Sakhara 1.6
Sakhara 1.6This conversation had quickly gotten out of hand. Damage control seemed to be having the opposite of intended effects. "You had to scrap a Star Lord." She repeated.
"We had to," He stopped ran his hand through his hair, and gestured to the star map, but mostly as a distraction from the consideration of how what he had just said must have sounded. "JumpDrives were first theorized as possible before fusion engines became practical. They are a mature technology," in so far as their development had plateaued and there had been no breakthrough in standard drives leading to drives capable of reliably making more than 30ly jumps without damage... and frankly he wouldn't have been surprised if the great houses had decided that was for the best... that was to speculate that maybe the inner sphere all of the inner sphere rulers had decided in the Age of War that jump drives capable of more than thirty light years would risk damaging the status quo. Regardless... "So yes, a Star Lord needed to be recycled, , and a yard needs to be established..."
Incredulity followed.
"Sakhara has Germanium reserves." It wasn't a question. It was part of the reason after all the planet was originally settled.
"Yes," He replied, "And that helps certainly..." He shut up... don't bring up asteroid mining, he got the feeling people wouldn't get it, and the hole was probably deep enough.
The star map showed the standard jump route from Sakhara to New Avalon. Seven Jumps.
From Sakhara to Bettendorf, then to Allerton, from there to DeWitt, Kestrel, to Kirklin, Coloma, and New Avalon. One hundred sixty four light years. Just under two months; roughly 51 days. It would have honestly been easier, and shorter loop basing from Robinson but it didn't matter.
There was a pause, and then something approaching understanding, "So what you are proposing are," She paused "subsidies?"
"No."
The incredulity returned "No?"
"No. The shipyard can be completed I think within the year. What I am proposing is Davion first right to ships at public sale."
There was a look, "Public sale?"
"Yes, yes," He trailed off, "At full capacity a shipyard of tonnage and with sufficient Germanium should produce two maybe three a year. There are limits to machinery, and next year I only expect to produce a single Star Lord but that's mostly a breaking in process of the yard... So thus I expect to be able to bring the yard online, replace the ship I had to scrap, and then produce for market, and move from there."
There was a pause, and she went for the simplest question "And in return?"
"In return I need support to procure the experts to handle other industrial projects. I need transit and construction privileges on Bettendorf and Franklin as well. Its also why I needed to talk to Corean Enterprises about BattleMech lines. I'd like an introduction to New Valencia's Blackwell corporation.. and I also want legal rights and properties on Bristol." Bristol was five jumps from New Avalon, "Where among other things I'd like to eventually build a second shipyard."
"A second?" The Field Marshal looked faint.
"My understanding of the Federated Suns most immediate economic problem is the lack of tonnage by merchant shipping. I do not wish to deploy voidships to foreign ports of call, but I accept that is idealistic and impractical. In short I have the resources and organizational ability to expand shipping but I need ground based partners for security." Which was only partially true. "I also accept that part of the feudal contract is the expectation of future military engagement."
--
It was the sort of thing which could never be allowed get out. In fact it took a great deal of restraint not to insist they leave immediately for New Avalon to discuss final terms in writing with the First Prince.
The nail had been hit on the head.
No successor state had the jumpship capacity to meet actual demand. Assuming this wasn't youthful exaggeration it was the sort of delivery that would have yielded whole planets, never mind minor land hold concessions... forget being a minor noble for military aid a shipyard in the modern era would significantly change the balance of power. Given house Davion first bid on ships at market promised to expand the Federated Suns fleet of expressly military ships and would further reduce the need to impress merchant shipping.
... well more than necessary...
It could not be permitted to escape... but it was also far beyond her remit, and boundaries. If she had been anyone else other than a loyal daughter of House Davion any other duchess she'd have been bartering to have her own personal domain enriched by this deal.
... but Yvonne Davion was loyal to the dynasty, and the state. It was important the shipyard remained outside of the scope of conversation with the duke of Robinson until the matter was concluded. It didn't escape her that Bristol probably had some other value to it, but that was something they could ferret out later.
Sakhara to Bristol was seven jumps.
162 light years. 51 Days.
Unlike the route to New Avalon though it passed through Robinson where there was already a jump route from Sakhara running.
