To: Nova Actual
Subject: The Lem Rackmount
Date: September 18, 3290
General --
Per your request, I am attaching this letter as an addendum to the formal report on our expedition to Lem. The report mentions a single intact rackmount, found in the ruins of Lem's primary military academy. Obviously, the passage of two or three centuries has not been kind to it; Harcourt says we might never be able to recover some of the data. As of this moment, here is what we have.
- Item 1: A pre-recorded training lecture for cadets going into the officer corps. Things must have been getting pretty bad if they were cramming kids into mechs before they had even finished their classes. A partial transcript follows.
"At ease, cadets. Be seated. Welcome to 'Fundamentals of Operational Strategy'. I'd like to start out by dispelling a particularly foolish rumor -- this is not a TACTICS class. You will not be comparing a Proto Beam's rate-of-fire to that of an S2A launcher; we will not be discussing formations and maneuvers; arguments about the relative superiority of night-fighting versus daytime actions are completely irrelevant here. None of that is STRATEGY.
For the past 700 years, the essence of strategy has been the ability to take and hold Gateways. As you can see on the syllabus, most of this course will be concerned with that aspect of strategy. Your future courses will cover logistics, campaign morale, effective coalitions, the proper use of orbital bombardment, and military intelligence.
That last subject, however, touches on my first lesson. It's a lesson that I myself -- and hundreds of other officers -- learned at great cost in the First Galactic War. Before you start drawing up plans to attack or defend a Gateway, you MUST scout out what's on the other side. I won't belabor the point with horror stories about what happens when you don't. That's what your Military History instructor is for. But you will not, repeat NOT, graduate this course without an understanding of the need for basic reconnaissance.
In theory, of course, skirmish-weight Mecha are ideal for this job, such as our own Gemini-class. They are armed, and they already possess a niode matrix. However, since there is a high likelihood of encountering a well-entrenched enemy on the other side, you must regard your recon force as expendable. I recommend deploying an unmanned probe. Obviously this means you will have to use some of your niode stockpile to assemble a shipping pallet, and you probably won't get those niodes back. But you have to think of it as an investment rather than a sacrifice. Resist the urge to...
[DATA CORRUPTION ERROR]
...besides skirmishing. I have already referred to their potential as reconnaissance vehicles. They are also ideal for defending Gateways and urban terrain. As you have no doubt realized by now, skirmish Mecha are not only smaller than assault Mecha, but less expensive and more numerous as well. It is therefore easier to build a large squadron, which can apply an overwhelming volume of firepower to a single target -- that is, an enemy which has just appeared in your Gateway. They also tend to be faster and more maneuverable than assault Mecha, again because of their lighter mass, which allows them to easily navigate city streets, or move quickly between the Gateways in a Gateway cluster.
As you know, assault-weight Mecha are the opposite of skirmish Mecha in every way. Heavy, sluggish, expensive. But they can carry multiple weapon systems, so their versatility can make up for their faults in certain situations. More importantly, they are better armored, an advantage you can supplement by installing torso plating or a shielding device. This makes them ideal for attacking an enemy Gateway. Your point-man takes the brunt of enemy fire in an assault Mecha, buying time for the rest of your squadron to arrive. If you somehow find yourself with a surplus of niodes and assault Mecha --
[Laughter from the audience.]
-- Thank you, cadets, now AT EASE. Outstanding. To continue. In that unlikely situation, you may consider using the 1-kiloton Mark 54 Atomic Demolition Munition. A.K.A., the handheld nuke. Only the very heaviest assault Mecha, in the 35 to 55 ton range, are capable of installing this device -- and each one must be permanently connected to five dedicated niodes, or else...
[DATA CORRUPTION ERROR]
...Obviously, only pilots with considerable experience in last-second ejections are suitable. Current combat doctrine dictates that only the squadron's point-man should carry a handheld nuke...
