Essence Wielding Social General [Battletech]

[HunterxReader]

Supporting/enforcing patent law is probably one of the ways Comstar prevents too much proliferation of technology.

Still, I'm surprised the Capellans were that easy to incite a raid on a Lyran world. Sure, it's an enemy Succesor State's world increasingly becoming industrialized, especially so for the pre-4SW era, and one close-by for a state they don't border but moving a unit as big as the Big MAC against a relatively non-hostile state seems risky when that's about 5 regiments not defending against the FWL or the FS.

And man, being spread-out against a Blackwatch/Otomo regiment is just asking to be defeated in detail. Even one of their main regiments will probably get chewed up if they're expecting a green-regular unit with little experience and coordination, even if they're prepared for SL-level equipment they'll be blindsided since Odin uses Clantech.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Supporting/enforcing patent law is probably one of the ways Comstar prevents too much proliferation of technology.

Still, I'm surprised the Capellans were that easy to incite a raid on a Lyran world. Sure, it's an enemy Succesor State's world increasingly becoming industrialized, especially so for the pre-4SW era, and one close-by for a state they don't border but moving a unit as big as the Big MAC against a relatively non-hostile state seems risky when that's about 5 regiments not defending against the FWL or the FS.

And man, being spread-out against a Blackwatch/Otomo regiment is just asking to be defeated in detail. Even one of their main regiments will probably get chewed up if they're expecting a green-regular unit with little experience and coordination, even if they're prepared for SL-level equipment they'll be blindsided since Odin uses Clantech.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, and yeah Odin is specifically building his forces to fight the combine, maybe the Mariks come over for a visit but we did just poke them, but the combine its their MO, the capellans are a surprise.

As for ComStar pressuring Liao into jumping the border, part of it is the belief that is a vulnerable target just over the border. Its one jump from a capellan world against an unknown thus presumably green lyran house hold force that is more focused on making money, it only has one military deployment under its belt it looks too good to pass off.

And yeah you're correct because canonically next year is when the Capellans start subdividing their commands and parcelling them out to safeguard the FWL border (probably not helped as the Dragoons while not available to hit the capellans it presumably freed Marik units to to do shit against the capellans)

 

[Citizen]

The existence of a lightly-held industrial facility is sufficient for any of the Successor States (and I include 'other groups within the Lyran Commonwealth' here; if Odin Industries can't protect his factories it's just right and proper that StarCorps' Tharkad branch assume custody of it) to attempt a raid in force to seize valuable assets or deny them to the Lyrans if they cannot otherwise extract them.

The assumption they're making is that he cannot defend what he has. That's a reasonable assumption (given how green his formation looks) but it also happens to be wrong. Looking forward to what comes next.

 

[Imperator Pax]

The existence of a lightly-held industrial facility is sufficient for any of the Successor States (and I include 'other groups within the Lyran Commonwealth' here; if Odin Industries can't protect his factories it's just right and proper that StarCorps' Tharkad branch assume custody of it) to attempt a raid in force to seize valuable assets or deny them to the Lyrans if they cannot otherwise extract them.

The assumption they're making is that he cannot defend what he has. That's a reasonable assumption (given how green his formation looks) but it also happens to be wrong. Looking forward to what comes next.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, like there is a reason I kept weighing whether to have Dogs of War play out this early, because what is going to happen is very much a knock down drago out knife fight and in engagement terms is very different compared to its nearest equivalent with Henry Clay (Rabid Fox's protagonist) especially due to how different their individual forces are

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dogs of War Part 2​

The tanks the enemy were using were cheap, then again even fusion powered tanks weren't that expensive. They were an inexpensive option, and for a cash strapped opponent like the Capellans they were great. They were an option that would be overlooked by Lyran High Command in favor of the Battlemechs, and ASF... but an AC 10 while not the most impressive weapon was still an AC 10. Two of them while heavy approximated the firepower of an assault auto cannon with greater range...

If you massed enough of them they became very unpleasant very quickly. The problem was that went both ways. All modern weapons regardless of the chassis that mounted them performed within a set range of tolerances. An AC 5 on a 'mech was an AC 5, the same was true of lasers on tanks.

