Battle Report

The Com Guards were very worried. The plan had seemed so simple when it had been explained earlier. The two Union class DropShips landed their cargo of Battlemechs at the Spaceport, and then stood by to provide fire support, should it become necessary. Meanwhile the 2 Companies made a pincer attack on the 10 Clan Nova Cat OmniMechs that had landed and claimed the planet earlier. They had heard that there would be some Elementals to fight as well, but no more than five or six points - that probably meant thirty or less of the armoured infantry. Things had started going wrong from the instant the Com Guard Unions had landed though. The two pincers were made up from some of the slower 'Mechs in the Task Force, and even then some of them had just remained in the centre of the battlefield rather than trying to flank the Clanners. The C.O. also seemed to be operating under the assumption that the Nova Cats were going to try and take the Spaceport, although the reasoning behind this was unclear. The Cats had landed long before the Task Force's Suffren Destroyer had even deployed its own DropShips. Their two Broadsword Dropships were in fact able to return to their own WarShip and link up in formation in order to attack the Suffren.

On the ground, things had gone from bad to worse. One of the Cat Daishis stood on a hill overlooking the battlefield, pouring Gauss Rifle, ERPPC and LRM fire onto the advancing troops. The other Omnis just hung back until a good target presented itself. The Catapult had been the first victim. As it had advanced, the Daishi had started hitting it with PPCs, and the pilot totally failed to notice a Mad Cat laying a Thunder minefield in front of it. The resulting explosion as the Catapult blundered into the heavy minefield had almost blown the entire leg off. One of the Recon Lance members had been advancing nearby in "Ghandi", his faithful Wasp, forming the right hand pincer, along with a Phoenix Hawk and a Wolverine. A Puma had seen him peering around the side of a tower block, and, with unbelievable accuracy, had fired a single ERPPC over a hill, and past the building, while the Wasp was moving fast, and had STILL taken the entire right side of his body off, inluding his arm. With both his Medium Laser and his brand new Streak SRM taken out by a single shot, he had decided that it was best to retreat while he still could. When the going gets tough, the small and wimpy run away.

Meanwhile, in the centre, a Marauder was taking on another Daishi, this one armed with two absolutely huge Autocannon, as well as two heavy lasers. The Marauder's heat problems were compounded by a Blackhawk jumping into view and hitting it with a pair of Inferno SRMs, and a point of Elementals hanging around and using flamers if it looked like cooling down soon. The reactor armour breach didn't help matters either. Nearby, the left pincer had totally failed to advance, succeeding only in setting fire to the edge of the forest surrounding the city, courtesy of the Firestarter in B Company's recon lance. A Shadowhawk and Madcat traded fire between collapsing buildings, while another Blackhawk leapt behind a Griffin, blazing away at it with 11 lasers, turning the entire back armour into a cloud of vapour. The Blackhawk leapt away again, as a Hatchetman stepped from behind a nearby building and cut through to its engine with a burst of autocannon fire and a swing of its hatchet.

The worst had come when a point of Elementals had swarmed the virtually unscathed Atlas moving up the right flank. The Atlas had actually PUNCHED ITSELF IN THE HEAD whilst trying to knock off the Elementals. It had stood there for a moment, in ominous silence, its hand embedded in its head, before slowly falling to the floor with the sound of.. well, something very big and heavy falling over in a very final sort of way.

So, with one Assault Mech and one Heavy down, a light Mech left unarmed, another Heavy critically damaged and overheating, as well as having an ERPPC, one of its primary weapons destroyed, things did not look good on the left side of the field. On the right, there were three or four damaged Mechs, some badly, and in the centre, the Assault class Victor had its Gauss Rifle and SRM4 destroyed, leaving it with only two medium lasers, while standing trapped in a minefield. The Nova Cats had only three or four Elementals killed out of around thirty, and only one really badly damaged Omni, some being almost totally unscathed. It looked like it was time to pull back, especially with their advance halted, and most of their forces hemmed in by minefields from the Mad Cat.

It was probably time to call it a day, and take advantage of the Clan honour system to withdraw, and leave the field of battle to the Nova Cats...