Galtor 3025: Opening Moves (5150: Mecha Combat)

 It had been a long road, but the Full Throttle Lemmings were now established mercs. That first ticket on Zhongsha had turned everything around. With that ticket under their belts, more tickets followed. Most were small, but a mounting series of successes weighed against only a few failures saw the Lemming's reputation increase and with it the value of their tickets.

The increase in income had led to the company buying more mechs and pilots, and now their establishment comprised a full company and a small dropship of their own. It had also led to Jennie wishing she could die in battle instead of bored to death by the ever increasing amounts of paperwork that their employer on Galtor kept demanding of her.

The new ticket was a full-on war, and the Lemmings were just one of many units involved in fighting off the rapacious Draconis Combine. Jennie mulled all this over as she strapped into the Battlemaster she had salvaged on a previous ticket. She liked this monster mech. It let her get up close and personal.

"This is Lemming 1, do you read me Control?"

"Roger, Lemming 1. Control reads you loud and clear. Give 'em hell, and, hey, let's be careful out there!"

"Good to hear you're on Control today, Anna."

Anna's voice over comms took Jennie right back to that first ticket and watching Anna's Locust be blown to pieces. She had grieved for weeks, especially because there was nothing left of Anna's body to recover when they salvaged the ops area. But then, two months later, a wandering band of mendicants entered the compound where the Lemmings were based. Anna was with them, though barely alive. The mendicants had found her shattered body and kept her alive as they followed their path through the wilderness. By the time they returned to what passed for civilisation, the damage to Anna's nervous system was permanent. She would never pilot a mech again, but Jennie did not care. Her friend was alive. She paid for the best medical care she could and they were able to source prosthetic limbs. Soon Anna was up and moving around. She took over the role of XO of the Lemmings and often sat as Control on missions.

"Lemming teams Alpha and Delta. Lights are green, you are good to go."

"Roger that, Control. Lemmings ho!"

Six mechs moved out in something resembling a military formation towards the ops area. Given the individualistic nature of mech pilots generally and the Lemmings in particular, anything resembling a formation was a triumph worth celebrating. They would patrol towards Kurita territory and see what they could find. The eyes in the sky were all very well, but there were ways to hide troops and fortifications from them. Sometimes the Mk. 1 Eyeball was needed.

The ops area was hilly with woods all over. Alpha Team moved to secure a woods line in the centre. Bravo team moved up into a wooded hill on the right.

"Bogeys centre and left, Lemmings."

"Roger that, Control."

Delta team moved into position to scout.

"Negative on bogeys one and two, Alpha Team. Just some hopmonkeys stirring up dust by the look of it. Wait! Bogey three is hot. Team and a bit of goons. I count one Atlas, one Battlemaster, one Shadow Hawk, one Griffin and one Warhammer."

As Delta team ducked back into cover, the Kurita goons did the same, scared by the appearance of a fearsome Locust in the distance. 

Heroic Kurita mechs duck for cover! In the foreground, you can see the stat cards I made for the game.

"Ok, Delta Team. Hold position. Alpha Team moving up."

Jennie led her team to the edge of the woods, where they had clear sight to the bravest of the enemy mechs. The Warhammer and the Shadow Hawk had occupied the edge of the woods, using cover while giving themselves a good line of sight towards the Lemmings. They reacted instantly, firing at the Lemmings. Armour plates were melted from various parts of the Lemmings' mechs as rockets and lasers blasted across the battlefield.

"Take that, you scumsucker," Eileen crowed as her PPG blasted crimson fire straight through the middle of the Warhammer. The enemy pilot bailed out, but the Warhammer would need serious repairs.

"Don't get cocky, Eileen," Jennie admonished as she blasted the leg off the Shadow Hawk, causing it to fall to the ground. A PPG shot and a fusilade of rockets than blew its head off. "Gotcha!"

Turning their attention to the Battlemaster and the Griffin, which were the only goons left visible, Alpha Team loosed several salvoes of rockets. Both enemy mechs fled.

Delta Team took this opportunity to move up and start scanning towards the enemy lines. The sole remaining enemy mech realised what was going on and turned towards them. Green lasers cut Paul's Locust in half. The rest of the team sighed in relief as he successfully ejected.

"Pull back to cover, Delta Team. Alpha Team moving in."

Delta Team knew better than to argue and retreated to the cover of some woods behind them.

The three heavier mechs moved towards the woods where the enemy Atlas had taken up station. Seeing its easy targets withdrawing, the Atlas moved back towards the new threat.

As Alpha Team advanced, a blip appeared on their displays behind them. The final member of the Kurita squad had turned up. It was a Phoenix Hawk that had used its superior mobility to try to flank the Lemmings and attack them in the rear.

