Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[PeaceMaker03]

Loving the story, especially the details involved in C3 for Gene and the shell games he is playing with the FS,(and everyone else). Small error
"AFFS foll up even" …. Should be "follow".

 

[kwaliti]

Genes stills young right? Like in his teens young.

 

[Imperator Pax]

So given gene's a gunslinger and has phantom mech why do I suspect the clanners will want his DNA for their weird ass eugenics programs.

Also its house Sandoval not Robinson

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Given the clan's view on adding new genes they would probably make excuses about trying to anyway even before one loony Stefan Amaris has an unfortuante meeting with the hellstars of a royal marauder

Genes stills young right? Like in his teens young.

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His late teens yes. Gene's age is somewhat indeterminate but he is roughly in Alexandria Cunningham or Andrew Davion (yvonne's son), age bracket.

 

[Bofors40mm]

anyways been having some time off so been working on assorted MML designs. Any particular mass or design category you need variants for oh glorious authorial overlord?

 

[Imperator Pax]

anyways been having some time off so been working on assorted MML designs. Any particular mass or design category you need variants for oh glorious authorial overlord?

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I'm always open to light mech suggestions cause I suck at them.

 

[Bofors40mm]

well there's my war and battle maiden designs.
as for lights in general....i semi suck at them as well.
but i have a few I can do. you want the detailed breakdown or the summaries?

 

[Imperator Pax]

well there's my war and battle maiden designs.
as for lights in general....i semi suck at them as well.
but i have a few I can do. you want the detailed breakdown or the summaries?

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Really I would like them for Rabid Fox for House Davion, like in Essence Wielding Social General the Commando is Odin's default succession wars tech, and thats a crit hunting design of get in close and deny the local area while larger heavier mechs murder shit at range, and in Rennaisance most of the light mechs there are SLDF designs or pretending to be SLDF designs with the advantage of endosteel and or ferrofibrous goodies. So Rabid Fox is really what I need them for.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Really I would like them for Rabid Fox for House Davion, like in Essence Wielding Social General the Commando is Odin's default succession wars tech, and thats a crit hunting design of get in close and deny the local area while larger heavier mechs murder shit at range, and in Rennaisance most of the light mechs there are SLDF designs or pretending to be SLDF designs with the advantage of endosteel and or ferrofibrous goodies. So Rabid Fox is really what I need them for.

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i'll post them over there then.
probably will also work on a earlier than otl watchman/sentry since they seem really obvious to make

 

[Imperator Pax]

Fortress Dieron Part 10​

They were on a clock now... and he still hadn't found the time to drag Abner away from Dieron university where he was trying to make all the friends, and spread IE's mission of exploration and study of the mysteries of the galaxy. He still wasn't sure how to broach the situation.

Gene looked at the White Mechs. Then turned to the Azami tech who'd' been talking, "Pull those Large Lasers, swap them for Mk III from inventory and then pull those Blankenburgs. Crate them and the ammo." He wondered if refitting the LBX for something else... but no... he didn't have an industrial base, and it would be better to toss these to someone who did, and that meant House Davion. So he'd turn the LBX 10s and these ER Large Lasers to House Davion... "Also get me Colonel MacIntyre. These are probably going to his people, so I want him on site." Make the question of the space from the autocannons his problem.

The senior Azami non com left him in the hangar as he went to fetch the old highlander... the Machines were in Militia colors, and the manuals were here... and he had an idea. He had already heard, though Lex hadn't confirmed it and thus far the Field Marshal hadn't said anything, through scuttlebutt was that the Eridani would be staying behind... at least for the time being.

The AI of the Fortress Dieron recognized the Eridani as SLDF, which was nice, but it wasn't about to let them inside the fortress .... which was unfortunate, but he understood that... he had been worried that the ... that the Blue Star Irregulars might have been a different story... but he had bigger problems to contend with. There were a lot f things he needed to deal with right now... Fortress Dieron had the space allocated to it to camp an entire division, which was atypical.... but Dieron was a critical parts hub in the hegemony and carried anti ship capital arrays.

He personally figured that the multi brigade scale was more about defense spending, than engineering hurdles, or conservative don't put all your eggs in one basket. Castles Brian were expensive and the Hegemony's defense industry... its military industrial complex had been massive.... so maybe it was really all of the above... but Dieron had surface to orbital capital batteries and he was loath to turn those over to the Federated Suns...

