Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[lancelot]

Who here think that woman was a Comstar plant?

Click to shrink...

Considering when she attacked I'm guessing ISF.

 

[Morkail]

It's one of the big open questions in battletech lore the SLDF left and took most of the active military hardware with them. however even as the commander of the star league military he would not have access to assets of say the research departments laying down the next step In technology its why clan stuff is so advanced on battlemechs but they don't have any drone tech not that they would use it.

and of course the ruling house of the star league would of had many contingency for the league falling there's no telling which failed, stalled or might of made off with a actual member of the family to some hidden blacksite in the deep. One of things that always stood out to me about the star league was there ablity to build massive structures that remain hidden to this day. Factory's automatic ones at that which just need materials to pump out finished products no datacore has the blueprints to make such things.

Its very easy for me to think there some drone AI knock off PA commander building up a massive amount of stuff somewhere just siting for s Cameron to show up and claim it.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Elidere Part 6​

He frowned, "What do you mean its not ready?" There were other mechs, Bahar had had a look around and in theory he could use one of them.

The AI apologized, "I apologize again Commander but the refits to your Marauder to bring it inline with," He ignored the rattled off a program number, "Will not be complete for several more hours." He thought about the Atlas, but watched as a hologram appeared. It was clearly a Marauder, but different than his own.

"LBX?" He asked.

"Testing and evaluation of the weapons platform as a successor to then standard Hegemony 2R." He nearly pointed out that the 2R had only finished replacing the 1R in Hegemony service barely half a decade before the Amaris Coup... and he wasn't especially keen to take a prototype weapon into battle... CASE or no... but it didn't seem like he had a choice.

He turned back to the holographic display. It seemed laughable to call to him to call a 'Regiment' of Infantry what the Combine were bringing down. Two companies of infantry had been identified and would be touching down at Salisbury, but their signals broadcast indicated they were supposed to be a regiment. It had occurred to him that the rest of the unit might have been allocated to attacking Ander's moon.

The 19th​ was clearly under strength, only a dozen ASF detected most of which were registering as Shilones... and the 19th​ was bringing no identified armor assets to the party. The infantry were potentially close enough to the dig site that if they were mechanized they might be a problem... he hoped of course that the company was alert enough to realize that they had just found themselves stuffed into a planetary invasion.

Gene glanced at the sound of a zipper, and a grunt, "Ah its fit, quite nicely." Abner declared patting his stomach. "Just my size you'd think it was tailored for me. Manufactured San Francisco, 2761." The Lyran doctor had found a size extra large SLDF regulation pilot suit. "Come along Mr Ford we must go collect our happy diggers."

Ford at least seemed to recognize the insanity of the situation, but he wasn't having any success in talking the doctor out of it. Septim shook his head, "Doctor Abner is insistent that he joins us for the sortie." Seeming to sense that his commander was going to ask if Abner could even pilot a mech, Septim pressed on, "He says he can do, and that you'll need everyone who can pilot a mech to do so... and that we're out numbered."

"Go get in your mech Septim." He ordered, then nodded to Bahar. Some automated droid looking things had already cleaned up the body, carted to presumably a bio recycler or the base furnace or somewhere for disposal. Gene leaned over the holotank, "Invasion force on Ander's?"

The combine had brought an estimated 115 mechs to play... they had reserves in system. A batallion was en route to Ander's Moon. "refreshing now." Tristan St George replied, "Vandenburg castle, and McBrin castles appear to be their primary targets, secondary objectives may be the central agricultural facility at Ander's Fall." The AI rattled off a couple of other potential options... but the first targets being the local noble's old fortresses made sense.

"any armor?"

"None detected, a company of infantry that I can confirm, but I estimate approximately a battalion of BattleMechs including the battalion commander and his headquarters unit."

Truthfully there was little he thought they could really do about the other planet. "Are they actual castles?"

"In the sense that they are fortified residences, yes."

... that was fair enough. Thinking about it was obvious that the Combine was here likely just to pillage and steal... if they knew about this facility they sure weren't acting like it. Not that there weren't SLDF facilities on Ander's Moon that might be salvageable... but the Duke of New Vandenburg had a planetary militia to call upon and could presumably have put up some kind of resistance.

Maybe.

Ander's Moon was going to be on its own for now. Still even there, the Combine forces were scattering their forces out, casting a wide net much like they were doing here. Still even properly supported a battalion of mechs was not enough to hold a planet... even just one of fifty million regardless of most of them being farmers. He had to wonder how long the combine intended to stay... long enough for their jumpdrives to finish charging... and long enough to load up whatever whasn't nailed down presumably.

"Commander?" The AI paused, "Enemy air attack being conducted against Jasos City."

He nodded, "Show me the eastern seaboard map local, geography only." The tub rippled and changed the map he was looking at, "Show us," Dot added. He gradually filtered in other features... and nodded finally.

There was the infantry to worry about if its units were mechanized. The Condor might have potentially been carrying vehicles for that... possibly partial mechanization. They'd have to wait and see. The ancient Star League systems provided good vantage where they had coverage, but coverage wasn't complete.
--
He flipped through the start up by the book. There was a minor difference in documentation, but nothing that impeded running the start up check for the Royal Marauder. The 'patch notes' claimed that the upgrade to the LBX was designed to correct the older version Whirlwind Autocannon... but he was skeptical of that. The computer's notes had been written by the Weapon's division of the Hegemony R&D department and reminded all gunslingers to insure their reports and battle roms were reported to them.

"All Green, how are we on Comms?" He asked lasing the Merlin.

"Five by Five, commander." Septim's Merlin was already moving down the tube as a tram platform prepped to carry them down the tube. It would be faster than walking. "This gonna work?"

"In the sense that we will get back there, yes." They'd be able to get back to the base camp, and just getting back to the train station should put them back into contact with the unit. It had been a mistake to have Septim and Bahar both along... maybe not so much if the JumpShip captains hadn't been out of the system but it had been a complacency move. "alright you are to rendezvous with our Mechs, grab Chang and Alexander."

"Roger that, boss."

It would have been nice to have Jowett and Andrews along, for whatever help two more mechs really would have done. "Bahar once we emerge coordinate with our infantry to securing non combatants outside the line of engagement," Put their asses in the old bunkers, and, "Then tell the crunchies to load up inferno SRM's and point them at any mech that isn't ours."

That really only was going to be focused on protecting their principles. Their non combatants were the Expedition people... and he hadn't forgotten that one of them had for whatever reason pulled a gun from somewhere.

... or that people would have to be blind to nt notice they were coming back on a tram with a pristine Atlas... and assuming they weren't completely stupid a different Marauder.
--
It looked like was going to rain, Septim cued his mike inside the Merlin's cockpit, the magestrix handshaking with the new Marauder the boss was riding, "Good hunting." He pulled away and stepped on the aging highway and brought the mech to sixty five kph. "Bubbles,"

"Septim? Where have you guys been??" The hunchback driver questioned, before stopping in a low whistle, "Woh what is that?"

"Boss says its an Atlas II," He glanced to his Magestrix Gamma's radar readout, "Look I'll tell you all about it later, but for right now we've got to go smash some pumpkins." He declared thinking about the dreams. The black fox on the river laughing at the clumsily pursuing combine mechs, and then turning around to chase them back. In the real world Bahar was mobilize the company of ground vehicles they had, "Look we have," Fuck, Boss hadn't really specified how to explain their help when it came, "Boss has secured some local support so we're not alone out here."

"That's good to hear," Beau declared expansively in his deep bass, "Cause between us looks like the whole damn DCMS coming down."

This probably would have been the part where the boss pish sha-ed and went no its just a battalion of mechs. "There are a lot of the bastards," He replied instead, "But they're all spread out, and we've got artillery and they don't, so once we get the IE people safe we're going to be able to cut them apart while their forces are divided."

In the cockpit of her Mongoose Bahar listened, but didn't interrupt. The distinction to captain had really been done to place her on the same footing on Luxen with Septim. He was more familiar with their fellow mechwarriors more a friend than a colleague. She wasn't sure how he would take the news of the HPG transmission... but it probably meant less to him. He was Lyran. The elders all tried to act, and some sincerely believed that everyone in the world had to have similar scruples of morality and were appalled not so much when someone failed, but when someone who espoused honorable conduct so thoroughly betrayed it.

... The Lyran Commonwealth soldier didn't ascribe much of a tie to the horrors of the fall of the star league, or the succession war. They were just a part of history now.

She touched the double matte green bars on her collar. Apparently the green had been a decision during the wars on terra because they were subdued colors on earth tone uniforms. Her hand snapped to her ONS comms system.

"Tai-i." Hanzo greeted respectfully. Shiffer's rebuilt Cicada was now effectively just a bigger Jenner. A slightly more protected jenner in any event. It could hit nearly a hundred twenty kilometers an admitted downgrade from its previous hundred and thirty. "My mech has completed rearmament with inferno missiles. I have permission to engage and destroy the enemy infantry, may I depart?"

Bahar checked the Mongoose's computer log, and confirmed the orders. She would have preferred not to, she would have preferred to use the armor company against the Condor... but a single mech with a pilot committed to proving himself would be harder to detect. "Yes, good luck."

"And you as well." The disfigured man's hologram inclined slightly in a bow, and the machine sprinted off with nothing further. It was risky to send just one mech.

Hanzo rejoiced in his good fortune. He was a mech warrior now. The privilege of destroying the enemy lay before him with command of a forty ton warmachine. It was true he might have looked forward to face a Combine warrior mech to mech... but he recognized that he was the most junior mechwarrior in the unit.

He keyed into the battalion navigation network as his Dynatec labelled it and viewed the coordinates... he would have to hurry. If his good luck held he'd be able to get there while they were sitll unloading, and following the advice firing his missiles into the enemy dropship's open cargo bay.
--
He would have liked to have his jumpjets. It felt weird to not have them, like a phantom limb linked to the machine connection. Gene had gotten used to know he could clear terrain obstacles and maneuver, but there weren't any real issues to piloting this marauder. He had the mech flat out hoping to stay ahead of the rain the doplar was tracking as coming in, but also prepared to listen in to intercepts filched by the AI.

As a command battlemech the Marauder, just like his own could relay those as needed to the others, or failing a good connection to the others either the Sam Houston or the Atlas to pass on. He wasn't ignorant that the Combine couldn't have missed the two dropships.

