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New Dawn in the Sun's (Battletech AU)

Reader mode
Bofors40mm said:
honestly the dervish is a mech that really could use swapping out the SRMs and ammo for 2 medium lasers and 2 tons of armor. because then its able to skirmish and be a decent brawler as well
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I would really like to use some tonnage for heatsinks but until you get doubles not worth it that much given how much it could over heat but yeah that would be a useful change that would make it more useful especially in a extended fight where it can easily run low on lrms.
 
Blade4 said:
I would really like to use some tonnage for heatsinks but until you get doubles not worth it that much given how much it could over heat but yeah that would be a useful change that would make it more useful especially in a extended fight where it can easily run low on lrms.
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and well....2 srm-2s each with their own ton of ammo is questionable at best
 
Informational: History of Militia Mechs
  • Extras
    • Not a story post, but something I've been meaning to do for a while as we aren't going to be seeing all of the backstory for this AU in story for a bit. Hopefully it's at least coherent in explaining where militia tech comes from, and whos using what. Plus a few bits and bobs for the culture vultures


    excerpted from; Innovations and Adaptations, technological development in a time of decline.
    Arnold Duchamp, Dean of the College of Political Administration (Ret.)
    NAIS Historical press 3085


    Militia mechs are an odd confluence of political and military development, the genesis for their creation lay in the separation of the Principality of Gibson and the Principality of Regulus in 2699 and the subsequent political strife. It came to a head in 2837 when the Free Worlds League was interdicted after catching ComStar in the usual Terran practices, and responding in a completely understandable way. The Principality of Gibson's political leadership, seeing a chance to frustrate their former lieges, diverted the entire military production of the province to the FWLM in a display of loyalty to Charles Marik. Included in the materials diverted were more then a regiment of already paid for mechs, and other sundry equipment, purchased by the Cameron-Jones family as a means to rebuild the 2nd​ and 3rd​ Regulan Hussars. The Cameron-Jones family, having there attempt to secure the loyalty of their provincial forces undermined by outsiders, reacted with predictable anger.

    Regulan Dropships and fighter carriers, crewed by Regulan militia, began an embargo of the Principality of Gibson. By the end of 2838 the situation had gotten so bad, both on the ground in the Principality and in military terms for the FWLM as critical supplies were interdicted by the Regulans, Midge Allison stepped in to attempt to resolve the situation diplomatically. With the ending of the interdiction, and the federal court ruling on Atreus which firmly rebuked the Principality of Gibson for their blatant contract violation, a compromise was reached.

    Prince Andronache Cameron-Jones attempted to use the incident to force FWDI to relocate at least some of their facilities to Regulus proper. It was a demand too far, as no one was willing to endanger the leagues fragile military production in the middle of a war, but one she refused to back down from. Finally, a compromise was reached with the Principality of Gibson supplying the industrial tools needed for a battlemech facility. Given the state of industrial tooling production in the league at the time it should come as no surprise to the reader when the tooling arrived it was not what she had been promised. Midge Allison was forced to step in again, remembering the fabled Sarissa, he provided the plans needed to put that primitive machine into production as a stop gap until the deal was fulfilled. While that never occurred, the introduction of the Sarissa to Regulan forces allowed the Cameron-Jones family an outsized influence in league politics over the following years.

    Using their natively produced Sarissa's the Cameron-Jones family stood up the 11th​ and 12th​ Regulan Hussars as a pirate hunting force in the Rim Commonality and Regulan Fifes. Their second line nature meant that they were not called to the front like their sister regiments, giving the Prince of Regulus a powerful political tool. Charles Marik, after his return from his successful defense of Iran, was intrigued by the idea. In the hopes of reducing the use of the home defense act he added a subsidy to the 2845 league budget to stand up further production sites of militia grade equipment. From there the idea exploded across the League, with each province attempting to put out their own mechs. While most of these smaller manufacturers failed by the official end of the second succession war, they did have a remarkable military effect. Front line units, especially provincial units, were deployed to the front at a higher rate then they had been allowing the FWLM to push back the gains made by the LCAF and CCAF.

    Used as rear area security, and provincial protection forces, the primitive renaissance had begun. League based manufacturers began to dig deep into their archives to put out their own offerings to take advantage of this new market. Some units were notable failures like the reintroduced trooper (See FWL-Circinus Federation war of 2850), but most did their duty. By the end of the Second Succession War Free Worlds based manufacturers had come up with a healthy stable of primitive mechs under their new marketing label: militia mechs; Orion's, OstWars, Hectors, Icarus, Griffins, and the Sarissa.


