Part 7: Mission 1: Flying Falcon
"Get me SOMETHING!""I'm working on it, Colonel!”
“That's not good enough, Commander! I need assets!”“This is Zulu Actual to any MechWarriors on this channel. I repeat, this is Zulu Actual, to any MechWarriors on this frequency. Respond!”
“And where are your men?”“On Leave, Sir. 24 hours for their victory at Kaio.”
“Uh, this is Rooster?”“who the hell is Rooster? Pilot! What's your status?”
”he's a pilot assigned to battalion” “Rooster, Zulu Actual. I'm supposed to be dropping off this Catapult to your hanger, sir.”“Make a hard right, Rooster. I need you and your Mech on the Dropship at Waypoint Alpha NOW.”
“Hey Commander, what's all the yelling about?” “Sir, what? Are we under attack? I'm not...”“Hitman! We've got an emergency deployment. Where are you?”
“I'm with Scarab. We're at the Mech bay... doing stuff.” “Sir, it's about Rooster... He's not combat qualified.” “He's a MechWarrior. He's qualified.” “He's never been in combat, sir.” “First time for everything.”
“Orders, sir?”“Anyone else? I need boots on the ground five minutes ago!”
“No Sir. We got a couple Kit Foxes here warmed up and armed. They do?” “They'd better, I'm an EW specialist, and your Raven is in cold-shutdown, so it'll have to do.” “Uh, sir? I'm not part of Zulu Company, I'm not sure you can give me orders. Sir. I need clarification.” “You take orders from ME, MechWarrior. And my orders are to follow the Commander's Orders. ANY QUESTIONS?” “No sir.”“Catapult, two Kits. Damn, I hope that's enough. Hitman, you're Lance leader. Rooster, take point. Briefing incoming.”
“13 minutes ago, a DEST agent, call-sign Falcon, broke cover and stole a Clan Omni-Mech and is making her way towards our lines. She reports she has vital information concerning Operation: Skyhook, and Smoke Jaguar deployments. Intelligence has determined that we need to recover her. We can, and we will. Yankee is coming up inland, and has drawn Clan forces away, but we need a proper escort for her. Battalion can drop you a few kilometres out before Smke Jaguar air cover becomes too heavy. You need to travel over land to here, at F1, across the river from Falcon's position.
You need to provide both cover and a distraction. We need her to reach the extraction point alive.”
“My Mech is hot and moving to the DropShip. What the Op4, Sir?” “Ready, Commander. EWAR package good to go.” “I'm on the DropShip sir. Um, I'm not really qualified on this weight class sir.”“Opposition will be a small army of vehicles, plus unknown Mechs. Clan Smoke Jaguar knows she's headed this way, and has set up a perimeter of Mechs to trap her against. You'll need to shoot your way out. Between you and Extraction are three river crossings. Two bridges that are guarded, and a ford almost at extraction. If you can't secure either bridge, she'll have to cross there, but that location is swarming with enemy Mechs.”
“Oh god, I'm going to die.” “Don't worry kid. You just hang back, and follow my lead. This'll be easy!” “Yes, sir” “Here, while we're on the way, let me tell you how this is going to go down....”
“You sure make that sound way to simple, Hitman. This is still war, things can go wrong.” “Don't scare the kid, Scarab. You still owe me. This deployment doesn't change anything.” “Thanks sir. What about the Commander? He said to take point.” “Oh, that? He also said I'm in charge of the Lance, so here's what we're going to do. When Scarab detects contacts, he and I will file in behind you, and you use your large Mech to attract attention. Once we've got that, you start backing up while Scarab and I charge ahead to deal with them. Alright?” “yes sir.” “Lynx, you are not.” “Shut it.”“MechWarriors! Prepare for Combat!”
“ohgod, ohgod, ohgod, ohgod”
“Calm down!” “But Hitman!” “He ejected.” “And he will be recovered. The loss of his Mech was lamentable, but I would rather it be Clan trash than a proper BattleMech.” “You're pretty banged up as well. Couldn't you steal something useful, like a Timber Wolf?” “It was the only one I could get on such short notice.”
“That's enough, all of you.” “Sir.”“You.”
“Get Falcon's Mech back to base, Commander. The information she has in in it, and I don't want it to take any more damage.” “Scarab?” “He's Intelligence. And I've heard about this guy in particular.” “My reputation proceeds me. Hitman will be secured and returned to your deployment shortly.”“...”
“It could have gone worse.” “That it could have. I am grateful for your assistance, and will find a way to replay my debt.” “See that you do. I still owe Hitman.”“Once you get back, return the Mechs to the Mech bay. The techs are waiting for you there.”
“Yes sir.”- - - - -
This mission was the result of people talking about difficulty back in the thread. So I wanted to show how the changing difficulty would affect gameplay, and that resulted in the three missions recorded above. I knew Hard was going to kick my ass, so I went heavier with it, and still lost.
I'm taking the Normal run as the 'official' pass through this mission, not only for the damage to my Mechs and Pilots, but because of the Salvage. I wanted to show off the Hollander in the future, and I wasn't about to turn down a free one.
I've mentioned that there are three ways across the river in this mission, and while I wanted to run a fourth pass through to show off the river ford, I didn't feel like playing through this mission for the dozenth time that evening. This also brings up something that I feel could have been improved for this game, and that being the ability to walk through water.
In BattleTech, there are two 'Depth Levels' for water. DL1 corresponds to shallow water, which a Mech wan walk (but not run) through and fire weapons, and DL2, which is deep water, preventing Mechs from firing non-energy weapons. I would have loved it if this game modelled Mechs walking in shallow / white water, as that was in this mission, you could have had something similar to the briefing map where the third ford was shallow water and not a land bridge. Or made Falcon's Mech jump capable and making the third ford only able to be crossed by jumping from island to island.
Rooster is also fun. In this game, he's a Green MechWarrior whose only redeeming feature is his far-above-average piloting skill. Everything else about him sucks. He's the black sheep of the Pilots in this game, and his youthful voice only adds to the vibe that he really shouldn't be here. But he is, and I'll make good use of him. Of course, if I ever LP MC2, we'll be introduced to him again....
I'll update the Pilot's post in the next couple days, as well as provide the Hunchback TRO. I have a dentist appointment tomorrow, as well as school work due though, so don't worry too much if it takes until Wendsday evening.
I'm also thinking about changing my 'Begin mission' icon, as I'm beginning to feel it's a bit too small. If you guys have a suggestion, speak up!
Next mission will also have a bonus Solo Timby Run, so look forward to it!