Timeline
25 June, 3063
Contract Accepted
Advance pay to unit: $16,997,677
Advance pay to lances: $3,399,533
Unit spends $ on travel expenses: $1,400,000
1 September, 3063
Make planetfall on Halesowen
Contract begins
7 September, 3063
WOTAN Mission 1: Recon Raid 3 (Attacker) - Jazz, Foil, Lancer, Wyrm
Result: Victory - +2 to contract score
After-Action Report:
Rangers coming in from the South a Trinary of Bears in a blitz position. Lancer and tanks coming in from the East, Wyrm in the West, with Foil and Jazz in the center. While setting up a line, a satellite in orbit was transmitting a signal that our employer asked to decipher. The signal swayed to the West, but was in line of enemy ECM, making it harder to to get anywhere. While trying to find a position to drop off friendly battle armor, friendly Bandits were disabled, one from a shot in the rear, and one from skidding into trees. Lancer facing off against 4 units alone. Wyrm in the West had poor positioning and took heavy damage. After enemy Ebon tried to assist in killing local liaison, turning its back on Lancer, ended up getting cored, exploding, and taking out friendly Gray Death unit.
Our ASF began to target the enemy ECM and helped ensure they got routed with fair damage, while 2 birds were used intercept enemy fire, which was primarily used against our liaison. Foil was able to break through after all ECM was cleared from the scanning area with Owens. Wyrm ended up trying to push and ended up taking massive damage on COs Barghest. Fury came in to help with scanning, but did not realize the zone ended up on other end of the combat zone near Lancer, who was struggling to find a position. Lancers Huntsman got surrounded and took heavy damage. Lancer made a bad call and forgot which of his units had equipment to make it easier to scan and used wrong unit. During this time Jazz brought his LAM in to help scan as well and had pilot killed. Wyrm and Foil began to pull back from focused fire with Jazz and Fury cleaning up units on that end.
In a mad dash, Lancer, Fury, and Jazz threw multiple mechs into the scanning zone to try and complete this objective as fast as possible. Lancers Demolisher was destroyed in the process trying to keep up as a target for units on that side. After grabbing the objective, the lances decided that leaving at least 5 mechs on the field for our enemy to take, we ended up routing the starting forces as fast as possible. Slowly chipping away at their forces until all 15 mechs were downed. It was a hard fought victory to get the field. All Ranger assets recovered, along with a healthy mix of equipment from the enemy.
24 September, 3063
Solo Mission: Paladin - Officer Duel
Result: Victory - no effect on contract score
After-Action Report: Seraphina rushed to the town in order to catch the mini madcat variant of the sunbear in the city rather than let the LRM20 have free reign over the entire board parked in a heavy woods hex. by turn 3 the two mechs were in knife fighting range. Thankfully, Seraphina maintained a very strong control of the tactical edge and didn't lose initiative a single time. An early lucky piercing strike put a single engine hit in the CT, causing the machine to build heat every turn in order to do meaningful damage and have less movement, By using this in concert with the jump jets on her Nova she was able to back the Sun Bear into a corner in order to defend itself from rear guard attacks, but that didn't stop her from destroying the leg and hamstringing the machine, which then in turn led the enemy pilot to alphastrike at near point blank range; which blew up the internal LRM20 salvoes in the RT from heat, knocked out the pilot, then splattered the poor fool onto the pavement when the autoeject went off.
Paladin recovers a Sun Bear with right torso and right leg destroyed, minimal damage on our side, lost a C ERML via left arm crit, and the 3 ton C TComp in the RT, but I have spare. No pilot damage on my side so she can still lead M2 in the coming days.
24 September, 3063
Solo Mission: Pilum - Probe (Defender)
Result: Defeat - no effect on contract score
After-Action Report: I fucked up. Hard.
I didn't think those clanner bastards would call my bluff. I heard the tornado sirens start and decided that that might
be everything I needed to stack the deck in my favor. I figured with their autocannons and missiles offline that we'd be able
to close in and hit them hard while they didn't have all their toys. I didn't know how many had training to handle this.