    A Tale of Two responses

    By 2850 it was clear on both Sian and Tharkad that something was allowing the FWLM to deploy far more of their forces to the front lines then had been though possible. Investigations by the LIC and MASK swiftly determined the cause, the political response couldn't have been more divergent. On Sian Chancellor Laurelli Liao declared the militia mech a flawed concept developed in response to her blessed mother's foresight in developing the Vindicator. Declaring that her valiant warriors would not suffer from inferior equipment like the Sassenach guilo nekulturny of the league she increased production of the Vindicator, keeping her response almost entirely political.

    In the Lyran Commonwealth there was a radically different response. The regency council, seeing a way to repair the damage done to the Steiner name by Claudius the Cruel, openly embraced the concept. Tenders were put out to all mech producers while a frantic search for an answer to the Sarissa was launched. Coventry responded by putting the Ymir and original Commando back into production, Star Corps offered the original LongBow, while the O'Leary family managed to salvage Mountain Wolf Battlemechs by acquiring MacEnroe motors and putting out the Crossbow, as well as licensing it to all who asked. With the exception of the never completely satisfactory Crossbow, all of the companies involved flatly refused to license their designs to the smaller manufacturers who sprung up to take advantage of the grants that the Steiner family was offering.


    The program the regency council had put into place was succeeding in its military objectives, but failing in its political ones. While there were a plethora of designs coming out of the Commonwealth, they lacked a solid trooper which could be subject to an open license like the free worlds Sarissa. Then the newly formed Apollo Mechworks released the Phoenix, which while it was what was being sought was absolutely the wrong mech from a political standpoint. The regency was trying to emphasize the caring nature of the Steiner family, not imply that they were the Amaris's reborn. Loki was dispatched to deal with Apollo, and a frantic search of LIC's archives was begun. The regency no longer cared about intellectual property, so long as it was held by a foreign entity, they needed an answer now.

    Fortunately for the Commonwealth LIC had the answer in its archives. When Merryweather Industries exited the Battlemech market LIC had acquired all of their documentation in an effort to divine Hegemony manufacturing techniques, including their intellectual property. Having located a solution, the Gladiator was licensed to anyone who had a hint of production capacity, usually for little more then a single Kroner, an answer to the Sarissa had been found…

    Echoes across the Sphere

    The Federated Suns, and the Draconis Combine, initially ignored the revolution which was occurring. While the Suns lacked the industrial means to take advantage, as shown by their later attempts at adopting the Lyran model, the Combine's contempt for the LCAF led to their deliberate ignorance of the effects militia mechs had. When the third Succession War broke out, the DCMS found their assaults rapidly flagging as their more advanced machines were forced to wade through rivers of Lyran militia mechs. While the Lyran adoption of the Militia mech did not cure the ills of the LCAF, it did allow them to blunt the initial assault and hold their ground.

    Kurita samurai were highly offended by the entire premise of a militia mech, likening it to handing an inferior sword to your loyal retainers, despite that distaste the DCMS would eventually have been forced to adopt the militia mech if they had not successfully recovered several Jenner lines. The recovery of front-line production allowed Miyogi Kurita an opportunity he used ruthlessly to smear his sister Roweena Kurita who through the offices of the PRE had been advocating for the adoption of a militia mech of the dragons own. Being a concept that was embraced by the losing side of a dynastic struggle the Dragon would refrain from adoption, concentrating their considerable industrial efforts on rebuilding their industries with at least some success.

    Michael Davion, enamored as he was with the business community despite the failure of his money for peace initiative, used his late entry into the third succession war to try and emulate the Steiner's. His attempts were marred by similar problems to those which were encountered by the regency council, namely the lack of a flagship design which he could disseminate. Kallon was willing to put the original Wolverine into production, Star corps Crofton had little trouble following the lead of Son Hoa and putting out a Longbow, Corean offered up the Icarus, and Achernar put the Dervish, Battleaxe, and Hammerhands on the table. Unfortunately for Michael, licensing quickly became a point of contention to such a degree that the court costs began to eat into the industrial support budget. Despite his best efforts most of the smaller manufacturers he had sought to create folded rapidly as the subsidies dried up.

