Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Bofors40mm]

Fuck it's worse, you can mitigate some of that with effort. It has Oversized. AKA you can't take cover or move through difficult terrain properly. It's a long range assault sniper that can't accelerate, move through difficult terrain or take cover.

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all seem like flaws that could have been fixed with more design work. or a refit/new variant

 

[Wargamer08]

all seem like flaws that could have been fixed with more design work. or a refit/new variant

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They already have the Direwolf right? Why fuck around with another, worse 100 tonne assault?

 

[Bofors40mm]

They already have the Direwolf right? Why fuck around with another, worse 100 tonne assault?

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its a lot cheaper to make?

 

[drakensis]

They already have the Direwolf right? Why fuck around with another, worse 100 tonne assault?

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Well, the Dire Wolf is a much newer design in canon. Over a century later.

 

[Wargamer08]

Well, the Dire Wolf is a much newer design in canon. Over a century later.

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Makes sense, it's a much more refined design and lacks a lot of the terrible traits of its earlier counterpart. Though the Dire Wolf certainly pays the Clan XL engine tax. It's what 25 million unloaded vs 10 for the Stone Rhino?

I'm still kinda shocked that a mech with that many unfavorable traits is a prestige piece. Did it play some crucial role in the formation of the Clans that I missed? As is, it's just about the worst Clan assault weight, at least that I know of. Maybe some other worse abomination exists.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Honestly the stone rhino inherits most of its problems from its direct inspiration the Matar. Why anyone in universe decided to tinker with that thing vs making a clanner Atlas IIC or a Pillager IIC.....beats me.

 

[Sogen]

Honestly the stone rhino inherits most of its problems from its direct inspiration the Matar. Why anyone in universe decided to tinker with that thing vs making a clanner Atlas IIC or a Pillager IIC.....beats me.

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Honestly the Stone Rhino gets kinda a bad rap, it's actually a pretty decent direct fire-support mech, it's only two problems are that it's a big target (then again name an assault mech that isn't) and that it's relatively rare so most commanders are hesitant to commit it to a fight, that rarity also means when it does enter the fray it tends to draw more fire than it ordinarily would.

 

[Bofors40mm]

weak head armor and poor performance are serious problems as well, bad acceleration for a assault mech that's already pretty slow is terrible.

 

[Sogen]

weak head armor and poor performance are serious problems as well, bad acceleration for a assault mech that's already pretty slow is terrible.

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It's twice as fast as an Annihilator, plus carries five tons more armor, and everyone in setting seems to think the Annihilator is great.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Shrugs. Look personally I don't like either design

 

[Imperator Pax]

It's twice as fast as an Annihilator, plus carries five tons more armor, and everyone in setting seems to think the Annihilator is great.

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Dragoon reputation leads to expectations far in excess of mechanical reality

and also in setting it probably doesn't hurt that as opposed to be hand me down machines they're effectively brand new pristine battlemechs

 

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron 1.3​

Gene tossed his bag into the compartment, he was cognizant of what the Black Watch's final order packet contained. Orders which if they had been implemented would have changed the whole face of the inner sphere. AI unbound, left to their own devices with the mandate to defend terra worlds... how many warships had Kerensky lost, how many naval officers and enlisted had died in the void because those orders had never reached Kerensky.


... Gene assumed that Kerensky must never have received a copy... it didn't matter one way or another it was in the past... but the thoughts still weighed there in the dark recesses of his mind, coming to the fore when he was idle.


Especially since they had no idea what they were going to find. Dante had already configured the necessary command protocol... but that was taking a... making an assumption regarding the condition of any defenses... or that there was anything at all. If there wasn't anything... well then they would be making the jump waiting a week and coming back... and out of all the possible solutions well it wasn't the worst possibility.


If there wasn't anything at Lockdale too find then, they had just wasted time. Time that they admittedly could have used to be training, or more likely attempting to leverage the nest egg of Davion House bills for future means, but a week or even two was unlikely to change anything. If there as nothing they would just jump back, land the two large cargo dropships into the Port and then have the automated gantries pull whatever it was in there and put it into storage before loading them full of Azami cargo holds with the aim of reducing the number of employed DropShip collars.


It might have seemed silly to adhere to the protocol without even knowing if there was anything still out there but given Lockdale's importance to the Hegemony the anchorage if it was intact would almost certainly have an AI and some degree of self repair and maintenance capacity as the facility administrator. Would the supplies c. 2765 mean anything? After this long there as no telling They weren't perishable goods of course... so it was really a matter of actually seeing what was there.


"Are you prepared?" The Azami officer questioned storing his own bag in a compartment parallel to his own.


"As we ever will be," He answered, the truth was this was just a reminder about the need to ... well maybe not need but that he should look at or get a copy of the Cairo's Computer Core... and the manifest it had been carrying when her previous service with the SLDF had been interrupted by Combine sabotage... but the logistics of wrangling that seemed like a lot.
--
It was her prerogative to grumble to her staff.

"The Azami know something, something about the last days of the Star League." Yvonne Davion observed... but the question still remained what... and whatever it was was serious enough that the combine was more murderous than usual.


The succession on Dieron was going to have effects though. Given the base of the third succession war it has seemed as if they were slowing down. That there would be a long break in the fighting... that Yvonne's thinking at the turn of the century still at the time reasonably fresh in her post as DMI 2.


