Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

Interlude 7
--
The duke of Robinson maneuvered his wheel chair around the tables as his officers worked processing equipment checks, and across the hard ferrocrete of the yard. "And we're ready?"

"As ready as we can be your grace." Colonel Cameron replied jogging beside the duke. Thirty meters to their right were the massed forces of the Draconis March Militia... or at least the primary striking force.

Battlemechs, and supporting armor, including of course machines that had been pulled from a star league depot that he had been ignorant of.

Part of that complement were Star League Chaparrals, being stood guard over by more recently constructed Enforcer and Centurion BattleMechs... which was what he wanted Robinson Standard BattleWorks to look at... because all of them, and indeed the Mongoose, the Dragoon's mysterious Annihilator, and the venerable Hunchback could all run off the same fusion engine.

He needed the local company to begin manufacturing fusion engines... no what he really needed them to do was to begin producing BattleMechs wholesale. One of the things that had been discussed but that the Prince's Champion had nixed, as not having time, was the refitting of equipment to consolidate a logistical bottle neck in both ammunition use, and for that matter even on lasers.

"Your grace." The head of Robinson Standard BattleWorks was a good hardworking man, but it was clear he'd been overtaxed by recent preparations. There were deep bags developing under the man's eyes and that only accentuated his rail thin frame.

"Mr Surrey its good to see you again, I do apologize for keeping you waiting."

"Not at all your grace."

The papers were handed over, "Can it be done?"

Ultimately it would take time and money. He had known that, and yet the man's pause filled with a sudden inescapable feeling of dread, "Well, your grace, yes the engines, armor, certainly. The Enforcer, and Centurion, are different BattleMechs your grace." He was tempted to hurry the man along, or interrupt him that of course he knew that, and knew that ordinarily the Centurion was finicky with its standard auto cannon, and that whatever else they could just replace the Luxor with the Federated version, "Its true, and well some parts commonality aside, your grace would be better suited attempting to choose one, or the other... and if I may."

"The enforcer," He grunted from his wheel chair. How hard would it really be to just mount missiles in, "But I will want our Centurions refit for the Federated Autocannon as soon as we are able to do so."

"Yes your grace." The man acquiesced forthwith, and they moved along to the other issues. When it was all said and done though the Sandoval duke was sure that given time Robinson would be able to make the appropriate steps, with the appropriate political support to begin expansion... and that his world would be able to produce new BattleMechs for the Draconis March.

A Prospect that would be, he expected, much easier as among the new arrivals he expected were the other dukes of the Draconis March, particularly those of the Elidere system, and the others who had suffered attacks by the 19^th Galedon Regulars. He had played the game long enough to recognize having them come in the autumn would keep them on their worlds if reprisals came, but having them not be here with the discovery of the Brian Cache had been its own lucky break.
--

Within the core of the Eirdani Light Horse's regiments each had a contingent of what were now LosTech machines... carefully guarded once it had become clear that they were harder and harder to repair and replace. He thought of Campbell's Highlander, and shook his head head. He knew, from the records of his predecessors, that at the core of the Azami community was a carefully unbroken chain of descent from soldiers of the Combine's SLDF units who had not for one reason or another left with General Kerensky. He knew that the Highlanders similarly had their own traditions.

That first look suggested that was all it was, especially with Azami troopers in tow. It made perfect sense that Highlanders, and Azami survivors' descendants would have ties of their own. The Eridani Light Horse had accepted the terms of House Steiner through negotiations with former SLDF units, or their descendants in Lyran service. His lyran counterparts had been using it as an old boys club, more than living up to the League's ideals, but that was life.

The mech start up over the channel echoed.

"It's hard to light a candle, easy to curse the dark instead."

The Marauder lifted to full height hull rising over the ferrocrete embankment.

The observation deck's support display listed battle rom data, which was dominated by a truly exhaustive compilation of mech kills of the last two years. "Sir." The staff officer's expression was puzzled and concerned as he toyed with the noteputer. An SLDF IFF wasn't something they'd never seen before, each and every man, and woman in the Eridani Light Horse swore the oaths, that wasn't the problem.

