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

[Imperator Pax]

One Rabid Fox changes the Succession Wars
A BattleTech Isekai​

Sakhara Academy Dorms, October 3015
[2 years After Arrival]

The life in another world, in a universe of an eighties esque future of giant stompy robots, and plenty of neo feudal drama was complicated... even for an isekai protagonist, especially for an isekai protagonist. The truth was he didn't remember nearly enough of the lore to really do much per se, and he'd already irrevocably changed the timeline. Ironically a change that no one had really recognized or taken notice of as anything special, because it had meant someone not dying... that someone being the First prince of the Federated Suns... so he was the only one who recognized he'd changed things.

He had shown up on Mallory's world two years ago, and killed Yorinaga Kurita before the Phantom MechWarrior could kill the first prince...

That was fine.

It was equally fine really that the Davion News Media had focused on Ian Davion's victory over Takashi Kurita, his equal and equivalent in the Draconis Combine in the subsequent victory won at Halstead station. He assumed that the Combine either didn't really have news media or valued their lives enough to not talk about it. He doubted the other successor states cared.

That wasn't to say there weren't rewards... not counting the illicit salvage that he had engaged in under House Davion's nose while under contract for them. Not that he regretted that. The measly 25 points he accrued a day really wasn't nearly enough to do much by itself... he needed to accumulate more points to get the most out of his Isekai Cheat Power; 'The Essence'.

The thing that allowed him to rapidly boost his skills, as well as purchase equipment using currency or the points ... and in a world like BattleTech it was especially useful... especially considering that his Essence besides its gamer like functionality also had really broken exploitable values brought over seemingly directly from table top rules that emphasized combat by giant stompy robots.

He hit the blocky rectangular key marked play on the message machine. Future Eighties Man, he almost muttered. There were times where he was just prone to outbursts of the first reaction the things that just popped into his head... maybe it was just stress ... they were less frequent now, he had gotten used to being in this other world.

He didn't bother to play the messages... not right now. Truth be told he could sort of guess what they were about, and if he was wrong well then so what. He was trying to avoid planetary travel when he didn't have to less chance of the change in gravity fucking with his bones or something. He wanted his fucking adult height back... and surely part of that was how gangly a teenage body felt. How freaking unbalanced he felt ... outside of a mech anyway.

He consulted, as he habitually did his gameresque stats display. Clanners ... with their gene modded phenotypes could exceed the human normal... he couldn't do that, but even so he planned to eventually work his way up to peak human. The points were a limited resource, and by not leaving the planet he had no large income of points to expect.

... the only way he might be able to boost his points was if the Combine attacked. That was unlikely... not impossible but that would also mean the usual bullshit fighting over salvage rights in response to defending the planet... that was his least favorite thing about contract negotiations. It hadn't come up until after they'd left Halstead Station that the Davions had asked to see his battle roms of fighting the second sword of light, and well his gunnery results tended to leave a lot of mostly intact salvage. Mechs were precious in this era so, he was pretty sure the merc liaison had noted that in his file that they should prioritize that they wanted salvage rights... and the Davions didn't offer that great of pay.

Then again, he doubted he was being underpaid... it was just... salvage was so much more useful to him than the going rate in c bills for bounties...

... but all of that was moot because he didn't expect to be attacked... maybe that was arrogant of him.. they were only two jumps from the Combine Border... but...

The bells rang signaling it was eight in the morning, and he looked down at his feet. He wasn't going to be late, but he did need to finish getting dressed. The Sakhara Academy was just the right sort of strange place he really fit in.... which was saying something since he was somewhere between full time student, and teacher.

He rifled through his close threw a white oxford on, and worked the sleeves until the buttons closed around his wrists, he tossed a look at the sky and put his shoes on, and through the bag over one shoulder heading out.

The Davions weren't ungrateful but he'd been too young to really take seriously. If the Robinson Rangers hadn't been there then Lord Aaron, Duke of Robinson might not have heard, and might not have made the offer to come to the RBA. That would have unintentionally made Ian Davion, and the Federated Suns ruling house look ungrateful... but he hadn't been looking for charity... and he'd have been the one looking ungrateful if he refused a place at Sakhara. So thereby instead of leaving for the periphery he'd accepted the prince's invitation into the local system of feudal landholding.

Sakhara was a mineral rich world of course it wasn't like they had given him a useless piece of land... but there were days he really expected he might have gotten along better on the Lyran side of the fence... or not. Robinson might have been easier too, the academy was smaller less prestigious but there was a battleMech works there... but it was Sakhara that was the place.

So he'd inaugurated a JumpShip shipping firm. After all it was two jumps to Robinson, well it was actually three jumps... and it was even more to get from Sakhara to New Avalon. Seven Jumps.

The immensely silly rules that governed his isekai cheat power meant that Star Lords were cheaper by points than Invader class JumpShips, and so as he settled into life in the Fed Suns he'd added a few more of the big bastards but settled for spawning Merchants on the realization that those were cheaper and less likely to attract more attention. As it was he was still only having them play strictly internal routes of trade within the Federated Suns. It made him money. He liked money. He liked safe money.
--
Sakhara Academy was in a sense the Oxford or Yale of Fed Suns BattleMech schools. Those and not say... Sandhurst or West Point He didn't know how it had gotten to this point, or how it worked elsewhere but this place was the location of the elite and privileged. Graduating from Sakhara was a misnomer the best students got to do two years in a grad school esque posting with the training regiment a slot in a Mech battalion further improving on MechWarrior skills and tactics. That was why there were so few slots in the so called 'graduates'.

Everyone else who had made it through 4 years, well they were head hunted for slots in the AFFS elite units. People like Justin Allard were in that secondary category. It was kind of an open secret he wasn't going to make the cut to go to the training battalion.

The man's black jack was part of the problem.

He looked him up and down, and sighed, "I'm sorry Justin, even if we put you in a Warhammer I really couldn't see you making the difference up..." Because the truth was it wasn't just his mech... but putting his ass in a Warhammer would have helped... Justin had other sorts of problems.... but not enough problems that he couldn't secure a posting with a Guards RCT.

That was part of the reason he wasn't doing more. Justin would be fine. He was a good pilot... and he also didn't want to fuck the timeline if there was a chance of... well whatever Justin's life was supposed to be.

His counseling was interrupted by a disgusted expletive about Justin Allard's half breed status... that was something else he didn't understand. "Half breed?" It was the 31st​ century, and why did the Cappies get it, and not the combine then... "Ok, can it you." For a minute there was stumbling break in the other student's bravado, "No I mean it, unless you want to find yourself on the other end of my Heavy mech you can stow it."

The irony was despite Allard being older than him, Sakhara academy was a college after all, he was already taller and that showed as the fifteen year old straightened stepping in front of the full time senior cadet, and his antagonist. The other guy was vaguely spanish looking the wisp of a goattee that threatened the schools already mild dress code but really the high cheek bones and aquiline nose of a Castilian land holder really Don Juan here was the picture of a hidalgo right down to his presumption. He started to squabble a protest.

"No, I don't want to hear it." He replied, "Gear up, and go run course two again. Your fucking a minute behind par time already so hearing this shit out of your mouth just pisses me off more." There were no further protests and the cadet in his gym shorts and cooling jacket was gone running off to his Enforcer.

