Battletech technical archive

[The Dark]

"During the Fourth Succession War, FedSuns intelligence allowed the Capellan Confederation access to the NAIS development as part of an elaborate ploy. These enhanced myomers provided great physical strength to the 'Mechs that used them, but the resulting musculature was extremely susceptible to a chemical catalyst that led NAIS researchers to label them unstable in combat. While this flaw worked into the FedSuns' gambit on Sian in the waning days of the war, it also placed a potentially powerful innovation in Confederation hands. Indeed, in 3050, after more than two decades of research, House Liao once more fielded BattleMechs enhanced with TSM - BattleMechs immune to the effects of the catalyst gas, that could actually control when the powerful musculature engaged in battle.

A retcon to TRO 3060 then?
The Ti Ts'ang is the Capellan Confederation's first attempt at a Mech equipped with a weapon designed for hand-to-hand combat: an ax........
The most stunning feature of the new Mech is the inclusion of triple-strength myomer, a technology pioneered by the Federated Suns. In his speech announcing the debut of this Mech, Sun Tzu said,"It is time we overcame our fear of symbols from the past. That we were tricked into using defective myomer during the Fourth War is common knowledge. That it aided in our most ignominious defeat is recorded in every Great House's history books. With this BattleMech, we conquer the demon of failure and show our enemies that we have the will to use any tool available to fulfill our destiny.

The odd thing is, this would still make them the first power to deploy a primary design featuring TSM. Just in 3060

It's possible that it's a retcon. We also don't know exactly when the Ti Ts'ang was deployed; all we know is that it was the first new 'Mech commissioned after Sun-Tzu Liao took the Celestial Throne in 3052. Since the first units were deployed along the Capella-St. Ives border, it's possible they didn't come to ComStar's attention in time for the 3058 technical readout (I'm not saying that's what happened, just that it's possible). All we can say for certain is that it was commissioned between 3052 and 3060, and probably not much before 3058 if it was before 3058, since it didn't appear in that manual.

[Chris OFarrell]

SO I've been re-reading some of my Battletech books, starting with the 'Twilight of the Clans' series. There are some interesting little tibits of tech stuff in them, as well as interesting in-universe bits and and pieces. I thought as I read through them, I might make a note of them and post some of them here, book by book.

So, here goes book one, 'Exodus Road'. Part one of anyway.

Star Captian Trent barely noticed the dense trees that filled marshes of the Racice River Delta as he rushed up to the large open clearing, his Timber Wolf sinking into the muck as he game to a walking pace and searched for targets of opportunity.

...

Instead of an honorable battle on a field of honor, the Com Guards had used the bogs and deep pools to stage a series of ambushes. They had mired down the Mist Weavers with artillery barrages, turning what should have been a quick victory into a prolonged and costly fight...one that was not going in faovur of the Smoke Jaguars.

"Silver Paw to Cluster Command" he barked, as a series of explosions rippled among the nearby trees. "We are in Sector Five-fourteen".

There was a hiss of static, some from ComGuard ECM, some from damage. The strained voice of an officer -not his own Star Colonel- replied. "Silver Paw this is Dark Vigil. The command post has been overrun. We are pulling back. Elements of the enemy are in your area. Link up with Blood Streak Star and pull back as our rear guard. We will re-organize in the delta, Quiaff?"

...

All that remained was to defeat the Com Guards. He knew that his commanders considered ComStar's effort to end the invasion pure folly. They also viewed the quick strikes of the Com Guards as a waste of resources.

Trent saw the truth, that that Com Guards had played a game of hit and run so hard and fast that the Jaguars of Beta Galaxy were being worn down. Now, the Jaguards were in retreat, no matter how much their commanders called it reorganization. He had tried to tell the Star Colonel what he saw unfolding, how the Com Guards were crippling the Jaguars. But he'd been cut off in mid-sentence. The Jaguar High Command belived that they had the situation under control. They had ignored him.

This is all set towards the end of the Smoke Jaguars zone at the Battle of Tukayyid. Trent, the Protagonist, is a Binary Commander in the Smoke Jaguars, and is proved through the battle to be a far more skilled and rapidly responding tactical thinker then just about every other Smoke Jaguar. The battleground in this part of the battlefield is very dense, having to walk kilomters in a Battlemech to find any kind of clearing, and the conditions underneath sufficent to at least partially impare Battlemech mobility. Com Guard tactics are based around using arty barrages to move and shape the battlefield.

Trent does see the turth, but the officer corps of the Jaguards are incapable of seeing it evolving around them, and as a result are getting their asses handed to them, even having their command post destroyed. Also note the Com Guard use of broad battlefield ECM capable of jamming even Clan communications channels to some extent.

Trent Signaled Schultz as he rushed forawrd, locking onto her signal. "Cover my left flank as we go. We have orders to link up with Jez and pull her back to cover the Galaxy's rear flank."

"Aff, Star Captian," Schultz said as he matched the trotting pace of Trent's Timber Wolf. Trent checked his sensors and saw that Jez was ahead of them, moving in and out of the trees surrounding the swampy clearing. Her slow movement on the sensor display told him that a battle was raging over there, and he braced for it as he ran towards the shadows of the dense trees.

Suddenly he was buffeted by a powerful blast that lifted his Timber Wolf off the ground. There were impacts, not from weapons, but from the pieecs of Schultz's OmniMech battering his own.

The short range sensors told him what was happening. A short-range missile carrier had opened up on Schultz the moment it had spotted him. More then thirty missiles had blown through the remains of Schultz' Mad Dog in less then two seconds. There had been no time for him to eject, no time to fire, only time to die. And Jez was facing two other Com Guard Mech's in the middle of what must have been a Com Guard forward command post or repair base concealed at the edge fo the clearing. Infantry blasted away with shoulder-mounted missile launchers and manpack PPC's, slowly but surely destroying her Warhawk.

Note that despite watching his own sensor display carefully, Trent didn't spot the SRM carrier until it opened fire and killed his Starmate. It hit his Starmate -which was said to be critically damaged- with thirty SRM's and utterly destroyed it, the missiles were fired at a range that Trent returned its fire with his second last salvo of LRM's and not any of his energy weapons, but the missiles still took only two seconds to impact from being fired, perhaps even from being spotted.

And Jez's Warhawk, is under attack by a Crab and a bunch of infintry with support weapons, the combined firepower slowly but steadily destroying her, and even with Trents assistence, it was a close run thing.

As his targeting cross hairs arced down on the Crab and his weapons hummed with preheat energy-

Clan lasers 'pre-heat' just before firing apparently.

"You dared violate my honbor by firing on that Crab Quiaff? I shall face and kill you for your actions".

"The Crab fired at me first Jez. No honor was lost. We have orders to fall back and act as rear guard. You will accompany me," Trent replied curtly.

"Orders to fall back? That is not the way of the Jaguar warrior".

For the record, 'Jez' is an utter asshole, classic Smoke Jaguard scum. Here she even has the gaul to question direct orders, wanting to keep fighting and refusing to believe she could have been ordered to fall back, a doctine the Jaguards honestly don't beleive in at all. Trent foolishly covers her withdrawl as her Warhawk limps past him, but in doing so, gets his mech blown out from him and Jez claiming SHE saved HIS life, doing the 'right' thing just gets him into trouble many times in this novel.

As another note, the pilot of the Crab ejects and -somehow- is taken prisoner by the Jags, despite having no other forces in the area, but plenty of ComGuard infintry and the rest of that Mech company about three seconds later. Of course, said pilot was actually a deep cover ROM officer who had been put in this situation to be set up to be captured and made a Bondsman, so its not that surprising. A Star of Smoke Jaguars were moving in to intercept and reinforce, so I guess they picked them both up somehow before withdrawing, but given what comes next, and the odds...

Suddenly the mud and swampy waters seemed to erupt all around his Timber Wolf. Fiery clods of muck, peat and bog splattered against the Wolf as if the very ground of Tukayyid was exploding under him. As the Mech pitched, he compensated, flames licking upward from the ground.
Trent's targeting computer demanded his attention as the Mech rocked. Artillery - and Arrow missiles. The enemy Mechs were not confronting him in a direct fight, but wanted him dead without honor. he turned his Mech to try and get free, it was a moev he would never complete.

The second barrage did not rip at the soil but found its mark on his already battered Timber Wolf. Artillery rounds shattered his shoudler mounted missile racks, turning them into debris in an instant. A blast of warmth seemed to wrap his body as he saw the image of a ComStar Hussar still racing straight at him, its laser blazing as Trent's Mech staggered like a drunkard. One of the Arrow VI missiles went off on his foot, then another dug deeply into his shoudler, ripping the weapons pod away from the Timber Wolfs left torso with a thunderous blast.

Com Guards artillary doctrine. The first salvo errupts around the Timber Wolf, the second Salvo, arriving only seconds later strikes his Mech directly. The book DOES say Arrow-VI, but I'm sure its a typo and it should be Arrow-IV. I'm guessing the infintry were calling in the strike, clearly this was an ambush planned to draw as many Jaguars in as possible and blast the hell out of them. But given that Trent was a moving target, either those spotters made a VERY good guess where he was going to be, or someone was TAGing him and guiding both the Arrow-IV rounds and the Arty shells.

The battle ends with Jump Infintry throwing Infernos into the Timber Wolf, badly burning Trent, a disfigurement which will scar him badly for life, and leave him an object of scorn for many of his fellow Jagaurs.

"Your right arm and hand were badly burned. We used Myomer implant surgery to restore their mobility and control. I had to reinforce your bones with carbon filaments as well. It will be several more days before we can calibrate the arm for use. Your face was also turned severly, and I could not repair your right eye. We have budded you another from your gensamp, and it will be complete in several days. That is why your head is restrained. The growth matrix is mounted on your face"

...

Only a single bandage remained, and it held a patch over his right eye. The flesh of his face was badly malformed. The skin was gone, covered only with a wet, almost glossy synthskin that eerily revealed the veins underneath. Half the hair on his head was gone, what was left apparently rescued only by the lining of his neurohelmet. All that remained of his right ear was a deformed bump of flesh. His nose did not bear any resemblance to its former state. It was almost as if his face had melted, leaving his nasal passages wide open and oozing with antiseptic cream.
The skin that had been his upper lip was half gone on the far right, exposing his gums and teeth. Trent understood now why he had dribbled some of his liquids on his chin - on what was left of his chin. The once firm jaw, the genetic hallmark of the Howell bloodline was now all but gone. The skin and muscle tissue had been so badly eaten away that only some synthetic skin covered the thin remaining tissue and boen there. The horrible scarring continued down his neck and ended there.

...

