Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

And sudden Warships. Warships 'errywhere.

WoB: We have thousands of advanced machines and millions of fanatical troups!

M-Series: I have Naval weaponry and give not a shit about g-forces. *gashunk*. Your play.

Click to shrink...

Especially since, well Mother Bear is probably the nicest Hegemony AI.

, and

Spoiler: On G-Forces

Whoops 2nd Dieron:

...A light turned green as another line opened, but instead of a human face an icon, shield, appeared "Boot successful. All systems nominal."

"Hedwig is detached," Someone announced from one of the Titan's consoles.

"Separation complete, and away." Exterior camera feeds of the JumpShip showed the flare of a drive as the Spheroid accelerated. This was going to be the chancy part. The Capellans had air coverage, and they had limited air assets of their own.

A moment later another channel connected to CIC, and the process repeated, as Braunfels followed suit laying in a parallel course. A second near identical four thousand ton DropShip separated from the Colorado, and accelerated towards the Capellan force.

"Helm lay course."

The CIC threw up addition images from tracking systems. The holographic globe estimating range, the measure of horizontal, and distance, the height differential an important characteristic for the Titan-class designed role as dedicated aircraft carrier. It made an ideal command and control platform for the unit.

Baffins would be able to make the descent to the surface under its own power in theory alongside Hidalgo and Presidio, but they needed to secure orbital control first. The hologlobe projected the force spreading out. They had to assume that nothing had changed. The HPG network was down, and that word hadn't gotten out.

... that made getting here right now something of dumb fucking luck. That was part of the reason he was here, and not aboard a mech carrier that would be in the first wave going to the surface. They didn't know enough about the Capellan incursion, and it wasn't a feint. The initial landing site was south west of the capital of San martin in the northern foothills of Mount Shanyu. That was intended to be two fold.

If they could attain air superiority the plan was to drop down to the planet's surface land at Fortress Dieron's port facility and then turn the Fortress's guns on, and achieve, lever orbital supremacy that way... also the electronics would be useful there for other reasons. That was why he was aboard the Eisenhower, and not commanding BattleMechs from the frontline.

Orbital supremacy regardless of how it was achieved would then let them bring San Saba and their armor assets down deploying, and that would allow them also to reinforce the Magunac forces that would be in the first wave.

This was not a knife fight... he didn't know what the Capellans were thinking. Invading Dieron to try and steal it from the Davions was lunacy... and almost certainly they had to know that even if they took it somehow they'd have to fight the Combine coming. Whatever insanity it was, it was not some periphery world where you could lay claim to it by landing a couple lances and declaring yourself, or your overlord to be in charge and so forth.

Dieron had been a part of the Lone Star Province. It had been a Hegemony world.

He tapped his foot at the thought, maybe that was it.

He looked at the blue holographic globe. The small craft moving to impound the now blackout dark capellan JumpShips. Tiny dots whose labels were bigger than they were on the astrograph. The lead and trailing four thousand ton dropships accelerating.

Did the Capellans have telemetry? Surely they had to have some kind of sensors pointed towards the JumpPoints. But did they realize what they were looking at. The two four thousand tonners would be crossing six Gees of thrust. They were already above the maximum thrust of the slightly smaller Unions.

"Start a clock, once Hedgwig starts her attack run, I want the wasps standing by to launch." He ordered leaning against the console, and against the restraints. The Eisenhower was fast but she wouldn't be able to catch them... but then that wasn't the point. She'd launch her air wing to assist the initial attack, because regardless of how fast the attackers could turn, they were probably going to overshoot the enemy in the pass and then turn to make a second rear pass. He himself couldn't be entirely sure how they were going to handle this.
--
It was over quickly... not that there had been much for him to direct.

The actual fighting phase of a naval engagement was usually minutes, if that. In the time it had taken for the Capellans to realize they were under attack it had already been too late. Awareness was king of the battlefield and the zoom and boom of the two four thousand ton DropShips had done enough damage as to degrade the invader's ability to get back into the loop. They were stuck trying to respond to things that had already happened.

They hadn't been ready for the second wave. Or the third. Eisenhower's safe thrust was far less than the first wave ships a third her mass, and the Drosts massing each fifty three hundred tons were in the same acceleration profile as the larger DropShip. It was a pity that they only carried two fighters apiece, but that didn't matter with the Eisenhower's own complement.

