New Dawn in the Sun's (Battletech AU)

This is an idea that takes heavy inspiration from Cannonshops Kowloon series over on CBT, it's not in any way related, but I did want to acknowledge that influence from the start. This is a Fed Suns centered AU, starting at the end of the Third Succession war and covering at least the beginning of the coming tech renaissance. That said, there are some AU elements which need to be acknowledged from the start, Battletech is an old IP, and because of its age there have been issues. One of the ones I'm addressing directly is primitive tech, as in this AU it emerged much earlier. The other is a complete lack of native weapons development at the start of the tech recovery. In this AU people started to design new weapons almost as soon as the recovery began, rather than that only occurring after Star League tech had been recovered. That said, I've written enough for this to be worth posting, even if I'm hardly the most consistent writer around, so hopefully; Enjoy.


March 7th 3014

Brockton Bay space dock

Brockton System, Federated Suns

Duke Andrew Brockton wasn’t sure about his guest, his family had been dealing with them since Takiro’s fraud but they had never sent such a high-level representative before. This was an unsettling turn of events. Not even the data transfers which had given both the Concordat and the Magistracy the ability to build their favored Swordsman had an heir travel to Brockton. For all its industrial potential the Brockton system was mostly forgotten, and even when it wasn’t no one wanted to remember them.

That was the consequence of the first war. Having the Federated Suns premier ecology, biology, and genetic engineering college hadn’t done them any favors. Especially when the duke at the time had deployed a large number of bio warfare containment units to the front in an effort to keep the plagues which all of the houses had unleashed contained. No one today remembered that, they just remembered that when the Storm Crows arrived on world, there were good odds that world died. Which had resulted in no one being too broken up when the Alliance college of Terraforming was nuked off the map in the lead up to the second go around.

These days Brockton was known as a bucolic farming world, of little note, with a dark and twisted history. Sure, spacers knew about the Bay and its repair bays, but never having been a production site had turned out to be for the best. Brockton had the good fortune of only being nuked once, and despite their losses Andrew was proud of how his people had recovered. No one in his family had let it be known that they had rebuilt the college as best they could, thinking it better to let sleeping dogs lie. They especially hadn’t let on that the colleges library hadn’t been destroyed. They had simply scaled back the Storm Crows, deploying them in smaller numbers throughout the second war as if they were switching to an apprentice system. Andrew wasn’t sure what he thought about that, after all the Storm Crows had been responsible for most of the cures and vaccines produced on the golden five to this day, but he hadn’t been in his ancestors’ shoes. Letting a few worlds dies in order to keep his own people safe wasn’t a choice he was comfortable making, and so he was glad that it had been made by the time he had been born.

“Duke Brockton,” Thomas’s cybernetic eye gleamed in the low light, giving him a sinister appearance despite the boyish good looks his curly hair and soft face gave him.

“Heir Calderon,” Andrew replied easily, giving the man a bow. “I hope that you had an easy journey?”

“Easy as it could be…” Thomas almost growled out. “I do not want to be here but I am loyal to my nation.”

“Understandable,” Andrew shifted, slightly uneasy with the blatant hostility in Thomas’s tone. “Welcome to the Brockton system.”

“Thank you,” Thomas un bent a little as he said that. “I was surprised to find out just how extensive your industry is, especially this ship yard. I would have thought it would have been stripped a long time ago to feed the insatiable appetite for carnage that your first princes seem to possess.”

“How much do you know about the history of the Brockton system your grace?” Andrew asked, letting the insult pass easily. It wasn’t as if it wasn’t true after all. The Davion family had always been militarily inclined, and Ian’s reign had hardly been out of the norm.

“Very little,” Thomas allowed himself to be led deeper into the complex they were on, his cybernetic eye recording everything as he walked. Despite his distaste for the Davion’s and their minions he was well aware that the Dukes of Brockton had been useful to the Concordat. Besides this was the first look that TMI would be getting of an active shipyard built into an asteroid. That was something they could use in the Taurus system. Kerensky had crippled the Concordats ability to produce jump ships when he had pulled out, and rebuilding hadn’t been possible since then. Perhaps with a little luck something that his eye recorded would allow them to reclaim their place as a naval power. Admittedly Brockton was listed as a repair facility, with an attached civilian dockyard, but TMI had suspicions that there was more to it than that. The outback had too many Liberty II class jump ships running around, someone had to be building new ones even if officially they were all rebuilds of derelict hulls. “Assume that I am completely ignorant and you wouldn’t be too far wrong. We have the Star league official atlas… but I don’t need to tell you just how useful that is.”

“Brockton was one of the Terran alliances furthest official colonies in this direction,” Andrew said easily even as he guided the younger man down the corridor. “Before the outer reach’s rebellion, it was also one of the centers for the Terran navy and explorer corps. If the rebellion hadn’t happened, we would have been the center for the next wave of colonization in this direction. After it? Their bases were abandoned and we found ourselves very much on our own. We signed on with the Suns at their founding and kept up what we could… which was mostly the college.”

“Ah…” Thomas thought about what he had been told and then cocked his head to the side. “Genetic engineering? Planetary ecology?”

“Quiet, our ecologists and genetic engineers were critical in colonizing this region of space. Not that it helped us.” Andrew gave a self-deprecating shrug. “By the time Ian Cameron had his brain storm we were already lagging behind the Terrans in terms of colonization science, and the Davion’s had more pressing interests then pushing the pace out here. We had hoped that we could improve our lot through the league… it didn’t happen though. Alliance was downrated by the department of education to a third-tier institution and the promised funds for upgrading never seemed to appear, for some reason our people were eased out to make way for Terrans.”