Sakhara to Bettendorf. That explained his desire to secure rights to the system from Sakhara it was the first stop and last stop in the chains going and coming respectively. From Bettendorf the next world in the route to Bristol was of course Franklin, and then Robinson. Presumably he expected to be able to work out some arrangement personally with Lord Aaron. From Robinson the second leg of the journey entailed jumping to Blandinsville, Cholame then Batavia.
Bristol to New Avalon was five jumps. Frist to Batavia then to Markesan, from there to Chebanse and then to odell before the final Jump to the capital of the Federated Suns. He had also hinted that he could bring forward other merchant support which almost certainly insured a trade revival, and had the potential to be economically lucrative for both the Draconis and Crucis Marches.
She couldn't afford to send this via HPG. No. Far too frequently ComStar had acted against the interests of the Great Houses despite their protests of neutrality... too frequently also did it seem as if messages sent via ComStar did their contents end up in the hands of the Draconis Combine. More than that, it was paramount that it not reach other nobles of the Federated Suns... she could only imagine what Michael Hasek or a few others might react to the prospect of a New Avalon vassal being able to offer the dukes of New Avalon such directly. He would most certainly throw a tantrum... like the spoiled entitled little manchild he was.
Ian would need to enfeef his latest vassal as a duke within the crucis march proper, and soon, and before any of his other vassals started to consider marriage prospects. This outing of hers was quickly developing an excessive volume of mission creep. While she had expected to investigate a recent addition to the Federated Suns nobility she had not expected this degree of potential strategic shift... but it would be after the new year before she could hope to bring this in person to the First Prince, and that assumed that Ian would even be on New Avalon by the time she returned given the number of jumps, and the time it would take.
But this whole affair was turning into some sort of depraved Lyran comedy.
--
With only a few days remaining in the month... they had only November as the last full month of classes. As the heiress to the duchy of kestrel she was expected to be a competent mechwarrior, there were expectations that went beyond simply descent from officers of the SLDF who had chosen to side with house Davion against the rampant warmongering and ambitions of House Kurita seeking to usurp the Star League and rule over it.
That was more idealistic than reality. More than anything though she was expected to be a leader, and effective commander rather than the sort of leader who would fight on the front. Planetary rulers needed to be able to delegate those actions to people with the right skill set... but she still needed to be able to make the correct decisions, and more important be obeyed when she issued orders.
Was it her failure? Or the blockheads in the unit? Had they actually been meant to fail? The egotistical posturing of her classmates with one another had been a problem, before, but it had been building into a crescendo as the end of the year approached. To that end...
Alexandria Cunningham looked at the skirmishers from the medium battle company. They didn't look that different. The refits with new weapons made some changes, the old medium lasers had been replaced with matching models to the trebuchets. Magna Mk II Medium Lasers, Magna Mk 3 Large laser, Zeus LRM 15 launcher. A launcher that she knew wasn't intended to remain in a fight, the same idea behind the Trebuchets...
... and hopefully the next time they went up against the unit in the simulator her classmates would know expect the fight turning into a melee slugging match once the missiles were expended.
"I really do not understand why mounting medium lasers in the rear was ever a thing." He muttered to the technician as the wind blew sand in all their faces. She heard something about turrets over the wind, but couldn't make it out, nor any more of the conversation until the wind subsided. She watched as he jammed his hands into his pockets and walked in front of the class. "This is familiarization just in case anyone didn't follow the instructions to read the packet." He remarked looking past her to a few of the other cadets in the following rows. "These are a variation of the CN9AL, but they make some changes from the standard AL," From behind him the older instructor squinted slightly, probably in mild disapproval, "that you fought previously. The Zeus launcher is a fifteen shot model, its the same model as on the Trebuchet. More missiles per shot, since we were pulling one phostech we went ahead and pulled the forward mounted one and replaced them both with forward directed Magna Mark two medium lasers."
Nothing she hadn't already read of course.
The idea was that the other mechs in the unit would cover one another.
Something that should have been obvious to everyone when they'd come out of the simulation.
