Mechwarrior - Tales of the 35th Commando
The Situation
The time is right around 3049. The team members will be in the Federated Commonwealth, members of the AFFS, serving under the rule of Hanse Davion. They are all recent academy graduates (or transfers from another unit). Everyone has received sealed orders directing them to the planet Lyceum where the mission briefing will be delivered.
The situation, as presented by Col. Jackoby, Special Information Group.
The unit 35th commando, located on Tancredi IV, has fallen on hard times. The last several missions have ended badly. The team has been assigned to the Special Information Group and assembled on Lyceum to receive their mission. Here is the gist of it.
The 35th Commando is lead by Col. Trag, XO is Major Drummer.
The last several missions have resulted in failure - in some cases the commando has been ambushed, twice in extractions the intended target was not present, facilities targeted have been abandoned, that kind of thing. It is obvious that there is some kind of spy in the 35th Commando.
Special Information Group (SIG) have sent in 3 different highly trained operatives to try to infiltrate the Commando - all three have died. One was killed by an ambush, one killed while searching a facility for a prisoner and the building blew up, and one killed while training - his coolant was reversed so instead of bring heat out of the cockpit, it flooded the cockpit with heat and cooked him. SIG has decided to send in the team now - they have no connections to SIG, and only a very small handful of people know their true mission. Jackoby assures them that there is no way the members of the 35th commando will know of their connection to SIG. He lets them know that SIG has arranged for a cover of sorts. Knowing that whoever is the leak in the Commando is will expect another attempt to get an operative into the unit, Jackoby has arranged for another trained operative to be inserted into the commando - who will be arriving the day after the team does. This operative, named Lt. Bitzer, is actually a double agent, in the pay of the Capellans. He is unaware that his cover has been blown however, and thinks that he is on a legitimate mission. The team is not to interfere with him - or interact with him at all. Let him do his job - and survive if he can.
The team arrived and be assigned barracks rooms - 2 to a room. The day after they arrive, they will all meet Col. Trag. The Col. will not be too happy to see them, he has not been happy for awhile now, and this constant need for new recruits is very damaging to the Commando efficiency. Trag will assemble all the members of the commando and briefly talk to them, then assign the new members to their rides.
The First Mission
The Commando had a first assignment that included the new squad. The 35th proceeded to the Draconis Combine, then on to the designated mission site. Third Squad was be assigned to a back-up roll and was not expected to face any action at all. That was the plan anyway. Unfortunately, they did indeed run into an enemy lance, one that out-weighed them by 15-20 tons. Before the encounter got too far though, 3rd squad received a recall order - the mission was aborted and they retreated to the dropships.
Enemy mechs: Hunchback, Centurion, Assassin, Vindicator.
Results: The squad engaged the enemy lance, stayed together pretty well - and retreated in good order. Very minimal damage was given or received. Rating - successful.
The Interim
To get to know their new mechmates, as well as to start the process off to ferret out the mole, the lance threw a barbecue for the entire 35th Commando.
Results:
"Oracle" Evans managed to get a copy of the 35th Commando Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE), which certainly helps track who is who. Oracle also managed to impress and befriend Cabbage (Messmate) with his skill at barbequing.
Hayes (mechanic) likes "Knight" Hunter even if he does think that Knight is a bit whacked
Steamer Cleveland managed to piss off Robbie (Doctor), which doesn't bode well if Steamer ever gets messed up badly in a fight.
Typhon is broke (no surprise there), but has found some entertaining girls (also wik).
Steamer and Typhon played a game of Mechshoes - a game designed to highlight Mech Piloting sills - against Byrd and Kipling. They lost, but not by much. Typhon did very well and impresses the other pilots of the 35th.
Second Mission
The 35th Commando was assigned to travel to Misery (in the Draconis Combine), where they were to break into the facilities at Rosaba Center. The Center was a research facility that had some important data that the tech boys back in the Fed Com really wanted. The plan was for 1st squad to be the real primary of the assault, backed up by second squad. 3rd squad is to actually attack first, hitting a back-up facility several miles away - the theory was that 3rd's attack would hopefully draw off some of the primary defenders. 3rd would then retreat and continue to draw them off. This would allow the primary assault force to break into Rosaba Center, send some people into the facility, break into the computers and get the necessary data. Then 1st and 2nd squads would head out and rendezvous with 3rd squad to beat off any enemy mechs still pursuing. The entire commandos would then meet up with the drop ships and get off the planet.
