Chapter 13
Demonstration
New Avalon ; NAIS
5th January, 3024
Hanse Davion - 3rd Perspective
The stands were particularly full around the field as the mercenary dropship sat under guard, permitted only to bring their Leopard as it was sufficient for the trials. Hanse sat in the booth reserved for the guest of honour, with him were a number of Battlemech and Aerospace tech firms that had been invited, though originally only Achenar Battlemechs and Lycomb-Davion Introtech had been invited, the corporate laws of the Federated Suns had necessitated widening the field.
What had been planned as a small and private demonstration had turned into a true curiosity to be enjoyed so close after the New Years celebrations. "Otto, I do hope this isn't a waste of time, i'm quite surprised to see that it's garnered this level of attention."
"So am I, I guess personally requesting to demonstrate for the First Prince himself was bound to cause some ripples, I'd wager half those present don't even know why." He countered.
"So tell me Mr Markham, what exactly are we going to be seeing today?" The tone was reasonable, with a hint of amusement, and a dash of reproach.
"I don't know entirely, I've gone over what there is, but all that was asked was for a mechwarrior test course of high difficulty, with live-fire." The businessman admitted, "Colonel Giordino has been extremely security conscious about this and I haven't had time to see him personally and appraise it myself."
Hanse nodded understanding the desire for security. Espionage was a serious business in the Inner Sphere. Finally however, the Leopard, under intense scrutiny, opened up the mech doors and the crowds went silent. Anticipation filled the air, people shifted in seats as a sound blasted across the stands.
Hands leapt to ears unexpecting the blast of a war horn to ripple across the area as it emerged. Hanse took in a breath as the first war machine emerged, standing taller than an Atlas, or any other Assault Mech it utterly radiated menace, it's black paint job covered with all sorts of iconography and heraldric displays. The turrets on its shoulders sat with barrels raised to the sky, the massive missiles on its back quiescent. Vast guns on its arms failing to hide the two smaller turrets emplaced near it's armpits.
Music began to play from its speakers as the others emerged.
It was almost half the size of the machine that emerged first and completely lacked the same menace, at least next to the vast one. Using the booth controls Hanse zoomed in on the smaller machine. "What in the name... is that four PPCs?" He laughed viciously. "Your employer is an idiot Markham, that thing will shut down..."
They began to run towards the course, the three of them working together as they charged, the limbs lacking myomer bundles of any sort accelerating the machine to over a hundred kilometres per hour in a straight line, and then the test began, drone emplacements began to fire very real weapons as the machines entered the gauntlet and Hanse felt the objections die in his throat.
The machines did not stop firing. They did not glow with radiated heat as PPCs fired one after another after another without any sign of overheat or failure, occasionally punctuated by the medium laser blasting with it. The machines, despite the weight registering on the test readings as eighty-five tons moved more like dancers, lacking the strange awkward balance of most mechs that size.
"That isn't possible..." Otto said standing up as Hanse moved over close to the screens. Weapons fire was rippling out in displays of man-made lightning and tearing through the test structures like hot knives through butter, no mech was made to handle sustained PPC fire and yet these machines were firing, at a sustained rate of fire, four of them.
Weapons fire raked the three machines desperately trying to put them down, and what managed to hit was not without effect. Explosions rippled against armour that wasn't ablating under the impacts, autocannon shells hit and ricocheted as the poor angles and speed of the armigers threw off targeting systems, only laser weapons and ppcs seem to make any lasting marks, scorch-lines and ripples of man-made lightning that marked them.
But before the music stop playing from the largest machine the course had been run, even as it burned.
The applause from the audience went beyond polite, and yet it was less than might have been deserved. All too many of the spectators horrified at what they had witnessed, a mercenary company with machines like these? What could stand against them.
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The 'party' was a busy one in the New Avalon Institute of Science and the talk all centred around the object standing on a mech display, with a heavy security contingent. Markham managed to find me and punched me in the shoulder none too gently. "Talk about a mic drop. Your display out there has pretty much all the mech companies sweating bullets worried that you're about to annihilate them as a credible threat. And those that aren't are secretly trying to figure out how much to bid for the designs."
I grinned, I wore my Knight Suit and it kept me cool as I surveyed the surroundings, but also made it perfectly clear I was the one who brought the new machines.
It didn't take long at all before Hanse Davion himself decided to seek me out.
The room subconsciously parted to let him reach me and then formed an almost exclusionary social bubble to avoid being implicated in anything. Standing up I nodded to the First Prince.
"Colonel Giordino, I must say today has set the cat amongst the pigeons to see the way they are acting." His words were weighted and I held off judgement.
Trotter, looking less comfortable stepped forwards. "First Prince Hans Davion of the Federated Suns, if I may present Duke Kane Giordino, formerly of Lathe." I put a hand on his shoulder.
"Formerly of Lathe?" Hanse asked.
"My Uncle is one of the men responsible for the development of the technology you witnessed today, though Trotter here was behind the hybridising it with Inner Sphere technology to allow others to pilot them using a neurohelmet," I said with a wry, if slightly concerned smile, "Unfortunately, elements on my homeworld were afraid of it, and his proposal to send ships back to the Inner Sphere to try and reconnect with the Successor states. It lead to a nuclear war that rendered the world lifeless."
