Battletech IC #1: Outreach

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

James immediately figured out something was up. "Ronin, this is TimberWolf, what's your status, over?" He began trying to locate Artemus. "I'm moving to assist." That last one was more meant for everyone else.

[Northern Dominus]

Artemus

James immediately figured out something was up. "Ronin, this is TimberWolf, what's your status, over?" He began trying to locate Artemus. "I'm moving to assist." That last one was more meant for everyone else.

As the double heat sinks did their technological magic and started to rapidly dump the heat, James' latest stunt and movement registered very sharply. And it was a stunt that Artemus was either going to curb or punish.
Thumbing the comms toggle as the manipulated the throttle he issued a warning as such.

"Status is 'If you break your assignment again I will personally give hostiles accurate targeting info on your mech then use your stupid eyesore of a car as an explosive target on the range'.

Did you copy that Timberwolf? Will execute in 3 seconds until proper acknowledgement is received, over."

---

Artemus
Transmissions: Order Timberwolf to stick to his current assignment or risk severe penalties.

[Occupied Deutschland]

Walther fiddled with his radio for a moment, but quickly realized the interference wasn't on his end.

"Priest copies. Do not fire on the laser turrets." He said, making certain he'd pieced together the message correctly. He really hoped the turrets were down, because if they shot first as he approached the compound he'd be in some hot water.

Ah well, at this point getting taken out by a laser turret might not look bad. At least it'd warn the rest of the squad that they were operational, so it probably wouldn't affect whatever grade or ranking Bear was assigning to the pilots in the simulator.

Grunting, Walther steered his mech towards the enemy compound, his own sights fixed on the laser turrets but his finger carefully removed from the trigger. If they were working and ended up firing at him maybe he could take one of them out in the last few moments. What he really had to worry about was infantry or other such light forces simulated on the base. His armor was plenty thick to shrug off small-arms fire, but an inferno missile or a solid SRM hit would cause a lot of trouble.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

Artemus

James immediately figured out something was up. "Ronin, this is TimberWolf, what's your status, over?" He began trying to locate Artemus. "I'm moving to assist." That last one was more meant for everyone else.

As the double heat sinks did their technological magic and started to rapidly dump the heat, James' latest stunt and movement registered very sharply. And it was a stunt that Artemus was either going to curb or punish.
Thumbing the comms toggle as the manipulated the throttle he issued a warning as such.

"Status is 'If you break your assignment again I will personally give hostiles accurate targeting info on your mech then use your stupid eyesore of a car as an explosive target on the range'.

Did you copy that Timberwolf? Will execute in 3 seconds until proper acknowledgement is received, over."

---

Artemus
Transmissions: Order Timberwolf to stick to his current assignment or risk severe penalties.

James took a couple seconds to respond, forcing himself to swallow several insults and expletives, although his voice still carried a rather fed-up and nasty edge to it. "Y'know, Artie, I really thought you were different from other career mercenaries I've had to deal with in the past." He said everything on an open channel. transmitting to everyone - Including OpFor. "You think this is my first experience with so-called 'real' combat? Like always, you forget that the Steiner-Davion Family Feud reached every home in the Federated Commonwealth. You forget the long months between 3062 and 3066. To you, the date of August 15th is but a simple Tuesday.

I understand that the mission needs to be completed, that sometimes you have to make tough decisions. But I also know damn well that when your teammate is in trouble and you're nearby with your barrels getting cold, you go and help. I've seen too many of my friends, many of whom I had fought against in the Arenas for years, end up in body bags because someone else was too focused on an objective to help, even when doing so would benefit the mission. The Colonel is taking care of the Hatchetman, Julius can handle a crippled Raven, and I am ready to go help Jasmine the moment she asks me to. Taking a detour to make sure you aren't getting your asshole ventilated by a Quickdraw is not going to put the mission at risk - Far from it, actually, making sure you're still in the fight means a better chance at having the mission succeed."

He stopped, and took a very audible breath, as he moved his Vulture back towards Julius - Although at a slower pace. "Colonel Wild, sir, I do have to ask - Does Gun Special Squadrons care more about profit, or the safety of its personnel? Does it put more emphasis on mission payout, or on getting its boys and girls back home safely?"

