Essence Wielding Social General [Battletech]

The Return home
Part 2​

SRMs blistered the target as the Commandos fired. A completely normal part of the day. Registered with the Lyran patent office as the Light BattleMech Com-6O the commando version had survived its trial by fire against the Mariks in the rugged gullies and breaks in terrain impressibilities of the recent campaign. A demonstration of the acclaim that the Commonwealth frequently awarded pilots of the 25 ton mech.

Odin doubted anyone else would pursue the model, and what he longed to do was to replaced the center torso Medium Laser with an extended range version, or some version of the IIC... but not yet. The Commando was the Lyran Light Mech, and production of spare parts to keep his 'scout mechs' in good repair and protect the planet would require, myomer fiber bundles, standard armor plate, and of course SRM ammunition. All of the common parts that would attract little attention, really the first two were what you needed to keep any mech in good repair after a fight.

The Combination of Myomer and modern armor were why infantry had not tried to return to 'guns' in the anti armor sense... that and the sheer ubiquitous nature of SRMs.It was so much easier to provide men cheap disposable missiles and volley them at close range than try and introduce a rifled gun to tow around, especially back in the age of war when the battlemechs had been the sudden new terror on the battlefield.

It was why he intended to try and introduce something like the Tyr infantry support tank relatively early... or try to. The MML was a compromise weapon system, to let a unit field the range of specialty munitions from both standard families of missiles. LRM or SRM It was the sort of thing he was reasonably confident that once things were settled in could be introduced without anyone throwing too much of a side eye at, because it did a specific job and with obvious trade offs. You should LRMs of course, but it would never be as good as a dedicated LRM 20 for either weight or in terms of excess heat, and certainly not in terms of weight to its Clan tech equivalents. He knew that, at least in comparison to standard LRM or SRM boats most people should be able to recognize that... but the MRM was intended at least so far as he was concerned for tactical variability.

The prospect of using Commandos with them is that he could surprise the enemy. It wouldn't obsolete either truly specialist designs, and it wasn't intended to... what Odin wanted was to protect what he now how had... and in the highest traditions of Lyran statecraft that meant investing into what was around him, and making improvements. He needed to be patient, and to allow the existing seeds of investment germinate.

But the process of 'wait and see' was hard. The patience when he knew there was so much more he could actually do especially in the face of the fight they had just come back from was ... galling was the wrong word. Odin had inherited a massive amount of metal from a father he had barely known... but beyond that which alone would have been enough to raise him to the ranks of petty nobility he had more still to wield. The essence... and that needed to be a secret he kept, didn't use recklessly where people might notice.

So he needed to be patient. Being patient was hard. He was recognizing that coming into the position of being a noble required him to wait, weigh, and consider his actions in a way that similar but different to the impatience of waiting on the battlefield of the world they had liberated from the Mariks. That continued to dominate the Lyran Commonwealth's news sphere, and he didn't think that was unintentional. Skyre based broadcasting services in particular seemed to be doing all they could in order to plastered the two liberated worlds all over the news.

Jingoistic rhetoric continued as if they were baiting the purple chickens to try and take back their 'border protectorate'. Odin wasn't sure what was going to happen or how long it would last... maybe the news would get bored of it. Given the limits of FtL travel it was entirely possible that it still going on because planets were feeding, stoking the fire, among their neighbors.

--

Alpha Centauri... or Rigil Kentaurus was unlikely he suspected ever going to reclaim its premier vacationing spot.... There was no Terran Hegemony any more. While there would probably be some elites who came to visit it was probably too close to belligerent neighbors, and that might hurt investments. All of that and more were detailed in the latest assessment from his staff... or rather the firm that was supposed to do those kinds of studies.

... and that wasn't really bad news per se. It meant less competition economically. It meant that there were less social competitors in the area. Anyone who would want to visit would likely stand out to the security forces that he was using the Essence to generate and deploy under Schmitt's discretion. In the commonwealth he doubted anyone would give so much as a sideways glance to more scottsmen, especially in a planet as sparsely populated as Kentaurus was people would assume he was just bringing in people from Donegal or Skye or any of the other Scott-Irish diaspora worlds.

It was cover for action. "A combined arms regiment for home defense should be feasible." Even without opening the Centaur Castle depot and using the mechs within. Once they did disclose that find then they could deploy other units, but for now they could use what they had used on Alula Australis and simply add more infantry gradually expanding the ranks to full strength. Combined arms battalions would eventually succeed to regimental strength... eventually.

