Sakhara 2.6
Sakhara 2.6Alexandria looked at the machine, "I want to elaborate here before anyone gets too excited." Henry was saying to the class as most of them crowded in. "This is a prototype. It is a one off machine put together not by an organized factory line, but rather as an individual machine. Take parts put it together, and have the techs go over it to make sure everything works like its supposed to." The cadets at the assembly were a variety of years ... not just her and the others that would be graduating in the summer, and most weren't actually concerned about it being a one off, just that it was big and new. "You're all of you are officer cadets. You all of you have some sort of political responsibility waiting for you back home, that may be small, it may be great. War is not won by one off prototypes, this," He gestured back to the machine, "This machine is a one off, now the lessons we learn from this machine, that's different, but its principle advantage over a warhammer is that its less complicated. Logistics wins wars. Those of you who will be graduating soon the new curriculum will mean less," Unless one was going on to the Training Cadre to serve their first tour of duty after commissioning, "The class of 3018," The current second years, "Will be eased into the program on a partial basis. This is not an advanced track or special operations course. It is a course designed to familiarize its participants operating in unison along the lines of Star League era formations, and that will begin next year. The class of 3019 and 3020 will be under a more integrated curriculum, but covering the same principles aimed at meeting Sakhara's lofty standards for competent well rounded officers capable of meeting and surviving the challenges of the modern battlefield."
Her class was supposed to be dividing up with the other years for exercises, but even then most of the attention was occupied by the heavy battlemech rather than the sheets of paper with their group assignments. She double checked her paper as a matter of form. It looked like from the pilot profiles for the younger cadets. Sakhara's cadets were supposed to be the future leaders of the armed forces... of course part of that was school provincialism and tradition it wasn't quite that clear cut, but in theory every graduate of Sakhara was supposed to be a potential leader.
One could have made the argument that was true of any military academy, but people compared Sakhara to Albion, and the Nagelring in the Lyran Commonwealth not... the swarms of cadets who graduated Sun Zhang in the Combine.
Her group were comprised of generalist mechs. Cadets whose machines were equipped with a mix of weapons like her Orion was. Other cadets, looking around, had been paired with her classmates who had similar weapon loadouts. This wasn't new. She'd seen group sortings like this before, though normally there was a preference for forming a well rounded lance.
Fifty feet away Henry was allocating a collection of students who had mechs he was familiar with. Some of them had Centurions, others Trebuchets, a few more had riflemen and archers. It would have been a formation of mechs found with Regulan Hussars and it was so far as he was concerned a reasonable enough spread of mechs to build a company sized element off of. Admittedly it was also pulling cadets from across all four years but there was no helping that... and that was kind of the point of today.
He could have done without the needling though.
Twenty tons lighter than Alexandria's Orion, the Wolverine Medium BattleMech was a quintessential trooper mech right down to its common enough engine, and a nominal price tag under five million C-Bills. "You frankly brought it on yourself Bard." He remarked, the Ranger major should have known better than to get caught in between two heavy battlemechs. He looked down at the notification, "anyway this is really about trying to make sure the graduating cadets share what they've learned in a positive fashion with the years below them." And in theory it was bout operational rapport... the e spirit de corp. "Anyway are you ready?"
"Sure whenever, but when are you going to tell them how long this is going to last?"
He hmmed in response, "At dinner maybe?" Henry replied contemplatively. "Besides they're not actually going to have to pitch their own tents."
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Yvonne Davion watched as the saturday excercise continued. The Longsword really did bear more resemblance to the Warhammer than it did Clay's Rabid Fox. The other seventy ton machine, the 'Cataphract' did have some shared resemblance to the Marauder thus the three mechs resembled each other below the waist so to speak. The Rabid Fox, and the classic Marauder were still different enough from the Cataphract, and each other.
She gestured for one of her guards officers, who leaned inward, "What can you tell me about the Merlin?"
"Ma'am. It is by all indications a purely conventional BattleMech." He replied. "As has already been mentioned ma'am it does run off a 240 series Fusion Engine." Which of course they already had established that Clay had lines producing.