[SaintB]

Combat
Priest comes to a screeching halt and fires a medium laser at the Hatchetman which returns fire with it remaining weapon (also a medium laser)on its left arm but misses when Priest stops short. The successful shot traces across the left arm and torso of the Hatchetman.

Ronin fires missile and medium lasers at the Quickdraw as it comes to a full stand and moves in reverse, keeping his front forward and moving parallel to him. One of the missiles strikes the Quickdraw in the right leg while the lasers chew armor off the Quickdraw's left arm and torso. The Quickdraw returns with SRM4 and two medium lasers of its own and hits low, striking the left leg with a partial laser shot and the right leg with two missiles.

The Dragon is taken out by the tremendous volume of weapon's fire from the Warhammer, the engine takes a through critical and before it shuts down liquid plasma from it's fusion reaction severely melts the internal components in the chest. The heat in Dragon's Warhammer spikes tremendously and she finds her 'mech beginning to initiate an automatic shut down!


Damage
Hatchetman takes 4 armor damage to LA, and 1 armor damage to LT from Md.Lsr.

Quickdraw takes 6 armor damage to LA and 6 armor damage to LT from x2Md.Pulse
Quickdraw takes 2[/] armor damage to RL from SRM

Bushwhacker takes [b]3 armor damage to LL from Md. Laser
Bushwhacker takes 4 armor damage to RL from SRM



Heat Levels:
Dragon 14 (+2 to hit, -24k/h max speed, automatic shutdown chance)

[Occupied Deutschland]

"The enemies of progress are about to be routed by the superior dedication to Blake's vision we all posses." Walther muttered, without broadcasting it over the radio. The Quickdraw was making a brave stand, but as soon as the rest of the blue forces could shift to it, or if Artemus got in another solid volley, it would all be over but the shouting. Well, likely the crying in this case as the enemy force had been quite spectacularly routed through a very potent combination of leadership and luck. Which honestly beat out just about any combination on the battlefield Walther could think of. Skill was all well and good, but sometimes, both in simulators and in real engagements, it boiled down to a roll of the dice and who's number came up first. In such instances, skill just didn't do much.

Of course, that leadership and luck working depended on them working together, which was still chancey. The Arena kid had guts, but just lacked experience in demi-company--lance--operations. Though he did raise a rather good point. One that would be good to go over in debrief at the least.

Approaching the base and pounding through the simulated gate, Walther finally opened up a transmission. "I'm securing the base. At least to the extent my Locust can secure a base. Anytime the rest of you boys and girls are done playing footsy with the bad guys you can feel free to join me. The towers are completely silent."

[SaintB]

"Gun Special Squadrons' primary goal is the safe and rapid completion of our mission objectives to the best of our ability. Timberwolf." Bear replied automatically, it was an answer he'd given a million times to potential clients and employees alike, "Ronin has Warhound and Dragon to keep him safe so there is no reason to break formation again, I need you to take position with me and watch that the Raven doesn't come after one of us while we aren't looking."

The extra engine heat had dissipated and the systems were back to normal, though the simulated cockpit was still uncomfortably warm. Bear once more targeted the Hatchetman with an alpha strike firing all three lasers and his LRM 15.

[SaintB]

"Gun Special Squadrons' primary goal is the safe and rapid completion of our mission objectives to the best of our ability. Timberwolf." Bear replied automatically, it was an answer he'd given a million times to potential clients and employees alike, "Ronin has Warhound and Dragon to keep him safe so there is no reason to break formation again, I need you to take position with me and watch that the Raven doesn't come after one of us while we aren't looking."

The extra engine heat had dissipated and the systems were back to normal, though the simulated cockpit was still uncomfortably warm. Bear once more targeted the Hatchetman with an alpha strike firing all three lasers and his LRM 15.

Actions
Move: Shadow Hatchetman at 64k/h
Attack: Alpha strike on Hatchetman
Incidental: Comms with Timberwolf.

