3062 - Third Quarter - An old solution to a new problem
With Isis Marik now granted asylum and Katherine Steiner-Davion heading to face her trial the situation on New Avalon had at least quieted down somewhat. Between military reviews, inspections of the various units on the planet and planning sessions with the High Command - on top of the usual business of government which being First Prince entailed, Victor also took some time out to show Isis around the capital. After some discussion she was even granted leave by the First Prince to attend the NAIS, although not on any of the more sensitive courses.
July 3062
Within the Addicks and Achernar PDZ a number of raids and counter raids began, mostly concentrated around the worlds of Caph and Epsilon Indi. The 1st FedSun's Dragoons would join with the 6th Dragoons and 4th Davion Guards to funnel supplies and equipment to the pro-Davion factions on the planet. In return the WOB's Divisions would begin to raid the still somewhat tenuously held world of Epsilon Indi and supply resistance groups on that world. This would eventually lead the 4th's Marshal Orsina to request a third aerospace wing be attached to her RCT to help in preventing these raids. This request would be granted in August, but the new wing wouldn't arrive until October. It would however have been upgraded with a full flight of Dagger-O from the nearby plant on Addicks.
Duke George Hasek on New Syrtis also during July began assembling mech's from all over the Capellan March to outfit the 4 companies of the Warrior Hall's Training Battalion. Only the finest battlemechs would be chosen and only mech's from within his own March. The unit would be built up not only as a training battalion but also as a showcase for the technological and industrial might of the Capellan March. Leading the way in this endeavour were a demi-company of Templar-O Omnimechs. He also began arranging the equipment for an attached armour battalion, infantry special forces battalion complete with battle armour contingent and fighter wing. The Warrior Hall's Training Battalion was to be formed up as a total combined arms regiment.
The Duke also began considering at this time whether or not to push for either an additional New Syrtis Fusiliers RCT to be formed or to attempt to reform either the 1st Kathil Uhlans or the Kathil CMM. Or indeed push for all three. It was during these considerations that he began to consider breaking off the 4th battalion of the New Syrtis CMM in order to form a core for any new unit, as Victor Davion had done with the Avalon Hussars, although he was reluctant to do the same with the 6th New Syrtis Fusiliers in case New Avalon then declared the unit to be reduced to a "mere" regiment. He did however take the opportunity to break off a company each of the finest warriors of the New Syrtis CMM to be sent to the 5th and 6th Fusiliers to help in their rebuilding while maintaining their experience levels. He replaced the warriors taken from the March Militia with graduating cadets.
The building of both the Broken Wheel the Andoran Industries Ltd plant began to pick up pace with enthusiastic support from the locals. The first of the Clint specific machinery began arriving from Bell and was soon being placed within the new factory units. The plant would only enter limited production by the second quarter of 3063 and not reach full production levels until 3064, but by the end of 3062 a number of spare parts were being produced.
On Filvelt the dropship assembly and construction yards were proceeding although were slowing down due to a lack of labour and available manpower. This would result in a large scale migration to the world and huge construction boom across the planet. Long dormant and abandoned cities would be brought back into civilisation, with almost every area of the local economy seeing a huge boom, even the agricultural sector which had been the mainstay of the planet for centuries. This shortage however was threatening to delay the construction until the Filtvelt Academy Training Battalion stepped in and began helping to build the facilities with their battlemechs.
The 1st Avalon Hussars RCT on Abbeyville countered a pirate raid on Kentwood during late July and into August. The under strength company sized raiding force of pirates clearly hadn't received word of the regions new defenders. The 1st Avalon's Hussars attached fighter wing began the proceedings by strafing the landed Union and Mule dropships, while in space battle armoured infantry from the 1st Avalon Hussars Armoured Battalion seized the pirate merchant class jumpship. Stranded on the planet the pirates attempted to fade into the wilderness, but the enraged locals knew the terrain much better than the pirates and led the Hussar's hunter groups to each would be hiding spot of the pirates. The 3 pirate battlemech's that were in any salvageable condition after the fighting were donated to the local planetary defence force to rebuild and use.
