Author Topic: Seven  (Read 73659 times)

consequences

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Re: Seven
« Reply #30 on: 02 November 2014, 10:53:18 »
The alternative is to put a weapon in each location, at which point she kills you because trying to snipe the  ER large laser you have in the head is far too much effort especially after having to do the same seven other places to nonlethally disable your mech.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #31 on: 02 November 2014, 12:07:31 »
Really, I tend to think that she made a tactical mistake here as it was; clipping the firepower of the headcappers out of the fight was important, but it took her three salvos to do. Boring straight through the center-torso plating to gut the reactor and gyro outright would've taken only two, even against a Daishi.

If the weapons were spread out rather than conveniently concentrated for her to inflict 'bad luck' on, well, that just makes that equation easier, doesn't it? There's a reason what she does is illegal under the boardgame rules, and that the PC games tend to inflate armor totals to prevent it.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #32 on: 02 November 2014, 20:57:53 »
Hey, detail input while I'm working on the next scene.

How old are Clan Warriors at their initial graduation? The hypercompression Clan society inflicts on their lives and careers as a whole would lead me to expect sixteen or so, but cultural pressures on the writers and publishers may have that higher.

wolfgar

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Re: Seven
« Reply #33 on: 02 November 2014, 23:13:31 »
14-16 if memory serves, I don't have my books handy right now to be absolutely certain.
Wolf wins every fight but one, and in that one he dies, his fangs locked on the throat of his opponent.

drakensis

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Re: Seven
« Reply #34 on: 03 November 2014, 06:56:05 »
The novels indicate it's traditional for warriors to graduate from training at the age of 20. On the other hand, the Jade Falcons rushed sibkos into action for the Coventry campaign and they're not generally daring radicals so it might not be unusual to graduate warriors younger during the gearing up for the Invasion.
"It's national writing month, not national writing week and a half you jerk" - Consequences, 9th November 2018

wolfgar

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Re: Seven
« Reply #35 on: 03 November 2014, 09:44:11 »
I checked ToW last night and standard char gen has sibkos going boots and saddles at 16. (End of stage 3 I think it was. ) inevitably its writers choice for age.
Wolf wins every fight but one, and in that one he dies, his fangs locked on the throat of his opponent.

Chris OFarrell

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Re: Seven
« Reply #36 on: 03 November 2014, 21:19:33 »
The novels indicate it's traditional for warriors to graduate from training at the age of 20. On the other hand, the Jade Falcons rushed sibkos into action for the Coventry campaign and they're not generally daring radicals so it might not be unusual to graduate warriors younger during the gearing up for the Invasion.

Wasn't the Jade Falcons BS a case of Crichell magically doing a 'Unfortunately we don't have time to see this cake cook, but here is one I prepared earlier?'

With pure fiat declaring that he had 'forseen' this day and somehow had know that at this exact time he would need a hoard of new personnel to make up for major combat losses?

As in somehow he had seen back around ~3040 that he would need a massive boost in the number of Trueborns cycling in, because somehow he knew the Jade Falcons would have gotten into a defacto Trial of Annihilation and been bled white?

So that rather then the Jade Falcons being forced to face the consequences of the Refusal War, they just magically were able to reform entire Galaxies with fully trained Mechwarriors, Elementals and Pilots and boom, away you go? Rather then have the authors actually have to suffer the indignity of facing the consequences of the Trueborn replenishment system when the attrition rate suddenly explodes?
"I, the Baron of Strang, care not for your new names. Clans? Jade Falcons? I call you by your true name: Scum of the Star League, traitors of free will, persecutors of the Periphery come back to lord it over freedom-loving people. Come ahead, you steel-eyed robots! Come ahead and taste what a million like-minded people think of you and your damn Clans!"

-Baron Stepan Von Strang

consequences

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Re: Seven
« Reply #37 on: 04 November 2014, 02:32:30 »
Wasn't the Jade Falcons BS a case of Crichell magically doing a 'Unfortunately we don't have time to see this cake cook, but here is one I prepared earlier?'

With pure fiat declaring that he had 'forseen' this day and somehow had know that at this exact time he would need a hoard of new personnel to make up for major combat losses?

As in somehow he had seen back around ~3040 that he would need a massive boost in the number of Trueborns cycling in, because somehow he knew the Jade Falcons would have gotten into a defacto Trial of Annihilation and been bled white?

