Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

Highland Faire 12​

The beret on the desk that Bubbles had just picked up had a tartan flash on the brim, "Oh my god, I can't believe they're just giving you a battalion." Chang exclaimed, which wasn't quite accurate. It was more like a company of Highland volunteers and recruiting to fill out the slots in a mech battalion.

They had been put up in a set offices that were placed so they were overlooking the academy of Northwind's grounds. It looked like a golf field with a church in the background... or at least this vantage point did. He supposed that that resemblance it had, at least him, to St Andrews might well have been intentional on Northwind's founders part. "its complicated, we're going to crack open the Harlaw facility." He remarked as he adjusted his charcoal pencil and the pad.

There was a polite cough, "With respect colonel. I would recommend we accept the meeting with the latest arrivals first. The facility will still be there." Bahar remarked. "First impressions are very important."

"So what are you drawing, exactly." He had to move back to keep the Rangers Colonel from snagging the pad, "Oh come on ghost let me see it." David Bowie complained.

Gene grumbled at its incomplete, and placed the pad in the center tossing the pencil on the table, and tapped a couple of keys to scan the prototype image into the computer. There was an electrical whir, and the charcoal dog cleaned up, and he applied a pattern to the background. A handful of keystrokes and then some more.

Claymore. Shepherd's Highlanders. The image was really an adaption of the idea suggested to him.

The Stuart, Stewart, Tartan check that had been used afield, applied digitally. "The dog wasn't my idea." The irish wolf hound, or descendant probably of that formed the appearance of the popular native breed, was clutching a claymore as it reared.

... Bahar was right they needed to meet the Azami and Rasahagians who had touched down. They would have the most recent news on events ongoing... and the port complex wasn't going anywhere... and they were likely about to be involved in a great political clusterfuck besides... but he had been planning to use the visit to Harlaw to break the ice on things, handle the reveal on... this entire clusterfuck. He was certain he didn't want to wait till Dieron, even though there was almost surely a Hegemony AI on Dieron that might be able to give them some idea, some other piece of the puzzle.

He let the image float. "Alright we'll see about the new arrivals, then we will deal with reading in the situation." He shook his head, "Dieron was going to be complicated without all of this. We are going to take a planet back from the combine that had been under Combine rule since the first succession war."

There was some circular chatter surrounding the operation they had been hired from, and the reassurance of having Davion support, having the support in particular of the Draconis March in particular. Robinson, and the House Sandoval certainly wasn't going to forget Elidere, or pass the opportunity to humiliate the Draconis Combine on the field.

The trip to the allocated field for the new arrivals featured a handful of DroST IIA in identical configuration to that of the Sam Houston, unlike the Sam Houston they were in a variety of colors ranging from red and black, to brown and yellows, to greens. He wasn't really concerned though about their paint. They weren't the only dropships that had landed, but they were the ones in the process of offloading.

He counted two immaculate 7A Star League Jenners, a Thorn, a Catapult, a couple of Dervishes, the expected number of Azami Pheonix Hawks, and one customized Centurion. Nothing heavier though than the Catapult, actually the Catapult was out massed by some of the tanks sitting idle near it. It was five tons heavier than the Tokugawas, true, but the Shrek PPC carriers each massed eighty tons the same as a Fury.

He almost asked what the MRB thought of all of this, but decided against it. He pretty sure complicated didn't begin to cover it... that was a question to contend with later though.

Still he wondered if the arriving forces, these sword of tyr people had apparently mech jacked a bunch of Panthers, were all going to be proportionately on the lighter side of things. Well, the Hegemony had never thrown anything away... or near enough that it had felt like it had been true. Mechs had continued to be pushed down to militia units and boneyards on Hegemony worlds were likely buried and forgotten filled with machines that good techs could have brought back into service.

"Did you talk to them about it?"

"If you mean the ground vehicles by it, yes the Field Marshal has already put the second order in," The Badgers and Bandits... they had done that back on New Avalon... because after all San Saba had shown up with her hull loaded with choice examples from the Brian Cache on Robinson. They had left the existing periphery PBI under the Detroit natives to show the machines off. It gave them something to do, but moving infantry was going to be a potential issue. Baffins had some infantry berthing yes, but that had always been purely ground protection element, to the point the Sam Houston had more space for infantrymen. Of course, Pasha had been upfront that they could source more of the DROST IIA dropships and since they were such an ancient common, easily modifiable design they'd be sustainable. "We'll deal with it later..." Once they also figured out what to do about DropShips and in particular San Saba and any conversion work. He trailed off for that reason as much as the approaching officer in desert camo and russet colored beret.

"Sir." The Infantry Lieutenant saluted leading them through the nominal checkpoint and to the 'townhouse' provided to the latest arrivals. He wasn't quite sure what he had expected, obviously probably some multinational... multiethnic collection, but surely under Azami directive given their fleet, but instead of an easily parsed one or two groups, from the mix of colors, and units he had to double take to make sure that some of the reception wasn't from the Davion side.

Yusuf turned back from looking at all the ground cars, and then to the crowd in front of them, "They are busier than I thought... Pasha said the fleet was assembling I didn't think."

"Its fine." The truth was Gene had almost expected Lex to have tagged along... it would have been a little absurd, but he got the feeling the Field Marshal thought they were going to cause a ruckus anytime they were out of sight. The closest to standardization of any type of uniform was in the mass production modern issue SLDF style fatigue type service uniforms. The kind of thing that any MRB run mercenary outlet mall had in everything from extra extra extra large down to jammies for the mercenary brats... even that ran into the issue of distinguishing unit patches and insignia along with different camo patterns thankfully nothing that looked like carpet or a pattern more suited to a piece of furniture but it certainly varied.

The guest house was an expansive two storey affair with lots of faux wrought iron fixtures and railing a pseudo neo victorian style. The great room was more ball room in size. It was very emblematic of the golden age of the star league and the Terran Hegemony's vacation homes. The sort of thing for not just Northwind, but places like Alpha Centauri or any other number of worlds. He was sure that there were equivalents across the other member states, certainly the capellan aristocracy had had equivalents... probably still did.

They worked their way around for a couple minutes somewhat clumsily given their party wasn't dispersing. A man in blue black urban combat fatigues ... probably about six one stepped forward and glanced at the war eagles pinned at Gene's collar the eagles heads facing the clutched lightning bolts. The Mechwarrior wore an SLDF neuro circuit and a had a crested eagle tattooed on his forearm just above the wrist. "If I were to say to you that, "I am a stranger traveling from the East, seeking that which is lost ..."

"To which I would reply that, I am a stranger traveling from the West, it is I whom you seek." He replied accepting the man's hand shake and clasping at the wrist.

