Introduction

Well, it’s a week or two late, but we’re back.

The Action of September 28, 3052

Scouts indicate that a rebel force is moving in the direction of Bear’s Bruisers, who have been bearing the brunt of the fighting so far. The Bruisers move slightly toward Second Lance to take up defensive positions amidst some hilly scrubland, and position themselves so that the rebels will come across their positions in darkness. A snowstorm blows in as they wait.

Second Lance is on the march, but won’t arrive for eight rounds.

Deployment

The rebel force appears to the north, looking battered already. The length of this campaign is wearing them down pretty seriously, especially given their lack of logistical support compared to us.

The Bruisers deploy in the middle of the battlefield, in formation. The darkness means it’s going to be difficult to shoot at long range.

Round 1

The two forces move closer together, but remain well outside of effective weapons range.

Round 2

A solitary Wasp is now quite close to our forces, but impossible to hit based on its movement, the falling snow, and the darkness.

Round 3

Teddy Bear and Wizard both stand still this turn, hoping to get good shots off at the Wasp or perhaps one of the vehicles. Severe moves closer. Her Koshi’s weapons are best at short range. Euchre follows her.

As it turns out, only Wizard‘s large laser and Severe‘s ER medium lasers are sufficient. They both take shots best described as speculative at the Galleon tank.

Predictably, everyone misses.

Round 4

The rebels continue to pull back as the Bruisers advance, staying just out of medium laser range. Wizard takes a shot and misses.

Round 5

The rebels seem to commit to an attack as the Bruisers continue to push forward. The Wasp dead ahead is the primary target, but if shots at the vehicles are more plausible hit chances, we’ll take those instead.

Even at this relatively close range, hits are unlikely on a moving target, as our mech pilots try to put their sights over a very slightly darker moving shape in the darkness of the night. Teddy Bear‘s medium laser bites deep into the Wasp’s torso armor. Everyone else misses.

Round 6

Now this we can work with. Severe took the unusual step of not moving. Her Koshi has very good alpha strike damage, which we’re going to try to exploit by giving her the best chance to hit we can.

Finally, some results! Teddy Bear hits the Wasp again, though only with his flamer. Wizard puts five of her six SRMs into the side of the Galleon tank, the explosions ripping through its armor, cutting cooling lines in its engine, and exposing its turret-mounted small laser. Severe hits the Locust, cutting off its right arm and nearly blowing its right torso out its back armor, and Euchre‘s medium laser severs its left arm.

Teddy Bear kicks the Wasp’s left leg out from under it to close the round.

Round 7

The Wasp falls after taking Teddy Bear‘s kick, and fails to stand this round, so Teddy Bear turns his torso on the Locust and plans to kick the Wasp again. Wizard likes her chances shooting at the Locust, so lets her sights settle on it while Euchre and Severe take aim at the nearby Galleon.

Wizard and Teddy Bear combine to knock out the Locust’s right torso, while Euchre notches the kill on the Galleon with a medium laser shot that punches right through the battered front armor and into the crew compartment.

For reasons unclear to me, Wizard doesn’t get the option to make a physical attack. Teddy Bear kicks the through the prone Wasp’s right torso, while Severe turns her Koshi’s fists on the Locust, hitting twice. (The Koshi’s weapons are all torso-mounted, which means Severe can attack with all of them and still punch.)

Cleanup

The two mech pilots eject, leaving only a Vedette on the field. Wizard and Euchre pause to pick up the ejected enemy mechwarriors, while Severe and Teddy Bear advance to finish off the Vedette. Severe gets the kill with a devastating punch, cracking the tank’s side armor with an uppercut which flips it onto its back.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

It was very nearly a perfect mission. Teddy Bear and Euchre took some hits, but only from machine guns.

For salvage, we take the Wasp and the two burned-out vehicles. We’ll strip the armor and weapons and sell the chassis.

Special Mission: Star League Cache

On October 1, Rook‘s Stalker finishes its refit, now kitted out with Artemis-capable LRM-15 launchers along with ER Large Lasers and sufficient heat sinks to fire everything. She takes it out for a little shakedown run in a peaceful area of the Bastards’ AOR, only to see a big blip on her sensors.

It’s an Emperor EMP-6A, a Star League-era mech packed with advanced Inner Sphere technology. It’s not entirely clear where the rebels got it, but it’s on Rook to knock it down, hopefully in such a way that we can salvage it and add a third assault mech to the Bastards’ roster.

Deployment

Rook starts on the north edge of the battlefield, her view of the Emperor blocked by buildings in a small outlying town.

Round 1

She moves south. The Emperor stays out of range, keeping behind the buildings.

Round 2

See round 1.

Round 3

Rook tries to get around the east side of town to get a shot on the Emperor, but can’t quite manage.

Round 4

The Emperor moves into range. Rook lets him have it with everything she can bring to bear.

Her alpha strike costs 43 heat, but deals a whopping 35 damage, knocking the Emperor prone. In return, an LBX-10 burst clatters against her right arm.

Round 5

Rook has to be a bit more circumspect with her weapons fire this round, sticking with her LRMs and the ER Large Lasers. She doesn’t want to get too close—the Emperor’s weapons fit is deadly at short range.

Her goal for the next few rounds is to sneak around further to the east, whereupon she can collapse the building on which the Emperor is standing out from under it.

This round, Rook’s weapons deal 43 damage, as 27 of the 30 missiles she fired find their marks.

Round 6

One more hex, I think, and then Rook can knock down the building. Moving more slowly, she finds the shot on the Emperor even easier this time.

Unfortunately, the Emperor’s shot against her is easier, too. A bit rusty at driving the Stalker, she puts a foot wrong as autocannon fire slams into her armor and tips over.

Round 7

That was the opening the Emperor’s pilot was looking for. The enemy mech uses its jump jets to descend to the ground, closing inside Rook‘s missile range. That’s fine by Rook, though; she has medium lasers to spare, and in lieu of firing her LRMs, switches to those.

Round 8

It’s an old-fashioned slugging match now. Rook is a better gunner, but seems to have a little bit less damage on tap than the rebel pilot. Thanks to her efforts at longer range, however, she’s still ahead on the damage race.

Round 9

Rook backs up as the Emperor jump-jets closer to her. She’s finding the Stalker’s performance most agreeable. Thanks to its combat computer, she can fire either her large lasers and missile launchers, or her large lasers and medium lasers, without worrying about her mech’s heat. That’s a major improvement over her previous ride.

Round 10

Alarms begin to flash in Rook‘s cockpit, indicating that her armor has been blasted away over her mech’s left arm. In return, however, her sensors indicate that she’s broken through the Emperor’s armor in multiple places.

Round 11

The Emperor jumps up onto a ridgeline, so Rook moves into a hull-down position at its edge.

Round 12

Rook backs up slightly, hoping to stay out of melee range, but the Emperor is able to jump into position on the ridge above her, where it can kick down at her mech’s head.

She consults her cockpit displays quickly. With a worrying lack of armor on her left side, right where the Emperor is, she decides to try a risky close-range shot with her long-range missiles, hoping to knock him down before he’s able to bring a leg to bear.

She pulls her triggers, and weapons fire flashes back and forth between the two mechs. Alarms blare loudly in her cockpit as an LBX-10 shell impacts her mech’s left arm. With a sound of shearing metal, it breaks free.

Her missiles strike true, arcing out of their launch bays and arming just in time to pockmark the Emperor’s right torso. Her lasers, too, carve deep into it, and just as they finish their bursts, she sees the telltale signs of internal explosions. The force directed outward, the blossoming fireball nevertheless bends back a panel on the Emperor’s center torso armor. With her last large laser, Rook steadies her aim and squeezes the trigger. The large laser strikes true, slicing in behind the damaged armor to penetrate the Emperor’s engine. It staggers back, then falls to the ground, raising a vast cloud of dust as it hits.

Damage, Injuries, and Salvage

It takes some doing, but Drake manages to talk our ComStar liaison into letting us keep the Emperor in exchange for October’s paycheck.

The bad news is that the Stalker is pretty badly beaten up. The good news is that it won’t take all that long to fix, especially now that Rook‘s tech Edina Cameron is familiar with the design and can direct the repairs. Rook herself is unharmed, and permits herself a rare grin as the rest of the Bastards congratulate her on her victory in a most unexpected combat.

Kill Board(s)

In addition to the pictured kills, Rook notches one by taking down the Emperor.

On the strength of her Koshi, Severe is really rising up the board.

Last Battle

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (28, 9 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (14, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (7, 4 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Severe” Payne (6, 5 mechs)
8. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
9. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (5, 4 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
10. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
11. “Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
12. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (3, 2 mechs)
14. “Blinky” Stirzacre (2)
15. “Kicks” Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
16. Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
17. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now October 8, 3052. I really wanted to get a full month in, but there’s yet another battle pending.

Finances

We have 69.736 million C-bills in the bank.

Repairs and Refits

The techs managed to get Rook‘s Stalker turned around. The Emperor is under repair, pending arrival of a few parts.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome Custom (refitting)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3Fb
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Sgt. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi (mrkilla22) – Archer ARC-2K
  • Pvt. Kevin “Blinky” Stirzacre (moghopper) – Ostroc OSR-2C
  • Pvt. Gwenael “Kicks” Hernandez (Sheyra) – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
  • Pvt. Elroy “Faceplant” Farooqi (NickAragua) – Dragon DRG-5N
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B (missing lasers)

Action Items

It’s time for another assault mech organization question. We now have three of them. We could combine them with a heavy mech to make a proper assault lance, or we could continue to split them out among the other lances to make top-of-the-line heavy lances.

