Zomboni's Zombies (AAR)

[Zomboni O]

Commander’s Log
August 15, 3050

The crew was excited for Graceland and Sliderule. But also a little conflicted. We’re losing a big part of our team. We start looking for new pilots to train up to fill their places in the unit.

There’s an experienced pilot who goes by Tesla looking for work in the system. She has dark skin and a red three-pointed scar above her left eye. Looks like a hit from shrapnel. We hire her on and immediately send her on a mission.

Me - Griffin
Tesla - Firestarter
Sliderule - Jenner
Tractor - Vulcan

We take our better jumpers since we’ll be on deployment in a city centre.

We spot enemy mechs on sensors. I guess the gig is up and the Lyrans are trying to evac their spy. Tesla and Sliderule jump to rooftops to get a look. There’s a Hatchetman with an AC/10. Sliderule gets a glancing blow as her mech soars through the sky. Two more sensor contacts close in. One fires a stream of LRMs that threatens to take down the building that they’re standing on.

Tesla moves and finds a Locust. She gives it a taste of her lasers and scores a hit on its arm. The Hatchetman’s AC/10 blows apart the building that Tesla was using for cover. She retaliates with fire.

A Dervish jumps to a rooftop and feeds me missiles. My mech rocks a bit but I steady it out. Tractor outwaits the others, and when the Locust gets too close, springs out and punches it. The Locust tries to get behind her, but Tractor out-maneuvers it and lays into it with all her weapons. The Locust blows up and takes a chunk of asphalt.

Sliderule gets into the flank of the Hatchetman and unleashed their missiles. One of them gets inside the torso, and those gel-tipped warheads do their job, spraying the inside with corrosive goo. The stuff chews through the casing on the Hatchetman’s fusion reactor and the whole mech goes up in a fireball.

That leaves the Dervish, which is running hot from the weaponsfire and from jumping onto the building. Tesla gets into a building under it and lets it have her full attention. The Dervish glows red-hot and the roof of the building starts to smoke. Tractor takes out a leg and the big machine hits the deck. Tesla shears off both of its arms. The desperate pilots ejects.

There’s no sign of the spy yet so we go back on patrol through the city. This gives us time to cool down.

We find the spy trying to flee in its own mech. He’s piloting a Thunderbolt. These are strong, tough, well-armed machines. We get the drop on him, though, and start to unload on it.

Surrounded by fountains and trees, we have a tough time getting shots through. Sliderule and Tesla go to opposite sides to set up a flank. Tractor goes right up the middle, firing as she goes, and slams her mech’s head into the Thunderbolt.

The spy ignores the smaller, weaker targets and goes right for me. My frontal armor shrugs off the damage. But I can’t sustain this kind of attack for long. I pull back, hoping to draw the Thunderbolt forward and leave its rear exposed to my lancemates.

The pilot tries to run, but our lights are so much speedier than the Thunderbolt. We savage his backside. The pilot chooses life and ejects. His pod might be hard to recover in the city; there are lots of little places to hide it. I have Babe stay on the sensors and track it’s destination. We relay the info to the Draconians and they go in for the recovery. An unarmed and unescorted, likely wounded spy shouldn’t be much trouble.

There’s not much left to salvage after the fight. We get some Thunderbolt, Dervish, Hatchetman, and Locust scrap, plus the AC/10 and two medium lasers. With the $330k payment, it’s a good haul for a simple job. And Tesla has proven herself capable. We’re happy with the new hire.

End Log.

 

[Zomboni O]

Commander’s Log
August 16, 3050

This place has some amazing items for sale. Lots of mechs that we can’t afford, but also a plethora of weapons and ammo bins. Including the LB 10-X that I want! And they seem to be sitting on a hoard.

We pick up ammo bins for all four sizes of LB ammo; 2-X, 5-X, 10-X, and 20-X. Never know when we’ll see these things again. They’ve also got Artemis-enabled LRM launchers, from LMR5 up to LRM15s. There’s a TAG system.