Instead Black Jack McGirk and other pirates had appeared. Then the Wolf Dragoons had appeared. Then Ian had been killed, and they had out about the university on Halstead Station. The underlying factors that had contributed to the slow down of military affairs hadn't changed though. The AFFS was fatigued, and the economy needed time to rebuild and expand, and all of that. It would need time to digest the period of mobilization, the Inner Sphere as a whole needed a break from the fighting, because hundreds of world or not the Federated Suns couldn't fight forever without some rest.


It hadn't escaped her that the Precentor New Avalon's behavior towards McGirk was unusual. He wasn't the pirate king dead, even to offer substantive payouts for something that Shepherd had been frank about that ... given the kind of scum they were dealing with he'd likely have done pro bono if McGirk showed up on the same planet. It also hadn't escaped her attention that McGirk had appeared with pristine battlemechs at the turn of the century... and looking back, and his continued success she doubted that he had just happened to find the motherlode.


It vexed her. Being ignorant vexed her. It especially vexed her when her job was to know things.


It didn't vex her enough to attempt to press Shepherd into taking Alexandria along on whatever meeting he was going on with the Azami, just as she certainly couldn't spare the Countess of Kestrel for the periphery trek either. In the mean time there were other potential issues, like "Blackwell has certainly wasted no time publicizing the battle rom footage from Dieron."


It was unsurprising, but she accepted that man responsible for monitoring media relations, and in particular who was supposed to be sitting on the various corporate representatives was right. There had been a significant amount of maneuver for the short duration of the combat on Dieron, but that wouldn't be really visible in the brief clips taken of the Battle Rom footage


The problem was that New Valencia, even though Blackwell hadn't been the main target, the Capellans had attacked it while the dragoons had been granted the landhold there. The consequences of the successful taking of Dieron particularly with a new model of Assault mech in prominence in the media coverage would attract attention.

Both domestically and with foreign audiences, the capellans as well as the dragoons current employers the Free Worlds League. Blackwell's executives were concerned with what the Dragoons might think, and it ws possible Jaime Wolf would be in contact, but the lawyers had already made clear that there was sufficient case law precedence going back to before the Star League that the Federated Suns had the legal right to purchase the machines it had given the circumstances. One might have argued that those machines thing going to Shepherd's Company was less well established in common law, but she didn't see that as an issue.


She supposed they could expect the dragoons to be in contact, but there were so many other things going on it would likely be someone else's problems... except for the Dragoons surprising shocking ability to resupply and rearm their regiments... but even with her concerns it would likely proceed through the civilian side of hte intelligence community if the Dragoons attempted to mount a legal protest.


... and Shepherd would be absent by the time the Dragoons had the chance to learn of Dieron, it was doubtful that they were too well informed about the ongoing affairs here given at last report they were engaged in the petty border raids against the Lyran Commonwealth on behalf of House Marik.


In spite of that Yvonne had considered that it might be best to actually get out in front of the matter... that was to say she had suggested in her memorandum to the First Prince, to be delivered by courier, that they might be better suited by inviting the dragoons to come discuss the matter. As prince's champion though she wasn't all powerful, and there were careful balancing acts to her responsibility, which was why she expected the civilian side of government to take charge of ... whatever this turned into...
--
The process of docking was just like any other. In part due to the need to provide the appearance that this was nothing unusual. The Federated Suns didn't need to know the specifics, House Davion the field marshal... marshals including the Duke of Robinson didn't need to. They didn't need to know, and no one needed to get their hopes up.


So they went through all the usual safety checks, and tried to make this look as normal as possible as Pasha held the deck, and ordered the tech to start the clock. They had checked and triple checked the calculations, Dante had crunched the numbers.


He could honestly say he hadn't been this nervous about executing the jump from Northwind to Dieron. The countdown being verbalized did not help. Once they made the jump it wouldn't matter, the Kearny Fuchida drive would cross the intervening eight point two light years in an instant. At least perceptible experience would be that way... his conversations with the AI raised other questions, maybe that was why it was bothering him more than normal.


The count reached zero, and the digital display flashed and the world turned into a pin prick of light for just a moment. A moment that did seem to last forever, before the field of stars shifted in their perspective, and the near objects in the field of view changed.


The computer took measurements of the stars and confirmed they were where they were supposed to be. Lockdale's star was 40.4 light years from the yellow star Sol that the earth revolved around.
--
Notes: So yeah, besides the tech problems eating the original update Wednesday I'm now sick which is fun, next update we will be hitting Lockdale anchorage and then in 1.5 be setting up for the departure to Davion space with subsequent chapters introducing the Aurigans.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron 1.4​

There was nothing for him to do while the navy men worked this was their trade. The stand down from the stations of making the jump and making sure they hadn't taken damage to internal systems or that the transition had caused them to potentially be in the way of anything.


The Hegemony had never done much in terms of half measures, and especially when it came to infrastructure projects... and they had over centuries become extraordinary good about coopting natural features for their ridiculous mindboggling mega engineering and that applied in space as it did on planetary surfaces. In this case the small planetoid at the system oort cloud had been belted by pebble sized asteroids as it continued its slow rotation around Lockdale's primary star, and it kept rotating spinning fast enough to provide a near earth gravity.


That could have still been all natural.


... except for the computer pattern recognition demonstrating that the planetoid didn't have atmosphere so even after those couple of centuries you could still make out a hundred meter wide Cameron star showing where one wanted to be. It established they were in the right place, and that the nearest accessible building was not a port facility but an access section, that looked like a good place to start.