Also, we have to decide who gets to drive the Emperor. Linebuster is a prime candidate, being one of our better pilots in general and specializing in ballistic weapons, of which the Emperor has several. That would also free up his Lancelot for someone else to drive.

If we do build three heavy lances around our three assault mechs, I think it would make sense to reorganize Bear’s Bruisers a bit, moving Simona and the Ryoken in, and probably Hanzoku and Severe out to the heavier lances.

Introduction

It’s a good month for training, but I appear to have lost my screenshot thereof.

Still, the drills stretch on interminably, and news of a rebel concentration suitable to attack is a welcome diversion.

The Action of September 13, 3052

The surprisingly-timely action of September 13 involves both Bear’s Bruisers and Drake’s Destroyers. (That’s Teddy Bear, Hanzoku, Severe, and Euchre, if you’ve lost track, plus Carcer, Woad, Linebuster, and Blinky.)

The enemy is a reinforced Vedette platoon, six tanks and two medium mechs of indeterminate make, currently stationed in a town. Weather is bad; high winds rare reducing weapon accuracy and hampering vehicle movement.

Deployment

The enemy deploys in the city, where the tight quarters will work to their advantage—and ours. Bear’s Bruisers move north to deal with the enemy Wolverine, while Drake’s Destroyers swing around south to march through the center of the city.

Round 1

Both of the Bastards’ lances advance. Almost nobody is within weapons range at this stage. Hanzoku takes a crack at an enemy Vedette, while the first enemy medium mech, a Wolverine, fires on Euchre‘s Trebuchet.

The Wolverine scores the luckiest of lucky shots, clanging an AC/5 shell off of Euchre‘s cockpit. He shakes his head, bell rung, but forges on.

Round 2

Bear’s Bruisers now have a number of good targets, but are good targets themselves, as both enemy mechs move out of the city and a Vedette runs at top speed down the road.

Drake’s Destroyers, under Carcer‘s command, aren’t in great position, and the weather means they’ll be a little slow to reposition. Blame your staff officer’s rustiness.

The Bruisers concentrate on the Vedette, hoping to knock it out this round. Down south, Woad with his trusty Grasshoper is the only pilot with a shot. He lines up on a broken-down Vedette in the center of town and lets loose an alpha strike.

Nothing hits to very much effect. Severe scores with one of her Clan ER Medium Lasers, slicing into the Vedette’s armor. Woad hits his target with a single medium laser. The Wolverine and a Vedette score hits in response. Everything else goes wide or spatters harmlessly off of armor.

Round 3

In the south, the Destroyers split up. Carcer and Linebuster, with longer-ranged mechs, split out to the west, where they’ll be able to fire on enemies leaving town along the northwest road. Woad and Blinky, in faster, shorter-ranged mechs, move into town to flank the vehicles hiding there.

In the north, Severe and Teddy Bear aim to shoot at and stomp on the nearest Vedette, respectively, while Hanzoku trades fire with a Vedette poking its nose out of town and Euchre looks to deal some damage to one coming out along the northwest road.

Four of Severe‘s five lasers find their mark, dealing a combined 24 damage, but Teddy Bear gets the kill with a stomp. Euchre damages his target’s left track, but doesn’t get the kill, while Woad and Blinky team up to knock out the immobilized Vedette in town. Blinky gets the last hit.

Round 4

Carcer is in range of a Vedette, and lines up her laser shot eagerly. Woad pushes into the town, thanks to the magic of jump jets, while Blinky lags behind a bit.

Severe again proves the worth of her Koshi, slicing deep into a Vedette’s rear armor and heavily damaging its engine. Hanzoku finishes off the Vedette darting past his mech with a kick which caves in the roof of its turret.

Round 5

Everyone is in on the action now. Hanzoku, Carcer, and the allied Vulcan race to take down the enemy Wolverine, while Severe, Woad, and Blinky move into the center of the city to deal with the remaining two Vedettes.

Teddy Bear lands a full alpha strike on his target Vedette, immobilizing it and knocking off both tracks, but not quite managing to bring it down with weapons fire. He finishes the job with a kick to the rear armor. Hanzoku beheads the Wolverine with a well-aimed volley of laser fire, notching the kill for himself. Woad and Severe collaborate to immobilize one of the city center Vedettes, while Blinky immobilizes the other.

Cleanup

The other enemy mech, a Phoenix Hawk which did very little, falls back, leaving the two Vedettes for Woad and Blinky. Each scores one kill.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

Our mechs are all but undamaged, none of our pilots are badly hurt, and although we can’t convince the ComStar liaison to give us the Wolverine, we do get six Vedettes for the mechanics to cut apart. An excellent battle, professionally won.

Between selling off the Vedette chassis after stripping them of everything useful and ransoming prisoners, we end the mission up about 750,000 C-bills.

Kill Board(s)

Blinky and Hanzoku both emerge with two kills. Hanzoku leapfrogs Linebuster by dint of having more mech kills and now tying for overall count.

Last Battle

Forgot to take a screenshot. It’s been a while! I’m out of practice.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (27, 8 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (14, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (6, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
8. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (5, 4 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
9. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
10. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
11. “Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
12. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. “Blinky” Stirzacre (2)
15. “Kicks” Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
16. Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
17. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now September 28, 3052; there’s another battle pending.

Finances

We have 65.431 million C-bills in the bank, up 108,000 since last update.

Repairs and Refits

Our techs continue to work on refitting our two assault mechs. Edina Cameron is only a few days’ work away from getting Rook‘s Stalker back into the field. Kepano Endo has about four months of work left on Drake‘s Awesome.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome Custom (refitting)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3Fb (refitting)
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Sgt. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi (mrkilla22) – Archer ARC-2K
  • Pvt. Kevin “Blinky” Stirzacre (moghopper) – Ostroc OSR-2C
  • Pvt. Gwenael “Kicks” Hernandez (Sheyra) – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
  • Pvt. Elroy “Faceplant” Farooqi (NickAragua) – Dragon DRG-5N
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B (missing lasers)

Action Items

Nothing much to speak of.

Miscellaneous

We’re now running MekHQ 0.44. Happily, everything I’d done on a custom basis is now merged into the main branch, so it was pretty painless. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get 0.45 to load the save game, so we may be stuck here for a bit.

Back in the Saddle

After the long retreat from the Clans and the hard fighting which occurred along it, things seem positively sleepy in the Opinionated Bastards’ mobile headquarters.

In mid-August, though, our somber ComStar liaison stops by, informs us gravely that we have a mission, and leaves as quickly as he came.

The Action of August 14, 3052

The rebels are fleeing a ComStar sweep, moving through a seaside town, where we’ll intercept them. Gale-force winds are blowing in from the shore, which forces the rebel vehicles to withdraw before combat.

There are four enemy medium mechs on the field: a pair of Vulcans, an Assassin, and a Phoenix Hawk. It’s a successful mission if we knock out two of them.

Round 1

The Bastards deploy near the center of the map. The rebels deploy to the south; they’re fleing to the north.

The hurricane winds are going to make it difficult to score many ranged weapon hits, at least while everyone is moving. Linebuster and newcomer Blinky are the only ones with a chance at a hit.

Round 2

The wind is playing havoc with targeting systems; gusts hammer against mech arms, throwing off their aim. Woad and Blinky get into punching range, where they’ll hopefully be able to do some damage without having to rely on ranged weapons.

Ranged weapons fire doesn’t accomplish very much. Woad and Blinky exchange kicks with the enemy: everyone hits, but because of the high winds, everyone falls over, too.

Round 3-4

Rather than attempt to stand, both of the rebel Vulcan pilots eject. They fail to stick the landing. Both end up unconscious.

The enemy Assassin manages to take enough fire to lose its footing. Its pilot ejects, too.

Round 5

The Phoenix Hawk is now most likely beyond our reach. He can simply run away.

I spoke too soon, though. Bafflingly, he turns to fight. We’ll get one more crack at him.

The Ostroc suits Blinky just fine. Even in terrible conditions, he has at least some chance to hit.

Round 6

The Phoenix Hawk pushes a bit further away, but now he’s up against a little river. He probably will need some extra time to get through. I can’t imagine jumping is a very good idea right now.

Round 7

Bear’s Bruisers arrive on the field, with Wojtek in tow (his first combat deployment in a long time).

Unfortunately, it proves to be a bit of an anticlimax. The Phoenix Hawk steps into the water, trips, and falls, and the pilot immediately ejects.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

Woad and Blinky both have minor injuries from falling over, and their mechs have light damage.

After the storm passes, we recover the enemy Phoenix Hawk and the enemy Vulcan, both of which are in serviceable shape. We’ll probably strip the Vulcan (a VL-2T model) and keep the Phoenix Hawk, at least for now. The latter chassis is handy to have; a good weight to fill in around the edges of a heavy lance.

One of the rebels, after ejecting, managed to shelter in the wind shadow of one of our fallen mechs. ComStar takes her off our hands as soon as the weather permits.

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

I’ll say this: we didn’t exactly cover ourselves in glory this time. Although four enemy mechs were destroyed on the last mission, we scored precisely zero kills.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (27, 8 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
8. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
9. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
10. “Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
11. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
12. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (3, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. “Kicks” Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
15. Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
16. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now August 31, 3052.

Contract Status

Rebel morale remains high. Given the much less threatening opposition, I’m trying to rotate in some of the under-utilized pilots. Wojtek was on the board this time; hopefully we can get Euchre in next time.