[Strykla]

Andromeda's hand stroked the throttle, bringing the Osiris to a dead sprint. It was one of the fastest mechs alive for being so fast; the thing could outrace trains on even ground. If heavier mechs were draft horses, this was a thoroughbred.

Until, of course, he hit something.

Julius's hand had just been squeezing the trigger to his lasers when the Osiris hit a pothole. It was a one-in-a-million chance that not only his mech's foot would go right into the hole on the downbeat of the stride, but the simple fact that he could have been three meters to the side and he would have been fine. It was a sinkhole; limestone eroded easily, this was probably just left over from God knew when. His lasers carved divots into the ground, but far worse was his leg. The damage control panel showed the shin assembly had buckled in upon itself; the mech automatically slowed the throttle to a stop, detecting he was no longer level. The cockpit flew into the ground hard enough to fling Julius against his straps, bruising several muscles and causing him to bite his own tongue. Julius's first thought was that he didn't know simulators could do that. Neither did he know what had just happened; the Raven hadn't fired at him, so he assumed something had.

Shaking, and his heart beating faster than what was healthy, he turned on his radio. "M-Mayday mayday mayday, this is Andromeda, I'm taking fire and have one leg gone, over!" The experience had caused him to lose his cool; his voice was rapidly rising to a panic. He tried to draw the mech up; it limped a few paces until he stopped it. His hands were rapidly going over the controls; the radar was shaken and rebooting; thermals weren't showing crap; the tactical overlay was taking too long to boot up; fuckfuckfuckfuck.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

James gave a second to respond to Bear. "Understood, sir, thank you for clarifying everything." He brought his 'Mech up to full speed. "I'll admit, I've got a lot to learn about how the professionals do things. Right now I'm just running on what I learned back on Solaris."

That's when Andromeda sent out his mayday. "TimberWolf to Andromeda, I'm on my way." Just my fucking luck that the guy I'm supposed to be supporting anyway gets in trouble when I'm having another shouting match... He quickly switched to just his missiles. "Just stay calm and try to keep on eye on OpFor for me. If you can keep firing, do so. I'll be there shortly."

[Northern Dominus]

Artemus
Having rocked with the hits and grunted in frustration when the Quickdraw didn't break the way he wanted, Artemus had switched his comms over to wide-band broadcast to make good on his threat to James when Bear straightened him out.

Blinking when the flash of a laser impact stuttered against his eye Artemus nearly flipped the comms back over to the company frequencies and went about business as usual when he hit upon an idea. Changing the angle of his approach to "box" the quickdraw back towards Kat and Warhound but not firing a shot he hit the transmit toggle, broadcasting to every mech both friend and enemy.

"Garrisoning force, garrisoning force, this is..."
Artemus had to think for a moment. They weren't the Guns Special Squadron but attacking forced seemed to lack punch. Picking a few items out of air he cobbled together what he hoped to be an official sounding unit name.

"...the field commander of the 67th Outreach Aggressors. You are out-maneuvered, out-gunned, and have no initiative left. Time to decide if you're mercenaries or some goddamn mutant clanners willing to die stupidly for a puny outpost. Concede defeat and I will personally recommend to the colonel that you should be considered for a position based upon your shrewdness in the face of hopeless odds. Refuse and no surrender will be accepted an no quarter will be shown. Acceptance of these terms of surrender will be acknowledged by every garrisoning mech ejecting their ammunition and powering down.
This offer has a 15 second time limit as well, during which no Aggressor, and I mean no Aggressor mech will fire upon you. If any garrisoning mech breaks the 15 second ceasefire that will signify a rejection of the offer.

Those 15 seconds start now."

As he made the last ultimatum, Artemus started a 15 second timer that registered on his HUD while keeping the Quickdraw lined up. While he was transmitting he had primed an alpha strike and targeted the Quickdraw's head, just in case his terms of surrender which he had generously offered weren't accepted.

Kat
Heat warning klaxxons were blaring in here ears.
The sweat poured in rivers down her body.
Every display fuzzed and some crackled.

The heat was taking a toll on both mech and mechwarrior, but the payoff had been worth it. One of the most fearsome brawler mechs ever to stalk the inner sphere had just fallen to the wall of fire that her Warhammer unleashed.
Slapping the primary systems controls and eventually overriding the automatic shutdown sequence she throttled back to under 1/4, barely above a crawl as she radioed to Warhound.

