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

[HunterxReader]

uhhh shouldn't you at least have the clanners going by IS ranks?


also the von rhors sucks as a design unless modified to be a thunderbolt expy or give lostech. the FE 325 just masses too much

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Yeah, the Von Rohrs is sub-optimal, losing a ton of free weight over the Grand Dragon. I suggested it for the Combine simulation because it's a 5/8 heavy (fitting the DC's current doctrine for low-end heavies) and it'll piss off the Combine akin to how the Swordsman is for the Suns.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Alright I'm coming in from dming ten people because all the plus ones so I will probably follow this up with another post tomrrow when i'm not tired.

You hear that Alexandria, that's the sound of at least one more ass-kicking before you graduate. At least you can take comfort in that you're sharing the love with the rest of the years. Heh, I wonder what set of units is he going to unveil next, because the only thing I see matching the Combine's mobile warfare in Henry's current TOE is the Trebuchet, though I suppose some of those newly delivered Merlins would fit.

Edit: It's also possible to refit the Trebuchet as a 50-ton Quickdraw if need be (seriously, without weight saving components, they could be the same mech with only a weight difference). Would be better one as well with the Trebuchet's Fast Reload and Easy to Maintain quirks (if you're willing to sacrifice Hyper-Extending Actuators). To tweak the nose of the Dracs a bit more you could revive the Gladiator and, if you really want to be a magnet for trouble, the Von Rohrs (which might as well be a heavier Grand Dragon).



Yeah, getting front row seats on negotiations of this high of a level would be quite the privilege, and allow her to network as well. I'd say she's quite grateful, but this does also expose her to the larger scale Henry's brand of bullcrap. Eh, as a future aid to Yvonne, it's only proper to share her headaches.

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Yes the networking is important, though Alexandria initially was worried this was going another direction

Heh. Henry, they weren't complaining you could only 'barely' surpass the Star Lord production power of the Combine's less than optimal economy, they were pointing out the absurdity of you being able to double or triple it!

Considering Henry's already introducing some mech designs early, I wonder what can be done for equipment, namely weapons. Something like the Light/Heavy PPC would be a hard sell since the closest thing the Inner Sphere has right now is the Blazer and I don't know how long it would take to transform LRMs to MRMs, but Rocket Launchers and Multi-Missile Launchers seem viable.

The primitive version of the former predates the Terran Hegemony, and the latter was simple enough that a mercenary outfit invented it (albeit by a unit known for its technicians, though with your track record it wouldn't be unbelievable).

Light ACs would appeal to the Davion stereotype, but considering a LAC is more expensive than their standard counterpart, I assume it makes use of materials/processes similar to LB-X ACs. Protomech ACs might as well be Clantech LACs, but those and Chemical Lasers do show up on some Zhukov designs, so that's something to look forward.

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MMLs are due to show up first out of those, I pretty much had discarded the light / heavy ppcs showing up any time soon LBXs will show up before LACs but thats also because of certain other things that will showing up besides the tanks

i must sleep now

 

[Bofors40mm]

Yeah, the Von Rohrs is sub-optimal, losing a ton of free weight over the Grand Dragon. I suggested it for the Combine simulation because it's a 5/8 heavy (fitting the DC's current doctrine for low-end heavies) and it'll piss off the Combine akin to how the Swordsman is for the Suns.

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Better to build a 60 ton design for the 5/8 heavy role
Or just keep making the Longsword for a flexible and solid mech that fills the brawler/cavalry hybrid role really well and can stand on the frontlines for a decent period of time....Also its well cheaper and easier to build than the Von Rhors since no one makes FE 325s in this era.