The holographic images flickered as the footage refreshed. Red threat fields in different shades provided approximate ranges, yellow fields estimated active and passive sensor ranges. The problem for the enemy, was going to be they weren't the only ones with tanks.

Odin wasn't prepared to rush out onto an offensive, but he also wasn't scared of the enemy The tanks present were something to treat with respect, and he would just as well prefer they come to him, then they would attack. The Big MAC had a reputation though, if they were here then this was going to be bad. So more than anything he would trust Schmitt and her highlanders to organize the defense... and if the opportunity presented itself they would make the enemy regret coming to Alpha Centauri.

"They're starting to move."

Technically the enemy had already started their advance... but now... they were closing into to where the battle would be drawn.

He looked at the icons... he had expected a Combine attack, and had built his forces accordingly... which was why the MAC were currently moving directly to where they would cross the lines of control imposed by the over watching fire from his Wolves of Mibu. Would they engage there? Would this become a matter of artillery? Or would they pass by the infantry, miss them from where they were dug in?

That would be a mistake... it would have been a mistake even if they had just been equipped with support ppcs. A few hundred meters, and nothing changed. The dug in infantry held their fire and waited for the order, or some indication that they had been made.

... because while AC 5s, and AC 10s, and Assault auto cannons were all plentiful in the Inner Sphere... well they were not the only weapons that Odin was limited to. He had rejected... or maybe declined to expend BV or C-Bills on things like chemical lasers or other weapons that might potentially be considered 'retrotech' and not 'properly' LosTech... or at least for the time being things like Binary Laser cannons... which made the infantry with their man portable plasma rifles something of an exception.


It might have been something of a gamble, but given they were infantry weapons he frankly doubted it. Not when they'd be supported by normal, standard weapons in turrets, and of course when it came to it the core of his mech and armored forces at home. Odin contemplated the contents of the Centaur Castle, but no, there was nothing to indicate the invaders knew anything about that... everything about how they were massed suggested their targets were the factories which were to be the productive lifeblood of his little fiefdom, and from what he intended to build up his position at court.

This was about money then. If they expected salvage then most likely any of his supposedly 'LosTech' mechs might have surely came into play but he doubted that was the priority either. Not enough to launch a raid on this world in this kind of force.

One of the automatic tracking and control systems on a turret achieved resolution, locked and fired onto a hostile Commando. The mech was merely unlikely as the man made lighting hit, a split second later the other turrets across the approach started to rise and fire. Some aimed for mechs, others opened fire on the lead most vehicles.

They might have waited a little longer, but it was amazing to him that the mercenaries had advanced this deep this quickly. Burton's bastards... no that wasn't it, Barton, Barton that was the man's name had opened with an aggressive offense, and the sudden appearance of in placed defenses didn't stop his lead elements from attempting to push forward into close range.
--
Tanya Schmitt contemplated her personal holographic display. 2nd​ Regiment McCarron's Armored Cavalry had attempted to run down the coastal highway as fast they could... that would need to be something addressed later, maybe task dedicated airpower to service such concerns... perhaps just have the bridges mined, but the strike against their first ring of defenses had started so she had dutifully carried out the start of the counter attack.

They had massed Commandos and Hunchbacks much as they had done against the Free World's League... it was just this time they weren't the invaders... but the invaders were still committed to a frontal attack... McCarron's people would start hitting the their tag and large laser equippped light vehicles outermost onions soon.

The idea was to light them up and subject them to mobile and fleeting attacks on their flanks. The scorpions could only push up to eighty four kph, and they were tracked if they had been hover vehicles they could have sent them out over the sea, and the coastal waterways to finesse this... but there was no sense complaining about it. Given their proximity to the water it probably wasn't the worst idea to suggest it.

She issued a series of commands via shortcut keys. It occurred to here the enemy might not even realize what they were taking fire from. The Crossbow were only intended after all as a cheap fire support mech to support the Wolverines. The sixty tonners were nothing special on paper... the only change in paper design were replacing the LRM 10s for LRM 5 launchers, but they still remained in the hands. All of the weapons had been replaced from their 25th​ century versions with current production iterations but for all intents and purposes the Crossbows were RetroTech designs. Two medium lasers, and a torso mounted PPC. They were there to pad out their mech numbers and protect the Wolverines that were the lighter half of the mech regiments command component.

