun
AC 2, 5, 10 or 20
Flamer
Hatchet


Level 2 Tech:

Gauss Rifle
ER PPC
ER Large Laser
Large, medium and small pulse lasers
LB 10-X
Ultra AC5
SRM 2 Streak


Anti-Missile System
Guardian ECM Suite
Beagle Active Probe
Target Acquisition Gear
Narc Missile Beacon
Artemis IV Fire Control System
C3 Computer

Ferro Fibrous Armor
Endo Steel Construction
Double Heat Sinks
XL Engines
Cellular Ammunition Storage Equipment (CASE)
Myomer Accelerator Signal Circuitry (MASC)
Triple Strength Myomer



Level 3 Tech:

ER Medium and Small Lasers
Ultra AC 2, 10 and 20
LB 2-X, 5-X, 20-X
SRM 4 and 6 Streak
Anti-Personnel Pods

Targeting Computer

Their weapons are also better. For example, a level 1/2 LRM 20 weighs 10 tons, has a range of 7/14/21 with a minimum range of 6, and makes 6 heat and uses 5 critical slots. A clan level 3 LRM 20 weighs just 5 tons, has a 7/14/21 range with no minimum and makes 6 heat and uses 4 critical slots. An Inner Sphere ER LL weighs 5, uses 2 crits, makes 12 heat, does 8 damage and has a 7/14/19 range. The clan one weighs 4 tons, uses 1 crit, has a range of 8/15/25, does 10 damage and makes 12 heat.

All of their machines are massively better than the IS ones, except for the Gauss Rifle. The clan version does weigh 20% less and uses one less critical space, but it has the same damage, range and heat.

Sept 20 – After suffering from a massive counter attack by the Federated Commonwealth, the planet of Twycross is retaken by the FedComs.

Sept 21 – The clan JumpShip leaves Thule.

Sept 22 – All of our troops are on planet and we have an awards ceremony

For valor against the clans, and for defeating them on several occasions, every unit which has fought against them gets the Tyr Clusters for furthering the freedom of the FRR. These companies get it:

Delta
Trinity
Defender
Tethys
Mustang
Lance
Phaeton

For defeating clan opponents in solo combat, Captain Martin Fitzgerald of Phaeton Company and Lt. Akwasi Oppoku of Lance company get the very rare Mannerheim Cross

For organizing the defense, Col. Matthew Humprhies gets both the Mannerheim Cross and Sheild of Heimdall for protecting citizens.

All three of those are also given the Tartan Badge, the highest honor that we can give to our company.

The following people get the Black Badge, our second rank of honor we bestow. Captain Gabriel Williams, Mustang Company

Sept 30 – By the end of the month, Wolf has captured 5 more systems total, the Jaguars grab 3, the Ghost Bears took 5 and the Falcons 4.

Oct 1 – After discussions with Baron Jorgensson, we dispatch the entire K&C unit - 13 companies, techs, spares, extra mechs, and more from Thule. Only 4 companies of assembled mechs from various planets that lost will garrison it. The Baron understands that his last planet will likely fall, but the FRR needs us on the front battle lines. Besides, the planet could fall anyway, even with us there.

Oct 2 – The Smoke Jaguars arrive at Wolcott and move to the planet

Oct 10 – The Jaguars arrive at Wolcott and issue a batchall. The Combine has taken two regiments of mechs that are elite, given them a new unit name and claimed they are green, and then used them against the Jaguars. Soon, the Jaguars will lose, and the clans will begin to understand that the IS will abuse their batchall system. The Jaguars win 10 suits of elemental armor, some pristine omnimechs to dissect, and the pledge that the Jaguars will never attack Wolcott.

Now everyone has a victory against the clans – Twycross, Thule and Wolcott.

Oct 13 – Upset by how much better Clan Wolf is doing than his own clan, Smoke Jaguar, ilKhan Leo Showers orders a Gran Kurultai to meet with the invading clans on board the Dire Wolf WarShip in the Radstadt system.

Oct 21 – One day before our DropShips arrive at a flotilla of JumpShips waiting for us, a clan WarShip jumps in at a pirate point. It’s only a few days from Thule. We contact them and as if we should return, but we are told to get going.

Oct 23 – We jump out of Thule.

