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

[Baldrick the Wise]

was ready for the next challenges that life and Murphy would throw my way.

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Never taunt the universe.

 

[Nikoli]

"testes"

That's an interesting descriptor there. Pretty sure you meant to be test or tests. The English definition of testes is a plural form of a word that describes part of the male anatomy.

 

[MarkWarrior]

"testes"

That's an interesting descriptor there. Pretty sure you meant to be test or tests. The English definition of testes is a plural form of a word that describes part of the male anatomy.

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Typo for "Tested"

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 29

Date: March 5, 3029
Location: Kalidasa, Free Worlds League

"So, You said we could make use of anything we had in the storage," Eddy said as he led me into the 'mech bay that he and Sylvie had been working on their Solaris project in. "Well, given we had stowed that batch of freezers, I modified the engine to accept them."

"As long as you left some samples for us, then that's fine," I grunted in response. Sure, it wasn't great that the samples were gone in the first place, but it wasn't the end of the world. We'd managed to salvage something like fifty or so working and not working models out of various 'mechs in the yard. Mostly pulled out of damage fusion engines that we couldn't get working again.

Just having a handful of the various models should let me replicate them given enough time. Right now though, I just wanted to see what they'd managed to do with the junk that was left.

Stepping into the room, the Rifleman didn't look wrong to my native eyes, but to whatever ability this was, something was wrong.

Invalid unit: Construction rules…

I ignored the warning message flagging across the abck of my mind and simply allowed Eddy to explain what he'd done. It seemed that my power, my ability, worked within certain rules and functions.

The real world, on the other hand, didn't work that way. After all, from what I remembered of Mechwarrior Five, you were technically only supposed to put ballistic weapons in ballistic slots, and energy weapons into energy slots. My power didn't seem to care about that. But it did care about this. I didn't really know why, but it was another bit of information I now knew that I hadn't known before.

"Well, you remember that Marauder chassis we wrote off," Eddy asked me.

"Vaguely," I replied, walking up to the legs. "I remember telling all of you that it was more trouble than it was worth to fix and sell it."

"You were right," Eddy chuckled. "The engine was just about the only thing worth salvaging, and it still needed some repairs before we got it working. But, after fixing it, and swapping the engines out, we now had the power to make do with what we had planned. We kept the PPCs and medium lasers from the old 2N, with the freezers, it's ice cold and we now have the weight and tonnage available to do some mighty interesting things. So, I took a page out of the Jagermech and added in a pair of LRM-5s under the PPCs."

I looked at the carefully concealed launchers. It seemed there were plates or something doing the work to try and keep them hidden, and now that I knew what I was lookin for, I spotted similar bits of metal covering bits of both 'shoulders'.

"Solaris is as much a show as it is a test of skill and technology," Eddy said. "We want to be able to send a message in our first bout. Something that the crowd loves. An ace up the sleeves is the perfect thing to bring them in."

"It's a good idea," I leaned back to look at more of the heavy 'mech. "Anything else you did that we'll have to maintain?"

"Well, I wanted to add jump jets," Eddy sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. "But I ran out of space when Sylvie and I started getting creative with the missiles. I could have squeezed them in but then I'd have had to decrease the armor I added. Which would mean less survivability. I could probably still take two tons off to get sixty meters of jump, but I didn't think it would be worth it. If our pilot eventually makes some different decisions, then we can make alterations then."

"How much armor are we talking?" I asked.

"Twelve tons of standard," Eddy slapped the side of the leg. "She should be just as durable as any other heavy 'mech out there."

"Well, if she's ready, then we can prep you and the 'mech for shipping," I told the engineer. "Until we have a full stable of people hired with mechs and pilots to match, you're in charge of this. Hammer got us a line on someone who's been prepping to fight in the medium circuits, and we're going to be backing him. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to establish a stable of mechwarriors, mechtechs, and everything needed for us to support our new representative. I've got a few accountants and others going with you to help, but you're in charge."

Eddy stood there for a second.

"You want me to go to Solaris?" He asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I do," I nodded, crossing my arms and leaning against the frankenmech. "You're a good engineer, you're decent with people, and more importantly, you're trustworthy. I can send you and trust that you'll do your level best until we find someone to replace you if you want."

"No," Eddy shook his head frantically. "I always dreamed of being a tech at Solaris. I just never thought it would actually happen."

"Well," I grinned. "Consider this a dream come true. Also, we're paying for you and your family's housing. Anything you need to get established, we'll take care of it. You just focus on making sure everyone thinks Siler's is one of the best companies that exists in the Inner Sphere."

"You got it," He nodded, meeting my eyes and extending a hand. "I'll make sure Solaris and everyone else knows who's the best."

"It's Defiance, isn't it?" I joked.

"It's Defiance," Eddy admitted. "We're probably not even in the top thirty. But any progress upwards is progress. I won't let any of you down.

