022. Anton Team Ready!
Anton Tolsand looked with great interest as Huu Eggers walked slowly towards him. Himself and a collection of the most important board members were present. Each owned a significant share in the company, and all were interested in what Huu Eggers had to offer. Anything to get them out of this rut that they were experiencing, constantly feeling as if tomorrow they would lose everything.
Leaning on a cane, the youth looked as if it were just another day in his life. A mask covered his face, only his eyes visible, and even then, they were hidden by a set of glasses. Appearing, for all the world, looking like an infiltrator... if not for his honour guard behind him.
Trying to sneak with people of that scale was nigh impossible. Three months since his arrival on Furillo, he had the look of a man determined. Looking as if he were prepared to get through twelve cannolis in one setting.
The... cyborg mutants, or something. How were they this big... this built? Men and women both. It was hard to get past the fact that Huu had men and women that looked more like human sized Battlemechs instead of people marching behind him. Clad in what was probably BAR10 armour, carrying both melee and ranged weaponry, hovering around their charge like heavy mechs around an assault.
Ensconced with his muscle army was Huu Eggers. Not letting the issue of his physical health get in the way of his ambitions to solve the issues of the Inner Sphere.
A man with great conviction and strength, that much was certain.
A man, confident in his purpose, clear of vision.
It would be an absolute disservice to call him a youth.
"Welcome to Tolsand Warworks! We've prepared a tour for you to get the best experience travelling with us today."
Huu nodded, "thank you for the invitation, it's good to know what we should be looking at when it comes to investments."
Tolsand beamed.
If only his daughter had the gumption to do what Iris Steiner had.
Walking right up to the young man to talk of matters of marriage, making her interest clear, making her very position understandable. It had come out that for all his vision in industry and the military, he was rather dense when it came to personal relations.
All the swanning about that everyone had been doing, had the opposite effect. Sources close to him during his stay in the hospital had said Huu thought it was a cult of some kind that formed, not people dressing and acting in a way to get him interested.
They were now in talks of a potential betrothal, contingent on further conversations and interactions in the future.
The photograph of the two hold hands, one injured and in bed, the other concerned, sitting by his side. Perfectly stage-managed, warding away all that might be interested in the young man. For one with such strong moral convictions that he refused to add more than a 10% markup to any of his products for sale. It was clear that he would not betray the Steiner. Travelling off-world for her training, she had secured her objectives and left victorious.
The kind of expression one would have of eating a steak with mushrooms on her face.
He found it hard to feel irritated over just how perfectly the Steiner heir for Furillo had played the situation.
In any case, Anton led Huu through the facility on the interior rail cart. Managing the small details was how one guaranteed future investment after all, forcing him to walk would leave an extremely bad impression of the company as a whole.
The entire time, the bodyguards jogged alongside the rail. Looking for all the world as if they were not wearing armour, as if this was a light walk after a meal.
Huu looked particularly interested in the Locust 1VP and Wasp 1AP models. The fittings looked incredibly crude at the moment, but Anton knew that he understood the underlying reality.
That this was a means of improving the designs, for all that it looked aesthetically unappealing. That they were desperate for weapons. Giving them an edge in the market, to make them appealing to the Lyran sensibilities demanding Heavy and Assault mechs over all.
Trying to make them as Lyran as sauerkraut.
The production floor was no doubt disappointing, the unfortunate reality being that it was difficult to find those skilled and capable when it came to battlemech manufacturing, it being rather anaemic in the face of what the era of the Star League had produced... and in great numbers.
He was producing 20 light mechs a year at this point, the investment not being present for him to try expanding this number further, either in machines or personnel. No doubt the contrast between the primitive pre-space weapons and that of Battlemechs had Huu disappointed in the sheer scale involved. When you could churn out 2000 guns a month from a single factory, 1-2 mechs a month must seem anaemic in comparison.
Tolsand wasn't going to hide anything, of course. It would be horrifically illegal if he did. If he was taken to court over it, there would be none that side with him. Like finding raisins instead of chocolate in your cookies.
The tour continued and Huu seemed to be more and more interested, despite the poor state of the environment surrounding him.
