BattleTech FanFiction Tribble Emporium 2.0: expanded premises!

[VhenRa]

670: Thomas Calderon isn't talked down.

When Thomas Calderon orders all employees of one of his national level ministries arrested, imprisoned and all their property seized by the state it was his wife who talked him down to only carrying it out on people who they could prove should have known about the corruption and reported it. [As a side note, this itself is a pretty monstrous act given it would be effecting people who had no part in it and just didn't report it, likely people who didn't even understand what was going on. And the families of said people.] What if his wife failed however?

The arrest, detainment and state appropriation of property of all employees of a entire nation-level ministry of the Concordat government is... kinda not a great look. The sorta thing that has people going "Am I next to be sent to a gulag? Is it time to start informing on my friends in an attempt to save myself?"

[Daryk]

#671: A little more physics...

Dr. Atlas' remarkable discovery of myomer in 2350 did not invalidate the square-cube law.  This means the technology found military application in a rather different way: Battle Armor came first!  Vehicles are unchanged, but 'mechs come much later.

[ckosacranoid]

661;

On a remote pirate base, something is stirring.  The first few disappearances were chalked up to laziness, or stress, or desertion. as numbers are dropping, it becomes clear something stalks and when the first bodies are found, the scene is gruesome beyond description. 

In the suppressed villages down below, they have a word.

Jason.

When the heck did I get made a SI into battletech?
Oh crap...my merc unit!!!!!!!!
(Runs out to the sun porch to check on battletech minis......and then downstairs)
Damn it cannon, you stole my mess unit the Renegade Legion. You also stole the ashes tripod I was trying to figure out how to figure out how put into the 3050's unit.

Yes, my name is Jason and just had to comment.

and with each death, with each disappearance, belief begins to grow...

[SulliMike23]

#672

As many know, the Tripitz was destroyed by ComStar in order to ensure that it's technology does not fall into the hands of the Taurian Concordat. But what if they were too late? What if the Taurians had managed to get the Tripitz online and jump out of the system just as the ComStar forces arrived? What if they managed to bring it to Taurus and presented it to Protector Zarantha Calderon as a gift?

What would follow would turn the Taurian Concordat from the most troublesome Periphery state, to the most dangerous of all. With the knowledge the ship possessed, the Taurians were on the verge of challenging the great houses once again and retake the territory they had lost over the centuries.

[Adventwolf]

#672

As many know, the Tripitz was destroyed by ComStar in order to ensure that it's technology does not fall into the hands of the Taurian Concordat. But what if they were too late? What if the Taurians had managed to get the Tripitz online and jump out of the system just as the ComStar forces arrived? What if they managed to bring it to Taurus and presented it to Protector Zarantha Calderon as a gift?

What would follow would turn the Taurian Concordat from the most troublesome Periphery state, to the most dangerous of all. With the knowledge the ship possessed, the Taurians were on the verge of challenging the great houses once again and retake the territory they had lost over the centuries.

Getting it is one thing. But getting it running is a completely separate problem. After all they had a Vincent the entire time and we're never able to get it running. Unless the Tripitz had data cores or a lot of samples of technology it would be another white elephant for the Taurians. Though if it did have information then it would give them a major upgrade if they could keep it hidden long enough to spread that knowledge to their industrial base.

670: Thomas Calderon isn't talked down.

When Thomas Calderon orders all employees of one of his national level ministries arrested, imprisoned and all their property seized by the state it was his wife who talked him down to only carrying it out on people who they could prove should have known about the corruption and reported it. [As a side note, this itself is a pretty monstrous act given it would be effecting people who had no part in it and just didn't report it, likely people who didn't even understand what was going on. And the families of said people.] What if his wife failed however?

The arrest, detainment and state appropriation of property of all employees of a entire nation-level ministry of the Concordat government is... kinda not a great look. The sorta thing that has people going "Am I next to be sent to a gulag? Is it time to start informing on my friends in an attempt to save myself?"

Honestly I could see a revolt happening. After all the Taurians are suppose to be one of the few places that the people are really the only reason the nobles are allowed to have the power they do. So such a breach as this would not only destroy that trust from everyone but it would also wreck the bureaucracy and industrial base of the nation.

[Mal-3]

#673 - No One Would Have Believed...

