Blastoid Stalkers (AAR)

[Blastoid]

The Blastoid Stalkers

Writers note:

Settings I am using. As I played the beta and watched a couple of streams pre-release I wanted to change up the start of the game a bit to make it more interesting for me. I also tried things out up to Weldry to make sure the mod’s I am using are working properly. Changes I am making


I am using GG release day hard mod.
I have altered the starting lance to a BJ, Panther, Commando, Urbie, Locust
I have changed the AI critical change multiplies from .2 to .9
Will not reload unless I have a bug issue like the convoy mission problems.



May 1 3025

Well that sucked.

Looked like a simple job. Take out static defenses and blow up buildings for the locals against a megacorp. I usually wouldn’t take a job like this but we had no choice, we had no other jobs available. Our last job went south and to field a lance we had to pull Butterbumps, our Urbie, out of storage to field a full lance. Behemoth got saddled with Butterbumps.

She is not happy about it.

We can thank Medusa for that, thinking he could just go up and stomp a demolisher tank. It didn’t work. Now we don’t have the Vindi, Ozone is dead, our Shadowhawk is trash and we need another pilot because I am sure as hell not letting Medusa near a mech again for a long long time. This also meant we needed another pilot, We heard about this phenomenal mech simulation gamer on Ur Cruinne. We found out she was a 4’ 11", 17 year old orphan who was making ends meet by hustling money out of older players who thought “there is no way I am going to get my ---- handed to me by a little girl”. So we hired her and put here in the Panther. She calls herself Glitch.

Decker is still in his Commando, how the hell he lived when we lost 2 mech and 1 pilot is anybody’s guess.

Looking at the terrain it looked like the best plan was to go around a mesa so we could get close to the turret generator without taking any direct fire. Of course Butterbumps is so fracking slow that Behemoth had to take the more direct route. As we approached they started blasting out their loudspeaker that we were supporting a terrorist organization. At that point we should have turned around marched back to our employer and blew up their turret generator, their ambush vehicles and everything else. Then we could of asked Majesty Metals for some cash for the favor. But no, we were stupid and kept on the mission.

A couple of crappo light mechs come racing out the facility like gangbusters rearing for a fight. Glitch, and I hug the backside of the first mesa, Dekker runs around the far side and Butterbumps pops behind the 2nd mesa farther back. We take some hits from sensor lock turrets but nothing too bad early. Then Glitch And I jump to the mesa’s top and reign holy hell down on the turret generator while dekker runs around the flank doing the same. Dekker runs up close and finishes the job. Meanwhile Behemoth, mad as hell she is driving a trashcan, takes her vengeance out on the MMM commando. First shot leg gone, second shot right torso gone. When we are done with our work with the turret generator Glitch finishes the commando off and seems quite pleased with herself. As I jump back off the Mesa the spider pilot goes full on metal and DFA’s my Blackjack and misses.

Well that was the end of the spider, I just back away and alpha strike it and it falls backward down the cliff.

Now down at our second objective a Shadow Hawk and two vehicles are dropped off. Dekker takes a few potshots as they move up the hill, taking out one of the tanks. When the Shadow Hawk gets to the crest we just all unload on him, jumping around and hoping he does not punch us. He goes down and I get the honor of finishing him off. The last tank at this point was easy pickings.

Waiting for the Shadowhawk.


Good job well done and we are healthy and get paid. Right

No.

Instead our clients, who really probably are terrorists, (thanks for the warning MMM, we will take your side next time) decide they want our mechs. Of course they do not decide this when are mechs are coming back and out of formation but rather while we are standing right next to their turret generator.

Stupid Stupid Stupid.

So we blow up their generator and their tanks and a couple of their buildings for fair measure. I think most of that was Glitch. She was not angry just having too much fun.

So here we are healthy but not getting paid and not getting salvage.


Some days I hate my job.

 

[Blastoid]

May 2 3025

So we have a team meeting.

Why?

Because we are almost out of money and we cannot actually go anywhere that pays money.
After some arguing, pontificating and other crap we finally decide that Darius should go find some shall we say “outside of the box” contracts.

And next month we cut our operating costs in half

Great.

 

[anonynamja]

Re: AICritChanceBaseMultiplier = 0.2 to 0.9
What is the equivalent for player mechs? 1?

 

[Blastoid]

Re: AICritChanceBaseMultiplier = 0.2 to 0.9
What is the equivalent for player mechs? 1?

There is a certain chance when a shot goes internal that one gets a critical hit. If you hit the opp, this means there is a critical hit. My understanding is that this setting of .2 means that when ever your own mech has internal damage this change is reduced. So the chance that the player mech gets a critical is 20% that of the Computer. I changed it so it is a 90% chance, making it nearly even. I think they did this to reduce the chance that a random shot going internal would ruin your day making the game more frustrating. I could be wrong though and would love to hear from someone that knows more.

 

[anonynamja]

There is a certain chance when a shot goes internal that one gets a critical hit. If you hit the opp, this means there is a critical hit. My understanding is that this setting of .2 means that when ever your own mech has internal damage this change is reduced. So the chance that the player mech gets a critical is 20% that of the Computer. I changed it so it is a 90% chance, making it nearly even. I think they did this to reduce the chance that a random shot going internal would ruin your day making the game more frustrating. I could be wrong though and would love to hear from someone that knows more.