The hand seemed reddened but intact, but the forearm and upper arm were burned as horribly as if they had been exposed to the brimstone fires of hell itself. Replacing the lost muscle were the myomer bundles, covered again with synthetic skin. The arm hung lifeless at his side, but somehow, Trent knew that it was functional. If anything, the myomer muscls would make the arm even stronger than before.

...

"Our medical science could easily repair the damage, but our warrior caste does not permit us to squander medical resources for the sake of vanity".

Clan Medical technology; Trent took some rather horrific burns in battle, but has been rebuilt with cybernetics and artifical skin, as well as a cloned eye -that in turn has a titanium socket built around it later- that restore him to equal -if not surprior- function as a Mechwarrior, though he looks rather...'Two Face'. As one would expect, Clan cloning technology and medical science is more then capable of fixing him to the point of back to normal, but its clearly a lot chepaer in terms of resources to just use artificial methods to rebuild the critical areas, cover them up, and send them back into battle. All of this treatment took place on a custom Clan Hospital Ship dropship and by the time it arrived back in the Clan OZ, he was ready to return to active duty two months later...which is rather impressive.

Moon had not been part of that fateful conflict, but some of his closest comrads had fought there - and died there. Instead of winning in short order as they had expected, the Smoke Jaguars had been virtually driven from Tukayyid. Worse, nearly two whole Galaxies had been destroyed. It was not the fault of their leaders. Lincoln Osis was a great Khan, having risen like a phoenix from the dead on Tukayyid. No Paul Moon saw that it was not the leaders, but the warriors themselves who had failed against the Com Guards. Untried freebirth warriors - Inner Spehre barbarians- had beaten the alleged best of the Clans on that accured Planet

Meet Paul Moon, an Elemental who is more or less a textbook for the Smoke Jaguar warrior. He will in an instant go and look for a scapegoat as soon as anything goes wrong, refuses to place the blame -in this case absoloutly on their Khans, Galaxy Commanders and Star Colonels- where it belongs, sits in his armchair and feels all superior and mighty. In essence, he is nothing but a classic Bully, and he goes out of his way to make Trents life a living hell simply because he survived where so many others didn't. Although this attitude is no doubt heavily encourged by his Khan, another Elemental who blames his subordinates for his utter failure, and Jez, who assigned to the same unit spent the last few months telling everyone she could that she saved that idiot Trent.

In short, he blames EVERYONE but the people who are the blame for his Clan getting its ass kicked...and he is a very successful officer as a result. Failing upwards indeed...

She walked over to him, slipping a noteputer into her pocket as she approached.

Clan Techs use 'noteputers', PDA's for routine diagnostic and check work, small enough to slip into pockets.

A Hankyu sat squatly nearby, its weapons and targeting and tracking systems concentrating on the gathering of Mechs near the bottom of the crater.
Poised to his left was a Cauldron-Born. This heavier OmniMech was of more concern. His sensors told him it was a Class A configuration, mounting a deadly Ultra Autocannon and two large lasers outfitted for extended range. And, unlike the Hankyu, the Cauldron-Born seemed to the scanning him.

Clan Sensor systems are capable of tracking the targeting/tracking readouts of other Mechs, detecting who THEY are scanning, as well as giving detailed information of OmniMech configs.

Checking his secondary monitor, he saw that he was still operational, but had been peppered badly by the battle thus far. Four damaged tubes had shut down in one of his shoulder missile racks-

Clan LRM launchers can shut down individual tubes, but keep the system itself operational.

One laser slammed into the side of his cockpit and a throbbing ripple of neural energy pulsed between his eyes, fed back through the neurohelmet. Trent closed his eyes in agony, fighting the sensation of vertigo and nausa that was common with such a cockpit hit.

A Medium laser blast to the cockpit doesn't breach, but it DOES somehow cause 'feedback' through the Neural Helmet that can stun a Mechwarrior for a short time.

His missile barrage of thirty six long range warheads raced otuward not seeking the Nova, but the rock race above it. Hitting immobile rocks was much easier than aiming at a moving and firing enemy. The entire section and its boulders errupted in a cloud of smoke and dust before the advancing pilot could react. The landslide raced downward at the Nova, catching it squarely and pushing its legs down the hill while the upper body seemed to remain in the same place. The pilot fought har to maintain his or her balance, but it was a hopeless cause. The nova dropped hard, but only slid a few meters before coming to a stop, leaving a trail of broken and shattered armor plating on the rocks and dirt. Almost immediatley, the Nova warrior began the process of trying to right the Mech.

A full LRM salvo sets off a small landslide that batters a Nova, pushing it down a few meters, and causing major damage, from the context it appears to be more then the LRM's themselves would do, which is odd.

Suddenly the Mad Dog let go another Gauss slug, which flashed on Trent's targeting and tracking system for a millisecond before it collided with him. This round hit the Timber Wolfs torso like a supersonic musket ball, digging deeply into the heart of the Mech to hit the fusion reactor and its shielded. The automatic safty controls kicked in and shut down the engine before Trent could react.

Gauss rifle shots can actually be traced on the holographic HUD, although at this range against the Mad Dog, Trent didn't really have much time to appricate that fact.

The access space was narrow and dark, but a portable light from her kit let her see the innards of the Mech. Lifting the insulation back, she saw that the actuator itself was fused. Instead of the two single moving parts at the hip, they had overheated, becominig one. It was so hot that she could feel the heat even without touching the metal itself.
It was working fine before and after my repairs. She looked further back inside the access panel and immediatley saw the problem. The coolant feed that passed nearby, designed to keep the hip cool, had fused shut. There was no breach from the outside, which meant some sort of internal failure. It was such a foolproof system that its maintenance was practically nil. Reaching up to the piping she could it severed and closed ofof.
Impossible. She moved her face in closer and saw that the piping showed signs of burning. A sticky substance covered its length of both sides that had been severed. She rubbed and smelled it, identifying it immediately. Petroleum Jelly? She understood instanly.

...

"This jelly pack was probably surrounding some sort of acid. During normal stress tests the Timber Wolf never got fully heated like it did during the Grand Melee. That's why it passed my check .

A Battlemechs hip acuator needs to be cooled by the mechs heat sink systems, otherwise it will overheat and 'fuse' in combat into a single non-functional piece, the same can probably be assumed of most actuators that do a lot of work. In this case, a Petroleum Jelly pack with acid inside was placed on the cooling pipes, and when the inside the Mech got high enough, it burned through and melted the pipes, cutting off the cooling. Interesting that these 'honorable' Clanners are so gleefully good at creative sabotage...

Of course, when Trent makes the accusation, he just gets scoffed at, told he is a miserable excuse for a warrior making excuses for losing in his Grand Melee.

The codex was a warrior's life. The EPROM on it contained a record of the genetic DNA signature of the warrior who wore it as well as his or her entire service record

A tiny ROM chip in a bracelet can contain the entire genetic profile of a Clan warrior. I recall reading somewhere you are looking at around ~ 1 GB to store a complete DNA profile for one person, with all the base pair sequences correctly in order, assuming a two bits for each of the four base pairs. Which is on the same order, more or less, as modern solid state storage technology.

Suddenly there was an explosion somewhere in the distance. Trent scanned the area, but all he saw was a cloud of smoke up on the ridge line to the east near where Styx and Jez stood in their mechs. Dust flew into the air, and a blur of something moved down toward the pair of OmniMechs.
There was a crash as a massive boulder slammed into Jez's Warhawk, followed by the almost sickening groan of ferro-fibrous armor and ferro-titanium steel. The warhawks legs contorted under the impact and were crushed, flip-slamming the torso into the ground with incredible power.

A boulder dislodged by an explosive crashed into Jez's Warhawk with enough KE and Momentum to *crush* its legs out from under it and slam it onto its face.

As he spoke, another explosion rocked the hillside near the opening where Russou's forces had lined up. This time four massive boulders dislodged from their timeless perch and plunged down onto a Nova in Russou's command. The squat OmniMech never stood a chance as the rocks crushed down on it, crushing it flat.

Another Mech, a Nova, is utterly squished flat by said rocks. Size unknown, they can't be too high as the cliffs were well within jump jet range, but we don't have enough data to really make any numbers crunch from this.

"My actions saved the entire command" he retorted. "Had we proceeded with Star Captian jez Howell's plan we would have been boxed in and killed. One of my warriors has already inspected the mine she had ordered us to enter . It was bobby-trapped with several drums of petrocycline. Had we fled there, we would have been wiped out to the last warrior".

Trent's tactical thinking is all that saves two Stars from being exterminated for no loss, the Jags are ambushed and 'encouraged' to take cover in the most logical place. Two drums of the unstable high explosive are clearly enough to bring the whole mine down on top of the Mechs.

More stuff goes on here, Paul Moon going 'Edo' on the planet and razing a city. After which a VIED blows up a Star of warriors sleeping in their beds, a f#*(ing enormous loss given the Jaguars limitied personnel at this point in time, but clearly not getting the point, Moon simply orders another town razed. And then another...

Shortly after this, his Bondsman finds a Castle Brian on this planet that the locals knew rumors about, but the Clan didn't find until MUCH later, apparently by accident. Its interesting because you'd think the SLDF when they left the Inner Sphere would have taken with them, as a matter of routine in their computer systems, a map of all the SLDF outposts in the Inner Sphere, but the Jags quite literally stumbled onto this one.

And to skip forward a long way...

Trent shook his head in dismay. "The route to the homeworlds does not exist in one single location. JumpShips moving along the Exodus Road only carry a portion of the map. Routes are constantly changing, and ships dump one segment of the navigation map as part of the process of obtaining the next segment. Even out HPG traffic is segmented and bundled to prevent anyone being able to use the communications network to trace a route to the homeworlds".

Security in place regarding the Exodus Road. Interesting to note that the HPG network has layers of redundany built into it to keep it from giving away a direct route to the homeworlds, even more impressive considering it incorperates a realtime long range communications link, and the FedCom version that came online in the later 3060's cost many billions of CBills to build...

Judith held up a small black pad-like device. It was the size of a wallet and had onl one visible control surface. "THis is a basic neutrino scanner. We use these to manually monitor the readings of Mech reactors to make sure they are not releasing too many neutrinos".
"But how will that help us map the Exodus Road?"
"When a JumpShip arrives in a new star system, its core emits EMP, an electromagnetic pulse".
"That much I know. If another ship happens to be at th esame jump point, it can read the arriving ships EMP and determine its configuration".
"Aff, but what most people do not know is that the drive also emits a neurtino pulse. The neutrinos actually emerge near the outer hull of the vessel and travel less then a hundred meters before dissipating. At that point they are indistinguishable from the low-level neutrinos constantly emitted by the ships fusion drive."

...

"There is a direct correlation between the neutrino level and the distance of the hyperspace jump".

