• The site has now migrated to Xenforo 2. If you see any issues with the forum operation, please post them in the feedback thread.
  • Due to issues with external spam filters, QQ is currently unable to send any mail to Microsoft E-mail addresses. This includes any account at live.com, hotmail.com or msn.com. Signing up to the forum with one of these addresses will result in your verification E-mail never arriving. For best results, please use a different E-mail provider for your QQ address.
  • For prospective new members, a word of warning: don't use common names like Dennis, Simon, or Kenny if you decide to create an account. Spammers have used them all before you and gotten those names flagged in the anti-spam databases. Your account registration will be rejected because of it.
  • Since it has happened MULTIPLE times now, I want to be very clear about this. You do not get to abandon an account and create a new one. You do not get to pass an account to someone else and create a new one. If you do so anyway, you will be banned for creating sockpuppets.
  • Due to the actions of particularly persistent spammers and trolls, we will be banning disposable email addresses from today onward.
  • The rules regarding NSFW links have been updated. See here for details.

Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

Fortress Dieron Part 5
Fortress Dieron Part 5
The entry process was the standard insert data and blood sample he'd been expecting, followed by a neuro-helmet boot and logging for access to enter the secure facility access lift... and he could understand why. Nothing had changed in the hundred plus years since Clancy had been here... there capital scale surface to orbit guns still concealed in hardened and disguised recesses of the mountain's surface capable of murdering attacking warships.


Not that the successor states had warships anymore... somehow... but if someone had had control of the fortress and the ability to order the guns into action... warships would have had a bad day... but he had already seen enough to know Kerensky's exodus had functional warships, that the Wolverines had fled clan space with warships. There were no reason for warships to have gone extinct out there... and besides if it could kill a warship it could pop a dropper... not that he really wanted to advertise such a capability if he didn't have to.


The command center though felt empty. It felt tomb like and claustrophobic more so than Fort St George. There were no bodies of course. There was no indication this facility had ever been threatened from within. There was no indication that anything like what had fallen the Outpost Castle St George on Elidere had happened here. In fact it was a little strange that Kerensky had not attempted to strip the facility before running for the periphery... but then again he might not have had the time or personnel ... and Commanding General or not Kerensky couldn't have known everything.


... and of course House Cameron really needed to expand its naming conventions. There were too many that relied on traditional english or scots diaspora naming conventions. St Michael, Harlaw, St George, Wellington.... there was a long long list each of those, and then a handful of various ones named after other famous terran officers from the 19th​ and 20th​ centuries... but he wasn't here to critique the naming conventions of a long dead government. He was here to look at the holographic displays. "What are the probabilities Lockdale Anchorage is intact?"


Or any of the anchorages for that matter... but he declined to voice that question about the rest of near terran space... and it would be years before that question was looked at.

All the same calculations were weighed, and the AI considered the question with all due seriousness. "Given the absence of data and that Admiral Clancy would likely have access to the facility. It is possible the facility is intact, but that it was relieved of further useful material... on the other hand if the Minnesota tribe, as you called them were in need of overhaul I have a hard time believing it would have been especially practical to use the anchorage assuming it were intact."


Lockdale was a jump from Northwind, which historically would have meant nothing of course. Lockdale Anchorage probably had taken receipt of fresh materiel and immediately put it in storage until it needed to be shipped out somewhere else... the problem was so far as he could parse from the historical record was whether or not the successor states had ever fought over Lockdale... or if they had just written it off in the early first succession war.


The Davions had after all had to take Northwind from the Capellans.


"I am collating the reports I deem to be most important relating to briefing you on the current facility condition and its stockpiles, as well as other resources of Hegemony stockpiles on Dieron." The AI remarked as new holographic displays populated.

There was a lot of data here, never mind all of the data from the combine archive. Data that he wouldn't possibly have time to review personally but that the AI had the computational power to take a crack at. Still even the AI would need some amount of time. That left him with the ability to wander around while things were being compared.

--
The members of the community were awash with activity. Bahar took a sip from her canteen, and waited for the connection to establish.

It was true that mechwarriors were mostly supervisory in these duties, but they were still present. Bubbles had been correct the use of artillery to shatter the sword of light had left significantly less salvage than would have been typical of mech to mech engagements... never mind having to just salvage a mech who's cockpit had been shot out or otherwise forced to bail out. Though, from what they had examined there were a number of intact enough machines that didn't even posses such rudimentary safety features. For some that was absurd, but it was... all too common within the DCMS as a belief.


"Is this line secure?" The holographic image wavered, attenuating for a moment as one of the techs checked.


"We are," Pasha remarked.


"How long are the techs going to be needed out there?"


It was an absurd question. The ability to take a portion of the salvaged remains of the enemy were the lifeblood of most mercenary commands. Bahar amended that they were also not most. They weren't anything approaching the average up and coming commands, and for a soldier born in a distant bygone time of scientific understanding and material progress the idea of needing to salvage equipment must have been a straining concept.


The elder Azami stroked his beard, "We will be done with the work soon. There is not much left to be done given the coup de grace delivered on the Sword of Light." Pasha remarked.


"This is a sensitive operation," Gene remarked after a pause. "And its going to be labor intensive work. Give the men twenty four hours to stand down before you brief them... don't bring anyone who's claustrophobic or afraid of being underground."


Within the distant underground fortress Gene leaned back in the chair as the line disconnected... a significant amount of the Hegemony research apparatus and indeed mass production of certain systems had been pioneered within the core worlds of the Hegemony. Worlds that were lost. He was pretty sure Venus was gone, Mars was probably dying, Earth had been reduced to having nation states again... New Earth had eaten Nuke, New Dallas... well truthfully he'd need to make a circuit of the worlds in question. "Are they functional?" He asked.


"Unfortunately the program was interrupted," By the Coup presumably, "the advanced control system for battlemechs was still being evaluated in the field. Given the success though of integrating command software between ground vehicles and aerospace fighters there is no reason the Hegemony program wouldn't have born results."


