Part 321: Hogarth's Heroes - Turn 20

Hogarth’s Heroes: Tactical Update 20

Combat Phase
Combat Phase
- Hot-Blooded, now immune to “normal” crits!
Blue 1) Hogarth’s Atlas II
- Fires Battlemaster PPC (one shot) at Behemoth (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement = 4): rolled 11, hit Head (0/9 armor, 0/3 structure remains)! `Mech destroyed!
- Fires Rotary Autocannon/5 (Hex) at Behemoth (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement = 4): rolled 6, 4 shells hit!
- Fires Rotary Autocannon/5 (Hex) at Behemoth (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement = 4): rolled 9, 3 shells hit!

Blue 2) Steiner’s Awesome
- Hot-Blooded, now immune to “normal” crits!
- Target already destroyed!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 9, hit Right Arm (23/33 armor remains)!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 7, hit Right Torso (22/32 armor remains)!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 9, hit Center Torso (41/51 armor remains)!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 4, miss!

Blue 3) Vasquez’s Banshee
- Hot-Blooded, now immune to “normal” crits!
- Target already destroyed!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 7, hit Head (0/9 armor, 2/3 structure remains)! Crit!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 7, hit Left Torso (22/32 armor remains)!
- Fires Autocannon/10 at Uburbanmech (4 base + 0 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 3, miss!
- Fires Medium Laser at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 8): rolled 4, miss!
- Fires Medium Laser at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 8): rolled 11, hit Right Arm (18/33 armor remains)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 8): rolled 7, miss!
- Fires Medium Laser at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 8): rolled 7, miss!
- Fires SRM-6 at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 1 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 8): rolled 4, miss!

Blue 4) Schultz’s Zeus
- Hot-Blooded, now immune to “normal” crits!
- Target already destroyed!
- Fires PPC at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 10, hit Center Torso (31/51 armor remains)!
- Fires Large Laser at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 9, hit Left Torso (14/32 armor remains)!
- Fires Large Laser at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 5, miss!
- Fires LRM-15 at Uburbanmech (4 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 7): rolled 9, 8 missiles hit Head (0/3 structure remains (`Mech destroyed!)), Right Torso (19/32 armor remains (TAC!))!
- - PTN’s note: I saw too late that the Zeus’s LRMs had actually been blown off. It’s my fault for not updating their status, so this shot remains as-is.

Red 1) Battlemaster
- Holds fire!

Green 7) Wolf Trap
- Resists ghostly control!

Behemoth
- TA Field Down! The Behemoth is now susceptible to normal critical hits!
- Fires Gauss Rifle at Zeus Blue 4 (3 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement = 5): rolled 12, hit Center Torso (0/25 structure remains)! `Mech destroyed!
- Fires LB-10X Autocannon (Cluster) at Zeus Blue 4 (3 base + 2 range + 0 movement + 0 enemy movement - 1 cluster = 2): rolled 9, 8 submunitions hit!

Uburbanmech
- Fires Autocannon/20 at Banshee Blue 3 (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 1 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 7, hit Right Torso (0/20 structure remains)! Torso destroyed!
- - Damage transfers to Center Torso (6/40 armor remains)!
- Fires Autocannon/20 at Banshee Blue 3 (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 1 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 10, hit Right Leg (0/20 structure remains)! Leg blown off!
- - Damage transfers to Center Torso (0/40 armor, 27/30 structure remains)!
- Fires Large Laser at Banshee Blue 3 (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 1 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 6, hit Center Torso (19/30 structure remains)!
- Fires Large Laser at Banshee Blue 3 (4 base + 0 range + 0 movement + 1 enemy movement + 1 light woods = 6): rolled 5, miss!





“Gotcha covered, boss,” Andrew Steiner grunted, dropping his crosshairs over the distant Behemoth. At the last instant he shifted to the side, spearing the white-painted Urbanmech with three direct hits from his PPCs. The machine shook as Vasquez added her own firepower, the blue-white bolt of another PPC striking the giant `Mech squarely in the cockpit. The unusual design didn’t even flinch as its cockpit was torn open to reveal an empty command chair. Leaning forward slightly, its autocannons roared as it punished Vasquez for “her” temerity, blowing off the Banshee’s vulnerable leg and ruining the right side of its massive chest.

Its ruined left arm hanging limply at its side, Colonel Schultz fought desperately with his `Mech’s damaged targeting computer. His PPC and Large Lasers scored deep furrows on the distant Urbanmech’s thick armor, but the machine barely seemed to notice. His targeting computer sounded a single sharp tone—a missile lock, with the launcher that was now dangling uselessly at his side with the circuits controlling the left arm shot away. Wrenching his controls first to the right then the left, the Zeus twisted as far as it could manage as quickly as it could manage and let inertia take its toll. The uncontrolled arm rose with the sharp movement, and as Schultz’s crosshairs passed over the Urbanmech again he fired a broad, ugly spread of LRMs in its direction.

