BMM

**ALLIES:**

Bowex, Bretonia Police, Bretonia Armed Forces, Planetform

**ENEMIES:**

Mollys, Gaians, Outcasts, Corsairs, Coalition

Bretonia Mining and Manufacturing (BMM) is one of the largest commercial concerns in Bretonia, a network of semi-autonomous operations that range throughout Bretonian space.

## Rumors

* BMM views the Mollys as vicious hooligans with no morals whatsoever. We abhor their approach of extreme violence over sensible moderation. We refuse to have any dealings with those terrorists, and our company funds several bounties against them.

* New London serves as our supply base for the Thames Outpost - high in orbit above us. We purchase Food, H-Fuel, Oxygen, and Water. New London also supplies Graves and the Southampton Shipyard with these commodities.

* Welcome to Thames. This is the headquarters for BMM, Bretonia's oldest industrial conglomerate. BMM and our affiliates handle rougly 85% of all Bretonian industrial ventures, and 65% of all mining endeavours. In other words, if you intend to do business in Bretonia, it is hard to go around us.

* We ship Mining Machinery out to Peterborough, Birmingham, Graves, and Douglas Station. Peterborough is the new Beryllium processing plant in Cambridge. I worried for a while that we'd have to deal with those IMG criminals in order to secure Beryllium, but the Crown was smart enough to see that that would essentially give the IMG leverage over the entire Bretonian economy. And that won't do.

* At least the Bowex boys know the value of keeping Bretonia alive. They've been a right blessing, bringing in those raw materials that we need to keep our factories going. Having to deal with Rheinland for Aluminium now that we've lost Leeds is not the preferred option - we really need Belfast back under our control. The automated mining rigs it controls would produce all the Aluminium we need.

* The war with Kusari and now Gallia has done immense damage to our company. The most obvious to everyone is the loss of Stokes, Leeds and LD14 - but what is even worse is the loss of business. Other companies are filling in the gaps that our predicament has left, and those companies won't go away as easily once we're done rebuilding.

* The amount of money we lost in Tau-23 still makes me shudder. We sank billions into that system, trying to fight off the criminals and start up a viable venture, and then that cursed Gallic armada came along and took it all over. What's even worse is that they left those IMG traitors be - those guys threw an accord with Gallia. Typical.

* IMG is a motley collection of unemployed New London miners, former BMM malcontents, and hordes of Daumann and Kruger Rheinlanders. They have no business operating as a legal entity within the boundaries of Bretonia - the Crown ought to remove them from our border as a matter of principle. There is little we can do in the Border Worlds, unfortunately.

* BMM and Bowex have had a long and profitable relationship stretching back over 500 years. You should never listen to what Gateway, IMG, or ALG tell you. They are young, poorly run organizations that will not be there for you in the long haul. Dozens have gone before them, and will come after them. But BMM and Bowex endure.

* Thames is company headquarters for all of our operations across Sirius. Supply runs from New London bring in Food, Oxygen, Water, and H-Fuel. We then transfer them for special shipment to our other bases: Douglas, Southampton, Graves, Birmingham and Peterborough.

* Thames is in a bad way without the mineral shipments from Tau-23 and Leeds. Even with the new Peterborough base slowly starting to replace the Beryllium train. Some people wonder whether the whole company will survive. The IMG must be real smug right about now. Parliament ought to nationalize their bases without our border and hand them over to BMM as a matter of national security.

* The Mollys have been a challenge for BMM ever since the revolt on the Graves Station in 752, in which they mercilessly executed the chief of base operations, Sir Edmund Graves, and several of his senior lieutenants. They fantasized of Dublin being their own country. We asked for assistance from the Bretonia Armed Forces at the time and have been engaged in a war of attrition ever since.

* The Gaians have recently begun raiding the Birmingham plant, apparently because they believe we are guilty of producing gases subsequently used in terraforming operations. In my opinion, this guilt by association is not constructive and further alienates their cause from the common man in Bretonia. Not to mention, the company has posted a whopper of a bounty on the Gaians. Planetform is one thing, but if you attack BMM, you attack Bretonia as a whole.

