BattleTech - 35LP01A - BattleTech Dossiers - Lamenkovs Liability.pdf - Battletech - sororita

Jihad Plot SuPPlement

DOSSIERS

Lamenkov’s LiabiLity

TO: General Belle Lee, CO, Republic Armed Forces

FROM: Supervisor Elaine McCrosby, PhD

SUBJECT: Candidate Lance 5: Lamenkov’s Liability

Alright, the fifth batch.

Here’s my boilerplate. I know you hate it, but you’ll thank me some day.

The base qualifications for all candidate lances require at least five years of active

duty experience in the Jihad for all individual members, at least one year of active duty

experience of the lance as a unit, and at least two documented instances of the lance

engaging in combat without direct support from allied assets of any kind. Sufficient

documented technical expertise to support a force in the field with no additional technical

personnel is considered a plus. Lamenkov’s Liability meets these requirements, and their

‘Mechs also meet or exceed the additional operational requirements you set.

This is the fifth candidate lance for your Errant Force concept. All surveys are numbered

in descending order of qualification. Further, this is the first lance that I cannot

endorse without reservations.

First, this lance barely meets the qualifications you indicated. Second, of all surveyed

lances, they have the least amount of time together. Third, all instances where they were

engaged without support involved forces against which they were equally matched, or which

they outmatched. Other considerations can be found in the detailed brief.

Despite all this, I believe they would perform well, although my judgment may be biased

somewhat. They were the only candidate lance that I got to meet in person.

I trust my findings will assist your selection process, and stand by to offer any

clarifications or follow-up inquiries as you may require.

Credits

Project development: Herbert A. Beas II

Battletech Line developer: Herbert A. Beas II

Writing: Paul Sjardijn

Product editing: Herbert A. Beas II

Production staff

Art Direction: Brent Evans

Cover Design and Layout: Ray Arrastia

Original Illustrations: Brent Evans

Miniatures Painting & Photography:

Dave Fanoy, Joel Harwick,

David Kerber, Mark Maestas

Unit design and Record Sheets:

Joel Bancroft-Connors, Chris Smith

Factchecking/Playtesting: Joel Bancroft-Connors, Randall N. Bills, Camospecs Online, David L.

McCulloch, Ben H. Rome, Patrick Wynne.

special thanks: Paul Sjardijn would like to thank his wife, Aly, for putting up with him and

generally improving his sanity. He would like to thank his regular game group, Angela, Dave,

Duncan, Jeff, Mark and Rob for mercilessly decreasing his sanity. He would like to thank the TPC

for being horrible degenerates. He would like to thank Herb for not firing him. Yet.

Classic BattleTech, BattleTech, BattleMech, and ’Mech are registered trademarks and/or trademarks

of The Topps Company Inc. in the United States and/or other countries. Catalyst Game Labs and

the Catalyst Game Labs logo are trademarks of InMediaRes Productions, LLC.

STAR LEAGUE ERA

CLAN INVASION ERA

JIHAD ERA

SUCCESSION WARS ERA

CIVIL WAR ERA

DARK AGE ERA

DOSSIERS

introspective enemy

Water Station 14

Luyten’s Pan

Schedar, Republic of the Sphere

12 June 3085

“Yeah, speaking of which, diamond formation. Osprey on point, Karhu

in the rear, Prefect right. My rear’s been smacked enough for one day.”

Her lancemates chuckled even as a new volley of weapons fire struck.

The artillery blasted the surface of the Pan, but was now much more eas-

ily avoided, unlike the first encounter…

Another batch of missiles peppered Ilyena Lamenkov’s

Thunderbolt , stripping armor off its side. Lamenkov linked with her Lance

and cursed loudly, though briefly.

“I’ve had about enough of that Trebuchet ,” she snarled. “V and S, on my

mark, turn about and pound that bitch. L, you and me will turn about

and walk backwards. Looks like these poor saps didn’t bring ECM to the

party. Make it bleed from a new arsehole… Mark! ”

Suddenly and viciously yanking on her controls, Lamenkov expended

some of her rage on the contributions of Earthwerks’ ergonomics de-

partment. Her sixty-five ton BattleMech spun about, skidding a six-me-

ter trough through the gravel of Luyten’s Pan. As her machine turned,

she twisted its torso back towards the center, and lined up her weapons

with the enemy ’Mech. Previously, she had been twisted right, to allow

her Combine-built Heavy PPC to respond to their pursuers. This time, she

would hit back with a greater measure of the weaponry she had brought

to Schedar.

