7.3 World of Eggs
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World of Eggs 03
Colchester
Kestrel Combat Region
Federated Suns
19 February 3025
If there was one truth to the military life, it was that rumor and scuttlebut will out. Prior to the invention of the KF Drive, they were the only things capable of moving faster than lightspeed. The Eridani Light Horse could not fail to notice a whole Monolith-class JumpShip just going away for months, and then coming back with all collars full.
The dream of a SLDF Cache is a common fantasy in the Inner Sphere, because while very rare it was not actually all that implausible. Many a mercenary company blew into notoriety through finding a cache, and commoners into millionaires overnight. The SLDF hid caches all over the place, like some sort of demented squirrel digging holes in planets. There were potentially thousands of such caches in all the House territories and even in the Periphery. There was a reason more than just the SLDF wanting to waste money though. Caches could serve as a reserve for when the SLDF had to actually fight a Great House, or set up a second front, or to distribute to allies while the SLDF had to spend inescapable weeks of travel forced by the KF-Core limit towards the battle zone.
Functionally the only difference between a cache and a supply depot is that a supply depot that you don't know about can't be raided, sabotaged, or stolen by local powers.
Barbara Mosley went on that expedition, and then came back good enough to beat Natasha Kerensky.
It was patently obvious to everybody that the Eridani Light Horse found lostech out there. The question was how much?
While others could only wonder - the ELH's corps of engineers could only be giddy.
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"Are those Alacorn Mark Sixes?! We have ALACORNS!"
The 95-ton vehicles were infamous even half a millennium laters. Techs had to fight their urges not to prostrate before the High God King Slayer of BattleMechs. There were literal tears, stroking the symbol of the SLDF painted on the side and when they had to start painting the prancing horse symbol onto the side of the tanks.
These boiling feelings of awe and inferiority could not be readily understood by those who did not have it rubbed into their faces constantly how diminished and powerless they had become from a position of greatness. Mercenaries were just a little bit ahead of being bandits and beggars in the view of some.
The Eridani Light Horse were never an impressive frontline command, but they were known for defending the people. Pirates and "pirates" feared the Light Horse.
"It's a pity about the 81st Tank Company," one of the engineers murmured. "They're going to get so overshadowed." Very few things could survive three Gauss Rifle shots hitting all at once. Even an Atlas would fear to tread ground near where an Alacorn might lurk.
The 81st Tank Company was the tip of the spear for the ELH's combat vehicle formations. Four Von Luckner tanks, 75-tons and armed with a beastly Autocannon/20, LRMs and SRMs, and backed by eleven tons of armor, were capable of bringing beastly amounts of firepower to smash BattleMechs into pieces.
The ELH had surprisingly many Von Luckners.
They were much more flexible combatants compared to the 80-ton Demolisher which sacrificed everything unnecessary for the task of bringing two hard-hitting but short-ranged AC/20s to the battlefield to be able to destroy any Mech within one or two hits.
Unfortunately they did not have so many Von Luckners that they could afford to move them in standard formations, but instead the anvil to a hammer.
The reaction of the commander of the 81st Tank Company, "One-eyed" Weldman, was only laughter. "You think I lost this eye with being unwilling to mix it up with Assault Mechs?" the grizzled veteran replied. "This just means we finally get an Assault Tank Company."
"That's right!" another engineer opined. "81st Tank Company's Fire Lance being Vedettes isn't much to speak of even if AC/5s have the range of PPCs."
A 50-ton Vedette Medium Tank's firepower was severely lacking compared to a 50-ton BattleMech, which could mount at least an AC/10 or a PPC - but unlike an Alacorn or a Von Luckner, Vedettes were comparatively primitive tanks that run on Internal Combustion Engines. To put into perspective, an AC/5 was also the main armament of a Scorpion Light Tank, at 25 tons half the weight and only marginally useful in swarms. All a Vedette gained for being 25 tons heavier was more speed and armor.
More pitiful was the 81st Tank's Strike Lance, which were only Galleon light tanks armed with a Medium Laser, two Small Lasers, and a near suicidal 3 ½ tons of armor.
An AC/20 could deal punishing damage but only had the range of a Medium Laser. A Gauss Rifle dealt proportionally, say, 15 damage but outranged everything on the battlefield. And an Alacorn Mk VI had three of them in the turret.
They were the big punch that the ELH really needed. Not even the Wolf's Dragoons' Assault Mechs would be able to stand up to such firepower.
Engineers were giggling.
A Light Horse Regiment was formed from a mix of mechs, infantry and combat vehicles within a regiment. This unfortunately also meant that regiment-for-regiment, their offensive firepower was lacking, which was why Light Horse Regiments routinely operated in a Regimental Combat Team or RCT to concentrate mech, vehicle, and air forces as needed.
