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12/13/03 08:11 AM
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SHEEN INVADERS MUSTERING FOR CONQUEST OF LYRAN ALLIANCE - Read that and other stories in this week's edition of the Poulsbo Sun Enquirer
While the investors of Alarion were satisfied with their anti-"pirate" raid that "decisively crushed the bizarre raiders of Timbuktu, Poulsbo, and Alarion," the LAAF was not. Frankly, it was just a little unnerved by the lack of any captured pirates, or even dead bodies. (And the cow meat in the cockpit was just bizarre.) The advanced mechs used by the raiders were disturbing for more normal military reasons - the raiders exclusively used XL-powered mechs, the mechs were of models never seen before but based on late Star League era models or (in one case) were completely new, the mechs were deployed by upgraded models of Star League dropships, and the dropships were deployed by warships (or compact core vessels, anyway). With the exception of LRMs seen on Timbuktu, the raiders were not equipped with Clan levels of technology, so this did not appear to be some Clan perfidy.
LAAF COVER-UP! RAID BY PIERSON'S PENETRATORS COMPLETELY FAKED - News at 1900 hours.
The LAAF was upbeat, though. Pierson's Penetrators had turned over a lot of useful data to the Alarion investors and LAAF. Some of the most useful data was on a triplet of Explorer Corps datapads found in the hasty search for survivors. And, of course, the one salvaged, unnamed mech that had attacked the Penetrators. The datapads had 7-8 hours of video files, mostly of meetings with the few "Sheen" personnel who would meet face-to-face. There were also some recordings of the video conferences with other Sheen personnel, plus innumerable text reports.
MORE WARLIKE FOLLOWERS OF KERENSKY RETURN TO THE INNER SPHERE - An exclusive story in today's Poulsbo Times
These files provided an enormous wealth of information about the Sheens. They spoke Star League Standard English exactingly and with Terran Hegemony Average accents (if THA can be called an accent rather than a lack of one), with no linguistic drift that Lyran linguists could detect. Despite an initial adherance to Star League English, the Sheens quickly adopted modern phrases and slang used by Explorer Corps personnel. Naturally, the Sheens did not discuss their origins in detail. A text report in one datapad said the Sheens had discussed their origins early and upfront: a well-equipped, independent Star League research base in the Deep Periphery (rather like Niops). The Sheen claimed to be worried about the war-like state of the Inner Sphere and thus didn't mention the base's location (or virtually any other details). They explained their dependance on robots as correcting "a severe manpower shortage." (The robots were always numerous around the Explorer Corps' base, according to reports on the datapads, but appeared no more advanced than what Lyran robotics firms could muster). The Sheens' home world had not started with a large population of techs and scientists, nor had the population grown quickly. Most of the population was involved in "critical" work: managerial, engineering, military, etc. Thus, robots were needed for everything else.
SHEEN RAIDS JUST SCOUT MISSIONS - EXPERTS SAY THEY SOUGHT UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION ON STATE OF INNER SPHERE MILITARIES!
To LAAF investigators, two records of discussions with Sheens confirmed that the Sheens were behind the Poulsbo raids. To the Explorer Corps personnel, who knew of the Poulsbo raid but not of Poulsbo's penchant for wild tabloid stories (unlike LAAF investigators), those discussions were just weird. The reason for the Explorer Corps' personnel's confusion was that the Sheen were deeply interested in seeking confirmation of some, well, tabloid stories. Unlike the better-informed LAAF investigators, the Explorer Corps personnel were simply amused that the Sheens even took these stories seriously. ("I saw Hanse Davion in the grocery store. He was there pickin' up some road brews with Elvis and a Sasquatch," "Aliens forced me to crossbreed with a clone of Thomas Marik and the Loch Ness Monster," etc.)
And while it was not obvious to the Explorer Corps personnel, LAAF intelligence agents recognized that the Sheen questioning was not truly who focused on tabloid stories. Rather, the Sheen inquiries were directed at ferreting out new developments in human space: encounters with aliens, widespread cloning, confirmed reincarnation, discoveries of jurassic lifeforms in Scotland, etc.
