017. Right foot, left foot, you Id**ten! We will try shooting next, eh?

The Commonwealth Reserve Bank was, on paper, a rather simple group of people with a very simple structure and desires.

To ensure the Kroner maintained its buying power on all worlds in the Commonwealth. To maintain the security of all deposits in the Lyran Commonwealth.

Working underneath the Ministry of Finance, the men and women involved, worked to move money throughout the Commonwealth. To sell or purchase rare materials to increase or decrease the supply of Kroner in the economy.

Working to ensure that everything was relatively even, that a single Kroner had the same buying power regardless of the planet, regardless of the location within the Commonwealth... while also ensuring that corporations did not feel the lash of government as strongly.

In the words of an anonymous reporter when speaking of the Lyran Government;

"designer of the stage upon which the economy plays itself out."

The Ministry of Finance was that designer, pushing forth laws and regulations to prevent certain matters from escalating too far. At other times, offering subsidies and other incentives to develop industry in certain manners.

They were, in short, the greatest thinkers of the age. Thought of as bureaucrats, their true role had never truly been understood. For if it had, the attrition rate through assassination and kidnapping would be much higher.

Into this strode Anna Husová, one of the most powerful people in the Inner Sphere.

One might say Anna Husová was a cold fish, a meat suit for a Star League killer robot.

Others might say that Anna Husová was a bitch, just a plain old bitch, who had no idea what the concept of fun was. Who took great joy in destroying any fun that one might have.

All of these were wrong.

The Ministry of Finance had done a great deal to improve entertainment of the Lyran Commonwealth

Anna Husová had done her bloods last week, she was quite definitely a human.

That said, she was a bitch.

One had to be if they were to sit in the highest non-elected office in the Lyran Commonwealth.

Sure, the Archon might have great physical power, and yet, with a single stroke of Anna's pen, she would set forth monetary policy that would govern the lives of each and every individual in the Inner Sphere.

She had power beyond reckoning. Such was the might of the Lyran Commonwealth, the greatest economy in the Inner Sphere.

It was this power that guaranteed only the most cold, only the most dedicated of individuals ever sat in this office. For the power of their words alone could see worlds stripped of all life.

The representatives of the Commonwealth Reserve Bank, the Commonwealth Mints, and the Commonwealth Stock Exchanges, along with a litany of their associates, sat at the conference table.

These were men and women of power, so great that they had never had to raise their voices in the last 20 years.

Well, professionally at least.

Anna Husová, as head of the Ministry of Finance, sat at the head of the table. The heads of the three major divisions sat just below her, their own subsidiary heads below them.

"This emergency meeting, of the 12th of September, 2990, has been called to address the Huu Factor."

None objected.

Some might say that assigning a phenomenon to an individual was abrupt, asinine.

Those people were blind.

When one controlled the flows of money in the Commonwealth, they understood that anomalies existed, that they had a great effect on the world around them. That just because one did not believe in the supernatural... did not mean the supernatural did not have an effect on you.

This very room had a piece of metal, as long as the room, serving as the table they sat around. From an Atlas' leg, it had been ripped off and decapitated the head of the Ministry of Finance in 2765, prior to a decision to force a focus on military spending at the expense of the civilian economy across the Commonwealth. Providence had spoken, they would listen.

"Stock Exchange? Please start us off."

There were no names in this room, even though the brass plaques in front of each member had them displayed in Lyran blue. Their titles were what mattered here, what they represented, in other words.

"Eggers General Utility and its subsidiary divisions have not listed themselves on any of the exchanges. Belief remains high that they intend to remain privately owned."

"Reserve Bank?"

"Money flow has been catastrophically disrupted in several areas, in particularly the border areas between the Commonwealth and Free Worlds League, as well as the Draconis Combine. There has been an exponential increase in the purchase of quote/unquote 'primitive' weapons for militia use. The introduction of cheap transport has also had an impact. Multiple corporations have taken advantage of this new means of revenue accumulation. Defensive structure investment has also increased, drawing monetary flows away from consumer goods and traditional military spending. This has shifted money flows away from traditional industries. Disruptions going into 2991 are high. I am afraid that 2990 to 2995 monetary flow projects are completely outdated at this point."

