an alternate Elizabeth... (ngoverse tangent, short.)

[Nikas_Zekeval]

"And this is my leash for her Katherine.  I simply buy out her toys so we are the ones that choose, or not, to use them."

[Cannonshop]

Awesome update!  I like the interaction between Marshall Bryan and Liz that was nice display of the different thinking between Liz/Kowloon and the AFFC!  Is Arthur at the academy in Robinson at this time?

Huzzah! yes.

[Cannonshop]

3057...

"...we're going to need additional shipyards, Pat." Elizabeth leaned on her cane as she walked into the Ducal quarter of the planetary House of Government.

"No 'hi big brother, how have you been', no 'how are Evelynn and the kids?' just 'We need more shipyards?"  Duke Patrick Ngo scoffed, "Sis..."

"it's better if my nephew and Nieces barely know I exist, and you know it, Pat." Liz snapped, "and we do need more shipyard space.  AFFCN put in a requisition order for another twenty Cu'ong Class Sloops and an inquiry on when we'll be up to capacity to support the Fox Program."

"You know, you can just present me the solution you want like you always do." he said, "no need for the theatrics."

"My solution means moving some of the production out-system."  Elizabeth stated, "Winter's got decent belts and a good local technician base, and some of the Rockjack collectives are already staking claims but it needs you to negotiate mineral rights with the Von Schrakenbergs."

"and you can't because..?"

"I'm not the duke, and Ilse won't talk business with me directly-she wants to hear our tender from you."

"How are you feeling, Lizzie?" he asked.

"Shaky." she said, "New prescription's a bitch, and I lost my flight cert less than a year after getting it-as you know."

"If you come to Christmas at the Golden Lake house, I'll consider interceding with Ilse Von Schrakenberg about establishing mining rights and manufacturing sites in the Winter system." he told her.

"Christmas??"

"Yes, Christmas, Lizzie.  I heard about  your drunken tear last year in New Saigon, and I think you need to spend time with the family instead of running between your labs and Spider Moon.  Li agrees with me and she'll make it a duty-day assignment if she has to.  Bianh wants to spend time with her Aunty, so do Hanse and David.  You will do this thing for the family, ja?"

"Yes, of course..." she sighed, "It's a bad idea."

"I'm allowed to have bad ideas, I'm the bloody Duke of Kowloon...and your older brother.  wear something nice."

[EAGLE 7]

Wahaaaat! VSD is planning war, Using the economy and population advantage to crush the wannabe warriors of the clans.
  Why do I hear the bashing of the teeth of clanners  screaming”but... but that is not by the our rules”!!!!
   Did I mention I love Liz...
     Clambers need an introduction to Thermobaric and enhanced blast explosives (TBX and EBX).
     
Clanner: What forces do you defend this planet with...

Liz: Hey birdbrain, you want us to play by your rules, you need to put up some capital, hiểu biết?
My planet for your Jump assets, and crews.( pops bubblegum bubble...POP !).
 
Clanner: What?

Liz: God, I hate the slow ones.....We fight by your rules and I will not nuke you like the Star league nuked us.
   I defend  with my planetary forces minus nukes, and you attack with whatever you want to attack with minus Orbat from warships or nukes( smacks gum).

Clanner: Are you calling me honor less ?

Liz: What does honor have to do with this? I called you slooooooow, are you hard of hearing?
   Your ships if I win, you win my planet( blows a bubble POP!), Will send you our OoB, I will include location for your LZ and for us to fight.

Clanner: You arrogant Child! I accept, I will crush your planet  under my mech.

Liz: Slow and boisterous.... geez birdbrain hurry up and land I have work to do.( POP!) You have SAFECON for landing +30 minutes then I squeeze you like I would a yard bird.

Liz flips screen off. “Hey Pat are the arty plotted and registered on the LZ?

Pat: “ Liz, 2000 artillery firing TBX are you sure this is a good idea”?
Liz: “Just remember do not fire until landing +30 and all the drop ships land and the bay doors are confirmed open by the cameras we ran fiber cable for”.
      “So Pat on to important things, what warship would grandpa want named after him?
 A Blacklion or an Ageis”?