+_+
The tour was over, he had sat down with Huu Eggers and the two of them were ready to talk about investment, to talk about what it was that Tolsand wanted (expansion) and what Huu wanted (???). Half the bodyguards stayed outside, yet with just three of them... the enormous conference room seemed small. Their presence reminding him of the close protection details that any flag officer would have walking in a Drac city.
Killers to a man... and to a woman.
Huu looked a touch anxious before his expression was covered up, and he returned to his default expression. Made all the easier by the mask he was wearing, the only sound, its hiss as air moved through the filters, the only sound in the room. The only way to gauge his feelings being his eyes and body posture.
"Duke Tolsand. I have been watching television while I was... incapacitated in the hospital. Specifically, the Solaris games. Did you know that there are exoskeleton fights? Class Zero they're called, finding recordings of it was nearly impossible. Or the Class One fights with light mechs. They're incredibly unpopular."
Tolsand tensed slightly, was this an attempt to lower the investment? To cut off the investment altogether? He wasn't sure how exoskeletons were relevant to the topic at hand, but Huu was not some fresh child.
Like the main after the entrée, there was a plan in motion here.
"I find that disappointing. Incredibly disappointing. It is as if no-one respects the... elegance... of a light fight. The spirit, the quick thinking, the mental agility. It is... as if there is none that can appreciate these things in the Commonwealth, and I am disappointed. So much so, I want things to change."
Tolsand felt disappointed as well, his emotions following the other man's words, carried along unwittingly by his desires. The emphasis he put on certain words had everyone in the room dragged along at his pace.
"Which is why I am here now. I have 60 billion Kroner in my account... that I am willing to invest in Tolsand Warworks, to develop exoskeletons... that can draw more attention... more interest. To develop your light mech production line... even further. To... expand your reach in the Primitive market further. I have ideas, Duke Tolsand, if you are willing to hear them?"
Anton had felt his mind freezing when Huu had mentioned that there was 60 billion Kroner ready for investment.
That was enough to purchase his production lines several times over.
In fact, it was enough to purchase this planet several times over! Much more than that which had been offered by Defiance.
"Yes, I am interested! What are your terms?" While he wanted to jump on the table and say yes, he had to pause, to get the best deal possible for his corporation.
Huu leaned forward on the table.
"I am interested... in purchasing Tolsand Warworks... but keeping everything as it is here on Furillo. Everything stays the same... including the name. All that is different, is that I want to direct... money to you for R&D. To work ideas that are... unfeasible elsewhere."
Huu looked like he was pained.
Tolsand for his part looked poleaxed.
And then concerned.
If Huu keeled over now, then there would be hell to pay!
"I... have a contract... here. Please... have a look."
And with that, he leaned backwards, focused on breathing as his bodyguards stepped closer. The assistant moving over to hand a contract... on flimsy? Paper?
For anyone else, he would have laughed at how archaic it was.
Yet here, it brought a sense of extreme gravitas to the meeting.
Here was the main. A solid, concrete... real example of what was being offered.
"Please call the board members to discuss the contract. The Little Boss was adamant that we come to a conclusion today." The assistant, who his contacts had told him was likely military intelligence, spoke with surprising firmness. Her face and those of the bodyguards, seeming to blame him for the Ducal heir's circumstances.
Hovering protectively over his figure, an impenetrable wall of flesh was created.
The duke of Tolsand Warworks called in his legal team and those with stakes in the corporation.
There were matters to discuss!
+_+
In the end, the discussion had been rather anti-climactic.
The contract had been simple as could be possible, Eggers General Utility would be purchasing Tolsand Warworks and everything would remain the same.
Eggers General Utility would direct R&D research and divert funds for this purpose.
Every year there would be a minimum sum dispatched for investment, while 40% of profits would be sent upwards.
Eggers General Utility would dispatch researchers and technicians to develop R&D, and assist with the expansion of facilities.
Eggers General Utility would invest a certain amount a year with the expectation it would be used for expansion.
Eggers General Utility would begin its investment with a 60 billion kroner sum divided for R&D and expansion.
There were no other clauses, nothing regarding shuffling of property, or movement of people from Furillo... it was instead the other way around. An enormous infusion of people and money... far beyond the wildest expectations of everyone in the room. All present would keep their shares, merely that there was now a parent company over them.
None had been muscled out, none were restricted.
