Logentry 007.05

Supermassive Ancient Dragon

Altais, Draconis Combine, 3039-05-18

The unexpected effort dealing with adverse conditions and without any support lead to our next mission. A mission no one would believe it is true, if we had told anyone about it. We were assigned to a meeting with General Blauman. But it was not him giving us mission briefing. General Boskop from Loki intelligence corps told us, that if we would accept to a very special contract, it had to be kept under the pledge of secrecy. We guranteed for that with our signature. In accordance to information of intelligence corps Yoshimtsu Corporation owns a deposit facility with 8,6 million C-Bills in gold and platinum. Facing the enemy on their planet it is assumed, a convoy should carry them to a secure place. This convoi will be accompanied by a troop belonging to ISA and this unit contains two special 'Mechs. Less spectacular it was known, that here is a land-air 'Mech also known as FLUM. Originating from star league era there could be another 'Mech, of which existence is heavily doubted. A prototype from year 2732 with a weight of more than a hundred tons could be in the lines of our enemy. Although our efforts in the near past were very good, we got support by another mercenary unit called "Lauras Caravelles", consisting of a Marauder, a Jaeger Mech, a Battlemaster, a Hatchetman, a Charger, Lauras Flashman and a Long Tom artillery. The enemy escort protecting the convoy had a total of fourteen 'Mechs predominantly light ones, a Crab, a Vulcan, a Spider, a Panther, a Firestarter, a Jenner, a Mongoose, a Stinger, an Urban Mech, a Wasp, a Hermes 2, a Trebuchet, and a Dragon and Grand Dragon as heavy support. Although hod2 found himself surrounded by four light 'Mechs before battle had really begun, he had no problems dealing with them. The Trebuchet however had only a short time fighting, since hod3 took him out with a critical hit at an ammunition storage causing the 'Mech to explode. Hodleader showed the Crab who is the king and fired two autocannon shots at center torso, reducing prevalence of the enemy to two 'Mechs. Considering the weight of our 'Mechs this gave us a competetive edge and when the Marauder of our friendly mercenary unit erased the Jenner some of us were already thinking "win". Those discounted the two special 'Mechs yet missing. Meanwhile the Battlemaster of "Lauras Caravelles" blew up the Grand Dragons ammunition, which followed an engine explosion and damage to himself and the Dragon. Hodleader shut the Hermes 2 down with two critical engine hits by the devastating autocannon. The Firestarter was taken out by hod2 with a kick after he fell down through a blast of Gauss Rifle and ER PPCs. The allied Jaeger Mech destroyed the Stinger, exploding nearby the Wasp, which was ripped apart only a few seconds later by hod3. Then we had the first casualty on our side because the Jaeger Mech was outmaneuvered by the Mongoose getting lethally in his back. Bad news were not over. Suddenly a land-air 'Mech and an assault tank appeared. Both were unknown versions and we got to learn soon, that the tank was well-appointed with two ultra-autocannon/10, a PPC and two thunderbolt LRM-15. Hodleader finished what he begun and destroyed the shutdown Hermes 2. Hod3 played explosion billard striking the Dragon, which blasted apart and damaged the Charger and Hatchetman and caused another 'Mech, the Stinger, to explode. Little by little the enemy got new support, this time it was a Cyclops. Laura took revenge for the destroyed Jaeger Mech and blew away a leg of the Mongoose. The Vulcan lived up to his name as it bursted after several hits by HOD-7. Another duo of enemy 'Mechs was moving towards us, a Shadowhawk and a starleague era Charger, both equipped with pulse lasers. Before HOD Leader kicked the tank and killed the crew the allied Charger was hit by nearly all of his weapons and exploded in a small distance to HOD-2. After that it was time for rolling heads. The Urban Mech got hit two times in the head by HOD-3 and HOD-7 beheaded the Panther, so the enemy had lost two more 'Mechs. Laura was still in rage for the lost Jaeger Mech and detached the other leg of the Mongoose, so the pilot had no choice but ejecting. Hod3 suddenly had a mechanical problem, as his leg actuators refused to work properly. Hodleader recognized an adverse Banshee coming closer. Our Banshee piloted by hod2 got heavy damage by the Chargers large pulse lasers. The Hatchetman tried to destroy the Shadowhawk in close combat, though the Shadowhawk survives the hatchet badly damaged. Hod7 took on the Cyclops with an alpha strike, hitting alomost everything he got. An enemy Griffin appeared as fast as he was gone. An artillery fire by our Long Tom, a large laser hit to the head by Lauras Flashman and an ER PPC headshot by hod2 disabled him. Hodleader and the Banshee exchanged autocannon fire and hod1 is more lucky ripping apart the Banshees head before it could do more damage. Next damage we had to complain about was the Battlemasters hip after the Charger unleashed his pulse lasers again. He could get little revenge in punching him in the face leaving the cockpit unarmored. While the FLUM has not yet done very much damage hod1 detected what we hoped is only a legend. Seismic activity was high beyond standard level announcing a 'Mech of 200 tons, the Ancient Dragon. The only good news were, that it moved very slow. Another hit by our Long Tom was resolved on the Cyclops and hod2 peeled even more