Excerpt from Battletech Dropships and Jumpships
By 2123, progress in FTL engineering had brought down the costs of the Kearny-Fuchida hyperdrive by a factor of 100 .
JumpShips and interstellar travel suddenly became feasible for private organizations and corporations . Also, because FTL technology was developed in the public domain, any private corporation with sufficient resources could build a JumpShip . This led to the furious production of and demand for these massive interstellar transports.
As colonization fever seized Terrans of all races and places, the ancient phrase of "Manifest Destiny" rose as the most popular theme of the times . New colonies sprang up almost monthly . while existing colonies continued to attract new groups of hopeful Terrans on a regular basis .
This explosion of journeys to the stars showed no sign of abating until disaster struck in 2128 . In April of 2128, the FTL colony ship Liberator jumped out-system . carrying hundreds of eager colonists to a new world . The vessel never arrived at its destination point and was never heard from again.
In the wake of the disaster, the Alliance Parliament passed a law restricting and regulating colonization activity . From that time on . all colony ships were required to have an escort from the newly formed Terran Space Navy . Also . all colonization efforts were henceforth placed under the control of the Alliance's foreign ministry . At the same time, Alliance appointed administrators were sent to each colony and given ruling authority as colonial governors .
+Break+
~The factories above my head are like stars~ I sung out loud as I looked upwards.
The cluster of stars was, indeed, not an actual star. Shocking, I know.
Dozens of Jumpship factories in production, 5 of my own were finished and the manufacture of my Primitive Jumpships was in motion.
I grinned.
Any young man or woman looked up at the stars and wondered to themselves 'what would it be like to, just once, leave the surface of my planet and journey to new and exciting worlds?'
I could answer that question now with my jumpships.
Soon, the many millions, possibly billions of youths in the Commonwealth would ask that question and receive the answer 'would you like to see?'
I grinned.
"Graf Vu, are you ready for our meeting?" The voice of the auditor filled my ears.
I turned and grinned at him, "more than ready my good man. Let's do this."
I beamed widely.
I loved auditors, they always told me how I was ticking every box asked of me. I remembered the last few times my school had been audited and I just said 'have at it', and lo and behind, I was doing my job properly.
Hahaha.
Loved my audits.
I sit down at the desk on the other side of him, he looks at me as I look at him.
"So, my books are yours. How can I help." I say to him, my cheeks aching from the smiling they were doing.
+Break+
Angel Messervy looked across the table at what must be the most gullible industrialist in the Inner Sphere.
He did not use those words lightly. In fact, if he had to be honest with himself, he used them with a great deal of guilt.
After all, he wasn't just an Auditor for the Lyran Commonwealth's Bureau of Statistics. He was, also, a part time member of the Molehunters. The Lyran Commonwealth's counter-espionage division. What better way to get into every possible nook and cranny than to be an auditor?
It was normal, after all, for institutions to be worried when a single individual emerges who proves himself able to adjust the status quo.
Breaking it even.
Not quite at the level of shattering, but it was getting there.
Granted, when he had been sent here it was a matter of adjustment or cracking, a few percentage points of difference here and there, but that was enough to have someone like him sent out.
Not it was vital for him to get information, but, more importantly, make sure that Graf Vu kept doing it and stayed safe while doing so.
Unfortunately he couldn't exactly say it outright, it would not be acceptable for him as an auditor to say these things lest it construed as a threat.
Having spoken with the man for a while now… he knew he had his work cut out for him.
He looked down at the paperwork in front of him, the records that had been written with mechanical precision s perfect that he had been considering if they were fraudulent.
"First, thank you for your time Graf Vu."
"You're welcome." The reply came with a beaming smile.
Angel felt the urge to facepalm.
The man was too innocent. You did not smile at auditors like this, you were meant to be scared of them!
"Second, when it says here your salary is $100,000 Kroner, are you taking any income from dividends or shares?" Angel started with the serious inquiry.
"Nope, I get a salary from the business and that's it. A quarter of the business is owned by House Randolph but that's pretty much it. Other than that, bits and pieces here but, like, I'm the majority business owner so that's pretty settled. Don't need to worry about someone coming in and taking over the company you know?" Graf Vu replied, his words expanding on areas that Angel wasn't ready to touch yet without a great deal of buildup.
The ownership of a corporation was sensitive after all, but, again, Huu Vu was willing to say whatever, whenever like it wasn't a major issue.
Like he was just sharing it because he couldn't help himself.
It was just an opening question! Why did he need to share everything?
"All of your production is accounted for? There may be those that will attempt to gain access to unregistered machines." He continued.