So that rather then the Jade Falcons being forced to face the consequences of the Refusal War, they just magically were able to reform entire Galaxies with fully trained Mechwarriors, Elementals and Pilots and boom, away you go? Rather then have the authors actually have to suffer the indignity of facing the consequences of the Trueborn replenishment system when the attrition rate suddenly explodes?
Did they ever provide a full canon explanation for that as opposed to just mumbling under their breath? I know for a while now my headcanon has been that Crichell/Marthe Pryde blackmailed the Society into handing over their secret sibkos possibly with the bribe of giving them much needed combat experience, with Marthe's Scientist slaughter being her way of killing anyone that could have implicated her, but I hate the Falcons with the burning fire of 4 yellow stars 1 Blue giant and a half dozen red dwarfs so I can in no way be remotely considered to be unbiased.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #38 on: 04 November 2014, 14:38:37 »
ARCADIA, CLAN HOMEWORLDS
SEPTEMBER 17, 3048

Laurie Tseng was a tall, battered-looking woman whose heavy bones and honed muscles were a strong contrast with the two younger women who faced each other across the coinwell, one her own height but slender and almost delicate, the other short and richly curved. "I am the Oathmaster, and accept responsibility for representing House Tseng here. Do you concur in this?"

"Seyla," both of the applicants answered.

"Then what transpires here shall bind us all until we all shall fall. In this, your fifth and final battle, you sanctify, with your blood, Nicholas Kerensky's determination to forge the Clans into the pinnacle of human development. Know that being chosen to participate marks you as having the seed of potential to rightly place you among the few who have existed at the zenith of all that our people hold sacred.

"You, Vera Ghost Bear, have seen sixteen years. Why are you worthy?"

"I was chosen by Malcom Tseng to be heir to this Bloodname. I claimed seven victories in my Blooding and tested into command of a full Galaxy. In that post, I led the capture of Clan Ice Hellion's Warship Coterie, now in Ghost Bear service as the Iditarod. Prior to the battle today, I defeated four mechwarriors for the right to be here today."

"You, Kirsten Ghost Bear, have seen twenty years. Why are you worthy?"

"In my Blooding, I claimed one victory, earning my place as a Warrior of the Clan. I have fought Clan Blood Spirit on York, Clan Burrock on Albion, Clan Cloud Cobra and Clan Star Adder on Homer, Clan Coyote, Clan Hell's Horses, Clan Fire Mandrill, and Clan Wolf on Hoard, Clan Diamond Shark and Clan Snow Raven on Lum, Clan Goliath Scorpion, Clan Jade Falcon, and Clan Smoke Jaguar on Huntress, Clan Ice Hellion on Hector, and Clan Steel Viper on New Kent - and claimed victories against them all. Five times I have saved the life of my commanders in battle, and in the trials preceding the initiation of Operation Revival, I three times provided the location of enemy strike groups and forward resupply points to my superiors for destruction. Prior to the battle today, I defeated four mechwarriors for the right to be here today, killing two."

Lauri Tseng nodded, and held out her hands to both of them. "The heroism and courage you both have displayed has been established and verified, proving that your claims are not without substance. No matter what ensues and what fate you meet this battle, the brightness of your light shall not be diminished. Present the tokens of your proven right to participate in this contest."

As she had four times before, Vera rubbed her thumb along the face of the snarling Ghost Bear that formed the obverse of her coin, for luck, before dropping it into the Oathmaster's hand.

"When one token has successfully stalked the other and they complete their transit through this cone, the hunting token will be superior. That Warrior may choose the style for the battle. The hunted token will be inferior; that Warrior may choose the venue for the battle. In this way each will fight on a battlefield not wholly of her choosing."

The Loremaster of Clan Ghost Bear turned and slotted both coins into the ramps that topped the curved cone of the well. She walked around its perimeter so that she could see both Kirsten and Vera's faces. "Let the tokens choose among equals."

"Seyla," the young warriors breathed in perfect and unconscious unison.

Loremaster Tseng pressed the release, and the platinum coins began spiralling downward, rumbling around and around, deeper and deeper.

Vera couldn't tell which was ahead when they passed out of sight, and instinctively held her breath as the capture bin that had been below the well came into sight. The Loremaster's hand vanished inside, came out with a glittering coin. She held it up - sigil side towards the two warriors - then flipped it around so that they could see.

Their genetically engineered eyes had no trouble reading the name written across the coin's reverse, and tension gusted out of their breaths in a sigh.

"Kirsten, you are the hunter."