The piloting credentials listed were valid, fair enough. It was the beyond that. The list of credentials was alarmingly complete, but of all the impossibilities there was perhaps the most impossible, that stood out against all the rest. Credentials like Master Gunner qualifications were still issued out by the Eridani Light Horse. They still had the testing, evaluation and issuing ability for that, and plenty of other basic, and some advanced mechwarrior courses.

The tab and scroll which stood out most was for the Advanced Combat and Maneuvering Skills Project.

The Gunslinger Program.

The other impossibility was Service Nationality. The brevet colonel wasn't from the Lyran Commonwealth, the Draconis Combine, the Federated Suns, the Capellan Confederation, the Free Worlds League or any of the territorial states. It listed the Terran Hegemony, listing an HAF service number.

"Command, standing by, LBX 120mm three rounds," The rest of the firing sequence Kersten didn't recognize but he supposed it was a lostech weapon, cluster was an artillery command he was familiar with.

The General Motors rep was all but plastering his face to the transparent aluminum bubble that separated them from the air as the autocannon did its work on the targets. The man might as well have been salivating as the class five autocannon went to work.

He was aware that the other mercenary command had already transferred Star League era samples of the ammunition. There were copies of two different class ten versions apparently, he had seen one of the examples labelled Lubalin Ballistics, the other was apparently a Krupp example. The excitement and the clamor at the test wasn't just GM's reps.

The smaller corporation was here as well, and was looking on in interest. The Marauder, swapped ammunition types back to standard, and then delivered a burst on target in excess of a typical Whirlwind's range. Whether that was showing off or the lostech, or a mix wasn't immediately clear, but it probably didn't matter. The purpose of all this Kersten knew damned well was to show off. This was a dog and pony show to impress General Motors. The first prince was wooing one of his vassals to come around to his point of view, and was offering them the prospect of involvement in some new Davion auto cannon business.

... the davions were famous for their obsession with autocannons, it was almost apart of the national character of the Federated Suns really... and GM would have been insane to step back from involvement in it. This was the carrot that would help entice them, and deter them from the reminder that the First Prince was still a monarch with exceptional powers not counting those that had become normal after the succession wars had erupted two centuries earlier.

The show continued. The mech that they didn't see was Blackwell's Marauder II, but Kersten had been told about it... and also the variants of it that the terran brevet colonel had apparently requested... and there was one other. They had gotten to see the White Horse, but apparently in the constraints of travel the Colonel had left the Black Horse behind.

That was what the news called them. Someone on Elidere had coined it in response to an interview showing previous BattleRom footage. White Horse, Black Horse. He wasn't offended by it, not at all, the parade paint jobs made perfect sense... and when it came to field operations well it didn't seem to be any trouble to apply Star League environment camouflage patterns to them for campaigning... but in today's events the white horse was the white horse, painted white and gray.

The aide had already been attempting to run down whose parade colors, a Hussar unit, possibly, maybe the Combine had been on to something. Maybe not. It wouldn't hurt to look. The 'Devastator' was also in SLDF parade colors, but it had apparently been found by the Lyran. Something to look up, but not a priority... not nearly as much of an anomaloy. LosTech turned up, and sometimes it was a really impressive find like this.

There were rumors going around that they'd found a whole army cache, some division whose depot hadn't been found before now. It would have been nice to have been able to bring some of their units back up SLDF unit specifications. As the years had gone on his predecessors had had to adjust to supply realities. There were still some infantry units fielding the standard issue weapons of the Star League era, but there numbers were a handful of jump infantry companies compared to a time when the RCT would have all had standard Mauser Las Guns. That was long in the past now.

They had lost so much. So much had declined over the centuries.

