Battletech An SI in the Concordat - GhostRider's Revenants (Battletech CYOA)Rev.2

Chapter 117

paulobrito

Well-known member
The offensive launched by the Ghost Bear, the Wolf, and the Snow Raven Clans in 3068 took everyone by surprise.


Due to the extensive, but careful use of highly modernized Bug Eye spy ships, they knew in detail the location and composition of the various EDF /EN (Earth Defense Force / Earth Navy) task forces within what was left of the Free Rasalhague Republic.


On July 12, 3068, each of these task forces was attacked and destroyed, by squadrons of WarShips from all three Clans, operating together for the first time.






Of note, all the WarShips used by the Clans had been massively modified, having been given robust defenses against ASFs and missiles, while the numerous OmniFighters used ECM and AAM in quantities never seen before.


Among the WarShips used in this operation were the CSRS Storm Talon (Ark Royal Heavy carrier, see chapter 107) and at least two massive WarShips, one of which, later identified as the CGBS Great Bear (Leviathan II Heavy Battleship class), destroyed the ENS Defender of Earth (Farragut class).


Several other WarShips of unknown model (and not of SLDF origin) were also used, in a clear demonstration that at least these Clans had an active production of WarShips.


With the way open for invasion, Rasalhague was the first system to fall, having been assaulted by 12 Galaxies, 8 from Ghost Bear, and two from each of the other Clans.






In a radical departure from common Clan practices, no batchall was offered, and few of the Clan Mechwarriors indulged in single combat.


The Clan ground forces had also changed – While only a few new OmniMechs designs are spotted, various new Configurations of the know ones were present on the battlefield, many of these with more and/or improved EW equipment. One specialized Omni extremely rare until now, was now present in great numbers, the Naga. Also, many new types of Battle Armour were now deployed. Even OmniVehicles, which until now had almost only been used by Clan Hell Horses, were being seen in some numbers. Among them were arty (Arrow IV or tube) or SAM ones (Arrow IV SAM or an Omni variant of the Pollux ADA), and a few were even EW-dedicated. The Clans, or at least these three Clans, had radically changed their behavior, and in a very lethal way. It seems someone had found some SLDF manuals on combined military operations and read some chapters of it.






By December 22, 3068, the whole the Free Rasalhague Republic was in the hands of these Clans, and what was left of the EDF withdrew to the Sol system, having lost all the WarShips involved in defending the FRR, with only a few remaining, rumored to be less than a dozen in the solar system. As ground forces were concerned, the EDF had lost the equivalent of 10 divisions, leaving it greatly weakened.


Military operations stopped at that date, the Clans being apparently satisfied with their new conquests, or not wishing to invade another nation.






Note: In this alternate universe, the Clans Ghost Bear, Wolf, and Snow Raven were concentrated in the FRR, not occupying systems in either the Draconis Combine or the Federated Commonwealth, leaving the invasion/occupation of those nations to the remaining Clans involved in the invasion. These three Clans had also occupied several systems in the Periphery, north of the FRR, while only the Snow Ravens still holding territories in the HomeWorlds, with the Ghost Bears and Wolves having, at this date, completed their full transfer to their new domains in the Inner Sphere and Near Periphery.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
Clearly demonstrating their power and the fact that they adapted to the IS tactics, the question is now whether the three will seek to formalize their conquest, or will they ultimately go for Terra. They sure showed a lot of pragmatism in preparation for this offensive, with Bears and Wolves having nowhere to go if possible future advances go sour.
 
Chapter 118

paulobrito

Well-known member
Note..: chapter highly influenced by the excellent works of Cannonshop in his excellent Ngoverse.






One of Jean-Luc's long-term investments from the beginning had been to try to attract as many spacers / belters / rockajackers as possible to New Vandenberg first, and then to Coromodir.


By 3068, this effort had resulted in a spacer population of about 250 million in the Coromodir system, which was the third system with the most spacers in the Inner Sphere/Periphery, being only surpassed by the Sol and Kowloon systems.


