BattleTech: Surprise Encounter

[Part of the BattleTech Story.]

The next task from Lady Kamea is to take down a refueling drop ship called the Newgrange which is supposedly smuggling supplies for the Directorate. While the turret generators were sniped with ease by Silverlight, the medium mech lance defending the platform was crushed by Rattlesnakes bombardment. The drop ship pilot pleaded on the comms saying they were only transporting civilians but letting them go wasn't what Lady Kamea was paying them for. Gabriel didn't hesitate to shoot the fuel lines sending a chain reaction of explosions into the solid hull of the ship, destroying it and whatever cargo it held.

Enemy destroyed.

At that moment, a new enemy lance landed - surprisingly led by Kamea's evil cousin: Lady Victoria! These mechs were fully armored, heavier than usual and had trained pilots to boot. Discord and Gabriel acted as the tanks, drawing fire away from the long range missile pair who were doing the majority of the damage. Victoria was a good shot though, and lazered right into the cockpit of Discord's Thunderbolt, frying him into crispy pata.

Gabriel then used his Dragon's speed and piloting skills to get up and destroy Victoria's mech in close quarters only to have her eject at the last minute. When her team then focused fire on him, he had to do the same as the Dragon is utterly destroyed. Fortunately the rest of Victoria's squad was badly damaged at that point, and were finished off from the ridge line by Rattlesnake and Silverlight.

Now on foot, Gabriel rushed over to Victoria's escape pod and found her unconscious. He was tempted to kill her right there, but being royalty and all he decided to instead capture her for questioning.

BattleTech: High Morale

[Part of the BattleTech Story.]

With the squad now composed of Silverlight in the Griffin (scout), Discord in the Vindicator (skirmisher), Rattlesnake in the Trebuchet (support), and Gabriel in the Dragon (close quarters heavy) they begin thrashing the opposition, defeating competing merc companies, rescuing scientists, capturing pirate bases and defending Restoration strongholds. They even successfully hunt an outlaw in a Thunderbolt mech with little problem.

Shooting people in the back is the way to victory!

Indeed the most major loss for awhile is when Rattlesnake tried to upgrade an Autocannon 5 and ended up wrecking it. Apparently Silverlight had tried to teaching him some tech work. It's a good time on board the Argo, and watching the Solaris Championship (Mech gladiator TV) in the new entertainment area only strengthened the teams morale.

Their next job came from the government of Lyreton who claimed to have sighted an enemy heavy mech, but this turned out to only be a ruse to get the Marauders to help them defend against the invading Capellan Confederation. Unhappy at being lied to, Gabriel then sided with the Capellan's to assassinate the government official who lied to them, before switching sides once more to protect a city from Capellan attack. While the Marauder's didn't really make any friends there, they came out richer and with a brand new Thunderbolt mech which would replace Discord's Vindicator and a Kintaro, which would replace Rattlesnake's Trebuchet.

Following the specs originally suggested by Jim, Gabriel had the Kintaro stripped of all armor, jump jets, heat sinks and weapons other than long range missiles. Rattlesnake now had three times the number of missiles to fire before running out.

BattleTech: Perfect Practice makes Perfect

[Part of the BattleTech Story.]

From the scraps of the last battle the Marauders manage to assemble a Trebuchet, which Gabriel uses as a long range missile platform (another suggestion from Jim). He also trades in his lighter mechs to purchase a Griffin. He then takes his squad to the outer periphery to fight lesser pirates and build up their skills, with Discord in the Vindicator, Gabriel in the Griffin and Rattlesnake far away in the Trebuchet.

Their performance improves drastically and so does the Marauders income with the excess going to making the Argo even more habitable and hiring Sarah Excel Silverlight to pilot a salvaged Blackjack. Silverlight seems to also have some tech skills, managing to upgrade a medium laser within her first week on board. It's not long before Lady Kamea gives them another mission: to take an ammo dump from Directorate forces. The yard is defended by turrets and two lances of mechs, the second one sporting a heavier set including a Dragon.

Tons of missiles yet still, melee is more fun.

Master flanks the facility from the ridge line and explodes some of the ammo dumps, taking care of the turrets and damaging the heavies while Discord and Silverlight flank the lights, landing numerous back shots. Rattlesnake eventually runs out of missiles, but at that point the remaining mechs are so damaged that he can melee them to death. The mission is a success, and from it Gabriel can rebuild the enemy Dragon though it requires selling the Blackjack for funding and components. Silverlight is assigned the Griffin instead.

BattleTech: The Wise Man

[Part of the BattleTech Story.]

Downtrodden with the company's losses, Gabriel finds himself at an Orbit Bar while the other team members get some needed shore leave. There he meets another mercenary leader called Wild Jim who offers him some advice on battle tactics. He takes the lessons onboard and regroups at the Agro where Medusa has returned with a new hire, Michael Gray, who strikes Gabriel as an unhinged serial killer type - perhaps his claim of being stuck in some bunker with an annoying woman for years (whom he presumably murdered) is actually true.