Looking at one expanding cloud of debris in the upper reaches of Dieron's orbitals, and another which was descending into the moon of Nebulous's gravity well they were now into the next phase of the operation. Recovery of their fighters and standing by to make planetfall.

Hedwig and Braunfelds, her trailing consort, would have to remain on station. He wasn't about to risk the two DropSHips bringing them down and back up through the atmosphere. The three DroSTs would descend first.

Click to shrink...

Students from the University of Dieron crowded to watch the holographic projectors as new footage piped in.

"B-roll" somebody muttered in Terran derivative english.

The date was hours, several days really, old showing arriving dropships moving past shattered debris hulks of ASF, and opposing Capellan dropships. Painted in what someone from the History department of the University of Dieron would later tell her was the Lone Star Ensign, and in Terran Hegemony Colors were two Pentagon-class Assault DropShips moving to greet a Titan-class DropShip that bore the name Eisenhower along its prow. It was new footage to her however, B roll or not.

The speech which followed was not. She had heard it over the radio before.

She already knew from broadcasts ongoing that the Capellans hadn't accepted the extended offer to surrender. The Davion newscasters of course had mad sure that everyone listening knew that these were the same 'mercenaries' who had liberated the planet from the combine.
--

Click to shrink...

Note the two above snippets are from the non canon alternate timeline but they do hold important future details in the excerpted events.

 

[Sogen]

I can't remember, does Gene still have SI 'Out Of Character' knowledge or did that get retconned?

 

[Imperator Pax]

I can't remember, does Gene still have SI 'Out Of Character' knowledge or did that get retconned?

Click to shrink...

Technically yes. but it shows up in awkward places in some chapters... and thats a facet of how I wrote and outlined things.

Part of this is my memory recall for some lore stuff, is not great all the time. (especially for like DnD, for Faerun just because there is so much of it) so it hasn't been retconned but its been toned down from like the normal SI in BT knows all the things from Sarnanet

Like for example Helm is athing, because everyone knows that. There is a memory core there, thats like the first thing that BT people know, and if it were mentioned yeah Gene would go 'yeah there is a library core there, and there are mechs/gear cached there', Hasek's doppleganger plot

off the top of my head i can tell you If you asked IRL it happens, and that it happens some time in the next decade, but thats without looking it up, about all I can tell you

the wolf dragoons are clanners, and running into them personally yeah 'these people are weirdos' on a level beyond just normal inner sphere planet of hat types but that will show up when directly dealing with the wolfs dragoons

Romano Liao is crazy is another example, Liao are crazy in general, but Mad Max and Romano are extra even by capellan standards

So again, hasn't been retconned, but I don't have a perfect memory for lore and I didn't write the outline with hit every castle brian in canon

 

[Silverbullet]

Actually I was re reading and I have to wonder, why didn't Lady Raventhir offer another contract to Gene and Co? The need for a dedicated well trained military force to protect the second to third most important world in the Magistracy besides Duianshire and Canopus itself should be readily present especially after the raid by the ex-Arkhabs. I agree with Yvonne's disbelief in letting him slip from their fingers twice. Then again as Gene searches for information on tje Cameron survivors and the Minnesota Tribe he'll wind up in the Rim again eventually. Also what is his Company called? I don't think it's name has come up once.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Actually I was re reading and I have to wonder, why didn't Lady Raventhir offer another contract to Gene and Co? The need for a dedicated well trained military force to protect the second to third most important world in the Magistracy besides Duianshire and Canopus itself should be readily present especially after the raid by the ex-Arkhabs. I agree with Yvonne's disbelief in letting him slip from their fingers twice. Then again as Gene searches for information on tje Cameron survivors and the Minnesota Tribe he'll wind up in the Rim again eventually. Also what is his Company called? I don't think it's name has come up once.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler: BLuntly its court politics more than money. Raventhir may not have unlimitted funds, but her house is a cadet branch of House Centrella. Now, Yvonne is absolutely right that a surviving Star League gunslinger and 'hangers on' (not Yvonne's words, but that description is used by someone else) should have been a priority even a potentially national one, but Raventhir retaining Shepherd's de facto combined arms battalion (given the present force strength of the magistracy) could be construed rather reasonably as an internal security threat.. and this will be addressed when we actually introduce House Centrella.