Ford had been willing to put half up in an escrow account. That very well could have drawn attention, and he wondered if that played a role in it. The bigger question was whether the combine invasion was related or if they were dealing with an honorable third party. He hoped not. One set of assholes to fight was enough. "FASCAM loaded?" He questioned the AI.

"Affirmative commander." The Combine had superior numbers, and he did not want to tip his hand about hte drones if he could avoid it. The ability to deploy field artillery scatterable mines insured that ... well the artillery range was basically yes. He just needed to find where they were going to be most effective, and then hopefully the Combine would be obliging enough to follow. "Designate a grid target zone at your leisure, and stand by."

"Understood." He banked the machine wide around a bog and kept pushing towards the hillside. "Any idea on mech deployment?"

"Standby," The AI linked to the Dalban, feeding data in, "I estimate approximately forty mechs deploying at multiple beachheads. Predominantly light mech." The warbook projected Panthers in haggard gray paint jobs. The Combine's iconic mech had served with the SLDF in the periphery after all, and he was familiar with them from previous battlefields. He was reading modern versions of the Jenner as well, no big surprise. "I estimate as much as half the enemy mech force are Light BattleMechs." The AI declared after a moment more, and then the bad news, "Preliminary sensor returns suggest thirty percent of the remaining force are Heavy BattleMechs." He didn't grumble. That made sense, there were nearly no Medium mechs binging on the sensors. He didn't like the news, but he wasn't really surprised either. "I will apprise you if any more sortie, or of further deployments."

There were catapults, dragons, even a handful of Grasshoppers that were returning SLDF iff recognized codecs. The latter suggested that those heavy mechs had been built either sometime before the League had fallen, or been built by factories hewing strictly to the standards of the league design. The enemy were divided though, there were two unions separate from one another far enough that neither would be able to assist the other... though that was probably because the company commanders wanted to race the other to see who could get to the city between them first.

"Commander?"

"What is it Tristan?"

"I am reading an anomalous IFF indication from what I believe is the enemy command mech."

"Can you clarify what you mean?"

"I believe the Atlas in question has been modified," No surprise there, "But the original machine is transmitting and SLDF pattern IDC of the 15th​ Army." That could be nothing, "I'm pulling its battle log now." The AI continued... he continued through the countryside while he waited.

The string of spatial coordinates didn't immediately mean anything. Most the actions on them came with combat lobs attached that he didn't have time to watch even assuming that the Atlas driver didn't for whatever reason notice that kind of data connection. Errai stood out though, even more so with Ozawa as the planetary coordinates resolved to SLDF era facilities. Nothing important, and certainly nothing that suggested he would have known anything about a Hegemony Outpost... but... his mind flashed back to an earlier conversation, a proposed opportunity... and more recently the little dots on the map.

He'd been told months ago with conviction that the 63rd​ Mechanized Infantry Division which as brigade would have included a BattleMech brigade had dissolved and its successors had gone on to join the Lyrans and the Free Worlds League. Captain Pasha had been quite sure no one had come back during the succession wars and found anything left behind in those facilities, "Were any of those facilities used?"

"The deserters attempted to secure material, I expect the majority of what they falsely requisitioned was lost when I destroyed their DropShips."

That made sense, Gene thought, no one had found the depots because they had probably been looted by Kerensky's people to prepare for the exodus only to trip Hegemony protocols and lose all of it once the AI shot their DropShips down... dropships that probably hadn't been expecting hostile anti air... or however. "But nothing since?"

"Some of the facilities were destroyed during subsequent conflicts, and others have sense fallen out of contact due to lack of maintenance. To the best of my knowledge however most of the facilities themselves have been left alone."

Because the natives thought the SLDF might one day return, maybe? Did that mean the Galedon were here to chase the possibility of loot a little more lucrative than whatever they usually went after? Or did they definitely think they knew something was here? "Are any of the Ander's Moon facilities intact?"

.... the second succession war had been harder there... well for a given value since Elidere City had had a close call with a nuke that had just barely managed to go wide. Nearing fusion returns cut the conversation short and Gene reached up to flip the master arm on. The LBX indicator light flashed green indicating the weapon was hot, and a ballistic reticle appeared in his heads up display... at least it hadn't jammed on the first go.

If there was some higher strategic goal in mind the light mechs from the first union showed no sign or indication as they went joy riding through the intersection road between the coast and the fens that lead to town. This had been the same roadway that lead to the junction that Septim had taken to go see if there was anything out along the sea shore.

He queued the mind machine interface and let the Dalban start numbering off and cataloging the enemy mechs.
--
Operation Ashika as it had been called in the briefing opened to an ignominious beginning. The attack on the Davion occupied planet brought with it no opportunity to face the troops of the Draconis March. There was no one here... and for all the better for their real objective. Captain Inanzo knew that really they were behaving as nothing more than bandits raiding a poorly defended border world that had once, and would one day, be apart of the Glorious Coordinator's realm... but they were not actually here to conquer the world.

"Captain," His officer of the watch declared sharply, "Enemy fusion signature detected."

Inanzo blinked and turned to the thin bespectacled sensor tech, "What-" That was impossible there had been no enemy force present. The Davions dogs probably hadn't been to this world in years, "The locals then? Some," He had been about to ask if it was some Industrial Mech, or perhaps one of the local nobles actually had a real mech. Since it had gotten this close maybe a Stinger, or a Wasp that had been able to power up and get close to the DropShip without being noticed... but that chain of thought ended with the sudden warning klaxons of an incoming fusillade of missiles.

They were under attack.

He didn't hear the warning, four Inferno SRM's had streaked into the open bay of the Lapida built Condor class Dropship Manju Yama was on fire within minutes as the offload area became consumed in gelatinous highly volatile chemical mixture began to cook off ammunition and fuel supplies that eventually reached the DropShip's fuel bunkers.

Manju Yama died not from external enemy weapons fire but from several tons of her own ammunition cooking off shattering a wing from the inside going out. Captain Inanzo was already dead by the time a lone forty mech crossed the nose of the dropship harassing the less than platoon of conscripts that had survived the dozen missiles fired into the loading area ninety seconds earlier.

Not exactly a glorious first battle, but Hanzo cabled the confirmation of the objective's completion to the designated channel and turned his mech to rejoin the others on the receipt of the RTB command. There were probably some survivors, but the main threat in this sector had been destroyed. A destruction that would have been harder to accomplish if they had had pickets deployed.
--
Commentary: We get a little bit of some of the other people in this one, and we're officially in what the history books will remember as the Battle of Elidere 3017. Note that it is spring of 3017 and that this battle will take place over a period of roughly three weeks of fighting and maneuver and some of the second half scenes are somewhat larger than is typical... as might be obvious.

As you might have noticed this is a Friday update. It has been an exhausting day, but this will still update on Sunday as well.

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

So the Marauder for a LB-x? The only have LB-10x at this time and you would need to the change the standard engine into a XL one be able to mount it. Also ER PPC now yet?

 

[Imperator Pax]

So the Marauder for a LB-x? The only have LB-10x at this time and you would need to the change the standard engine into a XL one be able to mount it. Also ER PPC now yet?

Click to shrink...

This is a prototype LB X 5, as I always considered it a little ridiculous that the Hegemony had had the 10 since 2595. I had also originally planned to introduce a Hegemony prototype Plasma rifle but kicked that back for later. I'm using the rules from IO, but sayings its a Hegemony prototype from 2764 or whenever

 

[Morkail]

Really nailing the cultural significance of being a mech warrior in this setting. It's basically puts you as Lower rank nobility.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Really nailing the cultural significance of being a mech warrior in this setting. It's basically puts you as Lower rank nobility.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I think you'll appreciate Part 8 of this chapter then.

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

Really nailing the cultural significance of being a mech warrior in this setting. It's basically puts you as Lower rank nobility.

Click to shrink...

Well the battletech setting is basically feudalism in space with the mechwarrior being the knights of the time.

 

[sundrall]

Great story so far, though with the title I keep expecting it to become a crossover with the old The Phantom comic strip.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Great story so far, though with the title I keep expecting it to become a crossover with the old The Phantom comic strip.

Click to shrink...

Thats not unintentional, while this is heavily based off of Cimbri's Battletech Isekai CYOA it incorporates a number of ideas from another Battletech project I was doing, in that the MC's surname would have been Walker, and his deep periphery planetary base would have been called Bengal rather than here where the Azami colony of Alamut is much more recently established in comparison it wouldn't have been a true crossover but this has some homages to it

 

[Imperator Pax]

Elidere Part 7​

19th​ Galedon Regulars Planetfall: +36 Hours
He'd peeled off into the furoughs of a large farm leaving the main road when he'd confirmed the signal. Then he had waited almost an hour, hull down behind a barn.

Gene watched the Firestarter and slowly edged his ER PPC's reticles over the machine. If it passed him he'd be entirely behind the enemy company, as soon as it happened he pulled the trigger. Twin bolts of ball lightning slammed into the right rear torso of the enemy thirty five tonner and pitched it forward as it stepped, but that inconsequential to the ammo explosion that destroyed the mech.

For a moment he had worried that the ammo hadn't cooked off, but that was one down. The Jenner two mechs up was the first to realize something was wrong and that allowed the other two mechs to completely over shoot it. With any luck the SLDF jamming would see to it that this lance simply disappeared without getting a word out to the higher company level. Two more PPC blasts into the same right torso rear quadrant aimed at the SRM ammo the Jenner carried resulted in a giant explosion of flame and heat that set the mech on fire...

The mech had been carrying inferno not standard high explosive. Gene checked the heat indicator, and eyed the Panther Left Torso this time to check and see if it had standard HE for its SRMs. He'd take the shot, and then have to deal with the waste heat put off by the ER PPCs. He was going to have to shoot the Jenner again, but probably after the Panther and the last mech in the lance was gone.

But they were going to have to come to him at half a kilometer out, that would give him time to let the double heat sinks work. The Spider was going to have to come to him anyway, but given it had been broadcasting an SLDF IDC it was the mech he wanted most intact. It was also the only hostile mech that looked about pristine even if someone had painted a big grinning jack o lantern on the shoulder over a horrible gray paint job.