Missiles, and large lasers at distance to soften and close in. Two groups of six rather than three lances, but there was nothing stopping them from acting in that capacity. If anything that was a noteworthy distinction. It took more effort to direct six mechs than four. The company commander and his second in command were evenly splitting their force, and it meant that three trebuchets could fire from each side.
One of the cadets raised his hands, and there was a side bar about weapons. It boiled down to why not the AH with its assault auto cannon. Survivability. Trying to force a Zeus launcher on the AH would require reducing armor down to 7.5 tons of battle plate. That had been deemed unacceptable.
"For true close range suppression I expect that the company can rely on the Devastators."
Another hand went up "What's a Devastator?" A cadet with a pronounced New Avalon accent asked.
"Otherwise known as the Demolisher Mark III Heavy tank, two 185mm Chem Jet Assault class auto cannons, 240 Fusion engine," He ticked off an arsenal of other weapons... that could largely be summarized as standing in front of the assault vehicle was suicidal. It seemed to have been designed with the intention of kill anything stupid enough to get close. "The same for PPCs, Schrek ppc carriers are available, same engine as the Devastator."
Which given that was also an eighty ton tank suggested that as with the fifty ton mechs the two tank models were paired together to make up for their range brackets. The Schreks focused on targets at range, and anything that did get close would face itself with perhaps two or three Devastors. That meant missile support didn't need to be continuous, the BattleMechs could supply it at the start of the battle allowing the slower tanks to maneuver into position.
She felt stupid raising her hand, but all the others were doing, thankfully he didn't compound it by calling her Lady Lex from the front of the assembly, "Alexandria?"
"Will we be facing combat vehicles in the exercise?"
"These ones as opposing forces no. I have plans to run drills using house hold troops to simulate larger troop exercises but that simulation is still being evaluated. These units will not be involved here."
... oh lovely another exercise for them to make fools of themselves in... just what she wanted to hear... but it did tell her to expect facing armored vehicles in the exercise, which was realistic. BattleMechs were best answered by other Mechs, but the bulk of armies were older less expensive weapons, infantry and vehicles powered by internal combustion engines with ballistic weapons were the norm across the inner sphere and the periphery.
They were moving through the exercise field. This was strictly a maneuver exercise. All weapons were safe and they were relying strictly on moving and commanding, She was dictating who was supposed to go where without actually firing weapons.
The dozen fifty tonners were doing the same separately but she had no diea how well they were doing in comparison.
She knew that if this was an endurance course that they'd be at a disadvantage. She had identified that on realization of just how limited their ammunition load outs were... the problem was that in an exercise... they would have to last long enough for the enemy to run out of missiles without suffering critical damage on their side.
"You're doing fine." The voice from the seventy ton mech remarked. "We're still sitting ahead of par time." She ignored the rest of the pep talk. She didn't need it, and pressed the talk on her radio set before ordering Justin to scout ahead.
Across the sands in the Davion command post Field Marshal Davion leaned over the console, as they watched a Blackjack jump forward "How are they doing?"
"The cadets are," The officer stumbled consulted his map, " are just coming up on waypoint Charlie Ma'am. They're about seventy percent through the course, there have been no major issues."
"Not them, the Rabid Foxes. The house guard?" She continued to make sure she was clear about who she was talking too.
"Oh they should be coming into the final loop in another five ten minutes they should be back with us."
"Not terribly surprising there Field Marshal," Colonel Coleridge remarked trying to remain in polite good graces of the MI2 Director.
"What's not surprising colonel?"
"Just that well obviously," He waffled, but he ultimately did have a point. "A man has to learn to ride somewhere, yes?" That made sense. Teenagers did not just murder their way through elite Combine MechWarriors without having learned the MechWarrior trade somewhere, while perhaps not as effective as their master there was no questioning that they were professional soldiers and well acquainted with the machines they had.
So why did she still view the Corean interests with suspicion... because its all too good to be true her subconscious replied. Everything seemed to have the potential to go so right for the Federated Suns, for House Davion, and that worried her... but if all of this was real... well her golden goose musings remained.
--
Notes: One should look at what all takes a Pitban 240 Fusion engine. Also I will be putting up the more Periphery (Aurigan/Rimward) centric Essence fic tomorrow probably along with probably also my Battletech misc thread as well