Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty-Three · 12:09am Jul 28th, 2020
Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty-Three:
Last contract a 2.5-skull mission. Data needed to be extracted from a secret facility and transmitted to a satellite, which mean triangulating the position and holding station...
Oh, this could be nasty.
Zuranna would swap the Decapitator for the Atlas (more armour). Poppy would take the Bull Shark, Anja the Annihilator and Summer would grab the Phoenix Coil, in case they needed to rush to position.
Not a great position to start in...
Oh, great, there were EIGHT enemy mechs in the area. The only good news was that all of them were lights except for one 50-tonner - though one of them was a Raven, from the ECM field.
Summer was in the most danger, sprinting to the furthest to the west, though the largest number of enemies. Zuranna would take the closest one, and Anja was doing to dash to the east - Poppy would follow, but first there was at least three enemy mechs that she could land a Thumper on...
No.. Four!
Three enemy mechs down! That made things a bit better! Zuranna jumped up and showered the larger mech - a Crab - with LRMs.
The Raven made the bizarre move of walking up to the Atlas to use an active probe, revealing itself and putting it in melee range and right in the beacon point. The other four mechs - the Crab, a Commando and the pair of Javelins - focussed their fire on the Atlas. But it was the most heavily armoured mech in the Paladin's arsenal and this was exactly what the lance had brought it for.
Anja was distressingly JUST short of the beacon range on a sprint, so instead, she walked, spun and shot the Commando in the back (as it had run past her to shoot Zuranna). Summer sprinted up past the point and spun around - she'd be able to sprint back into position and maybe even get a shot off in a moment. Poppy also sprinted up to Zuranna, where she could draw a bead on more enemies.
The Raven got punched to death. The first beacon was in place, and it was the Atlas that would be attracting the initial fire.
The Javelin backed up. Which meant when Summer dashed down to the second beacon, they presented their backs to her aimed shot. To her annoyance, she missed the CT and only blew a torso off.
Poppy and Zuranna didn't managed to take the Crab out - the range was a bit far - but Summer and Anja had the beacons down and they could move now.
Summer sprinted right up to the Javelin she'd shot and pressed the COIL-M right up to the surface of its rear CT armour and cored it right through.
The Crab finally blew up under the concentrated fire of three assault mechs.
The remaining Javelin backed up. So Summer ran behind it and kicked an arm off.
(Okay, game, you tell me to wait two rounds, and THEN tell me I have three rounds to extract to an extraction point miles away. Yeah, that's not going to be possible.)
It ran away again, so she dashed up behind it and punched the whole RT off. Then, annoyed, sprinted away, It was unlikely that everyone would get to the extraction point right away, but she would at least try and meet them there.
(Yeah, no, it took ANJA all three rounds to reach the extraction point, and she was closest. Not even Summer reached it.)
The lance didn't make it before the kill team was going to arrive, but never mind, the idiots were going to drop RIGHT in a place where it would hurt.
The enemy lance was a Spider (which immediately ran behind the Bull Shark), a Raven (which immediately ran up to between the Atlas and Bull Shark and did a sensor lock), a Kintaro (which immediately hit Poppy in the head) and a Griffin.
Summer snarled with fury, having a FIFTH chance to shoot/punch something in the back and whiffing her punch on the Spider.
Zuranna smashed off the Raven's entire right side, leg and all, with the Atlas. The Griffin had presented - once again - its rear to the Annihilator. (The enemy was really strange about doing that today.) And, like, right close, too.
It, unsurprisingly, exploded into a fireball. Joined a moment later by the Kintaro, curtesy of Poppy.
The crippled Javelin, showing great gumption, but little sense, ran up to head butt the Atlas in the rear. The Atlas ponderously turned around and actually made the motion of cracking its knuckles. The Javelin looked up and up and then down and then back up again. The pilot reflected, for a moment, on the poor decisions he'd made in his life, leding up to this moment.
The Capellans late found the Javelins' reactor imbedded several feet into the rock some scores of metres distant. Just the reactor. And some rear torso armour.
The Spider jumped to shoot the rear of the Atlas too, but achieved little.
Summer, really frustrated now, failed even to kill the Raven by stomping on it and it staggered up and limped away. Though not far enough to re-cloak and Anja just blasted it to pieces. The Spider pilot just had time to realise that this was not going to be his day, when the Bull Shark fired and reduced the Spider to slag.
Then it was just a brisk stroll to the evac zone. (Except for Anja, who hadn't even moved.)
Spider and a Javelin for sale.