Justin did his best moody boy emo, I didn't need you to save me routine, but he got told to stuff it to, to gear up and get ready to run the fifth circuit course down by the river again. "If you ship to Spica," With the 5th​, "they're going to give you the same. Fair or not the Capellans are the enemy... they're a modern day slave state in the Inner sphere, thats what the servitor caste is." He grunted, "And you can expect deep riven suspicion, and doubly so because the Capellans are the weakest of the great houses, and yet still have the fifth seat at the table."
--
... and it was precisely conversations like that how he ended up sitting down with the student council president. Lovely. Since of course he was also sort of a student. The truth was while Justin Allard had no chance of getting into the training cadre slot he was all but assured one, after all he was the Rabid Fox...

... for some reason the Davions had assumed that was his call sign rather than the name of his Mech... and attempts to correct that had failed miserably such that it had ended up as his call sign despite his protests...

... and the truth was he benefitted from attending Sakkara academy the baccalaureate education especially. Alexandria Cunningham the Countess Kestrel and heiress to the ducal landhold of the planet... this also meant she was Allard's nominal dynastic senior and made this even more of a headache.

"So why don't you do something about it?" He regretted asking the question as soon as he said it... because she was right in retorting it was none of his business, but then did deign to elaborate it was because Allard had been a mistake. His father shouldn't have married his mother, who'd been a Liao noblewoman, and the family didn't approve.

It was also true that Lord Allard the elder had powerful friends at court, but at the same time ... he had some of the same problems as his son... just without the whole issue of being nearly a bastard in the eyes of the aristocracy of the federated suns. He couldn't do anything about Justin Allard's life but try and see that it mostly went per cannon... but...

He grunted, and rested his head in his palm... and then had to look up to avoid staring into her chest... "So you suggest I just ignore it?"

"So you're just going to fight Justin's battles for him? He'll need to figure things out on his own." She replied, "Even if you could give him a heavier mech that's only going to win you favors with his father... and Quintus Allard isn't lacking in his share of rivals."

... She probably assumed Quintus had put him up to this but that was a stretch. It was true he'd met Quintus at the wedding of Hanse Davion... if one called a mostly sloshed Ian Davion dragging you around to introduce you to people an introduction... that was actually also how he had met the student council president... not that she'd been said to be that.. it had been hard to miss the dusky beauty all dolled up in white and gold.

Being a teenager again sucks, he mused running a hand through his dark hair, fighting the hormones back down.

He looked over her head and out to the carefully manicured grounds... he distracted himself with thoughts about the messages on his answering machine this morning. The careful staging of those digging machines... that and the memories of Halstead station. H e was going to make money off of the Fed Suns by pretending to build JumpShips until he could actually build JumpShips and pretending to have found Germanium was part of it.

He would build Merchants and sell some to the Fed Suns.

"Eh, whats that look for." She looked down wondering if she'd managed to get her uniform dirty. Reminding him that she was also a young person.

He laughed, "Its nothing like that," And the bell saved him, "I've got to go. I'll see you around Lady Lex." Life in another world of giant stompy robots wasn't so terrible. He didn't waste any time getting up, and moving out the door of the student council school room before anything could happen, and especially before she could stop him, or anyone else could show up. He did actually have class... even if some of the basic course skills for leadership were merely refreshers from a previous life, he was expected to attend them as a student most of the time rather than as a lecturer... but really it was in protocol, and military history of the Federated Suns that he needed to attend it was the area, areas he actually needed to study in.

It was really sort of a headache. He dodged around a couple of other cadets, and continued his daily life as a minor noble, landholder, mechwarrior living in the Federated Suns in a future eighties neo feudal universe of giant stompy robots.

--

Notes: Alright welcome to Chapter 1 of my other Essence of MegaMek Lab fic that has consumed too much of the past week. The previous segments aren't necessary to read. They can be summarized as follows but will be mentioned in subsequent chapters anyway:

MC arrives (as mentioned) on Mallory's World and assists the Davions in repelling the invasion, saving Ian Davion from Yorinaga Kurita (and racking up kills on 1st Btn / 2nd SoL), 2nd SoL as per canon, withdraws to Halstead station. Ian pursues to Halstead, MC between the 4th and 5th of January 3014 with some assistance from the 1st Robinson Rangers kills off the remainder of the 2nd SoL after Takashi gives them permission to go attempt to avenge Yorinaga culminating in the destruction in particular of 2nd Btn / 2nd SoL's formation on the Madison Plains

This allows House Davion to thoroughly loot the University of Madison on Halstead Station of all its goodies while also tweaking Takashi's nose good.

 

[HunterxReader]

... She probably assumed Quintus had put him up to this but that was a stretch. It was true he'd met Quintus at the wedding of Hanse Davion... if one called a mostly sloshed Ian Davion dragging you around to introduce you to people an introduction... that was actually also how he had met the student council president... not that she'd been said to be that.. it had been hard to miss the dusky beauty all dolled up in white and gold.

Being a teenager again sucks, he mused running a hand through his dark hair, fighting the hormones back down.

He looked over her head and out to the carefully manicured grounds... he distracted himself with thoughts about the messages on his answering machine this morning. The careful staging of those digging machines... that and the memories of Halstead station. H e was going to make money off of the Fed Suns by pretending to build JumpShips until he could actually build JumpShips and pretending to have found Germanium was part of it.

He would build Merchants and sell some to the Fed Suns.

Click to shrink...

Well, those jumpships will certainly help deal with the FedSuns economy, and mitigate part of the damage when Ian or Hanse gets around to doing something on the scale of RAT. Have you been dragged into Ian's circle, or are you still being felt out by his advisors and just like an acquaintance or a close mercenary (though since you're a noble now, that's a well-acquianted vassal), like say, how Cranston was to Katarina? And I wonder how they rationalize the first Jumpships you bought. Inheritance? Salvage? Shadow sponsors, Or just something you owned before and they never thought to check?

 

[MyThule]

Well its a battletech SI, so i am gonna follow this

 

[Bofors40mm]

Well if you really want to make money and hence essence selling some of those merchants would do the trick. Also if you do end up giving Justin a nicer mech may I recommend the WHM-7A and assorted spare parts and ammo? Because nothing says fuck you I support my friends like giving them 2 ER PPCs, 1 SRM-6 with Artemis IV, 4 Medium Lasers, 2 small pulse lasers on a mech with near max armor, CASE, FF, and endosteel while keeping cool with 16 DHS. Well short of handing him a pillager or something along those line.

Also on another note those jumpships probably cause more curiosity than the mech does since well....those don't appear on trees. I suppose they think he found some sort of mothball site or something and to be fair the merchant is the oldest still widely in use jumpship so that does make that a lot more plausible

 

[Huitt1989]

With a neverbefore seen mech toting what appeared to be losttech along with multiple jumpships I wonder how much scrutiny/political interest he's under.

 

[Bofors40mm]

With a neverbefore seen mech toting what appeared to be losttech along with multiple jumpships I wonder how much scrutiny/political interest he's under.

Click to shrink...

not just lostech. depending on the loadout its stuff that isn't on records at all or performing way better than SLDF royal gear.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 1.2​

He had tossed his blazer on the counter, and the coffee machine was going. He needed the caffeine... frankly he needed to not be in the dorms... he needed more space as it was he could hear his downstairs neighbors making a ruckus with some kind of wall riveting synth pop.

