20 July 3064
Illyria
Caesar Julius O'Reilly was furious when he learned of the invasion on Lothario. He had directed IV Legio to return to Lothario along with his 2 Patrol Corvettes and teach the invaders a lesson. His forces here on Illyria had pushed the 278th Division into a small pocket. His forces controlled almost 90% of the planet with the 278th Division blocking access to the last 10% only to their control of the few passes into the hugely mountainous region and it's mining.
What Caesar Julius O'Reilly did not know was that operating in the deep part of the system was a HPG Relay ship that was monitoring the situation. Every SLDF Division had mobile HPG's in their Division Headquarters and the departure of the warships was noted and relayed.
Landfall
Sitting at Landfall's Nadir Jump Point was a HPG Relay ship along with a FWL Star Lord Jumpship. Attached to the 6 collars of the Star Lord was the complete 274th Battle Cluster of Clan Nova Cat, 1 Overlord C, 1 Union C, 2 Sassanid, 1 Titan Dropship. Attached to the HPG Relay ship was the 12th Nova Cat Regulars Overlord C. They had been brought forward over the last month, partially on Star League Command Circuit, partially by the rerouted HPG Relay network.
Star Colonel Jullamon Lossey, commander of the 274th Battle Cluster, received word of the Marian warships leaving the system of Illyria and gave the order to move. It would be 1 August before they arrived, he just hoped the 278th Division could hold out until then.
Tau Galaxies Vision Keshik (Cluster) was already on the way and so was the 9th Nova Cat Regulars Cluster. Moving 3 Dropships at a time slowed things down, but it was steadily getting better. Kappa Galaxy would be moving soon towards this region of space also. AFFC ships were handing them off to Capellan ships who would be handing them off to FWL ships. It was estimated to have all of Tau Galaxy and Kappa Galaxy in theater by the middle of October.
Engadin
saKhan Tanya DeLaurel of Clan Hell's Horses could not take the idleness any longer, her 3 Galaxies had spent the last year in the Inner Sphere staring at weakly defended Clan Ghost Bear worlds. Clan Ghost Bear had shifted troops during the Star Leagues war against Clan Smoke Jaguar. But now, before they redeployed forces, now was the time to strike.
She launched 4 of Alpha Galaxy's Cluster at Predlitz, the 11th and 12th Mechanized and 21st and 22nd Mechanized Assault Clusters.
Beta Galaxy would send 3 Clusters to seize Goito, the 666th and 888th Mechanized Assault along with the 333rd Strike.
Gamma Galaxy would strike at Kempten with 2 Clusters, the 45th Mechanized Strike and 87th Mechanized Cavalry.
26 July 3064
Predlitz
Clan Hell's Horses Alpha Galaxy leaped into the Zenith Jump Point and burned for the planet 8 days away at 1.5g's. The defending 3rd Claw prepared for battle.
Goito
Clan Hell's Horses Beta Galaxy arrived at Goito's Nadir Jump Point and a Trinary of Elementals quickly seized the recharge station located there. The invasion headed for the planet 6 days away at 1.5g's. The defending 63rd PGC prepared for battle against an old foe.
Kempten
Clan Hell's Horses Gamma Galaxy arrived at the Zenith Jump Point and headed for the planet 17 days away at 1g. The defending 73rd Battle Cluster would be ready.
New Avalon
Duke Scott Mitchell and Craig had been asked to New Avalon to consult with the AFFC on expanding Clan tech in the AFFC ground forces. Now, they sat in Archon Prince Victor Steiner Davion's office with Marshal of the Armies Morgan Hasek Davion. While Scott was quite comfortable, Craig was a little nervous at being here.
"Scott, thanks for coming here. Congratulations on expecting a child and also on your engagement to Twyla. I cannot wait to meet her. You must be Craig, Scott has told me quite a bit about you and the miracle working you did on Mackolla and Bamburgh and providing us the ability to build Clan spec weapons and equipment. Now, as you know, we have had the ability to produce Clan spec weapons for a few years now in quantity, but we lacked the wide spread ability to maintain that equipment on a large scale. But now, I am told we are ready to begin some large scale deployments of this ability. We would like you 2 to advise us on what and how much to deploy." Victor said
Scott could not help but glance at Morgan Hasek Davion, he just did not know what he was getting into, Craig was just as much a fanatic as Boss was. This was going to get good quick. "Thanks Victor, glad to help out as always. Me and Craig played around with some figures on the way here. The AFFC is too big to refit to Omni Mech technology very quickly, BUT, we think we could easily refit 2-3 full RCT's to 100% Omni Mech and Clan spec weapons for a test bed. But refitting standard Mechs to Clan spec weapons, now that is much easier. In addition we are ready to enter into mass production, well on a larger scale than we have been anyway, of Clan 2nd Line Mechs and our own designed Clan armed Mechs.
