Letters Home (campaign AAR)
- Thread starter merrick
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Hey there Merrick. I know your pain dude. My own play through of 3062 took such a turn for the worse. At one point I had three mechs down due to lack of fusion engines! It took a LOT of dancing around with what limited forces I could field on the 'lower end' planets to get enough funds and parts to repair my mechs. All while piling up enough parts to add to my forces overall. It was one hell of a balancing act, that saw me selling off mech parts and weapons I would really have rather kept, just to afford the parts I needed to get what I had in my Mech Bay up and operational. Of the three Mechs in need, I eventually was only able to get the Panther back into action. The Locust and Commando ended up scrapped for cash and replaced by a Panther and Vindicator I eventually found enough parts to assemble in their places. Once I had those, plus the two Mediums at my disposal, things went far smoother, but it was a rough ride there for a long time.
3025-04-19 Linhuaiguan
Tatty,
This has been a hard one to write. I'm sorry. There's no easy way to say it. Mo's dead and it's all my fault.
Medusa, I should say, but I called him Mo out of the cockpit. I can't remember if you ever met him - I think maybe you'd moved away before he joined up - but he was Guard, the last of the old gang still in the Reach, and when we met up six months after bloody Espinoza, we swore we'd go home to the Coalition or not at all. We swore the same thing on Alloway six weeks ago. We had a plan, dammit! And now, well just damn.
We arrived at Linhuaiguan with four working Mechs and four fit Mechwarriors. I was hoping for an easy contract or two to top up our cash, settle our nerves and help break in the new guy. Instead the only contracts that looked half-safe were against the Canopians and I didn't think it was smart to go pissing them off.
I should have packed up and headed out, but there was a Magistracy contract going that looked good, and looked possible, even with a weakened lance. It was a base with turrets, but we know how to handle turrets and we were set up for a base attack with all the LRMs on the Centurion. We went in with GV in the Centurion, Dekker in his Spider and Medusa back in Skitters.
The turrets weren't a problem. Dekker tagged them and GV and I took them out from range. Then the patrol force turned up - and they'd brought a bloody Dragon. Cue Dekker and Medusa jumping and sprinting about trying to mess them up and distract them while GV and I took them down from range. The ducking and dodging worked great - until the last two Mechs decided to stop shooting and start just punching. Dekker took a kick from the Dragon that caved in the side of his Mech. Skitters got punched by a Vindie and was limping. I told them to back off and went in myself. We took the Vindie out but we just didn't have enough to hurt the Dragon. We were shooting lumps off it, armour flying everywhere, but we weren't making holes. I jumped in behind it and gave it everything I had - it ate the whole lot, turned round and ripped old Rocky's arm clean off. I was backed up against a building, overheated, in a broken Mech. Medusa and Dekker came in to bail me out. They came running up behind it, firing everything they had straight into the holes in its back and the bloody thing just would not die. It turned round again, stomped up to Skitters and punched the centre torso clean out. Mo never had a chance.
Maybe I didn't mention him much, but that's because he didn't play the fool or start fights. Of all the MechWarriors, he was the one I didn't have to keep an eye on. Dekker's a spacehead, Behemoth's a thug and Glitch is, well, Glitch. They're all shook up, though. He was the sorrt of guuy who could get along with everyone, even Dekker on his crazy day. And he was someone I could talk about the old times with. I made myself write to his family. I didn't know what to say. "Your son died saving my ass. He should have been a hero, but I did something stupid and he thought backing me up was more important than being alive." Dammit.
I've been sitting in my cabin since we got back. I thought - I really thought - that I'd got a real chance to do something - not just keep going out of stubbornness until the gods caught up with me but actually do something that made a difference, and now Mo's dead, the Quarrymen are wrecked and I don't know if I can go on. We have two pilots, and one working Mech. Yang's quoting me four months for the time he'll need to glue the bits back together. Maybe we'll head back Rimward and try to lick our wounds. Maybe I should have taken that desk job that Jannie offered me. I don't know.
Aleks
Rymeer - What Mod were you playing for a 3062 campaign? It sounds pretty brutal if you can lose engines.
Tatty,
This has been a hard one to write. I'm sorry. There's no easy way to say it. Mo's dead and it's all my fault.
Medusa, I should say, but I called him Mo out of the cockpit. I can't remember if you ever met him - I think maybe you'd moved away before he joined up - but he was Guard, the last of the old gang still in the Reach, and when we met up six months after bloody Espinoza, we swore we'd go home to the Coalition or not at all. We swore the same thing on Alloway six weeks ago. We had a plan, dammit! And now, well just damn.
We arrived at Linhuaiguan with four working Mechs and four fit Mechwarriors. I was hoping for an easy contract or two to top up our cash, settle our nerves and help break in the new guy. Instead the only contracts that looked half-safe were against the Canopians and I didn't think it was smart to go pissing them off.
I should have packed up and headed out, but there was a Magistracy contract going that looked good, and looked possible, even with a weakened lance. It was a base with turrets, but we know how to handle turrets and we were set up for a base attack with all the LRMs on the Centurion. We went in with GV in the Centurion, Dekker in his Spider and Medusa back in Skitters.
The turrets weren't a problem. Dekker tagged them and GV and I took them out from range. Then the patrol force turned up - and they'd brought a bloody Dragon. Cue Dekker and Medusa jumping and sprinting about trying to mess them up and distract them while GV and I took them down from range. The ducking and dodging worked great - until the last two Mechs decided to stop shooting and start just punching. Dekker took a kick from the Dragon that caved in the side of his Mech. Skitters got punched by a Vindie and was limping. I told them to back off and went in myself. We took the Vindie out but we just didn't have enough to hurt the Dragon. We were shooting lumps off it, armour flying everywhere, but we weren't making holes. I jumped in behind it and gave it everything I had - it ate the whole lot, turned round and ripped old Rocky's arm clean off. I was backed up against a building, overheated, in a broken Mech. Medusa and Dekker came in to bail me out. They came running up behind it, firing everything they had straight into the holes in its back and the bloody thing just would not die. It turned round again, stomped up to Skitters and punched the centre torso clean out. Mo never had a chance.
Maybe I didn't mention him much, but that's because he didn't play the fool or start fights. Of all the MechWarriors, he was the one I didn't have to keep an eye on. Dekker's a spacehead, Behemoth's a thug and Glitch is, well, Glitch. They're all shook up, though. He was the sorrt of guuy who could get along with everyone, even Dekker on his crazy day. And he was someone I could talk about the old times with. I made myself write to his family. I didn't know what to say. "Your son died saving my ass. He should have been a hero, but I did something stupid and he thought backing me up was more important than being alive." Dammit.