I go on an absolute spending spree, dropping almost $3 million c-bills. And our mechs get some weapons upgrades.

The Vulcan swaps its m-laser for the TAG. A little less firepower for it, but a lot more from the rest of the lance’s energy and ballistic weapons.

The Griffin swaps out an SRM6 for the Artemis LRM5. Less firepower overall but it makes it a little better at range, and this one also has gel-tipped warheads. I like what those did to the Hatchetman last mission.

The Shadow Hawk gets a second LB 10-X ammo bin. We have to strip off armor to make up the weight. The SHD will have to try to stay in the back and not become a target. First, because it’s armor is getting reduced so much, and second, because it’s guns are so valuable.

A lot of the weapons that I bought can’t be mounted on anything that we have right now. We’ll have to wait until we get bigger mechs on the roster. So in the end, we don’t get as big a power boost as I thought, considering how much I just spent.

End Log



Commander’s Log
Aug 20, 3050

With newly refit mechs, we go after a lance of Rasalhaguians who were abandoned by their government and turned to petty crime.

Graceland takes command. This might be his last command with the company.

Graceland - Griffin
Magnum - Shadow Hawk
Sliderule - Jenner
Monarch - Vulcan

Graceland leads the team through a snow-covered valley. It’s a long trek, but then they spot enemies.

More than we had counted on. There’s a second lance here. They’ve set up on the back side of the mountain. Graceland takes the lance into tree cover and engages.

Monarch spots a Dervish and hits it with the TAG. Magnum follows in and fires his LBX, to test the efficacy of that TAG. He scores a solid hit and shreds its left armor. The rest of the lance follows in and blows off its arm, taking two of its guns with it.

LRMs fly at them from below the ridge.

The Dervish is half dead before it gets a chance to move away. It smartly turns its damaged side away and gives what’s left of its weapons to Monarch. That just means it takes a little longer to knock it out of the fight.

Graceland keeps the squad on the ridge, where the approaching units can’t get line of fire. Let them come around the side and take us on one at a time, if they want. And it seems that that’s what they want.

There comes a little Locust. Maybe it’s trying to be a spotter for the LRM-equipped mechs below. Well, it doesn’t last long.

A Shadow Hawk jumps to the rocky ridge near our lance’s position and fires. It does a bit of damage to the Griffin. Graceland returns the attack. It has a PPC and one missile launcher.

Under our combined fire, and even with the rock outcropping giving it some decent cover, we blast it to pieces quickly.

A Guillotine jumps up and unloads on the Griffin. It as an l-laser, four m-lasers, and an SRM6. But its armor is weak from lack of maintenance. We finish off the SHD and turn our attention to the newcomer.

Magnum gets the first shot and immediately breaches its centre torso armor. Monarch jumps across and gets a solid hit into the exposed innards. But she’s exposed to a Panther that gets a shot at her. Thankfully, her flight messed up its aim and the PPC blast hits the rocks behind her.

There’s a second Shadow Hawk. It takes a shot at Monarch, too, and this time, hits square. Graceland orders Monarch back onto the ridge and into cover.

The Guillotine goes down in a cloud of missiles.

With the ridge separating our forces, and the enemy losing most of its strength, the last two Rasalhaguians aren’t eager to jump up and engage. So we go to the edge of the ridge and shoot at them, like an old time shooting gallery.

The SHD takes a pummeling and its PPC blows up on its arm. The Panther tries to escape but we catch it on open ground and decimate it. I feel bad for these guys. Their commanding officers obviously didn’t know how to use terrain.

We take Dervish salvage, some other assorted parts, and head back home. Only need a few key components to put our own Dervish together. Sadly, no Dervish available from that awesome store.

End log.



Commander’s Log
Aug 22, 3050

Rasalhague is less than half the size it used to be. They’re taking the brunt of the losses from the invasion. So far, we’re staying ahead of the invasion forces. But with the speed that they’re moving, who know how long that will last.