... maybe that was silly, but maybe it wasn't... only time would tell. The truth was that if Dieron's AI was right... if the reports it had number crunched from its data banks were right... then well there were a lot of places they needed to check.

"Colonel."

"MacIntyre," He tilted his head towards the mechs, "these are Crocketts there are twenty four of them here they were slated for Dieron militia units for training purposes." The plate inside the one he'd looked at was marked from Detroit, on Terra, dated to '41. The Rim world had strafed the local civic centers before the Militia could deploy, and coupled with compromised defenses they had just never been able to scramble, "They're going to need to be rearmed but you can mark them for your Battalion D program."

The old highlander turned to look at the eighty five tonners. They were assault mechs. "Aye sir. Sir with regards to the jump back to Northwind?"

"You have command of the unit for the duration of the training missions, you are to integrate as best as possible the brigade," The combination of DMM troops, Azami and Rasalhague volunteers and the nominal battalions of the Company proper. There were days he really regretted going for something as simple as Shepherd's Company. It was short and too the point, but he hadn't expected to be in a position where his day to day life... entailed dealing with this shit. "I'm going to see about ferrying some of those ASF to offload Northwind or failing that the RBA but my preference would be to keep the Rapiers with us."

"Very good sir. My liaison would be Colonel Cameron then?"

"That's right. Bard is staying behind." Or at least he was to the best of his knowledge as of this morning. It had also been the morning he had submitted the paper work detailing a hypothetical Highland force for Dieron that, per MacIntyre's endorsement had the clan elders sanction.

In part distributing the Crocketts for a new unit on Dieron was also an attempt to sidestep multiple issues in one move. Soren's three companies of Rasalhague volunteers were still finding their footing, but the highland cadets had on boarded to the company being issued company mechs ahead of the move to invade the planet... that by itself might cause some trouble. On the other hand Rasalhague had its own political ambitions and their participation at Dieron had likely been intended to support ambitions of national independence.

Bard had asked him on Northwind what he planned to do.

Dieron had been the test supposed to answer that question.

Now though Gene wasn't entirely sure what the answer was.

The destruction in detail of the Sword of Light was impossible to conceal. That was going to get attention. If they had stayed in the periphery it might have taken years to attract the attention of the successor states, and maybe never gained this sort of fame.

Not to this degree.

"Sir?"

"If the Rasalhague contingent asks we're still in the process of evaluating specialty versus generalist unit organization at this time for Bardiche, and matters of standardizing Mech dispositions."

"Ah, aye sir." The highlander replied, "Would you prefer I tell them we're just not sure how best to use the bastards in a fight, then?"

... that had been what he'd said right, Gene paused again, "That will work, I need to know when we get back how comitted they are to their current weight ratios, and whether or not I can expect ASF volunteers, and if there will be any issues with periphery rotations." Arguably the last was the more likely issue given it would remove the unit from the Inner Sphere and thus away from the conflict with the Combine for potentially protracted lengths of time.
--
Alexandria stared at the massive DropShips as they lifted off. They were civilian ships from the star league, and it wasn't as if Mammoths didn't continue to ply the trade lanes of the Inner Sphere. They were the lifeblood carrying ships of intersteller trade between and within the great houses. Still to see the fifty two thousand ton dropships flawless lift off from the ground after more than two centuries was a testament to the engineering process which had gone into the ships, which had all the appearances of being fresh from the yards that had built them.

It did raise questions about their size... and about the Argo DropShip Shepherd had filed an inquiry about with Federated Boeing, but they were questions about the late star league. In what way exactly Star League era Mammoths differed from those of the modern day, which had entered service roughly half way into the first succession was unclear to her. As it was Shepherd's Company's more senior JumpShip captain had already begun preliminary filings on filling the two monstrous cargo carriers full of humanitarian aide for the Azami refugee fleet in orbit over Northwind.

There was no reason to doubt that was the truth either. Most likely whatever had been in the Hegemony era depot had been allocated out to meet needs on a per unit basis. Since Shepherd had been upfront about his obligations to the Azami it was entirely possible he'd landed on Dieron with the plan to grab the two large cargo lifters from some manifest on Northwind... or he had received a data package when they had made planetfall, or at some point later.

