The mercenary unit find themselves on Bromhead.  Its a Davion held world on the edge of what they consider to be the inner sphere.  The Cappellans were close at hand but were never really aggressive with picking fights with their neighbors.

Pirate raid were thought to be a problem from Pirate's Haven.

Instead, it's been a dull six months of garrison duty.  There was nothing wrong with Garrison duty.  The units upkeep cost were barely covered by the steady paycheck that came and went.  Combat pay was what they really needed but the pirate were just not show their faces.

Outreach was a long way from Estuan.  There really was no point in packing the unit up and travelling out there only to redeploy somewhere else.  Space was vast and the weeks spent in space charging jump sails could be as bad as garrison duty.  Worse.  There was no pay check in to.

Zenha had her feelers out with her representative on Outreach.  It was possible that he might find them a contract... someplace .. close.  Already this far out they would be in a better position to move on the contract than others.  The only problem with that was that the fighting seemed far away on the fluxing borders between the great houses.  You would think pirates would be busy while they were busy, but that just was just not the case.

The unit was left alone at the moment.  They were holed up and mixed in with the local militia.  They had room.. board.. and not much else.  It really was time to move on, but she knew such things couldnt be rushed.


OCC:  Players should feel free to state what their character are doing during this down time.  This is not a mandatory activity.  I know Mac's game was all about the fight, but i prefer more of a roleplaying element in my campaigns.
This message was last edited by the GM at 01:40, Sat 13 July 2013.

Ling's beloved Raven, known affectionately as "Mockingbird" was at the moment housed in a huge Aerotech hanger.  The long months of inactivity had not gone to waste.  She has spent long hour in the shop locating a seller for some cutting edge equipment.

A set of Omni Tech Streak SRM 2's had replaced her old SRM 6.  She was comfortable enough with the efficiency of the weapon to reduce her munitions by half, as well as remove one of her medium lasers.  Lots and Lots of armor were added to make up for the weight displacement.  You could never have too much armor.  As much as Mockingbird's frame could mount was fine by her.

By now Ling was a veteran of conflict.  Combat was long stretches of boring preparation punctuated by a few brief moments of chaos all directed to undoing all the careful preparations.

"Such is the nature of war... Nevermore.", Ling quietly quoted to Mockingbird.

Garrison duty was a cream role for Adam's family mech.  It hadn't seen the light of day in decades but he had used the last of his funds in salvaging the remains of his last mech to bringing her up to snuff.  It was something that he didn't wish that he had to do and even then convincing them into using it instead of arranging for some other light ride was difficult.  Thankfully the mech was well used by more Houses than just the Capellans and even all the way out here repair and maintenance was much easier...not to mention the fact that Ling found it interesting lending to her heritage.

Thomas was walking away from his Mech, a panther 9R, a relic of older wars against the Draconis Combine and trophy for his family. The Dark Huntress was sitting mournfully unused in the hanger as garrison duty was boring him and her to pieces.

Thomas approached 'Cowboy' and looked up at the UrbanMech. How he managed to actually put himself into the thing was a wonder to Thomas. That huge barrel of the auto cannon however was pure death to any foolish enough to underestimate it for a moment. "Oi Cowboy, you ready to put that horse down yet?" He smirked playfully at the Lt. That joke was never going to get old.

Adam chuckled, "You know that's the reason I won't put her down Keith.  Everyone is suckered when they get around her.  Then she sucker punches them with a trio of 250mm depleted uranium rounds.  Last thing they ever tend to do."

Patting the armour plating on the leg of the plodding beast he marveled how the gyro was even able to handle the strain.  The weapon and ammo combined weighed more than half the total mass of the thing.  Looking down the line to his ancient Panther he added, "Just like you'll never put that long in the tooth cat down."

Ling picks up a rag to wipe the grime of her hands.

They were on the militia's base, there were nothing list inbound that wasnt suppose to be, and Commander Grey had the entire unit on stand down.  They werent being paid to fight so there was no reason to be on alert.  If things changed and things got hostile... will Ling was certain there would be a flurry of negotiations to get them working again.

She wanders over to the two men in the hanger with her.  Old friends by now it seemed.

"The Capellans makes these enmasse.", she comments nodding at Cowboy's ride.

"That should speak enough of its reputation to avoid them.", there was an easy going smile on her lips.  She was a Capellan through and through if she couldnt see the humor in herself it was going to be a long and unhappy life.

"What is it with you Fed Rats that have you macho mech jocks into thinking bigger is better?  Are you feeling the need to be ... compensating ... for something?"
This message was last edited by the player at 01:05, Fri 12 July 2013.

Thomas turned to regard the pretty Capellan. They were not enemies in this unit. He was not going to insult her House either. "Bigger is better where mechs are concerned Fraulein. But speed and sneak can kill just as easily, maybe we could discuss it over dinner sometime."

The Steiner had been shot down more than his fair share by Sang-Lei. It never stopped him from trying though. He did look down towards the Raven. The thing looked like metal chicken with a weird beak. "Did you get all of the feathers out of the linkages?"

Adam laughed again at Ling's joke and stuck out his tongue and ended with a wink, "It's the Capellan design to slap that Mydron-A on there...besides it's been in my family for hundreds of years so if you want to point fingers at compensating talk to my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great grandmother."

Ling resisted the bait that both men put out before her.  She knew better than to nibble on poison.

"The commander is working on a new contract.
 Strange.  How you seem to yearn for combat when youre on leave.
 Yet once you have it, the disillusioned reality of it all quickly has you yearning for peace again.
 I'm going to miss a comfortable bed.  Warm meals.  Indoor plumbling.", Ling makes a vaguely dismissive gestures.

"You guys can find a tree to do your business.
 You have no idea how thrilling it is to be squatting on some hostile planet to relieve yourself ... wondering what would be worse being shot and dying or shot and living with the humiliation.", Ling tone was dead pan serious, which from long aquaintence, youve found passed for brand of humor.

Zenha Grey looked up at the clock. Already? She rubbed her tired eyes as she stood. "Time flies when your looking for a better gig," she said to the empty room. She stretched as she picked up her noteputer. Time to check the unit. Her boots echoed softly as she entered the Aerotech hanger where many of their mechs were being held. Garrison work was still work, she tried to convince herself.

Zenha tried to look optimistic when she saw several of the folks standing next to one of the mechs.

It's been three days since Zenha had been put her feelers out.  Even by Hyper Pulse generator, communication was limited to exchanges once a day.

Three contracts had come and gone.  Two grossly inappropriate that canon fodder and suicide mission might as well be stamped on the contract.  The third, they had lost out because it was time sensitive and they were no where near where they needed to be to deploy.  Wilson's wimps got the contract was the last she heard.  Any client desparate enough to take those losers werent worth having for clients, she tried to cheer herself.

Two days had passed with brief messages of 'nothing appropriate', after that.  It was... another day nothing.  Nothing new would be heard from out reach till tomorrow.

"So what if we are compensating?, these missiles will shred anything that even remotely considers an engagement worth it"
The young Lyran appeared from behind her whitworth, wiping grease off her hands.

"Maybe we should get ourselves a truck-toilet"
they wouldn't and she knew it, the space was needed for parts and munitions, far more important than any measure of comfort.

Adam chuckled and added a wink, "Fair enough Ling, but at least you don't have a body part so exposed that the slightest damage means almost incapacitating pain."

Sitting on the squat foot of his 'Lame Mustang' he knew that the majority of the pilots were good, but it just wasn't home yet for him.  They had been together for a bit and that had been helpful to morale but like most mercs it was difficult to handle the hurry up and wait program.

Pax was out with his mech making sure the mongoose was ready to run.  Running it through the practice range and feeling pleased on the score.  It paid to stay frosty in case something happened ... yeah right.

Returning to the mech bay he noticed a small gathering and wondered if a new mission had come through.  Garrison duty was a nice change but like every young mech warrior he was ready for a real mission.

Settling Road Runner into his assigned bay he powers down the mech.  While waiting for the power down sequence to finish he thought back to how many family members through the years had used this mech and more recently how he came to be its operator. With a deep sigh he grabs his towel and jacket for the cooler conditions outside the mech.

After drying off he hangs the towel on a rack and climbs down.  At the bottom of the mech he slips on his jacket, the back having a design of a cartoon bird that looked fast. The design matched the one painted on his mech, which oddly looked fresh and bright for such an older mech.  It was an old gag that had survived the years regarding the name and design of the bird on the back of his jacket.  Something about an elusively fast 'Road Runner' out witting and out maneuvering his hunter. The hunter constantly paying the price for coming after the bird.  The details had been lost over time but the image and the basics of what it meant had endured.

Approaching the others Pax zips up his jacket, "Any new offers?"

Thomas chuckled at Adam and nodded in agreement, almost was too gentle a word for that. He absently watched the Mongoose walk into the bay and take its place. The approach of Lt. Grey brought his attention. Baroness might have something new for them to do, he hoped. He watched and waited.

David sits in the cockpit of his Blackjack with the hatch open, simply staring at the powered up console.  After blankly staring at it for a few long moments he powered it down, there was really only so much maintenance you could perform on a mech that sat idly by in the hanger.

Exiting the mech and closing the hatch, he climbed down the ladder and almost wished for something exciting to happen before catching himself and thinking 'be careful what you wish for...'.  Upon reaching the ground he looked around and saw a growing group of his comrades gathering around and seemed to be animatedly discussing something.  "Do we have a new contract?" he wondered as he walked over to join the group.

Zenha turned to Pax, "None worthwhile. But I have a few contacts on Outreach checking on a few leads." She waited as all eyes turned to her as she presented the news, "But in the meanwhile, garrison work is still work."

"Ling, any news from the local militia?" Zenha asked about any pirate activity.

David's face turns to a look of disappointment upon reaching the group and hearing Zenha's response.  He didn't really hear Pax's question but he could make a fairly accurate guess.  He will continue to pay attention on the hopes of hearing something that would make this job, well, less dull.

Ling shakes her head, "No.", lips pursed in an irritated look she shakes her head.

"The militia is pretty happy with all the quiet.  They get paid the same... fighting or not fighting.  The harvest came and went.  They thought they might have had problems with hungry pirates... they have to eat too... but you know how that went.  No raids.  The they harvested, and what's not dispersed into the population was sold to nearby planets, the C-bills in a comstar account arent anything pirates can really steal."

"So the harvest is done." Zenha replied, "And with the C-Bills in the bank, the militia doesn't believe that pirates would come to the planet? What about water resources?" She ask without expecting much of an answer in terms of resources.

"Water is heavy and they're more inclined to raid the asteroid belt, when solid blocks of ice are mined.", Ling shrugs

"... or so they believe.  I really have no desire to picket a garrison in an asteroid belt.", Lings nose wrinkles at the thought.  Zero G combat was something she was vaguely familiar with.  All her experience were of the negative sort.

Pax looks down at the bay's floor tying to not look too disappointed.  Having nothing useful to add to the conversation he decided to keep his mouth shut.

The members of the brat pack gather and go to kill some time in the mess hall.

It's the same routine that has them bored to tears, but everything else they'd like to get done has been done.

As they all gather to spend another dead boring evening of drinking... bar games...  and old war stories at the base recreation hall.  A little icon pops up in Zanha's ready room.

'You have mail', winks on and off waiting for attention to notice it.

Joining the rest of the crew in the rec. room, David was at least thankful someone was able to get ahold of several decks of cards.  At least the evenings could be passed in a less than boring fashion and he believed that tonight's game of choice was euchre.

Zenha had the habit of carrying her noteputer with her whenever she was out of the office. It was even true in the recreation hall. She excused herself and reviewed the contract offer at a nearby empty table.

This is the best offer that I've seen in months. Zenha thought to herself as she read the fine details of the contract. Finally she motioned for everybody to gather. "Drinks on me tonight!" She closed the noteputer. The final instructions was already queued to go out with the next hyperspace transmission.

"We've got ourselves a contract. Expect thirty days for us to dust off this planet."

Zenha's predictions for a 30 day wait for dust off are off by a significant magnitude.

She sends off a missive with the units interest, and goes to bed.  She wakes with travel arrangements in motion to transport the unit to Detroit.  A Periphery planet with some level of industry, and the capital of a fledgling alliance of planets forming in the periphery.

A dropship makes planetfall a day later and the unit is dusting off for a 2 jump jaunt through space.  Theres a 2 week wait, where the sails are deployed to recharge before the final jump i made for Detroit.

If the characters have anything to do before dusting off, or during the two week wait to recharge the jump ship, please state so here.  I should (i hope) have time to finalize things tomorrow when the weekend hectic schedule comes to an end.

Ling takes the sudden departure in stride.  She makes certain that the Mockingbird is loaded up on the union and settles in for the 2 week trip to Detroit.

She spends time lingering in the cockpit of her Raven of ghosting around quietly on the decks of the Union.  It wasnt that she was trying too hard to hide, it was just second nature to move about with a certain degree of stealth.

David certainly isn't complaining about the accelerated schedule.  Glad to leave that planet behind, his Blackjack is loaded up onto the dropship within 30 minutes of being given the 'all clear'.  His belongings are gathered up shortly after that.  He waves the planet a cheerful goodbye before strapping himself in for liftoff.  Once docked to the jumpship however, he realizes that he has a few questions for the Lieutenant concerning his mission.

Thomas is ready to leave this dustball for something else to do. The question is what was the nature of the contract, another garrison. He was ready to go and had his gear stowed by the time the call came in a day to be ready. 30 days turned into 30 hours. Someone was in a hurry...Why.....

Ling does a walk through the Calypso and notices that the ship had a very well pristine feel to it.  Neat tidy and well kept.


Ling seems to stay busy, and only barely shows up to grab quick meals leaving her assigned bunk bed tidy and unused.
This message was last edited by the player at 23:55, Tue 16 July 2013.

Zenha called everyone together one evening for a meal, it was not optional. "Alright listen up, we'll be entering Detroit in less than 24 hours. Make sure your mechs are ready." Zenha seemed to have been repeating that their mechs needed to be ready almost daily while they were in transit.

"This is a fairly new unit." She was interrupted when someone asked for the name of the unit. "Rat Pack", she said with a smile. "But tonight we eat."

Adam had been doing power output ratios till they loaded his ride for transit.  While on the way he did his best to work out in Zero-G...he still didn't feel fully recovered from his mechs destruction even now after so much time.  When Zenha called for the evening meal before arrival Adam showed up and listened.  Asking the question that everyone was likely to wonder about, "What's the measure in Detroit Baroness?"

While in transit, David had been spending most of his time down in the mechbay at the Lt's request that their mechs be kept at combat-ready status.  He had been working mostly on his own mech but also that of others, helping out where he could.  He had even found a few hours to sleep.

During the mandatory meeting he found out why.  He still had a few questions, however, notably:  "What's the situation, Lieutenant, and who are we up against?"

Role Playing Experience given out.

 2 xp Adam
 2 xp David
 1 xp Henriette
 1 xp Pax
 3 xp Ling
 1 xp Thomas
 2 xp Zenha
This message was last edited by the GM at 13:58, Wed 17 July 2013.

Pax had settled in and figured a few strong drinks is just what the mech warrior needed before hitting the rack.

24 hours.  It was good that they would be on the planet tomorrow.  He would much rather be running around on the ground in metal than flying through space in it.  Road Runner was prepped and without some new fancy tech was as good as you could get with a mech that fast.

They had some practice sessions.  He just hoped that with all the time he spent sitting around on his butt these last months didn't make him too rusty for real combat.

Thomas was with Pax on his like of being in space. It was not fun. He would be glad to be dirt-side. He paid close attention when David asked about the opposition picking at his food as his stomach was not in the mood for eating.

There was that one time he puked in his neurohelm during a combat drop and he never wanted to revisit that place again.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:14, Wed 17 July 2013.

Henriette  had looked her blackjack over the first fifteen times during the first week, now she wandered the dropship, aimless... Bored out of her skull.

She didn't so much mind the space voyages themselves, it was the blandness, how every day was exactly the same as the last one, which got  to her.

in the end she settled into a routine of eat, sleep, sit around reading Mech magazines, tactics manuals, and magazines, and maintenance manuals.
she wanted to exercise, but due to the limited water, she kept it at a minimum.

as time passed, even that  got too boring, and she hibernated... sort of...

Then came a day, where everyone seemed far more excited than usual, it wasn't till noon she realized they'd be landing the next day.

When they sat  down for dinner that  night, she'd done her best  to freshen up (as much as facilities permitted), and the blank stare was slowly fading to one of curiosity

In reply to Adam Carlyle (msg # 32):

"It's a more garrison work." Zenha smiled as she heard several groans. "It's not much, but there were worse. We still have to make a name for ourselves in order to get better contracts."

"But this one is multi-phase contract. That means it's open-ended, so there might be more contracts and other missions. So we have the potential for a bigger payout."

In reply to David Crain (msg # 33):

Zenha shook her head, "Don't know yet. We haven't received those details until we get planetside. Their security forces didn't want to give that information out."

Thomas frowned at the lack of information. "That is never a good sign. The less they tell you, the more surprises there are. Surprises are very rarely good. The Steiner was not enchanted about being kept in the dark but then again, clients were not going to broadcast their dirty laundry for everyone to see unless they were desperate.

"at least tell us you negotiated a good bonus, based on their unwillingness to give out information.

I know I know, the dead can't spend, but if i'm going into something like this, without proper intel because they're reluctant to share... I had better know the payday is wirth whatever they aren't telling me."

"No intel beforehand with a garrison tends to mean either some industrial or governmental secret that they want kept hidden and protected quietly or they are paranoid." nodded Adam as he ran over the scenarios.

"Sadly both can lead to either mind numbing boring duty or meat-grinder combat as we are tossed to protect what they want so they don't loose it."

He shrugged with a smile, "Never pass on easy money, was looking at learning another language.  You think I can find the latest Rosetta Stone programs on Detroit..."

David frowned upon hearing Zehna's response, "So we're dropping blind into a combat zone inside a city.  We don't know who's down there, how many of them there are, or even what hardware they have.  Can't say I like that even a little bit.  Still, we're here and that's our contract.  How long before we drop?"

Feel free to roleplay the results of your missions or anything you want to roleplay post mission two.

It was a good lull of action for the mercs.  Over the span of two months, they managed successfully safeguard supplies (convoy) to Miller's Creek, to fend off an incursion on Millers Creek (Garrison), and even managed to find and foil a staging point (patrol) that was in the midst of being set up.

Good news has a way of traveling fast.  If the lure of a warm bed, and a roof wasnt enough to draw the last of the resistance to rally at Miller's Creek, the news of a bright spot of resistance was.

Planetary militia and the last of the planetary defenses were drawing together around Miller's Creek to form a solid pocket of resistance.  {New player units join at this point, including Olaf}

---

Roleplaying tallies will be noted and added (to Mission 2) when Mission Three starts.

OOC: w00t!

Game on:

The mech materialized on the horizon, working it’s way toward friendly lines following the road and without trying to use the undulating ground to find cover for a more tactical approach.  As the distance closed, it became clear that the aging Whitworth had taken a long hard road to get here.  Although largely functional, the mech was a patchwork of unpainted replacement armour panels and older panels painted with well worn jungle cam tiger stripes entirely inappropriate for Detroit’s climate.  Arms and legs wore scorch marks and pits; some fresh, some much older.  The battle scars were mostly cosmetic damage but obvious signs that the mechwarrior had not entirely escaped recent fighting.  The 40 ton war-machine bore no identifying marks that would give any clue to a unit or affiliation - quite the opposite in fact.  The only patches of fresh paint were two large flat black squares painted over the right breast and left thigh, a third smaller square appeared on the right shoulder obscuring whatever unit identifiers had once decorated the beleaguered battlemech.

Inside the mech’s cockpit Olaf keyed his communications system to monitor a wide spectrum of channels, hoping he could pick up the channel being used by the garrison of mercs at Miller’s Creek.

"Well that went right up shits creek."
Henriette grumbled to herself, jsut as  she ehaded through the door to their temporary Cafeteria.
Soldiers needed a place to eat, this wa sa rule regardless  of where in the universe you were, and she just wanted some chow and a beer, quite possibly several, to dorwn out the images  of slaughtered civilians.
"I'll fucking kill that murdering scum, slaughter the lot of them"
The bastards had opened unprovoked fire uppon civilians, hell it had seemed to be their mission.
Defenseless civilians, theyd bloody murdered noncombatants.
She went over and got herself a tray and some food, as well as a pair of cans of beer to wash it down with.

The food  was stale, as the images of burned and shredded carcasses passed through her mind once again.
Damnit, this wasn't okay.

The Enemy withdrew.  While the causalities were higher than Pax would have wanted, the main clump of them survived.  The plans to scatter the civilians about back fired with the VTOLs overflying the mech defenders.  The death toll was still coming in and Pax took each death seriously.

Till the Captain made it back he was in charge and he was going to chat with  Burner for breaking formation.  Hell, he needed to bring dental floss to his teeth from the butt chewing Burner was about to receive.

Parking Road Runner he looked to where their new member parked and headed that way.

OOC Wanted Burner/Luc to see it coming!  hehe

Having not one, but two of the command structure ordering him to stop trailing the enemy mechs made him wonder if they really were here to defend the populace.  Sure they were going through the motions but even he knew that when you were defending that if you got an advantage on home turf you had to hit them...and hit them hard.

This pansy waffling around was swinging his gauge over to the 'not in a chance in hell' that he'd stick with these amateurs...and that was saying a lot coming from a man like himself.  Popping the hatch he climbed down his girl and noticed the fuming Road Runner stalking his way.  Unless he had something really good to say, and he doubted that he would tell Luc that he was wrong, this was going to be one of 'those' chats.

David was furious, no, pissed with himself for being unable to stop the greater part of the convoy from escaping.  They had had a chance to hurt them good but no, his inability to hit the proverbial broad side of a barn meant that most of them had escaped.  Worse yet, they would just set up camp again, somewhere else, and we would have to start again to find them.  There were times when this planet seemed larger than it actually was.

Before heading in for supper he made sure he booked several blocks of practice time on the live firing range.