Of course for the Hegemony the primary goal was to prevent any enemy from even contacting ground forces. The Hegemony hadn't seriously allocated resources to offensive warfare deployment for Drone BattleMechs because the drone program was intended as primarily defensive as a force multiplier. The ASF component though, well that was intended, and had been folded into the SDS program with the intention of keeping invaders off world in the first place.


Of course the SDS had also refined the system to allow high functioning artificial intelligences to operate. Warships never mind stations were sophonts though still bound into the concepts that had shaped their formative programing... and ultimately vulnerable to exploitation of having ground commands target hostile forces ... as had been born out by the subversion of the SDS system.
... if only the over ride and release command had gone through. It might have, probably would have... created other problems but it would have locked Amaris into an unsustainable planetary conflict ... but that was a what if, something that hadn't happened and there was no point going down that rabbit whole.


"The principle problem remains jump exposure?"


"Correct." Jose replied, "Jump Transit and the time," In null space or whatever one wanted to call it effected AIs badly, "between has always created significant problems. There were tentative reports that some AI were able to deal with this, but all AI who were capable of making jumps while active had onboard human crews."


Gene paused... taking a moment to weigh his next question... and then blurted it out, "The psychic space squid theory?"


Jose's holographic image flickered, "There was significant research on hyperspace phenomenon that still could not explain various debris patterns or data tracks from experiments intended to measure hyperspace. AI make the transition best when we're safely sealed within our cores, but obviously that leaves us dependent on humans for transit. Rampancy after exposure to jumps is commonplace."


But theoretically you could move the AI by sealing their cores and bringing them along. They just needed to be shut down for the Jump. Then woken back up on the other end.


"So?"


"While such drone BattleMechs are not in my inventory, it would be feasible to retrofit an ASF carrier dropship as a drone mother ship. It would be even less complicated to use a common armor carrier such as the Triumph as a deployment platform for ground vehicles as you have already utilized against the Combine in the Elidere System."


He was surprised Jose was willing to countenance such a proposal. The risk of revealing such systems in operation were part of the reason the hegemony had not gone for them. They didn't want to show that they could because of how the other member states would react. Hegemony pilots were bad enough, if the Hegemony started fielding mech regiments whose CO's were commanding combat teams of AI armor and air assets as force multipliers... well... to play the what if game a conflict with the Combine might well have taken a very unpleasant, and very likely nuclear turn.


"This is not a suggestion I make lightly Commander Shepherd. These are assets that would be very difficult to replace with our current resources, however your command is markedly short on available forces, and there is an severe ASF deficiency." The Fortress Dieron AI remarked, "My responsibilities entail providing a full spectrum of advice."


"So you want me to box you up and take you with me?"


"No. My primary responsibility is to defend Dieron... given the information available and particular the data you have shared we must consider that the Combine represents a significant threat to order in known space, and worse represents a major distraction in the even that the descendants of Kerensky's people do return in force."


Holographic displays appeared.


Data that he'd been viewing over the last couple days since the sword of light had been defeated.


The Azami fleet currently over Northwind had a plotted jump route that stretched out towards the Aurigan Reach. It terminated there. There was no continuation path to Alamut. That was data the captains of Lebanon and Colorado kept separate for good reason. Not that it mattered, what mattered was even just moving to the Reach should have put the Azami outside of the realistic reach of the Combine just because they'd realistically have to move through two or three political entities including one they had just lost a major world to.


That exodus had the potential to support basing operations in the periphery for ... at least investigating the disappearance of, and the loss of the Tripitz.


The AI did not like what he was seeing from the reports filtering in from the periphery. They hadn't had the resources, or the inclination to look too hard at the mechs the pirates had used during the second battle of Luxen... but that seemed to have been an oversight given some of the footage that was making its way back into the Inner Sphere.


There other things. Perhaps foremost among them though was the reiteration of all the various Hegemony worlds that were worth visiting. That might have information or supplies.


"I must additionally recommend given these Wolf Dragoons, that resources be allocated to locate additional information regarding the Minesota tribe, and its departure from whatever colonies Kerensky established."


"I was already planning to."


"Very good... then there is one other matter. I have an HPG signal transmitted through the network coreward. The location of the SLS Ulithi is here," A holographic image projected a series of coordinates, along with a navigation route, "the message is a follows..." It wasn't anything special they were looking to find Kerenssky and join the exodus.

When it was done Gene stared at the holographic map, fighting back the headache.

The Draconian rift was a coreward region of space. It was the Draconis Combine Periphery border. The Fotress's computer's astrological data had fed in the coordinates detailing 1245K3 and the habitable world within a single jump's distance as determined by the system. That wasn't what made it interesting. It was the feed data from 2785. Buffalo Meadows had attempted to send out a message, the contents were disappointing they'd been ferreting out, searching after General Kerensky having missed the Exodus lift off but it was something.

He punched up the coordinates again, and printed them out. Along with the scuttling protocols for triggering a warships self destruct... which assumed that they were there still... they were too close to the combine the last thing he wanted was the combine potentially taking warships on a death ride against anyone.


--
Notes: So I have for August a couple of other things slated to go up, these will be misc thread stuff mostly starting out. (As I mentioned I started playing the Xenonauts 2 demo, and I bought into early access when it dropped) I have based on xenonauts 2 fic of sorts in the works the first three roughly segments are done, and also I'm strongly considering doing an Inuyasha fic centering around a Seshomaru SI but that is still tenuous (this would be set during the original anime and focus on muromachi era japan most likely).
 
new earth is still around if a bit battered. but yeah a lot TH worlds got hit really really bad in the first pair of SWs.
also buffalo meadows....that's a lot of gear including maybe 2 jumpable warships and 1 that could be fixed
 
Buffalo would be a massive boon to the unit, not only in quantity of units, but in quality. Top of the line toys, not Royal grade, but certainly better than anything on hand this far into the Succession Wars.

Gene's going to have a one hell of an ace if he can even half of it up and functional.
 
Buffalo would be a massive boon to the unit, not only in quantity of units, but in quality. Top of the line toys, not Royal grade, but certainly better than anything on hand this far into the Succession Wars.

