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

[Mennelon]

Nice chapter, kinda confused though on who the FWL bigwig was thinking well about there.

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Assume it's the noble who got his mech shot out from under him on Solaris in the last chapter.

 

[Radek]

Those new Mechs are going to prove an unpleasant surprise to more than one raiding party in the near future, which sees demand go up.

 

[Baldrick the Wise]

The FWL isn't French enough for Ian

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Neither is USA, I guess admiring francophone weapons from a distance is a genetic thing for them

 

[MarkWarrior]

Chapter 39

Date: April 2, 3030
Location: Solaris VII, Lyran Commonwealth

Vincent Stewart hadn't expected to just 'click' with Sylvie Siler as well as he had. She was witty, funny, and easily smart enough to understand that he had multiple reasons for trying to become a part of their stable.

The Siler's Salvage stable wasn't large, by any means. It only held Duncan Fisher, Samantha Webley, and now he himself as the mechwarriors. They had three mechs, the custom Rifleman that Duncan drove as their primary 'mech, the heavily modified Archer as the 'mech that Samantha piloted. The third 'mech was a frankenmech their engineer was piecing together out of various Orion parts they'd pulled out of scrapyards across Solaris VII.

Sure, technically all of the pieces should fit and work together, but in reality, they very much didn't want to cooperate and work together. Some parts had to be slightly modified or altered to work within the tolerances of other parts, and depending on the year the parts they pulled from the scrapyard was made, they were either really good, or really awful parts.

But that wasn't something that Vincent knew all too much about. In fact, outside of whatever it was Eddie had told him, he was mostly just doing whatever he was told in order to make sure his 'mech was put back together enough for him to compete.

At least, that's what he was doing when he wasn't trying to woo Sylvie. Yes, she was technically 'new' money. But she was still his best chance at gaining prestige, money, and everything else he'd need to establish his branch of the Stewart family outside of the aegis of his cousins.

He just had to make sure that he played his cards properly. Because while he liked Sylvie, as well as the work that her company was doing, he also knew that if he was going to use her as the platform to launch from then he was going to have to make himself invaluable to her and to everyone else around.

So, he started tutoring her in what was essentially a crash course in negotiations. It was clear that her partner, this 'Edmund Blaze' had done well in giving her a foundation in how to negotiate and work on deals, but he had obviously not worked with Nobility frequenty, if at all. Given their position, that was unacceptable in the long run, and over the last three months, what had begun as a way to just ingratiate himself had turned into the beginnings of a romance.

A romance that Vincent fully intended to take advantage of.

"So, why did Edmund and you decide to send you to Solaris?" Vincent finally asked while they were out picking through a scrapyard for more Orion parts.

"Oh, I kinda asked to do that once Edmund and I had the idea to sponsor our own pilots and sell our 'mechs via the tournaments," Sylvie said in between bites of food. "I've always preferred getting hands-on with things. Whether it be 'mechs or anything else, and once the factories were set up, I really didn't enjoy doing anything other than the refits we do for the Quikscell products the Militia purchases. This was a way for me to actually be useful in the company I helped found while also doing something I enjoy."

"So, Edmund is the main decision maker for the company?" Vincent asked directly.

"It depends," Sylvie shrugged. "He's generally been the prime negotiator, but anytime it's something critical, he runs it by me first. When he bought part of Gramps old scrapyard, he said he did me a favor by only taking 49% ownership. That just in case he ever did something I wasn't alright with, that I could always tell him no." Sylvie sipped at her drink. "So far, I ain't ever seen a reason to veto any of his ideas. He takes care of all of the business side and I get to pretty much do whatever I enjoy the most."

Vincent simply nodded and allowed the subject to change to the next Solaris matches that they were prepping for. He'd have to figure out how to leverage everything he was learning as time went on. For now, he was content to let things move along as they currently were.


Date: April 10, 3030
Location: Kalidasa, Free Worlds League

Hammer shifted in the new Mackie prototypes that his employer had asked that he and his company test before being put into full production. He never would get used to actually using new equipment, and was much more comfortable piloting the Griffin he'd bought from Siler's all those years ago, but every now and then, it was nice to be able to hop in and enjoy the 'new mech' smell.

"Control, this is Hammer, I'm powered up and ready to move through the test," Hammer lifted his hands off the comms controls and began to put the Mackie through its paces. Beginning with a short walk, he marveled at how just a few 'minor' changes seemed to make the 'mech more responsive. According to the briefing, they'd updated the cockpit and center torso, changed up a bit of the weaponry and sinking, and had left everything else pretty much the same.

But, just updating the cockpit had made a world of difference. It wasn't that the 'mech was genuinely 'faster' than the pure Militiamech Mackies Siler's had been building before. It was that it was more responsive. The older versions had had a bit of a delay, a stutter that you almost couldn't put into words. It wasn't bad per se, but it made people who were used to even old battlemechs a bit awkward in piloting.

Now though, he felt like this was a genuine battlemech. If he didn't know beforehand that everything except the cockpit and center torso was industrialmech parts, he'd have never known in the first place.

"Hammer, control confirms your status, you may proceed to the testing site when ready," the calm voice of Susannah replied. "Please remember that everything done both in and around the prototype is recorded for testing and review."