The convoy came in quick and safe, and supplies were unloading as she bought her mech to a part. It looked like the outpost had been attacked while they were gone.  Signs of the battle were evident where bullets had chewed up buildings and fires were being put out.  Bodies were being laid out side by side as the casualties were being counted.

It was sad.  It was obvious that those that had fallen were heathens.  Non believers in the one and true word of Blake.  Sinners all.  They didnt deserve their fate thought, while they lived and breathed there was a chance they could be saved.  Obviously Blake had seen it fit to end their existence.

The Convoy had been spared mostly through her stalwart faith in the Word.  Would it be enough to keep them all safe?  Her faith was strong but she was one among a bunch of weak believers at best.

"Rejoice children of Blake.  You have been spared this day through Blake's mercy.
 I... the Serene Light Of Blake... shall hold a sermon to renew your faith.
 To ensure that you might continue to benefit from his benign grace.  For now.
 I must attend to the fallen, who have passed beyond his reach.", it was an odd thing, to watch Regina spew her rhetoric with such a deadpan straight face.

It was obvious she believed what she recited with such frevor that a few in the convoy had actually considered if there was any truth to be had in her words.  She caught a few curious glances as she went among the fallen who had been lined up to give them a few words from Blake to comfort them before they left this mortal world.  Others shook their heads at the crazy woman, but were glad she was about on the convoy this morning.

When her gruesome chore was done she went to find Lucius, the only mechwarrior she knew with any familiarity.

"May Blake's light of serenity shine upon you.", she greeted Lucius in her typical breezy manner.  She had that wide eyed spacey look about her that was easy to mistake for being an airhead.  Lucius knew better.  Regina just saw the world a little different from the rest of them.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:44, Tue 24 Sept 2013.

Spotting Regina and knowing she'd get to him before Pax did he smiled at the moon-touched woman and responded in kind, "May Blake's light of serenity shine upon you as well Sister."

He looked over to the convoy and sighed, "Looks like you had better results on your escort mission...things went FUBAR here and I was called off twice from taking the fight to the cowards and finish them off...the Locust and Wasp will not be eager to match me again that's for sure."

Regina gave Lucius a serene smile.

"Blake's will guided our way.
 You were obviously left with the non-believers.

 It was Blake's will that what was, is.  Accept his grand design and be at peace."

Regina put a thoughtful finger to her lips and cocks her head to one side with a contemplative look for a moment.

"It would seem that it is Blake's will to keep us in balance.  Isnt that Berserker's Whitworth?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 15:22, Tue 24 Sept 2013.

Luc grumbled a bit but still smiled at her.  Playing along was worth the effort, "I'll accept that they weren't to die this day but I'll work to ensure the next time they do..."

Turning his head he looked over to the Whitworth and squinted, "You know you're right it is...I thought he went down on the second day after we couldn't grab his signal."

"Blake's will works in mysterious ways.

All things come in their time and place.

All things come to pass that should.", Lucius was always pleasant company.  He seemed to understand Regina, or at least humor her more than most.  She was hungry though, so mortal needs of the flesh needed to be tended to.  There was fresh food on the convoy and Regina wanted some of those Veggies while they were still fresh.  She wasnt really a vegetarian, she just had a preference to avoid meat.

Pax tried not to be overly pissed. In fact he took the long way to Burner's mech bay to cool down a bit.  Approaching he spots Burner was talking to the other new pilot Reggie.

"Burner!"  Pax calls and with a double finger point, he gestured for Burn to come over for a chat.

Sang-Wei Ling, had enjoyed her time away from the Rat Pack.  It was easy to lose herself in the technical wizardry that their employers seemed to possess.  It was far in advance of much she had seen, and hinted at access to the memory core that was recovered by the Grey Death Legion.

Where else could such advances had come from, still to have access to the information and implement it in such a short time was impressive, suspiciously so.  Her knowledge of use of her Raven's EW and it's advance electronics was the reason she was picked out to work with the 101st Assault group.

There were only a half dozen pilots but everyone of them seemed to pilot the odd looking Catapults.  It was a variant she hadnt seen before, and she had every known modification and variant stored in her Raven's data base for friend for identification.  It was a curious puzzle, to which she quietly applied her impressive deductive skills.

It was at this time that she was introduced to Sao-wei Tsang.  An interesting officer of the Capellan armed forces.  Sharing common ground, she was made an unofficial liason to the uncertain intelligence resource.  While Tsang's rank was unimpressive his service with the Death Commandos spoke volumes about his competance.

What was he doing out here in the periphery?  Evidently concerns over the possible increase in Davion's sphere of influence in the periphery was a concern to the Chancellor.  To allow the powerful house to outflank the less influential Capellan's was something Ling knew the Chancellor could ill afford.  News of the advance technology that seemed to be available in the periphery was another rumor he was here to investigate.

Discussions were long... subtle... and veiled.  Ling felt as if she were crossing a room of scorpions and need to tread very carefully and slowly.

A few days after the attack on Miller's Creek and the Convoy, Sang-Wei Ling returns for a brief visit with some sort of Intel officer.  The invaders were running low on supplies, and a shipment was en route to handle their shortages.  If this supply run could be disrupted it would go a long way to force them off the planet.

An all out assault was currently  being planned, of which the units at Miller's creek were going to be key for the success or failure of the operation.  In an effort to improve the strength of the units at Miller's creek, the 101st were making available new equipment, developed from the Grey Legion's memory core for some units to use.

Lucius' Javelin was being modified with an experimental electronics that was suppose to improve weapon acquisition lock-on.  {1 ton of Target Computers}

Regina's Valkyrie was selected for notable work on the Internal structure.  A light weight bulky material that did not concede strength.  {Endo Steel}

To ensure that things went smoothly, an officer from the mysterious 101st was joining the Miller Militia to tighten coordination.

Luc smiled at Reggie and and rolled his eyes, "Looks like the Bossman isn't happy, time to pay the pipper.  I'll catch you later."

Leaving her infinitely more enjoyable company Luc waltzed over and flicked his tongue over his upper cainine as he got up to Pax, "Watcha need Road Runner?"

Henriette sighed as she looked into the 'hangar' from their makeshift cafeteria.
She should hve remembered her duties, but she had a hard time dealing with the fact they'd had to let those murdering scum go, no quarter could be given to this enemy, not after what they had done to unarmed civilians.

still she should have been out there chewing out Lucius, not becuase she  thought what he'd done was wrong, hell she'd have done the exact same if she hadn't been the operation XO.
But because this would create friction between the CO and Lucius, friction they could ill afford.
Next time she saw Zenha she would advice it might be a good idea to make sure those two weren't sent on the same mission, for the next few runs.

She finished her food from the field  kitchen, and emptied the first can of beer, finally popping open the second, watching the goings on in their little corner  of the universe.

What was Zenha doing?, she should be here to evaluate things.

Pax takes a deep sigh, one with a bit of pain in it, "the Mongoose's name is Road Runner ... not me." 

Obviously dealing with a local that is none too bright, some of the anger leeches from Pax.   Speaking slowly he continues, "My call sign is Traxx.

Listen up, you need to understand that we have goals during combat.  Running off in a blood crazed anger is what we did to them at the start.  It took them off their battle plan and bought us some time to take advantage.

You running off could have cost us ... namely more lives of those we were trying to protect.  Another, I've seen those VTOLs get in luck shots, We lost the XO in the first engagement here and I don't want to see another "lance mate" take another hit like that if I can help it."

Taking another breath, "If you feel the need to run off and get yourself killed I'll keep it in mind and find the best time and place for you to go out in a 'blaze' of glory, I got no problem with that."

"Our goal was protecting the civilians and that got right frakked up when someone made the decision to spread them all over the place where VTOL's could get at them easy when our mechs couldn't cross terrain fast enough to make a difference and let the vehicles have easy access to the masses to gun down a couple dozen before you two could stop them..." replied Luc to the frustrated Pax looking unconcerned.

"You got it boss-man, toss me at the next blaze of glory then...least I'll be doing something and actually taking out these bastards rather than chasing tail I'll never get anywhere with."

Pax was almost calm but with Lucius' words he was again hot. "Well I wish you would have shared the intel that told us the make up of the attacking force, instead of keeping it to your self Private Obvious.

But the truth is if we didn't land when we did they would all be dead.  The survivors are still breathing cause we stepped in and lost one of our own defending them in the process.  And we stayed to defend them even when it would have been so easy to walk away and collect.

Don't let your peasant emotional quilt for not being here the first time fool you.  You pull a stunt like that again and get one of my mine shot up or killed ... I   WILL   SEE   YOU    SHOT!

DISMISSED ! "

Luc raised an eyebrow at the threat of being shot but he didn't bother responding.  Shaking his head he turned and walked away, arguing with him was a waste of breath.

Pax needed a drink.  It was time to bust out a bottle from his private stash.  He would be glad when the boss showed up and take command of the unit again.

Pax walked off with a purpose to his quarters, grumbling as he went.

Coming into the town with Sang-wei Ling the oddly shaped X-3a semed to have the same feel as the strange Catapults that the Rat Pack had seen before.  This one mounted an axe in its right hand an a snub-nosed looking laser mounted in the left and two more paired on it's shoulders in each torso.  Climbing out of her mech Lina looked around at the disarray of things as well as the growing body count of civilians that were being buried.

It was times like these that she wished that she was more like her sister Megan...the purity of space and ability to leave all this visible barbarity behind was something she wished she could do but she didn't test well enough to be part of that prestigious program like her sister had.  Still she showed a lot of promise for a more dedicated program and knew some day she'd be able to move up and pilot the true power houses of the 101st.

Wearing a body hugging jumpsuit of white and dark olive green it showed off her athleticly petite feminine curves, her hair was braided in such a way that her neuro-helmet could get the right contact points and she wore a thigh holster with a hold-out laser pistol.  She knew she was supposed to talk to a Zenha Grey as the Liason so she asked the first person sporting mechwarrior gear, "Excuse me...where can I find Zenha Grey?  I'm the Liason Officer between your unit and the 101st...at least for the immediate future..."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:58, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

Zenha and Thomas were both down and ill.

Supplies being rather spoty, rations were less than pristine and new, and they had both been served bits of meat that were perhaps a little too expired to be considered truly edible.  While not terminally ill, both certainly wished it from the sounds of their discomfort.

Yet another reason to partake in fresh veggies while the going was good.  Much easier to spot bad food when it wasnt buried in a soup of sauce and gravy.  Blake's ire was swift and certain, partake not in meat seemed to be the lesson.

"Commander Grey is ill.  I believe her Executive officer, Pax Tarkin is next in command.", Regina comments pointing out Pax's quarters, where he was making the acquaintance of his stash of liquid sin.

Noticing the new person only when she spoke to him Pax's thoughts snapped back to the 'now'.
"ugh ???

Oh Captain Grey .... that is a good question.  I'll try and find her for you.  Name's Pax.  Acting XO of the Rat Pack."  HE offers her his hand.

Finally aware of her ride and who she represented Pax raises an eyebrow, "and what pray tell did you ride in here on Liason?"  He scans the mech to appraise its capabilities.  He would have better luck if someone would hand him a tech read out, since much of it seemed new.

This message was last edited by the GM at 16:19, Fri 27 Sept 2013.

Lina nodded with a smile and a simple "Thanks..." to Regina before turning back to Pax who had reached out his hand.

Extending her own she a small smirk touched her lips, "Nice to meet you Pax.  I'm Lina and the ride I came in on the techies call an X-3A.  They haven't gotten around to giving it another designation and I just have been calling him Ironman."

A pang of jealousy passed through Pax has he looked at a new Mech.  Not only a new mech but a new design.  NEW NEW NEW.  Still taking in the sight he asks, "Looks impressive.  So I can fill in the Captain, if you needed to assist in a battle,  whats the non classified  specs?"

Lina had a rich laugh for Pax in wanting to know specs on her Ironman, "Displaces thirty tons, throttle let out crosses 92 kilometers per hour, you can obviously see the axe and he's got a trio of those medium pulse lasers that you're unit was offered but instead took up the option on the lighter internal structure."

Motioning for him to move just a little out of the way of the main thoroughfaire Lina took her tone down.  As the XO he was going to find out anyways and if Grey was sick and couldn't perform then he'd have operational command, "Listen we both know that we're low on supplies since the assault began on this planet...and you've seen firsthand the campaign they are waging is one of scorched earth."

She paused for a second, "We've got a dropship inbound but she had to land at the spaceport.  Our units are going to head to the spaceport...you ran across Commander Snow a bit back.  They are going to draw off the heavier assets there while your unit and some transports with infantry are going to spearhead a dash into the city and to the Spaceport itself.  We'll need to fight off what is left at the LZ so that supplies can be off-loaded and then get out of dodge..."

Pulse Lasers, he had heard that they make targets easier to hit... he sure could of use them.

Hearing the rest as they move around the mech he learns about the next mission.  Sounds challenging.  He better let the Captain know right away.

For the display of the ground crew, "Nice ... lets go get you checked in with the Captain.  Follow me."

Pax headed for the Captain's office.

Preacher, was the closest that Miller's creek had to a doctor.  He was a Medic in the militia before retiring to settle down to sheppard the spiritual needs of Miller's creek, filling in when mining accidents struck.

He was blocking Pax and Lina's progress for the moment from continuing, "Not so fast kids.", he comments in his southern drawl, tilting his head slightly to regard both of you with his good eye.

"Bunch of peeps came down with a mild case of food posioning.  Not lethal, but theres no telling that to the patient.  Doled out what sedatives i had to have them sleep the worse of it off.  Commander Grey, and Mechwarrior Keith are among them.  They're going to be out for a 48 hours... give or take, till the bad meat they had works it's way out of their system.  Whatever business you got with them, will have to wait."

Past Preacher, you can see cots have been laid out in the town hall, and a two dozen patients are laid out and quietly sedated.  Among them, two members of the Rat Pack.

Regina returns from the mess hall, with a carrot and a few stalks of celery.  She was munching on them cheerfully and peering into the hall of sick peeps.

Sinners all... if only they had fasted instead of partaken of that meal, like she did, this could have been avoided.  Oh well, it was Blake's will.

Regina takes a bite of her celery stalk, ignorant of just how loud it crunched, and went about her merry way.  She was eager to see what exactly this new miracle material they were using that was suppose to make her mech lighter and faster.

Lina frowned before looking to Pax, "Looks like me sitting it out and just watching isn't an option.  We'll need to move before they are good to go and you'll need every mech you can to help open the way, so it looks like I'll be taking a move active roll on this one..."

As much as there was worry written across her face, the chance to put her Ironman through real paces like her sister had put hers through was a boon.  At least she wouldn't be able to brag about being the only one in the family to see actual real combat.

He hoped they had time to wait for the Captain to recover but he had a feeling that they couldn't wait that long.

Though he never personally held command of more than a lance, and that was recent and he thought temporarily,  his family has been leaders for generations with rank.  He has heard enough war stories and been trained but hoped he wouldn't be forced into it.

So he asked the question he feared he knew the answer to.
"How soon till we need to start moving out for the mission?"

"36 hours." she responded without any extra fanfare or further details.

Then a thought came to her, a passage from one of her old text books, "It's actually not a bad thing.  If we set up their mechs to look like they are part of the normal defense of the town while the other units leave by different routes that look like patrols and the like we'll also be able to conceal our approach to the spaceport."

(I can live with this.  If Zenha and Thomas both return there attention to the game, i can set up a mini scenario to defend Miller's creek)

Henriette rose, carrying her remaining beer with her into the Bay, to join the conversation.
She had dug into the meat aplenty on that day, but hey, she'd been told on several occasions that she had not a stomach, but an iron cast furnace which gobbled up anything she ate, this could probably be attributed to her stomach being used to that from when she was a kid, her mother was never rich, not until her last year of living at least.

when she reached the gorup idling about she took another swig of the beer.
"Seems like a baseline plan of approach to work from... I'm Henriette, Shield Maiden.
The mirage  over there is my little baby"
she indicated the pristinely kept war machine, and it's hedgehog nature of medium lasars.

"Nice Tech you brought in with you, can't wait to see how it holds up in combat"
and she took another swig.

David wanders in from wherever he had been, having significantly calmed down from his previous anger.  He is surprised to see all the new faces around and quickly gets caught up on what's been happening.  From new people to a bout of food poisoning, it seems there's rarely a dull moment around here and now he's glad he skipped supper.

The thought of action was encouraging, to say the least, and the fact that it would be soon made it all the better.  As he walked over to introduce himself to the liaison officers he noted the mechs they were piloting as they were designs he had never seen before.

Before too much time has passed, he will wander over to find Pax, "Do I still have time to get some extra practice in before we move out?"

Well best to get this underway.

Pax activated his communicator to all hands. "XO to Rat Pack.  Mission briefing in three hours. "

Flipping off his comm he turn to Lina.  "You'd better give me the details so we can prepare a briefing."
This message was last edited by the player at 14:58, Mon 30 Sept 2013.

David heard his radio crackle to life and issue the above order before replying, "Avenger copies.", before thinking to himself, "Well, that settles that, at least for the moment."

Henriette poked the button on her comms.
"Roger that, boss."

She didn't look forward to be the acting XO of this motley bunch, in fact she didn't look forward to being XO at all, but life never stopped to ask what you wanted, shit just happened.


maybe she'd be lucky, and someone else would be picked for the duty, even despite pax' familiarity with ehr as Xo from the previous mission.

She swung by the kitchen, and picked up a box of pastries, with rationing in effect, the repair crew would appreciate them even more, sure some would state she was abusing privilege, but happy grease monkeys worked far harder, and far more willingly than grouchy hungry ones.
Then she headed over to the Mech bay, and located the mechanic foreman.
She put a pot of coffee and the box with pastries on a nearby flat surface.
"Hey, How are they coming along?
They need to be ready to move out in 24 hours"
She gave him a small smile and looked around at the mechanic crew working, but paying attention to their conversation.
"It would be a shame if these were gone, when I return to pick them up for the officers, you know"
She added a wink, then shrugged.

"Let's find somewhere to talk privately and I'll give you the rest of the operational details..." replied Lina as she looked around at all the various people both connected to the mercenary unit as well as the civilians at Miller's Creek.

Lucius heard the call for the mission briefing and set his chrono to wake him in two hours and fourty five minutes.  Clicking the comm on and then off to signal that he got it he didn't bother saying anything.  Laying his head back in his cot he covered his face with the magazine he'd been 'reading' when he got back to relieve the iritation at Pax.

Pax nodded his agreement,  "Lets go to my quarters and take a look and get the ball rolling."

He was glad they would not have to defend again but attacking a fortified site would be rough.  He hoped military intelligence was more right than wrong ... for once.

She made her way to a clear field where a trusted pilot would ferry her to Miller's Creek for the final briefing on the offensive.  The 101st elements were positioned and knew there parts.  That was the easy part.

Informed of the situtaion at Miller's Creek, Mechwarrior Todd alerts Commander Snow to the complications.  They were having alot more contact with the locals than was really recommend by Pandora, still what needed to be done, would be done.

While she was a novice on the ways of wars, she understood that an army needed to eat.  Starve it out and it would have to move on or surrender.

The Aurora and Morning Star would make certain that Planetary Aero assets were kept honest.  The Assault group would clear static targets, while the Air wing would engage patrols to draw attention away from the spaceport.

The Miller's Creek Militia would provide the man power needed to take the dropship, using the local assets to do so.

It was a simple plan.  Simple was good, simple kept left less things to go wrong.  A hour later she finds herself standing in a filthy room with poor lighting presenting the what was expected of them.  They were a scruffy looking lot, and she hoped that they fought better than they smelled or it was going to be a short offensive.

(*Commander Tamara Snow has just conveyed the basis of the information you will need for Mission Three.  Over the next day, reinforcements are expected to filter in from the field, and on the morning, the operation was expected to begin.  Diversionary raids were expected to start pre dawn, to drawn liquid assets away from the spaceport.  An hour after this the Miller's Creek Militia was to make a move on the space port.  Supplies that the occupational force need are the target, if the dropship could be taken, it might break the backs of the invaders.*)
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:57, Thu 03 Oct 2013.

Pax had gone over the mission details with Tina and came up with a rough mission plan.  This would do for for starters.  He just hoped the intel was solid.  If they didn't account for most of the enemy forces it could get bad fast.

"Well ... I think we are about ready for some 'show and tell'

Ready for a mission briefing?"

15 minuttes before it started Henriette walked into the briefing room, she had dined, showered and put on fresh clothes, the difference was like night and day.

she looked around the room before picking herself a seat off ot one of the sides, and not too close to wherever pax would be breafing them.
Luck might allow her to duck any of the sour responsibility this time.

(Mission was 'started' on message 87, actually going to start the mission in a day or two now that Carmine is done.)

Echo's arrival to Miller's Creek came with some modest fanfare.  While her mech was one of the lightest ever mass produced, it was a classic that had survived the test of time and was still in popular production.  That had to mean something.

Evidently so, since it towered among the lot of assembled vehicles that had gathered for the offensive.  It was with some effort that Echo resisted the effort to peek under the hoods under the vehicles in the lot to see what sort of shape they were in.

It was all rather exciting.  To just wander in and sign in with the rest for the offensive.

Commander Snow was going about her briefing and Echo could resist putting her hand up to ask a question.

"What will the command structure be for tomorrow's operations?", she asks, sounding a touch too cheerful for many in the room.

Tamara resisted the urge to Scowl, taking a deep breath and letting it out before continuing.

"The local militia will be under the command of Lt. Mendoza.  The Mercenaries commander has come down with food poisoning.  Her executive officer, Lt. Tarkin will be in command.  Intel from the field will be conveyed to Mechwarrior Lina.  Consider yourself, and Mechwarrior Lina under the Lt. Tarkin's care.

Each pilot will be assigned a Light APC to safeguard until they can unload their infantry to assault 'La Trinite'.  Once all the infantry has been released for operations, you will need to focus on repelling any efforts to counterattack."

"M'am yes m'am.", Echo bobs up and down on her toes barely capable of containing her excitement.  She couldnt understand why the mood was so subdued on the eve of such an exciting operation.

