So, I was anticipating another chapter of combat on Sevren, but I got a surprise instead.
Chapter 24
Landing, Sevren, Sevren System,
Tamar Domains, Tamar Pact, Lyran Commonwealth
January 24th, 3016
I sat onboard the
Implacable and watched as Archduke Kelswa’s ‘secret project’ marched off their Dropships to an ecstatically cheering crowd.
“Well, at least the citizenry is happy,” Julia said. For the moment, the exterior cameras were relaying a better shot than the news cameras were, and much of the Warriors’ leadership had congregated to watch.
She was right. The civilians of the newly liberated world were almost out of their minds with glee as Battlemechs, first a Griffin, then a Vulcan, stepped out of their landed Union. They’d have been happy enough to see a strong permanent garrison arriving anyway.
That the massive war machines were painted in the iconic orange with black stripes of the 1st Tamar Hussars in their full parade-ground finery as the newly reformed unit stepped onto the public stage for the first time in two-hundred and fifteen years …
If Colonel Weintraub hadn’t been notified ahead of time so that he could have his entire roster of MPs and a full regiment of regular infantry to backstop them, the people would have flooded into the streets in an attempt to get close enough to touch them.
From a PR perspective, it was about as perfect as the propagandists could hope for. A Lyran world reclaimed welcoming an icon returned from the dustbin of history.
Much better than green Mechwarriors tripping over their own feet trying to stop and crushing a bunch of civilians into paste.
“They’d be a lot less happy if they knew just how green their ‘valiant defenders’ were,” Rowdy opined.
“They’re nowhere near ready to deploy,” Jimmy agreed.
“Gotta get experience somewhere,” Foehammer disagreed, the grey-haired man really didn’t look much like his daughters. Both of the twins really favored their mom in looks and build, but they’d definitely inherited their old man’s love of Battlemechs. “With the Jägers being stationed here for the time being, they’ll have a good opposition force to train against, and the Combine doesn’t look like they’re going to be back any time soon. Not with three regiments on world for the next few months.”
It was a fair point. There was a reason the 8th Donegal Guard was staying for at least the next six months, and it wasn’t because the Archon had reliable regiments to spare.
“I was talking to Colonel Shaw a few days ago. He mentioned he’d been lobbying for a second Jägers regiment,” Meidlin mentioned.
“It would’ve been cheaper, that’s for sure,” I agreed, “and Shaw’s developed good doctrine for most terrain.” It was easy to underestimate the Jägers, but their force mixture made them a surprisingly dangerous threat.
Really Kelswa had overreached himself, spending long-hoarded favors and Kroner with abandon to amass the Battlemechs and pilots needed for a full regiment. He’d have been much better served if he’d listened to Colonel Shaw and added a second regiment to the Tamar Jägers, instead. Not only would it have eased training concerns by giving him a broader cadre to draw from. It would have left him with at least some reserve of Mechs and trained and experienced Mechwarriors and the capacity to maintain those reserves.
On paper, he had the capability to buy 36 Mechs a year. In reality, even just buying Vulcans at 3.5 million C-bills each, that would be 126 million C-bills. Since they were both House rather than LCAF units, that money was coming out of Kelswa’s pocket rather than the Archduchy’s as a whole. That wasn’t chump change, and it wasn’t sustainable. Laying hands on good Mechwarriors in quantity was, if anything, harder,.
Actually, since the formation seemed to favor the heavier side of the medium weight bracket, he had probably spent more than 150 million C-bills for each battalion. Even counting the battalion of ‘Mechs he’d reassigned from the Jägers, that was 300 million C-bills or so spent in two years. Considering the actual buying power of a C-bill, that was more like three
billion dollars.
And that was just part of the equipment cost!
I took a deep breath and then let it out slowly, the conversation continuing unheeded.
I was getting way too irritated over something that wasn’t any of my business. Mostly because I was still unhappy with how things had ended here on Sevren.
What it came down to was that we’d done our job too well. While my Command Lance was linking up with Devil Company near the defense line, and First Battalion was taking up their own positions to the left of the road, the DCMS were falling back under cover of the wildfire.
They’d really sold it with their aerospace assets. With Slayers and Shilones acting like they were flying top cover for an advance, my air crews hadn’t wanted to poke their noses into a hornets’ nest of anti-aircraft fire when they couldn’t even see the ground for the smoke. And I hadn’t overruled them.