I've been sitting in my cabin since we got back. I thought - I really thought - that I'd got a real chance to do something - not just keep going out of stubbornness until the gods caught up with me but actually do something that made a difference, and now Mo's dead, the Quarrymen are wrecked and I don't know if I can go on. We have two pilots, and one working Mech. Yang's quoting me four months for the time he'll need to glue the bits back together. Maybe we'll head back Rimward and try to lick our wounds. Maybe I should have taken that desk job that Jannie offered me. I don't know.
Aleks
Rymeer - What Mod were you playing for a 3062 campaign? It sounds pretty brutal if you can lose engines.
You can find the Mod on the Nexus Mods page, along with the ModTek Mod, which you will need to boot the mods installed in the 3062 Mod.
Go to Nexus and get the 3062, and ModTek mods and download them,
Extract the compressed files to a holding folder.
Go to the Battletech folder on you computer.
Create a 'Mods' folder and copy all files and folders from the holding folder into the new Mods folder.
Inside the new Mods folder, find the ModTek folder and run the .exe file.
If you wish, reboot your computer to force it to know the new stuff is there.
Boot up Battletech and you should get the ModTek starting sequence, which will leave you at the screen where you choose between the story campaign, Career mode, or Skirmish mode.
Enjoy!
3025-06-23 Spencer
Hi again, Tatty
Thought I should drop you a line just to let you know I'm still alive. It's been a rough few weeks, even though not much has happened. Thanks for the message and the pics, by the way. I really appreciate it. And don't worry if you haven't got any "interesting" news. It's enough to know that there are still sane people out there with sane lives, and something in the Reach that isn't broken and still worth fighting for. The house looks like it'll be great once you get it sorted out, and I hope I get to see it sometime.
After Linhuaiguan, we jumped back to Detroit, hoping for some small-time jobs that would help us rebuild. Nothing doing, except one wise-guy Capellan who wanted us to jump back to Linhuaiguan. So we went on to Bellerophon - nada - and then on to Spencer, where things started looking up.
The transit time had given us a chance to heal up and fix Mechs - Glitch is back and so is her Vindie. Behemoth is back on her feet but Black Bart is still all over the Mechbay floor, so she was going stir crazy at not having a ride until I threatened to put her in the Spider, which shut her up for a bit.
Glitch says that if Behemoth can call her Mech Black Bart, she can call the Vindie Pinkie Pie. I don't want to think about that too hard. GV is calling the Centurion Maximus. Dekker won't give the Spider a name - says he's afraid he'll start getting fond of it.
We've done three milk-run contracts on Spencer, mostly for the League, and only the third one gave us any trouble. Not trouble like Cluff's Landing or Linhauiguan, more annoyance. We were clearing out a backcountry manufacturing facility - no real problem, just a light lance and a few turrets - but their gunners got lucky and managed to ping both Rocky and the Spider with headshots. Nothing serious - didn't break armour - but I'm stuck in Medbay for a bit under observation with Dekker as company and we're down to three fit Mechwarriors even if I do put Behemoth in the Spider.
Best
Aleks
Hi again, Tatty
Thought I should drop you a line just to let you know I'm still alive. It's been a rough few weeks, even though not much has happened. Thanks for the message and the pics, by the way. I really appreciate it. And don't worry if you haven't got any "interesting" news. It's enough to know that there are still sane people out there with sane lives, and something in the Reach that isn't broken and still worth fighting for. The house looks like it'll be great once you get it sorted out, and I hope I get to see it sometime.
After Linhuaiguan, we jumped back to Detroit, hoping for some small-time jobs that would help us rebuild. Nothing doing, except one wise-guy Capellan who wanted us to jump back to Linhuaiguan. So we went on to Bellerophon - nada - and then on to Spencer, where things started looking up.
The transit time had given us a chance to heal up and fix Mechs - Glitch is back and so is her Vindie. Behemoth is back on her feet but Black Bart is still all over the Mechbay floor, so she was going stir crazy at not having a ride until I threatened to put her in the Spider, which shut her up for a bit.
Glitch says that if Behemoth can call her Mech Black Bart, she can call the Vindie Pinkie Pie. I don't want to think about that too hard. GV is calling the Centurion Maximus. Dekker won't give the Spider a name - says he's afraid he'll start getting fond of it.
We've done three milk-run contracts on Spencer, mostly for the League, and only the third one gave us any trouble. Not trouble like Cluff's Landing or Linhauiguan, more annoyance. We were clearing out a backcountry manufacturing facility - no real problem, just a light lance and a few turrets - but their gunners got lucky and managed to ping both Rocky and the Spider with headshots. Nothing serious - didn't break armour - but I'm stuck in Medbay for a bit under observation with Dekker as company and we're down to three fit Mechwarriors even if I do put Behemoth in the Spider.
Best
Aleks
3025-07-09 Cygnus
Hi Tatty,
Hope everything's OK with you. I'm feeling a lot better but still not quite out of Medbay, which has given me way too much time to consider my life choices. We're still out on the Rimward edge of nowhere, doing small-time jobs for the moment. Typically, Spencer and Cygnus look a couple of the nicer planets in the Reach - at least if you're not homesick for the bright lights - and I get to see them by vidlink from the Leopard.
I didn't put Behemoth in the Spider in the end, though maybe I should have. We had one more contract for the League before we left Spencer - another straightforward base-buster - so I loaned her Rocky and found a local Dispossessed who could handle sensors and was prepared to take the Spider for a 20% cut of the contract.
The mission went off fine . They had a solid lance defending but they let themselves get pulled away from the turrets and GV, Glitch and Behemoth pounded them down while the local hopped about painting targets and drawing fire. Except that Behemoth managed to get Rocky pinged in the head again.
The local quit the same day - said he felt that the oppo seemed keener on killing the Spider than they were on winning the fight. So now I've got Dekker on one side hinting about danger money every second minute and Behemoth sulking on the other. Still, another couple days and the Medtechs let us out and Darius has lined up a sweet sheet of contracts here on Cygnus. I'd almost say things were looking up, if I hadn't learned what bad mistake that was.
Best
Aleks
[The previous update was very nearly the last because my old PC had a bad reaction to the latest Windows 10 upgrade and was refusing to boot. I've managed to get it back up at least long enough to save off my notes, but it's running on spit and bailing wire. Is it possible to put an Ironman save on Steam cloud storage?]
Hi Tatty,
Hope everything's OK with you. I'm feeling a lot better but still not quite out of Medbay, which has given me way too much time to consider my life choices. We're still out on the Rimward edge of nowhere, doing small-time jobs for the moment. Typically, Spencer and Cygnus look a couple of the nicer planets in the Reach - at least if you're not homesick for the bright lights - and I get to see them by vidlink from the Leopard.
