Battletech An SI in the Concordat - GhostRider's Revenants (Battletech CYOA)Rev.2

[paulobrito]

On January 4, 3057, Thomas Calderon, who had been in an asylum for the mentally ills for several years, died.






Note: He had been hospitalized since 3052, see chapter 76.






In February '57, Sun-Tzu began a charm campaign, trying to create an alliance with the Taurian Concordat and the Magistracy of Canopus.


The best that could be said is that it was not successful. The Capellan Confederation had nothing interesting to offer, was viewed with great suspicion by both nations, and even if relations with the Federated Commonwealth were not always good but they were good and important enough not to be sacrificed for a gain that was dubious to say the least. The Taurian Concordat also had excellent relations with the St. Ives Compact, which would also suffer from such an agreement.


In March, mercenaries who had hitherto defended Furud and Shiro, suddenly changed alliances and revolted against the few forces Andurien had present. Obviously, this was part of a plan, as in the same week, Warrior Houses Fujitsu and Hiritsu with major support from ASFs and Pocket WarShips, appeared in both systems for 'peace-keeping' and managed to take control of both systems for the Capellan Confederation, without any opposition from the 'revolted' mercenaries.


Despite the protests of Dalma Humphreys, the Duchess of Andurien, the reality was that Andurien could do nothing about it, not having sufficient forces to oppose them, with what little remained of the Defenders of Andurien, after the hard fighting of the still ongoing Civil War, stretched to the limit defending the various borders.


As was to be expected, the return of the Capellan Confederation to offensive operations / invasions of neighboring nations, at a time when everyone (minus what was left of the Free Worlds League) was busy with the Clans, was viewed with considerable concern.






On March 5, while analyzing the belongings of the deceased victim of a traffic accident , confidential data from Concordat Aerospace Limited, the company that controlled / managed the shipyards in the Taurus system was found . The ensuing investigation could not identify the victim, nor who she worked for / spied for. Also, even the most exhaustive spy-hunt, didn’t give any hint about how she could get in possession of said confidential information.






During February and March 3057, the number of Clan WarShips in the Inner Sphere / invasion corridors increased substantially, much more and faster than the most pessimistic predictions had foreseen.


The reason for this was identified when the Taurian Orcas began operating along the Exodus Road, which was much less protected than what had been feared. This caused an unusual number of losses for the various Clans, at no cost to the Taurian raiders. On two occasions they even captured a considerable amount of equipment. The Orcas operated from a base in Gravenhage, on the Northern border of the Draconis Combine, very close to the corridor used by the Smoke Jaguars, which didn’t manage to discover it.


During this period of time, the number of SpecOps units inserted in the worlds captured by the Clans increased constantly, creating a never-ending number of problems to occupation forces that were not trained or equipped to deal with this type of problems.






In late March, 3057, our people working in the military shipyard of the Magistracy witnessed the arrival of two JumpShip, quickly followed by a badly damaged, barely operational Mckenna class WarShip. That the Canopians didn’t even try to hide its arrival from our people supported the theory that they knew that they couldn't repair it alone, and that in the near future were going to ask for our help.






It was later known that after exhaustive analysis of the Wolverine records,MIM had found the location of the SLS Zughoffer Weir, that the Wolverines had been forced to abandon, because they couldn’t repair it. Knowing the exact level of the damages it had suffered, the Magistracy sent an expedition with enough technicians and spares (and fuel, food, etc) to bring it back.


Note.: Concordat technicians are helping the Magistracy expanding the shipyard, to be capable to build warships. Right now is capable of building JumpShips and servicing WarShips up to 1Mtons.


OTL the WoB needed 3 to 5 years to repair it on the Titan Yards (found it 3061, entered in service in 3065), but the MoC is going to need more time.






In Mechdur, the Concordat started to built the Block II of the Pinto Corvette, replacing all the conventional weapons (5LL, 10ML, 48SL, 80MG, 10 AC/5 and 4 AC/20) with 16 LPL, 16 MPL, 16 AMS and 4 Arrow IV SAM tubes, and replacing the 800 SHS with 500 DHS. Plans for upgrading the armor to Improved Ferro-Aluminum were delayed to the following Block III, because of the involved costs. After all, the Pinto class was supposed to be a (relatively) cheap WarShip.

 

[hpackrat]

I see WoB moles are still playing around with the Bulls. That or they have a MASK infestation.

 

[paulobrito]

WoB, MIIO, SAFE, Mask, or even EIS (Earth Intelligence Service). Pick your poison. The Concordat is an 'interesting' place these days, so many curious around. Heck, can even be MIM. Allies spy on allies, just look at RL.

 

[GROGNARD]

I can neither confirm or deny that the CIA has penetrated the GNR.

Portugal - The World Factbook

www.cia.gov

 

[paulobrito]

In Luthien, discussions regarding the next step to take led to the conclusion that it was best at the moment to concentrate offensive operations against the Smoke Jaguars. Not only had the IlKhan been one of them, but they had also been the Clan that had led the invasion - at least in the Draconis Combine.


It was decided to attack 3 systems, systems that the infiltrated forces had reported were not protected by WarShips and the local defenses were about a Cluster of front line forces strong, already worn down by constant guerrilla and commando attacks.






Jeannete


Defender - Fourth Jaguar Dragoons


Attacker - 5th Taurian Guards, 10th Ghost Regiment, Ryuken-yon and the ex-TCS Ajax, now the DCS Benjamin






Easy victory, not only were the Smoke Jaguars tired and under-resourced due to constant attacks by guerrillas and the various infiltrated DEST teams, but their immense aggressiveness led them to a suicidal frontal assault on the invading forces, pathing the way for their destruction within hours.






