Doctrine 01
Colchester
Federated Suns
January 3025
Tankers filled the large prefab sports arena/auditorium. Tank commanders, that is. There were a lot of them, and they would not all fit even if the Eridani Light Horse tried. Most of them were from the 21st Strikers and 121st Dark Horse Regiment, as the 71st was out there fulfilling Davion objectives while the other two regiments recovered and retrained.
The 151st Dark Horse was the most elite of the three Regiments operated by the Eridani Light Horse. With half their number down after Hoff, reconstituting the regiment was slow going. Normally the ELH would fill in the ranks from the two sister regiments - the 71st White Horse and the 21st Strikers - as a sort of sideways promotion.
But then Eridani High Command announced that they planned on establishing a new fourth regiment.
It would not be the 19th Striker Regiment, as it would be grossly disrespectful to the memory of their ancestors lost in the war to retake Terra, but a 91st Cavalry Regiment.
The Eridani Light Horse owed their name from 2479 when, assigned to the Rasalhague District, they routed attacking Combine forces like "speedy Eridani steeds chasing after fat Luthien cows". How they wanted to accomplish this was easy to understand. If undignified.
Even for a tank commander like Beth Duncan, it was hard to ignore the multiple regiments worth of Urbanmechs that had arrived. The ELH had to build new hangar just to keep them out of the elements and prying eyes trying to get an accurate count. Improbably fast Urbanmech regiments, what the hell.
But just like the rest of the Eridani Light Horse's tank officers, she was much more excited to hear that the Light Horse had SIX Alacorn Mark VIs on hand. She commanded a Von Luckner 75-ton Heavy Tank in the 151st Dark Horse Regiment, 9th Recon Battalion, Strike Lance.
Beth's father was a retired MechWarrior that taught at the Eridani Combat School, her uncle was an AeroSpace Fighter pilot, her brother was an infantry officer, and her sister worked as DropShip crew. She inherited her Von Luckner tank from her mother who had died in combat.
The tanned young woman with freckles crossing her nose sat stiffly on the plastic monobloc chair, and looked around.
The Eridani Light Horse spread their collection of Von Luckner tanks around the three regiments as heavy support formations. A lance of Von Luckers striking from ambush with their AC/20s could take down an enemy lance in seconds. There was no mechwarrior vs tanker divide in the Light Horse, they were fervent believers in combined arms. However, it was still true that the ELH lacked sufficient front-line vehicle power to push through on their own. The relatively slow speed of heavy tanks meant that they would forever be second in line to Assault Mechs.
Now the Engineering Division called together all the Von Luckners, Manticores, and Demolisher commanders, all the heaviest and deadliest of the entire Eridani Light Horse's combat vehicle complement. Beth Duncan sat beside another Von Luckner commander: Rose Martinson, of the 3rd Heavy Assault Company "Wrecking Crew" of the same regiment but in a different battalion.
The short but buxom woman whispered "You know what I think? This meeting better be about starting an Assault Tank company with those Alacorns at the spearhead. Who gets to command those beauties? I don't know about you, but I'd trade up in a heartbeat!"
Beth scowled. It felt disrespectful to discard the tank that her mother died in. On the other hand, she did almost do the same thing - die in that tank - in the frenetic scuffle on Hoff. The Von Luckner in question was still under repairs, as finding a 225 Rated Fusion Engine and refitting one to fit on a tank was slow going even for the Federated Suns' famous logistics train.
She gestured over to a group near the front. "Tin Can Company's probably going to get it."
That assembly was commanded by Captain Klause Hesse, attached to the 21st Strikers, and they were the ELH's premier combat vehicle company. They held a uniform assembly of Von Luckners and Pegasus Hover Tanks in whole lances in the SLDF style for hammer and anvil tactics. They ran with six vehicles per lance.
At the head of the auditorium was a stage and an officer stepped up to the podium. The concrete floor clattered with clicking boots as everyone else immediately stood up to attention.
"At ease," spoke Major Wendell F. TeCarr, administrative second in command of the Eridani Light Horse.
The tankers sat back down.
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"Doctrine!" spoke Major Wendell F. TeCarr from the podium. "Operational doctrine must continue to evolve and refine itself, occasionally reverting back to older and simpler ways, for no doctrine is perfect. The superiority of SLDF doctrine is in its flexibility and the ruthless exploitation of initiative. Fight the war you're in with what you have. Minimize casualties while inflicting maximum havoc on the enemy. Simple to speak, difficult to carry out in practice.
