-.
-.
Next were a line of Urbanmechs that seemed like they couldn't decide if they wanted to be Jenners or Phoenix Hawks, with squatter more disc-shaped body that extended to the back with what seemed to be a backpack engine pods. The weapon arms were much lower on the body, right at the hip level, and seemed to be covered by a thin triangular slab of armor.
"What are these?" asked Major Stimson.
"Urbanmech LAM."
Everyone paused in mid-step. Stimson took a deep calming breath, turned towards Robotnik and said with a wry smile "Robotnik, I respect you. I am grateful for everything that you have done and the Eridani Light Horse will do all we can to live up to your expectations of us," then he raised a finger "BUT DON'T SCREW WITH MEEEE!"
"Sir!" Lieutenant Allwine gasped at this vulgarity.
Robotnik's walked slapped its palms over its great round belly, threw its body back, and laughed. "MU HA HA HA HA HA" then it straightened backed up again. "But I'm serious."
Senior Warrant Office Fosseli frowned and scratched at his bushy eyebrows. "Would even the Star League… how would that even work? I mean, I know a lot of ASFs are themselves flying bricks that would crash as soon as they turned off their thrusters - with enough trust even an elephant may fly, but how would Urbanmech LAM even work?"
Robotnik's walked stomped around in place and bobbed its body in a nod. "Good point. You know how LAMs have three modes, right?"
Fosseli nodded back. "Mech Mode. AirMech Mode. Then Fighter Mode. The Eridani Light Horse operates multiple Land-Air Mechs in our Recon Lances too."
Robotnik pointed to the Urbanmech to his right. "UM-LAM! Enter AirMech Mode!"
The machine gave out a mechanical whine and turned on its signal lights. Then with a series of clicks and whirs - the arm pods flicked 90 degrees up to turn into arm wings, and out from the undercarriage of the UM-LAM's back, a pair of larger wings swung up and clicked into place.
Jump Jets warmed up, steaming the air around the Mech's legs in preparation for primary ignition.
"Wait, that's it?" Fosseli responded.
"No fancy transformation sequences here!" Robotnik bellowed. "None of that modular transformation magical mecha nonsense!"
Fosseli's weathered face twisted up even more. "... I suppose if you squint" and here he did actually squint at the Mechs "It could resemble a Sparrowhawk or a Sholagar maybe a little…"
The walking holorobot helpfully provided models of the ASFs in question. The Sparrowhawk was just one bulb-shaped cockpit that had two laser guns jutting right out of the front, wings protruding off the side and a vertical tail stabilizer on top like a hat. The Sholagar was a disc-shaped fighter, a circular wing design that leads to many crashes in an atmosphere but its speed made it an excellent light fighter in space operations.
"The UM-LAM, Urbanmech LAM *is* a proven design. At forty-tons, it's heavier than its namesake mech. Most of that goes into the backpack assembly and reinforcing the legs to support Jump Jets. In Mech mode, it can run eighty-six kph and has five Jump Jets to leap one hundred twenty meters.
"In AirMech mode, the increased surface area extends this to four hundred fifty meters, even six hundred gliding reach at maximum burn, and triggering the jets every four-hundred meters, can stay up in the air at low altitudes pretty much indefinitely - as long as the pilot doesn't care that his flight is more like a zigzag falling and bouncing right above treetops. Mess that up and they crumple."
Stimson sucked in breath through his teeth. He said while a discontented whine "At least a Stinger LAM looks vaguely like aircraft in AirMech mode."
"Sir…"
"Yes, Lieutenant?"
"Charitably speaking, the Urbanmech LAM could also be said to look vaguely like VTOL. Or hovercraft."
Stimson blinked. "That is a good point. Where are the thrusters on this thing?"
The holo of the UM-LAM appeared over the flat table-like surface of the holorobot. The body had one main thruster poking out the back, then two secondary thrusters on each back pod. Then the legs themselves each had a powerful thruster, fed by potentially vulnerable intakes at the knee section. Finally, two thrust vents redirected hot airflow from the main thruster out the front for VTOL mode landings in Fighter mode.
