- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
You know, her being ROM would actually be an interesting twist.
Battletech - Also known as Trannytech
- Thread starter Frosted Snowflakes
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- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Nah, if she were a ROM agent her first "upgrade" for the Argo would have been packing every open space in the ship with timed plastic explosives.
- Joined
- Sep 7, 2019
Maybe she did. I mean, Muslim.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
Just to let you guys know that the trove link I posted early just got a huge chunk of new stuff uploaded into it.
- Joined
- Jun 29, 2021
Comstar is known to help others
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
We talked about it in the thread before: the Argo is a Star League-era relic packed to the gills with Star League tech. ComStar would Tripitz that thing faster than you can say "misjump" if they could get their hands on it.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
And the Tripitz-incident didn't even happen that far away from where HBS BT is set.
The Argo has an amazing design, but the lore around it is really incompatible with BT's lore. The flashpoint-campaign is even worse in that regard, if you can actually believe it.
It centres around a mysterious ship that popped up in the region and it sells strange new/rediscovered tech, which is a neat explanation for stuff like the LB-X ACs and so on... but it doesn't work with the lore at all. Gets way worse when we learn more about the ship, though.
Turns out it's a literal WarShip, most likely from the Minnesota Tribe. The ship is jump-capable yet small enough to land on a planet for maintenance work. I don't know yet what happens at the end of the campaign, but I assume it'll be obliterated. At least I hope so, cause the mere existence of this ship breaks lore in so many ways.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
Comstar was too busy freaking the shit out about the Federated Commonwealth Alliance Document being signed then some dirt poor periphery nation finding a ship designed for long colonization missions.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
Correct me if I'm wrong, but don't you gain information regarding the whereabouts of a Castle Brian from the Argo's computers at some point in the campaign? I mean, there's a mission where you raid said Castle Brian, but I am not sure where you got the info on its location from and I think it was the Argo...
If that's the case, ComStar would have a really good reason to blow up the Argo, since we all know how far they are willing to go to keep things LosTech.
Even just fearing there might be some spicy info on those harddrives would be enough to warrant at least some attention by a local branch of ComStar, even if it's just a sleeper agent working on a JumpShip that'll cause the Argo to have a bit of a KF-Jump mishap.
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
The only thing special really about the Argo is its Starleague era computer that had star charts to planets long lost.
Its no where near "Holy crap its a WarShip. Gotta blow it up" Kinda deal and honestly fricken Wolf's Dragoons had a mobile factory space station so priority I'm guessing.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
ComStar killed 12 million people to subdue the Helm Memory Core leak. I think it's reasonable to assume they'd make sure the Argo would be dealt with and they'd have no qualms of sacrificing an entire JumpShip by giving it false data to cause a misjump or outright blowing it (or just the Argo) up.
You say it "only" holds star charts like that's not a big deal. If those charts cover locations of SLDF bases, Castle Brians, memory cores or even just abondoned planets that haven't been accessed in centuries (with all the possible LosTech such as arms and armor, fabrication technologies, general data, spicey intel or Richard Cameron's Dogecoin wallet), that's plenty of reasons for ComStar to intervene. And here's the kicker: even if ComStar thought the Argo had none of that to offer, I think they'd still not run any risk and take care of the Argo one way or the other, just to be sure.
As I said: ComStar is willing to kill 12 million people just for the Helm Memory Core, surely they'd not hold back when it's only a DropShip and a couple of mercenaries. It's not like this is a huge operation that they'd have to pull off. Literally one sleeper agent throwing a spanner into a JumpShips works could do the trick. JumpShip pops out of one system with Argo attached, pops back in at some other place without the Argo. Space Engineer Hugh Mann, who operated that particular docking collar, is gone and can't be found either. Whoopsie.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
Don't even have to burn a sleeper with that. Just offer the valorous heroes of the Aurigan civil war a very lucrative contract to go somewhere and do... something. Then offer another group of mercs, one specialized in Aerospace assets, a contract to destroy the Argo once it reaches its destination with no questions asked. Do it under false identities/shell companies (easy to do since ComStar ran the merc board at the time), and boom. Literally.