"The Eridani Light Horse has survived three hundred years fighting and doing the most from a position of scarcity. While it is true that we never really lacked for supplies in the employ of the Lyran Commonwealth, for whatever lack in stratagem the Lyrans could compensate for with sheer economic power, it remains that over time the Eridani Light Horse has… diminished.
"We have little left of our physical inheritance from the SLDF. All we have left is the doctrine of the thinking soldier, the well educated fighting man and woman that can exploit every opportunity from the lowest boot on the ground to the commander watching the planetary campaign map. We have changed the doctrine to survive in these Succession Wars.
"To be children of the SLDF is to be adaptable to changing circumstances!
"And now… for a multititude of reasons, we must drastically adapt our means and ways again. What if… we no longer need to fight from a position of scarcity anymore?"
He paused. The thin man smiled and stroked at his pencil mustache. "You might have been paying attention to recent events. No, we did not just salvage some strange Urbanmech depot. The new doctrine asks - how would YOU prefer to fight if you had nearly SLDF levels of resupply again?"
The auditorium rang with garrulous shouting. TeCar let them mutter among themselves for a few seconds and then held up his palm. The ELH officers all immediately stopped.
"You all are here as representatives of the Light Horse's vehicle command. Our vehicular complement will also benefit from the refits and advanced technology we have access to. In fact, one might argue it is vehicle combat that benefits the most from advanced technology, and every bit of advantage matters.
"Our customs have it that tanks and other combat vehicles can be inherited from parent to child, in an unbroken line leading back to the fall of the Star League. This is not from stratified nobility as the Lords of the Inner Sphere do, but because it is a duty that must be earned. Our forebears trusted into us, their children, the future of the regiment - and from us to our children, that the Eridani Light Horse continue to shine the light of the Star League into the ever-distant tomorrow.
"We may order the refitting and refurbishment of the Light Horse Regimental Combat Team from above, but we will not do so without your input. A soldier of the SLDF is always conscious of their options.
"And so it is with this in mind, that we now should listen well to Chief Engineer Eligio Cade-"
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It turned out that yes, Beth's prediction was right. The Alacorns *were* being assigned to the 21st Strikers. The 21st were being upgraded to Royal versions with DHS and ER weaponry for the explicit purpose of fucking up the Wolf's Dragoons.
The 121st Dark Horse were due for much deeper refits and more boring downtime.
Beth Duncan walked out of there, like most of the officers, numb and pensive with the revelations. Rose however stretched out like a cat and then beamed.
"Well that just confirms it, doesn't it?" she said.
Beth raised an eyebrow. "No it doesn't. They said 'in complete and unequivocal terms - we are not being resupplied by the SLDF. Or the Terran Hegemony.'"
"Why do they keep dancing around the words and just say it?! Oh 'we have access to functionally unlimited quantities of Extra Light Engines' like who the heck would be building these things brand new then? It's annoying and nobody believes silly technical denials anyway. Who are they trying to fool" She pursed her lips out. "THE FOOOOOLS."
"How insubordinate," Beth replied in dry tone.
Rose smirked. "So. They wanna upgrade our rides. They wanna upgrade ALL our rides. I'm going to say yes. What about you?"
Beth grimaced. Logically… of course she should say yes. But ripping out the Fusion Engine of a tank to replace with an Extra Light Engine requires extensive internal remodeling, and changing the main gun from a single AC/20 to a Gauss Rifle and a PPC involved a new turret swap. The ancestral Von Luckner would barely be the same tank anymore at the end of it.
Emotionally, would it still be the same tank baptized with the blood of her mother and all the worthy crew through the generations before her?
Eridani High Command could certainly just make it an order for regimental strategic operations, but this inheritance of war machines was not like the nobles of the inner sphere possessing their ancestral battlemechs.
"We earned the right to command these machines as the fulfillment of an oath," she repeated TeCarr's speech. "Our forebears trusted in us, their children, the future of the regiment - and from us to our children, that the Eridani Light Horse continue to shine the light of the Star League into the ever-distant tomorrow." Then Beth added her own thoughts "If we upgrade everything just because we can, won't that make them all harder to repair and maintain? We had a position of plenty before, what if we just lose it again and then need to operate from a position of scarcity again? This is kind of suspicious, you know? We are working for Davion now, but this looks like someone else is trying to tie us down into someone else's supply chain."
Rose nodded, then then shrugged. "But are we the SLDF, or are we not? Are you going to let sentimentality get in the way of winning? Reviving the Star League?"