The reality: The attack of the 3rd squad did NOT draw off any defenders. They faced only 2 enemy mechs. Once word of this got to Col. Trag, he revised the plan and to have 3rd squad proceed in and attack the backup facility. A copy of the data should be inside, so they were to go in and capture the data and destroy the facility.
Enemy mechs:
Shadow Hawk, Enforcer
Once those mechs were beaten, the squad had to pick there best two technical members (well, best one with a gun-toting sidekick) and send them into the facility to retrieve the data and cause some damage. The balance of the 3rd would remain on guard outside.
Results:
The Kurita defending guards were easily defeated and the 3rd Lance gained entry to the back up facility. "Steamer" Cleveland and Rich Hunter infiltrated the facility, and encountered some rather unfriendly guards. A brief gunfight followed, Steamer and Rich were victorious, but took some serious wounds. Rich turned out to be the only one with any measureable technical skills - but he did successfully get (most) of the required data. The pilots were badly enough woulded that any thought of sabotaging the facility was forgotten - escape was paramount.
By the time Steamer and Rich got out of the facility and a truly feeble attempt at patching up their wounds was attempted (and failed), more enemy mechs were inbound (Assassin, Whitworth, Clint). Some astute observation by the lance members bought out the fact that the enemy mechs were already damaged. Final result of the combat was that the Clint was blown up and the other two mechs were pretty badly mauled and ran away.
The Lance then proceeded towards the Landing Zone (LZ), only to get word along the way that the LZ had come under fire and the Leopards had to dust off. New orders came through for the Lance to join up with the rest of the Commando. The lance managed to closely avoid a couple encounters with enemy mechs, which was good because they were not in any condition to fight another battle. They finally got too close to an enemy lance so that they could not avoid the encounter - but fortunately they were close enough to the rest of the commando that an ambush was set and the enemy driven off.
With the Commando all assembled, the better med-techs were able to help out Steamer Cleveland and Knight Hunter, so they are now more effective. The challenge was then to:
The lance searched for a new LZ (aided by some good Tactics rolls), and proceeded to the location. The entire Commando gathered in the area, and was deployed into a defensive perimeter - due to some good Tactics rolls, the lance had the advantage of choosing the ground for this fight, which helped out significantly. The next step was to contact the dropships to call them in to make landing and pick up the lance. Here, Communication rolls failed the squad, so the dropships took longer to arrive for them than it did for other lances. That meant that the lance had to hold off the attackers for more combat rounds than the other squads.
The battle went well - the lance successfully held off the attackers, in the process heavily damaging and driving off a Jenner and Wolfhound. The other two mechs in the attacking lance, a Hunchback and a Hermes II were taken out by the dropship gunnery.
For the most part, the lance only suffered superficial damage - armor, very limited internal structure damage. The only exception to that was "Oracle" Evans ride - that Vindicator had his leg blown off by the Hunchback.
Net results
The critical data was recovered from the Kurita facility, which was a great success for the 35th Commando. It was apparent however, that the mole is still active within the Commando - the Kuritan's were forewarned of the impending raid and had prepared to meet the invading forces. Third squad, new to the Commando was not considered a significant threat, so their target was largely ignored by the defending forces. It is doubtful that such a mistake will be repeated.
Thieves in the Night
Colonel Trag got some new intel - very hot, very good. He ordered all mech pilots - NO mechs, just pilots - and one mechanic per lance - to mount up in the dropships. They brought cooling vests, etc. and field kit. No questions, NO communication. If anyone were to attempt to communicate with someone outside the 35th commando pilots, they would have been imprisoned, put in solitary and tried for treason.
The Commando went back to Misery actually. Trag had gotten word that the Kuritans had some new mechs coming in, and Trag wanted to see if he could steal some before they were fully online and assigned to pilots. The Commando landed and attacked from 4 different directions, trying to stealth in and get to as many mechs as possible before the full base was aroused.
