Mechwarrior: Quies Ante Tempestatem

[Chimera]

[Habit—noun: an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.]

February 3066, Baccalieu, Marian Hegemony.

The hegemony giveth, the hegemony taketh away...

For Lieutenant Commander Calvin Ray these words kept getting stuck in his head. The winter was passing now, and the flat snowy plains of the planet Baccalieu would soon be returning to the deadly furnaces of summer. He sat in the command couch of his Striker tank, his home for the last five months, not the home worthy of a Mechwarrior, but it had made do. Looking out he could see the trucks of the convoy he was escorting moving at a steady pace. Two Garuda battlemechs led the way with his two Strikers taking up the rear.

Still dispossessed after the hedgemony took back his ride from last summers campaign he had made the best of a bad situation. The deal he had struck with the Hedgemony stood, his two missile tanks and crew were legally his after the campaign, plus a juicy bonus from the contact payout. Loosing his mech had cost him some respect, and the commander of one tank, a bitter dispute that was resolved with frountier justice. Better him than me he though looking down at his sidearm. After that he talked it out with the other commander, Jameson, good man, felt he owed me after his tank broke down last summer and we didn't leave him behind, that and his share of said juicy payout had kept him on side.

At the time he had contemplated using the payout to purchase a light mech, a Stinger, maybe a Commando. He shuddered at the thought of a Peregrine. But ultimately it would be a waste, they would hardly command the respect he needed to keep a Century of Mercs in line... Lance! Damn he was even starting to think like the Romans... So he had saved his money, the day will come he thought. Instead he took the command position on the second tank, even a mech jock could handle sensors and comms, and got his men a shinny new contract for the winter. Ironically he had beaten his former command to the contract, the Howling Tigers had been reduced to a light lance of mechs last summer when they had taken on the hedgemony. Mewling Tigers... Didn't go well for them in the negotiation phase. Come to think of it someone must be watching over him for things to go as well as they did.

The job was easy enough, guarding mechs and supply deliveries between this clan calling themselves the Ironmoungers and a star league facility they were refitting with hedgemony aid. The local mechs looked tough, but they were little better than Stingers in a fight. He had considered offering to buy one, but those torso cockpit shells reminded him too much of the Peregrine he had been landed with last summer. No he needed a Mech, middle weight at best, some real firepower. He was hoping the payout from this contract would land him enough profit to buy something decent, maybe even a Pheonix Hawk.

In front of him the latest convoy of parts and material was getting close to its destination. In the distance he could see the shell like structure of the facility, above it a column of air was pushing snow up into the atmosphere. It was like a giant rurtle with a hurrican on its back. His comms line came live.

"Woah you see that LC, they must have got the turbines working!" Jameson came through over the comm. "Yeah that things got a regular hurricane over it now" he replied.

"Any plans for the summer Jameson", "You know me LC, cash flow is king, your a lucky charm, just keep that money flowing."

"Yeah we need more firepower, I'm thinking some trailers, rocket one shots, and... " Jameson cut in "that ride you want to get, your not looking at the foldouts in that catalog again are you" Jameson teased back. "Yeah still thinking about the trims on the couch my friend" "seriously though LC, the rockets sound like a plus, would give us a zone fallback if we take more of these defencive contracts, would be nice to get some offworld action" said Jameson.

"Yeah this place is starting to feel to much like home too, heck I'm starting to think like a roman in my plans." The comm went silent "They pay well you know" "Yeah we are not doing to bad are we Jameson, Ray out" he cut the comm line. His driver looked up at him and gave him a comradery nod. Definately a solid base to work from.

***************

Baccalieu atmospheric seed facility, later that day.

The loading bay was a cavernous structure, a half dome full of trucks unloading there goods, Calvin walked arround the throng of loaders past two Garuda Battlemechs towering over the crowd like overlords. The pilot of one waved him over, Tania tall, blond, short hair, he always had to work at not staring. Especially give her current mechearrior standard battlegear she wore, slightly more than swimming gear, only slightly. He felt overdressed in his tankers smock. She was sitting on its foot watching the crowd and stood up as he approached. She saluted "Lieutenant Commander, good to see you, thanks for the escort out there". He felt guilty, she had a mech, and still she gave him the respect of his rank respite's his status as dispossessed. He saluted back "a quiet run Lieutenant, the best kind" she nodded, and handed him a datapad, "comms room is over there, your message comes from the jump point intercept, friends in high places?" "Senators returning for summer most likely, hopefully more work" he nodded his thanks and smiled as he took the pad. Held it for a moment with her gaze.

He took the pad and went in the direction she indicated. Too much like home.

Walking past several techs he was waived to the command centre, Marian techs were refitting the place with half open racking lining the walls and cable bundling hanging from racking lining the rooms roofing.

He approached the uplink controls and keyed in the access code from the datapad. The screen came alive with the image of a young Adept in white on a grey background washing out his features. "Lieutenant Commander Ray I presume?" Inquired the Adept, "Yes, I transmitted the codes" "Yes yes, patching you through now, you may be on hold for a bit" the screen switched to the Comstar corporate symbol while he waited.

Finally the screen came back, a dull grey background showing a middle aged man with a goatee wearing a black jumpsuit floating in front of a camera.
"Still in transit I see" quiped Ray, "Yes, still a few weeks out at this rate, hows the contract going?" replied Senator Scoggin.
"Very well thanks, nothing we can't handle" replied Ray.
"Yes, feedback reports indicate we are slightly ahead of schedule. Did you have any contracts lined up for this summer yet?"
Always strait to the point this guy, thought Calvin.
"No, no contract, bit hard to get messages out, looking to head in to civilisation once the contacts over in a few weeks to see what's on offer."
"Don't bother, I have a job for you and your team, meet me in Prosporo in four weeks" said Scoggin.
"But..." Ray started, the Senator cut back in "Don't worry, I'm paying out your contract in full now, also authorising fuel and supply points for you on the trip back, it's in the attached data packet. You will have to leave within the day to make it in time, but I have arranged for your needs. I need a mechwarrior of your capabilities to handle an offworld salvage run for me, I will make it well worth your time, don't worry I haven't forgotten your help last year, I hope to make amends for your current situation. See you in a few weeks, Scoggin out".

