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Nautilus Expedition
Chapter 32 - Aurigan Dreams (BattleTech CYOA)[]
Refitting her new Ride[]
“Now this is an awesome ‘Mech.” says Yang as we look at the AS7-D-HT Atlas II that I have chosen to become my new ride.
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Atlas II Assault 'Mech (variant pictured...)
“Nah, an Awesome has more PPCs.” I reply.
“Heh, you’re right.” agrees Yang, “Still, this is a real beauty. I can see why you chose her.”
“Honestly, I chose to get a Royal Atlas because I wanted an upgrade without having to learn how to use a new ‘Mech.” I tell him, “Still the AS7-D-HT is an excellent ‘Mech, especially when compared to the AS7-D. More heat-sinking, more firepower and more of its punch is long-ranged.”
“Sounds like a solid package so of course you want to change it up.” says Yang with a grin.
“Of course.” I reply, returning the grin, “But seriously, I want to customize it to fit my needs better. I’m not the greatest of MechWarriors and I want to compensate for that.”
“Your fancy space magic isn’t good enough for you, boss?” inquires Yang.
“No, it is not.” I answer, “I don’t understand how it works and therefore I cannot trust it to be reliable, not like a ‘Mech that I’ve worked on or had someone I trust work on it.”
“Alright, I feel you, boss.” says Yang before nodding towards the Atlas II, “Got anything in mind? Planning to pull that heavy autocannon out of your Atlas and swap out the assault autocannon in this one for it?”
“No, I was thinking of replacing it with a Gauss Rifle.” I answer, “We pulled a lot of them out of Castle Nautilus and making replacement ammo is pretty easy as it is simple enough to be done by any industrialized world.”
“Gauss Rifle?” repeats Yang, “Remind me again, boss, how does that compare to the assault autocannon already in your new ride?”
“A ton heavier.” I answer, “but its ammo tonnage is akin to a heavy autocannon than an assault one.”
“Planning to drop a ton of ammo?” inquires Yang, “Or are you looking to save weight elsewhere?”
“Elsewhere.” I answer as I pull out my noteputer and hand it over to the Capellan man, “I have some notes. I haven’t worked out the details of how to get it all done, but it should all be feasible from what I’ve seen of the various technical specs.”
“Reworking the heat sink system.” says Yang as he begins to look over my preliminary design, “Replacing the LosTech large laser in each arm with a pair of equally LosTech medium pulse lasers. I’m fairly certain that won’t reduce heat. It definitely reduces range and weight while it increases damage output. Upgrading the missile launchers-wait, what is that? And in the other torso as well? Why do you want all of these Targeting-Tracking Systems for?”
“I am a terrible shot and I want to compensate for that.” I tell him, “We found a few high-end TTS systems and I’ve decided to take advantage of that.”
“You’ve got one for every weapon system.” says Yang, shaking his head, “That’s a tenth of the ‘Mech’s weight in targeting systems.”
“Not quite that bad, just nine tons.” I say, “And it isn’t like I have spare space to use that tonnage elsewhere.”
“No, you don’t.” concedes Yang as he goes back to reviewing my notes, “Ammo in the legs?”
“Not enough room to keep them in the torso when you add the targeting systems.” I explain, “I can’t fit a second double heat sink in the leg so I figured why not stick some of the ammo down there. It shouldn’t be too hard to build the feeder.”
“Yeah, we can get the ammo feeder built up from the legs.” agrees Yang, “We’re already taking apart the torso to pieces already so reworking the feeders is just a few hours work on top of that. What else is there…ah, removing one of the central torso lasers to make room for a gunned up gyro?”
“The extra balance would be useful to any MechWarrior and I really don’t need a sixth medium pulse laser.” I reply, “Not when I would need to remove something else to free up the weight for it.”
“You’re the boss and the pilot.” says Yang, agreeing easily with a shrug, “When do you want me to get started?”
“As soon as feasible.” I answer, “Ideally, I would like to see the work finished by the time we get back to Coromodir, but I understand that it will depend on how quickly we get back.”
“Speaking of which, how long will the return trip take?” inquires Yang.