They took a wrought iron stair case that took them to a smoking room that was much less crowded. That wasn't to say there weren't people, just that there were fewer people. Their lead introduced them to a heavily scarred black man in more scarred combine esque costume and a sandy blonde haired man who could have made a good pass at Daniel Jackson cosplaying as Han Solo. Not quite, but sort of.

"These men are all vouched for." Yusuf remarked as a plate of tea was put at the island table between them.


The heavily scarred man's name was Yosuke... not that the Rasalhagian native he'd come in with hadn't beeen scratched up from probably exploding glass fragments. The rasalhague man stepped forward. "Soren Holmgren." He introduced. He was long faced man with steely blue eyes.

"Gene Shepherd." He replied accepting the handshake, but not reiterating his rank given the other man in blood stripes hadn't given his.

"The Walking Death,"

He couldn't help it, and rolled his eyes, but suppressed a groan. It was one more for the pile, but he supposed it was only little different. It had come out from a translation of a translation, of 'the Ghost who Walks'. He suspected part of it all was intentional propaganda spread... probably by Federated Suns, but he couldn't be sure. Introductions cycled around, from the mid thirties Shiseo-yen, to Yosuke's charge Akashi Kiyone. That was the 'kid' campbell had mentioned who had been registered to compete in the Squire's tournament.

A merry little band of Rasalhagues, and other friends to the Azami who were all wanted dead by the combine... and looking for some payback. More than that. The Rasalhague splinter's end goal was of course independent statehood. Freedom from Combine rule, but to do that they needed mechwarriors and political friends. They would need an army and also political recognition from the Combine's neighbors.
--
Notes: Rather obviously this does set up for the eventual balkanization ahead of the clan invasion.

I plan to install MW5 with a list of mods in it probably some time this month, and probably start replaying Battletech (HBS) as well, but this chapter itself has nothing to do with the implied new Rasalhague DLC 5 is supposed to have coming out [Mostly because I'm not paying 15 bucks for a dlc for a game I barely play, and I have never personally played all the way through other than just used it to drive big stompy robots] Anyway I do need to actually sit down and play through the campaign of MW5 in its entirety so yeah we may or may not see involve additional content from that

 

Precentor New Avalon,

As per your request this report was compiled by the MRB office on the Planet Northwind dated February 3018 it details the establishment of a new Mercenary subunit of the company your eminence had previously expressed interest in retaining for actions to be undertaken against piracy in the RimWard Periphery.

Shepherd's Highlanders, a new subunit within the Shepherd's Company umbrella command, appears to be a capstone course of sorts for Graudates of the prestigious Northwind Military Academy. It may represent the Northwind Governments attempt to evaluate products developed by Blackwell Industries in conjunction see attached documents (A1). Its precise relation to the new armor subunit and infantry subunit are unknown but can be reasonably assumed to be tied together.

It is comprised of One Company of confirmed Veteran MechWarriors under the command of Senior NMA Instructor Lieutenant Colonel Angus MacIntyre, with his XO position being filled by Major Julius MacKay. At present two companies recruited from the graduating class of the Academy appears to be standing up. The MRB is required to accord these two companies as Green, no particular pilots standout though the company appears to be furnishing them with BattleMechs from inventory which includes at least one lance of 'Marauder II' Assault BattleMechs. Document (A1) contains the information on this BattleMech.

Shepherd's Company has berthed the Mech Battalion aboard an Overlord-class DropShip. See attached Document (A2), Attached Documents (A3) and (A4) detail the MRB profile of the Northwind recruited Armor and Mechanized Infantry comprising the Curassiers.

Shepherd's Company timetables suggests the unit will reach a fighting strength of 36 BattleMechs by the end of the month (February 3018). At this time no Command Lance has been specified with the Commanding Officer, and XO also serving as Lance Commanders within the 1^st Company. Otherwise the Battalion is configured to roughly correspond to Star League Dragoon Classification favoring Heavy, and Assault BattleMechs.

Claymore Battalion, Ancients Company

MacKintyre

1. Highlander
2. Grasshopper
3. Warhammer
4. Victor

MacKay

1. Highlander
2. Archer
3. Crusader
4. Thunderbolt

Sorbel

1. Highlander
2. Awesome
3. Griffin
4. Catapult

...
--
Notes: this is just an extras blurb I'll be putting up an actual Highlander Battalion Force Sheet and Mech Breakdown at some point. A breakdown of the Shepherd's Company assets at large will also follow as well and be updated before the Invasion of Dieron commences.

Obviously Bardiche will have its own right as will the Maguanac Corp's Tactical Groups, which are loosely based off of my RP groups attempt to make French Tactical Groups in BattleMech with giant stompy robots while cosplaying Wing Pilots.

EDIT: and as an expansion

Cadet Company
1x Lance Marauder II
1x Lance Archers
1x Lance Thugs

Cadet Company
1x Lance Pillagers PLG 1N
1xLance Archers
1x Lance Thugs

Spoiler: Battalions B&C Post Dieron

Spoiler: Main force of battle

Bardiche

Bardiche Battalion Dragoons

Sigurd
1x Lance Marauder II
1x Lance Pillagers PLG '1D'
1x Lance Archers

Tyr

1x Battalion Command Lance under Soren Holmgren
1x Lance Archers
1x Lance Crusaders

Waldemar
1x Lance Crockets
1x Lance Archers
1x Lance Crusaders

Claymore
Ancient Company post Royal Upgrade
MacIntyre

• Highlander
• Crockett
• Crockett
• Thug

MacKay

• Highlander
• Archer
• Crusader
• Crusader

Sorbel

• Highlander
• Awesome
• Archer
• Archer

Dieron Highlanders after 3019

Spoiler: Battalion D

The Dieron Highlanders are a sub unit of Shepherd's Highlanders, forming a second battalion in Davion employ with direct sanction from the Duke of Robinson. It is a green rated BattleMech Battalion comprising graduates of the Northwind Military Academy.

Totaling 52 Mechs in Spring of 3021 the Dieron Highlanders represent a concerted effort by House Davion to secure their recent prize, as well as the first Davion effort to field Mech Platoon units (See 2nd & 3rd Company Order of Battle). Unlike Other examples of Shepherd's Company formations, or the six mech series the Dieron Highlanders at full strength include a battalion command lance providing veteran Northwind Leadership to the unit.

The Highlander Battalion is built along Dragoon Lines of weight allocation, and is supported by armor units from graduates of the Northwind academy as well as the RBA operating a mix of Von Luckner tanks as well as newer Blackwell industries vehicles.