They needed to be patient. They needed time to build that. It didn't matter that he had the material to support such a formation, or that on paper at least the recent operations on Alula Australis should exempt a federal call up for regular service in practice with the way things were carrying on, they needed to be ready for the next fight, ready to defend what was theirs. That also meant not presenting such a tempting target as to make it impossible to resist, or to be so obviously useful as that the Commonwealth would defer to the mass of heavy metal as its new default hammer solution on the Terran front and run them into the ground fighting against the Mariks, or the Kuritans or even the Liao.

"Still nothing official from the Archonate?"

The silence from the office of the Archon was in part likely due to the distance between New Earth, and the heart of the commonwealth's government, but every day that passed every week he expected word of a Marik counter offensive. "No, and that's why I want Sheridan especially vigilant about the jump points, and our aerospace defenses." The young baron replied. "If that means hiring mercenaries so be it, but I want the system secured."

In the grand scheme of things looking at the summer of 3015 the consequences were marginal. The border protectorate as it had existed had been a pair of worlds frequently devastated over the course of the succession wars. Two worlds changing hands was frankly a blip in the course of a conflict that had started almost a century and a half earlier. Janos Marik would have liked to respond, but the timing was bad. Archon Katrina Steiner would have liked to reign in Frederick and the bellicose clique he had integrated into but the timing precluded it. House Liao's current celestial wisdom took the weakening of House Marik's Free Worlds League in stride. House Kurita of the Draconis Combine shrugged dismissively at the news. Hanse Davion of the Federated Suns took note but recognized that the conflict between the League and the Commonwealth was not a matter he could easily use to his advantage. Alula Australis was two jumps from the nearest Federated Suns worlds, though both Caph and Formault were a single jump from Rigil Kentaurus... but at the moment in that summer time frame as autumn approached Rigil Kentaurus and a newly minted baron who had inherited what was by the standards of the third succession war a substantial martial inheritance and more so the space lift, was just a short entry in the reports that was largely never scene by the rulers themselves.

Katrina Steiner was the lone Successor Lord to see the name, and make a note of it. The participation of a low level, and recently titled noble of the commonwealth simply was not relevant to the other four. A bastard, or cadet branch receiving its own title and participating in the campaign was a happenstance of feudal governance. For the majority of the evaluations of the successor states it was Frederick Steiner who took the credit for the campaign.

As for the last of the would be successors to the Star League within the Inner Sphere ComStar had no reason to pay any mind to the campaign. If anything Steiner's expedition looked beneficial in that it might cause an escalation to greater conflict between Steiner and Marik. ComStar's first circuit though had other concerns in 3015. The fallout of BlackJack McGirk, and then the appearance of the Wolf Dragoons, and now most recently the escalation of that Wolf Dragoon problem with Kristofur going 'rogue' and having to be excommunicated kept most of the focus on the Marik side of the border... on the Dragoons, and on their newest employer.

ComStar had developed what was called target fixation.

Not that their gut wasn't wrong.

The Wolf dragoons were not the lucky dupes who had just managed to find a cache of Star League Defense Force gear, they were the first insertion in force to study the Inner Sphere that Kerensky's Exodus had left behind at the end of the Star League. They were the vanguard of the Clans. That... that was to be a whole other can of worms well beyond what ComStar's gut had tried warning the first circuit about.

It certainly didn't hurt that even in spite of Kristofur's excommunication, that House Marik was the most easily penetrated of the successor states for Blake's order to operate in. The complex web the maintainers of what had been the Star League Communications Network, the HPG system, and operators of a massive jumpship fleet, and the owners of the last warships in the Inner Sphere were in many ways also distracted by their own internal factionalism... again largely centered on the Dragoons, but also aimed at House Davion as the next priority down.

... after that it became contentious. There had been more than one attempt after all by 'rogue' factions within the Blessed Order to remove the present Coordinator, a more extreme step than the more moderate efforts to convince the dragon to be more reasonable.
--
Notes: As obviously the conclusion of this suggests, this borrows a significant amount of ground work from Ghost Who Walks. They are not set in the same universe/timeline but there are similarities they share a lot of the 'fanon lore' and interpretations. I have a few snippets in a non canon timeline where they are taking place in the same universe just in opposite ends of the FedCom but it will be a while before I even consider posting those.

Obviously this sets up for other things down the road. I have a couple of other projects in the works right , but the nominal plan is to alternate between this and Luxen II's thread on Thursday's in July, if I can manage that I may continue that through August.

