MBMSFS Chpt 1

==Manufacturing a Blueprint for a More Stable Federated Suns‎‎ - Chapter 1 -==
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===Trial by Fire 1.1===
[Arthur Corean - Age 28]
[Corean Enterprises Headquarters]
[New Avalon City, New Avalon; Federated Suns]
[January 9th, 3025]
"You want to what!?" A portly man in his late fifties with balding brown hair and bushy eyebrows smashed his fists on the table of the Corean Enterprises boardroom- his face growing red with rage as the 'thunk!' echoed throughout the mostly empty space, "You want to sell the company's holdings on Ramen II and Stewart!? Have you gone mad!? Insane!? Boy, you better be joking!"
 
Reginald Rouchambeaux was a long-standing member of the Corean Board, one who'd been at the table since my father first started almost twenty-five years ago- a staunch Margin-Chaser, the man was all about profits.
 
"I would have to agree with Reginald, even if I am loathed to do so," Arneliac Romeli was a tall, thin man with salt-and-pepper black hair with a thin pencil mustache in the New Avalon styling; his blue eyes looked like frozen chips as he stared me down, "Why would we sell the Free Worlds League branches?"
 
He too was someone who liked the sight, touch, and smell of C-Bills, and while I couldn't blame him- for I also liked money- he didn't seem to be getting the bigger picture. This was a touch surprising to me since in the past few months after I took up the position as CEO and Owner of Corean Enterprises he'd always been able to take a step back and assess the situation calmly before dissecting it with a rational mind.
I leaned back in my seat, steepling my fingers in front of me as I stared down the most recalcitrant of the two board members- pretty much everyone else agreed with why I was doing what I was doing, even if they didn't understand the true scope of what I was attempting to accomplish. "It's quite simple, truly- being a Multinational Corporation in both the eyes of the Free Worlds League and the Federated Suns is murdering us in our margins."
 
"What are you talking about, boy? The tax burdens on Corean Enterprises have only gone down over the past three decades, by three-and-a-half points no less!" Reginald Rouchambeaux sneered at me as he jabbed a grubby finger in my direction, "We have never been in a better position! Not since the 1st Succession War broke out; you're speaking nonsense."
 
Arneliac made to speak, but when he saw me lean forward over the table with my eyes narrowed he wisely held his tongue and let me speak, "The Free Worlds League murders us on our profit margins by 30% because of our International status, and you have the audacity to gloat about our position since the Federated Suns bends us over the table for a mere 21.5%?"
 
That made Arneliac blink before he began furiously typing away at his noteputer.
 
Ah, there we go- now you're thinking.
 
"We make billions of C-Bills in the Free Worlds League-"
 
"No, we make the Free Worlds League billions of C-Bills, you fucking nitwit!" I hissed in response as I slapped the table with an open palm, a 'crack!' of my own issuing through the air as I bulldozed his rebuttal, "And all of the C-Bills Janos Marik and his cronies don't strip from our hides? Well, newsflash genius, Corean Enterprises of New Avalon- the Head Office- doesn't get to see a single C-Bill!"
 
I felt my stomach churn at the sheer stupidity of the fat little man down the table from me, "The billions of C-Bills we make are locked to the Free Worlds League. That means we pay rent to the Free Worlders, we pay the salaries of Free Worlders, we purchase raw materials from the Free Worlders, and of course, we supply military materials and Battlemechs to the Free Worlders too."
 
My nose twitched as my sudden, forceful inhalation tickled it- I needed to trim my mustache soon.
 
I let the anger and tension go as I exhaled and fixed Reginald Rouchambeaux with a look, "Do you now see why I am so furious? Every single C-Bill we make is stuck in the Free Worlds League, and we have to reinvest that money back into those facilities and workers so it doesn't sit around collecting dust. Yes, I will grant that the profits made in the FWL do make our share price look rather fetching, but if we cannot touch that money without a convoluted money laundering scheme- which is illegal- then what good does that do us or the Federated Suns? Because as it sits right now we are only producing weapons, armor, and Battlemechs for our enemies. Does anyone see why I want to sell them now?"
 
Arneliac raised a finger as he looked up from his noteputer, the man adjusting his horn-rimmed glasses- his voice hesitant, "While I can see your points, Mister Corean, we- Corean Enterprises- employ hundreds of thousands of Free World League citizens. If we pack up our factories and ship everything back to New Avalon, Augusta, or Novaya Zemlya then... not only will it be expensive, but we'll be putting those people out of work. The economic consequences will be far-reaching for more than just ourselves."
 
"I know that not everyone on this board is a staunch loyalist of Hanse Davion such as myself, but ultimately who was it who allowed us to settle here on New Avalon with a favorable deal?" I nodded slowly while doing my best to open up my posture as much as possible, "It wasn't the Capellan Confederation who wanted sole control over my family's corporation. It wasn't the Lyran Commonwealth who kept us out because Defiance Industries didn't want local competition. It wasn't the Draconis Combine who also wanted to nationalize my family's company and headquarter it on Luthien to exist solely to be a footrest for the so-called 'Dragon'. And the Free Worlds League didn't even offer any form of tax breaks to us when we asked them."
 
"No," I shook my head as I swiped a hand through the air, "It was the Federated Suns that offered us a safe haven. Many of you on this board owe generations of family wealth and success to their acceptance of us- even as we kept open our facilities on Stewart and Ramen II in the Free Worlds' territory. That? That means something to me, and it should to you as well."
 
My eyes swept around the board room as I let my fingers beat a tattoo onto the table, "That sort of loyalty should be repaid in kind, and under my leadership that is exactly what Corean Enterprises will do. Starting with consolidating our mobile assets out of the Free Worlds League and back into Federated Suns space where it belongs. My father had wanted to do this himself if you can believe it, but he simply didn't have the stomach to actually pull the trigger. Not when there were people such as yourself, Reginald that put imaginary profits over the good of our people and the nation."
 
"Regardless, every year we hemorrhage money in International Corporation taxes to both the Federated Suns and the Free Worlds League," I tapped my noteputer and pulled up the financials on the projector in the center of the table, but there was a smirk on my lips as I looked up at how the numbers changed, "Just recently I sat down and had lunch a few days ago with our First Prince, Hanse Davion, and should we sell our holdings within Marik's territories then he's agreed to drop our corporate tax rate down to a flat 10%. That and with the expanding budgets for domestic corporate development 'inherently vital to the military interests of the Federated Suns'... we'll be able to offload almost 40% of the costs of building new facilities directly on the First Prince's budgets. Something we would completely miss out on by being International."
 
"This is the height of foolishness..." Reginald the Fat, Balding Guy muttered in disbelief, his eyes seeking out some support from someone... anyone else on the board who might back him up, "This would drop our share prices by almost half! It would harm Federated Suns shareholders in addition to the Free Worlds League citizens! You might very well drive us under you... you arrogant, short-sighted child!"
 
"Hardly," Seymour Harding was a wizened old man, one of the oldest on the board- a member since my grandfather was running Corean Enterprises- smiled genially as his reedy voice whistled with every breath, "You're being far too dramatic. We survived having our twenty-three branches cut down to two, so we can easily survive having four cut down to two once more. Except this time, when we expand and build ourselves back up we won't do so foolishly; we should have sold the Marik branches centuries ago but we had greedy idiots like yourself who just couldn't bear the thought of cutting away the dead weight."
 