Chupadero


Defender - 214th Jaguar Dragoons


Attacker - 2nd Taurian Guards, 7th Ghost Regiment, Ryuken-Go and the ex-TCS Jerome (Pinto class), now the DCS An Ting






Unlike the 4th Jaguar Dragoons, the 214th was more careful and tactically flexible (for a Smoke Jaguar unit), which led that it was only 15 days later the system was considered safe, meaning casualties were also higher.






Jeronimo


Defender - 3rd Jaguar Cavaliers, Nu Galaxy, the CSJ Korat (Liberator Class ) and the CSJ Lioness (York Carrier Class)


Attacker - 3rd Taurian Guards, 6th Ghost, Ryuken-San and the TCS Detroit (Concordat Carrier Class)






By a fluke of bad luck, two days before the invading force arrival, Nu Galaxy escorted by 2 WarShips had appeared in the system. The DEST cell operating the black box that maintained communications with the outside was destroyed, leading to the reinforcements not being reported.


Note - unlike OTL, Nu Galaxy has been reconfigured as a front-line unit, with the most modern equipment the Smoke Jaguars were producing at this time, and was composed of the latest generation of Trueborns that the sibkos had trained.






To further make things worst, the Kuritan and Taurian forces emerged right on top of the Smoke Jaguars' WarShips, with no way to escape.


The Detroit only managed to launch about half of its ASFs before the combined fire of the Korat and the Lioness destroyed it.


Adding to the difficulties, these Clan WarShips had good defenses against ASFs, and a higher number of ASFs than usual. The first wave of ASFs, could only do limited damage to both WarShips, which by now were beginning to pound down the DropShips that were speeding at full power towards Jeronimo, trying to escape.


Only the use of all the ASFs of the 3 regiments, and the fact that the 3rd Taurian Guards carried nuclear weapons , allowed both WarShips to be destroyed, although 2 Lee (Taurian), 3 Overlord and 1 Triumph (Kurita) were destroyed, as well as a considerable part of the ASF component of the 3 regiments.


While these new classes of Warships (both the Liberator and York classes being post-SL Clan designs, not previously seen in the Inner Sphere until now)had considerable anti-ASF weaponry, they still lacked dedicated AMS systems, making them vulnerable to Alamos salvos.






Unaware that a Galaxy was present on the planet, the attacking forces decided to continue the mission to liberate Jeronimo in spite of the losses suffered, that amounted to 4 ’Mech battalions and 2 vehicle battalions, during the run towards the planet.


Unfortunately, when they landed, they were confronted by the full might of the Nu Galaxy, 3 brand new, fully equipped, front-line Clan Clusters, reinforced by the Cavaliers (Cluster size force), all the while with the Clans enjoying a comfortable superiority in ASFs, which was a total reversal of the usual situation


A week later, one of the Mriya arrived at Jeanette, making use of its LF, with news of the disaster, prompting a quick rescue force including the WarShip present (the DCS Benjamin, Ajax class Destroyer) and the 5th Taurian Guards (that used Mriya JumpShips with LF) to be launched. During this time, the forces on the planet were trying to survive, executing a continuous running battle, and denying, if possible, the decisive battle the Jaguars wanted so badly. While they had lost much of their ASFs, they still had many of the Flak/SAM units, thus negating partially the Clan air superiority, even if that meant they had to concentrate some of their forces, making them vulnerable to ground forces.






When the relief forces arrived, the plan was only to extract the allied forces. However since the majority of the Smoke Jaguars had decided to press on their attack after the detection of the incoming forces, with the hope that they could destroy the survivors before having to face a new battle, they offered an easy target for orbital bombardments before being finished with a daring combat drop of the Taurian brigade on top of those still fighting the allied forces. Around one battalion strong was rescued just before collapsing, the only remains from two DCMS regiments and a Taurian brigade (equivalent to a full RCT).


The few forces that dispersed, were later tracked and destroyed, thanks to the use of the Taurian high altitude drones with neutrino emission detectors, that were able to find even the most well hidden units, as long as they had their Fusion reactor activated. Unfortunately for the Clanners, they didn’t have much experience in ‘going underground’ and two weeks later the planet was declared safe.






Note.: The Taurian high altitude drone with passive neutrino sensors was already shown in chapter 68 - first used against the Wolf’s Dragoons (in training).






In the last quarter of 3057, the infiltrated DEST teams started to report that Clan Ghost Bear and Clan Hell Horses units were invading worlds that until now were under control of the Smoke Jaguars. By the end of the year, no force of the Smoke Jaguars could be found on the worlds where the Draconis Combine had eyes on.


Only much later was it learned that because of the severe losses this Clan suffered (3 Galaxies in Luthien, another in Jeronimo and enough front-line Clusters to amount for another Galaxy), the death of the IlKhan and the Khan, the other Clans, sensing a weakness, decided to take advantage of it. By February 3058, the Smoke Jaguars were no more, having been absorbed/destroyed by the other Clans.

 

[Doomsought]

Around one battalion strong was rescued just before collapsing, the only remains from two DCMS regiments and a Taurian brigade (equivalent to a full RCT).

Those guys are going to get enough commendations that their dress uniform will be able to deflect AC/2 fire.

 

[paulobrito]

Ever since I had appeared in this universe (3015) and had been given access to a computer, I had been thinking of what could be done by adding the technology from the universe I had come from.


It took me decades to be able to do something. My first company, V4RU, had nothing to do with computers and even when I became first a member and then the CEO of VMI, I had the same problem as it was not a company dedicated to producing / developing computers.


Only when I bought a stake in O-P Computer Electronics in the 30s, was I able to start investigating other chip building techniques. Finding / hiring like-minded researchers was extremely difficult, not even counting the limits imposed by extremely tight security.


It didn't help that my background was as a programmer, with little knowledge in this peculiar field.