Seven openings for five powered Jump Jets that in Mech Mode collected compressed and heated air as jumpjet 'fuel' for jumping. This did not require any actual fuel, and what made Jump-capable Mechs capable of repeated jumping as long as they waited long enough for JumpJets to compress and superheat reaction mass in between leaps.
In fighter mode, these JumpJets would consume fuel for continuous operation.
Stimson hummed. "Okay, I can see it. Without any fancy transformation sequences, the pilot's torso location doesn't really change at all in any modes. In a Stinger LAM, that while torso section swings up and down between nose and center torso in the body. Here it just stays in the middle all the time. That's… a lot less confusing."
Posseli noted "Land-Air Mechs are notorious as hangar queens. The less finicky rotation sections that need to lock in precisely to change from a mech into a fighter the better. I hope that the easy servicing of a regular Urbanmech carries through to this machine."
"What does the Fighter mode of this Urbanmech LAM even look like?" Posseli then asked. "Just fold the legs backwards flat against the fuselage so that all five thrusters point in the same direction?"
The holo provided a simulation of the UM-LAM in flight. The readout promised that in Fighter mode, at least inside the atmosphere as a LAM lacked fuel for extended space operations, it had a safe thrust of around 900 km/h and a maximum thrust of 1440 km/h. That was quite slow as far as fightercraft could go, but the UM-LAM due to its inefficiently compact aerodynamic shape might have strange supermaneuverability compared to more conventional wing designs.
Robotnik pointed at the mech and ordered "UM-LAM, switch to Fighter mode!"
The Urbanmech LAM raised its chin and pointed its body all the way back to near vertical, exposing the flat frisbee-like underside of its torso. With a *sproing* sound, landing gear then deployed from the undercarriage.
Then the Urbanmech LAM tipped over to the side. Klonk.
Robotnik's walker raised its hands in triumph."URBANMECH LAAAM!"
Everyone else looked towards Major Stimson. After a while, the man shrugged. "Eh. I'll take it."
"Sir-" Allwine ventured a counterpoint again.
"What is it, Lieutenant?"
"That's more than two regiments. Possibly technically LAMs are counted in aerospace instead?"
"Bonkers, that's right! Two regiments fit into six Bigwigs." He turned towards Robotnik "You did say that most of the Mechs were already preloaded into the DropShips. When you say you had thirty-six of a particular mech - does that include these mechs standing here?"
"No, I meant already into the MechBay cubicles. These are just extra."
"How many Urbanmech LAMs do we get?"
"Thirty-six."
"That's a full three companies of flyers. So that's in the seventh dropship, then?"
"No. the seventh DropShip is… special. The slots are full, if you want these you're going to have to leave something behind."
Stimson clutched at his chin with his left and and began tapping at his mustache with the index finger. "Dump the Pulse Laser Super Urbanmechs. If we need them, we can just refit ER PPC Super Urbies into them later." He paused as another thought occurred- "Wait, would these things fit even inside the gantries? I remember you said they were only good for Light Mechs. A forty-ton mech is a Medium."
"The bottom gantry cares more about height than mass," Robotnik replied. "This stands at the same height as a Super Urbanmech, which just happens to be half the height of a Phoenix Hawk too - and that PHX *is* forty-tons."
"So if you haven't loaded the Urbanmech LAMs yet, where are they?"
"Oh, they're on the ship."
"... how did you make them fit?"
Robotnik's walker made laughing motions again. "WA HA HA HA. I *knew* you would say that, so I didn't load the Pulse Laser Super Urbanmechs *at all*."
Major Stimson gave him a dull unamused stare. "You *are* screwing around with me. Stop that."
"There are even more Mechs here though," Lt. Allwine not-at-all-helpfully noted.
-.
-.
"What are these are and why are they yellow?"
"These are UM-CIV, modular civilianized versions of the Orguss Urbanmech chassis. They may look like Urbanmechs from the outside, but inside they're all Industrial-grade tech. If you say a standard Urbanmech - a UM-R60 costs around 1.47 million C-bills, you can have these for around 880 thousand. They run on multifuel Internal Combustion Engines, and can go up to 54 kph."
"Whoa, that's actually pretty damn sensible for the Star League!" chuffed Posseli. "Um, no offense."
"None taken," replied Stimson. He turned towards Robotnik again "I don't think I would dump any combat Mechs for any Industrial Mechs, but tell me about them."