3028: It's the middle of the Fourth Succession War and everything is coming up Davion. The Capellan Confederation is making a good faith effort at a valiant last stand but it's not enough to withstand the juggernaut of the AFFS. The Combine is taking a good hard shellacking from the LCAF and the Dragoons. As long as things go at least three-quarters the way according to plan then the Sun-and-Sword will be flying over the Forbidden City by year's end.

Which is when things start to get a little weird as pirate kingdoms and independent worlds out on the Periphery start to go silent. Reports begin filtering in of advanced BattleMechs  that don't look like anything anybody's seen before wiping the floor with entire regiments and worlds being conquered. And then things go even weirder: one of the mercenary companies who tangles with these unknowns finally manages to capture one of the mystery Mechs... and out pops this creature that looks like a chameleon had an unfortunate one-night stand with a velociraptor, who helpfully informs his captors that the Race is here to conquer them and that they're all subjects of the Emperor now. Admittedly they hadn't expected there to be quite so many human colonies at this point, but you can't say the Race are quitters.

I'm sorry, were you expecting the Clans? :D

Of all the alien invaders in science fiction, the Race are one of my favorites. They're just the right combination of advanced enough to be a threat, not advanced enough to be a stomp and different enough that their sheer bewilderment at human culture makes for entertaining reading. So why not let Atvar and his troopmales (suitably scaled up for threat, ofc) run riot in the Inner Sphere for a bit?

[Adventwolf]

#673 - No One Would Have Believed...

3028: It's the middle of the Fourth Succession War and everything is coming up Davion. The Capellan Confederation is making a good faith effort at a valiant last stand but it's not enough to withstand the juggernaut of the AFFS. The Combine is taking a good hard shellacking from the LCAF and the Dragoons. As long as things go at least three-quarters the way according to plan then the Sun-and-Sword will be flying over the Forbidden City by year's end.

Which is when things start to get a little weird as pirate kingdoms and independent worlds out on the Periphery start to go silent. Reports begin filtering in of advanced BattleMechs  that don't look like anything anybody's seen before wiping the floor with entire regiments and worlds being conquered. And then things go even weirder: one of the mercenary companies who tangles with these unknowns finally manages to capture one of the mystery Mechs... and out pops this creature that looks like a chameleon had an unfortunate one-night stand with a velociraptor, who helpfully informs his captors that the Race is here to conquer them and that they're all subjects of the Emperor now. Admittedly they hadn't expected there to be quite so many human colonies at this point, but you can't say the Race are quitters.

I'm sorry, were you expecting the Clans? :D

Of all the alien invaders in science fiction, the Race are one of my favorites. They're just the right combination of advanced enough to be a threat, not advanced enough to be a stomp and different enough that their sheer bewilderment at human culture makes for entertaining reading. So why not let Atvar and his troopmales (suitably scaled up for threat, ofc) run riot in the Inner Sphere for a bit?

Well the Lack of FTL makes them basically a non-threat and they would need to be even longer around than they were in their canon. Cause unless you are going to change their entire culture and outlook they would need several more thousands-to ten of thousands of years to even have the numbers let alone the technology to be a real threat. The race is strong when they are facing a peer to near-peer adversary but the BT universe is not that at all they are far above the Race. And changing their extremely slow culture and progression means they no longer are The Race.

[Atlan]

Well the Lack of FTL makes them basically a non-threat and they would need to be even longer around than they were in their canon. Cause unless you are going to change their entire culture and outlook they would need several more thousands-to ten of thousands of years to even have the numbers let alone the technology to be a real threat. The race is strong when they are facing a peer to near-peer adversary but the BT universe is not that at all they are far above the Race. And changing their extremely slow culture and progression means they no longer are The Race.

They arn't ALWAYS that bad. They did canonically manage to more-or-less adapt to earth after a few decades. And for all that they are criminally consertitive and lacking in imagination, they arn't stupid.

And given the technological stasis of Battletech, virtually every L1 (3025 era) technology was in existence by 2460, from weapons to mechs to dropship collars. Even for the Race, 500+ years is enough to reverse engineer those and put them into mass production.
(Why reverse engineering? Because Battletech has the built-in 'misjump' as a story option- have a late Age of War era military jumpship misjump into the Race's system, the accident killing the crew, and you have everything you need for a full-scale Race invasion in the 4th succession war.)

