The Quest

[2ndAcr]

 17 January 3055
            Bristol

   The dropship carrying the Clan prisoners had managed to link up with part of Archon Melissa Steiner's command circuit. Per the Archon's orders the dropship was carried to Bristol where it would link up with the last jumpship in the chain to be carried to New Avalon. There it would link up with the command circuit being formed by the Department of the Quartermaster to be ferried to Crofton. The new eta to Crofton was roughly March 3055.

  Mackolla

  On the 15th of December 3054, Harry had used the vast majority of their available jumpships to deliver dropships to the AFFC. Field Marshall Steiner had left with the fleet. The vast fleet consisted of:

 9 Star Lord Jumpships
 1 Tramp Jumpship
 2 Q-ship Invaders
 6 Invader Jumpships

 Carrying
 8 converted Mules carrying rescued civilians for repatriation
 54 Gremlin Dropships
 37 Pentagon Dropships

 They had sent 20 dropship crews with the fleet to assist in shuttling the dropships to the surface of Crofton. It was going to take 2 months just to shuttle the ships to the surface. Harry had conferred with Field Marshall Steiner that due to the existing length of the supply chain, he would not accept any further dropship orders to be built at Mackolla. She had to agree, the shipyards at Mackolla could build the dropships faster than they could be transported to a location for the AFFC to pick them up. The roughly 12 days one way to Crofton from the standard jump points ate up too much time.

 Harry and the Field Marshall had finally decided that the next mass delivery would be done at McRae. It had a good sized space port but the main reason was the short distance to the surface from the jump point. Harry suggested the next delivery just be met with enough jumpships to transfer the entire load at the jump point.

 Harry was currently on Shipyard One with the Boss.

 "So, have we made any progress on a Battle Armor transport for the AFFC?" Harry asked

 "I have 2 designed around the Intruder dropship. You will just have to decide which one you want to submit. I used Scott's suggestion on making them easily convertable. The first can carry up to a full battalion of 64 squads of battle armor, but can be easily scaled down or up. I made the BA support bays to be easily removed and added as needed. The 2nd design is fully upgraded with Ferro Aluminum armor, double heat sinks, modern weapons and carries 20 squads but the embarked company all have steerage quarters for each man. It is designed for long deployments. That last one can be scaled down to 16 squads easily but they cannot expand past 20 squads without chewing into the available cargo space." The Boss said "I am working on a third design but it is in the very early design phase, just a rough outline. Those 2 Clan tech were a huge help in the design of a battle armor transport. I could not have done it without them."

 "Okay, so I have 2 designs I can submit to the AFFC. I got good news though, I got a fax from Tharkad, the Archon has gotten Tharkad Aerospace Group to accept building the Gremlin and Pentagon designs for us. I already sent a fax to Panpour, they are going to build the shipyard and arrange transport to Tharkad for us. I don't want to build dropships here anymore except for our own use. Just too difficult delivering them from here. I also asked Challenge and Jalastar to approach Salvatore and Clyde Shipyards about building designs in the Federated Suns side of the house." Harry said

 "That is great news Harry, those damn dropships clutter up my production site. So, once I finish the current production runs on this contract I can focus on building actual ships and not dropships?" The Boss asked

 "You got it, no dropships except those we will use ourselves. I also got a request from Gale, she would like a ship designed to grind down busted jump cores and process them for transport." Harry said

 The Boss made some notes "Got it, I will work up something to cover that. Any word on when I can expect some more people? I hear that new planet has a good sized pool of people on it."

 "Bad news there Boss, last report I got from Scott says they are roughly early 20th century tech wise. He actually has horse cavalry. I don't see any easy way to get those people up to shipbuilding standards. Heck even Challenge is having problems finding more people to work the shipyards and they are way more open source than us. We still have serious security concerns. But I will see what I can do, no promises." Harry said

 "Damn, friggin horse cavalry. Well, I sort of had my fingers crossed. Heck, tell Scott to think about putting some low tech production in place, steel and such. We can always use steel and it takes some load off the factory down on the surface here." The Boss said

 "I will talk it over with George, see what we can do. I have to see him about some other stuff Scott would like sent to Bamburgh anyway." Harry said "I have to get back down to the surface Boss, great work up here, keep it up."

  Bamburgh

 Scott named Major Cunnard the acting military governor when he was off planet. Offically Major Cunnard was the planets Militia commander. The Bamburgh Militia now numbered 4 Cavalry Regiments and 12 Infantry Regiments. Scott had sent a fax to Mackolla requesting they send 2 Capitol Stations and one of the Armor Regiments here and to send enough Mech Warriors and support staff to field a Mech Battalion on Bamburgh. He was not ready to place the trained pilots here inside those mechs. He had requested an assortment of industrial mechs that arrived though. At least he could put those trained pilots to use driving those. He also wanted one of those modern hospitals sent over along with medical personnel.

 At least that would give the militia here a solid backing of properly trained personnel but mainly they had a core force NOT loyal to any of the old factions on Bamburgh. CSM O'Malley was currently pulling his hair out giving driving lessons to a bunch of locals, using the trucks Scott had brought over. Surprisngly, the locals were not horrible at it, no worse than a teenager learning to drive for the first time. It showed promise that maybe they could pull these people into the modern era slowly but surely. Combat vehicle drivers they were not, but if he could at least get some kind of ground transportaion network going, it would help immensly.

[shadowdancer]

When I was faced with a way to collect a large amount of varied troops I came up with what I thought was a really good answer.

The Blakist are hireling a lot of mercenaries. But there has to be some that have a higher moral code than their leadership. They can not be turned loose so what happens to them? A reeducation camp in the periphery? Every thing from infantry to mechwarriors with techs, spies, logistic and spacecraft crew. Throw in a Blake backed pirate base with slaves and you have all kinds of personal in the same place. Return those that do not want to stay back to the Inner Sphere with a some basic intelligence training and you have a Wolfnet startup. You do have Allard to back an intel service.

[2ndAcr]

 Well, Scott has a serious problem with any sort of Pirate. I have a ton of people, but they are primitive compared to 3055 technology. The primary workers I need are high tech workers. One reason we have the school now operating on Pattonsburg. Bamburgh alone has roughly 80 million people on it..Mackolla is up to roughly 5.5 million people on it. That includes the rescued slaves from Arundel that wanted to stay, roughly 360 thousand. At least they were mainly up to modern technology.

 Not sure the Blakists are hiring enmass yet...….only 3055, after they seize Terra, maybe. Pretty sure they did not begin mass warship collection until 3058 and beyond.

[2ndAcr]

  2 February 3055
          Bamburgh

   Scott was about to spend a ton of money. But the one thing they had overall was money to burn. He checked his list again, it was pretty good sized. He had received the fax from Harry about low tech production and he liked it.
 
