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[Craig Steele]

AFTER MISSION DEBRIEF - Pilot Craig Steele - recorded statement...

OK, well we dropped near a residential area of a little place called Crimson Straight. Betty rattled off all systems nominal on my SHD 2H (P) and I was feeling pretty comfortable with my Winchester AC10 backed up by 3 of those new Holly Streak 2 racks. A standard factory Martel 5 medium laser rounded out my load out if my ammo bins ran dry. We had heard an enemy mech company was in the area and we had come to take it out.

The Lance commander moved out in his BLR and I settled into his rear quadrant at about 150 meters. We maneuvered through some buildings following Charlie lance when they split off taking the over pass up to a raised area while we took the low road through a light industrial park.

That's when my grid map lit up with multiple contacts and Charlie got itself into one hell of a fire fight with an enemy group trying to come through the mountain pass. The BLR pushed on heading for the tunnel underpass but that opened up his flank if Charlie got over run so I eased back a bit to cover him if needed.

Turned out to be a good call cause a Jenner came racing down the path angling for the BLR but I locked him up pretty quick and gave him a salvo of SRM's and laser fire. Maybe he was a rookie, maybe he figured SRM and laser equals some light he can tangle with but whatever his reason, he slams on the brakes and turns towards me. Dumb move cause I do a little slamming of my own and pump some winchesters into him with SRM salvos for good measure. He crumpled up like tin foil and crashed to the ground.

The CO had kept going and was linked up with Alpha lance, they were tangling with enemy contacts on the far side of the raised platform. Charlie was still trading fire with the group at the pass. I held my position under the platform covering the access from the pass and the tunnel while the Co with Alpha pushed forward.

That's when the Centurian came out of the tunnel. He saw me straight away and we engaged each other simultaneously. I unloaded the Winchester into him as we closed range and took some AC fire from him. We got into a circle of death in between the pylons trading fire. I took a few salvos hard but my armour held up ok but it didn't take long for his lack of jump jets to take effect. He got himself all tangled up with some of the industrial gear and as his speed dropped off I could target his right torso more effectively. His arm came away and his return fire was limited to a couple of medium lasers. Didn't take long after that to put him down hard.

With the Centurian down I pushed my speed up to max trying to regain formation with the CO. Company had lost four mechs by now, and including my 2 we claimed 5 enemy. Alpha was pushing into another residential area and Charlie was still top side sniping it out.

I was pushing up between the buildings when this Dragon comes out of the left and turns into the BLR's rear. He was so confident he didn't even throw a glance in my direction, he just lined up the BLR rear armour. At 200 meters in between the buildings I didn't even have to aim. Proverbial duck in a barrel. I give him the full alpha strike but this guy is no rookie. As soon as my fire hits him he makes a hard right turn getting out of the street and into an open area near a pond. I make my own right turn trying to cut him off but this guy knows his stuff. As I break cover he has already covered my exit with fire and his lasers eat into my armour.

Glancing at Betty's threat assessment his armour looks pretty beat up and I go for his centre torso with the Winnie throwing in SRM's as often as I can. We are both dodging and weaving breaking locks and regaining contact, its a real dog fight ducking in and out of the buildings. He is getting support from somewhere cause LRM's keep lobbing in my direction but I am able to break locks often enough that the damage from that is minimal.

Problem was that our company is trading casualties about even now. I see on the mini map that Charlie is gone, over run probably and our rear is wide open. They are down 7 mechs and we are down 8. Bout then is when the Dragon decides he had enough and he breaks hard to disengage. He must have lost contact with me in the buildings cause I came out the other side and his rear is open to me again. My heat is so high I know an Alpha strike will shut me down but there no enemy in sight so I figure to hell with it, manufacturer guidelines are only guidelines right. I give him the works and down he goes, and true to form, Betty tells me she is shutting down.

That's when the Atlas comes onto the scene, striding down the off ramp towards me like some bad *** mother. I start punching the over ride and my engine rumbles back into life. I throw it into full reverse trying to get back into cover as the Atlas starts lobbing LRM's at me and I see he has a Thunderbolt for company, just my luck right.

Right about now I figure I am screwed. My armour is shot up, about half ammo and the other 3 company mechs are 700 odd meters away tackling 2 enemy mechs. If I try and re join the company I drag these two into their rear, if I try and fight they are gunna destroy me. But I figure if I can keep em occupied long enough, maybe the company can finish up the top group and come back.

So I throw it into forward and ramp up to full speed and burst back out into the open. Its only 81 kph but they were closing on me so the range is brutally close. I unload the Winchester and Martel into the atlas, no time for an SRM lock and pass right between them. They are so surprised they don't even get a shot off and I break hard right behind them racing for the cover of the buildings. Torso twisting I get a second salvo into the Thunderbolt and I hit my jump jets to turn hard in the air.

Hitting the ground facing the way I just came, I repeat the process and sprint out of the buildings into the open. The Thunderbolt is right in front of me and he gets a Winchester for his trouble, the Atlas has gone on a little thinking he could maybe cut me off in the buildings but he turns towards me quickly. My speed is high enough that he can't get a lock and I give him a Winnie on the way past, hitting my jump jets I get over the buildings where the Atlas has no line of sight.

Then I turn left, heading back towards the Thunderbolt in between the buildings and when I come back into the open he has turned towards the Atlas so I give him a burst again to get his attention and double back. The industrial area to my right looks far to open to their fire, the river to my rear even less so I figure if I'll just play "chase the rabbit" in the buildings.

It's full speed and random turns in and out of the residential park. I snap off AC rounds any time I see one of them and use my jump jets to change direction for harder turns. My heat starts climbing and their return fire is starting to breach the armour on my mech. Things are looking dicey but they must have had some comms issue cause they split up instead of boxing me in, and I had enough space to hit one and fade back to hit the other when they both turned back to chase me.

That's when the rest of the company started coming back, they finished up the other 2 with their number advantage and were now moving back down the residential park. I figured they were probably shot up a lot and a so I headed towards the pond and dropped into the low ground there. I took some fire as I crossed the open ground and Betty let me know some critical systems were down but that brought my two pursuers into the open and gave the company some free fire before they could turn and face them.

I was safe enough in the low ground but I still had some ammo left and those two had been so nice to me in giving me their ammo I figured the least I could do was return the compliment, so I turned back and got a hard lock on the Thunderbolt. I started with a few Winnie rounds as the range closed then poured the Holly's into him as fast as they would cycle. I lost my Martel sometime before that but I never noticed til then. Circling the Thunderbolt, I kept up a pretty steady barrage at about 120 meters managing my heat around 80% which Betty constantly reminded me was critical but hey, she's always a conservative one is Betty.

I damaged some components of the Thunderbolt but it was our remaining Jagermech that took him down. Switching targets to the Atlas I just rinsed and repeated, circle work with AC and SRM salvo's as fast as they could cycle, watching the heat and ignoring Betty's ultra conservative warnings about system damage and heat levels.

The Atlas was never gunna make it on his own but he was brave enough, dishing out as much damage as he could and he got the BLR with a burst of medium lasers. But his armour was gone and his structure exposed and my next Alpha strike finished him off.

That just left the Jag, me and a beat up Blackjack on the grid, so we policed up friendly pilots and headed back to the extraction point.

They were tougher than we thought but we got em in the end. And yeah, 4 kills and an assist for me so if we're done here, I'll go grab a drink with the boys, it's been a good day.

recording ends......

[The Shepherd]

I like your style Mechwarrior. No guts, no galaxy eh?