It was no surprise that the fusion reactor continued to provide power, but so they had kept their space gear on as a precaution, but the truly impressive shift was the way the Hegemony's DOME had opened up one of the planetoid's lava tubes, and rebuilding the structuring with ferrocrete emplacements to allow literal mile wide openings, and then also to construct a network of tunnels that were miles deep into the crust.


This was fairly typical of MegaStructure engineering of planetoids as used by the SLDF and Terran Hegemony's navy. The alternative of course had been the construction of wholly artificial satellites culminating in super massive shipyards like Titan, Mars, or at Luna.


Those shipyards... much like Stellar Trek's yards no longer existed. Or in the case of the shipyards in Sol, probably were so reduced in capacity they produced at most a handful of ships every eighteen months.


"Star Lord-class, and spheroid DropShip docked." Bahar observed from one side.


Gene nodded as the small crafts touched down. The JumpShip was berthed, which might have potentially indicated that it had been maneuvered in here for drive work... and then just left. The fact that there was a Confederate-class DropShip, it was too small to be a union, still docked on one collar was interesting, but they would send a party to investigate after they got into the control center.


Mega engineering or not the facility tapered as it moved further in with the emphasis on smaller craft DropShips and such. Lockdale wasn't intended to be a frontline facility. It wasn't intended to be a major center for system defense. If the material here had been left beyond it was probably because the whole facility had been forgotten about by the regular navy. "Lets fan out and find the main control." There should have been an access into the habitable decks and that would lead to central command and the nerve center for the facility.


The tram way worked, and as expected carried them over the internal dockyards capable of servicing millions of tons worth of hulls, and deeper still. He checked the displays, and looked at the two more large spheroid dropships tucked further back, and then nearer to the DropShip berthing main elevator the long aerodyne form of a Titan Aerospace carrier.


"Well they clearly didn't abandon the facility," He muttered mostly to himself, even though what he really meant was they hadn't stripped it for parts.


His radio crackled, "Commander, these are very large pressurized yard spaces." Pasha observed, no doubt receiving a feed to the JumpShip, "In any event I have a beacon response from the automated control, and the Cargo carriers are in flight. Auto pilot estimates put them at seven minutes for wherever they are supposed to be going."


There were no holographic guide paths lit. If that was still a working feature it must not have triggered because they weren't in registered shipping. It didn't matter. They couldn't take this place with them, and while he'd have them go through everything as long as this place was safe it was very likely they could just lock everything back up and come back later.


Pasha's signal couldn't make it any further into the facility as they took the lift deeper in. They would have to find some way to pipe communications into the internal relays in order to maintain contact and that would take time.


"We should get on that." He remarked, stopped to check the outside air temperature. There was atmosphere, as Pasha had observed from the small craft telemetry the yards were pressurized, which made some degree of sense, but would have been a nightmare to engineer given the size of the airlock.


Bahar agreed, but through a look backwards down the hall as they continued walking, "Do you believe that the JumpShip here is from Dr Abner's lost tribe?"


"That was a Confederate on the Hull." Not a union though it did resemble the larger dropship, "So its possible from what we know of the Tribe, alternatively given its in Terran Naval Colors its been here for two and a half centuries." Which was possible as well. "Given that Titan we passed, "I'd say yeah we probably are looking at left behind systems." The confederate could have had engine problems... or given its size just been left behind if they were having Jump Drive problems with the star lord.


Leaving the Titan though... well that was different.


"And the other two?"


"Those looked like Pentagon class DropShips." They had clearly been the same class of DropShips, but they had been recessed up into the 'ceiling' so to speak so it had been hard to get a truly good look given the machinery.


The radio crackled, "commander the main shaft is up ahead, but there is a communications lock out, it also looks like there is some kind of lock on medical."


"Team three do you have anything?"


"There are definitely drone fighters in the bays, commander, but they're securely shut down. As long we don't trip any security protocols they shouldn't pose a danger to the ship."


They had been worried about there just being free ranging drone fighters that might attack any approaches to the 'asteroid' or even just anything in system... but everything had been quiet coming in, even after signaling they were approaching the first landing zone, and then getting the door open.
--
MacIntyre scowled gruffly as the sassenach tried his patience. While he did not presume that the Church of St Cameron was all there they seemed at times close enough, that was not say he believed his ancestors had been saints, but there were advantages on the field to having Shepherd scything down the snakes.


... but there in lay the problem that while the real men worked there were still lowland dandies who believed they should benefit solely on account of their noble birth. The man had been stymied of late but that wasn't something he was used to.


That was too bad for him, MacIntyre knew that the elders intended a Highland rising against house Kurita with regiments bearing the arms and banners of old highland regiments. It was true that the Duke of Errai's mistrust of the Azami wasn't completely unreasonable given their long and stalwart support of House Kurita, but given all that was not going to win him over.


"I note Colonel Shepherd's absence has been taken note of." The Duchess of Victoria remarked, "I suppose that does leave you as the ranking officer of the unit, unless one wants to speak to a JumpShip captain." Which would have therefore been one of the Azami... but that in itself was an observation that the older captain had departed as well.


"I suppose it has ma'am. Can't be helped." He replied. Macintyre was aware of the highland eyes watching him as well now. "Is there anything ma'am?"


There was. Yvonne had scrutinized the research, the compilation of what the analysts of DMI2 had put together for her from the digitalized database from Dieron. They had established with relative certainty that the ace of House Kurita Shepherd had mentioned on Elidere was actually Urizen's granddaughter... which might have well been the problem. Born to Takiro Kurita and raised in the household of the cloistered coordinator after his abdication her possession of a 2R demonstrated no expense had been spared in preparing her for a military career.