Oct 29 – Thule has fallen to the Ghost Bears

Oct 31 – After suffering many technical difficulties and being thought dead, the Prince Elect arrives in the Radstadt system with his escort of 1st Drakons, a powerful Aerospace screen. In the Radstadt system is the Dire Wolf, a clan WarShip currently getting ready to host the Grand Kurultai. Thinking the clans will attack and destroy their prince, the 1st Drakons move out an attack the WarShip. The clan weapons are clearly too much for the Rasalhague pilots, but they keep on, trying to buy their prince time to escape. One fighter after another is cleared from the space, but one fighter slips through, piloted by Tyra Miraborg. Damaged and bruised, a suicide attack on the WarShip’s bridge destroys much of it. Wolf Khan Ulric Kerensky is pulled away in time, but ilKhan Leon Showers does not make it, and he dies in the space around Radstadt.

By the end of October, the clans have conquered:

Ghost Bear: 19 Inner Sphere worlds.
Wolf: 43
Smoke Jaguar: 26
Jade Falcon: 40

Total Number: 128 systems under Clan Control in just seven months.

ComStar knows that the clan ilKhan has passed.

The war effort was organized between clans that normally were at each other’s throats, and it is carefully balanced. One push could put the clans back on each other, rather than on the Inner Sphere. The meeting is held with the invading clans, and Steel Viper suggests the appointment of a new ilKhan, which requires all khans and bloodnamed warriors to return to their capital world and talk with others from their clans and the other clans. They will leave the Inner Sphere in a few weeks, leaving only garrison forces on the planets.

Once there, they will try to pin the blame of Showers’s death on Ulric Kerensky, but once that fails, they will appoint him as the new ilKhan. He orders Clan Nova Cat to return as an invading clan sharing the Smoke Jaguar corridor and Clan Steel Viper to return and share the Jade Falcon corridor. This is to help them get better, but Ghost Bear was the one who looked to need it the most. It was clear that Ulric Kerensky wanted to weaken the Jaguars and Falcons by forcing them to work with clans they hated. He will appoint the black widow Natasha Kerensky as the new clan of Wolf to replace him.

They will return in force in almost a year, but until that happens, the Inner Sphere has a chance to breathe, to rebuild, and to mourn.

End of Chapter 1 of The Invasion.

I have to say that this period was probably my favourite period (closely followed by the 3rd Succession War) and you're doing a really great job with the story.

Thanks, thanks!

Nov 13, 3050 – Our unit has arrived at the Kempten system after being ferried by command circuits and KF batteries. This is seven jumps from Thule, and along the Draconis Border. The Rasalhague Republic has just 34 star systems left. 7 of their 15 BattleMech regiments are completely destroyed with many others having vast losses.

We will now move to the regional capital Skandia, the only regional capital left after Rasalhague and Radstadt fell. Braham Essex will meet us there with Shadow Company.

Nov 28 – We arrive at Skandia. For the rest of our contract, the FRR wants us to assist in training their remaining mechs in anti-clan strategies.

Dec 18 – We honor the fall of Andurien

Dec 31 – During this year, technology introduced includes the Mauler BattleMech, the C3s we mentioned earlier, and triple strength myomer hitting the markets.

We have 8 graduates from the Essex Training Academy, and 12 enroll for next year:

5 regular, 2 green, 2 veteran

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

We have decided to add Oct 29 to our holidays as a remembrance of the fall of Thule.

Jan 1, 3051 – During this down time, two of our older mechwarriors are choosing to retire after this massive campaign:

Aleph Company’s Liu Chen and Elena Stoyovich. We are sending two veteran recruits from the academy to replace them:

Emmanuel Sanders, given the Javelin
Bayama Badar, given the Jenner


Our Training Academy is expanding in a full four year training academy. It adds a Dasher E-UK from those captured, and it advertises learning in an OmniMech and a BattleMaster 2C – both of which are really expected to bring them in now. Expect the quality of our recruits to increase. Those currently enrolled are offered the 4th year if they want it.

Updated Roster:

Aleph Company – FRR, Skandia
Phaeton Company – FRR, Skandia
Trinity Company – FRR, Skandia
Delta Company – FRR, Skandia
Cinq Company – FRR, Skandia
Hex Company – FRR, Skandia
Defender Company – FRR, Skandia
Typhon Company – Skandia
Heliades Company – FRR, Skandia
Tethys Company – FRR, Skandia
Brawler Company – FRR, Skandia
Lance Company – FRR, Skandia
Mustang Company – FRR, Skandia
Styx Company - EE
Boxer Company – EE
Rebel Company – EE


Shadow Company - Skandia
Garrison Units - Infantry, tanks, and Ted and his Stalker.

