Milk Run
Topic: ToS Chronicles
Doing well is one thing. Beating up on clearly inferior teams is another. This team lives for a challenge!

Having beaten of the attack on the training ground, Mauler received word from the contractor that he wanted the team to take over a building to the east - which they believe is a forward HQ for the attacking force. There seems to be great emphasis on the fact that all that was needed was a Titan presence on the building compound and any resistance faced would be squashed.

This made Wolf a little uneasy.

The team loaded up - CYBEN in his new Fang Mech - and headed out.

Entering the area, Wolf, CYBEN and Tensile trotted ahead of the slower BloodHound mech piloted by Mauler.
No sooner had they emerged from some trees that they spotted the buildings in the distance - and 3 enemy recon mechs (2 Enigmas and 1 Dart) spread out in front.

Quickly evaluating the landscape, Wolf told Tensile to follow CYBEN forward into a valley using the trees as cover. Wolf then turned east and headed for more cover to the edge of the same valley.
The cover was nice, but there really wasn't much choice as everywhere else was ringed with quicksand.

CYBEN got weapons lock on the approaching Dart, but his scanner lock failed. Grunting in frustration, he fired his twin autocannons, both slugs chewing up the ground in front of the approaching mech. Tensile got weapons lock on the Dart and he slowed his mech to a halt to concentrate on gaining a good scanner lock.

Mauler finally broke through the main band of trees but stopped his mech just at the forest's edge.
He too locked up the Dart. Even without a scan lock, Mauler was impressed to see how easily he could track the oncoming Dart with reasonable accuracy.
He fired a salvo from all four autocannons. Two missed - Two hit. The lower torso of the Dart crumpled and the mech stumbled, but the pilot was able to keep his momentum going and retained his footing. Mauler started to refine his lock.

Wolf locked onto the Enigma to the far east of the group, got a good scanner lock and fired. His EM Pulse laser temporarily seized the mech's shoulder and his Pulse Laser melted armor from its right leg.

The enemy Dart closed on CYBEN and fired off a salvo of missiles, tearing into his armor. Still not fully accustomed to his new mech, CYBEN decided against standing his ground and entering any form of melee. He pushed his mech forward into a run... and cursed as his scan lock failed again.

Ignoring the missile fire from the approaching second Enigma, Tensile looked at his scanner with approval as he got a green scan on the Dart. He let his weapons track the Dart for a few seconds - then fired. The small laser hit the mech on its arm. The Large Laser smashed into the mechs cockpit! The enemy mech froze as if it had run into a brick wall and fell over!

Mauler smiled as his scan came up green, just as the mech fell to the ground. Now prone, even at that great distance, it was almost like shooting fish in a barrel. All four autocannons barked, and the Dart's lower torso was smashed into scrap.

Running towards the oncoming Enigma, Wolf almost missed the blip on his scanner - another mech detected moving through the forest far to the east! He quickly reported it to Mauler and got confirmation that he had also seen it. Seconds later, Mauler reported it to be a Light mech. It was trying to make its way through the trees and, depending on how good the pilot was, would take some time to reach.
Mauler saw CYBEN slowing his mech, and told him to keep running towards the HQ building.
Mauler then ordered Tensile to cover CYBEN and keep that second Enigma off him.

"Affirmative"

Watching for some last minute dodge by the Enigma, Wolf charged in. The Enigma froze like a deer caught in oncoming headlights. Wolf barrelled into the Enigma, sending both mechs crashing into the ground. Wolf rose effortlessly to his feet and saw the Enigma pilot slow to get up. He hammered the mech with his Pulse and EM Pulse lasers, and stripped armor from the rising mech with his VibraClaws. The Enigma finally got up and started firing at point blank range with its missiles, while pounding on Wolf with its fists.

CYBEN ran past the Dart, and was hit with a Meson shot by the downed mech. Ignoring it, he continued his run to the HQ building.

The second Enigma locked up the running Fang mech and fired volley after volley of missiles at him. CYBEN saw missile trails fly past his mech and felt the impact as a few scored hits on his arms and rear torso.

Tensile completed his target switch to the Enigma and opened up with his lasers.
Mauler completed his lock at the same time and fired his autocannon volley. The Enigma's right torso was crippled. Slowly, it turned to face Tensile and fired its meson gun. The shot hit Tensile squarely in the centre torso. As designed, the meson shot penetrated the armor cleanly, seeking more vulnerable equipment to destroy. It found the engine. Tensile saw the alert flash on his panel reporting light engine damage. More heat build-up occurred in the damaged engine, causing his mech's temperature to rise.
Tensile quickly popped flares - just in time! Missiles corkscrewed from the Enigma but were spoofed by the flares and went harmlessly flying past Tensile.

Almost in a perfect coordinated strike, both Tensile and Mauler unleashed a volley on the Enigma, completely decimating it's centre torso. The mech swayed on its feet, then fell face first to the ground.

Mauler checked and found that the enemy Light mech seemed to be having trouble navigating through the forest. Wolf was locked in what seemed like a giant mech fist fight with the other Enigma. Mauler locked up the Light mech and told Tensile to help Wolf.

CYBEN radioed in - he had reached the HQ compound. Turning on his external speakers, he demanded that they surrender.

Almost immediately, they received the confirmation - the enemy had surrendered. The Enigma broke off from Wolf and the Light mech just stayed at its location in the forest.

Wolf opened up a comm link to Mauler - "Something's not right. These guys seem way too inexperienced"
Mauler agreed.

Later, when the contractor had his people comb the building for intel, Mauler found out that this was a rival training school. The mechs and pilots stationed there were completely green rookies that were just learning to pilot their mechs let alone fight!

After discussing this with the team, they decided that maybe it was time to leave.
Fighting school students wasn't what they wanted to be doing.

Collecting their pay, they stayed only as long as it took D.A.Y.E.S to finish his maintenance work on the mechs, repairing the light damage they had - his engine hit was the most serious damage they had.

While waiting on the repairs, Mauler scanned for available posts and settled on a contract which would have them going to a planet called Ryken IV. Attached to the military of the planets’ ruling Senate, they would be hired on to help quell a growing rebel uprising.

============
OK!!...

Basically the team will be going on to do one of the campaigns i wrote for this game - Rebel Hunter.
It was designed for a slightly lower level of pilots, but does get increasingly harder. It was meant to take a "just turned" GREEN squad up to a "just turned" NOVICE squad. All in preparation for the next campaign i wrote - Hold Out.

Tonnage-wise, the team just makes the minimum requirements of the campaign - so maybe i will do a random patrol hoping for more money (or salvage!) to get Wolf's mech upgraded to the IceLord.

Wolf and Mauler looks to be about one good mission away from levelling up again - which puts them in a higher bracket for this campaign. However, due to lack of money for bigger mechs and CYBEN still being a rookie, that may be balanced out... Also, the next step up in mechs for Mauler would mean using a new type of Pilot skill - one which is woefully poor right now. Wolf is a little better but still not as good as he is for the current class of mechs.