Chapter 24
By Cliff
Beta and Clean up: Not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop.
1 Sep 3047
New Circe.
The meeting was made up of a mix of military and civilian leadership. Well about as civilian, as Clan Wolverine and the Star League in Exile got. There were over twenty people in a room buried deep underground. The room was so full, that it was uncomfortably full of people. They also were not all clan or ex clan members in attendance.
Admiral Adama and his wife and current leader of what was left of the Colonies of Kobal, Laura Adama-Roslin were on one side of the table. Jennifer Vaun the Lord Protector of the clan and the leader of this world, and the military that was defending it, was sitting center of the briefing area. This was only the fourth meeting, in this location, that the Colonials had been allowed or invited to attend. And the only reason they were hear now? It was because of the blowback that had happened, when word was released about the supply mission that had just returned from going closer to Earth than any Colonial had been allowed.
This briefing was well into its second hour and about to cross the line into hour number three. They had already been brought up to speed on the ship lost in time, that had been dropped into their system. They had known about the ship, but almost all of the details had been withheld. Those hours had been required to cover the history that might have been. They also had covered the issues that had come up with the other supply runs. It was all a rehash for everyone else, but the Colonials. When it was over? The Lord Protector leaned forward and looked down to the Colonial admiral.
"So, Admiral Adama. Does that cover why we did not offer the information about the resupply run to you?"
Bill Adama was tired, he was feeling every day of his age today. That did not mean that he was about to roll over and show his belly to anyone. When word had reached his people about this supply run, it had almost caused more riots in the street. He had thought that the Coast Guard vessel had been an issue. The civil unrest was something he and his new wife could live without, and if this "ship lost in time" details were ever leaked out. He had no idea how that would come back and bite him on the ass. He could think of a few ways that some of his people would react to a ship lost in time. He was also upset that something of this magnitude had been done, and his people had been kept in the dark about it.
"Lord Protector, I think we need to take our time and look at this "timeline" closer. I do not remember any classes in the Academy about time travel. I also understand that these runs are done at some risk, and they must be kept secret for many reasons."
Admiral David Whitfield turned red, and then let it out. "Admiral, it is not just that we must keep it secret. The people that do these missions, sometimes have given their lives to keep it secret from any outsiders. We have lost mechs, and the pilots will end their lives, instead of being taken alive. We have lost entire jumpships with her droppers, and the crews. By the time we could make it to the area, to help them? All of our people would be dead. One time that was almost 500 people lost, and not one Wolverine was captured alive. Tell me Admiral Adama, can you guarantee that your people will go to those same lengths to keep our secret?"
Adama was about to fire a quick comeback but stopped, when Laura put her hand over his and gave it a slight squeeze. Laura had something to say. "Admiral Whitfield, you have a point. We cannot do that, for all of our people. I understand that you test your people, to see if they are that committed. Or maybe we will call it having the right mental alignment, to do this type of work."
Laura saw the female Star League leader nod her head up and down. She made sure to keep her face very still. "That is what I thought." She went into political mode. "What we would like to do, is just add some of our people to these tests. If they pass your tests? Then they can be put on a list of available crewmembers. If they do not pass? Then they will be replaced, with others who do pass all of those tests. We will keep going until we have a pool of available personnel. Then we can talk about how our people can work together on this project in the future. You will need all the people you can get, if these other clans are coming back. That does not count how we will be able to help fight this "Flu" bioweapon, that is going to be developed or could be developed in a different future."
Jennifer Vaun was thinking, "This woman was good, very good. It would be a shame, when she steps down from the leadership of these people." She kept her own face still.
"Madam President. That is something we can work with, and it is a good idea. We can kick that idea to each of our Navy staffs, to work out the details. Query-Affirmative?"
The male Adama nodded that he would agree to add some Colonial born to be tested, to see if they might be added as crews of any future supply mission. Until the Star League Head of Personnel had rubbed his nose in the information. It had not really gotten through to him, about what they risked on these supply runs. It was time for him to cave a little in this horse-trading session.
"I can accept that. It will take some time to get a list of volunteers together, much less start the testing. I do not think we will have anyone cleared for your next run." Bill leaned back into his thick padded chair. "I would like to know more, about how the major end items you have brought back to the system have or will be distributed? Also how did you come up with the requirements for acquisition on these supply runs?"