Tank Battalion – EE
Delta Company – EE
Aerospace Company - Skandia

Robin Hood - Skandia
Star River - Skandia
Scots Flotilla - Skandia
Serendipitous Victory - Skandia

Those listed as EE are on our home world, Epsilon Eridani

Jan 10, 3051 – A blip appears on our screen nearby Kressly Warworks. A company of mechs unloads, but instead of hitting either Kressly or us, they are going after a nearby mining complex. The planetary garrison is too far away, and the mine is going to be hit. We do not have a contract with the planet in any way shape or form. Still, Ted decides to send out Styx Company to hit them.

Styx is already on patrol around the Warworks, so they are close and already hot, He orders Boxer into their mechs to spell the garrison.

Styx easily puts themselves between the mine and the attackers. They must have thought we wouldn’t fight them off, because they pause. Styx uses the pause to move in:


AWS-8Q Awesome
TDR-5S Thunderbolt
WHM-6D Warhammer
CP-11-A Cyclops
CRD-3D Crusader
TBT-5N Trebuchet
BJ-1DB Blackjack
RFL-3N Rifleman
JVN-10F Javelin
JR7-F Jenner
LCT-1E Locust
WLF-2 Wolfhound

The Cyclops and Wolfhound are level 2 mechs with a few upgraded weapons. 6 elites, 1 vet, 5 regulars



The enemy:

AS7-K Atlas – Upgraded Atlas, elite pilot
Rifleman
Grasshopper
Panther
Valkyrie
Hatchetman
Hunchback
Stalker
Charger 1A9 variant
UrbanMech R63- upgraded level 2 mech
Commando
Thunderbolt


They are all regular pilots.

This is their Valkyrie, a fairly common light mech in the Federated Commonwealth with 5/8/5 movement, an LRM 10 and usually a backup weapons of some sort, like a medium laser.

The area we are fighting has hills, some minor woods, a road, a bridge, a river, a lake. It’s very diverse.

Here we go!

T1 – We lose init. We just exchange simple weapons fire.

T2 – We lose again. I run my Jav behind their Rifleman. Our Crusader fires missiles at their Rifleman and destroys its RT. Their Commando’s gyro and engine each once are hit by our Jenner’s. Stalker missile shit the Crusader’s H but just ding off right now.

T3 – We lost. I hop my Jav by their Stalker and Jenner by their wounded Rifelman. Our Warhammer opens up the CT on their Stalker and hits its engine once. Large Laser from the Blackjack knifes into the Stalker’s H. A medium laser from the Jav follows and heads the Stalker. Our Jav pilot blacks out after being knocked twice in the head by their Urbanmech’s LB 10-X.

T4 – We lose init. Their Atlas destroys the LA of my Awesome. My Jav’s RL is destroyed. Their Commando’s RA is destroyed by our Warhammer. Our Crusaders fires in missiles, destroys the Rifleman engine, and then an explosion hits and destroys the Commando. Their Panther’s PPC destroys our Jav’s LL, and a Hatchetman follows by taking out the LA and LT. Their Hunchback destroys the Jav’s RA. I’m just glad it survived. We win and they leave. They were just here to raid and they’ve already lost three mechs.



Rifleman RA
Stalker missing H


To fix: Awesome LA; Javelin RL, LL, LT, LA, RA;

We pay 400k for ammo and armor, 2.2 mill to fix the Awesome, Jav and Stalker

So basically we pay 2.6 mill for a Stalker.

Jan 15 – By now our clan techs on Skandia have done some more modifications.

Rifleman IIc - They pull the head off a Loki to fix it

Vulture Prime – The Galahad’s LT was used for it

Since they both have clan endo steel and ferro fib, this works.

January 20 – After fighting with them and training, all clan MechWarrior bondsman are made official warriors.

We have quite a few dispossessed warriors from destroyed mechs. We have 25 mechs at the garrison that are up and running. We make these choices. Of them, some are not really good enough to send out (like Fleas). That leaves these unassigned mechs in the garrison:

Panther, Stalker, Cataphract, Rifleman 5M, Javelin, Vindicator 3L, Cataphract 3L, BattleMaster 3M, Marauder 3L, Hatamato-Chi, CP-11-A Cyclops

We also have 15 unassigned clan mechs plus the two we’ve assigned.