Unfortunately, the ELH no longer had the luxury to move all three existing regiments as an RCT as they wanted. One regiment to take or defend a world was now the routine for the Inner Sphere.
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-.
Major Pierre Bouchard, commander of the 27th "Wolfhounds" Company, 7th Battalion, 21st Strikers Regiment, had been sniffing around the Supply Division. Fortunately the engineers still recognized the portly pipe-smoking man from when he was an aide to General Armstrong, and it was only a fuel truck explosion killing the command of the 27th Company that had him promoted. His real love was logistics.
The six modified Dictator-class DropShips had to land on a new clearing some distance away from Fort Bradley. There was really no space for it around the base proper.
Planetary government worried about the ecological impact from mass clearing those forests, but no one was allowed to have any eyes nearby. A new road was constructed. Rivers and drainage were accounted for. The ELH compromised by saying that once they decide to leave Colchester to a new homeworld, maybe Colchester could use that clearing for a new town or farmland to assign into new petty nobility.
Major Bouchard, due to his past work as General Armstrong's aide, had been invited to watch the unloading. It was probably this sort of command influence that made his best friend Jameson Nigel, commander of the 7th Striker Battalion, feel grumpy and paranoid that Bouchard was after his job. Bouchard had no interest in command rank however, unless it was command over the entire Supply Division.
When the DropShips began vomiting out Urbanmech upon Urbanmech until there were rows and rows of two full regiments of Urbanmechs - itself a number of Mechs rarely seen unless on official inspection by House Lords on their armies - he was worried.
Then he learned that the Super Urbanmechs were armed with PPCs and lasers, and in fact other than missiles the entire hoard was composed of ammo-indepedent platforms (Gauss rifle ammo being merely inert watermelon-shaped slugs of metal) he was in love.
"It's like the Crab," he murmured.
The 50-ton machine armed mainly with lasers was such a favorite for logistics-free ease of use and was perfect for raiding the back lines of the enemy, that it was poised to become the standard Medium Mech of the SLDF much as the Marauder - also an energy-focused Mech- was the standard Heavy Mech of the SLDF. Unfortunately only a few thousand had ever been produced before the Star League itself collapsed.
"With these many Urbanmechs, of course we need to reorganize the regiments," he nodded.
It was now several weeks since General Armstrong had announced the formation of a new 121st Cavalry regiment to add to the 151st Black Horse, 71st White Horse, and 21st Striker regiments. Given that Light Horse Regiments were supposed to be a mix of different combat platforms, two regiments of fast light mechs could be distributed to four or even five regiments if needed.
He understood that it was unrealistic to create a uniform SLDF-style regiment composed entirely of Urbanmechs even though the regiments on hand already supported that combined-arms approach complete with command and mech artillery groups.
Barbara Mosley's Urbanmech company was a test run. Inserting uniform formations of Super Urbanmechs on the company or battalion scale into the regiments would maintain unit cohesion. Pilots were already used to their machines and were unwilling to switch out into a trashcan.
But it was not just Urbanmechs that came back with the expedition group.
They also brought back almost mountains of lostech. XL Engines. Ferro-Fibrous Armor. Pulse Lasers. Arrow IV artillery. SLDF Neurohelmets and life support. SLDF Communications and computer equipment.
Supply Division had been arguing for days what to do with this largesse.
Supply Division and Engineering Division and the Combat Division were in a low-level unspoken war.
Civilian Command was happy to be outside of this pit, happy with their new medical and exploration assets and information databanks to winnow through. Truly, more wealth only leads to more problems. The unity was broken.
"Yes, I know we have more than enough to upgrade all our regiments with DHS and Ferro-fibrous armor. But that would complicate field repairs if we run short of advanced supplies," said Miranda Crocus, one of the supply chiefs. "Advanced tech is a limited resource, we should stockpile them to recover from battle damage as needed!"
This was a blatant lie. They had enough stocks to refit a regiment ten times over. Engineering could taste this lie. Combat pilots and crew wanted their mechs and vehicles upgraded to Royal versions as soon as possible and test out ER and Pulse weaponry.
Withholding technology that could save their lives and break the Light Horse's enemies all the faster would be criminal.
Unfortunately, engineers also had the traditional thought that mechwarriors and tankers were self-important idiots that don't care about all the hard work that goes into keeping their combat platforms functional.
Combat crew wanted their stuff upgraded. Engineering crew wanted to play around with those advanced materials and would suffer some of them being damaged by the combat crew if that was the price of access. Supply crew just saw them both as idiots who would use up limited supplies until then they were back to where they started.
And among combat crew there were also the secondary war front between the Mech and Vehicle operators as to who needed priority for upgrading. MechWarriors obviously thought that their speed and front-line combat performance meant they were owed the upgrade, while tank crew argued that ton for ton upgrades to their vehicles gave a larger boost to previous performance.