Kirsten smiled, characteristically finding humor even in so solemn a circumstance. "It might be better for the Clan if I were as overconfident as some have been, but alas, I am neither a fool nor so self-sacrificing. I will hunt unaugmented."

Vera shrugged, and, without meaning to, smiled back. At least Kirsten wasn't going to kill her; she'd have another chance.

"Vera, the style has been decided. Where will you be hunted?"

She shrugged, still smiling. "There is no sense in delaying it. Here, as soon as the mechanism of decision has been cleared away."

Two Elementals came to carry away the well. When they had gone, the Loremaster gestured Vera and Kirsten into position. "You have your battlefield. Skill, Warriors. Let the battle begin!"

As friends, they'd sparred many times before, especially given Vera's efforts to polish her own skills in hand-to-hand fighting. Kirsten knew Vera's tendency to try and rely on knee and elbow shots inside taller opponents' reach, and to rely on her reflexes to skate around harm. Vera knew Kirsten's habit of switching between punishing full-reach strikes and outright grapples that could use her greater size and strength to the full.

Both of them also knew that their spars usually ended with Vera either tapping out or lying breathless on the floor, trying to piece her wits back together.

Kirsten punched, Vera blocked and fell back a step out of range of the follow up. A kick was outright dodged, again backwards, the shorter, younger Vera looking desperately for a way through Kirsten's guard. She might be unlikely to win, but she at least wanted to get a shot in...

Kirsten didn't intend to let her evade a third time; she tried a rush, boring in to grapple. Vera threw herself back and down, under the grab and onto her back, and reached up, grabbing herself for Kirsten's wrists.

The tactic wasn't like her, and surprise delayed the taller warrior's response just long enough for her to get a grip and yank, dragging Kirsten down - onto the feet she'd brought up by tucking her thighs against her stomach.

She rolled with the momentum, bearing both of their weights up onto her shoulders, then pushed off with all the strength in her back and both legs, launching Kirsten's heavier body hurtling through the air.

As soon as she let go, Vera twisted around, kipping back up onto her feet and turning to follow before the other could recover, but the sound of impact that she heard halfway through the motion was sharper and harder than expected - she'd forgotten the way her earlier evasions had brought her back towards the room's wall, and pitched Kirsten into it headfirst.

Her friend lay crumpled against the wall, and for a moment Vera thought she was dead; the clumsy attempt to roll over, and the way the motion provoked her to be sick all over the floor, were actually a singing relief. She dropped to her knees next to Kirsten and looked up at the Loremaster, the Oathkeeper. "I do not believe she can continue," she said.

Laurie Tseng inclined her head. "Yours is the victory... Vera Tseng."

Chris OFarrell

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Re: Seven
« Reply #39 on: 04 November 2014, 16:30:43 »
Yay, Bloodname!

Although oddly I don't think you're allowed to make even Star Colonel without a Bloodname.
Then again Vera pretty much broke all traditions, so everyone probably just shrugged and let it slide.

We never really see many times when friends come up against each other in a Bloodname battle. Its implied that it happens and is considered a very unfortunate part of the deal, but you have to just push through IIRC...

It would be nice though if Vera will in the future nominate Kristen the next time an open slot comes up :)

Keep up the good work :D
"I, the Baron of Strang, care not for your new names. Clans? Jade Falcons? I call you by your true name: Scum of the Star League, traitors of free will, persecutors of the Periphery come back to lord it over freedom-loving people. Come ahead, you steel-eyed robots! Come ahead and taste what a million like-minded people think of you and your damn Clans!"

-Baron Stepan Von Strang

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #40 on: 04 November 2014, 17:01:27 »
I think of Bloodnames as being like marriage is for real-world military officers' careers - it's not a formal requirement, but the networking and social benefits are significant enough that it's practically obligatory...

...Barring some overwhelming outside factor.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #41 on: 04 November 2014, 23:26:20 »
OK, so, now we get into actual planning material for the invasion, much of which isn't directly plot-relevant enough to go in the actual story material but I'm enough of a military geek to want to have nailed down.

What I'm thinking is that Clan Ghost Bear has, in the immediate lead-up to the invasion, picked up a Potempkin, the former Coterie, rechristened Iditarod after the famous arctic racing event. Per a suggestion in this thread, I'm thinking that they've also leased additional hulls from the Goliath Scorpions, specifically the Potempkin-class Prometheus and Epimetheus and the Nightlord-class Atropos, at considerable expense.

The Ghost Bears actually made the initial offer for nearly the final price, expecting to be bargained down to a somewhat lower sum for only the two Potempkins, only to have the Scorpions go basically, 'Hey, for this purpose and that price, you have a deal'. 'Uhhh... okay.'