We spend 1.9 million to purchase parts for our Firestarter and Comet that has CT sections destroyed.

We get a Firestarter and Comet back. The Comet is sent to Mustang Company and the Firestarter will be sent there too and replace the destroyed Quickdraw.


We are not taking any new contracts right now, since we only have a few forces on EE and don’t want to risk sending any away.


Jan 14 – The Inner Sphere hosts a conference on Outreach to verify that the clans are the descendants of the Exodus Fleet and that Jaime Wolf and the Wolf’s Dragoons, the premier mercenary unit on the IS, were a clan spy mission to work for all of the leaders in turn and get them info.

Jan 25 – While touring and visiting our garrison, Leftenant-General Pierre Benton thanks Ted for his jumping in and stopping the raid on the mines, even though we didn’t have a contract. He is glad that we look out for our own, something the Houses don’t understand.


Feb 1 – Braham Essex has personally returned home to spend some time with his family before the clans return.

Feb 10 – Ted is again trying to find upgrades for current mechs using the level 2 technology currently available.

1.2 mill for a Hunchback reassembled from parts plus a center torso.

We send the Stalker to Defender Company.

Javelin and Vindicator are sent to Phaeton Company.

Mustang was hit hard, so we send the Cyclops, Cataphract 3L and Rifleman 5M

Okay, we’ve now added mechs back to companies that lost them and have recalibrated.

We assemble a Jav 10F from parts for various light mechs. It cost 730k.

We spend 1.1 mill to assemble an Archer.

March 1, 3051 – EVENT The entire Inner Sphere is quiet. Factories are churning out new mechs, traders and military people are acquiring level two technology and refitting mechs, fresh and elite pilots are rotated to the front lines against the clans. Everybody knows that there will be another offensive, and they are holding their collective breath until that happens. Documentaries discuss clan occupations and everybody is an expert as to what is happening when. With everybody’s attention Clan-ward, pirates on the periphery are getting more leeway, and contracts are virtually non-existent from Inner Sphere powers. The occasional garrison or retainer contract is the only thing coming down the pike from the Great Houses. The money is being churning into infrastructures, building new mech lines, expanding factories, and purchasing and refitting materiel. There is no money for destroying listening posts or raiding factories or any other of the normal sort of contracts that come mercenaries way. The quality and quantity of contracts for the rest of the year will be strongly reduced. This is the eye of the storm.

Apr 4 – With nothing on the inner sphere radar, repeats of stories begin to make another circuit of news. Wolcott, Twycross and Thule are in the news again.

Apr 12 - Our elementals and techs are no longer bondsman but full members of the unit. Even clan elementals have failed to teach normal infantry how to use the suit.

May 1 – Our contract has ended with the Free Rasalhague Republic. They want to extend it with the Emergency Powers Clause, the most they can do is one month at a time for three months in a row, so they prefer to do another contract. Let’s do the money for the current one that ended first:



Salvage: Full
Command: House
Support: 50% Battle Loss
Length:5 years
Remuneration: Nope
Transport: Full
Salary: x3.7, x1.3, x1.2 with a 25% bonus for long campaigns
12.5% bonus


Here is how much we spent on salary a month for these twelve companies of mechs: 741009

Over the course of 5 years, we spend 44,460,540 in salary and support for these companies.

2.592 mill of that is upkeep of the mechs
2.146 mill is Overhead and Administration

We make 286,598,126 in salary from the FRR

We also get a 12.5% bonus, which is applied to all of the things, but in this case, just the salary, since the other is all paid.

After the bonus and costs, we made: 277,962,351

Now, we aren’t done removing money. I haven’t paid down the administration costs for EE in two years, so that’s 30 mill gone for the academy and our headquarters. Additionally, I have some units that haven’t been in contracts and they need to have been paid, so let’s pay them:

1.317 mill for garrison troops for two years
2.882 mill for 18 months of Styx, Boxer and Rebel companies
2.42 mill for 24 months of Vehicles Companies
600k for 1 year of aerospace company

Total gained: 240, 743, 351

War pays good.

How does the FRR have the money to pay us this when they are way behind? Most mercenary contracts of repute use a bond process, and you put most or all of the money you will pay in an account controlled by ComStar of the Dragoons. They paid us a long time ago, and now we get the pay.

