Highway ambush (D3 EM Szekeres Combat)

[GM Yuusha]

A lance of enemy vehicles is known to patrol along the main highway at this time, near the Comms Site. It leaves Myron and returns there later in the day. There was a very good risk it would be in short communication signal range at the time of the attack. It needed to be neutralised so there was less chance of enemy reinforcements.

Objective: Prevent the escape of all 4 vehicles: Any enemies that escape will raise threat and/or reinforce the enemy. Each vehicle will attempt to move from one end of the map to the other, where it will attempt to withdraw.

[Mary Macharu]

There had been a lot of sour feelings about choosing the comms as the first target of the campaign. If it the battle didn't go well on top of that, it was going to be bad news for the Angels. So Mary and the Second Chancers signed up for the first target handed out.

Of course, she wasn't going to win either way. Some people would think her a coward, or a gloryhound or any number of things. But she hoped that she would at least not be ineffective.

[GM Yuusha]

A Hunter light support tank backed up a Striker light tank on the road. The support tank an LRM10 and closer range weapons according to Mary's targeting computer, while the Striker had LRMs and SRMs in its turret.

Meanwhile, two hover tanks zoomed along the open ground, avoiding the forests. A Condor, which was a general all rounder, and a Pegasus, equipped with close range weaponry.

As the 3rd scout lance approached from the West, all four vehicles detected them and began evasive manoeuvres.



The tanks stuck to the road while the hover tanks had shifted around the central northern woods to get a better visual on the hostile mechs looking to block their way.

[Mary Macharu]

"here they come. righty, head north to deal with the forces splitting up and see if the hovertanks will stop to engage with you or keep moving and expose their backs to you. slow them down, but don't get torn up. fingers and lefty with me to take the road and head them off." Mary ordered. She wasn't one to micromanage her lance, they knew their capabilities far better than she did.

With that, she fired her jump jets, zooming over to 0616, turning to face the enemy, and letting fly with the LRM at the Hunter. Given the distance and the speed, the PPC wasn't a good use of her heat. But as the enemy shot forward, it would soon enough be brought to bear.

While she might miss with the LRMs, driving face first into missile fire might cause some flinching.

[GM Yuusha]

The Kintaro and Wolfhound each followed Mary toward the road while the Chameleon broke off north to intercept the hovertanks. While the Striker had no targets and couldn't be seen, the hovertanks and Hunter each opened fire upon the closest enemies. None of them hit except for 4 SRMs striking Right's ride (Chameleon TRC-4B takes 2 damage to LT, RT and 4 damage to RA).

The lance's return fire at medium range is ineffective. However, Righty gets in a volley of shots against what he decided was the bigger threat - the Pegasus hovertank. One medium laser seemed to strike somewhere important as the hover tank notably slowed down after the hit (5 damage LS, heavy damage, 1/2 MP, 5 damage FR).



Both tanks continued to follow the road. This time the Hunter overtook the Striker, which had slowed down a little to attempt a better shot. On the left flank the Condor raced off, slipping past the Chameleon and abandoned its slow ally. The Pegasus was still in the fight, but it was now a much easier target.

(Your go!)

[Mary Macharu]

Mary watched the little patrol dash forward, trying desperately to make it to freedom and safety.

"focus fire on closest targets. hit them with everything, we need this over quickly. righty (chameleon), take down that one you hit already."

Mary, for her part, was going to fire both LRMS and PPC at the lead Hunter. If she dropped it, the others could focus on his buddy if not, hopefully someone would be blessed by the targeting gods on their side.

[GM Yuusha]

The Hunter focused on the Griffin, but only some of its LRM hit home (5 damage to RT, 3 damage to RA). At the same time the Wolfhound took some fire from the Condor (5 damage to RT, CT). However, it was the Chameleon that took the most damage, as the slowed Pegasus launched everything at the medium mech! (5 damage to RA, 2 damage RT, LA, RA, RT, LA, CT, LL, CT, 7 internal RA structure remaining). It held, but damage was now getting through the the internals on its right arm - bad!

