Natasha Kerensky strikes again!
Tonight was Round 2 in our tournament; add another 5k to the force you had, minimum 6 units and 3 hours of play.
Rnd 1
Timber Wolf C (3/5)- 3000 BV
Mist Lynx C (4/4)
Elemental L (3/5)
Rnd 2
Dire Wolf Widowmaker (2/4)- nearly 4900 BV
Clan Motorized Point (LRM) 3 gunners, 65 BV x2
Leading her 13th Wolf Guards, Natasha fended off a FedCom raid from troops who come from old Lyran formations. The reinforced medium lance that her patrol found did not hesitate to engage but showed some reluctance to close. The mechwarrior later determined to be the force commander seemed stunned when on the initial salvo his Griffin 3M took three solid hits at long range from the Black Widow . . . two ERPPC hits and a single LPL though the fourth glassed a rocky outcropping instead of hitting the fire support medium. Armor was stripped off his LRM ammo bins though none of the missiles were touched off.
Natasha crested her own hill to settle among some light woods, even if she was not perched as high as the Griffin. The Wolf Spiders did not accord the raiders the honor of zellbriggen though they tended to focus on targets as they closed. A Nightsky rushing towards her Dire Wolf and harassing the Elementals fell to the ground in the midst of the point when she connected with all four heavy energy weapons- the ERPPC burning off the oddly shaped head. A Marauder 5D worked its way around a hill to close up, hitting with ERPPCs as it walked forward . . . into her guns, the next salvo sent one of her ERPPC blasts into the Marauder's head as well even if the Ultra 20 missed (Need 6, Roll 5). The Timber Wolf spent the time sprinkling LRMs over a Barghest and the Griffin. After the Marauder fell the Lyran Hatchetman dropped from the sky to land behind a ridge trying to snipe at the Dire Wolf only to find the Timber Wolf could run up and be sixty meters away on the other side of the ridge.
The Hatchetman pilot proved extremely foolish, calling out Natasha in the Dire Wolf by name in a challenge. When she acknowledged the challenge, the rest of the Wolves ignored the crazy medium pilot- she had undoubtedly killed two Lyrans so far that day- which at that point left two infantry points and the Mist Lynx without a target. The Timber Wolf pilot held his place on the hill firing down at the Barghest over 300 meters away, a spread of missiles slamming through its hefty chest to crack the engine shielding.
The Wolves lost a motorized infantry point while the Barghest and Griffin moved away from the mechs to chase the Elemental point to finish it off. When they swung back, Natasha pivoted to meet the two mechs by running into some light woods and the Hatchetman who landed 90 meters away. The Hatcheman was in bad shape . . . its center torso barely had any armor, the non-hatchet arm was gone, the hatchet arm was damaged, one leg had been badly damaged, the head had taken a missile strike, and the pilot was riding his heat to get in close. Natasha split her fire (time was about up)since everyone was in short range to give a double-tap at the barely damaged Barghest, send the particle cannon, a medium and small laser after the cannon while putting both large pulses at the Hachetman.
Both UAC/20 blasts hit the chest of the Barghest, stripping most of the remaining armor from the center but breaking into the internal portion of the on the right side . . . the PPC missed completely but the med hit that right torso and the small hit the center. Down to a single point of internal structure on the right torso and the cannon taken out by damage. The two large pulse lasers hit the center of the Hatchetman . . . or what was left of the center, the whole mech collapsed around the damage (2 & 7 locations, well no need for the crit rolls). The Barghest turned aside from the assault mech, instead trying to cut down the Mist Lynx that could have pursued any survivors . . . a full twenty submunitions exploded across the front of the light mech, causing the right arm to fall off still attached to a piece of the shoulder that had ripped away from the torso. The Timber Wolf kept its fire on the Barghest but still that side torso held up . . . until the infantry point fired in support of their Khan . . . the small infantry-scale warheads snapped off the last of the internal structure keeping the mech properly formed. The XL engine was ripped apart causing the dog-like mech to crash into the tore up ground of the battlefield.
Natasha Kerensky proves herself at a point most other warriors have been consigned to solhama . . . three outright kills, credit for the Barghest, and part of the crippling of the Griffin that withdrew. Her left torso and arm had drawn a lot of fire, but most of her mech was barely touched.