With two invasion support ships basically capable of carrying a galaxy by themselves, three galaxies to deploy, and one galaxy commander whose qualifications for her post are known to be... iffy...

What I figure the Bears have done is to assign Alpha and Beta galaxies to one or the other of the two Nightlords, and escort each of them with an Essex and a Lola III.

Each of the three Potempkins is being used solely for logistical work, festooned with the largest cargo dropships available and following along in the wake of the front line as forward supply depots.

The Black Lion, Cameron, York, Fredasa, Volga, and both Carracks, meanwhile, are being used individually to deploy Delta Galaxy as a scouting and raiding force, ranging across the Invasion Corridor to poke sticks into everything and dodge back from anything that tries to poke back.

Once the contents of all relevant dark corners have been verified, one of two things happens. For small concentrations, Delta takes off its Running Shoes and puts on its Stomping Boots, and deals with the planet in question itself. For larger ones, Alpha or Beta drop by with a Bear-sized helping of OW MY SPLEEN.

This feels like a more Ghost Bear solution to me than what we see from them in canon. It doesn't involve them jumping in blindly, like a Smoke Jaguar, and it doesn't involve them half-assing it when they do decide to hit someplace.

On the theory that the terms of the invasion bidding only specify allowed troops in terms of 'Three galaxies', I'm thinking that Alpha and Beta have been beefed up with an additional cluster each, and that all three assigned galaxies have been reinforced to the maximum allowable strength - IE, Alpha, Beta, and Delta are going in with five clusters each of five trinaries.

Notably, even Vera - when she's not having a hyperdramatic teenaged angst-freakout - has underestimated the amount of garrison forces that will be required; this will be a plot point.

ckosacranoid

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Re: Seven
« Reply #42 on: 05 November 2014, 00:37:25 »
Nice story. Very funny how she beats 7 people in her trail and is gay, very amusing to say the least.

fitzgerald

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Re: Seven
« Reply #43 on: 05 November 2014, 02:43:41 »
Give the Clan warriors this much.

They've actually gotten away from bias's between sexes and gender preferences.   

Its like the one actually point about Clan Warrior culture.

serack

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Re: Seven
« Reply #44 on: 05 November 2014, 04:51:01 »
just as a point of reference,  in cannon, the invadeing clans knew of the inner sphere deployments as comstar was providing intelligence for them, to help make them more of a threat ,So that when comstar can to save the day , everyone would be soo grateful that they would fall in line with the will of blake lol .

Clans ran into issues when they hit places that troops had moved since the last comstar update they had before then invasion kick off. Several places it bit them hard  >:D

have a nice day :)

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #45 on: 05 November 2014, 04:55:42 »
I'm aware, but Comstar's cooperation was something that started after the beginning of the invasion, and wasn't anticipated in the planning stages.

serack

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Re: Seven
« Reply #46 on: 05 November 2014, 05:22:56 »
yep

explorer corps pg 9 talks about it starting after several attacks already had been done :)

drakensis

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Re: Seven
« Reply #47 on: 05 November 2014, 09:16:08 »
There was a certain amount of symbolism to the Ghost Bear's first attack on the Inner Sphere: the entire invasion force was present for invading Thule. This may well still be the case - while it was the result of politics there's a degree to which it makes sense to remain concentrated with all resources available until it's determined for sure that previous information is correct.
"It's national writing month, not national writing week and a half you jerk" - Consequences, 9th November 2018

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #48 on: 07 November 2014, 02:49:39 »
A fairly short update today, because, really, spending too long on Vera being an overdramatic teenager about an admittedly sucky event in her life really isn't much fun for either readers or author. Barring some particularly interesting idea striking me for the voyage up the Exodus Road, the next scene should be the start of the invasion proper - and Thule.


ARCADIA, CLAN HOMEWORLDS
SEPTEMBER 29, 3048

She was hiding within her duties, and knew it. One singleton dropship collar, eight in four pairs, and eight more in two sets of four.

If she was working, she wasn't thinking about the bitter taste of failure and loss. That gave her seven locations she could put Warships into... and thirteen more that she couldn't, given the kind of dispersion she herself had argued for putting Delta's ground forces into.

The numbers drowned out the bleak devastation in Kirsten's eyes as the grim doctor had informed her that the brain damage from her concussion would keep her from ever piloting a mech again. However, in addition to those twenty systems of ground elements, she had six trinaries of omnifighters, and six of the ground elements were mixed trinaries that included fighter components.

