4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
I hadn't realised we literally had an A-10
Big staff. But then I guess we're expecting a lot of maintenance and a lot of wounded.
Aww yeah that's awesome
A vote sounds good.
We're all Stravags now - [Battletech - MekHQ]
- Thread starter prometheus110
- Start date
- Let's Play
Aww yeah that's awesome
A vote sounds good.
- Location
- Europe
Are Wasps alloyed with high explosives or something? Do pilots wear banderoles of breach charges as traditional garb? I mean, it denies scrap to your enemy but I would refuse to go to battle in a mech this explosive.
KnightDisciple
Brotherhood. Unity. Peace.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
They're 20-ton bugmechs carrying SRM ammo.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
Could be worse.
A Stinger is a 20-ton BugMech carrying MG ammo. Its single ton is sufficient to destroy every point of internal structure and armor on the 'Mech several times over.
- Location
- New England
I'd vote without reservation for aircraft. Tanks I'm neutral on, just as long as we stay away from crap like Vedettes and Scorpions. Infantry, I believe there are a few special-case rules in the AtB rule set (that aren't implemented in MekHQ) which make having a couple of platoons of infantry useful in a support role. Although, a few artillery field guns probably wouldn't go amiss.
Battletech A-10s:
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
I hadn't realised we literally had an A-10
BattleTech A-10 Variants We Might Encounter
MechBuster (conventional fighter)
A conventional fighter designed during the Third Succession War by House Kurita to replace dwindling AeroSpace Fighter resources in the planetary garrison role, the MechBuster is armed with a single AC/20 in the nose with five rounds of fire, and ten external hardpoints. While considered somewhat of a disappointment due to its low fuel and ammo load and lack of VSTOL capability, it is still capable of hauling an awful lot of hurty stuff for the couple of attack runs it's good for, enough that a MechBuster can kill multiple BattleMechs per sortie.
Batu (OmniFighter, Alt Config C and Alt Config E)
One of the original set of Clan OmniFighters, the Batu is a dedicated mediumweight atmospheric dogfighter, and relatively slow. With only ten double heatsinks and a low fuel supply, it is also low-endurance. Alternate Configuration C Batus are built around a single nose-mounted Gauss rifle with one ton of ammo, backed by twin ER Medium and ER Small lasers and a single rear-mounted ER Medium. Alternate Configuration E Batus are intended to make swift passes at opposing combat spaceships like DropShips or Warships, and carry an Ultra AC/20 in the nose with a popgun array of one-shot Streak SRM-2s in the tail; their raw firepower output and maneuverability makes them still respectable atmospheric attack craft.
Lightning (LTN-G15)
The Lightning was developed for the Capellan Confederation during the Age of War, when it mounted an AC-10 and more primitive armor and engines. The modern G15 version was first built in 2511, but the Capellan Confederation rejected it in favor of the cheaper Transit, which was essentially a knockoff. In response, Tengo Aerospace licensed the Lightning to various other companies in other states and House Liao's decision became everyone else's gain. The Lightning is built around a nose-mounted AC/20 backed by four medium lasers. It has decent endurance, and is primarily tasked as an anti-DropShip and anti-'Mech attack fighter. Out of universe, it was actually one of the first six ASFs to be added to BattleTech.
Transit (TR-10 and TR-11)
A knockoff of the Lightning, built around an AC/20 in the nose and two MLs in each wing, the Transit is less sturdy but otherwise largely the same. It's largely exclusive to House Liao, which uses it the way other people use their Lightnings. The TR-10 is a specialized recon version that eliminates the medium lasers for additional electronics and room for a EWO in the cockpit, but retains its BRRRRT device.
Turk (Alt Config A and Alt Config B)
The Turk is another of the original Clan OmniFighters. A heavy-end medium, it is relatively underpowered but heavily armored and armed. A somewhat low fuel load means they are usually used in space missions where they can conserve gas by coasting, but their raw firepower is attractive enough to see them deployed anywhere. Alt Config A mounts a Gauss Rifle in the nose, backed by a coaxial ER Large Laser and an SRM-4 in each wing; two tons of Gauss ammo and a ton of ammo for each SRM launcher keep it fighting for a reasonable length of time. Alt Config B uses relatively small autocannons compared to most BRRRRT fighters, but the Ultra tech of its two Ultra AC/10s (one on each wing) makes them qualify, with a pair of ER Medium Lasers in the nose to round out; it has a very minimal ammo load with only a single ton for each autocannon, enough for only five rounds of fire at max rate.
Hammerhead (HMR-HD and HMR-HDb)
Fast and tough for a seventy-five ton fighter, the Hammerhead is intended to pounce on enemy medium and light fighters or DropShips before they are aware of their danger, and eliminate them with its sole weapon: an AC/20. With fifteen rounds of fire it has a respectable amount of ammunition, but once it's out it must go home. "Royal" Hammerheads trade their AC/20 for a Gauss rifle and two more tons of ammo, improving their time on station. If actually on a ground attack mission, a fighter this size is also likely to be hauling a lot of explosive goodies.
Jagatai (Alt Config A, Alt Config B, and Alt Config C)
A favorite of the Wolf Clan as a heavy fighter, the Jagatai was one of the original Clan OmniFighters. Alt Config A mounts an Ultra AC/20 in the nose coaxial with an ER-PPC, for maximum chance of blowing off BattleMech heads, backed by a pair of wing-mounted Streak-6 launchers and an ER Large Laser firing to the aft to discourage people bouncing it while it's down in the weeds. Alt Config C instead mounts an LB-20X, making it the terror of other fighters and combat vehicles, while backing it up with two coaxial ERLLs, and an LRM-10 in each wing. The rear is guarded an ERLL and a Large Pulse Laser. Finally, Alt Config B mounts two Gauss rifles in the nose, with an ERLL in each wing. An ER Medium and Medium Pulse laser guard the rear. While the Clans are loathe in general to mount external ordnance, the 70-ton Jagatai can carry a respectable amount if they chose.