Ray stared at the now blank screen, current situation... Well, if it involved Scoggin and salvage maybe a mech could be on the cards here, looked like 3066 was going to be a busy year for him. He turned and headed out, time to muster the troops.

[Chimera]

Scoggin pulled up his comms archive post his visit to the capital Alphard. Comstar software running on his systems had detected over five system breaches, all permitted to go through. "Bunch of pirates all of them" he declared out loud. Old habits died hard in the Hedgemony. Habits he was using to his benefit. Many senators, while not directly tied to piracy and raids definately sheltered such activity, and this was something he could use to his advantage.

Pirates were niether brave nor adventurous, they were scavengers, carrion eaters and opportunists. If they sensed easy money they would flock to a prize, and he had set the bait. The planet Kendall in the Free Worlds League, breadbasket of the region and one of the key battlemech testing and production grounds for Kaliyama Weapons Industries. While not the main production site for the company they did secondary production on planet, not that building Orions was secondary to thier business, but more importantly they used it as a dump. All their production failures, research floops and boondoggles. If they needed it scrapped it got shipped to Kendall. And scrap was techwizzard business.

While many such failures had occurred over time one stood out as the most significant in the last century, the Liberator. Taught in many an engineering school on how not to bridge the prototyping to mass production phase. In the end the production model had literally exploded during its sales pitch presentation to the fabulously wealthy dooming it to failure.

After that incident salvaging the Liberators reputation was a doomed prospect, its engine mount rendered its heat sinks non-functional, only radical redesign would have saved it but after the poor public trials the project was shelved, but not before hundreds of chassis had been produced. The solution was sitting right under thier noses too, his contacts on Kalidasa had eventually uncovered engineers notes from the time suggesting using the venerable hunchbacks Nissan 200 engine in the design instead of the 240 Pitban, but the hunchback was considered to valuable during the succession wars and the Pitban engines had value on the market for the Hermes design. It was considered more prudent at the time to simply cut their losses and carve up what profit they could salvage.

So cut they did, hundreds of production models stripped of armor, gyros, engines and myomer, leaving only the chassis. To specific to be salvaged and too costly to recycle given the foamed aloy casting methods the chassis were dumped, on Kendall, by the hundreds.

If he could get those chassis he had myomer, he had engines. Only 200s as suggested by the engineer in his notes, but in the day and age of the XL engines they were practically giving them away. He had gyros, comms and targeting systems and lots of armor. The other key ingredient was a DI, most were tuned to the chassis on which they were built, thats why he would need a mechwarrior to go along for the salvage mission he had planned. The DI of a mech was spread through all its systems as a distributed network. His hope was that the skeleton of one of these beast could still contain live DI code that would allow him to resurect this mech without millions of man hours of fine tuning DI code. To find this a mechwarrior would be needed to identify suitable intact DI by interfacing with it.

In the end this reimagined Liberator would be similar in many ways to the watchman built by the Federated Suns. Nothing fancy, but cheap and effective, his kind of mech. All these notes and construction briefs had been spread amoungst the pirate communities of the region as well as the date he planned to strike. Although he had left out the part about the DI to give him a market edge at the other end of the project. This gave the pirates both a motive, and a plan of action. Even if only a few hit the planet at the same time he planned too it would help spread out the local defence forces enough to permit an easier raid for all involved.

[Chimera]

Session 1 - GM

Prospero, mercenary quarter.

The two missile tanks and their trailers were parked outside prospero, surround by a motley collection of tanks, Tariques and the violent scum of the earth.

Ray looked in the small plastic mirror, his gunner had handed him her purse and shoved a mirror in his face. "You gotta look all presentable boss man" she said. She ment well, and it demonstrated how much they had riding on this job too.
"Your hairs a mess",
"Ain't no need to brush it Abena" he heard himself protesting as he reached for the comb "I plan on wearing my hat like I always do..." "No hats!" She quickly retorted.
"Your the boss man now, you need to use your uniform and brush your hair, wear your vest and carry a nice gun. No hats."
He brushed it quickly, looking again in the mirror. His morning shave and clean had taken years off him. His tan brown hair was short, and his thin but determined look gave an air of authority in his plain navy uniform.
"You look all propor now boss man, remember, c-bills only", she back off into the pack his crew had formed to see him off, all six of them looked at the figures he and Jameson cut before they headed into prospero prospero.
He grabbed Jameson's hat off his head and flung it to Abena, "no hats for him either" his crew let out a laughs at Jameson's expense. Jameson seemed unflinching, outwardly carrying an SMG, "yeah but I carry the big guns here, need to make an impression I'm guarding someone important".
He smiled at his enthusiastic bodyguard and saluted his people before turning and heading into the collection of steel crates and cheap wood building that made the city of Prospero the unpleasant place it was.
Walking through the main thoroughfare with his ever vigilant bodyguard gave him a awkward fealing, and it was not just his lack of hardware causing it. In the distance the dome of the grounded Union class dropship dominated the skyline. He had ridden on many in his time as a mechwarrior, and he was looking forward to some offworld travel again, even if it was as one of the dispossessed.
Approaching the saline he saw a merc stumble out of the bar in his underwear quickly followed by three other thugs. On seeing him the semi nakad man reached for a gun he didn't have at his missing belt. Ray tensed.
Jameson stepped forward brandishing his SMG and scowled at them. They moved on scrambling through the crowd.
"What was that about boss?" Jameson said as he distractedly surveyed the crown. "No idea, let's get inside" as he pushed through the swinging door into the bar within.