Only a few hit, but those few were enough as a pair of LRMs exploded inside the giant `Mech’s exposed cockpit. The Urbanmech collapsed in slow motion, its real pilot kneeling carefully and then laying flat to ensure its bulk was entirely hidden in the deep snow. In the movie, the `Mech would simply vanish in a flash of green light as though it had never really existed. Schultz’s Zeus shuddered and collapsed as the Behemoth shot it through the chest.

“Schultz, NOOO!” Hogarth roared, his Atlas’s hand stretching out towards his friend’s machine. Twisting violently, he swung back in line with the Behemoth, holding the Battlemaster’s PPC before him as though it were a pistol. The Atlas’s form was good—if he still had his other arm, he’d have both hands on the weapon to make the shot look convincing, but without it he held it one handed and strode forward in confident silence as the Behemoth’s remaining arm fired shell after impossibly rapid-fire shell at the ground to either side of him. Explosions shattered the earth, kicking up a blizzard of fallen snow, and pillars of sparks shot into the air as Hogarth advanced in dramatic silence.

His shot caught the Behemoth square in the head, burning through armor in an instant. The entire construct exploded in a massive fireball, the Behemoth’s armor buckling as though it were made from cheap plastic—which wasn’t far from the truth. The explosion, while gigantic, was merely harmless pyrotechnics and the Stalker in the middle of the smoke and harmless flame simply lay down and carefully buried itself in the snow. Deprived of the ghost’s mystic power, the fissure in reality from whence it had come flickered and began to close.

“I hope that taught you a lesson, Melissa,” Hogarth turned, striding close to the Red Corsair’s battered `Mech. “There’s far too much craziness in the universe for any of us to handle alone. Still, that was nicely done. Any time you need us, please don’t hesitate to give me a call.”

His Atlas extended its remaining arm as if intending to shake the Battlemaster’s hand. It leaned forward incredulously, then canted back upwards to stare the Atlas square in the face. “… You broke my arms off, you ass.”

“Cut,” Hogarth shouted. “Roll credits, and that’s a wrap!”





Primary Objectives
Defend the Red Corsair (complete!)
Destroy Richard Cameron’s Behemoth (complete!)

Secondary Objectives
Thomas Hogarth duels the Red Corsair (complete!)
One of Hogarth’s Heroes “dies” dramatically, but no more than one (complete!)
Hogarth kills the ghost with his Ghost-Killer PPC (failed!)
- Hogarth kills the ghost with the Battlemaster PPC (complete!)
Believe in Andrew Steiner (Complete Success!)
Cross the Streams (complete!)
Defeat the Urbanmech?! (complete!)

Hidden Objectives
Piles of Cardboard Boxes Destroyed: 2
Fruit Carts Destroyed: 1
Wilhelm Screams: 1
Flubbed Lines: 1
Fires Started: 1
Chickens Released: 1





Player `Mech Status






After-Action Report:

A pair of scientists in face-concealing hunter-orange full-body hazmat suits stood at the edge of the in-no-way-frozen-but-actually-frozen lake near the remains of the Summer Summer Palace, waving Geiger counters through the air as though they were swatting at mosquitoes. The fissure through which the ghost had finally entered the real world was closing slowly but surely, and their motions were neither frenetic nor panicked. If anything, they seemed rather bored with the whole process as one made a big show of checking a watch he couldn’t see through his hazmat suit. The other shook with exaggerated laughter, but both froze as their fancy absolutely-not-Geiger-counters issued a sharp tone in unison. They turned back towards the rift, moving with such deliberate slowness that the cameraman filming them couldn’t help but stifle a yawn.

The fissure pulsed and sparked with raw energy, widening as though something was tearing it open from the other side. With a deliberate and terrifying slowness, a colossal fleshy head with horns the size of an Atlas thrust itself from the rift; its six eyes glittering with intelligent malevolence. A massive earthquake knocked the scientists to their asses and in an instant they tried desperately to crabwalk away from this unexpected new threat. A massive roar split the air as the theater screen finally went dark, ending the film with a blatant hook for the next in the series.

Rubbing her eyes in silence, Melissa Steiner turned to regard Morgan, Jenna “The Red Corsair,” Clovis. She shook her head, biting her lip momentarily to fight off a fit of laughter, and then simply announced, “That was awful.”

Clovis stood slowly and planted a gentle kiss on his wife’s cheek. “It wasn’t that bad; and the public seems to get a kick out of it. You should announce who your favorite character was and pin a “least bad acting” medal on them when they come to visit Summer next month.”

Which is our cue for an MVP vote!

Also, which `Mech would you like me to do a quick TRO for:
Hogarth’s Atlas II, or the Giant Urbanmech (which I’ve been calling both the Uburbanmech and the Suburbanmech depending on my mood)?