Battalion Command Lance
[Highland Command Lance]

1st Company
1x Lance Marauder II
1x Lance of Archers
1x Lance Marauder II Variants

Spoiler: 1st Company Deployment organization

The Dieron Highlanders, alternative 2nd Battalion Shepherd's Highlanders are a mix of operation standards. There is some confusion over whether 1st Company is a testing an evaluation program for Blackwell Industries Marauder II models or functioning as a control group for the Mech Platoon Structure supplementing the Command Lance.

2nd and 3rd Company / 2nd Battalion are uniform composites of the same models, where as while Archers are present in 1st Company the 100 ton Marauder II Assault mech is fielded with differing versions particularly in its 3rd Lance. The formation has also been noted to deploy into two Platoons splitting the lances each in half to form Six Mech units, though this does not appear to be standard practice. The 1st Company is typically the Dieron Highlander's main offensive unit launching the opening attack supported by other sub units.

2nd Company
2 Platoons Crockett BattleMechs (12 Mechs)
1 Platoon Archers (6 Mechs)

3rd Company
2 Platoons Crockett BattleMechs (12 Mechs)
1 Platoon Archers (6 Mechs)

 

Highland Faire 13
(a)​

The Ghosts of Black Watch had been established by survivors of the Royal Highland Regiment the Black Watch, and their dependents and civilians fighting alongside them. The truth though was that most of the regiment had been killed. The lucky members of what would have been the eventual Ghosts had been off world performing duties of the unit on other worlds... but even they had been caught up in the destruction that had ravaged the hegemony.

Gene wasn't sure exactly who knew what. He had a responsibility to be careful about details... but he knew that the Azami seemed to know somethings... and Black Watch didn't seem to have fax machines... which was odd... or of course it was also possible they simply had had no reason to demonstrate the machines.... that was now that he thought about it equally possible.

"The northwind clans rarely extend such a courtesy."

"Not to Sassenachs usually." One of the Rasalhague officers muttered. The man's accent was almost Lyran, but that made sense by the details he had been piecing together the Rasalhague movements tended to naturally pop over to hide on the Lyran side of the combine border thanks a shared culture heritage.... which was potentially a long term problem for any Free Rasalhague depending on how one wanted to define Rasalhague.

His noteputer chimed. He'd been expecting a progress report on the work on the San Saba, and fitting her to carry a Company of Mechs, but it was Dante overviewing the MRB pay rates. The Highlander endorsement, sponsorship, recognition, whatever it was came with a boost in rates. He supposed that made sense, ... he had a good idea of what Harlaw was going to contain, and that meant even if they were green mechwarriors the cadets they could recruit were going to rapidly outnumber his original personnel. He'd bump everyone's pay for January and that would keep the books tidy.

"So I've been told." He replied tapping the keys. "What about your status? Shouldn't the Combine be screaming by this point?" Kiyone gritted her teeth. "No. Thats a serious question, I assume you have some idea of whats coming?"

That was where the real disagreement lay. Kiyone, and the Rasalhague wanted revenge, or justice whatever you wanted to call it. The Rasalhague largely wanted an independent country of their own in their historic homes. The Azami by and large would have been probably more accepting if Takashi stopped acting like a stark raving madman but too many combine rulers had been too crazy... and the HPG footage whatever the excuses were was just too much. Amaris was basically Satan after all. Even two hundred years later Amaris's reputation for bloodshed, tyranny, mass atrocities made the succession wars era population who had experience with frequent crimes against humanity far far more despicable than any western late 20^th century association with Hitler would have been. There was revulsion for a villian and then was the extent it was with Amaris.

The Azami were thus political more fractured compared to the relative national coherency of the Rasalhauge faction. Fight the combine directly, lead another exodus into the black and try build their own state, or try and win the political support from the Davions either for an independent realm of their own or part of the FedSuns but it boiled down to getting away from House Kurita's influence.

In all honesty he wasn't sure which made them harder to predict. Keeping track of a long list of Azami factions who were largely agreed to ship out for the territories? Or trying to manage a bunch of space swedes wanting to crack the Combine in half?

No, that was politics. He needed to focus on preparing for the ops on Dieron. House Davion could deal with the political fallout. They hadn't been able to hire MechWarriors on Robinson. Hammer had taken on a few RBA armor grads and alumni from the militia but that was gratis more so than anything... and the truth was needing to use San Saba as a cargo ship to take stuff to New Avalon had prevented them from doing much actual work. He knew that they'd potentially be forfeiting a lot of cargo space if they tried to make significant modifications.

He let out a breath, but discarded notions of trying to talk about what future maps might look like, but the conversation slowly rotated around to the impending actions against the Combine. Four hours later and just after sunset Gene leaned back against the wall. A lot had been said, and there was besides the small talk necessary an idea of what they could do for each other after they were finished with the Davion contract.

Professor Abner accepted a beer from Septim. "Thank you my boy, thank you." He sipped the stein and then nodded, "We can open it tomorrow." Technically they could open the main gates of the port bay now, but daylight would be better. Not rushing would be good. "It certainly appears to be designed to accommodate both aerodyne and spheroid designs."

"Is that odd?" Septim asked putting his beer down. Obviously the Lyran was familiar with more standard space ports, which of course regularly accomdated both types of dropships.

It wasn't that odd, "Not for a port castle. Outposts are usually aerodyne only, Ports, and full size castles with landing spaces can be built to accommodate both." He replied automatically. For Abner though it was this Argo DropShip which was too big to land on a planet, and that had apparently left for the Rimward periphery. One more thing for tomorrow once they were actually in the facility and had access to the control center's telemetry logs. The data said one thing, but the picture surely didn't do a hundred thousand ton dropship justice.

... but they had no leads on the Argo. Even if he could guess that Abner had found his next potential project to go hunting for. Argo... but they would need more information, especially if the massive drop ship had been skirting through rimward space heading out into the black on some secret hegemony mission.
--
The fusion reactors sent electrical power through the cavernous facility and turned all of the lights on with clack clack clacks. Doors opened, fans began to blow.

The massive bays kind of resembled the ASF facilities... if super sized. Huge gantry arms were retracted into their alcoves. The fuel bunkers were safely protected against most conventional dangers, but a Port Castle Facility was considered the most potentially vulnerable to orbital bombardment... if a warship managed to get a shot through an open gate and hit a fuel bunker or an ammunition bunker....

well catastrophic explosion would have seemed like an understatement for the amount of material that might go off... so the defenders of Northwind had locked the facility down and evacuated... and then they had largely died to a man over the subsequent two weeks of fighting into the new year. Northwind had resisted the Rimworlds advance, but their defenses had been weakened by orders that violated Terran principles of planetary defense.

If only...

No sense dwelling on it. Gene stuffed his hands into his pockets and resumed looking around. "Ali you know what to look for, I want diagnostics on the lifts, and the seals. Safety checks." They'd look at tanks, and this being a hegemony facility he expected more alacorns of course, which was good. He wanted standardization. They went from the top down. Teams look at warehouses teams split off to go into the dropship bays, air crew techs, and techs and astechs moving to space for materiel marked Royal Scotts Dragoons.