So the first indications we’d gotten that the Combine was pulling out was when their Dropships boosted for orbit.
It was a hell of an anticlimax. They’d even been able to secure enough jumpships to carry their remaining conventional regiments away. All the 8th Donegal had managed to round up were some militia.
I shrugged to loosen up my shoulders, which I’d been hunching. Even thinking about it made me irritable, but it wasn’t like we’d gotten nothing out of the deal. Our paymaster was pleased with our performance; even if we hadn’t managed to lure the Combine regiments into a decisive battle, we’d still taken down two battalions of Battlemechs and account for two regiments of the Combine’s better conventional forces. The way things worked out, it wasn’t like the Dragon was going to be getting much in the way of salvage back either.
Kelswa got a planet back, relieved some of the pressure on Tamar, and put the critical factories on Sudeten three jumps from the front. Now the Lyran Regulars would probably be enough to defend the planet, since there was time for another regiment to rally to the sound of the guns in the event they were attacked.
It would also allow Colonel Shaw and the Jägers to be deployed alongside the newly reformed Tigers. That might be enough to keep them from the sort of initial setbacks that the Jägers themselves had suffered on Memmingen.
Besides, with our performance, the Warriors were almost certain to get our Elite rating back from the MRB, and the boost to our reputation for having gotten the better of the Teak Dragon would almo-
The communications officer burst into the small lounge I and the rest of my senior officers had been watching the parade from, a look of alarm on her face.
“The Combine just hit Volders!”
Aaaaand that was the sound of the other shoe dropping.
XXXXX
Outbound from Sevren, Sevren System,
Tamar Domains, Tamar Pact, Lyran Commonwealth
January 26th, 3016
The Bad Dream had been holding down the garrison on Volders, and, according to reports, were well prepared when the 17th Rasalhague Regulars landed. Amusingly, given how the unit was formed, they even managed to lure the 17th’s ASF wing into a two-pronged attack from above and below.
Using their experience working for the Combine in decades past, the Bad Dream guessed that the Combine would focus on their Battlemechs. So they painted a Battalion of militia vehicles in the Bad Dream’s colors and deployed their real air defense vehicles under camouflage well ahead of their lines, then dragged the air engagement over them.
The air defense radar on a single Partisan could feed targeting data to a company, and the Bad Dream possessed a Lance of them.
The result was the Combine taking nearly three squadrons of losses in exchange for only a squadron of downed Lyran assets.
Which was a good thing, because barely twenty-four hours after the 17th made landfall, the 7th Sword of Light and the 9th Rasalhague jumped in system.
Outnumbered three to one, the Bad Dream would likely have come to a bad end if they hadn’t taken such a bite out of the Combine’s ASF assets. As it was, they were forced to depart, but got away with few losses.
Effectively, we’d traded one planet for another, but for once the Lyrans seemed to have come out ahead on the deal. The only negative, cutting off one of the three safe routes to Kobe, was more than balanced out by the reclamation of the easiest route to Tamar. That’s certainly how Lyran media was spinning the conflict.
Still, the Combine would be claiming that victory as well, probably by exaggerating how much damage they’d done to my command’s Lostech equipment.
Either way, both the LCAF and DCMS would be consolidating for some time, months at least. That meant our contract, which had included remaining in place in the event of a counterattack, was complete.
So we were headed to Tharkad. I was really not looking forward to that at all. We’d gotten a message that the Archon had arranged a Command Circuit for us. It was a great honor, and I was probably going to need to be put in an induced coma to keep from literally throwing up my own stomach.
It was going to be an interesting couple weeks.
XXXXX
Approaching the Zenith Point, Sevren System,
Tamar Domains, Tamar Pact, Lyran Commonwealth
January 31st, 3016
It had been an interesting few weeks.
Julia tapped on her desk as she tried to finish up her reports. Aunt Katrina had asked for her thoughts on both the strengths and weaknesses of the TDR-6S. Honestly, that one was mostly complete, but she was trying to go beyond the basics.
It was easy to forget in the wake of finally making ‘Mech Ace, but they wouldn’t have even survived to make landfall if not for how well Weber's modified Centurions had performed.
So she was also writing a report on the Warriors’ ASFs. Even with spending time each day talking to the pilots and techs in the
Implacable’s Aerospace quarters, she still felt out of her depth.