"That one there with the chainsaw and the single lift hoist and the fluid guns in the arms? That's a road clearing and fire-fighting mech I like to call the Ruralmech. That one with the double lift hoists where the arm pods would usually be? They can carry up to half their weight without problem or up to their weight with at halved speed - two hitch points front and back, 10 tons and 20 tons respectively. I call those the Urban Carrier. That one there that looks the same, but in white and red? Those are Urban Rescue, they can go up to 64 kph and can carry medical and relief supplies through very inhospitable conditions that would prevent wheeled, tracked, and even flying vehicles from operating.
"There actually *is* a BattleMech-grade Urban Carrier - the UM-CRC, the Urbanmech Combat Recovery Vehicle - two of them totalling sixty tons can haul a hundred-ton Atlas in some sort of travois."
"Tarnation, you make these things sound terribly useful. It makes sense that a place like this would have them."
The group continued walking and talking.
"You can carry some of them off, just need to repurpose a Vehicle Bay for them. They're just thirty tons, after all's said and done. As long as there are enough tie-down points, you can treat any Mech or Vehicle Bay like general-purpose Cargo Bays. They won't be able to walk out on their own power, but again… just thirty tons. They can roll out on standard heavy machinery pallets if you gave it a serious try.
"You're not going to need all that many - there's full plans for manufacturing more and it's not going to be hard by any means to ask Davion interests to split a factory line. Heck, if the Eridani Light Horse wants some passive income, then buy a stake to that company in exchange for the schematics."
Posseli looked uncertain. "I don't know though, having actual arms might be useful. But an Urbanmech with arms just feels… wrong."
Robotnik pointed to the last UM-CIV on the line, which had a bulbous beer belly than the usual Urbanmech. Then from the torso pod it deployed a pair of crawfish-like arms ending in regular five-fingered hands like the SLDF Hussar Battlemech.
Posseli shielded his face from the sight. "Aah! What is this monstrosity?!"
"I just call it UM-HDN, Urban Handsy."
-.
As the group neared the spaceport area, Lt. Allwine perked up and pointed out again "Oh! What are these? These aren't Urbanmechs!"
Posseli looked from the last UM-CIV to the next series of Mechs. These mechs were so tiny even an Urbanmech could hide them from view. They did still look Urbanmech shaped, just more of an onion bulb than trashcan. Unlike Urbanmechs they had actual arms and hands, though more spindly and utilitarian, much like the one on Robotnik's walker.
"More Industrial Mechs? Hobby little walker robots, maybe?" They looked like little Urbanmechs with top hats. It was ridiculous.
"While most of the UrbanMechs here were derived from Orguss and SLDF plans, I am proud to say these are my own original invention! Robotnik's ULM-E series Ultralight BattleMechs! The fifteen-ton URBANITE!"
"What?" Major Stimson blinked. He looked towards the Engineer. "Is that even possible?"
Posseli shrugged. "I actually don't know. Sub-twenty ton Mechs are not unusual for Industrial Mechs, but combat-rated BattleMechs? Doctor Robotnik, please explain."
"Oh come on. The Star League had Ultralight Mech technology just fine. You remember the Ambassador Mech? That was fifteen tons and could go one-seventy-seven kph! I know there's this whole Mech cult going on, but seriously. Diplomatic talks were conducted on top of them with both sides walking on unarmed Mechs as a symbol of good faith. Michael Cameron liked to travel to Council meetings on his personal Ambassador, named the 'Star of Terra'."
"I… did not actually know that," he replied. "Please continue."
"The ULM-NIT is fifteen tons, uses a XL 120 Engine, which weighs two tons, which lets it go up to almost one hundred thirty kph. Plus two standard jump jets to jump sixty meters. You remember the Urbanmech Comms Guard. The Urbanite is kitted out for recon and spotting for artillery. It has a Beagle Active Probe. It has a Recon Camera. It has Remote Sensor Dispensers. It can monitor two Remote Sensors at the same time and act as a relay for communications sending long-range comm signals only a BAP could detect to each other or BAP equipped aircraft. In case it gets caught, it has three tons of ferro-fibrous armor and a single Medium Laser. That's equivalent to three and a half tons of Standard armor, and wahey- this is as fast and even smaller than a Locust, and unlike a Locust - it can Jump."
