229 replies to this topic

[RogueSpear]

[[Didn't we want to wait a week? Suggest this be a recon force while everyone gets tucked in with their units]]

[guardian wolf]

[[Sounds good, who is Sparks with, and then Rogue and Will corner Draco about this in a 'surprise' meeting.]]

[Sparks Murphey]

[[Heather is attached to Will and the Vulkaneers. I've currently got her doing a joint patrol op with an NPC from the 17th Skye Rangers, the local house garrisoning unit]]

[Sparks Murphey]

RogueSpear, on 03 July 2012 - 04:19 PM, said:

[[Didn't we want to wait a week? Suggest this be a recon force while everyone gets tucked in with their units]]

[[In GW's original post, he'd said three days.]]

guardian wolf, on 02 April 2012 - 11:39 AM, said:

Guys here goes, We are on the planet Barcelona, in three days before the opening gambits of Jade Falcon's invasion of the IS.

[[By my count, that was

Day 1: Heather not yet on planet. Rick hits 'Mechs in the ankle with wrenches, Durgan arrives at Vulkaneer's base.
Day 2: Will trains Durgan a bit, Rogue arrives and arranges to meet with Will, Heather arrives and almost gets herself shot.
Day 3: Rogue and Will both have enormous hangovers, Rick pulls an all-nighter fixing S.C.R.A.P.M.A.K.E.R., Heather test runs her 'Mech and breaks it a bit.
Day 4: Rick spends some time in the sim-pods, then gets schooled by Draco, Heather goes on patrol.

I may have separated Day 3 and 4 incorrectly, but if so, it would seem that Rick should be just about dead on his feet right about now. Also not sure if Day 1 counted or should be better labelled Day 0.

I think part of the problem here is that Rogue and Will are still a day or so behind Rick, Draco and Heather. But most of Heather's driving conflict is in how real combat is not a speck like fighting on Solaris, and she can't easily do that outside of combat. Hence, her internal whining about boring patrol runs. (Suck it up, rookie!)]]

[MacabreDerek]

Rick continued to fire the Medium Laser of his Archer's right arm in a steady rhythm. There really wasn't any indication he was getting any better, but at least the anxiety was gone for a moment, though he couldn't help but feel insulted that it was back to basics. Then again, he never received formal training, perhaps it was about time he did.

He tried to understand Draco's words, but the reality was the concept of becoming 'one with your mech' was not only alien to him, it sounded absurd. A Battlemech was a tool, one designed for war to preform specific tasks. He was in an Archer, it's task was to provide fire support at range for friendly mechs, and his last volley of missiles was fired almost a half hour ago.

Maybe it was because he expected too much from himself, that all the sim time of combat wasn't what he needed, he was chewing too much too soon. He had only seen combat a handful of times, and even then the only reason he could say he came out of it was because the enemy was watching a 70 ton behemoth rather than the janitor that was in the driver's seat. That he was one of the 'big boys' on the field was nerve wracking, because of the expectations that came from holding that touch-of-god firepower at your fingertips.

Still, all he could do was push it out of his mind, trying to focus on the task at hand. Rick tried to remind himself of the first time he ever worked on a Battlemech. Well, 'worked' was probably the wrong word for it, as he was more of a gopher. Go-For-This, Go-For-That.

It was at the corner of his eye he saw a metal glint in the sky. Slowing down to a stop, he tilted his torso to get a better view.

"Draco, are we expecting a hidden supply run or something? That looks like a dropship, but it's kinda far off, ain't it?"

[RogueSpear]

[[Alright, time to bring Spear, Will and Phase up to date. How do people feel about bringing in the date stamps from the L&D:AMWT thread? Using it here as T = Day of Invasion.

Also, for clarification, I think the plan was we don't fight the clans until T+4, in the meantime we watch them land, wipe the Robinson Rangers and dig in as they close on us, refuse to be taken as bondsmen and then get to try and fail to stop them overrunning us. Also, hope Guardian gives them a small enough air force to be reliably taken out by a few AA mechs (Main body leaves after they wipe the Rangers, thinking we're just chaff that'll go down quickly to Sohlama?) or we're going to get creamed and die by the end of an IC week.]]