Still, she was learning, and if the numbers didn’t seem quite right to her -ten tons of armor! A third of the ASF’s mass!- she couldn’t argue with the results. Weber’s ASF Wing had accounted for more than their fair share of kills against the Dracs, and they’d done it without taking a single loss in return.
No wonder that the records of SLDF kit seemed almost magical! She could see the necessary tradeoffs in the designs, but the envelope was so much further out than the current state of the art’s compromises between mobility, firepower, armor, and heat curve. For example, she would put Gungnir up against anything in the Heavyweight bracket one on one. Frankly, if she was on her game, she could possibly take two ‘standard’ -5S Thunderbolts with him, although that would be tricky.
The most intensive repairs the Warriors’ ASFs needed were a pair of engine replacements. Since they were XLFEs, that was expensive and the parts were only available on Catachan, but it was so much quicker and cheaper than replacing a whole squadron of birds, which is what the 8th Donegal was going to need to do. For that matter the Jägers were down to two ASFs total after the engagement.
How many times over the Succession Wars had the Commonwealth lost Dropships full of men and material because of their poor Aerospace showing? She didn’t know, but she was willing to bet that it had happened more often than she’d like. She made a note to emphasize that in her report for Aunt Katrina and LCAF High Command.
She glared at where she was stuck for the moment, lacking the proper terminology to describe what she wanted to convey.
Checking the time, she switched back over to the Thunderbolt report and tweaked a couple phrases, then moved one paragraph to improve the flow. She gave it a final read and clarified a point in the training recommendations section before saving and closing the document.
It was closing in on eleven hundred hours, so she made her way up to where the Aerospace officers would be grabbing lunch. Lieutenant Anderson had told her that Captain Richthofen would be better able to answer some of the more technical questions, so she was hoping to find him today.
Sure enough, the man was precisely where she’d been told to expect him, tucked away in a corner of the cramped mess catching an early lunch. She grabbed a sandwich before heading over to the table.
“Captain Richthofen?” She asked politely as an opening gambit, concentrating on reading the man’s mood.
The pilot looked up from his meal and grimaced.
“Hell, what’d they break now?” he demanded sourly.
“Ah, nothing that I know of?” She responded, then continued before she could stop herself. “Is that a frequent problem?” She inquired, reminding herself that intelligence was vital for success.
“They’re
pilots,” Richthofen explained, “I swear, if they aren’t getting in trouble for ruining a flight suit today it’s only because they’re plotting how to break something ten times as expensive tomorrow.”
“Well,” Julia temporized, “they’ve been quite helpful to me so far, but I’m looking for some specifics about the Centurion’s performance that Lieutenant Anderson didn’t know the answers to. He referred me to you for the details,” she elaborated.
“You’re writing a report on our Centurions?”
“Yes,” Julia stated simply, sensing that the man wasn’t one for coddling or bullshit. “It’s going up to Asgard. With luck it will get listened to there. We could use the improvement in our ASF mix.”
“And you like them?”
“
Yes,” she repeated, hiding her aggravation with the long experience of the shark tank of dynastic politics.
Richthofen grinned.
“Pull up a seat, Hauptmann,” he said, indicating the chair opposite his own. “I’ll be glad to give you a hand. On one condition.
“Tell me, what do you know about the Stingray F-90S?”
And that was how Julia found herself writing
three reports.
XXXXX
Nadir Point, Tharkad System,
Protectorate of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth
February 4th, 3016
Twelve jumps in four days had been enough to keep even Julia, who’d never had so much as a flicker of TDS, from sleeping well. So it was with tired eyes that she worked to put some polish on ‘her’ third report.
She had been briefly pulled away to handle the necessary paperwork for the crates of winter dress uniforms that had been waiting for them, courtesy of LCAF Quartermaster Corps and Aunt Katrina. Judging by the wool and fur in the crate that she had inspected, the Archon planned to introduce Weber to the snake pit that was the Triad. Julia knew where her aunt and mother sourced some of their favorite winter dresses and the fabric was quite distinctive. At least the new uniforms meant that it was unlikely that anyone would freeze to death if another blizzard moved in. Well, so long as it was only a light snowfall. No more than one and a half meters or so.