* If you ask me, the Crown should simply have nationalised Cardiff. That would have both given us all the infrastructure we need, and put an end to the IMG operations in the system so that all profits from Cambridge could go to the Crown. The IMG decided against siding with Bretonia. That makes them as bad as the enemy.

* One of these days I'm going to visit Trafalgar, and make a Corsair snack on a Cardamine-laced crumpet, and cam the whole thing. I bet that would be a hit on NeuraTube! Ten thousand thumbs up at least!

* A Molly and a Corsair are both aboard a ship. Who's driving? Well?Why, the Constable of course!

* I once knew a joke about paper, but forgot what it was about. It was... tearable.

* There's rumors of another increase in the worktimes due to the ongoing war. Not sure what it'll accomplish - people can only be pushed so far, you know? Before soon people will start napping or drinking on the job, and that's when accidents start to happen.

* If you handle any broken storage containers which contained Beryllium, don't forget to wash thoroughly afterward. Beryllium is toxic and will slowly poison you. Handling Beryllium is part of the job here. Staying alive however isn't in the job description - it's just common sense.

* They say that space is dangerous. I believe that, so I signed up for stationboard duty. Sure, the view isn't as great in the smelter 3 control room, but at least you don't get your ship shot out from under you by Mollies, Corsairs, Hessians, Gaians... need I go on?

* Mollys and Gaians have both started to show an uncanny interest in this station. So far nothing serious, but it is a sign of things to come. The Gaians probably worry that we'll end up damaging Planet Cambridge, but there's very little risk since we barely do any smelting on this base. The Mollys are just being their destructive selves.

* Beryllium is essential to the Bretonian economy because it's used many ways - Engine Component construction, Nuclear Reactors, Radiation Shielding. But most essentially for us, it is part of the Bretonian Super Alloy synthesis. BMM and Bowex refused to be dependent on the IMG for their supply of Beryllium, so the Crown nationalised the Beryllium deposits north of Cambridge for exclusive use by us.

* Welcome to Peterborough, youngest station in Bretonia as of 819 AS, and still under construction. But that doesn't mean we don't have any fair Bretonian Stout here. Or an abundance of Beryllium for that matter. The boys in their mining ships are quickly tagging the richest deposits of Beryllium in the field. Early mining operations always start with a high yield before mining begins in earnest.

* With the first three smelters operational, we can produce roughly 15 isotons of ore at a variable purity on the refined product. Once the other 9 come online, we'll have at least 30 percent more capacity then Cardiff does. That will allow us to undercut the IMG operation, so long as we get enough raw materials delivered.

* BMM has excavated trace amounts of Cobalt already but hopes to make further gains. Scans are showing up rich mineral strata further below the surface. Once we crack those open, it's easy credits. In the mean time, the surface crews are still constructing processing facilities and smelters. The usual Cambridge crowd are screaming about ecological damage, but that's so short sighted. Don't they want Bretonia to survive the war?

* This planet is riddled with alien ruins - they must be millions of years old. One of our drilling teams burst in through the roof of a small alien chamber a short while ago. I've heard the BPA got straight in there and locked everything down, but not before a few discrete items were stowed away in pockets. If you knew who to ask for, you might be able to pick up a "collectors item" to remember your stay by.

* We had one of our tunnel shafts collapse a little while ago. The roof came down on the mining equipment we had there. It'll be more expensive to dig it out than to bring in new gear, so we're leaving it where it is and dropping a new shaft somewhere else. At least the corpses are already buried, so the families don't have to worry about that.

* Scarborough and Belfast were initially intended to be a chain of stations - resources mined from Middlesbrough would be converted to Basic Alloys and Hull Panels on Belfast itself, then shipped over to Scarborough for shipbuilding. That all went to hell when the Mollys managed to take it over. I do hope the Mollys decide to side with Gallia - that'd give the government all the reason they need to forcefully take that station back from them. Even without it, they'll have to sooner or later - without Leeds, we'll need the resources from Middlesbrough to keep the fleet operational.

* The loss of Leeds has been hard on all of Bretonia. I doubt even those IMG and Gateway fellows over on yon South Shields have been left unaffected. In the short term, we'll not feel the loss as harshly - BMM and Bretonia as a whole has had half a decade to prepare for this. But we have got to take Leeds back if we're to have any hope of beating Gallia back - if they can restart the factories on Leeds they'll have no problems maintaining their ships right on the frontline. That'd be the end of Bretonia.

