Upgrade Tartan and Helm

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Parliament had debated whether the needed for an increased military budget was necessary for months, O’Donnell and the nationalist pushed for it amid tensions with Galra and the ongoing Cold War with Kumosenkan.

With the bloody and brutal war in touli showing that numbers mattered little over quality they finally capitulated. Per orders following a vote parliament approved to upgrade over 370,000 light and standard infantry to heavy infantry forces. Equipment would be procured from existing trade markets in Lusatia, Marrlan and Roskana.

The first 100,000 light infantry would be expected to finish training and equipment orientation by the beginning of the new year. Further talks of increasing colonial military upgrades however were halted due to the sheer cost of doing so. This only island military units would receive the funds.

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Somewhere in Cathair Iarainn late at night, a factory is steady at work pressing steel and weaving wool and leather into Gaelic Tommy helmets. A large order for the Ashinarians and the Royal Army kept the factory going 24/7, the men and women working in it making themselves a rather healthy amount of overtime pay. 

The heat of the smelter and forge kept the factory warm despite the cool northern night air sweeping in from the open warehouse doors, they had been opened for relief from the heat and the workers all felt a nice gust of cool air rushing in every now and then. 

Tonya McHamil was steady in her work, weaving in the leather to the wool and connecting it to the steel helmet itself. She always felt a sense of pride looking at the finished result. Every set of helmets from the sheet of steel had one pulled off for quality testing, a couple of hammers would strike it to make sure the steel held and could protect the wearer, if it held the set of helmets were shipped. If not, the sheet the helmets came off of would be documented and those helmets not shipped. The Gaelics took pride in their hard work, most factories did quality checks to make sure good products were shipped. Tonya worked until the sound of a steam powered whistle signaled her shift end, she wiped off the sweat from her brow and began walking to the women's locker room. She undressed her uniform before entering the communal shower to clean herself from the grim and sweat of the night shift. 

"Ye hear them Ashinaria have ears that point off der heads? How will they wear our helmets?" one girl asked in the shower, "Not our problem to figure out girl, let em foxes figure it out" said another. Tonya cleaned herself sighing at the relief the soap and hot water gave her sore body. She put on some clean clothes she bundled before dumping her dirty uniform into a bin to be shipped and cleaned, when she came back on her next shift a clean uniform would be waiting at her locker. She walked a couple blocs before stopping at a local Inselni noodle shop that was still open, "Ni Hao!" the Inselni said "What can I get you?" Tonya sat down at one of the stools by the main bar, "Beef noodle soup please!" she said warmly, she wanted to eat something before the train ride back home and then having to sleep the day away. The Inselni got to work making her dish while across the street several coffee cafe and breakfast places were opening up for the morning workers and day shift. "Been busy mate?" Tonya asked, "Oh yes! very good at night, I'm going to shut down for the morning though, other than night workers everyone wants to eat breakfast hahaha". She had been coming to this shop for over a year now after a coworker suggested it to her. She wanted to eat dinner not breakfast and this shop was one of the only ones like it in Cathair Iarainn. 

"Here you go! Anything to drink?" the cook placed a warm bowl full to the brim with beef, noodles, vegetables and rice. "Cold tea please, lemon in it." Tonya grabbed her utensil and started eating, the Inselni came back with a glass of cool brown liquid with ice cubes and two fresh lemon slices. More workers began to walk in from their long shifts, "Ni Hao!" the Inselni went off to take more orders, Tonya enjoyed the rich savory flavors of her meal every now and then her tired thoughts drifting about. She thought about how her mother pestered her in finding a man in her mid 20's and getting married. But she made good money and enjoyed living in her cozy flat in the North side of town. A nearby radio reported the ongoings in Touli, more war, more violence. "World is getting dangerous, i'll need to mail my cousins and check on them."  One of the patrons responded to the Inselni talking to themselves, "wait how do you mail to Elenria? We don't interact with Kumo." the Inselni chuckled, "same way I get my ingredients silly" the patron then asked, "but then how do you?..." the Inselni rose their hand "more questions and its a 5% markup for your food." the patron hushed themselves. 

Tonya finished her meal and placed a pair of one pound notes on the bar, "keep the change love, see ya in a few nights!" the Inselni made a hastily made wave while preparing several dishes and snatching the money off the counter. It was a large tip but she enjoyed the meal and the service, she then walked a few more blocs to one of the many inner city train stations and waited for her train, a blue tank engine pulled up with four passenger coaches, she stepped in and took her seat as the train allowed more passengers onboard. The sun was now steady and rising from the East illuminating the dark city, her eyes became heavy having worked a long shift and it already being overtime at that. "My body hates me but i'm gonna love that check" she murmured. The train pulled off heading to the North, Cathair Iarainn was the largest city in Ulster Gaelia, it took a couple hours to finally reach Tonya's station after dropping and picking up passengers along the other stations. She started what she dreaded, the walk home. It was a small two floor flat in the Northern section of the city, it was nice and quiet now that everyone had left for work, school and whatever activities left to do. All who remained were grandparents watching grandkids and elderly tending to their gardens, they waved and smiled at the young woman as she walked by. Her feet were screaming at her to rest but she saw the light blue hue paint of her flat finally, she grabbed her keys unlocking it and walked into the familiar smell of her flat. 

A cat scampered toward her rubbing itself against her purring, "Oh lord, has her highness missed me? Or do you need food?" meow the cat chirped and Tonya rolled her eyes going to her kitchen to feed her over spoiled cat, she poured some food into the bowl and the cat began eating as if it was starving to death, "dramatic" Tonya mumbled. She kicked her shoes flexing her feet and rolling her heels making a cracking sound, "oh gods I needed that, time to sleep." She clambered on upstairs to her room undressing and getting into her soft bed. "I'm gonna vacation in the Shawbalt...I need a..." and she was out snoring. 

