003. He's got something planned

Phan Eggers and his wife, Baroness Katherine Eggers gazed at the screen before them. Depicting their son's cottage, the two had been rather shocked when Huu had come to them asking to lease some equipment from the museum. The investment funds as well as the desire to do something with his life was a shock. Their son hadn't exactly been someone with a great deal of initiative.

Well, constructive initiative. The boy was what one could consider... impulsive. Considering something for a few seconds before acting on it without much planning. Different from spontaneity, which was planning ahead of time and then acting on a moment of impulse.

Having horded over 200,000kr in investment funds was... unusual. Usually, Huu would have spent all of it by this point. Buying model kits of the Battlemechs he liked, his locust collection was rather obscene. Spending money on random subscriptions, whatever it was, he would have found a way to spend it.

"Are we sure he's still our son? Maybe he has been replaced by an android." Katherine said absently as she looked at the reports that her agents had sent. Well, maybe not agents, but factotums. Those who assisted the family in general matters, not just the more clandestine things that Lyran nobility got up to.

"Well, yes, he came back to his room and closed the blinds. You know he's jerking off in there. Androids don't do liquids you know."

Phan was only half joking, as a man himself, it was rather obvious what you were doing when you only closed the blinds at certain times of day and for fifteen minute intervals.

"Which means he's still as impulsive as ever, usually one plans these things out."

Katherine glanced at her husband with a side-eye. "Are you implying something?"

Her husband, the Military Intelligence officer smirked in response.

"I'm just saying he's still our son. Impulsive, reckless, always thinking on his feet even when he should take a seat. It's too bad his thinking doesn't typically end as well as he would like."

Katherine jabbed an elbow into his gut.

"Don't start with that. It's what got you married to me."

"Me married to you? Not the other way around?"

The Baroness just sighed, with emphasis on the breath to let him know just what would happen if this line of conversation continued. "Yes. Now, this investment he's received. Where did it come from?"

Phan's face turned serious. Eyes narrowed as he parsed the folders in his mind.

"There's no-one that he's come into contact with that could have given him as much money as he has. I've checked his online presence and none of his messages have conveyed anything regarding investments either. As far as my men can tell, there's no way for him to have gained that money."

He grimaced. Both knew that he didn't exactly have as many men as he would have liked on Blackjack III. It was the regional headquarters for military intelligence of the region, close enough to the front that matters weren't too far away with a Class-B hpg for communication. Of course there was also the Blackjack School of Combat here to provide a cover for incoming and outgoing officers of all branches of the Lyran government.

Even with the relatively sparse presence of intelligence agents on the ground, he should have been able to discover something. It wasn't like Huu left his cottage very often, not with his allergies... and general apathy to things like sunshine and other human beings.

"No internal agents? Draconis Combine? Outworlds Alliance?"

"Unless there has been one on this planet for the last 15 years, who just broke their cover to make such an obvious play... I don't know. The banking investigators haven't gotten back to me as of yet. But... it does look as if the money has appeared from nowhere. It didn't come through the HPG, it was always on Blackjack."

Both had no idea what to think about that. Someone on the planet, of which there were a billion people, was trying to do something. Worse, they were using Huu, the couple's son, their only child, to do it. Worse still, there wasn't anything either of them could do without tipping someone off that they weren't what they appeared. Mildly eccentric, barons elevated for cultural contributions to the Lyran Commonwealth.

Huu hadn't paid much attention to his surroundings before, that much was obvious. But, seriously. Did he not consider the sheer number of people on the estate? Far more than could be afforded with their stipend and anaemic ticket sales?

"You'll keep your men tasked on him? Keep him safe?" Katherine's voice was tinged with worry. For all their duties, Huu had been a constant worry. That he hadn't been conscripted was a relief, and yet he had always been so aimless.

Phan nodded, "already done. It would have happened regardless. His plan to build military equipment is important enough to warrant a sitter. It's even one that ticks all his boxes."

A pause.

"You're honeytrapping your son? My son!?" The outrage was like a knife, soon to be followed by an actual knife.

"No, no, he has his... preferences. But he's too much of second-guesser to actually do anything about it. He'll hire her on, and she can keep watch... but as for actually getting him a girlfriend? I'm military intelligence, not a dating agency."

+_+

Erwin Jaxon looked at his nephew Ronaldo Jaxon as he stepped out of the conference room. The negotiations had been simple, the young Eggers considered the needs of the machinists and was willing to work with them to see it achieved. Better yet, he had been completely on their side, no doubt because of his own friendship with the young scion's parents.

It was a problem for future Huu Eggers to work on when he wasn't in the presence of a family friend going easy on him over the negotiating table.

After all... "that boy is going to make waves, people are going to be beating down his doors in a few years" he said to Ronaldo. The young machinist in the third year of his apprenticeship looked up. Passed over by the conscription board for being an only child, Ronaldo had never left Blackjack III. Had no idea of the wider world that they found themselves in.

Still, he had heard enough from the other machinists to know something profound had just happened. The brief spiel before everything had moved behind sound-proof doors was enough to show the apprentice that.

"Will it work master?"

"Maybe, maybe not. The fact that he got so much capital invested in him. Without anything concrete tells me the boy has been doing some wheelin-n-dealin in his spare time. Probably started just after he wasn't conscripted, maybe earlier. Still, he gathered 200,000 kroner in a year. Kept it a secret too. That's some willpower there. Even if this fails, the boy's got a future ahead of him."

"But old pre-spaceflight guns?"

"A gun is a gun. We didn't have domestic gun production before. You know how complicated it is to build an autocannon. But if this works out... We'll have enough to drive off anything but an invasion. Less powerful than an autocannon, but from the historical numbers the kid showed me, one factory, beseiged during a war produced 12,000 of these in four years. Can you imagine 12,000 guns defending Blackjack? That's more guns than an army group boy."

Ronaldo whistled, "even if they were all machine-guns that would put a stop to anyone who wanted to attack us." The apprentice repeated his uncle's words, looking poleaxed, Huu had always been apathetic, almost uncaring of the world around him. But his mind... clearly, he was hiding his genius until the last moment.

"He's even got their transport included, it's a hunk of junk but it's a fraction the cost of the J-27. With the gun, ammunition, and transport manufactured here on Blackjack, we'll probably see some investment coming in the future. Cheap militia equipment always sells."

His nephew's eyes widened in amazement.

"I thought he was joking... but his plan will work won't it?"

Erwin rubbed his warrior spot. "Here's hoping Ronaldo. He's put so much work and planning into this. Thought he was a daydreamer like his grandfather. But this... he's stone cold. Hiding all of this for so long? He's got a plan kid, follow along and you'll see something amazing at the end of it."