The Eggman's Wish part 2
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Silence brooked in the briefing rofom for a few moments. The holo once again went into a holding image of a spinning sphere with a spiky mustache.
Nathan Armstrong wondered if he should be insulted by a dead man ordering him to do things, but then again it was just a holo and if he really was already dead then it was nothing but a little time to respect the man's memory. Someone that loved the SLDF so much that his first thought was to give this cache to the Eridani Light Horse instead of profiting much by offering it to the House Lords. They were already kin, in a way.
This was lostech.
Everyone by instinct looked towards the Chief Engineer. Eligio Cade's lips turned downwards and rolled his shoulders in an expansive shrug.
He looked towards the boy and said "No offense meant… but it's still a bunch of Urbanmechs. I don't mean any insult but I think I could make better use of the parts. ER PPCs and Double Heatsinks are all well and good, but in a Warhammer they would do better."
The general nodded. "Like Hoff, you mean?"
"Aye, sir. The Dragoons didn't expect us to last so long with the experimental DHS we managed to refit into our Mechs just in time. There's three ways ways to use DHS… do it like the SLDF and use it mount more weapons, extended-range weapons, or just be able to fire the same weapons for longer."
Col. Winston looked towards Devlin and explained with a booming lecturing tone that BattleMech combat was considered in various range brackets - short range, medium range, long range. Very few Mechs were capable of sustaining an alpha strike - firing off all weapons at the same time for potentially great punishing effect.
"The Warhammer was mentioned - and it's a good example of how this works. It doesn't have nearly enough heatsinks to fire off all its weapons at once. That's not a problem because its weapons can't be used to hit all at once. It only has enough heatsinks to maintain firing off both PPCs at long range."
He extended both hands with palms facing inwards, one closer to the other. "Then as the distance closes to Medium Range, that's when the Warhammer gets to fire its pair of Medium Lasers and SRM-sixes."
He moved the furthest hand inwards to line up with the other. "It has more than enough to keep firing those medium range weapons, but to keep using PPCs you need to use alternate fire to manage heat buildup." The aged MechWarrior alternately moved each palm up and down. "Left. Right. Strike with the left PPC, attempt to widen and exploit armor breaches with the torso mounted weapons, then strike again with the right arm PPC if it wasn't enough. Then you start cyling in reverse - left, center, right, center, left, center, right. A lot of MechWarriors prefer to use bracket fire trying to fire both PPCs at once then all the Medium range weapons for greater up-front damage, but this is the sustained fire discipline that clears battlefields quickly."
Then he pulled both hands even further back to his chest. "Then at short range where the field inhibitors keep PPC from functioning well or else it damages itself, the Warhammer adds the pair of MachineGuns and Small Lasers to the fight. Usually these are meant against infantry, but at that range if you've been making your shots properly then these can seriously mess up your opponent's internals. Even if the PPCs aren't usable, all these medium and short-range weapons don't produce much heat and cycle very quickly.
"The most valuable thing in battle is time, and every bit of armor lost from your target is a weakness that other supporting elements can exploit. The SLDF isn't in the business of making one on one BattleMech honor duels."
Col. Winston dropped his hands and then gave the boy a placid 'do you understand?' look.
Devlin Stone nodded. "Thank you." He raised a finger and then said "But… doesn't that mean that a Warhammer doesn't really *need* Double Heatsinks?"
Major Edward Stimson stifled an amused snort. He chuckled and scratched at the back of his head. "Well, the kid's right. Look, if you don't want it, I'll take it. I'll take every Super Urbie you can get. Light Mechs don't have the firepower to even fight each other, most times. What makes the Draconis Panther so dangerous it that they can pack in a PPC in the smallest cheapest Mech they can make and then just throw them out there in lots. It might not be fast, but damn it makes other Light Mechs break out in hives.
"Scouting is important, and Light Mech hunters being able to kill off enemy scouts and vehicles quickly can turn the tide of battle before even Mediums or Heavies get into range. This Super Urbanmech is like it's designed as a hunter-killer of Light Mechs and smaller Mediums. Give it to me and I can clear whole lances."
Chief Engr. Cade rubbed at his chin. "Well the ER PPC not having that minimum range problem is more relevant to running light mech combat. They usually have short-range weapons and can close in very quickly. The speed to chase down Light Mechs isn't that important when they *need* to close in to inflict any damage, and a PPC blasts out the same amount of armor as an AC/10 would but across all ranges. Light Mechs know that AC/10s have limited ammo and would try to use their speed to waste shots. Things that can't dodge really hate Urbanmechs, but a Locust or a Wasp would just play with them."
