One Rabid Fox changes the Succession Wars [A Battletech Isekai]

[Imperator Pax]

…is it a Clan mech? All I remember being mentioned was the Mechs name and the estimated load out being 4 ER large lasers. I kinda assumed it was a custom heavy mech built with the Essence.

Click to shrink...

It is a fanon clan mech, from the Fanon Clan Fox
https://www.clanfox.com/downloads

https://www.clanfox.com/product-page/rabid-fox-heavy-mecha

EDIT: That being said the Zorya is not only a canonical clan vehicle its already in production but only two of those were present at Halstead Station

on the other hand they were also in Hells Horses colors.

On the other other hand besides the Rabid Fox B configuration he also pilots a rifleman some times so unless the Dragoons show up or pay extra attention to the actual roms they probably wouldn't figure it out immediately

 

[Blasterbot]

Neat. Also they got a 90 quad mech there. Cute. 4 clan ERs on a 5/8 moving mech is crazy for introtech.

 

[Morkail]

Watched, love me some battletech.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 1.4​

Alexandria Cunningham was bordering on infuriated. Anger was a weakness, being publicly angry was something people would use against you. You needed to be cool and collected. Cold even, better to be an icy bitch... than...

Alfonso Juan Diaz had deliberately ignored her instructions and his lance had followed him in pressing an attack in close order. Watching the digital displays of having his heavy mech be kicked while it was down by a trio of fifty tonners had been only mildly cathartic. Not when the other three fifty tonners in the opposing force had begun to turn their large lasers on her now exposed flank.

Not that Justin Xiang Allard had done much better, after his own lance leader had been knocked out of the simulation he had tried to rally his lance mates but not in a way that would have allowed her to salvage the situation. She was embarressed by that, but she was embarressed that they'd been thrown into this situation by Allard and Diaz being caught after getting a fist fight of all things. Their indiscretion of being caught in a public heated altercation was made all the worse by the involvement of third parties.

Third parties who just didnt' get it.

The instructor who was nominally her superior, the noble who should have been roughly her equal, and the student who should have been her junior the twisting lack of a natural hiearchy made a mess of things.

"What are you doing?" She demanded.

He blinked and looked up at her, hearing her question, and idly scratched behind his ear. The holographic images of battlemechs dancing in front of him.

Archer Thunderbolt, Warhammer Pillager... So many other Mechs too for that matter.

He looked up at the sudden question ... musing that he needed to find the time to visit Robinson.... but FtL made even short hops annoying. And it was three jumps... but it was a lot easier to petition the Duke of House Sandoval, who was also the Field Marshal of the Draconis March to talk about things than go to New Avalon and have to fight to get an appointment with Ian Davion who as first prince was very busy. "Ah, well I had a conversation with the techs, and the Field Marshal, and Robinson has a BattleMech facility that seems to do with some overhaul."

Alexandria blinked at him like ... well they were from different planets, but the idea held. He wasn't just going to tell her about hte JumpShip yard, but hadn't New Avalon gotten a centurion line recently if that was the case surely the DMM could do with one of its own sooner rather than later.

"And you can just invest money like that?"

"Well yes." He replied, "Money is best invested rather just sitting idle in a treasury." And of course logistics won wars, and with how slow BT jump drives were, well he had a lot of work to do. He coughed slightly, "That isn't to say i encourage prolifagte spending, and defense spending should be reasonably considered, but," He trailed off. He knew that House Sandoval, he knew how House Sandoval felt about the Combine,and well he decided to avoid the discussion of moral justifications for war against the combine, and their role in at least starting the shooting phase of the succession wars. "Anyway, that isn't why you're here. We need to discuss what went wrong." Her face twitched for a moment, but she sat down across from him, with resignation.

That they'd been given a handicap, had never occured to Alexandria. It only made her more annoyed at everything that had gone wrong over the last few days... and the month wasn't even over yet, never mind the end of the semester. Hazel eyes narrowed and met his blue gray ones.

"We're going to have to organize lessons in more effective and larger based unit activities and roles." He replied, If I could I'd go and integrate combined arms, but I think at this stage we'd better stick to working with integrating lances operating at the company level." He continued, "The Field Marshal wants the class ready for run against the unit next month... before the end of November."
--
He had spent the better part of the afternoon of the 24th​ doing things like that. Conversations with cadets, often those who were in their late teens, or early twenties... Sakhara like most prestigious academies allowed early entry as he himself was a technical example of... though that was in part a direct command / request of the head of state.