The numbers drowned out the desperate futility she'd felt, trying to convince her best friend to accept a transfer to the armor service rather than retire as a civilian or 'stop wasting resources'. If she reorganized one of her omnimech trinaries as a supernova formation, used it to absorb one of her elemental trinaries, that would leave room in the table of organization and equipment for another fighter trinary.

The numbers kept the world from graying out in front of her eyes, kept her from swaying in place as a gnawing chill far worse than the Clawing's weather stole the strength from her knees, kept her from facing her loss. With thirteen fighter-supported detachments, she could assign them to use jumpship transport, and with a mostly clear conscience since they'd be operating with the Iditarod to manage supplies. Odysseys, of course.

If she thought about her work, she didn't, couldn't, think about how Kirsten's death felt, how the deaths of everyone else she'd killed must have felt to those who loved them. Juggling what went where was somewhat more complicated, of course, but it had only kept her busy for so long.

Was this the great purpose Nicholas Kerensky had forged the Clans to achieve? Endless loss and bloodshed, the glorification of the ruthless and the murderous to such a degree that even the best of them would die before they stopped killing? Raising her concerns with the Khans and Loremaster had at least won her the concession of being allowed to scout ahead of each wave. Not that planning that on the basis of a map that hadn't been updated in two hundred and seventy years was much better, but it was something.

The glory, the vaunted 'Bloodname', the accolades and promise for the future... What good were they? The knowledge that the future bearers of her genes would be still more accomplished at bringing pain? A ceremonial beginning at Thule, with all three front-line Galaxies operating together, and then Alpha would jump to Damian and Beta to Richmond, while Delta split up to scout the next twenty worlds, all the way to Spittal, Casere, and Courchevel.

She saved the planning file she'd been working on and sent it to Bol Jorgensson, who'd become her main tactical deputy since that almost-disasterous trial on Hector, and then went to take a shower. It wouldn't help her put off the tears any longer, but that didn't mean she didn't need to take care of herself.

SulliMike23

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Re: Seven
« Reply #49 on: 07 November 2014, 09:52:23 »
Sounds like Vera is becoming disillusioned with the Clan way of life.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #50 on: 07 November 2014, 17:40:15 »
Tum-te-tum-te-tum.


In other news, my planning and evaluations continue, based on information pulled from Sarna:


Idlewind   1 armor battalion, 1 infantry regiment
Holmsbu      2 armor regiments - Clustered
Pinnacle   1 infantry regiment
Constance   5 mech companies, 2 armor regiments - Clustered

Skallevoll   1 mech battalion, 1 armor regiment, 2 infantry regiments [heavy losses]
Balsta      2 infantry regiments
Susquehanna   1 mech company, 2 armor battalions (mercs) [Keshik]
Jarett      1 mech regiment - ALPHA

Leoben      4 infantry divisions(!) - BETA
Trondheim   1 mech company, 2 armor battalions, 1 aero wing, 2 infantry regs
Rasalhague   Wolves' Problem
Last Frontier   1 mech company, 1 infantry regiment

Polcenigo   1 mech battalion, 1 infantry regiment [mutual annihilation]
Radlje      1 mech lance, 1 infantry battalion
Vipaava      1 mech company, 2 infantry regiments
Jezersko   2 armor regiments - Clustered


Ghost Bear Waves One-and-Two
Phase One
THULE

Phase Two
Alpha: Damien
Beta: Richmond
Delta: Idlewind, Pinnacle, Skallevoll, Balsta, Susquehanna, Leoben, Trondheim, Last Frontier, Rasalhague, Polcenigo, Radlje, Vipaava

Phase Three
Alpha: Jarett
Beta: Leoben
Delta: Holmsbu, Jezersko, Constance


I note that Vera will be removing the commanders responsible for Skallevoll and Polcenigo, or would if they survived their folly, given that her orders to them were to fall back off the planet rather than take serious losses.

Chris OFarrell

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Re: Seven
« Reply #51 on: 07 November 2014, 20:39:28 »
Poor Vera :(

So I take it that Kirsten performed some kind of Clan ritual suicide because she couldn't ever pilot a Mech again?
Kinda says it all really about Trueborns. When you are quite literally brought up from the day you are spilled from a vat to think that all you are there for is to be a Battlemech pilot, to have that taken away from you...

Good to see Vera now thinking to the point of asking 'Is this it? Is this all there is?' Be very interesting to see how she deals in the long run with being in the Inner Sphere!