Mechs.

He rested a hand on the steel gray eagle, from the storage the itinerary looked accurate. Close enough. He looked at the black field the crest sat on, in July that would mark eleven hundred years of unit history for a dead colonel in chief. Was Amaris the spirtitual inheiritor of Bolshevik tyranny? People lamented the death of house Cameron... how much of Nicholas II had been in Richard the second.

Rashid coughed politely. "The trams are working, Colonel. Automated loading systems, and gantries are ready to move."

Then it was time to take stock and see if there was anything that was missing from the registrar, or if there was anything extra. He would have liked to picked Rahsid's brain about how the Northwind cadets reacted to the Badgers and Bandits, but now wasn't the time. There was already some chatter about land holds going on and they hadn't even landed on Dieron left. "Alright, let me know if you have any problems."

--
Thirty mechs on the field and this was only the first scrimmage. There were four total. Not that it was total elimination. Point tallies were assigned by judges, points could be lost of course, but the big defining event would be the 'semi finals' and finals. The finals were going to be the more typical pool of individual MechWarrior duels, than... the metal free for all of the first four matches.

The marshals made sure to go over all the rules. These were training weapons. There was no live ammo but that didn't mean there weren't risks. The majority of the contestants were from the graduating class of the Academy. Those looking to impress potential hiring companies, or secure themselves a place with a highlander unit, or pad a resume for higher education or a place in an AFFS line unit. It was a pity that Tancredi War College had been one of the casualties of the succession wars... there were few true institutions of higher learning left in the galaxy.

There was betting going on.

There was a lot of betting going on actually.

The delay by the Highland Games Commission had allowed new information, interviews personal and on planetary media to be expanded upon. Now the squires were on the field.

That wasn't to say that the Commission had been fully happy with the situation. The late additions had been allowed to join, but to fill out the handful of slots in the last rung. That wasn't a complement, though it might be misconstrued as one. The last group had originally been the smallest because it was the highest skill members of the graduating class, and with the heaviest... there was a Highlander and a Stalker in that bracket and those weren't even the only assault mechs. It was that bracket that was really supposed to show off.

He sat down as that conversation resumed. "Yeah its really not particularly fair." Septim started to agree with her.

"The Parents are basically paying for their kids to win. Most of them even have stuff lined up so its basically bullying." Chang remarked sipping her drink.

Yeah, there was a longbow who he wanted to see how it competed alongside the Stalker as far as missile boats went but Bubbles was right the pilots were already basically spoken for. It was also not today's match. Todays match would be a lot more unpredictable.

Today it would be a bunch of lights and mediums painting each other, literally, with gel capsules for the most part. More importantly the majority of cadets participating were doing so with machines that belong to the academy. If they distinguished themselves here they could potentially get a job that would have them actually in a cockpit rather than being reserve pilots.

Dante was in on the action, the betting as well, apparently was indulging in the affair himself... which probably was cheating in its own right since the machine spirit had calculated the odds based on academic records, machine used, and starting position.

The noteputer populated with the first and second rungs of training mechs used by the school. They ran the gambit from Jenners and Locusts likely salvaged from combine battlefields of the first succession war, to Black Jacks and star league era Terran Hegemony built Chameleons.

--
Notes: this is doubly abridged in addition to being part A with a second segment to follow next week. I will be detailing some of the actual squire's tourney mech fights on screen, just not this first phase of the melee. The Rasalhague materiel was similarly focused on political things that are not Gene's prerogative until he's actually a peer and a land holder to deal with.

 

Highland Faire 13
(b)​

There was something he was willing to admit to be said for watching the general chaotic mélange of mechs piloted by young pilots trying to figure out what worked. It was entertaining, the cheering crowds left no doubt about that... and today's events had only been the first of four of these events ahead of more structured rounds that would follow once the herd had been thinned.

He had meet and greets with more highlanders this week than he could possibly keep track of... an early warning signal that this was just going to be one of those weeks... and there was still more to do. "You enjoying your time here Sutton?" He asked the cadet who had been a little surprised to get called up from the ranks of the DMM troops, but it was cover... and no one would glance twice at an Elidere veteran being up here in a way that other pilots might have.

Sutton nodded. The dervish pilot had been instantly popular on Robinson for participating in the defense of Elidere, but more than that he had been involved in... well whatever he'd expected classes to be like his slot in the planned counter attack against the Combine had been a surprise. It was obvious that the Dervish pilot would have liked to be participating, and he wasn't the only one.

It bordered on the ridiculous.... and he half wondered if that wasn't half the joke and that was why the Highlanders didn't let the 'knights' have their chance at each other... or maybe letting the supposed adults have a go was too much trouble. He supposed that was probably why most the competitors were in the squires tourney were also Academy seniors. This was the house cup of sorts for their prep school... or something.

That wasn't why he was here specifically.

He'd gotten fairly used to ... how could he not given what he was... Septim's vision dreams. The threat of the Clan Invasion. That was what he suspected the animal representations were ... Green birds? Jade Falcon. Wolf. The Dragoons or Clan Wolf. Smoke Jaguar had also come up... but the horses were anomalous... if his own vagrant thoughts were right.

Whatever the case there were issues. Septim's visions put the Jade Falcons invading the Lyran Commonwealth, attacking Lyran Guards... those were a recurring vision he'd been having for more than a decade now. A different clan, clans seemed to be attacking the Federated Suns and different clans seemed to attack the Combine. Attacking the Combine's own serpentine representation...

Were they accurate?

Gene figured it couldn't hurt to try and nudge as much sense as he could into the DMM contingent in hopes that the young officers were would support a motion to rebuild rearm, and effectively fight. .. both as combined arms, and also that they'd have the skillset to resist or put up a fight one on one against he combine, and the clans.

The door to the private box opened a pair of Highland Fusiliers borrowed from Campbell opening the doors to let the Duke of Robinson wheel himself in. The former tanker chuckled as he came down. "I suppose I did ask for some privacy for this discussion." He commented. "I didn't really mean posting pickets so much as just quiet."

Gene decided not to mention he'd had the room swept for electronic signals going out... especially since Dante was listening in. "Abundance of caution, I take it from talking to Lex this has something to do with your counterpart on Errai?" His other guess was Cosarra or maybe GM had decided to go around the long way. From intercepted digital traffic Dante had pieced together Yvonne was stalling GM for the moment. She was also doing the same for Blackwell, which coveyed an impression of fairness to both sides.... or that was probably the intention to the action.