 

[Cannonshop]

Christmas Day, 3057...

There is always a problem when you become valuable, especially coreward of the Truce Line.

In this case, it began in August when, after repelling a probe by Lyran forces, techs from Clan Jade Falcon examined some of the Inner Sphere equipment lost by the 23rd Arcturan Guard.

"Manufactured by the Groves Group, Kowloon"

what made this so interesting to the Jade Falcons, you ask?

powered armor suits with fusion reactors compact enough to be installed instead of battery boxes or slow-bleed capacitors.

the small power plants could fit inside Elemental armor without endangering the wearer.

but that wasn't all-those fusion units, those tiny, almost ridiculous, power plants were powering portable rail guns.  Not 'Gauss Rifles'.  Rail guns, stable ones.  to understand the difference between a rail gun and a gauss rifle, a gauss rifle uses a series of capacitors and magnets to accelerate a mass to extremely high speed-higher than the practical muzzle velocity of a normal explosively powered projectile...but the rate of fire is relatively slow, gauss rifles are derived from Coilguns, and they are relatively reliable, but pose an explosive risk if they're hit.

Rail guns, well, don't.

Rail guns can also fire a stream of projectiles, like a machine gun or autocannon.  These, in Clan testing, demonstrated a practical accuracy range of just over a kilometer with a stable enough platform and reliable sighting equipment.

they also reflected an entirely different approach to converting wattage into kinetic impact energy or Joules, one not derived from SLDF era ballistics research or the mechanical structure of every gauss weapon built since.

in other words, they reflected something that the Scientist Caste had not even investigated.

much like the very small fusion units.

the hits weren't that big, really.  These railguns applied roughly the same amount of kinetic energy that one would find in a heavy support machine gun-but they did it at ranges more suitable for an extended range medium laser at roughly the same mass as a suit-mounted small laser.

someone in the Inner Sphere, had stolen a technological march on the Clans in one of their very own favored specialties, and was cranking them out on battle-suits that were otherwise somewhat inferior (lacking Harjel, detachable missile launchers and so on).

The source of these weapons was clearly marked by the manufacturers-on Kowloon.

above the truce line.

But that wasn't the ONLY disturbing trend recovered from the wreckage of that raid.  There were others, all of them having somewhere in the structure, markings indicating the arsenal where they originated, whether it was the endo-steel framed 'mechs with standard engines mounting Star League and recent Spheroid weapons, or the fighters whose engines and cooling systems were clearly verging on the cusp of improvements over Remnant technology, or the fact that the 23rd's forces were uniformly equipped, with no distinctive style or model differences within weight classes.

someone had clearly taken memo from the Star League itself, and improved on it.

Politically, Marthe Pryde needed a win, having removed Chistu and Crichell in the aftermath of the Refusal War with the now-returned Clan Wolf.

Coventry had been in the sights of the Clans for a while, but now, here's this upstart. 

Kowloon, which was clearly pumping out vast quantities of war materiel that had previously not been encountered, some of which suggested a brilliance of design that would be a great asset to the Great Crusade, or a major hindrance if it were not stemmed now, while (Presumably) they were still weak and could be taken.

Taking that world would be necessary for another reason, however.

To prevent another Clan, one of the Reserves, from taking it first.  But the Jade Falcons needed to build their strength and prove their fitness before launching such a tangential strategy.

The decision was Marthe's and she chose to focus the bulk of her effort on Coventry.

Kowloon would only face one Galaxy of older warriors, and with minimal warship support to speed the process of cowing them into submission.

the die would be cast.


Meanwhile, in the Golden Lake Valley, at the foothills of Minsky's Folly, on the Ngo Estate still called 'Mosovich Ranch', Elizabeth Ngo was having an awkward christmas with her family, fishing, sunbathing, and studiously avoiding talk of her work and the Ducal responsibilities of her Brother and his spouse...