    The only notable success stories that Michael's subsidies achieved in creating smaller manufacturers were Robinson Mechworks, who in a rather unusual move licensed the OstWar from Kong Interstellar, and Trevlu Mechworks who merged with a gutted Corean subsidiary. Finally, on the verge of entering the third succession war Michael took the unusual step of buying out the Battleaxe from Achernar as his flagship, a move that had he made it just a few years prior would have substantially aided his efforts. As it was, for most manufacturers the support was too little too late.
     
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  • Extras
    • err 3837?
    also how the hell is the crossbow(or for that matter the hammerhands and battleaxe) primitive? i'm pretty sure the tooling for it in storage was for the modern-ish(really needs new electronics to fix the poor targeting at long range flaw and the old 2 LRM-5s in place of a LRM-10 trick for the design to gain 2 tons of armor) variant. also I assume the phoenix got the equivalent modification of what defiance did to make the rampage into the to zeus later on? also what madman put the ymir with a FE 360 back in production? You get a lot more by using a FE 270 which CMW makes as well.
     
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    It's all lower end stuff, thanks for catching my date error. Phoenix... well, it kinda disappeared again. For some reason the image of an entire board of directors hanging from Mohammad Selims spot in the capital convinced everyone that even thinking about resurrecting the design wouldn't go well.

    As for why the engines they used? I'm going with the explanation that primitive engines require simpler tooling, so they could actually build that as opposed to what they would need for a 'real' fusion engine. For some reason the Free Worlds League, Lyran Commonwealth, and Federated Suns don't have the civilian fusion shortages that the Combine or the Confederation have... And yes, they're really all crap designs...
     
    well all the primitive production getting upgraded tp at least introtech post helm will make the lyrans,suns, and FWL be much stronger than the capcon and combine. i assume that the primitive units made at least use BAR10 armor?
     
    BTW what happened to your other BT story? is it dead? or just dormant
     
    Dormant, ran into a road block writing what I wanted to do verses what I could write well and decided to take a break before I got too frustrated. I'm still picking at it but slowly.

    As for the trade offs, the primitives have easy of manufacture and price in there corner along with ready access to parts. Battlemechs have better performance and request less maintenance but they're more expensive and the parts supply is not what it should be.
     
    GSpectre said:
    Dormant, ran into a road block writing what I wanted to do verses what I could write well and decided to take a break before I got too frustrated. I'm still picking at it but slowly.

    As for the trade offs, the primitives have easy of manufacture and price in there corner along with ready access to parts. Battlemechs have better performance and request less maintenance but they're more expensive and the parts supply is not what it should be.
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    Still I assume even primitives aren't using primitive armor anymore since BAR 10 ain't exactly hard to make compared to say primitive fusion reactors
     
    Primitive is bar10, its industrial armor, I've been playing with the armor coverage a bit but decided to leave it alone at this point in time. The connection points are going to be diffrent enough that you would need to redesign the entire frame before mounting standard... So that's an innovation which would come out of the league or commonwealth, not the suns. Its something that I can see happening as the recovery picks up speed, but not yet.
     
    GSpectre said:
    It's all lower end stuff, thanks for catching my date error. Phoenix... well, it kinda disappeared again. For some reason the image of an entire board of directors hanging from Mohammad Selims spot in the capital convinced everyone that even thinking about resurrecting the design wouldn't go well.
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    Which is a shame because if you invest in that design it can be quite nasty. A guy on SB revamped a number of designs and made the Phoenix a pretty nasty scout/scout hunter/harasser.

    https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/welcome-to-the-jungle-a-bt-si.731674/post-58274605
     
    Yah, i actually like most of the rim designs, they fit really well into their roles. I wish i could justify the phoenix, because with the right refinement its a nasty little beast which i've had a lot of luck with at the table top. Even just pulling the warcrimes systems for a quartet of mediums makes the Phoenix into a brawler par excellence in the 3rd war era. When you get into found tech? Unfortunately it ran into story difficulties...
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • August 12th​ 3015
    Sondra Black Memorial Ball Room, Mt Davion
    New Avalon, Federated Suns

    "No, you have to understand, militia mechs aren't like battlemechs. They exist on a spectrum." Harry Brockton pontificated to one of the New Avalon born nobles. She was cute enough, but he couldn't be bothered to remember her name. The lack of spurs, and complete ignorance on military matters made her inconsequential to him… or perhaps it was the three scotches he had already indulged in. It didn't help that she was from one of the golden five, and despite his families' best efforts they were best remembered in the popular histories as biological warfare specialists.

