MBMSFS Chpt 5

==Manufacturing a Blueprint for a More Stable Federated Suns‎‎ - Chapter 5 - - Get yo Re-Charge On -==
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===Taking Stock what Has been Found So Far===
[Arthur Corean]
[St. Helen's Class Recharge Station, Corean Gem]
[Zenith Jump Point, Petrolia System; Federated Suns]
[March 3rd, 3027]
It had been two weeks since we arrived at the Petrolia system, and two weeks since I had been introduced to the freshly renamed "Corean Gem", which was a large St. Helen's-Class Recharge Station designed by StarHab Industries- the same company that built the Olympus-class stations seen over the major capitol planets in the Inner Sphere. Even after almost four centuries, the Olympus in the New Avalon system was still operational, but the St. Helen's was half the size and built a little bit differently. It was designed with the less populated but still important systems in mind- agricultural and mining worlds that had lower populations but were still vitally important to the Terran Hegemony that consumed food and raw materials by the gigaton.
Petrolia had been selected as one of these systems, a fresh off the assembly line St. Helens earmarked for their use and delivered because the Star League and the Hegemony were going to invest untold amounts of cash into it. It had four worlds in the system, with one similar to Venus that would be terraformed to become a breadbasket world, with Petrolia II being the garden world primed for manufacturing and agriculture... not that the League would develop it for any reason other than to serve as a rest stop- they had all of the manufacturing they could ask for in the Hegemony. 
 
Really, it was Petrolia III and IV that were the main draws for the League in the Petrolia system.
 
Those two planets were relatively close to II, only a fifth and a quarter days burn past the second planet in the system, which put them 7.2 and 7.25 days away from the Zenith or Nadir Jump Points.
 
From the Star League surveys done, which were followed up by the Federated Suns a few decades later, the planets were chock full of valuable raw materials. Though not Germanium, because if they did the system would be wealthier beyond its wildest dreams and I wouldn't have even considered asking for the landhold because someone else would have already claimed it.
 
However, the coup that Stefan Amaris launched in 2766 fucked up those carefully laid plans, which essentially left the 40,000 initial settlers on Petrolia II stranded, and the Recharge station derelict as their SLDF officers either joined the fight or joined Kerensky's exodus in the decade that followed.
 
Of course, they weren't literally stranded, as DropShip and JumpShip traffic still came by, but the initial mountains of investment that were promised disappeared like thieves in the night- taking the hopes and dreams of the people who came at the behest of the League along with them. Unfortunately, with the Succession Wars that kicked off soon after, the people of the Petrolia system were left to languish for centuries, living a relatively mundane lifestyle as the Federated Suns turned their attention outward and investors decided that their money could be better spent elsewhere. 
 
Only the Duchy of Sodus, the next closest system- a single jump away- paid them any attention, and even then it was only to show up and collect tithes.
 
However, now that the system had gained status as an actual Duchy and had a noble Duke to look after them? Those fortunes would change, and I already had plans to meet with the Mayor of Yubara City once I was finished here with the Recharge station... and my discussions with the engineers and crews from the Olympus recharge station that Hanse had loaned me. Federated-Boeing had a sizeable team on site as well since they're the foremost manufacturer of JumpShips in the Federated Suns, and until I arrived they were relying on their expertise to get the station back up and running.
 
Given the station only had enough fuel on board for station keeping for 93 years, I was surprised to find out that the Davion family had been sending out refueling vessels every so often to keep the tanks topped off, but considering this was a $5.3 Billion C-Bill asset I suppose it made sense to stop it from falling into the system's star; even if they couldn't make use of it now, that didn't mean it wouldn't become useful eventually. 
 
Why, who knows? Maybe one day a rich CEO might want a Duchy and would be willing to pay through the nose to get it back up and operational?
 
Lol. Lmao.
 
Thankfully Hanse hadn't asked me to pay the station's value, the Prince merely wanted priority on its Lithium Fusion batteries for AFFS traffic, and should the station itself ever be needed, to use its exceptionally impressive capability to make five back-to-back jumps to ferry DropShips in a quick fashion. Or recharge up to a dozen JumpShips at a much faster rate.
 
So, it could be 'deputized' at any moment, but that was fine given the simple fact that such a thing was more often than not very necessary; getting a whole RCT to a planet under assault in the Capellan or Draconis Marches in record time was just too good to pass up. Given that Petrolia was going to one day become a major, if not one of the largest manufacturing systems in the Federated Suns if I had anything to say about it... having more secure worlds between me and the enemy was worth losing the Corean Gem for a few months at a time. 
 
So during the last two weeks, I had been shadowing Douglas McCaffery and Seamus O'Finnan, the two senior engineers and designers from Federated-Boeing's team, and Captain Herold Rawlins, the 2IC for the Olympus-Class over New Avalon's star. The many hours spent learning the ins-and-outs of the electrical systems, jump drive, lithium fusion batteries, life support systems, and all of the important electrical, mechanical, and computational components of the ship. I wasn't an expert in the ship or its systems by any means, but my multiple Engineering Certifications and general experience meant that I could easily follow along with the particulars of every conversation.
 
I even got to put my Star League programming experience to work by helping re-write important programs, such as the repair bay door control systems, whose battery backups had gone empty over the centuries of disuse and failed to boot properly. Of course, I used a spare from the Olympus-class as a template, but it felt good to be doing actual tech and development work even if I was away from my office and labs. It helped keep my mind off of the gnawing feelings in my gut as I was forced to leave my brother, who was still in school for God's sake, at the helm of the corporation while I handled the jump-start of my new Duchy.
 
Sure, I made sure to have all of my sections hire new, competent workers and start training them up last year in preparation for this, so Yuri should have a plethora of good people to delegate to, but still, and older brother worries when his kid brother is nominally the CEO of multi-billion dollar corporation with so many irons in the fire the offices could be mistaken for a smithy. 
 
And speaking of 'irons in the fire' I had more than a few of my own.
 
On the Corean Enterprises side of the house, we were undergoing a MASSIVE restructuring of our buildings and facilities.
 
When Corean had arrived on New Avalon, and Augusta, we had been given a set amount of land to work with. Given the sheer scale a multi-national corporation worked at, especially one that worked with Battlemechs and supporting equipment, it was naturally a fair amount of land. It meant huge warehouses for raw materials, and huge facilities for component manufacturing, which only expanded as we acquired licenses to build new weapons, vehicles, and 'Mechs. Then we became a go-to corporation for other corporations to outsource some of the busy work, such as communications packages that they didn't want to make, and so we added more facilities to handle those. Then you had the outgoing warehouses that fed the warehouses we owned at the New Avalon Space Port #2.
 
Then as the centuries went on, we purchased more land, expanded our holdings and facilities, and kept on growing until we reached our current limit. 
 
You can imagine that with such leap-frogging over time, the layout of over overall facility was... quite frankly, a mess.
 
A functional mess, as one couldn't stay near the top of the heap like we were by being too inefficient, but there were a whole host of issues with our current 'floor plan'. 
 
For one, it was difficult to defend because everything was structured piecemeal, and different areas required different levels of Corean Security Forces presence, but that led to our force distribution being all over the place. Secondly, it was difficult to navigate, which would be a boon to defend against infiltrators and attackers, but anyone attacking the facility would just be blowing up everything in front of them and then move on to blow up the next thing that they hadn't blown up. In the end, this just inconvenienced our workers more than anyone else, which led to employees wasting a lot of time just trying to walk from Point A to Point B without getting lost; learning the layout after three or more years on the job shouldn't be a hallmark of a senior employee.
 