She had questions, but the Colonel was absent.


Her participation in the Davion Succession Crisis had put her against the SLDF interference, which had in turn put her training to the test. That was the problem. MacAlister was conclusively the link between the combine authorities or faction that had passed information warning the SLDF that the Combine was leaking SLDF positions to Amaris's forces. That meant the sister to the then ruling coordinator had protested the policy. Apparently that had begun as soon as it had started, but it had ultimately culminated in the post Amaris-crisis commissionof ritual suicide in protest.


All of that had to have occurred after Shepherd had been put in the stasis tube within which he had slept away the centuries, and the intervening succession wars. There was no way to know what the Terran Hegemony had known but it was easy to see where some of their conclusions had been drawn from what the ISF recorded and left in the records in Dieron as historically importance. Even in the modern Combine the ISF was politically active so this institutional record likely was important to them for still yet other reasons.


What was not so far as they could tell from the Dieron archive was, whatever it was that the Azami knew that was so damning... and much as she loathed to just come out and ask they needed to weigh doing that... and physically asking was hard to do when he was off presumably doing some other favor for the Azami before they departed for the deep periphery.


Before she could ask for a time frame, "All I've been told ma'am is that its not expected to be long, that whatever it is it can't be more than a Jump away and that they're coming back in about a week, that's all that I know."


The prevailing theory was negotiations maybe attempting to sway someone ... there were any number of Arkab legion commanders, majors and colonels who might be looking to desert the combine now but were afraid recrimination if they showed up in Davion space. The Azami Liberation Front hadn't exactly shied from instances of piracy in the last century either. The Rasalhague rebels were yet another possibility as were yet other fragments of the Azami resistance.

It had by no means evaded Davion analysts that they had first come to Northwind, but the analysts were divided on that. The only combine world in range of Northwind but not Dieron was Deneb Algedi, which did fit criteria but it was also equally possible... if unlikely he could be jumping to a meeting in a Davion system. Errai would have been darkly amusing, but more likely given the jump to Northwind first he might well have been meeting Azami who had already jumped the border of the Federated Suns and jumped then to Episilon Indi, or Eridani or another world just over the border with house Liao.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well those are some rather valuable yard facilities that if nothing else is planned for them should be salvaged to help patch up/expand a existing yard in suns or Lyran space. Because they're worth a lot for that role and quite seriously could be worth a noble title plus a lot of cash and/or stock in the company they're traded to.

Also between the embarked fighters on the troopships and those Pentagon's and the Titan and its birds that's enough aerospace force to overwhelm the space defense forces of the bulk of planets in this period.

In addition looks at the drone fighters. I think the NAIS will pay a lot for those

 

[Wargamer08]

Well those are some rather valuable yard facilities that if nothing else is planned for them should be salvaged to help patch up/expand a existing yard in suns or Lyran space. Because they're worth a lot for that role and quite seriously could be worth a noble title plus a lot of cash and/or stock in the company they're traded to.

Also between the embarked fighters on the troopships and those Pentagon's and the Titan and its birds that's enough aerospace force to overwhelm the space defense forces of the bulk of planets in this period.

In addition looks at the drone fighters. I think the NAIS will pay a lot for those

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I'm not familiar with the small dropship mentioned. The Confederate? Is they another assault dropship?

 

[Bofors40mm]

I'm not familiar with the small dropship mentioned. The Confederate? Is they another assault dropship?

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More like a spheroid Leopard which notably has really efficient and advanced engines. Very very rare in the Inner Sphere post 1st and 2nd SW.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Confederate

 

[Concorian]

Well those are some rather valuable yard facilities that if nothing else is planned for them should be salvaged to help patch up/expand a existing yard in suns or Lyran space. Because they're worth a lot for that role and quite seriously could be worth a noble title plus a lot of cash and/or stock in the company they're traded to.

Also between the embarked fighters on the troopships and those Pentagon's and the Titan and its birds that's enough aerospace force to overwhelm the space defense forces of the bulk of planets in this period.

In addition looks at the drone fighters. I think the NAIS will pay a lot for those

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Im not really sure you get what they now have access to.
This isnt some simple shipyard or refit yard, This sounds like a full on Hegemony Naval Anchorage. Imagine a planet the size of pluto(plantoid) thats been hollowed out and fitted with everything to keep a naval taskforce going. No one in the inner sphere would be able to build anything like it even when they sortof rebuilt it still wasnt possible. Its also sounding like the large version if it needs holographic markers for navigation.
The key point is "millions of tons worth of hulls" there is nowhere in the innersphere that has this ability left. Even the remaining sol yards cant build or repair to this scale anymore. Also consider the Argo at 100,000 tons was beyond the ability for most great house`s to build size wise. This facility at minimium could build 10 argos in its bays.
If they want a home its perfect for the job, considering its likely buried under 100`s meters of rock and armor.

If its still got its AI and the SDS control systems and they are still functional which the odds are that they are, it now means he has effectivly 3 Hegemony AI`s at his disposal and the abilities to build jumpships/dropship and likely drone ships with the method to make them autonomouos and not needin to shut down during jumps. If he gave the place to anyone of the nations you would see a war of biblical portions taking place to either grab it or kill it.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Im not really sure you get what they now have access to.
This isnt some simple shipyard or refit yard, This sounds like a full on Hegemony Naval Anchorage. Imagine a planet the size of pluto(plantoid) thats been hollowed out and fitted with everything to keep a naval taskforce going. No one in the inner sphere would be able to build anything like it even when they sortof rebuilt it still wasnt possible. Its also sounding like the large version if it needs holographic markers for navigation.
The key point is "millions of tons worth of hulls" there is nowhere in the innersphere that has this ability left. Even the remaining sol yards cant build or repair to this scale anymore. Also consider the Argo at 100,000 tons was beyond the ability for most great house`s to build size wise. This facility at minimium could build 10 argos in its bays.
If they want a home its perfect for the job, considering its likely buried under 100`s meters of rock and armor.