Finances

We have 65.323 million C-bills in the bank.

The following mechs are available on the unit market. All of our pilots currently have mechs, however.

Repairs and Refits

Both of the techs who are working on the refits flubbed their finish-on-time rolls. As of now, it’s another five months for the Awesome and another month for the Stalker.

Drake has been getting well-acquainted with his desk; it looks like he’ll be playing administrator for a little while longer. (I’ve given him two points of the Administration skill as a bit of a consolation.)

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome Custom (refitting)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3Fb (refitting)
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Sgt. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi (mrkilla22) – Archer ARC-2K
  • Pvt. Kevin “Blinky” Stirzacre (moghopper) – Ostroc OSR-2C
  • Pvt. Gwenael “Kicks” Hernandez (Sheyra) – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Elroy Farooqi – Dragon DRG-5N
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B (missing lasers)

Action Items

• We’re really rolling in the money now. It might be a good time to start looking for a DropShip or two, which costs 100,000 C-bills per month and may or may not give us something we can use. (We have a lot of mechs at this point; we’ll probably need at least two to fit our combat units, spares, and mothballed mechs.)

Introduction

The ComStar liaison is an odd, somber fellow, who assigned us a sector to patrol, wished us well, and sent us on our way.

June passes without much action. We’re called out of our forward positions a few times, but when we arrive, the the rebels have already fallen back. On June 30th, however, an intriguing message arrives at headquarters. A rebel commander challenges us to a duel.

The Clanners in our employ enthusiastically favor the idea. Drake is a little more cautious. He eventually decides to accept, if only to bring the rebels to action and get a kill on the board.

Who should be our champion? Rook, our deadliest pilot by far, seems like the obvious answer. With her Stalker in the shop, she borrows the Flashman from Carcer and heads out. Wizard and Hanzoku accompany her, playing bodyguard in the event the rebels try to get cute.

The Action of July 3, 3052

Waiting for us at the designated place of battle is… a Banshee. The Banshee, a 95-ton assault design dating to the dawn of the Star League era, is widely mocked as ineffective. Its armament totals a PPC, an AC/5, and a small laser, a piddling armament for a mech of that size. Most of the tonnage goes to an enormous GM 380 engine, which makes the Banshee about as fast as the Flashman facing off against it. In other words, not very fast.

Round 1

Closing in. Rook, still outside of medium laser range, lands hits with both of her large lasers, but takes a PPC hit in response.

Round 2

The Banshee closes in. Rook slows down, hitting again with a large laser and taking a hit from a PPC again.

Round 3

Again, the mechs trade fire.

Round 4

Sensing that the Banshee is trying to get around behind her, Rook backs up and lands more lasers on it.

She takes another hit to the center torso, and is nearly out of armor there; the Banshee’s been good at keeping its hits in the same place.

Round 5

Though Rook is hammering the Banshee, it gets into a semi-flanking position; she can only return fire with one large laser. In return, she takes still another PPC to the center torso; it eats through the armor and damages her engine.

The alarms don’t faze her.

Round 6

The Banshee steps back, into the optimal range of its weapons. It doesn’t matter. Rook calmly plugs it with one of her large lasers, and…

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

None of the above.

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

Obviously, Rook scores a kill.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (27, 8 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
8. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
9. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
10. “Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
11. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
12. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (3, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. “Kicks” Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
15. Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
16. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now July 3, 3052.

Contract Status

Despite Rook’s victory over the rebel leader, reports indicate that rebel morale is high.

Finances

We have 60.801 million C-bills in the bank.

Recruitment

A new face shows up at our camp, another Rasalhague citizen shows up looking to sign on.

Newly-minted Private Elroy Farooqi was in the service of the Republic some time ago, but quit for reasons he refused to say, and spent some time as an independent operator in the coreward periphery. During the long retreat from the Clan invasions, he organized local militias and ad-hoc defenses; now, there’s no call for that, but he wants a piece of the fighting again.

Repairs and Refits

Both assault mechs are in the shop, refitting. The Awesome is 55 days from completion. The Stalker is 32 days from completion.

Some heavy mech refits are also in the pipeline—switching Wizard‘s Guillotine over to the -4L model, or perhaps the Clan ER Large Laser+Double Heat Sink model, and adding double heat sinks to some of our other heat-limited mechs, like the Thunderbolt, Flashman, and new Ostroc. (Obviously, we don’t want to be exactly heat-neutral. Building up a little heat over the course of a few alpha strikes is healthy.)

Otherwise, we’re in good shape.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome Custom (refitting)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Sgt. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi (mrkilla22) – Archer ARC-2K
  • Pvt. Kevin “Blinky” Stirzacre (moghopper) – Ostroc OSR-2C (en route)
  • Pvt. Gwenael “Kicks” Hernandez (Sheyra) – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Elroy Farooqi – n/a
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B (missing lasers)

Tukayyid from the Sidelines

The Opinionated Bastards spend the month of May engaged in the typical activities of warriors removed from the fighting. Some work on maintenance. Others hit the simulators. Still more poke around the small city where the Bastards are ostensibly guarding evacuees from the combat zone, looking for leisure and finding little of it. Drake spends some time with MechTech Endo, learning the ins and outs of his Awesome’s guts. Between the new double heat sinks, the new power conduits and mounting points for the Clan PPCs, and the general rebuild-it-from-scratch thing, it’s a serious project, and is going to be a serious project for some time longer.

News reaches the Bastards both by radio intercepts and by our Free Rasalhague Republic liaison, who is a little more plugged into happenings than we are. The general impression is that things are going well. As mid-May passes, the news turns a bit more sour, but Hanzoku points out that Clan Wolf’s victories are largely symbolic. The Com Guards have already won the balance of the fighting, and that’s enough.

On the 20th, the fighting stops. The distant rumble of heavy weapons fire falls silent. News filters out: the Truce of Tukayyid is now in force. The Clans may not advance past Tukayyid for fifteen years.

With that, our purpose in the remains of the Free Rasalhague Republic is moot. Our liaison informs us that he’ll be paying us the rest of our fee, and that we’re free to stay for a while, but there’s no more combat against the Clans to be had in his government’s employ.

The Bastards stick around through the end of May, at least. Few of the planet’s residents join them; most of the large population centers were ruined during the fighting, and despite its newfound historical importance, Tukayyid is still a backwater. Our mechs keep an eye on the loading process, as DropShips arrive to carry off the portion of the population which doesn’t want to stay.

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

Nothing much going on this month.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (26, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
8. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
9. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
10. “Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
11. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
12. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (3, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. “Kicks” Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
15. Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
16. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now June 1, 3052, and a very different world awaits.

The Bastards are not currently under contract.

Finances

We have 47.259 million C-bills in the bank.

Repairs and Refits

The Awesome is still three months away from combat readiness. Otherwise, we’re in top fighting shape. An Ostroc is on the way for Blinky.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome Custom (refitting)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Sgt. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi (mrkilla22) – Archer ARC-2K
  • Pvt. Kevin “Blinky” Stirzacre (moghopper) – Ostroc OSR-2C (en route)
  • Pvt. Gwenael “Kicks” Hernandez (Sheyra) – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B (missing lasers)

Action Items

The whole of the Inner Sphere is our oyster, as the saying goes.

• In the short term, we’re in excellent shape. Our war chest is large enough to absorb a long wait while we refit most of our mechs to be more Clan-competitive. Alternately, we could take an easy contract while we’re refitting, taking it a bit more slowly and getting our greener pilots some experience against an easy opponent.
• As it happens, there’s just such a contract available: ComStar offers us a job fighting rebels right here on Tukayyid. Since some of Tukayyid’s residents aren’t happy about the devastation or the ComStar takeover and the Com Guards are seriously battered after the battle against the Clans, our services command a premium. ComStar would be paying us better than the Free Rasalhague Republic did.
• Do we take the ComStar contract while refitting, refit without taking a contract, or go looking for more opportunities to get stuck in against the Clans? (Although there was a truce, the Clans are a long way from the truce line across most of the coreward Inner Sphere.)
• On that note, what do we want to refit? I think it’s probably a good time to get the Stalker done, at a minimum, but most of our heavy mechs would benefit from a double heat sink refit. We’re a pretty energy-heavy company at present.

Introduction

(If you’re reading at Bay12 as opposed to one of the other places this runs, you can skip ahead to the last two paragraphs of the introduction, which reproduces stuff I’ve posted during the week there.)

Readers familiar with the BattleTech lore will have put May 1, 3052 and Tukayyid together already.

For everyone else, the Battle of Tukayyid is one of the seminal events in the history of the Inner Sphere. ComStar, up until now believed to be merely the people who run the hyperpulse generator interstellar communications network, reveal themselves to be guardians of enormous caches of Star League technology and an army as large as any of the Great Houses of the Inner Sphere. They challenge the Clans to a Trial of Possession, a throwdown for the fate of the known galaxy. Seven miniature battles are set for Tukayyid, seven Clans against seven units of the Com Guards. If ComStar wins, the Clans advance no further than Tukayyid for the next fifteen years. If the Clans win, ComStar forfeits Terra itself. I won’t spoil the ending.

What I will do, since the Opinionated Bastards are on the sidelines for this month, is replicate one of the official Battle of Tukayyid scenarios and play that, with the Bastards replacing the Com Guards for fun.