I am going to skip the normal contract offer process.

We have been offered two retainer contracts – one by the Free RR and the other by the Fed Coms, who want to hire us and move us to the front lines.

We want to face the clans, no question. No one wants to sit on the sidelines when the invasion returns. We do a one year deal with the FRR:

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

Standard merc deals are adding some money for expected service vs the Clans.

The major differences are that the bonus is higher, we have the clan bonus, it’s just a one year deal and their support is dropping to 25%.

This contract applies to everybody on Skandia: Aleph, Phaeton, Trinity, Delta, Cinq, Hex, Defender,
Typhon, Heliades, Tethys, Brawler, Lance, Mustang, Shadow, Aerospace


We will continue on Skandia training for now. Intel experts believe that the clans will return no earlier than late September.

June 20 – Assignments have been laid out, and we will be garrisoning the world of Kempten with five of our best companies. Additionally we are garrisoning Vorarlberg with the rest of our forces. During the invasion, Shadow and Aerospace Companies will slip behind enemy lines and take targets of opportunity where one can.

July 17 – We are being shipped out to our new billet early, in order to get a lay for the land.

August 29 – We have landed at Vorarlberg and Kempten.

Kempten:

Delta
Defender
Trinity
Mustang
Phaeton


Vorarlberg:

Aleph
Cinq
Hex
Brawler
Heliades
Tethys
Typhon
Lance

Shadow and Aerospace are at Vorarlberg, waiting to be sent out or to help in defense.

We use this time to investigate future combat sites and more. We also have a tricky inner sphere surprise. We have heavily mined an area in Vorarlberg and Kempten with a large number of mines and it’s a death trap there. A few months of growth over the area should convince people that there are not mines there. We have three different areas large enough for about ten mechs to stand shoulder to shoulder and ten mechs deep. These will each have a mech equipped with a Guardian ECM Suite to keep away sensors from detecting the mines. This is our field of last resort if it’s needed. We prefer to play everything on the up and up, but we get our orders from Overste Whittaker, our boss and liaison with Rasalhague in all things military.


We are expected to hold Kempten, and if we need it, we have our best mechs and men in Shadow Company, ready to bust out and help.

Sept 15 – Braham Essex has arrived on Kempten after leaving behind EE and his family.

Sept 30 – We’ve sent up defenses, explored areas for battle, and yet, no word from agents on the clan occupied worlds that the clans have arrived.


Oct 15 – The first Attila ATA-2 rolls off the production line at Kressly Warworks. We get one for free for providing the design. The rest are to be sold to the market, with us as a primary purchaser for those we want. As of right now, they are churning out one a month.

Oct 31 – We still have seen no sign of the clans, and we’ve used these last two months for more training and more. Our ex-Bondsmen tell us that there were four waves in the invasion previously, and many more waves. We are about to be hit by Wave 5.



End of Interlude II, Chapter 5 The Invasion

Nov 15 – We get word that several systems have been attacked already.

Nov 18 – A large WarShip had jumped into the Vorarlberg system. It does not appear to be Ghost Bears.

Nov 26 – Galaxy Commander Conal Ward contacts the world and issues a batchall he doesn’t expect to be answered.

Colonel Braham Essex responds, and identifies his unit. The Wolves seemed happy to see him, since his troops, the 11th Wolf Guards Cluster wants to try their mettle against his forces. Clan Wolf is the only clan to win all of its battles. There is no Twycross or Wolcott or even a Thule on its history. It took more systems than any other clan and suffered no losses. Clan Wolf also has a tendency to keep battle away from civilians, but there are exceptions. They believe in overwhelming force and being out in the open.


Braham offers a battle against just a company of his men and mechs, nothing special. We’ve fought smaller battles against the Ghost Bear, Steel Viper and Smoke Jaguar. Wolf is very interested in a small battle that can be done in an hour and decides everything – they are interested in steam rolling as many systems as possible.

They had expected the Ghost Bears to attack, and had a garrison for them, but things change. Braham will be defending with his best company, his own Shadow Company. He will not be taking Wolf to the minefield.

(For the Wolves, I don’t even have to roll up units – the exact units and names of pilots and everything is included in the Wolf Clan Sourcebook. )


As a reminder, here is Shadow Company’s all Level 2 company with mostly older designs from the Star League and Braham’s special Orion.