Major Pierre Bouchard was consulted as a tie-breaker. He shook his head sadly. "This is pathetic."
He slammed his palms onto the table. "Is this what we are reduced to? Like starving children fighting over scraps of bread?! Is this the behavior of the Star League Self Defense Forces or the House troops biting at each other over the remains of technological progress they themselves destroyed? If we are this ready to fight over treasures with each other from being resupplied ONCE, do we deserve to have any more?"
The three engineers looked at him. "Do you think it's true… that the… the real SLDF… made contact? They didn't just find a cache?"
Bouchard shrugged. "I don't know."
"Chief Cade isn't here, he's over at the seventh dropship," said another of the engineers. "Even if it turns out that we now have our own automated factory, it would be just as big."
"But if the SLDF are actually returning… we…" the third engineer bit her lip. "We haven't wasted our time in the Inner Sphere! We tried so hard. The Inner Sphere needed us. Staying behind wasn't a betrayal!"
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-.
Please come back.
Millions. Billions. Not just children, but adults too, had prayed deep in their heart for centuries.
When Kerensky went into self-exile, taking the SLDF with him, and the Terran Hegemony collapsed and eaten by the Great Houses, many of those that remained equally wished for the SLDF to return and lead them back into peace and prosperity of the Star League - and half terrified that the SLDF could only come back hell-bent on revenge. The Inner Sphere could not exactly say they wouldn't have deserved it, except maybe to argue if the sins of the father should be inheritable.
Not just a few prayed that maybe the latter would be better.
Please come back.
And burn these Lords.
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RNIK DEATH EGG
Modified Dictator-class DropShip
Colchester
Date Unknown
Eligio Cade was made privy to the terrifying truth. The SLDF are actually returning.
But there was no second SLDF to stand in the way of the Clans of Kerensky. The Eridani Light Horse had to work to create the Second Star League by blood and sweat and unwavering determination not to break kayfabe.
He was prepared for many things. Outright magic was not one of those things.
But it also made perfect sense.
"So just to repeat - this nanolathe can make… anything. Anything at all we want-" said Eligo Cade, the Eridani Light Horse's Chief Engineer. "At least, anything that is technologically possible, by plundering nearby parallel dimensions for plans and assembling them molecule by molecule."
"Anything as long as it's shaped like an Urbanmech," replied Andrei Posseli.
Eligio Cade tilted his head and thought of the obvious loophole "Could it create pure elements?"
Posseli smirked. "If you're talking pure gold Urbanmech, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - that prevents us from doing that. At a market value of 300 C-bills an ounce, the only problem is finding a way to transform 30-ton Super Goldenmech into 317 million C-bills. I doubt there's a collector out there that insane, but if Trading Horse was careful maybe we could get melt prices in a thousand small transactions.
"Pure Super Germanium-mech? Not even the slightest bit more difficult to produce."
Eligio Cade felt lightheaded more than just the micro-gravity he was experiencing. "That is… broken. Just broken."
"Obviously we are not going to do that, because it would be too dangerous for House Davion to learn we don't exactly need them for funding anymore," said General Armstrong through the realtime data connection to the planet, even through several astronomical units of space in between.
"Money can't buy an expert logistics train though, so we do still need House Davion," added Posseli. "We still need reasons to explain away the new things we possess that could not conveniently come from a long-lost cache."
"So is that why we now have an 80-ton Assault Urbanmech that can go up to 86 kph and packs a Gauss Rifle?" said Cade, pointing to a nearby full Mech Bay.
Andrei Posseli threw his hands up "I wanted to see what a 400-rated Extra Light Fusion looked like! This is the only way we can get Extra Light Engines - build an Urbanmech that can use that rating then pull it out." The nanolathe plundered nearby alternate dimensions for plans and schematics, so there was not even a need to spend sweat trying to force things
Eligio Cade for a moment, for some reason, wished he had two pieces of bread in his hands.
Posseli added "Well not free, as such. The nanolathe still needs feedstock. Locusts go in, better Mechs come out. It's much faster than having to do energy to matter conversion-"
Both engineers paused for a moment as they digested the words.
Cade's cheek twitched. "Magic is magic. This is technology. How would Robotnik have known how to utilize the power of a Chaos Emerald into a repeatable form? This whole thing is programmable. I regret so much not being able to at least speak to the man."
Both engineers lowered their heads in respectful silence for a moment.
Then Cade looked up.
Before he could say anything, Posseli said "I do not want to recycle this. A common 240-rated Engine lets this go at standard Assault Mech speeds and there is nothing in the Inner Sphere right now that is capable of carrying double Gauss Rifles."
"If we set up a terrible precedent with MechWarriors getting custom Mechs, everybody will start expecting it or rushing even more recklessly into battle trying to achieve merit."