Jengiz (Alt Config C)
An 80-ton monstrosity produced only by Clan Wolf and Clan Ghost Bear, other Clans have them only as battle captures. The Alt Config C mounts an LB-20X in each wing and three Streak-6 launchers in the nose, giving it the ability to blow away vulnerable control surfaces and tracks with pretty much every squeeze of a trigger and making it the terror of other fighters and conventional vehicles. A Streak-4 and an ER Small Laser provide the pilot morale-boosters if someone gets behind them but are unlikely to deter most things that actually want to tangle with it.
Rapier (RPR-100)
With a single AC-20 backed by two PPCs and an LRM-10 in the nose, the 85-ton Rapier is a dedicated heavy dogfighter, well-protected and maneuverable. The original Star League model had a highly advanced neural interface targeting system that made it exceptionally deadly, but the current Lyran-produced version lacks this.
Sabutai (Alt Config A)
One of a small number of Clan fighters that were born to embody the BRRRRRT, the original set of Omnifighters includes the Sabutai-A. The Sabutai-A packs an LB-20X in the nose for that control-surface destroying goodness, backed by an Ultra AC/20 in each wing because you're not crying hard enough yet for its pilots' taste. Despite this impressive array, with three tons of LB-20X ammo and only a single ton of ammo per gun for the Ultras, it will not shoot long; unfortunately most things it might shoot at will be dead before it stops. The trio of ER Small Lasers mounted coaxially one to each autocannon are more or less an afterthought, as are the pair of ER Mediums mounted aft.
Syctha (Prime, Alt Config C)
The Syctha is a Clan Heavy Omnifighter, one of the originals and primarily used by Clan Jade Falcon; most other Clans prefer the Jengiz. It favors performance and weapons over the Jengiz's armor, and is ten tons heavier at 90. Prime configuration sports a UAC/20 (with two tons of ammo) in the nose alongside an ER Large and ER Small laser, with each wing having an additional pair of ERLLs and finally two ERMLs face aft. Alt Config C has a Gauss Rifle and ER-PPC under each wing though it has only eight rounds per Gauss for ammo, plus two Medium Pulse Lasers in the nose and a single ER Small aft to provide the pilot some comfort if little practical protection.
Xerxes
A Clan second-line fighter used primarily by Clan Smoke Jaguar, the Xerxes sports a pair of Ultra AC/20s in the wing roots, supported by two ERLLs in the nose. While pilots must manage heat carefully, the Xerxes is still able to chuck four AC/20 rounds per pass which will cripple or destroy any BattleMech it hits, and has enough ammo to make five passes. The Xerxes is a dedicated anti-DropsShip/anti-'Mech attack craft and on a ground attack mission the 85-ton fighter carrying bombs is likely.
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4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
I'm not shocked that there's a solid anti-mech slant to the fighters of the universe. All that list is telling me is that we need some solid AAA for our company.
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
If it doesn't have CASE and gets an ammo explosion, it's dead. Doesn't really matter what "it" is in that regard.
FC Error
Missileer
- Location
- Aware of where I am not
Ayup. Which might actually be where tanks come in handy; unless we can find a Rifleman or two for AA work. For reference, the 80-ton Partisan SPAAG carries 4 AC/5s for that lovely anti-ASF goodness. Plus, of course, an LRM carrier can always double as a SAM battery in a pinch.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
Actually, the majority of dedicated ground-attack designs in-universe are laser or pulse-laser armed. These are just the ones paying direct homage to the A-10.
Ivan the Not-so-Terrible
AH MEW CHEEKI BREEKI I V DAMKE
- Location
- Mikonyan’s USSR
We've got an Orion with an LB-10X, and Orions have the AA targeting quirk. All we need is a good gunnery score.
- Location
- New England
Alternately, we can deploy air cover of our own. Any time an aircraft does a ground attack, other aircraft get a bonus to hit it.
Just, uh, don't shoot it down when it's in the same hex as one of our mechs. It has a pretty good chance of crashing into said mech and completely annihilating it. Not that that's ever happened to me or anything.
Just, uh, don't shoot it down when it's in the same hex as one of our mechs. It has a pretty good chance of crashing into said mech and completely annihilating it. Not that that's ever happened to me or anything.
- Location
- Europe
Sure, but I'd expect ammo explosions to be rarer. So far we are two for two for encountered wasps.
Cornuthaum
Be kind to each other.
- Location
- Austria
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Wasps have paper for armor and keep getting shot by gigantic guns.
An AC 20 with 2 tons of ammo weighs 80% of a wasp all by itself.
Night
Widow Null
- Location
- Hoff
When you hit things with shells that are at least half as big as their head, these things happen.
prometheus110
Join Cayman-Global & be part of the 1E-9 percent!
- Location
- La Ballena City Raft
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The update will be posted tomorrow as I still have to write the last of the three vignettes. In the future, I should be able to do the same method I did with Radek's fight as those battles are way faster (smaller maps + fewer mechs = AI has to do less thinking and less work for me).
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Apparently most mines and mine laying equipment went extinct between the SLDF Exodus and the return of the clans. A lot of it, like mine laying missiles, reappears in the next 5-10 years of game time.
