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

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 3.4​

It wasn't a surprise that as Cadet Leader that despite piloting an Orion, that was a heavy mech, Alexandria had been 'awarded' a Heavy Lance to command. Justin had been slotted a 'Medium Lance' that included a Black Jack and a Rifleman. That was probably to Justin's detriment... since it made him more of a target. The presence of the AA 'Mechs would mean taking them out would reduce the threats to his air power.

... and there was also the possibility Coleridge had considered that and specifically provided those mechs... or that there had been yet other reasons. It was hard to guess the vice chancellor's motives especially with the term rapidly approaching its end.

The other students looked over their rosters. This was going to be a large engagement. Their simulated battalion was going to be a test of whether or not they could also operate as a battalion together. It might not have seemed like it was that much of a difference going from large company to a large battalion given the inflated numbers were computers that could be ordered to do things, but only doing the exercise would prove that hypothesis.

Two dozen mechs, a dozen asf, twenty eighty ton tanks. The cadets would have a slight numerical advantage still, but they had all known that... and realistically the twelve stingrays meant the cadets real numerical advantage might be larger on the battlefield.

The map the vice Chancellor had chosen though was emblematic of Sakhara's terrain. Wide open spaces, and a river crossing, with sandy dunes, but also some large hills and the river valley. Officially the map was eighty odd square miles of exercise space, but in practice it was going to be smaller than that. There were terrain features that both sides would most likely avoid.

He spied the brown haired enforcer pilot squirm nervously as she studied the map. Her and Valkyrie pilot naturally also commanding a light lance had Don Juan's attention as he made clear he wanted them to scout a sector, recklessly forward of the Cadet's side of the river. On the other hand they were going to have to cross the river at some point and the two light lances would be the better optimized to get across faster.

If that was actually what they did, and then his Medium lance crossed that would be mech company over the water... it would be twelve mechs... but it wouldn't be a lance of cadets over. Alexandria was clearly weighing whether she should try and cross immediately leading with her heavy lance from the front or if that was a risk of disorganzing the battalion, and would be too aggressive of a move.

Given even the realistically limited area of operations she would probably be better off crossing first in his opinion. It would have insured she was over by the time real contact was made. They knew what his troops would be compiled of and it was very unlikely that even if he was at the edge of his deployment zone that he could catch them crossing the river.

That was the disadvantage to assault weight tanks. He also couldn't be sure where they would cross, so even if he could find somewhere on the map overlooking their crossing... or more accurately the RAC tankers found a vantage to perch and shoot down into the river crossing it would be a very very brief window.

He mentally calculated that the move from the red circle of his deployment zone to the river and the blue of the cadets deployment zone said it was possible... and it might be an opportunity. They would have to see ... there was always the possibility that there might be some other factor that was added to the simulation... maybe inclement weather?

Justin had gotten up to talk with the pilots that comprised his usual lance mates. In theory that turned a lance into a square company.
--
No sand storms, no sudden rain storms. They hadn't been able to get across the space in time to direct effective fire into the river crossing. Alexandria had dispersed her forces perhaps a little further apart than she probably should have ... or maybe he was meta gaming in recognition that the pretend war map only allowed for so many places.

That was the other difference. Theoretically there was nothing stopping him from issuing orders to his troops in the field. That was probably unfair to Lex who had to be in a simulation of her Orion's cockpit, but it was part of the simulation.

The Shreks had been able to take pot shots at some of the crossing mechs, but then disengaged rolling backwards over the hills as a pursuit had started from faster mechs who had crossed earlier... which had chosen to pursue despite that being reckless. Maybe it had been too much to hope for that the lesson they would take from teh Sentry Myrmidon vs Combine light company was not to recklessly over extend.

A shrek firing on a light mech's center torso, and hitting could tear through the protective armor quickly. The star of tanks hadn't been alone either... and unlike the cadets the entire OpFor were living breathing people and that started to show pretty quickly versus the computer pilots. It was true that MechWarrior Board piloting the Antares had little to do in that opening engagement as the Alecto and Sentry pilots had joined Bobby Mitchell in a supplementing PPC line.

The pursuing cadet had realized their mistake too late as the lance disintegrated under the baker's dozen of PPC firing units... a lot of thirty three particle projector cannons. The lack of damage and the lack of ammunition expended was the more important sign.

The lack of ammunition expenditures did last... as the other two lances of his second company came in to open up on another cadet's lance from the north east. His 2nd​ Company had more new mechs, mechs that the cadets had only limited experience with... so encountering designs like the Longsword in action was a surprise, backed up by the two Rifleman -P well it was the same output of damage and coming from North of their original heading.

Losses, and and intermittent contact resulted in an attempt to stabilize the front, but that merely compounded the original problem of her initial deployment overlooking too wide of a front ... at least in the sense of a pure BattleMech force with limitted scouting elements.

Hit and fade attacks from the Medium BattleMech company's mixed Centurion and Trebuchets followed, and when they were chased the SLDF pilots faded back into the desert. Over protests Alexandria did managed to force an end to attempts at pursuit and she managed to get her forces over the river.

In that time though it had allowed the tankers to reposition and resume taking long range shots at units out in the open with their backs to the river. The Star's tankers could easily reverse an drop back behind the cover the hill they were firing from if they needed to and could withdraw to their fellow RAC tankers fighting positions if they had been chased.

Alexandria made the decision to mass for an open field advance, but again that meant putting the remaining cadets into order and in this case marching up country. It wasn't a major terrain differential but it was enough to slightly obscfuscate sightlines against the red sands of Sakhara... and that was when the PPCs had started opening up on the Cadets various missile carriers and also Justin's subordinate rifleman... and its miserable seven and a half tons of protective battleplate.

It certainly didn't hurt that the clan's place a premium on ranged combat even if... most of them disdained the tank, and it seemed like Hells Horse was the only one in any sense at that ... at times.

He sighed, and glanced to the vice chancellor, qued the mike, "Striker, Primary."

A dozen ASF fusion signatures simulated entering the battlefield and navigating for an attack run... but the primary target was the Orion commanding the battalion, as a secondary target there was an assault mech still on the field too, but the Demolishers were waiting fro the cadets to coming into range of their fighting positions as the shreks fell back behind them.

Don Juan at least would make it into auto cannon range. Two other cadets lead their lances against the Battle Company and acquitted themselves well, especially since by the time they retired from the field the Centurions and Trebuchets had expended their ammo and the cadets were prepared to confront that. The battle company suffered significant losses, but the heavier mechs acquitted themselves well since the Fusiliers suffered a similar issue as their fellow fifty tonners. For the latter weights consolidation had followed as the Alecto had entered assault auto cannon range allowing the surviving lighter machines to arrange on one wing closing a western path as the second star of tanks entered the fray.

It didn't have time to become a rout. Mostly because the AI was too simple for that... and well sixty SRMs from the intact Star, coupled with the deafening roar of twenty assault autocannons belching lead, metaphorically, mechs hastily dissolved before anyone could get out of the box.

Coleridge grumbled, "It was too soon to expect them to manage crossing a river at their sizes, we should have had them fight here instead of the canyon," referring to the previous engagement during the week. Fighting the cadets in the canyon though arguably would have been worse since he would have arguably had less issues using the airpower, or his tanks... especially given the jump capabilities of some of the mechs... but again as with here. It was the surprise and the effectiveness of the tanks, especially for their cost which was the factor operationally.

"And to be fair Colonel most actions wouldn't be this aggressive or concentrated," He was obligated to point out.

"True, but quite frankly you're not one to say such things are you Mister Fox?" The vice chancellor replied "We have one more term to get them as ready for the real world as we can. I'll leave the class to you then"

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 3.5​

He drummed his fingers on the lectern looking at them all. Almost the entire back row were fidgeting, most of the front row students were the opposite, rigidly sitting in place "An Orion costs a little shy of 6.7M C-Bills." Assuming you could find one and it wasn't marked up due to the factors at market, but disregarding that, "A Shrek costs 3.8M, A Stingray costs just under 3 Million," Again barring mark up due to limited supply, but this wasn't a discourse on market economics, supply and demand effecting prices.

Alexandria schooled her features at the opening of the lecture as his fingers tapped.

He continued, "The Shrek does one thing and," [That is] "it provides long range fire support very well. Veteran tankers can use the Shrek's gun to maintain accurate and continuous fire across open terrain. If every shot from a Shrek is on target the ppcs will burn through nearly two tons of standard battleplate per shot." That should have been well established. "Then there is what an hundred eighty five millimeter assault auto cannon does at close range."

A video replay showed Don Juan's charge into the range of a demolisher's guns.

40 pips of digital representation ... more than he had normally on his center torso ... flashed red and signified blasting into his internal structure.... and realistically in a real fight shredding the machine's fusion engine.... but in all likelihood Diaz's decision to commit to the attack had been born out of not having any other options beyond maybe surrendering by that point.

"You should have all been given the after action reports. You'll see the damage break downs and the expenses incurred, I believe you all have pen and paper homework to contend with as well. You're dismissed."

There was an immediate shuffling and most of the cadets fled with their papers.

"You couldn't reasonably have expected to know the enemy commander that early." Lex protested.

He dipped his pen into the corner of the page, "You pilot an Orion, even if it wasn't a reasonable intuit to hit your machine out of the sixteen lances present was the machine on that alone, there were few other priority targets. In fact of those targets it was the machines on the outside capable of reasonably targeting air craft effectively that were suppressed or destroyed first... by my Particle projector cannon equipped units." Whether those had been Shreks or BattleMech units. "You were in the center of the formation, you were putting off significant electronic signatures, you were a valid target." He reached over and handed over a folded paper.

"This is-" It was an alternate configuration,

"That's what Coleridge asked," He frowned, "or I should say he asked, what I would have picked if I wanted to make sure you couldn't win." As much as he liked having air power on call, as much as it was a force multiplier he could have dropped the 12 sixty ton ASF, "You needed an experience with what airpower used correctly in this its use is to suppress or head hunt enemy commands. So given the choice I opted to provide that, other than dividing half of my formation into a Striker Regiments recon force and building a hussar formation to ride down." Because Coleridge would have allowed him to field a dozen longswords, which would have made up some of the difference for reduced armor component as well.

... and it would have been wholly unfair to deploy along dragoon lines with so few assaults in the opposite ranges, that would have just emphasized the Lyran idea that assaults were to hammer the opposition into the ground.

What the proposal did was focus on Longswords, which wasn't to say those were prefect. Yes the jump capabilities provided additional mobility but they were line of sight directed energy weapon machines, which fit them in a specialist niche. They were also not significantly cheaper than an Orion's nominal price.

... admittedly he expected that would mean less if he could sell them in volume, but they weren't there yet. For the moment given the course work the Academy expected the cadets to finish in their final year it was better to emphasize the lesser logistical burden the Longsword provided.

He plucked the paper back, "Neither Coleridge nor I wanted to steam roll the cadets, you can learn lessons by losing, but being brutally overmatched isn't typically helpful. You wouldn't have gained as much fighting a formation rolled out meant to rip and tear through the Sword of Light's ranks." He commented.

She viewed the comment as unnecessary. She'd been irritated at being hit during the exercise but that had largely left, the wind was out of her sails, because it had been a mistake to complain about it... and only Henry's comparatively ignorance, or just unwillingness to act on that mistake was saving her from significant embarrseement. The last comment was just a reminder that Clay was willing to bait and kill Combine elites across an open field because he knew they would rush at him if given the opportunity.
--
Yvonne Davion had the report in her metaphorical back pocket. The cadets had been predictably blind sided by losing leadership to a sudden air strike. That would have worked on most people, because twelve aircraft suddenly appearing was not a common occurrence. Two three air craft would have been one thing, not twelve. It was a wake up call, but they needed to understand about managing large combat units, both on the field, and off of it.

She had other priorities. Most of the cadets were being groomed already fro leadership roles, they wouldn't have been in this class if they hadn't, they wouldn't have been at this school... but some were more likely to see front line fighting first, and others would be needed elsewhere. Where her priorities did lay was still related to the cadet's unpleasant wake up call. There were hundreds of fusion engines sitting in a warehouse waiting to be installed in the chassis for aircraft, tanks, and battlemechs that shared the design

"There isn't anything wrong with the air frame of the Centurion," Henry remarked, glancing at the man in coveralls.

"Ah yes thats right," The air tech drawled, "None wrong with the frame, we took some of the original Centurions and pulled the guns and the guts of the avionics out. We swapped those old maxwells for Magna Mark 2s that we had and they bluntly they talk better with the Instatrak we put in. Nothing really changed with the Pitban 240, we work with those all the time."

All of that, and the rest of the man's explanation for the centurion were all perfectly reasonable. There was the tiny nagging issue of finding, or more correctly recruiting and training the pilots and aircrew for aircraft that was to be the problem of the AFFS High Command, both to find funding for recruitment and for training.

"And your heavier aircraft?"

"Outside of the 77, and F 90," Henry paused fighting back a yawn, "There are the Enyo, and Wildcat using the same engine. They have different mission profiles, and we're reasonably confident that production of the Enyo could supersede the heavier Stuka across the Combine border. We have plans for Nissan and 210 engine aircraft, but again engine production remains the principle bottleneck so its in that order after the 240."

... and of course Yvonne understood that was what made Sakhara very important looking forward, because there were so few ASF manufacturers in the Federated Suns the ability to locally produce the aircraft engines, and the body of the aircraft insured they were entering a very select club even among industrial concerns in the Federated Suns... or really anywhere in the wider Inner Sphere.

She wouldn't have been surprised if given the numbers of aircraft currently patrolling the skeletal masses that were taking shape in orbit if Clay's inheritance hadn't somehow included more eighty ton aircraft than he had possibly inherited BattleMechs. That seemed ridiculous to most people, but as the shipyards were taking shape, admittedly that did relieve her concerns about the security around Sakhara. It would probably elicit complaints from Michael Hasek-Davion but not ones that either the Field Marshal of the Draconis March or the First Prince would take seriously especially in the face of a shipyard being present in the system.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 3.6​

The same 210 engine that powered the slower of the two cataphract versions also powered the down tech-ed Night Hawk, which was good enough to justify just refitting one of those into an intro-tech Wolf Hound... and for basically the same reasons as creating the Wolf Hound in the first place... having a machine that could effectively combat Panthers, and Jenners. When the time came it would be easy to slot an ER large laser, and DHS in, but that was in the longer term, and for now what they had would be good enough.

He did find it amusing that the Night Hawk had already had the easy to maintain quirk, just like the Wolf Hound... but the Star League era Night Hawk's weapons hardly entered into anything other than the long term planning.

The truth was he was hoping for Haakon to get a positive first response from Mountain Wolf. It was true he'd given the captain dispensation in the vein of money but he was still anxious for a response. There were a number of other designs which would use other engines, but things he didn't expect to be able o produce any time soon... and the truth was he wanted to be able to protect or insulate any 'lostech' production on Bristol further away from the Combine front, even if he intended to employ a similar strategy of large volumes of Aerospace fighters to defend the original Fury factory site's massive underground complex.

A complex he intended to brazenly lie about and bring back online just as soon as he could get there and do that.

... but he needed to get the shipyard up and running first so that was his priority ahead of even BattleMech production. As he had told Yvonne he expected the yard itself to be done, if not by the end of the year, then early in 3016, certainly by the time the cadets graduated. That didn't account for the time to have the hull segments cut, or building a drive. That would take time, and to make sure everything worked but he was confident that they'd have a star lord actually built here next year... and he was anxious about that.

He didn't expect though that the yard would actually be constructing its first Star Lord prior to his departure, or even his return from the New Avalon holidays, and thus not before the start of the new turn... but once it did. Well, there would be other things that would need to be dealt with.

Henry stretched and got up to the carafe of coffee. There just wasn't room on the table for it, and if it knocked over it would have been all over the papers.

It was purely personnel preference that mechs on the lighter end of the spectrum didn't appeal to him, he couldn't help it... it just struck him as a better idea to have a fast ground vehicle with some firepower do the scouting outside of narrow specialty roles... but there was a market of Light Mechs that had grown up around the conditions of the succession war as well as what had been left as a result of the Star League era.

Hence why he had tables, and tables of what parts went into domestic production of light mechs identified and what cross compatibility existed. It was one more thing to consider as he waited for a response from Haakon, and as he considered how to shape his outreach towards New Valencia's Blackwell Industries.

Other than that though, were the 160 rating Fusion engines manufactured on New Avalon, and what all could be done with them. Then there was the review of what could be done with the 340 rated Fusion Engines since a request from New Avalon had ... well New Avalon in the sense it was Hanse Davion asking on behalf of the First Prince... been tendered to 'look into it'. He was pretty sure that had been written before they had left but that it was just being slipped in now.
--
"So what's the deal with New Avalon?"

He moved off the safety railing, and glanced over to Justin, "What do you mean? We'll get on the transports from there its a simple series of hand offs." It would be exactly like the previous outing... in so far as transit went. Of course when Justin graduated he'd be looking at a much longer, much more boring trip to his first duty station... on Spica... but so far as the trip to New Avalon went, "You won't be missing any class," He replied matter of factly.

Justin snorted. "Your priorities are always the best." The older cadet observed, but the conversation did turn to the issue of what the jump circuit to New Avalon represented... being able to leave for the festivities without a series of transit and stop times at the residences of other feudatories. In earlier times that had been one of the major factors which had contributed to the development of Neo Feudalism across the inner sphere not just within the Federated Suns. With JumpShips constrained in use having stop overs that could last weeks was simply part of society. In the normal face of an invite they might have needed to leave Sakhara early enough to arrive at Kestrel and then move as part of a larger group towards the capital of the Federated Suns, and that would have entailed being hosted at the ducal residence, and so on and so forth.

The Circuit now that it was confirmably in place though presented another matter. Justin's father would already be on New Avalon, as would Justin's younger brother who was also apparently something of a hotshot mech pilot as well, and was being groomed for an early command role... which somewhat jived with what Henry loosely remembered of the canon books. It had also made his way around that the Duchess of Victoria's son... or one of her sons was classmates as well to Justin's brother and similarly slated for rank and post in the Davion elites.

That was how things were, after all the posting on Spica whatever else was going on was not with some second rate unit. Still, Henry felt the need to exercise caution on Justin's behalf... "Anyway," he remarked, "Mymomer as a component should be easy to produce, the weapons can be produced... its the fusion engines and the mech's chassis which are really the thing that's such a pain in the ass." Henry continued... and shortages of engines were what had resulted in such desperation moves as pulling fusion engines of the correct weight out of tanks in order to put them in 'mechs over the course of the succession wars, "but the shipyards up there, well the yard itself will be -"

"Do you really not get that being able to do any of that is freaking amazing?" Justin cut him off, and the outburst drew a series of looks out from the battalion's worth of techs in the mech bay assembling Cataphract Heavy BattleMechs. "Fuck, sorry, no go on."

The truth was in terms of components they would assemble the hulls in pieces and fit them together. That would e what took the longest time. They'd make the germanium core and check its integrity but building the rest o the ship was time consuming part given they had Germanium available. That alleviated a major strategic resource for Jump Drive production, but that was harder to make sound as simple as it was for Justin's sake.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Sakhara 3.7​

Alexandria rolled her eyes as her cousin recounted the exchange... she wasn't surprised per se... right now Clay was maneuvering a BattleMech through the course. The seventy ton Longsword had a versatility to it, its jump jets flaring and lifting the Heavy BattleMech over a barricade and a crater as its torso articulated slightly to bring the medium lasers into the exposed targets. This one wasn't nearly the eye sore of the high contrast orange and white of the machines delivered to New Avalon and was more muted, it was still a reddish hue but more in line with the naturally iron rich sands that predominated skahara's sea of dunes.

In another ninety seconds it was over, the scoring boards populating with a clean course clearance, and the Longsword stood down to disembark between two large, by hovercraft standards, fifty tonners carry massive class twenty autocannons.

The tankers must have had something that needed his attention, because he didn't immediately come over.

"I don't think he noticed how quickly his technicians work, certainly not on New Avalon," Admittedly parts had been sourced locally but it had taken the various techs a week or just over working around the clock in order to provide the demonstration designs... the 70 ton Longswords had been brought and presumably, she had to assume there had been some spare parts it was one of Clay's DropShips and it had been his JumpShips that had carried them... but regardless the machines demonstrated on New Avalon had been put together quickly, and with such rapidity that it might as well have served as secrecy. "So you're right," She was still dancing around the matter of the growing form in orbit. The Shipyard was 'visible' in hte sense it was basically a new star in the heavens above Sakhara now, you could see the light reflected off of it in the night's sky.

She knew what they were but while some of of the other students probably hadn't quite put it together, but it was only a matter of time before the revelation. She dreaded it. She dreaded it more than the once the tongues started wagging about BattleMech production... because while there was prestige in the production, in a family own the production of BattleMechs, there could be no interstellar trade without JumpShips that ferried cargo between star systems across the light years...

Justin was already turning, "So what are those?"

"Atropos, mobile assault guns," They were relatively expensive Henry would, at least internally, admit, Mech expensive in BV terms since they were clan technology, but they incorporated no XL fusion engines... and were built around a single large assault auto cannon... though in their configuration those were Ultra Autocannons not standards or LBXs. Of course, being in a ground vehicle, the autocannon's heat management was much easier, and thus managing that increased rate of fire was much easier. "Don't worry about them, there were just some concerns that the Combine might decide to show up. Its a fairly decent protection for the factories." and with that Henry waved away the issue of the hover tanks, the name Zhukov as a series of tactical doctrines and equipment procurement wouldn't appear in Sakharan Curriculum for several more years... and as an objective action against the Combine.... and nominally, officially the combine would profess that... the shipyards at Sakhara had nothing to do with the first of those attacks.

"The last time you said not to worry-"

"Its more likely you'll fight the Cluster's MechWarriors than these," He replied, which was true, Justin's concern was valid, but it didn't change the fact he had held the F 77 back from excercises as well, and the Atropos could pass for just a large angry hover car unless it happened to actually have to shoot, and even then, you could override the safeties on normal autocannons and increase the rate of fire it just raised the issue of jamming... "and that will be later in the new year when the old men get here, so don't sweat it." No it was both of them who didn't look convinced, so Henry just shrugged.

--
Officially Sakhara presented it students with written exams, but so much of the course work was self study, that the marks were generated over the process of drawing diagrams or writing reports. It was subjective,, but also focused on reflective summaries of actions. The question of where had something gone wrong in an exercise, or gone right in some cases.

And while it had been less important given the age of cadets, even during the Star League era there had been expectations of where in the social hierarchy of 27th​ century Inner Sphere status cadets had stood in, and that meant accommodations for the upcoming winter holidays.

What Henry really expected was that due to his ... unique circumstances his own evaluations were Coleridge watching and observing how he handled the other cadets and his summaries of their summaries ... and maybe how he planned the deployment of his own troops. The truth was he already had a reputation.. not the jumpships, but the havoc wreaked upon the sword of light. There was actually a standing order from the Chancellor, the actual commandant of the academy, prohibiting challenges err 'exchanges of pointers' in mechs simply because it would have been too likely to cause a ruckus on campus.

