Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH

[Aotrs Commander]

Been meaning to ask. I haven't really followed much else you've done, so I don't know. Are all your mechwarriors previously established characters from somewhere? It's an interesting set of flavour to put on it, so I'm mostly just curious.

Long blither incoming, so I'm going spoiler this, mostly just so anyone wanting to skip to the next part doesn't have to scroll through as much guff!

Spoiler

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Kinda, but not really? The idea sort of harks back to the very first point I started playing computer games - notably Baldur's Gate. There were some, originally just generated characters - never played, just generated, that I used there. More got added over time as I went until there was a sort of stable of them, used mostly in games, but with a little more to them, but only sort of vaguely, without proper definition. Add to this other characters that have floated around over the decades...

The emergence of the UCDR starfleet (the United Concord of Divine Realms), which is sort of the "Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha" starfleet eventually provided a logical stable place for a lot of those to be sensible placed. The Paladins of Azurella specfically sort of filtered into being maybe two-three years ago? They've been floating around my head a lot since. (Were I already not an insane magical space Lich, I might be concerned - instead I largely blame my viewing habits in the last years containing a disproportionate amount of magical girls, especially the ones which were ponies...¹). The older characters (example, Natasha and Velina) have been sort of appended around the edges. Naruto (another massive influence) and even Harry Potter also probably formed the idea of the Magical Paladin School.

Azurella herself comes from a goodly whack of influence from Golarion's Shelyn (i.e. a love goddess that tanks around with a cacking great glaive) and Cadance from My Little Pony, who I came to view between the lines as a sort of love-fuelled paladin. (If Friendship is an actual physical force, what does that make love, and when you get down to it, love is predominately what makes people fight to protect people etc...) Azurella is all about the love (in all forms) and the sex (responsibly education on the appropriate way to approach it - though it tends to get glossed over in my heavy-handed approach at attempted humour, relationship and sex councilling is part and parcel of the expected paladin duries), but also very much about using the love and compassion for very much punching the bad guys in the face until they stop, if they can't be reasoned with. The Paladins of Azurella are particularly more emphasised towards punching-side than some of the other orders.

(Mylassta made her first nominal appearence in my most recent Baldur's Gate playthrough a few years back; Natasha came from Temple of Elemental Evil; Velina, I think, came from a Neverwinter Nights module?)

When I started doing these Bleakbane Plays - the first one I did proper-like was X-Com (the original - which I never finished) and then the new two - I was doing it on ponythread and used myself and the other collected hangers-on (Hopereaver, Derpy etc) Ponythread were familar with, plus the ponies and a few NPCs from the former bunch. But doing The Bleakbane and Friends party is somewhat dependant on customisation options.

The Paladins, then, having been perhaps bit more developed or at least more in the front of my mind, have tended to slot into more recent RPGs when I've played myself, because they generally are easier to fit in with customisation; Scarlet and Alarhan did Divinty:OS 1, Summer did Kingmaker, Hayalyn Haelarial, Illy, Alluria, Kirin (one of the oldest ones (well, she's not old)) and Helia showed up in my first BT playthrough - Helia also did Spellforce 3 too, Zuranna was a hire in Pillars of Eternity 1... And they all did the X-Com 2 playthrough directly before this one.

When I did Bleakbane Farms (Stardew Valley), the character generation system (at the time) didn't have options ideal to use me (I think I managed a skull, but there was no option to be bald), so I picked from the Paladins Illyphase the Erinyes and ran with it, because it seemed a goof fit. (And it made for a much better playthrough, to ne honest.) So she plopped out into public as by that point, fundementally a fully-formed character with some history alluded to in little bits.

(Considering adding "Illy's Holiday snaps" of some of the posters from that to my blog on FimFiction - it's as good a place as any - at some point, possibly along with the two prior Bleakbane Plays X-Coms instead of them being buried in ponythread.)

So while this is technically the Paladin's first PUBLIC appearence, they're already functionally established characters (and there are a few mentioned not yet seen).

I'm a great believer in the "don't have to explain everything at once, implication works fine," especially since when I exposit, it gets REAL long, case-in-point...!



Yes, by-the-by, the lot of them (Paladins and associates) HAVE gotten sufficiently extensive I've had to make sure I keep stuff in a file, if for no other reason that to make sure I get/spell their surnames right. (Natasha having a middle name being one of the reasons...) There's enough for the extended cast of a whole Magical Girls anime (sans villains), pretty much!



To elaborate a little bit (and this is still going to be long and I'm trucating a lot!) on this generally only deliberately alluded-to backdrop:

Spoiler: UCDR stuff

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The United Concord of Divine Realms is fundementally a space-faring power. It originated from a world in which the gods couldn't properly exist stably due to the extreme "background magic radiation" (sic) level, but was fought over as part of the Xakkath Demon Wars that happened then thousand years ago, which was basically fought over all the "fantasy" planets. (Going into the explanation of why there are "fantasy" planets and so many of them would requrie going into an explantion Harbinger Retrocasual Probabity Engineering and we'll be here all day).

Basically, though the upshot was, once the method by which transport between all these "fantasy" planets stopped working, they were all seperated and this one world was left with no gods, but a metric ton of angels, who basically had to make up a divine realm for the afterlife and whatnot by themselves. This basically led to a world (where the population on the least murderously dangerous continent) was composed of humans, elves and half-elves with so much celestial blood in them you can make and arguement they're practically aasimar or something in D&D.

This crowd eventually went out exploring in space after developed FTL travel (quite a bit ahead of the main human powers, actually), and used magic-reinforced technology as opposed to just straight tech. The eventually found a "fantasy" world whose sun had gone nova and that had basicaly fracked up all the divine realms (i.e. that world's cosmology) and only the ones with the good deities have survived. Having already done all the groundwork on how to make a stable divin realm, the explorers were able nto rescue them and basially offered up a deal that they'd be happy to worship the gods if they were cool with that, but the god's divine realms had to be held to the same standard.

So eventually, what you got, as they went out and formed more, is what is basically a federation of Good powers, some of who are from the mortal plane and some who are gods and they all sit as equals on the council; the indidivual leaders (mostly the gods) administer the day-to-day of their own realms like a state, but subject to the global rules, if you were.

(I could go into reams and reams more detail about the geo-political landscape of the galaxy, but the important points here is the UCDR and its components are located in a sector of the galaxy much-removed from the main "human" bit (where the Aotrs is near) and right next to a very-similarly-endless factional species called the elenthnar, so where the elenthnar are basically the default standard all other are measured too, not humans.)

The Paladins of Azurella, then, are one of the goddess Azurella's orders (maybe a little bit her favourite. She loves all her followers, but the Azurella Paladins more she does like her chief priestess (slash spouse) than platonically....) The Order has traditionally been composed of females, though males (et al) are not unheard of, but very rare and there are not any currently active². (The gender mix of the other orders and in her clerical followers is much more standardised, though there is another order of paladins composed mostly of gentleman.) This specifc order is much more of the magical-girl sort of varity, even by the UCDR's high magitech standards.

The Paladins as seen are all pretty much part of the same class (or at least the class and those in orbit around it). Mylassta, Scarlet, Alarhan, Poppy and Summer all went to the same magic school (finished at 16, started as paladins at 18) and had loads of advantures. (It might be thought of as that being the first series, and the magical paladin school being the sequel series, if that make sense.) This rather unusual class includes Pseekie and Vey (about their age), the aforementioned Kirin (who is a year older) and also Illyphase the Erinyes and Alluria the Succubus.

Due to both the legacy of the Xakkath Demon Wars and indeed other places in the UCDR, demons and such are still around. Both are about 200 years old, having been respectively corrupted at young ages. Both are single-souled fiends (i.e. only their soul went into the make-up, not a collection) and it's partly that which enabled to to rise. They were bitter enemies for most of their lives, but that rivallry eventually turned into something more complex (it's a relationship that's difficult to define, especially as one of them is a sex-demon) and the bond was what ultimately allowed them to break free and be redeemed. Becoming Paladins is something they feel they need to do to make up for their actions (even though it was sort of not all their resposcibility, since they were corrupted, not that they were bad people to start with), and they just happened to start the same year, after a legion of their own adventures and some time to recover and get comfortabe with being, y'know, redeeemed and stuff.

(Scarlet's status as a biological, natural-born but not inherently Evil (despite what she might fear) demon is a bit of a mysterious kettle of worms.)

The previously-mentioned General Hayalyn Haelarial is the UCDR's most celebrated hero, who is taking a break to teach for a while for various reasons, is the class' principal teacher. (She was once The Mylassta or The Summer of her own little five-girl band; and though she hides it, she's never completely gotten over that they, due to a youthful frack-up (not even really her fault), the other four got more than killed by a demon lord. She retains a little scar (something the UCDR healing could easily remove) as a token of that guilt ever since.) She's about 70, but due to power and angel-blood making her pretty much angel she looks nowhere near that (but will complain about being old whenever she thinks its funny or self-depreating.)

It should be noted that this is more sort of training/boot-camp as much as further education, and the girls going out and taking on missions (or popping over to other dimensions to fight aliens or pilot mech or something) is part-and-parcel of the job.

¹Though in fairness, I have always had a noted slant towards male characters on the tabletop and female characters in games. It's not an absolute (my favourite character in TT is female) - nearly always swap genders in a subsequent playthrough too - but I'm not unaware that a glance over the line-ups of almost every party of PCs I've played on games tends to have a female majority. (Hell, it's even happened in some of my Pokémon teams, and that's often more random...!) So that the Paladins sort of formed and included a typical five-girl-band among their number (see W.i.t.c.h, GlitterForce, Girls un Panzer, etc...!) is perhaps not all that surprising. (Hell, I always prefer She-Ra to He-Man back in the day...!)

²There is one individual in the classes' orbit who is not official part of the paladin order, nor training to be one - officially an "attaché" - but who is functionally part of the class.

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Fifteen:

Spoiler

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So, next mission would be a 3-skull escort mission for the Taurians (before their reputation dipped below the point it could be taken...)

Mylassta took the Decapitator. Scarlet grabbed the Fair Marauder and Pseekie subbed in for Summer in the Catapult Hammer. After some thought, Mylassta assigned Velina to the Stalker Barrage - she needed some practise if she was to be subbing in for Alarhan as was the intention.

Velina's first comment upon landing the tundra was to suggest maybe they could make some snow angels later. This was pretty typical of her...

First set of opposition was a 4G Hunchback, Panther, Locust and Jenner.

(Started out with Scarlet headcapping the Hunchback, but then the Jenner went and instantly killed one of the APCs, because of course it did. Reload.)

Scarlet shot at the Jenner and Pseekie ran forward to shoot the panther. The Jenner, of course, proceeded to hit her in the head, because of course it did.



Second try...

The Jenner, Locust and Panther went down (after being knocked over, the APCs managed to KO the Panther as it staggered up and stumbled away...)

As the APCs reached the drop point, a Shadowhawk, Kintaro and a Trebuchet showed up.

And hit Mylassta in the head.

She was used to this by now... She was sufficiently fed up, she ran run and straight punched the Trebuchet, taking out its left torso. Meanwhile, Velina, Scarlet and Pseekie team-up on the Kintaro, knocking it over with missiles and then taking its head off.

The Trebuchet was beaten to death by Mylassta (aside from one deft shot from Scarlet's AC to knock it down) and the Shadowhawk was missile'd to death.



Enough salvage to get a Hunchback 4G plus a Kintaro and Jenner to be sold.

Velina increased her gunnery to 5 and got Multishot. Alarhan increased her guts to 10, Summer her gunnery to 10, Lynessa and Mylassta their piloting to 9, She her piloting to 5 (to get Sure-Footed) and tactics to 6, Poppy her tactics to 10, Scarlet her gunnery to 8 and guts to 5 and Vey her tactics to 6. So quite a bit of training!

Next, back to Davion, ambushing a convoy of Taurians on Martian terrain. Alarhan took the Decapitator, Scarlet stayed in the Fair Marauder and Velina in the Stalker Barrage, but the damaged Catapult Hammer was replaced with the Phoenix Coil, as it was almost certainly going to be needed.

Great. Two Demolishers, a Marauder and a Grasshopper, and that was just the four elements Summer could SEE.

They took out the lead demolisher. The remaining force was a Manticore tank (which hit Summer in the head, because of course it did) and an SRM carrier, with the remaining mech being a Quickdraw.

On the fourth or fifth attempt at a precise shot, Scarlet finally got the Marauder.



Summer and Velina finally pegged the last Demolisher.

The lance managed to eventually knock down and head-cap the last two mechs.



Salvage was enough to complete a new Marauder, a Quickdraw AND a Grasshopper. All three were put into storage. The Grasshopper might make for a melee fighter (like the Shadowhawk, only with extra flamers, maybe), but for the moment, there was no point stripping anything down yet.

Velina upped her tactics to 5. Alarhan's piloting wen to 9, Summer's guts to 9.

That last mission here was for the Taurians, but against the Capellans, so that was okay a capture base mission, in the highlands this time.

With Lynessa, Mylassta, Summer AND Pseekie all down, Alarhan made a drastic change. She gave the Decapitator to Shelat - who was the last sensor-locker aside from Scarlet. Scarlet stayed where she was, and did Velina. Alarhan got into the Atlas...




...wWhere she could do some precision fire, but also some LRM fire as well, since the Catapult Hammer was still awaiting repairs...

This made a full 350-ton lance, rated a full five skulls!

The base was defended by four turrets and a Locust, Blackjack and Cicada. Alarhan's choice of pilots was sound, since both Scarlet and Shelat used their sensors first on the turrets and then on the enemy mechs to make it easier for them to be shot.

As they were dealing with the last two, reinforcements were detected coming in...

This was a pair of Javelins and a pair of Griffins.

Not a SINGLE mech taken out that wasn’t CT. Basically every head-shot missed entirely.



(I briefly experimented with going to one of the flashpoints, was one day out of reach to see if accepting it would stop it from expiring. It didn't but it immediately respawned. Can deal with that later, then.)

There were a couple of travel contracts to the Arano Restoration. It was back on the way - to Ichlangis, which was a 1.5 skull Martian world (with a black market). Lynessa shrugged, after some thought - maybe a good place to build to a boatload more cash.

And a 1.5 skull Target Acquisition mission would be a good one experiment with, so off they went to fight Taurians.

As they headed out, the Argo was running straight towards some debris. But Lynessa had confidence in both Sumire's piloting skills and they had spent all that money on those fancy power systems for a reason. Her faith was well-founded, as they made it through with no problems.

They arrived at Ichlandis. In the regular store, there was a +AC/10 (+5 damage) which made it a headcapped, so Lynessa filed that away for future reference; in the Black Market, there were some okay bits (+++ SRM and LRMs were more or less the opposite of Lynessa wanted out of them), but there was a ++Heat Exchanger for 800k. After a check, most of the missions were against the pirates, so Lynessa figured she better spend now, before the price went up... She decided, frack it, and bought that, the +++LRM 10 and +++SRM 6 and a ++ Flamer (it was only 36k) for the hell of it.

There were a couple of options for where to put the heat exchanger (Lynessa also discovered they WERE cumulative, though), but she wasn't going to do that at the moment.

Velina increased her tactics to 6, for the first called shot bonus. Shelat increased her tactics to 7.

To business, then!

Lynessa took the Decapitator, Scarlet the Fair Marauder, Pseekie the Phoenix Coil and Summer the Shadow Punch - Lynessa had a feeling they'd need some faster mechs, so having the better pilots in those two with the +20% sprint might be important.

(Mylassta was meanwhile currently pre-emptively binging on ice-cream - she's already noticed there were TWO "B-Team" missions - while Poppy awkwardly pattered her shoulder...)

Okay. Eight rounds to place three artillery beacons. Well, no time like the present!



Okay, Summer and Pseekie would take the west two, and Lynessa and Scarlet would take the nearer, east one.

Lynessa, Summer and Pseekie reached their positions at the same time. This proved to be a wise move, since as soon as Lynessa had stepped into mark, the Taurian commander ordered all fire to be concentrated on the mechs in the marks. Fortunately, the enemy was only light vehicles this time.



Oh dear. The enemy would be continuously sending out vehicles from the below-ground motor pool until the artillery hit in two rounds... Well, it didn’t say they had to stay in position, so...

The lance feel back to towards the evac point.







NICE!

They had to get the evac point in the next three rounds though - would Lynessa make it?

YES! Just, on the third round, but yes!



Max salvage on this mission was massive waste, though, should have gone for max cash.

Mylassta, her expression carefully blank, but very dishevelled, stepped towards. Due to the Martian environment, she would take the Fair Marauder on this first of two capture base missions, with the ever present millstones of Guano, Pontoon and Stubble...

"Oh hey, it's our old friend Protagonist!," Guano enthused. "Look, she's so happy to see us she's crying!"

Mylassta noted with a sense of deep depression how FAR away the base was, at the speed of Pontoon's UrbanMech...

Lovely. The base had turrets. And they had no LRMs, or ability to get a sensor lock.

Mylassta gritted her teeth and went about it, using the three stooges to take the last turret out while she dealt with the coming reinforcements (two Locusts and a Javelin).

Ignoring Mylassta to shoot at the light mechs was both stupid (DEATH FROM ABOVE)...



... and suicidal.





Still, it was enough to complete a Locust salvage.

"Here we go again," Mylassta grumbled... Then - "OH COME ON! We literally just captured this one!"

At least they hadn't fixed the turret in the hour or so between missions...

This time, it was a four-mech lance of a Firestarter, Jenner, and two Commandos.

Again the enemy lance seemed hell-bent on attacking the idiots (Mylassta couldn't blame them really), which meant they took a lot of damage even as Mylassta tried to keep them out of the way while she killed the enemy one by one. The stooges managed to get the Jenner, but only after Mylassta actually missed a shot with the autocannon.



Still, one more part completed a 2B Commando for sale, so...

Lynessa noted they had enough cash to start on the ship's hospital, and they had plenty of contracts left. She had Farah get started.

Next up was a 1.5 skull convoy ambush. Mylassta stayed where she was, and was joined by Scarlet in the Fair Marauder, Velina in the Catapult Hammer and Pseekie in the Phoenix Coil.

They ran into the escort almost immediately, which were between them and the convoy - two Locusts, a Firestarter, and a Spider.

Mylassta's attempt at another DFA went rather wrong, since she missed, at that would put the Decapitator out for a day.



A day later - as Mylassta wanted the Decapitator ready for the next mission - Mylassta was ready to undertake a 2.5 skull battle.

She was confident enough at this point, that she assigned Shelat to the Decapitator, took the Fair Marauder herself and placed Natasha in the Stalker Barrage and Velina in the Catapult Hammer. If she could manage with the three stooges, she could manage with three rookies in much better mechs...!

The primary target was a single 70-ton mech. That made things easier. The reinforcement lance coming in from the east was another issue, but as the first one was a 20-tonner, probably mostly light mechs again.

Was it really a SINGLE Locust? Looked that way...

Two tries, but Mylassta headcapped the 70-tonner - an Archer.



Then she remembered they were going for max money and therefore didn't matter (it was only 2/11 salvage at best, so...)

Oh, no, here came a Phoenix Hawk, the Locust wasn't alone after all. An Vindicator appeared shortly thereafter. But as they'd come in more or less one by one, the rookies and Mylassta easily dispatched them.



Wait, they'd gone for 1 salvage... So they got one Archer part and one Vindicator part. Eh, it was one Archer 2R part away from completing an Archer 2R, so...

Velina increased her tactics to 7. Pseekie increased her piloting to 9. Shelat and Natasha increased their gunner from 2 to 4 and Shelat her guts to 4 as well. Scarlet maxed her tactics to 10.

A 2-skull battle next (the pirates were really not happy with the paladin at ALL). Mylassta determined to do the same again.

This time, it was a Spider, a Javelin a Blackjack - and an Orion.

For some bizarre reason, the Orion took a dislike to Natasha, shooting her in the head. Well, Mylassta wasn't going to have some asshat pirate ignore her and shoot at the least skilled of her charges!

(Okay, apparently she was, as the RNG refused to let her hit it in the head.)

And the asshat continued to ignore her totally, and went after Shelat next. The pirate was SO arrogant, it ACTUALLY turned its back on Mylassta to punch the Decapitator. Mylassta fumed. Shooting this guy in the head wouldn't be good enough! Where the hell was Malexekor when you actually needed him, dammit?

The Orion continued to ignore Mylassta and go after Shelat, and the Javelin joined in, actually doing enough damage to get internals.

"Disengage, girls," Mylassta snapped as the Orion miraculously avoided the forth head-shot.

They did, and it still fired at Shelat.

It dodged the fifth headshot.

(So, at the moment, it's been hit 1/10 shots on 33%.

Game? I'm having that Orion.)

FINALLY, after there was no-one else in eyeshot the Orion shot at Mylassta.

Six.

On the SEVENTH ATTEMPT



Mylassta blew the smug vermin's face off.

(As best as I can determine the chances of getting two 33% successes in 14 attempts is about 2%.)



And only two pieces of Orion then.

Natasha, whole in the sickbay, increased her gunnery to 5 to get multishot (she was going down Mylassta and Poppy's route) and her guts to 4.

Next, a 2.5 skull escort mission. Vey took over from Natasha.

The first job was deal with the blocking force - a Jenner, Commando, Javelin and a Trebuchet.

They were dealt with fast and then, as the convoy started, there was the second wave - Javelin, Locust and Spider.

And after THAT there was ANOTHJER four light mechs - a Flea, a Javelin, a Panther and a Commando. Fortunately, they were far enough away that the convoy was never in danger.



Hopefully, that would finally be a damned Flea.

But the OpFor's uncanny accuracy meant that the Decapitator's arm was breached, so another say's repair. (Someone did not like that mech - or Shelat - today.)



Well! A new Flea, plus a new Commando, Trebuchet and Spider!

Interesting. The Flea had targeting baffles, which made them rather hard to hit. A shame they'd not that that a lot earlier.

Mylassta increased her piloting to 10 - and thus became the first one to max out! (Really, though, after suffering every B-team mission and every shot to the head, she damn well deserved it!)

One last mission to go here. Mylassta took a well-earned break, and Poppy took over the Fair Marauder. Pseekie grabbed the Phoenix Coil to substitute for Vey in the Stalker Barrage for this next mission, since it was a 2-skull convoy ambush.

For once, the lance was in a good position. Pseekie actually reached the destination point before the convoy appeared, so it was a case of working back.

The first escorts that showed up were a Kintaro and a Vindicator.



Poppy was on form, however... She shot the Vindicator dead immediately thereafter, and Pseekie and Velina worked their way down the convoy, destroying vehicles as they went.

The third vehicle was a Striker Narc, and it landed the narc pod on the Phoenix Coil - and the rear vehicle was an SRM carrier. Oh dear. Nevertheless, Pseekie managed to weather the storm - but the 60 missiles were enough to throw off her aim.

Poppy, meanwhile, made an honest-to-goddess hattrick of headshots, taking out the third and final guard - a Blackjack.

(DAMN, girl! I mean, after the pirate Orion guy, this was deserved, but DAMN! That makes her the first pilot to take out ALL the enemy mechs on a mission with one-shot head-shots!)

Turns out, 40 LRMs were enough to kill an SRM Carrier. So the Narc beacon didn't matter.



Sadly, there was only 3 selectable salvage. Poppy opted for three parts of the Kintaro (the heaviest) over three parts of a Blackjack that would have finished it.

So, on the plus side, the Arano Restoration was already really rather fond of the Paladin, despite this being the first world they'd worked, but the pirates now really hated them.

So. The next best spot did appear to be towards The Steel Beast flashpoint (3-skulls) on Herotitus. Perhaps thence towards Independence, but also with maybe a stop off on a system fought over by the Capellans and pirates (for some pirate reputation, as a little bit of buffer maybe?)

Payday.


They arrived at Herotitus with no issue. As the rest of the missions were 1 or half a skull, Lynessa thought it was to start with the flashpoint...

Alban Stieglitz-Bradford, the Steiner liaison, contacted the paladins. His nephew Arjun, had been killed by a gentleman terming himself the "Steel Beast," whose real name was Bogdan Tubbs. A Solaris VII gladiator, he'd tricked the chap into what was supposed to be an exhibition match and killed him. Not, like, accidently, as in "crushed the cockpit with his mech's claw" on purpose. (King Crab pilot...?)

So, the initial plan was to stomp all over the Steel Beast's retinue and supporters on film, than capture Ironwood Productions, an allied broadcasting company and issue a direct call-out to Tubbs to lure him out.

(Lynessa kicked herself for not transferring the Comm system or one of the range finders out of the Phoenix Coil or the Shadow Punch and put it on one of the heavier mechs she was using more now...)

This was a straight battle in the highlands, so she took the Decapitator, Poppy stayed in the Fair Marauder, Alarhan grabbed the Atlas and Summer hopped into the Phoenix Coil.

Darius said these people were grand-standing gladiators and urks, but they have a 70-ton mech with what looked like an active probe and were using combined arms - so he was probably wrong. As usual...

Ooh, it was a Cataphract. That was new...



As Summer missed the first headcap, the next job was destroy that LB-X Demolisher, which Alarhan and Lynessa did.



"Azurella's boobs, Poppy!" Alarhan yelped. (Azurella was a love/sex goddess, this sort of exclamation was actually pretty mild. Though, Lynessa reflected, it did suggest that her students had been around Hayalyn Haelariel a bit too much...)

So, Poppy was now four for four.

Still, three vehicles and one -ton mech was a bit of weak vanguard and... Oh, there was the reinforcements, with a Marauder two 65 ton mechs behind it at least. This turned out to be a pair of Catapults, one of each.

Poppy failed to make it five for five, but Lynessa managed to decapitate the K1 Catapult anyway.



Poppy DID however, manged to make to five of out SIX, as she deftly headcapped the C1...

The Marauder went down, sadly not to precision fire, but never mind, the lance had more mech parts than they could salvage anyway.

Damn, though, Poppy's deft head-cropping ought to put the wind RIGHT up the Steel Beast...!



Three pieces of Cataphract and one +++Medium laser were all the decent salvage they were getting, though.

This was a consecutive deployment, though. None of the mechs had taken more than armour damage, so it was fine. Onwards!

The next task was to capture Ironwood Productions. Darius said it was supposed to be quite well guarded, so it was quite likely that General Kerensky and all of the Exodus had returned to protect it, if Darius' usual level of helpfulness could be expected...

The enemy base was close by and defended by both turrets and mechs. Without a lot of missile support (should have brought something other than the Atlas...!), Lynessa had the lance fall back to draw the enemy mechs out from under the turret guns.

The Javelin in front died first - Poppy figured no sense in wasting a headshot when the torso would do fine... Behind that was a Rifleman. that went down - after Poppy and Lynessa missed - to an AC/20 headshot from Alarhan. There was a Vulcan and a 65-tonner behind that next. Poppy head-capped the Vulcan (though it was only one random head hit away from death anyway, it'd taken two, one aimed and one from Alarhan's missiles). The last mech was a Catapult C1. That was killed by torso destruction, as everyone missed its head, but never mind.

Then began the slow and debilitate process of eliminating the turrets through Sensor Lock and long-range fire.

They then approached the facility, which warned them not to mess with them. Darius noted they had pint-defence turrets, with his usual level of complete uselessness.

"No, Darius," Lynessa said with a sigh. "We've already destroyed them."

"... Oh."

There was the sound of hand against flesh over the comm, as Mylassta smacked him upside the head.

Exactly as Lynessa had expected, there was a wave of enemy reinforcements coming in - Warhammer and three vehicles, most like a pair of Strikers and a Demolisher, from the tonnages.

Poppy once again took the Warhammer's head off, albeit this time after they'd all had a go and it was a bit battered. Lynessa was right on the money with the vehicles.

A precise shot from the Decapitator was enough for the Demolisher (an LB-X version) the Strikers were easy kills.

Ginger Jankowski of the Ironwood Productions yielded at this point, and were quite willing to help call out the Steel Beast. (Because money and pay-pre-view, obviously...)



Two bits of Rifleman 3C and one of Vulcan. Given that Lynessa hadn't been able to negotiate the contract, this was okay.

Tubbs was apparently not very far away, since the lance got an almost immediate response.

("It is me, or does he look a bit like a fat pigeon?" Poppy whispered to Velina in an undertone.)

He was quite crude, and spoke exactly like the stereotypical wrestler-types Lynessa knew about through cultural osmosis. (None of the paladins were particularly interested in wrestling themselves.

...

Well, not THAT sort of wrestling, anyway...)

He wanted to challenge their best to a dual to the death.

("'Most notorious welterweight champion?'" Mylassta repeated, giggling. "What a complete doofus!")

A challenge against a MEDIUM mech? Well, that was surprising. Lynessa agreed with Farah, she'd been expecting a KING Crab, not just a Crab.

"Dammit, we're Paladins, we're going to have to fight fair, aren't we?" Summer grumbled.

"Yes, dear," Lynessa said. "Well, I will accept the challenge myself - yes, I know you're technically the "best" at the moment, Mylassta," she said cutting off the other's protest. "But if something DOES go wrong, you can take over from me. You're very much ready."

"But-!" Mylassta started.

"IF, my dear," Lynessa said. "I assure you, I have every intention of shooting Mr Tubb's fat head off and coming back victorious. But a good leader knows when to make sure she has back-up plans - and I'd never forgive myself if anything happened to any of you, my dears."

It had to be the Hunchback, of course, but that still played to Lynessa's strengths.

Oh, Mr Tubbs was definitely compensating for something, yelling about his "big steel claw." Lynessa just let him bluster.

Lynessa's first salvo only clipped his head.

And he HAD brought reinforcements. Two mechs and two vehicles, too. Well, what a mean little - ah, extremely fat and pigeon-like man.

Tubbs got off a salvo which did quite a bit of damage to the Hunchback, taking out one of the heat sinks.

This time, Lynessa did blow his head off, mid-posture.

(Tragically, the camera placed behind some trees, so you couldn't even see it...)

It was a bit touch-and go. Lynessa lured the reinforcements as much as she could, as she no jump jets only middling speed, her right side was quite badly messed up by the time she took the last mech out - a locust (the other had been a Panther). Had the reinforcements not been in such a pitiful state armour wise, it might have gone very badly indeed...





"Cheaters never prosper and Azurella favours the righteous," Lynessa said, mostly for the cameras.

Little salvage, aside from a few middling ++ items.

Though apparently they had gotten Tubb's crab. (Woo?)

Darius, meanwhile, was making out like a bandit, having record this and Ironwood Productions were very keen to get the holo recording.

The other rewards were a heat exchanger, a ++LRM 15 ( that was earmarked for the Stalker Barrage, an arm mod a basic rangefinder. Neat.

And the Big Steel Claw was not, in fact, a normal Crab, but a straight up FrankenMech. Lynessa supposed she should be surprised, after all, it was from Solaris VII.



A ton under weight too, apparently.

Lynessa was not overly impressed. Another fast 50-tonner... Aside from the amount of improved equipment, it didn't really offer the lance much new in capability. With a sigh, she stripped out the gear and sent it to storage.

(After doing a quick save, since apparently at one point putting the BSC in storage fracked things up... Nope, seems fine, it was supposed to be fixed in 1.4, but it never hurts to be careful...!)

Okay, next up, half-skull mission for the pirates against the Capellans, just for all of 3 points of rep. (Sigh.)

Poppy would be on this one, in Fair Marauder, with Shelat in the Decapitator, Natasha in the Stalker Barrage and Zuranna in the Shadow Punch.

Javelin, Commando, Locust, Jenner. Shouldn't be too hard...

Well, aside from one of the hitting Shelat in the head and a Marik Firestarter and Javelin turning up...

(For a frozen second, I wondered how the hell the Jenner could destroy the Decapitator's arm with one shot then realised it had just shot the Marik Javelin I couldn't see that was right in front of it because of the camera angle...!)

The only significant damage, other than to Shelat, was a bit of armour damage to the Shadow Punch when Zuranna did a DFA on the Firestarter and took it out...

Oops, forgot to screencap that mission screen...!

Half-skull battle against the planetary government - might as well...

Vey took over from Shelat in the Decapitator.

Locust 1M, Commando and two vehicles. Speed-bump...



Next, a 1-skull convoy ambush (sigh) for the Canopians verses the Capellans.

Zuranna swapped into the Phoenix Coil for this one, in case they needed the speed, it was in the highlands...

Two Panthers and a Jenner. The four wheeled APCs gave Zuranna some slightly issues - one of them manged to run out of sight one round before Natasha could blow it apart with missiles - but it went down the next anyway.



Salvage gave the paladins a Panther to sell.

Zuranna increased her piloting to 6. Velina increased her tactics to 8. Alarhan maxed her piloting to 10 and became the second pilot to max out. (Unsurprisingly, perhaps, Alarhan had been solidly reliable the whole time.) Summer follow after, with her guts at 10 maxing her out. Shelat increased her tactics to 8 and gained Master Tactician. Poppy maxed her gunnery and increased her guts to 6. Lynessa maxed herself out to, with the last point of piloting. Vey raised her tactics to 7 and finally raised her guts to 5 and took Bulwark.

The other missions were all for the planetary government, and Lynessa didn't see the point. She finally elected to head out to Independence and the lead on the Dobrev.

Maintenance - the Stalker Barrage replaced one of its LRM 15s with the ++LRM 15 and two heat sinks with another exchanger. Lynessa experimented with a further couple of heat sinks and an exchanger, but that wasn't quite as good.

The Shadow Punch's ++ Rangefinder was replaced with a regular one. The released system was put into the Catapult Hammer.

Another 0-tonnage stabilisation arm mod was added to the Decapitator.

The Hunchback loss six heat sinks, but gained heat exchanger and a ++ heat exchanger, lowering heat output by 30%. This dropped it from 30 points of overheat to 18, which was a fair drop.

The hospital bay was completed! And Lynessa had enough cash to get started on mech bay 3 as well, and still have enough Darius MIGHT not moan about it...

Mylassta came to Lynessa. Velina had been playing around with some sort of improved cooling technique, and was trying hard to get Mylassta to help her with it, since Mylassta as such a big protagonist and all... Lynessa gently suggested that Mylassta handle this - she was a prospective leader after all. Mylassta did, and came back feeling quiet pleased with herself. She'd protagonist-blagged her way into getting someone to look at Velina's idea (with help from Alarhan, being a sort of cooling expert, really) and the people they'd talked to had found it very promising.

Day 600 payday:



They arrived at Independence on day 601.

We shall leave them there for today!

So. We are at the half way-point (601/1200 days). Now seems like a good time to look and see how Lynessa's done!

Spoiler

Show

Current Score: 186322 (Out of a potential 616012 and this difficulty level.)

Morale is up to 50 (but only just).

Reputations:



Ten mechs ready in the bays; one light, four medium, two heavy and three assault, plus sixteen light mechs completed in storage, fourteen medium and five heavy.



A good chunk of the Argo's upgrades done.

And, of course - the MechWarriors.

Zuranna "Barbarian" Ruby
Gunnery: 4 Piloting: 8 Guts: 5 Tactics: 4
Deployments: 3 Mech Kills: 2 Other Kills: 2 Injuries: 0 Ejections: 0

Velina "Flower" Mistmoon
Gunnery: 5 Piloting: 5 Guts: 3 Tactics: 8
Deployments: 8 Mech Kills: 7 Other Kills: 9 Injuries: 0 Ejections: 0

Alarhan "Frostwitch" Tyanar
Gunnery: 10 Piloting: 10 Guts: 10 Tactics: 10
Deployments: 76 Mech Kills: 77 Other Kills: 47 Injuries: 5 Ejections: 0

Summer "Hurricane" Glow
Gunnery: 10 Piloting: 10 Guts: 10 Tactics: 10
Deployments: 72 Mech Kills: 44 Other Kills: 30 Injuries: 11 Ejections: 1

Pseekie "Mechanic" Rala
Gunnery: 5 Piloting: 9 Guts: 4 Tactics: 9
Deployments: 36 Mech Kills: 24 Other Kills: 24 Injuries: 5 Ejections: 0

Mylassta "Protagonist" Spiritweave
Gunnery: 10 Piloting: 10 Guts: 10 Tactics: 10
Deployments: 83 Mech Kills: 177 Other Kills: 27 Injuries: 15 Ejections: 1

Shelat "Psion" Valcorel
Gunnery: 4 Piloting: 5 Guts: 4 Tactics: 8
Deployments: 12 Mech Kills: 9 Other Kills: 2 Injuries: 2 Ejections: 0

Poppy "Quiet Fury" Blossom
Gunnery: 10 Piloting: 4 Guts: 6 Tactics: 10
Deployments: 45 Mech Kills: 55 Other Kills: 13 Injuries: 3 Ejections: 0

Scarlet "Red Devil" Kaxatari
Gunnery: 8 Piloting: 4 Guts: 5 Tactics: 10
Deployments: 32 Mech Kills: 31 Other Kills: 9 Injuries: 1 Ejections: 1

Lynessa "Serene" Fair"
Gunnery: 10 Piloting: 10 Guts: 10 Tactics: 10
Deployments: 84 Mech Kills: 110 Other Kills: 53 Injuries: 15 Ejections: 0

Vey "Shatterpoint" Lataylaern
Gunnery: 6 Piloting: 3 Guts: 6 Tactics: 7
Deployments: 12 Mech Kills: 6 Other Kills: 7 Injuries: 1 Ejections: 0

Natasha Spellshadow "Spellshadow" Dawnbright
Gunnery: 5 Piloting: 2 Guts: 5 Tactics: 4
Deployments: 5 Mech Kills: 5 Other Kills: 2 Injuries: 3 Ejections: 0



Mylassta is clearly in her element here, with an astonishing amount of kills (all those B-team missions, clearly!) Even more than Lynessa's combined (and Lynessa spent a goodly chunk of the first half of the time being the principle vehicle-killer in the Enforcer.) Mylassta has averages 2.5 kills per mission; Lynessa's is only 1.9 and Poppy (who has done very well considering) is at 1.5.

Both Lynessa and Mylassta have been injured an inordinate amount; once every 5 missions. (Though poor Natasha is indeed Jinked being wounded three times in five missions!) Alarhan, with almost the same mission count, has breezed through like true trooper, and Summer has fallen somewhere between.

[The Glyphstone]

I didn't trust Tubbs when I did that mission, and brought a full lance in to ambush him. Imagine my surprise when he had the same idea.

[Misery Esquire]

I didn't trust Tubbs when I did that mission, and brought a full lance in to ambush him. Imagine my surprise when he had the same idea.

Vizzini the Sicilian Tubbs : You thought that I had thought that you would think this was a trap, but in reality I thought that you would think that I thought that you would think this was a trap and so I thought about thinking about your thoughts of my thinking about you thinking that I would think about you...

Player : Can we just kill each other with the giant robots we both weren't supposed to have here?

Tubbs : ...Yeah.

[Aotrs Commander]

I didn't trust Tubbs when I did that mission, and brought a full lance in to ambush him. Imagine my surprise when he had the same idea.

I mean, if it was anyone other than the Paladins, I would have too. But it seemed totally out of character...!

Now, if this had been an Aotrs-Tech playthrough (I just can't inderstand why HBS didn't give you a skeleton protrait...) or something...

Vizzini the Sicilian Tubbs : You thought that I had thought that you would think this was a trap, but in reality I thought that you would think that I thought that you would think this was a trap and so I thought about thinking about your thoughts of my thinking about you thinking that I would think about you...

Player : Can we just kill each other with the giant robots we both weren't supposed to have here?

Tubbs : ...Yeah.

... it'd probably have gone like:

Tubbs: You have come alone?

Bleakbane: Yes. You have come alone?

Tubbs: Yes.

*they get a bit closer*

Bleakbane: *summons rest of lance* I lied.

Tubbs: *summons reinforcements* So did I.

Bleakbane: *summons even more mechs* But I lied twice.

Tubbs: Damn, I never thought of that.



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Sixteen:

Spoiler

Show

There were three contracts at Independence - two for the pirates (might as well do them for the reputation) and one for the Canopians.

On that basis, there was no reason to delay moving on with the flashpoint.

The Baumann Group's distribution centre was in the middle of the jungle. The plan was to ambush their patrol lance before hitting the facility itself.