"The Duke of Errai may have come off a bit brusque with the countess." The Sandoval duke remarked with a somewhat strained expression, "It does though." he admitted. "The discovery of Thug BattleMechs following the defeat of the Galedon regulars is a point of interest to him."

Maltex had debuted the Thug in the second half of the 26^th century. Industrial manufacture of endo-steel frames required, at least an economical mass production required orbital smelting, low gee if not zero gee was a requirement. Those facilities had largely eaten nuclear attacks during the first succession war, but also had already been suffering from damage done during hte Amaris crisis, both in direct damage terms, as well as in the sense of by products of trade disruption caused by the coup within the hegemony.

"He wants to reintroduce production."

Down teching the Thug wasn't impossible. The so called 10E went to four tube launchers. He wondered if the local star corp office had a problem with that. The Thug had been intended to replace the warhammer after all. The bigger question though was how long did he have before the Field Marshal couldn't keep the metaphorical hounds at bay.

Not that that was it of course. Robinson had other ambitions. He had ambitions of his own that were not necessarily one for one with that of the Prince's Champion. That included the recognition that the Combine had two new potential targets in his realm. An attack on the MID Depot at Elidere they had emptied out on the Combine's assumption that the division's stockpiles wouldn't be completely empty, and of course for the sake of revenge, or an attack on Robinson for basically the same reasons.

The Robinson Brian Cache had yielded other material. The kind of material that would be useful to the RBA, and thus also other military institutions of learning.
--
The Duke of Robinson had joined them for this but was maintaining a non obvious presence as the cadets experimented with driving the New Valencia built hovercraft around the field. NMA, nor for that matter RBA, were exactly well known for cutting edge.

... not that there was such a thing in the succession wars, but the point stood that the schools' respective strengths had been elsewhere. To that end though it ran the issue of the Bandit, and Badger were very expensive pieces of kit. Gene adjusted the display on the terminal as the instructor, a man with salt and pepper hair named Spiers, maneuvered his students.

Gene wondered for a moment where they would be sitting if they had actually captured rather than destroyed the DCA DropShips... if they had been able to impound the JumpShips. The bounty and salvage systems weren't One to One. He knew part of the reason there was 'only talk' of a land hold rather than serious discussion was partly political... not just whose planet was where, but the chance that he might pick somewhere with a hitherto undiscovered Hegemony or League era military facility.

Dieron first though.

The Brian Caches had been built to be consumable resources. They'd been put into the ground in the even that the Hegemony needed to pour troops into a theater to lay the hurt on an enemy... but they'd also been built up as a concept to fight another Inner Sphere threat. The Combine. They hadn't been planned for dealing with a periphery rebellion.

That was actually why the Outpost Castles had been proliferated.

... but... the Star League had never expected a technological backslide. Oh less warships as a result of naval arms limitations, treaties yes... but also economic common sense. Warships were expensive they required significant manpower and infrastructure. You couldn't take a nuke back strategic level firepower was not something easily repaired, and had a tendency to escalate things far more quickly than international arbitration efforts would resolve.

The contents of depots and caches were more than just icons of another more prosperous era. The Hegemony had not intended them to be technology demonstrators. Anything going into a cache was old tech the kind of equipment that they might have preferred not fall into the hands of other member states but nothing truly classified by the time of the 28^th century.

In the 31^st century though with the succession wars have run their course... it wasn't about just distributing the cache to fight a campaign or even a war, but the chance to turn back the tide.

The countess of kestrel shifted her weight onto the balls of her feet, tensing slightly. "I take it we have an audience then?" He asked not looking around, not moving from watching the drills on the field. Blackwell Corporation was no surprise of course they'd be interested in what they were doing with their products.

"I have to ask, are these Star League machines?"

"No. The technology is derived from the Mercury," Gene wouldn't have been surprised if the SLDF or Hegemony based Royal Divisions had wanted something, dreamed of something these OmniVehicles but unless there was a prototype somewhere that had not managed to be snatched up by Kerensky... no these were mature concepts developed after Kerensky left. "This is a mature probably indigenous development of it." He had to explain how the Mercury BattleMech worked, and what an OmniPod system worked in comparison, "On the other hand the fact the Dragoons brought this with them, suggests maybe it was maybe Star League tech." He shrugged.

"Which is it then?" She questioned a little more forcefully leaning a little further over.

"I think its something Kerensky's people developed." Probably... maybe it was another case like the Imp... how fucked up were the clan's historical records if that was the case. "I don't have proof though, so it should be qualified as such."


--
Alexandria Cunningham regarded the complex it was as an inscrutable face as she could manage at the moment. The highlanders were working with a feverish energy alongside personnel ... this was more than just money... she wondered if money even factored into motivation. The Prince's Champion hadn't been able to spare the time to come leaving this visit to her, in part due to the presence of other dukes of the Federated Suns but also because of the impending final steps before the New Avalon Hussars launched their attack.

There had been a brief history lesson on the Tancredi Loyalists and their doctrine and how being able to mount raids into Combine space would have helped keep the snakes off balance. That unit, those units, that world, had been lost and the institution which had largely produced them would need to be rebuilt if they were going to recreate that. There were other priorities if they were going to go that far down the rosters.

So many units lost to the succession wars.

The countess glanced down at the sheet in front of her. The display of the noteputer an orange sheen listing her official job as liaison officer in the absence of the Prince's Champion. It detailed the proposed filling out of the Claymore Battalion with equipment being checked over.

She'd been happy that Shepherd had been reasonable enough to agree to ducking out of the ongoing drill in order to avoid talking with corporate representatives, or members of those ducal houses but this had not been what she'd expected.

"The material for this is here?" She asked.

He nodded. "The Dragoon Guards were holding Christmas mass when they were nuked. Pretty much their inventory in machines were on standby or crated ahead of being shipped out for the Periphery." The Colonel replied there was a baleful hint to the mead colored eyes but then it was gone. "Harlaw's depot has machines from the age of war as well, they'll be easier to maintain. I don't fathom how the Pillager models of the Early Reunification war wasn't brought back given its close quarters capabilities," He remarked, then verbally ticked with another shrug, "que sera sera."

It is what it is, she translated quietly. "Anything else?"

"We've earmarked the King Crabs, there is a note in there that we're not sure how," he paused, "Whether or not they'll end up being hangar queens, but they're on the list of what we've found if Cosara or GM need to be horse traded with." She scrolled through the noteputer and found the indicated list. "The Guards were allocated the 010," Aught Ten, "They have LBXs they might be useful in bringing LBX weapons back into production, which is the main reason I'm willing to pass on them." On the tram ride down into the bowels of the planet he had mentioned that there was no reason that OmniPod technology being originally developed from a Star League BattleMech system couldn't also be used in conjunction with Mechs... in fact he assumed they had been developed from mechs, or used with ASF.... the idea that something simple as a test bed like the Enforcer would probably be a good starting point... even though he'd then admitted to just be speculating.

