[Grizzly]

Yeah she ended up being a 32 year old green pilot.  I think that speaks to a certain level of sucking at one's job.

Either that, or someone who is happy to just do the lazy backwater guard duty jobs as long as they pay her.

---

"We have plenty of long range firepower right?" Viper asked, near-whispering as she took sips from her cappucino. "I say we find a few higher positions, whack them from long range and use our smaller mechs to force them out in the open when they hide".

[The E]

OOC: Let's talk about organization. A standard Inner Sphere deployment would mean that our 12 mechs would be divided into three lances of 4 mechs each. ComGuard has a slightly different doctrine and organizes 6 basic units (i.e. single Mechs, vehicles, fighters or infantry platoons) into what is called a Level 2 unit. 6 of those form a Level 3, 6 L3s an L4, and so on up to L6.

---

Our 2 L2s are currently composed of 2 Assault Mechs, 3 Heavies, 4 Mediums and 3 Lights. Standard Unit composition for a Level 2 would thus organize us into one Assault L2 of Utopian, Hoover, Archmage, Stormlord, Viper and Me and one light L2. With that organization, Shidachi and his L2 would scout ahead, while the Assault L2 hangs back and provides long range support.
 

[Lepanto]

(in ComStar uniform)

A young Acolyte nods along with the briefing. "Valid analyses, 'Viper' and 'The E'. Please allow this Acolyte to interject, though. We'd best not split up our units too far apart, in case unexpected hostiles flank our assault unit with our light unit out of position."

"A shame these interlopers had to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. They probably are just mercenaries or treasure hunters chasing ghosts. But technology in the wrong hands can be worse for civilization's development than no tech at all, and the Blessed Blake's vision overrides a mere few individual lives."

"Also, now that I think about it, these treasure hunters would need both a JumpShip and a source of intel. I presume our brothers in ROM are already tracking down the rest of these loose ends. But do keep in mind that this operation may be larger and more capable than it appears, especially if they did indeed manage to find a cache even ComStar did not know about."

[Phantom Hoover]

I have literally no idea what my mech is good at btw, so if someone could give me a precis of that it would be just great

[The E]

Your Mech is a Highlander. Its main armament are its Gauss Rifle and an LRM-20 missile launcher, both of which are very long range weapons (The LRM flies out to 21 hexes, the GR can hit things up to 22 hexes away). Its secondary armament consists of an SRM-6 and 2 Medium Lasers, both effective at up to 9 hexes. This gives the Highlander firepower squarely in the middle of the Assault Mech range, and you will generally want to keep enemies at a distance of 10 or less hexes, which is the range where most of your weapons will be able to land hits.
The main distinguishing feature of your mech, however, are its jump jets. This turns the Highlander from a sort of average all-rounder into a heavy terrain specialist (this includes cities), able to reposition much faster than other assault mechs can in similar situations.

[Scotty]

We are playing with unit quirks, as well, so your Highlander in particular has Reinforced Legs - it takes less damage when performing a death from above.  There's even a particular name for successfully executing one while otinging a Highlander: the Highlander Burial.

[Phantom Hoover]

jesus christ

[Grizzly]

jesus christ

Blake's blood!

[Scotty]

It also looks pretty damn good, in addition to being one of the best and most flexible Assault 'Mechs of all time.

Orbital recon has given us a good view of the primary digsite.



That's it in the eastern quarter.  We weren't able to nail down who and what was defending, but we did get solid readings on Magscan.  We don't anticipate any more than a single Medium 'Mech Lance, and a Medium armor platoon.  Infantry presence is unknown, but this terrain favors our 'Mechs to such an extent that it's just plain unfair if we have to go up against infantry.  They don't stand a chance.

Our line of advance will be from the southwest corner of this image.  Sporadic woods should be enough to mask our approach until we're within roughly 1 click.  Our options for approach are highlighted on the map below.  This is as close a view as we could get at altitude.



The majority of the digsite is located underground.  We were unable to locate the entrance conclusively, but analysis of track and tire patterns indicates that with a probability upwards of 90% it's the area circled in red on the blow map.  Be careful of the area indicated by the red line - if I was planning an abush, that'd be where I'd put it.



All available forces are deploying immediately.  No need to make this drag on longer than it needs to.  Death Erases Memory II-alpha will provide primary firepower.  Application of Leverage II-alpha will accompany to hunt down stragglers and provide on-site recon support.

Onsite tactical decision making is entirely in your court, Demi-Precentor.  Just remember: no one leaves.  We'll deploy the salvage teams after you radio the all-clear.  Mission duration, from landing to lift off, shouldn't exceed ten hours, unless we find something significant that didn't show up during our orbital flyby.

[OOC: if you guys can read hex numbers, tell me which one you want to deploy in.  If you can't, describe it and I'll put you there.]