"So much of your technology has become lost?" Hanse said with a sigh.
"Not at all, my Uncle managed to send out what we call coffin-ships laden with most of his work, I am still trying to track down the remaining coffin-ships. It is a large part of what drives me, unfortunately, funds is the other part of what drives me, and to do what I must to recover my legacy I need more than I have." I said diplomatically, "The Federated Suns represents the most honest, fair and free society of the Successor States and most receptive to new ideas, as I suspect are you with your sponsoring the creation of this fine institute that is hosting us."
Hanse laughed, "At this point, I suspect most of the people here would probably try and rob you if you tried to leave without making a deal with somebody, so what exactly did you have in mind?"
"Nothing cheap. I was thinking of selling a hundred exclusively to House Davion, and maybe licensing out production lines to the Armiger to those willing to pay for the licensing fees. And while i'm at it, separately market the heat sink technology we use for our Knights. I'm sure you noticed that none of them shut down or even showed signs of overheating during the test?" I said with a detached interest.
"I did. I do believe I even marked that it was impossible, but you were kind enough to let my people verify the PPCs were real, including certification dockets from their purchase." Hanse indicated we should follow and the three of us followed, joined by Otto, as we departed to an adjoining chamber.
He poured some measures of a whiskey, or perhaps bourbon, and I politely declined as he took a seat and pretended his bodyguards didn't exist, indicating we should all take seats in the rather comfortable looking sitting room chairs, the red leather chairs looking like they belonged next to a fireplace with a loyal hound stretched out next to it.
"The truth is, you've put us in a bit of a hotspot. I can't deny, you were right when you said i'd have to be a dribbling imbecile to let this technology go without securing it. And I can't deny the desire to do so by force, but you've come in mind of fair trade, and I suspect you have more up your sleeves." He said taking a mouthful of drink.
"But?" Markham said.
"But this... this is going to get a lot of attention, don't get me wrong. I am definitely going to buy a hundred, no argument," My heart fluttered at the words, the sound of c-bills filling pockets, "But this is likely to create as many problems for us as not, a hundred assault mechs capable of chasing a locust and enough PPCs to to make anybody hesitate."
He leaned back and looked out of a window connecting to the larger party, "Look at it, it's the size of a light or medium mech, weighs more and, well has almost nothing in common with traditional mech design. I'm concerned this may lead to an arms race, a concern exacerbated by the fact I know a Comstar Rep invited himself to todays demonstration." He laughed as he caught my panicked expression. "I knew it!" He said with a laugh and pointing finger. "You don't trust the robes either, that's why all this was kept a secret."
"Was there really a Comstar Rep there?" I asked slightly mad at myself.
"Unfortunately, yes. And he was quick to head back to his compound after the display. But for now, let's talk business." He turned to Markham as Markham quickly appraised himself again on the information we had gone over. "So Markham, I understand you're the negotiating arm, lets hear it."
Markham nodded and checked again. "We've gone over the technologies involved, the extra processes required and settled on a cost of thirty million per unit." Hanse practically choked.
"For that sort of investment I could buy three hundred Atlas'" He said plainly, "With change."
"To be fair First Prince, an Atlas is not 'heat neutral', can't chase after a light, or fill the same battlefield roles the Armiger can be adapted to, or even possess the advanced balancing gyos. It would take very little effort for example to swap out the PPCs with a battery of Large or medium lasers. The systems aren't as delicately balanced as a Battlemech." I said talking up the product.
Hanse nodded, accepting the truth of the statements as fact, "Ok, then tell me what are the weak points of an Armiger?"
"Battlefield lifetime, unlike many cockpits of the Inner sphere, there is no amenities to speak of, while it has room for a ration pack, the only 'bathroom' options would have to be built into the seat, and the cockpit is very cramped. More if the pilot is a larger person, overweight can basically be ruled out completely." I said plainly not trying to conceal anything, "And as you said, for their size they are heavier than the competing mechs. So using them to save drop-weight is out of the question, which comes down to what a few of my pilots feel is their greatest weakness, they're not jump-capable, and differences in the system mean we can't just erase that difficulty."
Hanse grunted. "What about twenty-five per unit?"
Markham went over the numbers, it'd bring down the profit margins, heavily. "I think we can do that, in addition to licensing out production to Federated Suns production companies for a 20% royalties on sales for the Armiger."
"And tell me about these heat sinks?"
Trotter spoke up. "Four tons each, About the size of two standard heat sinks, ten-thousand C-bills per unit." Hanse frowned.
"That's a significant investment." He said frowning.
"According to our testing, each of them is equivalent in heat management to twenty standard heat sinks." Trotter said and Hanse goggled.
"Do you have any idea the impact they could have?!...."
"I do First Prince, which is why i'm here in the Federated Suns, offering up the technology for your own development and use." I relaxed into the chair, it really was comfortable, even through my Knight suit.