“It depends on how many JumpShips we can swap between.” I tell him, “We only need to worry about a single docking collar so we can switch between ships as needed, but this far out in the Periphery, sometimes there isn’t another JumpShip around or if there is one, it usually needs a few more days of charging. The trip back could be as short as fifteen days or more than twice that depending on how lucky we get.”
“Well, we won’t be getting this refit done in a couple of weeks.” says Yang, “Maybe if we have over a month, but a couple of weeks? No way, boss.”
“Yeah, I understand.” I say, “I’m a MechTech too and I don’t expect miracles even if I can sometimes deliver them.”
“Getting your hands on dozens of sweet SLDF Royal ‘Mechs is definitely a miracle in my books.” says Yang as he gazes at the Atlas II in front of us again.
“Just keep in mind that of the two battalions we found, we are only allowed to keep twenty-eight of them.” I warn him, “The rest are being split up between the other parties involved. Similar deal with the rest of the loot.”
“A shame, but I guess it isn’t that much different than salvage right.” replies Yang.
“No, it isn’t.” I agree and I give my Royal Atlas one last look for now, “If that is all, I have a date with destiny to attend.”
A Date with Destiny[]
“A date with destiny.” says Belinda from the doorway that she is leaning against, “Should I be jealous?”
“You know that we aren’t dating, right?” I point out as I look up from my work.
“We aren’t dating yet.” replies Belinda with a grin, emphasizing that last word, “Now should I be concerned that you’ve shown me up for an exoskeleton?”
“An exoskeleton?” I repeat before letting out a bit of laughter at the understatement, “Belinda, this is a Nighthawk, the pinnacle of exoskeleton technology. True power armor as in an armored and combat-effective exoskeleton. Only the Terran Hegemony reached this height. And that is the Terran Hegemony not the Star League as the Camerons violently shut down any rival research programs. Only their elite blackops got to use these until now.”
“So what were they doing in Castle Nautilus then?” inquires Belinda.
“Because of the top secret research being done there needed protecting would be my guess.” I answer, “The garrison wasn’t just SLDF, it was Royal Command and given what Lord Karosas found of their research on the memory core, I completely understand why the Terran Hegemony wanted Nighthawks as part of the garrison. These things would slaughter any infantry teams that got into the base, even other special forces.”
“They certainly sound nifty.” says Belinda, “So can you break down what makes them so great in laywoman terms for me?”
“Well, the first thing is the armor.” I answer, “It isn’t like standard armor even if it is just as good at providing protection. It is stealth armor that works similar to-no, it works like a combination of standard armor and sneak suits, providing the protection of the former combined with the stealth capabilities of the latter.”
“Hence why it is called stealth armor.” notes Belinda.
“Right.” I say, “Anyway, it doesn’t provide much protection against ‘Mech scale weapons, but it can withstand a burst or two from a ‘Mech scale machine gun and…well, I don’t know about flamers. It might protect the user or the wearer could be cooked alive inside the suit. It won’t stand up to small lasers or anything more powerful, but it is basically impervious to small arms. Basically infantry that operates on the same scale as a ‘Mech, but still able to do infantry stuff so it can slaughter regular infantry and not die instantly against ‘Mechs.”
“Regular infantry doesn’t die instantly against ‘Mechs.” points out Belinda before pausing, “Well, not unless they are particularly stupid. Trust me, I’ve fought against infantry on occasion.”
“Does that happen often?” I inquire.
“Not really, at least not in our part of space.” answers Belinda, “It is considered poor form to attack infantry in a ‘Mech unless they’ve attacked you first. That doesn’t stop all of them, but most of the time, infantry just doesn’t pick a fight with a ‘Mech. That said, that isn’t universal. Pirates don’t generally give a damn about acting proper and I’ve heard stories about how bad things get on the Drac border. Anyway, back to your fancy exoskeleton and what makes it so great.”
“It has jump jets built into it that let them move like jump infantry.” I say, “It also has this cool ECM suite built into it, basically a stripped down Guardian ECM suite that according to the technical manuals we recovered, works the same as the larger version except it has a coverage of fifteen metres rather than a hundred and eighty. And that is before we get to the best part.”
“And what is the best part?” asks Belinda indulgently with a slight roll of her eyes.
“The myomer layout!” I exclaim before realizing that I should probably keep this to myself.