"Yup. Got Maxxy settling all the military hardware stuff for the Utes and the 20 Tonners. Gonna be upgrading myself to Minor World in a bit so that I can start adding military to my house guard. Been told that I need to worry about that, did you know that? Like, I need to have a security detail because people want to kidnap me? Me? Didn't need to worry about that last year let me tell you! Anyway, no big deal, got Maxxy dealing with it. "
Angel felt the urge to facepalm again.
"No, I didn't, my sympathies."
"No, no, it's just, like, first world problems you know? Ha, look at me complaining that I'm so successful people want to kidnap me."
"Yes. In any case, Military production, I see that Hauptmann-General von Randt is receiving a large portion of it. The LCAF would be glad about this I am sure. " Angel continued, trying to stop this man from saying too much. He already knew that he was clean of any link to external forces as the first checks had been focused on. Lacking a direct link to the Combine, Free Worlds League, or even coalitions in the Estates General that might have been bankrolling him.
No, it was just one man's efforts and his untiring work that had gotten him this far.
"Well, yeah. He's the one that got me the Griffin 1S and Commando 1D blueprints. Said that he was requisitioning them for the good of the Commonwealth."
Ah.
Well.
That was for someone else to follow up on.
Technically within his power as Militia Commander, Hauptmann-General von Randt still should have followed protocol, gotten himself in contact with the Archon, and then have the Archon issue the requisition. Instead he had gone straight to the requisition and ruffled a great deal many feathers indeed.
Not the relevant part though, he was trying to hint to this man, outside of his role as auditor, that he would very much be well served to have a proper security apparatus in place.
"I understand. This Jumpship manufacturing hub of yours, you are aware that the current mining corporations will not be able to fully supply the number of Jumpship cores that you are attempting to build yes?" He asked.
"If they were full cores." Graf Vu said, looking back at him with a smile.
"Full cores?" The auditor in him replied back. He didn't exactly need this information, but he did want to know where the Germanium would be coming from. After all, there would be several shiploads of the stuff arriving… but that was nowhere near enough for the dozens of ships in production.
"Yeah. Full cores… ah, I forgot to say the rest of the sentence. The problem would only be one if we were working with a full core that would let you jump 30 Light Years. At that point you need a 99.95% pure core and the core would make up the majority of the mass of your ship. However, I'm working with an impure core that is an alloy mix of Titanium, Germanium and a few other metals. Which means that I can afford to have the core be smaller, lighter, and more importantly use a lot less Germanium to make one. It is limited to 20 Light Years but 20 is plenty for the vast majority of worlds in the Commonwealth." The industrialist continued, bombarding him with knowledge that he didn't think he would need to know about. But now that he did, well, he couldn't unlearn it.
The report would certainly be interesting, why weren't other corporations doing this he wondered.
Surely the shipyards of the Commonwealth could have done this with their institutional knowledge.
An inquest might be in order.
It would be… a danger that would need to be addressed. All this valuable infrastructure in a single place would be a tempting target to say the least.
"I'm going to get to the point here Graf Vu. Your actions have had a ripple effect on the rest of the Commonwealth, I'm sure that you can understand. There are those inside and outside that might take affront to this." The Graf did not look surprised by this information. In fact, his face was completely placid… he might have not actually understood what Angel had just told him.
"I haven't killed anyone." Graf Vu said abruptly.
"Ah. I mean, I haven't done anything illegal or dubiously legal or morally grey, and I definitely haven't killed anyone." The Graf continued, his lips and tongue tripping over the words coming out of his mouth.
Angel sighed, this man's way with words would have been hysterical if he had been on the sidelines.
He wasn't.
He was right here listening to half-formed sentences that always, always, sounded worse than they needed to because the end would be what came out of his mouth and not the beginning. He didn't know if that was a talent or the man was doing it on purpose.
He also wasn't addressing the point, his mind clearly wandering off to somewhere that Angel had no reference to.
"That is not entirely the point Graf Vu. The point is that your work has changed the region around Tetersen for the better. Specifically, I have been sent here to investigate how you have managed this. Black Economy Industries, industries that exploit the natural resources of the planet they are on have reduced by a significant single digit percentage point. On the other hand, Green Economy Industries have increased by a significant single digit percentage point-"
"Oh, you mean renewables!" The Graf cut him off, fist hitting his palm in triumph.
"Not quite Graf, I mean the fusion engines that you produce have caused a reduction in polluting industries as people have started to use them as power generators. There may be those that find that objectionable."
"Ah." The Graf looked crestfallen at being wrong before he perked up again and beamed. "Ha, I know what that means. Human civilisation is based on how much power is available to a single household at a single time. Fusion energy means that more people can do more work and increase their standard of living!" He beamed at Angel.
Angel nodded back slowly.
Correct.
He was actually surprised that the man knew about that equation, it wasn't like many people read these books for fun. He wasn't surprised that he had managed to ignore the not-so-subtle hint he had laid down.