Shepherd's Company, its simple, it follows historical naming conventions, but it also doesn't have that PR branding of being say Kell Hounds, or GDL, but it does follow the similar traditions of say Wolfs Dragoons. This is also why I think its only really mentioned in the expansion of the Luxen contracts (I skimmed my notes, and you're right, I don't think its mentioned in the primary story canon's dialogue) and I haven't posted that chapter yet.

That being said, its not just Minnesota, or the Cameron survivors when we get back out to the periphery, but 3019 is still a bit off.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Highland Faire​

It was Campbell's face. He looked like he needed to sit down.

"Captain, your vitals are abnormal. We recommend that you please have a seat." The Ai remarked, and the captain numbly sat down, on the floor since there weren't really any chairs, bracing against the railing.

Dante had projected the odds based on what they knew, and ... well... they weren't good odds. Of course Star League medicine being what it was perhaps the twins had been shoved in stasis tubes they might have survived that way... but again... odds weren't in the favor.

A part of him was disappointed... but it made sense. If there had been a Terran hegemony exile surely they would have had made a reappearance... or maybe they had and maybe they'd weighed what resources they had, and probably on the determination of population... deemed the cost too great.

Gene suspected that if he could come to that then the AI Dante had probably considered that any Hegemony in Exile might constrained by limited resources, or time have written off the Inner Sphere... but there were two problems with that. It didn't change that it was possible they didn't know, and of course that if they had made it then the Cameron twins had made it out with a Black Watch lance to mind them.

Maybe showing Captain Campbell the odds wasn't the best idea. Portions of the secret fleet had fought to keep the Hegemony in the fight against Amaris's forces, but without a detailed report he had no idea what the navy might had... only that Tripitz had made it to the periphery along a shadow route off the usual jump maps...

"Colonel Shepherd do you have the resources to investigate?"

... did he... not really. "Not without bringing in assistance. The JumpShip fleets are significantly degraded as a result of the post League wars of succession." ... and bringing in assistance... there was really only one person there who was an option... bringing this to the Davion's was out, even though it appeared that the Admiral, Clancy, had elected to side with the Davions. His logs suggested that given Lyran leadership weaknesses that the Federated Suns represented the best option in his argument to sway Dante.

... and that had been made without knowledge.... had been made solely on Combine belligerence in the form of things like the Davion succession crisis, and ronin incidents ... all the historical grievances, like the fact the Combine had been the historical reason for the Castles Brian in the first place. That call had been made without knowledge that Kerensky had left knowing Kurita had handed over SLDF positions to Amaris... and given that 2841 Warships had still been a thing, and that there were potential other nasty Hegemony surprises behind that might have very well ended up with Luthien suffering a very unfortunate fate indeed.

"Due to the loss of my HPG uplink I have no way of ascertaining at the present the status of Hegemony anchorages, or other naval installations, given the degrading of the SLCOMNET even acquisition of a mobile hpg to replace my previous connection would likely be insufficient to reestablish a connection."

Right, the network was slower, weaker, smaller than it had been during the league. So even if Gene knew where to find a mobile HPG Dante was right it might not help.... especially if you needed to physically liase into the shadow network ... and if there was a break in that chain then that wouldn do much good.

So much time had passed. There was only one option... take this to Abner ... and he couldn't do that with what he had... there were three distinct data points.

Dante's logs from the Coup, and after.

Clancy's input from... the ... second he was fairly certain succession war, and that data. Including the report from the second succession war that there was an intact hegemony castle on Dieron's equatorial band... and south of the capital.

... and of course the data from the Highlander's lockbox, and the dispatch dated from the coup... and what Kerensky was supposed to do, but the dispatch had never been received... and on Elidere Abner had asked if perhaps Kerensky had been going to a bolt hold... but he was pretty sure Kerensky hadn't been going to anywhere... except maybe that he knew there was survey data that said there were habitable planets far out that direction.

The Hegemony had concealed various scientific secrets for decades, and even centuries, from the other member states of the star league. The Hegemony had represented the most industrially developed and settled worlds due to the sphere around terra that had been colonized. That had meant closer trade within those worlds, and also more established centers of learning...

... like the university of Volgadon.