Thirdly, we have a LOT of wasted space with huge gaps in between manufacturing facilities that were too big to be empty yet too small to be filled with anything substantial. We were also missing out on double our current real estate or more simply because we didn't have any subterranean structures to make use of the ground beneath our feet. Which given the propensity for city-leveling in this universe, was downright criminal- all it would take for my family's life's work here on New Avalon to be destroyed is a single Company of 'Mechs and a few dozen minutes. Granted we had a whole battalion of 'Mechs here to defend the place, but when all you needed was a handful of medium lasers to punch through a glass building then that can do just as good a job at 'leveling' the place as walking through it would.
 
Fourthly was security and defensibly. 
 
I know, that was point number one, but it bears repeating. 
 
Our most important facilities were all spread out through the Corean Enterprises manufacturing complex, which meant that our teams were so far apart that they could not mutually support each other, neither infantry nor 'Mechs. That wasn't even taking into consideration the electronics factories we had within Baroness Moore's domain.
 
Lastly, was logistics and personnel flow. If you were the driver of a flatbed laden with refined steel ingots for construction, then your typical delivery path took you from one end of the compound to another, and back again. Multiple times over. Compared to the much more elegantly laid out Dimurot facility across the highway from us, even if we were much more massive than them, the number of kilometers our logistics teams had to drive comparatively was criminal. That meant delivery slowdowns, more wear and tear on the vehicles, and essentially wasted man hours. 
 
The less said about how far one of our floor factory workers walked each day the better... though I will say that one of my older female employees commented that she had to replace her safety shoes at least once a month she walked so much. That? That is unsatisfactory.
 
So I hired some Workflow and Efficiency consultants, some real 'Fung Shui' types, except for business, and I had a handful of managers shadow them with me as we walked every. Single. Factory.
 
The guys and gals apart of the firm were true professionals. They followed employees, counted their steps, clocked the amount of time it took for them to handle jobs at their stations, and generally walked around the buildings for breaks, lunch, and the clock-in/clock-out. They used that information to build a 'heat map' with charts and graphs to show just how much time was wasted in our facility, and after paying them a 'service fee', compared our facility flow to rival corporations they worked with in the past.
 
We weren't the worst, but we were far from the best.
 
Which was naturally unacceptable to me. 
 
So armed with that information, we sat down with two major construction firms in New Avalon, Hetzman Subterranean and Bauer Construction Corp, both highly rated above and below-ground firms that had collaborated on numerous projects in the past, and got to work. It cost me $5 Billion Pounds to get the work started, which was only a quarter of the total bill, but we financed it through the AFFS' Military Procurement Board via a loan through the Prince's generous construction subsidy program; given that we were in that program, we got to write off 20% of the costs on our taxes, and the AFFS paid for the other 20% in cash directly to the construction corporations involved. Though it was important to lock these rates in now because, in a few years, I was certain that ComStar would still do their HPG fuckery to mess with Operation RAT; having a firm fixed price usually favors the builders, but in this case it would save me money because the HPG Interdiction would cost everyone a lot of damn money.
 
Given that this total rebuild would take almost five years to complete, a short amount of time given I'd contracted two firms instead of one, it only made sense to protect myself and my company.
 
I would make it up to them by giving them plenty of work on Petrolia II, III, and IV when it came time to begin setting those facilities up.
 
So with the reconstruction plan finalized and underway, we had to start playing Tetris with our standing, undemolished facilities, and shuffle the manufacturing and assembly lines around. Only the Battlemech facilities would remain untouched for now, as we needed to have the new, larger manufacturing warehouses set up to receive their lines. By the end of year three, we should have expanded, and automated Centurion, Trebuchet, Valkyrie, and Marauder lines finished. 
 
As it turns out, when you can print Andosteel frames for heavy machinery to spec, the time it takes to set up new plants goes down drastically depending on how many Augusta Process machines you can set up; more AP printers = more production capacity.
 
Who knew? Lol.
 
The first new manufacturing facility to go up, however, will be the Sun Chaser Scout Tank. Our boys believed that we could make at least 400 a year with a small automated warehouse, and I agreed. So we had the ground broken at the end of last year for three heavily reinforced subterranean floors below ground to handle Andosteel and Henan crystal production; the Augusta Process machines would print the frames, and the Henan crystal process machines would make the cockpit glass, and the glass needed for the electronics packages. 
 
The top floor would produce the communications packages, the next floor below would build the target & tracking systems, the floor under that the odds and ends (electronic harnesses, coolant lines, pumps, tanks, upholstery, controls), the floor beneath them the weapons and heat sinks, and the next floor up from the ground made the heavier stuff including the armor plating, treads, linkages, etc, etc, etc. Then the ground floor is where everything would come together, with Andosteel frames being placed on the assembly line on one end... and completely constructed, fully functional Scout Tanks rolling off the other end.
 
The volume of the components was carefully designed to be able to overflow by 10% so that if there were shortages elsewhere then 'like items'- comms/target &tracking/heatsinks/weapons- could be shuffled where needed or even shipped off-world to other plants. This had the side-effect of costing us more because we had to make the equipment to make the items, but what it did do was ensure that each facility was an island unto itself. Completely self-contained and self-sufficient.
 
In a typical factory, if the single Heat Sink plant experienced a 'Stop Work' call for whatever reason, then everyone was affected by it. The same with the electronics packages, armor manufacturing, and weapons plants. Unless there was a sufficient supply of established components, which there usually was not, then one slow-down could affect the entire operation.
 
With this layout, however, it meant that only one facility was down, and even then, with the overflow potential of all other facilities, it meant that we could keep churning out completed products no matter what! 
 
This whole restructuring program cut down the used space in my complex by 75% as we would no longer have facilities spanning entire football stadiums with spaces in between. Instead, our new facilities would be below ground and many floors above ground. This would free up space for more Anti-Assault defenses, including higher and thicker walls, more turret emplacements, and more hangars for more Corean Security. I also needed the space to run a small airfield for VTOLS and Aerospace fighters because by the end of it all Corean Enterprises would have so much value concentrated in one place that it would warrant a whole Regiment worth of Security Forces to guard it.
 
I had plans for a whole RCT-sized security team with a Regiment of BattleMechs, three Regiments of Armor, two Wings of VTOLs, a Wing of conventional air breathing CAS and Interceptors, and five Regiments of Infantry. 
 
I would have thought that Hanse would be worried about having such a massive concentration of force here. Instead, he simply smiled and patted me on the shoulder before telling me that he was happy that this entire Industrial Sector would be so well defended that he wouldn't need to have AFFS beak away from the population centers or more important military targets to defend it. 
 
I had been a touch put off about accepting such a task, but given my factory represented the largest concentration of force in this sector- outside of the small House Guards surrounding us- every other factory within a twenty-five-kilometer radius had at best some APCs, a handful of tanks, and maybe a few Security 'Mechs. The sector represented over two hundred billion Pounds of manufacturing capacity, and while the AFFS was duty-bound to defend it, having my expanded RCT format on hand would allow the fighting men and women to focus on the people and the enemy instead of having to choose between two bad options.
 
They could also be deputized by the Federated Suns to act as Riot Police and strikebreakers, defending the plants from an enraged citizenry for whatever reason, but it was put down in no uncertain terms that if we were deputized for such a task then we'd be the last resort.
 