(This idea would also work well if it was a primitive jumpship carrying primitive mechs, from the earlier Age of War era. Have the Race piloting hordes of primitive battlemechs.)

[drakensis]

#674

During the 3030s, the Dragoons pick up what remains of Cosara Weaponry, Maltex Corporation and Stormvanger Assemblies, Unlimited. Rather than resuming production of their usual trademark designs, they instead expand on their Marauder II design and build a range of ‘Mechs both to rebuild internally and to sell to the FedCom in order to expand their revenue.

The ‘Mechs built are the Crab, Catapult II (60 ton non-jumping 5/8 equivalent armament), Marauder and Marauder II. Export versions are built around the Star League specification 300XL engine while the Wolf Dragon versions use Clan weapons and heatsinks but a 300 SFE, making them both cheaper and more effective. A lot of the electronics and other components are standardised.

The FedCom pick up half the export models until the Outreach factories start building the Dragoon variants, at which point they are allowed to buy all of them. The older export models are, once sufficient Dragoon variants are available, allowed to fall into the hands of other mercenary units and thence into the hands of the other Great Houses. All the houses start building copies for us in other designs, as well as exploring extra-light engines of other sizes.

So the Wolf Dragoons are able to serve their mission of preparing the Inner Sphere, by giving them a head start on extra-light engines while preserving their overall advantage. And rebuild their 'Mech numbers relatively cheaply at the same time.

If the Inner Sphere sorts double heatsinks out, they'll do quite a bit of catching up in terms of effectiveness, but that's up to them. Jaime Wolf wants to jumpstart their technical development, not hand-feed them.

[Adventwolf]

They arn't ALWAYS that bad. They did canonically manage to more-or-less adapt to earth after a few decades. And for all that they are criminally consertitive and lacking in imagination, they arn't stupid.

And given the technological stasis of Battletech, virtually every L1 (3025 era) technology was in existence by 2460, from weapons to mechs to dropship collars. Even for the Race, 500+ years is enough to reverse engineer those and put them into mass production.
(Why reverse engineering? Because Battletech has the built-in 'misjump' as a story option- have a late Age of War era military jumpship misjump into the Race's system, the accident killing the crew, and you have everything you need for a full-scale Race invasion in the 4th succession war.)

(This idea would also work well if it was a primitive jumpship carrying primitive mechs, from the earlier Age of War era. Have the Race piloting hordes of primitive battlemechs.)

That "adaption" was because they were facing things in a single planet without any idea how to progress and being cut off. Also 500 years is not enough time at all. They waited nearly that same amount of time before invading Earth in the first place to prepare for a medieval Earth they didn't develop anything new they were just getting their stuff ready. And even the decades on Earth didn't have them develop new technologies just better use of what they already had. 500 years to try and develop completely new and alien tech that they have no basis or ground work for besides the fusion engines is not possible for the Race. That isn't even getting to the massive industrial and population disparity between the Race and the Inner Sphere which even in the current state would out produce the Race that has 3 planets and only the Homeworld being a industrial world that had military production activated for the time to build the invasion equipment then stopped and let the invasion be planned for decades and centuries while the equipment was being stored and maintained.

[Mal-3]

Well the Lack of FTL makes them basically a non-threat and they would need to be even longer around than they were in their canon.

That is what "scale to threat" means, yes. In this instance, this means that the Race have a sizable empire (in terms of industrial throw weight, if not geographic size. Think Terran Hegemony levels of development.), jumpships and Clan-spec or better weapons. And of course they have Mechs, because this is BattleTech and giant robots are the natural evolution of combat technology in BattleTech.

They're still a bunch of arrogant, hidebound lizards who were expecting a much simpler conquest - think "SLDF vs. 21st century Terra" - than they got. The only thing that changes is their ability to be an appropriate danger to the Inner Sphere. Scale to threat.

[Starfox5]

You would need to give them combat experience as well. As it is, the race will be Jolly Roger 2.0 - even Easier!

And if you have them adapt in time to be more than walking salvage, they would not be the race any more.

