I open my eyes back into the meat body that controlled me.
I had set in place the designs that would be carrying on to the future.
Meat flesh…
Wait a moment.
Right right.
So, the new rules meant that I, or anyone really could only put in 1 RP per turn on a Minor World etc to create a combat command. The machines, tools, etc coming out of a factory represented by RP. It was an abstraction of the RP system with the intent to make life easier for the one trying to understand the quantum entangled mess that was real supply chains across interstellar distances.
In any case, a factory was limited to a production input of 1RP a turn, which could, after 16 turns create a Regimental command if one were looking at a Light force.
Nearly 3 years to create a force from a single factory in other words.
But then a turn change had occurred.
1 turn every 2 months had become 1 turn every 1 month
Time had in fact sped up.
Sure I could produce less, but it wasn't like I cared all that much for the sales in the first place right?
The solution then to my production woes if I wanted a private army was to go vertical.
I needed an upgrade to Minor World to actually start production of things for the military.
576 RP was necessary to turn Tetersen to a Minor Industrial World worth 24 RP.
Ah the cost was ridiculous.
I could, at the end of this month have 101 RP available to me.
36 RP 12×3 Ute Factory
24 RP 12×2 20 Ton Utility Truck Factory
32 RP 16×2 Commando 1B Factory - New Built
Turn 7 = 92×1.1 = 101
I would need to, like, quadruple my production to get the, wait, pentuple my factory numbers to get the damned things done.
Wait a moment, old math, old math.
Factories were a base of 12 RP now weren't they.
Worse, they could only accept 0 RP per turn right now to produce anything.
Was that right?
I had to recheck, because, physically, the factories were still here right? It wasn't like they were just going to mothball while I waited for the 576 RP needed to build up to a Minor Industrial World?
Ah, I need to redo the mathematics as well didn't I?
Aaaaaah, complicated.
I need to take a break.
I stood up, pushing my hands on the desk in front of me.
I needed to go for a walk around and decide what it was that I was going to do before anything else.
+Break+
Okay.
So, the factories were producing at their regular rate no matter that as an 'Other' world it technically couldn't put any RP into production.
Which told me that I couldn't make anything for myself, but I could produce for someone else.
Alternatively, given that I was just producing the standard Ute and 20 Ton Trucks right now, the designs were civilian and might be a loophole in the system.
Which meant that I could theoretically produce civilian products at full volume, but military products were limited.
I would need to check this next month.
Hmmmm, I needed to talk to my Liaison officer, Rupert? No, that was an old man's name. The Liaison was a woman, that much I remember.
Possibly blonde?
Red headed?
Black headed?
Ummm… fuck, I forgot.
Not exactly my fault though right? I just met her last week.
+Break+
Major Ursula von Richards had initially felt that this post was beneath her.
A rising star (in her humble opinion) in the staff officer corps, a sudden shift by von Randt to this planet's singular factory of note was not a positive vertical movement.
Not if she wanted to keep rising the ranks and prove to her detractors that she was, indeed, the best.
Granted, the factory had been impressive in its own way.
The multiple lines churning out over a hundred fusion powered vehicles a month had certainly been impressive.
The moment that her mind had changed was when she had been informed by the CEO of the Utility Corporation that Ursula had been seconded to was that it had been exactly 1 year since the factory had broken ground.
1 year to build up a factory of this scale, underneath a mountain?
One that was currently laying down two Battlemech factory lines due to completion in a single month?
She took notice then.
This wasn't a downward move to shuffle her out of the way of someone that wanted her job.
No, this was a chance for her to prove herself!
Granted, that was going to be difficult with how, uh, difficult the primary object of her liaising was.
Graf Vu was… strange to put it simply.
A man of verve and energy.
One that had sweet talked industrialists from a dozen light years around to build an industrial concern overnight as far as the Inner Sphere was concerned.
One that had forgotten her name at least three times in the last day.
One that was right in front of her now inspecting the factory lines.
At least he had a strong work ethic from what she was seeing.
But, again, one had to have that if they wanted to be capable as he was wouldn't they?
"Miss LCAF whose name I have forgotten again, apologies but I do need access to LCAF resources regarding the development process of the Commando." Graf Vu said to her, breaking Ursula from her thoughts.
"Sir?" She asked. He had been given an honorary rank as Colonel for his industrial capabilities after all.
"Right, apologies. I need the development process as far as Coventry is concerned. That way I can avoid any of the pitfalls they came across and take away their successes." He said with a nod of his head.
She just looked at him.
No warmup, straight into it.
That was him all right.
"Yes sir, I'll get on the comm to them as soon as possible." She said with a sharp nod of her head.
To her right she could see the other liaison, Christine roll her eyes.
Ursula kept her eyes from narrowing at that sight.
With his back to the both of them, she could, but she was more professional than that.
The other woman was clearly worried she was going to take her place as the dominant one in the relationship. After all, she brought with her the might of the LCAF and everything it could offer. Comparatively all that she could offer was the weight of her family, localised here on Tetersen and nothing else.
The fool of a woman therefore, was worried that she was going to usurp her and take charge. Pushing her family to the side and putting herself in the position of leader.
Unfortunately for her that was the truth.
She was definitely going to do that, the LCAF needed this man's production capacity.
She had seen the production figures, had seen how everything had been in a decline until the last few years due to enemy action.
They had hit an inflection point, things were improving but slowly, anything to speed it up would be valuable beyond measure.
As she had vowed in her oath to the Commonwealth, she would do all she could to help her people.
+Break+
I hum.
Right.