The heavier component were waiting, backed up and supported by Star League era tanks with gauss rifles. In a defensive scenario like this, less technologically complicated non fusion powered tanks were not as much of a liability in terms of operations. Defending fixed positions with militia in tanks was a feasible standby.

Her expression creased as the Wolves began to close the pocket. Their signals relaying into her data-feed as tag equipped vehicles painted the enemy tanks which would bottleneck the enemy. If the enemy didn't destroy those units then it would only be a matter of time until the Thor, and Chapparals opened fired into boxed in enemy.

One of the feeds started detecting the thermal blooms as concealed infantry teams opened fire on the enemy rear. They, the dogs of war, weren't immediately clear on waht was happening... that was good, because they were about to start taking fire from one side and then massed fire from the front, she reached up to the complex console of the cockpit and watched as the Gauss Rifle came alive its capacitors charging and becoming lethal.

The Highlander stepped forward into the graying morning across the Sargasso filled seas that dominated the coasts off of the continental archipelago. "Cut their comms." She ordered, which wasn't strictly accurate as the bagpipes swelled over the lines, and Orions began to move to support Highlander assault mechs alongside Black Knights with dark blue check badges on their shoulders.

 

[Morkail]

Thanks for the chapter. Guess they came to the wrong neighborhood, but it remains to be seen how this battle goes.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

It's all fun and games for the Capellans until the bagpipes start wailing.

Then its just lots of cursing, screaming, and large explosions.

Because let's face it, if you are going to try and be Scottish, the actual Scots are going to take offense. And their offense tends to be... loud.

 

[Citizen]

Lemme guess; "we are presenting a defense you expect to see, then we cut your communications and show the ace card"?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Dogs of War Part 3​

The Chancellor had been good to the unit, so if he said hit something that seemed too good to be true the MAC would do it... but the problem was someone should have thought this whole situation smelled funny ... maybe it was that bastard Ridzik maybe it was someone else who'd gotten funny ideas... maybe the Lyran had set this up, and pulled a fast one on them... but things had started going wrong once the battle lines were drawn.

Instead of rushing out recklessly to face them the enemy had remained hidden. They could have been hiding and afraid to come out and fight, but then why not surrender if they were that scared. It had been possible of course that they'd managed to drop down on the planet with the defenders off world, but that had been disproven by the tentative long range fusion signatures they had started to detect as they had closed in.

Part of the Second MAC's luck at breaking fortifications was forcing the enemy to come out to meet them so they weren't all there concentrated on their defenses. The level of defenses were another thing that didn't add up... a green regiment of BattleMechs would have been one thing, maybe some militia PBI dug in with machine guns, or SRM packs.

"How the fuck is this happening?"

"We knew they had LosTech."

But that was a weak excuse even as it was said, it was obvious it was the wrong thing to say. They'd fought the Mariks, who had LosTech, the Combine occasionally too... both with those weird Land Air Mechs. LosTech by itself didn't explain anything, it was just an excuse.

They were getting shot at from all sides, by mechs that ... mechs that had if any returns from Warbooks were Star League. The other returns were too uniform to be something put together by some small time manufacturer but they had no data, some at least were reading as percentile matches for known designs, others just as unknowns.

The concerns plaguing the mercenary officer never received an adequate answer to his question.

At 5:15 local time on the MSR approaching Odin's Hall on Alpha Centauri an arriving Highlander BattleMech in black and blue urban camouflage caught the opposing officer, and fired a Gauss Rifle.

The Gauss rifle penetrated the ammunition storage of the man's battlemech causing a catastrophic chain reaction. At 5:16 in the afternoon an overstrength, square, company on Terran Hegemony lines of Black Watch mechs on boarded the MSR as part of a converging force.
--
Odin resisted the urge to fidget, but it hadn't escaped his notice that his neighbors weren't moving. With the capellans committed in force he would have expected some kind of response from Alpha Centauri's native or locally born nobility... but so far nothing, there had been no change in readiness, no response to efforts to contact them, and no way to know if an HPG message had gone out apprising higher lyran authorities of the incursion.