[AdmiralRalwood]

Archmage frowned at the map. "I'm... wary of approaching from the most obvious direction. Perhaps we should take the time to circle around, and approach from the South-East? Or even split up, and try to take them from multiple directions simultaneously..."

He straightened with a shrug, addressing Shidachi. "Ultimately your call, Boss. What's the play?"

[Scotty]

(Because I didn't remember to post it in here anywhere, the two Level IIs (six units each) are as follows:

Application of Leverage II-alpha:
Demi-Precentor Epsilon XVII Charlie "Shidachi" Crawford - Shadow Hawk SHD-2H - Elite (StarSlayer)
Adept Epsilon IX Dwayne "Ferris" Metherall - Griffin GRF-2N - Veteran (IronBeer)
Adept Epsilon VII Lisa "Throttle" Turgoose - Wolverine WVR-6R - Regular (NPC)
Adept Epsilon IV Samantha "Null" Graves - Firestarter FS9-H - Veteran (JSRNerdo)
Adept Epsilon III Gilbert "Nightfall" Tufan - Firefly FFL-4A - Regular (NPC)
Acolyte Epsilon XIV Christel Murphy - Locust LCT-1V - Green (NPC)

Death Erases Memory II-alpha:
Adept Epsilon XV Erik "The E" Kalayjian - Marauder MAD-1R - Regular (The E)
Adept Epsilon VI Adina "Viper" Davenport - Centurion CN9-A - Regular (-Joshua-)
Adept Epsilon V Cecelia "Phantom Hoover" Palazim - Highlander HGN-732 - Veteran (Phantom Hoover) [alternate: WVR-6R Wolverine]
Adept Epsilon XI Kevin "Archmage" Turnpenny - Catapult CPLT-C1 - Elite (AdmiralRalwood)
Adept Epsilon II Amatullah "Stormlord" Ouma - Galahad GLH-2D - Regular (Aesaar) [alternate: ON1-K Orion]
Acolyte Epsilon III Kally "Utopian" en-Covare - Awesome AWS-8Q - Veteran (Lepanto))

[JSRNerdo]

'Null' shrugs.  "We've got a pretty good matchup here, and the woods in the south and southeast look like they'd be great for us faster 'mechs to run around and start making some lives miserable."

"I'm thinkin' we deploy the lights and faster mediums south, flank southeast and give our bigger 'mechs some room to engage," she adds with a grin.

[Aesaar]

I agree with Archmage and Null.  I suggest we deploy as far east as we can and approach from the south.  It allows us to bypass the potential ambush and gives us clear sightlines all the way to the objective.

My suggested scheme of maneuver:



Death Erases Memory makes its way to waypoint A.  From there, take up overwatch positions as Application of Leverage moves to waypoint B and then across the eastern edge of the depression.  On the way they can confirm or deny any enemy in the woodline to the east. 

If they come under fire, AoL can return fire across open ground, or, if the enemy proves too much, they can duck into the treeline to the east (hopefully drawing the enemy out into the depression in pursuit).  DEM can either support from their overwatch positions or move north if necessary.

Once AoL secures the objective, DEM moves north and joins them, freeing up AoL to conduct a sweep of the area to ensure no one is left.  After that, we establish a perimeter and await further orders.


OOC: Scotty doesn't like MWO redesigns but they're better than TRO art or the models.

And The_E has the best looking mech of the bunch.

[AdmiralRalwood]

"For what it's worth, I agree with Stormlord's suggestion... and I'm very impressed with how quickly you whipped up those slides."

[The E]

"It's a good plan. I recommend we follow it. I am going to head for grid reference 1944, heading northeast to A. From there, I'll head towards the western overwatch position."

[AdmiralRalwood]

"In that case, I think I'll deploy in the direction of 2144 and set up shop on, say, the southern edge of the depression; around about the potential overwatch site Stormlord marked near waypoint B. Should give me good LRM coverage while keeping my lasers close enough to play, and help keep an eye on those eastern woods if need be (or reposition to use them as cover)."

[Grizzly]

"I'll go with The E on this one, in case anything bad shows up on our western flank"

[Phantom Hoover]

Cecelia "Phantom Hoover" Palazim makes no objection to Stormlord's tactical analysis but would like to formally question whether a 103 kilobyte PNG was truly the most efficient way to communicate it, or whether it represents an unacceptable squandering of the holy bandwidth entrusted to us by Blake.

She would also like to commend Adept Ouma's choice of callsign, in pious imitation of the many blessed icons of Original Characters recovered from the archives of the golden age of networking.

[StarSlayer]

I approve the proposed deployment plan.

[Lepanto]

Utopian nods. "I concur with the plan so far. I will deploy with the rest of Death Erases Memory, taking central overwatch. As my PPCs have a minimum range, I shall keep distance from suspected hostiles at all times."