The scenario is #3 from the BattleTech Tukayyid sourcebook: Battle in the Suburbs. Clan Nova Cat’s forces, battered somewhat by ComStar aerospace fighters while landing, nevertheless marched on the city of Joje in moderate force. In the real timeline, two veteran Com Guard divisions stood ready to meet them. The Nova Cat commander who won the batchall for the attack bid a single Cluster, which matched the Com Guard strength mech for mech, but ignored the Com Guards’ penchant for combined arms tactics. An engagement in the northern suburbs between the 9th Division and the leading elements of the Second Nova Cat Guards saw the Clanners stopped in their tracks. The Nova Cat forces, heavily dependent on ammunition supplies, made no further progress into Joje.

In our hypothetical timeline, it isn’t the Com Guards who meet the Nova Cat forces in Joje, it’s the Opinionated Bastards. In particular, it’s Drake’s Destroyers, Second Lance, and Reserve Lance. Facing off against them are two stars of Clan mechs, one medium, one light. The light star is down one mech, for a total of 9 Clanners. All are elite pilots.

Continue reading →

Introduction

Drake looks over the plans for the Awesome’s refit and deems them good. It’s Kepano Endo again who takes on the task. Between reconditioning all the damaged internals, coming up with a way to fit Clan technology in, and changing the engine heat sinks out, it’s going to take…

Five months. Well, when it’s ready, it’ll be a sight to behold.

The Action of April 10, 3052

There are rumblings amongst the Rasalhague garrison that something big is going to happen soon: a truce, an Inner Sphere counterattack, something.

That’s a long way off, though, and we have more immediate concerns. A Rasalhague officer appears in the Bastards’ command post—a little more makeshift and a little more tumbledown than in the past; moving world to world at this pace is hard—and lets us know that a full Star of Clan mechs has been spotted marching toward the city of Spanac. There’s a Rasalhague force moving to intercept, but they’ll need reinforcements. Second Lance and Bear’s Bruisers drew patrol duty today. Drake redirects them there. It’ll be a race against time.

Since it’s been a while since these two lances deployed, here are their dispositions. The Ryoken still has a damaged arm, but will have to get by. The Ultra AC/20 is its main punch anyway.

The Opinionated Bastards are arriving a little late to the party. We’ll deploy as we arrive. To get full credit for the mission, we’ll have to keep at least some of the extant Rasalhague forces alive.

Round 1

None of our forces arrive until before Round 4.

The Rasalhague forces deploy around the city in the middle of the map, while the Clanners appear all along the northern border. They advance, exchanging LRM and PPC fire to no effect.

Round 2

The Rasalhague forces remain entrenched in the city, while the Clanners close from all angles. The lightest Rasalhague mech, an Ostscout, takes heavy damage and loses a leg.

Round 3

The Clan mechs, rushing into combat and toward glory, slip on the pavement. A Fenris trips, sliding into an approaching Ryoken and nearly tripping. The Rasalhague mechs, whose pilots are largely green, fail to take advantage. The Clanners, however, remain focused on the ailing Ostscout.

Round 4

Severe is the first to arrive on the scene. (The minimap shot up under round 1 has her position highlighted.) Her sensors paint a confused picture. Firing continues in the city. Severe is going to move closer, but attempt to stay out of the way until reinforcements arrive. Teddy Bear‘s Vulcan arrives before Round 5, and Simona in the Ryoken appears before Round 6.

Round 5

The Rasalhague Ostscout finally falls. A full company of mechs now battles in the city, although two of the Rasalhague mechs are hanging back. Teddy Bear arrives, and he and Severe link up on the road south of the city.

The heaviest Rasalhague mech, a Thunderbolt, falls. Chatter on the Rasalhague radio net turns panicky; that must have been their commander.

Teddy Bear quickly switches his radio over to the right channel, and calls for the Rasalhague forces to retreat and regroup south of the city, falling back on the Bastards.

Round 6

The six remaining Rasalhague mechs are a little slow to respond, and a little out of position to boot. Happily, most of them have jump jets, and the command to turn and run seems to be a pretty welcome one. Milspec in the Crab, plus the ever-dependable Wizard and Hanzoku in their Guillotines, arrive soon. With the Rasalhague forces rallying to us, we may be able to turn this around on the Clanners.

The allied Lancelot appears to be trapped; unable to jump and deployed on the wrong side of the buildings, it’s facing down the enemy Ryoken and Man o’ War. We’ll see if we can extricate it.

We can’t support it with weapons fire yet. Its pilot aims, not for the Fenris shooting at it, but at the building underneath it.

Round 7

The gambit doesn’t work; the building survives. The Lancelot is likely to take a serious beating.

South of the city, the Bastards and the Rasalhague forces are consolidating. Soon they’ll be in position to make a push.

The allied Ostroc actually has a shot on one of the enemy Fenrises, and takes it gleefully. So does the Cicada. Severe joins in, firing the Bastards’ first shots in anger from a Clan mech.

Round 8

Double Dog hits the field. Only Rook remains to join the fray.

We don’t have a lot of LRMs, but we also don’t want to charge around the corner until we can bring more mechs to bear at once. The allied Cicada, perched atop a building but out of sight of most of the enemy mechs, will do some spotting, as will the Lancelot, which is probably doomed this turn.

Round 9

The allied Lancelot does indeed eat it, and the Cicada takes a hit from one of the Fenrises which knocks out one of its legs. Fully half of the allied mechs have been either destroyed or rendered combat-ineffective. Happily, we’re now in a position to begin our own attack, swinging around to the left to engage the Clanners.

Simona finds himself a good position with the Ryoken, switching his Ultra AC/20 over to burst mode and targeting the rear of the enemy Ryoken. Rook, too, takes her first shot of the day, a low-percentage LRM-10 salvo against the enemy Ryoken. The allied commander, who survived the destruction of his Thunderbolt and managed to eject, is directing fire.

For his trouble, he immediately takes a hit from the Man o’ War’s large pulse laser.

Simona hits with one of his two AC/20 shells, shearing off the enemy Ryoken’s right arm and cutting deep into its right torso armor: a successful sneak attack. He’ll get down from the building now, to avoid taking any return fire.

Round 10

The allied Cicada is still clinging to life, but not for very long. Rook, who took command when she took the field, encourages its pilot to eject. The Rasalhague pilot does so.

At present, our forces are still jockeying for position.

Round 11

The next round sees the Bastards moving into attack range of the enemy. Severe takes a shot at a Fenris caught a bit out of position, joined by Wizard and the Rasalhague medium mech drivers. Simona is itching to bring his AC/20 to bear, but is just out of range behind a building.

The Fenris unloads at point-blank range with four medium pulse lasers, knocking the Rasalhague Wolverine over and readying a kick. Severe misses with everything, though Wizard scores with her PPC. The Rasalhague Griffin readies a kick itself.

Though the Wolverine absorbs a kick, the Griffin’s kick knocks the Fenris down.

Round 12

A pillar of dust around to the west comes as a surprise to the Bastards on the field. Sensor records later indicate that it was an enemy Fenris, attempting to flank, which skidded into a building.

The Rasalhague Wolverine loses an arm to fire from the Fenris, but beyond that, not much happens.

Severe is on the hunt for the enemy Fenris to the north, while Simona and Milspec aim to put some fire on the enemy Ryoken. Simona, unfortunately, is under fire from the enemy Man o’ War, too. Hopefully he’ll weather it well.

It seems he does: he takes a few hits, and fire from the Ryoken facing him eats into his left leg and strikes the myomers in the shin. Otherwise, his armor holds, and with a devastating AC/20 shot to the chest, he knocks the enemy Ryoken out. We’ll have to see about salvaging it later.

Round 13-14

The Clan Wolf Man o’ War moves up, and the battle is well and truly joined. Teddy Bear, Severe, Hanzoku, and Milspec have clear shots at it, while Simona has managed to move just out of its path. He exchanges fire with the flanking Fenris, now back on its feet, instead. Double Dog shoots at the back of the Fenris from up north, hoping to bring it down in concert with the friendly Wolverine.

As might have been expected, Simona loses the Ryoken’s right arm and its attendant medium lasers. Hopefully we can salvage those. The Man o’ War takes a good bit of damage, but Milspec‘s cockpit flashes with alarms: his right torso armor is gone.

Round 15

The Man o’ War lays heavy fire on the Koshi, which I stupidly put a little too close to its arc of fire. Severe does what she can to stay on her feet, but bolts shear apart and her mech’s left leg detaches at the hip.

Hanzoku, however, scores a kill on the Fenris hassling Rook, while Simona blows a leg off of the other one.

Round 16

Simona is out of danger now, and Rook is in LRM and large laser range of the Mad Cat perched on a building over to the east. The enemy Man o’ War, though still evidently in good shape, has nearly been cored; its center torso is all but gone.

Wizard scores the kill on the Man o’ War, shooting through its tattered rear armor, and knocking out its engine.

Round 17

Milspec is left to deal with the downed Fenris, while the rest of our little force advances on the Mad Cat, the only enemy still in fighting shape. Its pilot jumps down from the building, taking it out of the arc of fire of most of our mechs.

Trading fire with the Ostroc, the Mad Cat neither deals nor takes serious damage. Milspec gets the kill, kicking through the Fenris’ chest.

Round 18

For once, initiative goes our way. The Mad Cat moves first, and we’re able to bring a lot more firepower to bear; six or seven mechs take shots at the Mad Cat. Not many hit, however; we’re shooting from a bad position. Hanzoku and Wizard are going to try to get closer; their mechs are well-armored and have legs fit for kicking.