Just as a reference, I saw that amechwarrior's AMP v4 set AICritChanceBaseMultiplier = 1

 

[Blastoid]

I was thinking of making it one, but was not sure if it would work. I will change it next time I get a chance.

 

[Blastoid]

May 3rd

Well Medusa is not happy with being grounded. He left.

Good

We picked up a guy to replace him. Name is Thomas Hayer, call name Saber Cat. Smart guy knows how to think tactically and understands what he is trying to do on the battlefield. Unfortunately he completely sucks at actually driving or shooting in a battlemech.

He will have to work on that or he will not last long.

Some minor repair, just a heatsink and a damaged Medium laser on the Blackjack. We also had to fix the internal heat damage Glitch caused when she got “overexcited”.

We also picked up a travel contract. It is to Bellerophon, we are to take down a “terrorists” convoy. Of course one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. Anyway, it is the only paying job we have so we are going to do it. Going high on money low on salvage because we are going to need money cause we don’t got much.


May 10th


Banks called us on some crap excuse for changing our loan. We told them to go shove it and they backed off.


May 17th

Because we will need speed here, our locust is in and Butterbumps is out. I am putting Glitch in the Blackjack, god help me, but she shoots better than anybody else of the team. I am taking the Panther, Behemoth in the Commando and Sabercat gets the Locust. Should be a good milk run mission to give him some experience. Dekker is sitting this one out and enjoying some beer on the Hysteria.

We came down hot and, unfortunately, behind the convoy. The convoy guard were pretty easy to take out, just a Locust 1M and 3 light vehicles. Glitch took down the locust and a Striker in one volley and after I swear I could hear her singing them a farewell tune as she did it.

Anyway the problem was not the guards but the convoy itself. It contained 3 fully armored Strikers and a Galleon. They were on a road ahead of us and we were stuck in a ravine behind them. One got stuck behind and was easy to kill but the others got way ahead. Saber Cat, having the only mech that could outrun them, chased like his namesake and got to the second to the front vehicle in the convoy, taking it out but in doing so took a lot of fire from ahead and behind. Also it seems he does not know how to aim a Medium laser for the life of him, but his machine guns eventually did and Dekker in his commando caught up to vehicle 3. That left the front vehicle, which even Saber Cat could not catch. Fortunately the road looped back on its self and up a cliff. Turns out up on top there is a giant dam and a reservoir. A reservoir filled with millions of tons of water hundreds of meters above the ravine we were just shooting high explosives.

Smart.

Glitch and I got to the front convoy striker just in time, about a hundred meters from the escape point. I softened it up and Glitch took it out, overheating in the process, again.

This time we got paid. We had to run hard to earn your 130 grand but we did it and also picked up a few LRM 10’s off the Strikers in the process.

Nice to have a contract go right for once.

 

[Blastoid]

May 18th 3025

Saber Cat came by the Cabin to post-op the mission. He comes with a list of 17 mistakes we made, mainly focusing on how we focused too much on the guards and not the actual convoy. We argue over the points on this list but really most of his points are right. Still he forgot to add one, that he needs to learn how to shoot a laser and drive a mech.


May 25th

After a few days fixing up damage on the mechs (thanks Glitch) it is time to make more cash.

I check with the review board, there is one mission present with the board. The pay is crap (84K max) but we take it and ask for salvage. It is another mobility mission, recovery of lostech, so again Butterbumps is out and the Locust is in.

This time Dekker gets to sit in the commando and Behemoth sits out.

She is not happy

The location is supposed to be a heavily defended mountain facility. Heavily defended turns out to be 1 beat up spider and 3 light vehicles, all in bad repair. We make easy work of them though one of the strikers SRM’s hits Dekker’s cockpit. He is OK just a little bloodied. He takes his frustrations out on the Spider, taking out its head and cockpit both out in the same alpha strike. You don't mess with Dekker.

That’s really it, just 21K and a piece of a spider an AC5 and some missile launchers for the collection.

Honestly at this rate of pay we are not going to last. These contracts are so cheap that one unlucky shot and we are under.


We need better options.

 

[Blastoid]

May 26, 3025

We may have just gotten a better option.

Darius turned up a potential off the record contact. Turns out the meet and greet (and hopefully to defenestrate to space) was on Bellerophon. We are already here so there seemed to be no reason not to check it out.

Turns out our contact is Lady Centrella of the Royal Family of Canopus. Not here in person but a communication link with her.

She wants us to fly to a pirate moon and secure a large ancient ship. I would be surprised if it could like, it has scaffolding running through it like maggots through a corpse. But the job pays very well, would give us 4 -5 months operating expenses.

We need this break and we need it to work. The question is why us? There are much better equipped outfits out there. We take an Urban Mech into the field for God’s sake.

But it is out break so we take it.


We are going to a moon and space is hot. It going to take some time to get there so I have Yang take a ML out of the Blackjack and add some extra armor. Nothing I can do with the other mechs though.