Moderbjörn was back online and ready to assist. Surmire wanted her to help with drones; Moderbjörn said she could, but warned there was no way of replacing the drones, since no-one, herself included, know how to fix them. Yang, Darius and Lynessa all agreed that now was not the time for that; especially, as Darius pointed out, with the bribe he'd placed.

Mylassta was in high spirits, so she'd be leading this part of the operation from the Decapitator. Poppy would take the Fair Marauder, Velina the Atlas and Shelat the Catapult Hammer.

(Got to strike a balance between the best pilots and not wasting any XP, since it counts for score...! And this was only a 2.5 skull mission.)

Well, this was a problem - someone else was attacking the facility while this was going on.

And this turned out to be the Bounty Hunter. THE Bounty Hunter, the famous one with the green mech (who was purportedly a string of people using the identity, but whatever).

(Which I know without having to read the blurb, since it was all the way back from the original 3025 Technical Readout, my second-hand copy of which is falling apart and which I read only a week or two ago...)

Well, he unsurprisingly wanted the Paladins to naff off. Lynessa, with all due respect, wasn't going to do that, though.

Ah, thought Mylassta. The cunning flaw in this plan was the only one with indirect fire was the one with Sensor Lock. Whoops.

The cavalry lance appeared to be mostly vehicles. The Bounty Hunter dropped in a lance of enemy mechs as well.

Perhaps, then, Mylassta and co could let them shoot each other a bit...?

The enemy lance consisted of an Enforcer, an Archer and a 7K Trebuchet (and something else out of sight - later discovered to be a Shadow Hawk, plus a 20-tonner). The first enemy vehicle was a Striker, which, thanks to the Catapult's enhanced rangefinder, they could see moving to attack the Bounty Hunter's Mechs.

Unfortunately, the first enemy vehicle to approach the lance was an SRM Carrier, and the blistering salvo hit Poppy in the head. The only consolation (aside from her immediately blowing it the hell up) was that the other SRM Carrier did exactly the same to the enemy Enforcer.

OH! The ARCHER was part of the Baumann group's lance! Haha!

Poppy vented her frustration in silent competence, headcapping the Shadowhawk from the middle distance.



The enemy - especially divided and mixed up as it was - proved little trouble.

(I also had to stop half-way through the battle to scan documents for Nanny's funeral and various crap sorting. I think Mylassta must have head hit the Trebuchet to death, lese the other guys got a random one which finished it off...?)

The Archer was the last to fall, as the lance tried to headcap it - but they got via pilot kill to due head hits and torso destruction anyway.

The Bounty Hunter seemed to take it in stride, telling Lynessa to contact him again once everyone was in orbit.



Three parts Archer 2R, thank you, two of Shadow Hawk and one of Enforcer, enough to complete all three!

The Bounty Hunter was impressed, and wasn't taking it personally. In fact, he was sending a DropShip over with some bits - scrap, basically. He said he'd rather give it to the Paladins than just throw it away.

Lynessa thanked him very politely for his kindness, which was echoed by the rest of the Paladins. The Bounty Hunter - despite his face-concealing mask - seemed a bit bewildered by the genuine sentiment.

The scrap was two bits of Banshee, a +++ Large Laser and some other sundry + items.

Now is was a case of letting Yang do so analysis work and see if this scrap - from the Dobrev - was a lead.

The Archer was pretty much the same as the 2S, so it went to storage for the moment.



Might as well do the contracts while they were there - 1-skill pirate ambush convoy for max reputation.

Mylassta took the Fair Marauder, Vey the Decapitator and Velina and Shelat swapped to the Stalker Barrage and Phoenix Coil respectively.

Azurella's Eyes, that was a chuffing long way away from the lance's starting location!

Poor Shelat had to sprint way ahead of the group to get into a blocking position. And poor Velina was MILES behind - but still in LRM range...




Probably the longest range shot anyone in the lance had made thus far, though!

The enemy mechs diverted to attack Mylassta and Vey. The first Commando hit Mylassta in the head. "Um, well," said Vey, "at least you're winning in the injuries stakes over Lynessa now...?"

What Mylassta said is quite unrepeatable. Lynessa, listening on the comms, decided that they were DEFINITELY spending too much time around Hayla.

No salvage meant no mercy...



Oh, crapbaskets.



So, in addition to the two Panthers on the one end, there were now three Locusts and a Javelin, and all taking shots at poor Shelat.

Still, a precise shot from Velina cleared the convoy, allowing Shelat to JUMP THE HEAVENS AWAY!

Out of danger, this allowed Mylassta to stride up (leaving the now one-remaining Panther for Vey and Shelat to deal with) and proceed to systematically wipe three out of four of the hapless lights with CT kills.



So much for Mylassta's high spirits...

Shelat upper her piloting to 6 and Natasha her tactics to 5.

Oh. The only other two missions were travel contracts. No point heading to Mantharaka again, though.

Lynessa stepped into the store and bought a +++LRM 15 (+50% crit and +2 stability damage). That would be fitted on the Stalker Barrage and the +++Large Laser would be swapped onto the Decapitator.

The paladins would travel to 1.5 skull McEvans' Sacrifice. It was an arctic world, and has the pirates, Canopians and Taurians active, so hopefully it would be pirate and Canopian missions against the former.

It was also a mere 13 days away, so they could maybe clear it out and move on in the same month.

Mylassta and Poppy were only down for 7 and 10 days respectively - that hospital was worth it!

Lynessa emptied their store - 0-ton arm, leg and gyro mods, they'd just be useful for any of the lance mechs generally and they were always cheap.

The paladins arrived at McEvans' Sacrifice with no incidents. Three out of the seven contracts were against the pirates and only one for, but the rest were fine.

First off, a Taurian mission against the Canopians (to be followed by two in the reverse...) A 1.5 skull battle, for max cash (since it was the mission that gave out the largest pay-out).

Mylassta's head was healed and she was still in high spirits, so she set out with the same lance, but with Velina swapping to the Hunchback and Shelat to the Catapult Barrage.

Oh, this was going to be like last time - an op against a join Davion/Canopian force. The Taurians had brought... Two Locusts, a Phoenix Hawk and a Dragon. Ace.

"Girls, you handle the Davion mechs," Mylassta ordered. "Leave the right flank to me." She headed off to start OHKO-ing the enemy, starting with THEIR first Locust.

The enemy force of consisted of a Flea, a Blackjack, a Commando, a Phoenix Hawk a fricking CATAPULT and something off Mylassta's sensors.

The usual level of combined fire took the Hunchback’s left arm off right away, but there wasn't anything irreplaceable there.

The Blackjack died shortly thereafter, and the last contact was a Spider.

The lance worked through the enemies relatively fast, an without too much more damage, though it took Mylassta three tries to headcap the Catapult (she'd have done it faster, but she had to break off to kick the Spider to death before it did too much damage to the allied Phoenix Hawk. There was on worrying moment when the Catapult - a C4 version to boot - unloaded on one of the Locusts, but it survived, and Mylassta hit it before it could do any more damage.





Next, one skull mission for the pirates to recover a computer virus from the Canopians for max reputation. (Yang was not happy...)

Unhurt, Velina took the Stalker Barrage, with the Hunchback being out of commission.

The enemy was a Firestarter, Commando, Raven and a Wolverine. Only the terrain, and the Raven running away, made this take slightly longer - the missile mechs locked and the bombarded the Raven, while Mylassta tried to headcap the Wolverine several times and in the end, it died to CT destruction.



That might have been Mylassta's first mission without a kill...!

Velina raised her tactics to 9 for called shot mastery. Shelat's piloting went to 7, gaining the boost to sprint speed.

Time to win back Canopian favour! First a 2-skull biological sample recovery from the Taurians; same team, it seemed to be working fine!

Well, this might be interesting - the lance ran into five contacts at once - three light mechs to the east and a 45-tonner (probably a Phoenix Hawk, Mylassta guessed from what came at her) to the north. The four lights were two Locust and two Javelins, which didn't last long. The north forces also had another 25-tonner (Commando, probably?) and a 60-ton vehicle.



Dang, that was going to be a long walk to the main facility up there...

When the 45-tonner finally hove into sight, it was Blackjack - a 1DB version! Mylassta would having that (though not on the first try...!) Meanwhile, Shelat sauntered over to the east facility.

Mylassta got the -1DB on the third try. Then it was simply a case of wandering to pick the samples up.



Salvage was enough to finish a Locust and the BJ-1DB.

Vey upper her tactics to 8.

One more! 1-skull battle against the Taurians. If it wasn't broke...

The first enemy vanguard was a couple of Fleas - easily dealt with, but apparently spotting for a number of missile units, including a Javelin and for vehicles, none of which proved to be a problem.



Salvage gave a complete Flea FLE-15 and Javelin for sale.

Well, that was that for that world! Chandan (11 days away) next, similar situation.

The arm mods were installed on the Phoenix Coil and the gyro (+1 melee hit) to the Decapitator.

Mech Bay 3 was finished! Lynessa had Farah start on upgrading the drive next.

The arrived at Chandan. One mission for the pirates (and another they could take if they could), two Marik missions against the planetary government (easy)... The others were for the planetary government, and thus not worth the reputation at this point.

The pirate mission... was a 1-skull convoy ambush (Martian...) with a massive 6/27 salvage. Lynessa sighed. That was really too good to pass up for 2 extra reputation; the 3-point reputation bonus would take them back to disliked anyway.

Shelat swapped the Phoenix Coil in for the Catapult Hammer (Mylassta was still in high spirits) and off they went.

The lance had plenty of time to intercept the convoy this time. The guard were two Spiders and a Wolverine - Mylassta dealt with them in short order, blowing the head off one Spider and the Wolverine.



The rest of the convoy (which included an Inferno Carrier, which would have been very bad in the Martian environment, had it fired) went down easily.



Enough salvage for a Wolverine (a 6R, the variant they hadn't got) and a Spider!

Lynessa bit the bullet, and bought a final piece of UrbanMech R60 to complete it. They didn't need it, but for completeness (and they didn't run into Urbies very often.)

(And looking at the scoring system...)

The store had a COIL-S and a +PPC (+5 damage) and they were not short of cash, so Lynessa picked them up.

The now-unlocked 1.5 skull pirate mission was... another convoy ambush. Of course it was. (As was one of the Marik missions...)

Well, max reputation this time.

The convoy was only three vehicles and escorted only by a Griffin and a Locust, so the lance blitzed through it.



Shelat upped her tactics to 9.

One more time! Third planetary government convoy ambushed in the same spot. You'd have thought they'd have learned...



I mean, Shelat had been aiming for the centre torso, but okay...!

The other enemies were a Panther, Javelin and Commando.



DON'T SHOOT. VEY. IN. THE. HEAD. TWICE. WITH. SRMS!

Mylassta doesn't like it.

Aside from that niggle, the convoy was wiped out easily enough, even though THIS time they maybe had learned to try, as there was a Striker Narc and an SRM Carrier AND an Inferno carrier...



Salvage was three Firestarter parts, because that was apparently worth more than Panther parts and three of either completed a mech for sale.

While in the med bay - for a while - Vey practised her tactics, taking them to 9 for called shot mastery!

Lynessa had a quick look around and found one more recruit - Luximai Iceshadow. A Drow magic-user, Luximai was from an acquaintance of Natasha and Velina.

"I have been running corporation here," she said. "Have pick up bit of accent. All went badly when pirates attacked, decided to leave then." She'd apparently made it as far as a VP in her corporation before it went south. Those were useful skills, plus Lynessa had another scout.



(Independent Trader, Corporate Managed, Corporate VP; that's quite a lot of stuff there, Luxi...!)

Last mission here, a 2-skull capture base. Lynessa figured, sod it, max cash.

Zuranna got the Decapitator this time - it was best used as a melee machine in the Martian environment anyway, or at least a meatshield. Back to the Catapult Hammer for Shelat.

The lance almost instantly ran into a light lance of a pair of Locusts, Javelin and Raven.

Zuranna took a head hit from the Locust 1M LRMs - from point-blank range, near enough, to add insult to injury.

(And then a SECOND one, since apparently hitting the Decapitator twice in the head is today's theme.)

The lights were wiped out.

The enemy had reinforcements - a Locust and a Striker (which got into range alone), followed by a Blackjack and another vehicle.

Mylassta managed a very nice shot, hitting the Blackjack's CT ammunition.



The vehicle turned out to be an LRM carrier when Shelat sensor locked it and Velina took it out with one salvo.



Velina maxed her tactics, seeing as she seemed to be Missile Support Girl. Shelat pushed her gunnery to 5.

Time to move on again!

This time, there was a travel contract to Spencer too good to give up - a 2-skull Clash the Titans mission. For Marik, and against the planetary government.

Payday:



On the way, the first drive upgrade was completed! Training module 3 was next on the list.

Zuranna was EXTREMELY unhappy about being confined to bed one her first deployment since the last time and vented to Poppy at length, Mylassta had the doctors let her do some simulator work which she recuperated.

At Spencer, Lynessa spotted a Cicada 2A part in the store. The only had two, and Cicadas hadn't been seen for a while, so she figured she ought to buy it. (She was also keeping an eye out for another couple of UrbanMech R90 parts, too.)

In the recruitment centre. Lynessa found a troubled young lady, one Liana Huxley "Strider." She'd had a bit of a rough time and was currently Dispossessed after the death of her father, and Lynessa's paladin instincts kicked in.



All change!

Scarlet would take the Decapitator, Poppy the Fair Marauder, Velina the Atlas and Pseekie the Catapult Barrage.

The second assault mech and its group - Capellans - landed right on top of the lance.

Well, Poppy wasn't about to look gift-horse in the mouth.



Well, that was the first bit of salvage, then...

The second assault was a Banshee (a 3S) and -

"Goddess! Poppy's just freaking lethal!"



The various Spiders, Jenners and Javelins - not this time managing any head hits - went down easily.



Two part Banshee - a complete one at last! And three parts Zeus.

The Banshee, once again, had potential. Triple PPCs and enough heat sinks to use them? This was the slow version so Lynessa's half-formed plan of making the Shadow Punch's larger brother again went on hold.

But there would time for that later.

Velina increased her gunnery to 6. Poppy increased her piloting to 6 from 4. Scarlet upped her guts to 6.

First, the local contracts. Well, it looked like the lance could basically do them all this time, and come out net positive.

The first one was a 3-skull escort mission for the local government against the Canopians, for max salvage.

Velina grabbed the Stalker Barrage again. It might be slower than the Atlas, but it had much better long-distance capabilities.

First off, the lance had to deal with the enemy blocking force - two Javelins, a Spider and Locust, which died fairly quickly.

The second round, as the convoy (All Alsvis APCs) set off, was a Spider, a Locust and a Firestarter.

The Locust, for some insane reason, ran right up to the Decapitator to try and kick it. And the Catapult Hammer was stood right next to the Decapitator.

Locust punching happened.

The lance saw the convoy safely to the escort point, just as the last set of enemies - Locust, Flea and two Ravens showed up.



Flea swatting...



Enough salvage to finish a Locust for sale, and FLE-4 for storage.

We shall leave the lance there for today.

That will be it, like as not, until Thursday again, and this week, I'll be back to normal stuff. The computer hasn't had a shutdown (touch wood), since Thursday morning and not since I changed the plug socket of the surge suppressor (I'm going to get a new one, I think). If it's still fine tomorrow morning, I might turn it OFF tomorrow night...

[Destro_Yersul]

Man, you got your whole own cosmology going on over there. Very thorough answer.

Were I already not an insane magical space Lich, I might be concerned

I see that you, too, are a man of culture. More things need skull options. I also remember getting a skull head in Stardew Valley, but it was a mask, not a customization option.

Not that this stopped me from wearing it for the rest of the game. A lot of the cutscenes are unintentionally hilarious when you're walking around with a skull head that can't emote at all.


Incidentally, I found having more than eight-ish pilots in this game isn't really that useful, nor is having more than eight-ish good mechs. The game gives you room to have a ton of pilots, but what's really the point? You can only ever use four mechs at once (which is why Light mechs are a bit useless), so the rest of them just sit around eating money.

[Aotrs Commander]

I see that you, too, are a man of culture. More things need skull options. I also remember getting a skull head in Stardew Valley, but it was a mask, not a customization option.

I managed okay on the second game, as it'd been updated.

Incidentally, I found having more than eight-ish pilots in this game isn't really that useful, nor is having more than eight-ish good mechs. The game gives you room to have a ton of pilots, but what's really the point? You can only ever use four mechs at once (which is why Light mechs are a bit useless), so the rest of them just sit around eating money.

True, but the score increases for you XP; and the other reason is so that you're always training SOMONE up. I probably won't pick up more than another couple of pilots (as of the last oe, we're officially into more pilots than female voice-sets...!), though - they are the biggest exspense now!




Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Seventeen:

Spoiler

Show

Okay, first, a 2-skull Destroy Base for the Free Worlds League against the planetary government.

Scarlet would take the Decapitator, Velina would take the Fair Marauder, Natasha the Stalker Barrage and Shelat the Catapult Hammer.

The enemy lance was a Spider, a Griffin and a couple of vehicles (Manticore and Striker). With some tries, tries, Scarlet and Velina headcapped the Griffin between them. The opposition was trivial, even to the more rookie pilots.



Velina's gunnery rose to 7 and Natasha's tactics to 6.

Next was 2-skull ambush pirate convoy for the Canopians. Shelat switched to the Phoenix Coil.

For once, the lance deployed practically on top of the enemy escape point, meaning they could let the enemy come to them.

The first was a solitary Spider, a spotter, which promptly died to Scarlet. A Galleon assault vehicle died to the LRM fir, and the Cicada 3A to a neat headshot from Velina. The Panther and the Hunchback that followed after fell one-by-one, and convoy soon after.



Salvage was enough to complete a 4G Hunchback for sale.

Next, a 1-skull ambush convoy for the pirates against the local government. This was rather trivial, to say the least, guarded as it was by a Jenner, Locust and Javelin.



But it got a Jenner and Javelin to sell.

And Natasha's tactics went up to 7...

Jungle 1-skull Flyswatter mission for Marik next, so back into the Catapult Barrage for Shelat.

This time, the opposition was a little more interesting - a Vulcan, a Thunderbolt, a Javelin and the hapless target Cicada. (Naturally, a 2A, the one Lynessa had JUST bought something for because she didn't think they'd run across one...)

With typical OpFor concentrated hit patterns, they managed to damage the Decapitator's internals again.



Still, Cicada 2A, Vulcan 5T and a Javelin for sale...

Velina raised her gunnery to 8 and got Breaching Shot. Shelat maxed her tactics.

A day later, finally for this system, a 1-skull jailbreak, liberating a pirate from the government. Lynessa opted to do this one just for the pirate's rep.

(Huh, they could do that and still take 1 above minimum salvage. Cool.)

Another routine mission, with the OpFor being a Flea, Spider and two Strikers.



That one salvage was enough for complete a Spider for sale, though.

After some thought, Lynessa elected to head to 1.5 skull Fronc next. Much of the surrounds were much the same, so she figured she might as well visit the edges of the map as she wandered towards the Magistracy of Canopus, one jump at a time.

(Since checking the score, visiting a lot of worlds counts, so...)

Farah finished the new training module, and Lynessa started her on the final drive upgrades.

They arrived at Fronc with no further incidents.

Four mission for the planetary government (not worth the reputation loss) and three for the Free Worlds League against said government. Fine.

The shop had a heat exchanger (useful) and a couple of basic cockpit mods, to Lynessa bought them all.

First of all, a 2-skull capture base. Lynessa opted for max cash, since it was quite generous (800k roughly) and those sort of missions usually granted quite a bit of extra bonus money.

The lance remained as it was, the girls were doing fine and this was a good set up for capture anyway.

Two Locusts, a Javelin and a Spider...

Enemy reinforcements arrived as the lance were finishing off the enemy defenders and turrets. A Jenner, a Javelin, Panther and a Shadowhawk, none of which proved a problem.



Better part of a million cbills!

Next mission was a 1.5-skull desert mission, to extract and escort some Marik operatives. Max cash, because it might as well, since it'd be worth more than a good couple of light mechs...

The government forces were already on the scene. But a Locust, Javelin, Raven and Griffin were not a major problem - but one enough to actually cause IS to the Decapitator's leg, annoyingly.

The reinforcements arrived as the convoy exited; a pair of Locusts and a Javelin. On of the latter managed to get a lucky head strike on Velina.



Surprising amount of damage for a 1.5 skull mission...

But it was over a million cbills, so there was that.

Natasha raised her tactics to 8 and Shelat her gunnery to 6.

A day's repairs and the next mission - 1-skull assassination - was ready to go. Scarlet swapped to the Fair Marauder, giving the Decapitator to Zuranna.

Two Jenners, a Commando - and reinforcements of a Jenner, Firestarter and Panther. Easily eliminated.



The enemy target was in a Cicada 3C. Scarlet's first shot detonated its centre torso MG ammunition.



Okay. There were two heat exchangers in the store, so they both went on the Hunchback, replacing more heat sinks, and making it drop now 50% heat. (It still ran hot, but 39/55 now). The two cockpit mods went on the Stalker Barrage and the Atlas.

Zuranna increased her piloting to 7 - the extra 20% sprint would be important for charging to melee enemies.

Screw it, Lynessa decided. 1.5 skull Cygnus, and they maybe they'd have tons of cash for the next black market stop...

Payday:



Scarlet and Zuranna had a bit of a playful to-do, but nothing worth worrying about.

Shelat, though, thought she'd found a problem in the secondary power interlock. Farah wasn't convinced, but Lynessa had her look into it - Shelat DID have some technical expertise. Turned out Shelat was right, though they couldn't bypass the problem and Farah added it to the list of stuff to do. Shelat was extremely happy, though.

Pff. Two missions for the Free Worlds League against the local government, and the rest were mostly against the pirates, save for one against the Canopians. So the former two were really all that was worth bothering with.

First one was a 1.5 skull base defence mission - max cash. Scarlet and Shelat stayed with their mechs, but in the interests of making sure the enemy went down fast, Very took the Stalker Barrage and Velina the Decapitator this time.

The enemy vanguard was in a really annoying position, however, and that cost the lance a precious turn or so. Six of the eight enemy mechs were the usual light suspects, backed up by a Griffin 1S and a Blackjack - the latter of which they didn't kill before the mission timed out, unfortunately, which was annoying.



And despite headcapping the Griffin, they got no salvage of any note.



Next was another 1.5-skull flyswatter mission, do Zuranna and Natasha returned to the Decapitator and Stalker Barrage respectively.

Thus appeared to be an attempted ambush. A pair of Locusts, a Shadowhawk and a Phoenix Hawk.

And Zuranna was hit in the head AGAIN. The Locust responsible was immediately pounded into paste.

The enemy Cicada was at the bottom of a cliff, so the lance rushed up, taking LRM fire from the second group of ambushers - a full lance of 10A Javelins - and brought the target down. The Javelins were then mopped up.



The salvage was enough to complete a Shadowhawk and a Javelin for sale.

Zuranna angrily increased the guts to 6. Velina pushed her gunnery to 9 and Shelat hers to 7. Scarlet maxed her from 8 to 10.

The next world, then would be Addasar in the ministry of Canopus, a 3-skull world!

The Free Worlds League currently though the paladins were the bomb, because of all the missions they'd done for them. Oh well...

(Ahahah, game. A world in which there are only two active pow4ers to choose from, so the only missions available for the Canopians are locked and all the other are for Liao. Frack off. Reload.

*many reloads later*

I settled for a set of five Canopian missions - three 3 skull I could see (only one against the pirates) and two locked. Watch both of them be against the pirates.

I wouldn't MIND, but the game generated all those FWL/planetary gov missions right outside the Canopian borders instead of either pirate or Canopians. Shoulda reloaded those, clearly, as the game DOES NOT want me to ally to the people I want to ally too.)

Oof. A ++Gauss Rifle in the black market. Something they could afford (but not the ton of ammo with it), if Lynessa wanted to blow everything they had.

First up, then. Battle a Capellan lance in the tundra (2.5 skulls).

Scarlet took the Decapitator, Poppy the Fair Marauder, Velina the Hunchback and the still-hyped Shelat stayed in the Catapult Barrage.

Assassin, two Phoenix Hawks and a Dragon - with LRM-armed reinforcements behind.

The lance managed to headcap the Phoenix Hawks and the Dragon, and take the Assassin out with missiles and lasers once it fell over.



Poppy was on form...

The enemy had at least one Trebuchet, but that was all that had come into sight, and that had pulled back - so the lance did as well.

And, thanks to the Catapult Barrage's rangefinder, they came into sight, a second Assassin and Centurion too. Repeated headshots took them all down, including the last Trebuchet when it hove it over the horizon.



That was enough to complete a Dragon for sale - and Lynessa elected to buy the +++Comm system in the Black Market as well (with an eye to putting it on the Hunchback, to further increase the amount of precise shots they could make).

Shelat increased her gunnery to 9. Poppy pushed her piloting to 7 and Scarlet improved hers from 4 to 6.

The two Canopian missions now unlocked were both against the Capellans. Nice!

The first of these was a 3.5-skull assassination mission. Velina slipped into the Atlas, and they set out again. The Canopians wanted to eliminate a Capellan elite MechWarrior who was coming to take command of the local forces. And they had reinforcements, too...

The lance headed west, to take out the screening force. They spotted a Vindicator 1AA and an LB-X Demolisher, taking them out at range. Another 75-tonner moved in from the west. This turned out to be a Black Knight!

Poppy took a couple of tries, but...



Huzzah!

Things went downhill from there, though.

The bad news was the other enemy lance was closing a Cataphract, an Enforcer, a Warhammer and a Quickdraw.

The Cataphract WOULD NOT DIE. After four or five precision shots, it just wouldn't get hit in the head.

The elite mechwarrior coming from the flank was a Stalker, and it managed to strip the Decapitator's left torso badly.

Velina FINALLY, managed to down the damn Cataphract with CT destruction at point-blank range.

They killed the Quickdraw with CT destruction.



Meanwhile the Stalker managed to destroy an arm mod on the Decapitator despite that being on the opposite side to where it was shooting. And hit her in the head as well.

(The Quickdraw had hit Velina in the head, but ahaha, cockpit mod, fracker.)

(Okay, game, one more "you can't hit but I always do," and we'll be taking a trip to Reload City.)



(That's fracking better.)

Two consecutive salvos of LRMs knocked the Warhammer down, but the entire lance's fire failed to hit the head once. Shelat used the last of her missiles again to try and destabilise it.

Between that and Poppy (who the head with the laser, injuring the pilot), they knocked it down AGAIN and it finally died to RT/LT torso destruction.

That was ridiculous.



And, after ALL that, the ONLY mech that they had even 1 part for was the sodding Vindicator.

So, three parts Black Knight one part Vindicator.

(True to fracking form, there was an arm mod to replace the one blow up, but did the RNG FRACK want to let me have it.)

Well, as they could be waiting for at least a day or two, Lynessa authorised Farah to start on the machineshop upgrade for the ship.

They needed to buy a new jump jet as well. As they were going to be waiting for a couple of days whatever, Lynessa had the swap out one of the +5 damage Medium lasers for s +10 one.

Lynessa considered, and as the next mission was 3.5 destroy base, they would risk not taking the Decapitator. Instead, the lance would be the Atlas (Pseekie), the Fair Marauder (Shelat, as Master Tactician to at least the Marauder would gain from an initiative boost and also had Sensor Lock), the Stalker Barrage (Poppy) and Catapult Hammer (Velina). Lynessa had considered the Raven, but decided that without the extra umph from the Decapitator's melee, it might not be wise.

The base was positon so that it was basically impossible to approach from the flanks. Despite going east to try and get some height, the cliffs prevented the Stalker and Catapult (without jump jets) from getting up.

A lone Jagermech was approaching, so it got all the LRMs.

This was followed by a 4D Rifleman (with PPCs and large lasers) and Thunderbolt, both of which seemed to spring out of nowhere, without sensor contact first.

The Rifleman finally went down to headcapping and the Thunderbolt soon after. Fortunately, the base had no more than the turrets defending it.



Salvage at least allowed them to complete a Jagermech, finally, but nothing more.

Lynessa did sell off their excess stores, though, it hadn't been done for a bit and 74 medium lasers was a touch excessive, to say nothing of 80-something small jump jets.

Velina maxed her gunnery; Pseekie maxed her piloting. Poppy increased her guts to 7.



At this is where we shall leave them for today.

Toss-up whether they'll be a part tomorrow or not; it's my grandmother's funeral, so it depends how long our little wake will be going on, how drained I am verses how much I want to have something else to focus on.

[Destro_Yersul]

I think it's a reasonable idea to have a few spare pilots, especially once you've got simulators, because their salary doesn't increase until you buy them upgrades. So you can just let them sit there, costing not overly much money, and gaining a pile of XP. Then if anybody dies, boom, buy up some skills and have a solid, if not equal, replacement ready to go.

I've never particularly cared about score in things like this, though, so doing it for the points doesn't appeal to me as much as saving money.

[Aotrs Commander]

I think it's a reasonable idea to have a few spare pilots, especially once you've got simulators, because their salary doesn't increase until you buy them upgrades. So you can just let them sit there, costing not overly much money, and gaining a pile of XP. Then if anybody dies, boom, buy up some skills and have a solid, if not equal, replacement ready to go.

I've never particularly cared about score in things like this, though, so doing it for the points doesn't appeal to me as much as saving money.

There comes a point, I think, which I'm at now, where money ceases to be a major issue - especially once you've mostly "filled the pipe." One, maybe two missions at max money per month and you've got it covered. We're at max morale, so I could drop the expenses back to normal from "generous," but I haven't. (I think my campaign game, they were on max long after the hit top morale.) You might even argue that a lot of the Argo "morale upgrade" improvements are really a bit of a trap from purely money perspective, since they keep costing you money even after you hit max morale, unlike raising the pay, but I do them anyway, because it's not a lot. And, as I say, half the fun is training people up, as once people hit the max, there's not much left for them to do. (One of the things I liked about X-Com 2 was that even once you hit max rank, you never really got quite enough AP to be able to max everything, so everyone still had somewhere to "go.") I'd be doing this anyway, because, like I said right at the start, I just like playing with character generation, mostly.

One the current mob hit max, though, I almost certainly won't get any more. (And I DO only have maintenance on normal, too!)

As for score and such - I have to have goals to work towards (ESPECIALLY at the moment, with basically nothing on the horizon at all to look forward to). I can't deal well with sandboxes. (Notoriously, I like Cities Skylines, but can never stick at it because of the lack of structure. The only open-world game than held my attention was Witcher 3, and with one of the map mods the denoted all the caches and stuff, it was still basically a big tick-list of Things To Do, so I played that for 217 hours without stopping to play anything else, which is quite unusual) So if career mode didn't have a (soft-cap) time limit, I'd have likely been doing this as a re-play of the campaign - especially as a let's play, since it provides a good stopping point. The time limit and Things You Get Score For are tacit goals to work towards that gives a little more structure than just "play until I run out of flashpoints and peter out," if you take me meaning.



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Eighteen:

Didn't do anything on Friday (well, I DID spend an hour or two going through HeavyMetalPro and adding a [Mech designation]"-2" wherein ala BATTLETECH, any rear-weapons were facing forwards...) and not much Saturday, not enough to warrent a full installment.

Spoiler

Show

Lynessa put the Banshee is storage - there really wasn’t any point keeping it lurking if it wasn't going to be outfitted.

There were a couple more missions to be done here. For the moment, the Decapitator would remain out of commission and Lynessa would see how they went on the next mission - 3-skull recovery for the Capellens against the Canopians - now that they were comfortably in a position to lose a little rep the next two missions would gain back.

The same team as last time; Pseekie in the Atlas, Shelat in the Fair Marauder, Poppy in the Stalker Barrage and Velina in the Catapult Hammer.

Off to a good start - very first salvo from an enemy Trebuchet hit Shelat in the head.

The first lance was two 50 tonners (of which the first two were the Trebuchet and a Crab) and two 40-tonners, and the paladins were already taking fire from something else off to the west from long range. Excellent.

And the Crab hit Shelat in the head AGAIN. (Well, that was now four days out, since they'd gotten to IS on the Fair Marauder and the Decapitator was already in the queue...)

The lance managed to knock both mechs down - the Trebuchet finally died to a head loss, and the Crab to pilot death after two knockdowns and torso destruction. the two 40-tonners turned out to be Assassins.

Shelat killed one with CT-focussed fire and then the enemy in the distance head Velina in the head with a STRAY SHOT.

Meanwhile, the other Assassin dodged the majority of the fire from the other three, meaning Shelat had to kill it with another CT shot.

There was an 80-ton vehicle closing, along with one 55-ton mech and one 65-ton mech, but at least the frackers could no longer spot the paladins.

The 65-tonner was a Thunderbolt, as Pseekie sensor locked it. The advantage of the enemy being guarded, of course, was that it took less damage but no less stability damage, so maybe the lance could kill something on repeated knockdowns...?

Oh good, a 75-tonner too...

No, They could not, Despite two knockdowns and a torso destruction, the Thunderbolt died to CT destruction. Dangit.

The 55-tonner either didn't exist or was hiding, and the 75-tonner - an Orion - seemed very cagey about coming to attack.

Even a few salvos of head-aimed LRM couldn't coax it forwards. At the point where Velina had one salvo of LRMs left (Poppy still had plenty) and the Orion had spent four or five unattacked turns walking up and down behind the ridge, the paladins lost patience with trying to get it to come at get a head shot. LRM-to-Death it was, then.

Actually, the LRMs had scored a couple of head hits, so between an ammo explosion and a knock-down, they did take it out by pilot death.

Still in combat, though... That 55-tonner was clearly not a figment of their imagination, but wasn't even close enough for sensors.

Velina, now out of weapons, was on pick-up duty...

If the enemy mech - a wolverine - was going to stand in one spot (and even jump up and land in the same spot...?), the lance would take LRM pot-shots at the head, but they killed it via CT destruction after only a couple of head hits.

Then it was a simple case of trotting over the last facility to pick-up the biological sample, the Catapult Hammer already carrying the secondary operative team.



Well. Enough salvage to complete an Orion V, a Crab and a 5S Thunderbolt, so not a bad haul in the end.

Yet again, though, nothing on the mechs was really an upgrade. If the Catapult Hammer was mostly stripped, the Orion V could just about mount its weapon load with more armour, though the Catapult Hammer didn't especially take huge amounts of fire, and the difference was smaller enough that the one or two tons the Orion brought on the same values didn't really gain the lance anything. (If they could find a second +++LRM 20... They'd likely still be better plonking it on the Archer.) The Orion didn't really have enough energy weapon hardpoints to be useful, and not enough tonnage to usefully use the two AC hardpoints... So, again, to storage it went.

Now there would have to be a 5-day pause, while both of the really important mechs got repaired (and the Hunchback for good measure...)

Velina increased her guts to 5 from 3. Pseekie raised her gunnery to 6. Shelat pushed her gunnery to 9 and Poppy her guts to 8.

Payday:



As the Fair Marauder finished, Yang found Lynessa. The spare parts the Bounty Hunter had left them were a third of an unknown type of assault mech. Both Farah and Sumire had found leads of the Dobrev, too.

Lynessa opted to follow Farah's lead for the moment - a friend who'd reported a load of misjump injuries, all shady folk coming from Appian.

Next mission was a straightforward (in theory...) battle against the Capellans for the Canopians in the tundra.

Vey took the newly repaired Decapitator, Pseekie transferred into the Marauder. Poppy debated between the Atlas and the Stalker Barrage, and took the former (just in case, since they'd probably need the latter for the remaining mission - a destroy base). Natasha took the Catapult Hammer.

Marauder, Griffin 1S, Hunchback 4P and a Quickdraw...

The latter was immediately headcapped by Pseekie.



(She considered aiming for the Marauder, but wasn't sure she'd take it out in one shot with it guarding.)

The Decapitator took a lot of fire, but for once, despite the paladins missing a lot of called shots, nothing went internal. Pseekie finally got the Marauder:



But the other two went via CT destruction - annoying for the Griffin, since Lynessa had wanted that one for the collection.



The one bit of Griffin and a couple of Marauder pieces, plus one or two Quickdraw were all the notable salvage.

Pseekie upped her gunnery to 7, Vey hers to 6 and Natasha finally hit tactics 9.

As the last mission was a destroy base one, Vey swapped to the Atlas and Poppy the Stalker Barrage - so the three without Sensor lock at least all had some indirect fire. This was going to be a solid hit to the rep with the pirates, but whatever...

The lance proceeded up around a ridge line to approach the base from the west, steadily and carefully. 45, 65 and 75 tons enemy mechs showed up on sensors and they found a nice wood behind the ridge.

The first foe over the ton was the 65-tonner, which turned out to be a Catapult.



Vey managed her first headshot with the Atlas' AC 20.

As the enemy approached, the lance took out the nearest turret.

The 75-tonner was a Black Knight!

No joy, though, despite their best efforts, it went down to CT destruction.

The last hapless mech - a Phoenix Hawk - went down in a couple of hits, through CT ammo explosion.

There was one more mech - a Griffin meandering around. Two knockdowns and a headshot later, it was down.

Then it was a case of steadily wiping out the turrets, and then the base.



Salvage this time was one piece of Black Knight, one of Griffin and ++LRM 20 (stability damage) and a ++large laser. They were lucky enough to get all three parts of the C4 Catapult, too. The Griffin was sold.

They were done here, so time for some outfitting. The Hunchback had to be repaired first, but then it could be stored and the Black Knight outfitted.

Lynessa sighed. There were a lot of Flashpoints - and three of them were up all the way back in Davion space, because of course they were.

She abandoned her idea of a tour through Canopian space (it wasn’t helping much, anyway), and decided to head back to Appian to do that flashpoint next.

The Hunchback was repaired, and stored. The +++Comm system went into the Black Knight, along with all the heat exchangers. It meant dropping one energy weapon mount compared to the Hunchback, but Lynessa was more concerned about building up more resolve for precise shots. The Black Knight was fitted with six of the various ++ or + medium lasers and one ++ larger laser, six heat sinks to make it run close to neutral and some extra armour.

And now they had two ++ or +++ LRM 20s, Lynessa got the 2R Archer out of storage.

Luximei needed to take a month out to go and deal with her matriarch getting married again (this, being a drow, surprised no-one...), but the family were willing to pay 50k for the privilege, and Lynessa was not about to not let Luximei not go...

The Black Knight was finished and called the Laser Knight!




The Archer was fitted with both bonus LRM 20s; instead of the 2R's normal four medium lasers, Lynessa just added a couple of heat sinks and two more tons of ammunition, so the Archer was very nearly the same as the Catapult Hammer. (She could have stripped the Catapult Hammer down and used the 2S Archer - the 2S had enough missile hardpoints - but Lynessa was saving that to have a try with some SRMs when she actually got enough.



Day 712 and they arrived at Appian.

(Wow, time in the last hundred days seemed to just evaporate...)

The contracts were fairly uninspired - a minor battle against the Canopians, a Flyswatter against the planetary government, both from the Capellans... So no time like the present to do the flashpoint.

The Dobrev was moored at a spaceport, fortified by lots of turrets - and with a flighty replacement crew likely to misjump and kill themselves and destroy the ship.

Fortunately, there was a Cunning Plan - a more-easily accessed facility, through which Moderbjörn could take control and disable the turrets and lock the docking clamps, because the Baumann Group's security was dumb.

This was a desert operation. Time for the Dream Team... Lynessa in the Decapitator, Mylassta in the Fair Marauder, Alarhan in the Archer (it ran slightly cooler than the Stalker Barrage) and Summer in the Catapult Hammer.

As the lance approached the base, they ran into the first defenders - an Enforcer, Hunchback 4P and a Griffin -



- not that that lasted long, though Mylassta didn't headcap the enforcer the first try.

The Hunchback managed the quite impressive feat of maybe hitting Lynessa once, if at all, with a full spread of eight medium lasers.

A second Enforcer joined the fray.

Mylassta took the Hunchback down on the second headshot, and the Enforcers were missiles and punched to death.



The Archer was indeed good at landing hits on one location, though apparently not if that was aimed at the head...

No turrets... Hmm.