"Gat's a pretty good author."
Angel ignored the topic, he didn't need that right now.
Actually, why not.
Why not go down that rabbit hole?
"Azar Gat?"
"Hmmm? Oh right, author. He wrote about why humans have conflict with each other. People started fighting because they wanted resources. Those resources were like, arable land since that was the most efficient method of converting energy into sustenance. Then that changed as factories developed and fertilisers became widespread, so now people fight over factories. The problem of course being that fighting over the land a factory is on will cause the factory to be destroyed resulting in a net negative for the nation as whole which is a contravention of how war used to work where a few lives spent in war was worth it for more land. Anyway if you've got fusion energy, the pressure to expand for land is reduced which is a big deal right?" Graf Vu kept talking and Angel kept thinking to himself that this man was more suited to be a scholar than to be an industrialist.
How widely read was he to be able to say all of this at the age of 24?
"That was very informative. Thank you." Was all he could say.
"You're welcome."
Angel refrained from pointing out that the thank you was perfunctory and did not necessitate a thank you.
"In any case, your work with the fusion powered engines has proved to be… extremely fruitful for the Lyran Commonwealth. The standard of living has increased by a measurable percentage across every world within 2 jumps of Tetersen. For that you have the Commonwealth's thanks."
"Thanks. I'm happy to help. The System will produce regardless but if I can help, well, I will." Graf Vu replied with a wide smile.
Angel felt that it would be better to have this conversation with someone that could read the subtle hints he was trying to put down.
Someone like a chief of security or someone that knew what a veiled threat was when they received it.
Maybe he should talk to that Andrews lady, the one that appeared as if she dealt with all the human issues that Graf Vu couldn't comprehend.
+Break+
I looked at the blueprints. When the Jumpship factories were finished I was going to be a rich man indeed, assuming my mathematics was right this time.
It turned out that a DC3 was not, in fact, cheaper than an Atlas.
I, uh, may have misplaced a few zeroes.
Just a few.
In any case, that was totally a human error that plenty of other humans had problems with and I was going to have around 1000 RP in the next turn.
I was also, according to Christine, going to be at extreme threat from people who really wanted the jumpships up in space and Mount Utility destroyed because I was creating too much new stuff and they wanted not so much new stuff.
Sucks to be them then.
I have the System.
If the Nazis in World War 2 proved anything, it is that with enough willpower (I have the System), specialised knowledge (I have the System), workers (I have the System), and political will (I have the System), then any damage can be repaired and any facility can be brought back into action.
Just ask what happened to the Oil Refineries of the Third Reich. Well, more specifically, the Synthetic Oil Plants which, despite nearly weekly raids by the allies where thousands of tons of bombs were dropped onto the plants… they were often back in operation within a few weeks.
It wasn't until the Luftwaffe's aircraft were swept from the sky in the leadup to D-Day that the bombers could get in closer and drop their bombs more accurately.
Regardless, the plant never stopped its production.
Even if it was slowed to a trickle.
And, I'm going to be honest here.
I'm a stubborn piece of shit.
I acknowledge this.
Thus, I will use my 1000 RP to build so many fucking jumpship factories that no matter how many nuclear warheads they manage to sneak in, I will still produce more jumpship factories than they can destroy!
"Um, sir. You're shouting."
Ah.
Sorry Christine.
"Sorry Christine."
"What do you mean that you are going to keep building jumpship factories?" She asked.
"Well, I was thinking that no matter how much sabotage is done to the jumpship factories above us, I'm going to make sure that no matter what, jumpships will keep coming off those lines." I told her, looking up at the sky, at the constellation of lights above.
"Well, perhaps we should focus on some defences and counter-espionage first." She said.
"Ah. Right. We could do that." I said.
A bit of a shame that I couldn't, you know, pit my stubborness against this hypothetical saboteur's willpower and willingness to commit bodies and bombs to the problem.
I could, I suppose, I tried not to sigh, build fortifications and stuff.
Bleh.
I support for 250 RP I'll just put a Capital Fortification on Mount Utility.
Then I'll put a Capital Fortification around the jumpship factories.
Then, according to the rules, after 5 turns and 5 upgrades I would have an impregnable fortress that could only be impregnated by espionage.
Impregnated? That's the right word right?
Opposite of impregnable would be pregnable and pregna is short for pregnant right?
Oh, and I needed to upgrade to Minor Industrial World so I could, you know, turn the production of my factories to building my own Combat Commands.
Hmmmm.
I could create infantry through, I don't think this System really cared about infantry.
Stupid really, infantry were the queens of the battlefield after all. Without infantry you can't take territory and enforce your political will on your defeated foes.
If you can't enforce your will on your defeated foes, why were you even fighting a war?
In any case, 6 RP to create an Infantry Regiment, 5 RP to create an Artillery Regiment.