The two large DropShips would each take up a collar of course, but given that the Colorado, while still even older, was a Leviathan class JumpShip that wasn't an issue. Colorado was probably not its original name given the ship almost certainly predated the Reunification Wars. The Leviathan carried eight dropships and had entered service in the mid 25th​ century.

The MIIO liaison had already opined that the combination of the two Mammoths and the Colorado would have been an idea starting point for transitioning to a civilian shipping concern if there was any interest in getting out of the mercenary business. The real implication of the statement was what the resources could mean if, like her ancestors had the company was settled somewhere within the interior of Davion space.

It wasn't meant as a barb, but it reminded her of Sakhara... and that New Avalon's court was many light years away, but high society was never far. Her eyes swept to across the observation deck to the Lyran. Abner was talking to Shepherd. She was near enough to overhear them, though this was nominally a secure location.

"Pasha has the drives charged up now. We can jump back to Northwind at any time." Alexandria knew that that wait was of course a go ahead for transit back to their starting point, but one that would be forthcoming from the Duchess of Victoria... because of course she would be returning with them to Northwind

"You said you would have something important for me when I returned about the Tribe's journey into the inner sphere?"

"I'm hoping to yes. I don't think the Minnesota tribe were one path, so much as they split apart coming in from the same coreward starting point. They were running from whatever society Kerensky's people put together."

"You're sure?"

"Pretty sure." Shepherd replied, "I'll have a packet for you... when you get back."

 

[Bofors40mm]

err mammoths still only take up a single collar. its behemoths that take up 2

 

[Imperator Pax]

err mammoths still only take up a single collar. its behemoths that take up 2

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You're correct, that was poor phrasing on my part

and speaking of collars Argo will actually represent a breakthrough with its ability to ferry smaller DropShips

 

[Bofors40mm]

You're correct, that was poor phrasing on my part

and speaking of collars Argo will actually represent a breakthrough with its ability to ferry smaller DropShips

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Ehhh from what I recall you still need the collars to move the extra dropships they're just attached to the argo.

 

[Imperator Pax]

one thing that has come up is how the Highlanders here are likely to react to the Capellan March Treachery here, especially in 3025 with what they're digging out of the caches and a potential usurpation attempt, never mind the war with the capellans

which is to say not well.

 

[Bofors40mm]

so....are the northwind highlanders working for the suns early or this a separate group?

 

[Imperator Pax]

so....are the northwind highlanders working for the suns early or this a separate group?

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No, Northwind the planet's reaction

 

[Bofors40mm]

ah. well honestly if the suns are in a much better state MHD can't really risk a civil war since hanse can crush him like a bug. not to mention him trying that openly will cause most of his supporters to turn on him

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Hefty transport capacity will certainly be useful in the long term. Also: woohoo my favorite of the lighter assault mechs! With enough gun to solve any issue and enough armor to last to ensure that you get the job done.

 

[Bofors40mm]

only flaw i find with the crockett as made is its lack of case and all the ammo being in one torso. well and having small lasers

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

only flaw i find with the crockett as made is its lack of case and all the ammo being in one torso. well and having small lasers

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Entirely fair. I also have a soft spot for the Royal variant, which solves all of those issues.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Entirely fair. I also have a soft spot for the Royal variant, which solves all of those issues.

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guass rifle still can go boom and its in a torso not a arm.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

guass rifle still can go boom and its in a torso not a arm.

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True. But I'd argue that if they've managed to punch thought that much armor and I haven't murdered the crap out of them, that's on me.

 

[PeaceMaker03]

True. But I'd argue that if they've managed to punch thought that much armor and I haven't murdered the crap out of them, that's on me.

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On you or the dice that do improbable roles, repeatedly.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron
​

The reality of Fortress Dieron had effected his planning... though that made Gene want to scoff at the idea of planning... he was getting pulled in a million directions. There was so much to do. There was too much information, and that was ultimately why he had pushed back telling Abner what they found until he knew what was at Lockdale if there was anything there.