Inside he glanced around the bar. It was a fairly tradition place wood walls, painted white, lacquered wooden tables and chairs filled with people wearing leather and Kevlar. Outside the modern pistols and armoured vests it was a scene that woul have fit in perfectly with a historical Terran documentary. As his gaze cast across the crowd he saw his contact and headed over, "Senator Scoggin" he went to tip his hat but came up empty. Scoggin was wearin his usual black attire which matched his thick hair and gotee. Around his were three familiar faces, his eyes naturally fell on Legionair Kline, the man who had taken his 'mech. Still hurts doesn't it, he thought to himself. But then he had no enmity towards the man, in the end they had played him fairly, even hired him and paid him well with the tank crew he now ran with. On the books he had made a tidy profit. He smiled, made a quip about mech and shook the mans hand firmly. They understood each other, and he got the sense this man knew how bad he wanted a new ride, even if it wants the one he used to ride. He turned and saw Legionar Carr, a quiet man who's ride he had used last summer, he had upgraded to a prestigious Centurion and had spent the winter running the political circles in New Carboneer after his family had landed a senator posting. He could tell the man tired of city life though, more a man of action than politics.
Finally he turned to Centurion Wuyts, he heard the crisp salute next to him and fell in line dispite himself. Wuyts was ever bit the martial nevelwoman he remembered, practically dressed and actually dangerous. Her hair was tied back and short and her look was alert and focused. At her side she carried a laser pistol, fitting such a weapon belonged to such a woman.

Scoggin led on with the briefing, pulling up a noteputer he brought the Planet Kendal into focus for the group assembled around the table.
"Five jumps out lies the planet Kendal in the Free Worlds League, you and nearly a battalion of mercs, pirates and other hopefuls will be leading a raid on the world for parts" Wuyts cut in "isn't it a bit well defended for our group?" he picked his fingers on the screen zooming it in "if you were attacking what they thought you were attaching yes, this planet is the home of the KaliYama battalemech production facilities" scrolling across to an area almost a continent away he program another area into focus "here is the Kendal reclamation and recycling facility where you are to salvage as many chassis from the failed production run of the Liberator battlemech produced almost 50 years ago."

He paused, looking directly at me, most likely seeing the hunger in my eyes, reaching under the table he placed some device on the table that looked like some kind of scaning device with a tuning fork on it attached to a cable.

"But this is not your primary objective, I want you to use this device and your discposessed friend here..." that stung... "to find me a live DI inside one of these chassis. This device connected to a neurohelmet can pickup residual active DI code running inside the chassis architecture of a Battlemech, most of these chassis reached post production and had rudementry architecture installed." He paused to see if the technical aspect of the mission were understood.

"You see having the skeleton of a mech anyone can add muscle, armor and guns. But the actual brains of the device have a long development time lead, having a DI pre built gives me a head start on the competition. Any questions?"

The conversation drifted to mission specific issues, but my mind drifted to the target. The liberator had been a trooper class mech, a solid good all rounder on paper. After the conversation everyone had there full and we we introduced to the ride, an fury class dropship captained by a Russian Yanna Dubois. It was going to be an interesting journey.

[Loswaith]

[Rhys Carr: Session 1]

Looking in the mirror, the figure that looked back was all prim and proper looking more like a diplomat than a soldier.  "Now this will be the death of me..." Rhys mumbled with a sigh.
The politics he had been running on his return were good for his family, but wasn't really to his taste but had to be done.

Jetty, sliding her arms over his sholders, giving him a gentle squeeze reassuring him.  The closeness and stark contrast of her tech outfit and his formal gear clashing, giving a rise to the corner of his mouth.

The comms system chirp breaking the moment.
Rhys answered as Jetty slipped out of the room.  Seeing the familiar face of Scoggin;
"Sennator, to what do I owe the pleasure"
"Rhys, I gather you are tired of your political dealings, so I have a job for you.  Meet me in Prospero, in three weeks, we will discuss the details there.  Further information is contained in the data packet I'm sending you"
"Yes, Sir.  See you in three weeks"
The transmission terminating; Rhys taps the data pad, bringing up the data Scoggin sent, gives it a cursory once over.  With a deep sigh, he straightens his uniform and heads out, a slight spring in his step, marring the otherwise military gait.

-------------------------------------------

Security Clearance Confirmed.
Rhys Carr logged in...

 Trip to Prospero uneventful, but travel with Wurtts and Kline again makes it feel a bit more like last summer, seems Mac is busy with politics, I don't envy him one bit.  I've had my fill for a while.

Seems though mercs never learn.  Trying to make trouble only lead to them loosing their pants.  Not a way to go.  Seems Kline is as edgy as ever.

The typical dive bar for Prospero, white painted wooden walls and the occupants in leather and Kevlar.

Locating Scoggin, exchanging loose formalities.  Scoggin mentioned we needed to wait for one more.  No sooner had he finished his comment than Ray approached the table.

Seems the winter had been good to him.  Not surprisingly given he had proven himself last summer helping us out when he could have made himself quite the thorn in our sides.

Exchanging greetings with a quick nod he settled in and Scoggin went over the briefing.

Seems we are to hit a junk yard on Kendal for some scraped R&D Liberator mech chassis with an intact DI. 
Scoggin wants a leg up on the development and the DI is the longest part to create, he always was a clever one. 

Seems we haven't moved that far from the old pirate ways that we used to do, but then it is a fine line between soldier and pirate.

It will be good to be in the cockpit rather than meetings.

The drop ship, a Fury class, means we have wont have mech bays, so manual loading and unloading.  Not overly happy with that as it can leave us light on defense should trouble go down.  Guess we will make do, and will look at some modifications down the line to address that should it be needed.


Rhys Carr offline... 
Security protocol enabled.
Terminal Secured.