It was a huge responsibility, but he threw plenty of C-Bills at me, more than a handful of retiring AFFS officers, and created a program for soldiers, tankers, and pilots looking to continue their profession in a stable environment on New Avalon. He hoped, and I did too, that it would stem the bleeding the AFFS experienced each year to mercenary commands all around the Inner Sphere for those looking for excellent pay and a less regimented lifestyle. A corporate security force would definitely fit the bill, allowing former soldiers the ability to retain their 'Mech, Armor, and Pilot certifications and stay current. 
 
The only stipulation that I had was there would be no 'double-dipping'. 
 
No moonlighting in the House Guards of the surrounding nobility while working at my plant like a weekend Militia Man- if you were going to work with Corean, then you were going to work with Corean, especially if shit hit the fan. I couldn't have my security teams having split loyalties and have some show up at the call of the local lords and some show up for my company's Muster.
 
A buzz at the entrance to my crew quarters caught my attention, and I looked up from the orbital maps that the Advanced Team had taken of the planet, "Enter."
 
The door opened up and Salim entered my small quarters on the Corean Gem, the mustachioed man smiling rakishly as he leaned up against the bulkhead, "I think that you're going to want to take a break from your work and come with me, Duke Corean."
 
I inhaled deeply as I popped my spine against the back of the swivel chair that had been bolted to the deck before locking out my noteputer terminal. I spun the seat around and grabbed my boots before stuffing my feet into them, "What did they find?"
 
"They managed to crack that frozen bulkhead to one of the medium-sized supply bays," Salim smiled wryly, "It turns out the station isn't as empty as we thought."
 
"Bullshit, my luck is good, but it can't be that good." I muttered to myself as I hopped off the chair and walked toward the door to grab my coat off of the rack- it was rather chilly in this section of the grav deck despite the heaters working overtime- and gestured out.
 
Salim exited and I followed him, making sure to give the two infantrymen guarding my room a nod, though I paused, "Hey boys. There is some New Avalon Black Gold in the storage cupboard on the top right, might as well help yourself to a cup. Just don't touch the terminals."
 
The Private looked pretty excited, but the Specialist hid his enthusiasm a bit better, and I turned quickly to catch up with Salim where I matched his smooth stride- the heels of my boots thumping across the metal decking. I could have stayed in the luxury quarters on the grav deck, but I decided to let the men and women here have priority; I had all of the luxury a man could ask for and more back home. 
 
"So you said they found something? It's not a bunch of LosTech 'Mechs is it?" 
 
Hanse had an advanced team of engineers and experienced spacers long before we had arrived, to check and make sure that she was still worthy to have passengers on board; an errant micrometeorite strike at the right place could have compromised the hull, even if the station had more than sufficient plating to protect it. They powered it back up, identified the sections that had problems after centuries of disuse, and made inspections of the St. Helen's Class' massive cargo holds. All of them were empty, except one door leading to one deck was sealed off- it's magnetic locks energizing and not releasing once power was restored to its section of the ship. 
 
My MIIO Chief shook his head slightly, "No, no. Nothing of the sort. Just weapons, spare parts, and the like. Considering they just restored power to the place after isolating the malfunctioning controller from the system, we haven't had time to even think about conducting a full inventory yet."
 
"It might not have been a malfunction if it was chock-full of Star League shit as you say. They were known to selectively sabotage certain things to keep the less technologically inclined from snooping around," I muttered in response as we started to walk 'up' the sloping grav deck toward the central spine of the recharge station, each step becoming lighter and lighter until we were both pulling ourselves along a guide rail as the gravity dropped to nil, "I trust that a Hazard Team has already cleared it? No chemical, radiological, or biological surprises?"
 
Salim snorted as we reached the primary junction, and he oriented himself sideways before yanking himself down the corridor like a pro, "No one that the Prince has assigned to this venture is an amateur, Duke Corean."
 
"Ouch, fuck," I hissed as I misjudged my pull and ended up bumping my head on a rubberized bulkhead, thankful that the Star League had enough foresight to put safety pads in place for those less experienced in zero-g maneuvering as I was, "Never said anyone was, Mister Mustafa, but it always pays to play it safe. Would hate for someone to get radiation sickness or die screaming as some unholy love-child of ebola and anthrax eats away at their organs."
 
Despite my rather descriptive rant, he nodded with a considering hum, "Even the longest-lasting chemical and biological weapons would have either denatured or died by now; it's been over almost three centuries since this station was abandoned. Even the refueling teams responsible for topping up the tanks and checking to make sure the station-keeping drives remained functional never ventured past the approved routes to and from the command deck."
 
We didn't say much more as it was rather obvious that Salim wanted to keep the surprise a surprise, so instead we floated, drifted, and bobbed down the central spine of the Corean Gem; one of us was as graceful as a swan, the other bumbling like a fool and bumping into things, gaining more than a few more new bruises in the process. 
 
I'll leave it up to the imagination as to who was whom. 
 
I made sure to hug the far wall as we finally came upon a group of Techs who were gathered around a controller hub that had been pulled out of the wall, the trio of men and one woman all floating around it with headlamps on or pen lights clutched between their teeth as a half dozen tools floated gently next to them. As we passed by I heard a few whispered words between them and tilted my head, "Have you checked the Secondary Power Coupling leading from the controller to the mag-locks to see its switch wasn't welded?"
 
The four Techs looked at each other for a moment before one spun around and stuck his head inside the case where the controller hub was once housed, "Son of a bitch, it was welded!"
 
I smirked at Salim as he looked back at me, and I shrugged diffidently, "It's what I would do. If you welded the internal switch to the 'on' position, then if power was restored to the section power would always be applied to keep the mag-locks energized. Then undoing the sabotage is easy- just heat up the switch and remove the solder and voile, the doors are now unlocked. It's a standard SLDF trick."
 
I side-eyed the numerous power cables snaking along the wall that were supplying power to the rest of the cargo bay, bypassing the not-very-sabotaged controller.
 
A pair of AFFS infantrymen were holding place at the bulkhead, the pair with rifles in hand but at the low-ready position, and they snapped me a salute which I returned as we floated past them and into the cargo bay.
 
Bright lights filled the area from the ceiling, and crates upon crates were stacked almost as high with thick tension belts keeping them strapped in place on the deck. A pair of cargo waldos with gripping arms were active, the two maneuvering slightly along the tracks built into the ceiling, and I followed Salim along the back wall where we found a dozen men and women floating with safety leads hooked onto a guard rail overlooking the entire bay.
 
"Ah! Arthur! There you are, my good man!" An older gentleman wearing a bright yellow jacket waved over to me, a pair of spectacle goggles cinched up tightly around his face, "I was wondering if you were going to come inspect the find or not!"
 
Doctor Gerald Beauford was one of Federated-Boeing's Senior Aerospace engineers and the Lead of the Jumpship crew that was here to get the Corean Gem up and running again. The bald man absolutely detested contact lenses and wore those funny prescription goggles everywhere he went while in zero-g, and when we were on the grav decks he always sighed blissfully as he pulled them off and put on the thick, coke bottle glasses he kept in a pouch on his waist. He was blisteringly intelligent, ready and able to talk shop on my level, which for me was a true treat because it was a rare day that I ever had a conversational partner that could give me a real puzzler.
 
Though given my intellect he wasn't able to stump me for too long, at least not when he was always willing to provide me with the tools I needed to solve the problem at hand; he was a nice guy like that, always ready with a formula before handing it off for me to crunch instead of forcing me to crack open a noteputer to search for what I needed.
 
