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

Adventwolf

Well-known member
Melee weapons with TSM equipped onto speedy mechs to get in close and remove the Clan range advantage. If the FedCom goes in with that kind of power and long range bombardment support combined with air support they can smash into the Clan forces and make them pay a bloody cost beyond anything they are expecting.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
TSM - right now the FC still considers it as a failed, tech, bait to the CC. CC maybe have developed a functional one, but so far Sun-Tzu is very quiet about the new toys of the CCAF.
'Normal' mechs with Melle weapons - Axman and Atchetman are currently in use.
 

Adventwolf

Well-known member
TSM - right now the FC still considers it as a failed, tech, bait to the CC. CC maybe have developed a functional one, but so far Sun-Tzu is very quiet about the new toys of the CCAF.
'Normal' mechs with Melle weapons - Axman and Atchetman are currently in use.
Why would it be considered a failed tech? They have had more time to make functional models and the CC doesn't have the plot armor and author fiat to be making a bunch of advancements even when they lost the best industrials centers to do it at. After all the FedCom already released the Industrial version in 3040. All they need to do to remove the weakness to the gas is turn it from quadruple strength to triple strength and make it heat activated.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
Because ITTL, the FC don't invest in 'fix' the problem of the original TSM - nor used it in civilian applications. Too many other things to do. CC, I said nobody knows what they have right now - mostly because nobody cares.
 

Crazyone47

Active member
Because ITTL, the FC don't invest in 'fix' the problem of the original TSM - nor used it in civilian applications. Too many other things to do. CC, I said nobody knows what they have right now - mostly because nobody cares.
Well..... The main reason according to sarna to use melee battlemech weapons is to avoid too much heat generation and negate limited ammunition......
Researched military combat a little and according to a retired lieutenant melee combat will make a return if protection or battle armor becomes effective enough to shrug off most firearms or guns. Then melee combat will come back so hard hits that do not run out of ammo can be used to crack battle armor.
Hmmmm.... Wonder if melee battlemechs will be more of a thing when battletech starts including improved armor and/or forcefields.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
Why would it be considered a failed tech? They have had more time to make functional models and the CC doesn't have the plot armor and author fiat to be making a bunch of advancements even when they lost the best industrials centers to do it at. After all the FedCom already released the Industrial version in 3040. All they need to do to remove the weakness to the gas is turn it from quadruple strength to triple strength and make it heat activated.
Capcon are actually the high-tech ones in BT. They have the short end of the stick as far as BattleMech factories but have tons of electronics and civilian factories. While the much-vaunted NAIS managed to build a mech-scale ax, Capcon was developing ECM and Beagle Probes.

Their love of asymmetrical warfare, stealth systems, and artillery are Doylistically to reveal their craven and evil nature but Watsonially speaks to how they have less metal and more technology to work with than their enemies.
 
Chapter 96

paulobrito

Well-known member
The following days were very busy in Luthien.


Fortunately the Clans had not interfered with Luthien Naval Yard, probably thinking that their capture would be a given after conquering Luthien IV. Because of this, all available tugs could be used for SAR / recovery missions and the Taurian WarShips could receive light repairs - the most important ones would be done in one of the Concordat shipyards to prevent secrets from being revealed and also while the Kuritans didn't have the necessary components.


Among the wreckage, two Overlord-C hit by Naval Lasers had missed the planet, and were captured, drifting in space, with much of the equipment intact or slightly damaged inside.






Understandably, Takashi and Theodore were very interested in not only buying large quantities, but also obtaining the production rights to the advanced versions of the Arrow IVs used by Concordat - AAM, SAM, A2G/AGM, Thunder/FASCAM, AShM and Advanced Smoke. Admiral Ostergaard, for reasons that would be known in the near future, delayed the negotiations.


To that end, they offered not only first choice on all Clan equipment captured in the battle, but access to Black Box technology, which they knew Concordat wanted to obtain.