... if Gene were going to bet it was the Company commander or XO in the seat having been rewarded with the machine ... it seemed to be in too good of condition to have been a hand me down. No he needed information, and if he to guess what mech in the lance might have potentially had information it was the Spider.

Whether he could actually acquire that information was doubtful. The enemy company was moving by lance through the countryside, and this was the last element in the formation, but they had enough fast movers to be able to turn around and return if they realized something was wrong. Much of this ambush hinged on the Star League jamming blanketing the area preventing an enemy distress signal from getting out.
--
It was getting dark... and the boss still wasn't back yet. He really didn't want to quibble with Bahar over who was supposed to be in charge of the unit... but that was in no small part because he wasn't sure which of them was in charge.

That, and he certainly going to start that argument in front of, well earshot of the I.E. People. Abner frowned, on the holoscreen the doctor's face knit up, "Oh dear."

Septim glanced to Bahar's holographic image, as presumably she did the same. "What's up doc?" Chang beat them to asking from inside the cockpit of her Hunchback.

"Well while I wouldn't consider it within the city's metro area its still close enough to the planetary capital to worry the duke." The doctor was fidgeting inside the Atlas, which was making the hundred ton warmachine shuffle around the perimeter they had set which was in no way reassuring. "Anyway," He said after a few minutes having put them on hold, as it continued to creep into night, "Precentor Killos has sent out an HPG broadcast , or rather he sent one when the Combine JumpShips arrived in system, apparently there have been raids on other worlds by this unit. The duke insisted that the precentor send another one once it was clear an attack on the way. Not that a second really would do all that much,"

Septim nodded, and then nodded again at Bahar's comment that their own JumpShips were probably at Robinson recharging their drives, but that was still a month's travel if their drives weren't charged... and even so the whole unit was here. He also wasn't confident that duke's insistence that Robinson do something would bring any kind of relief... they were on their own. An HPG message, ten HPG messages even weren't going to help.
--

The duke... well the Duke of Elidere the planet... was apparently demanding that Doctor Abner cede military control of the contract to the planetary militia... which Gene wasn't exactly sure that was how it worked like that ... and Abner wasn't convinced either. The Lyran doctor had picked in his ear and explained that, 'no no, per the terms with our experienced knights it is tradition that they have full command authority in security matters Its just not in the contract like that.' Except with a lot more german and italian thrown into the conversation... a conversation which had ended with the main company getting its first taste of action against the invading combine troops.

Abner had cited communications issues for why he wasn't able to answer the duke's further calls through the morning. "But every one is okay?"

"Just a lance of light mechs boss," Septim remarked, "Like you said they were bound to notice Baffins even with camo netting strewn over it."

He flicked through the holographic stills that Tristan had fed through. They had dug in their own battalion of infantry, most of whom had been recruited from Detroit's militia. Baffin's company were forming a picket along a southern hillside, hopefully preventing someone from sneaking up behind them while the infantry off of Sam Houston were dug in like ticks inside the abandoned urban center with their SRMs. The latter were there to insure the Combine didn't get into the old city.

Presumably the Combine didn't know the Maguanacs, the armor company aboard Sam Houston, were Azami.... but with Tokugawa tanks and a Daimyo HQ they were going to have questions anyway you sliced the pie. Questions that would probably be asked with PPCs. What they wouldn't learn until they tried to approach from where the Maguanac were dug in laying in wait was that there was a mine field across that open plain just waiting for any mechs that wanted to come that way.

He was hoping it didn't come to that. There were two unions close by. There was the Excalibur, a large spheroid dropship design that had entered service post star league, serving as the enemy regimental HQ between them and the planetary capital. "Any resistance to speak of?"

"I have scattered fusion signatures, but little coherent this side of Jasos City." Tristan replied. "There may be some AFFS regulars in the city, but nothing to contest the incursion."

Gene glanced at his holographic count down. They didn't have a good idea of what was going on on Ander's Moon, but it was probably going better for the Combine than it was here. There were only going to get one shot with anti DropShip munitions anyway, and that was a trump card he wasn't sure he wanted to use unless they had to... but it was looking as if the moment was coming. Whatever the situation was on Ander's moon the dropships presumably carrying the regiment's reserves were now burning towards Elidere IV.

Even if they hadn't had the intercept of it they had telemetry. They had eight days. They needed to achieve a solution to this in that time frame, because even assuming the enemy reserves were battle damaged from previous operations they were still talking about basically another Mech Battalion. "Standby Septim, I've got the heavy lance coming up," He looked at the highway, the direction from which his sensors were detecting the inbound sixty tonners from the VLAR 300 fusion engines.

The catapult was the odd mech out in the lance with its smaller Magna built Fusion engine, but it and the quickdraw, and Ostsol were all modern build mechs. As was of course the Dragon.

"Boss I'd really feel better if you'd let us send you reinforcements."

"Hold your position Septim."

"I assure you Captain Alexander matters are well in hand." The AI declared. Or rather the carefully planned ambush had been in hand up until a fusion signature spoiled the fun. "Anomalous mech signature powering up. Reading SLDF IDC, 209th​ BattleMech Divison."

"Major?" Bahar asked.

"Some local I'd bet." He replied, "Tristan give me ground local control."

"Affirmative Commander."

"Bahar watch your sectors for the mechs heading your way, I'll keep these off of you." This would have been a hell of a lot worse if the Combine had shown up with proper combined arms support... the complete lack of any 'lowly tanks' was the height of arrogant stupidity...

His command systems flashed showing the drones. It was a pity that Tristan's Ground Combat Vehicles, his drones, weren't equipped with inferno munitions, but it didn't matter. The plan had been to catch the force of mechs before they could get to the base camp and catch them before they could link up.
--
They had discovered the BattleMech one day two summers earlier... or rather they had found the entrance to what had probably been an old barn two summers earlier. The property had been abandoned since the end of the first sucession war... back when the Combine had still ruled the planet.

It hadn't been hard to figure out what it was the Dervish had been built by the Lyrans in the early 26th​ century and had been mass produced and adopted into the SLDF. Snape, and Donnie Orwell had both shipped off to join the AFFS and Andre Sutton had been looking forward to leaving for Robbinson to attend the RBA having received acceptance the first of the year.

Andre had ignored the orders to take shelter, and instead had rushed through the countryside and to where the old farmstead had stood following the simulator's start up procedure from rote memorization. The Dervish had powered up and read all systems nominal... and then the realization had struck that the combine were here in force.

So he had frozen... and then spent the next several days lurking in the countryside hoping that he'd get the opportunity... that surely the snakes would be right around the corner, and that he'd see them coming... and that he'd have the stones to pull the trigger on the invaders instead of freezing again.

Then on sunday they'd come down the pail. Four enemy mechs, and he'd followed the start up sequence just like he'd practiced in the simulator, exactly right. The SLDF crest and the badge embossed with XX appeared and once again the war machine was ready to fight.

There were four snakes coming down the road. Four enemy mechs... he bit his lip and glanced at the weapons readout. He had twenty four salvos with his LRMs... and then he'd have to get close. Andre adjusted the weird cooling jacket... he had to make them count. "Come on you bastards."
--
Gene maneuvered the drones into position. In SLDF terms drones were cheap. The idea behind Hegemony thinking was that they could hold an attacking enemy in position to let professional terran troops decapitate any hostile leadership and then break through the enemy rear wreaking havoc in the back end. That was what the book said anyway. Of course also suggested a much larger scale of combat than lances...

Tristan would have preferred ambushing the enemy closer to the main, intact, tram stations, but it would also advertise that fact that something was going on. At the very least the enemy might assume that there was a davion armor battalion present or mercenaries... no telling which the Combine might get more pissed off at losing mechs to...

had the DCMS really sortied without armor support? Had they just left them behind... if so why? It was annoying him, he eased the reticle as the mechs pivoted registering the poor man's archer firing on them. The LRMs were in direct attack mode so he was prettty sure that the dervish pilot was by himself. The Ostsol was the first to run forward even as the fusillade of LRMs started sandpapering the Catapult.

The verbal command was unnecessary. He could have sent it by neurohelmet mind machine interfacing directly to the command, but the manual's procedure specified verbal command authorization. "Execute."

The Quickdraw found itself under fire from two lighter vehicles carrying a dizzying number of srm mounts. Lighter was relative of course, it was still basically a SRM Carrier. The hover vehicles had popped up out of the tree line creating a haze of dust and debris from the trees both from their motive systems and the launch.

The squat gray painted Dragon had less than the proscribed half ton of armor cover its its left rear torso. The pain back there had gone over the mauled but someone in a previous deployment had taken a shot at the mech's backside, and it was time to finish what they had started.

Naturally by that point the combine lance's lieutenant started to complain about them being honorless dogs and refusing to face them as warriors. That would have been fine if the idiot in the Dervish had just kept blasting at them with his LRMs.

"I'll fight you." Dervish declared the mech starting to come down the hill side.

Gene weighed his options he had two more heavier drones still concealed in the hillside, and the SRMs had backed down the hillside and were out of line of sight. The Dragon was damaged but either hadn't been fully loaded with ammo or it just hadn't cooked off when he'd blown through the rear armor on the left side. The Quickdraw was non mobile at least, one leg completely demolished by the shoot and scoot, and the other leg's ankle actuator was smashed. The catapult could fight, but how well with one ppc mangled remained to be seen.

He reached over with his left hand and directed the drones to their next targets. The Ostsol, the Kuritan lieutenant's mech, didn't have any ammunition he could cook off. He wondered if he could blast the catapult's machine gun ammo.

... no he lased the Dervish as it started clear the three hundred meter distance with the Ostsol at full speed.

Not that that was any faster than the Ostsol could make, but it meant he was running out of time.

--
"Here they come." Abner declared unnecessarily. The Atlas waded forward firing its LRM 20 at the assaulting charge of light mechs coming from the south. They were being funneled in from the hills and Abner's mech might as well have been a beacon because the combine were charging right for it. "Once more dear friends."

Septim shook his head, and added his own LRMs to the mix. He wasn't the only one. They had dropships adding into the mech's fire. Haqim's voice came over the coms, "Captain," He declared, "they are ah', about to hit our picket line. Two hundred meters to range."

