[OOC] Mechwarrior: Disposable Heroes

[AndyC]

@Waylon Hugh is APPROVED

[AndyC]

Everyone's been putting in some great work on this game, and @Pilatus and I both wanna say thanks for sticking with us for over 100 posts. Given that most niche games fizzle out before reaching page 2, I'm really impressed and grateful that we've gotten to page 6 and are still going strong. This is legit the most fun group of players I've gotten to work with in a good long while, and again, thank you guys for dedicating your time and energy towards this hobby.

Anyway, sentimental shmaltz aside, let's get back to it!

[Abstract Proxy]

Late reply, but I've had so much fun already, hoping to get some more fun posts in.

Also, Heavenly Sword don't seem very cash money.

[SnakieDarker]

are y'all still accepting peeps or am I too late?

[Letter Bee]

are y'all still accepting peeps or am I too late?

@SnakieDarker

Not sure, but we did accept someone new not too long ago...

[SnakieDarker]

<Snipped quote by SnakieDarker>

Not sure, but we did accept someone new not too long ago...

@Letter Bee

if y'all aren't, it's fine

[AndyC]

are y'all still accepting peeps or am I too late?

@SnakieDarker

At this point in the campaign, it'd be pretty difficult to work in another Mechwarrior. There are ways we can introduce other types of characters (tankers, aero-jocks, infantry, etc), but if you specifically want to pilot a 'Mech, it'd probably be better to hold off until Season 2.

[BangoSkank]

Looking forward to reading this. Just barely started watching videos about MechWarrior/BattleTech so I'm not even going to try to join. Maybe Season Two. Maybe as a Halfling. Half kidding.

But yeah looking forward to reading and congrats for lasting so long.

[Letter Bee]

Looking forward to reading this. Just barely started watching videos about MechWarrior/BattleTech so I'm not even going to try to join. Maybe Season Two. Maybe as a Halfling. Half kidding.

But yeah looking forward to reading and congrats for lasting so long.

@BangoSkank

Hello; welcome to the thread.

[6slyboy6]

@AndyC I'll just put my nametag down here for the time being. If things don't work out for Rasalhague RP, you can expect me to see about trying to fit in some Fourth Succession war veteran. Some kinda disgruntled FedSun, that doesn't want no business with the damn Lyrans and their Atlas scout lances

PS: Sorry for the double ping on two threads, but hey, any press is good press as they say :D

[Abstract Proxy]

Woo, posts.

Survived a move, will catch up soon.

[Letter Bee]

-Posted this message to the wrong thread.-

[AndyC]

Posting the proposed rules for how combat works here.

DISPOSABLE HEROES: MECH COMBAT RULES

For the sake of consistency, we are going to use the following example for all discussion of rules:

ExampleMap

The Griffin in hex 0609 has three enemy Mechs on the map: a Rifleman in hex 0415, a Blackjack in hex 0111, and a Locust in hex 1516. This Griffin is a GRF-1S variant, equipped with a Large Laser, two Medium Lasers, and two LRM-5 launchers. Using these rules, the Mechwarrior piloting the Griffin is going to attempt to determine the best target it can hit, then make attacks and resolve the appropriate damage and heat effects.

For the status of these Mechs, we are using the record sheets found on Flechs.

Movement

Movement Types:

There are three basic types of Movement for Battlemechs: Walking, Running, and Jumping. Each Movement Type affects your likelihood to hit and be hit, as well as how much heat your Mech generates. Unlike in regular tabletop rules, we are not including Mech facing, so 1 MP (Movement Point) allows you to move 1 hex in any direction.

Each form of movement affects your Attack Movement Modifier (AMM) and Target Movement Modifier (TMM), described in the 'Attacking' section. In short, your AMM affects how hard it is for you to hit enemies, and your TMM affects how hard it is for enemies to hit you.

Walking is the slowest form of Movement, and generates -1 to your TMM, making you easier to hit. However, it does not generate an AMM, making attacking easier, and only generates 1 point of Heat.

Running lets you move 1.5x your Walk Speed (rounding up), and generates your regular TMM. It generates +1 to your AMM, and generates 2 points of Heat.

Jumping lets you move equal to the number of Jump Jets your Mech is equipped with. These allow you to bypass obstacles, ignore elevation, and generate a -2 difficulty modifier when trying to Outflank an enemy (see "Advanced Movement"). It generates +2 to your AMM and an extra +1 to your TMM, and generates heat equal to the number of hexes you jumped.

Woods, Elevation, and other Obstacles

Moving through Rubble, Light Woods/Jungle, Depth 1 Water, or going up or down 1 level of elevation costs 1 extra point of Movement. Heavy Woods/Jungle, and Water of Depth 2 or deeper, costs an extra 2 points of Movement.