How it came out:
The Commando got to Misery and landed safely. All 3 lances plus the commanders moved in, as well as a tech with each group to assist with cracking the lock-outs on the mechs. Once the Commando was on the ground and moving in, someone - probably with either Lance One or Lance Two (impossible to tell which), launched a communication transponder, which alerted the Kuritans that something was up and gave an indication of the plan of attack. The alert came too late to be totally effective though, so the Commando was able to infiltrate the base and get to several of the mechs before any additional guards arrived. The Commando had to fight it's way out of the base and back to their dropships, and a few of the stolen mechs were wiped out in the process. The lost mechs, though a shame, were not really bad - the Kuritans had some serious repairs to perform on their new mechs before they could put them in the field vs. Davion forces.
Back on Tancredi IV
The entire Commando got back to Tancredi IV. There were be accolades, etc. for everyone. The Commando had captured numerous mechs from the Kuritans - Lance Three having captured 5 mechs, Lance Two got 2, Lance One got 3, and the commanders got 2 of their own. In addition 4 enemy mechs were either destroyed or heavily damaged. All in all, a very successful mission.
The techs happily set to repairing and refitting the new mechs, thrilled to have new "babies" to work on. The celebration was short-lived however, as a base-wide alert came out that there was a fugitive escaping. Everyone was to mobilize and assist in the chase. First Squad was out on maneuvers, so already in their mechs and therefore the best prepared for the chase. Because of that, Captain Haydon was given tactical command of the chase.
It came out that the fugitive was indeed Master Sergeant Lincoln, lead tech from Lance One. There was strong evidence that he had been in communication with the Kuritans. Lincoln fled the base in a stolen jeep, and Capt. Hayden was directing everyone to be sure to disable not destroy the jeep, so Lincoln could be taken for questioning. Before the chase closed in however, an emergency signal went out to all pilots - everyone was to immediately Return To Base (RTB) - enemy forces had been detected on-planet and heading for the Commando base. Apparently, the Kuritans were not happy about the raid on their planet, and were coming for revenge - and maybe even to try to take some of their mechs back.
What Happened:
The Kuritans did indeed attack - and pretty heavy as well. They came in on a Union dropship, with mostly Heavy and Medium mechs. They were beaten off, and took more damage to their mechs then they gave to the Davion mechs - but the news is not all good. While the mechs were slugging it out, the Union's other occupants, consisting of mostly infantry but some combat vehicles as well, went out on some raids. They successfully stole a significant amount of munitions and some vital computer equipment, and left bombs behind that did even more damage. The net result of the raid was definitely a win for the Kuritan side.
The Battle
The Mechs of the 35th Commando were assembled in a defensive line to hold off the advancing Kurita mechs. First Lance was holding the middle, Second Lance the right and Third Lance held the left flank. The Commando mechs were somewhat out-weighed at all three areas, but additional fire support from the base itself proved the deciding factor in the fight. For the most part, both sides just exchanged damage, but the attacking forces lost their commander to a head shot. The Kuritans had 2 other mechs destroyed, and the 35th Commando lost 2 mechs as well. All four of the pilots from those destroyed mechs survived.
The Mole:
Master Sergeant Lincoln was the fugitive that had been brought in by Oracle and Steamer and delivered to Col. Trag. After Oracle and Steamer left to get to their mechs, Lincoln tried to escape and was killed by mech fire. At least that is the official story. What really happened is that Lincoln convinced Trag that he was not the mole, that it was in fact Captain Haydon - leader of Lance One. Trag and Lincoln worked out a fake escape where Lincoln was "killed" - and actually went in to hiding. At the conclusion of the mech battle (where Trag actually assisted Lance One and Lance Three), Trag met with Oracle and both sides came clean.
Trag then knew (or had his suspicions confirmed) that the members of Lance Three all were sent in by SIG to uncover the mole. Trag also filled in Oracle about the real story on Lincoln. What Trag wants to do is to set up a trap for Hayden that will catch his contacts as well. Lincoln will remain in hiding until after Hayden has been arrested. Since the official story - and belief of most of 35th Commando - was that the mole had been eliminated, the mood of the commando was much more relaxed then it has been for some time. Lance Three was under strict orders to take no action at all that could in any way betray their knowledge of Haydon's identity. No heroics until Trag gets his plan in place.
