447 replies to this topic

[Spokes]

guardian wolf, on 04 September 2013 - 06:45 PM, said:

And the last part. Now, if I remember this correctly (and for the love of God, I hope I am) the Wolf's Dragoons are still a pretty minor group right now. Nobody really notable, knows much about them, and so, the better contracts (like regular House contracts) are reserved for more notable groups with better, and longer, track records. So, why not take advantage of free advertising, one of the regular (if not less so) pilots of the Dragoons doing well on Solaris, to get the name circulating around. Generate interest into the merc corps. That's part one. Generate interest, get their name out more by utilizing free advertising. The second, is that the Kommando wants to see how warriors from different aspects of life (more importantly different house loyalties) interact on and off the battlefield.

I'm sorry Wolf, but you're dead wrong here. By 3031 the Dragoons have served with distinction in each of the five Great Houses, earning a reputation as one of if not the premier mercenary unit in the Inner Sphere. The Draconis Combine was the last House to take the Dragoons into their employ, and the Combine liked them so much that they decided first to try and force the Dragoons to remain in their service indefinitely, and when that didn't work the Combine waged a military campaign with the goal of wiping the Dragoons out.

The Dragoons won.

Victorious but badly beaten, the Dragoons left the Combine for the Federated Suns. Jaime Wolf traveled to Terra and badly embarrassed the Coordinator in a verbal confrontation just prior to the wedding ceremony between Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner.

It should be noted that there is a conversation between Jaime Wolf and Morgan Kell at that event, where Kell basically says the Dragoons have an extremely formidable reputation and that he would never want to see the Hounds have to fight them.

At the outbreak of the Fourth Succession War, Hanse Davion employed the Dragoons along the Draconis March border and essentially used them to bait Takashi Kurita into trying to crush the Dragoons when he could have been invading Federated Suns worlds that had been stripped of troops in order to feed the Capellan campaign. The Combine went after the Dragoons big time.

The Dragoons won.

Having learned from Takashi's mistake and knowing he could never prevent the Dragoons from eventually offering their services to another House, Hanse awarded the newly captured Outreach to the Dragoons immediately following the Fourth Succession War.

So by 3031, the Dragoons have established themselves as a veritable force of nature, and have started turning Outreach into the mercenary powerhouse it will eventually become.

[dal10]

by minor group you mean they are not taking contracts at the moment you are correct. they currently do not have enough guys to both defend outreach and hire out anyone besides the black widows. However, 5 regiments of crack troops is anything but minor. They have shaped the inner sphere ever since they showed up in davion space in 3005. hell the only reason Kurita didn't wreck the davion's **** during the 4th succession war is that about 3 years prior they got into a blood feud with the dragoons. So instead of attacking barely defended worlds, they hit the dragoons with everything they could spare from the lyran front. They reduced the dragoons from 5 full regiments at misery, to barely a single regiment of mostly patchwork mechs at the end of the 4th.

[guardian wolf]

Okay okay, I stand corrected. Apparently I forgot that while I was typing.

I had thought this happened at a later date, but apparently I need to refresh my memory on the subject.

[RogueSpear]

On a world full of mechs and mech parts, why is it impossible for a group of techs with an essentially unlimited source of money to go buy new parts? The way it was described when we did it? I'd very much appreciate the Jager being left out of it. Otherwise the rest of us have to start making 'How come that guy was able to just pay for the repairs to Jack's mech out of his own pocket?' posts and Jack needs to go confront him on the subject. Swap it to the Catapult that's half merced in the bay if you're adamant on keeping it.

As for VB hating Dylan, look at Mad Jack. Mad Jack has done little, until his last match, other than cause VB hell - and he deliberately tried to. Nevertheless, except in private, once, VB kept his game face on. VB simply isn't the type to blow his cool every fifteen seconds in ranting screaming matches.

Also, for someone who loves the Dragoons as much as you do buddy, you know nothing Guardian Wolf Time to reread their sarna article, at least

[dal10]

i will try to finish up the letters tomorrow night. had to work on math homework tonight...

[Red Duck]

I never thought I'd say it, but I kinda miss maths homework.

[Thom Frankfurt]

@ GW. Rogue's suggestion on switching the parts to fix up the Jaeger to the C'pult sounds like the easiest way to edit your post. And I thoroughly enjoy that idea for it moves us all one step closer to heavy lance matches and trust me that much mechacarnage just sounds like oh such a sweet thought to me.

Also VB is a smooth operator who doesn't loose his cool. In the past when he snappend and threw that punch at Dylan I kind of let that slide as a moment where his composure cracked just for a second. As you may imagine being the middle man between Erin and you meddling kids and your dumb dog can be quite frustrating.