Graceland and Sliderule will be with us for about a month more. Depending on how long we stay in this system, this might be our last stop with them. If we go elsewhere within the week, they’ll come with us.

I see opportunity enough for a week more here, so we agree that our next destination will be our parting place.

I sign over ownership of the Falcon and Panther to them, as well as the Jenner that they both love (provided it doesn’t get blown away in the next month). With Sliderule’s old Locust, that’ll give them a good set of mechs to get themselves off the ground. They almost faint when I sign the papers. That’s over a million bucks worth of hardware. I say they’ve earned it. It’ll put their new outfit almost where the Zombies were at when we started. They won’t have the big Braains to live on; instead they’ll be working out of a much smaller vessel with barely enough room for a lance of mechs and their pilots. We’re living in a world of luxury here, comparatively.

Graceland arranges for his new carrier to be delivered at our next port of call; Orkney.

End Log.

 

[Zomboni O]

Commander’s Log

We’re going to insert ourselves into a disputed negotiation. The Draconians have a contract on offer to capture and hold a Lyran military base until they send a negotiator in good faith. We’ve got the resources and the firepower to do just that.

Me - Griffin
Tractor - Vulcan
Tesla - Firestarter
Sliderule - Shadow Hawk

It’s another city center. We set up in a parkette that offers us some cover from trees. We get sensor contacts approaching, likely the base garrison coming to see what’s attacking. We’ll be careful as they might also be spotting for LRM turrets set up at the base.

First up are a lance of lights: Commando, Wasp, and two Stingers. They take potshots at us as they dart around, doing minimal damage. They’re so speedy that we have a hard time getting hits back on them.

But they can’t dodge around flames. Tesla torches the Stinger and softens the metal of its leg. The weakened structure gives way and the Stinger crashes to the pavement.

The other mechs use their maneuverability to get into our rear arcs. But Sliderule was hanging back, to make better use of their long range weapons. When the enemies jump up close, they pound them with those SHD battlefists. Half of a Stinger gets crushed.

The Wasp actually gets through the SHD’s rear armor. I punish it by punching off its right side.

Tractor takes out the Commando while Tesla handles the Stinger. Sliderule and I gang up on the Wasp and it doesn’t feel fair.

We move on. The base turrets prove no challenge. We take them out from range and they can’t even get sight on us to get a shot. These would be powerful against a vehicle or infantry attack, but we make short work of them.

Another enemy lance is detected, dropping in from orbit.

They approach as we destroy a third turret. Tractor finds an opening to get behind one while keeping a building between themself and the other incoming mechs. They score a lucky hit and take out a hapless Locust in one shot.

We jump across rooftops, chasing them around, trying to get into their rear arcs and keep them out of ours. The rest of the enemy lance closes into combat range, and we take on a Commando, Stinger, and Firestarter. The Firestarter stays on top of one building too long and our combined fire takes out the roof from under its feet. It crashes to the ground and its legs crumple.

The Stinger and Firestarter combine to punish my left side. They pierce the armor and the Firestarter melts down one of my jump jets and pushes my heat gauge right to the redline.

Sliderule can’t do much at these close ranges, until the Commando gets too close to them. Then they move in and punch off the CMD’s gun-arm. Tractor keeps the Stinger busy, and eventually takes it down. Tesla chases off their Firestarter with her own. I run back to stay safe and to cool down, before that FS9 does structural damage.

We finish them off with well-placed punches, then return our attention to occupying the base. The last turret goes up in smoke, and we claim our prize until the Draconis relief forces move in.

I’ll keep an eye on how the negotiations roll out from here.

Back on the Braains, Yang tells me how close I came to losing a leg. If the flamers had been a foot or two higher, it would have set off every warhead in my SRM rack.

Phew. Sometimes we get lucky.

A few days and a few grand to repair the armor penetrations on the Griffin. We get a bunch of little mech pieces as salvage. Nothing we’re ever going to use, though.

End Log.