The Trap For Haydon:
Trag got things in place. The 35th Commando deployed to attack Misery (again). The commando used decoy drones that appeared to be dropships on all sensory equipment. Trag had laid out 5 drop locations. The "official" droppoint is designated "Drop A" - this is what the Commando as a whole has been told, and has actually been leaked to the Kurita forces. The command council of the 35th, which includes Col. Trag, Major Drummer, Captain Haydon, Captain Harwell and (acting) Captain Evans had been given a different location - "Drop C" as the real target. That was the trap for Haydon. The actual real target for the mission was a computer mainframe, located "Drop D". "Drop B" is a fake, and "Drop E" was supposed to be a fake, but really was where some of the commando deployed.
Haydon and First Lance landed at D and commenced the attack. On the way down, Trag informed them that they got new intel, showing the mission target to be located at D, rather than C, that is why the late change in plans. He also told Haydon that due to the lateness of the mission change, only First Lance would be able to make the real target, the rest would be forced to go with target C. The reality was that point C was well defended, as expected since Haydon got the word to the Kuritans about the impending raid. Second and Third Lances actually landed at E, and moved rapidly to close on D in a flanking maneuver, to make sure the mission got completed - and to offset anything that Haydon tried.
How it come down
Trags plan worked perfectly. Point C was indeed set up by the Kuritans as a trap - heavily defended with a reinforced mech company and new hard points added to the already existing lance and static defenses at the (fake) target facility, ready for the incoming attack. The drones that came to C were actually specially configured to drop cluster munitions on the defending forces and facility, and also to spread a mine field between C and D, to slow them down reinforcing the traitor. Haydon brought First Lance to the facility, albeit a bit slowly, and prepared to "attack". At the same time, he also called for the Kuritan forces to come in. The Kuritan's came with the forces they had at C - taking significant damage from the mine field and losing 3 mechs to lost legs, and Haydon was actually preparing to surrender the First Lance when Trag's forces arrived - and started jamming Haydon's transmissions.
The 35th Commando now has First Lance, including the traitor Haydon on one side of the Kurita company, and Second and Third Lances, as well as Command, to the real of the attacking Kurita mechs. The attacking forces have all been damaged by another drone overpass dropping cluster munitions on them.
The time is right around 3049. The team members will be in the Federated Commonwealth, members of the AFFS, serving under the rule of Hanse Davion. They are all recent academy graduates (or transfers from another unit). Everyone has received sealed orders directing them to the planet Lyceum where the mission briefing will be delivered.
The situation, as presented by Col. Jackoby, Special Information Group.
The unit 35th commando, located on Tancredi IV, has fallen on hard times. The last several missions have ended badly. The team has been assigned to the Special Information Group and assembled on Lyceum to receive their mission. Here is the gist of it.
The 35th Commando is lead by Col. Trag, XO is Major Drummer.
The last several missions have resulted in failure - in some cases the commando has been ambushed, twice in extractions the intended target was not present, facilities targeted have been abandoned, that kind of thing. It is obvious that there is some kind of spy in the 35th Commando.
Special Information Group (SIG) have sent in 3 different highly trained operatives to try to infiltrate the Commando - all three have died. One was killed by an ambush, one killed while searching a facility for a prisoner and the building blew up, and one killed while training - his coolant was reversed so instead of bring heat out of the cockpit, it flooded the cockpit with heat and cooked him. SIG has decided to send in the team now - they have no connections to SIG, and only a very small handful of people know their true mission. Jackoby assures them that there is no way the members of the 35th commando will know of their connection to SIG. He lets them know that SIG has arranged for a cover of sorts. Knowing that whoever is the leak in the Commando is will expect another attempt to get an operative into the unit, Jackoby has arranged for another trained operative to be inserted into the commando - who will be arriving the day after the team does. This operative, named Lt. Bitzer, is actually a double agent, in the pay of the Capellans. He is unaware that his cover has been blown however, and thinks that he is on a legitimate mission. The team is not to interfere with him - or interact with him at all. Let him do his job - and survive if he can.
The team arrived and be assigned barracks rooms - 2 to a room. The day after they arrive, they will all meet Col. Trag. The Col. will not be too happy to see them, he has not been happy for awhile now, and this constant need for new recruits is very damaging to the Commando efficiency. Trag will assemble all the members of the commando and briefly talk to them, then assign the new members to their rides.