Judging from that post, I'm guessing that Vera is essentially doing the whole 'utterly ignore the spirit of the law while staying in the letter of the law' deal with her Galaxy? Bulking it up to the maximum possible size, with the biggest possible logistics tail she can put together?

Its of course a very good idea ... but I have a feeling all that will happen is that the Khans will order her to share her supplies and detach a trinary here, a brinary there, to bring other Clusters in other Galaxies up to full strength as time goes on. Which I'm sure will infuriate her, having to cover their asses with her hard work because no-one else listened to her...
"I, the Baron of Strang, care not for your new names. Clans? Jade Falcons? I call you by your true name: Scum of the Star League, traitors of free will, persecutors of the Periphery come back to lord it over freedom-loving people. Come ahead, you steel-eyed robots! Come ahead and taste what a million like-minded people think of you and your damn Clans!"

-Baron Stepan Von Strang

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #52 on: 07 November 2014, 21:57:44 »
Poor Vera :(

So I take it that Kirsten performed some kind of Clan ritual suicide because she couldn't ever pilot a Mech again?
Kinda says it all really about Trueborns. When you are quite literally brought up from the day you are spilled from a vat to think that all you are there for is to be a Battlemech pilot, to have that taken away from you...

Yup. Also there's the fact that Kirsten had never before had to seriously face even the possibility that she'd wash out, the way Vera did.

Good to see Vera now thinking to the point of asking 'Is this it? Is this all there is?' Be very interesting to see how she deals in the long run with being in the Inner Sphere!

I certainly hope so; it's the main focus of where I want to go with this story.

Judging from that post, I'm guessing that Vera is essentially doing the whole 'utterly ignore the spirit of the law while staying in the letter of the law' deal with her Galaxy? Bulking it up to the maximum possible size, with the biggest possible logistics tail she can put together?

Even in her calmer moments, Vera considers three Galaxies to be waaaaayy under the cutoff bid for what they're trying to do; that being the case, the only thing she can do about it is to fudge for her life.

Its of course a very good idea ... but I have a feeling all that will happen is that the Khans will order her to share her supplies and detach a trinary here, a binary there, to bring other Clusters in other Galaxies up to full strength as time goes on. Which I'm sure will infuriate her, having to cover their asses with her hard work because no-one else listened to her...

And, as my last post noted indirectly, Delta's going to be the Ghost Bear galaxy most susceptible to losses - its strategic role in their take on the invasion is recon-in-force, but its troops and their 'local' commanders are going to be your typical hyperagressive glory-hound Clanners, with all the tendency to dive in over their heads that that implies. Dissolving units that've gotten themselves chewed up and folding them in to replace Alpha and Beta's losses would be by way of an encouragement not to do that.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #53 on: 08 November 2014, 00:58:32 »
THULE, FREE RASALHAGUE REPUBLIC
MARCH 3, 3050

The small cabin on the Ursa Major’s gravity deck was as luxuriously appointed as any Trueborn warrior’s tastes could stand; the holopanels on the walls showed artworks by the masters of Clan Ghost Bear, the G-braced furniture was also exquisitely comfortable, and the bearskin rug on its hidden tie-down strips had come from the Khan’s own Clawing.

The Khan himself sat in his chair, leaning forward and watching the reports streaming up from the fighting on the planet below with the eager, fanatic intensity of a die-hard sports fan seeing his favorite team live. The saKhan, 2.1 meters and well over a hundred and fifty kilos, paced like an angry tiger, snarling and furious as the groundside commanders called in more and more forces. The Loremaster was calmer, but her appearance of placidity was spoiled by the way her eyes never left the screen.

“How can you just lie there?” saKhan DelVillar snapped at the last person in the compartment, whirling on her heel to glare down at the young mechwarrior.

Galaxy Commander Vera Tseng cracked an eye open and looked up at her. “Catching up on my sleep is the most productive thing I can do at this stage,” she said. “Besides, this is a nice couch.”

“Please stop trying to provoke your superiors,” the Loremaster said, and Vera sighed and sat up from her untidy sprawl. The almost two years between her Blooding and this supposedly hallowed day had cleared up her acne and turned her build into an inconvenience that was alarmingly close to a Worker’s idea of the ideal coupling partner, and let her grow her white-dyed hair out to brush her shoulderblades - but they hadn’t made her even one centimeter taller.