(For those unaware, this is an area located on Kowloon's southern hemisphere, in the temperate zone, and it's a  'high summer' year, with the light of both suns in the sky on staggered interval through Kowloon's thirty hour day.  Which means sunny and Hot for Christmas, with weather being suitable for fruity alcohol drinks and hawaiian shirts with shorts and hiking boots with knee-socks in the low country...)

[Nikas_Zekeval]

Marthe chose... poorly.  ;)

So, Kowloon suits are roughly IS Standard in terms of armor and movement, maybe GDL style ground bound?  And missiles were ranged and burst damage support for Elementals.  With the extended range of suit railguns?  Well that covers the range, and inverts the paradigm.  Here, their targets have to rush to close, while the suits want to keep the range open till they've had time to work the target over.

More range "shoot and scoot" over Clan style "rush in to grab the belt buckle" since that is where their primary suit weapons often come into range and puts them under a target's guns.  Particularly if the Clan evaluation was using their ER Medium, which means an effective half kilometer range for the suit mounted version.

Even if Liz's engineering minions haven't managed to scale it up?  Bets that same weapon made it into secondary/anti-personnel mounts of their Patton clones and mechs?  That stream of projectiles sounds like it'd make the weapon work in the anti-personnel role as well.

All it needs is some stealth armor, which IIRC 8 points of IS Suit stealth is only a bit less mass than 9 points of standard IS armor on a suit.  Not much protection loss for being even harder to hit.

[georgiaboy]

The perfect ammo for rail gun would be steel slag BB's. At the speeds IRL rail guns are doing, the ammo turns into Ferris plasma shortly after the barrel n trajectory past the horizon and hitting like a rotary AC/2.
Just has some ammo feed problems, as in 'Not Enough Ammo!'


Too bad, it can not feed glass beads, glass also can make a good plasma source, or if slower, you have sand blast grit. You would have infinite Amma while on the ground. Just install a vacuum duct beside your foot feed around barrel as both a coolant jacket and melts the silicate into ammo beads.

[Daryk]

Sooo… MANY... POSTS!!!  :o

Cannonshop… PLEASE take a look at the Sniper Rifles TPTB gave us in Shrapnel #1... combine those with the weapon modification rules in AToW Companion, and you have SMALL ARMS with 10/20/30 range at TW scale!  I dare say your Rail Guns can out perform that...  ^-^

[Cannonshop]

The invasion began with a wave of communications blackouts.  That's what happened outside of Kowloon's little sphere of economic influence.

for kowloon, it began with Coast Guard Cutter 120602, KCGS Minerva Jenkins, a Cu'ong class jump-capable sloop conducting antipiracy operations antispinward of Hood IV.

the small vessel, under the command of Bianh Vu Dao, detected the arrival of a fleet-level asset consisting of two warships escorting a dozen or so transport Jumpships loaded with landing craft.

Bianh made the really quite rational choice of taking lots of pictures, and getting the hell out of there, reaching close-approach Black box range of Kowloon only two weeks later thanks to the modified 'Jump capacitor' built into what was otherwise a rather low-tech core with a cripplingly short range.

as Jade Falcon forces converged on Coventry, steamrolling through poorly prepared AFFC garrisons and plowing through Lyran generals whose administrative inertia left the best of their new toys from the labs sitting in dry warehouses, the worlds closest to Kowloon (worlds that had been feeding off the increased prosperity their neighbour brought and which resonated with the parallel prosperity on Inarcs nearby) began scrambling militias that, through luck or fate, didn't have the administrative conservatism and royal dead weight that was crumbling in the face of a Falcon onslaught closer to the golden worlds.

It helps quite a lot that those worlds also happened to have benefitted from increased AFFC attention-from units drawn from as far as New Syrtis-units that brought a more modern and rational approach to waging war than predominated in the upper levels of Lyran-origin officers.