Arriving in small groups, they had come from large concentrations such as Sol, Cambiano and even Kowloon, and also from small communities that existed in all nations, with some even coming from the Kuritan space.


The end result was the availability of a huge population trained to work in space and with the investments made at Snowden and Snowden-L in equipment to both explore the asteroid belts and the Oort cloud, the shipyards at Coromodir were not short of either trained personnel nor of resources that in other systems would be rare and expensive.


Adjusting the legislation to support the specific needs of these communities had contributed a lot to the attractiveness of the whole system.


Another factors that helped attract several of these groups was the excellent repair and maintenance conditions offered at the dockyards and shipyards, as well as excellent credit conditions for the purchase of JumpShips for spacers, as long as they worked a large part of the time within Concordat. / Aurigan Province. Or the building of a complete teaching/healthcare system in selected asteroids. Since their needs were usually not taken care of and the spacers viewed all governments with suspicion, it took a lot of discussion and negotiations to put everything on tracks..


Another area of interest for spacers was skinsuits. A modern factory had been built in Coromodir to produce the best possible design. To this end, a competition had been instituted in which each improvement, each bug fix, was rewarded, leading to several spacers communicating their personal improvements.






The end result was a model superior in quality, autonomy and comfort to any other in existence. They were sold at a low profit to the local community, which was so large (in the millions), that the factory still made a small gain, but the reason was mostly politic, leading the managers to be overruled by the ruling family when they wanted to increase the price. Obviously, the price of the ones sold outside the Coromodir system was more in line with the desires of the company.






A side effect of these measures was that even JàrnFòlk's JumpShips began to appear in Coromodir with the first contact being made in 3065.






Reaching such results had been neither easy nor short journey, on the contrary. In the beginning, and in the first few decades, this policy had to face the many suspicions and distrusts of the belters and rockajackers, more than triple burned and deceived by successive governments in the Inner Sphere.


But, thanks to the same focused politics being pursued overtime accompanied by constant consultations with the interested parties, results were reached until we gathered in 3068 what was the third-largest concentration of spacers ever created.






From Kowloon, the biggest enclave outside Sol, spacers only started to arrive in numbers after the Clan invasions, any attempts before that only got very small results.


One thing interlinked with spacers is their JumpShips. You couldn’t have ones without the others.


While the Concordat has five full shipyards – Bolthole, Taurus, New Vandenberg, Coromodir and Mechdur – all capable to deliver WarShips and JumpShips, they also had two more – Detroit and Pinard – that could only build Invaders. What they had in greater numbers were dockyards, that couldn’t make new ships but were vital for the maintenance and small repairs of the growing fleet.


For example, in 3068, Coromodir had one full shipyard over Coromodir V, a dockyard on the asteroid belt that mostly served the spacer community, and was busy building another dockyard (that was planned to be latter transformed into a full shipyard) in the Oort cloud.


That network of dockyards was part of the reasons the spacers were eager to move to the Coromodir system as they knew their fleets could be maintained at a rhythm and price not possible in other nations, thanks in no small part to the accords with the Arano-Bassot. Outside Coromodir, they had, like in other states, to ‘fight’ to obtain access to said dockyards and shipyards, even if the Concordat treated them better than the other nations.


Another really important factor was that the space lanes inside the Concordat were much safer than in any other nation, a thing much appreciated by the spacer communities. Much of this came from the Pinto Class WarShips.


The growing fleet of Pintos Block 2 (with the 80 MG replaced by 24 AMS and the 800 SHS by 600 DHS – see chapter 68) was mostly used for ‘Coastal Guard’ missions, aka, patrolling against piracy / contraband and helping ships in distress. Even with some sold to the Magistracy, the Draconis Combine and even to the Outworlds Alliance, the remaining fleet was big enough to be the reason that any pirate would consider the Concordat space Death Ground and departed to less dangerous territories.


Apart from the increased number of people to work in space oriented jobs inside the Coromodir system – one of the reasons said system is economically growing faster than any other – the presence of the spacers JumpShips also accounted in no small part for the increase in trade inside the Aurigan Province and the rest of the Concordat. Inside the Province they represented about 20% of all commercial Jumpships, while in the Concordat they are about 10%. And more ships meant more trade.






