The Aurigan Renaissance [A BattleTech Isekai]

[BlueRanger O-Doom]

Oh…why do feel like there's going to be a samurai that brings up her name at some point. And we the audience will be hearing Doom music for a few minutes after that.

Also, the balls on Kurita for calling him "Demon Lord" for that.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Kurita self awareness and the coordinator taking responsibility for dastardly deeds that they did, no clearly its someone elses fault.

The following is getting spoilered

Spoiler: The different protagonist levels

EWSG, Rabid Fox, GWW, and Aurigan Renaissance protagonists relative strengths

Heron is flat out the most martially capable of the four, as in both in terms of in a mech where in game terms he's a flat zero pilot and his phantom mechwarrior is sufficient that if he wants to he can cloak his entire battalion at will, this is a step beyond what Yorinaga can do (where Yorinaga unconsciously can conceal his battalion on the move). He's a fully mature adult, so in physical fighting terms also most dangerous. (This is the distinction between Odin, and Gene were Odin is older and more physically developed than Gene or Henry Clay).

Yes he has an essence, but of the three in terms of production capability at 3025 as a benchmark. Odin has everyone beat here in terms of access to productive ability, Odin is probably the least capable mechwarrior of these four protagonists, but he's also the social kung fu guy beyond Henry, who is the runner up in terms of being able to call industrial assets up. Heron beats out Gene because Gene doesn't have the essence, but Gene is also in the good graces of multiple states major and minor. Heron has relatively good relations with the Magistracy, and obviously the Aurigan people as a whole, but that's kind of it thats stellar geography. Odin has the support of House Steiner, Henry and Gene both have support from House Davion they have strong inner sphere political power bases to call on

But in terms of strengths of assets Heron in any sort of combat is fairly monstrous of an opponent and eventually the distinction between Gene and Heron is the latter will maneuver an entire unit into contact any enemy before they realize thats a battalion of clan-tech battlemechs, Gene doesn't have that option, Gene is much more inclined to fight defensively he will manuever more, he will rely more on artillery, Odin will for the most part focus on supporting his guards, and his forces in general, and that means siccing Schmitt and Hazen on the enemy having them direct forces in contact with the enemy while he deals with upper command responsibilities. Henry is pretty hands on but he again mostly delegates staff responsibilities to the SLDF officers in his command or the RAC people for combined arms on the ground while retaining some degree of frontline capability.

But in terms of points spent and assets Heron has warships much sooner than the others do, he doesn't advertise that, but when the erineyes equivalent shows up (the thing or a sister ship that bombarded Katinka) his response is hi here is a Caspar to deal with. thats 3020s but Odin and Henry don't put their respective factions back into the warship market until later because they have different priorities

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 2.3​

The holographic image were of a series of garishly painted JumpShips. Prominent among their number were the star and crescent, and split sword motifs of the Azami sect, which put them quite a ways from the original worlds they had settled during the first exodus from Terra.


"We should track them down."

Heron weighed the response to that statement. "That seems impractical, Delaney." He informed the other man after a moment. The naval officer didn't seem particularly deterred by that observation. "They went off into the deep periphery. Given what they took with them I think we can hypothesize that they mean to find some life sustaining world in the deep rim and set up a colony off the books."

They didn't have the manpower for that even in the best of situations. Delaney was right it had the potential to be a security risk. "Even if we assume the best of intentions they'll still be out there."

"Yes, yes they will, but we don't have the resources for a wild goose chase. We can't go chasing combine deserters into the black, regardless of what they might able to tell us. Our priority at the moment is preparing the defenses, we can't spare JumpShips, the request is denied."

They moved on. The parts of the periphery that they knew what it looked like in the modern day... which worse than it had been during the the early 28th​ century... if one were being honest. Damn Amaris... but he supposed the core of human civilization had made its share of mistakes as well... the Ares conventions had meant well of course but they had been about protecting civilized combatants. One side using nukes abrogated any restrictions moral or otherwise to not retaliating... and in some cases that was just the excuse some commands had been looking for to put down less advanced societies so they could enrich themselves at their expense.

Whatever the case, no one wanted to be put in a situation where nukes came back into play, but it was late in the year 3016, and the Star League had been dead for hundreds of years, "We have to assume likewise from what we know of the Dobrev that there was a civil war between Kerensky's deserters enough that these Wolverine people split off as well." It hadn't been hard to learn about the famous interstellar mysteries like the Minnesota tribe or the Vandenburg white wings.