The Gladiator though....yeah that's a solid 55 ton calvary mech if needing a bit more armor distributed to the back. Certainly better than any existing Shadow Hawk variant in this era(that reminds me I need to post a Shadow Hawk variant I have lying around) and most Wolverine variants (6M as always is king) and works well with both in production griffin variants along with the Kintaro and Dervish(another mech I need to post my introtech variant for even if it's a pretty simple mod of pulling the 2 SRMs-2s and their ammo for 2 MLs and making the 2 LRM-10s 4 LRM-5s and using the saved mass to add 2 tons of armor to get it to the 55 ton mech of this era standard of 9.5 tons and 2 heatsinks for a total of 12 to make the 4 MLs able to fire frequently and make jumping more useful)

 

[HunterxReader]

Better to build a 60 ton design for the 5/8 heavy role
Or just keep making the Longsword for a flexible and solid mech that fills the brawler/cavalry hybrid role really well and can stand on the frontlines for a decent period of time....Also its well cheaper and easier to build than the Von Rhors since no one makes FE 325s in this era.

The Gladiator though....yeah that's a solid 55 ton calvary mech if needing a bit more armor distributed to the back. Certainly better than any existing Shadow Hawk variant in this era(that reminds me I need to post a Shadow Hawk variant I have lying around) and most Wolverine variants (6M as always is king) and works well with both in production griffin variants along with the Kintaro and Dervish(another mech I need to post my introtech variant for even if it's a pretty simple mod of pulling the 2 SRMs-2s and their ammo for 2 MLs and making the 2 LRM-10s 4 LRM-5s and using the saved mass to add 2 tons of armor to get it to the 55 ton mech of this era standard of 9.5 tons and 2 heatsinks for a total of 12 to make the 4 MLs able to fire frequently and make jumping more useful)

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True, looks like the only thing that uses the 325 in this era is the rare Koschei (AC/10 and 2 MLs, really? At least the variants did the sensible thing and swap out the big gun), and production's long been halted for that.

Yeah, I'd normally be down for swapping out SRMs for MLs, especially for PPC skirmishers like the Phoenix, but the Gladiator is at the right tonnage that an SRM for versatility and less heat works, similar to the Kintaro. The Dervish though, yeah while waiting for MMLs an SRM->ML swap is better. LRM-5 swapping I usually do on a case-by-case basis, because the crit resilience and tonnage saved is offset for me by the need to do more targeting/to-hit rolls and more weight+space for Artemis.

 

[Bofors40mm]

My formidable shadow hawk variant.

Spoiler: Shadow Hawk SHD-2F

Shadow Hawk SHD-2F
Mass: 55 tons
Chassis: Earthwerks SHD
Power Plant: CoreTek 275
Cruising Speed: 54 kph
Maximum Speed: 86.4 kph
Armor: Maximilian 43
Armament:
2 Medium Laser
1 LRM 5
1 SRM 6
1 Large Laser
Communication System: O/P 300 COMSET
Targeting & Tracking System: O/P 2000A
Introduction Year: 3020
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-E-D-D
Cost: 4,936,957 C-bills
Type: Shadow Hawk
Role: Skirmisher
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Introductory)
Tonnage: 55
Battle Value: 1,269

Equipment		Mass
Internal Structure		5.5
Engine	275 Fusion	15.5
Walking MP:	5
Running MP:	8
Jumping MP:	5
Heat Sink:	12	2
Gyro:		3
Cockpit:		3
Armor Factor:	152	9.5

	Internal Structure	Armor Value
Head	3	9
Center Torso	18	23
Center Torso (rear)		8
R/L Torso	13	18
R/L Torso (rear)		6
R/L Arm	9	16
R/L Leg	13	16

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
Jump Jet	CT	1	0.5
Heat Sink	RT	1	1
LRM 5 Ammo (24)	RT	1	1
2 Jump Jet	RT	2	1
LRM 5	RT	1	2
SRM 6	RT	2	3
SRM 6 Ammo (15)	RT	1	1
Medium Laser	LA	1	1
2 Jump Jet	LT	2	1
Large Laser	LT	2	5
Medium Laser	RA	1	1

It does the role of all 3 introtech shadow hawk variants decently well and also has some Wolverine 6-M DNA mixed in.