And in regards to the Dragoons. I totally agree with everything everyone else said but I have some things to add. Natasha Kerensky, the dreaded 'Black Widow' is arguably the most dangerous MechWarrior in existence as this point. And just the fact that she also claims Kerensky as her last name is enough to warrant some celebrity.

Also, in 3005 the Dragoons show up out of nowhere armed with strange mechs not seen in the Inner Sphere for centuries as well as designs thought lost to the horrors of the Succession Wars. So right of the bat they had a bit of the mystery attached to their name just for that. At this point the Dragoons are shrouded in mystery with much speculation about them. Just who are they? Where did they come from? Is Natasha really Alexander Kerensky's great great grand daughter? Where did they get those mechs? Plus at this time, well as far as I know they are undefeated.

@Dal really liking the letters and would like to see more of them from time to time as you post on here. Approved.

@Duck Not too shabby friend. I suggest flushing it up a bit more and you should be good to go.

What's up with all the H'back love all of a sudden?

[RogueSpear]

He wanted a Hollander, but they're not available in the time period. The 4H was the closest thing to it off the top of my head and eventually I talked him round

[Sparks Murphey]

The Shadow Hawk also does the cannon-onna-shoulder thing, and has a bit more length to said cannon, even if less boom from it.

[Sparks Murphey]

guardian wolf, on 04 September 2013 - 06:45 PM, said:

Now, onto the parts. This was only done to make Dylan seem a more helpful asset and try to make up for the *cough*bad luck*cough* of the past. I only had the parts show up when they were direly needed, as in, there was nothing else for it. Whatever you do with that, is up to you. I'm only trying to give you more stuff to work with, as, a lot of those parts, are nigh impossible to reconstruct from broken ones, if you even have them. Just trying to throw you and Mac a bone Rogue so that you don't have to go slaving away at something to make it realistic in order to suspend belief, nothing more. Which means, you honestly could do nothing with it, and say that the parts are literally still in their boxes, waiting for a purpose.

I see what you're trying to do, but sometimes people deliberately write problems for themselves so they can explore getting out of it. I've asked Thom for a Warhammer-L, but I'm planning to spend the next arc of the story acquiring it, since that's the fun bit for me, not the actual having of the thing. To quote Ghandi:

“Joy lies in the fight, in the attempt, in the suffering involved, not in the victory itself”

By granting the parts unexpectedly, you may have robbed Rogue of the chance to tell his struggle to get the Jager to work, without forcing a suspension of disbelief by Jack just ignoring the gifted spares.

[dal10]

hollander ac 20 variant

Mass: 35 tons
Tech Base: Inner Sphere
Chassis Config: Biped
Rules Level: Tournament Legal
Era: Age of War/Star League
Tech Rating/Era Availability: D/D-E-D
Production Year: 2750
Cost: 2,330,460 C-Bills
Battle Value: 641

Chassis: Unknown Standard
Power Plant: Unknown 140 Fusion Engine
Walking Speed: 43.2 km/h
Maximum Speed: 64.8 km/h
Jump Jets: None
Jump Capacity: 0 meters
Armor: Unknown Standard Armor
Armament:
1 Autocannon/20
Manufacturer: Unknown
Primary Factory: Unknown
Communications System: Unknown
Targeting and Tracking System: Unknown

================================================================================
Equipment Type Rating Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Internal Structure: Standard 58 points 3.50
Engine: Fusion Engine 140 5.00
Walking MP: 4
Running MP: 6
Jumping MP: 0
Heat Sinks: Single Heat Sink 10 0.00
Heat Sink Locations: 1 LT, 1 RT, 1 LA, 1 RA, 1 LL
Gyro: Standard 2.00
Cockpit: Standard 3.00
Actuators: L: SH+UA+LA+H R: SH+UA+LA+H
Armor: Standard Armor AV - 88 5.50

Internal Armor
Structure Factor
Head 3 9
Center Torso 11 13
Center Torso (rear) 4
L/R Torso 8 11
L/R Torso (rear) 3
L/R Arm 6 7
L/R Leg 8 10

================================================================================
Equipment Location Heat Critical Mass
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Autocannon/20 RT 7 10 14.00
@AC/20 (10) LT - 2 2.00
Free Critical Slots: 30

BattleForce Statistics
MV S (+0) M (+2) L (+4) E (+6) Wt. Ov Armor: 3 Points: 6
4 0 0 0 0 1 0 Structure: 3
Special Abilities: SRCH, ES, SEAL, SOA, AC 2/2/0

you could do something like this for the hollander.