His kind of sort of living room was a mess of low coffee tables, throw pillows, a power strip and the electronics that were the norm of the future eighties... including his landline esque home phone. It was charitably a disaster zone that befitted a college bachelor. It was made even worse by a couple of ugly cardboard boxes, and folders of papers, and at the moment a number of large rocks sitting on his coffee table, but it wasn't as if he was expecting company... and what people didn't see where the invisible to all but him floating digital gamer screens.

Germanium was the stuff in jump cores. It was also used in various other industrial processes but mostly it was the JumpCore that it was famous for. It was expensive stuff reaching due to market conditions two thousand c bills an ounce... which was fucking absurd.

... also why the fuck they used ounce escaped him. He was still utterly appalled at how much Germanium cost on the open market... even if it was to his direct benefit. He dropped the crystalline mass on the table in disgust with the other samples.

This was necessary... dig this stuff out of the ground sell some of it... maybe a couple hundred tons a year if they could find buyers otherwise recycle germanium into the essence and build more with the Essence. That was one of the interesting things. Germanium was one of those things that didn't have BV value, but had a stupidly high price per ounce.

He did some quick mental math and grumbled to himself. The small factory units were pricy, and he'd need fifty of them, and the even bigger brothers of those were even more expensive... and he'd need thirty of those...

But there was a way around that! Even the big ones only cost a bit over 1.25 B C-Bills. That wasn't so bad. The Star Lord Jump ship model of 2841 had a cost of 2.391 B C-Bills + but only had a BV of 615. It was completely absurd. He could get all the SFUs he needed from getting rid of just one star lord, and still have money left over

His Isekai Cheat Power really was broken. As for the crews that was easy he didn't have to spawn crews for a vehicle, and he'd also need trained personnel too for when they could actually start really building JumpShips.

He was glad the landhold was on mineral rich Sakhara though. People would believe that he found Germanium, and believe that he'd invest the proceeds into things and that any settlers who showed up were just here to work on the nobles estate... and all that other neo feudal stuff while he the errant young noble did mechwarrior stuff and left things to his commercially minded retainers.

He certainly wasn't going to advertise he was actually responsible for the JumpShips magical appearance... but still those MFUs were going to be expensive. Even with cheat powers. He'd really have to look to see if he couldn't cheese more... perhaps ... yes he'd find something that was cheap that provided about 1700 BV and pay for it using C-Bills.

After some searching well the F 77 Deathstalker seemed to fit the bill. The eighty ton attack fighter had a BV 1714, but only cost 4.84 M C bills... and of course he could probably have cheesed things even more by spawning individual parts. The Clan Tyre Attack Fighter though was only 2.868 Million C Bills and was a whopping ridiculous absurad 1852 BV damned clanner technology was BV chonky but if it wasn't a mech it seemed... it made him want to vomit... but this would do it... he'd invest in his landhold and be a productive member of the Federated Suns...

The math sort of bore out that he might not have really needed to loot the corpses of the second sword of light on Halstead station, but he wasn't going to bring it up and certainly wasn't going to apologize, it was done.

Still they were talking about ... so much money it made his head hurt... and...

There was a chime on the door of his apartment / dorm. It was already well after dark, Sakhara for all its storied name and what not... that was really all high humanity marketing. The entire name conventions of the planet and its moons were attempts by anglo-american colonists of the the 24th​ century to sound more impressive than the desert world was... the result was that yes there were wide ranging deserts abundant mineral wealth... and the planetary rulers in the early 24th​ century had consciously modelled architecture and after an idealized Egypt of yore...

... the problem was that they were 24th​ century Terrans so it was a massive kitbash of 19th​ century colonial Egypt in parts... right down to the local tourist traps fashion arrangements with a mishmash of what they thought high tech egyptian esque things should look like, mixed with typical normal late 20th​ century art deco sky scrapers which had been popular at that particular time on Terra... but as was typical with founding colonial populations some things had stuck, and some things had been reinforced by the anglo-normative traditions and stylings of the Federated Suns who had come to rule over the planet by the end of the 25th​ century

In short everyone dressed like they all lived in the British empire or an idealized version there of.

He slid the door open to look at Justin Allard holding his busted nose, bleeding down the front of his school uniform. He sighed, "Yes, yes do come in." He replied, "No, this way." He grabbed the slightly older teenage mechwarriors arm and navigated him to the couch, "No stop leaning your head back, lean forward, yeah like that." He instructed, "Hold there."

Towel, ice from the small refrigerator... and the nagging consideration that as kind of sort of an instructor he ought to be keelhauling the senior cadet for fighting... the latter was something of a moot point because half an hour later, after Justin's nose stopped bleeding the student council president showed up looking irritated and out of breath... or out of breath and exasperated at the two of them.

That was before she noticed the hunks of Germanium and diamonds and other previous rocks on the table that had been dug out of his land hold. He looked at the ores, and geological specimens, and dropped on to the couch nearest the kitchenette. "Eh," He grunted. Wasn't Justin Allard getting into a fight with some other noble mechwarrior the bigger problem here?

--
There were 365 days in a year discounting leap years where February got an extra one. The Terran calendar remained the norm as a away to measure and organize things. Every day he had 25 BV added to his supply. So a year equated to a little over nine thousand... 9125 specifically. In other words that just focusing on such an accruement it would have taken a disgusting three years to accrue the BV for just the Small Factory units... he didn't even want to consider the more expensive medium units.

It was absolutely appalling to have to weight that long so he'd cheese that by recycling purchases, and moving money around. It was really more the matter of telling people he'd be doing big things that was was another.

... thus by sacrificing a Star Lord well he'd have the building block to start the ball rolling on providing a new JumpShip Yard to House Davion... but he wasn't stupid enough to send such a notification to the Duke of Robinson, never mind all the way to New Avalon. Trust ComStar, hah never! He'd never do such a thing.

Actually he had a plan that well... probably not full proof, but one that he hoped would work to defer some if not necessarily all the suspicion away from his actions. He needed to increase his noble standing. He would be able to pass off his mineral wealth from his Sakhara land hold as providing the raw resources for the JumpShips to be built, but maybe he needed somewhere else... find somewhere like Lockdale or Fable... but the former was very close to Terra. If he laid claim to it on the basis of sudden industrial wealth... it would surely create a cluster fuck and all kinds of attention because while people might believe he'd really lucked out finding something on a former hegemony provincial capital they'd probably try and attack.

Fable was more comfortably in Davion Space, but it was also in the Capellan March, ugh... and it was one thing to have a small landhold on Sakhara having nominally a whole planet, and with a shitheel traitor like Hasek nearby... he'd need to have more personnel

... he needed to be a more proper feudal noble... less business less venture capitalist. His grimace deepened as he continued to stare out the window. That again just brought him back to his annual BV accumulation... nine thousand BV meant ... well by itself was a lance of mechs... or could be about a lance. It was as if the whole system was designed to be exploitable... he really was an isekai character with a ridiculous cheat power.

He hastily willed the stat sheet closed as the door opened, and a painfully English looking mustachioed AFFS Colonel came in. The vice chancellor was a staid, boring, all around mostly competent fellow... but not much fun. He wasn't surprised at all that Don Juan, his middle name was actually Juan, had suddenly developed the appearance of a raccoon. Both of his eyes were ringed with deep black bruising, that were frankly painful to behold.