Never mind all of hte political important stuff that had cut through the Inner Sphere, and the Member States of the League in the time since House Kurita had inaugurated the Succession Wars. For Heron Arascid it was the tipping factor as more and more ships were 'offloaded', and personnel 'de iced'.

If they were to push forward with what originally had been on the list then sooner or later it wouldn't just be the pirate king or the Taurians it would be the modern sick man of the Inner Sphere, and they weren't ready to face the capellans. "We can reasonably infer that McGirk will prioritize the HPG stations first but we cannot assume he will ignore targets in preference to waiting." Vendetta against ComStar or not he was a pirate, he was probably after loot... and space was not a flat plane.

It was the Inner Sphere not the Inner disk after all, even if there was only so far up or down from the 0,0,0 coordinates of Terra before the logistical hurdle imposed by that distance created its own set of problems.
--
In the strictest sense the neo feudal order of human society had begun with idealism. In the division of labor and the idealism of settling new worlds that were not Earth. The practical aspects of feudalism in space continued to exist alongside various forms of selecting leadership and a myriad of beliefs but the realities of transport and communications imposed factors on emerging human societies... after all plenty of people left the nascent Terran state explicitly with the intention of getting away from Earth, and within a century or so depending on when one wanted to measure the exodus from the first generation of colonies entailed people leaving those for differences.

With almost a thousand years of common fusion power behind humanity for the most part governments could take the shape of any combination of different parts that might have struck a late 20th​ century audience as anachronistic, but the 31st​ century very little was too strange, especially in the periphery.

To that end from a political perspective, it was only the attention that the Combine was paying to the events in the Rimward Periphery that attracted attention from the other great houses. Simple distance though prevented the Combine's interest from stirring greater response from the Lyran Commonwealth, and House Marik of the Free World's League were still reeling from their recent civil war, but unlike the others House Marik was the current employer of the already renowned throughout the inner sphere the wolf dragoons mercenary corp.

The latter of whom were paying attention.

For House Davion a potential counterweight against Taurian aggression and raiding in the periphery was always an interest from within the Foreign service. The Taurians were a perennial thorn that always seemed to rear their head whenever they thought their betters were distracted by the real business of politics in the inner sphere.

It couldn't be ignored that the Combine was taking this seriously, and that was enough to warrant Federated Suns interest at the level of the office of the Prince's Champion. "This is what we know," Yvonne Davion concluded having laid out the reported estimated troop strengths of the regiments that provided the martial, and materiel skeleton to safeguard the Arsacid Marquisate in the space between the Aurigan Coalition and the Taurian Concordat.

Her initial reports, the amalgamation of information coalated by the DMI2 had assembled a picture that at first looked like that of the Wolf Dragoons. Now that did seem to be quite the case. The earliest reports dated two years earlier had misleading similarities regarding Arascid's force composition, but there was no indication of the Dragoons odd habit in the early years , and occasional reversion to a base five unit organization.

What was worse was the volume of air power in addition to the LosTech machines, and the degree of uniformity, but that wasn't what seemed to be bothering the Combine.

"Do we have diplomatic relations with the coalition?"


"We do not."

That went back to the previous two First Princes. Andrew and Ian. Andrew, Her cousin and of course Ian and Hanse's father During Andrew's rule there had been no guarantee that the nascent Aurigan coalition would even survive. Andrew's rule had also had other matters and the Aurigans had been far away. Ian had come to power at the very end of the 30th​ century, and his time as first prince had been focused on diplomatic talks with the Lyran Commonwealth and further combine aggression... combine aggression which had thus far defined Hanse's rule as Ian's legitimate successor.

Ian nodded, "Then we should correct that, and in that diplomatic mission we should be able to see both what they have, and also why the Combine views this emergent periphery state in the way it does." Beyond that, "Lord Arascid represents a force equivalent to roughly half of the TDF's total mech strength," Which included 3 regiments of Mercenaries on long term contracts, "He maybe a useful friend to have in the region..." Hanse Davion paused and looked around at his closest friends and advisors. "What should we expect from the combine?"

"Most of the initial response to the memorandum with effect the worlds around Luthien, the ISF chatter is high still," Yvonne remarked, "But the first ronin will most likely be the old and retired mech warriors, or the very young. Most likely we will see instructors from Sun Zhang leave their posts in the next few months and then other Combine schools..." This would really only apply to mech warriors but that was simply natural in the inner sphere at large. "Some of the chatter we're seeing suggests that Combine regulars approaching retirement will be given dispensation to go in the next several months but that is something we will have to wait to confirm."