They couldn't let those Jenner's get close. He was sure some if not all of them had infernos. To best of their knowledge the Combine had landed six dropships total on the planet. One Excalibur. Three confirmed Unions, the uh roasted turkey aerodyne Hanzo had cooked... and then another spheroid. "Forty something god damned mechs."

Never mind the enemy reinforcements due in a week's time.

"Captain?"

"Nothing Haqim," Then somewhat brighter, "Just thinking about the salvage." He heard a response about fixing anything that got broke, and smirked before he brought his PPC into the fight as Abner's 'Atlas II' opened up with the weird autocannon that took the head clean off a light mech.

 

[Omni]

I just finished reading Alamut Interlude....

Gene had a SL Memory Core but left it in the Mini Castle. He got the Medical Memory Core from the Resistance Cache.

He has given a copy of the Medical Core to the Azami?

What about the Taurian Memory Core?
Did Gene get a Copy? Or was it only the Azami and IE that have the Taurian Core?

Was the Drost Custom given to Gene or is it still an Azami asset?

Did Gene get any Salvage from when he fought the Azami on the Canopian regional Capital?

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

This was a surprise. A wild mechwarrior appears! Will he be joining them on their adventure later on? Also is this a "Charge of the Horde", basically a banzai charge with cheap light mechs.

 

[Imperator Pax]

I just finished reading Alamut Interlude....

Gene had a SL Memory Core but left it in the Mini Castle. He got the Medical Memory Core from the Resistance Cache.

He has given a copy of the Medical Core to the Azami?

What about the Taurian Memory Core?
Did Gene get a Copy? Or was it only the Azami and IE that have the Taurian Core?

Was the Drost Custom given to Gene or is it still an Azami asset?

Did Gene get any Salvage from when he fought the Azami on the Canopian regional Capital?

Click to shrink...

The medical core from the university went to the Azami, the Azami gave IE a copy of the Taurian core, while Gene got the Dropship and jumpships and the basis of his company from the Azami. Now Gene also got a fax machine from the Azami which IE did as well.

As for Salvage yes, Gene kept a couple mechs from Luxen but the rest of his salvage shares were auctioned off because he needs capital more than he needs to lug around spare mechs especially in 3016.

This was a surprise. A wild mechwarrior appears! Will he be joining them on their adventure later on? Also is this a "Charge of the Horde", basically a banzai charge with cheap light mechs.

Click to shrink...

Its a mix of that and the fact that the combine during this period is basically still practicing proto Zellbringen if you look at canon in fact I would say thats probably the biggest contributor to clan culture for whatever reason we're told a lot of the Combine SLDF troops went with Kerensky and the ronin era dueling probably shaped Clan Coyote's formation of Zellbringen and those ronin one on one mech duels made a resurgence after the destruction of the early succession wars.

The combine strategy against non mechs is decidedly ah we shall charge down the honorless dogs, where as with mechs its 'ah lets you and me fight!' which yeah, they're attacking a prepared combined arms defensive line with light mechs

 

[Imperator Pax]

Elidere IV Part 8​

The mech stood out, and he was contemplating what to do about it as it continued to come down the road. It would take it another half hour to get here at its current pace.

The Wyvern was a 45 ton mech, thus a medium. It was another mech that was in unusually good condition for its age... but unlike the Spider probably hadn't been accepted into SLDF service and then put into storage... most likely it had been in storage when dug up on Errai which the 19th​ had hit at some point. Since being dug up it had clearly been dinged a couple times but was still something to watch out for... even if they didn't have a way to recover it.

"Tristan?"

"The lance appears to be spread out over several miles, two Grasshoppers in the center, a Catapult K2 variant bringing up the rear."

Great. He cast a disappointed side long glance at the remains of the enemy machines, and lased the Dervish, "We're pulling back." He informed it. The extended patrol probably was them attempting to get around the jamming, but he doubted they were having any success.

"What?" The other mechwarrior sounded offended.

Gene scowled, and pivoted his Marauder's torso towards the Dervish, "I cannot baby sit you up against two heavy mechs, we are disengaging before that one's friends get here." It was true that his Marauder out massed the inbound mechs, but they had clearly gotten the other Union's attention and it had sent units through the city. The Grasshopper if kept at range he could probably kill, but it wouldn't be due to an ammunition explosion, he doubted that he'd be able to reliably kill them that way not with it only carrying a ton of ammo for an LRM 5. Most likely they'd expend the ammo before closing, and he intended to be gone before then.

He was admittedly a little surprised that the Wyvern was forward most of the lance, but it didn't matter, he adjusted the reticles of the ERPPCs and fired and watched as the mech crumpled from the headshot mid stride.

"But,"

"We are pulling back to our defensive line." That and while he was pretty certain the enemy light mechs had been dealt with he wanted to be sure, "They can come to us," And once they were dealt with they'd see about moving on to Jasos city.
--

Gene would have preferred to strip off and shower, but as it was he only had had time to switch to a clean suit. SLDF protective equipment or no he'd been in the mech for days, eating and sleeping in it. They were facing a problem, and he had had to take too long ducking into the Outpost to make the computer system authorize a link to a non star league system like this. He leaned against the table in the Daimyo command vehicle, "How are they doing?"

"Not good." Bahar answered honestly from over the line, "I admit I'm surprised that they lasted this long, but the local militia has done well... even if it has forced them to pay a great deal of blood." The number of mechs in combine possession on planet had been revised up to approximately fifty, or close to that not counting combat losses since. Three Unions, that Excalibur... and whatever the other thing on the far side of the landing zone was.

They didn't have good readings from that side... and the enemy had reinforcements coming in. "Where are we on ammo," He already knew that they couldn't restock their inferno ammo," Once they expended it, it was gone, which would be a pity. A holographic image appeared of stockpiles from the facility as well as their own stores. If it came to it they were absolutely going to pull back into the Outpost ... but Tristan wasn't confident that his remaining anti dropship ground to air systems would be able to hit the incoming battalion as they came in from the sky. Not based on their current trajectory that probably wasn't intentional it just appeared that they were choosing to land in the hills outside the planetary capital. The systems there had been destroyed, or so severely degraded by the succession wars that Tristan couldn't access their controls. Even if they could get into an access system in Jasos city there was no guarantee that they'd work one hundred percent.

He lased the relay, "Bahar, sitrep?"

"The enemy lance has challenged us to individual duels." She paused, "I am inclined to accept the captain's offer,"

"He made that before I got back, did he?"

"As they were pulling the survivors from the first attack back."

Gene would have preferred to make the combine troops attack prepared ground, but he also didn't want to show too much in the way of support before moving on Jasos... and they had a contractual obligation to minimize the risk to IE personnel. "How's that supposed to work?" He regretted asking the combine captain of course wanted to sideline infantry and combat vehicles, and rely strictly on one on one combat between mechs. "I guess its a good thing he didn't challenge Doctor Abner," That showed at least a little bit of sense.

"You don't want me to accept?"

"That's to your discretion captain," He glanced at the map of the dale, they had days left until the enemy reinforcements made planet fall. "Doctor the northern force is about an hour out, I want to meet them before they get much closer."

"And then Jasos then?" The doctor declared, "Go see about that relay in the cathedral?" Abner had been carrying on a conversation with the AI, and realistically they were probably both going to be there. Tristan doubted whether Abner's credentials would authorize the employment of the necessary air defense batteries.... assuming any of the Hadleys still worked. He'd be able to get the security bunker open to move the populace in them, but they were basically just giant fallout shelters. "I think mr ford can handle things here."

"Bahar, be careful." When she signed off, "Tristan if the combine attempts anything funny,"

"I will grid smash their position commander," The markings of what was rolling out of the mountain were Arrow IV launcher, they wouldn't be anything approaching discreet. "I have their dropship being zeroed for artillery as we speak." Given how short they were on mechs relative to the opposition he wasn't going to try and pull what had become his usual.. rolling a couple Padilla would have to work.

--
He felt the fat under his chin, but that wasn't why he was scowling. "Sho-sho?" A rank he had worked hard to attain in spite of incompetents stymying his movements and attempting to deny him what should be his. He had had to scrounge and fight tooth and nail for supplies.

"What is it?" He hissed finally before the lieutenant colonel could ask again. The general turned to full height and let his hand drop. Something had obviously gone wrong again. This should have been simple. They had faced resistance before, but his regiment were regulars, professional soldiers, they should not have been having this much trouble.

"Captain Mori reported that he had challenged one of the enemy company commanders to single combat before we lost contact. Lance to Lance."

"Lost contact?" The damnable jamming. They had interrogated several enemy prisoners to no avail... not that the infantry officers might have known, but their insistence of enemy force strength were clearly lies given the resistance they were encountering farther from the capital. "So Captain Mori has been killed?"

"No, we do not believe so. The interference simply makes it impossible to contact his unit."

Or just as likely the captain was using it as an excuse to ignore the orders to return and rejoin the main force. The enemy in that sector had already mauled two Mech Companies costing the regiment valuable mechs. The prudent tactical maneuver in the face of an enemy whose strength they couldn't ascertain was to concentrate their forces. He suspected that they outnumbered the enemy force, but he couldn't prove it, but most likely it was a battalion of Davion regulars not simple March Militia an independent battalion from the Guards but that wouldn't' explain how they had missed them. "Order him to return."

"Sho-sho we cannot raise him on the radio."

"I said order him to return Colonel, Captain Mori must rejoin the regiment." They would deal with the interlopers, and find their identity after they had captured the ducal palace... and presumably took the duke hostage. "I will brook no further insubordination if he does not return he will be betraying his oaths to the coordinator." He spat, "Dereliction of duty will not be tolerated. He is to obey."

They had thirty BattleMechs inbound, but if Mori destroyed his unit for his own personal glory, Grieg promised to destroy the captain. He looked out the view port of his Excalibur's command deck to where his gray painted Atlas waited. Unlike the frontline mechs of the regiment his was still painted with the blue and white stripes of parade colors.
--
Due to simple geography the Star League jamming had let them shut down any unauthorized comms in the dale after he had head shot the Wyvern. The enemy coming down through the valley could have chosen to turn around, but presumably they had orders to launch this attack in an attempt to coordinate with the lighter mech formation they had already driven off once.

The Heavy BattleMechs moving down without a screen could have in theory been ambushed along the road by the drones, if they had had the time to put those in position... which they hadn't. He swapped channels, "Fire group, position check?"

