Sakhara1.7
Sakhara
1.7
--
Another day of wondering if they'd looked like idiots out there. It wasn't self doubt, her self criticism was rooted in whether they looked like idiots, not whether or not they really were idiots. Sakhara had a reputation that was more than the family names of graduates.
She took the evaluation without looking him in the eye, and her mouth set in an even line but really they had done well by any reasonable metric. Colerdige had no grounds to complain , nothing had gone wrong with the exercise. Alexandria should have been happy that there hadn't been any screw ups to make her look bad, but she'd spent the exercise stifling under the impressions of leadership.
Not because she couldn't handle the exercise but because the exercise gave that impression. It didn't help that it was now in the upper nineties as the sun reached its peak and day time temperatures were at their all time high... and she had already been sweating from the pre exercise morning run, so her long dark hair, which had come loose from her ponytail was starting to stick to her face.
It didn't help when she nearly fumbled to catch the water bottle tossed in her direction... and Justin Xiang Allard did snatch his out of the air. "Thanks." He grunted, before even looking at his evaluation. "Huh, what's this?"
"I know we talked about this last week, but I'm serious Justin the Black Jack as a mech is holding you back. A rifleman, even a Centurion would be a much better fit."
Alexandria glanced between the two. The Rifleman was his alternate mech of choice she'd seen him take an Academy Rifleman through a handful of the fire courses their class had been running this semester. Justin stared at him, "You said putting me in a Warhammer wouldn't make a difference."
"No I said putting you in a warhammer wouldn't change your chances of getting a different post graduate tour of duty," That wasn't necessarily true Alexandria silently observed. Given his position he could have easily asked and received Justin's posting as a secondment to a nominal staff position... it would have been typical of noble favor trading, but she didn't say that, "A heavy mech would almost certainly better reflect your fighting style."
"He's right," A large weathered hand clapped Allard on the shoulder, "Something like a Centurion AH would be more your style." The mustachioed officer remarked paused thoughtfully and then added. "Or a Hunchback."
Henry Clay's eyes alit, "That's an idea too, we've got a number of 185s in the spare parts." There was a reply of agreement saying that the ChemJets were good guns that only emphasized the odd social station of this gathering of regular students and their lecturers. "Well we'll see what all Haakon brings me when his caravan gets here." He didn't elaborate what that was supposed to mean, and the instructor just nodded. The older man gave no indication that he knew just that he treated it as normal... presumably it was what it sounded like, Haakon must have been some merchant... probably one of the JumpShip captains in the Rabid Fox's service. "Anyway speaking of a week, you'll need to be ready, I'm sure Coleridge is going to want a rematch sooner."
Justin nodded, "Its cause we didn't -" He paused.
"You didn't botch the course?" Henry suggested politically for once.
"Right, we didn't botch the course." He paused and did the math, "So a bunch of LRM 15 launchers this time." Allard didn't go so far as to actually say they were going to lose, but, "Last time we didn't have any one roll snake eyes, but more missiles coming in their first wave of missiles is going to hit harder, and they'll burn through their ammo quickly, so I expect they'll want to close which means those Large Lasers and then kicks and punches."
She decided not to bring up the previously mentioned detail that the original plan had been presumably to run a repeat of the exercise that had gotten them in this mess presumably closer to the end of November rather than ... presumably the vice chancellor intended to move it up far closer to the beginning... "We're not ready." She interrupted.
Justin nodded, if sullenly, "She's right,"
"I'm glad you appreciate that." He replied,
"Thanks." Allard replied the word dripping with sarcasm, "Oh god, what are you thinking? You said the Duke of Robinson is visiting, so, he's got to be getting her soon if Coleridge wants us to run the exercise sooner rather than later." That was a good point.
"Anyway check your emails, I'll have something out before Thursday, and don't forget I have a planned combined arms familiarization course being prepared."
"Those devastator things?" Justin asked
"Yes." He nodded, "Anyway we've got a staff meeting."
"Yes, we do." The mustachioed instructor agreed, the faintest hint of resignation there for a moment, "as the young man said the Duke of Robinson is visiting."
--
It was Thursday morning.
Captain Haakon was a tall, gangly man with thinning dirty blonde hair. He looked uncomfortable in the full gravity of a planet that dimmed his otherwise gregarious demeanor. Yvonne had evaluated the new arrivals carefully. These Jarnfolk showed no indication of being invaders... of even for that matter having BattleMechs... at least of their own... but Haakon had brought with him a number of JumpShips, and was deferring to the younger man.
It left them largely frozen out of the conversation. This was business. JumpShips were protected assets molesting travelling merchants was a good way to piss off all the other merchants... but it took a lot of effort not to ask what the DropShips were carrying.
It took a lot of effort to stay here and wait in the hopes of some tidbit of information, rather than to badger the Techs manning the areas to give a run down on the various DropShips attached to the JumpShips at Nadir. Like their carriers, the Droppers were all painted in the same style of bright colored animals rendered in slim ribbon like forms interwoven with one another across the hull.
They were immaculate... probably just given a fresh coat of paint before arriving, and reconnecting. There was more going on here. She could feel it... this wasn't just she'd almost say Haakon was here to pay homage.
A part of her, attempting to divorce from preconceived notions, chauvinism of the inner sphere suggested it was possible that it wasn't impossible that there were deep periphery civilizations that still had jumpship manufacturing technology. Worlds that hadn't been subject to Amaris or the succession wars...
