Pre-A/N: There was an update to the Sun Chaser Scout Tank, just in case you didn't already know. Nothing major, but some tweaks to have it fit in better with the build rules.

[Arthur Corean]
[Corean Enterprises]
[New Avalon, New Avalon System, Federated Suns]
[February 20th, 3028]

"To those of you seated here today, I must say congratulations," I sat off to the side and behind a curtain as the First Prince stood in front of the auditorium filled with five hundred and twelve individuals, from Undergraduate Students to Graduates, and Cadets and Officers of the AFFS, "You all here will take part in one of the largest historical compilations in Federated Suns history-"

Even included in the number were a slew of hobbyist Military Historians who ran wiki-like pages on the NewAvNet, New Avalon's version of the internet. Not to be excluded either was the New Avalon Cartographical Society, nor the representatives from the AFFS' Military Intelligence Corps.

The reason they were all here within NAIS? To help me create a complete, comprehensive database of every military campaign that the Federated Suns had ever recorded.

The Nirisaki 400X combat computer was an incredible piece of hardware. It took in geographical and astrological data, weather data, the disposition and number of friendly and enemy forces, armor values, ammunition levels, and generalized piloting skill and smashed it all together into a create a highly detailed plan that, if followed perfectly and to the letter, could lead to a tactical victory. The issues it had was that relied heavily on known information and required picture-perfect precision on account of the friendly forces... and it also relied on the enemy forces behaving exactly as it predicted as well.

Given most things never went according to plan and the pilots, infantry, and vehicle crews were not capable of such coordination in the heat of battle? Most commanders who had access to its powerful computational capacity during the 1st and 2nd Succession Wars either never bothered with them or merely used the computer's data to give them a rough idea of a new battle plan.

It required accurate intel, and as the old sayings went: 'if you put junk in, you got junk out.'

The Historical Compilation Committee here was created to ease those burdens, or at least ensure that future versions of the Corean-Nirisaki Tactical Computers would have a wealth of historical data to draw upon. A complete, properly formatted database, would be created by their hands, drawing upon all of the knowledge and data that these men and women had to offer so that a solid baseline could be established.

Maps, weather data, historical battle data, Battlemech and Combat Vehicle data, and even Sim Pod data from various Regiments- both active and training alike- would be compiled together to create a database that would be updated as time went on. From the Age of War through to the Age of the Battlemech, the Reunification Wars, the Periphery Uprisings, the Amaris Civil War, and the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Succession Wars.

If the Federated Suns had information on it, then it would be included; not even Periphery Pirate raids would be excluded- nothing would be left out.

Even if it wasn't to be used only with the future tactical computers, such a drive to bring everything under a single unified template would be useful as training aids for the military academies or as strategic planning aids for the Command Staff; having everything in one place- be they victories or defeats- on a planet or system would only make planning future campaigns easier for the tacticians and strategists of the Federated Suns.

There were some in the upper echelons that scoffed at the thought of bringing in civilian hobbyists, but given the levels of detail I saw from some of the wiki-like posts from the men and women lurking on these websites I believed that at least giving them a chance to participate wouldn't hurt; if they proved to be insufficient then removing them wouldn't be all that difficult. It wasn't as if this initiative was dressed up as anything other than an effort to better codify the history of the Federated Suns for the universities; the existence of the computers I was developing was still a closely kept secret, and such educational revamps was something the First Prince was already well known for.

The sound of Hanse clapping his hands once dragged me out of my musings, "So, let's get to work, shall we?"

The First Prince gave the crowd a slight bow as Doctor Samuel Cameron- of no relation- of the NAIS' College of Military History, stood up from his chair next to me and strode out from behind the curtain to take Hanse's place.

Hanse, for his part, walked over with a grin on his face, "Alright, now that we're finished here... I believe you had some things you wished to show me, Arthur?"

The Multi-Munition Manufacturing Plant was another one of my designs for the future of Corean Enterprises, and it was one of three planned sizes, with a Small, Medium, and Large variant.

The Small Multi-Munition Manufacturing Plant was a square building 150 meters wide, 150 meters long, and 35 meters tall. Compared to the SCMFs it was a squat, box-like building that sat on the outskirts of the larger Corean Manufacturing Complex. It had three floors above ground, but unfortunately only a single floor below; given the time-consuming nature of excavation and reinforcement I had to make cuts somewhere, and leaving more floors above ground greatly sped up the construction of these new buildings. They were heavily reinforced with thick walls of treated Andosteel to protect against corrosion, reinforced ferrocrete, and thousands upon thousands of tons of compacted earth to fill in the gaps and add further heartiness to the structures.

Internally, each of the three floors above ground was segregated into four distinct sections that had thick internal walls and floors, and while the Medium Munition Plant would double the number of floors to 6, the Large variant would instead double the size of the footprint as every floor above six would drastically increase the costs to build; better to expand the horizontal dimensions of the structure and take up more space than to expand vertically, as the cost increase linear vs multiplicative in that case. For all that I might want the juicy increases in output, these buildings were still meant to be inexpensive to construct, and adding more floors meant that far more care had to be put into their design if I wanted to maintain the integrity of the structures; these plants were meant to be tanks that could weather some harrowing fire from a raiding force and still be functional.

Each "Cell" had heavily reinforced vent chutes that spanned through the floors above to the rooftops; should there be any sort of explosion within one section then it would be redirected out of the vents through to the roof. Of course, no one inside would survive if tons of explosive materials detonated inside an enclosed space, but the chances of surviving such an explosion even if the floorplan was made more open were still astronomically low to begin with; ensuring that any such explosions didn't damage the structure or neighboring manufacturing zones was paramount.