“Is that how you ended up in the bio weapons business?” Thomas noted the stiffening shoulders of his host.

“That is a base slander spread by ignorant fools,” Andrew hissed before restraining his temper. “When the league collapsed, we were the Suns main source of trained geneticists, and so our people deployed to counter bio weapons releases…”

“I would have thought that the golden five would have had that knowledge?”

“Oh, they did, but despite being a founding member of the Suns we were outback hicks, expendable in other words, while the more important people on the five were recruited into the weapons programs…”

“Your people were deployed to the front lines.” Thomas had to admit it wasn’t a story he was terribly surprised by. “How did a founding member of the suns become one of the largest suppliers of the secret army in this region then?”

“Corean and Amaris.” Andrew said with a snort. “After Takiro’s fraud… we went looking to defend ourselves because everyone forgot about us during that little dust up. We got funding from Amaris, I’m sure you know just as well as I do why, and used that funding to put up a Corean annex on world.”

“I’m surprised that wasn’t looted by Kerensky, or blown up by the blackhearts.”

“Why would it have been? We made locusts.” Andrew shrugged as he opened the door to a well-appointed conference room. “Swordsmen, Whitworths, and Icarus IIs? We didn’t have the tooling to do that.”

“And yet you did and do.” Thomas reminded the duke that he was just as versed in that particular history as his host. “Along with Talos and Riflemen. Not to mention the Lions.”

“The Lion’s weren’t that difficult, dropships aren’t that different from Drop shuttles, and when the Alliance pulled out, they left a lot of space-based infrastructure behind. Drink?” Andrew offered.

“Tequila if you have it.”

“Trinity gold from the free world’s league,” Andrew poured. “During the waning days of the league we put a lot of effort into our civilian yards. They aren’t the biggest, never have been, but by keeping up the production of Jumbos and Drost class vessels it kept trade flowing despite disinterest from New Avalon.”

“Space based… interesting turn of phrase. You couldn’t have rebuilt the mech yards without a solid industrial base and an active R and D establishment. Not after Corean came in and ripped everything out to rebuild on New Avalon.”

“It took us forty years to get back to close to where we were after that happened. Twenty-eight forty-seven wasn’t a good year here.”

“But you did it… and sold at least some machine tooling to a couple of other nobles as well.” Thomas said, his eye glinting as he became much more focused. He was tempted to take a drink, but restrained himself for the moment. “There’s a reason why the outback has less pirate problems then one would think given the disinterest on New Avalon in the region.”

“Because we have militia mechs? Free worlds league was the first to introduce those, bringing back the Sarissa after their tiff with Comstar was just about the only reason they didn’t lose more worlds.”

“They did that by converting industrial mech lines, you didn’t.” Thomas stated flatly. “You built all new equipment, and while it might be crap compared to the stuff that comes out of Krupp or any of the larger manufacturers… it exists. That doesn’t even get into the fact that I know you are building front line equipment again. There have been too many shipments of Swordsmen over the border for you not to be, between us and the Magistracy? Two battalions’ worth in the last fifty years alone, those mechs are too new for you to have been pulling them out of reserves as well.”

“Limited production of front-line equipment, you’ll note we don’t sell Talos or Riflemen anymore.” Andrew’s voice was guarded.

“You still rebuilt on your own, so I have a commission for you.” Thomas said flatly, enjoying the gleam he could see in the duke’s eye.

“What do you want?”

“Machine tooling to build…” Thomas paused and dug a chip out of his pocket, passing it over to the noble. “This. It’s the newest wonderwaffen out of Coventry.”

Thomas took a sip of his tequila as the duke slid the chip into his portable reader and looked over the information. Surprisingly the free worlder’s seemed to have managed to put together a fine tequila and Thomas made a mental note to see if he could get some for his own liquor cabinet. It wasn’t often he came across such quality which wasn’t Taurian. Given his preferences having some inner sphere quality booze on hand would be a good way to throw off anyone who thought him a complete backwater hick.

“Interesting…” Andrew spoke up, looking up from the information that TMI had gathered. “We played around with this very idea about a century ago… but never put it into production.”

“Why?”

“Because people who work on weapons development have a bad habit of ending up dead, along with the entire city they were living in.” Andrew said flatly. “Our security services are good but we have never been good enough to stand up to the MASK or ISF, on a good day we might be able to take SAFE.”

“And yet you’ve been trading with us for centuries…”

“If that connection isn’t well known in the fox’s den, I will eat this table.” Andrew said flatly while rapping his knuckles against the veneered steel. “As long as we don’t rock the boat and make waves everything is all well and good, but should that change?”

“Selling us the technical specs for the Swordsman wasn’t rocking the boat?”

“How many Swordsmen do you see in the Suns?” Andrew shot back. “It’s a better machine then the Icarus or the Whitworth but getting a loyal soldier of the Suns into one is more trouble than its worth. They’re still considered a Rostov machine, and a sign of disloyalty. If we had sold you those designs it would have meant trouble… but not that one.”

“Idiots.”

“Agreed.” Andrew blew out a breath and frowned as he thought.