Ivan the Not-so-Terrible
AH MEW CHEEKI BREEKI I V DAMKE
- Location
- Mikonyan’s USSR
Isn't F good only for part quality? It's A good for unit equipment quality, merc units, rarity, and refit types.
None of the fun minelaying options are available yet. I mean we could do it by hand/with vehicles, but the tactically useful stuff (FASCAM, Thunder LRMs) are bleeding edge tech you're only getting as a merc if you're a de facto state unit like the Big MAC.
- Location
- Just passing through.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Btw, does the game have some big time events that happen in specific years? Or is all random?
4WheelSword
The original N-body Problem
- Pronouns
- It/She/They
Batlletech definitely does
whether MekHQ reports on them or not, I'm not sure. I think so?
Jack Hansan
Well, that happend.
- Location
- Inverness, Scotland
Yeah, there are at least a few in the files for MekHQ.
Ivan the Not-so-Terrible
AH MEW CHEEKI BREEKI I V DAMKE
- Location
- Mikonyan’s USSR
MekHQ has little news popups for events. I think there's also AtB rules for war emergency contract extensions somewhere in the .xls file that's the rules/tables/RAT that are only meant to be used during certain time periods. Dunno if they're implemented.
- Location
- New England
MekHQ keeps pretty accurate track of canon planet ownership changes, and pops up news on occasion.
Emergency contract extensions are, indeed, implemented for some of the major wars in 3025+.
Emergency contract extensions are, indeed, implemented for some of the major wars in 3025+.
Base Defense - September 15th, 3050
prometheus110
Join Cayman-Global & be part of the 1E-9 percent!
- Location
- La Ballena City Raft
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Laserfire filled the air around Sergeant Sophia's Jenner as she threw her 35-ton mech into a skid, emerald beams slashing past overhead and gouging burning gashes in the low-slung building behind her. Cursing as the Skulker took off down the rubble-strewn street —a shimmering pillar of superheated air pouring off its medium laser— Sophia fought to regain her footing and sent a hastily aimed barrage of her own after the recon vehicle only to watch as her lasers set the asphalt behind it alight. Caught out of position by the arrival of the Draconis mech's, Sophia had been separated from her command and forced to engage in hit and run battles against the seemingly endless horde of vehicles and mechs her company had been pitted against.
Her face stony as her four medium lasers cycled, Sophia hurled her mech after the fleeing scout car and glanced at her heat levels. Acceptable, she thought brusquely as her light mech accelerated past 100 kilometres per hour in a matter of moments —its diamond-treaded feet biting into asphalt and concrete with equal ease.
Chasing after the Skulker as it threw itself around a dogleg turn that sent smoke spewing from its six tires, Sophia's Jenner burst through an abandoned roadside stall and slid to a halt amidst an avalanche of fruit and wooden splinters. Blinking as her view was obscured by mashed melons and smoke, Sophia swung her mech this way and that as she struggled to reacquire her target —a quick glance confirming that her magscan and seismic sensors were useless in the metal-rich environment of an urban battle.
"Cmon," she muttered as her lasers chimed their readiness, "cmon…"
Forced to slow down and take notice, Sophia realised with a coldly analytical mind that the battle had been kind to this section of Polis —shattered windows and debris littering the roads thanks to the occasional stray shot, but the buildings themselves left mostly intact. Other parts of the city had not been so lucky, the clouds of greasy black smoke that hung overhead and the hungry orange light they reflected a testament to the fury of combat being fought elsewhere. Shaking her head fractionally, Sophia was about to leave the scout car to its fate when a sudden breeze whipped the cloud of smoke aside like a bridal veil.
There! She thought as she spotted the lightly-armed vehicle peeling away like a bat out of hells. Acting on instinct, the veteran MechWarrior snapped her lasers toward the retreating car and jammed her thumbs down on the firing studs as the golden crosshairs settled on its back.
With a shriek of superheated air, four emerald beams spat forth from the medium lasers mounted over and behind Sophia's head and slammed into her target. In a fraction of a second, almost too quickly to comprehend, the thin armour boiled away; the tough metal plates converted directly into vapour by the sheer power of her weaponry. Fishtailing widely as its rear-end disappeared in a flash of fire, the Skulker slammed into a parked groundcar and flipped end over end. On and on it went, the 20-ton car rolling down the street like a child's discarded toy before sliding to a halt with its wheels in the air.
And that makes two, she thought as she watched smoke pour out of the car's ruined hull. I wonder if I'll bag another Scorpion today.
==============================
Karl roared with approval as his Centurion's foot lashed out toward the Panther opposite him. At 50 tons, the medium mech wasn't able to pull off karate kicks exactly, but Karl made it work. Well, he thought he did. He wasn't exactly into karate, but he watched a ton of holovids, and it looked about right to him. Regardless of the accuracy of the reproduction, the Centurion's leg lashed out with lightning speed and slammed into the Panther like a runaway asteroid —the already-weakened knee giving out entirely and snapping backwards with a deafening crack of shattered metal.
Pulling away from the debilitated mech as it fell to the street in a clatter of limbs, Karl opened the way for Lieutenant Emy and grinned as they pumped an LB-X 10 round into the crumpled mass of metal. Like a snowflake meeting a welding torch, the light mech's armour simply disappeared under the caress of the mech-scale shotgun —the high-explosive cluster rounds ripping through the Panther's torso. Still grinning as he lifted his autocannon to the light mech's exposed reactor, Karl shrugged as he saw the mech struggle to raise its PPC.