Dieron though had been a lightning battle. The sort of thing that the Hegemony would not have planned for in terms of someone taking the planet and had happened historically because the Rim World had been inside the outermost defenses. The Combine had wanted to fight, but had insisted on fighting stupidly. It had been the Combine's own mistakes tactically, and operationally that had sped up their defeat in the face of superior Davion numbers... that was to say Northwind hadn't been expecting them back so quickly.


The lack of a lengthy campaign meant the cadets could spend time at home with their families before a by nature of travel times more lengthy deployment in the periphery. That was something he could offer the young highlanders of Claymore, but was less available to the DMM group.


Still the jump back in was awash with activity, and was just a poignant reminder that they needed to start the great trek out to the periphery sooner rather than later... and that required him to adjust his plans. The AI within the Fortress Dieron was right, they would have to return to the Fortress once they came back in from the periphery. They would have to come back to northwind... and from Northwind, to Dieron, and from there over the border into Lyran space... and from there it would be easy to access certain other Hegemony worlds within a jump or two.


"I have done what I can in terms of shoring up support," He squinted at the chip, "But whatever is on this, will explain it all?"


Maybe not all... but within the chip included what Kerston already knew... it was a copy of just the HPG conversation between Kurita and Amaris... and Aaron Sandoval could make of it what he would. "I'd prefer you not watch it until after the civilians are out of harms way," He replied referring to the exodus fleet. "You said," In this morning's memo, "that the 'mechs we're offloading from Dieron might be an issue."


"There were already complaints."


It was a conversation he was going to have take to Dante, which would mean slipping away within castle Northwind... which might be a problem, "There were Kintaros in the Robinson Brian Cache." He remarked... not that he'd cared at the time.


The Duke of Robinson nodded, "Indeed, and the truth his that honestly caused its own trouble with certain parties."


"The duke of Errai is still here then?"


"he is." The wheel chair bound ex-tanker confirmed.


He didn't... Gene didn't precisely catch all of the social cues, he recognized that he had been missing things in the Canopian space, but it had actually gotten worse, not better when they had reached Davion space. Or at least it seemed perceivably worse. He understood that young soldiers had a reputation, but there was a certain degree of feudal future going on that outright irritated him, "I don't suppose his grace the Duke of Errai happened to actually supply troops to the operations?" That was the entire point of cracking open the caches and handing their contents it was what they were for. They were for fighting the Combine...


"There wasn't time." He replied somewhat deferring the issue, and that was probably true mobilizing the force to hit Dieron probably had had limits on which units could be prepared or ready and Lord Aaron probably had more pull with his immediate allies... but even so... "Perhaps if the attack had gone out over the summer or if we had been campaigning against other worlds."


"You really think so?"


It probably wasn't the question the Field Marshal of the Draconis March wanted to hear, and he sighed, "No you're probably correct, the dukes of Kesai and Errai both allege that Samsonov and the Galedon Regulars were attacking their worlds to raid secret star league caches at the expense of their dominions."


If Gene were prone to being a little more crass about such things, he would have retorted that that was tough shit , and in no way entitled the prick who was the Duke of Errai to any of the spoils... but to be completely honest as much as he wanted to, it wouldn't have done any good. So he responded on the basis of what he did know, "We can't confirm that General Samsonov actually got anything from either world," He might very well have, both were Terran worlds, "But we can only confirm the raid on McGhee yielded anything." Mostly because of how torn up the 19th​ had been by the drones when it was all said and done. "But as for Errai, There is something."


"Yes?"


"Abner, and I," Well he said the truth was he'd added his two cents and signature but mostly it was the techs who were sure this would work, "Have discussed about needs to be done with the Thugs, and it hasn't changed those mechs we pulled out will be going to Highland volunteers, but there are spare parts, weapons, electronics, engines." He flipped through his data slate, cognizant that Dante was connected to the data platform through a Fury tank tied into the Regimental Communications Network, "here." The program was for all intents and purposes a down teched thug, presumably very similar to what Earthwerks did, but that wasn't his problem... really the real work had been done on the chargers that the Magistracy had dug out of that Rim World tomb, and it only had made sense to talk about what to do if the endosteel on Terran Hegemony Thugs was wrecked in use. "The Kintaros I already told Bard we can leave those behind if that will help with Ozawa."