May 30

I Find Saber Cat writing at his bunk, deep in thought. I ask him what he is doing. He says he is writing about the Political Ramification in Liao of the Great Lee Turkey Shoot. I leave him to his work.



June 1st 3025

Time for financial overview. Despite two successful operations and little damage to repair. We lost money. Even in success we will go under within a year. We cut cost almost in half, the crew is going to hate it but we need to be able to stay sustainable.

Lets hope this gamble of a mission pays off.



June 2nd 3025

I find that Glitch has been making some alterations the bunks. She has created her own “attic” where she keeps a small speaker and a shrine to a Rasalhaguian pop idol. Behemoth hates the music and we cannot afford the cost the bank will charge us for the repairs.

We can’t afford this right now. I tell her to restore the room back to normal. I charges off into the lavatory tears streaming from her eyes. The next day the room is back to normal.

She won’t talk to anyone else for 5 days.


Teenagers.

 

[Blastoid]

June 13th, 3025


The jump to the moon was unpleasant to say the least. It was a pirate jump point, pretty rough but it woke everybody up to the fact there is important business today.

Our job was to infiltrate the base of some self-styled pirate queen. We were to take out the air defense so Sumire could drop in drop off a crew of marines and engineers that would clear the vessel and get it running again. While they were doing this we were to take care of any ground forces. The Pirate Queens calls herself Grim Sybil, Glitch Laughed at this. It is good to see her laughing again. She shoots better when she is happy.


Dekker is still recovering so he sits out. Sabercat gets promoted to the Commando and Behemoth gets Butterbumps. The first part was fairly routine. We approached on the back side of a hill, blocking fire from two turrets. We took them out then the vehicles started coming. Glitch, Behemoth and I had a turkey shoot of our own as vehicles came up the valley between the two air defense towers. Sabercat set himself behind the right defense tower and took out a vehicle flanking us to the right. Towers destroyed we pushed on into the base proper.

Then things got very hot. First we ran into three banged up lights, A Jenner, Commando and Locust, along with a couple of vehicles. Behemoth got Butterbumps up onto the top of one buildings, and Glitch and I took another. We were able to flank the Jenner and take it out quick. They concentrated fire on Sabercat and he got beat up taking some internal damage and a head hit. We were able to take them out but were running hot and losing armor.

Then Sybil came.

She comes blazing out in a Quickdraw with a lackey in a Shadow Hawk. The Shadow Hawk came in first with Sybil trailing behind shooting LRM’s and screaming that she was going to carve us like a roasted pig.

But she does not know that we have a homicidal teenage girl on our side.

Then Sybil Headshots Glitch with an LRM, this just made Glitch mad, but in a happy mad sort of way. We go after the Shadow Hawk First. Butterbumps starts it off with a nice shot to the leg and Glitch finishes it off. The mech goes down and Butterbumps takes off the other before it can stand up again.

Bodyguard down.

Sybil then moves up and rips off most the remaining armor on the Commando but Saber is still standing and now running for his life. We flank her to the right and just hit as hard as we can. Saber out of fear and Glitch out of uncontrollable joyous rage light into Sybil’s right side, ripping her to shreds.

Lesson here

Don’t mess with Glitch.

Her kill list. A Quickdraw, Jenner, Locust and five vehicles.

She killed more mechs and vehicles than the rest of us combined.

Don’t mess with Glitch, she may look cute and innocent but she is a whirlwind of destruction.


Our job done, we have to wait and prey that Saber and Glitch don’t set off their ammo as they try to cool down. Then we board the Argo and it actually takes off.


I guess miracles do happen.

___________________________________

Then another one does.

It turns out a mystery client is actually Kamae Arano, who I worked for in the past. Seems she was impressed with me, when I was her bodyguard and everything went crazy on Coromodir. I helped escort her to a dropship to get her off planet. I had heard that the ship did not make out of orbit and she was killed.

Guess they were wrong because she defiantly is alive, kicking and wants to employ us.

She also has money, lots of money. That is a good thing. The fact that she is now a Canopian puppet bothers me a bit, but money is money and she seemed alright, if a bit entitled, all those years past.

We also found a Centurion chassis on the ship we recovered. With some work and care we now have a bigger mech.

This battle was tough, it put Glitch and Saber Cat in the med bay and seriously chewed up our Commando and the Blackjack.

But a new mech and a whole lot of money. Things are looking up for once.

 

[Blastoid]

June 16th

We are in better shape financially but right now we need a break. Three pilots are in the med bay. Mech repairs were rough, 55K and 25 days total, and we have not even started on the centurion.

What we need is a shortrange mech that can take and dish out damage . We can make the Centurion into that mech but we do not have the right parts right now. We need more SRM’s and or a higher barrel AC. This does not matter right now anyway, as we need to get our existing mechs back up first.

There is a local contract but we can’t take it because we can’t field a lance. Instead we take a travel contract to Detroit. We can get our mechs back up and heal a bit before seeing more action. Fortunately we have the money now to wait awhile


June 17th

With all this extra repair work to do right now Yang is asking to use more space. Since 3 of our pilots are down in mechbay right now and not going anywhere… Sure why not.

Behemoths is not happy about it but what else is new.