Her C 3 interface informed her that either Veronica or Syngman had

closed enough with the Trebuchet to provide an optimum firing resolu-

tion. As she began to march her Thunderbolt backwards, she selected

and launched a flight of LRMs from the versatile Doombud MML system

mounted in the ’Mech’s right shoulder, and followed it up with a triple-

blast from her heavy PPC, and a pair of two smaller particle cannons. As

almost an afterthought, she added a flash from her Diverse Optics laser.

The energy weapons struck home first, followed a heartbeat later by the

missiles. Her attack was the last to the party; already ravaged by the com-

bined weaponry of the rest of her lance, the ancient BattleMech—shed-

ding armor in tons—shuddered as its entire right side disintegrated.

The fifty-ton war machine teetered, thoroughly off balance from the

combination of a particle cannon-powered crash diet, and the kinetic

energy added by waves of missile impacts, yet somehow its MechWarrior

kept the Trebuchet upright. Ilyena would have been impressed if she didn’t

want him to die so badly. Instead, he began to turn, as if to withdraw.

Fortunately, Syngman’s Karhu wasn’t just there to provide targeting

information through the C 3 network. He swiftly closed the few remaining

meters that separated him from the devastated hostile, and threw a wide

right hook with one metalshod fist. Just before impact, three huge claws

shot from their massive sheaths on the Karhu’s right wrist. The blades

raked straight through the Treb ’s remaining armor over its heart, and

tore through the remnants of its right flank, carrying a hunk of metal out

from deep within the machine. Fresh, black smoke immediately poured

out of the gaping wound, and the Trebuchet finally collapsed like a bro-

ken toy. Syngman raised his ’Mech’s arm, then retracted the spikes, parts

of the Trebuchet ’s ruined gyroscope raining down his arm.

Lamenkov growled in her neurohelmet. “Stop showing off and get

back over here, S! Let’s see if these village idiots learned anything!”

“Acknowledged. It appears they have learned to fire artillery. I detect

some batches of shells incoming. Less than last time. Maybe their ammu-

nition is dwindling? Good thing they did not bring Arrow IV, no? Did you

know that the first documented and successful use of missile artillery is

credited to the Hwacha almost fifteen hundred years ago? I—“

“S, one more history lesson, and you’ll be doing a holding action solo,

understood?”

“Rejoining formation, ma’am.”

* * * *

The day had started pleasantly enough. Sent to Schedar to deal with a

well-armed batch of insurgents or pirates of some sort, the hostiles had

been known to do their business in singles or pairs. On the second day of

their arrival at Governor Rander’s estate, a lone Trebuchet started attack-

ing a nearby mining complex. Perfect opportunity to spread the word

that a new sheriff was in town.

Things turned sour when suddenly a brace of assorted combat ve-

hicles emerged from covered train cars, followed by several ’Mechs that

burst forth from within the mining compound itself. Even more endear-

ing was the barrage of artillery fire that fell right in line with their path

of retreat. The pre-sighted artillery savaged Sawyer’s Osprey , but since

then Lamenkov and her lance had managed to avoid significant artil-

lery damage. Not so of the Trebuchet’s companions, who fired as if they

had orders to return without any ammunition. Through sheer volume of

fire, they delivered far more damage than Lamenkov could tolerate. Her

lance nearly outgunned the bandits in the field, but had to flee for fear

of some lucky shots from the peasant arty.

No, not lucky , she corrected herself. These guys are well led, and well

trained. I’m dealing with an army, not a rabble.

This Schedar Enlightenment and Liberation Force was far more formida-

ble than the briefings implied. Taking out a prepared and well-organized

enemy was a far worse prospect for Lamenkov’s single lance than disman-

tling the small insurgent or pirate group they originally expected.

Well, not like anyone else will be doing it. But first, we have to live to fight

that other day.

“Alright, looks like they’re still with us. Let’s keep pounding them if

they stick their nose out too far. L, keep moving ahead and check the lay

of the land. We’ll need to turn pretty frequently; too much of the same

direction is asking for another surprise up ahead. V, you’re behind in kills.

Fix it.”

“Yeah, whatever.” Most Mechwarriors would’ve ended transmission

before making such remarks, but Veronica thrived on them. “How ’bout

I just ditch you losers altogether? Your plan’s obviously shot to hell; not

sure I want to give your new one a chance.”

“Well, two reasons: First, if we split up, they’ll just pick us off one at a

time. Second, if you break formation now, I’ll kill you dead myself.”

“You’re pretty spry and generous with those death threats, LT. One of

these days that’s gonna cost you.”

Lamenkov hesitated just a moment before replying. She considered

herself to be tough and deadly, generally afraid of no one. She never met

a Blakist in the Jihad that scared her, but somehow Monteiro-Montoya

got under her skin.

“I’d best be seeing some orders obeyed soon, V, or this’ll be your last

day as a MechWarrior.”