A 'basic' neutrino scanner is a HAND HELD device. Also, A K/F drive emits a pulse of Neutrinos when it emerges, which directly is linked to how far through hyperspace it has gone, but the pulse is 'absorbed' into the background Neutrino count before it even moves past the ships hull.

Warships were not a common sight away from the Inner Sphere these days. The few not on active duty in the Occupation Zone were positioned every few jumps on rotational duty along the Exodus Road. They were there for protection and to transmit a small piece of the every changing navigational map of the path toe Clan space to the other vessels in route.

Most SJ Naval assets are deployed in the Inner Sphere, but some that are not are on the Exodus road serving almost as a firewall, to block off chunks of the route and help keep it compartmentalized - and probably knock off the odd Explorer Corps ship that jumps in.

He did not suffer. A bright flash of light filled the corridor and enveloped his body in a final embrace.

A man trapped inside the K/F core itself as it jumped. He is killed and his body literally vanished.

Trent spoke up next. "Garrison strength of Pivot?"
Jonas stroked his goatee. "At present one Star. Two points of Battle Mechs, three of Elementals.

HPG Relay stations along the Exodus Road are protected, this one by a mixed Star. Solahma troops.

"Contact the dDropShip and abort the mission" Mehta said.
Paul Moon hesitated for a millisecond with his reply. "I am unable to comply, Galaxy Commander. Our mission protocols state specifically that DropShips and JumpShips on such a raid are to disregard and and all transmissions once en route". Hang Mehta had apparently forgotten the protocol, even thought it was she who had originally set it up. The Combine's network of spies and so on were known to broadcast messages transmitting conflicting orders or other dishonorable trickery to outbound Dropships. The mission protocol was in place to ensure that no-one tampered with the ordrs fro a Jaguar raid. Now it was suddenly turned to their disadvantage.

Smoke Jaguar COMSEC...is utterly pathetic.

And here we see Moon about to be in the position HE put his subordinates in, his Galaxy Commander blaiming HIM for her and their Khans mistakes. Oh fun for all...

Judith looked into the distance and saw the hillside suddenly come alive with movement. Hidden until now under camouflage and sensor concealment tarps, more than two dozen Battlemechs seemed to rise out of the hillside and come alive. She smiled. Trent's force had gone right past them in the foothills, never knowning that his rescue was so close at hand.

Com Guard units are equipped with advanced tarpaulins that can shield a number of companies of Mechs from Clan mechs walking right by them, presumably powered down.

Battlemechs rode atop fusion reactors. Though the reactors could be breached in the midst of combat, they were equipped with a series of fail-safe devices intended to protect the reactors from exploding except under the most extreme conditions. A warrior could, however, on his own accord, self destruct a Mech.

Clan Fusion reactors are apparently not inclined to Stackpole, but they CAN be programed to do so, if needed. Unlike Kai who had to yank out circut boards manually to make his Hatchetman go Boom.


There are a few bits that close this story up.

For one thing, interestingly, Trent doesn't appear to know about Outbound Light and how it kicked off the whole damn thing. Odd given that he is a Smoke Jaguar, but there you go.

[PainRack]

Nearly half of Outreach's population lives in and around the planet's capital city of Harlech. The largest city on Outreach,

FM Mercenaries

Romulus contains the planet's capital, Harlech as well as all of its major cities and enterprises.

and outside of the cities, the continent's countryside turns in small farms and lightly forested hills.

Chaos March

Fact Sheet Outreach Population: 341,220,000

FM Mercenaries Revisied.

31 January 3068)
When I left Salazar, he seemed upbeat and confident after
the defeat of Wayne Waco’s mercenaries in Harlech. The
man I met with a few hours ago did not even resemble
the one I last saw in late October. His eyes were sunken
and his face gaunt, classic signs of mild radiation sickness.
Salazar also suffered from extreme exhaustion and
battle fatigue

Apparently sensing imminent defeat, the Blakist fl eet commander
ordered an orbital bombardment in and around Harlech
after nearly a week of fi ghting. Simultaneously, the Blakists sterilized
the entire Remus continent using strategic nuclear weapons.
On December 28, this bloody tactic paid off . General Wolf ordered
a general retreat, though portions of Gamma Regiment reportedly
stayed behind to wage a guerrilla campaign against the Blakist occupation.
Covering this retreat, at the cost of its life, was the badly
damaged Alexander

RUNNING THE BLOCKADE
(23 March 3068)
Outreach System
I am reporting to you from Clan Wolfin-
Exile’s fl agship, Werewolf. We are outbound, heading away from
Outreach after successfully extracting two companies of survivors
from Wolf’s Dragoons’ Gamma Regiment, plus a few allied soldiers,
and a large number of civilians and warriors held for months in
bases on Romulus
This rescue mission became reality in part through intelligence
obtained by the Seventh Kommandos, aided by an independent
covert ops team, which indicated that less than a battalion of
Dragoons remained on Outreach. Guerrilla operations proved ineff
ective, and the surviving Dragoons requested extraction

Dawn of the Jihad.

A direct strike by the WOB fleet and nuclear weapons killed "millions" directly, and days to weeks after, a mechwarrior involved in the direct fighting itself suffered only mild radiation sickness.
Similarly, exposed citizens held in the wild confinement camps were rescued months after the bombardment. It would appear barring further attacks by the WOB, the nuclear winter scenario occured months after the attack itself and the environment around Romulus was still survivable. Similarly, the bombardment around Harlech was tactical and may have fatally weakened the AMC command but significant portions of the Dragoon command fighting around Harlech survived.

[PainRack]

(20 February 3068)
New Avalon [FSNS]
and Tharkad. These ships immediately loosed their destructive energies against both worlds in an attempt to cow the leaders of the Inner Sphere into re-forming the Star League. Instead, their wanton depravity was the fi rst strike in what has become their own private “holy war” against all of humankind—a Jihad that began with New Avalon.
The first strikes against the FedSuns capital hit in the early morning hours of December fifth, shortly after the attacking vessels arrived insystem via a LaGrange point close to the planet. Before alarms could sound in the cities, the Blakist ships opened fire, striking Avalon City, Ranford and New Rennes with energy blasts and missile strikes that killed tens of thousands and ignited firestorms that swept through all three cities for
most of the next day. The Blakist ships continued their rampage of destruction for hours, targeting city after city, before vengeful Federated Suns fighters, DropShips and WarShips finally intercepted the invaders.
Moreover, the orbital strikes,which were aimed not at military bases but at cities, took the lives of 2.3 million innocents, left at least five times as many homeless and cut utilities across a quarter of the planet.

Initial orbital attacks on 3 cities killed tens of thousands.
Sustained bombardment over multiple cities killed 2.3 million people.

New Avalon Fact Sheet, FedCom Civil War. Population 7,212,000,000.

[PainRack]

the fact is that the 1,200 light year area of the Inner Sphere contains an estimated 110,000 uncharted star systems. Based on existing records, a number of these systems are known to contain research facilities and 'lost' colonies, as well as secret military facilities.

Explorer Corps

She declared that by 3057, all stellar discoveries, and star charts created by the Explorer Corps, would be available to the House governments for review. The Order is currently assembling an extensive database containing our findings.

Comstar sourcebook.

The Gabriel and other hidden systems the WOB possess should in theory be known to Comstar and other House governments. The fall of Terra, the destruction of Engadine during the Jade Falcon 3058 incursion may have hindered such efforts though, similarly, the Jihad struck at the Explorer Corps and destroyed Columbus.

[PainRack]

I was supposed to be doing stuff based on the Blake Jihad and then running some numbers based on a "possible" mech production run, but this bit from the Explorer Corps looks too nice not to post.

the Explorer Corps vessels Fortitude and Discovery traveled to the M-class Orion Nebula, more than 1,600 light-years from Terra. At the time, the trip represented the farthest a manned voyage had ventured from Terra.The two vessels spent three months on-station gathering astronomical data. In 3002, the ECV Herschel visited the Sador(Gamma Cygni) system, 815 light-years from Terra, on a similar scientific mission.The crew spent six weeks studying the F-class star before traveling the short distance to the Cygnus X-1 binary system, a spectacular phenomeno consisting of a black hole and a visible supergiant primary.The flow of matter from the supergiant to the black hole creates a massive accretion disc around the hole and generates a vast outflow of X-ray radiation. Though this radiation forced the Herschel's crew to observe the system from a distance, they learned a great deal of valuable information about X-ray stars and black holes.

Explorer Corps.

[Chris OFarrell]

I've skipped book two of the Twilight of the Clans. Most of it is just politics with little technical stuff, although I do get a great deal of joy out of reading the Smoke Jaguars getting their asses handed to them...

Anyway.

"The Hunters" is book 3, dealing with the formation and travel of Task Force Serpant from the Inner Sphere and along the Exodus Road towards the Clan homeworlds for their deep strike on Huntress. Contains a lot of interesting things including DEST and MIIO special forces, Warships and the first -known- Warship battle with IS Warships in hundreds of years against a Clan flotila.

Tai-i Michael Ryan paused in his ascent up the high wall surrounding the Smoke Jaguar garrison compound. Three meters above his head, a massive Elemental leaned the clawed hand of his battle armor on the stone parapet and gazed out over the dense jungle blanketing the low rolling hills for as far as the eye could see.

...

Leaning out a bit, he could see the mottled darker patches of gray and green agaisnt the armor's darker patches of gray and dark green aaginst the armor's gun-metal gray plasteel, though the light intensifying equipment built into his helmet visor rendered everything in shadws of grey.

Smoke Jaguar garrison. Their compound has a single Elemental sentry for security as far as this raid ever shows, no passive or active intruder defense systems installed, motion sensors, whatever. The DEST helmet is equipped with passive light-amp gear rendering everything in shades of grey, almost like a modern FLIR system.

In immediate response, a sharp, sizzling crack ripped the humid air. A laser bolt fired by one of his men concealed in the jungle brush a hundred meters from the wall sliced though the Elementals visor. The giant form pitched backward, a small hole melted into thte faceplate of its armor. The steam was still rising from the ruined visor as Ryan up and over the wall and rolled across the parapet. he dropped into the shadows, taking in the whole scene with his electronically enhanced vision.

NB, while it says 100 meters here, that is clearly just how far the jungle is away from the wall and a little later the sniper/spotter rejoin only a few meters into the brush, later chapters suggest they made the shot from closer to 1000, though its not entirely clear.

Inner Sphere laser rifle technology; a single bolt is entirely capable of blowing through an Elementals visor and killing the Elemental. Boom, headshot.

Now, the Smoke Jaguars were using the old militia compound as a way station and clearinghouse for replacement warriors and material coming into the occupation zone.

...

Their bodies were clad in baggy faitgues which slowly shifted color as the ghoulish forms crossed fromt he dark stone of the wall to the lighter gray flagstones of the walkway.