The First Mission
The Commando had a first assignment that included the new squad. The 35th proceeded to the Draconis Combine, then on to the designated mission site. Third Squad was be assigned to a back-up roll and was not expected to face any action at all. That was the plan anyway. Unfortunately, they did indeed run into an enemy lance, one that out-weighed them by 15-20 tons. Before the encounter got too far though, 3rd squad received a recall order - the mission was aborted and they retreated to the dropships.
Enemy mechs: Hunchback, Centurion, Assassin, Vindicator.
Results: The squad engaged the enemy lance, stayed together pretty well - and retreated in good order. Very minimal damage was given or received. Rating - successful.
The Interim
To get to know their new mechmates, as well as to start the process off to ferret out the mole, the lance threw a barbecue for the entire 35th Commando.
Results:
"Oracle" Evans managed to get a copy of the 35th Commando Table of Organization and Equipment (TOE), which certainly helps track who is who. Oracle also managed to impress and befriend Cabbage (Messmate) with his skill at barbequing.
Hayes (mechanic) likes "Knight" Hunter even if he does think that Knight is a bit whacked
Steamer Cleveland managed to piss off Robbie (Doctor), which doesn't bode well if Steamer ever gets messed up badly in a fight.
Typhon is broke (no surprise there), but has found some entertaining girls (also wik).
Steamer and Typhon played a game of Mechshoes - a game designed to highlight Mech Piloting sills - against Byrd and Kipling. They lost, but not by much. Typhon did very well and impresses the other pilots of the 35th.
Second Mission
The 35th Commando was assigned to travel to Misery (in the Draconis Combine), where they were to break into the facilities at Rosaba Center. The Center was a research facility that had some important data that the tech boys back in the Fed Com really wanted. The plan was for 1st squad to be the real primary of the assault, backed up by second squad. 3rd squad is to actually attack first, hitting a back-up facility several miles away - the theory was that 3rd's attack would hopefully draw off some of the primary defenders. 3rd would then retreat and continue to draw them off. This would allow the primary assault force to break into Rosaba Center, send some people into the facility, break into the computers and get the necessary data. Then 1st and 2nd squads would head out and rendezvous with 3rd squad to beat off any enemy mechs still pursuing. The entire commandos would then meet up with the drop ships and get off the planet.
The reality: The attack of the 3rd squad did NOT draw off any defenders. They faced only 2 enemy mechs. Once word of this got to Col. Trag, he revised the plan and to have 3rd squad proceed in and attack the backup facility. A copy of the data should be inside, so they were to go in and capture the data and destroy the facility.
Enemy mechs:
Shadow Hawk, Enforcer
Once those mechs were beaten, the squad had to pick there best two technical members (well, best one with a gun-toting sidekick) and send them into the facility to retrieve the data and cause some damage. The balance of the 3rd would remain on guard outside.
Results:
The Kurita defending guards were easily defeated and the 3rd Lance gained entry to the back up facility. "Steamer" Cleveland and Rich Hunter infiltrated the facility, and encountered some rather unfriendly guards. A brief gunfight followed, Steamer and Rich were victorious, but took some serious wounds. Rich turned out to be the only one with any measureable technical skills - but he did successfully get (most) of the required data. The pilots were badly enough woulded that any thought of sabotaging the facility was forgotten - escape was paramount.
By the time Steamer and Rich got out of the facility and a truly feeble attempt at patching up their wounds was attempted (and failed), more enemy mechs were inbound (Assassin, Whitworth, Clint). Some astute observation by the lance members bought out the fact that the enemy mechs were already damaged. Final result of the combat was that the Clint was blown up and the other two mechs were pretty badly mauled and ran away.
The Lance then proceeded towards the Landing Zone (LZ), only to get word along the way that the LZ had come under fire and the Leopards had to dust off. New orders came through for the Lance to join up with the rest of the Commando. The lance managed to closely avoid a couple encounters with enemy mechs, which was good because they were not in any condition to fight another battle. They finally got too close to an enemy lance so that they could not avoid the encounter - but fortunately they were close enough to the rest of the commando that an ambush was set and the enemy driven off.