Simona takes a few hits, and his poorly-repaired Ryoken doesn’t behave quite like he expects. It tips over and falls, and as he recovers his senses, he realizes his left leg is out of action.

Round 19

It looks like the end for the Mad Cat, and indeed it turns out to be. Wizard‘s barrage of medium laser fire chews through its engine and brings it down.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

In the Crab, Milspec took heavy damage, while both Simona in the Ryoken and Severe in the Koshi lost legs. Despite that, injuries are light, and salvage is good. We take the Mad Cat and the Ryoken.

Both end up yielding good salvage. Unfortunately, we don’t manage to pull any intact ER PPCs out of the Mad Cat, but we do secure a Clan 375 XL engine, which we could probably trade for an Inner Sphere assault mech without too much difficulty.

The Ryoken ends up being an even better haul than expected. Its engine survived, too, and now we have a spare for Simona’s Ryoken. We also take an ER Large Laser from the wreckage.

Otherwise, the Mad Cat yields a brace of Streak SRM-6 launchers plus some ammo. We also strip a good deal of Clan Ferro-Fibrous armor off of the two mechs, which is important for our long-term capability to field the Koshi and the Ryoken.

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

Wizard continues her charge up the leaderboard with another two kills this month. She’s tied for second in mech kills, and has a dominating lead when it comes to bringing down Clanners.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (26, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (7, 6 mechs, 6 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
8. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
9. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
10. “Milspec” Ortega (4, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
11. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
12. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (3, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kill)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. Gwenael Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
15. Simona (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
16. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

As the Bastards scramble, as usual, to repair and refit before the next fight, something strange happens. On April 15th, the Clan Wolf forces raiding Tukayyid pull back to orbit. Soon after, our little backwater is suddenly the center of a tremendous amount of activity. Ships from six other Clans appear in orbit, along with a vast fleet of vessels with the ComStar insignia.

Our Rasalhague liaison bandies about terms like ‘batchall’ and ‘Trial of Possession’, which Hanzoku explains, and other terms like ‘the fate of Terra’ and ‘utter ruin if they lose’, which the rest of the Bastards understand just fine.

ComStar has taken over all defense arrangements against the Clans, and shunted the Rasalhague Republican forces off to provide security for civilians evacuated from the combat zones to come. We’re more than happy to babysit refugee convoys and sit out of the action for a bit. After all, we still get paid.

It is now May 1, 3052.

Contract Status

Our contract has been extended, but there’s a reasonable possibility it might be cut short early, unless ComStar loses.

Finances

We have 42.046 million C-bills on hand.

Repairs and Refits

With the obvious exception of the Awesome, which is still four months away from completion, the Bastards are at full strength. With the Clan heat sinks we salvaged from the Mad Cat and downed Ryoken, we were able to bring Simona’s Ryoken back to a full complement, and we even have five to spare.

As far as negatives go, several of the ER Medium Lasers in our Ryoken’s arm were total losses. At present, it has four instead of the design six, and we have no spares.

Training and Promotions

Teddy Bear acquitted himself well in combat, rapidly taking stock of the state of things when he arrived on the field. By taking command of the Rasalhague mechs, he managed to keep a full lance of them alive in the face of overwhelming Clan firepower. As such, he’s been promoted to Sergeant.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome Custom (refitting)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi – Archer ARC-2K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Gwenael Hernandez – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
  • Pvt. Kevin Stirzacre – Wasp WSP-1A
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B (missing lasers)

Action Items

• Not much to do right now, except sit back and watch the fireworks.

In the Mech Lab

The Opinionated Bastards reach out to FedCom officials via hyperpulse message, and the deal is made. We can now buy advanced Inner Sphere technology; our mech techs place a large order of double heat sinks on the same day.

Since the Awesome is a large part of our combat strength, we’ll have to hold off on refitting it until we’re between contracts. By February 6th, however, we’re ready to start on Severe‘s new ride, the Koshi. Hanzoku demonstrates to the techs how the omni system works, and all agree the interchangeable pods are pretty nifty.

The problem is, we don’t have very many podded weapons: just a pair of Clan ER Medium Lasers. Those go on, of course, but that leaves quite a bit of space left over. (Since the Koshi is an omnimech, we can’t alter its armor configuration without totally redesigning the chassis.) The techs scratch their heads, then draw up plans to wire in three of the ER Small Lasers from Hanzoku‘s old mech in fixed mounts. They can’t be swapped as easily, but at present, we don’t have enough Clan salvage to make that a problem.

Kepano Endo, one of the company’s original techs, takes a look at the specifications, grunts, and gets his team to work. On February 9th, he announces it’s finished. Severe takes it out for a spin and pronounces it good.

And good it is, at least in large part. It moves 7 hexes while walking or 11 while running, and can jump 6 hexes. Its five lasers generate 24 heat, while it sinks 20 per turn. Its alpha strike at ranges up to 6 hexes is a highly respectable 29 damage, dropping to 14 damage at ranges out to 15. (That’s the same range as an Inner Sphere large laser.)

Unfortunately, it’s rather lightly armored. The arms in particular are pretty floppy, with only four points of armor and four points of internal structure. PPCs of any flavor will readily knock them off, as will Clan large lasers, lucky missile hits, and more. As such, the armament is placed in the slightly more durable side torsos. No important equipment is in the arms. This makes it a little harder to target enemies behind the mech, but also makes it less likely we’ll lose Clan equipment. At present, we don’t have enough of it to throw it away.

In the Field

Nox is quiet through most of February. On the 22nd, a panicked Rasalhague intelligence officer lets us know that a large Clan force has jumped into the system. On the 25th, they reach Nox and make landings. By the 27th, the planetary capital has fallen and Clan forces are advancing on our sector. While the Rasalhague crews pack up the DropShips, the Opinionated Bastards are tasked with making a delaying attack on an overextended Clan force.

The Action of February 27, 3052

We’ve had about enough of being outgunned by Clanners, so we deploy Drake’s Destroyers and Second Lance against a short star of Clan heavies and a handful of reinforcing lights. Our Rasalhague ally is driving a Scorpion, a rare quadruped mech, armed with a PPC and an SRM-6 launcher.

The map is a minuscule section of hilly badland with next to no cover. It’s going to be bloody, but we’ve also caught this detachment off guard, so hopefully it’s not terribly bloody on our side. Knock on wood.

Round 1

We come over the ridgeline on the west side of the map and find the Clan forces arrayed before us. Only four mechs are in evidence at present, the heavies; we stumbled onto them before we found their screening forces. The latter should arrive shortly.

Although the numbers are heavily in our favor owing to whatever minor losses the Clanners took elsewhere on the planet, intelligence suggests these Clan pilots are more skiled than those we’ve faced previously. We’ll see how that plays out.

In the north, Drake is the target of most of the Clan fire, but gives out a beating too. He hits the enemy Mad Cat in the head; with a Clan PPC, he would have knocked it out instantly. As is, he wounds the Clanner pilot.

Return fire from the Mad Cat and Ryoken, however, knock out his right torso, which dramatically reduces the effectiveness of his armament. His center torso armor falls under the onslaught of the Mad Cat’s LRM-20 launchers. The Awesome is alive, but on shaky ground.

Round 2

The Clanners look at Drake‘s battered Awesome and seem to think it’s crippled enough to ignore for now. They probably aren’t wrong.

He calls out for focused fire on the Ryoken, and most of the lance complies. Woad, chasing the Mad Cat further north, decides to shoot at the target directly in front of him.

Woad‘s gamble pays off. His lasers cut into the Mad Cat’s left torso, striking its LRM ammunition and slicing off its left arm.

He attempts to kick the Clanner to add injury to injury, but doesn’t quite connect. Wizard, along with Milspec and our ally in the Scorpion, engage one of the enemy Fenrises and pierce its armor, but can’t quite bring it down.

Round 3

I’m a little concerned for the Awesome, which is attracting fire from the Ryoken and the southern Fenris.

Rook in the Stalker has laid down some serious damage, but not quite finished anything off yet. I have high hopes she’ll manage to do so against the Mad Cat.

It’s a close-run thing, but unfortunately, Drake‘s Awesome goes down to center torso destruction. It’ll probably be salvageable, but will take some time and some doing to put back into service. At the very least, it’s down for the remainder of the contract.

As a consolation prize, Rook takes down the Mad Cat. Under heavy fire, both Fenrises fall down. Wizard stomps the southern one, crushing it.

Round 4

The pilot of the enemy Ryoken ejects, for reasons not entirely clear to me. His mech was still in fighting shape, just shut down and fallen over. We may be able to salvage it, too. Although we’re already at our salvage limit, there isn’t going to be a Free Rasalhague Republic to complain for very much longer.

In a curious exercise in futility, the remaining enemy mech on the field, a Fenris, tries to stand up five times, failing the first four attempts. On the fifth try, he manages to stand… directly in front of Double Dog, who’ll compete with Carcer and Woad for the kill. Double Dog gets it.

Round 5

We reset, arranging ourselves to meet the Clan reinforcements. Inner Sphere screening units might have retreated, but Clanners are cut from different cloth. The two lights will attempt to avenge their compatriots.

Round 6

The enemy deploys at the northeast corner and southeast corner of the maps: a Koshi and a Puma, respectively. Perhaps we can score some spare parts for Severe‘s new ride.

The Koshi manages to find a spot where it’s very difficult for the northern force to hit it. In the south, however, the enemy Puma takes a solid thrashing.

Round 7

This time, the Koshi isn’t so lucky. The Puma, too, is facing down a ton of firepower.