    A point he had been reminded of for his entire time on world. Between the stress of making sure that the prototype mechs they would be leaving for the AFFS to test out would be returned, negotiating a reasonable license for their version of the mml system with the chancellor of the exchequer, and fielding questions and complaints from the barrowed crucis march militia pilots about when they could get back to their unit on top of knowing that the Brockton family had depleted their defensive forces in order to provide the frames needed for their demonstration he was swiftly reaching the end of his rope. The added stress that came from a stream of noble snubs he had endured because of his family meant he was more then ready to kick back a relax.

    "A mech's a mech, isn't it?" the girl asked with a raised eyebrow.

    "Nope. A proper battlemechs more than the sum of its parts. We at Trevlu Brockton manage to make a few of them every year, but we need to import at least some of the parts. The engines for example, those take much more precision than our machine tools can manage. Militia mechs on the other hand? Those we do, and we do them well. Our offerings are mid-range though."

    "Explain this spectrum then," the girls eyes narrowed and she gave him a suspicious look. "Because none of my highly paid tutors have mentioned anything about that, and I'm on the list for Albion."

    "Right… Bottom of the barrel, something like the Quasit. Purely civilian construction, basically anything that complies with the SecurityMech treaty of 2613. Most sensible people consider them to be security mechs, but they are used in a militia role for poorer systems. A step up from that are the lighter so called primitive mechs, they use older construction techniques and have looser tolerances. The downside to that is anything under sixty tons is questionable on the battlefield unless its in a specialized role. The Icarus and Swordsman we at Trevlu make would count as this."

    "Not the Whitworth?"

    "Nah, that's a specialized roll. A militia grade tin man can hang with all up battlemechs as long as it stays in its lane. It's not as good as an all-up battle mech, but I would feel confident taking one of our militia grade Whitworths against one of Coreans Icarus II's." Harry finished off his fourth glass of scotch and put it onto the tray of a passing waiter. "Next up you have the heavier offerings, sixty tons and up, and those which like I said have a specialized roll. Our Whitworth, Achernars militia grade Dervish which is made right here on New Avalon, are examples of lighter offerings that fill a roll well enough that they qualify for this level. Otherwise, you have things like Robinson Mech Works OstWar, Kallon's Wolverine, or the Trevlu Battleaxe."

    "Interesting you don't call it yours, considering your position with the company?"

    "Brockton doesn't make it, so I can't rightfully call it ours." Harry gave the girl a disarming smile. "We do put together the next step up, but that layer of the continuum is in dispute. Bottom end battlemechs are still battlemechs after all."

    "But you consider them to be militia mechs. So, bug mechs?"

    "No, those have a roll on the battlefield." Harry shrugged. "It's more things like Corean's Icarus II, mechs that aren't quite enough to really fill the role their shoved into."

    "And your own Swordsman doesn't qualify for that?" a smooth voice from a red headed man Harry didn't recognize through the alcohol he had drunk spoke up.

    "Swordsman can take an Icarus II any day of the week, twice on Sunday. Their only real competition for the title of best low-end medium is the Vindicator." Harry shrugged off the implied criticism easily. "Some might argue the Blackjack is competition, but its long-range punch isn't up to the job. Short range? Nasty little buggers are hell on wheels but the Swordsman is fast enough to keep out of range, and even at the base 2T configuration's a nasty enough infighter to make any sane 'jack driver think twice. The new refits we're going to be putting out in the next couple of years? Those can take and keep the crown. The problem with the Swordsman isn't its prowess on the battlefield, its political, morons on New Avalon keep reinforcing its status as a symbol of disloyalty. Doesn't help that the various first princes have been hoodwinked enough that it's not an accepted chassis for front line service in the AFFS."

    "And what makes you so sure that there were morons on new Avalon instead of there being solid reasons why the mech wasn't acceptable?" the red head asked seemingly interested. Harry noted that there seemed to be a bubble of space forming around him and ignored it, in favor of snagging another of the excellent scotches.

