Drop 6, March 25, 3025

• Mission Brief

KooKoo led Elhaz Lance into what sounds like a meat-grinder of a mission yesterday. It was alarming to hear KooKoo's report of "Whispers say that his lance took tougher drops and faced stuff we didn't...", both because that kind of talk is poisonous to unit morale, and because it frankly isn't true. We lost Provocator because of bad luck, not because of any overwhelming enemy force. It could have happened to any mech jock in the Universe. Hell, it happens to mech jocks every day. There is no escaping Fate.   I do recommend cross-company simulator time while in transit to the next system however. I'd like to silence the whispers as much as possible, and having the two lances trade pilots might help to build unit cohesion.   That said, I asked for this mission to capitalize on the damage KooKoo and Elhaz Lance did to the Snakes. We were expecting the remnants of the DCMS Expedionary Force and the Planetary Defense Force to have a stand-up knock-down fight, and Thurisaz Lance was going to be there to do what Ravens do best-peck out the eyes of anyone left and bring home whatever shiny bits we could.

Drop Deck    

Pilot	Mech
Garm	Assassin ASN-21
Chili (NPC)	Firestarter FS9-M
Snow (NPC)	UrbanMech UM-R90
Overheat (NPC	Wasp WSP-1A

  Action Report

I had Sumire drop us near the southern woods bordering where we expected the fight to occur. Pushing up north and east through the trees, we found the lance of Planetary Defense mechs beginning their march south. I took the opportunity to fire at the leader's BlackJack BJ-1, hoping they'd split the lance up. That worked, and next thing we knew, a Locust came barreling along. I pulled the Lance back to the east, deeper into the woods, and just about the time the Locust came into firing range, Sumire reported the Snakes dropping their lance far to the west.   I chopped off the Locust LCT-1V's leg with a salvo of short range missiles, and the rest of the lance quickly tore it to pieces. 2.4 seconds later, a Commando COM-2D walked into my sights. It missed a quick laser shot, and then took off to the west. We were getting reports that fire was being exchanged between the DCMS and PDF forces now, so I jumped to the top of a hill to try downing the Commando. Chili flanked, and between the two of us, we stripped roughly 1/3 of the armor from the mech. Placing myself on the hill left me open to long range missile fire, and an unknown Kuritan pilot took the opportunity to fire at me. The Assassin's TacCom reported three missiles impacted, but no major damage was inflicted.     The Commando disappeared into the woods, and I ordered Thurisaz Lance to the North East, away from the heaviest fighting. While doing so, we found the Lyran BlackJack that had apparently been wandering around in the woods, either trying to find us or just run from the fight. A couple of quick shots at me missed, and just then we heard reports that his lance-mate had been destroyed by the invaders. Snow took the shot and ripped the Right Arm off the BJ. This would have been a perfect opportunity for the BlackJack to join up with the Commando, who had moments before destroyed and unknown Draconis mech, but instead, he followed us. I ripped his Left Torso to shreds, and he paused long enough for us to cool down some.   Which was the instant that we finally made contact with the DCMS forces. They had a Firestarter FS-9-H trying to flank from the North, and it managed to catch us just off-guard enough to get off the first shot at Chili. Two lasers scorched some paint and peeled armor away from her Firestarter, but that just annoyed her. Before she could do more than cuss though, Snow and Overheat jumped into action and ripped into the enemy with alpha strikes. Snow's blast nearly ripped the entire Right side off the mech, and Overheat's missiles found one of the MG ammo bins, which did rip off the right arm and torso. Chili, cussing the entire time, jumped in close behind the enemy to kiss him if she'd wanted. Instead, she laid into him with every weapon she had, ripping the Right Leg out from under him, and all but coring the poor Firestarter's Center Torso. Trying to be mindful of salvage, I aimed at the remaining leg with my single laser shot, but missed and stabbed into the downed mech's engine, destroying it almost completely.     By now, the BlackJack had stupidly found his courage, and instead of retreating or joining with the Commando, followed us deeper into the woods. The rest of the lance acted as bait, and then I stepped out behind him and fired a full complement of missiles. That was more than enough to destroy the armor, and he went down when his Gyro was torn to pieces. That was roughly the moment that the Lyran Commando took out whatever it had been fighting for the last several minutes.   With that, Sumire on Overwatch confirmed that the Commando was the last enemy combatant currently on the field, and we quickly hunted it down. Our combined fire stripped both the Right and Left Torsos away, leaving the pilot weaponless. To his credit though, he tried charging me, but missed. I was unable to reach him on Coms to offer him the chance of surrender, but I was unwilling to kill him or destroy his mech if unnecessary. So, I did the one thing I could do and amputated his Commando's Left Leg. That was enough to get the message across, and the pilot ejected.   My contacts have been unable to find out who the pilot was so far. Which is a shame, because I would happily hire someone of their caliber into the Lance if given the opportunity.

  Mission results

• Payout 464,100 credits
• Notable Salvage
  • Firestarter FS-9-H (completes salvage in storage)
  • Kills
    • Garm
      • Mechs 3 * 1 Ejection*
      • Vehicles 0
    • Chili
      • Mechs 0
      • Vehicles 0
    • Snow
      • Mechs 0
      • Vehicles 0
    • Overheat
      • Mechs 1
      • Vehicles 0
    • Injuries
      • None
  • Repairs
    • Assassin-Armor
    • Firestarter-Armor
    • Urbanmech-Armor