Clay himself was currently supervising a group of first and second years piloting Rifleman series sixty tonners and the slower of the two Cataphract machines. That made sense given the Cataphract had been built using the same model autocannon as the Rifleman. She didn't need reminding that the Rifleman as well utilized the Pitban 240 engine.
That was a reminder that she was going to have an argument when they did reach New Avalon. Those fusion engines, the production of, could easily bolster the Draconis March Militia. Fusion Engines were lighter than ICE counterparts for the necessary energy density, and required less upkeep and fuel. A lighter engine meant not only an easier time powering energy weapons, but also ... well as the Demolisher MkIII demonstrated more weapons, or more conventionally more armor.
The cost and shortage of fusion engines beside meant most people wouldn't have bothered. The duke of Robinson though had been a tanker during his intial term of service... worse he'd been an enlisted tanker. Clay also likely due to his retainers also seemed to be preferential to his armor contingents and that made the 240 series Fusion Engines a desirable commodity.
As DMI2, she would have preferred that Captain Haakon had remained on station longer, but he was a merchant, and JumpShips were vital to the economy. A part of her did recognize that they probably wouldn't have been able to gather more information than what they'd already recorded... besides Haakon had left a force behind on planet's surface. At a mass of 12000 tons and two hundred and fifty meters in length the hammer head esque aerodyne dropships were by themselves frightfully better armed than the two thousand ton lighter Vengeance ASF.
That was apparently a trade off, that heavier armament of these 'Titans' meant that DropShips 'only' carried thirty aircraft each. They knew that for sure as the air wing had deployed. A part of her wondered if that more aimed at the idea of some descendant of Stefan Amaris attacking Sakhara rather than being done as a precaution against the Combine. She hadn't asked, but it was a detail she was having to keep fresh in her mind. It was a detail that had appeared, and it better explained the bolstering of Sakhara's defenses... and it potentially explained why those household troops, what the ferrying Jarnsfolk had called huskarl, were only now arriving to the landhold.
Henry had demonstrated he considered these apparent Amaris threat equal to whatever threat the Combine might make... and she didn't particularly like the notion of the Combine learning that detail. Clay had after all shown off most of a Combine regiment, admittedly across two planetary battlefields, of the Sword of Light more or less alone.
Then there was the implication that the force present was part not the sum. Most likely the RAC's battlemech forces were still out there somewhere looking at some unknown periphery conflict. That concerned her. As DMI2 that concerned her a great deal because it was someone who had an idea of the combine's capabilities looking out at a periphery threat, and effectively commenting that they were at least as much of a threat as one of the great houses.
From his wheel chair the Duke of Robinson watched he young people drill. Officially it was the young people who were being tested here. They were being supported by more experienced soldiers, and mechwarriors but this was about lessons older cadets could impart on their juniors. Aaron Sandoval would have liked to have been content with that experience.
Sakhara was not the RBA, the institution his family and he himself had revitalized, its armor corp of cadets was less necessary to the school. The cadets though of the school were being supervised just the same by the mass of heavy armor that formed the RAC. It was these forces he was more interested in watching, but that was in no small part due to his Rangers presently participating in the Mech exercises. It was uncommon for young men to give the humble tanks its due, it was even more rare to see that combined arms in motion.
The lesson here probably wouldn't fully take, but it was always impressive to see it done well. At eighty tons even the lower tech version of the Demolisher was a potentially lethal and certainly unpleasant surprise to a mechwarrior on the battlefield supported at long range by their PPC carrying relations and in turn supporting Medium BattleMech units there was a full spectrum of coverage when added to the air power.
"Is it to your liking?" The other field marshal asked.
"I have no complaints." He replied, which was true, but Aaron Sandoval also didn't appreciate anything that might cut into expanding the forces under his command, and more importantly enriching House Sandoval in the long run. House Sandoval was not an especially wealthy house and there were a number of noble houses within the Draconis March with greater liquid wealth, perhaps best demonstrated by Clay's ability to seriously propose being to finance what he had suggested. It was in House Sandoval's best interest to expand its alliances especially if it promised to add domestic battlemech production to Robinson.
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Notes: this is shorter than originally planned but it does touch on the Duke of Robinson starting to respond to Yvonne's more FedSuns (federal) first policy versus the canonical regional marcher lords preference for having investment in their own realms, and this is realistic to a feudal system.