The biggest deal from the Nighthawk has to be the myomer layout and its jump jet integration. At least from the perspective of trying to reverse engineer it as I have no doubt that someone using it on the field may consider the stealth armor and ECM to be the superior aspects.
But for me? For me, the myomer is the biggest aspect of the Nighthawk because I had figured out how they worked. And not only that, I have some idea of how to replicate them with existing exoskeleton technology. And let me tell you, that is a big deal.
It isn’t a particularly revolutionary technology and modern exoskeletons still make use of myomer. In fact, every exoskeleton has myomer in it for movement, making extensive use of it.
What the Star League-no, what the Terran Hegemony has done is refined both of those technologies and made them more efficient. Less in the way of incorporating new things into them and more by coming up with a more efficient layout for both. And boy did they come up with a more efficient layout for the myomer.
The biggest issue with myomer in exoskeletons is the relatively short length of it combined with the relative weakness of its internal structure. BattleMechs have big, long limbs that can support large lengths of myomer that are powered by mighty fusion engines. Longer myomers combined with more electricity means more movement which is why more powerful engines are able to move ‘Mechs faster despite the ‘Mech having the same amount of myomers.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said of exoskeletons. Their batteries can’t come close to outputting the same amount of power as a fusion engine combined with the myomers being too short to get enough of a charge to really get moving. You can get some movement with the myomers of an exoskeleton, but it isn’t any faster than a human and it is too ungainly and cumbersome for the battlefield.
The Terran Hegemony might not have made a breakthrough on the battery output, but they certainly solved the issue of the myomers being too short. And honestly, it was quite ingenious of them and the elegant solution is simple enough that I’m shocked that nobody thought of it before.
Instead of trying to copy the musculature of a human being, the Terran Hegemony just went from end to end on each limb. Rather than going from ankle to knee and then from the knee to the hip, the Nighthawk just goes straight from the ankle all the way up to the hip. The length of the myomer is effectively doubled by not stopping at the mid joint of the limb without using any additional myomer.
Absolutely ingenious and it is simple enough that I can’t risk another trained professional taking a look at a Nighthawk before I finish filing my patent. I don’t know how well reality will conform to the life of Jackson Watt and China Shop, but I know enough about exoskeletons to see how much of a game changer the new and improved myomer setup is. It was certainly the major breakthrough in canon that made battle armor effective and I want that for myself, for the Aurigan Coalition.
The Taurians used it to jump start their economy in China Shop and I want to do the same for the Aurigan Coalition if I could. Getting a patent on the myomer layout and then licensing out is the key. It is the key for making exoskeleton movement graceful enough to be practical for combat and honestly, I’m not sure how nobody figured it out before now.
No, I do know. The Terran Hegemony actively shut down any attempts at figuring this out to keep their technological monopoly. Then presumably any further attempts got lost due to the technological degradation of the Succession Wars as people stopped trying to innovate new things and focused on keeping what they already had working.
Unfortunately, as great as it is, the myomer setup isn’t the only thing needed for battle armor. You need armor to put on the exoskeleton to make it proper power armor as the toughness granted by the armor is what makes it special.
“Elizabeth?” inquires Belinda, snapping me out of my thoughts and back to reality.
“Sorry about that.” I say sheepishly, “Where was I?”
“You mentioned the myomer layout and then trailed off.” says Belinda.
“Oh right, please forget I said anything about that.” I reply, “It is too easy to figure out and too game changing.”
“Is that why you banned anyone from looking at the Nighthawks?” inquires Belinda before smirking as she adds, “And then ignored your own ruling to break one out of storage so you can take a thorough inspection of it?”
“To be blunt, yes, it is.” I answer, “It is a big deal and I want it to be my big deal so I’m keeping it a secret until I act upon it.”
“I get that.” says Belinda, “Alright, I can live with that. You’re signing my paycheck and you’re giving me a Royal Highlander to pilot so I can help you keep a secret.”
“Thanks, Belinda.” I say, “I don’t need to keep it secret for long, just long enough to patent it so I can license it out to rake in the C-Bills.”
“Do you really think it will rake in the C-Bills?” inquires Belinda, sounding genuinely intrigued.