Enemy reinforcements showed up, starting with a Spider. That died shortly, but it was followed by a Phoenix Hawk and an Orion.

The lance were in a nice position, though, were the Catapult's rangefinders had a nice clear line of sight and the enemy couldn't see them to start with.



And behind those two - an 85 ton Battlemaster.

Finally, after several tries, Lynessa managed to headcap the Orion.



The Phoenix Hawk was simply blown apart.

Now unable to spot the lance, the Battlemaster advanced forward and Mylassta and Lynessa had plenty of chance to line up head-shots.



The facility was easily captured. Notkor Baumann was not a happy person.

He said he'd hired someone better to come and kill Lynessa. Lynessa didn't think he realised that they'd already killed his assault lance...

Unfortunately, the Argo was getting a transmission... From the Black Widow.

Natasha Kerensky, not the other one.

(Really, either one of them would have been bad enough.)



Three parts Battlemaster, two part Orion K (enough to finish one), a +++Medium laser and the last part of a Spider from the random. Not too shabby!

The Black Widow was not a happy lady.

(Actually, she DID look a LITTLE like the other one.)

The Dobrev and the crate they had were "part of a history you can't know," which sounded ALL sorts of shady to Lynessa, frankly.

Kerensky was going to demand they stop, had over the crate and generally be overbearing, wasn’t she?

"Why can't we ever meet anyone who is nice," Mylassta grumbled. "Present company accepted," she added, nodding in the direction of Moderbjörn.

Yep. She did, and Moderbjörn too.

Well, no. Lynessa was not about to let Black Widow commit murder because she wanted to keep a conspiracy.

And the Dobrev was going to get slagged if they did nothing...

"Blast it. Sumire... Hail Notkor Baumann."

Lynessa had to let him go. Kerensky would be bearing down on anything Baumann left behind. Moderbjörn was going to try and distract her, while the lance went down to kick Wolf's Dragoons in the shins so they could take the stuff.

Poosticks.

A base defence mission. Well, this was gonna suck...

Lynessa sighed. Best stick with the same team...

(Three 55-tonners, a Wolverine, a Griffin and a Shadowhawk, and a 50-tonner in the middle distance - a Hunchback 4P.
Oh good, enemy reinforcements on round 4, and the RNG was being as un-cooperative as possible.

Right. Okay, at the point the game says NO, you cannot get even CT precise shots and the enemy reinforcements can one-shot the buildings. No. Frack off game, restarting the mission with Azurella's blessings on, because frack you, RNG.

Okay, fine, you want to change the OpFor so it's HARDER? Fine.)

Apparently, it was the "Black Widow Company" not Wolf's Dragoons. Hmmm...

The first enemy which showed up, a Crab, immediate got its head blown off. A Cicada 3C appeared, with a Catapult following.

(Oh, it did NOT want to let me have a millimetre, so it I didn't let it have one, either.)

The Catapult was apparently protected by some sort of reality-bending field. Mylassta's shots kept disappearing into interdimensional ether and every instance, time reset, accompanied by mocking, etheric laughter.

"Oh, COME ON!" Mylassta screamed for the nth time, as the autocannon shell completely missed and she was abruptly back around the corner of the rock formation, walking to firing position.

She pumped the next shot full of her own magic, but this time, it just straight-up vanished. She shrieked in fury as she was back behind the rocks again.

* * * * * *

Dolores Umbridge scowled angrily at the pupils of Hogwarts. "I will have orde-" A stray autocannon shot abruptly hit her directly in the face, causing an inexplicable explosion. She collapsed like a slowly de-stringed puppet, while further explosions blew up her pink cardigan.

There was a brief moment of stunned silence.

Then everyone through their hats into air and cheered. (Even Professor Snape had to smother a smirk.)

* * * * * *

"SERIOUSLY?"

* * * * * *

In Wakanda, Thor ran Thanos right through. To his horror, Thanos smiled up grimly and said "Should have gone for the-" and then a bright blue beam came out of nowhere and blew his head clean off, the infinity gauntlet falling limply at his side.

There was a brief pause.

"I, ah, meant to do that," Thor said.


* * * * * *

"ARE YOU KIDDING ME?"

* * * * * *

"Ai!" Screamed Legolas, as the Fellowship ran across the bridge in Moria. "A balrog! A balrog has-"

There was a brief, inexplicable series of explosions.

"No, wait, nevermind."

* * * * * *

"Right! That's enough of that," a resounding divine voice echoed across the battlefield. The Goddess Azurella materialised in all her brilliant glory and personally kicked the Catapult's cockpit in. Something screeched and exploded.

"YES!" Mylassta punched the air.

(THEN it was like "you can't stop the last mech from being outside your sight range from coming in and blowing up a building, reeeeeee!

And I killed THAT Centurion and it went "right all four enemy reinforcements will INSTANTLY appear right next to the base so you LITERALLY cannot attack them before they can fire - since even if you stayed in the base, you couldn't SEE them because of the walls - so, if you don't turn up with, like the exact perfect lance AND don't get one-hit KOs AND game the mission to know where they come from, it is IMPOSSIBLE to protect the buildings and they get to destroy one of the building automatically. I HATE base defence missions.



See?)

"Oh, this is SO not happening again," Mylassta snarled, after jumping to take a shot at the enemy Blackjack.

* * * * * *

Indiana Jones started at the enemy warrior, flourishing his sword with deft skill. Indy'shand reached for his pistol, but a bright blue ray of light blew the hapless warrior in half first.

Indy blinked for a moment, shrugged, then carried on running.

* * * * * *

Azurella kicked the Blackjack somewhat HARDER.

FINALLY the lance were able to mop-up the last mechs, but even that proved tedious.



(FRACK, that was a really tiresome mission.)

The salvage included a ++TTS (ballistic) a +50m rangefinder and enough mech parts to complete a Catapult, an Assassin and a Centurion (all sold).

The crew were amazed that such divine providence had allowed them to defeat the Black Widow company (Mylassta looked straight at the hard camera). Yang, though, had - with Moderbjörn's help - managed to get something out of the Bounty Hunter's crate. A 95-ton Assault mech with an integrated artillery piece the "Bull Shark."

The insignia on it was a Wolverine though.

(AAAAAAH. And it suddenly all becomes clear...)

Lynessa had a good look at their new toy.




TWO AC Ultra 5s, TWO+LB-X AC/10, FOUR ER Medium lasers and double heat sinks.

DAYUM.

That was almost worth the hassle!

Well, there was that one 2-skull mission worth doing, so...

Scarlet grabbed the Decapitator, Natasha the Fair Marauder, Velina had the honour of trying out the Bull Shark and Pseekie took the Catapult Hammer.

The local government was foolishly trying an ambush; their first element was a Locust, Wolverine, 4G Hunchback and AL Centurion - and enemies in the distance with LRMs.

Well, Velina couldn't ask for a fairer first shot with the Thumper cannon, could she?



(10-50 damage PER LOCATION to enemies in the area? AHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Two shots, too, actually one more than I was expecting, honestly.)




Pfftahahahahaha!

The Centurion and Hunchback went down quite fast after that.



Wow, that was a lot of heat for an alpha strike, but by 'eck that were a lot of shots at the head...



(Ahahahahahahaha!)

The enemies' other lance was a Black Knight, Trebuchet and Javelin. Their fire managed to penetrate the Decapitator’s torso armour, which was annoying.

And the Fair Marauder’s arm, which was even more annoying.

Well, if they were going to make it easy...!



All three survived the impact, but it messed them up something rotten, and they were easily dispatched.



Three parts of Black Knight and some other bits, Not bad.

Velina increased her guts to 6. Pseekie raised her gunnery to 8. Scarlet hit piloting 7, for the sprint boost and Natasha upped her gunnery to 6.

Time to do some mech work. The rangefinder they'd picked up went on the Archer. Now they had a couple of arm mods, perhaps it was time to retire the Shadow Punch for a larger melee mech (and move the ++AC to the Bull Shark, freeing up a ton? But on consideration, they still didn't have a good platform; the Grasshopper was still the best they could do, but it didn't seem worth dropped the available Mediums-and-Light to below four just for that - and there was at least one flashpoint with a tonnage restriction.

Lynessa elected to head for 2.5 skull Adrar next, for another flashpoint.

The machine shop completed and Lynessa, after much pleading and puppy eyes from the girls (who were, of course REALLY good at it, being magical girl paladins) got Farah started on an arcade.

Just before payday, a group of pirates tried to ambush the Argo. Lynessa and Summer did their best dumb-blonde-I'm-a-paladin-Intelligence-is-my-dump-stat impressions while Sumire sneaked over to the Leopard to ambush them back. Frankly, for the pirates, being chased off came as something of a relief, since, as magical girls paladins (who didn't HAVE dump-stats), Lynessa and Summer were really quite good at it and you could hear the pirates crying with frustration in the background as they ran away. Lynessa and Summer high-fived.


Payday:


(And once again, the RNG refuses to actually generate any contracts for anything I can either do, or want to ally with - I'm not EVEN in the sodding Canopian borders, and yet there the game has given me sets of missions with every other sodding faction in this system, including the local government, but never more than a couple of Canopian missions. This is ridiculous.

In the end, I settled for one which was mostly Capellans and a couple of Canopians ones (and a pirate mission I couldn't do), because it had one Clash of the Titans and two Titan attacks and only one mission against the pirates.)

They arrived at Adrar, Luximei having re-joined the group a few days before. Lynessa didn't waste any time, and started on the Flashpoint - this time for Steiner.

Alban Stieglitz-Bradford had a convoy he needed to have escorted. With parts for a new Steiner-Davion co-operative mech, that Liao really didn't want them to have.

The convoy was well-hidden, but to get to the mech bay, there was only a single road, which Liao were patrolling. Stieglitz-Bradford had data on Sentry Team Alpha, a mid-0range lane with long-range support. The paladins could engage that, or potentially have to deal with anything up to an assault lance that might follow it.

Lynessa considered, but "assault mech" meant salvage, so...!

It was a jungle mission, so heat was a concern. Lynessa elected to take the Decapitator, Velina the Fair Marauder, Mylassta the Bull Shark and Pseekie the Catapult Barrage. (The Bull Shark actually would run fairly cool if it didn't use the ER lasers.)

The Convoy said it was going to make a beeline to escape (Lynessa carefully noted the probably exit point and determined that perhaps they would deploy mid-way before sending Pseekie to launch the convoy.

The first enemies they spotted, however, were a Vulcan and Griffin.

(WAIT, tropical biomes INCREASE heat efficiency? (Because of the excess moisture, apparently.) Frag dammit! I've been going about this all wrong!)

They were backed-up by a 50-tonner and 80-tonner.

The Vulcan went down, despite them trying to headcap it. The Griffin was knocked flat, got up, charged up to the Decapitator to make a melee attack - and missed - and thus exposed its rear to the Bull Shark. We will draw a veil over the horrible, horrible spifflication which ensued.

The 50-tonner turned out to be a Centurion - as Lynessa had hazarded from the LRMs that had proceeded it. Being in poor repair, the large laser of the Fair Marauder destroyed the head.

The 80-ton mech was an Awesome.



"Was" being the operative word. Mylassta grinned. THIS was more like it...!

Lynessa moved the lance along the road to half-way between the convoy's starting point and what looked like a Dropship landing zone, leaving Pseekie behind to start the convoy off.

As expected, the enemy appeared just as convoy reached the drop point. The enemy landed closer, annoyingly, and from a position Lynessa hadn't quite expected.

They were a 1AA Vindicator, a Vulcan, a Galleon vehicle and a 50-tonner. Lynessa decided she ought to get the attention of the first three with Multishot.

Velina went for the Vindicator.



They’d be having that Vindicator as salvage (maybe).

The forth mech - and Enforcer - jumped up and took a shot at one of the APCs, showing Lynessa had been wise to distract them.

Pseekie finished off the Galleon.



"GODDESS, I love this mech!" Mylassta whooped.

Velina deftly decapitated the Vulcan.

Bad news was Liao reinforcements were coming in. No time for repairs.

"But we don't-" Lynessa started.

"Quick, we'll activate the Hatchetman!" said Stieglitz-Bradford.

"Uh, I really don't think we nee-"

"You can use it instead of one of your damaged mechs!"

"But none of mechs are really dam-"

"It will be our only hope!"

Lynessa sighed.



Awesome part, two 1AA parts... None Vulcan 2T parts, despite there being four of them, because of course...

Still, in addition to the two needed for the collection, they manged to finish a Centurion.

Pseekie, grumbling, had to be left behind, as the Hatchetman and "Matchstick" were added to the lance. Pseekie had been exited, for a moment thinking SHE might get to play in it, but no...

"Really, though, why can't we just use all five..." Mylassta groused.


(GREAAAAAAAT. Surprise base defence mission, and you just took my only missile mech. Nice, game, nice.)

The first enemy that hove into view was a Locust. Well, Matchstick wasn't going to get a much better target to smack with the axe, was he?

...

He missed.

IDIOT.

Velina looked worriedly in the direction of Mylassta's mech, but there was no sound but a rhythmic thumping.

Lynessa elected to do the same distraction tactic as the last mission. She jumped the Decapitator up and took a shot at each of the other three mechs - a Phoenix Hawk, Wolverine and a Cicada.

Velina headcapped the Phoenix Hawk neatly.

"Try again, Matchstick, dear," Lynessa said.



Well, at least he hit it this time.

"No dear," Lynessa said, strolling up to the Cicada which had stupidly run up to them "Watch me."

There was a punching, and an exploding Cicada.

"There, like that."

Velina jumped up and headcapped the hapless Wolverine.

The Locust abruptly exploded as Mylassta shot it with the Bull Shark's lasers.

"No sense in wasting ammunition on those things..."

The enemy reinforcements - a 40 tonner and two 55s - were for once in a position where they had to actually walk up the hill to attack the facility, giving the lance some time to change position.

Mylassta, however, did not. And the hapless fools were quite close together. Mylassta smirked as she hit the Thumper's trigger...

The 40-tonner (Assassin) died as the Decapitator jumped up and blew it apart. Velina jumped up as well and headcapped the Griffin.

At the rear of the enemy lance was a 70-ton mech with ECM. How interesting...

Matchstick, having gotten rather more fire than was wise, ran back down the ridge out the way. He might have been feeling a bit inadequate...

Lynessa, the only Sensor Lock member of the team, had to lock the ECM mech - a Cataphract. Velina didn't managed to headcap this in one shot, though.

Mylassta did, though.



(AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA, the Bull Shark is AMAZING!)

Velina finished off the hapless Wolverine (already down a torso and a leg from Mylassta's one shot at it) and blew its head off.



Not having been able to negotiate, there was little salvage they could get - but one part of 1S Griffin and 1 part Cataphract was enough to complete both.

For some reason, everyone seemed really pleased with the Hatchetman's performance. Lynessa was not quite sure "missed, then failed to kill a Locust, did nothing, possibly not even hit with one AC/10 shot and then got damaged and had to run away," was GOOD, but she supposed it was better than, say "caught fire and exploded the moment it tried to use a weapon..."

(WOW. The "rare mech part" main reward? One part... of a 1M LOCUST. Damn, that almost insulting. I'd be more mad if the random guff didn't include a Battlemaster part.

To make it funnier, also two more 1M Locust parts. Ahahaha.)

Still, that was another Locust to sell, plus another Wolverine part to make one of those to sell, so in total this couple of missions netted the paladins EIGHT. MECHS.

That's a record.

The CTF-OX had a little problem as an ECM platform in that it had no missile hardpoints, forcing it to rely on direct-fire weapons. Lynessa shelved it for the moment.

The Battlemaster, now, that had potential. Without having to take anything off the Shadowpunch, it could be equipped with lots of arm-mods, a couple of small lasers, jump jets, a gyro and +++cockpit mod, two leg mods to reduce self-DFA damage by 30 each, near-max armour tonnage and had enough left for an LRM 10, a trio of medium lasers and a heat sink. This would be the BattleSmasher - though with missions left to go, it would have been unwise to start Yang on it right away.

The Awesome, of course, was a good PPC platform - though it could also have a lot of medium or large lasers. for the moment, though, the Black Knight ought to have at least ONE mission yet. But it was possible, with the heat exchangers, to do slightly better than the Black Knight with seven assorted lasers and have about four or them large. But it, of course, was also quite a bit slower than the Black Knight. Lynessa would see how they went for the moment.

Velina raised her guts to 7.

So. 3-skull Titan Attack mission for the Capellans next and win back some of the favour they just lost.

Scarlet in the Decapitator, Poppy in the Fair Marauder, Natasha in the Bull Shark and Pseekie in the Catapult Hammer.

Blackjack, Wolverine, Cicada, Centurion... Scarlet attempted to pull the fire of the first three with Multishot - Poppy immediately headcapped the Wolverine - and Pseekie hit the latter with LRMs.



Poppy again...

The others were dealt with quickly.

The assault mech turned out to be a Banshee, slowly walking to the base. But a single shot from the Bull Shark took its head off.



Three Banshee 2S parts and enough to finish a Blackjack.

Pseekie raised her gunnery to 9 and Poppy her guts to 9, Natasha her gunnery to 7 and Scarlet her guts to 7.

And we will leave it there for today!

I THOUGHT the update rate might slow a bit; the wargames club is tentatively re-opening today, so I thought I might be able to start DMing (or at least playing wargames) again, but from the responses of my group, it looks very much like it might be the latter only, if I'm lucky. Guess you're stuck with me for a bit longer yet!

[Destro_Yersul]

I guess I can see needing a goal, but I love sandboxes. I have a truly ungodly number of hours in Minecraft, even before I discovered mods. Once I did? Kitchen sink modpacks, no quests, just let me play with all the fun toys.

In regards to Battletech, I've done that Flashpoint for Steiner, and it struck me as unreasonably difficult for the rewards it hands out. It makes the Hatchetman available, sure... but at a point in the game where you're probably rocking heavies and assaults. And yeah, tropical biomes improving efficiency threw me, too. I also really dislike how the 'Defend X' missions put you at the mercy of the AI. Either suicidal APC drivers who want to floor it as fast as they can into the jaws of death, or enemy mechs who want to prioritise shooting at the fragile buildings they can usually one-shot, instead of the heavily armoured battlemechs trying to kill them.

[Aotrs Commander]

I guess I can see needing a goal, but I love sandboxes. I have a truly ungodly number of hours in Minecraft, even before I discovered mods. Once I did? Kitchen sink modpacks, no quests, just let me play with all the fun toys.

I just can't grok with them. Give me a sandbox, and I tend very quickly lose interest. I am just not the sort of person who can do something for the sake of it, there has to be some form or goal to it, for me.

In regards to Battletech, I've done that Flashpoint for Steiner, and it struck me as unreasonably difficult for the rewards it hands out. It makes the Hatchetman available, sure... but at a point in the game where you're probably rocking heavies and assaults. And yeah, tropical biomes improving efficiency threw me, too. I also really dislike how the 'Defend X' missions put you at the mercy of the AI. Either suicidal APC drivers who want to floor it as fast as they can into the jaws of death, or enemy mechs who want to prioritise shooting at the fragile buildings they can usually one-shot, instead of the heavily armoured battlemechs trying to kill them.

In fairness, if it can get into melee and get a couple of goes, the Hatchetman CAN threaten a heavier mech (as you'll see!) When I complete one, it might be a possible replacement fo the Phoenix Coil, depending on the load-out. But yeah, that could have come a bit sooner!

I think the problem is, it's very easily to go from struggling to get anything over 50 tons to snowballing up through heavies and assaults. You kinda need a little bit of those to do the Raven/Hatchetman flashpoints - I certainly couldn't have managed with nearly stock lights and mediums. But if you got sort of lucky but not quite lucky (or maybe you used 3-salvage and got out of the early grind loop quicker), you miht be able to do them while they were still super relevant.




Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Nineteen:

Spoiler

Show

So, Titan Attack part Two, this time a 2-skull version in the Tundra as oppose to the Jungle! Same team as previously - Scarlet in the Decapitator, Poppy in the Fair Marauder, Velina in the Bull Shark and Pseekie in the Catapult Hammer.

This time, there were TWO Assault mech signatures!

Vanguard - a Jenner, a Spider (both of which ran RIGHT up next to the Fair Marauder and... stopped...) and a Hatchetman (wow, didn't take long for those to get out from under wraps, did it, the planetary government has one on the SAME DAY!)

One punch from Scarlet and an LRM salvo put paid to the Jenner.



Two tries, but they'd be having that, ta...

The Spider was punched to death and Poppy one-shotted the Wolverine's head. Meanwhile, the enemy reinforcements had arrived - Pseekie went to have a look-see.

Ooh, a 90-ton Highlander (HGN-733...)



(DEAR FRAG, the Bull Shark is INSANE. That was even without the lasers!)

(I revise my opinion on LB-X ACs. ONE is not much cop, but two, plus two Ultra ACs, is a lot of head damage. Not sure these were all at max armour, but even so! So far the Bull Shark has headcapped everything but one mech it has tried to headshot.)

The second assault mech was an 80-ton Victor.

Briefly.



Well, damn it there wasn't going to be more salvage than they could possibly use!



Lynessa selected three parts Highlander, and one each of Hatchetman and Victor (on the basis they'd need at least one more encounter anyway), but got an extra part from each for random assignment. Not too shabby!

Next up - 2-skull Clash of the Titans, for the Canopians, in the poles!

Pseekie opted to swap the Catapult Hammer for the Laser Knight in its first outing. (The Fair Marauder was just too good with the -10% lance damage and + called shot to replace, plus it had the other +++comms mod current, and the Decapitator's +1 lance initiative was also stupid good.)

Cheat! Swiz! The Capellan "assault mech" was a Shrek PPC Carrier!

(The government one was an 8T Awesome.)

The lance decided at that point, frack it, they'd just let them fight amongst themselves for a bit.

But, y'know, okay, if they all wanted to attack the lance instead of each other, fine, then.

Lynessa wondered if the fools regretted it as the lance mopped up all but the Awesome (and the one government Flea the Capellans had killed) in the space of two salvos...

The Awesome got its head shot at three times - predictably, the killing hit was from the Bull Shark...



Enough parts for a new Javelin, plus three Awesome parts.

2.5 skull battle in the badlands for the Capellans against the Canopians... Pseekie swapped back to the Catapult Hammer.

Two Panthers, a Jenner and a Commando. Which clustered up.



Needless to say, the hapless fools went down fast, and just as they did, a second lance showed up... And, as they approached (Natasha was eager to let them get with Thumper range) a THIRD lance showed up.

The second lance JUST got themselves in the wrong place. Three of them were behind a big rock crop, with a spider (which Poppy had failed to CT-cap!) spotting for them - but in radius for the Thumper. The Spider died, and the two Javelins that staggered around the corner were not in a good place, with the first an arm missing and the second with BOTH torsos missing...! Finally, the last mech, a Wolverine lumbered into view - right in front of the Bull Shark. You can imagine what happened next...!

The third lance's foolish Firestarter and Flea appeared, to be immediately headcapped a shot a piece by Natasha and Poppy.

Sadly, the UrbanMech (HAH!) that followed THAT, the Bull Shark filled to headcap (so that’s only twice!) and Poppy failed too, and it died. The last mech was ALSO and UrbanMech and it did get its head blown off.



Annoyingly, the first UrbanMech was one they hadn't got yet. There were only bits and pieces to salvage, the only other thing of note was a bit of Jenner to complete one for sale and a Wolverine from random parts.

Poppy maxed her guts. Scarlet increased hers to 8. Natasha upped her guts to 7, having elected to change tack and get Coolant Vent instead of Breaching Shot (since the lance had more "laser head to death" than "single-shot kill" mechs).

Next, polar recovery mission for the Canopians against the Capellans. Pseekie swapped back to the Laser Knight.

The lance ran up around a narrow pass to get to the secondary site first. That was guarded by a Locust and Trebuchet, which Poppy immediately decapitated. A Flea followed, and it lasted only long enough to show there was something with LRMs near the primary target. The Fair Marauder and the Decapitator jump down to get the secondary target - the Canopian operatives, but annoyingly, the other two were stuck on the mountain, as what had appeared to be a passable way down wasn't. So they marched up high to provide long-ranged fire, instead.



Three vehicles and an Orion. Poppy and Scarlet dealt with the Orion and the Bull Shark, when provided with sensor locks, easily took out the vehicles.



Enough salvage for a K Orion, a 7K Trebuchet (both to be sold!) and a ++AC/10 (though only a 50% crit version).

Poopy raised her piloting to 8. Natasha got guts 8 and Cooling Vent and raised her piloting from 2 to 4 for good measure. Pseekie maxed her tactics.

There was a Target Acquisition mission left, but it was against the pirates, and the lance was well in money at the moment, so it was time to move on!

Lynessa had work started on the BattleSmasher.

ALL four of the current flashpoints were all the way up or near Davion space now.

Lynessa elected to head for Vard, in the middle of Capellan space. It was 23 days away (a little over half the time to the nearest flashpoint expired, but they might just make it in time, and at least be near the others) and they lance was not short of money. Plus, 3-skull Vard was a black market and also they MIGHT get some damn Davion missions there, too...



Farah finished the arcade, to much joy (all the girls immediately decamped to play) and Lynessa had Farah work on upgrading the lounge next.

The BattleSmasher was done!




After some debate, Lynessa elected to store the Awesome. They had several laserboats already, and the PPCs they had weren't good enough to warrant a three-PPC design, and without stripping some heat devices off their mechs, there just wasn't much they could DO with the Awesome at the moment.

Pseekie managed to finagle an official broadcast of the latest Solaris VII championship and cajoled everyone into coming and watching. Everyone had a great time (possibly even Darius), even with Farah having to clear the space for them to watch it, since she was still trying to upgrade it. Lynessa suggested this was the last hurrah for the original lounge.

(Funny, isn't it, that I struggled to ever get three missions for Davion in Davion space, but the first three tries here gave me three Capellan and one Davion. Yeah, it’s AMAZING that now it generates 3-4 Capellan missions every time, when it would barely generate two Davion missions in Davion space. I think the game is a Liao supporter, or it really HATES Hanse Davion...

Eventually, I settled with about the forth try, since in more reloads than I counted, it only gave me three Davion missions thrice and the mission mix was worse on the very last try.

Apparently, the game just REALLY doesn't want me to be allies with Davion.)

Payday:



450 days left to go.

Well, first things first, there were two parts each of the two UrbanMech variants the lance didn't have, and as they were things hard to encounter, Lynessa would make sure they picked them up before they left. (Not now, just in CASE they found any on the missions down here.

There was a COIL-L in the store. Hmmmm...

In the black market, there was an Annihilator piece (they could complete one...) for about 1.4 million. Three million (the paladins currently had 11 million) could get a ++ Large Pulse Laser - notable for +10 damage, making it 65 damage and thus a head capper. VERY tempting.

408K would get a ++TAG (Target Acquisition Gear), +20% damage from ballistic and energy weapons painted by the TAG - that was nice.

+++LRM 20 and +++ Medium laser.

So, there was potentially QUITE a lot the lance could spend those pennies on here.

First though, as applying any of that would require refits, time to deal with the contracts.

To for pirates (locked), three for Davion (one 2.5 skull was against the pirates) and two for Marik all of which were against the Capellans.

Okay. Lynessa elected to do the lowest-rated two missions first (to hunt for UrbanMech parts) as after that, the Capellans would start to dislike the lance and those parts in the store would get more expensive!

2.5 skull capture polar base for Marik, then.

A bit of a change round. Capture base likely meant turrets, so LRMs would be favourite. But also potential UrbanMech captures... After some debate, Poppy and Scarlet swapped spots, Poppy replacing the Decapitator with the Stalker Barrage and Scarlet taking the Fair Marauder (and ensuring it, at least, kept phase 3 initiative). Pseekie took the Bull Shark (the two mechs without LRMs both had a sensor-locker) and Vey the Catapult Hammer. (Had LIGHT mech sniping not be a possibility, the Bull Shark would have replaced the Fair Marauder, but the Bull shark DID have a bit of a tendency to scrap lights at the same time as headcapping them... And it was too useful if they ran into something that wasn't lights...!)

First enemies - a Locust, a Trebuchet and a 4D Rifleman (the PPC version).

And the LRM turrets simultaneously hit both Scarlet and Pseekie in the head. Because of course they did.



That was one piece of salvage, then...

The lance took a little fire from the turrets until the Rifleman went down. They then proceeded to move up and wipe them one by one, killing the last one just as reinforcements - a Blackjack, Kintaro and Phoenix Hawk - wandered into sight.

Luck refused to be with the lance - the Bull Shark failed to headcap the Kintaro twice, and the enemy lance combined fire came close to blowing the Marauder's arm off.

(Throwing a mardy I'm not on the Capellan's side, clearly.)



Enough salvage to get a 4D Rifleman and a Kintaro for sale.

Scarlet increased her guts to 9 and Vey her gunnery to 7.

Lynessa opted not to fix the Fair Marauder yet; she felt that the 3-skull assassination for Marik could be accomplished without it.

Natasha took the Decapitator, Poppy the Bull Shark, Vey the Atlas and Zuranna the BattleSmasher on its trial run. At 370 tons this was the heaviest lance yet fielded.

Naturally, the enemy lance was entirely composed of vehicles. The enemy target was a Thunderbolt SE, which didn't get close enough for Zuranna to punch before Poppy headcapped it.



Well, at least the completed the Thunderbolt...

Vey upper her gust to 7 and Zuranna her gut to 7 and tactics to 5.

Lynessa bought the COIL-L (and a COIL-S too), plus the four parts of the two UrbanMech versions (R90 and R60L), as the next mission would upset the Capellans...

Next up a Test Drive for Davion. They had a captured Cataphract 1X they wanted to try out, and needed an escort. Fun...

Well, for a change, they let one of the paladins pilot it; Natasha got the honour. Poppy stayed in the Bull Shark, and Vey took the Decapitator, with Shelat swapping in for the Catapult Hammer.

The first enemy lance included a couple vehicles and a 65-tonner. But as they closed, Sumire picked another blip coming in.

Well, that was an unfriendly place for the pirates to drop in.



A C4 Catapult, Marauder and a Hatchetman (REALLY guys? That fast, huh?)

Fortunately, they were stupid enough to spend their first turn moving and entrenching, not shooting.

The Marauder got Poppy'd. Or Bull Shark'd. Really, it didn't have much of a chance either way.



Because the Hatchetman had dodged about three or four head hits and got two turns in a go, it managed to IS the Bull Shark. So downtime was now inevitable, since it was down both of their sniper mechs.

Natasha FINALLY headcapped it with the Cataphract. (Which, considering it didn't have any ++ weapons, with six weapon systems, wasn’t actually too bad at it.)



To round out the day, once Poppy had headcapped the pirate Catapult, leaving only two enemy vehicles, the Demolisher (LB-X version) appeared and the scatter hit Vey in the head.

The problem with that, from the Demolisher's point of view, was it was in melee range of an angry 90-ton mech, piloting by a young lady noted for hitting thing very hard with an axe.

It was probably sort of as well for the Demolished that the Hatchetman wasn't in reach, but scant concern when Vey - enhancing the mech with her own natural magic - did unto the Demolisher what a small cartoon sad dog and a large green fellow were noted to do to people.



The Hatchetman was even a different variant (so at least they got three parts of that) there were enough parts to make a C4 Catapult to sell.

Poppy upper her piloting to 9. Vey increased her guts to 8 and, like Natasha, took Coolant Vent.

Two days later, the lance was ready again.

A 3.5 tundra assassination next, killing a Capellan war criminal. Velina took the Decapitator, Poppy the Marauder Fair, Shelat the Bull Shark and Natasha the Laser Knight.

And first off, head hit non Poppy from the first salvo from the enemy's Centurion.

Poppy's first two headshots - one on the Centurion, the other on an approaching Orion failed to connect, but then Shelat showed the Bull Shark was capable of a decapitating shot even WITHOUT the benefit of precise fire and the Centurion was down.

That enabled Natasha to headcap the Orion with the Laser Knight. The last enemy mech of this lane (there was another somewhere to the east) appeared a Griffin.

It took several rounds to eliminate the Cicada (finally punched to death on the third hit) and the Griffin (finally headcapped on about the forth attempt).

The lance redeployed, and waited for the enemy to come to them

The first enemy mech - a 7K Trebuchet hove into sight. It took all four of them to kill it (fully four precise shots - two first that knocked it down, and two more s it lay prone).

The next pair of mechs were a Phoenix Hawk and Assassin. Two precise CT torso hits failed to take them out...But the Thumper cannon did!

Two 65-tonners left - the target and the last of the ambushers. Both were milling around at the base of a cliff, so the lance had plenty of time to move to position.

The target was in a Thunderbolt 5SS and the other was a Catapult.

For what little it was worth. Again, despite FOUR precise shots DOWN, the enemy target refused to be head hit and the random shots scattered everywhere, damaging nothing. The Catapult managed to damage the Laser Knight's internal structure, just to add injury to insult.

FINALLY Shelat managed to headcap the war criminal - which just left the Catapult to deal with. After pulling back from the ridge and moving position, they lured it close enough for Poppy to (FINALLY) headcap something this mission.



And a whole mess of "not really anything," as the last salvo of the Bull Shark had clearly CT'd the Thunderbolt, because it's armour had been so reduced by all the missed attempts.

That was it for missions here, though. There was just the vrs pirates mission, but Lynessa wasn't going to tackle that. Also, there had four pilots down currently, all due to head-hits, in the course of three missions.

Velina upped her piloting to 6. Shelat topped out her gunnery and Natasha raised her guts to 9.

In the hiring hall, Lynessa spotted one mechwarrior Ronin, Anja "Wildfire" Bray, who sort of seemed a perfect fit for the paladins, on account of her being painfully honest.



Lynessa bought the +++LRM 20, the +++Medium Laser, the ++ Large Pulse Laser, the ++TAG and a couple of leg mods.

After some thought, she bought an Annihilator part. It came with a BSC system, which made it more stable, and pertinently, gave it 20% ballistic damage, which would so help with the headcapping! Really, they could do with some better Autocannons for it, but there was enough to make it worthwhile - three ++AC/10s with extra stability damage, plus the LB-X AC, all with two tons of ammunition, the ++TTS (ballistic) and a quartet of heat sinks so it ran almost cool, plus everything else on armour. It wasn't a Bull Shark by any means, but it was a start.

Lynessa had intended to replace the ++large laser on the Fair Marauder with the Large Pulse laser, thinking that the Fair Marauder actually ran a bit cooler than it needed to anyway (it actually probably didn't strictly need two heat sinks, but it kept it cool even in those Martian and lunar missions). Unfortunately, the pulse laser was also a ton heavier and generated 67% more heat, so doing so would have require removing a heat sink and drastically dropping the Fair Marauder's cool running. A big loss when most of the lance ran quite hot.

However, she though, if she dropped one of the Decapitator's medium lasers, and the replaced the ++large laser with the pulse laser, the heat would remain the same. Total damage output would reduce by 10 (65 instead of 45+30),but 65 was head-capping level.

(It was at this point, Lynessa remembered she had two +AC/10s that were +5 Damage and thus even better headcappers and re-did the Annihilator so that it had two of those ACs instead.

Finally, the BattleSmasher's laser were stripped out, as that left just enough room to fit in the COIL-L, which would definitely give it a solid longer ranged punch and three medium and two small lasers.

Yuris was the next point of call. They might JUST reach it at the point the flashpoint expired (thanks damage to the mech's IS), but it was an unvisited 3.5 skull world, so it ought to be good ground for contracts anyway.

Off they set.

The improved lounge was finished, time to upgrade the library!

The Annihilator was ready to go!




Lynessa proved to have been wise to have recruited Wildfire, who was on the point of a PST-related breakdown. Lynessa scheduled her counselling and medical appointments, and she soon improved and stabilised - especially with input from the girls - and became more dependable.



And while I wrestle with the uncooperative RNG about getting some contracts ¹, we shall leave it there for today; we will be back with the paladins on Thursday, assuming the sun doesn't explode or something.



¹There's only Davion, the pirates and Liao active in this system, since ComStar is not a faction, SURELY the chances are higher...? HA, immediately after I typed that, it generated seven contracts split between pirates and Liao that were all locked. Funny, RNG, funny.

[The Glyphstone]

Personally, I hated the Thumper Cannon. That could also be, again, because I only got it after completing Campaign, so all my opponents were wading around in Assault Mechs where the 10-50 AoE damage was far less exciting.

[Aotrs Commander]

Personally, I hated the Thumper Cannon. That could also be, again, because I only got it after completing Campaign, so all my opponents were wading around in Assault Mechs where the 10-50 AoE damage was far less exciting.

Yeah, it's good at killing light mehcs and always seems to kill Locusts, but it's really not much use against anything else, especially heavies, unless you can catch it badly damaged. It's useful at this point here, but isn't likely to be much use deeper in.

That said, the Bull Shark is USUALLY (today's RNG notwithstanding) so damn good all by itself it doesn't matter too much.

It's going to make the inevitable "0.5 skull missions for pirate rep" missions kind of hilarious though...!




Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty:

Spoiler

Show

(You would not believe how much time I spent trying to get a decent set of missions, after the end of last time and today. I never managed more than four Davion, and never more than three verses the Capellans. (On one instance, all seven missions were pirate...) In the end, I settled for what follows as it wasn't too awful and at least didn't have any escort or base defence missions...)

The library upgrade was completed. There was but one last thing they could build - a low-gravity pool, which Lynessa had Farah start on.

Darius eyed her. "You know the paladins are just going to use that as a place for sex, right?"

Lynessa looked confused. "What's your point?"

Darius opened his mouth, closed it again, visibly thought about what was going on, and then decided that this was probably a losing battle and gave up.



They arrived at Yuris. Just as the flashpoint expired - Lynessa sighed - and the new one was, of course, back the way they'd come.

There was nothing remarkable in the store - except that Lynessa could but the last parts to complete R90 and R60L UrbanMechs.

First up, a 3.5 skull Attack and Defend mission in an urban area.

This required some thought. In the end Lynessa decided to opt away from missiles and indirect fire (even though turrets were likely involved) and instead aim for concentrated damage dealing. So Natasha wen in the Decapitator, Poppy in the Fair Marauder, Shelat in the Bull Shark and Scarlet in the Annihilator.

The paladins landed in the city.

There seemed like quite a bit of time before the enemy reinforcements arrived, plus there was a supporting Davion lance (Javelin, Crab and two Trebuchets) protecting the base.

The first enemy lance was a Centurion, a Locust to start with. Poppy took a shot at the Locust, but missed. The rest of the lance sprinted forwards, right up next to the doubtless surprised Centurion.

The rest of the enemy lance was a Dragon and hoving into view and of much more immediate concern, a King Crab!

Fortunately, the Bull Shark was the Bull Shark.



Shelat's first precise shot with the Annihilator deftly headcapped the Centurion, an auspicious start!

The Locust went down next, leaving only the Dragon.

However, in addition to the three waves of reinforcements, there was apparently ANOTHER enemy lance defending the base...

This might get messy!

The Dragon went down to the second headshot from the Annihilator.

One lance down...

The first enemy that entered sight was a Javelin, which seemed to want to run away. Poppy shot it in the back.

Next were a Blackjack, Vindicator and Centurion. Poppy aimed for the head of the former, but landed both shots in the torso instead, so Shelat aimed there and finished it. Scarlet failed to headcap the Vindicator, but the allies knocked it down and Natasha CT killed it, leaving only the Centurion; Poppy and Shelat headcapped it between them.

That cleared out the initial defenders. Now came the question of where the enemy reinforcements would come from... There was still plenty of time., so the lance would hold position, Scarlet decided, maybe inch forward a little; the implication from Darius was that enemy reinforcements would come the direction of the base...?

No, they didn't, but Darius at least marked the point coming in so the lance could approach it before they landed.

Two Centurions, two Griffins. Poppy failed to head the first one, but Scarlet took it out with the Bull Shark. Shelat and one of the Trebuchets double-teamed the other, she blowing huge chucks out of it with the missed headshot enough the LRM salvo CT destroyed it. Natasha just settled for shooting the furthest Centurion with her large lasers to get its attention.

Poopy again failed to headcap it, but blowing its leg off was almost as good... Shelat knocked the other one down, and between the two lances, neither Centurion would be getting up again.