* Some of the Zoners on this base are always lookin at me sideways, acting like I'm the almighty hand of BMM itself. Ah, stupid base snipes is all they are. Next one I see looking at me funny is gonna get some teeth popped outta his head.

* This system is Bretonian space now, didn't I tell you so? The Ole Doug was originally plopped down by BMM on the Queen's orders to keep an eye on them cretinous Rheinlanders. Nottingham ain't exactly all fixed up, but we're living on her as best we can. Can't afford to contract Planetform and I don't know if they'd even want to take a job in Nottingham.

* In case you hadn't noticed, the fellas over at Rugen have got an industrial sized pole stuck up their arse about Omega 3. Jealousy about Bretonia settling down on what's ours, if you ask me. It's strange though - we've worked together a few times in recent years. Put a BMMer and a Daumann in a room together anywhere else in the universe and we're fine. Omega 3? Come back in an hour, and there'll only be one of us and a smoking pile of ash left.

* We can bring Oxygen directly from Nottingham, and they're talking about mining water from the Graham Ice Cloud near the Cambridge jump gate. That sounds like a fools errand when you could import it from Cambridge. That's where we get our food from too - we could buy it from the Zoners, I suppose, but we'd rather know how it was grown. Or rather... they don't like selling it to us. Apparantly they have a very long list of customers.

* Poor Lying Pete has been in a frenzy of late, swishing this way and that, trying to avoid a certain Bounty Hunter. Makes me chuckle, it does -- first bit of humor I've had in many a month on this bucket of bolts I call a home. Pete thinks he's a dead man, but we know better, don't we?

* The Bounty Hunters here were hired to protect our shipments from Corsairs. The Hessians are more concerned with killing the Daumann boys than us, though they will attack our shipments in the Trade Lanes on occasion. Sometimes we'll even get attacked while we're mining. A ship's weapon will blow a man to smithereens; it isn't pretty.

* Bowex doesn't like coming out this way too much, and I don't blame them. We drop our goods off at either Nottingham or Freeport 1 and they usually take it from there. Occasionally we'll get the odd hot-shot Percheron captain streaking through the field with his hair on fire, trying to dodge 'Sairs. Otherwise it's on us to lug our supplies the rest of the way from the planet.

* The gear here is old and falling to bits, but I'd rather sleep on Ole Doug' than Nottingham. It's mankier than a Loiner's armpit down there. Too hot around the middle, freeze your tits off at the poles. Know what happens when you got temperature differences that extreme? Big storms. They dug down into the rock to get around that, but I still reckon my bunk is better than a damp and badly ventilated ex-mine shaft.

* Lying Pete owes a mean-looking Hunter quite a stock of cash. The Hunter is a good-natured fellow and gave me some credits to cook up a story about him killing Pete when he finds him, if he don't pay up. Well, he hasn't paid yet but the Hunter's gotten his money's worth, I'd say. Pete turned white and passed right out when I told him the Hunter aimed to kill him.

* Oh, I've been walking on cat's feet around here of late. I owe one of those sly Hunters quite a few credits. Made him a bet he couldn't kill two Corsairs in one day, and whattya know, he does it! Ah, I've been avoiding him, hoping he's blown to little bits before he lays a hand on my money.

* Ya know, I was chatting with a mate in the BPA a little while back, and he reckons that Daumann's reports for Corsair attacks in this area have dropped through the floor. Makes ya suspicious, dunnit? I know them Hessians prefer to hit Daumann to us, but they ain't too picky either way if they find something on the lanes. This is something else altogether.

* If you're looking to make some dosh, go to Thames and fetch us some Mining Machinery. I'm sure my bosses will pay you well for it. The crap I have to work with is all but rusted and busted away, it is.

* With the Mancs over at Birmingham getting shafted by the Frogs, it's down to Ole Doug' to pick up the slack on Hydrocarbon and Polymer production. With us doing that, and also acting as an early warning station for Corsair raids on Nottingham, I reckon we've never been more important.

*NOTE: Page generated on the 28/10/2023 at 17:59:46 UTC*