Interrogation of the prisoners revealed that not only had the IlKhan been present at the battle, but also the Khan of the Smoke Jaguars. A closer check of the identity of the numerous bodies recovered confirmed that both Leo Showers and Lincon Osis had died. Sarah Weaver, the Jaguars saKhan, had not been present, and was therefore the highest ranking Smoke Jaguar still alive. The number of Bloodnamed Warriors captured or killed was quite high, indicating a more than likely succession crisis within the Clan.


Meanwhile, the Draconis Combine had gone into full propaganda mode, not only announcing in every possible way the extent of the victory, but also performing impressive ceremonies to honor both the fallen in combat and the victors - including awarding honorary titles to several Taurians.


For obvious reasons, the TEF (Taurian Expeditionary Force) extended its presence in Luthien, rather than quickly moving on to the front line. It had to wait at least until the WarShips had completed their emergency repairs and the supply fleet train arrived, which happened in mid-September.


When it arrived, it also brought something else of vital importance as it had along the way established a direct line of HPG satellites capable of communicating directly between Taurus and Luthien, without going through the HPGs controlled by the Federated Commonwealth. Many of the satellites previously used to communicate with the Lothian League and taken back after, had been re-used in this new, secure line of communications. The advantage was that the Concordat could deploy said HPG network without the knowledge of the Federated Commonwealth intelligence services.


Like the TEF before, the supply train used uninhabited systems during its pass over the Federated Commonwealth territory. During the movement through the Federated Commonwealth, both groups (the TEF and the resupply convoy) got a FedCom JumpShip escort, to ‘help’ the crossing. In reality to guarantee that nothing unusual would happen. That made necessary some creative / precisely calculated positioning of some ships of the supply train to mask the launch of the HPG satellites, or sometimes the ship with that task suffered from a “misjump” to execute the operation after the FC JumpShip already departed.


The fact that the Concordat had not only sent 7 WarShips with the TEF, but 4 more with the supply fleet, even though the latter were Corvettes, did not go unnoticed by the DCA, which at this point had an acute shortage of WarShips.






With a secure line of communications with Taurus established, negotiations regarding the licensing / sale of Arrow IV advanced technology, proceeded apace. At this time the Combine also wanted to buy at least two WarShips, preferably four. They were ready to buy anything including Pintos as they had to replace the losses suffered in Luthien. After all, the Concordat Navy had 11 WarShips at Luthien, while the DCA total inventory was 6 WarShips, all on the front-lines and for those under construction, the closest to being delivered was still 9 months away from being fully operational.


In return, in addition to Black Boxes technology and first choice in captured Clan equipment, they were also offering sharing their development on OmniMechs with local technology and a wide range of Combine equipment production licenses. Basically, anything the Concordat wanted related to licenses and research, in exchange for some WarShips and the desired technology.






Edward, after a long conversation with Kamea and me, made a counter-proposal that basically guaranteed for the Concordat everything that this expedition was intended to obtain.


In exchange for two Pintos, the two Ajax, which the Combine would have to repair, half the Arrow IV ammo types that the supply train had brought, and an order for several Arrow IV advanced types of ammo, which would take at least five years to be fully satisfied, at an excellent rate, the Draconis Combine would deliver a battalion of Omnimechs and the equivalent of another battalion of miscellaneous Clan units, full access to the Black Box tech and Omni tech developed by the Combine, as well as a choice of Clan prisoners to be delivered to the Concordat, an extensive list of production licenses and a considerable amount of C-Bills. The contract would provide the Combine with enough missiles during the time they needed to built the local factories, and for these to achieve cruise production levels, to cover their needs.






