Veni, Vidi, (Re)aedificavi "I Came, I saw, I (Re)built" (A Commissioned Battletech Isekei)

[Baldrick the Wise]

After all, my secretary Susannah was really good at her job, and was attractive to boot. She'd managed to sweet talk the poor, young, and innocent MRB representative into giving her copies of the current contracts and payments that Hammer had taken.

Click to shrink...

So that's 31st century version of 13th century trope of seductress taking advantage of novice monk?

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 23

Date: August 26, 3028

It was Rebecca's elbow in my ribs that woke me up. My lover's groaning at me doing more to rouse me from my deep slumber than the ringing phone did.

Grunting out that I would get it, I blearily opened my eyes and sat up, rubbing sleep and some eye boogers out of the corners before easing my feet over the side of the bed and standing up on the cold hardwood floor while stretching my arms out over my head.

Then, at least mostly awake, navigated the dark space of the bedroom to where the phone was ringing across from the bed next to a bookshelf. Closing my eyes, I leaned an elbow against the wall and grabbed the phone from its receiver before answering.

"Blaze, here," I muttered.

"Edmund," Sylvie's voice was far too awake and chipper for… I glanced at the clock. Four in the morning. "You need to turn on your Tri-Vid and look at the news, then I think we need to have an emergency meeting."

"Sylvie, it's four," I replied with a sigh, reaching a hand up to move a lock of hair out of my eyes. "Whatever this is, it can wait until morning."

"The Lyrans launched a full offensive against the Draconis Combine four days ago, and the Federated Suns did the same in the Capellan Confederation," Sylvie said, and I felt a cold shiver move down my spine.

"Wait," I was definitely awake now. "I thought all of the leaders were invited to that wedding on Terra."

"Yeah," I heard a laugh from Sylvie. "The First Prince's first gift to his new bride was the Capellan Confederation."

"Shit," I swore, turning around and leaning the back of my head against the wall. "If we're in a war footing again, then our enitre strategy for expansion just changed," I looked at the clock again. "See if you can get Eddie and Billy awake and ready to meet me at the factory. Give me thirty minutes to an hour, I'll throw something together and meet you guys there."

"I'll see if I can get the old men out of their beds," Sylvie replied. "See you in a couple of hours, Edmund."

The line went dead, leaving me with a dial tone and static before I set it back down on the cradle.

"What was that about?" Rebecca asked, any previous sleepiness replaced by curiosity.

"We're at war again," I replied, moving over to the light switch and looking askant at my lover before she nodded and I flipped the switch on. Of course, that simply left me distracted for a few seconds as I remembered just how gorgeous my girlfriend was. "I hate that we might be at risk here, but it's an opportunity to take advantage of, and I can't sit around waiting for the FWL To come to us."

"You need some help crunching numbers?" Rebecca moved out of the shared bed and began putting on a bra and some pantied before digging through the shared dresser for some casual clothes.

"If you think you can help, then I'll take all I can get," I replied, getting dressed in a pair of jeans and plain black shirt. "I'm going to the terminal, I've got to run some data collection, see if we can boost production anywhere. Then, I've got to figure out if there's some way we can leverage this into our negotiations with Skobel Mechworks."

"So, you're saying there's numbers involved," Rebecca grinned, finishing pulling on a tank top and a jacket before zipping it up. "Let me get my glasses. This should be fun!"

While she looked for her glasses and the hair ties I kept around the house, I padded on the soft carpeted floors to the basement where I'd put the computer that was tied directly into the factory's data core.

If the data was correct, by the end of the year, we'd have built fourteen 'mechs to sell to various entities. We'd just finished a negotiation with Hammer's Superior Hogs and promised them two of them. However, now we needed to see if we could put more out per year. That, and if I had the math right, Rebecca could check it for me. Then we could start working on project Phoenix, bringing it to fruition and cementing us as a second line and militia manufacturer.

Reaching over, I began printing out the budget readouts and grant money that we'd have available if things got approved as well as the future and present costs if we wanted to proceed with the expansions. I wanted Rebecca to go over everthing to see if I'd missed anything.

"Mmm, you know what turns me on," Rebecca teased, entering the room and pulling up the second chair before grabbing the printouts. "I might have to take a cold shower after this is over.." She winked at me before pulling her hair into a ponytail and beginning to pour over the numbers and information.

