Today on 'What the Hell is That Doing on Niops...'
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Niops V, 'The Barrens' Mountain Range, 120 Kilometres from Chapterhouse
Some Time in 3080 during the height of The Troubles...
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"Thank you Khristoffer."
Colonel Eugene Thorpe took his hands off the dimly-lit tactical display table to accept Captain Kristoffer Engelbert's offer of a steaming cup of Caffix. The Ersatz coffee had the off flavor of artificial sweetners and chemical interpretations of how the real thing should taste, but it brought warmth to his core and to his gloved, chilled hands. In the cold and deep snow in the arboreal forests of The Barrens, small comforts and rank weren't the only things dispensed with in the face of reality.
Somtimes it was more important things, such as food and ammunition, which the NAM company commander found in short supply. The months of fighting off Marian raiders and Wobbie death squads left his battalion without shell nor missile among his ammo-hungry mechs.
When Chapterhouse was nuked by the Wobbies the destruction took with it multiple Niops Project Workshops and vast warehouses full of war materiel. Not only were their means of self sufficiency destroyed, leaving no means of replacing their losses, their supplies were also scattered and buried under irradiated scrap.
But when recon found a munitions storage bunker on the ruin's outskirts, intact by virtue of its sturdy construction, he knew he had the answer. They needed to raid that bunker with everything they had left. But how when most of his mechs ammo bins were dry?
He had the answer, which he kept in mind as he gave to his Aide-de-Camp instructions. "After you've got a Caffix for yourself, I need you to get my lance leaders on the horn. First, Lieutenant Chen from first recon, he's got a few Mongoose and Wild Weasel P. Hawks we could use. Then I want Lieutenant Stepanchikov and his Flashman lance. I've got plans for them."
Captain Engelberg spoke with a note of skepticism. "Sir, that the last of our reserves. We may not be able to spare them when the Wobbies hit our front."
"And we won't be able to hit them at all if all we got left in our mechs is harsh language." Colonel Thorpe soured. "Besides, there's something about their force distribution that I think we can exploit." He pointed to the tactical display map of Chapterhouse. "See how the Wobbies spread themselves out? I think it has something to do with those reinforcements Colonel Do saw on Niops VII. Our flyboys confirmed resonant heat signatures that could have only come from departing dropships."
Engelbert picked up on the inference quickly. "So they got their reinforcements from here."
"Robbing Peter to pay Paul." Colonel Thorpe replied. "And leaving Chapterhouse thin enough for us to bust through. Normally we wouldn't sustain a battle without ammunition, but a lance of Flashman mechs under Stepanchikov, with a little help from other non-ammunition dependent mechs, could hold the line long enough for us to load up. Then we can we can counterattack with our resupplied units and push the Wobbies out of our city."
Hunched over the display, Captain Engelbert swiped his finger to zoom into the battlezone. He spotted something on the map, and pointed to it with a sly grin. "It's not just a coincidence that there's also a huge MRE supply depot there as well?"
Colonel Thorpe looked down at the haggard, sallow reflection staring back at him from his cup of fake coffee. When he looked back up, a semblance of his cheer and good humor returned.
"Why Captain, I'd never put the lives of the men and women under my command in danger just for the chance at a decent cup of coffee."
The Colonel flicked his cup in the direction of the command tent's entrance, spraying fake coffee across the trodden snow.
"Not when most the militia will fall all over themselves for the opportunity. Call Stepanchikov's Flashers first. Lock them in as the tip of the spear before anyone else volunteers."
Engelbert cracked an amused smile. "Yes Sir!"*****
The way the Niops Association procured equipment was perplexing to say the least. They were acquiring, hoarding, and later building, some of the Star League's finest war machines. Their equipment was good enough for SLDF front line duty. Some of it wouldn't be out of place in a Royal regiment. All of it, and the expenses incurred, were enough to give any comptroller or finance minister an aneurysm on the spot. Why did a scientific outpost need such overwhelming firepower? Some would say it was pure Star League-era excess. Others would say it's part of a Master Plan...
Governmental bean-counters and political penny pinchers would say it's going too far and demand more financial accountability in the NAM procurement process.
Which is where the Flashman, and other flashbulb mechs like it, come in.
Sure, until the day scientists find out how to indirect fire with laser beams or efficiently cover entire grid squares with disco laser shows there's no danger of projectile weaponry being rendered obsolete. However, without the expense of ammunition, a flashbulb mech had more operational endurance and less operations costs per hour than most other mech designs. At least, in theory. In reality, a flashbulb mech had just as much, if not more, issues with maintenance and parts alone. Energy weapons, after all, are more complex and demand a lot of care and calibration compared to slugthrowers. It's a point missed on cheapskates when they see the savings from not buying any bullets.
Thankfully for the NAM the Flashman was the darling of mechwarrior pilots, mechanics, and accountants alike. It was fast, maneuverable, and incredibly tough. It could easily be repaired on the field, that is, if the rugged design needed repairs at all. It took to improvised repairs easily (hence why so many downgrades in the Inner Sphere). It could operate on the field as long as the pilot was willing. And it was cheap to operate, which left more in the Niopian budget for
Science!All these traits became a virtue once Niops was turned into a shooting gallery during The Twenty-Year Troubles. Without their famous Project Workshops the NAM had no way to resupply, no source for spares, and no hope of any outside assistance. When the gauss rounds ran dry on the Highlander and the missile bays of the Crusader spent their last, it was up to designs like the Flashman and the Black Knight to hold the line, then later take it back.
Such as the case of Operation Coffee Run, the re-capture of Chapterhouse on Niops V. Word of Blake forces, believing the army of Colonel Eugene Thorpe depleted and starved from months of guerilla warfare, redistributed forces to crush Colonel Do on Niops VII. This left the door open for an audacious attack by Stepanchikov's Flashers busted the frontline and secured supplies so the rest of the NAM forces could deliver a decisive blow at the Battle of The Barrens.
The Flashman in NAM service would repeat the same punishment for success as it did in the Inner Sphere, being whittled down by attrition and a lack of spare parts to a fraction of their numbers. Still, some Flashman mechs serve in the NAM during the ilClan era, a majority kept in their original FLS-8K configuration using scrap and spare parts salvaged from fallen units. Others are downgraded to the FLS-7K variant, at least until they find a way to resurrect the Niops Project Workshops.
The cash-strapped Niops Association Militia of the ilClan appreciates a flashbulb mech now more than ever. They may not bring the rain like a missile boat, or lower the boom like a Highlander's gauss rifle, but the Flashman will never let you down.