Additionally, you cannot Run or Jump if you start your turn in Water, and you cannot climb more than 2 levels of elevation at a time unless you Jump.

Advanced Movement

Sprinting: You can choose not to fire any weapons during your turn in order to move 2x your Walking Speed.

Evasive Maneuvers: You can choose not to fire any weapons during your turn in order to give enemy units Disadvantage when attacking you (rather than rolling 2d6, they will roll 3d6 and take the lowest 2.)

Outflank: If you are either in an adjacent hex to an enemy unit, or you and another friendly unit are on opposite sides of the enemy unit, you may attempt an Outflanking maneuver. The Target Number for this is 4 + the enemy unit's TMM. If successful, you gain Advantage when attacking this unit (rather than rolling 2d6, roll 3d6 and take the highest 2). If you beat the TN by 3 or more, any successful attacks hit the enemy's Rear armor.

Attacking, Damage, and Critical Hits

THE G.A.T.O.R. RULE

In order to hit a target, the player must meet the Target Number (TN for short). The TN changes based on how fast the target is moving, how far away the target is, if there is intervening terrain, and other factors, but can be calculated using the mnemonic GATOR.

G = Gunnery Skill. Since all members of Gawain's Green Knights are combat veterans, we are going to start off with a base Gunnery skill of 3.
A = Attacker Modifier. A unit's AMM is determined by what type of movement it used during its turn (Walking, Running, Jumping, or Standing Still). The AMM is 0 if the attacker uses its Walking Speed, +1 if it uses its Running Speed, +2 if it uses its Jump Jets, and -1 if it Stands Still.
T = Target Movement Modifier. Different from regular tabletop rules, a unit's TMM is its Running Speed divided by 4, rounding down. The Griffin, for example, has a Running Speed of 8, so it generates a TMM of 2. You gain an extra +1 to your TMM when Jumping, -1 to your TMM when Walking, and do not generate a TMM when Standing Still. Note that you use your target's TMM when attacking, not your own.
O = Other. This is any possible extra modifiers that might arise from things like partial cover, smoke clouds, or critical damage.
R = Range. This is how far away the target is. A target in Close Range has a Range modifier of 0, a target in Medium Range has +2, and a target at Long Range has +4. Note that every weapon has its own range bands, so what may be Long Range for one weapon may only be Medium Range for another.

TN = Gunnery + AMM + TMM + Other + Range

Once you have determined the TN, roll 2d6 attempting to meet or beat the number.

Example 1: Attacking the Blackjack

The Griffin has a Gunnery Skill of 3, and chose to Run in the narration, giving him an AMM of 1. The Blackjack also moved during its turn, with a Running Speed of 8 generating a TMM of 2. There is no cover or any circumstantial factor to generate an Other modifier. And the Blackjack is 5 hexes away from the Griffin.

This generates a TN of 6 (3+1+2) before factoring in Range.

The Griffin's Large Laser has Short/Medium/Long range brackets of 5/10/15, the Medium Lasers have brackets of 3/6/9, and the Long Range Missiles have brackets of 7/14/21, but a Minimum Range of 6. The Blackjack is in Close Range for the Large Laser, Medium Range for the Medium Lasers, and inside Minimum for the LRMs (which generates a +1).

With Ranges calculated, the Griffin has a TN of 6 to hit with the Large Laser, 7 to hit with the LRMs, and 8 to hit with the Medium Lasers.

Example 2: Attacking the Rifleman

The Griffin has a Gunnery Skill of 3, and chose to Run in the narration, giving him an AMM of 1. The Rifleman also moved during its turn, with a Running Speed of 6 generating a TMM of 1. There is 1 hex of Light Woods generating a +1 modifier, and 1 hex of Heavy Woods generating a +2 modifier, giving an Other modifier of +3. And the Rifleman is 7 hexes away from the Griffin.

This generates a TN of 8 (3+1+1+3) before factoring in Range.

The Griffin's Large Laser has Short/Medium/Long range brackets of 5/10/15, the Medium Lasers have brackets of 3/6/9, and the Long Range Missiles have brackets of 7/14/21, but a Minimum Range of 6. The Rifleman is in Medium Range for the Large Laser, Long Range for the Medium Lasers, and Short Range for the LRMs.

With Ranges calculated, the Griffin has a TN of 8 to hit with the LRMs, 10 to hit with the Large Laser, and 12 to hit with the Medium Lasers.

Example 3: Attacking the Locust

The Griffin has a Gunnery Skill of 3, and chose to Run in the narration, giving him an AMM of 1. The Locust also moved during its turn, with a Running Speed of 12 generating a TMM of 3. There is no cover or any circumstantial factor to generate an Other modifier. And the Locust is 11 hexes away from the Griffin.