By the time he was done, by the time the sun had set on the campus he was ready to get out of the school room he had occupied for the last several hours and go deal with other things. He wasn't expecting another run in with Field Marshal Davion. "I'm told you were planning to visit Robinson, and that you've requested a meeting with Corean Enterprises."

Was that their official name, he briefly wondered if he had accidentally called them Corean Industries earlier... but it was true. The truth was they made both the Trebuchet and Centurion within the Federated Suns and well since they had just built a Centurion line on New Avalon it seemed like a good idea to get on them about partnering to build other new Mech Lines. It made sense to approach an experienced industrial partner ... but he had floated the idea but hadn't yet actually gone forward to speak to Lord Aaron, the duke of Robinson on the matter.

"Yes, perhaps over the New Year." He hedged.

"Lord Aaron, I have been told will be visiting Sakhara." She remarked. He got the feeling that the field Marshal was telling him this not so much because she wanted to but because she was moving to beat someone else to the punch. "Which brings us to the matter of the recent excerises."

He restrained the groan that threatened to escape him. He'd thrown the excercise together as a way to distract Coleridge and now people were acting as if he'd ... well the scuttlebut had started bringing up Halstead, and Mallory again as if he'd put the excercise together expecting Sakhara to deliver the goods and when they hadn't ... well the other teachers in the MechWarrior contingent were under Coleridge's scrutiny, and that was never a good thing. Of course the Vice Chancellor had over the last day and a half been under the field marshal's scrutiny so the colonel was just pushing it down the chain. A pending visit from the Duke of Robinson likely didn't do anything for the pressure on Coleridge to achieve results.

When you got right down to it though, he wanted an established industrial partner to emphasize the BattleMech front. He'd partner with Corean, or Robinson's local businesses if that would get things up and running and provide security and investments so he could focus on bringing a Shipyard online.

The conversation promised to be resumed later, and retired for the evening to look at the massive numbers that would facilitate all of this.

One Star Lord class JumpShip Model of 2841 had a BV 615 or 2.391 Billion C Bills, that was rounded down. There was another half million as well. He almost coughed blood, having nearly bit his tongue, and nearly knocking over his coffee when he noticed the sixty ton 'Morningstar City Command Vehicle' was a mere 458 BV but had a positively insane 5.2 Billion price tag.

He looked at the display, reached for a towel wiped his lip, and then looked out hte window to the desert. This was useful A sixty ton vehicle would be far far less likely to be seen by anyone who would later ask questions about... he'd deploy it from his landhold...

The SFU, small factory unit, were 627 BV and a price tag of call it 33 Million C-Bills. That was to say a very expensive mech. The MFU sat at 1.2 Billion C-Bills for a BV of almost 1700. It would have been very inefficent to use C-Bills to purchase them in comparison.

The F 77 Deathstalker cost 4.8M C Bills a plan, roughly, and had a BV of 1714. Meaning that each Deathstalker he spawned and then sold was roughly equivalent, generated a net surplus to purchasing an MFU. He needed 30 MFUs or a trinary of fighters to use clan lingo.

4.8M C Bills or more correctly 30 F 77s had a price tag of 145227600 C Bills. Pocket change from selling a Star Lord never mind one of these ridiculous Morningstar things. 145 million C Bills would be deducted from the original Star Lord recycle value of 2391551083 C Bills leaving him a comfortable capital reserve of 2.246 Billion C Bills.

From which he'd have to pay for 50 SFU which out of the price tag of the original value of 1648350000 C Bills. It was enough to make his head swim.

Double checking his math again, he prepared to completely change the succession wars again. He had already decided to sacrifice one Star Lord. To recycle a jumpship people in this time viewed as priceless. That money would build fifty 2500 ton small factory units. From the remaining excess He'd gladly spend the c bill expense for thirty fighters turn around recycle them for BV necessary for the medium factory units.

He hand hovered the confirm key on things...did he go ahead and order it or should he wait and talke to the duke of Robinson first. Shouldn't they spend some of that excess C Bills to secure the support of Corean Enterprises to shore up the ground forces of the Draconis March.

He decided to wait on the actual deployment of the factory units... and instead fell back on the couch to sleep to the digital display of C bills measured in billions. It was lucky for ComStar he couldn't cash the C Bills out into some successor states currency and fuck with the Capellan's currency at the same time... this was true economic warfare.
--
"You look like you're in a good mood." Justin groused wiping the sweat from his forehead.

"I am." He paused, and looked at the Black Jack pilot. "Its something else, has nothing to do with your class." Another pause, "Don't take that the wrong way. I just have a lot going on." Justin still sporting a taped nose crossed his arms over his chest.