Meanwhile, I was looking at the factory pieces, using some of more refined pieces of my ability to see where I could streamline things. I'd hate to do it to my people, but if the demand was high enough, we could afford to start doing longer shifts and hiring new people so that we could run twenty-fours a day six days a week instead of the twelve-hour five days we were working now.

The question here really became what we did next. If we were able to fund our expansions now and rush completion, then it was possible that we'd also be able to take our Mackie line offline and convert to a full battlemech in a shorter timeframe.

Unfortunately, that ran into one of the problems of manufacturing. Speed, quality, or cheap; you don't get to have all three. Right now, we were producing quality goods that were fairly inexpensive and competetive with the market. We might be able to have our cake and eat it, too, but it was going to take a lot of work and a lot more manpower.

Thankfully, Rebecca was all too wiling to help me put together the numbers and figure out a handful of possibilities. Even better, she was going to help me present it to everyone else.

Siler's Salvage and Manufacturing was going to be shooting for the stars. My only hope was that we didn't burn out and explode.

---

"Well, we are a company that sells machines intended for war," Billy shrugged. "Taking advantage of the fact that the Free Worlds League is about to be purchasing more material makes sense to me."

"You said something about longer shifts, double pay, and stuff like that," Eddie tapped his copy of the sheets Rebecca and I had brought over from my house. "Can we afford to expand our personnel? Is it worth going through and hiring and training a bunch of newbies on this equipment?"

"If the grants and everything is approved, which I don't think they'd deny at this point," I leaned forward. "Then absolutely it's worth it. We can use our current factory to train them while boosting our production, then once the second line is up and running, we'll start shifting people over to said line in shifts until both are at full production."

"That's a lot more people to vet and train, and we basically already hit the skilled labor pool for the area," Billy sighed. "We're going to have to train people up from scratch."

"I know," I nodded. "But, it'll be worth it because we'll be doing things now so that it's easier on us for the future. Sure, it's going to absolutely suck in the short term. But in the long term, it'll not only even out, but it'll pay off in large dividends. Here, check page three, you'll see what Rebecca projected. Sure, that's not set in stone yet. Still, even if it's half that, it's way better than we expected for even five years from now. Expand now, plan for the future, and we'll have things settled and ready for better things."

"We're going to have to work on the bonuses if we want to start pushing production this hard," Eddie tapped his fingers along the table in thought. "And we'll have to pay more attention to quality control. Tired people make more mistakes."

"I know," I nodded. "But even if we have to discard a few more parts than normal, I think I have a way to make it work for us."

"Some units won't care that the part isn't as good as the one on the 'mech," Sylvie spoke up. "Selling spare parts that might not work is fine if we advertise it properly."

"Being blatent about them not passing our QC checks for mounting would be fine in my book, just so long as we make certain that it won't come back to bite us in the ass," I nodded and glanced down at my watch. "Shit, it's already nine. I've got that meeting with Skobel in half an hour."

"We'll keep working on this," Sylvie nodded at me with a grin. "If nothing else, it'll let you talk to Skobel in a way that tells them we're active in prepping for the future."

---

Skobel Mechworks hadn't built a new facility on Kalidasa yet. Not for battlemechs, at least. Instead, they'd focused on the Mackie plushies, different colors, different models, you name it, they were making the toy for it. Still, said toy factory that they'd bought out was the location they'd asked me to meet them at.

It was a power play. Even old, and without much in the way of sales outside of a handful of spare parts, Skobel dwarfed us as a company. And while they hadn't seemed upset at us reviving the Mackie when I'd spoken to their representative earlier this year, they also hadn't been very open with me at all. Simply stating that they didn't intend to sue.

So, I allowed the power play, dressed up in one of my suits, and headed over to the toy Mackie factory. Walking in, I nearly laughed out loud. They'd apparently been way more successful at making toys than I'd expected. There was a massive plush, one that made the giant teddy bears you sometimes saw back on Earth look tiny.

"I see you're taken with the limited edition plush," A warm, welcoming voice caused me to turn and see James Hitchcock.

"I am," I replied. "I wouldn't think you'd make one that big."