"I saw the footage of the catapult," The battle rom footage hadn't been anything approaching a fair fight. An assault mech in few hundred meters? "Is that what we can expect?" Ardan asked.

"Most likely, the duel in question was conducted according to Combine traditions the range was agreed to, and the pilot of the Catapult had to know what he was getting into. If that is going to be the case then, most of these men are going to their deaths." She paused, "From what we understand from speaking with the remains of the manufacturers and their historical records the Nightstar was specifically built because a Marauder wasn't survivable enough in open combat against the Usurper's forces, it mounts eighteen and a half tons of armor." The only thing that came to Hanse's mind in terms of more protection was his brother's Atlas.

--
Notes: I will be trying to update Eminence in Shadow a few times before I start watching the new season so theoretically that means a couple updates this month, but probably not starting this week.

Anyway this follows on the previous segment, and ties in to current ghost who walks updates, as we move into dealing with the inner sphere response to the combine, and to a lesser extent the dragoons, while we haven't actually had Kristofur Kelly show up yet that is also forthcoming.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Chapter 2.4​

Santiago Espinosa watched the heavy machinery move. The large stamping arm driving down, and back up as it shaped the metal. He felt surprisingly little jealously at the machinery, not given what it represented. What it really represented was a flourishing of industry in the Reach, an expansion of who they were as a nation. For the Reach to be strong they needed industry, and especially, as their ancestors had proven the ability to manufacture their own weapons of war... BattleMechs had been beyond the ability of the impoverished descendants of the SLDF to construct. They had been reduced merely being able to refit and repair the machines that comprised the Aurigan patrimony passed down from the 28th​ and 29th​ centuries.

Santiago considered that very important, because he could trace his family back more than a thousand years to ancient Terra's Kingdom of Spain where his ancestors had been officers in the old territorial kingdoms on earth divided, and who had in turn been officers and, admittedly minor, nobility of the Terran Alliance and the Hegemony after.

A certain amount of pride, but he wasn't so foolish he could ignore reality... how far they had fallen, and it in particular the fallen Hegemony, the fallen star league made him prickly to any loss of momentum to the Aurigan Coalition. They were on the periphery of civilization admittedly some of his despair at their poor condition had been of late alleviated by providential developments such as this, but now he had to reconsider the possibility of rapproachment with the Concordat.

The realpolitik that had dictated accommodation with the older more established periphery state was less important now and Santiago wasn't stupid. It did make more sense to prioritize trade in the opposite direction, and pivot towards the Magistracy of Canopus... and especially if they were going to be capable of moving into heavy industry of their own, within the Aurigan Coalition especially.

--

Heron Arsacid watched the numbers swirled around him, the motes of light and data. His head hurt, and that headache was further irritated by ComStar's news service delivering news about Black Jack's piracy, but the lack of the news service's parent organization willing to do anything proactive... they didn't seem to be in any event. Then on top of that there was the Taurian problem, with Terran born officers in certain regiments rather explicitly preferring a hard nose approach and enforced separation from Taurian relations.

That wasn't practical.

He did agree there was little reason to trust the Bulls, but there weren't reasons to actively distrust the Taurians right now. The officers had a point though that the Taurian worlds of Brinton, and Girondas.

Brinton was the real problem, the real source of his headache. In part because the Taurians weren't the only issue of it. He blinked minimizing the display of augmented reality, and regarded officers of the defunct Terran Hegemony, "The reports are accurate?"

"Yes sir."

"And the Capellans have some idea?"

"We believe their intelligence is misleading, they believe its a rim world hidden army weapons cache, which is technically true." Technically true in the sense that the evidence that the CID had was that the Rim World had stockpiled WMDs on Brinton for the rebels to use in atrocity attacks against civilian zones occupied by the SLDF. Amaris and his sycophants hadn't been really looking to help the periphery but rather simply to install themselves at the top of the pyramidal order of human space, so Taurian casualties of any stripe hadn't really been a concern either.

"What are the chances if all three of us know its gotten out to other parties?"

"Realistically sir, its a wonder no one found these things before now... so I would say pretty good," The University of Volgadon graduate drawled. The consensus was to act first. Drop fast and hard on the world, damn the consequences and land before Black Jack McGirk made for Brinton, or the Taurians, or the Capellans made a move, secure the weapons and then safely destroy them.

That sounded nice.

That sounded clean.

It sounded like a good way to start a war.