I didn't put Behemoth in the Spider in the end, though maybe I should have. We had one more contract for the League before we left Spencer - another straightforward base-buster - so I loaned her Rocky and found a local Dispossessed who could handle sensors and was prepared to take the Spider for a 20% cut of the contract.
The mission went off fine . They had a solid lance defending but they let themselves get pulled away from the turrets and GV, Glitch and Behemoth pounded them down while the local hopped about painting targets and drawing fire. Except that Behemoth managed to get Rocky pinged in the head again.
The local quit the same day - said he felt that the oppo seemed keener on killing the Spider than they were on winning the fight. So now I've got Dekker on one side hinting about danger money every second minute and Behemoth sulking on the other. Still, another couple days and the Medtechs let us out and Darius has lined up a sweet sheet of contracts here on Cygnus. I'd almost say things were looking up, if I hadn't learned what bad mistake that was.
Best
Aleks
[The previous update was very nearly the last because my old PC had a bad reaction to the latest Windows 10 upgrade and was refusing to boot. I've managed to get it back up at least long enough to save off my notes, but it's running on spit and bailing wire. Is it possible to put an Ironman save on Steam cloud storage?]
I´m glad RL technical problems didn´t kill this thread. I hope it goes all the way to Coromodir!
3025-07-16 Outbound to Chandan
Hi again Tatty,
Thaks for your latest, and no I did not forget Sal's birthday - see enclosed. We actually have a bit of cash to spare now - or at least we're not worrying about going broke next month.
I hesitate to say it, but things may actually be looking up. Six - count them, six - contracts complete on Cygnus. Maybe the League won't be too happy about us taking the planetary government's side in a couple of their disputes, but needs must, and they don't have us on retainer. We pretty much cleared out the local pirates, too - our last job was dealing with a "giant pirate Mech" that had been terrorising the outlands. When we tracked the thing down, it turned out to be ... a Spider. Even Dekker laughed at that one.
So - all customers satisfied, full payment, plenty of salvage and the worst I have to worry about is Dekker getting the Spider dinged a couple of times. I am starting to believe that wiseguy back on Spencer was right, the oppo really do have it in for that Spider. I've seen light Mechs charge through heavy crossfire just to take a swing at it. I've had to agree with Dekker that when we score another Mech, it's his.
Another real Mech, that is. Technically, Yang has managed to put a spare together from our scraps, but it's a Locust-1S. Complete junk, good only for threatening Behemoth with. She's been grouching around the ship like a bear with a sore head because Black Bart is still not ready and she thinks she's missing the fun.
On to Chandan. and the customer paying our travel. The Quarrymen are back!
Give my love to Sal
Aleks
Hi again Tatty,
Thaks for your latest, and no I did not forget Sal's birthday - see enclosed. We actually have a bit of cash to spare now - or at least we're not worrying about going broke next month.
I hesitate to say it, but things may actually be looking up. Six - count them, six - contracts complete on Cygnus. Maybe the League won't be too happy about us taking the planetary government's side in a couple of their disputes, but needs must, and they don't have us on retainer. We pretty much cleared out the local pirates, too - our last job was dealing with a "giant pirate Mech" that had been terrorising the outlands. When we tracked the thing down, it turned out to be ... a Spider. Even Dekker laughed at that one.
So - all customers satisfied, full payment, plenty of salvage and the worst I have to worry about is Dekker getting the Spider dinged a couple of times. I am starting to believe that wiseguy back on Spencer was right, the oppo really do have it in for that Spider. I've seen light Mechs charge through heavy crossfire just to take a swing at it. I've had to agree with Dekker that when we score another Mech, it's his.
Another real Mech, that is. Technically, Yang has managed to put a spare together from our scraps, but it's a Locust-1S. Complete junk, good only for threatening Behemoth with. She's been grouching around the ship like a bear with a sore head because Black Bart is still not ready and she thinks she's missing the fun.
On to Chandan. and the customer paying our travel. The Quarrymen are back!
Give my love to Sal
Aleks
3025-07-29 Chandan
Hi Tatty,
You'd think I'd have learned not to be optimistic. This place didn't take long to go south. We got a League contract against the local low-lifes (salvage only, just to show there were no hard feelings after Spencer) and we were cleaning up no problem until some meathead mook in a ratty little Locust managed to rattle Rocky's cage with an SRM.
While I was killing time in Medbay, I let Behemoth ride Rocky. She'd have killed someone if I hadn't and we were down to four fit Mechwarriors and four working Mechs. Darius had lined up a nice slate of contracts, bandit-suppression for the local government. First job went off no trouble. Second time, the bad guys had wised up (or someone planet-side had tipped them off) and we ran into a bunch of Strikers pretending to be supply trucks. Behemoth got Rocky dinged up, Dekker got hurt and broke the Spider again.
The Mechs weren't hurt bad, and with money in the bank, contracts to be had and two Mechwarriors down, I decided to see what the local Hiring Hall could do for us and it turned out there there was a Mechwarrior looking for a ride who had combat experience and knew sensors. Aaron Doukas, goes by "Popo". Seems a stable sort of guy - good family, military school, ran off to ride a Mech instead of a desk. He's ex-Drac, but we try not to hold it against him.
Well, his first job with us was nearly his last. Third contract against the same bandits and they still have two lances to throw at us. Popo drew the Spider, the Spider drew fire early and he ends up running round the battlefield like a cartoon chicken, desperately trying to stay ahead of two other Spiders that are trying to punch holes in him. Meanwhile Behemoth is busy forgetting that Rocky isn't Black Bart and toe-to-toe ain't a great idea. She manages to lose half the front armour before a bandit Panther puts a PPC in the hole and blows the torso wide open.
Well, at least it gives me the chance to give Rocky the rebuild I've been planning since we took that AC-5 off Black Bart. More armour, more sinks and the big gun is almost the same as two small ones. The bad news is that Yang says it'll take him a month to do - once he's finished Black Bart and the Spider. The good news is that we scored enough salvage to put together a Javelin and a Panther, so Dekker may get his new ride; the other bad news is that Yang has no idea when he'll have the time and space to work on them. Meanwhile, I'm sharing the Medbay with Dekker and Behemoth again, and we're down to two Mechs, three Mechwarriors and we're going to have to leave another pile of contracts on the table.
Ah well. At least I should be getting out quicker than last time.
Aleks
Hi Tatty,
You'd think I'd have learned not to be optimistic. This place didn't take long to go south. We got a League contract against the local low-lifes (salvage only, just to show there were no hard feelings after Spencer) and we were cleaning up no problem until some meathead mook in a ratty little Locust managed to rattle Rocky's cage with an SRM.
While I was killing time in Medbay, I let Behemoth ride Rocky. She'd have killed someone if I hadn't and we were down to four fit Mechwarriors and four working Mechs. Darius had lined up a nice slate of contracts, bandit-suppression for the local government. First job went off no trouble. Second time, the bad guys had wised up (or someone planet-side had tipped them off) and we ran into a bunch of Strikers pretending to be supply trucks. Behemoth got Rocky dinged up, Dekker got hurt and broke the Spider again.