Mercifully, her insubordinate subordinate said nothing and main-

tained formation.

Lamenkov sighed, then cursed as more missiles pelted away her ar-

mor. The wire-frame on her secondary display flashed more sections

from yellow to red.

One small battle won in my lance, now a big one to win for my lance.

DOSSIERS

Unit profiLe

Ilyena lamenkov

pursuers “Wouldn’t you rather have me on your side?” Though initially

presumed a Blakist spy, Lamenkov’s story eventually checked out, and

she was assigned to Oosterhout’s lance, despite his declaration that she

was “a major liability”. Lamenkov took this epitaph as her callsign, and

eventually proved herself enough that Oosterhout accepted her apol-

ogy shortly before his death at Sydney.

Since then, Lamenkov distinguished herself in several skirmishes

against Capellan forces in the liberated Protectorate, where her lance—

Lamnkov’s Liability—was called upon to operate autonomously on sev-

eral occasions.

The traits that make Lamenkov a problem for a regular army com-

mand should make her an asset in irregular duties. She is unconvention-

al, brash, and crude, but eagerly seeks out any challenges. Given these

recent experiences as an independent commander, there is a high de-

gree of confidence that Lamenkov will rise to the kind of challenges that

the Errant Force is being specced for.

tdr-10M thunderbolt ilyena

Ilyena’s Thunderbolt has the following Vehicle Quirks: Protected Actua-

tors (see p. 195, SO ), comes with a Searchlight (see p. 196, SO ), and has

been modified to function as a Command BattleMech (see p.193, SO ),

but its new Light PPC has No Cooling Jacket (see p. 198, SO ) and the new

C 3 Master is creating Sensor Ghosts (see p. 199, SO )

rank/Position: Lieutenant / Lamenkov’s Liability CO

Born: 3042 (43 in 3085)

Affiliation: Republic of the Sphere

Home Planet: Kittery

’Mech: TDR-10M Thunderbolt Ilyena

MechWarrior Profile

While born on Kittery, Ilyena Lamenkov was not on that world when it

fell to the Word of Blake. She was a captain in the Twentieth Avalon Hus-

sars RCT, and was stationed on Mira when the Jihad broke out. Lamen-

kov served House Davion with distinction during the FedCom Civil War,

and continued to serve well during the first years of the Jihad. After she

learned of Devlin Stone and his growing success, however, she resigned

her commission and made her way to join his nascent resistance. It took

her almost two years to finally catch up to Stone’s Lament, during which

time she had to rely largely on her own abilities and scarce resources to

get by. These experiences are a key factor in determining the eligibility

for this command.

Dispossessed, Lamenkov proved herself by stealing the Dragon pilot-

ed by Captain Oosterhout, one of Stone’s command battalion company

commanders, then evading capture for the better part of the day. When

finally cornered and ordered to surrender, Lamenkov instead asked her

DOSSIERS

Unit profiLe

lawrence Sawyer

has since been discharged). While Sawyer did benefit from counseling—

and arguably needed it—his therapy could have been conducted in con-

junction with his duties. Sawyer seems to have taken the matter in stride,

even though it kept him off active duty for the better part of a year.

In Lamenkov’s Liability, Sawyer’s prior experience as a communications

officer has been put to good use. He has been deputized by Lamenkov

to take on the majority of administrative duties.

OsP-26 Osprey Lawrence

Sawyer’s Osprey has the following Vehicle Quirks: Easy to Maintain (see

p. 193, SO ) and has a Low Profile (see p.195, SO ). It also has Minimal Arms

(see p. 198, SO ) and the barrel of its main gun creates a Difficult Ejection

(see p. 196, SO ).

rank/Position: MechWarrior / Lamenkov’s Liability Comms Officer

Born: 3040 (45 in 3085)

Affiliation: Republic of the Sphere

Home Planet: Bordon

’Mech: OSP-26 Osprey Lawrence

MechWarrior Profile

Lawrence Sawyer was a MechWarrior rescued from a prison camp on

Genoa. He swiftly redeemed himself and piloted a Jenner for the resis-

tance during much of the Jihad. While his service record has been un-

impressive, it has also lacked any major demerits, marking Sawyer as

a reliable asset. Shortly after the formation of the Republic, Sawyer—

then serving as a company communications officer—found himself

red-flagged by a medical officer who cited numerous “unresolved and

unaddressed traumatic stress factors” from the Jihad and recommended

intense psychotherapy. As this was a common occurrence at the time,

it regrettably took some time to determine that this extreme prognosis

actually stemmed from the agenda of a disgruntled medical officer (who

BattleTech - 35LP01A - BattleTech Dossiers - Lamenkovs Liability.pdf

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