This generates a TN of 7 (3+1+3) before factoring in Range.

The Griffin's Large Laser has Short/Medium/Long range brackets of 5/10/15, the Medium Lasers have brackets of 3/6/9, and the Long Range Missiles have brackets of 7/14/21, but a Minimum Range of 6. The Locust is in Long Range for the Large Laser, outside of Range for the Medium Lasers, and Medium Range for the LRMs.

With Ranges calculated, the Griffin has a TN of 9 to hit with the LRMs, 11 to hit with the Large Laser, and cannot hit with the Medium Lasers.

Players' Advantage:

In order to keep from completely whiffing, players are allowed one 'freebie,' to auto-hit with one of their weapons every turn (Note: you cannot use the freebie to hit with weapons that are out of range). NPCs, on the other hand, must roll with every weapon.

Dealing Damage

For each weapon that hits, roll 2d6 and consult this chart:

Hit Location Table

Since we're not factoring in unit facing, unless specified otherwise, use the Front arc (center column). Then apply the weapon's damage value to the location on the target.

Cluster Weapons (Specifically, Missiles):

Missile weapons hit in clusters, dealing different amounts of damage per each cluster. To determine how many missiles hit, roll 2d6 and compare the results to the weapon's size on this table:

Cluster Table

Long Range Missiles hit in 'packs' of up to 5 missiles each. For example, an LRM-15 would roll 2d6 and use the '15' column. A roll of 9 would equal 12 missiles hitting, 2 packs of 5 and 1 pack of 2. The attacker would then roll hit locations 3 times, dealing 5 points of damage to the first location, 5 points to the second, and 2 to the third.

Short Range Missiles hit individually, but do 2 points of damage apiece. For example, an SRM-6 would roll 2d6 and use the '6' column. A roll of 8 equals 4 missiles hitting. The attacker would then roll hit locations 4 times, dealing 2 points of damage to each location.

Knockdown and Falling Damage:

If a Mech takes over 20 points of damage in one round, the Mechwarrior must make a Piloting Check (4 + any modifiers) to avoid falling over. The difficulty to avoid falling increases by +2 for every increment of 20 points the Mech takes in one round. If the Piloting Check fails, the Mech falls down, taking damage equal to its own Tonnage divided by 10 (rounding down). The Mechwarrior then takes 1 Wound, described below.

Critical Hits!

There are 3 ways to get a Critical Hit: rolling a 12 on an Attack Roll, rolling 'snake eyes' on the Hit Location, and dealing damage to a location where the armor has been stripped away (an attack that strips the last armor and then hits the internal structure does get a critical hit). To confirm a Critical Hit, after dealing damage to the afflicted location, the player rolls 2d6, confirming the Critical on an 8 or higher.

Rather than check each Mech's individual Critical Chart like on regular tabletop, we're using Critical Hit rules similar to those from Mechwarrior Destiny. If you get a Critical Hit, roll 1d6 and get the following effects based on the Hit Location:

Left/Right Torso:
1-2: Equipment Destroyed. The Heat Sinks, Jump Jets, or other non-weapon equipment in this Torso are destroyed.
3-4: Weapon Destroyed. The first weapon in this Torso is destroyed.
5: Internal Explosion. This Torso (and attached arm) is destroyed, and the Mechwarrior takes 1 Wound.
6: Major Ammo Explosion. The entire Mech is destroyed, and the Mechwarrior must make a Piloting Check of 7 or be killed. If the Mech does not have ammunition in this Torso, then the result is an Internal Explosion instead.

Center Torso:
1-2: Gyro Damaged. The Mechwarrior must make a Piloting check of 5 every time the Mech moves, or it will fall over. If the Mech takes a second hit to the Gyro, it is immobilized and cannot move.
3-5: Minor Engine Hit. The Mech takes a permanent +5 Heat every round, and cannot Sink Heat lower than 5. If the Mech takes a total of 3 Hits to the Engine, it is destroyed.
6: Major Engine hit. Counts as 2 Minor Engine Hits. If the Mech's Engine is destroyed after this, roll 2d6. On a roll of 10 or higher, the engine detonates, dealing 100 points of damage to all units within 5 hexes, 50 damage to all units in 10 hexes, and 25 damage to all units in 15 hexes.

Arms:
1-3: Actuators Damaged. The target takes a permanent +1 difficulty to all attacks made with weapons in that arm. If the target takes 3 Actuator hits, the arm is disabled.
4-5: Weapon Destroyed. The first weapon in this Arm is destroyed.
6: Limb Blown Off. The Arm is destroyed completely.