The Mechs weren't hurt bad, and with money in the bank, contracts to be had and two Mechwarriors down, I decided to see what the local Hiring Hall could do for us and it turned out there there was a Mechwarrior looking for a ride who had combat experience and knew sensors. Aaron Doukas, goes by "Popo". Seems a stable sort of guy - good family, military school, ran off to ride a Mech instead of a desk. He's ex-Drac, but we try not to hold it against him.
Well, his first job with us was nearly his last. Third contract against the same bandits and they still have two lances to throw at us. Popo drew the Spider, the Spider drew fire early and he ends up running round the battlefield like a cartoon chicken, desperately trying to stay ahead of two other Spiders that are trying to punch holes in him. Meanwhile Behemoth is busy forgetting that Rocky isn't Black Bart and toe-to-toe ain't a great idea. She manages to lose half the front armour before a bandit Panther puts a PPC in the hole and blows the torso wide open.
Well, at least it gives me the chance to give Rocky the rebuild I've been planning since we took that AC-5 off Black Bart. More armour, more sinks and the big gun is almost the same as two small ones. The bad news is that Yang says it'll take him a month to do - once he's finished Black Bart and the Spider. The good news is that we scored enough salvage to put together a Javelin and a Panther, so Dekker may get his new ride; the other bad news is that Yang has no idea when he'll have the time and space to work on them. Meanwhile, I'm sharing the Medbay with Dekker and Behemoth again, and we're down to two Mechs, three Mechwarriors and we're going to have to leave another pile of contracts on the table.
Ah well. At least I should be getting out quicker than last time.
Aleks
3025-08-24 Appian
Hi again Tatty,
Apologies for the long dealy, but we've been in transit most of the last month. We needed time to recover, so I decided to skip Mantharaka and go straight on to Appian. There's not much there, but the main planet looks so tempting that I figure someone would be up to something.
I was right about that. The local Liao contacted us off the bat needing an extraction from a local facility. Behemoth was still in Medbay and Rocky was still in bits, so I borrowed Black Bart for the job. They didn't have to lock Behemoth in Medbay but only after we threatened to chain her to the bunk. And I could sort of sympathise, but then I'd lent her Rocky while I was down, so fair's fair.
You remember what I've said about fighting for both sides. The contract with Liao didn't lead to anything more - but Darius got in touch with an agent from the local government, who turned out to be in a nice little undeclared war with guess who. Four more contracts, two milk-runs to give Popo some practice in working with us and then the third one went a bit rocky. Popo nearly died when a Panther almost took the Spider's head off with a PPC (I swear the galaxy has it in for that Spider) and GV got Maximus banged up as well. By the time we'd got the holes patched up, they'd let Behemoth out of Medbay and I had to give her Black Bart back. You might say she was happy about it - we're still trying to get the beer stains off the ceiling. But she and the lance handled the last contract without anything else getting broken.
Dekker's new ride got an upgrade before he even got into it - we scored so much salvage on the last few missions that Yang now has a Firestarter to work with ahead of the Javelin. We've also got another Locust taking up space in the hold - if it goes on like this, we'll need to get a bigger ship or hold a yard sale. Behemoth still isn't talking to me, Popo's still hurt, but we have a full lance and now we're off to Sacromonte on another contract.
I'll try not to leave it so long next time.
Aleks
Hi again Tatty,
Apologies for the long dealy, but we've been in transit most of the last month. We needed time to recover, so I decided to skip Mantharaka and go straight on to Appian. There's not much there, but the main planet looks so tempting that I figure someone would be up to something.
I was right about that. The local Liao contacted us off the bat needing an extraction from a local facility. Behemoth was still in Medbay and Rocky was still in bits, so I borrowed Black Bart for the job. They didn't have to lock Behemoth in Medbay but only after we threatened to chain her to the bunk. And I could sort of sympathise, but then I'd lent her Rocky while I was down, so fair's fair.
You remember what I've said about fighting for both sides. The contract with Liao didn't lead to anything more - but Darius got in touch with an agent from the local government, who turned out to be in a nice little undeclared war with guess who. Four more contracts, two milk-runs to give Popo some practice in working with us and then the third one went a bit rocky. Popo nearly died when a Panther almost took the Spider's head off with a PPC (I swear the galaxy has it in for that Spider) and GV got Maximus banged up as well. By the time we'd got the holes patched up, they'd let Behemoth out of Medbay and I had to give her Black Bart back. You might say she was happy about it - we're still trying to get the beer stains off the ceiling. But she and the lance handled the last contract without anything else getting broken.
Dekker's new ride got an upgrade before he even got into it - we scored so much salvage on the last few missions that Yang now has a Firestarter to work with ahead of the Javelin. We've also got another Locust taking up space in the hold - if it goes on like this, we'll need to get a bigger ship or hold a yard sale. Behemoth still isn't talking to me, Popo's still hurt, but we have a full lance and now we're off to Sacromonte on another contract.
I'll try not to leave it so long next time.
Aleks
3025-09-22 Sacromonte
Hi Tatty,
Thanks for you mail and congratulations on finding a builder who actually shows up on time. Here's hoping he finishes on time too, and doesn't end up sucking his teeth and muttering about "problems". And don't let him leave you hanging while he wanders off to an "urgent" job somewhere else. Jobs somewhere else are always urgent.
We're on Sacromonte, which is one of those places you don't want to viist without a real good reason. Glad you're not here and all that. But we did have a reason - we hit system with everyone fit, everything fixed and actually able to field a full-strength lance for the first time in I can't remember. The place may be a worthless lump of rock, but lots of people want the location, so plenty of work if you aren't too picky.
The government are mobsters and the Liao are up to the same sort of game as they were on Appian. Both sides were happy to hire us and we scored a half a dozen low-level contracts without too much trouble (the Spider got shot up twice, and Glitch's Vindie was half-cooked by a Firestarter, but what do you expect?). Everyone's fit, and we're off to Herotitus to spend the money - we've done so well the last few systems I can actually afford to pay a bonus for the first time in whenever.
GV's earned it, anyway - I told you he had a tech background and he's got together with Yang to fix up Rocky's cannon something sweet.
Give Sal my best and wish her luck at the new school
Aleks
Hi Tatty,
Thanks for you mail and congratulations on finding a builder who actually shows up on time. Here's hoping he finishes on time too, and doesn't end up sucking his teeth and muttering about "problems". And don't let him leave you hanging while he wanders off to an "urgent" job somewhere else. Jobs somewhere else are always urgent.