"That is far too late. Barbara Mosley taking down Natasha Kerensky needs to be rewarded, and a mere 30-ton Super Urbanmech, no matter how fast it is, is too fragile. So she gets Super Urbanmech II well before we are in a position to mass produce even the first Super Urbanmech design. We can't allow her to die."
"Yes, that RobotniC Enterprises thing, I heard about that," Cade replied. "I approve. We owe Doctor Robotnik that at least. People should learn to at least appreciate what that name means."
And then after that the conversation devolved into toy manufacturing and the plan for a Solaris mech stable, because if they wanted the name Doctor Robotnik to really become popular across the entire Inner Sphere, they had to target the child market.
-.
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The Death Egg did not need the nanolathe per se. It was actually an automated factory in of itself. It could produce ER PPCs, endo steel frames, fusion engines, all in situ through mechanical means as long as it was supplied the right feedstock materials.
Eligio Cade was tempted as anyone to play with the Mech Lab, but the Death Egg only had enough room inside for spare Mechs. Unloading and transferring BattleMechs and materials through open zero-g space to a different dropship was arguably possible, but a slow and laborious process that no one would do unless truly necessary.
The other engineers read into the true ability of the nanolathe were losing their goddamn minds.
Anything that could be modeled in the designer could be prototyped within a day, anywhere from down to 10 tons to 100 tons. Lostech was not a thing; it was just available tech. Even things that haven't even been invented yet were a thing!
The factory automatically plundered nearby parallel dimensions for plans and working schematics. Anything it could make was already battle-proven in mass production somewhere else in the mirror universe.
Worse yet, the nanolathe could produce 4 Light mechs up to 30 tons, or 3 Medium Mechs up to 55 tons, or 2 Heavy Mechs up to 75 tons, or 1 Assault Mech up to 100 tons... in a day.
... As long as it was Urbanmech.
Eligio Cade had to remind himself that it was a bad idea to have a hangover in space the moment he realized that they could build an Assault Mech every. Single. Day. Uggh. Fortunately the rest of the engineers were still under the delusion this was merely an automated factory, because this was the sort of thing that invited nukes and WarShips.
Machines were not the bottleneck now, finding as many qualified pilots that were not prone to treachery was the problem.
He had previously asked Armstrong why didn't they land the Death Egg into Colchester, where it could be safer and mass-produce more openly instead of out here in the jump point where anybody could have a look at it, and where it was vulnerable to attack. Posseli answered that this means they would lose the ability to manufacture Endo Steel, but Amstrong's actual reason was that the Death Egg was never meant to serve as the Eridani Light Horse's permanent mobile factory.
An egg, when seen from a different point of view, was just a seed.
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Declan System
Kestrel Combat Region
Date Unknown
The Invader-class JumpShip FSN THE GIFT MINOR hung at the zenith jump point of the Declan star system. The reason systems could drop out of star maps is that the star map did not itself show all the stars usable by JumpShips. Within a 30-LY radius, there could be dozens of unremarkable uninhabitable star systems that a JumpShip could pass through.
JumpShip captains as a rule did not want to use unmarked systems when jumping, for in the danger of a malfunction they would be stranded in deep space with no hope for rescue.
Declan could have been any of a few dozen stars nearby. Only the ELH's Star League-dated maps still showed the coordinates of this star.
This was a MIIO operation, and so the crew in the DropShip was composed of intelligence agents and people all but kidnapped away from colleges in Kestrel. The orders had been updated midway, they were to perform a planetary survey within one week.
Prof. Bartleby of the Kestrel Normal University grumbled that this was barely enough time to do anything and they were all wasting his time. Wasting two months of travel on a pointless expedition! His troop of students suffered for it, being forced to take tests and work on their thesis in a ship with no other possible distractions.
"There's already ships here," the Fury-class DropShip captain informed Cassidy Burford, the AFFS officer in charge of this expedition. The Invader carried only a single DropShip, a waste of two of its three collars, but this was an expedition ordered with the highest priority straight from New Avalon.
Six shining white Scout-class JumpShips hung in space with their jump sails undeployed. Eerily at the same time, the ships fired maneuvering jets, as if turning to stare at the intruding Invader.
Prof. Bartleby had doctorates in Archeology and Geology, and had been bribed into this mission by the promise of access to lost terraforming technology research at NAIS. This meant he was also keenly familiar with Star League designs related to space travel and human expansion.
Scout-class Jumpships were among the smallest JumpShips ever built and were completely unarmed.
Yet these blank-faced white ships inspired in him a strange animal instinct to flee.
"Did I say this was a waste of time? Could we burn towards the planet at one and a half gravities? That would cut transit time from seven days to a little more than four a half," the professor said. "Yes, yes, let us not waste any more time."