It was essentially a building CASE system, with the basements, of course, housing the Augusta and Henan process machines needed to make the applicable components for the munitions.

To protect the workers and greatly reduce the chances of espionage and sabotage, each section was only open to employees who worked that section; employees who worked in the Corean 50mm A/C-2 section wouldn't be allowed to enter into the Corean VIPR LRM plant, and vice versa. This left the entry/exit point for raw materials and completed munitions as the most logical link in the chain to target, and greatly reduced the chances of some nefarious actor managing to infiltrate multiple sections for their dirty deeds.

Each of the twelve sections per M3P, or 'MEP' as my employees have taken to calling them, can manufacture 50 tons of ordnance per month per section, coming out to around 7,200 tons of ordnance per building per year. Now, to be fair, that was only with a single 12-hour shift, and if the facility was run around the clock then the output could be doubled. I had designs for a Single Munition Plant that would solely dedicate itself to producing a single type of munition, be it autocannon shells, missiles, or bombs, and the projected increase popped up around 50%.

It is a little on the low end as far as raw output goes, especially when compared to the plants that Federated Weaponry has New Avalon, or the GM Munitions Plants on Kathil for their autocannons, but unlike their plants, I can manufacture twelve different ammunition types in a single building with less than one hundred personnel per building.

Compared to the thousands required by their plants- thanks to the semi-automated nature of the MEPs- my plants actually had a much higher output-per-employee, and the cost savings from needing 1/10th the number of employees meant that I could build more plants as needed more cheaply.

That and with the limited amount of lift and jumpships, a great deal of the 50,000 tons those larger plants produced ended up sitting in a warehouse for sometimes up to half a year waiting for space within a dropship to pick them up. So until the Federated Suns added more dropships and jumpships to their stables producing more ammunition than we had lift to carry it just didn't make much sense.

I would have had the entire process automated, at least to the same degree that I had my Battlemechs and Vehicles, but the oversight apparatus of the AFFS' procurement board was leery of having so little human supervision when it came to making the things that went 'boom'. I couldn't blame them, and while I was confident that the automated QC stations I'd created would be far more accurate, if having a few dozen employees rubber stamping the checklists for every ton of ammunition that rolled off the assembly lines made them happy then I was willing to accomodate. Besides, the AFFS was picking up 40% of the tab for each of these new buildings it was hardly a difficult 'ask' in my opinion, and having these new MEPs replacing my old munitions factories certainly made me feel better; these things were veritable tanks compared to the old plants they'd replaced, and the improved security measures put my mind at ease.

"So, what am I looking at, Arthur?" Hanse hummed curiously as he walked around the table in which a large, 110mm A/C-5 shell was separated into its constituent components; we had just finished taking a tour of the factory a few minutes ago, and now we had moved on to what Hanse liked to call the 'good part' of any of his visits to Corean Enterprises.

The shell was completely inert, with its explosive compound replaced by an Andosteel stand-in for obvious safety reasons, and each section stood on a crystal rod so that the components could float at eye level above the table.

"This is a mock-up of a future type of Smart Munition that we're going to start conducting testing on here soon," I pointed from the front end and began working my way back, "A high-speed camera is embedded in the nose along with a LIDAR/Radar package. This package communicates with a computer stack that is connected to a series of gyro jets on the sides and rear of the munition, and once fired the projectile can make slight corrections while in flight to improve hit percentage on mobile or far away targets."

I nodded to the standard 110mm on the table next to it, "However, as you can see, the addition of the targeting and communications packages on the round has increased the length, meaning that roughly half of the amount of ammunition per ton can be carried. This is a pretty serious problem in my eyes, as the damage potential drops significantly even if the number of rounds on target goes up by a similar margin. Given I have a small team working on this, I don't expect these to be tested and rolling off the assembly lines until 3031 at the earliest, but I firmly believe that once we have the munitions validated then we can shrink the size of the rounds by integrating more compact optical sensors, tracking equipment, and communications packages; just a crystal optical processor along would delete that whole Vac-Stack."

The First Prince rubbed at his jaw as he stared at the mock-ups intently, "And how much space do you think you can regain with these future upgrades?"

I tilted my head to the side and deferred to Chief Munitions Engineer Tabitha Rosco, the second-in-charge of this project, and the brown-haired woman cleared her throat as she fiddled with the wooden sticks in her bun, "Ahem... we believe that we can achieve the same results in accuracy with only a 25% loss in munitions, my Prince. A 'Mech or Combat Vehicle armed with an Auto-cannon Five and this ammunition would be able to carry fifteen rounds per ton instead of twenty; still a loss, to be sure, but given the projected accuracy increases... even with a significant cost increase they would still be well worth it."

"If more rounds landed on target then the loss of capacity would be mitigated. Given most 'Mechs and vehicles receiving their Corean refits are already gaining a generous increase in ammunition capacity it would still be a net gain," Hanse tugged at his sleeves as he nodded, and he then spun on his heel, the man interlocking his hands behind his back as he peered intently at the next display, "Now. What are these?"

"Those would be the mock-ups for the Sidewinder I and Arrow-V missiles Corean Enterprises will be developing," I held out a hand and Miss Rosco happily handed to me her noteputer, and I flicked over to the design specifications of each missile and lined them up side-by-side before handing it over to Hanse, "The Arrow-V is pretty much as the name suggests- an improved Arrow-IV missile- but the Sidewinder is a touch more involved; it is a slimmed down and less powerful version of the Arrow-V, but it is purely dedicated to handling aerial threats from extended ranges."