"We're here." Bo replied. He, and the local Dervish standing to in order to provide LAM fire on the incoming three mechs.

They had worked out that the combine was running entire light mech units, possibly having extended that to an entire Light Mech Company of different models, but had put at least two unions with heavy mech lances, and this one had had a medium added in. There was no confirmation of Assault Mechs besides the Regimental leadership.

He was hoping it stayed that way and that no Awesome, or Stalkers showed up. BattleMasters and Victors were a possibility as well.

Gene flipped to the laser designator to direct the drones where he wanted them. He wanted the Grasshoppers in a kill box, which meant he wanted them to come to him. Thus he and Septim, were basically bait standing guard in the middle of the road. Two heavy mechs that you'd have to approach in order to get on, and the plan was to have the Dervishes rain indirect LRM fire on the enemy mechs just as soon as they moved to close, and to have the drones execute an enfilade encirclement.

The forty year old Taigen recognized that they were probably walking into a trap. The loss of the lance's wyvern was unpleasant, but he was a forty year old sergeant and it was unlikely the lieutenant would listen to his cautionary advice. The lieutenant had hoped that the catapult would be able to manage to get through to the DropShip and was blaming the lack of signal on the DropShip or their own equipment, which seemed unlikely. The Catapult was far enough back now that they were losing contact more and more frequently.

It would have been better to consolidate the unit to have a better fighting posture.

Taigen's superior wouldn't hear of it. He had heard that the enemy had heavy battlemechs in the area and wanted to challenge the davion soldiers... so they were probably about to walk into a trap. There was no other way to reach their assigned destination in time. In fact they were already probably too late Mori-Tai-I had probably already committed his company to attacking the suspected enemy position from the other side.

"Ah, look the enemy is ahead of us. One for each of us old man." The lieutenant declared. "I shall engage the Marauder, take care of whatever that other one is!"

Gene eased forward, "come on, you see us, come on."

A light blinked, "I am lieutenant Pavel Simonov of the 19th​ Galedon Regulars in service to the glorious coordinator." The mechwarrior shouted, going on in declaring that he had graduated from Sun Zhang and of course wasn't calling to surrender.

"I am Major Gene Shepherd, and in case it wasn't obvious you're in a killing field."

"What?"

"He means its a trap sir." The older enlisted mechwarrior declared.

"Impossible there are only two enemies in front of us," Simonov snapped. "Clearly he is bluffing, I will not be fooled by such a ruse. We should-" He didn't get to finish probably because his Grasshopper registered the Dervishes powering up and the fifty LRMs flying... and if not that the fusion signatures from the hover craft that were behind them.

Or the two PPC blasts that slammed into his seventy tonner's chest. Gene would have preferred if they had been closer. They were still at the long range of the Merlin's standard PPC. "Don't suppose you want to surrender?" Septim asked the sergeant, and received a flurry of LRMs in response. "Shit."

The pair of PPC armed drones opened fired into the mech's rear arc as Gene pivoted targets to keep the mech occupied as the smaller SRM equipped drones surged across the rain strewn grass and roadbed. "Bo, focus your fire on the lieutenant's mech I'm still reading his fusion signature." Indeed there was a flare of heat on his sensors as the mech's jump jets fired, and it added its missiles to the fray.

They passed harmlessly wide and left of Gene's Marauder as he pushed it into a forward closing motion with the two mechs. The two dervishes were moving up out of cover to the hillside, even though it was unlikely given the box they'd be able to close in any meaningful time frame.

The Blankenburg's electric feed system whirred as the hundred twenty millimeter LB 5-X prototype loaded slug, and stitched a three round burst into the torso of the lieutenant's grasshopper. That was followed by another PPC blast . It wobbled as its gyro failed, and then collapsed as a storm of SRM ripped through its left leg finishing what their long range cousins had started as the lieutenant fired one last LRM that went high and into the hill this time to his left.

Having taken his own share of LRMs from the massed fire the sergeant's grasshopper had had its armor sandpapered by the blistering missile fire but was focusing on staying mobile and trying to use its greater speed but it was pretty clearly hopeless as faced with a lance of vehicles, and a lance of mechs now free to concentrate solely on it it succumbed dropping into a culvert.

The final mech in the lance that catapult was still a klick and a half, nearly a full mile, distant and only vaguely aware of the weapons fire that had made it the last mech in the lance.
--
"We have to go to Jasos city." The professor declared dabbing at his forehead. Bahar, Chang, Ishida had all won their respective duels with the last one getting called off on account of sudden attack, followed by steel rain falling on the combine in reply. Truthfully from comms data they were pretty sure the combine company commander hadn't called the air support, but Tristan really hadn't cared at that point because the impression he had was that the Combine had tried something shady.

"We'll leave a light lance here, Chang you have command." He informed here, and waved at the map. "The infantry and the Maguanac corp will remain with you. Maintain a defensive posture," He covered a scenario to pull back and withdraw if the combine did somehow manage to put enough forces to overwhelm them... say for example that the incoming enemy battalion somehow managed to attack them in full while they were in Jasos city. "We're going to divide into two forces when we hit the city." Once they got off the train that was, but Bahar and Ishida would reconnoiter the flank of the city with drones. Bahar's credentials would let her authorize orders locally. "I'll rejoin you as soon as we're done, Septim you, Bo, and Andre," He nodded to the local, "You're to back stop Professor Abner. Keep the enemy at distance." He was the god damned principle, "if you can get the civilians into the shelters that is fine." IT would get them out of the line of fire. They were DOME built and designed to shrug off nukes supposedly surely they could outlast a light rain of mechs.

"I won't allow the locals to take command major. They have no right." Abner declared. "We shall do what we can, though to help."

Gene decided that he didn't want to make an issue of that. Abner was the one signing the paycheck after all. The hologram shifted to a view of Jasos city highlighting the Cathedral... or what was today a cathedral. The good news was even though they couldn't take the line right up to the old star league facility they'd be able to ride it close enough that they should be able to get there quickly... assuming that their sudden appearance didn't panic the local militia into shooting at them. "It looks the Combine is massing for an assault in force." The handful of Mechs they had identified in Jasos city.... actual BattleMechs weren't prepared to handle a company level assault that was largely heavy Mechs, "Have we identified those?" He was gesturing to Eighty ton question marks

"Given the engine signatures I suspect Chargers, another tentatively returns as a Banshee." Tristan replied.

As fast assaults the 'fragenzeichen', using Abner's term, mechs had been moving along the flank probably proving more useful as glorified protected runners than actual break through units now that the combine had cleared the hills and occupied Scarborough proper. Not that there was anything there, Scarborough had existed during the star league era of course but its agricultural sector had only really blossomed after the second succession war and was largely a religious community of farmsteads according to contemporary information.

They were assaults, "Battlemaster?"

"No further signature detected."

That was odd. Tristan was sure his returns had detected the eighty five tonner at range, and it had been using a separate encryption protocol but they hadn't logged further contacts since yesterday afternoon. "We'll try and get the relay operational, but if I was the combine given that they don't have to worry about coordinating anything but Mechs," And exactly how conscious they were going to be of civilian damage was unknown, "They may launch a night attack especially,"

"Wouldn't it be smarter to wait for their reinforcements?" Septim asked, not unreasonably either. "Their dropships are getting really close."

"Yes, but my thinking is that they know we know they have reinforcements, and given their own attrition they may suspect an attack against them before we can execute our own, besides they'll still have to offload their mechs."

"The enemy may attempt an orbital insertion." The AI pointed out. Tristan was right but that would be risky.
--
Commentary: Ugh I don't want to do a time skip, but the next arc is proving a pain in hte ass, and involves a lot of deep dives into the old fasa books for covering whats coming. Like i'm trying to avoid the canonical lost tech caches near terra really I am, but they would be on maps that would be potentially available.

Anyway we're in the wind down stages for Elidere IV just as an aside Elidere is three months from terra assuming you're going straight that direction, not that we're actually going to Terra just that thats the frame of reference for BT's JumpDrive.

With any luck the I Davion contract which roughly about the same size as the original II Luxen Outline will work itself out. Speaking of Luxen II, its got its own thread and will be the standard Thursday update as we expand more upon some of the other characters and see some other events during that contract gig in Canopian space.

I will be posting (in the misc thread) a new Battletech story based off of Space Heir and Ramble's essence of Megamek lab some time in February, probably the first. There are some other things which will follow in February, but we will deal with that, and I'll address other updates for the rest of January somewhere else.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Trying to stop the clan invasion

... maybe going to botch it up.

​

Spoiler: The Following is NON CANON.

The hpg transmission wavered as it bounced off so many satellites to get to wherever it Kerensky had runaway to. He didn't know the location of the clan homeworlds, but he might if he got out of this alive. "Assuming you still have your ciphers, you be able to validate my identity chit's encryption, just as you should likewise be able to validate Kerensky, and Jerome Blake's receipt of the HPG recording of Stefan Amaris being adied by the then Coordinator Minoru Kurita. Kerensky was a coward, incompetent, and a traitor promoted far beyond his ability. A competent mechwarrior yes, an accomplished tactician yes, a fine strategic mind, but he wasn't promoted for any of these things... he was promoted for who his friends at court were... and in this failed in his responsibilities to House Cameron, and the Hegemony which is why he lead your ancestors not to the Hegemony boltholds deep in the rimward periphery but to the worlds you eventually colonized. If he had taken you there, Alexander Kerensky would been cashiered and then shot for treason. He was protector of house cameron, regent and still permitted Lord Cameron to associate with Amaris despite repeated warnings from both the Hegemony and Star League Intelligence services of moves by the rimward republic... but thats another matter..."

He let the holovid play, which took a while given the timelag.

"Kerensky permitted Minoru Kurita to come to Terra, and didn't kill him on the spot. Thats treason. He permitted a member of a treasonous plot by a member of the star league ruling council, and a man he knew had collaborated with Amaris to deny him not just access to Kuritan staging grounds, but who had actively fed Amaris information on SLDF positions to continue to breathe. So instead of standing and fighting against a clear enemy he ran away, and concealed the truth. So let me tell you the truth. There will be no IlKlan, there will never be a Star League again." He gave a sigh, and took a breath before pressing on, "That died with House Cameron and the Star League only existed because of they, and the economic might of the Terran Hegemony. Taking Terra is irrelevant its just one pretty little world, that still quaintly divides itself into nation states. You come here you'll bleed to death of a million cuts."