Still, as he had observed to Abner when he'd first showed him the footage, it had been almost forty years since the Taurians had stumbled upon the SLS Tripitz... but that was a find to Dante who was presently attempting to map the route, or possible routes that would have carried the Black Lion-class warship rimward to her final resting place, estimating twenty jumps.

A series of projected pathways occupied the central globe. He was going to have to talk to Pasha... but the soonest they would be able to move would be probably the end of the year.... and of course there was no assurance that even with that time that Abner could put anywhere near the scientific hard ware to dive down into the gravity well of a gas giant.

... and of course there was no telling how the Taurians might react, or the 'white wings' or supposed cappellan interests might respond if any kind of ferreting around started at the sight... and it assumed no one had beaten them to it.

But it was the last lead they had... but there wasn't anything saying they had to start there either. They could start looking closer. All three data sources had points of interest which might yield clues to follow.

"Unfortunately given the passage of time," Dante had started speaking again as Gene looked at the security monitor feed. The others were still out there. "there is no guarantee of sourcing additional space lift capacity," He meant JumpShips. "The port facilities here contain a handful of remaining DropShips, but the last of the system's fleet installations were lost in the 29th​ century."

The comment of course merely jarred his fragmented memory. The dragoons he were sure were the descendants of Kerensky's exodus. He knew that, even if the evidence he could actually cite was circumstantial. The problem was less so that, even though he wasn't sure how exactly the Highlanders would respond... Campbell was going to need time to digest all of this... but it had already been clear that the explanations of simply finding a cache was believable. There were people who would question that , but there was a kernel of truth that could have been born out by just being lucky...

... or having a map. CID wouldn't have lists of regular army Brian Caches... at least not officially. There might be some records, security, investigations, and other normal business might well provide... he could look or have them flagged, but that paled in comparison to the bigger question of how the Dragoons might react... and 'Clans' how would the rest of Kerensky's exodus survivors deal with the included news.

"Colonel Shepherd, Captain Campbell, on evaluation perhaps the stress of this news is significant should I bring one of the auto-doc's online?" Gene blinked at the display. He had been starting to zone out, and a headache had begun to form behind his eyes. If it had just been contending with Dieron it would have been one thing. He had been lead to believe that the war with Amaris, and subsequent first and second wars should meant the loss of facilities like this or Fortress Dieron. How many other Hegemony facilities were still buried under the surface of planets... and were the Cameron's still out there?

CID might not have had a master list but it was possible if there even was a directory of all the caches the Camerons might have it... but did that even matter? The Hegemony had functionally ceased to exist even before the liberation of Terra and the apparent reality was that most if not all of the great houses had been already planning to annex Hegemony worlds as a result of the coup.

"I need a minute." He replied looking back at the exterior security feed. Did Campbell know that the Eridani and he were employed under the same contract that, the Davion's were going after Dieron... he racked his brain for details.

Kerston had vouched for Northwind's Highlanders, and their descent from SLDF survivors. Kerston was going to have questions... understatement... but just for what was behind the door that the Highlanders themselves had admitted to being unable to open. The security must have also been occupying a portion of the AI's attention as the map of Tara, on the surface projected the Eridani positions.

By itself that might have warranted concern over it, but the holographic display was painting them face value of being the Eridani Light Horse and of the SLDF, of course this wasn't the first time the Eridani had been on Nightwind for the faire.... there were marked as in SLDF colors on the display.

Campbell was struggling to his feet, "I," he began, "The ship," He stumbled over the words.

"Tripitz? I didn't have proof," Not without the documents that had been in the Black Watch's possession, "Dante this is a Hegemony facility what's the local procedure for bringing SLDF regulars in?"

There wasn't one... not one that had been planned for dealing with this scenario. Dante had briefed defending Star League troops against Republic forces, but Northwind had taken a beating over hte course of the conflict as like many hegemony worlds the Rim World forces had largely been able to open hostilities from within defensive envelopes.

That that hadn't been universal was another lead to chase... "Can you evaluate the brevet general's service identification packet and make a decision."

"Standby."

The response was almost monotone.

Campbell straightened, and a few moments passed without him broaching the subject of whether or not they shouldn't tell Kerston. There was a crackle from the speakers, "The 3rd​ Regimental Combat Team's data is relatively complete. I believe that it would safe to inform the General that there is the possibility that House Cameron was evacuated offworld, and the vessel which ran the blockade was discovered."