We're on Sacromonte, which is one of those places you don't want to viist without a real good reason. Glad you're not here and all that. But we did have a reason - we hit system with everyone fit, everything fixed and actually able to field a full-strength lance for the first time in I can't remember. The place may be a worthless lump of rock, but lots of people want the location, so plenty of work if you aren't too picky.
The government are mobsters and the Liao are up to the same sort of game as they were on Appian. Both sides were happy to hire us and we scored a half a dozen low-level contracts without too much trouble (the Spider got shot up twice, and Glitch's Vindie was half-cooked by a Firestarter, but what do you expect?). Everyone's fit, and we're off to Herotitus to spend the money - we've done so well the last few systems I can actually afford to pay a bonus for the first time in whenever.
GV's earned it, anyway - I told you he had a tech background and he's got together with Yang to fix up Rocky's cannon something sweet.
Give Sal my best and wish her luck at the new school
Aleks
3025-10-19 Herotitus
Hi again, Tatty
Wish you were here from the playground of the Reach. Seriously, Herotitus lives up to it's billing - great climate, great scenery and all the fun you can afford. Which means, of course, that I'm spending half my time trying to keep Dekker out of the drunk tank and Behemoth out of fights. Darius and GV are heads down over the poker tables, so they're no use, and I'm not sure where Popo's taken himself off to. At least Glitch is keeping a low profile - her latest effort was wandering into the Mechbay and breaking one of our spare lasers trying "fix" it, which left Yang looking for her with a wrench.
Like I said, all the fun you can pay for - provided you're not there on business. The government is actually stable and the House agents come here to plot against other people - so so mercs aren't exactly popular on-planet. Damn few contracts and most of the ones outstanding were against the Magistracy, so no. And when we did find one, Behemoth got her cage rattled and a crippled Panther headbutted the Spider and knocked its arm off.
But for once it doesn't matter because it'll all be sorted out by the end of next jump and now the big one's coming up. You remember our Lady Centrella and her Star League DropShip? And how I told you that wasn't the half of it and there's more to come? Well, it's taken a bit of time, but all the bits are now in place. So hold on to your hat and watch the newsfeeds.
Shit is about to get real.
Aleks
Hi again, Tatty
Wish you were here from the playground of the Reach. Seriously, Herotitus lives up to it's billing - great climate, great scenery and all the fun you can afford. Which means, of course, that I'm spending half my time trying to keep Dekker out of the drunk tank and Behemoth out of fights. Darius and GV are heads down over the poker tables, so they're no use, and I'm not sure where Popo's taken himself off to. At least Glitch is keeping a low profile - her latest effort was wandering into the Mechbay and breaking one of our spare lasers trying "fix" it, which left Yang looking for her with a wrench.
Like I said, all the fun you can pay for - provided you're not there on business. The government is actually stable and the House agents come here to plot against other people - so so mercs aren't exactly popular on-planet. Damn few contracts and most of the ones outstanding were against the Magistracy, so no. And when we did find one, Behemoth got her cage rattled and a crippled Panther headbutted the Spider and knocked its arm off.
But for once it doesn't matter because it'll all be sorted out by the end of next jump and now the big one's coming up. You remember our Lady Centrella and her Star League DropShip? And how I told you that wasn't the half of it and there's more to come? Well, it's taken a bit of time, but all the bits are now in place. So hold on to your hat and watch the newsfeeds.
Shit is about to get real.
Aleks
3025-12-04 Lyreton
Tatty,
Please ignore the wrapper, this really is me. I swear by old Clover's soul, and if that doesn't work I swear by the look she gave you when you dropped her on the floor celebrating the Gallants scoring in the Auriga Games that time. And I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but I had to set up a route to scrub this and bounce it through a relay box on Sacromonte. Your mail may be monitored and Espinoza's goons might just catch on if they saw you getting messages from Weldry.
Yup, we were with Lady Kamea on Weldry. I was there, Tatty, right in the middle of it. I saw the Lady blow through the gates of the Icebox like an avenging angel. And I saw what they found in there. It's true. Sir Raju's dead. He didn't die that day on Coromodir, they kept him in the Icebox for three years and then killed him when they realised they couldn't stop us taking him back. Bastards are going to pay - for him and everyone else they threw in that hole.
I always told you the Directorate were bad people. You always said I was biased and maybe I was - but that doesn't mean I wasn't right. You don't have to believe me now - believe the newsfeeds - the real ones, the ones from the League and the Magistracy and the independent systems. And before you ask, yes, it's the real Kamea Arano. I've talked to her face to face and I know. The Lady is back, and we're with her to the end.
The last bit doesn't just mean we're sending her good wishes. We have a new DropShip (a certain Star League wreck that someone lifted a few months back), a new contract and a new mission. Officially, we're still the Quarrymen, independent mercenary company but that's just for cover and to keep the MRB sweet. Where it matters, we're with the Lady and her Restoration for as long as it takes.
We took a vote the day after we broke the Icebox. Dekker was the first to put his hand up (which surprised me, but he said Mo was his best friend on the ship and he owed him). Darius was straight in, Popo said he'd been looking for an honourable fight and now he'd found one. That brought in the rest of them - GV, Yang, Behemoth (though I suspect Behemoth would sign up for anything that promised plenty of fighting). Even Sumire said that we might as well get killed doing something worthwhile. Glitch just shrugged and said she wasn't going to run out on the rest of us, but then, she's Glitch. And for me, I took an oath when I joined the Guard and I guess I've never given up on delivering on it.
And one last thing. The Directorate is going DOWN. We have the Mechs. we have the money and we're on a mission from God. Espinoza is finished, if we have to chase his sorry ass all the way back to Coromodir and bring down the palace with him in it. It may get a bit rough before the end, but the end is coming and it's going to be his end. Tell anyone you trust that they don't want to go down with him.
You can reach me by sending to the relay box on the wrapper - it will be forwarded to me. Stay safe, be smart, and don't go telling tales - Espinoza is a vicious dog, and that's the sort that bites.
The Cormorant will fly again
Aleks
Tatty,
Please ignore the wrapper, this really is me. I swear by old Clover's soul, and if that doesn't work I swear by the look she gave you when you dropped her on the floor celebrating the Gallants scoring in the Auriga Games that time. And I'm sorry it took me so long to get back to you, but I had to set up a route to scrub this and bounce it through a relay box on Sacromonte. Your mail may be monitored and Espinoza's goons might just catch on if they saw you getting messages from Weldry.
Yup, we were with Lady Kamea on Weldry. I was there, Tatty, right in the middle of it. I saw the Lady blow through the gates of the Icebox like an avenging angel. And I saw what they found in there. It's true. Sir Raju's dead. He didn't die that day on Coromodir, they kept him in the Icebox for three years and then killed him when they realised they couldn't stop us taking him back. Bastards are going to pay - for him and everyone else they threw in that hole.