ON1-Abe Orion
HGN-732 Highlander
ST-8A Shootist
FLS-8K Flashman
LNC25-01 Lancelot
GRF-3M Griffin
BJ-2 Blackjack
THG-11E Thug
LNX-9Q Lynx
PXH-1b Phoenix Hawk
STY-2C Starslayer
TLN-5W Talon


Here are the units bid against us:

Binary Battle of 11th Wolf Guards Cluster
All elite save one (1/2)

Alpha Battle Star:

Star Captain Layna Kerensky, Phantom
Tora, Pouncer
Insusa, Puma C
Leander, Mad Cat
Dancer, veteran, Fenris B

Bravo Battle Star:

Star Commander Vlad, Elite, Man O’ War
Amel Carns, Puma A
Drison, Puma A
Capil, Fenris
Spilurn, Black Hawk


The Delta Galaxy of Wolf Clan has a reputation for fast hard hitting mechs.

This is the Pouncer, a Clan Wolf exclusive OmniMech that weighs 40 tons. The prime version has 6/9/5 movement, two ER PPCS, an ER Small laser and a targeting computer for them. It’s a good mech.

We are playing on a mountain lake.

Our Battle Value is 33776 and theirs is 39792.

Alons-y!

Turn 1 – We lose init. Our Blackjack takes 5 damage to the head from a Puma. Another one destroys its RA.

Turn 2 – We win init. They hop their Black Hawk above my Lynx. Our Lancelot nails the head of their Mad Cat Prime with a PPC. It goes internal and destroys the life support.

T3 – We lose init. Our Flashman’s large laser destroys a Puma A RA. Our Thug follows by destroying its RT. It falls and destroys its LA.

T4 – We win init based off tactical genius. Braham’s Orion hits and destroys the LT of their Puma A and the engine took four hits and it shuts down. Our Thug takes 5 damage to the head from their Mad Cat’s LRM20. Their Pouncer’s RA is destroyed by our Starslayer. Our Phoenix Hawk loses its LA and goes severely internal in the LT. As a mech with an XL Engine, it’s not about to die, and I eject it to save it

T5 - We win init based off tactical genius again. They hop their Pouncer to my Blackjack. I move my Lancelot above it. Their Pouncer can’t take two AC20’ hitting it from our Shootist and modified Orion. It’s LT and CT are destroyed. Their Black Hawk destroys the LA on our Talon. Pouncer weapons tear into the Blackjack, as do LRMS from a Puma. They hit a double heat sink in the RT but nothing else. A minor SRM hit to the head of their Black Hawk manages to knock out their pilot, which then falls, and the pilot takes more damage.

T6 – We win init based off tg again. I eject our BJ since it’s a wonder it’s not dead and it’s internal everywhere but the head and right leg. Besides, we are wining this right now, despite a slow start. We jump our Lynx next to their Black Hawk. Our Flashman backs up beside it too. I’m going to try to shoot off its head. I jump my Griffin over too. I run our Lancelot behind their remaining Puma A. Our Highlander hits a ER Large Laser on the Fenris B. Their Puma A’s LT is destroyed by an AC20 from the Shootist. We only hit the Black Hawk with a Flamer and a glancing shot with a Medium Laser. Our Flashman kicks and destroys the Black Hawk’s H. We also kicked it in the CT and LL, but no internal damage.

T7 – Yet another tac gen win for init. They try to escape our Lancelot but they don’t. After several turns of shelling off armor when we can, we have gone internal in the Man O War’s CT. Their Mad Cat goes internal on our Thug’s H and RT. All they hit is a double heat sink. Lancelot destroys the RA of the Puma A. Our Shootist kicks and destroys the RL of the Puma, and it falls and destroys its LT section and that’s an engine shutdown.

T8 – We lose init. A gauss fires from our Highlander into the CT of their Man O War and hits the engine once and gyro twice. Dead mech. Our Griffin added another engine hit. A Fenris hits the foot and upper leg actuators on our Highlander after getting a through armor critical. It doesn’t fall though. We intentionally set the woods on fire that their Puma and Mad Cat are hiding in. I want to force them out.