Two lances down!

As Scarlet had half expected, the next reinforcement point was back the other way, but never mind...

Wolverine, Griffin, Shadowhawk, Phoenix Hawk. (Scarlet needed to get the Shadowhawk, it was a 2D, they hadn't got one of those yet!)



Poppy headcapped the Wolverine as it tried to run past them, but Scarlet and Shelat both failed to headcap the Shadowhawk, though they both hit the head once. Then the allied Trebuchet fired, hitting the pilot in the head as well, and blowing off a torso and knocking it down and it died to pilot kill. Natasha shot the Phoenix Hawk to get its attention - the Davion lance had been shooting the Griffin.

The griffin went down to CT destruction, but they didn't quite kill the Phoenix Hawk - and enemy reinforcements were almost there! But Natasha did punch its leg off. Poppy picked it off (it was literally at her feet) as the rest of the lances began to run back the way they'd come.

The last lance included a Locust (which immediately ran away at top speed), a Blackjack, a Dragon and a Cyclops.

Looked like there was only one way they could swat the Locust...



The Cyclops stayed up despite two attempts to knock it down - the Davion Javelin ran up an punched it for some reason - and the Blackjack resisted the Davion fire and Natasha was forced to chase after the Dragon to keep it from getting away.

The Blackjack ran up and SOMEHOW managed to hit the Annihilator in the head. It was punched to death by one half of the lance, while the other attempted to down the Dragon.

Perhaps the pilot had frozen, because the Dragon simply stood and entrenched.

The reason Scarlet had punched the Blackjack was so she had a good shot at the Cyclops, and the Bull Shark head capped it.



Shelat then moved to shoot the hapless Dragon in the back, bypassing its Guarded and CT-killing it. All enemy mechs down! To the enemy base!

There were no turrets, so it was a simply case of mopping up. The Bull Shark was ALMOST out of LB-X AC ammo, but not quite, but Poppy was sufficiently far ahead she levelled most of the base, with only some Ultra AC 5 and laser fire from the other mechs to do the job.

100% successful mission!



TWENTY mech kills and only one head shot for the trouble. Still if the enemy had not generally been almost suicidally interested in charging towards the base, it might have been much worse.

Three parts King Crab... Three parts Cyclops, because they didn't have 10-Q version either. Naturally, no 2D Shadowhawk parts on random assignment...

Shelat increased her guts for 4 to 6. Natasha raised her gunnery to 8 and piloting to 5; Poppy maxed out her piloting and was thus at maximum skills.

Flyswatter, 3.5 skull next. Poppy stepped back to let the others train up; Scarlet took the fair Marauder, with Vey swapping into the Bull Shark. For a bit more mobility, Zuranna dropped in the upgraded BattleSmasher.

The enemy guards were... A King Crab (!) and a Thunderbolt. And as the lance moved to engage, a 70 and 65 tonner linked in from the side. Zuranna closed to engage, and this turned out to be a Warhammer and K2 Catapult.

Luck refused to be with the lance. The enemy concentrated on the Fair Marauder (despite it being actually the most heavily armoured there) coming within a hair's breadth of knocking it over and IS-ing the right torso. The Thunderbolt died to CT destruction.

Scarlet missed the headshot for the third time, but now Vey could have a go and took the King Crab out. The Warhammer apparently wanted to play melee, but that rather suited Zuranna and Natasha.

Zuranna did some damage, but the hit she'd done previously to its centre torso meant that subsequent swing from the Decapitator punch took it down neatly. The Catapult, far too close, soon suffered the same fate.

Now all that was left was the enemy Cicada. It took Scarlet, Vey and Natasha, but they managed to headcap it.

Mission accomplished.



One part (plus one random) King Crab, a couple of Cicada (to complete one for sale), a ++medium laser (+10 damage) and one piece of Warhammer 4D.

The King Crab again suffered from the problem that lance didn't really have much to make the most if it with. It had a fairly restrictive amount of hardpoints - four missile, but all in one torso, four energy in the other, a single AC and two support in each arm, which meant it was really still suited to close to the standard twin AC/20 load. But without better quality ACVs (or better Ultra or LB-X ACs), that was arguably not better than the general "shoot for head" weapons the lance currently had. It might be better at CT killing most things, but that wasn't necessarily useful at this point.

The last contract here was a 3-skull urban capture base. Velina swapped in with the Stalker Catapult for this one, while Scarlet swapped in the Annihilator, while the Fair Marauder waited for repairs.

Two Hatchetmen, Kintaro, Blackjack - the bad news was, the lance ran into them where the turrets could take shots at them, and once again, being denied headshot kills from the get-go significantly reduced the lance's effectiveness. (Since kills upped the resolve counter.) This was clearly evident as soon as the first Hatchetman went down, and the Blackjack soon after p- the other two fell within a couple of salvos.

The enemy turrets were the first heavy turrets the lance had seen.

As the lance approached the last turret, the command crew helpfully informed them that a) the base was defended by mechs and b) the base was defended by turrets.

This information was followed a short silence and a sigh from Lynessa, and then by the sound of Mylassta smacking several people upside the head.

Then the paladins carried on as if nothing had happened.

With the turrets down, as the lance approached the capture point, Darius ACTUALLY usefully informed the lance enemy reinforcements were incoming.

The first into view was an Assassin, followed by a Highlander leaping in. The latter took a shot that damaged the Annihilator’s leg structure - before two precise shots took it out.

The other two enemies were a Hatchetman (3F, rather than 3X) and a Thunderbolt. Scarlet was not having any luck with her headshots today, as she once again failed to headcap the Hatchetman. Dropping the Thumper on the it and the Assassin took the latter out, and the Hatchetman went down to the combined fire. The Thunderbolt, however, did some serious internal damage to the Annihilator’s centre torso and right side (Scarlet had taken several turret hits). Scarlet misses its head AGAIN, but Vey and the Bull Shark headcapped it.

As they'd been basically fighting from inside the capture point, they were done.



Well, good thing it was the last mission here...!

One part one each of the Hatchetmen (enough to complete the 3X!) one part of Highlander (enough to complete that!) and two parts of Thunderbolt 5SS. Not bad!

The Highlander again was something that they couldn't really use (or at least, didn't do something that already did better) right now. It could fit four missile launchers, but it would only have achieved what the Stalker Barrage did with very slightly more armour and an odd distribution of hardpoints. So to storage it went.

Disappointingly, the Hatchetman was a 4-speed mech, so slower than both the Phoenix Coil and the Shadow Punch, which it would have been good to replace. This wasn't terribly useful on a mech really designed for melee, especially one that would be ideally used in running down light mechs - it was strictly inferior, then, to what the BattleSmasher could do; the hatchet only brought it to 5 points below the BattleMaster's base damage.

(I must be thinking of the 3050 version, which... No, apparently that has an XL engine, but not a bigger one. Huh. Okay, then...)

Zuranna upped her guts to 8 and got Coolant Vent. Velina raised her piloting to 7, for the extra sprint boost. Scarlet maxed her guts. Vey's piloting increased a staggering 4, from 3 to 7, allowing her the extra sprint bonus as well. Natasha made the piloting 7 triumvirate, raising hers up from 5.

Time to move on!

Mendham next, in Davion space, were there was a flashpoint.

(Now, given how phenomenally many Capellan contracts there were in Capellan space, there had better be some sodding Davion ones in Davion space...)

The Capellans did NOT like the paladins now (-53), but Davion, at least really did (82).

Lynessa ran into Llana (Strider), feeling a bit lost in the library. Llana was a little uncertain about being so green comparatively to the rest. Lynessa suggested she read the technical readouts (after all, that was what they were all here for...) and have a chat with Pseekie, Velina, Natasha and Shelat. Before very long, Liana had got a solid grasp on the technical details.

The repairs were finished, so Lynessa took the chance to upgrade some gear; the Archer got a second +++LRM 20 and its old ++LRM 20 went to the Atlas - which also got its small lasers upgraded to +++ versions.

Payday:



They were going to need some cash soon; while the last couple of stops had been profitable for new chassis, they hadn't made a lot of money there.

(Hahahahahaha, no, BT just hates House Davion absurdly much!

On about the fifth attempt, I got four Davion missions - two verses Kurita, one verses Liao, one verses Taurians, two of which were base captures and two battles at 3.5 and 4 skulls. That'll do.)

They arrived at Mendham. Not much in the shops (unless Lynessa wanted to start buying Rifleman or Shadowhawk 2D parts), but she bought about three very cheap arm and leg modes.

So, time to start the House Divided Flashpoint. (And upset the pirates even more...)

Lady Sukio Nakano, of House Nakano, and minor house of the Draconis Combine contacted the paladins.

The long and the short of the problem was that their eldest daughter Mariko was basically now a bit of a brat, in with the wrong crowd and spending money like water. and a pirate personage wanted to pay a load of money to be allowed to set-up shop at the family estate on Yoril and the good lady was a little bit miffed about it.

Lady Nakano didn't want the paladins to off her daughter, just this Corina Luthendorff. Considering she was kind of a war criminal for the Third Succession war, Lynessa really didn't have any issues with this.

So, this was a badlands (sigh) convoy ambush, 2.5 skulls. Well, that wasn't really too bad.

The line-up would stay the same, except that Pseekie would be taking the Phoenix Coil, replacing Velina.

Luthendorff's convoy was mostly light vehicles, guarded by a Locust, Firestarter, Blackjack and Centurion.

First order of business was dropping a thumper shell on as many of them as possible - which took the Locust right out.

Naturally, enemy concentrated fire damaged the Decapitator's arm (again)...

Aside from this minor irritation, the enemy forces went down in very short order.



Salvage enough for a 9L Centurion for sale.

And now Mariko wanted to talk with the paladins. SOMEHOW Luthendorff was killed in the attack. And now this meant that Sukio would be going after Luthendorff in a BattleMech. And Mariko said that their house needed the money Luthendorff brought.

She did not want Luthendorff killed but she also really didn't want her mother killed or hurt.

Lynessa had this wild idea that, instead of hiring mercenaries, maybe mother and daughter should like TALK TO EACH OTHER instead. (Really it was a good job relationship counselling was a thing the paladins good at.) So they called up Sukio to hash it out.

Mariko was apparently trying to keep the house alive by making key payments to make alliances and basically playing politics. But her mother didn't listen, because she was all "honour, honour, honour," and basically was forcing this into a fight.

Lynessa sighed. So now they had to choose between helping a person who murdered civilians to help keep a house from falling apart, or a crazy woman obsessed with inflated personal pride to the point of wilful stupidity.

(It must be noted that Azurella was not a big fan of "honour," frankly, as it almost always lead to bad relationships and her paladins - especially her titular order - tended to feel the same.)

But supporting Mariko would require them to break their contract with Sukio (which was kind of bad form generally) and meant Lynessa would have to somehow try to not kill a lady in a BattleMech.

(Can you even DO that? Would the game notice if you had to leg-cap instead of pilot/CT kill...?)

Lynessa gritted her teeth. Well. Much as she didn't like it, it seemed that a family made poor was still a family ostensibly alive, whereas a free war criminal was more dead people down the line. And breaking a contract would not really do the Paladins much favour.

Sukio it was, then. With duress.

Still, they could stall a day to get the Decapitator repaired.

This was a 2.5 skull badlands battle. Lynessa elected to go for maximum money (it was nearly a full payday's worth, and if there were additional goals, it would be a good bit more) and she felt that was more likely to get them cash than salvage parts would.

Zuranna and the BattleSmasher subbed in for Pseekie.

Lady Sukio arrived with the lance of a Locust, Panther, 7K Trebuchet and Grasshopper. Goody.

Luthendorff's forces were a Zeus, a Thunderbolt 5SS (of course, when Lynessa couldn't salvage it...) and a Phoenix Hawk.

Despite some careful aiming by Vey, the Zeus died to CT destruction. Zuranna punched the Phoenix Hawk to death; the Thunderbolt didn't last much longer.

Really, though, how much honour was there in eight to three odds...?



Okay, so Lynessa had gone for max salvage instead of max cash by mistake apparently. Oh well.

Three mechs, so one piece of each, since that was all that was left. It, admittedly, completed a Zeus and a Thunderbolt 5SS, but that wasn't pennies in the pocket...

Now both of the Nakanos were wanting to talk again. To each other. And... sort of reconcile. Mariko was upset that they were now going to be broke, but very glad her mother wasn't hurt. And Sukio was happy to have her coming home (and not disowned, and Mariko feared) and was going to make more of an effort. So... happy ending? For everyone except the mutual bank accounts?

The reward was actually 900k, so actually not too bad. Most of the reward pieces were kind of mediocre - but they including two Quickdraw 4G parts - enough to complete one, so that was, at least three more mechs ticked off.

Scarlet increased her gunnery to 8. Vey upped her gunnery to 8.

Next up a 4-skull tundra battle against the Taurians. Lynessa regretted not swapping over the Laser Knight's comms system to the Annihilator, since that seemed to be generally a better option. for the moment, Velina would take the latter out this time, with Natasha, Scarlet and Very staying in their respective machines.

The first enemy to appear was a Quickdraw (5A). A salvo of AC shots from the Bull Shark (which missed the head) and a fusillade of lasers (not aimed) from the Laser Knight CT'd it also right away.

The other mechs came into view - another Quickdraw and two Victors.

(The RNG REALLY did no want me to have any head hits at ALL today, nearly EVERY single headshot I've tried tonight has missed.(

The lance manged to blow the first victor to pieces, but only after destroying both torsos.

The enemy managed to hit Velina in the head.

(SURE, game.)



FINALLY.

A pretty miserable mission, otherwise. Only one enemy out of four headshot, despite a lance specifically set up for it.



Even the headshot apparently wasn't, it must been CT kill as well, since there was only one piece of each mech. At least enough to complete a Quickdraw for sale.

Velina upped her guts to 8; Scarlet her piloting to 9. Natasha maxed her tactics.

Next, a 4 skull battle in the lowlands, wiping out an elite Capellan lance. Shelat hopped into the Annihilator for this one.

The enemy appeared on sensors - two 90-ton and two 08-ton mechs.

The first 90-tonner was a Cyclops Z. Scarlet failed to headcap it.

(Game, we're gonna start reloading in a minute, this is being ridiculous.)

The second was a Highlander.



That was more like it.

The other two were both Victors.

Everything shot at the Fair Marauder to the exclusion of everything else.



About. Freaking. Time.

(Yeah at the point I did a DFA and the game said "no, you miss," I said, "no, I didn't," because I'd had enough of the RNG's crap today.)

Natasha still only manged to CT-kill the last Victor.



Salvage was one part Victor 9S (to complete it) three parts Highlander (to complete one). There were no less than three TTS systems in the loot (not that they had all that much use at this point) and the paladins failed to get any of them.

Shelat upped her guts to 7. Vey increased her guts to 9.

And that is where we shall leave it for today!

[Triaxx]

The trick to the Thumper, is that it radiates from it's Impact. So you drop it BEHIND them so it rips into their rear armor instead of the front.

[Aotrs Commander]

The trick to the Thumper, is that it radiates from it's Impact. So you drop it BEHIND them so it rips into their rear armor instead of the front.

OHH, that's useful to know!

That would explian why its so good at Locust killing, since usually the Locusts tend to be at the extremities of the area, so they're likely getting it in the rear armour.



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-One:

Short one today.

Spoiler

Show

The next mission on the list was a 3.5 skull polar base capture mission, to deal with a Kuritan research station.

Shelat would take the Decapitator, Scarlet the Bull Shark, Vey the Stalker Barrage and Natasha the Catapult Hammer.

The lance reached a ridge before the base, and spotted and destroyed the first two turrets. The Catapult Hammer was clearly reaching the end of its useful service in this regard, as it couldn’t destroy a heavy turret solo like it could with the lesser ones - the lance really needed a larger missile support mech...

The lance stepped forward further and took out the other two turrets easily. They moved into the capture zone and it was only then the Kuritans showed up, with a Quickdraw, a Grasshopper, followed by a Warhammer and Zeus.

Scarlet's shot at the Quickdraw's head failed to kill it, so the lance just shot at it, knocking it down. Shelat took a go at the Grasshopper's head, but also missed. but before the enemy mechs could even move, Natasha's multishot finished off the Quickdraw and Scarlet and Shelat headcapped the Grasshopper.



The Warhammer moved into visible range, the Zeus only showing itself in passing. The Warhammer was quickly knocked over. Scarlet and Shelat rushed forwards onto ice, to cool their mechs down.



The Bull Shark neatly dealt with the Zeus; the Warhammer was further damaged by Shelat's missed headshot and finished by Natasha's missiles.



Salvage was three parts Zeus and a ++Gyro - finally a decent one with +3 hit defence.

Scarlet maxed her piloting and thus her skills. Natasha raised her guts to 9.

The final mission in this system was another 3.5 skull base capture against Kurita, this time in the desert. Scarlet stepped back, and Pseekie took over, taking the Fair Marauder instead of the Bull Shark, simply because of the heat issues.

The first visible defenders were a Centurion and a Catapult.

The Fair Marauder seemed to be having a prolonged sulk since the Bull Shark showed up (or perhaps only Mylassta and Poppy could get the best out of it) as it once again failed to headcap the Catapult. The lance bombarded the Centurion with missiles.

A Quickdraw and 4D Rifleman made up the rest of the enemy lance.

The Centurion was knocked off its feet by Natasha and decapitated by Shelat.

On her third try...



...Pseekie got the Catapult.

The Quickdraw managed to damage the internals of the Decapitator's leg. For its trouble, it got punched by Shelat, knocked down by Natasha and blow up by Vey.

The Rifleman’s head proved to not want to be removed, so it got bombarded by missiles. Between the damage - losing all weapons - and the knockdown, when it managed to stagger up to head-butt the Decapitator, which promptly punched it down again, it incapacitated the pilot.

Just as the Kurita reinforcements were arriving! The lance regrouped in a forest - it would give them chance to cool down while the enemy approached.

This lance was a Hunchback 4P, another 4D Rifleman and 1K Orion. The Hunchback, at the lead, got a good chunk of fire, but didn't die, and then pulled back out of sight and range, so all three could close at once.

It took Pseekie two tries, but she headcapped the Orion.



The Hunchback would NOT die, and managed to destroy one of the Decapitator's jump jets.

Pseekie headcapped the Rifleman (that was more like it) and Shelat just blew the Hunchback away. then it was just a short stroll to the base, since this time, there were no turrets.



While there were a couple of nice pieces of equipment, Lynessa elected to take two parts each of the Orion and Rifleman to complete them, both to be sold.

Lynessa was somewhat miffed she had to but a new assault jump jet.

Pseekie maxed her gunnery; Shelat raised her guts to 8, Vey maxed her tactics.

As they would be travelling, it was time for some maintenance work. First of all repairing the Decapitator and replacing the jump jet. Lynessa also elected to remove the +1 melee hit gyro for the hit defence gyro, Azurella knew the Decapitator got shot at enough...

The +++Rangefinder was removed from the Catapult Hammer and placed - after some debate - into the Bull Shark.

While they were travelling, Lynessa was going to have Yang get out the King Crab, Highlander and Awesome, and have another look what they could do. She was intended to take the +++Comms system off the Laser Knight and put it on the Annihilator, but was also considering seeing what else she could do, in terms of at least making another missile boat-mech. (She thought they looked like they could use a Cyclops-Q at some point, with seven missile hardpoints - that ought to be able to hold quite a lot...!)

Looking at the starmap, Merlin seemed like the best option, since the flashpoint there expired in under a month, and the other two (one of which was against the pirates *sigh*) had a hundred plus days left. To Merlin, then and Bourbon and Battlemechs!

They could actually ally with Davion now. This would make enemies of the Kuritas, the Taurians, the Capellans and (of course...) the pirates. (Actually, allying with ANYONE made enemies with the pirates, and allying with the pirates made everyone your enemies...) As this would reduce the Kurita reputation by 1 to 0 (all the rest were well below), there did not seem like a good reason not to do so!

As they left the system, Farah got the news that Dobrev had been located. ALL THE WAY BACK at Manthraka. Of course. The Black Widow was heading there, too. Lynessa was confident they could kick her sorry, history-revising arse, though.

Lynessa was quite annoyed to have Shelat have to come to her quarters, having had a complaint from the MechBay. From a certain MechTech Sonner. The Decapitator had been opened much longer than was necessary, and when Shelat had tried to get started on it herself, Sonner had made a fuss.

Lynessa could see exactly where this was coming from, given Shelat's rather unearthly attractiveness (her mug shot did NOT do her justice at all, but wasn't that always the way) - and, likely, so could Shelat, given she was a telepath.

Darius saw the exchanged glance between the two, and abruptly abandoned anything he had been going to say, and slinked out of the quarters, knowing This Would Be Handled and Not Wanting To Touch That, Seriously, Man.

Lynessa and Shelat went down to the mech bay. The Decapitator WAS technically LYNESSA'S mech after all...

MechTech Sonner was indeed up to no good - the little blighter had installed a couple of secret cameras on the Decapitator's interior, focussed on the pilot - for reasons better left unstated. That was why he was so adamant about Shelat - who was quite capable of doing the maintenance herself, with her technical skills - keeping away.

Sonner went absolutely ghost white, then, when he turned around, having extracted his ill-gotten camera gains and about to sneak off to his quarters and instead found himself staring into the eyes of two VERY unamused paladins.

Shortly thereafter, former MechTech Sonner staggered back to his quarters, both cheeks baring palm-prints, bow-legged and in some quite considerable discomfort to be confined there and deposited unceremoniously off the ship at the next world.

THAT sort of behaviour was not something Lynessa was going to tolerate ever.

Shelat completed the maintenance herself; the female mechtechs were more than happy to hep, once word got around - which was within the hour, since Lynessa made a ship-wide announcement - and the male MechTechs were by turns falling over themselves to be helpful and be super-extra polite and respectful about it, even Yang. (That one high-pitched squeal had been heard throughout all three mechbays...)

The first round or work was completed. Lynessa had a good experiment, but the King Crab's hardpoints were just not suited to anything other than an AC mount or a melee machine; the Awesome, likewise, really was only much cop as a PPC or larger laser machine, and it wasn't worth stripping the Laser Knight for the best they could currently do on the Awesome with five large lasers.

The comm array was duly fitted to the Annihilator. The BattleSmasher received one more +10 damage arm mod (raising it to 185 damage) and a +3 melee hit gyro instead of its current stability damage reduction one. (That went on the Fair Marauder for the sake of argument.)

Lynessa really needed some better missile support. She found she could fit an LRM 20 and three LRM 15s with 7 tons of ammunition on the Highlander and enough heat sinks to keep it fairly cool and only drop a little bit or armour. If they found some more heat-technology, she could likely do a better job, but for the moment, that would do, though it would take a couple more days after the reached Merlin to deal with; this would be the Ballista.

And that is where we shall leave it for today!

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Two:

Spoiler

Show

(On only the second try, it remarkably generated five Davion missions, two against pirates, three against Taurian. I tried a couple more reloads to see if being allied had changed anything, but got diddly-squat the next reload and nothing in the next couple, so it wouldn't seem being allied significantly changes the odds...)

The store at Merlin actually had some neat stuff, if not a lot of it. A +LB-X AC/20, a ++MG that had 0 tonnage, a + cockpit mod, +comm system and a ++heat exchanger (and two ++AC/5s which Lynessa wasn't so bothered about.)

Well, no time like the present to start on the Flashpoint...

The contact for this one was Justin Allard.

(Ooh! Ooh! I know him, he was in the first Clan invasion trilogy books that I read once!)

Basically, Mr Allard was trying to Do The Diplomacy with the people of Kittery, a contested world between the Federated Suns and Capellen Confederation. A group of mercs were basically making lots of demands on his time and he was, frankly, starting to get peeved.

This gentleman "Lord Commander" Mason Garilac needed to be dealt with. Allard wanted the lance to go and destroy the bar (a dive bar, frequently by pirates and other ne'er-do-wells) Garilac spent all his time at.

Seemed easy enough...

The place was located in an old desert military base, which was a den of vice, corruption and terrible music (apparently they had "take on me" by Aha on endless loop and for that crime alone the place deserved to be razed to the ground.)

Shelat would remain in the Decapitator, Pseekie in the Fair Marauder, Vey in the Stalker Barrage and Zuranna would take the BattleSmasher.

Sumire was less than happy about blowing a pub up, but more because of the loss of booze than the splortching of clientele.

Lynessa and the girls didn't really care one way or the other - the various divine and fiendish blood on top of paladins meant they were mostly or entirely immune to the effects of alcohol anyway, so it didn't have much traction with them.



That was SOME kind of pub, though.

The "belligerent drunks" included a Phoenix Hawk, what was almost certainly an Assassin by the quantity of LRM- fire and the tonnage and a 50-tonner, which turned out to be a 7K Trebuchet. With more "hostile inebriates" on the horizon.

The first turret went down. Pseekie failed twice to headcap the Trebuchet - she got it on the third try - as a second Phoenix Hawk came in. The first Phoenix Hawk got a punch for the Decapitator and then was totalled by one from the BattleSmasher.

One LRM salvo and a COL-L blast from the BattleSmasher put paid to the Assassin, and the Phoenix Hawk didn't last long after that.

The lance took out one building, and the finally the inebriate lance started to arrive, starting with an Orion.



A single shot from Pseekie wiped that out.

A Griffin was behind that, and an Archer not far behind. The Griffin was badly damaged by fire, but not taken out by the first salvo. Pseekie picked the Archer off with a head-shot the moment she saw it. Shelat sensor-locked the nearest enemy turret and Vey attempted to destroy it, but failed by one missile missing, which annoyed her. Zuranna, meanwhile, blew the Griffin's leg off and knocked it down. Shelat finished it off while Pseekie laser'd the turret.

The lance proceeded around the ring, looking for the last turret. When Shelat locked it, again to Vey's great annoyance, it survived by one missed missile, forcing Zuranna to finish it with a burst of LRM 10 fire.

There was one more turret (the lance had miscounted and only knobbled three, not four), but this time, the Stalker Barrage did the job. Zuranna might have done, but she accidently shot a building and didn't even managed to take it out completely.

The lance levelled the Stratford Narwhal bar completely, with a bit of divided fire meaning that Vey took out the last three building simultaneously.

Sadly, Garilac was not, in fact, inside it, and was on the horn...



Three parts Archer S (enough to finish one) and one part to finish a Phoenix Hawk.

Garilac's secret was that he was always drunk. He was, however, rather angry about being owed 250000 cbills by Allard, apparently.

Lynessa, given that Allard was giving them more money to get rid of the guy, was fairly sure that Garilac was mistaken, lying or dru... Garilac was drunk, wasn't he?

Well, Lynessa sure wasn't going to give what money he thought he was owed to a drunk man that willing listened to "take on me" on endless loop.

Still, the dude wanted to have a fair fight, and explicitly forbade Steiner Scout lances and, well, they WERE Paladins and it was a whole lance, so off they went to fight fair.

(Assuming the enemy lance didn't require, like, all lights or something or there was going to be a problem...)

Zuranna raised her tactics to 6.

Salvage for this was only 2/11 at max, so Lynessa debated going for max cash, but settled for max salvage in the end, mostly in case there was some shiny gear.

The lance was 230 tonnage, but no restriction on what could be taken. The Shadow Punch (Zuranna), the Trebuchet (first time it had been out in ages, piloted by Vey), and Phoenix Coil (Pseekie) and enough left for the Fair Marauder (Shelat). Lynessa realised that, if they replaced the Shadow Punch with the Raven, they could take the Bull Shark instead of the Fair Marauder...

But she felt that would maybe just a little bit be breaking the spirit of the agreement.

A Cameron "Talon" Coine hailed the lance, indicating he would be performing foot-based dentistry upon the girls.

The battle was going to be fought in a flooded crater, which would ease the heat issues.



The first enemy in sight was a 1N Griffin. A Catapult and Dragon showed soon after.

Zuranna charged up and made a beautiful punch-to-the-face, finishing the job Shelat's first aimed fire had started.



Shelat follow this up with a head shot taking out the Dragon (and it's ++PPC, ooh...)



The last enemy mech was a Centurion, the lance discovered, and they closed up on the Catapult. Zuranna managed a random head hit on the Catapult.

(And somehow the enemy managed to blow the Trebuchet's arm off. No, not losing the only decent PPC the lance had, reload...)

Vey, having a tickle in her head from her goddess, moved the Trebuchet back behind a rock and out of the line of fire from the Centurion, especially its ++AC/10. Her salvo damaged the Catapult's +LRM 15, which was annoying - but Shelat's shot decapitated and also destroyed that torso completely. Oh well...

The Centurion took some killing, and sadly died to CT destruction, which was a same since Lynessa would have liked to see what that ++AC 10 was...

Garilac decided that at this point, to GET what the sunk-cost fallacy meant and give up. (Seriously, 250K was less than most contracts gave out, he MUST have been permanently drunk...)



No mech salvage at all allowed (Garilac did say he would be "scraping what was left of his mechs up.") So Lynessa grabbed the ++PPC (only accuracy, unfortunately) and another Heat Exchanger; she also got a +LRM 15 (stability damage) and +small laser.

Allard was happy enough. The lance got a Black Knight part (enough to finish one!) a nice +++SRM 6, and +Heat Bank (NOW they were talking!) and some other sundry parts. Not bad, though!

Zuranna raised her tactics to 7 and her gunnery to 5. Pseekie raised her guts for 4 to 6; Shelat's guts went to 9 and Vey upped her gunnery to 9.

The next mission was a 4.5 skull hostage rescue. Taurians were holding a load of hostages from a crashed dropship.

Given the nature of this mission - especially in the harsh Martian environment, Lynessa decided that the most experienced pilots needed to be on this one. They'd need every edge.

Lynessa took the Decapitator, Mylassta the Fair Marauder, Alarhan the Bull Shark and Summer the Annihilator. It would be fast, but it would be steady and precise - and the Bull Shark's rangefinder would help them get some shots off before the enemy got into range, hopefully.

The greater sight distance p[roved instantly useful, as the lance spotted the whole enemy guard retinue at once - a Locust, Blackjack, Shadowhawk and Thunderbolt.

Once again, luck refused to have anything to do with the lance. While Alarhan took out the locust and damaged the Shadowhawk with the Thumper, Mylassta missed her head shots twice and the enemy managed to hit her in the head, because of course they did.

Fortunately, Alarhan managed to finish the job Mylassta had started and took out the Thunderbolt.

Summer blew the now-damaged blackjack apart, and once Lynessa punched the Shadowhawk onto its back, and Mylassta failed to head-shot again, Summer took that out too.

Mylassta was not in a good mood.

Lynessa had a good look around. It looked like the most obvious spot for the evac was a platform next to where they'd just been fighting - else it was a looong way away. This was good and bad news...

It was. And the hostages had commandeered only light vehicles and the enemy were practically on top of them. This wasn't good.

Griffin, Vulcan, JagerMech, Trebuchet. The latter two got to move to shoot at the APCs before the lance could do anything to get to shoot at them, badly damaging one of them.

(Nearly had a reload there and then.

Nearly did straight away after that, as the UI said "you can shoot the JagerMech from there, hah, no you can't!")

Lynessa thought that maybe ONE DAY, the damned large pulse laser would ACTUALLY hit on an aimed shot and be the Decapitator it was supposed to be.

Two rounds of generally useless fire later, Alarhan took out the Vulcan with the Thumper cannon.

The APCs had reached the exit zone, which likely meant another four mechs would be on the way, and the Blackjack and Griffin were still up, simple because luck refused to do anything but scatter the aimed shots everywhere.

Lynessa punched the Griffin to death (it had run up to her and swung and missed) and Mylassta abandoned headshot in favour of attempting to CT the Blackjack, but even THEN it required Summer to finish it off.

Alarhan turned and sprinted down the hill, bringing the third lance into sight. Enforcer, Thunderbolt, Quickdraw and another Griffin.

You knew it was bad when the Bull Shark fired a full salvo at the Thunderbolt's head and not ONE weapon hit it.

THREE of the girls shot at the head of the Thunderbolt, and there was not even a single glancing blow. This was getting really stupid.

The Thunderbolt was on its last legs in CT, so Lynessa fired at it normally AND IT STILL STAYED UP.

(Because the RNG said "hah, you only get on hit from your weakest weapon out of FIVE on the CT, neener neener neener!" Getting really tired of this crap RNG, there will be reloading in a fracking minute...)

Nope, another missed headshot from Mylassta, and that was all the firing the lance could EVEN DO this round, and the Bull Shark and Annihilator were risking overheating. No, wait Alarhan could just reach the ice, and if she fired just the LB-X ACs MAYBE THE THUNDERBOLT WOULD FRICKING DIE. (Which it finally did.)

Mylassta eventually took the Enforcer's head off.

Summer shot at the undamaged Griffon to headcap it and CT'd it instead.

Of course.

Alarhan at LAST managed to headcap the Quickdraw.

That was an extremely tedious mission.



Lynessa took an ++LRM 15, plus a couple of parts to finish a Blackjack and Griffin, and a couple of part from the other mechs, since she KNEW that the random would screw her (and she was right, out of the random salvage she got only a single mech part out of 21).

Next mission was a 3.5 skull battle against the pirates (and a 6/27 salvage like the last one - MAYBE they could actually get some gear out of it, even).

The mechs remained the same, but Shelat took the Decapitator, Velina the Fair Marauder, Vey the Bull Shark and Pseekie the Annihilator.

Big lance - a Stalker in sight, plus a 65, 70 and 75-tonner behind it.

The 65-tonner walked into sight - a Catapult - and Velina took a shot.



That was more like it.

The other mechs were a Grasshopper and an Orion 1V.

Pseekie took a normal shot at the Stalker and...



DEFINITELY more like it!

Shelat and Velina took the Grasshopper out with a headshot between them.

The lance held fire for a moment, manoeuvring, so Velina could take one more aimed shot...



Four mechs down, all by headshots.

THAT was much better!



For salvage, Lynessa picked a ++LRM 15 and a ++Gyro, three parts of the Stalker (they didn't see those very often) and one part of Grasshopper - and luck was with them, for while the only got one more mech part again, it was another Grasshopper part, which allowed them to finish it.

That made up a bit for the previous mission...

(And good job it autosaves after the mission, since I hit "scrap," not "storage" before it registered...(

Pseekie upped her guts to 7.

Next, another Martian battle against the pirates, but only 3-skull this time.

Same load-out; the next couple of missions would require a change, but while the iron was hot...

Reinforcements were expected this time.

The first enemies they spotted were a Wolverine and a Cicada (3C). A second Cicada (2A) and a Quickdraw.

The Wolverine was not headcapped, but knocked down and destroyed.

The Quickdraw managed to miss with almost all its weapons, except one of the two SRMs, which hit Velina in the head.

(RNG in a mood today...)

Reinforcements were now coming in...

Alarhan's Thumper destroyed one of the Cicada's outright, the blast just stopping short of a grinning Shelat, having run up to punch the other Cicada and lure them in. Targeting so the blast hit the enemy rear armour was definitely working nicely...

A second punch - this time from the rear - polished off the other Cicada.

Velina headcapped the Quickdraw.

The first of the reinforcements, a Vulcan ran into view.

A tiresome long-range shot damaged the Decapitator's leg internal structure.

(Hmm, but only by 2 points out of 95. Maybe not worth worrying about repairing before they put it back into the field, if they didn't hit it again. Really, I'd have though they'd have hit the rear torso armour more, but no...)

The lance exchanged long-rang desultory fire. Heat was a bit of a problem at this point, so Pseekie held fire and moved position to drop the Annihilator’s heat (and also compensate for the recoil...)

The third mech was a 1AA Vindicator.

Shelat took a run around the rock they were using as cover and fired a regular shot at the Vulcan, which destroyed it. She spotted the forth mech as it came into view - a Dragon.

Aimed fire from the Bull Shark took out the Quickdraw's head. (The Bull Shark did not like this heat, though, it would have to hold fire next round just to get it back under control...)

Velina scored a headshot kill on the Dragon.



Shelat destroyed the Vindicator's leg (she'd been aiming for the head, but whatever) and Pseekie quickly headcapped it while it was down.



Three parts Dragon (to finish and sell it) and one part of Cicada from the random that finished that too.

Pseekie raised her guts to 8, Velina hers to 9, and Shelat hers to 10.

The next mission was a 3-skull one to destroy a Taurian base.

Given the minor damage to the Decapitator, Lynessa elected to send it into the field (since to repair it, they'd have to stop work on the Highlander or wait even longer). Pseekie swapped to the Fair Marauder. Vey took the Stalker Barrage and Natasha grabbed the Archer this time. Again, this meant that the two mechs without LRMs had pilots with sensor lock for dealing with the inevitable turrets.

The first enemy in sight was a Phoenix Hawk and a 70-tonner that must have been a Cataphract, as it had ECM. The lance continued to skim around the ridges outside of the base - it was another crater facility, like the bar - and get to a better position.

Shelat locked onto the third mech, a Thunderbolt, and they could detect a vehicle a little ways back too.

Having found a nice copse of woods, the lance held positon. the Phoenix Hawk foolishly left ECM cover and Shelat and Pseekie headshotted it between them.

The Thunderbolt followed suit and Pseekie took a shot.



Now the Cataphract was within sensor lock range. Shelat locked it and the two missile mechs let fly. They knocked it down and the next round of salvos CT'd it.

The bad news was the vehicle actually got into sight distance and it turned out to be a Demolisher. Shelat took a hit, but she and Pseekie took no chances and destroyed it with two precise salvos.

Then it was simple a case of methodically moving around to destroy the turrets and then the buildings.



Three parts Thunderbolt (another one to sell), a +++Large laser and a piece of Cataphract would do.

Vey and Natasha both maxed-out their gunnery.

The last mission in the system was a 3-skull convoy ambush - once more in the desert - on a Taurian convoy.

Natasha swapped into the Fair Marauder and Pseekie instead took the Phoenix Coil.

Oh goody. Another one on the canyon road. Well, that was why they always brought the Phoenix Coil...

The enemy lane was in a bad positon, though. With Pseekie dashing up, and the enemy being within Shelat's sensor lock range, Natasha and Vey were able to take out a Bulldog and Manticore immediately.

The enemy lane itself consisted of two Quickdraws, a Shadowhawk and a Griffin.

The lead 70-ton vehicle was moving at an incredible pace. Unfortunately, the one behind it was a Demolisher. Pseekie and Vey's best effort failed to destroy it, but it's LB-X AC mostly missed Pseekie and she was able to rush up and stomp on it. The other mechs ignored her totally to focus on the lance, so she would have free reign IF she could catch the damn thing.

Natasha meanwhile, on the second try, headcapped one of the Quickdraws.

Vey moved forward - and then noticed that Pseekie had JUST gone far enough to spot the lead vehicle - a Galleon - and switched targets to bombard it with LRMs. It didn't die. Pseekie couldn't get close enough to get a shot off, but she could get close enough for Vey to have another try...

Meanwhile, Natasha and Shelat duelled the mechs. Shelat managed to one-hit-kill the Shadowhawk with a punch from behind.

Vey cursed. The Galleon was, in fact, out of range. Sprinting would make it unlikely she could reach it next time, so instead she switched fire to the other Quickdraw.

Pseekie dashed into range of the fleeing Galleon. Its rear around was not, in fact damaged by the LRM salvo, which made it a risky shot at the turret. But if she failed, she was in position to jump up to the escape point. But for once, luck was with her and she destroyed it.

The Quickdraw got its leg blown off and fell over, and died to pilot kill via torso destruction.

That just left finishing off the Griffin.





Salvage was a ++PPC and enough parts to finish 5A Quickdraw and most of another.

Pseekie raised her guts to 9, Shelat her piloting to 8.

That was it for Merlin. The Decapitator was put in for repairs. Further tweaking would wait mid-transit, when that and the Highlander were finished.

Next stop would be Shaunavon, which was the furthest up of the flashpoints - they'd catch the other one on the way back down towards Manthraka. (Also, Shaunavon was a black market, so might as well hit it while the pirates were only furious and not hated, since the other flash point was verses pirates.)

