Chapter 8
Currency and LosTech.
New Avalon
2nd December, 3022
Jump. After Jump. After Jump. The Jumpship Captain was happy to take our C-Bills as well as any other passengers headed corewards. It took over nineteen jumps of nearly maximum distance to even reach New Avalon, and as much of our time was spent on the Invader's gravity decks as on our own vessel.
Though Trotter worked to begin installing gravity plating on our dropships and connect them to the power grid, the coffin-ship didn't have much however and only a few locations were so plated. With one larger segment kept aside on my orders. Behemoth, Glitch and Dekker entered the room. They were still wobbly after the jump, their new implants rattling.
The length of the trip had been eating on everyones nerves but Miranda's, I paused, checking myself, when did I start thinking of her as Miranda instead of just Behemoth? She had thrown herself into the process with an uncommon vigour, I went over and she cocked her head as I checked the implant plugs, sure enough, there was the faint scent of ozone that said she'd just come from the improvised Chamber of Echoes. I turned to Trotter as he entered. "She's a hardy lass, but the Throne is well and truly imprinted on her."
I knew that well enough, I may not have been looking for a relationship, and told her as much, but she'd made it quite sure that my bed was kept warm enough.
I checked the others as well, I wanted my people to be safe, and both had shown signs of recent use, no doubt the simulators. "Trotter, is occurs to me, are these implants going to interfere with their Neurohelmets if we need them to pilot mechs?"
"You only just thought of it after near four months of travel boy?" He said in a mocking tone, "The answer was yes, but I modified their Neurohelmets enough to accomodate their implants and allow seamless connection. It's no Throne Mechanicum, but they should have faster reactions in the mechs."
I turned to the crewman operating the comms module. "Ok, can you open us up a channel to New Avalon central please."
"Yes Sir." He answered as I checked over the units finances. I was right, four months of inactivity was burning a hole in our pockets.
"New Avalon Central, Technician Alicia Davison speaking." The comm board lit up with the face of a woman in her mid-forties.
"Good morning Ms Davison, I am Kane Giordino, Partner of Markham's Marauders on the Dropship Warden's Rest. We're requesting permission for priority landing as requested just short of four months ago." I stood at attention, my finest uniform on display, "Additionally, if you could make a priority comms connection for the New Avalon Nobilitas Hospital, and hold on the line for further connections?"
"Of course Mister Giordino. Landing permission is granted and co-ordinates sent. Please have your pilot follow all directions from traffic control. Please bear in mind as a Mercenary outfit you are being directed to a military port for security reasons. Broadcasting approach plan now."
The Dropship began to rotate as the pilot received the course from the computer. The screen flicked over to a woman in a nurses outfit. "This is Nobilitas Hospital, how can we help you?"
"Hello, some months back I made arrangements for priority medical care with you for a colleague who was severely wounded in battle. I'm having our communications officer forward what medical readings we could get, but we wanted the best care so we made best speed for your hospital. The name is Kane Giordino, Markham's Marauders." The conversation was clipped, trying to keep it to relevant information.
"Yes, I see the request here, it has been authorised and we're making a bed available as soon as possible... oh dear, I'm putting in calls now for our finest doctors, but those injuries are... extensive, I hope we can help."
"Thank you, we're landing at a military field some distance from the Capital city, if you could send an air ambulance to collect him as soon as we touch down, that would be appreciated."
"Of course sir, i've given the dispatch order, it should be waiting for your arrival."
The line went quiet as Glitch snarled. "Hear that, we've got money, so the hospital is 'making a bed available' somebody is getting kicked out, Markham needs the help but this is the sort of bureaucratic horseshit that landed me in prison here."
Ms Davison's face reappeared on the screen.
"How may I further help you sir?"
"Three things, if you could please have the MRB forward any available contracts to our ship, as well as put forwards a request to your largest aerospace firm to contact us when it is convenient, we have an offer to make them. And if possible, your best mech factory, we need some specialist parts to repair a Marauder."
"Of course sir, I can do that. I cannot promise any sort of responses, but if they choose to do so I will be sure to contact you personally.