Legs:
1-3: Actuators Damaged. The target takes a permanent +1 difficulty to all Piloting checks related to movement. If the target takes 2 Actuator hits, the leg is disabled, reducing the Mech's movement speed by half. A third Actuator hit destroys the Leg.
4-5: Equipment Destroyed. All Heat Sinks, Jump Jets, or Weapons in this Leg are destroyed.
6:Limb Blown Off. The Leg is destroyed completely.

Head:
1-3: Sensors Damaged. The Mechwarrior takes a permanent +2 difficulty to all attacks.
4-5: Life Support Damaged. At the end of each turn, the Mechwarrior must roll 2d6 and succeed on a 6 or higher, or pass out for 1 turn.
6: Cockpit Destroyed: The Mechwarrior is killed instantly. Player's Advantage: Unless the player has given explicit permission to kill off their PC, the character manages to eject in the nick of time, but is still out of combat.

Wounds

A Mech isn't just a robot; there's a person in there, one who can be hurt and even killed if things go sour. Every time a Mech takes a hit to the Head, falls down due to a failed Piloting Check, or suffers an Internal Explosion, the Mechwarrior takes 1 Wound.

Every time a Mechwarrior takes a Wound, all Skill checks suffer a +1 difficulty, and the Mechwarrior must roll 2d6 to remain conscious, needing a 3 for the first Wound but going up by +2 for each subsequent Wound.

A Mechwarrior who takes 5 Wounds is killed (or, if the player does not consent for their PC to die, is too wounded to continue and must take time to recuperate)

Melee Combat

Melee attacks can only be made when in an adjacent hex to an enemy unit. For narrative purposes, these can be described as punching, kicking, clubbing, using improvised weapons like trees or discarded Mech limbs, etc. For 'rules' purposes, they are divided up into attack Strength (Fast or Strong), Angle (High or Low) and Death From Above.

To perform a melee attack, the Target Number is your Piloting Skill (default 4) + your AMM + the enemy's TMM + Strength. If successful, damage is dealt and allocated depending on what type of attack you are trying to perform.

Fast Attacks generate 1 Heat apiece and a difficulty modifier of -1, and deal damage equal to 10% of your Mech's Tonnage (rounding down), and can be made twice per turn. Strong attacks generate 3 Heat and a difficulty modifier of +0, and deal damage equal to 20% of your Mech's Tonnage (rounding down), and can be made once per turn. Death from Above attacks can only be made when using Jump Jets, generate a difficulty modifier of +1, and can only be made if you choose not to fire any weapons during this turn.

Enemies hit with a Strong attack must make a Piloting check to remain standing, and attackers that miss with a Strong attack must do the same.

All damage is broken into groups of 5.

For attacks to the High Angle, roll 1d6 to determine Hit Location:
1: Right Arm
2: Right Torso
3: Center Torso
4: Left Torso
5: Left Arm
6: Head

For attacks to the Low Angle, roll 1d6 to determine Hit Location:
1-3: Right Leg
4-6: Left Leg

For Death from Above Attacks, your Mech takes damage equal to a Fast Attack to its Low Angle, and deal double damage equal to a Strong Attack to the enemy's High Angle. If you miss with a Death from Above attack, you do not deal damage to the enemy, but you still take Fast/Low damage. Both mechs must make a Piloting check +2 to remain standing if the attack hits, but only the attacker must make a Piloting check if the attack misses.

Example 1: 2 High Fast Attacks

The Griffin Walks 5 hexes towards the Blackjack and throws two punches at the Blackjack. The Griffin's Mechwarrior has a Piloting Skill of 4, Walking does not generate an AMM, and the Blackjack pilot generated a TMM of 2. The two Fast Attacks generate a difficulty modifier of -1, so the Griffin must meet or beat a 5.

The Mechwarrior rolls a 4 and an 8, missing the first punch but hitting with the second. The Griffin weighs 55 tons, and the Mechwarrior rolls a 4 on the Hit Location, meaning the Blackjack takes 5 points of damage to the Left Torso.

Example 2: Strong Low Attack

The Griffin runs towards the Blackjack and attempts to knock it down with a sweeping kick to the legs. The Griffin's Mechwarrior has a Piloting skill of 4 and generated +0 AMM from Running, the Blackjack has a TMM of 2, and a Strong attack generates a difficulty modifier of +1. In order to hit, the Griffin must meet or beat a 7.

The Mechwarrior rolls a 9, successfully hitting. The Griffin weighs 55 tons, and rolls a 5 on the Hit Location, meaning the Blackjack takes 11 points of damage to the Left Leg. The Blackjack must then roll a Piloting check of 4 or higher to remain standing.

Example 3: Death from Above

The Griffin fires up its Jump Jets to land on the Blackjack in a Death from Above attack. The Griffin's Mechwarrior has a Piloting skill of 4 and generates a TMM of +2 for Jumping, and the Blackjack has a TMM of 2. The Death from Above Attack generates a difficulty modifier of +1, so the Griffin must meet or beat a 9.