On Bamburgh, we currently have quite an inventory sitting ready to be delivered as we speak. I have just never authorized the wide spread sale of our equipment. We currently have:
[u Mechs[/u]
Thor/Summoner- 70
Ryoken/Stormcrow- 120
Fenris/Ice Ferret- 90
Shadow Cat- 40
Turkina- 20
Loki- 20
Mad Cat- 40
Cougar- 20
Kingfisher- 80
Hellhound/Conjurer- 130
Vixen- 140
Wolfhound IIC- 110
Highlander IIC- 100
Guillotine IIC- 60
Thug 11EC- 60
Volar VLR-1C -80
Volar VLR-2C - 80
Volar VLR-3C - 80
Volar VLR-4C - 80
Warhammer 7A- 120
Thunderbolt 5Sb- 120
Trebuchet 3C- 160
Ostwar 2MbC - 48
Highlander HGN-732b - 72
Ostwar 2Mb - 144
Now we still have our by hand operation on Mackolla which can produce 36 Mechs at the same time, depending on type, like the Trebuchet 3C, we can build 108 a year just using that production format, 3 per year in each bay. We have expanded our production capabilities beyond what even I had expected, we now have 20 lines available on Bamburgh dedicated to Omni Mech production, another 20 to building Clan 2nd Line and our Clan armed designs and 15 lines producing our standard models. Craig ramped up our production capability quite a bit after Tortuga Prime and then again when I sent a present to Clan Nova Cat.
I was actually about to offer our standard Mechs for sale on the open market. Unless someone wants to buy them from me first anyway." Scott finished
"Why so few of certain models of Omni Mechs?" Morgan asked
Craig fielded this question "Those were mainly test runs I conducted to verify that we could manufacture the design and verify production line operation."
"And how many lines are dedicated to each model?" Morgan asked
Craig looked at Scott who nodded, go ahead "Currently, I have our Bamburgh operation setup like this:
Standard Mechs
Warhammer WHM-7A, 3 lines producing 72 per year
Thunderbolt TDR-5Sb, 3 lines producing 72 per year
Trebuchet TBT-3C, 2 lines producing 96 per year
Thug 11Eb, 2 lines producing 60 per year
Highlander HGN-732b, 2 lines producing 36 per year
Ostwar OWR-2Mb, 3 lines producing 72 per year
Omni Mechs
Thor/Summoner, 2 lines producing 48 per year
Ryoken/Stormcrow, 2 lines producing 72 per year
Kingfisher, 2 lines producing 36 per year
Fenris/Ice Ferret, 2 lines producing 72 per year
Mad Cat, 2 lines producing 48 per year
Shadow Cat, 2 lines producing 72 per year
Night Gyr, 2 lines producing 48 per year, I am just starting production of this model
Loki, 2 lines producing 48 per year, I am just starting production of this model
Turkina, 1 line producing 18 per year, just starting production
Battle Cobra, 1 line producing 36 per year, just starting production
Puma, 1 line producing 36 per year, just starting production
Clan 2nd Line/Clan armed
Thug 11EC, 3 lines producing 72 per year
Vixen, 2 lines producing 72 per year
Hellhound/Conjurer, 2 lines producing 72 per year
Highlander IIC, 1 lines producing 24 per year
Volar 1C, 1 line producing 30 per year
Volar 2C, 1 line producing 30 per year
Volar 3C, 1 line producing 30 per year
Volar 4C, 1 line producing 30 per year
Wolfhound IIC, 1 line producing 48 per year
Guillotine IIC, 1 line producing 24 per year
Ostwar 2MbC, 1 line producing 30 per year
As you can see, we are preparing to enter the market in a very strong way. It took much time to develop all the needed supporting factories, weapons, engines etc to be able to get to this point. In addition to training all the workers. For the last 10 years, our forces have been using and maintaining Clan spec weapons and equipment, it took time, but it can be done on a much larger scale. The Federated Commonwealth has many manufacturers of Battlemechs all with their existing infrastructure in place, it will take some time for them to retool to put Clan spec into wide spread use though, but not much. I calculate 1-2 years and all could be manufacturing Clan spec equipment fairly quickly.