With the Commando all assembled, the better med-techs were able to help out Steamer Cleveland and Knight Hunter, so they are now more effective. The challenge was then to:
- Find a new LZ
- Contact the Leopard Dropships and get the them coordinates for the new LZ
- Defend the LZ from any Kurita attacks
- Get the heck off of Misery
The lance searched for a new LZ (aided by some good Tactics rolls), and proceeded to the location. The entire Commando gathered in the area, and was deployed into a defensive perimeter - due to some good Tactics rolls, the lance had the advantage of choosing the ground for this fight, which helped out significantly. The next step was to contact the dropships to call them in to make landing and pick up the lance. Here, Communication rolls failed the squad, so the dropships took longer to arrive for them than it did for other lances. That meant that the lance had to hold off the attackers for more combat rounds than the other squads.
The battle went well - the lance successfully held off the attackers, in the process heavily damaging and driving off a Jenner and Wolfhound. The other two mechs in the attacking lance, a Hunchback and a Hermes II were taken out by the dropship gunnery.
For the most part, the lance only suffered superficial damage - armor, very limited internal structure damage. The only exception to that was "Oracle" Evans ride - that Vindicator had his leg blown off by the Hunchback.
Net results
The critical data was recovered from the Kurita facility, which was a great success for the 35th Commando. It was apparent however, that the mole is still active within the Commando - the Kuritan's were forewarned of the impending raid and had prepared to meet the invading forces. Third squad, new to the Commando was not considered a significant threat, so their target was largely ignored by the defending forces. It is doubtful that such a mistake will be repeated.
Thieves in the Night
Colonel Trag got some new intel - very hot, very good. He ordered all mech pilots - NO mechs, just pilots - and one mechanic per lance - to mount up in the dropships. They brought cooling vests, etc. and field kit. No questions, NO communication. If anyone were to attempt to communicate with someone outside the 35th commando pilots, they would have been imprisoned, put in solitary and tried for treason.
The Commando went back to Misery actually. Trag had gotten word that the Kuritans had some new mechs coming in, and Trag wanted to see if he could steal some before they were fully online and assigned to pilots. The Commando landed and attacked from 4 different directions, trying to stealth in and get to as many mechs as possible before the full base was aroused.
How it came out:
The Commando got to Misery and landed safely. All 3 lances plus the commanders moved in, as well as a tech with each group to assist with cracking the lock-outs on the mechs. Once the Commando was on the ground and moving in, someone - probably with either Lance One or Lance Two (impossible to tell which), launched a communication transponder, which alerted the Kuritans that something was up and gave an indication of the plan of attack. The alert came too late to be totally effective though, so the Commando was able to infiltrate the base and get to several of the mechs before any additional guards arrived. The Commando had to fight it's way out of the base and back to their dropships, and a few of the stolen mechs were wiped out in the process. The lost mechs, though a shame, were not really bad - the Kuritans had some serious repairs to perform on their new mechs before they could put them in the field vs. Davion forces.
Back on Tancredi IV
The entire Commando got back to Tancredi IV. There were be accolades, etc. for everyone. The Commando had captured numerous mechs from the Kuritans - Lance Three having captured 5 mechs, Lance Two got 2, Lance One got 3, and the commanders got 2 of their own. In addition 4 enemy mechs were either destroyed or heavily damaged. All in all, a very successful mission.
The techs happily set to repairing and refitting the new mechs, thrilled to have new "babies" to work on. The celebration was short-lived however, as a base-wide alert came out that there was a fugitive escaping. Everyone was to mobilize and assist in the chase. First Squad was out on maneuvers, so already in their mechs and therefore the best prepared for the chase. Because of that, Captain Haydon was given tactical command of the chase.
It came out that the fugitive was indeed Master Sergeant Lincoln, lead tech from Lance One. There was strong evidence that he had been in communication with the Kuritans. Lincoln fled the base in a stolen jeep, and Capt. Hayden was directing everyone to be sure to disable not destroy the jeep, so Lincoln could be taken for questioning. Before the chase closed in however, an emergency signal went out to all pilots - everyone was to immediately Return To Base (RTB) - enemy forces had been detected on-planet and heading for the Commando base. Apparently, the Kuritans were not happy about the raid on their planet, and were coming for revenge - and maybe even to try to take some of their mechs back.
What Happened:
The Kuritans did indeed attack - and pretty heavy as well. They came in on a Union dropship, with mostly Heavy and Medium mechs. They were beaten off, and took more damage to their mechs then they gave to the Davion mechs - but the news is not all good. While the mechs were slugging it out, the Union's other occupants, consisting of mostly infantry but some combat vehicles as well, went out on some raids. They successfully stole a significant amount of munitions and some vital computer equipment, and left bombs behind that did even more damage. The net result of the raid was definitely a win for the Kuritan side.