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Colchester
Kestrel Combat Region
Federated Suns
19 February 3025
If there was one truth to the military life, it was that rumor and scuttlebut will out. Prior to the invention of the KF Drive, they were the only things capable of moving faster than lightspeed. The Eridani Light Horse could not fail to notice a whole Monolith-class JumpShip just going away for months, and then coming back with all collars full.
The dream of a SLDF Cache is a common fantasy in the Inner Sphere, because while very rare it was not actually all that implausible. Many a mercenary company blew into notoriety through finding a cache, and commoners into millionaires overnight. The SLDF hid caches all over the place, like some sort of demented squirrel digging holes in planets. There were potentially thousands of such caches in all the House territories and even in the Periphery. There was a reason more than just the SLDF wanting to waste money though. Caches could serve as a reserve for when the SLDF had to actually fight a Great House, or set up a second front, or to distribute to allies while the SLDF had to spend inescapable weeks of travel forced by the KF-Core limit towards the battle zone.
Functionally the only difference between a cache and a supply depot is that a supply depot that you don't know about can't be raided, sabotaged, or stolen by local powers.
Barbara Mosley went on that expedition, and then came back good enough to beat Natasha Kerensky.
It was patently obvious to everybody that the Eridani Light Horse found lostech out there. The question was how much?
While others could only wonder - the ELH's corps of engineers could only be giddy.
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-.
"Are those Alacorn Mark Sixes?! We have ALACORNS!"
The 95-ton vehicles were infamous even half a millennium laters. Techs had to fight their urges not to prostrate before the High God King Slayer of BattleMechs. There were literal tears, stroking the symbol of the SLDF painted on the side and when they had to start painting the prancing horse symbol onto the side of the tanks.
These boiling feelings of awe and inferiority could not be readily understood by those who did not have it rubbed into their faces constantly how diminished and powerless they had become from a position of greatness. Mercenaries were just a little bit ahead of being bandits and beggars in the view of some.
The Eridani Light Horse were never an impressive frontline command, but they were known for defending the people. Pirates and "pirates" feared the Light Horse.
"It's a pity about the 81st Tank Company," one of the engineers murmured. "They're going to get so overshadowed." Very few things could survive three Gauss Rifle shots hitting all at once. Even an Atlas would fear to tread ground near where an Alacorn might lurk.
The 81st Tank Company was the tip of the spear for the ELH's combat vehicle formations. Four Von Luckner tanks, 75-tons and armed with a beastly Autocannon/20, LRMs and SRMs, and backed by eleven tons of armor, were capable of bringing beastly amounts of firepower to smash BattleMechs into pieces.
The ELH had surprisingly many Von Luckners.
They were much more flexible combatants compared to the 80-ton Demolisher which sacrificed everything unnecessary for the task of bringing two hard-hitting but short-ranged AC/20s to the battlefield to be able to destroy any Mech within one or two hits.
Unfortunately they did not have so many Von Luckners that they could afford to move them in standard formations, but instead the anvil to a hammer.
The reaction of the commander of the 81st Tank Company, "One-eyed" Weldman, was only laughter. "You think I lost this eye with being unwilling to mix it up with Assault Mechs?" the grizzled veteran replied. "This just means we finally get an Assault Tank Company."
"That's right!" another engineer opined. "81st Tank Company's Fire Lance being Vedettes isn't much to speak of even if AC/5s have the range of PPCs."
A 50-ton Vedette Medium Tank's firepower was severely lacking compared to a 50-ton BattleMech, which could mount at least an AC/10 or a PPC - but unlike an Alacorn or a Von Luckner, Vedettes were comparatively primitive tanks that run on Internal Combustion Engines. To put into perspective, an AC/5 was also the main armament of a Scorpion Light Tank, at 25 tons half the weight and only marginally useful in swarms. All a Vedette gained for being 25 tons heavier was more speed and armor.
More pitiful was the 81st Tank's Strike Lance, which were only Galleon light tanks armed with a Medium Laser, two Small Lasers, and a near suicidal 3 ½ tons of armor.
An AC/20 could deal punishing damage but only had the range of a Medium Laser. A Gauss Rifle dealt proportionally, say, 15 damage but outranged everything on the battlefield. And an Alacorn Mk VI had three of them in the turret.
They were the big punch that the ELH really needed. Not even the Wolf's Dragoons' Assault Mechs would be able to stand up to such firepower.
Engineers were giggling.
A Light Horse Regiment was formed from a mix of mechs, infantry and combat vehicles within a regiment. This unfortunately also meant that regiment-for-regiment, their offensive firepower was lacking, which was why Light Horse Regiments routinely operated in a Regimental Combat Team or RCT to concentrate mech, vehicle, and air forces as needed.
Unfortunately, the ELH no longer had the luxury to move all three existing regiments as an RCT as they wanted. One regiment to take or defend a world was now the routine for the Inner Sphere.