 

[Imperator Pax]

That would probably be more appropriate to either Ghost or Aurigan Renaissance to be honest, its not that the Fed Suns don't produce the Shadow Hawk we know that they do but that machine seems approrpiate to the mission roles that the Magistracy of Canopus and the Aurigans need in the pirate wars

 

[Bofors40mm]

actually the suns don't make the shadow hawk in this era since the caph plant got 1st SW'd. They seize the means to make them from the capellans in the 4th SW. Hell I'm pretty sure at this point only 3 plants for the design in this era exist period on Nanking, Dunainshire, and Calloway IV.


Also its meant to be a refit of the POS that is the 2-D variant since it has a greater up close punch but half the ammo bombs and much much better armor plus the 2 extra jump jets increase mobility. That being said I could see the MOC making it since its a much better at being a generalist than the 2-H. Feal free to use it though

 

[HunterxReader]

actually the suns don't make the shadow hawk in this era since the caph plant got 1st SW'd. They seize the means to make them from the capellans in the 4th SW. Hell I'm pretty sure at this point only 3 plants for the design in this era exist period on Nanking, Dunainshire, and Calloway IV.


Also its meant to be a refit of the POS that is the 2-D variant since it has a greater up close punch but half the ammo bombs and much much better armor plus the 2 extra jump jets increase mobility. That being said I could see the MOC making it since its a much better at being a generalist than the 2-H. Feal free to use it though

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Only Calloway and Dunainshire for now I think, Nanking is post-Clan Invasion since they're mentioned under Project Phoenix.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Only Calloway and Dunainshire for now I think, Nanking is post-Clan Invasion since they're mentioned under Project Phoenix.

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Huh. So of the classic trio of 55 ton mechs it's least produced and of the existing 55 ton mechs in production only the Kintaro and Dervish have less sites. And of course the poor Gladiator which despite being solid as heck lacks anyone making it.

 

[HunterxReader]

Huh. So of the classic trio of 55 ton mechs it's least produced and of the existing 55 ton mechs in production only the Kintaro and Dervish have less sites. And of course the poor Gladiator which despite being solid as heck lacks anyone making it.

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Yeah, it's a shame that Merryweather never managed to send out the -4R, it's a decent generalist with simple heat management when you bracket fire. It would've made a good sidekick, if not substitute, to lances with the classic trio. If we assume some of its quirks were due to it being a prototype and with leave in the positives, Cowl makes it more survivable, but with Unbalanced it's about on par with the Griffin's Rugged+Battlefist, though it loses out on the Shad (Rugged+Battlefists+Improved Life Support) and the Wolverine's plethora of positives even with a downside of Cramped Cockpit.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Honestly I suspect the unbalanced quirk of the Gladiator 4R is semi easily solved via moving the close up weapons to other side of the mech.
Still for a semi prototype design with a limited run and not much time to iron out the kinks and it's parent company retooling and then getting nuked to death there's still like 500 of the things running around the IS in 3025 assuming the XTOL tables are accurate or about half the total production run. That's more than the striker or crab and the striker was made for so so long and in bulk and it's a decently tanky assault for its size and speed and the crab can't ya know explode and had almost double the numbers made even if we take the too low for my tastes 2000 produced as the true production figure

Honestly the Gladiator totally could be a solid mech if someone just finished the design work and R&D and produced it probably a due to a mix of its a good design even as is without refinement that presumably no one owns the rights to anymore and to troll the dracs (albeit best to put the plant on a safe world far from drac space). It does make me wonder what other quirks it would get though if refined. Mind you I'm not sold on the cowl quirk given it costs a lot of points for meh results.

And yeah the Wolverine has a stupid amount of net positive quirk points. I think it's tied with the atlas for the most from what I recall

 

[HunterxReader]

Honestly I suspect the unbalanced quirk of the Gladiator 4R is semi easily solved via moving the close up weapons to other side of the mech.
Still for a semi prototype design with a limited run and not much time to iron out the kinks and it's parent company retooling and then getting nuked to death there's still like 500 of the things running around the IS in 3025 assuming the XTOL tables are accurate or about half the total production run. That's more than the striker or crab and the striker was made for so so long and in bulk and it's a decently tanky assault for its size and speed and the crab can't ya know explode and had almost double the numbers made even if we take the too low for my tastes 2000 produced as the true production figure

Honestly the Gladiator totally could be a solid mech if someone just finished the design work and R&D and produced it probably a due to a mix of its a good design even as is without refinement that presumably no one owns the rights to anymore and to troll the dracs (albeit best to put the plant on a safe world far from drac space). It does make me wonder what other quirks it would get though if refined. Mind you I'm not sold on the cowl quirk given it costs a lot of points for meh results.