"Stuffed Mackie plushies has been an suprisingly lucrative deal," Hitchcock shrugged. "The board member who proposed the idea is currently heading up new factories in the Lyran Commonwealth, Federated Suns, and we've even managed to discuss opening a location in the Draconis Combine. (Though, we had to agree to make a Dragon plushie as well as the Mackie for that one.). It's not quite the sheer numbers you get from selling battlemechs, but it's a lot more than we expectd," the CFO of Skobel admittd. "Now, I've got a list of things to discuss with you. But I'd rather do it in the privacy of my office instead of out here."

"Lead the way," I gestured with my arm and the CFO began to head towards a side entrance with a stairwell that led underground and to a second floor with an elevayor.

"You see, we didn't just build a plushie factory," James admitted as we descended into the depths. "We're looking to expand back into battlemech manufacturing across the Inner Sphere. But despite our old reputation, we've been out of the game for so long that we need an onramp back onto the highway."

"And you want us to help?" I raised an eyebrow.

"Not for free," he laughed. "We know that you're a startup, and that we could just beat you over until you caved. That's not good for business. So, here's the plan," the elevator door opened into a hallway with a window that showed the familiar sight of an industrialmech factory.

"We're going to trade with you," James opened a door and led me into an office before taking a seat and gesturing for me to do the same. "I don't know how you managed to convince VLAR to overlook you using their fusion engines, but that's not what we're here for. You need the expertise to build new factories instead of just repurposing old ones. We have that capability. We're also willing to license some designs to you on the cheap for production. In exchange, you're going to get us access to the Free Worlds League Markets, and you're going to give us percentages of every Mackie and 'mech you sell for the next fifty years."

"At what rate?" I asked.

"You're giving us twenty percent," He replied.

"No," I shook my head. "We're expanding, and we could use your help, but I'm not giving you twenty percent of our profits off every 'mech design. You can have ten percent of every Mackie sold, and the same deal if we make any designs that were created by you. Anything else, you can leave alone."

"Fifteen percent," He countered.

"Twelve, and not a penny more," I replied. "We're not your cash cow, Hitchcock, if we do this, it's a limited partnership for two decades, not us being slavebound to you for the rest of my life"

"You've got spunk," James grinned. "Hopefully you'll keep that. I agree to the bargain, I'll have the lawyers and accountants draw up a deal by the end of the week. After all, with the 4th Succession War kicking off, we've got to get ahead of the game. War is always good for business when you're one of us."

He stood and extended a hand with that, and I stood and shook it, hoping inside that I'd made the right decision here.

 

[Radek]

This might end up being a mutually beneficial partnership, or a disaster. With the FWL, there really is no way to know how things shake up longer term.

 

[Tikitau]

This might end up being a mutually beneficial partnership, or a disaster. With the FWL, there really is no way to know how things shake up longer term.

Click to shrink...

Yes there is.

It's the Free Worlds League.

It will be a mutually beneficial disaster.

Afterwards, everyone will be vaguely confused at what the hell happened and somehow coming out ahead of where they were despite everything going all Anchorman.

('Wow. That escalated quickly! *beer*')

 

[Sogen]

Yes there is.

It's the Free Worlds League.

It will be a mutually beneficial disaster.

Afterwards, everyone will be vaguely confused at what the hell happened and somehow coming out ahead of where they were despite everything going all Anchorman.

('Wow. That escalated quickly! *beer*')

Click to shrink...

Well, right up until the house of cards tumbles. Remember; the worst enemy of a Marik, is a Marik, but Glory to Marik!

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

House Marik - we make Liaos look stable (but not sane).

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 24

Date: September 14, 3028

Sylvie wasn't so sure that owing Skobel Mechworks a percentage of every Mackie was really worth it. But, then again, she wasn't a lawyer, and didn't know how the license agreements worked.

However, she did know that having another company offer expertise in building new and fresh battlemech factories wasn't the kind of opportunity that came along very often. Sure, it was going to take five years to get the battlemech factory up and running, but once it was and they had decided on a design, they'd be in better shape than any other smaller manufacturer around.

As far as the rebuilt Phoenix, she'd ended up just talking everyone into sticking with the name the 'mech had always had. Who cared if it was a Rim Worlds Republic Design? A name was a name, and any 'mech was better than no 'mech at all.