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It took an hour to set down, and nobody was under any mistake that we were under guard. A Fortress class Dropship rested not five hundred metres away, it's Long Tom deployed. As the Ramp descended we brought Markham out of Stasis and as his breathing resumed I felt a sigh of relief, I hadn't been entirely sure the Union could actually provide the power it required.
The Air Ambulance flew over rapidly, setting down with its rotors still spinning as a medevac team ran up the ramp. We brought out the stretcher with Markham and they were quick to transfer him. "I hope we can help him, are you coming along?" The nurse said turning to me.
"No, I am." Darius said as he stepped forwards with a briefcase under one arm.
"Darius, spare no expense. If we can help him, I want to." I said unsure I actually meant it, allowing him to slip beyond the veil would be extremely convenient at this stage.
It was then I noticed a small convoy of vehicles pulling up towards the Ramp, ultra-light vehicles if expensive looking ones. I didn't miss the House Davion sigil on the sides, or the company sign on it. The doors opened and a handful of suits emerged and made their way up the ramp with Davion House Guard.
As the Ambulance took to the air one of the suits, looking regal, stepped forwards. "Greetings, you must be Commander Giordino, I'm Otto Davion, current CEO of Lycomb-Davian Introtech, and we've heard stories about some of your tech." He breezed past us into the main bay, onto the plating I had set there.
"It's an honour to receive someone of such note, yes I do have some things to offer. If your people can join you on that plating? So I may safely demonstrate some of it before making you the offer?" I said as Trotter began heading for the control computer.
"Certainly." To remove any suspicion I moved up onto the plating with him. The rest of my crew moved away from the plating with big grins on their faces, they'd been warned about the plan beforehand. Finally they were all standing on the clearly marked plating, the bodyguards looking nervous.
"Five Gravities."
Trotter pressed a button and the sound of many knees striking the deck were heard, followed by firearms and hands. I maintained my standing position through sheer force of effort as my body suddenly massed five times as much as I was used to. After a few seconds Trotter killed the power to the gravity plating and I let myself sink a little, feeling as if I was about to fly up off of the plating.
The Bodyguards had guns in hand and aimed at me in a matter of seconds. "Drop your weapon!! Whatever it is!" One shouted all the way to a full blown panic.
The Davion stood with a mildly angry expression on his face. "We come here in good faith and you att..."
I held up a hand, stopping him to his own surprise. "I didn't attack you. What you just witnessed was artificial gravity without requiring rotation."
Otto looked down at the deck, then back to me.
"Trotter, give us one and a half gravities, make it a slow increase, then after a minute, bring it up to two gravities." I turned back to Otto, "Two Gravities is uncomfortable, but it does allow a degree of movement, so you might step off of the plating to verify my claims."
Otto nodded as he felt the gravity increasing his eyes boggling in disbelief. As it continued to rise he stepped off of the plating, then back on. I began to pace on the decking. "The world I came from is gone gentlemen, my Sacristan, Trotter, found me on Mandalas and confirmed that my people nuked each other into non-existence, last he saw the planet itself was cracking under the bombardment."
I stepped off the plating and Trotter killed the power to it. "We were advanced, moreso than you or any of your contemporaries, from what I can tell, though I am no scholar, our society was built off of the remains of an extremely remote and incredibly advanced R&D facility working as a skunkworks project. One of the developments was an artificial gravity plating that you stand on now allowing for a full normal gravity in space travel as well as annulment of any external forces such as thrust. It is, I understand, a relatively simple technology."
I began heading for the staterooms upstairs, without thinking Otto and his entourage followed. They moved past the Knights which they examined with some awe. "Our weapons too are largely more advanced than your own and dump a lot of power into a target, though they're not nearly as economical."
"How so?" One of the bodyguards asked.
"The Rapid Fire Battle Cannon on the Knight Templar... weighs as much as a Locust. As I understand it, the closest you have is the Experimental Long Tom Cannon. And while it carries a fair amount of ammunition, it is not well suited for prolonged engagements." Giving away that information wouldn't cost me anything, they were well familiar with the fact big guns carry less shells.
Otto took a seat as we entered the stateroom i'd set aside for these talks.
"So we come to the question of why you requested a meeting." Otto said, guessing.
