Unwelcome surprise (D6 EA Budai Combat)

[GM Yuusha]

(Warning: BOSS Combat! Your Tactics skill will help determine your initiative and whether you act before or after the BOSS. You will continue to act after other enemies. This Combat will be more dangerous)

Budai's above ground main site was taken less than an hour ago. Infantry were deployed to take the underground part of the facility. The lower levels have proven to be a nuisance to overcome according to Angels infantry reports, yet progress is being made. Security forces are making do with local communications methods and they've still got power. On the other hand, they're out numbered and out gunned. Nonetheless, demolitions have had to be deployed to break through fortified doors after troops dropped down lifts to begin making their way to the underground generators. Your lance is deployed above ground, watching the site, when you hear that your troops are close to taking out the site's power. That would trap any remaining enemies and be the first step to securing their surrender. Elsewhere, Angels forces are repositioning for an attack on the Barracks. It's true not every enemy has been encountered, but with the power soon due to be taken offline, it would mean it no longer matters. Your orders are simple - keep the area secure.

However, you're not the only one aware of the status below ground. One of the site directors, Budai's security head and a former mechwarrior, has one card left to play. He knows that when the power is taken out that will be it. If he could get access to the headquarters building he could trigger various mechanisms to deny the site to the Angels. It would only take him a little time. All the data in the labs would be wiped at first. Then he could start fires in the weapons storage areas by overloading the equipment there. In fact, he could just make the reactors go critical before they're taken! Yes, that would do. Perhaps he'd even have enough time to escape. Wasn't there a small VTOL on the VIP landing pad? Yes, he could do this!


"Comms free. Let's secure the inner compound so I can head to HQ. Protect me and eliminate the enemy. Good hunting."

He switched to open channels. "This is Site Security Director Lars Farkas." His words immediately catch your attention as you notice elevator covers shift to the sides, revealing multiple ascending hostiles. One on each!

"Leave immediately or be destroyed. You're never taking our research."

Objective: Defeat the enemy BOSS.

[Samara Kinugawa]

Samara keyed the transmit button to her lance's comm net.

"Let's go."

Fridge, Pepper, Leaky. The acknowledgements rolled in. The shooting hadn't started yet, so Samara took a moment to center herself like she had been taught. The thrum of the Hagetaka was all around her and the heat from its reactor just beginning to warm the cockpit to combat temperatures.

Yeah. Let's go.

Switching frequencies to the Obsidian Angels' command net, Samara reported in.

"Hannya here. We're ready to move in. Support better be in place."

Commanding the Warhammer to begin advancing, Samara started her combat chronometer.

----

Invoking reinforcement point (support unit) as reserved for boss fight.

Ex-gladiator bonus: Gunnery

[GM Yuusha]

Senior First Lieutenant Daniels slowly turns around as his sensors warn him of the sudden presence of an enemy mech. He hears the comms as he climbs up the incline from east of the site to get to the compound.

"Moving to support you Sergeant Kinugawa. Status?"

He could only see one tank appearing. A Manticore. It was a good all round heavy tank. Elsewhere, a Tiger medium tank with its AC/10 materialised as so too did a Demon Tank; an incredibly rare tank chassis best known for mounting a gauss rifle. Worse still, an Orion heavy mech arrived on the ground floor. It had a mix of short and medium range weapons and a lot of armour.



All four units have to wait as their elevators rose into place. It might be Samara's first and only chance to seize the initiative.

[Samara Kinugawa]

"Hostiles at these coordinates." Samara sent the relevant grid coordinates to Lieutenant Daniels, her mouth tightening at the targeting computer's appraisal of the weapons on the Demon.

For a moment, it struck her as strange that something with wheels should be considered a tank. But the naming of such things was beyond her pay grade.

"We are engaging enemy Orion."

----

Code: Select all

WHM-6R 	4/6	walk	to 0811	facing	0508	2xPPC		on ON1-VA (heat 0+20-18=2)
RVN-2X 	5/8	walk	to 0812 facing	0909	LLAS,SRM6 	on Manticore (heat 0+12-12=0)
ICR-1S	4/6/4	walk	to 0307 facing	0508	AC10,2xMLAS 	on ON1-VA (heat 0+9-10=0)
PNT-9R	4/6/4	jump	to 1312	facing	1211	PPC		on ON1-VA (heat 0+10-10=0)

[GM Yuusha]

The Orion turns slowly. The Awesome was a big threat, but the Warhammer was in the way of where it needed to go. It focuses on the other heavy mech. It's AC/10, lasers and SRMs are on point (16 damage RA, 5 damage CT). Samara has to struggle to keep the mech under control, but she doesn't fall. The Demon Tank and Tiger both try to find target, but their shots miss. They were much less experienced than the Director.

The Manticore crew had trained much more diligently than the others. Although less experienced than the Director, when they spotted a Raven moving slowly in ideal weapons range they shot everything they could at the light mech. Their first shot, a particle cannon blast, was enough. It impacts a spot between armour plates and the kinetic energy strikes deep. The mech's large laser reports a fault a half second before practically every klaxon in the cockpit starts. A fraction of a second later and the SRM ammo detonated. Thank the Heavens for an auto-eject feature, as Mechwarrior Tsai was shot to safety, sustaining painful but non-life threatening injuries as her mech goes up in flames. Pepper had just repainted it too...