Who the hell practices to fight in these conditions?
Regardless I grabbed the thunderbolt, had Van Zandt and Fukuda mount up, and told Huggen to take the Firestarter Omni. She
was always the choice for harsh weather before we went merc. I figured she would be a better choice than O'Shaunnesy.
I got overly excited and cocky. It felt like the old days being pirates. Rushing out to slam into a force of lighter mechs
that can't take a solid hit. I didn't realize exactly how tough clan tech is to crack. I couldn't hit with my PPC in the wind
and ended up with most of a god damn lance opening up into me. I shouldn't have taken out the rookies. Huggens knew how to keep
up. Pick targets. But their jump jets weren't an option and it slowed her down. The rookies couldn't keep up. Van Zandt is too
used to getting to hang back with big guns and Fukuda wasn't able to keep pace in her battlemaster and was never a good shot
to begin with.
Left the liaison to guard the base while we took the field.
Instead of hitting them and melting cleanly through their mechs that damn dragonfly was able to run circles around me while
the Ryoken and Puma cracked open the armor. The gale force winds ended up being too much. I managed to finally tag the Dragonfly
just in time for them to blow off the arm I was using to holding myself up. They followed it up by rushing behind me and
punching through the rear armor. The Gyro blew and I powered down.
That choice is what killed Huggen. The seized the initiative and putting us on the back foot. I'd managed to snap everyone into
shape briefly, but when the gyro hit and I shut down it was up to Huggen to run the show. She was never one for command.
I felt like a damn coward. My head was still spinning from the last fall. I was just powered down stuck in the dirt as I heard the
shouting over the radio. The shriek of tearing metal. Her scream. I'm not sure if she died immediately. I hope she did.
After that hunchback punched her cockpit open Van Zandt said she saw the clanner throw something into the storm.
God I hope she died immediately. I'm sorry Romania. I'm so so sorry. This was all my fucking fault. You didn't deserve that.
From there I saw Fukuda getting swarmed down by the Clanners. Blew her gyro and the battlemaster toppled. I was able to see
her rush to cover from where I was. Van Zandt signaled that they were pulling back. Only one that was thinking clearly by
that point.
The Liaison managed to show us up. Killed a Dasher that went for him. Only one of us that managed to bring something
down. Didn't matter. The clans had already nabbed the data by that point. I had a prime view of it running back to their base.
Once Van Zandt called a retreat the Liaison bugged out as well. Damn near total failure. And I was stuck hunkering in what
was left of my Thunderbolt until the tornado passed.
I'm not sure what to do now. This is going to set us back months. O'Shaunnesy's now the only one left from my old crew.
I can't replace Huggens. I'm sorry. I'll miss you.
After action report concludes. I need a god damn drink. If anyone needs me. No you fucking don't.
-LT.SGt Amalia "Broadside" Novak.
25 September, 3063
WOTAN Mission 2: Breakthrough (Defender) - Ereschuld, Blitzkrieg, Zeta, Marigold, Paladin
Result: Victory - +2 to contract score
After-Action Report:
Clan Ghost Bear set the greenlight on their charge just as the local star began cresting the hills outside of town, no doubt hoping that the glare would mess with our pilots targeting enough to allow them to slip through. Norbotten lance was a bit late to respond to the proximity alarm and found themselves only activating mechs and marching down the board after an extra few minutes. Nevertheless the rest of the defense was able to align themselves in wide formation the catch the approaching force in the jagged teeth of our blockade. Blitzkrieg took the advance position in order to make best use of their Urban style movement profile, Ehreschuld took to the east alongside Zeta in order to maintain overwatch along the boulevard and threatening the open sightlines. Meanwhile on the western front Paladin and Marigold took to the city streets in preparation to delay the heavier force alongside the reinforcements as best they could. Early in the engagement Ranger Minefields rained down along the important avenues Ghost Bear forces were funneling down, causing no direct damage but their hindrance of the enemies evasive movements did result in the utter annihilation of at least one Dasher.