"Gerald! Good to see you," I smiled genuinely as I caught the rail and snapped my safety line to the same bar, making sure to cinch it up tightly so that I could put my feet down on the deck and use the friction to keep me in an 'upright' position, "Very few things can get me out of my lab when I'm up to sweet, sweet science, but something like this? Well, I can make time."
 
"And what could you possibly be doing that is more important than cataloging a cache of Star League tech?" Came a sour, ornery voice from behind him, and a wild splotch of red hair caught my eye.
 
The rest of his team was just as awesome as he was, but there is always one that has to be a constant spoilsport and ruin the party, and that was Michael Collier, a fresh new hire at Fed-Bo with a bright mind... and a big enough head to match.
 
It would be overly dramatic to say that he 'annoyed me because he reminded me of myself when I was his age', so I won't, and that wasn't just because it wasn't true. I was never this much of an asshole to people- I was a quiet lad, perfectly well-behaved. 
 
"Hello to you as well, Mike." I smiled placidly, enjoying the way my always cordial greeting never failed to get the boy hot under the collar.
 
See? Perfectly well-behaved.
 
People just didn't like me because I was always right, not a prick, there is a difference.
 
Michael was smart for a boy his age, only 26 years old, which was rather young to get a Doctoral Certification in any field, let alone one related to JumpShip engineering and construction, but he was inexperienced, with this was his first foray into the wider world of engineering. 
 
He also had yet to wrap his head around the eternal truth that I was just going to be smarter than he was. 
 
The only advantage he had over me was that I just didn't have a background in JumpShips, but my mechanical, structural, and electrical engineering Doctoral Certificates weren't just for show. Even if I didn't know about how they were applied to JumpShip construction, that didn't mean I couldn't learn it, and Gerald was more than happy to teach me when we had our mandated off time.
 
Though most of that time was spent with Horatio and Ismina Waldenburg, the husband and wife dynamic duo who were senior engineers within Fed-Bo's Conventional and Aerospace craft sub-divisions, though they moonlighted on occasion within the Dropship and Jumpship divisions as freelance number crunchers.
 
We had spent the last two weeks going back and forth while spitballing a few designs I wanted to get built, the first of which was a massive order for a new Star Lord Jumpship and six new DropShips to go along with it, and the second and third were for two "Conventional" or air-breathing aircraft that I wanted to stock my future Ducal Guard forces with. 
 
They were awesome people to hang around with if you discounted the way they made doe eyes at each other while we hunched over one of my Star League-era CADputers. 
 
However, I am not 100% certain if it was working with expensive LosTech that got them hot, or just engineering in general that did it. 
 
I wasn't going to ask.
 
"Now, now," Gerald gently chided the boy, "Arthur here is a man of focus! Commitment! Will! He doesn't let himself get easily distracted, and neither should you, Michael- if you stopped running off to chase down every little thought that enters your mind then maybe you could learn a thing or two from Mister Corean."
 
I wanted to roll my eyes at the ass-kissery being blasted on full, but it wasn't as though trying to dissuade him would do any good- not when I was placing a $4.15 Billion C-Bill order right into his lap.
 
Even if I was a fellow man of science and a member of "his team" to get the Corean Gem back up and operational on the First Prince's dime, I was also now a customer, and that dictated a requisite amount of ass-kissing to ensure that the deal could be sealed.
 
That and I was a Duke as well, but we didn't let that stand between us.
 
Michael, much to my surprise, sealed his mouth shut and pouted.
 
I turned my attention back to the sea of crates, which given the layout of the cargo holds in this area, were at least amounting to 10,000 tons worth of equipment if it went all of the way to the back, "So what do we have to thank the Camerons for this time?"
 
A logistician with the AFFS, a Sergeant by his lapel rank, handed me a noteputer that was connected to the terminal and I began scanning down the list.
 
It was a lot of parts, most of which belonged to pre-made Endosteel frames that the AFFS didn't have in their inventories, or at least not in any appreciable amounts. There were also a lot of weapons of the Extended Range variety, from PPCs to Lasers, some Ultra Autocannons, LBX Autocannons, and the like. Star League-era Double Heatsinks, fusion engines, and some Extra Light fusion engines.
 
All of it was supremely important, no doubt, but what truly interested me, however, were the ARROW-IV missile tubes, the missiles that came with them, and the Streak and Artemis-IV packages.
 
And the cavalcade of communications and targeting packages that were still new in the box.
 
Considering the ship belonged to me, all of this bounty belonged to me as well.
 
I nodded, "Salim. Make sure a runner is dispatched to the next JumpShip to arrive in the system- half of this will be going back to Corean and the other half can be useful serving the Prince and the AFFS."
 
"Of course, Duke Corean, I am forever at your service," The man grinned as he looked toward the Captain of the Logistical Corps that had evaded my sight with the throng of personnel, "Captain? You heard the man."
 
"And make sure a pair of examples of the Streak, Artemis, and Arrow systems are on our DropShip when we leave for Petrolia as well," I shook my head as he rolled his eyes, "I could use a side-project to tinker with while we're down there, and finding ways to make those more useful will be just the thing I need to keep my hands busy."
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===Discussing New Designs with Frutrated People===
[Arthur Corean]
[St. Helen's Class Recharge Station, Corean Gem]
[Zenith Jump Point, Petrolia System; Federated Suns]
[March 17th, 3027]
Man, I was feeling good. 
 
Even if I was used to being underground and only seeing the sun every once in a while there was a certain feeling that one had to get used to when living inside of what was essentially a space station; there was a tangible velocity from the rotation of the grave deck, the air had a certain flavor to it, and then there was the fact that there was only a few layers between you and certain death. 
 
Still, I was feeling good, and the reasons were manyfold.
 
A runner from Yuri came a few days ago, the man bearing the good news that we now had the license to make, modify, and manufacture the Marauder Battlemech. That Gibson Federated Battlemechs didn't even demand more than the initial offer made me extra happy; I was able to use that extra billion for raw materials and lift, which have been steadily trickling in from the FWL via the Terran corridor for the past few years. The Locust and Trebuchet lines had arrived at the Corean factories on Augusta, and the people there were hard at work getting those lines up and running. This sucks for them because, in a few years, they'd be tearing it all down again after we finalized the Augusta facilities with their new designs- just as we had done on New Avalon. 
 
However, once I got some hands-on time with the facilities and figured out how to automate them as I did with the new plants going up on New Avalon... the production rate would be almost doubled and the number of hands needed to make the machines cut in more than half. It would also make them cheaper to build, which would only benefit Corean and the Federated Suns.
 
The final major thing that had me in such a stellar mood was the fact that I got to hang around with a whole bunch of other engineers who were more than happy to sit in my room with me and make cool shit.
 
"Alright, I think I've done everything I could to replace as much of the T-11's frame and components with Andosteel, so tell me what you think," I tapped the 'save' button on my CAD noteputer before sending it over the small local net to Gerald, Horatio, Ismina, and yes, even Michael.
 
The kid was a JumpShip engineer, not a Conventional Fighter or ICE engine engineer, but the kid had a good head on his shoulders now that his hostility was starting to cool off. If anything, I found that having a naysayer and pessimist in the group made engineering a far more fruitful pursuit because it took a solid line of reasoning to bring them around, and even then, their contrarian attitudes always led them to try and poke holes in your theories or designs. Which was always good to have when you were creating shit; ass-kissing didn't find design flaws.
Gerald, Horatio, and Ismina smiled happily as they opened up the files and began pouring over my design modifications, but Michael just pouted, "I still think your Strike Eagle design is doomed from the start. It's a 40-ton air breather that will only have... what... five tons of weapons payload? That's borderline useless, even if having something is better than having nothing."
 