... and the idea that the JarnFolk had broken from Rasalhague and escaped the Combine had the ring of truth, it was plausible. They had been separated from each other for centuries and that the JarnFolk was still obviously hostile to the combine did as a body politic prefer isolationism rather than any other option. A realpolitik answer to the Combine being too powerful for a periphery state to face head on.
... but not everyone liked realpolitik so in theory here they were. That would be the story they would tell in secret... but for the most part he would let the JarnFolk go and trade using his landhold's port as home where they needed, and any other ports on any other worlds he could lay claim to... but the fleet would be left to its own devices... because he wanted to bolster the Federated Suns more ... "Field Marshal Davion?"
Yvonne paused, and bought time by taking a sip from her tea cup. As duchess of Victoria it was very difficult not to exercise effort on her domain, and her cadet branch's behalf in situations like these. It hadn't escaped her that her family seat was almost double the distance of the comfort zone, Bristol wasn't much better... she had considered bringing up the star charts which showed a number of dead abandoned worlds but it ran into the same problems. Rushing off to New Avalon would likely be the correct decision for the dynasty and the realm as a whole for all the disruptions it might cause... potentially being able to say the first shipyard to somewhere deeper in the FedSuns as a realm though seemed more practical to its defense... and that could be wagered if Ian just saw sense and awarded the entire planet to go along with it.
--
The JarnFolk detachment of JumpShips was a purely mercantile venture. A mix of Star Lords supported by Merchants and with a mass of cargo dropships of various makes. That was multifold, but its first priority was to give cover for any construction that took place. 'Oh we imported it from trade with the JarnFolk', but it was also to sustain a merchant fleet in operation with a separation from his own. They'd take up trade routes from Sakhara to Robinson and in the area of the Draconis March, and that would potentially free his public JumpShips to focus on permanent routes to and from the interior of Davion Space.
There would inevitably be push back from mercantile interests but the JarnFolk were a feasible cover hopefully until clear capital lines could be set up for domestic production. Once factories were up and making money he could scale back such things... but he needed to be able to justify putting up a JumpShip Yard, and that meant both the machinery had to come from somewhere, and that there needed to be an explanation.
Mules were large but not quite large enough for what he needed so that mandated the presence of Behemoth class DropShips, which was a dice role... but they were thankfully sub nine hundred in BV. The whole trade fleet was still more than a years accumulation but he'd be relying on spending C-Bills to bring anything else online, and hoping he didn't even need to do that.
He calculated via the power of almighty napkin math that he was at the threshold where even with the excuse of needing to bring in partners there was too much attention right now. He needed to bring on actual established partners, and he needed to do it soon while reaffirming his legal and social status benefits.
In short Yvonne Davion's proposed new Avalon trip was almost certainly a step in the right direction... but it would also have to wait until the New Year.. but it was impossible to put it off until this year's graduation... but with Lord Aaron, the duke of Robinson due as early as the end of the first week of November leaving now wasn't an option.
Still if he did miss graduation this year, since he probably wouldn't return until potentially June that was going to mean missing most of the class shipping out to their unit postings. "What do you think Haakon?"
The Jarnfolk thane nodded, "The intention was to build two shipyards, my Jarl," He reminded, "Changing their order might not overly complicate such things. The halls here will always be more vulnerable, and waiting would allow more fighters to be based here."
Henry had always liked the slantback, and preceding swept wing design hadn't been hard with the essence to modify and play with... the basic model was cheap in cash terms even with its LosTech weapons. He waved a hand calling up the interface, "The Factory units are already configured and can produce the 240 engines...there are a lot of things we could manufacture or furnish replacement engines for in that weight range, but I think we should wait."
"So you'll be going..."
"Well I meant wait until Lord Aaron gets here," The whole point after all of the engines had been tanks, and marketing to the DMM. The current Duke of Robinson was a tanker after all. "Whatever we do I still would like the Titans detached."
"Of course that was always the plan." The rake thin man replied.
He might have preferred if regardless of being in runestone esque ribbons clearly showed ravens in flight along the two large dropships hulls. They'd been very expensive, but he was almost inured to the idea of cost when dealing with fighter prices. He hadn't seriously opened discussions yet with the Federated Suns about DropShip and ASF manufacture, but that was a point of consideration...
--
Sand kicked up everywhere as the egg shaped forms descended and then touched down. "The Duke of Robinson will be arriving before their drives are charged."
"I'm aware." He replied. "Hell I don't know if those behomoths will be done unloading by the time he arrives so it doesn't really matter." The mules at least could land on a planet's surface.
"So what did your friend bring you?"
"Mostly parts, I'm hoping to talk Corean into helping construct a line here, to manufacture new build Centurions, it'd be a lot simpler than shipping them from New Avalon." He replied as the Mules were sprayed down with foam. "And truthfully once we have a chassis manufacturing," Forging, casting, whatever, "I expect we will be able start building heavier vehicles. I had considered sending Haakon to negotiate with Mountain Wolf for manufacturing rights for their Merlin."
"What's that?" Justin questioned entering the conversation.
"Its like a Vindicator but it doesn't suck." Don Juan declared from behind them.
"I mean... sort of yes. Its a heavy mech. Mixed armaments."
Alexandria nodded, "Its the first recent new BattleMech design, what about New Valencia?"
"My understanding is they have some kind of exclusivity agreement with the Wolf Dragoons, and they are a small parts manufacturer so I don't know. It'll really depend on what gets said." He shook his head as the vehicles started preparing to clean the foam off and doing whatever safety checks they needed before they could start unloading. "Anyway, for me the bigger concern is what Lord Aaron has to say."