Battletech 3145 - Recruitment (Open for recruitment)

Started by Blobbe, June 16, 2014, 07:50:16 PM

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ragarth

#250
How's this, and don't be shy about criticism.

Character

Name: Talia Kastuev
Sex: Female
Age: 27
BattleMech: Raven X
Homeworld: Tsingtao
Original Faction: Capellan Confederation

Description: Born to a business owner and a housewife, Talia somehow managed to look nothing like her parents. Her skin has a slight olive tint to it, framing her topaz blue eyes, and her black hair flows smoothly to shoulder length. She's short, about 5' 6" though muscle from her years of military work has given her a defined, though not bulky silhouette.

Talia's clothing shows hard, outdoors use. Her favorite jacket can always be found on her, a worn brown leather affair with white sheep's wool lining the interior, and she sports a pair of bluejeans strung by a rugged leather belt with a light tan shirt tucked into her jeans. A treated leather satchel is slung across her body to hold a few oddments she may need (like a bola), but more importantly it serves to conceal the bulk of the side-arm, handcuffs, and stun baton she keeps on her belt--tools she'd feel naked without after her years as a bounty hunter. She finishes off the rugged-girl look with a pair of brown leather boots, the cuffs of her pants tucked into them.

Background: Talia's parents are both citizens of the Capellan Confederation, her father a businessman running a string of small shops in her home town of Jerais Springs, and her mother a house wife. Her home town itself is nestled into a northern mountain range in Tsingtao, and though it doesn't have significant military importance, it does station a small military garrison to protect the wealthy and high ranking visitors to the town's key feature: A resort located high into the snowy peaks of the mountain range and built around a series of natural hot springs bearing the town's name.

Talia herself was a member of the Jerais garrison, a Raven pilot of decent skill but no actual renown. Due to the nature of the garrison, the most common grunt duty for the pilots involved training exercises to 'pound the fluff' and fire munitions at the slopes to trigger controlled avalanches, thereby preventing those same avalanches from occurring when resort-goers are busy beneath them. It wasn't uncommon for Talia to spend days with just her Raven for company out in the wilderness, patrolling the uninhabited and harsh ranges for threats nobody really expected since the retreat of the 59th nearly a hundred years ago.

Unfortunately the good times could only roll for so long. After four years of a rather happy life, disaster struck. General Pila Chen, a high ranking official in the CCAF, was taking a bit of R&R at the resort. General Chen had a reputation for "creative" use of mercenary forces in the field, and an aggrieved party decided to discuss matters of remuneration with her using the business end of a sniper outfitted AC/2 while the good general was enjoying some sauna time. Heads had to roll. The General's location in the city, her location in the sauna, access to the cliff face... it all screamed of collusion and bribery in the local Garrison, but who and how many traitors there were was not known. Without enough evidence for a proper execution, the CCAF instead took all those garrison members who were the most likely culprits and dishonorably discharged them, stripping them or their ranks, medals, and their citizenship. For Talia, it also stripped her of her family, her father and mother disowning her to prevent the taint of their daughter's dishonor from harming their family business.

Destitute, dishonored, disowned, and a freshly minted member of the servitor class, Talia had very few options available to her. She used her savings to leave her home world and instead leveraged her wilderness, tracking, and military training to pursue a career as a bounty hunter. She spent a year wrangling the low life across several successor states, and racked up enough of a head count to draw the attention of the Caged Birds, a lance of bounty hunter mech pilots specializing in targets with more heavily armored heads than the average fare. It turns out the Caged Birds recently had a 'retirement' in their ranks: A pilot of a lance-owned Raven X with the callsign Duck, had taken a dirt nap after a lucky shot through the mech's canopy. Talia's experience piloting Ravens, as well as her proven skill at tracking targets, got her the job.

The Caged birds marked a new high point in Talia's life, and the good times rolled again. The advantage of being the hunters, of being able to choose when and where to take targets, whether to take them in the cockpit or outside it, made piloting an expensive battlemech like the Raven X affordable, and Talia's bank account began to grow. The sting of dishonor, of the loss of family and belonging, served to temper Talia. The girl who had once been a mediocre pilot had a focus etched from the acid of loss that made her a cunning and powerful foe who quickly outpaced her lance mates in skill.

Karma is a cruel mistress, however, and after only a short period of riding with her posse, Talia once again had to lose almost everything. On the trail of a pirate with a locust, the group followed him into a canyon... where an ambush waited. With the Caged Birds pinned, the pirate and his friends were firing from atop the canyon walls. She and her lance mates did their best to survive but it wasn't long before she was the only one left standing. As a last ditch effort she emptied her salvos into the canyon walls and ran, giving her dead comrades a burial, along with their attackers.

