The time has come for the Marauders to start chasing more rewards... and expose ourselves to the higher danger that comes along with that. RogueTech is all about living on the boundary, and it isn't the vanilla game where you expect to get away with no losses all the time... this is no superhero fantasy, but more of a hanging by the fingernails sort of experience.
The big driver for starting to leave the safety of the half green skull planet and the milk runs of half to one and half green skull missions is the fact that the salvage just isn't worth the risk of losing one our Mechs to lucky shots. Even though these are milk runs, war is war... and you can have disaster just a tiny dice roll away.
Plus, there isn't any decent salvage coming from the Mech parts salvage... there is decent weaponry, but without the chassis to field them properly, we are starting to stagnate as a Light Recon merc company with a pair of heavy hitters.
The rare pieces that do come in are irretrievably damaged... this Wolverine would have been a decent addition, but everything about it was primitive... and the Fusion Core was missing, which would have made for a stupidly expensive renovation job.
... and the milk run missions don't bring in enough C-Bills for that.
On a happier note, the Primitivve Sarissa completed its nearly two month renovation, and is now outfitted with the latest in Clan technology. It acts as a Long Range hitter with LRMs and Large ER/Pulse lasers giving it a nice stand off range which will allow it to provide cover fire for the lighter faster Mechs to close and flank.
A second Battle Armour joins the Drop Lance as well... but given the lack of Jump Jets, it is heavily reliant on the OmniMechs to give it a lift to the battle front.
So, with the upgrades to Engineering, we are now able to field a 5 Mechs, 2 Battle Armours (mounted on the OmniMechs for the drop) and the Typhoon Combat Vehicle. Our drop bay actually still has room for one more Mech, another vehicle, and one more Battle Armour squad... but we just don't have the equipment for that. Or the Pilots...
Yes, that brings us to our other bottleneck... we only have just enough pilots for the units that we drop... which means that any battlefield injuries means that we are either down a unit... or sending out an injured warrior into the field. Time to get recruiting...
So, we pick up a couple of Mechwarriors from the Hiring Hall, focussing on the abilities to pilot multiple units (Mechs, VTOLS, BA, and Vehicles) instead of raw skills... those we can train over time. But we need reserve pilots who can step into any unit.
... and the other recruit came from a Clan duel, where we claimed our right to take them into the company as a bondswoman.
Before we left the planet, we took one more mission so that the travel time could be allocated to repair and refit instead of just being dead time... and it was quite fortunate that we did that! Stealth Armour... a rare piece of highly prized Mech armour that gives Light to Medium Mechs much more survivability in the battlefield!
... and a Watchdog Suite... nice sweet piece of Electronic Warfare kit!
Then, it is time to set course for Tukayyid... the legendary planet where the Clan advance was broken by Comstar. And for the Marauders, a step up in risk and reward in the missions... up to the 1 and half green stars.
... and that first mission on the planet ended up with my Artic Fox taking a heavy hit which tore off big chunks from its right torso and damaged the Fusion Core and wiping out my newly acquired Electronic Warfare Suite... sigh, that is the risk of taking on more dangerous missions! At least the pilot survived, and the shell of the OmniMech was repairable.
So, I'm going on more missions where I'm expecting to see similar or heavier Mechs in the opposition force. A Centurion would be a nice addition... pity I have to fill it full of holes first...
Bloody hell... an ambush to deal with as well? I guess that is more salvage if I survive this with not too much of a repair bill.
There is some benefit to the speed focus of my lance... I can zoom in and flank one of the enemy lances and destroy it before zooming around to wipe out the ambushers. Meanwhile the Sarissa and Hector can hold off the ambushers with their ranged weaponry and much heavier armour.
Oh yes, an intact Starslayer to add to my armoury!
... okay, intact might be a bit of a stretch, but at least the expensive Fusion Core is still there. So a repair and refit is definitely possible... it just costs C-Bills and time... and thankfully, these higher risk missions are raking in some serious C-Bills!
The Starslayer is another Energy weapon Mech... I've got it properly fitted for longer ranged tactics with two Large Pulse Lasers (Clan Tech of course) and some decent energy battle compuers. 1.5 million C-bills and less than a month to bring up to scratch... a definite yes!
... and I'm starting to choose these missions where I just know that it is an ambush. A light Mech to assassinate... with the promise of a heavy lance coming in to protect them. I don't care about the assassination mission, I'm there to trigger the trap and wipe out the ambushers!
Eeeep... there are a few more than I had thought.... but I decided to choose my drop point near the ambushers, deal with them fast... and then think about the primary mission.
Ouch, this opposing force had some heavy hitting power... a single slug from one of these AC20s would mean certain crippling of pretty much any unit in my formation. Every time it fired was a nerve racking moment... needless to say, it was the primary target to take down.
... and the risk paid off! Repair bill was minimal... and I got this intact Arcas Heavy Mech in the salvage. Primitive Tech, but when it is restored, it will the second Heavy Mech in my arsenal.
... it is missing a few bits though.
It will be fitted for long range fire support... Lasers for staying power, but more importantly two batteries of LRM20s to suppress smaller Mechs with FASCAM mines and then later Inferno rockets to degrade heavier Mechs.
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