[Atlan]

That "adaption" was because they were facing things in a single planet without any idea how to progress and being cut off. Also 500 years is not enough time at all. They waited nearly that same amount of time before invading Earth in the first place to prepare for a medieval Earth they didn't develop anything new they were just getting their stuff ready. And even the decades on Earth didn't have them develop new technologies just better use of what they already had. 500 years to try and develop completely new and alien tech that they have no basis or ground work for besides the fusion engines is not possible for the Race. That isn't even getting to the massive industrial and population disparity between the Race and the Inner Sphere which even in the current state would out produce the Race that has 3 planets and only the Homeworld being a industrial world that had military production activated for the time to build the invasion equipment then stopped and let the invasion be planned for decades and centuries while the equipment was being stored and maintained.

Carrying on with the 'misjumped age of war jumpship gives the Race battlemech technology' idea- presumably, if they get the ship, that means they get the computers too. And that means they can see how fast the 'big uglies' advanced, if there are any history books or historical fiction, and can start preparing relatively quickly. Reverse engineering a KF drive and colonising nearby planets, in a well-planned out manor, could lead to a population boom. (And the Race is all about making a through plan and carrying it out.) So that could give them a larger population to work from.

Alternativly, if the Race never found a jumpship, they are still using Fusion technology. And according to my understanding of Battletech technology, it was Fusion technology which spawned KF theory as a spinoff. So if the Race are using the same Fusion technology, and have been for tens of thousands of years, they might have invented KF drives- and Battlemechs- the old fashioned way.
(Would they have invented Battlemechs? They invented Tanks, and Jet fighters, in canon. And they had no-one to use them against when they were designed. So they could very well have invented their own Battlemechs.)

(Side theory: Race battlemechs look like Raptor-type Zoids. Revraptors, Genosaurers, Goujoulas, Deathsaurer for the asthetics.)

[SulliMike23]

The Race would still get their asses handed to them either way. Especially if the Clans show up.

[Greatclub]

Weisman doesn't put clickytech in the future, but instead moves it to the miserable slog portion of the 3rd succession war. Still industrialmechs fighting poorly designed lights, but doesn't build on the dececrated ashes of the previous canon.

[Tegyrius]

#675

Jaime Wolf decides to take his last orders from Kerlin Ward seriously.  The Dragoons have served every Successor State, allowing him to take their measure, and the ticking of the Crusaders' clock dogs his footsteps.  In 3025, as the DCMS is drawing up plans for the Ryuken project, he entrusts his closest friend outside the Dragoons, Minobu Tetsuhara, with the secrets of Kerensky's legacy...

[SulliMike23]

#675

Jaime Wolf decides to take his last orders from Kerlin Ward seriously.  The Dragoons have served every Successor State, allowing him to take their measure, and the ticking of the Crusaders' clock dogs his footsteps.  In 3025, as the DCMS is drawing up plans for the Ryuken project, he entrusts his closest friend outside the Dragoons, Minobu Tetsuhara, with the secrets of Kerensky's legacy...

Whoa...telling Minobu his unit's secret...that's gonna be harsh for him.

[Daryk]

Interesting, but I'm not sure it saves Tetuhara's life...

[Tegyrius]

Interesting, but I'm not sure it saves Tetuhara's life...

It depends on where Minobu goes with the information.  His first inclination and loyalty will be the Coordinator - but, through family connections, he also has a route to get it in front of the Heir-Designate.

[Daryk]

If he goes to Theodore first, he might live.  The Coordinator, though...  xp

[Atarlost]

According to the wiki, Jaime Wolf had his orders changed in 3019 so if he told Minobu, it would be shortly after he saved his life on Quentin in 3023 and before Samsonov started conspiring against them in earnest.  If Takhashi had Minobu killed at that point Jaime would conclude that the Combine was too treacherous to arm as a bulwark against the Clans and break with them and they would not have the pieces in place to stop him. 

If he'd found anyone trustworthy in the Lyran Commonwealth he'd have told them while he worked there.  Since both of the realms in the way of the presumed Clan invasion route are obviously unfit his remaining option is Comstar unless he's aware of the depth of the FedCom accords in which case he can take his warning to Hanse and assume he'll cross the Inner Sphere to fight the Clans in aid of his ally.  Barring that he can only lower his standards until someone in the Lyran Commonwealth qualifies because Takhashi has already rejected his aid in the most blatant fashion possible. 

[Starfox5]

If Katrina Steiner does not match his request none will.

[drakensis]

Katrina didn't drop her responsibilities on Tharkad to come play mechwarrior with the Dragoons so she is clearly less suitable to Dragoon sensibilities.