Now that they'd worked out the flaws in their original process. Siler's Salvage and Assembly was going to be purchasing yet another aging industrialmech factory from a company gonig bankrupt.

The New Delos Forestry Service had been the only thing keeping the forestrymech manufacturer in business in the area. Then, when the Wolf's Dragoons had set ablaze all of the forests in the Civil War, they'd slowly began spiraling down and out. The manufacturer had first sold off all the assets they'd built up in other areas over the years, desperately trying to stay afloat until they'd eventually just given up. Now their assets were being auctioned off, and Sylvie was finally getting to go offworld with Eddy to inspect the factory to see if it would meet their needs.

"You ready to go see the stars?" Eddy interrupted her contemplation, and Sylvie closed the folder of information they'd obtained regarding the factory they were looking to buy.

"Yeah," Sylvie looked up with a smile. "Gramps took me to Solaris once when I was little, but the only thing I remember from that trip was seeing Gray Noton in action."

"The Legend-Killer Himself?" Eddy asked with a raised eyebrow. "I never got to see any of the matches in person before his death, but I remember the vids. Man, those were some fights to see."

"And people think the Rifleman is a bad 'mech to use," Sylvie gave a wry grin. "I'd say he definitively proved them wrong."

"I wonder if we can talk Edmund and the others into trying to build a version of it," the older engineer and tinkerer commented.

"I don't know how tightly Kallon holds onto that license," Sylvie shrugged. "It might be worth it though. Some tweaks and we might even be able to put your medium blazers on it."

"We'd have to rework a few parts of the design," Eddy stroked his bare chin before reaching into a part of his suitcase and pulling out a notebook. "My blazers mass more than the medium lasers that we already use on the stock Rifleman. And the standard one doesn't have the heat management or spare tonnage to manage everything."

Within a few minutes, Eddy had sketched out a rough, skeletal, Rifleman and labeled the weapons system and weights that were already utilized.

"Now, there was one variant that was made during the Age of War that was a bit different, it used PPCs instead of autocannons and large lasers. I think it was a fifty-five ton instead of the sixty-ton design we have nowadays," Eddy paused. "And I think I remember hearing rumors that Kallon dabbled in a larger, heavier variant, but I was never able to confirm that."

"Well, the Rifleman shares a leg design with the Warhammer and the Longbow," Sylvie commented. "We've still got some scraps of 'mechs lying around the salvage yard. When we get back, we could try to put something together."

"It could be fun," Eddy grinned, the engineer in his mind already turning over how to make such a franken'mech work. "I think that I can talk Edmund into letting us dabble in this. We'll have to source an engine for the uptonned design, and then we'll have to see what mix of weapons will work with the new leg modules."

Eddy had begun writing out a list of things he would need to experiment in that way while muttering to himself.

"The gyro should still be able to handle everything without too many changes. But we'll still have to calibrate everything properly if we want this thing to move without falling over, and if we're going to do this, it should probably have jump jets…"

Sylvie simply shook her head and let the man continue, they were stuck waiting to board the next dropship off Kalidasa anyway, the man might as well have some fun in the meantime.

---

Date: September 21, 3028

"It's going to take at least six months to a year to train all of the new guys on working the machinery," Billy complained as we sat in a restaurant, each of us enjoying a beer and a steak. "And everyone's already starting to complain about having to pull extra to train them on everything when we don't even have the new factory yet."

"They're going to complain about the extra work regardless," I shrugged. "That's why we gave them such a big pay increase. Grumbling is fine as long as people think they're properly compensated for their hard work. The extra people and shifts we're running mean that we're going to be able to make another six Mackies on top of the fourteen we were already projectred to do. Even with Skobel now taking twelve percent of each design as a payment for the license, we're making a lot of money on this. The militia units around the League are lined up and have prepurchased all of the production for the next two years."

"I suppose it does free up some space for battlemechs that are used on the second-line," Billy acknowledged. "I just know that if this becomes the status quo, then we're going to eventually have people quit despite the pay benefits."

"I'm aware of that," I said after taking a bite of my steak. "It's part of the reason why we hired way more people than we needed to just run the Phoenix and Mackie factories. Sure, some of them are going to do badly, and we'll have to fire them, or they'll quit because this isn't the right place for them. But, enough will stay on that we can have some gaps and spare knowledge that enables us to ease up on the shift framework a bit."