Only in the mid 40s did we see the apparition of new techniques by some small laboratories , which allowed for the reduction of chip sizes.


But it was only in the early 50s, with a company / lab specifically dedicated to the problem and built on Coromodir V, that the first components, smaller and faster than the original ones, started to be produced. Obviously because of the lack of applied researches in this field for centuries, they were fragile and could only be produced at a small scale and were not yet up to the military specs, meaning they could only be used in some places that needed much computer power and were considered safe. Fragile, being for me a very relative term, since by my standards, they were incredibly robust, but by local standards (with BattleMechs lasting hundreds of years), they were fragile and short-lived.






It was also in the 50s that we finally started building industrial models of the equipment we had taken from the Argo. For all intents and purposes, they were a kind of highly advanced and versatile 3D printers, capable of building almost anything within the dimensions of the unit, provided (quite obviously) they had access to the necessary raw materials and blueprints. Difficult and time-consuming to build, extremely expensive, they were the ultimate state-of-the-art technology from the Star League. A small factory on Coromodir V was, to my knowledge, the only one that produced them in 3058, and even then, less than a dozen unit per year.






Whether integrated in the Concordat or not, Kamea's plans (and mine) were to make the Aurigan Province as independent in terms of resources, factories, universities and even military capabilities as possible. To this end, Coromodir V, Mechdur and Detroit had been chosen as the major industrial centers. Since Coromodir V was personally controlled/owned by our family, I had spent the time from the early 30s until now quietly moving as much as I could of new and/or more profitable departments of the companies I controlled or had a stake in there or into the province



Not that we were planning to get our independence back, far from it, but we wanted to leave a solid and secure inheritance to our children and Kamea would always consider the Aurigan Province as her own.






However, we (me and Kamea) only achieved a partial success in that objective. For one side, while the Calderons and Edward in particular were our allies and friends, ultimately, they were the ruling family of the Concordat, and to maintain / secure their power they couldn’t let any other family, not even their closest allies gain excessive power. So, several of the movings we had planned had been blocked, and several big contracts distributed to competitors. The construction of the Concordat class frigates or of the Winchester II Heavy Cruisers and the work on the Texas battleship, were awarded to shipyards controlled by the Calderon family, for example.


And while our political opponents, while good at this game but lacking in the industrial ones, were not blind enough to let us grow too much, without some counter moves. In that they were supported by the Calderons – to a point.






Evidence that the Calderons had started to take measures to guarantee their supremacy was pointed to me by Kamea – I’m a bit blind in that area, I confess. She noted several facts that seemed to prove it:


- in the Marian Hegemony Crisis, we didn’t receive any benefits, even if our forces (with our Heir included) were the only ones apart the federal ones involved.- following the creation of the Fronc Reachs – the territory between us and the Magistracy / FWL, no world was added to the Aurigan Province with the best ones directly under the Calderons’ control and the rest ‘gifted’ to our political adversaries.


- while we needed to pay in full the upgrades in the Mechdur shipyard to be able to make Ajax Destroyers, the one in New Vandenberg received generous federal subsidies for that.


- only federal units had been sent to fight the Clans, gaining experience and controlling the advanced tech captured. That turned in a spectacular blow-back with the disaster in Jeronimo.






Yep, the Calderons had started to limit our growing and to secure their position as the leaders of the Taurian Concordat.






Note: the following is based on some ideas I get reading the excellent Cannonshop Ngoverse.






I had launched several pet projects to expand the capabilities of the Coromodir system. These included a new variant of the Snowden-L, with a bay for more mining ‘Mechs of a variant that used cheaper fission reactors, a special type of DropShip / thug that was basically a cockpit, engines, K-boon connector and an articulated rib-cage that could ‘capture’ the Snowden and move it to the desired position and / or transport it via JumpShip to another system.


To complement these, a ‘ferry’ was designed – a very small JumpShip, using a very old, experimental, type of K-F drive that could only jump up to 3LY, (thanks to the use of modern alloys and techniques of construction) with two K-boom connections and super-capacitors in place of LF battery, to transport the above mentioned units to the Coromodir Oort cloud.


That type of K-F drive, with only 10% of the range of those in use today, even if it used much less energy, had long been considered an evolutionary dead-end and abandoned, but for the ferry job between the inner part of a system and the distant Oort cloud, it was perfect, being much cheaper and smaller than a conventional one.


All of these models were the product of the work of Dr. Murad, the locally resident genius.


So far, none had moved past the theoretical design and / or proof of concept, but together, they would greatly facilitate the expansion of the local economy, provided that we could develop and produce them locally. After all, the tech, tools, trained personnel, and raw materials were already there, I was “only” missing the budget to finish these projects.






The idea of the ferry type JumpShip came out during a dinner with the Murad family. Her adopted daughter, Gabrielle, was working on K-F drives theory and was a very good story teller. She talked about the early 15LY range drives, the experimental 50LY one and even about the tentative to obtain one more compact, simpler and less energy hungry. The last one proved to be an evolutionary dead-end that never exceeded the 3 LY range, quickly forgotten by almost everybody. At the time I was starting to look on the resources of the Oort cloud – too distant to be obtained by DropShip only and using conventional JumpShips would be too expensive and attract too much attention. The story brought me some fresh perspectives and was the start of this project.

 

[paulobrito]

When we were also excluded from the contract to expand the Quatre Belle shipyard in the Outworlds Alliance, and from the to help Magistracy repair / refit the ex-SLS Zughoffer Weir (no MCS name assigned yet, that we knew of) Kamea decided it was time to activate the Deep Space Resources program. The first step of this program was the exploration of the Oort cloud in the Coromodir system.


To this end the production of at least four 'Ferry' class JumpShips was authorized.


