Part 689: Snake Pit - Turn 17
Snake Pit 17The Hunchback’s arms curled up over its shoulders like a posing body-builder as it opened fire with its massive autocannons. A 20cm shell punched straight through the armored thigh of Mechwarrior Rapallino’s Hitman. BattleMech high-explosive rounds did not have a true contact fuse, rather than exploding at the moment of impact—and letting the extraordinarily tough armor reflect most of the explosion, each autocannon shell was designed to deliver as much kinetic impact as possible and then explode a fraction of a second later while the shell was in the process of ricocheting away. The double-whammy of a kinetic strike followed by a shockwave was usually sufficient to significant damage. Of course, a miss-timed shell or a glancing strike could wind up doing nothing at all, but even the mighty Gauss Rifle risked the same thing.
Of course, that also meant on the rare occasion a shell punched clean through a ‘Mech’s armor, it was guaranteed to detonate deep inside, where it could do the most damage. Tough as BattleMechs were, there was no way for a light ‘Mech to carry anywhere near enough armor to deflect a 20cm shell. If the Hitman had mounted the newer ferro-fibrous armor, its leg might have simply deformed as the Hunchback’s shell detonated within. The older, standard ceramet simply shattered and fell away in sheets as the shell crumpled its steel-reinforced foamed-titanium bones. Freed from their anchors, every surviving myomer muscle in the BattleMech’s leg contracted at once, crushing the Hitman’s thigh down to about half its former length, like a child crushing an aluminum can.
The Hitman’s next step drove its armored chin straight into the ferrocrete. Valten Ryder winced. He could practically taste that impact—he’d been there himself once. He snapped off a return shot at the Hunchback even as the Clan machine walked its fire over his machine. The Centurion wasn’t as fragile as the Hitman, but even so the first shell nearly punched through his leg armor—and the second set his damage diagnostic display flashing an angry red as it breached his left arm armor. His own fire hadn’t been as effective as he’d hoped, most of the ground-level windows on Luthien were honest-to-god transplex, the same glass used in BattleMech canopies. Even his PPCs took longer to burn through than he’d hoped, and did little more than scar the Hunchback’s pristine armor.
A flight of missiles from the Charger arced over the nearer office building. The rained down on the roof of the building protecting the Hunchback and detonated, sending shards of pigeon cages or possibly even rooftop air conditioners raining down on the street below. A moment later, the pink Roughneck lit up the building with its PPCs.
Tons of glass and structural steel kicked up a cloud of dust as the corner of the building collapsed. Modern skyscrapers were heavily compartmentalized, it would take more than ten seconds of fire from a company of BattleMechs to knock one down, but that wouldn’t stop a damaged compartment from giving way. Ryder had seen a crashing DropShip cut a skyscraper cleanly in half once—and even that hadn’t been enough to collapse the portions that had remained standing. Still, even an isolated collapse would be devastating to anything standing at ground zero. The Hunchback’s cockpit was certain to be crushed by—
Ryder cursed as the bulky Clan design stepped out of the expanding cloud of smoke and rubble. It’d been battered, but the pilot had known precisely what he was doing. With careful positioning, he’d taken the brunt of the impact on the Hunchback’s upraised arms, protecting his ‘Mech’s torso and head from the falling I-beams. He hadn’t made it through the collapse unscathed, the Hunchback’s right arm was buried somewhere in the rubble while the left had taken a beam straight through the forearm, severing the control circuitry for the left hand, and a spiderweb of cracks ran through the cockpit transplex, but those nasty autocannons were intact. Ryder couldn’t help but imagine the pilot smiling viciously as his machine continued to track the Centurion.
Shooting Phase
Roughneck DSI (Player)
- No Line of Sight to primary target!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 22!
Roughneck 3A (Player)
- Fires PPC at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 0 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target = 2): automatic hit (75/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires PPC at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 0 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target = 2): automatic hit (65/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target = 4): rolled 5, hit (60/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target = 4): rolled 2, miss!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target = 4): rolled 12, hit (55/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target = 4): rolled 9, hit (50/90 CF remaining)!
- Gains 34 heat, sinks 36!
Bandersnatch (Player)
- Delays action!
- Gains 0 heat, sinks 20!
Centurion (Player)
- Fires Snub-nose PPC w/ PPC Capacitor (charged) at Hunchback IIC (3 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement = 5): rolled 5, hit Left Torso (6/12 armor remaining)! 9 damage absorbed by building hex 2014 (41/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Snub-nose PPC at Hunchback IIC (3 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement = 5): rolled 5, hit Left Arm (5/6 armor remaining)! 9 damage absorbed by building hex 2014 (32/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Hunchback IIC (3 base + 4 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement = 9): rolled 6, miss!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 30!
Mongoose (Player)
- No Line of Sight to primary target!
- Gains 1 heat, sinks 20!