For unknown reasons, the HPG network between the Combine and the Concordat stopped working two months later. Ping testing, confirmed the problem was with one of the satellites inside Federated Commonwealth territory. Several months later, a TMI Mryia JumpShip arrived at the location with a replacement, but instead of a dead satellite, and after a very exhaustive search, only found what could only be the result of said satellite self-destruct activation. The consensus, was that the FC escort ship had detected at least that launch, and that a team had been sent to analyze or capture the satellite, causing the explosion. The replacement satellite was placed in a very distant place in the same system, and the network was calibrated. The TMI ship had now the undesirable task of verifying all the nodes of the network inside the Federated Commonwealth territory searching for tampering.
 
Chapter 97

paulobrito

Well-known member
Wolf Clan Occupation Corridor


Rasalhague


October 2, 3056






Khan Ulric Kerensky was not having a good day/week//month/year.


First the invasion had been costlier than even the worse simulations had predicted. After that, Clan Wolf had been forced to share its corridor with the Nova Cats. Not exactly enemies, but not friends also.


Then the IlKhan had been killed, during the first turns of what was turning into an Inner Sphere counter-attack, creating a lot of confusion, with calls to return to Strana Mechty to elect a new one, something clearly impossible during an enemy attack. However, a council had to be carried on as soon as possible, but the only way was to use a HPG holoconference, something that the Clans still at home for pure political reasons strongly disagreed with.


While not affecting him directly, the number of Bloodnamed Jaguars killed, including the Khan, and the IlKhan, caused such chaos inside that Clan that he almost pitied them. Almost.


Two weeks ago, the Federated Commonwealth had appeared in force over Twycross and his own estimates was that even the much vaunted Falcon Guards, even supplemented by several second line units had few chances to survive and even fewer to win.


Right now, it was his turn to face a thread. A few hours before, a massive fleet had arrived at the Zenith Jump Point.


While the Wolfs had the CWS Werewolf (Mckenna class), CWS Dire Wolf (Sovetskii Soyuz class) and the CWS Nature’s Wrath (Lola III class) in orbit and the Alpha and Gamma Galaxies on the ground, the forces moving against them were superior in numbers.


So far the WarShip component had been identified as the ENS (Earth Navy Ship) Defender of Earth (Farragut class) the ENS Lady Shandra (Cameron class), the ENS Earth’s Vengeance (Sovetskii Soyuz class), the ENS Bordeaux (unknown class) and the ENS Defender of Humanity (Essex class).






Note.: The ENS Bordeaux is the ex-CSV Bordeaux (Dante class), a type of WarShip the Clans don’t known. The ENS Defender of Earth is the OTL WoBS Righteous Justice (no SLS name known), but in ITTL it was recovered and massively refitted by the Earth Navy. The Cameron keeps its original name, the others changed the Comstar names to ones more in line with the new owners – many of the Comstar WarShips didn’t have an original SLS name in Sarna.


Note ii.: The refit of the Farragut consisted in adding a LF battery, HPG, Naval Comm-Scanner Suite Large, replacing the 22 Killer Whale tubes with AR-10 ones with very deep magazines, replacing the 40 LL with 40 LPL, 12 LBX-10, and 36 AMS. The 36 ASFs were expanded to 72, and the 10 small crafts were Goalkeeper V – yes, Earth also has that design / tech - and doubling the fuel capacity. For that, the cargo as been ‘reduced’ to 140.ktons. That refit was executed in the Titan shipyards, the only one capable of such feat at this date.






Following them, were a number of DropShips that could easily transport up to four or five Galaxies, some with FRR IFFs but the majority with EDF/ENS IFFs.






Ulric was still dealing with the shock of the massive defeat that the Jaguars, Ravens and Horses had suffered in Luthien, and now this. The Khan was slowly understanding that the Clans have bite more than they could, he had already ordered several Clusters of garrison units to be moved to the new territories, to help pacify them, and had also ordered the activation of all the reserve / mothballed WarShips of the Clan, but the felling that it was too little, too late didn’t disappear. The fact was that they have very little WarShips or even on JumpShips production capacities, and the Inner Sphere had showed them that the data collected by the Wolf Dragoons until 3019 was now obsolete, and the Watch efforts so far provided little results.