Ehreschulds strong positioning allowed for them to quickly dispatch of the Hankyu that almost managed to slip by with such efficiency that it seemed to scare the Clanners into small regrouping before making a more concentrated push after the center line stars managed to maneuver around the minefields. This was of course "aided" by the grand wrecking ball that once was a Fire Moth, who demolished an entire building after skidding right through the large bay windows and somehow managed crumble the entire building to open up the firing lines in the eastern front greatly by bringing the entire building down, pushing back a couple ranger units worried about the new avenues for concentrated clanner fire. Ehreschulds powerful positioning allowed them to trade more fire downrange than they got back at us, and by the time Norbotten's Spartan had arrived to reinforce the position was almost entirely held cleanly.
Paladin, Blitzkrieg and Marigold on the other hand were barely handling the situation on the west. two mechs bled through our blockade, both mercifully handled by the rear guard Norbotten Lance alongside Marigold's Longbow who of course retreated to the backline early in the fight. The engagement itself went fine enough, with the exception a large contingent of unexpected battle armor being dropped right on our battle line, making quick work of the hip joints on our liason and tumbling the nightstar, leading to its eventual crippling. Thankfully My Marauder was present to recover the pilot and the mech can be repaired, but we were still unable to keep it in a clean state.
Marigold and Blitzkrieg focused on the heavier elements like the executioners that were attempting to muscle their way through the center and then took the time to finish off the loki that was attempting to occupy the courtyard of the skyscraper so that ranger forces may once again reclaim the firing lines available to the city streets as well as cleaning up what remained of the battle armor groups that were NOT decimated by the high concentration of explosive damage affecting the area. Paladin on the other hand took to chasing and blocking the alleyway to the west as best we could from the deluge of medium mechs, demolishing most of them.
Notably Blitzkriegs poor highlander took two consecutive engine explosions directly to the face when the enemy Summoner went critical, causing the Vixen only 30 meters away to also explode as a follow-up, forcing a shutdown as its right torso was completely destroyed by the massive explosion.
My Marauder had a similarly cartoonish amount of soot after a rather aggressive move wherein my subordinate barreled through a building as it was collapsing in order to hunt down an enemy Ryoken, which ended up destroying one of our arms, to sweep the legs out from under it. As a result from the fall the ammo bins blew and the reactor once more went critical, destroying the other arm from my machine.
In fact its no exaggeration to say that Explosions rocked the battlefield today, it is clear to this writer that at Ghost Bear maintenance SOP is lacking as no fewer than 6 mechs on the field today had their reactors go critical from rather normal sustained damage levels, causing great amounts of stress. Small parts of me believe there is either a labor dispute ongoing behind the scenes on this planet, or in fact Ghost Bear ROE doctrine is more in accepting of suicide bombing as a tactic than we first thought.
21 November, 3063
WOTAN Mission 3: Ambush (Defender) - Ereschuld, Fury, Pilum, Wyrm, Jazz
Result: Victory - +2 to contract score
After-Action Report:
Captain Anders Wolfram-Kelswa, Commanding
The Rangers approached from the west in good order, a company comprised of Fury, Wyrm and Pilum lances in the center, Ehreschuld and Jazz on the wings. Opposing the Burkes were deployed in the center south of the OZ, the heavier weight of opposing forces north of center with the four Ares, Thunderbolt, Warhammer and Guillotine IIC. Between them the Shadow Hawk and Griffin. The fleeing civilians spread out along the eastern front, using cover as much as possible. While the OpFor is more than sufficient to deal with the civilians, the choice is an odd one for the Ghost Bears. They know that we’re close enough to respond and our usual response more than sufficient for this piddling force. Someone over the tac channel mentions no honor for the Clans in dealing with the civilians but the Clans are odder than the Dracs when it comes to matters of honor so who knows.