"We got our asses kicked." Justin opined bluntly putting one foot up on the bleacher in front of him., "The whole class is at loggerheads."

"Well it gets worse, the Duke of Robinson is apparently visiting, and Field Marshal Davion wants the machines refit to their intended configuration with plans to run a second test in a couple of weeks."

"So what we can get our asses kicked harder?" He demanded. "Yeah, thanks for that." Came the sullen continuance as Justin leaned forward onto the bleachers as they continued to wait for the rest of the runners to finish their set. "So what are we doing?"

"Stress test."

There was a pause "... excuse me?"

"Give it a moment, I don't want to have this interrogation twice." Another group of runners finished and one Countess of Kestrel her hair pulled back in a pony tail to keep it out of her way as she ran turned searching the bleachers... probably to make sure they hadn't moved. "Lex, I assume you want an explanation, so this is intended to put the pilots under stress. This isn't an indulgence in masochism its to put you under pressure before an excercise."

... and it wasn't actually his idea. It had been the Star Leagues. Sakhara had been founded by SLDF officers and some of their traditions had survived the fall of the league, and in the face of issues they wanted cadets to be able to excel. He didn't tell them though it hadn't been idea, because frankly he wished he'd kind of thought of it.

The class was after the last set of runners finished were then hustled off to their mechs, and ordered through a series of courses under supervision, within the comfortable embrace of his heavy battlemech's cockpit he watched as the lances gathered themselves up... but this wasn't his excercise to run. The Vice Chancellor had made sure that another mechwarrior instructor, a veteran of the Davion Guards, who was probably old enough to have served under Field Marshal Davion's mother during the later's tenure commanding the brigade was presently extolling the virtues of the autocannon, and of accurate riflery.

It was a wonder the mustaioched senior mechwarrior didn't call it musketry he was so painfully a caricature of the Victorian British officers of the pith helmet. He carried on his exhortations to the cadets for the better part of ten minutes, before he even started to explain what they were supposed to be doing.
--

"Don Juan bank right."

"Why do you keep calling me that, I'm not actually a knight yet."​

 

[HunterxReader]

Chapter 1.4​

Click to shrink...

Huh, I didn't think Robinson had any operational Mech lines at this time. Is Robinson Standard Battleworks getting into the Mech business early, or are they reactivating Jerricho Industries for the Swordsman? And I wonder how that veteran instructor feels about your Centurion ALs, considering his lovely AC was swapped out for a laser and then used to kick the cadets' asses. And is gonna do so again.

Edit 1: As much as I'd love to indulge the Feds in their AC fetish to see the Swordsman revived, I really hope they managed to develop the Watchman early. It's my favorite militiamech, a cheap, easy to maintain, effective laserboat.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Isn't the pillager super rare and out of production in this era even the intro tech variant?

 

[HunterxReader]

I guess he's scrolling though the MegaMekLab database. He can, at the very least, pretend that there were former SLDF soldiers or a cache with Pillagers where he came from "in the periphery".

Edit: You know, considering they already made a laser swap with the Centurion -AL and the future Suburbanmech, I wonder why there's hasn't been any canon pseudo-Crab variant for the Enforcer. Swap the AC/10 for another LL, use the excess tonnage for heatsinks, armor and lasers/MGs. Is it because of the headcapper potential of the AC/10?

 

[Blasterbot]

I guess he's scrolling though the MegaMekLab database. He can, at the very least, pretend that there were former SLDF soldiers or a cache with Pillagers where he came from "in the periphery".

Edit: You know, considering they already made a laser swap with the Centurion -AL and the future Suburbanmech, I wonder why there's hasn't been any canon pseudo-Crab variant for the Enforcer. Swap the AC/10 for another LL, use the excess tonnage for heatsinks, armor and lasers/MGs. Is it because of the headcapper potential of the AC/10?

Click to shrink...

10 damage isn't quite enough for head clipping. At a guess it is because introtech is rarely optimal and that is part of the fun. It does have some utility in that you can drop the AC off the when you are getting toasty and preserve your ammo since you only have the 1 ton. It does have a little more damage than the LL so it does a little better at opening up holes in armor for other mechs to take advantage of.

 

[PeaceMaker03]

10 damage isn't quite enough for head clipping. At a guess it is because introtech is rarely optimal and that is part of the fun. It does have some utility in that you can drop the AC off the when you are getting toasty and preserve your ammo since you only have the 1 ton. It does have a little more damage than the LL so it does a little better at opening up holes in armor for other mechs to take advantage of.

Click to shrink...