"It's a trash can, but there are a lot of bugmechs," Stimson replied with a grin. "It's a trap."
"Well. Eventually that would stop working if you field enough Super Urbanmechs into battle, but then… they would just start fearing Urbies." The Chief Engineer chuckled darkly. "I suppose I can see the appeal too. But lostech is hard to repair and support, and it's really a shame to lose them. Urbanmechs are tough little bastards, but they're still just Light Mechs."
Barbara Mosley grimaced. Gen. Armstrong noticed and said "Anything to say, MechWarrior?"
"Well, sir… isn't that what they're for? Yeah lostech is valuable and all, but if they're not used then they don't matter at all. Lostech makes something hit harder than it should, and if we hold it back too much in fear that we'd lose them then why bother putting them on war machines in the first place?"
"That *is* the paradox of lostech," said Gen. Winston. "Too powerful to ignore but too irreplaceable to risk. There *are* greater gains in performance on an optimized smaller chassis than incrementally improving the capabilities of a heavier chassis. If we downgrade a Super Urbanmech into an Urbanmech we would just end up with a whole lot of Mechs that don't serve any particular function well."
The Chief Engineer looked towards General Armstrong "If you decide to take them up on this sir, well there's like dozens of them. There's no harm in keeping most of them intact and then stripping out the rest into second-line units to beef up line battalions."
"Ah. On that note, sir-" said Gen. Winston as he turned towards the Eridani Light Horse's leader "What are your thoughts on how best to use a potential regiment of fast PPC-carrying Urbanmechs?"
Nathan Armstrong stared back, carrying the weight of their expectations for a few moments, then his face broke out into an indulgent smile. "I get it. Lostech is amazing. We fought on Hoff because House Kurita was willing to deliver whole regiments just to seize or destroy House Davion's attempt at making lostech available again. Oh yes, a regiment of Urbanmechs would be really unpleasant surprise to our enemies."
Then he smirked. "But do you know? A regiment is still a regiment. It doesn't matter what it is, just having that will strengthen the Light Horse. We can't use this to rebuild the 19th, for example -" referring to the famed lost regiment of the Eridani Light Horse whose memory they still respected in rituals of remembrance "But it can plug gaps in any line. Even if it was just a regular Urbanmech… do you think artillery support lances need speed? The SLDF was always concerned with logistics, I don't know why no one before tried to replace the AC-ten with a PPC."
"Huh. That's right," mused Chief Engr. Cade. "If the Combine could turn Catapults from LRMs Mechs into CAT-K-Twos with two PPCs where the LRM boxes should be, a PPC in place of an AC-10 makes too much sense. That Autocannon is *twelve tons*. A PPC is *seven*. That's still enough for heatsinks and brace of Medium Lasers for minimum range…"
Gen. Armstrong continued "Think about it. Anything we would send a Galleon light tank right now, we could send a Super Urbanmech instead."
"Well the problem is transport, innit sir?" replied the engineer. "You could bring two tanks in the place of a single Mech. Sometimes it's worth being in two places at once aaaand I just remembered that it's a regiment. This bloody thing is worth taking along if we're thinking of carrying a Locust or a Stinger anywhere anyway."
Major Stimson laughed darkly. "I wouldn't give up my Mech just yet - arms are useful in balancing Jump Mechs, but for a PPC in something half the size and just as fast as a Griffin? I'm seriously tempted, general."
"Drop Capacity has always been the main limiting factor in warfare. We would be leaving behind Mechs… or would we?" Col. Winston's eyes widened. "I remember seeing *DropShips* in that holo."
Julia Armstrong let out a surprised hiss. Even a civilian - or specially *because* she was a civilian - she recognized the importance of that immediately. The Eridani Light Horse owned JumpShips, but lacked DropShips that didn't serve a military function. When moving homeworlds, they usually had to factor into negotiations with their employers chartering their civilian DropShips to move their dependents and supporting assets.
General Armstrong's brows tightened as he considered the implications. The Light Horse inherited from the SLDF XI Corps a group of 3 Monoliths, 3 Star Lords, and 6 Invader-class JumpShips.