So, a tour and then an analysis of the situation had made things clear enough for me.
The rule of no more than 1 RP into a factory did not apply to civilian manufacturing.
Which meant that because I hadn't combined the weapons with my Utes and 20 Ton Trucks… they still counted as civilian vehicles.
Hence, I could shove them with their limit of 12 RP per turn.
Military designs on the other hand were no doubt limited by the rule… but.
But if I managed to get a civilian design out, wouldn't it then be possible to build them at full speed?
Hmmm, that was a good point actually. The key story here being that I needed to go with civilian designs, more throughput… if I wanted to up the throughput.
Did I?
Like, did I really?
Because, thinking about it right now… I could use the spare RP to build, you know, more factories and increase the scale that way.
Right?
Like, yeah.
Dammit.
I need to talk to someone about this.
+Break+
"Christine! Got a moment?"
The aforementioned Christine paused and turned her head to look at her leader as he walked towards her, waving his hands.
She sighed, ah. This was one of those talks.
The kind that would decide if he decided to do his magic again and pull an entire factory our of his ass in a matter of two months.
"Sir?" She asked, letting him lead into it. Trying to say something else would lead to him losing his train of thought.
"Right. So, this is one of those 'what should I do' kind of situations." He started as she nodded internally, just as she had thought.
She was getting to know him better.
On the other hand, Ursula was probably a better fit for these kinds of questions… but she did need to think about her Clan's interests.
But she couldn't make it too obvious right?
She paused.
Right, better get Ursula involved in case there was something here that would arouse the LCAF's suspicions later. Even if the other woman was a threat, she did represent a link to the LCAF.
"It would be better if we got Major Ursula involved in this discussion Huu. They're a player in this now as well remember?"
He looked at her gobsmacked, as if he hadn't considered it.
She sighed, he hadn't considered it.
"Right right."
And like that he found Ursula and corralled them into Christine's office that was feeling mighty cramped right now.
"So, it goes like this. I've been looking at the System and we are currently bottlenecked on military construction." He started, waving his hands in the air, probably simulating something that neither she nor Ursula understood. In fact, Ursula turned towards her and mouthed 'system?' at her. Christine shrugged her shoulders in response.
Huu, of course, never even noticed the byplay.
"I can manufacture roughly 220 Utes a month. Like, it's a civilian model, I can pop them out by the hundreds. 220 per month per factory basically, and since I've got 3 factories, that's 660 Utes per month. That might change as the System updates so keep that in mind. Same number for the 20 Ton Trucks. Maybe a bit less, but not that much. 440 of those a month from 2 factories." His words hit Ursula like a sledgehammer.
Christine felt a bit faint herself.
It was one thing to see them on the factory floor, but to hear the specific number was different.
In fact, she was trying to figure out where exactly all of this production was going.
There were hundreds of these civilian vehicles, fusion powered civilian vehicles being churned out every month, the problem was identifying where they were going, because, honestly speaking, she wasn't sure that Tetersen could even support that much unused civilian hardware.
"On the other hand, I can produce, around 7 Battlemechs a month from the new Battlemech lines that are in construction now." He said, raising his other hand. A scale! She finally figured out what he was trying to do.
Christine looked at Ursula, her eyes beaming a question to the other woman.
She wasn't quite sure what the question was, she just knew that she had one.
"Are you asking what to focus on?" She finally ventured out, looking at Huu with a raised eyebrow.
"Hmmm? Oh right, yeah. Should I focus on going the civilian route and providing the DIY kits like we've been doing, or go for smaller numbers of military stuff?" He asked, looking at her with wide eyes.
The correct answer for the clan was clearly to go the military route.
Yes, it would bring scrutiny to Tetersen, but there would be much less jumpship and dropship traffic if there was a single digit of machines every month compared to, well, dozens or even hundreds of dropships for the hundreds of vehicles that were being produced. The chances of infiltration were infinitely higher with the sheer number of vessels plying the void of Tetersen.
"Military hardware." She said at the same time as Ursula's "Civilian hardware."
The two looked at each other.
"Military has more value and you need to fulfil your contract to the LCAF remember?" She said before Ursula could get a word in.
"I'm sure that the contract could be modified given that there are a potential 1000 combat vehicles being constructed per month for use in the LCAF. Many militia commands would be incredibly happy to have fusion powered transport for their men and women." The major countered.
The two of them glared at each other.
Dammit, why was she coming in on the side of the civilian manufacturing? Shouldn't she be happy with guns that went boom? The Utes didn't even have enough armour to survive a machine-gun. Why would the LCAF want them?
+Break+
Excerpt from Battletech Techmanual
Though the BattleMech may represent the most powerful expression of thirty-first century warfare, the vast majority of the
great militaries of the Inner Sphere and Periphery are comprised of conventional Combat Vehicles (often called vees). Widely
varied in speed, armor, firepower and mission roles, Combat Vehicles are also cheaper to build and maintain, and enough of
these "common" units can even overwhelm an unprepared BattleMech regiment in the right hands. Even the Clans, who largely
disdain Combat Vehicles on general principles, have come to respect the potential of these units, and have begun to develop
an ever-widening range of such units to supplement their own armed forces.
+Break+
Total RP Turn 9 2991 + 1 Year 1 Months
36 RP 12×3 Ute Factory
24 RP 12×2 20 Ton Utility Truck Factory
32 RP 16×2 Commando 1B Factory - New Built
RP Bonus Calculation = 0.8 (Indytech 3) + 0.3 (Lyran Bonus) + 0.1 (Economic Treaty) = 1.2
Total RP = 92×1.2 = 110.4