And they were done. Time for a quick bit of shopping, then! Lynessa bought a ++LB-X AC/10, three pieces of Banshee 3E and one of Highlander 733P - it was about 8 million cbills for those (they had about 47 million at the moment), but it completed their collection.
The Overlord could now be repaired. The Bull Shark could also get an upgrade - exchanging one of the +LB-X ACs for the ++ gave it another half-ton of armour. The autocannon removed could be fitted on the Annihilator to replace the standard one it had, allowing that an extra half-ton of armour too.
To the next flashpoint (there wasn't much point making stops in Capellan space on the way) - 4-skull Mitchel (which was also a Black Marker.)
They arrived without incident at Mitchel.
Lynessa and Darius went out to do a bit of contract networking, joined by Llana for a bit of fresh air. As they were walking through a farmer's market a rather foolish Volkovite (who apparently hadn't left with the rest of them) spotted them and came running up.
Lynessa, spotting a load of Liao guards, dispatched Llana to go and distract them. She did so easily - having picked up a few tricks from her extended stay with the love/sex paladins - and with a winning smile and few entirely true tails of her awesome exploits, kept them very distracted. The local Capellans (not even all of whom were Volokovites) were delighted to meet the saviours of the little exodus, and Darius and Lynessa were inundated with fresh fruit and vegetables. Darius noted with some embarrassment that Lynessa not only carried nearly twice his load, but she did it without any apparent strain...
There was a lot more in the black market this time. A ++ER PPC and ++ER medium laser, a ++Narc beacon (ironically they had literal tons of Narc ammo from all the Strikers), a ++medium pulse laser...
Lynessa was not going to buy anything just yet, though, since there were several pirate contracts in the system. Two battles and a recovery. Doing all three normally would improve the paladin's reputation to skim into neutral (for the best discount they were going to get). Lynessa figured it would not be hard to tank their reputation down to minimum before the end (a quick trip to Arano space, for example). No, the difficulties now were going to be finding missions against Kurita to make them loathe the paladins, and missions for Steiner to get them up to 100; after this series of flashpoints - perhaps even as they did them - the Kurita issue could be tackled.
Starting with the problem that the flashpoint they were about to undertake for the Capellans - Siegebreaker - was against the Lyrans. Oh, well, get it down before they got it up, Lynessa hazarded?
Marina Liao - casting an uncertain glance at Mylassta - explained that a Steiner Hauptmann-General Alistair Dobrescu was holding a dozen million people of the megacity of Gauthier under siege. And the citizens were genuinely likely to starve to death before the Capellans could break the siege.
Well, Lynessa thought, that sounded just mean. She suddenly didn't feel so bad about this.
The planetary militia were a rather unorganised lot - and the two remaining commanders Azura "Cheval" Damestroir and Ellen "Jailbird" Valazquez apparently hated each other or something and were more likely to fight each other than the Capellans.
To sort them out, the paladins would have to drop in to help one, then the other. There was not, unfortunately time to drop, say a second lance of paladins to help them both at once, so Sumire would have to extract and drop them point to point.
And there was a 75-ton maximum limit. Well, the somewhat unorthodox, but the paladins could work with that.
Mylassta would take the Fair Marauder, Vey the Laser Knight (since she had coolant vent if it did get a bit hot), Anja took the Archer and Summer took the Shortbow. (And Lynessa patted herself on the back for not shelving the Archer just yet.)
Wait, no, there was also a max 240 ton restriction, damn, that was 40 tons over.
So Vey swapped to the Shortbow, Anja got to test out the Fireforce and Summer took the Phoenix Coil; that hit 240 tons exactly. (Fireforce rather than the Trebuchet since while the latter had jump jets, Fireforce was a bit sturdier for consecutive missions plus it had a higher damage out; the range wouldn't matter so much in an urban area anyway.)
The first part would be helping Azura defeat a Steiner scout lanc-
...
Oh dear goddess.
Why had they not brought all the assault mechs?
Actually, the paladins couldn't EVEN match a full Steiner scout lance...!
Okay, so it was just one Atlas to start with. That they could handle...
Seriously, though, Lynessa thought, what kind of lunatic used an Atlas as a scout mech?
* * * * * *
Meanwhile, in a near-mirror-universe not far away, in General Hayalyn Haelariel's mechbay...
"Right, I'll take the High Commander; Helia, you take Atlas II; Alluria, you take the King Lobster and Illy, you take the Atlascout! We've got reconnaissance to do!"
"Woohoo!"