"And what other technology do you plan on upsetting the status quo with?" He asked with a dark chuckle.
"Nothing yet First Prince, I plan on selling some small arms as our own corporate interest instead of leasing that out however. Though I may consider developing the battery technology we use for it further than we have so far." I said trying to not sound too interested. The bait was bought.
"Why is that?"
I took out the Lasgun power pack. "This device powers our las weapons, hand held, it's good for approximately sixty shots from a lasgun, it can be recharged by plugging it into any power source, or just leaving it in the sun, in a pinch you could even recharge it throwing it in the fire, but you cut a third of its capacity doing that.."
Hanse looked less impressed by it.
"Scaled up however, to a big enough battery, and you just might have the benefit of a recharge station plugged right into your jumpships. Imagine a capacitor that could be charged rapidly that could perform the same function as a Lithium-Fusion Battery... for a small percentage of the mass and monetary cost?"
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Otto
"Otto, get in here." Hanse Davion said causing him to look up and head for the sitting room that the call had come from, the nervousness of the event was at an all time high and he was no exception, representing Lycomb-Davion Introtech, he wanted a piece of the pie that was the heat sinks everyone was speculating about.
Speculation started before he'd even hit the stairs, "You too director." Hanse added.
Both of them followed him into the sitting room to find the mercenaries waiting. "Our new friends here would prefer a more anonymous contribution, as you've all probably been gossiping about us being locked up here for twenty minutes, the official story is we hired them to carry out the demonstration."
The Director and Otto both nodded as they took seats.
"It turns out that we're about to turn over a very large amount of money to Duke Giordino here, both for a very large batch of these Armigers, in bidding for access to their heat sink technology and finally, in this." Hanse tossed the lasgun pack to the Director of the institute.
"It turns out there is a very real possibility that this technology can be scaled up to carry out the same duties as a Lithium-Fusion battery, for less cost, faster charge and adaptability."
The Director turned it over unsure what to say. "It just looks like a small battery."
Markham turned to her. "A standard Laser Rifle has about forty discrete shots with a standard power cell, each shot of 2 seconds can cut a 1.5cm cut through .5cm thick steel. A Lasgun, using this pack, which you'll note is smaller, is capable of approximately sixty shots, and each shot carries enough power to cause flash vaporisation capable of detaching limbs." He walked over and gently took the pack, "It can be charged simply by leaving it in the sun or hooking it up to effectively any source of power, or it can be tossed into a fire to recharge it, though it loses about a third of its charge capacity doing so."
Trotter spoke up next. "The Capacitor technology in them scales up very very well. The Volcano cannon on the Preceptor of Death uses them to build up charge from its plasma reactor, and according to my research the Volcano cannon is already equivalent to Naval Lasers if not Naval PPCs." He looked at the diagrams on his pad, "Scaling up the technology would not be easy, but I believe the men and women of this institute probably have the expertise to make it happen."
"What miracle are you going to show us next teleporters?" Otto laughed in good humour.
Trotter and Warden joined in the laughter, in less good humour.
"Not at all Otto, thats all we have in mind so far." Warden said relaxing back into his chair. "All that's left is coming to an agreement."
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ComStar
"Amaris damn it!" The robe said as he examined what little footage he'd been able to get of the day, "They're saying that these Raven Guard were hired to demonstrate some top level Skunkworks, but nothing I can find is making sense." He almost cast the tape across the room before calming himself down and straightening his back.
"Whoever they are, they are being protected at a high level. We can't get a strike team near their property or the NAIS. The only comfort is that they've sold rights to numerous pieces of their technology to a number of firms for the production of Armigers and their Heat Sinks. It's bad enough that the Primus has instructed us to make an offer for the rights to produce their Heat Sinks." The Precentor of the New Avalon station said stunning the young man who'd acquired the footage.
"What?" He said turning to the Precentor.
"We've been instructed to make an offer to the mercenaries for their heat sink technology."
"But such Lostech is..."
The precentor shuddered. "I understand your position young man, however i've spoken with some of the contractors who purchased the rights, it's not Lostech. It was independently developed."
"New technology, real new technology with that sort of impact? I looked into the numbers, if it's accurate a Texas Class Battleship could save over three thousand tons of mass converting to these new heat sinks! Even an Invader with its 116 Heat Sinks could reduce it to a mere twenty-four tons of heat sinks."
The numbers were blatantly worrying. These new heat sinks were large and heavy, but insanely efficient compared to the ones they'd been relying on, even the double-heat sinks that were kept in vaults away from other Inner Sphere powers were a major game changer. An Awesome could swap out its entire load of heat sinks for a mere two giving it another twenty tons of mass to play with while becoming heat-neutral.
The younger man sat down. "What have we been told to offer."
"Two hundred million c-bills, cash, credit or material, for unlimited production rights with no royalties, in perpetuity." The Precentor said. "A low price to pay."
"But why not just take the schematics and..."
"Because we are ComStar, and we can sell them more widely than the Federated Suns will without arousing questions. And while we are standing above board, they won't think to publicly accuse us if we steal the plans for those damnable Armigers