ALR (ATwT) Chpt 14

==A Legacy Reforged (ATwT) - Chapter 14 ==
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===Challenges of Upkeep===
Order of Sortek FieldbaseMobile Maintenance Cradle
Delacambre, Draconis March 
Federated Suns, Periphery
14th November, 3119
There were not many systems in House Davion this deep into the periphery, located deep within the outback of the Draconis March the system of Delacambre was in an area of space between territory claimed by the Snow Ravens and Nova Cats, but not near either’s border. Due to this remoteness and lack of heavy industry the world had no line defense units and instead was defended by a locally funded and equipped militia and whatever units happened to be passing through. Today, the Order of Sortek Detached Lance was on the world, officially the lance of three Mechs had only passed through to resupply with food and munitions but they had also been training with the local militia sharing some of their teachings and training. When a pirate force had arrived in system Leftenant Laure Bieganski, the lance’s commander, had volunteered their assistance immediately.
In battle against the pirate force the three front-line BattleMechs fought like they were twice as numerous and had helped repel the pirate force after several hours of fighting. While the lance was not a mercenary formation, the Order of Sortek were officially members of the AFFS, the Governor of the world had decided to award the Order with a salvaged BattleMech which now was held up by the maintenance cradle.
“What do we have? Tech Gaubert” Leftenant Bieganski asked the tech who was on the maintenance cradle, looking at the BattleMech she knew what she thought it was it looked like a Rifleman but there was something off and it was too heavy.
“Believe it or not Leftenant this is eighty tons of Rifleman II. Or it was once upon a time.”
“A Rifleman II?”
“She’s SLDF, Leftenant, through and through to the structure there’s numbers on this Mech that tells us she was originally built in 2773.” Brigitte Gaubert explained as they looked at the BattleMech Bieganski had not heard of the design. In her universe the Rifleman was still a line BattleMech of the Terran Supremacy and it had been upgraded throughout the years but there was no successor design. 
“That Mech’s almost is almost three hundred and fifty years old?” She asked looking at the BattleMech still in shock “they were built to last.” She whispered
“Oh, they were at that, Leftenant. The problem is the SLDF abandoned this beast probably during the Reunification War. Whoever found it did not know how to repair Endo Steel, they didn’t have a spare extra-light so it has a smaller standard fusion engine and they didn’t have LB-X autocannons.” The tech explained reaching over to point at the Mech’s chest and arms she could see some patchwork repairs and bits that looked like they did not fit.
“So, we have some sort of hybrid?” Bieganski groaned she hated FrankenMechs when techs took parts of one Mech and mated them with another to make one complete BattleMech, they were always very unpredictable.
“Sort of Leftenant” Gaubert admitted “but whoever did it is a fricken genius.” She admired “They somehow mated standard structure to the Endo creating an Endo-Composite, I don’t understand how they did it.” She said “I’d guess they took the other structure from an Awesome, you can see it around the shoulders and upper chest mainly but she’s been reinforced throughout” she said. “It is not nearly as strong to as your normal structure but still lighter. You can see it around the upper torso, they probably made the change when they ripped the old engine out.” It hit Laure Bueganski like someone had hit her, there were no extensions to the torso instead the armor curved downwards towards the torso mounted lasers You’ve got standard autocannons replacing the LB-Xs, two medium lasers in the torso and someone’s bolted a small laser to the outside of one of the autocannons. Honestly, I’d rather take off the small laser and have more armor she’ll only carry twelve tons total once we get her repaired fully.” Bieganski nodded twelve tons of armour on an eighty-ton Mech was not a lot of
“Something you can do?”
“Not out here, boss, maybe if we ever land somewhere with a full Mechbay I could have a look at it, honestly this thing is carrying too much ammunition, hasn’t got any CASE and there is not nearly enough armor. The SLDF might have been able to field companies of the same Mech and could afford acceptable losses from under-armored Mechs but we cannot.” He said looking at the BattleMech they could not afford a Mech that was a walking bomb in their small unit.
“Agreed, but if you can get it operational, we can use her as an anchor. She’s slower than our other Mechs but heavier.” Bieganski said looking at the hulk “Mr Kelly, you think you can pilot her?” She asked looking up at one of Gaubert’s assistants. While acting as a tech now Scott Kelly, formerly a member of one of the Dragonlords regiments was trained as a MechWarrior first.
“Yes, sir Leftenant”
“Then once its operational you get to walk her to the DropShip, if you don’t drop it on its face, you’re a member of the lance.” Bieganski said offering the applicant a chance to prove his abilities in battle. The other applicant they had in the unit Charlie Johnston would get a chance in the future; they would just have to wait it was an unfortunate fact, she only had so many BattleMechs.
“Thank you, Leftenant, I’ll do my best”
“You don’t need your best today, Kelly, but I’ll expect that in battle.” The Order’s lance would not be staying on Delacambre, that was not the job of this lance, soon they would leave heading to another system bringing the teachings of their Order to more who did not know they needed it. The people her were nice and they appreciated the Order’s help but they were not people who would be flocking to their banner. The Order of Sortek’s journey passing the message and teachings of the Order of Sortek was having an impact on dozens of worlds and already sending thousands of new recruits to Marduk but not from Delacambre. While not everyone would join the Order of Sortek or even the Household Guards others were filling jobs in other areas on the world, in construction, farming, an off-world mining facility had been constructed and the Order of Sortek itself was building facilities on Marduk’s moon.
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Chapter 14