* * * * * *
The militia lance was a Firestarter, Hatchetman, Locust and Rifleman. Good job the paladins were there...
Mylassta first shot damage the Atlas's autocannon. The rest of the lance moved to a better attack position. No sense in wasting good salvage, right?
Her second destroyed the right torso... And they still couldn't take another precise shot. Darn it.
"Vey, Anja, Summer and I have got this, you two go intercept the drop pods coming in!"
"Right!"
"Yes, ma'am."
Firestarter, Vulcan, Assassin, Shadowhawk, incoming.
Mylassta snarled. "Third try!"
"Atlas is down, paladins! Atlas is down! Summer, go mop up!"
Summer had a full run for five chevrons, but sadly 60% of 125 was not enough to take even the leg off the Vulcan - but it was enough that the Capellan Locust could finish the job. Vey ran up to the Assassin and blasted half of it away. It and the enemy Firestarter moved to attack the Archer's rear - but the Firestarter had jumped onto a building...
Anja put the Vulcan down, and the allied Hatchetman cored the Assassin through the holes in the left side Vey had opened.
Summer dashed up, aimed for the building the Firestarter was silly enough to stand on.
The fall ripped its leg off. Mylassta, coming in from extreme range, picked the other leg off.
Vey focused her SRMs on the Shadowhawk and detonated its ammunition.
Azura seemed to think that the Lyran might come running with all their assault mechs as their scout and their... "infantry...?" lance got wiped. She was going to lead them off for the lance to go help Ellen. Azura warned that Ellen was Not Very Nice and too watch their backs. (Lynessa was initially inclined to believe Azura - she meant, like, Azura had a very trustworthy name and was quite nice.)
Three parts Atlas salvage, thank you...!
Ellen needed help bringing down a "heavy Steiner patrol lance," which probably meant, like, a regiment of Atlases or something.
Ellen had a Thunderbolt, a Raven, an UrbanMech (an R90, with a PPC - Lynessa initial thought it was the one with the AC/20) and an Assassin as her lance.
The lance moved up, until the enemy contacts emerged. Then they pulled back a bit, since there was a Raven right there, so why rush, right?
The first idiot round the corner was a Jenner. Anja, Summer (who had moved to the back of the field to ramp up a full strike next turn) and the swarm of SRMs from Vey blasted it apart. And enemy Assassin meanwhile, jumped up, trying to shoot the Fireforce. Jumped onto a building.
Mylassta split her fire, the AC on the building and the laser on the Assassin. One fall later, the Assassin was sans leg.
The Raven shifted position slightly, exposed the Shortbow, and an enemy Griffin jumped into view to have a shot at it. A second one joined the fight, shooting at the allied Assassin.
The enemy Assassin, having been dropped out of sight, proved what a slow learner they were, by jumping onto ANOTHER building.
The nearest Griffin took two head hits and lost a leg and the pilot went out.
Summer took a moment to calculate her run - this time the Assassin had chosen a slightly tougher building - but...
It would not be getting up again.
As the lance started on the last Griffin, a second Lyran lance was coming in. Anja quickly headcapped the Griffin so they could meet the new threat.
As the lance followed the Raven (it couldn't quite work out which way it wanted to go first), the first enemies came into sight was a Spider - taken down between the Thunderbolt and Vey - and a Wolverine further back. Summer locked an UrbanMech, and following that was a 70-tonner.
The paladins advanced with the Raven, taking shots at the Wolverine as it closed.
Summer weakened the UrbanMech's CT, but Anja failed to capitalise on it, leaving Mylassta to finish it. As she did, the enemy 70-ton Archer strode onto sight and bombarded the allied Assassin, even in the ECM field. It survived, though it was not in a good state.
Vey blasted the Wolverine's right torso off, though didn't kill it; but then the Raven toppled the destabilised mech and the militia UrbanMech finished it off. Teamwork!
Mylassta hit the Archer in the head. Summer hit it solidly with the COIL-M and then Vey's SRM salvo caught it in the head too, finishing it.
Ellen - who was not as dodgy as advertised, which is why you held judgement - explained Azura had gotten her put in prison after an accusation of sleeping with her husband. (Azura's husband, obviously.) From the sounds of it that had started a fight or something.
Lynessa sighed. Sounded like they needed the council of the Paladins of Azurella. Sharing was fine (encouraged, even, a good chunk of the time, at least among the paladins) but ONLY if all parties understood and agreed to it.
Enough salvage for an Archer!
So, now the Steiner forces were scattered and the attack on Dobrescu himself could begin. This was his master-plan to...