The vice chancellor had wanted to circumvent that during the Robinson visit, but he'd been denied that request. That wasn't likely to change given the planned endowment of new aerospace fighters to the college responsible for their training, as well as contributions of Demolishers, and Shreks to the armor school. Admittedly that might have seemed a little premature, generally such endowments were done by alumni but ... well he held the feudatory rights as count of Sakhara and it made sense... it was a hell of a Christmas gift though.

He made a brief notation on his palm pilot sized handheld as Justin tossed the duffle to one side. "I think that's everything," He remarked, "My dress uniform is in a garment bag already," which was admittedly probably where it spent most of the year since the cadets were responsible for that uniform but it was so infrequently worn having it stores away was the norm.

"Is that what you plan on wearing?"

"I mean yeah," Justin replied to his question, prompting a long suffering sigh from Alexandria as she looked at her cousin and his simple plain travel bag. He started to defend the position but they all decided to just allow the conversation to drop. There was little to hash out, the Prince's Honors were likely to be unique this year... and the truth was that there were other rumors starting to make their way around the Davion campus.

The Federated Suns still expected that Ian Davion would do his duty and eventually marry and sire a legitimate heir, but in the absence of any movement on that front, the gazette had gone out announcing that Hanse Davion and his wife Dana Stephenson were expecting the birth of their first child in the near future, which helped to insure the royal house of the Federated Suns and the stability of the Realm at large.

It was a serious announcement one which overshadowed the variety of expected awards, and recognition for service to the Davion state, such would include military as well as civilian contributions including those of the civil service. It was to be the announcement which was to hold everyone's attention for as they moved into the last month of the year.

--
Notes: Short, and we're proceeding forward. I had planned to update EWSG tomorrow but that may not be the case due to scheduling issues.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Travel Interlude (aka Sakhara +)​

Henry leaned back in his chair looking over the Pratt and Whitney information, but only really half paying attention to the financial paper work. He had considered as the deadline had gotten closer rushing, pushing the resources into it to bring the Shipyard online... and he had held off... but it had been tempting. The mechs showing was, it had been tempting... maybe he had over done it to... but industry couldn't be treated as magic. Technology shouldn't be treated as magic, and that might have he admitted to himself at least seemed hypocritical given he had magic to make technology more or less out of thin air, but there needed to be industrial competition.

It was why he had considered shoving money into existing corporations in hostile take over schemes if it came to that... which it hadn't. Still they needed to publicize that you could still manufacture new ships, by building new yards, that that wasn't lost, that wasn't something humanity could no longer do. So that first Star Lord being built would need to come online sometime next year, and then the year after that they could take ship number two and offer first option to buy to House Davion.

And then they'd go from there ... and he was already looking out to six seven months out, and when the prospect of most of his friends would be going off to their first real duty stations. It played a part, it was impossible to pretend it didn't especially since in Justin's case he had some idea about what was coming... and seen what Justin was up against in terms of public opinion.

... and well it hadn't helped the situation that that when one just got down to it, Michael Hasek-Davion rubbed him the wrong way.

"So we're going to Robinson right?"

"Yeah, that's right." He replied to Justin's question. Justin's question demonstrated he was ignorant of the internal mulling, "He's," He leaned forward, and extended a sheet of paper from another stack, "Bringing on some of the RBA cadets, for... politics and stuff, I think there is going to be some of kind of small tourney for the cadets or something."

"When did you find out?"

Henry shrugged, "Basically this morning." There had been an email about it from 'technically' last night after lights out, but, it had been last minute... maybe something had gone out through the HPG network, or maybe it had just been failed to be mentioned. Maybe he had just failed to note a social cue or implied to the effect of. "So you know, good luck."

"Is, is that why Alexandria is bringing her Orion?"

He shrugged again, "I wouldn't doubt it," It wouldn't have surprised him if she had volunteered herself, or if the Vice Chanellor had played the honor of the school card up to here as ... most likely valedictorian or whatever, but they would have to see what happened. "Anyway, I get the impression its cadets from the Battle Academy, Avalon."

"Probably Northwind." Justin noted, "Might see..." he stopped to think about it... "I don't know maybe some of the other schools, Lex is probably serious about making a splash there. You brought the Rabid Fox,"

"Yeah, but I had planned to do that anyway. Its cadets only." He reiterated.

Justin snorted, "Right, you know there is a good chance if Avalon's in the run up, my little brother he's over there."

Henry found that to be unlikely, but then again... decided to defer disputing the point, "What does he pilot?"

"Valkyrie." Justin pivoted on the defensive after he said, "What it could happen."

"They're not going to put you up against anyone in a light mech, its ridiculous brother or not... besides even if he was in the tournament he'd be just as likely to run into Lex in the running." and very much doubt Alexandria would have any issue using her Orion's mass to layout a Light Mech regardless of who the pilot was.
--
Alexandria had the benefit of a large and comfortable suite aboard the JumpShip. It wasn't quite all of the comforts of home, but near enough... it was actually a step up from some of the amenities of the dorms.

She considered herself better prepared this time. The docking with the Star Lord meant they'd be leaving soon.. and on the other hand they'd be taking the circuit that connected Sakhara with Robinson first... she wasn't sure if that meant there was a ship waiting in Kestrel or not... but she supposed it it didn't matter.

Her father, the reigning Duke, and Justin's father should already both be on New Avalon... but they were going on New Avalon to to collect the Duke of Robinson, as well as the Duchess of Victoria... they were also going to drop off machinery for Robinson's industrial works.

It didn't take a genius to figure out that Robinson and Sakhara would likely both end up producing BattleMechs that would flow to New Ivaarsen. Only an idiot couldn't recognize that leaving aside political connections, Ivaarsen was to important to leave under defended, the world was wealthy, pro Davion, and was the gateway for any Combine attack on either Robinson or deeper into the Federated Suns, and that the opposite was true. New Ivaarsen, and Royal sustained what was effectively a salient into the Combine.

It was what she expected Yvonne Davion to question her about... even if she didn't necessarily ascribe to the idea that they were actually having the cadets game out actual Combine positions. That rumor had been going on since they had started the larger exercises... maybe if they had been closer to the Capellan front the Combine wouldn't have so overshadowed the perspective, but more likely the exercises were genericized in the interest of being teaching material.

Whatever the case she had brought her assignments with her... even if she suspected there would be too much to do...

A chime sounded letting her know to make her way to the dining hall aboard the ship. Justin was already complaining about how much longer from the sound of it by the time she got there.

"We'll make the jump to Bettendorf in a few hours, Franklin and then Robinson," Henry sipped his coffee, "The time table is mostly based around separation and docking." She wondered if The Duke of Robinson, and Yvonne Davion were then already en route or docked aboard the JumpShip in Robinson, "We'll rendezvous with the others, jump to DeWitt and then from Kestrel two more jumps and then to New Avalon."

A time table being measured in days not months... and JumpShips carrying signficant amount of material... just the trip from Sakhara to deliver whatever were in the holds of the cargo dropships was ... probably an eye watering volume of cargo in terms of monetary value. Reports of which Justin was just leaning on as if he didn't have a care in the world. "Hey I was gonna ask," Her cousin questioned still slouching, and while she couldn't be sure his empty glass had probably been a beer, "When did you find out about this tournament that is happening?"

She paused, of course that would have been his priority, the implication had of course been there when they had left. A dozen BattleMechs had been brought to New Avalon as a gift to the academy there, something was going to have to be done a set of lists was likely, "Officially I suppose I knew the evening before we left," She replied, "I certainly suspected that some sort of holiday festivities were a given not that I necessarily presumed to participate." The diplomatic answer wasn't precisely what Justin was looking for, so she continued, "I expected that the cadets from New Avalon might duel one another, but its not all together unreasonable that we should be invited to represent Sakhara, or that other schools of the realm those of note should participate..."

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.1​

Lord Aaron had enjoyed the previous trip to New Avalon; it had been promising. Admittedly they had yet to actually receive a firm commitment against offensive action against the Combine but he suspected it was only a matter of time at this point. The transfer of machinery to robinson further diversified the march, and well... the engineers from Corean tended to talk freely when at his table.

There would be new Centurions in the first quarter of the year. A swelling in the ranks of BattleMech pilots, and that was some of the best news a Field Marshal could receive... and as a tanker the mass production of quality armor locally would reduce the time it took for spare parts to reach units of the Draconis March Militia.

Corean's engineers would be working through the new year to bring Centurion production online, working to convert the old refit works on Robinson into an actual factory production sight. They would be assembling imported parts to start with, but eventually Robinson would manufacture the pressings, and forgings and even more complex components of the battletech... and eventually that would likely mean being able to expand production into the manufacture of other BattleMechs.

... But they had to walk first, no pun intended.

From what he understood between skilled technicians and tooling probably inherited from the star league Sakhara would be producing air frames and would be exporting spare parts for mechs and tanks to Robinson to fill out their production. He didn't resent it.

That was to be a defining, and frequently political display within the likes of Punch, and other journals of political cartoons within the Federated Suns as the situation began to shift and change in the final years of the third succession war.

That distinction of being the third succession war belied the forthcoming disaster that was to define the Second Age of War. Lord Aaron would hardly be the only member of the Federated Suns to think of t he growing economic expansion and spread of literacy as a boon to the Federated Suns. Money poured into investments, which yielded returns, and facilitated growth. The ongoing talks with the Lyran Commonwealth over the tenure of Ian Davion were beginning to yield diplomatic progress, but the economic factors of negotiations wouldn't fully blossom for years still. Those weren't the sort of developments that Lord Aaron was thinking of.

For Robinson, and more broadly the military staff of the Draconis March Sakhara set an example of military direction, academic and economic productivity that were to be emulated to prepare the March, and its future officers for the perceived inevitable conflict with the Draconis Combine, whether that was defending against a counter offensive, or a wider offensive by the AFFS.

The Stephensons would need to be consulted that was only natural... and would be something to do some time in the new year... probably early in the new year, which would make coordinating with Sakhara difficult It would make coordinating with Northwind difficult, unless both the lords of New Ivaarsen and he made their way to the Highland Faire ushering in the new year. That was unlikely, they would have had to make arrangements to leave New Avalon and proceed to Northwind... that was not practical

To be a ruler was to have to evaluate these things, and Lord Aaron had had to learn the ropes quickly since he had not been born to rule the patrimony of his forbearers it had been thrust upon him after the death of his brothers, and as he himself had been convalescing.

"We might consider the summer faire, your grace?"

Aaron Sandoval, duke of Robinson, mulled the calendar. That was true meeting the Highlanders of Northwind would present them the opportunity to recruit mercenaries, and bolster the march anti-spinward. He didn't necessarily like putting off that deep in the year. The year would be half over by that point. "I'll think on it." He replied
--
The holiday season didn't change the fact that there was still business to be done. That even though officially things looked like they were settling down, in fact nothing of the such was going on. The nobility, and the business class came to New Avalon to Network, to make arrangements and conduct business for the future... and meetings like this were probably going to occur throughout the official holidays.

Henry double checked the schematics, but that was pro forma... it was theater even. The lawyers had all calculated fro both sides, the terms had been discussed. It was all very arcane in the legalese ... and the truth was Henry expected that once things were operational on Bristol they'd out pace Achernar's new mech production.

... that wasn't the point. Only a limited volume of Achernar's gdp was their military sales division... they did so much more business in the civilian sector and ... well once the Pratt & Whitney paper work was dry... and they had Bristol... well there was going to be a lot more civilian business to be done with Achernar. That would hopefully invite public spending, and thus mean everyone would be making more money... a growing economy.

... it would still probably take a few years, but he could wait. "I am planning to formalize the mech design bureau, there are things I need to do before that," He commented initialing the paper, "But the Longsword represents an effective platform for direct fire engagements." It wasn't a command 'mech. He still wasn't sure what they were going to do on that front... he knew what the Federated Suns leadership wanted on that front... but they weren't to a commitment on that point, "I have every confidence that the Longsword can be built on New Avalon," Presumably with minimal need to retool from Achernar's existing facilities... or more likely that House Davion would invest in Archernar's expansion in order to cement their access to more Heavy BattleMechs being produced near their home.

For now they were really done here. This had been little more than simple squeeze into the hotel, finalize everything, and to get the ball rolling for the first thing in the New Year. Achernar had probably spent the last month looking at hteh Longswords deposited with the academy here on New Avalon and weighing out what was their best option.

If they hadn't been talking about a design that involved a predominance of standard mass production off the shelf parts this would hae been more complicated, maybe too complicated to bother moving on this soon... but they weren't. The longsword heavy battlemech or no was designed for rugged simplicity.

"Right, but if all that's true," Justin started to say as the Achernar people departed, "But then what's the rush for the lighter mechs... the sentry and such."

Well, leaving aside Mountain Wolf, and wanting to be in a position to promise them being able to put their original claim to economic prosperity aside while angling for the Merlin as well...

"Its the Combine," Alexandria remarked. "We went over this during that simulated exercise with those tanks."

He nodded, "We're going to move forward with production of the Sentry, because the preponderance of Combine 'Mechs are Light 'Mechs. We want something than can effectively rely on existing logistical chains and pose a credible threat to not just the Panther, but also operate effectively against other combine threats." At 3.1 and change well the idea was numbers coverage, getting 35 and 40 ton mechs in the field along with armor support would better protect worlds against the usual combine raids... that was the priority in the Draconis March. "Expanding the number of militia mechs and armor support will release heavier front line mechs and production of them for other units." ... and just in case there were any preferences he was hoping to have enough variety while still running broadly general parts commonality for weapons and engine that it didn't make a mess. "But again the Centurion really will be first in the mass production line, and as Nissan engine expansion, well as it hits its stride we will expand production elsewhere."

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.2​

Henry watched the first tranche of payments make their way into his accounts as the deal was signed and the money transfers authorized. The first stage of benefits, and arrangements. There would be transfers of goods, broader sharing of industrial expertise as part of the plans... and really all without direct government involvement. Government involvement would likely come later once procurement talks started, and the AFFS started to draw up their needs for the future.

The military procurement system had generally come to terms with the state of industry that defined interstellar conflict in the post star league era... and realistically he accepted that a sudden change in the status quo would prompt efforts by hostile foreign powers to act against those oncoming resources. It was why he invested in a preponderance of air power.

Which was another industry he expected to be able to leverage, particularly once he prepared to demonstrate the launch of the first production of Vengeance ASF carrier DropShips. He hadn't advertised that and they'd been overshadowed by the ongoing progress of the skeleton taking shape in orbit of Sakhara that would assemble Star Lord-class JumpShips... but Yvonne Davion, Duchess of Victoria had recognized already that there were ASF and DropShip lines coming online within the county.

Absurd as it might have been to think of County in such terms it was the reality of space faring neo feudalism. IT was also a facet of a system where the organization of state power was predicated on local leadership, due to the realities of personal power. Henry understood that, better than he had two years ago. In way, he accepted he was as much a part of the Draconis March as he was the Crucis March but it didn't change the fact that his immediate personal friendship and loyalty was to Ian Davion and the reciprocity the feudal dynamic entailed.

A reciprocity he did not extend to nor shouldn't have been expected to extend to Ian's brother in law Michael Hasek-Davion the duke of New Syrtis.

The towering elemental leaned over, "We have confirmed the arrival of the 3rd​ Regimental Combat Team, the Eridani Light Horse."

"I see." He replied sucking in a breath... because the matter of Mercenary and house troops was another matter as well. He had been expecting that something was going to have to give, the Eridani Light Horse being present here was just one of several possibilities. Henry knew there was the possibility that there would be stumbling meeting of his Light Horse and the Eridani before he could finish reconstruction of the 19th​ Striker Regiment... but Yvonne was already asking around about Robinson's reminder.

The Kuritans had collaborated with the Rim Jobs against the SLDF... and it wasn't a conversation he was particularly looking forward to having with Jaime Wolf... especially not with the Wolves having participated in the Marik Civil War... but he needed to stop them from joining up with the Combine... and there were certain things both carrot and stick that he was willing to roll the dice on if it meant denying the combine access to the Dragoons ridiculous ability to reinforce themselves and so on.

He got up, and started pacing. The licensure agreements with Acherar were good. The trick really was that he wasn't expecting to worry about cost overruns. He wasn't planning on anything along the lines of simply stocking off world warehouses full of goods... the previous trip to New Avalon had involved utilizing parts available at market but even then putting that many machines together might have been a little too flashy, regardless of what it benefitted him in terms of support at the federal level... or the business gains. It could have delayed them and made some kind of trade exhibition in the coming year, but at this point the cat was out of the bag. There were a lot of mech designs, and an abundance of machines that if licensed out would all pull from commonly available parts, which meant sub contractors would have incentive to produce more of those parts.

How long it would take the AFFS apparatus to make plans, and how long it would take the bureaucracy of the treasury to get the b all rolling was another matter. He doubted there would be any serious movement at first... no what would probably happen is ... was that things would be slow while business looked at things, and the machines were tested and then all of a sudden the fire would catch and the wheels would turn... and then there would be a rush to do something.

If he was really lucky then not only would the shipyards be up and running and in place to start producing JumpShips to make the economic resurgence possible, enough capital and banking apparatus would moving to cause an expansion of the work force... and hopefully lead to increased civilian spending ... but he supposed that was probably a bit optimistic given that they were talking about economic production across multiple planets and with the limits of FtL travel. That was the burden to contend with.

--
Yvonne Davion had reconciled her responsibilities as duchess with her military obligations. She could have easily discharged those duties, or she could have taken advantage and leveraged her position within the military hierarchy ... but her loyalty was to the dynasty of her forbearers and the dynasty as a whole, to the realm. "MI2's final report is still forthcoming," She remarked, "But we can say the shipyard at Sakhara is now complete." Whether Sakhara had laid down the first Star Lord Jump Ship... they couldn't readily say. It was possible, but they were certain that the machinery, and critical systems were aboard.

Assuming of course that Clay's time table was accurate they would shake down the yard and construct a replacement ship for the Jump Ship they had needed to scrap some time in the next five to seven months if they were correct... mind boggling or not that was what the schedule was for the year... so really it would be next year. It would be the next year and then House Davion would be able to would have the opportunity to make a bid for a newly constructed Star Lord... and presumably the first of two that year...

Supposedly a shipyard of the size could manage three Star Lords in a good year. That seemed absurdly optimistic, but even two from a single yard would outpace House Kurita's production... and also if they could produce two annually that would meet the League's production... and if Clay could make good on the claim, then there was the likelihood other yards could be refurnished and rebuilt.... but that would inevitably create arguments in the fiefdoms of other nobles, other entrenched power blocs with the Federated Suns.

... which of course reiterated her resolution and commitment to House Davion... and on its face Henry Clay's original reasoning for placing a second shipyard at Bristol made sense. "The acquisition of Pratt & Whitney?" Ian Davion questioned.

"Machine tooling, the facility here on New Avalon, and their warehouses." The machine tooling in question were largely basic manufacturing systems. "There are the DropShip fusion drives-"

"Will it be a problem?"

The first prince was hasty in the question... "Layover they've always bristled against Federal intervention in local affairs." Ian snorted derisively, "But legally the Pratt & Whitney acquisitions are above board." It was a lot of money but no one was going to voice a significant challenge too it... not after Clay had saved the First Prince's life against the kuritans... "I almost suspect that the corporate acquisition wasn't the original target and that ... perhaps some talks either didn't progress beyond preliminary discussions or otherwise fell through otherwise."

Her nephew and monarch waved off the speculation, and drove back to the matter of the Shipyard above Sakhara. Hanse cleared his throat, "The issue of Bristol might raise protests,"

"Damn Marie, and her husband." Ian spat suddenly agitated, "if he spent half the time he dawdled and moped about New Avalon the Liaos would be in the gutter not nagging at our frontiers."

Yvonne had been absent from the incident in question, but its implication alone had been easy to suspect what had lead to it. In principle Yvonne didn't even disagree with Marie Davion's logic, and she wasn't necessarily at fault for her husband, but she was doing little, or insufficient to nudge him to correct his behavior. The family should have been coming together with Hanse's first born in the waiting... not having the Duke of New Syrtis throwing a tantrum over developments in neighboring marches. "Even so your grace it is a matter..."

"I will hear his whining regardless of what I do, you were the very one who reminded me that I needed to secure the Crucis March, and it was your notion to divert his efforts at repairing other existing shipyards."

This was a strictly family matter or Ian's outburst might have been a bit embarrassing, but there were no retainers around to glance at the floor, "You are correct, your grace. The yards at Sakhara need recognition," And if Clay could build an entirely new yard with plans for a second one at Bristol, ideally he should be able to rebuild the James McKenna yards of the old Star League, and that was something that the Federated Suns sorely needed.... "And if that needs to be done, it will posting troops from the Draconis, or nominally Crucis March at those facilities while the work is done."

"I have made up my mind on this and it is too late to back away at this hour."

--
Notes: I was very tempted to include Mikey boy complaining about BattleMechs and JumpShip resources being 'allocated' to the Draconis march... I plan to write Michael Hasek in a very Edward VII / VIII (the Duke of Windsor) really either of the Edwards in terms of behavior and attitude, but I take similar inspiration from George the Sixth for Ian, but again this is a case of canonically Michael has a lot of entitlement issues and doesn't seem to get he married into the Davions and that not everything in the Fed Suns is his as a result. This is going to be a recurring issue, because Ian is less patient than Hanse is, and Hanse canonically is a simmering pot of rage sometimes

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.3​

Regardless of matters at the palace, tensions within New Avalon was a wash with the festive spirit, or at least affluent spending and show. Champagne, and other sorts of alcohol flowed freely as New Avalon livened up. The pomp and circumstances of the capital varied throughout the year, but the implication of the First Prince's invitation were of glad tidings, and the chatter of the heir to the realm having a child due underscored that.

Enough of a news statement that for most of the spies on the capital it was their primary focus simply because it was innocuous and inoffensive to report on for most of the hirelings. For more dedicated spies those with stronger ideological motivations, or chasing fatter paychecks Albion's receipt of new BattleMechs had attracted attention.

It had been long enough that the deliver of a company's worth of new 70 ton Mechs had gotten around, along with the talk of other machines which had made an appearance... but most of the more outlandish stories had been dismissed out of hand.

The talk of new manufacturing centers for the Centurion, and any variants there of, had been initially overshadowed but the commercial exchanges meant that it was impossible to ignore them. It would take time to confirm that the talks were real, never mind that actual movement had started on the manufacturing line, but that was largely out of the mixed expectations of how life in the Succession Wars operated, and that included industrial expansion and operations. Simply put it seemed ridiculous for that kind of capital movement to be underway without more notice, without more information, it was easy for non commercial, or industrial experts to reject such reports for one reason, while commercial or industrial experts to view such claims as absurd on the face due to the time and money moving such volumes would have required.

It was... in hindsight a mistake... but one that in the future would simply be blamed, and swept under the rug of sorts, as a transitional moment of the end of the long technological, and industrial dark age after the fall of the Star League. For more than two hundred years the inner sphere had been clinging to the remnant of the industrial base of the star league had been loosing bits and pieces of technology every few decades.

The Centurion though? There was nothing new, nothing revolutionary about the centurion, and the idea that House Davion would make a new centurion line, as it was perceived by outside observers... spies, seemed outlandish. It simply wasn't in the normal scope of operations for two new battlemech lines to be funded, much less the same model of mech in the same strategic area. It was therefore easy for confirmation bias, of well people don't do that, no one does that, to miss the development until it was obvious it couldn't be missed.