In a stroke of good luck, the Griffin rolls a 10. The Griffin weighs 55 tons, so it deals 5 points of Fast damage to itself, and a whopping 22 points of damage to the Blackjack. The Griffin rolls a 3 on the Low Angle Hit Location for itself, dealing 5 points to its own Right Leg. The damage to the Blackjack is broken up into 4 groups of 5 and 1 group of 2. The Griffin Mechwarrior rolls a 1, 3, 3 again, 2, and 6, dealing 5 points of damage to the Blackjack's Right Arm, 10 points to the Center Torso, 5 points to the Right Torso, and 2 points to the Head (this gives the Blackjack's Mechwarrior 1 Wound).

After the damage is dealt, the Blackjack pilot rolls a 6 to remain conscious after taking a Wound, then both Mechwarriors need to roll Piloting checks to remain standing. The Griffin needs to roll a 6 (Piloting 4 + 2 for DFA), but the Blackjack needs to roll a 7 (Piloting 4 + 2 for DFA +1 Wound). The Griffin pilot rolls an 8 and remains standing, but the Blackjack rolls a 6 and falls, taking an additional 4 points of damage for falling, and giving the Mechwarrior a second Wound.

Heat

Generating and Sinking Heat

Moving and using weapons continually generates Heat. The more actions you take per turn, the more Heat your 'Mech must dissipate.

Walking: 1 Heat
Running: 2 Heat
Jump Jets: equal to number of hexes you Jumped
Fast Melee Attack: 1 Heat
Strong Melee Attack: 3 Heat
Weapon: equal to the weapon's Heat value
Hit by a Flamer or Inferno warhead: 1d6 Heat
End turn in a Fire or Lava hex: 2d6 Heat

After all of your actions are taken, at the end of your turn add up the total Heat that your Mech generated, then subtract the number of Heat Sinks. Any leftover Heat you have, as well as any Heat given to you by external effects like Flamers or Fire hexes, carries over to the start of your next turn, and applies possible effects.

Heat Effects

At the start of your next turn, apply the following effects based on the amount of excess Heat you have:

[Abstract Proxy]

Looks good to me!

A bit more streamlined than full TT rules, but still with some nice depth.

[Bork Lazer]

TALES FROM THE SILENT WAVES

---

“.......wish to express our condolences with Espians who had relatives or friends in the township of Keahi. We again assure all loyal citizens that we strongly condemn this attack on our citizens. Military reports indicate evidence that the despicable foreign insurgents known as “The Green Knights” were responsible for this attack. We wish to express to all Espians to pray and hold a moment of 10 seconds of silence in memory of those in Keahi.

In other news, all planetary and systems-wide communciators and hyperpulse arrays on Espia will be under state control. All civilians in posession of a military-spec communicator is advised to surrender their device to their local sector administrator. In response to the attack on Keahi, new measures will be imposed in order to secure a safe and prosperous Espia for all.

Thank you for your attention and long live the New People’s Democratic Republic of Espia.

As always,we encourage all loyal espians to report any known collaborators of the Free People’s Army or Gawain’s Green Knights. Reports will be subject to monetary reward depending on the information provided.
“
….”

---

GKU INTERNAL COMMS BOARD

ADMINISTRATOR ANNOUNCEMENT: “ Functionality has now been restored to the official in-real-time chat system. Please remember to thank all fellow members of your unit for lending their assistance since the attack. Additionally, Lyons has given me permission to begin deleting system messages containing ‘sightings’ of General Kerensky (haha, laugh all u want. u know how much frequency rate you guys are taking up. the first few were funny. this shit could break our entire network. we have been getting comm lag in the milliseconds cause of this bs. imagine if I have to explain to the Colonel that our network infrastructure was done because of cat vids.)

>ACCESSING Private chat GKU IRC PG 81 out of 81

[12:53:45] Keren-stan: noooooooo, my kerensky picsscssssss ; (
[12:54:44] LosTechnician2999: fuckin finally. we want to use this place for actual strategy
[12:54:54]Keren-stan: pls, u guys just use this place to bitch about the colonel and the mechwarriors
[12:55:15]brbgonnacbill: can i bitch
[12:55:25]brbgonnacbill: u guys know how much high-comp endosteel it costs to outfit 6 mechwarriors
[12:55:35]brbgonnacbill: especially when we don’t HAVE ANY MONEY
[12:55:55]LosTechnician2999: speak for yourself, i have to repair them
[13:10:22]lit50calibro:speak for yourself, i have to load them
[13:20:22]gun4hire385: wellll, spk fr urself cuz i don’t want to get stepped on by them
[14:10:22]wordofblakeydoo: wait, what was this about cat pics.