"Dead weight? May I remind everyone here that our salaries are performance-based? The better the company does the better we get paid," The fat man hissed as he leaned over the table, his buggy eyes seeming to bulge out of his skull, "If the share prices tank then so too will your salaries."
 
"This makes little difference because while we do get paid more if the Free Worlds League branch of Corean Enterprises does well... we get paid by the New Avalon branch of Corean Enterprises," The old man's fluffy white eyebrows danced as he chuckled lightly, "The better the Marik branch does the more we get paid... paid for off the backs of the hardworking men and women of the Federated Suns. Yet another reason to trim the Marik fat off our bodies."
 
"And speaking of trimming the fat off our bodies...I plan on taking a massive pay cut, and I expect everyone else here to as well," I leaned back in the chair and spread my gaze to the other eight members of the Advisory board- because that's all they were- and laid my palms flat on the table, "I will be leading the charge in this by taking a 95% pay cut as the CEO of Corean Enterprises while also taking an 80% pay cut as Corean Enterprises' Chief Science Officer."
 
That raised more than a few eyebrows as I had been very handsomely paid by my father as the Company's Chief Science Officer... and I was hoping that there I would have remained for a great many more years.
 
I was doing amazing things for Corean behind the scenes with a half-dozen projects running concurrently while I studied at the New Avalon Institute of Science and finished up my final Doctorate Program... but my mother and father passed away at the same time in a Dropship accident meant that me and my older sister would have to take up their mantles of responsibility.
 
I sat in the chair as the Owner and CEO of Corean Enterprises while my sister took over our holdings in the Augusta System as its Countess- I had a massive corporation to handle while she had to manage one-quarter of a planet, our eight local barons, and over 1 billion people.
 
Honestly?
 
I got the better part of the deal because at least as the CEO and owner I had total control over my company... Yeathers-onee-chan wasn't nearly so lucky. Though if she ever found out that I referred to her as such then she'd likely report me to MIIO for being a Kuritan sympathizer- its hard to have a love and appreciation for Japanese things when the Combine existed to taint everything it touched- it was one of the biggest reasons I was such a Federated Suns hardliner when before I wouldn't have cared less which faction I played in Battletech.
 
I had been there for the mechs and tanks and shit- who was running them didn't matter to me except that now? Now they kinda did because, for the last twenty years, I had been living the nightmare. No, it wasn't a dream, even if I had some pseudo-isekai-cheat-levels of intellect backing me up... I'd much rather be back on Earth hanging out with my family over Thanksgiving dinner and arguing about politics over having to live with Feudal Galactic politics and forever worry about being assassinated because I was too damn smart. 
 
The things I did for people other than me and mine...
 
I tilted my head to the side as I held up a hand, "Yes, shocking I know, but I want to start expanding the number of Department Head positions without actually eating into our discretionary budgets for R&D. So I'm going to use the money saved here to create those new positions. The question is, who else is willing to belly up to the bar with me and take a hefty cut?"
 
"Knock mine down to 5%, same as yourself my boy," Seymour Harding gave me a grey-toothed grin, "If you're going to go all of the way with shutting down the Marik Support Branch then I'll follow along! Not like any of us here needs the money- this is more a hobby of mine than anything else, heh!"
 
"Alright, that's Mister Harding," I looked over to the rest of the board, "What say you, Sophia? Jerri? Allen?"
 
Allen Chen was a short man of Capellan descent heralding from the Chen family of the Capellan March, and he represented our company's interests in that theater of war- acting as the direct go-between for our corporation and the AFFS units and Duke Michael Hasek-Davion... even though I knew the man to be a traitor to the Federated Suns. The man was middle-aged, only sixty-one years old, and he gazed at me intently while stroking his fu-man-chu, "I will... take a 75% pay cut, Mister Corean. For many years I thought that your father was perhaps a touch too generous with my compensation for the amount of work I actually did."
 
The 'but who was I say otherwise?' was left unsaid.
 
Granted, if I was in his position I wouldn't say 'no' to being grossly overpaid either, but sometimes loyalty paid dearly for was important as it was still loyalty. However, Allen was a keen sort and he knew that I was going somewhere with this whole charade, and being able to 'read the winds' was a skill that he had acquired in his many years of life. He knew for a fact that my father and I were two totally different people- while my father was content to keep the current state of affairs... I was someone who wanted to shake up the whole scheme and make some significant changes.
 
"Jerri?" I slid my eyes off Mister Chen and toward Geraldine Moore, and the blonde-haired older woman closed her eyes for a few moments and let the question simmer in her mind before she answered.
 
"I am willing to take a 50% pay cut if that is required going forward, Mister Corean," Her soft brown eyes were calculating as she ran her index finger in a near-perfect circle on the lacquered top of the conference room table, "I would offer to take an even more substantial cut, however, my Barony here on New Avalon relies on my income to fund my discretionary budgets; it's one of the primary reasons why I accepted your father's offer to join the board of advisors in the first place. Any more than that and I will have to close down a number of programs, including my city's Scholarship programs for preparatory programs feeding students into the NAIS for their Science and Military programs."
 
This was true.
 
"Jerri" Moore was the Baroness who oversaw Hamilton City on the continent of Brunswick here on the Federated Suns capital world of New Avalon. Her Barony was home to over forty million people, with numerous smaller factories providing the bulk of civilian employment- mainly Brooks Incorporated with their Star Slab armor manufacturing and Corean Enterprises with our electronics and communications packages manufacturing facilities. She was invited to the board almost thirty years ago in exchange for prime land to build our plants and warehouses, along with a more than generous compensation package.
 
I knew of the programs she spoke of personally because during my many years of schooling at the New Avalon Institute of Sciences, I had run into more than a few students who owed their enrollment to the new and prestigious university to the preparatory schools that she funded. For students without expansive generational wealth or a noble background, her patronage was damn near a requirement for the 'commoners' to get a coveted slot in one of the NAIS' extremely competitive programs. I would know because despite my 'genius level' intellect my father had to pay a rather hefty sum in donations each year to ensure that I could get all of the schooling I could ever dream of.
 
"Mark me down for a 40% pay decrease," Sophia Asakamori broke in, the elderly woman of Kuritan descent tapped her fingers on the table, "Any more and I would be putting my city's militia into dire straights. We have to rebuild after the last assault of the DCMS leveled against my people, and purchasing a new battalion of tanks cannot be done on my city's taxes alone."
 
Sophia Asakamori was the Countess of Cassias I, a planet that supplied Corean Enterprises with a great deal of the precious metals that were used in our products. Everything from nickel to cobalt, lithium, copper, gold, iron, and titanium was mined, refined, and then transported to our facilities on Augusta and New Avalon. Her inclusion on the board was a strategic move by my grandfather to tie our raw material providers to the company, and her paycheck included a lot of zeros.
 
Sophia was an interesting collage- a Kuritan-looking woman who spoke with a posh British accent wore a Hijab and prayed towards Mecca on Terra five times a day as per her Islamic traditions. It wasn't all that surprising given Cassias I's predominantly Muslim population. Her husband was the Count and true noble of Cassias I, and she spent a month out of every year here on New Avalon to see to their financial interests in Corean. Once the annual meeting was finished, she would catch the annual Command Line of jumpships from New Avalon to Cassius I with the command staff of the 17th Avalon Hussars RCT that guarded her domain.
 