For New Avalon going into the Holiday season at the end of the year these foreign guests were when known were monitored for... those whose impropriety was too out in the open would be swept up but the reality of the succession wars was that the Intelligence Services of the Great Houses had sharpened their services, and some times the lesson had been taught that letting known spies run around with harmless bits meant sometimes they could be eased into taking bits of poison back to their nests.

For the military and civilian Federated Suns intelligence apparatus this was what the holidays were about it was watching for suspects to make a mistake. It was in this direction that the Duchess of Victoria was focused. She had no legal mandate after all regarding domestic production of materials even if as a cadet branch and noble of House Davion she could justify here involvement in discussions... but of course that was the problem since unlike most of her noble peers Yvonne understood what was going on in the Draconis March more broadly, and specifically at Sakhara... that went well beyond what the rumors were hastily denying could be any thing more than absurd hyperbole.

Exaggeration was normally something to be expected after all... but it wasn't exaggeration... you couldn't exaggerate that there was a new ShipYard of any sort... never mind one that would produce JumpShips... which was a detail that wouldn't simply be a rumor it would have official confirmation, and then the real chaos would start. Never mind the longswords, which had received far more attention than the Cataphract, but both Heavy BattleMechs would be overshadowed like everything else when the news reached the assembled elite of the Federated Suns and it would even with the limits of what news ComStar could carry through the HPG network spread like wildfire from there.

It was actually amazing the seriousness that the Sakhara academy had managed to maintain the secret... or that... the young scions failed ro recognize the situation. She didn't wish to be overly critical of a bunch of cadets but she was concerned that it really might have been more of the latter given that Clay's shipping concern was predominantly built on Star Lords...

It had been entirely possible that the Duke of New Syrtis had been being willingly obtuse about the matter but there were a lot of Star Lords comprising the Clay fleet. There was no AFFS component there, so there was no House Davion measure in the circuit that ran from the Draconis March Capital to New Avalon... the comments had annoyed the First Prince... and raised alarming questions over the Hasek prince's views on the private property of a Crucis vassal.
--
Justin Allard had doubled checked the Cataphract. He was pretty satisfied that at least on his end that there was nothing wrong... on the other hand... the Rabid Fox, Clay's 70 ton machine sat compact, hull down.

"So whats going on?"

"We're fairly certainly we can streamline production of the Cataphract to use a Dorwininion chassis probably sometime in the New Year we'll speak with Achernar."

"I thought they were building the Longsword?"

"Thats the plan, but if truth be told what I expect is that there are going to be demands for auto cannon equipped units in the near future, the cataphract is price completive, and with specialty ammunition either for your version or one also mounting short range missiles it has a market. As a training mech or as a militia command mech even the cataphract has utility given its parts commonality with systems available at market... but I really think the big interest is as Ian commented it mounts an auto cannon." and the truth was Clay intended to bring the LBX version to market in the coming decade... but not quite yet. "The other factor is this New Avalon Institute for Science they want access to the Centurion frame and the Cataphract, but I don't know how much of that Ian's insistence." Of course the Longsword was a polished slimmed down machine in many respects for mass production direct engagement... he'd told Achernar that over talks... but "What I would really prefer Achernar to do is to take seriously needs for a missile boat, it would take a lot of resources to bring the longbow into mass production due to that engine."

The door opened back up, bringing with it Alexandria's Orion, and a Highlander painted in Northwind Academy colors. So far it just looked like there were two or maybe three students from each of the schools participating. Henry had no expectation to participate since he had actually seen combat.

There was grumbling as an RBA painted Thunderbolt's pilot moved towards his machine complaining rather vocally about how long it had taken. Justin shook his head, "He's chomping at the bit to go fight the combine."

The Duke of Rio's son had been given every opportunity to excel. The thunderbolt had no combat experience but it didn't stop him from talking a big game... and he was one of the graduating students of the RBA representing Robinson in the tournament.

The Northwind Highlander was the only assault mech in the games. The pilot was one of the northwind clan scions and it was an ancestral machine, though one that no longer carried a gauss rifle in favor of a weapon still manufactured... admittedly that was something else that Henry was hoping to be rectify soon.

"Well, to be honest I don't' expect he'll have to wait for long." Henry replied to Justin's comment, and the truth was either the Combine would do something ... or Ian would make a move of his own, because ... well 'the Hound' wanted to hunt... it was just so far cooler heads had urged him to consider waiting until the AFFS could be built up to sustain an offensive... but Henry assumed that whatever preparations were being made were probably coming to fruition since Ian Davion had sounded a lot more bellicose on the prospect of a fight with the combine at breakfast. It had bordered on a stump speech really.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.4​

Ian Davion had wanted to spend time in the mech bay but there was too much to do. The duties of First Prince had priority over his time as they moved into the new year. The truth was that he had had to hear petitions from too many of his wealthy and powerful vassals before the official start of the season. Corean, and Achernar, Kallon, and yet others were talking about the same mechs he was interested in, but he had other subjects to hear out.

He had generals in the AFFS who wanted to wait for things to be perfect. He had generals who hoped that procurement would be approved and that the ranks of the DMM could be filled up with machines at a rate not seen since the star league. Officers in procurement were talking about the matter of shipping those machines, and for that matter for procuring tanks.

Tanks was a topic that had elicited the attention from the Duke of Robinson of course, but it had also had brought up the matter of reinforcing the Regimental Combat teams... something one of Hanse's house hold staff had thought to bring up that his brother had relayed, and then there was the matter of Blackwell Industries of New Valencia, and that just turned his conversation to the matter of mercenaries. There were the Wolf Dragoons to consider, it would have been excellent to lure them back to the Suns for service... and of course in terms of service the Eridani had been in Federal Service for the majority of his reign.

The wolf dragoons might not have been here, but as his aunt had reminded him, and Hanse as well... the Eridani Light Horse had accepted his invitation to attend... and he needed to explain and leverage Brevet General Kerston. The very act was one he understood as a necessity of state. His duties to the state, he needed to secure Kerston's loyalty even if the Eridani remained nominally mercenaries... but so long as the regiments of the venerable old company were pointed at his enemies then it was fine... but again that merely went back to the matter of the Dragoons to whom they could not afford added to the Combine's reserves... and it would be best of all to coax them back to the Federated Suns against the Combine.

"If we could convince the dragoons to return it had a probable chance to press Waco's rangers into the Combine's service over their somewhat one sided vendetta."

"I may have a solution to that," Hanse replied to their aunt's remark, "Admittedly it isn't a great solution, I would never suggest wasting mercenaries of the dragoon's talents on the Taurian frontier but the Capellan front needs to be secured, even if Waco did join so long as federal control was retain of the Dragoons along side the Guard it would benefit us more than it would cost us." His younger brother reached up to a series of documents.

They were working under the assumption that they could succeed in convincing the Dragoons to return... but Hanse's idea was based upon what was already public knowledge, shaping the knowledge the mercenary community received and making overtures to the dragoons that they would be coming back to a contract that they had demonstrated no trouble with previously... and yes in conventional practice this would be part and parcel to attempting to sway a mercenary to coming over permanently. Inviting the Dragoons to come back to New Valencia would only be part of it, they would use pomp and circumstance but also less prominently they might be able to leverage Clay's offer to answering some of the Dragoons other logistical needs.
--
New Avalon was the heart of the Federated Suns, for the social scene especially. It was true that the First Prince needed to travel across his family domain, as head of House Davion, and the broader still of the Federated Suns, but the formal social niceties that separated them from the barbarians were here on the glittering jewel that was the capital. It was here processions made there way to celebrate the realm, and its ruling house.

It was the one place where the nobility could, and did readily congregate across the boundary of the marches within which their feudal domains were situated.

That created, Alexandria understood, certain allowances for domains and their scions to interact, but it didn't wholly alleviate the potential wagging of tongues. New Avalon was a mine field of sorts , and waiting for the unwary or the rash to make a misstep.

The comment that she should relax was unappreciated, even if Justin meant well... but he was also paying a lot more attention to the impending tournament than anything else. They needed to at least not embarrass themselves, and ideally do well, to excel in the competition. Given the limitations imposed by tournament rules, and practical limitations imposed by tournament fields fighting was going to favor closer range engagements, possibly even entailing the adventurous choosing to close to melee range... that wouldn't be reflective of the course work that they had been pursuing... but she decided it was probably best not to mention that either... Justin was excited about the prospect... especially with the confirmation that his younger half brother wasn't being pushed into the roster of combatants.

Henry mulled the throngs of students still present at the academy. There was still a fair amount of grumbling about the lack of notice, or the limits on participation. It was so last minute as one senior cadet had complained, as another had complained about how few slots there were. He couldn't really speak for the first one, but the latter he couldn't help but nod along in agreement over. Just two, maybe three students ... and from the sound of it all of some degree of noble status... well Ian had little reason to extend an olive branch to the Warrior Cabals of the Federated Suns but there seemed to be something of a limit. He wasn't sure if he liked that idea.\

Smart ass comments like war is a team sport might not have helped the situation... but he was somewhat regretting not bringing tanks to further reiterate the idea behind that truism. A mechwarrior could not be everywhere nor do everything. Infantry, boots on the ground were always going to b e needed to hold ground and coordinate movement dirt side. Airpower was similarly a vital component... and while a MechWarrior could in low intensity warfare be relied about to act with violence of action a professional military was a necessity for far flung expeditionary warfare... which was what fighting the dragon would require. They were going to need tanks, and lots of them when the time came to take the fight to House Kurita.

"Hey, Henry the guys from New Syrtis are finally here." Justin remarked nudging him sharply, and suddenly.

"Well it would have been odd, if Warrior's Hall hadn't been invited." Alexandria observed... and whether it was desrved or not, or more specifically if the cadets in question deserved it... he had a half a mind to tell the two participating Sakhara cadets to kick their asses... "Hmm?"

"Nothing, I just expect the two of you to win is all." He replied to her questioning look. It was about the same time, that afternoon that the conference of ministers to the first prince, as well as the most important lords... including of the Draconis and Capellan Marches were being assembled before Ian Davion to discuss the matters of state that would shape the Federated Suns in the coming year. It was not a requirement. Ian Davion like generations of his forbearers had a great of leeway to shape federal policy and the military even if local administration was devolved in various ways to respect regional, and planetary government... but the title was after all First Prince not Emperor. While plenty of leaders had had grand ambitions the position of first prince was not an absolute monarch, and there were hereditary rights and privileges to contend with that kept the realm stable.

Ian had to among other things, make certain assurances that his realm was stable, and that the succession was stable... he didn't mention the possibilities he had in mind with regards to stability but only that he had plans, and that House Davion would be further secured with Hanse's first born due. Ian had grand ambitions in mind, but he chose to play those close to his chest for the time being... and while he intended to be cagey about such things to the gathering there were other bombshells he was preparing to drop on the assembly.

The younger nobles would kept from such proceedings. Senior civil servants would have some presence at the meetings but those doors in the palace closed and they were as secure as the combined efforts of the Federated Suns intelligence services could make the sanctum Santorum of the state.
--
Notes: Soon. Other update stuff, I need to bite the bullet and sit down reread 1634 and start updating my Dominion of the Baltic Sea AH more regularly, I keep saying I'm going to do it and I just don't get around to it. Anyway, I will be posting hopefully some stuff in the Junkyard BT snippets thread I have but also I need to get the Aurigan fic further along, and that will mean probably splitting time between the Canopian perspective and the conflict that is to introduce really Heron and his down timers to well among other things the modern Capellans. That's important, since in Ghost there is the reference that Gene basically sits locked away in his cabin while they're transiting through taurian space and that's an allusion to other factors and that will come up later... but yeah stuff and things.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.5​

His mind was filled with numbers, just as the papers in front of him were a survey of shipping rates, the projected costs of having to move something DropShip, and JumpShip across space. Given how in demand those numbers were he doubted to see much change.

In a market setting if he needed to he could buy using the essence with either C-Bills or BV buy something with BV sell it for C-Bill value but if he bought something either way and sold it it it might take longer but he could sell at a mark up reflective of market conditions in the 3rd​ Succession War, and the same held true of manufacturing new in this era. That required having a buyer, handling other factors in business and what not and it was a matter of time.

The lesson, of course that Henry understood was to not focus on the margin, but on volume... if he could bring large volume to market it a low profit margin for individual unit sold was less important than selling fewer for more. If he was going to do that he needed to be able to reasonably produce, and diversify production across multiple sites. Diversified production in this case was not international in this case... money was important and all... but his priority was the Federated Suns, activity and influence in the Federated Suns. Business partners, and deals with people operating in the Lyran Commonwealth or the Free Worlds League, people who held certain licenses who would have to be interacted with were one thing... but diversification needed to be inside the Federated Suns borders... just not...

... not on New Avalon. There was already so much going on here, he just couldn't fathom adding to the eggs in the basket... well at least so long as his options remained open... given what he knew of the wider universe if he didn't have any choice then he'd do it... but he doubted it was going to be an issue. "No I am currently expecting that late next year we should be able to expedite full scale production of centurions," He said after a minute. "There again really the principle bottleneck is the assembly line, once we have the assembly line put together and a steady chain of supply I think we will should be good."

Justin just nodded, as down on the level below techs worked to safety check his cataphract for the upcoming tournament.

It wouldn't matter that he didn't understood... that the commentary the dancing around was going right over his head. Justin would have graduated by that point, by the time the Centurion's entered full scale production.

That would be the real change. The truth was he would likely prioritize heavier production ... that was larger BattleMechs to be produced on Bristol, closer to New Avalon. There were other factors, but some of it was the thinking of avoiding placing assault battlmech lines on Sakhara for mass production ... he was already probably putting the planet at a lot of risk, what with it being so close to the Combine border. There were political reasons as well... and that at least Justin did grasp.

"Oh yeah you told me, Hanse Davion pilots a BattleMaster, the whole engine deal." The senior cadet nodded in what he no doubt interpretted as macho and surety in things.

"Yes if I can secure Bristol I'll diversify mech production," And truthfully if he didn't receive Bristol, he could work around that... but given the discussion and with the shipyard completed he expected they were going to move forward.
--
IN security terms Yvonne Davion knew that attempts would be made, and the truth was she expected that all of the late First Prince's Children understood that... not just Hanse, and Ian... which presented her with a problem that was both political and personal in nature. Especially in the light of the increasing fractious relations within the royal branch. Between the true born brothers, and their base born sister and her husband's machinations... and ambitions.

... and that was largely without them knowing what it was Ian had planned. Before Halstead talks with the Commonwealth had been a matter or could have been looked at just a matter of determing where the new archon stood.

That the new archon hoped to discuss a détente in the conflict, and the possibility of peace between the successor states more or less on the modern boundaries were something that House Davion could largely agree to. There would be objections, but she doubted that they would be serious enough to impede formal treaties between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth... because well to be frank one had to recognize that peace between two of the states was an admirable goal, but she doubted that the Combine would simply agree.

The trade treaties from before Halstead between Davion and Steiner were small things, building blocks, the beginnings of a foundation... but more than that Ian hoped to secure his realm's borders further. Idly she was greateful that Ian was just sitting down for this meeting.

"Can we predict what the general's response will be?"

She looked up over her folded hands at the question from the First Prince, "No," Yvonne replied simply, "And truthfully we don't know enough ourselves... if our analysts are correct which I would be willing to wager they are... Clay's household are as we have discussed descendants of SLDF troops." In itself that was nothing, there would be no reason to make issue of that detail by itself, "If however the expansion on Sakhara is what we believe it to be, and the chatter we have observed is valid-"

"Then its confirmed?"

She mulled accepted the interruption from the sovereign, "19th​ Striker Regiment, 3rd​ Regimental Combat Team Star League Defense Forces... but the IDCs, the identity friend foe codes transponders were limited sources from what we believe are Land Air Mechs, probably from the Regiment's Recon Company when the League was intact."

"Are they with us?"

"No, the majority of Clay's household troops remained behind, my understanding is there are expectations of an attack by the Combine and the Colonel of the tentative descendants is commanding the defense." Her analysts going over the data they had from Sakhara's defensive force weren't confident that the signals were from Land Air Mechs, but the transmitted frequencies suggested they were from a Regimental Reconnaissance Company based on the communications... which of course they knew because Admiral Clancy had joined the Federated Suns in the 29th​ century after Kerensky had departed the Inner Sphere he had brought over a treasure trove of intelligence documents as well as signal intelligence material. "The DropShips aboard the Star Lord have a large aerospace component, we believe that they are Star League Defense Force fighters, however."

"Not Stingrays?"

She shook her head, "No, while Sakhara clearly is producing new F 90 aircraft using a 240 engine," That they were clearly manufacturing on planet, "These are larger," apparently earlier,"Deathstalker models," Eighty ton aircraft, "The real... sticking point," Was the term she settled on, "Will be Clay's earlier comments," During his previous visit, "... that the Eridani were bushwhacked on Talitha," She remarked. Yvonne couldn't bring her self to perfectly quote the vernacular young person's grammar. "I don't believe that simply having Clay drop that bombshell would be the idea way to handle it..."

"No I will make sure to tell them myself."

Yes the First Prince had said that before, Ian was quite adamant that telling Kerston personally was his job... "Yes sire," She replied with exaggerated indulgent slowness, "But if we could request proof it might make things easier." ... and frankly it would have been better if the Duke of New Syrtis hadn't been present to see the mechs on the previous visit to New Avalon, or present for the conversation which was the root of this whole matter.

It couldn't be helped though.

Hanse cleared his throat, "What are the chances then that he has recordings with him?"

"I couldn't say." She replied. "It was a matter that she hadn't directly broached, but we should consider the ramifications of the evidence. The ISF is purported to have fed intelligence from House Kurita to Stefan Amaris we are not talking about just the Eridani in terms of ramifications."

"Of course not," Hanse agreed immediately, "Any incriminating information would reflect poorly on House Kurita to say the least." They hadn't been ignoring the matter... there were other things to do, especially given other developments. She had little doubt that Ian would have released the information in the wake of Halstead or Mallory's world, but he could be convinced to wait for the time being, to play for time until they had their forces ready. That had defined their efforts over the last two years.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.6​

Alexandria checked over the report she had been handed pertaining to her Orion. Not that there was any real need to, if there had been an issue someone would have said something, but there were required safety checks for these sorts of things. She wasn't particularly enthused at the prospect of the tournament, especially not as it drew closer and Justin became more enamored with the prospect of one on one giant robot fisticuffs... but boys would be boys she supposed.

To that end the sudden arrival of the Duchess of Victoria, and unannounced was a surprise. Even if she supposed given everything that was going on perhaps it shouldn't have been. "Are you ready?"

"I believe so." She replied.

Yvonne Davion nodded, "Good, false bravado is something for other people. There is enough of that from the warrior hall boys." She remarked, her expression somewhat inscrutable. "I wouldn't dismiss them out of hand, but the real news will come on the morrow. The First Prince will be making official announcements on certain matters, matters which are of national importance, and will have significant effects in the Crucis March, as well as the Federated Suns as a whole." She almost blurted out a response, but it bit it down. "Yes, that would indeed be the matter in question," Yvonne remarked nodding.

The Shipyard... but it was more than that... and it was. "Are you looking for him?"

"Officially no," Yvonne replied ... but it was rather obvious that she had expected the count of Sakhara to be here in the mech bay... which admittedly she would concede, this was where Alexandria had expected Henry Clay to be, but then again neither he nor Justin were here. "Though I do note the Rabid Fox is absent." It was rather hard to miss the empty bay, and the 70 ton war machine that had been there since their arrival. It was true she had questions, and suspected that the duchess did as well... but compared to everything else, the Rabid Fox as a BattleMech was overshadowed by the events that swirled around him. "The gossip mill has already begun to swirl... there are after all things that go into issuing letters patent."

Awards and recognition needed to be published for the gazette. It was tradition. It was a tradition that long predated a unified Terra or spaceflight, or powered flight for that matter. They didn't have to include all of the relevant, or sordid details for things that won the affection and praise of the monarch... but there were some things that one couldn't conceal, and more importantly had no reason to conceal. "Its..." The truth was even now she was weighing how far to reveal what she had heard, and been implied by the people in her own age group.

"Oh dear I've already said the salons are starting, the First Prince means to make that clear, and really its more than just the gossips at court."
--
A Rabid Fox was a seventy ton clan OmniMech. His was loaded into a 'B' configuration and while a clan ER Large Laser lacked the lopsided firepower of a Clan ER PPC it had advantages, like not running as hot as those. The possibility of needing them... well he had Hellstars for that, if it ever came to that... but they weren't on New Avalon, and he didn't expect to need them.

The ironic thing was that the canonical Hellstar was effectively a clan Awesome... admittedly a clanner awesome that didn't show up until 3079 and thus if they appeared it was not going to be in Clan Wolf, and thus the Wolf Dragoon database of clan war machines.

It was part of the reason he had selected some of them... maybe not the best reasons but a case of if it came down to it wanting the options. The problem was that ... the Badger, and Bandit were OmniVehicles derived from the Clan Epona in turn developed from an even earlier Star League era piece of hardware with intermediaries in between. He didn't understand why it had taken that long or why tech had seemed to stagnate, but he was also kind of glad he hadn't brought any of the heavier tanks.

He didn't want to step on the toes of a corporate entity, overshadow them, he wanted to work with in the future... "That's a big mech." Justin observed oblivious to his thoughts.

"Marauder II, a hundred tons," And a significant parts interchangeability with the standard Davion iteration of, domestic production, version of the Marauder. "its the Federated Suns first new domestic production battlemech in living memory."

Justin backpedalled, "What, what do you mean?"

"It entered production a few years ago. It hasn't made a splash at market, Blackwell hasn't really made a large debut but that's because I think their capital backer is the Wolf Dragoons, and they can apparently afford to sustain the company's large scale expansion." He wasn't quite sure how that worked in terms of keeping the company in the black, but that was something for the accountants and the lawyers to figure out. "anyway, its the designs I'm interested in, and their connection to the dragoons." That was the honesty of it... the brutal honesty of it.

Blackwell was a Federated Suns Company. It wasn't as if this was some star league era megacorp like Corean who he was already working with. Corean had assets abroad... and to be honest he wasn't quite sure how that worked in the era of the succession wars even if the third wasn't nearly as bad as the first one had been, but even so... this had the potential to be all kinds of messy.

He glanced down at the empty coffee container, and grimaced at the headache he was already feeling coming on. Justin was too distracted at the prospect of someone having beaten him to the punch for a new mech.

"Its not that big of a deal," he started to say.

"Yeah it kind of is, but they've just got the one?"

"Yeah, that's right," He replied, "The Marauder II also mounts a full suite of jump jets as well, I appreciate that about the design but more importantly its a very economical design from a productive standpoint." The Lasers, and PPCs were all commonly available, and so on and so forth... for the weight of course some compromises in parts had to be be made, and Blackwell had used different hardware for TTS, and communications but it wasn't that big of a deal. "My understanding is Jaime Wolf has a lot of Star League era machines," he wasn't going to discuss the down-teched nature of those, some of hte oddities, "But that he was looking for someone to produce the Shogun."

"Can you do that?"

