Simulator Mission I: Hell in a Handbasket

[Desparado]

I settle into my seat and wait for the pilots around me across the table to settle down. Gentleman, I use the term loosely. This is a difficult situation but I'm sure we've been through worse. The Planet Zotomear, in Jade Falcon Control has been in uprising and have manganed to gain control of it, for the most part. They own the ground but Jade Falcon will send reenforcements in swarms of dropships. They'll be waiting before we get there, already setting down on the surface. One pilot raised his hand.

Sir, do you mean that we'll have to actually fight space combat, punch our way thropugh and hope we aren't shot down, and thats all before we reach the surface? I'm glad to see you're paying attention Soldier. Continuing on, we'll need to hunt down however many dropships that have made it planetside and then scrub the spaceport, one of the last Falcon Holding on the planet. Any questions? Good. I'll see you all in the Mechbay. Dismissed

[Desparado]

Our dropship, Anaconda rocked as it entered the atmosphere. I always hated the time between leaving the jumpship that carried the dropship and the point where there was enough atmosphere for the dropship to work with. I shook hard in my mech as did the entire ship. It rocked and rattled with jarring tremors. It eventually stopped and the green light was given, on my mark the bay doors would open and I would begin my hot drop. It was time to rally the troops I thought. If we were going to make it to the ground with no more holes than we already had, it'd take some serious work.

Alright listen up Viper lance! We have to keep these dropships distracted. Fire on everything and try to keep their attention. You've all been given mechs with Gauss rifles or PPCs for this. In addition, your booster pods have a little extra fuel, try to stay in the air as long as you can. The more of these Falcon ships we can scrap the better. Here we go, Viper lance. The bay doors opened and it seemd as if the ride was a bit more gentle. I stepped out of my stall and headed towards the door.

Viper lance, report in Viper 1, all systems are ready. This is Viper 2, I'm ready. This is Viper 3, Lets rock! Copy, everyone engane at will, move out! With that, I plunged off of the dropship and activated my boosters. Immediatly my targeting display lit up. There were 4 Jade Falcon Dropships all firing upon our own. Our sihp was valiantly returning fire but it couldn't hold forever.

I decided to make my Mad Kat a threat and fired my twin PPCs at the ship that the Dropship seemed to be concentrating on. They traveled at lighting speed through the thin atmosphere and hit one of the engine boosters. It Wounded dropship's engine failed and it begun a slow spiral out of control. The Anaconda let its Gauss find a spot on the fragile under side of the Falcon ship and it erupted. Debris and smoke spread out in the sky in the shape of a bright flaming blossom. That was one down.

I loked over and Viper 3 was taking heavy damage. 2 Dropships were lancing him with their PPCs. Mayday! MAYDAY! I'm taking some serious damage! HELP ME! I twisted in the air towards one of the dropships and Let a volley of LRMs lock on before flinging them at my target. Viper 2's Mad Kat MKII managed to fire off a salvo as well begore a Gauss round punched through its missile rack, inciting an ammunition explosion. My PPCs recycled and I aimed for the small turrent on the side of the Hrothgar dropship's spherical frame. Success! The explosion left an ugly pock in the side of the dropship.

The other Dropship fired two of its erLargeLasers and struck a Booster Pod, it explosion and uneven thrust propelled Viper 3's mech in a chaotic spiral, right at the damaged Jade Falcon Dropship. I'M GONNA CRASH I'M GONNA HIT THE- I shut off that channel. No one like hearing the screams of a dead man. The Mad Kat MKII crashed into the side of the dropship and exploded there. The blast was enough to tear away several plates of the hull on that Dropship and it dragged unevenly across the air as we all made our rapid decent. It soon tumbled off course and knocked into another dropship and then whirrled around in at a sickening speed. I saw people being thrown out of the gaping hole in its side. They'd undoubtedly die when they hit the ground if shrapnel didn't kill them. An alphastrike and assistance from Viper 1 destroyed the spinning dropship, the fragments of the hull did mercifully impact a few of the dozen people still falling through the air.

This is the Anaconda We can't hold on too much longer! We need some help with the remaining two dropships! please do something! My sensores read that The other two Jade Falcon dropships were behind my own. I couldn't hit them! I adjusted my boosters and began to decent a lottle slower, hoping to rise above my dropship and begin my attack. I was going too slowly! I'd never make it in time. It was up to Viper-1 and Viper-2. With out the Anaconda we were screwed.

[Captain Benjamin Maxwell]

With the wrenching scream of straining metal, my Stalker pulled free of the jammed docking clamps and lumbered uneasily across the rocking floor of the Anaconda's drop bay. The damage from the firefight had frozen the docking clamps of the BattleMechs which had not already deployed, and I had been one of those unfortunate few. Since the deployment arm had been wrought free from its gimbal during one of the first attacks on the vessel, my Stalker and I would have to drop from the hold the old-fashioned way...

Manually.

Taking a deep breath, I throttled my Stalker to its maximum speed of just over 51 KPH. Steering toward the drop doors, I clung tightly to the BattleMech's controls as I watched clouds whip past the opening in the hull through which I was to make my escape. As I neared the exit, I tilted the Stalker's nose straight down, and watched as one of its giant hooved feet cleared the breach. The BattleMech toppled from the bay, and both man and machine were in free-fall for what seemed like an eternity before the booster pack affixed to the leviathan's waist fired.

Rising above the dropship, I saw that Commander Desparado's Mad Cat hovered nearby, pounding furiously away at a pair of Jade Falcon dropships which ignored him completely, focusing instead on the wounded hull of the Anaconda as brilliant gauss rounds spit forth from their cannon ports, finding their marks on the crippled dropship.

I leveled my sights on the nearer of the two Falcon vessels as my weapon intermix computer came online, illuminating the Clan dropship with a series of targeting points.

Alpha Strike, the computer's tactical readout suggested.

And so I did.