Lynessa had given up on keeping the pirates happy at this point. Digging out of the hole they were at -62! - thanks to the flashpoints as such would take a lot of low-skull mission spam, and frankly, there was not going to be enough time in the 398 days left to be arsing about with that sort of grind.

The work on the Decapitator and Highlander finished, so on to more refits. First off, the Stalker. The two remaining regular LRM 15s were swapped out with ++ versions - the Stalker Barrage now had an eclectic mix, no two being exactly the same properties, but whatever. Sadly, it also appeared that further heat exchangers wouldn't help it. 20% less heat generated still left a bigger rise in heat (36/30) versus the current 45/42.

It seemed as though it was only worth putting a heat exchanger on if the heat generated was 60 or more, else it was less helpful than the heat sinks.

+2 hit defence gyro on the Annihilator; +3 hit defence gyro on the Fair Marauder. (Lynessa could strictly remove two heats sinks, as the FM currently sunk 6 more heat than it generated BUT the FM didn't have heat problems in the bad heat environments (lunar/desert/Martian), so Lynessa felt it was wise to keep those on, just for those situations, where you could guarantee at least one mech could cheerfully fire every round.)

The Highlander currently generated 60/57 heat, so a heat exchanger (-10% heat, replacing two heat sinks in tonnage) would reduce it to... 54/51 and the ++ version (+-20%, for 4 heat sinks) to 48/45 and both to 39/43. Well, no point doing that, then, clearly it needed to be HIGHER than 60 heat for heat exchangers to be worth it. So, Lynessa just replaced one LRM 15 for the +LRM 15, and added the -10 stabilisation damage gyro (formerly on the Fair Marauder) and a ++cockpit mod, because she might as well.

Lynessa looked at the Laser Knight. Hmm... No, she'd been wrong. Heat exchangers didn't stack - at least not directly. The Laser Knight currently had a -20% and three -10% heat exchangers, which reduced 90 heat to 52.

Putting two -20% and one -10% reduced the heat to... 51. Hmm. After some experimentation, it appeared that the percentage reduction was multiplicative (and at the end, rounded down). Lynessa found that she could reduce the excess heat by 1, by either using two -20% and a -10% (instead of one -20% and three -10%) - 48/51. She found in addition that simply swapping one -10% for two heat sinks would mean the same increase in heat (from 48/52 to 54/58). Hmm. Okay, assume a 25% reduction in heat sink capacity... That only made a difference between the best (48=>36/51 and worst (54=>40.5/58) of +15 to +17.5 heat per round; and roughly +20 to +23 heat per round in the 35% reduction worst-case lunar environment. And in any environment that sunk MORE heat (jungle, starting at +10%) then sinkage exceeded generation regardless. And Lynessa only fielded the Laser Knight in cold environments anyway. In theory, then, it was possible to, say, put a pair of MGs (including the ++MG which was 0 tonnage) on with both -20% heat exchangers and add a heat sink, and the Laser Knight would only generate a couple of heat per round in the conditions Lynessa used it.

The problem was, these gains were all so minor, it wasn't really worth bothering with. And nothing the lance had really generated massive amounts of heat, aside from the Decapitator (no heat sinks to swap out) and the Bull Shark (only doubles to switch out - technically swapping two doubles for a heat exchanger would reduce the Bull Shark's overheat from 54 to 52 - still not enough to be significant, as it wasn't a salvo's worth or anything.)

So, the Atlas. The +LB-X 20 did the same damage and slightly more stability damage than the ++AC/20 (though it obviously scattered it more) and was a ton less. (Though the Atlas would have to be refitted with LB-X 20 ammo when Lynessa bought some, as she apparently did not have any LB-X 20 ammo (there hadn't been any on Merlin to buy). So, Lynessa had the LB-X AC replace the AC/20. She replaced one small laser with the ++MG and the half-ton of ammo (in the arm, out of the way) and upgraded the other small laser to a +++version. Juggling two jump jets from CT to legs, she also was able to put a +1 melee hit gyro in, and the last ton went on a +40 melee stability damage mod. (She could have spent that on armour, really, but elected to go for offense, the Atlas was pretty heavily armoured already).

Lynessa found Zuranna getting a bit too involved with "Mercenaries" the game and suggested she spend a little time in the training pods instead...

Payday...





And as I wrestly with the RNG on contracts, we shall leave it there for today!


And on what was the last try before I shut down for the night, I got four Davion missions, all battles, one each verses the pirates/Taurians/Kuritans/Capellans. That'll do nicely, ta!

[Aotrs Commander]

Part 22 Editied into post above.

*tips helmet to The Glyphstone*




Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Three:

(From Monday.)

Spoiler

Show

The Argo arrived at Shaunavon. First things first, the store. A heat bank (for a mere 144k), and some LB-X 20 AC ammo! (Four tons, enough for the Atlas and a couple of spares.)

In the black market, there was notably three pieces of Bull Shark (BSK-MAZ) and also a complete BSK-M3 Bull Shark, which appeared to have but a standard 3025 load-out. There wasn't a lot else, disappointingly, in the black market. A +++LRM 15 (which Lynessa bought). A ++Ultra AC/10, which saved two tons over a regular AC/10... But the double heat meant that those two tons would mean only half the extra heat sunk from using that on heat sinks. A +++AC/20, which Lynessa bought (in case they wanted to dig out the King Crab, so they had two...) And a ++ Medium Pulse laser. Which again, did not have an immediate use. The laser mechs (i.e. the Laser Knight and Decapitator) generally relied on weight of firepower... Though if Lynessa was prepared to trade-out the Laser Knight's single large laser, it would increase the damage slightly and leave some spare tonnage...? Oh, what the heck, she'd buy it and experiment. There was also a ++Snub PPC. Lynessa thought about it, but decided against it for the moment. She went through to sell the excess components and decided that, actually, there was sufficient numbers of various + systems that she probably ought to keep no more than 10 as a base stock. That sold off so much kit, she elected to buy both the Ultra AC and Snub PPC.

Hearts and Minds Flashpoint time, then...

Alexandria Cunningham called up. The problem was that Shaunavon was an ex-Liao planet, and while most people had benefitted from Davion pumping money into the system, there were radicals - ex-Capellan MechWarriors. These needed handling delicately, from the Davion perspective, since too harsh or too lenient would could problems either way. The leadership needed to be decapitated, so the Davions could do some PR stuff.

This meant dropping in nothing more than Mediums.

Fortunately, the lance had those extra four mechs of 55 tons or less... But it wasn't going to touch the 200 ton ceiling.

Given this, Lynessa would be leading this one herself in the Trebuchet, with Mylassta taking the Raven Fair, Alarhan the Phoenix Coil and Summer the Shadow Punch. Well, with the Raven, it would certainly be subtle...

The first part was to assassinate Matis "Bishop" Crenshaw, as he was off meeting a satellite group of the Emerald Dawn resistance group.

This battle was going to require a little change of tactics - headcapping was not likely to be viable, given the mechs available, so it would have to be legs and torsos.

Hmm. Two enemy lances, plus the target.

This was going to be odd. The lance stealthily made its way to the location of the first lance and... It wasn't there. A little farther up the road (this was an urban battlefield) and they spotted a 45-ton contact ahead and shortly thereafter, the enemy started to move in.

Two Fleas and a Wolverine, with the 45-tonner still out of sight. Alarhan darted forward at took out the first Flea with a CT kill.

The 45-tonner was apparently the Bishop, but he stayed out of range. The second lance's Spider and another mech were closing on the group fast.

The Flea made the foolish mistake - as expected - of rushing right into melee range for the Shadow Punch, which destroyed it.

Lynessa and Mylassta team-up to CT-kill the Wolverine.

Alarhan dashed back further into the Raven's ECM range. As their only big gun, she would have to be careful to stay inside the ECM field, and would probably only be able to get shots off on odd rounds. But Bishop's Blackjack was approaching into view, and she couldn't get a shot at it this round.

The Spider got into sight, but couldn't reach the lance and behind that was a Javelin. And 35-tonner was behind that still.

The lance pulled back a bit. The Spider jumped into the ECM field, but that just meant it got punched over and then killed by Mylassta detonating its MG ammunition. Bishop moved into sight. To Alarhan's great annoyance, she couldn't get a proper run up, and there was no point hitting their target until they could quickly kill it, so she was forced to jump position and hold.

On one of the 35 tonners was a RAVEN. Interesting...

(ARE YOU KIDDING ME, game? Alarhan jumped into a position on the ground where you won't let her move?)

With a quiet snarl, Alarhan had to again jump and change position and forgo taking a shot.



And this was why the Shadow Punch was a great partner for the Raven. Summer just had to stand still and wait until the enemy sprinted up to her!

The next enemy to suicidally charge at the lance was a Commando...

But there was a more important target. Finally with a clear shot, Alarhan and Lynessa didn't waste any time and they both went straight for a CT kill.




And Bishop died.

The enemy Raven ran forwards and did an active probe ping. So Mylassta did it right back. The Commando went down to a punch and a couple of shots in the back.



Just the Raven and a Hatchetman left to deal with, and the Raven backed off...

Unfortunately, the lance didn't manage to kill the Hatchetman, which proved how dangerous it was by taking the Trebuchet's arm right off. fortunately, it was the left one, so there wasn't anything in it.

Lynessa back off and blew its leg off - possibly both, the lance had left them both critical and it went down and either due to that, pilot death or ammunition explosion, it stayed down.

The Raven learned itself why it was a bad idea to charge into ECM range, as the Shadow Punch smashed one leg off...



...and Alarhan destroyed the other.

Now Alexandria could come in and do her PR thing and... The comms cut off, and the lance was getting a transmission from Bishop's other half, Tiesa "Navaja" Norkus...



Well, if the next mission also required lights, they'd be waiting for a bit...

Enough salvage to finish a Commando and Flea to sell.

Tiesa was screaming about how Lynessa was a pig. And proving her point about the fact she was totally a lunatic that needed putting down, she'd been kidnapping hostages.

She insisted that the lance could not kill her while she had the hostages. And Lynessa couldn't contact Alexandria to see what the instructions were. So the lance could either move in and deal with killing two dozen people, or secure the area and hope for the best.

Yeah, there was no way Lynessa was going to be killing innocent people.

Fortunately, they were Magical Paladins, so there was a third option...

And this time, there weren't any tonnage restrictions.

So, Velina took the Decapitator, Shelat the Fair Marauder, Vey the Bull Shark and Zuranna the BattleSmasher.

And Lynessa, Mylassta, Alarhan, Summer, Poppy and Scarlet prepared to go do their Magical Girl Paladin thing, because fair was fair when there were rules, but when lives were at stake, Paladins of Azurella were totally encouraged to cheat a little bit...

As the lance dropped in, Tiesa sneered about how the lance was keeping its distance and how they better stay thee, or she start throwing people of the 30th story window.

The enemy closed in.



As Vey expected, the building withstood the artillery blast. At least one of the light mechs did not.

Enemy reinforcements were dropping in, though, but the paladins weren't too worried.

In the enemy didn't want to come around the corner, the lance would wait...

A Locust limped into sight, and a Phoenix Hawk jumped in to shoot at Zuranna's rear. She responded by ripping its let off, and Shelat deftly shot the other leg off as it lay on the ground. Velina simply punched the Locust, and that left just left the Griffin to Vey...



One lance down!

Vey could see the second one now; UrbanMech, Hatchetman, Flea, Hunchback. vey took some fire from them, but her second Thumper round took the Flea down.

Zuranna and Velina CT'd the Hatchetman (it wasn't worth the risk of it getting close enough to use the hatchet) ...



...and Shelat managed a single head-hit on the Hunchback, followed by a second salvo which took it down.



Velina finished the job with a single punch.



So much for the enemy mechs.

Tiesa snarled with anger, shouting that she'd recruit more for every one they killed.



Parts for a Griffin and a Phoenix Hawk 1K (which they didn't have yet) to be finished and sold in the former case ...



Lady Alexandria's DropShip headed down to land. Tiesa's headquarters was very much intact, and had turrets which started to shoot at the DropShip.

Tiesa was screaming with laughter on the 30th floor, the terrified hostages behind her weeping in fear.

Alexandria was screaming too, dire imprecations at Darius, since Lynessa didn't seem to be on the bridge.

The situation looked a bit grim. Sumire and Darius gritted their teeth. Alexandria would be angry, but at least the hostages would be alive.

Tiesa opened the comms again. She got exactly half-way through her denunciation before the door behind literally exploded open in a blast of green energy, shedding golden sparks. The doors actually flew past either side of the stunned terrorist and smashed out through the windows, taking five of her guards with it.

And out of the smoke, came six ladies. There were not wearing what was particularly describable as "armour," it looked more like fancy outfits - the shortest one, a blue haired girl who looked like she wouldn't had said boo to a goose, was even in an actual skirt. Tiesa noted they looked like they were cos-playing one of those funny cartoons out of the Draconis Combine; and the leader figure, the mercenary commander Fair, was holding a longsword.

And she was glowing with a warm green light and floating an inch or two off the floor and oh crap.

Before this thought had fully cohered in her head, the five younger girls moved. The short-haired blonde's fist disappeared in a punch, and a whoosh of wind slapped the half-drawn gun out of Tiesa's hand, nearly knocking her over with the force. The blonde seemed to just disappear. She re-appeared in another whoosh of air, fist extended as one of her guards went flying backwards across the room. The girl spun and punched and a focussed gale-force wind smashed another unconscious. The dark-skinned girl in blue had frozen three of Tiesa's men into a massive block of ice and the red head had set two more on fire, flames blazing out of her hands like full-on flame-thrower. The purple-haired girl in lilac and the bluenette in the powder-blue dress systematically took out the rest of Tiesa's men with energy blasts from the staves they were holding. One of her soldiers got close enough to the sweet-looking bluenette and got the lower end of the staff slammed into her crotch and was then knocked out with the solid follow-up blow from the other end.

In less than ten seconds, Tiesa was standing completely alone. Fair hadn't moved, just stood there, sword in her hand. The blonde girl was moving at impossible speed, breaking the bindingsmon the hostages, and the red-head and the dark-skinned girl were ushering them out the door.

Fair raised her sword to point at Tiesa, as the two remaining girls levelled their staffs at her, the ends glowing purple and blue; Fair's sword glowed that same warm green with golden sparkles.

Tiesa glanced at the fallen gun, back up at the hostages escaping.

There was a sudden explosion fro behind her, as a double swarm of LRMs blew up the first two of her turrets - she could JUST see a Stalker stepping around a corner...

Fair smiling, politely cocked her head - an indication of whether Tiesa wanted to surrender.

Tiesa was a fanatic. Tiesa went for her gun.



Alexandria Cunningham was not having a good day. He communications with the mercenaries had lapsed, her PR stunt was backfiring badly and her drop ship was getting fired upon by turrets. Those idiot paladins had only destroyed the surrounding mechs and now that witch Tiesa was screaming at her - until something exploded and the comm cut off.

A sudden flurry of smoke trails caused Alexandria to spot a SECOND lance of mechs in the Paladin colours abruptly open fire with salvos of missiles. A Stalker and a Catapult, guided by a Black Knight and a Raven. They began to systematically take the turrets out.

What were they doing! She'd only paid for once lance! And where had they been hid- the Raven. They'd used the Raven to cover the second lance while the first one wiped the mechs. But WHY had the waited until she'd LANDED, the idiots?

Her attention was abruptly dragged back to the headquarters, as a HUGE blast of green, purple and blue energy propelled a body out of the 30th story window. The body's arc carried it a good couple of hundred metres out of the building before it crashed into the ground with a finality Alexandria could feel from there.



Lynessa really couldn't understand Alexandria.

No, literally, she could only make out one word in three, the rest lost to incoherent screeches and hand gestures. Her fancy hair-do had come all undone and made her look like a bit of a crazy person, really.

Lynessa gathered Alexandria was deeply unhappy with the Paladins not destroying the building with the civilians in, despite them saving the civilians and killing Tiesa. Perhaps she was angry that she had offered Tiesa surrender first? Sure, the DropShip had gotten some armour damage, but Natasha, Pseekie, Luximei and Llana had been there with the secondary lance (covered by the Raven's ECM) to clear the turrets as soon as she and the girls had secured the hostages, so what was the fuss? And sure, it wasn't quite the red-carpet triumphant victory Alexandria had wanted, but Lynessa had warned her that plan wasn't going to survive first contact with the enemy. It wasn't EVEN like Lynessa was charging extra for the second lance or anything. The resistance was thoroughly crushed, the hostages saved; the girls had been quick to say they'd come on behalf of Davion to save them, so it wasn't even a PR disaster or anything. Alexandria herself hadn't come out glowing personally, mind, but really, was that important in the grand scheme of things, honestly...?

Apparently, no good deed went unpunished. Not a lot of cash and a couple of Dragon parts was the reward. Oh well, never mind...

Lynessa supposed they just do the next four Martian battle contracts, then, three 3-skull and one 2.5 skull. Starting with 3-skull verses the pirates.

The primary lance stayed mostly the same, though Vey swapped into the Annihilator, since the Bull Shark ran awful hot in these conditions.

Quite what the first pirate Orion thought when he showed up, got a load of AC 10s that came awfully close to his head and then got charged by the other three mechs is best unrecorded. (Shelat got a little excited and charged instead of shooting...)

It became quickly irrelevant, once Shelat regained her composure.



The other enemies were a Marauder, a JagerMech and a Black Knight.

After about three rounds of trying, Shelat headcapped the Marauder.



The JagerMech was punched to death by Velina and Zuranna. A steady stream of shots from Vey and Shelat took the Black Knight's head off too.



Parts to complete the Orion (sold) and the JagerMech JM6-S (storage)...

Zuranna increased her tactics to 8. Shelat upped her piloting to 9. Vey maxed her guts.

Next up, 2.5 skull battle against the Taurians; same lance. If wasn't broken...

Two Griffins, Vindicator, Thunderbolt. All but one Griffon were headcapped by the lance without much trouble.



Three parts of the Thunderbolt, since the lance currently had no parts of any of those mechs to complete.

Velina maxed her guts.

3-skull verses the Draconis Combine, same lance...

This time, the enemy was a 2N Rifleman, a Warhammer, Quickdraw and Centurion.

The enemy lance engaged from around a central rock formation, where the lance couldn't get to them easily. But a round or two spent dashing about meant that when they did, the Warhammer and Rifleman went down to headshots almost instantly. The Quickdraw fell shortly after and the Centurion died to another desultory headshot (which had it not killed it, a punching to death would have resulted).



That completed the Rifleman 2N and Warhammer 6D!

Zuranna raised her tactics to 9 and Vey her piloting to 8.

Three-skull battle verses Capellans, and they'd be done for this system!

From Velina's initial comment, she was as eager to get done on these Martians climes as Lynessa was...

A Shadow Hawk - 2H, of course, when they wanted a 2D - a Vindicator, and a Wolverine, plus something else - probably another Griffin off to the west. As they started to fight, headcapping the Shadowhawk with the Annihilator, enemy reinforcements appeared more or less on top of the lance to the east.

This was a Quickdraw (which immediately hit Velina in the head and was angrily head-shotted by Vey), a Phoenix Hawk and two more Wolverines,. one of which was headcapped by Shelat on sight.

The number of enemy mechs meant it took a while before the lance destroyed them all, but no other serious damage was sustained.



The BattleSmasher lived up to its name.



Salvage completed a Wolverine for sale.




Lynessa, looking at her collection and what was in the store, elected to buy 1 part of Shadowhawk 2D, since that were pretty much all that was left in the medium mech range she could see.

(In terms of score, at any rate. Still need a 1X Cataphract and a K2 Catapult, though...)

Shelat maxed her piloting, and thus completed her training.

Non Diz would be the next stop, since it was another flashpoint.

Maintenance - first, the LB-X AC ammo to the Atlas, then swapping in the +++LRM 15 to the Stalker Barrage and the LRM taken from that to the Ballista (as well as taking a heat sink off for a heat bank).

The Laser Knight received an overhaul. The large laser was removed and the medium pulse laser installed in the torso and 5/6 medium lasers upgraded to +++medium lasers. It now sported two -20% heat exchangers and the ++heat bank, which made it run much more efficiently - plus + melee hit gyro for the sake of argument. There was enough tonnage left to install for jump jets for good measure, since it now had lost anything other than short-range weapons.

(Now, either it DOES make a different if you're allied, or RNG is being kind today - all of the tries had at least three Davion missions.)

Five contracts in the system. One 3-skull for Kurita (best do that one first!), two nearly identical 4.5 skull base captures against the Taurians and two four-skull destroy bases.

Nothing in the store, so time to start the Opportunist flashpoint.

Alexandria seemed to have calmed down now. This time, she needed the paladins to bring Ayesha Hadley (aka Atepa Sweeney aka the Fox of New Avalon) in for questioning regarding a lot of thefts, including a royal yacht.

This woman was something else - on top of everything else, she stole Hanse Davion's nickname as well! That was just uncalled for.

This looked like this was going to be a long escort mission (wonderful), with a repair bay mid-trip. It was a difficult choice of what to bring. They lance would definitely want something with good visibility range (which meant the Raven, the Bull Shark or the Archer)... ECM had proved hopeless for the escorts previously, so Lynessa elected to send the Bull Shark and the last spot was a toss-up between the Annihilator, the Stalker Barrage or maybe even the Laser Knight. Lynessa opted for the former in the end, but made a note to try and find somewhere with electronics if they could (flashpoints kept appearing in the local area...) and get a rangefinder and some more comms systems if they could.

So Zuranna would take the Decapitator, Pseekie the Fair Marauder, the Vey the Bull Shark and Velina the Annihilator.

Appraising the area, Pseekie elected to send the Bull Shark and Annihilator half-way to what looked like the obvious escape point.



Well, she was right. But, of course the bandits appeared BEHIND the Bull Shark...



Two Shreks, and Manticore and a Galleon.

Pseekie and Vey took the Shreks out a shot a piece. Pseekie and Velina dealt with the other two quite fast, a salvo form each weakening them enough Velina multi-targeted and destroyed both at once.

Perhaps too soon - it meant one APC reached the drop point with the others a move behind when the enemy lance (a Marauder, a Dragon, a Shadowhawk 2D and a Warhammer) dropped in.

(And reload, since this meant the enemy lance could INSTANTLY move and destroy one of the APCs before I could do anything.)

Pseekie jumped in and was about to shoot at the Warhammer, but a little tickle in her head made her switch to the Marauder. Velina run back and took a shot at each of the Shadowhawk and Dragon, and got their attention. Zuranna did the same for the Warhammer, so that left Vey to actually try and kill one of the things.

Well, they did want a 2D Shadowhawk, Vey figured as she blew its head off...

Pseekie and Velina managed to headcap the Marauder -



- while Zuranna engaged the Warhammer.

This bought the prison convoy time to get the heck out.

Pseekie knocked a leg off the Dragon (one of the APCs had Tag-ed it).

(And because of the really stupid thing it does when the dropship flies off where it exits combat and then immediately gives the enemy a free turn of out-of combat movement, the Warhammer (with its tactician pilot) was allowed to move twice so it got to shoot Zuranna in the back and damage the Decapitator's IS. That's really immersion-breaking and feels like it really ought to be an obvious bug/exploit that should have been fixed.)



Vey vented her displeasure.

Zuranna vented some coolant and managed to dash back to take off the Dragon's other leg with help from the Annihilator and that was that.



Salvage to finish the 2D and a Marauder.

The Decapitator’s armour was restored at the mid waypoint repair bay, but the IS damage would have to wait.

But there was barely enough time to do that before the base came under attack.

From the Joppan Light Cavalry, who demanded the prisoner be turned over to them so THEY could try her. Darius started to explain that, well, Hanse Davion had dibs, where some Duchess from the Herotitan Government showed up, demanding the same thing.

From the northwest, a Quickdraw, a Griffin and a Thunderbolt.

Of course, this being a time-and-target sensitive mission, the lance suddenly couldn't headshot anything and scattered every normal shot everywhere.

After about the fourth try at a headshot, the Bull Shark finally got the Thunderbolt.

As Pseekie has expected, the other enemies came in from the south west, behind the prison compounds large wall - which precisely why she'd stayed put, so she could hop the Marauder over the wall. She couldn't stop the first vehicle from taking a shot, but she did knock-out the SRM carrier behind it.

The Griffin refused to die, though it was now badly mauled. Pseekie destroyed the Galleon in front of her, but could now see two 80-ton vehicles approaching and that almost certainly meant Demolishers. (Well, at least they couldn't shoot over the walls...)

Vey sprinted the Bull Shark to assist (she'd had to vent coolant to get two shots off). The Quickdraw managed to get behind the Decapitator and damage the leg internal structure, though it overheated itself. Zuranna (who couldn't punch the Griffin in front of her for some reason) tore its leg off in retaliation.

Velina finally totalled the Griffin. Zuranna used her medium lasers to CT-kill the downed Quickdraw.

As Vey and Velina dashed to attack position, Pseekie moved and sensor-locked the first vehicle. It was a Shrek, in fact, but there was a Demolisher behind it. As Pseekie accidentally moved out of line-of-sight, the only attack the lance could get in on the pair was the Thumper.

The Shrek had a shot at Pseekie, but the Bull Shark was just close enough to be able to destroy it - leaving Pseekie to jump the Fair Marauder behind the Demolisher - and with the damage from the Thumper, she was able to blow it up through the weaker rear armour.

Phew!



The Decapitator was not having a good trip, and there was at least another stage to go...

No significant salvage, since they'd not been given the option to negotiate, nor was the much left of the enemy mechs (since the Bull Shark's decapitation had destroyed the CT as well...)

Sumire was not happy either. The chief mechanic of the repair bay was demanding that Hadley had a message for Lynessa. Of course she did... Though Lynessa could pretty much guarantee she wasn't listening, given how many people wanted this lady.

Assuming this WAS the lady, of course. But Hanse Davion was a reasonable man, so if this was a wrong lady, given how far this criminal had gone, Lynessa would rather not be risking letting her go.

Well, time to see what the message was...

Okay, no this was a straight bribe, basically "there's a load of mech components out there, you'll never find them without my help, I'm going to prison, but (tacit assumption I'm getting out) you leave half here so I can get it later."

Lynessa and the paladins exchanged glances, calmly. Then, to Hadley's discomfort and Sumire's, Farah's, Yang's and Darius' surprise, they all erupted into howls of laughter.

"No, dear," Lynessa said eventually, struggling over the sound of Mylassta, who was pounding the floor. "No, strangely enough, you can't bribe paladins." That set them all off again.

Looking more than a little put-out (apparently having been braced for a straight refusal, but not that reaction), Hadley cut off the comms, pouting.

Oh, they had some time before the last part. Well, the Decapitator probably ought to be repaired before they moved out, then...

Zuranna took the time to increase her gunnery to 7 form 5; Velina her piloting from 7 to 9 and Vey her piloting to 9 too.

Okay, the APCs were now running through tunnels where the mechs couldn't follow and would emerge at a facility for the final part of the escort. Which was, of course, being watched by bandits, in this case a very banged up Wolverine and Dragon. Velina headcapped the dragon and a Grasshopper lumbered into view behind it. The forth mech of the lance was a JagerMech.

They were so badly damaged -



- the Thumper made a real mess of them. The Grasshopper died and the other two were in a real state.



The Wolverine died to a single normal salvo from the Decapitator, and Pseekie head-shot the JagerMech.

Same drill as before - move most of the lance to the most likely half-way point before securing the exit point. This time, Pseekie would do it, since the Decapitator was best closer to the enemy, since it was really a short-ranged attacker, especially in this kind of environment.



Not saying the bandits dropped kinda close, but...



Dragon, JagerMech and Orion.



The Bull Shark dealt with the Orion, sharply enough. Zuranna ran close enough to kick one leg off the JagerMech and Velina blew the other off. With a burst of coolant, Vey took the head off the Dragon.

(Oh, dammit, did it again, should have probably reserved until all four APCs had moved...)

The second wave of enemies appeared, but far enough away the APCs were in and off before they even showed up.

The enemy lance consisted of a Hatchetman and a Cataphract 0X - easy to tell from the ECM - and two others, which were soon revealed to be a 4D Rifleman and a 2N Rifleman.

The lance prioritised on the Hatchetman first to ensure it didn't get close and then held their ground.

The Cataphract used active probe, so all Zuranna had to do was run forwards and it was revealed. And then between the Bull Shark and Annihilator, it was beheaded.

The 2N ran past Zuranna in a rage to shoot Vey. Zuranna just whirled around and punched it in the back and detonated its ammunition, taking it out of the picture. One more headshot from Velina and the job was done!



Rather than mech salvage, this time Lynessa picked a ++LRM 15, a ++PPC (+10 damage, finally!) and a +++Medium laser. The random allowed them to complete a Rifleman and a Dragon for sale regardless.

When they got back to the ship, Alexandria wanted to know where the prison DropShip was.

Of course she did...

There was an incoming transmission form Hadley. Oh, what a surprise, "Hadley" had paid some mercs to paint up their ship in Davion colours. Hadley was not calling to gloat - she felt that would have been unwise - but to deliver the co-ordinates of Hanse Davions royal yacht (minus the contents of the vault).

This was "a favour" from her to us, to smooth things over with Alexandria. But, as Sumire noted, no, this was actually because she couldn't really fence the royal yacht, so the paladins were just her tacit clean-up crew.

A +Comms system, a piece of king Crab, +heat exchanger (-145%), not much else of particular note.

Zuranna increased her guts to 9. Pseekie maxed out her guts and was done; Vey her piloting and likewise.


Well, that was a fair bit of a bust, really.

Never mind there were contracts to do... But those would have to wait until next time!

We will be back on Thursday later today again, all being well.

[Destro_Yersul]

somehow missed the update. Good to see you back.

[Aotrs Commander]

somehow missed the update. Good to see you back.

No worries!

(I'm generally pretty regular - at the moment, doing this is basically the ONLY bit of structure I can scrape together at all - but last weekend was a couple of short sessions rolled into the Sun/Mon days (as I literally have nothing better to do for my weekend at the moment, thanks plague apocalypse), so it at least was only a couple of parts.)



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Four:

Spoiler

Show

So, the first contract was a 1.5 skull mission to capture a Taurian spy facility in the desert. Lynessa decided, given the danger of the mission, that she would lead this one herself in the Decapitator, with Mylassta in the Fair Marauder, Summer in the Bull Shark and Alarhan taking out the Ballista for its first trial run.




The lance encountered a lance of four 60-ton mechs. A Quickdraw of each type came into view.



Mylassta dealt with the first one (a 4G); Summer hit the second, but didn't kill it and it moved back out of sight. Lynessa locked another mech, and determined it was a Rifleman. Alarhan merely moved and held fire.

The 5A Quickdraw moved back out of cover and got its head blown off for its trouble by Mylassta.

The other two mech approached around a large outcropping and showed themselves both to be 3C Riflemen.

It took a couple of salvos, but both went down, one headcapped, one to CT destruction (due to missed headshots - the funniest of which was when Mylassta's autocannon shot hit it as a stray shot and knocked it over).

No turrets, to Lynessa's surprise, just enemy reinforcements as they approached the capture zone: two 60-tonners and two 65-tonners.

As it happened, the lance was behind the base itself, forcing the enemy to come to them. Lynessa locked on separated from the others, which was a C1 Catapult. As Alarhan started to LRM it, Summer, with great delight, dropped the Thumper on the other three. It didn't have much effect, but Summer laughed excitedly anyway.

The other mechs approached. While Alarhan bombarded the Catapult with Lynessa's help, Summer locked the nearest to ascertain it was another Quickdraw.

The enemy continued to creep closer. By the forth salvo, Alarhan CT'd the Catapult. The nearest mech (the other two having wandered away) was a K2 Catapult.

The last mech revealed itself to be a Dragon.

Mylassta headcapped the K2 on her second try (good, they needed one of those!) Summer decapitated the Dragon and the last Quickdraw fell to combined fire.



Two part K2, one part Quickdraw to finish one and a missile TTS (which was the disappointing best of the plus gear, though they got a few ++ medium lasers from random).

Next mission was the same, but this time, Lynessa was reasonably confident the trainees could handle it - so Luximai (as the scout, on her first proper deployment) took the Decapitator, Natasha he Fair Marauder, Velina the Bull Shark and Zuranna the Ballista.

The first enemy in sight was a Dragon, which immediately shot Zuranna in the head. Sadly for them, she had a cockpit mod and so was fine, just annoyed.

Velina didn't manage to headcap the Dragon, but even a failed shot from the Bull Shark was enough to destabilise something, so Zuranna knocked it down with missiles. As the second mech, a Quickdraw rushed in to attack Velina, Natasha moved up and headcapped the prone Dragon. One down.

Natasha moved over towards the Quickdraw and brought the other two enemy mechs - a second Dragon and a Catapult - into sight.

Natasha and Velina destroyed the Quickdraw's head between them.

The Catapult ducked back out the way, so Luximai jumped behind it - not to shoot it (the Decapitator wasn't up to much without precise shot), but just locked it. The dragon ran behind Natasha and Punched the Fair Marauder. Which let Velina, who needed to cool down anyway, punch IT in the back.



The Catapult got a shower of missiles (if Zuranna had been a little bit better shot, she'd had shot the Dragon in the back, but her chance to hit was much lower). The Catapult tried to run around Luximai to shoot HER in the back, but fired one laser and missed, and got knocked onto its arse for its trouble.

Natasha deftly headcapped the Dragon and Velina ensured the Catapult wouldn’t get up again by making the head off.

The lance closed on the base - just as enemy reinforcements showed up, the first into sight of which was a K2 Catapult. This sensor locked Velina, but got headcapped between the Fair Marauder and the Bull Shark.

The next enemy was an Awesome 8T, which Luximai sensor locked.



Bull Sharked!

The only enemy left on scopes (out of the two) was a 65-tonner - but it was soon joined by a K2 Catapult. Natasha took a shot, but missed the head. This did lure out the last mech, which was a Thunderbolt.

Natasha hit the head of the Thunderbolt, but didn't take it out. Without a precise shot, Velina just shot the Catapult, followed by Zuranna - with the intention of knocking it down for Luximai - but the Ballista detonated its ammo and killed the pilot. That worked too!

The Thunderbolt ran up and punched Luximai. So she punched it, and Natasha shot it in the back, and Velina punched it and Zuranna shot at the head as it lay prone. It staggered up and backed off, so Luximai punched it again, and Natasha punched it, and it got one more punch in before Zuranna blew its head off with missiles. (And otherwise, it'd have been knocked down and Velina would have shot at its head anyway!)



One part Awesome (to complete) one part Thunderbolt (for sale) and two ++PPCs with extra stabilisation damage, because at least it was a matched pair, right?

Okay, time to have a look at the 8T Awesome. Less energy hardpoints (but really the base Awesome had too few of those for a laser boat anyway). But four was enough to mount two Stab damage PPCs and the Snub PPC and the TAG; the -15% heat exchanger and four (!) of the -10%s and six heat sink brought it to a respectable 48/61 heat, with a couple of tons for extra armour. Not bad. work to be done later, of course, but an interesting trial run.

Velina maxed her piloting and completed her training. Luximai (starting out with a lot of experience) raised her tactics to 9 for called shot mastery. Natasha raised her piloting to 8.

Anja raised her tactics to 3 to 5 (since she and Llana would be entering rotation very shortly!) Llana finally elected to raise her skills and select a speciality - she'd got for Sensor Lock/Master Tactician and probably Guts, because no-one had tried that yet. She started by raising her tactics to 3 all the way up to 7.

The next mission was to destroy a 3-skull pirate base for the Kuritas. Llana got to take the Decapitator on her first proper mission, with Zuranna swapping into the Bull Shark and ceded the Ballista to Luximai.

This was another mining-type base - a nearly completed Orion factory, apparently. The initial guards were a Cicada and a Hatchetman, followed by a 4G Hunchback and a second Cicada.

The first casualty, though, was the nearest turret, as Llana locked it for Luximai.

Zuranna dropped the Thumper behind the two Cicada, sadly not taking them out, but not doing them any favours. Natasha concentrated on the Hatchetman.



Llana immediately got the usual Paladin trial-by-fire - getting shot in the head. Her inexperience, plus the distraction, made her whiff her first melee attack.

Zuranna took down the Hunchback.



Luximai helped Llana by taking off most the first Cicada's side, dropping it at her feet. It managed to get up and limp behind Llana before she could react, however.

A salvo from Natasha and Luximai exploded the second Cicada.

Llana took the other leg off the Cicada. First kill!



Then it was just as case of destroying the turrets, and the factory, with no problems.



Enough parts to complete a Hunchback for sale.

Zuranna maxed her tactics. Luximai increased her gunnery from 2 to 5.

Well, having knobbled the only other trainee sensor-locker, for the next 4-skull destroy base mission, Luximai would have to take the Decapitator, and cede the Ballista to Anja.

Okay, a base taken over by some kind of virus, and an 80-tonner and 40-tonner on the scopes.

Luximai locked the 80-ton mech, revealing it as a Victor. Zuranna moved to and spotted the 40-tonner was an Assassin.

Natasha failed to headshot the Victor, but Anja's first salvo of LRMs detonated it's AC 20 ammo, so that was a grand start! Second shot from Natasha...



Finished the job!

A new contact appeared, and Luximai moved up to reveal an Orion.

Showing it was going to be THAT sort of day, the turrets hit Zuranna in the head. A Blackjack also popped into view.

Zuranna popped an artillery shell into the three of them; the Assassin had foolishly backed up to join its lancemates. Luximai finished it off with a salvo of lasers, leaving Anja to start on the Blackjack.

The Orion did not want to get headcapped - it eventually died to CT destruction (sans both torsos) when Natasha tried to shoot a leg off.

The Blackjack got away with murder, as the other three couldn't shoot while they cooled off - and to merely show the spite, hit Natasha in the head as well.

(If there wasn't only one more mission left in this system, we'd be reloading...)

Zuranna went with her usual instincts. The Bull Shark wasn't great at melee - but it was good enough to squash a Blackjack.

The turrets were eliminated, and then the base... But Sumire hadn't come to pick them up, so there must be more enemy forces...?

(Nope, or if there were, they were trapped somewhere off-map; maybe because I used the Thumper to destroy the last buildings, since they last had damaged a couple with stray shots...? The lance ended up wandering back to the evac point anyway, after a good search.)



One part of Orion, three of Victor 9B (to finish it), a +++medium laser and an arm mod.

(Really feels like there should have been a second lance. *shrug*)

Natasha maxed her guts (ironically increasing her health...) Luximai upped her piloting to 6. Anja increased her tactics to 6.

Last mission - a 4-skull destroy base in Martian, instead of desert, conditions, against the Taurians.

With 3/5 of the trainees now down to headshots, Mylassta took the Fair Marauder and Vey the Bull Shark.

The lance instantly ran into the enemy, a lance of a Cicada 2A, Vulcan, Dragon and Zeus.



Mylassta took care of the Zeus.

A Thumper shell and a punch put paid the Vulcan...



... and the Cicada was not in much better shape.

A salvo from the Bull Shark obliterated the Dragon, and a LRM salvo from the Ballista likewise destroyed the Cicada.

That was fast!

The turrets and buildings went down in short order... But again, Sumire didn't come in to pick the lance up.

(But this time, there was an "enemy turn," at least.)

And there they were - a Dragon to the south-east, and a 60 and 65-tonner out of sight to the north-east. The former pair turned out to be a Quickdraw and Thunderbolt, and a Rifleman appeared with the Dragon.

Vey destroyed the Rifleman via headshot. The Dragon fell to Mylassta's second headshot, clearing the south flank.

Both north mechs were knocked flat by an LRM salvo; followed by a punch from the Decapitator for one and a coolant-vent enabled salvo from the Bull Shark for the other. The Quickdraw survived headcapping to stagger up, but the Thunderbolt got an ammo explosion from the Bull Shark. One more LRM salvo did it for the Quickdraw, too.



One part Zeus, to finish it off; a +++SRM 6 (nice!) and a Rangefinder. There were enough parts from one selected and the random to build an entire Dragon.

Luximai increased her piloting to 7 for the sprint bonus. Anja upped her tactics to 7.