"I can, it'll mean diverting resources... but Blackwell has a lot of potential, and I need an in with the Wolf Dragoons to get my foot in the door. Blackwell provides that." ... and thus in theory he could leverage that into keeping the Dragoons from working for House Kurita, which would prevent Kurita from being able to draw on those mercenary regiments... and yeah ideally being able to turn the Dragoons on them was probably a thing, "There is a lot going on right now."
--
Notes: there was some additional content that got lost due to last night's power outage, but its not that important just some slight additions, and we'll cover basically the same stuff in the conclusion to NA2

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 2.7
[New Avalon 2 Conclusion]​

In hindsight perhaps it might have been a little obvious where to find him, and that he probably would have brought Justin Allard along. It made sense... in truth the patronage of New Avalon that Ian extended to the institution was a continuation of his father's policies. Andrew's support of New Avalon, over Albion was a statement of ... well that too many Albion graduates had supported the Warrior Cabal that had killed Peter the second.

Not that there hadn't been a shortage of Albion graduates, Andrew and his father had both graduated from Albion, and Hanse had attended the school, but Andrew had sent his heir, the current first prince to New Avalon Military Academy. Then of course... there had been the victory stolen from under the Coordinator's nose , the victory the Combine didn't even realize that the Federated Suns had won, a prize that New Avalon was better suited to exploit than her own alma mater.

The truth was the first succession war had been an utter disaster.

A lesson of history it was a seemingly unceasing tide of horror.

Yvonne Davion regarded the towering hulk of muscle watching over the two boys. The infantry officer wasn't simply large in comparison to the two cadets, the hulk out massed everyone else present. There was no contest.

He was also the man who had pointed out... who had reminded Clay that there were details that the Wolf Dragoons should bear in mind regarding their employment if there were to be business dealings in the future. It was those, those details which she was keeping in mind. If it were possible the Federated Suns wanted to directly distribute such information to the Dragoons, ideally with the hope of swinging the Dragoons to return to the Suns.

That would have repercussions on a strategic level. A strategic level that she doubted Alexandria fully grasped, never mind the two boys. Justin Allard was after all presently, and impatiently waiting for the opportunity to examine Blackwell's hundred ton Marauder II. A machine that they had developed with the help of the Dragoons, and the Dragoons were the only user... largely because somehow or another the machine had flown under the radar of observation. It was the first indigenous new design to go into production in the Federated Suns since hte onset of the 3rd​ Succession war. The average MegaCorp head would have probably bristled at the threat or potential competition it posed to his own designs, but Clay seemed not to mind at all.

It probably would have been entirely doable for Clay to leverage his technicians ability to churn out designs using commonly available parts to put pressure on Blackwell rather than trying to cooperate with them Cooperation and aims to expand production seemed to be the greater priority... which further underscored support within the AFFS that Clay might not have even realized he was accumulating... support outside of the Draconis March.... which did keep Yvonne's focus looking at other parties within the realm rather than outside it. "We should join them I think." She remarked to Alexandria. Justin Allard was the only one in a military uniform, not that the Cadet's Dress Uniform for Sakhara wasn't flattering but the countess of Kestrel had chosen to wear a semi functional dress, and the soon to be Duke of Bristol had worn a conservative suit... though he might have been making a low key comment given that his boots were made of out snakeskin.
--
The Campaign on Mallory's Wolrd shouldn't have seemed so long ago, nor Halstead Station for that matter. The new year would ring in 3016, and and it would be two whole years since the Sword of Light had been provoked to going to their deaths on Halstead's station. The Victory on Halstead Station so early in 3014 further solidified his rule... and if he died Ian was cognizant of what Hanse's marriage meant for the realm, and Hanse's child would mean. That wasn't to say there wasn't pressure to marry... in an ideal world he might be able to wed the Archon bringing the two realms together, but he knew that if he wanted to that it would create problems with the Church. The Bishop of New Avalon was conservative he would, probably, oppose any union between Hanse's prospective son and Ian's stepdaughter assuming a marriage between Archon and First Prince could even be secured...

was that the only stumbling block? Of course not. There were plenty of pressures that often prevented the First Prince for marrying for affection alone, but at least with the Archon he could have leveraged on peace between the realms.

"He brought up the Shogun to Blackwell?"

"In that they would convey to Jaime Wolf his offer, and that as an investment partner New Valencia would be the site of production in exchange for reciprocation." His aunt, the Duchess of Victoria, replied to the question. "Clay expects to have a prototype ready for evaluation by March if that is acceptable to Blackwell."

"Do you think it would sway the Dragoons?"

"We know that Jaime Wolf was disappointed that no one wanted to take on manufacturing of the Shogun for the Dragoons so I do believe it will draw his attention."

There was some rustling as a few other ducal lords of the Federated Suns entered the privy council's chambers deep in the heart of the palace, "Did you speak with him regarding ... certain material of the Eridani's problems with the Combine." He asked as diplomatically as he could.

She shook her head, "No the timing wasn't right, I didn't want to risk mention of it reaching the Eridani, or General Kerston before we could do so. We should accept that we may not get things all neatly lined up as we would like them... but the implication I take from this is that the Eridani, and the Dragoons will look at the information favorably to us... and it would be better to leverage the dragoons."

"Because the Light Horse are already in our service?" The First Prince remarked reservedly.

"Quite," She agreed, "Of course we could proceed to inform the Eridani, and then invite a contingent of the Dragoons to negotiate matters of business -"

"They could send Kerensky."

"She's hardly subtle I agree, but the truth is that may well benefit us," Yvonne replied as Hanse helped his wife into her seat... not that Dana Stephenson was particularly delicate by any means, "and of course waiting for a Dragoon response would give us time to establish exactly the depth of the dragon's complicity."

There was a lull, and the silence turned almost interminable before the last of the great houses settled into the numbers. The Duke of Elidere was among the last to arrive. House Maikos was not the martial of Draconis March houses, but they were wealthy, and unfortunately if the present Duke died without issue... Ian suspected it would be another case like Bristol where it would fall to him as First Prince to distribute the title to a worthy bearer. It was an issue of succession that he was supposed to discuss with the Duke of Elidere ... but one that struck him as a tad hypocritical given his own issue... or rather that his legitimate heir was his brother, and Hanse's line.

"My companions, I welcome all of you to my hall," And so followed the usual harkenings of older grander times, and the neo feudal traditions, and the first toasts of what was probably going to be a very long session of his senior most lords, and ladies. "It is with great esteem then that I present to this august body the expansion of our ranks," he didn't like the sudden look on his brother in law's face, but Ian contented himself that Michael Hasek's glee would be shortly dashed. The holographic display bloomed to life showing Sakhara's northern hemisphere, and the sprawling sands and great river, "The recent contribution to the realm is a JumpShip Yard capable of construction of the Star Lord class JumpShips, it is for that reason amongst other contributions I have drafted letters patent to create as Duke of Bristol, Henry Clay." He didn't actually need to discuss naming or reasoning, but historically it always helped to be able to shield any creations of nobility from attacks of being driven by nepotism. The peerage had powers, and ways to confound a prince even if the great lords could not impinge upon his right to name members to the ranks.
--
Notes: back on a xiania, and pokemon kick so may be doing stuff in those genres soon ish.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.1​

Henry couldn't help but grin at the display. The crowds were already raucous. It was despite that excitement really a small tournament. That wasn't as big of an issue because this was only one small part of the holiday festivities... but while there would be troop reviews and other events that would demonstrate the military and martial virility of the Federated Suns and that this year... that would be more on display.

Ian Davion's past few years of rule had cemented his reputation as a military leader in the conflict against the hated even racial enemy, against the Draconis Combine. On their surface, though these were great military victories they did not suggest a paradigm shift in the succession wars, did not signal that Ian Davion's reign would represent a significant change from the norm of the succession wars... and this tournament similarly represented a continuation of tradition rather than an example of departing from it.

For the average person on New Avalon watching the Cataphract represented something new and exciting, being a new BattleMech design. For the common public, largely the middling orders of New Avalon, and even the members of the aristocracy this was the first demonstration of a new BattleMech design something that wasn't centuries old.

Justin's Cataphract had been given a parade paint job in the Sakhara colors and with badging to reflect the Academy... just in case anyone didn't know what institution the scion of House Allard was supposed to be representing despite the announcers, and the blazened holographic images pervading the displays. Admittedly given Sakhara's small class size drawn of exclusive ranks of high society it might have actually been a good idea.

The holographic displays were accompanied by the broadcaster reading, rather obviously, off a provided paper talking aobut the machine. An official press release talking about the battlemech and its equipment. Thereby proving government bureaucrats could make even giant stompy robots sound boring and mundane.

Alexandria turned to look at him, "I still can't believe you let him talk you into mountain an Assault Auto cannon on it before we shipped out."

She had a point in that it was a much more significant modification to the Cataphract than he had had in mind, and had involved pulling the two Imperator-A autocannons that had been installed originally in addition to the LRM five... which admittedly he'd expected to be dropped since yes that had on reflection seemed extraneous.

The decision had almost tempted him to slip CASE, or even Ferro-fibrous on the design... but he knew they had been going... coming here to New Avalon and that a lot of eyes would be on the Cataphract. A machine that the First Prince had asked about on their previous visit, and that was also something Alexandria probably had in mind since Justin's modification to the machine would potentially alter impressions of the baseline model.

As for the Assault Auto-cannon it used a Defiance Mech-Hunter the same as the Alecto, and the identical in weight Warden that had yet to debut. Both of those were ten tons heavier in the assault weight class. Justin still had his large laser, and the Mk III had no minimum range and the two mediums added to that... but it would mean that the Cataphract would run hot... most likely though Justin planned to close as quickly as he could in this fight and pour auto cannon fire in without necessarily using the Large Laser.

In the Davion booth a much similar discussion was going on as Yvonne Davion was put into the position of explaining the modification as personal preference... and that boys would be boys. In his cockpit, with ears burning Justin Allard waited impatiently for the party to start. The Capellan March asshole had been rubbing him wrong since their first run in in the hanger, but he didn't seem like he'd be that tough. If anything it was fighting Alexandria, or the Highlander that might the issue. The Highlander had a PPC in its arm in place of a class ten auto cannon, and coupled with its LRMs would have more range than he would, but the bigger machine was also going to be slower... but not a lot slower. All of these fights were going to be in close fast, and he doubted they'd last more than a few minutes.

A narrow window to win determined by violence of action... and the whole planet was watching. No pressure.

Hanse Davion in the Davion booth watched as the master of ceremonies signaled that the two heavy BattleMechs could begin. It was a round robin tournament. The Thunderbolt was a venerable, mech with a well established history in service to the successor states, and before that in the Star League Defense Force. It was a five hundred year old base design facing a new design five tons heavier.

It wasn't the only Thunderbolt in the competition, though they had slightly different load outs. It also hadn't escaped Hanse that the Eridani had their share of Thunderbolts as well. That sustaining the design since the fall of the Star League had required refits, and retrofits and other modifications to keep the heavy battlemechs on the battlefield.


"They're starting." Ian observed leaning forward in his seat at the center of the box as both heavy battlemechs began moving towards one another. There were no attempts to evade the two boys had both floored their accelerators churning up the sod... that was why they used artificial turf for the field since it allowed these courses to be shaped to reflect a uniform standard.

It didn't take either mech long to get out of their starting boxes and once they were clear of the line photoreceptors started tracking attempts by both machines to hit the other, which with direct fire lasers was more of making sure the gyro was compensating at this distance.

"Are they going to stop?" The question was from Marie, but her husband seemed to be having the same thought given both machines were at flank speed and had together cleared a quarter of a mile as they both ran forward.

"Doesn't look like it does it." It was reckless. Obviously in hindsight they should have been worried about this sort of thing. The simumintion from the massive auto cannon still made an expressive bang as it opened fire. The first rounds splashing red paint across the thunderbolt's torso... and those were supposed to represent an AC 20, which changed the entire dynamic of the fight, even before the two heavy battlemechs crashed into one another at speed.

Down below in a private if less impressively placed box the countess of Kestrel hissed out a quiet invective. "Damn it Justin." Henry didn't quite mirror the response, but empathized... that probably wasn't just going to buff out.

Instead, he settled for taking out a noteputer and messaging his technical staff.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.2​

The two machines sprawled out from the impact, and probably dazed remained there for the better part of a minute, mud and grass and paint on their mechs. Henry watched. It helped that the Cataphract had one arm with a hand. He'd been leery about recreating that asymmetry... he hadn't been sure about it, but now he was sort of glad he had. In a real fight the AC 20 shots would have probably rattled the other Heavy BattleMech more, but here in simulated combat that wasn't counting for as much still... Justin had crashed headlong into the other machine.

A tactic that was a lot riskier, a lot more hazardous than the simunitions standing in for missiles or auto cannon rounds for the tournament. The Warrior's hall candidate hadn't been expecting it. "He's off balance," Henry observed... probably more psychological than anything, and Justin was on top of the Thunderbolt anyway and the AC 20 was in action. The Cataphract was supposed to be a jack of all trades workhorse, but at this range and in this situation there was no question that Justin was probably right to run the machine hot.

This was a fight between two mechs, and well... Justin was kicking the bastard while he was down and refusing to let up. The warrior's hall mechwarrior should have just thrown in the towel, and after a minute and a lot of paint the judges called it. The crowd erupted into cheers, and even though Henry recognized it probably didn't readily resemble a normal BattleMech engagement in onthe battlefield it did resemble one very recent well publicized event...

... namely when he'd taken his Rabid Fox down a hill and and beaten Yorinaga Kurita's Warhammer into scrap to save the First Prince ... a battle rom which the Davion public were very very familiar with. The crowd was wild as a result. It didn't matter that they were two Fed Sun mechs beating each other, they were ecstatic.

Most of the chants were just uniformly pro davion. Cheers for the Federated Suns, House Davion, the AFFS, some were Sakhara, but some were for the Draconis March... never mind that as a native of Kestrel and a noble scion of the planet at that Justin was from the Crucis March.

Henry leaned back in his seat, and then paged his techs. It was unlikely but the shake up might be enough to jar something... the Cataphract wasn't standard they'd changed the systems... and well maybe he was being overly cautious but he hadn't expected Justin to do this as a solution to his very first fight in the tournament, even if it had paid off.

Within a few minutes, after some comments from the officials congratulating, making a point of congratulating both pilots, the seats began to empty. It took longer to get down to the stable level and for Justin to dismount from the cataphract. Henry glanced around just to be sure, but the 'mech hangar was secure. Secure enough that Alexandria was confident in the privacy to explode at her cousin for turning the match into a brawl thirty odd seconds into the match.

He almost considered intervening, but a tech stepped in with the diagnostic. "Nothing seems a matter," The tech remarked, "We'll pop it tonight just to be sure, and make sure to get the mud and paint off of it... replacing the scraped panels will take a little longer than all that, but its not something to worry about." The man assured him.

Henry nodded, and punched up the specifications for the standard 'davion' equipment cataphract... but he was also considering other versions. The Capellans would eventually debut the Raven, he just couldn't remember off hand when it would enter production but it probably wouldn't be for a few years yet. It would have been easy to probably obfuscate anyway given all the other designs but the Cataphract would probably get enough attention because it was a heavy BattleMech even without LosTech weapons.

Justin in the mean time had had enough to loudly protest that he had won.

"While taking unnecessary risks, you could have made a fool of yourself."

Henry made a point of exerting the effort to ignore the both of them regardless of the points that both of them made for their respective positions. He had other things that needed to be done He navigated the essence to examine his saved version of the CTF 2X really just a version with davion equipment and the differences were minimal but that was the advantage of the Essence. In theory when it came time for other manufacturers to start producing the machines under license they shouldn't have an issue at least that was his working theory.

Los tech components would come later Maybe Justin's decision to replace the weaponry more heavily to make room for the assault auto cannon just reiterated Davion market preference. He made a note to see if they couldn't possibly make a Marauder II akin to a King Crab for the Davion market whether that would be an interest.... but only really if it was possible to drop systems that made the Marauder II distinctive... and it might start a legal argument with GM so best to leave that alone for the time being... especially with CASE being 'unavailable' at least commercially. Especially as he had plenty of other unique designs to push forward into production to swell the ranks of available mechs.

There were a lot of those, indeed the previous trip to New Avalon had all but been defined by the breadth of designs as it was the company worth of seventy tonners delivered to Albion. The Longsword had intended to be the center piece of that visit, but he'd let his enthusiasm get away from him, and he had misjudged the interest a 70 tonner with auto cannons might garner... and he had gone totally overboard with the original designs, that was more obvious now. More people were just shell shocked at the sudden demonstration.

... and at the same time his eyes snapped back to the holographic data chart of the essence, and the tabs with costs. Things the like the Fusilier he could hopefully convince other manufacturers to diversify production and build safely in the Crucis March, but he had avoided thus far trying to nudge them towards Kestrel... that would have been 'forward' and not necessarily in the good way... and the Shadow Hawk refit kits could be manufactured by a third party for what they needed... maybe Blackwell could to leverage a position... he groaned, "The techs will fix the Cataphract Justin, just try and avoid unnecessary wear and tear in the future, lets go get something to eat in the mean time." He declared minimizing the essence projection hastily looking at the other two... but the truth was his focus was on trying to emphasize or get people to buy Sentry BattleMechs enough to encourage production across Davion space, and maybe myrmidon tanks as well given that Lord Aaron was now rolling down the ramp from the bank of elevators towards them.

At least he, unlike Alexandria had taken Justin clobbering the Thunderbolt in delight... maybe a set of Sentry and Alecto mechs could be transferred to RBA and or Northwind after all of this, or at least in a few months, for similar evaluation as the Long Swords.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.3​

The idea of the Myrmidon, rather what he was going to market as the Sphinx immediately came to the fore in the discussion. The Sphinx was a fusion engine tank, and thus didn't require a capacitor like ICE and thus could mount a power intensive issue in this case a Magna MK III with limited issue. It was also an example of way purchasing Pratt & Whitney had been his next public move, "I plan to expand," Henry remarked, "Subsidiary parts manufacture is my next expansion, Pratt and Whitney will expanding tooling manufacture that will go into producing the parts for the tank," And it would be nominally through Pratt & Whitney that he planned to overhaul and expand things on Bristol for heavier tanks... but now wasn't the time to bring those up. "I wouldn't be surprised or rather I would that we will see other designs to fill local niche roles over the next few years, once we have manufacturing orders started the primary focus will be expansion of production."

"I understand you're in talks to produce them here?"

"I mean yes," He replied to the wheelchair bound duke, "The Sphinx will probably see some production here on New Avalon, but I wouldn't be surprised if that," If the major components for the forty ton tracked tank were likely to be in demand as replacement parts for mech units at least until production expanded... the Sphinx running off of the same fusion engine, "If we don't get requests for parts to repair or rebuild mechs, weapons and fusion engines and such."

Aaron Sandoval nodded.

It was a common matter, a common way of doing things in the succession wars that had reduced the 'common-ness' of fusion powered tanks as those parts were scavenged to keep BattleMechs in the fight, or bringing them back to combat status. "But there will be other production sites?"

"Of course, the fact it has commonality with a light mech engine isn't unintentional. The Devastators, and variants of it will produced side by side with the Alecto, and the Sphinx can be up-engined to run off a Nissan replacing the LRMs with a PPC, if you're interested in expanding the fusion engine production on Robinson." It did mean losing a ton of armor, but all of that was already in the plain black and white of the pamphlets describing the two variants but also the other tanks. Those same documents made clear what tanks ran off common equipment and fusion engines, and also that they were prepared to handle licensing and adjustments to run off other versions of locally produced weapons. It would be simple to build the Sphinx with an ExoStar in staead of the MK III that his demonstration model ran off of, but that was largely because the Mark III equipped tank was intended to woo Blackwell. He wanted access to their OmniVehicles and to expand the production of the Marauder.

If a major offensive was forthcoming then producing tanks would grow the work force and expand the davion tax base... not that he ever put it in those terms but it was in the back of his mind. Even if he was aware that it didn't change the limiting factor of JumpShips... but really he wasn't especially concerned about mass production of tanks as a major factor to his bottom line... and for that Henry recognized the nature of the succession wars and even the popular view worked in his advantage. Achernar demonstrated perfectly well that you could have the majority of your income from non military projects, and be a viable interstellar company. He did want that, but there were some other things to deal with.

They continued to walk, making there way out of the hangar, mech bay, set aside for the Sakhara 'team' in the tournament, which threatened to funnel them back into the swelling crowds . It honestly reminded Clay of a derby, a horse race where there was a lot of hype but that each event was spread out and it gave people time to walk around get refreshments, make small talk and generally socialize. At least this way Justin would be able to watch the next match of the day, and of course it also let the faire marshals go over the ground and make sure there was nothing wrong with the grounds, and that it was safe to continue. They'd be coming to double check the safety standards on the mechs as well... it was a wonder there wasn't a pilot check, but that probably assumed that the cadets would be fine.

The short bursts of replay footage were largely a factor of how quick things had resolved. There were still shots of both mechs 'in their corners' being projected, and there were images of other mechs that would fighting later, he recognized a still shot of Lex's Orion for example, and of course the distinctive head of the Assault weight Highlander.

It was the Highlander, with its common General Motors 270 that he was surprised wasn't attracting more interest in bringing back into production... admittedly given everything else going on he just hadn't had the time to look at what could be done, or rather was being done inside the Fed Suns with that weight engine. Given that there was so much else going on he wasn't going to bring it up unprompted. There were already too many other projects he needed to have foundries set up for, or to have planned expansions carried out... and of course there was whatever happened with Bristol.. and the Fury would mean 320 Engine production would need to be expanded... and eventually it would mean reintroducing the Gauss Rifle in at first its Star League version back to Davion forces... in first tanks and then battlemechs.

"How long do we have, anyway?"

"Until the next match?" He asked in response to Justin's question, "Long enough, they spaced them far enough apart for the marshals to check everything," including time to hose off paint, at least they had scheduled time for that, "And for attendees to get refreshments."

"We should get food, I worked up an appetite." Justin replied prompting a laugh from the Duke of Robinson at the half serious comment. The had the option to retreat to a the private boxes set aside for them and just order food, but perhaps as a result of the recent head on collision Justin was more in the mood to walk it off, and they made their way largely without notice through the crowd of well dressed wealthy middling orders, and upper classes of Davion and New Avalon in particular society.

Arguably given their outfits really only the Duke of Robinson was probably immediately recognizable if only because of his handicap, but the grounds were still configured to allow his manual wheelchair access to where ever he wanted to roll himself too. That left them the opportunity to more or less shoot the shit, and talk about the short lived match and how Justin liked the Cataphract as a mech, and in particular how his up-gunned version handled.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.4
The tournament would be round robin, eight schools, two competitors each, giving all participants the chance to show their talents and thus avoiding eliminating a promising pilot by mere bad luck. "One for Sakhara," Hanse remarked as the displays changed. The match had been over more quickly than he had expected, but that was possible with just two mechs on a field, "They have an Orion competing as well."

The Royal Booth wasn't crowded though the presence of security was impossible to miss. The DMI had a significant presence today, some of which Ian suspected was the almost visceral instinctual distrust his aunt had for the Duke of New Syrtis, "It was a great daring do," He remarked politely, reframing from rubbing Michael's face in the matter too much. "The standard production mounts a lighter gun?"