The Prince smiled broadly as he began looking over the specifications of the missiles while I looked toward Samantha and beckoned her over, the woman handing me one of my personal noteputers, "You haven't seen this yet considering it's still being developed, but the Sidewinder I will be critical in improving the lethality of the Conventional Aircraft I am co-developing with Federated-Boeing; the Strike Eagle and the Warthog series of air-breathing fighter and close-air support aircraft."

The moment Hanse was finished with the noteputer in his hands, we exchanged, and I handed Miss Rosco back her noteputer while I gave the First Prince the noteputer containing design specifications and artwork that Doc Beauford drew up, "40 and 50 tons respectively, they'll be a terror for enemy aerospace fighters and ground forces, and with their aerodynamic frames, internal missile bays, and external hard points for more missiles... they'll either have exceptional kill-potential against massed enemy ASF or ground forces."

"Goodness," Hanse chortled into his fist as he looked at the artwork, "It will be like a return to the ancient days with missiles strapped upon every surface of the aircraft. However, won't drag be an issue?"

I bobbed my head from side to side as I waggled a hand, "As long as the pilots do the smart thing and fire the missiles on the external hardpoints first, and keep their internal missiles for last, then drag will hardly be an issue for them in a dogfight. I foresee multiple salvos from well beyond the enemy's ability to fight back, with dozens of Sidewinders streaking out to soften up the opposition or outright destroy them, becoming a standard opener."

Hanse pulled his eyes away from the noteputer, and he stared off into space for a few moments before he tilted his back, "Yes... I could definitely see it."

He closed his eyes and hummed before turning his attention to me, "Is there anything else here before we resume?"

I shrugged, "Well, we're in the planning stages of a handful of different munitions that can be carried by ASFs and conventional aircraft; the 1-ton bombs that we've been using for over five hundred years now could use a facelift..."

"Smashing. Please, Arthur, tell me more."

Deep in the bowels of my personal lab, Hanse, Samantha, and I stood next to each other as we stared at an unholy abomination.

It was patently worse in appearance than my kludged-together VIPR system that I put together for proof-of-concept testing on the trip to Petrolia, and my God it was an ugly thing.

Multiple bare Andosteel frames were bolted together, each frame cradling an extremely expensive piece of computational equipment, with a bevy of cable harnesses connecting them all together. It was all bare and open to the world, without a single iota of grace or beauty that my other 'completed' works possessed. Next to this large contraption, however, was a very large box constructed from Andosteel framing with standard Battlemech plating surrounding it, and connected to that was an amusingly simple computer terminal and an office chair.

Off to the side, there was a pair of Industrial Exo-skeletons, a pair of mobile waldos, and a battery-powered forklift.

Hanse looked at it and shuddered, "This is likely very important, knowing you, Arthur, but it lacks a lot of polish that I'd come to expect."

"It's incredibly important, Hanse," I threw an arm over his shoulder and held out my other hand in front of me as I took on a faux-serious voice, "What stands before you is the Arrtape Device, or the 'Arthur Corean-Analysis & Emulation Protocol device'. Just as the optical crystal processors are important... this is the latch-key device that will make them economical to produce."

I removed my arm and strode forward, my white lab coat billowing behind me with sufficient gravitas, "I had another version of this, but it was even uglier than this piece of work. Far less efficient and powerful too. Really, Hanse, your donation of that Nirisaki SDS computer stack? Saved me a lot of headaches creating this piece of equipment."

I spun on my heel and began pointing at each module as I spoke, "A Nirisaki A2200 Jump Computer, a Nirisaki-400X Tactical Combat Computer, and a complete 1-to-1 copy of the SDS-P1000 Naval Control Computer. They are mated to a Boston Dynamics Beagle Active Probe, along with the visible computer terminal and the sensor box."

My hand thumped against the armor plating of the sensor box as I patted it a few times, "Within this box are a whole slew of different sensors and observational instruments, and they feed the recorded data into the BAP, which then feeds it into the Nirisaki computers, who crunch the data and then send it to the terminal for final storage and review."

My lab coat ruffled as I used my thumbs to push it back so I could rest my hands on my hips, "As to what it all does? Well, it is the brains behind the creation of the crystal processors and their Optical Computational Packages. A vac-stack is mounted inside the chassis and then runs through a comprehensive battery of tests that activate every bit of functionality the stack has to offer, and while it goes through those tests, the sensors record the stack as it works. Then when everything has been recorded, the Nirisaki computers, utilizing a custom program I wrote to take advantage of their strengths, create an Optical Computing Pattern that can then be grown into a crystal processor."

I reached into my pocket and pulled out an optical processor core, a slab of Henan crystal as large and thick as a deck of playing cards, and handed it over to Hanse along with a pen light, "I know that you've already seen this once before, but a refresher couldn't hurt."

I watched as Hanse moved the beam of light over the processor, revealing thousands of teeny-tiny channels deep within the glass, "As you can see, these channels are what allows the light to move through unobstructed to the optical laser sensors so that they can interface with the photon-binary coding chassis that they are connected to. However, each vacuum stack and computer system that runs it requires a unique Computing Pattern, and so the ARTAEP is what makes that happen; if you had a Federated Hunter Targeting and Tracking System and slotted an OCP with its translation chassis in the place of the vac-stack and connected it to the interface stack, then it would work pretty much right out of the box."

"I take it," Hanse flipped the crystal processor over and viewed it from the opposite side, "That this... ARTAEP of yours is a critical part of your ongoing efforts to create a new series of targeting and tracking systems?"