"You Snakes need to learn when to fold 'em," he told the enemy MechWarrior amiably as he fired a round into the centre of its chest —the fusion reactor buried within bursting apart in a bubble of plasma as it failed catastrophically.
As the wash of plasma faded into the sky, the Lieutenant's crisp voice echoed throughout Karl's cockpit. "You okay, MechWarrior?"
Piloting an Orion kitted out with the latest and greatest, the lieutenant's heavy mech was imposing. A half again as heavy as Karl's own mech and loaded with enough weapons to kill a light lance on its own, the Orion was one of the company's deadliest mechs —a fact Karl was man enough to admit even if he wasn't willing to trade anything for his trusty Centurion.
"A little scorched, sure," he replied as he leaned forward and pat the nearest console, "and the last blast from that Panther put the old girl's left torso in the red, but I'm still green on AC ammo."
After a moment's silence, the Lieutenant sighed. "Roger that, Corporal," they said as their mech took a ponderous step toward the Centurion. "Get behind me and stay- shit!"
As the barked curse crackled over the comms, Karl glanced up just in time to see the tracked form of a Galleon trundle into view from behind a half-collapsed warehouse. Caught out by the unexpected arrival, Emy, Karl, and the Galleon froze like actors in a comedy-vid —the only motion in the street the slow fall of ash from the sky. For a long moment, the three machines simply stared at one another as if afraid to break the stillness of the momentum and then all hell broke loose.
Whipping his autocannon toward the low-slung ground vehicle, Karl fired a wild burst of cannon fire into the air —a half-dozen shots stitching their way across the warehouse's grey concrete walls and causing the already weakened structure to collapse in a cloud of dust and smoke. An instant later, Emy followed suit with an unaimed storm of laser and missile fire; man-sized explosives and wickedly bright beams of light falling all around the Galleon but leaving it miraculously untouched as they turned the stone and earth around it to ash and dust. Hissing in panic, Karl was about to send another burst of fire into the swirling black and grey cloud that swallowed the light tank when an awful emerald light ripped out of the mass and plunged into his Centurion's left torso and the ammo bin beneath.
There was a sound like thunder…
==============================
There was a sound like thunder from somewhere in the distance, and a thin trickle of concrete dust fell from the ceiling above Joanna's head. Sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room, the former MechWarrior ignored the distant booms of battle and focused on the sensation of her own breathing as she closed her eyes. Dimly, she could hear the nervous commentary of the guards stationed outside wax and wane in time with the ferocity of the combat; rising whenever a lull occurred before dropping sharply whenever the shriek of missiles or the booming of cannon fire pierced the air.
In and out. Pause. In and out. Pause. In and out. Pause.
Learned during her youth in what was then the Rasalhague Military District, Joanna had practised the ritual every day since she joined the 9th —the hypnotic pattern stilling her mind and cooling her blood in a matter of moments. Intended to help a warrior focus before a fight, she knew from experience that it was just as effective after a Chu-i let his hands wander and hoped that it would do the same now.
In and out. Pause. In and out. Pause. In and- *crack-crack*
Her eyes snapping open as the unmistakable sound of a laser-pistol broke through the shield she wove around herself, Joanna rose from the floor with the deliberateness of a spider stalking prey. Eyes locked on the steel-clad door opposite, Joanna felt her breath hitch as it shuddered in its frame and a soft thud rang out. Acutely aware of the sudden silence from the guards, Joanna had just enough presence of mind to throw herself at the distant wall as the door began to swing open —bare feet gliding silently over the polish concrete floor.
Sliding into place beside the door, the MechWarrior felt her muscles tense as the familiar red, and black-suited form of a guard fell into her storage room-turned-cell and sprawled against the bare concrete. There was no need to spare him further thought, she realised as she spotted the thin trail of steam pouring out of the cauterised hole over his heart. Pushing the dead guard out of her mind, Joanna glanced up in time to see another guard step through the door —a smoking pistol clutched in one meaty paw and his bald, tattooed head facing away.
Adrenaline flooding into her like fifty-thousand volts of electricity to the nervous system, Joanna acted on instinct and lunged at the man with a vicious snarl. Lashing out with one arm, Joanna grinned savagely as her fist connected with a crunch of impact —his head snapping back with a loud 'crack' and a bark of pain. The answering blow came without warning, a hairy arm materializing next to her in the space of a heartbeat and slamming her against the wall with a meaty twack.
Hissing in pain as she bounced against the bare concrete, Joanna threw herself to the side as the pirate went for a grab —sausage-like fingers brushing past her shoulder as she sailed through the air. Cursing as she landed with ill-grace, Joanna leapt to her feet moments later; the MechWarrior doing her best to turn the clumsy motion into a kick that sent his pistol sailing into the corner of the room. As the deadly weapon clattered to the ground, Joanna felt a victorious thrill run up her spine before, with a roar, the pirate snatched her leg out of the air and jerked it forward —the sudden motion sending the MechWarrior to the ground with a gasp of surprise.
"Gochō! Yameru!" Barked the pirate in atrocious Japanese, his unexpected outburst causing Joanna to freeze in place as she stared up at the mountainous man. Through the fugue of shock, she realised that another pistol had materialised in his hand —its wide lens demanding her attention even as it promised only death. Dimly, she wondered where it had come from when she remembered that there had been two guards outside.
A heartbeat passed, and then another.
"Are you done, Corporal?" Hissed the man under the thump of distant autocannon fire. Caught out, she felt her mind whir wildly before a memory flashed into her mind and her stoic face broke.