In return, Mary's lance were doing well. While she missed both her shots, possibly due to her lance mate moving in the way for a few seconds, the Kintaro found one on the Striker (5 damage to LS, critical hit, crew stunned). The Wolfhound hit the Condor hard (5 damage to FR, LS, heavy damage, 1/2 MP), fusing some of the metal of its drive system and greatly slowing it down. While the Chameleon was being mauled it gives as good as it gets, hitting the annoying Pegasus with a lot of weapons. The hover tank lurched to a stop rather pathetically, its body damaged nearly beyond recognition (lots of damage! Crit on SRM6, immobilised it too, crew stunned). Unfortunately, all the damage it had taken made Holmwood lose balance. He reached out instinctively with his right arm to cushion the fall, but that only made things worse (5 damage RA, critical hit on shoulder! 2 internal structure remaining). As the shoulder gave way his head was slammed into the cockpit. Ow! (1 pilot hit!).

Ashworth went for a kick on the Hunter, but it miraculously dodged. Still, he kept on his feet.

(Griffin on 2 heat, Kintaro on 1, Chameleon on 3)



Sensing an opportunity, the Hunter accelerates down the road. The Griffin was weak to an enemy in minimum range, right? The Striker and Condor, both damaged, tried to move around Mary's lance, but they were slow. Righty, nursing a head injury, at least got the satisfaction of seeing the Pegasus crew bail from the vehicle. They were fleeing toward the woods.

[Mary Macharu]

Mary was displeased with her gunnery. What was the point of having the best mech if you lacked the skill to use it to hit anything useful?

"keep pouring it on. engage your nearest viable target with everything you've got. righty (chameleon) support leftie (wolfhound)'s attack if you can.

Mary, for her part, was going to fire the jump jets to get to fleeing hunter to try and give him a kick and fire her lrms at the tank fingers (kintaro) was engaging.

[GM Yuusha]

While the Condor landed a medium laser strike on the Wolfhound (5 damage CT) and the Hunter did the same to the Griffin (5 damage CT), the scout lance took much less fire than seconds before. Their own weapons fire grew more accurate.

Mary landed six long range missiles on the Striker (5 damage FR, 1 damage LS, heavy damage, +3 driving skill rolls and 1/2 MP). A great deal of smoke started flowing up from its left hand side. Fingers chased after the Hunter, firing at its retreating rear, but only SRMs hit. Most hit the back, but one of them at least seemed to slow it down with a side hit (10 damage RR, 2 damage RS, moderate damage, +2 to driving skill rolls, -1MP). Leftie's Wolfhound was doing a number on the Condor (10 damage LS, crew stunned) and Righty had gotten up to lend support. Scottie actually makes his second takedown of the combat as his weapons fire destroys the Condor's exposed engine (lots of damage, engine destroyed and tank immobile).

With little reason to kick the enemy tank now, Leftie uses the Wolfhound's speakers to insist the enemy surrender. They leave the vehicle seconds later, hands in the air.

Mary misses her kick, but she was blocking the Hunter's retreat.

(Kintaro on 3 heat, Wolfhound on 1, Chameleon on 5)



Predictably, the Hunter and Striker continued to drive south as fast as they could.

[Mary Macharu]

Well at least Righty and the others were doing well. Meanwhile Mary had missed with the kick. She did not want this guy to get away.

"fingers (kintaro), pour everything into that striker. lefty and righty try to regroup with fingers. ."

Mary was going to try to open up with everything she could, jump jetting to kick the fleeing hunter while firing everything else she had left at the striker.

[GM Yuusha]

"The Striker? If you say so..." Fingers had some doubt, but he followed orders.

Mary lands in front of the Hunter before pivoting her mech's torso to fire at the Striker. Her PPC and LRM both miss, damn! Fingers fires a few shots at the Striker, with one medium laser taking out its hover system (5 damage FR, major damage, vehicle immobile). This was good as the Wolfhound and Chameleon missed all their shots at it. The only damage the lance takes is to the Griffin's leg (5 damage RL), some of its armour melting away.

