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[Darrian Wolffe]

1720 hours
53.180061,-120.333767
The lee side of a very large rock

You stand in the shadow of the mountain, huddled out of the wind behind a boulder that dwarfs even your assembled BattleMechs.  The circle of personnel is tight, using body heat to combat the Yukon winter's chill.  Sixty-seven men and women.  A pitiful number.  A mere pittance against the thousands that but three days ago stood guard on Terra, the jewel of humanity.  A PDF major with a a generous coating of dried blood across his brow steps forward and raises his hand.

"All right folks, I think I'm the ranking officer of what we've got left.  Anybody else have a higher command authority here?"  Feet shift and eyes dart around, but no one other survivor steps forward.  The major waits a few moments, and then clears his throat nervously, pitching his hoarse voice to carry over the wind to the whole group.  "All...all right then.  I'm Major Paul Stastny, 221st Military Intelligence Battalion, Bravo Company.  Do I have any other officers here?"  He takes a moment and looks around the group, eyes lighting on insignia beneath the sweat and grime of battle.  "All right, it looks like you're going to be my go-to guy, Captain Freud.  Excuse me...'Freund'; missed the 'N' in there.  I'll admit, I'm not a shooter.  So, for everyone else's benefit, Captain Freund here is going to be in charge of tactical combat operations, with the chain of command going down his list of officers.  Captain, I'd like you to go around and find out what we've got to work with.  Organize us into an ad-hoc command and get back to me with a TO&E A-sap.  We don't know how long we have before those Ameris guys track us down.  Dismissed."

Major Stastny walks away to the green-camouflaged 5-ton truck he arrived in, and you begin to take stock of everyone who has managed to make it to the impromptu rally point over the last day and a half.  As people introduce themselves, many stop and stare into space for a long moment, and everyone present knows they're hearing - as they will for years to come - the sounds of comrades and friends being snuffed out over the radio nets.  They stare, and stare, and then give themselves a little shake and continue on.  You understand.

Amazingly, all members of the 741st Echo Company made it out more-or-less intact.  The rest of the personnel are as follows:

-Major Stastny and his three-man technical team, in a 5-ton truck loaded down with communications and encryption equipment.
-A bunch of vehicle crewmen and women (21) in 30-ton mobile haulers (4) who were there for emergency duties in case vehicles got damaged during the exercises.
-Three cooks and a pair of off-road haulers, mostly full of rations.  With rationing in place, you estimate you have enough food for all of you for about a week and a half.
-Four Areospace Fighter pilots (x2 THK-63 Tomahawks and x2 EGL-6b Eagle Areospace Fighters) who have used their craft's VTOL capabilities to set down on a rocky plateau 500 meters to the west.  They are all low on fuel.
-One Kanga Jump Tank and its 4 crewmen.  
-17 MechWarriors.
-One reinforced squad of 5 MK. XXI Nighthawk Power Armor Troopers (remnants of a company)

Vehicles are as follows:
x1 M2710 Truck; "5-ton" (5/8, ICE Engine, 8/8/8 armor spread, no weapons, 5-ton cargo capacity-all comms equipment)

x4 Mobile Haulers (4/6. ICE Engine, 10/10/10 armor spread, no weapons, 1 has repair gantry (10 tons cargo), 2 have pure cargo space (30 tons), 1 has 10 tons liquid storage and 10 tons cargo space)

x1 Kanga Jump Tank (out of AC/5 and LRM-10 ammo, 3 shots of SRM-4 ammo left, 27 shots of MG ammo left, 5 points armor damage to left side)

x2 M2660 "Pit Bull" off-road trucks (4/6, ICE engine, 1/1/1 BAR 2 armor spread, no weapons, 1400 kg of cargo space; both are filled with MREs)

x2 THK-63 Tomahawk Areospace Fighters, both with 2 tons of fuel remaining.  Hull code 213 has 10 points of armor left in its aft arc and has taken damage to its avionics.  Hull code 212 is fine but for the fuel issue.

x2  EGL-6b Eagle Areospace Fighters, both with 3 tons of fuel remaining.  Both are in perfect condition.