Beth winced. Everything the Eridani Light Horse did now had that unspoken intent. Formerly, the ELH did their best to wait and survive until the SLDF returned. Now… it was like High Command had suddenly become mulish enough to want to fight the entire goddamn Inner Sphere by themselves if necessary.
Surely Davion could feel the tension in the air too?
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The Von Luckner tank had a name. She was the "Lucky Miss".
Still lucky even thought sometimes her crew needed to be hosed off the hull, because the tank had managed to be recoverable even through centuries of battle. The fusion engine remained intact and no ammo explosion ever split the tank in half. That was even miraculous due to how many different types of ammo the tank had to carry for its many weapons systems.
The tank had a regular crew of four. Beth Duncan, commander. Paris Fernanda, gunner. Jocelyn Xiang, driver. Diogenes Eckhard, comms and sensors. Due to Eridani Light Horse training doctrine, all of them had sufficient technical skill sufficient to maintain and do ad hoc repairs to tank systems. Beth regaled them with the points of the meeting.
"So they want to change the "Miss Fusion" engine to an XL Fusion? Pardon me, boss, but don't XL Fusions also be bulkier than regular ones?" said Paris.
Diogenes gestured to the back of the tank. "Most of the ammo stowage for the AC/20 goes into the turret with the Gauss Rifle having capacitors. The techs are going to find a way somehow."
Beth crossed her arms. "No problems with replacing the main gun?"
Paris replied "Boss, I would be a total dumbarse not to prefer having a *GAUSS RIFLE* and a *PPC* in exchange for a single AC/20."
"There's two versions you said," said Diogenes. "The XL Fusion could mean more speed or more firepower. The main gun… or two main guns… are basic to both versions. So the difference between the two is just missile armament."
"Some sort of Multi-Missile Launcher, hey?" Paris nodded eagerly. "That's new. A nine-shot launcher or a five-shot launcher." He slapped the paper with the proposed loadouts. "Artemis guidance package, even! This is some nice gear, bosslady."
Beth turned to the driver. "What do you think, Joyce?"
The woman shrugged. "Ma'am, if you're asking me which is worth it - more guns or more speed, I'm always on the side of more speed. If we go from Assault Mech speeds to Heavy Mech speeds, that lets us get into more fights than just waiting in ambush."
They were part of 9th Recon's Strike Lance, and the two other tanks in the augmented lance of 4 mechs + 3 tanks were a pair of Galleons. Tactics basically boiled down to luring the enemy into AC/20 bushwacking range.
"We might end up being assigned to escort the Alacorns. They are also planning on building three Assault Tank lances out of them - two Alacorns, two Von Luckners, eight Gauss Rifles brought to bear."
"Then I must insist on speed, ma'am! Escort vehicles need to be slightly faster than the thing they are escorting so that they can't be left flat-footed."
"If we are only as slow as Alacorns though, a larger missile load would be more useful against air threats," mused Diogenes. "On the other hand, being as slow as Alacorns means we would also only be deployed when Alacorns are needed. Too valuable to lose, too potent not to use."
"No offense boss, but even if we already spend most times in recon just waiting around, aiming to surprise a light mech counterforce… feels to me not getting to fight as much is like a sideways demotion. I personally don't envy the dudes given the honor of being Alacorn crew."
Beth nodded. "High command is really confident about this. I don't know why. Upgrading is dangerous if we can't get more advanced tech to repair the damage. I suppose a standard PPC isn't hard to find if the Gauss Rifle gets wrecked."
Jocelyn's gaze tightened. "Because we are the SLDF and this is our time," she said with a fanatical glimmer in her eyes.
Beth sighed and began rubbing her forehead. "I keep hearing that a lot, and I'm wondering if we're getting too haughty about this and when that is going to bite us in the ass."
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Colchester
Federated Suns
February 3025
The 21st Strikers Regiment had the focus of all the Eridani Light Horse's engineers. They were the one fully intact regiment of the ELH that was at home and could be flexibly deployed.
The 21st did not involve anything as extensive as Fusion Engine changes, but had universally changed to DHS and Ferro-Fibrous armor. ER and Pulse weaponry would be a surprise. However, they had an extensive infantry and fighter component too, and was the most well-rounded among the regiments. Colonel Winston had decades of experience. If there was someone the Light Horse could have confidence in sending against any fight, it would be the 21st Strikers.
The 21st Strikers were on their way to Harrow's Sun.
