Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH Part Seventeen

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Seventeen:

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.

(PC has now been on continuosuly for over a week with no crashes, so it gets to be actyually turned off tonight. Seems quite likely it's the surge supressor.)

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[Skywriter]

Allow your computer and yourself some downtime. Funerals can take it out of you.