Within the Lyran Alliance word had leaked out about the transfer of the Archon to face trial and the LAAF was soon stretched to it's limit trying to suppress protests against this action. Indeed some of it's key units such as the 2nd Royal Guards were unprepared to suppress the riots and were in fact in danger of joining them. General of the Armies Nondi Steiner attempted as best she could to call for calm, but she was now forced to realise that on both sides her prestige was incredibly damaged and fading fast. A brief respite came when the huge LAS Yggdrasil was launched, but this lasted only a few days. Nondi Steiner was barely able to get funding approved through the Estates General to being construction of a second Mjolnir class vessel and her attempt to add a second slip to increase production was defeated roundly.
The launch of the LAS Yggdrasil with it's heavy armoured bulk began to cause some consternation within the FWLN during this time and they began to look into some more robustly armoured designs for a battleship. The plans for the Atreus class battleship were looked into and considered for modernisation, as all agreed that the design was a relic.
The Ionus yards began a massive expansion with 4 slips planned to augment the existing Zechetinu slips. The plan was for 4 ships to be laid down in each, 3 for the WOB and 1 for the FWLN paid for by the profits of the sale of the first 3. Along with the existing slips which were adding 2 Corvettes a year to the fleet, although the FWL Parliament had been asked to increase the FWL only slips to 3 or better yet 4 as well. The Parliament was reluctant to do this as they pointed out that after the WOB contract was fulfilled Ionus would have 6 corvette slips for the FWL. Adding 2 more to that seemed excessive to the bean counters, particularly as they were aware the FWLN was pushing for a battleship design as well.
The Capellan yards during July began to be physically upgraded and expanded with 2 large slips starting to be constructed. A large number of the men and women invovled in building these yards proved later to be of Taurian origin, in fact many turned out to be members of the Taurian Concordant's famed Special Asteriod Support Force. Extensively trained in zero-gravity and fanatically loyal they made the ideal work forces for this urgent project. In return for this support the Chancellor agreed to provide advisers and technical assistance to help build a warship production facility within the Concordant.
First Lord Kai Allard-Liao initiates a major program of refugee assistance across the Sphere. This of course helps his own realm, but large numbers of refugees from the Clan Invasion, Chaos March and other "minor" conflicts also benefit from this program. As Duke of St Ives's he also begins work on repairing the Indicass Ceres Metals Plant, while beginning to rebuild his shattered and damaged military commands. Expansion of the Janissary Brigade is put on hold although not ended.
August 3062
Within the Federated Suns the month of August is dominated by the various military-industrial complexes submitting their bids for the new factory to be placed on June. Almost every large scale company make at least a token bid, with most of them making genuine efforts to win the contract. Achernar Battlemech's, Jalastar Aerospace and Robinson Standard BattleWork's however only make token bids as they have already recieved or are discussions to obtain contracts. There are soon however a number of front runners.
Corean Enterprises is the first of these front running bids. They have entered a strong and well put together proposal for an initial factory consisting of a single line of Valkyrie battlemechs with future expansions adding the Centurion battlemech and potentially a number of vehicle designs along with additional lines of Centurions and Valkries.
The next bid is from GM who have a more ambitious initial plan begin production with the ever popular Marauder class battlemech along with a line for the Falconer battlemech and another one for their Wasp design. Alongside these three battlemech designs they propose to also construct at the same time a large plant for the construction of APC's of both standard and heavy design and expand this with lines to produce their Challenger MBT. A further annex is proposed to add Cavalier battle armour to the site.
Kallon Industries bid is one for a complex containing 3 lines of battlemech production. The first and most controversial of these is a line for Templar-O production. This line in itself is likely to cause a degree of resentment from Duke Hasek of New Syrtis, but it is the key component to their bid. The two additional lines will produce the ever popular Enforcer and Jagermech designs.
A rank outsider, but one which is noted for it's local nature, is that of Outback FarmMech's. They have proposed constructing (while admitting it would require large scale technical help from the FedSuns Government) a locally built, locally owned facility to produce either the Stinger, Wasp or Locust battlemech design. They do at least have the "inside track" of already owning a facility on Filtvelt.