The loss was crushing. The Caged Birds had lost their leader and almost all its fighting force. The remaining crew, the dropship crew, and the sole mech pilot divided the remaining assets and parted ways. Talia took her chunk of the parting assets--spare mech parts, munitions, cash, the Duck, and the renewed sting of loss--to join Black Sun Company.

Personality: Talia's wounds are still pretty raw. During her time with the Caged Birds, Talia had begun to recover from her losses at Tsingtao. After the destruction of the Caged Birds, however, she's once again gone dark, though she can wear a smile for those around her well enough to fool most people. Her every shot of vodka is dedicated to honoring the members of her old lance, but she's trying to move on.

In the pilot's seat, Talia is creative, using terrain advantage to its utmost and putting her experience manipulating the terrain to deadly use. The ground around Talia is never stable enough for those she faces. There's an edge to how she fights that any seasoned pilot can pick up on... She moves and acts with the no-nonsense efficiency of a carnivore, any hesitation or compassion she once had was burned away by the harsh lessons of life.

Specialty Skills: Talia is a trained and capable bounty hunter with basic hand to hand subdual skills, tracking skills, etcetera. She maintains her bounty hunter license even after the Caged Birds are gone, though she doesn't actively pursue targets. She's a skilled long term survivalist, capable of hunting her own food, basic wilderness medical skills, and other essential outdoors skills. She's also capable of maintaining a battlemech out in the wilds, allowing her to keep the Duck going for much longer than it otherwise would without proper hanger for service.

BattleMech

Chassis: Raven
Model: Raven X
Weight Class: Light
Callsign: Duck
Description: Painted loosely like a mallard duck, this mech has an emerald green head and dull yellow 'beak' on a dark brown body. The side of its laser pod is decorated with a black duck silhouette in front of a bird cage. The paint job itself is rather subdued, increasing the difficulty of seeing it in most situations except for all-pastel cities, but in forested settings it really fails to stand out. In especially difficult climes, Talia is not above painting the hardened enamel paint of the Duck with a latex outer layer for better concealment.

Weapons: MRM-20 (1 ton ammo), 2 Medium X-Pulse Lasers

Equipment: Bloodhound Active Probe, Angel ECM Suite, Apollo FCS, Laser AMS, Composite Internal Structure, XL Gyro, 5 tons Ferro-Fibrous Armor, 10 double heat sinks, CASE

Background: Talia knows of two previous owners of the Duck, both members of the caged birds. The one before her died from an AC-2 slug through the canopy. The one before that apparently died after drinking one too many beers and trying to prove that you can actually survive re-entry in the wheel compartment of a dropship. Talia isn't quite sure about either story.


edit: Got data on the Raven X and fixed some mistakes in my loadout for it.

orderNchaos

Looks pretty good. Not sure I've ever heard of anything closely related to a bounty hunter lance, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Do you have a picture of Talia? 

Otherwise I think that'll work. I'll need to figure a way to get you into the action. So sit tight, read up on how things are done and I'll do what I can.

ragarth

#252
Quote from: orderNchaos on October 07, 2014, 10:05:51 AM
Looks pretty good. Not sure I've ever heard of anything closely related to a bounty hunter lance, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. Do you have a picture of Talia? 

Otherwise I think that'll work. I'll need to figure a way to get you into the action. So sit tight, read up on how things are done and I'll do what I can.

I had never heard of it either, but it seemed like a good idea. :-) People get prices stuck to their heads in the future, I'm sure, so why not have some metal muscle to back you up. :-) So is this an official okay for me to drop Talia into the character thread?

I was giving some thought to how she might get in. I haven't finished reading up in the IC thread, but with just a little tweak to her, she could be trying to pursue a bounty with the pirates on her own and get caught between the Black Suns and the pirates.

I don't have a picture of Talia, sorry.

edit: Done reading. Actually, this might work well for a revenge situation for Talia. Her old lance was slaughtered in a canyon that could easily be on this planet, and this group of pirates could be the ones responsible. If she were a loose cannon on the field, she'd have been in the field for around a week prior tracking the guys so not have gotten word that the Black Suns were coming.

orderNchaos

Still looking for 1 or 2 more players to join us.  You don't necessarily need to be a mechwarrior, you can play an antagonist, aerofighter, whatever strokes your ego!