  48 Light Mechs (must be easy to maintain)
  48 Medium Mechs (must be easy to maintain)
  48 Heavy or Assault Mechs (must be easy to maintain)
  72 Manticore Tanks
  72 Rommel Tanks
  72 Patton Tanks
  96 Heavy Wheeled APC's
  96 Heavy Tracked APC's
  48 Heavy Hover APC's
  500 trucks
  3 cement plants
  10 metal production lines
  3 modern hospitals
  12 MASH trucks
  Mining equipment
 
    The trained mech pilots on Bamburgh bothered him, he just could not allow them to be swayed by their previous loyalties to their factions, so to prevent that he was transferring them all to Mackolla. Major Cunnard had interviewed all of the trained pilots and decided that of the 142 trained pilots on the planet, in his opinion they could absolutely trust 93 of them. It was these 93 pilots that would be allowed to pilot actual combat mechs in the MDF. The remaining 49 would pilot industrial mechs only, on Mackolla.

 Scott thought to himself, at least this would give the people on Bamburgh a start. He would have all the equipment taken to Mackolla and they would sort out what would come to Bamburgh. He was going to literally drag this planet into the 31st century. At least Mackolla was only 2 jumps away. Damien Crosby and his diplomats were ready to leave now that things were settled on Bamburgh. So Scott was sending them on their way back to Federated Suns space via Mackolla. Scott really needed modern teachers to begin the process of educating the massive civilian population. Heck, he needed every skilled person he could grab. Clayton had finished his survey of Bamburgh proper and was ready to go home. Nice thing was, Bamburgh was not Mackolla, so the massive security blanket did not apply here.

  Panpour

   Challenge had recieved the fax from Harry and had a shipyard almost completed for the tranfer to Tharkad, they would also send 10 people to assist in the construction of the shipyard and training it's new owner in it's operation. They had a brand new Monolith standing by to carry it to Tharkad. It was going to take almost a year to make the journey. But this Monolith was being delivered to it's new owner anyway which just so happened to be in the Lyran half of space. So it was convienent.

  Maria Klein had been notified she would be on temporary duty for at least 2 years accompanying the new shipyard to Tharkad and assisting in getting it up and running plus any new orbital factories it might produce. She was being paid an additional 1500 per month for the temporary duty assignment. So, someplace else was getting some of these advanced facilities she though to herself. She really did not want to leave Panpour, but she would be the primary computer expert for the new facilities. This at least would give her complete unrestricted access to the onboard systems.

 Dexter Thasango was not selected to go on the temporary duty even though he apllied for it. When the word went out for 10 people to assist in the construction and instruction, he had jumped at the chance. At least as one of the lead people it would have given him easier access to maybe copy the main computer system. That would have earned him a huge payment from Federated Boeing.

 

[Shadow_Wraith]

Nice update.   I'm really wondering if MIIO and LOC are monitoring all these new employees?     8)

[2ndAcr]

   14 February 3055
             Mackolla

  Harry had received a fax from New Avalon on the 12th for the AFFC warships to leave Mackolla and make their way to New Avalon itself. It would be a large movement, for the AFFC fleet had grown fairly large. It currently consisted of:

 1 Riga Class Frigate
 1 Congress Class Frigate
 1 Lola III Destroyer
 2 Pinto Corvettes
 4 Buford Class Corvettes
 8 Patrol Class Corvettes
 1 Saratoga Class Carrier
 2 Carrack Transports

 In comparison the Mackolla Defense Force fleet:
 1 Saratoga Class Carrier
 1 Carrack Transport
 6 Q-ship Invader
 2 Buford Class Corvettes
 2 Patrol Class Corvettes
 1 Salvage Yardship

  Harry had decided that the returning AFFC fleet would carry with them 10 Pentagon dropships. Might as well use them to make a delivery. Harry had acknowledged the fax and requested more AFFC crews for the new warships they were producing but had not completed yet. He received his replay today.

 To: Harry Mitchell
 From: Quintus Allard

  Per last transmission, ahead of you Harry, 3500 crew are currently at Crofton with your convoy. They are to undergo final training per the last. Special personnel new eta mid March 3055, will join at Crofton. Same for special request made from Quartermaster. No charge and keep the dropship, per highest. Also, from highest, special items also at Crofton, no charge.

 Per MDF Commander request equipment purchases ongoing. Expect late 3055 delivery of all requested material. Funds removed from joint account for purchases. 8,774,525,436 is the current cost of requested material.

 Q

  Holy shit!!!! What the hell all did Scott buy? Harry thought to himself, he had seen the list and knew it was going to be a bunch, but damn. And what the hell was all this special shit at no charge?

 Well, he would find out in July when the convoy arrived home. Almost 9 billion spent that fast.

  Panpour

   Countess Edwina Famito of Salvatore Incorporated and Carter Kessler of Clyde Shipyards were aboard one of the new shipyards jointly owned by Challenge Systems and Jalastar Aerospace. Both had trouble believing what they were seeing and hearing.

   "So, as you both can see, these shipyards and orbital factories can outproduce anything known to currently exist in the entire Inner Sphere. Join us in this venture. This is your savior right here. Countess, how would you like to build 2 Vengeance dropship in 1 months time? Carter, you could go from a refit yard to a full on shipbuilding production facility. I have already explained the terms for this technology. 20% of the profit of anything built in one of these facilities or 20% profit of any Mitchell Aerospace design built. I will tell you both this in extreme confidence, and I am serious on this, it does not leave this room. Mitchell Aerospace got a contract one year ago for over 200 dropships of their designs, they will finish that order by the end of this year. The AFFC will want a whole lot more of those designs, hundreds more. So, what do you think?" Duke Deniss Sona asked

  "It is so hard to believe, yet here it is. In all it's glory. This is my lifeline, of course I agree to the terms offered. I will sign it in blood if I have to. 200 dropships in just 2 years time? Unbelievable." Countess Famito exclaimed

  "Hell yes, I want in. All the way. I will build anything he wants me to build. No questions asked. You tell Harry Mitchell that anything he needs, I will find a way to make it happen for him." Carter Kessler said

  "You both need to fully understand, this technology is classified at the highest levels. No one gets access to this stuff without being cleared by MIIO. The highest levels of the Federated Commonwealth are involved in this, and I mean the highest levels. Any expansion done past the initial delivery of facilities MUST be cleared with New Avalon or Harry himself. Any request takes about a week for a answer. I can deliver a message to Harry if need be." Duke Deniss Sona said

  Both of the CEO's nodded their heads agreeing to everything and thinking the exact same thing. Hell, they would sell their soul for this kind of head start. Neither wanted anyone else to get their hands on this technology either. They would guard this technology with their lives.