---

Date: March 13, 3029


Our new industrialmech lines had been released from the department of agriculture around the end of January, which had meant that everything was still offline until we tested everything and made sure our tolerances were exactly what we had planned for.

Reprogramming and testing had taken the better part of the last month. But now that it was finished, we were ready to being production on the Phoenix. Even better, if our calculations were right, we would be able to produce approximately two of them per month. With the potential for squeezing in an extra two or three per year if we ran extra shifts.

Sure, it'd take two Phoenix's to match the cost of one Mackie, but our margins were better on the medium mechs. They were cheaper to manufacture, we didn't owe anyone any license fees given the company that used to make the 'mech was defunct, and everything else was done in house. It cost us about one and a half million C-Bill to make a Phoenix. That was the raw materials that went into everything, the labor, and the cost over time to make up the difference on what we spent on the lines in the first place.

We were planning on selling the 'mechs for approximately three million per 'mech. Which would allow us to start rebuilding our reserves and invest more into the Mercury facility. I wanted the debut of our first proper battlemech to go well.

Admittedly, that was still a couple of years away, which left plenty of time for us to pump out as many of our assault and medium MilitiaMechs as was posible and put them out on the market. My hope was that we would eventually be the premier seller for rear echelon forces as well as any militia units in the Free Worlds League.

After all, if there was one thing I remembered about learning World War 2 History, it was that the rear echelon troops were always in need of something slightly less capable than their front line counterparts. Something that was easy to work with, work on, and freed up 'better gear. But they still needed something that could both take and dish out. Our Militiamechs wouldn't ever be the equal of battlmechs matching their weight. But they didn't have to be.

The militiamechs were the M1 Carbine to the frontline's M1 Garands. They performed and they did what was asked of them, occasionally they would be asked to do what an frontline needed, and when that day came, they'd perform it to the best of their ability.

And when someone used the 'mechs in combat, or had to make field modifications in order to keep it going, our warranty would cover it. We'd do the repairs, we'd RMA it. Hell, at this point, if someone brought any variant of the Mackie to us, I'd be willing to honor our warranty. It was more than a sales pitch, it was something that set us apart from the competition. The sort of thing that made people actually notice and remember us.

Right now though, I was filling out the purchasing documents for a small stable on Solaris that had been on the verge of bankruptcy. We'd swooped in and bought them along with the adjoining house and property for Eddie and his family.

Getting things ready for Solaris was a lot of paperwork. I'd had to do a lot of correspondence via the HPG and Comstar over the last few weeks. I'd had to register us as a sponsor, find the property we needed, find a stable that was going out, and then I'd had to figure out how to get in touch with the people selling the property, then how to purchase it.

It'd taken a lot of long hours sitting at the local Comstar Station talking to the oddly robed adepts to figure out how all of it worked. Oddly enough, Comstar reminded me of the Jedi Order in a lot of ways. Only they worshiped technology instead of using the Force. The gray robes, the 'supposed' neutrality, everything just rubbed me a bit wrong. Sure, there was obviously big money in retaining a monopoly on the entire telecom system for a galaxy. But something didn't math right in my head with how their prices worked and how much they claimed it cost to maintain the system.

That was all before I'd glimpsed an HPG and nearly passed out like I used to from seeing a dropship. Thankfully, all the time I'd spent learning how to ignore the things my power couldn't work with came in handy, and I'd ended up finishing those Q&A sessions with nothing more than a major headache.

But now that Sylvie's and my signature had been added, we were going to be a part of the sponsors for the next Solaris championship later this year.

"Edmund," Susannah poked her head into the room. "If you're done with the purchasing agreements, I can take them down to the HPG to get them sent off."

"That'd be great," I restacked them neatly before sliding them into a large envelope, sealing it, and handing it to my assistant. "Anything else I need to be worried about?"

"Yeah, the mechwarrior that Hammer got into contact with is here," She replied. "He's waiting upstairs, you might want to meet him and see if he's what we're looking for."

"Just have a security guard escort him down," I replied, gesturing towards the paperwork I still had to do for the new Phoenix lines.

"Sounds good," She waved and headed off.

Really, I was reviewing the logs now that the lines had been tested. I didn't want a repeat of the large laser lines to happen to anything. So, I had to print everything out and go over it.

Pencil in hand, I began to go over line by line of code and reports, continuing until I heard a knock on the door and a man stepping into my office.

"Thanks for meeting with me," the young man sheepishly smiled.

"Let's talk about your future, Duncan Fisher…"

 

[Waruiko]

"Let's talk about your future, Duncan Fisher…"

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So I know hes a crowd pleaser and a good announcer but maybe go with a MechWarrior who is good instead?

 

[MarkWarrior]

So I know hes a crowd pleaser and a good announcer but maybe go with a MechWarrior who is good instead?

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This is before his career in Solaris gets fully started. And Neither Edmund nor anyone knows he's bad or great yet.