Carcer‘s mech takes a hit to the head, knocking her out, but Woad retaliates by downing the Koshi. Wizard brings down the Puma, knocking out its engine with a shot to the left torso.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

Salvage is good. Because its pilot ejected after it overheated, the Ryoken is simply sitting on the battlefield, crippled but able to move under its own power. Drake, extricating himself from the Awesome’s cockpit, calls Rook on his handheld radio and has her bring in Hanzoku, who simply starts the Ryoken and marches it off the field.

Contrary to reports, the Awesome is down, but not out. The Rasalhague officers, watching reconnaissance reports warily, agree to loan us a few tanks to drag it back to the DropShip. As our techs cut into the shattered center torso, they find enough of the internal structure left there to make a rebuild a possibility, but it’s going to take a long time to get it back into full-on fighting trim. Drake is out a ride for now.

We receive about two and a half million C-Bills in battle loss compensation, most of it for the Awesome. Our Rasalhague liaison is sheepishly apologetic as he authorizes the payment.

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

After-battle review suggests Rook should be credited with the Ryoken, in addition to the Mad Cat. That breaks her kill drought, and puts her ahead of Drake again in mech kills.

Wizard has another good day, making ace on four Clan mech kills and one vehicle kill. She’s the current leader in Clan kills.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (26, 7 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Wizard” Que (5, 4 mechs, 4 Clan kills)
6. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (5, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
8. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
9. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
10. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
11. “Milspec” Ortega (3)
12. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (2, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. Gwenael Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
15. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

The Bastards pack up and burn away from another fallen world. In the command center of the Union dropship we’ve crammed into, Drake asks an officer where we’re headed next.

“A little nowhere world I doubt you’ve heard of,” the officer says. “Tukayyid.”

It is now March 11, 3052. We land on Tukayyid in two days.

Contract Status

Once we land on Tukayyid, the Rasalhague Republic will likely extend our contract by another two weeks to cover the travel time, which will push us into June. I can’t imagine they have much money left, though.

Unit Market

Nothing to report. The only mech available this month is a Blackjack BJ-1.

Finances

We have 31.621 million C-bills in the bank.

Repairs and Refits

As mentioned above, the Koshi is in fighting shape right now. We will have to do a little more work on it, swapping out the Clan anti-missile systems for Inner Sphere versions of the same. We can’t get ammunition for the Clan system, so right now it’s just taking up weight.

Surprisingly, the techs have managed to get the Awesome into something approaching fighting shape. It’s standing on its own two legs, and looks approximately like it did prior to the last battle. The techs have also informed Drake that it’s just in cosmetic good shape right now; it could possibly be rushed into combat, but would be questionably functional.

In the next mech bay over, the newly-salvaged Ryoken looks to be in pretty good shape. That’s a little misleading, though. It’s missing a few at-present-irreplaceable Clan double heat sinks, and its right arm, where most of its ER Medium Lasers are mounted, is in dire shape beneath the armor, barely attached to the chassis. It’ll need to be replaced; when reattaching it, the techs discovered critical damage we won’t be able to repair. To replace it, we’ll have to take all the medium lasers out, as well as the armor, and I don’t want to have to deal with that yet.

Recruitment

One of the Clanners survives, clambering out of the wreckage of the Mad Cat. He’s quickly taken into custody by our pilots. We’re about to cut him loose—the Clanners don’t pay ransom, and keeping a bunch of prisoners on hand isn’t really in the cards—when Hanzoku asks to have a word.

After a conversation of surprising speed and length, Hanzoku explains that the Clanner, Simona, is now a bondsman in Rook‘s service—an indentured servant who must prove himself to possess loyalty, integrity, and combat skill to earn his freedom back.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome AWS-8Q (out of action)
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Koshi Custom
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi – Archer ARC-2K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Gwenael Hernandez – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
  • Pvt. Kevin Stirzacre – Wasp WSP-1A
  • Rec. Simona – Ryoken/Stormcrow B

Action Items

• We can take advantage of the Awesome’s downtime to refit it now, adding double heat sinks and Clan ER PPCs, or we can rush it back into action so Drake has a ride again.
• We can refit the Ryoken further, switching to Inner Sphere double heat sinks in OmniPods. Doing so might not actually gain us anything over its present, damaged state—I’ll have to look at its current setup to see if it has the internal space to fit Inner Sphere heat sinks. Or, we can leave it as-is, down two heat sinks. (If we’re going to add Inner Sphere heat sinks, we should probably also take the time to scrap its damaged arm and replace it with a new one.)

Nox

The Rasalhague JumpShip leaves us on Nox, a pleasantly temperate world with some defensive forces still in place. It’s one world back from the front, at least for now.

The Action of January 25, 3052

Intelligence and preparation are classic Inner Sphere advantages over the Clans. This time around, the Rasalhague reconnaissance and intelligence forces give us a week’s worth of advance notice of Clan light forces arriving in our sector.

WIth time to set up, Drake and Teddy Bear hit on a plan: hide Drake’s Destroyers nearby, and dangle the Bruisers out front as bait. It ends up being a little more complicated than that—the projected course for the Clan force takes them through a badlands with next to no cover—but after disguising the Destroyers’ mechs as small hillocks, we settle in to wait.

Sure enough, the Clanners show up a few days later, tripping some remote sensors we’ve placed a few kilometers ahead. A few minutes pass, Drake wakes up his pilots and has them wake up their mechs, and before you know it, we’ve managed to bring twice the Clanners’ tonnage to the field.

The battlefield is open badlands, with no cover to speak of and very little relief to the terrain. This will benefit the Clans at first, whose weapons have absurd reach, but will swing around to helping us as we close in.

Round 1

We march from our deployment zone southward, taking desultory fire from a pair of ER PPCs and an ER Large Laser. Hanzoku, unluckily, takes a PPC to his arm.

Round 2

Carcer in the Flashman takes a few hits, but her armor is holding. Once again, we’re mostly out of weapons range. Next round should be better.

Round 3

Drake is still out of range, but will be able to bring the Clanners under fire next round. Most everyone else can hit the enemy Ryoken, the heaviest unit on the field. (The Pumas, however, with their twin ER PPCs, are probably more dangerous.)

Hanzoku scores the Bastards’ first hit; unfortunately, Severe and her Locust take a hammering and fall down. Hopefully they’ll leave her be.

Round 4

The green line is the extent of Drake‘s PPC range.

The Clanner scum squeak just outside of Drake‘s range. Happily, Severe manages to stand, so she’ll have a shot at running away if she doesn’t take too much more damage.

The Bastards’ shockingly poor gunnery continues, and Severe‘s Locust, alas, falls. She ejects, landing well away from the battlefield.

Round 5

Most of the Clanners continue to juke just beyond Drake‘s range; they rightly consider him the biggest threat on the field. The Ryoken, however, stays within his reach. He lines up and thumbs the triggers, along with nearly everyone else.

In the meantime, the reast of our mechs are getting closer, where the superior Clan technology doesn’t tell nearly as much. (An Inner Sphere mech fist punches just as hard as a Clan fist.)

While most everyone focuses on the Ryoken, Hanzoku and Teddy square off against the nearest Koshi, a Clan 25-tonner.

The enemy Ryoken falls on its side after taking two hits from Drake‘s PPCs, and some miscellaneous hits from other units. Hanzoku trades fire with the Koshi, and flubs a piloting check after taking a number of hits. He falls, and his large laser is out of commission.

Round 6

Woad leads a pair of Phoenix Hawks (one of them is Private Hernandez, one is our liaison) toward the Clan flank. Embarrassingly, Carcer slips as she enters the rubble pile pictured. (Needed: 3 or better. Rolled: 2. On 2d6.) Hanzoku, too, fails an easy piloting roll, and slips as he’s standing up.

The enemy Koshi closes in, taking another crack at Hanzoku. Teddy is there, hopefully to kick it in the back.

Drake scores three solid hits on the Ryoken, cutting deep into its center torso.

Round 7

Drake looks to finish the job, firing another three-PPC barrage at the Ryoken. The Koshi comes up on his flank; Teddy and Hanzoku will angle to keep him safe.

Pepper in the Archer is looking a little unsteady; there are a few enemies pointing weapons at him. He may have to fall back.

Drake does indeed finish the job on the Ryoken, with an assist from Carcer and her pair of large lasers. During the physical attack phase, he brings his Awesome’s battle fist around in a sweeping arc, slamming into the Koshi’s cockpit. Somehow, its armor holds, but it’s looking decidedly worse for the wear.

Round 8

Alarms go off in Pepper‘s cockpit, as his Archer takes internal damage. He throttles his mech up to a run, hoping to throw off the Clanners’ aim.

Much of the rest of the lance focuses on one of the Puma Primes, whose aforementioned PPCs are causing us no end of trouble. Behind Drake, the dogged Koshi moves into position for another attack with its machine guns and flamer. Hanzoku and Teddy are there, ready with both weapons and their mechs themselves.

Drake‘s PPCs hammer one of the damaged Pumas, shredding its torso armor. Carcer follows up with a shot into the structure, punching through its core and knocking it down.

Though Teddy and Hanzoku don’t manage many hits with their weapons, their physical attacks finish it off. Teddy kicks off its left leg, and Hanzoku kicks off its right leg.

Round 9

Pepper takes a few more hits, one of which knocks out an LRM-15 and comes perilously close to his ammo storage. He turns around, presenting his rear torso armor to the enemy, which is in much better shape than his front. He’ll try to get to safety behind what little terrain there is.