    "Because there are always morons infesting this planet!" Harry threw up his arms in exasperation. "Industrial policy? Oh, lets make sure we're dependent on terra and when that proves to be a mistake lets take what our loyal retainers have managed to retain and give it away to foreigners! Foreigners are hitting our vassals as they try to rebuild what was stolen? Oh, their headquarters is here, lets back them up rather then slapping them down like we should. We designed and made a better machine for its role? Let's side line it politically and pay for a foreign designed piece of shit. Education? Have you read a history books? We prop up the moronic veneration of a Terran born, Lyran trained, social general who only survived giving the Drac's an advantage over the AFFS because he was too stupid to read a damn map, and then was instrumental in covering the DCMS's murder of his commanding officers, rather than our own native-born son who carried the moron to victory despite his massive strategic blunders. The Suns would be so much better off if we weren't dragged down by consistent mistakes originating on New Avalon."

    "That's certainly a take," the red head said skeptically. "Not sure what it has to do with the Swordsman, but it's a take."

    "Evidence of consistently bad decision making, and prioritizing foreign interests over those native to the suns as a matter of policy." Harry shrugged and threw back his scotch, ignoring the looks of horror he was getting from the people who were in earshot. It felt good to unburden a bit to a new Avalon asshole, and it wasn't as if he was going to see the man again after all. A few more days and he would be on his way to the Commonwealth with the First Princes blessing, parlaying new developments into bounties for his family firm before their advantages and secrets could be given away.

    "Like your own upcoming venture into the commonwealth?"

    "Nah, that's a rare bit of sense. First Prince has to know we have a limited window before our newest secrets are stolen, better to trade for what we can get then have foreign relations and the department of procurement give our secrets away for nothing, again. Lord knows Corean's corporate headquarters here are a direct line to Atreus, and the department of procurement is going to want them to update their pieces of shit rather than buying the Swordsman or supporting Achernar's Enforcer like they should… again."

    "The Centurion is a good workhorse…"

    "Achernar's Enforcer is just as good and it's a native development, and with a little bit of funding I would bet they can put the Hammerhand's back into production, both of which are much more useful platforms for deploying our new advantages then the Centurion and Icarus II and they aren't imports. Not to mention their Dervish could really benefit from the Lyran advances we have access to. Besides supporting the Swordsman is a good way to develop drop in upgrade packages for the Shadow Hawk, rather than wasting pounds on a dead end like upgrading the Icarus." Harry sighed heavily as he said that. "But that's not how its going to go. The Centurion is going to be prioritized because Corean can get it done faster. Never mind they're going to do it by importing their specialists from the league. The Swordsman is going to be sidelined again, and new upgrades for the Shad are going to be developed by Kallon, rather then use what we already have. Which of course will be the excuse for why theirs no money in the budget for helping smaller manufacturers upgrade their plants, again."

    "And if you were in charge, how would you combat this alleged bias?" The red head asked, annoyance creeping into his voice so obviously that even in Harrys inebriated state he could hear it.

    "I've got seven upgraded mechs on my dropship as show pieces for the march militia; two Shadow Hawks, three Swordsmen, a Whitworth, and an Icarus II." Harry replied easily. "DMI or any AFFS command could attach an eighth so we had two lances, and they could have a trustworthy evaluator along, then let me take my people over the border, either one, and take a look at the results. Doesn't cost anything, and gives everyone in the Foxes Den an idea of how their simulations stack up to reality. Then when I'm proven right let MIIO off the leash to sniff out where the corruption was in the evaluations the AFFS ran."

    "You know, that sounds like an excellent idea." The red head straightened and waved over an older woman with fading red hair which had at one point matched his own. "Yvonne, have any raids we don't have the forces to pull off at the moment?"

    "A couple, why my prince?" Yvonne Davion, grandmother of the AFFS answered, and it suddenly hit Harry just who he had been going off on.

    "Harry Brockton here just agreed to take an evaluator with him and run a real-world test of the designs that are being evaluated. I thought we could help him out and give him a target." Hanse Davion, the first prince, smirked as he said that.

    "Well. fuck." Was the only reply Harry could think to make.
     
  • Threadmarks
    • Oh wow, its like watching a train wreck. Horrible and yet you cannot look away. He was so drunk and stressed that he had absolutely no idea he was mouthing off and accusing the First Prince and all his predecessors of corruption and incompetence right to his face. Nice bit on Kerensky added in there as well.
     