Gene's going to have a one hell of an ace if he can even half of it up and functional.
Mind you unlikely Gene could get more than a a regiment or two of the combat gear given he'll need lift and a lot of techs he doesn't have on his payroll to move the stuff. More likely getting a larger cut of the support equipment and lift.
Mind you after such a haul it's likely to be Duke Gene of a fairly nice world
 
Last edited:
At this point Gene is just running into too many leads to run down himself. The way things are going he's likely going to HAVE to have a serious talk with Yvonne Davion about all, or at least some, of this to actually put out all those fires this decade.
 
At this point Gene is just running into too many leads to run down himself. The way things are going he's likely going to HAVE to have a serious talk with Yvonne Davion about all, or at least some, of this to actually put out all those fires this decade.

Mind you unlikely Gene could more than a a regiment or two given he'll need lift and a lot of techs he doesn't have on his payroll to move the stuff.
Mind you after such a haul it's likely to be Duke Gene of a fairly nice world
This.
You're both correct, though in this case its not just Yvonne but it is a matter of delegating
 
Fortress Dieron Part 6
Fortress Dieron Part 6
Gene checked the data slate, but it hadn't changed to provide him with the answers he was looking for. He wished Clancy had explained some of his reasoning. There were things like some of the various dropships in the bays he would have liked to know why the man hadn't taken them with him. Even with more than a hundred personnel admitted into the facility it wasn't enough not to make the place feel any less empty. The noise, the lights, the motions it didn't help. Not really.


A castle Brian was designed to maintain and rebuild the brigades within it. Sustainment of those units was key to insuring that a unit could weather a threatening enemy invasion and be prepared to counter attack once relief from the Hegemony arrived. It was part of a strategy to insure enemy forces were spread out or tied down on a planet and thus slow an incursion.

To that end there was a lot of complex machinery that was allocated to a Castle complex. That wasn't to say the average facility was intended to mass produce wholly new machines. There were exceptions but the program was more to rebuild and replace parts quickly. Construction of new mechs wasn't the usual objective. Myomer extrusion, onsite armor manufacturing, spare parts fabrication, and making weapons were all on a list of things. Given enough time a stocked castle brian could potentially turn out through its machine shops a machine from scratch, but that wasn't what they were intended to do.


This was intended to facilitate depot level rebuilding of machines... and since Hegemony Regiments could entail whole battalions of the same model machine or at least single unit lances or companies that meant the machinery could be fairly standard.



That didn't mean a castle wasn't about the ideal staging location to transport the heavy machinery necessary for complex construction tasks. The black box blocks of sealed machinery could be innocuously itemized and kept from prying eyes and who would have any idea what they were when sitting in depot. He was pretty sure that similar machinery had been at Fort St George on Elidere given the depot level overhaul carried out on his first Marauder.


"Do you know what this is?"

"Its part of a Marauder production line." He replied. "Automated Engine factory," It was designed to build DHS into the engine during the process... the kind of thing the Hegemony had never demonstrated to the others... and the sort of manufacturing technology that had all but disappeared when Kerensky had fled the Inner Sphere. "VLAR 300."

The Azami half turned, apparently he hadn't gotten that far only recognizing that the machine was some kind of black box facility. "Of course, what do you want done with it?"

To finish cataloging but this was going to need to be packed in dry storage and secured in a DropShip hull... he paused, "Earmark it, run a diagnostic, and check to see what needs to be done to configure it."

"And?"

"Once you familiarize yourself with it, run the precursor materials into it, and then see if it works as it is supposed to." They were standard 19 ton fusion engines, the integrated production of heat sinks though might allow them to free space in machines like Septim's Merlin Cavalry. A fusion engine was the heart of a battlemech or an ASF for that matter.

"Should I mount it in the Atlas once complete?" The tech seemed confident that the Machine would work as it was intended. He acknowledged that that would be fine, and resumed reading the Terran Hegemony Materiel's Command documentation trying to wrap his head around how this magic box even worked.


Gene almost said yes. "No hold off on that." He didn't understand why the original Atlas of 2755 had been built with standards. It didn't make sense by that point... neither did the King Crab's use of standards. "Just make sure the engine works. The Atlas we know it works and right now its better that we focus on keeping it available for combat."


The tech dimmed a little but nodded. No doubt the man had expected such an improvement to the Atlas would make it even more dangerous... and truthfully if they did make the change it probably would be an improvement ... Chang had been complaining that she ran out out of ammo too quickly for her tastes. Freeing up some space would let them mount Medium Lasers as a back up... but no, not right now.


He surveyed the machine.


The factory unit was a relic of the hegemony. Of the star league as well intended to simplify production. It was the story of a thousand years of industrialization. Increase the effectiveness of the industrial production process. Build a better machine to make better tools, to make better things. While the combine's wage slaves toiled in their cottage industry the hegemony had envisioned being able to have worlds... well some times that ability to produce complex machines had had negative repercussions... it had lead to more than its share of costly boondoggles... and of course the eventual result of black box production technology had made things like the mother doctrine feasible... and that had in turn probably contributed to technological decline after the Amaris crisis and the first succession war had started throwing nukes around like they were firecrackers.
--
Alexandria Cunningham groaned at the report.


The entirety of Shepherd's Company was acting weird.


... weirder, she supposed. The officers were the clear origin point, but even now the most recent recruits, the mix of hires on from Northwind's recent graduates constituting Shepherd's Highlanders and the Azami and Rasalhague contingents had been pulled for a training rotation with the DMM portion of the invasion force, and the Eridani.


... something revolving around SLDF manuals, and exercises. "Its an excuse to cover Shepherd's disappearance." The Field Marshal remarked matter of factly. "Which suggests that unlike Northwind this has the potential to be an extended absence, or that whatever is the cause of it has significant potential for repercussions."


"Could it be related to the ISF archive?" One of the first lessons she had learned... or more correctly been taught was avoid asking questions you didn't know the answer to... but there were times where that couldn't be helped and you had to ask.