Hanzoku and Teddy are out of the fight for the moment, but thanks to their jump jets, they can hopscotch their way south and back into the thick of things.

Bear’s Bruisers have had the worst of it this go round, down two mechs—Severe‘s dead Locust, and Pepper‘s heavily damaged Archer. As such, the only forces in the south are our liaison in the Phoenix Hawk, Hernandez in the all-energy Phoenix Hawk, Woad in the Grasshopper, and Carcer in the Flashman. All are in pretty good shape, and the numbers will only go further in our favor.

Round 10

Woad boldly challenges the enemy Fenris face to face. Drake fires his PPC’s over the Grasshopper’s shoulder, hoping to support his lancemate. The rest of the Bastards will focus on the Puma-C nearest our forces.

Carcer once again scores solid hits on the enemy, slicing off the Puma-C’s arm with a large laser hit. The liaison Phoenix Hawk is looking a little unsteady, but stays on its feet.

Woad‘s challenge doesn’t really pay off; the Fenris hits him much harder than he hits it.

Round 11

Jockeying for position, the Bastards surround the damaged Puma-C, while Woad continues to bravely face off aginst the Fenris.

Teddy shows the value of his refit Vulcan, hitting with the Puma with four medium lasers and notching the kill.

Woad‘s bravery continues to fail to pay off; he falls under sustained fire from the Fenris.

Round 12

Woad runs for it; he’s taken some fairly heavy damage, and is notably low on head armor. The enemy Puma still has a shot at him, but Drake, in turn, has a shot at it, and a very good chance to hit with all three PPCs.

Woad takes hits from both the Fenris and the Puma, but lives to tell the tale, albeit with heavy damage and alarms blaring in his cockpit. Hanzoku scores on the Fenris by blowing up its engine, after Hernandez shot out its torso armor and heavily damaged its engine.

Cleanup

With only one Clan mech left, the battered Bastards line up and prepare to bring it down. Woad‘s Grasshopper, still clinging to life, survives a jump jet maneuver out of the Puma’s line of fire. Hernandez gets the kill to close out the mission.

After the battle, Hanzoku and Teddy flip for the right to claim the Koshi kill. Teddy wins. Privately, Hanzoku thinks it’s a lot more boring than a classic Clan trial by combat.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

If anything, we’re more beat up this time than last time. Pepper‘s Archer and Woad‘s Grasshopper are both going to take some serious time in the repair bays.

Woad and Severe are both injured, but not badly. They pop over to the infirmary; hopefully they’ll be back in action quickly.

Observant Bastards will notice that I elected to salvage both Puma Primes. Happily, we neatly cored both of them, and each has a brace of Clan ER PPCs we can pick up, bringing our total to five. Refitting the Awesome as soon as we can finagle some double heat sinks from the Federated Commonwealth seems like the thing to do.

Most interestingly, as the Clans fight more and more battles in the Inner Sphere, there begin to be some Clan parts available. In particular, there are sufficient parts to bring the Koshi back online, provided we can successfully repair its engine. If we do, I propose to assign it to Severe, who is currently without a ride. (Since her Locust was her property, we either owe her a mech or a payout for the value of it.)

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

Teddy Bear leapfrogs several people on the board. Congratulations to Hernandez on his first kill.

Drake, notably, takes the lead for mech kills, although he’s still ten behind Rook.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (24, 5 mechs)
2. “Drake” Halit (14, 6 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
3. “Woad” Kohler (12, 4 mechs)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (11, 5 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
5. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (5, 3 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
6. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
7. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
8. “Double Dog” Dare (4, 1 mech)
9. “Wizard” Que (3, 2 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
10. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
11. “Milspec” Ortega (3)
12. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (2, 2 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
13. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
14. Gwenael Hernandez (1, 1 mech, 1 Clan kill)
15. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now February 1, 3052. Our contract is extended to May 17, on account of transit time.

Contract Status

Reports indicate that Clan Wolf’s morale is high, and understandably so.

The situation for the Free Rasalhague Republic, and for that matter the Inner Sphere entirely, remains dire. Our latest retreat takes us two world away from the Clan front, where we’re already facing enemy scouting forces.

Unit Market

Not much in the way of mechs available: one Rifleman (large laser and AC/5 variant), one Dragon 1N (old-tech variant), and one Panther (a slow, 35-ton light mech mounting a single PPC and an SRM launcher).

We put feelers out to the Federated Commonwealth about access to better parts, along with a list of what we might be willing to part with. They responded with a potential deal; see Action Items.

Finances

We have 27.162 million C-bills on hand, although that number is dropping as we try to score more Clan parts on the crowded salvage market.

Recruitment

We welcome a new pilot to the ranks. Kevin Stirzacre is a veteran of the Rasalhague Royal Army, who hasn’t exactly been mustered out but has been stood down on account of there being very few mechs left in the Rasalhague forces. He saw that we returned from combat with the Clan forces with most of our mechs and all of our pilots, and thought that was a worthwhile thing to sign on to.

The Hot Dog ability decreases the difficulty on heat-related rolls (such as shutdowns or ammunition explosions). Gunnery Specialization – Energy means he rolls at a -1 bonus on all energy weapon attacks, and a +1 penalty on all other weapon attacks.

We un-mothball the Wasp we have in storage, put him in the cockpit, and attach him to Bear’s Bruisers for now, simply to keep our four-lance paper strength. Anything larger and the Bruisers aren’t a medium lance anymore. We’ll rejigger lances again soon.

Training

Milspec and Teddy Bear are now full-on veterans, both increasing their gunnery to 3+ and gaining the Hopping Jack trait (the penalty for using jump jets is only +2, not +3). Double Dog and Wizard both take a rank in piloting. Upon raising gunnery, they’ll move from Veteran to Elite status.

Repairs and Refits

A week of crazy work got all of our Inner Sphere mechs back in action. Drake’s Destroyers and Second Lance are on patrol; the other two lances are resting and refitting.

The Koshi is proving trickier; all of our most experienced techs cluster around it most days, scratching their heads. Hanzoku watches with concealed amusement. When it’s back in shape, I think the thing to do will be to refit it somewhat—remove the machine guns, slap in the ER Medium Lasers we have from previous salvage.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome AWS-8Q
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – n/a (provisional: Koshi)
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi – Archer ARC-2K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Gwenael Hernandez – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K
  • Pvt. Kevin Stirzacre – Wasp WSP-1A

Action Items

• The Federated Commonwealth will give us market access to advanced Inner Sphere parts (including IS double heat sinks) at the cost of two Clan ER PPCs and two OmniMech corpses for investigation. That would take us from five PPCs to three. For chassis, we’d have to give up the Fenris from last time, and one of the two Pumas. (Unless we want to give them the Koshi.) Should we take the deal?
• The Koshi continues to trouble our techs, but failing very unlucky dice rolls (always a possibility), we should have it back in service, in one form or another, by the end of the month. Should we assign it to Severe?

Since Last Time

The Opinionated Bastards pack up and ship out, leaving Piedmont for the Free Rasalhague Republic world of Stanzach.

In transit, we get word from the Free Rasalhague Republic intelligence liaison that the Clans have restarted their attacks, and that Stanzach is nearly overrun. They redirect us to Gunzburg instead, and even that isn’t looking like a particularly tenable position when we arrive on December 9.

Clan Wolf has advanced as far as Hainfeld and Wheel down to the galactic southwest; Clan Ghost Bear is as far as Alshain on the other flank.

We barely manage to land and get unpacked before reports reach us that Clan Wolf has landed on the planet and already overrun the capital. Provided we can survive until Christmas and are willing to fight the remainder of our contract elsewhere, the Free Rasalhague Republic has promised to send a DropShip to evacuate us. It’s a fair deal; we get a free ride back to the front line and keep the generous terms of the contract, and the Republic gets access to four lances of heavyweight mechs with veteran pilots.

First, though, we have to survive…

The Action of December 21, 3051

While the yet-unnamed Second Lance (Rook and company) is patrolling a wooded valley along the edge of our area of responsibility along with our liaison (who drives a Shadow Hawk), they stumble into the first Clan units. There are only four mechs; either a light star or a previously-damaged one. They didn’t call us up to offer a challenge, so presumably they bid for the right to engage us. Happily, Drake’s Destroyers are also deployed nearby, and will be able to join us in a few rounds.

The map is large and heavily forested, which plays to our advantage. Lots of cover means lots of opportunity to stay out of sight of the heavier Clan units until they get to very short range, where punches and kicks tend to negate their advantages in range, heat management, firepower, and speed.

Round 1

We deploy behind heavy woods in the middle of the map, where the trees will screen us from enemy fire to a degree. My goal here is to keep the enemy at a distance and shooting ineffectually until First Lance arrives, at which point we can hopefully overwhelm the Clanners. Their fault for attacking without sufficient reconnaissance.

More Clanners offscreen to the south. The red hexes are the jamming field from the enemy Loki.

Despite the briefings we’ve received, it’s still a little unnerving how much weapons fire comes from just four Clan mechs. Happily, they miss through the trees. Rook lands a few missiles on a light mech running through the trees, and takes a few shots from some kind of cluster-firing autocannon in response.

Round 2

Jockeying for position all around. Rook and Wizard have a decent chance of some hits on a heavy mech our helpful liaison informs us is called a Thor.