    On another note it occurs to me that you probably can't make a primitive Whitworth since it was designed well after introtech and indeed most royal tech was a thing. So to make one would require a lot of design work
     
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    Bofors40mm said:
    On another note it occurs to me that you probably can't make a primitive Whitworth since it was designed well after introtech and indeed most royal tech was a thing. So to make one would require a lot of design work
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    Primitive engines have the same space requirement, just weigh more. For the Witworth, you either free up two extra tons to keep the speed the same, or switch to a 120 equivalent primitive engine and gain an extra ton to work with.
     
    Doomsought said:
    Primitive engines have the same space requirement, just weigh more. For the Witworth, you either free up two extra tons to keep the speed the same, or switch to a 120 equivalent primitive engine and gain an extra ton to work with.
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    Well the old 2LRM 5s in place of a LRM trick will do then.
     
    Well fuck indeed... but if he pulls it off like he says and Hanse does find corruption? Oh boy the shit show that follows.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • August 14th​ 3015
    Maharaja Palace
    Basantapur, Federated Suns

    "My son is an idiot… and my wife is going to be telling me I told you so for the next three decades," Andrew Brockton's exasperation was obvious to his listeners. He had been an unexpected but welcome visitor, bringing with him enough machine tooling to build an engine line for Trevlu's front line offerings. Between the tooling they had acquired from Jalastar, and the new engine line when it was completed, Basantapur-Trevlu was finally in a position to produce front line quality battlemechs. It was an investment that Roger Garg had been lobbying for most of the last two decades to achieve. His success had only come after he had convinced the Messengers of Shiva to station a battalion of mechs and their support troops on Basantapur to supplement Trevlu security and the local militia.

    "Harry? An idiot?" Roger Garg asked mildly. His elegantly sculpted eyebrow barely rising as he flicked his tailored silk cuff out of the way of his coffee. He had been in danger of getting the embroidery ruined, a constant concern dressing the way he did. He would have been much happier in the overalls he had worn throughout his service as an AFFS tech, but the demands of his position no longer allowed him to be unconcerned with his image.

    "New Avalon?" Prakash Azad grunted out his question from where he was hunched over his breakfast. His dark face still turned down while he focused on his meal with mechanical precision. "Who did he kill?"

    "My family doesn't feel the need to be violent to establish our position," Andrew responded while turning his nose up and shifting his voice into a parody of a New Avalon noble. "Having been leading members of the upper crust in the suns for centuries we are above such plebian things. We would never be so crass as to do something like that personally."

    "No," Prakash snorted as he looked at the two nobles he was seated with. When he had been younger, he would never have pictured himself here. As the son of a casual laborer, and a Dalit, he should have ended up working the same job as his father and living a life of quiet desperation. Fortunately for him he had met Roger Garg while serving in the AFFS, and his solid dependability had gotten him pulled up the social ladder. "You nobles would hire out the kill and make sure that you had the chance to loot the poor fool's residence down to bedrock yourselves. Because obviously a hireling would screw up the more important part."

    "Exactly!" Roger agreed cheerfully with his long-time friend and subordinate. "It's good to see you have adjusted into being a proper noble after all this time. Why it feels like it was just the other day you were so crass as to beat a man to death with your own two hands, and you hired out the ransacking of his residence! Such a Nouveau riche thing to do…"

    All three men laughed at the continuing joke. It did hold an edge of uncomfortable truth to it, but they had known each other long enough that it could be ignored in the name of levity. They hadn't always gotten along, Andrew having been almost apocalyptically angry when Roger had put Prakash into the CEOs chair without so much as a by your leave to Trevlu's largest shareholder, but they had worked together for years. There was an easy familiarity and a level of trust built up. Especially given that Roger had been proven right about Prakash within a fortnight.

    "So, what did Harry do, and how much backlash should I expect to be coming out of New Avalon?" Prakash asked, levity leaving his face.

    "He thought that a ball in Mount Davion was a good time to relax and drink too much, then he mouthed off to the First Prince." Andrew sighed as he admitted that. "I thought he had enough time to decompress while he was home, but it seems my wife was right again. It shouldn't do us any real damage, especially since he was correct in his mouthing off. Mostly about New Avalon's seeming obsession with Corean at the expense of our native companies."