[Chimera]

Session 2 GM

Bjorn Oen sat snugly in his Wolverines command couch. He was running diagnostics. Being such a tall and muscular individual many had questioned his reluctance to move on from the machine, possibly even claiming a more modern ride like the Huron Warrior his second piloted. He looked out of his cockpit view screen which, while small at the best of times was obscured to the left by the large Harpoon-6 missile launcher mounted on the wolverines left shoulder. Next to him was the new mech with its distinctive heatsink array that looked reminiscent of a Native American Indian headdress, like all his crew Freda was also conducting diagnostics. No, his mech was old, family, and despite the snug cockpit and obscured vision it had a star league Tek BattleCom system. It's panels glowed above the normal interface system over the top of his viewport. They gave his Star Sharks an edge. The raw processing power but at his fingertips comms, intel and data feeds not normally available to a medium mech. He had always been taught that the true power of a commander was in his troops not his mech, and this enabled him to make his unit more coordinated on the field of battle.

His comm unit activated "Commander we have a message from the jumpship commander, he has invited you to the jumpship bridge for a chat" his adjunct was short and to the point, a good adjunct.
"A chat?" He queried.
"His words sir not mine"
"Understood, tell him to give me an hour to get over, Bjorn out"

He unhooked the cooling lines and neurohelmet feed lines and crawled his way out of the mech. Some mechs had the luxury of room to change and hang the neurohelmet, but he was used to his Wolverine and wouldn't have it any other way. Perched on its head he took off the bulky neurohelmet. Inside the dropships cavernous bay he could see his people at work.

His mechs were lined up around the circular bay, a cross section of the dropship itself. In the middle the lift elevator between the upper and lower bays was vacant leaving a big hole between the two bays. His tech seemed to be taking advantage of the zero G environment and had floated one of the new Myrmidons they had recently acquired after the disastrous loss of their scout Lance from a formate contract. It was suspended, floating and tethered by ropes, its engine being removed for maintenance in the weightless environment. The Tech crew were also new, but inventive and resourceful, perfect for his needs.

Next to him he saw the Huron Warrior and Phoenix hawk that constituted his Command Lance, still down one warrior. Spread between the upper and lower deck he had his Pursuit Lance consisting of his other Phoenix Hawk, his two Clints and a Commando. Finally the other three Myrmidons would also be nestled below. While relatively green they fit into sharks fast strike an mobile form of combat that their machines reflected.

He climbed down slowly, and returned to his quarters to change. Undertaking the journey from airlock to airlock was best done in the normal grey attire of their uniforms rather than the underwear and helmet of a mechwarrior. After several connecting airlocks and elevator rides he arrived at the cavernous bridge of the jumpship Henderson's Pride.

The crew of spacers floated around the environment, in the middle a holotank glowed a familiar green. The captain, a grey haired older gentleman floated over and slatted.
"Welcome to the bridge commander" he stated formally. Bjorn waved back, no need to play to formality here. "You have something to chat about I hear"
"Indeed I do"
"I will be posting guards at the grab deck for the remainder of the journey" he curtly replied.
"My people haven't caused you a problem! What is this about?" Bjorn let a little anger channel into his tone. "Look at this" the captain floated to a screen and played out a grab deck recording.

It showed the ragtag crew of Leopold's Cutthroats seemed to be confronting the Marians from the ship Arcum Venatores on the grab deck, most likely trying to take the romans time allotment. The romans couldn't help but use Latin, and they looked military but lacked the unit name of a merc or pirate group. His was curious about their origin and purpose, they must be Scoggins plants in this mission. He was up to something the sneaky vagr, but his money was good.

The roman commander, a Principes by his badges, was standing up to Leopold. An odd site give the man was not as tall of stature as Leopoldo, but the cut of his uniform revealed a wiry frame. All eyes were on the two leaders, but the footage showed one of the Roman mechwarriors, a hardened looking guy, was flanking the fight and grabbed a food tray. The zero G trays being more like solid slabs of natal with compartments in them to stoop food floating away. Then it all unpacked very fast.
The principies struck a rapid undercut into the larger mercs gut doubling him over and dropping him to the ground unconscious in a single blow. The flanker slammed the largest of the other three over the head with the food tray, blood splattered over him dropping the tall Warrior to the ground. The other two, a male and female, moved towards the others menacingly and on seeing their victory called on the remaining pirates to stand down, an order they obeyed without question, reflexively they even raised their hands.
The sneaky one went to protest, he would make a good Shark. Even without sound he could hear the blood calling to the man, the others talked him down, but even then he stomped on the hand of the man he had bludgeoned over the head.

"As you can see Commander Oen there was an incident, as the largest dropship tethered to my boat I expect no trouble from your crew"... he went to interrupt "and I expect you to know that I don't tolerate violence or danger to my passengers while mid trip" the captain spoke over him.
"My people would never" let en enemy live, but then he had the guns of his Union to back him up, the Romans just had the Fury. A smart and wiry Principies indeed.
"Thank you then commander for your understanding, my goal is to get all passengers safely to and from the destination"
"Can't argue with that commander, any other business?"
"No, we are two jumps out from Kendall and will contact your bridge with updates as required"
"Acknowledged" he pushed off a console towards the bridge airlock "I will pass your information onto my people captain have no concern" he didn't turn to look at the puny man, he had wasted too much time as it was and made his way back to his people.

[Loswaith]

[Rhys Carr: Session 2]

Security Clearance Confirmed.
Rhys Carr logged in...

It was great to be in space again, even with the stomach churning jumps involved.  It still felt like a second home after spending so long out here on tours.

Time at the 'hedge' however, taught me one major thing, politics was mainly an old tradition overlaying the real power; business.  It makes and breaks everything in the hegemony.

