Battletech: The Ghost Who Walks (Battletech Isekai)

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Given its position, given the Alavi were going to want to stick around... they might be able to justify leaving a small detachment of ASF, but they would have to be Azami Eagles, the Altair... maybe some of their Sabres... but those would be Azami assets.


Gene suspected that once upon a time the 'Junkyard' had been some kind of Capellan industrial shop... that had through age, and changes in demand sprawled out as pieces of machinery were left to sit in the arid desert. The Free Worlds League had probably blown up any of the heavier industry, but the desert preserved hulls, and pieces of metal, and since then Via Cabellero's inhabitants had drug things out from the sands. Gene was still a little leery about the risk of unexploded ordinance but as far as a muster area went, everyone knew where it was.


Centurion, Hunchback. Wolverine. DervishShadowHawk. Then there were the couple of heavier mechs. "What doyou think?" He asked the Azami man who had walked up to join him.


"They are in good condition, but of all makes, from many manufacturers." The man replied, "The handful of centurions I think came from House Davion's defense against the Dragon, but their warehouse has spare parts. At least one of the Hawks was built by Magistracy of Canopus, probably to fight the SLDF." Haqim spread his hands, "How it ended up here, I cannot say. The Wolverines some are from the Star League, one of the Hunchbacks was originally built Winter, but another was from House Marik's invasion force. If you mean to rationalize the force... you have your work cut out for you."


Gene nodded. "Do you have the tally?" The man extended his hand offering over a piece of waxy waterproof paper from a notebook. The Hunchbacks were in the lead by headcount. Centurions were represented but were all within a few years of each other represented by early production. A much wider gap existed for the other machines. If the master chief was correct then, at least four states had contributed to the pool of Hunchbacks. That wasn't really a surprise given the machine had been sold throughout was sold throughout the Inner Sphere and Periphery. On the one hand... well on the one hand they had enough to make a Lance of Hunchbacks, Bubbles could work with that probably pretty easily. "Lets start with hunchbacks then, get with Darryl and see if we can try and fit them all with the same weapons. I'll talk to Bubbles about setting their pilots aside."


"All of the hunchback pilots?"


"Yes." He replied. The senior non com excused himself. There were no Vindicators on Aquagea, or rather the only ones on the planet were down in Leon. None that he was aware of dated to before the Marik occupation. For the same reason, while there probably were hulks of lighter mechs there weren't any up here. Leon reportedly had a couple of them around, but instead of desperately trying to buy Stingers, or Hermes or whatever might been available had sunk money on Quickcell tanks which had been for sale in Rock City. "If they can buy tanks what do you recommend?"


Alois Hammer had been silent up until then, "More of what the planetary government bought. If your driving concern is logistics and keeping machines running." The armor officer replied, "I'd keep the locals away from our Bandits, or Fury tanks. That preacher is talking up the latter," And those wouldn't fit with what Aquagea needed, never mind what was available, and they could afford. "The locals have more experience with fusion engines than I would have expected," So if the objective was to keep long term costs down, a fusion powered tank really needed to carry energy weapons that didn't need ammunition. In terms of internal combustion designs though, "LRM carriers could provide them with a mobile rocket battery if they could keep them fed and away from whoever they're fighting."


Hammer had a point particularly in not expecting the local 'rubes' away from SLDF cache material. Aquagea was looking at defending the town, the rail line, the mines, but they weren't going to be doing expeditionary warfare as they were envisioned. These were largely twenty year olds looking to protect their homes and families. This wasn't Luxen. They weren't trying to build a formal military structure, or train enlisted and officers of a state military to fight pirates. "Get with the Azami technicians about the fusion power plant." That was their strong point after all, they didn't like being reliant on long supply trains, "If we have to expand the armor we're going to have to buy what's available. We can use this to feel out what's plausible." The conversation died as the hover trucks approached, their blowers coming to vertical and cutting thrust to let them sit there... that meant it was time to talk about what all they had to work with, with the people who actually had to use the equipment.


Gene knew that the Azami had been working with things on Detroit, whether anything was ready, was another story. The Azami would have people here though even after the bulk of the command transferred to Canopian space. He also knew the White Shields Company was pushing to be moved up here. Bardiche under Soren wanted to be involved in 'whatever' this was, and to a less extent that was true also of the Light Company under Akashi. In short of his independent commands only Easy Company under Beau really wasn't objecting to being posted to Leon.


These had not been complaints prior to planet fall. It had only been as Claymore and Curassier had dispersed down that the attention by leadership had begun to manifest. Gene also knew that Hammer wanted a more concrete schedule on going back to the Inner Sphere because in his reasoning the company's association with House Davion's victories on Dieron, and the victory on Elidere were going to attract attention from the other states...and not just recriminations from the Combine though that should also be in the forefront.


The Combine would have been looking to even up just for Dieron. Gene suspected the combine had been pushed onto the back foot but that that the combine was also liable to irrationally strike out over helping the Azami flee out into the Periphery. Not that that was a recent conclusion, but they were out here in the middle of this.


Gene walked forward, and Hammer followed. He had met some of these people. Others were new faces, people from further out in the countryside who while probably had heard of Zathras's attack while it was happening hadn't been able to see it, and might not have come into town until all the scrap had been dragged to the junkyard. Even then, even after the discovery of the underground warehouse most of these people didn't yet have their mechs yet.


Chang was going to speak to them, and anyone else who would listen about responsibilities, duty to one's home, and family. That they were going to learn how to fight back as a community. Via Cabellero wasn't a city... more like a big town but that was at least probably mark of the hardness of the succession wars. The time after the League had fallen.


