68

Outreach

Harlech City

Early 3051

Office of Colonel Natasha Kerensky

Natasha Kerensky and Elizabeth Nichole were in a comfortable looking sofa, sampling the contents of the well equipped whiskey stock of Natasha.

'So, Nichole, how is it to train the Reachers?'

'That depends, Natasha. The former Royal Guards, now the Reach Guards, are a standard battalion of moderately competent fanatics, but lacking in imagination and with standard equipment. They take the punishment and might one day improve'.

'And the little Prince's pet troops? Are they a decent adversary?'

'The Revenants? God, they are a nightmare. They have hardware you don't find in other forces, Battle Armor, almost a battalion of these buggers, Fighters armed with AAM and AShM variants of Arrow IV missiles, a lot of EW equipment and other things that nobody has. And they are starting to know how to use them.'

'Well, everyone is starting to produce these new toys, it is just a matter of time before we also get some. I'm confident that you will find a way to overcome these toys.'

'Well, while everybody is indeed starting production of these, and the key word is starting, the Revenants have already plenty of them and are developing a doctrine to use them and they have used us to test it and train their personnel. They also have another variant of the Arrow IV, the FASCAM one, that deploy minefields on demand. Real nasty, until now I have see that one at 'home'. On top of that, they also have a new arty smoke shell. This one also messes with IR, Radar and Lidar. Some of my techs think they use a mix of hot, persistent particles, magnetic ones and a new type of aerosol with a real impact on Lidar systems. They successfully mixed all these in a single warhead and when fired in numbers, they turn your forces almost blind. They like to use them just before launching an ambush or to stop a rush.

'I see I need to arrange some exercises against them, I always liked a challenge. Something more to report?'

'The troubles begin in space, with these heavy Fighters loaded with their special missiles, they can defeat many invaders there. After that, they have these armed satellites and SDS lite forts with Naval Lasers. I'm telling you, only a force with WarShip support could invade a world like that. And that is just the beginning.'

'Oh? Tell me more.' said Natasha refilling the cups.

'The Revenants have a bigger than normal Aerospace Fighter component. All, even the light ones are armed with these dammed missiles. On top of that, in the atmosphere, they use some modified old cargo planes, with DropShips like sensors and comms, that give them better sensor range and allow for better coordination of the Fighters. Normally they are very fragile, but you can't get to them. If you try, you end in a trap against Heavy ASF with plenty of these triple dammed missiles. I only was able to win against them a few times.'

'New toys and new doctrine. I see the Little Prince has been busy.' commented Natasha.

'Don't tell me. As soon as they achieve air domination, they deploy high altitude – out of the range of ground weapons – high endurance drones, with passive sensors, IR and neutrino detectors my techs speculate so that they can detect our forces anywhere.'

'Have you tried scenarios without them having air domination?' asked Natasha after a bit.

'Yes, they are eager to try these also. No good. It is slightly better, because they don't deploy these radars, but our own aerospace forces couldn't do much as they deploy a lot of Leclercs in the flak configuration supported by Valis with SAMs. My aerospace forces hates the Revenants by now. They are trounced most of the time.' said Nichole with a melancholic air.

'And other than the these bad news, what new surprises do they have in stock?' asked Natasha, after emptying the cup and with an interested look.

'Let me see… They love arty. Between these smoke shells and minefields on demand, they can stop any assault very fast. Trying to destroy it is complicated as it is very mobile and always protected by strong forces. They like to use the new Leclerc variants for that, one that is equipped with a Gauss Rifle and can do nasty things to the Light 'Mechs sent against the Arty. Somehow, they also have a new heavy camo net, that can help conceal the tanks way better than the normal ones.' said Nichole, taking the bottle and refilling her cup.

'And on the 'Mechs side? Also bad news?'

'Apart from the fact that they have a lot of them equipped with Beagle or Guardian ECM units, and that they most of the time refuse decisive battles, not so much. The Prince as you like to call him, prefer to send fast units to deal with our depots and kill us with a thousand cuts strategy. He has modified some of the Maultier hovers to fast carry battle-armor, using them to execute said raids to destroy our depots. The silver lining is that they are just starting using that new doctrine and toys, so, we got them several times because of failed coordination, wrong sense of timing everything that happens when you are not yet proficient in a job.'

'Ouch.' said Natasha with a sympathetic look 'and how did the Arano-Bassot behave on the battlefield?'

'Only the daughter fought. Kamea is busy ruling the Province, and Jean-Luc is more in the HQ, coordinating his brainchild. But I have seen both in the range and they are good, very good in fact. The young one is not bad for her age and experience, piloting one of these new Toro 'Mechs they started to deploy which is basically an advanced Wolfhound with jump-jets. By the way, my 'MechWarriors want to get some of these.'

'What I think is strange, is that they are showing you, well us, so much new hardware and their new doctrines. Normally these are state secrets, not show in front of mercenaries, much less ones that are resident in another nation.'

'Oh, the Prince, wants us to know his ideas, he calls them Air-Land Battle 3050 and he want your and Jaime's input. In fact, he asked to know what you both think about the results if they were to be used against forces from Home.' looking intensely at Natasha, Nichole continued 'I think that the Prince considers a serious possibility that an invasion will take place in the near future.'

'So, he knows something and is preparing. That makes sense in a way. The Revenants are gearing to a very different kind of warfare and we need to adapt or be left behind.' Said Natasha refilling her cup again. 'Any bright-side on that depressing report, Nichole?'

'Some. For starters, we are a better unit than the Revenants, if you remove the fancy toys and novel doctrine. They are still adjusting / learning to implement it and several times it failed. It is also very expensive to implement and much of that demand that they obtain early air supremacy. My suggestion is that we invest in EW and enlarge our aerospace arm. We also need to advance with our Battle Armor program faster.'

Wolfnet analysis and conclusions – no recommendations at this time

Technologies that started to be produced by several nations.

Battle-armor

AAM Arrow IV

SAM Arrow IV

Technology / designs used by Comstar / Terra / WoB / Taurian Concordat

PA(L)

Technology / designs only used by the TDF / Revenants - The Revenants because of their close association with VMI get almost all the Concordat tech early on

AWACS - cargo plane with DropShips class sensors and comms suit. It is not a factory made conversion, more a field modification, probably made by the V4RU VMI department. Only one observed.

Drones - long endurance not manned drones that fly at altitudes higher than any 'Mech weapon can reach with IR and Neutrino passive sensors. Factory made, only 3 observed. Probably prototypes / first production run for field test. Numbers show not enough for a continuous field survey.

Heavy / advanced camo net - similar to late SLDF Royal models, but apparently a bit more advanced.

FASCAM - minefields deployed by arty / Arrow IV.

Advanced 'smoke' shells - smoke shells with hot particles + magnetic particles and a mix of improved aerosol that do a mess to any laser system (Lidar, rangefinder, or other)

Maultier BA - modified Maultier hover transport modified to move Battle Armours Factory made models.

AShM Arrow IV - very good to destroy DropShips, outside the range of said DropShips weapons.

While other nations use passive deployed sensors, the Revenants use more and more advanced ones.

Note – While the Revenants are integrated in the TDF after the merging of the Aurigan Reach with the Taurian Concordat, they still have a considerable margin of independence.

Wolfnet considers unusual that the Revenants show so much new hardware and doctrine to the Wolf's Dragoons. It seems that for unknown reason, the decision makers from the Taurian side or the Arano-Bassot regents want this knowledge and their capabilities to be known and understood by us.