 

The Return Home
Part 3​

He'd finished signing off the papers that morning, after the lawyers had finished combing through the provided material, truthfully it was a good idea to have local military facilitiese, and they needed to expand the star port anyway.... he had inherited a mind-bogglingly vast naval contingent and the Overlords and Exaliburs especially would need the engineering support on paper if he was going to berth them anywhere that wasn't the port facilities on the moon.

Supporting the existing units were how they were going to get around some things. At first they were just going to be 'maintaining' and 'repairing' units they already had, and then it would be maintenance needing new manufactured spare parts, and then that would expand to hopefully in a few years entire replacement units from the assemblage of spare parts. Eventually. Patience was difficult though... especially given the Magna 260 engine, and business ventures like the one that had crossed his desk.

If there was anything though it was the Patton and Rommel tanks which had come to mind which suddenly prompted the biggest matter. The interface he could conjure suggested that they wouldn't ordinarily have hit market for another ten years. To Odin, the Crusader offer would not have been something that would have ordinarily leaped out at him... but he did understand its unbidden arrival made sense.... what of course was probably an enticement of the Lyran state... or at least some portion of it.

Was it a commendation, was it a distraction... whatever the case the state sanction to produce the mech... not that it was entirely open handed. The offer required investment on his part. One the licensing fee ... but it was the possibility beyond the boondoggle that was now dangled in front of them... was this from the archonate? Odin doubted that an offer like this could have been tendered from house Steiner... not directly, and there were none of the trappings of grandeur and power that came from Tharkad's throne showing its interest.

There was always the possibility that this directly related to his inheritance and completely unrelated to the recent adventuerism. The message was unfortunately scare on such things as dates, though the lawyers were sure it was valid and that the Tharkad based company probably ulterior motives related to the the proximity to the border.

"I want to move on this." He said finally looking at the staff, "I want prototypes," What would be really anything but, "readied to demonstrate alongside emphasize parts commonality, but armor protection and maneuverability for the home guard is the priority." As soon as the orders were given though, and the small, but growing civil administration of the fief were gone Scmitt moved to address the elephant in the room.

The sixty five ton Crusader had been a SLDF heavy battlemech. It dated to the early 27^th century in terms of wide scale service, and while the capellans and free worlds league continued to manufacture it, its long service meant for better or worse they could easily explain standing up line as finding something left behind. For better or worse standing up a line, there were always going to be questions of Star League era parts.

If whoever had made the offer from TharHes to produce the parts had just been hoping to distract the League or Capellans... then they were probably going to succeed. If they'd been looking for a quick pay day by providing the rights for a lump sum? Then they'd get the money... but most likely the joke was going to be on them.

On the other hand BattleMechs were not their problem... no they needed to be able to maintain the large volume of DropShips, and JumpShips that were responsible to transport those machines, as well as ferry trade goods to neighboring systems... and sinking money into it would still mean potentially a year or more.

A time frame that if here were being honest... or even if it was just paranoia, "We will most likely face an attack some time in the new year." Schmitt agreed, "Or failing an attack, then one on New Earth." Or as relief for a Marik, or Liao incursion aimed in response of the recent border changes in the region... but that one would give them time... and of course hinged on a battle lasting long enough a relief campaign was considered.... but an attack on a new fiefdom seemed particularly likely even without the League feeling any need to pronouncements of revenge or grievance. "In either case..." they needed... much as the description of the Patton and Rommel provided by the essence's interface described a well protected tank that could fielded to make up for any mech shortage. That the Crusader was about three million c-bills more expensive was less of a factor but it meant that the missile boat could be fielded supported by armor in combined arms units

They had myomer lines already in the works. A week earlier they had been discussing starting the Commando line, and what would need to be done, and when it might be feasible to demonstrate the MML as multirole option replacing LRM and SRMs. Tanks like the Patton and Rommel, tanks that he had originally planned to debut during the liberation only needed modern armor, and fusion engines.... well and weapons and the electronics package.

The problem with conventional serial production of the Patton and Rommel were not SRM abut rather selecting an autocannon design for each in the ten and assault classifications. That meant selecting either an existing design and potentially licensing it... and thus potentially making friends or enemies or 'developing' an in-house design that used an existing round and still potentially making enemies.