And yeah the Wolverine has a stupid amount of net positive quirk points. I think it's tied with the atlas for the most from what I recall

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Considering it has hands, Battlefists for brawling. Maybe the systems on the Wolverine or Phoenix Hawk can give it Improved Comms/Command Mech.

Yeah, by 3-SW standards, the only ones I could find based on positive points that could match was the Ostscout (Narrow/Low Profile is understandably costly, and the Improved Sensors as well) and the Rifleman (the AA Targeting gives it a lot of points).

 

[Imperator Pax]

Honestly I suspect the unbalanced quirk of the Gladiator 4R is semi easily solved via moving the close up weapons to other side of the mech.
Still for a semi prototype design with a limited run and not much time to iron out the kinks and it's parent company retooling and then getting nuked to death there's still like 500 of the things running around the IS in 3025 assuming the XTOL tables are accurate or about half the total production run. That's more than the striker or crab and the striker was made for so so long and in bulk and it's a decently tanky assault for its size and speed and the crab can't ya know explode and had almost double the numbers made even if we take the too low for my tastes 2000 produced as the true production figure

Honestly the Gladiator totally could be a solid mech if someone just finished the design work and R&D and produced it probably a due to a mix of its a good design even as is without refinement that presumably no one owns the rights to anymore and to troll the dracs (albeit best to put the plant on a safe world far from drac space). It does make me wonder what other quirks it would get though if refined. Mind you I'm not sold on the cowl quirk given it costs a lot of points for meh results.

And yeah the Wolverine has a stupid amount of net positive quirk points. I think it's tied with the atlas for the most from what I recall

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Yeah in GWW (and also Aurigan technically, later on) the Azami produce the Gladiator though thats several years down the road

The FedSuns produce (currently I mean, since ShadowHawk) the Wolverine in this period yes?

 

[Bofors40mm]

Yeah in GWW (and also Aurigan technically, later on) the Azami produce the Gladiator though thats several years down the road

The FedSuns produce (currently I mean, since ShadowHawk) the Wolverine in this period yes?

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They do indeed along with the griffin albeit their plant on marduck is more than a little exposed being basically on the border. Also a problem with Quentin and Kathil as well.....and for that matter a lot of military industrial sites in general across the IS. Honestly you think all of those would be long gone from nuke o clock by the end of the 2nd SW

 

[Imperator Pax]

Might be a good idea to repaint those titans and the like. And arguably gene should have gone with the stock 18 bird sldf era titans.
Either way them and their birds are stupidly useful for the academy since it will let them branch out into aerospace and dropship training if wanted

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I only remembered to come back to this because I'm currently editting tomorrow's update (for Ghost)

So Henry shouldn't have a totally 'Star League' blackbox engine factory making 325 FE making totally not Hellbringers

I kid, I discarded that idea a while ago due to manufacturing and technological assistance packages being the focus, as a result most of the RAC's mechs are 70 ton and up designs

 

[HunterxReader]

I only remembered to come back to this because I'm currently editting tomorrow's update (for Ghost)

So Henry shouldn't have a totally 'Star League' blackbox engine factory making 325 FE making totally not Hellbringers

I kid, I discarded that idea a while ago due to manufacturing and technological assistance packages being the focus, as a result most of the RAC's mechs are 70 ton and up designs

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Yeah, the Fusion Engines of 65-tonners really don't have much use for mechs outside of that specific weight, but at least the 325 does give you access to the Exterminator-4A if you want to justify replicating Null Sig and Chameleon later on.

With Henry's preference for multi-weight use fusion engines, I presume that leaves out 85 and 95-tonners.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Yeah, the Fusion Engines of 65-tonners really don't have much use for mechs outside of that specific weight, but at least the 325 does give you access to the Exterminator-4A if you want to justify replicating Null Sig and Chameleon later on.