I always told you the Directorate were bad people. You always said I was biased and maybe I was - but that doesn't mean I wasn't right. You don't have to believe me now - believe the newsfeeds - the real ones, the ones from the League and the Magistracy and the independent systems. And before you ask, yes, it's the real Kamea Arano. I've talked to her face to face and I know. The Lady is back, and we're with her to the end.
The last bit doesn't just mean we're sending her good wishes. We have a new DropShip (a certain Star League wreck that someone lifted a few months back), a new contract and a new mission. Officially, we're still the Quarrymen, independent mercenary company but that's just for cover and to keep the MRB sweet. Where it matters, we're with the Lady and her Restoration for as long as it takes.
We took a vote the day after we broke the Icebox. Dekker was the first to put his hand up (which surprised me, but he said Mo was his best friend on the ship and he owed him). Darius was straight in, Popo said he'd been looking for an honourable fight and now he'd found one. That brought in the rest of them - GV, Yang, Behemoth (though I suspect Behemoth would sign up for anything that promised plenty of fighting). Even Sumire said that we might as well get killed doing something worthwhile. Glitch just shrugged and said she wasn't going to run out on the rest of us, but then, she's Glitch. And for me, I took an oath when I joined the Guard and I guess I've never given up on delivering on it.
And one last thing. The Directorate is going DOWN. We have the Mechs. we have the money and we're on a mission from God. Espinoza is finished, if we have to chase his sorry ass all the way back to Coromodir and bring down the palace with him in it. It may get a bit rough before the end, but the end is coming and it's going to be his end. Tell anyone you trust that they don't want to go down with him.
You can reach me by sending to the relay box on the wrapper - it will be forwarded to me. Stay safe, be smart, and don't go telling tales - Espinoza is a vicious dog, and that's the sort that bites.
The Cormorant will fly again
Aleks
3025-12-18 Weldry
Hi Tatty,
Greetings from the Restoration, as Espinoza is refusing to call us. I see from the newsfeeds that he's still trying to claim that it's not the real Lady Arano, when he's not promising to bring her back to Coromodir in chains. The one thing he isn't doing is making any progress on Weldry, for all the might of the Directorate he's so proud of.
I won't deny we've had it tough. Every mission seems to be a stand-up slugging match, mostly against odds, mostly for salvage only. Popo's hurt and the Mechs are all pretty beat up, but like they say, you should see the other guys. The Directorate threw four lances at us in the last mission, then claimed victory because we only dropped half of them.
We've got a new face on the team - Farah Murad, aka the Doc. She's the one who got the ship up and flying after it had been stuck on a pirate moon for a couple hundred years. Which makes her as crazy as the rest of us, but she hides it well. All she has to do now is to keep it going once we start travelling. She's almost got me convinced that we don't have to worry about the engines dropping off before we leave orbit.
Dekker's happy. We've scored so much salvage in the last few weeks - and Yang has had the space to catch up on the Firestarter and Javelin - that we've been able to make a donation to the Restoration army. A certain Spider...
Glitch has left us. She got an offer from an Inner Sphere big-shot called Carlyle and, well, I told her to take it. This was never her fight. The Reach was never more than a place for her to work, and she deserved the shot at the big time. I'll miss her, though, even though she left us Pinkie Pie. The rest of us are still in here, still slugging. Pirates, Taurians, flipping Comstar - seems like everyone wants their piece of the Restoration. But when you come done to it, we're still here on Weldry, and they ain't.
All best
Aleks
BARBOSA - It's comments like that that keep me writing
It can get hard to keep motivated when all you're getting are a handful of views and no comments
Hi Tatty,
Greetings from the Restoration, as Espinoza is refusing to call us. I see from the newsfeeds that he's still trying to claim that it's not the real Lady Arano, when he's not promising to bring her back to Coromodir in chains. The one thing he isn't doing is making any progress on Weldry, for all the might of the Directorate he's so proud of.
I won't deny we've had it tough. Every mission seems to be a stand-up slugging match, mostly against odds, mostly for salvage only. Popo's hurt and the Mechs are all pretty beat up, but like they say, you should see the other guys. The Directorate threw four lances at us in the last mission, then claimed victory because we only dropped half of them.
We've got a new face on the team - Farah Murad, aka the Doc. She's the one who got the ship up and flying after it had been stuck on a pirate moon for a couple hundred years. Which makes her as crazy as the rest of us, but she hides it well. All she has to do now is to keep it going once we start travelling. She's almost got me convinced that we don't have to worry about the engines dropping off before we leave orbit.
Dekker's happy. We've scored so much salvage in the last few weeks - and Yang has had the space to catch up on the Firestarter and Javelin - that we've been able to make a donation to the Restoration army. A certain Spider...
Glitch has left us. She got an offer from an Inner Sphere big-shot called Carlyle and, well, I told her to take it. This was never her fight. The Reach was never more than a place for her to work, and she deserved the shot at the big time. I'll miss her, though, even though she left us Pinkie Pie. The rest of us are still in here, still slugging. Pirates, Taurians, flipping Comstar - seems like everyone wants their piece of the Restoration. But when you come done to it, we're still here on Weldry, and they ain't.
All best
Aleks
BARBOSA - It's comments like that that keep me writing
It can get hard to keep motivated when all you're getting are a handful of views and no comments
3026-01-08 Ichlangis
Hi Tatty,
Happy New Year to you all, and some year it's been. I hope your new place is working out OK. If it's got problems, then at least be happy that it's not likely to break up, depressurise or evolve its own species of rodents. Yes, life aboard the good ship Argo can be kinda ... interesting. She's bigger than any DropShip I've ever been on, the trouble is that most of that space is sealed off, open to space or filled with scrap. If we get even half the gear in the Mechbay sorted out and running again, Yang's going to be in the seventh heaven. For the moment, we're working on getting Medbay set up - just as soon as we've stopped springing leaks under thrust and getting electric shocks off the plumbing. She hasn't killed us yet, so here's hoping. I'm almost sure the Doc's joking about the vacuum-adapted mice.
If you haven't heard much from Weldry, it's because we've been out on Ichlangis. Ichlangis has everything you'd want in a planet, except a biosphere and an economy and much of a population, but that hasn't stopped the Directorate and the Taurians and other lowlifes trying to stick their oar into the Restoration. The Taurians are entirely too pally with the Directorate for my liking, and some of the "pirates" had suspiciously high-tech gear, but we saw them all off in the end - and without getting bashed up too much, this time.
We have a new recruit, goes by Arclight. Not much of a talker, clams up when someone asks where came from or how she ended up on Ichlangis. My guess is she's running from something, but so are a lot of us and she's a damn good scout. She's got Pinkie Pie for the moment while Yang gets our new Griffin fixed up, and she's been working well with GV and Behemoth. (Dekker got his Firestarter banged up third mission in - partly my fault for letting him get too close to a Shadow Hawk that wasn't as dead as I thought. He's started calling it Lucky Second but he doesn't seem to take much care of it).