By 3068, the Taurian Commercial Navy – and private companies- were doing business with all the Concordat territory as well as all the systems up to the Magistracy of Canopus, the old Lothian League and Illyrian Palatinate (these two now Taurian territory or Taurian vassals in all but name), the Circinus Federation, the Federated Commonwealth, the Draconis Combine, the Outworlds Alliance and the news states in the ex-FWL, and Earth.


Basically, they only didn’t do business with the Capellan Confederation and the Clans. The Concordat was also selling WarShips to the Magistracy, the Outworld Alliance, the Combine and after the disaster in the Rasalhague space (and in urgent negotiations) with Earth, and was the only nation to do so.
 

Rodon

Member
Outside Coromodir, they had, like in other states, to ‘fight’ to obtain access to said dockyards and shipyards,

I assume that the rest of the Aurigan Province is following Coromodir's example, if a few years behind. If with less active support for those policies. With most systems having either a repair yard or plans for one, along with small hospital stations near the jump points.

Granted, their communities would likely be small, as most would go to Coromodir for the more active support. Since the Arano-Bassot don't focus on their planet, but the whole system. I bet the Calderon's attempts to restrict Arano-Bassot's overall economic growth, and power, hasn't been as successful as they would have hoped. Starting to bump up against Taurus's level of economic importance.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
The 'conflict' between the Calderon's and the Arano-Bassot's is a soft one. They have even married their respective heirs.
But, yes, the Arano-Bassot's are slowly, winning the economic war.
The political ones is still firmly on the Calderon ones.
But, both sides know and accept that they can't go full war or even hidden war anymore.
And both put the nation before - at least this generation.
 
Chapter 119

paulobrito

Well-known member
Note..: Second part of the heavily based on Cannonshop works. Now, the WarShip toys...






As was to be expected, the sale of WarShips, even the lighter classes, to Earth, was not well accepted at first by the Taurian elites. However, once the high price per WarShip was known– along with the various advantages that the Concordat got, ranging from an obscene amount of licenses, to a complete copy of the Prometheus database version or to various exceptions in taxation, the opposition to the sales died quickly.


What was not announced in the media on Taurus, was that since only the Aurigan Province produced Pintos, the bulk of the (financial) slice would go to them.


In the meantime, a new type of Corvettes, the Tribal class, began to enter service in the Taurian Concordat based on the experience earned from the sales of the Pintos to other nations, what they had learned in the meantime from the growing population of spacers and the feedback from the different war missions of the Orcas and Pintos.






Highly based on the Pinto design, the differences were nevertheless immense.


For starters, the armor was Heavy Ferrous-Aluminum. It was equipped with LF, the latest Black Box generation available to the TC and with one of the most compact HPGs ever produced (similar to the 14 ton SL mobile HPG for ground forces). The sensor and communication suites were also state of the art.


The armament was also quite different - 4 NL55, 2 LNPPC, 2 Light Naval Gauss, 2 AR-10 tubes (loaded with “standard” missiles in normal, anti-piracy and patrol missions, with nuke loaded missiles when heavy fights were foreseen). 16 LPL and 16 MPL provided it with AMS and anti ASF capability. It kept the 12 ASFs and the DropShip docking collar from the Pinto.


The targeting computer used with the Light Naval Gauss, took in consideration, that in space, the range of the weapons was basically unlimited, and could calculate very long ranged shots – another first for a space navy.


In fact, tests/exercises made to validate the design, showed that with a competent crew, hits could be achieved at more than 3 light-seconds – the actual record against a moving target (that didn’t do fancy maneuvers, that is) was a bit in excess of a million kilometers. That exercise was against an invading DropShip moving in a usual (aka, predictable) trajectory… and the shooter was never detected during said exercise.


To ensure its safety and for anti-piracy and boarding missions, it carried 48 Marines, with a combination of PA(L) and Battle Armour.