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-.
Major Pierre Bouchard, commander of the 27th "Wolfhounds" Company, 7th Battalion, 21st Strikers Regiment, had been sniffing around the Supply Division. Fortunately the engineers still recognized the portly pipe-smoking man from when he was an aide to General Armstrong, and it was only a fuel truck explosion killing the command of the 27th Company that had him promoted. His real love was logistics.
The six modified Dictator-class DropShips had to land on a new clearing some distance away from Fort Bradley. There was really no space for it around the base proper.
Planetary government worried about the ecological impact from mass clearing those forests, but no one was allowed to have any eyes nearby. A new road was constructed. Rivers and drainage were accounted for. The ELH compromised by saying that once they decide to leave Colchester to a new homeworld, maybe Colchester could use that clearing for a new town or farmland to assign into new petty nobility.
Major Bouchard, due to his past work as General Armstrong's aide, had been invited to watch the unloading. It was probably this sort of command influence that made his best friend Jameson Nigel, commander of the 7th Striker Battalion, feel grumpy and paranoid that Bouchard was after his job. Bouchard had no interest in command rank however, unless it was command over the entire Supply Division.
When the DropShips began vomiting out Urbanmech upon Urbanmech until there were rows and rows of two full regiments of Urbanmechs - itself a number of Mechs rarely seen unless on official inspection by House Lords on their armies - he was worried.
Then he learned that the Super Urbanmechs were armed with PPCs and lasers, and in fact other than missiles the entire hoard was composed of ammo-indepedent platforms (Gauss rifle ammo being merely inert watermelon-shaped slugs of metal) he was in love.
"It's like the Crab," he murmured.
The 50-ton machine armed mainly with lasers was such a favorite for logistics-free ease of use and was perfect for raiding the back lines of the enemy, that it was poised to become the standard Medium Mech of the SLDF much as the Marauder - also an energy-focused Mech- was the standard Heavy Mech of the SLDF. Unfortunately only a few thousand had ever been produced before the Star League itself collapsed.
"With these many Urbanmechs, of course we need to reorganize the regiments," he nodded.
It was now several weeks since General Armstrong had announced the formation of a new 121st Cavalry regiment to add to the 151st Black Horse, 71st White Horse, and 21st Striker regiments. Given that Light Horse Regiments were supposed to be a mix of different combat platforms, two regiments of fast light mechs could be distributed to four or even five regiments if needed.
He understood that it was unrealistic to create a uniform SLDF-style regiment composed entirely of Urbanmechs even though the regiments on hand already supported that combined-arms approach complete with command and mech artillery groups.
Barbara Mosley's Urbanmech company was a test run. Inserting uniform formations of Super Urbanmechs on the company or battalion scale into the regiments would maintain unit cohesion. Pilots were already used to their machines and were unwilling to switch out into a trashcan.
But it was not just Urbanmechs that came back with the expedition group.
They also brought back almost mountains of lostech. XL Engines. Ferro-Fibrous Armor. Pulse Lasers. Arrow IV artillery. SLDF Neurohelmets and life support. SLDF Communications and computer equipment.
Supply Division had been arguing for days what to do with this largesse.
Supply Division and Engineering Division and the Combat Division were in a low-level unspoken war.
Civilian Command was happy to be outside of this pit, happy with their new medical and exploration assets and information databanks to winnow through. Truly, more wealth only leads to more problems. The unity was broken.
"Yes, I know we have more than enough to upgrade all our regiments with DHS and Ferro-fibrous armor. But that would complicate field repairs if we run short of advanced supplies," said Miranda Crocus, one of the supply chiefs. "Advanced tech is a limited resource, we should stockpile them to recover from battle damage as needed!"
This was a blatant lie. They had enough stocks to refit a regiment ten times over. Engineering could taste this lie. Combat pilots and crew wanted their mechs and vehicles upgraded to Royal versions as soon as possible and test out ER and Pulse weaponry.
Withholding technology that could save their lives and break the Light Horse's enemies all the faster would be criminal.
Unfortunately, engineers also had the traditional thought that mechwarriors and tankers were self-important idiots that don't care about all the hard work that goes into keeping their combat platforms functional.
Combat crew wanted their stuff upgraded. Engineering crew wanted to play around with those advanced materials and would suffer some of them being damaged by the combat crew if that was the price of access. Supply crew just saw them both as idiots who would use up limited supplies until then they were back to where they started.
And among combat crew there were also the secondary war front between the Mech and Vehicle operators as to who needed priority for upgrading. MechWarriors obviously thought that their speed and front-line combat performance meant they were owed the upgrade, while tank crew argued that ton for ton upgrades to their vehicles gave a larger boost to previous performance.
Major Pierre Bouchard was consulted as a tie-breaker. He shook his head sadly. "This is pathetic."