Respond to the annulment of his marriage because his former wife had fled here to escape under Marina's direct supervision.
Darius, Farah, Sumire and Yang gulped. Even Marina suddenly looked worried. The temperature in the room actually dropped, and not metaphorically, because frost was forming on Alarhan's hands. The command crew had never seen the Paladins look quite so serious and quite so ANGRY. Even Mylassta, whose temper was more... explosive, had gone ice-cold.
Azura was quite annoyed herself.
Killing Dobrescu alone wouldn't be enough, they had to ensure there was enough of the militia left to capitalise on the issue. Which meant Ellen and Azura would have to work together. And they would not.
Right. Fine.
"Okay, ladies," Lynessa said in a sharp tone which shocked both women ram-rod straight. "If you two are going to bicker like children, you will be treated like children. You can sit in the naughty corner while the grown-ups deal with the problems.
"And when we are done, you two WILL be sitting in a room, having counselling, do you understand me?"
"You can't order me arou-"
"No way, I'm n-"
The SMACK of Lynessa's longsword against her palm, and the sudden aura of warm green and showering sparks surrounding her, combined with the LOOK in Lynessa's eyes cut their protests short.
"Do you understand me?" Lynessa repeated, slowly, without even raising her voice.
"Yes, m'm!" Ellen squeaked.
Azura nodded frantically, looking pale.
"Good girls. Paladins, let's roll."
Anja had completed her training at this point, and quite hurriedly got out of Alarhan's way.
This was likely going to involve turrets, so Alarhan was taking the Trebuchet this time.
Vey made to step away from the Shortbow for Lynessa, but Lynessa shook her head. "No, Vey, I trust you to carry Azurella's will. You have this."
Vey smiled brightly, and hopped back in.
The lance dropped in. Ellen and Azura were cowed enough to at least take control of the base turrets.
And then Dobrescu hailed everyone, demanding they "hand over what was his" or the city would starve. Yeah, no, this guy was going to die and hard. He'd be lucky if the paladins didn't castrate him first.
"Wait, we do know a guy," Summer growled. "We can kill him, raise him, castrate him and kill him again!"
(Funnily enough, the love/sex paladins were REALLY intolerant of sexual abuse and there was no WAY this wasn't that.)
First enemy - a Centurion, followed by a 20 and 25 tonner and a Rifleman.
The paladins, to there annoyance, did little more than knock the Centurion over.
The lance had to quickly fall back, since the enemy forces were ignoring the lance and making a beeline for the base.
Alarhan destroyed the fallen Centurion.
Oh good, there were Lyran forces around the base too.
Lynessa totally missed the Rifleman, not even an aimed shot, just a regular one.
It took Alarhan and Summer both to destroy the Locust.
Vey had to jump back, since there were two Spiders rushing in, spotting for the other defenders.
The fracking turrets hit NOTHING AT ALL and the Rifleman, which having not been headcapped because of course it hadn't, destroyed the nearest one, despite being shot at by the lance.
(Okay, RNG? If you don't stop being kvetchy right now, I'm not even going to try and we'll start with the reloading for every shot right now.)
Summer finally CT'd the Commando.
And the Rifleman took a shot form Alarhan, ignored the paladins and destroyed the next turret. Mylassta got REALLY annoyed.
(And if you hadn't done that, RNG, we'd have been going back several turns and doing it until you did.)
Vey obliterated the first Spider. Alarhan and Summer sprinted to a new position, needing a moment to cool down. Vey annihilated the second Spider. Mylassta jumped up to take a shot at an approaching Phoenix Hawk; there was almost certainly a Cataphract coming in behind that.
Nope, it was a Warhammer. Mylassta tried headcapping it, while the other three's combined fire knocked down and CT-killed the Phoenix Hawk.
Mylassta's second shot damaged the Warhammer's head, and Vey's last salvo managed to head cap it.
Right, two rounds until the first reinforcements came. Time to sprint towards the drop-point to the east.
Locust, Hatchetman, UrbanMech and a Blackjack. All of which were doing the "ignore lance, charge base" thing.
Summer's punch and Alarhan's PPC toppled the locust.
(And the game didn't move Mylassta where I wanted it to, so she could only kill the Locust and not shoot the Hatchetman.)
The Shortbow was doing a lot of the heavy lifting here, CT-killing the Blackjack. And after Mylassta failed to headcap it... Shooting the Hatchetman in the back,.
Summer and Alarhan knocked the UrbanMech over with a punch and an LRM salvo. It got up. They knocked it down again. Mylassta CT'd it.