Well, that was it for this place - time to look for the next stop! There was a flashpoint in New Vallis, in Taurian space (for the Federated Suns). So Lynessa thought that going there would be the next stop, and then stopping at 4.5 skull (!) Bromhead (for the faction store) on the way over to the flashpoint in the middle of Capellan space, and thence eventually back to Manthraka would be the best bet.

There was, actually, no mech damage for once, so Lynessa had Yang start on the Awesome.

Well, the pirates fracking HATED the paladins now, and the Taurians did nearly as much. Oh well...

Payday:





They set off.

The following day, Farah, Sumire and Yang came to Lynessa. Farah had found footage from the camera outside the low G pool, which showed seven of the girls had been using the low-G pool while naked. Sumire commented it was more nudity than she'd been prepared for this morning, Yang wondered how he was supposed to look at them now and Farah seriously asked Lynessa what should be done about it.

Lynessa just looked at them for a long moment without expression. Then she hit the comms. "I would like to remind the crew using the pool without swimwear that there is a camera outside the door."

Mylassta's unruffled voice drifted up from the other side of the ship.

"Yeah, we know, thanks anyway!"

Lynessa, still expressionless, turned back to Farah, Sumire and Yang and just looked at them. They blinked in unison, and then slowly backed out of the room.

Really, love/sex paladins, what DID they expect, honestly? Skinny-dipping was them being restrained!

(Even Scarlet wasn't totally body-shy, except about her natural form.

Besides, it had taken them THAT long to realise? Lynessa had been in the pool in the nud the first night it was operational.)

Darius just shook his head quietly, not at all surprised; of course, since he'd already had this conversation-slash-trauma when Lynessa authorised it...



They arrived at New Vallis. It was really strange, the Taurians didn't want them anywhere near their shops...

Well, Lynessa figured, might as well get started on the Headhunting flashpoint.

Alexandria Cunningham, not particularly comfortable in coming to Taurian space for obvious reasons, had left a message. A group called the Flak Jackals had been hitting Davion supply ships, murdering the crews and running back to Taurian space, and the paladins were there to make them stop. For the given value of "stop" of "smite until they cease twitching".

The leaders, a brother and sister pair Orchid and Dominik Zhao were the ones in charge. Sadly, they wouldn't be able to get both, since they would split up and run once the lance crushed the first chunk of their forces.

OH. And the Flack Jackals were using LosTech weapons. That changed things up a bit!



Okay, Lynessa was leading this one herself, with Mylassta in the Fair Marauder. As this was going to be a polar battle, Alarhan would be taking the Laser Knight and Pseekie the Annihilator, to headshot as much as possible without damaging any potential LosTech.

The first batch of enemies - and with reinforcements right behind - was an Assassin, a Black Knight and a Thunderbolt - nothing with LosTech. All of them were in very bad condition and mostly stripped of armour. Pseekie headshotted the Black Knight (Mylassta had tried, but missed). Alarhan blew the leg off the Assassin and Lynessa headcapped it.

The next enemy mech charging in was a rarer 101 Assassin (which the lance didn't have yet.)

"We'll be having that, thanks!" Mylassta crowed.



Alarhan quietly smirked as she headshot the Thunderbolt. Low armour on the head meant it was MUCH easier to take them out that way than normal.

Another Thunderbolt wandered into her sight and met the same fate.

The last mech was a 1X Cataphract, which they ALSO didn't have. When Lynessa failed to head cap it, the lance held fire.

Alarhan took the next shot.



Hurrah!



Three parts Cataphract 1X, one part 101Assassin. They didn't get a second, which would have allowed them to complete it, but they did get three parts of Black Knight instead, so it wasn't ALL bad.

Now the real decision - whether to kill Orchid for Pulse Lasers and double heat sinks, or Dominik for Gauss Rifles.

(Frag damn game! What a decision!)

Lynessa sighed. Gauss Rifles would be great, but really, heat problems were one of the lance's flaws - a Gauss Rifle wouldn't headcap better than an AC 10 with extra damage...

Pulse Rifles and heat sinks it was, though it killed her to make that decision.

The same team set out to kill Orchid.

The lance moved carefully to the west. There were two enemy lances in the area, plus Orchid herself.

The enemy’s first lance consisted of a 60, two 65, and a 75 ton mech. The lance waited for them to come to them.

The first target was a Quickdraw. Lynessa and Mylassta blew its head off. These mechs were fully armoured, but they'd expected that.

Patience was the key - the more the enemy milled around, the more chance the lance had to build up their resolve. On the other hand, it meant the other mechs would get close to, but Lynessa thought the trade-off was worth it.

The next mech, a Thunderbolt, took FOUR precise headshots, and only finally died when Pseekie happened to hit it in the head with the LB-X AC fire.

(Aaaaaaand no. We're not having the "all you shots miss and scatter even when you aim for CT and then I destroy the Decapitator’s arms with magically focused fire" nonsense. Frack off RNG. Reload.)

The next one, an Orion, was headcapped by Mylassta with the guidance of Azurella.

The last mech was a C4 Catapult. It died to CT destruction, as the lance concentrated their fire.

Now the reinforcement lance was closing in.

The first one was a JagerMech. Pseekie's first shot triggered an ammunition explosion which destroyed it.

A second Catapult C4 and an Orion emerged into range.



Mylassta and Alarhan destroyed the Orion with a pair of headshots. The Catapult died to CT destruction from regular fire. Two enemies left - a Thunderbolt and Orchid herself, who was approaching.

Alarhan went for a CT kill on the Thunderbolt, hoping to detonate it's ammo. She failed, but Pseekie's follow-up shot did exactly that.

Orchid showed herself, in her custom Thunderbolt. Five medium pulse lasers and ER small lasers. Pseekie took the first shot.

It took Pseekie, Alarhan and finally Mylassta, but...



They took Orchid out without damaging the LosTech.



This time, the salvage was mostly parts. A +10 damage AC/10 (NICE), a +LRM 15 (+damage), a ++medium laser (+10 damage), a ++ Comm system and a single piece of Thunderbolt. But they got enough to complete one anyway.

And the reward was... Two (regular) medium pulse lasers - and another +10 damage AC which was sort of better.

(No double heat sinks, the thing I kinda wanted more than the pulse lasers. DAMMIT. Should have gone for the Gauss Rifles.)



Well, that will be it for today!

Edit:
Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Five:

Will be a short one today; got to knock it off early, because we're out early tomorrow morning for a much-needed tomato-soup-in-the-car day trip.

Spoiler

Show

Okay, so two 2-skull and two 3-skull missions to choose from (all from Davion). Lynessa somewhat arbitrarily elected to start with a 2-skull test drive, the Davions wanting to further test a Cataphract 1x by killing some pirates.

Natasha would get the "honour" of driving that; Luximai the Fair Marauder, Zuranna the BattleSmasher and Llana the actual honour of testing out the Awesome (all these missions being delightfully polar or tundra, for a change.)




The enemy would be a lance of light mechs, with enemy reinforcements on the way. No, tell a lie, it was Taurians, also likely nothing but light mechs.

The lance fell back a bit. No rush, maybe if they were lucky, the two sides would shoot each other up. They couldn't fall back FAR, because of Llana being in a very slow mech, but they figured they might as well.

Nah, two Commandos and a Javelin entered sight before the Taurians even showed up on the sensors.

First salvo from the Awesome!



With the extra damage boost from the TAG, Natasha blew the Commando apart.

No sense trying for headshots here, it wasn't worth it - the lance went for CT kills.

The forth pirate mech was another Javelin. One of the two decided to try and hit Zuranna's head AGAIN, but she had the cockpit mod, so she was fine.

Aside from that, the enemy lance really didn't stand much of a chance.

The Taurians had apparently just sat around after being dropped off. Idiots.

Two Jenners, a Hatchetman (that got focus-fired to death right away.)



Zuranna meant, if you were going to run up right next to her with your back turned...

The last mech was a hapless Locust 1M, picked off with a single shot.



No salvage to speak of, just bits and pieces.

Zuranna increased her piloting to 8; Luximai her gunnery to 6 and Lana her tactics to 8, and got Master Tactician.

Next was a 2-skull Titan Attack. Natasha took the Decapitator, and Zuranna swapped to the Bull Shark.

Hah! Two assault mechs. Oh, the paladins were shaking.

The first mech into sight - a Spider - actually took a bit of killing, due to the lance's not great gunnery and its high evasion. But it wouldn't be spotting for the 45 and 75 tonner behind it. (Wait, 75 tons wasn't an assault mech!)

Hatchetman and an Orion. Funny assault mech; though TECHNICALLY Orions were originally assault mechs, Zuranna mused as she made her first shot at its head (from outside ER Laser range).

The Decapitator, just with a normal shot, triggered the Hatchetman's ammo and took it out via pilot kill.

Luximai headcapped the Orion.



The other assault mech turned out to be a BattleMaster, which Zuranna promptly blew the head off - though it came from an odd angle and the one salvo it got off (as it appeared without being located on sensors - nearly destroyed one of the buildings.

OH. And the other side of the reinforcement lance WAS another assault mech - a Stalker.

The lance failed to kill it with their first salvo, but inexplicably, despite this being a polar environment, it fired but a single large laser at Natasha and missed.

The lance almost entirely missed its head, and Llana killed it via CT destruction.



That was neat - three parts BattleMaster and one part to finish a Hatchetman and a Stalker!

Luximai increased her gunnery to 7 and Lana upped her guts to 5 and took Bulwark.

Next up, a 3-skull clash of titans verses the Taurians and... Whoever else. Same line up, it seemed to be working...

Ah, the other side was the local government, not that it mattered...

The Taurian lance was a Wolverine, UrbanMech and... Demolisher? Was there an assault mech hiding around or was this a cheap rip-off again?

The lance destroyed the UrbanMech and Demolisher before they knew what hit them. The Wolverine followed shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, the apparent (possible?) assault mech was already fighting the government forces.

Two, a Commando and an damaged Vulcan, came to fight the lance.

Pfft, no, once Zuranna and Luximai moved closer, it was a 95-ton mech (the government assault one), plus a Locust verses a 55-ton mech.

The commando and Vulcan went down in short order, unsurprisingly.

For some inexplicable reason, the 55-tonner (a Griffin) decided that what it really needed to do was instead of taking on a 95-ton mech by itself was attack a 75, 90, 95 and 80 ton by itself AS WELL.

Zuranna took pity on it, walking forward and headcapping the inevitable Banshee.

Luximai was not as kind.



The Locust was swatted by the Thumper cannon.



Enough salvage to complete a Banshee, Griffin and Locust. Be great when the paladins reached a place they could SELL some of this stuff...!

Natasha raised her piloting to 9.

Last mission in this system a 3-skull destroy base verses the Taurians.

Llana swapped into the Decapitator, and Natasha replaced the Awesome with the Ballista.

This was another "base at the top of a hill with no approach" location.

A Warhammer was the first to run into the lance, followed by a Catapult and Hatchetman.

The Warhammer was knocked down and decapitated in short order.

The Catapult and Hatchetman lasted a little longer, before the former was destroyed by a rear Thumper cannon shot - the two daftly stood next to each other - and the Hatchetman went down to LRMs as it limped out of that.

Just the turrets and buildings to mop-up.



Enough salvage for a Warhammer.

Zuranna maxed her guts. Luximai's gunnery continued to creep up, going to 8. With delight, Llana hit tactics 9, so she could start taking called shots properly too!



And as Lynessa starts to work out where to go next, we will leave her for today.

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Six:

Shorter one again, though because quite a lot of time was spent outside of missions!

Spoiler

Show

So. Where next? There was a 4.5-skull Davion flashpoint at Kern (apparently the alliance flashpoint) and a 4-skull one further into Capellan space... Lynessa considered, and decided no, they would go Bromhead first, deal with that (and the faction shop) and then head on to the Davion faction flashpoint.

Maintenance. The Archer would replace a +++LRM 20 with a +2 damage one and the Ballista would then use that LRM 20 and a couple more of the ++ ones to replaces its standard versions. The Annihilator would replace two of the AC/10s with +10 damage AC/10s, meaning all three were now potential headcappers. (Lynessa considered swapping in the ++Ultra AC 10, but that would have given the Annihilator heat issues.)

There did not, unfortunately, seem to be any use at all for the now three regular medium pulse lasers. The damage was 20% less than two regular medium lasers (40 instead of 2*25) for only a 17% reduction in heat generation (20 vrs 24) and only a +1 accuracy - not really worth it, sadly.

The lance had a few +++ SRM 6s now (three) and one ++SRM 6 - so maybe it was about time to retire the Catapult Hammer and dig out the other Archer. The Archers would fulfil the role of missile support at the same weight category, and the Stalker Barrage and Ballista had the top-end covered anyway.

Lynessa threw Pseekie a birthday party, upon learning that it was her birthday and Pseekie was ecstatic.


(Usual few tries on the reloads, but I got one with five Davion missions of 4-5 skulls; three battles, an assassinate and defend base (which I might not bother with...)

Three days out from Bromhead, and it was time to load the Arch...

...

"Yang. WHEN THE HEAVENS DID WE GET FOUR DOUBLE HEAT SINKS?!"

"I... Don't know...?"

"Well, don't just stand there, man, put two of them on the Annihilator right now!"

(Seriously, game, thanks for hiding that from me entirely at the end of that last flashpoint. It didn't tell me about those at all, just quietly dumped in the inventory. I was just about to start adding heat sinks to the Archer and did a double-take.)

That was all that could be done before they reached Bromhead, but it meant that, as a start, the Annihilator could now run completely cool under normal environments (at 46/48 heat), and wouldn't be building up that much in other environments. Lynessa noted, should she wish to do a lot of juggling around, it would be theoretically possible to put all four on the Annihilator, put the Ultra AC/10 on it, and have an extra ton of ammo plus a heatsink to make it run neutral heat-wise. (But with the relatively low armour, that was a bit dubious, plus would mean moving the ammo to the arms and would mean removing one head-capped for two nearly=headcappers, but it was a possibility...)

With only a day left until arrival (and payday), Lynessa had Yang put the Catapult Hammer back into storage but didn't start work on the Archer. There were quite a few battles ahead, and Lynessa wanted the decks clear for potential repairs.

Payday:



They arrived at Bromhead. First off, a trip to the shops to sell all the loot and supplies. That left the lance with 20 million to spend at the store and the faction shop!

In the regular shop there was a standard cockpit mod, a ++ Heat exchanger and a heat bank. That was a start...

In the faction store was... An unlimited number of +++ACs and ++ultra ACs, all 2 through 20. And one part of an Assassin 101 (that they had three parts for and didn't have in the collection), which Lynessa bought because sod it.

Lynessa shrugged and bought two Ultra AC/20s. It was only a bit over a million, and she was curious to see if they could fit both on the King Crab... And then she realised the Bull Shark only had +AC ultra 5s, so she bought two of those and a couple of ultra 10s as well. That was for a bit of experimentation later...!

That was everything there, though. Okay, they were a couple of +++TTS (a ballistic one of which might be worth picking up for the Bull Shark or Annihilator) but Lynessa decided to hold off and that and start in the contracts.

Full-skull desert battle against the Taurians first.

Lynessa thought the previous team could handle it, so Llana set out in the Decapitator, Luximai in the Fair Marauder, Zuranna in the Bull Shark and Natasha taking the now-cooler-running and slightly more deadly Annihilator.

As it happened, that was also the first mech of the enemy lance they ran into, supported by a 65 and 70 tonner.

The 5-tonner was a JagerMech, which Natasha ignored as she lined up on the Annihilator.

(Oh, crap, I'd forgotten the Annihilator had +20% ballistic damage, 84 damage for the ++AC/10s, woah!)

The 70-tonner was a 1X Cataphract. They needed one of those!

Llana and Zuranna held fire and just moved, hoping that the lance could take more headshot next round.

That might have proven to be a half-mistake, and the forth enemy mech approaching was a hundred tonner too. Whoops...

It further took both Zuranna and Natasha to headshot the Annihilator, and it likely wouldn't have stood many more attempts in any case...



The second mech proved to ALSO be an Annihilator.

(Okay, so I get double heat sinks and the OpFor DELIBERATELY starts shooting the one mech that has them in the legs - it destroyed one regular heat sink. I'm sorry, WHAT.

And again, I miss all the head shot and the JagerMech blows the Annihilator’s arm off two?

Okay, NO RNG, reload.)

With the grace of Azurella, Luximai headcapped the JagerMech.

(WOW, yeah, the AI as going for the Annihilator specifically, to the point of overheating. And again, FUNNY how it was down it IS on three locations and no damage anywhere else.

I'd accuse the AI of making called shots to the legs, but it always says when it's making all called shot, plus the drop in initiative, so this is purely RNG.

Bearing in mind for this game one of the recommended options was to put ammo in the legs (I don't, I tend to pout heatsinks there if I can), because they were less likely to get hit.)

The Annihilator refused to die, but eventually, Zuranna blew it apart. Natasha skittered her Annihilator back out of line-of-fire, and the overheating Cataphract did the same. The lance let it - more time to get resolve. It lumbered out again, took a shot at Zuranna, Luximai merely dented it with her precise shot but -



-Llana got her first proper headshot; and with the Decapitator's pulse laser too, finally.



And this was why the deck was cleared for repairs...

Two pieces of Annihilator and one of the Cataphract to complete it.

(It did demonstrate what a bad idea it would be to load all the valuable gear on the Annhilator, though - it was a little bit too fragile a chassis - even being a 100-ton mech) to have all the eggs in one basket.)

Zuranna raised her gunnery to 8. Natasha completed her training by maxing her piloting. Llana raised her gunnery by two points to 6.

Three days to fix the Annihilator. Wonderful. Well, they DID have other mechs, lots of them.

Next mission was a 4-skull joint attack with the Davions against Capellan forces in the badlands.

Zuranna traded into the Atlas, which hadn't been out since its upgrade. Pseekie, being in such high spirits, stepped in in the Bull Shark. (At the level this was Anja was not a good choice, and pretty soon they were going to be using the vets anyway, since there was only four of girls left to max out.)

Well, the Davion guys were nice and polite, unlike on the previous missions like this. They had a couple of JagerMechs, a Quickdraw and an Archer.

The enemy lance that first showed up was a Quickdraw, Thunderbolt and 70 and 80-tonners.

Luximai started off much better, taking the Quickdraw down with one shot.



The other pair were a Zeus and a Warhammer. As the lances moved up, showering the Thunderbolt with fire, a second Capellan lance would be entering the fray shortly.

Luximai was on form, as was the Fair Marauder, one-shotting the Zeus. Pseekie followed up with doing the same to the Warhammer.



And the Davion's JagerMechs destroyed the Thunderbolt.

One lance down, one to go!

This lance was a Cicada, Phoenix Hawk, Rifleman, and a 10HQ Cyclops, which Pseekie wasn't sure they'd seen before. It certainly wasn't carrying a lot of weapons...

The Cicada, which of course had rushed forward, was strangely enough not up to taking fire from eight heavy and assault mechs and died - surprisingly to ammo explosion from the Davion Archer.

Luximai was on FIRE this mission.



The Phoenix Hawk took a shot in the back from Llana and Pseekie finished it with the Thumper. The Rifleman, out-number eight-to-one didn't stand much of a chance.



Three parts Cyclops HQ, a ++Rangefinder (nice!) a +++SRM 6 (neat, that made four for the Archer!) and random allowed them to complete 3C Rifleman to boot.

Luximai and Llana raised their gunnery, to 9 and 7 respectively.

That will do for today.

Part twenty-seven's done, but I'm not gonna fit it into this post...!

[Aotrs Commander]

*tips helmet to the Glyphstone*

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Seven:

Spoiler

Show

Lynessa elected to do the 5-skull contract next. Davion needed them to assassinate in insurgent leader working for the Taurians, located in the polar region.

Lynessa decided that this was another one she had better handled herself. She took the Decapitator, Mylassta the Fair Marauder, Alarhan the Bull Shark and as she was still pumped, Pseekie the Laser Knight.

As there was a lot of the enemy, Lynessa decided to head to the west, and try and space them out a bit.

The west lance consisted of a Stalker, a Zeus, and two 80-ton vehicles, most likely Shreks or Demolishers.

Off to a good start; three full precise shots and not a single headshot. This was not good, since two Victors were already coming in from the east.

Pseekie finally dropped the Zeus. The other three managed to CT-kill the Stalker, so at least is was down.

No, the first 80-vehicle was a SPPC carrier, carry three Snub PPCs - which immediately hit Alarhan in the head. Alarhan, seeing the obvious danger, used a precise shot to destroy it. One of the Victors established a lock on Lynessa, and something out of sight had LRMs.

Pseekie could do little more than lock herself, unless she wanted to run ahead out of cover (which seemed very unwise).

Mylassta swore as once again, she only grazed a headshot and that was an improvement on her last shots.

A third Victor entered sight.

"Got one"!" Mylassta crowed.



The only good news was that the Victors were mostly just closing in, and none of them had got a shot off, they were clearly playing spotter.

The enemy had a Bull Shark!!!

Fortunately, not a Star League one, it appeared, but even so, that wasn't good!

The second Victor did NOT want to die.

(Oh for the love of - it was on 1 CT hit point?! COME ON!)

The Bull Shark, splitting its fire a bit, FINALLY destroyed it.

And AGAIN, Lynessa's salvo scattered all over the last Victor, with only one hit to the CT (after Pseekie had gone for a CT shot), leaving it on 7 CT hits.

Okay, as the Bull Shark was getting rather pounded, Alarhan was going to drop back out of sight and use the Thumper this time. Which did kill it.

And, of COURSE the Bull Shark proceeded to hit Pseekie in the head (because she was in high spirits, so of course.)

(RNG? Stop it, or you will be made to stop.)



Fracking better.

The remaining vehicle turned around and ran off.

The lance pursued, running into the target in a Cyclops HQ. Mylassta and Pseekie managed to finally get some luck and take it down between them.



That just left the vehicle, which was as Lynessa expected from the shot nit took at Mylassta, was an LB-X Demolisher. Alarhan destroyed it before it could do anything else, however.



Only 3 salvage, because of course... Lynessa scowled, and took one part of the Cyclops HQ (giving them a finished one), one part Bull Shark (next time...) and a ++Ballistic TTS, which was why she hadn't bought the store one yet.

Oh. And the random gave them the other two Bull Shark parts. Okay, then.

So, Cyclops HQ. This was worth keeping around - the Decapitator was definitely struggling a bit (even in the polar conditions, it was running a little bit hot), but the Command Module was stupid useful. The HQ version could carry even less weapons, but it also had an even better command module, which had the -10% lance damage (like the Marauder, which was a near-permanent fixture because of that as well as its called shot bonus) and a +1 accuracy. So it meant that the HQ could potentially fill in for both secondary jobs in one lance slot, leaving another slot free from something tougher.

But its weapon load was very light - merely 15 tons. (Though Lynessa could have reduced the armour, since it carried more than the Decapitator.) It had no AC hardpoint either. Lynessa thought that maybe four LRM 5s (which was saving two tons over an LRM 20 and heat was not an issue) with the last five tons on arm mods was probably the best that they could do with it - but they couldn't even get jump jets on it. But again, the work could wait for the moment.

The next operation was a 4.5 skull battle against two Taurian lances, also in the polar regions. Luximai took the Decapitator, Poppy took the Fair Marauder, Zuranna the Bull Shark and Llana the Laser Knight. (Lynessa had considered Anja and in the Atlas and Llana in the Fair Marauder, but decided that maybe against two lances, it would be better to go with at least one vet pilot.)

The first lance appeared to be three (or maybe four, if there was one out of sight) 80-ton vehicles.

The first on the flank was an SPPC Shrek, which Llana took out with a single salvo. Zuranna obliterated a Demolisher LB-X and Luximai - a bit to her surprise - destroyed a second SPPC with a regular salvo.

There was a 70-mech on scope, which must be a Cataphract 0X, because it had ECM. Despite their best efforts, it died to CT destruction.

Poppy took a snap shot at the second lance's Catapult as it moved into sight, but no joy. The lance moved to a better position, revealing a Black Knight and Archer. A 65-tonner behind suggested a JagerMech JM6-A with the combination of autocannons and LRMs.

Zuranna moved up and confirmed, taking a salvo at its head, but mostly missed. Llana closed and blew the Catapult's head off, finishing the job Poppy had started.

The JagerMech died to CT destruction as Llana and Luximai concentrated fire on it. Poppy took another go at the Black Knight's head; Zuranna just shot at it and...



...showed the advantage of having so many weapon attacks, that sometimes you just got lucky normally.

The Archer had run right up next to Poppy. It got a single punch off before the lance's combined fire (and Luximai's fist) finally destroyed its head.



One part Black Knight (to finish), plus a +++LRM 20, a +3 hit defence gyro and a ++TTS (energy).

Zuranna increased her gunnery to 9. Llana increased her piloting to 6.

Okay. The final contract was a 4.5 base defines mission in the desert. This was going to be tricky...

After a bit of thought, Lynessa assigned Zuranna to the Decapitator (so she could get a bit more out of it with coolant vent and was a better melee fighter), Vey to the Bull Shark (also coolant vent), Luximai to the Fair Marauder and Llana swapped in the Ballista.

The base (another one of those nasty compounds with the high walls) was supposed to have turrets - but as usual, no-one understood how security worked, so some APCs would have to reach the base to fix them.

Naturally, an Orion was right on top of the APCs. The first salvo didn't destroy it, at least.

A Rifleman appeared and tried too, but again, the paladins were lucky. Luximai locked on the remaining 65-toinner in sight (a Catapult) so Llana could at least hit that with a salvo to stop it doing anything either.

Vey didn't waste any time with head shots and went for the kill and destroyed the Rifleman's centre torso there and then.

The forth enemy made a shot on the lead APC, but also failed to destroy it - and then it didn't matter, it had reached the turret activation point.

Vey vented coolant and repeated her previous success, destroying the Orion.

The last enemy revealed itself to be a Quickdraw. Llana hit it to attract its attention (though it has started on the APC).

Luximai headcapped the Catapult.



Of course, now the enemy were coming from a completely different direction - and apparently all four of them at once.

(At least, the paladins HOPED there was only one enemy lance coming it...)



The turrets had dropped the Quickdraw, but to Luximai's annoyance, she failed to kill it and thus forced Zuranna to finish it off.

Llana fired a salvo off at the enemy lance, he shots scattering of its Archer and hitting the Dragon next to it, so maybe that was two whose attention she'd attracted.

(Aaaaaand reload, because no, it decided that the was an enemy lance on the opposite side that was magically not visible on sensors - which, of course, INSTANTLY took a building out, so I undid Luximai's sprint. Naturally, she wasn’t in a position to fire, but she did lock a Cataphract and it didn't seem to fire, so...)

Llana, struggling with heat, dropped down to a single LRM 15 to pop at the east lance's Atlas.

"Fortunately" there appeared only to be a 95-tonner (most likely a Banshee) on the west lance, and it actually missed the building, so there was that. Zuranna was racing back to try and help Luximai on that side.

Vey took a shot at the east lance's second Archer; but her heat was already high, so she elected to drop a Thumper shell on the lance, they were clustered up enough it would hit all of them from behind.

Okay, no, it WAS two enemy lances on either side there were two more 70-ton mechs on the west, so the building died and there was NO POSSIBLE WAY the lance could have ever done anything about it, since the base's walls explicitly hamper any ability to see the approach of enemies AND THE BASE'S OWN TURRETS while simultaneously not stopping enemies shooting over the walls at the tall buildings. And OF COURSE, the two turrets blocked by the walls? DIRECT-FIRE WEAPONS.

(Note to self, I if load into another non-flashpoint base defence on this map, I'm not doing the mission, I'll quit. This map is the most bovine excrement for base defence.

The first turret died; Llana at least managed to CT-kill one of the east Archers.

It seemed very likely that the other two 70-ton west mechs contained a 0X Cataphract, because this wasn't stacked enough against being possible.

(The RNG was being as ABSOLUTELY CRAP as possible, meaning I missed CT-precise shots and IT hit Luximai in the head.)

Oh, no, it was apparent BOTH 70-ton mechs were ECM Cataphracts, as Luximai stood in the area an revealed neither.

(That's just ridiculous.

...

No, ALL THREE were. That's FRACKING CHEAP.)

Luximai and Zuranna were FINALLY able to take to down, but for some reason, this caused the wall to collapse (Zuranna was at 90º to it!) and the third to instantly be able to run into the base.

Vey, Llana and the ill-fated APCs managed to clear the Dragon and the Archers finally.

(And then the STUPID timer on the mission ran out.

Yeah, that was the one and only time I'm trying that. I just not going to high-skull base defence missions - I was fairly sure I'd made that decision on my first playthrough, but yeah. That mission was just totally stacked against you and the base design is idiotic. The walls actively make the job harder, since it EVEN BLOCKS LRMS if they are too close to the wall - Llana couldn't lend any fire to the west, because I tried - either that or despite all three Cataphracts being in sight, the ECM made it impossible to target them.)



Salvage of note was enough to complete a Catapult, a ++comms system, a ++LRM 15.

Llana raised her piloting to 7 and Luximai maxed her gunnery and raised her guts to 5 from 3.

Okay. 18 days to Kern for the long, 4.5 skull flashpoint (which had a light mech flag for good measure...)

Lynessa would do this mech by mech, so nothing would be started until the Annihilator was done.

(Event fired in which Ayasha Hadley wanted to take Natasha to do some dirty crap. And if you try to capture her, your mechwarrior is STILL made unavailable and gets the criminal tag and Ayasha gets plot-shields and is all "ahaha, just like I planned," so frack that, reload.)

The Annihilator was complete. Next, the Bull Shark. Lynessa replaced the two +ultra AC/5s with the ++versions, which left two tons to play with. With a lot of juggling and making it very asymmetric, Lynessa could have just had enough space to put a gyro and a heatbank and a single heat sink... But in the end, she felt that it would probably be safer just to have two extra tons of armour instead.

The HQ Cyclops - the Overlord - next. Lynessa went as intended, four LRM 5s with pluses to damage (two +2 and two +1), plus some arm mods. It had two more tons of armour than the Decapitator, but the command module essentially took up the jump jet space. The Overlord would run cool (unsurprisingly), but its best offense was just punching people with a 190-damage melee hit, just edging out the BattleSmasher for most damage.

It was the BattleSmasher that would be getting an upgrade next, to replace its cockpit mod with a rangefinder, so it would be not a bad scout.

Lynessa was very carefully deciding what to do and where to install next gear.

While that was being worked, a vessel contacted them, suffering from a pox. Lynessa didn't hesitate to dig into their supplies this kind of thing was the paladin way. It might have very slightly pleased the Capellens, but that was not the point.

Next was the somewhat odd choice of the Trebuchet. But they might need it, so it was time for an upgrade. Lynessa considered hr options; she could either replaced the PPC (+10 damage) with a +30 stability one and a +++LRM 15 instead of the regular one for a slight damage downgrade (120=>110) but 50 to 130 stability damage; or replace the LRM 15 with a +1 damage one and up the damage to 135. After some though, she opted for the latter and also upgraded the Rangefinder by 25m to the ++version.

One more day to upgrade the Phoenix Coil's comms system to a ++ version.

That left two days before the lance arrived at Kern to upgrade the Raven Fair's LRM 10 to +++ and its medium lasers to ++ +10 damage versions. Lynessa considered upgrading the gyro as well, but thought maybe one of the mechs on the list that would see more use had a better need for it.

(The poor Archer would still be waiting...!)

When they arrived at Kern, there was nothing in the store apart from a few LRM launchers (and nothing good at that) and few flamers.

On to the Davion Alliance flashpoint, then!

Alexandria Cunningham had come here herself to direct this mission, as apparently, it was so sensitive that ComStar couldn't be trusted. But that was crazy, ComStar was totally reliable and never did anything shady!

The paladins all gave a level glance into the hard camera.

Apparently, this was a large-scale offensive beign prepared along the Capellan border.

(Assuming that the 1200 days started in 3025, that would make it about 3027 - timescale checks out, Forth Succession War is only a matter of months away at most...)

The paladins were there to prepare the planet for invasion. First step would be taking out an observation post and the last would eliminating Colonel Janis Song of the Capellan armed forces. The steps in between were the problem...

The observation facility would need to be captured. So Lynessa elected to send the Overlord with Luximai (mostly as spotter), Pseekie (still in high spirits and fully recovered) in the Fair Marauder, Zuranna in the Bull Shark and Natasha in the Ballista.

The lance dropped in and slowly made their way towards the enemy base, stopping in the forest when they got contacts, waiting for Liao to come to them.



The Catapult was blown apart.

Oh, sure, THIS base had LRM turrets...

Luximai, who had clearly just slipped into the turret sensor lock range, pulled back and he lance waited.

Pseekie locked the 40-tonner approaching. An Assassin. Natasha bombarded it and Zuranna dropped a Thumper on it, doing severe damage.

A little way in front, a Hunchback 4G moved into sight and Zuranna destroyed its head.

A second salvo from Natasha finished the crippled Assassin off.

(Have I mentioned how annoying it is that the game just forgets to drop heat sometimes if you don't move and just brace or auto-brace? Because it really is.)

A Zeus wandered into sensor-lock range. As it slowly tried to get to the lance, they whittled it away with LRMs. When they finally saw it, they missed the headshots, but blew it apart anyway. That cleared the initial defenders.

Time to clear the turrets next.



Three turrets down, and then enemy reinforcements dropped in. There weren't any more turrets on the scope, and two LRM turrets had gone down, so it was a good bet the forth was direct-fire only, s the lance held position to deal with the incoming enemy first.

The enemy's Orion went down to head-destruction caused by Zuranna and Pseekie.

Luximai had just moved and locked on the second mech, a Quickdraw, giving Natasha something to bombard.

The enemy mech continued to slowly advance; a Catapult and Grasshopper with the Quickdraw. The lance moved and tried the headshot the Catapult. They failed, even after knocking it down, allowing it to be the first mech to actually get a shot off.

(And by the looks of the 12 damage from the medium lasers, the 10% damage reduction from the HQ Cyclops and Marauder don't stack. Aww...)

The Catapult, still refusing to die, managed to score a head hit on Zuranna. Annoyed, she scored a head-kill on the Grasshopper.



Pseekie moved to headshot the Catapult, figuring it would likely die if she missed at hit the CT anyway, but she headcapped it anyway.

The Quickdraw had made the error of moving into punching range...



Just the last turret to kill, which was as well, Natasha only had a partial salvo of missiles left. And it showed why you need 65 missiles for killing a heavy turret and 60 wasn't quite enough - for the sake of a single missile it was still standing (on 1 hit point). But that was why they had the Overlord.



Enough salvage for a completed Orion and Grasshopper.

But they wouldn't be going back to the Argo yet; they needed to wipe incoming Capellan patrols.

Just time to swap Vey in for the very-much put-out Zuranna and swap some mechs. Natasha grabbed the Annihilator and Pseekie debated swapping the Fair Marauder for the Atlas (since the 10% damage reduction was covered by the Overlord, the trade-off was the Atlas's greater damage for the called shot bonus, but the Fair Marauder’s comm system still made it the better choice for the moment.)

The paladin encountered the first patrol too close for comfort, running nearly into them. A Cicada and a Dragon - acting as spotters for the both their 90 and 95 ton lancemates and also the second lance off to the west, which was close enough to be in LRM range. Better kill them fast!

Natasha CT-killed the Cicada. Vey moved up to blew chunks out of the Dragon and while doin so, revealed the other pair as a Cyclops and a Banshee.

While Pseekie took failed headshots at the two assaults, Luximai continued to fire at the Dragon, destroying it. Vey and Natasha fired on the Cyclops, failing to kill it but managing to blow off both torsos.

The Banshee had got close enough to be punched, which wiped the majority of its CT armour. Pseekie was having a bad day - despite ONLY having the CT and legs left, her non-called-shot on the Cyclops hit the latter.

Natasha took advantage of Luximai's punch hit to core the Banshee. And then a swarm of LRMs hit Vey in the head, because of course they did. With a grunt of anger, she finished off the Cyclops.

The lance moved to the west. Vey ran up an outcrop and spotted a Catapult, Grasshopper and Thunderbolt.

Pseekie continued to have a bad day, missing every headshot she tried. Luximai closed in on the enemy, and spotted a Quickdraw some distance behind the first three.

And Pseekie AGAIN failed to hit anything.

(Okay, so that's EVERY SINGLE PRECISE SHOT ON 33%. Frack off RNG.)

That mean the Overlord was now getting IS damage, because no-one had killed anything in the last two rounds of fire and they were ALL shooting at it.

Luximai ran around the rear of the Thunderbolt, hoping to punch the weakened rear armour, following Vey's Thumper shot for just that - naturally, she only took the left torso off.

And Natasha's precise shot at the Grasshopper failed to either headcap it or destroy its critically damaged torso. Vey ended up using a precise shot to core the Catapult, just to kill SOMETHING.

Pseekie FINALLY headcapped the damned Grasshopper, which caused the Thunderbolt to run and try and punch her (which was good, because it left Luximai not under fire).

And THAT meant Luximai was free to run up and thump the Quickdraw.



Vey tried one more headshot, but CT'd the Thunderbolt instead.



Salvage was a ++comm system, a piece of Cyclops to finish one and nothing else really significant.

Phase one complete - the area was secure. Now Alexandria was giving Lynessa the choice of two targets - a heavily defended logistics base or a reinforced bunker/armoury. Attacking that with mech would be crazy, so the paladins would sneak into a communications centre to locate it so that Alexandria could hit it from orbit.

Either target would lure Song out.

Lynessa thought about it - but, hey, they'd just upgraded the sneaky team, so...

(And no, not with a 4.5 skull and a 50 ton max, which meant the lance couldn't even have four mechs without digging something out of storage. Why it is every other "light mech tonnage restriction" has been 55 tons (the logical breakpoint between mediums and heavies) but this one for some reason excludes the 55 tonners just be be a pain? Reload.

Are you kidding me? It didn't autosave until AFTER that? So I have to go back to the fricking mission or I have to waste time fitting out a 50-ton mech for THIS ONE MISSION?

Okay, game, fracking fine, we'll go back to the mission and fracking save-scam the way through the last bit, then, since you made me re-do it.

My last save was just before the last two actions, though, so it was "only" moderately tedious waiting for Luximai to land a standard CT melee hit and then seeing if the game would give me something comparable in salvage (another few goes, before I settled for a +3 hit defence gyro instead of a ++comm system, but otherwise no change...)

...On second thought, Lynessa considered, amateurs concentrated on tactics and professionals on logistics, so the logistics base would be the better option.

Zuranna, on her hospital bed, worked to max her gunnery, while Luximai maxed-out her tactics.

After a lot of consideration, Lynessa elected not to send the Overlord out in its damaged state, but the Decapitator took its usual slot, under Luximai's guidance. Natasha swapped to the Bull Shark (coolant vent being the most effective on that - and both other coolant vent users were now in the med-bay), and Mylassta took out the Ballista.

There was a primary and secondary base - hopefully they didn't both have turrets, else it was going to be a long job shooting with lasers from range once the LRMs ran out (one of the other factors in sending the Decapitator...)


The enemy garrison was three 90-tonners and an 80-tonner.

Once again, it took Pseekie, Natasha AND Luximai to headcap the first enemy Highlander.



Mylassta started showering an approaching Zeus with missiles.

Pseekie missed again twice more, as the lance was getting showered with LRMs from the turrets and a second Highlander.

Natasha managed to headshot the Zeus.



Highlander three approached, the with second sensor locking for the turrets, which was probably the least worst thing it could do (as only one of them fired this time).

Natasha vented coolant and took her second shot with the Bull Shark, ventilating one of the Highlanders.



Highlander three came around the rock outcropping and shot at Mylassta. Her return fire dropped it and the lance took turns shooting for the head until Luximai - having to only her larger pulse laser due to heat - finally got it.

The paladins moved up. The logistical facility had four turrets closely spaced. Pseekie and Luximai each locked one turret and Mylassta and Natasha destroyed them; the lance repeated the process and the turrets were clear.

As the base closed on the base enemy reinforcements were detected coming into the area. Laser fire quickly destroyed the two buildings.

Where was this second base...?

No-where. The mystified lance spent a good deal of time looping around the operational area, trying to find the enemy lance. Eventually, they spotted two Banshees and a Dragon, apparently having a tea-break or something.