As such, I seem to have learned to embrace the values of good and bad side of it.
In this case with the Sharks.  They are the largest group of the three, going for the chassis Scoggin wants.  Lucky for us there is enough for two of us to fill our hulls.  As the largest they are the best to broker a deal with as battle would be just bad for us in general and thus bad for business.
This meant hatching out a deal with Bjorn Oen, commander of the Sharks.

An indecent with Leopold's Cutthroats; they seemed to think just taking our deck time would be simple.  Stupid on their part really, we don't give up anything easily.  With a quick response from Mac and Kline, it ended before it began and they scurried off.   As the third group planing to salvage the junk yard, they only reinforced the need for a deal with the sharks.  I had that feeling they were going to be just bad for business.

So queuing up a meeting with Bjorn Oen, A huge man of obvious Nordic decent.  We offered them a business deal.  We team up in a mutual salvage deal.
Our part is to drop in closer to the junk yard, scout it out, and source the locations of the chassis.  They come in and assist with clean-up of any hostilities we may encounter.
This will give us a bit of time to source out the Chassis with the active DI, without alerting them to our real purpose.

Bjorn instantly saw the benefit to this deal (clever guy, even if I suspect he thought there was more to it), I'm sure the hedge's rep for making money wasn't lost on him either.  Either way this let us do what we needed to and kept his repairs down while not having to step over us to get to what he was after.

Win-Win.

------------------------------------------------

We engage the planet, and sure enough Leopold's follows us down a little too closely for comfort.  While a good move to keep signatures down, still something to be wary of, they will likely start something on the ground. for the earlier confrontation.

Unloading and starting up the centurion, the star-league comms suddenly bursting with data as it hacked its way into the communications planet-side.
Overall the engagement going well and true to our gut, Leopold's where burning everything in their path.  Time to deal with them first.
Charting a good intercept path, we set up an ambush.  The plan is to smash down their dervish and clear from the lighter mechs from there.

Now we wait, sitting with feet up, and monitor the situation around us...

Rhys Carr offline... 
Security protocol enabled.
Terminal Secured.
 

[Brunhilde]

“We have detected an unknown force heading East parallel to your patrol course.  Identify and engage as required.”
“Acknowledged, Wuyts out”

Centurion Simone Wuyts changed the imaging mode of her scanner to utilise the satellite imagery for her sector.  She forwarded the image and topographical data to her driver and gunner both.
“Well Mullens, you heard Dispatch, let’s see who is out there.”
“Locked and loaded, Centurion” voiced Rankin, the normally ebullient gunner.
“Hull down please”
“Sir”

Gerdriful came to a gentle stop after an easy approach to intercept.
“Ha!  It’s Jorgmandir! Scoggin has slipped his leash at the Capital again.  Opening a channel.”

“Good morning Senator, you have given Planetary Security a scare today - they thought you were the Vanguard to an attack.”
“Ha! Wuyts! I’m running a few tests, and slipped out to see how it goes.  It has been a while, are you keeping well?”
Well enough Scoggin, did you forget to reconnect your IFF?”
“I never said that i was testing MY MECH, did I?  Race you in!”

“You heard the man, Mullens, as usual, make him look good, but he has to work for it.”
“SIr”



“THanks for the pick up Wuyts, you will hear from me in the next few days.”
“Always a pleasure, Scoggin.  I’ll be here”

--------------------------------------

“Well, not much has changed here since we passed through last year” thought Simone to herself as she scanned the surrounding area from force of habit, as she finished wrapping her scarf around her head after having donned her sunglasses.  “hmmm, I’ll take the UNmodified laser pistol this time, I think!”
“Rightio crew, stay alert, this should take an hour at the most.”

As Simone climbed out of her tank, she hummed with approval as she thought back over the past few days.  It had been good to see the others from last summer again and get the reminiscing and catching up out of the way before the business end of working together would recommence.  Prudent that we arranged to meet at the designated tavern some five minutes earlier than Scoggin asked.
“Prudent indeed” thought Simone as she drew her laser pistol on the scum who had suddenly taken issue with Gaius. 

[Chimera]

[maybe make that two bookmarks then oh, and absolutely no stress if they get out of order. I will scoop it all up into a google doc with headings similar to season 1]
[Session 2- side story part 1]

April 3066.
In orbit of Kendall, Free Worlds League.
The Union class dropship Vulcan.
10th Marik Militia "The Hammers"

Red lights illuminated the bridge of the union class dropship. The purple eagle adorning the bridge marked her as a Free Worlds League ship, though it didn't show as purple in the light. It glowed a deep blood red colour, as though called to war. Opposite the hammer and anvil symbol of the 10th Marik Militia marked her and her crew as a descisive instrument of war.
"Sit-rep captain" declared Force Commander Juliette Morretti as she stared at the orange red holotank.
"We have two key landing sir, one at the battlemech factories, and the other is half a planet away." She brought the mech factories into focus, "The current planetary defence force is a contracted to the Bad Dream, they have deployed all forces to the factory, they appear to be up against and reinforced company from this union and leopard here" she zoomed the map in, the raiders had landed close to the facility, likely going for a smash and grab.
"We have been requested to provide aid here, she skipped over to the other side of the planet. Where three smaller aerodyne dropships and a union had landed scattered and uncoordinated." The question was, what targets of value are in the region?
"Likely targets of interest?" Requested Morretti. "That's the thing, not much, a few cities, some industrial and recycling facilities, an ammunition testing range is in the area" the captain looked puzzled.
"Either way too much for us to handle on our own, we are here for our scheduled refit after all, I think at a most I could deploy a Lance. So our key concern then is PR, keep the pirates away from civilian targets. Bring up the major cities in the region. Now lets focus on that union, actually, first what's the affiliation of these forces?" she queried.
The captain punched in some details bringing up an intel feed that marked itself as Word of Blake in origin, the League Worlds had become increasingly reliant on the Word since the schism with Comstar over a decade ago.
"Union belongs to a periphery merc group known as the Star Sharks, Leopard one is Leopolds Cutthroats, pirates through and through. The Fury is an unknown, and most likely just holds Armor and Infatry, her names in Latin so she most likely hails from the Hedgemony. The last one is another Leopard, also a periphery raider group going by the Third Spear of Heaven, more known for contracted extractions and raids. They have also landed a fair clip from the others."
"So a real mixed bag, not coordinated at all, maybe we can use this to our advantage. Ensure all local media is broadcasting and civilian attacks on open channels, some of these raiders may have a conscience and intervene on any outwardly aggressive behaviour. If not at least we can trace the path of destruction and evacuate areas before military assets move in." the force commander reached over herself, zooming in on the Union, "This one can do the most damage" what footage did we get from the last orbital pass?" she opened the recordings.
It showed the union blurred through smoke from the scorch zone of its landing in a field of grass, hell most of the planets was grains and grass. They seemed to have split their forces, a few mechs and tanks headed south, and maybe a Lance heading west. It was difficult to see in detail. "Plot me urban centres in a cone heading south from that union." the captained complied. "Several actually sir" "Ok then, that's were we can do the most good, I will reconfigure a Lance for anvil deployment, we need to convince some mercs to stay away from some of our cities." she saluted crisply and her captain returned it in kind.

