IMHO WD retool its assemble lines of Blackwell Corp. after beginning of Invasion. It might manufacture in small numbers clan omnis and clan-spec weapons.
In "Wolf Pack" directly says, what Blackwell's factory "on the other side of the mountain" made omnimechs.
to Alan
Unlikely, what WD have pure elemental phenotype. May be is descendants of freeborn elementals, such as Anton Shadd.
1. Its not actually "Blackwell's" factory per se.
Its a mothballed SLDF factory complex that the Dragoons brought in BlackWell to run it.
Blackwell was a MUCH smaller company before the Dragoons started doing exclusive deals w/ them.
Alan, ColBosch
Its happened in journey for Warships, before death of MacKenzie Wolf
IMHO Ironwomb program starts in early-or-mid-3030s, Brian Cameron is 18-year old in 3053.
Correct.
The "Dragooning" of all the 4th SW "Orphans" was a 3-fold win-win for the Dragoons.
1. They get to look good giving homes & education to kids that lost their parents/homes. (It backfired in some ways)
2. They get a steady supply of "recruits" to fill slots in the entire organization from Infantry, to techs, to mechwarriors over the next 20 years based on the "Orphan's" age.
3. The entire program covers up the Iron Wombs which were brought on line after the 4th SW so they were getting another source of new recruits to replace losses.
IMHO Omnimech production started in 3050. Before that moment, there was no point in production.
ROM and House intelligence services would have detected it. And the massacre on Misery would seem insignificant.
PS Unless, of course, the WD has heard about the beginning of Operation Revival
No Point? How about testing the lines.
They had 2 decades to do it, but I'd imagine that having to bring an entire factory complex out of mothballs is going to take a good while.
Then there is bringing it up to Clan Spec standards from SLDF standards.
Finally, they actually had notification in 3049 IIRC when the Clans issued a recall order for the Dragoons to come home, which they ignored, but it did give them a heads up at least. The only one that finally answered as we know was Natasha & that wasn't till the Blood Named meeting to elect a new ilKhan.
No one was allowed on that continent but Dragoons.
The Dragoons controlled the airspace & space traffic in their home system.
They have remarks about not allowing ComStar people around, though how that meshes with ComStar operating the Outreach HPG would be problematic.
The facilities were underground.
The point of starting production would be to make sure there were no flaws in the systems and to start stockpiling equipment for the coming change-over. Making Clan spec weapons would be more likely to have started earlier and work with converting their IS builds so they could have things like Atlas C, Shadow Hawk C, etc. The fluff for the LFE is also that they could only produce so many Clan spec XLs and they wanted something to substitute for them on other designs.
Agreed.
TRO:3050 even points out that the info C* had was from a few MWs from OTHER units that had seen/overheard Dragoons who were testing out stuff like the Shogun-2F w/ ERPPC or Marauder-II-5A.
They never had anyone actually in the Outback w/ access to the Factories.
The Kell Hounds got to go there, EVENTUALLY, for Salome's IVF treatments & for WarGames. But that honor was rare & reserved for some very specific merc allies.
In AU where WD started producing clantech in mid-3040 and no Invasion occurred, ComStar and Great Houses would have taken out Dragoons in a few raids after learning about the superweapons factory (5-7 years after production began) without regard to losses.
IMHO most of the technology would have gone to FedCom.
And Warship cache would have rotted away and remained on Periphery.
Even First Battle of Outreach showed that the Dragoons have weaknesses, and without Warships, AMC and under constant raids, they would have died faster.
Interesting AU but we have no proof that would happen.
Actually, its pretty clear that WolfNet is literally the best Intel agency in the IS given all the tidbits from TRO's & sourcebooks that have them as the authors.
Which is saying something given C* can monitor your phone calls across the sphere.
What weaknesses did Outreach have?
Not realizing that your planet could erupt in a giant civil war w/ the existing mercs that were there for the Hiring Hall?
Short of not having a Hiring Hall there, I'm not sure what else could be done about it.
When not out on contract, the Dragoons have around 6 Mech regiments, 6 Warships, 6 Aero Regiments, 10+ regiments of Infantry & Tanks.
Outreach is probably the single most heavily defended planet in existence outside of Terra.
