Chapter 25 – The Marauders
15 July 3015
Fort Freezerburn, Kobe
Lyran Commonwealth
"Natasha," Joshua called out as Natasha oversaw her Marauder being loaded into the Dropship. "Glad I caught you before you took off."
"Joshua, I know our relationship is an open secret by now with the Dragoons," Natasha replied. "But I think openly 'making out' as the Spheroids call it would still be bad for discipline."
"What? No, I'm not here about that," Joshua almost spluttered, causing Natasha to laugh. "I think you have been hanging around Spheroids too long."
"Look who is talking," Natasha replied, amused. "So what did you come here to talk to me about?"
"The Dragoons have managed to acquire some of the new Gauss Rifles that the Lyrans have started mass producing," Joshua told her. "Our techs have looked at them and confirmed that they are close enough in performance to the ones in our 'special inventory'" that was code that the Clan born Dragoons used to refer to their store of Clan tech weaponry and equipment, "that Jaime has decided that it is safe to start upgrading our mechs with certain specific classes of weaponry. Anyone who takes a good look at its guts will realize it wasn't made in any Lyran factory, but no one is going to question its performance on the battlefield."
"Joshua, you are sounding too much like an Inner Sphere lawyer," Natasha told him witheringly. "What does that even mean in plain English?"
"We can upgrade your Marauder with one of the Gauss Rifles from home," Joshua replied. "That should free up enough tonnage for the Jump Jets you have been wanting to install with no firepower reduction at all."
"That would have been nicer to know if I had time to upgrade my mech before we lift off in a few hours," Natasha said crossly. "Now I'll have to wait until I get back before the upgrade can be done. Unless you can get the new Gauss Rifle on board before we leave?"
"Unfortunately, no," Joshua admitted. "They are all still on board the Athena in storage. And the Lyran samples we bought have all been claimed by Zeta Battalion already."
"Of course they have," Natasha said dryly. "Well, I guess I have something to look forward to when I get back."
"Speaking of which," Joshua said, changing the subject, "Jaime wants to know if you'll be joining him and Ellen for the trip to Terra."
"Of course not," Natasha replied with a laugh. "Do not get me wrong, I like Duncan and Candace. They have warrior spirits. But a Freebir... born wedding ceremony? I cannot think of anything more guaranteed to bore me to death. At least out here, I will be fighting someone even if it is just more of these 'bug swarms'." Natasha turned thoughtful. "I should probably send Duncan a gift though, something to show him how proud I am at how far he has come. And I think I know just the thing."
10 November 3015
Hilton Head, Terra
Sol System
Captain General Duncan Marik burst out in uproarious laughter upon seeing Major Kerensky's gift, and his new wife had a wide grin as well. Most of their guests though were just confused, wondering what the meaning was of a turkey statue carved from purple crystal with big neon green crosshairs painted all over it.
30 July 3015
Thun
Draconis Combine
The Draconis Combine had been using the planet Thun as a staging base for raids into the Lyran Commonwealth. The Lyrans in turn had sent small merc outfits, lance and company sized units, to scout out the world to identify vulnerabilities and annoy the local DCMS commander. Those merc units may have been small, but they were pretty good, at least the ones that survived long enough to report their findings in.
They finally reported that the local commander had sent the bulk of his forces outsystem on more raids on lightly defended worlds. Of course, he wasn't a total fool. The DCMS commander kept enough forces home to protect his sensitive areas from the mercs already on planet.
And that was where Natasha and her Black Widow Battalion came in. They added enough elite forces on planet to defeat the remaining garrisons, destroy supply depots, mech hangars, and other facilities that the Combine raiders needed to keep operating, and now it was time to bug out before the angry raiders came home.
Natasha wouldn't call it a "retreat". It was a strategic withdrawal. She had already done what she had come to Thun for, and hanging around just for the sake of fighting enemies that she didn't have to was the height of stupidity... no matter how much Natasha itched to fight for the sake of fighting.
Oh, and Natasha and split up her command, breaking her battalion into company sized units in order to hit three separate locations almost at the same time. It was risky, but Natasha thrived on risk. Of course, it also meant that there were already-on-planet enemy forces unaccounted because some of them had run off to reinforce one facility only to have the facility they'd just left come under attack behind them, so no one knew exactly where they were at the moment.
Natasha's Able Company came across a bridge crossing a deep ravine. Using the bridge was risky as it would leave her company vulnerable if they were attacked while crossing it. But it was the only route back to their Dropships unless Natasha wanted to take a long winding detour using narrow switch backs going into and out of the ravine. The merc company Natasha was working it went ahead to scout the other side, using their jumpjets to cross the gap without using the bridge. Watching them easily go down and come back up steep slopes that her own jump jetless mechs couldn't manage, Natasha resolved once again to equip her entire battalion with jump jets. They might be dead weight to her when the shooting starts, but they looked incredibly convenient for getting around terrain obstacles.
"Major Kerensky, this side is clear," the other merc leader informed her. "Come on across."
"Understood, we are on our way," Natasha replied.
