Event: Devil's Canyon (Day 5, EM)

[Comstar]

Situation: There was a brief interlude in the fighting, but already, the Black Dragon forces were on the advance again after reforming into lances and bringing up some of their reserves - the company having performed an extremely risky and damaging maneuver, stuffing two mechs into the drop chutes for the duration of the journey - something the captain of the Montenegro would like be cursing for years to come, considering the strain it would've put on the ship and its systems.

Still, the Black Dragons had gotten them out after a great deal of effort and further system damage, and they filled the gaps in each formation as the Black Dragon gave chase... the main force pursuing Yuri and the Fire support lance into highlands, while a single heavy lance pushed south toward Human Edge - ready to finish what they'd started, unless Vanguard lance was able to intervene.

Participants: Fire Support Lance

Rules: This is a combat thread. There is a very real chance of injury, dispossession, or death.

This stage of the plan involves bleeding the Black Dragons for every inch. The switchback canyons provide room for the Fortunate Ones to give ground and string out the hostile formation, or to stand and fight at advantageous positions until the enemy get too close - in any case, the goal is to do as much damage as possible - with the option to fall back to the south toward a last stand near Calico if things go poorly.

The enemies appeared on sensors quickly, before the Fire Support Lance could take perfect positions, swarming over the hill with jump jets, while the grounded mechs charged down the road. Sensors beeped as the dogfighting fighters seemed ready to take another pass.

---- Situation ----

Grand Dragon -- 9 LA, 2 RL, 2 RT, 2 CTR damage -- 0 heat
Wyvern (Maja) -- 0 damage -- 0 heat
Crab (Marik) -- 8 LA, 5 CT damage -- 0 heat
Phoenix (Felicity) -- 2 RA, 2 LL, 2 CT, 5 LA, 5 LT damage -- 0 heat
Hussar (Snorri) -- 0 damage -- 0 heat

---- Hostile Status ----

Jagermech ---- +1
Phoenix Hawk ---- +2
Panther ---- +2
Panther #2 ---- +1
Spider ---- +3
Dragon #2 ---- +1
Blackjack ---- +0
Vindicator ---- +2

[Felicity]

The Phoenix did it's thing and jumped against. Felicity felt a rush of elation from it. However, she knew this would be dangerous.

"Going to distract their northern contingent."

Her mech landed nimbly in a small wooded area. She turned it to bring her weapons to bear on the hulking Jagermech.

(Jump to 1407 facing NW. Fire PPC then SRMs at the Jagermech)

[Maja Eklund]

Maja sounded a little frustrated over comms, her weapons systems seemed to be refusing to play ball today

"Keep focusing the weaker ones as we are backing? Their slowerer mechs will be taking a lot of time to get forward."

((jump to 1613, lrm and large laser at the Panther))

[Snorri Tycho]

[i]

"Keep focusing the weaker ones as we are backing? Their slowerer mechs will be taking a lot of time to get forward."

"I think you're onto something First. If we let their friends catch up, we are in for a world of hurt"

Snorri moves the Hussar forward, lining up a shot to try to put the hurt on the Panther.

"Dj plans to flank after fire"

"Going to distract their northern contingent."

"Be careful Fee" He whispers to himself, hurriedly checking his comms to make sure that it wasn't picked up.

______
Moving to 0712 facing N
(FF, turn NE, forward five to 0712, face N)
Fire on Panther

[Comstar]

The engagement began as the rushing Black Dragon mechs were met by a surprisingly aggressive counter-push, the Fortunate Ones pressing a sharp counter attack, weapons blazing. The Phoenix leapt forward, taking a forward position and firing away, the PPC flaying the Jagermech arm, and then a pair of SRMs corkscrewing in after. (Hit RA+RA+LT, 10+2+2 damage). The Dragon countered, and a medium laser whipped at her cockpit, but Felicity lost her balance, tipping her mech slightly so the shot instead carved into the left torso (Hit LT, 5 damage). The second panther fired it's PPC at Felicity, but missed, and the Phoenix Hawk missed a shot at the crab. The Spider launched twin emerald beams at the Crab, one scraping the leg (hit LL, 5 damage), and then juked away from a PPC and laser combo from Yuri. The Blackjack attempted to track the Shilone as it roared past overhead, along with the Jagermech, but only the Jagermech managed a glancing blow (Hit LWG, 2 damage)

The Wyvern, from the position it had taken, lost the targeting solution on the Panther through the trees, and the long range missile volley she was able to aim at the Jagermech didn't connect, thanks to that strange misfortune that seemed to be plaguing her all battle.