"So you'll let him in?" Gene questioned.

"Yes," the AI replied, "I'm compiling a briefing packet from the available data." There was a pause, "I would be remiss not to point out that the SLDF certifications do potentially create codex issues given the official dissolution of the Star League Defense Forces, and Council."

... right because that had been the result of the liberation. None of the houses could agree, and Kerensky had then absconded with the regular fleet and army... he looked at the SDS override command on the display of data from the Black Watch device. The SDS drones would have been effectively left to their own devices without ground directors.... and that meant had they still been around they would have cut invading ships to pieces... a what if that hadn't come to pass.

There was a chime, and the armored bulkhead opened. Dante must have been in the mood for guests as he was letting the whole party in.

 

[Bofors40mm]

if the highlanders and ELH discover it was comstar who blew up the tripitz.....well I suspect its time for what's basically a crusader ladies and gentlemen.

 

[Sogen]

if the highlanders and ELH discover it was comstar who blew up the tripitz.....well I suspect its time for what's basically a crusader ladies and gentlemen.

Click to shrink...

The ComGuards beat the Clans, granted a significant part of that victory was due to prepared positions and exploiting in-depth knowledge of the weaknesses in the Clan's culture and battle tactics, but still what chance do you think two of the slightly larger mercenary companies have against that?

 

[Kyruth]

The ComGuards beat the Clans, granted a significant part of that victory was due to prepared positions and exploiting in-depth knowledge of the weaknesses in the Clan's culture and battle tactics, but still what chance do you think two of the slightly larger mercenary companies have against that?

Click to shrink...

That's well into the future: the current com guards just recently (timeline wise) just got into a fight with pirates, while in Star League mechs and outnumbering them: and lost.

So a stretch yes, but not all that big of a stretch, especially if they can do something about the system defenses.

 

[Bofors40mm]

That's well into the future: the current com guards just recently (timeline wise) just got into a fight with pirates, while in Star League mechs and outnumbering them: and lost.

So a stretch yes, but not all that big of a stretch, especially if they can do something about the system defenses.

Click to shrink...

if only they had several SLDF AIs to do something about that....
and technically the comguards did beat those pirates....in a pyric victory with something like a 3 to 1 loss ratio.

 

[Morkail]

Considering the star league leadership was cut at the source it's easy to think a great many hidden assets were simply lost. Also when you consider defense spending was a basically a national past time there could be whole fleets of ships hidden away for some damn reason. If only they can be found.

thanks for the chapter.

 

[Imperator Pax]

The ComGuards beat the Clans, granted a significant part of that victory was due to prepared positions and exploiting in-depth knowledge of the weaknesses in the Clan's culture and battle tactics, but still what chance do you think two of the slightly larger mercenary companies have against that?

Click to shrink...

Yes, but also this is 3017 so well before Focht gets the job... but yes I agree in principle

That's well into the future: the current com guards just recently (timeline wise) just got into a fight with pirates, while in Star League mechs and outnumbering them: and lost.

So a stretch yes, but not all that big of a stretch, especially if they can do something about the system defenses.

Click to shrink...

if only they had several SLDF AIs to do something about that....
and technically the comguards did beat those pirates....in a pyric victory with something like a 3 to 1 loss ratio.

Click to shrink...

One to thing to consider here is that the Jolly Roger Affair, that Black Jack McGirk is still around and running around in this timeline so Kyruth is correct, ComStar has allowed a pirate king access to league era mechs and gear and then had that blow up in their faces, because Black Jack is now running around the periphery stomping on HPG stations (in no small part to keep them from beaming out his coordinates before he's gone). and this is important for the first Aurigan arc starting in 3019 so this is very much not the ComsGuard of Tukkayid
--
As an aside:

Precentor New Avalon: "So we hear you'regoing back to the periphery. Ah, so there is this pirate he keeps terrorizing planets, and blowing up our HPGs, and those are expensive... bounty value for killing black jack mcgirk's pirates is Yes."

ComStar is not in a good position right now because McGirk is still running around and doesn't care about any of the social niceties, eventually yes, they could wait until he's exhausted all of his equipment, but thats a lot harder to do when its a pirate with SLDF gear attacking 3rd SW periphery states that don't have a lot of forces.