"It is certainly possible. There was no indication that these drills were scheduled prior to the incident at the archive." And worse all of those had been copies of documents. MIIO's liaison still wasn't thrilled with her operation... but part of that was Shepherd was if not a native speaker of Japanese had most likely grown up on a Terran world where it was spoken throughout his childhood and thus didn't require translations of formal archaic even written Japanese that the ISF and the Coordinator's court frequently made use of.


There was also of course Shepherd's possession of a first edition copy of the Dictum Honorium ... which first edition somewhat mis named the book. The combine's digressions of honorable behavior was written in a haltingly archaic form of Japanese and had been handwritten by the daughter of the first coordinator. According to rumor Shepherd's copy actually had bloodstains on it, though the source wasn't clear. Whatever the case the existence of the book, his ability to read it, and his role in bypassing the ISF defensive line and then bushwhacking the ISF's command and control had the remaining combine's attention.


There were rules for how merchants were to be treated. Agreements in the third succession war's onset that governed how they'd treat one another's merchants. To that end unless she could prove they were spies she was letting the combine merchants remain active... that and their behavior might provide insights, but right now they were too frantic over the world being flipped.


"The commander had the archive turned into digital copies, all of which is apparently searchable by computer." Which should have taken potentially months or even years, but Yvonne was willing to make allowances for lost star league computer capabilities... but very likely he had, like she had, some idea where to start looking... and unlike her he had a searchable database to run key words through... and the aforementioned fluency to help.
--
The holographic lights swirled.


"The proposal has merit." The AI remarked. "The logic is sound, both as an evaluation concept and for political interest gathering. It bolsters the security presence of the new government and facilitates potential integration into the political order in a way house Kurita could not effectively undertake."


The Combine had tried too hard to push their interpretation of Bushido and what was Nihonjinron as the combine perceived their place in the universe. A view that incompatible with the planetary culture of Dieron even centuries after the Hegemony had fallen... he supposed that was kind of gratifying.


He tapped a holographic display, "what's this?"

The 'plate' shifted.

"A proposal, since you have refused the recommendation for extensive refits for combat armor units." The AI disapprovingly remarked, "it is a recommendation for further requipment. It is also recommendation to establish a landhold within a secondary mountain complex that would not compromise this facility. The proposal to begin standing up highland regiments has merit... but I believe there is one potential issue."


The image of the Northwind Highlanders, the Capellan Mercenary Unit, appeared.


"You think it would provoke a reaction."


"I do." The AI replied. "indeed I would speculate that given the observed Northwind behaviors they plan to formally reconstitute the Scotts Dragoons utilizing the resources made available to them, and potentially from there the Royal Highland Brigade. That might well arouse the interest of these Wolf Dragoons, and while we cannot be certain it is not unreasonable to suspect that as descendants of the migration from the sphere that they could piece together bits of information from which to reach problematic conclusions." The thinking machine continued, "This is made potentially more of a concern by the behaviors exhibited by members of the highlander officer corp. I would estimate that recognition of the Dragoons origins might lead to direct confrontation, and if not by Northwind membership than statistical likelihood by descendants of other SLDF personnel."


... by which the Eridani... or potentially the Blue Star irregulars.


"Dante recommended-"


"A proposal to locate a brian cache or Light BattleMech Division depot in order to refit the Eridani for resumed hostility against the Draconis Combine, with the aims of securing near terran space, and expelling House Kurita from the Terran Corridor."


Yes... that. "And?"


A holographic image of a world with notable seas appeared... and then morphed into a more recent image according to the date showing one absent. "This is Helm. It is the site of an SLDF Strategic Logistics Stockpile located as a part of the Nagayan Castle Brian Complex."
--
Notes: With regards to Gene's language, this has been touched on, but to the average combine wage slave / peasant /salaraiman whatever he speaks a very archaic standard of Japanese ala this sounds like Grampa to the Combine nobility of traditional mindset Gene speaks and reads classical Japanese texts so thus ironically Gene can better communicate albeit with a dialect drift with Combine elites than he can the common Combine citizen.

Anyway this has been a while coming.
 
Hoooo boy. He's heading for the motherload. And he now has the ability to start producing actual upgrades for his mech forces. The stompies are about get stompier. This is most pleasing.
 
I wonder how he is going to handle revealing things to the Davions.

That is where the major headache will come from with his allies.
 
It's little over a decade before the cache was canonically found, so at least Comstar and the Combine isn't looking in Helm's direction just yet. So you have that going for you. The problem starts when you start heading towards it and the eyes on you realize where you're going.
 
It's little over a decade before the cache was canonically found, so at least Comstar and the Combine isn't looking in Helm's direction just yet. So you have that going for you. The problem starts when you start heading towards it and the eyes on you realize where you're going.
Well since hes a merc he can just go there on a cover looking for work.
 
Or travel via deep systems. Either way all this material is frickin huge. It's enough to basically replenish most of the AFFS's commands back to near full strength and establish or refound mutiple new ones as well if one factors in all the stuff that can be restored back to operational status with the parts and supplies there as well
 
Or travel via deep systems. Either way all this material is frickin huge. It's enough to basically replenish most of the AFFS's commands back to near full strength and establish or refound mutiple new ones as well if one factors in all the stuff that can be restored back to operational status with the parts and supplies there as well
This is true, and on top of that spoiler
this is what will eventually allow the FedSuns, and then the FedCom to bypass compact drive controls by Terra, this is leading into the key that will hand Hanse, and the future FedCom production of warships back in the long term.
 
This is true, and on top of that spoiler
this is what will eventually allow the FedSuns, and then the FedCom to bypass compact drive controls by Terra, this is leading into the key that will hand Hanse, and the future FedCom production of warships back in the long term.
you mean transit drives right? those are the hard bit with warships post helm not compact drives
 
Fortress Dieron Part 7
Fortress Dieron Part 7
Gene watched the automated gantries move as Pasha picked up the slate. The old ship master frowned and tapped at the screen his face shifting, probably digesting the gobbledygook of attempts to maintain secrecy and program. Too much of the dataslates dressed things up in as boring names as possible without hinting at what the systems were.