THARKAD CAVES IN! PEACE MISSION SENT TO NEGOTIATE LYRAN SURRENDER TO SHEEN!!!
Because of the military implications of the Sheen, the LAAF was able to muster an expedition to return to the Explorer Corps base late in 3067. It was an expedition in force, with the completed Mjolnir-class Fylgja to deal with Sheen warships and a full RCT to protect investigators on the ground. The protection proved unnecessary, however. The Explorer Corps base was a shallow, water-filled crater, a crater that was definitely of nuclear origin. The LAAF expeditionary force accurately estimated that the crater had been formed by a one-megaton ground burst on the site. There were no bizarre mechs lurking in the funky-veggie-animal-jungle-stuff around the base, no bouncing uber-Panthers, no base whatsoever. Clearly, the Sheens had abandoned the site and sought to cover their tracks. After investigating the Explorer Corps base, the expedition planned to visit several reported Star League-era independent research facilities in the Lyran Periphery that met the Sheens' description of their home. Unfortunately, reports of terrorist nuclear attacks around Terra resulted in the expedition being ordered home.
Though the main base was wrecked, there were other Star League-era facilities on the planet. While the expedition was readed for home, the commander ordered several of those facilities investigated. The LAAF had a considerable monetary investment in the expedition, so the commander intended to give the LAAF its money's worth. Unfortunately, nothing was found there except occasional scraps from Explorer Corps researchers, who had visited over the years. There were interesting pieces of Star League-era biological research equipment. Exploration around the nuked main base (conducted by mechs and infantry stuffed into miserable NBC suits) turned up some scraps from battle damage, a couple of scorched landing areas where ~4000-ton spheroid dropships landed (probably the Sheens' favored Unions), but little else.
Until, naturally, everyone was almost ready to break orbit.
900-TON SHEEN SUPER MECH FOUND!!! - "You could take down a star of Daishis with it," says Bangor mechjock
Orbital scans (not the miserable infantry) found the wreckage of a Sheen mech about 70 kilometers from the base. It seemed to have been making a straight line for a remote research station. The infantry and a recovery team were sent to get the mech. Since the infantry were thoroughly sick of the NBC suits and the location was outside the fallout pattern of the main base, they were deployed without the NBC suits. Naturally, they became messily (but not fatally) ill from mild toxins and allergens in the alien life surrounding them.
The wreckage was of a Cyclops, the type seen in the Sheen's Timbuktu and Alarion raids. Its torso and limbs were heavily damaged from the nuclear explosion of the base. The damage pattern on the arms, upper torso, and head suggested the mechwarrior had shielded the cockpit (which was intact for a change). The rear torso was damaged from a hard fall; accumulated plant-meat-stuff on its shoulders and in various armor gaps suggested it had skid on its back. There was little doubt the mech had been close to ground zero of the base-clearing nuke. (Unanswered question: why was a piloted assault mech abandoned to enjoy the nuclear sunrise?) Despite the damage it had marched about 70 kilometers through jungle before its left knee actuator crapped out. The mech had toppled forward and destroyed its rather exposed gyroscope on an inconveniently placed boulder. It had also given its cockpit a solid whack.
The Cyclops was absolutely fascinating for a number of reasons, but not for its combat effectiveness. It was armed with a Star League vintage Delphinius LRM 15 (as always with Sheen mechs, it lacked any alphanumeric marking) and a Star League vintage Grizzard Model 200 Gauss Rifle. It did have an interesting internal structure: it was similar to an endosteel internal structure in terms of alloying and fabrication methods, but twice as heavy. Lyran metallurgists in the expedition speculated the alloy could be produced under gravity, unlike the more finicky and chemical segregation-sensitive endosteel. They noted it would be easier and faster to produce than standard internal structures.