Hammer seeming to read his expression nodded, confirming he too felt that the locals didn't have the manpower, and on top of that, Germanium mining and a false sense of security could lead to a boom in the region, bring people in from Detroit... maybe elsewhere, but new people could lead to social anxieties and then on top of that, there was still Zathras. Zathras was the threat that worried the townsfolk more so than the pirates ... Black Jack's lot anyway.


"Could always go punch their lights out, sir."


"Why would I want to do that?"


"Zathras has bounty on you, after you stopped their invasion force a few years ago. You destroyed a company of BattleMechs, two ASF, seized the DropShip." Hammer replied. "Frankly if I were them I'd be worried the Company staging here was prelude to you leading an invasion of their so called Empire."

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Aquagea
Mechs stretched across the patchy grass that formed the borderland on the town's 'backyard'. Those machines looked impressive, just as they had looked impressive on parade back on Rock City. He turned away from the window to stare at the holographic map. In 2765 his unit had been earmarked to shuffle off into the periphery, to leave the Inner Sphere. The Taurians, and their Rim World backers had beaten them to the punch. Of course the world he'd been due to post to with the rest of the Hegemony Regiment was in the Aurigan Reach, a world called Artru.


Doubling back wasn't an option. They had a schedule they were on, one they meant to keep, and they were right on the magistracy border. They were going to need to secure the staging rights, trade rights and plans for what the JumpShip would schedule irrespective of how considerate the Azami elders might be of delays, of changes.


His command staff had assembled for the review mostly as a . They talked about the planet, and Aquagea's luck, and how that might or might not hold out. Then there was the Zathras bounty that he'd been ignorant of. The locals had enough for five full lances and a command element. 23 Mechs, a smattering of vehicles, and a bunch of poor bloody infantrymen with auto rifles.

For a million people wide territory it was both simultaneously a pitifully small force, and yet for the succession wars a local militia with that many 'mechs was a lot. And yet to the first point they all but disappeared amidst the swollen Company ranks on assembly.

Aquagea had a few years of peace to buy new mining machines and bring the mines back into industrial operation. Instead of rely in on clapped out machines from the capellan era they'd been able to get newer vehicles from Detroit, and that improved their ore hauls... but the lack of regular JumpShip traffic meant getting back to Detroit was half a year at times. House Alavi would remedy that, make trips more regularly than that... but Hammer was right that that might cause trouble in the planetary government and create further problems with Zathras. The bounty had been a surprise, and even though Gene had been ignorant posting a major company combat command here would look like a political statement in the local periphery at the very least.

"If we had taken LTV and Ignis as salvage that might have been an option." One of Hammer's junior officers suggested. "We might still find them, and ship them back here, or we can ship any salvage we're not keeping to detroit's salvage yards."

The remark prompted a dirty look from the Azami Lieutenant, "We can fit a fusion engine to Quickcell scorpion, and a large laser for testing, give us thirty six hours at least and it will be done."

He glanced to Dara, who was the man's direct superior as the Azami elder stroked his dyed orange beard in contemplation. "Explain."

"We can license with Quickcell, Colonel. They are an inexpensive weapon to produce... and the truth is we have experience with them due to how little the Dragons cares for its armored forces." The order of five pillars had accepted the procurement because they were so cheap.

The 125 Rating Fusion Engine was four tons. That was two tons lighter than the standard 100 rating Internal Combustion Engine quickcell used to keep the price of their budget tanks down. "Something you plan to do anyway."

"The brotherhood will require weapons, we cannot rely only on hiding from the Dragon. We must be prepared to fight and even more if descendants of the Satan Amaris remain among men with the intent to bring further chaos to the world." the elder replied.

That was fine, really it was and the Azami had down time, "You can do the work but include the locals when you do it. If they're going after equipment it'll be their decisions ultimately." Given the situation they couldn't really afford to be all that picky. The truth was too many of his commanders, Bardiche certainly were looking at cache equipment as what was the 'normal'... they had become used to the standard of equipment.

Soren's battalion were here to train up, presumably because they had made some deal with House Davion to try and start a rebellion 'rebellion' or such against the Combine and split off the Rasalhague worlds. Dante's current time table was to return to Davion Space, and Bardiche would be positioned probably on Dieron, or Altair … maybe on Northwind for House Davion. That had been the tentative plan they had discussed with Davion High Command before they had left in any event.

What they hadn't said, was the second part of that plan was to borrow the Eridani and Blue Stars and hay off to visit the Nagayan Castle Brian Complex. Rebuild those units to strength and point them in the Combine's direction with what the Quartermaster's Corp had denied to Kerensky... or House Kurita for that matter... given what had happened in the first succession war.

But that wouldn't be next year or probably even the year after, if not later. It would not change the situation with Aquagea, "Remember people we have to get over the border to the Magistracy and maintain schedule." He reminded the growing open table discussion that had opened up. "We need to be leaving soon." He added probably unnecessarily, because they were going to jump the border … but that was in turn where they would bemoving onto to SL era posts. Posts which would have resources... or information about the last years of the Star League in the periphery. They would be leaving Aquagea soon. The objective was to be at Luxen some time in January of the New Year... but that would depend on the journey, and what they could learn.

"Is that why I'm here?" Septim asked.

It wasn't really a question. Septim was going to form the company lead element if they had to send a force ahead. He, Hammer and Bardiche would forward deploy to Luxen with JumpShips to start the end of a circuit to ferry the rest of the exodus fleet there... and to set the stage for having the space to offload the entire company for restructuring.