"Are you Susanoo?" She asked as relief and confusion flooded her mind in equal measure. Relief at the thought of escaping her prison, confusion at the fact that she wasn't as eager to return to her unit as she knew she should be.
Shaking his head, the man couldn't help the grin that scrawled itself across his face. "One of his men," he corrected as he lowered the pistol and offered a meaty paw to Joanna —the small woman taking it and yelping in surprised as he pulled her up without effort.
"I worked security at the landing sites," he added as she stalked over to her bed and began to put on her boots. "But he sent me to break you out while the mercs were distracted. Figured it'd be easier to tie up loose ends that way."
Shrugging, Joanna paused and nodded to the dead guard lying sprawled in the doorway. "I take it he wasn't one?' She asked as a curious sensation prickled the back of her mind.
"Nope," replied the man gruffly, his patchwork face stretching as he spat a wad of phlegm at the ground. Now that they weren't trying to beat each other senseless, Joanna could see that not all of the dark whorls and splotches adorning his shorn head came from tattoos —the purple and yellow of old bruises clearly visible.
Shrugging as if to say 'what-can-you-do', he continued idly. "The Baron's too bloody high and mighty to let his men fall in with us lot. If he hears you're in anything sketchy, he kicks you out. I should know."
Sighing at the thought of being rescued by a criminal, Joanna turned to ask what was next when the strange prickling sensation in the back of her mind swelled into a roaring fire as his past words rose unbidden to her mind. 'Easier to tie up loose ends,' he had told her. Pausing as if to consider something, the former corporal gave the tattooed man a once over out of the corner of her eye and felt her heartbeat quicken. Feet braced, eyes tracking her every move like a hunter, and fingers tightly curled around his laser; the man's body language was all wrong.
"What?" He asked as he caught sight of Joanna's expression. Despite the look of confusion that spread across his face like oil on water, the man's grey-green eyes were as cold and brilliant as a PPC's glare.
A heartbeat passed, and then another, and then the pirate's hand twitched.
==============================
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk numbers.
Despite my initial fears, this fight wasn't too punishing on our mechs for a number of reasons which I'll examine to varying degrees. Firstly, while there was an absolute shitton of Combine Mechs on the field, we actually outnumbered them by about 25% thanks to the presence of our allies. This meant that the Dracs had an abundance of targets to choose from and they failed to properly focus down our machines.
The second reason for the relatively low losses comes from the fact that we simply outmassed them by roughly 400 tons on our own.
Seriously, even without our allies we had something like a 400-ton advantage over the snakes and a lot of that comes from our armour.
Thirdly, the battlefield was absolutely filled with line of sight blockers to the point where you had to be about three feet from someone in order to shoot them.
Pretty much every building pictured above would block line of sight and it was a colossal pain in the arse.
That said, we did still lose a mech.
I would like everyone here to pour one out for our Comrade Ranger Karl. He's not dead, but his beloved centurion got taken out by a Wasp and that's not something you recover from.
More seriously, we're down a medium mech, and both Astaroah-M and Commander Error took a fair amount of damage. Astaroah actually broke his mech while trying to jump jet to another building while sniping at Drac Whitworth that was harassing Ostrich and Error, while Error took a nasty blow to the rotor from that same Whitworth. Personally, I don't know how a rotor can survive a blow from an anti-tank weapon, but Error and his gunner are probably very glad that it can.
In terms of MechWarrior injuries, we also got off lightly.
Continuing our theme of falling down, Ostrich's mech slipped on a road while trying to run and she gashed her arm open in the fall. FacelessGoon, meanwhile, was shot in the cockpit by a Drac Wasp and suffered some nasty bruising across his chest for his trouble. Similarly, Sophia was shot in the cockpit by a Harasser Missile Platform and cut her head open on a console. According to the doctors, it should heal without a scar but if she wants, they can make it a sick one.
In terms of Salvage, we actually came out alright on this one.
Out of this clusterfuck, we ended up with four mechs in varying states of disrepair. While none are worth the medium mech that we lost, they do go someone way towards making up for it. Annoyingly, I had hoped to salvage the rifleman the Snakes had put out on the field but I shot it with 3 AC/20s and multiple lasers in a single round of shooting so… yeah.
Prisoner-wise, we were less fortunate.
Out of the multitude of MechWarriors and vehicle crews we faced and defeated, we only managed to capture three and even then we only managed to capture those too injured to fight back. The rest essentially fought to the death as the DCMS is wont to do. On the plus side, we killed a lot of people. Go team.
This kill screen isn't entirely accurate as a lot of mechs died because of the damage we inflicted but self-destructed, or else blew up due to slipping and taking damage to components on their last legs.
Now onto the slightly less interesting things.
First things first, repair and rearmament.
Most of our mechs just need their paint touched up and ammo replenished, but Astaroah-M needs a replacement actuator as he actually broke his mech's foot while repositioning.
Similarly, the crippled mechs we picked up are all missing one limb or another. I plan on buying the limbs, repairing the mechs, and then selling them, but I think that should be left up to y'all.
Somewhat counterintuitively, vehicles and mechs labelled 'salvage' are literally only good for the scrap yard. While I'm planning on scrapping them for parts, we could just sell them outright. Scrapping the Wasp would let us partially repair the Panther (the most valuable of our recovered mechs) without buying a leg while scrapping the vehicle would give us (among other things), an AC/5, a machine gun, armour, and ammo for both. Selling them, meanwhile, would earn us 4k C-bills for the Wasp and 158k c-bills for the Vedette.