That was just the politics of the Lyran commonwealth, heaven forbid everyone standardize on a single AC 10 firing a single caliber even. There was simply too much money in one company making one gun using one cartridge, and another in another province of the commonwealth, say Ske, making a different one. Within his own ranks Odin had already recognized hte problem with the need to replace his orion's Kali Yama class 10 auto cannons they certainly would be producing the Patton with that model. "Do whatever it is you feel is necessary Tanya. Any downtime that is necessary can be worked around." Taking time to repair and refit now, while they were at home, and before any new threat could emerge.

He received an affirmative, that when it was given, for a moment the young baron considered whether or not that blank check might have been the best idea... but they were in a precarious situation, and he wanted to be prepared for even the most extreme situations.
--
Notes: This eases us back in, sets up for the Rommels and Pattons mentioned earlier to make an appearance in Lyran ranks a full decade earlier. As I've mentioned previously this shares some broad notes and similarities with Ghost Who Walks canon but this is one of those differences Odin has the ability to use an essence, the meklab, he's bringing pattons and rommels from much earlier and like in my BT fiction in general the game abstraction of a AC 10 is an AC 10 is a simplification of a weapon that has the same general performance characteristics but canonically in fluff they unlike say Nato guns don't use the same ammo and that crops up here much like it does elsewhere.

Odin has a distinct national identity that sort of encourages him not to use ineffective foreign designs, the KaliYama for example needs to be replaced, not necessarily by a Lyran design but at least one that doesn't have a reputation. I.E. A Mydron Model B or a Defiance offering of some sort would be a good lyran produced design

The other contrast here, is the Crusader appears , well at least is named dropped here first before it appears in Ghost, and Odin uses this as his missile boat platform more than Gene does. Gene's commands in later chapters are largely using Catapults (which use the same engine as the Crusader) or Archers (the traditional Hegemony staple mech), and this is kind of a difference in philosophy the Crusader carries normally twin SRM 6 it is much better armed than a Dervish (another mech that is favored in usage in the other story that won't be as prevalent here).


Speaking of ghost, most likely tomorrow I will be posting a not quite canon snippets set in the future well technically. Its not quite canon in that its set in 3019 in the Aurigan Reach and will touch on details of the Magistracy, Black Jack McGirk and of course introduce some of the HBS characters... if I can get it finished it will be a bit longer than this update was which is a little on the short side.

 

Dogs of War Part 1​

Odin had spent his down time, the rest of the year really doing what was expected of him, rubbing elbows, and cementing his bona fides as patron of the arts on Alpha Centauri. It was expected of a lyran noble to do those sorts of things. To provide for the common good, that there was a noblesse oblige to shelter the less fortunate...

You know by giving them jobs and stuff and letting them contribute to the economy.

Like a good Lyran noble... admittedly some of that delay had been needing time for those star league era terraformers to do their job, and the ground was now stable enough, and also safe enough... after cleaning up chemical weapons and lingering other hazards from the downfall of the Star League to actually start civil public works projects that included factory jobs.

"What happened?"

"JumpShips?"

"Free Worlds League?"

"We do not think, but they are," The flurry of DropShips which had detached from, "still two days out." Schmitt replied, and then sensing his next question "We also do not believe the vessels are from the Combine either, our best guess is that they jumped in -" She stopped as the resolution magnified, and footage from Riken's watch station solidified, into an image with an MRB number, but that wasn't all, "According to this they're Mercenaries, we're projecting an attempted landing here, here and here." She indicated across the landmass.

"They're attempting to hit both of us?" He wasn't surprised per se, but that meant the mercenaries were splitting their focus, "Who are they?"

"McCarron's Armored Cavalry."

"So its the capellans then?"

"Yes, that is how it appears."

He tapped his foot, "You have command of the defense," He meant operationally, and tactically, and looking at the dropships burning in, "Do the neighbors know?"

"If they do we are not seeing much in the way of mobilization." She replied after calling up feed from the Hall's network of sensors built spread across the surface of the moon. Schmitt frowned, and punched up a series of secondary feeds. "... I do not think the enemy is planning on launching simultaneous attacks."

Odin sat down in the seat, mostly so he could call up his essence but also just so he could be sitting down, "Elaborate?"

"I think this is a blocking force designed to stop forces from the planetary capital from moving," So in theory stopping reinforcements from cross what was otherwise fairly wide tidal causeways, and miles and miles of sea shore.

He nodded, eyes scanning through the block script that listed out the contents of inventory. The truth was that this wasn't per se what he'd been expecting. He had been expecting retaliation from the Mariks. Frederick Steiner had spent most of the fall months crowing bawdily to the Lyran media... comments that had to be filtering back, and reaching the Captain General of the Free Worlds League... because they were so obviously intended to be provocative. Even though it was equally possible that the Hammer was also trying to peacock to the sitting Archon that he'd been successful.