More interesting than the chassis were the tons of electronics. The Cyclops carried a powerful shoulder-mounted sensor array comparable to the Federated Commonwealth's experimental Bloodhound Active Probe and a jammer that "was powerful enough to make your dental fillings whistle at 10 kilometers." The Cyclops also had a 5-ton computer in a blocky upper arm mount. The software was unintelligible and "actively uncooperative" (to quote the Lyran computer science report). After being powered up and probed by Lyran computers, the large computer "enacted software defenses" (lobotomized the Lyran computers' operating system) and "deleted relevant data" (erased every file and piece of software on itself, including the erasing program). Hardware analysis of the computer showed its technology was consistent with the computers found in other Sheen mechs (i.e., Star League derived) but, of course, there were five tons of it. Four other computers were found in the computer, two on each hip. They seemed to be smaller versions of the main computer. Indeed, the large arm computer seemed to be a networked version of five of the smaller computers. The smaller computers were already distinctly non-functional when the Cyclops was recovered, leaving Lyran investigators to guess the five computers were part of some C3-like system, perhaps one that could be distributed through a mech rather than concentrated in one location like Inner Sphere C3 systems.
The cockpit, the first intact Sheen cockpit found, was not quite a standard Cyclops cockpit. The normal B2000 tactical computer was absent and the communication system "had more bandwidth than the Fylgja's communication suite." The LAAF's study of the communication system was the most fruitful of all examinations of Sheen mechs. The next generation of Lyran military communication systems, from handheld infantry units to C3 computers, will include substantial portions of the technology found in the Sheen communicator.
The reason the cockpit was intact was not for lack of suicide devices, some of which were present. Most had been disarmed and removed, as had large sections of the unusual cockpit computers that were normally destroyed by those suicide charges. Some of the removed circuit blocks were found littering the cockpit floor while others had apparently been tossed outside. The lobotomization and "hotwiring" of the cockpit computers had definitely occurred after the nuclear explosion - the opened cockpit panels and circuit blocks were smeared with burned tissue and fluids from the mechwarrior.
INVADERS WERE ALIENS!!! - Poulsbo Sun Enquirer
SHEEN INVADERS ARE ROBOTS!!! - Poulsbo Times
DISGUISED SHEEN ALIEN ROBOTS LIVE AMONGST US - ONE COULD BE YOUR NEIGHBOR!!! - Exclusive Channel 372 Report at 11
IRRESISTABLE LOVE ANDROIDS STEAL OUR MEN FOR DEPRAVED ALIENS!!! - Lyran Gay Life Monthly
Which brings up the subject of the (corpse of the) first Sheen mechwarrior found. Like several of the Sheens in Explorer Corps video files, "she" was of Indian (Hindu) descent. However, the horrible atomic burns revealed what an autopsy on a normal corpse would have found in moments: the Sheen was a robot. The technology of the robot body was not particularly overwhelming; the Lyran planet Dustball manufactured "automated mannequins of dubious moral value" with a similar degree of sophistication and attention to simulating the human body.
Indeed, this particular Sheen robot had figured prominently in a diary found on one of the datapads. The diarist, who was one of the Explorer Corps survivors, was contacted by LAAF investigators. This took some favor-trading and pressuring of Comstar by the Lyran government, but the survivor was eventually interviewed. While able to describe his encounters with the Sheen in loving (pun intended) detail, he was completely unaware the Sheen was a robot - and the Lyran investigators mercifully left the man with that impression. (The Lyran investigators had been uncertain of how well the Sheen had simulated a human in life because their specimen...well, it had been nuked. Literally.) The Sheen robot did have a powerful communications system similar to a scaled-down version of the Cyclops' monstrosity. Though the Sheen robot had "survived" a nuclear explosion, Lyran robotics experts suspected its systems were continuing to degrade due to heavy loss of fluids and system damage. (The robot even had splints on an arm and its neck.) When the Cyclops fell, the android's damaged neck structure gave way and sliced the "spinal cord" of the robot (the main data cable and power supply to the brain fed through the android's spine). The semi-volatile memory of the robot's main computer revealed nothing.