"It shares cross platform with the Rifleman," Yvonne remarked having dropped the honorifics for the confines of the box, "a pair of Imperator-A series medium auto cannons. Mister Allard had them and the missile pod stripped out to make room for it."

"That seems to have worked well for him." Ian remarked, angling rather obvious, and hinting about the matter in a way that couldn't be missed.

Yvonne made a reluctant show of the matter of shuffling papers, mostly theater, "My understanding is a standard model cataphract has been brought up for both New Valencia based Blackwell, in addition to the Shogun for the Dragoon talks, and also for rather obviously licensure to Kallon."

"Good, we need to expand production." Ian replied, "I'll make time in my schedule to see all of them regarding the machine." It wasn't a suggestion.

Yvonne didn't protest so much as gently point out, "There is the matter of General Kerston, and his audience with your highness." She remarked

Ian felt his lip twitch, and nodded.

For a moment Yvonne was almost worried that Ian would impetuously decide to just invite the soon to be Duke of Bristol and his friends along to that, but Ian Davion, Duke of New Avalon, and reigning First Prince conceded that yes that was business that needed to be seen too. It just meant she needed to have a conversation regarding proof... and hoping that rumors regarding the dragoons within the AFFS's high command from discussions within the DMI and the Staff hadn't reached or been taken too seriously by the Brevet General of the Eridani Light Horse... but that was the problem with this part of the year, with the season's cheer... loose lips and all.
--
After about an hour of meandering they retired to the private viewing box with their refreshments with still enough time to enjoy them, and to make small talk... well not so small talk given the meat and potatoes the conversation turned into.

The commitment in funding, and the exchange of engineers had already occurred, made possible by the now permanent command circuits that existed from Robinson to New Avalon... and of course those weekly traverses would also insure that they could expand the trade between the capital of the March, and the Capital of the Federated Suns as well as as a b y product between the marches; draconis and crucis from those hubs.

Admittedly while Henry expected those factors, they probably weren't so clear to anyone else, because again for most people the command circuits were such a new feature, and also most people likewise assumed that scarcity of Star Lord JumpShips would continue to be an issue of cargo capacity of internal trade.

To that end he still had made sure the booth was swept and secured against electronic eavesdropping by his householder retainers as a precaution, "I only expect to construct one Star Lord this year, and once that ship launches the next step will be operating at a standard production rate."

"Two to three ships a year,"

"Most likely two ships a year," He reiterated, "Some years Sakhara will probably be able to produce three but that will depend on factors of supply, and also on an experienced work force." They had had this conversation before, but last time, the shipyard hadn't been complete... and the prospect had seemed imminently more theoretical just a month or so ago. Now though, well now was different the ball was rolling on plenty of other industrial projects as well. Such information was limited, and had been limited to a very small circle of participants.

Aaron Sandoval as Duke of Robinson was a direct industrial partner since Robinson was the sight of one of those BattleMech lines, since larger model fusion engines were being exported to Robinson from Sakhara. Yvonne Davion, who wasn't present, was also aware and of course now Hanse Davion knew in addition to his older brother the reigning first prince, but for the moment there was no, or at least limited with the Pratt & Whitney acquisition, movement on the industrial front here on New Avalon even if the first deliveries of mechs for evaluation had coincided with their last visit to the capital. "And you'll do the same at Bristol?" The wheel chair bound duke asked, as if the planet was already Henry's, which was a tell of conversations at higher authorities within the Federated Suns.

"Eventually yes, but my understanding is Yvonne had convinced Ian that its strategically imperative to expand what the Federated Suns already have." He shrugged, "So I'll be posting to Kathil, that'll probably be late next year," Probably after the first Star Lord was launched, "And of course that will probably take time, and even if I left for Bristol tomorrow any shipyard construction there," Since he certainly wasn't going to overtly demonstrate with no doubt a far larger audience watching what he was doing, "will take on estimate until FY," Fiscal Year, "3018 to be complete, and thats off of the assumption the parts we have already are used... and those parts will probably be used on repairing the James McKenna yards... so really I would expect... some time next decade, 3021 ish before all the parts are back in inventory since the McKenna yards will probably take a lot of overhaul."

What of course that actually meant was the essence would be producing parts on Sakhara to in part publicly ship to Bristol. Justin ignorant of that, moved on to the typical succession wars question, "What will that meant for manufacturing battlemechs?"

"Not much, even the fusion drives are completely different production sites," It was true of course that the very basic electronics and just most basic construction components had some overlap, "But with BattleMechs and ASF and tank production all of that will be ground side," Until they managed to begin industrial production of endo-steel, but that was LosTech, "Construction of that on Bristol will be completely divorced from the Shipyard construction."

There was a pause in the end of the statement as he mulled that Alexandria exploited, "Will there be ASF production on Bristol?"

"Originally the plan was for there to be given the Shipyard," He replied, "Given the pressure for heavier mech production, most of 240 engine production on Bristol will probably go to BattleMechs for the Crucis March..." he paused, "We will produce slantbacks, but probably not as significantly as the original industrial plan called for." There were other ASF but the truth was tank designs from Jolassa's subterranean spaces would be 320 powered Gauss Rifle Fury tanks... and of course later eighty ton assault mechs to run off of those engines. That would be be in the future after they were established and in control of the planet, "I don't know whether I'll have the personnel if I have to see about Kathil to do anything about DropShip production I will probably have to speak with Federated Boeing about cargo dropship construction just to move tens of thousands of tons of industrial tooling, and spare parts next year," Which all sounded perfectly reasonable except that it was all a smoke screen, but Henry did plan to approach the federated Boeing people about such construction it just wasn't as important as he made it sound just now.

... that didn't make it not important, but it was preparing the industrial ground work for Federated Boeing to expand production... they needed more cargo ships if more carrying capacity, JumpShips, increased... because that was what would secure the Federated Suns victory against the combine. The logistics to support an expeditionary war. Achernar, Corean, Kallon and never mind manufacture of less flashy weapons and equipment of war would all be approached about that sort of thing, about expanding production if they hadn't already.

For now though, the conversation naturally died off as the crowds settled back into their seat as New Avalon Military Academy the less prestigious of the two big schools of the capital, relative to Albion prepared to face the first of the two pilots from Northwind academy in the second match of the day.

--

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.4​

The fight was the opposite of how Justin's had turned out... to the point that Henry wouldn't have been surprised if some instructor from one or both institutions hadn't run down to the stables and jumped down their pilot's throats to head any of that off at the pass. Instead both battlemechs cautiously circled and stayed at range where possible.

Henry doubted anyone had expected that to unfold after the first match, but this was probably closer to what had originally been expected, and was less reckless than how the first had played out. The result was a fight that lead to more side conversations, and no doubt from the crowds below a criticism for a lack of aggression.

"You're going to have to go up against both of them." Henry remarked after a moment as the mechs circled around and past one fake building and then darted to the cover of another ply wood Potemkin building.

The round robin factor added another layer to this, "Which means they'll both be aiming for you," Alexandria remarked to her cousin.

"Me?" Justin questioned then shook his head, "Well fine, I'm okay with that." Justin had won his first match, won the first match of the rounds, but he'd also done it in the most direct and flashy way possible and so for the moment he was the guy to beat in this game. A challenge, that as he had just voiced, Justin Allard was all too willing to confront head on. That he was the guy to beat in a 'mech that no one had ever seen before was just well fuel on the competitive fire.

Still Henry bit his tongue. There was nothing lostech about the Cataphract... there were going to be future models where that was true, but the Cataphract was a machine built off of readily available components, and weapons. Justin's refit didn't change that, and it certainly wouldn't do for someone to try and write off Justin's success as the mech being something other than what it was.

--

Hanse watched the machines in the arena circle one another, and listened to the comment, that the admonition to be cautious from their instructors had probably over done it. His older brother, the First Prince, well wasn't quite bored , but the match wasn't holding his attention as the previous. If the duke of New Syrtis hadn't made such an ass of himself the last few months it might not have mattered but the Sakkara cadet had battered the cadet from the Capellan March into submission, which had caused some gnashing of teeth.

That it wasn't fair. It wasn't the first time Michael had complained, he certainly hadn't been happy about the endowment of mechs to Albion. A company worth of heavy battlemechs was a substantial endowment to make to an institution.

Yorinaga Kurita had piloted a Warhammer after all, and the Longsword was in many respects a related design, but one better suited to the succession wars and long campaigns.... given its lack of missiles and other ammunition requirements. That was important, the comparison was important because though they were both seventy tons Henry Clay's Rabid Fox was a sustained campaign fighting mech.

Nonsense spluttering nonsense of the Combine aside, they were both seventy ton mechs. It had not been an exchange where Clay had brought a Star League era Night Star and won that way. At 70 tons the Longsword carried a simplified armament, and suggested consideration that frankly didn't fit Clay's age.. but duty often required more of one than age itself allowed.

It was easy to forget that Clay had been barely a teenager when he'd killed Yorinaga Kurita, and then contributed to the mauling of the man's battalion. Yorinaga who had all but made a fool of his brother on the field despite Ian's atlas having 30 tons on a warhammer. The truth was sending Clay to Sakkara was as much for his own protection as anything else, if he had stayed on New Avalon, or if he had been enrolled in Albion he would have been at the very heart of the Federated Sun's court... whatever distractions that Sakkara's part time instructing took away from the cadet experience it would have been nothing compared to life on the capital... and Albion would have almost made similar demands as Sakkara for the expertise that had felled a Sword of Light.

The privy council now that it was confirmed that the shipyard was operational... was at a loss on what to do. Some of them were already recriminating going back on the decision to push Clay to Sakkara but Hanse still felt that had been the correct decision. If Clay, and for that matter his engineers, had been on New Avalon it would have encouraged the Hawks on the general staff to propose moves that the Federated Suns weren't prepared for.

Clay's return to New Avalon from Sakkara earlier in the year had just stirred things, up but not nearly to the announcement that the Federated Suns now had a new Shipyard. No one had expected that development and thus Ian had vastly more room to maneuver than before it was one thing to ennoble a teenager for battlefield daring... and then of course there was Auntie's report on the aircraft production... which probably hadn't circulated yet, but it meant Sakkara could defend itself. Ian wasn't likely to face too many objections over bequeathing the vacant duchy of Bristol to Clay.. but Yvonne might if Clay were posted somewhere other than the Crucis March... such as this talk about Kathil that she seemed set on.

It would inevitably step on Michael's toes, but the truth was whether or not the duke of New Syrtis wanted to hear it or not the Cappellan March had failed to adequately protect the shipyards against raids by House Liao... but they hadn't sprung that on Michael yet. It was likely unavoidable given that Ian had invited General Motors, and Federated Boeing into talks.

"Mm they're finishing up," Ian remarked. The Northwind pilot had finally managed to bring his former SLDF mech into close range, and it was in that distance he was now racking up the points that looked to be enough to give him the win. "Yes, there it is." The Atlas pilot remarked as his presiding Marshalls' called the match against New Avalon's pilot... still it had been close, far closer than the previous match, "Good," Ian made a point of standing up and clapping until everything was over, and then turned around to face them, "I would say today has been a fine opening to the festivities but there are matters of state to handle," ... that was to say the audience with General Kerston... which of course Michael wouldn't be privy to, but at least was aware was on the schedule.

The talks with Federated Boeing, and GM ... since he was no longer the federal trade minister ... was not something that they had told Michael... and one where he no longer had an official post in the federal government to involve himself with. House Vanlees as the ducal house of the planet might be invited once things solidified but that would only happen after, Hanse was sure, Ian elevated Clay to Duke of Bristol. That would be important.


--
Notes: This is short, and more of Hanse's perspective than originally planned but next time we will pick up with Ian and General Kerston and of course Yvonne handing over the information at the Combine's expense, before we continue further into the Bristol matter.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.5​

They had been waiting for some of the day visitors to clear out, there were just too many people for the first rounds of the tournament to make it easy to get around the campus so they had chosen to stay put rather than moving to the apartments set aside for them. It presumably had made it easy for the Duchess of Victoria to find them. He'd given Yvonne the data she had asked for, been asking for when she'd made her appearance at the booth as they had waited for an opportunity to leave once the crowds were more manageable.

"What was that about?"

"History," He replied to Justin's question with a shrug, "I get the feeling she has someone she wants to show it to, but I don't personally think it changes things..." Not on an operational level anyway, "on the other hand as has been pointed out to me the combine really doesn't seem to understand that they're the bad guys... and Takashi the current coordinator is what passes for a moderate over there... and that's horrifying. To me at least." He muttered the last more to himself.

"Oh?" Lord Aaron had perked up, "Does this have something to do with the Dragoons?"

"Yeah, and on that front I admit ... I don't expect them to react well to the news," He shrugged, "And I expect that if Jaime does sign on to an agreement for manufacturing some of his... quirkier designs I'm going to want help, more locations but maybe we can get them to come back to New Valencia and stay there." New Valencia was a jump from Blandisville and that was one jump to Robinson, and New Valencia of course held Blackwell industries.

"Interesting news," Lord Aaron remarked as they continued to move forward now that the throngs of people had thinned and they could move easier around Albion's palatial campus, "There was something else I had hoped to discuss, it was something I had begun to discuss with Northwind of late regarding conditions in the March and how we could expand educational opportunities."
--
An audience with the First Prince of the Federated Suns entailed a certain amount of pomp best demonstrated by the procession and the men outside of the chamber. Kerston was used to it by this point. The Eridani were one of the, if not the highest prestige non house units in the company of the Federated Suns... but today felt different. He had learned to trust his instincts there was something going on that he wasn't aware of.

Ian Davion sat down and then gestured for him to do the same, which he did. Upon which the monarch leaned back, made himself comfortable and steeped his fingers, before choosing to speak "Two years ago, I nearly died. Yorinaga Kurita had me quite dead to rights." He shrugged, "The realm would have been fine in my brother's hand, Hanse is up to the job... but I didn't die. A friend came to my rescue, and as much as it pained me to do so I had to have him shipped away from New Avalon to another post after. That friend of mine, his family aren't that unique many of my nobles, many of my closest confidants can trace their lines back to the Star League, and the SLDF. Henry Clay, the Count of Sakhara commands as part of his household guard the descendants of 19th​ Striker Regiment of the Star League Defense Force," The Prince held up his hand to staunch the outburst of questions that Kerston felt well up, "I've seen the proof ... you see I have seen the proof of House Kurita collaboration with Stefan Amaris... and I have it on supremely good authority that the 19th​ were ambushed because Kurita's ISF handed over their movements to the Rim World, where in they were ambushed and the unit destroyed."

The holographic images that took shape were ... in a sense made sense. In that the pieces fell into place with new context.

Kerston had seen them before, but he'd never had reason to question them. For two centuries there had been an empty chair to represent a lost regiment, and of course House Kurita had attempted to hold the dependents of the Eridani hostage during the early years of the succession wars.

"I assume there is something more than this?"

"Yes, there is. I am going to ask Henry that when his production allows it if that 19th​ can be reborn, recreated. I expect that should take some time, I am aware that he has a number of other things which need doing, and that I have a number of other matters I must ask him to see to... but also that I must make requests of you general. However that is not without reciprocity, I will be speaking with General Motors regarding what can be done to strengthen units of the old SLDF that are operating under AFFS directive... because I quite assure what we can now prove regarding House Kurita's collaboration with Amaris is nothing short of explosive." He paused, "There is one other thing... the Wolfs Dragoons are descendants of Kerensky Exodus, my understanding such that I'm told is that other descendants of that exodus came to join Clay because there is an Amaris pretender afoot and that he's enough of a threat that Clay has felt the need to take precautions." He allowed the comment to hang there... but the truth was Kerston didn't have a response to that.

He did understand ... to a degree... and as the pieces fit together perhaps not quite right the nightmare came together... and the words found him, spilling from his lips "Some fragment of the Amaris Empire escaped into the deep periphery then... and means to enter the inner sphere with force?"

Ian paused, "We don't think its quite that bad, we think they're more pirates, but well there was that unpleasantness with Black Jack McGirk on the Lyran side of things... and given the metal they had," Black Jack McGirk had been an emphasis pirate rampaging on the fringe of the Lyran and Draconis borders and by some reports had a nearly a regiment of heavy battlemechs... and he had just disappeared one day with his band to no real explanation, "We don't know for sure other than that there pockets of Rim World supporters, worlds that we've been made aware of, and I don't think Henry something like that if there wasn't some threat."
--
Night had fallen on New Avalon, bathing the city in the lights of winter decorations celebrating the hols and stretching far into the distance from the window. While he planned to build VLAR 300 engines, probably here on New Avalon using Pratt and Whitney tooling... Aaron Sandoval had brought up inadvertently a good point. The Dragon was so ubiquitous to the combine that there were a lot of them in Fed Sun ranks recovered from the battlefield.. and those could be worked from especially since the base model used an Imperator A auto cannon.

That would be largely a program of rearm and refit kits ... maybe something with the MML later was those increased in production, but fundamentally something he envisioned as a comparative line offering to the Shadow Hawk refit package that should start shipping in the new year.

What Lord Aaron had really wanted to talk about circled around how quickly they could potentially start fielding cadets in classes with machines that had the same mechs, and expanding armor schools. He wasn't talking about just for Sakkara but also RBA, and Northwind.

It was an idea, not even a serious proposal at this stage, but it did bring up a point. Northwind was on the other end of the line, within striking distance of the Combine border. Even though Cosara only did refit work now... it was there too... that was actually how they had ended upon the discussion of the 300 engines by accident. His plans hadn't changed on that regard, putting complex manufacturing on Northwind before he had Bristol in order was out of the question... but he could probably make up the difference to ship some testing and evaluation models to the highlanders.

That would of course have to wait until next year, after he had returned to Sakkara... but there were a lot of things he wanted to do... and there were a lot of Federated Suns industries that he wanted to to discuss with the prospect of licensing designs for wider scale production given the number of designs proliferating... and if they weren't going to cooperate then the next best option would be to snatch up firms with names but limited manufacturing capacity and sink money in them to bring lines back online. He didn't want to resort to that because it would take time and money away from expanding stellar capacity... which was the conversation he expected to have any day now with Ian about Bristol at least.

That was his priority.

The First Prince wasn't so much thinking about that so much as laying out a grand coalition, a gathering of regiments that traced to the SLDF and plans to rearm them as mechs became available for a grand campaign... and also to shore up his other weaker front... and to secure peace with the Lyrans. Ian's plans were to build off previous talks with the Archon and while he didn't expect an overnight transformation it would force the Combine ideally to divide their attention, and stymie any further issues on the Capellan front.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.6​

[Holding] Too many ducal titles tended to cause discomfort, or discontent for a variety of reasons... and of course with the limits of travel it was impractical and often neglectful for one to hold more than one or two even though some still did. Thereby it was necessary that even the titles had reverted to the crown of New Avalon, the First Prince needed to award them and the choices would have been cadet branches, existing nobles, or prominent members of the civil service... who were often from noble families or establish gentry.

Elevating Henry to Duke thereby allowed him to divest a title he'd been holding in reserve, and it insured the world would be under the tutelage of one of his most prominent supporters. If not Bristol and the interest in it it might have done to wait a few more years ... Ian still expected complaints of favoritism it went with the territory, no pun intended, but elevating Henry to a dukedom would have had obvious political utility.

Clay had broken a Sword of Light regiment after all and saved him from an ignominious death at Yorinaga's hand during the ambush and he could have pressed things to accept his decision to name the teenager a duke then and there... but he had held back. So what if Henry was still a teenager, he had had a little bit of seasoning at Sakkara and more than that had had time to build more than just a reputation as a warrior... they were not the Combine after all. Henry had expressed genuine concern for his working class, and the persons below him in the social hierarchy in a way that Ian considered the combine would have disdained ... certainly some of the nobility of the Federated Suns could have done with a bit more charity.

The more important factor was the Shipyard was complete, that settled it. Whoever would complain would complain but they would largely be isolated voices that Ian was sure he could manage. The aide beside him signaled even though Ian heard the bell ring. Ordinarily protocol was to wait a minute, but Ian was impatient and gestured to his younger brother for the case. Hanse was present, even though he didn't need to be.

Ian wasn't stupid as he had reminded himself, and Kerston at the same time he was all too aware of his own mortality. Hanse was his heir, was heir to House Davion, and to the Federated Suns as a whole, and the they both had an obligation to leave the realm better than just what they had inherited. "Send him in." He ordered. The guardsman at the door nodded perfunctorily and opened the door... it would be the second to last time anyone would refer to Henry Clay as the Count of Sakkara as a primary title in any event.

Henry looked surprisingly tired, but from what Ian had heard from Hanse that was because of ongoing negotiations with various established firms who didn't quite seem to realize exactly what the count was capable of when left to pursue his own interests. That had succeeded beyond the wildest expectations, he had expected BattleMechs, Tanks, fusion engines, not JumpShips.

... but the prospect of a Star Lord was what had been dangled in front of him. 660 meters, 274k tons displacement, six dropships carried. The Star Lord class was the preferred military carrier for military expeditions. Ian was already had already started putting finances in order to buy a Star Lord as soon as it was ready, but first and foremost, "I'd say you have been very busy but my aunt would chide that were a significant understatement," Ian remarked gesturing for the younger man to hurry up and sit down, they had a lot ot talk about... and regrettably not as much time as he would have liked, but he was First Prince and he had to do quite a lot.
--
Ian had told the Eridani about the ambush on Talitha, which was fine. He had basically accepted that he was gonna to have that conversation as it was... he hadn't per se expected Ian to want to announce that the 19th​ Striker Regiment would be restored.... the First Prince had come to that conclusion on his own and of his own volition without talking to anyone. It was one of the few details that didn't complicate anything.

... even though it did probably meant he was going to have a conversation with Kerston that now he wasn't on prepared ground for. He had kind of planned to blindside Kerston with facts and use it for leverage, but Ian had already disclosed that information. Ian also planned to partner with General Motors to integrate rebuilding the long serving former SLDF mercenary units in the Federated Suns for ... well reasons.

Henry flipped the copy of the small data chip in between his fingers like it was a challenge coin. It was a nervous tick. Ian had taken the data he had given Yvonne and planned to go a step further disclosing that Kurita had already betrayed the Star League before he had attempted to usurp the throne of the Star League... but that was still expected after a fact. He had figured it was coming, but he had been hoping for a bit more time.

The issue for Ian's plans wasn't so much House Marik's internal bloodletting it was that the the Dragoons had already signed up with the League. It seemed likely that they could just convince the Dragoons to swing around... and the Dragoons contract clause gave House Liao breathing room until they could be used, which meant that the FWL would use the dragoons against the Commonwealth... and that would complicate Ian's diplomatic maneuvering.

That probably had fed into going to GM to have them partner with the Eridani for providing the industrial might to rearm them. He understood that... and a part of him was glad that Ian was sending them to GM ... that Ian just hadn't told them hey I need the Eridani rearmed to stamp on the snakes but that was also because the DMM and some other units inside the Crucis March were already on that list.

"You look tired." Justin had left to visit his family while he'd been at the castle, "What's on that?"

