Sad, but understandable. Take care!
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I figure Lloyd would have the scanner installed on his mech.
"That's probably their main DropShip, or at least we're scouting it like it is," Lloyd replies. "Hence, scouting. Meaning we're not sticking around and fighting anything if we can help it, right?"
"There's no way they got this much metal out here just raiding and pirating," Lloyd responds. "You could hardly afford to keep this many 'Mechs ammo'd up and maintained off of what you could steal in this corner of the Periphery, not without a bunch of DropShips at least. And then you'd need to keep the DropShips supplied..." He shakes his head. "I'm just saying it doesn't make sense for pirates out this way to have this much firepower without some outside backing."
Lloyd shrugs. "We shouldn't be dealing with hostages or prisoners on a scouting run. I mean, sure, if things go as crazy as they did last time maybe it could happen, but I vote that if this time things look like they're getting crazy we just run." He pauses. "As much as I'm nervous about this whole thing, I just... I guess, this feels like something big. The kind of big that'll come back to bite us when we least expect it if we don't at least figure out what's going on. These pirates probably aren't pirates, and if it turns out they're supported by one of the big powers or they're actually onto something about there being Star League gear here? Next thing we know we might have to get out of this whole section of the galaxy if we don't want to be caught up in another new warfront."
Lloyd sits back and lets Lapeidra do the talking. He's delivered the information, and is more than happy to let other people make the decisions based on it. And scouting isn't so bad. Usually. Except when it goes bad.
Lloyd is fairly mercenary, but he's definitely squeamish about killing people in cold blood. But he's also a coward so he just avoided the whole situation.
Ouch! Hope the stings stop stinging soon.
"I did spot a possible camoflauged power source on the flight here," Lloyd adds. "We didn't stop to take a look, but I have the coordinates. If it's Hutton then maybe he won't realize we detected him since we didn't react."
Yeah, I just didn't want Lloyd to even be in the area for this... ...which leaves me a bit unclear on where he is. I think I said he tagged along to the command meeting to report on the heat signature he picked up?
Probably the others also need to repair, so now might be the time to haggle over some equipment swaps and parts and repair before this next mission.
Lloyd gets up from the sensor station as soon as the ship lands and hurries out to the others, just in time to get a face full of icy wind. Spluttering and blinking, he makes sure to catch Markus before he goes to meet Vikhaus. "I spotted something out-of-place on the way here. Didn't get a good look at it, but it had a significant heat signature and looked more recent than anything else we've seen here from the brief glimpse of it. I've got the coordinates if you want to pass them along to the Commander."
Lloyd is just as glad to be staying out of the whole Diego thing right now... in fact after all of this he's quite happy burying himself in sensor readouts and ignoring everything for a bit. I do think ammo and armor repairs not being tracked sounds good. Sounds like we're kind of waiting to hear from Vikhaus on possible offers?
Lloyd, once his 'mech is safely stowed, makes his way to the ship's sensor station, wondering if he might be able to get a sight of something that would make this world worth having such a weight of metal on it as they head to orbit.
Yeah, I think turning him over to the operation's command would be best if we can. Assuming he didn't recognize the Locust coming and decide to take his chances off in the woods.
Lloyd shakes his head at Lapeidra's suggestion. "If we were taking off of some airless rock we might be able to fix something on the hull, but there's plenty of atmosphere here to mess up any kind of takeoff with two very much non-aerodynamic lumps of metal stuck on the outside." He looks over at the techs to confirm his analysis. "Are those pirates headed for us...? If they're not, we could maybe strip down one of the Wasps and leave it behind. We may just have to leave one behind in either case, it'd just be better if we could strip out the guns at least..." He trails off and turns to his sensors, trying to see if the heavier BattleMechs are headed their way or for the mine or even somewhere else.
Yeah, if we have to leave anything behind I'd vote a Wasp. One of Lloyd or Charly could swap to the Commando. This is one thing I always chuckled about in the video games, how you could have a limited number of deployed 'Mechs and then dozens of pieces of them in storage. Could we maybe consider some kind of 'storage' state for 'Mechs like the latest Battletech video game did, that will let them take up less space? Infinite storage is definitely too much, but being able to fit some for backups is a necessity. Looks like we only got three Medium Lasers in terms of equipment salvage from these 'Mechs. We could maybe strip out another ML and the SRM if we have to leave a Wasp behind, though if we're in a rush to take off before more pirates arrive we may not have time for it. I'm debating if there's anything I want to tweak for Lloyd. Maybe moving "It’s Great as Long as I Forget it’s Not a Sim" from being one of his aspects to being his Trouble... not that there's much difference between the two spots.