The first one was built on the Orca prototype chassis, to keep costs low (after all this program had a limited budget) since both designs had the same dimensions were similar. It helped that with everything required already being produced in Mechdur, the production of future Ferry would be considerably less expensive than any other JumpShip design.


The main difference with a classical JumpShip was that we removed all armament, LF Battery and compact K-F drive in favor of a short range K-F drive. This type of drive had some interesting features, for example, being made of only 80% of the usual Titanium-Germanium alloy while the remaining 20% were various metal alloys, neither exotic nor expensive to produce. Even if it had a maximum range of only 3LY and a minimum of 0.05LY, it could be 'charged' in just one day via fusion reactor safely and did not need a solar sail to do so. Because of residual effects, there was also a minimum period of 6 hours between each jump, making the implementation of super-accumulators for a second jump in a row useless. Its size was basically the same as a compact K-F drive, but at the cost of a 'civilian' K-F drive, making it much more economic provided you had the space to put it into any ships.


It also had a higher jump error margin, about 10% than standard drives, with the pilots calling it suicide to use one to reach the smallest pirate points.






Only the final step, installing the new K-F drive, was performed in Coromodir V, everything else was done in Mechdur at the facility that also built the Orcas.


Testing with the Ferry 001 began in March 3059 with some jumps between one of the Lagrange points of Coromodir V (the biggest one) and various areas of the Oort cloud system and back.






The funds for this project came partly from the provincial budget, partly from the Aurigan Central Bank controlled by our family, and partly from our personal funds.

 

[paulobrito]

The much anticipated continuation of the Federated Commonwealth counter-offensive against the Clans began in February 3059.


Hanse and Morgan Hasek-Davion had gathered 50 of their best RCTs near the border with the Jade Falcons, reinforce by extra artillery and Battle-Armor units. All units had been upgraded to the latest technology and the assault had received a full naval support with WarShips (80% of the Federated Navy being deployed for this operation), Pocket WarShips, Assault DropShips and extra units of ASFs.






The remaining WarShips, the second echelon regiments and mercenary forces would remain behind to protect the borders.






The delay before launching the attack came from all sort of logistical and organizational problems. For example, in order to maximize the impact, the Federated Commonwealth took the risk of producing two vessels of their newest and still untested designs, even before fixing the design quirks. Other units had to go through a complete retrofit of existing units like one Mjolnir that had serious problems with the intra-system engines.


Another basic “problem” was that the moving of so many RCTs took time and this without taking into account the time spent upgrading the units and re-training the personnel, even if it had been backed up by the massive industrial capability of the Federated Commonwealth. Luckily, in the two last decades, the number of JumpShips in all the Inner Sphere had grow considerably, which, unlike in the 4th Succession War, allowed to move so many forces at the same time with only minor disruption in trade.






Such delays had also given a boost to the Fighters branch with more Royal grade Stukas available for the FC Navy (and for some RCTs) while the first full production run of AAMs reached the frontline units.






As with the Draconis Combine and the Concordat operations, and prior to any offensive moves, several units of the Rabid Foxes and Loki had been inserted into the targeted systems. Now, months later, had they not only identified the Falcons bases, ammunition depots and parts, but they had also prepared sabotage and assassination operations for when they would be activated. Thanks to communication through the Black Boxes, the AFFC High Command had a fairly detailed picture of the forces present. It had also been decided, from the very beginning, to attack only one Clan, in an attempt to drive it out of the Inner Sphere, or to weaken it enough to make the other Clans turn against it.


On February 23rd, 3059, 10 systems controlled by the Jade Falcons were suddenly invaded. Each system, received the full might of 5 RCTs with extensive support. At the same time, infiltrated units were ordered to do as much damage as they could.






Black Earth, Golandrinas, Somerset, Apollo, Wotan, Maxie's Planet, Butler, Romulus, Seiduts, and Evciler had been selected because none of them was protected by more than 2 Clusters and therefore they were quickly cleared, with the Falcons losing about 3 Galaxies (out of the 10 they had in the Inner Sphere) as well as the WarShips CJF Black Talon and CJF Blue Talon, with 4 other WarShips escaping with varying degrees of damage.


Particular attention had been directed to neutralizing the Snow Raven Storm Crow Naval Pursuit Star CSR Mountbatten (Texas), CSR Kerensky's Hope (Cameron), CSR Ark Royal (Conqueror), CSR Storm Crow (Sovetskii Soyuz) and CSR Nestling (Carrack), which was stationed at Planting, and could counter-strike, even if records of Clan cooperation were nearly non-existent – with the exception of the attack on Luthien. To deal with this threat, a Strike Fleet had been gathered with several heavy Ships, the FCS Alexander Davion and the FCS Lucien Davion (Avalon), the FCS Mjolnir (Mjolnir), the FCS Fox and the FCS Ian Davion (Fox), the FCS Jaipur and the FCS Midale (New Syrtis block 2) and the FCS Invincible (Tarkad). All the Federated Commonwealth WarShips were equipped with LF and positioned at Derf.


Note.: The New Syrtis Block 2 Class is a modernization of the previous Class, with LF, AMS, DHS and Ferro-Aluminum Armor


At the last minute, the MIIO lost track of the Snow Raven combat group, which had vanished. Much later, it was discovered that the Snow Ravens had made a deal with the Ghost Bears and moved to help defending their territories in the Inner Sphere, in exchange for getting the Bears territories in the Homeworlds, with the Bears moving their entire Clan to the Inner Sphere.






