Silencing the patrol (D12 LM Ninovo Combat)

[GM Yuusha]

The Supply Depot is just off the main highway. Every morning a patrol is sent to check the highway is clear. It's like clockwork. A forward scout squad covertly reports they are leaving Ninovo. Your lance has been tasked with silencing the convoy. You have plenty of time to move into position to cut off their return journey back to the base.

Destroy them all and let none escape.

Objective: Prevent the escape of all 4 enemy units: 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.

[John Slaktare]

Butcher and his lance drop into position, cutting their jump jets, and preparing to annihilate the target convoy. Time to earn that paycheck with some good old fashioned mech murder.

"Winkey, Spider, Magician... keep ready, they're incoming."

[GM Yuusha]

John had deployed his forces well. His longer range mechs were on a hill with a commanding view, in the cover of woods, while he was in cover and blocking the main road.



As soon as both sides saw each other things kicked off.



The enemy had a Shadow Hawk medium mech with respectable armour but a light weapons loadout. It moved dead ahead. Following it was a Scimitar medium hover tank with a big LRM15 and some backup SRMs. The Javelin that moved up to a vantage point also had an LRM15. They'd want to stay away from John's hatchet. Finally, there was a Striker tank that almost seemed forgotten. It had an LRM10 and an SRM6. It moved into the woods ahead of John.

[John Slaktare]

Wanting to take advantage of the relative strengths and weaknesses, Butcher jumps in at the javelin and does his best to eliminate it, while directing Magician to support him. He sends Winkey and Spider at the Scimitar with their long range heavier weapons.

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Hatchetman jump to 509, N facing. Fire all weapons except for hatchet hand, then hatchet on Javelin.
Enforcer fire everything at Javelin.
Blackjack fire everything at Scimitar.
Griffin fire everything at Scimitar.

[GM Yuusha]

Getting in close nice and early, John targets the Javelin. He misses with the laser yet the AC/10 lands, doing excellent damage to the lighter mech (10 damage RT). It looked to be through to its torso. However, John takes some damage in return as the Shadow Hawk turns and targets him. He was in the open and his back was showing. Narrowly stepping to the side to avoid LRMs hitting his cockpit, the Hatchetman takes multiple hits to its left side rear (5 damage LTR, armour destroyed, 3 damage LTR, 7 internal structure remaining). It was a stroke of luck neither hit had found anything critical,

Most other shots on both sides miss. The Griffin hits the Scimitar with its PPC at least (10 damage LS), but the Scimitar was fighting back. It lands multiple LRMs on the Blackjack (10 damage RT, 2 damage LL) and even a single SRM on the Griffin (2 damage CT).

John makes up for his lance's poor shooting by cutting deep into the Javelin's right leg with his hatchet (10 damage RL). Once more he was through the armour, but nothing critical had been hit.

(Griffin on 2 heat)



Not wanting to stay close to the Hatchetman the Javelin jumps as far as it can to the north. At the same time, the Striker moved up the road and the Shadow Hawk and Scimitar both move further to the east.

[John Slaktare]

John gives some orders, switching up the target assignments and getting folks to move towards new opponents. He comes in behind the striker, sends Spider after the Javelin, and tries to move the Enforcer and Blackjack to attempt to cut the Scimitar and Shadowhawk off from escaping.
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Hatchetman jumps to 810, SE Facing, fire everything at Striker then kick it.
Griffin move to 1207, N Facing, fire everything at Javelin
Blackjack jump to 1212, S Facing, fire everything at Scimitar
Enforcer move to 1310, SE Facing, fire everything at Scimitar

[GM Yuusha]

Butcher's lance weren't at their best this morning. The Blackjack hits the Scimitar with one medium laser (5 damage LS) while the enemy were getting in quite a few hits.