In upsetting news, it seems that our contract just got a whole lot more complicated. According to Joanna-Clasina Schmidinger —the DCMS MechWarrior who ambushed Radek and was captured for her trouble— an assassin attempted to use the confusion of the battle to kill her. While she was able to defend herself, the assassin escaped with only minor injuries; leaving behind two dead guards and a whole lot of questions. Complicating matters is that, according to Joanna, the assassin was a local dressed in the uniform of the local baron's household guard and was working for someone powerful connections. If she's telling the truth (and the fact that she's securely locked in a cell right now indicates that she is) things are going up shit creek, fast.
Interestingly, the attempted assassination seems to have given the former DCMS MechWarrior some clarity of mind.
Do we recruit the prisoner using the standard procedures outlined in our contract and risk betrayal in exchange for information, or do we simply keep her in limbo and try to get it out of her through interrogation? Legally, we can also attempt to ransom her back to the DCMS, though it's unlikely that they would take us up on the offer and if she's telling the truth then she's dead.
Crippled mechs:
[] Sell
[] Repair then Sell
[] Repair
[] Write-in
Salvage:
[] Sell
[] Scrap for parts
Prisoner:
[] Recruit
[] Don't Recruit
[] Write-in
Her face stony as her four medium lasers cycled, Sophia hurled her mech after the fleeing scout car and glanced at her heat levels. Acceptable, she thought brusquely as her light mech accelerated past 100 kilometres per hour in a matter of moments —its diamond-treaded feet biting into asphalt and concrete with equal ease.
Chasing after the Skulker as it threw itself around a dogleg turn that sent smoke spewing from its six tires, Sophia's Jenner burst through an abandoned roadside stall and slid to a halt amidst an avalanche of fruit and wooden splinters. Blinking as her view was obscured by mashed melons and smoke, Sophia swung her mech this way and that as she struggled to reacquire her target —a quick glance confirming that her magscan and seismic sensors were useless in the metal-rich environment of an urban battle.
"Cmon," she muttered as her lasers chimed their readiness, "cmon…"
Forced to slow down and take notice, Sophia realised with a coldly analytical mind that the battle had been kind to this section of Polis —shattered windows and debris littering the roads thanks to the occasional stray shot, but the buildings themselves left mostly intact. Other parts of the city had not been so lucky, the clouds of greasy black smoke that hung overhead and the hungry orange light they reflected a testament to the fury of combat being fought elsewhere. Shaking her head fractionally, Sophia was about to leave the scout car to its fate when a sudden breeze whipped the cloud of smoke aside like a bridal veil.
There! She thought as she spotted the lightly-armed vehicle peeling away like a bat out of hells. Acting on instinct, the veteran MechWarrior snapped her lasers toward the retreating car and jammed her thumbs down on the firing studs as the golden crosshairs settled on its back.
With a shriek of superheated air, four emerald beams spat forth from the medium lasers mounted over and behind Sophia's head and slammed into her target. In a fraction of a second, almost too quickly to comprehend, the thin armour boiled away; the tough metal plates converted directly into vapour by the sheer power of her weaponry. Fishtailing widely as its rear-end disappeared in a flash of fire, the Skulker slammed into a parked groundcar and flipped end over end. On and on it went, the 20-ton car rolling down the street like a child's discarded toy before sliding to a halt with its wheels in the air.
And that makes two, she thought as she watched smoke pour out of the car's ruined hull. I wonder if I'll bag another Scorpion today.
==============================
Karl roared with approval as his Centurion's foot lashed out toward the Panther opposite him. At 50 tons, the medium mech wasn't able to pull off karate kicks exactly, but Karl made it work. Well, he thought he did. He wasn't exactly into karate, but he watched a ton of holovids, and it looked about right to him. Regardless of the accuracy of the reproduction, the Centurion's leg lashed out with lightning speed and slammed into the Panther like a runaway asteroid —the already-weakened knee giving out entirely and snapping backwards with a deafening crack of shattered metal.
Pulling away from the debilitated mech as it fell to the street in a clatter of limbs, Karl opened the way for Lieutenant Emy and grinned as they pumped an LB-X 10 round into the crumpled mass of metal. Like a snowflake meeting a welding torch, the light mech's armour simply disappeared under the caress of the mech-scale shotgun —the high-explosive cluster rounds ripping through the Panther's torso. Still grinning as he lifted his autocannon to the light mech's exposed reactor, Karl shrugged as he saw the mech struggle to raise its PPC.
"You Snakes need to learn when to fold 'em," he told the enemy MechWarrior amiably as he fired a round into the centre of its chest —the fusion reactor buried within bursting apart in a bubble of plasma as it failed catastrophically.
As the wash of plasma faded into the sky, the Lieutenant's crisp voice echoed throughout Karl's cockpit. "You okay, MechWarrior?"
Piloting an Orion kitted out with the latest and greatest, the lieutenant's heavy mech was imposing. A half again as heavy as Karl's own mech and loaded with enough weapons to kill a light lance on its own, the Orion was one of the company's deadliest mechs —a fact Karl was man enough to admit even if he wasn't willing to trade anything for his trusty Centurion.
"A little scorched, sure," he replied as he leaned forward and pat the nearest console, "and the last blast from that Panther put the old girl's left torso in the red, but I'm still green on AC ammo."
After a moment's silence, the Lieutenant sighed. "Roger that, Corporal," they said as their mech took a ponderous step toward the Centurion. "Get behind me and stay- shit!"
As the barked curse crackled over the comms, Karl glanced up just in time to see the tracked form of a Galleon trundle into view from behind a half-collapsed warehouse. Caught out by the unexpected arrival, Emy, Karl, and the Galleon froze like actors in a comedy-vid —the only motion in the street the slow fall of ash from the sky. For a long moment, the three machines simply stared at one another as if afraid to break the stillness of the momentum and then all hell broke loose.