The holographic display showed readouts of the hulls down below but his thoughts were elsewhere, and on previous conversations. Argo. The DropShip had disappeared into the rimward periphery before the Amaris Crisis... his first guess from its size and its seurity profile at Northwind had been an SLCOMNET tender... but Dante had been able to shore that away... apparently from the review of what data they did have was its changes to the docking system allowed additional small DropShips... such as leopards to be carried docked to the hundred thousand tonner as it was docked to a jumpship...


It was an odd improvement to DropShip and JumpShip systems... he wondered where that development had originated, but it would have been useful here. "thats whats in the port." He said after a minute.


"They are dropships?" Pasha questioned stroking his beard.


"Yes..." He paused and blew out a breath... "In a technical sense, yes... in other terms, its complicated." Bahar had been supposed to brief the JumpShip captain on what they needed... but this was still going to be complicated... more than complicated. He didn't like concealing that they'd found a lead on the Minnesota tribe's activities from Doctor Abner... but he was holding back on that for the time being because he didn't' know what to make of Clancy throwing in with them.... what was more problematic was the ... was probably the route that Kerensky had used to get out into deep space given modelling from stellar telemetry and the information they had.


Pasha took the data slate and the jump information without a comment. "I can gather a body of volunteers from the community... but if this is what you describe it, there will be robotic defenders ... aircraft that don't require pilots, almost certainly there will be turrets, and such as well."


"Its entirely possible that there is worse than that. I have an override command ... I accept that this reduces our cargo capacity but we need to investigate Lockdale."


"Investigating is not a problem." The man remarked, which if only he knew of the number of worlds... there was New Dallas to consider as well after all, ... there was organizing a periphery expedition there the estimates on where the 'Exodus Road' was and the chance that there might be leads on that front at Lockdale... which worried Gene. "I will speak to the other elders when we return to Northwind. The highlanders will be expecting your return anyway."


There was no sense risking a jump straining the drives trying to make Lockdale from Dieron... now when Pasha was right the victory here would require going back to Northwind... which was good because he had a data core capable of sustaining Dante's consciousness safely.


But it wasn't just Lockdale. Dante's list had been one thing, but the Fortress Dieron AI had a much more intact facility, "The Field Marshal says they received an HPG transmission from Altair, the planet has officially changed hands." He remarked.


"That is good." Pasha responded, he was scrolling down, "These supplies marked for the anchorage, they are already loaded aboard a Star League era Cargo DropShip." Then corrected that there were two such cargo ships, "I cannot begin to comment on the value of such cargo, if it can carry such cargo we could make sure such tonnage is used for other goods. It would reduce the number of Mules, and other bulk freighters, and free up collars for transit."


"Has the Field Marshal made any further inquiries about Cairo?"


"She has not, To my knowledge there have not been any further inquiries since you opened the Brian Cache on Robinson." Pasha paused, "With the fall of Altair, this will have effects on the community at large. Even those who feel obliged to honor the oaths our ancestors made to the Coordinator in good faith will have to contend that providence has turned away from the house of Kurita."


"I don't follow." Gene replied bluntly, he was still on the fringes of Azami political notions... there were too many factions that were just names.


"The Davions have mistrusted our people for our long loyalty to House Kurita, and that is understandable but Altair and Dieron are not Robinson, and not Ander's moon. Breaking a sword of light regiment underscores that, coupled with the recriminations against the community there was already a rebellion brewing."


"That sounds like something you should coordinate where possible with Rasalhague Pasha, especially since they're the ones who provided you with the fax machines." Though admittedly the space swedes wanted to try and peal the whole RMD off into a new free state... and that was an ambitious proposal. "More than that though thats a political discussion Pasha, that would require recognition and support from if not just House Davion, but most likely House Steiner as well and I don't see that forthcoming at this stage."


"It is something to consider." Pasha replied.


Somewhere in the rush of everything he had remembered to find time to send orders to the Rasalhague contingent under Soren... but part of that was going to be dependent on whenever he inevitably heard something from the Field Marshal. "What do you think of Macintyre's proposal?"


"You are asking me?" The ship captain questioned. "This is a matter of mechwarriors."


"You have no opinions on the matter?" Gene questioned.


The old man paused, "I believe they would be political opinions, Commander." He replied, "I cannot comment on the validity of Colonel MacIntyre's proposal." Pasha paused, "I am fully prepared, I prefer even to leave matters of warfare on the ground to those with experience."
--
Septim fidgeted as the arcane ... it wasn't magic but it wasn't like he understood all the things on the screens and holograms floating around so it might as well have been magic.

Techno-sorcery from a bygone age was a staple of the media he'd grown up on. It'd been popular back home with heroic weapons of the ancient star league that had inspired myths and legends... and he supposed there must have been some truth to it all.


Maybe not to the degree of holo stories but there was clearly a name component, and these things were using neurohelmets in ways he'd never heard of as well as testing blood samples. That was scientific, where in the dramas there were more energy swords and magic circles that relied on drops of blood.


The lights changed colors.


It might as well have been magic.
--
"So when will he be back?"


Chang grimaced. They were on down time... the Davions didn't really need them for anything, and she'd have so preferred to be able to focus on practical well mech practice...


Chang was doing her best to keep things running smoothly but that was easier said than done. Her initial inclination was to do the usual mercenary thing and try and bluster her way out of it... but she didn't see that working. Not that San Martin wasn't a nice city, and Dieron didn't seem that bad of a place to live but... there was no way the Davion rep would believe her if she said she thought they were going to settle down here because she didn't believe it herself.


Northwind made so much more sense if they were going to settle down anywhere... but that wasn't what their FedSuns handlers probably wanted to hear either. .. but she didn't really know all that much about the FedSuns or any of their planets anyway... or their internal politics.


The ruler of their Draconis March seemed an appropriately pious and dedicated member of the high classes , but she also understood that not all the rulers could be properly Confucian either as her father would have described a noble's responsibility to the state.


"Tonight maybe. Tomorrow morning probably." She replied from inside the cockpit of the Atlas as she relayed the query through the network and waited for Septim to give her a response. "I've got responsibility for all of Marauder II force..." and she clammed up realizing even saying that much felt like saying too much.