Thankfully, Captain Richthofen was both willing and able to recite the shortcomings of the LCAF’s ‘official mutilation’ of his favorite ASF at length. Otherwise, she’d never have had time to get it to even a semi-completed state so quickly. The man had quite good points about the vibration problems of the autocannon replacing the PPC while supplying less firepower. That made up for the need to polish the wording and remove some of the more colorful ‘observations’ about LCAF Procurement during the burn in. Besides, she knew for a fact that General Schmitt’s tastes for companionship ran toward Canopian pleasure circuses rather than terrorizing barnyards.
“What do you think about moving the section on the nose structural members up to here,” she suggested. “If it’s really such a major issue for extending the life of the airframe, we should give it more emphasis.”
Richthofen grimaced as he set his coffee bulb to drifting near the desk.
“Yes, it’s an important point, but I think it works better to support pulling the autocannon in favor of a PPC rather than the other way around,” he said.
Julia wasn’t sure she agreed, but she was willing to admit that Richthofen knew his audience better than she did. Also he was a pilot, and she was not going to joggle the elbow of an expert in his field. She would ensure that the report reached the eyes of people who could judge his thoughts better than she could, which was what was needed to make any significant changes.
Any sort of issue that inflicted unnecessary metal fatigue on the frame of a Battlemech would definitely demand attention from Mechwarriors well aware that part of their prestige was passing down their ‘Mech to their descendants. Maybe the innate fragility of an ASF altered the calculus.
“Doesn’t matter a hill of beans if you solve a generational problem only to create a weakness that’ll see it shot down in its next engagement,” he explained, confirming her diagnosis. “Better to make the point about a PPC’s additional damage being more valuable than lower heat production now that freezers are available again.
“Then, support that point with the argument for decreased wear and tear on the frame and the removal of the magazine easing logistical concerns. And the removal of any chance for a golden BB to cause an ammo explosion.”
“Jawohl, that makes sense,” she agreed as she made the suggested changes to the draft. Suddenly Captain Chapman’s voice came over the loudspeakers.
“Prepare for transition to thrust gravity,” she announced. “Next destination, Tharkad. Estimated arrival in orbit: seven days.”
It would be nice to be able to get some uninterrupted sleep, but as Liaison Officer Julia was responsible for communications between the Warriors and the LCAF, and there were certainly going to be enough of them. Plus politics were about to rear their ugly head once more in her life. Unlike the Rasalhague Regulars or the Teak Dragon, she couldn’t just shoot these foes in the face with cluster rounds. Even if she truly wanted to more often than not.
XXXXX
Inbound from Nadir Point, Tharkad System,
Protectorate of Donegal, Lyran Commonwealth
February 11th, 3016
Coming out of my induced coma was the best I’d ever felt after a dozen Jumps. Considering that I’d finally woken up two days after the jump, and I was still feeling a bit muzzy for the third, well …
Still, I’d had several days worth of paperwork to catch up on, and Julia had been kind enough to drop by and warn me that the delivery of heavy woolen and actual fur uniforms meant that the Archon intended to welcome us at the Triad.
I’d finally gotten confirmation of that when ground control finalized our landing pad: a military base in the shadow of Mount Wotan where the Star League era fortress of Asgard was located.
After touching down and the initial security sweep by the First Royals, we were finally allowed to head out towards the imposing edifice.
I was instantaneously thankful for the cold weather gear. The Holdfast was way up on the side of a mountain, but it was damn near on the equator and a tropical cloud forest was a much different beast than an arctic tundra.
If they had been using old-fashioned thermometers, I was half convinced that the mercury in the bottom would’ve been frozen.
Most of the troops and crewing the
Implacable had been sent to Tharkad City where hotel rooms and generous expense accounts awaited them, but Julia and I had been requested for a debrief along with whoever among my senior officers might have something to contribute.
Since I’d left Foehammer to ride herd on my other four Dropships for the return trip to Catachan and Sammy wasn’t really comfortable as a Captain, that meant Meidlin Levy. Even I wasn’t crazy enough to take Richthofen within screaming range of anyone important in the Lyran Aerospace Corps.
It helped that I was fully conversant on what our Centurions could do, so I could cover that if asked.