“Can you, do it?” Thomas asked, his voice displaying his eagerness despite his self-control. The Multiple missile launchers would be a game changer for the periphery powers, and if the Taurians could get them into production before the Magistracy got their Andurien derived MRMs into production… it would be worth the trouble of dealing with Davion lackeys in his eyes. Especially if he could rub it into that smug cunt Kyalla’s face that TMI had for once beaten the much-vaunted MIM to the punch.

“Yes.” Andrew closed his eyes and took a deep breath through his nose. “Before you decide to go with us, you should know about the downsides to what we’ll be selling you. We can’t make star league era tooling, what we have are monkey models at best. They take more manpower to run, and produce a product that is a half-step up from civilian or militia grade.”

“But you do produce at least some front-line equipment…” Thomas said shrewdly, eyeing his host. He wasn’t sure why Brockton was being so dismissive of his planets industry, unless he intended to screw the Concordat and didn’t want to be blamed.

“Because we do all of the electronics work with the remaining tooling in the yards. I would love to be able to sell you a chip forge that could produce military grade chips, but I don’t have the capability. Even if I did, I wouldn’t be allowed to sell you something like that without permission from New Avalon. What I can make will give you military performance, but the chips you get out of it will not have the durability to be truly military grade. You’re going to be looking at five to ten years of acceptable performance before they need to be replaced. On the bright side its considered to be a civilian system, so neither of us needs to worry about export controls. You could go through an official border checkpoint and not have to worry about anything more than the usual corruption issues we have.”

“So, it’s a Talos of electronics,” Thomas found himself nodding in understanding. “Good enough to get the job done for now, but its going to need to be replaced as soon as we have access to something better.”

“Exactly.”

 

SWD-2T Swordsman Mek
Mass: 40 tons
Chassis: Jerrico Type II
Power Plant: LTV 160
Cruising Speed: 43.2 kph
Maximum Speed: 64.8 kph
Armor: Durallex Light
Armament:
2 Medium Laser
1 AC/5
1 SRM 2
1 LRM 5
Manufacturer: Trevlu Mechworks
Primary Factory: Brockton
Communication System: Achernar Electronics HICK-3
Targeting & Tracking System: Federated Gatherer
Introduction Year: 2780
Tech Rating/Availability: D/X-X-X-D
Cost: 2,804,993 C-bills
Type: SWD-2T Swordsman
Technology Base: Inner Sphere (Introductory)
Tonnage: 40
Battle Value: 818

Equipment		Mass
Internal Structure		4
Engine	160 Fusion	6
Walking MP:	4
Running MP:	6
Jumping MP:	4
Heat Sink:	10
Gyro:		2
Cockpit:		3
Armor Factor:	112	7

	Internal Structure	Armor Value
Head	3	9
Center Torso	12	15
Center Torso (rear)		4
R/L Torso	10	13
R/L Torso (rear)		4
R/L Arm	6	9
R/L Leg	10	16

Weapons and Ammo	Location	Critical	Tonnage
LRM 5 Ammo (24)	RT	1	1
SRM 2	RT	1	1
LRM 5	RT	1	2
SRM 2 Ammo (50)	RT	1	1
2 Heat Sinks	RT	2	2
2 Jump Jets	RT	2	1
Medium Laser	LA	1	1
AC/5 Ammo (20)	LT	1	1
2 Heat Sinks	LT	2	2
2 Jump Jets	LT	2	1
AC/5	LT	4	8
Medium Laser	RA	1	1

 

Here we have the second chapter and an outside look. One point of cannon divergence that I do need to point out is the destruction of Challenge Systems, which in cannon makes no sense. Panpour is located across the entire Fed Suns from the Draconic Combine, and when the raid occurred the Combine was conquering the Suns at a rate that made them seem unstoppable. It makes much more sense for the destruction to have been carried out by the Capellans, who were both closer and had good reason to deny the victorious looking DCMS the economic resources of the Suns. I know that the powers that be like to make the Suns the DCMS's punching bag at every opportunity but come on, the cannon raid makes no logical sense. Therefore in this AU the CCN got a chance to shine against the FSN.

I have to admit I like that Jumbo conversion, but I've been staying away from the naval side at the moment and focusing more heavily on the mechs...

November 18th 3014

Foxes Den, New Avalon

Federated Suns



Hanse Davion was, as usual, working at his desk trying to keep the paperwork which seemed to breed there under control when a knock interrupted his Sisyphean task.

"Come in," Hanse was grateful for the interruption. Reviewing the ministry of agriculture's latest food production numbers was absolutely critical, no one after all wanted to responsible for a famine on one of their worlds, but boring beyond belief. The man who entered Hanse office was small and unassuming, brown hair just starting to grey around the edges, and an eminently forgettable face. The very picture of a fussy bureaucrat except for the fact he entered Hanse's domain alone, without aids to accompany him, a suitably subtle show of power.

"My Prince," Nicholas Truston gave a brief bow upon entering.

"Nicholas, what do you have for me? More of Michaels people?"

"No, though you can expect my report by the end of the year on what we are doing to redress the issues in my ministry." Nicholas stated blandly. "An issue has come up."

"Very well," Hanse waved Nicholas into one of the two seats which faced his desk. "What do you have for me?"

"Recently the heir of the Taurian Concordat disappeared for at least half a year, as Thomas Calderon is hardly our most fervent admirer, we were somewhat alarmed by this." Nicholas's voice was measured and precise. "Given the recent shake ups in the Capellan march we had thought that we had just lost track of him, or that the analysists who were tasked with watching the Concordat had been diverted to other tasks. The Taurian section isn't the most respectable, and they are also based out of the Capellan march, but critical failures such as this are not in any way acceptable."