Today's report to the field marshal was going to be especially exhausting.

 

Highland Faire 14
(A)​

The fireplace had been stoked to fight the chill from the rain, and the fog. In the place of that it left the large office contrastingly warm, shockingly so compared to coming in from the outside.

Field Marshal Yvonne Davion dismissed the extended portion of her staff gave Jeffries his marching orders and then dismissed the Davion Guards officer as well and turned to her lady in waiting. "Its never simple is it?" It was a rhetoric question. "I wonder if it was a speech. Surely he didn't just come out and declare he was the sword of the Camerons returned or some of this idiocy." She glowered at the proposed scripts from the media people. "Regardless there is a starport?"

"There is my lady, I have seen it."

"And an Overlord? I understand there has been interest in it."

"THS Presidio according to the Ship Registry." Which had been just two years old at the time of the crisis erupting, it was an immaculate tomb like ship from what she'd seen of the interior, Alexandria paused, and then moved on, "Along with a THS Bexar, she was apparently configured as a mobile field hospital and transport for armor."

The Field Marshal nodded. Bexar was apparently another Triumph. Then she scoffed, "and of course we'd look very silly if we complained about what they're handing us," never mind that they had even involved Alexandria. If the Countess of Kestrel had noticed the increased anti Combine chatter going on since the colonel's original disappearance with General Kerston she had not mentioned it. That had reached a fever's pitch this afternoon as she'd received offers to volunteer for off world duty from the planetary militia if it was against the combine. She had to wonder what it was the local aristocracy had been told. She wasn't going to engage in rumor mongering. The prince's champion spared another withering look at the media proposals, at least the duke of sandoval was being reasonable about all of this. "Shepherd has clearly stirred the Highlanders up," Clancy had also been agitating the Federated Suns ... not that he had needed to, not during the time before the admiral had gone in the stasis pod, "It raises questions of course, but more as a device on our existing ones." She flipped through the courier delivered packet that contained the colonel's medical records, and the blood sample, which reassuringly informed her with significant certainty that the Colonel was not some scion of House Davion... or at least not an immediate relation to the ruling family of the Federated Suns. Doctor Banzai doubted that even testing against samples from a century ago would yield anything. There were some additional notes about the blood sample but nothing she was particularly savvy to making an issue of. She leaned forward, "Alexandria, what I want is for you to find out what materiel the colonel is looking for. Especially anything he hasn't been able to find."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean Ma'am. He's going to stand up highland companies on SLDF line."

"Not SLDF Terran Hegemony lines." She tutted, the Archer was a classic machine... but the Dragoons seemed to favor them as well... it might have been just institutional inertia, Yvonne was weighing if it was just that. "So far as the Highlanders are concerned, seem to be concerned Colonel Shepherd may as well have been chipped off some rock face on ancient terra. He's selected those archers for a reason, but I want to know if there is something he's looking for." and of course the reason why... "It may not even be machines."

"There was apparently a large DropShip," She paused, "The Argo, behemoth sized," The countess paused, "It was constructed at the Galax Shipyards it stopped over Northwind before departing for the Rimward periphery."

That could very well be a coincidence she admitted, but the Colonel seemed to be following both ends of the thread back. "There is a growing anticipation for action. We're beyond just contending with the usual Draconis March's push for greater action."

And success her could meaningfully swing positions at court. This was beyond the Draconis March, this was even beyond avenging her nephew the previous first prince success here represented more than just beginning the process to cut the Combine from the Terran corridor. Taking Altair and Dieron could meaningfully set the stage for real change in the Inner Sphere when taken with everything else that was taking shape.
"Should we do something?"

Yvonne scoffed. "The genie is out of the bottle." They had known ahead of time that the public support for a counter attack against the combine had been reaching a fever pitch even before word of the destruction in detail of the Galedon regulars. Lord Sandoval's curated speeches had been aimed at stoking a nearly religious and in some cases crusader fervor. They were approaching the margins on what they could direct in terms of pacing. "We have laid out to the assembled nobility, and elite that we are prepared to act against the combine." They would be able to jump and hit Altair and Dieron and ideally conquer both worlds... and if then if the Azami and Rasalhague wanted to revolt well that was fine... but she'd certainly prefer it look like they were the instigating factor and the rebellions a broadly speaking product of combine weakness.

The combine needed to be looking inward, and preferably stabbing one another over perceived 'moral failure' or what have you.
--
The mech threw a haymaker. Sloppy it skidded off chest armor, but the mud was washing out from under both mechs feet. It was day two, and the second of the scrimmaging was coming to its conclusion. Gene didn't know how the Accademy training battalion assigned mechs. As it was he could make out Rio animatedly, and probably with a lot of profanity thrown in, screaming presumably about the thunderbolt pilot getting punched was doing wrong.

Everyone was having a good time, and so he expected the faire marshals to give it another minute. It was still a little impractical to have mechs punch each other for reasons other than opportunity or desperation... but it certainly was winding the crowd up.

Frankly one of the other competitors should have taken the opportunity to take both of them off the board... but at least two of the remaining participants seemed to have stopped to gawk and the rest were understandably busy shooting at one another to be bothered.

... and the thing about a mech scale fist fight was it was the sort of thing Dante hadn't predicted as happening. Septim nad the Machine Spirit had a bracket going all the same going into wagering on the results... he hadn't forbid them from gambling. It was legal after all.

There was a heavy sigh as the Thunderbolt was called as out of the fight, right before its opponent took a mock large laser to the back side.

"Speaking of cadets how are ours doing?"

Chang turned around, "Well they're doing okay. There are some distractions from being here, I took them over to NMA this morning to coordinate between ... well our armor. With the duke of Robinson." She shrugged she meant both DMM attached armor and the highland armor cadets, "So what's this about... They have to ride somewhere but we're really growing."

"I'll explain soon." He hedged, "Its complicated." Beau cracked a joke whether or not he was getting married, "Its probably that degree of serious," He replied and the big free worlder nodded, "Its complicated but my priority is on missile boat pilots, or aptitude for." He was talking but a couple of looks had been thrown over to Lex's apparent change in body language or expression. Whatever the case the Countess of Kestrel must have tensed up, so he coughed and pointedly changed the subject, there were other things that needed to be done, and the faire was mercenary shot show, and that meant significant industrial presence, "GM and Blackwell are not the only industrial reps on planet," And while the succession wars had wrecked a vast .... incalculable volume of interstellar trade there were still subsidiaries to the massive corporations that had dominated the arms trade of the star league, "We can't duck them forever."