The Blackjack is hit by a medium laser from the enemy Shadow Hawk and four SRMs from the Striker (7 damage LT, 4 damage RT, 2 damage RL). The Blackjack's pilot sees warning signs in the cockpit - no armour left in the right torso! The Javelin lands its LRMs on the Griffin even as the Griffin misses its own (5 damage CT, 4 damage RT). Not good at all.

Once again the saving grace was John. He kicked the Striker once, destroying the engine and immobilising it (10 damage LS, engine destroyed, immobile). Nice.

(Enforcer, Blackjack and Hatchetman on 1 heat)



The Striker crew bail as the fight rages on. The Javelin runs east as the Scimitar zigzags until it is back on the road. It would escape soon if not stopped. The Shadow Hawk was moving east, but it was a longer route to the north east where it had to go.

[John Slaktare]

John pushes the lance to take on the convoy with more aggression, chasing to close quarters as best they can. He tries to get into a position to fire at the Shadow Hawk himself.
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Hatchetman Jumps to 1210, SE facing, fire all weapons at Shadow Hawk
Griffin jumps to 1707, NW Facing, fire all weapons at Javelin
Enforcer jumps to 1711, SE Facing, fire all weapons and kick Scimitar
Blackjack jumps to 1515, NE Facgin, fire all weapons and kick Shadow Hawk

[GM Yuusha]

The Enforcer is hit by an AC/5 round from the Shadow Hawk (5 damage CT) and an SRM from the hover tank (2 damage RL), but that was it. Return fire for the lance was quite lacklustre too. The Blackjack hits the Shadow Hawk with a few lasers (8 damage RL, 5 damage LA) and the Enforcer hits the turret of the Scimitar (10 damage TU). Nothing major.

However, the lance lives up to its reputation as both the Blackjack and Enforcer kick their intended targets (9 damage LL of Shadow Hawk. 10 damage RR of Scimitar). The Shadow Hawk remains standing, which was a shame, but it was taking damage. On the other hand, the mechs were getting hot, hot, hot!

(Blackjack on 10 heat, Griffin on 7, Enforcer on 4)



The hover tank tries to get away, but the risk of side slipping into a hill forced it to go slow. The Shadow Hawk moved to cover its rear as the Javelin strives to re-join the group.

[John Slaktare]

Butcher gives orders to try and deal with the heat buildup and fire a bit more efficiently, while getting as many into position to kick the crap out of as many enemy mechs as possible.
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Hatchetman jumps to 1608, NE facing, fires AC and one medium laser at Shadow Hawk, hatchet on Javelin
Blackjack moves to 1514, N Facing, fires 1 large laser at Shadow hawk
Griffin turns to SE facing, fires PPC at Scimitar, kicks Javelin
Enforcer moves to 1811, NE facing, fires everything at and kicks the Shadow Hawk

[GM Yuusha]

The next few seconds are crucial. The Enforcer lands an AC/10 slug and a small laser into the back of the Shadow Hawk (10 damage CTR, 3 damage RTR), opening up its back. In return, the Shadow Hawk hit the Griffin's arm with its AC/5 (5 damage LA). It was enough to throw off the mech's aim and it missed the hover tank with its PPC.

The Javelin spots the Blackjack at a good range for its LRMs and it opens fire (5 damage RL, 4 damage RA). It was fortunate it didn't hit the vulnerable spot on the mech.

As the Scimitar moved north east it shoots back at the Griffin too, long range missiles hammering the medium mech (7 damage RT, 5 damage RL). John, unfortunately, misses his shots, as does the Blackjack.

In melee the Shadow Hawk turns its body to punch the Enforcer (6 damage RT). Not a problem. The Enforcer kicks it, destroying the armour of its left leg and causing severe damage to the joint (10 damage LL, 2 critical hits: Upper leg and Hip).

While John misses his hatchet swing on the fast moving Javelin, the Griffin pilot makes up for the missed shot by kicking it hard (11 damage CT). Its centre was now a big dented mess.

A second later and the Shadow Hawk topples over (5 damage CT, 1 damage RA, 1 pilot hit). This would soon be repeated!