"I trust that the errors are in the process of being rectified?" Hanse asked, his voice low and dangerous. It seemed that Michael was playing games again, only this time with foreign actors. "And where did the wayward heir turn up?"

"I have a team of Rabid Foxes on their way to New Syrtis as we speak," Hanse perked up as he heard that. Dispatching a team from BII or CID would make sense, but MI6? That indicated something much more serious than the reports indicated at first blush. Nicholas wasn't one to panic, and him reaching for the rabid foxes for an internal issue indicated that something was deeply wrong. "As for where Thomas was found… He recently resurfaced in the Brockton system of all places."

"Brockton… Brockton…" Hanse pursed his lips as he considered where the system was. He tensed as it hit his memory, it was deep in the Crucis march almost on the border with the Periphery. More importantly the system had a reputation. "I presume that you have a team headed for Brockton as well?"

"We have teams there at the moment, BII, CID, and MI7 a team from Covert Ops as well, probably some stealthy foxes but DMI wouldn't tell me if there were unless there was a pressing need."

"The heir to the Taurian Concordat, who is known for his dislike of us, shows up on a world which is infamous for its involvement in Bioweapons, and you don't feel a pressing need to push DMI?"

"The plague dogs, or storm crows as they were known on Brockton, were a medical and containment unit despite their reputation. Brockton wasn't ever one of our hubs for weapons research, even when they had the alliance college and its full database available." Nicholas derailed the first prince neatly. For all Hanses known intelligence one man couldn't keep every fact about the realm in his memory, although he did try. It was Nicholas's job to give him the information that he needed to make a correct decision, and to correct him when he was misinformed. "Given the unfortunate loss of said facility during the second war…"

"So, Thomas isn't looking to reopen pandoras box on us," Hanse frowned. "I will admit that I cannot think of another reason for him to show up there. The Far lookers use star league derived terraforming tech, much more advanced than anything you could find in even an intact Alliance database. The Taurian's also don't use militia mechs, they don't have the budget for them even if I think they would be useful. What do we know?"

"Brockton is one of the outback's more successful civilian manufacturing centers, they specialize in agricultural industrial mechs, low levels of obsolete civilian dropship production, and have one of our few jump ship rated refit yards. In terms of military production, they are best known for their copies of the Patron industrial mech, but they also produce several militia grade mechs, they also have the last known production site for the Lion class dropship, and are known regionally to be one of the higher quality factory level refit facilities, in which they put together a handful of mechs a year that are front line quality. All of this industrial activity is overshadowed by their agricultural contributions, especially their continued efforts to produce seeds tailored for various worlds. At last estimate sixty percent of their planetary GDP is provided by the agricultural sector." Nicholas listed off the pertinent information on the system easily, having just reviewed it before coming here. "More pertinently, intentions at least thinks, they retain the ability to manufacture heavy equipment to at least Terran Alliance standards possibly higher."

"So, Thomas wants some equipment?" Hanse had to raise an eyebrow at that. "That sounds like something we can deal with through CID?"

"It should be, and would be, if their military manufacturing sector hadn't been gutted by direct order of Michael Davion in his efforts to assist Corean in rebuilding under his Peace of Money movement… Since then, the Brockton family has been reluctant to cooperate with New Avalon on anything industrial. In fact, they have actively downplayed their manufacturing capabilities, to the point where they are not a listed supplier of the AFFS." Hanse restrained his wince at the mention of that project. He thought that it had been a good idea, an attempt to pacify one border and possibly build a coalition which could have ended the succession wars through diplomacy. Unfortunately, it had not worked, or been a popular idea, especially at home, and the resentment that it had generated was alive and well in the nobility to this day.

"Additionally," Nicholas continued ignorant of his Princes thoughts on the situation. "The Brockton family has been building influence along the periphery border for a long time, quietly for the most part, but since the end of the Mechwarriors Cabal and your fathers ascensionto the throne they have been a bit less circumspect. Duke Andrew Brockton was instrumental in brokering the deal between Jalastar Aerospace and the Basantapur subsidiary of Trevlu Mechworks that set up Ajeet Aerospace to produce the Centurion light fighter and allowed Jalastar to buy out Challenge Systems. Something we have benefited from as Jalastar managed to get at least one of the Jumpship lines the Capelans wrecked in 2796 working, although they can only manufacture Liberty II class ships…"

"Didn't Ajeet manage to start production of another design last year? A heavy fighter if I remember correctly?"

"You do, one model in production with another in testing. The Vulcan, a former Rim Worlds fighter."

"I'm surprised they were that daring, Rim Worlds equipment still has a reputation even after all this time. That and I'm curious just how they found the plans for something like that."

"As an interesting side note the Brockton family owns a forty percent stake in Ajeet Aerospace, despite not having put a single pound into the deal."

"Ah…" Hanse paused to consider the long-ago treason against the star league which the Brockton family must have been involved in up to their necks. "I think I need more information about the family."

"They own about two thirds of Trevlu Mechworks, despite the facility on Brockton being the smallest and least productive of that companies' production sites. Unlike the Basantapur, Tsamma, or Filtvelt Brockton only produces medium mechs. The flipside to this is that the Brockton division of Trevlu does produce all up battlemechs, although at a low rate of production made possible by importing components, as opposed to the other locations which only produce militia grade machines."