armor off. Then it was the Hatchetman, which saw the supermassive 'Mech first of all. The monster released six small autocannons, two PPC and two Gauss Rifles and turned the Hatchetman to dust. The land-air 'Mech got more active as if the Ancient Dragon had brought him to life and ripped off an arm of hod2's Banshee. Still having enough firepower hod2 finally destroys the Cyclops. It is hod1, who at first recorded a hit on the 200 ton Battlemech. He fired two large lasers capitalizing on the sprinting movement. Meanwhile two helicopters were assigned to collect the pilots of our allied unit and hod3 solves his actuator problem. Being aware that our damaged 'Mechs could not withstand the Dragonwind-FLUM, the Ancient Dragon and the Charger we decided to retreat. On our way out of action the Charger erased the Marauder. Upset by this, Laura interrupted retreat and fired an alpha strike, what turned out to be the last gunfight of this battle. The Charger was no more. We sent some infantry to hide in the city and to observe the Ancient Dragon. So we could use our last shots of artillery to do some damage to the monstrous 'Mech. Our scouts reported besides the Dragonwind and Ancient Dragon a Stalker, a Kintaro and a Wolverine and additionally a Pegasus scout hover with a hunter tank to defend the corporation. The previously used 'Mechs of Hodleader, HOD-2 and HOD-7 were too heavy damaged, so we could not repair them in time, though we were able to get HOD-3's Dreadnought ready, as there were no critical hits to repair and with the time left, we tried to get Laura's Flashman as ready for operation as possible. Hodleader entered his preliminarily fixed Zeus, HOD-2 turned back to his Catapult and HOD-7 used our Shadowhawk, a 'Mech originally bought by HOD-4, who himself piloted his Grasshopper. The rescued pilot of the destroyed Hatchetman got another 'Mech of Harbingers of Defeat's inception, HOD-2's Enforcer. Combined with Laura and HOD-3 we fielded seven 'Mechs against two tanks, three 'Mechs and two very special Battlemechs. The tanks were no problem for our unit. Hod7 eliminated the Hunter and HOD-2 bowled down the Pegasus hover. Hod4 picked the Kintaro as target and caused a sudden explosion, creating some scratches at HOD-7's 'Mech and his own. Laura fought against the Wolverine on her own and after she won this duel, the land-air 'Mech interrupted firing at HOD-4 and HOD-7 and hunted her down. Just before she was taken out of battle by a ripped off leg, HOD-4 got his second kill of the battle, although this one could be called a freeloader because HOD Leader almost took him out alone. Now there were only the two special forces left. Fearing close combat with the supermassive Ancient Dragon HOD-3 took advantage of the cities buildings. This strategy was quite dangerous, as he did not know, if there were any basement levels. Though the risk paid off as he was standing face to face to the monstous 'Mech. Other unit members followed and the mercenary piloting the Enforcer went slaphappy and blocked the way, so HOD-4 could wreck the right arm of the 200 ton 'Mech. The Dragonwind jumped between HOD-7 and HOD-4 back and forth targeting them alternately. After HOD-3 pounded multiple alpha strikes at the Ancient Dragon, HOD Leader landed some crucial hits, destroying a PPC, a Gauss Rifle and some Gauss ammunition. The Enforcers pilot could thank his stars, that the Ancient Dragon ignored him more or less. The 200 ton 'Mech preferred to aim at HOD Leader and HOD-3. Then it was showtime for Mr.Freeloader himself. Hod2 got his first hits on the overweight 'Mech devastating the already heavy damaged torso. Equipped with an XL engine this would have resulted in a shutdown monster, but HOD-4 had fired at the mammoth 'Mech at the same time and striked several parts of the engine blasting it apart. An enormous bang was heard and the explosion damaged the Enforcer and the Shadowhawk, the latter exploding as well. Due to the explosion of the Ancient Dragons engine the building, where hod3 was standing in, collapsed. Thus he is buried alive by an avalanche of steel and concrete, though his 'Mech barely bore the damage and he also did not pass out. The Dragonwind left the Battlefield with major damage, but was still able to switch into air-mode, so he could get away easily. This allowed us to remove the devices from the corporation, at least those being able to do so. Hod3 was rescued after the rest of the unit found him more than six feet under in what previously used to be a building. Again many enemy 'Mechs were destroyed due to engine or ammunition explosion. Nonetheless we were allowed to choose between two heavy 'Mechs or an assault 'Mech and a medium 'Mech for salvage and we decided the latter and got the starleague era Wolverine and the battle-proven King Crab. At last Generel Blauman and General Boskop remembered us to keep total silence about this mission and warned us another time, that we would bear the consequences if we did not. Of course we got paid out and this was quite a lot, accumulating about a miilion C-Bills to all mechwarriors involved. The following battles were considered to that one just a little skirmish and it took several months until the Federated Commonwealth gained total control of Altais. Those were the time we completed our contract and could fly back home to Galatea after almost a year in war service against the Draconis Combine. Log Entry by Sergeant Yong-Chi Takahara, hod3

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