Think you can handle it? (Pregame 2 EA Simulators)

[Monique McConnel]

"You're a right pair of doolally eejits. Absolute bloody numpties."

Monique roasts them over the comms. "Here, in honour of your bravery." She then treats them to some recorded bagpipe music. As it plays she can be heard chuckling. "I can't believe you chose that one of the three."

[John Slaktare]

"Huh. Need to update the Hatchetman model to have explosives," he says over comms.

"I took them out for travel but they're going back in when we're back on the ground."

"And practice is supposed to be harder than the real thing ain't it?" He shrugs his sweaty shoulders in the simulator. "That's why we lift to failure during exercise no?"

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek swings out with a wide smile on his lips "If you're going to go up against the best better to die in a blaze of glory than run with your tail between your legs! Who knows lucky shot on missile ammo or something could have changed the tide."

"Besides you're a little impressed I dodged those first few gauss shots aren't you?" He gave her a teasing grin

[Monique McConnel]

"The mechtechs aren't going to let you. We've been over this Sergeant." The explosives in your own mech plan was a no.

She lifts her hand to acknowledge Aleksandr as he got out of his pod. "Take off your neurohelmet." She points to two bottles of mineral water by her foot. "And aye, you did well to dodge. But next time, consider whether you need to fight at all. You both hardly communicated. At least you dented it."

[John Slaktare]

"You realize that no self destruct actually is worse for the unit? My will doesn't leave it to anyone in the unit. So worst case scenario it becomes salvage for the enemy to use against the Angels, best case it leaves the unit," he says with a shrug.

"Better for the angels to reduce the chances it doesn't fight against the unit," he says with a shrug, moving to get water.

[Monique McConnel]

Monique didn't take the bait. They'd been over it. She wasn't going to trudge up old ground. She held up one of the bottles for John to grab.

"Do you want to try something more like how the Militia are likely to be? I've put something together."

[John Slaktare]

And this is one of his biggest problems with the leadership here. Telling him what he can't do to his mech. Like they believed it was theirs. It was wearing on him and he really felt like moving on to a different merc outfit. Maybe that was his next move after this deployment... or maybe back to Solaris.

The whole belief that he might not be lonely if he wasn't alone thing certainly hadn't worked out so far. Felt just as unhappy as he ever did still. And that pissed him off. How damn difficult is it to be any sort of happy? Why was it so damn hard? Why is life a trash fire?

He takes the bottle and shotguns the water, then looks to Alek. "You pick."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek laughed and grabbed the water "What we are supposed to load into a training program just to run away? Where's the fun in that? Of course we were gonna lose but sometimes it's about losing in style." He says with a grin.

When the talk of explosives and things comes up Alek waves dismissively "John I'm pretty sure you're too ornery to die."

He finished off his water and wiped a bit of sweat from his brow and shrugged "I've got time to go again."

[Monique McConnel]

Monique nods in agreement. "They'd probably be too scared of him getting angry to go off. Your reputation is nearly as bad as mine Butcher."

She moved to pick up the noteputer and to show Alek some options.

"Meeting engagement in the countryside, urban search and destroy, outpost assault, bridge destruction, armoured convoy protection, patrol ambush... I've been working on quite a few. Steffen likes the standard programs, which are fine, but I like tailored scenarios. Any of these your thing Alek?"

Unlike the lower ranks, Monique could be more friendly with the Master Sergeant. John was also a bit of an exception, since he just didn't respond to her Sergeant Major persona. He'd been punished and shouted at too many times and simply taken it. That earned him a measure of respect. He was still a hothead, but he seemed to be able to stay calm when it mattered.

[John Slaktare]

It likely didn't help that the punishments usually didn't mean a whole lot to him either. He tended to volunteer for shit details and extra work far more frequently than he had to do them as punishment. Plus, he's gone extended periods without pay because he only ever buys supplies for missions that he would otherwise be issued if he hadn't. He seemed to thrive on the idea that he was nothing more than a warm body or a cog in the machine. But then reacted very poorly when his idea of individualism or independence could be perceived as being challenged.

The mission was always his primary concern, but getting in the way of doing it how he wanted really seemed to piss him off.