On TT 10 pts is a head capper, Mech head armor maxes out at 9 pts of armor. The last point goes internal if it hits the cockpit it is dead pilot.

 

[HunterxReader]

10 damage isn't quite enough for head clipping. At a guess it is because introtech is rarely optimal and that is part of the fun. It does have some utility in that you can drop the AC off the when you are getting toasty and preserve your ammo since you only have the 1 ton. It does have a little more damage than the LL so it does a little better at opening up holes in armor for other mechs to take advantage of.

Click to shrink...

On TT 10 pts is a head capper, Mech head armor maxes out at 9 pts of armor. The last point goes internal if it hits the cockpit it is dead pilot.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, sorry, I was talking about the potential head crit, because I usually refer to blazers, gauss rifles and the like as instant/absolute headcappers (meaning if it hits the head it automatically destroys it, as opposed to 10-11 damage that has the potential to keep functioning).

 

[Imperator Pax]

As this is fiction, I generally treat most headcaps as if not instantly fatal as supremely disorienting to a pilot... though some times as the story entails a cockpit may get shot and the pilot survives to continue to fight by sheer luck but with his ass otherwise hanging out in the breeze

[That is I'm not totally adherring one for one to table top rules]

 

[Nalanaya]

Well, this is interesting so far, but the writing is...rough. And in dire need of a beta. There are run-on sentences everywhere, and plenty of places where expected pauses (like a comma or semicolon) just aren't present. Less common but equally confusing are more typical errors like missing words or auto-corrupted incorrect ones. And finally, just in terms of structure...there are a lot of rather confusing transitions with no obvious breaks between scenes, and bits of dialogue where parts of the conversation (usually from other characters) are just...not present. And our MC is responding to nothing and giving readers minimal context.

Finally, and this is definitely my personal opinion since it seems to be a stylistic choice...the beginning of this fic is just WAY too 'in medias res'. We're launched in with no real details on the character, how exactly they got their position, or even what their position is. Hell there's little to no details on the cheat power such that almost the entire time I'm second guessing how anything he summons (especially big things like jump-ships and factories that need other people to RUN them) are not just going to be immediately pounced on by the various agencies and groups on the lookout for such things. It still isn't really explained even in chapter two, and I'm just assuming that there's some sort of fiat insertion involved such that his power can make people, resources, and major pieces of hardware with no one wondering where all that stuff came from. But worst of all? What exactly is the MC's name? It's not mentioned anywhere in the first two chapters that I could find. Just his call-sign and two explanations of how he doesn't like it but is stuck with it.

 

[HunterxReader]

Finally, and this is definitely my personal opinion since it seems to be a stylistic choice...the beginning of this fic is just WAY too 'in medias res'. We're launched in with no real details on the character, how exactly they got their position, or even what their position is. Hell there's little to no details on the cheat power such that almost the entire time I'm second guessing how anything he summons (especially big things like jump-ships and factories that need other people to RUN them) are not just going to be immediately pounced on by the various agencies and groups on the lookout for such things. It still isn't really explained even in chapter two, and I'm just assuming that there's some sort of fiat insertion involved such that his power can make people, resources, and major pieces of hardware with no one wondering where all that stuff came from. But worst of all? What exactly is the MC's name? It's not mentioned anywhere in the first two chapters that I could find. Just his call-sign and two explanations of how he doesn't like it but is stuck with it.

Click to shrink...

Ah, he started with the prologue chapters in the BT ideas thread. There was a small mention and summary on the notes of the first chapter but I don't think he gave the link.

https://forum.questionablequesting....discussions-thread.4740/page-338#post-6812214

Edit: Reference to the Essence he is using can be found here: https://forum.questionablequesting....discussions-thread.4740/page-101#post-5134727

The basics of it is he can design and/or buy BT units using the MegaMekLab app as a basis, either with money or BV from a daily allowance (or from salvaging units with the power as a "recycle" option). Loyal crews can also be created with them, and groups/factions can be used as reference to their background/nature. There is indeed a normalizing function so there's less questions about things popping out of thin air.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

When in doubt, apply more suffering on your students. They'll either shape up, or they'll be a disappointment to the family lineage.

 

[HunterxReader]

When in doubt, apply more suffering on your students. They'll either shape up, or they'll be a disappointment to the family lineage.

Click to shrink...

I imagine they'll be veteran rated by the time they graduate. And if their graduation test means going up against March Militia, it may be a letdown compared to having to face a company of Gunslingers or Royal Blackwatch in Warhammers. Though Gunslingers would be an interesting challenge, seeing if they get baited into duels and how much they can leverage coordination against one-on-one specialists.