A single murmur of disapproval. Not even a word, just an indication that those at this table did not approve. That which was outside of predictability was nothing they enjoyed.

"Then it is clear that we have a Factor in play."

Silence.

"Analysis?"

This person sat at her right. A person of untold power, it had been said. Looking into the data streams and plucking out, as the Fates of myth might, the skeins of an individual's destiny.

There were very few indeed that knew of their existence, or at least, knew what the department existed for besides the generic term 'Trends analysis'. Existing on a line in the governmental budget that was signed off on. Significant pressure was exerted on the Estates General to approve say yes and not ask questions.

"General trends indicate that there is significant social and economic change resulting from the existence of one Huu Eggers. Evolving developments regarding Eggers General Utility directly involve the establishment of a farming service-based model in the newly developed Rasalhague Economic Zone. The development of an educational facility has seen significant interest from the region surrounding the Blackjack System. Eggers Construction has begun the sale of Hex Moulds. Eggers Media has begun a focused campaign pushing the Pre-Space film Pacific Rim. Overall impact on the Lyran Commonwealth had been rated as... significant."

Another murmur, this one of worry.

"Are we facing a Progenitor situation?"

Analysis paused.

"Progenitor situation has been rated as unlikely. Similarities exist between the currently existing situation and Alistair Mardsen. No similarities between the rise of Shiro Kurita or Lucien Davion. No similarities between Elias Liao or Franco Liao."

"Successor situation?"

The room stirred.

It was commonly understood that there were two phases in the Inner Sphere when it came to major powers. The progenitor which had created the situation, and the successor that then bound it all together into a coherent government. Both had to be incredibly charismatic and people of incredibly willpower and vision. It was understood however that you needed for there to be two or more to ensure the success of any government. An imperfect description, it had occurred enough in the Inner Sphere to be noted as a distinct phenomenon.

Alistair Mardsen and Katherine Steiner

Adam Davion and Lucien Davion

Jerome Blake and Conrad Toyama

The worry was the sudden appearance of another such person, the sheer change such a Successor would bring could be a positive or negative. Especially to the Commonwealth's markets.

"Possible. But unlikely. The Huu Factor matches no known previously known scenario. Analysis of Huu Eggers indicates impulsiveness is his defining trait. Success and forward vision indicate otherwise. Current precedent is missing."

The room paused.

For the first time in nearly one hundred and fifty years, the Ministry of Finance was working with an unknown scenario, an unknown factor.

"Is he working to improve the Commonwealth's financial situation or against it?"

"Current trends indicates a shift in monetary priority towards defensive-asset based priorities. Further shifts following the release of Pacific Rim indicates a shift towards research and development. Huu's overall goals are unknown, general trend indicates positivity towards the Commonwealth's physical, cultural, and financial health."

A general sense of relief, the individuals in the room glad that they had an unknown factor on their side... or at least on the Commonwealth's side. The push to develop the Commonwealth's civilian economy had paid off more times than any, but Analysis could count.

Especially with the confirmed Factors in the Inner Sphere. The lack of ability with Lyran Generals being attributed to the Social General Factor, one that did not change, no matter what was thrown at it. The ineffectiveness of the LCAF Command structure regardless of civilian investment, of investment in military academies, of investment in military popular culture had confounded them. Even military reforms had done little, in defiance of all known history. Resisting all attempts to force a change, as if something was forcing the situation to remain as is.

The continued regression of technology in the face of war was one more Factor. A complete and utter reversal of all previous trends in human history. The succession wars were an anomaly, one that was artificially propagated given the 2358 individuals designated 'vital' to the economy dying under unknown circumstances. Ever since the First Succession War, the pattern had repeated itself, economically important individuals dying before their projected deaths. Reversal of positive trends in economic growth whenever it occurred. Something, in other words, was doing its very best to cripple the Lyran Commonwealth economically. Not just the Commonwealth, all Successor States were experiencing this artificial degradation.