"I have plans, and they far outstrip my current means, and with the loss of my homeworld my resource base has been severely depleted, leaving me with the option of approaching a major power and making trades in order to finance my goals." I sat down. "The simplest trade, that has the least potential harm, is to offer you the gravity plating technology in trade to use as you see fit."
Otto nodded. "A sensible logic, so why us?"
"Because, frankly, you're the most advanced of the Inner Sphere powers, but more importantly, the most trustworthy. The Capellan Confederation are snakes that pretend to be a government, the Draconis Combine has a well documented distaste for mercenaries, the Free Worlds League is too martial in its bent and has a distaste for augmentations, the only other meaningful candidate is the Lyran Commonwealth, but frankly your 'politics' troubles me the least." Ticked off the names.
"You haven't even considered anyone else?"
"What are the Periphery states going to do but try and sell it off to gain bargaining power with the true Successor states?" I countered and Otto nodded, unable to refute that logic.
"So what exactly do you intend to offer us in exchange?" Otto said plainly.
"My offer is simple. Twenty-five million C-Bills, two of your finest Aerospace fighters and a one percent royalty on all grav plating produced in perpetuity for exclusive access to the technology." Their eyes boggled as they processed the enormous request for payoff. Ottos was the fastest expression to change as he began to process the consequences of it.
"Can this plating function during a jump?"
I frowned. "I believe so, at least it functioned on the Warden's Rest during jump, though I might not want it near the KF drive itself. I really don't know i'm afraid."
"So you want twenty five million, two aerospace fighters and a percentage royalty on all units sold... that's a big ask. A Fury or Gazelle wouldn't cost as much." Otto said plainly.
"I am aware, but I am also aware that if you were to sell and fit gravity plating at a thousand c-bills per square metre of deck, for a Fury dropship you have at least 5,767 square metres of deck. About six million all told, and we'd only see about 60'000 of it. A union dropship would have about 42'000 square metres of deckspace, so 42 million c-bills right there." I shrugged. "Of course, a thousand c-bills per square metre is likely to be too much for most people half as much would go fine and still leave you with a massive profit."
I leaned back, "Can you even imagine that your family wouldn't just pour the money into your coffers as you offered them a technology that gave them the ability to accelerate at maximum safe velocity without having to worry about the human endurance? Why not accelerate at three gravities for a week, your crew aren't feeling it."
I could almost see the dollar signs rolling around in their eyes.
"Timothy, begin drawing up contracts."
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Darius had come back after six hours at the hospital, Yang taking over the vigil as he returned to get some rest, "Darius, I need you to have a good read." Passing him the proposed contracts by the Davion lawyer, currently waiting signatures, the XO studied the files before seeking out a chair. "Warden, how the fuck did you swing this?" He said going over the contract with a practiced eye, "If he recovers, I'd prefer Markham to have a read of this he's a shrewd man, and his management skills exceed mine by far."
The truth was, I already had gone over the contracts, and i'd re-read them six times. The Davions had written themselves an ironclad contract. "How is he?"
"Trotter was right, the doctors were surprised we managed to keep him stable in the time it took to get here, I didn't feel like elaborating on your stasis technology. His limbs can be replaced easily enough, though it'll cost a bit, but the rest is uncertain, he's suffered massive neurological damage, apparently there are pieces of his neurohelmet in his brain, his body is riddled with shrapnel." Darius' shoulders slumped, "They're not even certain he'll survive surgery. But ... as I said, Trotter was right. They said Markham would never pilot anything with a neural interface again at best."
The news, disheartening as it was, was nonetheless expected.
"Go get some sleep." I said shoving him lightly towards the crew quarters.
Behemoth looked up from the screens as she watched over the Hysteria and Warden's Rest. "He'll be fine Kane."
"Eventually." I said, "But Darius looks up to Markham, if Markham had just died there on Mandalas I think he'd have moved past it. But in this state. Even if he pulls through in a best case result, he will not thank us for saving him."
She cocked her head. "No.. I suppose he wouldn't. Is something up?" She asked concerned.
"Not yet. I'm just worried this deal is going to cause some heavy ripples. I've had a privacy clause written into the contracts, but I wouldn't be surprised to see attention we can't really afford over this. But it's better than trying to sell my weapons or shield tech." I sat down.
"I hope so," Behemoth said, "it's bad enough dodging a Capellan assassination attempt.