Edit: For fun, pit them against a unit of totally-not Black Widow Company, . It would certainly help make the FS version of Ryuken.

 

[Bofors40mm]

On another note I do have to wonder just how much more scary Justin will be compared to otl given the much better training.

Also got to wonder how the hell the political POV of the Suns is given all the changes from otl.

 

[Nalanaya]

Ah, he started with the prologue chapters in the BT ideas thread. There was a small mention and summary on the notes of the first chapter but I don't think he gave the link.

https://forum.questionablequesting....discussions-thread.4740/page-338#post-6812214

Edit: Reference to the Essence he is using can be found here: https://forum.questionablequesting....discussions-thread.4740/page-101#post-5134727

The basics of it is he can design and/or buy BT units using the MegaMekLab app as a basis, either with money or BV from a daily allowance (or from salvaging units with the power as a "recycle" option). Loyal crews can also be created with them, and groups/factions can be used as reference to their background/nature. There is indeed a normalizing function so there's less questions about things popping out of thin air.

Click to shrink...

With that in mind, reposting the prologue chapters and a link to the cyoa if not an AN at the top of the first post would still be a good idea.

 

[Imperator Pax]

On another note I do have to wonder just how much more scary Justin will be compared to otl given the much better training.

Also got to wonder how the hell the political POV of the Suns is given all the changes from otl.

Click to shrink...

Justin in an actual real mech you mean /Lyran. I kid I'm not going to give Justin an Atlas.

That being said regarding the FedSuns, what do you mean.

I mean Hanse is still around, and its clear from what little we do know of Ian's reign he involved his brother but also that Ian was the one who started talks with the Lyran commonwealth and that that was continued under Hanse.

 

[Bofors40mm]

More so thinking about what MHD is up to. And for that matter the whole Hanse getting Married thing.

 

[Imperator Pax]

More so thinking about what MHD is up to. And for that matter the whole Hanse getting Married thing.

Click to shrink...

Hanse and Dana (I think thats her name, I barely ever write her so...) will show up during New Avalon and Michael will show up later on as well so neither of them hav been forgotten about

 

[Bofors40mm]

yes Dana is her name, also got to wonder what the hell ian is doing on the romance front given the whole he's not dead but also but more likely to be on new avalon a lot more given his close brush with death

 

[namar13766]

Well, I think the SI has now successfully butterflied away the FedCom

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well, I think the SI has now successfully butterflied away the FedCom

Click to shrink...

ehhh as a merger of states perhaps. as a alliance? the conditions where there when Ian was around.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Well, I think the SI has now successfully butterflied away the FedCom

Click to shrink...

As a Union of the realms quite possibly, but the alliance itself was initially between Ian and Katrina and was continued by Hanse. It is however unlikely that Ian would wed Melissa, it is very unlikely that Ian would be remitted holding off marriage for such a long period of time

 

[Bofors40mm]

more realistically if a union of states happens its going to occur with the next generation. ie the 3040s/3050s

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 1.5​

The weekend had finally dawned, and he had hastily perhaps even in an unseemly manner beaten a retreat to his land hold deep in the red desert and mountains to the northwest of the capital. It had been here that they had conducted testing and evaluation off campus of Justin's class.

Making a decision that might have in itself have been partially ill advised he decided to expanse the small force of Freebirths who had participated in the battle of Halstead Station. On Halstead he had deployed a pair of Zorya light tanks of Clan Hells Horses... today however in similar colors of black of stylized orange flames a Triumph arrived. Its heavy vehicle bays carrying only, admittedly fusion powered, eighty ton IS standard vehicles.

Sckrek and Devastators... the latter some times known as Demolisher Mk III tanks using the same 240 Fusion engine as the triple PPC carrier. The Eight Light Vehicles though were more Zoryas bringing his total to ten.

... but that wasn't all the essence allowed the generation of crew personnel. The ability to give them ATOW esque character builds. While everyone had character skills, and traits, they couldn't be modified after the effect, and all subsequent 'level ups' had to be done manually. He had to spend BV to level up his own skills, which seemed to be the only exception.

Halstead, and of course just recently he'd been in such a rush he hadn't bothered to do anything more than allow auto generation from a list of options and basic backgrounds. The transparent screen prompted him to designate a unit name, and in a fit of pique so was born the Robinson Assault Cluster under one of the few trueborn in the unit utilizing the tanker bloodname Robinson.