It wasn't a question, because while he didn't expect Hammer to object he expected protests from Soren about being sent ahead. A battalion of 'mechs though would be enough to secure Luxen while the rest of the force moved up. "We won't be far behind unless things get out of hand, but in the mean time there is this." He turned back to the assembled Via Cabellero Rangers, "These people are going to defend their homes," He looked at the Preacher's 'mech standing in the distance, still painted in a dark dusky urban SLDF camo. "We're going give them help to do that, but also the company needs to understand that if we can stop Black Jack, we need to do so. That also means stopping Kelly if we can find him..."


That hadn't changed per se, except in a sense it had. THe precentor New Avalon had wanted them to put Kelly down... but that had been before.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars

LUXEN.

3020​

Beside him Septim stretched against the planet's gravity and groaned as he looked around the expansive, plush, terminal facilities. Luxen had once been a provincial capital after all, and for modern uses the spaceport hitherto had seemed outsized for its needs, but now all of a sudden its size made sense... and the posh accommodations were a nice thing to have he supposed. "Looks like we're in for a lot of questions."


The truth was Lady Raventhir had sounded impatient when she had called them from the jump point, and then there had been the news. Dressed in sharp pressed Khaki the armor officer wore a reserved expression... but not the worried expression of a man bringing more bad news... they had had enough of that. The armor officer in contrast to his Battlemech piloting brethren had been able to restock the least from the outpost castles they had visited along the way they had received some aid there. Gene breathed in, grateful to be free of recycled air. Luxen was largely how he remembered it, but he and the company were not how they remembered. It certainly didn't hurtthat they had moved on Cate's Hold, and Brixtana whose caches they had moved on after linking up with the last Azami force holding bonavista for them after having wiped out the pirates who'd been nesting there.

Whether or not Precentor Luxen was able to make good on the bounties or not, well that would be a question for later on. It was good to be planet side again... that much he knew for sure. They had a more pressing conversation before they talked to the MRB reps.

He was passed a data slate which summarized the latest. The latest news wasn't what everyone was talking about. "How many civilians are around?"

"The news is reporting is tens of thousands, from the crowds around the star port... I would believe it Commander." Gene blew out a breath, "Has ComStar put up any new figures for civilian casualties?"

"We know that Kelly blasted the water purification systems... we can expect that civilian deaths will be high, but for real numbers no. There is nothing yet, and in six months it was will be worse, but we might not know really until we are back in Davion Space." The Azami armor officer replied, "It is a brazen act that he had committed, the Free Worlds League will have to respond." The man attempted to assure him.

Gene glanced at him, "Make a note, we need to know where the Wolf Dragoons are according to the MRB,"

"Of course, it will be done."

Gene looked across the concourse of the terminal. Half a dozen Triumph class DropShips and dozens of DroSTIIA were spread across the ferrocrete pads in the distance unloading. He wasn't exactly sure Luxen's government were going to be comfortable for the forty some thousand Azami men women and children that they'd be playing host to in that six month envelope but the reality was plans continued to change... the situation while they had been moving through the remains of sldf forward posts in the periphery.

They had been in transit when Kelly had brazenly assault a key Marik world. Which beyond anything else just went to show that no world was safe... but on top of that was Kelly's pronouncement to the whole damn Inner Sphere... and anyone else with an HPG. The pirate had hijacked, probably via an override stick though who knew where he'd gotten that from, the HPG on Kalidasa to broadcast live to the whole network... exploiting the Star League Emergency Broadcast override to do so. That didn't really mater so much as the contents of that broadcast... Kelly's tirade might have come with some psychotic manifesto if only illiteracy weren't such a pervasive bane... but the point stood.

The word was out.

Kelly had launched his attack on Kalidasa and told the whole damned inner sphere he was fighting on behalf of an amaris claimant and to establish a new Amaris empire to bring an end to the tyranny of the Inner Sphere. That was nonsense of course, but... "Boss," Septim called drawing his attention. He recognized the coloring and the uniforms. The Luxen volunteers, "That must be the Mercs they got to replace us," He said with regards to the others.

He made a gruff affirmative noise in the back of his throat. Truth be told the now Captain Short looked a little uncomfortable as she tried to keep up with the taller woman. It didn't appear to be intentional, the other mercenary wasn't trying to run Short ragged but it was still happening.

"She doesn't look happy to see us." Septim continued.

"Play nice Septim."

"I can play nice," The lyran replied playfully, but it was conspicuous that Lady Raventhir was absent... but then again most likely it was all the news media. "And besides I've got a good idea of the kind of stuff going through her head seeing us here... even if she had to know we were coming. Bigger unit, bigger name, more fame." He remarked

Which was certainly true, an Azami merchant caravan was supposed to have left on a much more direct route and should have reached here late last year on the other hand, "I want to find out if they know anything else about Kelly's declaration." Not that he was necessarily expecting they did, and if Kelly was live broadcasting from the Free Worlds League they probably weren't going to see him any time soon. Gene took a step forward, Septim followed and an array of men in the uniforms of the SLDF followed.

… and the really was the change over with both Azami Light Horse Regiments assembled … but that rebuilding from stockpiles here in the periphery... and why Dara, the Azami elder who seemed to be the most influential, was hoping lady Raventhir would accept such a sizable civilian population remaining behind for an extended period of time instead of trying to move everyone across the intervening space. It was probably best to meet Luxen's defenders in the middle.