But Ozawa was not Errai, or their apparent new found noble allies of Kesai. This was now a game of political maneuvering. A game that he wanted no part in, but one he found himself involved in because Robinson was home to a Brian Cache and Aaron Sandoval was attempting to shore up the march for war with the combine. Dante knew that from monitoring the activities of the Draconis March nobility within Northwind Castle's grounds


"And the Mongoose?"


... "I'll need to talk with the Azami," The truth was he needed some kind of screening and outrider component... "If it will help and is in writing." He suspected given the situation the Azami weren't necessarily going to need new mechs, but he had hoping to recruit from them both for the periphery campaign that PNA wanted against Black Jack, and for when they inevitably came back to pick up where they had left off on Dieron... but there were stockpiles within Fortress Dieron yet to be opened up. There had been a war planned against the Combine by the shadow ministry... and then there was Helm to consider.


The Duke of Robinson was more interested in what the news was on potential landhold development... which was a conversation he expected to be hearing a lot of during the 'downtime'.
--
He checked the roster again, and it merely reiterated that he was looking forward to returning to the periphery. "Expectations?"


"We do not, I do not think," The Tech paused, "be concerned. Obviously Hanzo's Cicada has proven useful, and given the situation the rebuild procedure should proceed smoothly." But it would have to be when they actually returned to the Magistracy of Canopus's space... when they made the circuit back to Luxen. That was part of Abner's terms in return for his agreeing to organize the manpower and the secrecy that were going to be necessary for what they were going to ask... and... and Gene was hoping that Abner would be as good as his word with regards on not trying to mount an expedition too deep in the periphery... that his warning about the potential danger of drawing the descendants of Kerensky back into the inner sphere would be heeded.


... but he was also worried that even if Abner did heed his cautionary advice that Comstar might still find the clans and the clans would still launch their attack... or that Dragoons had said something that might prompt the clans to attack... or anything else going wrong.


But he had time before next he saw Abner, and hopefully Lockdale would have answers... more likely it would just have more questions and not the answers for them... but better to know he didn't have the answer to something than be wholly ignorant of it. At least he would know he didn't know something... better that than not knowing his own ignorance even if it was frustrating at times. "What do you think?"


"About the proposal commander?" He shook his head, "It should be fine. As you observed two tons of ammunition is excessive without the ammunition safekeeping," He meant case, "it as you say sitting on a bomb. A lot of bombs." The tech cracked a grin. "it should work." But they wouldn't really know until they actually got to the part of putting a physical machine together for the Luxen volunteers... and there was probably something more going on with Abner on that front but only time would tell.


... and while he might still be convinced to transfer spare parts to Errai's ruler for Thugs he certainly want' going to turn over hegemony machines unless he had to, and Dante agreed the machines in question needed to be in hand for use against the Combine. If the duke of Errai could sink the funds in to build a down teched thug that was great... and NAIS could focus on making DHS and they could upgrade from there...


Pasha signaled for him, a notice that they were more or less ready for the next errand, and the one after that, "We are as prepared as we can be, commander." The old ship captain remarked, "And indeed there may be little there."


--
Notes: Post Dieron will be largely set ups for events in the future we see that here, we that over the next few before we actually transition to the travel segment interludes before reaching the border of Taurian and Aurigan space.


This is going up now to hopefully dodge any issues in the morning with the server issues, so if you catch an errors (allow the swordsman / longsword or otherwise, feel free to point it out or question things) I know that I could probably better quantify the near-Terra political situation of the Draconis March both here, and also in Rabid Fox because that will be relevant but this does go to respective protagonists local allies, as well as Davion internal politics in the long run.

 

[Silverbullet]

I am gonna admit, Gene's disjointed fumbling perspective and the way things have dragged on post battle have made this hard to read. The dialogue between characters still feels so dry and clinical. I get you're setting the stage for future events but it's all so detached.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Post Dieron​

Holographic images of battle flashed, without sound though for the public to watch. It made Alexandria uncomfortable. Not the cadets, who were here on leave. They had all made it home from their first combat action alive and in one piece. She'd seen the footage of Elidere of course, she would have had to have been living under a rock to have not seen it even if she hadn't been posted to this assignment but it had been wholly another thing.