The Zorya profile was already known the FedSuns and he doubted the light tanks would attract any further attention... at least as long as he was careful. The 'cluster' was also in its current form very understrength... he could change that later, but for now he just wanted a DropShip full of angry vehicles to give anyone attempting to attack him head on a very bad day.

He was also banking on heavy vehicles, even fusion powered ones so long as they weren't lost tech SLDF designs were unlikely to attract the sort of attention that an equivalent tonnage of mechs would.... it was the reason he had had to pass on spawning similar cost and tonnage Fury Tanks at the moment... a 4.17M C Bills they would have been ideal but they were 'los tech'... but Bristol was 7 Jumps from here.

In order to further obfuscate any other necessities, he also intended to establish a secondary jumpship contingent of nominal Jarnfolk origin, but he probably wouldn't do that until the first of the year. It would provide JumpShips for the Federated Suns in the form of nominally nomadic weirdoes with some ties to himself, but without explicit ownership of such ships... and it would allow him to open up trade away from the front lines with the Draconis Combine. P{erhas a dedicated route from Robinson to New Avalon... or an internal circuit that expanded trade with the interesting worlds of the Federated suns 'interior', rimward... but that would be for later.

While he might expand the Cluster to an actual cluster it would be much much later, though it would probably be a proper assault cluster along Hells Horses lines... the Combine would probably come knocking eventually.

Of that he was sure.

In the mean time though... he needed support personnel. Unlike crew personnel or infantry ... well support personnel only cost 1 BV and were subject to the same character generation as crew personnel. Infantry were way more expensive by comparison, it was quite absurd in his opinion... maybe the essence identified as Clanner, he mused as he scrolled through the cost of infantry equipment.

For that single BV a unique person came into the world. Farmers, blue collar workers, office salaraiman. That was just a handful of inner sphere options. Clan affiliations were broken along caste lines... in the sense of merchant, laborer, technician, and scientist castes.

When you got right down to it, with some finagling he could go find some lost world and build his own hidden world.

--
Yvonne Davion ignorant of machinations within the county to the north east of her present residence. What was really the duke's guest house, and indeed one she suspected signified that her presence alarmed him... most likely his newest noble neighbor, who of course Ian had directly enfeefed to New Avalon was a beacon to invite the Combine to attack.

Which wasn't an unreasonable assumption. Where in trivid blockbusters for the masses there were crass jokes that whole divisions would come crashing down for defiling some nobleman's daughter ... in the Combine's case it wasn't unreasonable to assume that another Sword of Light unit might attempt to avenge the Second's destruction... and it wasn't impossible that some warlord might try to win fame and distinction by acting on his own.

They had no evidence to support such a thing being in the works... and the truth was the DCMS probably were unable to support such an offensive... not after the victories on Mallory's World and Hallstead station the combine's other mech units had taken a beating that would take years to recover from...

... and indeed from their intelligence reports the Combine was proving slower to recoup its losses than expected. Since Halstead Station had been a raid the Combine should have been able to salvage their losses after the battlefield, but it seemed as if the toxic nature of the planet had hampered recovery efforts... not surprising given the loss of the city of Madison as a consequence of the fighting. That bought them time at least... but the Coordinator would need to make a move sooner rather than later it was the nature of the beast.

"Are these the reports?" She asked rhetorically to one of the Davion Guards officers who occupied a position on her staff.

"They are ma'am."

"Anything in particular?"

"Corean Enterprises construction on New Avalon, in particular the cost of the deal to build the battlemech line."

She raised an eyebrow. Most people asking about BattleMech factories wanted ... well other details, things like production volume or in the case of sabotage security procedures... the monetary value of a factory was... was if a corporate interest or noble wanted to know how much something cost... because he wanted it, or a competing option...

... but that was absurd, even the most quintessential lyran social generals didn't pour their entire gdp into new factories for bragging rights... and yet... by all indications they'd seen no evidence that the income earned by the more than a dozen JumpShips now plying routes from New Avalon was doing nothing but sitting idle in the banks.

There had been no activity... despite some of those ships starting their routes in January of 3014.. and those also tended to be the more impressive large Star Lords not the smaller more common Merchants.

Working from the heir theory it wasn't unlikely that the day to day expenses of maintaining a noble household couldn't be maintained through another account, perhaps money inherited alongside the JumpShips themselves, but even so the complete lack of movement in the cash from the carrying trade was unusual.