McGirk was a pirate before hand, I have very little sympathy for either ComStar or McGirk in regards to the jolly roger affair they're both villians in this

 

[Bofors40mm]

How much gear did the pirate recover in a fixable state? And how many merc units among others are after him?

 

[Imperator Pax]

How much gear did the pirate recover in a fixable state? And how many merc units among others are after him?

Click to shrink...

From the ComsGuard? Given that that 3:1 losses was in canon in spite of probably bringing royal equipment.

IIRC and I don't have the book in front of me, but ComStar gave Black Jack a lot of material from regular units to start with I don't think it was a division worth of mechs, but Black Jack also allied with another Pirate who had gotten the same deal.

So Black Jack is presently c.3019 at Regimental equivalent strength. Spoiler piloting a Royal Orion. In terms of who all is going after him, the Canopians, and Taurians both have mercs attached to their regular armies, and there are other small groups. Markhams marauders will show up, but frankly Black Jack is Lady Death equivalent (or even bigger) in terms of pirate big shot and he's staying out of the inner sphere proper. That means he's not dealing with the Lyrans or the Combine anymore, and so far House Davion, while concerned is not yet that concerned. He's further rimward so he's mostly a taurian problem and the capellans don't have the force projection.

--
Tongue in cheek summary of ComStar / MRB ad
Comstar Adept to mercs:
"Do you hate Pirates? We hate Pirates, too! Do you like money? We have money. Kill pirates for us and we give you beaucoup money."

Terms and conditions apply.

 

[Silverbullet]

Oh God Tieplo must be hitting the asprin hourly given the Primus-ship he walked into. I bet this making ROM froth at the mouth and try to jumpstart a proper Comguard ASAP, worse if McGraw takes proof of ComStars duplicity to any of the Houses and sets off a shadow war where the various intel agencies are actively looking at ROM.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Oh God Tieplo must be hitting the asprin hourly given the Primus-ship he walked into. I bet this making ROM froth at the mouth and try to jumpstart a proper Comguard ASAP, worse if McGraw takes proof of ComStars duplicity to any of the Houses and sets off a shadow war where the various intel agencies are actively looking at ROM.

Click to shrink...

So from canon, like even just the initial Black Jack response (before the ComsGuard did their drown the pirates in bodies*) over the HPG networks getting stomped the Lyrans were canonically suspicious of this initially

*Just going from the wiki, the ComsGuard presumable showed up , I'm guess gonna guess with all of first division if they were going up against a regiment sized force and suffered. well quote
From the wiki, canon information

He laid waste to the HPG compounds on the worlds of Lost and Canal, killing dozens of personnel in the rampage.[1][2] While the Lyran suspicions were allayed with a cover story claiming that the HPGs had only suffered light damage from periphery raiders, Primus Rusenstein ordered the First Division of the ComStar Guards and Militia to exterminate the renegade pirates. This was achieved, but it cost ComStar dearly: McGirk's forces achieved a 2.3 to 1 kill ratio against the inexperienced ComStar Guards in a three-day battle on the isolated, unmapped world of Trisha, some eight jumps into the periphery, before being wiped out

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and of course leaving aside that lyran suspicions being allayed (I'm skeptical) here 1st Division doesn't come back from this outing like Black Jack is still out there. [Currently he's ping ponging around the taurian to magistracy border]

So yeah with as much metal as he has, the combine is probably paying attention, and has questions, especially since the O5P already has reasons to distrust ComStar [more so than they ordinarily distrust anyone]

 

[Silverbullet]

[Currently he's ping ponging around the taurian to magistracy border]

Click to shrink...

Oh, oh damn, poor Rimward Periphery. Needs the Colonial Marshals several decades early and has to be making Thomas and Kyalla very nervous. nervous enough to maybe stop sniping at each other with little deniable raids, and right now I think the Aurigans are doing the Flaldr campaign soon and piracy is likely a worse issue now than in canon. Yeah ComStar fucked up....

