Sakhara 1.3​

Sakhara 1.3​Field Marshal the duchess Yvonne Davion had not attended Sakhara, she had attended Albion. That wasn't to say she didn't appreciate Sakhara's history or its history especially of turning out capable graduates, and in a way that had been why she had been here. She had been an officer of the AFFS since graduating Albion at 21 with the class of 84. She had three decades of service, and though not advertised publicly she was the director for MI2 of the Department of Military Intelligence, and had been for half her career.

Hanse had always been the one more likely to listen to her advice, but she was grateful that Ian wasn't the sort to be ... completely reckless... she wasn't quite here with the blessing of the first prince to investigate, but the truth was it not her reaason for coming... and not the only reason for coming. It was true young men occassionally engaged in a sort of noble finishing school, but it was a more common post for a young noblewoman to serve as a lady in waiting. Alexandria Cunningham, the countess Kestrel the heiress apparent would graduate at the end of the following term and in agreement with House Cunningham would take up the post as Yvonne's lady in waiting for the duration of her mandatory service with the AFFS.

Only a fool would have considered such a posting a cushy or easy one regardless of the politics involved. She hadn't however expected that her arrival on Sakhara would have begun the way it had. It had been purely a gamble that she had found the free time to travel... no it hadn't... the truth was there was so much schmoozing going on in New Avalon now was the perfect time to do this...

Two years ago the Kuritans had attempted to conquer Mallory's world and been rebuffed, and rather than heed more cautious voices, and with his younger brother's support Ian had proceeded to push forward with the Raid on Halstead Station. Once again, as on Mallory's world, a young knight errant mechwarrior had distinguished himself enough that once well... once everyone was off world ... things had gotten somewhat raucous in the heady moments of success after the battle.

Yvonne was willing to believe this wasn't some infiltration attempt. No, Occam's Razor suggested this was some young wealthy orphan who had consolidated their portion of a family inheiritance and left for somewhere where they wouldn't have to contend with rivals within the family. Siblings, or perhaps a mal intentioned uncle... but whatever the case the degree of unfamiliarity with the Federated Suns establishment was probably that of somewhere from the far side of human space.

It was that she was technically acting outside of her remit, but it was her prerogative.

The fact that he hadn't recognized her would have made him a very poor spy... even just recognizing that she was a Duchess, and a cadet of the greater davion line should have warranted some degree of recognition... so that end she chalked that up to most likely having not received a proper noble tutelage, or at least not a full one... which made sense the teenager's mech skills were superb... he apparently could balance a book, and run a business... though there were questions of exactly what assets he did have within the year of being installed on Sakhara there had been a trickle in of JumpShips. A JumpShip company that now plied a regular line to to the marcher capital of Robinson, and to the realm capital of New Avalon.

A volume of JumpShips that the Federated Suns rather desperately needed. To that end she wasn't surprised that there was at least some portion of arms to accompany the patrimony. It was another oddity that they hadn't fought on Mallory's world, or Halstead station... but by all indications he'd been travelling if not alone at the time he'd been travelling with very few retainers. MIIO's working theory was that the Combine's scorched earth tactics had temporarily stranded them on the planet and forced them into an engagement with the invaders.

It was all speculation. That and it had been mildly amusing to watch the undue shock at the cadet unit come apart when faced with a professional house hold unit. It was better that they learn now, rather than find themselves out in the field... but this was generally the role of the graduation test's OpFor against the DMM usually. 

Coleridge was understandably quite embarrassed as well though not quite for the same reasons regarding the cadets performance. While Coleridge was embarrassed that the cadets had failed to stop a small noble retinue, their guest lecturer was already trying to diagnose how 'they had messed things up that badly'. There were some rapid fire questions between the young man and his staff and the academy's staff, but it was a frenzied activity that would have been all but impossible to fake.

... some people were simply this way. That of course was grounds for as much concern, because if he were 'honest and true' then that made him FedSuns, and that made him a target to their enemies. Combine propaganda of the last year had conceded the defeat at Halstead station by eulogizing the death of the second of light, as honorable warriors who had gone to their deaths in hopes of avenging Yorinaga Kurita. It was a statement of bushido, and the combine notion of honor that this was vendetta pursued between warriors.

... The Combine proganda ministry 'the voice of the dragon' had of course exagerated Davion losses and all but ignored their own militia units presence, making it seem as if it had been a battle strictly between the most elite of units... and all mechwarriors. They'd gone so far as to suggest that 'the Rapid Fox' had been using a semi legendary late Star League warmachine called a Nightstar to fight Yorinaga. An assault mech versus... presumably whatever lostech star league machine that was itself the same mass as Yorinaga's warhammer... but it was a classical attempt to save face by the combine. They portrayed the enemy battlemech as a shadowy unknown never clearly seen properly force of nature more than a real weapon of war.

Yvonne unlike most paid attention to the distinction that Rabid Fox was the name of the mech, not the pilot's call sign. 4 Large Lasers ... probably even Star League extended range models in the hands of an accomplished gunner were something to be afraid of. It also demonstrated that the machine did have heat issues, it was erratic in its ability to control heat, and so far as they had noticed it was only one of its kind... and its pilot had demonstrated that his gunnery, particularly in an academy Rifleman was very accurate befitting a clearly experienced mechwarrior.

It suggested further away from the centers of power, though probably not the deep periphery.

--

With a quick glance at the cheat sheet he'd drawn up he was trying to figure out where things had gone wrong. The Trebuchet and Centurions were all Inner Sphere standard mechs. They didn't have clan equivalent weapons as upgrades... it was all standard technology. The math was there and scratched out.

