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Chapter 5 - The Broken Commonwealth[]
Spider Moon Complex
Boojum 3, Kowloon System
Coventry Providence, Lyran Commonwealth
July, 3145
"...second yard over Snark is activated." Silverman's reports were clear, concise, and written in Viet-Hebrew pidgin, using indirect terms for codes.
Sharon knew what it meant though-the half-dozen Cutters that had managed to avoid being scrapped were being 'freshened', the Rockjack community had come through once again, this time with enough veteran crew to man the ships.
Sort-of veteran, at least. Navigators and able spacemen to crew the core of Kowloon's fleet.
She signed off on requisition forms that had nothing but indirect stock numbers and blank text. The requisitions would be filled by Cu'ong's people.
Turning to the Ground forces, well...
It had proven harder to conceal ground assets, but not impossible. The repair and refit reports showed the Minsky's Folly cache, Giap Island, Hong Island, and Tom Dooleyland caches were still intact, the machinery stored at those sites was in decent repair and would be combat ready in a few more weeks. Some of it was hopelessly dated by front-line standards nationally, but even dated designs could be used effectively with sufficient ammunition and properly trained and led crew.
Most of the gear were based on Jihad Era refits of the Patton Heavy Tanks design-Kowloon's local version retaining the fusion engine and cannon main armament, though the APC derivative used surplus, Succession Wars Era PPC's in the main gun role.
Elizabeth had 'miscounted' nearly three regiments put to stockpile-a short Division's worth. The difficulty here would be crewmen for the vehicles and soldiers. Fifty years of restrictions meant a smaller percentage of veterans to serve in the ground arm, and aside from the tracks and the Fennec wheeled scouts, most of the rest of the forces were going to be going to war in machines designed in the 29th century.
It couldn't be helped, just as it couldn't be helped that there was a shortage of men trained to use Battlesuits, and a shortage of modern battle armored suits to put them in-both had been requisitioned away after the war was over, and then production had been stripped and moved to Gibbs to centralize production and 'honor' the disarmament treaties.
Treaties that Sharon was now intent on single-handedly violating like a drunken prom-date in the Oyster Street of New Saigon.
It would take time. Time that was still short. Time that was running out.
Kowloon's chronic shortage of Mechwarriors and Battlemechs had let her slip under the radar for the first ten years of her time as Duchess, and she'd managed to sneak enough through training and their five year service period to have a full Battalion, just as she'd managed to hide possession of a battalion of 'mechs from LCAF inspectors. Three types were in stock and she had them in decent quantities-though she lacked men to fill the seats.
The Enfield, Blackhawk-KU OmniMech, and the fire support assault, the Longbow. Not the most advanced configuration for any of them, but she had them, and she had people who could USE them...and spare parts to keep them going while the production lines were spun up.
Best of all, like with the tanks, the central government didn't know how many she had, because they were produced as spare parts on duplicate tooling decades ago. Sharon signed the conscription order for ground forces, and moved on.
Aviation.
The SB-27s Aerospace Fighters were still in stock, in quantity. The SL-19KS Slayer models were also on deck, being an 'export' version built under an expired license, it hadn't been hard to modify the existing production to generate an 'executive small craft' stripped of armament and featuring accommodation for several people in the hulls, so the production line at Ia Drang had not been completely idled, and best of all, because it was officially a 'civilian' craft, the lines could be retooled in a matter of days (and were) to produce the Jihad-era combat aerospace fighter version, which removed the civilian cabin and re-filled it with an LBX-10 autocannon, four Medium Lasers, an ECM system, TAG, and an XL engine, while replacing the 'civilian grade re-entry shielding' with proper Ferro-Aluminium armoring.
Flight training would also be one of the few non-issues relative to the rest. Between Rockjack Pilots coming to the colors and the broad general aviation usage in Ia Drang and the Khe Sanh regions, she could actually put enough asses in training seats or active roles to have a working Aerospace arm.
"Bright sides, bright sides.." she muttered. The Commonwealth had better fighters already in-hand, so there hadn't been nearly the attrition-through-requisition that the armored vehicles and suit units had taken.
"Time...give me time..." she muttered to no one