    "So, I should batten down the hatches and check that our cash reserves are good." Prakash's face settled into his characteristic frown. "Got it."

    "No really it isn't that bad. He actually got the first prince to assign him a raid to test what he was saying."

    "How fast can we get Brenda from Brockton over to the commonwealth?" Roger asked seriously. He was by now well aware of the Brockton family dynamics, Andrew handled the business end of things with a ruthless determination that a lyran magnate would admire while Brenda handled soothing ruffled feathers of the bruised noble egos Andrew left in his wake. For a girl who had grown up on a skid row world she had a real sense for politics which Andrew lacked, something they would need if Harry took after his father as much as this incident indicated he did.

    "No need, she was on Robinson." Andrew shook his head at the over reaction of his business partners and friends. "I already sent a message to her."

    "What was she doing on Robinson?" Prakash asked suspiciously. "She wasn't trying to get the Sandoval's to back upgrading the Tsamma plant again, was she?"

    "Nothing like that," Andrew said hastily waving his hands as if to ward away the very idea. "The DMM captured a pair of Liberties from some pirates out by the alliance. They're mostly wrecked but the cores are reported to still be intact."

    "Andrew… you have factors for that kind of work. You don't send your biggest political gun out on a routine buying trip." Roger's disbelief over Andrew's protestations of innocence wasn't hidden.

    "There might have been a bit of a meeting with the Sandoval's. They've been trying to get a license to produce spares for the Whitworth out of Corean for the last decade…"

    "Oh, bloody hell." Roger reached up with his free hand and pinched the bridge of his nose. "I know your family has something of a vendetta with Corean but seriously?"

    "They reached out to us," Andrew's protest was weak and he knew it. "Its more about giving them leverage then anything else, favor trading for a later date. It's not like they're going to accept that we have the authority to grant the license they want after all. Even if it is legally ours."

    "Probably a good idea…" Prakash paused clearly thinking before continuing. "Does this… incident… change any of our plans?"

    "It might make things a little tighter than I would like…" Roger responded staring off into space blankly and ignoring the spectacular view of the mountains that dominated his dining room windows.

    "Not really." Andrew held up his hands defensively as the other two men glared at him. "We weren't going to be getting all of our factories into the front line production business, just the ones with existing tooling. That's going to be the point where an incident like this could really trip us up. Harry's instructions are to get our MML system legal, and not labeled a pirated copy, using any means necessary. That's probably going to be through Defiance but who knows? The Lyran legal system might work to our advantage here, after all they aren't going to want Coventry to be their exclusive supplier, and to see if Mountain Wolf would be amenable to selling some of their catalog."

    "I'll admit that's the part I don't get. Not having a regiment or two of mercs dropped on my head because I ignored legalities is something I understand well enough… but Mountain Wolf? Why not go straight for Coventry?" Prakash asked, he hadn't been included in the discussion over what was to be acquired. Mostly because neither of the nobles wanted him to see them engage in what was very close to an all-out brawl over their differing ideas of where Trevlu should focus their efforts in the coming years.

    "Because Coventry is going to be pissed at us for stealing data from them." Roger admitted, privately he was still smarting about that point. He had thought that this was the perfect opportunity to add the Ymir to their lineup. An assault mech, even a militia grade one, was a statement of power one he badly wanted. Especially after he had spent almost a decade worth of the R and D budget getting the specifications for the Striker into something they could manufacture after Lycomb Davion Introtech had refused to even meet with his representative over the possibility of putting the Awesome into production. The Striker was hardly ideal, but it could be adapted to take a two forty rated engine, and they could make those at Ajeet Aerospace. Unfortunately, Andrew's point had won out in the end.

    "Everyone knows Brandon O'Leary wants to get his company back into the battlemech game in the worst way. He's not happy being confined to a militia mech producer, and we can use that in the future. We trade some tech, and maybe a license, and a couple million Kroner to him for his connections and the MacEnroe catalog? That's going to be useful down the road when we want to make the full jump from militia mechs ourselves." Andrew said seriously. "I know you both think I'm reckless at times, but, I'm well aware that we can't make that jump openly yet. We have a bit of production at my Brockton site, some more being built here, but…"

    "Crossbow isn't really worth it." Prakash frowned again as he thought through what he knew about MacEnroe Motors. Like a lot of the companies which had designed the militia mechs used today it was long out of business and therefore the contents of its design catalogue weren't well known. "What are we really getting? Because if its just the Crossbow and connections? We would be better off sticking in the Suns and working with Achernar for their Dervish militia mech. It has a better reputation, and they have political capital we could actually use."