The door opened to readmit the young mechwarrior, and it seemed to take Field Marshal Yvonne Davion the Prince's Champion considerable effort to keep the GM rep from trying to get to the colonel. What was notable about today, besides the mechs of course, was also the absence of other less grand finds. There had probably been infantry equipment, but the cache had apparently contained significant combat vehicle stocks... but the Eridani hadn't been the ones to locate it... and being upset about it would be counter productive.

The problem would be having a conversation in private. In the last two days there hadn't been a priority there, not with all of the colonel's time monopolized either by the Lyran doctor, or by Davion inquiries, and there hadn't been a pressing need. With as much travel time there would have been time to talk about the contract... but now the Field Marshal's mothering looked different. "I'll try and get you some time on the others," The field marshal was presumably referring to Blackwell's Marauder II mechs.

"I was wondering about that, we're here," At AMA, "I take it we're displacing the students."

"That's true." She replied as they moved to sit back down. "A necessary accommodation for the realm though, I assure you. You could come back here after."

"Lex has mentioned that." He replied.

"And how are you and Alexandria getting along?"
--

 

Interlude 8 (A)​

"Did you know that General Kersten is looking for you?"

"Now?" It was a change of pace. ... not that he'd exactly made a point of getting beyond exchanging pleasantries with the man. "What about the Blackwell test?"

"Oh he's invited himself along to that." Yvonne replied adjusting the horn rimmed glasses she was wearing, "Something about necessary military capacity since your unit will be fielding these models... Blackwell tells me you'll be the first outside of the Wolf Dragoons, and the first with, what did you call them?"

"Sturmjaeger." Abner declared.

"Storm Hunter." She looked between the two of them. "For the record the name is in English." Gene replied.

"It will be more popular in the commonwealth if you give it a good german name." Abner recommended nodding his head. "I think it will be popular either way," It was an assault mech after all, and Lyran reached for his coffee. "But the marketing is important." Gene nodded for the Professor's benefit.

"The Brevet General?"

"He hasn't made time before this." Yvonne remarked, reaching for her own tea cup, "What do you make of that?"

"We just showed off Gauss rifles, I would want to know what else the other unit in the Operation has admittedly."

"Do you have any objections?"

He wondered if he actually had a choice, "I don't have any objections field marshal." Besides that hadn't been what he had wanted to talk about anyway. "I didn't have time to finish the," She was looking at him, "This is related to the Marauder 2. It utilizes a certain of degree of parts compatibility , but I didn't expect or plan to have access to certain weapons, but given we are talking an assault chassis, and since Cosara and GM aren't manufacturing the King Crab any longer it should be possible to mount a pair of class twenties in the arms, two tons of ammunition in the side torsos."

She smiled, "Were you hoping originally to simply buy King Crabs on Northwind?"

"No. I understand that they're strictly in refit and repair these days." He shook his head, "The other project I have one of the techs working on based on spare parts but until we have an actual chassis to install them on it'll have to wait."

"What do you need it for?"

"I expect the Combine to try and banzai charge light mechs, I want something that if they do manage to get close .. a pair of hundred tonners for close area defense in an urban environment is what I came up with based on what I expected would be coming in inventory."

"I see." She nodded, "for the time being let us focus on the brevet general, and his involvement. It is in all likelihood that this goes beyond inter unit cooperation... and given today's demonstration it won't just be Blackwell, General Motors has decided that they do wish to be present."

That was a change, but not an especially shocking one. The whole strategy at play here seemed to have been one of making an impression on GM to carrot them into playing ball.

--
The Marauder II's cockpit layout was for the most part similar to the layout he was familiar with, there were minor differences. Functionally though, for what they were doing today, there was no difference to what they had done yesterday There were some differences in the hardware in the transition to the Hi Rez II and the comms system was Blackwell's own in house system... as opposed to retaining the Dalban Star Link used in other Blackwell Industry products.

"How do you things look?"

"Solid." He replied keying the mike.

There was a pause on the other end of the connection. Then Yvonne came back on, "The Blackwell representative asks why you wanted two LRM 5 intead of a single LRM 10?"