I do suspect these will be salvages, not full mechs, given how much we blasted them... I'm trying to remember, did we have some rules about salvaging equipment from mechs, too?
Grumbling to himself about how his lancemates are going to get themselves killed at this rate, Lloyd throws his little Wasp intot he salvaging task, trying to get the group moving as quickly as possible before more enemies arrived.
Lloyd looks over the new contacts and makes some quick mental calculations. "Ready to get out of here now?" He can't help but have a bit of a bite in his voice. "I don't want to get anywhere close to that kind of firepower. Maybe we can grab something quick on our way but if you try to drag that Thunderbolt back I'm leaving you behind."
Grumbling under his breath, Lloyd keeps feeding his lancemates targetting information, going for whichever Charly wasn't painting with her sensors.
Lloyd is more than happy to let the remaining bandits run away. "Okay, we lucked out. Now let's get out of here before our luck goes sour," he radioes to the rest of the lance.
Lloyd figures that they have to take the Thunderbolt down, NOW, so he switches from disruption to targetting, trying to feed his lance a better targetting solution on their biggest opponent.
Grumbling about being stuck with a bunch of insane asylum escapees, Lloyd hangs back and cranks up his sensors. He reads the frequencies from the Shadowhawk for a bit, then matches it with his own, trying to scramble its targeting and at least give his lancemates a chance to not die.
Lloyd's vote is to retreat, but that's because he's something of a coward, not because he's extensively analyzed the tactical situation. I as a player would say retreat, too, though. We could probably take down the Thunderbolt fairly quickly, yes, but I don't think we have much damage at all on the others, and they all match or exceed us in terms of armor if I'm not mistaken. With Charly and Lloyd out of range for their weapons (not that the Wasps would add much if they were in range anyway), we'd basically be gambling on the Thunderbolt going down in one more round of fire and then hoping that the fact we have one more light mech in the mix than they would at that point would be enough to tip the scales. Also note that Lapeidra is already halfway filled on mental stress, so it'll only take another good roll or two to get her to retreat. Lloyd will help with creating advantages if the lance's decision is to stay, but he's against it.
"Look, I don't want any of you to die, but that kind of weight of metal could rip through my entire mech including my cockpit in one volley. It's a miracle you're not already dead, and I'm not counting on any more miracles. We need to get out of here now," Lloyd pleads.
"Agreed," Lloyd instantly chimes in after Charly speaks. "They may be damaged, but they still outgun us, and a lot of us aren't in great shape either. We've hurt them, we can fall back and repair, but what kind of repair facilities do they have any more? We'll get fixed up, coordinate with the rest of the operation, and maybe finish them off later."
Grumbling to himself about how he got caught up with such a bunch of insane Mechwarriors, Lloyd nimbly navigates his Wasp through the trees towards the battle, hoping there'll be enough of Lapeidra left after this to yell at.
"Are you insane?" Lloyd asks incredulously after Lapeidra speaks. "Just get out of there!" Shaking his head, Lloyd moves up to support the rest of the lance, muttering to himself about how insane they are.
A feeling of dread settles in the depths of Lloyd's stomach as he looks over his sensor readings. She's *way* outgunned, and so far from the rest of the lance... he thinks to himself. All right, how does she get out of this alive... Looking at the situation, he sees the pirates are strung out in a line, with her in the middle of them. Maybe if she swings wide, she could at least quit getting flanked? Then if they came up behind the lighter ones... she could probably get away from the heavier mechs. That means she needs a route... Lloyd starts scanning for a route for Lapeidra to get out from between the pirates. "Lapeidra, sending nav data. Fastest route out of flanking to rejoin us," he radioes to her.
Lloyd stops where he's at for the moment. "Where's Lapeidra?" he radoies to Markus. Not waiting for the answer, he probes the distance with his sensors, hoping to find her or at least draw attention.
Lloyd doesn't push his luck, instead turning and heading towards the extraction point, keeping his eyes and sensors open for trouble as he goes.
Lloyd, in his lightly-armed Wasp, has no desire to engage. And so he thinks over what he can do in the way of deception. After a few moments of thought, something occurs to him. "I've got an idea, give me a moment," he sends to the others, then looks for the highest point he can find nearby. As he goes, he fiddles with his sensors, trying to make them look as much like aerospace fighter targetting sensors. Once he's gotten as high as he thinks he can, he turns up his sensors and focuses them on the approaching enemies, hoping to get them to run for cover instead of continuing advancing.