Septim grimaced into his beer, "Ah, yeah while you've been gone I got ambushed by GM about this ... Orion thing? I thought the guy was here about the Marauder II but then he blitzed me on it."

Gene nodded, it made sense. Septim was the easiest company command level officer to approach... even if GM knew about Claymore in the process of standing up, which was certainly possible since the paperwork had started they wouldn't have approached MacKay or the other NMA instructors tapped to lead the new Highlander Battalion. He admitted the fault was his, "I should have considered that they'd approached you we'll go over the Blackwell and GM packets, as well as potential other ones."

The crowd cheered as another mech went down and the marshals prepared to call the scrimmage to advance the remainder.
--
Harlaw's Terran Militia units included things ranging from reunification war pattern Pillagers to Shootists and more besides. The Harlaw facility was older, and not nearly as sleek as the aerodynamic flyboy lines and posters of the port. The difference in who had been running the facilities, but it had still been a a depot for the Hegemony.

There were no Grasshoppers in inventory. Those had only entered production after this facility had been sealed up. More than that the Grasshopper had been built for warfare beyond the border and frankly in the periphery in the hands of the regular army. The Terran Hegemony had experimented with many seventy ton machines, just as they had experimented with significant numbers of seventy five tonners like the Orion, Marauder, and Black Knight.

Endo Steel manufacturing had been developed in the late 25^th century, but had gone extinct in the face of the massive volume of orbital and space based infrastructure lost during the succession wars, but it had been nearly ubiquitous to the Terran Hegemony of the early 28^th century. In the 31^st century where that had completely disappeared that technology was LosTech which would have been unthinkable in the golden age of the Star League as the Hegeomony had been increasingly looking at not just Combine Units but also Federated Suns machines beginning to field EndoSteel, and DHS.

The Shootist was a seventy ton VOX 280 machine intended at the time of its debut in the early 27^th century had been intended to provide a commander of close quarters units a hard hitting gunfighter. It hadn't exactly worked out that way. The shootist was a good urban warfighter it paled in comparison at long range to the effectiveness of the older Black Knight or the newer Marauder especially in terms of command and control responsibilities.

So the shootist had already been considered obsolescent by the Hegemony in the 28^th century being pushed to Militia units and the regular SLDF in a more line combatant role where its avionics suite wouldn't be considered a hindrance.

The King Crabs had like the Atlas been late to enter the Terran Hegemony service... and because Kerensky had developed them or at least their specific requirements those machines had similarly ended up not just in Hegemony hands but also in the hands of the member states... like the Combine. Kerensky had had friends at court to cover for his political failures, and the break of such things, and there had been other problems despite the still in recent memory second hidden war.

The ER PPC had only arrived to units in 2751 after all. The Marauder 2R had only started making full production in 2760 after what in hindsight would be unconscionable delays given the Thunderbolts had started receiving their extended range upgrade two years after proving viable for production, and the Griffin had managed its upgrade in '51 proper.

"Thank you Dante." He said ending the history lesson on procurement before the scottish brogue of the AI could continue to drone on in an info dump of technical specifications... especially the lobbying. "How long will materiel transfer take?"

"Each tram will require approximately sixteen hours due to the combination of damage to the system, and need to reroute," The zig zagging course way and transfer through the city sized underground maze of tunnels, "In short I estimate materiel distribution to the port would not be completed until march." It was therefore more practical to open the Harlaw facility and disburse some of the equipment to the planetary units directly, but that had been planned anyway.

He turned to the others. "This material was stored up to be used in the event of a war. We have a war to fight. To that end Claymore is going to be built on keeping units in the field and operational... we need missile boats to sustain an advance. The archer fulfills that role, and can maneuver." That it was probably the most common heavy mech in Terran Hegemony service, if not potentially even the most common BattleMech, "Each of the Cadet companies will be allocated a lance of Archers from this depot I need you to get them delivered to NMA tomorrow. Chang I need you to take a lance of Pillagers and do the same with your evaluation group. Bahar will meet you in the morning with the Marauder IIs. I've already spoken with the Maguanacs there is a good chance Blackwell will be sitting in watching our testing of the Bandits, and Badgers. They've been doing that for a couple of days now, and moving the Marauders will probably attract their attention, and that of GM." He looked over the hard ferrocrete deck, and the massive reinforced struts creating hte protective archways above the walkways over their heads.
--
Notes: There is a You are the Davion Heir CYOA where that is the main shtick I'm obliquely referencing that but of course the Davion propaganda people had already tried to do the long lost heir story suggestion.

 

Scrap: Semi-Canonical Status
Timeframe The Pirate Wars 3019​

There were far less debutantes, and pillars of society this time around. The high end holographics though were the same, and made this presentation, would make this presentation easier.

Lady Raventhir gestured for him, bluntly, to get on with it. "Most of you will be aware of the base six, and square six organizational table." Four units of six mech icons each appeared in the projector, "This is in ideal terms to provide fielding a company scale force operating in roughly the same bracket of movement. On Luxen this main line of battle were two sixes, platoons, of Vindicator Medium mechs, supported by a Recon Six and another six units forming a headquarters and reinforcing section." He changed 'slides' projecting the familiar aerodyne shapes sitting on a tarmac at the spacestation. "These are four canopian built, canopian pattern PPC carrier leopards with six mech bays each. It provides the lift capacity to deploy such a company," Meaning you would need two Merchant-class DropShips to deploy such a unit. Or a Star Lord that could then carry two more DropShips. Raventhir owned a Star Lord.

The image changed. A single aerodyne dropship icon appeared. Then delineated to infantry, light and heavy vehicles, ASF, and finally a mech lance.

"This will probably unfamiliar to you. This is a Maganac Corp Tactical Group. It is designed to answer a different operational question than the Six pattern and organization. While not employed on Luxen in this full configuration a light version was employed at Luxen sans jump Infantry and ASF assets."

The table broke away into an image of the DropShip Sam Houston on Luxen in 3016. Traditionally the Azami were light raiders, or cavalry specialists, but they were best known for the prior while the agenda was to emphasize the latter.

"A tactical group is a combined arms element." Effectively a battalion level unit at full strength when with infantry and counting the dropship , deploying an ASF lance, two fighters, a mech lance and armor as its main force of advance. "Its intended application is to be rapidly mobile and emphatic on operational art. In its intended role, to arrive, roll off the group push to an objective if necessary without exterior support, fight secure it ahead of relief by a larger more typical force."

A map changed projecting the river valley, and winding course near Luxen's capital and the mountains to the north, simulating the fly in of Sam Houston at the final drill context... sans torrential rainstorm.

"On Luxen this created a nice overlap." It was true that, "65 KpH is enough to outpace the LRM carriers of a Tactical Group's heavy vehicle unit, but the Tokugawa can keep up with the Vindicator just fine." Images to that effect appeared in midair.