"Am I weapon's free?" He replied, a question for a question.

The Field Marshal paused, presumably to double check with the mustachioed man who's range theyd been monopolizing the last few days. "Yes colonel."

He reached up to flip the arm switches, and painted separate targets. He had run the mental math through the targeting computer. The two stand ins for light mechs were about half a klick out, well beyond their engagement envelope. Ten missiles cycled from vertical launch in the upper torso of the Mad II and peppered the heads of both machines. Not enough to confirm kills on an enemy mech but enough to insure that whoever was getting their bell run would know that he had them dialed in.

"Well that's just you showing off." She remarked, drumming her fingers on the console in front of her, near the mike, "But it does make sense when you put it that way."

"Its a skill thing." He responded, "admittedly having two launchers makes the gyro's job easier," Having them in opposite torsos, and saving tonnage. Gene didn't presume to understand how the LRM 10 class of launcher had remained viable given how inefficient it was. Inertia he supposed, "Its not ideal for less experienced pilots, but it provides some indirect fire."

"You mentioned seeing if the Krupp could be installed on the frame."


It was funny how yesterday she had put that to the side, "Ideally we could put one in the right torso to make sure the Krupp would work." The Krupp was an 120mm but classed as a 10, instead of the GM Whirldwind's class five designation.

He got the feeling Yvonne must have been prodding GM's rep up in the control tower because she came back over the radio, "Ah well its such a pity we don't have to experiment more with the chassis as it is." It definitely seemed as if Yvonne must have been needling the General Motor People, and possibly for that matter the Blackwell corporation. He knew that GM was angling to get access to the prototype LBX class 5in his marauder before they left new Avalon, and the field marshal was probably holding that as a trump card in terms of getting them to play ball.. and of course she had also shown up to new avalon with 30 Marauder II chassis, most in standard configuration, but others loaded to specifications he had written up short hand on Robinson. All of the machines had probably been stock originally, but regardless that many machines was an implicit demonstration that Blackwell could in theory enter full scale production of the BattleMech in the near future.

More to the point it was the demonstration that Blackwell would be contributing to the now inevitable counter attack against the combine. This was all about politics, and it wasn't as if GM hadn't been all too happy show battlerom footage from Elidere of their arguably most famous mech, at least their most iconic in appearance mech excelling on the battlefield. It certainly didn't hurt that his 'White Horse' was in silhouette profile much closer to the common 3R that the inner sphere as a whole knew, than the black horse brawler with its abundance of medium lasers.

With little else to do, he painted the fake locusts and fired the arm mounted ppcs confirming the lights as destroyed, and ran through the test for the medium laser suite. Testing and evaluation for the rest of them was more or less the same. He wasn't running a course of maneuver for the machines, that would have taken all day, but the transition still took time.

Then again the reason there were this many was because Yvonne had gone to New Valencia before they had found the Brian Cache, and so had been bringing addition assault mechs to round out DMM' heavier weights.

For Yvonne Davion up in the control deck the plan had been to use that as a horse trading implement with Lord Sandoval, and that cache find while certainly useful meant she was now adjusting the plan. Not that she couldn't make it work, the intended company of assault mechs meant for the DMM could still be used. Given combine aggression, and the need to retaliate it was the perfect opportunity to publicly show off the new machines, and there would be little the head of the capellan march would be able to do.

Brevet General Kerston had been in command of the Eridani for almost two decades, and to say was an experienced officer went without saying. In many respects the Eridani had been the wolf dragoons before the wolf dragoons had appeared on seen, the difference was that unlike the dragoons the Eridani hadn't demonstrated any miraculous ability to restore their manpower, or equipment in the manner the Dragoons had. "Well General, what do you make of the new machines?" She inquired as Kerston straightened from looking over the projected holographic projections of individual armaments.