It really would have been different, or so Colonel Coleridge claimed, if it wasn't so bloody obvious that the boys had tussled about... never mind that they'd done it brazenly in public. He repeated that it was a disgrace more than once as well... such that don juan looked pretty suitably chastised about the whole affair... which would have been good if Justin's temper wasn't threatening to get the better of him right here in front of the vice chancellor.

There wasn't much he could really see doing here. If he pushed too hard the vice chancellor might decide he was more student than guest lecturer at the moment, and that he wasn't old enough or mature enough to be objective about these sorts of disciplinary issues.... he nededed to find a solution to this.

His fingers twitched, the scrolling through his gamer screen sped up. "Well I," He'd ended up biting the bullet and blathering off at the mouth about special course work and bringing Sakhara's training battalions back up to par...

... which was a nice way of saying he'd invited the cadets to come see his land hold and be amazed at how fabulously wealthy 'the Rabid Fox' was.

He had long since stopped trying to convince them Rabid Fox was the name of his mech, and not his call sign... people refused to listen and insisted on referring to him as the Rabid Fox because of his 'crazy' last stand that turned out not to be a last stand... or that he'd gotten in close and literally pummeled Yorinaga Kurita's warhammer into scrap killing the Kuritan colonel in the process. So he was 'the Rabid Fox'... even the nickname really annoyed him no one especially not anyone in the 7th​ Crucis Lancers, or an annoying Major in the Robinson Rangers in particular would ever let him live it down.

"And this," he waved his arms after having dismounted his 70 ton Rabid Fox B, which most people just assumed was some weird los tech star league marauder variant given the general hull layout. "Is our Mech refurbishment center." He declared as the warehouse style lighting illuminated the cavernous underground interior.

There were a few semi enthusiastic noises of interest and such, but hardly a wowed crowd... but he wasn't expecting that. The array of mech cubicles were not too different from the academy's. Indeed neither were the vehicle cubicles... he had weighed carefully ideas about Sabre production, or introducing the myrmidon medium tank as well... but not yet.

When Ian had enfeefed him he hadn't immediately just magiked a bunch of JumpShips out of thing heir, but rather had had them trickle in allegedly from the periphery. Total nonsense of course, he'd magiked them out of thin air but he had had to carefully weigh how to use the BV from harvesting the dead souls of the second sword of light who had been recycled on Halstead station... but the Federated Suns preferred to consider the realistic explanation of out of the periphery mechwarrior knight errant.

He was going to gamble that they'd rather take that step, and not look too hard at a cluster of Centurions, and Trebuchet BattleMechs... mostly because they were fucking cheap ish. It actually hurt him more to plan for the expenditure of a union... which had involved yet more 'creative accounting' as he thought of it. With a turn away from the cadets and his seventy ton clan mech he wondered what things would have been like if he had ended up in the Lyran commonwealth... but whatever he was just going to keep digging this hole.

"What I want of you is an evaluation of how you perform against a uniform hostile medium BattleMech force." He declared still not facing them. "This is not a typical engagement. Its not supposed to be. Its to evaluate how you react to atypical scenarios." He could feel the eyes burrowing into his back, curiosity, and some annoyance... it wasn't as if he didn't have a reputation for being an eccentric. He'd play into that reputation. He waved at them to look around, "I'm going to go find Vice Chancellor Coleridge, make yourselves comfortable, the sergeant will show you to the simulators." He left them with the bald man, and headed up the stairs.

There was nothing special about the mechs. Nothing at all. They were completely standard BattleMechs really. It was the pilots who were the real feature. Unlike in table top where BV value increased with better pilots vehicles had the option to at no additional cost to him come crewed, and he wanted to see how they handled facing experienced pilots.

It took a couple of minutes to get to the side area where he was promptly ambushed by a woman in late middle age dressed in civilian attire. He shoved his hands in his pockets, but straightened, "Ah," He squawked in response to her sudden question while the cadets got ready, "Well I really don't have any expectations about how they'll do with regards to this test. Thats rather the point, I want them to go into this with no pre conceived notions about the fight."

Coleridge looked at him but didsn't speak up. He was scare of whoever this was. The woman continued to ask questions, "Do you think Lady Alexandria can win this engagement?"

He wasn't stupid, he noticed how Colonel Coleridge the Academy's vice chancellor was squirming and he hadn't missed how the noblewoman hadn't introduced herself... which... she looked familiar but Ian had introduced him to a bunch of people, at Hanse's wedding, to too many people for him to keep track... "I think both units have the ability to win. The purpose," This wasn't some inane half assed kobayashi maru test of ha you were always meant to fail, "Isn't to be an impossible test... if that was the point well... its not," He trailed off before he said something stupid like sending an entire company of Warhammers to fight them or something otherwise dumb. "I don't expect this to be easy, but I expect them to acquit themselves well."

Field Marshal Yvonne Davion settled into watch... what unfortunately proved to be somewhat embarrassing for the cadets as a company of late Star League Defense Pilots proceeded to demolish them in a simulated battle despite their, the cadets, numerical advantage.

"Whoops." He muttered as sergeant Machado, the very large senior non com with an unfortunately bald egg shaped head, finished tallying the last of the scores. The cadets had only had a slight numerical advantage maybe a pure company of fifty tonners had been a mistake... no putting them against ravens of any stripe would have just been more of a headache... he groaned in exasperation. "This is what I get for trying to be inventive." He told Coleridge, who was currently looking at him like he'd grown a second head, or something, but he ignored the vice chancellor's expression and hit the mike to recall the Battle mech company to where they had dismounted from the ride in.

They took the elevator down, in an uncomfortable silence.

There was already an argument brewing down on the deck amongst the cadets over who's fault the loss was. Heavy mechs blamed lighter mechs. The pilots of faster mechs blamed slower mechs for not being able to keep up. Mechwarriors blamed team leadership, leadership blamed cavalier attitudes, and failure to follow command... a bunch of angry teenagers angrily shouted at one another before realizing they were being observed.

He would have preferred making them all write up what they thought had happened... but the vice Chancellor had been put upon too much over the last two days and veritably exploded on them before the cadets could get a word in edge wise. Something Something Sakhara, something about the Robinson OpFor unit that usually did testing of the entire senior year as a whole, at least when they were available. This had only been one class of seniors not the whole senior year, but at lot of them were the students were in the running to the training unit after graduation, and if they weren't well go on to prestigious postings within the AFFS...

... that was sort of a problem.

A problem to compound the list of problems to be sure.
--
Notes: we will address some of the above questions in the 1.3 section Wednesday.

I do wish to go ahead and address two things, I have avoided using the original draft's name 'Henry Clay' at this stage, even though I'm probably going to retain that, and I am considering running a mix of 1st person from the MC's perspectives, and 3rd person for everyone else...

Also I had to cut a lot of the math and numbers stuff out of this section, otherwise it would have been really large, but the essence and its use... involves a lot of big numbers and shenanigans involving not just currency manipulation but also ATOW character sheets so thats probably going to go up at some point

 

[HunterxReader]

After some searching well the F 77 Deathstalker seemed to fit the bill. The eighty ton attack fighter had a BV 1714, but only cost 4.84 M C bills... and of course he could probably have cheesed things even more by spawning individual parts. The Clan Tyre Attack Fighter though was only 2.868 Million C Bills and was a whopping ridiculous absurad 1852 BV damned clanner technology was BV chonky but if it wasn't a mech it seemed... it made him want to vomit... but this would do it... he'd invest in his landhold and be a productive member of the Federated Suns...​

Click to shrink...