Oh, there was a Victor, too.

Natasha failed to CT the dragon by 2 hit points, and naturally the two headshots missed, and naturally, the banshee hit Natasha in the head.

(Because RNG did NOT want me to have coolant vent pilots, apparently)

Pseekie continued to totally miss all her headshots. The first Banshee got its torso blow off for missed fire and paladins were starting to get annoyed (especially Natasha, who was running out of ammo...)

Mylassta managed to CT-kill the crippled Banshee; the rest of the lance were either missing (Pseekie) or moving to cooldown.

Pseekie FINALLY manged to land one head hit, though not a fatal one, leaving Natasha to finish the Victor with her last spread of AC/10 ammo.



The Banshee, INCREDIBLY annoyingly, ran up to Luximai and managed to IS the Decapitator. She and Mylassta knocked it down between them, and Natasha manged to CT kill it with her remaining weapons.



Pseekie was really quite furious. EVERY SHOT she'd taken in that battle was a precise shot, and she'd hit the head exactly ONCE.

Well, there was a full Highlander's worth of salvage, plus an +++LRM 20 and +++SRM 6, so that was something.

But heavy mechs were now approaching.

Oh, well, it was a consecutive deployment, but at least it was the target.

The Decapitator was the least damaged out of the two Cyclops, so it would go into the field. (+1 lance initiative was just too good against what would likely be heavies). Pseekie insisted on not taking the Fair Marauder, so Luximai gave her the Decapitator and jumped into the Bull Shark; Poppy - who had generally had a better record with the Fair Marauder and headshots - took that mech and Mylassta swapped into the Annihilator.


But the battle itself will have to wait until tomorrow!

[Aotrs Commander]

(Dang it, 10% over what I could fit in one post...! Almost, but not quite...)

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Eight:

Spoiler

Show

Looking at the positions of the enemy indicators, Mylassta had he lance head south, towards the reinforcements, and away from the other nominal contacts.

The first warning the reinforcement lance had that things were about to go south was when the head of the Stalker exploded.



Pseekie just clearly didn't have Poppy's magic touch...!

Their Black Knight followed shortly thereafter, curtesy of the Bull Shark.



The BattleMaster however, refused to die. Reduced won to a single point of CT, a very carefully aimed Thumper shell hit both it and he damaged JagerMech in the enemy lance - stopping just short of Poppy, who was right in front of it.

The other enemy lance was just starting to come into LRM range - and the lead element - a Victor came into sight.

Poppy finally finished the JagerMech with a CT-shot, clearing the lance's rear and allowing them to focus on the approaching enemies.



Which Luximai did with panache.

The enemy was coming into groups - a Thunderbolt following the ill-fated Victor to the east and an Orion and a 70-tonner (Archer, maybe?) coming from a pass in the west. The lance took a few desultory shots as they moved position to cool off.

Then Luximai turned an CT-killed the Thunderbolt with precision fire, clearing that one. Poppy decapitated the Orion, after a couple of salvoes had weakened it.

It was indeed an Archer, a 2S, rather foolishly standing on an outcropping where the whole lance could take shots at it.



It took them a few shots and knocking it down, but they managed to headcap it more or less intact.

Just Song left to locate and destroy.

They found her in an Awesome. They lance held position, waiting until their resolve was at full and the Luximai stepped out to take the first shot.



Which proved to be the only one needed.



Damn not being able to negotiate on secondary contracts, all that salvage and they could only have 4/17, dammit.

Lynessa selected a +++LRM 15 and one of the three (!) +3 hit defence gyros and two parts of the Awesome (they of course didn't get the third from random).

Alexandria was pleased. Their reward was... A single piece of Star League Black Knight and a +Gauss Rifle. Woo! Sorta! Since they had no ammo!

The +++Comm system, on the other hand, was immediately useful.

Luximai increased her piloting to 7.

There was but a single contract in the system - a 3.5 skull battle against a joint Taurian/Marik force.

Lynessa assigned the Atlas instead of the Cyclops (the Cyclopes could take a rest, no sense exposing them more than needed), which Luximai would pilot. Llana took the Fair Marauder - as no way was Pseekie getting into it again, she took the Bull Shark - and Anja took the Ballista.

Sadly, this Davion lance wasn't as pleasant as the previous one, once again lead by an asshat. It consisted of a Catapult, Quickdraw, Rifleman and Dragon.

The two lances marched forwards towards the Taurian lance, which consisted of an Assassin, Centurion, Catapult and a 70-tonner.

The Assassin died quickly, Llana stripping its CT and Luximai's LRMs finishing the job.

But the Marik lance was also mixed in with the Liao - and enemy Quickdraw in the lead. This could get messy.

The paladins knocked the Centurion down for the Davions to kill. A Marik Warhammer strode up, taking a shot at the Davion Quickdraw, which was getting the majority of the fire.

Luximai assisted the Davions in knocking the Catapult over, but they only managed to blow off both its torsos.

A 100-ton mech was coming up behind - probably an Atlas if the shower of LRMs that took off the Davion Quickdraw's torso was any clue.

(That mech was going to die and there wasn't much the paladins could do about it with, the enemy so clustered.)

Speaking of clustered, though...



Oh, and it was a King Crab! Priority target, paladins!

The other 70-tonner was a Grasshopper.

Llana finished off the cripple Catapult (mostly to build resolve so the lance could have maybe two cracks at the King Crab).

Luximai again assisted the Davions by helping to knock the enemy Quickdraw over, but once again, they only manged to take out both torsos. Pseekie moved position, trying to keep her heat down so she could take a proper shot at the King Crab when into moved into range. Anja settled for destroying the Quickdraw.

The Davion Quickdraw finally went down, unsurprisingly.

Three shots at the King Crab's head failed to kill it, and the last enemy mech, a Marauder revealed itself.

The Davion's Catapult (the asshat leader) was getting pummelled and knocked over, as the enemy were ignoring the paladins. That was probably a mistake...

Anja put the Warhammer down, as the Davions had pummelled it, setting off an ammo explosion.

The forth headshot, this one from Llana, destroyed the King Crab.



The Taurian Marauder ran up to Luximai's Atlas and kicked it.

Luximai's return punch smashed its lance command module. No more damage reduction for you!

Pseekie's attempted headshot on the Grasshopper instead took off its whole left side, and the Davion Catapult knocked the Marauder down too, so both enemy mechs were now prone. They did not have a chance to get up again.



Salvage to complete a Catapult, a Centurion and a King Crab! Neat.

So, it was JUST about possible with the current available gear, using the double heat sinks left, to get a King Crab to carry two Ultra AC/20s and run almost neutral on heat...

Something to bear in mind, but for the moment, the King Crab could go for sale (as there was one in storage already and Lynessa was running out of bay slots (they only had one slot free!)

Luximai increased her guts to 8, Llana her gunnery to 8, and Anja her tactics to 8.

Lynessa put the two Cyclops in for repairs.

Itsbur would be the next stop, for a Kurita flashpoint; a 2.5 skull world, it would get much more out of it than that, like as not.

Lynessa had a difficult decision to make. The lance clearly needed a forth mech of 50 tons or less, in case it was called for again, but she was very nearly out of slots. Something was going to have to go. The Stalker Barrage, the LRM Archer, the BattleSmasher and the Shadow Punch were obvious options.

The first question was whether a Hatchetman could truly replace the Shadow Punch. Lynessa investigated but... While it was possible to up the melee damage, even at max armour the Hatchetman was significantly less armoured (being a full ten tons lighter), and that had been one of the big issues of the early missions. It was also slower, which did not do it any favours for melee, since it wasn't really up to rushing towards the enemy. So that was out. Lynessa could re-construct the laser Hunchback, but that struggled a bit outside of cold environments. Perhaps a 9A Centurion, with a headcapper or SRMs? The light lance would be fundamentally working around the Raven Fair.

(The LRM Archer was probably redundant, but Lynessa wanted to hang on long enough to find at least one more +damage LRM to try it out...)

Much as it wrenched Lynessa, it was probably time to retire the BattleSmasher. The arm mods could go to the Overlord (which wasn't any slower, just lacking in jump jets) which would increase that mechs' damage further. So the Fair Marauder had one arm mod downgraded, reducing it melee by 5 and with the BattleSmasher's arm mods, the Overlord's melee damage went up to 215, which seemed it would be as high as it could go, unless +++arm mods were found anywhere (if they existed).

As they headed off, the paladins held a tournament with their own little lances. Llana came to Lynessa, saying that Shelat didn't seem to be taking it too seriously. Lynessa suggested just talking to her, and a few days later, Llana's team was doing really well and both girls were in high spirits.

Lynessa elected to fit the Centurion - Fireforce - with the last remaining +5 damage AC/10 (for headcapping), with two tons of ammo and a ++comm system (to help boost the number of those it could try), a +++SRM 6 (they had five) and a ton of ammo, with max armour with the remaining half-ton spent on a +++small laser. The SRMs were to help with the short-range engagements against the inevitable mechs running into the Raven Fair's ECM field). They were out of 0 tonnage arm mods (they really needed to get a load more of those), but it was at least something.

Four days later Fireforce was ready!




Lynessa had Yang start on the Archer S (Shortbow), which would carry four +++SRM 6s with a ton of ammo each, jump jets six heat sinks and a heat bank (so it ran pretty much neutral unless it jumped), a ++Rangefinder and a couple of tons short of the max armour it could carry.

Payday:



This was day 900, only 300 days to go...!

The arrived at Itsbur on day 904. There was an impressive five contracts (three for Davion, two for Marik), of 2-3 skulls. But first, the 4-skull Defector flashpoint.

"AAAAAAAAAAH, Commander Fair!" Londo- sorry, Renauld Yamaguchi bellowed over the comms. "You have come to see me in this rotten little backwater, yes?

"Veer! Veer! Fetch the good wine!

"Ah, there we go. Commander, this is my attaché, he's a good lad, but always coming close to making mistakes, veering towards them, yes? 'Veer,' you see. Just my little joke, commander." Lon, er, Renauld waved off the moon-faced lad with a flap of his wrists and took a swig from his drink.

"Yes, this is the good stuff! It is such a pity we cannot share a glass, Commander fair, but it is what it is.

"Down, to business, yes?"

Reynauld needed a Capellan convoy - one which contained a Kuritan defector - removing. He had to go and drink in other places (Herotitan), so further information would be handled by Chu-i Gaka Hironaka of the Galedon Regulars.

"Gaka, Mylassta, stop giggling."

Gaka proved to be a bit terse, but not impolite and provided the co-ordinates for convoy-stomping.

This time, Llana would take the Overlord, Shelat the Bull Shark, Alarhan the Phoenix Coil (because Lynessa didn't trust "slow-moving convoy at all..." and Vey the Ballista.

The lance was able to get themselves between the denial zone and the incoming convoy (so the Phoenix Coil was largely unneeded, oh well).

The first vehicle was a Demolisher, which Shelat and Vey destroyed from extreme range. Alarhan, who'd run forwards, started taking fire and turned an sprinted back up the road. The Phoenix coil was not in a great position here.

There appeared to be at least five vehicles, plus an Archer and BattleMaster. The problem was the lance was just a little bit too far away, so Llana sprinted back as well, letting the enemy come closer to them.
A Shrek got close enough for Llana to lock and Shelat to destroy. (Apparently, the first Demolisher was a guard not part of the convoy.)

And SRM carrier was next, which Llana didn't quite destroy. She was taking rather more fire than was good for her.

Shelat failed to headcap the Zeus, and Vey failed to even kill the SRM carrier, though she split her fire between it at the Archer.

(Watch it be on 1 hit again...)

Alarhan jumped down, fairly certain she'd be able to destroy the SRM carrier even with just a jump from the Coil-M.



(I effing hate you RNG.

For the record, 13 at the front, 19 on the other side.)



Shelat killed the Zeus.

Llana made a shot at the Inferno Carrier that Alarhan's charge had revealed, but the four LRM 5s just weren't quite up to it.

The Archer moved forward and sensor locked, which seemed like a bit of an odd thing to do...

Vey tried to take its leg off, but instead detonated its SRM ammo. It wasn't dead yet, but that took out half of its firepower.

The other vehicles moved up, another pair of Shreks - one shot at Alarhan, but on, like eight chevrons, it stood no chance.

Alarhan, now pretty safe, ran down the road to blow up the inferno Carrier.

(Wouldn't you know the Archer's leg was on 6 hits...)

Still that was enough for Llana to blow it off.

Shelat destroyed the next Shrek, clearing the actual convoy. Vey's aimed salvo destroyed the SPPC carrier, which just left the Archer, shambling to its feet to try and attack the Overlord. Before Shelat shot its other leg off. (since aiming for the head likely would have CT'd it.)



One piece Archer (to finish one), one piece Zeus and another +++SRM 6.

Oh, what a shocker, the target wasn't in the convoy after all. I mean, it was so unobvious, what with their being nothing but tanks in the convoy...

Hironaka (despite being the one that provided the intel) was quite snippy about it. Darius and Sumire bristled, but Lynessa was just super-polite about it, which seemed to upset Hironaka even more (it usually does).

There were three options: complete the rest of the contract for no pay, follow Yang's suggestion and pay a visit to Hironaka in person or complaining the Mercenary Board.

Lynessa would show good customer service and do the former.

(I was SO VERY TEMPTED to try for option three, it's such a Bleakbane thing to do, and it's pretty close to a Lynessa thing to do as well; but as I figured, when I looked it up afterwards, burning with curiosity, it ends the Flashpoint, though apparently you get an event later when the review board come and give Kurita a Stern Talking Too.)

So the lance attempted to ambush the RIGHT convoy this time, only with Alarhan taking the Annihilator.

(Now watch this be one where the lance has to run after the convoy...)

Darius swore on his reputation that this was the right convoy.

"Darius, you haven't got a reputation."

"No ma'am, but I'm hoping to acquire one from this escapade!"

Well, good, the lance was at least right next to the exit point, so no chasing the convoy down... Lynessa WAS half-expecting Hironaka to come in and try to kill the lance after they'd done the job to save having to pay them at all, but they'd see...

The lance settled themselves into a nice position, after Llana ran forward and picked up the contacts, then ran back.



The guards this time were a Banshee, Assassin, Thunderbolt and Wolverine.

There was no real point going to headshots, since they were getting so little salvage, so Shelat started by attempting to core the Thunderbolt. Ammo explosion for the kill!

The Assassin took a lot of missiles, but stayed up. Alarhan did try headshotting the Banshee, since that was potentially faster, but failed.

There appeared to be at least one LRM carrier in the enemy convoy, as it showered Llana with missiles.

Shelat made an attempt to headshot the Banshee again, but failed. Llana CT-killed the Assassin with a precise LRM salvo. The Wolverine survived the first round of CT fire, but was damaged enough that Shelat - having to rest her other weapons - killed it with the Thumper.

Alarhan headcapped the Banshee. So much for the escorts!

The lead element of the convoy, a Manticore, went down to two LRM salvos, and as she took it out Llana spotted for Shelat to destroy the LRM carrier.

The nasty surprise came when a second Liao lance appeared, and was in position to already be firing at Llana's rear.

The enemy's Cyclops immeditately lost an arm, though, as Alarhan could see it already.

Llana booked it across the road and into cover. This moved her out of immediate damage and allowed Shelat and Alarhan to destroy the last two vehicles. One job done.

The enemy lance seemed to be reluctant to advance. But that was okay, the lance had time to build resolve. So when the Thunderbolt showed itself, it got a head full of AC shells. As did the Awesome that followed that. The Black Knight got three consecutive salvo of LRMs to knock it off its feet and then its head destroyed as it lay prone.

The Cyclops didn’t seem to want to come any closer... Well, that was fine, if it WANTED to stand in Llana's sensor lock range and eat three long-range precise shots until the pilot was killed by the ammunition explosions in each torso, that was fine too...



All that delicious salvage. Oh well. One piece to finish a Banshee, and a +100m rangefinder. That was fine.

Hironaka was just as flat as ever, but at least he apparently knew when he was beat.

Lynessa was super, extra polite to him, and left in rather a bad mood. Although that might have been because Yang and Farah called him a jerk, and Mylassta might have insisted on calling him "baka" a lot.

And the reward was... a +comms system. That was the "rare component?" Well, that was gre-

OOH, a +ER PPC in the "additional items!" And a piece of Star League Highlander? Okay, never mind!

Llana upped her gunnery to 9.

So, might as well do the contracts. Lynessa was nearly tempted to wait three days for the Shortbow to be finished, but decided time was a finite resource... So 3-skull flyswatter, to kill another silly Capellan noble who hadn't got the message about what happened to you when you went touring in a Cicada.

Anja subbed into the Ballista, and Zuranna into the Annihilator.

The first Thunderbolt that entered sight died to a head shot. But the Kintaro that followed hit the Bull Shark in the head.

(Dammit, why whenever I have a pilot in high spirits, does it always hit THEM in the head?)

The Kintaro paid for its insolence with its life.

The Victor trying to flank them also got a head full of shells and died, leaving just a Hatchetman.

Which hit Shelat in the head a SECOND time. So she returned the favour, except she used the Bull Shark.

It was funny, you'd have thought a sane person who spotted they were running their 40-ton Cicada into 380 tons of mechs might not charge straight at them in case the 95-tonner desultorily destroyed their torso, wouldn't you?



And that was a completed Cicada, Victor and Hatchetman...

Next, 2.5 skull recovery from a Capellan facility, with Luximai replacing Shelat.

The lance moved to secure the secondary facility. Hmm... Five contacts.



Luximai moved up and headshot the largest contact, a Black Knight. Llana and Anja knocked the flanking Hunchback over and then detonated its AC ammo, causing it to stagger up and run away.

Luximai, having damaged an approaching Trebuchet, gleefully hit the Thumper as it walked near to the Locust - which, as usual, died.

Anja attempted to fire on both the Trebuchet and the nearly-dead Hunchback, but accidently committed in reverse, so the Hunchback was entirely overkilled by 45 LRMs - but the 20 on the Trebuchet were breaching shots and detonated its ammo.

Zuranna had been duelling with a second approaching Black Knight; Luximai added her fire to it, and it was destroyed. Anja and Lana teamed up to lock on the Trebuchet - which was trying to hide in the dead ground - and shower it with missiles.

The last light mech revealed itself to be a Javelin - and stupidly stood within Thumper blast radius of the Trebuchet. Luximai grinned...

The Javelin survived the Thumper - the Trebuchet didn't. The Javelin did not survive, however, 85 LRMs.

"Now all we have to do is get to primary facility," Luximai said. "Someone jump down, rest of us will wait her-

"...

"No-one has jump-capable mech, do they?"

Much running ensued...



One new Black Knight...

Zuranna raised her piloting to 9; Luximai hers to 8. Llana maxed her gunnery and Anja's tactics hit 9.

The Capellans had decided, after the loss of their last command, they should send the next one out with even less defence... (2-skull's worth...)

The girls set back out again.

The first mech they encountered was a Wolverine - which starting running away when Llana, tired of popping away with her LRMs charged towards it, intent on Doing A Punching.

The 4G Hunchback also though it would run away, but was not quite out of sight enough that the Annihilator couldn't take a leg off.

The Wolverine continued to run away from an increasingly annoyed Llana.

"Get back here and be pummelled!"

Luximai grumbled. The only thing she could see to shoot was the Wolverine, and she wasn't going to deny Llana the pleasure...

Anja watched the Hunchback, missing a torso and leg staggered to its feet to miss, with its one laser, Zuranna. And then she destroyed its left leg and torso, too.

The Wolverine was cornered, so it got punched in the back.



Luximai and Zuranna destroyed the last mech - a Kintaro - between them.

Llana whiffed her next punch.

"Nah, watch me," Zuranna said, smashing the Wolverine's leg off.

Luximai and Anja just carried on towards the target, shrugging.

"That's it! Now you got it," Zuranna cheered as the Overlord stomped up and down on the Wolverine to Llana's shrieks. (They didn't call her "Strider" for nothing...)

The target was a Rifleman. Despite being braced and in a good position when Luximai couldn't get a direct shot, it didn't stop either a Thumper (hitting the Rifleman's notoriously poor rear armour), nor the rest of the lance blasting it apart.



Surprisingly, the random salvage was enough to finish both a Hunchback and a Kintaro.

Right, that was it for the Davion missions, just a couple of missions for Marik left!

The third Capellan commander, going off to see what happened to the first two, was about to have a bad day. (2-skull again...!)

A Catapult, Commando and Kintaro were barely enough to make the lance pause in stride. The target's Catapult itself didn't put up any more significant resistance.



A new C4 and K2 Catapult from the salvage!

Anja increased her piloting by to point to 6.

Last mission! A straightforward battle.

Oh dear. A Flea and a Locust. Running side by side. In Thumper range.

Well, that was two mechs down...!

The Vulcan and Hatchetman behind them didn't last very long, either...

But there was clearly a second lance in the area; no, it was two Strikers and two SRM Carriers, all within Thumper cannon blast range... They did not last long after that.



Vulcan 2T for the collection, Flea and Locust for sale at some point when the paladins reached somewhere to SELL stuff and by Azurella, would there be a lot to sell...!

Luximai raised her guts to 9.

Lynessa needed to decide where to go next.

(... OH FOR?! A two-skull flashpoint all the way back into Davion space, REALLY?)

No, the plan would be to continue to head to the flashpoint on the OTHER SIDE OF THE GALAXY first. The next stop would be still in Capellan space, 4.5 skull Principia, which at least had a black market they paladins might be able to use...

The Shortbow was finished!




Next order of business: upgrade the Annihilator’s TTS to +++, which saved a ton for extra armour, and upgrade it gyro from +2 hit defence to +3. Then upgrade the comms system and gyro on the Laser Knight. Lynessa considered whether to change the Laser Knight's mix of five +++medium lasers and one ++ +10 damage one, but left it alone for the moment. Then upgrade the Trebuchet's rangefinder by +50m.

The problem was, with the ER PPC and last two double heat sinks, there was stuff she could do (upgrade the Awesome?) but it didn't seem like it would really do much in effectiveness. She felt like the ER PPC would be best paired with the Gauss Rifle, when they could get some damned ammo for it; so there wasn't much more to really do at the moment.

Another flashpoint appeared in Davion space

(WHY ARE THERE SO MANY THERE?!)

and another in Bellephon in the periphery.

The paladins arrived at Principia.

(*sigh* REALLY? I can't use the Black Market if the Capellans hate me? Or is it just that the pirates hate so I can't use the Black Market ever now...?

So, Four 4-5 skull missions for Marik, though I'm honestly just considering reloading and going straight to the flashpoint (which would only have been a couple of extra days), if this is the case.

And that brings us back up to speed for this week's lot, starting later tonight!

(Which in theory, might fit edited into this post.)

[Destro_Yersul]

Huh, black markets close off if a faction doesn't like you? I've never had that happen, so I couldn't say for sure if it's the owning faction or the pirates.

Also, this sort of thing is why I took to putting jumpjets on everything. Didn't matter what it was, it got jumpjets. One too many instances of getting stuck on hills where it looked like there was a path down, but there was not.

[Aotrs Commander]

Huh, black markets close off if a faction doesn't like you? I've never had that happen, so I couldn't say for sure if it's the owning faction or the pirates.

Apparently that's exactly what happens. The black market just soft-locks you out with the ridiculous price hike (see forthcoming session...)

Also, this sort of thing is why I took to putting jumpjets on everything. Didn't matter what it was, it got jumpjets. One too many instances of getting stuck on hills where it looked like there was a path down, but there was not.

I put 'em on if I can - notably a lot of the early mechs have 'em, but they're a lower priority for me if I've got a specific weapon plan in mind.



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Twenty-Nine:

Spoiler

Show

(Okay, So having both had some time to think about it, and also learn that communications systems DON'T stack (and I played long enough ago and I think they did in 1.2), and because nothing happened in the trip, we're going to skip back a bit and leave going to Principia on the inevitable way back. (Since it kinda of seems worth saving a 4.5 skull world for when there's actually some even cooler stuff to play with, and there's absolutely tons of stuff to sell.) So the paladins would head for 1-skull Viribium instead for the Baying of the Hounds flashpoint instead. Mech changes would be basically the same, except a little bit of rationalisation on the comms systems, since there were really more than were needed if they didn't stack; it also meant that the lesser ones could afford to be dumped.)

Currently, the Fair Marauder and the Annihilator had +++s, the Fireforce and Phoenix Coil had a ++s and the Laser Knight and Awesome had +s and there was a regular, a + and a +++ in storage.

Lynessa decided to leave the first pair alone, since while it was often the case both were out, it was basically almost never going to be the case that one or the other wouldn't be deployed, so that would seem to assured that there would always be at least one. The Phoenix Coil was going to be deployed in any configuration of the four light/mediums, so it could have the other +++, and the Fireforce could lose its one. The Laser Knight and the Awesome likely didn't need theirs particularly, and there was an argument to be made for them clearing their head-slot for the weapon hardpoint.

So. The Annihilator received the +++TTS and a ton of armour, the Trebuchet got a +100m instead of +50m rangefinder, Fireforce got the +50m instead of the comm array, Shadow Punch a +50m instead of +25m. The Laser Knight dropped a heat sink and now dropped the +10 damage medium laser for a +++ one, since it got another +++ medium laser to be mounted in the head.

The Awesome had a bit of an overhaul, replacing one PPC with the ER PPCV after all, getting the double-heat sinks in the legs and a slight juggle of the heat exchangers. Its comm system was upgraded from + to ++ for the sake of argument as a back-up if the lance wanted to take a load of energy heavy mechs out or something. This would subject to a subsequent overhaul if something better presented itself, but it would do for the moment.

The Atlas has its cockpit mod upgraded to ++ and the Stalker Barrage to +. So than all the excess arrays bar one (for whatever would fill the last slot, if anything) of all types could be sold off. There was just enough time for all that to get done before the paladins arrived!

(And that's why I skipped right back to the post-mission save, instead of changing course from the slightly more recent still-in-system saves, I wanted to do a total overhaul in light of that new information!)

Darius called a quiet meeting - apparently, the Capellans has made inquiries about who ordered the assassination of the defector and were willing to look the other way and even pay for information. Yang was very much inclined to tell them about Gaku - no-one would seriously have suggested Londo, er Raynauld anyway.

And Lynessa just had an innocent look on her face and said that Gaku did want the credit for the operation, after all, and he hadn't demanded them be quiet about it, so she didn't see anything wrong with answering the Capellan's polite inquiry...

(And this is why, boys and girls, you don't go out of your way to screw people, because even very nice ones won't see a reason not to let you have what you deserve.)

A little while later, the paladins arrived at Viribium. Three missions for the Magistracy of Canopus of between 0.5 and 1.5 skull - fine, that would do.

To the shops!

Wow. Six Catapults, a Cicada, a Flea, a Grasshopper, a Hatchetman, a Hunchback, a King Crab, a Kintaro, a Locust, an Orion, a Victor plus sundries was nearly nine million cbills...!

Nothing to buy of any note, so on to the Baying o the Hounds Flash point!

Morgan Kell - of the famous Kell Hounds mercenaries - was calling the Paladins. He'd had to come out of what was functionally his retirement/exile. His first love apparently had a daughter with him he never knew about and they were in trouble. The mother, Tempest, was not the sort to ask for help. They were being pursued by a band of mercs called the Beast of Balawat, which sounded jolly like not very nice people to Lynessa.

Morgan had snuck out (and there would be TROUBLE if it got found out) to rescue them.

Well, saving fair maidens (even ones that could kick serious arse when they wanted) from beasts was basically the whole paladin shtick, so Morgan had come to the right people.

Tempest needed to get to an abandoned starport where they could be extracted - except the Beasts had a modified Stalker in the area which could straight-up murder the convoy.

So, step one was to stalk the Stalker!

Kell had a lance as back-up, but he was half-convinced this was all a set-up to draw him out.

No worries, the paladin had this!

Crudbaskets, this was a lunar environment...

Lynessa carefully selected her lance. The Overlord ran MUCH cooler than the Decapitator, so Llana would stay there. Luximai would that the Fair Marauder and Anja the Annihilator, both of which sunk slightly more heat than they built up (by a mere 2 points in the latter case!) and Zuranna trying out the new Shortbow, which at least ran neutral in normal circumstances and also had a ++rangefinder and thus a replacement scout in the absence of the Bull Shark.

(Now, someone tells me that the HQ and Marauder damage reduction stack multiplicably - I'm not convinced, given that there's only 1% difference between additive and multiplicative at 0.9 and 0.9 - but well keep an eye on the damage and see..)

Two enemy lances, plus the Stalker. Zuranna (as the most senior) elected they would break right and head towards the enemy reinforcement lance first.

The lance, despite their superior spotting distance, ran more or less right into an enemy Blackjack and Wolverine. As Zuranna moved to engage, she spotted a Marauder and Catapult behind.

Well, it was only 2/11 salvage, so no point wasting time with headshots...

To Zuranna's annoyance, her CT-aimed SRM salvo didn't entirely murder the Wolverine, though it nearly knocked it over. Luximai took a shot at the Blackjack, leaving Llana's LRMs to topple the Wolverine and Anja to finish it.

While the Fair Marauder switched targets to its opposite number, Zuranna had more luck coring the Blackjack, now that it's CT had been damaged.

Anja managed to blast the leg off the Marauder, though it staggered to its feet before anyone could capitalise on it. The Catapult, though, made the beautiful error of running forward to make a melee attack on Llana.

The Marauder actually limped past Llana, apparently trying to duel with Luximai, giving her two targets Llana could punch and one of them in the back, even.



Llana wasn't going to let that opportunity pass her by...

Anja headcapped the Catapult.



Unfortunately, the lance wasn't given a great deal of time to cool down as a Quickdraw appeared to the west, followed by a Shadowhawk and a Dragon.

The lance pulled back anyway, it at least gave them a little cooling and charged their resolve.

The first salvo at range did little but weaken the enemy, but as they closed it allowed Anja to core the Dragon and shortly thereafter Llana to finish off the Quickdraw's battered CT.

More LRMs were starting to come in - likely the Stalker. Luximai quickly finished off the Shadowhawk as it entered Zuranna's sensor range. It was just at the edge, though, so the lance just pulled back a bit, a gave themselves some breathing room.

When it came into sight again, it was within weapon range. It was carrying three LRM 20s - nasty.

The Stalker was far enough away the lance could line-up shots. It got close enough to launch a spread at Zuranna, but braced and ready, it didn't do much damage.

(Crap, I never checked the damage then...! (Slightly later mid-session edit: it was explained to me that the damage reduction stacks multiplicatively, but on top of the addative percentage damage reduction of cover/guarded/bulwark, which is why is was confusing.))

Luximai finally got it.



Straight on to the escort mission now...



Two ++gyro with +3 hit defence. That'd do for salvage! (It would have to...)

No significant damage to the lance, so on to the next!

The mercs had already penned the convoy in, so wiping them would be the first job. Not a difficult one, considering it was not mechs as was stated, but vehicles and badly-knackered ones at that. The only reason it was only two Demolishers that died in the first salvo was because there was a small facility in the way and the lance was basically direct-fire only. The Bulldog and Manticore died to a shot a piece.

The lance cautiously moved towards the escort zone.

Hmm. Zuranna noted that it looked like it was going to be quite a long run to what she suspected was the pick-up point.

The lance got a bit closer, before they got the convoy moving. Though it was by sight only - the APCs weren't answering the comms.

That struck Lynessa as EXTREMLY suspicious. She had Mylassta and the other girls on stand-by.

The enemy readied to intercept - three more vehicles and a Marauder.



... Three more vehicles.

(Anja smirked.)

The other vehicles did not prove much of a problem - only a Striker got a shot off.

(Frag dammit, moved Anja instead of delaying so the APCs didn't get all strung out again because combat ended mid-term, blast.)

As the APCs reached the extraction point, two 75 and a 70 ton mech appeared. Oh, the 70-tonner was a Cataphract. Llana sprinted past the visible Orion K and up next to it - the other mech - Orion V came to punch her. Silly Orion...

The other three fired on the first Orion, until Luximai destroyed the head. The APCs were off, but whether they actually had Tempest aboard, Lynessa was uncertain.

A salvo from Luximai, a solid punch and a CT-spread of SRMs destroyed the Catapult. Llana took a shot in the back for it, but took not serious damage - and the foolish Orion moved further away.

Not, however, far enough.



The bad news was no-one was responding to comms on the APCs and the Kell Hounds couldn't get the doors open. This looked really bad.



Salvage enough to complete an 0X Cataphract, at least.

Lynessa's fears were confirmed. Everyone on the APC was dead - but Tempest and Megan weren't among the bodies.

This was a trap from the start (but a really bad one, honestly...)

Aelwyd Rhee - whom Morgan seemed to know - apparently the leader of the Beasts opened comms.

Rhee was apparently a former Kell Hound, disgruntled about being cut loose when Morgan... retired? She wanted to settle things amecho to amecho.

(Presumably because she didn't learn very quickly.)

Kell was prepared to fight with two mechs and two paladin mechs - orrrr they could sneak around with a light lance and rescue Tempest and Megan directly.

Lynessa sighed. Morgan seemed to think this Rhee was on the level. And the light lance was not going to be great in a lunar environment, to be honest.

Honourable engagement it would have to be, Lynessa reflected.

Zuranna maxed out her piloting and completed her training. Luximai raised hers to 9. Llana maxed-out her tactics and upped her guts to 6. Anja pushed her gunnery to 9 and her piloting to 7.

Lynessa considered going herself - but Shelat and Llana were both still in good spirits, so it seemed to make more sense. Shelat would take the Annihilator, and Llana the Fair Marauder. Morgan would be in an Orion and one Lox in a BattleMaster.

(If Morgan Kell is such an elite, why is he not 10/10/10/10? Dude must have gone really rusty to be down to 9/7/6/5...)

Well, at least Rhee was as good as her word.

...

Aside from the part about her having brought reinforcements.

Good plan "ace mechwarrior" Morgan Kell, bring an Orion with two PPCs to a battle on a lunar world!

(There was the dull thump of Mylassta's head on a console.)

Quickdraw 5A, Quickdraw 4G, Rifleman, Dragon.

Rifleman was the biggest threat, Shelat thought.



Again, which numpty thought THIS was a good mech to bring HERE?



The enemy Dragon fell, cored by Shelat (Llana wasn't having much luck yet). Morgan, meanwhile, had already lost his right torso armour.

Shelat proceed to headcap the first Quickdraw and Lox to punch the other to death, it having been already quite badly shredded. Morgan, meanwhile, hadn't even managed to hit it with his last salvo.

Shelat suggested they pulled back to cool off and a rather embarrassed Morgan agreed. They pulled back a bit, but a relentless Assassin crept moving forwards until it got close enough to be a spotter.

Briefly, before Shelat cored that, too. The other enemies weren't even on the scopes, yet, so the lance had a moment or two to cool down now.

The enemy entered contact range - an Archer and two 75-tonners. The Archer fell after a concerted set of shots by the lance and a second CT-shot by Llana.

The last mechs were an Orion and a Black Knight. (Apparently, all Kell Hounds were pretty dumb when it came to considering heat management in the environment...) The former was knocked down by all the combined fire. Llana failed to headcap it, though so it took another salvo from everyone before Lox's burst of lasers destroyed it.

Just the Black Knight left.



Which Llana promptly finished!



Morgan Kell, legendary MechWarrior... Fails to kill a single thing and takes most damage out of anyone.

Lynessa shook her head sadly.

Orion and Assassin completed for sale... (Ooops, missed a Banshee to sell in all that chaos, that's another million there...!)

Tempest and Megan were fine (Tempest was furious, mind, and she'd given a good accounting of herself even without a mech). Rhee was dead and the Beasts scattered. Morgan was a bit reflective of the whole thing, and decided he had very much better retire to his monastery and not come out.

(Lynessa privately thought that this was probably for the best, seeing what level his mech piloting skills were...)

The "main" rewards was a ++small laser... But of far more note was the ++rangefinder and the second piece of Star League Highlander in the rest.

Llana upped her guts to 7.

Okay, three contracts to do, starting with a 0.5 skull convoy ambush.

Shelat took the Overlord, Llana stayed in the Fair Marauder, Luximai took the Bull Shark heat-be-damned (just because the likelihood one Thumper-cannon-one-shotting-everything) and Anja took the Ballista.

(Okay, it actually wouldn't let me even get a sight of one of the vehicles before it reached the extraction zone. Reload.

Wow, apparently if you do not INSTANTLY pick the right vehicle to kill, it doesn't matter what you do, the convoy Rotunda just moves out of sight and escapes. On the third try, when I knew which one of the two to instantly kill in the first round of combat, I managed. That was way harder than a half-skull with seven vehicles and one Javelin ought to have been though.)



1.5 skull convoy ambush next. Bull Shark replaced with Phoenix Coil, since the Thumper was disappointing even one half-skull vehicles.

Panther, two Firestarters (actually dangerous here) and a Wolverine guarding two Strikers, a Manticore and a Galleon.

The convoy was wiped easily this time, but once again, the Wolverine proved these missions could be tedious by hitting Shelat in the head before they killed it.



Firestarter for sale...

Llana's guts hit 8...

Right, 1.5 skull battle. DEFINTELY Bull Shark time again, with Zuranna subbing into the Overlord.

A Wolverine, Enforcer and Hatchetman. Luximai took two out with headshots and the Wolverine's CT was staved in by the Overlord.



Which gave the lance an Enforcer for sale.



That was that system cleared! Lynessa consider where to next. The paladins were not short of cash, but they were more or less at the limit of mech optimisation without some more LosTech. Lynessa felt that the paladins could afford to make some longer jumps. So Lynessa would head straight for Dunianshire, in the Magistracy of Canopus, which was reputedly a big repository of Star League tech and maybe they could also gain some reputation with the Canopians. And failing that, there was a couple of Black Market stops on the way back to Manthraka.

(Though honestly I'm now not sure whether to "save" Manthraka as a sort of capstone when we come close to or pass the 1200 days barrier. What is the general opinion on that? Are the rewards (non-spoiler-y) worth doing to be played with, or is it best left as a dramatic capstone to the playthrough?)



There was a tournament of champions starting at Cluff's Stand, so that was a potential stop back on the way to the *sigh* Davion flashpoints.

Natasha was fiddling with one of the autocannons (an AC/5). It took her a good week, but she tuned it up extremely well.

(Wow, that was disappointing. Had a look at the stores at Dunianshire and the LosTech was underwhelming.

And then I skipped back to look at what was on offer at the Black Market a stop behind. And then realised that the black Market was at 1000% price. So that about the only they could afford was guass ammo at over half a million. And just like that, all the anticipation I'd been having getting all the loot and pennies saved up to get somewhere to buy some cool stuff just evaporated.

(I thought they had fixed that. *checks* Oh, right, they HAD, it used to be worse, they dropped it from 10000% increase. Uh huh. It would have been better just to lock the store completely, since functionally it IS a soft lock-out anyway.)

*sigh*

Let me take this opportunity to say I REALLY hate how HBS handled the pirates, reputation and the Black Market. They are the single most common OpFor, one of the most difficult powers to find missions for (no flash point, as I understand too), if you ally with them you make EVERYONE else enemies and this is then all tied to the only reliable source of LosTech/ high-value items in the game. Which means by the time you can actually AFFORD anything, you will have almost inevitably fracked the pirates off. So everything basically pushes you in the direction of getting the pirates as enemies. And the only way out of it is by a lot of tedious grind. Which basically requires you to game the system by changing the difficulty settings to plausibly generate enough half-skull missions to tediously work back out of it or start directly editing game save files or looking for mods.

So, the net result of that game design decision, that I basically can't buy any decent new equipment, and thus making any rewards from missions more or less irrelevant is that I'm now so disheartened (since the goal of getting better and better equipment is more or less the driving force that keeps me going) is that I'm considering, "yeah, I'm done" and just doing the flash points and not doing anything else until the timer runs out. I'm spending time I should have been PLAYING the game working out how to fight it, edit it or mod it or whether to y'know, stop.

That. ladies and gentlemen is what we call Really Bad Game Design.

It is the single biggest natural 1 HBS rolled on this game, it really is. I don't think more or less ANYONE liked it.