The trip to Asgard made me grateful for heaters, because I was no longer acclimated to winters in the northern Great Plains. When we arrived…
Okay, I was impressed. The underground works on Catachan had seemed pretty impressive to me, but when you drove into a mountain through a cavernous passageway meant to allow a Lance of Assault Mechs to march abreast of each other, well that was on an entirely different scale.
My sense of direction was pretty good, but by the time we’d driven for at least fifteen minutes then walked for another ten, I was thoroughly lost.
Which is why I was surprised when we were ushered through another secure door and found ourselves face to face with the Archon and another woman who clearly shared the Steiner appearance. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, but unlike the Archon seemed to disdain makeup entirely compared to Katrina’s subtle but effective usage.
She also bore a General’s rank insignia and her eyes were intent.
Meidlin and Julia popped into reflexive salutes. I, on the other hand, wasn’t under contract nor technically a subject yet as the ruler of a neutral planet, so protocol was a bit more complicated.
“Archon Steiner, General Steiner,” I said with a bow. “Thank you for the invitation and the heavy uniforms. I enjoyed not picking up any frostbite on the way to the car.” That appeared to be enough to remind Captain Levy that she wasn’t a member of the Walking Hellfire anymore and in my peripheral vision I saw her blushing, though she held the salute.
Fortunately for her blood pressure, Katrina simply returned the salutes, then extended a hand.
“That was good work on Sevren,” she said as we shook hands. “A very professional job on the Rasalhague Regulars, and no matter what the Voice of the Dragon is saying it isn’t often that a regiment of the Sword of Light cuts and runs.”
I shrugged, peripherally noting Julia call the brunette general ‘Aunt Nondi.’
“My people were enthusiastic to get some of their own back from the Teak Dragon. I won’t say we paid them back in full, but we assuredly cut down on the interest owed.”
Between what we’d done to their recon battalion and their aerospace wing, we’d actually more than equaled the losses they’d inflicted on the Warriors my Grandfather had led, but the inconclusive end to the fight just wasn’t emotionally satisfying.
“There was more to this than just revenge,” she stated, eyes focused and intent. “You had a plan going into this operation.”
“Yeah,” I agreed, “Nothing nefarious, but yes. There’s only so much testing you can do of new doctrine in exercises.”
That drew reactions. Nondi seemed sceptical but Katrina looked interested. The Archon leaned forward and met my gaze.
“It’s the extra speed, isn’t it?” she demanded, and Nondi’s expression smoothed out.
“Yeah,” I agreed, “It isn’t a major factor now, but once we’ve got wide-spread implementation of XLFEs, the entire paradigm is going to change. If nothing else, eventually the Dracs will steal some or manage to reverse engineer some salvage. How would you like to face a Dragon that’s armed with a PPC and an LRM-15, and carries almost as much armor as a Thunderbolt? Because they could do it,” I asserted.
“We’ll need to write the manual of employing fast units with both heavy weapon loads and heavy armor, if vulnerable side-torsos, then learn how to beat units operating with doctrine based on that manual. We’ve had five years, and Captain Levy’s done a good job, at least in my humble opinion, in forming an effective playbook. But we needed to test it. Find out what weaknesses needed shoring up and what strengths we could build on.”
“That alone might be worth elevating you to a Dukedom,” Katrina said, “assuming Sevren wasn’t a one-off success.”
I shrugged.
“We’ve run through a lot of hydrogen and training rounds testing it. One thing I can tell you is that good long-range gunnery is an essential element. Advanced Neurohelmets and targeting systems help there, but exercises in field conditions are really the only thing that can build enough experience.”
“Those get awfully expensive very quickly.”
“As expensive as replacing Battlemechs and Mechwarriors? Especially these Battlemechs?”
Katrina raised her hand: a fencer acknowledging a strike.
“And what is this doctrine you’ve developed?” she inquired.
“We’re calling the type of regiment a Harquebusier Regiment, after Gustavus Adolphus’s Swedish Light Cavalry.
“The first step is aggressive scouting and scout hunting. The objective is to put out an enemy’s eyes, either by destroying all his scouts or by forcing them to stay close to supporting forces. The second element is artillery with a Battlemech’s mobility, and scouts trained to call the shots for them, fast and accurate. Once the scouts are suppressed, use rapid hit-and-fade artillery strikes to draw out enemy forces. If artillery, counterbattery it. If aerospace forces, intercept them, if ground forces, isolate and obliterate.