June 21st

Dekker is out of Medbay. Glitch is still there and is struggling with being stuck in a bed with nothing to do. Sabercat is there to but all he does is sit there and read books. He seems just fine but it is driving Glitch crazy when he just won’t talk to her.

Yang comes by with a robotic puppy for Glitch. Glitch names it Ruby.



July 1st

Work on our mech go quicker with the “expanded mechbay” we can know get a start on the centurion, putting an AC5 and an SRM6 on. Will wait till Detroit to see what else we can fit in there.

Time to go over financials, we earned 900 thousand C bills last month, the best month in since…… ever. Going from spartan back to normal operating costs. We have a small party in the med bay so Glitch and Saber can participate.


July 3rd

Today Glitch and Behemoth got into a fight about coffee. Turns out are new order had not come in yet and we ran out of last month’s meager reserves. Sumire and I had to seperate them and give them both half a cup. Us grownups got none.

We have been in space and inactive for to long. Time for some action to set everyone’s priorities straight.


July 7th

We enter orbit around Detroit and get right to it.

A Local government family claim they had some land swindled from them by Marik government agents. Our job is to reoccupy the local base so the family can come back and everything can be just as it used to be. Pays well at quarter milllion C-Bills.

Glitch is back and ready but Sabercat is still out and the Centurion is not yet ready. So It is everyone in their usual places. Glitch in the Blackjack, Me in Panther, Dekker in the Commando and Behemoth in Butterbumps.

The mission was a cakewalk. We come up onto the base in classic Stalker style, behind a large hill and out of sight. The place appears deserted by modern military base, so much for “ancestral property”. Just when we get down to the base, Marik forces appear. First a Spider comes racing across the plateau. As we calmly start to dismember the various appendages from the spider, PPC fire comes down from the cliffs above. The Panther gets a few good shots in, breaching Dekker’s torso armor but soon we have his right arm off and the mech destroyed. Then it is just pick up and ship out. Glitch did not even get her Mech overheated this time.

Good easy money, just the way we like it.

 

[Blastoid]

July 8th

We got a HPG ping from Lady Arano. She wants us in the Weldry system. It will take us 39 days to get there direct, so we go looking for some work along the way. Turns out there is a contract for the Linhauiguan system. Turns out they want to ‘retire” an old Capellan Mech warrior. Never really liked Liao much, my parents told me about their efforts to “liberate Andurien” when I was a kid. We take the job and head off.

We put the SRM 6 that we got from the last mission onto the Centurion, with some jump jets heatsinks and a ton of extra armor it should be a nice brawler for our squad.

July 15th

Darius notes we are low in medical supplies, Sumire wants to buy bulk discount. This would make sense if we had any place to put them. We don’t because of the mess Yang has made of the Leopard, so we just do a minimal restock.


July 24th

We arrive in orbit around Linhauiguan for the retirement recruitment drive. Behemoth is the pilot of the new Centurion. I sit this one out, having Sabercat take the cockpit in the Panther. Glitch is in the Blackjack and Dekker is in the Commando as usual.

We get dropped off at the edge of a large lake with intel that the target is ahead and up the steep hillside. I think this guy knew we were coming. A set of 4 vehicles were placed along the hillside, some up high overlooking our drop zone. On the other side of the lake there were 3 light mechs, A Jenner, Panther and Firestarter, hiding and waiting. When we engage with the front vehicles when the light mech come screaming across the lake. Then the back vehicles and the target rain LRM fire down on us from out of sight.

Yep we got ambushed.

Glitch and Dekker move up the hillside to work on the vehicles first. We make quick progress but all the while they are getting pot shots from LRM’s and PPC’s from two directions and armor is flaking off like tree bark. We are stuck with a choice, if we pursue the target the lights will be in our backs or we can pursue the lights and let the target get away. We decide to go after the lights, bringing Glitch and Dekker down off the hillside, while Sabercat switches to sensor lock mode to keep himself in one piece. We take out the Jenner with concentrated fire then leg the Panther in the water. The Firestarter moves back just as our target moves up in a well used Orion.

We were going to let him escape but he came up to engage, so game on.

We charge up the hill and rush him hoping the movement and distraction will make him miss. Behemoth unloads a strong alpha strike ripping most of his CT armor away. Then the damn Firestarter jumps in and makes Behemoth very toasty, almost shutting her down as our target. Fortunately this is the time that are target wets his pants and starts to run. He had behemoth in the open, internals glinting in the sunlight with heat just below shutdown and he just ran. We catch him in a mineral field. Sabercat sensor locks, Dekker uses SRM’s to make him fall and Glitch gleefully takes him out, overheating in the process, again. The Firestarter is mop up duty and we head home battered but on the winning side and in one piece.

In the end a successful mission but it almost went very bad. Two pilots (Behemoth and Sabercat) in the mech bay and every mech with some internal damage. We were lucky to come out of this one as well as we did. Behemoth almost got shut down, Sabercat almost got killed.

But this ain’t horshoes so we won.

 

[kstanb]

Time to sell/ store that commando? replace it with something less vulnerable

 

[Blastoid]

Time to sell/ store that commando? replace it with something less vulnerable

I wish.... It is my 4th best Mech. The damage it can put out is impressive for such a little guy. Locust will go first but not willing to replace it until I can salvage a full other mech, Getting five parts takes time.

