Irian Armored Fists

[Elmoth]

There are some not so great decisions as well there xD even if Diva's manager wouldn't agree with me!

Glad you like it. I am trying to make it more difficult for the players than previous games we have played, with advances and drawbacks. And they are doing a good job as well fleshing the unit.

[Elmoth]

After the 2 last missions the unit needed some necessary victories. One of the last missions had been semi-successful (but paid with their own hard coin) and the other had been an unmitigated disaster, meaning that they got paid the minimum stipulated in their contract for having tried. They needed money to recover. Lots of it. Their reliance in tank hulls meant that they were needing replacements, and those were not cheap.

The Irian Fists spent half a month in dry dock while repairing the phoenix hawk and did some fast repairs to some of the least damaged vehicles. they could still field a significant force for a raid, even if less than before.

Now they needed pilots. They had a lance worth of mechs: Stupendous Oriental Glitter (Glitter for short), our vindicator piloted by Divine Awesome (who was learning! She even hit something sometimes), a captured phoenix hawk, a locust and a stinger.

being in galatea there was not a lack of candidates for the position of mechpilots. And whatnot, because Diva had something of a HUGE following. The editor skills of his manager also made their fumbles in battle look like tactical movements and gracious searches for cover, so she did seem to be a cool pilot.

So, the testing took them most of 10 days. They ended up with:
1. Laura Olive, a veteran mechwarrior that had seen her share of fighting. She was assigned the phoenix hawk.
2. Elisabeth Smith. A student of Tharkad that didn't made it due to her bad relationship with the head of staff. They didn't buy it, but so far she was piloting OK.
3. Peter Conolly, a student of the past that got assigned the wasp. He seemed to be well versed in tactics even if less of a great pilot. Still competent. Until he signed the contract and demonstrated that he had been trying REAL hard to pilot (and achieving good results) but was really a fan of Diva and he wen all fan-like when he was in. They sacked him immediately and went for the next one.
4. Aina Curd. NO relationship to the captain [well, OOC she is my daghter, but hey]. An hyperactive young lady that seems to be both capable at the commands of the Locust and love the nightlife. She is quite good looking and smart. Yes, I think the players were trying to both challenge my senses as a father AND cover me with soap here...

This time all the contracts were probatory.

They took their next contract, embarked the 4 mechs, 3 Lions, 3 hunters, 2 saracens and the skulkers plus an infantry platoon (with quite a few raw recruits) and lifted out of planet.

[Elmoth]

The 4 mechs walked down the ramp of the dropship and entered the perimiter that the infantry and saracens had already stablished.

After the pilots declared themselves ready, the 4 mechs and 3 supporting Lions moved to their target, an airfield where they were to wreck all planes and destory a certain building. Saracens and skulkers acted as a recon screen carrying the infantry.

All went well until they heard the approach of a pair of Centurion ASF (what the hell is that!?!?! said the players). The CDenturions proceeded to strafe the mechs repeatedly, and only lucky shots drove them off (that and the GM not wanting to waste the PC totally). they decided to invest in AA or ASF themselves in brief.

The operation in the airfield was effective (it was not the base of the Centurions) and they managed to capture a second Manticore tank! After that they ran like hell to the dropship, since they were hearing the centurions returning...

In the end it was a successful misison for them, even if the mechs suffered heavily at the hands of the Centurion ASFs and lost a lot of armor in the process. the new recruits performed well when dealing with enemy scorpions and infantry, and only a truio of Manticores put any kind of serious problem to them.

I have to say that as GM I was on a roll with my to ASF hit dice. Each strafe did not fail once.

[Elmoth]

After their encounter with ASF, the PC read the rules for aircraft in Alpha strike like madmen. Their conclusion was to either get their own aircraft themselves or AA vehicles. They decided on the former and invested in a pair of Thrush fighters (budget constraints; they wanted Slayers). The new pilots were fairly competent without being top notch aerofighters. They were Capellans in origin (while most Irian fists were Marik) but that was not a major issue. For now at least.

They took a defensive job to rest for a while, since their campaigning had been intense. So they moved to the Combine planet of Kaus Media. they were supposed to act as protectors for an important weapons research facility first, and secondly for the welfare of the civilian population. They had a vested interest in the welfare of said civilian population, since it included a seizable part of the Irian Fists' families.

On arrival they discovered that a raid was more than possible since there seemed to have been a fallout between the 2 owners of Halimar Corporation, and they did not part ways in the best of terms. They took the precaution of having their dropship away from the expected hot area, and to base their ASF in the same airfield as the dropship, more than 1 hundred km away from the Halimar complex. That somewhat debilitated their defense since a company of infantry was also stationed with the dropship, but they trused that Halimar's own security forces would lend a hand in case of conflcit in the facilities.