x1 LCT-1E Locust, missing its right arm, but with no other damage.  Its pilot is SGT Bryce Salvador (4/5)

x1 LCT-1S Locust, missing EDIT: missing nothing...forgot to type text.  Ammo is full.  Its pilot is SGT Ryan Bourque (4/4)

x1 WSP-1A Wasp, missing 2 points on its right arm and center torso, and 5 points on its left leg.  10 SRM vollleys left.   Its pilot is SGT Andrea Lilja (3/3, Jumping Jack)

x1 STG-3G Stinger, missing 2 points on its right torso, 8 points on its center torso, 5 points on both arms, and 7 points, with 3 points internal, on the left leg.  Its pilot is MSGT Ruslan Fedotenko (5/2)

x1 BJ-1 Blackjack, missing 10 points on its right torso 2 points on its head, and its entire left arm.  Ammo is full.  Its pilot is SGT Maria Hossa (4/5)

x1 PXH-1 Phoenix Hawk, missing 5 points on its right torso and center torso.  It has used 20 shots of MG ammo.  Its pilot is SGT Derek Dorsett (4/4)

x1 GRF-2N Griffin, missing 10 points on its right torso, 8 on its center torso, 5 points on both legs, and its entire left arm.  It has 5 missile volleys left.  Its pilot is WO Jaroslav Halak (4/5, Administration Skill focus)

x1 SHD-2H Shadow Hawk, missing 5 points on its left torso and center torso.  It has 4 AC shots, 5 LRM shots, and 8 SRM shots left.  Its pilot is LT Scott Nichol (4/5)

x1 CRB-27 Crab, missing 10 points on its right leg, 8 points on its left leg and center torso, 10 points of of each arm, and 5 points off the head.  It is missing it's small laser.  Its pilot is SGT Matt Duchene (4/5, Hot Dog)

x1 WHM-7A Warhammer, missing 5 points on its right torso, 10 off its left leg, 33 of its center torso armor, 20 of its right arm, 3 internal off the right arm, and 2 off the head.  It is missing its right arm ERPPC and has an engine hit.  It has 6 SRM shots left.  Its pilot is SGT Natasha Kuminsky (3/4, Hot Dog, Maneuvering Ace)

x1 TDR-5S Thunderbolt, missing 5 points on its right torso and 8 off its center torso.  It has 3 LRM shots, 35 SRM shots, and 157 MG shots left.  Its pilot is SGT Brandon Yip (5/6)

x1 LNC25-01 Lancelot, missing 5 points on its right and left torsos and 8 off its center torso, and 14 off its left leg, along with 1 point of internal.  It has a foot actuator hit.  Its pilot is WO Jen Madden (4/2, Maneuvering Ace, Air-ground Liasion skill focus)

x1 ARC-2R Archer, with no damage.  It has 12 LRM volleys remaining.   Its pilot is SGT Cam Talbot (4/5)

x1 WVR-6R Wolverine, with no leg armor left, 5 points of damage to the left leg internal and 6 points to the right leg internal, and 15 points of center torso armor damage.  It is missing its left lower leg actuator.  It has 5 AC shots and 10 SRM volleys left.  Its pilot is SGT Claude Giroux (4/5)

x1 CGR-1A1 Charger, missing 5 points on its right, left, and center torso, 10 points on its right arm, and 8 points on its left arm and left leg.  It has 1 engine hit.  Its pilot is SGT Brandon Prust (3/3, Melee Specialist, Maneuvering Ace, Impatient Trait)

x1 SPT-N1 Spartan, missing 15 points on its right torso and center torso, 20 points on its left torso, 20 points on its left arm, 18 points on its right leg, and 8 points on its head.  It has 3 shots of AMS ammo and 12 shots of SRM ammo left.  Its pilot is SGT Rich Peverley (4/5)

x1 DVS-2 Devastator, missing 31 points of left arm armor, 16 points of left leg, 28 points of left torso, 40 points of center torso, 34 points of right arm, 21 points of right leg, 3 points of right torso rear, and 5 points of right arm internal.  It has 21 rounds of Gauss ammo left.  It has 1 engine hit and is missing its right torso PPC.  Its pilot is LT Natalie Knightly (3/3, Speed Demon).

...............................................................................................


GM: You have 500 Warchest points.  1 Warchest point repairs 1 armor box.  2 WCP repair 1 internal box.  A number of WCP equal to a weapon's mass repair a weapon.  5 points repair any internal system hit except a gyro or engine hit.  25 points repair an engine hit, and 20 points repair a gyro hit.  2 points reload a ton (or portion thereof) of ammo.  Warchest points will not refresh unless you take actions in-game to refresh them (capturing ammo/parts stockpiles).   There are no track costs for this portion of the campaign.

Built a TO&E, ensuring that each player controls at least one other battlefield unit (ie, Mechs or Tanks), and no-one controls more than 4 units.  ASFs and Trucks/haulers are under GM control at this time.  You may abandon units if you wish.  You may not reassign Warriors unless you have a Mech with a KIA (as a result of enemy action) pilot.  Be aware that you will move at the pace of your slowest unit.  The slower you move, the easier it will be for anyone hunting you to track/catch you.  You have till Wednesday midnight (Thursday 1am-ish) to have the TO&E done.  MAJ Stastny will have come up with some operations orders for you to choose between by then.  Talk amoungst yourselves (start a new thread for OOG "stat" talk, please), and good luck.

[phlop]

Schepps looks about, and determines that there must have been a hockey camp somewhere close by and they recruited the team into the mech pilot training program. This a fine bunch of doo we have stepped into.