The Argo is ridiculously under-armed for a "dropship", a dozen Medium Lasers and four Large Lasers are more in line with a JumpShip's armament (wonder why), and an Overlord literally ten times lighter gets ten times more firepower. A flight of Chippewas, or even just a single Overlord geared for space combat, would tear it to ribbons with plausible deniability.
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2020
Now that I think about it i thought she was from the Magistracy becasue woman. But if we take her faith into account I would have said "Outworlds Alliance" as the Alliance has a huge Islamic population (and in a twist a huge Jewish population too and a lot of them act as roving trading bands between the planets of the Alliance). Also if she would be a Comstar plant the Alliance would make the most sense as Comstar settled within the Alliance to conduct training excercises and recruited several Outworlders into their ranks.
Also Comstar willingly killed researchers all over the Inner Sphere to keep the Is technological starvd (Operation Holy Shroud 1 and 2 though 2 was less severe) and also manipulated the IS powers to keep the SW2 keep going on.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
That's a very elegant way of handling the issue as well.
Now that I think about it, ComStar would have been smart to run a few very small (like company-sized) merc units here and there, to have armed forces inconspicuously spread out here and there. These companies would also allow them to train ComGuard pilots in actual warfare, something they were lacking at the start of the Clan Invasion I think.
I never even looked at the Argo's armaments. Man, is that pitiful. A single standard Leopard carries 2 PPCs, 3 LRM 20s, 7 Medium Lasers and 5 Large Lasers.
Kinda makes me wonder, how well would a Leopard perform in a strafing run against an average Lance?
I guess a Leopard could give some decent fire support to the fighters it scrambles, if push came to shove.
- Joined
- Jun 4, 2018
And I'll reiterate, once again: Comstar had quite enough on its plate in the timeframe of the game without chasing after some no-name Periphery merc unit.
Yes, they killed millions with the Helm Memory Core escapade. But they failed to actually capture or destroy the core, and worse, the Gray Death Legion was basically making copies and passing them out free with the recruitment pamphlets (hell, they gave one to Duke Hassid Ricol, the Red Duke).
In this same vein, Holy Shroud II had also been a failure, and worse had tipped off the intel agencies of the Inner Sphere that something was fucky. The ISF and MI6 (House Kurita and House Davion, respectively) in particular had both eyes open after that.
And then you have the alliance between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, which was directly counter to Comstar's policy of 'keep the Great Houses in conflict'.
Don't forget a funny little mercenary org that just wandered in out of nowhere, calling themselves 'Wolf's Dragoons'. On a side note, if you take Wolves on the Border as canon, it seems that Comstar elements in Combine space had been somewhat subverted by Warlord Samsonov, which would've really, really pissed off the First Circuit.
So yeah. I can buy Comstar just flat out not having the time and resources to chase down one weird dropship.
Yes, they killed millions with the Helm Memory Core escapade. But they failed to actually capture or destroy the core, and worse, the Gray Death Legion was basically making copies and passing them out free with the recruitment pamphlets (hell, they gave one to Duke Hassid Ricol, the Red Duke).
In this same vein, Holy Shroud II had also been a failure, and worse had tipped off the intel agencies of the Inner Sphere that something was fucky. The ISF and MI6 (House Kurita and House Davion, respectively) in particular had both eyes open after that.
And then you have the alliance between the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth, which was directly counter to Comstar's policy of 'keep the Great Houses in conflict'.
Don't forget a funny little mercenary org that just wandered in out of nowhere, calling themselves 'Wolf's Dragoons'. On a side note, if you take Wolves on the Border as canon, it seems that Comstar elements in Combine space had been somewhat subverted by Warlord Samsonov, which would've really, really pissed off the First Circuit.
So yeah. I can buy Comstar just flat out not having the time and resources to chase down one weird dropship.
- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
A no-name merc unit... with a one-of-a-kind SLDF era DropShip that might contain information that could lead to the discovery of LosTech akin to the Helm Memory Core.
A no-name merc unit... that does precisely nothing to keep a low profile (traveling in a one-of-a-kind DropShip, no less) or obscure its movements.
