Hi, I've gotten into a dispute with somebody on the Sarna Discord server regarding the feasibility of the SLDF having a Royal variant of the Orion, and I would like some information to help resolve it. Specifically, by the late Star League era, was the Orion only being produced in the FWL (as was the case by the late Succession Wars era), or were there other factories producing it, especially in Terran space? Would Kerensky's unique Orion have been Terran- or Marik-built? And would there be anything stopping the SLDF from buying Orions built in non-Terran factories, bringing them to Terran space, and upgrading them there?
I was always under the impression that, given its age and history of deployment with the THAF and early SLDF, the Orion became the FWL "totem" 'Mech just because the last Orion factory to survive the Succession Wars was in Marik space.
cheers,
Gabe