He left the final frame of the HPG recording frozen on Minoru and the rearing dragon he wore facing Stefan Amaris.

"Colonel Wolf," He declared, "Thank you for your time, what you decide to do from here is on you." He glanced to the blanched image of 'Khan Ulric's' face as he digested the information. It was time to leave, hopefully before Ulric realized Dante had included an HPG virus into the transmission back to clan space. If Ulric were too attempt to sit on the HPG recording the malicious code in the HPGs computers would broadcast the conversation between Amaris and Kurita continuously and across any comms platform it could reach until it burned the Germanium cores of the HPGs out.

It was even designed to look like someone had done so locally. It wouldn't use Ulric's credentials but the code would find someone's to use.

"What are you going to do?"

"The same thing I've been trying to do since I climbed out of that stasis pod." He replied to the sudden question, "Try and make things a little better at a time. I hope your people don't come, the Sphere is a mess as it is. We have enough assholes with delusions of grandeur. We sure don't need any more. I guess we will find out in a few years." He thought ... he had known Wolf was going to make the transmission back to clan space. The Wolfs Dragoons had proven sloppy in a number of ways... simple things really... and if there was anything he was concerned with it was that it would be from their side that word would get out about his 'origins'.

Hanse Davion had presided over the creation of a Federated Commonwealth, which was why he had made sure that Dante had placed such an emphasis on Kurita collaborated with Amaris. If the clans invaded he wanted Kurita to be target number one. Wolf had completed a rotation in each of the great houses... and they had been on the same side in the Fourth Succession war when that had come, and which still continued....

And he felt bad about that, Gene knew that the Combine would be the most likely major target of any clan invasion anyway, but an attack on the federated commonwealth would have to come through Lyran space... and that was a distraction that they couldn't readily afford. Not when they still had to rely on ComStar for most of their communications... the HPG network was hard to work around.

"Commander."

General Shepherd looked at the marine as he reboarded the Qin Shi Huang, "Standby to jump." The wonder of a Lithium battery. As soon as the two ships moved to a safe distance they vanished in a pulse that dropped them far away from the Wolfs Dragoons and their meeting response. "Did we get it?" The maneuvering to insure safe separation of the ships was long enough to receive the data, and to safely shut the AI in a safe space from the rigors a jump.

"We did commander. I would have preferred that we had been able to wait until Colonel wolf received a response," The AI complained, "But we have it." The location of the Clan Homeworlds... or at least Clan Wolf. They could work the others out with spectral telescopes and all the datacrunching as necessary.

The AI had preferred an original plan of just burning out all the HPGs in their network but that wouldn't have been functional. The clans obviously could do what they still couldn't, and build HPGs enough to fill their needs and as a result while it would be a set back it wouldn't be nearly as catastrophic as it would have been in the Inner Sphere.

The truth was of course more complicated than Dante or the General would have preferred. Kerensky had been a tired old man. Tired of war. He had graduated from the Nagelring, and in fifteen years become the highest ranking officer the in the Star League... and in those fifteen years he had bypassed other more senior officers on the basis of connections more than actual ability. Kerensky had made meaningful reforms, and contributions to the SLDF. A dozen years after that appointment he instead of retiring had tried to juggle, and ultimately failed to do so, the responsibilities of that rank and as regent of the Star League.

Was that really cowardice? Or just mortal frailness?

In the view of the AI it was cowardice. The duties and responsibilities laid out to officers of the Star League Defense force was supposedly unswerving commitment to the institution and to the honor Kerensky had under League Ethos a requirement towards bravery and gallantry against all enemies foreign and domestic. The AI, Dante, considered Kerensky's refusal to fight a treacherous house lord like Minoru as treasonous and cowardice. Other Ais didn't agree a hundred percent but the promulgation of of what had happened on Terra after Amaris's fall had slowly circulated to enough of them that there was a consensus that the Star League was dead... and that it had no successor.

ComStar were a collection loony cultists, and Kerensky had had no right to appoint a middle manager like blake to the rank and that the final council meeting had of course been illegitimate by lacking a member from House Cameron... why on Earth, pun intended, would Terran Hegemony AI accept the recommendations of four house lords, never mind a fifth who was a confirmed traitor. Not when the situation with the Capellans and Mariks had been what it had been before the situation...and the Lyran political situation... but the biggest factor was the lack of an Heir to house cameron.

... and of course that was the problem. That was the balancing act. All it would take would be one Hegemony AI who didn't want to listen and had an active HPG uplink with the right codes... and them deciding that since the Hegemony was dead to burn out every HPG in the Inner Sphere as Dante had wanted to do to the Clans.

Damn the consequences.

Fuck that. The Inner Sphere was enough of a mess without losing the HPG network it would be even harder to do what needed to be done... even if Comstar was a mess, and nightmare.

You may remember the somewhat tongue in cheek 'ah you may think getting to Terra will magically fix things, I've got a dire wolf all of you line up I'll fight you one on one in order' duel comment yeah this is related to that. It is still non canon to the main story, but I'll be happy to take commentary on it.

 

[Cimbri]

Hmm are there a lot of AI around? The text insinuates that and it would be interesting how the mc juggles that.
You still skip a bit of needed descriptors such as when switching viewpoints in the latest chapter as well.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Elidere Part 9​

Battle of Elidere IV Day 11
It was wet, and cold. Not quite frost on the ground outside, but wet enough for mud. There was a lot of it being churned up by foot traffic and vehicles. The combine invasion had pushed people into the city, and there was a very real question of what to do if this didn't work. Jasos City was the modern capital because Elidere City had had a very near miss with a nuke. The city still existed of course but it had been rebuilt and was now the seat of the heir apparent to the duchy.

Given the occupation of Scarborough he was surprised that the duke was actually still in his palace rather than retreating to Elidere city, especially given the air raids last week. He looked up at the unmarred superstructure that looked absurdly different to the Star League era structure's picture. "That's, this is ridiculous." At some point after 2800 the locals had in a piqué of religious fervor painted the building white and then added frescoes of Star league icons and religious iconography that would have clashed horribly with the strictly secular purpose of the league civic's center. Over the last two centuries they had built up the space around it, and so it was now a cathedral.

Where did people seek shelter during an emergency?

Holy Mother Church of course.

The place was slammed, and created problems for their, he grunted as they pushed through the crowd and managed to get to an aclove that gave them a little bit of space.

This was a stampede waiting to happen, and get a bunch of civilians killed. "Doc?"

"I wouldn't worry Captain," he informed to Septim's inquiry, "I doubt anyone has accessed the facilities we will need since the first succession war. We will get the people inside the public shelters as quickly as possible and that should clear things up."

That was easier said than done, and slowly making their way through the throngs of people took far longer than he would have liked. That was without even running into the issue that cropped up from the local militia, or the bishop and other priests who had little reason to take them seriously. Andre insisted that if given time he'd be able to get someone to listen so they had divided up after about an hour... that they really shouldn't have wasted... waiting leaving the local Dervish pilot to try and find someone to listen to Doctor Abner.

The modifications to the civic center's massive ferrocrete structure were superfluous in terms of real changes to the structure. .. for the most part they were inconsequential. Nothing load bearing was changed according to his mech's seismographs and other sensors. The natives had white washed walls, put up hypostyle pillars and painted great frescos of Star League glory but the building had been an massive edifice to the league at its height. Finding an elevator and plugging his credentials into it to get down to a secure floor had been easy.

"Good Afternoon Colonel Shepherd." The Synthetic voice was much more artificial than Tristan's masculine one, this wasn't an AI, but rather a simple vocalized greeting from a smart system, the kind of computer aid programs much more common in the days of the star league.

"Colonel?"

"Tristan authenticated my time in grade, my date of promotion +10 years under the regulations warrants promotion to Lieutenant Colonel," And presumably as the only Hegemony credential holder Tristan had found that had been enough to offer command of the facility, of at least for the facility, and thus in theory a brevet promotion to probably full bird.

The truth was he was more concerned about how long all of this was taking. He had wanted to move to the front, to join the action. There was no continuous line of contact the Combine's emphasis on Battlemechs meant they could decide when to attack, and the planetary government had pulled their militia back to as clustered of a defensive frontage ... which was unlikely to stop a concerted attack.

He glanced at the yellow indicator dots on the sensor returns. Local communication was working, but at some point two hundred years ago something had broken something somewhere and a bypass or redundancy had failed to switchover and thus the local systems stopped talking to continental defense network, and thus Tristan had limited air coverage, not enough to guide missiles into incoming dropships in any event. Why there wasn't some kind of drone unit that could feed telemetry back he didn't know, maybe the hegemony had never expected that, maybe they had existed and had been lost... too many maybes, and frankly they didn't have time.

"Shouldn't we get the doctor?"

This was technically the access section of the facility that was civilian still. This was part one of can we even get ground to air targeting operational, and get the system up and running... if they could access the Defense Communications bunker and if that still had links to an operation Air Defense battery then they might not have to engage another Battalion of Mechs on the ground.

... but it was looking like a longshot. "We will," He was looking at the returns panel, and frowning at the 'offline' and 'destroyed' indicators in different shades of red. This was not a hegemony facility, the civil defense infrastructure covered everything from weather service monitoring to of course orbital telemetry... and two hundred years in a major city... in the present capital of the planet most of the systems no longer worked. "With any luck Abner will be able to get the machines talking to each other, but if he doesn't have a response from the systems I want you all back in your mechs."

"Yes sir."
--
The professor was with David Bowie. David Bowie in a kilt... but David Bowie circa 86 as Jareth the goblin king. Introductions passed around, "Bard," His call sign, "Cameron," David Bowie declared in a Scottish brogue, "detached service from Robinson's rangers I'm an instructor at the Battle Academy." He paused, "Cadet Sutton says we have you to thank for the Snakes not rolling over us."

Gene decided to cut straight to the point, "Then you know the combine has another battalion of mechs incoming, and will probably attack before they arrive."