He slammed his palms onto the table. "Is this what we are reduced to? Like starving children fighting over scraps of bread?! Is this the behavior of the Star League Self Defense Forces or the House troops biting at each other over the remains of technological progress they themselves destroyed? If we are this ready to fight over treasures with each other from being resupplied ONCE, do we deserve to have any more?"
The three engineers looked at him. "Do you think it's true… that the… the real SLDF… made contact? They didn't just find a cache?"
Bouchard shrugged. "I don't know."
"Chief Cade isn't here, he's over at the seventh dropship," said another of the engineers. "Even if it turns out that we now have our own automated factory, it would be just as big."
"But if the SLDF are actually returning… we…" the third engineer bit her lip. "We haven't wasted our time in the Inner Sphere! We tried so hard. The Inner Sphere needed us. Staying behind wasn't a betrayal!"
-.
-.
Please come back.
Millions. Billions. Not just children, but adults too, had prayed deep in their heart for centuries.
When Kerensky went into self-exile, taking the SLDF with him, and the Terran Hegemony collapsed and eaten by the Great Houses, many of those that remained equally wished for the SLDF to return and lead them back into peace and prosperity of the Star League - and half terrified that the SLDF could only come back hell-bent on revenge. The Inner Sphere could not exactly say they wouldn't have deserved it, except maybe to argue if the sins of the father should be inheritable.
Not just a few prayed that maybe the latter would be better.
Please come back.
And burn these Lords.
-.
-.
RNIK DEATH EGG
Modified Dictator-class DropShip
Colchester
Date Unknown
Eligio Cade was made privy to the terrifying truth. The SLDF are actually returning.
But there was no second SLDF to stand in the way of the Clans of Kerensky. The Eridani Light Horse had to work to create the Second Star League by blood and sweat and unwavering determination not to break kayfabe.
He was prepared for many things. Outright magic was not one of those things.
But it also made perfect sense.
"So just to repeat - this nanolathe can make… anything. Anything at all we want-" said Eligo Cade, the Eridani Light Horse's Chief Engineer. "At least, anything that is technologically possible, by plundering nearby parallel dimensions for plans and assembling them molecule by molecule."
"Anything as long as it's shaped like an Urbanmech," replied Andrei Posseli.
Eligio Cade tilted his head and thought of the obvious loophole "Could it create pure elements?"
Posseli smirked. "If you're talking pure gold Urbanmech, there is nothing - absolutely nothing - that prevents us from doing that. At a market value of 300 C-bills an ounce, the only problem is finding a way to transform 30-ton Super Goldenmech into 317 million C-bills. I doubt there's a collector out there that insane, but if Trading Horse was careful maybe we could get melt prices in a thousand small transactions.
"Pure Super Germanium-mech? Not even the slightest bit more difficult to produce."
Eligio Cade felt lightheaded more than just the micro-gravity he was experiencing. "That is… broken. Just broken."
"Obviously we are not going to do that, because it would be too dangerous for House Davion to learn we don't exactly need them for funding anymore," said General Armstrong through the realtime data connection to the planet, even through several astronomical units of space in between.
"Money can't buy an expert logistics train though, so we do still need House Davion," added Posseli. "We still need reasons to explain away the new things we possess that could not conveniently come from a long-lost cache."
"So is that why we now have an 80-ton Assault Urbanmech that can go up to 86 kph and packs a Gauss Rifle?" said Cade, pointing to a nearby full Mech Bay.
Andrei Posseli threw his hands up "I wanted to see what a 400-rated Extra Light Fusion looked like! This is the only way we can get Extra Light Engines - build an Urbanmech that can use that rating then pull it out." The nanolathe plundered nearby alternate dimensions for plans and schematics, so there was not even a need to spend sweat trying to force things
Eligio Cade for a moment, for some reason, wished he had two pieces of bread in his hands.
Posseli added "Well not free, as such. The nanolathe still needs feedstock. Locusts go in, better Mechs come out. It's much faster than having to do energy to matter conversion-"
Both engineers paused for a moment as they digested the words.
Cade's cheek twitched. "Magic is magic. This is technology. How would Robotnik have known how to utilize the power of a Chaos Emerald into a repeatable form? This whole thing is programmable. I regret so much not being able to at least speak to the man."
Both engineers lowered their heads in respectful silence for a moment.
Then Cade looked up.
Before he could say anything, Posseli said "I do not want to recycle this. A common 240-rated Engine lets this go at standard Assault Mech speeds and there is nothing in the Inner Sphere right now that is capable of carrying double Gauss Rifles."
"If we set up a terrible precedent with MechWarriors getting custom Mechs, everybody will start expecting it or rushing even more recklessly into battle trying to achieve merit."
