Day 1 EA-LA Patrol

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

Finally!

Time to give her 3.5 ton legs a proper stretch. Stomp! Stomp!

Catherine is more than ready to go on her first patrol on this new planet. Exploration and wonder! Once again, she goes through a quick partial systems check of Dúthracht. Everything is operational, just like before.

Time to wait for her partners for this patrol. And check the planned route on her map.

[Mary Macharu]

Finally!

Time to give her 3.5 ton legs a proper stretch. Stomp! Stomp!

Catherine is more than ready to go on her first patrol on this new planet. Exploration and wonder! Once again, she goes through a quick partial systems check of Dúthracht. Everything is operational, just like before.

Time to wait for her partners for this patrol. And check the planned route on her map.

It wasn't a long wait. Given the earlier accident with the truck, Mary was more than happy to get away from it all in the comfort of her griffen.

"ready to proceed hellcat?" she radioed.

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"Good Afternoon Sergeant Macharu!" Catherine greets her fellow Mechwarrior cheerfully.

Oh wow. While she does not know the other mech pilot all that well, she is happy to hear someone else eager to go on patrol.

"Ready to proceed!" She quickly confirms. "Ostrich will be with us today, to match our speed. She's in the TBT-7K over there."

"Si." Comes the faintly Spanish accented response over the radio. "Good afternoon. Ready to proceed."

[Mary Macharu]

"Good Afternoon Sergeant Macharu!" Catherine greets her fellow Mechwarrior cheerfully.

Oh wow. While she does not know the other mech pilot all that well, she is happy to hear someone else eager to go on patrol.

"Ready to proceed!" She quickly confirms. "Ostrich will be with us today, to match our speed. She's in the TBT-7K over there."

"Si." Comes the faintly Spanish accented response over the radio. "Good afternoon. Ready to proceed."

"then let us go." came the response. "do you have a route picked out?

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"Yup!" Catherine answers. "Let me link you up to the Command System."

One of the nicer features of the Wolverine are the improved communications suite and the Command Mech module. They are after all the reason the cockpit is so cramped. Which fortunately suits the small mech pilot just fine.

It takes her a few moments though and coming from her quiet mumbling over the radio it is easy to assume that, while competent enough to use the system properly, the young Lance leader is not a full expert. As if she has been slowly learning how to use it over the span of half a year, for just about the same time she has had this Battlemech as her own.

"Oookay! That should have done it and you should see our route now. I've been putting down some markers of interest too. Things to check out and such. Can you confirm, Headshot?"

[Mary Macharu]

"Yup!" Catherine answers. "Let me link you up to the Command System."

One of the nicer features of the Wolverine are the improved communications suite and the Command Mech module. They are after all the reason the cockpit is so cramped. Which fortunately suits the small mech pilot just fine.

It takes her a few moments though and coming from her quiet mumbling over the radio it is easy to assume that, while competent enough to use the system properly, the young Lance leader is not a full expert. As if she has been slowly learning how to use it over the span of half a year, for just about the same time she has had this Battlemech as her own.

"Oookay! That should have done it and you should see our route now. I've been putting down some markers of interest too. Things to check out and such. Can you confirm, Headshot?"

"confirmed hellcat. ready to move out on your mark. she confirmed.

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"Let's move out then." Catherine replies and sets her Wolverine into motion. Time to go and see what possible surprises the area has in store for them.

And try to get to know her partner a bit better. "I like your Griffin, Headshot. The GRF-1N is a solid Battlemech, with some nice pepper. How's it doing for you?"

__________
DAY 1 EA-LA PATROL - random event roll: 1d20 1
.. oh dear. XD

[Mary Macharu]

"Let's move out then." Catherine replies and sets her Wolverine into motion. Time to go and see what possible surprises the area has in store for them.

And try to get to know her partner a bit better. "I like your Griffin, Headshot. The GRF-1N is a solid Battlemech, with some nice pepper. How's it doing for you?"

__________
DAY 1 EA-LA PATROL - random event roll: 1d20 1
.. oh dear. XD

There was a brief moment of silence as Mary reflected on the events that led to here getting the GRF-IN and adjusted the mech's scan. It was, after all, both a reminder of the past and her future. She wished Catherine could have talked to the tech that had run through the mech initialization. She would have enjoyed his happy rhapsodizing over the mech's strengths and his funny little stories.

"it handles very well and is well suited to what i need to do." she replied back. " "i'm hopeful that during this campaign i can use it to find a lot of useful information. wolverine and hellcat seems like a nice pairing, how has that been?"

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

Catherine spends a moment to check the map. Good, they are still on the planned route.

"Good to hear that, Headshot." She answers cheerfully. "My Dúthracht does me well. Fast and reasonably tough. A good allrounder. Can run a bit hot, but I know how to work with that. And I have a good mentor to teach me too. Ah, that's the first checkpoint. Let's do a quick area survey."

[GM Yuusha]

(Mary - which of your lance mates is with you?)

Around the four mechs the snow was making the piloting that bit more comfortable by acting as a cushion. The sky was full of grey clouds as the group patrolled. By the late afternoon, when it was about time to head back, Mary's Griffin and Cat's Wolverine each briefly registered a heat signature to the North. It faded from view within seconds. Judging from where they'd just caught a glimpse of something on their scanners, it was some distance away. Somewhere up in the snowy hills.