"I've been told, and the duke is aware that the enemy have reinforcements in bound." It was almost an indictment, certainly a statement of the gravity of the situation. If the combine assault had been properly combined arms this wouldn't have been a contest... Elidere wasn't an important world not in the schemes of the Successor States. It was just a border world.

"The combine has been here two weeks now," Not counting the time it had need to burn for the jump point, which didn't need saying. "And even assuming that the first HPG message did prompt an immediate dispatch of reinforcements," Which he doubted, but replied to the comment anyway, "They'd still have to burn for the planet to get here. That's ten days, and the combine reserves will be here by tomorrow?" The window was closing. Either they had been wrong, and in the face of their casualties the combine was erring on the side of caution and wasn't going to attack...

"That's why the Duke wants to consolidate our forces. You have units in reserve of your own." Cameron pointed out, but didn't go for the duke's attempt to coopt those forces. "You've divided your forces up... if I were a betting man, you showing up with a big Atlas in town and your forces elsewhere... the Combine hasn't attacked because their ASF know you're here. They can't see your armor battalions... I would guess you came here as bait."

There was the accusation.

"Did I?"

"The combine attacks, you hit them from behind with artillery and armor and cut them from their dropships. Tell me that isn't the plan, major?"

He disagreed with some of the implication, but he could see why and where the logic of the conclusion came from.... and he certainly wasn't about to admit that they were here gambling on the long shot chance that there were Star League era air defense systems that would keep that battalion from ever making planetfall to relieve their colleagues. "Its close enough."

"You could come see the duke. We may not have a lot of forces, but can you really carry the day without us?" The ranger shifted, "The combine's excuse for honor won't let them stay still for long, they'll come looking for a fight... we'd be better off coordinating our troops."

... and there was a good chance that the instructor of Robinson Battle Academy had suborned Sutton just by that position alone. "Professor, its your choice," The combine still had presumably most of a regular company, plus the battalion and Regimental HQs. "They've got to come through the valley, and if not stopped there it'll be the farmsteads," that lay beyond the river, which was the effective geographic boundary of where the County as a feudal domain began. That narrow valley would be the best place to bottle them up, but Abner was the one who was paying the bills, and the professor was on the spot.

"Major Shepherd, the church is packed with people, if the combine were to make it here..."

A firestarter in the streets, yeah he could imagine, or a catapult with machine guns.

He didn't like the way the lyran was staring up at the great cameron starburst painted on the ceiling.
--
The duke was an average looking man, to whom the last month had been supremely unkind to. If the Mikios scion had gotten much sleep since the Combine JumpShips had appeared in system it didn't look like it. Precentor Gregory Killos was enduring his host's obvious discontent with surprising grace given the duke's pacing, and the duke didn't even notice their arrival.

"My liege you must calm yourself."

The priest, because that must have been what he was, was carrying a cameron starburst instead of a crucifix or a cross but had all the robes and connical hat of presumably a bishop equivalent.

"Why haven't they attacked yet?" The duke's jaundiced face and baggy eyes swept to the new speaker from the precentor.

Bard Cameron stepped forward bowed and addressed the Duke of Elidere, "With respect your grace the enemy are waiting for their reinforcements."

"All due respect Sir John," The duke protested turning to the ranger, "They don't need them, they've got twice our weight in Mechs at least. They don't need reinforcements. Our poor militia has done its best but what are men on foot supposed to do against battlemechs." Sutton shifted uncomfortably beside Gene at the Duke's comment about his own militia. The comment was parternalistic sure, but it could have been worse. The duke actually cared or seemed to care about the troops he just didn't think PBI were any use stopping mechs.
--
"Do we join you?"

"No." He replied to Bahar over the line. "Stay where you are," Ishida's holographic image nodded in silent ascent to the order. He wasn't going to bring their two mechs inside the defensive perimeter, and certainly wasn't going to bring the drones where anyone could get a good look at them.

The truth was he didn't like the Duke's handling of the situation. If they stayed clustered up in the city it was going to be a bloodbath just like Doctor Abner feared. "I do not like this commander, our odds are significantly diminished by permitting the enemy to reinforce their position." Tristan clucked in disapproval. "I have begun bringing up what forces are available, but we will not be able to cover all possible landing sites."

Gene had known that already, and a part of him wanted the Combine to spread out, to disperse their forces. The combine's decision to commit at all was throwing away their lives in pursuit of a battle already lost. They had comm intercepts for the Regimental Commander ordering the battalion to the planet, but there were no protests. There were no indications that the Regiment HQ was considering quitting the field... and that had contributed to his surprise that the Combine had not launched an attack sooner.

He could understand the tension, the tinge of Bahar probably growing impatient waiting for the battle. Bahar had been brought up probably from as soon as she could walk to pilot a battlemech at the very least from the way she handled a bow and arrow in her off she had been brought with a classical education that emphasized martial characteristics... sitting here and waiting for the enemy had to be galling.

Gene linked the neurohelmet and fed his thoughts into the mind machine interface that ran the information directly to Tristan. "Understood Commander." The AI answer as the map projected pathing.

"Best case is that the enemy lands their dropships within range of our artillery." Hitting their deployment zones even with inaccurate artillery would delay the enemy deployment. "We will deal with those unions as they come in either way." He really wished they had a larger ASF complement, but that would be a matter for a larger Merc outfit... and chances were good they weren't going to get any real payout from Elidere.

This was a pro bono good deed defending a more or less poor backwater planet from a bunch of assholes with a bunch of mechs. He didn't even know how salvage was going to play out when all of this came down. Maybe FedSuns proper had some kind of bounty to buy the salvage off of them.

His sensors flickered, "Eyes on," He confirmed as the drone filtered feed in through the Dalban. In respect to Abner's wishes to cooperate with the locals, "We've got enemy movement in sector 3...." he paused as the Drone's sensors, "LOCAM," Local Command, "they are firing into the town. I have mechs firing into Scarborough, check. Do you have local forces?" It was a stupid question. He had been assured that the Duke had ordered a fall back of forces to consolidate what forces the planet could muster into a defensive line.

"Negative, we have no one out there."

Gene frowned, but he couldn't be surprised as he watched the feed from his dalban as it registered the weapons fire. So they were shooting civilians then. Combine chatter just made it worse, as they were complaining about the lack of foxes to hunt, lack of real Davion opposition. That was a complaint that they were going to regret.

"Commander?" The Ai asked.

--
Commentary: Firstly this will undergone minor further revisions in all likelihood, but is going up on schedule. In any event if you like this story, you may be interested in another I'm working on based off of Ramble's Essence of Mek Lab and Mage Okhi's space heir II called Essence Wielding Social General that is in the works. If you are the first two scrap segments of it are in the Battletech thread over in NSFW index, and have been threadmarked.

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

Where is that story at?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Where is that story at?

Click to shrink...

The first part: https://forum.questionablequesting....discussions-thread.4740/page-108#post-5187975 and it the subsequent thread mark is to part 2

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

Are you going to make it into it's own story?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Are you going to make it into it's own story?

Click to shrink...

It will be going into my misc thread for a little while, but given that since starting Thursday I've written ten thousand words and given it a proper half way decent title it will eventually get its own thread.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Part 10 Elidere IV
​

Brown eyes narrowed as the reticle lined, and a three round burst of 120mm slug ripped apart the Jenner's face. Gene stepped the Marauder over the Charger's remains that had been his previous victim. "Grid coordinates," He ordered into his throat mike, and instantly was rewarded by the illuminated map indicator.

The Kuritan BattleMaster attempted to return fire but he was at long range and they were shooting up a hill at him. Rather than charge his open line into Kuritan Regimental Comms were opened with the snarling angry voice of a thirty or maybe forty something man berating them that it was just one mech, and to 'Get him'.

Which was enough for the hornets to come out from under the porch... so to speak notably the BattleMaster didn't throw itself forward.

He tossed the mech back in reverse while looking at the ammo indicator. He lobbed a couple of more shots in ballistic flight from the half click out just before he dropped beyond the hillside. A couple of hits but nothing died.

He had their attention, which was the whole damned point of this. "You have their attention commander. One moment," Tristan gave the AI equivalent to a vocal frown, "Battlemaster and Atlas MechWarriors seem to be arguing." Good, let the enemy officers fight among themselves. "Commander might I recommend you withdraw to the access point, and clear weapons hot." As if to hope to sway him changing the plan the command mech's hud illuminated a map of Time on Target artillery strikes aimed at the enemies and their current positions.

But realistically the accuracy wasn't good enough.

Half a dozen or better combine heavy mechs inbound were faster than his Marauder. Even if he could get to a subterranean access point and lose them dropping artillery forward of the original target had a much higher chance of civilian casualties. Civilians by the Combine for whatever reason who had decided to start shooting up the town.

They chased, and he ran. He didn't have the ammo for a sustained fire fight. Even discounting the possibility that the prototype LBX might decide to jam on him, a probably he might potentially have with the regular Whirlwind found on a 2R, he didn't have the ammo. A single ton was sixty rounds, or twenty three round bursts from the autocannon.

The problem the combine had was that they were chasing him with the old mark one eye ball... and that wasn't working so well. "They arguing still?"

"Affirmative commander."

He swung around a copse of mature trees and imagined the noise the mechs chasing him must have been making as they ran through the valleys. He hadn't been looking for confirmation. There weren't a whole lot of people who'd have been arguing with a Combine Regimental CO, never mind a brigadier general not a full bird. That short list, "The ISF liaison is demanding that Sho-Sho Samsonov join the pursuit."

In a fucking Atlas?

The asshole in the BattleMaster had a better chance of catching even without being closer, and it didn't even look like he had moved yet. There could be excuses for that. The BattleMaster had attempted to shoot at him... maybe the ISF couldn't walk and hold an argument, which seemed unlikely given the Atlas was trundling through the woods. At thirty kilometers though the Atlas wouldn't beat him to the river bank. He'd be on the other side before the hundred tonner made it... but there was a good chance given its position it would get there sooner than most, and they'd have company soon.

He pushed on. Get over the river and then let the steel rain fall. Spring the trap, turn and engage force the combine down into the engagement with their main force... and deal with the DropShips as they made their final descent. They had hours... and given the ISF man's barking he wasn't sure which of them or if both were responsible for this overcommitance to this shit show.

This waste of life.

He wondered if these officers were just here chasing medals?