What Blackwell had done in conjunction with the wolf dragoons wasn't unheard of. Certain Chassis were known to be robust enough that one could accommodate a greater mass, and the stress of going up a weight class... "In my opinion, for Dragoons, or other similar weight units, the design makes sense. I think the loss of speed does limit its tactical application compared to the Marauder. Its true that as with an Atlas or another hundred ton design if it is in range then smaller lighter mechs would be hard pressed to stand up and fight," But left unsaid was that the Eridani Light Horse had survived as a regimental combat team for two hundred plus years while still largely conforming to SLDF doctrine.
--
Note: Due to Covid there is a chance that i will be increasingly MIA. If this shit continues through next week I will probably post scraps to the other misc thread dail, but basically as things sit right now. I was prior to monday several updates ahead of schedule, but am now basically just copying and pasting the updates. I have not had time to sit down and respond to people's posts as a result of being sick.

 

Interlude 8 (B)​

Gene figured the Brevet General was probably Yvonne's age, part of that was the way the middle aged man was starting to fill out the khaki uniform, the rounded shoulders, and the increasing waistline you got as you increasingly road a desk... and from the file Kerston had been in command of the Eridani for longer than Gene had been expecting... and that was the RCT over all not holding a regimental command. Kerston had inked the current contract with the FedSuns seventeen years earlier after the Eridani had left Lyran space.

The Eridani had a dozen JumpShips to the name, and twenty attendant Droppers to fery personnel and equipment. They had lift capacity to spare which meant the Eridani would likely be assisting in ferrying Davion troops to at least the staging grounds, if not for the actual invasion.... but probably for that too.

Kerston wore the rank insignia of an SLDF lieutenant general, but was ironically outranked in uniform grade by at least two of the AFFS officers present, plus Yvonne who was still in civilian dress. The Field Marshal's office had laid out the various highlights for them, including potential ramifications. "If we succeed in taking Dieron then we will have other effects." She meant ComStar, and the office of Precentor Dieron which was supposed to represent all Combine based HPG stations. "Obviously the most likely successor to that role will be the Precentor Altair, but given Altair's location," Litterally right next door, "if we can hold Dieron we should be able to in the long term take Altair as well, and proceed to cut the Combine out of the Terran corridor."

The transmission range of the HPG of course was capable of broadcasting to a fifty light year spherical volume, which even assuming they didn't know the number knew that the combine not being one jump from earth meant that the Federated Suns could insist on restrictions of Combine flagged shipping in those lanes... at least in theory.

The immediate priority was taking and securing Dieron. They could worry about Altair later, if that proved to be in the cards for the unit. Anything beyond that was too far down the road to talk about at an operational level, and this wasn't the kind of conservation, or time for strategic level planning.

"We've considered the chance that the Combine may attempt to spike the Dieron HPG station to that end we are recommending that if it can't be secured immediately, it be bypassed and encircled until after the planet is secure."

In other words don't e stupid and get baited into potentially making us be considered responsible for the loss of the HPG station. Yvonne nodded as the map of the planet, and its key points appeared, "To a similar degree we want the planet taken intact as possible, which the combine might be unwilling to just aquiese to. Securing the university of dieron, and the major space ports around the capital are all principal objectives to take before we attempt to secure the city center."

Yvonne Davion paused to illuminate an urban build up that hadn't existed during the league, and he raised his pen, "Industrial production?

"Tatsuyama," Dragon mountain, "Is where the Dieron Military District governor has his residence. The so called dragon's roost. Its a secondary target after the capital has been secured," Unfortunately the next major target was Deber City, another post league development, this one a vanity project by Hugai Kurita which also Dieron Military District value. "Our primary focus is securing the capital and its infrastructure, and we expect the combine will predict that once we begin the attack, so you should expect garrisons from Tatsuyama city to move south to meet you."

Given Geography of the planet it would potentially in their interest to mass on the plains and force the Combine to fight through bottlenecks in the mountain passes. Kerston decided to go ahead and get to the bigger issue. "Dieron is considered Combine provincial capital, who's defending?"