A no-name merc unit... that has absolutely no idea you're even after them, so has no reason to go into hiding.
ComStar had a lot of shit to focus on, but taking care of that single ship isn't exactly something that's particularly hard or takes particularly large amounts of manpower. As @Corn Flakes pointed out, you can even outsource that whole thing to some random merc unit. You might not even have to give them any money in return. Just look for a unit with bad MRB rating and go "Wouldn't it be nice if all those bad reviews just... disappeared?"
And making sure your hired goons will have easy pickings isn't even that hard, since you can literally reach out to the no-name merc unit and tell them "Here's a couple thousand ComShekels, go to [Insert obscure moon in the asscrack of nowhere] and await further instructions by our local liaison. Your hired goons then wait patiently until they can just blindside the Argo or fly over a remote controlled shuttle with a nuke strapped in the pilot's seat or something.
If ComStar could take care of the Tripitz within a couple days of its discovery, they can take care of a no-name merc unit, that's not even aware they got a crosshair on their back.
- Joined
- Apr 25, 2020
That's one of the nice things about the setting. Sure, they were never explicitly stated to have done that, but ComStar is pretty big and the Inner Sphere even more so. There's nothing keeping you from having Your Dudes™ in 3025 be a small mercenary unit set up by ComStar to give the ComGuards some much-needed combat practice by rotating pilots in and out. Maybe even find and hire the occasional prodigy to be inducted into the
All under false identities and whatnot, funding themselves through their contracts, and using only standard-issue 'Mechs of the era, of course. Their only "boon" from ComStar would be having better intel than most. Bada-bing, bada-boom, you got your secret ComStar Mercs.
ComStar definitely had a lot of plates to spin at the time, and while they're omnipresent they're not omnipotent. That's why I added the qualifier of if they could their hands on the Argo. The Restoration War canonically only lasted 3 years or so, and it was a relatively minor conflict out in the near-Periphery. ComStar probably just looked at that and went "okay, we'll deal with that later. Hopefully these idiots will blow themselves up in some combat operation and we won't have to do anything".
But my headcanon is that the Argo and the Markham's Marauders (including Murad, thankfully) suddenly "vanished" some time after the Restoration War. Gives us a very good explanation as to why that merc unit never showed up again anywhere else on the Inner Sphere or Periphery and it nicely integrates the fact that the player unit in HBS BT was just the digital version of Your Dudes™ and therefore apocryphal.
ETA: the Wolf's Dragoons aren't quite the same thing because these dudes showed up out of nowhere with five fucking regiments, plus their own DropShips, JumpShips, and their own orbital BattleMech factory. ComStar couldn't infiltrate them because they were entirely self-sufficient, and they were far too large to deal with covertly. It's no wonder ComStar and the Dragoons never trusted each other.
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- Joined
- Mar 23, 2016
I think I'll have to come up with a neat paint-scheme, cause that sounds like I'm going to roll with that lore for my own merc unit.
There's never not a good time to post Tex' Argo video:
- Joined
- Aug 18, 2019
The Argo was never designed to be a Military ship, theres nothing "Special" about it besides the fact that its designed to make sure that the crew of the ship is comfortable and have huge amounts of supplies.
Getting upset that the Argo isn't heavily armed is like getting upset that the IndustrialMech you just bought didn't come with a HAG/40.
[Edit] Also yeah, this isn't the same ComStar that was doing back flips making sure that shit was getting done, this was FailStar whos only thing they where able to get done was the whole "Battle of Tukayyid" and even then they gutted their ComGaurds to even accomplish that. Late Succession Wars is marred by Comstar failures ranging from Holy Shroud II to Operation Scorpion.
robobobo
kiwifarms.net
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2014
Nothing's really stopping anyone from tossing dropships into the fight, the price tag on them makes it economically stupid though. A few fighters could bring the same or greater firepower for a tenth the cost, and you need the dropships in one piece to go home afterwards. Though I do seem to recall a couple of dedicated gunboat dropships in the 2750 book, don't think many survived any length of time after the league fell.