 "Well then, I will send the message to Harry letting him know you both agree to join our little club. Let me be the first to welcome you both to our venture." Duke Deniss Sona said with a huge smile, but at the same time a dirty thought was in his head now I have to battle even harder for experienced shipyard workers, shit.

 
 

[Daryk]

It's amazing how much more cooperative the second tier can be... :)

[2ndAcr]

 Only ones facing severe MIIO scrutiny are any employee or person traveling to Mackolla proper. The warship program has the tightest security attached to it. Those background checks are as deep as they can go, the slightest blip disqualifies that person from Mackolla.

 Everything in the Inner Sphere proper is normal background checks by the employers. The shipyards there only have normal jumpship designs loaded on them. Anything to do with warships has been deleted completely from their databanks. Only the new transit drive factory for Dynamico Limited has anything warship related on it, and it currently only has the drive for the Fox loaded.
 
  Daryk, yes it is.

[2ndAcr]

Long ago a few wondered how this would help the AFFC overall, well stuff is now starting to get rolling. Call it 6 Gremlin per RCT in place of say 20 Condor or Seeker, that alone frees up 14 jumpship collars right there. Call it 4 Invader jumpships freed up per RCT to be used somewhere else or for some other purpose. 120 Gremlins in the first contract is enough for 20 RCT's to be fully retrofitted. That is 80 Invaders freed up.

 

[Daryk]

Quite the strategic impact there... I doubt those at the operational level or below could really tell the difference, though.  At best, the operational level would notice that more of their requests for transport were going through.  The tactical level would just see a bit more work, less sitting on their hands waiting for transport.

[Dave Talley]

about times for the March Lords to start building schools
nothing massive, junior college or vo-tech type schools to prepare
and sort through people on every planet, local militia/planetary security can prepare security info on each and all can be tested for abilities possibly sporty more pilots

[2ndAcr]

 1 March 3055
         Mackolla

  Over the last few months, Harry had seen his companies reach expand even further. First the Archon had arm twisted TAG-Manufacturing on Tharkad to build MAS dropship designs and now both Salvatore and Clyde Shipyards were involved. Harry had already told Challenge to go ahead and build a single yard for each of the new companies and to please assist in getting them up and running. Harry had dispatched one of the Boss's senior Challenge engineers to hand carry the computer design programs to Panpour to be sent to TAG, Clyde and Salvatore. He was also carrying the designs for the (b) version Stuka's and Sabre's to be forwarded to Jalastar and Lycomb-Davion.

 Harry had also gotten the fax from Gale that they were returning to Mackolla with the Lola III and Star Lord with a ETA of 20 March 3055. The AFFC fleet had left Mackolla for New Avalon on the 25th of February. He knew Scott wanted to do some more surveying and scouting deeper into the periphery, so he had visited the Boss for some ideas on good exploration ships or ideas. They had brain stormed a few ideas. But nothing conclusive was decided.

 Harry had arranged with George to have 72 LBX10's built and awaiting installation in the 72 Talos mechs they had. He knew Scott wanted them. Major Martinez had spent the last 2 months running his BA troops thru field exercises and wanted a month practicing boarding actions. The massive convoy to Crofton was slated for a late May return. The LF battery problem bothered both Harry and the Boss, but they were both stymied by the problem and could not figure out exactly what they were doing wrong. So that problem was still lingering.

  Overall, the planet itself was running quite smoothly. Farm production was up now that they had those Harvester Mechs in operation. Getting the raw ores to the plants was still a major issue and Harry had already scheduled some maintenance for the Mammoths with the Boss. The new ERPPC lines were fully online and producing, also the production of the few XL engine designs was proceeding well. Already Cathy Mayweather was producing the (b) version of the Stuka and Sabre. As full squadrons were built, they were rotated into existing squadrons and the older fighters brought back to the factory to be retrofitted. Now she was building 2 production lines for small craft. The prisoners rescued from Arundel were slowly being fed into the workforce, but the 55,000 or so rescued that the doctors would not fully release or who had serious mental abilities were hard to place in something productive.

 Harry had asked for volunteers of the rescued to relocate to Bamburgh and he had a decent number of volunteers. But he had asked for only single non family volunteers.

 21 doctors
 357 medics/nurses
 283 teachers
 2387 miners (211 skilled in mining mech operations)
 8736 farmers (87 skilled in agro mech operations)
 
  Harry planned to send them aboard a converted Mule as soon as Scott was ready for them. In addition to the new people, Harry was sending:

 30 Carbine Construction Mechs
 20 Agromechs
 30 Dig King mining Mechs
 10 Corvex Tunnel Miners
 30 Dump Trucks
 12 of the Engineering Vehicles
 Prefab housing for 15,000 people
 36 Heavy Tracked APC's
 1 modern hospital

  Bamburgh
 
   Scott had gotten the fax from Harry informing him that he had people and material ready to send his way. Luckily, the most current Black Box they used was the K4 series and it allowed the messages to arrive in 1/2 a day. Scott had fired back a fax telling Harry to send them as soon as he could. He really wanted those people. The sooner he could begin teaching the people here modern ways, the better everyone would be.

 Scott had used MDF Justine Mitchell along with the Seeker to run as detailed of scans as they could on the planets 2 moons along with the systems other 2 non gas giant planets. The first gas giant had 7 moons orbiting it and none held an atmosphere, the second gas giant had a dense asteroid belt among it's rings.

 Scott had placed the 2 Capitol stations over each pole of Bamburgh. He had dispatched Buford back to Mackolla for maintenance. He had Colonel Daly to have his people not designated to remain ready to leave Bamburgh for the trip back to Mackolla aboard the other 2 Q-ships. For now, Scott, Honos and CSM O'Malley would remain on Bamburgh.

[2ndAcr]

 1 March 3055
     New Valencia

   Precentor Dummond and his small fleet were on higher alert than normal ever since entering Federated Commonwealth space. They had endured several customs searches but their cover as working for Interstellar Expeditions had held up. He had decided to take a direct route to Okefenokee even with the increased risk. It would save his people and ships almost 6 months travel time this way.

  Before leaving Gibson, he had been informed that the Okefenokee HPG had been compromised by ROM. He was currently studying the provided Star League era star map of the surrounding space. First he would go check out the large group of known ships at NC39441. They would then work their towards Tortuga checking out the other known locations of derelicts.

  New Avalon

 Field Marshall Steiner of the Quartermaster Command was choosing the units to receive the new Gremlin Dropships that were about to start arriving. So far, she had the following selected:

 Davion Heavy Guards RCT
 10th Lyran Guards RCT
 Davion Assault Guards RCT
 1st Davion Guards RCT
 2nd Davion Guards RCT
 1st Crucis Lancers RCT
 2nd Crucis Lancers RCT
 2nd Ceti Hussars RCT
 1st Robinson Rangers RCT

 She was amazed at how many less Jumpships would be needed to move the units. She was assigning 6 Gremlins to each of the commands. She had been notified that several more locations would be manufacturing Gremlin dropships. But it would be at least a year or more before they began production in any serious numbers. She was very happy for the added production locations, even moving the mass of dropships being delivered to Crofton right now was a huge logistical nightmare.

