Part 643: Combat Theater Vote 20 Results

Combat Theater Vote Results
Operation Rabies Shot results in a well-planned counterattack with 50 votes!
The Line in the Sand is fuzzy and hard to see with only 22 votes!
Operation Nemesis and the Cherenkov Plan suffer unexpected results with 9 votes each!



Captain Dancey squeezed his eyes shut as his Shadow Hawk began to rattle. Leaving wasn’t so bad, but he’d always hated atmospheric reentries. Only the fact that he—and the rest of the Sirdar Militia—were returning home offered any solace. As the vibrations intensified the Shadow Hawk shook in its moorings, grinding ceramic-steel armor plates against the armatures which kept it, in theory, secure. Dancey had once had his `Mech break free mid-landing. He’d woken up a week later after the medtechs had induced a coma to save his life. He still couldn’t remember the accident, but he’d been fit to return to duty so straight back into the fire he’d marched.

Twice he heard the telltale detonation of autocannon rounds striking the hull of the Union-class DropShip Sagebrush but his worst fears went unfulfilled: he never felt the bone-shaking rush of the Mechbay depressurizing. He’d lost more than one Mechwarrior that way. A sudden flash, and man and machine had simply been replaced with an open hole to hell. A DropShip could survive reentry even with a massive hull breach, the uncontrolled descents of the early spaceflight era were a thing of the past, but it was not a comfortable experience. Neither was recovering the remains of a BattleMech after. A `Mech could survive such a drop, provided the ship was low enough. The warrior inside couldn’t.

The rattling settled as the Sagebrush settled atop its thrust column. The CCAF’s aerospace forces weren’t brave enough to risk an atmospheric transition to pursue them—in their defense chasing a DropShip into a planet’s atmosphere went beyond bravery. A Union-class vessel like the Sagebrush had more than enough anti-aircraft fire to wipe out a company of fighters flying the suicidal straight-line paths necessary to survive reentry and most military captains relished a chance to permanently swat a few of the mosquitos that otherwise plagued their vessels.

“We’ll be the first ones down,” Dancey transmitted through the Shadow Hawk’s hard-wired link to the Sagebrush. “We’ve got a pretty good idea where the Capellans will be based, so as soon as we’re down I want a textbook deployment into the Yanling Valley. We need to take out their scouts: the rest of the regiment is going to have a hell of a time if the Cappies have artillery plotted to take them as soon as the DropShip hatches open.”

“The Cappies won’t be able to take the risk of an advance artillery deployment if we eliminate their `Mech forces and threaten to roll through the peak artillery positions ourselves,” Corporal Bystrom cut in. “Smash the `Mechs and the mudrollers’ll flee for sure.”

“Stick to the OOB and follow SOP,” Dancey squelched Bystrom’s broadcast before he could drum up the younger pilots’ bloodlust. “And don’t do anything stupid unless you have to. That means you, Fungi. Taking out the `Mechs will be our back-up plan if we let an enemy scout leak through.”



The Map




4th Sirdar DNS Militia
Tango Lance


Lambada Lance


Ballet Lance




Forced Withdrawal - `Mechs and Vehicles which suffer more than 50% structure damage must attempt to retreat off the nearest friendly board edge. Units with only 1 point of structure will withdraw if all of their armor is destroyed.



Primary Objectives
- Destroy or Drive Off All Enemy Scouts (0/8 remaining)
or
- Destroy or Drive Off All Enemy `Mechs (0/12 remaining)



Expected Resistance
- 1st St. Ives Lancers scout forces
- 1st St. Ives Lancers emergency first-responders



Pilot List
Sparq
Mekilljoydammit
chutche2
Moleboy
Realbarrow
Skoll

Alternates
Jew it to it!
CourValant
Yakumo