The Forest
<Insert city name here - does it have one? Couldn't find it>
T -1, 12:42 hours.

Spear watched in wonder as Will's Rifleman was swallowed up by the ground as it entered the hidden tunnels (Do they have doors/etc at the exit?). How the Vulkaneers had managed to dig these tunnels through to the city without being noticed he simply had no idea. He had a sneaking suspicion they'd need them soon though. He wearily ran a hand over his face, hoping against all the odds that he was wrong about Draco, or the Dragoon was just winding him up. He gave thanks to whatever faceless forces ran the universe that Phase seemed to have no great inclination to investigate what had happened the night before to their 'mechs. Too embarrassing and stupid to explain.
In silence they moved out, Ironborn's dead leg leaving a grooved trail in the underbrush.

Fortress class Dropship, Rorke's Drift,
<Same city>,
T-1, 13:13 hours.

Spear winced as the scrape of the damaged leg over the dropship ramp rang from every corner of the emptying bay, alerting all his warriors and techs to the state of his mech. Dragging himself into his bay, he saw the Chief frowning with his arms crossed on the gantry, waiting for him. In the silence that followed, he sighed, raised his visor and massaged his eyes. Clicking on the external speakers, he said in a voice like the dead, "Don't even ask." He heard a bark of laughter from somewhere as he opened the cockpit and the figures in the bay went back to their tasks. Climbing out of the mech, he turned to the Chief. "How long?"
Harkness grunted. "I'll need to see how bad you screwed the leg, most of the rest should just be replacing armour and checking it's guts. Normally I'd say a day, but from what you said last night I'm guessing you'll want it sooner."
"Yeah. Pretty much." Spear rubbed his eyes again. "Everyone moving over to CASTLE?"
Harkness rubbed his jowls as he peered into Ironborn's cockpit and pinched the BattleRom. "You kill the Dragoon?"
"What? No. Heh, not that we didn't want to." He eyed the ROM as the Chief broke it in half anyway. "Keep the prototypes here. I don't want them out there until I know what's going on. And thanks Mike."
"Whatever. Get out of here while I fix this mess and make her pretty again. It'll be done by the end of the day. When do you want the prototypes up and running by?"
Spear scratched his head, his neurohelmet under the other arm. "Eugh...I wanted them running before we boarded. Whenever you can get them running by, Chief. That'll have to do."
Harkness nodded and began linking a datapad to the Devastator's cockpit. Gavin walked off down the catwalk to head to his suite and get a shower, shave, shi-
Abruptly there was a loud clap and a whistle behind him. "ALRIGHT TECHIES!" Bellowed the Chief, all business. "Prototypes stay here, everything else but this Devastator marches out that door with it's Warrior and heads down to that Dragoon Holiday Home inside of thirty minutes! Their techs go with one half their gear, then come back here. I want this Devvie and those prototypes all fixed up and ready to go in twelve hours." Over the chorus of groans, he continued, "MAKE IT HAPPEN PEOPLE!"
Spear hung his head and groaned as he eyed the ceiling, feeling the eyes upon him. Draco better not be pulling my leg after all...

T-1, 19:48 hours.