However, she was correct in that the DCMS had just been repelled- they had attempted to destroy several refineries but the Cassias I militia had managed to put up enough of a fight. A Company of House Troop Mechs and a pair of tank Battalions managed to pin the Combine forces in place long enough for the 17th Hussars to kick them off the planet without any damage to the facilities. Almost a hundred and seventeen men and women perished in the fighting, mostly from the tank battalions, and while I mourned for their loss as much as any Good Son of the FedSuns did... I was thankful for their sacrifice.
 
Losing those refineries would have easily cost us billions of C-Bills to rebuild, on top of the losses we'd sustain with a significant portion of our supply chain a heaping, smoldering ruin.
 
"Completely understandable, Miss Asakamori. I wouldn't ask for you to sacrifice more than what you could, but the fact remains that our combined salaries are a... startling drain on our HR budgets," I rubbed my fingers along my jaw, a wince on my face as I remembered all of the damn money that was essentially being tossed out of company's coffers for only a handful of people.
 
I shook my head, "Regardless, that is all I needed to hear. My sister has already assented to me cutting her pay down 90% for much the same reasons, keeping 10% to fund various sundry budgets around her County on Augusta, so we're going to be saving almost half a billion C-Bills in personnel costs with this alone."
 
The other members of the advisory board looked rather relieved that all I was asking for was a 'volunteer' for pay cuts, but Arneliac Romeli brought my attention back to him, "I noticed... that you didn't ask for what I or Mister Rouchambeaux would accept..."
 
I took a deep breath as I situated myself in my chair before leveling a firm gaze at him, "I think that should be obvious as to why, Mister Romeli."
 
Arneliac Romeli and Reginald Rouchambeaux were the two board members from the Free Worlds League.
 
Given I was completely closing down operations in the Free Worlds League their positions on my Advisor Board were completely superfluous, and the combined $90 Million C-Bills their positions afforded to them would be henceforth reclaimed.
 
God, Dad, you were way overpaying the people here, holy shit.
 
"This-! This is an OUTRAGE!" The fat man shot up to his feet and slammed his fists on the table once more, "You cannot do this, boy! Your father is barely in the ground and you're already making him roll around in it!"
 
Rather than acknowledging his fury, I pressed a button on the intercom, "Daisy, if you would please send Security up to the Board Room and have them escort Mister Rouchambeaux and Mister Romeli to their offices so that they may gather their personal effects."
 
"Of course, Mister Corean. They will be along shortly," Came an old, weathered voice from the other end of the line.
 
Daisy Rittenhaus was the Head Secretary who was a legacy carryover from my father, though given she was once an Acolyte of ComStar I would have to contact Hanse and have him give me a MIIO-approved replacement.
 
The moment the real Hanse Davion was retrieved, of course.
 
The meeting I had with 'Hanse Davion' to secure approval for this massive sale of Corean Enterprises was actually a fake- a false Hanse Davion created by Maximilian Liao to hopefully replace the true First Prince of the Federated Suns with a brainwashed doppelganger that would do his bidding. The Nisei-Hanse likely approved the sale because it was in line with Maximilian's plans to weaken the Federated Suns- a prominent Battlemech manufacturer willingly lopping off a limb?
 
It was something someone like "The Diablo" would approve of whole-heartedly... though he couldn't know the true scale of my own plans in the slightest, mainly because I'd never really told anyone what they were yet.
 
I returned my attention to the spluttering Fatty-Baldy and the now white-as-a-sheet Mister Romeli, "I missed the part where this was 'Democracy'... and the part where you were anything more than a member of an 'Advisory Board', Mister Rouchambeaux. Corean Enterprises is a company solely owned by my sister and I, and as the primary owner and CEO of the company the sheer steers where I say it does."
 
The moment I finished speaking the doors to the boardroom opened up to admit four armed security personnel and two attached MIIO agents, the five gentlemen and one gentlewoman gesturing for the now former Advisory Board members to follow them, "Now. You can both expect your generous severance packages, but I don't think I need to remind you both that you're under strict NDAs... so not a word is to be breathed, understood?"
 
Mary Stoachand, one of the two Ministry of Information, Intelligence, and Operations (MIIO) agents attached to our corporation as Senior-Level Attaches (read; Spook Minders), smiled brilliantly as she led Mister Rouchambeaux and Mister Romeli out of the board room- the Fatty-Baldy ranting and raving the entire way but not putting up any sort of physical fight. They would be escorted to their offices and allowed to gather their personal effects, all the while the Spooks would be inspecting everything they took with them to ensure that nothing important left with them; I'd already taken the liberty of revoking their credentials before the meeting started, so the chances of them being able to sneak something out with them was slim to none.
 
Say what you will about the Federated Suns, but they take the security of their war material providers very seriously, and MIIO was among the best at their jobs in preventing leaks.
 
Once the doors closed the board room became utterly silent, and I sighed in delight, "Now that the troublesome part of this meeting has been taken care of... let me tell you how we're going to make this happen without causing panic or massive losses."
 
My fingers danced over the keyboard next to my chair and a half-dozen different overlays popped up on the wall monitor, "The sale of our holdings in the Free Worlds League has already been approved, and we are currently in the process of negotiating with Earthwerks Incorporated to purchase the facilities on Stewart and Ramen II-"
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===Trial by Fire 1.2===
[Arthur Corean - Age 28]
[Corean Enterprises Headquarters]
[New Avalon City, New Avalon; Federated Suns]
[January 9th, 3025]
The holdings of Corean Enterprises in the Free Worlds League were something that I had agonized over for weeks, at least until I'd had a brainwave.
 
Ramen II manufactured the Standard Steel Chassis of Corean Enterprises' Centurion Battlemechs, and it had facilities to intake components and manufacture completed Centurion 'mechs for consumption by the FWL's Militia. It could only build forty of the 50-ton Medium 'mechs per year, which in this era was still nothing to sneeze at, but ultimately its loss wasn't nearly as substantial as the loss that Stewart represented.
 
Stewart was where Corean Enterprises built numerous variations of the Locust, a 20-ton Scout 'mech, the Trebuchet, a 50-ton Fire Support 'mech, and a lot of supporting hardware. They built numerous models of the Standard Fusion Engine, Starshield Standard Armor Plating, Rawlings Jump Jets, Corean Enterprises Communications & Tracking packages, and Martel, Magna, Zeus, Rand, and Holly lasers, missile packs, and PPCs.
 
We built as much shit on Stewart as we did on New Avalon, which was why the branches we had building stuff for the Purple Birds brought in almost as much dough as the FedSuns branch of my company.
 
However, as I stated to the board, being an International Corporation had some pretty serious cons- the most glaring of which was that money could not be transferred from one branch to another.
 
This means that 'Mechs and Equipment manufactured and sold in the Free Worlds League stayed in the Free Worlds League, mainly because anything that was purchased was paid for with Free Worlds League Dollars... and the Federated Suns was about as willing to accept FWL Dollars as they were Capellan Yuan. Only ComStar's C-Bill was universally accepted, and even if the Federated Suns was willing to accept FWL money we couldn't use that money for anything other than reinvesting it in our Ramen II and Stewart facilities.
 
