Battle Lance was behind enemy lines and needed to break through the enemy forces to reunite with the rest of the company. It was a reinforced lance consisting of of a Thug (modified to field 3 SRM6 launchers and 2 Clan ERPPCs), the personal Charger of Corporal "Crawler", again with two ERPPCs, though these were IS ones, two med lasers and a large one. Double Heatsinks to be able to run and fire the PPCs without trouble, a standard Guillotine 4L, a salvaged clan Supernova (standard) and another modified mech, a Warhammer 6Rb which had IS ERPPCs in place of the regulars as well. All Pilots were at least veterans, some elite [what led to the the Supernova accounting for almost one third of the battlevalue, more than 5000 points].
The problem: They faced a company of 10 medium and heavy mechs and two tanks. Every single one of which was quicker than the Supernova. And besides, most of them would've been very bad in our back, especially the War Dog with its Gauss cannon. So we had to fight this one out.
The mission would have been a success if 2/3 of our forces made it to the other side, but that was not how this went.
We had the range advantage on the enemy, with all our mechs apart from the Guillotine having (clan) ER Large lasers or ERPPCs. An enemy Archer was the first to go as soon as the battle started. But then closed in, doing little damage while doing so and loosing another mech. But by now their AC/10s and large lasers were credible threats and their LRMs started to hit more often. The Warhammer was the first to go when he fell due to damage sustained a a Wolverine kicked his head off. By then we had destroyed a Quickdraw and one of the tanks (the other, a Patton, stayed away from main battle and and only moved into close range later) and put a War Dog out of commission by destroying one leg. The pilot didn't want to leave though and tried time and again to get back up. He should have punched out, because before the fight ended his head got blown off as well.
The next to go was the Guillotine, which fell after a jump because of its damaged leg actuators. It lost a leg and the pilot bailed. We had lost 40% of our force, so our employers would count this mission as a loss. But the enemy lost more as well. A Warhammer lost its head to the Supernova and an Ostroc should not have shown its back to the Thug. A Flashman was cored.
We soldiered on, destroying a Marauder and an Enforcer. Then our Charger, after already loosing a side torso, got hit in the engine one too many times.
The Thug and the Supernova had lost about 50% of their armor, and the internals on one of the latters legs were damaged, but otherwise they were fine. As was an enemy Guillotine (more advanced than ours had been, a 5M model), that was mostly untouched. The crew of the Patton fled when it tracks were too damaged to keep the tank moving. Other than that only a badly damaged Wolverine was left. It was destroyed by the Thug, while the Supernova managed to disable the Guillotines gyro. Two of five mechs left the field, and because the battle took place in enemy territory we couldn't salvage anything, nor rescue our wounded. The pilot that punched out got out, but the other two are MIA. Let's hope we can trade them for some of our prisoners.
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Topic: How did you last die? (Read 2269211 times)