... but she was already over the line with the DMI's mandate and into MIIO's territory. She'd need to pass it along or there would be a turf war, especially if there was nothing here. If this was completely benign and for the benefit of the Federated Suns... well the succession wars had reiterated the Age of War before it the lesson of don't kill golden geese... and more importantly don't allow rival kingdoms to kill your golden geese.
--
He made the return to campus Sunday evening, and Monday morning had found himself in a conversation the officer who served as the 5th​ Guards liaison... who was himself embroiled in a discussion, by the time he arrived, about the planned new garrison for the RCT on Spica.

Spica.

Now there was something he dreaded. He remembered painfully little of the details of the warrior trilogy, and in truth he liked the actual Justin Allard moody teen mechwarrior more than what he remembered of the protagonist of the trilogy... and while quintessentially BattleTech and emblematic even of the sort of table top rpg games he would play in another world... he wasn't sure he could allow by choice the events of the novel to play out.

There in sort of lay the logistical issue... "Correct me if I am mistaken but Spica is, by its most direct JumpShip route, fifteen jumps?"

"That is correct." The officer from the fifth replied clearly weighing his age versus his reputation... and it looked like his age was winning that. The truth was it couldn't really be helped, and to a degree was probably to be expected. Some people were just not going to get around it.

"And that assumes you want to to jump into capellan space." The Field Marshal remarked.

"Which I wouldn't be," He replied, unless he was invading... and well if he was doing that... well Star Lords were cheap, so much cheaper than outfitting them with the necessary invasion force to bring a planet to heel... but he reminded himself that he could not do that. He wasn't the wolf dragoons spawning five regiments of pristine battlemechs was absolutely out of the question... "that's about twice the distance I'm comfortable with, to be honest." Doing the mental math of 15 jumps that was a hundred and ten days... three and a half months. That was just one way, and even without skirting the border issue at almost 360 ly distance ... too far. "Its too far," He muttered.

His mental mathematics were abrogated as the Chancellor cleared his throat... "I am pleased to announce to you all that our storied institution will be playing host to a special event. His Grace the Duke of Robinson is en route with the finest cadets of the RBA looking to test themselves against our own, in addition we will be playing host with another Opposing Force Candidates as well." The chancellor's words were perfunctory, rehearsed, calm.

Vice Chancellor Coleridge immediately left the stage as soon as the polite applause for the Chancellor ended and made a beeline to the cluster he was standing amidst. Sakhara was fully prepared to host RBA or DMM OpFor... but they absolutely wanted to win. Coleridge wanted to win. Enough that if he could have gotten away with it ... well he'd have resorted to a change in line up... but the Chancellor had refused to allow it. So Colonel Coleridge intended for the next best thing... the cadets needed to be ready.

A readiness he did not believe that they had achieved in part due to the events of the previous week.. not only were there extant disciplinary problems one of the more capable classes of mechwarriors had been trounced by an OpFor unit despite their numerical advantage. To Coleridge this signified that they weren't ready... and that meant pushing them to do better.

--
Notes: Yes theoretically a a union might occur in the 3040s but that would run into pother potential issues that I have planned in that part of the timeline. That being said the Essence says don't worry about where the money goes so I won't.

But 'recycling' well those recycled HPGs are going to end up somewhere and with knock on consequences down the road, after all the successor states would pay money for those... but thats down the road.

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

Is it bad I just fully realized this system runs on BV or Cbills? Not gonna lie I looked over the cost of some of the early Clan Mechs and ASF and kind did an evil laugh.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Is it bad I just fully realized this system runs on BV or Cbills? Not gonna lie I looked over the cost of some of the early Clan Mechs and ASF and kind did an evil laugh.

Click to shrink...

I think you just found out how I felt a couple weeks ago

 

[HunterxReader]

Sakhara 1.5​

The weekend had finally dawned, and he had hastily perhaps even in an unseemly manner beaten a retreat to his land hold deep in the red desert and mountains to the northwest of the capital. It had been here that they had conducted testing and evaluation off campus of Justin's class.

Making a decision that might have in itself have been partially ill advised he decided to expanse the small force of Freebirths who had participated in the battle of Halstead Station. On Halstead he had deployed a pair of Zorya light tanks of Clan Hells Horses... today however in similar colors of black of stylized orange flames a Triumph arrived. Its heavy vehicle bays carrying only, admittedly fusion powered, eighty ton IS standard vehicles.

Sckrek and Devastators... the latter some times known as Demolisher Mk III tanks using the same 240 Fusion engine as the triple PPC carrier. The Eight Light Vehicles though were more Zoryas bringing his total to ten.

... but that wasn't all the essence allowed the generation of crew personnel. The ability to give them ATOW esque character builds. While everyone had character skills, and traits, they couldn't be modified after the effect, and all subsequent 'level ups' had to be done manually. He had to spend BV to level up his own skills, which seemed to be the only exception.