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McCarron Arms had finally procured a proper factory in Cathair Iarainn for their new Star Wolf fighter and were slated to build 85 models to replace the Siskin biplane fighter.

Siskin fighters would be placed to be sold off.

(UKUG is moving to upgrade 85 light biplane fighters to heavy as the Star Wolf)

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McCarron Arms is expanding production to shift 50 caliber equipped Star Wolf fighters to heavy fighter class. These fighters can carry small bombs and attack rockets.

Plans to replace current heavy fighters is to shift 60 Star Wolf fighters into active service and dispatch older models to the colonies.

Build 60 new heavy fighters for Ulster Gaelia

Send 30 existing fighters to Cricon
Send 30 to Zedonia

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After the main island upgrades Parliament approved the expansion of upgrading infantry units in the colonies using trade money acquired in Touli. 200,000 light infantry units will be upgraded to heavy infantry in Cricon in the next year, factory orders for helmets and gear have been sent in.

Finally, the Royal Army has decided to look back into the armored corps after pulling funding out of it. They are looking into getting a prototype light tank by Spring of 1933.

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Royal Navy orders 4 more light aircraft carriers

Following the completion of the two newest light aircraft carriers, Criconian Colonial fleet converting 4 Ironclad battleships into light aircraft carriers.

Building additional 2 Battleships for the Cricon Colonial fleet at Ulster-Gaelia harbor. Building 7 heavy cruisers for the Zedonian Colonial fleet, 5 Super Cruisers for the Zedonian Colonial Fleet.

Building 10 Heavy Cruisers for Cricon colonial fleet.

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Project Badger was go, Parliament approved the Royal Army's decision to pursue development of a new armored vehicle to support the infantry in open field combat. Given the UKUG was now having to start all over again, it would take time and while the Royal Army began work on their newest project. McCarron and Ferris also began splitting teams to develop tanks to get some of the sweet military funding in selling models to the Royal Army.

Army officials pondered on inviting Marrlan over to aid them in developing the tank and before they really could go further along Lord Commander O'Driscoll ordered it. Telegrams would be sent via secured line to the Marrlan Republic asking for assistance in developing the Badger 1 Tank. 

[Artsy Astra]

The Marrlan DoD would accept the offer for assistance as their own tank development program was only slowing for the moment. After being briefed on the tanks intended role, they would begin assisting where they could.

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The Gaelic team would ask for help on the transmission, they had made attempts but nothing could meet the weight requirements of the badger.

Callahan began work on a stoal powered engine but prefaced that it would need alot of water to work. So this led the team to acquire orders for water tanks from Wallace rail that could fit on the tank.

Meanwhile McCarron Arms began work on the main gun, a 35mm field gun prototype that was cancelled and put in storage for a rainy day. They needed to make it fit in the specified turret space and make reloading as little of a challenge as possible.

Vicker machine guns would be put into the main body for anti infantry support, another problem as this gun was not made to fit well in such a small space. Ferris combine began work on modifying the weapon to fit in the main body.

The final component the Gaelic team looked over was operation of this vehicle having little knowledge of tank warfare other than reports brought in from Xagreau, they shared this with the Marrlan team to brain storm ideas.

[Artsy Astra]

The Marrlan team would bring transmission examples from the Ardent Bus and TM-18 for review and study. A dual transmission was recommended. While it took up more space and was more weight than the simpler clutch breaking system, the projected size of the vehicle would be able to accommodate it with little to no effect on other components allowing it to also steer in place. A shrunk down version used on the Ardent bus with weight reduction practices from the TM-18 would be proposed.

While Marrlan was also new to the uses of the tank, crew comfort was of utmost importance to them. Quality of Life features such as a spare hatch for discarding spent cases and ease of replenishing ammo stowage would be thought of. Movement of some equipment such as shovels and repair tools to the outside of the hull-mounted on brackets for space-saving. And finally with the somewhat testy suspensions of their time, improved seating quality with some form of cushion to reduce fatigue and discomfort though such an improvement could become more expensive than the other ideas.

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The Gaelic teams would begin ordering sheets of steel from Seleucidinia, torch users would begin cutting the sections of sheets that would then be assembled onto a steel chassis and then riveted together. 

Small parts would be ordered throughout the UKUG in various factories, assembly per the Marrlan advisors would be followed as well as reverse engineer their transmission designs. 

Gaelic torch worker cutting steel pieces. 

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The Callahan engine finally came in, new and clean of any usage the Gaelic crews began carefully installing it into the main body of the tank. Off in the distance in a empty green field, they tested various weapons including a heavy Vicker machine gun variant made just for the Badger, a vicious .50 caliber gun designed by Ferris Combine based off the roebuck .50 cal. The gun made heavy thunderous blasts sending the large rounds down range, nearby they tested the 30mm and 35mm main guns that would be fitted into the turret.

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A full assembly test was conducted, the first model rode rough and failed initial transmission tests, an entire overhaul of the internal workings of the tank would be needed in order for it to work.

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UKUG and Marrlan engineer teams have finally produced a working prototype, nicknamed "Black Bess", the tank performed well under the allocated stress tests and firing range tests.

With this comes the first light tank in the Royal Army, the next hurdle would be its large price tag. Given the current global climate, Parliament would meet to consider construction of the Badger tank line for the Royal Army in the home islands and colonial empire.

Meanwhile other tank prototype projects were greenlit for possible testing and future production.

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Royal Army orders for Badger tank have increased. 

Wolva and Storma tanks are now in the prototype phase for light and medium tank support.

Project Ghidorah greenlit by Parliament to begin drafting three barreled medium tank. 

wolva medium tank entering service 1936



Stormer light tank entering service 1936



Project Ghidorah