If its still got its AI and the SDS control systems and they are still functional which the odds are that they are, it now means he has effectivly 3 Hegemony AI`s at his disposal and the abilities to build jumpships/dropship and likely drone ships with the method to make them autonomouos and not needin to shut down during jumps. If he gave the place to anyone of the nations you would see a war of biblical portions taking place to either grab it or kill it.

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and its sitting in a dead system and thus not nearly as useful from a industrial POV. thus it needs to be made use of. thus ye olde salvage the equipment and plop it down deep in Suns space where it should be nice and safe.
Also anchorages have a large amount of size differences. From small to huge. That being said they're usually not as capable as yards at long term supporting ships.

 

[Arimai]

and its sitting in a dead system and thus not nearly as useful from a industrial POV. thus it needs to be made use of. thus ye olde salvage the equipment and plop it down deep in Suns space where it should be nice and safe.
Also anchorages have a large amount of size differences. From small to huge. That being said they're usually not as capable as yards at long term supporting ships.

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True. But this one is massive and can build the mining ships and forges it needs to feed itself. It just needs manpower and engineers. This is implied to be the setting equivalent of a Zentraadi Robotech factory satellite. If I read Imperator Pax's new chapter correctly.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron 1.5​

He watched the holographic footage. He didn't say anything, because he didn't like what he was seeing. The gantry arms finished moving, and the image stilled fixed on one of the DropShip docking collars as the aerodyne lifted off.


"That is a warship." Pasha remarked stroking his beard.


"Narukami-class... Hegemony colors," Little odd, he would admit, but not an extreme strange, "Block II 670 thousand tons, half a kiloton of Ferrocarbide armor," He scrolled through the display, "A dozen ASF, three dropships... including that Titan we saw." Which they had left, but the Narukami had also departed with its cargo bays full of stuff from here... but that wasn't included. What was included, he clucked his tongue, were a handful of data logs and fragmentary IFF data histories, "She apparently was in contact with the SLS Bismark, but there isn't enough in these logs to really say."


"Bismark is also a warship?"


"She would have been," This was dated the mid 29th​ century after all, "Texas-class." There wasn't much here. The automated query system was designed to reduce manpower requirements for naval reserve stations like anchorages and had asked questions that in normal situations were intended to just check boxes and file paperwork... the Narukami's last SLS vessel contact was or should have been just a line item, not looked twice at, "She left without the titan, and given when she left she could have easily pretended to be a Combine raider and weaved through Davion space."


"Warships were believe to have been destroyed in total in the following decade." Pasha observed.


"I have no clue how that happened," Gene found himself responding, "The Narukami hull originated in the 24th​ century, I don't understand how they wouldn't have been able to have just been forgotten they predate BattleMechs."


That merely turned the conversation into an issue over strategic level force projection, and Pasha was right that he was glad that they didn't have to contend with the Combine's Naval Service fielding Narukamis or any warships.


... but it also didn't change the fact that the Successor States didn't have warships, and rather obviously the clans did. "We know at least Clan Wolverine managed to slip the rest of Kerensky's people with two warships by the time the Davions took Northwind, thats more that we didn't know. Alright, I'm going to the AI annex," Which was behind a bunch of automated defensive guns, and the medical bay was still locked to them... also behind defensive guns that were active.


They had yet to try any of the other facilities either, but if everything wasn't in tact... then it could at least pass for being operational. What did or didn't work work beyond eye level inspection would take engineers months to dig down... maybe longer given the technological backslide but it still raised questions.


Lockdale's anchorage was big... but Lockdale the planet Lockdale was a dead world... even if there were survivors on the world it was obviously a pale shadow of the provincial capital it had been in the 2760s before the coup.


He doubted there was anything more than tombs for them on the planet's surface, and even if there wasn't they didn't have the resources to check. New Dallas given its uplink condition according to transmission records to Dieron suggested it would be a much better given their codes, and ability to ride to where the castle outpost was.


Lockdale was a temporary stop over though until they could finish exploring.
--
He placed the chit in the reader and felt the prick of the blood test and watched as the lights filled green. "Commander Shepherd we're getting movement all over the fortress, I have drone aircraft launching, and i'm reading active sensors at the jump point."


There wasn't anything to do. He acknowledged the radio transmission as the doors opened and he stepped inside. The remnants of the provincial capital's space defense system reminded him a lot of what he had seen at Northwind once they had gotten the systems to talk to one another... and a reminder of what it had cost the SLDF to break through the compromised SDS system because Kerensky had not mounted an immediate attack into the Hegemony, and because he hadn't had the override codes that might have saved millions of lives or more.


Gene paused at the computer terminal inside and immediately in front of the massive holographic globe representing the whole solar system, within which were the wisps of the oort cloud, and asteroid belts and planetary and other solar bodies. The black watch command chip went into a recepticle, "Shadow Command Override, Priority Order Dispatch." He half mumbled, cognizant that the override to the AI restrictions also contained the HPG data recording that had started them on this road way back in the periphery... and it also included the proof that Tripitz had managed to run the Republican blockade of Terra and somehow ended up in the rimward periphery.