For some crazy reason, the Smoke Jaguars are using a planet right on the boder with the Draconis Combine as a way station for incoming units. It has only a single Binary of mechs for defense as well as some Elementals, presumably at least one points worth. Also, DEST sneak suits can be seen to slowly change color as the commandos run around to better match the background. Its clearly some kind of adapative camoflauge.

Ryan paused for a moment to pick the lock before slipping inside.

The door to a Binary of Assault Omnimechs is just a simple mechnical lock that can be picked by a Commando in a few seconds....

Standing on the Mechs left hip they were able to reach a half meter square access pannel in the machines back. Lifting a manual release lever caused the hatch to sprint open, revealing a tangle of electrical conduits, coolant tubing and momer bundles. Ryan checked the small data display terminal set into the back of his left gauntlet, tapping in a few commands before he got the information he wanted. As he queried the device, his companion dug into the his satchel to produce a small plastic-wrapped packet.

A Warhawk has a hatch in its back. No lock or access code or alarm anything, giving easy access to the internals and Gyro. The armored gloves worn by the DEST team have a computer inside with a screen that contains, in this case, schematics on Clan OmniMechs.

One braced a Blazer rifle on his right hip and gripped the straps of a small bulky rucksack with his free hand. The other figure cradled a heavy laser rifle. The high-power electroinc sight fitted to the weapon's upper receiver revealed its purpose - a snipers weapon.

The helmets whose visors were constructed of a seemingly opaque red plastic, were outfitted with light amplification gear, thermal imagers and nearly every type of sensor that could be crammed into their two kilo mass.

The Elemental was not killed by a Blaser rifle, but a dedicated 'heavy laser rifle' with a sniper scope on top.
The DEST helmets weigh 2Kg and carry several types of sensor systems, though only passive light systems are described.

Five Kilometers and Five hours later-

...

The touch of a few controlls compressed the seven-word message into a data package that could be transmitted in less then a tenth of a second, and sent it burning skyward.

...

Forty-five minutes later, a gray-painted KR-61 long range shuttle skimmed in low over the treetops-

...

Ryan smiled to himself, imagining the shock of the Smoke Jaguar pilots the next time they tried to start up their machines. The instant the Mech's computer sent an interface signal tot he massive gyroscope, the small charge of pentaglycerine would detonate. The prepackaged shaped charges would send a high-velocity explosion into the gyro housing, shattering the delicate equipment that provided a BattleMech with its balance.

...

The damage, although repairmable, would take the Clan Techs at least four hours. And he knew that the Jaguars wouldn't have four hours.
Through the ships viewscreens, he saw the reason the Clanners wouldn't have four horus to swap out the damaged gyros. At greater then two hundred kilometers it was impossible to make out invididual ships, but he would see the nova-bright flares of four Leopard class Dropships burning hard for Bangor's surface.

To sum it up, when the OmniMechs turn on, the charges will be triggered and shatter the Gyro. Clan techs are capable of swapping out the unit in about four hours. Ryans team takes at least 5 hours to make it to the LZ after finishing their missions, and greater then 15 minutes to perform it after killing the Elemental. Probably then some more time for their launch into space and seeing the dropships approaching the planet. Suffice to say their base security...sucks.

Suffice to say, not one of the Jags noticied that their SINGLE sentry had its head blown off and sounded an alarm, as the mission was described as a success in later chapters. And the mission was to capture the OmniMechs intact as they were upgraded varients of standard Clan designs, hence the cripple rather then kill nature of the sabotage.

"Once over teh wall, the team paired up and headed fro their respective assignments. Raiko and Wu disabled the communications and sensor systems by destroying the antenna arrays. Hollis and Akida set bobby traps on what our diagrams identified as Warriors barracks. Tanabe and I rigged the charges on the Mechs. Private Nakamura remained on top fo the wall, covering the compound with his light machinegun".

Mission specifics, the DEST teams sabotaged the base sensor systems by destroying the communications systems and rigged the warriors bedroom for good measure, all without being detected.

"Very few DEST teams have survived the revent loyalty inquiry intact".

In 'Black Dragon', a huge chunk of the DEST corps worked with the ISF director in an attempt to kill Theodore. They managed to not kill him by being inept Ninjas charging him with swords one by one, Theodore and a couple of people taking them all on and winning of course. Really, that book was horrible.
The aftermath is a massive purge of the ISF that did a rather good job of cleaning house of the Black Dragon society, it would be a long time before they became a real threat again. The DEST teams left over were somewhat fanatic in their loyalty to the Coordinator...but only Eight teams remain out of the entire program, all people interviewed no less then five times by loyal ISF people.

And thanks to so many of their brothers dying, the rule of Ninja clearly shows that those leftover are far more deadly, capable of very sophisticated recon/sabotage missions, and not just blinding waving their swords around...

Still, it had been only six years since the Truce of Tukayyid, and just three decades since the discovery of the Gray Death memory core. Warships and intra-system capable JumpShips were being built, but at a painfully slow rate.

This section talked about the strides the Inner Sphere has made with the Helm memory core, ComStar releasing its information to the Successor States and salvaged technology from the Clans. Apparently, the Inner Sphere IS building Compact Core jumpships with transit drives for some reason...

And now to change scenes....

A small plasticized paper-wrapped bundle rested in his lap. Just enough of the parcel was visible for Hatsumi to rear the lettering: "Block explosive, M26A1.".

...

"Hai", Sendai answered. "Thats Davion issue C-8. Its mostly Cyclonite with a few stailizing agents. The stuff is completly stable until it is initiated by means of a blasting cap. Then, it gives you a good high speed explosion, somewhere around sixty-eight thousand centimeters per second".

...

"Rigged with a short fuse-type detonator, it could be bundled together in a satchel charge and stuffed into the vunlnerable knee and ankle joints of a Battlemech. Only pentaglcerine was a more powerful blasting agent.

Davion plastic explosives, the explosive speed is on the order of 680 meters per second...which is very very unimpressive compared to modern High Explosives which are in the thousands of meters per second, and this is apparently the most powerful explosive short of the horribly unstable pentaglcerine...
Weird.

Next we have a lot of the ComGuards Invader Galaxy beating the crap out of Inner Sphere units because 'elite' Inner Sphere units are no match for ComGuards with clan OmniMechs, mostly because the battles as shown generally resemble the Inner Sphere walking around in the smog until they stumble onto the bad guys and get munched. Later their 'awesome' tactics are to sacrifice a company to lure the OpFor, told to just charge after the enemy at full speed, and then use massed firepower to wipe them out.

The training aids include VisMod packages to alter the outlines of the Mechs (combined with HUD holographic overlays), datalinks between mechs to determine when people 'hit' each other, causing Mechs to realisticly stumble and so on, even to the point of falling over, which would appear to be a huge waste of resources, but thats the Inner Sphere for you. There are also neutral observers with TAG laser systems to 'kill' mechs from simulated indirect fire like arty strikes. Said smoke shells also contain Chaff which is capable of blocking Clan sensor systems including active probes.

Similar to the light scout armor fielded by the Gray Death Legion, the Kage suits had been created with the assistance of the Draconis Elite Stike Teams. The suits were made up of a compact exoskelton covered with kevlex and articulated ballistie plates. The whole thing was capable of being sealed against a hostile environment, and fitted with so many sensors that the helmet alone required its own manual. The outer surface was treated with the same mimetic camouflage as the standard DEST infiltration suits. Ordinarily , a powerful jump unit completed the kit. For this operation, the jump pack had been replaced with a specially modified manned maneuvering unit.

DEST Kage Suit, light power armor. Stealth coating, loaded with sensors and normally a flight pack, but in Zero-G situations its replaced with a thruster pack, the entire suit is Zero-G capable.

"Since ComStar is providing the uniforms, there is a side note here from the Precentor Martial Focht. He says he is sorry that thee new uniforms will not be the technological equals of the originals". The original Star-League era uniforms were made using the same lostech knowledge as the Mechs of that bygone era. Neurohelmets were lighter and more effecient. Infiantry and armor uniforms afforded the solders a greater degree of protection with less bulk. Even the helmets worn by the humble ground pounders were a marvel of technology, boasting voice controlled sensors and anti-laser glazing. Even having the Gray Death memory core and the technology gleaned from the Clans hadn't granted the Inner Sphere developers the ability to replicate such advanced equipment.

Talk about Star League era equipment. Its also wrong in that various IS parties are developing/using a lot of this technology now, even if only on a limited basis. The PA(L) technology alone the IS is fielding at this point has the technology talked about. But its still clear that not even ComStar can supply that level of equipment on a whim, even from Terra.

Sadly, the design had been lost in the chaos following the fall of the Star League and the Exodus of Kerensky's armada. Only recently, with the discovery of the Gray Death memory core and the unveiling of ComStar's military arm, had the Highlander had its rebirth

Highlander Battlemech, Lostech until the Helm Memory core made production of the design and its associated technologies possible. This one is in the service of the Northwind Highlanders. A secret society inside the organization calling themselves the Royal Black Watch decided that they WERE the Royal Black Watch or something, even though they know the real one was nuked to death at the start of the coup.

Where as a transport ship might have four of five bridge stations, and a corvette as many as ten, the Truth boasted fifteen consoles for bridge personnel. The center of her spacious control deck was dominated by a high resoloution holotank. Morgan had seen such devices before, but always on a smaller scale.

...

"At one time, we had two Camerons: the Lady Shandra and the Electa. An early Explorer Corps mission found them lying 'in mothballs' in a deep Periphery system. We aren't really sure why the Exodus fleet abandoned two perfectly good battle cruisers, but there they were".
Morgan gave the Commodore a quizzical look, but said nothing. Beresick either failed to see the "you're not telling the whoel story" arch of the Marshal's eyebrows, or else he didn't care if Morgan beieved him or not.

...

"Once the ships were in our hands, we gave them an overhaul and rechristened them Invisible Truth and StarSword. Over the years, age, decay , wear and tear just got to be a bit too much for the old girls. ComStar made the decision to cannibalize the StarSword in order to maintain the truth.

Cameron class Battle Cruiser 'Invisible Truth'. ComStar were incapable of building replacement components for a Cameron, at least not earler on, so they scrapped one to keep the other going. Also the story of where they found them that Morgan clearly thinks is BS, but thats ComStar for you...

There were fifty five thosuand men and women, over a thousand Mechs, Aerospace Fighters and armored vehicles, thirty four Dropships and Thirty starships under his command.