"huh, oh," Henry nodded and pushed it into the player and the holographic display illuminated folding light into a recording centuries old. The fat man demanding that his counterpart provide him with the details he wanted was bald up top with handle bar mustache... but in terms of dressed looked really no more ridiculous than the Kuritan in his court finery. Minoru was already in his sixties at the time he had succeeded his centenarian father, and the coordinator conceded that he would provide information on the movements of the SLDF, and other information as requested. "The ISF would pass information to the Rim World for the remainder of the crisis, and like he said there he wouldn't allow the SLDF to base from the combine, which was what the Combine did," at least not willingly the Combine hadn't 'allowed it' but Kerensky had moved to take SLDF bases in the Combine when he had to, and the DCMS has largely put up only token resistance.

... probably because... because Minoru was conserving his forces to go to war once Amaris was beat and there was no sense wasting troops fighting Kerensky... after all Minoru had ordered the nuking of Helm in the Free World's League it wasn't like the man fought fair.

... Helm there was another thing to deal with. He threw up his hands, and ignored Justin's expression, and the lack of color, "So yeah there you go." He muttered but didn't get a response from the older cadet, "Justin it was two and a half centuries ago, I already told you the Combine has done enough in this lifetime to warrant punching them in the face, and then kicking them while they're down. This changes nothing." He growled, and he believed that... but the last part wasn't true, or at least it wouldn't be for the dragoons... it wasn't true for the clans...

... and beyond Justin's head, and even if it hadn't been beyond him the display was invisible to everyone but Henry was the display reminding him of what was on there.

Enemy [House Amaris].

It was funny because he wasn't sure exactly why that was an option and not House Kurita for all the pain in their ass he'd been these last two years... but then again he didn't according to his stats hadn't made an enemy of ComStar... yet.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 3.7​

The pomp and circumstance of the ceremony was a lot shorter than he had been actually dreading. It was the highlight of the awards conveyed by the first prince but no more drawn out than any of the knighthoods, for which he was grateful. Sakkara had entailed Ian a lot more thoroughly standing on about the recent victories against the combine... understandable given he'd nearly died on Mallory's world, and Halstead station had been the opportunity to show up Takashi in person.

... but the award of the duchy cleared the conditions for others, but it was the holidays so Henry recognized he couldn't leave immediately... but he could send people. He'd been planning for that anyway. It was why he had the number of JumpShips in rotation that he had. Even though by this point, he understood that in the 3rd​ Succession War that a massive tie down of logistical carrying capacity.

Those Star Lords could be ordered to Bristol now, and begin the process of setting up Fusion Engine production facilities mirroring those operational on Sakkara. If the cost of all of this was needing to go to Kathil... that was fine. Ian hadn't actually brought it up yet, but it was more likely a matter of timing... Henry had more or less gone along with Yvonne's plan because... he confirmed to himself that yes it did make sense... and also the James McKenna yards weren't likely to directly compete with his Star Lord yards, and they would still add to the Federated Suns' carrying trade. That meant more ships carrying goods, which would be good for revitalizing industry because more people would be able to ship goods across the Suns.

It was economics.

He supposed that was the problem.

Henry blew out a breath at the realization. The Federated Suns were British... were fundamentally Britain in Space and the cultural norms were there, right down to the issue of where the investment capital tended to get spent, and how the aristocracy great and low alike tended to spend their money... that was he supposed the irony.

The Terran Alliance had organized the money flow to provide for the exodus from Earth, and they must have lost or had already lost something along the way. The great diasporas were built chasing some spark that probably hadn't really existed in historical earth terms and built the great human states of the Inner Sphere. It wasn't his problem to fix. Certainly, not the whole damned Inner Sphere.

Henry Clay got up and looked over the silent campus of Albion. Tomorrow things would resume, Alexandria had a bout of her own to look forward to. Her Orion going up against another native of the Crucis March... and he would have liked to have said he was looking forward to watching it... but with Bristol in hand there was so much more he wanted to focus on ... so many greater projects to turn his focus towards.

Holding a planet, being a planetary ruler would provide the possibility of employing a much larger population base. There was so much more that could be done. He needed, he knew, to get inside the Fury Storage space left behind by Jolassa that would facilitate bringing Gauss Rifles back into service, and would mean eventually Alacorn tanks even if he'd have to fudge the details a little bit but no one should have been cued in enough to know that.

... and if the Combine hadn't realized what was going on by this point?

... well that wouldn't have surprised him. Combine Propaganda could seem to decide, from what Yvonne had told him, between pretending he had had some kind of unfair advantage or just treating him as close to their own view of what foreign hostile warriors should be ... Henry wasn't Samurai, but the Combine didn't want to indulge the notion of one of their own being beaten by ... that a good mechwarrior didn't have to be a good samurai it messed with their dogmatic view of the universe... or at least what they told the worlds of the realm.

He wasn't going to fight them head on. That would be stupid. There was a time and a place for leading from the front and there were times where you didn't have any choice, but the notion that Takashi Kurita the head of state and government for an interstellar power was going on raids... and Ian too for that matter... was absurdly risky clear line of succession or not. No, what Henry planned to do what an expansion of what he'd already been doing. It would have to, he recognized as he continued to stare over the grounds and the wind picked up, be after Justin graduated but he'd need to sink C-Bills, and BV into production for the Draconis March Militia. The inexpensive things lighter BattleMechs and Tanks with common parts, church out more refit kits... support vehicles too, mobile field hospitals.

Honor duels? No. That played to the Combine's strengths too often when there were other better options at the strategic and operational level. He was going to talk to Lord Aaron and they were going to make these raids on the border much much more costly for the Combine... he was just going to need to find somewhere to trap the 19th​ Galedon Regulars. Even if he didn't go personally he could lay the noose out to catch them... and maybe even this recently promoted general ... Samsonov might be stupid enough to attack Sakhara.

... but that would be for later.

--
Aaron Sandoval in his own private apartments down the avenue of the campus was looking forward to the continued festivities but more than anything he had achieved a significant shoring up of the family's political power without actually expending much energy. House Sandoval had a new allied ducal house... well House was stretching it since Clay was one teenager, but it gave Robinson a high placed friend in the Crucis March.

That the First Prince was talking about reviving SLDF lineages was a reminder that ordinarily New Avalon would have been far away. If anything Ian Davion was still thinking in those terms despite Clay being able to deliver a company of new Heavy BattleMechs to this very institution. The Nissan fusion engine production line on Robinson would mean that Robinson's own refit yards wouldn't need to import those from off world.

The fusion power plant was the beating heart of every battlemech. A fusion power plant in a tank allowed it to carry more armor, more weapons. Clay's Devastators were an example of that, maybe the best example of that. Those same machines provided area security and protection to Shreks which with their PPC armament were suited to providing long range fire against approaching enemy units.

Tracked Vehicles could run off the same fusion engines as their same weight 'mech counterparts, and that was why things like Devastators and Schreks were so rare in the modern day... but if fusion engines could be produced there was no reason that they couldn't have both. Of course the original plan had been the Centurion... but no doubt that was because it was already in AFFS service. Ten years earlier the Striker had entered Davion service and as Duke of Robinson he had been mulling the prospect of introducing production of the low cost tank into service, but the industrial complex producing the Nissan 200 Fusion Engine superseded those considerations because the plant produced more engines than the estimates of Robinson's Centurion production.

Enough that he might be able to justify the 'March Defense budget to include production of lines of tanks and also a second 'Mech line, but that would mean borrowing industrial assistance and extending relations with the current partners... and in the mean time Robinson Standard BattleWorks was handling most of the refits of the March Militia's Shadow Hawks as those rotated in to receive their equipment packages and overhauls a program that was projected to run into the following year; 3018 rather since it wasn't quite the new year yet.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 4.1​

She had considered her repositioning before making the decision about the gambit. She was sure though, that she would be able to win. Winning here was important.

Her restraints pulled her back against the momentum as she forced the Orion to slow. They had put them on different terrain from Justin's match, different conditions. She didn't hear the splash as her 75 ton Mech's feet hit the bottom of the false lake. It wasn't solid per se but she wasn't in danger of sinking any further, and the 'lake' wasn't even that deep.

It was enough that theoretically it should have helped keep a BattleMech cool... and deep enough that in real combat a risk of drowning if the mech went down in the water and the cockpit breached but the Orion could stand in the water with no problems.

She was taking a chance of course, and if she made a mistake the Albion cadet would almost certainly make her pay for it... but if truth were told she hadn't expected to be put into this position. The expense of rapid transit between the academy and New Avalon would have been absurd to contemplate even if it would have demonstrated the wealth and influence that the establishment was famous for.

... and of course Henry had a reputation as a friend of the Draconis March, an Enemy of the Combine, and other factors that made inclusion of Robinson completely normal. Her Orion's targeting system whirred as the Albion Cadet came into view... and now was the time to see if she'd been right...

Would the cadet being looking towards the top of the dam of hard earth she'd just slid down, or at the water. Her auto cannon tracked across the other heavy battlemech's torso as it moved into sight from the handful of fake plywood and tarp buildings.

Her reticle resolved, the 80mm Luxor spat a burst of paint shells at the Marauder as just to the right of its beak's like forward hull. Too low to hit the cockpit, and blind the other cadet but good enough to feed the targeting data to send her missiles to fly.

Distant, in the viewing booth augmented with screens Justin watched his cousin move to spring her trap. "Did she get her?"

"Its still live," Henry replied. The faire marshals hadn't called it, and both mechs were moving head long towards one another, if admittedly not full out. Unlike a real battle the simulated PPC fire did not have the appearance of man made lightning instead looking rather silly as long strobing flashlight beams much like simulated laser fire. Far far less impressive than the fake missiles and fake ballistic rounds exploding into paint puffs.

Even if they didn't look as impressive as the real thing, the simulated attacks were measured off of the effectiveness of the real thing. In functional terms a PPC and an Autocannon like Lex's 80mm Luxor were combat effective in the same brackets Sure there were performance differences but they did the same damage at mostly the same ranges.

Lex's autocannon needed ammo, was heavier, but ran cooler than the lightning thrower... but on the other hand the Orion ran warm anyway. The Marauder carried two PPCs. Alexandria was already making the decision to close aiming to get in and try and capitalize on her initial exchange hits and weigh the balance on her Orion's heavier armor.

The Autocannon spat another burst of paint rounds as they dropped within three hundred meters, both machines splattering mud as they stomped forward. The Albion candidate had let armor to trade on maybe sixty forty between the two, but in this situation Henry was confident that Alexandria had this because she had gotten those first round shots on target, even if they hadn't been headshots... still it seemed to take forever, the seconds crawling by before there was enough paint on the Marauder for them to call it... and long enough that the Orion had to have taken a serious pounding of its own.

Justin didn't give a shit, whooping first, "Yes, we're two for two." He muttered fisting the air. "Sorry about that Henry."

Henry rubbed his ear, but waved it off as the screens changed awarding the victory to Sakhara Academy by pushing a large holographic banner of the school's arms for all to see. The same had happened of course when Justin had won against the Warrior's Hall, but that fight had been ... well less drawn out, more abrupt in its conclusion. Alexandria's match had proven more akin to the others... and hopefully no one had really expected the second match of a Sakhara cadet to be a repeat of Justin's.

Justin was right though that it was good that she had won. The fights though were by and large going to be slugging matches, this wasn't going, or wasn't likely to be case where a burst of speed and a burst was enough to get through armor as was the case in skirmishes with Light Mechs. He really doubted that any of these matches were going to end up with someone managing to get behind a rival cadet and back shoot them. There just really wasn't the space, and in a one versus one match he doubted it was feasible for either party to slip around outside of some truly colossal misjudgment... and the schools had picked their brightest candidates for this showing.

... which was what Justin brought, "What is going to happen if we win it all?"

"From an institutional perspective, realistically Sakhara would just have bragging rights," And for the top scoring cadets perhaps a knighthood by Ian... Ian liked that kind of personal recognition, and it didn't create any problems, "I wouldn't be surprised if in a more practical measure that if the First Prince recommends taking cues from the winning school..." Which of course would probably rankle some sensibilities, or at least pride... and the truth was it went back to the question of resources. Robinson, and Northwind were both coreward of Sakhara and in the Draconis March... and Henry had already contemplated pushing production batches of additional metal to both schools for the incoming class ... given the donation of Longswords to Albion.

... and there was the New Avalon Institute of Science as well... he'd been worried about that, about the lack of announcement... but that was something else that Ian was planning to do, he just simply hadn't gotten to it even though construction of the new school was completed. The new college was an expansion of NAMA so theoretically its 1st​ graduating class would be in three years as the bachelors were already working on their core classes but would need two years to specialize in their field.

But NAIS was a step in the right direction.

Here though wasn't the place, and now wasn't the time, for the moment they needed to go congratulate Alexandria on her victory. They wouldn't have a problem, since they weren't trying to leave the arena or go into the common area, and there was another match shortly with Robinson slated to go up against Thanh Thi Ngoc Vu representing NAMA.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 4.2​

Alexandria's Orion was already secured by the time they made it down to the bay. The bay personnel were already in the process of hosing mud and dirt off of the Heavy BattleMech as it was, but this had been a simulated fight and the techs were prepared for that, and scrubbing the paint from simunitions offs.

They didn't really need to rush to get the machine ready, Alexandria wouldn't be fighting for a couple more days as the matches began the process of pitting people who had been defeated... and also that they wouldn't be pitting people from the same schools against each other anytime soon.

Henry was hoping that wasn't going to be a problem. No, and most likely it, cadets from the same school, would be a case of if a school's entrants both had lost a number of matches... and they weren't that far along yet. He wanted to get through this whole part of the festivities with as little drama as possible. It didn't help he wasn't actually participating in the tournament so he really didn't feel like he had an involvement in the games themselves... just a spectator and that was boring if he were being honest. Justin liked watching the mechs fight though so he hadn't said that out loud.

Alexandria had done well, unlike Justin she was going to a staff position upon graduation so this was really one of the few chances she'd have to demonstrate her combat prowess as a MechWarrior in the public eye. Henry realized that he wasn't sure how she felt about that other than that Alexandria was the type of person who would look at the bigger picture. Justin was looking forward to, anticipated his first deployment with relish.

That wasn't to say ... that she had to like it though.

Justin was oblivious to these concerns, but he was also all too happy to congratulate his cousin on her win, which was a plus.

"New Avalon is next?" She asked.
--
Yvonne Davion recognized the importance of New Avalon's new college, and it would go hand in hand with the industrial and infrastructure that was expanding. Too the point that if things continued, even without any successful military campaigns any further campaigns she was confident that her nephew's reign would be remembered as one of prosperity and a light that perhaps marked the end of the long downturn that characterized the succession wars.

If nothing went catastrophically wrong... but their eggs weren't quite in one basket. The NAIS would train up new thinkers, technicians, engineers and scientists based off of the books recovered from the Star League University that had been on Halstead Station. They had also denied that resource to House Kurita, while costing the Draconis Combine valuable military assets. While that was the flashiest of victories in the realm of foreign affairs and Ian was looking to cement those with further steps.

The problem there, as the privy council had been briefed was that improving relations with the Lyran Commonwealth was one thing. Those overtures had been going on for years... but the Lyrans had a long standing grudge against the Free Worlds League... and House Marik now had the Wolf Dragoons under contract... which was an improvement in so far as that the Dragoons were no longer in Liao service... in theory the the Capellans no longer had the manpower to cover both sides of the border to facilitate significant actions... but logic and reason was not a requirement on the Capellan front at times.

A deep raid while a chancy gamble was feasible, believable from House Liao. That was why the RCT was being based out of Spica. "Next year is when we will be able to see how things, when we will have a better grasp of our resources to leverage against the problems." Hanse remarked contemplatively stroking his chin still watching his brother.

It could have easily been a comment on the economics, but also it was the matter of dynastic health. House Davion, the nobility in general really, couldn't afford not to know, not to spend as much as feasible to look after the health of the next generation. Mother and child needed to be healthy, and the tests had confirmed months ago the child was a boy. Hanse was already heir apparent, and this would shore up any protests if the unthinkable happened. It was simply the reality of politics.

"Yes, the budget," Ian droned, "as it is I've already started reviewing it," The requests the appropriations.. In international finance the the great corporations had been able to grow massive as a result of the star league, no one wanted to strangle them... most of the time... they were too necessary for international trade. Corean was active in the Free Worlds League of course, Kallon was in the Commonwealth... Star Corp had branches in all the great houses, and so did GM. Really, most companies had at least ephemeral connections to more than one state outside of their home office but there was a difference in degrees. "How likely is an attack on Spica Yvonne?"

"Its an inevitability," She withheld her suspicion that the Capellan March would accidentally miss any forward warning, that they'd look the other way. The RCT was an unpopular Federal deployment... and the truth was she expected that to be magnified by Kathil, "There is the off chance that the capellans will wait long enough to realize we're attempting something at Kathil though and switch targets."

Ian coughed slightly, and reached for his drink, "I accept that. What are our options? Henry will need time on Bristol."

"My understanding," Yvonne replied, "Was that he's already ordered the institution of a circuit to Bristol... I assume with some of his staff to establish a government in his name... or perhaps more likely given Clay's preferences, to announce a new economic program for the planet. I know he expects to produce fusion engines there." The purchases of New Avalon also looked to be aimed at production of tooling but ultimately to produce Fusion Engines, which would then be sold to other manufacturers to finish out air frames like the Stuka and Eagle, as well potentially battlemechs as well. "But also other larger programs. Kathil is also 4 Jumps from Bristol, I would expect given what we've seen, if the Mountain Wolf trade mission goes well that Clay may be able to create a circuit from Bristol to Kathil for the duration that he's present..." That that might expedite the work was of course one reason, but it would also greatly facilitate Clay's ability to direct events on his ducal holding.

"The circuit to Bristol seems to have been already planned," Hanse remarked tilting his head, "it was just a matter of making things official, whether or not he already has all of the machine tooling prepared for whatever building projects he wants to undertake is debatable but we can expect that it will be the subject of the court's discussions when they become public." That in many respects was so obvious that it could have gone without saying, but Hanse obviously was choosing to take a circuitous route in whatever he was getting at.

Ian shook his head, "We've already discussed the Maikos situation, as irritating as I find Marie's needling ... she might have a point, and if it does come to that we can ameliorate it ... and if not a sinecure might be in order... but I need you here as prime minister Hanse. Much, as I would like to name you Minister for Trade it would be a waste... and of course I'm going to need a foreign minister to secure matters."

"Quintus Allard."

"Precisely." Ian replied, then held up a hand, "Oh it will gall Michael sure, but the man is competent and the Commonwealth is our most likely ally. I need someone I can trust to speak to the Archon about everything that our two states can do for one another." He shrugged, "Beyond that his younger son, and the Kell Hounds will be useful for other duties here on New Avalon, I want a unit I can trust evaluating everything new and novel being provided."

It was more than that, Yvonne knew. The kell hounds had moved to attempt to rescue Ian when Yorinaga had worked behind the lines with an entire battalion Ian had appreciated the effort and Morgan was his friend... more than that though the Kell Hounds could be rightly or wrongly be considered far more the Prince's hatchet men than say the Eridani... even though it was obvious that Ian felt a personal affection for the old SLDF units.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 4.3​

Ian Davion enjoyed the matches as they progressed, even more so as the good natured gambling that the nobility of the Federated Suns It wouldn't have been appropriate to wager against any of his own subjects he was the sovereign betting against someone would be poor form. He couldn't be seen to be gambling against a young knight it just wasn't done.

Hanse, not being First Prince, didn't have that problem so they'd split the winnings. Michael wasn't happy, but it wasn't as if the representatives of the Capellan March were doing all that poorly it was just... their losses had the appearance of being worse than they were. That was all... and Michael was a sore loser.

Still they were a nice distraction from his other duties, and the burdens of being first prince. The matches wouldn't last forever though. The young, the cadets would have their fun and then would be apart of the much larger festivities that were really business pretending to be holidays. Speaking of work, "You wanted to say something?"

"Officially Aldis Industries is protesting the production of tanks on Sakhara." Ian wrinkled his nose. His aunt, and his brother were here, the Duke of Robinson was not, the Duke of New Syrtis was also absent... thankfully. "They might actually have some ground for the Schrek but ... If I were to speculate given how many of the tanks are being produced-"

"LosTech, the factory is like the one here that manufactures our Valkyrie." He interjected.

Yvonne nodded, "I have to assume that Clay's factory complex is from the Star League designed to, or originally was designed to produce the SLDF Mark II of the Demolisher, if Aldis is telling the truth and the Mk III was only completed-," at the turn of the century, "When they say it was. All of Clay's tanks rely on a different model 240 engine than Aldis's productions versions though the weapons load out remain the same."

Ian had of course not missed that. Henry had a preference for the ChemJet 185mm Assault Auto-cannon within his own ranks, but provided designs using other models when he had to, and was less finicky about using other versions of the particle projector cannon.... which of course was just a demonstration of his techno-wizards and their ability to insure the PPCs worked correctly with the computers, and machines they were fitted in. "And?" He asked with a suffering sigh.

"I don't know who is behind it, Aldis is a large independent weapons supplier but they provide weapons to the Capellans," She paused, "and of course this could be a fact finding mission, the lawsuit itself could be spurious with the intent of trying to require a disclosure of actual production volume. Clay's assets are all within the Federated Suns, he's largely earmarked sales to the Draconis March Militia and inside the Draconis March..." She trailed off, "I do not suspect this is the Combine,"

"Should I apprise the Foreign Service do they need to be consulted that this is part of some sort of foreign subversion or attack upon our industries?"

"It wouldn't hurt to take precautions." Hanse remarked to him, "Should I inform Quintus?"

"Yes... lets do that," Ian replied quickly, after all Quintus had been his choice for the posting, even if he hadn't had much time to discuss things with the man, "What else is going on?" The question of tanks made sense, given the production of the various battlemechs were largely in house programs. Ian had actually expected there to be something regarding that when he'd been told about this meeting... not tanks. Why not tanks? That bothered Ian, but he supposed it was equally possible that this really was some petty company, especially a foreign firm protesting.

"Sakhara's Shipyards will be a matter..." There was no way they couldn't become a topic of discussion, "I'm not quite certain what Clay's ASF plans are like," His younger brother glanced to their aunt. She was after all the one who'd been the point of contact, it somewhat galled Ian that he hadn't been free to tour the realm he ruled, but he was needed here despite how convenient the circuits that were in place... "How do we deal with this?"

"If we don't know who is behind, I'm not sure there is a good way to deal with it." It was the truth... of course, but it wasn't the answer Ian wanted to hear. This was an attack, someone with more money than sense was attacking him, was attacking the Federated Suns... it didn't matter if it was tanks Ian felt offended on behalf of the kingdom.

"But it could be the Capellans?"

"It is certainly possible," Yvonne replied, "I need time to investigate, and the Foreign Service will also need to compile its own report." Ian didn't want to wait, of course, but he knew it was the right move, Quintus was good at finding answers, was good at his job, had experience with Sian and its court... and he wouldn't arrise any suspicion as a career diplomat.

It would take time though. The other nations' capitals were all so far away. Jump travel was so slow, and the HPG network... his eyes narrowed. The hpg network was on Terra, Aldis was on terra, was that a coincidence... there were so many instances where all through the succession wars things had just gotten harder, where talks had broken down, where ComStar had levied interdicts, where there were delays. There were the other rumors from the other states.