 She checked on the status of the equipment ordered by Leftenant General Mitchell and noticed that it would be several months before everything was gathered and ready for pick up. She had assigned one of her staff members to personally ensure that Leftenant General Mitchell got all the support he needed. She could not explain in great detail on WHY he got to jump the line on some things, but she had stressed that what he was doing was of the utmost importance.  As far as she knew, she was one of the few on the High Command that actually had a clue where Mackolla was actually located.

 Outreach

  Colonel Stanford Blake had just received a briefing on the mysterious Mitchell Aerospace who's name had appeared connected with the sudden arrival of warship transit drives to Galax and then again appeared when they had checked out the sudden appearance of advanced shipyards at Panpour. They had yet located any production site anywhere connected to Mitchell Aerospace, but their name appeared everywhere this advanced technology showed up. He did not like the feeling of not knowing.

  Terra

 Primus Sharilar Mori re-read the HPG message she had received from Tharkad. She could not believe what she had just read.

  To: Primus Sharilar Mori (Terra)
  From: Archon Melissa Steiner

   I hope this message finds you in good health Primus. This message is to inform you that after years of negotiations trying to convince Comstar to allow us to purchase warship transit drives, both the Lyran Commonwealth and the Federated Suns have decided to no longer purchase transit drives from Comstar. We no longer see the need to continue negotiations on this issue.

 Melissa Steiner

 They had spent several years trying to convince us to allow this, now suddenly they say they are giving up on the issue? This makes no sense. I cannot believe the AFFC is abandoning warship construction. But only Comstar manufactures the needed transit drives for warships. I will have ROM look into this matter immediately.
 
  Merowinger

 Takashi Newhunter watched as his men returned from their raid on Skepptana. They had managed to pilfer thousands of tons of food, electronics, medicines and a couple hundred tons of ammunition stored inside a locked but unguarded AFFC compound on the edge of the small capitol city. It was kept there for visiting troops. It was not much, but it was a success and after the last year or 2, he needed every success he could get.

[Daryk]

Newhunter is going to draw the exact wrong kind of attention that way...  >:D

[2ndAcr]

  24 March 3055
          Bamburgh
 
   The dropships carrying the settlers had landed inside the Valley last night. Scott had sent a Mark VII for Duchess Sterode. The Mark VII carriyng her had just landed. Scott watched as she disembarked it but smiled as she crossed over to him, there was a slight spring in her step. He greeted her "Duchess Sterode, did you enjoy the flight over here?"

 "General Mitchell, that was the most exciting thing I have done in years. At first I was going to refuse, but something inside me said "just do it" so I did. I am so very happy I did so, we soared higher to than the birds." She replied in an excited voice

 "There is much more exciting things I can show you and everyone on this planet. These new ships that have landed carry settlers from Mackolla. I have much more material arriving before the year is out. Modern hospitals and much more. I brought you here mainly to introduce to you the people I am sending to your city. I am sending 120 teachers, 2000 farmers to your holdings. I want you to assist them in getting set up." Scott said

 "Of course General, we already know how to farm though. But the best ground is near the river for farming." She replied

 "These farmers will be using modern techniques. I want them to teach your people how to do it even better. The small farms are great for feeding the immediate group, we must be able to feed the entire planet. We use way too many just to farm the ground as we do it now. That is why I am keeping the majority of the farmers for near the river. I have equipment coming to help us tap into the vast underground water supply in other regions of this continent." Scott explained

 "That would be of tremendous help, collecting rain water is a major pain." She said

 "Come Duchess, let's go eat dinner and talk more. I have big plans for this planet and it's people. Let me share with you my ideas." Scott said gesturing her to an awaiting APC.

 1 April 3055

 The Duchess spent over a week in Haven. Over that week, Scott had outlined a lot of his plans for the planet to her. She agreed that the people needed much more schooling before much could be done. He had explained to her that he was going to see about bringing many more settlers to Bamburgh and if there would be any problem with that. She did not think there would be any problems. Every night, Scott had invited the Duchess to enjoy some holovids he had brought with him for entertainment. She was like a bubbling kid around the technology.

 The Mark VII has just left carrying the Duchess back to her holdings. Scott had other things to do, he had recieved a report relayed from Mackolla of a pirate raid into FedCom space believed to have been launched not far from here. Scott, Colonel Daly, Major Cunnard and Honos were currently aboard one of the Overlord Dropships using it's command systems.

 "Remember that Invader crew we captured at Arundel, he said his particular pirate band based from Merowinger? Well gentlemen, there is Merowinger." Scott said thumping a copy of the Star League map.

 Honos grunted "I suppose you plan to go do something about them then?"

 Scott smiled "Very soon we are going to. But not this moment. Honos, you and Colonel Daly are taking both of your units back to Mackolla. Colonel Daly's people need a break and I need your people on Mackolla quick, I got word that those new arrivals are 3 weeks out. We need to get ready, we have almost 2000 people incoming and it is your job to help them settle in. Colonel Daly, you are AFFC so I cannot promote you, I am sorry sir. Honos, as commander of the Mackolla Defense Force, you are hereby promoted to the new rank of Brigadier General, Major Cunnard, same goes for you."

 "It's okay Scott, I long ago figured I would retire a Colonel. Besides, it keeps me in the field." Colonel Daly said

 "Okay, let's get moving folks. Get everyone packed up and ready to go. General Honos, explain to the new people and your current that I might be doing a re-organization so don't get overly comfortable. Make dang sure they understand that they WILL be taking orders from a spheroid." Scott said

[2ndAcr]

  1 May 3055
        Mackolla

  Harry, George and Colonel Daly were on the tarmac of the space port watching as the incoming Dropships landed. The Crofton fleet had returned with 7 Mules. They watched as the first one opened it's doors, as the ramps locked into place, a company of Infantry trotted down the ramp and slowly took up a loose position. "Must be Honos' new people on that ship, let's get over that way" Harry said as the 3 piled into Colonel Daly's APC. Harry's last look before the ramp closed on the APC was Honos' Thor stalking towards the dropship.

 As the 3 dismounted the APC a short distance away, they saw that Honos had beat them to the Dropship ramp in his Thor. They all began heading for the ramp and could barely make out the conversation being said.

 "......let me repeat what I said a little more slowly for you Captain. I am Brigadier General Honos and I am taking charge of these personnel. Not prisoners, personnel. Now get them unloaded and I do not need your men." Honos said

 Before the Captain could reply, he spotted Colonel Daly in his AFFC uniform and saluted "Sir, Captain Slade of the 4456th Military Police company reporting with 1,832 Clanner prisoners."

