So, Tarragona. What ar we gonna do here at the ass end of nowhere? Yeah yeah, I’d let myself out.
Job the Drac Yamaguchi wanted us to do is a rescue op. I thought we didn’t do rescue op… just art heists. Yamaguchi is sketchy as hell but the Boss still went ahead and dropped us. Intel is even sketchier than Yamaguchi but for some reason the Boss is actually fairly calm about it.
I hate that.
We had to dig for intel and basically Yamaguchi screwed up so badly that we ended up fighting the black market. The first engagement didn’t go so bad, we were able to raid one of their facilities for intel. But Doc Murad said now we need to kill their Mech lance… now that’s a bit different kettle of fish. That fight was long but we specifically picked our ground and concentrated fire on the enemy as they came out. The lights went first, then Rebound brutally crushed the Wolverine with a frontal melee. Rugby burned out the pilot of the Centurion, and we mopped up some weird drone-type vehicles. Doc Murad was gaga over those for some reason.
The Boss didn’t bring me into the briefing after that mission, so the next thing I knew we were to sneak a light lance into some prison to grab the target. When they said light lance, I thought they meant lights only. As it turns out, apparently having both an Orion and a Warhammer is fine! What are they thinking, we’re Steiner?
Opposition was a bit light but there’s still a Rifleman minding the store We rolled into their safehouse camp and trashed their guards, and then carefully peeled the Rifleman apart and carted it off. TigerTail took a bit of damage in the Phoenix Hawk, but nothing that couldn’t be fixed by Yang.
Makes it easier to hit both sides of a Mech to disable it quickly.
Crap. Boss just tossed the problem of refitting the Rifleman to me. What the hell am I going to do with that?
Since the Blackjack shot at us, I feel more sorry for the squirrels.
We spent a bit more time at Tarragona picking up loose contracts. A bit of wetwork, a bit of battle. Mostly trying to pick up salvage. Team is really coming together, TigerTail just up and went after the wetwork target by herself. Worthy of being courted by Gray Death himself — except when her bloodlust triggers. Just ask that poor Blackjack she clobbered to death (again). Our old friend head hits started to show up again, and Boss decided to move off. On Week 26 Day 6, we departed for Peratallada.
We arrived at Peratallada on Week 29 Day 6, and got into an ongoing spat between the Taurians and Canopians. Boss was still being pragmatic: both sides are offering coin, so we’d take work from both sides. But behind the scenes, I know there’s a balancing act. We don’t really want even minor Houses pissed off at us, and we had been doing a lot of anti-Canopus work. So Boss kept one eye on how pissed off Canopus is with us.
Canopians aren’t our friends, but they aren’t our enemies either.
In this business, it’s all about the coin.
Also, one of the odd things Boss ordered Yang to do during the transit was to refit the Firestarter with MGs. As in, 6 of them. I didn’t quite understand it at the time, since we generally don’t do COIN contracts. But…
We were going after some Canopians stragglers I think, and you can practically see the Boss’ eyes light up when a Thunderbolt showed up. We quickly disposed of the supporting Locust and Centurion, to focus on bringing the Thunderbolt down.
Here’s where the tactic magic happened. We stripped the Thud of its armour (and side torsos), then Rugby just ran in with the Firestarter and started pinging it everywhere with MG fire. Since we had been carefully missing the center torso, a few incidental hits by an MG won’t destroy the Mech… but everywhere else is fair game. The pilot got badly shot up and we dragged a Thunderbolt off the field.
… and that’s where the strategic magic happened. The Boss deliberately lowballed the negotiation for salvage, and even though the terms didn’t net us the whole Thud as priority salvage, we ended up taking ALL the major salvage because we pretty much just blew the other two mechs to bits. And that net us enough stuff for Yang to glue back together.
… and that’s where the other magic happened. The Boss wanted the Thunderbolt in the lance and told me to refit it. Which means I didn’t need to refit the Rifleman any more. YES!