There were, in fact, tears in some of their eyes.
"He believes in us." Whispered one of them.
Tolsand found himself nodding.
"They say he is a visionary, I think it is rather clear... they were underselling it. The problems that plague the LCAF when it comes to their Battlemech battle lines. Is simply due to an absence of light and medium manufacturing in the Commonwealth. By investing here... he is trying to repair the damage to the LCAF, one factory at a time."
His words resonated with the board members before him, the lawyers keeping their silence.
"Do we accept?"
"Can we afford not to accept?"
And so, it was that the flimsy was signed. 13 signatures, 1 for Huu Eggers, 1 for Anton Tolsand, and 11 for the other board members or shareholders. As many smaller mech corporations were, they were rather on the small side.
Tolsand Warworks was now a wholly owned subsidiary of Eggers General Utility. The 60 billion investment already deposited in their accounts from a Comstar checking account.
As they signed the papers, and had the more traditional electronic copy sent forth to the Estates General for final review, as well as the Commonwealth Ministry of Finance, Huu spoke up, finally opening his mouth after an hour of rest.
"Now that we've signed that... how much would it cost to... establish a Solaris Stable? We need to be able... to show off your designs... to the crowds. To tell them... that they are wrong... about our designs."
And here was dessert, delivered by a man who soldiered on despite the crippling weakness he was feeling. Tolsand felt nothing but respect for the young visionary.
+_+
Huu stepped back into the manse that had been provided, courtesy of Iris Steiner.
Sitting himself down, he allowed the exhaustion to win, slipping bonelessly down the chair.
"I think that was a successful day." He said to Glory.
"Yes sir. There is a great deal of money that you have invested."
"Really? I only invested 70 billion, there's still another 50 billion in the accounts. I need to invest more."
She looked mildly shocked.
Huu sighed, there was so much to spend, what was he meant to do with all of it?
He hadn't been lying when he told Tolsand that the Solaris games had been the inspiration for the investment.
Lying in the bed, watching the Solaris games as they played on screen, he couldn't help but see just how much money the Heavy and Assault mechs earned in terms of contract and gambling. The money involved rose into the billions if you took into account all the betting, advertising, and sponsorships.
Yet... the exosuits were barely in the four digits. Brought out to entertain people between bouts with the mechs. Like... a fluffer in pornography, or cheerleaders in a boxing game.
Who even cared what they were doing right?
The perfect place to invest his money, all that R&D money, all that time paying salaries, for something that wasn't even considered important enough to have its own stables. Always part of a bigger stable, never worth enough to viewers to be worth its own series.
Which made sense, of course, everyone knew that Heavy and Assault mechs were the pinnacle of mech design. The Sword of Light had been annihilated by his own primitive weapon equipped militia and the heavy/assault Lyran Regulars in the months prior.
Clearly, light and medium mechs were worthless.
Exosuits? Worth even less.
But, he couldn't invest in something that stupid without justifying it. That was the reason why he couldn't invest the full amount, had to justify it, halve it.
The system wouldn't allow it.
Coming into the factory, he had been incredibly pleased. So, had the system. So much so, the allowed investment went up from 30 billion to 60 billion. They were installing primitive guns on the mechs, if that wasn't a sign that they had no idea what they were doing... then nothing did. It was like having something like... a Mercedes S1 or whatever the family car was, and then finding cheap rims off ebay to put on it.
The system had been so shocked, it allowed him to invest even more funds. That was how bad it all was.
Why would you do something like that?
No wonder they were about to be acquired by Defiance, clearly they were too useless to actually design functional battlemechs. He understood why people were using Eggers Armament's old guns, they were cheap and anyone could afford one. But if you had the option between actual, modern weapons, like lasers... why would you use something primitive?
Ha!
With his investment, wouldn't all that money go down the drain?
It was genius!
The establishment of the Solaris stable would show everyone just how stupid the idea to design a light mech with primitive weapons was. Watching them reload the weapons by physically sticking magazines onto the outside... instead of having ammunition in the body. How the weapons weren't even armoured, just attached by little mounts.
So flimsy that they had done it literally in front of his eyes, pulling the gun off and replacing it. A single collision and the entire rig would come flying right off.