But, I caution you, if you do not want this to spread beyond the borders of the Federated Commonwealth, I would not allow access to this technology to any company with production sites outside your borders." Craig said
"Exactly how are you able to manufacture in such numbers? You are quoting production numbers on par with Corean on New Avalon. That is the last functioning Star League era factory that I know of, outside of the factories on Terra anyway." Victor asked
"Uh, well, Uncle Harry got it from Comstar a while back. It seems that it is Star League quality, with the same rates, it is quite automated. It took some work to adapt it to Omni Mech production, or at least that is what Craig told me, but he managed to do it and well, here we are." Scott said
"And you have not shared because?" Victor asked
"Because you never asked me to, plus I have been kind of busy the last few years and never thought about it." Scott said
"Uh huh, I think me and you should have a talk Scott. That is a pretty big oops I forgot to tell you." Victor said
"It's the truth. You want the designs for the factories, no problem. Craig has already told me that there is no way to retool an existing factory line to this technology, it has to be built from the ground up. Mitchell Aerospace has poured Billions into building this factory to this level. Not to mention the Billions into our Aerospace Industry and Shipyards. And let's not forget our Tank Factory. I have been toying with pouring several Billion into Quickcell's Broken Wheel operation to expand it's construction, but I am not allowing it access to Clan tech. Even been toying with a factory on one of the larger populated planets in my March. Have not made up my mind yet on that one yet." Scott countered
Morgan decided to toss some water on the little fire before it went to inferno level "Let's all calm down, in Duke Mitchell's defense, he has been quite busy the last few years. He was away for over a year helping Clan Nova Cat move, then the entire Tortuga Prime, rebuilding his MDF, then we flooded him with settlers. It's a big whoops, but I believe him. Now, the more important thing is, how do we implement wide scale deployment of Clan Tech to our forces?"
"I think the best thing I to allow the manufactures to introduce their own upgrades and designs. We gave the Federated Commonwealth the needed material to build Clan spec weapons. But, I will not assist in giving another manufacture access to our Omni production. They want it, they can spend the time and energy developing the ability. The AFFC wants Clan Omni Mechs, Clan Omni Fighters, Clan Omni Vehicles, or even our 2nd Line and home designs, they can buy them from us. Go hog wild on a buying spree and I have no problems retooling my standard mech factory to build Omni Mechs or 2nd line stuff if that is what I need to do. Sorry Victor, but here I make a stand. We handed over our shipyard technology and even some ship designs and now that Mitchell Aerospace has decided to enter the civilian market, I am hearing some grumbles about it. We handed over the ability to build Clan spec weapons and not much has happened with it. But on releasing our ability to build Clan Omni Mechs, Clan 2nd Line, Clan Omni Fighters and Omni Vehicles, I say no for the first time to you or the Federated Commonwealth." Scott said throwing a little more gasoline on top of the water Morgan tried to throw onto the flames
It was obvious to everyone that Scott had struck a nerve, for the look on Victor's face said it all. He was not used to being told no. Very few people ever said no to him. Those that did usually regretted it. But, instead of an outburst, Victor took a deep breathe to calm himself before speaking "Okay Scott, your right, your Uncle and you have given without exception a tremendous amount to the Federated Commonwealth. Keep your Clan Omni secrets to yourself. I do want the plans and specs for the Star League Mechs factory though."
"I will have them sent to you. I am sorry Victor, but I understand the passing of the shipyards and even Clan spec weapons to the Federated Commonwealth. Your mother, father and even you helped a tremendous amount in making those possible. But the reverse engineering of Omni Technology was all us. We did that completely on our own. In this area, outside of Clan Nova Cat or maybe Clan Wolf in Exile, I prefer that we be the sole builders of Clan Omni Technology. I can promise this, I will not sell those Omni's to just anyone. If I even think they might in some way constitute a danger to the Federated Commonwealth or it's allies, they will not get even an actuator from us." Scott vowed
"It's okay, it got a little heated, but the more I think about it, you are right. It is risky enough just allowing the widespread use of Clan spec weapons onto the playing field. For now, let's all get some dinner, I am hungry." Victor said ending the meeting