"My heat's spiked Warhound, throttling back and trying to bleed it off, over."
Barely had she switched over to machine guns when Artemus' transmissions came over the comms. At first she was tempted to cut back in over the company-wide channel and voice her displeasure, but for that moment she managed to tamp down her Lyran sensibilities and instinct to simply press forward regardless. Consequently she signaled her confirmation... and her misgivings, over the company comms channel.

"Copy that Ronin, will comply, but if one of those mechs makes so much as a twitch I don't like I will exercise my right to defend myself, over."
And in a way it made sense to her better judgement.
'Well at least they have a chance to save some face, and if one of them has any ideas otherwise it will make killing the rest easier.'

---

Artemus
Movement:Change angle of flank and torso twist to push Quickdraw towards Kat and Warhammer
Action: Line up Alpha Strike on Quickdraw's head.
Transmission: Switch comms to wide-band frequency, offer terms of surrender with 15 second grace period to opfor, order friendly mechs not to fire on opfor for those 15 seconds.
Kat
Movement:Throttle back significantly
Action: Override automatic shutdown,
Transmission: Advise Warhound of throttling down, confirm Ronin's proposal... mostly.

[Hardened Pyrokinetics]

James pushed his Vulture on, keeping an eye on both his radar and out the windscreen. As soon as he got to Andromeda he'd lock on to the Raven and blast it straight to Hell. He checked his ammo counter - Ah, fuck.

"Just gotta make 'em all count then..." He muttered. He was down to his last salvo of missiles. He took a deep breath and focused his attention forwards. A couple seconds later his radar beeped when Andromeda came into range. A couple seconds after that a red dot, which he immediately targeted. Guided by the HUD, he brought his reticule down on the badly-damaged Raven, acquired a lock...

Then Artemus sent out his orders. James slowed his 'Mech down, but continued to approach the Raven. He put himself between the OpFor and Andromeda. "Try anything and die, motherfucker."

[SaintB]

"...the field commander of the 67th Outreach Aggressors. You are out-maneuvered, out-gunned, and have no initiative left. Time to decide if you're mercenaries or some goddamn mutant clanners willing to die stupidly for a puny outpost. Concede defeat and I will personally recommend to the colonel that you should be considered for a position based upon your shrewdness in the face of hopeless odds. Refuse and no surrender will be accepted an no quarter will be shown. Acceptance of these terms of surrender will be acknowledged by every garrisoning mech ejecting their ammunition and powering down.
This offer has a 15 second time limit as well, during which no Aggressor, and I mean no Aggressor mech will fire upon you. If any garrisoning mech breaks the 15 second ceasefire that will signify a rejection of the offer.

Those 15 seconds start now."

Dave noticed it didn't even take the full fifteen seconds for the remaining 'mechwarriors on the other team to make their decision, all at once the OpFor began powering down one by one. He didn't blame them. The battle started out with equal numbers but it changed drastically and quickly; they lost more than half their company during the fight and not a single one of their 'mechs was unscathed while the only losses the attacking force suffered was one 'mech hobbled by poor terrain. It was the kind of mission that had it been real Gun Special Squadrons, or any mercenary company, dreamed of - objective completed in a timely manner with no casualties.

"Ok Billy, end simulation!" he said into his headset.

He switched over to commander frequency so that all participants could hear him, "The attacking team is victorious in 17 minutes and 33 seconds, that was some sound work ladies and gentlemen. Some of you on both teams did a superb job of handling your machines and you should be proud of yourselves. To the defenders I want to say that despite your loss you shown yourselves to be skilled and courageous warriors that any mercenary company or house should be proud to sign on to their toster."

Now down to business, "I will be going over the replay of the skirmish and individually evaluating each of your performances and I want to remind you that though the members of the winning team receive precedence for contract offers does not mean that because you were on the loosing side that no offer will be made so hang in there because there is still a chance that I'll make a decision to offer you a contract. Now all you can take 5; the bus will come around soon and we will be returning to the city."