Akhanu

I am interested in this game. There is something special remaining for Battletech after countless hours of playing Mechcommander and Mechwarrior games and reading around about it, back in the day.
I need to do some reading IC and all about this particular game and will think of a character if there still is room.
Experience Chan! There's neither distance nor intimacy. Observation is like a family treasure. Whether with eyes, ears, body, nose, or tongue - It's hard to say which is the most amazing to use.
-  Master Xu Yun


Ons and Offs

King Serperior

Quote from: Akhanu on October 14, 2014, 09:41:39 AM
I am interested in this game. There is something special remaining for Battletech after countless hours of playing Mechcommander and Mechwarrior games and reading around about it, back in the day.
I need to do some reading IC and all about this particular game and will think of a character if there still is room.
Sounds great!  I can't speak for the GMs, but I do believe we still have 1 or 2 more openings.  If you need help looking for a mech, just let me know.  I can dig around if you'll give me some specifics such as weigh class and other personal preferences, preferably nothing too limiting.  I can usually find 4-6 good mech ideas with some comments of mine with it.   ;D

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orderNchaos

Quote from: Akhanu on October 14, 2014, 09:41:39 AM
I am interested in this game. There is something special remaining for Battletech after countless hours of playing Mechcommander and Mechwarrior games and reading around about it, back in the day.
I need to do some reading IC and all about this particular game and will think of a character if there still is room.

Sure, let me know what you're interested in and we'll come up with a plan.  If possible focus on a heavy or assault style mech as we need another big one.

Otherwise we look forward to adding you.

Akhanu

#257
Ah ok.
I was actually thinking that probably most would like and enjoy to have a mechwarrior character and as a result mechwarriors would be not in demand. But if you do need a mechwarrior, oh sure I can play that.
I'explain what I had in mind - maybe it could be blasphemous an idea but there's no harm in laying it out.  I was thinking of a character who is not a mechwarrior, he wasn't allowed the career for reasons such as his family not having such a 'tradition' in their genealogy line, his early childhood asthma problem staining his minimum health requirement, and some minor other things. But he likes to be one and he has tried to be as close to a mechwarrior as possible, he would be a design and test engineer for mech navigation and piloting onboard mech A.I. systems. So he gets to work with mechs a lot and actually secretly practicing piloting them, under the guise of field testing the new system or new upgrade. Very recently, he has come to discover something breathtaking: a long ago, great-grandfather of his, was born in the now abandoned world of Huntress, the homeworld of a once great clan now long lost: Clan Smoke Jaguar. Could it be that this fact had been kept hidden from him? If so, why? The news has disturbed him, he feels partly afraid, partly surprised, partly proud, partly ashamed, partly angry.  Among all these feelings it would be pride the one he'd chose to cherish, and he has set his eyes on an old, nonoperational "Timber Wolf (Mad Cat) - Variant D" [Two Extended Range PPC, four Streak SRM-6, one Extended Range Small Laser, three SSRM-6 ammo packs] mech, which he bought at almost scrap-metal price and now wants to repair and make it his own; in his eyes now become a genuine sleeping artifact, a dormant icon of power and glory.


Mech Images.
Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

(The image on the right even has the Smoke Jaguar logo painted.)
  -   


This is what I was having in mind, and it still is a bit fuzzy, to be refined if I'll be given green light here. There could be two ways of the character to enter the game: either with the mech not yet fully repaired and this bit happening IC in the game, either that the mech is repaired and ready and he pilots it, the repairing event as part of his description and bio. Just tell me which version would do most good in the game. Anyhow, in both cases, the character would be a bit slugish and slow at piloting the mech but but very excellent at manipulating navigation systems, targeting and weapon operations; this because of him originally being exactly someone who designs, repairs and upgrades such systems, while his driving/piloting skills are mediocre and lacking, but nonetheless improving as he'd be spending a lot of time piloting his old new repaired mech.


PS: Modified, added the mech images.
Experience Chan! There's neither distance nor intimacy. Observation is like a family treasure. Whether with eyes, ears, body, nose, or tongue - It's hard to say which is the most amazing to use.
-  Master Xu Yun


Ons and Offs

Hazy Sky

Hello, I was wondering if you might be interested a fighter pilot to do a little aerial recon and ground attack work and add another string to the company's capabilities?
Looking for and accepting new stories.