 

[Blastoid]

July 25th 3025

We need to repair and heal up for a while. Weldry is still a couple of jumps away so we take on a travel contract on Untran, which again moves us closer to Lady Arano. It is an escort mission for Liao, transporting scientists who have turned on their old employers. The high pay and salvage which makes me worry that we are getting in over our heads.


August 1st

Financial report, broke even this month, which is good as we had to do a lot of repair from Argo Mission. Keeping things on level.


August 9th

Arrive at Untran, another abandoned, barren world. No pilots of any worth here to hire as well so we need to wait a few days for Behemoth and her Centurion to be ready to deploy for our mission for the Capellans.

It Turns out Glitch named the Blackjack Daisy.


Aug 15th

We bit off more than we could chew this time.

The mission was to escort some scientists an APC’s out of a “terrorist run facility”. We went with the usual mech Assignments, Glitch in “Daisy” the Blackjack, Behemoth in the Centurion, Dekker in the Commando and Myself taking the Panther. The Building housing the scientist was below us in a large Basin with a Lake. We got intel that the “terrorists” were coming in from the other side so we kept Glitch on the top of the cliffs to potshot as the rest of us came down to meet the enemy.

They were a light lane; a Firestarter, Spider, Locust and Commando. The first thing the Spider does is run right through the building which houses scientists waiting for transport, killing most of them. It seems like these guys don’t really care about their scientists, but simply just want to make sure we don’t get them. We rush in, trying to make sure more scientists are not killed in the crossfire. As Sabercat would point out later, this was a tactical mistake but at the time it seemed like the right thing to do. Dekker got to aggressive, thinking his speed would keep him safe. They concentrated fire on him, taking out his right torso and arm. Then the Spider jumped behind him and almost cored his mech out with a punch. I ordered Dekker to high-tail it out of there, jumped behind the Spider and tore the right side off the mech. Behemouth was now in the middle of the battlefield using a copse of trees as cover. I joined her as Glitch rained down laser and AC fire from above.

Figure 1: Dekker in a Bad Spot


It turns out we were too far forward. The Commando and Locust got behind us and tore into our backs, Behemoth got out OK but the damn Locust hit my SRM ammo and the left side of my mech was gone. Good thing the put the PPC in the right arm.

When the smoke cleared they were all down, but we were not in good shape. Dekker’s Mech was barely functional, held together by a thread. I just had a PPC and no left side. But Behemoth and Glitch we fine so we continued on to secure the rally point. What was left of the scientists boarded APC’s and we moved along a lake to the drop ship platform.

Figure 2: Convoy Duty


Things were quiet on the transit, but when

the first pair of vehicles got to the loading zone we suddenly get heat traces of mechs starting up. One of them is a Hunchback that just turned on and walked out right in front of me, thankful missing the fact that there I was in a one-armed Panther with my mouth open and piss running down my leg.

Figure 3: Yes that is a Hunchback on my exposed flank


This job just went from almost done to a lot of hard work.

I run right in front od the Hunchback, Fire my PPC hit him in the CT. Jump behind him hit him in the rear LT with the PPC, no crit on ammo.

Crap

Glitch gets in position to take potshots but they do little. Behemoth jumps to just below the Hunchback at the base of a cliff. Hunchback moves forward and misses her with the AC20. Three more mechs race out A Cicada (PPC type) and two Commandos. Dekker is stuck in a corner, cannot get out.

Crap

Behemoth jumps over the hunchback into its rear arc. Lets go with everything, LT blows off , ammo Gone.

Figure 4: The Behemoth Ballet.


AC20 Down. Good.

Their other mechs race towards the convoy, but cannot hit it because they are out of sight in this little depression. The drop ship is here now, they are getting on.

Good, I think.

I flank around to get one more backshot on the Hunchback, taking it out. Behemoth takes a backshot at the Commando that is about to light up the convoy, its right side is ripped away. The Cicada turns around and runs to Behemoth’s rear, unloads the PPC and lasers. Behemoth responds by punching the Cicada, in the cockpit. End of Cicada. The Dropship rises with it Scientists, mission accomplished.

Glitch finishes up the Commandos. We pack up and go home.


Both Dekker and I need to go to med bay, nothing to bad but we won’t be back in a mech for close to a month. The Commando is in bad shape, will be while before we get it running again. The Panther and Centurion need some work to. Half our pay will go to cover mech repairs.

But there were a couple of nice prizes on the battlefield. Over half a Firestarter for us to collect. And a nice fat AC20 off the Hunchback because we took it out from the left side and not the right.

 

[Blastoid]

The Bad Idea.


AUG 21st 3025

We have an issue.

Simply put we have to many Mech Warriors in the med bay to do another mission. We can field a lance with our two mediums, the Locust and Butterbumps while the Commando and Panther get fixed. This way we can make some money here before heading off to Weldry. The problem is that we need 1 more pilot and Dekker and I are still in sickbay.