"Captain Short," Gene came to a halt, and settled for the more generic rank, since he wasn't sure what the other mercenary leader usually went by. Her uniform was dark and modelled on SLDF uniforms but the rank insignia was missing, and he wasn't sure if that was some stylistic flourish, "Commander Volkov." It was obvious that Raventhir had bolstered her forces after they had left, but Kelly had thrown a gauntlet down by striking at some of the Captain General's staunchest supporters. Hitting Kalidasa he had seized the HPG station burned the Precentor of the Class A station at a mech sized stake, apparently killed one of the Captain General's cousins. Then hijacked control of the HPG to broadcast out his message, with all grisly footage included. Kelly was a madman. That he had to be insane was the only logical explanation for this escalation. That was what it was, an escalation... Kelly had been arguing for raids against the Inner Sphere not shoving a stick directly at a great house...

…and so Luxen's public was probably right to be terrified.

And his own troopers weren't afraid, they were apoplectic. That was obvious. "Your men are spoiling for a fight," Volkov observed in a more cordial tone than he had actually expected from her brusque pace moving across the terminal, and that was part of the reason he had started walking towards them to meet them half way rather than making the two company commanders walk all the way over in full view of the cameras.

"They are that," He replied. "Is there anything Black Jack has done before the attack on Kalidasa, any indication of what we can expect combat wise?"

--
Notes: We're back to Luxen, and for reference for Hegemony Castle Outposts this is the kind of benchmark I'm working from https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1UUdhNDI1R_Qkl08LhUezgAxyiiVIy1NDnTubLGqH2Kc/edit?gid=0#gid=0 specifically this will be for Artru other castles will have different mech assignments but I thought I would share because I think this is a good break down for 2765. Part 2 of Luxen should be larger looking forward to do this for a while and of course also we get both reasons for the Dragoons to send Widow out to the periphery and set up long term repercussions of what will become the 4th Sucession war

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars
Luxen Contract​

She didn't have an immediate response... there was a lot to think about, so she thought about it. A hundred thoughts raced through her head as the question floated in the air between them.


Battle Rom were the bread and butter of operations planning meetings. Tanks with treads in motion, wheeled vehicles , hover craft different flying vehicles, and various battlemechs striding across the field of past engagements. You could learn things from ROMs but it still didn't change the logistics ofthe situation... Mechs still needed work. They had been inundated by reports, and she knew part of that was her being groomed for command. Even with her new commission with the Luxen Dragoons, Short was envious of the amount of metal on display She also wasn't oblivious that while some were more cut and dried mercenaries here for the job... a lot of the 'mech jocks jostling around the limited space were here for a cause they believed in.


Short found herself stumbling over the question looking at mass of soldiery filling the terminal building as they moved off of dropships.


It was scuttlebutt around that Raventhir had missed the opportunity to bring the then much smaller Shepherd's Company into the Magistracy's fold, and had been criticized for it. Shepherd was in a gray urban battledress uniform stood among similar uniforms as loud brash men talked about the trade... an unnecessary reminder that Luxen hosted a battalion of Highlanders replete with their totem 'mechs.


Short had been briefed on what the Magistracy knew of the vastly expanded, insanely grown mercenary army that Raventhir was principle bond holder to the contract to. It was part of her job to know. Claymore, the Highlander Battalion, was as she saw it, organized similarly to how Shepherd's Company had been expected to operate during its previous time in the Periphery. Mechs supported by infantry and armor... just on a bigger scale.


Scuttlebutt was they were going to talk about it. Talk about deployments and combined arms... and she imagined probably rehash all the things that her old unit within the Luxen Volunteers had been taught. There was a lot of stuff that they were supposed to be talking about coming, including that Raventhir was hoping to sweet talk Mountain Wolf into licensing production of their Merlin Heavy BattleMech here. Here meaning on Luxen from what Short gathered, but things were still up in the air so who really knew.


She knew for a fact that Raventhir was talking to Mountain Wolf because the Dragoons had received Merlin BattleMechs, which couldn't possibly have been cheap. But then, Luxen wasn't paying for it so the planetary government's cries of fiscal conservatism, or wanting to spend money on things other than the defense budget had largely fallen on deaf ears.


A heavy set man in his late fifties wearing the markings of a lieutenant colonel turned, "So this is one of the Vindicator pilots, eh?"


"This is Captain Short." Shepherd stated to the old highlander, and changed the subject. "This is MacINtyre he's interested in the 'mech platoon system." In the ensuing small talk she learned the older heavy set man had been an instructor at a Davion MechWarrior academy deep inside of the Inner Sphere. The Luxen Dragoons were proud of the base six formation because it had worked with Easy company... and part of its popularity was thanks to her book that she'd released. Not that anyone in the Inner Sphere had probably even heard of it.


… except, she swallowed, Shepherd was back on Luxen now... and if he hadn't heard about the literary phenomenon that had swept through the Magistracy he wouldn't be able to miss it now that he was back. Short glanced out of the massive glass facade looking for something to occupy her attention. It didn't do her much good.


Raventhir had built up the Luxen Dragoons into a massive formation at least she had thought so. She had taken pride in her unit, and had written to the public to support the MAF, and to expect... to expect the pirates to come back. It hadn't made everyone happy, there were members of the politically powerful mercantile mining association who really wanted things to go back to normal... and they weren't the only ones.

Short nodded, and glanced sideways to Volkov. The BattleMaster pilot had brought her company on in order to give the new mech pilots an experienced company to learn under. As soldiers for hire in the periphery Volkov's company had looked normal, and had been about the same size as the Scratch Force Raventhir had hired from Detroit to relieve Luxen in its time of need. They too were dwarfed by the assembled heavy Battlemech formation.

Short's look towards the tarmac drew the attention of the Mercenary.