 Colonel Daly just sort of looked at the young Captain "Son, you best do what the general here said really quick. He outranks me on this planet."

 The young Captain sort of paled, shit he had never heard of the rank Brigadier General, now this AFFC Colonel was telling him it was for real. He turned to his men and began shouting for them to unload the pri…...personnel immediately.

 "Sorry sir, he was just doing his job." Colonel Daly said to Honos

 "I know Colonel Daly, I remember now, you told me the rank of Brigadier General did not exist in the AFFC or AFFS and it would take time for people to get used to it." Honos replied

 The first personnel were just descending the ramp of the dropship. The first person to reach the tarmac halted and looked around, he paused his looks as he spotted Honos' Thor. Even this short distance, Honos could see the rank tabs of a Star Colonel on his uniform. Honos waved him over.

 "Star Colonel Gambrel Helmer of Clan Jade Falcon reporting." He said as he reached the small group

 "Star Colonel Helmer, I am Brigadier General Honos of the Mackolla Defense Force. You are the ranking person aboard the dropship, Quiaff?" Honos said

 "Aff General, you are of the Clans, Quiaff?" The Star Colonel looked surprised

 "Once, long ago. We will speak more later. For now get your people unloaded and formed up over that way some. I will address the personnel soon." Honos said

 "Aff General." Star Colonel Helmer said and returned to direct the unloading

 It took 30 minutes to get all the personnel unloaded and formed up into a large formation. Honos strode to the front of the formation. "I am Brigadier General Honos of the Mackolla Defense Force. All of you warriors are now Abtakha and non warriors are Isorla. You now serve the Mackolla Defense Force. Our compound is not far, and we will speak more later. For now, everyone load up on the APC's over there for the ride to your new home." He turned to the Star Colonel "Star Colonel Helmer, you will take charge of the personnel and see to their loading."

 "Aff" Star Colonel Helmer replied, he was a little confused by all of this. Not an hour ago he was locked inside the dropship as a prisoner, now he was informed he was a warrior again. But he had an order and moved to carry it out.

  Honos returned to Harry and his group "It will take some time for them to adjust. Now, I must return to our compound and get them squared away." He began climbing the chain ladder of his Thor.

 Harry just looked at Colonel Daly "That is a lot of Clan personnel. I sure hope we do not have trouble."

 "I have faith in Honos. I had my doubts a long time ago about him, but he has proven to be totally trustworthy. The new Elementals they brought to Bamburgh performed with excellence and they were not here very long before deploying from what I understand." Colonel Daly said

 Harry just looked at George and shrugged. "I sure hope everyone is right."

 Just then the MP Captain returned "Sir, do my men go with the pri...uh personnel or what are your orders?"

 "Captain, form your men up and when you are ready, follow me, I will take you to your quarters." Colonel Daly said

 Mackolla

 It took 4 hours for the long convoy of APC's to reach the massive airfield where Honos' unit was garrisoned. They already had the new barracks built for all the new people. As the new personnel unloaded from the APC's and began once again forming up in a formation, they all took some comfort when they spotted suited Elementals patrolling the perimeter.

 Honos parked his Thor in it's usual spot and waved over his command team. The 3 Star Commanders moved quickly. "Get them all settled into their barracks. Show them where the mess hall is, we will sort them out in the morning. We give them some time to adjust some today. Get them fed. Find the ranking personnel and bring them to my headquarters."

 His men nodded and moved to follow their orders. They had all been thru this "shock" themselves so they knew it would take a few days for it to fully wear off. Honos watched for a few minutes and then headed for his small headquarters. He had just finished changing into normal duty fatigues when a knock at the door got his attention "Enter".

 Star Colonel Helmer was the first thru the door followed closely by 2 others. Honos waved them into chairs "Sit, if you are thirsty, their is water over there. Help yourselves." He knew it was going to be a hard adjustment for them, but they were now of Mackolla and must learn new ways. Once they had all seated themselves, he began.

 "I am Brigadier General Honos, long ago I was a Jade Falcon MechWarrior. I was captured by our commanding officer Leftenant General Mitchell, who you will all meet at a later date. He is on Bamburgh, another planet we control nearby. This will take some time for all of you to adjust. I have met Star Colonel Helmer already, I have not yet met you others."

 "Star Captain Myles Tutuola of Clan Wolf, sir." The huge Elemental said

 "Star Captain Christine Andrews of Clan Steel Viper." She said, Honos had already pegged her as a Viper. He had to choke back some of the instant hatred that surged thru him. The Vipers had long been enemies of the Falcon.

  Honos greeted each of them. "First, you are no longer of the Clans. You now serve Mackolla and thru it the Federated Commonwealth. You will learn our ways now. It will take some time, but listen and learn. I will not tolerate insubordination. We will not trial for positions, I will assign or promote those I think will be the best for the position. Challenge me and I might just shoot you out of hand. If any among the new people cannot adjust, then I will make arrangements for them. They can go back to a prison camp. You are now going to be among many freeborns, learn to lose that term from your speech, I use it so you will understand. Ask my people here, they treat us as equals and we do the same. How one came to be, Trueborn or Freeborn makes no difference here. Now, Star Captain Tutuola and Star Captain Andrews, you are dismissed and may return to getting settled in"

 Once the 2 Star Captains had exited the office Honos turned his attention fully to Star Colonel Helmer "I trust Star Colonel Helmer that we will not have any issues?"

 "I do not understand General?" He asked

 "I have heard of you Star Colonel, you had a reputation as very anti-freeborn. If this is going to be an issue, then tell me now. Your new commanding officer is not only a freeborn, but his uncle is this planets ruler. They have treated me as an equal for many years, I will take personal offense to any slight made to them. I ask you again, is this going to be a problem for you?" Honos asked

 "General, aff, long ago I hated freeborns. But being defeated by them, captured by them and a prisoner to them for all these years, it has changed me. Not fully, I have seen some very good men during my time as a prisoner and I have seen some cruel ones also. I have been given a chance to be a warrior again. I will do my duty." Helmer said

 "Good to hear Star Colonel, you better have changed. I will be watching you very closely. I will not tolerate ANY abuse or slurs towards the people here. I am making you aware now, I will be watching you. Now, return to your quarters and get some food. We will talk more soon." Honos said dismissing him.

 Later that night, his 3 Star Commanders returned to his office. "We did as you requested and mixed people from all 3 Clans into the barracks. We have laborers with warriors, Viper with Falcon. If there is going to be trouble, it will be in the next few days for sure sir."