And so he waited for the mission to be picked. "Whatever you choose, when we get in you take lead. You are ranking."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek sidled up next to Monique to look at the noteputer. Probably a bit closer than was strictly necesarry.

He looked over the options "A good ambush sounds about right! Love getting the drop on someone." He said nodding and turning to John

"No problem, don't know much about Hatchetmen except they can well, hatchet things. So I'll come up with general strategy and you can do what you do best."

[John Slaktare]

"Just gotta get in close," he says.

[Monique McConnel]

She didn't notice Alek being closer than necessary. She was mentally going over what changes to make to keep things interesting.

"Ambush. Ok. I'll load that. Hop back in and helmets on. It won't be long, aye."

[John Slaktare]

"Roger."

Setting the bottle aside, Butcher gets prepped in the pod and ready for the next sim.

"We got it."

[Aleksandr Korolov]

Alek grinned at Monique a moment before shaking his head slightly and popping back into the pod and flashing a thumbs up "locked and loaded."

[GM Yuusha]

The simulation loaded. They were both in woods beside a wide country road. Hidden. An enemy vehicle and mech convoy was approaching. They just needed to wait...

The enemy drew closer as seconds ticked by. There were two light mechs protecting the convoy; a Commando and an agile Stinger. The convoy was a standard Striker light tank and a Vedette medium tank.

Both mechwarriors kept their mechs still, but ran targeting options. The Stinger looked like it might be first, but it stopped in the road...

The Striker and Vedette sped forward. The heavier tank took the lead. As it passed Butcher opened fire, scoring hits with all three weapons and slowing the vehicle down. Alek opened fire with his front medium lasers and PPC, finishing it off. Behind it the Striker came to an emergency stop as the Stinger leapt away and the Commando moved wide around the woods.

Their scanners would pick up a third enemy mech only just arriving. No matter.

As the enemy mechs moved around to engage them the Striker tried speeding past. What would they do next?



(Your go. The Dragon is heat 4)

[John Slaktare]

Butcher turns to ​face the Stinger and lets loose.

(Turn south facing, hatchet and then all other weapons)

[Aleksandr Korolov]

"Alright Butcher I think you can handle that one." Alek said as he turned and ran toward the commando firing his lasers as he closed the distance

(I believe I should be able to run to 1306. Firing lasers at the commando)

[GM Yuusha]

(Please remember that ranged weapons fire is a phase before physical i.e melee. So, you fire all weapons and then you kick/punch/hatchet )

Everything kicked off very quickly over the next few seconds. The Hatchetman turned toward the Stinger as the Grand Dragon chased after the Commando. There was a great deal of weapons fire that mostly missed. The Commando scored a few SRM hits on the Hatchetman (2 damage to LL, RL, LA). In return, John hit the Stinger with a medium laser (5 damage RT). However, none of that compared to Aleksandr's deadly attack on the smaller light mech he'd caught up with.

His two medium lasers shot into the mech's back. One barely scorched its foot while the other melted through its thin rear armour and the housing of some of its SRMs. They cooked off a second after the beam of light ended, a catastrophic explosion blasting the mech apart into hundreds of pieces. Some of them showered harmlessly atop the heavy mech. The simulation displayed the enemy pilot somehow ejecting upwards, but the imagery appeared as the system decided it was no longer important.

A moment later and the Stinger moved to kick the Hatchetman, denting its leg armour (4 damage to LL). Having fired his arm weapons, John had to kick back, but he scored a heavy hit on the lighter mech (10 damage to RL, 1 internal structure remaining!). Afterwards it looked like that leg was barely holding together.

[I fired the RA medium laser by mistake, meaning you couldn't hatchet. I'd argue this was the better result anyone, since any more damage to that leg will cripple the Stinger]

With two enemies out of the picture, there were only two enemy mechs left and a light tank speeding away. If they wanted to destroy the convoy then now was their chance. The Stinger had moved to try blocking off the Grand Dragon's approach to the Striker while the Panther continued to head toward the action.



(Your go. Also, do open that image in a new window to see it full size if that's easier)

[Aleksandr Korolov]

An excited whoop would come from the big Lyran as the Commando went up in smoke "I can finish these two if you want to handle that Panther Butcher." Alek called out.

(Run to 0909 stomp the striker still fore the back laser at the stinger.)