2.8
2.8Henry could not believe that the Federated Suns didn't still produce the Shadow Hawk... there were no words. No Words. It boggled the mind, he looked at Galster over his folded fingers fingers, which were pressing into the bridge of his nose, "But they produce the wolverine right?" After receiving and confirming the affirmative, he sighed, "Well at least there is that." He didn't mean for it to come out as nearly petulant as it sounded, but some of it was genuine exasperation.
Yvonne's comment yesterday about the shipping manufacturing capability of the Draconis Combine had in its own way rankled, perhaps unreasonably. It was reminder of way he kept from just dumping tons of new technology on the Fed Suns regardless of how badly at times he just wanted to introduce early clan weapons as an excusable improved iteration of autocannons... and that was without even touching other things in the auto cannon tree.
No... he needed to focus on 185mm production for assault auto cannons and for the others the lighter caliber used in the Imperator class five used by the Rifleman.... but also that just reminded him of his Zoryas sitting in garrison if it came to that.
"Still..." he groaned.
The fact that they didn't currently produce a shadow hawk... while annoying was something that could be worked around. In theory he had considered a Centurion that was effectively just a Trebuchet ... but that wasn't really a great solution. The Shadow Hawk would have been preferable, and potentially avoided any conspiracy theory yarn walls ... maybe, but it was also hard to pretend that wasn't aesthetics and personal preference playing a roll.
"We could sink capital into the line on Northwind."
That was currently, at best only producing spare parts, "We need actual factory first," It wasn't that he didn't like the idea of it, but the Trebuchet's flank speed was something to let it disengage so simply producing more of those wasn't going to address the problem. Not adequately in any event, "That is our priority, we will get the Centurion line," Lines really, "Operational," both here and on Robinson with the intention of padding out the Draconis March.
He wasn't sure where things stood with the Lyran Commonwealth, but he didn't immediately foresee a problem from that direction ... and building up the draconis march not only safeguarded against the Combine, but in theory it expanded the DMM for what was likely to be the inevitable clash with the clans of Kerensky, after all it was hard to miss that the Wolf Dragoons were a thing.
That was not something he was going to forget and he also in the two years that he'd been active in the Federated Suns was cognizant of the various crackpot theories and eccentric rich who among other urban legends talked about the Minnesota tribe as well as the vandenburg white wings the latter having occurred in the neighboring concordat. That merely reminded him of the threat of the clans, and of ComStar existing.
The FS needed industry, and economic build up. He needed to hold off on debuting more impressive systems until they were in a better footing in terms of looking across the border with the Combine. Even industry was likely to risk a response, but spamming LosTech or nuTech would likely draw ComStar and excuses to leverage the vulnerabilities of the HPG network, even if the Federated Suns' merchant marine was substantially expanded there was always the risk of a fifth column... not just blakists but also the Capellan March, which was why he wanted to build up the Draconis March first just in case Michael Hasek got any funny ideas about what appending -Davion to his last name entitled him to.
He supposed that when one got right down to it, he couldn't have lived many places else... in the inner sphere or otherwise... maybe Lyran space... but the Civil War in Marik space and how quick in canon they had been willing to team up with ComStar ... it was just hard to reconcile that. If there was any single threat within the Federated Suns he was wary about it was the whole doppelganger plot... and given that Yorinaga was dead and Ian Davion wasn't he was pretty sure that had been tossed off the rails... but there was always the chance it wasn't.
--
Yvonne Davion studied the itinerary as the young lady sat across from her. She didn't say it but well girls had been girls when she'd been at Avalon and the debutante rumor mill was still what it was. It had hte potential to be ugly, Sakhara was a gathering of the scions of impeccable breeding but that didn't change that they were still largely the heirs to those families.
Not that either of them could have done worse. The ruling family of Kestrel came from an established bloodline that traced its origins back to the SLDF. A long and storied history of mechwarriors not that she expected that was the concern at the moment. She, Yvonne, was well aware that Ian had ... most likely because she was probably one of the few noblewomen close to Henry's age at the wedding of his younger brother Hanse .... introduced the two. Something Ian probably shouldn't have done, since that in itself had been something of a faux pas, never minding her nephew and sovereign's ... state of intoxication at the time.
It had been the talk at the time at least for fifteen minutes before other matters came up... after all Ian had yet to do his duty in spite of pressure, and suggestions to marry and sire a trueborn heir. Hanse was thus heir apparent to the realm. Ian could not readily afford to wait... Mallory's world had been a chancy thing.