Alexandria Cunningham felt the conversation slip and change. She could have pressed the mechwarrior... but the truth was she didn't know where the weak spots in the verbal floor were either... this was an unusual situation... and even that was an understatement. The expectation at the onset of this was that having destroyed outright a major house's regular combat formation that Shepherd's Company being a relatively young nascent even mercenary company would be easy enough to bring into the fold. The objective at the outset for the DMI had been the same as the AFFS more broadly take what lessons they could from the destruction of the Galedon regulars and apply them to regular units to further damage the combine.


... and what should have been a simple matter turned into a crazy upside down world. The initial dossier should have been a late teenage mechwarrior probably from a military background... not some vengeful ghost from the golden age of humanity with a tendency to disappear into ancient burrows and unearth weapons from a bygone era on most worlds he visited.


That was all together different from just some lucky lostech prospector who happened to be a mech warrior, and it made her problem harder than simply dealing with someone her own age who had his entire life deal with, circle around his job as a soldier of fortune.
 
Will his phantom mech abilty work on a night hawk suit?
My understanding is that it works on sensors but this runs into the problem of elementals, or in the star league era Terran SOF would just get into melee range and fisticuff it up

or presumably just use iron sights on a rifle in the case of PA(L).
 
My understanding is that it works on sensors but this runs into the problem of elementals, or in the star league era Terran SOF would just get into melee range and fisticuff it up

or presumably just use iron sights on a rifle in the case of PA(L).
yeah cause i've been thinking in my head if it stacks with his ability and the suits ability to be invisible on sensors.
 
Fortress Dieron Part 8
Fortress Dieron Part 8
Gene hit the enter on the keyboard, exhaled confirmed the start sequence and watched the doors move. He'd be taking the train back soon, there was a certain amount of anxiety on both sides and he could understand that, but expecting the Combine to be able to muster retaliation was unlikely. Altair had changed hands as well, and... well that meant he needed to have a conversation with Kerston as well.

Nagayan... Helm. New Dallas and its CID facility.

There was a certain degree of anxiety though. Dieron had been a major production center within Hegemony Space... which was saying something. At least Pasha had some idea of what they were going to be going into with moving on Lockdale, but really the bigger issue were the extrapolated star maps. The Hegemony well by holding Earth among other things had categorized and marked out using various telescopes and metrics number crunched thousands of worlds by the 26th​ century but the logistics of the JumpCore and the lack of major breakthroughs had kept the boundaries of the great states.


Not that that had stopped human exploration. The most likely explanation was Kerensky had stripped the archives looking for somewhere to flee to that was viable enough that whatever he could have looted from the Hegemony's corpse that it would be enough to set up a colony.. and then that colony had made it long enough to settle down and have enough of political kerfuffle to split off and the Minnesota tribe, the Clan Wolverine to make a run for the opposite direction to try and go Rimward instead of coreward.


That didn't necessarily mean Clan Wolverine was trying to find hypothetical Hegemony Bolt Holds, but enough of Clan Wolverine were terran nationals and Royal division officers that it was possible. They could very well have just been chasing rumors though, there was no sense in getting excited about that.


There was after all a good chance that Kerensky wouldn't have carried with him a recording that indicted House Kurita for Treason that had his security signature acknowledging receipt of. That kind of official documentation would have raised issues, or ta least he assumed it would have. By not acting against the traitorous coordinator it had allowed Kurita time to prepare to make a bid to claim the title of Star Lord... and thus the succession wars as they had unfolded.


The debriefing was inadequate in terms of answers, and it didn't explain why the Dragoons had appeared, that was beyond the frame of reference that the AI here had hard evidence of. Speculation though, was not charitable. Even the most benign fact finding mission was still a potential issue, especially since Fortress Dieron had had contact with the Minnesota tribe and Nicky Kerensky being a cult leader lunatic.


A part of him wanted to just gto to Yvonne and ask for all the copies of interactions any recordings of the dragoons interactions that the FedSuns had and feed to the AI and let him number crunch it all. That would probably risk more questions than he was already prepared to account for.


Pasha sidled past Septim, "these are planets?"


"Yeah, they're the installations where Hegemony forces successfully scuttled their own HPG assets." He said of the icon in question, the bigger problem were the ones which had of Terran worlds not accounted for their destruction, whether by Amaris, or the Ministry of Communications, or Kerensky or that the Successor States hadn't during the move in to occupy Hegemony worlds. "These are time stamps," For those worlds with conformably destroyed HPGs, "where those last transmitted. This is New Dallas its the world Dante suggested as a priority, but what I can determine from the historical record it'd be as much work as the Zero-G operations as Lockdale given that there is probably atmospheric hazard and we'll need fully shielded mechs."


... and then there was still the matter Helm, there was the Nagayan Mountain Castle Brian and the depot. The Quartermasters corp, that was another conversation he was dreading...and one that was going to entail... he needed to talk to Kerston about that as well.
--
His return to San Martin involved little in the way of circumstance, but the city was more relaxed when he had left it. The atmosphere of the university of Dieron though merely made him dread the conversation that he would need to have at some point with the Lyran professor.


For the moment though he had hte advantage of of another problem to tackle. "Did you ever give it any thought? I know we've been busy."


Gene nodded, "I did, is Lord Aaron on the planet?"


"No, he's on Northwind still." There were interactions, liaisons planned for the two academies, but that required fleshing things out.


That made sense. Surely if the Duke of Robinson had decided to jump to Dieron then there would have been communications indicating his arrival, but the fact was it didn't make much sense to have the Field Marshal of The Draconis March here in person. Really, Yvonne Davion's prescence was probably as much about their presence as it was the potential intelligence coup of taking a provincial capital. "Have there been any problems?" He asked turning the matter back towards business.


"No things have been pretty quiet, what did you slip off for?"