"I will say that they don't complain about the hours worked," Billy nodded, taking a swig of his beer. "Not after seeing you work longer and harder than they do."

"That's part of the reason I'm willing to do that," I replied. "The other part of it is that I'm a firm believer in traditional leadership. I need to know what's happening on the ground floor, I can't just sit in an office doing paperwork all day, I'll become disconnected from what's happening every day, I won't be able to provide for what all of you need to get the job done," I paused to sip at my own beer. "That, and I don't want to be a stranger in my own company. Sure, we're fast approaching the amount of employees that I won't be able to know everyone. But a part of not just saying that I have an open door policy is being present and available outside of the doors in the first place."

"To change the subject," Billy asked the waitress for another beer. "How long do you think we're going to make these hybrids? Surely we'll eventually want everything to be proper 'mechs and the like."

"I think we'll keep the hybrids and just upgrade them with better tech over time," I replied. "There's always going to be a market for our hybrid tech. It's cheaper, it's almost as effective, and more importantly, it's able to be repaired with pretty much whatever anyone has on hand. Sure, the main military might not be willing to buy them forever. Hell, eventually the militia will probably move on. But there's always going to be nobles and other people who are willing to compromise and buy our stuff because it just works. So, to answer your question fully, we're never getting rid of our hybrid factories once we set up the Phoenix as well. In fact, I think for every standard 'mech we offer, we should also have a hybrid counterpart. It's something that will ensure we have consistent income even if we're prototyping or experimenting with various things."

"We don't have a research and development department, Edmund," Billy reminded me. "We have Eddy who tinkers in his spare time."

"About that," I leaned back. "I know that Eddy's the other factory manager. But you're going to have to find someone else to fill that role. When he gets back, I'm planning on making him the head of a new R&D section directly underneath Sylvie. There's still enough scrap there for them to work with and experiment, and it's close enough for us to prototype whatever it is he'll need."

"I've got a few folks who would make a decent manager," Billy nodded. "It's going to be a bit of a pain to work out, but I think I can manage without him."

"I'll start working on setting up a part of the salvage yard as a lab for him to work out of," I closed my eyes for a moment and dreamed about everything that might come to fruition if things worked out, then opened them and faced reality. "We'll have to talk to Andrew about setting up new facilities on the salvage yard section."

"Sure," Billy sighed. "Now, enough about work. You really met Rebecca randomly when on vacation and that doesn't set off any red flags that she might be working with the Lyran Intelligence Corps or MASK?"

"No?" I raised an eyebrow. "I know that SAFE doesn't exactly have the best reputation, but they cleared her, and I don't think Rebecca's working for any of the other intelligence agencies. That, and it's been over a year. We have a healthy relationship, I can understand being paranoid because of the industry we're in. But there becomes a certain point where we can take it too far. I trust Rebecca, and we heave a healthy relationship. I'm not going to assume the worst of her."

"Fair enough," Billy shrugged, leaning forward and draining the last of his beer. "I've just been in the industry a long time, and espionage isn't something that just stays in the background."

"I think I'll cross that bridge when I get to it," I sighed. "Now, you said something about rewatching an old Solaris championship game?"

"I've got recordings from a good one of last year, I think it'd be fun to sit and see if there's anything we can pick up from the championship 'mechs," Billy replied.

"Works for me," I replied, maybe there'd be something interesting I could pick up on there, after all. My ability didn't seem to care whether it was on a Tri-vid or not.

 

[abominable]

As far as the rebuilt Phoenix, she'd ended up just talking everyone into sticking with the name the 'mech had always had.

Click to shrink...

As far as the rebuilt Phoenix was concerned,

Whatever happened to that supposed talk with Quikscell executives?

 

[Tikitau]

Whatever happened to that supposed talk with Quikscell executives?

Click to shrink...

They probably got hit with another lawsuit off-screen, scattered into the night, rebranded, and set-up on a new planet with new mustaches and name tags to keep anyone from successfully suing them.

 

[abominable]

Smh, even Quikscell deals fall apart when you least expect it.

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

Any similarity with their products is purely coincidental.