With Henry's preference for multi-weight use fusion engines, I presume that leaves out 85 and 95-tonners.

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A bit, 95 tonners really prove to be Gene's schtick in terms of in house production of the landhold but thats years in the future

 

[Bofors40mm]

hmmmm. banshees and/or something else?

 

[Wargamer08]

hmmmm. banshees and/or something else?

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He's already dropping clan mechs. So why not Turkinas or if not something from the green chickens then more seriously Nightstars?

 

[Imperator Pax]

why the hell is multi quote not working?

hmmmm. banshees and/or something else?

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He's already dropping clan mechs. So why not Turkinas or if not something from the green chickens then more seriously Nightstars?

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I'm going to direct you on the topic of this question to the Junkyard thread,

EDIT: Ok actually that snippet is less further along than I thought it was, Gene in the 4th succession war has the machinery from the Dobrev to produce the ClanTech Bullshark... and more specifically is using it to manufacture a hybrid of that and the NightStar with LBX 10s thus in many respects a variant of the FC Nightstar for the invasion of the Capellans which will likely put him in the position to in the 3030s producing the down teched pillager

 

[Bofors40mm]

i mean.....the nightstar plant on kathil is intact if lacking lostech inputs and a staff....

 

[HunterxReader]

Alright I'm coming in from dming ten people because all the plus ones so I will probably follow this up with another post tomrrow when i'm not tired.


Yes the networking is important, though Alexandria initially was worried this was going another direction


MMLs are due to show up first out of those, I pretty much had discarded the light / heavy ppcs showing up any time soon LBXs will show up before LACs but thats also because of certain other things that will showing up besides the tanks

i must sleep now

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Ah, I'm not exactly good at reading subtext, but did Alexandria assume she was a marriage prospect/Henry was trying to get close to her?

Ah, I see. Well, there's quite a few fun things in the Unofficial section of Ballistics (in the MMLabs) for the future I'd recommend if Henry ever wants to become the Patron Saint of Autocannons to the FS.

I mentioned it because of LAC, as MML has LAC/10 and LAC/20, along with similar versions for RAC. There's also the Rail Gun and the Gatling ACs, the former's a better iHeavy Gauss Rifle and the latter might as well be Gauss Autocannons: dual shot ACs (Edit: though I think they just deal damage equal to twice their rating) with a range just 1 hex shorter than a LGR, -1 to hit and can still use specialty AC ammo (I imagine this is the point where AFFS pilots and tankers become the foaming mouth guy from Avatar). These ones would probably be best used by the Clan Invasion.

But for earlier, there's some quirky ones to give Yvonne more migraines: an improved AC/10 and a standard AC/15.

 

[Imperator Pax]

2.8​

Henry could not believe that the Federated Suns didn't still produce the Shadow Hawk... there were no words. No Words. It boggled the mind, he looked at Galster over his folded fingers fingers, which were pressing into the bridge of his nose, "But they produce the wolverine right?" After receiving and confirming the affirmative, he sighed, "Well at least there is that." He didn't mean for it to come out as nearly petulant as it sounded, but some of it was genuine exasperation.

Yvonne's comment yesterday about the shipping manufacturing capability of the Draconis Combine had in its own way rankled, perhaps unreasonably. It was reminder of way he kept from just dumping tons of new technology on the Fed Suns regardless of how badly at times he just wanted to introduce early clan weapons as an excusable improved iteration of autocannons... and that was without even touching other things in the auto cannon tree.

No... he needed to focus on 185mm production for assault auto cannons and for the others the lighter caliber used in the Imperator class five used by the Rifleman.... but also that just reminded him of his Zoryas sitting in garrison if it came to that.

"Still..." he groaned.

The fact that they didn't currently produce a shadow hawk... while annoying was something that could be worked around. In theory he had considered a Centurion that was effectively just a Trebuchet ... but that wasn't really a great solution. The Shadow Hawk would have been preferable, and potentially avoided any conspiracy theory yarn walls ... maybe, but it was also hard to pretend that wasn't aesthetics and personal preference playing a roll.