'It was the night before Ops...
and all the creatures were stirring...
especially the faithful... like me!', Regina was attending to her pre-operation preparation and was personally loading each missile into the bay of her Valkyrie.  Whispered words of prayer blessed the lethal munition as she stencil painted the Com Star Emblem on the head of each warhead.

She was humming little holiday lullabies as she went about her business.

'Why wasnt anyone saying anything?
 Did they all know the plan inside and out already?
 What was the plan?
 Goddess... am i late?, Echo's hand went up again as she had another question.


"M'am.
 I understand the objective.  What are the details to the plan?"

 This was his first time in the "Briefing room" and to see all those who would be his team mates and would live and die tomorrow. His time under the guns were enough to keep him from running away but the fear was still there, just under the skin and behind the quick flick of eyes that dont want to meet another friends eyes, knowing that the possibility was there to go up like a roman candle. Still he would do his job to the best of his skills.

 He found a chair and looked over the his Commander and the XO.

Echo was starting to get on Tamara's nerves, but that was to be expected.

"Lt. Mendoza and Tarkin are able officers and will be the field commandera.
 No plan survives impact with the enemy.
 As such i will leave it to them to conduct the details of the operations."

Tamara eyes the room and there seemed to be no other queries.  It was time to go before 'Mechwarrior' Echo assailed her with another useless question.  As she departed she gave Lina an exasperated look and an nod of acknowledgement.


OOC for Roger.
Carmine is the closest thing to a Militia Commander at the moment.  She came in from the field alone so she doesnt have an XO.
This message was last edited by the GM at 02:10, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

With the briefing coming to a close Pax wanted to make sure that his unit was ready to move out on time.  Raising his hand to indicate the briefing was not yet over for his guys.

"Rat Pack.  I want load outs and unit status filed 4 hours before we leave.  Chief, if you have a problem solve it.  If you can't I want to know ASAP.

Pilots, help with mech prep as much as you can but I want you in your rack and rested for the mission.  Get a good look at the route and the map of the area."

He knew the next part would cause some problems, "Rat Pack is on E-Rations till after the op.  Can't risks anyone else getting ill before the mission.  NO EXCEPTIONS. "
This message was last edited by the player at 05:29, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Lieutenant Carmine Cameron-Mendoza sat on one of the collapsible metal chairs around the table in the makeshift briefing room the locals had put together on the fly, she was a tall mahogany skinned young women who looked young despite the haunted look in her eyes. At the moment she was fingering a prefab metal cup in her hand taking sips of the rapidly cooling coffee inside it, grimacing every once in a while at the almost liquefied asphalt taste of it but she kept drinking it despite the taste desperately needing the caffeine. Their been little time for sleep over the last days and weeks, after the Brave Companions had gone head to head with those fed rat bastards in Team Banzai and been gutted, the knowledge that they'd hurt the opposing mercenaries bad and won the time for the towns remaining population to escape was cold comfort. The mahogany skinned nobleborn felt the cold ache inside her chest at the memories of her missing comrades, her childhood friends from back on Andrasta and fellow members of a chivalry club that had become so much more to them than that. Now she'd buried most of them and what were left were bundled in with the remnants of the militia, the same militia she had been chosen to lead once more into the breach, to fight and to die once again.

The dark skinned young woman took another long sip of her coffee and forced those thoughts from her head focusing on her job, if she didn't do it right then a lot more of her people where going to die then had to and she couldn't allow that. She was relatively clean and well clothed by the standards of everyone in the room thanks to heroic efforts by herself to maintain her uniform and personal hygiene, she wore one of the blue-grey uniforms of the companions mostly patched and repaired but mostly clean and whole with black leather riding boots that had seen better days. Her blue-grey beret still bore the patch of the the Brave Companions, a knight on horseback with a shield bearing a cross and a lance high and at the ready with a banner flowing from it with the unit name carefully written and under it in latin the unit motto, Clangent tubis triumphali. Although now she wore on her beret and collar tabs the unit insignia and rank markings of the Detroit militia, which despite looking a little odd she managed to pull of easily making it look a little heroic.

She nodded and raised her hands to wave Rogers over, then as she head Commander Snows argument she gave her a long flat look then turned her her opposite number leading the Rat Pack. Her hands already moving to spread out the maps and drawings that had been made of the field, then she spoke her voice the clipped aristocratic accent of a noble mixed with the polyglot accent of a Free Worlds League citizen. "Alright, we'll come up with something at least the operation won't be micromanaged to death. What are we likely to be facing in the way of resistant at the landing field? Mobile forces and fixed defenses?"

OOC: Clangent tubis triumphali = Sound the Trumpets of Triumph.
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:05, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Henriette eyed the local bubble of happiness, and shook her head, before looking at the enarest warrior, who jsut happened to be The Mahogany noble
"Bubbles over there seems awfully cheerfull, considering the amount of death around here"
Time for some hazing, she couldn't stand positive types like that, how could they remain so... cheerfull when there were people laying dead everywhere wihin miles, and freaking barbarians ignoring the ares convention were the ones to murder them.

the girl seriously needed to be taken down a notch or two.

then Tarkin blew the news... no proper food tilla fter the mission, Henriette forgot everything about bubbly cheerleaders who had no right being in a mech, or anything else for that matter, and glared at their boss.

Henriettes limit had always been her food and booze, she'd function fine every mission, but what she ate or drank, was her business and hers alone, fortunately she had a really good scotch stowed away in her footlocker, that'd take the brunt of the damned rations.

but hey, Bubbles got lucky, cause Henriette completely forgot about the girl.

Tamara pauses on her way out, checking her stride to address Carmine.

"There is a company of mechs, a company of mechanized conventional, and an undetermined amount of soft (infantry) support at the Space port.  Detroit never bothered to put up a much in the line of fortifications, so we wont have to worry about that.  If the 101st does it's job correctly, the nimble elements will be deployed to deal with the diversionary raid.  You can expect slower units to be on duty when you arrive."

Carmine has no idea who this 101st Combat group are, but they've managed to quietly help the Detroit militia stay together long enough for this merc unit to show up to shore up the militia.  One or two friendlies had yet to check in from the field but if they didnt show by dusk, they werent going to make the party.

The 101st didnt look of feel like a Free World League unit, that much she knew.  They couldnt be Davion affiliated, or they wouldnt be opposing Team Banzai.  If the Capellans had a unit like the 101st, they wouldnt be wasting them on Detroit.  So exactly who the 101st were, was a mystery to Mendoza
This message was last edited by the GM at 05:15, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Echo looked about lost for the moment wondering where exactly she was suppose to be.  She took a step towards Tamara and Lina when Lt. Tarkin called for a meeting of some sort.  With an energetic spring to her step she goes over to see what was happening at the small group of pilots.  There werent alot of them.  Less than a full strength platoon.

"I Pilot a Locust sir.  A LCT-3V.  Based off the standard LCT-1V introduced by Bergan Industries, circa 2499.  Speedy reconnaissance mech powered but the 160 rated LTV Fusion Engine, top speed of 129.6kph.  I've tried to keep her up to date.  The Sperry Browning Machine Guns, while reliable and superb for anti personnel work were lacking for heavier combat.  The light rounds, quickly loose effectiveness over a very short distance and are incapable of penetrating mech armor beyond 90 meters...", Echo spews technical Jargon at Pax with more energy and enthusism than anyone in Miller's Creek should have.  After a whlie it just becomes a technical wall of worthless background nose.

Lina,should be in ear shot of the enthusiastic Echo rambling along, and should probably come and rescue Pax.
This message was last edited by the player at 06:51, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

David listened with interest to the briefing and nods appreciatively on hearing the objectives.  He wanted another crack at those bandits, and he was going to get it.  The news about the rations didn't sit well with him at all but that was a small price to pay, he figured, to avoid any unpleasantries mid-battle.  He was also glad, given the time frame, that his Jenner needed very little work to be combat operational.

He does arch an eyebrow at his more enthusiastic teammates.  How they manage to remain so cheerful mildly irritated him but he figures it's how some people deal with stress.  Still, you rarely get to choose your co-workers.  Snow's techo-babble in Pax's ear did bring a smile to his face, however.  It was one more reason he was glad he wasn't an officer.

He looks around and his fellow mechwarriors, "Well, it looks like we have our work cut out for us.  We'd best get started.".

Lieutenant Mendoza turned her eyes on the blonde mechwarrior from the rat pack and gave her flat look as she spoke slowly and carefully, she didn't know how much authority she had over the boys and girls of the Rat Pack but still this couldn't be allowed to go by. She spoke clearly as if to a small child making her polyglot accent a little more noticeable, "Grow up and stop acting like a child Mechwarrior because your certainly acting like one, we have a enough things out there trying to kill us and the people around us without adding petty inter unit squabbling to it all." She slowly carefully corrected the map in front of her as if calming herself, "Shes not a veteran yet, she hasn't seen the blood and the bodies which is a state of affairs that won't last anywhere as long as it should. She could be dead at the end of this raid, or me, or you, or even all of us and knowing that your first reaction is to want to pick on the rookie." She turned her gaze on Henriette again, "Let me make this clear,  don't care how you Rat Pack pilots do things in your units, the lives of my people depend on you being fighting affective, so if I hear about you picking on her or any other rookie in your outfit I will personally make it my business to bounce you off your mechs armour until it dents, understood."

Camarine turned back to the briefing officer and nodded slowly, "Sounds like close to an equal fight but we can't afford the losses of an open field slugging match with the Fed Rats. If the 101st can lure the mechanized company and one or two lances of their mechs away from the port, we can overwhelm and slaughter they infantry and remaining lances. Then if things really go well we might be able to catch them in a pincer and destroy their mobile reaction team, if we get really luck. But this operation is doable. What can you tell me about the 101st, are they merc? Also do we have any clue about the quality of the troops we'll be facing?"

Henriette sneered, this piece of shit dared to speak to her like that?
"You're welcome to try, lets see who ends up bouncing anywhere, missy."
She thumbed in the direction of the cheerleader.
"Attitudes like hers get people killed, too bright and sunny to realize until it's too late, just what kind of pounding they're in for..."
She sighed, and looked away, and down, her voice lowered now.
"...and just how many friends they'll get killed"
better to take her down a notch, so she won't make those mistakes

"alright, I'll leave her alone.
But if she gets anyone killed I'm going to kick her cute little ass spacebound"

It took forever for Hank to get old Vera stowed, but finally managed to climb down out of the comfortable and duct taped (damn straight duck tape still exists) seat before he started to light a worn cigar.  A sound drew his attention and one of the techs who pointed to a canister of potent flamer fuel, and he simply smiled as he walked away.  Eventually he flagged down another tech and got directions for the briefing room.  When he was out of sight he blazed up the nubbed cigar, but it only managed to stay lit for a few minutes and was extinguished before he made it to the briefing room.

He faintly still smelled of smoke, and absently chewed the worn nub, as he walked in and looked the group over.  He had opened the jumpsuit so that his white tee was all he had wearing, the thick pilots belt kept the suit from falling down past his waist.  He waited for the two woman to come to whatever agreement they had and determined that he should probably introduce himself.  “Mechwarrior Hank.”  He gave a lopsided and sloppy salute of a merc and took the cigar out.  “Heard there was a call for pilots to help out, so, uh here I am.  You guys are still paying, right?”

 The loud whispering or maybe just low talking from to of the Merc units mech pilots seemed like a bad omen to him, but what the hell, their luck had gone from just plain bad to down right ugly.

 The few mechs he had seen doing patrols around the area were all light stuff, like his. Still, put enough of the light stuff out there and they could take down something big but the cost would be high.

 He just leaned back and listened to the chatter and hoped he survived long enough to catch a ride off this rock with their drop ship.

Echo was still in the midst of explaining the modifications that had been made to her mech when she noticed Carmine and Henriette getting louder, "So.  With these new advances you can see how the weight mass ratio is related, and how it would be benificial to upgrade...", Echo looks away from Pax to look at the two pilots having a spirited conversation.

Valkyrie loaded and combat ready, there really wasnt anything more for Regina to do, but catch a really good nap.  Good bed rest could be the difference between getting and not getting Blake's blessings.

"May the light of Blake shrine serenely down upon me while i sleep so that i might wake well and refreshed to do his bidding.", Stiffling a yawn Regina goes to bed, the first it seemed from all the tell tale empty cots.

Tarkin raised his hand to stop the young Mechwarrior, "I am aware of the Locust design.  Be sure to check in with the crew chief so that he can update his records for your mech."

And he then left the briefing room.  He had a lot to double check on and needed to be out and about.

Mech, people, and a battle plan he hoped would work.  He sure hoped the Boss would be back soon.

The mahogany skinned mercenary officer looked over to the blonde mechwarrior and smiled her teeth shockingly white compared to the dark skin of her face, "Sounds like fun times to me." Then she spoke again in that cool crisp command voice with her polygot accent, "Maybe your right maybe your wrong but I won't have the mechwarriors at my back at each others throats before of childish personality conflicts, we've got enough enemies out there trying to send us to a early grave, we won't be helping them along with that." She nodded to the bubbly mechwarrior, "She's survived this long she might surprise you and if she doesn't then she'll live or die like the rest of us, thats all we can ask. Now.... this is the end of this conversation Mechwarrior, sit down and lets get to work."

Carmine looked up from the charts and carefully eyed the maled mechwarrior before her, nose twitched a little in instinctive disgust at the tobacco the cigarette was made of which bore little resemblance to plant smoked on her agrarian homeworld, to many chemical additives. But long experience as a noble's daughter keep any internal thoughts from her face as she nodded to him, "Lieutenant Mendoza, formerly of the Brave Companions, I think I'm the closest thing to a field commander this group has right now. Yes the Detroiters are still paying us, what unit did you fight with before you ended up here?"

Olaf arrived early for the briefing having spent much of the day just as he had the previous, supervising the work of a pair of technicians on his aged and battle-worn Whitworth.  It had been a frustrating process.  Not that the techs weren’t good at the work they did it was the damned mech itself.  The salvaged Draconian war machine hadn’t responded well during the early fighting on Detroit and he couldn‘t shake the feeling that something was wrong.  Yet, the techs kept telling him there were nothing malfunctioning and everything was running to spec.  He’d grudgingly left them to finish the load-out so he could get the mission brief.

Scanning the briefing theatre, he found an empty spot close to Lucius and occupied the chair with a silent nod to the MechWarrior known as Burner.  The two men didn’t know each other very well, but it had become clear over the last few days that both had been contracted with the local militia shortly after the invasion.  Although Olaf had left Lucius to his own devices following the heated exchange with Pax in the mechbay and he didn’t have the full story of the merc unit’s earlier failure but wasn’t surprised that temperatures were still running hot.  The small garrison at Miller’s Creek was rife with tension; primarily between those who had wandered in from the field and those who had jumped in on the original Rat Pack contract.

The big Raslahauger had stayed out of the petty conflicts thus far but he wore a grim countenance at the heated exchange between Carmine and Henriette.  There was fire enough in both of them he just hoped they had the same spirit on the battlefield.  He’d seen enough of the bluster and posturing and despite his misgivings about piloting the Whitworth he itched for the fight to come.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:33, Mon 07 Oct 2013.

Pax left the 'briefing room' and headed back to his quarters to continuing to study the map, route, and mission objectives.  Just like he suggested his unit to do.   'His unit'.  What a joke.   While he had some training he was far from a officer that could lead a unit.  He didn't have the experience.   He poured himself a triple and sipped at it while studying the mission.

They were a light lance but he hoped they could use wolf tactics properly to overwhelm any larger mechs that might be in opposition.  The most heat efficient energy weapon known, the medium laser, was in large supply in their unit.  That was a lot of damage potential ... if they can get close enough to use it.  Oh .... and hit the broad side of a barn.

At the bottom of the glass he didn't find any answers.  Perhaps the next one will.  He poured another and put the bottle away.  Getting hammered definitely was not a solution.  So he sat sipping his drink and running over various scenarios that might crop up during the op.  He would study for several hours checking in on the status of the mechs with the Chief.

Hank shrugged and walked up to the maps.  He read them over with mostly an untrained eye and pointed at several locations.  "Where do these men need to be deployed?  The pad I assume?"

He made his way into the mechbay early, well before any of the others were stirring.  He had never slept well the night before battle and the prospect of fighting alongside mechwarriors he did not know or trust was not helping him get any rest.

“Yokoso, samurai.” the computer’s female voice asked in soft Japanese.  “You are required to provide your verification code.”

Although Olaf understood perfectly, he had chosen a verification code spoken in the tongue of his own people.  Although he was still learning to master the Norsk language he had been forbidden to speak as a child, he had nearly lost his Japanese accent.  Speaking clearly into the comm system the words from the Graenlendigna Saga spilled from his lips: “Many have been brought to death by overconfidence.”  He found the words a calming reminder that in the face of battle it was a certainty that many would die but that he could just as easily fall victim to his own overconfidence as he could to the well placed shot of an enemy laser.

“Domo arigato.” the computer replied softly and the mech cockpit came to life.

Before pulling the heavy neurohelmet down from it’s rack above the command couch onto his padded shoulders, the MechWarrior silently preformed one last personal ritual.  He took a moment of solemn contemplation looking at the white Kenji stencilled on the black cloth band on his lap.  Those characters he had learned to read as a small child, then learned as an adult to resent the oppression they had brought his people.  He knew it was silly and superstitious, but he had never piloted a mech into battle without it.  Without another moment’s thought he gritted his teeth and tied his DCMS hackimaki firmly around his head.

Zoe was late to the party, but not so far behind that she caught the glimpse of the Hatchetman and Whitworth withdrawing under the pressure Regina and Henriette were providing.

Back at the dropship, the last three squads of militia roll onto the dropship to help quell the defense offered by the spaceport security forces.  It will be a bit before they resolve the corridor to corridor fighting, but with out further support from the spaceport, the dropship was all but captured.

Many of the militia's mechs were in need of serious repairs, but there wasnt time for it.  All they had was Zoe, in her Fire Starter as a late addition to support them.

Fortunately, it seemed like most of the fight had gone out of the Op Force.

Lina gets a tight beam priority message from Commander Snow.  Lina quickly reports gives a summary of the report of the situation.

"Stay alert Lina.  The Aurora and Morningstar have both been tracking a pair of Unions making planetfall.  Heavy fighter escorts made them too big for them to handle and they're being let through.  Transponders are identifying them as Federated Suns dropship leased to Team Banzai.", theres a short pause.

"Figure out who needs to stay and who needs to go before they show up.  I obviously dont expect you to stand against two companies of mechs, but it would be nice if we can delay them long enough to take La Trinite to boost off."

"Understood Commander." replied Lina as she started to sweat a little...not so much from the fight as she barely even scratched the edge of her X3's heat capacity and her issued mechwarrior 'suit' was quite far from from full body...but because her X3 miraculously was undamaged so far.  It meant she would be focal in slowing down any assets that came thier way.

Switching comms to the militia units and Rat Pack she filled them in, "We've got two Union dropships burning in as we speak, but we still need some time to capture and burn off with the La Trinite.  Talk to your unit lead...if your mech can handle some more we're going to run cover, if not get out of dodge and take what salvage you can muster."

Regina thinks about it for about half a second.

"Right.

 That sounds like me.

 Light of Blake Bless you, I think i'm withdrawing to Miller's Creek, i'm way over 50% armor damage.

 I'll pick up Lucius and escort what's left of the APCs to Miller's Creek then."

"I'll run EW for the retreating units.", Harry comments.

It made sense to send at least one mech that could fight, and Harry could double as a shield for the injured units that were withdrawing it made a certain amount of sense.

"Carmine.  You coming too?"

Echo reviews her mech.

"I... still have over 50% armor and ammo, but i have a breech in my left torso.

 Do we have anytime at all to effect repairs?"

Players may make a Technician roll, they may scavenger armor off the field and repair 1 af for succeeding and each point above the tn for success.

repair rolls = mental base + 2 penalty.  {-1 bonus for each level of x-technician}

Anyone with a mech that's not damage is on sentry duty and wont be able to help with repairs.

Before he replies, David scans his readouts to confirm his status and all readings are exactly where they should be.  He toggles his comm unit to reply, "Avenger copies.  Looks like I'm running interference for the wounded while they run back to base."

it took a few minutes for henriette to realize that most of the warning lamps going off were heat based, rather than actual damage to her Mirage.

after taking a few minutes to compose herself, and let the battle haze lift, she punched the comms.

"Regina it seems you took most of the brunt of their attacks, I've only had my left Torso compartment shot up, but other than that i'll be good for a while longer.

I'll see if I can't strip some armor off off the fallen, to patch the hole"


Repairs, TN: 6+2 = 8+ roll 8
1 point of AF to LT.
not that 1 point does much good!


10:52, Today: Henriette Karlsdottir rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,5. TN 8+, Armor patching.

Echo might not have been much of a shot, but now she was entering a task she was actually good at.  Parking her Locust beside one of the immobile APCs she goes about the task of efficiently stripping armor off the vehicle to use on her Locust.

She cuts off great big patches of metal and spot welds it to cover the gaping hole in the left torso.  Quick spot welds strategically secure the armor in place for minimal time consumed.

She's tempted to spend all her time there but to her practiced eye the left arm was looking sorta weak too.  It was going to need a little more reinforcement.  When she was done, the two most vulnerable points on the mech would be able to take a bit of damage with out instantly caving to crippling damage.  When the call to mount up to deal with the dropships making planetfall went out she was as ready as she was going to manage on such short notice.

07:33, Today: Echo Snow rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,6. repair roll tn 7+. (+4 af)

Players that are no engaged in repairs, may make a 'scouting' roll to stay alert to trouble.

Target base skill is Mental, with a +2 penalty applied.

A Bonus would be allowed for a Beagle Probe, which the unit does not possess.


Lucius, can actual board his mech and pilot it off the board, it was not a mandatory disengagement.

The rifleman is not an option to remove, the mechs security lockout will take more than a little time to break
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:45, Fri 08 Nov 2013.

 Seeing the enemy mechs bailing to avoid any more damage he breaths a sigh of relief that none of his force was in danger or killed, still the reports of two drop ships with reinforcements did not make him smile.

 "Viking here, Will begin a southern sweep" Moving out he heads off to the south to make sure there were no surprise's coming from that direction.