Ian had been willing to believe of course that the HPG Network had been damaged by the Amaris Crisis but the recording Clay had clearly established that Jerome Blake and Kerensky had been able to intercept, not interfere with but watch a live conversation between the Coordinator and Amaris one on Terra and the other on the Capital of the Draconis Combine....

They had been able to hold a live conversation and have a third party watch it at the same time. Something that Henry had handed over... because of course he was still a teenager... his youngest duke didn't understand how important that was, how useful that was. Ian sighed, and that was why it had been important to put him with more of his own age group, and away the viper's nest that was the capital. "I want to go public with the recording."

"Your highness?" "Brother."

"We've," It was actually the royal we there, "already informed the Eridani," What General Kerston would do with that, well the General, it seemed he was respecting his wish that they give the young duke time, "they already know Clay has the descendants of the 19th​ we can expect that if they don't seek him out, in the next few days, they'll wait until he returns to Sakhara and from what you've told me he has descendants of men who went with Kerensky..."

"Men who came back because Clay had, has rather a blood vendetta against Amaris," Hanse pointed out raising a long finger from where he'd been tracing the edge of his teacup, "As told auntie he's worried about Amaris coming against him as much as he is Kurita,"

Which, of course he had informed General Kerston, but Hanse hadn't been in the room for that conversation, it had needed to be private, to demonstrate how much he trusted the old mercenary commander. "Yes Kurita," His lips curled in disgust, who knowingly collaborated with Amaris, I want to publish it, the Federated Suns. The office of the First Prince, let them come and fight me." Hanse's expression had turned to a resigned one. The duchess of Victoria nodded after a moment clearly recognizing he had made a decision. No, now was the part where they wouldn't object to releasing the recording, but how they could massage it's release. What statements should go out with it, and that would be a way to delay releasing it just yet. They could leverage how it would go forth. "So how should we do this?"

"Ideally I think we should weigh who we want to tell before hand, within the realm, and outside of it." Hanse replied, "We have to tell the Duke of Robinson, it would reckless not to declare it, and we should inform the Lyrans for that matter... I think we should also inform Sian and Atreus as well. If nothing else before we make the public announcement."

He paused, "I will not wait for October Hanse, it would be too on the nose." Hanse shrugged, but the truth was Valentine's day, or the 11th​ of September would be just as on the nose.

"Could you wait until April, to see if we could attract Jaime Wolf's attention first?" Yvonne suggested speaking up.

He really didn't want to wait that long, but being First Prince entailed doing a lot of things he didn't like doing. Could he wait that long? Yes of course the information had been concealed from the Inner Sphere for centuries, someone had done that, and not just Kurita, and his fellow rulers would likely have suspicions of their own, but he could wait a little longer.

--
Notes: This is, well I had planned for there to be an interlude in between this and 4.3 but NA4 is going to be on the shorter side as it is itself something of an interlude in between the return to Sakhara while setting up for the DMM receiving a variety of things, and Ian hoping to expand that to the other institutions, and of course the 'mercenaries' perspective, both the Eridani and the Dragoons... because the Dragoons aren't stupid even if they won't show up until probably spring of the following year.

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 4.4​

Night had fallen on New Avalon, and with it a man in front of surprisingly sophisticated piece of technology sat digesting the day's events. The gathering, the last few days even, had been nothing unusual for what he had come to expect of the successor states. He had the advantage of the Federated Suns being the first of those that the dragoons had made contact with.

Whether or not the WolfNet operative was aware of it the main reason he'd been able to thus far avoid detection, or apprehension was the lack of sophistication to his own humint gathering efforts. Skills which were meager compared to those mature skills of the Successor State apparatus, but comparatively the successor states didn't even realize how vulnerable they were to back doors and gaps in software.

The truth was that assumption overshadowed the technological sophistication that the clans had access too, which was how the WolfNet gathered much of its information anyway... largely using Star League era back doors , and security vulnerabilities brought about by splicing in and together various systems that the science caste had been able to exploit for the warriors of the WolfNet front line.

It was a warrior on New Avalon of course, a warrior watching the elemental's image recorded in high clarity trivid footage. Another warrior caste, but from a different clan. It was a shock, but a singular individual was not impossible. He had dared to move closer, and examine what he could. There was nothing in terms of clan tech he viewed in their ranks, but if he were honest the briefings and estimations for the mission of the Dragoons were that the the Successor States would be still at the level of the Star League... and that seemed more true of this new lead.

Digging, digging for answers yielded concerns. The WolfNet operative pieced together what he could based on what he could gather from Davion sources. On Halstead Station an apparent mixed Star had stood against a charge of House Kurita's best... not that the Davion's report framed it in such terms... but he could recognized the Hells Horse colors of the tanks in the trivid battle Rom footage from the Robinson Rangers as they had moved to encircle the bloodied Kuritans from behind.

It was not, as if Zellbringen had been invoked so there was no dishonor in such.

The electronic reports though were the more interesting, or shocking. The clan warriors had not formally declared themselves as such, but the Elemental had reminded, stated clearly, that House Kurita had collaborated with the Usurper Amaris... and worse Davion data roms implied that Rim World remnants were somehow still out there.

He had to deliver such news to Colonel Wolf. There was-

The flashbang detonated as the safehouse door exploded inward as Davion commandos breached it and a bag slapped down around the clan warrior's head seconds later.

--
Aaron Sandoval marveled at the holographic projection, not so much the technology but so much as the charts. He would have liked Clay to have invested the money on Robinson, but frankly the investment on New Avalon were safer relative to the Combine border.

Pratt & Whitney of New Avalon would be expanding production of tooling. Parts mostly, the spare parts, simple parts in order to keep engines running, and also the machinery to make those tools, which would be exported to other factories. While Pratt & Whitney would still be manufacturing engines on New Avalon, so long as the capital could be defended then it could produce the industrial materials to restore or build the machinery to stock new factories.

They weren't talking about just new tanks. There were packets about civilian infrastructure investments, water purification, civil infrastructure. All important things to be sure, but the real promise were preparations for new technology arriving to existing units over the next five or so years.

"I really like," Henry remarked shoving his hand into one pocket to dig around for the pen and the computer tablet, "Blackwell's OmniVehicle, but they're expensive, not only are is the bandit a hovercraft, its a relatively large fusion powered but in price tag terms they're on par with 'mech prices." He grumbled that the hovercraft didn't even have the decency to use a 200 rated engine, "But the Badger, the earlier lighter design uses a 180 that will be significantly easier to mass produce for the market. The 215 even if Blackwell agrees immediately would take time to implement."

"So its the better option?"

"If we can secure a license, but," He paused, "Its not really the immediate matter. The OmniVehicle is based off of a Star League system for rapid refitting, there is not reason they shouldn't be applicable to 'Mechs, and ASF. Thats where I'll be sinking my techs, I have a handful of Mercury 'mechs I'll be bringing to the NAIS, they run off of 160 weight engines, but I don't think Ian's college will present them too much where, its the same engine as the locust after all."

He had had the concept of the OmniVehicle system the Blackwell combat vehicles used explained to him, and he understood the idea. "The Badger and Bandit are both for infantry deployment."

"Or skirmishing, yes, we need something heavier for engagement, but the Hover frame's alt F could meet my cavalry needs, but for mass production the 200 weight version of the Sphinx would suffice, when Pratt & Whitney expands 160 engine production the Sphinx will expand here, but that'll be next year, next fall," Henry's brows knit which was incongruous on the young battlemech pilot's face, but it was an oddity that the duke found he had become accustomed to. Just as he understood that the Sphinx using the same engine as the Locust did would be able to be produced in larger numbers... when they were talking about scale numbers across multiple planets and at unit prices where it mattered.

Sphinx tanks would be going to the DMM, going to march militia units alongside comparatively inexpensive new 'Mech designs like the Sentry. That was the grand idea. It answered the question of meeting needs for tanks, and battlemechs but other firms, and the AFFS more generally would need to procure the equipment to outfit infantry for the militia, and also it still didn't reach a solution for aircraft or for air defense.

"On that, the ICE powered versions will be fine, they've worked this long, and the main focuses will be expanding production. Anyone currently making them can keep manufacturing the internal combustion model," He shrugged at the comment even as he made it, "Its our best option. We can also field them with LRM 15 tube launchers while retaining spare parts, but I see those as our best option even as aircraft production expands."

Aaron chuckled, how easy and simple the younger duke made things sound. He believed him though, "And I can't convince you to accept a staff position on Robinson, can I?"

"Yvonne makes a good case for going to Kathil," He replied, "especially if do start moving a lot more internal trade. The carrying trade needs to be expanded in order to facilitate that shipping, my star lords are realistically going to be plying not just the main lines, Robinson to New Avalon, but also whenever it comes time to fight Kurita, there need to be other smaller but still more regular lines." They didn't, hadn't brought up Bristol... apart of Aaron wanted to be surprised with everyone else... the part of him that he knew he should smother. It was the part of him after all that was the young son who'd never been intended to inherit. As Duke he needed to know who his house's allies were and what they could accomplish... but he had other questions, and there was no hurry, "You mentioned something about the Eridani potentially visiting to Sakhara."

"I'm sure the official reason will be that Sakhara was founded by SLDF officers," He blew out a breath glancing up as the holographic table changed, rotating back to battlemech engine and weapon manufacturing tables, "Ian says he's set them up with GM and is looking to help them rebuild, but what its really about is that Combine collaborated with Amaris, fed him positions that included the 19th​ Regiment of the Regular Army getting smashed on Talitha," He had said as much before, "My Battle Company traces its lineage to the 19th​ Regiment, they're the rock I build my defenses on."

 

[Imperator Pax]

New Avalon 4.5​

Alexandria recognized the machines. They were still in the bright orange and white safety colorations but they had sense been branded with the school markings of Albion Military Academy today represented an interim between the ongoing round robin of the tournament. The first prince had talked about the industriousness of the Federated Suns, the making of things.

The First Prince had been careful to heap accolades on all of the great firms of the Federated Suns of course... but the twelve Heavy BattleMechs were identical, and there were no Marauder II BattleMechs present. The machines, the assault BattleMechs that were of New Valencia which had entered production before the battle of Mallory's world, or Halstead Station. Then of course there were the companies that had been manufacturing battle mechs since the Star League, companies like General Motors, Corean, and Achernar who had all been lauded for preserving the Federated Suns against Kuritan ambitions of conquest.

She peered over at the holographic display, but didn't need to actually voice the question.

"Shogun, the engine still vexes me given that the machine's mass," He murmured more to himself, "Eighty five tons, 255 rating engine. If I wasn't trying to get the dragoons onboard I'd have probably swapped the launcher to the Zeus model, but its an LRM 15. The SRM sixes had to change, and one of them had to go, don't know what the Dragoons were thinking there... I'll ship a few to New Valencia when i can, its a small mercy though they use the same avionics as the BattleMaster."

Blackwell on New Valencia had started out just as a supplier of spare parts. They hadn't had the resources, physical capital or political to make the transition into manufacturing vehicles in their own right before they had caught the dragoons eye. She assumed that the modifications that had gone into the Shogun, from whatever version the Dragoons had returned to the Inner Sphere with would need to be approved... and thus having New Valencia act as an intermediary.

Naturally of course Justin was hoping for a list, "I'm still waiting on Haakon of course," He replied, "Mountain Wolf and the liscences will be a light and heavy battlemech entering production." Henry paused, mulling the situation... the truth was diversification, Sakhara was in the Draconic March and he had no idea how long it would take for the Dragoons to come to a decision. He changed tracks, "The truth is New Valencia,"

"Sits in between Kestrel and Bristol." Justin remarked, before protesting that he could in fact read a star map.

He wasn't wrong. The truth was a simple look at a map showed that. He wasn't wrong. New Avalon wasn't much further, the jump circuit from the Draconis March was routed through Kestrel. That was the route they had taken both trips to New Avalon... but as the circuits expanded there were already two modes of thought, to run a circuit from Kathil, something he was going to have to do the most effective way would be to reestablish a permanent presence in hitherto dead or abandoned systems. It would be possible, and more practical to run a Bristol to Kathil line... and for that matter a direct route through Friesland to New Avalon in order to connect Kathil to New Avalon. "New Valencia," He began, "to Bristol is easy, just Batavia,"

Alexandria turned back from the dirty look she'd shot her cousin, "Robinson would be more direct, New Valencia then to Bristol."

"This is true," And New Valencia was a jump from Markesan, and from there it was a route down to New Avalon. The Kestrel route from Sakhara is more efficient if we're measuring too and fro from New Avalon, and with Pratt and Whitney here I'll probably having to ship both ways ... if we even reach terms with the Dragoons any time soon," He shrugged. "The Merlin runs off of a Pitban 240 engine that's easy, the GM 210 well, not as easy, not as common but well, the Antares, and a handful of other designs we will be releasing should bring a contemporary tech Night Hawk back onto the scene."
--
From the Davion royal booth Hanse was monitoring the discussions of the Eridani. The whole point of putting the Long Swords on display was, ostensibly, to give Albion cadets a chance to show off their home institution. IN truth part of the reason the company of mechs was also to gauge the interest in them from professional soldiers. The Kell Hounds were part of that, but so to were the Eridani ... it was just that if the Kell Hounds were interested they could just ask Ian or really directly ask Clay without really need for introduction.

They had been with his brother on Mallory's world after all.

The Eridani though were a question mark, he looked down and flipped the papers, before glancing to his aunt. "Yes Hanse?" The duchess of Victoria responded seeing the look.

"The 19th​?"

She paused, "What about them?"

"Are we certain that none of the Eridani left with Keresnky?"

"Certainly, certainly not. We can't be certain of anything. To the best of our knowledge none did, certainly that is the recounting for the Eridani themselves, but if your question is did survivors of the 19th​ manage to get away, which we know now is true, then perhaps some might have." She paused, "My analysts working theory though is based on the evidence, and grievances with house Kurita aside, the horse iconography and the numbers are coincidental."

Hanse raised an eyebrow, "Coincidence."

"Treachery is the combine's brad and butter, the 302 Hussars left the Combine and signed on for the Free Worlds League," The duchy of Oriente, specifically, "They still use Star League crest, horses, and trace their lineage to the 19th​ Army."

The Fox nodded, accepting the point. He didn't like coincidences. It wasn't in his nature to like them. They were annoying, but well, yes it wasn't impossible he supposed, "And that's who you believe the other half are?"

"Yes, though I do suspect that they're descendants of Kerensky's people. It wouldn't make sense to pretend the RAC were a separate unit... it'd be too complicated. It wouldn't fit with what we see, what we can observe from their behavior versus the Battle Company. Do I think they came from SLDF stock, yes, but I suspect that their coming together with Clay, is recent... very recent, the RAC ... my understand is Robison is some kind of hereditary martial nobility, but nothing like what we see with the 19th​ Regiment's descendants."

Hanse toyed with the fountain pen he had received from his father decades earlier, and mulled, "The Eridani are there to ask questions to try and find details that we don't want to publicly ask."

"Its a precaution, and if not them the Highlanders." She replied, "Clay's loyalties are firm, and his men are loyal to him..." To a degree that if Clay weren't would have been worrying given how close his brother was to the young duke, Hanse recognized, "They're almost desperate now to see some answers unearthed about the ones who went with Kerensky."

"The succession wars have been hell." Ian replied glibly, as he entered the conversation. Hanse hadn't heard his brother approach, but when was heir, and then first prince Ian had had to learn to slip past people, "I won't chide you for doing your duty, here you are, I'm sure you have a copy forthcoming."

Hanse paged through the new papers, "Northwind, and the Duke of Rio, I suppose that makes sense he's long friends with Lord Aaron," He remarked. "No one would have considered this fifteen years ago." That Corean would be invited to undertake such, that fusion engine production would be looked at for production of several planets all producing the same model battle mech.

"Aaron does seem, is intending, I should say, on approaching your in-laws as well."

Hanse nodded, "Yes, truthfully I know they're rather settled," Old fashioned, preferring the good old days, "but with how close they are to the border, I assume there would be someone else?"

"Most of the Draconis March lords are concerned about these raids the Galedon Regulars have been making, Kesai, Errai, the list goes on... I expect they'll be approached in time even without this Samsonov brute."

"I don't see them attacking Sakhara, they're not of sufficient status." Yvonne muttered, "The sword of light would be furious if they tried, Samsonov is ambitious to be sure, and a competent pilot, but I don't think he's suicidal."

"Ordinarily I'd agree, but with the shipyard there... he might be willing to roll the dice. He could claim he wasn't treading on the Sword of Light's grievance at all." Hanse remarked glancing to his brother for the First Prince's opinion. "Ian?"

"An attack over the hols from where I understand their last position is unlikely," and Clay had his circuit in place, which the Galedon might not know, so if they were heading, they'd be attacking possibly in the spring when Clay would have been back for months, "but it might be good for everyone if the DMM were on a heightened alert, and with resources made available in the coming year."

Ian statement brought a nod, as effectively his brother's chief minister Hanse knew that was the polite way of saying that he should do something that might well... tread on another march that was already complaining about preferential treatment... but he also knew his brother well enough to know he wasn't saying everything, "What else is being discussed?"

"Oh Henry and I are going to talk about tanks, and such of course, but the 19th is on the itinerary as well. His boffins have been quite busy the last few months from what I understand."

 

[Imperator Pax]

NA 4.6​

The morning display, assembly, by Albion had allowed the senior academy to provide some demonstration which saved some face... not that Albion was doing poorly the tournament was going well for them in terms of actual scoring... but in truth the demonstration of the dozen heavy battlemechs in their high contrast orange white had suggested that the topic of conversation might regarding production of the Long sword BattleMechs... potentially distribution to other institutions through the Federated Suns. Currently those institutions were gathering in a reception for which Ian's absence probably would be noted before long, if his own hadn't already.

"Our concern is that its the Capellans." Ian grumbled running his finger the crystal glass within which his mix of champagne and other alcohol sat, "Its poppycock of course, they shouldn't be able to meet us on the field of battle so they resort to this nonsense."

Henry wasn't quite sure Ian was right. Ian was dismissive of the capellans militarily, was frequently railing about his brother in law's failings... but that was perhaps equally as related to the recent successes against the combine. It was no secret that the First Prince really thought the Duke of New Syrtis was a habitual complainer dragging his feet. "Then, should I expect a similar problem with the Shogun." He figured that would really be the test... this probably wasn't the Capellans, it was probably ComStar and the truth was he hadn't been thinking about things like manufacturing licenses from companies outside of the Federated Suns... or really for that matter outside of the hypothetical Federated Commonwealth...

... well that was a whole other can of worms.

"The Shogun," Ian paused, and took a long pull from his scotch and champagne cocktail, "Damn it, I fear we have gotten ahead of course, ahead of ourselves."

Neither of them expounded for a moment. He didn't bring up ComStar as a potential problem, or source of the problem with the tanks, and at least the for the moment the Shogun issue didn't' seem to be the issue at hand.

It was the tanks.

... and what could be done more broadly. Ian had been looking at an expansion of AFFS procurement, predominantly funding to the Draconis March forces so that they could wage war against the Combine. Naturlally. "Actual factory production takes time. Fitting together individual pieces if you have the pieces on hand, isn't really a problem, but its hard to do that at scale." Henry remarked, and well the hull of a tank is diffferent than a battlemech chassis. He paused... it would have been so much easier to point the finger at ComStar true or false if this had been over the Shogun, but it wasn't.

There was a chance, a slim chance that this was lawfare being conducted by the Capellans in concern of what might happen if the Federated Suns started mass production of fusion powered tanks. Was it? Well the problem, that Henry saw was there wasthe possibility it was, in which case it was a problem he hadn't foreseen, and would need to adjust to.

"We could fight it in the courts."

"It would create problems for international trade." Henry replied with a frown... "The Shrek design... there isn't any point in changing it, the Devastator I could reasonably speaking make modifications towards as a novel design." There was always debuting the Zhukov, maybe with a 300weight fusion engine since the ICE engine was roughly the same mass... it was an almost perverse thought since that was a design Aldis should have been unveiling in the future, "If we fight this, and we win in a Federated Suns court it smacks of favoritism, and worse if similar arguments are made by Terran firms,"

"We would be in the unenviable situation of where the two courts are levelling charges."

Of course the truth was the problem there, was that Aldis could threaten to boycott the Federated Suns, by itself maybe not but then companies that traded with him would probably be subject to recrimination... and all sorts of other knock-on effects. It would have international trade repercussions, make international finance difficult and potential chill relations with lyran businesses. "I'll attempt to work something out with Aldis," He replied... and made a mental note to see about Mitchell... he had to wonder if Mitchell being based on Terra was part of the reason no one had been willing to deal with the Dragoons' request or if the Shogun was just that much of a nuisance.

"We should revisit this as the situation requires." Ian remarked in a pro forma matter, "Themore important question is that steps are taken to insure that any challenge is mitigated, prevented from interfering with the defense of the realm."

Henry nodded, "Well, on that. I like the Devastator, but its expensive. A lighter cheaper tank," Though with fusion power still pricy but you didn't need power converter systems to power energy weapons, "well there are those designs. And Aldis's suit has nothing to do with BattleMechs."It also didn't prohibit, or attempt to injunction him against manufacture because it wasn't a cease and desist order it was the preceding step of asking for information before a suit proper could be made... it was a clear statement that someone was probably going to sue him, but he could live with that.

"The long swords are unaffected?" It wasn't really a question. Ian was not a lawyer. It would have been unfitting of the First Prince, maybe even for House Davion as an entire dynasty, but it was more certainly clear that the Long Sword represented a major point of interest. By itself of course the Longsword would not change the succession war, it was industry that would do that.

"The long swords aren't involved." The but went unstated, a Shrek cost 3.8 million c-bills but if he couldn't sell the Shrek... the Hammer hands used a 225 fusion engine but that would be a potential fusion tank engine, Von Luckner, but again Capellan based corporation, "If we were actively involved smashing the Capellans' teeth in," He remarked, "We'd have a better argument... but we're not, there are two tanks a large laser and PPC variant, pairing them with militia mechs would be cheaper, allow us to field more machines than the long sword... if there is anything at the operational and strategic level that's probably the best."

"The long sword though is a heavy battlemech. It is a Federated Suns Battle Mech, and while yes one could argue the Centurion is, it would rally the populace and enliven the cadets of institutions to be able to see them."

"You want me to prioritize LongSwords for upcoming classes then, or as training mechs?"

"Of sorts, I am sure you and LordAaron have discussed the logistics of making war against the Combine, it is your theater you are the commanders on the ground, and the combine has reason to make the attempt against you both. I will support you how I am able in the knowledge that your efforts support Atlas's burden of defending the realm." Henry was pretty certain that had been a pun, an intentional one, as of course, Ian was an Atlas Pilot... "and as for the Capellan Front, I am working on it.

 

[Imperator Pax]

NA 4.7​

Justin really should have been more concerned with his upcoming match against the Highlander. They were rounding out the brackets of the tournament... but the truth was... Scuttle butt at the academy had nothing on New Avalon and the gossip that made its rounds at the holiday gathering, "The capellans are suing you?"