Rook and Wizard both hit, and are looking rather satisfied with themselves, when The Thor fires back. An AC/20 shell and a large laser tear into the Stalker’s right arm, slicing it off. To make matters worse, the Stalker falls, and Rook falls again trying to get back up. The Stalker is looking decidedly less healthy. (n.b. to make this series of events happen, Rook rolled 3 on 2d6 three times in a row, which has a probability of about one in five thousand. Maybe the Flashman was lucky.)

Round 3

Rook finally manages to get her Stalker on its feet, and runs it into a dead-end gully where it’s largely safe from enemy fire. Unfortunately, the enemy light mech (a Fenris, says the liaison, and a medium mech in weight despite its speed) has a shot. The rest of the lance can bring some weapons to bear on it, at least, although none has a very good chance to hit.

Round 4

The Fenris remains in the backfield, but doesn’t score any further crippling hits on the Stalker. Rook clips the enemy Thor in the head, but not enough to knock out its pilot.

Wizard and the liaison officer’s Shadow Hawk surround the enemy Fenris and both land kicks; it isn’t enough to knock it out or even knock it down.

Round 5

Drake’s Destroyers arrive! By more than doubling the enemy’s weight, we roughly even the odds.

The enemy Fenris has snuck around behind the Stalker yet again, a worrying trend, but it’s also been targeted by many of our reinforcements. The enemy Thor is likely going to take a highly destructive shot at Milspec in the Crab, but Rook and Wizard can both take a crack at kicking it, potentially.

Drake and Carcer (now driving Rook’s old Flashman) combine for our first Clan kill. Drake lands all three PPC shots on the Fenris, blowing out its remaining autocannon ammo, taking out its left arm, and chewing through its center torso armor, while Carcer cores it with a large laser and medium laser to the center torso. Rook kicks the Thor in front of her, and it falls.

Round 6

This round, we aim to put the enemy Thor in the ground. One way or another, I think we’ll probably manage it.

In the south, Drake has a very good chance of hitting the enemy Mad Cat with three PPCs (though, annoyingly, the Clan PPCs do a whopping 15 points of damage to our 10, the jerks).

Wizard scores the killing blow on the Thor after Rook softens it up, but not before it’s able to score immobilizing hits on Rook’s Stalker. (She’s still standing, but not able to move or turn.) On the southern front, the enemy Loki hits Double Dog in the Thunderbolt Tallman with two ER PPCs and knocks him over, while the Mad Cat plugs Drake with one.

Round 7

With only two Clan mechs left, it’s looking like the tide has turned somewhat. (Thanks in the main to our reinforcements.)

The enemy Loki isn’t going down without a fight, though. He scores an ER PPC hit to the head of **Double Dog’s* Thunderbolt, who only just manages to eject in time. Shrapnel from his exploding cockpit hits him hard. (n.b. per the game, he died; he’s now spent 1 Edge to survive lethal damage and has 1 Edge remaining.)

Drake and Carcer prove a solid combination again, knocking out one of the Loki’s PPCs and eating through most of its torso armor. The Loki’s pilot stays on his feet, but the mechs coming down from the north put enough fire onto the Mad Dog to knock it over.

Woad, who is driving one of our medium laser boats and therefore leading the charge, is close enough to kick the Loki from one elevation up. He plants his Grasshopper’s foot right on the Loki’s shoulder and shears it clean off.

Round 8

Swarming the Mad Cat, the faster elements from both lances aim to finish it off, or at least cripple it, this round.

Rook has managed to get her balance back a bit, and has turned partway around. At this rate, another eight or ten rounds and she’ll be back in the battle.

Private Hernandez in the Phoenix Hawk falls over, and neither Clan mech falls, though Drake, Carcer, and Milspec have done a number on the Loki, which is all but unarmored now.

Round 9

Still swarming the enemy. Drake gets his first Clanner kill, punching through the Loki’s center torso armor and knocking out its engine.

Wizard and Woad continue kicking the Mad Cat, which is more or less immobilized in a little dip in the terrain. Its right torso fails, dropping the arm off, and its left arm follows shortly after.

Cleanup

With all six operational, mobile mechs now focusing fire on the Mad Cat, it goes down. Wizard gets the last shot, her second kill of the day.

Damage, Injuries, Salvage

Rough day for the Bastards. The Stalker is a figurative wreck, while the Thunderbolt is a literal one (at least until we order a new head).

Carcer, Rook, and Hernandez are lightly wounded. Double Dog is on the brink of death.

Salvage is a better story. The Fenris, Loki, and Mad Cat all end up in our possession, although we’ll be hard-pressed to strip them before we’re heading offworld in four days. They’re beyond repair, but that’s hardly a great loss; we can’t buy parts to field them anyway.

The Thor is a different story. It’s actually functional, or could be restored to function; that puts it well outside of our salvage budget.

Kill Board(s)

Last Battle

Wizard is moving up the ranks.

All-Time Leaders

1. “Rook” Ishikawa (24, 5 mechs)
2. “Drake” Halit (13, 5 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
3. “Woad” Kohler (12, 4 mechs)
4. “Carcer” Ngo (10, 4 mechs, 1 Clan kill)
5. “Linebuster” Atkinson (5)
6. “Severe” Payne (4, 4 mechs)
7. “Double Dog” Dare (4, 1 mech)
8. “Ker-Ker” Ec (3, 2 mechs)
9. “Wizard” Que (3, 2 mechs, 2 Clan kills)
10. “Teddy Bear” Jamil (3, 1 mech)
11. “Milspec” Ortega (3)
12. “Euchre” Kojic (2, 2 mechs)
13. “Wojtek” Frajtov (1, 1 mech)
14. “Hanzoku” Yuksel (1, 1 mech)

Status

It is now December 25, 3051.

Contract Status

After radioing the Bastards’ command post to be sure it’s clear enough to attempt a landing, a Rasalhague Royal Army Union touches down, followed shortly after by a Leopard. There are just enough mech bays to fit the active units, and too little cargo space to comfortably fit all our salvage and parts. Our administrators work with the Rasalhague officers to make it work.

The men aboard the dropships are ashen-faced and gaunt, and no wonder. The Bastards who choose to wander get the sense this isn’t the first world the Royal Army has abandoned in a hurry, not by a long shot. It hasn’t been a very long war by the standard of such things, but it has been a brutal one, defeat followed by failure circling right back to defeat again. There’s very little of the Free Rasalhague Republic left to flee to. The soldiers and sailors aboard are very aware of that.

The more reflective Bastards realize that they got off easy. Only the presence of reinforcements turned a brewing rout into a costly victory.

Unit Market

There isn’t much worth mentioning for sale: an UrbanMech, a Dragon, and three Wasps. We’ll keep our eyes peeled for better stuff.

Finances

We have 23.155 million C-bills on hand, after purchasing the spare parts necessary to get the unit back into fighting shape.

Training

Wojtek increases his gunnery to 4+, the last Green pilot to join the ranks of the Regulars.

Ker-Ker and Double Dog have both used 1 Edge at various points in the campaign, and have 1 remaining. All the other claimed mech pilots have 2.

Repairs and Refits

Our mechs are back into fighting trim. In the rush, we haven’t had time to fix the paint, so they’re looking a little battle-scarred.

Mechwarrior Claims and Assignments

• For the record, the following mechwarriors are claimed.
  • Captain Huri “Drake” Halit (Mephansteras) – Awesome AWS-8Q
  • Lt. SG George “Linebuster” Atkinson (Hasek10) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Lt. SG Mariamu “Rook” Ishikawa (Culise) – Stalker STK-3F
  • Lt. JG Sung-min “Double Dog” Dare (a1s) – Thunderbolt TDR-5S-T
  • Sgt. Jose “Milspec” Ortega (milspec) – Crab CRB-20
  • Cpl. Damayanti “Carcer” Ngo (Dorsidwarf) – Flashman FLS-7K
  • Cpl. Tedros “Teddy Bear” Jamil (Knave) – Vulcan VL-5T
  • Cpl. Ferdinand “Woad” Kohler (A Thing) – Grasshopper GHR-5H
  • Pvt. Jan “Euchre” Kojic (EuchreJack) – Trebuchet TBT-5S
  • Pvt. Cathrine “Severe” Payne (Burnt Pies) – Custom Locust
  • Pvt. E-Shei “Ker-Ker” Ec (Kanil) – Lancelot LNC25-02
  • Pvt. Ed “Hanzoku” Yuksel (Hanzoku) – Guillotine GLT-4L
  • Pvt. Ik-jun “Wojtek” Frajtov (Blaze) – Trebuchet TBT-5N
  • Pvt. Xue-Min “Wizard” Que (Rince Wind) – Guillotine GLT-4P
  • Pvt. Abdul-Hafiz “Pepper” Popalzi – Archer ARC-2K
• The following mechwarriors are available.
  • Pvt. Gwenael Hernandez – Phoenix Hawk PXH-1K

Action Items

• We’re en route to Nox. Presumably, we’re honoring the deal we made for evacuation. If we don’t, then there’ll be consequences regarding our reputation.
• We have some Clan salvage (one ER PPC, two ER Medium Lasers, one double heat sink, one anti-missile system). The Free Rasalhague Republic doesn’t have much left in the stores to trade to us. Other employers (FedCom, the Free Worlds League) may be willing to share advanced technology with us in exchange for our Clan salvage. We can’t just slap the latter onto our mechs; advanced Inner Sphere tech isn’t up to the same standard as Clan tech, but also doesn’t require us to salvage a functioning Clan mech and put it back in service.
  • Put another way, should we look to trade our Clan salvage for access to advanced Inner Sphere weaponry, or hoard it and try to assemble a franken-Clan-mech or two?