Sakhara 1.9​

Sakhara 1.9​With almost sixty individual combat assets to keep track of the data was distracting. That was part of the lesson. She was a mech company commander, each class was an over strength Mech Company built on ancient square company units of the star league and the armored vehicles were divided into sub groups of ten operating basically as light companies... which she found mildly ironic given that since at eight hundred tons ten tanks out massed even her twelve heaviest mechs taken together, and there were three such light companies.

That allowed them to form different close order formations for attack though, which gave them tactical flexibility and cover multiple sectors of fire... there wasn't much in the way of cover. She found it somewhat unrealistic that they didn't see the enemy approach before they actually went active given the wide expanse of open sands on three sides...

In a real engagement they'd have a better idea of of an attacking enemy... but it created an artificial difficulty as the enemy often started appearing at about six hundred meters, which was fairly close, and that forced them to scramble to react.

As an exercise this was not based on a specific enemy unit. It wasn't even really a generic enemy unit of a hostile sucessor house. There were fake sensor returns to show Vindicators of the Capellan Confederation, or Dragons of the Draconis Combine and there were others more commonly associated with House Marik's Free Worlds League.

The image from inside her cockpit flickered.

It was projected forward in the center of the screen... not exactly the best place but her class mates were similarly put up and spread out over the screen group by the lances they had assembled in. The cadets were supposed to graduate and be commissioned as lieutenants and sent to their duty stations... thus in theory they would be getting paired up with a senior non comm MechWarrior to command a lance.

The Duke of Robinson, Aaron Sandoval sat in his simple unpowered wheel chair with his hands folded in front of him. Sakhara was a world that fell under his responsibility, and its academy had been paired with troops from the march to test their skills before. Of course that wasn't the only reason he was here. The current students had an instructor who had the attention of the First Prince for the very understandable reason of breaking a Sword of Light regiment.

There was some light banter going on. That was to say among the officers, the cadets were still, probably a little nervous, and not yet ready to banter. Aaron Sandoval watched one of his promising officers shoot the shit with the younger mechwarrior. There had been slices of that when he'd been a tanker with the other enlisted... he'd never expected to rule, and frankly wasn't even sure he wanted to commission into the officer corp. He was able to drive a mech but being a TC, being a part of a team had felt natural. He appreciated being apart of that larger unit... even a 'mech company felt too small to him.

Sakhara had a history of preparing its mechwarriors for combined arms operation, it arguably did a better job of it than the Nagelring but that was neither here nor there. One of the things he hadn't been expected for his arrival was the landhold's development.

The masses of eighty tonner tanks were largely a testament to extremes. A PPC, the weapon of the Shrek, had a minimal engagement envelope, while the Demolsiher's 185mm Assault Auto Cannons lost velocity and thus armor penetration against standard battle plate rather quickly. These weren't standard demolishers but the fusion powered version, and that meant they carried additional weapons.

They hadn't been expected, but he supposed there had been a lot going on. Ian... the first Prince had installed him on Sakhara in part as a compromise. Well, it seemed as if New Avalon had over compromised. As to the Centurion, as a Battlemech there were existing 'mechworks on Robinson, though they were just refit and repair yards. Production was a bit beyond them, and for the mech itself Lord Aaron had no strong opinions on it one way or another. It was a BattleMech and he was open to the arguments regarding logistics that investing in the production would be useful, and that they could benefit from New Avalon having recently completed its factory.

He'd have some one else review the math side of the proposals. But the idea, that struck him as sound. A factory on Robinson, say building up the existing mechworks, a factory here on Sakhara, and the existing factory on New Avalon would surely mean that the AFFS could produce more machines and that meant more BattleMech units, and thus they could take the fight against the Combine.

If that was the case, if it was real, then Lord Aaron couldn't find a reason to disagree, but it hadn't been why he had come... but it was something of a nice surprise.

--

It was, it had been unavoidable of course and it made sense to bring the Duke of Robinson in on the motion of the Mech Factory. Having the Field Marshal of the Draconis March on side to pitch the motion to Corean would give it further legitimacy... assuming that she was wrong about the intent to just wave a mountain of liquid capital underneath the company's nose as leverage. The shipyards had thus far remained out of the discussion.