He reached over and sipped his coffee. The first portion of the engagement was fairly standard battle doctrine without amror or defensive infantry to screen both Mech forces had moved to engage aggressively. Mass LRM fire had answered from the trebuchets and centurions... and these centurions were standard Als using the inefficent by weight and heat LRM 10s.

Still that was equivalent to an entire battle group of LRM carriers massing a strike to open. That had probably contributed to the initial confusion... that was understandable that was over four hundred missiles cycling out over the span of seconds... and the missible boats had then selected targets to mass on.

There had not been any armor breaches, unfortunate ammunition cook offs or other lucky hits in the first thirty seconds of the simulated excercise. The two sides had moved into range brackets where PPCs, and Large lasers could come into play and it was also the range that class ten auto cannons and below should have come into play, but seemed to have been the problem. Justin had started firing with his blackjack but the the 40mm GM Autocannons just lacked the effective damage output to make it count... not when Centurion AL models mounted heavier armor than the usual.

The following stage was rather predictable battlefield dispersion as massed LRM 15 fires from the Trebuchets continued until the missile boats ran dry. That massed fire though had started to acrue such that by the time they had emptied their LRM bins they were able to move up and support with their medium lasers, and then enter melee range in support of the centurions.

... which just reminded him that these Centurion Als were standard configuration with a rear facing medium laser. He had rushed this force table. The Centurions had then congregated letting the 5Ns assume primary facing while they emptied off their own missiles, on targets of opportunity.

Was that where things had gone wrong? Had the cadets, and he didn't have their communications logs to review, had they expected this to be individual mechwarriors? That would be silly wouldn't it, they had a numerical advantage against the enemy, had there not been a clear direction to specify what needed to die first? Or was it not clear given they were fighting six of one mech and six of another but the models were identical?

He drained the stainless steel insulated cup of its precious black coffee.

There had been no attempt to maneuver an element to bring fire onto the enemy flank. That was an obvious mistake especially given their numerical advantage. That was certainly something he was going to put into writing... if he didn't Coleridge or whoever the Vice Chancellor had review the simulated battle rom of the war game would and probably chew out their asses.

"Well?" Colonel Coleridge who looked like he was about to jump out of his skin started to speak at the Field Marshal's question, but couldn't muster a response, and Yvonne Davion turned, "What do you think?"

"I think that this could have actually been worse. These are non optimized," He flinched, "That is to say these centurions haven't completed a planned refurbishment to improve combat efficacy and were thus operating ..." He rested his head in his hands... "We were going to put Zeus LRM 15s and drop a ton of ammo from their bins, get rid of the small laser." Was it perfect no, but as a short endurance attacker it was good enough... and it would have simplified logistics with the trebuchets... actually he'd probably insist the techs get rid of the Phostechs in favor Magna Mk II Medium lasers... but he decided not to say that..."I... no what we need to have them write up what they think they did wrong to have this result... preferably without them blaming one another." More than they probably already were... he didn't voice that either.

Coleridge half turned looked at him, and started to say something but Yvonne cut him off. "I want to hear more of this." Because of course reducing ammo for a more ammo intensive weapon only made sense in a very short term engagement... but of course these weren't standard centurions that were already carrying a lot of ammo anyway and the idea was to have everyone mass shots as a company level unit of battle before engaging in direct fire attacks, and then ultimately in close range. The LRMs were the only thing, in their inner sphere standard versions, with a minimum arm range after all. "So run again it again when this unit is actually at intended fighting form." The Field Marshal ordered... even though Colonel Coleridge protested that decision.

--

Yvonne Davion watched the manic energy rather akin to Banzai Buckaroo fade. The young mechwarrior had put the candidates through whether he'd conciously considered a handicap or not a test that he'd considered that they'd do well in.

The rolling tide of commentary, and notion of how to were innovative, on both sides. It wasn't advertised and it certainly hadn't made the Combine's propanda reels escuses to try and turn around a moralizing message of duty and honor, but there had been a combined arms aspect on Halstead Station, and Mallory's world as well.

The destruction of 2nd​ Sword of Light had in part involved the destruction of their armor and infantry against the Robinson Rangers Armor and Infantry with the latter eventually being further reinforced as mechs rejoined the other arms of battle. The challenge on the fields of Madison had involved tanks and dug infantry firing on Sword of Light Mechs keeping them in a rough V forward of the Rabid Fox allowing the MechWarrior to line up shots offten taking headshots.

The close back into urban fighting had further reiterated accuracy and pin point shooting on targets which, the battle roms, had made the rounds after the battle had ended. She expected that Lord Aaron would likely hear about this excercise sooner rather than later, which likely would mean a contingent from the Robinson Rangers, nominally as the academy OpFor, would show up and in academic espionage gather whatever they could to them disseminate to the Robinson Battle Academy.

Not that her own Alma Mater Albion hadn't asked her to more or less do the same thing... but that was how the academy were. They also wanted to hear about what each other were up to... and Sakhara had a reputation.

If the proposed upgrade was carried out, the time of active missiles would decline, but would be ninety missiles from the six centurions as a massed unit. An increase by 30, which wasn't insignificant.... the use of a common launcher also made sense.

--

Note: Question, because Sarna fails me, who in the early 31st​ century rules Markesan.

I had originally planned to consider putting Yvonne as duchess of Markesan, but some searching around suggests she's duchess of Victoria as she's from that branch of the Davion family.