91st Cavalry Regiment, 2nd Battalion, Allwine's Battalion had already set out, fully upgraded with fast Heavy mechs, and just very recently crushed Kurita's 2nd Galedon Regular on New Aberdeen.
Stimson Battalion, now the 1st Battalion of the 91st, was filling up with fresh machines and graduates.
This left the 121st twiddling thumbs on Colchester. Natasha Kerensky had yet to arrive.
The solution was simple.
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Seen from above, a company was conducting a search and destroy mission.
A Wolverine, two Hunchbacks, and Blackjack - that command lance covered all combat ranges.
Following behind were a group of seven combat units - three mechs: Griffin, a Stinger, and a Locust; and three tanks: a Von Luckner and two Galleons.
Roving ahead of the group was the Scout Lance composed of a single Locust and three light scout vehicles; a 20-ton Packrat and two 8-ton Darters.
This was the 9th Recon Company that Beth Duncan belonged to.
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People often said that being in the military was mainly about hurrying up to wait. This was not exactly true. Only about 10% of time in the military was combat. Sixty percent waiting around or doing maintenance. The rest of the time?
Meetings.
30% of all the hours ever spent. Meetings.
Welcome to the life of a professional military.
Captain Gary Werent, commander of the 9th Recon Company "Grey Gales" of the Sixth Recon Battalion of the 121st Dark Horse Regiment, gestured with a laser pointer to the after-action report on the projected screen. "So, in summary - what have we learned from our mock battle with the 4th Recon Company?"
This was part of the job of a company commander. They had to evaluate themselves then pass it up to battalion command and how their views differed. Discrepancies were useful. If a force had nothing to do, then make train and evaluate themselves. Bored soldiers were just the worst.
The "Sneaky Devils" were the 4th Company in the Sixth Recon Battalion "Stimson's Stealthers", which itself used to be the third Battalion of the 121st Dark Horse. Once again, Beth was in the second actual battalion named the Eighth Recon Battalion "Cyclones".
The "Grey Gales" and the "Sneaky Devils" were in many ways mirrors of each other. They also had a Von Luckner in their Support Lance, it was just that the rest of the lance consisted of a pair of Manticores and a Galleon, which was a hell of weight advantage versus Beth's own tank lance of one Von Luckner and two Galleons.
The two recon battalions of the 121st fought it each before one permanently leaves to become the 1st Cav Battalion of a new regiment. It was their goodbye activity before becoming different commands. It was somewhat sad, but at the same time Beth also felt it was right to try their hardest to pound their sibling company to the ground.
Lt. Patricio Saludo, lead of the company's Recon Lance, raised his hand. "It sucks to get our ass beat, sir!"
Beth clapped her palms over her face and groaned.
"Something less obvious, Lieutenant," Captain Werent replied dryly.
"Okay. We got our ass beat by Urbanmechs and it sucks, sir! Goddamn Urbanmechs are short enough that they blend into the treeline. But we almost got them because ER PPCs don't have enough of a refire rate. Urbies just cannot handle Jump Infantry *at all*. They're armless!" Everyone immediately groaned at the pun.
Even with that aside, a combat exercise that involved infantry jumping onto mechs and slapping explosive charges onto mech canopies was still a highly risky activity. Jump infantry were among the most reckless of fighters in the entire Inner Sphere.
He continued "But we lost not just because of their Star League tech advantage, but because they outnumbered us with their mixed lances. Normally the Recon Lance being infantry and light scout vehicles isn't a problem because command and strike lances are augmented so that that numbers add up the same anyway-
"But the former 6th Recon had their entire scout lance made up of upgraded Galleons, so when they joined in the fight that was a full four lances versus three."
Light tanks were easy prey for Battlemechs, but were often the hard counter for infantry.
Beth Duncan clapped her palms and raised her hand.
"Yes, Lt. Duncan?"
"Sixth Recon all have four-lance square companies, but technically also do have the same number of combat units as we do. Sixteen in a company, instead of the standard twelve in three lances. They just split their units into four while we concentrated them into two and make the third recon lance be entirely scout vehicles. If we do the same thing as them… we lose the benefit of recon lances being small and hard to spot in exchange for more direct fire. It's tempting to throw extra forces into battle, but if we lose recon then what's the point?"
"Good point!" replied Cpt. Werent. "And that is why Sixth Recon or 1st Cav shared the specs of the new Galleon Light Tank with us. Eridani High Command fully intends on standardizing the entire RCT's line of Light Support Tanks into these specific Light Horse Galleon-3000s."