07:01, Today: Roger Simms rolled 9+2=11 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,6. Scouting area

Once Lucius had noticed that they were fleeing the field made his way from the trees he was hiding in back to his Javelin.  He shook his head to clear up the triple images he was getting from time to time and sighed over all the damage she had taken...at his own hand.  Climbing back in to her, and without the press of battle taking a toll on his abilities, he eases her back up into an upright position.

Flicking his comms on to the friendlies he added, "Lucius here, no need to pick me up Regina I can do the walk of shame back home...but if we can't take that Rifleman I say we deny her to those bastards.  Blow her head off, rip off her arms and legs and frag the weapons systems."

There was a slight pause before he added, "Or if someone is good with explosives rig that autocannon ammo to blow and we can give them the finger when they are this close to recovering her just like the hatchetman did"
This message was last edited by the player at 14:12, Fri 08 Nov 2013.

Non lethal damage fades between the battles.

Mechwarriors that took damage can make a Medical check on themselves to provide first aid to suspend the lethal damage they took till proper aid can be found.

tn number  = Base Mental roll + 2 penalty + Mechwarrior damage penalty.
This message was last updated by the GM at 14:14, Fri 08 Nov 2013.

Lina moved her X3 and for the first time wished that she had an active probe and put the thought of pairing both a probe and electronic warfare suite as options instead of the paired lasers for the future.  Lucius had an interesting point in regards to the Rifleman but she wasn't running the show, just helping out.  If they wanted to remove the mech that was up to them.  In the meantime she moved into the edge of the city and paced back and forth so she could see down the various streets in the hopes of identifying enemy units early enough to give warning to those that were staying behind to slow down their advance.



---
09:44, Today: Lina Todd rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,2. Scouting. So horrible of a failure. *shakes head*

Pulling out a flask of vodka he kept around for medicinal purposes he also grabbed the gauze and tape as he waited for them to make a decision on the Rifleman.  Pouring it onto his cuts to clean them he swore up a veritable storm that even individuals not far from his mech would likely be able to hear as he hadn't shut his hatch yet.  Adding a coagulant from the medkit he placed on the gauze and tape to hold it in place.  The medics were going to have a good laugh when they finally got to him...but at least the wounds would be cleaned from the alcohol...



---
09:45, Today: Lucius McMurphy rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,2. Tend to his boo-boo.
Nope.

Having made it through the battle Road Runner was fine.  Nothing a lot of target practice couldn't cure.

On hearing that more mechs might be inbound before they could finish taking the dropship Pax had to wonder if they would ever get a break.

He passed on the orders for those that needed to scavenge some repairs and that the seriously damaged mechs would evacuate while those in good shape would provide security, and try to intercept the probable counterattack.

09:03, Today: Pax Tarkin rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,2. Scouting Mental 7 +2 = TN9

He used the light mech code, "Speed is life folks ... keep up the pace."

Jake parks his gun in the middle of the open area close to the ship so he can support any direction that an attack can come from.  He was too slow to keep up with any delaying tactic a so he will help guard the retreating units.

David almost manages to keep pace with Pax's Mongoose.  When scouting it was helpful to operate on a buddy system, someone to help you out if you ran into trouble.  He scouted the perimeter with sensor set to max range, looking for any contacts on the radar.  "A shame", he thought, "that Rifleman would have been useful against those fighters."

Several units were considered too badly damaged, or the pilots were too badly injured to be considered viable participants to whatever was happening next.

Regina withdraws, her mech too badly damaged to really participate for much longer was in serious need of repair.

Carmine, had given a good showing but her injuries were bad enough that it was presumed best for her to withdraw with Regina.

Most of the surviving APCs decide that the upcoming battle was really more than they signed on for.  The infantry would withdraw on the dropship or would be beyond help, so their job was done and was clearing out at this time.

Harry would be departing with them, to provide defensive support in case trouble came, and to make certain there was at least one combat ready unit among those with drawing.

---

Other pilots settle down and go about the business of patching their mechs as best they can before the next engagement.  Will also accept a roll from david if he has one when i come back.

Echo, shows that she's rather handy with a welder and manages to patch the worst of the damage on locust to her satisfaction.  (+4 af)

Henriette makes an effort to patch the exposed armor but lacks Echo's obvious training and barely makes a dent in the repairs she wanted to make before she's told to saddle up.  (+1 af)

Lucius makes an efor to attend his injuries.  The hard drink does ease the pain but also reduces his reflexes and make him woozy.  He starts to mount up his javelin and gets it slowly to an upright position.  The question now, was he staying or withdrawing was now presented.  (Stay or go?)

---

Elsewhere, those not damaged by the skirmish make an effort to scout the lay of the land.  In the distance they can see the Banzai Union boosting off with the damaged whitworth and hatchetman aboard, and who knows what else.  It was gone, and there wasnt anything to be done about it.

Lina makes an effort to scout the area, but the maze of hangers is a source of concern to her.  The cavernous bays could hold anything and she procedes with more caution than is called for at this point.  She lags behind and finds nothing more than empty hangers.  (tn 8+ / rolled a 4)

Pax by comparison rips up and down the lanes between the hangers as fast as his feet can take him, pausing at the end of each row of building to see if trouble was around.  He breezes through the area so fast, that it's easy to overlook anything that might have been important inhishaste.  (rolled a 6)

David follows along behind Pax, content to follow and provide muscle for anything that might be found.  (tn 9+ / no roll)

Roger moves off to look over the area for trouble.  He was a fighter not a scout, so he had no clue what to really look for.  He walks his mech through the starport but comes up empty.  (tn 10+ / rolled a 9)
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:16, Fri 08 Nov 2013.

Zoe had watched the IFF signals of the two enemy 'mechs rushing off the battlefield with a grimace.  She'd been making her approach from the south, pushing the engines as hard as they'd go over the slowly rolling terrain to catch up with the main detachment with more than an hour now, but with the enemy on the run it looked like she'd missed the party.  It had been an easy matter to link up with Carmine and establish her credentials in the Detroit Garrison, and soon enough her 35 tonner was parked by the Dropship's loading dock, one arm-mounted flamethrower covering the loading ramp in case anyone in the wrong uniform thought to escape the boarding action.

"Two Unions?" Dirtnap whistled respectfully as she considered the amount of firepower being added to the enemy's reserves, "These Banzai boys aren't playin' around, are they?" she let her gaze trace the arch of the eastern hill as she looked through the broad T-shaped canopy of the Firestarter, glad she'd elected to reinforce the 'mech when she'd had it in to have the thing refurbished.  It was only another ton of armored plate, but if she was going to have to break through an enemy line to get clear after La Trinite she needed to be able to survive the approach.

Her eye kept flicking back to the radar as she stood guard, feeling the momentum as she twisted the waist to check her blind spots.  The detachment's Commander--no, wait, Lieutenant,  they were using Inner Sphere ranks while coordinating with the mercs -- had been injured in battle.  It looked like about a third of their 'mechs were withdrawing, leaving them with a little over half a Company to hold out against two.  That left them without a commissioned officer, unless she was mistaken.

"Heh ... looks like my luck's holding steady." she mused, shaking her head.  4:1 odds against unknown tonnage, she hoped the scouts were doing their job out there.  It felt like she was wearing a big bullseye as things currently stood.  Well, she supposed, it could be worse ... she could be one of the ones out there desperately trying to slap a few more plates on their machine before everything went to hell.

"Lina droships are in bound.  It looks like they're dropping recon lances ahead of their deployment to make certain the area is secure before the dropships land.  You're going to have to deploy your available forces into two groups."

Two waypoints light up on Lina's map marked 'A' and 'B'.

"Recon lances have landed here, and will need to be dealt with.  If we can stall them, we may be able to delay the landings of the unions long enough to get La Trinite into orbit.  I'm showing Blue Rose, Jayne, Reggie and Burner withdrawing from the engagement.  That leaves yourself, Traxx, Avenger, Shield Maiden, Snow, Berserker, Roger and your reinforcements Dirtnap.  Jake will stay behind to safeguard the Dropships.  Make your teams and deploy

Regina, Lucius, Carmine, and Harry may make Scout checks for their return trip.

Base Mental Target number + 2 penalty = Scouting tn

Carmine is at an additional +2 penalty for injuries.

Lucius is at an additional +1 penalty for injuries.

“Berserker in for the long haul,” he replied over the command frequency.
“Moving to a position of over-watch to support salvage and repair operations” Settling the mech into a lumbering walk seeking high ground to the east, he found an excellent vantage point to watch the hostile dropship lift off and to scan the sky for the expected incoming enemy reinforcements.  Against the stifling heat of the cockpit, Olaf cracked the maintenance seals behind his command couch.  Relishing the relative chill of the late afternoon air, he set his Garret D2j targeting array to wide scan watching the myriad of colors flash across his sensor panel as the machine flicked between magscan, infrared and electro-optical modes seeking any distant enemy targets.


Not sure if Olaf observation post and long range over-watch counts as scouting, but making a roll nonetheless:

Base TN 5+ 2(scout penalty)  = 7
17:27, Sat 09 Nov 2013: Olaf Oleeson rolled 8 using 2d6 ((6,2)) PASS
 

"You heard the lady, Big Guy, I'm tagging in."  Zoe transmitted with a cheerful tone.  She opened and closed her right hand and shook it out as if trying to fight a case of pre-engagement jitters, but her left hand still gripped the stick and held the over-under medium laser and flame thrower barrels trained on the Union's loading ramp.  As the autocannon equipped 'mech heavily trod near her, she lightly began working the pedals, moving away from the door to give him room to maneuver.

"I'll give 'em one for you." as she passed near Jake, she took a moment to look at him through the armored canopy of the mech's head, flashing him a quick salute as she goaded her machine into a trot and then a run, looking to catch up with the rest of the group as they worked to split into two lances.

"Anyone here run up against Team Banzai before?  Sounds like a bunch of Dracs, but they'd be a long way from home ..."

OOC:  Well, now that I'm no longer babysitting the Dropship, I suppose I should add a Scouting roll of my own to the mix.
13:26, Today: Zoe Hargrieve rolled 11 using 2d6 with rolls of 5,6. Scouting Roll, TN 8+. (Pass)

“Never tangled with these guys before today, Dirtnap." he replied.  "Spent some time with the Kuritists and I've never heard of these guys.  All signs seem to point to them being FedRat mercs, but that doesn't sit right with me, if I'm being honest."

With the targeting system busily monitoring the distant horizon, Olaf watched as his commander withdrew from the battlefield.  Reaching back to recall something of the tactical command lessons from his DCMS OCS selection he keyed open the command freq again:  "Berserker to Traxx, looks like you’re the man in charge now with Blue out of the picture.” he paused for a moment, but not long enough to allow the only remaining officer on the battlefield to reply.  “I suggest we break into three groups.  Ace group forms a wolfpack led by Traxx and composed of  Avenger, Shield Maiden and Dirtnap.  Deuce group, Viking and I, provide long range fire support with our LRMs.  Lastly, Wildcard group is Snow and Iron Maiden.  Their job is to harass from a distance whenever possible but primarily they move out on the flanks and use their speed to close in for rear shots or to finish the kill once opportunity knocks.”

"I'll have to admit i've never encountered them before either.
What does the rumor mill say about them?, anything at all?"

She spoke on the head-set radio while bolting a plate loosely to her left torso.
It was shoddy, in fact scotty would hang her for having done it, but hopefully it'd keep her mech from getting blown into orbit.

 Wondering if mission silence was being broken before breaking out in a smile in the now cool interior of the cockpit of his family's old mech, chuckling softly to himself And it is still running. Switching to the open frequency he offers the scuttle but that most had heard. "Not much, just a whole lot of trouble and bull headed as most dracs."

Echo heard the call to mount out go out and was quick to stow away her gear and squirrel herself back up into the cockpit.

"Princess checking it.  Warming up.", She kept an eye on the friendly unit markers on the map and noted who was where.  She was still adjusting her neurohelmet on and settling into her seat as the discussion of assignments was going out.

The two enemy dropships had dropped mechs at two different locations.  Olaf was observing some at the East Field, location 'B' and are able to make out the distinct silouette of a Hatchetman coming down on the field.  With him, a three other mechs were droping in close proximity.  The Hatchetman's lancemates were a mystery to Olaf.  All he was able to observe, was that they all made steady jumps down.  The flickering heat signatures of jump jets in use meant that the entire lance was jump capable.

Zoe had missed the earlier action and was eager to get into the thick of it.  She was farther west and settled to observe the field from the dubious cover of trees.  From the edge she marked the drop locations of a lance of mechs.  The largest of them, with the common silouette of a Phoenix Hawk.  Too large to be a wasp or stinger, it could only be a Phoenix Hawk.  The two smallest mechs drop down quick and fast, no jump jets on those mechs help to hint at what they might be.  The unique silouette of a Locust was one of them, the other was a mystery.  The last mech, is a mystery.  All that could be observed of the last mech the flickering lights of jump jets in use.

---

OOC - Setup notes...

The dropships are dropping far enough apart that the players will have to split up to deal with them.  I am waiting to see if Zenha returns, or will sit this fight out as well, giving her till monday to check in.

At the moment tentative mission commanders will be Pax for the Wolfpack and Olaf from the Militia...

Tentative units assignments are...

Rat Pack
25 tn - Mongoose - Pax
35 tn - Jenner - David
35 tn - Fire Starter - Henriette

Militia
40 tn - Whitworth - Olaf
30 tn - Valkyrie - Roger
35 tn - Firestarter - Zoe

Liason
25 tn - Power Loader - Lina
20 tn - Locuse - Echo

For roleplaying reason, the Rat Pack and Militia will keep unit integrity.  You may assign Lina and Echo as you think best.  I would suggest spliting them up between the two lances to field four mechs against your potential opponents.

You will also have to decide who will deploy to field A, and who will deploy to field B.
This message was last edited by the GM at 22:54, Sun 10 Nov 2013.

Lucius grumbled as he left the field more for his own issues rather than his mechs.  Still as much as Pax might like to think he was some suicidal pilot Luc picked his fights when he knew he could win them.

Shaking his head he kept his sensors active on the return trip just in case the Banzai Bastards had sent a unit to flank them from the diversion that those big guys from the 101st had dirtside.


---
18:06, Today: Lucius McMurphy rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,2. Scouting Checks on return trip, TN11+

The fight was over as far as Regina was concerned.  The wisdom of Blake says that all things have a time and place, and Regina felt that this was the time to withdraw while Blakes blessings were still with her.

It was all good and quiet.  Not at all likely that anything was going to find them on the trip back to Miller's Creek so she opens her copy of "The Word of Blake" and studies his teaching while they travel.

Regina is suitably clueless to her surroundings as she travels.


18:48, Today: Regina Arlington rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,2. Scouting tn 9+.

 He scanned the land around the drop ship pad for signs of air craft or skulking infantry they may have missed and listened to the code chatter. tapping the code enforcer on his radio, he offers out, "I am good where ever i can be the most useful to finish the mission with the drop ship. Just better with my missiles then a straight shoot um up."

Watching his sensors grimly, Olaf keyed the command channel.  “Cancel that idea, Pax.  Looks like we've been dealt a different hand.” he said flatly.  “I agree that the only way to do this is to split up.  We can’t let either scouting party have it easy otherwise the dropships will be right behind them.”  With his commanding officer off the field, his was stomach a tight knot as he fought to keep the apprehension he felt from creeping into his voice.  “Miller Creek militia, guess you’re stuck with me until I’m dead or someone better comes along.  I’ve got a positive ID on one of those hatchet carrying mediums off to the east along with three unidentified hostiles on Objective B.  Headed that way unless anyone has a better idea.”  He started the Whitworth moving at an easy walk then reached up behind his head to close the open access panels, sealing the cockpit for the second battle of the day.

As the 40-ton war-machine strode off toward the enemy landing zone he added: "I'd be glad to keep you with the militia Viking, we could definitely put those LRMs to good use.  Princess and Iron Maiden; happy to have either or both of you join us as well." he added, "Glad to have you join us Dirtnap, welcome to the team, we could use all the help we can get."
This message was last edited by the player at 03:04, Tue 12 Nov 2013.

"Lina, which way do we go?", Echo was uncertain which group of mechs she had been assigned to, had she missed that critical piece of information?

"They haven't decided Echo.  If they don't shortly I'll link up with Pax, David and Henriette while you link up with the rest of the militia unit of Olaf, Roger and Zoe." replied Lina to her fellow Edenite as she pulled back to where the units were seemingly trying to figure out where they were going to go and who they were going to go against.

"Sorry Olaf, had a temporary comm glitch.  I received your last. Your taking the Militia to point 'B' and I take the Pack and point 'A'.

Sounds like there are two more mechs not heading back, Let me take Lina and you Echo to even out the tonnage.

Rat Pack and anyone coming with me switch to the Company comm channel 3."

After giving the team a chance to switch.

"Remember this is a delaying action.  We need to slow them down."

"Don't get yourselves killed out there.
It seems the eleven of us, are the only people standing between these lunatics and a bunch of non-combatants"

then she too switched to comm 3, and began prepping for departure.
"Alright, Road runner, lets see if we can't throw a wrench in their wheels"

Traxx led Avenger, Shield Maiden, and Iron Maiden off towards the West Air field.

(*laughs*  You sound like a superehero group with those callsigns...)

It was on the edge of the space port and most of it was a clear field.  There a long landing strip for Aerodyne drop ships to land on as well as a simple drop pad for spheroid dropship to come down on.

There wasnt alot of terrain to use for cover, but what little around the drop pad that existed was currently occupied.  Now that they were closing into combat distance, they got a better idea of the weight classes involved on the battlefield.

There was a P-Hawk positioned in some wood with a Locust beside him.

A hundred meters or so beside the run way was a hanger of some sort.  There was the silouette of a medium mech of sort inside the building.

Behind the hanger, out of sight, was the last mech a light of some sort.

Range is currently 900 meters.

You are approaching from the east and are currently deployed in a diamond formation, with Pax at the point.  Avenger on the south flank and Shield Maiden on the north one.  Lina is rearguard on the East point of the diamond as they approach.

Probably tonnage of Op Force is between 125 tons and 155 tons.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:51, Tue 12 Nov 2013.

Berserker led, Viking, Dirtnap and Princess off to review things on the East Field.

The field had two runways, and no obvious drop pad for a spheroid to land on.  The paired run ways were made for light commercial conventional flights, though they could be adapted for aerotech use as well.

While there was no obvious hard point for the dropship to land on, it was not impossible for a good pilot to set down on the field.  While a hardened surface would certain make for an easier landing and departure, it was hardly impossible.  The field was at least clear of landing hazard.

There were half a dozen hangers at he end of the landing strip.

Simple map

    {Hanger}  {Hanger}
     =================================================== (landing strip
    {Hanger}H{Hanger}
     =================================================== (landing strip
    {Hanger}  {Hanger}

H = Hatchetman

You catch a glimpse of the Hatchetman as it move from the east side of the strip west to taking cover among the hangers.

You pick up heat signatures in the three hangers on the east side.  Based on the signatures, it's not a hard presumption that there is nothing larger than a medium in them, probably lights is a fair assumption.  You catch movement from them as they're redeploying themselves to the hangers on the West side to greet you.

Range is currently 900 meters.

You are approaching from the west and are currently deployed in a 'box' formation.

Dirtnap is on the North East corner of the box, with Princess on her south flank.

Berserker is on the North West corner of the box, with Viking on his south flank.

Probable Op Force tonnage is between 105 tons and 210 tons.
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:50, Tue 12 Nov 2013.

Mexican intel gathering for this roleplaying 'mission'.


Intel gathered on Base Mental roll adjusted as follows...

You get a penalty of 2 for not being a scout.  (No one is a scout, it's an infantry role)

You get a penalty of 6 for 'extreme' range.  (Scouting ranges are based on medium laser ranges, you need to close to 270 meters or less to reduce this penalty)

You get a BONUS based on your def modifier, from movement.  (The better your def modifier, the more mobile you are, the faster you'll get the angle you need to catch a glimpse of something from mobility)

Characters with Edge, may apply it normally to an Intel Roll once, for this intell gathering 'mission'.

For Example.

Echo has a Mental stat of 1, giving her a bast tn of 7+

She's not a scout so the tn goes up to tn 9+

We're at extreme range so the tn goes up to 15+

She is however in a Locust, a very good scouting mech that can easily get up to a +4 Def Modifier, reducing the tn to 11+

Echo will gather useful intell on a roll of 11+

Simon Says...

Lina - Out
Echo - Out
David - Out
Roger - Out
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:59, Wed 13 Nov 2013.

Lina tried to alter the vector on her sensors to bounce the signal off the interior of the hanger to get a solid read on the mech that was inside.  At almost a kilometer out she didn't have the sensing equipment that she needed which just made her realize she needed to requisition an active probe as a sensor addition to swap out for her left arm pulse laser.

Shaking her head to keep it focused she wished she had payed more attention to her ECM/ECCM/EW instructor.  She vaguley remembered that even with the standard electronics on the older mechs that one could...modify it's output and receiver to get a better signal.  The X3a might not be the EW version but they were among the newest and best out there she should be able to pick up something useful...

((Subject line wrong, out for Simon says))

---
09:44, Today: Lina Todd rolled 3 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,1. Corner pocket off the hangar, TN11+. And the horrible rolls keep on coming, lol.
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:03, Wed 13 Nov 2013.

 As they moved over the slight ridge line and into sight of the commercial runways, his heads up binged a tone of the hatchman ducking back into the series of hangers that his old sensors showed a blob of heat coming from a few.

 Taping the safety off his missles and laser he scanned the sides of the airport for any possible mechs hidden by low power output. "Are these heroes going to try and hold this airfield?. I know its was never really built to handle any ovoid drop ships, Is this just to split our force?.

 Ok, Beserker, how we doing this?."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:40, Tue 12 Nov 2013.

As the remainder of his lance fell in with him, he pushed the mech into lumbering a run, wanting to close the distance but not drag them into a close fight.  He searched the area for a spot to shake out with his lance mates while adjusting his targeting computer.  Although he still had a fix on the medium weight mech lurking among the airstrip’s hangars he had not yet got a read on the others.