... what was worse was Shepherd's easy confidence. He didn't boast he didn't brag... he acted as if what he did was a normal benchmark of mechwarrior excellence. He didn't expect the Highland cadets to magically reach his level, but he clearly had high expectations for them nonetheless. It was something the DMM troops had caught on as well... and their leadership.


Two battalions of sword of light lay shattered on the field along with another regiment of Combine students fresh from the Sun Zhang academy, and a world had fallen. That was discounting the success of the other assault that had gone on concurrently. The Comstar broadcasting services addressing Davion audiences, were more focused on Dieron, but that made some sense given the lopsided losses the Combine had suffered especially since it had been a major provincial capital.


That news had actually beaten them in arriving because ComStar had made the Battle Rom footage of the battle available through space as soon as the HPG administrators had changed hands. Ordinarily it would have taken weeks or even months of word from the front to transition from just rumors from jumpship crews passing through, to authenticated Battle Roms. It would have been one thing to know the Combine had been defeated on Dieron, another to watch the combat unfold, on what had previously been a major enemy world.


Her Orion, her piece of the Kestrel Partimony, had remained effectively unused in the battle of Dieron, though her name would be present on the rolls of MechWarriors who had participated. Her job had been to liaise ... and that had kept in the secondary lines and often in a command post... with the expectation of a battle lasting weeks, months potentially instead turning into a running battle across a few days.


She had expected to still be on Dieron. To be probably waiting for updates bunked on an Overlord dropship planet side... but if ComStar had relayed all the battle roms across the Federated Suns then that meant the footage was already on New Avalon in the court of the First Prince and also on Kestrel... and all of the other worlds great and small or at least those important enough to warrant an HPG presence.


She bit her lip. None of the other noble houses would be able to get anyone here in reaction to Dieron, but there were those who were here already who were here for the Faire or who had come in response to Elidere, and recognition of what it and even the cache on Robinson represented in terms of wealth. She was cognizant there of the Thug Assault BattleMechs handed over from some fort in the mountains of Dieron near the Kazkah river to freshly graduated cadets of the Northwind academy that were currently parading through the streets in their new machines.


Those same cadets would be shipping out to the periphery when Shepherd left Davion space for some fool escort mission of civilians looking to fleet the sphere ahead of the inevitable combine retaliation. The exodus of the Azami refugees was ... if they had a better idea, more time to work the duchess of Victoria would have tried to leverage it, to convince the First Prince to allow them to settle somewhere else. It was a risk, but more than that it simply had too many moving parts, but it might have succeeded in keeping Shepherd's Company in Davion space for that inevitable next stage of conflict with House Kurita.


--
The Mobile Core to contain the AI's existence was a small almost inconsequential thing... and really even more so it was the core itself, the 'bulk' relatively speaking was the shielding case designed to protect the core.


A robotic arm probed the device. "This will take time to configure." Dante remarked extending another mechanical limb, "You will have to depart for the anchorage without me."


"I see, and the other matter?"


"Davion Military Intelligence has been active. The other Member States have been active, were active during the faire but activity understandably increased relative to the reports and developments that have had time to make their way through the communication. I understand that seizure of the Combine Archive on Dieron has yielded data returns of combine operations?"


"It seems like the Combine was relying on fairly entrenched operations rather than standing up new operations."


"Most likely without free trade, and diplomatic credentials facilitated by the Star League, and intercession by the Council to smooth over issues, coupled with the increasing belligerence between the successor states and a war footing economy the Combine lacks the ability to meaningfully generate new Intelligence front operations."


That wasn't to say that the Combine was incompetent at spying but there were too many culture mores impacting them vis a vis the war. The succession war and the limitations on trade relative to the Star League Era really had changed the game. There were almost surely current combine programs running that had no continuity with League era initiatives but it bordered on absurd that things like the Reimi ring had existed as long as they had without one of the vulnerable parties detecting the incursion.


Even now Dante was having the entire digitized archive from Dieron uploaded to a clean system to dig through in the interim.


On the surface of Northwind, on the Highland grounds BattleMechs paraded ... Gene could have done without the unnecessary white and black check that had been applied to the Lance leaders of the cadet 'mech battalion. He supposed better than than the Campbell tartan of the Black Watch... just in case the wrong people were watching and might manage to add two and two and get four.