The leading Panther zeroed in on the Hussar with PPC and four SRMs, and though Snorri dodged the missiles, the bolt of energy caught the small mech in the leg, tearing the limb away. (Hit LL, 10 damage, LL destroyed, 1 damage to LT) The mech crashed to the ground with a thunderous crash, causing Snorri's vision to swim, and for just the faintest moment, go black, (hit CT, 3 damage, pilot injured. Pilot railed blackout roll - EDGE - Pilot passed blackout reroll) as the Crab, just ahead of it, speared the Panther in revenge, one azure and one emerald beam missing, but a single azure beam carving into the chest of the panther and removing most of the armor. (Hit CT, 8 damage.)

The Shilone, dipping low, swung in a sweeping firing pass as it evaded the chasing Sholagar, guns blazing once again. Twin autocannon volleys hammered at the legs, while a trio of lasers lanced out. One Azure, one emerald, a pair sliced down the mech's torso, vaporizing armor into hot droplets (Hit LT+RL+LL+RT, 8+2+2+5 damage) As the aircraft roared away, the Jagermech wobbled, trying to compensate for the pounding and sudden weight shift as it lost almost two entire tons of mass in armor plating. It failed. the mech toppled with a crunch, the left leg folding and the left torso slamming down with a concussive slam.

Several seconds later, the torso blossomed into flame, massive chunks of metal structure and armor going flying as the left torso, and then central body of the mech ignited in a chain reaction, blowing out the core of machine and leaving only a hollowed out husk, two legs and a smoking ruin of a body. (Hit LL+LT, 5+2 damage, Critical hit AC/5 Ammo explodes, 45 damage LT destroyed, 30 damage transfers, CT destroyed)

The Sholagar arrived, sweeping in to chase Alexei as the Black Dragon's pressed forward aggressively, seemingly planning to avenge their comrade at point blank range. Swearing under his breath, Yuri pushed forward, putting his Grand dragon in the path of the leaping Phoenix Hawk, calling over comms, "You there, Tycho? Do you need pickup?"

---- Situation ----

Grand Dragon -- 9 LA, 2 RL, 2 RT, 2 CTR damage -- 2 heat
Wyvern (Maja) -- 0 damage -- 0 heat
Crab (Marik) -- 8 LA, 5 CT damage -- 4 heat
Phoenix (Felicity) -- 2 RA, 2 LL, 2 CT, 5 LA, 10 LT damage -- 4 heat
Hussar (Snorri) -- All LL, 1 LT damage, 3 CT -- 0 heat

---- Hostile Status ----

Jagermech ---- Destroyed
Phoenix Hawk ---- +2
Panther ---- +0
Panther #2 ---- +2
Spider ---- +4
Dragon #2 ---- +2
Blackjack ---- +0
Vindicator ---- +2

[Maja Eklund]

Maja curses

“DJ, don’t do anything stupid now, get yourself off the mech if you are needing to.”

Trying to draw some fire away from the stricken Hussar and Yuri if he went for an extraction the Wyvern jumped up into some higher cover and opened up on the closing panther.

((Jump to 1412, large laser, LRM and SRM at the panther.))

[Snorri Tycho]

It's not that Snorri was feeling "safe" mind you, but he had been moving his Hussar at top speed through a forest, where the cover supposedly would help. He wasn't a particular high value target with the others around him, so it seemed like danger was present, but not immanent. And then the warning indicators screamed as missile locks slapped onto him. He juked the Hussar, the missiles instead catching on the tree. He stumbled, and that's when the laser hit. Snorri felt it before the system screamed, the Hussar slamming to the ground.

There was a ringing in his ears, and Snorri found himself blinking. It was unreal, not registering for a moment until the realization horribly dawned.

"No." His voice was a hoarse whisper. He tried to jog the Hussar's legs, only to realize that there was simply no leg to move.

"You there, Tycho? Do you need pickup?"

Snorri shut his eyes. This Hussar was his. It was the most valuable thing in the world that he possessed, the last link to his old life.

And it would be an incredibly sentimental coffin.

"The leg is a wash Major. I don't think I can move it at all. I...don't think I can get the Hussar to the retreat point. I hate to leave it, but I don't see a way to save it. I'm punching out"

____
Beginning evacuation

[Felicity]

Felicity couldn't see what had happened through the trees, but she could guess from the Major's radio chatter. With the Jagermech now a smoking ruin she had options.

"Eject DJ. I'm going to provide a bigger distraction. Armour and systems still good."