Trying to remain unfazed as his scans continued to come up empty, Olaf jumped onto the command channel.  “Viking, stick with me and take up a position to the west of the hangars.”  Jostled inside the cockpit he quickly sketched out a plan on his tactical computer and transmitted a map chip across the command net.  "Princess and Dirtnap, I’ll bet they’re looking for us to come into that small group of buildings and get into a street fight.  Make a show of moving fast off to the north-west as if you were scouts looping in on the hangars then headed back to HQ to make a report.  Viking and I will be positioned to look like a rear-guard.  Ideally they bite on our deception and our moving around will draw them out away from the hangars.  Once we've got them in the open Viking and I hit him with LRMs while you two swoop in for the kill.  Priority for fire goes to the Hachetman unless any of you have found something better.”


TN 5 + 2 (Scout penalty) + 6 (range) - 2 (run) = 11
08:59, Tue 12 Nov 2013: Olaf Oleeson rolled 9 using 2d6 ((3,6)) FAIL



                            PRINCESS / DIRTNAP
                                (Counter-Attack)
                                         \
                                          \
                                           \
                                            V
BERSERKER)-LRM->                                 {Hanger}  {Hanger}
                                                                 ===================================================
                             <------ENEMY Advance  {Hanger}  {Hanger}
                                                                  ===================================================
                                                                  {Hanger}  {Hanger}

VIKING)-LRM->
This message was last edited by the player at 16:45, Tue 12 Nov 2013.

Fix your compass.

Damn solar flares.

Avenger selects the appropriate channel on his comm before responding, "Traxx, should we head in for a closer look so we know what we're dealing with?"

OOC: scouting roll pending

Echo was a little fuzzy on what exactly Berserker considered 'better'.  Better as in easier to kill?  Better as in more dangerous?  Wasnt the Hatchetman plenty dangerous already?  It was twice as heavy her locust, with a gun that made her light auto canons look like squirt guns.

"Closing for a look then.", Princess announces on the Comm.

Scouting ahead was something Echo felt alot more confident about.  The Small locust cuts it's approach vector from East, to North east and runs parallel to the Hangers for 300 meters before turning East again.

"I'm seeing a lot of nothing.  Are we making an attack run then?  I cant see anything from this distance."

Scouting tn 7 + 2 + 6 - 4 = tn 11+
13:18, Today: Echo Snow rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,1. Scout check tn 11+.

((Subject line wrong, out for Simon says))
This message was last edited by the player at 00:03, Wed 13 Nov 2013.

2 Meduim mechs ... oh, that's just DUCKY!

Traxx decided to go for a faint to see if he could get the other lance to flinch.

"All right Pack, We're going in to see if we can ID the other 2 mechs.  Stay at full throttle and stay out of LRM range.  We don't need to be sucked in and caught in a medium mech's missile envelope.  This is a delaying action we'll let the situation develop and adjust on the bounce."


11:11, Today: Pax Tarkin rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,4. scouting TN11  NO

Intel TN: 6 (Base) + 2 (not-scout) + 6 (range, unless we go closer) - 4 (Max DM) = 10+

15:25, Today: David Crain rolled 12 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,6. Mexican intel roll, TN 10+. [PASS]

Avenger triggers his comm, "Avenger copies, rattle our sabres and hope they take the bluff.  We got this one!", as the moves his throttle forward to maximum speed in an attempt to get a visual on the unknown mechs.

(Subject line wrong, out for Simon says)
This message was last edited by the GM at 00:02, Wed 13 Nov 2013.

 Shifting slightly to the south of Berserker, he aligned his torso with the hangers until he could shift the torso back around to align the body.

 "Roger that, setting the fire line".

Henriette nodded and then tapped her comms.
"Roger that Traxx, lets see if we can't ID these bastards"
She then sped up to surge around the hostile LZ, scanning for their other two mechs.

she couldn't make anything out, however.


Base difficulty mental 2 = 6+, +2(untrained), +6(range) -3(defmod) = 11+

TN 11+, Roll 9, FAILURE

01:25, Today: Henriette Karlsdottir rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,3. TN 11+ scouting roll.

The Militia skirt about the edge of the airfield but fail to discern the identity of the mechs skulking about the hangers.

Word comes from the Trinite, that theyve taken command of the dropship and only need five more minutes to boost off to safety.

While five minutes might not sound like alot, entire battles are often decided in a fraction of that time span.

Most of the Rat Packers move out and spread out in an effort to avoid being easy targets.  They stay well out of range of the locust and phoenix hawk how seem content to stay dug in and hold their positions.  It's only when they brush too close to the border of what they consider to be 'safe' that they spark a response.

Avenger scoots in at an angle trying to see what the medium mech looks like in the hanger bay, staying clear of LRM range.  That's when light auto canon open up on him and he seems a popular Davion mech, a Black Jack starts to spew light shells at Avenger, startling him into falling back.

Word comes from the Trinite, that theyve taken command of the dropship and only need five more minutes to boost off to safety.

While five minutes might not sound like alot, entire battles are often decided in a fraction of that time span.

Seeing the shells cross Avenger's path,  "Well it looks like they brought something with a bit of range. Anyone see what that 4th light mech was?"

Traxx modifies the plan, "Maidens hang back and loiter in some cover if you can find it, Avenger gain some distance and lets loop around and see what we can see."

Standard light mech lance tactics, flank the enemy and if they give you a chance to stab them in the back.  Of course the enemy lance had an excellent counter. They were dug in around buildings and could use their longer ranged mechs as a center while not turning their backs on the flanking mechs.

Traxx was real glad they did not have to go in there and dig them out.




Lance Comm
"I'm going to try and talk to these guys."


OPEN COMM short range
"P-hawk and locust lance I think you guys might be lost. No civilians here for you to butcher.  I hear their might be some West of here though."

 He stalk over to a small low ridge of furrowed dirt and looked down at the layout. "It would seem to me that they want to stay and hold the ground they have, i would have to guess commander that they intend to bring their heavier brothers in to cut off any exits this way.

 I can see that the hangers give some protection but it also cuts off any good scans to the sides of the hangers. If they are inside the hangers they can only shoot front and back or shoot blind thru the sides or roof, any way we can exploit that advantage lance leader?."

(Subject line wrong, out for Simon says)
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:59, Wed 13 Nov 2013.

“All right everyone, I just got word from La Trinite she’s getting ready to lift off so we only need about five minutes of making this LZ too hot for reinforcements to drop in.  Once La Trinite is up we can break contact and withdraw.”  watching the pair of fast moving mechs moving off to the northeast, he asked: “You’re awfully quiet Dirtnap, are you picking up anything on your sensors or still coming up empty?”

Unconsciously looking off to his right to where the Valkyrie was adjusting position he continued, “Still looking for them to bite, Viking.  Let’s close the distance a bit and see if they take the bait.  I’m moving in.  Just to the edge of LRM range.  No closer.”  Olaf consulted his nav comp again quickly then keyed back onto the command channel.  “We need to make this LZ too hot for the incoming dropships.  If we succeed and draw them out of the hangars then the fast movers either counter-attack or flank.  I’m no dropship pilot, but I gotta think that landing a Union on an improvised LZ like those airstrips would be tricky business and something they likely wouldn’t want to chance in the middle of a firefight.”  Lights flickered on his targeting computer as the range began to close and his reticule danced over the distant hangars.  “Either we make it too hot for the scouts to hold their ground or we take advantage of their limited fields of fire from inside that hangar complex and allow the Locust and Firestarter get around them.  If we can pincer the enemy then we stand a good chance of turning the runway into our kill zone.  I wouldn’t rule out putting a few volleys of LRM into the pavement either, maybe we can damage it enough to make them balk at trying for a landing.  Either way, everyone stay flexible and don’t get pulled in so deep that you lose your escape route.”
This message was last edited by the player at 21:13, Wed 13 Nov 2013.

The cockpick shuddered and jumped as she pushed the engine to try and keep up with the nimble form of the Locust.  Out here in the open, she had to rely on speed and positioning to keep her in one piece.  The Hatchetman's autocannon was a real threat to their light lance, but somehow she couldn't keep a smirk off of her face.  She squinted and traced her tongue over dry lips, a shadow on the wall of one of the hangars catching her attention.  Even knowing she was out of range for her lasers, she tightened her grip on the control sticks.  As the long looping path of she and Echo's flanking team brought her to the corner of the building, she centered her aim on the shadow and punched up her HUD's image magnifier.

"Nothing on sensors beyond the heat signatures, Boss-man ... but ... I think I see something."

---

11:00, Today: Zoe Hargrieve rolled 10 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,4. Scouting the Hangars 11+.
... I'm probably going to regret this, but I kinda want more intel on this group.  I spend my Edge to get to 11 (Pass)
This message was last edited by the player at 16:29, Thu 14 Nov 2013.

"Roger that boss"
She wasn't about to charge into that, not with unknowns around, so she found herself a nice patch of forest to trudge around in, while trying to get a good look into the base.

however she couldn't quite calibrate her scanners correctly, so she kept getting useless garbled feedback data.
She smiled grimly at TRaxx' message to them over the comms, most other jabs coulda been fun, but this one wasn't... not even by a long shot.
Hopefully it'd provoke the last hostile into showing themselves.

Avenger is shaken out of his complacency when the Blackjack appears and starts to lobby AC shells at him.  Thankfully the pilot didn't seem to be used to tracking faster targets and he very quickly opens the range while putting some buildings in between us to force the Blackjack to move if the pilot wanted to carry on shooting.

Avenger acknowledges Traxx's order by accelerating to maximum speed, moving out to range and then swinging around in a broad circle, approximately 750m out from the Blackjack's last known position, to see if the two of them could flank the enemy position while they were dealing with the other two rat pack mechs.

 Nodding his head which was kind of worthless, since they were on the comm channel, he ease's his Mech forward to keep a line abreast with the flanker with him.
 He did try and see something besides the big hangers but could wait till he had a solid tone.

Echo cuts and scoots, working her path north east, moving closer to a position directly north of the hanger, to get into a flanking positions, it wouldnt take her more than a few seconds to get there in her quick moving locust.

"Are we engaging or just teasing them?"
This message was lightly edited by the player at 21:13, Fri 15 Nov 2013.

Dirtnap and Princess flit in and out of LRM range and Zoe finally catchs a glimps of a Firefly that opens up with a flight of LRMs to keep her honest and force her to keep her distance or take fire should she choose to close.

Olaf and Roger are too far out to exchange missiles with them at this time.

Olaf may make a tactical roll, at a penalty of 3, at this time for a clue to discern what they're up to.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:21, Fri 15 Nov 2013.

Pax manages to draw a reaction from the Op Force with his challenge.

"That's quite an allegation you have there Mista.

 I dont suppose you'd be willing to walk up and discuss it face to face?

 If not, I'm gonna have to ask you to apologize and withdraw your ac~q~say~tions.", a feminine voice answers in a southern relaxed drawl.


Pax can make a tactics roll, at a penalty of 2, to discern their tactics if any.
This message was last edited by the GM at 21:21, Fri 15 Nov 2013.

Tactics is 5 or 4 depending on if the heirloom mech bonus counts.  Pilot 4,  tactics skill (1),  penalty (-2),  heirloom mech ? (1)
15:30, Today: Pax Tarkin rolled 9 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,6. Tactics roll  TN?

Question: this the same P-Hawk that was from the first mission?

Heirloom, is used for intiative, this isnt initiative, it's an effort to discern what the enemy is doing.  (which should probably be a leadership roll i suppose, but i called tactics so leave it)

It's a P-Hawk, they all look pretty much alike so it's hard to say.

Watching the LRMs lamely pockmark the ground off to his northeast Olaf kept his own target indicator over the hangar where he had last spotted the Hachetman.  As much as he was trying to discern the enemy lance’s intentions, he hoped that his opposite was trying to discern what exactly they were up to.  He flirted with the idea of trying to open comms with the enemy commander, but decided that leaving his actions open to interpretation would better serve to confound the enemy.  Confusion benefited the milita.  Every minute the enemy spent waiting to determine whether or not the LZ was safe for landing was another minute toward a successful delaying action.  “Keep teasing them Princess.  Our task is to achieve five minutes of delay, we’ll engage if the enemy comes into our kill zone or if it becomes necessary to make this airfield too hot for a dropship landing.  All we need to do right now is buy time.”  Inside his cockpit he silently hoped he had gotten this right.  He was happy with the execution of the plan thus far and noted that they were well spaced out and had open withdrawal routes.  Still, the neophyte lance commander felt as if he was skirting a delicate balance and soon it would be necessary to start raising enough hell to keep the enemy from committing a dropship to a hot LZ.  Not wanting to get caught off guard he added: “Viking, I’ve got the hangars covered, once you’re in position keep an eye on the air for signs of an incoming drop.”


Tactics roll: TN 5+ 3 (tactics penalty) = 8
16:27, Fri 15 Nov 2013: Olaf Oleeson rolled 3 using 2d6 ((1,2)) No Joy

"SHIT!"  Red lights flashed and warning klaxons flared as Zoe got a look at the low rounded shape of the Firefly.  Reflexively, she stomped hard on both pedals, jumpjets flaring to life and sending her skyward as the missile contrails spiraled under her, arching upwards and into the sky before they lost lock.  Reaching the top of her arch, she fired the medium laser in her center torso just to keep things honest, though the beam of light lost coherency long before it struck its target.

"Positive ID on a Firefly." she signaled, feathering the jets as she began to arch back down.  Licking her lips, she looked down to make sure she was going to land clear of Princess, landing lightly enough to keep on the run.  She raised up both of Knave's arms, working to put another hangar between her and that LRM.

"You wanna force stand-off with these guys?" she asked incredulously, pressing her lips together.  She was toothless from this far out, and the Team Banzai Recon Lance was hunkered down in a fortified position.  Maybe they could tie them up for the five minutes they needed for La Trinite, but between the two forces only the invaders had reinforcements waiting in the wings.

"Not to put too fine a point on it, but if they wanna stay boxed up, we might be better off just making the air strip an unsuitable landing point." she suggested, out of turn admittedly, "Say, by ruining visibility from the air?  It's a tricky enough landing to stick even as it currently stands ..."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:38, Sat 16 Nov 2013.

Following Pax's orders Iron Maiden looked for some cover to sidle up by well out of the range of the mechs and use her mechs electronics to see if she could crack in on their communications since she wasn't going to be busy dodging LRM's or AC rounds.  Something else was going on here and the hairs on the back of her neck were tingling...
This message was last updated by the player at 00:51, Sat 16 Nov 2013.

 Receiving the transmission he again nodded his head and then smacked himself,"Roger that, scanning the nice clean air now". Twisting the gain slightly to use more power but to increase his range for signs of trouble inbound.

 He knew only to well, how fast a air strike could roll over the airbase and anything under it. Still, the idea of the recon force content to just set in the hangers made him want to scratch an itch he couldnt reach.

Lina you may make a Technician check, at penalty two, to try and hack into the Op Force command channel.

(If you had a beagle probe you would have been at a plus two bonus instead, but you dont have one)

Running through the other teachers instructions she worked on isolating the bandwith between their own signals and the enemy.  She really wished she had a Beagle Probe now and resigned herself to working on gaining modules for the shoulders to replace her pulse lasers with both the Beagle and the Guardian...though she wasn't sure at the moment if they could on the X3a.  The momentary hitch in her mind over the power layout and distribution gave her an idea and she put it into action...



---
20:56, Today: Lina Todd rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,5. Hack the OpFor's Network...with my Hatchet.
Mental 6 + 2 Penalty...TN8 for the win?

"I like where your head is at, Dirtnap." Olaf replied over the comm.  "If you see anything you can burn to create a smoke cloud that obscures that airstrip then say the word."

nice roll

The run ways and buildings are pretty clear of hazards that burn, unless youre going to burn the buildings down.  Dropships have alot of hot plasmas flinging about so, maintenance would be to make certain such things are weeded out and burnt out ahead of time to prevent compications.

From they way they were hashing since Pax's accusation Lina began to wonder if the initial wave of mechs were actually part of Team Banzai or if they were being used to further the agenda.  Opening comms to Pax she let him know, "Traxx, from their chatter I'm getting the feeling that they don't know about the massacre...and it seems like standing orders are to hold unless provoked.  We might be able to sit them out...and someone else either isn't telling their people what they are really doing or the ones we've been dealing with aren't really Team Banzai...just a hunch, no solid data yet but it's a feeling I've got."  Continuing to keep the tap low level she listened in to follow subsection seven point three and create a mental dossier about the enemy based on their comm traffic.
This message was last updated by the player at 17:33, Mon 18 Nov 2013.

Henriette growled at the refusal of their guilt.
"Hardly an allegation, considering we have it on video.
I was there myself, your people murdered dozens of civilians, even going as far as ignoring military targets in the vicinity, Those targets including myself."

She said her voice clearly carrying strong disgust at their cowardly acts, as she chimed in on the channel pax had opened communications on.

"For obvious reasons we don't carry such footage around, but rest assured, it will be forwarded to the authorities at first opportunity!

ooc: did we get  any footage from the previous fight, of their warriors shooting down a building filled with their own people?

Realizing that he might have lumped all of the OpFor into one mech Pax softened his reply.


"There was a P-Hawk involved I thought it was you. I'm willing to admit that you might not have been present at the attack at Miller's Crossing, perhaps you have heard of it from some bragging by another unit?"

"You might have noticed me and my boys just made planetfall.

 If you're here to talk, i should tell you the rest of my company is making planetfall in a minute or two.

 If you wanna fight.  We'll i'm willing to oblige you there too.  We dont take kindly to the kinda mud you guys are slinging.  I'm not so gracious as to share a good old fashion butt whumping with the rest of my company.  If you want to tango.  Let's tango."

The Phoenix Hark makes an 'advance' motion with her left arm, and a Locust moves up on her left flank, while a Commando moves in on her right flank.  A Blackjack walks out of the hanger.

They look prepared to take it to combat at this point in time.  We go to combat mission 4, if you're obliging to fight it out.
This message was last edited by the GM at 19:23, Mon 18 Nov 2013.

Lina wanted to butt in on the comms but held her tongue to let Pax do the talking while she focused on keeping up with the comms.  It was a loosing battle since she wasn't in a model of X3 that was designed to do that sort of thing and her conflicted desires meant she wasn't paying attention when the frequency shifted.  She tried to get it back but for the moment it seemed that she had lost the signal that would have helped them determine how much time they actually had...



---
14:11, Today: Lina Todd rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,3. Hack the OpFor's Network...with my Hatchet...again. Not so much this time.

Pax continues speaking in a clear, none rushing voice, "In that case you now have notice, there are units on your side that have committed war crimes here on the planet before your arrival.  I would strongly suggest you double check your intelligence for accuracy prior to any missions regarding troop positions.

We've had to bury their handy work and I personally am tired of burying children.

I'm informing you cause I would hate for any new units to be suckered into murdering civilians."

Lance COM
"Time to link back up with the Maidens,  Avenger."
Continuing the circle him and Avenger were making.

"Where I come from, thems fightin words.

 I suggest you get out of Dodge.

 I'm gonna give you to the count of ten to Va-moos.

 One.... Two.... Three..."

Lance COM
Prepare for engagement.  Maidens as the slower mechs you'll withdraw and Avenger and I will cover you.

Open COM
With an evil smile,  Well since you consider a friendly warning of facts as fightin' words.  Where your from ... are you sure ... ARE YOU SURE ... you can count that high?

"four... nine... ten.  Lets go boys.",

The east side of the space port was not going to sit idly about while the West side started up a brawl.

They saw no reason to sit it out and came out shooting a few seconds after hostilities broke out on the West end of the space port.

Avenger follows behind Pax, keeping up as best he can.  He smiles to himself at the exchange between Pax and the bandits and is therefore unsurprised when they start shooting.  When the shooting does start, he makes best possible speed back to the Maidens to cover their retreat.

Lance comm:
"Right behind you, Road Runner.  Let's send these guys off-planet."

OOC: I haven't looked to confirm, but I'm pretty sure we were all told to record whatever we could as evidence of Team Banzai's war crimes.

OOC2: What's on this quiet, out-of-the-way planet that someone wants badly enough they're willing to commit two companies of mechs here???

1)  Some have... some havent... none of it is handy.

2)  More than two companies it would seem.  There were mechs on planet, and two more unions are dropping in it seems.

 As his heads up sounded the chime of detected mechs and solid tone he locked onto the one at close range and brought his power lvl up to combat trim.

 "Looks like they want to join the brawl and go against their orders to hold. Lets rock and roll, squad leader."
This message was last edited by the player at 02:59, Tue 19 Nov 2013.

Henriette shrugged in ehr mech, then 'accidentally' forgot to switch channels.
"What do you know, they are exactly as bloodthirsty as their allies"

She throttled up the energy levels, and increased to full on run, to build distance, following Traxx's orders.
then on the squad channel.
"Roger that boss, make sure to get home in one piece, will you?"

As Avenger raced back to his lance-mates he toggles the channel to his lance comm,  "Something to ponder later, but what has someone found here that they're willing to send this much hardware all this distance to claim?"


1) That's what I thought, Kitten.  I was more curious about the 'have' part than the 'handy' part for the moment, if only to back up Henriette's claim.

2) Seems someone has found something really exciting and they're determined to get it.

Everyone gets to make a base mental check, modified by either a weapon spec, tactics or leadership, at this point to see how well they do in the skirmish.

(We arent playing this out, i refuse to waste time setting up a mission that you cant possibly win.)
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:49, Tue 19 Nov 2013.

ooc: can edge be applied here, if we didn't use it for any of the socuting checks?

Mental+tactics roll: 6+, tactics 1 = 5+
Roll: 4 Fail
Reroll if permitted: 8, Success

05:56, Today: Henriette Karlsdottir rolled 4 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,2. 5+ mental 2+tactics 1.
05:56, Today: Henriette Karlsdottir rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,4. 5+ check, edge reroll if permitted.

Mental + energy spec. = 6 - 1 = 5+

22:47, Today: David Crain rolled 6 using 2d6 with rolls of 3,3. Mental check, TN 5+.

