Sakhara [November 3015]2.1
Sakhara [November 3015]
2.1It was funny how quickly his November calendar had exploded with all of his free time evaporating... and he still had classes that he needed to attend. He drummed his fingers on the top of his head. Fuck, and there was other stuff to deal with today too.
It was easy to say that the company of cadets needed better equipment but realistically to the perspectives of the Succession War States that was an aspiration but not a feasible one. There was another problem, not everyone would want the 'downgrade' or 'reduction' that a standard 'mech would entail. Not everyone drove a missile boat, not everyone was a 'musketeer', etc, there were specialties. There was a reason mech design in the Star League era had moved towards specialist mech designs.
His first inclinations had been Thugs.... then Thunderbolts... then Hatamoto-chi which were basically weaboo Thugs... and then it struck him thinking about the Hatamoto-chi. The Charger was a crappy assault mech... but if down engine-d it could take the engine from the Centurion... and from there it was just a matter of loading it with the weapons package from the Centurions.
The immediate obvious problem to such a down grade of the engine was that they would be slow... comparable to an Atlas without the firepower... but it would still be an improvement over the base line Charger... but it was an idea that was ultimate tossed on the back burner.
No, he was over thinking things.
He looked up as Alexandria sat down. "Thanks for coming."
"Did you sleep?"
"Hmm, a few hours." He replied, and waved it off, "Are you aware of were your being posting on graduation," She stiffened and started to evaluate what her answer was going to be, and he shook his head, "SO you do know, good. That's good I wasn't honestly sure. Alright loose summary is while I plan to have Haakon extend feelers to Mountain Wolf I have no idea how long that will take-"
She stopped him, "What are you talking about, we have an exercise against the Robinson Rangers today."
He rubbed around his eyes. "Yes I'm aware and I expect you to do your best, but realistically we're hitting structural problems with the materiel involved. Mechs are being used for roles, and by pilots they're not appropriate for." He stopped... "I'm sorry has Coleridge talked to you yet?"
"The vice chancellor?" Her face creased. "No, why-"
"Coleridge is angling for me to lead the cadets against 1stRangers, if Lord Aaron will agree to that."
"What?"
He was glad they weren't in the cafeteria. She hadn't shouted but her expression had flashed almost to briefly touch on apoplectic. "It was last minute," Really last minute, Coleridge had only sent him the email this morning... a little after five, but in truth he'd been up for about two hours by that point, "And if that's the case I'll probably be in a rifleman anyway."
"You can't," She protested.
"I'm not saying its going to happen, Colonel Coleridge may not get approval, but you needed to know it was being discussed." He scrunched his eyes up and rubbed his face, but resisted the urge to yawn and stretch, "As I was saying Haakon is going to visit Mountain Wolf BattleMechs on my behalf, and the Merlins will most probably benefit ... future classes." Probably not the next round of graduates, after Justin and Alexandria, but it might be possible to allocate graduates the following class with Centurions and Merlins. Maybe they could even start outfitting ASF pilots... but they weren't there yet.
The truth was he'd need time.
"It doesn't matter they're talking about it," She hissed defensively.
"I know." He replied, he fought down the urge to talk with his hands, "Alright, that's not the point I had another idea over the weekend."
Forty minutes later.
The class trudged in, and once we sure that the exhausted cadets had settled down, he pulled the sheet off to begin his plans.... well more correctly he pulled a lever that released the tarp.
Don Juan was pretty on point in terms of asking rather blithely what the hell it was.
"Call it a Cataphract... though you could be excused for calling it a Franken Mech." He shrugged, "I had some spare parts, and a weekend..." He withheld a joke about being left unsupervised... it was a Cataphract, but it was also one made from various bits of technology and models that wouldn't conform to the Capellan model that should show up, in about a decade. "I had an engine that came out of a Night Hawk, so its not exactly the fastest thing," and indeed its use of the GM 210 was in part a mix of his Charger idea, but also Mountain Wolf potentially related, but also he'd gone into the mech lab to make sure specific parts were fluffed to back stop any potential ... well accusations of Capellan construction... it would be funny in a decade. Maybe a little petty. "It carries two Imperator As, from a rifleman, a large laser from a rifleman, and a five cell LRM launcher that we happened to have just lying around." He shrugged as if that was nothing. He had their attention... but also had the gunnery instructors attention. "Yes, well I think we'll allow a demonstration on the gunnery range first, and go from there."
He allowed the Mustachioed officer to apply his neurohelmet and clamber into the mech, after which he booted it up.
Justin idled up, "You look particularly smug, what are you up to?"
"Well it meant reducing the complement of armor and ammunition on this one, but we had the parts to take the engine from a Warhammer and build a second faster one. In all honesty this one has too much Ammunition for the Imperators... but I was told in no uncertain terms that trying to cram a second large laser would make a seventy ton slightly better protected Rifleman... but I think they werent - I think as a mech this goes overboard on the load out with extra heat sinks and four tons of ammunition... It is a very Davion mech though isn't it?"
"Can I pilot it?"
"Which one?"
"either, both."
He slotted into the first machine, while the other instructor 'inspected', for 'safety reasons of course' the other machine and tested their Imperator A auto cannons on the range. Alexandria frowned, "You planned that."
"Don't complain Lady Lex you have an Orion."
--
Truthfully he was a little relieved... and also that there had been enough of a distraction that no one had noticed. "Oh come on Fox they're not going to let you play, this is bullshit." Bard declared. Loudly. The kilted Wolverine pilot was vociferously expressing his displeasure at not being given the chance at what he called a friendly game.
"I'm as surprised as you are that the Chancellor shot down Coleridge's suggestion." He replied in a much more mild tone while David Bowie the MechWarrior continued to complain. "How did you think they did last week?"
"Oh they did good, no question about it. You said that was their second go at them, yeah. Still that was a lot of missiles to throw at them. Six hundred tons even, twelve mediums versus sixteen mixed including that assault, and the little lady with the Orion." At least he hadn't called her his girlfriend, that might have caused problems. "Her cousin, Lord Allard's son, that was impressive shooting ... admittedly with a pop gun, but color me impressed."
"Is this going to be a combined arms test?"
"Hmm... no, not this one. Maybe Fridays I think your vice chancellor is hoping to spice things up, we did bring the bull dogs with us." He had seen as much, and the Partisan anti aircraft tanks. Those had a special place in Aaron Sandoval's heart, because those had been what he had served on in his time... and it was a general gesture that they could be easily converted over the fusion engines.
So to could the bull dog tanks as well, but they hadn't actually planned for that.
The conversation was interrupted by the growing crowd.
"You have a cheeky look on your face you know that right?" The kilted officer questioned him.
"No I don't."
"You do." Bard countered. "What are you up to?"
"I'm not up to anything."
"Historically people who say that are in fact up to something."
He sighed, "You'll have to wait an see what happens," But he was interested to see if the Cataphract would improve Justin's performance. He expected it would. He was admittedly concerned about the lack of medium lasers on the Cataphract design, but the twin AC 5s ... well how Justin performed with medium caliber auto cannons like the imperator A was what he was interested in seeing.