Those numbers look WAY too low given the number of units sent to Serpant. You have at least one RCT, one Mech Regiment, the ELH which has three combined arms Regiments, the ComGuards Invader Galaxy (which varies in size from a couple of battlaions to a Regiment from book to book), the Knights of the Inner Sphere, another Mech regiment, the 4th Drakoons who I *think* are a pure Mech force, the Saint Ives Lancers, something less then a MEch Regiment I think. Plus many of those dropships are Assault Ships, not Mech carriers.

The numbers look WAY off to me.

"I saw the vids that ROM smuggled out of Turtle Bay. I saw the burning buildings. The devastation, the wholesale slaughter. I will NOT be responsible for that kind of barbarity and THAt ladies and gentlemen, is final.

ROM smuggled video footage of the attack from ground zero out of Turtle Bay.


Skip a lot of people pretending to be officers pretending to be some kind of miltiary planning group. Generally just making arguments for the sake of it along political lines.

Two missile volleys crossed each others contrails in the center of the narrow clearing, followed by millions of joules of light enegy

Raven and Jenner exchange fire with SRM's and Medium lasers. Millions of joules would be into the Megajoule range, probably between 1 and 9 as opposed to 'tens of millions'.

Seated behind a plain metal table were a pair of stocky men, dressed in drab green jackets. One wore a flax fox's mask on his collarr, which earned him a defiant snort from the captive. When DeVanziano turned his gaze on the rooms second occupant, his defiant obsecenities froze in his throat. There, gleaming on the collar of the officers jacket, was a tiny gold plated Greek letter Rho.

ROM clearly have a reputation out in the boonies...

The power armor employed by the Mercenary Troopers wasn't quite the equal of the so-called "toad-suits" used by Clan Elementals. The armored skin was thinner, and the suits lacked the heavy anti-mech missile launcher and automated medical system of their Clan counterparts. Still, the level of protection, offensive capability and mobility providfed by the standard power suit was a quantum leap above that of regular infantry forces.

Light Horse PA. PRobably IS standard is my guess.

Seeing that his small arm was useless against the nightmare figured that was drawing closer, the pirate began groping for the firing grip of the grenade launcher slung beneath the Kogyo-Reyerson-Toshiro assault rifle.
Emrys knew that, while the slugs stood little chance of penetrating his battle armor, the half-kilo explosive charge fired by the grenade launcher might breach his suit.

Assault rifle fire just bounced off the power suit, but an M203 style launched grenade has a chance. Contains HALF A KILO of explosive, probably designed for anti-power suit use.

And now onto the fun bits, the Naval action.

"Sir, Ranger reports contact with a number of unidentified starships. Captain Winslow requests instructions".
...
"Can you identify?"
"No, Sir". The sensor Tech was punching in commands as rapidly as he could, tryingt o coax more resoloution out of the Truths scanners. "The nearest friendly vessel is the Ranger. Captian Winslow reports she is unable to identify the bogies".
"Damnit tall" Morgan cursed. "Sound General Quaters. Gun crews to their stations. Prepare to launch alert fighters".
...
Commodore Beresick reported "all stations manned and ready" in just under four minutes, a full fifteen secons faster then the previous record.
"Marshall, Ranger reports positive ID on the bogies. Now classifying target vessels as bandits".

First, it takes quite a few seconds for the IS Warships to notice that they have company when they emerge from Hyperspace. Then it takes over 4 minutes to get an ID on the ships. And third, it is -for some crazy reason- not standard procedure to go to Battle Stations before making a jump into a possibly hostile system. Then again, as is said later in this battle, the ComStar crews are VERY green compared to the Clan ships...

"Star Colonel, there are a large number of unidentified starships emerging from Hyperspace, bearing one-six-five Mark fifty two".

"Identify"

"Sensors indicate seven Warships including on Cameron Class Battlecruiser, thee destroyers, two Essex and one Loba Class. The other warships are of an unknown class". The sensor operator punched a few buttons. "The rest of the intruders seem to be transports, including a number of monolith and Star Lord class Jumpships".

"Who are they?"

"Unknown Star Colonel". The tech worked at her controls in a vain attempt to increase the gain of her sensors. "The intruders are not transmitting a recognizable transponder code, and they are still too far away for a detialed scan".

Clan sensor technology, unlike IS sensor technology, is perfectly capable of IDing starships as soon as they emergy from hyperspace by class. Although they are too far away for a 'detailed scan'. It might also have something to do with the Clan warships being present and being able to watch the incoming. It might have something to do with their KF emergence pulse, but...

"Sensor operator, confirm your scans".

Seconds ticked by as the black haired officer watche the technicians fingers race over his instruments.

"Scans confirmed. One Cameron, one Lola and two Essex. Scans also suggest that one of the unknowns conforms to the data provided by The Watch on a Draconis Combine Kyushu Class Frigate.

Clan Sensor tech is apparently able to determine class by sensor returns

The Ranger had come out of hyperspace thirty seconds after the task force Flagship, but had been the first to spot the unidentified vessels. Being the nearest to the bogies, she had been ordered to close with the unknown ships.

Gives an indication of how long an emerging IS flotila takes to get a scan of their local space, at least Thirty Seconds, if not longer. Possible sensor blindness from the jump?

"Very well, Mr Ross" Winslow gestured toward the flickering white circles. "Engage maneuvering drive, close to firing range with the targets".

"Captian" that was the voice of the chief petty officer manning the long-range sensor panel. "I make the unknowns to be one Invader Class Jumpship and three Warships; two Whirlwinds and one Congress. All bear the markings of Clan Ghost Bear. The targets are furling their jump sails."

"Mr Held, are we close enough for a visual?"

"Yessir" the sensor cheif responded. "On screen now".

Ranger was apparently outside weapons range when she reverted from her jump of the Clan flotila.

Ranger also apparently has the ability to scan hulls with non visual sensors and determine hull markings, otherwise it would have been rather stupid for the CO to ask if they were in visual range.

"Hey I've got a power spike in her engineering section. I think she's trying to hot-load her jump engiens. Captian she's trying to get away".

Warships can detect a Jumpship trying to dump large amounts of energy into the KF core to prepare to jump, later we'll see that this is a quite precise measure...

"...lock the White Sharks onto the Invader. We don't want her escaping.".

...

"Sir. Missile control reports that only the portside launcher will bear on the Invader".

"Very well. Lock the portside Shark onto the target. Helm, come left fifteen degrees. Launch control, stand by to launch fighters. Gun crews, stand by to engage as your weapos bear. Mr Held, call of range to target".

"Four-seven-zero kilometers and closing".

"Fire the shark when you've got optimum range for a good hit. Then reload and fire at will. Weapons free will be at three hundred sixty kilometers".

Missile tactics. 470 KM is beyond optimum range -against a stationary jumpship mind you. And the White Sharks are incable of being launched off axis and manouvering to adjust, apparently requring a line of sight from the launcher for some odd reason. 360 KM is clearly optimal Weapons Free.

...but the unidentified WarShips appeared less then six hundred kilometers from the four-ship detachement.

< 600 kilometers is beyond the missile range of a Lola III against even a stationary target, which appears somewhat absurd.

"Gun crews to their stations. Charge the point defense wepons. Elementals, stand by, we may be boarded"

Any reply was lost in the sensor operators alarmed shout.

"Star Captian, I detect fire control radar. They have locked their missiles onto us!"

Clan Invader class Jumpships can detect fire control radar, and have PPCs to act as point defense weapons.

"Range to target, three hundred kilometers" Chief Held called form his station aboard the Ranger. Then, more sharply. "Captian, he's got his jump drives on line"

"Thats it, we can't wait. Mr Fontanazza, confirm missile lock and shoot".

"Lock confirmed...missile away".

The Ranger trembled faintly as the forty-ton missile streaked from its launch tube.

For the first time in nearly two hundred years, an Inner Sphere WarShip had fired its weapons in anger

Despite Weapons Free being 360, they close to within 300 kilometers before firing their missile. Also, they can detect the Jumpships K/F drive coming online and open fire to stop it jumping away.

"Launch Launch Launch! The enemy has launched a missile! The missile has aquired and is homing!"

"Weapons Officer! Status of the PPCs?"

"The PPCs are charged and manned Star Captain"

"Target the missile and fire as the weapons bear"

The Ghost Bear warrior knew that the Wind's particle projection cannons were simply larger versions of those weapons fitted to the OmniMechs in his hold. They were intended for intercepting stray asteriods and other such space debris that might puncture the relativly thin skin of the Jump Ship. Compared to an asteriod, a missile wasa relativley tiny object. The PPC's in their big clumsy turrets stood not chance of successfully engaging the swiftly approaching missile. Still, the alternative was to simply await the shattering impact of the massive ship-killer. To sit idly, resigned to death, was not Clan Like.

"Starboard PPC firing," Crewman adin announced from his position at the weapons control. "PPC missed. Recharging".

Before Hector could respond to the calmly rendered death sentance, the White Shark slammed into the Wind's starboard side, just abaft the bridge module. The weapon, intendded to penetrate several layers of hardened armor before exploding, ripped through the Invaders thin skin, shattering hull plates as it went. Then, a fraction of a second later, the warhead detonated.

Eight thousand kilos of high explosives shredded most of the Wind's minimal armor. The Jump ship shuddered under the impaact.

"Freebirth!" Hector snarled in anger as he rolled to his feet. "Damage report-"

The order went unfinished as a trio of heavy naval lasers drove lances of intense energy deep into the still smoking wound left by the White Shark missile.

"I am sorry Star Captian. We have lost both our field initator and drive controllers. We cannot initiate jump sequence. The Winter Wind is dead".

The PPC's are not simple Mech or Aerotech type PPC's but actually larger versions, I'm guessing Naval? They are turreted and powerful enough to do anti-asteriod duty, but their fire control is apparently useless for anti-missile duty. The Ranger also has good enoguh fire control to hit the Jumpship in the exact place the missile hit, the placement of the missile and laser salvo apparently designed to take out the K/F system. Which it did. Quite literally as it turns out...

The missile is also *designed* to penetrate Naval armor before detonation, and it contains 8000 kilos of HE, weighing 40 tons. In comparision, a heavy ASM like the Russian P-700 weighs 7 tons and carries 750 Kg of HE.

A number that had been quickly increasing from eighty to one hundred suddenly flicked down to zero.

On board the Invisible Truth, Morgan is watching the holotank sensor readout. The system was correct with its starting point of 80% charge on the Winter Wind, and apparently was able to track in real time the jump core charge, which increased VERY rapidly, 20% in a matter of minutes without the core exploding...

"Captain. Range to the Congress now two-eight-zero kilometers. That's inside missile range"

Clear enoguh.

"Missile launch! They have us locked!

"Hard a starboard, down fifteen!"

The deck canted as Ranger swung sharply away from her original course. Lacking point defense weapons, the destroyers only hope of avoiding a collision with the speeding packet of destruction lay in manouvering so sharply that the missile lost track of its target. The tactic failed.