​

If I'm reading this right, is it a power-based limitation that hampers large-scale quick deployment on non-Mech units, or mere personal preference?

In short everyone dressed like they all lived in the British empire or an idealized version there of.

He slid the door open to look at Justin Allard holding his busted nose, bleeding down the front of his school uniform. He sighed, "Yes, yes do come in." He replied, "No, this way." He grabbed the slightly older teenage mechwarriors arm and navigated him to the couch, "No stop leaning your head back, lean forward, yeah like that." He instructed, "Hold there."

Towel, ice from the small refrigerator... and the nagging consideration that as kind of sort of an instructor he ought to be keelhauling the senior cadet for fighting... the latter was something of a moot point because half an hour later, after Justin's nose stopped bleeding the student council president showed up looking irritated and out of breath... or out of breath and exasperated at the two of them.

That was before she noticed the hunks of Germanium and diamonds and other previous rocks on the table that had been dug out of his land hold. He looked at the ores, and geological specimens, and dropped on to the couch nearest the kitchenette. "Eh," He grunted. Wasn't Justin Allard getting into a fight with some other noble mechwarrior the bigger problem here?

Click to shrink...

It might be because of the amount of wealth just laying around unsecured, the Germanium not just for its monetary value but for its sheer importance (though that does tie into the value). You really might fit in with the Lyrans.

He wasn't stupid, he noticed how Colonel Coleridge the Academy's vice chancellor was squirming and he hadn't missed how the noblewoman hadn't introduced herself... which... she looked familiar but Ian had introduced him to a bunch of people, at Hanse's wedding, to too many people for him to keep track... "I think both units have the ability to win. The purpose," This wasn't some inane half assed kobayashi maru test of ha you were always meant to fail, "Isn't to be an impossible test... if that was the point well... its not," He trailed off before he said something stupid like sending an entire company of Warhammers to fight them or something otherwise dumb. "I don't expect this to be easy, but I expect them to acquit themselves well."

Field Marshal Yvonne Davion settled into watch... what unfortunately proved to be somewhat embarrassing for the cadets as a company of late Star League Defense Pilots proceeded to demolish them in a simulated battle despite their, the cadets, numerical advantage.

"Whoops." He muttered as sergeant Machado, the very large senior non com with an unfortunately bald egg shaped head, finished tallying the last of the scores. The cadets had only had a slight numerical advantage maybe a pure company of fifty tonners had been a mistake... no putting them against ravens of any stripe would have just been more of a headache... he groaned in exasperation. "This is what I get for trying to be inventive." He told Coleridge, who was currently looking at him like he'd grown a second head, or something, but he ignored the vice chancellor's expression and hit the mike to recall the Battle mech company to where they had dismounted from the ride in.

They took the elevator down, in an uncomfortable silence.

There was already an argument brewing down on the deck amongst the cadets over who's fault the loss was. Heavy mechs blamed lighter mechs. The pilots of faster mechs blamed slower mechs for not being able to keep up. Mechwarriors blamed team leadership, leadership blamed cavalier attitudes, and failure to follow command... a bunch of angry teenagers angrily shouted at one another before realizing they were being observed.

Click to shrink...

Ouch, at least they weren't facing Blackwatch pilots, though the amount of finger-pointing is disheartening for the would-be officers of the AFFS.

 

[Caoster]

His Isekai Cheat Power really was broken.

Click to shrink...

This is the absolute worst form of telling and not showing. You don't ever need to write lines like this, it does nothing. Show the reader that is is broken, don't tell them.

 

[Fragment of Serenity]

Man... those poor morons against an actual lance of SLDF (even regular army) is just cruel. It's also hilarious. Oh the punctured egos... they bring me such joy.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Honestly if the SI wants to ensure he has a way to continue shaping the wider political scene of the sun's a good way would be to "discover" tooling for a decent to high end mech, tank or ASF plant that the TH/SLDF or the AFFS/Suns industry of ages past hid and either lost the records of the location or in the case of the SLDF/TH didn't have the time to recover if they had the records. Albeit not done anywhere near the SI's location.
Hell it occurs to me that the vault under the ruins of the Fury plant on Bristol would qualify as that as is.
Other places you could plausibly find(or make and then find) fixable but needing deep cleaning tooling would be Ozawa and the ruins of its jenner/mongoose plant and the metric crapload of ruined plants on caph 2 of which we know for sure in otl just need a refit and decontamination.
Bryant and Graham would also be other places you could either find tooling or make it with essence and plausibly have it be there

 

[Blasterbot]

If you want to discover tooling for an out of production mech I would argue for a heavy mech. Ideally an ost series. Otherwise maybe a grasshopper which had production ended in the 2nd succession war. As an outside mention the hammerhands is interesting. 75 tons and it is an odd ball that moves 3/5/3. 2 ac 10s, 2 ML , and an SRM 6. It is a heavy mech that thinks it is an assault mech. It got abandoned in favor of the Warhammer but a mech is a mech in introtech and it has a clear upgrade path once SLDF tech comes into play.

I think an actual assault mech would draw too much heat. An argument could be made that a heavy factory is as well. If you think that is the case go for a medium mech. Either a 50 ton trooper or 5/8/5 55 tonner.

 

[Bofors40mm]

If you want to discover tooling for an out of production mech I would argue for a heavy mech. Ideally an ost series. Otherwise maybe a grasshopper which had production ended in the 2nd succession war. As an outside mention the hammerhands is interesting. 75 tons and it is an odd ball that moves 3/5/3. 2 ac 10s, 2 ML , and an SRM 6. It is a heavy mech that thinks it is an assault mech. It got abandoned in favor of the Warhammer but a mech is a mech in introtech and it has a clear upgrade path once SLDF tech comes into play.

I think an actual assault mech would draw too much heat. An argument could be made that a heavy factory is as well. If you think that is the case go for a medium mech. Either a 50 ton trooper or 5/8/5 55 tonner.

Click to shrink...

There's a reason I mentioned Bryant since the Grasshopper(along with the equally solid Von Luckner and the Meh Cicadia) got made there.
As for the hammerhands it's a design that to me at least says PPCs in place of the autocannons for one scary as hell design

 

[Imperator Pax]

Honestly if the SI wants to ensure he has a way to continue shaping the wider political scene of the sun's a good way would be to "discover" tooling for a decent to high end mech, tank or ASF plant that the TH/SLDF or the AFFS/Suns industry of ages past hid and either lost the records of the location or in the case of the SLDF/TH didn't have the time to recover if they had the records. Albeit not done anywhere near the SI's location.
Hell it occurs to me that the vault under the ruins of the Fury plant on Bristol would qualify as that as is.
Other places you could plausibly find(or make and then find) fixable but needing deep cleaning tooling would be Ozawa and the ruins of its jenner/mongoose plant and the metric crapload of ruined plants on caph 2 of which we know for sure in otl just need a refit and decontamination.
Bryant and Graham would also be other places you could either find tooling or make it with essence and plausibly have it be there

Click to shrink...