Whipping his autocannon toward the low-slung ground vehicle, Karl fired a wild burst of cannon fire into the air —a half-dozen shots stitching their way across the warehouse's grey concrete walls and causing the already weakened structure to collapse in a cloud of dust and smoke. An instant later, Emy followed suit with an unaimed storm of laser and missile fire; man-sized explosives and wickedly bright beams of light falling all around the Galleon but leaving it miraculously untouched as they turned the stone and earth around it to ash and dust. Hissing in panic, Karl was about to send another burst of fire into the swirling black and grey cloud that swallowed the light tank when an awful emerald light ripped out of the mass and plunged into his Centurion's left torso and the ammo bin beneath.
There was a sound like thunder…
==============================
There was a sound like thunder from somewhere in the distance, and a thin trickle of concrete dust fell from the ceiling above Joanna's head. Sitting cross-legged in the centre of the room, the former MechWarrior ignored the distant booms of battle and focused on the sensation of her own breathing as she closed her eyes. Dimly, she could hear the nervous commentary of the guards stationed outside wax and wane in time with the ferocity of the combat; rising whenever a lull occurred before dropping sharply whenever the shriek of missiles or the booming of cannon fire pierced the air.
In and out. Pause. In and out. Pause. In and out. Pause.
Learned during her youth in what was then the Rasalhague Military District, Joanna had practised the ritual every day since she joined the 9th —the hypnotic pattern stilling her mind and cooling her blood in a matter of moments. Intended to help a warrior focus before a fight, she knew from experience that it was just as effective after a Chu-i let his hands wander and hoped that it would do the same now.
In and out. Pause. In and out. Pause. In and- *crack-crack*
Her eyes snapping open as the unmistakable sound of a laser-pistol broke through the shield she wove around herself, Joanna rose from the floor with the deliberateness of a spider stalking prey. Eyes locked on the steel-clad door opposite, Joanna felt her breath hitch as it shuddered in its frame and a soft thud rang out. Acutely aware of the sudden silence from the guards, Joanna had just enough presence of mind to throw herself at the distant wall as the door began to swing open —bare feet gliding silently over the polish concrete floor.
Sliding into place beside the door, the MechWarrior felt her muscles tense as the familiar red, and black-suited form of a guard fell into her storage room-turned-cell and sprawled against the bare concrete. There was no need to spare him further thought, she realised as she spotted the thin trail of steam pouring out of the cauterised hole over his heart. Pushing the dead guard out of her mind, Joanna glanced up in time to see another guard step through the door —a smoking pistol clutched in one meaty paw and his bald, tattooed head facing away.
Adrenaline flooding into her like fifty-thousand volts of electricity to the nervous system, Joanna acted on instinct and lunged at the man with a vicious snarl. Lashing out with one arm, Joanna grinned savagely as her fist connected with a crunch of impact —his head snapping back with a loud 'crack' and a bark of pain. The answering blow came without warning, a hairy arm materializing next to her in the space of a heartbeat and slamming her against the wall with a meaty twack.
Hissing in pain as she bounced against the bare concrete, Joanna threw herself to the side as the pirate went for a grab —sausage-like fingers brushing past her shoulder as she sailed through the air. Cursing as she landed with ill-grace, Joanna leapt to her feet moments later; the MechWarrior doing her best to turn the clumsy motion into a kick that sent his pistol sailing into the corner of the room. As the deadly weapon clattered to the ground, Joanna felt a victorious thrill run up her spine before, with a roar, the pirate snatched her leg out of the air and jerked it forward —the sudden motion sending the MechWarrior to the ground with a gasp of surprise.
"Gochō! Yameru!" Barked the pirate in atrocious Japanese, his unexpected outburst causing Joanna to freeze in place as she stared up at the mountainous man. Through the fugue of shock, she realised that another pistol had materialised in his hand —its wide lens demanding her attention even as it promised only death. Dimly, she wondered where it had come from when she remembered that there had been two guards outside.
A heartbeat passed, and then another.
"Are you done, Corporal?" Hissed the man under the thump of distant autocannon fire. Caught out, she felt her mind whir wildly before a memory flashed into her mind and her stoic face broke.
"Are you Susanoo?" She asked as relief and confusion flooded her mind in equal measure. Relief at the thought of escaping her prison, confusion at the fact that she wasn't as eager to return to her unit as she knew she should be.
Shaking his head, the man couldn't help the grin that scrawled itself across his face. "One of his men," he corrected as he lowered the pistol and offered a meaty paw to Joanna —the small woman taking it and yelping in surprised as he pulled her up without effort.
"I worked security at the landing sites," he added as she stalked over to her bed and began to put on her boots. "But he sent me to break you out while the mercs were distracted. Figured it'd be easier to tie up loose ends that way."
Shrugging, Joanna paused and nodded to the dead guard lying sprawled in the doorway. "I take it he wasn't one?' She asked as a curious sensation prickled the back of her mind.
"Nope," replied the man gruffly, his patchwork face stretching as he spat a wad of phlegm at the ground. Now that they weren't trying to beat each other senseless, Joanna could see that not all of the dark whorls and splotches adorning his shorn head came from tattoos —the purple and yellow of old bruises clearly visible.
Shrugging as if to say 'what-can-you-do', he continued idly. "The Baron's too bloody high and mighty to let his men fall in with us lot. If he hears you're in anything sketchy, he kicks you out. I should know."