It looked like Team Banzai blinked first, causing Dirtnap to grin wolfishly as she saw the Battlemechs leave their fortifications to get those crucial last few meters into weapon's range.

"Alright Princess, let's see if we can draw 'em out just a little further, then pick a target and I'll help you hammer 'im down while hunting for his flanks." she primed the lasers on her 'Mech as she maneuvered for position, "This is Team Banzai's first engagement against the Detroit Militia.  Lets be sure to give 'em a proper greeting!"

---

01:32, Today: Zoe Hargrieve rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,6. Mental Check +Tactics, TN 5+. (Pass)
This message was last updated by the player at 21:02, Wed 20 Nov 2013.

 Shifting slightly he volleyed missiles at the incoming enemy, very glad to not have to dig them out of their protective enclosures.

07:06, Today: Roger Simms rolled 8 using 2d6 with rolls of 4,4. Mental chk+missle-1= TN 5+(pass)
This message was last edited by the player at 13:10, Tue 19 Nov 2013.

"Oh...oh..oh.. they're shooting at me!", Princess complains vocaly when they start shooting at them at more than double the effective range of her weapons.

"That's hardly sporting!", Echo's locust starts to tack about in an unpredictable zig zag fashion, her feet stomped down hard on the pedals, easing up only enough to cut this way or that at high speeds.

"Someone make them stop!"

08:25, Today: Echo Snow rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 2,3. Mental check + 1 tactics = tn 6+.
This message was last edited by the player at 13:28, Tue 19 Nov 2013.

Lina shook her head at Pax.  They were there to buy time for the infantry to take the dropship and boost with it.  Forcing the mechs to engage them when they didn't need to only cut the chances of their ability to do that.  Pulling out every stop she had she began to run electronic counter-measures since her weapons would always be woefully out of range.

The X3a might not have been designed for such things but since she had found their lance comms at least once before she figured some impromptu hacking and high decible signals would have their ears ringing and senses thrown off to help give them the time they needed as she danced her X3a in ways that it almost waasn't designed for.



---
09:17, Today: Lina Todd rolled 12 using 2d6 with rolls of 6,6. Mental. TN6+ Flawless Victory, take that real Team Banzi :P

Pax was impressed, he didn't expect them to go nuts that easily.  They were fast enough that if the dropship would lift off the enemy lance couldn't keep up with his lance and they could take out the fast mechs that tried to follow them.

But they needed to survive long enough for the ship to take off.


M1 +1tactics

08:41, Today: Pax Tarkin rolled 5 using 2d6 with rolls of 1,4. M1 + 1 tactics  if I roll high I'll figure it out
M1 is 7 -1 = TN 6  Fail
With edge I can PASS
This message was last edited by the player at 16:48, Tue 19 Nov 2013.

The fighting at the Spaceport was fast and furious.

It was an ugly exchange, and the units they were facing off with seemed much better organized and trained.

Several units fall quickly into trouble early under the surprisingly aggressive and effective organization before them.  Only a brief respite by Lina manages to buy them a brief respite when she hacks into their comm line to wreck a little havok in their coordination.

It doesnt last though, as she finds out that the Op Force seemed technically savy when heavy metal rock music starts to play through the merc comm lines, disrupting their organization it quickly becomes obvious that it was time to leave.  La Trinite was boost off at this point and there was no point to linger about.

That was when the balance of Team Banzai dropped from the sky.  Fresh medium and heavy mechs appear in and around the merc formation and things are about to really get messy.

It's at this time that Lina gets an urgent message from Tamara urging her to surrender to the superior forces at the Spaceport.

With much reluctance, the order is given, and most of the mercs surrender at Lina's orders.  A few decide to make a run for it, and manage to slip away as the attention is focused on the main body of mercs surrendering.

---

When the dust clears, it becomes apparent that the two companies arriving at the spaceport are there to investigate reports that have filtered out to Avalon, of Team Banzai units operating in conducts that border on criminal.

The two fresh company of mechs establish a DMZ around the spaceport, until they complete their investigations.

Information and evidence are presented, and reviewed.  Team Banzai refutes the evidence, indicating that the units are frauds, and that all their units are accounted for on Avalon, or operations on the Combine front and welcome an investigation with the mercenary review board to clear their name.  It takes a few weeks to clear their story but it does become clear that Team Banzai are not the 'bad guys' here.

During this time, the Op Force on the planet have taken the lull to pack up and clear off the planet conceding control of the planet at this time.

Lina has a discussion with Tamara, who reveals to her that Pandora Intel places the blame of the incursion on Detriot on the Taurian Concordat.  A request has been made to take up an operational raid against them, to collect reparations for the damage they've cause on Detroit.  No direct connection must exist that Omni is involved in the operations, so mercenary units are being gathered and will be dropping on Burton.  A planet that is part of the Concordat and home to O-P Computer Electronics, a company that specializes in electronics.  Low Bulk/High value electronics make for an attractive resource to raid.  All profits from this operation will be donated to repair the damage done on Detroit.

Mission Three Roleplaying rewards
4xp Lina
2xp Regina
3xp Echo
3xp David
3xp Roger
2xp Lucius
4xp Pax
3xp Zoe
3xp Olaf
3xp Henriette ~> Anastatia
This message was last edited by the GM at 16:41, Thu 12 Dec 2013.

The morning activity had been productive.

The mercenaries had dropped from space.  Pandora Intel had provided suspected high priority targets on the ground.  The Ironswords, Lancers, and Valkyries were slated with taking out the planetary C3 while the rest of the mercs made themselves visible and tied up patrols and reactionary assets.

The Spaceport was hit by the Lancers.  Not afraid to get dirty, the lancers were in and out in under a minute leaving the Control tower and refueling facilities a smoking mess.  Several heavy AMCs made and effort to stall them that had little effect.  The Heavy Tank Garrison was quick to respond, but not fast enough to stop the Lancers from completing their mission and departing before their heavy guns could be bought into play for the battle.  The Lancers actions have left traffic at the spaceport hopelessly snarled, and most of the dropships grounded, till fuel can be trucked in to be used, or repairs can be made on the refueling stations.

The Central broadcasting station was hit by the Valkyries.  The local garrison was caught aware early and quickly dealth with brutal laser fire.  Early on the nimble hover tanks were caught flat footed and destroyed, and the battle went quickly down hill from there.  A fast response lance of Hover Tanks sought to engage the Valkyries who fled through the heavily forested terrain to lose the pursuing tanks.

O-P Electronics HQ, is reported to be the center for the Global planetary defense, and the Iron Swords were handed the difficult assignment to take it out.  Reports of a brutal firefight with the local garrison have filtered back and the outcome of the encounter is still in doubt.

The remaining lancers were not left idle.  While less glamourous, their duties were every bit as important.  As the lay of the lands was taken in, and delaying tactics were made to confuse and stall planetary responses to the real targets.

"Beta" manages to fly several short sorties to scout out vast tracts of land and eventually settles on an out of the ways area appropriate for the merc units to gather. Local air assets force him to ground but not before he achieves his assignment.  Walking out the heavily wooded area, he discovers that it is perfect for the mercs to use as a temporary haven.  Cover from the air, with easily observed approach and multi routes of escape should they be needed.

Raith scouts out the locals bases, looking for a likely target to hit.  They were going to need a place to resupply and make repairs really soon, and he believes he has found it.  The Locals refer to it as 'Fort Apache', mostly because it seems to be out in the boonies, and the only military asset in the area for miles around.  He leaves the base alone, none the wiser that they have been scouted and moves on to review other targets that might be of interest to the mercs.

Elsewhere around the planet the freelancer members of the unit pull their weight and do their best to snarl up logisitcs and stall the local planetary efforts to corner and engage the mercs with superior numbers and forces.

As the day wears on, the mercs gather around a heavily wooded map grid that has been codenamed 'Haven' for operational purposes.

Along with the Lancers and Valkyries, many Freelancers check in to reacquaint with friendly faces, trade news, effect repairs and catchup on much needed rest as discussions are made on the progress of the day and implementation of the next phase of operations.
This message was last edited by the GM at 18:10, Thu 12 Dec 2013.

The attack on the spaceport had gone well.  The lancers had gone in done what needed to be done, and departed quickly.  A good thing since the Heavy Tanks response time was much quicker than expected.

They were now park in a rather peaceful forest, a place where the war machines that dotted the terrain here and there had been carefully netted to provide some cover from aerial recon.  It hardly seemed to matter the leaves and branches were thick providing excellent shade and cover.

"The Foot actuator... connect to the ankle actuator...
 The Ankle actuator... connect to the shin strut...
 The shin struts connected to the the knee actuator...", she sings cheerfully to herself as she goes about the battlefield repairs.

She had taken signficant damage during the run of the mission, but so had Avenger.  She was going to be busy for a bit with repairs.  She didnt mind, she felt closer to Blake when she was working on her Valkyrie which made her happy.

The spark of the welding torch clicks noisily to life before a thin heated flame of super heated plasma welds the bits of armor against the gaping holes and missing bits of melted armor that were in and around the legs of her mech.

"... so eth... say eth... the Blake..."

Taking advantage of the efficient supply drops Lina spot welded the damage on her X3's leg and the pockmark on her torso made from the exploding SRM missiles.  Lina had taken minimal damage for all practical purposes at least compared to Echo.  For whatever reason for her it was like throwing chum into the water when sharks were circling.

Shaking her head at the thought and smiling mischeviously she realized that Echo needed a new callsign and 'Chum' was high on her list.  With her so busy welding almost two tons of armour on her own X3, Lina stealed away once she was done and used her welding gun to arc-weld 'Chum' on her X3's rear.  There was nothing but good fun in simply maring the surface of the armour without doing any real damage.  With a little giggle she returned to her X3 to run the startup procedures and make sure she was ready for whatever happened next...

Welding on just over a half-ton of armour to the gaping hole that the autocannon round had caused left Luc tired and sore...he could swear that the plugsuit that he had worn back on Detroit was still zapping him from time to time.  His errant commentary about Echo's cute arse and shooting it had earned him so many shots hitting him that he was not only covered in paint from head to toe but there was no part of him that escaped from the electrical shocks that the suit had given him.

Still it was a cute arse.

The interim set of missions goes off well.

The Light Lancers, execute a raid mission to destory militia assets, and to draw attention away from the rest of the missions being executed.  They manage to destroy all their targets, though Pax is not totally satisfied, since the raid ran into more snags than expected.  It was time to shake up the unit.  He keeps the newest member, Donovan and adding Jessa, while releasing David and Regina to the Freelancer pool.

The Iron Swords return to finish off the Command center that they missed earlier in the day. Making excellent use of the days intelligence to execute under the cover of night the mission quickly goes off, despite the presence of a formidable lance.  Under the medical care provided for at Fort Apache, Zoe is deemed unfit for duty, and Lucius takes over the Iron Swords keeping Alexi on and adding Raith to the unit, while releasing Roger to the Freelancer Pool.

The Valkyries have a messy assault.  The minefield and chain link fence proving to be more hazardous than expected.  With the addition of Hina, they find the Comm Center quickly and silence it.  From there it's only a matter of time for the Valkyries superior firepower to silence the op force.  Anastasia is disappointed with Echo's performance and decides to release her to spend some time in the Free Lancers to see if it improves her professionalism.

Kurt Steiner knows an opportunity when he sees one, and gathers several of the released talent in the free lancers to form Armaggedon Inc.  David and Roger join him to form the fledgingly unit.

The Freelancers Lancers currently include Paul, Regina, Jorge, and Echo.

The Pilots spend the night gathered in Fort Apache, and spend the next day dividing up supplies and making repairs.  While the mess hall fare is uninspiring, it is fresh and warm, and better than the freeze dried stuff that they've been living off of.  Small luxaries like a proper rest room and showers are present.

Upon closer inspection of the supplies, they find a surprised to find advance weapons in the stockpile.  An amazing turn of events since the outpost is so out of the way.  Upon closer investigation they discover that the unassuming base has recently been used to fit out captured Eden Tech on mechs for testing, with the intention of reverse engineering them for mass production.

Something that your employers definitely do not want to see happen, so all research is destroyed at Fort Apache, and the test mechs are assigned, with the intention of hunting them down and eliminating them.

Echo quietly goes about the morning repairing the damage her Power Loader had suffered in the night of activity to take the Fort.  As she does, she reflects on her new status as a 'Free Lancer'.

It was humiliating.

'How could Anastasia do that... to me?  ME!', She was at this time forced to spend time in the Freelancer pool and languish over serving with the other inner sphere pilots.

'meh... as if that was going to happen...'

The Valkyrie Pilot was so far out, that she made Echo look normal.

The Mongoose Pilot needed to wash some of the grease out of his hair... and... okay maybe he wasnt oggling her, but something about the way his eyes looked just freaked her out.

The Noble with the Stinger kept struting around like he was the divine's gift to merc unit, and had a bigger attitude than her.  It was a pool of freaks, oddballs, cuts ups, and... spoiled brats... surely... Anastasia didnt think so badly of her to stick her in here, thinking she was among her peers did she?

Regina stifles a yawn as she walks from the shower to the mess hall.  It was nice to be clean again.  She had forgotten how refreshing a nice a quick warm shower could be.  She had even dug up some clothing from the militia's store of clothes.

She shows up at the camps kitten, to grab a tray full of veggies and some juice for breakfast.

She also thought, it was also rather nice to be a Free Lancer.  No ties... no troubles... just responsible for herself.  The experience of being part of a greater whole was over rated.  It just meant other people told you what you had to do... right or wrong.

Regina purses her lips thoughtfully, she only answers to Blake.  It was much easier to do that when you didnt have to answer a chain of command.  Maybe... with the right unit... she might reconsider joining a collective, but for the moment she was rather happy just to be a Free Lancer.  Of course individual freedoms came at a cost, but... anything worth while usually did.

Regina munches noisily on something that resembled a stalk of celery and watched as the camp went about their business, wondering what they would be doing next.

 Satisfied that no one was seriously injured and the team had not only done the mission but had gained in reputation for not wanting to harm any civilians directly in the path of the battle. It was stupid to have that many civilians within a military target and not have deep listening post's to watch the borders of the base. Still he was glad for that lapse of their commander.

 He had showered and changed uniforms in the basic BDUs before taking a walk over the base hospital unit to check up on his former CO. Checking to see if it was ok to say hello to Zoe, he would do so if they allowed visitors now that he was in another unit.

 "Hi, Commander, just thought i would stop in and see how your doing and to wish you the best and to really hope you get on your feet quickly. I will be transfered to a newly formed unit, so you wont have my small fire power now but you still have Burner, so that will make up for some of it. Take care and get well."

Lina watched Roger come into the makeshift hospital to talk to his old CO...she was only there because...well honestly she had torn herself to shreds without the help of the enemy units.  The doc said concussion and three fractured ribs were the result of her shameful tripping on the fence.  Her lower body was wrapped, as there was little they could do for the fractures but try and make sure she didn't move too suddenly or in an awkward way and make it worse.  She didn't even know if Ana was willing to take her out on the next mission that was critical for them.

Paul hummed as he polished the armor plating on the his Stinger's left leg trying to remove the dings left from the Thunder Bolt's attacks. "You know girl we didn't do to bad out there. Now we just wait for the lab guys to send back the software changes the conversion process doesn't seem to like your guns," he chuckled as he patted the torso armor as the lift carried him in range to begin cleaning it.

Luc had stopped by the med-tent to let Zoe know about his decision to take operational control of the Ironswords but she was asleep at the time.  He left a note about how the unit was doing and his efforts in the short term to keep what she had started running.  Heading out he went looking for Alexi to commend him on the brokered deal with the Captain and not only his decision to handle the logistics of the lance but his intention to make Alexi XO of the Ironswords.  They needed a legacy and more importantly Luc needed the conscious of Alexi to run the lance right.

When he finally spotted him he pipped up, "Alexi! You have a moment?"

Hina skipped into the infirmary, humming happily to herself. Her arms were covered past the elbows in some sort of grease; the heavy gloves she wore were clean, which implied that she put them on after getting messy. In her hands was a long device, mostly a series of metal tubes linked together, with a claw-like device on one end and a convoluted handle on the other.

"Hi, Lina!" she sang as she sprang up to the bunk. "I made you something so you could do some stuff without having to get up." She offered the grabber device handle-first.

Her next comments were delivered in a rush, with barely a pause for breath.

"I hope you don't mind, but I took a look at your Mech's innards while I was working on mine. After I raked the pavement, I had to check that. Turned out the focusing laser on my left side was off-kilter by a bit. Anyway, I did some tests and found out that your balancing gyro had a two-degree wobble on its Y axis. Probably made everything list to starboard a bit, am I right?"

With a slight smile she looked up at Hina and nodded, "After the initial fall it knocked it out of alignment.  Combine it with the concussion and like the history books read, I was swaying like a drunken sailor."

She chuckled and then her eyes squinted in a slightly pained nature as laughing still hurt...and likely would for a few weeks...when she gratefully took the grabber device, "Thanks for the extend-o-claw"

Alexi walked through the halls samurai sword & pistol on his side. The mercenaries family dates back to the old Samarkand Military District. A strange sight to see a Swedish Russian Samurai vs. the typical holovid of a traditional Samurai.

Seeing Lucius has interesting speaking causally in the halls, he relaxes. "How can I help you Lucius? Can I call you Luke? Or do you prefer McMurphy or just Mac?"

"Luc is good.  Wanted to congratulate you on whatever quick talking you did to the Captain.  Saved us a pounding and gave the Ironswords a good rep at the same time."

Before now he had a gruff exterior, and even now it sounded more like a Sergeant chatting with a fellow NCO but there was a subtle change in his tone that Alexi wouldn't notice yet.  He leaned up against a wall and continued, "I talked to Zoe in one of the few times she was awake and she agreed that you're good XO material.  Since I'm going to be holding the reigns of the Ironswords, for the time being, I wanted to make you officially the XO for the unit while I run things.  Zoe knew I was an efficient asset destroyer but I don't have the skill with words you do, nor the good demeanor so I'll need someone like you to give me options that I don't see.  You up for that?"

Slightly over eager and surprised the young Mechwarrior all bu jumped at the offer. Quickly getting his eagerness in check. "If you and Zoe think I am ready, I except. And I got lucky on that one, the Captain knew the end game. He made me look better than I really was."

Thinking a moment, "If you have a list of duties I need to take care of let me know?"

Luc laughed, "When it comes to mechwarriors, lucky is sometimes just as good as skill.  The point is you thought it up and I didn't...that's the important thing, and why you'll be a good fit.  I'll want you to point those things out to me if you see them."

After he asked if he could do anything he nodded, "Yeah you can as a matter of fact.  I'm getting the lowdown on the next series of contract goals.  See if you can find a pilot named Raith Northrup.  Rides a Jenner.  He's going to be with us at least for the next jaunt."  He paused for a second before adding, "...and see if you can find a sweet honey that goes by the name Reggie.  Let her know from me that if Blake was around he'd adore her perfect arse, but love her faith even more...and let me know what you think of her from the response she gives."

He grinned, "And if you think this is a hazing, keep wondering, but see to it..."

He waited for his response before heading out to the HQ that had been setup to find out what their options were.  He could make a pretty good determination on his own but he wanted his men and women's ideas most of the time too.

"Roger that, Sir." Alexi says with a snap salute.
Heading to the command center "See if you can find a sweet honey that goes by the name Reggie."
"Reggie, Reggie I've heard of a Regina, Reggie is Regina and she is a sweet ass honey."
"I need to let her know from, Luke that if Blake was around he'd adore her perfect ass."

Once he's in the command center, he pulls up the file on Raith and Regina. Looking over there photo, he can now recognize them at a glance. Reading quickly about each he gets the basic low down. Putting files back he heads towards the mech bays, " Luke says Reggie has a sweet honey sexy ass."

Walking through the bays, he stops and stairs at the family mech Riki. "Great job ole'boy."

Turning he sees Raith by his Jenner, "Mechwarrior Northrop, I am the new XO Alexi Olson." Responding by shaking hands, or salute which he does.
"Lucius McMurphy is our commanding officer and I just wanted to take the time to check out your mech and its condition. Excuse me, while you get your mech in order for inspection and a list of needed items. I see someone I need to speak too."

Noticing Regina, he steps away from Raith.

Stepping up to Regina, "Reggie? Luke and Blake say you have a sweet honey ass, and I need to get me some."

Kurt sat at a table in the Mess Hall he had appropriated for a workspace; sipping bad coffee and reviewing paperwork.  Everything was laid out on the desk in a precise, meticulous, orderly fashion.  The space was a reflection of Kurt himself.  After arriving at Fort Apache, he had secured his Commando, gotten a shower, and changed into a fresh, pressed, uniform.  He immediately went to work on reviewing his brand new command.  He had chosen the name "Armageddon Incorporated" specifically as a thumb in the eye to the social Generals back home.  Many of them would view his lance as little more than an armoured infantry platoon.  The Lyran idea of a light 'Mech was the twin Griffins that stood beside the Archon's throne on Tharkad.  Kurt had other ideas though, and picked the members of his unit accordingly.  Reviewing his notes, he collected up his items and left to find David and Roger.

He went to the 'Mech bay looking for them, and made a brief stop at his 'Mech cubical to check on the repairs.  He winced when he saw the Techs working on what remained of the Commando's left arm.  Little more than the actuators and barely enough substructure to keep them from falling off.  The Medium Laser was completely destroyed and would need replacement.  That was going to be a costly repair.  The remainder of the unit was battle ready, only some minor armour damage and buffing stood between it and full readiness.  Hopefully the Techs would be able to work repair magic before Kurt would be re-deployed.

When he was not able to find David or Roger in the 'Mech bay, Kurt used his weapon of last resort.  He acted like an officer and put out an order.  "Mechwarriors David Crain and Roger Simms report to Conference Room 3 for briefing."
This message was last edited by the player at 15:08, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

 Lifting up his com link at the sound of his new unit commander, "Roger that Commander, on my way." At least he still had a job after getting the boot from the new CO of the Iron Swords unit. Maybe he would be around for awhile to get to know the pilots and techs of this unit.

