Session date: 2025-05-25
4 January, 3025
The lance destroys the tank on the east and continues pushing up the center. The enemy Panther falls back, and the Assassin takes cover in a central heavy wood. Surrounded, the Assassin loses an arm and a leg; before it can rise, Cosmo takes it out with an ammo explosion.
The two tanks guarding the command center enter the fray. One of them moves to the western flank, but almost immediately suffers an immobilizing hit. The other takes a more central position.
The lance creeps forward, rolling up the left flank where a ridge provides cover from the Panther’s PPC. Axel lunges ahead and pulls the computer core from the burning command center. The central tank goes down.
A volley takes the Panther’s leg off. After seeing it try and fail to rise, the crew of the remaining tank surrenders. The Panther crosses its hand and PPC over the back of its head. The Second tags the Panther for retrieval and takes the enemy soldiers into custody.
The captured Panther pilot, Antonios Moniades, reveals that they are working for the notorious Stanislav Botnari, an Outworlds war criminal. Botnari thinks he can liberate the planet and return it to the Alliance as a hero. The Alliance, however, disavows him, denying his men the protections afforded to legitimate prisoners of war. The Federated Suns will therefore try the prisoners as insurrectionaries, executing the enlisted and accepting the parole of Moniades and the tank commander.
As MacCathasaigh finishes the debriefing, an aide from the Major bursts in with urgent news, but goes quiet when she sees the Second. MacCathasaigh accepts an envelope of data cartridges from her, and goes pale when he sees the title. He dismisses the Second and gives them time off until their mechs are repaired.