That something was likely Comstar. Statistically, significant data had been identified. Whereupon the deaths of an economically important individual, Comstar would offer their services within one standard deviation of 6 months, three standard deviations of 12 months. The rise of fees despite fixed investment and production of spare parts, the increase in religious fervour... all had indicated problems coming to a head within the next century. That very few adepts were recruited from the Commonwealth indicated a need to mitigate future economic damage lest Comstar lash out.

The continued existence of the Combine was yet another Factor. With entire worlds collapsing because of failed farming practices, it was completely unknown how the Combine existed at all, in combination with their repressive policies, by all rights their economy and thus nation should have collapsed several times by this point. Multiple times in their history, the Combine was resurrected from the verge of death through unknown means, despite the near total annihilation of their civilian economy, the Combine continued. Their military economy inadequate to explain their survival. The reasons as to how were unknown.

There were many other Factors, of course, known and unknown. All visible in the economic trends of the Commonwealth and the Inner Sphere. Only some of which had been driven by the Ministry of Finance.

Allowing Huu Eggers to continue his actions would lead to the continued disruption of the economy.

But, well... they were the Ministry of Finance.

Localised disruptions fit rather well into long term trends, one merely needed to have the vision.

"Policy has been made, long term investment in construction, subsidies for localised investment and education have been authorised. House Steiner in its role as Archon is prepared to invest in agriculture and consumer products to induce consume spending."

This much was information already provided, those in this room nodding along. The real reason for this meeting had been to examine the Huu Factor. Whether they needed to worry or not.

"The Commonwealth is planning for a period of economic development following the opening of the Rasalhague Zone to civilian industries. Eggers General Utility has been allowed advanced access due to their role in what is becoming known as Operation Sleipnir. The Rasalhague Zone will transition to the use of the Kroner over a period of time. Reserve Bank, you are tasked with ensuring their integration into the Commonwealth goes smoothly. Mint, to provide enough coinage. Stock Exchange, ensure the integration of formerly Combine companies into the Commonwealth. Standard protections apply, do not allow them to be subsumed."

The room gave their assent.

Things had changed, and yet, for the Ministry of Finance, it was something that would be incorporated for their long term plans.

As was standard.

As it had been since they had been established with the reign of Katherine Steiner, as it would be for as long as the Commonwealth existed.

+_+

Anton Tolsand sat inside the boardroom. There was a general air of depression in the room. Understandable, their sales had been abysmal. The Lyran prejudice against light mechs was still going strong. Something that was going to get even worse with the information coming from the front lines.

Primitive weapons systems were enabling the top heavy Lyran Mech force to protect their weaknesses, to go further into the Heavy/Assault paradigm and ignore lights altogether.

Sales were forecasted to drop even further. Other Battlemech corporations were already sending out feelers to purchase the factory.

Tolsand Warworks would disappear within his lifetime, and he wasn't sure what he was meant to feel about it.

What could they do?

"These primitive weapons... they are causing some rather significant changes in the Inner Sphere. Changes we may be able to harness." One of the board members spoke, looking up at Tolsand with some... what was that expression... hope.

It was hope.

"Out with it man, any ideas are acceptable at this moment!"

"These weapons have rather significant range advantages over their equivalents. From what I understand, equivalent calibre guns can fire further... because the ammunition is significantly greater in weight. The AC2 round is half the weight of this 2-pdr round for example. It gives it a range advantage. Yet, there are variants of this 2-pdr that weight less than half a ton. If we were to mount this on our designs instead of machine guns and lasers... could we not create a sniper light mech?"

Tolsand paused.

It was genius! An entirely new market that had not been tapped, one that would serve to generate longevity on the battlefield, offer new services, new roles. More value!

"Yes! We need to develop the idea, work out if it is feasible or not, yet... yet if it works you have just solved our issues here at Warworks!"