Overshadowing these bids at least in the eyes of the High Command is the formal announcement from the Capellan Confederation, Magistracy of Canopus and Taurian Concordant of the Trinity Alliance. Immediately Marshal of the Armies Jackson Davion begins preparing to reinforce the Taurian frontier, effectually treating it as an extension of the front line of the Capellan Confederation. Midale, Brockway and Hyalite have their garrisons bolstered by the 4th Crucis Lancers RCT, 2nd Chisholm Raiders RCT and 10th Deneb Light Cavalry RCT's respectively. Even this leaves the border considerably lighter on forces than the Marshal would like. As such the 12th FedSun's Dragoons RCT begins the long trip from the Achernar PDZ to take up station on Montour. While the Blue Star Irregulars, still in transit from their posting on the Clan Border is rerouted to Firgrove to act as a mobile reserve. While their the mercenaries Fredessa Corvette can hopefully undergo a refit at the New Syrtis yards.
The First Princes's expansion of the AFFS which already had the vast majority of the High Command wildly enthused now has appeared almost prescient. The Federated Suns's border with their rivals has now became even more dangerously stretched and the Taurian Concordant's well trained and equipped regiments appear to be a dagger held at the belly of the Capellan March. Further expansions are immedietly looked into to bolster this dangerous flank.
During these discussions various members of the High Command and various brigades commanding officers put forward arguments for various expansions. Unsurprisingly the most favoured options include expanding the New Syrtis Fusiliers brigade by at least 1 RCT and adding more Avalon Hussars RCT's, although Marshal Talles of the Ceti Hussars brigade and the returned Marshal Venger of the FedSun's Dragoons brigade make strong arguments for their own brigades to be expanded. The First Prince and the Marshal of Armies listen to all of the various proposals, including even one from the Major General Fortuna of the Robinson Rangers standing in for Duke Sandoval for the formation of a new Robinson Rangers regiment to free up another unit to move to the Taurian border. Fleet Admiral Buchwald also makes a strong case for increased Fox Corvette production. In this the Admiral is joined by Marshal Nathaniel Hasek on behalf of his patron Duke Hasek.
While engaged with these meetings the First Prince also contacted Earthwerks Incorporated and requested that they expand their production facilities on Tikonov to include an Archer battlemech variant. As the company already produces this battlemech at other non-Federated Suns sites it is felt that this is the easiest way to add this battlemech to those produced within the Federated Suns without having to engage in lengthy legal wrangles or license agreements. With guaranteed contracts on offer Earthwerks agrees within a matter of weeks and as soon as the contracts are signed begins construction of the new facility drawing on the huge industrial potential of Tikonov. This also has the added benefit of increasing jobs on Tikonov and will be played as such to the people to help pro-Davion sentiment. The new line will be completed in late 3063, although spare parts for the existing AFFS Archers will be being produced well before then.
After a lengthy and torturous journey the FSS Alexander Davion arrives at Tukayyid and hands over it's prestigious prisoner to the ComGuards and SLDF garrison there. The warship then begins it's way home, although without the danger of attempts to free the Archon it now does so via the Lyran Alliance. On it's way home it makes a small detour to Arc Royal where it engages in war games with the WiE fleet.
Secretly the first of the WOB Zechetinu II are laid down at the Titan Yards during August. Alongside the 3 Dante Frigates, 4 slips begin constructing the Corvette. As well as numerous wrecks being refitted to active duty.
The DCS Togura finally leaves its long term orbit within the New Samarkand system and begins making it's way to Midway. The path had to be chosen to either take the most direct route and least jumps or to pass through occupied systems. Given the incredibly fragile nature of the jump drives the shortest route is taken, with escorting jumpships carrying spare parts, engineers and repair crews going along with every jump. It will still take the decrepit warship until the end of the year to reach Midway and by then it will almost be falling apart.
The FSS Robinson is officially commissioned and begins a long shakedown cruise. While the initial cruise will take it to Robinson and then along the Draconis March border and into the Addick's PDZ it is then intended that it head down through the Capellan March and jump to take up station at Panpour. So keeping the First Princes's agreement with the executives of Jalastar Aerospace and Challenge Systems.
September 3062
September begins with the First Prince announcing that he and his advisers will take into account all of the bids submitted for a new battlemech factory on June and will decide upon the winning bid by the end of October. He does however comment that almost every proposal has a great deal of merit and he will be looking at even the unsuccessful bids closely to see if further opportunities may be available.
With the full support of the Federated Sun's Government the expansion of the Robinson BattleWorks plant with a new line for the Sagitaire is proceeding at pace. While initially intended to begin full scale production in mid 3063 this date has been brought forward to January 3063.