As she and her Able Company crossed the bridge, Natasha reflected on the other merc leader. He was one of those Inner Sphere celebrity mechwarriors, the kind who used ridiculous theatrics to increase their renown, like hiding his identity and using a pseudonym to give himself an air of mystery. Still, this "Bounty Hunter" was pretty good mechwarrior despite all that, and he'd even invited Natasha to join his crew. But Natasha had declined; she was a Dragoon through and through.
"By the way, Major Kerensky," the Bounty Hunter added. "I would have loved to have you in my crew. I might even have handed you this armor and title. But since you refused, I guess I'll have to settle for taking a little souvenir of our working relationship."
Before Natasha could ask the Bounty Hunter what he meant, the bridge exploded under her and her Able Company.
15 August 3015
Fort Freezerburn, Kobe
Lyran Commonwealth
"...and he did not just kill my people," Natasha was ranting again, "the little dishonorable dezgra surat took our mechs as well!"
"We have lodged a complaint with the MRB," Joshua told her. "I do not expect much though. Apparently this Bounty Hunter has pulled stunts like this before."
"Oh, you have lodged a complaint," Natasha echoed mockingly. "I do not want to complain. I want to exterminate the little surat!"
"I suppose this is a bad time to tell you that the Bounty Hunter has been seen driving a brand new Marauder?" Joshua told her.
"YES."
"Natasha, if it will make you feel better, I've given shoot on sight orders for the Bounty Hunter," Jaime told her. "We will certainly never work with him again, even if our current or future employers are using him."
"Why was he employed by the Lyrans at all," Natasha demanded.
"The Lyrans are hiring every mercenary they can," Joshua answered. He strugged. "Even ones with dodgy reputations. The Combine has them that worried."
"We should definitely do our homework on these small units though," Jaime said thoughtfully. "We don't want another incident like this."
"On the plus side, Natasha, we already have a replacement mech for you," Joshua said brightly. "We were using it as a mixed technology test bed, nut it seems like the perfect fit for your needs.
"What is it?" Natasha asked, her anger simmering down to a low boil as the topic moved away from the Bounty Hunter.
"You are going to love it, Natasha," Joshua continued. "It is almost identical to your old mech, except with more armor jump jets!"
"Joshua," Natasha said warningly. "What is it?"
"It is a Marauder II," Jaime answered for his brother.
"Stravag," Natasha cursed under her breath. "A hundred tonner? Jaime, Joshua, you both know how I feel about slow assaults. These Inner Sphere heavies are already on the slow side for me. I might as well be one of those Lyran Great Tortoises in a one hundred ton slug."
"Not as slow as you think," Joshua assured her. "As I said, this Marauder II was being used as a test bed. We got our hands on some of that Lyran enhanced triple strength myomer, the one that stays on all the time, and installed it on this Marauder II. So in theory, this Marauder II should have all the same performance characteristics as your old Marauder, but with more armor and the ability to jump."
"In theory?" Natasha echoed skeptically.
16 August 3015
Kincaid Testing Grounds, Hesperus II
Lyran Commonwealth
The Superheavy LAM – or SLAM as the engineers were calling it – launched from the orbital station's shuttle bay and descended towards the planet Hesperus II. It's fusion engine, a common off-the-shelf model commonly used by shuttlecraft that was modified to fit the SLAM's unique geometry, fired to both kill its orbital velocity and slow its descent velocity so that it didn't enter atmosphere too fast and get torn apart by air resistance.
The pilot had to be especially careful here because the unlike the original Star League designed LAMs, the SLAM didn't transform as such. It's limbs didn't fold in tight against the body, but hung loose. It was unaerodynamic as hell, but it saved tonnage on what could have been weighty conversion equipment, and the shuttle engine could keep the SLAM aloft by itself anyway.
Once in the upper atmosphere, the air became dense enough that partial wings on the SLAM's sides could get a grip and provide additional flight control and in atmosphere maneuverability for the pilot. It maneuvered like a pig compared to a proper aerodyne shuttle or aerospace fighter, but it could maneuver.
There was also enough air that the SLAM's fusion engine could now use it as reaction mass, reducing fuel consumption to the point that the SLAM had effectively infinite flight time. The SLAM pilot used that time well, bringing it even closer to the ground, aiming for the barely inhabited continent of North Whitman, and specifically, the testing grounds run by Kincaid Defiance Industries.
Coming in low and relatively slow compared to a fighter, the SLAM pilot spotted the practice targets on the ground set up for him. He lined up his crosshairs in the middle of the target area and fired the Long Tom artillery cannon at it. The shell arced out... and then dropped to the ground, exploding well short of the target area. The SLAM pilot cursed as he flew over his targets, then handed control of the SLAM over to his partner.
The other SLAM pilot, a trained mechwarrior, treated the SLAM not as an ungainly aerospace fighter, but as the mech it was, one that was in the middle of a very long jump. Feathering the thrust output and direction, the mechwarrior brought the SLAM down to a gentle landing on top of a low mountain peak that abutted the testing ground. The spot was unreachable for any mech without jumpjets, but given that the SLAM had a shuttle's fusion engine and thrusters, it effectively had infinite jump capacity.