    "It's not just the mech we're after," Roger admitted easily. "It's the Marsden plans and the Buffel. Both of which we can put into production here on Basantapur…"

    "And being a tank and a combat support vehicle, we can easily upgrade to modern standard…" Prakash smiled as he saw the shape of the plan he would be expected to execute. It seemed that Andrew hadn't taken leave of his senses and was trying to grow their cash reserves before making an open move. "Doable. We already make the Tiger here… That takes care of the engine. Marsden isn't really going to expand our share of the militia market, but it should be a solid earner especially if we slap some of the new weapons on it… Buffel though… That might just be the ticket into the AFFS supply chain. We put out a good enough version and it might just be accepted into front line units."

    "I have every confidence in your engineering teams." Andrew agreed obliquely. "They should be finishing up the first of the Tiger updates we asked of them by the time we actually have plans in hand. Besides the AFFS has never been truly happy with their engineering vehicles, and none of the larger concerns are looking at the market. Our competition will be Quickscell."

    "Who we can blow out of the water on our build quality alone, no matter how poor of an offering we put out." Roger tipped his coffee towards Andrew in acknowledgement of the point which had won him the argument last night. Well that and their critical lack of tooling, without the backing of an existing battlemech manufacturer getting ahold of the right grade of tooling was a challenge. Especially given how little was made in the Suns, the truth was they would need to import and that cost more then their cash reserves could realistically be stretched to cover.

    "But not on price." Prakash pursed his lips. "Don't get too comfortable with this plan of yours, Quickscell has stayed in business despite their abysmal reputation because of their ability to drop below their cost if they feel the need in order to kill their competition. We're going to need to do some heavy lobbying to get the AFFS to accept the price bump."

    "That's going to be Roger's job, I think my family has blown up that bridge for the moment…" Andrew admitted. "Rogers family has always had better contacts on New Avalon, and a better reputation, then my own."

    "Yes, because bringing an intact and functional political unit into the suns without bloodshed is much more respectable then conspiring with a periphery barbarian to bring down the star league." Roger poked at his friend, indicating that the serious discussions were done for the moment.

    "I never should have let you in on that bit of family history," Andrew groaned and face palmed in exasperation.

    "Like father, like son, get a Brockton drunk and they'll do something stupid." Roger replied lightly.

    "Yes, because I was the one who had to be bailed out of jail for pissing on a statue of Parvati and then arguing with the police officer that what you were doing was judging from how the priests acted a recognized form of worship for your caste." Andrew shot back.

    "Hey! I had just spent a week trying to get the damn assembly to push through yet another anti caste discrimination law when that happened." Roger grinned as he said that. "A bit of harmless blasphemy is hardly the most extreme reaction to dealing with that sort of idiocy."

    "You're both idiots in your own special way," Prakash said firmly, but with a mirk lurking at the corner of his lips. While the police and priests had been distracted by Roger's very public act of blasphemy someone had been busy setting the temple compounds office building on fire. Strange how a lot of political opposition to that bill had disappeared afterwards, it was almost like a load of blackmail files had been kept there. "Let's not have another incident like last time, yes? I had to spend all too much of our slush fund keeping both your antics out of the media last year."
     
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    • hmmm well I suppose a 80 ton slower platform would be stupidly useful for the AFFS especially if it can be made frontline grade. I wonder why Lycomb Davion Introtech isn't trying to restart awesome and presumably guillotine production though....never made sense to me in canon or in this story
     
    Its a question of timing. Roger jumped the gun and tried to get lycomb Davion introtech to deal as soon as he had secured the Ajeet deal. He thought that having a proven engine line and known capacity to produce mechs would be enough. Introtech took one look at the prospectus and thought that while possible it would be an expensive project, one they would end up funding with questionable results at the end. They were also carry because it looked to them like roger was trying to get them to launch a hostile take over... Or at the very least buy in to Trevlu as a partner rescuing them from over extension and depleted cash reserves brought on by setting up Ajeet.
     
    A diverse product line is always a good thing. As is the ability to self sustain your own forces without having to out source for parts and vehicles.
     
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