“I do.” I confirm, “As I said, it is a simple fix and it is more to do with how the myomer is used rather than using more of it or something new. It can boost civilian exoskeletons and once someone figures out how to stick armor on an exoskeleton, it will allow for the creation of combat-effective power armor. And that is something that the Aurigan Coalition can profit from, either from direct sales or licensing it out.”
“It sounds like you have it all lined up.” comments Belinda.
“I wish I did.” I say, my tone souring as I think about the parts I haven’t figured out yet, “The biggest catch is the armor. I got everything sorted out except for the armor. I have the myomer, the structure, the electronics and everything else, but it won’t be proper armor without some BAR 10 armor to protect the wearer.”
“Got any plans to deal with that?” asks Belinda.
“Just patent the myomer layout now and then figure out the solution to the armor problem later.” I answer, “I have some money, technical specs for ferro-aluminium along with physical examples of both ferro-fibrous armor and the Nighthawk’s stealth armor. I figured I could buy out some local armor production on Coromodir or set up my own if I really had to. I have some connections from my time in college that I can call upon. Not friends, but people who I know to be competent and knowledgeable and vice versa in regards to myself. And if I can’t find the right people, I can try speaking with Lord Karosas.”
“Lord Karosas.” repeats Belinda, “I didn’t know he did exoskeletons.”
“Less exoskeletons and more that House Karosas is the biggest sponsor of learning in the Aurigan Coalition.” I explain, “They are behind the majority of academic institutions in the Reach, including the one I went to. If there are people in the Coalition who can help me out, House Karosas will know them.”
“Sounds like you’ve got all of your ducks in a row.” says Belinda, “Looking for an investor?”
“Not really, but I’m willing to welcome one.” I answer as I give her a look, “What do you have in mind?”
“I am,well, was a highly in-demand MechWarrior who was good enough to charge high rates.” says Belinda, “I’ve made more than my fair share of C-Bills and other currencies over the years and I haven’t left them lying about. I kept some for emergencies, but similar to yourself, I’ve been investing my paychecks to get some more stable income outside the mercenary business. I’m not as rich as you or drawing in the same amount of income, but my investments are making me enough income to be comparable to what the lower ranking nobility draws in.”
“Okay, but how does this involve you wanting to invest in me?” I ask.
“You know what you’re doing and have proven yourself to be both reliable and stable.” explains Belinda with a shrug, “I don’t understand the technical side of things, but you certainly know what you’re talking about and you have a very good track record. So whatever it is that you’re planning, I want in and I’m willing to back you up with my C-Bills.”
“Alright then.” I say, “It will need to wait until we get back to Coromodir.”
“Excellent, maybe we can discuss it at our date.” replies Belinda with a smirk.
“The date I haven’t agreed to?” I retort.
“The date you haven’t agreed to yet.” Belinda shoots back before walking off with a laugh.
I shake my head before getting back to work on trying to figure out as much as I can of the Nighthawk without taking it apart.
Author's Chapter Notes[]
- Word from the Author
- So I wasn’t originally going to have Elizabeth figuring out the myomer secret from the Nighthawk because I didn’t think that lined up in canon. Except I looked at the info from canon and it turns out that both the Combine and FedCom only got access to Nighthawks after the Clan Invasion and they already got to look at the Elementals.
Only ComStar got their hands on Nighthawks before making their own battle armor and there was over a century between the production of the Tornado and the Exodus. Meanwhile there was a version of the Nighthawk that could achieve a ground speed of 3 so I’m going with the idea that ComStar lost their Nighthawks prior to making the Tornado and made the latter of their old notes of the former, which didn’t include the different myomer layout.
Anyway, giving Elizabeth the myomer layout is something I want to do since canon allows for it to make sense. It doesn’t mean that she’ll be making Yellowjackets VTOLs or any other kind of battle armor since unlike Watt, she doesn’t know how to make armor for battle armor yet and Castle Nautilus didn’t include that.
Oh yeah, I should probably talk about Elizabeth’s new mech as well. She is going for an Atlas II because she is already familiar with the controls of an Atlas and doesn’t have time to learn the controls of another mech if she doesn’t have to. Swapping the AC/20 for a Gauss Rifle because those things are called and then going for medium pulse lasers for the ER lasers for various reasons.