[Chimera]

[gm session 2 - shark attack]

Bjorn turned his Wolverine to face the Sharks recently landed Dropship. Smoke, ash and soot rained from the sky while steam rose off the hull of the ship. The ship was painted a dull grey, the same as all their gear, there was no use for cammo or colour on such a giant round ship, the local military would know where they were regardless. Something the Sharks were counting on.

They had cut a deal with the Hedgemony forces to share the prize of chassis. The Romans would go in early and survey, the Sharks were to come in later and keep the local forces away.

He had decided to do a fake, split his force, head some south and some west, ultimately the target was in between, but he needn't reveal the target yet. All the better, too the south were major civilian populations, outside factories they would be the primary defence forces focus. He need to scare them into camping outside the cities while he raided the junkyards.

He checked his ride one final time, all systems were green and his command interface showed all units accounted for. He pressed the command pedals and relaxed back into his command couch, the neurohelmet did the rest. The fifty five ton monstrosity that was the Wolverine turned with ease away from the dropship and joined up with the convey of mechs and tanks heading south.

Walking through fields of grain and farmlands was a pea full experience, behind them the path they had traveled trough the glass was presented with flattened grasses and crushed fences. Occasional farming machinery would scatter as they continued the march. After about one hour of travel four streaks appeared in the sky above heading to cut them off on the journey south. The initial burst of heat from the four objects entering the atmosphere exploded outward as heat shields were ejected then contrails continued to plot the downward drop. Finally boosters flared to slow the descent of the four mechs, landing only a kilometre out from their present path.

"They used booster packs Commander" reported in Benjamin's the command Lance Phoenix Hawk pilot and command scout. "That pings them as non-jump capable or heavy, or both."
"Roger that Ben, ok, calling in the Persuit Lance" he reached up to his overhead command panels and activated a dispatch packet to the Persuit Lance he had initially sent West, consisting of his fastest units the had initially gone west but track around south. Being smaller and faster they would not have been the focus of the defence force surveillance and would give him an ace up his sleave.

"Remember Sharks, we blood them, take some hits then fall back West, that will spook them into staying home and give us the time we need for the Primary. Affirmative all?" All his people called in an affirmative.

"Strike Lance I'm giving you orders to hold back until the first volley, I can't afford to have any of you tracked." "Roger that sir" came back his new lietenant, still calling him sir, good people, but very green. He dint want to loose the sting the four Myrmidons provided with their PPCs provided in this opening exchange. They needed to maintain mobility. At the edge of his sensors four mechs stood like a wall, an Orion, Thunderbolt, Hunchback and a Cicada. His command system cycled through known variants, tagging all but the cicada as stock and sent the info out to the company under his command.
"Tagging cicada as the largest concern. If we can drop it they won't be able to send a scout after us when we fall back. Don't get close enough for the Hunchback and fall back once one is down."

They marched in in formation and as they approached long range the characteristic hum and crack of a Guass Rigle shell from Freda's Huron Warrior signalled the start of the fight. It careened towards the Orion slamming in the right leg, Armor plates shattered off as the steel ball slammed into the stoic mech but it remained unmoved and unflinching.

It was answered in kind by the Orion and Thunderbolts spewing forth a volley of long range missile fire. They peppered Ben's Phoenix Hawk with small blossoms of flame as the missiles struck home.

All hell then broke loose as the Marik forces broke into a run at full speed forwards then discharged all there weapons in range.  Large lasers, auto cannons and missiles saught out 'mechs of both sides. The Marik Hunchback was the only mech not to fire but it sprinted into the fray eager to bring its Kali Yama Big Bore Autocannon/20 into the fight.

"Strike Lance fall in and give me supporting fire on that Hunchback." Bjorn called out over the command circuit.

The Myrmidons responded with parade ground precision, moving in and discharging their PPCs in unison. Four bolts of lightning arced in towards the evading Hubchback. Two struck and Armor flowed on its right side but did not stop its advance.

"Fall it back now people, slowely, you ok there Ben?" The Marik forces had focused all there long range fire on him last round, his com feed was showing hits across the board.

"Holding sir, took a hit hit from a large laser but nothing critical was hit" a hint of anger showed in his tone, "fall back to the Pursuit Lance Ben, if they are clan front trained they will keep on you."
The Phoenix Hawk was heavily armoured for its roll but even it had limits.