All together that was (9x3), (6x3), and (3x6); 63 DropShip collars! It was a very powerful interstellar force. The Light Horse only had 22 DropShips in total to place onto those collars, and part of why the Light Horse was so respected as a fighting force was that their employers could also count on their excess JumpShip capacity to carry along their own regiments without removing their own JumpShips from service.
"That sure sounds a lot more important than just a regiment of Urbies!" Chief Engr. Cade wheezed. He turned to Devlin Stone. "How many of them are there? Enough to transport the whole bloody regiment?"
Colonel Winston shook his head and began to chuckle. "This is starting to veer towards sounding too good to be true again."
General Armstrong turned towards the boy as well. "Is this enough?" he asked. "I believe we should see that second holo now."
Devlin winced, but nodded.
He took out another holotape, but this one was a bit fatter and longer, it would protrude out of the slot.
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The view showed Dr. Ivo Robotnik now more gaunt and his goggles seeming into sink into his eye sockets. His grin remained wide, but his voice could no longer be so loud.
"Message begins. I am DOCTOR Ivo Robotnik, and if you are watching this you are either my son or the SLDF or both watching this at the same time.
"First message. Son, if you are watching this, I'm sorry. I'm sorry that I can't be there for you anymore, and I'm sorry that I had to send you out in advance, and that this would be the last image of me you would ever see. That's fine. I never intended for you to watch me die anyway. This series should have most of what you need to convince the SLDF to come here and take this whole mess out of my hands.
"ANYHOOS. In which case, I have been recording this in a series of topical videoohs. So if there's something you need to know, you got to give me the keywords. Just google it. Google it." Robotnik began to dance on his seat "Just google it."
Devlin clenched his hands into fists and stared at the image stiffly.
On the screen, Dr. Ivo Robotnik began to turn his chair around, around and around, with his arms outstretched as if in childish glee. The image looped smoothly, as if forever the man would always be spinning with that endless manic energy and never becoming dizzy.
Devlin took a deep breath and said "Father. Keyword, SLDF Super Urbanmech, keyword Regiment."
The holo flickered and responded:
"When I say a regiment, I don't just mean a number of BattleMechs. I mean the whole kit and kaboodle. I mean support craft. I mean supplies. I mean SLDF gear. I mean DropShips. I mean everything that makes a SLDF Regiment a regiment. This base is too far from anything to be useful as a staging area… but this secret Port Castle includes modified DropShips designed specifically to carry these Super Urbanmechs."
"Father, SLDF DropShip, keyword, modified Dropship."
"You have your Union DropShips, and your Confederate DropShips, and your OverlordDropShips. But what you're forgetting is what they're derived *from*."
Robotnik messed around with some buttons on his command panel, and the view changed to that of an egg-shaped DropShip.
"This is the Dictator-class DropShip, developed for the SLDF to deliver a full battalion of Mechs. That's a lot of baskets in one egg. At nine thousand tons it's the capacity of three Unions. It's a cut-rate Overlord without the organic ASF support. So you might wonder, why wouldn't the SLDF bring along a DropShip… several very valuable DropShips each capable of carrying thirty-six mechs each?!"
The view changed back to Robotnik's madly grinning visage. "But here's the thing! Because these are designed to carry Urbanmechs, which are compact little walking pods, their 150-ton Mech Bays have been designed to carry TWO of them. One on top of each other, both Mechs able to be serviced at the same time on ladder-stacked gantries."
"So while normally you would expect a twelve-unit Mech Bay to carry twelve Mechs, these ships carry *twenty-four*! But instead of the maximum seventy-two Mechs in one ship, it carries only fourty-eight. Why? Because it's a modified Dictator, so the third bay is instead a Vehicle Bay.
"It's not for Combined Arms even if this is similar to the Command Variant of the Dictator. It's for support vehicles. Those are twelve Heavy Vehicle Bays roomy enough for oversized machinery that would be longer than any Mech is tall, and while they could carry and repair and refit tanks and such they're mostly designed for trucks and tankers and mobile fusion plants and those twelve repair and refit bays are designed to be taken out and turned into vehicle maintenance works once landed."
He took a deep breath from the long run-on sentence and then resumed speaking just as speedy:
"The ship is almost completely unarmed except for a Large Laser on each facing for anti-meteor work. This frees up so much tonnage. Heatsinks - single only - this is apparently old Terran Hegemony vintage, engines et cetera, and a thousand or so tons ready for cargo. Once the Vehicle Bays have been stripped out, that frees up anywhere from six hundred to one thousand tons more for cargo or cabins.