Elizabeth, for her part, put on the blues and reported to her post-the weapons deck of the submersible U-One, while Duke Patrick Ngo, in defiance of orders from Melissia's high command, called forth the second and third line militia of Kowloon, and activated the Coast Guard's national defense provision.

There are only two targets of military value on a strategic level that the Clanners could be after-one of those was Inarcs, the other, was Kowloon.

and the enemy's course only made sense if Kowloon were the target of the Clanners end-run.

January passed with news of defeats and draws deeper in the Coventry Province, and by February 20th, an infantry regiment was boarding ship for Coventry from Kowloon-the first time a pure Kowloonese regiment had been fielded since the end of the Amaris war, they marched under Nguyen Van Nguyen, a veteran of the first Clan invasion who came home in a wheelchair and was now leading a Regiment from a pair of cybernetic legs.

1st Regiment, 171st Kowloon Volunteers.  Destination was obvious; Coventry, with orders to link up with the 7th Syrtis Fusiliers at Inarcs, the 1st Regiment had merely a company of 'mechs, the rest of their outfit equipped with tanks, personnel carriers and powered battlesuits, it wasn't your typical formation by anyone's standards, so too, was their standard, recovered from archives and lovingly reproduced for this, a gold field with an oriental dragon entwined with a leaping Orca, with battle streamers from Elbar during the Amaris War.

They would arrive roughly a week before the Jade Falcons, if the progress of the enemy continued.

The Second Regiment was mustering on Kowloon itself, spreading into the mountainous highlands and digging in, as was the third regiment.  The 171st weren't the only defenders digging in, however.

There are also the Coast Guard and Marines, working with civil engineers and other assets, from the oort cloud to the stable point between Kowloon's paired suns, preparations devised by generations and refined by the mind of Elizabeth with the advice of veterans of three wars were at work.  The intent?

The Clans would come, but they would not leave.

[Daryk]

I really can't wait for the 171st to finally be recognized for who they are by the clanners…  >:D

[Cannonshop]

"Greetings to the descendants of the Deserters, welcome home, you won't be leaving us this time."  Patrick listened as Elizabeth answered the Batchall from the Clan warships that were coming from the emergence points. 

"Deserters? what lunacy is this?? we are Clan Jade Falcon-"

"Your ancestors left with Kerensky's exodus, correct?" she intoned, and he could imagine her smirk. 

"Aff, that is correct, we come to restore the true Star League!"

"Well, you're three centuries late to reconsider General Kerensky's act of absolute treason and dereliction of duty, Star Colonel...what is it, Roshak? There was one chance to preserve and save the Star League, and your ancestors chose to sulk in a distant tent instead of doing it, blood on their hands in the trillions for that act of overt moral cowardice. I certainly hope you're better men and women than that, but I don't have a lot of hope on that score.  as to how we will defend and with what? this is Kowloon, I am a direct line descendant of Colonel Tranh Truk Ngo, the man who liberated Running Deer Mountain, the Impaler who punished Amaris goons with planted stakes, we stayed, we lived through the war your ancestors fled, and it was ever so much worse because of that betrayal and we will defend with everything in the name of Elbar, Dinh Diep, and the blood of three hundred years of chaos for that abandonment and betrayal-we will defend, bring all you have, because we are not going to hold back."

there was a pause on the channel, and then he heard his little sister add, "You won't be leaving here."

"Didn't you suggest to Sharon Bryan that Elizabeth was socially crippled?"  his aide, Kelli Whyte, asked.

"I did." he said, "she is, however, probably the best shit-talker we could use.  They're going to be beside themselves.  angry enemies are easier to beat than rational ones."

[Cannonshop]

Elizabeth sat in the radio-room of U-one, on a case of shelf-stable meals, awaiting the Clanner's response to her bait.

"Identify the forces!" came over the radio.

she smiled, "OH...well, we have the Kowloon Coast Guard, all of it, including naval assets, the second and third regiments of the One Hundred Seventy First Volunteer-Kowloon, and the Kowloon Militia Division. I'll wait for you to consult your histories, guys, because I'm not giving out more intel than that for free. come and find out."

she reached over to a comm panel, "In the meantime, enjoy the dulcet tones of Han Quo's fourth studio album." and she flooded the comm channels.