Commander Xi got the signal to speak from the head of the SLiE military. She was the head of the Clan Wolverine's External Supply department. "When a supply run is in the planning stages, a shopping list is drawn up. The last run was a bit rushed and smaller, than what we have done in the past. We had hoped that we would not need to make the next run for some time. The current war pushed us to try something new, when we looked at the technology of your jump drives. The shopping list we gave to Captain Copeland, is only a guideline. He picked up long storage food, tools, and equipment that we are either short of or are not making due to other needs of our people. Some of the things that he was asked to try to find, were items that might be of use to the Colonials. We had him look for wheeled based construction and farming equipment, as well as the normal industrial mechs we have picked up on past runs. We also put the same types of laser systems, that are being fitted to your Viper class fighters on that list at a large number. And as a guideline, the mission commander can use his judgement on what to bring back. Also, each member of the crew has a cargo allotment that they can use to help supplement their normal income."
Commander Xi was looking at the Colonials. "Not all of the items brought back were put on the "G-bids and Auctions site". The dropship engines and Nighthawk light power armored suits were not even listed as coming back to the general public. The same goes for the combat mech, which Captain Copeland was able to acquire."
The ground force commander had almost had kittens, when a heavy-duty cargo truck and trailer had shown up at his base filled with the 30 suits and two very lightly used fitting rigs. He had been able to increase the size of his force by ten percent in a little over a week. That was even after six of the newish suits had been cannibalized to fix battle damage suits, or the refitting of the other newish suits. It would be maybe another month, before word of mouth had the news spread planetwide about the new suits. Somethings just could not be kept quiet, even on New Circe.
Commander Xi continued with her part of the briefing. "Not all of the items will be put up for sale or used by civilians. Most of the items will end up that way, and most of those will be put out in small lots sized auctions. We do not want one person with a lot of capital hording all of one type of items. So, we try to make it harder for something like that to happen. It will not stop that type of action, but it tends to make it harder for them to get away with it. As of this meeting? All of the industrial workmechs have been sold. About half of the trucks have found new owners. We make our own version of the Mauser 960, so the others will be going up for sale. They will be going right along with the other handheld weapons that were brought back."
She flipped to a new page. "The ores, tools, food, wines from New Dawn, medical items, the seed for Wheat and other types of grains, the spare parts for the different workmechs, as well as the frozen embryos will be put up for sale in small lots starting in a week or so. The two Blazer optic grinding sets, crew served weapons, and the light mech they picked up will not be sold on the open market."
Xi stopped talking and looked around the room, making sure to make eye contact with each person. "These are the recommendations from me and my office. Are there any objections?" She was sure of the outcome, but the additions of the City State into this meeting could very easily derail her calculations.
The Lord Protector looked left and then right, before moving down the line to the representative from the Colonial city state. It was time to offer the newcomers a bone. "If the Colonial government would like to make arrangements to buy, I think it's called a Wolfhound light battlemech? I am open to this transfer of the weapons and technology. I have to warn you, that it is not as powerful as a like massed machine that our army is fielding. I understand that some of our R and D people want to spend some time with it, before they will let it out of their labs."
Both of the Adamas gave a shutter that they could not hide, when they heard those words. This was for two reasons, and both had equal weight. One was that Colonials were not comfortable with any type of two legged Battlemech or Battle Armor. It was often referred to as strapping on or getting into a Cylon. That was why not one of the slightly over two dozen industrial mechs, had been bought by a Colonial or a Colonial headed company. The other reason for the shutter, was the cost of trying to first buy a war-machine like that and then trying to maintain it after they "owned" it. Bill looked at Laura who looked back at him. Bill took it as it was his job to decide.
"Lord Protector. The Colonial military would NOT like to acquire that machine. It does not match our current fielding plan for the near future of our ground forces." Admiral Adama was glad that he had already forwarded his long-ranged plan on his ground forces, to his counter parts in command of the SLiE ground forces.
Laura was always amazed when the elder Adama went politically correct in speaking, so with a sly smile. "We understand that over a hundred and twenty of the same type or output laser weapons for our Vipers, that we have been buying from your government, were picked up on this supply run. We would like to put a hold on the sale or other use of those weapons. We do not have the funds to buy them now, but we will in the future. We are looking at anything that will help us standardized our logistics, and that is also affordable. Also, I have heard something referred to as a Blazer Rifle. It was brought up here, again. What is it, and you said something about Captain Copeland bringing back two? But I thought that almost two dozen were being put up for sale?" It would not have been the first time that something had been lost in translation between the two groups. It was getting less common, but it was still known to happen from time to time.
