Drop 3, January 17, 3025

• Mission Brief

The Old Lady hired us out to attack a convoy that we were told was carrying materiel that local insurgents needed to continue their attacks against civilian populations. It was supposed to be an easy smash and grab, a milk run. Our Primary Objective was to destroy the vehicles that made up the caravan. Any defending vehicles or mechs could be engaged with at our discretion.

Drop Deck

Pilot	Mech
Garm	Assassin ASN-21
Provocator (NPC)	Stinger STG-3R
Kilo (NPC)	Wasp WSP-1A
Chili (NPC)	Firestarter FS9-M

Action Report
Military life is full of axioms, "No plan survives contact with the enemy." is the truest of them. Thurisaz lance had been pretty banged up in our previous two engagements, and because of the low technology base of Briota, buying replacement weapons and jumpjets was all but impossible. I hoped to use salvage from the destroyed convoy to help rectify the fact that we were having to up-armor our mechs to make up for lost jumpjets.

Engagement occurred in rocky terrain, with sheer ledges to the north and steep, broken hills to the south. We deployed to the south of the hills and used our jets to bound to the top of the hills before the convoy could detect our presence. The other three members of my lance quickly engaged and destroyed a J. Edgar that wandered too far ahead of the convoy. A Pegasus hovertank tried rushing into the fray, but a solid shot from the newly equipped Snub-Nose PPC in my Assassin made the driver think twice. It took several more blasts, and one well-aimed kick from Provocator before the Pegasus was destroyed.


By that time, the rest of the opposing force had closed and had started to pepper Chili with LRM fire. It was at this time that the enemy Panther announced its presence by tearing into my Assassin's with a stray PPC blast that had to have been intended for Chili. The lance blasted away at a Vedette tank, but between the tanker swerving like mad and our own pilot's jumping to avoid fire, few shots did more than chew off armor. The enemy dumped LRMs and light AC fire into Provocator's Stinger, all but destroying the RL as both Kilo and Provocator tried destroying the enemy Vedette.


The enemy Panther put a PPC shot into Provocator and took out the Stinger's Left Torso and Left Arm. I ordered him away from the fight, and as he was jinking to avoid incoming fire, combined fire from the enemy Striker and Vedette ripped the Center Torso to shreds, killing Provocator instantly.


To my command's credit, this caused them to redouble their efforts. Kilo found the Vedette that had been been harassing us for several minutes and this time he stomped it into flaming wreckage. Chili savaged the enemy Scorpion and Striker, and I leaped onto the Vedette that had fired the blow that killed Provocator. It did not survive forty tons of mech landing atop it.


By now, only a Vedette and the enemy Panther remained. The Vedette made a break for its dust off, but Chili turned her Firestarter's Flamers on it, cooking off the MG ammo within, killing all within and destroying whatever it was carrying.

With that, our Primary Objective was complete. The enemy Panther showed no intention of letting us retreat however, and frankly, we needed the salvage to make this drop even economically worthwhile. Kilo jumped into the Panther's left flank hoping to avoid return fire from the PPC. A shot from the Medium Laser opened up the armor in the Panther's Left Leg, and further MG fire did major damage to the same location. It came at a cost though as the enemy pilot swung around and laid into Kilo with a perfectly executed punch, tearing the Stinger's Right Arm off at the shoulder.

I took this opportunity to jump into the Panther's Rear arc and fired the Snub-Nosed PPC into the rear armor. I didn't need the damage report to tell me the shots had punched through, because suddenly I could see daylight through the Left and Right Torsos.

I ordered Kilo to the extraction point, and Chili crossed in front of the Panther to try blocking the Stinger's escape. Her laser fire, which was aimed at the damaged Right Torso, instead tore the remaining armor from the front of the Panther's center of mass.


I placed my Assassin squarely between the Stinger and the Panther, taking a punch for my trouble, but by this time the Panther's pilot must have been frying in his overheating machine. It did managed to solidly connect, but it didn't have the same perfection that I had witnessed before. Kilo continued to jump back to the LZ, and his SRM volley tore the PPC from the Panther. That was enough to break the resolve of the Panther's pilot. He turned and ran.

Chili took the initiative and hounded the fleeing mech, trying to cripple it, but instead destroyed the already damaged Center Torso, killing the mech and pilot.

Mission results

• Payout 113,250 credits
• Notable Salvage
  • Panther PNT-9R
  • LRM-10
  • SRM-6
  • SRM-6
• Kills
  • Garm
    • Mechs 0
    • Vehicles 2
  • Provocator
    • Mechs 0
    • Vehicles 1
  • Kilo
    • Mechs 0
    • Vehicles 1
  • Chili
    • Mechs 1
    • Vehicles 3
  • Injuries
    • Provocator KIA
• Repairs
  • Assassin
    • Armor
  • Stinger
    • Completely Destroyed except Head and Legs
  • Wasp
    • Right Arm Destroyed; Medium Laser Destroyed, Armor