With a practiced, last second twist, the SLAM spun around to face the target area right before touching down. Turning around on foot only would have been agonizingly slow; the SLAM was a test bed and didn't have Triple Strength Myomer to speed it up in order to simplify testing. The mechwarrior who unlike his aerospace pilot partner was actually accustomed to use artillery cannons, fired one shot that perfectly landed in the target area and obliterated all the test targets.
"Impressive," Archon Katrina Steiner said as she studied the SLAM. It's resemblance to the classic Marauder was unmistakable. "How soon could we have this Marauder III in production?"
"A year, maybe two," the lead engineer replied, knowing full well that wasn't what the Archon wanted to hear.
"Why so long?" the Archon asked, mildly disappointed. Katrina had been expecting an answer like that, but the engineers had gotten this working prototype out so fast, it had gotten her hopes up.
"We actually wanted to use an existing Demolisher mech as our test bed in order to shorten development time," the engineer answered, "but we would have had to so completely rearrange its endosteel internals in order to fit in a shuttle engine that we might as well have been designing a whole new mech. So we did just that. We just used Wolf's Dragoons' Marauder II as our inspiration; after all, what better template to use for a flying superheavy mech than an assault mech that could already jump?"
"If I remember right, the Marauder II is a Dragoon exclusive design," Katrina said thoughtfully. "How did you get its design specs?"
"We didn't, my Archon," the engineer laughed. "The exact specs wouldn't have been all that helpful anyway for a mech that's fifty percent heavier. As I said, their Marauder II was out inspiration. It could jump, and more importantly, it had those little winglets that let it control its jump. So we designed the Marauder III along the same general lines using what we knew about the original Marauder as our starting point, fitted in the shuttle engine, and expanded the wings for more aerial control.
"But we had to build the Marauder III almost entirely by hand," the engineer added more soberly. "We used off the shelf parts from other superheavies where we could, but something like fifty percent of the Marauder III's components are unique to it. If you want true mass production of these instead of just a handful per year from Smithies, we'll need a year or two to create tooling and debug everything in the production line process." The man was an engineer for a large interstellar corporation. Of course he disapproved of the relatively inefficient but much more numerous smithies.
"Better a handful than nothing," Katrina said. "I'm authorizing the design and building of a factory for Marauder IIIs. In the meantime, contract with qualified smithies to hand build more Marauder IIIs. They might not be able to make many, but I'm sure I can find a use for lance or better, a company of them before the year is out."
17 August 3015
Fort Freezerburn, Kobe
Lyran Commonwealth
"How is the new mech, Natasha?" Joshua asked over the radio as Natasha ran her new Marauder III through it's paces.
Literally running. The one hundred ton Marauder II moved at a bouncy sixty four kph, a speed it shouldn't have been able to achieve with a mere 300 rated engine if it weren't for the Lyran triple strength myomer and the temperature control system keeping it warm and at full power.
"Toasty," Natasha griped. "I have to turn my cockpit into a sauna just to keep this thing moving at a tolerable speed." A popup target appeared to her left. Natasha twisted the Marauder II's torso to nail the target with both PPCs and the Gauss Rifle; the torso didn't turn quite as fast as Natasha was used to. The difference was small compared to her old mech, but still very noticeable. "And this thing still maneuvers like a slug. An overly warm slug at that."
Turning a corner in the testing course, an obstacle loomed large before Natasha. Without jump jets, Natasha would have had to take a long detour around it that would take a minute or two. But with jump jets...
Jets of flame spurted from the Marauder II's back, lifting it into the air and just barely clearing the top of the vertical wall. Natasha touched the mech's feet down just on the edge before the jets cut out automatically to cool off; the Marauder II had barely made it.
"And using jump jets still feels unnatural," Natasha continued to complain. Then she saw the relatively gentle and straight course ahead that she could now get to right away without having to go through a long, tediously winding passage first. "But I think I might be able to get used to them."
Superheavy Land Air Mech (SLAM) construction rules:
Build a superheavy mech as normal, except for the engine. The engine is a smallcraft/Dropship type engine.
To get the fusion engine and aerospace thruster tonnage. determine safe thrust for flight and calculate engine tonnage as normal for smallcraft/Dropships. (mech total tonnage x safe thrust MP x 0.0625).
Max Thrust = Safe Thrust x 1.5 (round up)
Add fuel tonnage as necessary.
Smallcraft engine tonnage does not include actuator tonnage as used on mechs. To determine actual tonnage, determine Walk MP and calculate engine rating as normal. Look up normal fusion engine tonnage for the rating and divide that value by four, rounding up to the nearest half ton. Add this value to the main engine.
Run MP = Walk MP x 1.5 (round up)
The SLAM's Jump MP is the same as Walk MP.
The SLAM's engine takes up eight superheavy crits in the center torso. The engine also has a two crit thruster for every Safe Thrust MP that can be placed anywhere in the SLAM that has available crit space.
Calculate free heat sinks as normal for smallcraft/Dropship engine. These are entirely in the engine. Additional heat sinks take up critical space.