Chapter Sixty-Eight: Meetings

Chapter Sixty-Eight: Meetings

Kentares IV, Draconis March, Federated Suns March 17th, 3015

"Duke Sandoval." I shook the hand of my immediate superior insofar as nobility went. "Now that we are able to have a proper meeting." I sat down and he did as well. "What is it you came here to discuss?"

"I wanted to meet the new noble who has yet to show his face in my court." Sandoval got straight to the point. "You've been galavanting all across the galaxy, and interacting with the Davions, and yet I have never even seen your face aside from some tri-vids." He crossed his arms. "Why is that?"

"Because I forgot that there was a court to appear at." I replied bluntly and honestly. "Until a couple of years ago, I was managing the executive decisions for the nobility, Sharpshooter Inc, and both the Marksman and Kentares Guard." I sighed, "I didn't even have a proper bureaucracy until last year. And now you see the fruits of that." I gestured to the much smaller stack of papers on my desk. "I don't have nearly as much to do paperwork wise, and I can delegate to people that I can trust to do their jobs. I had intended to drop by Robinson in a few months, but you preempted me by a good bit."

Duke Sandoval just sat there for a while, taking in the perfectly valid reasons that I had to avoid the politics for the past few years.

"While I understand that you are a new noble, one of the very few that made such a massive jump in recent history, I do think that you should have at the very least made the attempt." He waved off any response that I was about to make. "With that being said, I am grateful that you have managed to help in destroying some of the forces that face us in the Draconis March." He grinned. "Now that the serious stuff is over, I want to hear about the First Prince's and your battle against the 2nd SoL first hand."

March 31st, 3015

"Shhh." I rubbed David's back as he cried out for Natasha. "It's okay, Daddy's here." I said, trying to lull him back to sleep to no avail. "I know you miss momma, I do too." I kept speaking softly and rocking him until he went back to sleep.

After I had gotten David to fall back asleep I looked at the clock. "Ugh… So much for going back to sleep." I muttered under my breath. "Might as well be productive." I went and did some sim training and hit the gym before getting an early start on the paperwork for the day.

"Morning Mary." I greeted my secretary as she walked in for the day. "Ready to get started?"

"Huh?" She just rubbed her eyes, still half asleep. "Yeah, I guess I'm ready."

"Sorry." I apologized, handing her a cup of coffee. "David woke me up and I've been going ever since."

"Uhuh." She just glared at me. "I forgot that you are a morning person." Mary reached for a pen and threw it at me. "Leave me in peace you inhuman monster."

"Fine." I surrendered, raising my hands and moving to my office. "I already got most of the paperwork done, so expect a light work day."

April 19th, 3015

"Alright, I'm here for training day." I clapped my hands together as I greeted and joined some of the new militia recruits. "Let's get started." I was filling in as an additional instructor and to take a break. So I led the militia through some exercises that would have made the pre dimension hopping me throw up and quit halfway through.

"Come on!" My current drill instructor partner yelled at them. "I've seen children move faster than that!" The DI pointed at David who was in a carrier on my back. "See, there goes one right now!" I ran faster.

A few hours later…

"Shovel the food in your mouth, chew and swallow!" I screamed at the recruits in the chow hall. "My son is eating faster than you!" I fed David another spoonful of mashed potatoes. "Clean up your plates!" I yelled, "Hurry up!"

"Charlie Platoon!" I screamed as I left the chow hall, "Fall in! Recruit Maxwell, you're platoon leader for the day."

"Aye Sir!" She yelled.

"I can't hear you recruit Maxwell." I said and held up my hand to my ear. "AYE SIR!" She let out a bellow.

"That's what I like to hear." I said with a frown on my face. "Get up here Maxwell and show them how it's done."

April 20th, 3015

"You better not be thinking about stealing some of my recruits." The Kentares Militia commander, Colonel James Earnest said to me. "I appreciate you spending some time here and designating funds over to us for acquisitions, but I don't want any poaching."

"I just want one." I told him. "I think she has great potential as a battlefield commander."

"Then she can put in a transfer request when she's done with her training and her four years." Earnest said, not budging an inch. "We all get the same training anyway Hull." He looked me in the eye. "You'll just have to wait and see what becomes of her here."

"That's fine with me." I said. "I wasn't trying to poach anyway." I shrugged. "If she has the potential for battlefield command, she can apply those same skills elsewhere, and we need those types of skills everywhere on Kentares, not just in the military commands."

"Thanks for not poaching." Earnest's shoulders sagged a bit. "It's hard enough to get people to join the militia as is with the massive paychecks coming in from Sharpshooter and the Marksman."

"I'll set aside more funding for competitive rates, but a Militia unit isn't supposed to be full time anyway Earnest." I reminded him. "You're going to get some people who only join for the little bit of extra money they get every month, but you're also getting a lot of weekend warriors here."

"I know." Earnest sighed. "It's just such a different experience compared to serving in the Hussars like I used to."

"Well, it takes time." I reminded him, "Just don't expect perfection to take place overnight." I smiled. "I mean, you already give them a longer boot camp than any other militia in the Suns anyway."

"And we give them additional specialist training as well." Earnest said. "Thanks for making sure we got the Mithril priority by the way, we managed to gear everyone up already with some spares set aside in case of emergency."

"Not a problem, I'm sorry they're the old hand me downs from the Marksman, but the older generation will still function pretty well, it's just not quite as comfortable and up to date as the newer suits we've been producing lately." I replied with a shrug.

"It's the way of the world." Earnest said. "Frontline units get the fancy new gear, and the Militia get the slightly outdated stuff." He shrugged. "I assume you're going to move some of the new gear our way anyway though.

"You suspect right," I told him. "I'm approving the transfer of some of the Grasshoppers, Von Luckners, and Brutus' fresh from the plants to you."

May 5th, 3015

"Gabriella, what's the data on the current lines we hold?" I asked the man for some hard numbers.

"Well sir, the two Grasshopper lines are running at peak efficiency and producing Six 'Mechs a month combined, the Brutus is producing eight vehicles a month, and our two Von Luckner lines are matching it in production. The freezer factory is churning them out as fast as we can get the Endo-Steel used in their production, and we've got two hundred Mithril 11(A) suits rolling off of the lines every month, The Toro Factory is outproducing all of the other 'mech factories due to simplicity and even when we up teched it with Freezers and ERPPC's, it's still manufacturing around 15 'mechs per month." Gabriella grabbed another folder. "As far as the assets we have in other systems, the last reports i have are on the Layover and Markesan systems."

"And what are they reporting?" I asked, I had a burning need to know just how much material we were producing currently.

"Three Stings and three Mule class dropships are rolling off of the lines at Layover every month along with 3 Vengeance a year. The R&D areas have been reactivated, and so has a Union CV line. Our people are working on an upteched escort variant of the Sting and report that they should have something in a couple of years." She paused and reviewed her report. "The Highlander factory is producing four 'Mechs a month currently, and I don't have any up to date information on the other areas Sharpshooter is into right now."

"Thanks for that." I gave Gabriella a nod. "Get some sleep and try and get me some of those reports if at all possible."

"Yes sir." She said as she gathered her files and left. Leaving me to consider everything in peace.