"I am familiar with Trevlu's products…" Hanse had taken the time to actually test out a Trevlu Battleaxe and had found it to be a very able machine for its limits. Not the hardest hitting thing out there, but well able to serve as an anvil to more capable machines especially against pirates and the like. Despite its outdated equipment it was comparable to a Marik made Warhammer, if not quite as capable. "I thought that Trevlu had their corporate headquarters on Basantapur? Didn't they start out as a joint venture between the Islamabad defense zone command and Basantapur Fine Metals? One of that companies few successful ventures if my economics professors didn't completely fail me."

"Good memory, my prince," Nicholas acknowledged Hanses point before continuing to explain. "That partnership was the genesis of the idea, but without machine tooling it was one of the many failed attempts to create a militia mech producer around the end of the second succession war. It was thought to be yet another boondoggle and a subsidy capture attempt by Basantapur Fine Metals. MIIO had opened an investigation into local corruption within the Islamabad defense zone's command elements. The Brockton's came to their rescue before any indictments were handed down. They had excess capacity in their industrial mech lines, and were willing to part with it. They contributed machine tooling and plans for the original Icarus, Whitworth, and Swordsman as their buy in to the venture. As Trevlu expanded they have continued to supply the industrial equipment needed in exchange for a percentage of each site's ownership. Between their share of the licenses that Trevlu holds, something they were very careful to keep legally theirs, and their other contributions the family as a whole has come into a lot of stock. Especially given that the Filtvelt nobility had little more to contribute then the land the factories were built on."

"What percentage of each factory do they own? And why is this the first time I'm hearing about the Brockton family if they have that much control over one of our militia mech manufacturer."

"Thirty percent of the Basantapur facility, Basantapur Fine Metals has actively worked to reduce the families influence there, and they lobbied hard to keep the corporate headquarters on world backed up by Islamabad command with substantial subsidies from the Garg family. Sixty percent of Tsamma, which used to be lower until there was an attack on that facility and the Sandoval's pulled out under pressure from Corean. Brockton is theirs, no questions asked, and they have around an eighty percent stake in the Filtvelt facility." Nicholas had to check his notes to remind himself of the percentages, and even then, he could only give approximations. Some of the stocks were in holding companies, which MIIO hadn't completely untangled the ownership of. "As for why this is the first your hearing of this? The Brockton family has been low key in their ownership. Unless you go deep into the financial side of things you would think that all facilities were locally owned, in partnership with Trevlu Basantapur. On the surface Trevlu looks like it's a Garg family business, one they used their position as planetary Dukes to push into, especially after they successfully replaced the CEO fifteen years ago. With the exception of the Brockton subsidiary the Brockton family doesn't exert its influence, preferring to leave the business side of things to the professional's."

"Garg's? That's a name I haven't heard since my last history lecture." Hanse mused aloud. That family had provided the Maharaja who had brought the United Hindu Collective into the Federated Suns. The family had ended up being elevated to the nobility, but mostly been quiet since then. Still, it was a very well-respected name in that part of space, and they had long cultivated a reputation as canny thinkers. Which very well could explain why the Brockton's were willing to let them take the lead. Then again most noble families wouldn't be willing to let others have the acclaim. "I think I'm going to need more about the Brockton family then you've given me Nicholas. They're a little too different then what I'm used to."

"Very well, getting back to the family. They maintain that one of their ambassadors signed the Crucis Pact despite very little supporting evidence for their claim and the distance between the founding members of the Pact and the Brockton system. The family has always put its scions into service with the AFFS, even when it was the Federal Peacekeeping Force, although they rarely rise beyond company command. Louis Brockton served Elias Pitcairn as a company commander throughout the Reunification war, before retiring to Brockton to spend the rest of his life memorializing the crimes of the Star League and attempting to assassinate Amos Furlough. Despite not having any heirs Louis's experience led the entire family to forgo taking service with the SLDF. During the first and second succession wars the family created and led our premier bio and chemical weapons containment unit, although their enthusiasm flagged after the money for peace initiative gutted their family holdings to rebuild Corean's New Avalon factory. The family has kept out of politics, preferring to grow their influence through economic means, something they have been very successful at especially in the outback region. They have connections to Robinson through their development efforts on Tsamma, but their influence is limited there. Almost no connections in the Capellan March though they are known to have connections to both the Outworlds Alliance and the Taurian Concordat. There are persistent rumors that they can get Magistracy derived hardware on demand as well, but those are unconfirmed."

"Which makes it a political problem…" Hanse drummed his fingers on his desk. "What did they make? Before their industrial base was gutted, I mean."

"Officially? Locusts right up until the middle of the first succession war then Icarus II's, Whitworths, Swordsmen, -2D Riflemen, and Talos all of which had a remarkable similarity to the models the secret army deployed against the SLDF during the New Vandenburg uprising."

Hanse had to think for a moment before he recognized all of the models listed. Most of them used the same LTV-160 engine as the Locust, and were still relatively common. The Swordsman wasn't popular, despite having found a foothold in the periphery after the fall of the Star League, but the Icarus II and the Whitworth were popular with the lower order nobility of the Suns. Especially in the outback, where their low price point compared to their utility made them an affordable substitute for the more substantial, and expensive, Dervishe, Centurion, and Enforcer Battlemechs. Corean's rebuilding on New Avalon had been highly dependent on their Icarus II and Whitworth production. While their Valkyrie factory had kept the company afloat, the rebuilding of the Centurion lines had been financed through the sale of Whitworths and Icarus II's. Given those machines prominent place in the history of the Suns Hanse knew them intimately, the Talos and Rifleman -2D took him a moment to place though.