 "Good, best to get it out in the open and then crush it quickly. Make sure we have 3 points of Elementals on patrol thru the barracks area. In case we need to break up some fights." Honos said

[2ndAcr]

 4 May 3055
        Mackolla

  Honos was pleased that the last few days had passed without incident. Harry had called and wanted him to bring some of his technicians over to the main Mech compound near the space port. Honos loaded 5 of his original techs and 10 of the newly arrived techs into a Hover APC and began the trip to the port.

 2 hours later, Honos and his techs were standing in one of the huge warehouse turned hanger looking at several partially assembled gantries. But they were not simple gantries, they were much more complicated than that. His lead tech answered his unasked question "Refit platform, can basically strip a mech to it's bones or assemble a mech from parts." The lead tech did not wait for orders, he waved to the techs they had brought and they moved to assist in the assembly of the platforms. After several hours of work, the lead tech found Honos in Harry's office, he knocked on the door frame to announce his presence.

 Harry looked up and waved the tech inside the office, Honos asked "What is it Kreal?"

 "Sir, I was talking to a couple of the newly arrived techs in the Mech Hanger. They informed me that we should have one of the Falcon techs named Craig bring some of his people over here to take a look at these platforms. He was classified as a tech by the AFFC but he and his team were actually Scientists assessing factories on Twycross for possible upgrade to our technology." Kreal said

 Harry looked at Honos, who said "They are from the Scientist Caste? Thank you Kreal, return to the work at hand, your men will remain here for now. I will return to our compound and find the Craig and his people, they will be here tomorrow."

 "Yes sir, I will arrange quarters for my team. We will have the first platform complete today, and should have the remaining completed before the week it out." Kreal said

 "Kreal is it? I have enough LBX10 cannons stored to upgrade all the Talos mechs like Scott requested. Just let me know when you would like to start." Harry said

 That brought a smile to Kreal's face "Finally, this simple upgrade will do wonders for those old mechs. If there is nothing else, I will return to the Hanger."

 Honos then stood, "I will return soon Harry, I need to go find this Craig and see how many more specialists came in with the new people." He then left for his APC.

  2 hours later Honos was in his office and had Craig in front of his desk. "Craig, you are from the Scientist Caste, Quiaff?"

  "Aff, sir, I was a member of the Jade Falcon scientist caste traveling with me team to assess upgrading captured factories to out standards." Craig answered

 "And how many in your team were captured and their specialties?" Honos asked

 "There were 17 in my team, me and 16 others captured. I specialize in Omni Mech production, there are 5 more on my team with the same skill set, 8 are weapons experts, 2 doctors. There are 11 more from the Wolf and Viper. 3 are mech specialists, 2 are Elemental specialists and 6 are weapons." Craig answered

 "I want you to go gather these other scientist. Bring them here to my office. Go now quickly, return soon." Honos ordered

 "Aff, right away." Craig said and rushed to gather the others

 Honos was outside his office when Craig returned with the other 27 scientists. He pointed to the Hove APC "Everyone inside." They all hustled to load up, when they were all secured, Honos told the driver to head for the space port as fast as he could. 2 hours later they halted in front of the main administration building. Honos told them to follow him, he led them into the large conference room. He then went to get Harry and George. Once they had all entered the conference room, Honos shut the door and locked it.

 "Harry, George, these men are all from the Clan Scientist Caste. All were captured evaluating captured production facilities for possible upgrading to produce Clan spec." Honos announced

 "Are you telling me that we could possibly build actual Clan spec equipment?" George asked

 Honos just looked at Craig who answered "We would have to evaluate your current equipment to see if that is possible. We would then have to manufacture the needed parts to make the upgrade possible. It could take years."

 Harry had only heard about the fabled Clan weaponry. It hit harder, had a longer range and usually weighed less. But he also knew folks would pay thru their nose for them. Harry looked at George.

 "Let's get everyone bedded down for the night, tomorrow I will take the weapons experts to the weapons plant and maybe fly a few to look at the ammunition plant. Honos can take the Mech folks over to look at the refit platforms." George said.

 

[cawest]

should be interesting when one of two of them check out the yards

[2ndAcr]

  11 May 3055
         Mackolla

  The scientists spent a week studying the weapons plant, ammunition plant, the armor factory, the new refit platforms and 2 were even taken up to study the only endo steel factory (used to manufacture double heat sinks) located at Mackolla. Once again everyone was gathered in the conference room for the news.

 Craig spoke first "First, your weapons plant is of a very high quality. It can be easily modified to build our advanced weapons. But upgrading the factory will not allow the building of our weapons. This will require the complete dismantling and programming of each part into the factories computers. I have been informed that we have a small supply of Clan made weapons here, these would have to be completely dismantled and possibly ruined during the reverse engineering process. The armor factory can be upgraded easily to produce our ferro-fibrous armor and even the armor for the Elemental suits. The endo steel factory will take some work to upgrade to build our endo steel or heat sinks, but it can be done. Ammunition is easier and can be easily set up.

  The refit platforms cannot be upgraded, but they do not need to be. They are not an actual production line. They are for complete assembly of already created parts. We all spent 2 days discussing the possibility of building the only Omni-Mech in our possession, our commanders Thor. The only special item's on it that will cause difficulty is the engine and the targeting computer. Even IF we could manage to build the engine, the most we could build with these platforms are possibly 4 a month. But we would have to sacrifice the Thor to be able to build it. We would have to strip out the chassis to build the mold and jigs for it. The engine would have to be completely torn apart. We looked at your engine factory the Aerospace fighters use and it could build the engines, but our engines require very special materials in them."

 George was taking notes "So, in theory it could be done then?"

 "That is correct sir. In THEORY it could be done. It will require much work for that theory to become reality, but we all agree it is possible. It might take years, but the possibility is there." Craig said

 "Any idea exactly what kind of material we will need to make this possible?" George asked, he had all of Claytons surveys in his office loaded up on his computer which he could easily cross reference.

 "For the weapons themselves, the current factory after the upgrade could manufacture them. For the engine, we are not sure. None of us are experts at engine manufacturing. We would have to completely tear the Thor's engine apart and analyze each part completely to find the exact needs. Even if we could duplicate it, we would only be able to build a low number of new Thor's per month as they would almost be hand built." Craig said

 "So, in short we could build the weapons, ammunition, endo steel, double heat sinks but possibly not the engines. And the only way to figure that out is to totally dismantle and possibly forever destroy the Thor. That is a high risk venture." George said as he looked at Honos.

 Honos had been listening to the conversation. The very thought of losing his Thor was unsettling to him. He saw George looking at him and had been amongst these people for a long time now, he knew they would only do so if he agreed to this. But before he could give his answer, Harry spoke up.

 "How about I dial a friend and see if we can get some help on what might be needed to actually build this engine. I am sure the NAIS has ripped a few Clan engines apart and analyzed the material inside it. Before we destroy the only engine we have."