The fifty-ton missile slammed into the Ranger aft of her number three missile battery.

The detonation of twelve tons of high explosie was devastating. Winslow was pitched off her feet, barely saving herself from a fall on the deck by catching the corner of he command console with one of her flailing arms.

"Damage report!"

"Damage control reports a hit to the portside armor. No breach, but we took a helluva whack".

AS Captain Winslow barked out commands to bring the Ranger back onto an intercept heading, a flicker of motion caught her eye. There, swooping in from the upper right had side of the viewscreen, came the Com Guard Essex Class Destroyer Starlight. As the Starlight drove past the Ranger, its odd backward raked prow seemed to errupt into flame.

Tactics. The Clan warship holds its missile fire until much closer range, a much heavier missile as well. The Ranger tries an evasive manouver, which must have at least some chance of success in the Captians mind, and it fails. it also appears that they 'flinched' from the missile, ruining their approach to the Congress with the sharp manouver.

Also note that the other ComGuard ship holds its fire until its close to point blank range. Again, this might be a question of experience.

In a daring, desperate move, Star Colonel Alonso ordered the Claw to be brought about. Summoning all the thrust her engiens could provide, the Seven-hundred meter long ship drove between the convering shapes of her Inner Sphere tormentors. As she ran past the bows of the enemy ships whcih were swinging in a vain attempt to follow her manouver, Alonso called out an order.

"All broadside guns, fire at will"

Tactics, the Congress is able to spin around and dive between the two ComGuard destroyers, delivering broadsides to both at the same time, causing major damage to the Starlight.

Unable to turn quickly enough to follow the Claw through her attack run, the Lola was now trying to reverse her turn, to bring her broadside guns into action. Alonso smield grimly. Let the Inner Spehre surat try.

"Helmsman, hard to port, forty up"

Standard Ghost Bear procedures said that the maximum up angle for a Congresss Class frigate was thirty fire degrees. Any more then that and a Captain risked inflicting stress damage on the ships massive, but rigid, spine. Fortunately, the ships designers wern't her commanders. Alonso knew that the Clan would withstand an up=angle of up to fifty five degrees before the inertia induced stress would behin to cfause structual damage.

As the big ship turned through one hundred thirty five degress, Alonso ordered the pilot to ease his helm into a more standard turn.

"Attitude control, roll one-eight"

Ponderously, the frigate revolved around her long axis. The maneuver had brought the Claw out of her turn above, ahead and slightly to the right of the enemy Lola, with her relativly undamaged port side facing the destroyer.

Tactics. Simply said the Clanners better experience is shown here. The two ComGuard ships charge at the Congress only to have it spin around and run between them, delivering a running broadside that 'stuns' the Starlight out of the battle and hits the Ranger a bit. Then as the Ranger tries to turn to pursue onto her six, the Clanners pull an impossibly right turn inside, climb above the Ranger relative to their previous postion, and roll to present their least damaged side.

"Commodore, the Huruna is closing with the Invader".

Beresick nodded. he was too busy watching his own battle.

C&C. The fleets Commodore is also Captaining his ship directly, meaning he isn't paying attention to the bigger picture, as the Truth slugs it out with a Whirlwind.

"Fighters! Oh-six-two neg ten!"

"I see them", the Haruna's cheif gunnery officer responded with a coolness he didn't feel in his guts. Flipping a series of switches, he brought the Haruna's point-defense weapons online. Long-range missiles, similar to those used by BattleMechs, but capable of hitting targets at far greater ranges, reached out to swat an inbound fighter. The tiny craft bucked under the impact, but recovered quickly, only to be blown out of existence by a pair of laser blasts. As the twisting Clan fighters, identified at last by the Haruna's Warbook program as Visigoths pressed home their attack, a series of small pulse lasers and multu-barrel autocannons spat streams of death into their path. Two more OmniFighters were reduced to glowing wreckage, but therest swooped in across the haruna's back, leaving chipped and broken armor in their wake.

...

Angrily punching an override, which slaved all of the ships weaposn to his panel, teh cheif, aveteran of the Clan War, locked the DropShips targeting sensors onto the drive flare of the retrating fighter. For a second, he hesitated while the computer chewed on the optiumum targeting solution, then fired.

Kushu class Frigates point defense systems, layed system of LRM's, reglar lasers, then rapid fire autocannons and pulse lasers. Interestingly the dropships don't appear to be slaved into the Warships FCS for point defense work.

"Star Captian, there is an Achilles Class DropShip bearing down on us, at three two zero mark one."

Hector, who had run out of curses, stared balefully at the tiny, dagger like icon speeding silently towards his crippled JumpShip. the Winds PPCs were doing their best to slow or turn the enemy craft, but the Achilles shrugged off the damage as if the charged particle streams were nothing more then a spray of water.

The Assault Ships icon seemed to merge with the Wind's as the smaller vessel darted past the Jump Ship. Scant moments later, the Invaders hull rang with a deep, hollow Boom. A freeborn crewman let out a yelp of surprise as Hector's second in Command reported that a part of small combat transports had grappled with the Winter Wind. A few heartbeats later, the exec reported that Inner Sphere marines were storming aboard.

Hector merely nodded adn recited the old proberb; "It is a good day to die"

Ghost Bears = Klingons.
The PPC's on the Wind don't do anything to annoy the incoming dropship, the tactics of which were to fly past at speed and launch combat transports are point blank range.

And now, the boarding action.

As bumpy a ride as teh Bisan's breakaway from the Haruna had been, there was no comparison to the buffeting Ryan and his team suffered when teh tiny steel ball of a battle taxi was kicked out of the Bisan's armored launch bay.

"Hang on Major!" With gut wrenching speed, the little taxi swung through a ninety-degree arc until it was literally flying backwards . Grimm fired the ships maneuvering drive, chopping its speed dramatically, the two hudered ton craft shuddering as the powerful engines strove to override the momentum imparted by the high speed dash along the Clan JumpShips needle like spine. In seconds, the tiny craft had slowed almost to a stop.

...

"Fire the grapples"

A thump, more felt then heard, marked the launch of a pair of large rocket driven cylinders.

...

"Grapples set. Reels turning".

"Lock the winches. We're down and locked, go!"

NL-42 Battle Taxi. Launched in a point blank high speed pass, decelerate from 600KPH relative to 0 in 'seconds', then fire grapples and reel in to make a skin-skin contact at the hatch. At that point, the commandos can assault directly into the ship by blowing the hatch thanks to the positive seal.

The DEST team swarmed out of the lock and into the corridor beyond, where they were met by laser fire. A detachment of the Clan ships decurity force had assembled in the crew's common area adjacent to the pressure lock. Five armored Elementals launched an attack on the invading commandos.

"Chiksho!" Ryan cursed as a burst of automatic weapon fire stiched a line of shallow divots in his Kage suits breastplate.

...

Kashira Raiko desperately pumped a half dozen shots into a charging Elemental before the hulking warrior pitched over onto the deck. Sior and Carter, acting as always like a single pair of hands, laced the torso armor ofa secnod Clanner with highly accurate laser fire. Only the combined assauly of two Blaser rifles firing in rapid volleys dropped the massive trooper before he could fire his third shot. When they checked the downed warriors, the DEST troopers saw the thick black sludge that characterized the Elementals suit's reaction to severe trauma, flowing into the wounds. The Elemental which Raiko believed he had killed, or at least incapacited, was struggling to rise. He finsihed the Clanner off with a point blank laser blast to the heat.

6 Blazer rifle shots into an Elemental will put it down with heavy damage but NOt kill it thanks to its medical equipment. A final shot to the head is needed to kill it. Two lasers fired together are enough to kill one.

The scientists who had developed the Kage sutits had tried to assure him that the armor could not be damaged by most anti-personnel weapons, but Ryan knew better. The desperate street fighting in Imperial City during the Smoke Jaguar invasion of Luthien had proved that. It was proved again right in front of him when another Elemental was hurled back against a bulkhead, his armor shattered by a high explosiev armor-piercing greande from the launcher carried by Teji.

Kage suits are supposed to be proof against most AP weapons systems, but as always, its a lot of hope mixed in as well. An a single AP grenade is enough to kill an Elemental through its breastplate. I'm guessing a shaped charge.

The Elemmentals are also limited as they are only using AP weapons, not their more powerful mech killing weapons, due to the damage it would do to their own ship. One of the DEST peopel before the mission wanted a man portable gauss rifle until explosive decompression was mentioned...
Momentum in Zero-G is never mentioned as a VERY good reason to carry Blazer rifles. The DEST troops also don't use flashbangs in this engagement, although they did in their earlier training exercise for some reason.

The last Elemental threw himself into an insane, berserker-like charge. Talon sergeant Raiko showed why he had lived long enough to become one of the most senior non-commissioned officers in the DEST program. Even encumbered by the Kage suit's bulk, Rako spun like a top. A sharp hum filled the air, followed by an unpleasant screech. The decapitated Elemental collapsed in a heep. The sergeant endded his position, with his faintly glowing vibrokatana held above his head, the blade parallel to the deck.

...

Before the Clanner could finish the job, Raiko lopped off both of the massive Elementals arms with a pitiliess swipe of his vibrokatana. Akida dropped to the deck, withering in agony as the Talon Sergeant sent the Clanner to greet Kerensky in person, with a thrust so powerful that the slightly slowing tip of the high-tech katana came out through the back of the mans armor.

Elementals < Vibrowepaons. And they lack the way of the warrior!

Careless of what damage he might inflict on his own ship, the Clansman loosed a five shot burst from a gyroslung carbine at the advancing commandos. Three of the mini rockets impacted on Carters Kage Suit. Though the battle armor was designed to stop all but the heaviest of small arsm attacks, the laminated steel plastic and ceramic armor failed to completly deflect the high velocity explosive tipped slugs.

Gyro-gun carbine burst is capable of penetrating Kage armor, as opposed to an Elementals SMG fire earlier which just leaves divots in it.


And back to the Space Battle...

"He's swinging round again! Cannons firing!"

On a secondary monitor, Morgan saw minute flashes spring from the Clan Warships bow.

"For what we are about to recieve, the Lord make us truely thankful" one of the bridge crewman quipped, seconds before a volley of autocannon shells slammed into the truths bow."

...


"Helm, twenty degrees to starboard. All guns, fireas you bear!" Beresick shouted. Seconds later, a pair of gray-painted missiles left a thin layer of black soot on teh Truths outer hull as they lept free of their launch rails. For sixteen long seconds, Morgan watched the missiles drive flares burn their way across the gap between the Invisible Truth and the Clan destroyer. Then, there was a brief explosion as bright as the flare of a match. It faded.