[Knightofargh]

Sgt. Marshall is seen standing in the lee of the boulder looking abstracted.  He is constantly rubbing at the various stains and gore on his uniform.  His rifle is constantly on a sling or within arms length and he has a somewhat haunted look in his eyes.  Shakily painted by the cockpit of his 'Mech are 3 SLDF insignias in addition to nine Taurian kill markers, a pair of Lyran kill markers and a solitary Rim Worlds marker.  The SLDF Olive Drab is streaked with grime and several patches of red and blue paint.

After a hour he starts digging through the supply cache looking for cleaning supplies for his "liberated" Champion.  He spends the better part of an hour scrubbing filth, gore, grime and most annoyingly spilled coffee and granola crumbs from the cooling couch.  He casually digs what appears to be a rifle slug out of the headrest and tosses it away into the blizzard.  He then sits down and runs a full calibration on the neurohelmet interface.

After completing the calibration routine, Marshall is observed scraping the remnants of red and blue paint from the outside of his current 'Mech.

(OOC: I'm assuming I was able to extract with a decent rifle (M-4 w/ M203 equivalent) but no demolition gear.)

[agustaaquila]

Captain, sir.  While the Brass was discussing who was in charge, I took my datapad and made a quick list of what assets we have.  If I have any new gray hairs, its because I have to figure out where to get all the bullets that we will be needing.  Anyway, that's not your concern right now, its mine.

Anyway, we have enough forces to form 2 companies here, with one a little overstrength.  Here is a list of everyone, and we should split the 741st between the TDF.  I think we put the major in charge of the supply company, and we discuss who goes where.  Here is a datapad I happened to have lying around.  Lets discuss who goes where, who reports to whom, and most importantly who peels the potatoes for dinner."

List is attached to the OOC thread.  Also, if you have damage you would like repaired, or ammo reloaded, please post in OOC also. 

[Black Omega]

Hey, Captain.  Are there any techs in this bunch?  If so, we'll start repairing mechs as fast as we can.  Please let me know what priority you want placed on each unit.  And what are we going to do about that big turtle?  Also, I would like to try to contact the weapons lab if I can.  They might be able to help.

[Riegien]

Hawker stares up at the hulking assault 'mech, cinching his parka up around his throat.  "Best bet is probably to pull the shielding out of engine and pull the PPC to repalce the one we're missing on the others.  And grab the ammo while we're at it.  D'ya think that you can pop a limb or two off, or at worst cut one off with a laser and haul it with us to salvage it on the go, Banzai?  I don't think we should stick around here too long."

[agustaaquila]

"Well, it might be nice enough if everything were the Mercury, with its quick in an out systems.  Some friends back in the Quartermaster division told me that research on expanding this modular system is progressing.  Boy, will it make my job easier when these get developed.  Completely modular weapons, able to switch a units loadouts in a quick time.  However, the PPC won't work on the the Wammie, its the wrong type.  The wires and everything are all wrong, and it would take longer to wire it into the system than to replace it with the erPPC we have in the trucks.  Anyway, Banzai, I'm placing you in charge of stripping this mech down, seeing what you can salvage off it.  Callihan will be on repair duty.  Hawker, you need to go and monitor communications.  A duty list will be posted in a bit and then we can get these bastards back for what they did."

[Darrian Wolffe]

1830 hours
53.180061,-120.333767

Taking the TO&E on the noteputer from you, Major Stastny motions you to follow him into the comms truck.  It's a tight squeeze with all the gear, but you manage, hoping against hope that your MRE don't make that moment to make their sulphurous tendencies known.

"Ladies, Gentlemen...the way I see it, our only possible objective is to get the hell offworld.  Resistance to whatever the hell's happening is essentially finished at the organized level; there's been almost no communication on the PDF nets for the last six hours, and that means there's nobody left to communicate.  To get offworld, we're going to have to do several things - almost all of them impossible and all of them have to go right for us to have a hope in hell of getting out of here."  He pauses and takes a sip of what must be ice-cold coffee, makes a face, and continues.

"First, we're going to have to pick a target starport.  We're getting nowhere without a DropShip.  There's only two good choices, discounting the Star League Court 'port near Vancouver.  First is Salt Lake City.  Best route is going to be south along the Rockies.  It'll be tough going, but we'll be under more cover the whole way due to the rougher terrain and weather patterns.  It'll also be tougher on the equipment; we're likely to lose stuff to breakdowns (especially the fighters what with the mountain winds), and there's less in the way of supply depots once we cross south of Missoula.  Second choice is to head east toward Winnipeg; there's a major air station there with a whole lot of jets and a small starport.  It's a lot more open terrain than heading south, which makes us easier to find, but it'll be a faster travel time too.  There's a few more supply depots as well, and a better chance of continuing on past our target to find OTHER starports if necessary...but we'll have to get across a LOT of open terrain first.  Both targets are more or less equidistant; I calculate a travel time to either of about two weeks, allowing for operations and some salvaging.  So...first choice is the target.

