"Suit up, Hiroshi. We're off on a hunting expedition. Sensors have picked up activity in quadrant thirtyseven. Perhaps those renegades." "I have no stomach for mercenary scum, Bubu. They're ronin!" "Suit up. Yoshi and Forrest are going with us." Two hours later, the four light battlemechs, deployed in two by two overwatch, split to more thoroughly search the quadrant, a hilly, lightly forested area. Forrest in his Owen quickly outdistanced his slower companion, Bubu operating a Panther, further splitting the the company (Chris H.). The action attracted the attention of three light battlemechs lying doggo behind a low hill--a Spider (Kris R.), a Raptor, and a Jenner (Chris M.). Their ruddy colors marked them as mercenaries, the very renegades that the company was searching for. "Contact! Hiroshi, where are you?" Called Bubu anxiously as his first shots at the approaching mercenaries went wide. At extreme range against such fast moving targets, only a lucky shot would count. Today, luck preferred neither side in the opening minutes of the engagement. To the west, Hiroshi in his Javelin and his partner, Yoshi in Jenner, encountered a problem of their own (Bryan M.) --a single Panther (Carl A.). They had cleared the light woods to their front and moved onto higher ground to give their sensors a better view when a great flash of power nearly decapitated Hiroshi's Javelin. The partners quickly retreated behind cover, then circled around to take the Panther in the flank. Pressing on, they soon scored multiple hits on the stubborn Panther as they plowed across a patch of open ground. But the Panther hung on, dealing out blows of its own and preventing the two from linking up with the rest of the company. To the east, the Owen fell back to its supporting Panther, then tried to lure the pursuing mercenaries into a trap taking advantage of the Panther's extended range PPC. The Owen took up a perfect position to shoot the mercenary Panther in the rear, but last minute course changes by the Spider and Raptor prevented the trap from working and left the mercenary Raptor with a point blank ' flank shot on the Owen. Fortunately, a malfunction in the Raptor's fire controls (Bad dice throwing!) left the Owen virtually unscathed. The Javelin and the Jenner closed rapidly on the Panther, pounding its frontal armor while the Owen struck it from the rear. Yet the mercenary Panther continued to fight with great scraps of its armor hanging loosely. In the end, it was Hiroshi's Javelin that succumbed to massed fire, not the mercenary Panther. Yoshi, Bubu, and Forrest retreated with virtually no damage, leaving the carcass of the Javelin smoking on the battlefield. Victory for the mercenaries! Back to Dispatch July 2002 Table of Contents Back to Dispatch List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by HMGS Mid-South This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com