Conflict came around a month after they had been stationed, when a raiding force composed of 2 Marik Wolverines, a phoenix hawk and Warhammer supported by their own ASF, some light tanks and a few infantry platoons made a combat drop right oin the middle of the facility at 0400 AM. The raid was directed at the airfield and weapons research facility in the industrial area. The attackers took advantage of their mobility. The 3 jumping mechs, their jump infantry and the ASF as well as a pair of Warrior VTOLS attacked the complex, while their LRM vehicles took long range indirect fire shots while protected by the Warhammer and the light tanks.

The enemy ASF made short work of the new Capellan Thrushs when they finally showed up, and it was shown that the mobility of jumping mechs and infantry in an urban environment was something that tanks were ill suited to counter. The mechs and ump infantry took advantage of their superior mobility to achieve local superiority in a deadly hide and seek game that saw a significant portion of the Irian vehicles scrapped. Only the intervention of the Irian mechs and one of the Wolverines making the grunt mistake of walking slowly in a square managed to counter their punch. After the Wolverine was badly mauled by PPC fire did the raiders flee, but they had destroyed a fuel deposit and the control tower, but the research building they seemed to be heading for was saved in extremis.

Marcel Foot died when his command Skulker was destroyed by the enemy jump infantry placing satchel charges on its roof, bringing a whole Lion tank lance to a screeching halt. The final result was a clear defeat of the defenders that also lost Elisabeth Smith's Stinger.

Given their contract they were able to recover most of their materiel loses, but morale was at a low state after this operation. The HQ also seemed to hate God Almighty after this operation for some weird reason (or the fact that the players knew I as a GM had hit them with the same force they had used themselves during the previous week in the prison raid, and returned the pain with interest). .

[Elmoth]

After the successful raid on the Halimar complex that they were protecting, the Irian fists did not see their contract renewed. Once the 6 month job was over they left for new ventures.

The 4 months of inactivity had been good for the unit, but they were not that well off economically. While their material loses had been replenished, they had found that such replenishment came in a company store format, and they paid extra for it. even diving into their own resources they had come out of it the worse. They had their previous resources (minus the singer) but their debt with Defiance had increased once again AND they had lost a Stinger. the stinger had only been compensated for, not replenished, and the compensation had been on the low end.

The TOE at this point was this:

2 Manticores
8 Lions
6 Hunters
3 Saracens
2 Warriors
1 Infantry platoon (with some new recruits from their own families and some from Kaus Media)
3 APC
3 Ferrets
4 Skulkers
Support trucks and J27s

1 Vindicator (Diva Awesome)
1 Phoenix hawk (Laura Olivie)
1 Locust (Aina Curd)
1 Stinger (Elisabeth Smith).

Defiance did not replace the Stinger, even if they said they would look into it. Elisabeth is around and complaining a lot about how she will be past her prime if she cannot pilot a mech. She and Diva have become fast friends. Laura and Aina look at the other 2 pilots changing between amusement and annoyance. Stupendous Oriental Glitter has managed to get his own monthly special in the "Heroes of Flash and Wonder!" holovid series, a success of Diva's manager. the postproduction dudes in her holovid unit are pressing Roderick Stone to allow them to paint the mech in actual glitter colors, since doing the edition so it appears shinny and glamorous in Photoshop 8000 is a pain in the ass. He still refuses. Since the show is awful, but is a nice source of secondary income for the unit and good publicity, they have staged a few mock battles to make Diva shine. She is becoming a little bit full of herself (even more!?!?!!?) but she has become competent at piloting Stupendous Oriental Glitter, so things are not that bad.

A few paparazzi had started to follow the mechwarriors of the units around, and a certain private in the infantry unit, since he seemed to spend some time with Diva... There were some irate protests among the players at that, not being able to hit on Diva themselves because they had not thought about that. This prompted Roderick Stone to hit on Aina Curd, but a lightning stroke fell between his legs from a clear sky somewhat, and that made him rethink his intentions. God Almighty AKA the GM will deny any kind of implication here. The lightning was brought down by a random events table after all (one with only lightning strokes as possible results, but hey).

Some members of the infantry have started to train with jump equipment, since the commanders (AKA players) found that appealing after being hit by it in the previous battle. They brought in a pretty hard instructor from the planetary militia to achieve that, and there have been some groans around.



Morale: Low (-1 to training level of the NPCs [infantry VTOLS, Saracens and Hunters] for the next battle.

Cash: Fair level
Debt to Defiance Industries: "You don't want to look at this number if you want to sleep well" level

[Iron Grenadier]

Sell the Manticore's and use the funds to purchase another Wasp/Stinger or some such. Should have plenty of change left over from it.

[Elmoth]

I will put forward that idea to the players. However, I am already hearing the "anathema!" they will cry, since the Manticores are the heavy hitters of the unit. I do not think they would like to get them removed. they tend to explore with the VTOLs and Saracens, using the mechs as a late game strike team more than the main striking force.