The Battle
The Mechs of the 35th Commando were assembled in a defensive line to hold off the advancing Kurita mechs. First Lance was holding the middle, Second Lance the right and Third Lance held the left flank. The Commando mechs were somewhat out-weighed at all three areas, but additional fire support from the base itself proved the deciding factor in the fight. For the most part, both sides just exchanged damage, but the attacking forces lost their commander to a head shot. The Kuritans had 2 other mechs destroyed, and the 35th Commando lost 2 mechs as well. All four of the pilots from those destroyed mechs survived.
The Mole:
Master Sergeant Lincoln was the fugitive that had been brought in by Oracle and Steamer and delivered to Col. Trag. After Oracle and Steamer left to get to their mechs, Lincoln tried to escape and was killed by mech fire. At least that is the official story. What really happened is that Lincoln convinced Trag that he was not the mole, that it was in fact Captain Haydon - leader of Lance One. Trag and Lincoln worked out a fake escape where Lincoln was "killed" - and actually went in to hiding. At the conclusion of the mech battle (where Trag actually assisted Lance One and Lance Three), Trag met with Oracle and both sides came clean.
Trag then knew (or had his suspicions confirmed) that the members of Lance Three all were sent in by SIG to uncover the mole. Trag also filled in Oracle about the real story on Lincoln. What Trag wants to do is to set up a trap for Hayden that will catch his contacts as well. Lincoln will remain in hiding until after Hayden has been arrested. Since the official story - and belief of most of 35th Commando - was that the mole had been eliminated, the mood of the commando was much more relaxed then it has been for some time. Lance Three was under strict orders to take no action at all that could in any way betray their knowledge of Haydon's identity. No heroics until Trag gets his plan in place.
The Trap For Haydon:
Trag got things in place. The 35th Commando deployed to attack Misery (again). The commando used decoy drones that appeared to be dropships on all sensory equipment. Trag had laid out 5 drop locations. The "official" droppoint is designated "Drop A" - this is what the Commando as a whole has been told, and has actually been leaked to the Kurita forces. The command council of the 35th, which includes Col. Trag, Major Drummer, Captain Haydon, Captain Harwell and (acting) Captain Evans had been given a different location - "Drop C" as the real target. That was the trap for Haydon. The actual real target for the mission was a computer mainframe, located "Drop D". "Drop B" is a fake, and "Drop E" was supposed to be a fake, but really was where some of the commando deployed.
Haydon and First Lance landed at D and commenced the attack. On the way down, Trag informed them that they got new intel, showing the mission target to be located at D, rather than C, that is why the late change in plans. He also told Haydon that due to the lateness of the mission change, only First Lance would be able to make the real target, the rest would be forced to go with target C. The reality was that point C was well defended, as expected since Haydon got the word to the Kuritans about the impending raid. Second and Third Lances actually landed at E, and moved rapidly to close on D in a flanking maneuver, to make sure the mission got completed - and to offset anything that Haydon tried.
How it come down
Trags plan worked perfectly. Point C was indeed set up by the Kuritans as a trap - heavily defended with a reinforced mech company and new hard points added to the already existing lance and static defenses at the (fake) target facility, ready for the incoming attack. The drones that came to C were actually specially configured to drop cluster munitions on the defending forces and facility, and also to spread a mine field between C and D, to slow them down reinforcing the traitor. Haydon brought First Lance to the facility, albeit a bit slowly, and prepared to "attack". At the same time, he also called for the Kuritan forces to come in. The Kuritan's came with the forces they had at C - taking significant damage from the mine field and losing 3 mechs to lost legs, and Haydon was actually preparing to surrender the First Lance when Trag's forces arrived - and started jamming Haydon's transmissions.
The 35th Commando now has First Lance, including the traitor Haydon on one side of the Kurita company, and Second and Third Lances, as well as Command, to the real of the attacking Kurita mechs. The attacking forces have all been damaged by another drone overpass dropping cluster munitions on them.
Assassin
Centurion
Clint
Crab
Firefly
Valkyrie
Vindicator
Hunchback
Wolfhound
Phoenix Hawk