The other difference was the massive use of Radar Absorbent Material (RAM) on it giving it both a black paint and a black sail.






Nothing too over the edge but the layered materials were able to absorb as many electromagnetic spectra as possible, including frequencies above and below visible light. it's an absorptive, rather than reflective tech. Because it's less concentrated, and has to have 'tuning elements' spread throughout to convert received signal (into the radio spectrum) into electrical power, the sails are unusually large for the mass of the vessel, and require some care when retracting, often requiring crew to be on the surface of the ship in hard vacuum to prevent snags and address malfunctions in the retraction gear.










Finally, it had the most advanced jump-point calculator/advanced navigational computer available thanks to the many lessons passed on by the spacers.


Another factor was that both the crew and the Marines were prepared/trained from the start to fight in vacuum, with the atmosphere drained.






Simulations, and careful testing had demonstrated that the survivability of a WarShip rose brutally if this training took place, allowing it to keep on operating in situations that would have destroyed any other WarShip.






The RAM coating/black paint was also very good at absorbing/hidden the heat signature, turning the ship very stealth, unless under very focused active search from modern systems. The negative side was that it made it mandatory to have two sets of maneuvering thrusters – the ‘standard’ high energy/hot plasma and a low power one, using high pressure cold gas, virtually undetectable unless at very short range. Another problem, was that in order to hide the heat signature, a massive internal heat sink/dump system was needed, that could only be activated for a couple of hours, until its capacity was exceeded, and the radiation vents had to be reopened. But, during these hours, it was the most stealthy WarShip known by the Taurians.


Obviously, this WarShip was not included on the “available for other nations” lists.






Another much less technological challenging ‘WarShip’ was also brought into production for a specific use in the Coromodir system, first and later also in Bolthole and Taurus.


In short, this cheaper vessel was a modified ferry short JumpShip, with an HNPPC spinal mounted, 12 LPL in dual mode, and four Killer Whales in single shot tubes. Taurians being Taurians, these were in reality, Peacemakers. Since they suffered from the same limitations as the ferries – aka, imprecise and short jump, only a few were constructed to help patrol the system. But to act, as a single system patrol and as a first line of defense, they were good enough. Contributing in no small part to their efficiency was the fact that their existence was not publicly known with only few people outside of the high ranking officers being informed. They were only deployed to the Taurus system, Bolthole, and to the Coromodir system and with no official existence.
 
Chapter 120

paulobrito

Well-known member
Coromodir System

Nadir Jump-Point

Olympus Station

12th January 3069





The duty station started like all others for Ensign Julius Silva. Monitoring the traffic on the Nadir Jump-Point of the Coromodir system was a busy job, but not a properly exciting one. Until now.

"Unscheduled emergence wave. A big one! Confirmed several big ships!'

'Sound the alert!'

'Interference on the Box! Can make the bloody thing work.'

'Switch to radio signals! Fast.'

'Can't, also massive interference.'

'Activate case Zulu, prepare the emergency secure laser data-links for communication with both planets. Whatever is arriving is big and is serious.'

'Time count… already passed the megatons class jump, incoming is going to be a very big WarShip, or various ships arriving at the same time.'

The force that arrived was composed by 4 WarShips, more precisely, 2 Aegis class Heavy Cruisers, 1 Lola III and 1 Baron class Destroyers. None with active IFF, a sure sign that they were hostile.

The forces present at the Nadir Jump-Point tried to do something, they really tried, but they didn't have any WarShip and the only Pocket Warship, a Leopard CW, only had a single NL55. To be fair, it got a clean shot on the Lola III, without any visible damage other than a scar on the Destroyer armor.

The answer destroyed all the defending forces present, including the Olympus station with one Ensign Julius Silva, but not before he successfully sent the composition of the invader force via secure laser data-link to both Coromodir V and VI.




After that, several hours later, in Coromodir V, the nearest inhabited planet, (Coromodir VI being on the other side of the system at this time) potent optical telescopes were pointed to the location. Soon, they confirmed the composition of the invasion (or raider) force and also detected a late arrival wave with a very rare Falsane Yardship, 1 StarLord, and 6 Invaders.