While still moving towards the Atlas, Jennie swivelled the torso of her Battlemaster and blasted the head off the Phoenix Hawk with a single shot.

"Hah!"

Alpha Team was soon in position beside the wooded hill. The Atlas seemed to have frozen for a while, its pilot unsure whether to retreat or engage. There was a big difference between attacking a team of light mechs and facing a whole team of mediums and heavies.

By the time the pilot had made their mind up, Alpha Team were in position. In a smoothly coordinated and most un-Lemming-like manoeuvre, all three moved up simultaneously to surround the Atlas. Jenny fired first... and missed with every shot.

"What the frack?!" She cursed as the Atlas returned fire and melted huge plates of her chest armour to slag. Lights all over her display turned red, warning of imminent collapse. She stabbed the fire button again and this time she was right on target. A single shot blasted the Atlas' head clean off and the enemy mech collapsed where it stood.

"Delta Team, clear to scout. We have your six."

Delta Team moved up again as Alpha Team stood guard. They recorded what they needed to and headed towards home. Tim collected Paul on the way. The cockpit of the Blackjack was cramped but they would soon be back at base.

As Delta Team transmitted the results of the patrol to Control, they raced their mechs home. Alpha Team followed at a more stately pace, ready to cover the lighter mechs if any more goons showed up. None did.

"Control, ops area is secure. Send in salvage teams."

Back at base they debriefed and headed for the bar, while the salvage teams recovered the damaged and destroyed mechs. Paul's Locust would fight another day, once it was repaired.

"You lost your mech, so you're buying the beers, Paul!"

The rest of the Lemmings cheered as Paul was made to dig deep and pay the bar tab for all the Lemmings.

The Full Throttle Lemmings

I'm not sure if this will be a campaign or not, but it is always fun to set things up that way. Everything is recorded here, including post-game rolls, so I can pick up again if the urge strikes.

Campaign Morale: 5 (4 at start)

Alpha Team:

1. Commander Jennie Raytor (Rep 5) - Battlemaster (Class 1)
2. Eileen Dover (Rep 5) - Marauder (Class 2)
3. Theresa Green (Rep 5) - Griffin (Class 3)

Bravo Team:

1. Barbara Dwyer (Rep 5) - Awesome (Class 2)
2. Andrew Peacock (Rep 4) - Wolverine (Class 3)
3. Ophelia Paine (Rep 4) - Catapult (Class 3)

Gamma Team:

1. Mike Hunt (Rep 4) - Wolverine (Class 3)
2. Paige Turner (Rep 4) - Thunderbolt (Class 3)
3. Theresa Crowd (Rep 3) - Shadowhawk (Class 3)

Delta Team:

1. Timothy Burr (Rep 5) - Blackjack (Class 4)
2. Joseph King (Rep 5) - Commando (Class 5)
3. Paul Bearer (Rep 4) - Locust (Class 5)

House Kurita

Campaign Morale: 3 (4 at start)

The Kurita mechs are not organised into teams. I have made a deck of stat cards and draw the appropriate number of cards as needed when they are encountered. The mechs available are:

• Atlas (Class 1)
• Battlemaster (Class 1)
• Archer (Class 2)
• Orion (Class 2)
• Warhammer (Class 2)
• Shadowhawk (Class 3)
• Griffin (Class 3)
• Wolverine (Class 3)
• Phoenix Hawk (Class 4)
• Valkyrie (Class 5)
• Wasp (Class 5)
• Stinger (Class 5)

All mechs on both sides are Battletech figures, so I have listed them with the names they have in Battletech.

Conclusions

So, I decided to give Anna some Plot Armour(tm) after the last game and return her in the role of XO of the Full Throttle Lemmings. I mean if Catalyst Game Labs can give Clan Wolf implausible plot armour like that, then why can't I?

The game went smoothly and I got more of a handle on how it is meant to work. Helps if you read the rules, you know! I found answers to the questions I had in it. Can you believe that?

In retrospect, I should have had Alpha Team move on the Atlas before Delta moved in to scout, but I got careless. Then I realised that Delta was no closer so it would become the focal point of the Atlas' attacks. Oops! Luckily, I rolled well and the Locust will be repaired and available for the next mission if I continue the campaign.

Kurita has huge resources, so I have not rolled for mech or pilot recovery. Their campaign morale represents the will to invest in the battle rather than anything else.

The Lemmings had great Campaign Morale rolls, while Kurita's were as bad as it gets. As a result, their morale went down one point while the Lemmings' morale went up one point. Obviously, getting Paul to pay for their beer is good for morale!