It was slapdash, jury-rigged, the kind of thing you would see desperate soldiers doing, not the actual factory that was producing the machines.
All of it confirmed his thoughts, this was a factory designed for losing money!
He hadn't felt any qualms at all with investing a large amount of cash, he was going to lose it all.
It was glorious.
So much money to spend, to waste.
And yet.
There was something missing.
He pulled himself up in the chair.
Tried to pull his brain together.
What was missing?
Right, he was still a little woozy from the illness and Voidy taking out a chunk of his brain. Luckily for him, the System had given that reward which kept him alive, imagine trying to survive this without it! Everything had grown back, miraculously or something, brains do grow back normally, don't they?
Anyway, he had 50 billion left in the Eggers General Utility Accounts to spend!
As he thought about it, Voidy emerged from his left thigh, briefly phasing into reality to nuzzle against his palm, before diving into his right eyeball.
Right, thanks for that Voidy, it doesn't hurt, but my brain is telling me it should.
Shaking his head, his eyes went out the...
Eyes went out the window, and he could see the result of the media blitz that was costing billions. An advertising blitz that Chisao was running for... Pacific Rim.
That was it.
That was what he was missing!
If he wanted to lose all his money, a 2000 ton giant monster that killed things by punching them was exactly what he needed! He needed to call up Tolsand and invest the other 50 billion in right now! Imagine trying to get that working!
He was a genius!
++ System Reminder, Host cannot spend money without adequate reason. Project scope is too ambitious! ++
Okay.
Fiiine.
Be that way system.
Hmmmm.
What should he start with.
...
Something to lose money, but still work up to building the Jaegers.
...
Melee weapons! Like Cherno Alpha's extending fists. When everyone was using ranged weapons to destroy their enemies, when was there anyone who used melee weapons? The only time he had seen it had been on the Solaris melee only circuit.
Even then, it was just with fists, as if nobody had designed melee weapons for battlemechs yet.
Still, he had to admit that melee weapons would be a good way to cover a weakness in Battlemechs. Something to punch your enemies to death with! In close combat, aggression was king, the other guy often had no idea how to counter it.
But! At the same time, it wasn't like there would be much demand.
Useful weapons, but only situationally appropriate. When every Battlemech was using general armaments, why would any give up their hands to wield a fist-system or a sword or something? You would need to... design a mech with a melee weapon, who would even do that? Since nobody had done it, clearly it was a bad idea.
Design extremely dangerous weapons... that nobody would be willing to use? Because a medium laser would hit for, like, 10000 times the range that a fist could?
This was the perfect idea.
There were professors at Eggers Education who were probably looking for class projects, and he could send it their way.
Everyone could get in on the loss making!
Riding on the wave of optimism, Huu thought to himself...
What about the... control system!
If everyone was using neurohelmets that you could work by just sitting down, why would you want to use anything else?
It was perfect for losing money!
If there was a cockpit for sitting down, you would have to be literally insane to replace your cockpit with a full haptic system like in the movie.
But.
How did he make sure he could invest all his money into it?
Research grants... that was it. 50 billion in research grants would spend all the excess funds he had in EGU's accounts.
Wait a moment, he had to check first. He couldn't afford to be backstabbed like in the last cycle!
System, does research count as an ongoing concern?
++ Research does not count as an ongoing concern. Host is allowed as many research projects he can think of. Host is advised to think really hard about this. ++
Gee, thanks System. That made him feel better about himself.
Not.
Anyway, he just needed to put the extra money into research and his funds would be near empty!
After that, all he had to worry about was spending the money that came in.
He felt incredibly satisfied.
A job well done!
This trip wasn't so bad once he woke up from being unconscious.
Actually.
Now that he thought about it, what happened to his blood that had been sent through Hyperspace... did they find more Voidy-s?
+_+
The scientists stood with barely contained excitement.
The first test had been successful, sending the jumpship through space with the research subject was an absolute, unqualified success.
While the methods hadn't exactly been... well... Tharkad standard, it wasn't like they had much choice with the threat of the blood reaching its due by date.
So, they had proceeded with the mission, injecting the blood into a willing and viable volunteer.
Sending them through Hyperspace.
And.
Well, the results hadn't exactly been pretty, but the volunteer had survived, and they had found their second example of a Hyperdimensional Creature! The surgeons and medical team on hand, as well as the medical bay the experiment was carried out in, managed to save his life!