Her eyes fixed on the machines. The pair of Crocketts of the Highlander Battalion's Ancients Company stood as silent sentinels of the terminals, Volkov had devoured all the information the portly alcoholic cleric at the MRB had been able to give her about their 'relief'. Apparently besides just Tuck's positive opinion, the Precentor New Avalon had written that Shepherd had rescued the Precentor Elidere from the Combine's ISF and so was in the good graces of the highest of Comstar's clerics in the Federated Suns.

She had already observed that the arriving force were spoiling for a fight, Volkovsupposed she needed to provide an answer, "We tangled with a collection of LosTech 'mechs. Lancelot, Guillotine, Starslayer according to the warbook data, backed up by some more typical fare." She wanted to sound confident.. her words felt hollow. They'd driven the pirates off, but not destroyed them utterly Volkov should have been proud of her victory... Black Jack's chief lieutenants had humiliated other more storied MAF formations... the pirates had humiliated the defenders of Royal Foxx while Lady Raventhir had been away hitting the HPG station. Like wise to the embarrassment of the Magestrix Vixen had had its precentor dragged out of the ComStarcompound and burned alive. The truth was it was only a matter of time before Luxen was attacked again since there were only so many HPGstations within the Magistracy. She ended up saying as much. "They struck Lockton two months ago. That was the last HPG station in the Magistracy they destroyed." The precentor there though had managed to escape with his life.

"And then Kelly hit Kalidasa," He blinked slowly, breathing slowly in contemplation. "Well," In a genial tone, "tomorrow we will organize an assembly get started with the refits that Lady Raventhir wanted us to go into. My techs are doing final checks on the engines, and the weapons are set aside."

Volkov had read the report. During the 2nd ​Battle of Luxen one of the mercenaries of the Scratch Company hadbeen killed in action as his Cicada's armor had failed to stopshrapnel entering his cockpit. Raventhir had laid claim to the Ostrocand had it repaired for the Volunteers. The Dead Merc's machine had served as the basis for a variant of the Cicada that had been much talked about but nothing had yet to actually be done.

"Right the Cicadas, we will be talking about that as well," The amber eyes flicked to her as she made the comment, "But also the Charger rebuilds. We'll take those four hundreds out,"

There was chortle, "Aye, use them for something sensible like power defense batteries around critical infrastructure,"

The laughing old man quieted, "As I said though thats on the schedule." Shepherd stated, "Are there any other questions Commander?"

Volkov couldn't stop herself, she was sure that Short would have asked anyway, but Force Major Seghal hadn't said anything about it, "What happens if we're attacked here, if the pirates attack who takes command?"

"I have tactical and operational command, I'm beholden to Lady Raventhir for strategic direction. Your company will operate as part of the Luxen Volunteers Command, functionally filling command and control for the Volunteers. You'll hold the same command rank, authorities as any of my battalion commanders."

He hadn't switched over to calling the Unit the Luxen Dragoons she noted... and also that put her at the coequal status with heavy set highlander who'd wanted to ask about the base six mech system... along with the other units of the command... she didn't exhale... a heavy sigh would have looked like weakness in front of these men, her second in command was going to love all of this... and if she wasn't wrong Short was pretty happy with the situation as well.

 

[Silverbullet]

I thought the only HPGs in Canopus were on Canopus IV and Luxen?

 

[Imperator Pax]

I thought the only HPGs in Canopus were on Canopus IV and Luxen?

Click to shrink...

No the only two Universities in the Magistracy are Canopus and Luxen, in 3025 I think they have at least six HPG stations and maybe as many as ten, but Royal Foxx and Lockton both canonically have class B stations at this point [So at minimum its Royal Foxx (a possession of the main Centrellas), Lockton (a raventhir possession), Canopus IV, Luxen, Dunianshire, and Palladix ]

 

[Bofors40mm]

Of all the mechs listed I would hardly call the guillotine lostech given the FWL still makes albeit limited numbers of the things and the thing is literally the mech which faired the best from a loss of lostech. All it lost wad 3 SHS and CASE and that's it.
And the dracs still make the Lancelot albeit a much reduced form that's used incorrectly.

And there's not too much fancy stuff in the starslayer either. Which I suppose all of these would check in terms of stuff the comguards could loose to pirates that they could keep operational for any period of time beyond a few engagements.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Of all the mechs listed I would hardly call the guillotine lostech given the FWL still makes albeit limited numbers of the things and the thing is literally the mech which faired the best from a loss of lostech. All it lost wad 3 SHS and CASE and that's it.
And the dracs still make the Lancelot albeit a much reduced form that's used incorrectly.

And there's not too much fancy stuff in the starslayer either. Which I suppose all of these would check in terms of stuff the comguards could loose to pirates that they could keep operational for any period of time beyond a few engagements.

Click to shrink...

The combine still manufactures the Lancelot in this period ? I did not know that
(I'll respond further later)

 

[Bofors40mm]

The combine still manufactures the Lancelot in this period ? I did not know that
(I'll respond further later)

Click to shrink...

They do. It's just that it gets a bad reputation since everyone treats it like the mech it was in the SLDF rather than something closer to a more sane rifleman.
It has the same weapons fit of the OG design, 9.5 tons of armor and 19 SHS. And a different electronics suite.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Contract​

–
There were far less debutantes, and pillars of society this time around but the place was familiar. The absence of high society and the presence of more uniformed men aside the holographic suite was the same, and made this presentation, would make this presentation easier. He had been a little worried about the Canopian stereotype that the Inner Sphere had held for … hundreds of years now. Given the situation it would have been stupid to not be at least a little worried about there being some kind of friction... with the scratch company it had been different there had been few enough people personnel management wasn't an issue. He had had Septim, and Bahar to manage administration. Things were different now...