Current earworms
Kallax
The Midnight
WOLFCLUB

orderNchaos

Quote from: Akhanu on October 17, 2014, 10:27:02 AM
Ah ok.
I was actually thinking that probably most would like and enjoy to have a mechwarrior character and as a result mechwarriors would be not in demand. But if you do need a mechwarrior, oh sure I can play that.
I'explain what I had in mind - maybe it could be blasphemous an idea but there's no harm in laying it out.  I was thinking of a character who is not a mechwarrior, he wasn't allowed the career for reasons such as his family not having such a 'tradition' in their genealogy line, his early childhood asthma problem staining his minimum health requirement, and some minor other things. But he likes to be one and he has tried to be as close to a mechwarrior as possible, he would be a design and test engineer for mech navigation and piloting onboard mech A.I. systems. So he gets to work with mechs a lot and actually secretly practicing piloting them, under the guise of field testing the new system or new upgrade. Very recently, he has come to discover something breathtaking: a long ago, great-grandfather of his, was born in the now abandoned world of Huntress, the homeworld of a once great clan now long lost: Clan Smoke Jaguar. Could it be that this fact had been kept hidden from him? If so, why? The news has disturbed him, he feels partly afraid, partly surprised, partly proud, partly ashamed, partly angry.  Among all these feelings it would be pride the one he'd chose to cherish, and he has set his eyes on an old, nonoperational "Timber Wolf (Mad Cat) - Variant D" [Two Extended Range PPC, four Streak SRM-6, one Extended Range Small Laser, three SSRM-6 ammo packs] mech, which he bought at almost scrap-metal price and now wants to repair and make it his own; in his eyes now become a genuine sleeping artifact, a dormant icon of power and glory.


Mech Images.
Spoiler: Click to Show/Hide

(The image on the right even has the Smoke Jaguar logo painted.)
  -   


This is what I was having in mind, and it still is a bit fuzzy, to be refined if I'll be given green light here. There could be two ways of the character to enter the game: either with the mech not yet fully repaired and this bit happening IC in the game, either that the mech is repaired and ready and he pilots it, the repairing event as part of his description and bio. Just tell me which version would do most good in the game. Anyhow, in both cases, the character would be a bit slugish and slow at piloting the mech but but very excellent at manipulating navigation systems, targeting and weapon operations; this because of him originally being exactly someone who designs, repairs and upgrades such systems, while his driving/piloting skills are mediocre and lacking, but nonetheless improving as he'd be spending a lot of time piloting his old new repaired mech.


PS: Modified, added the mech images.


Akhanu,  I'm sorry but I'm going to have to deny that pilot concept.  It's too.....complicated and it doesn't really make sense for the world, especially 3145, besides it would be very unlikely a Merc would have access to a Timber Wolf.  If you want to come up with something a little more normal I'll take a look at it.




Skyre,  Yes, actually we could use someone to drive our aerospace fighter flight.  You can be in charge of the flight of four that we own.  Come up with a plan and let me look at it.


Mortarus

Do you still need new recruits?

I'm really interested, but don't know anything about Battletech 3145 (really nothing, the name doesn't even tell me anything). I've started reading a bit on the wiki and it looks like an insane universe! :)


orderNchaos

Quote from: Mortarus on October 21, 2014, 08:59:43 PM
Do you still need new recruits?

I'm really interested, but don't know anything about Battletech 3145 (really nothing, the name doesn't even tell me anything). I've started reading a bit on the wiki and it looks like an insane universe! :)



Thanks for the interest.  I need players, but right now I'm a bit hesitant to bring anyone in seeing as how the story has stalled a bit.  Do some reading see what you can about the universe and keep an eye on the threads.  If things pick up we can bring you in.

Mortarus

Sounds good to me. Hope your story doesn't die, happened to me a bunch of time with groups RP and that's always sad  :-\

Akhanu

#263
Quote from: orderNchaos on October 21, 2014, 03:58:06 PM

Akhanu,  I'm sorry but I'm going to have to deny that pilot concept.  It's too.....complicated and it doesn't really make sense for the world, especially 3145, besides it would be very unlikely a Merc would have access to a Timber Wolf.  If you want to come up with something a little more normal I'll take a look at it.
Mmm, I was thinking that 100 years of life would not render a Mech obsolete. The F-16 was born in 1976 and is still being produced for export, after 40 years, in 21-st century.  :D

But why would it be unlikely for a mercenary unit to have access to a Timber Wolf in general? Especially in 3145 which is part of the Dark Age: a bit of insecurity, a bit of under the radar anarchy, theft and bribery... a galactic black market would be easy to develop quite fast.
Does this mean that the Mk-IV of the MadCat is also unaccessible to mercenaries? It is virtually an original Variant D remade with a new skin, I also saw it at  "Technical Readout: 3145 Mercenaries", maybe it is there for reference only, or to serve as a 'familiar sight in a new book', or available only to Sea Fox Clan players, its makers. Couldn't they sell though, being the traders they are? I could use a Timber Wolf Mk-IV.  Could I occupy one of the few slots for clantech mechs in the game?
Experience Chan! There's neither distance nor intimacy. Observation is like a family treasure. Whether with eyes, ears, body, nose, or tongue - It's hard to say which is the most amazing to use.
-  Master Xu Yun


Ons and Offs

Hazy Sky

I will do some digging about fighters and read up a bit and see what I can come up with for you. How free am I to, say change the model of fighter aircraft that the flight is using?
Looking for and accepting new stories.