GOVERNMENT COVER-UP CONTINUES!!! - Poulsbo Sun Enquirer
THARKAD ALREADY ENTIRELY REPLACED WITH SHEEN DOPPLEGANGERS!!! - Poulsbo Times
Based on these findings, the LAAF concluded the following:
1) The Sheens came from an isolated Star League-era research station comparable to Niops
2) The Sheens were isolationists, probably due to worries about the militarism of the Inner Sphere. Like Niops, they probably had heard the early Succession Wars barbarities via HPG
3) Given their self-reported and logically low population, the Sheens maintained their isolationism out of justified fears of biological weapons in the Inner Sphere. Weapons that the Inner Sphere population was (now) immune to could devastate a small "virgin field" community like the Sheens
4) Raids on Poulsbo, Timbuktu and Alarion were primarily "fact finding" missions to learn about the state of the Inner Sphere
5) The plundering of Alarion's bank was to acquire hard currency for further interaction with the Inner Sphere, or just an opportunistic robbery by unscrupulous Sheen military personnel
6) The Sheen only had jumpships built in the Star League, perhaps corvettes or compact core transports, and were unable to build more. Thus, the Sheen had the ships avoid conflict from even minor opponents
7) The Sheen could and did build dropships, which they showed less worry about exposing to harm
8 ) The Sheen possessed an extensive, Star League-derived technological base, explaining most of the mechs
9) The Sheen had industry adequate to build battalions of mechs, likely over the course of decades (like Niops)
10) With a low population, the Sheen used drone battlemechs piloted by mechwarriors in remote locations, perhaps on the dropships; Cyclopses functioned as local relays and "master" units for a C3 network; all Sheen units must've had very jam-resistant communication suites, because the Timbuktu garrison and Pierson's Penetrators had featured several Guardian ECM suites
11) For similar reasons, the Sheen used tele-operated mannequins for face-to-face contact with other humans
12) The androids were not (very) autonomous, based on the powerful communication system found in the one android
13) The Sheen mechwarriors had little combat experience but a good deal of training, explaining their good piloting but abysmal tactics
14) The Sheen either arrogantly assumed the Inner Sphere lacked DNA scanning technology or overestimated the degree that the Inner Sphere's technology had collapsed to, thus explaining the hamburger in the cockpit: they figured leaving some meat in the cockpit would convince investigators the pilot had been killed
15) With regards to the Cyclops and mannequin, a stranded Sheen at a remote research station had tele-operated the mannequin to "hotwire" the Cyclops (which had not self-destructed because it was still relatively functional) and was bringing the Cyclops to the remote research station when the leg actuator failed.
SHEEN ANDROIDS IN LAAF COVER-UP EXPEDITIONARY FORCE DISASTER!!! - Channel 372 Breaking Report
STUDS FOR YOUR STUD - CHASTITY BELTS TO PROTECT YOUR MAN FROM SHEEN ANDROIDS - Lyran Gay Life Monthly
Of course, when the LAAF report reached Poulsbo, Poulsbo's tabloid media drew rather different conclusions.
Code:
Type: CYCLOPS tons
Tonnage: 90
Internal Structure: 9
Engine: 360 XL 16.5
Walking: 4
Running: 6
Jumping: 0
Heat Sinks: 10 (20) 0
Gyro: 4
Cockpit: 3
Armor: 280 17.5
Head: 3 9
CT: 29 48/10
RT/LT: 19 30/8
RA/LA: 15 30
RL/LL: 19 38
Weapon Crits Loc
Gauss Rifle 7 RT 15
LRM 15 3 LT 7
Ammo (GR) 16 2 LT 2
Ammo (LRM) 16 2 CT 2
CASE 1 RT 0.5
CASE 1 LT 0.5
Bloodhound Probe 3 RA 2
Angel ECM Suite 2 LA 2
Big Ass Computer 5 LA 5
Small Computers x2 2 RL 2
Small Computers x2 2 LL 2
Both hand actuators present
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Mike Miller, Materials Engineer
Disclaimer: Anything stated in this post is unofficial and non-canon unless directly quoted from a published book. Random internet musings of a BattleTech writer are not canon.
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