"And my communications packages," I gave him a sly grin as I tilted my head to the side, "Thanks for donating those SME to me, by the way; they've been a great help in deciding the priorities for future Corean electronics packages."

Many months ago I began an effort to modernize Communications packages and Targeting and Tracking Systems, not only to bring them up to my standards but to create wholly Corean-owned products that could be used in all manners of Battlemechs and Combat Vehicles. We used some Corean packages, such as the Transband-J9 and B Link systems, but we also utilized Lynx-Shur electronics packages as well, along with a few others; we had enough outside packages stockpiled to see out our Valkyrie lines until the new packages could be made, but I made the call to not renew our contracts with outside manufacturers.

Corean Enterprises was well on its way to being completely self-sufficient, and getting those new electronics packages developed was a key part of that plan.

So to develop those new packages, I made a rather large list of Comms and T&TS packages from extinct and rival corporations (excluding anything of Lyran manufacture to avoid future legal battles) and set up a task force to comb through them to find the most efficient designs with desirable traits. Packages like the Dalban HiRez from Marauder fame, or the Lynx RM from the Magi Combat Support Vehicle, and others were chosen because they all had exceptional feature sets or quirks that made them desirable to have in a Targeting and Tracking System. The task force of scientists, coders, engineers, and Subject Matter Experts from my corporate security forces- along with a donation of Mechwarriors and Vehicle Commanders from the AFFS- all were working together to come up with what some might call "The Dream T&TS".

One that had all of the desirable features of multiple different packages all rolled into one system- they'd be copied and emulated in such a fashion that would stand up to scrutiny from the patent courts if they still existed, or blatantly ripped off and improved upon if their creator corporations were extinct.

Hanse's lips peeled back as he laughed, the man handing me back my penlight and the crystal processor, "I am so very glad that the AFFS could be of assistance, Arthur."

Once they'd finalized all of the key ingredients for the best T&TS and Comms packages we could come up with, we'd create some Vac-Stack models, code and finalize the software, and then we'd toss them into the ARTAEP to create the Optical Computational Patterns so that we could make the crystalline processors for them.

I sniffed, "Hey. Between the new packages and the crystal processors the ARTAEP can make, we're looking at shaving off a full ton of mass from the new Advanced Cockpits. Mass that could be used for more armor or more electronics."

The First Prince stared at me for a few moments before shaking his head, "Where the hell were you ten years ago, Arthur?"

"Still sitting in NAIS classes that you wouldn't let me advance through," I replied with my best deadpan, eyes devoid of warmth.

Hanse Davion's cheeks flushed as he coughed into his fist, "Ah, yes, right."

It was my turn to huff out a laugh as I shook my head, "Years will come and go, Hanse, and while my anger over that has long since cooled... the salt still remains."

"Is that something the kids are saying? 'Salt'?"

"I don't know, but it feels appropriate. I'm still 'salty' over it."

"Hmmm... I'll have to speak to my Public Relations team and see if that is a thing. 'Salty'. I sort of like it. Has a ring to it if nothing else."

"Well, I think it's neat."

We stood there in awkward silence for a few moments before Samantha cleared her throat and the First Prince blinked, "Ah. Right. About the Blackbox- have you made any progress on it?"

I crossed my arms over my chest as I ran down the mental checklist, "I've made some significant strides over the past five months, my Prince, but I think I'm still a month away before I will consider the Mk II Blackbox a finished product. Come your next visit it should be ready to present."

Hanse clapped his hands together, the man rocking back on his heels, "Excellent! So... is that all?"

I tapped my fingers against my trousers, "Well, we're making progress on Ferro Fibrous, and I've found the documentation on Endosteel in the Library Core- which I've already forwarded to NAIS. Double Heatsink Production should be good to go by 3031 and I'm already researching my own versions of it-"

"Oh? Corean Double Heatsinks?"

I smirked at the blatant fishing from Hanse as he rubbed his palms together, but I continued on as if he hadn't said anything, "-Solid State Battery research began 100% in earnest a few months ago, and... well, let's just say that I have a whole host of things cooking, Hanse. Though if you have some time...?"

Hanse grinned, "Oh, I blocked out my whole day to be here."

"Well then, if that's the case, then why don't we do this-?"

[NAIS Proving Grounds]

After spending an hour going over the Everyman vehicles and their brand new automated lines that my Automation Team and I had set up at the Corean-Dimurot motors compound, Hanse, Samantha, and our security teams loaded up into one of Corean's Planetlifters with a Sun Chaser SUN-1A prototype and flew over to the NAIS Proving Grounds.

Both Hanse and I were clad in cooling suits and tucked into the small scout tank, though I had a standard helmet while the First Prince had a neural helm that would allow him to better aim the weapons in the turret. For this first test run, I'd be driving with Hanse running the turret, and then once the run was complete we'd reset it and switch positions.

"Chaser-01, this Range Control."

I let my eyes flick over to the blinking icon for a split second, and the trackers in the helm recognized the input to click on the Comms, "Go for Chaser-01."

There were three different methods to activate the Comms without the use of a neural helm's input reading- a control button on the instrumentation panel in front of me within easy reach or the external clicker on the side of my helmet- but the eye-tracking system was something I had worked on personally a few years ago and I wanted to make sure that there weren't any bugs I needed to fix before any sort of mass rollout was conducted.

"Vehicle Range 04 is hot and you are ready to proceed at any time. Please follow all instructions from Range Control as they come in."