"I would agree with, young Michael, Mister Corean," The older, balding man dabbed at the sweat on his brow with a kerchief, "Even if this ICE 280 engine can be lightened up like these projections claim... such a small payload would definitely be a limiting factor."
"It will be many years before these designs are even prototyped, and while the Warthog is going to be built around a Gauss Rifle, the Strike Eagle will be built around its internal and wing-mounted bays," I crossed my arms over my chest as I popped my back against the stool, "I have already begun tearing apart some of the ARROW missiles, and for me it looks simple enough to reverse engineer; changing its shape and payload to make a variant for Air-to-Air is well within my capabilities. Though really, right now I'm just laying the groundwork for when I'm able to return to my labs and begin the process in earnest. I'm fairly confident I can combine the Arrow, Streak, and Artemis tracking and targeting capabilities into a single system."
Michael ran a hand through his long flaming red hair and frowned, the young man looking back down at his noteputer, "I'm not a weapons engineer, but hasn't there not been any real improvements in weaponry in a long time? Trying to combine three systems into one seems... ambitious."
 
I shrugged my shoulders, "Well, I've already re-designed quite a few weapons, from an enhanced PPC that weighs two tons less than a standard, to the autocannons that are almost a third lighter, and missile packs that have had their weight cut in half across the board. All of that-"
 
My hand pointed out to the blocky sample of Andosteel on the coffee table where the four Federated-Boeing engineers sat, "-done with just the simple application of Andosteel as a primary component in the weaponry with no major tuning done. Once we can get Andosteel production up and running for large orders... just what else could we accomplish with it? Lighter Aerospace Fighters? Lighter Dropships? Lighter Jumpships?"
 
Ismina, the brown-haired, mousy engineer, plucked the block of foam up off the of the table and tossed it into the air, "I have to admit, Arthur, that this material will already do a great deal of good for Fed-Bo."
 
"Yes, yes, if everything is as you claim, we will take the samples you have so graciously provided back with us for testing..." Gerald smiled lightly, "Then I'm certain that the board will be very much interested in building up a more firm foundation for our partnership. Outside of the bountiful purchases you've already made, of course."
 
I nodded my head, "Of course. If we can make better products, then that only benefits everyone involved- you, me, and the Federated Suns. Let's not forget the fighting men and women who'll be piloting them as well."
 
The Federated-Boeing's team here on the Corean Gem was growing short- in just a few weeks their JumpShip would arrive to take them home, though I convinced them to make a detour to the Corean offices on New Avalon for a special order.
 
Despite having a multitude of JumpShips and dropships at my disposal, my supply chain was never less strained since my ships were no longer running about the Free Worlds League, I wanted this new project of mine to have everything brand new and purpose-built.
A new Star Lord Class JumpShip, with its docking collars filled with five brand new Mammoth dropships and an Overlord II. 
The order would cost me $4.9 Billion C-Bills, but since this was an order of construction assets... I'd be able to foist 20% off on the AFFS and write the other 20% off on Corean's taxes. Lol. Sorry, not sorry, Hanse. 
 
The Star Lord jumpship would play home base to a dropship fleet that I would use to help get all of my future factories up and running in a matter of years instead of decades. It would house six Aerospace Fighters and its six cargo bays could hold 661 tons of cargo, and while that wasn't much, once Fed-Bo saw the sheer utility of Andosteel, those values would only climb for future models as the tonnage saved would be further dedicated for more stuff.
 
The Mammoth Cargo DropShips were the heart and soul of the dropship Caravan, however, with the vessels each carrying two ASF fighters to expand the complement of space defense, but the real beauty behind the scenes came once you got to the inside. Each one had five extra spacious decks with 40,000 tons of cargo space split between them, and within them was where the magic happened. Each one would have its specific purpose, be it storing large amounts of mining equipment, prefabricated shelters, raw materials, food, water, or entertainment facilities. 
 
Everything that Corean Enterprises required to build facilities quickly, to build the tools to build the tools to build the tool, was stored within these massive cargo vessels.
The Overlord II was there to provide additional protection with two Companies of Battlemechs, and a mixed company of Manticore Heavy Tanks, LRM Carriers, and a pair of SRM carriers. A lone scout VTOL with a fuel cell would provide aerial recon and a closer eye in the sky for when the magnification of the observation satellites couldn't pass muster.
 
Between the 20 ASF fighters and the Overlord II, it would take far more than a pirate raiding force to jeopardize my investment, and the Battalion's worth of Mechs and vehicles- all of which would be kitted out with Corean's upgraded weapons and armor packages- would keep them safe on the ground.
 
The "DropShop" would jumped into a system, touch down on the intended planet, and then begin laying the groundwork for the primary construction crews that would arrive once the planet was secure. Then, once enough infrastructure was set up, the caravan would make everything needed to get the manufacturing lines up and running, which would then be installed in the freshly built complexes. Realistically each mission would last two years, but I was budgeting closer to three to give myself some wiggle room in terms of planning and construction; oversights and delays were inevitable, so might as well take them into account.
 
The first planet to get their treatment would be Petrolia II, naturally, so we can test and use the low-stress environment to search our problems in theory and methodology before we turn our attention to Petrolia III and IV. The Corean security forces attached to these long missions will also have a partner to train with in the local AFFS detachment; I hadn't actually asked then if that was something they'd be interested in doing yet, but I'm certain that the boredom will get to them eventually and they'll be raring to go. Petrolia was within the core of the Federated Suns, a few jumps away from New Avalon, so the possibility of them seeing any action unless Hanse pulls them for RAT is slim to none.
 
If the "DropShop" was successful? Then I'd likely create another, this one more geared toward revitalizing the Outback as a whole; the Federated Suns was a Great House that boasted the highest education in the Inner Sphere, but there was also a dark side- a blot on our shirt that always draws the eye of anyone who looks at us.
 
The Outback was that blot, and it represented a significant portion of the Federated Sun's 537 systems, with, at last count, 178 of them being barely any better off than early 20th Century Terra, with subsistence-level farming being the primary trade skill and education levels being barely Secondary School if that. The ability to read and write was still common enough, but anything further than that was a stretch. 
 
In most of the Inner Sphere, there were jokes often told about the 'poor bastards' out in the Periphery who had to 'take a mule into town on the back of a wagon in order to make it to the spaceport in time to catch the dropship', but they were eager to turn a blind eye to the fact that pretty much the same thing could be said about the Outback. 
 
Here in the Federated Suns.
 
Thus, the Vagabond Schools program was approved under Ian Davion at his brother Hanse's request, but with the limited budgeting allowed to the Ministry of Education on New Avalon they were forced to make do with what they had. Aging jumpships and dropships were refurbished and filled with teachers and teaching facilities and they made the rounds at all of the worlds in the Outback, plucking up students between the ages of 12 and 15, flying them to the jumpships where they underwent an intensive education program for a few months before being brought back home. They managed to educate millions of children in the Outback utilizing this method, which while it did do some good in the end, there were a variety of problems with the program... aside from the few accidents that led to the deaths of teachers and students alike.
 
A proper education wasn't something that could be taught in a few months- it was something that required persistent time and effort.
 