---

> ACCESSING COMSTAR FREQUENCY 3.4189/O/4.19017

>,,,,,BYPASSING ENCYRPTION

CF-D.1241 - we lost alonso this week

CF-D.1356 - shit

CF-D.894 - fuck

CF-D.950 - good. fuck alonso.

CF.D. 950 - so, who wanna get first pick of his storage locker?

CF-D.1356: wtf

CF.D.950 HAS BEEN REVOKED OF SYSTEM PRIVELEGES

CF-D.1241 - it’s those blue dipshits again

CF-D.1241 - fucking a.i correctionsof

CF-D.1356 - you mean those green dipshits

CF-D.1241 - look, i don’t care whether they’re red, pink or fucking purple. command is on my ass about it.

CF-D.1356: i mean, they just got really lucky. we got the numbers advantage plus, we got their primary command base

CF-D.1241 - i had to explain face to face with CK and fire witch why we are losing

CF-D.1241 - to a mercenary unit

CF-D.1241 - with 7mechs

CF-D.1241 - 7

CF-D.1241 - get me

CF-D.950 - aff

CF-D.950 - did u hear about the plan command gave us about frying that village?

CF-D.1241 - yeah, pretty fucked up

CF-D.1241 - but i get first pick of the basements. those backwater shitholes always have something juicy in them.

---

“.....May 5th, 3032

I’m not sure how much more of this I can take. I hear it in my dreams. The sound of actuators shifting, that mechanical drone of 15 foot tall metallic giants, those fucking footsteps. I tried to request command to move me back to artillery. I see them in the buildings. I see them in the smoke. I see them in my sleep.

I can hardly tell what side we’re fighting on anymore. One moment we’re legitimate revolutionaries, the next day we’re insurgents. I think I shot one of my cell members from five months ago. He was fighting for another group of people calling themselves the free people’s movement. We all have the same names but we keep moving in different directions.

I can’t tell if I’m going mad. I can only take hope that there’s someone else more crazier than us out there in Espia.

---

“ …. loss at Nui Awa was regrettable but for ever swordsman soul we lost, we spilt three times the blood of every infidel. This day will be remembered. One day, we will bathe in the blood and tears of our capitalist oppresors and languish in the lamentations of their consorts and children.”

“ Remember, my fellow disciples. It is not simply enough to kill the capitalist to save the downtrodden. Th downtrodden must learn. They must recompense for their failure to heed the teachings of the Celestial Throne. Our hand must be wise and unrelenting. We must subject them to torture so their very spirits will become malleable enough to accept our teachings.”

“To impress upon our new recruits the fervor of our mission, we will be broadcasting the torture of captured Aqua Vitae corporate board members for the next eight hours. Savor their screams. Use it to fuel your hate and you will be gueranteed a seat in the heavens.”

[Abstract Proxy]

-snipped-

@Bork Lazer

What a post, I love it.

[Starlance]

Premiere

18th March 3027, 19:36 - Sartu system, Sartu c - Federated Suns

“Alright, Half Pint, post up on that hillside over there and let that PPC rip. Ghost, IRIS will call out targets to you, focusing on the ‘Mechs. Giggles,” Her callsign cut through the noise like a foghorn, “prioritise the VTOLs and then combat vehicles. Once those are done, coordinate with Ghost. Wait for Alpha to give you the go. I’ll be ahead of you, looking out for trouble.”
The three Bravo Lance pilots each found a place they could comfortably shoot from and waited. Two minutes later, Alpha Lance reported contact and 30 seconds after that, Bravo was given the fire-at-will order.

Alpha reported good initial effect as Warriors started falling out of the sky and a PPC and two LRM 15s began tearing into the enemy ‘Mechs, forcing them to take cover from two directions. As Marit focused on the battle raging hundreds of meters away from Bravo Lance, she completely missed small figures moving along the ground. She only noticed them when one of them soared through the air and headed straight for her cockpit. Turning the torso was a completely instinctive reaction, like when a ball is thrown at your head and you swat it aside. Unfortunately for the infantryman, Marit was right-handed so the reaction still worked as the unusable SRM launcher hit the jumper’s legs, sending the man tumbling toward the Dervish’s canopy. The impact was marked by a faint thud and left a red streak across the ferroglass.
Around the same time, the machine guns of Deadstick’s Locust woke up. “Infantry and jumpers at three-one-zero. Handling that.”
Marit turned back to the sensors readout, finding that the remaining combat vehicles had already been decimated. She was about to ask her mother to call out her current target to focus their fire when a sudden flash of light and spike in cockpit temperature drew her attention to a nearby jagged rock. As she hauled the Dervish around to make herself harder to hit and peered through the canopy to identify what the Hel was shooting at her, something weird about the view kept tugging at her eye. Something had changed. The bloody smear was gone. That could only mean the laser vaporized it. A cockpit hit. Bastard! The other medium laser carving into her right torso was just an insult on top of it