Guess what bit of lore is actually included in MegaMekLab [I really wish that more lore was included in MegaMekLab it would make justifying a bunch of stuff so much easier but it seems like fluff only got included for a couple of mechs and fancy stuff, which I understand]

 

[Blasterbot]

There's a reason I mentioned Bryant since the Grasshopper(along with the equally solid Von Luckner and the Meh Cicadia) got made there.
As for the hammerhands it's a design that to me at least says PPCs in place of the autocannons for one scary as hell design

Click to shrink...

I would preserve them for the purpose of becoming 2 LBX 10s later. But converting them into ppcs and heatsinks with some extra MLs would be a very solid choice. Davions do love their Autocannons though.

 

[Bofors40mm]

I would preserve them for the purpose of becoming 2 LBX 10s later. But converting them into ppcs and heatsinks with some extra MLs would be a very solid choice. Davions do love their Autocannons though.

Click to shrink...

the variant with the PPC and AC-10 exists and the stock tank isn't bad either. dual AC-20 variant is a bit weird though since its basically just a more expensive demolisher

 

[Imperator Pax]

I will go ahead and state that Devastators that is the MkIII Demolisher tanks are already slated alongside Schreks (same company, same engine, same weight different pew) though thats in part because spawning in tanks rather than production

 

[Blasterbot]

the variant with the PPC and AC-10 exists and the stock tank isn't bad either. dual AC-20 variant is a bit weird though since its basically just a more expensive demolisher

Click to shrink...

I don't see any ac 20 variations. You could do it if you ditch the SRM. The PPC variant is better at long range and still mean if you get in close with the 2 ac 10s and 2 MLs. I would be arguing for the 3D shifting to the prince's champion kessem variant as tech becomes available. If you wanted to get spicy give it ferro, 10 DHS, and CASE. You have a fair amount of tonnage to play with after that. Not sure if it is enough to up the engine and become a 4/6/4.

Edit: I will also add that the cicada if you go with the 7/11 moving variant can be solid. The 3C is an example that can bring a PPC to bear on a fast moving chassis. You can use a large laser instead and add more armor as well. Just about any variant that chooses to drop the speed gets a fair amount of tonnage to work with and it just gets better with tech advancement. So if you have the opportunity to get them they make an interesting heavy light mech. Just keep in mind it is not a trooper medium and needs to keep mobile.

 

[Bofors40mm]

I don't see any ac 20 variations. You could do it if you ditch the SRM. The PPC variant is better at long range and still mean if you get in close with the 2 ac 10s and 2 MLs. I would be arguing for the 3D shifting to the prince's champion kessem variant as tech becomes available. If you wanted to get spicy give it ferro, 10 DHS, and CASE. You have a fair amount of tonnage to play with after that. Not sure if it is enough to up the engine and become a 4/6/4.

Edit: I will also add that the cicada if you go with the 7/11 moving variant can be solid. The 3C is an example that can bring a PPC to bear on a fast moving chassis. You can use a large laser instead and add more armor as well. Just about any variant that chooses to drop the speed gets a fair amount of tonnage to work with and it just gets better with tech advancement. So if you have the opportunity to get them they make an interesting heavy light mech. Just keep in mind it is not a trooper medium and needs to keep mobile.

Click to shrink...

that would be the VLN-100 variant.

as for the cicadia. in my pov assuming you had to finish something from its lines the engine line would be by far more valueable than anything else, i just really don't like the design.

 

[Blasterbot]

that would be the VLN-100 variant.

as for the cicadia. in my pov assuming you had to finish something from its lines the engine line would be by far more valueable than anything else, i just really don't like the design.

Click to shrink...

Yeah base cicada is a more expensive slightly tankier locust. As is it isn't worth it. There are some variants that are alright. But you need to either have XL Engines or down size to a 280. You just have to accept that you're building a slightly bigger light mech not a normal medium mech when making a 40 tonner. I would just point out that since it's on the same planet as 2 good designs that he is going to loot. It makes sense to try and salvage something out of the cicada line. The engine is only used for 4/6 movers at 80 tons. Admittedly davions got the Victor and there might be an aerotech asset that uses it too.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Yeah base cicada is a more expensive slightly tankier locust. As is it isn't worth it. There are some variants that are alright. But you need to either have XL Engines or down size to a 280. You just have to accept that you're building a slightly bigger light mech not a normal medium mech when making a 40 tonner. I would just point out that since it's on the same planet as 2 good designs that he is going to loot. It makes sense to try and salvage something out of the cicada line. The engine is only used for 4/6 movers at 80 tons. Admittedly davions got the Victor and there might be an aerotech asset that uses it too.

Click to shrink...

the slayer uses it. and you can make one hell of bird out of that in introtech assuming your willing to lower the fuel to "just" 8 tons and go with 2 PPCs on the nose and 2 MLs on each section for a total of 8: 6 forward facing and 2 aft. other options are adding another 3 tons of armor if you go with standard levels of fuel at 5 tons as well. or 2 tons of armor and a 3rd ML on the nose.
albeit you might want to design a new bird at that level of mods even my first proposal since the slayer probably doesn't have that many energy weapons in mind when it was designed

 

[Blasterbot]

Looking at the canon variants of the slayer is interesting. The basic version is 1 heat over his heatsinks on an alpha strike. Don't particularly see what the ABC variants do for it. Admittedly my knowledge of aerotech is much less than battletech. Just read over the rules once.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 1.3​

Field Marshal the duchess Yvonne Davion had not attended Sakhara, she had attended Albion. That wasn't to say she didn't appreciate Sakhara's history or its history especially of turning out capable graduates, and in a way that had been why she had been here. She had been an officer of the AFFS since graduating Albion at 21 with the class of 84. She had three decades of service, and though not advertised publicly she was the director for MI2 of the Department of Military Intelligence, and had been for half her career.

Hanse had always been the one more likely to listen to her advice, but she was grateful that Ian wasn't the sort to be ... completely reckless... she wasn't quite here with the blessing of the first prince to investigate, but the truth was it not her reaason for coming... and not the only reason for coming. It was true young men occassionally engaged in a sort of noble finishing school, but it was a more common post for a young noblewoman to serve as a lady in waiting. Alexandria Cunningham, the countess Kestrel the heiress apparent would graduate at the end of the following term and in agreement with House Cunningham would take up the post as Yvonne's lady in waiting for the duration of her mandatory service with the AFFS.

Only a fool would have considered such a posting a cushy or easy one regardless of the politics involved. She hadn't however expected that her arrival on Sakhara would have begun the way it had. It had been purely a gamble that she had found the free time to travel... no it hadn't... the truth was there was so much schmoozing going on in New Avalon now was the perfect time to do this...

Two years ago the Kuritans had attempted to conquer Mallory's world and been rebuffed, and rather than heed more cautious voices, and with his younger brother's support Ian had proceeded to push forward with the Raid on Halstead Station. Once again, as on Mallory's world, a young knight errant mechwarrior had distinguished himself enough that once well... once everyone was off world ... things had gotten somewhat raucous in the heady moments of success after the battle.

Yvonne was willing to believe this wasn't some infiltration attempt. No, Occam's Razor suggested this was some young wealthy orphan who had consolidated their portion of a family inheiritance and left for somewhere where they wouldn't have to contend with rivals within the family. Siblings, or perhaps a mal intentioned uncle... but whatever the case the degree of unfamiliarity with the Federated Suns establishment was probably that of somewhere from the far side of human space.

It was that she was technically acting outside of her remit, but it was her prerogative.