"We could sink capital into the line on Northwind."

That was currently, at best only producing spare parts, "We need actual factory first," It wasn't that he didn't like the idea of it, but the Trebuchet's flank speed was something to let it disengage so simply producing more of those wasn't going to address the problem. Not adequately in any event, "That is our priority, we will get the Centurion line," Lines really, "Operational," both here and on Robinson with the intention of padding out the Draconis March.

He wasn't sure where things stood with the Lyran Commonwealth, but he didn't immediately foresee a problem from that direction ... and building up the draconis march not only safeguarded against the Combine, but in theory it expanded the DMM for what was likely to be the inevitable clash with the clans of Kerensky, after all it was hard to miss that the Wolf Dragoons were a thing.

That was not something he was going to forget and he also in the two years that he'd been active in the Federated Suns was cognizant of the various crackpot theories and eccentric rich who among other urban legends talked about the Minnesota tribe as well as the vandenburg white wings the latter having occurred in the neighboring concordat. That merely reminded him of the threat of the clans, and of ComStar existing.

The FS needed industry, and economic build up. He needed to hold off on debuting more impressive systems until they were in a better footing in terms of looking across the border with the Combine. Even industry was likely to risk a response, but spamming LosTech or nuTech would likely draw ComStar and excuses to leverage the vulnerabilities of the HPG network, even if the Federated Suns' merchant marine was substantially expanded there was always the risk of a fifth column... not just blakists but also the Capellan March, which was why he wanted to build up the Draconis March first just in case Michael Hasek got any funny ideas about what appending -Davion to his last name entitled him to.

He supposed that when one got right down to it, he couldn't have lived many places else... in the inner sphere or otherwise... maybe Lyran space... but the Civil War in Marik space and how quick in canon they had been willing to team up with ComStar ... it was just hard to reconcile that. If there was any single threat within the Federated Suns he was wary about it was the whole doppelganger plot... and given that Yorinaga was dead and Ian Davion wasn't he was pretty sure that had been tossed off the rails... but there was always the chance it wasn't.


--
Yvonne Davion studied the itinerary as the young lady sat across from her. She didn't say it but well girls had been girls when she'd been at Avalon and the debutante rumor mill was still what it was. It had hte potential to be ugly, Sakhara was a gathering of the scions of impeccable breeding but that didn't change that they were still largely the heirs to those families.

Not that either of them could have done worse. The ruling family of Kestrel came from an established bloodline that traced its origins back to the SLDF. A long and storied history of mechwarriors not that she expected that was the concern at the moment. She, Yvonne, was well aware that Ian had ... most likely because she was probably one of the few noblewomen close to Henry's age at the wedding of his younger brother Hanse .... introduced the two. Something Ian probably shouldn't have done, since that in itself had been something of a faux pas, never minding her nephew and sovereign's ... state of intoxication at the time.

It had been the talk at the time at least for fifteen minutes before other matters came up... after all Ian had yet to do his duty in spite of pressure, and suggestions to marry and sire a trueborn heir. Hanse was thus heir apparent to the realm. Ian could not readily afford to wait... Mallory's world had been a chancy thing.

No one was likely to forget that... but that wasn't today's problem... but it could be said to be related to it. While not nearly the catch that marrying the First Prince would be, or his brother Hanse Ian had named Henry as Count of Sakhara which was not a small claim even if Henry didn't rule the planet. Even counting just the jumpship fleet, and the apparent productivity of the Germanium reserves of his possession that was valuable and never mind the prospect of the shipyards. The shipyards if built over Sakhara would render the Clay patrimony easily on the standards of dukes assuming it wasn't there already...

That wasn't public knowledge. The jumpships maybe... but not the money that could be sunk into. No the chatter of the girls would center on all the things that made the notion appealing.

Alexandria was older than he was. She was a senior. She'd be graduating soon. On the other hand despite being younger and technically in a lower year Henry was also technically a guest lecturer at Sakhara... and he was a war hero it was hard to trump his combat record even for men who'd been in uniform for their whole careers.