"Understood, Range Control. Chaser-01 copies all," I flicked my eyes back over to cut the connection off, my inner coder and tech nerd pleased as pie to see everything working so smoothly.

There was a bit of a learning curve to figuring out the functionality available to the crews of the Sun Chaser- and all future Corean 'Mechs and Vehicles- when it came to the visual tracker, but once crews and Mechwarriors started figuring them out, there was no doubt in my mind that efficiency and responsiveness would increase; the less they had to take their hands off of the controls and away from their weapons and sticks the better.

I flicked my eye into the top right-hand corner of my helmet and activated the internal camera facing the gunner, and I took a moment to watch Hanse's face through his unpolarized neural helm visor as his hands danced over the touch screens in front of him; nestled in his lap was a noteputer with the Start-Up Checklists and the Quick Familiarization Guide that he'd been intently reading on the short flight over. There was a large grin on his face that I could just barely see behind the thick mandible of the neural helm, and I manually scrolled the wheel on the side of my helmet over to the internal comms system, "Alright, Hanse. We're ready to go."

The Sun Chaser was a svelte tank, being barely two and a half meters wide at the outermost edges, which gave it a very narrow profile; it could easily traverse all but the most heavily wooded terrains that most tanks or Combat Vehicles would find near-impassable. However, this narrow profile also meant that the internals had to be arranged so that the driver sat in the front of the vehicle while the gunner/Commander sat two meters directly behind and up a meter; the seat nestled at the bottom of the turret ring with loads of curved, wrap-around flat screens that gave the gunner an unparalleled view of the flanks and rear. The primary monitors, however, displayed the vital statistics and had the three main gunnery cameras dominating them.

"Almost, Arthur. Just getting the sensitivity settings where I want them," The Prince hummed as he glanced between the noteputer in his lap and fiddled with the control knobs on the panel to his direct right; his right hand was on the primary Fire Control stick, and I could see on one of my monitors the orientation of the turret changing as he tilted the stick left and right to move the turret around.

"Alright then, while you're doing that... I'll find some suitable music..." I glanced over to the mini-noteputer sitting in a cradle on the internal spall-protection liner and after staring at it for a few moments the helmet activated the connection that already existed between it and the Sun Chaser's computer systems; I'd brought it with me to capture data and the video feeds from the run, but it also contained my rather expansive library of music.

I flicked my eyes across the apps and pulled up my music library before I began skipping down the list until I found what I was looking for.

Given that this universe was a strange mash-up of Future 80s and not, the music in the Battletech universe was as deep as it was wide; over a thousand years of humanity spreading across the stars created a library of different styles so vast that you could listen to a new style almost every day of your life and not listen to the same thing twice.

Since I was putting together a pair of racing vehicles it had me in a very 'racer' mood, and in my past life, there was one genre of music that stood out to me above all when it came to racing: Phonk.

I was glad to see that even here the genre still lived on.

It was hardly the style of music that a 'cultured' noble would listen to, but I couldn't have cared less as there had been a million and one re-makes of all of the 'classics' and while music wasn't something I particularly was attached to... this just felt oddly appropriate.

"Okay, Arthur. I am prepared."

I nodded, "Excellent."

My right hand gripped the steering yoke in front of me while my left flicked a trio of switches- the Sun Chaser coming fully to life around us as the imperceptible hum of the tank's 100-series fusion engine grew rose in volume until the noise-canceling of the helmet brought the volume back down.

"Reactor: Online.
Sensors: Online.
Weapons: Online. Safe.
Supercharger: Online.

All Systems Nominal."

Thank you, Betty. You da best.

"Range Control, this is Chaser-01. Turning onto Course 04 now," I spoke into the Range Control Channel as I released the parking brake and nudged the throttle stick forward; I could use the pedals but given I'd used those on the drive to the test range I would give the alternative drive stick a try.

"Understood, Chaser-01. Remain 'Weapons: Safe' until Checkpoint 3; after that, you're 'Weapons: Free'. Once the run is complete we'll have your score tallied up. Good hunting, Range Control out."

At the first detent, where there was some friction on the throttle stick, the tank leisurely sped up until it was at 10% throttle, and I ignored the small ferroglass window in front of my face in favor of the numerous flatscreens around me as I turned us on to the primary dirt track for the test range, "You hear that, Hanse?"

"Of course," The Prince replied blithely, a snort escaping him as he exercised the turret left, right, up and down, "It's almost like I've been on a test range before- unlike a certain someone."

"Well, there is a first time for everything," I responded as I kept the tank to the speed limits, bypassing the first and second checkpoints within a few minutes before we finally reached Checkpoint 3- a large steel sign covered in warning signs and verbiage about a 'hot test range ahead'.

Just as I made the left turn onto the hot portion of the track, I heard Betty speak out, "Weapons: Armed", and that was when I kicked on the music and punched the throttle all of the ways forward.

The fusion engine rose in volume to a pleasant whir as the Sun Chaser quickly picked up speed, raising to its maximum flanking speed of 86 kilometers per hour, dust and gravel kicking up in our wake as we sped down the straightaway toward the first station. The suspension on the vehicle shuddered slightly as I pulled back on the throttle and started to make the first turn of the course, Betty spoke up as I pulled us into a smooth right-hand turn, "Sensor Sweep Detected. Target: Scorpion."

Up on the hill in front of us, two holograms on tracks appeared, the pair of light tanks moving parallel to our drive direction as twin red boxes appeared over their mobile frames. The slope leading up to the Scorpions was blackened and pockmarked from over a decade's worth of tank crews firing at these exact same targets, and I saw the turret orient toward them as Hanse spoke up, "Engaging."