"There are legal proceedings in the process of filing," Henry replied. Justin had latched on to the prevailing theory that that this might be a foreign plot... and it was probably a foreign plot, but to an extent he'd been rushing ahead and he should have made better considerations of how foreign companies would respond. "What I will probably do is keep producing components," PPCs, and Fusion Engines could go to other things. "The 240 is a good engine," and understatement really, "and the factories to produce them are already up and running. Kallon, and the Rifleman come to mind. PPCs in the Rifleman additional medium lasers, "Eighteen heat sinks would warm, but ten and a half tons of standard battle plate wouldn't be anything to sneeze at.

In short he could work around matters. The factories on Sakhara weren't something he wanted to keep idle, but if it was just spare parts then that would be fine. If this was just Aldis Industries trying to protect their copyright that was fine, he'd find some other solution... would develop a better Devastator and go from there. The Shrek would be annoying but there were options.

If it wasn't, if this was the capellans trying to kneecap armor production... well then the solution was simple mass produce lighter 40 ton tank and push into mass service across the core ward Davion front. It might have honestly been better to start there. Truthfully no one associated Halstead Station or Mallory's World with sweeping armored formations of heavy tanks.

The legal proceedings would have no effect at all on the Star Lord production, and that would be the real defense policy question; defending those shipyards. "Its a feeble distraction, the capellans would have to be stupid to try a costly offensive given the tensions with House Marik,"Alexandria added after a moment.

... which would have been nice if governments operated on cold hard logical reasoning's, and didn't have to consider opinions inside the domestic power centers, "The MAC went on a deep raid against New Valencia, its not that out of the realm of possibility that they might try that again." And of course it wasn't just the capellans, there was always going to be the threat that the Combine would come to call, "In any event if the Capellans do make a move like that it would take time." They'd be back... or truthfully Justin, and Alexandria would probably have already shipped off world having graduated by the time of that confrontation, if it came to pass.

"And if MacCarron does attack?"

"If he's stupid enough to let me envelop him, then he'll get the same treatment as the sword of light," More so then Justin realized... if MacCarron's armored cavalry did actually attack Sakhara Henry wouldn't have to worry about any dickering about salvage rights so long as the attack was occurring within his land hold... but of course that assumed the big mac came around, but if they did... well the Cluster was there for a reason. "I'll have enough air cover over Sakhara that I don't really think we should have an issue in pinning them in place on the ground."

Which of course reopened an earlier and often frequent conversation of just how few ASF manufacturers there were in the Federated Suns. Just three really besides him, "You said you needed Haakon to return,"

"Having them back would make things easier, the Jarnfolk have a disproportionately large spacer population they have experts used to the constraints of living in zero or low gravity, and that will make ASF construction," You could of course build ASF, Small Craft, and DropShips ground side, but orbital factories were the secret to manufacturing endo-steel in a cost effective manner... but he asn't going to admit that at this stage... "Of course since we're not immediately pushing forward with Bristol its not as critical."
--
He was annoyed by the situation... but he needed to take the matter seriously. As it was the holographic display still was focused on Spica, and the RCT deployment table waited, but they were focused really one the broader strategic picture, rather than the operational one. "What do you think?" Ian questioned his aunt he decided preparing to focus wholly on the issue of another Successor state turning his attention towards his realm, or back to face the Federated Suns.

"I think it could be the Capellans." She replied, "We can't disprove it..."

Ian turned his expression to his younger brother, and regarded the contemplative look on the Fox of House Davion, "Hanse, you look like you want to say something?"

"Because, it occurs to me that outside of Terra, Capella was previously the only world which supported a panoply of industrial manufacturing. In the sense that there are dropships, JumpShips now, and the conventional arms of battle,"BattleMechs, tanks, and ASF all... "And Sakhara is right on the Combine border, but its protected against the Capellans... I don't think its the Capellans pushing this, I don't think they have the intelligence for it." That was to say that Hanse doubted that the Capellans would have been able to ascertain what was happening deep in the Draconis March and then have had time to digest it formulate and action a plan.

"The Combine has always been dismissive of the other arms of battle."

"The Combine aristocracy yes, but its entirely plausible this could be a classic example of a plastic vendetta, of some Combine merchant attempting to exercise some action out of patriotic fervor through his own resources."

Yvonne shook her head in disagreement, "No, I've discounted that Hanse. Yes I agree its of course possible, but striking at a banner man," Hatamoto was of course the Japanese word, which was perhaps more so important, "Of the first prince would almost certainly provoke repercussions at home if found out, the samurai of the combine are openly disdainful of their merchants. That being said... I do think the combine will likely give us an opportunity in how their honor will require them to attack."

"You think Takashi himself will attack?"

It wasn't unusual for the reigning coordinator to lead direct attacks from the front, "I admit that it is a possibility, but perhaps more likely is a mustering of the Sword of Light,"

"You've heard something then?"

"Takashi has appointed his son, has been rotating Theodore Kurita through a number of staff and line positions the most recent is a posting to the Sword of Light. The Gold Dragons specifically, its a battalion command slot."

"He could just be seasoning Teddy, that's scarce ground to suppose the Fifth will attempt a bullish attack on Sakhara." Ian replied. All of the great houses knew each other. It was a reality of the Inner Sphere. The great houses were heads of state and the persons through which the highest agreements could be discussed in matters of emergency, but the same reality also didn't Ian recognized preclude Takashi from demanding his heir prove himself in attack. But then, "Unless of course the combine is grossly underestimated the defenses, could they?"

Conventional wisdom might have supposed that yes, Halstead or Mallory were tactical miracles, flukes or unique occurrences but together it was hard to think that the Sword of Light had lost a regiment between two battles... and by reports that the DMI had been able to put together not been able to recoup those losses even two years after.

"On Halstead, the Rangers were able to follow up and catch the remains of the Regiment in the rear near Madison," The cauldron closing had caught the remains of the Regiment between an advancing formation in their rear area while still facing their principle threat forward. Sakhara was largely open spaces. The atmosphere was much more hospital than on Halstead, "There is no reason to think Clay's armor forces couldn't hold given their lines of sight. The combine would have to cross at least two rivers to make a direct assault on the factories themselves."Sakhara Academy was in a semi urbanized bend in one of those rivers which would off the Academy itself , but even so there was a wide desert plain to the west that would support tank lines of sight.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Bristol 1.1
In the distance a trio of industrial mechs were working their way across the arid grasslands already engaged in the first round of surveys that would need to be conducted. He was hoping that the rest of Alexandria and Justin'smatches in the squires tourney went well, that they did well. The truth was though that he was needed more here.

His departure from New Avalon was feasible because of the Star Lords waiting, because the truth was he had already been prepositioning them as part of a Jump route going from New Avalon to Markesan, from Markesan it was only two jumps. New Valencia was also a single jump from Markesan which was useful since New Valencia was two jumps from Robinson, and from there three to Sakhara.

That loop consumed, tied down JumpShips both from his Star Lord fleet as well as the less eye catching smaller ones which was why he had wanted a second shipyard up and running at Bristol to cover the 'west' so to speak. That was going to take a backseat, He would work on getting Kathill back into shape ...it would be funny technically speaking his enrollment as a cadet, and as a special instructor on the faculty, was in the MechWarrior branch, but the assignment would be some where between the engineers and staff roll far removed from direct mech actions. Still the trip to Bristol wasn't a difficult one.

Bristol was within the Crucis March which was probably part of the reason Hanse had come along, but also because Ian couldn't be spared, much as the First Prince would preferred to be here. "This was once a heavily industrialized world," The Fox remarked matter of factly.

The planet was slightly less massive than Sakhara, resulting in a slightly lower gravity, but otherwise pretty similar in broad strokes of its geography, rainfall and so forth, "And that will probably be the first thing I mean to fix," He couldn't promise Hesperus of course, but, well "I'll start with tanks and fusion engines, Jolassa Armored still trundles along as an institution here," Really as more a brand name than a manufacturer of complete parts,but they still managed to produce some goods, "Those tanks, and those fusion engines will be my priority," And using Jolassa as the excuse to reintroduce Gauss Rifles early... that wouldn't be this year, and while he didn't expect to recreate the alacorn, the Furywasn't as a 320 fusion powered tank it wouldn't be a problem.

... and from there probably C3... but he wouldn't mention that yet either. The essence said that the Fed Suns had started ... had been able to reintroduce the Alacorn during the Fed Com era so surely that was feasible but he'd need more time for that one. "And being four jumps away won't present an issue?"

"No," If they were serious about sending him to Kathil to start work. "It'll take time to take stock of everything, but I can spend the summer," Once Justin and Alexandria graduated, "Looking at Kathil, I'll draw up what will need to be done from that survey and give it to you."

"Of course," Hanse replied.

No one expected a miracle. Most people weren't yet in the loop to expect anything at all. He'd spend sometime here... really not enough time here on Bristol putting thingsinto place. Ian had been... well procrastinating in appointing a duke to hold Bristol, Hanse had mentioned that the short list had included one of their impoverished dispossessed cousins... a cousin who wouldmost likely be placed instead on the front shared with the Combine...but that conversation had also been aimed at dancing around other nobles in the Draconis March ... like Hanse's in laws.

"Is there anything you expect to need?"

"Additional ground security?" He guessed, "I know the RCT on Spica will be a ways out, if certain people guess what we're aiming at, I suppose I'll hire mercenaries. Most of the machines I can bring in from New Avalon, from Pratt and Whitney or Sakhara if not."

"Can you spare BattleMechs?"

He had really meant industrial machinery, "No, most of the production will be tied up, if I wasn't getting sued I'd probably try and supply some kind of heavy tank formation, but until I can get the factories here up and running I won't really have the spare line space either. "It really had vexed him, regarding Aldis Industries on the jumpship that they were going to try and stop him from producing those tanks. "If talks with Mountain Wolf goes well... on the BattleMech front I'll build the Merlin line here, have them set up for 240engine before we break ground, see if Kallon is interested in letting me produce Fusion powered Partisans here as well. Maybe Riflemen too, or talk to Jalastar restart production of the Centurion ASF. Its really going to be Fusion Engine production which would be the bottleneck, weapons are easy to manufacture... Three to Five years, as long we can keep machine tooling production up the end of the decade," So FY 3021.

"For Bristol?"

"Yes," He replied, "As for Kathil, I won't know really until we get there." The wrong thing to say since Hanse looked contemplative about whether or not they should try and go further 'west' towards the Federated Suns border but Four Jumps was too many. They didn't have a circuit in place... "and the Shipyard should produce a Star Lord this year."

"Yes, that's the plan, next year probably two. Depending on what we can lay down it'll probably fluctuate from two to in good years a third coming online based on Germanium and fusion drives. Two ships, we expect it'll take roughly five months once the yard is full functional, but that can be reduced if the ship's components are all ready and on hand for transfer to the yard and no significant clean up work needs to be done." Maintenance within the yard itself

"But you'll be able to produce everything on Sakhara."

"Yes," He replied again, "and its a question of machinery, if the main yard isn't having to waste time swapping over to refit and repair duty the new ships will be able to keep personnel on the same tasks, by the end of the decade, again we should be in a much stronger industrial position. As I said once the FtL carrying trade isn't so overburdened we can focus on merchant shipping, dropship carriage which will make bulk goods more effective. Its about the economy."

Which Hanse was already thinking of the federal tax revenues that such internal trade would yield, the increase in incomes and flow of goods would fund to support the government of the Federated Suns but also that a large portion of that trade would directly effect worlds of the Crucis March. "If you're talking about mercenaries using armor, Yvonne might have a recommendation of some men from Friesland who would be to hear your proposal. Especially, if you're prepared to help them refit and rearm while Ian is busy wooing the Eridani, and the Kell Hounds are evaluating the new BattleMechs."

"Yes Ian was hoping to all the weight classes to be covered for evaluation," He had brought it up again just before they had departed New Avalon... and that was more feasible than Ian realized . Henry wasn't entirely sure that meant that the Kell Hounds would actually post a detachment to Sakhara or if the plan was just to ship the mechs to New Avalon via the circuit and that would keep the Hounds close to the First Prince. Either or it didn't' really matter it would be later in the new year regardless... but that new year was getting closer and closer... and well 3016 was already shaping up to look as if it was going to be interesting in the Chinese sense of the word, especially with the looks being thrown at the Capellan border... that was after all part of the reason he and Hanse had left New Avalon ahead of the festivities ending.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Bristol 1.2​

The Ducal Palace had been largely empty since Ian had inherited it; and frankly had been neglected before that. There was a planetary governor of course who had administered managed in the First Prince's stead but there hadn't been much going on. Bristol was a pretty peaceful world just greatly diminished by the succession wars, and thus there was space here for he and Hanse to work.

The nominal plan was to bring in machinery and other parts to start rebuilding Bristols industrial spaces from Pratt & Whitney on New Avalon. It would help, but it and some of the other exports from New Avalon and the Fed Suns in general were more about covering mundane reordering of the economic geography. Not everything was about fusion engine seen though in the short term that was what he expected to be the principle military export from Bristol's factory.

Reindustrializing though would mean other needs. Re urbanizing reconstructing road networks and building new space lift facilities would also require mundane things. Tanks would be easier than mechs, and that would require factories of a more basic tech level, and that would mean workers putting money into the local economy as those tanks were sold off world.

He expected, and had stated as much to Hanse's questions, that he'd be doing a great deal of component production. It would probably in terms of bottom line be the major bread and butter of business. Never mind the Shadow Hawk refit kits, really it would be selling logistical support, selling spare parts into the AFFS and their allied mercenary commands where he'd probably be making the income in factory work. As Duke of Bristol he'd collect other incomes, but that wasn't ... well being Duke of Bristol was going to be about other things in the long run.

It was complicated.

What wouldn't be complicated would be the 240 Fusion Engine line here. That was probably going to be one of the first things he put in place from things that didn't really come from his holdings from Pratt & Whitney on New Avalon. There was just so much that the 240 worked with, could be done with, and that as a fusion its energy density saved weight over a more massive ICE.

Stillhe expected that would have to wait until this summer.

Ian's brother appeared from the other room. "So I can't do anything regarding your Mountain Wolf business, much as I'd like to, we must rely on your man Haakon, but for businesses in the Federated Suns themselves well that's a different story." You scratch my back I scratch yours. Not that Hanse was being coy, they were on the same side Henry knew that.

Hanse had been asking questions about if Mountain Wolf discussions went well. That was why he had told the heir to the realm about the plans to put the Merlin line here. It was a 240 engine machine abundance of common parts besides it was basically ideal. Talking to Kallon was certainly on the list of things to do as well.

"I Shall be honest, the talking to Jalastar would be good. Fusion powered aircraft are a limited commodity," If engines could be supplied those, "I know you have your own aircraft, but as you said Jalastar was until recently building Centurion it would be good for the realm."

"Its a simple fighter, three medium lasers, and a pitban 240," If not for the demand for those 240 engines he doubted that production would have closed as it had, "Its 30 tons, and yes if you convince Jalastar to talk, given the engine and weapons load out thats something that could be manufactured here, Sakhara, New Avalon as well." It wasn't a brag. Henry was looking in the long term of providing cheap air cover, but the fusion engine was the stumbling block. He shrugged, "I suppose the avionics are a concern, but if Jalastar can be brought onboard with an agreement I'll make sure those are overhauled before we start production, we might be able to standardize the new version on the Sparrowhawks Rander 100 series electronic package make things simpler still for logistics and save everyone a little bit of a headache there." Still, "We'll need time."

That was thing of course, is that the Federated Suns economy even without him had started to recover and grow under Ian's tenure. The 3rd​sucession war had been trundling along sure, but the damage wasn't like the previous ones, it was a slow grind, border raids and settling into the accepted norms and conventions based on derived from the defunct Aries conventions.

Henry certainly didn't want a reversion back to war crimes oclock of the first succession war.

"Time is perhaps one of the things we have."

...but Hanse didn't know about the clans.

"Well I mean we need years, we will needs techs, any offensive launched against the Combine is going to require more supplies than the AFFS normally needs, especially if we're trying to take planets... and those planets will require investment to rebuild."

"Of course," Hanse nodded, and maybe they were talking across from another's meanings. "Ian is committed to taking the fight to the Combine," And Hanse certainly agreed from his body language that he agreed with that position. "And the accepted position is that we need to be prepared for a combine attack."

It was the second statement that lead them down the rabbit hole of not just Hanse's inlaws, and New Ivaarsen, but also the Draconis March, and the incursion by the... really the raids in force of the Galedon Regulars that had begun.

He was trying to think of things, "Samsonov pilots an Atlas?" He couldn't put a face to the name, even though he'd probably been show the Combine mechwarriors of note on the frontier... it just wasn't clicking.

"Yes that's right." Hanse replied. "Really, he's had more success than most." Which meant he hadn't been completely successful but he had a string of successful raids as he worked 'east' along the star map, "We can't say for certain that he'll make a bid to raid Sakhara but its not impossible." He was moving in that direction.

Henry's thoughts had already turned elsewhere... half niggled the consideration of the Galtor III campaign half remembered details nagged him, and thoughts of Hoff just one jump from Sakhara came to mind. That Misery was twojumps didn't mean as much because well if they were luck the Dragoonsmight never sign on with the Combine at all... but again Hanse didn'tknow that the Dragoons were clanners, or what a clanner was. "We'llsee about preparing for that as best we can, I, without knowing wherehe intends to attack," well you couldn't defend everything, andhe just didn't remember enough about Samsonov to remember where mightbe next assuming that was even still accurate.

"Thatsthe thing really... Robinson has the circuit, and Sakhara has the circuit, we can't cover the whole front of course, that would be an overreach, but if we could catch Samsonov on the ground we could probably overmatch him with the DMM. Troops from Royal, or New Ivaarsen, Sakhara Robinson, Rio and hold to him to account. Its still in the planning stages."

...but of course Henry recognized he was the one with the excess of JumpShips. And of course it would be seen as doing something, stopping the Combine from raiding across the border, and that was important for the domestic opinion especially local domestic opinion. The citizens of the Draconis March wanted something done against the combine, they were the most supportive of expeditionary warfare against House Kurita.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Bristol 1.3​

It might have otherwise been nice to spend new years on New Avalon with the festivities, but there was so much to do here... and not just here, not just on Bristol but in regards to everything else he had in front of him. So Henry accepted that he needed to be right here right now scouring time tables and jump routes and how much cargo was being carried and by what. He had prepared for JumpShips to be tied down by running a circuit out here, but it still left what they were carrying.

The leopard was a small dropship relatively speaking. Frontier trader it could do that, and on the frontier it could pull other responsibilities but it was inefficient at a more complex scale. One DropShip collar was one dropship collar. Of course that didn't mean as much when there were limited numbers of DropShips to carry goods aboard limited numbers of JumpShips. Any trade was better than no trade after all.

JumpShip limitations though were the problem on the primary order. Moving across interstellar distances, that was why Sakhara's shipyard had been such an important undertaking. Clay liked BattleMechs, he liked ASF... he needed them to defend the shipyard, and the planet but in order to fuel the carrying trade and increase the flow of goods and services he needed JumpShips' K-F drive to move to transport those goods across the gulf of stars.

As much as he wanted to turn to look at DropShips that were more materially efficient for trade it would have to wait. He'd talk to Boeing Interstellar when he could, and he'd do that through Hanse but a heavy lifter was not an immediate priority. Once there was time, oncethe industrial blossoming had had time to take hold, well then they'd work on expanding cargo carriers... and he admitted that maybe there was an argument to replacing the less effective cargo carriers first instead of expanding the faster than light ships that carried them...but he'd committed to one course of action already... and there were so many other projects he had opened up, and lost himself in recently... he needed to focus on what he had in progress.


Thankfully the Long sword was designed for commonality of parts. Those designs, the ones focused on that logistical benefit, were going to need to be priority. Even so it would take time to expand production, and there were going to be more requests like those already made. Still that would fall to Sakhara's factories the 280 engine would preclude Bristol since 240 would need to be the first engine export line he brought on line, followed by 320. That was more clear now because the truth was he'd been vacillating back and forth between which. New Avalon would be prioritizing lighter engines aimed at medium tanks, and light BattleMechs... it might even fall to Pratt & Whitney of New Avalon to make even smaller engines for swarms of combat vehicles to further pad out militia units on the frontier

All of those thoughts were arranged on a timetable of production that stretched forward into the years to come. Diversification of production sites would take time, setting up the sites and machinery would take time... just as it would take time to do other things.

Ian's instructions were phrased as if the First Prince either believed or wanted it to appear the expansion of the Battle Company forces were his idea...but those instructions related to the 19th​ Striker regiment also included notes from the Duchess of Victoria, which Ian concurred with in principle, to do so as discretely as possible. Henry had been planning to expand the forces all along it was justyet another thing that would take time.

It was also part of the reason that Hanse was probably here on Bristol to provide support for what needed to be done here. Bristol was apart of theCrucis March but Kathil wasn't that far, a topic which had come up more than once here, and on the way, and out past Kathil was Spica where Justin would be deployed. The Spica RCT deployment was going to be an issue simply because it involved federal troops under federal command in the Capellan March where there were already tensions.

Where there had been tensions before the tourney had embarrassed the Capellan March,House Hasek's favored military academy in the majority of the bouts, but particularly those that had pitted Alexandria's Orion, and Justin's Cataphract against them. That reflected well on Sakhara, their victories prior to his departure were good for the school. Reinforcing the 5th​ Davion Guards would just be a further slap in the face... there would probably be political repercussions.

Would that stop Clay from doing something about it? No. Valencia on Spica would need to be reinforced... but that ultimately just lead him to staring back at the holographic table of information that had occupied his attention since he had locked the door to the room here.

Carrying capacity, both DropShips and JumpShips. Kathil to Spica was five jumps, assuming that after Justin graduated he could justify providing the carriage from probably not a hard swing, assuming talks with New Valencia and this Friesland merc unit went well, and assuming he had enough time in between all of that he could probably post up on Kathil after Justin and Alexandria graduated to stage forces on Spicato go.

... but he'd already told Hanse he couldn't really spare BattleMechs at this stage, anything he could send to Spica would have to be armor... orair power. The fury tanks were here... they hadn't publicly disclosed the massive, castle brian scale, storage facility yet, but they were here. If talks with the Friesland people went well then they could begin training on those.

Less than six months though. How well could the 5th​ be reinforced on Spica was the question, and more importantly could it be done in such a way that if the capellans attacked could they trap the capellans on planet and destroy them in detail? That was certainly his preference to any engagement... but he also had to weigh whether they could just deter the capellans from attacking at all.


But if they didn't attack ... well then what... he didn't like wondering about that, and in the grand scheme of things he didn't have as much time as he wanted to deal with it, or rather put forward a position to counteract it... but Spica was a ways from Sakhara. It was closer to Bristol, and New Avalon sure, and if he was on Kathil at the time that would closer still but that still hinged on being present... and even Kathil would be pushing it to respond quickly.

... and it would be best to b e able to tell Hanse something soon, or if not him, then tell Ian something in the near future... before Justin graduated before he shipped to Spica. This wasn't Halstead or Mallory's world where he could get away with not collaborating on moves , he was in a much different position now, and he was going to be much more involved in national politics from here on out.


--
Notes: I willprobably be focusing on some various scraps I have half finished thatjust have been sitting around, I really wanted to get back intoupdating out of the dark, and the out of the dark (weber) fic alongwith eminence in shadow real life has just been uncooperative of late. We will pick up with Hanse, and more BattleMech stuff next time though.