Chapter 1

Campaign of Poltergeist’s Marauders
A Battletech adventure.
By John Vilnis© 2019

Battletech is a game by Harebrained Schemes© 2018

All characters from the game are used without permission though with all respect to the developers and creators of a fantastic game.

Characters
Darius Oliveira – Executive Officer
Yang Virtanen – Chief mech tech
Sumire Meyer – Navigator
Alexander Madeira – Liaison with the Arano Restoration
Farah Murad – Genius and technician
Miscellaneous cast of various mech techs, med techs, flight crew and others needed for making the mercenary company run

Battlemech pilots
Marija ‘Poltergeist’ Erikson
Miranda ‘Behemoth’ Aguilera
Amir ‘Dekker’ Kowalski
Jessica ‘Glitch’ Chernovskaya
Mohammed ‘Medusa’ Benitez

This is a set of combat logs and opinions of the mercenary company Poltergeist’s Marauders. A tight knit group of mechwarriors, and the people who support them as they battle their way through various battles trying to stay alive and together in the periphery of the Inner Sphere.

The year is 3025 when Marija ‘Poltergeist’ starts keeping track of the highs and lows of their travels through the areas around the Aurigen Reach. The people out here so far from Terra and the core worlds of the Inner Sphere, have almost forgotten the Star League in their hard scrabble lives.

Constant pirate raids and interference from the great houses has made life out here hard but there are still times of life, love and hope. They are fragile and very delicate but they can make the people who hold on to them capable of the most magnificent efforts.

This is just one of the stories from these dark times.

Intro

After three years of fighting in the periphery I am finally starting to understand that I need to keep more of a record of what we have been doing than just the ship’s log. It is a dry and soulless record of contracts taken, completed and failed and pilots we gained and lost. Along with Darius’s spreadsheets of where the money comes in and goes out, we haven’t really kept track of why we are doing this or what has happened.

So I am keeping a log of our contracts and the battles we have for them in more detail so that one day we can look back and understand where we were and what brought us to where we ended up.

And it all started with a contract where we were back stabbed by a mining company who we thought were trustworthy.

We learnt to always watch our backs because out here we can’t trust anyone.

Mission 1
Back-stabbed.

Lance:
Glitch – Shadow Hawk – AC5, LRM5, SRM2, M-Laser
Dekker – Spider – 2 x M-Laser
Poltergeist – Blackjack – 2 x AC2, 4 x M-Laser
Behemoth – Vindicator – PPC, LRM5, M-Laser, S-Laser

It’s been three years since the disaster of Coronation day and where we lost a man who was like a father, and Lady Arano who was killed when her dropship was blown out of the sky by traitors.

We are running on fumes out here and Darius found us a good paying contract for the Independent Prospector’s League on Ur Cruinne, a dry, dusty planet. It is going to be a hot battle as our heatsinks won’t work as well but we shouldn’t run into any problems.

We are dropping with a Blackjack, Vindicator, Shadow Hawk and a Spider which gives us a lot of manoeuvrability and fire power. We have to take out a generator to disable any turrets and then destroy the security tower. We are not quite sure of the battlemechs or vehicles we will encounter but we will complete this contract because there is nothing else afterwards if we fail.

We were dropped on the planet at the mining platform and got our bearings. We had to head to the target platform Alpha to take out the generator then head down to Beta to take out the tower. Simple.

We headed out to the Alpha platform and as we came around a bend in the road we had two light mechs appear on our scanners. A Spider and a Commando. Not too tough but nothing to dismiss either. But they were not in good condition and appeared to be missing a lot of their normal armour so we had that going for us.

Dekker in the spider jumped to a position on top of a rock hill to give us a better picture of the battle field and the mining platform in the distance. He could see the generator but with his medium lasers, he couldn’t get a target lock so he fired at the enemy Spider. He did damage but not enough to take the Spider out of combat.

I moved the Blackjack up around the corner where I could range on both enemy mechs and opened up on the Commando. A scattering of damage from my weapons but even with losing the right arm, it was still in the battle. Glitch jumped the Shadow Hawk up on the rock and was able to reach the generator with her AC5 and LRM5. Not enough damage to destroy it though.

Behemoth brought the Vindicator up beside me and opened up on the Commando and hitting with the PPC and M-Laser disabled it with centre torso shots. One down. But with the generator still active, the platform defences were able to target us and we had missiles raining down on our mechs doing a scattering of damage. Nothing serious but we will have to get Yang to replace everything lost and that costs. And no mechwarrior likes losing armour in battle.

Dekker jumped down behind the enemy Spider and opened up on it from the rear. Those M-Lasers can do a fair bit of damage and when they hit the rear armour of a mech with not much armour anyway, they can do a lot of damage. Left torso destroyed and the pilot injured but still capable. As it showed when it jumped in close to Medusa and burned his left leg.

Behemoth had enough of the Spider pilot so stepped in close for a melee attack and punched the Spider so hard that I swear I saw her mech’s hand protruding out the rear of the Spider’s centre torso. Both mechs down but the generator is still up and those turrets can do a fair bit of damage. So I moved up and got a good target lock on the generator and opened up with everything and we saw that generator explode into flames and debris. The visible turrets suffered electrical feedback and exploded. Strange but at least they are down.

Time for the second target. But as we turn around, we see a dropship coming down and dropping a lance at the Beta platform. Not good news when the enemy brings in reinforcements.