Both forces discharged again as the Phoenix Hawk bolted. This time his unit focused its fire on the Hunchback, the Gauss rifle struck true with three PPC from the pursuit Lance peppering it with fire. But there large lasers kept missing. Bjorn lined up his AC5 and let loose a round. It struck the centre torso digging into the core. The high explosive rounds clustered within and the mech gave a lurch and pirouetted to the side indicating a gyro hit. It slammed at full speed into the grass throwing dirt high into the air.
Meanwhile the Marik mechs contininued thier focus fire on the Phoenix Hawk, armor melted and fractured into the air. In his dash Ben avoided most of their fire but the concentrated nature of it took its toll, his right leg took the brunt of it leaving it mangled and locked in place.
Somehow he managed a hop before launching his mech into the air by the Hawks characteristic jump jets mounted on its back.
"Before you ask I'm fine, I need to pull back though boss, I can skip my way back to base" Ben called in "being the hero again Ben. Well we are one for one but the heavies alone out weigh us, full full back people let's put some distance in.

The Sharks fell in at full speed easily out maneuvering the Marik mechs, except for the Cicada that gave full chase. Muzzle smoke emitted from its Ultra AC5 but no round came out. "That Cicada has a jam, your lucky day Ben."
"Persuit Lance you ready for the kill?" He called up a panel on his comms board untouched this fight. "Teeth ready for the feasting sir" came back the terse voice of Agnetha "then have at em Persuit"

At that moment four mechs lept out of the brushland parallel to the path of retreat they were taking. His other Phoenix Hawk, two Clints and Commando. They rushed in careless of the heat, isololated from its friends the unit was hammered by the lasers, autocannons and SRMs until its left torso caved and a flare of blue light burst forth as its XL engine collapsed under the fire.

At that moment it's pilot ejected high into the air and the mech, already traveling at high velocity slammed into the ground.

The heavy mech persuing them halted at this sight. Falling back to help the gyro damaged Hunchback. One of his Clints and the Phoenix Hawk each grabbed a leg of the downed Cicada dragging it towards their line keeping up with the grahopper antics of Bens injured Mech.

"Can we keep it boss" came his Clint pilot.
"Sure why not", he pondered what to do, "you two can escort Ben back for repairs, and take your bug back for inspection."
"Everyone else forms the new command Lance" he shuffled the allocations on his Tek BattleCom system. Wolverine, Huron Warrior, Clint and Commando as well as his Myrmidons, sufficient.

"Ok people, lay on the speed, head west if your with me and make it look like we are falling back. We have some skeletons to dig up"

[Chimera]

[GM session 3 - rat trap]

The bridge of Leopold Lance
3 hours till launch.

Ava 'Rat' Komani stood next to her newest friend, wiping the blood and guts of a former friend from the bridge of Leopolds dropship.

Leopold was long gone, ejecting from his mech after the battle with the Marion's. Most likely captured by the planetary militia now. He paid the bills, they had shared some time together. But in the end his bravado has cost him. She had surrendered to these Marian's on the condition she keep her 'mech. They had honoured her so far, she could find herself liking this outfit.

When she was a child, she always thought back to the story of Feke and the Rat. She had taken the name of rat. It was to remind her never to give a free ride and always to take opportunities as they arise. It's what had helped her to survive is the wildest parts of known space.

She looked up at her new friend, violent, hungry, but determined and resourceful. She recalled walking him into Leopolds dropship in her Crab after surrendering to him. She knew he had his gun close as her rode rumble in her cockpit, he didn't trust her, nor should he, he too was not an Octopus.

She looked at the commander, Marcus or something. Apparently a prince or something. He was checking the dropships command systems. These guys were bankrolled. It had been a long time since she had served a group with a plan outside of surviving day to day.

Still, she needn't get too comfortable, opportunity was the key, and she was a Rat, Judas, a betrayer. Never the best way to make friends, would they or should they trust her, only time would tell.

[a short one for once to show they don't all need to be epics, I'm just over keen. No time delay on claiming these, the pre campaign had three sessions in total]

[Brunhilde]

Tahj brushed his blonde hair out of his eyes as he straightened out of the stooped walk he had affected while accessing the fore gunnery control bay on the Leopard class dropship his commanding officer and her companions captured from Leopold and his crew not three weeks ago.  Fortunately, the rate of discovery of hidden weapons caches had all but dried up.  It is amazing how creatively the staff and crew from BOTH House Wuyts and Aurelius could come up with handy suspected cache locations…
“I imagine one become creative when so severely restricted in movement while travelling in a dropshi…”  His muttering drooping away to silence as he finally beheld the stellar display through the viewport.
There they were, hanging in the sky.  The same and yet different.  The constellations were still the same- obviously, they hadn’t yet jumped - and here he stood gaping, until he caught himself, and moved to set himself into one of the seats located even closer to the bulkhead.  Even closer to the one barrier between him and the vacuum of space.

And the stars shone.

“well this is Definitely worth that bottle of ‘trade goods’ Eric tipped us into stocking up on for the trip out here.  The flight crew of this dropship know their stuff, and seem to like looking into the inside of the bottles of our local brew” he thought to himself as he folded his lanky frame into the couch, unconsciously moving to the secondary gunner position.  He is the driver, and Madeline is the gunner.

And the stars shone.

A Dirtsider and Wuyts-trained house warrior, Tahj had never been off planet - circumstances being what they were, and so he had settled for gazing at the stars, biding his time.   It had been only just over a week after being assigned to Centurion Wuyts’ crew that her gunner found out about his little secret of watching the stars.  Fully expecting to be mocked for his romanticism again, Madeline laughed and shared a little more about herself instead, finishing with
“Tahj, this little hobby of yours is so very much more preferable to some of the more odious habits I have had to work with and in some cases shut down in the past.”
His thoughts ran from Madeline to her cousin Abena, the gunner of Calvin’s tank crew who popped up (well, actually not ALL that unexpectedly) while the Wuyts was definitely NOT shooting up that tavern, while NOT meeting Senator Scoggin, who was NOT planning to conduct a raid on a scrap yard.  What is my life!?