Both were fifty-ton designs, the Talos having been a Taurian age of war design which had seemingly been revived for the New Vandenburg uprising. By reputation it was comparable to the Enforcer and Centurion in combat power, though less well regarded. Still, it was a solid generalist trooper, if a bit more ammo dependent then anyone really liked. If he was remembering correctly, it also had a primitive electric distribution system which couldn't meet the demands of energy weapons, and its computers were legendarily barely fit for purpose which explained why it had gone out of production again. Though supposedly the TDF kept a company of the mechs in Samantha for ceremonial duties. The Rifleman on the other hand, it was a slightly beefier Blackjack, five tons heavier and fitted with heavier autocannons to back up a quartet of medium lasers. Again respectable, but not really a front-line machine. More importantly they both used the same Nissan 200 engine as the Centurion.

"So that's where Corean got their tooling after the loss of Ramen II…" Hanse could see why the decision had been made, after all the Centurion was one of the mainstays of the AFFS battlemech core. He did wonder if Corean had been just a little bit liberal in their reclamation efforts, as before the second succession war they hadn't had a license to build the Whitworth. That thought made him grimace, it did present him with a problem. The Brockton's would be highly resistant to any interreference in their industry by the First Prince, and despite the cloud under which they lived having them scream to everyone in reach that the First Prince was robbing them again would represent a major political problem, especially their Robinson connections. He already had one march lord who was two thirds of the way off the reservation, he didn't need to alienate the Sandoval's as well as his brother-in-law. "Thorny problem… Suggestions?"

"Harry Brockton is currently serving with the Heavy Guards, but he's coming up to the end of his enlistment term and has indicated that he intends to return home. Perhaps…" Nicholas pursed his lips as he thought about the political issues and tried to think of who would be appropriate to use both in terms of stature and Hanse's trust. "Ran Felsner to escort him?"

Hanse considered that for a moment and then reached for his phone and pushed a few buttons.

"Jeremy? Get ahold of Ran and Ardan, ask them if they can stop by for dinner tonight. No nothing urgent but I do have a few ideas I need to kick around and I would like their input if they are available, or can make the time. Thank you." Hanse put down the receiver and nodded, clearly having made a decision. "Between the two of them I'll bet they can uncover what is going on without any issues."


* Edited to correct errors pointed out on SB.

 

March 2^nd 3015
Pitcairn Legion Proving Grounds
Brockton, Federated Suns

“The idea isn’t that complicated, I’ll bet you had your own engineers telling you exactly how they could achieve what you wanted. I know that when I was at Point Barrow someone came up with the same damn system cobbled together from parts for their senior engineering project.” Theresa Wallis ignoring the wind whipping the few strands of white hair which had escaped her braid as she spoke to the heir of the Taurian Concordat. She could have included his military aid in the conversation but she had found him to be an ignorant little shit, certain that his prejudices were reality, so excluding him came naturally to her.

“They did.” Thomas agreed readily. Unlike most of the inner sphere natives he had met he found that native Brocktonite’s were well informed about the level of education which was actually available in the periphery, and as such lacked the characteristic arrogance he had come to expect from natives of the sphere. “When we showed our engineering staff the data, we got from the commando we had ten plans on my desk by the end of the day. Which still doesn’t answer my question as to why this MML hasn’t become standard issue long before now.”

“Because while the engineering needed to knock one together as a one off isn’t complicated… the engineering needed to put together a production line is.” Andrew found himself joining the conversation between the chief of engineering for Brockton War Works, a wholly owned subsidiary of Trevlu Mechworks, and Thomas. “You need to get every step right, consistently, and you need to design and build completely new machine tools to do it if you don’t want to end up doing half the damn work by hand. You can’t just program what you want into a standard auto welder and walk away for the tubes, they need to be single piece cast. Then you need a chip forge, a programmable chip forge at that, so the damn thing doesn’t try and jam the SRMs into the LRM slots and vice versa.”

“Your people could do the casting themselves. Hell, they could get all of the mechanical bits done without any outside assistance.” Theresa took up the conversation again. “That’s a solved problem, and I don’t doubt that your engineers can do it. It’s the chips which are your road block. Unless things have changed you don’t have a single manufacturer capable of putting together a military grade chip forge, or even one half way there like ours are. That was one of the key technologies which the star league made damn sure you didn’t get your hands on… then when they went away everyone else was too busy either buying up the production, or smashing it flat for you to get one. Then, without that key industry, you lost the institutional knowledge of how to program those chips. Not your fault, but it’s a crippling defect you might want to think about for the future.”

“To be fair… there are very few planets which retain the ability to program a new chip forge, let alone build one. We wouldn’t have it if we didn’t have a lower tech base then usual when we started.” Andrew shrugged as he admitted that. “The ones we produce are much less efficient than what you would get out of a Star League era forge, and they require three times the trained manpower to use. Of course, the tradeoff is that training said manpower is much easier, as the Alliance wasn’t nearly as dependent on black boxing to keep their scientific and industrial edge.”