No one was likely to forget that... but that wasn't today's problem... but it could be said to be related to it. While not nearly the catch that marrying the First Prince would be, or his brother Hanse Ian had named Henry as Count of Sakhara which was not a small claim even if Henry didn't rule the planet. Even counting just the jumpship fleet, and the apparent productivity of the Germanium reserves of his possession that was valuable and never mind the prospect of the shipyards. The shipyards if built over Sakhara would render the Clay patrimony easily on the standards of dukes assuming it wasn't there already...
That wasn't public knowledge. The jumpships maybe... but not the money that could be sunk into. No the chatter of the girls would center on all the things that made the notion appealing.
Alexandria was older than he was. She was a senior. She'd be graduating soon. On the other hand despite being younger and technically in a lower year Henry was also technically a guest lecturer at Sakhara... and he was a war hero it was hard to trump his combat record even for men who'd been in uniform for their whole careers.
It was all too easy for the girls at their age to turn either one into scandalous villains, because their mothers and aunts would do the same thing for their own peers. It was how the game was played.
"Shall I spare you the trouble, all the suspense?" She asked putting the papers aside. It was really a rhetorical question, and of course the young countess of Kestrel knew that, and said nothing, "Let us be blunt about then, Lord Henry apparently sees fit enough that his disposable income," the nominally county treasure, "is sufficient to do more than fund the establishment of a BattleMech factory within his domain here. He has plans to build a shipyard..." she paused and measure the young woman's reaction, and then let the other shoe drop, "For Star Lord class JumpShips, not DropShips." It hadn't escaped Yvonne that Clay's JumpShip fleet was predominantly Star Lords either. "and he makes claims at least that he can support the creation of a second one."
She had actually listened to Clay outline what all went into a JumpShip Shipyard everything from the finalized assembly of components and hull... down the base level components. .. and yet in spite of that process's number of steps supposedly next year Henry Clay expected to replace the Star Lord that he had apparently needed to scrap.
For Alexandria's part she had the sense to recognize the value of the Star Lords as they were. The number of them necessary to establish a circuit from here to New Avalon that would make reaching the capital of the Federated Suns relatively quick and easy.
Yvonne recognized that Alexandria had most likely either been in the dark entirely or just not, had failed to put together the pieces... and why wouldn't she what they were dealing with was well beyond the normal scope of possibilities.
--
The question Justin asked was more why are you going than anything, "What's on New Avalon?" It was just the way he phrased it.
"The First Prince." Justin Allard rolled his eyes in the face of the droll response, but quipping aside, "I told you I have a lot going on," And that was part of the reason the JumpCircuit was going to be important because Yvonne's response told him he was going to need to put more effort in making regular trips rotations to New Avalon. He'd already expected that for Robinson, but Robinson was closer.
They stopped talking as the familiar thrum of 300 weight engines from the ASF overhead passed them by. Justin mostly shrugged it off, but the truth was the increase in ASF presence heralded the expansion of orbital infrastructure... and just in case any white wings showed up. It wasn't paranoia if they were actually out there... but ComStar maybe hadn't gotten their loop set yet... he might still have time to do a few more things.
"So you understand of course I don't expect Sakhara graduates to just jump in Centurions..." Henry trailed off, "I like the mathematical simplicity of whole lances and companies of 'mechs, especially if it were possible to support them with organic air and infantry, but as we've demonstrated the Centurion needs support in indirect fire."
"The base model doesn't have enough missiles." Justin reasonably observed, "And they don't have the ammunition to stand off... and even if they did a motivated force like the snakes will just try and push through." Which of course in theory could be addressed by the mass of armor on either side enveloping and destroying an attacker... but that was a circumstance not wholly unique to his forces but wasn't representative either. Justin looked at the paper, "What's this?" He asked.
"Consider it homework, I know it'll have less bearing posted on the Capellan front but the Combine started the succession wars, of the member states they're the largest challenge so I want the class prepared as best as possible to face that."
The Centurion wasn't perfect, but as a mass produced trooper 'mech was good enough, and being able to field enough of them to cover the frontage was probably the most important thing in the short term.
--
Notes: This is really an interim before we move into the next chapter but the principle difference between this and EWSG, which i will update eventually, in the long term is that Odin has the advantage of the FedCom coming together largely inline with canon. There are institutional advantages to having Hanse at the helm so to speak by the time the clans show up where as here Ian is alive and is not going to marry nor can he afford to wait that long to marry the heir to the Commonwealth. On the other hand Ian is alive, whether Mikey boy really thinks he's that hot in terms of trying something well we will see but Ian has a much stronger position than Hanse, especially if Hanse has children of his own... even though Ian really should have been married in canon by the time of his death.