So we came up with a plan. Sabercat and Behemoth went out to the Vindi’s (a half vacant establishment on its last legs) and chatted up the potential pilots there. They were all desperate for a job, they had to be since they are all stuck on this hellhole of a rock. It was simple, a drinking contest with Behemoth. The person that lasted the longest we would hire for a 1 mission trial. We would likely not keep them on but you never know.

They went out and we ended up with a guy who goes by the callsign of Secutor. He is the 3rd son of a minor branch of the Parata Family from Tyrion. Ended up on the wrong side of the coup, He has some experience in his older brother’s ancestral mech, a Griffin. We hire him and put him in Butterbumps. We tell him just to pick a good spot and shoot the enemy.

Our mission sounds simple this time, just go out and take out a pirate lance that has causing trouble in the area. We have Glitch in Daisy, Behemoth in the Centurion, Sabercat in the Locust and the new guy in Butterbumps.

First off, this planet is hostile, hot, dusty and full of radiation. There is no cover except a few rocks and we get dropped off on the long gentle hillside hemmed in by rough rocky terrane. The Pirates show up quickly and they show up everywhere, multiple blips across our front, mostly uphill of us.

There is no good position to take, we are already flanked and do not have cover or an escape route. There are some rocky ledges and we duck below them to stay out of sight on the units on top. They start to come into sight, a couple Locusts and a Spider, then a Wolverine right in front of us. Unfortunately, the fast ones are above and the big one right in front of us. There is also a medium and some vehicles peppering us with LRM’s. We push forward and concentrate on the Wolverine because well, we can actually hit him. We almost core him out but Behemoth moves to far sideways and loses the front facing just when she was supposed to core the CT. The new guy cannot hit the back side of a barn. This costs us extra time and heat.

Figure 1: Fight begins

The other medium comes within sight and it is a Kintaro. Our movement is severely impeded by rocky terrain and larger boulders, no real cover for the indirect and direct fire we start to receive. We are in bad shape and no way to get out.

Then the Kintaro leaves his back exposed, but only if we do a jumping to flank. Glitch and Behemouth take advantage and light him up, taking out his right side and almost coring him but overheating big time in the process.

Figure 2: Backshotting the Kintaro

The Kintaro turns around and chargers Glitch, punching right through her right torso. Then the lights come swarming in and she is lit up like a Christmas tree, with half a mech and no armor anywhere. Sabercat saves the day in his Locust, racing across the battlefield into the Kintaro’s back arc and finally takes it down. Now this puts him in a bad position and the lights and tanks light him up as well. Glitch jumps away and gets out of contact with the enemy. She wants to join back in once cool but we force her to stay out of it.

The rest of the battle is a confusing mess of Locusts running around like rabbits, an Urbie jumping up and down like a pogo stick and Behemoth sitting in the middle killing them enemy one by one. Sabercat loses both of the arms on the Locust arms and finds it to be a good time to split and hide behind a rock. We take out the Spider, the vehicles, then the Locusts and finally it is all over.

Figure 3: A Plague of Locusts

We won, but at a big cost. Financially we did fine, turning a profit. All of our mechwarriors (except the new guy) have wounds but none of them serious. The problem is the time it will take to fix the mechs. Repairs to Butterbumps and the Centurion are minor but the others are major (3 arms and 2 torsos). It will take us 2 months to field a lance almost 3 to have our top configuration ready to go.

Figure 4: The Costs. (Note the armot levels on the Blackjack and the Centurion)


Well, we are not doing that again, no more rent a mech-warrior or fielding the Locust in a real fight.

The question is what to do next.

 

[Blastoid]

R&R

Aug 22nd 3025

We have our team meeting in the Med Bay, because most that is where most of us are. Lots of options put out there. Go back to Detroit and take on small fry mission for a month. Stick around here and rest up. Yang, go to Weldry on our own dime and pick up an extra contract before the Arano one. If or when to fix the Locust and Commando. Do we need Daisy or not for Weldry. Who keeps on stealing the Coffee.

Finally, I stop the talk and I come to a decision. We need Daisy, we can not fail the Weldry mission, that is where the real money is. The Commando can wait, we can use Butterbumps instead, not ideal but realistic. We cannot sit and wait on Weldry. The directorate knows us and us just sitting there would look suspicious. We are not going to stay here, this place is a s----ole. We are going to jump to Herotitus on our own dime, wait out the time there. It is a vacation world, seems like a more pleasant place to spend a month. Then we will take the Weldry contract to pay for transport, arriving with Daisy fixed and ready to jump right in. We Invite Secutor to tag along for now but no permanent gig. He is happy to get a chance take some frustration out on the Directorate.


Sept 1st

Financials.
Technically we made a profit this month, turns out Darius was still in penny-pinching mode, running restricted. Nobody was stealing the Coffee, it wasn’t there to start. We set things back to normal, we want to keep everybody happy while we wait a month.


Sept 4th.

Everybody is tired of being cramped into sick bay together so we moved a lot of the sickbay stuff to the bunks.

Yang visits Glitch every day, keeps her spirits up.
Sabercat and the Secutor also seem to be hitting off well, they talk about politics a lot, not my cup of tea.


Sept 9th

Entered Orbit around Herotitus.