 Before anyone else could answer, Crystal, one of the Battle Armor experts, spoke up "If I may, I would like to examine more closely the light power armor you have on the base. We cannot manufacture Elemental Battle Armor as we do not have access to Harjel. But we maybe we can manufacture the light suits. It would give us something to do that is more in line with our expertise."

 George, Harry and Honos exchanged looks but it was Harry that spoke up "I will make the arrangements for you to have access to 2 suits of each type we recovered."

 Crystal nodded and sat back down, at least she and her fellow BA experts would be in their element.

 

 

[cawest]

now that would be a kick... a hundred nighthawk suits a month going off planet would add something to the bottom line

[Sir Chaos]

Even without Clan XL engines... there are a couple Clan OmniMech designs with standard engines. Those Steel Viper scientists in particular should be familiar with the Battle Cobra, Crossbow and Kingfisher. The Stooping Hawk, probably not so much. The Lupus and Woodsman are supposedly extinct, but who knows... maybe the scientist caste kept the design files?

[wolfcannon]

holy hannah, Clan Spec kingfishers made on Mackolla.

[wolfcannon]

also,  arent the Dragoons producing Omni's?  Dire Wolves and Kit Fox's and limited amounts of the original Omni's?

[2ndAcr]

  They are but according to fluff, the Clan XL engines require a special alloy or something along that line only found in the Home Worlds. But then again Harjel was only Home World until they discovered it in Twycross system.

[2ndAcr]

  1 June 3055
         Mackolla

  The Clan scientists had spent the last 2 couple of weeks assisted by over 100 technicians in carefully disassembling the small stockpile of Clan weapons Hanse Davion had sent. After dismantling the weapons, they carefully and accurately measured every piece. This was then transferred into a CAD program to be later uploaded into the weapons plant computer control system. For now, they were focused upon the weapons, armor, endo steel and double heat sink manufacturing aspect. It was estimated to take at least 2 months to refit the small endo steel factory in orbit to Clan Specs.

 Harry had decided to hold off asking for any information on Clan tech from New Avalon for several reasons. One, they would want to know WHY he was asking. Two, they would probably snatch the Clan scientists from Mackolla. Three, they would INSIST upon wide spread distribution of the manufacturing process. Four, no sense getting them all worked up until they knew it could be done.

 Instead, he decided to ask New Avalon, if by chance they had a spare engine for the Thor laying around somewhere, as they sort of broke theirs. He did not like lying to New Avalon, but he felt the risk/reward would out weight any irritation they had when they found out he lied to them. Low and behold, just this morning he got a fax back stating that no, they did not have any spare engines laying around BUT they had bought several mechs from assorted Mercenary Commands. Harry had bought 2 Thor, Ryoken, Fenris, Kingfisher, 2 Vixen and 3 Hellhound for over 400 million C-bills. But as a bonus, they were also sending 2 spare engines, 1 for the Vixens and 1 for the Hellhounds.

 Harry entered the conference room for the daily briefing from the lead Clan scientists armed with this information. Once he had taken his seat next to George, he started the briefing "First off, let me say you all have accomplished a lot in a short time. Now, I have word, our friends in high places have managed to locate and purchase, at great expense I might add, 2 Thor, a Ryoken, Fenris, Kingfisher, 2 Vixen, 3 Hellhounds but 2 spare engines. Now, I only know what the Thor is, I have no clue what the others are."

 None of the scientists knew these mechs by their Inner Sphere names, they knew the Thor was a Summoner though. They all knew the Kingfisher though. Craig spoke up "You call it a Thor, to us it is a Summoner, the only name we recognize other than that is the Kingfisher. It uses a standard engine so we could actually build that once it arrives. Any mech to be built will have to be completely dismantled so that we may build the required forms and jigs for it's chassis. We will have to see these other mechs to determine what they actually are."

 "Okay, so we have one potential mech we can build with what we have here now. That is always a good thing to hear. Now, where are we at overall?" Harry asked

 This time Crystal spoke up "Sir, we have come to the conclusion that we could possibly manufacture the basic light armor suits fairly easily, the ones known as the XXII and XXX. The XXI is much more complicated, the electronics would be difficult to produce here easily, it could be done, but will require much more study."

 Harry glanced at George who was making his copious notes "If we did decide to manufacture these suits, what would we need to do?" George asked

 "We would need to create from scratch a complete assembly plant. We would have to duplicate the existing suits the same way as they are doing the weapons systems, completely dismantle the suits, measure and record every single part. It would be difficult but could be done." Crystal stated
 
 "Okay, on to the orbital Endo Steel plant, where are we at on that?" Harry asked

 "We will be complete in roughly 43 days sir. I made sure to copy the standard programming and such before we started the upgrade in case you wanted to build another Endo Factory to produce your version of Endo Steel." This time it was Quar that answered, he was incharge of the orbital facility upgrade. "Once completed, we should be able to start production right away. The Endo Steel made can then be transferred to the heat sink lines to begin producing our double heat sink technology."

 "Excellent, weapons?" George said making more notes fuiously

 "We have all the weapons on hand loaded up and ready to transfer to the plant's computers. We can either halt all production of standard weapons and fully switch to Clan spec weapons or we will have to build dedicated production lines for our weapons. We cannot switch back and forth easily, it would be easier to use dedicated lines for each weapon technology. Plus, we are 98% sure that we can build working weapons of the ones we copied, but we do not have certain versions and will have to do some experimenting on any weapons we produce that we do not have an exact copy of. For example, we have no working copies of Streak SRM2 or 4, no LRM5 or 10, only LBX10, Ultra 20 but no others, no med or small pulse lasers." Tarek, the lead on the weapons said

 "Okay, so we might have some issues. I will have an answer by tomorrow on which way we will go on the production lines." George said

 While Harry and the scientists were having their meeting, almost 300km away Honos was in his office working on getting the new people accustomed to taking orders from those they deemed of a lower caste and such. The technicians overall managed to make the transition easiest. Then came the large pool of laborers. The ones having the hardest time were the mechwarriors. He had already had to discipline a Falcon warrior that slapped a civilian in town for not moving out of the way fast enough. His punishment, for a week he served as that civilians personal assistant doing whatever needed to be done. It sent a fast and harsh message to everyone, here everyone was an equal.

 Honos had checked with Colonel Daly on the progress of the trained pilots brought from Bamburgh and was surprised that they were coming along nicely if a little rough around the edges. The mech techs at the space port with the help of over 100 of Honos' new techs were rapidly installing LBX10's onto the Talos medium mechs. They managed to gain a full ton of ammunition in the conversion.

 

[Daryk]

As long as they have clan versions of Large Pulse Lasers and ER PPCs, they're good...  Everything else is just gravy.