 Setting a slow jog he began running at a even pace towards the conference room. He was sure that his mechs armor would be patched up by the time they shipped out on the next mission.

Regina tilts her head and gives Alexi a blank eyed puzzled look.

'Who were Luke and Blake?', she wonders.

While Alexi was easy on the eyes and a strapping young man, she had just gotten through cleaning herself off with a good shower, and she wasnt quite ready to get hot and sweaty again.  Besides, she just had breakfast, and exercise after a major meal was never good for the digestion.

"I dont think that would be a good idea.  I just ate and i have to do some work on my Valkyrie after breakfast."

Regina pauses and thinks over her work schedule.

"How about... this afternoon?  Around four-ish?"

Regina was about done with breakfast and gets up to size Alexi over, she was by no means petite, but beside Alexi she looked willowy.  She lets the tips of her fingers brush down his arm, allowing the play of his muscles to play through her fingers.  Alexi was obviously hard muscles and in good shape, but then again what self respecting mechwarrior wasnt?

"Or... three-ish, if you can't wait."

Regina picks up her tray and goes to empty it in the trash and stack with the rest of the breakfast trays.  She starts to move off out of the mess hall.  There was an unmistakable unconscious motion of her hips when she walked that was missing in the stride of most of the mechwarriors at camp.  It was hard to disagree with Lucius' assessment of Regina.

When she stop to turn to face Alexi, his eyes are staring straight at her crotch, letting his gaze wander up, he notices that the thin white tank top she had worn, had soaked up some of the water from her not quite dry skin from the morning shower.  The nondescript grey militia jump suit hid all the good parts, though that seemed to be more of an accident than a planned attempt at modesty.  Regina had said something, that Alexi had missed, so she repeats it again since he seemed to have missed the question.

"Who are Luke and Blake?", she asks curiously.  There were no mechwarriors in camp by that name, so she was curious who Alexi was refering to.
This message was last edited by the player at 16:23, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

"Ahhh. Ahhh." Alexi's mouth works like a fish out of water. "What the hell did I just say?"

"Lucius McMurphy he said to call him Luke and I don't know who Blake is. But Blake adores you is what I was told to tell you. Yeah, yeah."

Taken back by her forwardness or his own. "What the hell did I just say? What the hell did she just say?"

"I'm the new XO and I, I have somewhere to be also. Yeah, raincheck. Hump, Ok. Good talk."

Alexi turns and walks away, facepalm. Alexi walks off.

"Ah!  Burner!", Regina's face brightens in recognition.  She knew Burner from Detroit.  What a miserable few months that had been.  Once the invasion started, things got nasty and complicated.

Regina tilts her head as Alexi has a momentary attack of the stupids.

He wasnt very bright... but he was pretty to look at and didnt need to be bright, at least not for a physical indulgence.  Most days the word of Blake kept Regina occupied and content.  Months could pass before she found physical satisfaction.  Long months on stupid dropships with little privacy and nothing to do.  Its been months... maybe years... since the last time Regina indulged in a physical indulgence.

"Blake's Blessing on you Alexi, his love knows no bounds, and he adores us all."

Regina gives Alexi a quizzled look as he staggers off looking dazed and confused...

'... was it something i said?', Regina wanders off towards the motor pool where her Valkyrie awaited.

Regina replays the conversation several times in her head, and assures herself that she had said nothing strange.

'... no... nothing odd there, couldnt have been me.  I suppose he's just naturally dim.  Blake has seen it fit to have him look good and shoot straight, i suppose that's okay.  How did it go again?  Two out of Three's not bad?'

There was a little bit of armor damage from the light weapons but nothing a little loving care couldnt fix.  A few loads of missiles were used to take out the tanks, but again... it was such a turkey shoot that she hardly considered it combat.

She starts to bless each missile, painting a simplified emblem of Comstar on the warhead of each missile, before loading it on her mech.  So passes her afternoon.  She'll have forgotten her conversation with Alexi unless he returns to remind her.
This message was last edited by the player at 17:01, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

After overseeing the armor and ammo repair/replacement of his mech, O'Brien decides to check out the base and to acquaint himself with his new surroundings.

"Better check up on Zoe", he proceeds to the hospital and stops at Zoe's bedside offering her some morale support and wishes her a healthy recovery. Hearing that Luc was taking over the Ironswords, Donovan sends a congratulatory note.

"Although it is under sad circumstances that you find yourself in command of the Ironswords, I want to congratulate you on your advancement and I'm sure that your unit will provide the same excellent service that has been it's trademark."

Once that is done, it's time to find his new "permanent" commander, Pax.

After a bit of searching, eventually he finds Pax.

"I want to thank you for offering me a job and I'm looking forward to working with the lancers. Hopefully our next mission will go as smoothly as the last."

David was feeling neutral about the command shift.  He liked working with his previous group but also realized that commands would change and one had to be flexible.  Apparently his new commander didn't waste time, "Well, I suppose this was inevitable, better see what the new commander wants."

Alexi goes to his room and takes a shower.



Afterwards he spends the day repairing the armor on Riki. He's not avoiding everyone hes just working the scaffolding, plasma cutter / wielding torch, heavy lifting. Funny thing, he must have forgotten his radio in his room. His entertainment pod and earbuds are playing the best of Beatles,Rolling Stones, ABBA, Sugarcubes, Scorpions, Golden Earring, etc. All the classic European music bands.

Pax was working his way through a mountain of 'paper work' when Don found him.

"Glad you were able to stick around.

I try to do all our missions smoothly, but as you saw with a good team we can adjust to the conditions on the ground and still complete the mission without missing a beat.

And I hope to keep that trend for all future missions."   

Luc had gotten the down-low on the next mission and had used his prior knowlege of things to pick up the final member of his unit.  With that he headed back to the mechs to find out if Alexi had found Raith and Regina and to clue them into the next contract.

He didn't see Raith at the moment but he did spot Alexi in the throes of armour welding so he walked on up to him and shouted a bit so he could hear him over the sparking metal, "Alexi!  Did you find Raith and Regina?"

Pointing at his head then for him to hold on. Alexi kills the music and pulls the ear buds from his head. Alexi hand under hand climbs down a chain to the ground level.

"I say Raith, introduced myself but he seemed the quiet type." He breathes in deep and exhales.
"Let me tell you a quick story. Before I came here I worked for my fathers company, Riki was his mech. My uncle had a Panther, My father was incredible cheap. He purchased some special promotional Lioashian SRM's. Well I loaded them in to uncles Panther. He took them out to the test range, and they exploded in the launch tubes and we lost the mech, lucky my Uncle ejected and survived but his pride was hurt."

"So yes I talked to Regina and passed on your message, pretty much word for word. Might not have been in the right order. She said, He loves and adores us all."

"Oh yeah, then offered to have sex with me if I meet her... Looking down at his watch. "about 20 minutes ago. Well she didn't so much offer as I screwed up what you said, and was taken back by her and said: "I need to get me some of that sweet sexy ass."

Facepalm, shakes head. "Laugh it up all you like. I got confused."
This message was last edited by the player at 20:57, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

Luc waited patiently for Alexi to turn off the mucis and fill him in on the job he had set to him.  He listened to his short commentary on Raith, as he hadn't spotted him yet, and then the short story.  Nodding sagely during the story Alexi finally got to the part about Regina and initially he was expecting her response, but it was his confusion and what he told her that made him really start laughing.

Clasping his hand on Alexi's shoulder and the soft chuckles continuing to come from Luc's belly he finally spoke up again, "I don't think I'm ever going to forget that Alexi.  We don't need you to get any more confused so I'll go and let her know that she's working with us on this next mission."

He shook his head and laughed some more before adding through continued chuckles, "We're going to be going out and hunting a Blackjack that's been modified with some of the special tech.  Advanced ballistics and some lasers.  If we don't destroy the weapons on the mech in taking it down we're allowed to salvage them for our unit, so keep that in mind."

Luc just couldn't stop laughing as he coughed out a few more times before going mostly silent on the laughter, "Right, I'll go handle the sweet sexy ass for you and if Raith comes around give him the low-down."

As he walked away another light chuckle could be heard followed by fading words,  "Ah, the burdens of command _{and the things you do for your men..."}

This message was deleted by the player at 21:39, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

Turning from his mission to fill in Regina when he hears Raith's voice he stopped his movement.  Looking back at the man he nodded his head, "Good to have you Raith.  We're a little more informal around here with me in charge...I'm more NCO than Officer unofficially but I know my way around a fight so we should do just fine.  You can call me Luc whenever were not in our mechs, when we're on an op just keep it to Burner.  Wouldn't want any crafty enemy to break our comms and find out who is in control and pick me out to take out...not that my combat style keeps me in the rear."

He chuckled again at the inside joke that Raith wouldn't get but Alexi would from their conversation, "Alexi is XO for the Ironswords and your go-to guy if I'm not around.  I just gave him the brief and we'll see if he can breif you as well as he did Regina..."

He grinned again, "I'll be back.  Could be in a few, could be a few hours..."  Luc waited long enough for him to respond before hunting down Regina.

Luc blinked...

Blinked again...

And again...

He could have sworn that Raith was there...

He turned around and looked for him but couldn't find him.

He squeezed his eyes shut for a moment and opened them again...nothing.

Shaking his head he realized he needed to clear his mind it seemed...and maybe go see a doc to find out if he had a concussion.  With a final shake of his head he walked off to find Regina polishing missiles and doodling ComStar logo's on them before slipping them into the missile bays.  She had a killer body but it was her killer instinct that attracted him, "You frazzled the brain of my poor XO Regina...Blakes Blessing to you."
This message was last edited by the player at 22:37, Thu 16 Jan 2014.

Regina was actually enjoying herself.  She had spent a good half hour doodling comstar emblems on each missile.  They were Blake's blessings and ensured that those she sent on to the afterlife were absolved of their sins here.

She found that her aim was better when her conscience was clear of concern of the sins of those she sent to their next calling.  There were little splotches of blue, white, and yellow on her hands and jumpsuit.

She looks up and gives Lucius an innocent look of puzzlement.

"Blake's blessings on you Burner.", she returns his greeting without thought.  Long association from Detroit made Lucius made him one of the few people on the planet that Regina actually could recall without significant thought.

"Your... XO?  I'm not sure i understand.  It's been a rather quiet day, i've been doing Blake's work.  I havent had much opportunity to...", she thinks about it for a moment, what did Lucius just accuse her of.

"... do ... much of anything else?", Regina comments.  Her voice drifting off hinting that she real was answering honestly and not being coy at the moment.

"It's not to be able to shower and sleep in a real bed again... or ... cot... or something.  I get stuck sleeping with all those mechwarriors from Omni though.  They have nice toys, but I dont think they're right in the head."

Paul smiled as he climbed out of his transformed into aero mode Stinger to stencil his callsign back onto the freshly repainted Stinger. He hummed as he recalled his jump's sluggish response time the previous day.

Luc smiled easily, "Yeah, Alexi, young guy was wearing a katana earlier that totally butchered my message to you and ended up mashing it together to make I need to get me some of that sweet sexy ass?"

"Oh?

 He's your new XO?", Regina tilts her head thoughtful for a moment.

"He's not very bright.  You must be desperate.", she comments offhand speaking her mind.  It wasnt accusatory or even meant as an insult, just a statement of fact.  Most days, it was hard to accuse Regina of not speaking her mind.

Regina purses her lips and leans over a warhead to blow on the paint to help it to dry.  Giving zero thought to how suggestive this might seem from someone else's view point.

She touches the paint and notes that it's dry, hinting at why she had paint all over her fingers.

"Well, it's not my fault if he got his feelings hurt.  He came and asked if i was interested.  I just finished breakfast so i said no, it's bad for the digestion to exercise after eating.  I told him...  I told him...", Regina actually has to think about this.

"mmmm... i told him to come by 'later'...", Regina purses her lips trying to figure out if later came and went yet.  Certainly by tomorow it would be past later.

After a moment she tries a different tact to change the topic to something else, "Is that all you wanted to talk about then?  Oh... hey... say... when did you start a unit?  I missed the memo.  No one tells me this stuff, honestly i'm always the last to know.", Regina complains.

Luc sat down and replied, "Yeah he said later I came in his stead cause he was confused.  Well if I could have you I would take you in a moment." he mentioned with a straight face amused at it's innuendo but slipping easily between flat serious and that.

Tilting his head he added, "I didn't so much as start the unit as inherit it.  Zoe Hargrieve put together Hargrieve's Ironswords but got herself beaten up so badly in her mech that she's going to be out of it for a long, long time.  If I didn't step in it would have fallen apart.  So now it's McMurphy's Ironswords and I'm here to letcha know in person that I picked up your short term contract meaning that your all mine till we get done taking down a mech that stole some of those Omni toys that those Pandora people don't want getting out.  I couldn't think of a better person to be with me on the maiden voyage of my command."

He had sworn up and down while on Detroit that all the commanders were morons...and he he was now one of them.  Gods...if he ever became like Pax he'd have to have Regina shoot him in the head...

Raith had been hard to find mostly due to the fact that he had been taking advantage of the hot food. He had been off scouting in his Jenner previous to the mission at Fort Apache so had an appetite the size of an AMC.

But with that done, it now ment that he was back in the cockpit of his Jenner. However this time he was just guiding his machine over to stand with the others in the Ironswords unit. He knew someone had come by to tell him this earlier while he was eating, but he knew better then to talk with his mouth full so all he did was listen and then shake the man's hand.

Once the Jenner came to a stop and the engines cooled off, the hatch was soon popped and Raith was out clammering over the armored exterior. Serious inspection was given to the Left Torso which had several missile hits on the armored surface. Which ment the armor would have to go and be replaced, out came the tools and work on the damage began.

"Death to the infidels~!", Regina comments swirling her paintbrush in the air as if it were a scimitar.

"Sure Murphy.  What ever you need.  I get to pick my callsign right?
 I think for this one i shall  go with 'Soothing littany unto Terra'.

 Comstar has interdicted the Feder Rats...

 Sounds like things are messy in 'civilized' space.  Glad were out here in the boonies.  Leave the world shaking stuff for... you know bigger heads than ours."

Regina gave Murphy a side long look.

"You will let me use my callsign right?  I keep picking out these great callsigns but they always call me Reggie.  Blaphemous heretics i swear."

 Walking into conference room 3, he looked around for the commander and spotted him by a table. He walked over with sharp moves and tried to look like a military man should look to his mind..

 He stop and took up a brace position, "Commander, i am Roger Simms, you gave me a call?."

Kurt motioned to Roger and David to enter when they stood at the door.  Kurt stood up and greeted both Mechwarriors.  "Let me first begin by stating something very clearly.  You were not dumped out of your previous commands for any poor performance.  You were released to me because I specifically requested you be re-assigned to my new command."  He motioned for them sit down.  He took the head position at the oblong conference table and continued.  "The need came down from command that a new lance be formed.  Due to my training, I was chosen to lead it.  I want to welcome you both to Armageddon Incorporated."  Kurt folded his hands on the table and looked the others in the eye.  "The next thing you have to understand is that I'm a Lyran.  I know the old joke about the Lyran's ideal scout 'Mech is an Atlas, but I don't subscribe to that theory.  I have spent time reviewing your dossiers and your individual 'Mechs and I feel we can be a force to be reckoned with.  With proper tactics even an Atlas cannot stand against us."  Kurt unfolded his hands and let them rest on the table.

"In that vein, I expect my orders to be followed; they will come fast and can change in the middle of things as the battle dictates.  Make no mistake gentlemen, I'm in charge.  That said, I don't expect you to be drones; I expect you to be sharp and think for yourselves.  You see an opportunity, you take it."  Standing up, Kurt moved to a display screen and brought up a battle plan.  He marked out an enemy formation and then, turning toward David, he says "Ok, basic strategy.  David, your Jenner is fast, and maneuverable.  You've modified it to be a dangerous in-fighter.  This is where I expect you to be.  Up close and in the enemy's face.  I expect you to use your lasers to punch holes in their armour for our missiles to follow."  Kurt put up a marker for David's Jenner tight into the enemy formation.  He turns his focus to Roger "Roger, your Valkyrie is jump capable.  I expect you to take the high ground when possible, and stay back at 210 plus meters.  Use your missiles range and watch for flankers on David and Myself.  In other words, bring the rain."  Another indicator lights up showing Roger back from the enemy.  "This brings me to myself.  I'll be in the middle position, offering support to where it is needed most.  If I can, I will be sending missiles in behind David's lasers, if the enemy presses the advance on Roger" he pressed a button and the formations changed "I will move to intercept before they can close under the minimum range of your LRM's.  Any Freelancers we get will also fill in one of these three positions, as I feel will best help us take the objective."  Taking his seat again, Kurt looks the other men in the eyes.  "Any questions?"

 He let the question hang for a few seconds before shaking his head in the negative."No sir, i am thinking i don't want to be hit by the atlas's ac20 if i can avoid it." He adds with a smile that was open and knowing he would not be going against any assault mech if he could be in its blind side.

Luc smiled at her easily with a twinkle in his eye, "You know Regina, normally you don't get to keep switching your callsign, but being as I'm the one in command now anytime you work with me I'm okay with that.  Soothing littany unto Terra it will be."

Kurt faced the other two men.  ”We will not be facing down an Atlas, but we do have our first assignment.  Fort Apache was a forward maintenance base.  Apparently it was also involved in R&D on some recently captured Omni Tech materiel.  We have been contracted by our employer to engage different ‘Mechs with extensive modifications.“  Kurt brought up a technical readout screen showing a heavily modified Dervish.  ”Our target has been codenamed “Rocketman”.  It’s a Dervish that has had all its original weapon systems stripped out and changed for Omni Tech weapons.  Its primary system is four “Sure Shot” LRR systems replacing the traditional LRM 10’s.  A check of the Quartermaster’s inventory show that they have been loaded with the new EROS missile systems.  The duel upgrade gives the weapons a shorter range profile, with no minimum range, greater accuracy under 150 meters, and ammo conservation.  Further short range weapons include twin Streak-2’s and Light Medium Lasers.  One thing that was not upgraded are the ammo bins.  They are conventional bins and do not have any CASE systems.”  As Kurt names off the different systems he updates the readout changes to highlight the different systems.

He changes the screen to technical readouts on the EROS missiles and continued.  ”To help offset the advantages of these systems, I have requested the Freelancer Jorge Hanseen, call sign “Roger.”  I have also requested EROS missiles in both LRM and SRM varieties.  If they come through, we will be able to level the playing field a bit.  We can expect steady resistance not just from the Rocketman, but also conventional support elements as well.  Now the best part, our employer has generously agreed that any advanced materiel we are able to secure we can keep as part of our payment.  Obviously this may prove of significant benefit to our unit, but taking down the target is our primary concern.”

Kurt scowls down at his hands and his voice takes on a grim tone.  ”This is not the way I wanted us to go.  We have had no time to train, or prepare and work as a unit.  We are facing an opponent with vastly upgraded weapon systems and we are fighting above our weight.  Make no mistake gentlemen, this is not an Atlas, but it is very dangerous.  Dismissed.”  With that Kurt turns off the readout and begins collecting his notes.
This message was last edited by the player at 15:28, Wed 22 Jan 2014.

 He watched the display of the experimental dervish and had to smile a bit tightly at the different systems. "I have to say i would not mind having a machine like that myself, still not having Case for the missile's seems a bit of a risk. Wonder if we could bring it back with us?." he asks as he read over the display and knew that there was alot of money invested in the machine.

 "You said that we would be facing different mechs, what other mechs are there besides the 'Rocketman'?."

Kurt maneuvered his 'Mech back through the doors of the Fort Apache 'Mech hanger and into his assigned maintenance cubical.  Running the system checks, setting safeties, and finally powering down the fusion reactor it was all he could do to keep the smile off his face.

His Lance.  His Command.

Armageddon Incorporated would be enjoying their first success tonight.  They met the enemy head on, achieved all the objectives that they were assigned, sustained minimal damage, and got away clean with tons of valuable Omni tech that they could use.  It could not have gone any better.  The fact that they did all this while piloting Light 'Mechs made the victory that much sweeter.  He could still hear the old Social Generals and their disgust of the "armoured infantry" as they called them.  His unit, with the help of the Freelancer Jorge, made a mockery out of that heavily modified Dervish and its escort.

Kurt grabbed a fast shower and changed into a fresh uniform and then went to see if Fort Apache's stores had any beer or liquor for its Mess.

His Lance had some celebrating to do.

 The trip back was somewhat boring as they went over and over the mission, mostly to find out how well those new mechs seemed to work out. He said his peace and turned over the logs of his conversation of the battle disc's to his CO before catching up on some sleep. He did get time during the flight to go over the small damage he got just before the locust shut down. He thought it foolish for it to stay around even with its speed, it could not have won against all their mechs.

 Arriving back at base he went to his stall and spent time talking with the techs that worked on the mechs, he asked if they would unload the LRMs that had not been used and to have a good look over the aged mech.

 Now that he was here he was feeling the drain of adrenaline once again and the tired drain of mind and body, so following most of the team he headed to the base tavern to celebrate surviving one more mission.

A light flurry of snow was starting to come down on Fort Apache as a sudden cold snap bought a sudden chill into the area overnight.

The Mercenaries were slowly filtering in and checking in with news from the field.

The Valkyries had returned bloodied and hurt, with arms and torsos missing, but lugging in loot from what was left of Mother.  What they couldnt drag in they burned on the spot before being chased off by Harrassers.  Obviously there was going to be salvage lying about that they couldnt burn down, but Mothers surviving weapon modules were bought in an the mission was reported a hard fought, and bloddy affair, but a success.  Echo and Lina were bought to the medical tent to look over injuries incurred on the field.

The Ironswords has returned with news of success.  They had moved in enmassee, crippling the lighter mech first before moving on to the more dangerous Blackjack.  Damage on the mechs were light and only Alexi was injured on the field.  He to was sent to the medical tent to be looked over by the attending medic.

