Part 672: Luthien Invasion Campaign Vote Results

“You’re sure you can get us in?”

Brevet Lieutenant Korean Robert prodded the earth with a stick. A rough map of Luthien had been scratched into the dry soil, with vague lines representing the city’s various districts. He scratched a line out of the city, roughly suggesting a course through the assorted stones that represented Clan formations.

“Yes,” Robert tapped the dirt to accentuate his claim. “It behooved the ISF to look the other way and let the Yamaguchi-gumi build egress tunnels for their BattleMechs. The local Yakuza are as staunchly pro-Kurita as they come, so permitting the Oyabun to cycle a lance of bodyguards in and out of Luthien without drawing public attention was in everyone’s best interests. My contact in the Imperial City resistance says we should be able to get one, or maybe even two lances through the tunnel before we create a big enough magnetic field for Clan sensors to detect.”

“And what do you hope to do with one or two lances?” Lt. Geoffrey Van Dijk’s strongly-accented English wasn’t unpleasant. It was cautious interest that moved the officer from the 3rd Crucis Lancers, not sarcastic skepticism. Field-commissioned Lieutenant or no, Korean Robert was an unknown element. It had only made sense to assign the resistance a liaison.

“There’s an enemy command post here,” Robert said with unwavering certainty, stabbing the end of his stick into the Paschal district. It was the nearest to the Waseda Hills, where the bulk of the Clan defenses were stationed. Neither side had proven willing to commit to a pitched battle in the Imperial City itself, but the Clan formations were too well organized and too swift to respond to probing attacks for anyone’s comfort.

“The Sanyu tower is the highest point in the Paschal district, in the north of Imperial City. The Clans have undoubtedly set up an observation post there, and must have a command unit somewhere nearby directing the battle.”

Geoffrey rubbed his van dyke beard, and Robert thought it was fortunate the man had been born with black hair: had it been a richer shade of brown, such a goatee would have been less striking against the man’s extremely dark skin. As it was, the beard’s sharp precision leant the young officer a little extra dignity and undoubtedly saved him from the dreaded “baby face” call sign. “The local commander is too well-informed, I think you’re onto something. He or she has to be getting their information moments after the scouts do—but they could very easily set up a land-line feed to anywhere in the city. What if they’re not there?”

Robert shrugged, “Then we take out some scouts and maybe render the tower a less-than-ideal spotting position. At the very least, we shall leave the Clans worried that we can infiltrate units into the city on whim. They will not fight as effectively if they’re constantly looking over their shoulders, qui— I mean, right?”

“I like it,” Geoffrey nodded. “It’s simple, but sometimes simple works best. We’ll have to get approval for the op, but I should be able to convince someone to hear you out. I’d like to bring a lance of fast-movers with us to run down enemy scouts, preferably a Kurita one that’s been on the ground in Imperial City before. And we’ll need a little more ECM support. You said eight’s pushing it, so much as I hate to say it: we’re probably going to have to leave two of your Roughnecks behind. A full lance of scout hunters, you, Saiko?—you know who I mean: the crazy one who refit her Roughneck with an energy loadout in three days—myself, and a merc or a volunteer with ECM who doesn’t mind that this might be a suicide op. We can make this work, and if it throws the enemy command into confusion for a day or even an hour it’s probably worth the risk. Especially,” he tapped his teeth with the tip of his index finger, “if we can time a big attack on Clan forces to strike around the same time we do.”

“Talk to who you need to,” Robert kicked the rocks representing the Clan defensive formation away from the outline of Imperial City. “I’ll send word to my contact in the Yamaguchi-gumi, they may be able to move some supplementary forces into position to assist us. The Clans have the city on lockdown, but we have already seen: they pay less attention to “construction equipment” than they should.”



The Map




Roughnecks and Mercenaries


Scout Lance, 7th Company, 2nd Amphigean Light Assault


Yamaguchi-Gumi




Primary Objectives
- Find and Destroy enemy command post (0/1)
- Evade or Destroy enemy scouts (0/1)

Secondary Objectives
- Destroy alerted enemies before they can call for assistance (0/?)

Expected Resistance
- At least one Company of Clan Hell’s Horses BattleMechs or Vehicles
- Expect additional reinforcements if the company is detected



Special Rules
Half-Blind – The position of nearby enemy forces not in line of sight are marked by blips. The identity of these units are unknown. Enemy units with active probes are detectable at greater distances. The OpForce is unaware of the player presence and is proceeding along pre-set patrol paths. After entering Line of Sight with an enemy patrol unit the players have two additional turns (three turns total) to eliminate it before it alerts the rest of the OpForce. Enemy Star Commanders will alert the OpForce more quickly.



Pilot List
Hedningen
Strobe
mercenarynuker
Jade Star
Capskye
W.T. Fits
Mary Annette
A good poster
Octatonic
Raverrn

Alternates
paragon1
Defiance Industries
Keru
anakha



PTN’s note: Apologies once again for the delays. I'm still finishing up the OpForce sprites, but we're almost ready!