In my personal opinion, it would have been much better if they had the Vagabond Schools instead teach trade skills and the necessary maths and sciences to go along with those skills. You didn't need a long-winded, general understanding of biology to learn how to measure out granules of metallic powders to get a specific alloy mixture, though math? Math was a different story altogether- virtually everything involved in critical jobs in the Inner Sphere involved math, so if you got everyone up to the first year of Tertiary School in Reading Comprehension and then got them a comprehensive education in Math? You could jumpstart an entire generation and get them into well-paying jobs within the workforce; it might take a generation or two, but by the third or fourth generation, their grandchildren can have the luxury of deciphering the 'hidden meanings' of Charles Dicken's Great Expectations and all of the bullshit that nonsense brings.
 
Most notably, it would be Melissa Steiner who would become the new champion for the Vagabond Schools program, taking up a torch her husband once carried and making it her own, though she would only see the same marginal success as he did. When that time came, it would be Arthur Corean who would have a much more permanent and beneficial solution for her to make her first foray into politics.
 
Look at me, Arthur Corean, the eternal wingman. Hanse better be grateful for all of the help I'm giving him. lol.
 
A huge sigh from Michael dragged me out of my thoughts, the young man putting down a calculator and rubbing at his eyes, "I mean... theoretically... it should work..."
 
I blinked as I realized that I'd just zoned out and missed a whole heaping helping of conversations- trapped in my own head as my siblings were always keen to remind me, "What should work?"
 
The venomous young man narrowed his eyes, "You... weren't even listening to the conversation at all, were you?"
 
"No." I admitted easily as I shrugged, "I have a great deal on my mind- lots of big-picture stuff. I have a massive corporation, a whole Duchy, and my friends to think about, so when I find an interesting thought I tend to follow it to its natural conclusion so that I can more easily remember it at a later date."
 
He opened his mouth to speak, but with a glare from his boss, Michael settled for groaning, something that seemed to make Ismina and her husband smile broadly, "And now you know what it's like to work with you, Mikey!"
 
"There is no way I'm this insufferable," He snapped back reflexively, though his face suddenly grew pensive, as though he was deep in thought, "Am I?" 
 
Gerald, being the patient soul that he was, simply shook his head before offering me his noteputer, "Based on the... ahem... rather detail-sparse drawings you gave me, Arthur, I think I've come up with a few suitable designs for the aircraft you want to develop with us."
I was actually a touch gobsmacked by the quality of the designs, "When you told me you moonlighted as an artist working on some of the promotional posters I hadn't expected this."
To think he could take my amateurish fumbling on what was essentially the engineering equivalent of a bar room napkin drawing and turn it into these works of art was breathtaking.
 
"Of course, these will need to be aerodynamic and functional first, with aesthetics a much distant last place but... if we can make them both functional and good looking then that certainly will help," I scratched an itch on my nose with my thumb as I scrolled up and down to look at each skeletonized sketch of the three aircraft, "If we can make a pilot take pride in how good his machine looks in addition to how well it performs, then that will be a huge hit with marketing. No 'She ain't pretty, but she gets the job done' reviews for us! No, we'll be hearing nothing but 'She gets the job done, and looks good while doing it'!"
 
The older man's chubby cheeks pinkened with color as he brushed off the praise with a hearty chuckle, "No, no, thank you, but they aren't needed- I'm just doing my job as the primary POC for this endeavor! Though I must admit that it does warm my heart to hear such praise from someone as distinguished and accomplished as yourself, Mister Corean."
 
Gerald Beauford dabbed at his face with his kerchief, "If I can be candid with you, Federated-Boeing has been toying around with the thought of a conventional fighter similar to the Strike Eagle designs, one low in cost but highly versatile thanks to its external hardpoints, but dare I say what we've come up with is a sight better than what is being tentatively pursued. When I show back up at Galax with these plans and the Andosteel samples I'm quite certain the Board will be keen to utilize these designs instead. Though with that being said, I do believe that I'll need a bit of reassurance as to where we'll be going with this particular joint-business venture."
 
 Ah, so there was a 'businessman' underneath all of the fluffy engineer?
 
My response was an easy one, "This will be a joint license between Federated-Boeing and Corean Enterprises, meaning we both have the rights to build, modify, and sell the designs of the Black Hawk, Warthog, and Strike Eagle. While I will not be providing the bulk of the engineering for the airframes, this isn't out of lack of ability as it is merely a product of me not having the time to do it myself, because of that, Corean will maintain the sole perpetual rights to extend licensure to other corporations of the design."
 
By keeping the 'Perpetual License' within my hands, no one else could backdoor the designs like how I snuck the design of the Marauder from General Motors via Gibson Federated Battlemechs. 
 
At least not legally- corporate espionage was very much a thing in the Inner Sphere.
 
"To sweeten the pot... and make the manufacture of these machines even possible, I'm willing to give the full Andosteel and Henan crystal manufacturing process over to Federated-Boeing under a limited license for the express purpose of manufacturing material for the Federated Suns. This means no branch offices outside of the Federated Suns, and no products for export that we both don't agree to. To give that more flavor: Jumpships, dropships, and fighters of the aerospace and conventional variety will not be manufactured with Andian Foam Steel, and products made with the Henan Crystal process to be sold to outside purchasers." 
 
Gerald's face was inscrutable as he crunched the numbers and information in his brilliant little mind, "And there will be support for the processes themselves?"
 
My arms crossed over my chest as I snorted, "I'm hardly General Motors, Gerald. When Corean Enterprises licenses something out we ensure that you, the customer for our product as well as its producer, will get the highest quality of customer service available. If there are imperfections in the Andosteel you produce because we were recalcitrant in providing support, then that negatively reflects on my company as well."
 
The Fed-Bo Engineering Head hummed as he stroked his chin, "And what was that bit about 'providing material' to outside customers if we both agree?"
 
"Oh? That? Well..." I tapped my finger against my bicep as I mulled my response over for a moment, "I happen to like the Magistracy of Canopus. I think they're neat. I'd hate for the Free Worlds League to finally belly up to the bar and try to suck all of the fun out of them like they do everything, so provided I get the First Prince's approval I'm not above providing them some overflow from my own factories, or selling them a custom order of machines if that means they'll be a thorn in Janos Marik's side."
 
"That's a little... vindictive of a stance for a Corporation to take, isn't it?" Michael whispered none too quietly to Horatio Waldenburg, who in turn shrugged wordlessly.
 
"The asshole tried to have me killed not too long ago, so I think my feelings are justified," Was my lazy reply.
 
Salim told me that the operation had all the hallmarks of a SAFE operation, from their weaponry- Capellan surplus SRMs and 'Mech-weight Machine Gun ammunition sourced from Bithinian Ballistics on Bithinia within the Capellan Confederation- but the rifle they used to fire that ammunition? That was an old SLDF design, a KingTek Tac-Driver, a 19.8mm bolt action bullpup meant to punch holes in the Ferroglass of damaged Mech cockpits.
 
Even if MIIO had a high degree of confidence that it was SAFE who tried to kill me, based on the munitions and the fact that the two men killed were on MIIO's watchlist already, I knew that old Miss Daisy was a ComStar plant. The old broad likely suborned their operation somehow for her own plans with ROM. Likely posed as their contact for their assignment... or called them in herself to be used for ComStar's ends.
 
Still, the 'officially unofficial' word was that it was a SAFE operation to get revenge on the down-low for my pulling Corean Enterprises out of the Free Worlds League... and to not cause Hanse any trouble I'd have to stick with it. 
 
