Personal Log, Major Caden "Easy" Webb
Right, so we got our first combat mission as the reformed Hard Light Brigade. Our admin pulled up a little contract that, on the surface, seemed easy enough. Little "pirate band" making trouble down in St Ives. So we load up our Mechs and equipment, hijackcharter the nearest JumpShip, and off we go.
Approaching the planet, we're able to determine where our targets are bay the simple expedient of triangulating their comms chatter. These idiots are talking so much over wideband, I want to eliminate them just to make them SHUT THE **** UP. Seriously, how did these guys even manage to climb into their 'Mechs, it seems like we're hitting a training establishment here.
Anyway, so we know where they're hiding. Problem is, they're hiding smack in the middle of a goddamn city. So we have a little brainstorm. We could either land somewhere on the planet and wait for them to come out to meet us (Not bloody likely, given that Intel says they're a light to medium outfit), or we could pay them a visit. And by pay them a visit I mean landing our DropShip right outside the city limits, marching the HQ lance right up the main alley, and shoot them until they stop glowing.
For extra fun, we'll go in at night.
Personal Log, addendum.
Well, so that happened.
Nothing much to say about the walk up to the target; we went down a road while they were scrambling to counter us. Turns out, there isn't much that you can do when you have two AWS, a Hetzer and a Manticore coming up main street. I suppose that if they'd managed to concentrate their fire some more, or if they had been a little more lucky, it might have gone differently, but as it stands, I'm kinda glad that it was amateur hour.
Because this was one ****ed up sortie, let me tell you. Going in at night meant that we had to be extra careful walking down the streets (You'd think walking up a straight road would be trivial. It isn't. Stop asking.), and while we managed to approach to firing range more or less unscathed, post-battle examination showed that some of our opponents were apparently convinced that 'Mechs move by rubbing their faces vigorously on the tarmac.
As far as our combat performance went, I'm really impressed by the crews we have. Sgt Carver proved to be a veritable surgeon in the Hetzer, with a really impressive hit rate for weapons as notoriously unstable as AC/20s. The star of todays' performance, however, has got to be Master Seargeant Bullman. I thought I was pretty good at handling an AWS' weapons, but that guy is a ****ing artist with those PPCs. 13 kills this night alone, a well-earned promotion if there ever was one.
For myself, well, not too shabby if I dare say so myself. Would have been even better if a freak hit hadn't knocked me out cold for much of the action. Doc says there's no permanent damage, which I guess is good.
****ing shame about our tanks though. Seems that they're both irreparably damaged and only good for salvage. Gonna have to see about arranging some extra compensation for those crews, they really showed what disciplined crews can do.
Speaking of salvage, out of all this wreckage we managed to pull a slightly damaged Crab, which'll go a long way toward replacing those vehicles.
Well then. Let's see what our admin staff has managed to get for our next contract.