Campaign of Poltergeist's Marauders
Chapter 1

Copyright© 2019 by Chaon

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.

A few more of these contracts and we might be able to pay the bank some of what we owe them.

Mission 3

Pirate Ambush
Planet: Bellerophon

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

We got another report of pirates raiding small settlements. This time they were after more than food, they stripped them of heavy equipment and any ammo they could find. This might be more of a challenge.

We dropped in to a dry, desert valley and knew we would have to watch our heat levels. Too hot outside and our heat sinks will not work as good as they should.

We moved forward as a group and came around a hill and got a bunch of blips on the scanners. Nothing within line of sight yet but it looks like two mechs and a couple vehicles.

Medusa moved her Javelin up on a ridge and got visuals on the vehicles. A couple of Galleon light tanks. They shouldn’t be much trouble and she opened fire on one tank and blew through the side of it and destroying it in a flash of fire and smoke.

Dekker moved up and opened fire with his PPC and LRM5 and blew a hole into the front armour of the other Galleon. It blew up as the missiles came in and disabled it.

Glitch and Behemoth moved up into a firing line within the trees and we waited for the enemy mechs to come closer.

A couple Spiders came into view and they fired their M-Lasers at Dekker and Glitch doing a bit of damage but it was nothing more than burnt paint. Yang can fix it in a couple hours.

Medusa opened up and peppered a Spider with damage but nothing critical. Glitch opened up the left torso on one spider with her AC5 allowing her missiles to do some internal damage. Behemoth targeted the other Spider and removed the complete left side with the Blackjack’s weapons. Left leg, arm and torso vanished and the Spider crashed to the ground stunning the pilot. Dekker choose to remove the other leg of that mech and disabled it. We might get some good salvage from that one.

The last enemy tried to run but Medusa got behind it and opened up it’s back and did enough critical damage to it’s centre torso to destroy the engine and mech. Not much salvage there.

With all enemies down, we called in the dropship and let the salvage teams clean up.

Our reward was pretty good and salvage got us some pieces of that Spider which with what we already had gave us a rebuilt Spider that Yang put into storage for later on. We may keep it or sell it as the need arises.

Mission 4

Capture the Argo
Planet: Axylus

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

Darius called us all into a meeting tonight. It seems that someone very mysterious from the Magistracy of Canopus sent him an offer that is almost too good to refuse but there is just something about the tone of the message and what they are offering that is pushing me to accept it.

The money is great and the possible salvage rights but there is a undertone in the message saying we should jump at this one.

After we jumped to the planet mentioned in the message, we didn’t meet the person offering the contract but were given a new destination, Axylus, a moon not too far away. It appears that someone had found a honest to god Star League era Dropship on the moon and currently a pirate group was trying to salvage it or whatever they can liberate from it.

If this dropship was full of star league technology, then it is almost priceless. Anyone who can get possession of this and bring it back to society will be rolling in money. As long as they can defend it though. That’s always the important fact people forget.

With a moon as the battlefield, we are going to have to watch our heat very closely. We will run into problems very quickly if we just widely fire at the enemy.

The enemy pirates are being lead by a woman named Grim Sybil. She doesn’t have a good reputation but what pirates do out here? She’s not going to be an easy fight and the defences around the dropship are nasty. We have to take out a couple air defence radar towers backed up with a swath of turrets. Luckily the turrets are being fed from a couple generators near the towers so we have a total of four primary targets.

After we got dropped off in a crater, we decided to target the alpha tower on the left flank first. The terrain was such that it blocked most fire from the turrets on the right flank.

We moved up in a firing line and detected the towers. But enemy vehicles started to move towards our location and there was a heavy mover in there. A total of five vehicles is worrying and with a heavy tank in the mix we could be in serious trouble.

Medusa darted forward to try and get a target lock on the tower but he couldn’t quite make it. Unfortunately he got a good look at the vehicles and we are in a lot of trouble. A Bulldog, 2 Strikers and 2 Scorpions. That is going to hurt if we can’t get rid of them fast.

The Bulldog is not actually the worst tank we have to kill. Sure it hits hard but those Strikers are bad news. All those missiles can really hurt us. So Medusa opened up on the closest Striker and burnt through it’s front and side, doing enough damage to expose the interior to vacuum and killing the crew. No survival suits for pirate crews.

Glitch had target on the other Striker but wasn’t able to take it out as her AC5 shot went high. The M-Laser and missiles just did damage. Dekker in the Vindicator was able to take the Striker out with his PPC shot going right through the drivers windows and setting off the ammo. Looked just like fireworks. Behemoth moved up and took the Bulldog under fire. Firing everything would build up a lot of heat but maybe she could take it out.

No such luck. She did a lot of damage but just like the Terran Bulldog, it is a tough tank and it was still combat ready. As it showed when it opened up on Medusa’s Javelin and blew the left arm off. The Scorpions were just as annoying with the damage they dealt to everyone when they fired at us. No critical damage but every point of armour lost is dangerous.

The base defence turrets were able to range on us and a few sensor locked Glitch and Dekker. Missiles coming in did a bit of paint damage but luckily it was indirect firing from them.