Not that I had any problems with not tipping ComStar off to the fact that I was well aware of their games.
 
At that? Michael had no response, the young engineer instead picking up his noteputer and hand calc and running through the numbers again- the poor lad likely to try and find a flaw in my own calculations so that he could stay true to his contrarian archetype.
 
If he could just learn to dress up his opposition a bit better he would go far.
 
"Well, you've given us a lot to think over, Arthur, but I think that the Board would be more than amenable to such an arrangement-"
 
His words were cut off by the beeping of a light alarm on one of the many noteputers- this one my personal one- and a light, cheery tune filled with musically aligned clattering of pots and pans filled the small cabin.
 
I blinked, "Ah. That would be my alarm for dinner time. How about we pack it up, call it a day, and have some delicious SLDF rations in the chow hall?"
 
I would never hear the end of it from Yeathers if she found out I wasn't eating every meal. She always seemed to know... I wouldn't be surprised if daily reports on how I'm doing aren't being given to her as well. I bet Salim would dime me out simply because it amused him.
 
Everyone seemed to agree, and for good reason- the rations the SLDF dined on were actually quite good; something that my refined palate could stomach without complaint.
 
Note to self: When I have some time, find out what the SLDF did to their rations to make them so delicious without dumping tons of sugar into everything.
 
My money was on non-addictive cocaine.
----
===Caution of moving high explosives===
[Arthur Corean]
[St. Helen's Class Recharge Station, Corean Gem]
[Zenith Jump Point, Petrolia System; Federated Suns]
[March 31st, 3027]
"Now, be good to my little brother when you see him, alright? He's a good boy, taking on a lot of responsibility, and if I find out you bullied him then we'll be having strong words," I gave Gerald's hand a firm shake as we stood in front of the docking tube connected to the airlock of the Leopard dropship that came to collect the Federated-Boeing team.
 
With the Corean Gem open for business once more, another loaner team from the Olympus recharging station in the New Avalon system had arrived to learn the ropes of the similar yet different design, and their arrival heralded the return of the Federated-Boeing team back to their main offices on Galax. However, they would be taking a rather lengthy detour to New Avalon to sit down with the engineering teams to get the particulars as to what I wanted in the DropShip Caravan and my new Star Lord Jumpship.
 
Funnily enough, the Star Lord itself was almost complete, but the shipping company- FedStar Shipping Limited- who ordered it had unfortunately seen a few poor quarters and were unable to make their final payments for the expensive vessel. Such a thing was not uncommon, and when deals on big-ticket items like Jumpships and Dropships fell through the AFFS was more than happy to scoop them up, but those military purchases usually came with a military price tag; read: 'a fairly healthy discount'.
 
Since I was willing to pay Fed-Bo the full sticker price for it, Fed-Bo was more than happy to refund FedStar Shipping Limited their money- minus expenses and fees- and take my money instead.
 
Truly, Bruce Wayne wasn't kidding when he said that 'Money was the Greatest Superpower of All'.
 
Or was that someone else?
 
Gerald Beauford shook his head, his chubby cheeks, which had dramatically lessened despite his time cramped on a glorified jumpship, bunched up as he smiled gaily, "Not to worry! If he's anything like yourself then I'm sure our interactions will be pleasurable and profitable. That and I'm certain you have a team of sharks watching our every move, and while we'll have our own lawyers I doubt this is one of those deals where everyone will want to squeeze each other for every Pence. This is the sort of stuff where history is made, and no one on the Board will want to miss out because of a few percentage points here and there, I'm sure of it!"
 
Hearing that made me feel a lot better; I think I'd spent enough time around the man to get his measure, so I wasn't too worried about him as I was everyone else. 
 
Really, all Yuri would have to do is kick back and let the engineers cook, and while engineers can come up with all sorts of cookey, crazy ideas when they have a large budget to work with, I'd like to think I'd beaten that pie-in-the-sky sort of engineering adventurism out of my teams by this point. 
 
Usually, it was me who had to be reined in, but that was only because they couldn't see the potential I saw. 
 
Sure, sometimes they were right- not every vehicle needed to have a module that warmed up your MREs- but it wasn't like that space was being used for anything else, and I was sure that soldiers appreciated having a nice hot meal! It didn't even really add onto the cost of the vehicles either, not that much anyway.
 
I exchanged parting pleasantries with every member of the Fed-Bo team that I had the honor of working with as they floated out of the docking common area and into their ride.
 
When the tube was sealed up tightly I nodded to Salim as he deftly maneuvered himself next to me, that once infuriating smile now something that I'd come to rather enjoy seeing, "Ready for your own trip, Duke Corean?"
 
Far too many people frown these days, the masses completely unaware of the beautiful things on the horizon, so seeing Salim with his smile- even if it was often a smirk or amused at my own expense- was a nice breath of fresh air. Even my staff seemed to take the Federated Suns' particular brand of stoicism as a personal challenge.
 
I nodded my head, "Yes, I am indeed ready to go myself. Bags are packed and already on-board."
 
With a soft push, I moved away from the Leopard's docking tube and floated after Salim toward the tube where an AFFS Mule dropship was nestled and waiting for my arrival; it had been less than a month since the Corps of Engineers had been on the ground, and they'd already burned through most of their allotted materials for upgrading the spaceport. This Mule was laden with 8,500 tons of construction supplies, and it was docked with the Corean Gem while its other two fellows and their ASF escorts burned toward Petrolia II- the collection of me and my tinkering supplies giving them half-a-day's head start on us.
 
However, being a Duke and the CEO of Corean, I could hardly not see off the team that assisted me in bringing a critical part of my Duchy's economy back online; the fees from the Gem would be a great help in jumpstarting my system hold's coffers. Docking fees, cargo storage fees, recharging fees, and passenger layover fees would provide a tidy little income that I would use expressly for building up the Petrolia system into a jewel to be admired by all. Of course, Corean Enterprises would get a small discount for said services, but only a discount; why would I pass up a neat, tax-deductible way to funnel money from my corporation to my Duchy?
 
Totally legal.
 
"Are the Arrow and missile systems on board already?" I asked, unable to contain the excitement in my voice.
 
A whole seven days to tinker around with them while not having to worry about anything else! 
 
"Hahem," Salim cleared his voice as we approached the docking tube, "The Captain has asked that you not play around with high explosives while we're in transit, Duke Corean."
 
I sniffed, "Please, he has nothing to worry about. The ordnance team has assured me they're inert."
 
His elbows flexed as he grabbed onto the rail above the tube, and he looked at me from over his shoulder.
 
"What? I'm only going to be messing around with the sensors and computer systems, Salim. The explosives have already been removed."
 
He inhaled deeply, "As long as there isn't a possibility of us blowing up then I'm certain he'll see to reason."
 
I scoffed as I followed him inside, doing my best to ignore the creeping sense of fear at being an enclosed space- a tiny tube- surrounded by airless, black, atmospheric-less, void. 
 
Which was airless and lacking a breathable atmosphere.
 
The tubes really were quite thin and not really up to my standards in terms of micrometeorite protection. I should do something about that when I got the chance.
----
===Pains of Service===
[Bernard Hustermann]
[ROM Chief Operations Supervisor - Federated Suns]
[New Avalon; Federated Suns]
[February 19th, 3027]
It had been nothing more than a hunch that led Bernard Hustermann to this particular park in the shining green city of New Avalon.
 