He thought about the shipping manifest of the dropships... what they were going to take to Lockdale anchorage and ... see what was there. The nitial plan was to have the transporters transmit their ID codes to see if that got them passed what if anything was there now. "Something I needed to look into, its complicated. Do you think the Federated Boeing Rep would still be on Northwind?" It really would have been a question better posed to MacIntyre or one of the other officers of Claymore, but Bard was right here, not out in the field with the recent graduates.


"You got that weird look on your face again," Bard shook his head.


"What look?"


"The oh yes the star league, never mind." Bard shook his head, "Any more of those Devastator things then?"


"No, It was a prototype ordered into rushed development by Kerensky." He could understand where Bard was coming from though, the devastator had proven itself immensely useful against the sword of light out in the hilly open landscape west of the planetary capital along the Kazakh river... but frankly the Pillager in its late Star League configuration would have likely sufficed, and the Highlanders supporting Thugs had also been important... but no doubt most were watching the mech kills by individual machine. That wasn't fair to supporting forces, who had contributed to the operational success of the battle, but it was also normal.


Too many in Gene's opinion of the Battle Roms over emphasized the frontal confrontation and thus dismissed the tactical, and operational realities hemming the Combine into a disadvantageous situation. He paused, and watched as the lance of hundred tonners, all of them built from the Marauder II shifted at the edge of the track. There were other blackwell industry vehicles nearby, the cache vehicles were in a motor pool further in, reflecting that they were on average significantly larger armored units, but there should have been several Fury tanks active at any given time waiting to feed data to active units.


It also, as with Dante on Northwind, allowed the AI a view into the world around them. Whether that degree of caution was necessary, well, it certainly didn't hurt, "How is the combine taking things?" The truth was he had gotten back to San Martin, but he had yet to see the Field Marshal or the brevet general.


"Shock mostly I guess, I mean... when they hit Mallory's world, we ended up fighting for three months before we finally managed to force the dracs off." And on Mallory's world in 3013, four years and change earlier, well Ian Davion had died and Yorinaga Kurita had tried to steal the body as some macabre trophy. "So I guess its shock, its not even like we dropped from orbit," He nodded out towards San Martin certainly I didn't expect to be here already." He trailed off, as the Marauder II BattleMechs were replaced in rotation by Claymore painted Mechs, "Hey those are new."


Gene nodded, looking at Claymore's Ancient Company. "The Combine has made a point of circulating rumors that there were lostech caches in the mountains, they're not wrong. Since Sorbel took a beating on the hill," Banzai light mech charge, death ride whatever you wanted to recall it, "We overhauled his lance first, and once the techs get done I intend to push as much as that hardware to Northwind units on the expectation is going to come for round two." Bard nodded in acknowledgement of the logic. "While we're running the follow on cadre work I want to keep the cadets original mechs handy, but I want the Robinson Brian Cache machines being practiced on as well for those in the counter-ronin company. Are you going to have an issue making a transition to the Highlander?"


"I shouldn't. I had planned to do that."


"Good Bahar, and Ishida will joining in a Highlander Gunnery Course we're setting up." Gene ignored the the AI's commentary cycling through his neurolink on managing the situation. That wasn't really what this was about, "I also need to brief Kerston about responding to a Combine counter attack so I may be busy tomorrow."
 
Fortress Dieron Part 9
Fortress Dieron Part 9
Gene was legitimately concerned about the possibility that the combine might commit to a rapid counter attack not necessarily one that might be effective even but that they might feel the need to do something and launch a surprise counter. The biggest threat there was not to their own military assets, that seemed unlikely, but rather that the Combine in the face of lack of civilian support or just recklessness would cause a lot of civilian casualties before they could be destroyed.


That had played a role in order repair and refit of units... but if the Combine did land he planned to slather their landing sites with artillery if at all possible. Mostly out of concern for potential civilian losses if the Combine managed to land in the vicinity of a major urban center.


To that end having Ishida swap over from the lighter SRM spewing big bug... well there were legitimate skill curve objections to make, much as there were in terms of moving pilots who were intimate with the dope on their personal machines... especially in the case of customized, non standard, load outs of succession era wars 'mechs.


And of course the Highlanders would represent a notable drop in mech speed, which admittedly was tactically less important if they were defending a fixed area, but Gene did want some kind of uniform cavalry mech requirement... that was going to have to wait though. He watched as Bard swapped to the Highlander pulled from the Robinson Brian Cache and brought the mech out of the erector frame on the back on the flat bed transport truck.. They were doing that publicly in order to minimize implication that they had opened another cache for the time being... but they did need to start running the course work. "Do you disagree with Dante's conclusion?"


"His conclusion on what?" Kerston asked.


"That we're at war with the Combine?" Not that, Gene really thought there was a Hegemony to fight the war... there wasn't certainly a Star League anymore... but then again maybe there was a Terran Hegemony in Exile... but what would they want... predicting a government's position would be hard... if they had escaped into the periphery it was entirely possible they could have pivotted hard into isolationism and wanted nothing to do with the Inner Sphere, and might need nothing from the Inner Sphere. "Is that where we stand?"


Kerston took in a breath, "It is readily, House Kurita broke the peace by attempting to usurp the title of Star Lord, and leadership of the League... and with everything else, especially everything since then the simple answer is yes."


"Do the Blue Star Irregulars agree with this conclusion?"


"I would presume that they do." The Brevet General replied. "May I inquire as to what this entails?"


Gene looked as another erector locked into place allowing another Highlander to step out from the framework, "I'll need the Field Marshal and the Federated Suns," really the AFFS, "to spare you probably for several months, its not an immediate priority, but there is a quartermaster's corp that according to our records which could resupply both of your RCTs to league standards, and I mean in terms of equipment standards before the uprising on New Vandenburg." He added probably unnecessarily. "it should provide you a back up as well to start training up new troopers as a reserve, or even as a permanent garrison force at home, but there is no hurry. I'll both RCTs and a significant space lift component and I can't organize that at present."


"So you'll just ask the Field Marshal to borrow us?"