 

[Bofors40mm]

well the good news is that the aurigans might be too busy and concerned about pirates to have that pointless and wasteful civil war

 

[Imperator Pax]

Oh, oh damn, poor Rimward Periphery. Needs the Colonial Marshals several decades early and has to be making Thomas and Kyalla very nervous. nervous enough to maybe stop sniping at each other with little deniable raids, and right now I think the Aurigans are doing the Flaldr campaign soon and piracy is likely a worse issue now than in canon. Yeah ComStar fucked up....

Click to shrink...

well the good news is that the aurigans might be too busy to have that pointless and wasteful civil war

Click to shrink...

The following is spoilers

Spoiler: You may not wish to read this.

Spoiler: HBS

Canonically the situation with regards to the Aurigan Reach's piracy problems were not that bad, not as bad as this.

However

Spoiler: Lord Espinosa

Was looking to convince Lord Tamati II Arano that the aurgian reach needed to build up its military, now leaving aside whether or not Tamati's subsequent jump accident was an accident or even if it wasn't whether Espinosa had anything to do with it,

In 3022 the fact Black Jack is running around is very much an explanation for both the Espinosa coup, and for the Magistracy wanting to support Kamea's restoration... because this was originally written and drafted as going to feature a novelization of sorts of the events of Christmas 24 through August of 3025

Which of course is part of hte reason in the main timeline (not Whoops, where well there goes the HPG network is) why Gene establishes a 'New Texas Rangers' Regiment before going back to the Inner Sphere. Admittedly there are other contributing factors to the Texas Rangers Regiment being established than just that. Some of that stuff has been hinted at and it is related to the broader periphery plot line but we will get on to that in particular when we introduce mother bear.

But yes. To summarize ComStar 'dun goofed'.

... and for Tomas and Kyalla's games,given Tomas in particular but Kyalla isn't scot free either particularly early canon I legitimately think that the pirate situation might make their situation worse as they blame each other for some of those raids

 

[Bofors40mm]

Honestly at this point if I was comstar i'd have the dantes hunting down that pirate bastard.

 

[Silverbullet]

Whole reason they had that Civil War is because a bunch of ex-Taurian worlds decided to change flags. The Concordat took exception and Tiamati was so paralyzed by the indecisiveness of the Coalition's ruling Council to decide on any course of action they almost stumbled into a war. Espinosa kept pushing for Tiamati to take on emergency powers and Tiamati decides to travel to the other Coalition planets to talk with the Council leaders privately and hash things out. Misjump kills him and his wife, Espinosa's sister. Santiago is shaken but tries to get Kamea to agree with his emergency powers policy. She refuses and Santiago decides "fuck it, doing it myself." Coups her and seizes power.

If you ever wondered why so much of the Coalition's military actually followed him it was because they too were sick of bureaucracy and noble games tying their hands. Of course power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and Espinosa takes increasingly harsher methods to ensure his control. Kamea returns with a army of dissidents, mercenaries, and "mercenaries" financed by Kyalla Centrella whose very upset the status quo is fucking with her trade routes. (FedSuns and Cappellan merchants heading to the Magistracy go through the Coalition.)

Cue Espinosa's increasing desperation to hold onto power causing so many issues it almost destroys the Aurigan Nation. Kamea finally takes the throne but the Aurigan Military is shattered, the Houses are nervous and lost a lot of their own power in the War. Also Kamea is forced to keep her uncle's authoritarian policies in orders to attempt to keep their Government running, which makes it funny that if she'd just said yes to Espinosa the first time things might have worked out better.

 

[Bofors40mm]

to be fair kamea hadn't been even crowned even the coup happened so we I honestly view espinosa doing the coup as at best too early. Because I doubt Kamea would have been stupid if she had had some time to review the situation

 

[Imperator Pax]

Honestly at this point if I was comstar i'd have the dantes hunting down that pirate bastard

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They only have three of them, but I don't understand why 1st Comsguard even accepted a ground fight rathr than just nuking them given the situation they were in in canon. [a three day slug match with those kind of losses?] In the prsent situation i.e. post 3005 the First Circuit is very alarmed at the idea of risking any more of its equipment right now. There is a faction within Rom that wants hey 'we should find some mercenaries to actually train our people to fight', but given losses, the expenses occured there are other people who don't want to spend money right now, and then there are the full on blakists.