Current earworms
Kallax
The Midnight
WOLFCLUB

Blobbe

Former GM stepping in here; obviously I'm going to put this at the discretion of Ordernchaos, but these are my thoughts

Skyre:

The unit's fighters (and their pilots) never appeared "on screen" as such. It wouldn't be much of a bother to change them at all.

Akhanu:

The Mad Cat Mk IV (aka Savage Wolf) is a completely new machine, and not just an old Mad Cat with a new look. It is sold widely to anyone who's willing to front up with the (very large) sum of cash needed to buy one, and isn't specific to any one Clan, State, Merc unit or whatever else.

With that being said, it would be the GM's choice as to if they'd allow one.

Hazy Sky

#266
Lovely. I'll have a dig through fighters later. I know what I'm looking for in terms of armament, but I didn't want to change things if there was no room to do so.  :)

Edit: My initial thoughts are either Striga or Koroshiya. That's simply by coolness and age of the design.
As I understand it the Striga was a rather limited production design, but I thought perhaps a few were acquired from a forgotten weapons cache or bunker?
Koroshiya seems to be the only other recent heavy fighter design that I could find. I definitely need a little feedback please.
Looking for and accepting new stories.

Current earworms
Kallax
The Midnight
WOLFCLUB

orderNchaos

Quote from: skyre on October 22, 2014, 07:31:06 AM
Lovely. I'll have a dig through fighters later. I know what I'm looking for in terms of armament, but I didn't want to change things if there was no room to do so.  :)

Edit: My initial thoughts are either Striga or Koroshiya. That's simply by coolness and age of the design.
As I understand it the Striga was a rather limited production design, but I thought perhaps a few were acquired from a forgotten weapons cache or bunker?
Koroshiya seems to be the only other recent heavy fighter design that I could find. I definitely need a little feedback please.

The Koroshiya is a strictly Draconis Combine Heavy Fighter that is supposed to be the new marque of their aerospace fighter wings, I don't think they are going to sell those on the market since they've only been in production for about 6 years. 

The Striga is a Word of Blake fighter which means they were either destroyed during the Jihad or they were confiscated by the houses after the Jihad.  Probably a bit more likely to find than a Koroshiya, but the maintenance costs for a Merc unit for such a high tech fighter would be prohibitive.

A Huscarl or a Tatsu would be a bit more realistic.  Essentially anything built after 3060 by anyone other than Comstar or WOB.  Some Clan omnifighters might be available by this point.  Did you look at the Mediums or just Heavies?

Hazy Sky

Thanks order. My knowledge of the universe is patchy and incomplete, so I appreciate your help. I'll have a look again based on your criteria. I did look at Huscarl and Tatsu, but I moved on past them. I did look at mediums, but didn't find any that I felt worked for what I was looking for. Leave it with me and I'll have another look tonight and come back again.
Looking for and accepting new stories.

Current earworms
Kallax
The Midnight
WOLFCLUB

Blobbe

Let us know if there's anything in specific you're after and I'll try and find something for you

Hazy Sky

Thanks Kayla. I sort of know, but it's hard to explain. If I can't find what I'm looking for I'll try to explain it, but I'll have another search on my own first. :)
Looking for and accepting new stories.

Current earworms
Kallax
The Midnight
WOLFCLUB

Blobbe

Quote from: skyre on October 23, 2014, 05:51:46 AM
Thanks Kayla. I sort of know, but it's hard to explain. If I can't find what I'm looking for I'll try to explain it, but I'll have another search on my own first. :)

NP

I may not be GM any more, but I'll do what I can to help

Hazy Sky

Would a Shiva Configuration A be acceptable? It seems to fit the requirements and be what I was looking for.
Looking for and accepting new stories.

Current earworms
Kallax
The Midnight
WOLFCLUB

Blobbe

Again, I'm not the GM, but I can't see a problem with it. By the start of the game, the Shiva has been around for some 85 years, and the last update said that it was still in production. It's not an exceptionally rare or odd bird either.