Unlike in OTL, the deal between the Snow Ravens and the Ghost Bears includes the squadron of Snow Raven warships that until now patrol the area controlled by the Jade Falcons and Steel Vipers, to move to patrol and help secure the area controlled by the Ghost Bears. The helping build the Leviathans and moving the Ghost Bears population to the Inner Sphere (the OTL deal), is also included. For that the Snow Ravens receive all the Ghost Bears territories in the Homeworlds, and access to any future shipyards that the Bears built in the Inner Sphere. The reason of the different deal is caused by the inclusion of the Snow Ravens in the invasion, by then IlKhan Leo Showers.






On March 17th, 3059, at Romulus Nadir jump-point, a big Jade Falcon force, including several WarShips emerged, immediately heading for the inhabited planet. As soon as it was detected, a message was sent to Derf. A few hours later, the Federated Commonwealth Strike Fleet also appeared at the Nadir jump-point, immediately beginning the pursuit.


Because the Jade Falcons were indeed heading towards more offensive operations, with most of the units already embarked or in their way to gathering areas, their reaction was faster than had been expected, all the Falcon Khan had to do was to change the objectives from invading new worlds to attacking where the AFFC was now.

 

[paulobrito]

The past year had been a nightmare for Marthe Pryde. First, was Elias Crichell’s scandal of his false combat certifications, which had led to his execution and Marthe's promotion to saKhan.


After that, in a gambit to augment the available WarShips, the clan moved several ones that were playing escort roles on the Exodus Road to the front lines.


That backfired spectacularly, when the Taurians raiders started to hit the area, with the Falcons losing several JumpShips. In particular, the loss of the CJF Arrowhead (a Star Lord), with enough equipment to equip two full front line Clusters, had delayed the resuming of the invasion by several months. That the other Clans had also reported losses and also had to delay their operations was of no help. The only answer was to to move the WarShips back to protect the supply lines, removing several warships from the front-l lines.


Then the Federated Commonwealth launched its offensive, just as Vandervahn Chistu was about to order the new offensive operations. By the end of this operation, not only had the Clan lost 10 systems and about 3 Galaxies, but also 2 WarShips with 4 others being damaged. The counterattack had been a disaster, with the ambush on Romulus and the subsequent destruction of 2 other Galaxies and 4 more WarShips, including CJF the Turkina's Pride (Cameron) and the CJF Falcon's Nest (Texas), as well as the death of Vandervahn Chistu, promoting Marthe to Khan of the Jade Falcons. The fool had advanced blindly in the jaws of the Federated Commonwealth trap, never understanding that the technological gap had been reduced and that the forces he faced were first class, not second rate ones, like during the first stage of the invasion.


It was of little comfort, that he and his force had died well, concentrating all the OmniFighters, from the Warships and Galaxies alike, to protect the force to arrive mostly intact to orbit, and them, for the ground forces to land. Unfortunately for them, the AFFC forces have dispersed or hidden, not presenting a viable target to the warships weapons. And them, the AFFC warships arrived, and in the following space battle, the clans are defeated, even if extracted a heavy toll, enough to force the Federated Commonwealth fleet to return home to much necessary repair, removing the massive warships from the front-lines for several months, if not years.


On the ground, the battle as not gone much better, the numerical superiority of the AFFC, supplemented by great numbers of artillery and some space support, from the surviving and still operational warships, dictated the victor.






Demonstrating their numerical superiority, the AFFC had resumed its attack, occupying 6 new systems and destroying 3 more Galaxies, and 2 other WarShips, the CJF Green Lantern (Congress) and the CJF Lightning Strike (Vincent). Again, they launched 3 RCTs in each one of their target, leaving the more damaged / exhausted units to defend each of the recently conquered / freed systems.






Left with only about 2 Galaxies, one of which was composed almost entirely of second-line forces, and with the Steel Viper moving to take advantage of their weakness, Marthe had had no choice but to abandon the Inner Sphere and return to the Pentagon, to try to recover and survive.


To that end, she had given orders to Samantha Clees, her saKhan, who was in Eden, to launch a crash training program for the Trueborns of the last generation who had failed the tests as MechWarriors and even to test Freebrons who showed qualities. At the same time, he had given her orders to open the Brian Caches available to equip all the forces thus created with whatever they obtained from the Caches, since the Falcons with only 4 Galaxies, 3 of which being mostly garrison forces, desperately needed more troops and equipment, unless they wanted to suffer the fate of the Smoke Jaguars.


Now, Marthe just hoped to get to the HomeWorlds in time, to prevent the Clan absorption, and if possible rebuild her forces. One thing was certain - it would be many years before she could return to the Inner Sphere.

 

[paulobrito]

Having driven the Jade Falcons out of the Inner Sphere, or at least, out of the occupied Federated Commonwealth territories, the AFFC offensive stopped because it had run out of steam. Most of the WarShips involved were in need of repairs, large ones for most units. The squadrons of ASFs that had supported said WarShips had suffered heavy losses and needed to be replenished. Even though about half of the RCTs involved were still at over 90% capacity, Hanse Davion and Michael Hasek-Davion, were not prepared to begin operations against another Clan without clear superiority in all combat compartments.






While the Steel Vipers had wasted no time in occupying the systems left empty by the Jade Falcons, that the Federated Commonwealth had not liberated, the Wolves and Nova Cats, who also had territory in the Federated Commonwealth occupation zone, had instead withdrawn from some systems, letting most of the systems in direct contact with the AFFC to be owned by the Steel Vipers.


On the Draconis Combine front, the Ghost Bears had followed a similar path, with the Hell Horses taking over several former Smoke Jaguar systems and abandoned Ghost Bear systems, letting them in contact on most of the 'border' with the Combine.


It was clear that some Clans were creating buffer zones with the Inner Sphere to give them enough time to react should further offensives be launched. That other Clans were being used as cannon-fodder was just another proof of their survival of the fittest mentality.