He had expected some kind of recrimination from the Free Worlds League. Marik Militia, or mercenaries but some kind of response, but the capellans... why the hell, "recommendations Tanya?" He queried

"We should hold our forces in reserve, this doesn't seem right."

A gut instinct... why were the capellans here. Why not, if Mercenaries why not the Wolf Dragoons, they were in Marik service now after the end of the civil war. Something didn't add up to all of this.
--
The precentor wasn't happy with how hastily they had moved on this. He wasn't happy with how fast the rest of the first circuit had jumped down his throat as if it was his fault. The PRK had been feeding the information back as his ROM personnel had catalogued, but that was harder than it seemed. Lowe's educational background was a concern, but there was no indication he was doing anything more than taking advantage of his inheritance... the exception that possibly existed were the missile launchers.

That was hard to prove since Lyran Intelligence were present in multitudes.

No, the real driving force for this was from within the Free Worlds League. That was when they had been able to see really in force what all Lowe's genetic donor had left the boy as an inheritance. If there was anything that the Precentor Rigil Kentaurus was concerned with it was inheritance... or more correctly its source. Individual LosTech could be attritted that was the standard method of keeping it out of unworthy hands, by telling everyone around who had it.

To that end the brothers in teh Free World League were just adhering to standard policy, but the problem was the stridency by which they had done so. The problem was with the factories, which was what had been zeroed in on by the first circuit. They had been leaked to the Capellans, and in turn he had been tasked to cajole and suggest to Rigil Kentaurus's other noble that he might be able to take advantage of the upstart's misfortune.

Not that McCarron was supposed to leave anything standing that he couldn't carry away, but they were banking more on pride and sheer arrogance than anything else. They were rushing... which was why the wolf dragoons hadn't been sent across the border as well.

They could have waited. Convinced the idiot carrion lords to attack, but that was taking too long... and has had been noted the Dragoons had their own JumpShip fleet, they would have needed the Mariks to commit to an attack first, and then tell McCarron about the attack, and there still would have been no surety that they would meet... so they had rushed into it.

--
They had expanded the war room to encompass more than just his personnel guard. There was still however plenty of room around the star league holographic table.

"We're still not seeing any movement."

Odin looked at the video feed. A few more months and maybe they could have done something to confidently interdict the DropShips in motion... but Sheridan was still splitting his forces between the moon, and the planet, and patrolling the system. That wasn't working, they needed more ASF, which meant he needed permission from the Archonate the Rapier was a Lyran design he was trying to leverage the ruler of the commonwealth to give him permission, to waive the patents. They weren't in production anymore... and he had expected that to take months.

Years maybe, but once he could actually demonstrate production of an air frame maybe some movement. Then maybe some exports. So they needed Hellcat production up and running, but they didn't have time to worry about that now.

"In air terms what are our options?"

"They're not trying to contest our air space,"

"Is that normal?" Odin asked, the chairs had been expanded to accommodate the full staff, which included the inherited officers, as well the militia.

"They may not be willing to risk an air battle without definitive advantage."

There was a disagreement, "The assault weight force may want to leverage us into an engagement before bringing the air in. They alternatively may want to simply use the threat to hold us off."

"They have commandos as well." That was unusual for Capellan commands, even if technically the Big MAC were mercenaries they were lavishly supported by House Liao. He raised an eyebrow.

"We can expect him to attempt to force the defenses." Tanya remarked looking up from the packet they had been able to piece together from the news, and from the MRB, putting an end to the discussion.

"I'll release the Patton, Rommels, and Zhukovs if you want them." He told her. The response was to keep them in reserve. The chances were that McCarron would attack, and they would have to at them across the intercoastal highway, "So you want to confront them with the regulars?" That was a misnomer. The 'Militia' the feudal militia was largely tanks, and ground vehicles of other stripes, it was infantry, but it was all the sort of things that would be overlooked by mech jocks. .. but these were not necessarily the typical mech jocks. "The Militia is larger than they will be expecting. You want them to commit?"

"They're expecting to fight a combined arms unit, based on how we fought against the Free worlds League, they are most likely expecting us to be disorganized, or even overawed by their reputation. I want to feign our true numbers until they're stretched out along the coast."

--
Notes: A minor time skip forward to 3016. The major hold up here was really the ComStar interlude.