The more I read about dropships, raids and stuff in the BT universe, the more I think that raiding speed is more important than firepower. Get in fast, get out faster. That might make me change the Warhammer and Rifleman to some speed 10 mechs. And yet, having some AA capacity seems important in the way I see the BT universe. So maybe I will be searching for a kind of speedier rifleman (alpha strike move of 10") or other mech with double AC5...
Same for the support vessels: if I want low altitude drops, VTOLs might be more useful than pegasus hovertanks, so I might be reviewing that or having both and using one or the other depending on the mission.
Here comes the background for the pilot of the RFL (or whatever anti-AA mech I end up using) and the Shadow Hawk:
RUTH PALLARS (codename: Hate).
Ruth comes from a blue collar family. She lost her family to an air raid that hit the production plant where they were working. That had a profound impact on young Ruth. After some time grieving her loss, her feelings set themselves to became hate for anything that flies. That drove her to the local militia hiring hall, where she enlisted and drove her way to the AA elements of the unit by her late teens.
Since she spent most of her free time in the training simulators shooting down aircraft, she developed a keen ability as an antiair gunner and was assigned to the crew of Pike AA tank. However, she was obsessed in her anti-AA attitude, and did not work well with others, including the crew of her tank. Still, her CO wanted to take advantage of her skills and she was promoted to be a MechWarrior (there were some major groans in the unit about this) to pilot the unit's Jagermech after a crash MechWarrior capacitation course. She was quite lame when it came to move her machine or making positioning decisions, but she knew how to shot down fliers.
However, despite her CO's protection, Ruth was expelled from her unit for not getting along with her XO and breaking the arm of one of the units ASF pilots in a drunken bar brawl just before their planet was hit by a raiding party. So she drifted to the mercenary hiring hall when Jacob Aran found himself in the lookout for a pilot for the Rifleman he had acquired. She found the ride to be good (and suggested some improvements to its weapon calibrations) and did beat the other contestants for the pilot position in the shooting contest that Aran did set up. So she was in.
When out of her mech, Ruth favours a flechette heavy pistol for personal defense, but truly excels with her G-150 Hunting Rifle, customized to bird hunting and long range target shooting.
She goes by the monicker of "Hate", not because of personal choice, but because that is how the ASF pilots of her old unit named her.
She effectivley has a mental problem. But makes for a nice character when you have fliers around.
AINA OLIVERAS (Codename: Piglet)
Aina's family has had the Maverick for as long as there is familiar memory and they have been plying the merc trade for even longer. There is a fairly convoluted story about how they supposedly acquired it in the first succession war, but Aina thinks it is a bunch of BS and that the machine was probably stolen sometime in the 2800s. In any case the Maverick is certainly an example of the "old hatchet that has had 7 handles and 5 heads" as well as having suffered the uses and abuses of past owners and operators, including several custom jobs. As far as she is concerned the thing is that she loves being the pilot of the Maverick and hates the fact that she and her mother had had to auction it.
The last repairs on the Maverick skyrocketed when they had to replace its gyro. Not willing to pay for it, the mercenary unit where they had been working decided to ditch them and search for a replacement medium instead.
Stranded in the planet and with a huge debt to pay for the mech's repair, Aina and her crew were forced to auction the machine. And Jacob Aran came calling.
The young Merc commander did not buy the Maverick outright, bit instead paid it's debt and refinanced it: now Aina and her mother (the Maverick's senior astech) are indebted to him instead of he banks, but are still (officially) the owners of the Maverick even if as deeply indebted to Jacob Aran as they were to the banks. Obviously they could not pass up his demand for them to join his new mercenary outfit, but it suited them to be in the Merc road again.
Previous pilots and techs of the Maverick have modified it in ways that makes it difficult to be recognized as a Shadow Hawk anymore. She carries a large laser in her shoulder mount, a second medium laser in her left arm and her LRM rack has been removed and replaced with a SRM4 fed by the same ton of ammo as the SRM2 in its head mount. The extra available tonnage has been used to improve the jump jets and increase the armor. Specs-wise it is more similar to a Wolverine 6M than a Shadow Hawk.
The Maverick came with a full complement of astechs as well as a medium recovery vehicle used to haul her around. There are some family members attached to the unit, being effectively an extended family, but so far jacob Aran has not thought that this will be any problem. the fact that they dress similarly and look very loyal to each other does not bother him either.
Aina herself is quite reckless, and has been defined as "a young wild boar" by her mother Alba. When operating out of her mech she favours a flamboyant attire and a rugged Magnum Auto-Pistol on his right hip. Both her and her crew have well loved and maintained Imperator 2894A1 SMGs that they use for self-defense.
Thanks to DOC_Agren for the personal weapon selections :)