Armagedeon Inc. had a nasty skirmish with the Rocketman.  An early gyro hit turned it into a nasty game of cat and mouse where Armagedeon inc was happy to be in the cat seat.  The Dervish went down and was unable to continue.  At this point the Locust withdrew disgusted at the cowardice of the Dervish pilot, leaving the Rocketman to the fate he had earned.  Armagedeon Inc. quickly loots the tech off the Dervish and cores the mech leaving nothing to be salvaged.  The pilot was spared, to face his life of dispossession, a fate worse than death for a mechwarrior.  One can only wonder what he was thinking.

The Lancers have a bad mission.  Seeming to lack a clear plan of attack, they are uncoordinated early in the mission and are quickly engaged and attacked singularly.  Jessa's mech experiences the power of the Light Gauss Rifle first, as she takes a round in the chest leaving her Engine and Gyro damage and forcing her off the field early.  Her lancemates buy her time to withdraw, taking the brunt of the Op Force attack was Lucky, who earns his name by avoiding the LGR for over half a minute while taking the lighter weapon fire which over time reduces the whitworth's armor to more than what his repair pool can repair.  The Op Force hold the field, and if theres a silver lining to be had, it's that none of the Lancers will be visiting the Medical tent.

Anastasia watched the two girls get carted off to medical witha  frown on ehr face... more training, they needed more training, hell, she needed more training ehrself as well, but these girls, they weren't ready for the battlefield.

Greenhorns, she'd known they were greenhorns, barely past their academy exams when they were put unde rher command, but still, she'd hope dhtey'd fare better.

then she took a survey of the salvage and their mechs, and grimaced... would the lance even be combat ready for the next misison, injuries and half scrapped mechs added up, and she couldn't help but wonder if they'd even see black numbers on their economy after this campaign would be done.

She gave a smile to them, before heading toward the mass area, she'd ask them to prepare something a little extra for the girls, they'd doen well all things considered, it wasn't their fault the academy had shipped them out a year too soon.

when she returned, she gave Hina a nod.
"We'll go eat dinner with the others once their tratment is over, grab a snack to tide you over till then"

Hina reached into the breast pocket of her jumpsuit, pulling out a bar of something vaguely food-like. "One step ahead of ya, Boss." Wrenching a piece off with her teeth — and requiring a visible effort to do so — she mumbles around the morsel. "I'm gonna be elbows-deep in Li'l Probey's guts, so can you send someone to get me when it's chow time?"

The gleam in her eyes makes it clear that the idea of being stuck up to the waist in the shattered chassis of a 25-ton Battlemech with damaged radiation shielding doesn't scare her in the slightest. She looks like an eight-year-old getting ready to go to the playground.
This message was last edited by the player at 20:01, Tue 18 Feb 2014.

Lina was beaten and battered going into the mission against the Praetorian Guard that was driving the X-5.  Those light gauss rifles were hell-incarnate on her own ride and combined with the plugsuit she had bio-feedback triggering muscle spasms long after the damage had been done.  The damage was severe enough that she doubted that her X-3a would be back in full form before the next engagement...then again with the beating she'd been taking lately she wasn't going to be in top form either.

Echo had mixed feelings about the outcome of the last mission.  While Mother was put to rest the Valkyries had taken a beating at her hands.  The worse of the headaches and migraines were over with only a vague sentiment of lightheadedness persisted, that she was assured would vanish by morning.

Word had filtered through from Pandora that the moment had come.  In two days the bulk of the raiding force would be pushing at Yuma station for what was suppose to be the final objective of the mission.  It was an operation she would not participate in.

Instead, she had been transfered over to handle the important, but uninspiring mission of taking the Ross Airfield.

A commercial airstrip that handle local operations.  It was a station along the line from Yuma, that seeded cargo from the coast on the other end of the Yuma line.  Expectations of resistence were exceedingly light.  The control tower was easily identifable and once negated would leave nothing by light conventional resistance that could easily be handled by one mech.

It was an important objective though.  Without it, the raiders would have not landing location for the inbound dropship to get off the planet.

She was being assigned a few freelancers to make certain that there would be no issues with taking the Airfield.  Regina Arlington had an impressive record of performance, though her mental stability was questionable at times.  Jorge Hanseen had performed in a reliable manner on the last mission and 'Big Jake'... Echo flips the dossier sheet over an skims his sheet over twice.  The man seemed to defy the possession of a surname.  It was almost... clannish.

Echo quirks a puzzled eyebrow.  The man had spent most of the raid on light duty.  Mostly reserve... spotting... decoy missions and was looking forward to seeing some action before leaving the planet.  Pity it seemed his desire was going to be denied.

Across Fort Apache, most of the unit was being going through the operational briefing for "the great train robbery".  In the empty mess hall were the three mechwarriors assigned for her operations.  It was Echo's first briefing and she made every effort to be as professional as possible.

"... and that's all there is to it.  Taking candy from a baby."

The crude map presented was brief but accurate.  A long airstrip for fixed winged aircraft was noted, a few hangers were observed.  The all important control tower was marked and circled in red.

Go in... Destroy the tower... pacify the conventional security which amounted to a bunch of infantry.  Four mechs were overkill.

"Questions?", Echo was pleased.  Somehow she had managed to keep the loathing she felt for the assignment from bleeding into her voice.

Regina shook her head stifling a yawn.  It was a sentiment Echo secretly reflected but would not admit to infront of her first command.

News from the field was good.  The local garrison was currently hamstrung, and the destruction of much of their research subjects had shaken the local commanders enough to load up much of their material to ship into safe houses strewn across the planet to hide till reinforcements could arrive to oust the raiders.  It was a good plan, except Pandora had gotten wind of it and operations were in motion to put a stop to it all.

The larger clusters of organized talent from the Freelancers would all be involved in the operations.  The largest area on Fort Apache was used for the briefing.  In the shadow of lumbering battlemech that were undergoing repairs in the Motor Pool Hanger over a two dozen men and women who would be participating in the operations were at ease waiting for the briefing to begin.

"Freelancers.

 Raiding operations have not been easy, but are starting to show signs of our success and the drawing of the end of the contract and operations on this dirtball.

 All that stands between us and a dust off is one more successful operation."

The lights in the hanger dim, and an over head projector flickers to life.  A three dimensional layout of the area of operations appears on the floor of the hanger room.

Small buildings mark the Yuma rail station, a curve hilled bluff seems to be in place over looking the station providing an excellent vantage point to lay down weapon fire on the fields around the station.  Small clumps of trees were evident in the flickering holographic presentation of the area of operations.

"I present to you Squad commander Stiletto of Pandora Covert forces."


A woman was urban fatigues with a short blond bob steps up to take your attention.

"Operations while at times costly have been successful.  Local garrison resistance has been hamstrung and are currently in disarray.  The destruction of Mother, Rocketman, and Shotgun have all undermined their confidence to protect valuable assets from raiding.  A decision has been made by them to localize their best assets to safeguard Yuma station.

A special train, the Yuma 7:10 express will pull into the station in two days to accept a special cargo of equipment and electronics.  The plan is to take it to the coastal port, where conventional naval assets will take them to the four corners of the planet into hardened safe houses making continued operations impractical.  The weight of the Concordats military might will be upon us before reasonable expectations will allow for the liberation of such assets.

The 7:10 Express is a bullet train, their fastest train.  Once its off and moving it will be impossible to stop, without destroying the cargo.  The only point to capture the train will be at Yuma station or Kyoto Port.

Defensive installations and a company of mechs, and a battalion of conventional makes any effort at Kyoto impractical.

Yuma station has been evaluated as the objective more likely to yield success."

Stilleto produces an odd pointer with a metal tipped on one end.  Touching the pointer to the 3D map seems to trigger a reaction from the overhead projector.

Tapping a clearing by town four mechs shimmer into existence.

"This is Spartacus.  The Concordat's former Solaris Champion.  On leave from the arena's to serve Caesar.  An officer of their Praetorian Guard.  His Hatchetman has been modified for the harshness of Solaris, and makes use of the Light Gauss Rifle.  he is a deadly mechwarrior not to be ignored.

With him are the hunter-killer team of 'Sledgehammer'... and... a fourth mech, believed to be a Locust."

Tapping on the corner of the map little icon seem to shimmer onto the map.

Four heavy AMCs appear on the hilled bluff near town.

"These Armored Missile Carriers may seem unimpressive.
 You couldnt be more wrong.  They are formidable killers, all armed with Hawkeye LRMS.", the pointer slides off the hill and taps a point around the town, where four stinger mechs shimmer into existence, "Their spotters are their hunters.  Should be come painted by them, you will discover rapidly, how deadly they are.  You would be well advised not to ignore these units."

"While the Freelancers are dealing with the obvious defenders on the field, Pandora operatives who have been infiltrating the station will be making their move to negate security and moving to take control of the train.  The freelancers MUST prevent the train from leaving the station till we are in possession of the controlling functions.  Once that objective is completed, the Freelancers must safeguard the Yuma express till it is clear of the station."

The Holographic project shimmers and fades, as the lights come back on.

"Once operations are completed, we rally at Ross Airfield, and dust off.
 You are advised, not to be late.  Questions?"

In reply to Echo Snow (msg # 266):

When questions were called for Jake raised his hand.  With a lop sided grin he asks, "What kind of snacks should we bring?"

Echo sighs, "Weather forecast is 'cold'.  Sleet and snow is on the forecast for the next three days.  I would suggest something warm.  Perhaps a nice soup or stew.  While a coolant vest is obviously necessary for the operations of the mech, i would suggest something warm to use for between expected battles since it's likely that the cockpits will be cold."

Pax just shakes his head no.

After the beating his unit took with out so much as a whiff of success he was glad his unit was to be delegated to a task beat up mechs could still accomplish.

He sat and listened to the briefing with a scowl on his face.

David listens to the briefing impassively.  They had the garrison on the run and the news was good, true, but that still meant the garrison had fewer places to defend and they could focus their strength there.  He arched an eyebrow at the technology used in the briefing and wondered if they could get their hands on any.

The defenders looked to be organized and well dug-in.  That meant no foolish chances like last time.  He had gotten away with it then but he had no illusions about the odds of the same bravado working twice in his favour.  This would certainly be no easy task but he had no doubt they could pull it off.

During one of the pauses he idly he wondered how repairs were going on his Jenner.

Hina raises a hand, then quickly sets to waving it back and forth until she is acknowledged.

"Sounds like it's more important that we keep that stuff out of their hands, that getting it ourselves is secondary. Do we have plans to derail the train if they get it moving before we can secure it?"

The battle at the train depot was bitter and brief, lasting only a little over a minute.  Pandora special forces were quick to take over the Yuma Express under the Merc's distractive actions.  When Spartacus went down, it was all over.  The Praetorian guards were broken, and the rest of the Concordant forces were falling back to ensure his safety.

The train was taken with minimal casualties.  The Train slowed only briefly to allow the pilot to board the train before it was off, pacing the withdrawing mechs to the Ross Airbase.

Once they arrive at the ross airfield, they find that everything was in good order.  The lance of mercs assigned to take the field had run into light resistance, and dealt with a minor incursion that was beaten off.  A mule class dropship was on the field.  In a hurry to be off the planet, the entire train is lifted off the rails and loaded on the Mule.  It isnt long before they dust off and boost for the stars.

The mercenary mechs are strapped down in the mules hold, and sleeping bags are handed out for the mercs to camp out on.  The Mule class dropship was capable of hauling an immense amount of cargo, but was not known for luxury.

(* Feel Free to roleplay a bit, will update this thread a little each day till we get to the next Contract, which i estimate, the first mission to start at the end of this month/start of June. *)

Hina trudged slowly up the ramp of the dropship, keeping close to the edge to allow for the much faster BattleMechs to pass her without having to watch out for her. Every once in a while, she looked up from her task to stare at the distant horizon. A quick mental calculation, based on the planet's diameter and the height of the ramp, gave her an estimate that the horizon was about twenty-one kilometers away.

She could just barely make out the plume of smoke she had been mentally tracking the entire trip. Turning away from it, she returned her attention to the task at hand, and resumed her slow progress up the ramp.

As she reached the loading bay, a technician in dark blue overalls jogs over, his arms laden with a sleeping bag and a ration kit. She gave the tech a long stare, visibly comparing his clean, pressed suit to her own ragged, battered one. As the tech backed away hesitantly, she reached out to grab the food-pack from him. Not the bedroll, though. The tech turned to find someone more amenable, and it took a physical effort for her to not try to kick him in the rear.

Tossing the ration-pack into an unoccupied alcove, she turned back to give her task one final effort. With a loud grunt, she heaved her BattleMech's pilot seat over the last bit of ramp, shoving it into the alcove. The seat was taller than her, and looked like it had been in a firefight. The propulsion jets were spent, nothing more than fire-blackened cylinders. The parachute was missing, only some severed cords revealing its original location.

The padded interior, however, was absolutely pristine. Not a mark on the faux-leather, not a stitch out of place. Every safety restraint was perfectly secure, every buckle shining like new.

Hina gave the chair a push, then a kick, making sure it was secure in its spot and wasn't going to fall over. Satisfied that it wasn't going anywhere, she turned around and flopped into the seat. She ripped open the ration pack and picked out the obligatory candy bar, then bit into it with a vengeance.

Ana approached the dropship on foot, just getitng the last  of her luggage from their temporary hq during the cmapaign, she had a lot to think about.

She'd let the girls down, and Hina had lost her mech for it, Lina's ride wasn't in a good shape either, but at least she hadn't lost it, sure the insurance policy  on the contract  covered a good chunk of what Hina lost, but it didn't cover it all, so it was with a buter taste in her mouth she walked up the ramp of the dropship.

She grabbed her supplies from one of the men walking around hadning them out, and noticed Hina sitting in the leftovers of her ride, she grimaced and began to walk over there.

when she finally arrived she nodded at the floor in front of Hina, and spoke softly.
"Mind if I sit?"
she looked at Hina's face, inwardly sighing at her own failure, leading to this predicament.

The trip through space is long quiet... and boring.

Really after the rush of closely space engagements and the rush to move about on the raid with the TC nipping on your heels, some of you are finding the quiet ever eternal night of space a little hard to get use to.

Many of you are still in need of a bath.  You're actually aloted a water basin and a few liters of water to clean off.  The cost of the water considered a good investment to reduce the possibility of wounds getting infected with the added benefit of improving morale and air quality.

The hold of the Mule is large enough.  All around you for the trip are the slumbering war machines that were the means for staying alive and dealing out the hurt to the planetary garrison.  Someone was going to get in trouble, not only had you gotten away with the cargo, you've managed to steal the whole train...

It makes for an amusing place to settle and pass time.  Its well lit with some nice touches, like a small kitchen, and a few bunk beds for over night stays on the rails.  One of the cars of the Yuma Express it seemed was used for a listening post.  Gathering information and providing EW support in the field.  Another was purely cargo.  The Engine itself, was too heavy to pull off the rails and not considered valuable bother and was left behind.

The Pandora actives appear here and there, but mostly keep to themselves, and seem pretty busy sifting through the electronic data available in the train to gather intel on what the Concordat was up to.  The rest of the unit was left to their own devices for a few days they pass time cleaning up, killing time, and in some cases mending old injuries and new.  The more productive pilots spend time working on their mechs repairing damage and reloading ammo bins.  While it was nice to hope for the best, a hot landing was something you wanted to be prepared for if it happened.  The paranoid lifestyle of a merc.

There was a scout jumpship anchored in space on what the time keepers said was the third day, waiting and drawing energy from it's solar sails while the mercs were spending days dirt side, the jump ship was gathering energy to bring you all home.

Even before the Mule starts docking operations, the solar sails start to close and fold.  It doesnt take too much longer for the Engines to warm up and for the K-Drives to take the jumpship across space jumping across the vastness of space.

There would be two more jumps.  Each one spaced out by long idle days spent recharging the jumpships batteries which would be used to make the next jump.  At the end of it all, was Omni's home system.  To most of the mercs, it was just another blue planet in another single star system.  To the Valkyries and Pandora operatives, it was a long awaited moment.  After months away, planetfall was only hours away, they were home.

The long Ferro-Concrete pads were depressed into the ground, allowing spheroid dropships to seat better for cargo handling.  The descent down was smooth and clean and ended at Omni's starport.

As ports go, it was small and seemed little used.  A trio of circular pads were along side the long strip supporting the enormous dropships that shipped commerce to and away from the planet.  A pair of Mules currently occupied the other two pads hinted at a healthy trade economy.

Hangers lined the space beside the strip hinted at a notable Aero Space presence. The mule would be seated on the pad till the mechs were offloaded and new cargo could be loaded and then... it would be gone.  It seemed the Mercs were here to stay for the near future.

The environment felt welcoming the frosty cold weather of Burton was very far away at the moment.  It was humid and warm, though in the shade of the dropship not to the point of uncomfortable.  Among the Pandora operatives are the first to offload, and vanish off to some room to be debriefed.

That suited the mercs fine.  They were all busy seeing to their mechs being unloaded, evidently to be parked in a hanger large enough to shelter a dropship.  For the moment, they were left alone to their own thoughts and curiosities.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:49, Wed 21 May 2014.

As the mechwarriors disembark from the dropship, a young woman wearing the blue jumpsuit of a Hope military academy mechwarrior cadet is already there to meet them.
Scanning over the small group, she quickly zeroes in on Anastasia and steps forward.

"Lance Commander Karkoff, Cadet Helia Quinn reporting for duty!" Helia salutes sharply as she introduces herself in clipped tones. "I have been assigned to your unit. I have the orders here if you would like to review them."

All around the hanger were young women going about their business in some sort of uniform.  Most were in White, Black or Green.  There were a few in Blue and Red though they were in the minority.

One of the blue ones were beside Helia.

"I am Officer Candidate, Cadet Margaret.  I have been assigned to be the Liason Officer for the Freelancers while they staying here on Omni.  I'm sure you're all tired after such a long flight, i will escort you to your quarters.  Our Tech pool will get to work on getting your equipment fit for operations."

If asked or any of the characters seem reluctant, she assures them that the tech staff is top notch and will take care of the machines and that you will not be within walking distance should any of you care to over watch the repair process.

It's a ten minute walk to where you will be staying.  It seems to be a hotel of some sort, and while the room are 'economy' and two to a room, except for officers (rank 2 or higher) who are granted their own rooms.  You're given a cell phone, and a wristband, that youre told is used as currency (like a credit card).  Margaret indicates that her number are on the phones and to contact her immediately if there is a problem.

You're then left to clean up and go about your business for the next day or two.  During this time, if you check up on the repairs of your mech, there seems to be a LOT more bodies around than really required for battle damage repairs.
This message was last edited by the GM at 23:49, Wed 21 May 2014.

It was the third day of stay that the mercs were on planet that a Blond haired woman arrived to collect the unit commanders for debriefing.  She wore the same blue jumpsuit that was seen here and there but seemed to hold herself with a sense of authority.

The Ana would recognize her Commander insignia, gave her a rank on par with a Captain.  She was brief and to the point, and not particularly inclined to small talk, a change of pace from the chatty personnel that seemed to populate Omni.  In the brief time they were here, the mercs found that most of the locals were chatty, friendly, and a few degrees too perky for their liking.  While it was obvious from their uniform that they were suppose to be a militant group of some sort, they certainly didnt act like one.

Their trip terminated at an office building.  One of the larger ones in Eden.  It's glassy mirrored surface spanned dozens of floors above ground floor.  Most of the mercs couldnt help but wonder what sort of mess it would have made should it come under attack.

That pretty much summed everything up that they saw.  Everything on the planet was pretty, but not suited to the business of war.  The ride up the elevator bought them very close to the top floors of the building where they met with a woman with dark hair and an intelligent look of competence about her.

"Good Afternoon gentlemen...", she nods to Anastasia, "Lance Commander."

She waves at several comfortable chair in front of her glass surface... much too neat table.

"I trust that your stay on Omni has so far been to your liking?"

In reply to Kitten (msg # 273):

Kurt maneuvered his battered Commando through the Dropship bay doors and secured it on the assigned pallet, secures master safety, and runs through shutdown procedures and checks.  He can't help but see Hina dragging her command couch in behind her.  Her head was up, that was a good sign, but he could see the strain.  He wondered if he would have that courage.

Dispossession was all but a foreign concept in the Lyran Guard.  If a 'Mech got destroyed, another was ordered from the Quartermaster.  Sure, it meant that a militia unit most likely got passed over, but that was the way it was.  There were some armchair generals who thought it was good for the militiamen to "know their place."  This was different though.  There wouldn't be a shiny new 'Mech waiting when then touched down.  Hell, even with the insurance and passing-the-hat they would be lucky to find her a Stinger or Wasp that wasn't half broken down.

Kurt's dark thoughts continued as he un-strapped and climbed down from his 'Mech and received his handouts.  He found a spot he figured was out of the way, and set up.  His unit worked well again, and they help the others achieve their objectives for the most part, though not without significant loss of their own resources.  Overall, this one would most likely go down as a success, but Kurt couldn't feel it in his heart when he looked over at the young woman.
This message was last edited by the player at 03:14, Thu 22 May 2014.

In reply to Kitten (msg # 276):
Kurt awoke suddenly.  He didn't even remember going to sleep.  It must have been the crash from living on pure adrenaline for the past few days.  Or, was it weeks?  It was hard to remember now.  The quiet thrum of the Dropship; the regimented ballet of the techs moving about and over the 'Mechs.  All of it was a strange comfort in what seemed like the least likely of places.

He got up, stretched sore aching muscles, and lined up with his field kit for a basin wash, and fast shave.  A precious sliver of deodorant remained and he was grateful for small comforts.  He then checked in with the techs working on his 'Mech.  He was informed that the internals, armour, and reloads would not be an issue, but that they didn't have a compatible Medium Laser to replace the second Defiance B3M that he had destroyed in as many days.  Not good news.  His launchers were good, but that Medium would be missed if he was pressed into combat before a replacement could be found.

Kurt makes it a point to check in with the other two members of his lance.  He was starting to grow found of them, and hoped that if the units were forced to re-shuffle, that he would be able to pull a few strings and hold on to them.

Inevitably, a game of cards broke out on one of the train cars.  Cards were dealt, lies were told, and time passed on.  The jumps were the only break in the long drawn out pauses.  Kurt was grateful when they finally arrived at Omni.