TBntG Chpt 7

==The Bull and the Genie- Chapter 7==
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==The View of Others Eyes==
3022
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===Money Trail===
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“Where is the money going?” Will murmured. He was sitting in his office, all the anti-eves dropping systems on, and he was facing a puzzle. 
“To mechs, sir?”
Will turned to his aide and raised one eyebrow. The younger woman blushed. “TTI opened another Marauder line and they’re buying the entire production run, along with the new vehicle designs.”
“Yes, and even a new aerospace fighter.” That had been kept quiet, but even though Will didn’t have detailed specs, you just couldn’t keep something secret, not when you were starting to field it. Granted, it was overshadowed, pardon the pun, by the first cargo dropships. According to his sources, the Taurians were trying to build up at least three more assembly lines, not for themselves, but for the demands coming from the Lyrans, who were eyeing new Mammoth style dropships with greed and had even offered Taurus some very enticing licensing offers. So had the Free Worlds League and the Combine. The only ones being frozen out were the Capallens and Davions. 
“But here’s the problem,” Will called up the graphs. “Here’s the money they’ve been spending, both official numbers and our estimates. Here’s the money they’ve been pulling in. Here’s the money they’re spending on those six shiny new Battlemech regiments, to say nothing of their support units. And here’s the difference.”
“That is… a lot of money.”
“Yes. Now if this was say, the Marians, I would expect to find that they’re building a 1:1 replica of Rome, only in gold. But it isn’t. The Concordat’s corruption numbers are equal to or better than most of the Inner Sphere. We’ve seen some increased funding in education, especially basic education. Because Comstar is offering it’s humanitarian aid there, yes, thank you everyone, as always honey works better than vinegar.
“Saving it—no, that wouldn’t work. If they were sitting on that kind of surplus, they’d have to be spending it, they’re not stupid enough to fail to realize the economic issues.” Stacy bit her lip. “And they’re not just dumping into the economy. We’d see the inflationary impact.”
“And most Taurian economists have “inflation” next to “Satan” in their bibles.” Will nodded. “That is a lot of money and it’s going somewhere. Stacy, it’s time for you to learn an important truth about Comstar.”
“Our role in protecting the Inner Sphere?” 
“No. Why interns exist to be abused. We have a bunch of bright young things who are getting tired of running tours in the petting zoo, so we’re going to give them their chance to shine!”
“Doing what?”
“Going over every financial record we can lay our hands on for the last five years. We’re seeing this now, but this kind of money doesn’t just appear out of nowhere.”
“Yes sir.” Stacy paused. “I really had expected more action.”
“Well, Elliot Ness had fun busting up speakeasies, but remember, it was the IRS that got Al Capone.”
Stacy sighed. “Now I’m going to have to go into the history section to figure out what you just said. Thank you, sir.”
“Just don’t take it out on the Interns… too much.”
When Stacy left, Will turned and looked out of his window, after depolarizing it. The clouds over the city were illuminated, the roads by the compound full of people enjoying their evening.
Please don’t be playing Inner Sphere games. Be smarter than that.
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===Fox Analysis the Bull's Developments===
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"War Games," First Prince Hanse Davion said. 
"Yes." Quintus Allard said. The images were playing out on the big screen in the briefing room. A Concordat flight of Victory fighters stooped over a range, unleashing hell from their bombs, while below, Mechs and vehicles advanced firing low powered lasers to mimic guns. Here and there white painted "referee" hover craft darted across the field. 
"Our sources believe they may have as many as four regiments of new mechs. New mechs." 
"They've been rolling in the money," Hanse said, trying not to frown. Friendly relations or not, the Lyran businessmen would only sell exports to the FedSuns at enough of a markup to tell the Taurians they were soaking the Suns. 
"Yes, but it's not just four regiments of mechs. Each regiment has been practicing with two regiments of armor, and two of infantry, with other units added and subtracted as needed—it looks like they're still keeping artillery and battlefield engineers at a higher level."
"An RCT?" 
Quintus nodded. "Not just that, but these war games have involved full scale operations—they embarked from Taurus, jumped to the drill site, and then did a full press invasion." 
Hanse leaned back and whistled. Even for them, that cannot have been inexpensive. 
"So what is your opinion?"
"Well, until this week, the staff was divided. Some thought this was trying to a more flexible defensive operational plan, other's argued that the TDF is finally trying to develop an offensive capability."
"Which they've never had." Hanse nodded. Even before the Reunification War, the TDF had been focused on defense first, expeditionary warfare second. 
"Well, this week we got new information. First of all, their new ground combat vehicles are mostly fuel cell powered, more expensive than internal combustion engines, but…"
"But anywhere there's water, you can crack it and fuel them. A nice compromise if you can't afford fusion power plants." 
"But that wasn't what convinced me. Well three things convinced me. We just got the AAR's from our sources, and just over 20 percent of the officers have been transferred or demoted due to what these exercises showed. These aren't staged events, they're really hammering their people."
"Where are the transfers going?"
"Back to the older units."
Which aren't involved in these exercises. Are they trying to cut loose a real mobile force? 
"And the other thing," Quintus said. He handed an image. It was poor quality, not that Hanse would ask where it had come from. But…
"Is that a jumpship with a…"
"Pod. No internal look, but we got a dock worker who was talking about it. 100,000 displacement tons, and mostly dedicated to cargo, along with a tug attachment."
"This is… brilliant." Hanse stared at it. Once you secured the space, this could hold more material than a dozen overlords. Supplies, spares, hell, even extra mechs. And it wouldn't tie up a JumpShip. "I wonder why nobody thought of it."
"That's what most of my analysts said, only with a lot more profanity." Quintus shook his head. "But this isn't by accident. Now for the last thing." He put out a last page on Hanse's desk. Hanse tared at it. It was a topographical map of Tortuga Prime.
"Every unit has been getting monthly updates about Tortuga, along with updated maps."
"Do you have someone in their command staff?"
"If I did, I'd ask for a raise. I have someone in the janitorial services and evidently a few of their officers find shredding and burning classified materials too boring for their exalted position. I think they're going for Tortuga, and in a big way. That presents an issue. Michael. 
Hanse sighed. Michael's tendency to allow mercenary and pirate units to "accidentally" stray over the border had been a growing problem, especially after the Taurians started linking up with the Lyran business interests. Hanse had cracked down, but there were still cases of inexplicable "failures" of communication or action. 
He'll use this. Claim I'm ignoring the March and letting the Taurians get ready to invade. Which was idiotic. A war would go only one way and Thomas knew that. Which meant…
"Quintus, I'm going to issue orders, not just to Michael, but directly to every command in the march. No attacks into Taurian space. All units are to remain on the defensive, and no right of pursuit is granted without my direct authorization."
"He'll claim you're overreaching."
"That's fine. I have too many irons in the fire to deal with a war with the current apple of the Lyran Stock Exchange's eye."
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