It was all too easy for the girls at their age to turn either one into scandalous villains, because their mothers and aunts would do the same thing for their own peers. It was how the game was played.

"Shall I spare you the trouble, all the suspense?" She asked putting the papers aside. It was really a rhetorical question, and of course the young countess of Kestrel knew that, and said nothing, "Let us be blunt about then, Lord Henry apparently sees fit enough that his disposable income," the nominally county treasure, "is sufficient to do more than fund the establishment of a BattleMech factory within his domain here. He has plans to build a shipyard..." she paused and measure the young woman's reaction, and then let the other shoe drop, "For Star Lord class JumpShips, not DropShips." It hadn't escaped Yvonne that Clay's JumpShip fleet was predominantly Star Lords either. "and he makes claims at least that he can support the creation of a second one."

She had actually listened to Clay outline what all went into a JumpShip Shipyard everything from the finalized assembly of components and hull... down the base level components. .. and yet in spite of that process's number of steps supposedly next year Henry Clay expected to replace the Star Lord that he had apparently needed to scrap.


For Alexandria's part she had the sense to recognize the value of the Star Lords as they were. The number of them necessary to establish a circuit from here to New Avalon that would make reaching the capital of the Federated Suns relatively quick and easy.

Yvonne recognized that Alexandria had most likely either been in the dark entirely or just not, had failed to put together the pieces... and why wouldn't she what they were dealing with was well beyond the normal scope of possibilities.
--
The question Justin asked was more why are you going than anything, "What's on New Avalon?" It was just the way he phrased it.

"The First Prince." Justin Allard rolled his eyes in the face of the droll response, but quipping aside, "I told you I have a lot going on," And that was part of the reason the JumpCircuit was going to be important because Yvonne's response told him he was going to need to put more effort in making regular trips rotations to New Avalon. He'd already expected that for Robinson, but Robinson was closer.

They stopped talking as the familiar thrum of 300 weight engines from the ASF overhead passed them by. Justin mostly shrugged it off, but the truth was the increase in ASF presence heralded the expansion of orbital infrastructure... and just in case any white wings showed up. It wasn't paranoia if they were actually out there... but ComStar maybe hadn't gotten their loop set yet... he might still have time to do a few more things.

"So you understand of course I don't expect Sakhara graduates to just jump in Centurions..." Henry trailed off, "I like the mathematical simplicity of whole lances and companies of 'mechs, especially if it were possible to support them with organic air and infantry, but as we've demonstrated the Centurion needs support in indirect fire."

"The base model doesn't have enough missiles." Justin reasonably observed, "And they don't have the ammunition to stand off... and even if they did a motivated force like the snakes will just try and push through." Which of course in theory could be addressed by the mass of armor on either side enveloping and destroying an attacker... but that was a circumstance not wholly unique to his forces but wasn't representative either. Justin looked at the paper, "What's this?" He asked.

"Consider it homework, I know it'll have less bearing posted on the Capellan front but the Combine started the succession wars, of the member states they're the largest challenge so I want the class prepared as best as possible to face that."

The Centurion wasn't perfect, but as a mass produced trooper 'mech was good enough, and being able to field enough of them to cover the frontage was probably the most important thing in the short term.
--
Notes: This is really an interim before we move into the next chapter but the principle difference between this and EWSG, which i will update eventually, in the long term is that Odin has the advantage of the FedCom coming together largely inline with canon. There are institutional advantages to having Hanse at the helm so to speak by the time the clans show up where as here Ian is alive and is not going to marry nor can he afford to wait that long to marry the heir to the Commonwealth. On the other hand Ian is alive, whether Mikey boy really thinks he's that hot in terms of trying something well we will see but Ian has a much stronger position than Hanse, especially if Hanse has children of his own... even though Ian really should have been married in canon by the time of his death.

 

[Bofors40mm]

well its a good thing the suns make trebuchets and dervishes on new avalon.
alas they don't make archers or crusaders, the later one is weird since kallon should have the specs since the FWL branch makes it and they definitely make the right gyros and engines since well....the jagermech is a thing. and the no archers is also semi weird since literally everyone else has at least 1 line for them.