The AI threw up a status bar as it started to process through the data.


"Colonel Shepherd, I am Lockdale Anchorage." The AI remarked, "Admiral Clancy expected that other officers of the Central Intelligence Directorate would have survived, but I have been out of contact with the Admiral for some time. Officiating your credentials, and the reports from Fortress Dieron and Castle Northwind... please hold."


It was a long couple of minutes.


"Your data package on Kerensky's personnel is duly noted, standby."


More waiting followed.


"I am releasing the locks on the personnel storage bay,"


"You mean the medical bay?" He asked.


"The majority of my original crew died responding to the initial rim world incursion, when Terra fell General MacArthur attempted to order the enacting of the Wildfire protocol, but that was subsequently overridden and the system locked itself out. Admiral Clancy believes that sabotage of the system occurred on terra, and allowed orders from SLDF regular personnel to further countermand the scuttling orders on the grounds it would have impeded General Kerensky who was supposed to be ordered to initiate an offensive against the Rim World."


He wondered how those orders had been phrased... but from the sound of it... most likely the Commanding General probably hadn't had a clear picture of what was even going on in the heart of civilization even as the Hegemony burned.


"What about the med bay?"


"As a precaution, recognizing the dangers that had developed following the collapse of the league an agreement was reached between Admiral Clancy and remnants of the 331st​ Division of the Terran Hegemony / sic SLDF in Exile to leave a small detachment here predominantly of their white shield personnel."


Lockdale played a video of footage of a nuke going off on some world that Gene didn't know, the name on the tag meant nothing to him. The date was 2823. The nuke detonated inside the city proper with no sign of an airborne delivery system first.


"The Exodus of SLDF personnel that departed under Kerensky underwent at least two civil wars, and at least as many attempted mutinies given Kerensky's track, and limited log data from the period we believe that his objective was a series of worlds that Hegemony long range surveillance astrology had detected but that had not been followed up on. The habitable zone was expected to be viable but not necessarily worth the Hegemony's time given mission parameters. They were left on a list as potentially suitable for Star League exploration at a later date. Accurate Astrological data was limited ..."


Kerensky had been running to a set of habitable worlds he obviously had reason to believe could support life, but not one he might have ended up finding a Terran bolt hold... where there might be a competing set of authority, especially if the notes on the mutiny and 'Operation Klondike' were anything approaching accurate.


... and he almost asked the AI what were the odds that the clans were going to eventually come looking at the Inner Sphere, but Lockdale Anchorage beat him to it by bringing up the Wolf Dragoons appearance in 3005 that was also included in the package.


"Affirmative, I would recommend that you extend contact to all units operating within the Admiral's operational network," A list of various ex SLDF units populated, like the blue stars and the 32nd​ Recon Group that had ties to House Davion, "Aprising them of the potential threat of the Dragoons exists but so to should continued offensive actions, and the reasoning for actions against the Draconis Combine. Northwind is correct, rearmament and liberation of former Hegemony worlds from the Combine should be operational and strategic objective for any proceeding conflict."


"And the periphery?"


"I was not prepared, or briefed on the Communications Network layout in the Rimward Periphery, and was not communicated with by the Tripitz or by elements in contact with the Black Watch command structure. Admiral Clancy during his last check in did not mention such either, he and 331st​ survivors appear to have not received such information."


Which just reiterated that no one had known Tripitz had gotten by.

--
Notes: and next week while we continue this, we do pivot back to Northwind, in preparation for the Arano arc, because yay travel time skips.

 

[HellTeddy]

Thank you for the chappy!

remnants of the 331st Division of the Terran Hegemony / sic SLDF in Exile to leave a small detachment here predominantly of their white shield personnel

Click to shrink...

Just to make sure, did he find Wolverines in stasis?

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well of all the possible warships you picked probably the one most difficult to keep in the field in this era due to being THE Yard Queen class. Albeit that's the wolverines problem
Also at least 3 warships given we know a McKenna escaped albeit probably not with the main surviving group since she eventually became the WBS Blake's Sword.

Also the combine actually has some mothballed narukamis that via plot aren't at all fixable when the clanners showed up and realistically speaking every great house should have some mothballed due to the difficulty of keeping them in service and wanting to preserve at least some warships

 

[Concorian]

Thank you for the chappy!



Just to make sure, did he find Wolverines in stasis?

Click to shrink...

sounds like yes and no. Technically Kerensky`s exodus in canon suffered alot of issues in the early days, They had entire ships vanish during jumps, mutinies which they either left behind or put down with horrific results. Most in canon didnt work out or succeed but it sounds like here in the story they actually succeded in some sort. Also Kerensky wasnt the only Exodus in Canon,
Even after he left there were 2 more major ones, on after the first succession war and the final major one after the second and all were led by the remaining heremony. Its odd but the last hegemony world actually died at the beginning of the third succession war it was only a small famring world but they survived till then. Thats if you dot count the various worlds in the rim that still claimed to be part of the SLDF or Hegemony.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron 1.6​

The deckspace of the command center, or at least this side annex was quiet. The air filters blew air but there was little to no noise from the machine... so they waited largely in silence. "Whats he doing in there?"


Pasha harrumphed shushing the younger Azami, who had not been his first choice. "It is a neurohelmet..."


"I am a MechWarrior, I am aware of what it is." The younger man protested defensively. "What do you think will happen?" He asked.