A brilliant, light blue beam lanced out roughly five hundred meters, a 'Hit' marker popping up as the Prince kept the beam steady on the side of the lead Scorpion's armor plating. It took roughly a second for the computer to calculate the damage done once the beam ended, and a second after that the hologram modified itself to show a bloom of molten metal streaming down the side of the Quickcell-made tank. After the first beam finished, the turrets of the twin Scorpions began traversing in our direction, and a hasty salvo from twin Autocannon-5s lanced out in our general direction- one 'splashed' almost thirty meters ahead of us while the second 'splashed' ten meters to our rear. The moment the 8cm "Blue-Lite" laser came off cooldown, Hanse shot once more, the Prince showcasing his exceptional gunnery skills as he struck the same area twice and held it on target despite the distance and our disparate velocities.

It took a trio of seconds before the computer registered the damage, and 'smoke and flame' flashed out as its tracks on the right side fell apart; the lead Scorpion skidding to a halt as its motive system was shorn completely and the second Scorpion forced to move around it.

The two courses were slowly converging, the five hundred meters between us steadily ticking down to four hundred and fifty, then four hundred, and a simulated A/C-5 from the second Scorpion screeched past us to 'detonate' half a dozen meters against the embankment behind us. Hanse put another lance of actinic blue laser into the turret of the second Scorpion, the dirt track rising up obscured his line of fire on the less armored side of the tank, and I felt a slight thrill run through me as the cooling system completely carried away the heat from the large laser's discharge.

Trees obscured the line of sight on the tank, and rather than waste heat, Hanse held his fire until the Scorpion had cleared the copse; at around three hundred meters this was the perfect distance for the trio of "Green-Lite" Medium Lasers, and as one they spoke out- a soft 'bwwuuaaammmm' filling the cabin as the three emerald beams raked across the turret housing. The moment the beam duration completed, I punched the activation stud on the throttle stick with my thumb, the Supercharger roaring to life as the next few seconds saw our speeds increasing to that of a Loust on the run.

The Scorpion returned fire, however, the computer-controlled gunner hadn't anticipated the sudden change in speed, and its 120mm A/C-5 shell was barely audible as it streaked far to the rear.

I laid off the Supercharger immediately and pulled the stick back, the gearing quickly dropping us back to the Sun Chaser's unaugmented 54 kilometers per hour cruising speed, and Hanse lined up his shot before three more verdant green beams splashed over the turret housing- the Scorpion going up in a hail of sparks and flames as its armor plating failed the interior of the holographic tank was bathed in superheated light.

"Target: Destroyed."

"Use the Supercharger a bit more, Arthur. We'll need the speed if we're going to set a course record with a Light Tank," Hanse's smug voice dribbled into my ears as I did just that, punching the activation stud for a handful of seconds before laying off so we could make the hairpin turn leading up to the next gunnery section, "That's a good man! You have a Destrier, Arthur! A warhorse! Don't drive it like a mule!"

I felt my grip on the steering yoke and throttle stick tighten up, as I clenched my teeth, "Hanse, while I am confident in my driving..."

The moment we crested over the top of the hill I felt my blood run cold as a green laser 'swept' down the right side of the Sun Chaser, the instrumentation flashing red as our side armor was reduced by three points.

"Sensor Sweep Detected. Target: Locust-1V."

"Ahahaha! Punch it, Arthur!" Hanse laughed out as the armored ground drone rounded the corner behind us, the tall, holographic representation of the 20-ton Battlemech running above it visible in my rearview camera, "Dodge when I say!"

The Supercharger's whine filled my ears as my heart began to thunder in my chest, each pump filling my ears as I kept my eyes on the road ahead of us; a trio of Medium Lasers from the turret struck the Locust in the center torso, melting holographic armor 'dripping' down to reveal scorched internal structure, "Oh-ho! He didn't like that one bit- left!"

I twitched the control yoke to the left the moment I heard the Prince cry out, and to the right of us, a lance of simulated green light speared right where we'd been, but the Locust Pilot was able to adjust the last few milliseconds of his beam to score a single point of armor off of our rear. I kept the speed on as I did my best to keep us traveling in a straight line down the road, and Hanse chain-fired the medium lasers as the computer pilot attempted to spread the damage to their left arm and side torso with a twist, but it was for nothing as the Prince managed to get enough beam exposure on the denuded center torso to ignite the ammunition bins for the twin machineguns- the ammo cooking off and destroying the fusion power plant.

"And that's why we moved the ammo out of the CT with the refits," I muttered to myself as I laid off the Supercharger to give it some time to cool down- though as we reached the end of the straight away I needed to slow down so we didn't flip when I made the turn anyway.

The track turned right and down the backside of the hill, leading into a series of switchback turns that forced me to keep my speed fairly low, but the Goddamned Mechwarrior behind me kept pestering, "Supercharger down the straightaways, Arthur. We need to go faster- use the brakes."

Still, despite the fact that my stomach was all of the way up my throat as we careened toward each turn, I did my best to oblige, and I felt a manic laugh bubble up from my core as we were essentially drifting around the corners.

"Sensor Sweep Detected. Target: Marten VTOL."

We had just reached the base of the hill when a lance of four helicopters appeared from above the treeline almost six hundred meters from the west and began hauling ass toward us- the readouts showing their speeds in excess of 150 kilometers per hour; given the technological limitations these targets were purely rendered in the AR set-up- our tank linked into the network piping the data for these VTOLs into our feeds.