“Don’t get me started on the spaghetti coding needed for Terran systems,” Theresa shuddered as she said that. “That’s on top of the DMR Terrans put into everything. Good luck getting Krupp to sell you what you need to build your own chip forge. They’ll sell a chip forge, make no mistake about it, but it’ll be limited and non-programable, not to mention two or three billion c bills over cost and two or three decades late on delivery. No way in hell they sell what you would need to build it yourself. You might be able to get one of the Lyran corps to sell you what you need but… I wouldn’t count on it. They guard their remaining tooling sites closer than the Archons heir, and getting on the list as an acceptable customer? You’d have better luck getting into Mt Asgard dressed as a Drac officer and singing about how much you love the coordinator.”

“At least they have tooling manufacturers left,” Andrew grumped. “We in the suns started the wars dependent on Terran tooling.”

“It explains why they were the first to bring the MML to market though… Probably started the project over a decade or two ago and only now are starting up the manufacturing. It makes sense for them; they’ve never had a light fire support design. Refitting the Commando like they did… I wouldn’t mind shaking that designer’s hand. Gives them a massive leg up on the leaguers, and puts them back into contention with the Drac lights.” Theresa admitted freely. “If you can get the license, I would recommend you do so. Losing one missile to be able to throw down at both short and long range? That new Commando is a sphere beater.”

“That I knew. Am I out here to see your own attempt?” Thomas asked, mildly impressed by the analysis of the new commando model that Theresa had shared off hand. It matched what Taurian high command thought, and she hadn’t needed a working group and three months to get there.

“Nope. We’re here to see two new models,” Theresa said easily. “Revised Swordsman, we stuck a five tube MML in place of the SRMs and LRMs and upped the armor. That’s something I imagine that TTI will want the license for, or at least your high command will want upgrade kits for. You already dropped the small laser and downgraded the SRM pack in your two tee model for more armor… this will let you get back up to a vanilla two’s firepower without losing any of the extra armor.”

Thomas found himself nodding in agreement with the old engineer. The Swordsman had become something of a mainstay of the lower-level Taurian units and militias. It was cheap to acquire and operate, and good enough to hold its own against most pirates. While it lacked the firepower of the Davion’s preferred Icarus II with its Imperator B, it made up for it in battlefield longevity, versatility, and durability.

“You could do the same with a Shadow Hawk… it would be a bigger improvement then the two dee.” Thomas mused aloud. “Lord knows that two ache doesn’t have the firepower it needs. It’s a work horse and everyone has them, but there’s a reason why everyone tries not to have it as the main line medium and even then, they refit them to match their own preferred specs.” The two kay was currently the most popular refit for the Shadow Hawk within the TDF. Personally, Thomas thought that was a mistake, after all the most common cavalry medium in the Concordat was the Griffin and the two kay was almost a direct mod cop of that design. Still better than the dee the Davion’s liked to run around in though, at least it was survivable if it came into contact with the enemy.

“We thought about that.” Theresa acknowledged. “Wasn’t enough though.”

Before Theresa could say anything else a freshly painted Swordsman in militia colors jumped into the proving grounds and began to go through the scenario. Thomas made sure to keep his prosthetic eye on wide angle, so that he had both the mech and the displayed battle damage assesment in its focus. The recording would be valuable when he got home. The performance was entirely as he expected, a solid match to the Taurians own two tee’s at long range, but one hell of a nasty infighter up close. The SRMs made a real difference at short range, though more exhaustive testing would be needed to see if the new model would be worth adopting into general service. The intangibles couldn’t be shown in a short test like this after all.

“How much would it be for me to get… twelve of your MMLs for testing purposes?” Thomas asked after the demonstration was over. While he had confidence that Taurian ingenuity would be able to match these Davion’s it wouldn’t hurt to have a couple of finished units on hand for the mech designers to play with while they were setting up their factory. “And a copy of the plans?”

“We could work out a deal,” Andrew answered easily. “You think Pinard and TTI would both be interested?”

“Let me revise that, I’ll need at least sixteen of those five racks for testing.” Thomas was reminded yet again that these Davion’s knew all too much about the Taurians industries.

“Doable,” Theresa put in clearly bouncing on her toes in anticipation of something. “By the time your new chip forges are ready to be loaded up we’ll have that many prototypes produced. We won’t be holding up your departure.”

“You aren’t worried about official notice?” Thomas asked mildly. Internally his mind was racing. This was far too easy.

“Not when we’re going to be claiming that we stole the initial design from you,” Andrew replied with a grin. “After all you came to us with the MML data you got from the new Commando.”

“There is that… you really think that will fly on New Avalon?”

“Ran Felsner is headed here with my oldest son,” Andrew grinned as he said that. “That’s a direct line to Hanse Davion’s ear. We pass the specs on to him…”

“And all is forgiven.” Thomas could see how that would work. He wasn’t exactly pleased about helping the Davion’s out… then again if LIC and more importantly to his mind Coventry Metal works legal department heard about the Davion’s having their new technology before the Concordat got around to deploying it. He knew who would be blamed for the leak, and whose relations with the Commonwealth would suffer. He could actually pass that tidbit off to VMIs contract negotiators as a reason why they were so interested in a license for the new model Commando. It might not work, but it was better than admitting Coventry had accidentally sent them the data. That cheered Thomas up immensely, it was good to see the old Taurian standby of when in doubt blame the Davion’s being useful.

“This should be good!” Theresa was almost rocking in excitement as a new Shadow Hawk entered the course.