They could not in any circumstance tell the Taurians the weapons were there. That would raise questions, and frankly he didn't trust them enough with what those weapons were supposed to be... and if he came in and attempt to broker a settlement for a multinational destruction of the weapons... it would advertise what the weapons were and likely start a fight over their existence, or their provenance... and the officer was correct it was a wonder they hadn't been found before hand.

"Sir?"

"Leave me, I have to consider what options are even available to us due to the geopolitical consequences." The other officers in the room looked disappointed to not be at least heard out, but his eyes were focused on the Rim World Republics badging and data of the report, and not on them. He had to wonder what would happen... but he could sort of guess Brinton would become a battlefield even if they did nothing.

Even if they did jump in destroy the weapons, and then leave, then what? The Taurians would be pissed... but most likely the Capellans on any kind of validation of the mere existence of the weapons would likely still jump the border and hit Brinton blitzing any remaining Taurian defenders or Taurian Relief Forces that had arrived in hopes of finding anything that had been missed.

That they might miss something was a very real cause for concern.

Then of course was if they acted it would likely prompt hostilities from the Taurians, and also possibly the Capellans who might assume that the 'honorable third party' intervention was a 'claim jump', modern parlance, taking advantage of the situation to abscond with league era weapons.

His desk computer chimed reminding him that he still had a meeting with the ambassador for the Magistracy of Canopus who presumably wanted a word about their own security concerns. The Precentor of Luxen had been abducted in mid broadcast ... and there was still no word if he was dead... but that was itself an issue. He didn't understand why ComStar hadn't sunk money into hiring mercenaries, but he was kind of glad they hadn't as small as the margravate was he didn't want a ComStar presence in his pentarchy of worlds.

Maybe ComStar had some internal argument about who to hire, maybe they wanted some really big name unit to do their dirty work and they just weren't interested in taking some job of indeterminate length in the periphery ... maybe there was some other feature or combinations of factors or actors involved in the mess... but ComStar was being reactive, and failing to protect its assets and that simply couldn't go on forever if it was true that Black Jack was making a habit of making an example of torturing senior Comstar adepts for the cameras, which from the rumors and the news going around was precisely what the pirate king was doing.

He hit the key, "Inform Lady Centrella that my schedule is free to see her now, and then clear the rest of my schedule for the day." He ordered the Lieutenant Junior Grade, naval, manning the front office. The motes of light in the mean time reappeared shaping into the suits of playing cards for him to contemplate.

--
Anna Marie Centrella returned to her apartments in Coromodir city's diplomatic megaplex that housed the Magistracy's embassy with less than she had wanted, but still reasonably satisfied with her progress in terms of negotiations.

The documents from the Magistracy's intelligence services were ancient. They had been dug out of secret archives sheltered from the ravages of the successor wars and carefully protected some enterprising muckraker had coined the nickname 'war breed' for the most elite of 'mech warriors during the hidden war, as Combine and Terran pilots had saddled up to one another.

To the periphery it had just been another case of Inner Sphere Hypocrisy until those pilots had begun arriving in the periphery as expressions of Terran, and then Star League authority, because the SLDF had deployed Terran and Combine pilots side by side against rebel forces.

All the same she pressed play on the battle rom...

... and recoiled as the flashes of gunfire started and the perspective camera shaking. The Marauder and its lance mates had dropped from orbit, the classic feet first into hell attack of SLDF elites and had begun engaging Hidden Army forces, the rom was dated 2766 a few months into the New Vandenburg revolts. The Straios who had composed the report had identified that the Command Company arriving were the HQ element, each lance supported by two heavy weight ASF, of a Terran Special Operations Force Regiment... and in this case the Marauder in question was piloted by Colonel Arsacid.

Not that they had a still image from the campaign. The SOF Regiment had landed in force, and annihilated hundreds of Rim World and Taurian machines gathered as part of a nominal Hidden Army division fighting in the rebellion with the aid of, clearing the way for arriving SLDF regular units.

The image of the Colonel in question was from the occupation of the Magistracy's capital in the same year. He didn't look any different in the three dimensional rotating hologram of the Magestrix's palace than when she had met him this afternoon. Tall, clean shaven aquiline features eyes that were appropriate for a dangerous avian.

... and that was the detail that was concerning. The data, well she knew she wasn't the first it had been sent. It had only come to her after first being evaluated by the modern Magistracy's intelligence and foreign service in an attempt to decide on what to do. The Aurgians were one thing, they were descendants of SLDF personnel, or at least a number of their noble houses were and their nobility... but that didn't seem to be the case.