Whole reason they had that Civil War is because a bunch of ex-Taurian worlds decided to change flags. The Concordat took exception and Tiamati was so paralyzed by the indecisiveness of the Coalition's ruling Council to decide on any course of action they almost stumbled into a war. Espinosa kept pushing for Tiamati to take on emergency powers and Tiamati decides to travel to the other Coalition planets to talk with the Council leaders privately and hash things out. Misjump kills him and his wife, Espinosa's sister. Santiago is shaken but tries to get Kamea to agree with his emergency powers policy. She refuses and Santiago decides "fuck it, doing it myself." Coups her and seizes power.

If you ever wondered why so much of the Coalition's military actually followed him it was because they too were sick of bureaucracy and noble games tying their hands. Of course power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely and Espinosa takes increasingly harsher methods to ensure his control. Kamea returns with a army of dissidents, mercenaries, and "mercenaries" financed by Kyalla Centrella whose very upset the status quo is fucking with her trade routes. (FedSuns and Cappellan merchants heading to the Magistracy go through the Coalition.)

Cue Espinosa's increasing desperation to hold onto power causing so many issues it almost destroys the Aurigan Nation. Kamea finally takes the throne but the Aurigan Military is shattered, the Houses are nervous and lost a lot of their own power in the War. Also Kamea is forced to keep her uncle's authoritarian policies in orders to attempt to keep their Government running, which makes it funny that if she'd just said yes to Espinosa the first time things might have worked out better.

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Is that from the source book, has there been new material?

I was just going off from the video game, like if thats true and canon, I'm probably going to need to read that.

 

[Silverbullet]

He did approach her with his ideas given Victoria's comments about her refusing to here him, but yeah he definitely had parts of the coup in place already and Kamea refusing his ideas was the final straw. Though he was planning something already given his using the underworld of the Reach to move and acquire equipment as noted in one of Rampant Company's Mechwarriors backgrounds. So he was clearly planning the coup if Tiamati didn't prove amicable to his proposals either. Yeah this is in the book. Give me a bit.

 

[Imperator Pax]

He did approach her with his ideas given Victoria's comments about her refusing to here him, but yeah he definitely had parts of the coup in place already and Kamea refusing his ideas was the final straw. Though he was planning something already given his using the underworld of the Reach to move and acquire equipment as noted in one of Rampant Company's Mechwarriors backgrounds. So he was clearly planning the coup if Tiamati didn't prove amicable to his proposals either. Yeah this is in the book. Give me a bit.

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I honestly, before get to that point, is well replay HBS's battletech, but I have the Aurigan source book and I probably need to reread that.

Now in this in 3022 when the coup occurs, Gene is here visiting for the coronation, I wrote that scene a while ago. There is no ambiquity of Kamea surviving in the current version because THS Hedwig, and her Gauss Rifles, basically tells the Directorate DropShips 'Try me' while covering the Union's retreat and jump out but again that will be later down the road

 

[Bofors40mm]

that reminds me Gene needs to start building up a aerospace branch for his unit. He has at the very least the bays for a ASF squadron

 

[Silverbullet]

Problem is ASFs are in a way rarer than Battlmechs in the early 31st century

 

[Sogen]

I honestly, before get to that point, is well replay HBS's battletech, but I have the Aurigan source book and I probably need to reread that.

Now in this in 3022 when the coup occurs, Gene is here visiting for the coronation, I wrote that scene a while ago. There is no ambiquity of Kamea surviving in the current version because THS Hedwig, and her Gauss Rifles, basically tells the Directorate DropShips 'Try me' while covering the Union's retreat and jump out but again that will be later down the road

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Judging by the designation, I'm gonna guess Warship? How'd Gene manage to get something like that without one of the Houses taking it (or destroying it to keep the others from taking it), or ComStar pulling another Tripitz Affair?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Judging by the designation, I'm gonna guess Warship? How'd Gene manage to get something like that without one of the Houses taking it (or destroying it to keep the others from taking it), or ComStar pulling another Tripitz Affair?

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She's an Assault DropShip not a warship.

Well actually:

If you go to this, and read between the lines:

https://forum.questionablequesting....-battletech-isekai.15094/page-23#post-6020911

Hedwig is a DropShip. Not warship.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Problem is ASFs are in a way rarer than Battlmechs in the early 31st century

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yeah there's only what a dozen or so sites that make them in this era and not many lines at each. Still probably can get some from his share of the robinson cache