... Gene looked out over the yard space, and was pretty sure he could make it worth House Davion's while ... if what was at Helm if what was in Nagayan besides all the mechs was what he thought was in there... and just the quartermaster corp's stockpile would potentially be enough to throw off the sent. "Yeah, something like that." He replied. "It won't be any time soon for now we need to focus on the chance that the Combine will try something." He paused glancing at the data slate in front of him as a message flashed on the screen, "Though that being said, regardless of how the procurement situation with Blackwell goes, any Mercury Light BattleMechs and materiel will probably need to be transferred to House Davion for the OmniMech program."


Kerston accepted that in stride, why wouldn't he. The last mercury battle mechs in service with the RCT had been lost on Sendai in 2998... and they were talking about restoring the whole Eridani at some point to its paper strength with appropriate SLDF equipment.
--
Yvonne appreciated not having to present a masquerade for the depot south of the Kazakh River that Shepherd had unlocked to resupply his detachment of the invasion force. That the roll off of heavier mechs was in progress was sure to bait any remaining combine spies into ... well they were unlikely to be able to help themselves.


What she was less keen on was the idea of permitting Shepherd to settle on a world this close to the front. That made the prospect of a surviving Hegemony fort of some kind on Dieron concerning... but it wasn't really a surprise after everything. Shepherd's sudden disappearance... well... "What are the prospects of a combine counter attack?"


"Negligible ma'am. With all due respect to Colonel Shepherd," The Guards officer replied, "I don't think he's processing the damage done to the Combine over the last twelve months. The destruction of the forces here including the Sun Zhang cadre," In what Yvonne had viewed as a particularly egregiously wasteful use of young troops, and beyond that... the reality was that the combine was not going to recover the mechs they had been shot out of either. "and with the victory on Altair we expect the Combine to be in disarray within the local theater."


Yvonne frowned at the man's leaky glee. Not that his optimism was overblown... he was probably correct that given the damage at Elidere the Combine had likely had to force a coverage of the front in anticipation of a AFFS follow up even if they hadn't wanted to admit that. They'd even sewn misinformation to that effect... well not misinformation but that the Draconis March Militia was intending to retaliate, but the width of the front and meant that it was an attack that didn't have to be anchored by Robinson.


Combine Strategists could have predicted that there was the likelihood of a thrust by forces relocated east or west but she doubted that they could have predicted the offensive such as it had been. Even after having been on Dieron a week, she could scarcely believe their success. They had been planning that they might need to fight the invasion phase for months if necessary, not to meet the Combine in a single decisive action in order to unfurl the DCMS's defenses. Had the campaign gone longer they likely would have started to run low on shells for the artillery given t he rate of expenditure, but instead the fight for the planet was over... and that suddenness seriously undermined the likelihood of combine reinforcements. Since any forces dispatched would now need to b e a counter invasion force rather than just reinforcing...


... in the mean time she was going to have to rotate back anyway. The DMM had officially started making requests up the AFFS logistics train for purchases of Blackwell Industries products... understandable given the swiftness at which the planetary capital of San Martin had fallen. There were similar requests already being made on behalf of the Highland Militia as well, and Shepherd's Company had already tendered purchases out of their bounty of pounds from Elidere. Blackwell of New Valencia would need more protection, and would need the capital to expand to meet production demand...


In the mean time there were other problems. Their success here presented other pressures to House Davion, she expected the proverbial full court press by House Sandoval and most if not all of the great houses of the Draconis March as well as their gentleman supporters among the gentry. There would almost certainly be resistance within the march, houses who felt slighted or whose domains also lay in the Caepllan March, and there would be of course push back from the latter March's ruling house of Hasek. That was what she was waiting to see, how the parliament and the court at New Avalon responded was one thing, but perhaps just as importantly was how the realm at large began to respond to their victories against House Kurita.


The conversation wound further.


--
Travel arrangements looked more or less finalized... which was both good, and potentially problematic. Septim would be leaving with Abner, with whom Gene still needed to have a conversation with about too many things. "They're locked in?"


"Seals in place, I have placed guards to insure that the cannot be accessed easily." Pasha replied.


The two large cargo dropships had been moved a fort via a railway system that was either the handy work of the department of mega engineering or its Terran forbearer and well deserving of its name... and the Cargo Carriers could be visually mistaken for the 27th​ century Mammoth indeed with some degree of parts compatability with the idea the member states were less likely to pay much attention to them. The problem... or most likely what had happened is Kerensky's tenure as Commanding General had wanted something to streamline the whole Star League and that had lead to the development of the Cargomaster program intended as a replacement for the smaller mule but also intended to see service when operational with all member states.


Both ideas were interesting... but... well the Star League had been in its descent by that point. "Lets hope they're not necessary." Ostensibly they were on alert for combine saboteurs but there were a series of anti personnel drones supporting the Azami naval armsmen as a precaution against sabotage of any sort... the local phone company whether or not they weren't quite neutral enough for example... they'd already had at least one pretty public argument with the P.NA representatives who were supposed to take charge now that Dieron, and also Altair now, were FedSuns worlds... and on that note, "Have you-"


"Yes, the community has been apprised, we should have the manpower needed to make the expedition to Lockdale, and if we are able to retain these DropShips we could consolidate supplies for our journey into the periphery."


Right, a part of Gene was all too eager to get that underway. He'd gotten a good look at the exodus fleet... and had a horrific flash of what nukes in space would do to JumpShips packed with civilians... no the sooner they were out of the Combine's reach the better. They could return to FedSuns space in due time... as it was it seemed like they would be making a semi regular transit from the periphery. "And the situation with Black Jack?"


"There should be no shortage of volunteers amongst the community, if Alamut is to prosper we cannot afford that man continuing his rampage... but if I may, if you register those forces as it is the MRB is likely to suffer an inundation of objections from the servants of the dragon. It would be perhaps best to wait until we reach, the magistracy of Canopus perhaps. Cite that, the conditions have degenerated enough that there were then volunteers rather doing so while we are within the Federated Suns."


He nodded acknowledging that the older man had a point.
--
Notes: and this sets up for the back and forth of the next really the next five years, because travel time in BT is kind of crap
 
Last edited:

Users who are viewing this thread

Back
Top