[DATA CORRUPTION ERROR]
...the only way a Gateway cluster can be irradiated. For example, the military bases surrounding it are frequently powered by fusion reactors, and small fission reactors of pebble-bed design are relatively common among large assault Mecha, including our own Taurus-class. If they should be destroyed, whether accidentally or deliberately, several thousand square meters will be covered in nuclear waste. Mecha can shrug this off, but the infantry platoons and civilian work crews who will follow them cannot. In tomorrow's lesson, we will review squadron-level procedures for requesting a decontamination team.
ATTENTION! Dismissed!"
- Item 2: A file labeled "Combat Vehicle Recognition Guide". Most of the illustrations are lost, along with all of the text, but Harcourt was able to recover five pictures.
- Item 2a: Artist's rendering of a planetary surface, with bare black soil in the foreground; mountains and a city skyline in the background. The sky is overcast, with peculiar red clouds; stars and a large moon are visible through the clouds. A light mech, painted in red, takes up the left- and center-foreground. Like the mechs in Items 2b through 2e, it does not correspond to any known mech design. Its legs and feet are unarmored, exposing the internal mechanisms. A rotary missile launcher is mounted on each shoulder, and some kind of energy weapon is mounted on the left arm, almost certainly a variant of what we now call the "Proto Beam". The right arm has a three-fingered hand. In front of the mech, and on the right side of the picture, a lightly armored infantryman is cradling some kind of projectile weapon, possibly a shotgun or sniper rifle. There is a unit insignia on his right shoulder pad, a red shield with a diagonal yellow bar.
- Item 2b: Digital photograph of a rainy street. Both the pavement and the buildings are of pre-Digital Age design. A light vehicle with four wheels takes up the center-foreground, identifiable as a modern Bantam-class utility vehicle. Behind it are two light mechs, equipped with what looks like a dual cockpit and the intakes for jet engines. (Harcourt believes these are an early form of jump-jet, like the improvised versions we use today; Plunkett claims they are simply turbine IC engines.) All three vehicles are painted blue. In my opinion, the mechs depicted here are the "Gemini-class" mentioned in Item 1.
- Item 2c: Digital photograph of an underpass, which opens out onto a sunny but ruined street. The buildings are constructed in a style reminiscent of the First Digital Dark Age, and all the signposts are in English. Three infantrymen, in full powered armor, are taking shelter within the underpass. They are wielding what appear to be projectile-firing assault rifles, of a type popular in the First Digital Dark Age. A light mech, of the same type as shown in Item 2b, is firing on them with chin-mounted cannons. The mech could be painted in the same shade of blue as the mechs in Item 2b, but the local sun is extremely bright (an "F-type main-sequence subgiant", according to Plunkett) and contrast washes out most of the background colors.
- Item 2d: Digital photograph of a large mech -- probably equivalent to a modern medium or heavy mech -- standing on concrete and viewed from above. It is equipped with a single Gatling-style weapon on each arm, presumably the precursor to our "Dual Gatlings", and missile racks are visible on either side of the cockpit. The word "ZIDSON" or "ZIOSON" is partially visible above the cockpit, along with the words "Assault Mecha".
Item 2e: Another digital photograph of the mech shown in Item 2d, this time in three-quarters profile. The mech's unusual arm structure is clearly visible here, more like a mobile construction crane than a proper mech.
Item 3: A map of Lem's capital city, from when the planet was inhabited. It must have been made before the Battle of Lem, since what it calls the "Outer Commercial District" is now entirely filled with ruined pillboxes and bunkers, and no ballistic missile installations are shown near the spaceport.
Item 4: A text file labeled "Cyberiad". Half the text is missing -- including the author's name and the date of publication -- but it appears to be a work of fiction from Old Earth, which would obviously place it somewhere in the First Digital Dark Age. Why a military-issue rackmount would devote even one kilobyte of space to an ancient fairy-tale is beyond me. Maybe the Lemnites viewed it as some kind of holy scripture.
Plunkett claims he knows a few Illyrian research colonies that might pay a high price for the data on this rackmount, once Harcourt is finished with it. I strongly recommend seeking those colonies out. Nova's Irregulars are unlikely to turn any kind of profit from the rusted ferronite and smashed-up Proto Beams we salvaged from Lem.
Pulsar out.
Submitted by Damien Valentine (313m3n7a1, Kongregate player) #885659