Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty-Seven

Bleakbane Plays BATTLETECH, Part Thirty-Seven:

So, did I say this part would be Thursday? Hahahaha, silly me, forgot that the RNG would rather do ANYTHING than actually let me, like, paly or anything. Yesterday was a late start (whereas normally on Thursday at the moment I can get a goodly few hours in) and what time I had was frittered away mostly reading Sarna while I tried to get some decent contracts.

(Okay. So, in numerous reloads - a LOT of reloads, both today and Monday after I finished the session - NO missions against Kurita were generated at ALL. Missions FOR them? Yes. Against? Nope, it was nothing but pirate and Taurian opposition. The complete lack suggests to me that it isn't possible to generate any missions against Kurita at Carmichel, which is kinda of surprising (there’s only Kurita/Davion/Taurian in the system), but either it's STUPENDOUSLY bad luck or it's mechanically prevented).

So after probably an hour (or admittedly sporadic tries, as I was reading random crap on Sarna while doing so), I settled for one set that had four vs Taurian. Two for Kurita, but I'm not 100% comfortable with the idea of tasking a mission for just rep and then withdrawing in bad faith JUST to tank the rep. Okay, no, I'M fine with it, but that's pushing Lynessa a little too far.

And then I remembered I had only SPECIFICALLY gone to Carmichel for anti-Kurita missions, because with only the three powers in it, it looked like the most likely candidate AND then there was sweet FA in the shop.

So that was kind of a massive waste of effort.

So. RELOAD. We'll go somewhere else, back towards Marik space (where Steiner missions are).

Lynessa blinked, waking up from her dream, as they were about to depart for 4-skull Lochmantle, not like in her dream...

Ayasha Hadley called up. There was a moment's pause as both she and Lynessa had a strong sense of deja vu, and then Lynessa turned the comms over to Zuranna and quietly murmured to the dwarf to go to town with invective. Ayasha cut the comms very quickly after that.

Because they had another couple of weeks before they got to the planet, Lynessa decided she'd have a laugh, so they dug out the King Crab, and slapped two Ultra AC/20s (with three tons of ammo each) and then stuffed it full of heat sinks and all four assorted heat banks (so it had an amazing shutdown heat of 170) and then slapped four +++Small Lasers on it for good measure, leaving a single ton for extra armour.

It would be complete just a day before they arrived.

Payday:

(Well, at least Lochmantle was consistently generating about ONE anti-Kurita mission per reload, which makes Carmichel all that more suspicious...

...

Or not. The RNG was throwing an absolute screaming wobbly, because apparently it has a massive stiffy for Kurita (makes sense, given how much it HATED Davion earlier in this run.)

Much, MUCH time later - it DID NOT want me to have more than one, if that, vrs Kurita mission - at about the time it was time to quit for the day, I settled for the only set I'd generated with two vrs-Kurita missions. And frankly, with having had a fairly paff day sorting other stuff out and generally (the 3D printer's no dead-dead, and so I'm down to back-up for the next 3-4 weeks until the new one comes), so I was like, "yeah, I'mma quit while I'm ahead, if this is any indication of what it'll be like in-mission.")

The paladins finally arrived, after what Lynessa felt was an unreasonable long trip.

But the King Crab was finished.

(Okay, let's see if we can get owt actually DONE today...!)

First then a simple 3.5 skull battle against a Kuritan lance.

Shelat in the Overlord, Mylassta in the Bull Shark, Vey testing out the King Crab (Vey because it was expected she might need coolant vent...) and Summer in the Annihilator.

The lance quickly encountered a Warhammer and a Catapult, both at the edge of range.

Mylassta took a shot at the Warhammer, which didn't have Bulwark.

That seemed like a good omen...

The others sprinted forwards - Shelat spotting (and getting shot at by) a Banshee and a Battlemaster. she kept running and punted the Catapult. Which rather daftly kicked her back. That was a fight it was going to lose...

Summer and Mylassta closed and headcapped the Banshee.

Vey closed to take a normal shot at the Catapult.

Okay, that was a lot of room to build up heat...

The Catapult was badly destabilised by the hit, so Shelat knocked it over. Mylassta switched to LB-X ACs only and CT- killed it.

Okay, the Battlemaster wanted to stay there and shoot Shelat, did it...?

That was a lot more heat, but still no problem...!

And first headshot for the King Crab! Neat!

Enough for a Banshee and Warhammer salvage!

Next mission was a 4-skull fight against two Kurita lances... in a Martian atmosphere.

Mylassta switched to the Fair Marauder, passing the Bull Shark to Vey. Summer stayed with the Annihilator - it did run relatively cool.

Mylassta moved up to take a couple of head-shots at the first enemy mech - a Thunderbolt. Shelat took a pair of regular shots at it, as the other two moved up, locating a Cataphract 1X to the east and a 75-tonner to the west (an Orion, they spotted as it flittered between rocks).

Long-range fire was starting to come in, but the girls were in position to make the most of their shots.

Vey did so, taking the Cataphract's head off.

Summer caught an LRM in the head, which was unfortunate. But the Orion proved a suitable vent for her anger.