Thomas could see a few differences. It did have the expected five rack of MMLs in place of its LRM system. The real difference though was in the Autocannon. Thomas at first dismissed what his eyes were telling him, and then found himself focusing in on it again as the size of the barrels registered. He had thought it was just another multi barrel auto cannon model, but the barrels were too big. Unable to help himself he zoomed in with his eye on the auto cannon and pursed his lips. Each of the six barrels looked to his eyes like a long-range AC, Whirlwind L if he didn’t miss his guess, the same single barrel type which was used on the Blackjack. Widening his vision again he pulled back to observe.

What he saw was impressive. He had known what to expect from the MML system, but the autocannon. Oh, the autocannon was special. It could pump out a variable number of shots, from firing a single barrel, up to cutting loose with all six barrels at once. Checking the BDA board, he was pleased to see that his assessment had been right about the damage potential of each barrel, but wrong in the potential of the weapons system as a whole. Going at full bore it could do as much damage as the largest SRM system at the same range as the lightest autocannon.

While Thomas managed to keep his jaw together, and hide just how impressed he was, his military aid wasn’t nearly as capable. Cornet Shraplen wasn’t able to keep from staring in a mix of wide-eyed astonishment and white-faced terror. The teenager had been good enough to keep his mouth shut so far, but he couldn’t contain himself anymore.

“How!?? What devilry is this? That shouldn’t be possible! Even if you simplify the ammo feed system each of those barrels should be three tons.” Grover was babbling in what Thomas estimated was sheer terror. He had thought better of the boy, before this trip he had thought of him as an up and comer, he really hadn’t expected him to go to pieces like this. Especially since fitting an eighteen-to-twenty-one-ton weapon into a Shadow Hawk wasn’t possible. Obviously, they had done something else, and logically if they were showing it off it meant he would be learning about it before the Davions managed to get it into general deployment.

“Grover, enough.” Thomas said flatly ceasing the babble coming from his aid. Before he could apologize properly to the Duke the Shadow Hawk attempted a jump and locked up midair, crashing to earth in a tangle of limbs which indicated a Gyro failure. Emergency services seemed to appear out of thin air to converge on the downed mech and the duke was screaming into his com. Thomas pulled back and waited, finding himself next to Theresa who looked stricken at the accident. He saw the pilot get out, and stagger a bit before righting himself and waiving off the medics before he decided to speak.

“Bad luck, but it looks like your man got out without injury,” Thomas allowed a note of commiseration to enter his voice as he said that. They might be Davion’s but at least they were playing it fair with him.

“I don’t understand,” Theresa replied, white faced with shock and shame. “It was a brand-new chassis. We got it fresh from triple M, nothing had been installed on it. How could it give out like that. We’ve never had a problem with their quality control before.”

“Triple M suffered a major engineering casualty last year, at least according to TMI, one of their auto welders stopped working as it should. If I don’t miss my guess one of the data lines from the gyro to the central computer ripped off due to the jump.” Thomas paused, noting that he had everyone’s attention before continuing. Naturally he refrained from mentioning that TMI had thought that triple M had been using that as an excuse to retool to use the new Andurien developed medium range missiles on its next iteration of the venerable Shadow Hawk. Something they were keeping to themselves despite foreign relations best efforts. New Abilene was the mistake that just kept giving. “If that is what happened then I think we can confirm that rumor. Even with the accident though, I must say I’m impressed. That new autocannon of yours is something else.”

“It was one of my husband’s projects,” Theresa said, clearly glad for the distraction. “He was trying to build a Code Red, but the metallurgy always seemed to come out wrong. This is the result of his last attempt before he passed away. He managed to get the barrel weight down, but he could never get the resulting material to accept the pressure needed to match the Code Red in performance. It’s too brittle.”

“Madam, if this is the result of one of his failures the entire sphere would tremble at his success.” Thomas said flatly, trying to cheer the old woman up even as he considered what she had said. It was interesting data, mentally he revised his estimates on the range the new autocannon was capable of down. Even with that limitation in mind he thought that this was yet another game changing weapon to come out of the sphere, one he would have to see if he could get the specs on. If this new material could be scaled up then there were some real possibilities here, especially at the heavier end of the auto cannon range. Another thing to bring up with the designers back home.

“Hah, if I hadn’t been pestering him, he never would have gotten these done. He always wanted to take the most efficient path, and say what you will about the rotary auto cannon it is not an efficient weapon. Brutal power? Oh yes, but not the clean one shot kill he wanted to develop. We have a larger bore version, but we haven’t decided on what to mount it on yet so it hasn’t gone beyond bench testing.” Theresa grinned as she said that. “I can’t wait to show that off.”

“I thought you had decided to test it on the Icarus which just came off the lines?” Duke Andrew rejoined the conversation; he was trying to project a cheerful front but Thomas could tell he was worried behind the façade.

“A brand-new weapons system on a glorified second line machine, which a well-handled militia mech can beat, even one its own weight?” Theresa drew herself up in outrage. “Are you insane?”

“If we can prove it works then we can put it onto something more substantial.” Andrew replied, his voice sharpening slightly. “If we could still make Talos then I would be all for putting it there, but we can’t anymore.” He carefully didn’t mention the Swordsman they had fitted with the system. As open as he was being with their guests he didn’t want to give away all of their secrets, just enough that the notoriously prickly Taurian’s weren’t panicked when Davion units started showing up on the border with new weapons systems. From the look of the military aid Thomas had brought with him that could have resulted in disaster. Better the Taurians got advanced warning so they weren’t inclined to do something stupidly aggressive out of panic.

“Fucking Free World carpet baggers,” Theresa mutter mutinously.