Hitman (Player)
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (3 base + 2 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target = 2): automatically hit: (27/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (3 base + 2 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target = 2): automatically hit: (22/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (3 base + 2 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target = 2): automatically hit: (15/90 CF remaining)!
- Fires TAG at Building Hex 2014 (3 base + 2 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target = 2): automatically hit: Target TAGGED!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 20!
Sentinel (Player)
- No Line of Sight to primary target!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 20!
Spider (Player)
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at building hex 2014 (4 base + 4 range + 4 movement - 4 immobile target - 2 pulse laser = 6): rolled 8, hit (9/90 armor remaining)!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at building hex 2014 (4 base + 4 range + 4 movement - 4 immobile target - 2 pulse laser = 6): rolled 5, miss!
- Gains 18 heat, sinks 23!
Charger (Player)
- Fires LRM-20 indirectly at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 1 spotter movement - 4 immobile target + 2 minimum range + 1 indirect fire = 5): rolled 7, 20 missiles hit (0/90 CF remaining)! Hex collapses!
- Gains 7 heat, sinks 24!
Quickdraw (Player)
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 3 movement - 4 enemy movement = 5): rolled 8, hit!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 3 movement - 4 enemy movement = 5): rolled 12, hit!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 3 movement - 4 enemy movement = 5): rolled 7, hit!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 3 movement - 4 enemy movement = 5): rolled 6, hit!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 3 movement - 4 enemy movement = 5): rolled 7, hit!
- Fires Medium Laser at Building Hex 2014 (4 base + 2 range + 3 movement - 4 enemy movement = 5): rolled 9, hit!
- Gains 21 heat, sinks 36!
Von Rohrs (Player)
- No orders received!
- Gains 0 heat, sinks 32!
Bandersnatch (Player)
- Timber Wolf declines Line of Sight!
- Torso-twists to threaten hex 1514!
- Unable to fire LRM-5 indirectly at Building Hex 2014 (target not in arc)!
- Unable to fire LRM-5 indirectly at Building Hex 2014 (target not in arc)!
- Unable to fire LRM-5 indirectly at Building Hex 2014 (target not in arc)!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 20!
Thunderbolt IIC
- Holds fire!
- Gains 1 heat, sinks 32!
Timber Wolf D (ACE)
- Fires ER PPC at Quickdraw (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 3 enemy movement = 6): rolled 7, hit Right Leg (0/16 armor, 6/14 structure remaining)! Crit!
- Fires ER PPC at Quickdraw (2 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 3 enemy movement = 6): rolled 7, hit Left Torso (2/17 armor remaining)!
- Gains 31 heat, sinks 30!
Hunchback IIC
- Fires Ultra AC/20 (Single) at Hitman (2 base + 2 range + 2 movement + 1 enemy movement = 7): rolled 7, hit Right Leg (0/9 armor, 0/7 structure remaining)! Leg blown off!
- - Damage transfers to Center Torso (6/10 armor remaining)!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Hitman (2 base + 0 range + 2 movement + 1 enemy movement = 5): rolled 8, hit Left Leg (2/9 armor remaining)!
- Fires Ultra AC/20 (Ultra) at Centurion (2 base + 2 range + 2 movement + 1 enemy movement + 1 secondary target = 8): rolled 8, 2 shells hit Left Arm (0/16 armor, 4/8 structure remaining (Crit!)), Right Leg (2/24 armor remaining)!
- Gains 28 heat, sinks 24!
End Phase:
Building hex 2014
- Collapses in hex 2014!
- Hunchback IIC suffers 40 damage in the collapse to Right Arm (1/6 armor remaining), Right Arm (0/6 armor, 4/8 structure remaining (Crit!)), Right Arm (0/8 structure remaining (Arm blown off! Damage transfers to Right Torso (11/12 armor remaining)), Left Arm (0/6 armor remaining), Left Arm (3/8 structure remaining (Crit!)), Head (4/9 armor remaining (Pilot hit!)), Right Torso (6/12 armor remaining), Right
Hunchback IIC
- Critical chance in Left Arm: rolled 8, 1 critical hit sustained!
- - Left hand actuator crippled!
- Must pass a 3+ consciousness test: rolled 8, succeeds!
- Must pass a piloting test or fall (3 base + 1 massive damage = 4): rolled 9, succeeds!
Quickdraw (Player)
- Critical chance in Right Leg: rolled 2, no critical hits sustained!
- Must pass a piloting test or fall (5 base + 1 massive damage = 6): rolled 7, succeeds!
Centurion (Player)
- Critical chance in Left Arm: rolled 6, no critical hits sustained!
- Must pass a piloting test or fall (4 base + 1 massive damage = 5): rolled 11, succeeds!
Map Link
Player Status:
Opposing Force Status:
Special Rules
- Enemy units are alert and aware of player positionsPrimary Objectives
- Find and Destroy enemy commander (0/1)
Secondary Objectives
- Destroy Enemy BattleMechs (9/19 remaining)
Orders Due: Midnight Saturday!