[Cannonshop]

The first challenge turned out to be surviving to reach the planet in the first place.  Naval engagements are exceedingly rare-even against the Snow Ravens, and warships were all but forgotten in the Inner Sphere, though reports of efforts to restart their production were collected by the Watch on a regular basis.

the transport Jumpships had to leave the stable points under their own power.  Why? because they were attacked shortly after the airwaves were flooded with sappy, synthesized dance-pop music, leaving only encrypted channels open for communication.

while some pubescent teen was insisting on his love for some unknown (and unknowable) fellow teen, two rather small corvettes jumped in, blacking out part of the transport fleet with their emergence waves, and slaughtering  several vessels with what were clearly small-yeild nuclear weapons, before jumping out again ahead of the response from escort units.

the surviving transport ships burned away from the point with their sails deployed, trying to both get out of danger, and recharge their jump drives.

The Warships picked up their pace now, revenge firmly in their minds.

[georgiaboy]

Should have just waited till the warship?s? And drop ships were well clear and then came in and captured the jumpsuits and what logistical drop ships remained.

[JA Baker]

Should have just waited till the warship?s? And drop ships were well clear and then came in and captured the jumpsuits and what logistical drop ships remained.

Liz is sending them a message

[Daryk]

Captured units might eventually leave the system... she's serious when she says "You won't be leaving here."  ^-^

[georgiaboy]

Liz is sending them a message

Ah but taking their logistical units and also the jump ships or then destroying the jump ships would have trapped the invasion troop carriers in system. Then some close attack sweeps the take the engines of the warships.

[jonen c]

Lizzie knows she doesn't need to capture the Clanner trains.

Kowloon can build their own.

So better to not give the enemy time to get their things sorted and underway - keep them off balance, guessing and - most of all - angry.

[glitterboy2098]

nice to see that Field Marshal Sharon Bryan is just as stupid in this continuity as in canon. hopefully the 171st can keep the situation on Coventry from getting too bad under her command. even if it means having to preemptively pull the same sort of airdrop BA headhunter raid the Falcons did to her in canon in 3064.

Lizzie knows she doesn't need to capture the Clanner trains.

Kowloon can build their own.

So better to not give the enemy time to get their things sorted and underway - keep them off balance, guessing and - most of all - angry.

not to mention, this makes it much much harder for the Falcon's to retreat once they realize just how big of a cluster frak they've dived into..

[Cannonshop]

Coventry, at about the same time...

"They're early, so we're late."  Colonel Nguyen Van Nguyen noted. 

"Are your men even capable of deployment, Colonel?" General Zibler asked.

"Yes sir, my boys are ready, where do you need us, sir?"

"Here, this area near Leitnerton, we've got a unit of the Skye Rangers who're still active and need reinforcement, and it's the best pocket of resistance in that part of the continent."

"Then we'll reinforce them, sir.  Permission to unleash the Coasties to clear our landing grounds, sir?"

"Do it."

Zibler watched the cripple crawl into his suit's modified harness, stumps shoved into the thighs of the powered armor's legs, the man was already speaking quietly in Vietnamese over his unit's channel, a precaution that the 7th had picked up while drilling with the 171st during a training cycle two years ago, Kowloonese Viet wasn't a common language, and it was a given that,with their prior cooperation with Comstar, the Clans were probably listening into normal communications that weren't properly secured with data encryption-and might be listening to encrypted channels.

but none of the clanners spoke Vietnamese, much less the mix of H'mong, Viet, and hebrew common to the Kowloonese infantry forces readying for drop.

But most of the officers in the 7th Crucis Lancers did, it was useful and these kids were aggressively trained, almost obsessively trained.

"To all units, this is the Archon Prince, Victor Steiner Davion, you are go to initiate Operations."

the 171 jumped from the nadir point to the Lagrange point between Coventry and its moon, and began burning for the surface while their escorts engaged the Falcon warships in orbit with nuclear fire...

