Steel Legion: War Crimes and Honour Duels

Our Battletech campaign is going from strength to strength, with a fourth Merc unit (the proposed name for the unit is Gunboat Diplomacy) joining the campaign. 

Following on from Hoida's challenging of Hideyoshi to a duel at the awards ceremony (link) the Steel Legion got together to play out the duel. Here, in the words of theDougal, the DM, is how things went down:

Steel Legion

Hoida's Vindicator jetted above the buildings of the University district. Hideyoshi had opted to duel in the city of New Derry before the DCMS withdrew from it. Combat began in earnest as Hoida's Vindicator,  "Vengeance",  seared armour from Barrabas Hideyoshi's Quickdraw. 

Predictably Hideyoshi had not come alone and with two Dragons and a Whitworth in support, attempted  to obliterate the Vindicator. However, the Steel Legion had kept their 'mechs nearby and stormed onto the battlefield. After a heavy exchange of fire, Fawlkes managed to perform a Death From Above on a Dragon that had been knocked onto its back and smashed through the cockpit with the feet of his mech, crushing the pilot! The Steel Legion capitalised on the advantage and hammered the enemy mechs with blue PPC lightning despite weathering combined LRM barrages.

 During the firefight, Fawlkes lost control of his mech on a particularly reckless turn and smashed through a University campus building, collapsing it around him. This didn't deter him and he emerged from the rubble, lasers blazing. Eventually Hideyoshi's mech was brought down and thrashed on the ground, unable to rise due to damaged actuators. The Dragon and the Whitworth withdrew from the field, deciding that their commander would only have shown them the same loyalty. 

Original Steel Legion Mech Line-up

As Hideyoshi stirred back into consciousness, Hoida's mech stood above him. "I give you one chance to surrender, dog. Seppuku is your only chance for honour now." The Quickdraw sat up and Hideyoshi growled back over the comm. "Curse you and your master, Hoida. You have not heard the last of me." With a detonation of explosive bolts, the Quickdraw's canopy blasted outward and the pilot's command chair jetted off over the city. 

Sneering at the Kuritan's cowardice, the Steel Legion moved to salvage the two downed mechs. It seemed Hideyoshi had a final card to play however, as the fusion reactor of the Quickdraw went critical and seared armour from two of the Legion's mechs. Dragging the wrecked Dragon with them, the Steel Legion quit the field victorious. Behind them, fires blazed beyond the rubble of the campus building as New Derry University burned. Vengeance would have to wait for another day.

Brian's Thoughts:

• Although it was Hideyoshi's idea to fight in the city itself, the Fox Hounds are culpable for agreeing to it in the first place. This constitutes a war crime under Article V of the Ares conventions, compounded by the destruction of the university, the multiple civilian deaths, damage to property and, most damning, the fact there was no need to stage the fight in the city at all. 
• The Steel Legions popularity rating with the Federated Suns has taken a major hit. Worse, a certain other Mech unit who already bears the Steel Legion a grudge (the Fox Hounds) now has added incentive to go after them for giving Mercs a bad-name and, incidentally, undoing much of the good PR work the 'Hounds have accomplished in the Federated Suns by giving Merc units bad press.
• Mark  (Fawlke's player) really, really needs to stop running his Mechs on tarmac. The last time he skidded on tarmac, he tore both arms of his Mech. This time, he was lucky.