One of the reports further down in the packet indicated significant certainty that the drops against Grim Sybil's pirate warren and action on that desolate moon had been an SLDF conducted operation with SLDF numbers involved for the unit in question.

Arsacid in just the war in the periphery had a kill count to warrant the moniker and the ridiculous absurd poetry the combine had concocted for him of demon king. There were excerpts of it in the report not the least of which was the Combine's official minister to the Magistracy wasn't nearly as discrete as the man thought he was.

 

[Arimai]

reapproachment

Click to shrink...

Rapprochement

bulls

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Bulls, capitalized as it is a name.

free to see here now

Click to shrink...

Free to see her now

JG lieutenant

Click to shrink...

Either use the full title or acronym, don't use parts of both. LTJG or Lieutenant Junior Grade

three D

Click to shrink...

Same problem as above. 3D, Three Dimensional

The data, wasn't had not been sent to her

Click to shrink...

Confused wording here, as though the character is having a stroke or Mal Seizure

combine

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Combine. Capitalize every instance of this name.

demon king

Click to shrink...

Demon King also needs to be capitalized.

 

[anthony corcoran]

yep if santiago performs a coup in this timeline i cant imagine the taurians getting involved like they did with a SLDF SOF unit standing there in the background.

 

[Imperator Pax]

2.5​

Kamea's mother had outlined why rapprochement with the Taurians had been considered desirable, détente certainly was still desirable... but even to just last year they were in a different position. It seemed like if Serena was making that point then Victoria was hearing it even more so from her father, Kamea's uncle.

That had unintended consequences since while rapprochement had been considered critical to Aurigan Foreign Relations, the coalition government particularly the five worlds of the Arsacid Margravate that had taken shape viewed the situation as more stable now. 3017's political calendar was more ... angled at improving foreign relations with the canopians, and watching carefully at what the great houses of the Inner Sphere did.

"This is so boring." Victoria complained in a harsh whisper... it hadn't helped that uncle Santiago had taken here to see the Thunderbolt factory that was going to be the new heart of Coromodir VI's industrial center, or at least the new pride of the capital. The battlemech factory overshadowed the discussions of trade, and cajoling, and favor trading that made society function.

"I know," Kamea agreed trying to whisper back... but her father had assured her that the committee on foreign relations was arguably the most important thing that the Coalition had.

House Paratas was the hold out. Not necessarily because of dislike of the Canopians, but out of concern it would worsen the situation with the Taurians as a by product. The argument being that they were moving too fast. That a sudden pivot would just further agitate the Taurians.

There was a snort from Minister Shakwat , a harsh and unladylike gesture from the woman who was at least the age of Kamea's grandmother. The admission of the Margravate, the five contiguous worlds plus Tarragona, were represented by a proxy represenative for Arsacid in his chief minister. She was the most regular presence of the new worlds of the coalition since 'demon king of the sixth heaven', which Kamea thought was a ridiculous over the top absurdly grandiose thing to call someone you didn't like but it was what the Combine's representative called Heron Arsacid instead of his name.... which Kamea thought was stupid.

The Taurian representative though had been particularly quiet of late, since the confrontation between the combine mechwarrior ... the guy in the catapult and Arsacid's Nightstar... which had been over and done with in the first exchange.

Minister Shawkat stood up, "I suppose then that Lord Parata's suggestion is we greet the pirates with hugs and smiles yes?" Uncle Santiago bit down a snort of laughter as her mother glared at her brother in disapproval, "After all we wouldn't want to offend them rashly. What nonsense is this, that peaceful, open trade between two polities is a concern for a third, especially when the trade doesn't even go through the third state. It is trade which is the life blood of stable governments, open and free trade, and the flow of commerce which facilitates healthy relationships."

Calling out the Prime Minister of Tyrlon aside Shawkat turned her address of the council into a topic on economic liberalism and a thousand years of economic theory dating back to before humans had even invented flying machines... and it wasn't really interesting. Trade sounded great, it really did and there had been shortage of lectures growing up about how important the Aurigan Trade pact had been or how important the JumpShip assets of the founding families, and the maintenance yards were to Aurigan prosperity.

More trade was supposed to equal more growth, but she recognized it was probably more complicated than that.
--
The holographic image rotated, a sixty five ton tank built around a gauss rifle and a Magna 260 engine.

"I don't believe that the Aurigans can produce this sir."