 

[Imperator Pax]

well its a good thing the suns make trebuchets and dervishes on new avalon.
alas they don't make archers or crusaders, the later one is weird since kallon should have the specs since the FWL branch makes it and they definitely make the right gyros and engines since well....the jagermech is a thing. and the no archers is also semi weird since literally everyone else has at least 1 line for them.

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Yeah the archer is the thing, that arguably gets me the most, maybe even more so than the Shadow Hawk though that throws me for a loop because of how old it is and its clear role.

The crusader I can kind of understand it was a newer design but again as you say the specs should be there and given production and engines but there is even less excuse for the archer not being in production.

 

[Bofors40mm]

then again the suns also somehow don't make the warhammer which is weird as well given if nothing else you think achernar would make it since they'd probably retool their old hammerhands and battleaxe lines to it during the star league years and given those are on new avalon....


the shadow hawk makes sense given only the FWL of all the great houses makes them in this era. the warhammer and archer not to mention the crusader and especially the thunderbolt less so.
especially given we know there's SL era suns only variants of the thunderbolt that have some advanced tech in them

 

[Imperator Pax]

then again the suns also somehow don't make the warhammer which is weird as well given if nothing else you think achernar would make it since they'd probably retool their old hammerhands and battleaxe lines to it during the star league years and given those are on new avalon....

Click to shrink...

& The Victor gets made because somehow the Fed Suns took the HIldCo line and it became their standard Assault some how.

Fasanomics man.

 

[Bofors40mm]

the centurion isn't perfect but put them with enforcers and hunchbacks and you have a solid medium trooper lineup

 

[HunterxReader]

then again the suns also somehow don't make the warhammer which is weird as well given if nothing else you think achernar would make it since they'd probably retool their old hammerhands and battleaxe lines to it during the star league years and given those are on new avalon....


the shadow hawk makes sense given only the FWL of all the great houses makes them in this era. the warhammer and archer not to mention the crusader and especially the thunderbolt less so.
especially given we know there's SL era suns only variants of the thunderbolt that have some advanced tech in them

Click to shrink...

When it comes to the Warhammer, pride maybe? A competitor made it and supplanted their own design, and there'd be no point in producing more Battleaxe and Hammerhands if they're not gonna sell during the SL-era.

Though it is weird that they didn't do anything with the lines while the SL was around, and you'd think they'd have tried to open up the lines again with the demand of the Succession Wars before they lost the technical understanding to do so.

About the Thunderbolt, Earthwerks is mainly a CC and FWL company, and the states probably regulated as to who they could sell/license to. During the SL-era there was greater availability as to who you'd be willing to sell to, and I assume the FS got it through trade considering the advanced Thunderbolts were refits.

.

"Shall I spare you the trouble, all the suspense?" She asked putting the papers aside. It was really a rhetorical question, and of course the young countess of Kestrel knew that, and said nothing, "Let us be blunt about then, Lord Henry apparently sees fit enough that his disposable income," the nominally county treasure, "is sufficient to do more than fund the establishment of a BattleMech factory within his domain here. He has plans to build a shipyard..." she paused and measure the young woman's reaction, and then let the other shoe drop, "For Star Lord class DropShips." It hadn't escaped Yvonne that Clay's JumpShip fleet was predominantly Star Lords either. "and he makes claims at least that he can support the creation of a second one."

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I think you meant to write Jumpships here.

 

[Bofors40mm]

When it comes to the Warhammer, pride maybe? A competitor made it and supplanted their own design, and there'd be no point in producing more Battleaxe and Hammerhands if they're not gonna sell during the SL-era.

Though it is weird that they didn't do anything with the lines while the SL was around, and you'd think they'd have tried to open up the lines again with the demand of the Succession Wars before they lost the technical understanding to do so.

.

Click to shrink...

There's a reason I made the longsword one of their designs in its writeup because i could see them make it making it during the SL years or in the succession wars once they dug up the battleaxe and hammerhands tooling