Wave one down, and wave two was almost upon them - back to the west.
Commando, Firestarter, Cicada and Griffin. And they were all fast mechs, which meant there was very little chance of them being taken out in one shot, so the paladins each had to hit one (two of them physical, which at least resulted in the Commando getting its leg ripped off) to get their attention.
And of course, wave THREE would come a round earlier, which was just tedious...
Summer, having hit the Griffin in the CT rear, did just enough damage that a second COIL-M shot ithout charge killed the Griffin exactly before it could move, and then started rushing towards the other drop-point. Alarhan smoked the Firestarter before it could move. Mylassta leg-capped the Commando. And that just left Vey to obliterate the Cicada with SRMs.
(Huh. Didn't expect that.)
Just time to rush back to the east drop-point.
Two Locusts, tow Trebuchets.
Summer only just managed to catch the lead Locust, but her shot in the rear annihilated it. Mylassta jumped in and shot one of the Trebuchets in the back, killing that too. Vey had the same chance (a mere 45%) of hitting either Locust or Trebuchet, so went for the latter, She blew an arm off, but that at least got its attention. Alarhan fired her PPC to get the Trebuchet's, but failed even to hit it.
The Locust dodged up behind the Fair Marauder, but didn't do any damaged before Alarhan sprinted up and levelled it with the Trebuchet's fist.
That just left the last Trebuchet. It foolishly stayed still and took a PPC shot - it was a 7K - at Vey and missed.
Which meant Mylassta got to backstab again.
Right, That cleared all the enemies. Just the base - and potentially its turrets - to deal with.
(Why still in combat, game? Makes moving to the base real tedious.)
No turrets, so that made it easy to level the buildings. Dobrescu screamed furiously all the while, foolishly getting close to the window in the last building. Vey was splitting her fire two take the last pair (damaged by Summer and Mylassta) down in one go.
It was almost certainly by chance, then, that one of those SRMs just happened to wobble a bit in flight and strike the screaming manic in the crotch before exploding.
The momentary trace of golden, divine light on the missile's fins was probably just a trick of the light.
It was as well, Mylassta was down to one AC round left. The Shortbow, notably, was still about 30% full.
Enough salvage for a Blackjack, Rifleman and Commando.
Lynessa didn't feel at all sorry for dealing with that, potential allies or not, that needed to be done. An abusive ego-manic had been put down and the literally millions of people he was prepared to kill for his depraved lust had been saved. This was a solid win, probably the most solid one the paladins had made this trip.
Marina was very pleased.
Now, there was just the matter of those two ladies to settle. They seemed to have made a bit of their peace, and there was talk of Ellen disappearing into the frontier and Azura not stopping her, and that might have happened if Lynessa wasn't around.
What ACTUALLY happened, though, was a little surprise extraction by Magical Paladins and the two were brought to a room, both carried by Vey - who was, as mentioned, quite a large girl in every respect, including height - one under each arm like little children. (Neither woman was particularly tall, being of Capellan ancestry.)
And in there, There Was A Talking To.
Lynessa, after all, was an expert councillor and a paladin.
By the time the paladins were ready to leave - Lynessa continuing to defer to Mylassta as field commander - Therapy Happened. Both Ellen and Azura came out much better people. Azura wasn't maybe quite ready yet to forgive Ellen, but they were on speaking terms and they were trying. Ellen was, after all, deeply repentant over what she did, in a moment of passion and again in a moment of anger. Lynessa, of course, had the experience with talks with Illy and Alluria to drawn upon (she'd been the one to work with them as they were assessed for joining the Paladins), and those two had literally being the bitterest of enemies for a good century and a half, demon verses devil, after all. A bit of a stabbing in the heat of the moment was nothing, really, by comparison...
It was a good job the rewards were mostly spiritual, because the actual rewards were pretty crap - nothing at all of note.
The Capellans only hated them paladin now (that wouldn't last for long0, but it meant Lynessa could at least look in the shops...! Pity there was nothing worth buying.
Never mind.
Contracts, then.
What good will they had with the Capellan state (though perhaps not the people) was about to go up in smoke!
First off a 4.5 skull battle for the pirates. As usual, they were trying to be all clever about it, trying to frame it as something other than it was revenge for failed extortion, but whatever.
Zuranna climbed in the Overlord, Mylassta remained with the Fair Marauder, Natasha (still in high spirits - it had been for, like, 90 days or something) in the Bull Shark and Summer switched to the Annihilator.