“This is not an invasion, this is a farce,” she said, letting her disgust show. “Our warriors were so eager to attack that they did not even consider that, just perhaps, they might wish to pay attention to their ‘mechs’ internal temperature, they were so full of their own notions of honor that they did not even consider that a force fighting desperately for its own world and lives might have their own equations, they were so full of wounded pride that they abandoned the word and duty of their bids rather than accept what their poor choices had earned them… I am uncertain yet whether I should reward Star Captain Cote for recognizing the necessity or have him broken for getting into that position in the first place.

“Worse, have any of you considered what this means for other worlds? For the dozens we must take if we are to reach Terra? Iditarod and her Mules will not be nearly enough.”

“The warriors of Clan Ghost Bear have learned to deal with honorable foes, and learned well,” the Khan said. “They will learn to deal with the dezgra easily and sweep them before them. You of all people should know that skill-”

“Has limits,” Vera snarled, daring to interrupt him as the girl she’d been in 3048 wouldn’t have. “If a warrior is fool enough to walk into a trap, then all the skill in the world will not save them from the fate they have earned!” She waved angrily at the screen. “Only their comrades may do that, and with only three Galaxies, can we honestly claim to have enough?”

“If we are so eager to admit to defeat by the barbarians that tore apart the Star League, can we honestly claim dedication to the Great Father’s mission for the Clans to restore it?” saKhan DelVillar asked acidly, the question full of a Crusader’s - a follower of the political philosophy that Aleksandr Kerensky had meant the Clans to return to purge the corruption of the Successor States in glorious fire - contempt for a Warden’s courage and dedication to the cause of the Clans.

Vera smiled back, with poisonous sweetness. “If we are so eager to spill an ocean of blood, can we claim dedication to the Great Father’s mission for the Clans to advance beyond the society that spawned them and us alike?” Despite their alliance against the Khan in the planning stages of the invasion, both working together to secure as many forward supplies as possible, the two women loathed one another.

“That is enough!” the Loremaster roared, coming up out of her chair to wheel on Elemental and Mechwarrior alike. The saKhan opened her mouth, and the Loremaster cut her off. “Both of you! All three! Tseng, you may consider your scouting missions authorized rather than covert; now get out.”

Vera for a moment wore the expression of a woman receiving an unpleasant shock - she’d intended her plans for Delta Galaxy’s deployments to be secret, and up until that moment believed her efforts to conceal them had been successful - before she mastered her dismay and reminded herself that she was, after all, getting her way. “Yes, Loremaster,” she said. “I will begin at once.”

With a bow, she left, as the frustrated master of Clan Ghost Bear’s ceremonies turned on her nominal superiors with a will.

Mentally, she wished her luck of it. The Khan seemed to be incapable of considering his enemies to be anything but pygmies to be crushed, and lacked the ability to consider scale and proportion for any set of numbers larger than those involved in a single Cluster, while his saKhan seemed to completely disregard anyone’s human suffering, whether Warrior - which was Clanlike and forgivable - or civilian, which very much wasn’t…

And Vera herself, of course, a depressive junior officer promoted far beyond her actual competence, wrestling as much with her own yearning for self-destruction as with the enemy.

Her lips quirked in the familiar bleak smile that had become so common on her face over the year of travel. She rather sympathized with the Loremaster’s irritation; being the only reasonably stable member of the little quartet leading Clan Ghost Bear into the invasion couldn’t have been easy, let alone relaxing.

By the end of the shuttle flight from Ursa Major to Dieron’s Run, she’d already decided to proceed immediately. Black Ghost and the jumpship she escorted were the assigned transport for the detachment Star Captain Cote and his unit were part of, and they’d been assigned to the mission to scout Rasalhague itself. A couple of trinaries and a frigate wouldn’t make any difference there; even sight unseen it was obvious that a national capital would be a target requiring at least a full galaxy to assault.

Aboard the Cameron-class battlecruiser, she floated into the Combat Information Center and hooked herself into the Flag seat with the casual ease of a year’s practice. “Prepare to record orders,” she told the technician assigned to manage her communications from that position, and, when he nodded and gave her a thumbs up, began to speak. “Delta Galaxy, this is Galaxy Commander Vera Tseng. If the unanticipated resistance encountered here on Thule is general across the entire Inner Sphere, then the success of Operation Revival may be placed in jeopardy. Although I am certain that you are all aware of how much I hate to interfere with your feasting and comradeship-”

In fact, she had a reputation for taking a positively sadistic glee in inflicting additional chores and simulator drills on the entire Galaxy, one she’d carefully honed through the entire trip from the Homeworlds.