"But will it be enough? What will be the appeal?"

One of the other board members asked, looking hopeful, yes, but still concerned.

"With the proliferation of these weapons, wouldn't a weapon with greater range be of interest? To engage them at range and allow the advance of a standard regiment?"

Nods of agreement.

The member continued to speak, "with the introduction of these Fortress Hexes as they are being called, each mounting these primitive guns in great numbers, standard assaults with be extremely costly. Something that can at least mitigate that by sniping enemy emplacements will be, I am sure, wildly popular."

A pause.

Yes, that was true. If you were using Medium lasers and attempting to close in and engage an enemy with a range of over 1,500 metres... would it not be suicide? Better to use an equal weapon of your own to engage from range.

Tolsand grinned.

"We might be, in this room, getting a head start over everyone else. They likely think that these weapons are only appropriate for militia. Yet, if we were to use it on Battlemechs, will we not be the innovators?"

Grins appeared on their faces, replacing the previous despondency with alacrity.

"We should start development of mounting light weapons systems now... but if possible, perhaps mount even heavier weapons. Such as the 70mm range and higher, they weigh much less than that of an Autocannon variant. We could possibly mount it on the Wasp."

The room tensed with visible excitement.

Yes, things were looking up for Tolsand Warworks!

+_+

Duke Tolsand raised his eyebrow as he pondered the information being presented by his aide.

"Well? Buy the things. The faster we build them, the more powerful the defences that surround our factories."

His voice was dry, the aide nodding and leaving rapidly. It had been a few months and yet... and yet things were so incredibly different.

The head of Tolsand Warworks looked appreciatively at the changes a single individual had created, an individual that had saved his company.

Suffering from various issues because of the age of the factory, Eggers Armaments had come in with their primitive weapons to a disbelieving Lyran Commonwealth.

Primitive weapons that could be developed and used by anyone with half a functioning brain.

As the head of a battlemech factory, even if it was producing light mechs, there was significant interest in both the academic and professional fields in terms of potential employees.

After much executive discussion, these employees had wracked their brains and developed 'modern' designs for the primitive weapons. Using the tried and true 2-pdr pom-pom systems, he had worked to mate the designs to his battlemechs. Different from the manual loaded variants (he wasn't sure how), the autoloaded version had not required much engineering to be compatible with a battlemech. Without the manual loading version's mountings, these came to half a ton each for a modern gun and its battlemech mounting.

While this would have taken a team of engineers and scientists years to do normally, this was primitive weaponry. There was little to worry about save building a mounting for the weapon servos where applicable. It was not as if ammunition feeding or internal rearrangement was a concern.

The biggest challenge was the targeting software, mating it with guns of which there had been no data for in 1000 years.

The solution?

Fire the guns thousands of times, collecting the data, and inputting it manually into the computers to build an accurate simulator.

The guns themselves were simply placed onto the left shoulder and right arm of the Wasp 1A design after stripping out its medium laser and SRM-2.

Ammunition was left with the guns, connected to a chain feeder (they had to find the links from another weapon system to build their own design!), that carried a quarter ton of ammunition per gun. Fed with a spring, there were no worries that came with a gravity fed system. Better still, if damaged or destroyed, the ammunition explosion would be outside the mech itself, little to no damage to worry about. Granted, there were worries in regards to jamming, but the fire rate had been reduced from 33 rounds per 10 seconds to 10. It served to reduce the jamming issue at the cost of damage potential.

There was enough ammunition for 9 salvos before ammunition ran out, but the weight of fire would allow the Battlemech to escape the battlefield before it became a concern. If they stayed in contact, the pilot was too stupid to be of any value.

The same applied to the Locust 1V, replacing the two machine guns with 4 2-pdr pom-pom guns, taking out the medium laser altogether to make weight for ammunition.

Changing the designs from light recon to light recon/skirmisher designs. The weapons proliferating to the point that one could replace damaged or worn out weapons nearly anywhere in the Commonwealth with little issue. So, long as it fit the new mountings that had been installed.