(Blackjack on 2 heat, Enforcer on 4, Griffin on 6)



The Shadow Hawk tries to get up a couple of times, each time falling over (6 damage LL, 1 pilot hit, and more...). It would be an easy kill at this stage. Elsewhere, the Scimitar jets over shallow water heading north and the Javelin races toward the road, also hoping to get away.

[John Slaktare]

John urges the lance on to blitz the two standing opponents, but has Winkey stomp on the Shadow Hawk for good measure. The Scimitar was nearing the escape and Butcher was hoping that the heavy firepower of the Griffin would be able to stop it in it's tracks.
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Hatchetman jump to 2007, NE Facing, fire all weapons at Scimitar
Griffin move to 1908, NE Facing, Fire all weapons at Scimitar
Enforcer moves to 2209, NE Facing, fire all weapons, kick Javelin
Blackjack move to 1811, NE Facing, Fire Large Laser, Medium laser at Javelin, kick Shadow Hawk

[GM Yuusha]

In the end it's John himself that prevents the Scimitar's escape. He vaporises it with a hit from his AC/10, destroying its left side. It had got off a few shots at the Griffin a few seconds before, but only a single SRM strikes the medium mech (2 damage RT). It's enough to throw off the pilot's aim, but that's not a problem thanks to Butcher.

The Enforcer gives chase to the Javelin, but that left its back exposed to the Shadow Hawk. It pops a couple SRMs into the Enforcer's back, stripping the armour from its rear left side and damaging the internal structure (4 damage LTR). What makes it worth this is the Enforcer hitting the fast moving Javelin with its AC/10 and its large laser. The shot to the rear right torso destroys the entire area, actually blowing the arm clean off and also stripping the centre rear armour. The large laser nearly melts off the entirety of the left torso to boot (10 damage RTR, section destroyed, right arm blown off, 3 damage transfers to CTR, 8 damage LTR).

Trying to be useful, the Blackjack pilot steps in close to the still combat-active Shadow Hawk and kicks it hard in the left side. The left side rear. With very little armour. Its foot goes right into the other mech's body. When it is pulled free the Shadow Hawk suddenly explodes - its AC/5 ammo set off by the extreme force. Pieces of mech fly upwards and outwards, missing the very, very lucky Blackjack by inches or less. The auto-ejection system sends the poor pilot right into the ground at full force. There wouldn't be any salvage left after that.

Meanwhile the Enforcer kicks the Javelin, nearly taking its leg off, but the light mech refused to fall over. Its only hope was the fact the enemy were now all quite hot.

(Griffin on 9 heat, Enforcer on 7, Blackjack on 3, Hatchetman on 2)



The Javelin was now fully capable of running to safety. It was so close. It only had to avoid skidding on the road as it...

It hits the tarmac hard. The pilot chooses to eject rather than be mobbed by four mechs.

[John Slaktare]

John takes to the sky for a moment, landing by the ejected Javelin pilot. He sends the other mechs to try and round up the tank crews. He flips on his external speakers.

"There's a hard way: launching missiles at crews and stomping on little bodies... and an easy way: you all just come with peacefully. But the hard way is still really fuckin easy for us. Up to you if you wanna be corpses or POWs. Any resistance from one of you, is the end for all of you. So think about your allies before deciding if you want us to kill them," Butcher explains. There's a current of violence in his voice, like he wants the opponents to give him a reason to order their execution.

[GM Yuusha]

None of the Militia look happy about it, but they do all surrender. The field belonged to the Angels. None of the enemy had escaped.

(All enemies eliminated! Congratulations!)

Other Angels elements advance toward the site and an APC arrives to pick up the prisoners. Everything else would have to wait. There were more battles to fight. John's lance was given permission to return to the dropsite for repairs. The Enforcer and Blackjack both had internal damage that would take a bit more time to fix than simply replacing the armour and topping up ammunition.