***

Spoken parts are in Vietnamese and paraphrased for an english-speaking audience

PFC Jimmy Qua relaxed as his helmet closed and pressurized, and the compartment of the drop shuttle de-pressurized to ambient.  "hey, Chau, you think there are going to be blonde Heinie girls who need rescuing?"

"From their Virginity maybe!"  PFC Chau Li Danh chuckled from across the compartment.

"What's the big deal about blondes anyway?"  PFC Ilse Quhon asked, "just stuck up coventry bitches, you know where the sugar is!"

"I know where YOUR sugar is, Quhon, I wouldn't stick Dinh's-"

"Shut it! clear the channel pogies before I have to clear YOUR channels."  Corporal Anh Din Chang barked, adding, "Everyone knows, us redheads are hotter than blondes and twice as crazy."

"Hot/Crazy graph agrees." Sgt. Klemmer added, "but we're not here to bang Heinies, we're here to save their sorry asses-you can maybe get some of that boom-boom after we sort these Deserter spawn out, now keep the channel clear."

the K-7 dropshuttle shuddered as it passed the upper atmosphere at mach.

"Vomit Comet time!" someone faintly said, as the pilots took the smallcraft through a series of violent evasive maneuvers.

Jimmy felt his stomach trying to lurch out of his spine as the airbrakes kicked in.

"Stand up, Hook Up, Shuffle to the door!"

He unhitched from the crash-ride couch and joined his squad at the rear ramp, which was lowering.

the first of the First of the 171st were pathfinders, and it was time to jump-battlearmor doing LO-LO at 258 KPH, at night, over forested hills.

"you ready for this, Jimmy?"  Chau asked.

"born ready.  drop in, seek 'em out, snipe and kill." Jimmy said, tapping his spotter on the shoulder, then hooked up his drag chute to the connector and they walked to the ramp. 

Red light...red light...green, Step out over nothing.

[EAGLE 7]

    How do you add a Liz touch to a Hop-Pop-Run ambush of clanner logistic ships by KCG cutters?
    Cutters drop a few escape pods with the nukes missiles. Intermittent beacon, with some signs of radiation bleed off from the escape pod.
 What would be a better surprise to the recovery teams? A nuke or a few of Liz’s Van Neumann machines?
    Nukes give light shows, but VN machines programmed to hitch rides on hull of ships until they get to a JS or WS, has horror movie potential.
    Imagine the Galaxy Commander who has to explain we he destroyed his own Warship because little machine started eating, while broadcasting “Eat the Buddgies.......Eat the Budgies”.

[Cannonshop]

the initial wave of the Coventry Counterattack wasn't supposed to be spearheaded by the Kowloonese, it's just that, once given their 'rough' objective (assist the 10th Skye Rangers near Leitnerton) they chose a plan with a bit more...initiative than is typical for Lyran units. 

Mind that said initiative was very much in keeping with the historical behaviour of the 171st Volunteers during the Amaris war, and shouldn't have surprised anyone, but then, nobody bothered to tell the Jade Falcons they were coming until they were already wreaking havoc and death in orbit and dropping their 'initial survey units'- companys H and I of the 1st Regiment.  These are suit troopers, working in squads of eleven (two five man fireteams and an NCO), and the sharpshooter or 'Jaeger' squads (two man teams of designated sniper/scout marksmen).

The full squads were dropped over the defenses at Leitnerton, landing in a designated zone and linking up with the defensive units gathered there directly for use backing up or fortifying the town and the main LZ.