"Even Scorpions and Vedettes, sir?" said Saludo.
"Vedettes are Medium Tanks," Beth chuffed. "But Scorpions are just 25 tons that goes barely 65 kph anyway, so a 30-ton tank with more armor that goes up to 97 kph is an improvement. Because an AC/5 has the same range as a PPC, I know we get a lot of aggressive Scorpion commanders that try to contribute from long range. Recon is supposed to stay out of the fight."
Saludo kept his right hand raised and flicked his palm down to point towards her "Do you think the problem with tank on tank shock was that you were only backed up by two Galleons while their single Von Luckner already had two Manticores and *five* Galleons behind them?"
Beth grimaced. A Von Lucker with an AC/20 vs another Von Luckner with a Gauss Rifle and a PPC was no contest, which was why the mock battle simulated equal firepower as if her tank had already been upgraded. So the result returned to the basic Star League doctrine of 'never fight an equal battle' and 'outnumber the heck out of the enemy whenever you can'.
Saludo, as leader of the Scout Lance and piloted a Locust, lowered his hand and continued "I brought my light mech into the reach of four Galleons each with two Small Pulse Lasers and a pair of ER Medium Lasers in the turret and I got the shite kicked out of me in seconds. I don't think anyone else would have a good time. If those updated Galleons still have troop capacity for Jump Infantry like my eight-wheeler Packrats, I have no objections to this change."
Beth blinked. "Galleons are slower, are you sure?"
Saludo shrugged and ran his fingers through his hair, normally cut short for sake of a bulky Succession Wars neurohelmet but now starting to grow out into curly fistfuls again. "It's not faster than a Locust on a straight line, true enough, but I think having a pair of ER Medium Lasers pointing backwards on the turret is a bigger incentive for no bugmech to chase too closely."
The projection changed to the tech readouts.
The Galleon was a fast and fragile light tank. Able to go up to 97kph in a straight line, they were normally armed with a single turret Medium Laser and two Small Lasers on cheek-like sponsons that could point up. It was able to do this on an ICE fuel-burning engine, which meant they were cheap and reliable and also easily killed. The ELH used a lot of them in scouting and harassing roles and they had *a lot* of Elite Galleon crews.
The new Galleon had two versions. They were now Fusion tanks. They were still 30 tons but with Ferro-Fibrous armor beefed up armor protection from mere 4 tons to 6 and a half tons. The two small vertical turrets poking out on the tank's 'chin' were changed from a pair of Small Lasers to Machine Guns for infantry support and the turret changed to ER Medium Lasers. With almost 80% of the range of a Large Laser both combined equal to the punch of an AC/10, Beth sighed at predicting this would hardly discourage the already hyper-aggressive tendencies of Galleon tankers in the Light Horse.
Scouts vehicle commanders were normally chosen for their patience and willingness to serve silently and without glory, knowing that helping the rest of the regiment win was as important as any personal kill tallies. They used even more defenseless scout cars or APCs.
She hoped this would just allow them to protect themselves well once Scout Mechs catch up… instead of giving freedom to any battle-lust they had long tried to keep suppressed.
The other one, a more line combat version, had an ER Large Laser as main gun. With a little more range than a standard PPC, Galleons could now serve in direct fire support role even in mech vs mech combat. It had been many centuries since a single Large Laser was notable as main gun on a main battle tank, but when escorting a Von Luckner, now they all had the same range profile with the whole lance striking down enemies as they approached.
Captain Werent continued "Eridani High Command insists. Apart from small Scout Cars we can pack as cargo, the Brigade is standardizing on the Galleon as its Universal Light Tank. All Scout Lances will have to retrain."
"This is not a problem, sir!" said Saludo. "Survivability is more important."
"Right then. Onto the next issue. As had already been noted - the Sixth Recon Battalion "Stimson's Stealthers" has been pulled out of the 121st to serve as core of the 91st Cavalry Regiment. That leaves us in the 121st with only two Battalions - the "Bloody Half-Hundred" of the 50th Heavy Cavalry Battalion and us of the "Cyclones" Eight Recon Battalion. The 121st is a Regiment rarely deployed as a whole because it has traditionally been the role of the 50th Heavy Cav and the 8th Recon to protect the Light Horse's dependents ever since Kuritan treachery on Sendai.
"This is also partly the reason why we have augmented lances. Three combat lances and a non-combat or infantry recon. The Sixth Recon moves square companies of four lances for a total of sixteen possible combat units. The question now is if we adopt the square company or roll with augmented lances of six units with three per company for a total of eighteen combat units per company."