Perhaps it was her inexperience, perhaps the way she was raised, but Marit subscribed to the same way of thinking as fighter pilots ever since the rise of flight back on Terra: That theirs was a different, cleaner kind of combat, machine pitted against machine, free of the mud and blood of regular ground war. Of course it wasn’t true and there were about as many ways one could die horribly inside a BattleMech as there were reasons to hate the Draconis Combine, but it was one thing if an accident happened and a whole other can of worms if someone went out of their way to make it happen. SHe’d been stationary for crying out loud.

The offending BattleMech turned out to be a Cicada, gunning straight for them. No doubt sick of being pelted by LRMs. “Bravo, Cicada, dead zero.” She cautioned, firing off her only medium laser and turning to run behind some sort of cover, aware that she couldn’t outrun it. The Cicada was drawing mercilessly close when a flight of missiles slammed into its side, rending the armor on the left leg and torso and ripping off the left arm wholesale. The Cicada stumbled, leaning over precariously before its pilot regained his balance. Seeing the ‘Mech turn to her once again, Marit raised the Dervish’s arm to cover the cockpit and kept hauling ass into cover. Both of its medium lasers found her ‘Mech and Marit was able to feel the Dervish’s weight shift as the rest of her right torso armor ceased to exist. Fortunately, the right side LRM rack was empty to offset the weight of the missing arm. The Cicada’s stumble fortunately allowed Marit to gain enough ground to fire her missiles, sending everything she had at the enemy BattleMech.

The laser carved out a piece of the right leg armor while the missiles - Marit somehow landing all 20 of them - wrought havoc upon the Cicada, making the center and left torso armor look like Lunar surface, stripping the right arm completely and breaching the already weakened left torso. The hail of fire was joined by four medium lasers from the Cicada’s left, two making contact with the leg and torso as Idun’s Catapult rounded a rock, coming to the rescue.

The Cicada’s pilot realized which way the wind was blowing, took one last potshot at Marit as he turned tail and ran, the medium lasers taking a decent chunk off her center torso armor. Using the right arm to try and shield her now exposed internal structure, Marit hastily sent out a volley from the left torso launcher, three missiles making contact with the rear armoring of the Cicada’s center torso, joined shortly by two more lasers and a volley or LRMs from the Catapult, stripping the rest of its back armor, mangling the left torso and even striking the head. The fusillade pelting its back and a poorly timed dip in the terrain sent the fleeing medium ‘Mech face first into the ground, plowing a short trench in the soil before tumbling over its head and coming to rest unmoving, the MechWarrior likely unconscious from going 130 to zero via lithobraking.
“Alright?” Her mother simply asked.
“Lost a piece and running dry, but moving.”
In the commotion, Marit hadn’t even noticed that Half Pint and Deadstick had taken down a Locust that accompanied the Cicada and the rest of the infantry.

“Bambi here, need help, I’m-” The call for help was cut off mid-sentence. Looking in the depot’s direction, Marit was treated to the horrible sight of a Panther engulfed in LRM explosions. The stricken ‘Mech took one last, wavering step backwards as the shaken Diagnostic Interpretation Computer carried out the last command given to it before all inputs from the pilot ceased and the ‘Mech fell limply flat on its back as when the smoke cleared, it became apparent there was no longer any cockpit to send commands to it.
“Bambi’s gone.”
“No!”
“Did she eject?”
“No. Negative punchout.”
“Xerox? Xer- Aili! Snap out of it!” Marit could see IRIS’ Grasshopper backhand the now-stationary Locust as the realization that Xerox had just witnessed her twin sister get vaporized in front of her hit her like a freight train.
“Bravo Leader, Bravo Two, missiles running low, recommend we get in there and get physical.”
“Agreed. Alpha Lance, we’ll be with you in a minute, hang in there.”

The site of the skirmish was bloody. In addition to Bambi’s Panther, the downed Warriors and wrecks of several ground vehicles, she could see a wrecked Blackjack and Commando. The Sons didn’t have any of those, good. As they arrived, Marit also caught the tail end of a Panther - Charlie Lance’s last working BattleMech - and half of Ångström’s Assassin, down to just its SRM 2 launcher, tearing into a Trebuchet they isolated from the rest of its Lance and determined to keep doing it until the noises stop. Given what they all just watched it do, she wholeheartedly approved. Bravo’s own Locust busied itself with harassing a Quickdraw as it tried to disengage and landing some good shots by the looks of it, but it was only one mistake from getting stomped into the ground. All was not well though, as IRIS’ Grasshopper was facing off a Locust and a godsdamned Guillotine. The only way he was holding on was the depot behind him forcing the enemy ‘Mechs to take care with aiming while he had a clear shot and the fact the Guillotine was missing both of its arms by now.