So backtracking to the fork in the road and just as we come over the top, we detect a medium battlemech along with some unknown blips. Dekker thinks they may be vehicles from their signatures but we will see.

As we reformed our battle line and moved up to the top of the ridge, we had the mech come into view and it was a medium Shadow Hawk SHD-2D armed with AC5, LRM5, M-Laser and 2 x SRM2 but it sacrifices armour for firepower so if we can get critical hits we should be fine.

Dekker kept his light Spider well out of line of sight of this mech because it just can’t take the damage. I set myself and opened up with a full salvo and blew it’s left torso off. Yes. Behemoth added more damage but no criticals. The Shadow Hawk pilot fired back and did some damage but nothing worrying and it was left to Glitch to aim and fire into the centre torso and take it down.

That just left the vehicles who were moving up the road. The first one into view was a Scorpion armed with an AC5 and a MG for infantry. Not a big threat but capable of taking a mech down with a lucky hit or finding a previously damaged section.

Dekker moved into position and opened up but just melted armour. Glitch opened up and was able to rip the flank of the vehicle open setting off the ammo and destroying it. One down, one to go and then back to base for a cold one.

And of course with us feeling good, the enemy threw a spanner into the ring. Another Scorpion moved into position and opened up on Dekker’s Spider blowing it’s left arm off. The techs are not going to be happy. Behemoth got a target lock, opened up and the PPC drilled into the nose of the target. Not quite enough to take it out so that left it to me, and with a couple AC5’s hitting it, it vanished into a lovely explosion of red and black.

The CorpSec building was sitting there all lit up for us and with a couple salvos, it fell down into rubble. Mission accomplished. Miller time, whoever Miller was. Time to get back in the dropship, relax and wait for the next contract.

As we got back to the Miner’s base, we got a nasty surprise. They powered up a quartet of turrets and locked us up. Their message was to either leave the mechs or die. Not good either way but the cornered rat is the most dangerous and we were cornered and angry.

Dekker opened up on the generator and Behemoth finished it off and that was that. Those turrets blew up and we didn’t have to worry about that but the sudden appearance of three vehicles was not good.

Facing down a Galleon, Scorpion and Striker when we were supposed to be calling for the dropship was not making our day. We were looking forward to a cold beer and resting in our bunks but no, now we had to deal with some back-stabbing employers and we were NOT HAPPY!

Glitch showed that she was not happy at all by running up to the Galleon and stamping it flat with her mech’s foot. They really can’t deal with melee attacks from a 55T mech. Kicking it just caves in the side and destroys it. One down.

Behemoth opens up on the Striker and ripped it’s side to shreds but it required a follow up salvo from my Blackjack to take it down. That was the second and most dangerous. The Scorpion drove behind a building but Dekker ran through the building and kicked the light tank in the side and destroying it completely.

We had to call the dropship in fast in case the miners had more vehicles they could call up. We knew we weren’t getting paid for this one and we had to draw on our supplies to repair the damage before we could get back into battle.

Not a good outcome at all. Darius was extremely unhappy because he did everything right but we forgot about the dangers out here in the periphery.

En route to Bellerophon

15 days via dropship and jumpship.

Well Yang was not happy with the damage to the mechs and especially the damage done to the arm of the Spider. He asked ... well more like, ordered all mechwarriors to spend time in the mech bay helping out with the repairs.

Fair enough. We were the ones to allow it to happen and we didn’t really have enough techs to get all the damage repaired by the time we arrived in the new system.

Darius was able to get us a new contract and this one was a simple pirate ambush. This better be a simple mission because we can’t afford any serious setbacks like last time.

So when we are not helping Yang and his techs, we are hitting the training sims and resting.

Mission 2

Pirate Ambush
Planet: Bellerophon

Glitch – Shadow Hawk
Dekker – Vindicator
Behemoth – Blackjack
Medusa – Locust

Well this was just a simple pirate ambush. A small lance of pirates had been hitting outlying farms and looting food stuffs and other supplies. From this we had an idea that they didn’t have to worry about resupplying ammo so energy armed mechs might be all that we had to worry about. Eyewitness evidence from survivors said that the mechs were lights though we didn’t know what models they were using.

The dropship dropped us in behind a range of low lying hills from the suspected pirate lance. We moved up to the top of the hill and we got two radar blips.

Medusa moved down into the forest and got more info on the mechs showing they were a Spider and a Javelin. Both mechs were armed with medium lasers which explained their raiding pattern.

Dekker moved to the top of the hill and got a lock on the Javelin. Opening up with both LRM5 and PPC, he got a couple good hits including a head hit with the PPC that should rattle the pilot. Not enough to disable the mech though.

Glitch moved up beside him and opened up with her AC5 and LRM5 and again there was another head hit and this time the poor pilot was killed as the head was obliterated with the AC5 damage. One down. We may be able to salvage that Javelin.

Behemoth moved up and got a lock of the Locust. Opening up with twin AC5’s and 4 M-Lasers, she cored the poor Locust with focused fire and that was the last of that mech.

With no more enemies on the radar, we called in the dropship and the salvage teams. Hopefully we can get that Javelin.

Once we got back to base, we reported our success and collected our salvage along with our reward. And a bonus is that we were got enough salvage to rebuild the Javelin, a JVN-10N armed with 4 medium lasers. A nice addition to our company. We also got a few more weapons and other equipment but the Javelin was the prize.