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Post by Darthtabby on Jun 6, 2014 13:43:35 GMT -7
Supposedly Mithril's operations division has other assets beside just the Merida Island Base and the TDD-1. However the TDD-1 is a unique asset and its doubtful that any of Mithril's other battle groups have anything like it. Which raises the question -what assets does Mithril have to support operations where the TDD-1 isn't available? Do they use smaller conventional submarines? Converted cargo ships that maintain a civilian appearance? Or do they just rely on aerial assets? (The TDD-1's Pave Mares demonstrated ridiculously long range in Approaching Nick of Time, though being helicopters it would take them a long time to get to distant trouble spots.)
Anyone got any thoughts on this?
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Post by Misha on Jun 6, 2014 14:40:44 GMT -7
I don't think the other battlegroups cover nearly so large an area as the West Pacific Fleet does. There's the Indian Ocean (Fir Bolg), West Atlantic (Nemed), and North Atlantic/Mediterranean (Parthenon).
TDD seems to far more often respond to the real hot spots of the world, and they seem to share territory with Fir Bolg. Nemed and Parthenon don't seem to so much respond to situations as they do seem to just be mostly for presence and observing. Obviously Parthenon intervened in TDD's little mission into Sicily, so there is the question as to whether or not Bel was already there as back-up, or if he got dropped in, and how/when. But I don't think they have as big of a concern about covering distance fast like TDD does.
I imagine that the other battlegroups mostly use subs for surveillance, not for battle and transport like the TDD-1. I'd guess that Fir Bolg's land presence is mostly in the North/Northwest areas of Africa.
Nemed's missions probably take them primarily into Central America and I'd guess they operate out of the US since they have some connections to the US Military. I don't think Nemed is likely to have many missions, though. I wouldn't be surprised if they're primarily a training/recruiting group (like the Engage Six and Seven story, I know that was in Nemed's territory) And since there's no "East Pacific" fleet, I think it's fair to say that Nemed's area of coverage is all of the Americas, but they aren't likely to need to be combat ready like TDD is. There's not as much fighting in those lands, they seem to have just a few bases where needed and operate out of those.
Parthenon also seems like it might be more of a training group, and probably also for development? Bel had the Falke, so it might be out there where they do some of their development and testing before putting things into the really active areas. I don't think they ever said what happened with the second Falke, did they?
As for transport, I'm not really sure... Depending on the missions, where they'll be, and what kind of support they have, they may be able to get away with appearing as the local Navy or Air Force. If that'd just be more complicated (if they're likely to run into REAL military vessels) then yeah, they'd probably want to appear civilian. But depending on what waters they're in, they'd also probably want to make sure they won't be targeted by pirates. ...It's a bit of a tricky call, I don't really know.
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Post by Darthtabby on Jun 7, 2014 19:18:51 GMT -7
That's some interesting info on the other Mithril battle groups. Is there a particular source that goes into detail about them, or did you just pick stuff up gradually while reading the FMP stories? Aside from being able to carry out cruise missiles strikes and insert small teams of food soldiers, submarines have a lot of utility in a world where a lot of things are transported via ship. Most subs don't have a lot of internal volume though, so they'd have trouble with operations requiring a lot of heavy equipment and/or sustained logistical support. That's why I was wondering about modified freighters or vessels that at least look civilian. The first episode of Black Lagoon had a helicopter gunship deploy from a cargo ship that had large hatches in the top deck, so why couldn't Mithril do something similar with their Pave Mares? (As for pirates, do you think they'd last long against a ship that had helicopters and heavily armed Arm Slaves aboard?) Actually I imagine Mithril's main rapid reaction assets are its transport planes. They might not have the capability to extract forces in a lot of situations but an area with highly sophisticated air defenses is about the only place they couldn't insert them. Also there are those ballistic missiles, though I'm not sure they've ever deployed a manned AS that way. Plus there's the risk of starting World War III if the ECS fails.
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Post by Misha on Jun 7, 2014 20:16:36 GMT -7
The names and the sea area they cover are in a few different sources, the one I physically own being Comic Mission v.6. As for the rest, most of that's assumptions based on the info we do know.
We know that Bel belonged to the Mediterranean Fleet when he responded in Sicily, then the source says it's Mediterranean and North Atlantic, so it makes sense that they cover most of Europe. I'm not sure if all of Russia is theirs, or if the coverage is split up.
I would assume that it was the West Atlantic Fleet where Sousuke and Kurz were stationed during the evaluation session where they met Mao for the first time, since it was somewhere in, what, Central America, right? And it just seems like it would make sense for West Atlantic to cover pretty much all of the Americas, since TDD has its hands full in Asia, and there's not a lot of hot activity in the Americas.
The Wind Blows Home arc had the Indian Ocean Fleet in Afghanistan ("Helmajistan," whatever, we know what they meant) so I'm guessing they cover the Middle East, southwest Asia, and probably Africa as well. That I'm not too sure about, though, because in TSR Episode 00, it seemed like the TDD battlegroup were in those areas. So I think it makes sense that they share territory, and West Pacific goes in where Indian Ocean can't. But I don't know for sure...
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