The sniper squad (12 personnel in 2 man teams) was distributed out away from the main body, their job being to find, and if possible, terminate enemy leaders and assets.

effectively, headhunter teams looking for enemy command posts, ammunition dumps, and targets of opportunity.

the main body, of course, is coming in behind them, bringing Tanks, Personnel Carriers, supplies and support equipment.

the aggressive tone wasn't limited to the  deployment of infantry, however.

the Clans were getting a free air-show, complete with inferno bombs, cluster bombs, and iron bombs, dropped at extreme low altitude by pilots crazy enough to violate any number of safety regulations that even the Clans themselves recognize by taking their 25 ton SB-27 Sabers at mach speeds at altitudes of less than one hundred meters AGL.

really, nobody should have been surprised by this if they studied history even on a cursory level.  honestly, just...the Falcons didn't know, and as a result, their air Defense 'mechs and vehicles were caught largely unprepared for airstrikes where the bombs were moving faster horizontally than vertically, and where the first warning was a sonic shockwave from fighters flying at suicidal speed and altitude.

the main result of this, was that grounded dropships became flaming pyres rather quickly-the Coast Guard air units arrowing in on landing grounds and anything that looked like good terrain for a defender that wasn't in AFFC hands.

by dawn, 11 Coast Guard fighters were down and the pilots were dead, but the Eyrie cluster and the Falcon Jaegers had lost nearly three fourths of their supply and transport, and the initiative was rapidly falling into the hands of Allied forces.

[Cannonshop]

[out of story note]

The SB-27 is dirt-common throughout the Inner Sphere and is considered by many to be a bit of a 'trash' aerspace fighter made mostly for use as cheap 'mook units' in scenarios or as the boobyprize to round out your factional/mercenary force's BV.

well, it's cheap. it's fast.  cheap and fast with a five ton bomb load means very little except...it's cheap and it's fast, which in turn means it's exactly the right design for Kowloon and has been since the Amaris war itself...serving as a point-delivery bomb truck with a fast insertion and terrain following function.

to give an idea how screwed up this is, those Coast Guard Pilots, if you were mapping it on the Ground map, are moving at Aerospace Hex speeds-that is, they're moving WAY faster than is advisable for the altitude at which they're moving.  ADA 'mechs are seeing them the way they would see incoming missiles, which is to say, too fast for most 'mechs to actually engage once they clear the horizon.

there are some side-effects to breaking mach at such low altitude-like the compression shockwave or 'sonic boom'.  A sonic boom at 35,000 feet can break windows and disrupt all sorts of delicate things.  sonic booms at, oh, 50 to 60 meters AGL will break eardrums and cause heart attacks, do savage things to delicate electronics, shatter windows and knock some loosely stabilized items over, including people.

it can even trigger volatile substances, such as diesel and gasoline.

This isn't something most rationally trained aviators will do, since it's exceedingly dangerous behavior.  In BT game rules you're not even allowed to attempt it because the game designers don't want players to spend hours calculating how much damage is happening from a single pass at those speeds, and most players don't either.

keep this in mind, however: both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, in the 1980s, were practicing exactly this sort of supersonic approach, but only at mach one to one point five.  Coastie pilots relying on their TFR (Terrain following radar) are doing this at around Mach 3, at sixty meters AGL.

it's nice to have good maps.

[2ndAcr]

Just to be picky, SB-27 Sabre......LOL

 Good story Cannonshop

[Cannonshop]

Just to be picky, SB-27 Sabre......LOL

 Good story Cannonshop

considering your work, I consider that to be high praise.

[2ndAcr]

 This one has made me chuckle quite a bit. Liz cracks me up

[Nikas_Zekeval]

And the Falcons relearn that those that don't study history are soon bent over a table by those that do.

[Cannonshop]

"I'm disposable." Elizabeth said it before she sat up.  "How long was I out?"

"Your siezure lasted five minutes, you were asleep for two hours, Leutenant."  Captain (Kapitan) Emilie Voss replied. 

"I guess I better up my doses." Liz rolled out of the sick-cot and put her feet on the deck.

"if we weren't at sea, I'd be putting you ashore." Voss told her, "Corpsman Xhing tested your blood, you've been shorting your medications."

"Needed a clear head." Liz answered.