[cawest]

just wanted to let you know that I am enjoying readying this. 

[DOC_Agren]

Yep this is interesting

do have a question

Conflict came around a month after they had been stationed, when a raiding force composed of 2 Marik Wolverines, a phoenix hawk and Warhammer supported by their own ASF, some light tanks and a few infantry platoons made a combat drop right oin the middle of the facility at 0400 AM.

How did the light tanks do a combat drop?
And if they could have gotten on that Warhammer the turn it arrived with the "attached" jump pack it would be been nearly defenseless.  Because there are few and far between who have a JJ installed

[Elmoth]

Bad wording. Not a combat drop. They landed with the jumpship in the spaceport. Just that when they landed they caught the players with their pants down. Literally since I started the game with one of the PCs in the bathroom reading "Hot Vedettes, Davion Special". As the dropship was landing, the jump-capable mechs and the VTOLs left the dropship in mid air and started to cause problems, but the non-JJ units (tanks and WHM) landed with the ship and deployed from there. I made the dropship come stealthily from behind one of the moons powered down until it was in the atmo already, so a surprise attack was more or less justified.

This was a tie-in with the "collaborative mercs" thread of this forum, since the force hitting them were the Reach Enterprises mech unit developed in the forum. The players knew it, and they loved and hated it at the same time.

[Elmoth]

Game on Sunday. What vicisitudes would you throw at the players? I am low on ideas right now.

If nothing else, Defiance will ask for a small favor or 2...

[Elmoth]

Back in galatea space, commander Curd got an message from another potential customer; new earth trading company. Given their known contract with Defiance Industries, the call left Curd with a suspicious mind. And rightly so. NETC wanted to buy the Lions. NETC offered A LOT of money for 2 of the vehicles (in most of your DI debt territory), but given the draconian clause about their distribution the Fist had with DI, that was much more easily said than done.

NETC offered to offer them to garrison a backwater planet, and then hit them with a raid where the Lions would be stolen. The GM was expecting the players to drop that, but they jumped right in. The fact that there were a lot of holes in the proposed plan (like, nowhere it was said that the raid would not be killing some of them) did not seem to bother them much. And so, they prepared to move to Thorin (lots of player smirks at the name), just a few light years from New Earth itself, for a garrison contract For Lorena Electronics, one of the NETC providers.

More on this tomorrow, since i am hating typing this on an ipad

[Elmoth]

The Irian Fists went to Zebebelgenubi with a local contract to protect against anyting that could hit the planet. A usual garisson contract. Since there was only 2 significant industrial complexes still remaining in the planet, they located themselve sin one of them in the capital, and trusted the (poor) local militia to provide security for the smaller one.

2 months passed without any problems in the horizon. They started to relax. They had been paid in advance by NETC, and well, if they didn't want to get the ock battle, that wa sup to them. Then anoter 2 months passed and the contract was about to expire. And they woke up to the sound of a combat drop on their very complex.

It just happened that they smiled. That would be the NETC. They expected a show and then to surrender 2 of their Lions, so they basically deployed to isolate 2 of their own lions per the contract and move out of the line of fire, taking long range difficult shots with the Hunters and other long range vehicles.

And then the 2 Lions went up in flames like a timber castle when the enemy mechs smashed them. Their final camera feeds showed unit insignias that were not as expected. A red sun on a yellow background. The 5th Dieron Regulars. Frack.

2 Lions down and the enemy was not even scratched. They hastily repositioned their forces and mounted a defense, but the combat drop had been effective and more vehicles started to explode. Diva Awesome and her companions downed an Orion, but not before Stupendous Glitter got smacked real hard and she retreated to a warehouse. Her recording team was burning nearby. the Locust was the first to go, caught in the crossfire of a Dragon and a Panther. Fortunately Aina Curd could eject safely (GM fiat since she is my daughter). the Saracens got into a firefight with light enemy units, and did quite well until they were targeted by artillery and immobilized.

The unit made a hasty retreat, but it seemed that the target wa snot the industrial complx, but themselves. reports from the other industrial area informed tha tthe mlitia was also being grinded to dust.

When morning came the unit had only a single Lion active, evne if thy had managed to save most Hunters. The retreat into an urban area that the infantry had mined was quite instrumental here. They had also lost the Locust (taken as salvage by the raiders) as well as (surprise surprise), 2 of their Lions that had been immobilized. It seemed that either NETC did not play small or that there was more than one party interested in their Hunter remote-controlled conversion.

After the battle another disaster was discovered. Diva Awesome had died. that was a really hard blow for the unit (and their finances). The dieron Regulars got A LOT of flakk in the public forums of the Ineer Sphere for that fact, but the fact remained tha thte unit was heading for obscurity again, sinc eit was unlikely that their flirt with fame would repeat after their last disastrous events.

Beaten and crestfallen they returned to Galatea.

Morale: Abysmal.