‘Open a channel to the enemy commander’, Ulric commanded.


An older woman, with a deep blue uniform, appeared in the holotank.


‘I’m Admiral Cynthia Ferguson, of the Earth Navy. With whom I’m speaking?’


‘I’m Ulric Kerensky, Khan of the Wolf Clan, and the leader of the forces defending this system. I ask for Hegira.’


In the holotank, the admiral listened to some advice from out of vision range ‘And why I should let you depart free?’


‘Oh, you have enough forces to win the battle in space no doubt. And because you are no Clan, no doubt you will use your surviving WarShips against my forces on the ground. That forces me to deploy inside the cities, to negate that. The following fights are going to be not only very bloody, but will irreparably damage the infrastructure of the planet you want to capture, and do an immense number of casualties to the civilian population. If that’s what you want, fine I can deliver you that kind of battle, but I think we would both benefit from a more civilized solution.’


Several unintelligible arguments again from outside of what he could see, while Ulric waited patiently, not showing any reaction on is perfect poker face.


Finally, the leaders of the invading forces achieved a consensus ‘I grant you Hegira. Cynthia out.’ was the only answer and after that the comms was cut.
 

Adventwolf

Well-known member
Two Ajax and two Pintos - both already in Luthien. The Ajax are damaged.
Nowhere near enough to justify selling off the few Destroyers the Navy has. One was lightly damaged and the other moderately damaged. If that is enough to constitute selling then the frigates and Cruiser should be sold as well since they took as much if not more damage.
 

paulobrito

Well-known member
Oh, they are not sold because they are too much damaged, in fact, they are sold because the Kuritans are desperate for ships, and the reparations are deemed straightforward. The class just proved is valor, the DCA wants some, and the price/conditions are right.
 

Bear Ribs

Well-known member
For unknown reasons, the HPG network between the Combine and the Concordat stopped working two months later. Ping testing, confirmed the problem was with one of the satellites inside Federated Commonwealth territory. Several months later, a TMI Mryia JumpShip arrived at the location with a replacement, but instead of a dead satellite, and after a very exhaustive search, only found what could only be the result of said satellite self-destruct activation. The consensus, was that the FC escort ship had detected at least that launch, and that a team had been sent to analyze or capture the satellite, causing the explosion. The replacement satellite was placed in a very distant place in the same system, and the network was calibrated. The TMI ship had now the undesirable task of verifying all the nodes of the network inside the Federated Commonwealth territory searching for tampering.
Need to set those sats up with a camera, and have them automatically take pictures of any incoming vessel and HPG said pictures back up the line, so you know who came for the sat.
 

Crazyone47

Active member
You know reading over this.... I think I can get why the clans are ultimately doomed...... They have been playing a game for the past 500 years. The Inner sphere and Periphery have been living through war. That the Clans have superior tech and good circumstances is why they win...... But when the chips are down the Inner Sphere would have eventually overwhelmed the Clans and the few shots hey got in were all devastating.
 
Chapter 98

paulobrito

Well-known member
The Aurigan province of the Concordat had not only fully recovered in late 3056 from the ravages of the civil war, but in many areas had far surpassed its previous status.


All systems had modern hospitals, sufficient food, potable water, and power to ensure a standard of living equal to or higher than Coromodir had in 3023.


The number of JumpShips and DropShips operating within the province was at that time, more than three times any number recorded since before the fall of the Star League, and all systems also had an HPG for the first time ever.






Military equipment production was centered in three systems - Mechdur, Detroit and Coromodir (V), by contrast, civilian industry was fairly spread across all systems in the province.


The shipyard in Mechdur, which at the moment was building Invaders and Pintos, had an ambitious expansion underway, which by 3060, would also allow it to build Ajax class Destroyers (2 slips), and a higher number of Invaders (4 more slips to a total of 8). The construction of Pintos (4 slips) would remain unchanged.


