WCGW Chpt 161

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==Chapter 161 - What Could Go Wrong==
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Kathil (Federated Commonwealth, FedSuns State)
9th June, 3044
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"Are these specifications the First Prince gave us any help?" Hoban Cobb, CEO of General Motors asked
"They are the Holy Grail, boss. There are variants I have never even seen before. Did he trip over a forgotten GM factory somewhere?" Jacob Brently replied
"Lord knows, but when the courier hand delivered them to me I was only told that the First Prince wants them into production as soon as possible." Hoban Cobb said
"Well, for the MAD-2R, that one is fairly easy. We have 4 lines building Marauders, but I suggest converting one for this MAD-2R until we verify there are no hiccups. We can change the others down the road a bit. Never heard of the Nightstar, but it said we built is before, so we are bound to be able to dig into the records for something on it. Same goes for the Cestus, bound to be something in the records. But these are some detailed maintenance records we have been given. More detailed than we send out with our new Battlemechs." Jacon Brently replied
"Then let's not stand around. I will have folks start a deep records search, you start getting a production line setup for the new Marauder." Hoban Cobb said
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New Avalon (Federated Commonwealth, FedSuns State)
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"Where and when did the First Prince discover these god sends?" Larry Delgado asked while slowly scanning the displayed plans
"Not a clue. They were hand delivered by a very serious gentleman along with a "the First Prince would like these in production as soon as possible". Paul LeBeau, CEO Achernar Battlemechs replied
"These designs listed are serious upgrades. LCT-1Vb of the Locust, never heard of that variant. The PHX-1b Phoenix Hawk is a very serious upgrade. Additionally, the DV-6Md model of the Dervish, very nice upgrade. All designs we already build anyway. At least 6 months to get everything retooled. Luckily, we were already tooling up for recovered tech anyway." Larry Delgado said
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Styk (Federated Commonwealth, FedSuns State)
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Olivia Devar, CEO Tao Mechworks, had overseen the complete rebuilding of the massive factory complex from the ground up. They were roughly six months from producing the first Victor Assault Battlemech and had five lines ready to go and now she held in her hands orders from the First Prince to produce several different designs than planned. Also delivered were complete and very detailed records of those designs. CRD-2R Crusader Heavy 'Mech and BLR-1Gb Battlemaster Assault 'Mech. She had never heard of the variants listed, and she could find no records that they had ever been produced before. She had shown the designs to her chief engineer and he had literally drooled over them.
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Coventry (Federated Commonwealth, Lyran State)
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Duke Isaiah Grantrel, CEO Coventry Metal Works eyed the orders from Archon Melissa Steiner Davion or First Prince Hanse Davion. He had read the message, hand delivered along with technical data by an obvious spook, several times. He had been in the business a long time and had built many Battlemechs, but he had never seen the variants she was requesting to be built as soon as possible. His eyes scanned down the list again.
Stinger, STG-3b
Phoenix Hawk, PHX-1b
Lynx, LNX-9Q (Licensed from Blue Shot Weapons, 50% profit each Battlemech to Blue Shot until their factory on Solaris VII is rebuilt, then standard license rates)
Only the Lynx was a totally new design, but he had enough information to make it work. He was not pleased at all about the already negotiated price, but it was Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion and he was not about to argue with her.
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Hesperus II (Federated Commonwealth, Lyran State)
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Greydon Brewer, CEO Defiance Industries did not like being ordered to do anything. Much less told what to build and who he could sell them to. The last one really pissed him off, but he was not about to tempt fate with Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion. The technical data would be helpful in making the design changes. But he still was not keen on the "for purchase by the AFFC only" next to every ordered design. The list was quite extensive as he scanned it again.
Griffin, GRF-2N
Archer, ARC-2Rb
Atlas II, AS7-D-H
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Sudeten (Federated Commonwealth, Lyran State)
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Duke Michael Olivetti, CEO Olivetti Weaponry, had been awakened in the wee hours of the morning by a stern woman and presented with orders and a data stick from Archon Melissa Steiner-Davion. He had then awakened his chief engineers and presented them with the specifications he had been given. He had been bombarded with questions he did not have the answers to and had simply told his engineers to make it happen. Luckily, they already built the designs they had been given specs for. They were already starting the retooling process anyway, which was estimated to take at least 2 years.
Thunderbolt, TDR-5Sb
Warhammer, WHM-7A
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Twycross (Federated Commonwealth, Lyran State)
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Duchess Yvonne Killa, CEO Trellshire Heavy Industries watched her chief engineer almost have a heart attack as he looked over the "gift from god" as he called them. "Ralph, tell me this is doable?"
"I will move heaven and earth to make this a reality. We already planned for a major retooling anyway. Well, now we have information that saves us the development time and testing on new variants. STK-3Kb Stalker, oh my what a beast, but this computer system is going to give us some fits building in house. The BLM-3Gc variant of the Battlemaster, also a complete beast. I never even thought about anything like it. But this Rifleman, the RFL-3N-2 version is a different animal than what we already build, 80 tons, but a huge upgrade in performance. That is going to take some logistical work to make happen. But I think it will be worth it." Ralph Numary replied
What no one told them was the design specifications were being given to any company that spanned across the borders of the Federated Commonwealth for production. Security was being kept very tight on these new design variants and the information. This left some very large companies, even those that built designs within the Federated Commonwealth, without access to the recovered specifications.
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