Not much left to do here, so we lift shortly. I'll let you know where once we're there.
Love,
Aleks
Hi Tatty,
Happy New Year to you all, and some year it's been. I hope your new place is working out OK. If it's got problems, then at least be happy that it's not likely to break up, depressurise or evolve its own species of rodents. Yes, life aboard the good ship Argo can be kinda ... interesting. She's bigger than any DropShip I've ever been on, the trouble is that most of that space is sealed off, open to space or filled with scrap. If we get even half the gear in the Mechbay sorted out and running again, Yang's going to be in the seventh heaven. For the moment, we're working on getting Medbay set up - just as soon as we've stopped springing leaks under thrust and getting electric shocks off the plumbing. She hasn't killed us yet, so here's hoping. I'm almost sure the Doc's joking about the vacuum-adapted mice.
If you haven't heard much from Weldry, it's because we've been out on Ichlangis. Ichlangis has everything you'd want in a planet, except a biosphere and an economy and much of a population, but that hasn't stopped the Directorate and the Taurians and other lowlifes trying to stick their oar into the Restoration. The Taurians are entirely too pally with the Directorate for my liking, and some of the "pirates" had suspiciously high-tech gear, but we saw them all off in the end - and without getting bashed up too much, this time.
We have a new recruit, goes by Arclight. Not much of a talker, clams up when someone asks where came from or how she ended up on Ichlangis. My guess is she's running from something, but so are a lot of us and she's a damn good scout. She's got Pinkie Pie for the moment while Yang gets our new Griffin fixed up, and she's been working well with GV and Behemoth. (Dekker got his Firestarter banged up third mission in - partly my fault for letting him get too close to a Shadow Hawk that wasn't as dead as I thought. He's started calling it Lucky Second but he doesn't seem to take much care of it).
Not much left to do here, so we lift shortly. I'll let you know where once we're there.
Love,
Aleks
3026-01-20 Fjaldr
Hi again Tatty,
Greetings from your friendly neighbourhood band of delusional reactionaries. Or have we been upgraded to opportunistic local malcontents? Espinoza puts out so many propaganda vids it's hard to keep track. We play them in the mess with Dekker giving commentary. But whatever they say, we're still here, fighting the good fight.
After Ichlangis, we moved on to Fjaldr, where the Directorate was trying to concentrate and hiring local pirates and lowlifes to boost their numbers. The Argo got us there OK - it's been six days now since the last pressure alarm, three since the last power outage and Yang has still not stopped talking about how he's going to set up the Mechbay. Fjaldr is just as warm and inviting as it was the last time I came here, and just as nasty a place to have to fight in. You're either on top of the ice with no cover, or down in the canyons with no room to dodge, and either way, it's not a place you want to eject in. The air's OK, but that just means you live long enough to freeze.
Don't worry, it didn't come to that, though I've thought it might on our last job. My own silly fault - the "pirate" lance we were tracking had backup in place with a lot of LRMs and I didn't spot them until too late. Got old Rocky bashed up, and copped a head strike. Behemoth got her cage rattled, too. There were a lot of missiles flying, and I'm betting the Directorate paid for them all. I guess they should have kept the receipt, because those "pirates" won't be rattling anyone again. And they were kind enough to leave us two of their Mechs - a Shadow Hawk and a Trebuchet, so the last laugh's on them.
So some enforced R&R while we move again and Yang does his stuff on our newest acquisitions. It may take a round or two, but we're coming back stronger.
Best
Aleks
Hi again Tatty,
Greetings from your friendly neighbourhood band of delusional reactionaries. Or have we been upgraded to opportunistic local malcontents? Espinoza puts out so many propaganda vids it's hard to keep track. We play them in the mess with Dekker giving commentary. But whatever they say, we're still here, fighting the good fight.
After Ichlangis, we moved on to Fjaldr, where the Directorate was trying to concentrate and hiring local pirates and lowlifes to boost their numbers. The Argo got us there OK - it's been six days now since the last pressure alarm, three since the last power outage and Yang has still not stopped talking about how he's going to set up the Mechbay. Fjaldr is just as warm and inviting as it was the last time I came here, and just as nasty a place to have to fight in. You're either on top of the ice with no cover, or down in the canyons with no room to dodge, and either way, it's not a place you want to eject in. The air's OK, but that just means you live long enough to freeze.
Don't worry, it didn't come to that, though I've thought it might on our last job. My own silly fault - the "pirate" lance we were tracking had backup in place with a lot of LRMs and I didn't spot them until too late. Got old Rocky bashed up, and copped a head strike. Behemoth got her cage rattled, too. There were a lot of missiles flying, and I'm betting the Directorate paid for them all. I guess they should have kept the receipt, because those "pirates" won't be rattling anyone again. And they were kind enough to leave us two of their Mechs - a Shadow Hawk and a Trebuchet, so the last laugh's on them.
So some enforced R&R while we move again and Yang does his stuff on our newest acquisitions. It may take a round or two, but we're coming back stronger.
Best
Aleks
3026-03-01 Panzyr
Hi again, Tatty,
Greetings from Panzyr, and sorry it's taken so long to write. We were under operational security for a bit before we came here, and then there was some mopping up to be done before I had a breathing space. But I didn't manage to forget Tam's birthday. I'm enclosing some genuine Panzyr Premium Caramel Fudge, which is likely to be pretty scarce on Coromodir the next few months.
After Fjaldr we stopped off on Weldry where the Directorate were making another push - some tough fighting there, one mission where we got caught between two lances and Popo's Javelin copped a head hit early. He commed me that he'd been rattled, didn't bother to say that it had been a PPC. When he brought Tengu in after the fight, I could see him though the hole in the cockpit. There's brave and there's crazy and I thought he was one of the stable ones.
So on to Panzyr. I see Espinoza's calling it a heroic stand. Well, if the bunch of makeweights he had holding the spaceport were the finest heroes of the Directorate, then the Directorate should just quit right now. They had six Mechs - including a Dragon - to our four, plus a bunch of vehicles, and we would have blown through the lot without taking more than armour damage except that a Panther that had been hiding at the back managed to headshot Black Bart with its PPC. Behemoth being Behemoth, that just made her keener to hold that Panther down and pull its arms off. All done, no pressure and we scored some sweet salvage including some high-end LRM racks Yang's putting in Maximus. We've go some of the Argo automation fixed up and it's really helping out with the upgrade work.