Sept 12th

Out of sick bay, the crew goes planetside for the day, all but Sabercat who is still getting back on his feet.. That kid heals slow.
Glitch found a new friend. A girl that goes by the name of Spenthia. Glitch tries to convince us to take her on as a pilot, says her battlemech got stolen. They already are finishing each other’s sentences and talk like twin sisters. There are little things about Spenthia, red flags. The girl is bad news and a bad influence on Glitch trying to get her to do her old con job again. We lock Glitch back on the Hysteria and tell Spenthia to bugger off.


Sept 13th

What goes on in Herotitus stays in Herotitus.


Sept 15th

Not hung over anymore. I check out the contracts and shop. Some good stuff to buy here which we can afford but do not have the time to put it on our Mechs. Some contracts but nothing that looks like an easy job. Two more weeks and we fly on to Weldry


Sept 21st

Glitch snuck out yesterday. She met up with the Spenthia Girl again, they swindled some tourists out a a big load of cash. We found her and brought her back to the ship. I played bad cop, Yang is now in the bunks playing good cop. I Thought it was a good choice coming here for our R and R. Dekker is gone every night to the Casino and Glitch is running with a bad crowd. Not so sure anymore. In 9 days we head out. Still a month until action.


October 1st

On our way to Weldry now.

Financials. Lost almost 300K. that is what happens when you sit on your but for a whole month.
Dekker lost 2K himself gambling planet side. That is his problem.


October 8th

I am reading Sabercat’s books on the 3rd succession war. Man am I bored.



October 12th

Sumire hates birds. I mean really hates birds.


October 15th

Space sucks.



October 18th

Space still sucks.


Oct 23

Arrive at Weldry.

 

[Blastoid]

Icebox

Oct 23 3025

Finaly we will be back doing our job. It turns out Kamea wants us to liberate a prison while she liberates the planet. The good news is that will mean there will be less attention on us as we try to do our job.

We go in with Glitch in Daisy, Behemoth in the Centurion and Dekker in Butterbumps. I am in the Panther as usual. Sabercat and Secutor sit out.

The intel says to expect lots of turrets and vehicles. We approach in Stalker style, jumping up the back of a hill to some poorly placed turret generators. They are reinforced, but it seems nobody notices the laser fire above them, so we take our time blowing them up. We start hopping down the hill, taking the two “front door” turrets down first. A host of vehicles mobilize and there is some fire back and forth but we do not have much difficulty with them or the “side door” turrets.

Figure 1: Coming down the hill to the "front door"

Now we jump over the wall, finding that we do have company. A Jenner, Centurion and Jaeger Mech pop out from the inner courtyard while a Trebuchet is trying to flank around us. We keep moving, sensor lock and take down the Jenner quick, then start on the Centurion. Glitch is taking some heavy fire and is starting to go internal, but with the cold climate she can keep jumping and firing. She is getting better at being hard to hit. The Jaeger is imposing, but seems to think he can take 3 mechs out at once and takes out none. Then the back wall of the prison comes down and Lady Arano comes blazing out like a Holy Hand Grenade. She alpha strikes the Jaegermech in the back just as we are finishing the Centurion. The Trebuchet is still trying to flank but by the time he gets to the fight all his friends are dead. Then so is he.

Figure 2: Over the wall

Figure 3: Dekker is a brave and foolish man.

Glitch took some heavy hits, will spend some time in med bay and her mech some time in the repair shop, but nothing like the last couple of missions.

Good solid win for the team, But just as we are ready to celebrate the downer comes. It turns out Raju Mastiff the man who mentored Kamea and myself was in the prison but is now dead.


Kamea is pissed. She wants vengeance and goes into full warrior princess mode. First she gives us the Argo. Honestly this makes little sense we just wasted two months of her time because we wrecked our own battlemechs doing meaningless hack jobs. I would have used it as the Restoration flagship to rain down fear and terror on the Directorate. Our job is to go make some money, build up our outfit and then come back and rain down fear and terror on the Directorate. Not much difference I guess and I am not going to argue.

Then she marches outside and goes all out Khaleesi. A bit silly but the crowd eats it up, which is the point I guess.

Nice to have a mission go well after a couple of tough breaks, and we got a lot of cash and we got a big big ship.

Now everything has really changed.

 

[Blastoid]

Mop-Up

October 24th 3025

We got a new ship. We still have Hysteria but it is now dwarfed by the vehicle it is docked to. Much of it is useless right now, still not airtight with superstructure sticking out like exposed ribs. Still the habitable parts of the ship are at least 5 times the size of the Leopard. Our mech and med techs actually have their own beds now and do not share them with others on different sifts.

The biggest improvement is the mechbay. There is still only room for six mechs but they are much more accessible and easy to work on. They actualy have storage for armour and parts. We immediately go to work on repairing the old scaffolding to make it even more efficient. We are not going to be stuck with 23 months of downtime again. We prioritize repairing Daisy then Butterbumps.

We also have two new crewmembers. Alex Maderia is our liaison to our moneybags, Kamea Arano. Dr. Murad is the one who actually knows how to take care of this ship.


Nov 1st

Financials

Weldry earned us big cash again. Have around 2.9 Mill C bills. Moral is a bit low from the rough times so we are going to spend a bit more this month to build spirits up as we move into our new place.