"No, I don't imagine they can either," Heron replied, but that wasn't the point, the Pershing was for all intents and purposes a Star League tech Rommel Gauss, with different electronics suite, "here," The Engineering officer slotted the chips into the free spaces of the projector, "Those on the other hand," The Patton and Rommel tanks while fusion powered were something that the Aurigans could using the Thunderbolt engine plant presumably produce. "Those should discourage this pirate from making any ambitious attacks against the world." He wished he could, internally at least be more confident about that the statement being true... the truth was there was no real way to discourage Black Jack from attacking except by killing the pirates, "We want the Aurigans to begin production of a fighter, but I'll leave that to you captain."

"Sir." There was a pause, "About the Canopians sir?"

"Discussions are still ongoing with regards to a foreign aid mission."

It was the awkward feeling, the quiet about how they were supposed to look at things. Earth had reverted to having nation states rather than a unified planetary government. The HPG network was in tatters...

The Hegemony was gone. Kerensky had fled with the fleet.

That was the ... the work of a growing network of amateur histiographers going through what they could piece together of how the Star League had gone to hell... and it lead them to the unfortunate nagging idea of being the Hegemony in Exile... which so far as Arsacid was concerned didn't work... the Hegemony had worked because it was the cradle of humanity and the oldest most developed colonies with the industry and scientific infrastructure and centralized control that went with that.

They were a successor state to the Hegemony at best, a post star league state like the Aurigan trade association that had had formed the modern Coalition and no amount of magic changed that. He also knew there were Star League facilities throughout the periphery... and there was the issue of the Vandenburg White Wings as well. They needed a functional defensive plan moving forward, before they could do anything else. "With regards to air assets, I'll need time."

He refrained from rebutting that they didn't have time. There was a limit on fusion engine production... you need fusion engines for ASF, and BattleMechs. You could downtech tanks to run off of the venerable internal combustion engine, but that disgusted him to an almost irrational idea... and speaking of fusion power there was a report on the canopians on his desk that'd only found the time to get half way through before other matters had dragged his attention away from it. "You wanted to talk about the canopians, then."

The naval officer gave a sharp nod, "yes sir. With regards to Canopus and Dunianshire, They're disaster sites, I wrote you the report on the... they still burn coal for gods sake,"

"I was told the Canopian education-"

"They're, this is the periphery sir their education system is abysmal. It shouldn't even be called school. Some of them learn in log cabins..." The engineer fell silent his brain finally catching up to his runaway mouth, "I apologize sir. That was out of line... but the conditions on the ground in hte present,"

"Things have fallen significantly from the Star League, we can blame Amaris for that, but the Rim World is dead and rotted." He replied, "And the truth be told I am given to understand there has been a significant decline in the conditions of the Inner Sphere." There was no home to go back to, and while he hoped that that log cabin crack was just a periphery tall tale... a joke, hopefully hyperbole, fusion power something that they could export out, but they could in no way afford to have Hegemony officers, or other ranks fall into the habit of making cracks about how backwards the periphery was regardless of what degree of truth there was in the observation. "To that end, I do not want to hear the words civilizing mission, am I understood?"

"Yes sir. It won't happen again."

--
Notes: Shorter than I had planned, which will probably be a similar case when I post dogs of war's opening for EWSG but an update. We will get more with Kamea and Victoria, particularly regarding some of the other houses and Aurigan politics as well as particularly the Magistracy as we move into the next chapter.

Anyway, due to relatives deciding to show up a day earlier, I am expecting to update AH tomorrow to save me a headache, and nominally update Viltrumite come friday ah saturday, ghost sunday, pathfinder monday, rabid fox tuesday, ideally EWSG.

 

[Bofors40mm]

I mean the SLDF operated a lot of ICE tanks. Bulldogs, the Weapons Carriers, maxims, condors, LVT-4s, Ballistas, Galleons, Goblins, ect.
The list of all SLDF tanks for your reference.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:SLDF_Combat_Vehicles

 

[Imperator Pax]

I mean the SLDF operated a lot of ICE tanks. Bulldogs, the Weapons Carriers, maxims, condors, LVT-4s, Ballistas, Galleons, Goblins, ect.
The list of all SLDF tanks for your reference.
https://www.sarna.net/wiki/Category:SLDF_Combat_Vehicles

Click to shrink...

Absolutely, and we will see plenty of bulldogs and maxims for example, though in the later case the Maxim-C will end up replacing the normal maxims in frontline service once production of clan tech starts the comment on 'the venerable internal combustion engine' was personal sentiment from a mech jock not necessarily reflective of using the ICE in general.