He didn't like it.

The lack of movement would have been one thing, the lack of contact was a lot harder to to excuse... and it also prevented them from coordinating actions against the invaders, or signaling that they were about to begin their effort to envelop the enemy. They needed to break their cohesion, not just their momentum... but there were a lot more tanks, and operating on a completely different doctrine than he had been expecting for an attack.

Odin stood up, and started to pace... but didn't immediately do anything rash, the enemy looked like they were going to try and throw themselves forward, try and break through their defenses... most likely they were assuming if only they could get through this strong point they could force an attack into the rear.

He suspected they were banking on that most of the forces must have been up front. That if they got through they'd be able to wreck havoc in the rear, and eventually the tanks would be enough to carry them.

The alert chirped, "Tanya?" He asked as the line opened.

"Release Air Support."

"I understand." Odin replied... finally. He moved and pressed a panel on the holographic table. He had inherited sixty ASF. The Rapier was 5 and change million C-Bills. Schmidt's Battalion had sixty Rapiers on call now... and it was time to make the enemy have a very bad day. He might have, to some degree regretted not being out there with the rest of them, but it was something Schmitt had insisted on it. Alexandra Hazen was making sure he remained in the fortress... on the other hand if push came to shove it meant there was going to be little to stop him from calling up the essence and spending C-bills to summon reinforcements. "Chan, prosecute the targets by the numbers."


Over five thousand tons worth of ASF assets took to the darkening skies over the halls. The number of active fusion signatures meant there was no chance to conceal or hide what was happening. The sudden influx of new signatures in the air from the multitude of 340 engines were enough that his sensors inside were briefly overwhelmed.

The Rapiers were the standard Star League era models, not the Royal Versions, not the early clan models. They were standards because that was what the Lyran Commonweatlh already knew were in his positions, and because they were the model of heavy ASF that he wanted to produce for sale to the Lyran Military.

One full strength, over strength even, ASF wing, two full battalions of Mechs, One battalion of infantry. On paper it was part in numbers what he had inherited, what he had left on Tharkad with. Whether that meant anything to McCarron's Armored Cavalry he had no idea. He didn't know what they knew knew about him... but if they knew specifics they would recognize that it was either part of his inheritance or that he had supplemented his forces.

He was unlikely to ever have Freddy Steiner's reputation, he'd provide Tanya what she needed and he would organize the manufacturing base to support that... and if these miserable capellan black guards thought they were going to take advantage of that well... he would just have to make sure Schmitt had all the resources necessary to make sure none of them left Alpha Centauri alive.

--
Notes: this is shorter, I have a holiday function I have to go to, but Odin in spite of the name does not have the reputation that Henry has despite similar economic bases of power. Henry has the damage to the combine under his belt before nobility, Odin doesn't, he's also legally of the age of maturity where as Henry, and Gene, are both in the appearance of their late teens. Odin is very much the anti-clanner war mentality.

 

[Citizen]

I low key would believe Odin pulling strings somehow to get the Big MAC to come to town so he can bloody their nose and get their salvage while gaining rep for the deed. I wouldn't know how he pulled it off (it's unlikely he just called up Sian and asked if he could borrow one of their primary strategic assets after all) but I'm sure something could be set up with some cleverness and planning.

Also, always good to see ASF get to stretch their wings. I'm sure those are all piloted by green recruits barely able to make it off the tarmac and not a combination of Elite, Heroic and Legendary ASF pilots or something.

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

There's a point where 'Regular' grade troops that are competently led will wreck Veteran and Elite formations. I think having 2-to-1 odds in your favor while being on the defense counts. Let alone the air support and artillery on call.

 

[LokiTheDarkGod]

I imagine that the other noble will be answering some questions to the LIC. Just a suspicion and if they're really unlucky it'll be LOKI they 'talk' to.

 

[Bail_o]

The airwaves should be dominated by either William Tell Overture (lone ranger) or Ride of The Valkrie.

Lets be different, dominate the air and do so many airstrikes, the enemy have no option to run away.

So what if their mechwarriors are green, they control the skies.