1a) Mary and Cat may each make a TN20 Investigation [Perception] roll to get an approximate bead on the location the heat signature had been at. Each success lowers the following roll's difficulty by 5. Failure offers no advantage.

1b) To navigate to the mystery thing one of you will need to pass a TN20 navigation [intelligence] roll.

Failure: If you both fail the roll, every character (PC and NPC) that wishes to get there will each need to make a TN 30 piloting: mech [reflexes] roll to proceed, or you'll need to abort your search due to difficult terrain. If your mech has jump jets you receive a free raise to this roll. Any mech that fails to make this roll cannot proceed. You can leave behind any mechs that fail and investigate without them, if you wish. Please post if you pass this roll.

Success: You will navigate a safe path for all four mechs to the target. This encounter will proceed from there. This is optional and you may choose to ignore the heat signature.

[Mary Macharu]

(We're joined by the angry Scott, man aka Scottie “Righty” Holmwood piloting a chameleon trc-4b).

Scanning the surrounding area, both of Mary's eyes were drawn to the anomalous heat signature.

Per/Investigation 52 vs. 20, Pass

The question was, could she chart a way to get there? Jump jets weren't the solution to every problem after all.

(Using a...void point..edge point? thing to be treated as skilled, using inheritance mech for a free raise to lower the TN by 5)

Step 20 Int/Navigation, 20 v 10, pass


This path looked promising at least.

"hellcat, righty, ostrich, detecting an anomalous heat source at the following coordinates. sending navigational data. proceed with caution.

[GM Yuusha]

(Pass!)

Up the hills you all go. Halfway up you have to send a message back to base that you'll be a little late getting back. It gets steep near the end, but Mary has picked a path up that even allows Ostrich in the Trebuchet to get there.

At the summit of the hill, overlooking much of the nearby terrain, you all can smoke drifting up into the air. As you approach you realise what it is. Something has crashed. There are pieces of debris in the opposite direction of your climb. The vehicle is certainly not in one piece.

[Mary Macharu]

Mary frowned at the scene laid out before them. It was far too early in the campaign for the angels to have crashed something, other than a supply truck with bad brakes. Not to mention that if they had lost someone, a search party would have been organized....which meant they were local.

If there were no survivors, there could possibly be salvage and intelligence to be gained but if there were survivors....they weren't exactly outfitted to take prisoners.

Considering the next move, she started scanning the frequencies to see if she could detect either a distress beacon or worse someone yelling for help on the radio.

[GM Yuusha]

There was no local chatter. The radio was dead apart from an intermittent technical difficulty and apology recording on repeat on one particular frequency.

[Mary Macharu]

"nothing on comms. advance with caution, there may be survivors about and we don't know their status or disposition." She advised to the group.

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

"hellcat, righty, ostrich, detecting an anomalous heat source at the following coordinates. sending navigational data. proceed with caution.

(no need for Cat to roll here, it seems)

"Roger that, Headshot. Seeing it too. Let's investigate." Before Catherine can calculate an approach, Mary has already done so. A quick check confirms her data and the lance proceeds towards the detected heat source.

With the improved communications system of her Battlemech, the connection back to base is still clear and Catherine reports back.

Huh. That looks like a downed plane. Catherine tries to figure out what it could be, but ... no legs, no clue. It's not a Battlemech.
She tries a scan of the vehicle.

"Even so, looks like we may have to go out and see what is in there. What do you say, Headshot?"

[GM Yuusha]

The scan came back with no data. The vehicle was too damaged and the shape too broken up for Cat's targeting system to make a suggestion. It also lacked enough electronic signatures. It was very dead.

A closer inspection reveals obvious recent combat damage on the fuselage. She was certainly shot down.

(Optional knowledge or technician: Aerospace [Intelligence] TN15 to identify the vehicle if you wish.)

[Mary Macharu]

"Even so, looks like we may have to go out and see what is in there. What do you say, Headshot?"

Mary frowned slightly at the wreckage. Shot down and no distress signal? Who was it and who shot it down?

"roger that hellcat. righty and i should stay active in case someone else comes along, just in case. she said.

Having everyone hop out in potentially hostile territory seemed like a good way to turn four mechs over to the enemy, and Mary wasn't willing to risk everything on some wreckage.

[Catherine Maia Hayes]

Catherine tries to figure out what kind of plane this might have been. It feels like she should know what it is, but the thing eludes her.

"Huh ... just me and Ostrich then?" Catherine inquires back. She takes a good look around. This is unlikely to be a trap. This is the middle of nowhere. And this crash site has no easy approaches to boot. Oh well. Just one active mech observer should have been enough, but it doesn't really matter.

Maybe they really hate snow?

"I'll take a closer look first."

Stomping forward in her Wolverine, the young Mechwarrior tries to get a good peek at the shot down vehicle from up close, maybe the interior even. One final heat scan to try and identify any life signs or other dangers. Is it stable as is?

__________
Identify plane, TN15: 2d10 14 >_<

[GM Yuusha]

The plane was missing a wing. Neither Cat nor Mary could tell what kind of model it was, or what its capabilities were. Was it a transport or a gunship? The rotors suggested it wasn't capable of spaceflight, but that was all they knew for sure.

There are no signs of life as you observe the wreck.

(Investigation [perception] TN15 to see as much as you can from your mech Cat)