Lt. Ryan Hixen of the Strike Lance, and Beth Duncan's superior as the lance her tank group was attached to snapped his head up. "Wait, we can do that?!"
The Captain responded, "We are trying to figure out new doctrine here. The square company works very well for the Stealthers - now the 91st 1st Strike Cav - , but they also want to standardize on using Urbanmechs to accomplish most combat vehicle roles. Jump Jets and being air-droppable, they say. The 91st Cavalry is going to be less of a tank-carrying combined arms regiment, focusing more on missile artillery and VTOLs.
"So we are told that if the 121st is willing to be a heavy shock regiment, then their heavy tank lances are willing to stay in the Dark Horse."
Beth crossed her arms. As well they should. The 121st was the best combat arm of the Eridani Light Horse. Then she frowned. She raised her hand to speak up again "Since it's only us and the 50th Heavy Cav left, we're going to need to reconstitute the Third Battalion. But since we can't leave our dependents undefended, historically we have only been able to alternately deploy the 50th Heavy Cav and the 8th Recon offworld. As had been noted the 121st mainly fights with only two reinforced Battalions as is.
"If we have two three-lance companies of six-unit lances plus a command lance… that's sixty units per battalion and one hundred twenty on deployment. Plus Regimental Battle Group Company and artillery. That's a regular Regiment, isn't it?"
"Yes, continue. "What is your point, Lieutenant?"
"Sir. The 91st with their square companies forming square battalions, last I heard they are still only staffed two battalions to a regiment - right now ninety-six units to the regiment, before Command and Artillery. But the 'Bloody Half Hundred' also runs a square battalion, hence the fifty or so units in it compared to a square battalion's forty-eight. Add us, counting only combat units, that's eighty-six.
"So my question, sir, is why do we have augmented lances in *two* battalions instead of regular lances and just make the whole 121st a four-battalion regiment like the rest? Since we can only ever deploy two or three at a time anyway?"
Captain Werent smiled. "Apart from the manpower issue?"
Beth grimaced. "Sir. I retract the questio-"
"Because reading that the Eridani Light Horse dropped with two battalions to repulse an invasion is different from being told that the Eridani Light Horse dropped their whole regiment to attack your world. Our professionalism, care for civilians, and willingness to accept surrender means that the Eridani Light Horse has actually won more battles in our history by not fighting than fighting.
"There are those that say 'winning is everything, no matter what the cost', but actually it is also true that 'reputation means something'. The ideals of the Star League still lives within us, and that is why we fight. Where we walk… people have hope and our enemies question themselves."
Beth stared back dully. That was just playing with definitions for public relations what the hell. Since when did the ELH play mind games?
Her face scrunched up in thought. She supposed that, in order to look overwhelming even to five different Houses all at once, the Terran Hegemony had always been playing mind games and the SLDF just had to follow suit.
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SLS BY LIGHT FANTASTIC
Scout III-class WarShip
March 3025
Normally it would take most of a month to reach Tripoli from Colchester. Most of that was the 20-day transit time at 1 gs from the planet to the jump point. The DropShips carrying the 91st Regiment - or rather, half a regiment plus the 121st's 9th Battalion, burned towards the transit point at 2 gs.
Double the speed at the hardship of feeling twice as heavy for those inside. The human body was not meant to bear such a burden for long. Ten days of it was enough to make Beth Duncan feel like she had been running marathons all day even with everyone only doing minimal movements and spending most of the time lying down in bed so their hearts would need to work as hard just pumping blood.
The abrupt shock going from double standard Terran gravity to zero-gravity as the Overlord-class DropShip maneuvered to link up with the JumpShip made her feel as if thick viscous blood was pooling behind her nose and her veins would start leaking. Her every muscle ached with a dull fire.
With wobbly feet Beth passed through the airlock to join the rest of the regiment into the more stable gravity quarters within the 90-meter grav deck of the Scout II. A normal Scout didn't have any and was forced to burn fuel just to achieve .2 g through thrust. Everything was clean and gleaming new.
She was greeted by the white Cameron Star with the ELH prancing pony superimposed upon it, painted on the bulkhead leading into the grav-deck. She hesitantly reached out to touch the symbol reverently, and on further examination…
That was not paint. That was a tinted alloy engraving baked right into the metal. The white metal was rhodium; and the yellow-orange, brass. The horse silhouette was black steel.
"Oh no," she whimpered. "We might actually be the SLDF."
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