I will be making a few of those next turn… wait. I need to be a Minor World First… what is with this baiting System!?
Oh.
Woops.
I was trying to create 'Assault' Infantry. Which were, like, mechanised and needed dedicated production.
But I could create regular foot infantry, and then, well, it wasn't the System's problem if I handed them Utes to move around in right?
Yeah.
That would work.
But, before all of that.
I needed to finish my factories.
I needed Aerospace to keep them safe in the sky.
I needed infantry to keep them safe on the ground until I could build my own mechs.
I needed time in other words.
I looked up.
If there was one resource that the System couldn't hand me, it was time.
"You're not alone here Huu. Don't forget that the Clan is behind you. We're your biggest investors after all, especially with how we're going to get married." Christine… said…
Wait what?
Seriously?
What?
No no, think Huu, think.
Why were we getting married?
Waaaait.
Think.
Think.
Dammit, don't lie to yourself Huu, it was when you said it might as well be her right?
Did I say that?
No no, it was when I said 'can't you do it?'
Ah.
Yeah, that's on me.
Okay.
Problem, I proposed by accident.
No, the problem is that Christine thought it was real.
No no, the problem is mine for not being clear, Christine has a slight problem for taking what I said and thinking it meant can't she marry me. I meant can't she vet them for me.
Did I say that?
No?
Fuck.
Okay, okay, problem.
Is it though?
She's beautiful.
Well.
Now that I think about, she is, like… human.
That's flattering right?
She's human, I recognise her face, which is more than I can say for like… literally 99.95% of other humans.
Would she be so bad?
Well, no, she's like… a great person.
Like, someone who deserved someone who could actually understand her.
Aaaaaaaah.
But she's cute and like it would be pretty great to be with her more right?
Okay.
Like.
I need to actually talk to her.
Yeah.
My brain is great at internal monologue and all, but she can't exactly peer into it can she?
Right.
Need to talk to her so that we can get common ground. Conversation is the most important part of a relationship, even if you aren't sure what the relationship you have is.
"Christine, we, um, kind of need to talk." I say.
"I know. I realised it after a while, but you didn't actually mean to propose to me did you?" She said back.
"Well, I mean, no? Like, I meant for you to vet the ladies, but, like, I'm not saying you're bad or anything. Like, you're pretty amazing actually, and, like, you totally deserve to be with someone that can appreciate that… and, like, you don't have to if you don't want to? Like. I'm not opposed to it, like, you're cute and-" I see a hand raised up cutting me off.
"You don't need to keep going. Haha, I know how hard this can be for you. I'll just say that I'm not opposed to it either. The interest of the Clan and well, the Utility Corporation overlap here. You're based on Tetersen and we lead Tetersen, if you married anywhere else it would be a major threat to the Duchy. Just imagine another Duke on Tetersen but whose workers belong to another Duchess. I was told to find a way to head off that threat you know? If we get married then it's not a problem." She said.
Ah?
Well, enlightened self interest is a good enough reason as any I suppose. I mean, there is a slight pain in my chest which is telling me that I'm actually a little emotionally hurt by it… but, it's rational. Rational. Right.
"And, well, I wouldn't be opposed to it either. You're a good person Huu. No matter how much you don't understand other people, you try. When you move automatically to help someone that's fallen down, or how you never belittle someone when you discipline them, or how you make sure everyone has enough to eat and enough time to rest. You care, even if you can't recognise it. I think we could work together. We would be very happy I think, especially if we continue to talk out our problems like we are now." She continued.
Ah?
I'm a good guy?
Really?
That's, like, the first time anyone has ever told me that.
She's not opposed to it?
Um.
Ah.
No, I'm not emotionally ready for this!
Ha!
I'm a good guy!
+Break+
Total RP Turn 10 2991 + 1 Year 2 Months
36 RP 12×3 Ute Factory - 3x1.5 Regiments per Factory per Turn (108 vehicles)
24 RP 12×2 20 Ton Utility Truck Factory - 2x1.5 Regiments per Factory per Turn (108 vehicles)
32 RP 16×2 Commando 1B Factory - 2x7.5 Battlemechs per turn
24 RP 12×2 Griffin 1S Factory - Newly Built - 2×5 Battlemechs per turn
~12 RP 12×1 Eagle R6 Factory - Being Built~
~12 RP 12×1 Irrawaddy Factory - Being Built~
~12 RP 12×1 Margaret Factory - Being Built~
~12 RP 12×1 Una Factory - Being Built~
~24 RP 12×2 DC3 Factory - Being Built~
RP Bonus Calculation = 0.8 (Indytech 3) + 0.3 (Lyran Bonus) + 4.4 (Economic Treaty) = 5.6
Total RP = 116×1.2 = 139.2