 

[Imperator Pax]

2.6 [Chapter 2 Conclusion]​

His expression was numb. A bland acceptance of the information in front of him.

Numbers ... resources... the floating tab of inventory, and commands. It was from his essence he could direct commands across the variety of units, and their garisons... in short he could circumvent the distance of space where they had built facilities for appropriate units.

Heron drummed his fingers as the 'lights' in the display changed. He had no way of knowing that the disposed of ground mobile HPG which provided the funds that he was pouring back into the essence to build the scotts unit up to strength would end up in the possession of Aldo Lestrade... and even if he had known he wouldn't have cared about that.

... well about that particular ground mobile HPG. Given some of the others... well that was a different story, but it was just and example of information that had he had it, he might have been a bit more cautious.... or maybe not. The truth was, with the HPG network in the condition it was in, and limited information about the state of the inner sphere the real consequences were not readily apparent.

He wasn't exactly clear on why ComStar had not rebuilt more of the network, why capability had degraded so... and he hadn't considered how badly they would react. Or how the former member states would react to HPGs of a mobile sort being up for grabs would react... but in the waning months of 3016... that crisis was still a ways off... and he had another one much, much more immediate to contend with. The 'HPG Crisis' of the Inner Sphere would not be his problem.

The holographic display.... the one unrelated to his essence, was a news clip frozen showing another defaced former SLDF mech. Another khaki machine with the grinning death's head scrawled over the shoulder the problem was it was an eighty ton Spartan.

A machine that most certainly shouldn't have been stored away in some brian's depot. It was absurd to think that.... and somehow Black Jack had gotten his hands on them... and other instances of Royal technology. Technology denied or restricted to the member states... not that it hadn't stopped them from beginning to produce some systems aimed at being restricted. The improved cooling technologies like DHS... the Combine had gotten ahold of Marauders... but there was a difference between then.... and now when the state of technology had fallen so far and yet this lunatic was running around.

It was that that really made the decision.

Some of it was a visceral emotional reaction with his gut... maybe it was irrational. Would, would the pirate even go after the weapons, he was making a mess of things but ... but he couldn't take the chance that it would be so simple as Black Jack dismissing the opportunity. Besides, they had no way of knowing no one else seem to be aware of the nature of the weapons on Brinton... it was a crisis.

... and one with a very narrow window of time... so he'd order the scotts into action... they would deal with the WMDs make a public statement about the objectives of the raid.. and if there was fallout there was fallout. Much as he didn't like they needed to deal with this, and they needed to deal with it imminently... as it was... the obviously former SLDF machines being painted with graffiti like sprawls of paint of rim world images pissed a lot of the men under his command off... and well they were pirates and slavers on top of that. There could be nothing but loathing, and disgust elicited from officers, and the ranks, and the civilian populace.

... and that was something Heron hadn't been readily thinking about, the civilian populace, including the demobilized SLDF personnel were now a consideration in the political discourse of a nascent periphery state... that being the march, and that was going to have repercussions on inside the Aurigan Reach as a whole... probably sooner than he might have liked.

He had made the comment that the Rim World was dead and rotted not too long ago... and... and it certainly didn't feel like that with the string of crimes against humanity being perpetrated by pirates wearing their colors. Brinton wasn't that far though. Two jumps from Katinka. The Royal Scotts Dragoon Guards would drop hard and fast.

The Battle of Brinton, when news of it did break was to be a case of confusion. The multi sided conflict ended up involving a sizable number of combatants. The Taurian defenders, the nominally Aurigan attackers, mercenaries, pirates... the Capellans even got in on the action... It was ComStar's precentor fearing for his life at the hands of Black Jack's pirates who made the situation even more confusing.

Not that the existing Aurigan Reach situation hadn't already been confusing enough. Precentor Kepler's ability to live broadcast the events on Brinton V was able to reach Mechdur. It was able to reach Zanzibar. It was able to broadcast footage to New Vandenburg. All of that was to have consequences, not the least of which was it provided a front row vantage of a conflict no one expected, it allowed real time view to citizens ... but it was their governments that really took notice of the conflict on Brinton in the early months of 3017 consumed the attention of the participants as well as their neighbors... even though with the limits of HPG technology, the network and JumpShips ferrying news by the time fighting was over word had gotten out.