Once they reached the optimal range for the 8cm laser, Hanse fired, and while the Marten tried to juke out of the way, its thin armor plating was insufficient to protect it from more than half of the laser's burn duration; it belched black smoke as it began to spin wildly through the air. Its three fellows were unperturbed by the loss and kept coming in hot and heavy, for their pass; the Sun Chaser's trio of Medium Lasers spoke out just as six SRMs from the trio of SRM-2s flashed out, and all of them save one missed our fast moving steed- two points of armor dedicated from our left side as they passed overhead. One more of the Martens fell from Hanse's salvo, the viridian beams spearing through its underbelly as it passed overhead and 'crashed' into the field to our right; it's poorly rendered husk smoking virtually in the grass.

Once the heat had cycled out, Hanse let loose with the 8cm laser one last time, spearing into the virtually non-existent rear armor of the trailing VTOL, the helicopter falling out of the sky as the lone survivor disappeared over the tree-tops to the east.

"Is it going to make another pass?" I asked as I punched the Supercharger to get the speed that I knew Hanse would as for anyway.

"No, those Martens only perform a single run," The Prince supplied as he rotated the turret to the front once more, "You want to get as many as you can during this singular attack run."

I laid off the Supercharger the moment we rounded the corner, and we came face to face with a Manticore Heavy Tank. "Sensor Sweep-"

Before Betty even had a chance to speak up the simulated PPC bolt splashed across our nose- the electronics scrambling as the warning klaxons wailed out the damage; our 22 points of armor on the nose stripped down to 12. "-Detected. Target: Manticore Heavy Tank."

"Punch it, Arthur! Straight down the pipe and underrun its PPC and LRMs!" Hanse hooted as he fired the 8cm Laser and drilled it into the Heavy Tank's turret.

"And what about-" Ten long-range missiles streaked from its 10-Pack on the turret and screamed toward us, four of the ten peppering the nose and turret while the remainder splashed around us, "-the SRMs and Medium laser!"

"Circle it- right!" Hanse broke off what he was going to say as I jerked the control yoke to the right, sending us into a controlled skid as a green beam from the Medium Laser and six SRMs screamed past the space we'd been occupying, "Good man! Circle it in close and let me do the rest- it's got terrible turret traversal!"

"Son of a bitch, son of a bitch, son of a bitch," I muttered to myself as I poured on the speed, slipping left just a hair to avoid the crackling packet of charged particles from its Parti-Kill PPC, but I was unable to dodge the LRM salvo that followed it- six of the ten missiles splashing over the hull.

How the hell was this so much more nerve-wracking than the simulator pods!?

The Manticore grew larger and larger as we hauled ass down the strip toward it, and my relief at reaching the 90 meters needed to prevent it from firing its PPCs was immediately stripped away the moment its medium laser drew an angry line up the left side of our armor. However, Hanse had been right, as its SRM-6 pack streaked to our rear- the turret of the Manticore unable to keep up with our speed as I slowed the Sun Chaser a touch and yanked hard left on the yoke; I was pushed into the right side of my shock couch as the treads chewed up the dirt and grass beneath us- the tank drifting around the left side and toward the rear as Hanse opened up with the trio of Medium lasers, once more targeting the turret of the Manticore.

The yoke jerked and fought my hands as I adjusted it to keep our rotation around the heavy tank as smooth as possible, my thumb goosing the spooled-up Supercharger to speed up and slow down to prevent the turn from becoming too ovular- every split second we weren't outpacing its turret was a second closer to death.

"That's it, Arthur, just like that!" The green triplet of medium lasers on our turret spoke out once more, splashing three angry molten lines around the armor plating of the Manticore; we were too close to concentrate the fire as we were well within the zeroed distance that was set.

The Manticore's SRM-6 retorted, two of its six missiles smacking into the rear armor of the Sun Chaser as we passed by, but it had to choose which weapon to hit with, and the Medium Laser trailed behind us.

The Supercharger had finally reached its limits, and we began to slow down to our normal flank speed of 86 kilometers per hour, turning our high-speed drifting into something far more sedate, but Hanse didn't seem bothered at all as he poured another salvo into the heavy tank's turret, "Now! Straight toward the next section, Arthur! Quickly!"

I did as he instructed, putting the proverbial pedal to the metal as I straightened us out with the last orbit around the Manticore, and sped down the field, juking right the moment Hanse called out- a PPC bolt scrambling the sensors and HUD as it pierced the air just a meter to our left. The heavy tank was turning to follow us, but Hanse drilled its turret one last time with the Medium lasers, scoring the kill and allowing me to focus on driving the damn tank.

"Smashing work, Arthur!" I felt Hanse's booted foot thump against the back of my seat a few times, "Only a few more stations to go, and our armor is still in decent shape- I have a good feeling about this!"

There were four more stations after that, a variety of other light tanks and a few APCs that the Sun Chaser's weaponry made quick work of, and the last station was an 800-meter stretch of road that had two simulated lances of Battlemechs duking it out on either side; we weren't targeted by the enemy lances, as they obviously had bigger things to worry about than a lone tank, but we still earned points based on the amount of damage we did to their vehicles as we screamed through the battlefield.

The only thing that was annoying was that we were constantly harried by a lance of Warrior H-7s that popped up at the third to last checkpoint and attempted to pepper us with A/C-2s while they flew just within the ragged edge of our Enhanced Large Laser's maximum range; the 8cm Laser, which Hanse deigned to fire at them, managed to score a single kill on the four VTOLs, but after being taken down they started to take more evasive maneuvers. It greatly reduced their hit accuracy on us, but it made shooting at them a pointless venture when attempting to keep the burning blue beam on them was difficult even for a gunner of Hanse's caliber.