Planning to return to the Periphery had been nebulous after landing on Elidere since they'd been working and hadn't had a fleshed out plan on hiring in the Federated Suns once the I.E contract was completed... and then Elidere had turned into a major engagement, and everything had expanded well beyond just planning to make a return to the periphery... and getting out of the Inner Sphere had suddenly become about so many more factors. They had come into a lot of money and expanded the company significantly but that had entailed being exposed to a lot...


None of which would have been prudent to advertise to the Magistracy. Raventhir seemed to have enough political attention that the 'honorable third party' showing up might not even be the Combine throwing its weight around. He was going to have to issue briefings though about the situation, especially with the Kalidasa Massacre so prominently featured in the news, with the pirates.


He wasn't sure how to go about trying to determine how spooked the civilian population had been before... the captain of the merchant caravan who had laid the ground work ahead of their return had said things were tense... but tense wasn't a solid measurement... and he very likely had been mostly looking at the political elite's reaction to their arrival because that had been the instructions. It had been reasonable to ask questions about how the local authorities might react to the exodite fleet arriving.


The cicada that had been schaefers prior to the man buying the farm, here, and then built back and used by Hanzo until he'd transitioned to a Highlander was on display in one of the piped in feeds. A mix of Azami techs and support staff pulled from the Luxen Volunteers were around the machine. The Cicada at least they had a working example of, but none of the people in the hall were really paying attention to the work... but that was fine he planned to take them out to the gantries tomorrow morning as the techs pulled the big engines out of the things.


The chargers were going to take some work to find the right balance. Apparently the new machines hadn't been here for very long at all. The Volunteers had just been getting used to their new Merlins when the first dozen Chargers had arrived... and as training and familiarization mechs went a mech was a mech. As a fighting machine though, he couldn't help but feel, the charger was just woefully under gunned and over engine-d. It was a sports car trying to be a war machine. Though while he could say that out loud it wasn't the sort of thing he thought appropriate to put into telling Raventhir... mechs were hard up in the succession wars so they would pull the engine and free up space to let the thing carry heavier weapons.


The good news there was the magistracy produced PPCs in house. He looked over the assembled Luxen Volunteers the majority of whom had yet to actually receive the mechs they were going to eventually pilot. Green. So many green pilots, which meant that what had been Easy Company Luxen Volunteers was going to be pulling double duty, both now and after they inevitably moved off again. That was the thing though training meant the students had to be able to walk on their off two feet after.


He activated the holographic projector via a mental command through his thin circlet neurohelmet causing a storm of light to spring to life. "This machine is from Claymore Battalion, it is a Thug series BattleMech." He announced before chattering could start, going over tonnage and equipment, before sending another silent command to bring up the Charger, "The Charger runs off of an LTV 400 series, we are going to pull that engine." He wasn't going to ask for volunteers to test the first run of machines they modified.


Unlike his Hegemony produced Thugs they didn't have DHS to mount to the engines, and they didn't have endo steel... so he was going to let the techs experiment. He'd hand Akashi the evaluation duties for the new pilots to see how she did with new pilots.


Lady Raventhir gestured for him, bluntly, to get on with it. "Most of you will be aware of the base six, and square six organizational table." Four units of six mech icons each appeared in the projector, "This is in ideal terms to provide fielding a company scale force operating in roughly the same bracket of movement. On Luxen this main line of battle were two sixes, platoons, of Vindicator Medium mechs, supported by a Recon Six and another six units forming a headquarters and reinforcing section." He changed 'slides' projecting the familiar aerodyne shapes sitting on a tarmac at the space station. "These are four canopian built, canopian pattern PPC carrier leopards with six mech bays each. It provides the lift capacity to deploy such a company," Meaning you would need two Merchant-class DropShips to deploy such a unit. Or a Star Lord that could then carry two more DropShips. Raventhir owned a Star Lord after all.

The image changed. A single aerodyne dropship icon appeared. Then delineated to infantry, light and heavy vehicles, ASF, and finally a mech lance.

"This will probably unfamiliar to the majority of you." Unless Seghal or some other officer within the MAF had crammed what they could find about the Luxen formation down the new recruits throat, which he supposed after he started might have happened. "This is a Maganac Corp Tactical Group. It is designed to answer a different operational question than the Six pattern and organization. While not employed on Luxen in this full configuration a light version was employed at Luxen sans jump Infantry and ASF assets."

The table broke away into an image of the DropShip Sam Houston on Luxen in 3016. Traditionally the Azami were light raiders, or cavalry specialists, but they were best known for the prior while the agenda was to emphasize the latter.

"A tactical group is a combined arms element." Effectively a battalion level unit at full strength when with infantry and counting the dropship , deploying an ASF lance, two fighters, a mech lance and armor as its main force of advance. "Its intended application is to be rapidly mobile and emphatic on operational art. In its intended role, to arrive, roll off the group push to an objective if necessary without exterior support, fight secure it ahead of relief by a larger more typical force. Whether that is additional Mechs or by tanks and infantry arriving to hold ground."

A map changed projecting the river valley, and winding course near Luxen's capital and the mountains to the north, simulating the fly in of Sam Houston at the final drill context... sans torrential rainstorm.