[Red Duck]

AC-20? Man, you get the Hollander for the Gauss.
But yeah, I quite like the look (and weapons, and speed, and jumpjets) of the Shadowhawk, so I think I might run with one of those instead. But yeah, I'll get to work on fleshing out that character further so.

[RogueSpear]

Hollander chassis simply isn't available in the time period Dal, it's not been invented yet.

[dal10]

all other alternatives i can think of have been done already.

i am trying to think of a witty way to say that we apparently have rules posted now and am failing at it.

Edited by dal10, 05 September 2013 - 11:47 AM.

[guardian wolf]

Well, the more I look at Dylan, and Draco as characters, the more I want to scrap them both. *sighs* I am honestly thinking about killing them both.... I can't even believe this.

[dal10]

Now for the next installment of Takeo's letter. this set basically leads up through galahad, i might get a bit farther though.

Dear Isabella,

I think I finally figured out what you feel when you talk about Nicholas. I met the most amazing girl while on the companies R&R session. It was a classic soldier's week off. If you can see straight you need more whiskey. Just watching her sleep makes it feel like the rest of the world fell into place. Hopefully one day i can introduce her to Ma and Pa, they would just love her. Well she is waking up now, keep having a good time at college Izzy.

Love,
Takeo

Note Galahad was publicly announced. basically it was to desensitize CapCon and the Combine to the mass movements of units on their border. Also this is about a year after the previous letter.

Dear Isabella,

Kristen and me are still going strong, Though we have had to slow down a bit with the wargames coming up in about a month. She applied for a transfer to a different section of the RCT due to the fraternization regs. The major is waiting until after the games to transfer her though. He doesn't want to shift up the command structure this close to the games. I am thinking about asking her to marry me after the games. I already bought the ring and everything. I am just waiting for the right time. Hopefully you have a new sister-in-law soon. I will write again soon Izzy.

Love,
Takeo

Dear Isabella,

Kristen is dead... We went up into the Yaeger mountains on Stein's Folly to simulate a flanking maneuver. I warned her the path wasn't stable for mechs, particularly heavys. You know the sections of the mountain the beks avoided? it was the same rocks. I warned her... She didn't listen. She fell... I tried to jump down and save her, but Frenchie wouldn't let me. I couldn't save her. Her warhammer landed on the cockpit. She never had a chance. All because she wouldn't listen. All because I couldn't save her. Right before she hit, she told me she loved me. She knew she was going to die and she still said that. God... I loved her too. I don't even remember what happened after that. Apparently i led the rest of the lance to complete the flanking. All i remember is repeating her last words in my head over and over. They promoted me to LT for keeping cool under those conditions. But I don't want to be a Leftenant. I just want my Kristen back...

Takeo


Dear Isabella,

Thank you... I don't know how you got Frenchie's contact info. But thanks. He managed to talk me out of the dark places i was in. Kristen wouldn't want to see me like that. Even if it was from her death. She would want me to get back onto my feet and keep going forward. It is just so hard without her...

Her parents showed up as well. They came all the way from Chesterton for their only daughter's funeral. I gave them the ring i had planned to give her some time around now. They put it into a locket and gave it back to me. They forgave me for not saving her. The look on her mother's face reminds me of her. Everything about this damn planet reminds me of her. But for now i have to push that to the back of my mind, as painful as it is. I have to keep moving forward.

Takeo

Dear Isabella,

We got a replacement in my lance now. Her name is Angela Clemens. Fresh out of the academy. Just like i was two years ago. She is there to replace Kristen. But she can't. No one can replace her. She has an orion, so at least we have our heavy compliment fleshed out again. also, congratulations on your engagement. That you are still with Nick for all these years speaks well of him. But make sure you still do your best in med school. Who better to patch me up if i get hurt?

Takeo

that is all for now. got to sleep. going to try and finish these before i post in the main thread.

[G is for Gamma]

Yo. Post up, moved the time table up about four hours. Hope that isn't an issue.

[Thom Frankfurt]

@ Gamma Nope, not an issue. I'm gonna move it forward at least a day in my next post... Good stuff, I'm wondering what is going on with your fan girl. She's getting upset at having to wait to give you the Space Herpies?

@Dal, in 3031 there already is a mech that does a 4/6 and packs a Ac20, it's called a Hunchback.

@GW ?

[dal10]

which is also 15 tons heavier than the hollander, which is a light mech.

[Thom Frankfurt]

I know that, what I'm sitting here wondering about is why you want a Hollander like thing in 3031 so bad? Can't you just get a half scrapped Panther and jury-rigg something instead of coming up with a brand new mech?