Which for me, a staunch Federated Suns patriot, meant that any money left over there was essentially useless because if I couldn't use it to improve my company within the Federated Suns then what good was it to me?
 
Now, I'd always been a Draconis Combine player- 'Glory to the Dragon and House Kurita!'- but that had been while I was a normal guy playing a tabletop game on the weekends when I wasn't swamped with work. Being able to roleplay as a Weeaboo Chunni Commander of a bunch of Big, Stompy Robots was my stress relief valve; I could have fun with a group of like-minded individuals who looked at the escapism the game provided and thought that it was a hoot of a good time.
 
That was when we could make our 'Movement and Combat' phases not last an hour because we foolishly decided to have a four-way bout 'for funsies'.
 
Yet, after having died unexpectedly and been reborn in this shithole of a galaxy... I'd never been more grateful to have been born in the Federated Suns.
 
Despite being insufferably snooty bastards with delusions of honor, the Federated Suns was probably one of the best places I could have ended up at... especially as the son of one of the Inner Sphere's most prominent Battlemech Manufacturers. Early on in my second life, I'd wondered what my days would have been like if I'd been born to the son of Defiance Industries' CEO, and after doing a little bit of research into what my counterpart's life I'd quickly counted my blessings.
 
Amadeus Brewer was the son of Defiance Industries' CEO, and that kid's life sucked- so many dinner parties and photo ops!
 
I never would have survived it.
 
Especially since I was a total shut-in.
 
Wait, it's for good reasons though!
 
You see, when I was reborn I quickly found out that I hadn't been sent into this mess without a genuine, certified 'Isekai Cheat Skill' of my own! Though I have no idea if it was something given to me by some God or ROB or if this was just my family's natural and tinkered genetics (thank you, Star League) bearing fruit for me in the most generous of ways.
 
I was what the New Avalon Institute of Science later described as a 'Beyond Genius, Once-in-a-Millennia Intellectual'.
 
It wasn't just that I had the knowledge, memories, and experience of a fully-grown man in a 'child-sized package', but I also had an eidetic memory and a mental prowess that even astounded me. I could calculate numbers and absorb scientific knowledge at a rate that was borderline ludicrous, and most importantly of all I could actually comprehend all of the shit that I was learning.
 
By the time I was 9 years old, I had already graduated from Tertiary School- the FedSun's equivalent to High School- in 3006, and in a year I had completed all of my Gen Ed. courses at New Avalon University.
 
From 3007 to 3016 I powerhouse'd my way through the Bachelor's programs for Engineering (Mechanical, Electrical, Structural, & Battlemechs), Metallurgy, and Programming (both "Modern" and "Star League" course-loads).
 
I crammed almost eighteen years' worth of schooling into nine years, and the reason it even took me that long was that I simply could not get through the classes any faster than what New Avalon University was offering. Even if I memorized the material and demonstrated proficiency, I simply couldn't skip classes, so I was forced to slow my education down to the rate of the 'regular' geniuses that cropped up in FedSuns' space. So when 3016 rolled around and First Prince Hanse Davion's New Avalon Institute of Science was completed, I enrolled in their Master's programs thinking that I'd finally be able to put my nose back to the grindstone and churn through the coursework... and I was only partially right.
 
I could certainly move faster because the brilliant minds teaching me gave me a lot of latitude, but I really couldn't 'graduate early' ahead of my peers, so to speak. In the infant stages of the NAIS, there was a rigid course curriculum that couldn't even be bent for overachievers such as myself... so I was forced to languish in classes that were no longer challenging until it was 'time' for me to graduate with everyone else in the program.
 
This was ameliorated somewhat once I got into the Doctoral classes, but those ate up much more of my time.
 
It was in those classes that I was first introduced to the First Prince himself as I took part in a program to reconstruct an important piece of LosTech- Star League-era Double-Heatsinks, or 'Freezers' as they were known by their code name around the 'Egg Carton'.
 
Over my four years working deep within the bowels of the NAIS, Hanse Davion was a rather common sight- the man came by monthly on a schedule to check in on the various programs that they worked on. Being I was the 'Boy Genius' who worked on a half-dozen different programs, Hanse found time to come talk to me and pick my brain.
 
Given that he always came to talk whenever I was in the middle of conducting important experiments or calculations... he was more of a bother than anything else. His constant inopportune interruptions led to me being rather snippy to him since I knew that I was too important to be killed off- and he too kind to actually have me killed off for some snark- so... I guess we sort of started a friendship?
 
I mean, we weren't social friends or anything. He didn't invite me to fancy dinners or galas, nor did he invite me to go out into the New Avalon Nature Preserve to go hunt wild game with him, but I guess he sort of made sure to stop by and chat simply because he knew I wouldn't kiss his ass.
 
Not like that ponce Ardan Sortek.
 
Seriously, the guy practically sucked Hanse's dick all day long, even in private.
 
Really, if I had to deal with that level of hero worship all day long I'd probably go out and find myself a friend that would say "Get the fuck out of my lab and stop bothering me, Hanse!" too.
 
So, I guess you could say that I knew Hanse Davion pretty well when there wasn't a whole court of sycophants around to fluff his nuts, and that combined with my eidetic memory, 'beyond genius' level intellect, and... my foreknowledge... it let me suss out that the Nisei-Hanse was a fake pretty damn quickly when I met with him earlier this month.
 
The Doppelganger might have looked like Hanse Davion, sounded like Hanse Davion, and even had some of Hanse Davion's knowledge and speech patterns... but I could tell immediately that he wasn't Hanse Davion.
 
For one thing, he made me wait.
 
I put in for the meeting, and instead of being directly escorted to the First Prince's office by a girthy MIIO escort at the nearest available opportunity... I had to sit on a waiting list for two weeks before I was given a meeting.
 
While I'd never had to have a private meeting with Hanse before, not with our monthly 'Bother Arthur So He Can't Be Anti-Social' sessions, he'd always assured me that if I ever felt the need to reach out to him directly he'd always have a free slot in his schedule for me; something Nisei-Hanse didn't know about.
 
Then when I did finally get to meet with him, it was anything but a private affair- there were all of these hangers-on and courtiers that I didn't recognize were with us in the sitting room outside of his office.
 
He promised that we'd always be without too many people aside from his personal bodyguards or Ardan Sortek.
 
Speaking of Ardan Sortek, ever Hanse's faithful and ass-kissing hound, the man was suspiciously absent given his failed mission to secure Stein's Folly, so that was his absence accounted for, but really, the dead giveaway was that the Doppelganger did not have all of Hanse's personality tics or microexpressions accounted for.
 
Given the dude was likely drugged up to the gills, along with the true Hanse Davion, while they drilled every scrap of knowledge from Hanse's brain into his it wasn't really his fault. He didn't know that Hanse's ears tended to wiggle when his jaw was clenched, or the slight crinkling of his nose when he smiled... nor did he manage to understand the references I sprinkled here and there in our conversation from obscure, 20th Century Terran films that I endlessly annoyed Hanse with until he watched the films so he could match me quip for quip.
 
Nisei-Hanse was an excellent Doppelganger for sure, but he couldn't fool my All-Seeing Mystic Eyes of Foreknowledge Perception. Lol.
 