Nov 2nd

We have enough mech warriors and mechs to field a lance now so we take on a clean-up job for Kamea on Weldry. Some Directorate mechs are still out on the tundra with the terror flies and need to be taken care off. Not a big job, a good one as we get things back in order.

We have Behemoth in the Centurion as usual. Dekker gets his first shot at the Panther. Sabercat gets to drive Ms. Daisy because Glitch is still in the brig. He has working on his gunnery and will see if the work has paid off. Secutor gets Butterbumps , getting the chance to get some revenge on the Directorate.

It turned out to be the easiest assignment we have had for a long while. The Directorate lance was caught out in the tundra and at only half armor and missing one mech. They had what was left of a Thunderbolt, a Shadow Hawk and a Locust. We approached through a forest and the Shadowhawk walked right out into a clearing on front of us. It and the Thunderbolt fired full salvos into Behemoth, She took one missile to the head, but she was ready for it and shrugged it off. We focused fire on the Shadowhawk and a series of CT hits from Dekker, Behemoth and Sabercat took him out quick. Then we flanked to the right of the Thunderbolt, and took out his right side and leg. After a much more feeble volley from the Tbolt. Sabercat jumped to his left side to try to take out the other leg but head hit and incapacitated the Tbolt instead. We then just punched the locust into oblivion and the job was done.

Looks like Sabercat has learned to shoot in a Mech.

Securate only made one shot the whole engagement, but got some anger out.

137K payment and good salvage for easy work, over halfway to a Shadowhawk and a good start on the Thunderbolt. A good day all in all.

 

[Blastoid]

Kimi

Nov 3rd 3025

Today we are pushing off to Kimi. Going to leave the Restoration to do their own work before we come back to help out.

Helps build plausible deniability.

We are going to move anti-spinward along the border with the Capallans. We will take work for whomever pays us and try to build up our forces. Securate is not coming with us, he is a Restoration man through and through and is Joining Kamea’s forces.

Before leaving we do some shopping, Kamea gives us a bit of a discount. We pick up a high quality medium laser and a high explosive shortrange missile six pack. We will put these on our mechs once repairs on the Commando and Locust are done.


Nov 5th

On the way out from Weldry, Yang comes to me fuming mad about Dekker badgering him about the Commando. It has been out of commission for over 3 months now and Dekker wants his favorite deathtrap back. If Dekker wants the mech back he is going to have to work to get it, so I order him to help Yang with the repairs.


Nov 10th

Turns out Glitch’s mom’s birthday was today.

Was

That can be a tough word.

Yang came up and programmed her puppy to do some new tricks.

Nice to be reminded sometimes that we are human.


Nov 14th

Dr. Murad finished working on the scaffolding. Mech bay can now hum with efficiency.


Nov 20th

Arrive on Kimi. It is a system with two habitable worlds, tropical and artic. We take a job on the tropical one for the Capellans. It involves taking over a research station hidden on the planet so they can extract the personnel.

Glitch is in Daisy. I am in the Panther. Dekker is finally back in the Commando and Behemoth is in the Centurion

Figure 1: Approaching the base.

Figure 2: Glitch taking high ground.

It starts out easy enough. The base is just defended by 4 turrets. But they are upgrades on turrets we have not seen before, PPC’s and AC20’s. We move in slowly, using Dekker to sensor lock and taking them out methodically, one at the time. When we about halfway done a dropship comes down, dropping off some mechs on our flank. We decide to take out the turrets first then take on the mechs. A spider comes down, rushing in and sending some laser fire my way and then running back to a top of a hill and sensor locking me. Then a Centurion and Orion follow, but instead of focusing in on me they go after Glitch who is now in view of the Spider, using indirect fire to whittle down her evasion then start laying into her with alpha strikes. We start with the Spider, which has left itself exposed on top of a hill after sensor locking. Dekker and Behemoth team up to take the Spider’s side out and then Glitch finishes it off when down. The Centurion and Orion move up closer and both focus fire on Glitch. Glitch responds with a jump and brace but they continue to pound her taking out her entire left side.

While they are pushing forward on Glitch, Dekker and I flank on opposite sides, Dekker using a hill and me using a forest for cover, Behemoth bulwarks and holds down the middle as Glitches jumps back out of range of most of their weapons. Now we have a double envelopment which would have made Hannibal proud. We all focus on the Orion, Dekker and I strike him on opposite sides then move to the rear. Dekker hits his AC ammo, ripping off his right side. Behemoth moves up on his right and in an alpha strike hits his head and forces him to the ground, knocking out the pilot.

Big time salvage there.

Figure 3 : Double Flank

Figure 4: Dekker taking the backshot.

Dekker and I turn our attention to the Centurions rear and Dekker again hits AC ammo. After that it is just mop up duty.

A successful mission, though Glitch took more damage than we would have liked. We more than covered repair costs and we got some very useful salvage, 2 pieces of an Orion and enough of a Spider to finally piece one together. The spider replaces the Locust in our mechbay and we stick the old Locust into storage for a rainy day.

Our first mech from salvage, we need to continue to look for more.