T9 – We win init. We manage to hop the Highlander into cover despite two damaged actuators. Our Thug has been targeted for four turns, and is internal in five places. We are wining, so I eject it. They only have five mechs left and the Phantom and both Fenris’s are damaged. They run the Fenris B behind our Lynx. Our Shootist takes a Medium Pulse Laser ot the head but survives. Braham’s Orion destroys the RT of their Puma C. Our Griffin’s LLRMs and PPC both nail the Puma’s CT and it is destroyed. Dead Puma. Our Lancelot destroys the head and right leg of their Fenris B.

With three mechs – Mad Cat, Fenris and Pouncer left, we offer the Wolves hegira and they accept. This was a good win, dominated by elite pilots, level two technology, and foes that were fast with great weapons but light, so when we tagged them, we hurt them

Nice win with the A team!

Tell

Pouncer Prime, RT , RA, H, LL, RL, LA
Puma A missing RT, LT, RL, engine x3
Black Hawk Prime, missing H
Man O War -enginex2, gyrox2
Fenris B RA reattached, missing RT, H, RL
Puma C RA, LT, LA, LL, RL, H





Blackjack – RA destroyed;
Phoenix Hawk LA destroyed
Talon LA

It will cost us just 1.15 mill for parts and 650k for ammo and armor. We have to pay 1.35 mill.


The Man o War is easily fixed and ready to go

Puma A - We fix the Puma engines, but it goes to the shop.
I need a RT for a Puma badly. I already have one in the shop missing only that, and now I have two more missing that part.



Clan Items

ER PPCx2
LRm15x2
Medium Pulse Laser

Targeting Computer (for 2 ER PPC and ER SL)


Experience – Rachel Perry, of the Shootist, gains Edge: 1

I was happy!

Dec 2 - A WarShip arrives at the Kempten system. It does look like a Ghost Bear War Ship we’ve seen before.

Dec 10 – Braham Essex and Shadow Company, plus our Aerospace company blast off from Vorarlberg into Ghost Bear territory.

Dec 12 – The Bears have arrived at the planet and issue a batchall. They are refusing a smaller battle and want to send down a cluster. (In reality, they sent a trinary of 15 OmniMech and captured the planet with that, but now we are here). The 12th Bear Chevaliers Cluster has 45 OmniMechs and 10 squads of Elementals. Because this is an actual campaign, we have been advised that we can ask for more than normal. We ask for the same status as Wolcott – to not be attacked by Ghost Bear here again, but they inform us that the clans aren’t ready to bid that any more.

Instead, we ask for a company of omnimechs, including one Daishi. They discuss it, and then disagree. That’s just too much. They’ll give us 12 second line mechs and refits though. They can send them to us. We agree. If we win, we get a company of clan garrison mechs, with three of each weight type.

We have agreed to war on a large island in the tropical zone. There are no people or infrastructure there, so it is away from everyone and everything (and it includes our mine field, if we need it).

The Bears agree and move towards the large island, and we have our mechs too. As this is a campaign, it will require strategic attacks, withdrawals, surprises, and more. They have 45 Omnis and 15 squads of Elementals. We have:


Delta
Defender
Trinity
Mustang
Phaeton


We also have the 10 Elemental, so 2 squads, and ex-clansmen. That gives us 60 mechs plus the extra surprises.

We are easily outmatched in terms of technology, but we have numbers - barely. However, one good thing, the 12th are a veteran unit, not elite.

Normally when we have done major campaigns like this, we have been a part of a much larger battle – Andurien, Breed, Marduk and more. This campaign will be done completely by us, against clanners who have learned a lot about inner sphere tactics in the last year.

This will be rough. We do have that surprise mine field that doesn’t appear to be mined, and we already spent months investigating the area, that gives us some advantage.

Our fastest mechs are easily outdistanced by their Dasher, but it doesn’t jump. The Dragonfly does though, and it’s a faster jumper than any of our mechs save Spiders and Ostscouts. There’s just no way we will easily hit and fade with our fast mechs.

What we can do is set up a trap. My goal is to hit their column with fast jumping units, like Phoenix Hawks, Javelins, and similar mechs. Then when they chase us, we leap over a chasm, which will prevent Dashers from following us, but their scout jumpers – such as Dragonflies, can easily jump over and pursue. Then we hit them with a bunch of fire support mechs who will pour missiles into the area and then retreat. Hopefully, after 20-30 seconds of sustained missile and PPC and ER Large laser fire they will crumble and retreat. However, it’s fairly obvious that a hit and fade is a trap. It’s a pretty common thing. We have to be able to sell it. What I want in the original group is something that looks like a full company – medium mechs, heavy mechs, and light mechs. We are also going to have them “come across” our company, rather than have them attack.