And the stars shone.

He slowly felt his body relax, feeling the light thrum of the dropship drive pushing further forward towards the rendezvous coordinates to meet the jumpship chartered to take them to their destination. Tahj recalled the day the Centurion left the tank to chat with Scoggin.  Recalled settling into his seat a little more to begin an interesting day of people watching - while guarding a 45 tonne tank.  Madeline suddenly jumped, checked her commlink and started to laugh.
“Hy Tahj, you remember my cousin who runs with Calvin now?”
“Abena, yeah”
“They are back in town, and are celebrating the early end of a contract.  She’s not one for the wilder style of party that most of Calvin’s crew have.  Want to grab dinner with some of the quieter crew?”
Tahj snorted quietly to himself - that night did not end as quietly as he had expected.  A good thing that Centurion Wuyts had much the same plan in mind with her people.  That didn’t end as quietly as expected either…
The day following, however, was a day he will not forget in a hurry. 

The ordered Wuyts Compound was abuzz with pallets the quartermaster. Cadre and associated stores staff sending consignment after consignment to the Aurelius compound. 
Ophelia was everywhere at once ordering stock, chasing down errant articles, organising essentials for our mission, and generally having the time of her life.  When Master Eric came on board and started getting involved as well, it was as good as confirmed that we were about to begin another mission on a larger scale. Maybe even bigger than our race across the planet last summer!
And of course, while all this was going on, Madeline and I stripped down Gerdriful and gave her a complete overhaul.  THAT was a huge day.
Reminiscing on the subsequent stocking of the ship and flight brought Tahj’s thoughts back to the here and now.  The mission is underway.  Tahj slowly stood and stretched out the kinks for sitting in a seat configured for someone much smaller than he.  Yes, he thought to himself, “I will return to this quiet place, that bottle of brew will stand me in good stead for a few more visits, I think!”
And he stooped to return to the tank bay to begin his shift.  A few more days and we will be at the jumpship.  I will come back then.”
His figure receding from view.
And the stars shone.

[Loswaith]

[Rhys Carr: Session 3]

Security Clearance Confirmed.
Rhys Carr logged in...

... the bleep of approaching mechs, breaking the reverie.

Now to close the trap.

Waiting until the dervish is in the right spot we strike... hard, the Dervish sheds armour quicker than a cat sheds it's winter coat.

Mac draws the Dervish's fire with grandpa, while the rest of us pepper it with all we have.  It pays off and it's pilot ejects soon after.

Macs voice over the comm commands the change in targets, and we quickly obliterate the lighter mech's while their crab circles around us using it's speed to the advantage.  Seeing it's companions fall it makes a break for it, but Kline was keeping tabs on the Crab as part of his side plan, chasing after it with Ray and his tanks in tow.  The rest of us just too slow to follow.

Shortly after Kline returns with the crab following.  He made a deal with it's pilot to join with us. Informing us of a plan to take Leopold's drop-ship for ourselves.

It will have to wait, we have a job to do.

Arriving at the junkyard it doesn't take long to locate the chassis containers, as often the case there is a common order to how these scraps are sorted, and all that time spent picking through them as a youth has given me a good idea of layouts.

We locate a crate of chassis with the DI and begin to load them up, while setting aside a pile for the sharks to load.

All this gives us a good amount of spare time to execute our side plan with the crab pilot; 'Rat'.

Playing pigeon with the crab and it's fellow damaged mechs, we are quickly able to board the drop-ship.
Mac, Kline and Rat heading for the bridge.  Ray, Simone and myself for engineering.

We manage to take engineering quickly and quietly, reporting to Mac when it was secure.  They had similar success but not so quietly.

Now we have our own drop-ship.  It needs work for sure, but it has mech bays, so an improvement.

Letting Bjorn know, we bunch up to bypass the planetary defenses.
Meet up with the jump ships and leave the sector.

Quite the profitable mission even after we pay for the refit and repairs.

Rhys Carr offline... 
Security protocol enabled.
Terminal Secured.

[Loswaith]

[Rhys Carr: Session 4]

TBA

Updated the others finally too

[Loswaith]

[Rhys Carr: Session 5]

Wibbly, wobbly, timey, wimey, stuff.

[Brunhilde]

“Right, so that’s the sheets changed, the head scrubbed, and the environmental settings reset.  Now for the..”
The brunette’s musings were cut off by the whoosh of the opening door.
“Oi!  What are you doing in my room?”
Ophelia raised a well sculpted eyebrow.  “Pardon?”
“This is my bunk.  Get out!”
“No, I do not think so.  This room is required for The Wuyts.”
“The what?  I’m a mechwarrior, the name is Rat and you are in my bunk”
“The Who.  This room, such as it is, has been allocated to Centurion Simone Wuyts. That you are a mechwarrior is quite lovely and somewhat irrelevant, as you are standing at the entranceway to a superior Officer’s private quarters. 
If you are seeking to improve on your previous sleeping arrangements as can be surmised by the kit slung over your shoulder; there are some rooms as yet unclaimed.   I suggest you try the two remaining across the hall, but personally, I recommend the cabin further aft.  The other has waste reclamation piping behind the bulkhead, and I overheard one of the skeleton engineering crew saying something about an imbalance in the reclamation mix as I came aboard. Good day”

Correction, rebuttal and information delivered, Ophelia, valet to Centurion Simone Wuyts turned back to her interrupted work, and having dismissed the mechwarrior from her thoughts, she began planning to anticipate the Wuyts’ next set of needs.

“Huh!  That explains the smell!  Thanks. Rat out.”

[Chimera]

Quick note for the keen and confused. This was the pre campaign, it had three sessions.

The main campaign started after the return and in between and he ACKS break it had four sessions.

Sorry for the confusion