"On Luxen this created a nice overlap." It was true that, "65 KpH is enough to outpace the LRM carriers of a Tactical Group's heavy vehicle unit, but the Tokugawa used were able to keep up with the Vindicator just fine." Images to that effect appeared in midair dated to the 'second Luxen Contract'. The use of the vindicator while not ideal perhaps as a mech, had been ideal in a logistical situation in terms of having on hand spare parts and a manageable set of ammo requirements as long as there was political. The Vindicators had only the LRMs that needed to be kept fed. 65KpH was the basically minimum speed. The floor. You didn't want to go slower than that for concerns about medium and heavy units. The LRM carriers were something of an exception because they were intended to be kept at range and behind the main line of engagement...

The map of Luxen reflected the original company deployment of Easy and the Maganac Corp units before contact had messed up all the nice planned arrangement.

"Obviously the six works best when you have equivalency as best as possible. Six or Twelve Vindicators can be divided into pairs, in groups of three, or" As the SLDF would have done in it "into three more conventional lances, or they can mass as a unit or fire a whole twelve, concentrating LRM fires as indirect." ...and of course you could do the same thing with six or twelve Merlins. Centurions, Dervishes, etc... which they could demonstrate. He didn't question how Abner had arranged the Merlins that had beaten them to the Periphery by months. He at least knew where the Chargers were coming from.

"The real world being what is, its hard to field a logistical end unit of all the same designs, and there are tactical situations where mixed lances of specialists are both useful, as well as at an operational level easier to keep in the field based on supply situations." The image shifted displaying the two units side by side, "These two formations are different. They're designed to answer different questions, which means that adroitly they serve complimentary roles in battle, and in the course of a campaign."


There was a brief pause in the briefing allowing him to take a sip of water as they began delineate how familiarization training was going to work. That meant dividing up personnel. Prior to up engineering Septim's merlin after the original engine had been cored on Ander's Moon he had pilotted a stock machine. It made the Lyran an obvious fit for the pilots who had already received their Merlins. Beau would take his independent company and manage the medium 'mechs in much the same way as they might have done it before the expansion.


Raventhir had made it clear that she wanted to maintain the base six on the premise that it had proven itself both as a logistical unit and in combat for massing that fire on target.. but that was going to put a higher strain on the platoon leader which meant most likely Bubbles was going to have her work cut out for her when she got handed evaluating progress for each of those MAF officers.

 

[Wargamer08]

While logistically and operationally more complex, a base six system is simply a better system on the basis of sustainable and flexibility. It can far more easily absorb losses and continue to operate with combat effectiveness then a comparative base four unit.

That is to say with base four, a single loss means that you cannot effectively execute simple tasks like bounding movements by pairs because either the covering pair or the moving pair is at 50% strength. This means you have to cannibalize either the command element or other lances to maintain effective frontline force application.

Which is a lot of words to say, I one hundred percent agree with this push for base six. It even gives the Magistracy some unique flavor in the setting. The irony of a periphery state being the first to adopt advanced SLDF post coup unit structure is also great.

 

[Bofors40mm]

While logistically and operationally more complex, a base six system is simply a better system on the basis of sustainable and flexibility. It can far more easily absorb losses and continue to operate with combat effectiveness then a comparative base four unit.

That is to say with base four, a single loss means that you cannot effectively execute simple tasks like bounding movements by pairs because either the covering pair or the moving pair is at 50% strength. This means you have to cannibalize either the command element or other lances to maintain effective frontline force application.

Which is a lot of words to say, I one hundred percent agree with this push for base six. It even gives the Magistracy some unique flavor in the setting. The irony of a periphery state being the first to adopt advanced SLDF post coup unit structure is also great.

Click to shrink...

To be fair a base 4 at the Platoons/lance level and 3/4 for levels above it is the setup for many units for a reason in both BT and IRL. Namely that it limits the burdens on commanders who really have a hard time keeping track of more than 2 or 3 other units at a time while in combat themselves.
God help the commander of a unit having to keep track of six units at once like in the MOC and comstar

That and of course the tactical flexibility of a company with 3 lances is a lot greater than one with 2 reinforced lances since you have 3 units to move around. And that flexibility means doing thing like flanking the enemy and having specialized lances and companies is a lot easier to do.

 

[Imperator Pax]

Pirate Wars Luxen Contract
Luxens 's public leadership were insistent on keeping the Volunteers here... and the planetary authorities did have a point with only a handful of HPG stations in the Magistracy of Canopus, and one failed attack it seemed likely Black Jack would come a knocking later. The problem with that was that Luxen's planetary government wasn't really the one footing the bill, and Gene wasn't entirely sure that the leadership understood that... but he wasn't all that clear on how the magistracy's command was supposed to work... and their contract was clear on that cadre training duties were their primary contract, and there was a garrison clause.


… and on the MRB side of things ComStar was paying a lot of attention to their security obligation because they were likely to be targeted if the pirates did come knocking. Not today's problem though and he'd deal with that behind closed doors. Preferably where the public wouldn't start panicking the unit was going to go haying off for the unknown... but there were too many civilians crowding nervously around the starport and around the encampments.


Some of the highlanders were cracking jokes about it, but thus far they hadn't actually made good on running up the SLDF banner. Still Dante was issuing out broadsheets and statements to the public relations side of the unit based on the Hegemony's civil service. On that other hand they were being surreptitious about that, Kelly if not necessarily Black Jack seemed to be distributing Rim World revanchist propaganda, and that potentially added a different dimension to their SLDF uniforms even without running up the Cameron Starburst to fly over the base.

A handful of Claymore's 'cadets' started to pick up the paper laden boxes and move out.

The documents for study had been printed up and begun distribution early this morning... and they were running a little late... but the truth was Gene had been working on the documents most of the trek into the periphery from the Inner Sphere... it was just there had been less time for regimental training opportunity than he had originally expected prior to their arrival on Luxen. He had also been obliged to have enough materials printed up for the Azami units as well, even though some would be making the journey to Alamut and others would be deployed to caravan protection duties elsewhere.


