[RP/MM] Turn 45 Capellan Empire vs WHXS Sector 3030 Perkasie [Complete]

[Daemonknight]

The merchant jumpship entered the Perkasie Zenith jump point on schedule, its 4 dropships detatched and burned twords the planet on their correct vectors and speed, and all challeneges from the planet's space traffic control were answered correctly. Thus nobody paid much attention to the dropships, even though they entered the atmosphere a few degrees off from their nominal flight path. It meant that instead of coming down straight onto the planet's largest spaceport, they were about 40 klicks off target. Mistakes happen of course, and nothing was thought of it.

Luckily for the cargo, the ionization of the hulls, and the mass and close formation of the dropships shielded their cargo from discovery. The Death Commandos that delpoyed from the dropships had all done this multiple tmes before, and while not routine, was not outside their normal operational playbook. After dropping all 3 groups, the Death Commandos regrouped. The 1st and 2nd Striker Lance from the 1st Battalion, aswell as the 'Black Guards' Command Lance from the 2nd Battalion had all regrouped, and proceeded under cover of darkness, their reactors running at minimal output for ther speeds. Thanks to their Stealth Armored machines, and the abundance of ECM activity, there was almost zero chance the company of mechs would be discovered before they hit their target.

[Daemonknight]

I'm switching sides on this mission

FS Raid Defense Roll
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10[/blockquote]

[Dave Baughman]

(OOC: General guidance for the WHXS side of the fight sent to DK)

[Cannonshop]

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 2, 2, total 4[/blockquote]

[Daemonknight]

So CS didn't post it, but he had 4.5 FP

3FP of Elite Death Commandos(3 SF teams)

5.5 FP of WHXS defenders respond, aswell as 1FP of Perkasie Militia

Total defenders: 6.5

combat roll
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 5, 5, total 10[/blockquote]

[Daemonknight]

critical check
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 1, 2, total 3[/blockquote]

[Daemonknight]

no critical

Combat Resolution:

CE forces:

4.5 * 20% = 1FP

WHXS forces:

6.5 * 60% = 4 FP


CE loses 2 SF teams, and the last one drops to .25FP of its nominal 1 FP

[Daemonknight]

Planetary Militia ASF Initiative
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 2, 1, total 3[/blockquote]

[Cannonshop]

initiative (death commando)

[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10[/blockquote]

[Daemonknight]

Federated Suns
[blockquote]Rolled 2d6 : 4, 6, total 10[/blockquote]

[Cannonshop]

[Omniscient view]

The raid info was a trap-the Xin Sheng were here, and they were waiting for the recon team.  Sang-wei Helena Ostrokopoulis managed to drag three of her team back using the remaining right-hand actuator of her Vindicator, returing fire at the enemy as they retreated.  Most of the Battalion were gone-the locals had pre-plotted right on-top of the approaching Death Commando force, dropping thick artillery barrages before closing.

But she'd confirmed it- 'Warrior House Xin Sheng' was using Perkasie as both a staging base, and training facility.  More disturbingly, they apparently had known the recon was coming.

There is a mole.  it had to be a mole.  Someone told them exactly when and where the raid would be happening.

"All ships, Lift, NOW." she ordered as the ramps closed on the Leopard-the others wouldn't be coming, but their transports could, maybe, serve as cover to get the information out to the jump point.



The dropships lifted and burned hard for orbit-they had to-the locals were sending fighters, and it wsa NOT as an escort...

[Daemonknight]

Warrior Jacobson tilted his mech's torso and watched as the Capellan Leopard lifted off, barely a lance of the Capellan Death Commandos having survived their pre-emptive assault. He keyed in a quick, pre-loaded burst to the WHXS comms hut, which then relayed to the Perkasie CMM Fairchild Airbase, the only CMM airbase currently in use, as the main CMM forces were off planet at the moment. This had allowed the WHXS to remain so unseen, as the Govorner was handsomly paid to keep his eyes averted...

Fairchild CMM Airfield, Perkasie
Leftenant Alice Cromartie  fed power to her thrusters, and felt the acceleration slam her back into her seat. The Squadron contained a number of lighter aerospace fighters, Sabres, Sparrowhawks and the like. However, for this situation, Captain Hammel had decided that firepower was more important- they were hunting a dropship after all. As such, of the 6 aerospace fighters that were lifting, 4 were medium Corsairs, supporting the 2 heavy-hitters, Thunderbird TRB-D56 'Big Game Hunters'. The Thunderbirds were designed with firepower output foremost in mind, and excelled at this type of mission.  The Leopard that contained the fleeing Commandos had been identified from the ground, and it was their primary target.

Alice pulled the stick, lifting the pointed nose of her Corsair into a ballistic trajectory. They would catch their prey in the black.

"Cromartie to Flight Alpha-Tango-24, formation Diamond 2, push the throttles. We'll make a pass, and let the T-birds land the uppercut. Nominal weapons range, 4 minutes."

[Daemonknight]

Captain Jerrod Klaus looked at his scanners with some concern. It appeared that the planetary milita, or rather the recent call-ups to replace the actual Perkasie PDF, which were on dropships behind him, had launched aerospace fighters to intercept what looked to be a Capellan-flagged Leopard. Confusing, because according to the flightplan for Perkasie, there were no Capellan jumpships due here for another 3 days.

It had confused the captain of the VRS Verde, and as the warship escort for this troop re-deployment, it was squarely in his hands to decide how best to handle a potentially rouge dropship. As a percaution, he had ordered a full spread, 2 flights of 6 fighters each, 6 from the Verde's complement, 6 from the 2nd Chilsom Raiders. In charge was the Verde's CAG, Captain Klaus, with express orders from the Commodore to investiagte and not just shoot first.

Klaus checked his instruments, and saw that their flight path would allow them to intercept the Capellan Dropship about 2 minutes behind the Perkasie fighters. He could have ordered full burn and arrived first, but assumed it was nothing so critical and decided to save fuel instead.

[Cannonshop]

Bridge of the Leopard class "Sun Bear

"That, is one hell of a lot of metal ahead."  the pilot noted.  Helena looked at the imagers and plots.  "Those are FedSuns regulars out there, we have no fighter cover, a pursuing squadron, and they're between us, and our ride out."

"What are your orders, ma'am?" the pilot asked, steeling himself for the inevitable 'charge through and die'.

"Tightbeam to the biggest military vessel on our scopes, 'We will surrender if we are allowed to', have the gunners cover our six-I get the feeling we're a hell of a lot more likely to live to finish this mission if we're in their hands, than that local governor's."  she said quietly, "at least, the Feddie regular troops follow rules."

"Career suicide, ma'am?" he asked.

"No, Mission First-Regular troops are a hell of a lot more likely to ask intelligent questions and review gun-camera and sensor data, than...the locals are." she said, "besides, I don't think we can over-thrust those Corsairs, do you?"

[Cannonshop]

"Broadwave our recon-data, maybe the jumpers will pick it up and boogie out." she added, "The feddies know we are here, they'll pick it up too-with any luck, we'll get exchanged back in a few months-but in the meantime, we have to survive to get exchanged, and what we came here for is too critical to let it just sit."

"Yes Ma'am.  Glory to the Empress." the pilot aknowledged, and the comms officer started sending.

"The Miliz are still on us..."  the gunner announced, and the leopard shook.  in seconds, the command deck was a flood of red emergency lights and amber sirens.

"Losing fuel pressure on number two, number one thruster is out-"  The Leo shook again.

"Keep sending." Helena barked, "That data HAS to make it out of here."