Sadly for Mary, she misses a relatively easy kick on the Hunter as it skids out of reach. She does stay on her feet, though she feels the heat is building. The Wolfhound kicks the turret of the Striker before issuing a surrender warning (7 damage TU, turret jammed).

(Griffin on 6 heat, Chameleon on 4 heat, Kintaro and Wolfhound on 2)



The Striker crew struggled out of their vehicle as the Hunter abandoned them, speeding off road to safety of the south.

[Mary Macharu]

"one target left, good job. converge on the hunter as best able." she raddioed.

Giving up on kicking the hunter, Mary instead turned around, moved slowly to position for range and shot at it with the PPC. Mindful of the temperature starting to build, she let the heat sinks work to cool down a bit rather than firing another volley of missiles.

[GM Yuusha]

The good thing about chasing a Hunter light support tank was that it didn't have a turret and it only had a flamer watching its rear. The good thing about this particular Hunter was that it was a terrible shot. It missed. Unfortunately, so too did Mary. She wasn't on her game so early in the morning.

The Wolfhound hits with a medium laser (5 damage LS) while the Chameleon fired and missed.

SRM 6 at Hunter Light Support Tank (LRM10) (NPCs); needs 7, rolls 9 : 5 missile(s) hit (using Rear table). The Kintaro was struggling too, but then a few of its SRMs slammed into the back of the tank (2 damage LS, heavy damage, +3 to driving skill rolls, 1/2 MP, 6 damage RR, 2 damage RS, moderate damage, +2 to driving skill rolls, -1MP). For good measure the Kintaro trod on it as it slowed down. Its foot went right through its ruined rear, crushing the vehicle's stabiliser completely along with a member of the crew (11 damage to RR, section destroyed, stabilizer destroyed). Smoke poured out of the ruin. Two bleeding crew members crawled out immediately, coughing and spluttering.

The patrol had been neutralised in half a minute. Considering the location and how they'd been taken by surprise, it was doubtful they'd gotten off a good message about the attack.

(All enemies eliminated! Congratulations!)

When Mary reports in she'd get a satisfied response from HQ. "Excellent work. Please secure the site and assess any salvage. We'll have a crew along shortly."

[Mary Macharu]

"roger that hq, securing the site" she confirmed to hq.

It was a victory, but not one Mary would savor. She'd hit but once the entire combat, they'd taken damage, injuries in what some considered a fight that a baby should have won easily. Clearly her tactics were as bad as her shooting and piloting. She could already hear the jeers of Brownbeard and co about how useless the women of the company were. Why was she even here?


"excellent work team. it's truly an honor to serve with such outstanding mechwarriors." she radioed to the lance. "secure the site and prisoners first then assess the salvage."

[GM Yuusha]

Mary's lance manage to round up two more vehicle crews. That made three. However, those in the north had slipped away into the woods. They'd be a pain to track and find. On the other hand, they were three people stuck on foot in the snow in the middle of nowhere. It'd be at least a couple of days before they could walk to the nearest Militia site, and that was if they followed the highway. Without that it'd be easily twice as long. They might freeze to death in that time.

By the late morning a Karnov VTOL arrives to pick up the prisoners. Mary and her lance are relieved of their security role as a platoon of infantry secure the area along with a couple of mechs from another company. There was a bit of salvage to be had. Better than nothing.

The Chameleon would need a few days of repairs and its pilot might need a few days to recover, but there shouldn't be any lasting damage to either. That made the battle a sound success.

[Mary Macharu]

The missing crew wasn't a huge concern to Mary. Maybe they'd get really lucky and get picked up by another one of their patrols....maybe they'd freeze to death alone. They weren't going to be bringing any firepower against the Angels today, they're fate was in their hands now.

Just as her lance's were in hers. For now it was back to base for repairs and medicine. At least her lance could be proud that they accomplished their objective today.

[GM Yuusha]

Mary Macharu gains 0.1 fame for her contributions toward a successful combat.

Combat closed.