Mylassta and Shelat double-teamed the Thunderbolt, Mylassta helping to essentially clothes-line it for Shelat's charge, dropping it hard on its arse. A quick stomp from the Overlord ensured it would not be getting up again.

The reinforcements would actually have to get close enough to do their own spotting now...

The Bull Shark picked them up, two 75-tonners, a 60 and a 50. The lance was in a dust storm, so felt no need to rush to the enemy. Shelat locked one and determine there was at least one Marauder in the enemy group.

The enemy milled around, but a Thumper dropped on them got them moving and a Marauder marched into sight. It left it, just as quickly, and Vey and Summer blew its head off.

The next hapless victim was a Rifleman that fell to Vey after a burst of coolant. An Orion strode up and into Summer's sights and it too went down to a headshot. (Mylassta, bulwarked in cover, was going a grand job of tanking the enemy shots.)

That last mech, a Centurion, got a second Thumper while it approached. A pair of shots from Mylassta and Shelat easily dealt with it.

An entire Orion salvaged, with a part for the next one...

Well, that was it for fighting Kurita. Next would be a 3.5 skull against the Taurians in the badlands.

Mylassta swapped to the Atlas and Pseekie took over the Annihilator.

A Rifleman and a Marauder were the first mechs the paladins ran into. Vey decapitated the Rifleman. The Atlas and Overlord knocked the Marauder over, though Pseekie failed to head-cap it while it was prone. Incoming PPC fire suggested a Warhammer and either another Marauder or an Orion.

Shelat moved up and determined it was the former and they'd been right on the Warhammer. For good measure, she CT'd the prone Marauder.

Vey and Pseekie headcapped the Warhammer. The final Marauder was pummelled by repeated fire, knocked down and CT-killed. Mylassta was not hugely happy, she'd not got a kill again...

Another Warhammer to sell...

Last contract that Lynessa would do here (as the other three were for the Capellans, Kuritas and Taurians) was capturing a Taurian manufacturing facility for the Federated Suns (4 skulls).

Grumbling a bit about not getting any more mech kills, Mylassta switched to the Rocket Shark.

No turrets, which made Mylassta grumble louder.

The enemy soon were visible, though; a JagerMech, a Quickdraw and a 90-tonner.

Vey's failed headcap attempt did open the way for Mylassta to blow the JagerMech apart, however. And the paladins could now see the other two mechs of the enemy lance - a Highlander and a Cyclops. Summer managed to land a clonk to the Cyclops' head as she and Shelat took pot-shots at it from range.

As the Summer and Shelat's second shots went at the Cyclops, Darius warned Taurian reinforcements were incoming. Vey vented coolant and took off the Cyclops’ head - good, that would drastically reduce the enemy’s ability to get the drop on the paladins.

Mylassta contented herself with battering the Quickdraw and, when Shelat finished the job of knocking it over, hit it again and destroyed it. That paved the way for Summer to headcap the Highlander - just in time for the reinforcements to start coming in.

(Also denying Vey and action, so she couldn't cool down because the enemy immediately got a turn. Tiresome.)

Two incoming Rifleman. Vey dashed to change position - mostly to cool off. Pseekie downed one of the pair with a headshot, and Shelat and Mylassta teamed up to again knock an approaching Black Knight down.

Unfortunately Pseekie blew it up instead of beheading it. The second Rifleman likewise couldn't stand the fire of the Bull Shark AND the Rocket Shark. That just left a Thunderbolt which Pseekie decapitated.

That was that, and a simple stroll into the base captured the facility.

For saying she was not expecting to get much, Mylassta managed three kills...!

Enough salvage for a Cyclops, Highlander AND Thunderbolt.

That wrapped it up for this system though.

Well. Lynessa sighed. In order to get the reputations sorted, they would need to quickly get the Kuritans to hate them and they still were only at 30 reputation with Steiner (and there was a Marik Flashpoint for Lostech against them...)

Well, looked like there was no choice for it - time to deliberately upset the Draconis Combine by taking a contract for maximum reputation and then just walking off.

Then they would set out for Horsham (a 4-skull world) to make their last attempt to fight Kurita before dashing across to Marik (ignoring the flashpoints for Kurita and Liao now).

(We're going, I think, to end up doing the reputation stuff for thre score bonus - there's only 115 days left. If I get that and make it back to Manthraka before time is out, I'll call the end of the Let's Play there; else after day 1200, we'll potter about doing flashpoints until there's only Manthraka left as the climax, I think.)

The Kuritans were quite upset the paladins just left the pirates alone after Mylassta chipped a nail or something or put the wrong dress on and they just HAD to go back to the ship, then, didn't they? (Mylassta COULD mug quite convincingly, to be fair.)

It hurt the MRB rating by 3 points, but it also dropped their rep with the Kuritans down by 34 to -80, which was significantly more than Lynessa had expected. Excellent!

Poppy got some bad news from home, unfortunately, that Llana had gotten by mistake. Llana had been tempted not to tell her about what had happened to an old (very close) friend of hers, but did anyway and Poppy was understandable a bit low.

And that brings us to both time and the spectre of having to reload a ton for contracts again (not a single one vrs Kurita in the first six attempts, that's comforting... So we might be back tomorrow, assuming it doesn't take all evening to get any contracts again...!