The fact that he hadn't recognized her would have made him a very poor spy... even just recognizing that she was a Duchess, and a cadet of the greater davion line should have warranted some degree of recognition... so that end she chalked that up to most likely having not received a proper noble tutelage, or at least not a full one... which made sense the teenager's mech skills were superb... he apparently could balance a book, and run a business... though there were questions of exactly what assets he did have within the year of being installed on Sakhara there had been a trickle in of JumpShips. A JumpShip company that now plied a regular line to to the marcher capital of Robinson, and to the realm capital of New Avalon.

A volume of JumpShips that the Federated Suns rather desperately needed. To that end she wasn't surprised that there was at least some portion of arms to accompany the patrimony. It was another oddity that they hadn't fought on Mallory's world, or Halstead station... but by all indications he'd been travelling if not alone at the time he'd been travelling with very few retainers. MIIO's working theory was that the Combine's scorched earth tactics had temporarily stranded them on the planet and forced them into an engagement with the invaders.

It was all speculation. That and it had been mildly amusing to watch the undue shock at the cadet unit come apart when faced with a professional house hold unit. It was better that they learn now, rather than find themselves out in the field... but this was generally the role of the graduation test's OpFor against the DMM usually.

Coleridge was understandably quite embarrassed as well though not quite for the same reasons regarding the cadets performance. While Coleridge was embarrassed that the cadets had failed to stop a small noble retinue, their guest lecturer was already trying to diagnose how 'they had messed things up that badly'. There were some rapid fire questions between the young man and his staff and the academy's staff, but it was a frenzied activity that would have been all but impossible to fake.

... some people were simply this way. That of course was grounds for as much concern, because if he were 'honest and true' then that made him FedSuns, and that made him a target to their enemies. Combine propaganda of the last year had conceded the defeat at Halstead station by eulogizing the death of the second of light, as honorable warriors who had gone to their deaths in hopes of avenging Yorinaga Kurita. It was a statement of bushido, and the combine notion of honor that this was vendetta pursued between warriors.

... The Combine proganda ministry 'the voice of the dragon' had of course exagerated Davion losses and all but ignored their own militia units presence, making it seem as if it had been a battle strictly between the most elite of units... and all mechwarriors. They'd gone so far as to suggest that 'the Rapid Fox' had been using a semi legendary late Star League warmachine called a Nightstar to fight Yorinaga. An assault mech versus... presumably whatever lostech star league machine that was itself the same mass as Yorinaga's warhammer... but it was a classical attempt to save face by the combine. They portrayed the enemy battlemech as a shadowy unknown never clearly seen properly force of nature more than a real weapon of war.

Yvonne unlike most paid attention to the distinction that Rabid Fox was the name of the mech, not the pilot's call sign. 4 Large Lasers ... probably even Star League extended range models in the hands of an accomplished gunner were something to be afraid of. It also demonstrated that the machine did have heat issues, it was erratic in its ability to control heat, and so far as they had noticed it was only one of its kind... and its pilot had demonstrated that his gunnery, particularly in an academy Rifleman was very accurate befitting a clearly experienced mechwarrior.

It suggested further away from the centers of power, though probably not the deep periphery.
--
With a quick glance at the cheat sheet he'd drawn up he was trying to figure out where things had gone wrong. The Trebuchet and Centurions were all Inner Sphere standard mechs. They didn't have clan equivalent weapons as upgrades... it was all standard technology. The math was there and scratched out.


He reached over and sipped his coffee. The first portion of the engagement was fairly standard battle doctrine without amror or defensive infantry to screen both Mech forces had moved to engage aggressively. Mass LRM fire had answered from the trebuchets and centurions... and these centurions were standard Als using the inefficent by weight and heat LRM 10s.

Still that was equivalent to an entire battle group of LRM carriers massing a strike to open. That had probably contributed to the initial confusion... that was understandable that was over four hundred missiles cycling out over the span of seconds... and the missible boats had then selected targets to mass on.

There had not been any armor breaches, unfortunate ammunition cook offs or other lucky hits in the first thirty seconds of the simulated excercise. The two sides had moved into range brackets where PPCs, and Large lasers could come into play and it was also the range that class ten auto cannons and below should have come into play, but seemed to have been the problem. Justin had started firing with his blackjack but the the 40mm GM Autocannons just lacked the effective damage output to make it count... not when Centurion AL models mounted heavier armor than the usual.

The following stage was rather predictable battlefield dispersion as massed LRM 15 fires from the Trebuchets continued until the missile boats ran dry. That massed fire though had started to acrue such that by the time they had emptied their LRM bins they were able to move up and support with their medium lasers, and then enter melee range in support of the centurions.

... which just reminded him that these Centurion Als were standard configuration with a rear facing medium laser. He had rushed this force table. The Centurions had then congregated letting the 5Ns assume primary facing while they emptied off their own missiles, on targets of opportunity.

Was that where things had gone wrong? Had the cadets, and he didn't have their communications logs to review, had they expected this to be individual mechwarriors? That would be silly wouldn't it, they had a numerical advantage against the enemy, had there not been a clear direction to specify what needed to die first? Or was it not clear given they were fighting six of one mech and six of another but the models were identical?

He drained the stainless steel insulated cup of its precious black coffee.

There had been no attempt to maneuver an element to bring fire onto the enemy flank. That was an obvious mistake especially given their numerical advantage. That was certainly something he was going to put into writing... if he didn't Coleridge or whoever the Vice Chancellor had review the simulated battle rom of the war game would and probably chew out their asses.

"Well?" Colonel Coleridge who looked like he was about to jump out of his skin started to speak at the Field Marshal's question, but couldn't muster a response, and Yvonne Davion turned, "What do you think?"

"I think that this could have actually been worse. These are non optimized," He flinched, "That is to say these centurions haven't completed a planned refurbishment to improve combat efficacy and were thus operating ..." He rested his head in his hands... "We were going to put Zeus LRM 15s and drop a ton of ammo from their bins, get rid of the small laser." Was it perfect no, but as a short endurance attacker it was good enough... and it would have simplified logistics with the trebuchets... actually he'd probably insist the techs get rid of the Phostechs in favor Magna Mk II Medium lasers... but he decided not to say that..."I... no what we need to have them write up what they think they did wrong to have this result... preferably without them blaming one another." More than they probably already were... he didn't voice that either.

Coleridge half turned looked at him, and started to say something but Yvonne cut him off. "I want to hear more of this." Because of course reducing ammo for a more ammo intensive weapon only made sense in a very short term engagement... but of course these weren't standard centurions that were already carrying a lot of ammo anyway and the idea was to have everyone mass shots as a company level unit of battle before engaging in direct fire attacks, and then ultimately in close range. The LRMs were the only thing, in their inner sphere standard versions, with a minimum arm range after all. "So run again it again when this unit is actually at intended fighting form." The Field Marshal ordered... even though Colonel Coleridge protested that decision.

--
Yvonne Davion watched the manic energy rather akin to Banzai Buckaroo fade. The young mechwarrior had put the candidates through whether he'd conciously considered a handicap or not a test that he'd considered that they'd do well in.

The rolling tide of commentary, and notion of how to were innovative, on both sides. It wasn't advertised and it certainly hadn't made the Combine's propanda reels escuses to try and turn around a moralizing message of duty and honor, but there had been a combined arms aspect on Halstead Station, and Mallory's world as well.