After getting permission from him to sell the Free Worlds League branch of Corean Enterprises, something that the real Hanse Davion would have cautioned against incessantly until I'd proven to him that I was right to cut the deadweight... Nisei-Hanse seemed positively thrilled that I was willing to tank the stock price of the Federated Sun's most prominent Battlemech Manufacturer.
 
Or at least he was when one of his courtiers whispered into his ears... likely about just what my actions would do to potentially weaken the Federated Suns. Then? Then he was all smiles and happily approved the sales- even getting me a Fast-Track for approval through the massive bureaucratic machines that was the Federated Suns' Military Procurement Readiness Board.
 
Truly, Nisei-Hanse was a great guy.
 
So I showed my appreciation for him by writing down all of my observations into an encoded letter to have hand-delivered by one of MIIO's Spooks to Ardan Sortek who was likely soon to be arriving on Tharkad to begin his recovery.
 
Provided my letter makes it to Ardan Sortek in time, my personal observations and suspicions about the "lackluster individual that Ardan and Duke Quintus Allard approved as Hanse's defensive body double" might serve as further proof that Ardan could use to get Katrina to acquiesce to his rescue mission.
 
As much as Ardan and I disliked each other, I wasn't someone who could pilot a Battlemech to rescue the First Prince. It's not that I lacked in personal courage, in fact, I braved ComStar assassins every day just by drawing breath on the same planet as the New Avalon HPG, it's just that... well, I was Neural Helm incompatible thanks to my rather girthy and impressive brain.
 
I can't pilot a Battlemech, not with the current Neuralhelmet technology, and considering all of the other shit I'm trying to reinvent... making a Neural Helm that could handle my melon wasn't that high up on the list.
 
Sure, in a battle between two equal opponents riding equivalent machines the pilot wearing the Star League-era Neural Helm would win most of the time, but it wasn't so much a difference maker when compared to Double Heatsinks, Endo-steel, Extra Light Engines, Ferro Fibrous Armor, and better weapons. Thus it was put in the 'nice to have' category because it wasn't like the Inner Sphere was lacking in Neural Helm-compatible Pilots... there were always far more Pilots than there were Battlemechs for them to ride, after all.
 
Regardless, I was in the opening stages of my plan to revitalize the industrial base of my company based within the Federated Suns, and the first step in that plan was to get rid of the Corean branch within the Free Worlds League.
 
I couldn't touch the money there, thus it was useless to me.
 
Any R&D breakthroughs we made there would be 'tidally locked' to only the FWL branch of Corean, thus it was useless to me.
 
And to top it all off, we got murdered on our taxes twice- once from the FWL and once from the FedSuns, all because we wanted to be an International corporation.
 
Fucking useless.
 
The $11.8 Billion C-Bills in profits we made in the FWL weren't worth it.
 
We could make that annual loss up in less than a decade by shifting all of our production to the Federated Suns, expanding our industrial capacity, and more importantly- not getting taxed twice. God. I really hated my father right now for not pulling the trigger on his initial plans to sell off the FWL branch when he took over, but I'm sort of glad he didn't because at least right now I'm in a position where I can ameliorate the majority of those losses.
 
The Centurion K7 Chassis foundry and Centurion assembly plant on Ramen II will net us over $125 Million C-Bills per year from Earthwerks just from the license agreement alone, and they were willing to pay $5 Billion for the plant and all of its equipment. That was fine because it would have cost us almost double that to ship the equipment off-world.
 
However, this was not the case for Stewart.
 
They didn't want the Locust or Trebuchet lines because they didn't want to pay for the licenses to build them- no, they wanted all of the prime real estate just off the spaceport we had, and the already built factories and defenses that were rated for Battlemech production. Really, it worked out for both of us. $20 Billion for the facilities, and we were given leave to take our shit and get out unmolested by the FWL- if it was related to the Corean Enterprises deal then jumpships could move in and out freely through ComStar controlled Hegemony space into the Federated Suns.
 
And speaking of ComStar, it was through them that we were laundering all of this money back into the Federated Suns and into the coffers of Corean Proper. FWL Dollars into C-Bills, and C-Bills into FedSuns Pounds.
 
However, that still left me with over $10 Billion dollars sitting around in the Free Worlds League branch that I couldn't do anything with...
 
Or that was the case until I started using that money to purchase pretty much everything I could get my hands on that fit within the confines of the agreement I had with the FWL and ComStar.
 
Every last scrap of natural resources that I could source and cram onto Droppers and Jumpships headed for the FWL/Hegemony border I was buying. It didn't matter if it was extremely inefficient because the money was going to be lost either way. I couldn't buy licenses from purely FWL manufacturers- not that they would sell them to me even if they could- but what I could do was purchase Battlemech Licenses from other corporations if they had licenses elsewhere.
 
I was currently in talks with Gibson Federated Battlemechs to purchase the rights to the Marauder, a 75-ton Command Battlemech, from General Motors.
 
Using the FWL money that I was trying to burn through ASAP.
 
The offer was for $7.15 Billion FWL Dollars for perpetual rights to manufacture and modify existing Marauders... which was a touch steep for a license when GM had no requirements to furnish the machinery or provide upkeep. The deal was to essentially provide the blueprints and complete manufacturing methods, and it was up to the buyer to source the machinery and build them.
 
An expensive purchase to be sure, but if it went through then I would be a happy camper- the FWL Dollars in Corean's accounts were useless to me conventionally, so by getting rid of them in whatever fashion I could... it was for the best.
 
That and GM was primarily a FedSuns manufacturer to begin with, so they normally wouldn't even think about letting me purchase one of the biggest claims to fame, and likely wouldn't... but since Gibson Federated Battlemechs' perpetual license- and its ability to sell said license to others- was valid and legal since the Star League-era, there would be nothing that General Motors of New Avalon could do other than complain about it.
 
Considering Gibson Federated Battlemechs was financially still reeling from the beating the Andurian region took following Anton Marik's failed coup in the FWL a decade ago... I had the feeling that they would sell soon enough. The infusion of cash into their coffers was sorely needed...
 
Man, I really can't wait to start building my own Marauders. Those are peak Battletech for me.
 
Even if I'd have to "ride bitch" in a jumpseat when I got around to building them myself.
 
It also didn't hurt that I'd have something else to gloat to Elanore Wright's face when I saw her at the inevitable Christmas party that Hanse would drag me to attend once he was rescued; the CEO of GM was a snooty old bitch that told a 14-year-old 'Me' that the day Corean Enterprises got their hands on a Marauder license was the day hell would freeze over. Really, trying to smack down a young teen's dream so crudely? She should be ashamed.
 
If anything she should have been flattered that the son of her chief rival thought her company's Mech was 'The Coolest Battle Implement Ever Devised'.
 
God.
 
I hope Gibson Federated Battlemechs folds under the pressure and takes the deal.
 
I'd even throw in another billion Dollars if it would seal the deal- it was practically 'Monopoly money' to me at this point.
 
"Mister Corean," The intercom at my desk chirped, and Old Daisy' reedy voice filled my ears, "A courier from New Avalon Delivery Services has arrived."
 
I perked up, a huge smile on my face as I closed my computer terminal and locked it out, "Excellent, please, send them in Miss Daisy!"
 
A middle-aged man wearing the standard red and white uniform for NADS, a middle-man courier company based near New Avalon's HPG station, was admitted inside my office while escorted by a pair of my security team. He had in his hands a sealed steel container no larger than a manila envelope and presented it to me, "Your package, Mister Corean."
 