Furthermore, the DropShips, that by now, were deployed were a mix of Assault, 'aerospace carrier and infantry transport, which indicated a will to capture targets.




As usual in these emergencies, any JumpShip present at the Nadir that could immediately jump out, did it, and the poor ones that couldn't were destroyed.

The JumpShips at the Zenith Jump-Point, as soon as they learned of the invasion also jumped out if they could.

That let the system without any (civil) way of alert the near systems, because of the unprecedented and unexpected jamming of the FTL communications.




Their objective quickly became obvious as the force moved in direction of Coromodir V.

Whoever they were, they didn't try to go for the stable pirate jump-point near the planet, having no doubt been well-informed about the (relatively) massive defenses covering it (as well as the stable pirate Jump Point around Coromodir VI).




Note..: OTL/Lore the HPG/BlackBox and radio interference/jamming can be caused by the massive 1000LY ranged Super-HPGs that WoB used in the Jihad.




The forces defending the system included the Winchester II class Cruiser TCS Daniel Calderon, and two Corvettes – the Tribal class TCS Tribal, first and so far only operational ship of her class, and the Pinto class TCS Mandalas, as well as several Pocket Warships. Also present were 3 Carcajou class Cutters.




Because of the jamming, the nature and numbers of the invaders and the location of the forces present, it was decided that the TCS Mandalas that was near the Coromodir VI jump point would jump to the Guldra system and from there alert all the forces in range to provide support.




Only later was it discovered that both Guldra and Itrom, the two inhabited system at less than 30 LY from Coromodir, had also been hit by the same jamming. The defense had thus been deprived of a WarShip for nothing.




In the Coromodir V shipyards, 2 Tribal class Corvettes, 2 Ajax class Destroyers and 6 Invader class JumpShips rested in varied stages of construction and represented without any doubt a very tempting target for the invaders/raiders.

The 'journey' to Coromodir V was not easy for the invaders.

Captain Mary Li, commanding the TCS Tribal pulverized the previous range record and while it took her the full ammo of her Light Naval Gauss to take down three DropShips, she managed to destroy them, at over 5 million kilometers. Of course, not all the shots hit, but the ones that did were enough to destroy a Union-CV, a Titan and a Triumph.




Due to the fact that the distance between the Nadir Jump Point and Coromodir V was about 9 days, and that the locations had more JumpShips and ferries than a system without shipyards (or spacers) would normally have, a series of immense navigational feats moved several military DropShips from Coromodir VI, that at this time was on the opposite side of the system, and under normal conditions wouldn't be able to send help in time, a fact more than probable know by the invaders, to Coromodir V, with the very capable navigators making full use of the Pirate Points near both planets.

Normally, more than half of these jumps would have make anyone navigation licenses removed but this was a special circumstances.

The end result was that several Pocket WarShips, Assault DropShips and Heavy Carriers, the latter carrying a considerable number of ASF and small crafts - small crafts in this case being Flankers-F, 200 tons of pure malice equipped with 3 ERPPCs and a dozen Arrow IVs, in a mix of AAMs and AShMs, were moved from Coromodir VI to the orbit of Coromodir V, greatly reinforcing the local defenses.




Note: This was only possible due to the fact that both planets (Coromodir V and VI) had moons of reasonable size which created Lagrange Points, AKA stable Pirate Points, at a short distance from the respective planets. These were the kind of Pirate Points that ferries could - at the limit, and only with high-class navigators - operate. In reality, the ferries were not certified for these operations, but military emergencies...




Two days away from Coromodir V, the forces on both sides faced each other.

The first line of defense were the ASFs and small crafts, leaving on the Coromodir side the WarShips, Pocket WarShips and Assault DropShips for the second wave.

But what the first wave lacked in mass, they had in numbers and the numerical advantage for the defending forces was obvious from the start. Some 200 ASFs - all SL models, though many clearly upgraded, were up against just over 300 ASFs and 70 small crafts. The two WarShips and DropShips of the invading force did what they could to support their escort.