"Huh," said Major Stimson.
"Huh," said Lt. Allwine.
"That's very reasonable!" said SWO Posseli.
"And normal MechWarriors can pilot these?" asked Stimson.
"It has what I call a Small Cockpit, which strips out redundant life support and comfort features like the chemical toilet and such, but yeah. The Engine integrated heatsinks can't even be stressed by the Medium Laser and jumping all day. Pilots don't even have to wear a cooling jacket, though they probably would still hate being made to pee into a bottle."
"Robotnik, I want this. I need this. How many of them do you have and how many can we take with us?" Major Stimson spoke with fire in his eyes.
"URBANITES, COMPACT"
The Ultra-Light Mechs dropped all the same time to a crouch. They folded their arms forward on their chests - elbow to elbow, wrist to wrist. Weapon pods tilted fully upwards.
"Look at them. They so tiny. You can store four of them in a standard fifty ton Vehicle Bay if you had to. Anywhere from sixteen to forty-eight. Ninety-six if you're willing to exchange heavy tanks for them."
"Fascinating," remarked Posseli.
"UBANITES, UNPACK!"
The UltraLight Mechs raised back up again.
"What about that one?" asked Allwine, the lieutenant pointing to a ULM-NIT that looked like it had a backpack that melded into the head. A single baleful eye stared back at them above the cockpit vision slit.
"Oh, that's ULM-LSR, Urban Laser. That exchanges all the loadout and downgrading the engine for max speed of ninety-seven kph - just to carry a single ER Large Laser. Mounted vertically with ninety-degree angle focusing lens, being able to outrange standard PPC has its perks. Technically you could replace everything with five Medium Lasers for maximum laser vomit too. It has enough DHS for that."
"Are you some sort of geniusss?!" Posseli squeaked.
"WA HA HA HA."
-.
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Senior Warrant Office Fosseli thumbed the radio affixed to left chest of his technician's vest. "Logistics One, this is Technical One, do you read me, over?"
"This is Logistics One, I read you, over." the radio returned.
"Reconfirm loading priority - Fusion Engines, then Communications Equipment, then ER PPC, then Arrow IV artillery missiles, then Double HeatSinks, then everything else. Need number and tonnage of engines, over."
Resident Engineer Kubler replied "Wait, what? We have those? Arrow IV artillery- hey! You! Find the artillery missiles!"
"We have those?!" another voice shouted excitedly from nearby.
Kubler continued "Technical One, it's been less than fifteen minutes. We're still just counting and double-checking the manifests. So far by the ratings we have one hundred twenty of Class-120 XL Engines at 2 tons each - total 240 tons; ninety of Class-150 XL Engines at 3 tons each, total 360 tons; thirty-six of Class-180 Engines at 3.5 tons each - total 126 tons. We also have here thirty-six Class-200 regular Fusion Engines at 8.5 tons each, and thirty-six Class-240 Fusion Engines at 8.5 tons each. Total Fusion 200, 306 tons. Total Fusion 240, 414 tons.
"XL Engines total tons, 726. Regular Fusion total tons is 720 tons. Combined, 1446 tons. Mule DropShip capacity budget, 8000 tons. Over."
Posseli looked pained. Apart from the 200-rated engine being good for LAMs, the Fusion 240 was also a very common Engine used in very many BattleMechs and ASFs. Anything 40, 60, or 80 tons could be readily expected to use a Fusion 240.
The 200-rated engines were immediately more useful because they were important reserves for any LAM problems. Dump the 240-rated engines or not? They were not lost technology, could buy them in the Inner Sphere well enough. But the ELH also had plenty of 60-ton tanks. That was 414 tons less of individual Double HeatSinks or Ferro-Fibrous armor. Two hundred units of Communications Equipment were already eight hundred tons.
"Doctor Robotnik, we need to know what is already inside your DropShips."
"YOUR DropShips, but sure, I was leading to that point already." The walker pointed towards the starport area. "Onwards, my little ponies!"
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AN:
Have patience, let me just get through the necessary tech setup before moving into the timeline changes.