"Yeah.  no.  I'm going to offer you a special bonus deal, because you're the Duke's little sister and because you really, really, really want to be one of us...and because I like you." Voss stretched out a hand, holding out a cup with pills in it.  "You take your meds, you do your job, I don't report this shorting your medications to the Admiral.  You short your scrip again,and you're out, I'll call in a WIGE from one of the fast squadrons and they'll haul your spoiled ass back to the beach."

"I'll take that deal, mum." Elizabeth said, accepting the drugs.  "What's the status?"

"Presently?  The enemy's gotten past Boojum orbit and through the Rubble Pile, but not without losses.  we've thinned them down to one warship and twenty or so dropships with fighter escorts at the cost of two squadrons of strike fighters, three cutters, and four auxiliary dropships."

"not bad, not bad at all." Liz said, "Considering they arrived with three warships and thirty or so droppers.  Has the Admiral considered my tactical plan?"

"She has, she has also rejected it. we're steaming for the Western Ocean at 32 Knots, while His Grace has joined the ground forces north of Minsky's folly and south of Camp John."

"The western ocean...near the deep damn rift?" Elizabeth asked.

"Yeah, the very same."

"That's from my tactical plan."

"it is. we'll be cruising at negative three hundred meters with two thousand meters of darkness and damp below us."

"but you said the Admiral rejected-"

"She took it, and changed it." Voss clarified, "the basic idea is sound, now that you've thoroughly pissed them off, luring them into a submarine chase with their warship will work...we think.  you need to needle the enemy a little more to get them good and mad."

Elizabeth grinned.  "I can get behind that...what happens to them if we succeed?"

"rescue boats are standing by, but it'll be messy. we've already put up Tsunami warnings to coastal areas."

[glitterboy2098]

keep this in mind, however: both the RAF and the Luftwaffe, in the 1980s, were practicing exactly this sort of supersonic approach, but only at mach one to one point five.

and the germans lost a lot of F-104G pilots in the process. mostly to "controlled flight into terrain"

[Cannonshop]

"Jawohl, Herr Marshall."  Colonel Nguyen knew when NOT to argue with a higher ranking officer.  In this case, Field Marshall Nondi Steiner.

even if it meant accepting a reprimand for 'reckless conduct' as the 'reward' for a successful orbital insertion of a regiment of armored infantry with tank, fighter, and IFV support into the middle of a siege.

the Mercs, at least, were impressed...at least, the ones who weren't outright traumatized were impressed.  He couldn't put words to how the Clanners were reacting.  1st and 2nd Battalions were pushing the Salient wider in conjunction with local units and the 7th Crucis, which was buying the "Lyran Native" units time to reorganize and get their feet under them. 

"Where do I sign my letter of reprimand, Herr Feldmarshall?" he asked.

Nondi froze. "What?"

"you have spent the last hour shouting at me for reckless conduct and excessive initiative, I presume I will be signing a document to that effect, herr Feldmarshall, if not being relieved of my command. Let's get on with it, otherwise, My troops are in the middle of aggressive offensive action against a technologically superior foe, and I have much work to be doing, while we are wasting time here." his tone was even, and reasonable because hers was shrill and borderline hysterical.  someone should relieve her, she's lost her touch.  he kept that thought in a deep, dark place.

a place well away from his lips.

"Are you being insubordinate?"

"Nein, Herr Feldmarshall, I am simply requesting clarification.  Were the objectives I was assigned accomplished?" he asked.

"yes but-"

"And my unit, it remains combat capable, ja?" he asked.

Her old eyes narrowed, but she nodded.

"And the strategic position, it is improved, ja?" he asked.

she nodded again, lips moving but words not coming out for the first time in nearly two hours.

"Then I must request either instructions and objectives, or release to continue on my present mission, with all due respect, Herr Feldmarshall, there is a powerful lot of work to be done in ridding Coventry of these...unwanted guests. May I return to my duties, Herr Feldmarshall?"

"go-You're dismissed!"

"Thank you Herr Feldmarshall." he rendered a salute, touching fingertips to the visor of his armor, and strode out of the Command Post Bunker.