"Be quiet Karasu." Pasha had been absent from much of the fighting on Elidere, but he understood if academically what had happened. He understood better than most what the weapons of the Star League, and the weapons of the Hegemony which had defended Terra were capable of. They were guests the mechanical jinn here could easily have killed them on the approach or at any time they were here and could still exercise the free will to destroy their feeble presence.


House Kurita had conspired with the Satan Amaris, who had betrayed and murdered House Cameron and House Kurita had then not simply refused to provide the SLDF passage, but had passed the knowledge of the SLDF and fed the soldiers of the Star League into the monster's waiting den. What was worse was that the combine had clearly known this, and that then House Kurita had thought to attempt to usurp the throne once fighting Amaris had ended.

The speakers came to life.


"THS Hedwig is online, and detaching from the gantries, all personnel be advised Hedwig is capable of hitting a maximum acceleration of 11gs. The intention in the 28th​ century was to produce these to defend eventually all systems of the Terran Hegemony." Never mind what would have been deployed aboard ships of the Hegemony fleet in complement to existing Pentagons. "All flights should remained grounded while she stretches her wings." There was a pause, "The THS Braunfelds, same class, same acceleration profile, will follow suit after Hedwig returns to the bay. After which we will make an in-depth survey of the Titan-class ship that was left here, as well as an examination of the Star Lord JumpShip. I would recommend all naval personnel begin reviewing the necessary documents and planning for those efforts during our down time."


Gene leaned back behind the ferro aluminum view port of the the chamber. In theory the idea had been simple... but it had taken time. The idea had taken time to refine, there had been newer technologies, there had been demands in the program, and from the ministry for still yet other considerations... ultimately leading to the building of full scale drone warships.


The real failure though had been in leadership.


The crisis with davion succession, the assassination of one star lord, an absentee regent, the death of the ruling house... the chaos of the war and the limits of communication across known space. The Hegemony hadn't had infinite money, but really the leadership failings had been the death knell of really all governments that fell. People, even kings, were fallible.


That was how things were... Lockdale had limitations on what it could accomplish. There was no longer a planetary center to speak of. They couldn't dig into the earth, but eventually... eventually what was here, at least what hadn't already gone off with Clancy and his Wolverine friends. The place looked pretty intact, so he had to go through what had been checked out... most likely the admiral hadn't had the resources
.... or there was something in that list, but he wasn't sure. He hadn't had time... but the stuff here was a treasure trove... and Clan Wolverine had left with a warship from here. They had a warship, the clans had a warship... the wolfs had they brought warships to the inner sphere... ComStar had Terra closed off to the majority of traffic and even then outside of ridiculously curated visits...


--
Even assuming it had been a simple rendezvous the reality was the JumpDrive would have been charging while whatever meeting was going on. Shepherd's indicated time table strongly supported the idea that he was only making the single jump, thus it was unlikely there were further movements planned before coming back.


She stared hard at the black and white check pattern applied to the shoulders of the Highlander Assault weight Mechs visible from her window office of the castle. "Ma'am," The Guards officer leaned over, "This is a priority." He put the folder down and stepped back.


Yvonne Davion paused and started pulling the sheets from the envelope. They were marked the DMI letterhead and time steps, and the write ups were for multiple sections. Groups monitoring different groups. In this case, her immediate expectation was the merchants were too often the eyes of foreign intelligence agencies of the other nations. This was internal.


Blackwell, and the Northwind government were both chattering about the same topic.


The Wolfs Dragoons.


The Eridani probably knew what ever it was that Shepherd had told the Highlanders here. Information which Shepherd to disclose to them, "Thank you, if you would give us the room please." He nodded sharply, and she had the room with her lady in waiting. "We need to make a change of tactics, if Shepherd isn't going to tell us its because he has a reason not to tell us, we need to provide him with a reason in order to bring us into the circle. The Eridani have reached out to a number of former SLDF units in Davion service, descendants of SLDF personnel." She admittedly wasn't entirely sure that wasn't General Kerston acting on his initiative, but the Eridani hadn't sent a message to the Blue Star Irregulars by courier as soon as Dieron had been secured. They had used a commercial carrier boarding for Altair. They didn't know the contents of the message. "I had mentioned previously your family origins." She had said that back on Dieron.


"With all due respect ma'am its quite well know what my family origins are." That the ruling house of kestrel, and almost all of noble houses of Kestrel down to the lowliest barons, and a significant number of the knightly houses were descendants of the Star League after two and a half centuries. "If he was going to tell me at this point wouldn't he have done it? And beyond that the message communicated to the Blue Stars could well have been the transmission of what we learned from the Combine's archives."


"I had considered that already. The timing doesn't line up. Kerston did not that Coordinator leaked the 19th​ Regiment's movements. He suspected but he had no proof. There must have still been some lingering benefit of the doubt, but Kerston had flown into apoplexy in his speech to the Light Horse gathered on Dieron." That was itself another issue.


Kerston had been commanding general of the Eridani Light Horse for an extended period of command... there was talk of him retiring. Not immediately but that there was talk meant a change in leadership was likely within the next few years.


Then of course there was the Federated Sun's diplomatic relations with the Lyran Commonwealth. They had already planned to share access to the archive, but the information had set in about what this would mean for relations with the lyrans, and what the lyran response would be.


... and there was going to be the reaction from the combine. The combine had responded with the Hesperus campaign, but it had been Marik orders that gone through.