“Half Pint, Quickdraw. Ghost, Guillotine. Giggles, Locust.” Deadstick ordered, a hard edge rarely present in his voice indicating how many enemy survivors there wouldn’t be. Marit could see her mother firing everything she had save one LRM launcher and did the same, her medium laser missing, as did half her missiles. She would’ve felt embarrassed to miss a ‘Mech that had its back turned to her and likely had no idea she was even there aside from a lock on warning were it not for the fact that Deadstick failed just as bad as she did. At least the Locust turned to look for what the heck was shooting at him and stopped trying to circle around IRIS’ Grasshopper, who took advantage of the shift of his attention and scored a hit to its legs with his large laser. One leg buckled under the weight of the machine, the other one getting flung away as inertia won over the tumbling ‘Mech’s remaining structural integrity. Any jubilation was quickly ended by a bang as the Assassin’s right torso was ripped open by an ammo explosion, struck down by the Trebuchet’ final laser volley before being itself destroyed. With the remainder of the Sons barreling down on them like a ton of vengeful bricks, the Guillotine and Quickdraw didn’t last much longer, despite another attempt to break off and flee and Jolt’s Panther succumbing to prior damage and forcing her to shutdown and eject.

And just like that, it was over. No proverbial mist clearing, no serene silence, just the same ambient noise of the Dervish beneath her and the thought of four lockers in the ready room without a master. As status reports from the other MechWarriors started trickling in and orders to check on Jolt and RTB came from the Kalevala, Marit could hear the relief in her dad’s voice.
“Mari?” Idun asked when Marit lagged with her check-in, using her regular nickname to give her brain a push for some traction.
She took a second to recompose herself before answering. ”I’m alive.” She stated flatly with a hint of disbelief, the situation yet to fully sink in.

[QJT]

It doesn't appear that Hamazasp Sulser would be able to fit in this lore, would he?

[AndyC]

It doesn't appear that Hamazasp Sulser would be able to fit in this lore, would he?

@QJT

Depends on what they were doing at the time; this game takes place a few years before the Rasalhague one. And because the two RPs aren't necessarily canon to each other, you can always make edits to fit. There are ways to work in some new Mechwarriors, depending on what ideas you've got.

[QJT]

C H A R A C T E R A P P L I C A T I O N

Dinah Portrait

Character Name:
Dinah Partanen

Callsign:
"Geode Queen"

Character Archetype:
Pollyanna Tomboy (alternately, Loner with a Heart of Gold)

Character’s Guiding Motto:
"They only accept the likable and the useful, so be both!"

Character’s Fatal Flaw:
Can't afford to look weak

Character’s Expertise:
Acrobatics, Appraisal, Engineering

Nationality/Allegiance:
Illyrian Palatinate/Current Employer

Background:
The Partanens were among Blommestein Province's few hardy stragglers who didn't perish when Alpheratz cut support to its fledgling colonies. They migrated from the Outworlds Alliance across Houses Kurita and Marik for the Illyrian Palatinate, which was too removed from events to enact migration controls over the matter. They settled the capital's furthest reaches, bleak moors and marshes where no souls trod. The common pastime for such outcasts, in fact the founding principle behind Illyria, was the hunt for Star League caches. Already experienced in foraging and scrimping to survive, they reaped (barely) more fortune than their peers.

The collapsed Outworld education system rendered Dinah's parents illiterate. She herself knew no other teachers in the isolated wastes, so neither was she. They instead drafted her to crawl through Illyria's nooks for ancient LosTech. In childhood she cramped in caverns and crawled inside metal ducts. Eventually, only once, she found it: a laughably tiny vault of ballistic ordinance and primitive 'Mechs, buried neath centuries of rubble, located via a cavern that doubled as an exhaust port. Local merchants pounced, showing her family (and her by proxy) pictures of lucrative equipment. She'd fetch it from storage, all the while familiarizing herself with the machinery's underlying engineering, even operating it in limited capacity.

This prosperity ended in adulthood. Her form no longer fit the cavern's demanding dimensions. Dinah was promptly ditched by her kin, whose grim history forbade useless or redundant eaters. She wandered in search of independent contract work, pushing her out of the Palatinate's comforting climes and into the inexplicably greasy arms of Uncle Mack. She'd oft wander off for days on end. Maxwell and Morozov let her, heck, treated her better than her old folks, because she'd return with something exotic, guaranteed. Her plucky smile concealed her family's most enduring lesson: survival lay with success alone.

Battlemech or Vehicle:
The Green Knights' leftovers