Lloyd shuts off the comm link to the pirates. "Didn't think that would work," he mutters as news comes in and people move. Shaking his head, he runs back to his little Wasp and gets ready to move. "Let me do a sensor sweep of the terrain around here. Maybe I can find a faster way out of here. All the civilians are off safe, right?" he says over the lance's channel as he gets ready to move.
Yes, hope you feel better!
Lloyd looks at Charly for a moment, an unvoiced question in his eyes, then he shrugs and turns back to the comm. "Diego's a bit... indisposed right now," he says, trying to sound exhausted and frightened (which isn't far from the truth). "We got hit hard here too, I'm not sure what's actually still mobile any more. Roarke got hit too, not sure if he'll make it. Some of the civvies got uppity and hit the mine while we were fighting the attack off here, the idiots hit the lift... pretty sure everyone we were keeping down there's dead now." He takes a deep breath to buy himself some time to think. "That... well, they went pretty crazy at that point. There's only a handful of us left alive here, and I think some of those crazies are still holed up outside somewhere. Last guy who poked his head out to take a look has a hole in it now. We can try to break out and get something running, but it's... it's not looking good."
Lloyd breathes a quiet sigh of relief that they were able to get everyone before the lift failed, which transitions to a frown when he notes the blinking comm link. "We've got a message from outside," he says. "Do you think it's the others? More trouble on the way? I'm finding out." He flicks the comm link on.
Lloyd lends a hand where he can in moving the crane and repairing the lift. As he helps with the lift he searches for its control connections, thinking he could just splice into it and take a guess at what the control commands probably are. Once it's in working order he gives it his best shot, aiming for something that won't cause damage in case he's wrong.
Lloyd looks around at the damage in the control room. "You say we could fix the lift? If we can't get things working here we might be able to just bypass the controls and directly run the lift..." It doesn't take much to notice the doubt in his tone.
By Tech in the "Tech vs Overcome +3" do you mean any kind of Engineering? There's not a Tech skill as far as I can see in the document.
Lloyd looks a bit startled at the words from the comm unit. He quickly looks over at the terminal. "I doubt there's a way, but listen. The shooting's stopped. If we get up to the main control room we can probably hack into the lift quick enough." He turns and rushes back the way they came, heading for the main office.
Lloyd notes Charly looking around. "Did something catch your eye?" he asks, until he notes the blinking comm. "Oh. You're going to get that?"
Lloyd plugs in another little device he pulls from a pocket. "I always keep a spare something to store data on, just in case," he comments as he starts the copy.
Lloyd is completely oblivious to the continued gunfire outside for several minutes as he focuses in on bypassing security and then examining the fruits of his and Charly's labor. He nods absently to her as he reads over the more interesting bits of journal. "Yeah, I was planning on making a copy..." he murmurs, starting the process as he keeps reading. "Wonder if any of this is nearby..." While the copy goes on, he compares the locations of the supposed stashes to their present coordinates.
Lloyd frowns slightly at the odd files. "What do we have here..." he murmurs to himself as he goes to work trying to crack into them. Thinking that the direct approach is unlikely to work, he starts working through some common vulnerabilities in systems like this that would give him root access to the system.
Seeing the distraction going on, Lloyd slides down the ladder and sprints to the pump room.
He runs to the computer terminal. "I've got this!" he shouts at Charly, pulling his hacking tools out and getting to work.
Lloyd lays low for a bit. Killing someone... he's done it in a 'mech plenty, but it's... a lot worse, up close like this. He's had to once before, but that was pure self-defense. Wait, was self-defense somehow better than killing in defense of others? Ethics were complicated, and hard to think about while getting shot at. For the moment, though, the heat wasn't on him, so the former sensor tech dares look for an opportunity. He notes the pirate distracted by clearing his gun and fires off a couple quick rounds at him before ducking back into cover.
To be clear, Lloyd *hasn't* yet reached the pump control room, just the platform with the ladder, right?
Ooof, that sounds rough :( Take all the time you need.
Lloyd has done his level best to avoid fighting on foot, but he's spent time in simulators practicing his aim, just in case. This is, of course, nothing like the sims, but there's one reflex he *does* have down: When the enemy gets out of cover, you shoot them.
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