Tristan asked whether or not he wanted to begin to move the drones into their step off positions, but it was too early. He didn't want the fusion signatures to tip off the Combine until it was too late to realize they were already dead. "There is a significant probability that Atlas will be inside the arc of fire."

"Then I'll deal with it." Preferably from half a klick out with the river between them, but Gene resolved to do what he needed to.
--
"The boss said that." Not that Septim doubted the machine spirit, but... "He's going to take that Atlas?" He ran a hand through his hair, he ordinarily would have needed a shave and a hair cut... he still needed a shave from two weeks in the field, but the SLDF issue neurohelmet was great.

"I know you guys are confident in your artillery but," Andre trailed off from within his Dervish. "Are we-"

"Not to worry dear boy, I've seen this a time or two," Abner declared stopping his trawling questioning of their situation. "Nothing to worry about, the Major will be fine, and he has more than artillery supporting him... and remember that our bit is coming up."

They couldn't really explain Tristan ... Septim had to wonder how would they even start that discussion. The boss had been frozen in a stasis tube for two centuries. They had found stasis tubes inside the Castle... and Tristan had lamented that none of his Terran officers had survived to use them before the traitors had killed or mortally injured them. The final ranking hegemony officer had ordered the AI to pump the whole base full of nerve gas to prevent the rebels from seizing control of the facility. In the close quarters with scarcely anywhere to move and take cover automated defenses and drones had scoured the base of the invaders... leaving the machine to weep over his dead, and then wait.

Maybe the boss had been hoping that there would be somebody in one of the tubes, but the professor was right. Their part was fast approaching. The enemy reinforcements were coming... and there was a whole battalion on Ander's moon as well... and if his dreams really were more than dreams then Pasha was on the way even now with reinforcements. There had been no word from Robinson in response. The duke had money to burn. Through a hundred thousand C-Bills on a phone call was pocket change for him, and that was probably why they were going to get reinforcements.

"The combine is making good time," Bard Cameron declared, "They're sure to run him a hell of a race."

Inside of his Merlin Septim checked his scopes... or more correctly the feeds that the Star League thinking machine was feeding to them through Abner's Atlas. "Bahar are you seeing this?"

Her dark eyes narrowed, but managed to keep her affirmative professional. Bahar's Mongoose was in a nest of other fusion signatures... a whole company of vehicles for her to point at the snakes.

Not unusual by the company's standards... they had drilled and practiced with Bahar leading a scouting and reconnaissance unit that would also screen for her to direct the Company's armor assets on target. So as along as nobody got to close... well nobody should notice. "We still are going to have to fight our way through the newcomers... and then go to Anders, Castle Brin fell already..." Vandenburg probably wouldn't last much longer either. The duke of Ander's Moon had consolidated his forces but his seat of power was better suited to protecting its defenders than the open fields of farmland.

He hoped that they'd be able to hold out. The Vandenburg dukes were obvious more martial than House Makios... if not nearly as well off financially.
--
He had consulted the LandNav package on the way in so he knew exactly where to cross..

They had chased him over the valley and as he expected over the farmlands, but he could see the riverbank, and Tristan began to signal he had begun the start up for the machines. The AI flashed a signal to Bahar to stand by even as his mech treaded through the river, and neared the other side.

He still had mechs incoming. The seventy five ton Marauder cleared to the other side and backed up as his command systems started coordinating the finalization of the artillery's orders. His DalBan reading the powering fusion signatures of the ground combat units.

The lasing on his mech's comm area jerked his head up to the Atlas paring with his SLDF Comms system. "I am Sho-Sho Grieg Samsonov, Commander of the 19th​ Galedon Regulars. Well fought, Mechwarrior, do you care to trade pointers with me?"

Against himself he laughed, Tristan had played the Combine General's message for ... maybe not the whole planet to hear but loud enough, and shook his head, and then accepted the challenge to 'exchange pointers'. He wondered how Bahar's challenge to duel had been made, but he had other concerns as he would have sworn the mech actually bobbed its skull like head when Samsonov's hologram shifted as he grunted. The Mech had PPCs in each arm, clearly combine retrofit Lord's Lights and fired wide.

Gene steadied his Marauder, Samsonov's Atlas was standing still, and the width of the river made it too far a shot for his Medium lasers even if they'd both been right at the edge. If Samsonov had walked up to the river bank he'd have been comfortably within the effective range envelop for a medium engagement with the PPCs. If he had had a standard Atlas he could have thrown LRMs... but then that would have been really the only weapon he could fire. The Combine General had turned the Atlas into a slow long range bruiser.

His own dual lighting bolts answered and scored long angry flashing streaks across the mech's torso as bits of leaves and tree limbs ignited. Samsonov didn't reply to first blood being scored and fired as his targeting sensors failed him again Gene fired adjusting left into the right torso where after his second barrage Samsonov decided to close the distance... and Gene could see why.

There were other mechs approaching, and Samsonov was about to be on the spot for failing to have resolved his duel. "Ride on my gallant huntsman... when must I come again? For you should never want for a fox to chase all over the glen." The indicators for artillery greened as he placed the LBX's reticle onto the skull face. Just over half a ton over armor protected the grinning jack and that vanished under the near alpha strike just as the mech touched the water's edge.

The Combine Mechs paused no doubt as his voice echoed over their speakers... or as their commander's mech slowed, and toppled into the water. He swung his arms as the sky deafened with the roar of artillery coming down like thunder. His seventy five tonner crossed into the water it hissing into steam as they helped his dual heat sinks, and fusion powered hover, and tracked vehicles rolled forward. "Tristan, Pipes and Drums march."

The Combine's communications lines ceased being of any use as all that went over the lines was Farewell to Gibraltar, echoed by it coming over the drones speakers. Over a hundred fusion signatures rang through the hills over the other side of the river. Light Mechs backpedalled in place twisting and turning in place orienting to the new contacts, and likely being deafened by the bagpipes from their own speakers, as well as ringing through the valley.


--
Commentary: and we have two more Elidere IV pieces before we open I Davion, but yeah in terms of realistic load out the Marauder's 60 rounds of one twenty is actually surprisingly realistic for only a single ton of ammunition.

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

Did Gene just killed the reason why the Wolf Dragoons left the DC?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Did Gene just killed the reason why the Wolf Dragoons left the DC?

Click to shrink...

Yeah. ... but also no. Samsonov dying here means that most like Jaime follows his original plan of do the planned contract 23-28 thereby the dragoons would have served with all of the great houses and be expected to report back to Clan Wolf. While Samsonov's ahistorical inglorious death on his raid on Elidere before being promoted to warlord prevents the specific grievances that would culminate in Misery and thus largely preempt the Dragoons grudge against the combine specifically they don't necessarily stop the Dragoons from leaving the DC after their contract is completed.

So yes, and no.

 

[RoyalTwinFangs]

Yeah. ... but also no. Samsonov dying here means that most like Jaime follows his original plan of do the planned contract 23-28 thereby the dragoons would have served with all of the great houses and be expected to report back to Clan Wolf. While Samsonov's ahistorical inglorious death on his raid on Elidere before being promoted to warlord prevents the specific grievances that would culminate in Misery and thus largely preempt the Dragoons grudge against the combine specifically they don't necessarily stop the Dragoons from leaving the DC after their contract is completed.

So yes, and no.

Click to shrink...

Wasn't the the DC the choice to stay and build up before Misery?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Wasn't the the DC the choice to stay and build up before Misery?

Click to shrink...

I don't honestly remember for sure. I'd have to go paging through the old source books. I would find it strange if the wolf dragoons decided to use the combine as they hadn't been there, but I can see by clanner logic why the combine would make sense as well. Something else to check on lore wise.

 

[Kataphraktos]

I don't honestly remember for sure. I'd have to go paging through the old source books. I would find it strange if the wolf dragoons decided to use the combine as they hadn't been there, but I can see by clanner logic why the combine would make sense as well. Something else to check on lore wise.

Click to shrink...

IIRC, the Dragoons (and Jaime in particular) were starting to like the Combine and their seemingly Clanner traits with Tetsuhara as their liason, before Samsonov and Akuma decided otherwise.

 

[Imperator Pax]

IIRC, the Dragoons (and Jaime in particular) were starting to like the Combine and their seemingly Clanner traits with Tetsuhara as their liason, before Samsonov and Akuma decided otherwise.

Click to shrink...

That would make sense, its been so long since I've read the wolf dragoon's stuff but as I mentioned earlier the combine particularly during the third was very proto zellbringen in terms of mech duels and so on and I can see that and many of the combine's other social strata seeming quite familiar to the clans

 

[Silverbullet]

That would make sense, its been so long since I've read the wolf dragoon's stuff but as I mentioned earlier the combine particularly during the third was very proto zellbringen in terms of mech duels and so on and I can see that and many of the combine's other social strata seeming quite familiar to the clans

Click to shrink...

Because Nicky boy ripped off the Draconis Combine and Capellan Confederation for social curs and structure. I'm also going to guess some stuff from Amaris's Regime which he grew up in as well. Then he made shit up and stole names from the Mongolians. The only reason people bought into his shit was well. The SLDF in Exile was at the absolute end of its rope and had been through so much war and conflict they absolutely knew nothing else. The moment they tried to disarm and form a society they were drawing up lines based on their cultures of origin and had their own mini succession war. Say what you will about the Clans but take in they were formed by a people utterly exhausted and disillusioned with their old systems. Then here comes the son of the man who was more or less the pillar of their lives and promises them paradise. Then through luck they make a functional society that's a nightmare to us but did succeed in limiting the self destructive impulses of BT humanity and them not engaging in total war and playing with actual rules everyone agreed on allowed them to advance beyond even the Star League in tech.

I also think Kerensky was right to take the majority of the SLDF out of the equation because the first succession war was simply absolutely that insane and apocalyptic. Imagine how much worse it would be with the SLDF warships running around orbitally destroying everything.

I also feel Kerensky was right when he said that only time would stop the self destructive Succession wars and when the Clans expose themselves again to the bucket crab cluster fuck that is the Inner Sphere they fell into the same total war and madness of it. Not to say the Clans weren't there own special nightmare or weren't slowly grinding to a large scale conflict internally. Because they were, but that their bidding system and honor code absolutely did keep collateral damage down.