An omake by KnownParadox on Spacebattles
Signs of the Times
"Grimm attacks at an all time low for the first time in hist-"
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"Vulcan Berns creator of the Grav-"
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"-nchester Male Enhancement Pil-"
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"Comare Industries CEO Bianca Comare pledges support of the Remnant Concordiat, a sizable donation as well as state of the art equipment for off worl-"
Click. Silence fills the air once more, only disturbed by the hoarse breathing of its sole occupant. The monitor on his desk shutting off as he turned away from it and towards the window of his suite.
Strictly speaking, his suite was the height of luxury, state of the art and ready for anything. The marble was polished to a sheen, and the tasteful jewels shining like miniature stars in the night. Wood imported from the Mistralian Highlands mixed with Vale stone. The window had a view into the expansive snow dusted courtyard, then into the distance the glittering spires of Atlas rose into the heavens. Technically speaking, it was as close to perfection as something made by mortal hands could get.
If you ignored the gilded bars it represented, a cage was a cage. No matter the countless riches it was forged from.
Jaques Schnee coughed wetly and shuddered. Aged fingers twisted the controls in his seat to maneuver the glorified wheelchair closer to the window, the soft whine of the engines as they consumed the gravity dust needed to move annoyed him to no end. But it was one of countless annoyances he had learned to deal with these days. The movement was so subtle if he didn't have eyes he would have had doubted he was even moving. The costs of this thing was astronomical, he guessed that if you counted the seating made to keep him comfortable, the miniature gravity engine, and the emergency life-support systems counted for something.
He couldn't even leave the mansion without risking his health.
From this point of view, through the window, he could see the signs of the times, in the distance he could see the construction of another of those shipyards, where once was unused space was taken over by launch pads and construction equipment. It was gaudy, a mar on the beautiful skyline of Atlas, he couldn't say he approved of the dull blocks of metal, smoke belching out like some Mantle bonfire cutting a line through the sky. He understood perfectly well the reasoning for building a shipyard. You needed something to create transports for the raw materials. But couldn't they have at least tried, even a little, to fit the aesthetics so carefully cultivated by Atlas for decades now?
The Concordiat... the meaning, and the economic choices were not lost on him, even if he knew Atlas was the unoffical head of this union, he supposed that the commoners and filth that made up the masses had to be assuaged of such petty matters and worries, they could believe it was an effort of equals. They didn't matter anyways.
He knew any nation, and company, investing the project would gain massively. Only a fool would fail to take notice, but you must go about it carefully. Let another test the waters, and most likely take the fall as well before stepping in yourself, taking and using the foundations laid out by your predecessor and literally reach for the stars.
That damnable girl that had stolen his company from him had not listened to his thoughtful reasoning. She was of mind that they should bull rush ahead and go all in, always the impulsive one, even if she proven marginally more intelligent than her sister, or his failure of a son. The benefits would be great, most likely ten times or even more profitable then when he ran things, but the risks, there were uncountable, and they would destroy the company he had rightfully claimed and built up from the dirt it squallored in before he came.
They were at the cliffs edge, and while the girl was too busy looking at the stars to notice that wench, Bianca Comare, ready to push her off and claim success where Weiss had failed. If he still had control over the funds, other than the ones his daughter had 'gracefully' given him, he would bet on Comare Industries rising while the Schnee's would fail. It was just... too unlikely. Karma, if you believed in such farcical concept.
He was just lucky enough that he would not live long enough to see the fallout, and the inglorious end to the Schnee's as a respectable Family.