Medusa was pissed so ran up to a Scorpion and stomped on it. Result was a cloud of dust and wreckage flying everywhere as it exploded from the damage. Melee attacks on vehicles are very effective. Glitch had the same idea and ran towards the remaining Scorpion and smashed it with her foot as well. Leaving the Bulldog.

Behemoth opened up on it with both AC5’s and a couple M-Lasers so as to reduce the heat build up and this time the damage went straight into the nose of the tank and opened it up to space. All vehicles down leaving us a bit of room to target the towers and generators before moving in on the main target.

Dekker took down the alpha tower with a salvo while Glitch and Medusa took out the generator. Once the generator blew it took out the turrets on this side of the base. Behemoth moved up but had to cool down.

Medusa fired on the Beta tower and did damage but it fell to Glitch to take it down. Behemoth moved up to a LOS on the final generator and took it out with a full salvo and that was that. First set of defences down and the dropship could come in and drop off the Magistracy engineers and marines under Dr. Farah Murad, to clear out the crashed Dropship.

This thing is massive. It totally dwarfs our Leopard dropship and I can’t see how it would ever be able to enter atmosphere on a planet. The only reason why it didn’t crash is that this is a small moon and as Yang explained, the gravity would be low enough for it to land.

But that is for later. First we have to get rid of all these pirates infesting the ship and any others defending it out here. And there has to be more because Grim Sybil has not shown her face.

As we got into the base itself, we had more enemy show up on the scanners. Mechs and vehicles together. They look like lights across the board. We set up in a firing line to cover both sides of the hill in the middle of the base.

On the left, we had a Locust and a Commando backed up by a Scorpion. Medusa opened up on the Locust and cored it out with a masterful display of pinpoint targeting. He set himself up to withstand any incoming fire and trusted his lance mates to deal with the rest of them.

Glitch aimed at the Scorpion and did damage to it’s side but not quite enough to take it out. Dekker opened up on it as well and his PPC ripped the side open taking the tank out. Behemoth moved to get a target on the Commando and ripped the left side off the mech, sending the one legged mech to the ground. Though stunned it was not out of combat yet.

Dr. Murad reported that resistance was higher than expected and she had lost a lot of engineers and marines but that they were continuing to push. We had to remove the defenders out here as well to break their backbone of resistance.

Medusa was able to kill the Commando before it could stand up again. The remaining mech turned out to be a Jenner backed up by a Galleon and they came around on the right of the hill trying to get us in the flank.

Behemoth was out of position and took the brunt of the damage from both enemy to her right side. The right Torso lost all frontal armour but was still there. Behemoth turned and opened up on the Jenner with a salvo targeting it’s centre torso and did so much damage that the mech collapsed in on itself. Dekker and Glitch took out the Galleon with no troubles.

As we were recovering, we detected two more enemy mechs appearing from the rear of the base. How many of them are there? We might be in serious trouble here because one of these mechs is a heavy mech with a medium mech companion.

As the enemy mechs came into sight, we knew we were up against Grim Sybil herself as she broadcast her challenge. Why do they always do that? Luck was on our side because Medusa was able to see that both mechs were in terrible condition and missing a lot of base armour. This might just be doable.

We all opened up on the Quickdraw of Grim Sybil. She was the most dangerous with her 4 x M-Lasers, LRM10 and SRM4. Medusa did quite good damage to her torsos as well as Dekker. Those two left her with critical damage in the left and centre torso.

The other enemy was piloting a Shadow Hawk and opened up on Behemoth and did a scattering of damage as the AC5 missed but the LRM5 and M-Laser burnt off paint and armour. Behemoth focused on the Quickdraw and the twin AC5’s along with 3 M-Lasers did enough damage that it was disabled in a flash as her engine was disabled.

Glitch opened up on the Shadow Hawk and took off the left torso removing the AC5 and leaving it unsteady. A combination of Medusa, Glitch and Dekker firing on it was enough to destroy that mech and that should be all of them. We had a fair amount of damage but most of it was just paint and armour pieces. The Blackjack and Javelin had a bit of serious damage but nothing missing.

Dr. Murad reported that she was just cleaning out the last of the pirates as our dropship and salvage teams came in.

Along with a bunch of salvaged weapons and equipment from the destroyed mechs, we picked up some of Sybil’s Quickdraw though we will need more of that model to rebuild it. A bunch of weapons is always good but the prize of the whole mission was a Centurion chassis that was found in a mech bay that the pirates had not completed refitting. Yang was beside himself over that and had our old Spider put into storage so he could work on it.

Another medium mech for our company is very nice. Armed with a AC/10, LRM10, and 2 x M-Lasers with decent armour and speed, it is a heavy hitter and can deal with a lot of damage. Medusa jumped at the chance to pilot the Centurion and his old Javelin was stored.

But the most magnificent sight was to come as we left the moon. Dr. Murad and her engineers had been able to finish repairs on the Argo’s engines and once they were at full power, she was able to majestically lift off from the moon that was her grave. She was missing plates here and there and had some damage from all the time she spent on that moon and being salvaged but she was airtight enough to travel under her own power out to the jumpship and get to a shipyard to be repaired a lot more.

The sight of her lifting off and moving under her own power will stay with me for the rest of my life.

The source of this story is SciFi-Stories

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