Part 561: Air Raid - Turn 2

Air Raid: Tactical Update 2

Raindrops the size of a man’s thumb splattered against Jason’s canopy like soft lead bullets. Water sluiced off his machine’s back, turning the relatively dry spaces beneath his machine into a half-inch river of mud. His radar pinged as his targeting computer identified one of the long lances the Clans seemed to favor. He tabbed through mass readings and silhouettes as his DI computer struggled to put names and ‘faces’ to designs that were familiar enough but had never been seen before.

The Screamer’s computer made its identifications in a flash—far more quickly than a machine unfamiliar with Clan silhouettes, like his old Phoenix Hawk, should have managed. Vixen, Urbanmech IIC, Peregrine, Wolverine IIC. The only one it couldn’t identify was a slender quad-legged design that vaguely resembled the infamous Goliath. It was only a twenty ton machine, a quarter of the weight of the real thing, and almost certainly a scout platform.

“We’ve got a Clan lance screwing around on the north side of the runway,” Jason broadcast. “This `Mech is at least vaguely familiar with most of the designs, so I’m sharing out the specs. Looks like a light recon lance with a little medium firepower as back-up. And an Urbanmech, because Kerensky’s got a sense of humor.”

“Wasteful surats,” Noretti grumped. “They have formed a sloppy little circle of equals rather than forming a reasonable defense perimeter.”

“Hear that?” Duncan interjected with a laugh, “We’ve caught ‘em with their pants down. Let’s see if we can draw their attention away from whatever game they’re playing. Hit the airfield hard!”

Jason drove his feet down on the Screamer’s pedals until he felt the ‘stop bar,’ a resistive metal bar that told the pilot he was running as fast as his `Mech could carry him. On machines with jump jets, that bar wasn’t a hard stop. It was actually a second pedal—depressing both would kick in the jets and send up to a hundred tons of war machine hurtling through the air. Jason pushed past with only a moment’s hesitation, bringing the massive array of engines on his machines back up to power.

The techs had teased him on his first time out that the name had been earned because every pilot screamed the first time they tried the jump jets. He doubted the veracity of that story, but the Screamer’s name was nonetheless deserved. Where most Jump Jets made a dull roar, the Screamer’s engines built up to a high-pitched shriek that sounded a bit like some madman had crossed an eagle with a jet engine.

For an instant he felt as though Duncan’s Atlas had parked itself on his chest. The sudden acceleration smashed Jason into his command couch. All the padding in the world wasn’t enough to protect a man from that much acceleration. Jason hadn’t done any screaming on his first outing—but his back had been black and blue afterwards. He could understand why the Republic’s pilots hated the machine, but for those brief few seconds after the Jets started firing and fifty five tons of war machine threw itself into the air, Jason felt free.

“That `Mech,” Noretti said in tones that suggested she wasn’t sure whether to be impressed or disgusted. “The Jade Falcons would love everything about it.”








Movement Phase
Screamer
- Jumps to hex 1637, facing not specified! Original facing kept!

Grasshopper
- Activates MASC!

Space Marine Infantry
- Platoon 1 breaks line of sight!
- Platoon 2 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 3 holds position!
- Platoon 4 uses fast movement!

Heavy Jump Infantry
- Platoon 1 breaks line of sight!
- Platoon 2 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 3 moves normally!
- Platoon 4 uses fast movement!

Clan Foot Infantry
- Platoon 1 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 2 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 3 takes partial cover behind immobile vehicle!
- Platoon 4 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 5 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 6 uses fast movement!
- Platoon 7 takes cover in building!
- Platoon 8 takes cover in building!




Shooting Phase
Heavy Jump Infantry Platoon 3 (ACE!)
- Attacks Screamer LAM (3 base + 2 range + 5 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 11): rolled 9, miss!

Clan Foot Infantry Platoon 8 (ACE!)
- Attacks Ostscout (4 base + 4 range + 0 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 9): rolled 8, miss!

Atlas III
- Fires Heavy Gauss Rifle at Anhur 1035 (3 base + 4 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain = 5): rolled 11, hit Right Side (4/14 armor remaining)!
- Fires Snub-Nose PPC at Anhur 1638 (3 base + 0 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain + 1 secondary target = 2): automatically hits Front (5/15 armor remaining)!
- Fires Snub-Nose PPC at Anhur 1638 (3 base + 0 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain + 1 secondary target = 2): automatically hits Front (0/15 armor, 0/3 structure remaining)! Vehicle destroyed!
- Fires Snub-Nose PPC at Anhur 1638 (3 base + 0 range + 1 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain + 1 secondary target = 2): automatically hits Front!
- Gains 33 heat, sinks 24! Overheating! TSM Activates!

Flashman
- Torso-twists to threaten hex 2032!
- Fires Large R-e Laser at Anhur 1236 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain - 1 R-e pulse laser = 4): rolled 7, hit Front (6/15 armor remaining)!
- Fires Large R-e Laser at Anhur 1236 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain - 1 R-e pulse laser = 4): rolled 6, hit Front (0/15 armor, 0/3 structure remaining)! Vehicle destroyed!
- Fires Large Pulse Laser at Anhur 1236 (4 base + 4 range + 2 movement - 4 immobile target + 1 heavy rain - 2 pulse laser = 5): rolled 4, miss!
- Fires Medium at Anhur 1236: target is out of range!
- Gains 33 heat, sinks 34!