[Atarlost]

Katrina didn't drop her responsibilities on Tharkad to come play mechwarrior with the Dragoons so she is clearly less suitable to Dragoon sensibilities.

That's the issue?  Really?  How many house lords did?  I have trouble imagining Max or Janos doing so and I don't think Takhashi did either.  That was what Minobu was for.  I figured Jaime left Lyran employ early because he had one too many run ins with political generals. 

[Greatclub]

Notice that the last thing that happened in both marik and davion service was them being sent into a meat grinder? My theory is they wanted to avoid another in steiner - after all, they still have kurita to work for, and no ability to resupply for free anymore.

And Takhashi did visit, near the beginning of their contract.

[Cannonshop]

#676  It's 3005, and the Dragoons arrive in the Inner Sphere...

and find ashes, with tiny pockets here and there, of groups struggling to survive the aftermath of an apocalyptic war.  They travel as deep as they can, looking for anyone 'in authority' and as they travel, the destruction is worse, until...

They come out of hyperspace in the Sol system, and are met by a fleet of a thousand warships.  quite the shit your pants moment, except the crews of those warships are dead a century or more of biological weapons and earth is a dead world.

Comstar screwed up, and got caught.  the price of Holy Shroud is a burial shroud the size of the Inner Sphere, and now Jaime Wolf has to figure out what the terran scientists couldn't:

How cure a super-plague.

[AlphaMirage]

#676  It's 3005, and the Dragoons arrive in the Inner Sphere...

and find ashes, with tiny pockets here and there, of groups struggling to survive the aftermath of an apocalyptic war.  They travel as deep as they can, looking for anyone 'in authority' and as they travel, the destruction is worse, until...

They come out of hyperspace in the Sol system, and are met by a fleet of a thousand warships.  quite the shit your pants moment, except the crews of those warships are dead a century or more of biological weapons and earth is a dead world.

Comstar screwed up, and got caught.  the price of Holy Shroud is a burial shroud the size of the Inner Sphere, and now Jaime Wolf has to figure out what the terran scientists couldn't:

How cure a super-plague.

I like it, although I think Khan Ward would be hesitant to let the Dragoons come within a parsec of the Homeworlds if that happened. Sure changes the priorities for the Clans

[Daryk]

One hell of a shroud indeed!   8)

[georgiaboy]

#677

Just Imagine?


They entered the InnerSphere from along the upper edge of the Outworld's Alliance.
To see worlds bereft of population, light, fine, ash in the upper atmospheres. Worlds pot marked with large craters where spaceport and any industrial site that could build aerospace craft and components, as if to stop any escape from the population. Cities blackened by fire, every city and town burnt. No artificial emissions except the craters.


Some population found on the windward/ocean sides of mountain ranges, in the temperate weather growing zones. Small towns surrounded by small fields, tended by animal-drawn equipment. Larger fields that appeared to be tended by the few powered farm equipment. Fields of grain and hay most likely for stock feed.
Very few powered equipments, those seen belching clouds of dark smoke, signs that are not usually coming from petrol dowered or electric equipment.


Coasting over the Darkside of the world, a few pinpricks of tight, located on the coast of the continents, your guess, Lighthouses.


Where the Capital was, dark, no lights at all. The nearest light a thousand kilometers away. The next orbit will bring daybreak over the capital.


Where The Capital City Beullar once stood were several adjacent and overlapping craters, The largest crater located where the garrison and refit yards once stood was almost one kilometer wide. Radiation levels from the craters and surrounding area were elevated above the background, but not enough to indicate the use of Nuclear weapons. Levels were on par for an asteroid strike.


Overlay of the city and surroundings over the view of the strike showed the strike to be very precise in where they hit.


This was not a natural disaster, the strike was directed by intelligence.


Visual recon of the planet showed that approximately one to 10 million people survived on the planet, out of over three billion people.
Beullar, the Capital city of the Draconis March was razed by the hand of an intelligent being.


The Recon team was ready to go but was interrupted by the recall signal of the fleet. It was time to move on. To another system and another nightmare unfolding before their own eyes.


This was not what they expected on their trip back to the Home Worlds.

[Cannonshop]

#678

"What do YOU want?"  The visitor asked the heads of each House and each Periphery nation, until he got an answer his sponsors wanted.

Then, his shadowy allies provided a poisoned gift.  The year, is 3049, the year the Shadows came for us all.