The use of the vindicator while not ideal perhaps as a mech, had been ideal in a logistical situation in terms of having on hand spare parts and a manageable set of ammo requirements as longas there was political. The Vindicators had only the LRMs that needed to be kept fed.

65 KpH was the basically minimum speed. The floor. You didn't want to go slower than that for medium and heavy units. The LRM carriers were something of an exception because they were intended to be kept at range and behind the main line of engagement...

The map of Luxen reflected the original company deployment of Easy and the Maganac Corp units before contact had messed up all the nice planned arrangement.

"Obviously the six works best when you have equivalency as best as possible. Six or Twelve Vidicators can be divided into pairs, in groups of three, or in three more conventional lances, or they can mass as a unit or fire a whole twelve,"

... and of course you could do the same thing with six or twelve Merlins. Centurions, Dervishes, etc... which they could demonstrate. He didn't question how Abner had arranged the Merlins that had beaten them to the Periphery by months.

"The real world being what is, its hard to field a logistical end unit of all the same designs, and there are tactical situations where mixed lances of specialists are both useful, as well as at an operational level easier to keep in the field based on supply situations." The image shifted displaying the two units side by side, "These two formations are different. They're designed to answer different questions, which means that adroitly they serve complimentary roles in battle, and in the course of a campaign."

Raventhir looked over the MAF personnel, "Thank you colonel." She took the flipper and moved it to the next slide, a map of the periphery. "The pirate incursions of late have become more and more frequent." There were static images taken from a variety of news broadcasts

He didn't respond to the comment immediately... after all that was part of the reason that they had returned to Luxen... that was part of the reason they were here in a division of force the way they were. There were other reasons. The Highlander contingent of officers had a point that, Black Jack's antics ... well there questions about how exactly he'd made the leap from some pirate on the Lyran Combine fringe to then making a pervasive habit of just going around blowing up HPGs for... now almost two decades.

The Rim Wolrds iconography of late could still be nothing more than shock value but it plenty of reason to side eye a guy. Why the continuing escalation against HPGs in the periphery, he almost seemed to be going out of his way to hit worlds with ComStar outposts.
--
Gene watched as the Star League era chargers were set on the gantries, and the techs directed the pulling of the LTV 400 out. The Magistracy was in such a situation that any mech would have been used... which of course kept to him raising questions about where exactly some of the Battle of Luxen machines had ended up... but he wasn't a detective, and frankly it was too late now to be asking those questions... at the time there had just been other things to worry about....

... and frankly if this had been the Inner Sphere those salvaged machines may well have just ended up pushed into a warehouse of the ruling house for a time when there were techs, parts and money to rebuild... but if that had been the case then Magestrix needed to get on it.

The 320 was not only lighter, and cheaper it was also more common. These had actually been coming out of factory configured Cicadas... which were themselves getting smaller engines. Replacing the LTV 400 freed up space, very valuale space. What to do with the LTVs after? That wasn't his problem.

He did not expect the Magistracy to try and produce Chargers, or Cicadas for that matter. This was a field expedient refit program designed to use chassis they had and weapons and components that the Magistracy produced themselves. The Charger was still an assault mech... even if it was kind of a crappy one. It made more sense to use it refit it and use it than just store them away

The Magistracy produced Leopard variant utilized PPCs in place of Large Lasers, because the Magistracy could produce the PPCs to meet that demand, thus the corner stone of long range offensive power was a locally manufactured PPC.

If they could have they would have put other things in, and frankly as mediocre as the eighty ton scout mech was in its base configuration he expected they'd potentially get the chance to follow Chang's idea of putting an assault cannon into the machine for close in support... but for they had PPCs in inventory and while the machine would be a touch too hot to use an alpha strike repeatedly the firepower they could cram into the freed space in exchange for a slightly lower speed should be enough.

"Projected Pitban motive power should let it keep up with Vindicators." Which was a nice plus, especially with fifteen tons of armor to back up the medium mechs. "What about the jump jets?"

He glanced sideways at the Majesty Metals liaison responsible for supplying them with locally manufactured, well manufactured on Canopus, jump jets, LRM launchers, as well as the Medium lasers... for this whole broader project "Once we are sure the gyros will work, and the machine will run." Right now the two test beds getting their factory engines ripped out would be getting PPCs, but given heat being potentially prohibitive they'd potentially follow the example of the Vindicator and Merlin and go down to only one... they'd talked about that, and rely on the Cicada's to provide outrider SRM support if anyone got cocky and tried to close in. That they already knew what they were doing with the cicadas as far as the refit work played a part in that.

Azami techs were already fitting out those nominal medium mechs, and getting them ready for Luxen volunteer pilots of the new Mech Platoon so they were actually ahead of schedule. The chargers were a newer project, and they'd experiment a bit more once the basic engine work was done.

Would it be enough?

To reliably build up a single battalion regiment to full strength?

No. It would help, and it would bolster the defenses of the planet, but what really the Canopians needed were additional mercenaries. Black Jack was probably going to make a further attempt, at least that was the concern of the Canopian government, and it was a concern that hadn't gone away in the last couple of years so it was something the federal government was having to spend money on.

In the mean time they could afford to let the Luxen Volunteers practice in the Crocket BattleMechs while medium mechs were being prepared. There was a pervasive current, a nervous energy permeating Luxen's capital. This would strengthen the Luxen Volunteers.
--
Notes: This scrap is technically semi or Pseudo-canon given what will occur in the Luxen Contracts thread (covering the events of the 2^nd Luxen Contract period). I will put the rest in spoilers below.

On Chargers

Spoiler: IILUXEN

So the charger, kind of a crappy assault mech, but it is one that the Rim World built... for some reason. I would guess because it wouldn't raise questions. And I had considered making a Weigel A&M line for the banshee being on Pioche hidden away in storage, but the Charger is the first option on the RAT table, and I certainly wasn't going to give the Canopians a king crab line [even though yes in hindsight that would make so much more sense for why the rim jobs rocked pioche as a fail safe.]

Pioche found a rimworld base found a bunch of crappy assault mechs waiting to be shipped off, tripped an alarm, rock slams into planet. People die.

Fast forward excavation get into the storage shelter Raventhir finds some mechs she can use initially and suggestions of a larger base.

In any event there are at least two more scraps that will probably go up in the next month, and indeed its possible that much of Thursday updates for February may be GWW Scraps. I am also looking at once I finish the events of SAM Book 1 going back and making revisions to that content's earlier chapters, finishing that, I am also looking at updating Out of the Dark (the Drow CYOA story), and also resuming updates for Essence Wielding Social General. Thats all nominal though.