"Missile number one intercepted and destroyed" the missile control officer sang out. A heartbeat later, a brighter fireball flashed into existence, expanded until it seemed to engulf the target vessel, and died out.

"Number two, direct hit"

Close range firefight between the Truth and Ursus, a Whirlwind. This close, the Clan ship is able to dance around despite the apparently gross missmatch in firepower and survive, doing minimal damage. It still takes 16 seconds for the missiles to cross the distance between them, anti-missile fire intercepts one of the missiles, not the second.

"Bloody hell! This Clan beggar isn't going to give up. Mr Held, can you bring us under his stern?"

"I'm trying Captian. He's just a little too quick for us!"

In fact the Congress was slightly slower then the old Lola Class destroyer. her crew's greater experience gave the illusion of speed. Winslow and her crew had been trained as well as the Com Guards could manage, even to the point of drilling in full scale replica control rooms buried deep beneath the Order's Rocky Mountain training facility. But there was no substitute for combat expeience. The Clanners had been fighting each other for scores of years, and had learned the detials of starship combat from actual battles. Winslow and her crew wre learning as they went along.

Again, combat experience issues, the Clanners are a lot better at this then the ComStar guys, due to experience. Also, ComStar has a full scale training facility on Terra, probably an ex-SLDF facility.

[PainRack]

Smoke Jaguar garrison. Their compound has a single Elemental sentry for security as far as this raid ever shows, no passive or active intruder defense systems installed, motion sensors, whatever. The DEST helmet is equipped with passive light-amp gear rendering everything in shades of grey, almost like a modern FLIR system.

The traditional base security is stated to involve electronic sensors, and the traditonal DEST team uses sneak-suits to circuvement them, as described in Special Ops.

Inner Sphere laser rifle technology; a single bolt is entirely capable of blowing through an Elementals visor and killing the Elemental. Boom, headshot.

The problem then rests......... Elementals have taken small lasers hit to the helmet region before.

Also, DEST sneak suits can be seen to slowly change color as the commandos run around to better match the background. Its clearly some kind of adapative camoflauge.

Also, non-canon? Mimetic uniforms is restricted to Blake units. Comstar did gain access to Purifier armour, but FanPro then reversed their decision and decided they didn't have it again(FM Comstar has the FRR unit being gifted several Purifier suits by Comstar)
And visual sneak suits don't work that way.

To sum it up, when the OmniMechs turn on, the charges will be triggered and shatter the Gyro. Clan techs are capable of swapping out the unit in about four hours. Ryans team takes at least 5 hours to make it to the LZ after finishing their missions, and greater then 15 minutes to perform it after killing the Elemental. Probably then some more time for their launch into space and seeing the dropships approaching the planet. Suffice to say their base security...sucks.

Suffice to say, not one of the Jags noticied that their SINGLE sentry had its head blown off and sounded an alarm, as the mission was described as a success in later chapters. And the mission was to capture the OmniMechs intact as they were upgraded varients of standard Clan designs, hence the cripple rather then kill nature of the sabotage.

Suffice to say that the novel was written in the "Clans are Borg" era.

The aftermath is a massive purge of the ISF that did a rather good job of cleaning house of the Black Dragon society, it would be a long time before they became a real threat again. The DEST teams left over were somewhat fanatic in their loyalty to the Coordinator...but only Eight teams remain out of the entire program, all people interviewed no less then five times by loyal ISF people.

Not neccesarily, as the Jihad shows.

And thanks to so many of their brothers dying, the rule of Ninja clearly shows that those leftover are far more deadly, capable of very sophisticated recon/sabotage missions, and not just blinding waving their swords around...

Again, not neccesarily. The traditionalists make their Mechwarriors incapable of keeping up with "modern" warfare. Their infantry are traditionally given an "edge" here.

Davion plastic explosives, the explosive speed is on the order of 680 meters per second...which is very very unimpressive compared to modern High Explosives which are in the thousands of meters per second, and this is apparently the most powerful explosive short of the horribly unstable pentaglcerine...
Weird.

Lol. At least it wasn't the SMG are Clan Machine guns.

Next we have a lot of the ComGuards Invader Galaxy beating the crap out of Inner Sphere units because 'elite' Inner Sphere units are no match for ComGuards with clan OmniMechs, mostly because the battles as shown generally resemble the Inner Sphere walking around in the smog until they stumble onto the bad guys and get munched. Later their 'awesome' tactics are to sacrifice a company to lure the OpFor, told to just charge after the enemy at full speed, and then use massed firepower to wipe them out.

BTW, I couldn't recall. The Hunters is the novel that has the whole "Invaders are equipped with Clan Mechs/Inner Sphere mockups", right?

Said smoke shells also contain Chaff which is capable of blocking Clan sensor systems including active probes.

Its not that advanced. Its the traditional smoke shells the Americans used during the Gulf War, the one that injected some chemical(phosphorus IIRC) that obscured infared scans.

"Since ComStar is providing the uniforms, there is a side note here from the Precentor Martial Focht. He says he is sorry that thee new uniforms will not be the technological equals of the originals". The original Star-League era uniforms were made using the same lostech knowledge as the Mechs of that bygone era. Neurohelmets were lighter and more effecient. Infiantry and armor uniforms afforded the solders a greater degree of protection with less bulk. Even the helmets worn by the humble ground pounders were a marvel of technology, boasting voice controlled sensors and anti-laser glazing. Even having the Gray Death memory core and the technology gleaned from the Clans hadn't granted the Inner Sphere developers the ability to replicate such advanced equipment.

Talk about Star League era equipment. Its also wrong in that various IS parties are developing/using a lot of this technology now, even if only on a limited basis. The PA(L) technology alone the IS is fielding at this point has the technology talked about. But its still clear that not even ComStar can supply that level of equipment on a whim, even from Terra.

Depending on production status, most of this equipment is actually available in the Sphere. The ELH neurohelmet has been co-opted by NAIS, to the extent that it would become the standard by 3062.
The uniforms..... meh. Maybe. But the helmets having voice controlled sensors and stuff is a bit outdated, considering that Comstar is using eye controlled sensors and shit, as for anti-laser glazing..........

Highlander Battlemech, Lostech until the Helm Memory core made production of the design and its associated technologies possible. This one is in the service of the Northwind Highlanders. A secret society inside the organization calling themselves the Royal Black Watch decided that they WERE the Royal Black Watch or something, even though they know the real one was nuked to death at the start of the coup.

As detailed in the Northwind Highlander Scenario Pack, the officer exchanges between the Stuarts and the Black watch meant that said officers retained the nobility of the Black watch within the Highlanders.

Where as a transport ship might have four of five bridge stations, and a corvette as many as ten, the Truth boasted fifteen consoles for bridge personnel. The center of her spacious control deck was dominated by a high resoloution holotank. Morgan had seen such devices before, but always on a smaller scale.

Technically, the holotank remains a piece of lostech. Morgan would have seen 2D holotanks, but not the 3D holotanks used to coordinate space battles.... Well, yet anyway.

Those numbers look WAY too low given the number of units sent to Serpant. You have at least one RCT, one Mech Regiment, the ELH which has three combined arms Regiments, the ComGuards Invader Galaxy (which varies in size from a couple of battlaions to a Regiment from book to book), the Knights of the Inner Sphere, another Mech regiment, the 4th Drakoons who I *think* are a pure Mech force, the Saint Ives Lancers, something less then a MEch Regiment I think. Plus many of those dropships are Assault Ships, not Mech carriers.

The numbers look WAY off to me.

Oh yes. It is. Remember, the count ignored cargo dropships.

First, it takes quite a few seconds for the IS Warships to notice that they have company when they emerge from Hyperspace.

Jumping out of hyperspace blinds sensors.

Missile tactics. 470 KM is beyond optimum range -against a stationary jumpship mind you. And the White Sharks are incable of being launched off axis and manouvering to adjust, apparently requring a line of sight from the launcher for some odd reason. 360 KM is clearly optimal Weapons Free.


< 600 kilometers is beyond the missile range of a Lola III against even a stationary target, which appears somewhat absurd.

For once the novel doesn't follow the game.

"Range to target, three hundred kilometers" Chief Held called form his station aboard the Ranger. Then, more sharply. "Captian, he's got his jump drives on line"

"Thats it, we can't wait. Mr Fontanazza, confirm missile lock and shoot".

"Lock confirmed...missile away".

The Ranger trembled faintly as the forty-ton missile streaked from its launch tube.

For the first time in nearly two hundred years, an Inner Sphere WarShip had fired its weapons in anger

I would like to point out that this is wrong. The first naval battle has already been fought in Luyten and Rose by WOB destroyers engaging Comstar warships during the Fall of Terra. Wolfnet was apparently aware of Comstar warship fleet, but did not determine the source of this battle, as described in Fall of Terra.

C&C. The fleets Commodore is also Captaining his ship directly, meaning he isn't paying attention to the bigger picture, as the Truth slugs it out with a Whirlwind.

This reminds me. I should go check out the Orbat to see whether there was a captain below him.

Elementals < Vibrowepaons. And they lack the way of the warrior!

You haven't seen the fluff that says Elementals fear the VibroKatana...... Why they should fear it when the Katana is the only portable weapon the Dracs had that could hope to reliably do damage to Elemental Armour, when the Elemental has a mech class Machine Gun, an AP weapon(usually another MG) and a SRM, and battle claws that could literally crush and tear a person apart..... nobody knows.

Again, combat experience issues, the Clanners are a lot better at this then the ComStar guys, due to experience. Also, ComStar has a full scale training facility on Terra, probably an ex-SLDF facility.

Technically, Mars.

[PainRack]

It is ironic, then, that having invested billions of C-bills in the development of these new vehicles,

TRO 3058, LRM and SRM carrier.

Somewhat hyperbolic costs of R&D in the Inner Sphere, for a simple factory redesign of two cheap conventional vehicles. Extrapolated to other vehicle and mech designs, even assuming if mech design is just as cheap even though the Akuma states that new designs are more expensive than redesign of older designs, the Sphere would have invested trillions of dollars in R&D every year.

[PainRack]

Errr........ anyone knows which sources detail the Snow Raven orbital bombardments? So far, the only ones I seen are in Jihad Hotspots 3070, I know there's another one somewhere that has more detail, but I can't find it.

[Drone]

It is ironic, then, that having invested billions of C-bills in the development of these new vehicles,

TRO 3058, LRM and SRM carrier.

Somewhat hyperbolic costs of R&D in the Inner Sphere, for a simple factory redesign of two cheap conventional vehicles. Extrapolated to other vehicle and mech designs, even assuming if mech design is just as cheap even though the Akuma states that new designs are more expensive than redesign of older designs, the Sphere would have invested trillions of dollars in R&D every year.