The destruction of 2nd​ Sword of Light had in part involved the destruction of their armor and infantry against the Robinson Rangers Armor and Infantry with the latter eventually being further reinforced as mechs rejoined the other arms of battle. The challenge on the fields of Madison had involved tanks and dug infantry firing on Sword of Light Mechs keeping them in a rough V forward of the Rabid Fox allowing the MechWarrior to line up shots offten taking headshots.

The close back into urban fighting had further reiterated accuracy and pin point shooting on targets which, the battle roms, had made the rounds after the battle had ended. She expected that Lord Aaron would likely hear about this excercise sooner rather than later, which likely would mean a contingent from the Robinson Rangers, nominally as the academy OpFor, would show up and in academic espionage gather whatever they could to them disseminate to the Robinson Battle Academy.

Not that her own Alma Mater Albion hadn't asked her to more or less do the same thing... but that was how the academy were. They also wanted to hear about what each other were up to... and Sakhara had a reputation.

If the proposed upgrade was carried out, the time of active missiles would decline, but would be ninety missiles from the six centurions as a massed unit. An increase by 30, which wasn't insignificant.... the use of a common launcher also made sense.
--
Note: Question, because Sarna fails me, who in the early 31st​ century rules Markesan.

I had originally planned to consider putting Yvonne as duchess of Markesan, but some searching around suggests she's duchess of Victoria as she's from that branch of the Davion family.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Duchess of Victoria for Yvvone or don't mention her noble rank.

Other than that good chapter

 

[Blasterbot]

I don't see any thing. It looks like a place where nothing happens between rhe 1st succession war and the jihad. I'd just stick an OC there.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Duchess of Victoria for Yvvone or don't mention her noble rank.

Other than that good chapter

Click to shrink...

I don't see any thing. It looks like a place where nothing happens between rhe 1st succession war and the jihad. I'd just stick an OC there.

Click to shrink...

I found where my problem came up. Big Steve has a battletech fic over on SB where the Duke of Victoria, Julian Davion, is both Lord Markesan and heir to the Federated Suns I think thats where I got my initial assumption that canonically Lord Markesan was a davion branch

 

[HunterxReader]

Two years ago the Kuritans had attempted to conquer Mallory's world and been rebuffed, and rather than heed more cautious voices, and with his younger brother's support Ian had proceeded to push forward with the Raid on Halstead Station. Once again, as on Mallory's world, a young knight errant mechwarrior had distinguished himself enough that once well... once everyone was off world ... things had gotten somewhat raucous in the heady moments of success after the battle.

Yvonne was willing to believe this wasn't some infiltration attempt. No, Occam's Razor suggested this was some young wealthy orphan who had consolidated their portion of a family inheiritance and left for somewhere where they wouldn't have to contend with rivals within the family. Siblings, or perhaps a mal intentioned uncle... but whatever the case the degree of unfamiliarity with the Federated Suns establishment was probably that of somewhere from the far side of human space.

It was that she was technically acting outside of her remit, but it was her prerogative.

The fact that he hadn't recognized her would have made him a very poor spy... even just recognizing that she was a Duchess, and a cadet of the greater davion line should have warranted some degree of recognition... so that end she chalked that up to most likely having not received a proper noble tutelage, or at least not a full one... which made sense the teenager's mech skills were superb... he apparently could balance a book, and run a business... though there were questions of exactly what assets he did have within the year of being installed on Sakhara there had been a trickle in of JumpShips. A JumpShip company that now plied a regular line to to the marcher capital of Robinson, and to the realm capital of New Avalon.

A volume of JumpShips that the Federated Suns rather desperately needed. To that end she wasn't surprised that there was at least some portion of arms to accompany the patrimony. It was another oddity that they hadn't fought on Mallory's world, or Halstead station... but by all indications he'd been travelling if not alone at the time he'd been travelling with very few retainers. MIIO's working theory was that the Combine's scorched earth tactics had temporarily stranded them on the planet and forced them into an engagement with the invaders.

It was all speculation. That and it had been mildly amusing to watch the undue shock at the cadet unit come apart when faced with a professional house hold unit. It was better that they learn now, rather than find themselves out in the field... but this was generally the role of the graduation test's OpFor against the DMM usually.

Coleridge was understandably quite embarrassed as well though not quite for the same reasons regarding the cadets performance. While Coleridge was embarrassed that the cadets had failed to stop a small noble retinue, their guest lecturer was already trying to diagnose how 'they had messed things up that badly'. There were some rapid fire questions between the young man and his staff and the academy's staff, but it was a frenzied activity that would have been all but impossible to fake.

... some people were simply this way. That of course was grounds for as much concern, because if he were 'honest and true' then that made him FedSuns, and that made him a target to their enemies. Combine propaganda of the last year had conceded the defeat at Halstead station by eulogizing the death of the second of light, as honorable warriors who had gone to their deaths in hopes of avenging Yorinaga Kurita. It was a statement of bushido, and the combine notion of honor that this was vendetta pursued between warriors.

... The Combine proganda ministry 'the voice of the dragon' had of course exagerated Davion losses and all but ignored their own militia units presence, making it seem as if it had been a battle strictly between the most elite of units... and all mechwarriors. They'd gone so far as to suggest that 'the Rapid Fox' had been using a semi legendary late Star League warmachine called a Nightstar to fight Yorinaga. An assault mech versus... presumably whatever lostech star league machine that was itself the same mass as Yorinaga's warhammer... but it was a classical attempt to save face by the combine. They portrayed the enemy battlemech as a shadowy unknown never clearly seen properly force of nature more than a real weapon of war.

Yvonne unlike most paid attention to the distinction that Rabid Fox was the name of the mech, not the pilot's call sign. 4 Large Lasers ... probably even Star League extended range models in the hands of an accomplished gunner were something to be afraid of. It also demonstrated that the machine did have heat issues, it was erratic in its ability to control heat, and so far as they had noticed it was only one of its kind... and its pilot had demonstrated that his gunnery, particularly in an academy Rifleman was very accurate befitting a clearly experienced mechwarrior.

It suggested further away from the centers of power, though probably not the deep periphery.

Click to shrink...

Well, being a Periphery rich/noble orphan does make sense, and very convenient too. It explains away the "retinue" he currently has and can "bring in" more of, whether it's equipment or manpower. And an ER Large Lasers wouldn't be suspected that much (As long as they don't notice the Clantech differences) as it was lost relatively late in the Succession Wars (2950 in the Third Succession War, as opposed to most other lostech, which were usually lost in the first two), meaning there could still be remnants in whatever region in the Periphery they think you're from. Though it is still lostech and an unknown mech design, so people are likely to come looking to try to steal/study it and/or trace back its origins.

 

[Bofors40mm]

On another note I imagine having a much more reliably on world OPFOR(who are a bunch of scary Mechwarriors to boot) will do wonders to boost the skill of the academy's graduates. Also those merchants and other jumpships don't just buy our MC influence or a steady stream of cash they free up Suns shipping for other tasks(such as say helping stabilize the outback) and grow their economy and can help move vital supplies and equipment from the Golden 5 and their surrounding worlds to the primary logistics center of the Draconis March aka its capital planet of Robinson

 

[Kyruth]

If the MC is running an established clan mech, and not some bodged together custom job, the real unanswered question is what will the Dragoons do once they see footage of those fights.

 

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

…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.