As Duchess of Victoria she nearly had to consider whether or not her own domain wouldn't benefit from being enriched by joining the not really a cabal... but she doubted her steward would appreciate signing on to such a large financial expenditure without consultation. She wasn't sure if her holdings could support that at the moment on such short notice.

Military Intelligence had already postulated that Clay was probably an insomniac, or that his work hours were a result of the compulsive 'workaholic' type. That was to say he kept long hours in the evening, and his general work space rarely was limited to singular topics, or projects that were occupying his attention at any given time. Part of that split attention was simply a facet of being a feudal potentate, her own concern for her domain, conflict with her long standing position, the dynasty as a whole, and the realm were nothing new.

Henry Clay made a show of checking his palm pilot, and asking the cadets if they were ready. They were withholding the results of the earlier exercise, which might have been construed as petty but they needed to see what the class could do, and the rematch was going to be in the simulators anyway.

Once the cadets confirmed they were ready and the simulator pods booted up and networked then it was just a matter of preparing for the next part of the exercise. The Duke of Robinson didn't comment on the Medium BattleMech Company's composition, or its armament. Coleridge wasn't comfortable with the scenario, but it mirrored the generic Sakharana terrain of the first simulation as it filled the operation's center's forward screen from a top down perspective.

The cadets had their slight numerical advantage. That probably explained in part their head long front attack with their heaviest units in the center and faster mechs on the flanks. It was a sensible plan, and unfortunately that made it predictable. The majority of pilots tended to be better at driving a mech than they were at shooting. The simple fact was that green pilots needed to worry more about keeping their bipedal war machine up right and moving than they did about firing at the enemy, and even at higher skill levels being able to maneuver a multi ton walker insured you stayed in the fight.

The dozen mechs they were choosing to attack had already moved up onto a high point in the desert. It was instantly telling how this would play out, to Yvonne, if the numbers equal. A dozen mechs fired their LRM 15 launchers and continued to fire them concentrating on the central formation... more than that they were prioritizing pilots with heavier mechs.

The entire point of Trebuchet's missiles was to soften up enemy units before they could enter range and return fire. That thinking was based on individual mechs, not 270 missiles going out and raining down on a handful of targets. One Enforcer simply disappeared during the third volley, and by that point the large lasers had opened up.

The Centurions had by that point already been through nearly half of their missiles so the extra heat meant nothing for their cooling systems. Not when they were stationary. The Medium company subdivided into two units to face Alexandria's weakened four. By the time the company had emptied its missile bins they coupled with the large lasers had attrited the attacking square company of its heaviest units, and both units inside three hundred meters were forced to face what quickly turned into an individual mech match.

Points tallied.

"Congratulations."

"For what?" Henry replied shaking his head. "Attacking head on probably the best idea."

"Could she really have done anything else, but attack head on in this situation?"

The digital battlefield was a fake after all. It wasn't real. The terrain that comprised the map wasn't real. It wasn't even a copy of real terrain, and its boundaries were invisible glass. "In that you think the other cadets might not have listened? Or that she didn't have sufficient missile weight or PPC to hold them in place... because realistically barring Marauders or Warhammers energy boats would have been painted for concentrated fire until they were brought down."

It said something of course that they hadn't broken contact or gave up. Justin made a better attempt at his flanking attack this time, better coordinating with the other mechs and the light mechs had actually scored simulated kills but Large Lasers had no minimum range and massed medium lasers had knocked his Black Jack out of the fight.

The casualties were enough that they'd be pyrrhic. Was it an improvement, probably technically, but he was having a hard time being satisfied with it. "The Cadets need better 'mechs. Realistically against medium, and light weight mechs they've demonstrated they can mostly hold there own, but their equipment is too uneven." There was no point in having someone like Justin in a dedicated AA Mech like a Black Jack when there wasn't an air threat present or... and while not as egregious there were other problems. The jager mech was not a great option either... in his opinion at least not if you wanted to be up front. "And to be blunt simply providing them new build centurions won't cut it, there are limits to what skilled pilots can do with short endurance battle companies against superior numbers. Excuse me."

Yvonne got a feeling he had expected one side or the other to decisively win not for both sides to maul each other. She had a feeling from his response whatever he was going to do to 'fix' the problem would give her a headache.