I had to drive in reverse the last two hundred meters of the stretch to present the remains of our front armor because our back armor had been almost completely stripped away by the trailing Warriors to the point where if we suffered another hit it would have gone internal and 'killed' us.

The moment we crossed the finish line on the course, the simulated Mechs and Warriors fizzled out as Betty spoke up, "Weapons: Safe."

"Chaser-01, this is Range Control. Run complete. Follow the Nav Markers to Checkpoint 22 and sit tight until the scores are tallied."

I let out a gusting sigh as I slowed the tank down to walking speed and pulled the control yoke right until we were facing forward once more, and I shook my arms out as I eyed the damage charts.

We were down to 19% armor, with three instances of fire nearly breaching our right, turret, and rear armor plating.

"Excellent work, Arthur, excellent work!" I heard Hanse's gloved hands clapping within the turret as we sedately followed the nav markers toward the rest stop well behind a pair of large berms, "Are you sure this is your first time on a live-fire course?"

I crossed my arms over my chest for a brief moment as I clenched and unclenched my hands in an attempt to get feeling back into them, "I have a grand total of four hours and thirty-six minutes in the Sun Chaser sim pods, and more than half of that was running through the Familiarization Course, and the other half was running the Eye-Tracking Interface Systems through its paces."

Hanse hummed noncommittally in response.

I put my hands back on the control yoke as an AFFS soldier in fatigues waved us over and pointed toward a parking space for the tank near the base of the Control Tower, and I dialed back on the throttle stick to its neutral detent until he signaled for me to stop; parking brake engaged, I powered down the reactor and primary systems before undoing the safety harness and disconnecting my cooling suit from the lines.

There was a slight hiss as the environmental seals broke open the moment Hanse opened up the top hatch, and I slipped out of my chair into the waist-width alley running along the left-hand side of the tank; I followed him up and out, stepping over the gunner's seat and pulling myself up the three rungs. The moment I stood on top of the turret housing I reached up and unsealed my helmet, pulling it off and relishing in the crispy, nippy air that swept across my sweat-soaked scalp; Hanse was seated on top of the tread guards with his helmet nestled in his lap- nary a drop of sweat on his brow as he smirked at me.

"I tell you, Arthur, these cooling suits make a world of difference!" My Prince's gloved fingers beat a tattoo on his Neural helm as he looked up to see an NCO step out of the control station and clomp down the metal stairs with a noteputer in his hands.

"Well done, my Prince," The Sergeant held up the noteputer for Hanse to take, "Not quite a course record, but very close; if you'd managed to down the last Marten or crossed the finish line ten seconds sooner we'd be updating the leaderboards. Though for now, I guess you'll just have to settle for second place."

Hanse's face was torn between amused and surprised, the man tapping the hardened device against the palm of his hand as he read it over, "195 points out of 500 possible? No... this won't do... not at all..."

The First Prince of the Federated Suns' right eye was crinkled shut as he looked up at me, the February sun nearly washing out his colors, "Arthur. I was planning on letting you have a go at the gunner's position after this... but knowing that we didn't break the record? I'm going to say that we need to run it again... that is if you're fine with being second best on the course?"

What sort of leading-ass question was that?

I felt my fingers tingle as I looked back to the Sun Chaser's hatch, and when I looked at Hanse I shook my head, "Who the hell do you think you're talking to, My Prince? I'm Arthur Corean- I don't do 'second best'."

His other eye crinkled as his smirk deepened, "Looks like we're running it again, Sergeant."

We ended up running it four more times before we cracked the Course Record, and five more times after that until we had everything down pat- the Prince and I working in concert to squeeze every last drop of performance out of the Sun Chaser and ourselves.

223 out of 500 points was the best we could manage, our completion time, kills, armor damage sustained, and damage dealt being the absolute peak of what the pair of us could do; I was sucking the damn guts out of the tank, the Supercharger pegged to the max every time it was available, but there was no doubt in my mind that I was still a rather conservative driver. A true tanker with the same amount of time behind the controls that I had could likely squeeze another fifteen or twenty seconds out of the tank simply by being more dangerous with the turns, but that wasn't me.

I wasn't going to die by accident on a tank course by flipping the damn thing.

Still, we beat the course best of 199 and set up a sizeable lead for a Light Tank that would only likely be beaten by another Sun Chaser with a more experienced crew, and Hanse and I were both immensely satisfied with that.

However, after what I thought was the final run of the day, my wife-to-be was thoroughly fed up with sitting in the tower watching, so I 'begrudgingly' did one last run with her as my Gunner. She was a damn good shot, not as good as Hanse, but my Spy Wifey acquitted herself beautifully.

When my team and I piled back into the Planetlifter with the Sun Chaser in the rear cargo bay, it was without Hanse, but the Prince promised that he would be by next month to take a look at the Black Box once I felt it was in a good enough state to be shown.

I was tired and sore, but I couldn't say that I didn't feel a bit alive as the Planetlifter took off into the sky- seated in the passenger bay with Samantha nestled up against my side; her head on my shoulder.

It was a good day.

A/N: This one took me a bit longer than I'd like as I struggled to find a good balance between tech-porn and tech-porn progress with some nice character interactions. The run in the Sun Chaser on the course wasn't actually planned at all, but it just seemed to fit, and writing it out on the page meant that the last 6k of this chapter came out pretty darn quickly.