Spear sighed as he and Phase reviewed the four prototype mechs. The Goliath was up and running, it's pilot walking the quad mech on it's shortened legs around the dropship, practicing deploying the braces for the long tom cannon the mech mounted on it's back, undeploying and accelerating to it's top speed of just under 65kph. With the shortened legs, it was more of a legged artillery truck than the quad mech it had been designed as. The Long Tom was backed by a pair of Streak SRM-6s that looked more like vents on a radiator than a weapon system. The targetting system and the upward facing angle allowing the missiles to arc into the air and curve to point at whatever needed shooting. A pair of sensors were mounted front and back for the two-man mech's gunner to achieve locks with.
That mech alone showed how utterly unprepared they were for combat. One of his crazier ideas, it might work. But it was utterly untested. This was only the fifth time the pilot had taken the big mech out, and the gunner had never pulled the trigger before.
Another, looking like the fattest Jaegermech in the galaxy, probably was. With the frame extended to allow more space, the legs temporarily replaced with a pair and gyro from an Atlas, it weighed in at a full 100 tonnes. The jury rigged arms held an AC-10, Ultra AC-5 and AC-2 each, the mountings welded bricks, mocked up from who knows where. The Atlas legs had only been armoured that afternoon, and the torso ammo bays couldn't be reloaded without pulling all the plating off the back. Originally the idea had been to increase the weight of the mech to 90t, simply adding the AC10s, extra bays for the ammo, stripping the medium lasers and some heat sinks, adding some extra armour and resulting in a mech with truly terrifying AA power that was more than capable of defending itself from interloping enemy mechs. It had primarily been done to satisfy his own curiousity. Not having enough ferrofibrous plating and having had to use the Atlas legs rather than the originals due to the increased weight had pushed it up even further. The original plan had called for the mech simply to go through firing drills. Now it would actually have to fight. A role it was most definitely not ready for.
A third was a Longbow, armed with 2 Arrow IV launchers and a pair of Large Pulse Lasers. It was purely designed to work in tandem with the Long Tom Goliath, neither mech carrying more than two minutes worth of rounds with them. The idea was between the two they could break an enemy while the main advance closed, and the Longbow could then protect them both. It's armour had been halved, and as such both mechs primarily relied on being nowhere near the enemy as their main defence. If the fighting would be going on from inside CASTLE, the two would earn their weight in C-Bills.
Finally, the last mech was an Exterminator, recovered from a cave in at RAIHQ. The mech had been largely unharmed, but needed testing. The Null Signature System and Chameleonic Shield were both functioning, but to compete with more modern designs, Spear had had the weaponry replaced. In deference to it's stealth role, the lasers and missile systems had been removed, being replaced with a Gauss Rifle, TAG gear, and a hatchet. The extra weight reduced the speed by 10 kph, but it was still a very fast moving, and he hoped, harder to find mech.
"We can't let Draco find out about this Exterminator. How hard do you think it would be to convince him it's a refit of one of the Kallon Industries 3007 refits?"
Phase shrugged. "You know what Dragoons are like with all their Star League gear. I'm surprised he never asked you where you got yours and that you managed to make him buy that story about the Behemoth. Found it on a dig my *ss." He chuckled and then sobered up at the look on Spear's face. "Woah, you really don't trust him do you?"
Spear kicked out at a rock and sent it flying. "I did, Callum, I did. Now all of a sudden we're out here, he shows up, buys a Steiner base somehow, and it's clear as glass something is coming for us. If he was here to help, he'd have told Will, brought some Dragoons, some proper cavalry, we'd know exactly what was coming and right now we'd all be sitting around a table with the Vulkaneers and hammering out how we were gonna beat off whatever was coming. But this...this stinks. A friend doesn't do this to you. So no, right now, I don't trust him."
Phase nodded in silence and the two men kept walking. "Well it doesn't look much different externally." He said, breaking the awkward silence. "If we keep it here and don't let any of their boys poke around at it, there's no way he could know unless we start using the stealth gear. He'll see the TAG gear if he gets close but you can just blow that off as helping with the arty pair."
"Good plan Phase...Should work. Start getting them through their paces, I'm gonna go find Will." The two men parted ways and Spear pulled out his P-Comm.

Will, we should probably talk. Got somethings we need to discuss in private, then we need to find out what's going on from Draco.

EDIT: Spellcheck

Edited by RogueSpear, 04 August 2012 - 11:09 PM.

[Sparks Murphey]

10km south of Nav Eta
Little Morena Ranges, Barcelona
T, 12:14 hours

Heather sucked at the tube of paste. According to the packaging, the MRE was “Roast Beef” flavoured, and in fairness it did have a flavour vaguely approaching meat, but the texture of the semi-liquid food left it a long way short of a roast beef lunch.

The comm unit crackled. “Mantis, Blacksmith, this is Command, do you copy?”