Is it that unlikely that a unusually large amount of money was invested in military R&D with all that was going on at that point in IS history? I mean you've got the Clans on your doorstep, the Civil War, the Capellans allying with the Magistracy and the Confederation and so on, plus a time of unusual economic growth due to increased production if I remember right. So maybe it wasn't all that exaggerated?

[PainRack]

Is it that unlikely that a unusually large amount of money was invested in military R&D with all that was going on at that point in IS history? I mean you've got the Clans on your doorstep, the Civil War, the Capellans allying with the Magistracy and the Confederation and so on, plus a time of unusual economic growth due to increased production if I remember right. So maybe it wasn't all that exaggerated?

Errr, actually, I didn't check my English properly. Thanks for catching it, I meant to argue that the IS was spending hundreds of billions on R&D based on the number of new models introduced since 3052, ending in the year 3067.

[Eviscerator]

Reaping the benefits

The discovery of the Helm SL Memory Core in 3028 didnt change the face of the inner sphere overnight. While the GDL rather selflessly ensured that the governments of each of the Successor States eventually recieved their own copies of the Memory Core, it didnt mean that factories began to spit out pieces of lostech the next week, the next month, or even the next year. Each of the Great Houses immediatedly took their copies and locked them away, allowing only a handful of trusted researchers access to the information,

Save for House Davion with it's NAIS - though even then the Davions strictly controlled who has access to the information.

For at least the first decade, the memory core was treated as a state secret of the highest order. Those few individuals who had access to the information had to conduct their research under tightly controlled conditions. They also had but one mandate - to unlock the secrets of military technologies lost during the Succession Wars, technologies such as double-strength heat sinks, ferro-fibrous armor and endo-steel structural members.

Each of the Successor States poured significant percentages of their GNP into R&D, and later into retooling factories or constructing new manufacturing facilities that could produce these recovere technologies. Ever readying themselves for the next war, their single-minded focus prevented other researchers from potentially unlocking far more of the secrets than were rediscovered. All for the sake of preventing their enemies from stealing those secrets for themselves - secret's they'd eventuall unlock anyway.

Still, some of that lostech began to trickle down to civilian markets. Incremental advantages in metallurgy, biotech, and computer technologies hit throughout the 3030s. Incredible progress in medical science soon led to the eradication of numerous diseases and corresponding lifespan increases.

The real advances didnt come until the 3040s though. By then the general techbase had increased to the point that advances seemingly came on a daily basis. Additionally, the NAIS had made significant copies of the memory core, declassified by the Davion government, available to civilian researchers. Suddenly, instead of fighting hot wars, the Successor States were battling to stay at the pinnacle of technology. That tech war spawned the greatest golden age in the IS since the dawn of the SL, one that the FC won hands down.- Dr. Andrea Paliwoda, Hidden Wars, CS Archives, 3058

Page 77, Classic BT Handbook: House Davion, published 2007.

[Eviscerator]

The above supports my statement several pages ago, and also shows that the Successor States weren't interested in healthy milk or room-temperature superconducive materials, they were interested in recreating SL-spec Marauders which according to the good LT Andrew Redburn "Ëven after 300 years would make my brand new Marauder look like a sick duck".

[Eviscerator]

Sadly, the Houses, even though they each recieved copies of the Helm Core, all decided to sit tight on it and lock it down Except for House Davion who allowed NAIS work on it, and then when Hanse starting pwnings of the rest of the I.S in War of '39 et al, the houses started spy wars for Tech they already had the capability to research

As above.

[PainRack]

Work commitments and other shiz means I'm probably going to put the Jihad WMD analysis aside, even though I been promising to do so once a more complete picture of the Jihad has been released by FanPro.....

So, here's something else instead.

The blast from my laser seared through the table and directly through Amos Adler's torso.

Accessory the Periphery.
No specific mention of whether its a pistol or a rifle, but considering that the owner brought it into a salon without the prospector or the owner noticing it, it was probably a pistol. Nevertheless, no mention of the table nature or construction, but assuming its wood, that still suggests that probably, an unknown type of laser pistol has the capability to penetrate through wood and kill an unarmoured person.

[Eviscerator]

Holy handwave new material, batman!

[Eviscerator]

So, here's something else instead.

The blast from my laser seared through the table and directly through Amos Adler's torso.

Accessory the Periphery.
No specific mention of whether its a pistol or a rifle, but considering that the owner brought it into a salon without the prospector or the owner noticing it, it was probably a pistol. Nevertheless, no mention of the table nature or construction, but assuming its wood, that still suggests that probably, an unknown type of laser pistol has the capability to penetrate through wood and kill an unarmoured person.

A quick check of Lostech:Warrior Equipment Guide gives us:

White Dwarf Hold Out laser pistol - weight 250 grams and the additionals of
1) invisible laser beam (to the naked eye)
2)one shot weapon
for a damage of 3D6

Hold out laser pistol at 50 grams and 2D6 damage.

Given that the range was point blank and no matter how you spin it, 2d6 or 3d6 damage would definitely go through wood and kill an unarmored person...

Given that modern concealable firearms such as the SIG P232 (500 grams unloaded), a subcompact pistol or at the very extreme end Downsizer single shot pistol (312 g) concealed right wont ever be noted by a proprietor normally.... yeah..

[Eviscerator]

The fighter's pilot neurohelmet was large and cumbersome , but its capabilities were amazing. When in combat against multiple foes, the fighter lowered the steel visor of his helmet and went into CTNA mode. CTNA stood for Complete Tactical Neuro Presentation. (???) Fighter pilots in the SLDF said CTNA made its wearer feel as though he were flying through space without a fighter. A pilot could turn around in his seat and look to the rear as if the fighter were not even there and see if enemy fighters were approaching from behind. This was accomplished with sophisticated sensors embedded in the fuselage of Star League fighters. The sensors fed their information to the CTNA giving the pilot a convincing depiction of space around them in a variety of modes, such as infrared, ultraviolet, and simple color vision - SL Sourcebook, page 111

This suggests that the Clan Enhanced Imaging schtick while seemingly revolutionary is actully both an evolution and a devolution of SL tech. EI tech is not avail for Aerospace fighters, and also requires *mumble mumble* Clan drugs and Clan medical care and also have the side effect of slapping a 3 year expiry date on said warrior.

[PainRack]

Posted by RhoOmicronMu
TRO: 3039 wrote:
And then someone started poking around in the wastelands of an ex-Hegemony world and put a new twist on the accepted historical accounts. I’m not sure why this person zeroed in on that bunker, but if they were looking for a cache of the Star League Defense Force’s finest Royal regiment BattleMechs, they didn’t find them—they should’ve been looking for those in the glassy craters that dot the world’s surface, where the planetary militia made its last stand against the encroaching Houses. Wealthy Hegemony (or, more accurately, ex-Hegemony) planets had the finest gear, of course, and so a House military often had to resort to nuclear weapons when target planets were so unreasonable as to not join the House, or what’s worse, sided with another House. But the militia records in that bunker detailed the make and model of units fielded, along with info on units they were desperately buying from the surviving and rebuilt Hegemony military factories, and those machines were not so … limited … as those ComStar portrayed in Technical Readout: 2750.

[PainRack]

I'm quite sure that despite all my intentions, I have never posted this here before.

Viciousness on Ingress
..........After the fight,we discovered that the enemy on Ingress somehow had access to ancient blueprints of missile weapons. These things were really antiques- some of the plans were for a missile used by the military of the old United States of America. All the enemy had to do was retool a few factories and they could start churning out weapons like toys.

Star League Sourcebook.

[PainRack]

Meh. I can't be bothered to dig through my thread and see whether I posted some of this.
I'm QUITE sure some of this is not, as I haven't done any arc fpr them before.

For example, the mechs of the other Houses could not effectively fight attacks from the air, but the HAF could, aided by the Air Agressor Fire Control Adjustor(AAFCA) attached to their mech computers.

Star League Sourcebook.

Quote:
Before they left, however, an aerospace fighter wing managed to cripple both Long Tom defenders. The Long Toms destroyed more than ten fighters before succumbing to the Kurita barrage.

Long toms being able to engage aerospace fighters.

However, the greatest threat to the mobile Long Tom are aerospace fighters. Rifleman 'Mechs, known for air strike support, are frequently stationed with this unit.

Technical Readout 3025.

Sorry if they looked messy. I been digging through old btech threads on this forum and I'm quite I haven't posted this stuff in this thread yet.


I'm placing this here until I can find more solid references.

"Comparing special operations soldiers to normal infantry is akin to comparing Battlemechs to late 20th century tanks".

I know it was a direct quote, but I probably will need to dig up Mechwarrior companion just to verify the source.

[PainRack]

Quote:
The Griffin was only a few scant meters distant as she locked her cross hairs onto its mauled form.While the laser began to preheat, she told herself that one good volley would end this contest, leaving her the victor. She waited, hoping to cool the Shadow Hawk a bit more before opening fire again, when suddenly her targeting system began to crackle

Quote:
Mordoc told me they cheated. She had seen the same kind of pattern on a targeting and tracking system once before, on Tukayyid when she had faced off against two platoons of Com Guard infantry. A jamming device with very limited range was being used on her mech.

Quote:
Not waiting for a weapons lock she manually eyed up a shot and fired her short range missiles. Only one of them hit,burying itself in a hole her charge had already opened in the armour.


Star Lord. Regarding the use of ECM and its effects on targeting computers.

[PainRack]

The Ghost Bears left the arms mounted high due to balance problems with “properly” mounted arms on the odd chassis. In retrospect, this was one of the best decisions Bear scientists made with the Dasher. It was found that accidental brush-offs of the newly developed battle armor were near zero percent on Dashers, as opposed to near seven percent with other standard biped frames. The upper-mounted arms also allowed Elementals riding on the sides to dismount faster, making the Dasher ideal for swift battlefield deployment of armored infantry.

TRO 3050 upgrade. Battlemechs apparently have a 7% accidental brush off rate for elementals.

[PainRack]

Such industry as remains in the Outworlds suffers from a lack of modern technology. Assembly lines are manual, for example, and little automation exists(even in government-sponsered conerns such as weaponry production)

The Outworld economy is described as being the weakest of Periphery worlds and part of the reason is its weak industrial base.

This suggest that their manufacturing techniques are stuck at somewhere at WW1 or even earlier dates, depending on what one means by automation.(Automated assembly line vs automata assisting in welding and etc).

It might explain the ratios seen on Lushann(6000 technicians and scientists amongst a planetary population of 28 thousand) working primarily for a diversified conglomerate. Ramora has 13 thousand technicians and specialists amongst a planetary population of 70 thousand, center of the largest weapon producing facillity in Alliance space including an estimated 100 lightnings yearly and engineering of space parts.

Periphery the Accessory.