Clearly the invaders also had AAMs and ECMs, which balanced the forces somewhat, but after the first pass, the invaders had lost more than half of the ASFs, for a loss of ninety two from the defenders. Even if none of the DropShips or WarShips had been destroyed in this attack, all of the invading WarShips and several of their DropShips had been hit badly.

Now it was the turn of the defender heavyweights to enter the game with 1 Winchester II class Cruiser, 1 Tribal class Corvette, 3 Carcajou class Cutters, 4 Lee Pocket WarShips, and 6 Leopard Pocket WarShips.




In terms of mass, this fleet was not impressive. But unlike the attackers, they still had full magazines, and undamaged armor. And being Taurians, they carried lots and lots of nukes.

Whereas the attackers would have basically emptied their magazines to defend themselves and have little anti-missile capability left after stopping the Alamos salvos from the first attack.

Or so the defenders thought. In fact, the two Aegis had been extensively modified, and not only had a comprehensive anti-ASF and AMS defense, but, also much deeper magazines for the capital missiles.

The 4 Lee concentrated on one of the Aegis, and between them, they had enough AR-10s to saturate the Heavy Cruiser defenses. They were destroyed, but the Cruiser died along with them, hit by 3 Peacemakers.

The Baron showed what a Destroyer was capable of against Cutters. It destroyed two and heavily damaged the last one, but did not survive the encounter, hit by Heavy Naval PPC and Peacemakers.

The Cutters, while clearly not designed to fight against true WarShips, survived long enough to do lethal damage, even when they were hit by enough fire that a ship double that size had no chance to survive.

The other Aegis and the Lola, were busy dealing with the Daniel Calderon, and destroyed it, even if in the process, the Cruiser had been moderately damaged and the Destroyer heavily damaged.

This left only the TCS Tribal with some PW Leopards again the invaders – that and several ASF and small crafts with their ammo depleted.

But, in their planning, the invaders had forgot one tiny, small detail that proved to be critical – the jamming worked for the outgoing and incoming messages. Like all important Concordat systems, Coromodir has two HPG networks – one the civilian one, based on the old Comstar HPGs, and another, full Taurian made, for exclusive military transmissions with transmissions being made on a regular basis just in case. When several systems begin losing contact with Coromodir, in both networks, it was evident that something bad was happening there.

And several WarShips were send. Since all the WarShips of the Concordat Navy, with the exception of the Pinto class, had LF batteries they could move fast, helped in this by a network of recharge stations constructed in the last decades at great expense.

The end result, was that when the TCS Tribal was apparently alone against the invasion force, several jump points became active in the system. And from these, emerged several WarShips, including the recently operational TCS Thomas Calderon (a modified Texas class), that arrived with its escort group – 2 Winchester II Heavy Cruisers, 2 Dart II Light Cruisers, 2 Concordat Frigates, and 4 Ajax Destroyers, that were in exercise nearby. While the Thomas Calderon and its group arrived at the Zenith jump point, said jump point had a recharge station, so the fleet could jump to Coromodir V in as short time, negating access to the shipyards to the invaders, which understood it too.

Instead of trying a useless continuation of their mission, the invaders changed directions, moving to the nearest point past the jump limit they could achieve.

But, when they, some days latter, were near the jump limit, the Thomas Calderon task force jumped there, having already recharged its K-F drives, thanks to the Zenith recharge station.

Confronted by a massively superior force and with no escape possible, the invaders destroyed their ships, exploding the reactors (or the nukes that they had inside) committing suicide in the act, so as not to give clues about their origins.
 

PsihoKekec

Swashbuckling Accountant
So I presume Blakists intended to strip the Coromodir shipyard bare, to support their own operations in their boltholes, but lost four Warships and an irreplaceable Falsane. I guess Willie Master will have to go back to the drawing board.

I'm sure Taurians, being paranoid as they are, will start an extensive search for these boltholes, but space is big...
 

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