Grasshopper
- Primary target destroyed!
- Fires Medium Laser at Anhur 1437 (4 base + 4 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 7): rolled 10, hit Front (10/15 armor remaining)!
- Fires Medium Laser at Anhur 1437 (4 base + 4 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 7): rolled 7, hit Rotor (0/2 armor, 0/3 structure remaining)! Vehicle destroyed!
- Fires Large X-Pulse Laser at Anhur 1437 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain - 2 pulse laser = 3): rolled 7, hit Rotor!
- Gains 22 heat, sinks 30!

Salamander
- Holds fire!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 20!

Dragoon II
- No orders received!
- Gains 0 heat, sinks 26!

Copperhead Charlie
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Anhur 1035 (2 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 3): rolled 7, hit Right Side (0/14 armor, 0/3 structure remaining)! Vehicle destroyed!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Anhur 1035 (2 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 3): rolled 6, hit Rear (5/12 armor remaining)!
- Fires ER Medium Laser at Anhur 1035 (2 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 3): rolled 7, hit Rear (0/12 armor, 1/3 structure remaining)!
- Fires LRM-20 w/Artemis IV at Anhur 1035 (2 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 3): rolled 10, 12 missiles hit Left Side (9/14 armor remaining), Rotor (0/5 armor, 0/3 structure remaining), Rotor!
- Gains 23 heat, sinks 24!

Lancelot
- Torso-twists to threaten hex 1838!
- Primary target to-hit too high!
- No line-of-sight to secondary target
- Fires Plasma Rifle at Clan Foot Infantry 1 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement + 0 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 9): rolled 9, 20 troopers killed!
- Fires Large Laser at Anhur 1437 (4 base + 0 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain + 1 secondary target = 4): rolled 8, hit Rotor (0/2 armor, 0/3 structure remaining)! Vehicle destroyed!
- Fires Large Laser at Anhur 1437 (4 base + 0 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain + 1 secondary target = 4): rolled 9, hit Rotor!
- Fires Medium Pulse Laser at Anhur 1437 (4 base + 4 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain + 1 secondary target - 2 pulse laser = 6): rolled 6, hit Rotor!
- Gains 32 heat, sinks 32!

Komodo
- No Line of Sight to target!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 22!

Champion
- Fires Gauss Rifle at Visigoth 0941 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 5): rolled 11, hit Right Wing (32/47 armor remaining)!
- Fires ER PPC at Visigoth 0941 (4 base + 4 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 7): rolled 8, hit Aft (32/42 armor remaining)! Control surfaces damaged!
- Gains 18 heat, sinks 20!

Chameleon
- Target already destroyed!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks !

Screamer
- Fires ER PPC at Visigoth 0941 (2 base + 0 range + 3 movement - 4 target movement + 1 heavy rain = 2): automatically hit Right Wing (22/47 armor remaining)! Landing gear damaged!
- - Plasma arcs to Right Wing (17/47 armor remaining)!
- Secondary target not in firing arc!
- Tertiary target already destroyed!
- Gains 20 heat, sinks 20!

Stag
- Fires ER Large Laser at Heavy Building Hex 1048 (4 base + 2 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 5): rolled 9, hit (82/90 CF remaining)!
- - Heavy Infantry Platoon 7 suffers damage in the attack, 1 trooper killed!
- Fires SRM-4 at Heavy Building Hex 1048 (4 base + 4 range + 2 movement - 4 enemy movement + 1 heavy rain = 7): rolled 7, 3 missiles hit (80/90 CF remaining), (78/90 CF remaining), (76/90 CF remaining)!
- Heavy Infantry Platoon suffers no damage in the attack!
- Gains 17 heat, sinks 24!

Gunsmith
- No orders received!
- Gains 0 heat, sinks 20!

Ostscout
- No orders received!
- Gains 0 heat, sinks 10!

Phoenix Hawk
- Primary target destroyed!
- Secondary target destroyed!
- Gains 2 heat, sinks 20!



End Phase
Hurricane Nebuchadnezzar
- No lightning strikes this turn!








Player Status:
Demon Hawks




Ally Status:




Opposing Force Status:




Objective Status




Heavy Rain – +1 penalty to all weapon attacks and piloting tests, all non-concrete hexes count as mud hexes

Lightning Strikes – Lightning has a chance to strike up to four random hexes each turn, inflicting 4-10 damage to units struck.



Mission Objective:
Primary Objectives
- Raid the Clan Airfield (0/1)
- Don’t Be Captured (0/1)

Secondary Objectives
- Accrue Bounty (1,000,0000 c-bills / 1,500,000 goods)
- - Infantry Units: (50,000 c-bills each)
- - Light `Mechs: (1,000,000 c-bills each)
- - Medium `Mechs: x (2,000,000 c-bills each)
- - Heavy `Mechs: (3,000,000 c-bills each)
- - Assault `Mechs: (4,000,000 c-bills each)
- - Grounded Aircraft: 4 (250,000 c-bills each)
- Revenants Unleashed: 2

- Total Accumulated Bounty: 19,000,000 c-bills (28,500,000 goods)



Orders Due: Midnight Saturday!