Felicia Gear, whom everyone else outside of ComStar's ROM Division had known as 'Daisy Rittenhaus', was a woman of great patience and cunning.
 
Her skill with subterfuge was ranked just as highly as her ability to act, though both were outshone by her dedication to Blessed Blake's vision for a brighter future- one where ComStar rightly and justly shepherded the vainglorious House Lords toward a proper path.
 
It was why she willingly accepted the numerous long-term and dangerous assignments that she had. 
 
She led a storied life, with twenty years in SAFE as one of their operatives before 'retiring' to take up a posting at the New Avalon HPG as a receptionist, where she eventually left to take up a position in Corean Enterprises' HR department to keep an eye on Free Worlds League interests. They had one SAFE-aligned member on the board in Arneliac Romeli, and while Reginald Rouchambeaux wasn't particularly beholden to the FWL, he was intensely loyal to money. Money which both SAFE and ComStar were happy to feed him in exchange for his insights.
 
Bernard had had the great pleasure of working alongside her for deniable operations within the holdings of Marik, though their divergent paths eventually forced them apart for a great many years before they were able to reconnect in their golden years with her posting at the New Avalon HPG. Truly, those two years were the happiest of Bernard's life, being able to reunite with Felicia had been like a dream but...
 
But Felicia was a firebrand through and through, a woman unwilling to sit around and file messages from ComStar customers and direct calls. She wanted an assignment, and Precentor New Avalon was all too happy to direct her toward yet another long-term deep-cover assignment. She adopted the name and face of 'Daisy Rittenhaus' and became a high-level ear inside of Corean Enterprises, one of the CEO's most trusted confidants.
 
Even though she had shown some attachment over the years, both to the Coreans and Arthur Corean himself, when it came time to remove that genius from the board she once more displayed her dedication to Blake's Vision and had the faulty hydrogen seals installed into the family's new Leopard dropship. 
 
Though young Arthur was a frequent site within the New Avalon HPG's cathedral to Blessed Blake, the clergy there were unable to convincingly turn him over to their side. He had a brilliant mind. He memorized the scriptures word for word and could recite the entire Book of Blake from memory if he so chose, but Bernard could see.
 
Bernard could see that Arthur Corean was no true believer.
 
If anything, Arthur Corean seemed to think that he was intelligent enough to be the Second Coming of Blake himself! And worst of all, some low-ranking members believed it! They whispered his name and gossiped about his intellectual prowess where they thought ears wouldn't overhear, the sheep completely blind to the truth.
 
To attempt to subvert ComStar from the inside!? 
 
The sheer arrogance! The hubris! 
 
Arthur Corean might very well be one of the brightest minds humanity has ever produced, but if it could not be used to further Blake's Vision then it was useless. 
 
No, worse than useless.
 
Arthur Corean was a threat that needed to be removed, and none knew this more than 'Daisy Rittenhaus'; the woman always had extensive and detailed reports for ComStar's ROM branch to sup on every week, and with each new report, the need to have Arthur Unsubscribed from Life grew.
 
The old man allowed himself a chortle at the unanticipated use of the 'new age' slang the kids these days were using in his own mental narrative.
 
Still, he knew Felicia. 
 
He knew she wouldn't have put together such a harebrained scheme.
 
She was much to smart, far too cunning. 
 
Missiles? Anti-material rifles!?
 
According to MIIO's reports, the bumbling fools from SAFE couldn't even get their battle cries straight as they charged at the Corean Security forces with handguns. One cried, "Long Live the Chancellor!" and the other screamed, "For the Dragon!"
 
There was 'misdirection' and then there was trying too hard to be clever.
 
ComStar's ROM would never be caught, dead or otherwise, with such infantile tactics such as that! No, they had sophistication! Class! A level of misdirection that kept the various intelligence agencies of the Inner Sphere chasing each other's tails! 
 
A subtle twang in an accent or a peculiar vernacular, tattoos leading to specific military forces or underground criminal organizations, or haircuts, or particular styles of action. The Combine's DEST teams handled business differently from the Confederation's Death Commandos, who operated differently than LIC and MIIO. ROM handled deniable Ops with a deft hand, leading the foolish to confirm their own biases and the keen to question what was being offered. 
 
Regardless of the outcome, success or failure, the forces of ROM always completely obfuscated and eliminated any trails that might lead back to them.
 
Even now, with 'Daisy Rittenhaus' captured, the MIIO investigators were already running back the trail she left when she 'retired' from SAFE in the Free Worlds League; her two-year stint in the New Avalon HPG's secretarial offices a barely noticeable blip, likely to get her close enough to Corean Enterprises to make the insertion happen.
 
Bernard sighed as he opened up a bag of birdseed and took a seat at the same park bench that had been the dead-drop location that Felicia liked to use for the first few years of her time as the Undersecretary at Corean. Upon seeing that the many bird feeders were empty, he got up after 'resting his old bones for a few moments', and dutifully went around to each one to refill them. 
 
It was a hunch that led him back to this very spot that Felicia had long since abandoned, and his hunch was rewarded when he felt that the false bottom of one particular bird feeder was a touch loose. He sniffed nonchalantly to cover his surprise as he poured the birdseed into the feeder from the top, and while his hand held the base 'steady' he pushed the false bottom open and a scroll of paper fell into his hand.
 
Bernard expertly palmed the scroll and deposited it into his coat pocket as he 'brushed the loose seed' off of his hand.
 
Seeing that the birdfeeders were once now full, the old man 'happily took a seat' and enjoyed the sight of a small flock of New Avalon's famous black pigeons gathered around him to pluck up the meal.
 
One pigeon even hopped up into his lap, and he stroked the feathers of the bird while feeding it some loose seed with his other hand. He used the living prop to cover for him as he slipped the paper out and unfurled it slightly.
 
It was a short message, one encoded in an old ROM cryptography that Bernard had long since memorized:
 
>>"Old employers reached out to me. Unable to refuse. I'm sorry."<<
 
For the first time in a long time, Bernard Hustermann felt a pang of sorrow echo out from the depths of his heart.
 
Everyone who joined ROM knew the stakes. 
 
Very few survive their service as Blake's Hidden Dagger. 
 
Yet those who did manage to last more than a few years always built up a strong bond with one another, and it was that bond that led to them sharpening their skills and talents so that they wouldn't have to be the ones to pay the price. 
 
If only to save their friends in the service the pain of experiencing that loss.
 
It rarely ever worked, as when it came time to meet Blake then it was your time, but Bernard had never thought that he would be the one to outlive her. 
 
For Blake's sake, they should have been retired! They should have been the old heads warning the young guns about the dangers of complacency from the other side of the desk. Not getting involved in operations that got them killed! They had done their service! They had paid Blake his due! Why couldn't that have been enough for her!?
 
Why wasn't he enough for her!?
 
The pigeon struggled in his grip with a flapping of wings, and he was startled to see it jump out of his hand the moment he released his grip on its neck.
 
He swallowed down his ill personal feelings. Just as he always had.
 
Leave it to SAFE to get Felicia Gear captured-
 
He flipped the scroll over.
 
>>"If captured, I won't be a problem."<<
 
-make that killed.
 
Barnard sighed as he stuffed the scroll into his pocket and picked up his birdseed before trudging his way out of the park; it was far too cold for an old man such as himself to be outside anyway.
 
The good news was that she went out on her own terms and that Primus Tiepolo didn't have to worry about unseen hands moving within ComStar behind his back.
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