The MRE tube slipped from her hand as she reached to re-engage the mic. Mantis got there first.

“This is Mantis, we copy you Command. What’s up?”

“You are to disengage from your patrol and make best possible speed to new nav point, designated Contact Alpha. The VTOL that was sent to recon Nav Zeta has reported a possible contact with an enemy BattleMech. Chassis is unidentified at this stage, but they expect it’s either a light or a medium based on profile. We expect it’s a heavily modified bandit scouting for prey. Confirm, over.”

“Roger that, Command, making best possible to Contact Alpha,” Heather replied. Finally, some d&mn action. And against a hodgepodge bandit, this should be a piece of cake.

[RogueSpear]

[[So it begins. I need a post from Will before I can post again unfortunately]]

[guardian wolf]

[[Yep, Draco is going to get the *** chewing of a lifetime.]]

[Thom Frankfurt]

[[Character: Thom Frankfurt
Born Warlock, St. Ives Compact, 3028 Age 21 years old
6'2'' Tall and lanky, with fair skin and gray eyes a long mohawk that he never puts up only lets it hand down past his shoulders.

Wears black paramilitary cargopants with a heavily studded black leather jacket. Vintige heavy metal band T-shirts and combat boots.
Carries an nakjama laser pistol, a poly carbon knife and a set of brass knuckles. Since the events of the Windborne Raven RP he's grown quite paranoid about how easily he could have been killed a dozen times over, so he's taken to carring a canvas rucksack with an extra energy clip for the laser pistol and two smoke grenades and two flashbangs. Along with a 1.5 liter metal canteen of water, a few mres (he hasn't checked the date on them yet, but when he does he'll find out that they are leftovers from the 3rd SW) and a small med kit everywhere he goes.
Is a New Avalon Military Academy dropout due to grades and 'conflicting views' with his professors and fellow students (most notably Kai Allard). Right after dropping out, he went to Solaris 7 to try fighting in the arenas. But when he arrived his X-two time Solaris grand champion father gave him the BJ-3 and telling him that if he didn't have the disipline for school, he wouldn't make it on Solaris. So he left Solaris and joined up with his uncle, Po Spiros. He ran with in with several different merc units that were unsucessful, eventually they turned to banditry. MRBC cracked down hard on them and their unit was forced to disband. Luckily he got to keep the BJ-3 because he totally had no knowledge of the bank/jewelry store robbings being on another continet. The Spiros/Frankfurt combo joined up with another group with the job of garrisoning Pacifica. Uncle Po died fighting repelling a Combine raid. Since then Thom has drifted from place to place, freelancing himself out where he could, his journey ended up going out to the FRR and the events of the Windborn Raven unfolded.

He stayed behind to help rebuild as the other units went off on their own way. As a sign of gratitude the locals showed their appreciation, free drinks here, free tattoos here... it wasn't too long before he shifted from helping the locals out to taking advantage of them. After a few disagreements and outstanding bills the locals not so kindly asked him to leave. Catching the first ride out he could find he headed off towards Barcelona in search of the guys he fought the Dalian Guard with.

Also Markus is sticking with him and has that lightly armored tactical hover truck that Thom stole from the Dalian's.. if it's a problem, let me know and Markus could have stayed behind in the Republic or sold off the truck for extra $ but I do like the idea of having it.

Current affiliation, none.
Mech: BJ-3 Blackjack 'Swampthing'
Callsign: Bad Luck


----------------------------------------------------------------
Union class Dropship, Achilles' Pride
Approach Vector
T, 12:01 hours

Clang, clang, clang The sound of the magnetic soles of Thom's gravity boots resounded through the deck of the 'Pride as the ship made it's painfully slow trip to the ever expaning green/blu orb of Barcelona. He snorted at the sight of the planet, like the many worlds that he had set foot upon it was Terraformed to support Human life, but just like all the others it looked like a cheap knock off. He eyeballed mass of white clouds as they twirled about the world's atmosphere.

Great, more rain.