The opening salvo sees one of the Ares destroyed by Fury. We advance and Ehreschuld destroys another of the fleeing Ares and both Burkes are destroyed. It’s at this point that the ambush arrives as we’ve pushed well into the OZ. Clan honor. Bah. They’re using civilians as bait for a trap. What does that say about their “honor” to do such things. Two dropships we identify as Lions dropped off roughly 2 companies worth of forces. Correction, 1 assault, 1 heavy, 1 medium and 1 light STAR, plus a star of elementals because the Clanners can’t bother with conventional deployments. Medium and Heavy forces plus elementals land to hem us in on the north including dropping on top of Ehreschuld and ranging further east, while the assault forces land on Jazz lance, the light forces further east to box us in.
We begin a fighting retreat for the most part collapsing back to the center west while Fury pushes forward seeking to finish off some damaged units. Ehreschuld is fast enough to just outpace the incoming forces, with Captain Wolfram-Kelswa advanced of his lance retrograding more center to disengage. As the forces land Pilum kills an Ares tank and the Brunnel dump truck with the concealed AC/20s get landed on by a Ghost Bear Griffin. Ereschuld Actual kills the Thunderbolt, Wyrm’s Warhammer crits out the Kodiac’s UAC/20 much to everyone’s relief, especially Jazz’s Berserker which takes 4 AC/20 shells in a matter of seconds, but remains standing.
Pilum’s Stealth is the first successful withdrawl from the battle as we continue to fall back. Fury’s Penetrator jumps into the lake and kills the Guillotine IIC. Jazz and Wyrm continue to hold the southern flank, Jazz’s Mad Cat finishing off the Kodiak and Wyrm’s Warhammer kicking off the head of the Ghost Bear’s Cauldron-Born. Ehreschuld continued to be hard pressed in the northwest corner of the OZ, still managing a fighting withdrawl allowing the liaison officer to retreat as Pilum and elements of Fury continued to withdraw and civilian forces left largely alone after the ambush continued to cross the territory. Wyrm and Jazz maintaining their hold against the OpFor, managing to kick the leg off a Vulture that would eventually lead to its destruction as failing to rise cored out the gyro and engine. While Fury’s Penetrator had been successful in its strike, a freak accident had the mech topple while trying to stand from being submerged, breaching the head and killing the pilot. In the southwest the Fire Moth was destroyed and the civilian Wolverine finished off the Ghost Bear Warhammer.
Following the liaison, Ehreschuld’s MAD-5D whose CT had been stripped managed to exit though not without a cost. Their Cauldron-Born providing cover fire took withering fire, including multiple head hits and a gauss rifle explosion knocking it over, nearly killing the pilot and rendering her unconscious. Ehreschuld Actual moved to drag the Cauldron-Born off the field, continuing to exchange fire with the pursuing mechs. Ehreschuld’s second Marauder gets focus fired while providing cover for others to exit, with significant damage including loss of weapons, hip destruction and engine damage. In return it destroyed the Ryoken. Jazz’s Berserker kicks the head off the Bear’s Griffin. Shortly thereafter Ehreschuld’s remaining Marauder withdraws, Fury’s Marauder withdraws, Pilum’s MAD Mk 2 withdraws clearing the northwest corner. The civilian Orion and one of the Jiffy’s make it off.
Meanwhile the Rommel with AC/20s charges a downed Shadowhawk as the Burke drives off. The civilian Wolverine takes significant engine damage but remains in the fight. Jazz’ Berserker goes down to engine damage as the other civilian Burke is destroyed. The Berserker Pilot is picked up by Jazz’ Mad Cat. Both Jazz and Wyrm finish withdrawing along with the civilian Buffalo as the Wolverine dies to ensure its safety, leaving just Fury’s Ceasar well out of position for extraction. It nearly makes it away from the Ghost Bear forces off the eastern edge but is head capped before being able to do so. The Rangers inflicted enough damage on the Ghost Bears to prevent them from holding the field, allowing the Rangers to recover downed Ranger units as well as salvaging Ghost Bear carcasses. In the end half of the civilians were still recovered and the Ghost Bears badly bloodied in what can easily be seen as a win for the Rangers. The loss of two Fury pilots makes it feel more like a pyrrhic victory than a full one.
