MechWarrior 2: Mercenaries/Freedom Fight

Freedom Fight

MechWarrior’s Campaign Journal

I’ve completely lost track of time. I had a fight with one of the Wolf guards. He knocked me out and put me in the infirmary for a while, but I don’t know how long. The other prisoners are pirates, members of Oberon’s army. They say that Grimm took his own life rather than fall into Clan Wolf’s hands. Sometimes I wish I had had the courage to do the same thing.

Prison Day 20

These Clan Wolf freaks claim to be descended from Aleksandr Kerensky, who left the Inner Sphere with ships full of scientists and military leaders in the last days of the Star League. And now, they’ve come back to reclaim Terra and destroy the corrupt Inner Sphere. They don’t seem quite right in the head, but they’ve definitely got the firepower.

Prison Day 24

We may have a chance to escape. Mitch Skylark, a Raider technician, can open the electronic lock on the barracks door. The P.O.W. camp we’re in is an old pirate base, and Skylark worked on the original locking mechanism. There are several combat worthy vehicles in the vehicle park, but I don’t know if we can make it to a DropShip, especially when we don’t know quite where it is, with several hundred tons of Clan BattleMechs patrolling the area. But it’s worth a try. The base has a nuclear power plant, not fusion, but an old pirate hard-nuke reactor. If it is destroyed, there will probably be a nuclear explosion. That could be a good weapon.

Briefing

Mitch Skylark, Oberon’s Raiders: OK, [Player Name], I’ve found a way to get us out of here. The ‘Mechs are being kept in a DropShip that I’ve seen at these NAV POINTS, and it’s got to be at one of them now. There’s nowhere else it can land. I can get us to a hovertank with some light weapons and a truck. If you pilot the hovertank and cover us, I’ll drive the truck carrying the other prisoners. Then we’ll find the DropShip so we can get to your ‘Mech and get off-planet.

• Codename: Freedom Fight
• Planet: Sigurd
• Terrain: Mesa Desert
• Time: Dusk
• Mean Temperature: 10 Celsius
• Mission Pay: None
• Expected Resistance: Eleventh Wolf Guards
• Your Call-Sign: Hunter

Skylark: Go to the various NAV POINTS and find the DropShip. Destroy all ‘Mechs near the DropShip.

Skylark: The rest of your unit has fled into the wilds of Sigurd. They are counting on your escape so that you can rescue them later.

Objectives

• Target: Find the DropShip
• Target: Destroy ‘Mechs guarding the DropShip

Aftermath

Debriefing

Mitch Skylark, Oberon’s Raiders: All right, [Player Name], we’ve secured the DropShip, but they must have seen us coming. Someone drained the fuel tanks, but I sued the radio to contact a Raider JumpShip that’s still in-system. Our last DropShip is already off-planet, but the captain said she’ll come back for us. But she’s only touching down once, because that JumpShip is ready to move. If we don’t make this pickup, we’ll die here.

MechWarrior’s Campaign Journal

Prison Day 26

We have escaped, but we’re not free yet. The Raider DropShip Fire Stallion is in high orbit overhead. They were about to leave, but Skylark talked them into trying to get us out. We have arranged a NAV POINT for a pick-up and an alternative NAV POINT in case the first one doesn’t work out. The most dangerous and difficult part of the whole operation is the time we have to do it in. The pirate JumpShip will leave in just a few days, and it will take us days to get to the JumpShip even with the DropShip on full burn. A few minutes here on the ground could make all the difference. If we don’t get off-world in time, we’ll have escaped the planet but not the solar system. It’s going to be tight.

RADIO TRANSMISSION FROM WOLF CLAN KHAN GARTH RADICK

We of Clan Wolf are the greatest warriors of the human race, foremost among the Clans. Yet you, a mere mercenary, who cheapens the purity of warfare by placing a price on it, have escaped us using your low, dishonorable tactics. You are now a sworn Blood Enemy of Clan Wolf. We will encounter you again in our invasion of the Inner Sphere, and we will destroy you.

ComStar News Service – February 14, 3050

[Player Name], leader of a mercenary group recently employed by the Free Rasalhague Republic, returned from the Periphery yesterday with an outrageous explanation for the mysterious “Pirate War” in the Oberon Confederation. [Player Name], who arrived in a JumpShip filled with the remains of Oberon’s Raiders, fold FRR debriefers that the Raiders had been fighting “Clan Wolf,” warriors of a race from beyond the Periphery who have begun a full-scale invasion of the Inner Sphere.

Sarah Carpenter, the FRR Director of Mercenary Affairs, called [Player Name]’s story “Just an excuse for failure.” A ComStar arbitrator approved Carpenter’s petition to pay only half of [Mercenary Unit Name]’s previously negotiated salary.

FRR troops boarded the JumpShip and executed the surviving pirates, finally claiming vengeance against the Oberon Raiders, who murdered the inhabitants of Last Hope on New Caledonia more than a year ago. Hendrik Grimm Oberon II, the Raiders’ leader and king of the Oberon Confederation, is presumed dead on Sigurd.

[Player Name] and the remainder of [Mercenary Unit Name] are now en route to Outreach, still sticking by their story of what they call the “invading Clans.” Mysteriously, there have been no other reports from the Oberon Confederation.

NEWSFEED

ALIEN INVASION?

[Mercenary Unit Name], a mercenary unit hired by the FRR to strike against the pirate king Hendrik Grimm Oberon II, returned from the Periphery today with a strange story. [Player Name], leader of the mercenary group, reported that the Periphery has been invaded by a peculiar race calling itself “The Clans,” austere warriors in possession of advanced technology that has not existed since the days of the Star League.

According to the mercenary, the invaders are divided into different Clans named for animals, such as “Jade Falcon” or “Wolf.” The mercenaries reported that they were held captive by Clan Wolf for more than a month before escaping.

While the mercenaries’ story is hard to believe, sociohistorians concede that a small pirate kingdom could have survived deep in the Periphery for centuries, and developed a wildly different culture. However, the Rasalhague government believes that the entire report is a hoax created by Gurgenheim Entertainment, a multimedia corporation based out of the Republic. The sequel to their blockbuster hit “Invaders from Beyond II” is due to release in three weeks.