With that Felicity angled her mech and jumped right over the Dragon before it could lay into her. She sailed past it, firing her jump jets in such a way the mech spun around mid-air. She lands in the far trees and immediately starts looking for a shot. Licking her lips, she decided upon the somewhat exposed Panther.

(Jump to 1303, facing South. Fire PPC at the Panther #2)

[Comstar]

The battle was deteriorating into a brawl. The Sholagar overshot the Shilone as it pulled a tight turn to try and make a second pass, giving Alexei a clean shot for a firing run.

On the ground, things were far from clean. The Phoenix Hawk, with the Grand Dragon in its face, fired both medium lasers, scoring only a glancing hit (LT, 2 damage), and in turn, Yuri fired both his Medium lasers and LRMs, the cloud of missiles streaking past the Blackjack while a single laser caught the Phoenix Hawk in the arm, blowing the limb clean off (Hit LA, 5 damage) Behind him, Marik moved his Crab to defend the fallen Hussar, firing both lasers at the stationary Panther, but in a sick fluke of luck, both beams bracketed the mech, rather than striking it. In return, the Panther fired all it had. The SRMs fell short, but the PPC knifed into the Crab's Right Torso (Hit RT, 10 damage), and then twin emerald beams from the spider struck (Hit LA+RT, 5 damage each), and then a handful of Autocannon shells smashed into the right leg from the Blackjack (hit RL, 2 damage), which also pivoted, firing all four medium lasers at the Grand Dragon, but only scoring a glancing blow (hit RL, 2 damage).

The Dragon fired all it had at the Wyvern, but got nothing, while Maja, landing astride the hilltop, fired a storm of missiles and a large laser at the Panther in the woods - most went wide, but 6 missiles detonated across the target (hit LA, 6 damage). Felicty, bounding toward the back of the Black Dragon formation, got a lucky shot across the gorge at the Panther, shattering away the armor on the gun arm in a single blast (hit RA, 10 damage), but in turn, the Panther loosed a volley of SRMs, which nearly struck her cockpit (EDGE head hit, hit RT+CT+CT+CT, 2 damage each), but instead detonated across the torso.

Snorri, knowing his mech was a sitting duck, pulled the eject, the cockpit blowing out and carrying him with it, through some small brush which hurt like hell but didn't do much lasting damage, and then the chair popped the thruster to slow him, and he was hitting earth. Cutting himself loose, he was on his feet, an infantryman wearing nothing but his mechwarrior gear and his survival kit, on a battlefield of giants.

The Phoenix hawk tried to kick the Dragon away, smashing armor off, (Hit RL, 9 damage) but Yuri kept his balance (Piloting roll passed), and slammed his own mech's foot into the Phoenix Hawk's knee, cracking it back and partially shattering the hip and ankle joints. (Hit RL, 12 damage, crit Hip, crit foot, piloting roll failed, mech falls) Off balance, the Phoenix Hawk teetered, and then dropped on its right side (Hit RT, 5 damage, Pilot injured, Pilot awake)

The Phoenix-Hawk staggered to its feet, wobbled, and then collapsed again. The first panther tried to come cover it, but Yuri simply backed away, keeping the threat range on the Phoenix Hawk and protecting his flank. The remaining enemy units attempted to consolidate, though the Spider leapt forward, either flanking or searching for Snorri.

---- Situation ----

Grand Dragon -- 9 LA, 4 RL, 2 RT, 2 CTR, 2 LT damage -- 2 heat
Wyvern (Maja) -- 0 damage -- 7 heat
Crab (Marik) -- 13 LA, 15 RT, 5 CT, 2 RL damage -- 5 heat
Phoenix (Felicity) -- 2 RA, 2 LL, 8 CT, 5 LA, 10 LT, 2 RT damage -- 4 heat
Hussar (Snorri) -- Disabled by Ejection

---- Hostile Status ----

Jagermech ---- Destroyed
Phoenix Hawk ---- +0
Panther ---- +0
Panther #2 ---- +2
Spider ---- +2
Dragon #2 ---- +1
Blackjack ---- +0
Vindicator ---- +0

[Maja Eklund]

Maja didn’t like this one bit, a brawl was the last thing they wanted given the goal of slowly bleeding the enemy over a retreat.

“DJ, are you getting out okay? Make it to Herr Yuri if you can or find some cover and I will be picking you up.”

The Wyvern flies left, gaining height and firing at the prone Phoenix Hawk

“Herr Yuri. What are you thinking? You and Abs are both taking the beating.”

(( Jet to 1014 and large laser/LRM at the Phoenix hawk.))