Part 535: Rise of the Phoenix - Turn 12

Rise of the Phoenix: Tactical Update 12

The Shadow Hawk touched down with flexed knees, stooping low like a Spider with a rookie pilot trying not to snap his own legs off after testing his jump jets for the first time. Salome didn’t judge, she’d have done the same operating with a leg as badly damaged as the Hawk’s was. Besides, she’d seen what this pilot was capable of. It wasn’t difficult to find a pilot willing to risk a Death from Above under the right circumstances, but finding one who could stick the landing after was far rarer. She fired, a snap-shot that missed wide. The machine wasn’t too quick to track, but her targeting computer kept underestimating it.

It shared the same profile as the Shadow Hawks she’d known, which meant even though her DI computer couldn’t identify the specific model, it was already attempting to estimate the machine’s performance to help it correct its targeting data. The problem wasn’t necessarily that the Shadow Hawk was exceeding known limits of the Shadow Hawk’s design, plenty of `Mechs lacked the same movement profile of their original specs. The problem was, the Shadow Hawk blew the usual plus-or-minus-ten-percent estimates out of the water and the DI computer wasn’t adapting quickly enough to compensate.

Wordlessly, Salome popped open a maintenance panel, keeping a close eye on her circle-vision display even as she punched a series of overrides directly into her DI computer. Her view shifted as she turned her body. Sensors in the neurohelmet knew which way she was facing, and made sure she had the ‘best’ vision the compression strip could offer even if she was technically staring into the blank metal walls of her cockpit rather than out the front viewport. Her computer bleeped a warning, then another as she erased a hundred years of stored targeting & tracking information. It was an act that would fundamentally change the way her machine responded to the immediate threat, forcing it to take new measurements rather than estimating based on a target silhouette. It was also an act of pure desperation. Her machine would adjust, but it wasn’t like starting over with a machine fresh out of some factory. The slow fragmentation of the Wolverine’s memory would almost certainly mean even after she loaded a backup or pulled T&T data from Morgan her machine would likely start predicting some very strange things indeed.

Her Wolverine would never quite feel the same, even if she made it through the rest of the battle intact.








Movement Phase
Timber Wolf
- Activates CNI



Shooting Phase

Guillotine (Player)
- No line of sight to target!
- Gains 8 heat, sinks 22!

Gallowglas (Player)
- No line of sight to target!
- Gains 5 heat, sinks 36!

Archer (Player)
- No line of sight to target!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 20!

Wolverine II (Player)
- Fires Gauss Rifle at Shadow Hawk Qing Long (2 base + 0 range + 3 movement + 4 enemy movement = 9): rolled 8, miss!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at Shadow Hawk Qing Long (2 base + 4 range + 3 movement + 4 enemy movement - 2 = 11): rolled 6, miss!
- Fires SRM-6 w/Artemis IV at Shadow Hawk Qing Long (2 base + 2 range + 3 movement + 4 enemy movement = 11): rolled 8, miss!
- Gains 14 heat, sinks 20!

King Cobra (Player)
- No line of sight to target!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 26!

Timber Wolf H (Player)
- No line of sight to target!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 36!

Shadow Hawk Qing Long (Blue)
- Fires Large X-Pulse Laser at Wolverine (0 base + 0 range + 3 movement + 3 enemy movement - 2 pulse laser = 4): rolled 3, miss!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Archer (0 base + 2 range + 3 movement + 3 enemy movement = 8): rolled 4, miss!








Player Status:




Opposing Force Status:




Special Rules:
Glare – Any unit standing above level 0 suffers a -2 penalty due to intense sunlight reflecting off the local rocks. All units attacking a unit standing above level 0 suffer a -1 penalty due to intense sunlight reflecting off the target unit. These penalties stack.

Sole Survivor – The last remaining enemy is fighting with unparalleled ferocity.



Mission Objective:
- Destroy the Enemy (0/1)



Orders Due: Midnight Saturday!