“Deny the enemy information, deny him cohesion, then once he is disordered, defeat him. It doesn’t matter how fragile our side torsos are if the enemy starts the decisive engagement with half-stripped armor from artillery barrages they can’t reply to.”
“And what if your enemy just prepares defenses and sits inside them, forces you to come to them?” Katrina asked.
I smiled.
“Then they’re ceding the initiative. I can think of perhaps one Combine officer with the moral courage to do that, and stick to it while my forces destroy every useful bit of military infrastructure on the rest of the planet. The bigger potential problem is an enemy officer aggressive enough to reason that my artillery can’t be fast enough to outrun him. The Combine fields much more light hardware than we do. Some of their regiments have enough fast ‘Mechs to try to swarm and overwhelm our Mediums. That, however, is where our Heavies come into play. Place them in good terrain and lead the enemy force to them. Anything light enough to keep up with the retreating Mediums isn’t going to be heavy enough to withstand a strong counterpunch. And if they’re smart enough to try to close quickly and overwhelm our foothold on a world …
“Well, that’s what Assault ‘Mechs are for.”
“And how do you counter that strategy?” Katrina asked.
“That’s a work in progress. With conventional forces? Lots of ASFs and artillery or with minimum three to one odds and responding to your scouts contact reports with Wing-strength ASF strikes.”
The Archon smiled and started trying to poke holes in my arguments.
XXXXX
Hours later, we reconvened after a short break for an informal supper. Captain Levy had talked herself practically hoarse, and I wasn’t far behind her.
“Alright, that wasn’t the discussion I expected to be having when you arrived, but I can’t say it wasn’t productive,” Katrina said lightly before her gaze turned more serious and her voice grew formal.
“General Steiner and I have conferred and, assuming your intentions haven’t changed, we agree. Once you’ve been sworn in the LCAF will accept Weber’s Warriors as the First Catachan Harquebusiers, and Harquebusier Regiments will be the official designation of units ascribing to the doctrine you’ve outlined.”
I bowed formally in return.
“I’m honored by the trust,” I replied.
“You’ll have time to refine doctrine and structure,” General Steiner said from beside her older sister, “it’ll be at least a decade before we can form more units like yours.”
It appeared, for the moment at least, that she was done playing Bad Cop.
“Back to the original itinerary for this debrief, then,” Katrina cut in before we could head back down the Harquebusiers rabbit hole. “Julia, what’s your opinion of the TDR-6S after seeing its performance in live combat?”
Julia stepped forward and placed a ROM on the conference table.
“Ma’am, I have a full report, but if I might summarize?” she requested. Katrina nodded and Nondi appeared to be hiding an actual smile. “Then permission to speak freely?”
“Granted, Julia.”
“He’s a sweet ride, and Olivetti and the CAC got damn near everything right on the first try,” Julia said with a broad grin. “Much as I loved my first
Gungnir, the positives far outweigh the negatives, and it puts my old Zeus to shame.
“The only problem it has is an issue with the Gyro adjustment to handle an arm-mounted autocannon as opposed to the Sunglow laser array that means you need to lean into the LB-10X when it fires, but Olivetti Weaponry is aware of the issue and they’re working on a fix. They say they should have a software update that will compensate for the recoil fully before the end of the year.”
“And it doesn’t significantly impair accuracy for the autocannon or mobility?” General Steiner asked.
“Aunt Nondi, I scored two kills outright against the Rasalhague Regulars with headshots and gave the Coup de Grace on two more with cluster rounds. You can safely say that accuracy is unimpaired and the firepower increase is significant. As for mobility, once you get used to the motion, the recoil actually makes it easier to torso twist and put the right side of the ‘Mech out of the line of fire.”
“Hard to argue with the results,” Katrina said, “and if I’m not mistaken, that means you finally made Ace as well. Congratulations!”
“Thank you, Aunt Katrina,” Julia said with a grin before continuing with her report. “That isn’t the most significant finding, though. There’s one more significant item that we discovered by accident that made a very significant difference on the battlefield at Sevren. I requested that my ‘Mech be transferred here, if I may have leave to demonstrate it?”
One of Katrina’s sculpted eyebrows climbed up her forehead.
“Oh? How very mysterious,” she said as she pushed herself up out of the chair with a small smile. She walked over to a phone on the wall and picked it up. Someone must have been waiting on the other end.