The planned upgrades on the Clyde Shipyards at Firgrove have now progressed far enough that the first Excalibur dropship begins to be constructed with another 2 expected to be laid down in short succession. Teething problems will delay the construction of these first 3 ships to almost double the normal for the design. However as the yards become more used to building dropships from the ground up output will increase.
The first new Monolith yard at Panpour is also approaching completion, and will lay down it's first jumpship in December. The two Congress-D yards are further behind as they are being constructed in secret. Still the first is expected to be ready to lay down a warship by February 3063 and the second of the yards roughly 4 months later.
Also at Panpour the first trickles of arriving troops and officers began to arrive to help form the cadre for the new defensive unit. Provisionally listed as the 2nd Avalon Hussars RCT it will when fully formed consist of a reinforced battlemech regiment, 3 aerospace wings, 4 armour regiments and 8 infantry regiments in a similar fashion to the 42nd. When called away from Panpour it is expected that the 4th Battalion, 1 aerospace wing, 1 armour regiment and 3 infantry regiments will remain to garrison the world. Of course for now barely a tenth of that force has began to assemble. Still as a nod to the local support it is the 4th Battalion which will be formed first.
In a much smaller meeting than the full High Command First Prince Victor and his Marshal of Armies and Princes Champion discuss the options proposed by the High Command for expanding the AFFS on the evening of the 23rd September. All three men agree that although expanding the Avalon Hussars brigade further is the easiest option it should perhaps be postponed for the time being. Since his initial meeting with Marshal Waters on the 12th June 3061 the First Prince has reinforced the brigade by no fewer than 5 RCT (if you include the provisional 2nd) and expanded the 41st to a full RCT. Further expansions risk diluting the Avalon Hussars esprit de corp.
Which left the dilemma of what units should be added to the AFFS's roster. The three men agreed that the Capellan March's Duke Hasek would almost certainly demand a New Syrtis Fusiliers unit be raised as a priority and while Ardan Sortek in particular was historically somewhat nervous about this they could see the reasoning. All three agreed that in the coming year a New Syrtis Fusilier unit would be raised, they would leave the numbering up to George Hasek. And it was strongly hinted by Jackson Davion that the forceful duke could be pressured into contributing to it's formation from the industrial might of his March.
While the three men argue into the night on whether to form a 3rd Chisholm Raiders unit or a 2nd or 13th FedSun's Dragoons RCT or even a 4th Ceti Hussars formation they cannot seem to find an agreement of what is the best option. Until finally, after perhaps one too many brandies, the Prince's Champion Ardan Sortek mutters that perhaps the best option might be to just reconstitute the Dragonlords brigade. Which has the other two men stop in their argument and stare at him.
The next day the First Prince, Marshal of the Armies and Prince's Champion inform the High Command that they have came to a decision on reinforcing the Taurian border. When the current year's cadets graduate from the Training Cadres and Academies they will be used to continue expanding the forming Avalon Hussars units as well as to form two new additional units. The first of these will be an additional New Syrtis Fusiliers but the second will be a reformation of the 1st Dragonlords. The First Prince announces to the shocked officers that as per the first formation of this brigade it's officer corp will be drawn from the Davion Brigade of Guards.
During the same meeting and when the furore has calmed down, they inform the Fleet Admiral that 2 additional Fox Corvette slips will be constructed at Galax and that a new slip will be constructed at Kathil for Avalon cruiser construction. The First Prince after this meeting will speak with the Admiral Buchwald and Nathaniel Hasek and discuss with them how quickly a redesign of the Davion II Destroyer might be done to upgrade it to the modern era as the Davion III and it placed in production at New Syrtis as well as Galax or Delavan.
The ComGuards announced that the CVS Anastasius Focht, a Suffren class Destroyer, was completed and would be entering service as part of their First Independent Squadron. This announcement drew the attention of the First Lord and he requested a meeting with the Precentor Martial to discuss an SLDF warship program. This would be scheduled for early 3063.
On Sian the 3rd and 4th Sian Dragoons are listed as active. Although all 4 commands remain massively under strength.
At Necromo the Franco Martel's launching is delayed until early 3063 due to a break in production while occupied by the 2nd Davion Guards. This will delay the repairs to the CCS Zhejing.
