ALJ Chpt 47

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
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==Chapter 47 - A Long Journey==
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1 June 2786
New Avalon (Federated Suns)
"I can only assume this is concerning Mackolla and Lieutenant General Mitchell. It seems the only time you ask for a meeting it concerns them." First Prince John Davion said barely looking up from his desk as he pointed to a chair.
"Yes, Highness. You asked that I monitor them, and they just completed the purchase of Buhallin Military Products. In the last month they sold a Snowden Mining Station to Basantapur Fine Metals so they have quite a cash hoard right now. It seems Gerald Mitchell is a very busy person and he is purchasing or attempting to purchase a very wide range of products and companies. He is still not purchasing any sort of heavy machinery or production equipment that we can find except for whatever a purchased company has left. He does have a purchase offer out to Ulston Armor, their factory was destroyed in 2777 and they do not have the financial resources to rebuild and other offers out to Blow/Hookson Technologies and Newhart Industries, both with destroyed factories." 
"For someone who seems so smart, why does Gerald Mitchell keep targeting companies with basically no factories to take over? So, he gets some employees, a few licenses that he cannot manufacture because he is not purchasing the equipment to build the stuff he has licenses for. But then again, he blows thru cash at an alarming rate with no visible return on investment. Keep watching, but I want to know if they start purchasing production equipment, because that will change the equation." First Prince Davion said
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Thorin (Terran Hegemony)
Christopher Namath watched from his EVA suit as the last Mammoth door was firmly sealed. The movement of Lockheed Galactic to Mackolla would soon begin and it would take almost 8 months to arrive, a trip he was not overly looking forward to since he hated interstellar travel. With new owners, who no one had ever even met it seems, the former heads had taken the money and literally tucked tail and ran. But at least everyone was still drawing a paycheck. He had been given the task of wrangling everything for the move as the last act by those before they tendered their resignations. But, at least he could present his boss with a small surprise. In his task he had combed thru one of the large warehouse complexes that Lockheed Galactic owned or leased and had loaded up 12,000 tons of stored parts and another 19,000 tons of stored production equipment which had been packed away for no telling how many years and literally forgotten about by the higher ups for some reason.
About 300 employees and their families had departed for Mackolla 3 months ago, mainly ground staff but a few of the orbital workers who manned the maintanence slip on weekly shifts. He would be taking the remaining 628 workers and their families on the final journey aboard two contracted Jumpships. Then he could oversee putting everything back together. He was not looking forward to that task at all with stuff stored on three different Mammoth Cargo Dropships.
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