... what Yvonne couldn't know was that by this point, the ISF had already been told about the intelligence windfall and the pieces coming together. A relatively young but highly rated ambitious member of the Dieron HPG station had made copies of a copy and passed it back to the ISF, and that information was already being couriered back to the Coordinator's Court.


They had no way of knowing that. That Takashi Kurita was a little over a week from finding out about a piecing together, a fresh set of eyes as it were had put it together. No Davion involvement necessary for the information the Combine Intelligence service passed the material up the chain, and the intuitions that be acted along there usual habits; nature taking its course.


For Yvonne the more pressing information was the Reimi ring... which was another red flag in its own right because that implied that it had been known, Shepherd had brought it up and cross referenced the archive by name. That was more reason to increase the priority.
--
Shepherd closed the data file on the warships. Lockdale was capable of refurbishing the drives, up to and including both capital scale maneuvering drives and compact K-F of spaceships, and particularly warships... but those were gone now... or at least out of sight. Lockdale was something to sit on for the time being.


The New Avalon Institute of Science was still nascent, still learning to walk... he was going to have to make a trip to Aquagea when they made their periphery run anyway, bringing them Volgadon would do more for the Federated Suns as a state than this... for right now.


"Where are we?" He asked.


"ah, uhm speaking," The tech shuffled, "None of this even looks like what it should. We referred to the manuals. I haven't gone into the nose yet, but just looking at the capacitors, those are gauss rifles not the assault cannons we were expecting."


"There is some model of assault autocannon to the rear," Another man reported. "But I'm not familiar with it." He remarked.


"The 331st​ upgraded this Hegemony Titan with the technology they had available," Lockdale stated over the speakers, "Some of the systems were damaged, unfortunately I was overruled from my initial direction to refit it akin to," He rattled off a program designation, "To replace the onboard fighter spaces with Mk39 series drones, or even BlackWasps."


"Is that feasible?" He regretted asking as the command deck hologram illuminated the suggested 'refit' that would have taken several months. "Ah, I have to echo Admiral Clancy, given the dropship is currently serviceable that is not a practical option at this stage." Gene had no idea how in-depth such refits to accommodate drone fighters were but the Titan had the command and control suites he hadn't even realized he wanted in the case... the refitting time table also discouraged him from trying to bring San Saba or the Bexar here ... they needed to start the long trek out to the periphery. "Wait, are you suggesting that Hegemony Titans were being refit to carry ARTS wings?"


"Affirmative, approved in 2764 Naval Appropriation black budget a Nightwing class ship was approved to be rebuilt," 'Rebuilt' in this case had apparently meant ripping out the KF drive and extending the ship's hull to add another 35K thousand tons, "As a testbed for the program aboard an actual warship."


Even without the coup that had occured it sounded like an expensive boondoggle to Gene, but it sounded also exactly like something the Hegemony would have done... especially the plans to then try and mount the systems in Kimagure class Pursuit Cruisers which doubtlessly never been anything other than prospective plan drawings... but it did suggest where the Hegemony's lords of the admiralty had been thinking. "Why not just start with the Kimagure, they already carried a dozen fighters?"


"There were concerns that the program might cause additional stress to the hull and the initial planned test bed was unavailable."


Gene just nodded, and decided to drop the entire subject... no doubt the Anchorage AI had probably wanted to do more for the Block II Narukami but there hadn't been time for everything. "Hedgwig and Braunfelds, anything in particular?"


"No their systems were built for robustness the tranche V series were intended for escorting Hegemony warships operating far beyond the Hegemony's borders as well as protecting the worlds of the Hegemony."


"You've completed offloading of the supplies from Dieron?"


"I have, they're being separated from their pallets and sorted now." The AI replied. "I assume you need the dropships themselves?"


"Yes." A transit manifest for delivering to Northwind Castle appeared.

 

[Arimai]

Now he has warships and working shipyards accompanied by multiple Terran Hegemony AI. When they find out, this will confirm Davion suspicions that Gene is a Cameron in hiding.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Errr 11 movement point in space is 5.5Gs not 11 since to get 11 Gs a pentagon would need to be basically all engines. Other than that good chapter

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Well, Gene now has BIG GUNS. And Comstar continues to engage in the stupid.

I still argue that an orbital strike or two on certain Terran locations would solve more problems than anything else. If simply because it removes the damn plotting bastards.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well, Gene now has BIG GUNS. And Comstar continues to engage in the stupid.

I still argue that an orbital strike or two on certain Terran locations would solve more problems than anything else. If simply because it removes the damn plotting bastards.

Click to shrink...

Alas no possible given the SDS is partially back online plus we have no clue how many warships comstar has active or within range of Terra.
I'd take a guess and say at least 2

 

[Imperator Pax]

Alas no possible given the SDS is partially back online plus we have no clue how many warships comstar has active or within range of Terra.
I'd take a guess and say at least 2

Click to shrink...

I'd guess at least three actual warships, even discounting the shit going on in this story, I doubt its much higher than that simply for personnel and Terra but I have to figure by this point ComStar is pretty nervous about the dragoons and shit

Like when we get actual physically showing up warships in story its gonna be a pretty big deal even really ships that are in bad condition are a 'holy shit' response from the states of the inner sphere

 

[Bofors40mm]

Honestly if I had to bet I suspect one of the warships in range of Terra is a Cameron since the invisible truths sister had to wear herself out somehow. Maybe a couple of destroyers or something as well. With the Dantes probably out and about trying to mulch that pirate scum given the circumstances in this story.
Also question....did said pirate get the heavy aerospace assets of 1st division when he beat them?