Two 65s, a 70 and a 75.
the lance waited. When the enemy got into range, the first group of three was a K2 Catapult, a Grasshopper and a Marauder.
The Bull Shark and Fair Marauder headcapped the Grasshopper. Summer damaged the head of the Catapult.
The enemy's reinforcements were coming in, and from slightly behind the lance.
Mylassta was not having much luck with her headshots today. Summer damaged the Marauder’s head, this time. Zuranna punched the Catapult's leg off and Natasha used the Ultra ACs to destroy the other one.
Mylassta missed again, but Natasha managed the headcap the Marauder, meaning the long-range LRMs stopped.
The near 65-tonner appeared, a Thunderbolt 5SS, close enough to put flamers on the Overlord (for all the good THAT did). And a Banshee 3M was coming in ahead of the other lance, another 65-ton mech on scopes.
Natasha had a pot-shot at the Banshee with the autocannons, and was delighted to see its head explode.
Mylassta finally destroyed a head!
Zuranna edged forwards, spotting another Thunderbolt. An 80-tonner and 90-tonner were just out of sight.
The Thunderbolt jumped on top of a building. Zuranna grinned. The building exploded, dropping the Thunderbolt and doing far more damage than if Zuranna had just shot it. Repeated fire from Mylassta and Summer broke both legs.
There was a Cyclops and the 80-tonner left, the former acting a spotter. Summer missed the head entirely, but did destroy a leg. Zuranna, without much else to do, lobbed a Thumper shell as she could just catch both of them. Mylassta then headcapped the Cyclops as it lay prone.
The last mech was an Awesome 8T. Summer and Natasha tried to headcap it, but merely destroyed it instead.
Three parts Banshee, one of Awesome and Cyclops, a +2 damage LRM 15 (useful) and a ++Gyro (hit defence).
The next mission was a 3.5 skull recovery mission, same lance - getting a pirate and his data out.
The lance headed to pick up the pirate. The first enemy defenders detected were a Marauder and another 75-tonner.
While there were only four enemies on scopes - a second Marauder, a Thunderbolt and what was probably 0X Catapult - there was definitely a second lance in the vicinity.
Zuranna sprinted to grab the pirate while the other stood their ground, taking pot-shots at the Marauders as they moved into and out of sight behind the buildings.
Summer used her lock to confirm that it was, indeed a Cataphract with ECM. Natasha didn't headcap it, but did tear off a leg and destroy the ECM system.
The enemy seemed reluctant to engage, but the second Marauder and the Thunderbolt finally showed themselves again.
Natasha and Mylassta headcapped the Marauder (though it took them a couple of tries) and Summer and Natasha headcapped the Thunderbolt.
There was now a THIRD Marauder coming in, plus an Assassin. Which did the "stand on a building" thing and thus promptly got dropped on the floor again thanks to Zuranna.
Summer and Mylassta headcapped the next Marauder. Summer started on the next one. Zuranna, shrugging, ran up and grabbed the data.
(And you know what, RNG, I'm sick to the back teeth of you hitting my high spirit pilots in the head, so no, reload, you're not having that one, not when I've got, like five or six 4.5/5-skull missions left.)
Natasha dodged some fire and she and Summer headcapped the last Marauder. Mylassta smashed the Assassin, but only broke its arm, causing it to flee. Mylassta chased it and shot a leg off, and Zuranna's LRMs wiped the other.
They lance could now see the mysterious missile unit, a JagerMech. It was out of sight... Until a Thumper shell took out the building it was hiding behind. Summer grinned brightly. No point in headcapping now...
The JagerMech exploded.
A staggering five Marauder 3R parts, one part short of them getting two Marauders at once!
I was going to do the last pirate mission, but with one thing and another, it took longer to that mission than I thought, so we'll call it there.
So, I might do some more tomorrow or Wednesday (depends how I get along), otherwise they'll be one more session on Thursday and then that'll be it for a week.
I mean, the jumping on buildings would actually have made sense in-universe during the Flashpoint here; if I'm reading things correctly, those buildings belong to your side and demolishing them is something you would probably hesitate to do if the game actually remembered that.
5324172
I think that's it. If there's no consequence to destroying the buildings (and no-one ever says there are), then you might as well just treat them as destructible objects. I mean, BattleMechs just smash through trivial buildings, crated and cars and such without any heed, so it's not like you could avoid collateral damage even if you wanted to. So other can occasionally going "boy, hope nobody was in there" when you wander through stuff, I think its one of those things were the game mechanics take preference over the versimilitude, given the wat it's presented.