On the other hand, scout missions indicated that several systems in what had been the Oberon Confederacy, the Elysian Fields and the Great Valkyrate were receiving considerable amounts of Clan ships, apparently consolidating their position and according to some analysts, they could be creating a industrial base closer to the current operation zones, making them independent of their more than 1000LY long supply/support line.






On the other side of the Inner Sphere, the Taurian Concordat benefited from contracts to supply both the Draconis Combine and (to a lesser extent) the Federated Commonwealth with military hardware. While from the FC side it didn’t receive any Clan equipment, on the Draconis Combine side, not only due to the TDF forces operating in the area (including the Orca raiders), but also because of the agreements with the ruling family, large amounts of Clan material were sent to the Concordat laboratories for analysis.


Although with limited access to Clan material, due to the current cabal against our family, we still received some, but the real gold price was getting access to the blueprints for the first generation of Combine OmniMechs with a direct contract with the two first years of production already bought by the DCMS.






In January 3060, Capellan forces supported by two WarShips CCS Aleisha Kris and CCS Elias Jung, both Feng Huang Class Cruisers, accompanied by Pocket WarShips, Assault DropShips and extra squadrons of ASFs took control of the Andurien worlds of Conquista and Lugartan. The defenders while fighting viciously, had no chance against the more numerous and better equipped Capellan forces. Of interest was that Capellans, used their WarShips to rain heavy orbital fire onto the heavier defenses, a practice more and more common these days, demonstrating that any side lacking WarShips, after losing its ASF component, had very little chance of surviving, much less of winning against even a single WarShip.


It was later discovered that a shipyard was operational in the Capella system, apparently they had rebuilt the old Delhi Warships Shipyard, without anyone discovering it until now, providing House Liao with two shipyards, both capable of building WarShips and JumpShips.






MIM spies inside the Duchy of Andurien reported that the CCAF has deployed native designed battle-armor, and that the organization of the Capellan Hussars had changed, moving into something akin but not like the Taurian Brigades and the Federated Commonwealth RCTs.






While the other ex-FWL provinces, noted with apprehension that the Capellans had started to invade bit by bit the Duchy of Andurien, that wasn’t enough for them to try to re-unite against a common foe or to send forces to help against the Capellans, they still considered their neighbors and former friends to be more dangerous. On the other hand, the Canopians had started to very discretely provide the Anduriens with some ASFs and Alamos, models that couldn’t be tracked back to the Magistracy, of course. The Concordat, while observing the situation with a growing preoccupation, hadn’t yet moved to support the Duchy, but plans were prepared, and forces were moving openly to the area as a not so subtle reminder to the Capellan Confederation that there were lines not to be crossed. Just in case.

 

[PsihoKekec]

I wonder who is supporting Capellans in their shipbuilding efforts, Comstar remnants or the Terrans.

 

[Kioras]

Well, that conspiracy to keep the family's company down is likely to backfire as it is causing them to run lean and look into other solutions.

The Ferry design is very useful. I have no doubt that they will get quite the interest to keep a few running in the system.

I would hope a local Astronomy program is running also. There are a lot of systems within a short range of Earth and that is likely true of any systems in the Reach. Would need a dedicated program to locate many of them and then surveys to locate planets and bodies that may have resources. Once that is done getting some infrastructure in them as needed will be possible.

Using the Ferry in many of those systems will make a lot of sense.

 

[Omnimercurial]

Just caught up to the latest update, love the Fic and enjoying the mayhem!

 

[paulobrito]

Between mid 3060 and late 3062, the conflicts on the various fronts were little more than light raids / reconnaissances “en force”.


One of the reasons was that all participants were busy repairing / refitting WarShips, in order to give them better defenses against attacks from ASFs loaded with Alamos.


On the Draconis Combine front, by late 3060, the Taurian Concordat had rotated its forces. Three new brigades of Taurian Guards had replaced those hitherto on the Clan front, and among the replaced WarShips had been dispatched the TCS Amanda Calderon a modified Soyal class Heavy Cruiser (see chapters 40 and 51), which had meanwhile been converted to a Heavy/Fleet Carrier, after extensive trials had resulted in the decision to remove the Medium Mass Driver and take advantage of the space to increase the ASF force to 72 units, with abundant fuel, spares and ammo.






The 11th Taurian Guards Brigade faced the Hell's Horses in Nykvarn in March 3061, in the biggest battle of these period, defeating the 12th Mechanized Cavalry Cluster, part of the Alpha Galaxy, and capturing the heavily damaged CHH Gold Knight (a Lola III class Destroyer). The Taurians superior number of ASFs, the presence of the TCS Amanda Calderon, as well as the large number of Battle Armors - more than twice as many as the Clanners had locally - contributed to this victory, even though several new BA models - including some up to 1,500kg (Rhino and Gnome) - deployed by the Hell's Horses were an unpleasant surprise.






The fact that for the first time, a Clan used AAMs, and in great numbers, was a warning of what the future would be. On the positive side, the Taurians captured models of the new BAs and the AAMs used by the Hell's Horses, which they immediately sent to the Concordat for analysis.


The TMI finalized the re-deployment of the HPG satellite network that connected the Concordat to the Combine in March of 3061. All satellites were moved to other uninhabited systems and at same time, replaced by more modern models, with improved stealth, anti-tampering protections, and longer duration fission reactors. As the Concordat suspected, some had been tampered by the Federated Commonwealth, to let them listen to the traffic between the Concordat and the Combine.






In the Coromodir system, although it was not possible, for the moment, to build a shipyard, a large dockyard was taking shape around Coromodir V, equipped with a dozen slips and able to service the Concordat largest civilian and military ships. A smaller one is in construction in the Detroit system, planned to be operational by 3065.






In 3061, both Jaime Wolf and Natasha Kerensky retired from active service, due to their advanced age . Jaime was replaced in overall command by Mackenzie Wolf and Natasha by Maeve Wolf, who promptly changed the name of the unit to Wolf Spider Battalion.