The two sat there in amenable silence for a moment, with only the flickering of displays, "Lockdale?" He asked.


In the mid 29th​ century something must still have been there.


What they knew from the reports generated by Clancy's presence on both Dieron and here on Northwind was that the main thing the Kerensky-ites, the 'clans of Kerensky', had managed to do in the intervening period of time was to further bring prototypes of Terran technology into the mass production stage.


It was possible the Imp had been one. The thing the Wolf Dragoons had shown up with still didn't match anything in the Dieron databanks, much as it didn't anything else they had checked it against, but the Fortress Dieron AI admitted that it made plenty of sense as a machine developed in the vein of the Titan and Grasshopper concept.


Or, that it was a downteched machine which itself just raised more questions of why? Or how much the clans knew. "There is another matter regarding those machines."


"Go ahead," Gene replied watching the holographic images cycle through, "That a Shogun," He asked looking at the Alpha Regiment mech.


"Yes, but that is not the machine in question." It was the other assault mech which Dante was indicating, however the AI had added a note to the Shogun that the Dragoons had been unable to find anyone to be able or willing to reintroduce production of the eighty five tonner... that was interesting. "The pilot in question is almost certainly from his medical file from his time in Davion employ subject to some degree of in utero, but more interesting still is the genetic donor component."


"How so, during the star league you could donate genetic material from multiple parent samples," Polygamous families had been a thing after all... he was actually surprised it wasn't something that the canopians didn't still have, or maybe they did and didn't advertise. "The mech -"


"No, I had considered that however the new data inputs regarding clan wolverine and the apparent eugenicist nonsense espouse by Nicholas Keresnky coupled with the interest in artificial wombs suggests to me that we are not dealing with a typical designer baby... so much as an outgrowth of those reports."


"Do you have an actionable suggestion, Dante?"


"Not at this time commander, but it bore commenting. As for the Mech, the call sign appropriately enough was Behemoth, its one hundred tons, and its nearest equivalent seems to have been the Matar super heavy project, though this has been scaled down its armament onboard makes no more sense than the down teched Annihilators. However it seems to have symbolic significance to its pilot in ways distinct from that of the other dragoons. I am continuing to review Field Marshal Davion's files as well as those of the MRB."


Gene sighed, "tell me if you find something, but there isn't anything more on Lockdale?" He paused, "Bring up the historical records pre 2765 please, any transit data from Northwind to Lockdale that might be security relevant." Maybe something in that traffic data would stand out... Lockdale was just far enough away that one couldn't jump directly there from Dieron... but Dante was in turn quick to point out that one couldn't jump directly from Terra, but then one also couldn't jump to Northwind from Terra either due to the limits of the KF drive. That meant... unfortunately that any traffic from Terra to Lockdale might well have bypassed Northwind by jump to Caph for example first.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Can't ever forget the honor boner that the Clan's get for their Stone Rhinos... which never made a lick of sense as they're based on a failed idea from the Usurper's empire.

Then again, no one has ever accused the Clanners of being the most... logical of people.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Can't ever forget the honor boner that the Clan's get for their Stone Rhinos... which never made a lick of sense as they're based on a failed idea from the Usurper's empire.

Then again, no one has ever accused the Clanners of being the most... logical of people.

Click to shrink...

I have got to assume that Kerensky must have looked at the Matar and at some point went all 'you know thats a terrible execution on a good concept! We can make it better'

now whether that was Alec or Nikky is up to you

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

I have got to assume that Kerensky must have looked at the Matar and at some point went all 'you know thats a terrible execution on a good concept! We can make it better'

now whether that was Alec or Nikky is up to you

Click to shrink...

Nikky would have seen some sort of sick irony to it, ass that he was. Alec would have just enjoyed the giant guns. Because what kind of mech pilot doesn't like that many gauss rifles?

 

[Bofors40mm]

Stone Rhino still is meh since it has some terrible quirks. Poor performance and weak head armor are horrible.

Also given the size and position of that Cockpit in a non tabletop situation it would take more Cockpit hits than average

 

[Wargamer08]

Stone Rhino still is meh since it has some terrible quirks. Poor performance and weak head armor are horrible.

Also given the size and position of that Cockpit in a non tabletop situation it would take more Cockpit hits than average

Click to shrink...

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