Halstead, and of course just recently he'd been in such a rush he hadn't bothered to do anything more than allow auto generation from a list of options and basic backgrounds. The transparent screen prompted him to designate a unit name, and in a fit of pique so was born the Robinson Assault Cluster under one of the few trueborn in the unit utilizing the tanker bloodname Robinson.

The Zorya profile was already known the FedSuns and he doubted the light tanks would attract any further attention... at least as long as he was careful. The 'cluster' was also in its current form very understrength... he could change that later, but for now he just wanted a DropShip full of angry vehicles to give anyone attempting to attack him head on a very bad day.

He was also banking on heavy vehicles, even fusion powered ones so long as they weren't lost tech SLDF designs were unlikely to attract the sort of attention that an equivalent tonnage of mechs would.... it was the reason he had had to pass on spawning similar cost and tonnage Fury Tanks at the moment... a 4.17M C Bills they would have been ideal but they were 'los tech'... but Bristol was 7 Jumps from here.

In order to further obfuscate any other necessities, he also intended to establish a secondary jumpship contingent of nominal Jarnfolk origin, but he probably wouldn't do that until the first of the year. It would provide JumpShips for the Federated Suns in the form of nominally nomadic weirdoes with some ties to himself, but without explicit ownership of such ships... and it would allow him to open up trade away from the front lines with the Draconis Combine. P{erhas a dedicated route from Robinson to New Avalon... or an internal circuit that expanded trade with the interesting worlds of the Federated suns 'interior', rimward... but that would be for later.

While he might expand the Cluster to an actual cluster it would be much much later, though it would probably be a proper assault cluster along Hells Horses lines... the Combine would probably come knocking eventually.

Of that he was sure.

In the mean time though... he needed support personnel. Unlike crew personnel or infantry ... well support personnel only cost 1 BV and were subject to the same character generation as crew personnel. Infantry were way more expensive by comparison, it was quite absurd in his opinion... maybe the essence identified as Clanner, he mused as he scrolled through the cost of infantry equipment.

For that single BV a unique person came into the world. Farmers, blue collar workers, office salaraiman. That was just a handful of inner sphere options. Clan affiliations were broken along caste lines... in the sense of merchant, laborer, technician, and scientist castes.

When you got right down to it, with some finagling he could go find some lost world and build his own hidden world.

Click to shrink...

Huh, I just noticed you used Clanners for your tanks. Well, might as well use one with some semblance of combined tactics and one where your tank crews being comparable to Inner Sphere ones aren't questionable (considering that from what I remember, the average gunnery/pilot of tankers is 1 worse for Clanners), outside of "why is a Hell's Horse unit in the FedSuns!?".


And yeah, if you can modify the skill levels of support personnel, you probably have the most dangerous and efficient administration and logistics train in the Inner Sphere for no more than a a few hundred BV. And if you're using Clan Hell's Horses for a template, you can probably make your own Elementals, and Clantech in general. Your scientists and techs are probably as valuable as Jumpships to the nations of the Inner Sphere.

Edit: Ah, and you can recycle back to C-bills in this version. Yeah, you can basically print money considering that from what I remember, HPGs cost 0 BV and a shit-ton of money in the Lab.

Edit 2: With how young you are, Coleridge could have slipped you in the Cadet group for the event if not for one problem, your fame from Mallory's World and Halstead Station. And it looks like its time for your original idea/joke: "If you can't beat a company of Warhammers, you certainly are not gonna survive against the Dracs!"

 

[Imperator Pax]

Huh, I just noticed you used Clanners for your tanks. Well, might as well use one with some semblance of combined tactics and one where your tank crews being comparable to Inner Sphere ones aren't questionable (considering that from what I remember, the average gunnery/pilot of tankers is 1 worse for Clanners), outside of "why is a Hell's Horse unit in the FedSuns!?".


And yeah, if you can modify the skill levels of support personnel, you probably have the most dangerous and efficient administration and logistics train in the Inner Sphere for no more than a a few hundred BV. And if you're using Clan Hell's Horses for a template, you can probably make your own Elementals, and Clantech in general. Your scientists and techs probably as valuable as Jumpships to the nations of the Inner Sphere.

Edit: Ah, and you can recycle back to C-bills in this version. Yeah, you can basically print money considering that from what I remember, HPGs cost 0 BV and a shit-ton of money in the Lab.

Click to shrink...

Its worse than that, Crew and pilots are free for the unit. Generating support personnel is 1 BV a person.

Essences are great!