I smiled as I slid a $100 Pound paper note across the table with a smile, the man quickly snatched up the cash as he handed me the case, and after sliding the sealed holodisk into my hand I gave the metal container back to him, "Thank you very much, Mister Courier."
 
"No, thank you, Mister Corean. Blessing of Blake be upon you." He grinned as he hastily slipped the note into his billfold.
 
"And may Blake's radiance illuminate the rest of your day, brother." I lied easily with a brilliant smile on my face, causing the man to blink in shock that I hadn't just brushed him off or ridiculed him.
 
Given the British and French lineage of most of the Federated Suns, Christianity was the most populous religion, with Islam bringing up the rear, and the Blakists were... well, they were quite clearly in the minority. I had attended a few public services at the New Avalon HPG's Church of Blake a few times during my teenage years before I started attending NAIS, and I had read the so-called 'Holy Book of Blake', the public release version, cover to cover if only so I could quote scripture and talk the talk when dealing with the crazies.
 
I had hoped that my being seen as a Blakist might keep me off of ComStar's Kill List, but with the murder of my parents... and the fact that I was supposed to be on the Leopard with them... it appeared as though that had only stayed their hand for so long.
 
Still, I would at least continue to pay lip service in so long as it was necessary, though it would likely be a very long time before I could drop the charade.
 
The moment I was alone in my office once more, I slipped out a stand-alone tablet, one completely isolated from the networks, and slipped the holodisk in place before finding the quartet of video files and pressing 'Play'.
I was greeted by the sight of a beautiful young woman with fair skin, red hair, blue eyes, and a cute smattering of freckles across her cheeks and nose. Her hair was trimmed short, not even touching her shoulders, but with the loose curls and slight frizz my older sister, Yeathers, made it work for her. It looked like she was seated on the balcony attached to our parent's bedroom, and I felt the familiar sting of loss tickle at my heart; when we'd been younger Yeathers had once ruminated on how nice it would be to have our parent's large bedroom on Augusta all to herself, but I doubted she would have liked for it to have happened so soon.
 
Her beautiful, crystal blue eyes had lost their lustrous shine, and beneath them, dark circles were clearly visible.
----
======================================================================================================
"Hello, Arthur," She gave the camera a weak smile, her voice soft, "I hope that this message finds you well. Things have been progressing rather nicely at the County, and for once I am thankful that Mother had been adamant about me taking my duties as the future Countess seriously... I doubt I would be nearly as prepared if not for her taking away my summer breaks during schooling. While Father had been the Count, we both know that it was Mother who kept the County in tip-top shape, and thanks to her efforts I find myself doing nothing more than familiarizing the systems she set in place since my last visit."
======================================================================================================
----
The chair didn't make a single sound as I leaned back and kicked my feet up on the tabletop, the noteputer resting on my thighs as I let the background noise fade away so I could focus purely on my sister's face and voice.
 
She spoke of our family holdings on Augusta, and the impeccable shape that our mother kept them in.
 
She spoke of the inspection she'd made on my behalf of the Corean Enterprises plants that resided within our family lands.
 
She spoke of the Tertiary School Graduation ceremony that she attended as the keynote speaker, and how it felt to stand where our Mother used to stand... to deliver a message of hope and opportunity to the future of Augusta, and to give a warning about how difficult the coursework would be should they decide to head to a University instead of delving straight into the workforce.
 
Among those graduates was our youngest brother, Yuri, the lad turning 18 years old just days before he walked across the stage and received his diploma.
----
======================================================================================================
"-he's decided to change tracks, something Father would likely be rather cross with considering the donations he made to NAIS to get him a slot at the Mechwarrior Academy there," There was a slight lilt to her lips but nothing remotely approaching a smile, "Yuri wants to instead attend New Avalon University's School of Business. He wants to get his degree and then work for Corean... says you're 'going to need all of the help you can get' since Father is now gone. I didn't see a reason to deny him, not when the Blood Toll for our family has already been paid in full."
======================================================================================================
----
 
The image of a bald head, watery blue eyes, and a red-haired beard so big and bushy that one would be hard-pressed to see his teeth when he smiled flashed through my mind.
 
Yeathers was right, the Corean family had already sent one son to die in service of the Federated Suns, and sending another would hardly earn us further accolades.
 
Not when Andrew had done so much good for the family name with his 'glorious stand' still fresh in the minds of the people even more than a decade after his passing. He stood shoulder to shoulder with First Prince Ian Davion on Mallory's World, and his name was only a few slots removed from Ian's on the memorial seated in the center of one of New Avalon's many pristine forest parks. Considering how close Hanse Davion was with his brother, there was no doubt in my mind that the primary reason for him meeting me was to meet the older brother of one of the men who fearlessly fought by his own brother's side on that accursed place.
 
It made me wish, even if only for a moment, that I'd been more present in my sibling's lives; maybe he would have actually listened to me when I begged him to take another posting. The Fourth Davion Guards was a prestigious post, especially with the First Prince leading it personally, and for a dyed-in-the-wool patriot of the Federated Suns, having the chance to fight side by side with Ian Davion was a dream come true for him.
 
One that he wouldn't give up on even if his younger brother pleaded, and he paid the ultimate price for it.
 
Not that I blamed him or Ian Davion for it- it was the Dracs that killed my little brother, not the First Prince's leadership; from the reports and Battle ROMs Ian was a true commander through and through, always the first into battle and always the last to quit the field. Andrew's death wasn't on his head because I knew deep down that Ian had done everything he could to ensure that he preserved his men, even going so far as to challenge Yorinaga Kuritan to a duel so that the survivors of his unit could flee to fight another day.
 
I couldn't even blame the Kell Hounds for being late to the party either, because Andrew perished on the third day of the fighting, well before Ian Davion perished himself. Andrew had been piloting a Valkirye, one of our company's own mechs, and when his LRM 10-pack had run dry of missiles- his back armor completely stripped away, he and three other Light Mech pilots decided to play to the few remaining strengths of the design by utilizing their jump jets and heavy armor for their weight to harry the pursuing Kuritan forces with his lone medium laser. They all perished in the running battle, but their delay ensured that the First Prince was able to reposition the Fourth and set an ambush that cost the 2nd Sword of Light dearly in the follow-on engagement.
 
The Blood Toll from House Corean had been paid handsomely by Andrew, so Yuri should be able to turn down the NAIS Mechwarrior slot with little to no social damage.
----
======================================================================================================
"-so do be a dear and expect him to arrive in the next few months for the start of the term. I know you still own the apartment you used while you were attending NAU, but if you would... take some time to have it spruced up a bit? Pppppbbbbllllltttt!" Yeather's lips flapped as she blew out a breath, the Countess rolling her eyes as she toyed with her hair, "I understand that you're a big fan of the Minimalist movement, but Yuri isn't an Ascetic Monk, so when he arrives be sure to take him shopping. How you managed to go through so much schooling without even a holo-tele or audiobox I'll never know. Maybe some better furniture, some rugs, some paintings, and fake plants... and for the love of God, Arthur, have those black-out curtains removed! I swear, it was like I was walking into the den of a vampire every time I came to visit..."
 
======================================================================================================
-----
A snort left my nose as a wry smile tugged at my lips.
 
