New Avalon 1.2
New Avalon 1.2He hadn't fully appreciated the interest in the seventy tonners. He'd generated the parts that were to be assembled into the Longsword mechs for Albion due to the interest the Robinson contingent had expressed. It made sense that RBA would want to test the design, and it was supposed to be an easy to use design... so it made sense to make it avialble to Albion as well... after all the NAIS didn't exist yet.
It probably would.
He figured since they'd managed to steal even more of the university cache that Ian probably would insure that there was an NAIS he just probably hadn't gotten around to a grand opening yet.
He assumed it was coming... hopefully. "Fuck." Henry rubbed his eyes, "I need coffee," He remarked to the man on the other side of the table. He had the feeling all of a sudden that this was now so much more than he had initially planned.
Henry flipped through the paper work. Not that he had immediately assumed everything would necessarily go smoothly but the truth was he was hoping to be able sweet talk Corean into agreeing to his initial proposal... rather than throwing the c bill value of a mobile HPG worth of their stock... because that was the interesting thing, yard space were only in sub eleven hundred range BV wise, but were twenty five billion c-bills of cost.
A morningstar HPG equipped CCV was just over five billion c-bills.
... a vehicle worth a mere 458 BV...
It was absurd, but it didn't matter if it came to it he'd throw the stock on the table... if it came to that... that was the thing he didn't want to immediately resort to a hostile take over if social niceties from the First Prince and Field Marshal of the Draconis March would get him the preferred answer to in turn answer the logistical problem for a medium trooper mech.
The Longsword was a heavy mech though, and he should have considered that it would have naturally attracted more attention as something new... he might well have just overshadowed his own attempt to put one over the capellans and the cataphract wholly by accident. He had gotten excited, he had let himself focus on what they could do for relatively little C-Bill price tag, but it didn't change the fact, or that at least from his perspective the Centurion was already in the logistics chain they were already in production and thus the better procurement option.
--
There had never been any question where she would attend. That wasn't to say this was her first visit to Albion on New Avalon, but Alexandria had always known she was meant to attend Sakhara. Her expression was carefully schooled all the same as the machines were ooh and ahhed over. The seventy tonners massed the same as Clay's Rabid Fox but were functionally closer to warhammers , that lesson had been driven home.
It had been her first real experience with the command circuit and that had caught her off balance, where instead of waiting a week for a jumpship's drives to charge it had simply been the matter of decoupling from one star lord to the next in sequence.
Technically speaking each JumpShip had been different. Uniform paint schemes aside they had had registration numbers in utilitarian block script and different names, but the Star Lords had all looked the same in broad strokes. They felt new but Alexandria supposed that was more upkeep than anything.
The Longswords though, there was no denying they were new. All twelve machines were painted in the same high vis orange, and had been numberd off in white blocky numbers. She couldn't help but ask if he knew what he was doing.
Clay frowned almost seemingly offended, and then shrugged, "seventy six million three hundred ninety one thousand one hundred ninety six c-bills." He replied, after a moment of apparent mental math to reach such an outlandish sum, "Yes I know what I'm doing, the techs are very sure they put these together from standard enough parts and weapons. Whatever quibbles I might have over one model PPC, versus another, or one medium laser manufacturer over another these are all standard parts, could we have facilitated more testing yes, but Lord Aaron is very sure that he wants a delivery of them assembled for the RBA and donating to New Avalon is not being altruistic its free advertising."
Alexandria didn't believe him. It simply wasn't a credible statement coming from someone younger than she was, but there was no point in arguing over whether he was seriously going to protest that this was all about money or not because as it was the Duchess of Victoria, as well as Lord Aaron had made their appearance with a second alumni of Avalon, adding a third duke to their number. The heir apparent to the realm Hanse Davion, the Fox to the First Prince's Hound. Hanse Davion looked much more relaxed, at ease, than he had at his wedding reception... but how much of that was the nuptials, or even for that matter his older brother's rather public intoxication Alexandria couldn't begin to guess.
"Auntie tells me you unveiled these in sequence, is there anything else in the works?"
"Mm," Henry paused to consider, or restrain himself from answering Hanse Davion's question, "There are a number of various projects, just never enough time."
--
Hanse Davion preferred the BattleMaster. The machine passed down to him as his father's spare suited him better than the Atlas his brother had received as heir. The Atlas was a slower machine, dangerous but ponderous. The longsword was lighter than his battlemaster, and maxed out at the same speed, but it only need a sixteen ton engine to achieve that than the much heavier 340 rating Engine that powered his machine.
The fact that the Longsword carried two Donal PPCs instead of one somewhat changed the dynamic of its otherwise lighter weapons load out.
He was in a bright orange and white mech on the gunnery range showing off for the small cluster of senior cadets invited to watch the proceedings. Albion's cadets might pilot this mchine, but they were not the invitees Hanse was watching. They had staged this carefully after all.
Ian had his hands full at the moment, but it was only a matter of time before he managed to leverage escaping his curated schedule. As a result he knew he needed to have an argument formulated to sway to convince his older brother to support preferably before Ian loudly demanded to be allowed an opportunity at piloting the seventy ton machine. It hadn't been on the official itinerary so he assumed that word had yet to reach the First Prince about the contents, but that wouldn't last long.
Had Clay advertised he was bringing a new indigenous mech design, and a heavy mech at that, there would have been turn out from New Avalon's elite, and pressure to move for a formal hearing, arguably more of a response than just what Clay was actually hear for. To that end it was ironic, Hanse would admit, that there were likely to be more questions about creation of a new 70 tonner than what Clay wanted to actually spend money on.
Unless you happened to be the Achenar delegation.
Hanse guided the machine to the embarkation point he had started the course at, and dismounted from the war machine, but he was satisified it passed muster... and even if it hadn't it was still eye grabbing. He immediately made a bee line back to his party
He wasn't surprised his auntie was talking about the Battlemaster, after all she had piloted one with the Crucis Lancers. Henry shook his head, "The 340 rating is uncommon for a reason. Things like the Rapier, and the Star League era Longbow fell out for a reason, that leaves really just the Victor and BattleMaster." He scratched at his hair, which should have been impractically long and shaggy for a mechwarrior in the confines of a modern production neurohelmet, and cut a contrast between the buzz cuts many of the Avalon cadets were sporting. "If you're principle aim is an assault mech, that's a different matter something in the eighty ton class is a more practical engine."
The boy really couldn't help himself at times, Hanse recognized. He was obviously just too accustomed to what he considered normal, and never stopped, or rarely stopped to think about it... it reminded him of Ian at times... and that was probably why the First Prince got along so well with the 'Rabid Fox'. "You'll have to excuse me Lord Henry, but if you don't like the Fox moniker perhaps not painting your machines akin to fox's belt might be a start," He joked rejoining the group, but cognizant of the security detachment from the DMI that must have been his aunt's idea.
"They're not." Henry started to protest. Then stopped, "You didn't use the JumpJets."
"I'm quite sure they work," Hanse replied, and he spared a look to his aunt, "Are you sure you can't do something about the BattleMaster?"
"No, not anytime soon, I'll be blunt I'd sooner allocate resources to produce something in the hundred ton range. Atlas, King Crab, Marauder 2, those Annihilators or Imp things even that the Dragoons brought."
Hanse started to smirk, but Aaron Sandoval's eyes alit, "The annihilator you say?"
"Mmhmm," was the grunted reply, "it runs off the same engine as the Centurion, but thats the point its a common engine. Once we have Corean on board and the myomer and chassis process on an industrial then we can do things like branch out, but the Battlemaster at this stage would have only limited shared components with what we can manufacture."