Meanwhile there were still Directorate leftovers to be swept up. Dekker got Lucky Second banged up almost the first chance he got and ended in the Medbay with Behemoth. We finished with a scratch lance of me in Rocky, GV in Pinkie Pie, Arclight in her Griffin and Popo in the spare Shadowhawk (until he got that banged up and switched to the Trebuchet). We took a few lumps, but the DIrectorate were losing Mechs, and there ain't so many more where those came from.
And House Decimus swears to the Restoration, just as soon as Espinoza's gun is removed from their heads. Can't wait to see how he tries to spin that in the latest round of vids.
Best
Aleks
Hi again, Tatty,
Greetings from Panzyr, and sorry it's taken so long to write. We were under operational security for a bit before we came here, and then there was some mopping up to be done before I had a breathing space. But I didn't manage to forget Tam's birthday. I'm enclosing some genuine Panzyr Premium Caramel Fudge, which is likely to be pretty scarce on Coromodir the next few months.
After Fjaldr we stopped off on Weldry where the Directorate were making another push - some tough fighting there, one mission where we got caught between two lances and Popo's Javelin copped a head hit early. He commed me that he'd been rattled, didn't bother to say that it had been a PPC. When he brought Tengu in after the fight, I could see him though the hole in the cockpit. There's brave and there's crazy and I thought he was one of the stable ones.
So on to Panzyr. I see Espinoza's calling it a heroic stand. Well, if the bunch of makeweights he had holding the spaceport were the finest heroes of the Directorate, then the Directorate should just quit right now. They had six Mechs - including a Dragon - to our four, plus a bunch of vehicles, and we would have blown through the lot without taking more than armour damage except that a Panther that had been hiding at the back managed to headshot Black Bart with its PPC. Behemoth being Behemoth, that just made her keener to hold that Panther down and pull its arms off. All done, no pressure and we scored some sweet salvage including some high-end LRM racks Yang's putting in Maximus. We've go some of the Argo automation fixed up and it's really helping out with the upgrade work.
Meanwhile there were still Directorate leftovers to be swept up. Dekker got Lucky Second banged up almost the first chance he got and ended in the Medbay with Behemoth. We finished with a scratch lance of me in Rocky, GV in Pinkie Pie, Arclight in her Griffin and Popo in the spare Shadowhawk (until he got that banged up and switched to the Trebuchet). We took a few lumps, but the DIrectorate were losing Mechs, and there ain't so many more where those came from.
And House Decimus swears to the Restoration, just as soon as Espinoza's gun is removed from their heads. Can't wait to see how he tries to spin that in the latest round of vids.
Best
Aleks
3026-03-22 Ryan's Fate
Hi, Tatty,
Thanks for your message - it was really good to hear from you, and I don't mind at all that you don't think you have anything interesting to say. Believe me, I get my fill of "interesting" just trying to take a shower on the Argo. And it makes me feel better to know that the worst you have to worry about is not having met the new neighbours, or that Tam got cut from the handball team or that Jannie's got an idiot client who doesn't know what he wants but wants it yesterday (tell him I can sympathise on that last one).
Give everyone my best from the liberated world of Ryan's Fate. I don't know who Ryan was, but I hope he deserved his fate better than us, 'cos this dirtball is yet another contender for "armpit of the Reach". Except that's a really bad metaphor, since it isn't smelly and humid at all, it's dry, too dry, and the only stink is inside your Mech 'cos you're buttoned up tight with the recyclers running hard.
I hate Martian worlds. The light isn't right and the horizon's too sharp and you overheat like nobody's business even though it's freezing outside. Can't see why anyone would want to live here, but they're Aurigans and they don't deserve Espinoza any more than anyone else.
Yes, I'm grumpy and yes, we had a bad drop. It started off fine. Arclight - her name is Nicholette but we tend to use callsigns full time - turned out to have a techie background (which wasn't on her official bio) and she'd come up with an idea for boosting the cooling systems. Dekker made bad jokes about it - of course - but I shooed him off and had her talk to the Doc, who liked the idea, so maybe something will come of it.
Then we hit dirt. Should have been a simple job, round up a Directorate lance who hadn't got up to speed on the whole "liberation" thing. Looks like someone on Espinoza's side is running with the idea of having a back-up lance shadow the one we get to see - and the back-up always seems to be packing a load of LRMs. Dekker had chunks blown off Lucky Second before we could see where they were shooting from, Black Bart's arm was hanging by a thread, I cooked old Rocky to shutdown taking down the last of their spotters and we ended up hiding behind a mesa playing duck'n'snipe with the reinforcements. Took the last of them down just as the ammo ran dry, but it was all way too close. And the local Restoration have a whole bunch more priority ops and none of them look any easier.
Best,
Aleks
[OOC - I'm on holiday for the next week so no updates for a bit]
Hi, Tatty,
Thanks for your message - it was really good to hear from you, and I don't mind at all that you don't think you have anything interesting to say. Believe me, I get my fill of "interesting" just trying to take a shower on the Argo. And it makes me feel better to know that the worst you have to worry about is not having met the new neighbours, or that Tam got cut from the handball team or that Jannie's got an idiot client who doesn't know what he wants but wants it yesterday (tell him I can sympathise on that last one).
Give everyone my best from the liberated world of Ryan's Fate. I don't know who Ryan was, but I hope he deserved his fate better than us, 'cos this dirtball is yet another contender for "armpit of the Reach". Except that's a really bad metaphor, since it isn't smelly and humid at all, it's dry, too dry, and the only stink is inside your Mech 'cos you're buttoned up tight with the recyclers running hard.
I hate Martian worlds. The light isn't right and the horizon's too sharp and you overheat like nobody's business even though it's freezing outside. Can't see why anyone would want to live here, but they're Aurigans and they don't deserve Espinoza any more than anyone else.
Yes, I'm grumpy and yes, we had a bad drop. It started off fine. Arclight - her name is Nicholette but we tend to use callsigns full time - turned out to have a techie background (which wasn't on her official bio) and she'd come up with an idea for boosting the cooling systems. Dekker made bad jokes about it - of course - but I shooed him off and had her talk to the Doc, who liked the idea, so maybe something will come of it.
Then we hit dirt. Should have been a simple job, round up a Directorate lance who hadn't got up to speed on the whole "liberation" thing. Looks like someone on Espinoza's side is running with the idea of having a back-up lance shadow the one we get to see - and the back-up always seems to be packing a load of LRMs. Dekker had chunks blown off Lucky Second before we could see where they were shooting from, Black Bart's arm was hanging by a thread, I cooked old Rocky to shutdown taking down the last of their spotters and we ended up hiding behind a mesa playing duck'n'snipe with the reinforcements. Took the last of them down just as the ammo ran dry, but it was all way too close. And the local Restoration have a whole bunch more priority ops and none of them look any easier.
Best,
Aleks
[OOC - I'm on holiday for the next week so no updates for a bit]