“-the fact remains that we need to know, immediately if not sooner, what forces await us and how hard we may expect them to fight. Since Alpha and Beta are aboard Ursa Major and Atropos and can hardly split up to scout, that leaves us. All Dropship and Warship commanders are to open sealed file Gamma Twenty-Seven; the code is Charlie, Four, Baker, Three, Romeo. Gamma Twenty-Seven will contain your task group assignments and their target worlds; Task Group Seven is to remain at Thule until the world is pacified and proceed with haste afterwards. All other Task Groups are to execute immediately.”

She paused, mostly for emphasis. “Let me be very clear. We are a year from any resupply, and every omnimech, every omnifighter, every shot of ammunition and ton of armor, is precious. Delta Galaxy’s mission at this stage is to gather information, not to take ground or destroy the enemy. I am not fool enough to expect you to leave a ripe target unclaimed, but this is a time for our totem’s caution, not its ferocity… and if you forget it, I will remind you. Tseng, Clear.”

The last phrase she accompanied with a slashing gesture across her neck, and the technician ended the recording. He checked his panel, then nodded to her. “It is on the chip, Galaxy Commander.”

“Send it,” she said.

SulliMike23

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Re: Seven
« Reply #54 on: 08 November 2014, 13:09:39 »
Sounds like Vera is trying her damndest to get her leaders and fellow warriors to listen to her. But as usual, nobody is listening.

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #55 on: 08 November 2014, 15:26:59 »
Yep.

The hell of it is, scattering Delta around in fifteen different pieces will lead to Clan Ghost Bear picking up a lot of easy wins, making their first wave the most successful, rather than having the lousy start they suffered in canon. So not only are the Khans basically ignoring her, she's making them look good for doing it.

...This makes the big dramatic question even easier to milk, really.

fitzgerald

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Re: Seven
« Reply #56 on: 08 November 2014, 15:56:32 »

So I take it that Kirsten performed some kind of Clan ritual suicide because she couldn't ever pilot a Mech again?
Kinda says it all really about Trueborns. When you are quite literally brought up from the day you are spilled from a vat to think that all you are there for is to be a Battlemech pilot, to have that taken away from you...


Given how hard Inner Sphere pilots took to being Dispossessed I imagine a fair number of them would eat a bullet if they lost the ability to pilot a mech on top of that as well.

consequences

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Re: Seven
« Reply #57 on: 08 November 2014, 23:37:02 »
Yep.

The hell of it is, scattering Delta around in fifteen different pieces will lead to Clan Ghost Bear picking up a lot of easy wins, making their first wave the most successful, rather than having the lousy start they suffered in canon. So not only are the Khans basically ignoring her, she's making them look good for doing it.

...This makes the big dramatic question even easier to milk, really.

Do you have a target list so the obsessive compulsive among us can compare it to the 20 year update's deployment tables and nitpick the likely results to death?

Valles

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Re: Seven
« Reply #58 on: 09 November 2014, 00:07:52 »
Second half of this post.

Edit, now that I'm not playing TOR any more.

Delta is divided into twenty task groups; in wave one of the invasion, four are assigned to raid Rasalhague, one is stuck doing cleanup on Thule, and the remaining fifteen are spread evenly between the other worlds on the initial list of sixteen.

Holmsbu, Constance, Jarett, Leoben, and Jezersko are not taken right away; their assigned detachments land, scout, and then leave the world, after which point the information they gathered is used by either Alpha and Beta Galaxies or a combination of two or more task groups that had taken their target world to come back and sort the planet out properly. The commanders responsible for Skallevoll and Polcenigo should have done the same, but committed to the attack instead and got their units chewed up in Pyrrhic victories that could as easily have been costly defeats.

I have no idea what the detailed breakdown of individual stars and dropships for the task groups should be; the main guideline is that they should be as equal as practicable, allowing for the presence of Warships in their supporting force.

The only plot-critical thing happening here is the detachment that Vera herself is part of is the one that hits Susquehanna; if there hadn't been a suitable merc unit assigned in the initial attack area, I'd've had to invent one, but Susquehanna and its defenders are ideal for my needs. Interested readers should feel free to offer suggestions or alternatives for everything else and its results.
« Last Edit: 09 November 2014, 03:31:06 by Valles »

consequences

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Re: Seven
« Reply #59 on: 09 November 2014, 10:41:31 »
No political repercussions for hitting worlds without bidding for the right to do so against the Wolves?

 

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