All fair points, truth be told. I had a bachelor pad in a nice upscale district just across the street from NAU, one directly connected to the University grounds via the Sky Tram or any number of above-street-level walkways; even as a young lad attending the University, I made sure that I was never anywhere near cars or masses of people on the streets. If ComStar wanted to kill me then they'd either have to pop my head like a melon while I was walking or blow up the damn tram; like hell I'd be 'run over by a drunk driver' at three in the afternoon! If they wanted me dead then they'd have to make it readily apparent that I was the target, that way they couldn't make me suffer any unfortunate accident.
----
======================================================================================================
"However, I would be remiss if I didn't at least warn you that Yuri has finally discovered the opposite sex," Yeathers chortled a little bit, a hand coming up to hide her lips as she smiled more genuinely, "I caught him sneaking through the gardens with one of his classmates earlier this month for a bit of snookery... and while Mother and Father have indeed given him the talk about 'youthful indiscretions', especially since we are both nobility and also part of the manufacturing establishment, I would greatly appreciate it if you would impress upon him the need to be careful."
======================================================================================================
----
Woman. Do you think that I am a font of wisdom on that front?
 
I'm a Goddamn virgin in this second life! I've never even seen a pair of tits before, much less touched them! I had too much shit to do, too many classes to take, so much learning to accomplish- tits, pussy, and ass were so far down my priority list that it wasn't even funny! Even now, being the hotshot CEO and scientist that I am, I don't think I've ever had a conversation with the opposite sex that didn't revolve around school or a project that I was working on.
 
Shit.
 
Now that I think about it, I really should start looking for a wife...
 
Meh, I'll dump that on Hanse's plate when he comes back.
 
Maybe she'll be some uber-cool MIIO spy that can not only rock my world and give me some kids, but she just might use that License to Kill to keep me safe from the ComStar loonies.
 
Surely Hanse would be thrilled with the prospect of permanently installing one of his beautiful, sexy spies right at the very top of Corean Enterprises?
 
He gets to ensure that Corean will forever be faithful to the Federated Suns, and I get a beautiful, sexy, lethal wife.
 
Truly, we would both benefit from this greatly.
----
======================================================================================================
"-Amelia and Julia have both finally settled down, they no longer wake up crying in the middle of the night," Yeathers sighed as she ran a hand over her lips, "It's only been a few months since Mother and Father perished so it is to be expected that the youngest of our family would take their loss the hardest, it's just... it hurts me, Arthur, to see them so distraught. I've taken them to see the gravesite, even if there wasn't enough of them left to be buried, and seeing their headstones in the family graveyard seems to have done some sort of good. Helped them come to terms that Mother and Father are gone and never to return. Oh... Arthur... how I wish that you could be here with us right now. If not for them then for me..."
 
The weight that had looked to have been lifted off of her shoulders came roaring back with force as she hunched forward, her bright red hair almost completely obscuring the camera, "Yet... I know that you cannot come. Not now. Not when so much is in flux. When the time is right I know that you'll come to visit, but for now, I'll have to console myself with the fact that you're hurting just as much as I am."
======================================================================================================
----
 
"Yeathers..." I murmured to myself as my fingers slid over the noteputer display unbidden, "I wish that were true."
 
The cold hard truth was that for all Mother and Father meant to me, I had long since distanced myself from them. From the moment I started attending University under my own power, with only a single maid, butler, and bodyguard attending to my needs and security, I had moved on from my parents. I attended the holidays with them, but during the breaks, most of my time was spent in Engineering offices and pestering the shit out of the scientists that were too well-paid and too polite to tell me to fuck off.
 
Most of the room in my heart for everything that wasn't science and learning was taken up by Yeathers and Andrew simply because they were both around me while I was attending NAIS. Being able to swing by my dorm room to make sure I was taking care of myself while occasionally forcing me to acknowledge the sun that New Avalon orbited around was... a pleasure that only they had the opportunity to experience. Yuri, Amelia, and Julia were faces that I only got to see on occasion because I threw myself into my studies so fiercely, and while that was indeed a travesty in its own right... I had far too much to do and so little time to do it.
----
======================================================================================================
"I look forward to seeing your response before the quarter is finished, so do be a dear and make it sooner rather than later. Try to keep the amount of drivel about the company to a bare minimum, please? I'd like to get a letter from my brother and not a progress report from the CEO. I can get that any time I want via ComStar since you seem so keen on handling our letters personally via courier," Yeathers had straightened herself up, the woman dabbing at the corners of her eyes with the tip of her middle finger, "Maybe you can try and find a date? One of the lab ladies perhaps? I wouldn't mind hearing about that..."
======================================================================================================
----
Sorry, Big Sis, but I'm pretty certain that Hanse will have a beautiful, blonde-haired, big-titted, fat-bootied, long-legged, and dangerously lethal MIIO International Super Spy to be my wife. Or at least I hope.
----
======================================================================================================
The red-haired Onee-san sniffed as she gave me a wan smile, "I won't take up too much more of your time, you still have three other letters to go through before the day is through so... take care, Arthur. I love you."
''
======================================================================================================
----
I smiled back as the screen went black before the video ended and the noteputer's home screen returned, "Love you too, Sis. I'll send a reply soon."
 
The rubberized button on the side clicked beneath my thumb as I sighed and slid the noteputer back onto the desk. After donating a bit of blood to the desktop's genelock interface, swiping my keycard, and punching in the fifty-character long RNG letter/number code string for the day- thank you eidetic memory!- I opened up my company email on the internal server and looked at my schedule once more.
 
Though before I got back to work in the vain hopes that I could finish up my mandatory tasks so I could slip into the labs deep beneath the earth to put on my 'Chief Scientist' cap... I reached into my desk drawer and pulled out a commemorative challenge coin that Hanse Davion himself gave to me when I earned my first Doctorate degree. On the front side was the standard for the Federated Suns, and on the back was a tasteful engraving of the grounds of the NAIS. My thumb slipped over the perfectly carved lines that made up the dome of the primary NAIS facility before I perched it on the back of said thumb and flicked the coin into the air-
 
"Heads I sleep in my on-site quarters," I mused as the gold coin spun end over end in the air, "Tails I return to the family estate..."
 
I caught the coin and looked at the result.
 
If I didn't know what I was doing, then neither did ComStar.
----
===Trial by Fire 1.3===
>>Ardan Sortek Mini-lude<<
[Ardan Sortek]
[The Triad, Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth]
[January 30th, 3025]
"Then maybe this might help give my story some weight then?" Ardan, clad in the fleece hospital jumper that kept the nippy Tharkad air at bay, leaned forward as he held out the letter toward Melissa Steiner, "It appears as though I wasn't the only one to realize that something was amiss with Hanse."
 
"If it truly is Hanse," Beautiful full lips were quirked, ice blue eyes twinkling with mischief and amusement as she took the offered letter that had been hand-delivered via JumpShip courier to the Triad's security, who then had a LIC agent deliver it to Ardan himself, "You were rather out of sorts while you were there, Ardan... it's why you're here to recover in the first place."
Melissa Steiner was a supreme beauty of a young woman, barely fifteen years of age but mature beyond her years; she understood the gravity of the situation when Katrina Steiner and Hanse Davion signed the FedCom Accords in secret, and was more than happy to play her part. She was to be wedded to the First Prince as part of the Accords to cement their two Great Houses together, and while any other young woman would be shocked to be married to a man more than twice her age, she handled herself with dignity and aplomb. If anything, she seemed rather enamored with Ardan's best friend, and she eagerly devoured any morsel that the Mechwarrior had to offer- everything was fair game, from stories to hidden factoids that no one else knew about her husband-to-be.
 