Initially, Kamea had ambitions to build a shipyard on Coromodir V as well, but funds were not and would not be available in a reasonable time frame, and the decision was made to go for a complex capable of building several types of DropShips, civilian and military.






These included a variant of the Leopard (PW1), which had removed the 4 ’Mechs bays and in their place had installed 2 SCL/3s, the first operational use of sub-capital weapons. The remaining armament had also been upgraded - 2xERPPC, 3xLRM20 with Artemis, 7xERML and 5xLPL, the armor now being Ferro-Aluminium and the Heat Sinks being upgraded to double ones. It was a relatively inexpensive Pocket WarShip, which could also be used effectively against ground targets.


Another variant (PW2), kept the advanced weapons and improved armor of the PW1, replacing the two SCL/3s with 4 Arrow IV AAM/SAM launchers and 6 AMS, both with deep magazines, as anti-ASF / escort.


The PW2 variant was ordered in large numbers, as Pocket WarShips, by the Taurian Navy, and after delicate negotiations, by the DCA (Draconis Combine Admiralty - Combine Navy) and the Magistracy Navy. Sales to the Combine and Magistracy were still in C-Bills, and not in Bulls or in their currency. Even, with the fall of Comstar, the C-Bill had not disappeared. At first, there had been theories that Earth would move on to use a currency of its own, perhaps return to the SL Dollar, but the fact was that inertia, huge replacement cost, and weight of large Earth banks, had kept the C-Bill in use for interstellar exchanges, even though it had suffered a devaluation.










Sara, having finished her military service, went on to learn the art of governing from her mother, (unlike me, the 'kid' had a natural knack for it, obviously taking after her mother for that). Meanwhile, the twins had finished the academy and had begun serving the nation, Paul in the Revenants, Peter in the Reach Guards (ex-Aurigan Royal Guards), both ’MechWarriors, and both piloting brand new Penetrators - a gift from relatives. For obvious reasons, they were not both in the same regiment.






The Capelan Confederation announced the commissioning of the first Feng Huang Heavy Cruiser in November, 12 3056. This was the first Capelan Navy WarShip in over 200 years, the Confederation being the last major nation to have WarShips - at this time there was doubt as to how many WarShips the WoB had, estimates ranged from 2 to 4 not knowing how many would be operational and to what extent.


Note: For the sake of cost (and production capacity) even though everything else was the same as the OTL class, the armor is Improved Ferro-Aluminum and not Lamellor Ferro-Carbide.






To compensate for having only one WarShip, the Capelan Navy has a robust program on Pocket WarShips, DropShips-CV and ASF, even if it was at the cost of reducing the ground forces substantially.






This slow reinforcement of forces was possible because Aerospace Fighters had become the main weapons against WarShips but at huge human cost making it impossible to maintain a continuous offensive because of the shortage of pilots and Fighters, even with the extension of all academies and priority on construction. That was the reason behind the actual lull in operations against the Clans, after the recent activities in Luthien and Twycross and some relatively small raids from the Vipers and the Bears. For now, the best estimates was that the number of ASFs in the front line was going to be enough for new offensives by mid 57 – that is if the Clans didn’t launch big operations of their own.
 

Adventwolf

Well-known member
Not like the Clans can counter attack. They have taken far too much damage far to quickly. They need to get replacements from the Homeworlds and they need to elect new Khans. Very few Clans made it out of the fight intact. And those that did are too few to act on their own. Right now is a time to recuperate and that the IS can do much faster than the Clans.
 

Billyking11

New member
Not like the Clans can counter attack. They have taken far too much damage far to quickly. They need to get replacements from the Homeworlds and they need to elect new Khans. Very few Clans made it out of the fight intact. And those that did are too few to act on their own. Right now is a time to recuperate and that the IS can do much faster than the Clans.
It has some similarity with Germany vs the Soviet union with germany having elite troops with superior equipment but long supply line and the soviet union shorter supply line and able to pump up almost endless men and war materials
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top