He'd come to loathe the rain from the last few planets he'd been on and was starting to think of them as an omen of bad things to come. He hoped he was wrong. Checking the time on his chronometer he saw that his ship still had the better part of a day till it touched down at the spaceport. He felt a slight rumble through the soles of his grav boots as the Union thrusted to slow down it's plument from the skys. For a second there Thom felt the brief sensation of gravity and smiled. Casting a worried looked at the cloud formations he turned and walked off to his cramped quarters for some sleep.

Hopefully the rain would be over when they touched down.

Edited by Thom Frankfurt, 15 July 2012 - 02:55 PM.

[RogueSpear]

[[Wait, who was Markus/Spiros? I don't remember xD I don't see it being a major problem - but be advised your dropship may take some fire soon...Such is the price of arriving on Impact Day! Let us hope the vagaries of fate (And my writings) are kind]]

[Thom Frankfurt]

RogueSpear, on 15 July 2012 - 03:10 PM, said:

[[Wait, who was Markus/Spiros? I don't remember xD I don't see it being a major problem - but be advised your dropship may take some fire soon...Such is the price of arriving on Impact Day! Let us hope the vagaries of fate (And my writings) are kind]]

[[ He it Thom's cousin/tech. He didn't do much in the Windborn just hung out at their mech garage, and only had one post from his POV. Totally cool with the Union getting shot down, T does have a jump capable mech. Anybody else here read 'Bred for War?']]

[guardian wolf]

[[Awesome, now, we just need to get the message across that something bad... oh hey, there is a dropship exploding, now alien fighters are everywhere.]]

[Thom Frankfurt]

[[So... do I have the green light to be... creative? ]]

[RogueSpear]

[[PM me with what you're planning - just to make sure it doesn't conflict ]]

[guardian wolf]

[[Stay tuned the GMs are deviously planning the Invasion.]]

[Thom Frankfurt]

[[What I was thinking kinda clashed with what Rogue was working on so I'll let him do his thing while I just offer support and ideas when asked.]]

[RogueSpear]

[[Don't worry, you'll get to join the fun soon enough!]]

[Sloth901]

Will’s Office
Vulkaneer Base
T-1, 19:48 hours.

Will had almost died of embarrassment when explained to his head tech what had happened Luckily the damage was pretty clear cut, the techs figured they could have the Rifleman up and gunning within a few hours (with a slightly different load out).

Now his head tech had returned to report their progress

“The Rifleman will be upgraded shortly however we have some bad news. The rookie never returned from the bar last night, CCTV didn’t show him return”

That’s just what Will needed, an AWOL rookie to report back to his uncle, aswell as the fact he’d managed to wreck a perfectly good AC10 and Large Laser without the planet coming under attack.

“Thank you Stephen” Will had known the head tech for at least 5 years now and had gotten used to using his first name “and please don’t tell your crew about my little drunken adventure, just tell them we did a late night training exercise and we accidently loaded live ammo”

“Very well sir” Stephen saluted and marched out of the room. That really got on his nerves how formal Stephen was, but him and his uncle had learned that it’s hard to remove something that was drilled in so much. Stephen had worked 20 years in a much more formal merc unit. They prized themselves on Drill both on a parade ground and in the field, it’s where he had picked up his formal attitude and there was seemingly no changing that.

Wills data pad beeped as he received a message, he minimized the statistics for the Rifleman 5M and opened the Message from Spear and quickly composed a reply

I’m ready to talk whenever you are, just name a time and place and I’ll see you then.

Will sent the message then had an afterthought and sent a second message.

P.S. if you see the rookie I was with last night tell him to get his *rse back to base.

[RogueSpear]

Fortress class Dropship, Rorke's Drift,
<City in need of a name>
T-1, 19:53 hours

Spear read the message from Will swiftly and replied.
Starts with a D? I'll ask my guys. Meet me in the bar in fifteen minutes. And suit up.

Spear strapped his knife to his boot, his pistols to his thigh, shoulder and back, picked up his wallet and slapped the switch to open his suite's door, and strode through, his trenchcoat curling in his wake.