Sakhara 3.7
Alexandria rolled her eyes as her cousin recounted the exchange... she wasn't surprised per se... right now Clay was maneuvering a BattleMech through the course. The seventy ton Longsword had a versatility to it, its jump jets flaring and lifting the Heavy BattleMech over a barricade and a crater as its torso articulated slightly to bring the medium lasers into the exposed targets. This one wasn't nearly the eye sore of the high contrast orange and white of the machines delivered to New Avalon and was more muted, it was still a reddish hue but more in line with the naturally iron rich sands that predominated skahara's sea of dunes.
In another ninety seconds it was over, the scoring boards populating with a clean course clearance, and the Longsword stood down to disembark between two large, by hovercraft standards, fifty tonners carry massive class twenty autocannons.
The tankers must have had something that needed his attention, because he didn't immediately come over.
"I don't think he noticed how quickly his technicians work, certainly not on New Avalon," Admittedly parts had been sourced locally but it had taken the various techs a week or just over working around the clock in order to provide the demonstration designs... the 70 ton Longswords had been brought and presumably, she had to assume there had been some spare parts it was one of Clay's DropShips and it had been his JumpShips that had carried them... but regardless the machines demonstrated on New Avalon had been put together quickly, and with such rapidity that it might as well have served as secrecy. "So you're right," She was still dancing around the matter of the growing form in orbit. The Shipyard was 'visible' in hte sense it was basically a new star in the heavens above Sakhara now, you could see the light reflected off of it in the night's sky.
She knew what they were but while some of of the other students probably hadn't quite put it together, but it was only a matter of time before the revelation. She dreaded it. She dreaded it more than the once the tongues started wagging about BattleMech production... because while there was prestige in the production, in a family own the production of BattleMechs, there could be no interstellar trade without JumpShips that ferried cargo between star systems across the light years...
Justin was already turning, "So what are those?"
"Atropos, mobile assault guns," They were relatively expensive Henry would, at least internally, admit, Mech expensive in BV terms since they were clan technology, but they incorporated no XL fusion engines... and were built around a single large assault auto cannon... though in their configuration those were Ultra Autocannons not standards or LBXs. Of course, being in a ground vehicle, the autocannon's heat management was much easier, and thus managing that increased rate of fire was much easier. "Don't worry about them, there were just some concerns that the Combine might decide to show up. Its a fairly decent protection for the factories." and with that Henry waved away the issue of the hover tanks, the name Zhukov as a series of tactical doctrines and equipment procurement wouldn't appear in Sakharan Curriculum for several more years... and as an objective action against the Combine.... and nominally, officially the combine would profess that... the shipyards at Sakhara had nothing to do with the first of those attacks.
"The last time you said not to worry-"
"Its more likely you'll fight the Cluster's MechWarriors than these," He replied, which was true, Justin's concern was valid, but it didn't change the fact he had held the F 77 back from excercises as well, and the Atropos could pass for just a large angry hover car unless it happened to actually have to shoot, and even then, you could override the safeties on normal autocannons and increase the rate of fire it just raised the issue of jamming... "and that will be later in the new year when the old men get here, so don't sweat it." No it was both of them who didn't look convinced, so Henry just shrugged.
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Officially Sakhara presented it students with written exams, but so much of the course work was self study, that the marks were generated over the process of drawing diagrams or writing reports. It was subjective,, but also focused on reflective summaries of actions. The question of where had something gone wrong in an exercise, or gone right in some cases.
And while it had been less important given the age of cadets, even during the Star League era there had been expectations of where in the social hierarchy of 27
th century Inner Sphere status cadets had stood in, and that meant accommodations for the upcoming winter holidays.
What Henry really expected was that due to his ... unique circumstances his own evaluations were Coleridge watching and observing how he handled the other cadets and his summaries of their summaries ... and maybe how he planned the deployment of his own troops. The truth was he already had a reputation.. not the jumpships, but the havoc wreaked upon the sword of light. There was actually a standing order from the Chancellor, the actual commandant of the academy, prohibiting challenges err 'exchanges of pointers' in mechs simply because it would have been too likely to cause a ruckus on campus.
The vice chancellor had wanted to circumvent that during the Robinson visit, but he'd been denied that request. That wasn't likely to change given the planned endowment of new aerospace fighters to the college responsible for their training, as well as contributions of Demolishers, and Shreks to the armor school. Admittedly that might have seemed a little premature, generally such endowments were done by alumni but ... well he held the feudatory rights as count of Sakhara and it made sense... it was a hell of a Christmas gift though.
He made a brief notation on his palm pilot sized handheld as Justin tossed the duffle to one side. "I think that's everything," He remarked, "My dress uniform is in a garment bag already," which was admittedly probably where it spent most of the year since the cadets were responsible for that uniform but it was so infrequently worn having it stores away was the norm.
"Is that what you plan on wearing?"
"I mean yeah," Justin replied to his question, prompting a long suffering sigh from Alexandria as she looked at her cousin and his simple plain travel bag. He started to defend the position but they all decided to just allow the conversation to drop. There was little to hash out, the Prince's Honors were likely to be unique this year... and the truth was that there were other rumors starting to make their way around the Davion campus.
The Federated Suns still expected that Ian Davion would do his duty and eventually marry and sire a legitimate heir, but in the absence of any movement on that front, the gazette had gone out announcing that Hanse Davion and his wife Dana Stephenson were expecting the birth of their first child in the near future, which helped to insure the royal house of the Federated Suns and the stability of the Realm at large.
It was a serious announcement one which overshadowed the variety of expected awards, and recognition for service to the Davion state, such would include military as well as civilian contributions including those of the civil service. It was to be the announcement which was to hold everyone's attention for as they moved into the last month of the year.
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Notes: Short, and we're proceeding forward. I had planned to update EWSG tomorrow but that may not be the case due to scheduling issues.