It was why she was here seated at the foot of his bed with a small bag of luxurious chocolates tucked between her legs; the young woman was a keen sort, and she wasn't going to just sit back and see where her future might take her. She took initiative, something Ardan approved of, and she was going to learn as much about Hanse as she could so that when the time came she could support him and the future Federated Commonwealth to the best of her abilities.
 
Unfortunately, it was inevitable that stories about Hanse's frequent trips to the Egg Carton, the cute nickname he came up with to call the secretive underground research facilities buried under the New Avalon Institute of Science, and Hanse's dalliances with the most frustrating man Ardan Sortek had ever had the displeasure to meet.
 
The Mechwarrior watched Melissa's features grow slightly more puzzled the further she read into the letter, and once she reached the 'meat and potatoes' he saw the wheels begin to start turning in her mind. She opened her mouth up before closing it, the young woman thinking rather hard until she opened it up again, though this time it was to slide a chocolate orb between her lips. "Hmmmm... Arthur Corean... he's the newly raised CEO of Corean Enterprises, is he not?"
 
Ardan grimaced as the dull-eyed know-it-all's face popped up before his very eyes, "Yes. He's also an arse with no manners, decorum, or even a shred of decency."
 
Her eyes lit up just a touch as she shifted at the foot of the bed, her lips pursing, "Oh? This sounds like a story."
 
It wasn't a happy one, or even a funny one, really, but Melissa Steiner seemed to be enthralled nonetheless, her jaw-dropping in awe, "Wait! I don't believe you! Did he really tell the First Prince of the Federated Suns to 'Get the Fuck out of his lab and to not bother him'!?"
 
Her cheeks colored as she looked around, as though her mother was going to leap out from behind the curtains to scold her for cursing.
 
It was sort of amusing to see, but it also drove home the fact that Melissa was only a few years older than any girl who'd have hidden behind her mother's skirts.
 
"Yes, yes he did, that uncouth..." He couldn't even call him a 'barbarian' because he was likely the single most educated man in the Federated Suns! Only Doctor Buckaroo Banzai, the Commander of Team Banzai, had as many Doctoral degrees as Arthur Corean- while Dr. Banzai had a Ph.D. in Biology, Engineering, and Bionics, Arthur had his in Engineering, Metallurgy, and Programming; however if one took into account the number of total Certifications of Mastery then the Corean prick had Banzai beat by spades. He was also one-third Dr. Banzai's age to boot.
 
"And how did Hanse respond to this outrageous turn of events?" Melissa leaned forward, eyes shimmering.
 
"He... simply laughed. Really, hard. I suppose that he was just as shocked as I was, but being the graceful soul he is Hanse didn't take any offense to it- primarily because there was no one else in the lab at the time except he, myself, and Arthur," Ardan said mirthlessly, a slight pang in his chest because when was the last time that he had ever gotten such a laugh from his best friend? One that didn't involve tripping over something in the Mech Bay or some other act of misfortune? Even his best jokes could at best get a hearty chuckle out of The Fox, but Ardan sort of knew, deep down, that he didn't really have it in him to be a comedian- he'd leave that to the experts, like Doctor Corean.
 
Now that man was someone who knew how to be a well-educated clown!
 
A whole damn circus unto himself.
 
"Hmmm... no doubt if there had been anyone else to witness the impropriety the outcome would have been different, but... if what you said about Hanse visiting Arthur every month is true," Pouty lips quirked up into a snooty smile, "Then it sounds like my dear Hanse had finally found a friend."
 
Brown eyes narrowed, "I am his best friend."
 
Melissa huffed dramatically before throwing her hands up, "Ardan! We all have different friends for different things! You're the friend that supports Hanse in everything he does, providing the stability and encouragement to carry on- and from the sounds of it Arthur is the type of friend that is supposed to tell you off when you're being annoying or overbearing... or stupid."
 
For the first time in a long time, Ardan felt a small flush of shame creep up his neck- he was a grown man and hardly Hanse's keeper, so it wasn't like he had the right to tell Hanse who he could be friends with! It's just-! Why did it have to be Arthur Corean that Hanse found another kindred spirit in!?
 
Melissa had seen fit to ignore his inner turmoil as she popped another chocolate between her lips and regarded the letter once more, "It appears as though Mister Corean was keen enough to pick up on the fact that the Hanse Davion he met wasn't the Hanse Davion he knew, which is lending some credence to what you witnessed on Stein's Folly. While I can't speak to 'improper or lacking microexpressions', the sheer lack of familiarity this False Hanse showed with Mister Corean... the lack of knowledge of obscure 20th Century film references, and the 'making him wait' when Hanse had promised otherwise... it does seem to smack of something fishy."
 
Her eyes drifted over to the sealed container that the letter arrived in, "Given that he wrote this letter and then sent it via courier the moment he finished his meeting with Hanse... and paid for the Platinum Express Shipping tells me that he was alarmed enough to ensure that this letter reached you as soon as possible while still being discreet."
 
Ardan winced.
 
Arthur Corean had opted to pay extra for the 'Platinum Express Shipping', which gave every jumpship crew that carried a message an eye-watering $25,000 C-Bills for carrying and delivering it to the next jumpship in the chain. Given it was 19 jumps between New Avalon and Tharkad, and ComStar tacked on an additional 20% Service Charge for arranging the shipping... the CEO of Corean Enterprises paid $570,000 C-Bills just to have this letter delivered.
 
"The man is arrogant, of that there can be no doubt, but he is... attentive and has an eidetic memory; everything he's seen once he can recall perfectly. I would know, Hanse tested it by generating a 100-number string at random and he repeated it all back to Hanse with perfect accuracy. So him doing something as banal as memorizing Hanse's ticks and microexpressions well enough to tell him apart from the Doppelganger I saw on Stein's Folly is something he'd do," He looked over at the messenger tube, "And while arrogant the man is anything but loose with his C-Bills. He wouldn't have spent such a large amount to have this rushed to me in such a clandestine fashion if he wasn't worried about the 'body double' that I and Quintus Allard 'approved'."
 
Melissa Steiner grabbed the now empty bag of chocolates and stood up, the future bride of Hanse Davion turning to Ardan, "This has given me more than enough cause to talk to my mother, Ardan. Even if she doesn't approve I will talk to some of my friends and we'll see about getting you a jumpship, a dropper, and some Heavy Metal to take with you to Stein's Folly. If there is something to this... then I want to see that this plot is foiled."
 
Ardan perked up, "Well, before you go... I'm going to need you to message some of my people, discreetly."
 
"Sounds expensive," Melissa quipped wryly as he picked up the courier tube and shook it with her hand, "You're in luck, however, because I just so happen to be one of the wealthiest young women in the Inner Sphere."
 
The dogsbody of Hanse Davion grinned in return.
 
There were far worse fates in the Inner Sphere than to have your clandestine, off-the-books, and totally-not-sanctioned operations bankrolled by a Steiner.
 
He just really wished that Melissa had believed him instead of the arrogant smart alec she'd never met before.
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