He had been given the Eridani's logs of how the RCT had evolved as the succession wars had worn on the unit and those impacted some of the revision he had made o the documents. Things that only further highlighted that doing what the Coordinator couldn't was going to be a high priority once they made it back to the Inner Sphere whatever political implications that would have, they needed to secure Nagayan Castle Brian on Helm to build the Eridani and the Blue Star Irregulars.

That was all in the future, for now well in the here and now there were talks about how their RCT would act in conjunction and in advising the training of the Luxen Volunteers. Gene ran his hands through his hair as he blew out a breath looking down at the master copy. The Azami Regiment under Taisa Bey had already begun the planning and process for offloading their original equipment for their own white shield program. He supposed after a minute that that was in a sense wrong, the passing of machines, of BattleMechs and ASF from father to son was common was defining of the succession wars where production had dwindled to a trickle.

He had included a statement that terms for Battle and Horse units terms like Ranger and Chasseur continued to be used by regiments even though the units no longer reflected n many cases what composition under those labels would have entailed in the time of the Star League. But the truth the documents had originally begun as a way to provide school room instructions to the massive expanded force... they were just a larger force to be included in that instruction than the Battalions aboard Hidalgo and Presidio now.

Bardiche and Claymore had been the original target audiences for the writings. Their officers were already on the assembly point, and it wouldn't have been off the mark to say that no one wanted to be left out. So today they needed to cover a broad base of material, and also to avoid overwhelming anyone, he glanced sideways, "There is a liaison from Majesty Metals on site?"

"Yes sir." The ruddy faced highlander officer replied, "Is it a problem?"

"No." He answered, and he hoped that he was right. It was unlikely that Majesty Metals would be a source of intelligence for the pirates, but, "I do want to know what they have planned for Luxen though." The Magistracy did produce domestically its PPCs which was useful, but like with the first contract it was ammunition that was going to be a concern, "I assume there here about the charger and cicada refits." Then perhaps unnecessarily, "As long as they don't cause trouble, we need to get going."

It was a short ride to row of hangars and it was crowded. Crowded was an understatement, maybe there were less people overall than at the Highland faire on Northwind, but it was the mass of technicians and mechwarriors in the space and the sense of urgency even as the wrenches went about that work which made it feel that way.

It reminded him of the initial days on Robinson just crammed together. Part of that was the noise from the working techs scrambling to connect hoists or unfasten the reactor from the chassis, which the first step of everything going on. This was larger in a way than the Robinson contract to train DMM mechwarriors for the then tentative invasion of the Combine. Certainly the Company had more staff now, and more experience... but also there were the implications of a Rim World resurgent able to field Star League era 'mechs and their political aspirations.

He idly observed that they had their work cut out for them. Gene noticed immediately that it was more than the Azami paying attention to the modifications being done to the Chargers and Cicadas, the latter of which as a result of the Star League had been a common enough medium mech in the armies of all member states. Attrition had worn those down, the basic cicada mounted only four tons of armor, but that would change since as with the Charger the engines were being pulled out for a smaller engine, which would allow more armor.

Gene didn't expect that Majesty Metals, or any Canopian manufacturer would start producing new Cicada... but they might be approached to produce the engine for the standard Cicada to be put into new production Chargers. Akashi's customized, giving it an ornate samurai armor esque appearance, Griffin was crouched nearby. "Are they ready?"

"The Luxen Volunteers should be fully assembled in another minute," She replied.

He nodded, having seen on the itinerary that one set of the Vindicator pilots had been on morning drill practice, "Then you're up." He stated, giving her time to make sure she was ready. In the comfort of closed doors with just the company staff Bubbles had mentioned that the academy she had attended had used was the Cicada, but since they were doing extensive modifications her limited experience with the '2B' model wasn't likely to do much good. So even with that information he was comfortable with her planned assignment. And, of course it hadn't stopped Chang from suggesting that since at some point in the future Raventhir would have more of the otherwise mediocre eighty ton scout 'mech being produced maybe some could be refit with assault auto cannons.

One thing at a time though, but he didn't oppose the suggestion. The machinery on Pioche left in stasis after the rock had been dropped on the bread basket agricultural colony was black boxed so all it really needed was to be fed material. Still, from what Raventhir said she'd only managed to build up a single battalion thus far, and that while Pioche was working on more machines the bottleneck would be engines for the Chargers after they arrived at Luxen.

Silently to himself, he decided it was something he'd talk to Majesty Metals about, he decided, if it hadn't already been brought up. If it had, well then presumably it was being worked. He gave a final nod, and let Akashi go over the Charger, and Cicada modifications to the assembled MAF pilots.... all too aware that every so often the eyes of the assembled flicked towards his direction, and that included his command, Akashi among them, and the MAF personnel.

 

[Bofors40mm]

Are those basically the charger 1A5 variant then?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Are those basically the charger 1A5 variant then?

Click to shrink...

I mean ish, thats what Chang's suggesting, what they're starting with are basically down tech thugs though this goes to a lot of stuff that comes in canonically in later eras (though the Hatamoto-chi really isn't that far off) comes in later

A Magistracy A5 will show up later with the Magistracy as they get more Assault 'mechs but thats further down the road

6k posts

 

[Bofors40mm]

Challenger then?
Or something closer to the 10E thug?

 

[Imperator Pax]

Challenger then?
Or something closer to the 10E thug?

Click to shrink...

These will be basically the 10E with the Hatamoto's aesthetic