It looked like a trilobite, if the shell was made of segmented blender blades and tentacles made of knives.
Better yet, in the month that had passed, and the blood replaced by natural processes, the Trilobite had not disappeared.
Success!
Unfortunately, that was where the successes had ended. Attempting to transfuse the volunteer's blood into another had not resulted in a similar success.
Nor had trying to send the volunteer through Hyperspace a second time... once they had recovered from a piece of their left kidney and a chunk of their large intestine disappearing... in what looked very much like a bite matching Triley's teeth. Indeed, the second time around, it had been repeated that Triley, the Trilobite had been viciously attacking an unknown entity, preventing harm to the volunteer from the looks of it.
The solution, then, to research further into Hyperdimensional anomalies was to go to the source, Huu Eggers' blood.
Which was why the administrator was here, to calm everyone down and have them reassess their future strategies.
"Ladies. Gentlemen. You are missing the obvious here. The man is absolutely terrified of needles. He nearly climbed out of bed, despite his inability to walk, to get away from your needle. The only reason he remained is because of his willpower and understanding it was needed. Can you imagine asking a man with such a fear to regularly give blood for our research? For what may be, in his eyes, entirely frivolous purposes?"
A pause.
"Can't we pay him?"
"He is rapidly approaching the top 1000 wealthiest individuals in the Lyran Commonwealth, just how much are you looking to pay for his blood?"
A pause.
"I suggest the lot of you come up with some kind of response to have Huu Eggers willingly give you blood. Otherwise, your ideas are dead in the water."
"What about urine? Or saliva? Do other bodily fluids..."
The impetuous one cut themselves off as the others stared at them.
"If you're volunteering to get those injected into you for this test..."
"No, no, please ignore that."
"That's what I thought. Get moving and thinking, we don't have much time before he leaves for Blackjack."
"What if we set up on Blackjack? Doesn't he have that Castle Eggers University set up? Imagine the Free Worlds League trying to raid that."
"And that is a good idea. Keep brainstorming!"
+_+
In the week since the meeting with Huu Eggers, the R&D team of Tolsand Warworks were baffled. How exactly were they going to design suitable exosuits or exoskeletons for combat?
Their batteries were too small, too weak.
The suits themselves too fragile.
The team was frustrated, those that were meant to be arriving from Eggers General Utility hadn't yet made their way over, but the newly hired R&D team, for all their newness, felt a sense of territoriality. Especially with the bodyguards, monsters the lot of them, looked incredibly smug about the exosuit idea, as if they knew something and were keeping it a secret.
The team felt a that they wanted to do this on their own, to prove that they could. To get back at those smug bastards.
The team had been baffled until something emerged that changed everything.
An animated movie released by Eggers Media.
Steamboy
While the idea of an unlimited steam sphere was a little ridiculous (until someone pointed out that it could be a micro-fusion reactor), the exosuit soldiers that appeared in the final climactic sequence had solved their problems, had provided a clear direction.
A bit dragged out as a movie, but the concepts... oh the concepts!
Why were they trying to do this with high technology?
Just sticking an ICE engine on the back would work! If there were enough of them, and they were cheap enough, wouldn't that be a benefit in and of itself? Why did they need to go with the idea of a small mech? What was the point of that when there were already light mechs? They were building the damned things right now!
No, the solution was to chart their own path, for this was not that of a mech, but that of infantry.
Armoured infantry.
Myomers on the outside to give lift and carry capacity...
So many ideas, so many of them before space-flight...
How had they fallen so far?
No matter, they had other considerations now!
Like, would speed even matter if they were fighting inside a Castle Eggers? Defensive action, protected with the suit... it was perfect!
Would they need to be concerned with issues of protection if the soldiers were wearing armour before they got into the suit?
What was with the need for integrated weapons if they could just carry them?
They felt yet greater respect for Huu Eggers, he hadn't said it outright. Allowing them to keep their pride, yet his own company had come up with the way forward regardless.
It made them dream, too, of a day when the Jaeger was possible.
2000 tons of dragon slaying metal.
For if they were about to make something from 2004 come true... what was to say that they could not make the Jaeger dream come true as well?