"Next major choice is how we get there.  Both directions have garrison stations and supply depots within 300km of here.  Regardless of which target we ultimately select, we'll need to hit both the depot and the garrison stations to make it through; the garrison for obvious reasons, and the supply depot so we have something to fight with and fuel to get to our chosen port.  So, second choice is what to hit along which route first.

(OOC Note: all of your PCs are aware that these garrison stations will be roughly 2 companies out of a battalion in strength in Mech forces and may have up to a squadron of ASFs, and a company or so of infantry.  Supply Depots will generally have a company of Mechs (the 3rd company from the battalion, above), up to a squadron of ASFs, 2-3 companies of infantry, and a company or so of armor.)

"Captain, you're the tactician.  Which route do you prefer, and what target order makes the most sense to you?  You're the shooter here, so call the shot."

[Black Omega]

Expanding the Mercury program is one of the projects I was working on Sargent.  I wonder now if I will ever get back to it.  Yeah, I'll see what I can get.  Hawker is right, cutting off the arms will save time for now.  But we have to be careful around the shoulder so we don't damage the ammo feed linkage.  After one arm, I'll try to get the gauss rifle ammo, the 4 Med Lasers, the 14 double HS, the LT PPC, and the other arm if I have time in this rush job.

[phlop]

MSgt Schwepps goes looking for the Quartermaster. Sgt. Xin, I am requesting that the T-bolt be loaded with 2 tons of LRM's and the Lancelot have the left leg armor repaired. Also, could we get the Spartan into the motor pool and have armor put on the left leg (10), head (5), left torso (10), right torso (10), and center torso (10). I know it is a lot to ask, but if I don't ask I am not looking out for my people. We need to get cracking. The Amaris scum isn't going to wait on us for long. Let's get those techs, working. Schwepps turns about and heads out to his lance to see if there is anything else he can get taken care of.

[Knightofargh]

Marshall looks at Freund as they exit the briefing. "Captain, my insticts say go for the mountains. We're fighting a guerilla type action and those are way easier from mountainous terrain. If nothing else it makes it easier to tempt ASF assets into fatal terrain."

(OOC: aiding the Captain's tactics rolls if needed)

"Xin!  What's the call on fixing my assigned lance?  How short are we on resources?"

[Riegien]

“Sir, I say we go east.  We’ll be a lot more exposed, and have to worry about their air assets, but I’d rather not have to abandon a truck full of men cause they threw an axel.  That and if the Rim Worlds goons figure out where we are headed, the additional options to the east mean we won’t get bottlenecked in the mountains.” 

He stops at Xin with Marshall.  “Do we have the resources to get the wolverine’s leg actuators patched up and get some armor on it and the warhammer?”

 ((OOC: Would like to try to get the actuator fixed, 8-10ish armor on the legs and ct on the WVR, and however much you wish to allocate to the WHM.  Both mechs I assume have live rounds, so should be good to go on ammo.  Do we need to repair structure before we repair armor?  Your call on if these are viable/possible repairs mike.))

[phlop]

Schwepps has got his mechs over to the repair area. Looking about, he is wondering where the Captain is. Just like an officer. The shit hits the fan and he can't be found. His case of jock itch has probably acted up and he has some comm tech putting myomer grease on his crotch. Schwepps wanders off to see if he can locate the Captain. The techs make way as he leaves muttering to himself.

[agustaaquila]

SRG Franklin leaves the briefing as soon as it the major is done talking.  Anyone looking for him goes naturally to the repair area.  There, two corporals stop them from entering.  Their tags read CPL Orr and PVT Chara.  CPR Orr speaks up, "I'm sorry sir, but at this time this area is a restricted area.  The Quartermaster has designated this as a repair area, and as such it takes this being your assigned duty area, or written authorization from a lt. colonel or quartermaster to enter.  The good Sarge is busy right now, and is finishing up giving repair orders.  He has given the ok for Callihan and Banzai to enter, but no one else.  He should be out shortly if you need to speak to him.  Sorry for the bother."

[agustaaquila]

SRG Franklin comes out of the repair area, posts some scribblings, nods to the people standing guard, and walks to the command area.  "I am going to be up for a little bit, than hitting the sack.  I think we go east, as the ASF we are working to save will be useless in the mountains.  Of a much more pressing matter, we need to hit the supply depot.  We don't have enough supplies to do anything, and if I had to repair with what I had left I would be spreading duct tape over holes to make it look like armor.  The supply depot has to be target #1.  Any questions of me, or if not know I'm going to be up early to personally oversee the final stages of repair."