In revenge, the lance and Senior First Lieutenant Daniels smite the Orion with a withering amount of firepower. Samara plugged it with two PPC blasts and the Awesome hit it with three more. The Icarus II plants an AC/10 shell into it and both medium lasers, causing some internal damage (20 damage LA, 10 damage RA, RT, LL, RL, 5 damage CT, LA, Critical Hit on Upper Arm). Even with a skilled pilot the mech can't help falling onto its back (5 damage RTR, 3 damage RA).

Daniels secures some revenge by kicking the Manticore like some giant football (16 damage FR, minor damage, +1 to driving skill rolls). The Panther treads on the Tiger's left side in the same moment (7 damage LS).

(Warhammer 3 heat, Panther 1 heat)



Although the Director was down he wasn't out. The tanks wait to make a move.

(Enemy have initiative. Careful! Your go)

[Samara Kinugawa]

"Track that pod." Samara barked into the mic at her throat, glancing at the lance status readout in her cockpit as the Raven went up. Pepper's life signs were still tracking, so that was something.

"Fridge, move in. Leaky, stomp that crawler."

----

Code: Select all

WHM-6R 	4/6	run	to 0608	facing	0607	everything not a PPC		on ON1-VA (heat 3+12-18=0)
ICR-1S	4/6/4	walk	to 0407 facing	0508	ALPHA 	on ON1-VA (heat 0+10-10=0)
PNT-9R	4/6/4	stay atop	of Tiger and if able	facing	1211	PPC		on ON1-VA (heat 1+10-10=1)

[GM Yuusha]

As Samara and her lance moved into position the enemy forces responded surprisingly quickly. The Director was shouting orders over comms and insisting the tanks support him all the while firing his weapons. He lands an AC/10 shell across the Warhammer's left arm (10 damage LA), taking half its armour, and multiple SRMs on the Awesome (4 damage RT, 2 damage LT, RL, CT). Daniels gives it some pay back, hitting it once again with all three PPCs (10 damage CT, RA, LA). It had structure showing on its left arm now, but the Awesome was running hot.

Capitalising on the damage to the Orion's arms, an AC/10 shot from the Icarus II nearly shreds one (10 damage RA). However, the follow up medium lasers hit the comms building the Director ducks behind rather than his mech. Not to worry, the Panther hits the heavy mech's torso (10 damage LT). Samara adds her own damage, tagging the Orion with repeated hits from her weapons. She even severs its right arm (5 damage RA, section destroyed - no right arm, 2 damage transfers to RT, 2 damage LT, CT, HD hit rerolled due to edge but now no edge left, 2 damage RT, 4 damage CT). The Orion sure could take a beating. For a moment it wobbled and lost balance. This time the Director pushed it forward, its strides letting it regain balance.

The tanks did little in comparison. One scorched the Panther's arm (5 damage RA) and sprayed the Awesome with heavy calibre bullets (2 damage LTR). Samara's mech took a few more SRMs as the Manticore got behind her, but her armour was holding. The same couldn't be said for her searchlight. It would need replacing again (2 damage RL, RA, LA, RTR, searchlight destroyed).

(Panther on 2 heat)



In an impressive display of coordination the Orion runs toward the main building as all three tanks move to block the Angels from pursuing.



"You won't take this site! I'm going to destroy everything." He angrily insists over his speakers. "Clear the area or you'll go up like that Raven!"

[Samara Kinugawa]

"Switch it up."

Samara pushed new waypoints and target assignments to her lancemates and swung her Warhammer around.

----

Code: Select all

WHM-6R 	4/6	run	to 0711	facing	0812	everything not a PPC		on ON1-VA (heat 0+12-18=0)
ICR-1S	4/6/4	run	to 0610 facing	0611	ALPHA 	on ON1-VA (heat 0+10-10=0)
PNT-9R	4/6/4	walk 	to 0811 facing	0812	SRM4		on ON1-VA (heat 2+3-13=0)

Note 1: Had Panther heat sinking capacity wrong. Should be 13, not 10.

Note 2: PNT prioritize melee attack on ON1, other mechs melee at will.

[GM Yuusha]

The remaining four Angels each took a little damage, but nothing that breached their armour. They remained fixed on taking out the Orion. It is absolutely plastered with fire. Its weak rear armour does not last and the mech's gyro is taken out. It crashes to the ground. The silence over the speakers and the unmoving mech pointed to the pilot being unconscious. Somehow its ammo doesn't go off, but there are some sparks and a concerning amount of smoke.

Switching their attention to the tanks, Samara and co are surprised when all three pop their hatches. Their crews, all Budai personnel - security, technicians and researchers - come out with their hands up. It didn't make up for the exploded Raven, but it felt good seeing three functional tanks surrendered to your group.

(BOSS eliminated! Congratulations!)

After a few more seconds, just long enough for his cockpit to begin cooling down, Senior First Lieutenant uses comms to pass on a quick message to the lance.

"Well fought. Make sure Pepper's okay and watch the area. I'm going to drag that pilot out of there. With any luck we can make that Orion ours."

[GM Yuusha]

It would be some time until the remains of the Raven were cleared away. Much of the Angels' leadership were reorganising those lances that were fresh to attack the Barracks.

[0.2 Strength lost due to the destruction of the Raven.]

[GM Yuusha]

Samara Kinugawa gains 0.5 fame for her contributions toward a successful combat.

Combat closed.