I am, frankly, not grinding RNG to find 1.5 or less pirate contracts to difficulty-adjust to play for 21 points of reputation. It's not interesting for me to play (it's grind for the sake of grind) and it's not going to generate anything interesting to read about, either. It's the very definition of busy-work. It's just not worth it.

(And it wasn't like I was TRYING to avoid this situation until the point RNG pushed me into it anyway...)

So. I see there are basically three options for how to proceed from here tomorrow (since yeah, this basically killed the rest of tonight's session).

1) Assume that this is as good a set of mechs as I'm going to get, do nothing but the remaining flashpoints on the map and finish with Manthraka and maybe just time out.

2) Install Edmon's alternative reputation mod, which unlocks contracts such that you can take them from anyone. You get very low pay outs for factions that hate you, but it means you can take higher than 0.5 skull contracts for nothing but reputation quickly.

3) Straight-up save-edit the pirate reputation out of loathed, detract a couple of million or something and assumed Lynessa send every pirate a gift basket or something. (If I was playing totally solo and didn't care about having a stopping point, that's what I'd have done, no question.)



So, dear readers, I'll take a quick show of hands (across the three places I post this) as to which way I should lean tomorrow; after I've had time to think about it myself).)

[Destro_Yersul]

Last time I played, I solved the pirate problem by giving them the Raven from the flashpoint. Made them love me real hard. You've already done that one, though. I'd say just go for the save edit, myself. The way this game generates contracts by randomly assigning employer and target isn't exactly great, and it's really hard to get pirate missions.

[Aotrs Commander]

Last time I played, I solved the pirate problem by giving them the Raven from the flashpoint. Made them love me real hard. You've already done that one, though. I'd say just go for the save edit, myself. The way this game generates contracts by randomly assigning employer and target isn't exactly great, and it's really hard to get pirate missions.

Yeah. It would have been much more sensible to have made generic pirates a nonpower like the local government, and then put the Black Market under the control of a very specific Named pirate group. (Maybe even have two Named pirate groups, and have a plot thread/flashpoint about how siding with one makes the other the enemy but whoever you side with can take or retain control of the black market.)



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty:

So, as it's gonna be a short one tonight, I'mma going to defer the decision (because I can't be arsed to faff about at the moment) and I'll just get on with the missions where the paladins are. (I'm leaning towards installing Edmon's mod - if nothing else, it makes me much less beholden to RNG. And also means that the entire Arano region is basically not just worthless.)

Spoiler

Show

Lynessa sighed and bought the three +ER medium lasers.

(As if to prove my point last night 3/4 of these missions are vrs pirate...)

First up, then, escorting a witness the Capellans wanted dead through the badlands, a 2.5 skull assignment.

Luximai took the Overlord, Llana stayed with the Fair Marauder, Anja got the Bull Shark and Shelat, recovered and still in high spirits grabbed the Shortbow.

The enemy blocking force consisted of two Commandos and a Wolverine plus a Hatchetman hiding at the convoy launch point; the lance engaged them in a lake.

Anja dispatched the Wolverine easily.



Llana brought the furthest Commando down with a couple of salvos - a precision shot from the Shortbow took out the Hatchetman with an ammo explosion and the near Commando was within Overlord punch-reach.

There wasn't an obvious place for the convoy to go, so Luximai just started them off. It turned out to be just a random spot of land (oh, wait, there was a drop-point, it was just hard to see until you got to it), not on-road, but the lance could keep pace while mostly staying in the lake. One of the APCs apparently decided to take the scenic route for no reason...

As the APCs reached the pick-up point, the enemy lance (Javelin, Commando, Hunchback, Trebuchet) dropped in, in clear view.

The two light mechs died before they could even move, and the Thumper battered the other pair; after the APCs evacucated, a single salvo a piece from Llana and Shelat destroyed the other two as well.



A Hatchetman, Wolverine, Trebuchet and Hunchback completed... Well, that pretty much paid for the ER lasers...

Next up, dealing with a pirate sneaking into the region and his guards.

Both lances of which were practically next to each other, and right on top of the paladins. Okay, then.

The lance was not in a good position to attack, but as they sprinted up, they initially revealed a Trebuchet, a Demolisher and Archer and a 45 and a 65-tonner just out of sight.

Llana failed to headshot the Trebuchet with her first couple of shots; Shelat moved to attack the Demolisher and revealed the mechs to be a Hatchetman and a JagerMech. The SRMs wiped the Demolisher out.

Anja managed to take the Archer's left torso off, though she'd been aiming for the head...

Llana and Shelat shot at the Hatchetman, weakening enough Anja dropped down to the Bull Shark's LB-X ACs only to destroy it. Luximai punched the Trebuchet, but didn't destroy it.

And enemy Cataphract also lumbered into view. Llana missed her forth headshot. Shelat redirected her fire to the Archer and destroyed it. The Trebuchet walked behind Luximai, but rather than shooting the Overlord in the back, instead sensor locked Shelat. Luximai only took its other torso off, however.

There was a 60-tonner at max range, using a limited number of LRMs now approaching and the primary target was obviously in something that had LRMs too.

Anja found only using the LB-Xs had cooled her off completely (useful discovery...) and though she couldn't take an aimed shot, blew half of the JagerMech off.

On the fifth try, Llana succeeded in a headshot.



The Shrtobow's SRM finished off the JagerMech. The Trebuchet ran up and leg at the Bull Shark - but it couldn't survive a third punch from the Overlord (and it'd been lucky to survive two, honestly).

That cleared all the enemies in sight; moving forwards, Anja showed the 60-tonner to be a Quickdraw. Apparently at a loss, it stood stock still while the girls took turns to shoot its head off.

Just the target left. It appeared in a Zeus. The hapless fool didn't have time to do more than walk up and then took four salvos at the head from Llana and Anja and a desultory burst of LRMs from Luximai.



Quickdraw and a Zeus completed...

Luximai maxed her guts; Llana raised hers to 8, and Anja maxed out her gunnery.

Jungle 3-skull battle against the pirates next.

Llana traded the Fair Marauder for the Awesome and Shelat the Shortbow for the Annihilator.

The lance ran straight into a Quickdraw. A single salvo from the Awesome (not even generating any heat!) and a LRM burst from the Overlord knocked it over. Shelat destroyed it as it lay prone.

Anja spotted a second Quickdraw and shot at it. The other enemy contacts were a 75-tonner and a 60-tonner; probably a Rifleman 4D, judging from the PPC and laser fire.

The second Quickdraw went down to a welter of fire, leaving Anja free to headcap the Rifleman.



The last mech, a Black Knight, couldn't stand up to the fire of four mechs and went down, head a smoking ruin.



Yet another Quickdraw for sale...

Last mission: a 3.5 skull assassination mission in the lowlands against the pirates; that worked okay for the last mission, so Lynessa figured it'd be fine for the next one.

Appeared only a single enemy lance protecting the target this time...

A lone, damaged Dragon was he first mech the lance spotted. As that went down, its lancemates arrived - two Archers (one of each type) and an Orion.

Llana headshotted the 2R Archer. Anja headshotted the Orion. Shelat headshotted the other Archer.



Luximai crept forwards and locked on the target.

...



I'm sorry, what? 733P Highlander...? Wasn't... Wasn't that the STAR LEAGUE version?!

No, no it wasn't. Damn...! I always get the 733P and the 732b confused!

The lance carefully waited until it was a bit closer, then headcapped it anyway.



Three parts Highlander, but no other notable salvage.

Luximai maxed out her piloting and completed her training. Llana raised her piloting to 8.

Well, that had gotten the paladins in good enough to ally with the Canopians!

And they were even at the faction store! How convenient! Maybe they would get to spend something after all!

...

If they wanted to spend all of their money on a complete Bull Shark, or buy a load of +++medium or larger lasers of some gyros.



And, on that staggering disappointment, we will end for today.

[Destro_Yersul]

I quite like the Highlander, though when I played the campaign mine got its gauss rifle blown off immediately, and I never found a replacement so it had to go running with ACs instead.

[Aotrs Commander]

I quite like the Highlander, though when I played the campaign mine got its gauss rifle blown off immediately, and I never found a replacement so it had to go running with ACs instead.

Ouch.

I'm definitely regretting now buying at least the gauss ammo that one time I saw it, but oh well...



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty-One:

Blame the contract RNG for a short session...!




So, I elected to go down the mod route. I figured I might as well, since I will likely play RogueTech at someone, so get that groundwork out of the way now, right?

Spoiler

Show

Lynessa elected to head straight to Cluff's Stand to do this tournament. She did a quick headcount and determined they needed a Highlander 733P part and a three Banshee 3E parts to complete the assault chassis, so they would look out for those in the shops.

There was no maintenance work to be done. There wasn't currently a good place to put any of the ER mediums lasers, since while they would increase damage and range, the only mechs that had them were already suffering from heat problems.

Payday...



(240 days left...)

Dealing with the Black Market was going to be difficult, since the pirates hated them so much.

Natasha's unfortunately-lingering chaos magic bout was causing some problems all over the ship as they went through a surprise spike. Lynessa had her move into the Gamma Pod, into a rune-reinforced room to try and ebb away the fluctuating waveforms. The result was almost immediate; the chaos magic faded back away (Lynessa suspected a full session with some curse-breakers back home would be needed to get rid of it entirely) and Natasha was absolutely delighted bouncing around, much more like her ebullient usual self.

(Proceeded to spend ridiculous amount of time trying to generate decent set of contracts, but as usual, whatever I want, RNG isn't interested in giving me.

After FAR too long, I finally got what I thought was reasonable and then looked in the store and Black Market and - of course - basically nothing. I ended up going back to an earlier mediocre try and the best that had to offer was barely anything.)

Lynessa considered her options. If she could get the pirates to give the lance some contracts, they could get the Black Market to the point where it was possible. She elected to watch Darius try and negotiate - she normally left it to him - and decided that his method... Needed work.

Specifically, getting the girls to give their best puppy eyes and wobbly lower lips, at which point, not even the hardest pirate could refuse to let them have a contract.

Though this was going to have some odd changes to the base store prices, but never mind.

So, three pirate contracts; one for the Capellans and Canopians (the former against the local government, the latter against the pirates, so that perhaps should be done first).

The first thing they were doing, though, was this Tournament of Champions.

The tournament was being run by one Professor Mencius Horvat and was by invitation to worthy mercenary companies. A rather... Odd man with a strange taste in apparel (to the point that Farah reckoned he had a near-romantic attraction the animal pelt he was wearing).

The tournament it involved using stock mechs. Wonderful. And this rule was enforced by the "man-monster" Calamar Gigante.

The first round consisted of...

Four UrbanMechs?

Of course it did. Was a mere million cbills really worth this?




So the line-up would be Natasha, Shelat, Luximai and Scarlet. (As all but Natasha (who was in high spirits) was a master tactician.)

Apparently, the enemy would be one "Limpet" Siato, the Terror of Fronc and his brother Jake. Sumire commented this was like something out of a Brock Armstrong movie. Lynessa thought that if she was into wrestling or something, this might have been mildly amusing...?

They were going to be in heavier mechs, weren't they?

30-tonners. Oh, and a "wild-card" was going to be dropped in to attack everyone. Great.

The lance moved to engage. To Lynessa's surprise, they were UrbanMechs too. The lance's first salvo managed to destroy the Limpet's leg at least.

And then the "wild card" dropped in, apparently piloted by a woman, the "Jackhammer," who had been caught by the Prof, saying he'd been responsible for the death of her father. (Seemed likely, to be honest.)

"Limpet" was dispatched by Shelat's deft CT kill as he lay prone. One down.

Jake failed to hit as he closed with the lance. In the distance, there was the sound of autocannon fire. Perhaps the other two of brother's lance engaged with the Jackhammer wild-card lady...?

Two precise CT shots from Natasha and Luximai got rid of Jake.

There seemed to be three mechs hammering it out, so the lance really didn't need to do anything other than wait, the figured...

Well, it didn't seem like the lance needed to fight the Jackhammer, though she'd ejected...

The other two UrbanMechs advanced slowly. One got close enough to get on a building, which the lance destroyed (though Luximai embarrassingly missed it). It still took three aimed shot to kill it through, with its entrenchment. One left.

The last one had a damaged leg. Natasha shot it off.

Now, what happened if a mech lying prone fell from a destroyed building?

Scarlet decided to find out!



A fair bit of damage, looked like!



Took the whole left side off.

One last aimed shot blew the other leg off. Job done.



Alexa "Jackhammer" Jones was slapped into a cell, still swearing revenge.

But shortly afterward, she contacted the paladins through a subdermal comunicator and a complete change of demeanor. She was, in fact, not a vengeance-obsessed lunatic, but an undercover operative for Davion intelligence.

The Prof was a pirate (as if anyone was surprised). He used the contest to try and get minions, but Gigante was the only one to succeed - and everyone else tended to come down with a case of Death, as the last round of the contest was basically a trap.

Alexa had a contract for Davion to kill the nutter. So the paladins could work with their allies or continue to fight in a contest run by a man who, as Sumire put it, "wanted to marry his coat." Yeah, this was a really difficult decision wasn't it?

The latter would mean a 75% paycut, but the alternative was more fighting in UrbanMechs against odds explicitly intended to get the paladins killed and even then making everyone that wasn't a pirate angry at them if they even won.

Why had they bothered coming here again...?

Oh well.

(Goddess, though, 250K? That was less that they paladins would get for a typical 0.5-skull contract...)

So, Llana in the Overlord, Natasha in the Annihilator, Mylassta in the Bull Shark and Anja in the Shortbow.

The Prof and Gigante, showing rather too much confidence, denounced the lance and told them they would be hunted down. While the drop-pods came in, the lance had to deal with the other competitors.

Though really, two damaged UrbanMechs?

They survived the first Thumper shell, to be fair... But then the Shortbow and Overlord took them out a shot a piece.

Prof Horvat and Gigante showed indeed they were overconfident, turning up with two UrbanMechs, plus their own Blackjack and Centurion.

Now, clearly, if this had been a fight with two UrbanMechs (as the implication had been) this wouldn't have been funny at all. Alexa was right; Horvat really had no intentions other than setting up people for him to satiate his bloodlust.

The lance stood waiting and were deeply amused to see none of the fools did anything other than move out of the landing zone. And the biggest pair of idiots actually RAN UP to the Overlord...



So much for the Prof!

Gigante also went down to CT-death, after an SRM salvo and the Bull Shark. Natasha contented herself with splitting her fire to shoot both UrbanMechs.

They staggered out of that, only for a Thumper shell to destroy one and tear the leg off the other. Natasha blew the other leg off almost before it had fallen over.



Well, this was all mostly a waste of time...

Oh, that was sweet of Alexa, she was going to sneak the lance a few of the UrbanMech parts from Horvat's stores (all stolen from Davion shipments).

Yang, for some reason, was excited about this. Lynessa really didn't understand. She would never get the affection some people seemed to have for a walking barrel.

Well, it at least gave them a R60L to sell.

Anja maxed her tactics.



And there we shall leave it for today.

[Destro_Yersul]

So that one is Urbanmechs: The Flashpoint? I do find it kind of funny how much people love the Urbie. It's adorable, to be sure, but it's also mostly a bit useless.

[The Glyphstone]

The name really says it. For light mechs in an urban close-quarters environment, the Urbie is a force of nature. It's just hyper-specialized for its weight class and environment though, so if you try to take it out into any sort of open-field setting, or any scenario dependent on going from A to B rapidly, it's terrible.

[Aotrs Commander]

So that one is Urbanmechs: The Flashpoint? I do find it kind of funny how much people love the Urbie. It's adorable, to be sure, but it's also mostly a bit useless.

I have never undertood why people even like it aesthertically myself. It looks like Artoo Detoo's older brother with a gun glued to his side (and I never liked Artoo, even as a child...)

Okay, I'd be hard-pressed to say where I liked it less than a lot of the very anime-est giant robots (yes, even some of the BT ones that Came From Anime), though.

The name really says it. For light mechs in an urban close-quarters environment, the Urbie is a force of nature. It's just hyper-specialized for its weight class and environment though, so if you try to take it out into any sort of open-field setting, or any scenario dependent on going from A to B rapidly, it's terrible.

I've seen people say that, but I'm not really convinced. Maybe because we don't play on the set-piece maps BT defaults to, and play with much more maneuver, but I can only see even in close urban fighting a few very narrow situations where a slowly shambling pill box (which it fundemenally is)that can jump very short distances would be better than, like, a tank. I mean, I sort of get it's kind of the mech equiviment of a fixed-fun tank destroyed, but...?



Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty-Two:

So, this week will be the last before a bit of a hiatus, as I'm away from the 1st until the 8th for a much-needed break. (Naturally, something convenient like this wrapping up aligning to me going away was never going to happen...!) I might do a bit Tuesday and Wednesday (I've basically finished bar the shouting the project I've been doing there), but Thursday will be the last (since Friday I will likely want an early night). It's possible, even likely, that I'll start right back again on the evening of the 8th (as week away from the PC tends to do that to me!), but it sort of depends.

Anyway, with that out of the way onwards!

Spoiler

Show

Okay, first a contact verses pirates for the Canopians, then a load mission for the pirates to make them not hate the paladins so much.

Jungle battle first (2-skull).

Llana in the Decapitator, Natasha in the Laser Knight (now With Extra Lasers), Mylassta in the Bull Shark and Anja in the Awesome.

An Assassin, Jenner, Wolverine and a 4G Hunchback.

Natasha’s first try to headcap the Wolverine missed the head with all eight lasers. Mylassta, meanwhile, dropped a Thumper on the Assassin and Jenner. A sensor lock (it wasn't worth Llana generating the heat for fire without precision) and a shot from the Awesome wiped the Assassin out.

There was a second lance approaching, with at least one Locust and probably a Javelin.

Natasha's second salvo also missed the head. Llana and Mylassta destroyed the Jenner and Hunchback with a salvo a piece. Anja settled for hitting the Wolverine with the PPCs and TAGing it.

Natasha's third salvo, aided by the TAG, blew the Wolverine's head off this time. Incoming Autocannon fire suggested a JagerMech was probably in the reinforcements. Mylassta used the Locust swatter successfully...

The lance held position as the enemy closed in. No, it was probably a Blackjack, not a JagerMech; the enemy lance had a 55-tonner and 45 tonner.

It was a Blackjack - briefly, as Mylassta blew a leg off and Anja destroyed the torso. Llana finished off the Javelin - just leaving a second Wolverine.

Two bursts of lasers from the Laser Knight and the Decapitator headcapped that, too.



Wolverine for sale...

Llana raised her piloting to 9, and Anja her guts to 6.

1.5 skull urban base capture for the pirates against the local government for maximum reputation. Llana swapped to the Overlord, Natasha to the Stalker Barrage and Anja to the Ballista.

Locust and a 20-ton vehicle; that sounded like a call for the Thumper...! The 20-tonner survived and hid. An approaching Striker was destroyed by the Stalker Barrage.

A hapless Locust ran up to MG range to shoot at Llana. While she was running up to punch it to death, Darius helpfully informed them that there was a lance protecting the base. Because Mylassta was already down there, Poppy loyally performed the appropriate smack-upside-the-head.

The 20-tonner was a Rotunda, dispatched without breaking stride by Llana's LRMs.

As the paladins reached the capture zone, a second enemy lance moved in to the slaughter.

Just to prove that turn of phrase wrong, a Jenner jumped in and shot Llana in the head, just after a Thumper and her LRMs had put down the enemy's Spider.

Getting that close to the Overlord was unwise, however.



Two salvos of LRMs destroyed the approaching Shadowhawk, leaving only a Javelin. It survived the first storm of LRMs from the Ballista - but then jumped on top of a building...





Next up, 2.5 skull mission to break some pirates out of jail. Scarlet took over the Overlord. Natasha swapped to the Annihilator and Anja to the Awesome.

The lance reached the prison before the enemy lance even knew what was coming.

The enemy consisted of a Warhammer and a JagerMech. Mylassta deftly detonated the latter's ammunition, taking it clean out. A couple of LRM salvos from the Overlord - one aimed, just to keep it distracted - allowed Natasha to core the Warhammer easily.



The next one was potentially even easier - a clash between two sets of assault mechs (2.5-skull). Anja swapped back to the Ballista and off they set.

The lance sat about for a minute or two, the enemy not apparently moving and the other enemy not having shown up. Scarlet made a quick dash forward and set them off, them dashed back to the lance. Excellent, the enemy (Marik) drop zone was RIGHT in the middle of where the government lance was.

Darn, 95-tonner. Because they were getting basically no salvage, it was going to be a 3E Banshee, wasn't it...?

The lance sat and had a nice tea-break while the others fought it out. The 95-tonner went down, killed by what Mylassta suspected was a Stalker (which overheated).

For some reason, the Marik Spider and Wolverine decided to come at attack the lance.

This was a mistake, not least because the Spider was in Thumper radius of the building the Wolverine jumped onto.

With that tactical error costing Marik both mechs from the artillery, fall and subsequent salvos, their last mech died, leaving the government with two mech out of three standing.

Poor show by Marik, really.

No, not a Stalker, a 3S Banshee, and a Spider. One Thumper put paid to the first, and the Banshee got off but a single PPC shot (which missed) before the lance tore it apart.



Yep, the 95-tonner they didn't spot was a 3E Banshee. Typical.

Anja raised her guts to 7.

Right, one contract left on the docket, one for the Capellans, who still loathed them.

Eh, it wasn't worth doing for rep alone, max salvage would be fine. Simple 1.5 assassination of a holo-celebrity; same lance would be fine.

Oh dear, it was Brock Armstrong. Well, he was a git anyway, so no great loss.

"That' it, Mr Spider and Mr Locust, take your shots at the nasty assault mechs as they stand there... Just get a little closer... And you too, Mrs and Mrs Striker..." Mylassta grinned and pulled the trigger on the Thumper.

The carnage that followed was quite unspeakable.

Soon only Armstrong's 55-tonner was left. Scarlet lured him into the Bull Shark's guns and the job was done.



Anja upped her guts to 8.

The pirates now only hated the paladins.

(I think, if anything, Edmon's mod probably could even be toned back a little bit. If you dropped the cap on loathed from 0.5 on vanilla to 2.5 or even 3 skull, it would probably be enough, as that wasn't too painful - though getting some decent pirate missions was, of course. It does reduce the cash payout dramatically (though does not appear to affect the salvage), but the store prices are at 75% instead of 50% at hated and 25% instead of 10% an neutral, so it's fairly balanced. I have enough skills that I could probably tweak the mod further (especially since Edmon has a tutorial that would tell me exactly how to do it) it more if I could be arsed, but it's fine.)

At a mere 75% mark-up, two +++rangefinders were under a million each. Lynessa could work with that.

There wasn’t much else that was great. A ++small pulse laser, three assorted ++snub PPCs, not really anything great.

The Shortbow and Raven Fair would get the new rangerfinders, and the Shadowpunch, Fireforce and Archer would get an upgraded to their from 50m to 100m.

Lynessa elected to head back up again leaving Manthraka for later. The next logical stop, then, was Cavalor, for a Capellan flashpoint and a Black Market. (And maybe some Marik missions to get to the point they could be allied with, too.)

As if to prove this was the correct decision, a third flashpoint near Davion space came on line.

A rationalisation of gyros came next, with no less than seven of the mechs having a gyro upgraded or added.

A day out from Cavalor, the paladins ran across a civilian transport in distress. The paladins made an instant rescue, which made the Capellans hate them oh so very slightly less.

The lance arrived at Cavalor.

Payday:



Lynessa facepalmed. Liao loathed them so no Black Market.

(Aaaand I'd just loaded up a set of seven contracts, all against Liao... *sigh*)

Well. MAYBE, then, if the paladins did all the contracts against Liao, and THEN the flashpoint, maybe they'd just get enough reputation from that to be allowed to do some shopping...

(Oh, hang on... You CAN get into the store, but NOT through the "Argo" dropdown, you have to use the "store" button on the right hand side, which I have never used at any point in the last *checks* 355 hours of time logged playing BATTLETECH)

So, the store basically only had parts of Banshee 3E and Highlander 733P that were of interest. Well, the paladins might as well do the missions first and then go to the store later. It didn't matter now, then, about the reputation with the Capellans.

Operation: Flattened Earth Flashpoint first, then!

Marina Liao, their liaison, wanted the lance to deal with a load of seditionists led by Persephone Volkov; who had apparently insulted all three philosophical cornerstones of the Capellans and made Maximillian Liao quite frothing at the mouth. (More than normal, anyway...)

(So, I could turn down the contract on moral grounds, but then that's like, missing content, so, uh, no.)

Lynessa was not best pleased at the idea of political assassination, but if the paladin didn't do it, Liao would find some slavering idiots to do it instead. But nothing said Lynessa couldn't cheat a bit when it came to dealing with the situation, after all...

So, play along willingly, at least to start with. The first job was breaking up the mercenaries the Volkoviets had hired, the Razorback Company, and destroy their CnC mech.

Llana in the Overload, Natasha in the Annihilator, Mylassta in the Bull Shark and Anja in the Awesome, as it was tundra.

The Razorbacks seemed to be at least motivated against the Capellans, so Lynessa would rather not kill them too much. So... leg capping this time, paladins?

The first enemies into sight were a pair of Wolverines.

Natasha's first salvo badly damaged both the legs of one Wolverine, but didn't drop it. The lance moved position rather than fire without careful aim.

The first Wolverine jumped to join the second and an incoming JagerMech... So maybe a Thumper shell would do a number on the legs of all three and make it easier...?

It knocked the first one over, as Mylassta had hoped. Llana blew its right leg off - one down safely. Natasha took the leg off the JagerMech. Sadly, Anja only managed to CT-kill it.

Oops. That was a CT kill on the other Wolverine. Maybe they shouldn't be trying this when the enemy mechs were so damaged. (Still, the pilots were not dead, just incapacitated, and they WERE magical paladins. Lynessa wished she had Illy and Alluria to hand, though, since they could teleport. Summer was having to do the running around on foot.)

Nope, the Grasshopper too, despite the lance's best efforts to drop it and leg cap it, died to CT destruction.

Well, at least they tried, right? And they WERE getting the pilots back alive...

Just the Cyclops left. This time, the lane's careful fire destroyed both legs. All five pilots were retrieved alive (if not in a great state).



Cyclops and a JagerMech for sale!

The Razorback Company wanted to call up. Perhaps a chance to avoid this situation...?

Sigyn "Sawtooth" Elliathy explained that - as Lynessa had suspected - the Capellans were clamping down on people for no real good reason. The "sedition" was a private sermon for their own little group. Sigyn was making a counter-proposal - escort the Volkovites off world, where they could flee to Joppa out of the Capellan's way.

"And that, my dear, is EXACTLY what I had hoped." Lynessa said. Sigyn - and Sumire, Yang and Darius all looked startled.

"I suspected something like this was the case. I took this contract, because I feared if we didn't, someone else would have done, someone not at all bothered about killing civilians. While that first engagement was... regrettable... It was necessary to draw things out - and to at least get the Capellans looking the wrong way long enough to have this conversation. Your pilots are all going to be fine, by the way, we have excellent medical facilities here, we will release them to you as soon as my team are happy they are fit and well. Oh, and I have a repaired Cyclops and JagerMech if you'd like to come to an accommodation..."

First job, deal with the lance the Capellans had sent to finish the job the paladins started.

Same lance; it was a tundra battle, that would be fine.

Two enemy lances to deal with, and the convoy to escort afterwards...

The lance moved into cover. A Catapult appeared and the entire enemy lance took shots at the Overlord. While Llana scurried back a bit, locking onto a Thunderbolt, Natasha headcapped the Catapult.



The Thunderbolt didn't die, but it did get knocked off its feet by Mylassta and Anja's first salvoes.

It staggered up, but repeated head hits knocked the pilot out without destroying the head.

The reinforcements were coming in now.

The 60-tonner that had been moving in resolved into a Dragon, just before Natasha resolved it into a headless Dragon. That just left a 70-tonner coming into sight from the initial lance. A sensor lock revealed this to be an Archer, which got a long-range burst of autocannons nonfatally to the head. The subsequent salvos from Natasha and Mylassta destroyed it.

The second lance was coming in, with a 40-tonner, a Griffin and a 75-tonner on the scopes.

The Griffin went down almost immediately to the Annihilator.

An Assassin and a Black Knight. The latter was knocked flat by the salvos of the lance, but not quite killed. Llana hit it with her LRMs JUST enough to knock the pilot out. The Assassin was once more, headcapped by Natasha.

That just left an 80-tonner bimbling about at extreme range. It was an Awesome. It didn't get even into range to see the lance before the headshots destroyed it.



Awesome, Black Knight, Dragon AND Thunderbolt completed!

Straight on to the escort job!

A Liao lance was already in position, consisting of a Shadowhawk, Catapult, Dragon and a 65-tonner just out of sight range.

The Catapult has knocked down and then CT-killed between Natasha, Anja and Llana. This left Mylassta to headcap the Dragon.

Back to form, Mylassta got a head hit from the Shadowhawk.

The 65-tonner jumped in and...



Died to Natasha.

This left a suddenly nervous Shadowhawk facing Mylassta's wrath. It survived her salvo, but not the ammo explosion Anja caused.

Right, that cleared the immediate area!

Unfortunately, the evac point wasn't obvious. And when revealed...



(Look bottom left and top right. Couldn't even get it all in on max zoom.)

That was a looong run. It mostly served to do little more than string out the APCs for when the enemy finally arrived as the first one hit the evac zone.



Two 70-ton, a 65-ton and an 70-ton, in two groups, rather far apart - so far apart even, the pair up the mountain likely wouldn't even get in range.

The last APC was almost at the evac point before on the left, a Cataphract showed its face, only to have Mylassta blow it off.

Llana identified a second Cataphract, but they weren't in a position to engage anything until the convoy had escaped. So really, the lance could have just wiped out the initial guards and the convoy would have been fine!

The second Cataphract suffered the fate of the first, thanks to Natasha this time. The 65-tonner appeared - a Catapult. This was blasted apart by repeated salvos.

The 75-tonner was down an incline, so the lance just waited until it came up into their guns. It didn't seem to want to come out to play. Llana locked it - an Orion. Mylassta shrugged and dropped a Thumper round behind it. If it stayed milling around, it could have a second one...

It did.



Well, if the headshot didn't kill it...

Surprisingly, it took the headshots of Mylassta and Natasha and only died when Anja hit it, the shots having scoured the armour from basically everywhere except the head.

Jon done! The Volkovites were safe and away.



A single Cataphract salvaged for sale.

Marina was furious. So was the chancellor. Marina said the one chance they had to get back in the good graces was to tell them where the Volkovites went. Lynessa just smiled politely, and stepped aside, revealing a little beat-up, but furious Mylassta to respond.

Marina Liao went away rather agape and in a little bit of shock. That was quite an extraordinary amount of expletives from a young lady.

The rewards were a couple of million, but nothing spectacular in the form of components - a ++heat bank being about the best.

It didn't matter. Liao hated them anyway, so that was a zero-sum, and they'd helped some people escape tyranny.

Llana maxed her guts, and Anja raised hers to 9.



Other contracts next then (three escorts, oh goddess). The first one was a simple 3-skull battle against the pirates for Marik (they'd get that rep back shortly).

This time Poppy would be subbing in for Mylassta.

An enemy Rifleman was acting as a spotter and Llana just happened to be just far enough ahead that it could see her, but the Bull Shark was slightly out of line of sight to it, so the Overlord took several LRM salvos. But that's why it had such heavy armour.

The Rifleman was not doing so for long.



The other three - Griffin, Orion, Archer - were forced to come forwards. While the Archer only showed itself for a moment before disappearing into a dip, the other two now couldn't see the lance.

The Bull Shark and Annihilator moved forwards, and the Archer got a head full of autocannon rounds.

The Orion and Griffin lasted a little longer, but they too, fell to headshots.



Archer 2S salvaged...

On to the next mission! Two pirate escorts for max reputation, the first one a 2.5 skull badlands mission.

Natasha traded Anja the Annihilator, and took the Fair Marauder.

Again, no hugely obvious extraction point, so the lance would have to move with the convoy.

As they reached the start point, four light mechs showed up. Two 20-tonners, a Jenner and a 50-tonner.

The two 20s never even got revealed, as the Thumper shell Poppy landed on them instantly destroyed them. Llana locked the 50-tonner, so that it could be shot and just as well as a Hunchback 4G was not something they wanted sniping at their charges. Anja still couldn't get a bead on it, so she settled for killing the Jenner.

To the lance's relief, the Hunchback ignored the APCs charging at its feet and fired a laser at Llana instead.

The Hunchback went down easily enough to the combined fire, even the APCs lending a little help.

The final enemy group at the extraction point was a 4P Hunchback, Centurion, Jenner and Vindicator.

As the lance provided covering fire (not killing anything yet), the pirates made their getaway.

(For odd occasion, this time the LANCE got a free round to move while the enemy stood stupidly doing nothing.

That was mildly annoying. Having done that, it did that thing where you are not allowed to walk around an enemy to melee it, and it managed to IS the Overlord in the rear armour when Llana punched the Hunchback to death.)

For that, the Centurion got its head blown off, followed quickly by the Jenner being totally destroyed. Astoundingly, the Vindicator stood fire from the first three salvos and only died when Llana blew up its reactor as it lay prone.



That was annoying; either the Overlord would have to run with minor damage, or it'd be back to the Decapitator for a bit.

Next escort mission, this one 3 skulls.

This was lowlands, so Llana just swapped to the Decapitator.

This time, the pirates had managed to get pinned down by the Capellans, so the blocking force would have to be cleared first.

Poppy started by coring a Griffon. The other Liaos were a Centurion and a Marauder, with something else with autocannons out of sight - a Wolverine.

The Centurion lost an arm in the next exchange of fire, and then went down to autocannon fire.

The Wolverine died to CT- destruction from careful fire from Llana and Natasha. Poppy headcapped the Marauder, clearing the area.

Again there as not an obvious choice of extraction point - one end of a road or another.

It turned out to be the west end of the road. As the pirates fled, the enemy closed in: two Cicadas from the east and a 55 and 65 tonner from the west.

The Cicadas got a Thumper round. Anja moved up and headcapped the 65-tonner, a Thunderbolt.



Llana knocked down one of the Cicadas by destroying its damaged leg. The Thumper might not kill much apart from Locusts, but it did make it much easier to do that. She picked it off before it could get up. The other one got a fatal face full of Bull Shark.

The Griffon fell shortly thereafter to CT death. And the convoy hadn't even got to the extraction point yet...

When they did, the enemy lance was so far away, the lance had time to reposition. Crab, Assassin, Trebuchet and Centurion. And they moved close enough for a Thumper round to soften them up.

The Assassin died first, cored by Natasha. The Trebuchet likewise died to Anja. Llana punched the Crab hard in the back. Seeing how badly damaged the Centurion was after a salvo or two, Poppy split her fire between both remaining enemies.



Result, a dead Centurion and a prone Crab, right at Llana's feet. One stomp and burst from the Fair Marauder and that was that.



The pirates were now only one mission away from only disliking the paladins, so maybe on the next stop, they might get the discount down.

Llana maxed her piloting and completed training; Anja maxed her guts.

One more escort mission - this time for Marik, stealing some tanks; 3-skulls and once again in the desert. Natasha and Poppy swapped mechs. Zuranna took over the Decapitator.

Frag damn, it was one of the mining basins. It was going to take AGES just to get to the motorpool, and probably ages to get to the likely extraction point too...

Well, aside from the enemy appearing from behind the lance, they could see the Locust, Centurion and Awesome clearly from the top of the mining ring, at least.

Oops, there was a Marauder too.

Natasha applied the Locust Swatter and thus ensured nothing was sneaking round their flanks, while Anja and Poppy exchanged fire and Zuranna sprinted up. The convoy - a Demolisher, Shrek, Manticore and LRM Carrier - could at least provided some support from the latter two at range (the Shrek had no line-of-sight).

The Marauder fell over, having a leg blown off from repeated salvos and the Manticore finished it off with a long-range missile attack.



Natasha's second attempt took the Awesome down. The Centurion, already damaged by the Marik forces, took a punch from the charging Zuranna and a normal salvo from the Annihilator CT'd it.

(And for, once, this was before any of the escorts moved, so they were all together!

...

And then three of them drove backwards! Oh my Lichemaster this is going to take for ever for them to get to the extraction point!)

Zuranna did not KNOW what the drivers of the three rear vehicles were doing; they drove round in circles and then said they weren't going anywhere until she came back for them. That finally seemed to get them at least closer to the Shrek at the front.

When the enemy finally came, they managed a shot off at the Manticore before the lance could destroy the Spider spotting for them.

Behind it, there was an incoming Griffin and Victor.

(And then a Quickdraw appeared from NOWHERE and destroyed the Manticore. Reload. I'm NOT spending all that time arsing about for it to get a cheap freaking shot.

It meant Poppy did not headcap the Griffin, but the damned Quickdraw missed this time, since it wouldn't let me ever shoot at it until it fired.)

Anja did headcap the Victor, though.



The LRM Carrier CT-killed the Quickdraw, and the Ultra ACs of the Bull Shark had all hit the torso.

Poppy headcapped the Griffin immediately thereafter.



Hurrah, last escort mission and that took WAY too long... Locust, Awesome and Victor salvaged and sold.

Anja's piloting raised to 8.

The paladins COULD ally with the Free Worlds League, but that would make enemies of Steiner.

(And you need - Arano excluded - max four positive and four negative reputations where the score is concerned. So if I ally with either Steiner or Marik, can't get that. Darn...)

That would be something to consider later. For now, there was a desert battle to fight for Davion; same lance for the moment.

Marauder, Orion and Shrek SPPC carrier.

Natasha headcapped the Orion, but the tedious SPPC hit her in the head in return. Anja destroyed it right away.

(AGAIN with the only one in high spirits.)

As the closed on the Marauder, a second wave was incoming. The first lance's forth, a Vindicator, showed up on the left flank and Anja turned to engage. The other three, with autocannons, fist and laser, managed to knock down and headcap the Marauder.

Poppy pulled back and CT'd the Vindicator, clearing the flanks and spotter.

Zuranna moved forwards and the enemy came to meet hear - JagerMech, Cicada and Griffin.

The Griffin got headcapped and the JagerMech hammered, but then a Catapult jumped in too from nowhere. Zuranna ran up closer; the Cicada ran out to meet her and attempted to engage in a melee duel. It lost its right torso.

Poppy headcapped the JagerMech, and the Catapult had barely landed from its second jump when Anja blew its head off as well. The Cicada had a rear full of Bull Shark.



A new Griffin and a Marauder for sale.

Next up a 3-skull recovery mission for Marik, retrieving a scientist that was several layers into espionage.

Scarlet swapped in for Natasha and this being a jungle mission where heat didn't matter so much, Poppy swapped to the Shortbow.

Just getting to the facility was going to be trying...



After a lot of running, Scarlet got to a position where she could a Catapult, a Dragon and a JagerMech. She had a shot at the JagerMech. Poppy ran around to fire and realised the Dragon was presenting its rear to the lance. That was a mistake! Fatal, as the swarm of SRMs struck it.

The Decapitator lived up to its name and the JagerMech went down. The Catapult never got a shot off, hammered by the lance as it too, was decapitated as it lay prone.

The enemy never got even a shot off.



JagerMech salvaged...

Anja upped her piloting to 9.



Just one more mission here to go, but that will wait until next time.

[The Glyphstone]

It's a pillbox that can pogo-stick around to put its oversized cannon into the optimal weak-point arc of anything else in its weight class - that AC-10 can cripple most Light Mechs if it gets a rear-armor CT shot in, or take off a limb. Tanks still have to follow roads, and cannot just NOPE their way around buildings whenever they feel like doing so.

But mostly it's because in the Battletechverse, tanks are weirdly and super-artifically nerfed by the laws of metaphysics into being bad. But that's an issue with every 'mech in the setting, rather than the Urbanmech specifically.

[Destro_Yersul]

I have never undertood why people even like it aesthertically myself. It looks like Artoo Detoo's older brother with a gun glued to his side (and I never liked Artoo, even as a child...)

Well there's yer problem. I have a soft spot for adorable robots, and thus to me Artoo is excellent in all possible ways.