Sighing at the thought of being rescued by a criminal, Joanna turned to ask what was next when the strange prickling sensation in the back of her mind swelled into a roaring fire as his past words rose unbidden to her mind. 'Easier to tie up loose ends,' he had told her. Pausing as if to consider something, the former corporal gave the tattooed man a once over out of the corner of her eye and felt her heartbeat quicken. Feet braced, eyes tracking her every move like a hunter, and fingers tightly curled around his laser; the man's body language was all wrong.
"What?" He asked as he caught sight of Joanna's expression. Despite the look of confusion that spread across his face like oil on water, the man's grey-green eyes were as cold and brilliant as a PPC's glare.
A heartbeat passed, and then another, and then the pirate's hand twitched.
==============================
Okay, now that that's out of the way, let's talk numbers.
Despite my initial fears, this fight wasn't too punishing on our mechs for a number of reasons which I'll examine to varying degrees. Firstly, while there was an absolute shitton of Combine Mechs on the field, we actually outnumbered them by about 25% thanks to the presence of our allies. This meant that the Dracs had an abundance of targets to choose from and they failed to properly focus down our machines.
The second reason for the relatively low losses comes from the fact that we simply outmassed them by roughly 400 tons on our own.
Seriously, even without our allies we had something like a 400-ton advantage over the snakes and a lot of that comes from our armour.
Thirdly, the battlefield was absolutely filled with line of sight blockers to the point where you had to be about three feet from someone in order to shoot them.
Pretty much every building pictured above would block line of sight and it was a colossal pain in the arse.
That said, we did still lose a mech.
I would like everyone here to pour one out for our Comrade Ranger Karl. He's not dead, but his beloved centurion got taken out by a Wasp and that's not something you recover from.
More seriously, we're down a medium mech, and both Astaroah-M and Commander Error took a fair amount of damage. Astaroah actually broke his mech while trying to jump jet to another building while sniping at Drac Whitworth that was harassing Ostrich and Error, while Error took a nasty blow to the rotor from that same Whitworth. Personally, I don't know how a rotor can survive a blow from an anti-tank weapon, but Error and his gunner are probably very glad that it can.
In terms of MechWarrior injuries, we also got off lightly.
Continuing our theme of falling down, Ostrich's mech slipped on a road while trying to run and she gashed her arm open in the fall. FacelessGoon, meanwhile, was shot in the cockpit by a Drac Wasp and suffered some nasty bruising across his chest for his trouble. Similarly, Sophia was shot in the cockpit by a Harasser Missile Platform and cut her head open on a console. According to the doctors, it should heal without a scar but if she wants, they can make it a sick one.
In terms of Salvage, we actually came out alright on this one.
Out of this clusterfuck, we ended up with four mechs in varying states of disrepair. While none are worth the medium mech that we lost, they do go someone way towards making up for it. Annoyingly, I had hoped to salvage the rifleman the Snakes had put out on the field but I shot it with 3 AC/20s and multiple lasers in a single round of shooting so… yeah.
Prisoner-wise, we were less fortunate.
Out of the multitude of MechWarriors and vehicle crews we faced and defeated, we only managed to capture three and even then we only managed to capture those too injured to fight back. The rest essentially fought to the death as the DCMS is wont to do. On the plus side, we killed a lot of people. Go team.
This kill screen isn't entirely accurate as a lot of mechs died because of the damage we inflicted but self-destructed, or else blew up due to slipping and taking damage to components on their last legs.
Now onto the slightly less interesting things.
First things first, repair and rearmament.
Most of our mechs just need their paint touched up and ammo replenished, but Astaroah-M needs a replacement actuator as he actually broke his mech's foot while repositioning.
Similarly, the crippled mechs we picked up are all missing one limb or another. I plan on buying the limbs, repairing the mechs, and then selling them, but I think that should be left up to y'all.
Somewhat counterintuitively, vehicles and mechs labelled 'salvage' are literally only good for the scrap yard. While I'm planning on scrapping them for parts, we could just sell them outright. Scrapping the Wasp would let us partially repair the Panther (the most valuable of our recovered mechs) without buying a leg while scrapping the vehicle would give us (among other things), an AC/5, a machine gun, armour, and ammo for both. Selling them, meanwhile, would earn us 4k C-bills for the Wasp and 158k c-bills for the Vedette.
In upsetting news, it seems that our contract just got a whole lot more complicated. According to Joanna-Clasina Schmidinger —the DCMS MechWarrior who ambushed Radek and was captured for her trouble— an assassin attempted to use the confusion of the battle to kill her. While she was able to defend herself, the assassin escaped with only minor injuries; leaving behind two dead guards and a whole lot of questions. Complicating matters is that, according to Joanna, the assassin was a local dressed in the uniform of the local baron's household guard and was working for someone powerful connections. If she's telling the truth (and the fact that she's securely locked in a cell right now indicates that she is) things are going up shit creek, fast.
Interestingly, the attempted assassination seems to have given the former DCMS MechWarrior some clarity of mind.
Do we recruit the prisoner using the standard procedures outlined in our contract and risk betrayal in exchange for information, or do we simply keep her in limbo and try to get it out of her through interrogation? Legally, we can also attempt to ransom her back to the DCMS, though it's unlikely that they would take us up on the offer and if she's telling the truth then she's dead.
Crippled mechs:
[] Sell
[] Repair then Sell
[] Repair
[] Write-in
Salvage:
[] Sell
[] Scrap for parts
Prisoner:
[] Recruit
[] Don't Recruit
[] Write-in