"The Star League didn't leave any notes of what they were supposed to be called. Just calling them Dictators would be boring, considering their function. I'm calling these half-military, half-civilian ships the Bigwig-class. You will note that unlike Overlords and Unions they *don't have* ASF bays. The military half of PROJECT SEEDCORN wanted to maintain absolute monopoly on space operations."
Robotnik pointed to the camera. "And THAT is why the SLDF left them behind. It would have taken far too long to refit the ships to remove Mech Bays that would fit anything other than Urbanmechs or any other Mech that's smaller. They abandoned and buried the site so as not to waste all that effort, but it would have been such a pain in the ass and a waste of valuable drop collars to carry them when they had real Overlords on hand."
"... Ssss!," Chief Engr. Cade sucked in air through his teeth. "We have five Overlords, and they carry thirty-six Mechs. Okay, so the SLDF made ships that can carry Super Urbanmechs and *only* Super Urbanmechs… because why the hell not."
Col. Winson chuckled. "Yeees, I respect our founders, but this is the sort of technologically overcomplicated boondoggle they would pull in the name of saving for logistics. Who cares about expensive solutions as long as it makes the problem go away in a hurry? Up front costs don't matter at all for the Star League."
"A regiment of Urbies divided into forty-eight…" Major Stimson frowned and turned his eyes up. "How many is that?"
Julia Armstrong was first to respond: "Assuming three battalions to a regiment, one hundred eight. That's two and a quarter ships, it doesn't fit neatly."
"A square battalion is fourty-eight mechs in four companies," said Gen. Armstrong. "So I would assume at least three Dicta…" He stopped and sighed. "Bigwigs. Three Bigwig DropShips."
Devlin beamed at the general using that name. Julia Armstrong held back an adoring 'awww'.
"Father, keyword Bigwigs, how many dropships are there in the facility?"
Robotnik responded:
"There are SEVEN DropShips in this facility. Since you are watching this second set of holos, I'm going to admit I lied. There isn't a regiment of Super Urbanmechs. There are two."
"Huh. I don't know what I expected, but it was not this." Col. Winston leaned back, wide-eyed.
"Seven dropships! Who cares about Urbanmechs - seven pristine SLDF DropShips?! Seven thousand tons of cargo, eighty-four vehicle capacity that can fit even artillery! If we just load it all up with light mechs, just one of them is a complete combined arms battalion in can. That's too much!" the Chief Engineer wheezed.
"A trash can," said Major Stimson said with a 'heh heh heh'.
"That's why it's a trash can, and not a trash cannot," Major Winston repeated with a wrinkled grin.
"This really does sound too good to be true. Why would he really give up all of this? If your father had just shown this to any other House it would have made him a very wealthy and important man," General Amstrong said to Devlin. "Although… I suppose a man that was going to die of radiation poisoning anyway doesn't care much for gains - but what about you? This could have given you a very comfortable life, how do you feel about that?"
"It could maybe give me a good life, but it wouldn't make me part of the SLDF," replied Devlin. "I agree with father's decision - even with only this, it's best that it goes to the most worthy hands. I can't think of anything better to do with this than to give it to people who would use it properly - to defend the weak, and to protect the helpless."
General Armstrong nodded. "I believe you. How old are you anyway?"
"I'm fifteen, sir."
"That's the perfect age to get into Eridani Combat School. We don't usually assign Mechs until the soldier is eighteen. I hope you don't mind that. But right now," he extended his hand "Son, welcome to the Star League Sixteenth Army, Eleventh Corps, Third Regimental Combat Team, Eridani Light Horse."
Devlin Stone didn't shake the general's hand. He raised his hand to his face and rubbed at his eyes instead. He sniffled and tried to hold back tears.
Julia Armstrong, no longer able to contain herself, stepped forward to hold the boy and rubbed at his back while making comforting sounds.
"T-thank you sir. I… I'll make the SLDF proud. This is what father wished. No one will besmirch the honor of the SLDF anymore…"
"We are the ones honored," said Col. Winston. The wiry old man smiled and then bowed. "The ideals of the Star League Defense Forces… this really proves that it was worth keeping the faith through these centuries. This proves what we're fighting for, trying to inspire others and giving them hope that there can be an end to the barbarism and meaningless warfare of this age."
Major Stimson shrugged. "Well I wasn't expecting it to come at the point of an Urbanmech, but I'll take what I can get."
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