Ep02

**This page contains major spoilers for the story. You have been warned!**

## Overview

Red Horizon is the Second Episode from Death from above. It was aired on HyperRPG in March 2016 and GMed by Tyler Carpenter.

## Summary

The newly formed Marauders escape from Hastur II mangled and broke. They head to Borgen's Rift to refit, rearm and hopefully land a lucrative contract.

## Cast

* AJ as Beta
* Connor as Talon
* Jell as Diva
* Jordan as the Mechexecutionner
* Mitch as the Lord Commander
* Steph as Valravn
* Tyler Carpenter as the GM and various NPCs
* Mike as Captain Arkansas Dave Ruddaban
* Unnamed guest as First Mate Jenkins

## Plot

The scene opened up on the Yojimbo in the aftermath of the battle On Astor II. The ship in under acceleration out of the system on Rendezvous with jumpship Mahadev. News filter in about the prison break, the destruction on the Dam and a condemnation by The Free World league and the Capellan Confederation as terrorists.

The Marauders asses battle damage on their Mech with Laurent. They learn they have no means to affect repair until they find money or parts. They also discuss the unexploded cruise missile in the Occam’s missile right LRM pod and Talon’s Dragon´s poor state. This leads to the attempt to change Talon´s ride nickname to Pork-chop.

The Yojimbo proceeds to its Jumpship and jumps to Borgan’s rift, a pleasure planet in the Magistracy of Canopus. The Lord Commander informs the Marauders that he knows the local governor and the he can probably land them a mercenary contract to pay for the damage. After transit they land in the town of Howe, identifying themselves as a goods freighter to keep a low profile.

Once they are on planet, the group splits up. Beta, posing as a Davion nobleman (Lord Bob), goes to a casino called the Crystal Palace where he amasses some serious gambling debts to Samantha Carter Wiley, CEO of Magliss Spirits.

Meanwhile Diva, Talon and Valravn find and enter a fights club called the Blue Lantern. Both Talon and Diva takes bouts in hand to hand fights for money. They both won their fight but Diva bets against Talon and for Valravn, evening up her money.

Off screen, Mason takes care of personal urges associated with recently freed prisoners.

After the evening activities, the Governor Julia Centrella and Mason get in touch. They discuss Lord Bob’s debt and the Marauders are invited to a party where they can contact local nobility for a contract with Beta's creditor.

Samantha Carter Wiley offers them a job to head off pirates that take a cut of Magliss spirits production. During the negotiation, Mason secures a sizable advance to be able to repairs and rearm but to do so, he must negotiate away most salvage rights except to the pirate's Awesome and a sizable amount to be reimbursed at a later date. The upfront cash is unfortunately insufficient to fully repair and rearm all vehicle so they must decide on priorities. Beta also makes a bet with Wiley to secure a date if he can land two full missile salvos during the upcoming fight.

The Marauders come up with a battle plan and leak false intelligence about a false shipment of premium alcohol that the pirates won't be able to ignore

## Battle

### Opfor

Elements of the Red Horizon pirate band:

* Captain Arkansas Dave Ruddaban Awesome AWE-8Q.
* First Mate Jenkins, Cicada-2A.
* 3 Scimitar tanks.

### Friendlies

Mason Marauders (yet unnamed) and allies:

* Beta in his Catapult (partial damage from the previous battle including an unexploded cruise missile in his missile right pod).
* Diva in her Centurion (partial amunition on LRM 10 rack).
* Talon in his Dragon (partial amunition on LRM 10 rack and AC/5).
* Valravn in her Griffin (partial amunition on LRM 5 rack).
* Mandy in a Manticore Tank.

### Gratuities

* Manticore tank for Marauders
* mines for Marauders
* C4 explosive charge for Marauders
* Ammo drop all Marauders
* Cluster land mines for Marauders
* Enhanced missile guidance for Marauders
* Overdrive both sides
* Mech repairs for Marauders
* Smoke screens for Pirates
* Overcharged PPCs for Pirates
* Bad weather/clear weather – high winds

## Battle summary

Diva was absent at the start of the battle as Laurent had to do some last minute work on her coolant system.

The Marauders planed to lure the pirates to a fake convoy truck and detonate hidden explosives on it. Those hopes were quickly dashed when the pirates detonated the explosive while trying to disable the truck at long range. The marauders responded by deploying some mines on the Awesome’s path to slow it down.

Mandy and the Manticore scored a quick mobility kill on one of the Saracen and both sides closed and started to trade effective fire.

The two sides maneuvered and started exchanging long range fire with little effect. Beta was especially unlucky on his firing solutions, sending wave after wave of LRMs to the ground.

As shots started connecting on the two sides, Diva was finally able to join the fray. She was almost immediately struck by multiple PPC blast. One of the shots knocked out her LRM rack and another stuck her in the head, forcing her from the field.

The remaining Marauders and Mandy focused fire on the Awesome while the pirates seemed to be less coordinated and were spreading their shots. Valravn’s Koschei still took significant fire, wrecking her LRM rack and a significant portion of her armor.

Beta started wading into close quarter to take some fire off Val and help with his firing solutions. His LRMs started to connect with consistency and he scored a double full rack hit. He paid for it with the Awesome´s return fire. Most of his torso armor was stripped and his left LRM pod was wrecked.

Repeated rounds of fire by the whole crew finally found some weaknesses in the Assault Mech and its armor started to buckle. Valravn’s large and medium lasers finally found the reactor core. Not wanting the mercenaries to have his mech, Arkansas had disabled his reactor safeties. Valravn’s shots were true and the reactor went critical, expelling the short-lived artificial sun in the mech’s core and totaling it in the process. Only legs and arms were left to salvage.

Talon then pulled a flanking maneuver on Jenkins. He outmaneuvered the Cicada and using his Dragon’s rear laser, he cored out the lighter Mech´s back center torso armor. The shot was true. It knifed through the armor and damaged the pirate’s gyro, sending him crashing to the ground.

With the only remaining Mech crippled the surviving pirates surrendered and were taken in custody.

## KillBoard

* Mobilty Kill on a scimitar by Mandy/Manticore crew
* Critical reactor kill by Valravn on the Awsome assisted by all Marauder.

## Battle aftermath

Damage on the Marauders Mechs was considerable. Koschei had internal damage and a destroyed LRM5; Rythm Nation sustained a head hit and a destroyed LRM 10 rack; Occam's missiles had most of his armor stripped and a destroyed LRM 15 launcher; The Awesome Dragon was mostly unscathed.

Most salvage had to be turned over to Magliss spirits and only part of the Awsome was salvagable, worsening the already precarious financial situation of the unit.

## Media

* DFA Red Horizon (Episode 2.1)
* DFA Red Horizon (Episode 2.2)

## Trivia

* The battle portion of Red Horizon took place on Jordan Weisman's birthday.
* This is the episode where the infamous "Prok-Chop Express" name first came to be.