“Has Hauptmann Steiner’s Thunderbolt been transferred on-site?” she inquired quickly. Seeming to get a positive answer, she listened for a moment and then confirmed, “Testing chamber three? Thank you, Staff Sergeant.”
Two elevator rides and a short walk later, Julia peeled off to climb inside
Gungnir while the rest of us rode another elevator up to an armored box attached to the ceiling of a cavernous room. Even my Banshee could have stood inside it with room to spare.
Nondi and Katrina both took notice of the slabs of Bar-10 armor at the end of the room in the target area and the autocannon hooked up to a test rig. While we waited for Julia to finish prepping her ‘Mech, I got started with the explanation for what they were about to see.
“The gun on the test bench there is a spare Mk. II Vindicator from my stores, and it’s present to serve as a benchmark, because you wouldn’t believe what you’re about to see without proof. We certainly didn’t.”
“Very mysterious,” Nondi replied with an old-fashioned look, but before the conversation could proceed any further, Julia walked
Gungnir into the test chamber. The techs working the gun bench double checked the LB-10X one last time, and vacated the area.
Once they were under cover, the 95mm cannon fired three times in quick succession, scarring the armor panels set in place as a target. Then Julia leaned into her own Vindicator and opened fire.
The contrast was easily visible even from the armor box. Though the armor plate was identical and so were the weapons and ammunition, Julia’s salvo had punched a hole through the armor slab while the bench test had ‘merely’ blown a deep crater in it.
It was clear that the Archon and her sister had both noticed it as well.
“What the hell?” Nondi demanded as she stared at the display.
If that wasn’t my cue …
“It’s a case of a set of systems functioning as more than the sum of their parts,” I explained, and immediately had the attention of the younger Steiner sibling.
“Alone, the Mark II down there causes as much damage as a normal Ack ten, but when paired with the superior SLDF-era Augur Array targeting and tracking system built into a -6S and an Advanced SLDF Neurohelmet, it actually does a consistent twenty percent more damage than a standard Class Ten autocannon. Call it a Class Twelve weapon. It-”
Katrina, still looking down at the display, interrupted me.
“Its grouping is tighter so the shell impacts are more destructive,” she said before turning to join the conversation fully. “It can manage that consistently over its range?”
I gestured back down at the demonstration.
“Those three impact locations could all fit under a nine-inch pie plate,” I told her. “In the process of figuring out exactly why
every headshot scored with a Vindicator at the Battle of Juniper Springs was a lethal one, we reconstructed the hit locations Julia scored on a Lancelot’s head. Even from beyond six kilometers, the grouping remained consistent.”
Nondi whistled, but Katrina’s posture stiffened as she looked over the BattleRom footage downloaded from Julia’s ‘Mech.
“You mean to say that your Vindicator can consistently destroy both intact head armor and structural elements on a Battlemech?”
“We were six for six at Juniper Springs. It’s what made us look into why we were getting the odd results. But it only works if you’ve got all three pieces of equipment. Remove the neurohelmet from the equation and the recoil compensation isn’t fine enough. Remove the Augur Array and the target tracking isn’t precise enough. Presumably the same with the gun itself, since one of its selling points is the fact it’s accurate out to PPC range.
“Even if the Combine were to salvage one of the new Thuds with all three systems intact, they wouldn’t be able to maintain the capability because they’d start losing Mechwarriors after a few hours. They can’t reset the neurohelmet, and the problems with it only get worse the more people you have wear the damn thing. After about the third person that put it on, the Mechwarrior wouldn’t last an hour. With all the contaminated neural pattern data, they’d be more a danger to their allies than the enemy.”
“Oh, that definitely wasn’t a complaint,” Katrina said. “Though it does make me almost regret giving Julia the one I bought personally.”
“Well, you can’t have him back, Aunt Katrina,” the aforementioned woman said from the door of the room, a wide grin on her face and her neurohelmet in her hands. “Though thanks again for him!”
“Besides, you haven’t seen what Olivetti will be able to do do with a Warhammer yet,” I supplied.
“I suppose I’ll reserve judgement, then,” Katrina agreed.
XXXXX
A/N: Thanks again to Seraviel, Lordsfire, and Yellowhammer for beta reading, idea bouncing, and canon compliance checking. This chapter is vastly improved by their efforts.