"That is far too late. Barbara Mosley taking down Natasha Kerensky needs to be rewarded, and a mere 30-ton Super Urbanmech, no matter how fast it is, is too fragile. So she gets Super Urbanmech II well before we are in a position to mass produce even the first Super Urbanmech design. We can't allow her to die."
"Yes, that RobotniC Enterprises thing, I heard about that," Cade replied. "I approve. We owe Doctor Robotnik that at least. People should learn to at least appreciate what that name means."
And then after that the conversation devolved into toy manufacturing and the plan for a Solaris mech stable, because if they wanted the name Doctor Robotnik to really become popular across the entire Inner Sphere, they had to target the child market.
-.
-.
The Death Egg did not need the nanolathe per se. It was actually an automated factory in of itself. It could produce ER PPCs, endo steel frames, fusion engines, all in situ through mechanical means as long as it was supplied the right feedstock materials.
Eligio Cade was tempted as anyone to play with the Mech Lab, but the Death Egg only had enough room inside for spare Mechs. Unloading and transferring BattleMechs and materials through open zero-g space to a different dropship was arguably possible, but a slow and laborious process that no one would do unless truly necessary.
The other engineers read into the true ability of the nanolathe were losing their goddamn minds.
Anything that could be modeled in the designer could be prototyped within a day, anywhere from down to 10 tons to 100 tons. Lostech was not a thing; it was just available tech. Even things that haven't even been invented yet were a thing!
The factory automatically plundered nearby parallel dimensions for plans and working schematics. Anything it could make was already battle-proven in mass production somewhere else in the mirror universe.
Worse yet, the nanolathe could produce 4 Light mechs up to 30 tons, or 3 Medium Mechs up to 55 tons, or 2 Heavy Mechs up to 75 tons, or 1 Assault Mech up to 100 tons... in a day.
... As long as it was Urbanmech.
Eligio Cade had to remind himself that it was a bad idea to have a hangover in space the moment he realized that they could build an Assault Mech every. Single. Day. Uggh. Fortunately the rest of the engineers were still under the delusion this was merely an automated factory, because this was the sort of thing that invited nukes and WarShips.
Machines were not the bottleneck now, finding as many qualified pilots that were not prone to treachery was the problem.
He had previously asked Armstrong why didn't they land the Death Egg into Colchester, where it could be safer and mass-produce more openly instead of out here in the jump point where anybody could have a look at it, and where it was vulnerable to attack. Posseli answered that this means they would lose the ability to manufacture Endo Steel, but Amstrong's actual reason was that the Death Egg was never meant to serve as the Eridani Light Horse's permanent mobile factory.
An egg, when seen from a different point of view, was just a seed.
-.
-.
Declan System
Kestrel Combat Region
Date Unknown
The Invader-class JumpShip FSN THE GIFT MINOR hung at the zenith jump point of the Declan star system. The reason systems could drop out of star maps is that the star map did not itself show all the stars usable by JumpShips. Within a 30-LY radius, there could be dozens of unremarkable uninhabitable star systems that a JumpShip could pass through.
JumpShip captains as a rule did not want to use unmarked systems when jumping, for in the danger of a malfunction they would be stranded in deep space with no hope for rescue.
Declan could have been any of a few dozen stars nearby. Only the ELH's Star League-dated maps still showed the coordinates of this star.
This was a MIIO operation, and so the crew in the DropShip was composed of intelligence agents and people all but kidnapped away from colleges in Kestrel. The orders had been updated midway, they were to perform a planetary survey within one week.
Prof. Bartleby of the Kestrel Normal University grumbled that this was barely enough time to do anything and they were all wasting his time. Wasting two months of travel on a pointless expedition! His troop of students suffered for it, being forced to take tests and work on their thesis in a ship with no other possible distractions.
"There's already ships here," the Fury-class DropShip captain informed Cassidy Burford, the AFFS officer in charge of this expedition. The Invader carried only a single DropShip, a waste of two of its three collars, but this was an expedition ordered with the highest priority straight from New Avalon.
Six shining white Scout-class JumpShips hung in space with their jump sails undeployed. Eerily at the same time, the ships fired maneuvering jets, as if turning to stare at the intruding Invader.
Prof. Bartleby had doctorates in Archeology and Geology, and had been bribed into this mission by the promise of access to lost terraforming technology research at NAIS. This meant he was also keenly familiar with Star League designs related to space travel and human expansion.
Scout-class Jumpships were among the smallest JumpShips ever built and were completely unarmed.
Yet these blank-faced white ships inspired in him a strange animal instinct to flee.
"Did I say this was a waste of time? Could we burn towards the planet at one and a half gravities? That would cut transit time from seven days to a little more than four a half," the professor said. "Yes, yes, let us not waste any more time."
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Admittedly, it's no fun to be on the receiving end of a class 20 LB-X.