[Dave Talley]

As long as they have clan versions of Large Pulse Lasers and ER PPCs, they're good...  Everything else is just gravy.

and sinks that fit in legs 😃

[2ndAcr]

 1 June 3055
      Bamburgh
 
   Scott continued to be surprised by the can do attitude of the people on this planet overall. 2 of Clayton's mineral survey people had stayed behind for further exploration. Over the last month they had spent a week on the next largest continent but had spent 3 weeks on the smallest continent. They had discovered that the smallest continent still had active volcano's but also had several extinct volcano's. One of the extinct volcano's had a caldera almost 400km in diameter. The continent was extremely rich in rare earth minerals. When asked by Scott to describe how rich they were, he had gotten a simple response "I have never seen quantities this size, never even heard of quantities this size. At least not this easily mined." When he had brought this to the attention of several of the more experienced miners from the new settlers, over 1200 had volunteered to travel to the smaller continent and see exactly how easy it would be to mine, Scott had asked some locals for volunteers and had gotten almost 250,000 volunteers in just 2 days time. For the time being Scott selected 6,000 of the locals to head down. The converted Mule would remain down there and assist in processing fresh water for them.

  Scott had one of the newest Black Boxes here on Bamburgh with him. After he first arrived on planet, he had gotten a fax asking for the exact coordinates of Bamburgh, which he had sent. Today, he got a fax asking for a ship to be sent to Memphis to escort 4 Jumpships to Bamburgh. What the hell? I told them all my requested material would be picked up by us and brought to Mackolla. Scott thought to himself. He detailed the MDF Justine Mitchell to make the trip to Memphis. They would jump to Bartrock and then to Memphis. But before he sent the orders for her to head out, something clicked in his mind, there was a downed dropship on Bartrock. So he had part of the engineer Battalion load up aboard Tug Three. They would be escorted by 2 Mech Lances. They would have 2 weeks roughly to excavate and make entry into the dropship. The Justine Mitchell would pick them back up on the return trip.

  The miners had been on the continent now named by the miners as Solomon, as in Solomon's Mine from ancient history, for 2 weeks. Scott had finally taken a trip down there aboard a Mark VII and been met by one of the lead miners. "Sir, this place is about as rich in rare minerals as I have ever seen or heard of. You need to get a major damned mining operation going down here. Just using friggin hand tools we have dug up almost a ton of the stuff. We moved about 100 tons of dirt and rock to recover that 1 ton. Sir, that is rich as hell, you usually have to move thousands of tons to get a single ton of ore."

 Scott checked the map of this continent, the closest edge of the huge caldera was 375km from the coast, all uphill. Water was going to be a royal nightmare. The miners had brought two construction mechs with them to assist in setting up the prefab buildings they had brought down with them. Not to mention power for a major operation and city that would spring up.

 He really need experienced civil engineers for this crap. What he really wanted to do was go beat down some pirates on Merowinger, but he had also promised his uncle he would hold off unless directly threatened.

 2 June 3055
       Tharkad

   Archon Melissa Steiner was entertaining her guests, Grand Duke Morgan Kell and his wife Salome Ward with a private dinner. They had spent over an hour on just chit chat, when finally Morgan Kell turned serious "Archon, I have heard rumors of a new assault dropship being deployed in the Federated Suns half of the AFFC, is that true?"

  "Morgan, yes it is true. They are built by Mitchell Aerospace. They are called Pentagon's and are heavily armed and armored. Your family Morgan, here call me Melissa please. It has been so long since we have talked, and I am now going to tell you the deepest secret we have. They are recovered Star League designs. Mitchell Aerospace is owned and run by Harry Mitchell and it is run as a family affair. I must confess though, Hanse and Quintus started all this, I have just been continuing what they started. It started before the Clan Invasion, Harry Mitchell had discovered a fully operational Bastion Battle Station and sold it to the AFFC." Over the next hour, she told the entire tale to Morgan Kell and his wife Salome Ward.

 Throughout the entire tale, Morgan was silent and in a mild shock. "Wow, what a ride this Harry Mitchell and his nephew have had in the last 5 years. To go from almost broke to owning a planet, and having what amounts to the largest most powerful company ever heard of. I mean wow, no other company actually has it's own private warship fleet. Hell, no one outside the Clans have warships. But now you tell me the AFFC has quite a fleet, that is growing by the month."

 "Yes, it is quite the tale. But it is all true, I must confess I am quite fond of the entire Mitchell family. They are as loyal as you are Morgan. That is one of the reasons they have been quite strict on who they release these advanced shipyards to. And they keep growing by leaps and bounds. I just got a message yesterday that they have designed several versions of dropships to be dedicated Battle Armor. I know they have a huge Aerospace fighter fleet, and they make some of the most advanced designs of Aerospace fighters for their own use. In the message was designs were being forwarded to Jalastar and Lycomb-Davion for production." Melissa said

 "Dedicated dropships for Battle Armor, now that I could use. I know Caitlin would love to see the advanced fighters." Morgan said

 "They also have a large dropship that is much bigger than a Overlord, but it is hugely expensive. The AFFC High Command is still bickering over that design. They can buy 2 Overlords for the price of one of those designs. I am sure the AFFC will buy some of the Mech dropships, just not when. Now the Battle Armor dropships, I know for a fact they are right now trying to come up with a number to buy and which version." Archon Melissa Steiner said

 "Well, I know I am going to want a couple of those Battle Armor dropships. Probably take 2-3 years before I even see them though. And you said you dumped all those Clan prisoners from Garrison on them?" Morgan asked

 Melissa gave a soft laugh "I did not dump them, they need troops, trained troops, no one goes to their home world without extensive background checks. Prisoners from the Clans are not in any way a security risk. It was a easy decision to make. Did you not listen earlier Morgan? I could right now send a message having say 6 of those Battle Armor dropships built for you and you would probably have them inside of 6 months. They built over 100 dropships in just over a year. We are still ferrying the damn things from Crofton to New Avalon. They can build them FASTER than we can even move them and deploy them."

 "Yeah, guess the open mouthed shock of what you were telling me allowed that to just slip on by." Morgan said with a smile

 "Trust me dear Morgan, I know the feeling. I was the same way after Hanse passed and Quintus brought me up to speed on them. I even took Victor down and we had a tour of their facilities. It was quite breathtaking. I would like to go for another visit." Melissa said

 "I would love to accompany you when you make the trip." Morgan said

 "I would enjoy that Morgan, I really would." Melissa said

[cawest]

the WD have deep pockets also along with some of the "larger units".  someone would need to act as the gov rep.  they could get a cut of any sales. 

[Dave Talley]

the WD have deep pockets also along with some of the "larger units".  someone would need to act as the gov rep.  they could get a cut of any sales.

considering that the goons had more mechs and men than they could move after they and the hounds helped Kurita, I could easily see a special sale for the goons, and they can maintain it better, maybe Wolf could loan some instructors to the school 😁