Even though the Magistracy of Canopus, the Free Worlds League, and Federated Suns didn't participate in the fighting on Brinton V they found themselves with a vested interest in its outcome, and the discussions that emerged from it... and in the fact that a precentor of a periphery world was able to broadcast in such a way that the panicked transmission could go out across the range of HPG stations in reach, and make live streaming of the news during a crisis.

The fact that ComStar refused to make this service available, or when it was available through certain stations it was for an exorbitant upcharge... only created other problems down the road... even if strictly speaking the fighting on Brinton was a contributing factor to Successor State awareness and dislike of the status of the HPG network, and its services.

Atrocities after all were already a known factor of the succession wars, of wars between successor states of the star league... even though the motivations of Black Jack's pirates which had begun in a simple quest for revenge had metamorphesized into something worse over the course of what history would record as the pirate wars. In the mean time his attention largely turned back to the matter of the expansion of tank, and infantry equipment production to defend worlds that normally could only rely on militia troops to defend their scattered settlements.
--
Notes: Frankly this probably should have been attached to 2.5, and its a bit short but it directly feeds into the start of chapter 3.

 

[kharn]

I have always wondered about ftl comms inefficiency in battletech. Isnt it exorbitantly expensive because of gravity making it hard to make that wormhole in hpg cores? Multiple fusion plants spread around in massive complex so that thery can create short antigravity event and that pulse through ftl? Why dont they make a space station so that they can do it without gravity making it harder? same as jumpships needing to be in zenith and Nadine points away from gravity zones

 

[Imperator Pax]

I have always wondered about ftl comms inefficiency in battletech. Isnt it exorbitantly expensive because of gravity making it hard to make that wormhole in hpg cores? Multiple fusion plants spread around in massive complex so that thery can create short antigravity event and that pulse through ftl? Why dont they make a space station so that they can do it without gravity making it harder? same as jumpships needing to be in zenith and Nadine points away from gravity zones

Click to shrink...

I cannot effectively field a canonical explanation.

Both the Terran Hegemony's official SLCOMNET and its hidden network and the Clans all had space based HPG networks as well as of course they and COMSTAR and the Word Of Blake had mobile hpg spaceships both dropships i.e. pueblo class as well as jump ships and warships

 

[LokiTheDarkGod]

Isnt it exorbitantly expensive because of gravity making it hard to make that wormhole in hpg cores?

Click to shrink...

I imagine that Comstar has artificially inflated the 'value' of data transmission and as such the value of the C-bill by limiting data transmission and it would also reduce strain on the equipment if used less or at lower intensity.

 

[Imperator Pax]

I imagine that Comstar has artificially inflated the 'value' of data transmission and as such the value of the C-bill by limiting data transmission and it would also reduce strain on the equipment if used less or at lower intensity.

Click to shrink...

Also yes this almost certain canonical as well. Like Comstar's network is canonically less capable than the Hegemony era SLCOMNET but also yeah the robes play games with the currency exchange

 

[Bofors40mm]

To be fair they have to pay for refiting all those warships plus building 3 frigates and 4 yardships among other hiden expenses somehow.

Plus rebuilding terra and a lot of the HPG network wasn't cheap

 

[PeaceMaker03]

Less HPG traffic: Easier to read the mail when you have a week to do it and break ciphers etc.
More expensive to use HPG, then only important items are sent via HPG, and less garbage to filter out.

 

[kharn]

Ah that explains so mutch about hpg shenanigans. Would be a big hit on cpmstars eye if Steiners and davions spread out those precursor ftl comm black boxes to absolutely everywhere. That size alone would make them easier and way cheaper to maintain comms in inner sphere although slower than hpg if chained and no videos

 

[Limedalek]

Ah that explains so mutch about hpg shenanigans. Would be a big hit on cpmstars eye if Steiners and davions spread out those precursor ftl comm black boxes to absolutely everywhere. That size alone would make them easier and way cheaper to maintain comms in inner sphere although slower than hpg if chained and no videos

Click to shrink...

You have to use those sparingly or they will end up jamming each other.

 

[kharn]

You have to use those sparingly or they will end up jamming each other.

Click to shrink...

They do? Didnt even cross my mind but now its pretty obvious when i think about it. Too many messages in the same channel through sphere would definitely glog everything up.

 

[Limedalek]

They do? Didnt even cross my mind but now its pretty obvious when i think about it. Too many messages in the same channel through sphere would definitely glog everything up.

Click to shrink...

It happens in canon following the destruction of most of the HPG network at the start of the Dark age era of Battletech