The Wolf’s Dragoons had the same problem as other nations that had ex-SLDF warships - they had to upgrade them with defenses against ASFs. However, Outreach was lacking a shipyard, and the Federated Commonwealth had theirs occupied for a very long time, meaning they had to turn to my family.


This explains why in late 3061, the WDWS Alexander (Aegis class) docked onto the shipyard at Mechdur, for a refit. The other Wolf’s Dragoons WarShips were to be modified one at a time, so as not to overload the shipyard, which already had a long list of orders. The quid pro quo for such a service remained secret for some time.






On September 12, 3062, Takashi Kurita passed away, being officially reported to have died in his sleep.


On October 22, 3061, Dalma Humphreys, the Duchess of Andurien escaped an assassination tentative. The assassins were stopped at the last minute by MIM agents that had been ordered by the Magestrix to protect the Duchess.


The assassins, later identified as Death Commandos with cyborg-like enhancements, were defeated by the PA(L)s of the MIM agents. Unfortunately (for the Magistracy), they couldn’t hide their presence in the Duchy of Andurien any longer.






Having their two last WarShips finally repaired and refitted, the Marik forces used them, with a massive escort of ASFs, Assault DropShips and Pocket WarShips to renew the war with Oriente.

 

[PsihoKekec]

So I reckon that since there was no influx of captured clanners, Wolf's Dragoons are not as much ''Clan in everything but name'' as they were OTL?
I wonder if Capellan actions are solo or are they coordinating with Blakists.

 

[paulobrito]

So I reckon that since there was no influx of captured clanners, Wolf's Dragoons are not as much ''Clan in everything but name'' as they were OTL?
I wonder if Capellan actions are solo or are they coordinating with Blakists.

Yep, the Dragoons don't even fight the clans ITTL, so also no Dragoons Civil War (Wolf Pack novel). They are now a 'pure' IS force, because the last of the original clanners have retired.
Capellans... wait for future chapters.

 

[paulobrito]

Note: The first part is based on a discussion in Cannonshop's excellent War is a Grave, regarding FASAnomics.






Thanks to a policy of financial incentives and tax breaks, coupled with a subtle but effective propaganda campaign, we had attracted to Coromodir a high percentage of the skilled space personnel working in the Concordat, some from the Federated Commonwealth, and even a few from the Earth asteroid belt, that could not find work anymore in such places.


Meanwhile, in the rest of Concordat (and the other nations) the Trinity of Corruption / Regulation / Taxes, controlled by the military-industrial complex in power, had substantially reduced / not allowed the development of large-scale resource exploration outside the habitable planets, this exploration being seen as a thread to their position.


Because of this, while other nations, and even the Concordat outside the Aurigan Province, had problems with costs and obtaining materials to maintain the current WarShips race, we were increasing our capacity at a good rate, only limited by local budget and time to train personnel, while the actual cost of building JumpShips and WarShips within the province was slowly but surely coming down.


At Coromodir V and Detroit, the local dockyards were slowly upgraded to full shipyards, only using hardware produced in the Province for two reasons, the blockade of exports from the core of the Taurian Concordat because of the internal political fights and our will to be fully independent. It was slowing down the development but the end result was much better.


A major contributor to this was the fact that Aurigan Province, had great autonomy (as did Provinces, Marches or equivalents of other states with the exception of the Capellan Confederation) as long as it paid its federal taxes, contributed troops to the TDF, and obeyed federal laws, which it did scrupulously.






A series of new WarShips began to appear in late 3062, early '63.


The Concordat had almost finished the Texas refit, which was scheduled to enter service in early 3064. Thanks to a reduction of its cargo capability, the changes included replacing the NL45s with NL55s, greatly increasing the missile magazines for the AR-10s, upgrading the Killer Whale tubes to AR-10s, doubling the number of ASFs to 80, and adding a considerable amount of anti-ASF and anti-Missile weapons. These consisted of 16 Arrow IV SAM tubes, 64 LPL, 32MPL and 64SPL. For the first time, the pulse lasers added an extra anti-missile capability in addition to their normal mode of operation, the Small ones replacing the standard AMS while the bigger ones added extra capability against capital missiles, Alamos, and even Arrow IV types.


A LF and armor upgrade to Lamellor Ferrous-Carbide completed the changes.






The EDF, meanwhile, showed an improved Mackenna, (see Delrane's Fighting Ships Revised page 41), that every intelligence service said was a new construction, and not a refit of an ex-SLDF one, packing considerable anti-ASF defense and many other changes. It first appeared in orbit around Rasalhague in December 3062, to replace the Farragut there, which returned to the Sol system for maintenance.






On the Clan side, for the first time, a Fleet Carrier had been seen, in use by the Snow Ravens, tentatively identified as the former SLS Formidable (Ark Royal Class - see Delrane's Fighting Ships Revised page 81), now the CSRS Storm Talon.






The Federated Commonwealth being busy building WarShips that already had decent anti-ASF and capital missile defenses, didn’t focus on new classes, freeing resources for other projects.


Clearly the time of 'easy' victories in space by squadrons of Inner Sphere ASFs against enemy WarShips was coming to an end.






As a result of the growing collaboration between the Taurian Concordat and the Draconis Combine, the Concordat had received models and plans to build C3 Master and Slave units, and in return the Combine had received the pulse laser anti-missile technology.


Another result of this collaboration was the launch of the Light Cruiser Dart II, built by both navies, although in small quantities due to its high cost. The Dart II was the result of a plan to built an WarShip that would be fully ammo independent.