There were downsides, of course. The fact that the guns were air cooled made their deployment to environmentally extreme worlds an issue. Their ammunition was cartridge and not standard 40mm. They required much more frequent maintenance than a standard AC/2. Ammunition was mounted on the guns themselves rather than internally. That they also sat outside of the mech itself meant they were vulnerable to destruction or damage.

And yet...

Already there were orders coming in, sales were more busy than they had ever been, enough to renovate his old production lines, enough to protect the company. The company he had inherited from his father, not needing to sell out to Defiance Industries as had been suggested.

Nobody was interested in the Wasp or Locust, they had told him, just sell now so someone else can develop your factory into something better.

But now? Now he was riding the patriotic wave and sales were booming.

+_+

Anton Tolsand connected the helmet to the top of his head. The warrior spot, shaved for the Lyran Helmet's connectors, felt the brush of cold metal. The helmet settling around his head.

He pondered what it would be like in the Combine, where their technology had degraded to the point where helmets were so large they rested on the Mechwarrior's shoulders. Even here on Furillo, he couldn't imagine such technical degradation.

The Locust 1V, fresh from the factory floor, was being tested now. The first of the new batch of Locust 1VPs (P for primitive) had finished and were now all undergoing testing. If this worked, then they could ship to customers. If not... well, harsh words would be the least of his worries.

This was his last gamble, his last chance at preserving his legacy for his children.

The engine had been spun up, the bio sensors attached to his flesh. Cooling vest sitting snugly on his chest.

Eyes narrowed, squinting to see the crosshairs, he made a note. 'HUD was not bright enough in this new configuration.'

Hands tested torso twist and articulation of the guns, crosshairs moving appropriately. The screen mounted temporarily in the cockpit, indicating the guns were moving as he had directed.

All good so far, he thought to himself.

"I'm heading out."

The service crews acknowledged this by making themselves scarce, Tolsand slowly moving the throttle up, the Locust walking gently to the firing range to the right of the underground factory complex.

The firing range was ahead, and he called out again.

"Entering firing range, clear the range. Weapons testing is about to begin."

There were no crews in sight, yet he waited a minute anyway, better safe than sorry.

"Firing!"

Sighting the furthest target, itself 1600 metres away, he pulled the trigger on the joystick. The two stage trigger was appropriate for a machine gun, the first stage was for semi-automatic fire to scare off infantry he assumed (he did not understand why it had been designed with such a purpose), the second stage for full automatic.

Here the single fire of four different guns slammed into the target, the shells exploding and tearing armour off the block.

All had hit the 1 metre cube target.

Excellent.

Burst fire now, 10 rounds down range, one per second.

Bm Bm Bm Bm

The gunfire blunted by the environmentally sealed cockpit.

The initial rounds hit... yet immediately began to bounce around. A dispersion from what the screen was telling him, 25 metres.

Disappointing... but expected.

He would continue this for quite some time.

Everything had to be perfect.

After all, the proliferator of these guns was coming here, to Furillo.

Huu Eggers wanted to discuss the Hexes that Tolsand was purchasing... and Tolsand was about to talk to him about investments.

Someone was far sighted and intelligent as Huu Eggers, creator of Eggers General Utility, would no doubt see the value of a Light Sniper/Reconnaissance Battlemech.

With this investment, he could expand his lines, perhaps even convince the idiot generals that Heavy and Assault weren't the only mech designs worth having.

A.N.

Winner of the holiday destination was Furillo! Sadly nobody guessed it. The planet even has Terran weather patterns and not the horror that is Defiance and its swamps.

Home to the most useless Battlemech factory in the Lyran Commonwealth *pshaw*, it only produced light mechs. What even. It should produce Assaults and Heavies like every other factory!

Perfect for future investment!

Chapter is also a reward for those who guessed why Huu would be going on Holiday.

Edit: Replaced Katrina Steiner with Katherine Steiner