Here are the mechs we will be using for the hit and fade:

Quickdraw
Firestarter
Spider x2
Dragonfly
Phoenix Hawk x2
Catapult in the back
Javelin x2
Griffin
Thor

This group has heavies, mediums and lights, and should look like a real company from a distance. We’re even giving them a similar paint scheme to back that up. Then they will flee and jump over the chasm-like ravine. It’s a mass of jangled plants and thickets and rocks and streams down in the bottom, and any mech that runs down there in order to get back up will get caught quickly. Just in case anyone is stupid enough to do it, we have our elementals hidden down there.


We place our company in the way of their column as they move into the island from the beach on which they landed. Now I roll to see if they believe it is a company when they come across us. They easily do (I roll a 4 on 2d6, I felt the plan here was very good, and required a 10 or higher to break). Will they chase us? Barely (I rolls a 7, I figured an 8 or higher ruined it). They move in, and we move quickly, so they send out their fast units. Will the jump the chasm? (I figure a 7 or higher breaks it – I roll a 6 exactly). Yes, those that are fast jump.

These are the pursuers’:

5 Dragonflies
2 Thors


16 fire mechs rain down weapons – Crusaders, Riflemen, Warhammers, Trebuchet, Whitworths, Archer, Catapults, and more. T Col Humphries’s Atlas with a Gauss and two ER LL and an LRM20 is among the 16. The mechs realize what is happening, and 5 manage to make it out, both Thors and Dragonflies. The other two ‘Flies are completely destroyed. Nothing is salvageable. We fade.

We have taken out two Dragonflies. When fighting the G Bears, I want to focus on taking out the fast mechs. If we can eliminate their Dashers, Dragonflies, and any other very fast units (such as Koshis), then we should be in a strong place strategically.

The Ghost Bears camp for the night, fix the damaged mechs that fled, and prepare their own plan. Coming in, they saw a nearby ravine, from a different creek, that had two exists, and would be an ideal ambush. Everybody knows that. What they want to do is appear to split up into Trinaries, and then move one into the ravine, opening up to an ambush. Meanwhile under the cover of an ECM another trinary split up and sneak into position on each side of the ravine with Elementals backing them up. When we come to ambush the Trinary moving through the ravine, we will e ourselves ambushed and outflanked.

Again, it relies on a common trick, do something that obviously weakens you, and then show that it was a trap. We prepared by disguising our mechs and unit. Will they? No, they don’t think of it (they rolled poorly). We don’t need a high number to realize what’s going on. We figure out that it is a trap. There are several things to do when you realize that there is someone trying to trap you, and ideally, you trap the trappers. Now that you suspect that they have a trap prepared for those who ambush the unit below, you can prepare, but we don’t know what their plan is. Our scouts tell us that they split into three groups and left, one for the ravine. We decide to leave it alone – it’s just too obviously a trap, and without better intel about what they are specifically doing, we would walk into the trap. For example, they could have rigged the sides of the canyon t explode down.

We are using an old cave system as our base. We have the maps and there are three entrances we have guarded. Ores in the rocks and ECM systems prevent them from finding us. We’re not going to risk it heading out.

It is decided that we will instead send out a pair of company of mechs to look like we are doing stuff and perhaps run into one of their units – we dispatch Lt. Miguel Juarez’s Delta Company and Capt. Jason Thomas’s Trinity Cpompany. Our scout mechs determine that one of their trinaries is moving in a direction perpendicular to Delta, and if we want, we can meet up with them in n area with thinner trees.

After consideration, we decide to push in. It’s the one trinary that is not involved with the trap or bait. It’s the 63rd Assault Trinary with 15 omnimechs. They’ve only been here one day. They don’t know the land yet, so we can leave anytime we want. Ejecting will only result in us keeping our mechs and people if we win the field, but the goal of this is not to win the field, in a 12 vs 15 battle against OmniMech, but to slash and destroy one or three and then fade.

Here is their trinary:

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

They only have 14 mechs, and that suggests that they lost a Dragonfly yesterday.

It’s 12 v 14 and we are down tech and numbers but not ability – Delta has 9 elites and 3 vets.