"Understood control, I'll try to keep the language to a minimum," Hammer grinned. Siler's had one of the best locations for training gunnery and sensor skills out of anywhere he'd ever been. The old junkyard had been repurposed once all of the useful 'mechs and vehicles had been pried out of hte piles. Which left more than a few acres empty barring piles of metal that threw off basic sensors sweeps and made targeting difficult. Then, there were obstacles they'd thrown in, along with repurposed weapons turrets to simulate enemy fire along various avenues.

So, stepping out of the test bay, Hammer began the simulated assault. A part of him wished for the PPCs of the original Mackie but the large lasers were perfectly usable for most situations. Not that anyone would be able to really find PPCs in the League, anyway.

Hammer immediately lit up the first 'target' as soon as it appeared on his sensors, evading the return fire of a round from an autocannon in the process. Of course, he was in an assault 'mech with sixteen and a half tons of armor, but that didn't mean that he was going to waste any of it if it came to a real battle.

But a test run wasn't the battlefield, and part of a good test was submitting a new design or revision to any circumstance it might face on the battlefield, and so Hammer decided to allow the next few attacks to hit his armor to see how the gyro handled the new balance and shift in weight with the refits.

–
–

"How's it handling?" I asked Billy when I entered the control tower for our prototype testing area.

"Our mercs seem to be enjoying them," He showed the tri-vid feed with a pair of Mackies and a lone Phoenix moving through various scenarios. "The Phoenix seems to be doing much better overall than the original one we put out."

"It was a learning experience," I admitted. "Sometimes what people need out in the field isn't the same thing as what we envision here in the factory or in a perfect environment. It's why we innovate and have our customers give us feedback."

"Well, something we didn't anticipate was how much the internal wiring and responsiveness of our 'mechs increased when we made the upgrades," Billy tapped a feed that showed what the 'mech's computer was telling us about everything. "Overall responsiveness and potential reaction times are up by thirty percent. I knew that battlemechs had a better response time, but I never expected it to be that significant by just changing a handful of parts."

"Well, we have the data now," I shrugged, taking a seat and looking out in the distance where the Mercury factory was still being worked on. "So, we can incorporate it into any future builds. Hell, we might be able to make some modifications to the myomers to assist with everything."

I said that knowing that one of the things that had popped into my head was called 'triple-strength' myomer, and that it'd probably be one of the things that would make our 'mechs even more effective.

Admittedly though, one of the 'ammunition' types that my ability had generated when looking at an ammo bin was 'anti triple-strength myomer- missiles. So, I'd have to figure out a way to 'break' my own ability in order to make something immune to said missiles, at least for now.

But that was a project to send on to Eddie along with some funding so he could test it in the Solaris games. Our job here on Kalidasa was to provide the basic equipment that would support and supplement any militia in the Free Worlds League at an affordable cost.

Was it glamorous? Not particularly. While we were just sticking with militiamechs and the Mercury (Once it finally released), we'd never obtain the reputation that Kali Yama or any of the other big names carried. Their reputations had been built up over centuries, and outside of a few issues like the recent Liberator debacle that I aimed to take advantage of shortly, they weren't going to be taking a fall anywhere.

We only had to fail once right now, and our rep would tank, so we had to put out a good product, every single time. It was going to cost us more in quality control in the short and long-term, but better that than having to spend more money on reputation.

"So, what'd you think of that discussion with Kali Yama?" I asked Billy about a meeting we'd had a few weeks ago after corresponding with Sylvie via letter and Comstar.

"I think that we're taking a gamble to make something work that they couldn't with all of their money," Billy sighed. "I get that they're willing to sell us the tooling for pennies on the Eagle, but we're taking a risk with the loans to buy it from them."

"I know that," I agreed. "But everything in our business is a gamble sooner or later, and if we can make the Liberator work, then we've got two proper battlemechs at our disposal instead of just one," I gestured towards the Mercury factory. "Proper battlemechs sell better than militiamechs, even with our upgrades, and we can eventually use that funding to construct proper 'mech factories for our two flagship models."

"I know, and I agree," Billy nodded. "But it feels like we're moving all too fast. I mean, we were restoring 'mechs and tanks five years ago."

"It's move or die," I replied. "Right now we're on good terms with Kali Yama, and they don't consider us a threat. If we don't take advantage of goodwill and generosity now, then we won't be in a position to do it later."

"I just hope you know what you're doing," Billy sighed. "You're going to have to fix whatever's wrong with the 'mech and the lines. Eddie's not here to bail you out if you fuck up."

"If I fuck up, it's on me," I nodded. "It's always been this way, and it always will be. Anything I do, the buck stops with me, and no one else. Just trust me on this."

"Oh, I trust you," Billy chuckled. "It's the technology that Kali Yama was using that I don't trust. If it told them their battlemechs should work, then something got jacked up, or the Feds wouldn't have bailed on the contract. Just be careful. Pushing the envelope is all well and good, and needs to be done sometimes. But sometimes you gotta slow down."

"Maybe sometimesm," I grinned. "But not this time. Damn the torpedoes, full steam ahead!"

 

[Radek]

Time to fix up a mech factory. If that actually works out, Edmund Blaze can forget about peace and quiet -too many interested parties looking to use him or eliminate him.