NDiS Chpt 13

=New Dawn in the Sun's - Chapter 13=
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==Thorny Issues==
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Triad
Tharkad, Lyran Commonwealth
August 9th, 3016
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Duke Greydon Brewer sipped his champagne and enjoyed the success of yet another profitable deal. His guests son looked under siege, surrounded as he was by the scions of Lyran industry. Fedrats had a reputation for being a bit soft, and it looked like most of the courts younger daughters were out in force to take advantage of that. He had to smirk as Jessica Malan, one of those odious New Capetown nobles who was too wealthy to ignore, stepped back with her back up like an offended cat. It seemed this Harry had good taste.
 
"Your boy looks like he's under siege over there, you might want to think about rescuing him," Greydon's soothing baritone came out highly amused as he said that.
"He needs to learn how to be social," Brenda Brockton replied primly. "They should be a good enough school until he meets someone of substance, worthy of his time. Your daughter wasn't available?"
 
"She's active duty at the moment, finished up her five and is putting in another tour before she even thinks about retiring." Greydon replied, keeping his dislike of the idea out of his voice. Jacqueline was the apple of his eye and Harry Brockton wasn't nearly good enough for her. Rather then continue he switched topics to something a little more comfortable. "I'm sorry I couldn't help you with the Sentinel license but there are political issues in play here that you might not be aware of."
 
"You mean how Lockheed-CBM and Coventry are annoyed with us?" Brenda inquired her tone a touch challenging.
 
"No, they couldn't be an issue on their best day." Greydon swirled his glass and contemplated how to put this delicately. "You have two issues from my perspective, the first is that your dispute with Corean is out of hand, it is one thing to deal with a competitor, even harshly at times but… that is best done through your own offices, or if you lack the means through appropriately bonded mercenaries. The incessant war of yours should have been finished years ago, one way or the other, not dragged on as if you were a Leaguer."
 
"We have very few options for dealing with Corean as you put it." Brenda bit out. "That we have refused to give in is to our credit, we are after all still in the fight."
 
"You are losing and don't have the sense to surrender before you face annihilation." Greydon retorted sharply. "Involving the ministry of justice was a mistake, no matter how much damage you deal to Corean through that move, it was an admission of weakness."
 
"We haven't involved the ministry of justice though?" Brenda felt her face scrunch in confusion. "In point of fact things have been kept deliberately quiet for the past decade or so on our part."
 
"You mean after your board screwed up and executed some hirelings because they couldn't get at the people they wanted too…"
 
"That wasn't the board, that was my husband." Brenda admitted with a grimace. "The family lost a member in their little raid, so we have obligations. It's unfortunate that Trevlu was tarred with that action, but they really didn't have anything to do with it. The Brockton family offered the contract, and extracted the blood price we told the Rangers we would."
"That's the attitude which makes my board incredibly wary of doing business with you directly. Couldn't you have just hired a retaliation strike?"
 
"Against New Avalon? The only Mercenaries who would be crazy enough to take that contract are McCarron's lot and letting that bunch of war criminals loose on New Avalon isn't politically survivable… or sensible."
 
"You couldn't get at Steward?"
 
"We don't have the contacts… Operating in the league is a whole new ball game, one where we don't know the rules. We've been suns exclusive for our entire existence as a company."
 
"You do occasionally stray across borders though, there are rumors about how the Magistracy and Concordat managed to procure the license and plans for the Swordsman."
 
"We have excellent contacts in Samantha, and the rules have been made painfully clear to us." Brenda couldn't help but snort when she said that. The Taurians were painfully earnest, letting them know exactly how much rope they had before they were kicked out with any assets they couldn't recover in time being subject to nationalization. It was refreshing to have such clear lines, and rules, a major change from operating in a successor state even their native suns.
 
"Be very wary there," Greydon intoned solemnly. "the culture of vendetta is taken extremely seriously in the League. If you take a shot, make damn sure you don't miss. Otherwise you will be dealing with retaliation until the stars go out, its something we Lyrans are all too familiar with."
 
"That's … unfortunate." Brenda pursed her lips. She had plans to continue onto the league and while the information Greydon provided was concerning, it was something she was perfectly comfortable dealing with. Worse came to worse she would be sure to play up the families reputation, better that League nobles thought them bioweapons mad then weak and a target. "You said two reasons?"
 
"The other is related, the Rim Worlds are still a sensitive topic here. Companies that don't want to end up tarred with the tyrants brush need to step carefully."
"Ah. It's the Vulcan isn't it?"
 
"Exactly. I cannot allow the Defiance name to be linked to anything related to the Rim Worlds, even at a degree removed. While it wouldn't ruin the company, the reputational damage would take decades to repair."
Brenda shot the older man a look as he said that. She was well aware of the rumors which never seemed to go away completely about how Defiance had managed to put the Zeus into production as fast as they had. The design had gone from paper to the battlefield in just three years, something that she didn't think was possible. Given the number of similarities it had to the Rampage? She was betting the Zeus was just a lightened Rampage, with some cosmetic modifications. She could see where Greydon was coming from if that was the case, especially if links to the rim worlds still had that much power after all this time.
Despite the Commonwealths reputation as one of the most liberal of the Successor States, they did keep LOKI on hand. She had thought that after all this time a repeat of what had happened to Apollo Mechworks was unlikely to occur, but it sounded like there was a deeper cultural issue at play. Certainly, no First Prince would order their security service to hang the entire board of a company for producing a mech. Then again, the First Princes didn't have the options that an Archon had. It seemed to her that the Phoenixes incredibly brief resurrection as a Militia 'Mech had a deeper impact on the Commonwealth business community then she had thought. Of course, an entire board of directors swinging in the very place where Mohammed Selim was once lynched was a pretty emphatic statement. Of course Apollo wasn't destroyed as a company. To this day they produced a mix of Gladiators, Crossbows, and Ymirs for the Militia market. A fact which probably made that long ago statement by the Archon via LOKI stick in any sensible commonwealth business mans mind.
 
"So no license for us, but you are willing to let us buy components from your Gibbs factory…"
 
"That would not be something that would come to the Public's attention." Greydon confirmed. "Between putting the Sentinel back into production and experimenting with the new weapons system you sold us. It wouldn't be out of line to keep the lines of communication going. A few one sixty rated engines are hardly going to raise an eyebrow."
 
"It's still a connection though."
 
"Not politically," Greydon disagreed. "Something you're going to need to learn over at Trevlu, battlemechs are more then a war fighting system, they are a political statement. It's one thing to provide components to a company which has… lets call it a publicity problem. It's another to have one of your designs walking off the lines from that very same company. I know you've been active in the militia market for some time, and you have kept at least some proper production, but you haven't needed to deal with the political issues an inadvertent statement can cause."
 
"We've had issues with acceptance for at least one of our designs." Brenda corrected him mildly, not showing her temper at his condescending tone. "Those issues have recently become a thing of the past though."
 
"Keep a close eye on that, you never know when those issues will crop back up." Greydon offered his advice, slightly apologetic. "Sorry the whole issue has been on my mind recently. It's going to be a dog of a problem for me with the Sentinel, the downgraded units we were forced to produce have damn near ruined the designs reputation. It's going to be an uphill battle to get it accepted again."
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Chapter 13