"Primary Opposition is the 5^th Sword of Light, the ninth sun zhang academy cadre is also known to be posted on Dieron but if at all possible destruction of the assets of the 'Golden Dragons' is to be considered a high value objective to the operation."

Kerston's left most aide wasn't quite as good as the others in concealing his reaction, but the meeting moved on with a gruff acknowledgement of target package on Combine Mech Regiment... one that here at least they were being told to potentially expect the whole regiment.... of course it was probably better to be prepared just in case they did cycle back without a warning.

In terms of operational information they had relatively up to date maps of the planet, though it was going to be likely that once they were dirt side Dieron's municipal level street layout would be different than what they were expecting. That would present problems to pushing into the deep valley that the planetary capital was located in, and make coordinating with AFFS infantry more of a headache.

Coupled with a highly varied range of elevations, Dieron was a mix of expansive mountains, deep valleys, large oceans, deserts that came together for a very large, by succession wars standards, population of almost five and a half billion inhabitants. San Martin, and Tatsuyama city had the potential to prove stalingrad esque nightmares if the Combine could mount a scorched earth defense.

Which meant they were on a time table as soon as they landed, which was why Yvonne wanted the city secured, and ideally to force the combine to attack them, and if at all possible to destroy the Sword of Light as fighting force. Admittedly, it was possible that the 5^th could make the decision to withrdaw from obviously superior numbers...

"Thats why we're hitting the planet with overwhelming force, and disproportionately Mech forces." Especially given the Blackwell shipment, and now the cache findings.

"Yes, the objective is to break the main line of Combine resistance and take the capital before resistance can solidify. If we destroy the dragons in the field with overwhelming firepower we can then retask across Mateo," The main continental land mass. An interminable, but probably less than an hour, of circular questions went around the table on what they could expect both from the combine and as well as what they're Davion support would look like, and then Yvonne dismissed her staff compelling Kerston to have to do the same, "Recent have put us to where taking Dieron is feasible, and more, if could be frank. Perhaps simply among the vagaries of fate, but the Combine has over the years institutionalized a particular breed of poor behavior that we may finally be able to fully exploit. Admittedly other recent events prevent the First Prince from his planned greater involvement in this operation, but rest assured the Federated Suns is fullly committed to supporting this operation to its conclusion."

Gene kept his mouth shut about the Marauder II not being the first new BattleMech in a hundred years... Septim's Merlin being a thing, because... well she probably meant first new Davion mech or something and well it didn't matter. What mattered was the icing on the cake so far as unit participation. House Davion had apparently recently founded the New Avalon Institute of Science and it would be partnering with industries through out the Federated Suns to invest in technical learning and manufacturing.

The goal was to reverse the technological decline caused by the destruction of the first and second succession wars with an aim to eventually retread to the heights of the league. It wouldn't bring the Star League back, but it was one more way for Hanse Davion to dig poke his finger in the combine's eye.

... and of course that would attract attention. House Davion needed experienced commands to integrate and evaluate new machines, like the Marauder, or Blackwell's ground vehicles, and given Dieron would likely require some post operation downtime a garrison protecting the NAIS facilities with refit and rearmament covered seemed like a pretty sweet deal for any command.

... but first they needed to get through Dieron first. The flight plans that would taken to Northwind were already prepared.... which was the next topic to be broached, the Brevet General gave a half nod, "I'm sure you already have some idea of what to do at the Faire, but I'm can make introductions to certain parties that might be useful."
--
Notes: We are slowly wrapping up the Interludes between Robinson, and Northwing, with Hanse making his reappearance next section, and of course the end of this deliberately foreshadows the highland meeting with the descendants of the Black Watch that was mentioned ages ago. We will also in the remaining interlude deal withsome of the other cache mechs both here on New Avalon as well as with the Robinson people because well Sandoval has the other great lords of the Draconis March coming.

Oh, and yes, for the various Mad II kits I will attempt to post or refer to those in a future separate post, I just don't have the energy and probably won't until I get over covid. [This is so much worse than the first go around two years ago]