The next job is to assassinate a Directorate leader, one of the House Arano rebels. Gabriel deploys the last three mechs they have, all lights. Discord manning the Locust, Rattlesnake in a Spider, and Medusa in the trusty Vindicator. They come up against five mechs led by a Cicada, and while Discord is wounded  (and his mech damaged) in the clash they find victory through hit and run tactics ("always be on the move" as suggested by Jim) and salvage a Jaguar and a Jenner in the process.

Lady Arano then asks for their assistance in taking over a spaceport on a nearby planet, specifically to destroy their command center within to slow an advancing Directorate fleet. Gray, Rattlesnake, Medusa and Master deploy, and are assisted by Restoration engineers who manage to turn the local turrets into allies midway through the mission. Gabriel manages to sneak around the defending mechs in his Jenner to destroy the command post while the other three keep them busy using Jim's advice of targeting specific sections to go for ammo storage or sever weaponry from opponents. Gray in the Spider is melted early on though, and Medusa is really banged up in the Vindicator but manages to reach the extraction point just in time.

Despite that, Medusa never wakes from his wounds and dies on the operating table of the Argo. 

People die off the battlefield too.

BattleTech: Rookie Trials

[Part of the BattleTech Story.]

With Gabriel unconscious in the medbay and a few pilots down, Medusa and Glitch decide to hire more help - specifically a team of rookies each for trials.

There's no shortage of them apparently!

Medusa recruits the Blaugustian Discord, sly guy Rattlesnake and prim and proper gal Broadway whom he takes to ambush a convoy. Broadway, riding a Jenner, doesn't even survive the first exchange of bullets leaving the others a harder time to complete the mission. They still do, but right afterwards Rattlesnake makes the mistake of dismounting from his mech to claim some "personal" salvage and is ambushed by humanoid insect like natives. He fights them off but is wounded in the exchange.

Meanwhile Glitch assembles a team composed of the sisters Judge and Tranquility as well as a man with piercing eyes with the callsign Shiver. They deploy on a what's meant to be an easy mission of destroying a pirate lance acting as forward observers, but everything goes to hell when a second lance arrives in a flanking position. Glitch manages to get her team up to a lake in the mountains which helps the mechs keep cool while firing but it isn't enough for Shiver who overheats his mech, making him an easy target for an enemy Blackjack. Shiver dies burning in agony.

Glitch manages to keep the others at bay for the most part, with Judge showing off her evasive piloting skills while Tranquility messes up some of the enemies with her robot jujitsu. Unfortunately an enemy manages to flank Glitch and kill her from the back, moments before Tranquility destroys it with a fist through the chest and earning a mission victory. Seeing something must be done with all the novices, Medusa orders the tech team to start building training pods so they can practice and gain skills before hitting the battlefield for real.

Lessons Learned: Discord is Ok

With Blaugust wrapping up it's now the Lessons Learned week!

I've always been wary of Discord and the like, even for game use, but from this Blaugust experience I'm more on board with it now. I guess with familiarity comes acceptance. That's worth a Lessons Learned post in my book. It's still annoying how it asks me to verify via email each time I log in though.

Blaugust About Me: Writing Origins

We're now in the "Get to Know Each Other" week of Blaugust, and there's a lot more of that going on in the discord channel! If you haven't joined in yet, now is as good a time as any. :)

Today I'll be answering some prompts from Me vs Myself and I, namely exploring my origins as a writer and why I enjoy blogging.

I always felt I was good with writing stories at school and always had the "I should write a book one day" idea in the back of my mind but the more I looked at writing novels, the more I stepped away from it due to the generally negative vibe I get from that whole scene.

This is especially true since I personally know people who try to get published and still haven't been, opting for the self-publish option instead. The idea of being "edited" also didn't sit well with me, the types of edits that change entire stories.

No such restraint sits in the blogging world, and the idea that I can just put my thoughts and stories up for anyone to read is a bit addictive. I guess that's why I like the creative outlet that is blogging so much.

Newbie Blogger Initiative 2016!

It looks like The Newbie Blogger Initiative is returning this year, running for the whole month of June! If you are new to blogging, old to blogging, or just thinking about blogging, now is as good a time as any to get started! This "event", which you can participate in as little or as much as you like, is a good way to gain some exposure.

Here are some handy links for those interested:
Discord Invite Code
Newbie Blogger Forum
Newbie Blogger Twitter

From the sounds of things Discord will be the main platform for interaction this year, don't let that scare you off. It's pretty user friendly. :)

Due to my current schedule I'll probably only be on the sidelines this time around, but I'm definitely looking forward to discovering new/old blogs to add to my reading list. Also apologies if this post sounds like an echo, echo, echo, but that's kinda the point.