Dart II (Light Cruiser)


Mass: 680,000 tons


Length: 703 meters


Sail Diameter: 10,135 meters


Safe Thrust: 4


Maximum Thrust: 6


Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum


LF Battery : Yes


24 ASFs


6 Dropships


120 Marines (half with Battle armor)


3750 DHS (to manage a very heavy energy weapons system)


Armament:


21 NL45


21 NL55


8 Heavy NPPC


14 Medium NPPC


16 Large Pulse Laser


32 Medium Pulse Laser


16 ER PPC

 

[PsihoKekec]

That is considerable firepower for its size, what does it sacrifice?

 

[paulobrito]

That is considerable firepower for its size, what does it sacrifice?

The original has 140ktons of cargo space, this one 'only' 11ktons.

Dart (WarShip class)

Dart (WarShip class)

www.sarna.net

versus
Class/Model/Name: Aurigan Dart Light Cruiser / AKA Dart II
Tech: Inner Sphere / 3132
Vessel Type: WarShip
Rules: Level 2, Standard design
Rules Set: AeroTech2

Mass: 680,000 tons
K-F Drive System: (Unknown)
Length: 703 meters
Sail Diameter: 10,135 meters
Power Plant: Standard
Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum
Armament:
21 NL45
21 NL55
16 Large Pulse Laser
32 Medium Pulse Laser
16 ER PPC
8 Heavy NPPC
14 Medium NPPC
Manufacturer: various
Location: various
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Class/Model/Name: Aurigan Dart Light Cruiser AKA Dart II
Mass: 680,000 tons

Equipment: Mass
Power Plant, Drive & Control: 163,200.00
Thrust: Safe Thrust: 4
Maximum Thrust: 6
Kearny-Fuchida Hyperdrive: Compact (Integrity = 14) 307,700.00
Lithium Fusion Battery 6,800.00
Jump Sail (Detachable): (Integrity = 4) 64.00
Structural Integrity: 90 61,200.00
Total Heat Sinks: 3,750 Double 3,134.00
Fuel & Fuel Pumps: 10,885.00
Bridge, Controls, Radar, Computer & Attitude Thrusters: 1,700.00
Fire Control Computers: .00
Food & Water: (90 days supply) 204.50
Armor Type: Improved Ferro-aluminum (774 total armor pts) 1,199.50
Capital Scale Armor Pts
Location: L / R
Fore: 142
Fore-Left/Right: 129/129
Aft-Left/Right: 129/129
Aft: 116

Cargo:
Bay 1: Small Craft (6) with 2 doors 1,200.00
Bay 2: Cargo (1) with 2 doors 11,598.00
Bay 3: Fighters (24) with 4 doors 3,600.00

DropShip Capacity: 6 Docking Hardpoints 6,000.00
Grav Decks #1 - 2: (145-meter diameter) 200.00
Life Boats: 35 (7 tons each) 245.00
Escape Pods: 35 (7 tons each) 245.00

Crew and Passengers:
45 Officers (45 minimum) 450.00
136 Crew (136 minimum) 952.00
75 Gunners (75 minimum) 525.00
120 Marines 600.00
78 Bay Personnel .00
Weapons and Equipment Loc SRV MRV LRV ERV Heat Mass
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
3 NL45 Nose 30 30 30 30 210 2,700.00
3 NL55 255 3,300.00
2 Large Pulse Laser Nose 4(42) 2(18) -- -- 20 14.00
4 Medium Pulse Laser 16 8.00
2 ER PPC Nose 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 30 14.00
2 Heavy NPPC Nose 30 30 30 30 450 6,000.00
3 NL55 FL/R 30 30 30 30 510 6,600.00
3 NL45 420 5,400.00
2 Medium NPPC FL/R 33 33 33 33 540 7,200.00
1 Heavy NPPC 450 6,000.00
2 Large Pulse Laser FL/R 4(42) 2(18) -- -- 40 28.00
4 Medium Pulse Laser 32 16.00
2 ER PPC FL/R 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 60 28.00
2 Medium NPPC L/RBS 48 48 48 48 540 7,200.00
2 Heavy NPPC 900 12,000.00
3 NL55 L/RBS 30 30 30 30 510 6,600.00
3 NL45 420 5,400.00
2 Large Pulse Laser L/RBS 4(42) 2(18) -- -- 40 28.00
4 Medium Pulse Laser 32 16.00
2 ER PPC L/RBS 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 60 28.00
2 NL45 AL/R 20 20 20 20 280 3,600.00
2 NL55 340 4,400.00
2 Medium NPPC AL/R 18 18 18 18 540 7,200.00
2 Large Pulse Laser AL/R 4(42) 2(18) -- -- 40 28.00
4 Medium Pulse Laser 32 16.00
2 ER PPC AL/R 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 60 28.00
2 NL55 Aft 20 20 20 20 170 2,200.00
2 NL45 140 1,800.00
2 Medium NPPC Aft 18 18 18 18 270 3,600.00
2 Large Pulse Laser Aft 4(42) 2(18) -- -- 20 14.00
4 Medium Pulse Laser 16 8.00
2 ER PPC Aft 2(20) 2(20) 2(20) -- 30 14.00
1 Lot Spare Parts (1.00%) 6,800.00
1 New Equipment 10.00
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
TOTALS: Heat: 7,473 680,000.00
Tons Left: .00

Calculated Factors:
Total Cost: 19,564,571,768 C-Bills
Battle Value: 115,191
Cost per BV: 169,844.62
Weapon Value: 66,835 (Ratio = .58)
Damage Factors: SRV = 4,663; MRV = 4,428; LRV = 3,338; ERV = 1,319
Maintenance: Maintenance Point Value (MPV) = 458,190
(72,256 Structure, 216,670 Life Support, 169,264 Weapons)
Support Points (SP) = 297,893 (65% of MPV)
BattleForce2: Not applicable