18 December, 3063
Solo Mission: Wyrm - Probe (Defender)
Result: Defeat - no effect on contract score
After-Action Report: Anticipating a multi-pronged attack, WYRM deployed half it's forces in both the Eastern and North-Eastern edges of the AO. The majority of Ghost Bear units deployed similarly along the Western Edge of the AO. In the opening rounds, the Barghest and Hunchback got multiple solid hits against the Ghost Bear Dragonfly, which jumped ahead of the pack. However, WYRM was shortly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of the ghost bears, with the Barghest's LRL opening up, exposing the Ammunition inside, and with WYRM's Dragonfly taking a TAC to one of it's SSRM6s.
The Falconer and Warhammer made their way across the board, attempting to find cover in the dense forests in the South-East. Unfortunately, The Warhammer took large portions of damage from the Loki and Vulture, forcing it to shut down before loosing anything it couldn't repair quickly.
By that point, the WYRM Dragonfly and Hunchback both lost their armaments in a brawl with the Ghost Bear Dragonfly, the Peregrine, and the Adder. Dragonfly lost both arms and the LT, and the Hunchback lost it's RA and took two AC/20 Crits, forcing both to stand down.
The Falconer made one last attempt to bloody the Ghost Bears, attempting to take off one of the Vulture's Gauss Rifles, but was unsuccessful due to scattered shots. The returning focused fire opened the armor of the Falconer as well as knocking it to the ground, leaving it to power down before catastrophic damage occurred.
Finally, the Barghest had spent that time attempting to corner the Ursus and disable it, but was unable. In an attempt to protect it's ammunition, it intentionally flooded the LRL in the river, disabling that leg but providing partial cover. At this point, the Falconer had succumbed, and so the Barghest also stood down, allowing the Ghost Bears to continue unhindered in exchange for the safety of his lancemates.
24 December, 3063
WOTAN Mission 4: Base Assault (Attacker) - Lancer, Marigold, Fury, Pilum, Zeta
Result: Victory - contract ends early
After-Action Report: Coming in from the West, the Rangers, led by Unit Actual, pushed onto enemy base. Lancer, along with the allied units, took the base in the north, or attempted to rather. Pilum, Norbotten, Fury, and Marigold took the assault block in the South head on. Lancer and allies failed to get to base to gain a foothold when 2 stars landed right in front of us. Lancer kept the bulk of one star at bay while the others took a firing position onto those in the South. Fury holding back with his Marauder, was able to rout 2 assaults with head shots that put the South in our favor. Lancer on the other hand did as much to keep the stars that landed on his lap in the same position.
Somehow, Semens ended up dueling Bears CO in a Ryoken, which kept one unit occupied the entirety of the fight. Pilum and Norbotten were able to rout several more mechs in the center before they even reached the center base. Marigold holding the hill and raining fire down from distance while the remainder of his lance slowly finish off the heavies in the South. Lancer and allies start seeing their efforts slowly dwindle away with every shot. during this time, Ranger artillery gathered no meaningful fruits, but did enough to help kill off a Gladiator and armor. The Rangers in the South kept those in the North from being reinforced, while Norbotten helping to reduce the load on the allies.
Lancer XO in the Masakari could not keep up with the Ryoken and began taking heavy damage, while also dealing just as much damage, despite doing less overall. Fury and Pilot helped seal the win after killing both infantry vehicles in time. Duel ended without fail and Rangers took home the victory. Maybe time to stay away from fighting Clans for a while.
25 December, 3060
Contract Ends
Remaining funds are paid to the unit
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Topic: Operation WOTAN, September 3063 - January 3064 (Read 1293 times)