The 3313th Mechanized Infantry BDE commander was closest to the Colonial. "Madam. A Blazer rifle is like a double-barreled laser rifle. It is an impressive weapon, but lower tech than what we use or issue to our troopers. It does hit harder in one shot but is less useful against your normal infantry grunt type target. It also has an energy problem, as in you are limited in the number of full power shots. It is very limited for what you get in a power pack, before your battery supply is completely depleted. That is an issue, for open ranged combat. I will admit that it is not a bad bit of combat kit. Only it is kind of a one trick pony. Captain Copeland was able to pick up the core, for two manufacturing set ups to make more of them. The ones that are going up for sale, are the Blazer weapons that were found at what they are calling Jess's Toy Box."
Bill Adama was interested. So far only the few ground combat troops and his counter boarding marines head direct energy weapons. Most of those, had been bought by the troopers themselves. The Military just did not have the money for a massive buy of those type of weapons. Every time they could, they would buy a few dozen. Most of the time something else would come up, that was more important than buying some handheld weapons. They still had plenty of the old-style Colonial Navy weapons. And they could kill Cylons pretty well, now that they were making their own military grade ammunition for those types of weapons. Bill looked at Commander Xi. He did not know the answer to a question, that he was about to ask.
"What kind of one trick, are these weapons?" Bill was not a ground commander, but he had learned a few things in his career.
Commander Xi took the lead. "They are used when one of the Houses military units knows that or thinks that an enemy is weak in infantry, but heavy in tanks or mechs."
Admiral Adama was surprised but wanted to make sure he had all of the facts. "So, you do use them but only when you think you're going against big targets." He had not noticed that he had let loose with a contraction. He did not even notice of few faces react to the use of "you're" in this statement.
Laura was looking at her husband, but again. She had no idea where he was going with this line of verbal thought. After so many years together, this was an unwanted surprise. "What are you thinking about, Bill?"
Bill Adama had an odd little smile on his face. "The Cylons are getting harder to kill with the new types of combat units that they are starting to field. Laura, Protector, if we can work out a deal. We can start building these Blazer Rifles for the Colonial and SLDF. That would put us one step ahead of the Cylons in deployment of updated weapons."
Commander Xi did not like what she was hearing. "Admiral, as a person who is in the business of supplying the needs of the SLDF forces. I do not know how many Blazer style rifles are needed. I have not seen a request to put them on the shopping list. Also, what Copeland brought in are the lens grinding equipment and a few odds and ends for small rate productions, of those weapons. They can make at most, the lenses for laser weapons that are what we call Age of War level tech."
Bill was letting the corners of his mouth droop, then he dropped another card on the table. "Yes, but how about on your later supply runs? It seems that from the reports, I have read. This might be a popular weapon within the Inner Sphere. If we could make about a hundred extra or so of these weapons. That would add something that could be traded, and it would not be in short supply here. Even if they prove not to be worth the effort of issuing out to our people to combat the Cylons, they would have some value other places."
Commander Xi's eyes shot open, and her head whipped around to the highest ranked person in the room. "Lord Protector! That is a good idea. We do not have that many NEW things to trade with the Inner Sphere. Everything that we have been using to trade. It has been used, some of it for a few hundred years. Now that SLDF military tech is starting to come off the production lines in the Inner Sphere. It will negatively affect us. We do not have that much extra manufacturing capacity. to make any extra Mauser 960s at this time."
Laura had the brain itch. By now she had a better base reference of military matters, but it still was not her strong suit. "That is what? The third time during this briefing. Why is it so upsetting that the other powers have started in production of Star League level technology?" She gave a short chuckle that carried around the group. "I'm just an old schoolteacher."
Jennifer let out a loud snort. "Madam Adama. You are a lot more, than just a schoolteacher. The Inner Sphere was in a technology tailspin for a couple of centuries. That was not great for us strategically, but it made what we had to trade a lot more valuable. Now that they are not falling any longer, and it is rising at a fast rate. That makes it harder for us to get the things that we have needed in the past from them. Also, right now we think they are only just able to refit machines, as they have the new high-tech parts. Why is that an issue for us? Laura it is all about the numbers, even with the latest additions to our planet. We are still under two million people living on this planet. We do not have enough people to invest in development of many new things. Our third line machines and most of our combat reserve are made up of what are called royal type machines. The Tech level is the same as what the Inner Sphere has just started making. They just have more of the high-tech items built into each of the machines. Right now, theirs might have one weapon that was slightly improved over the Age of War tech. We have only just pulled out the last of our Star League tech UAC 5s to be replaced with the newer more compact clan tech UAC/5s, LB-5's or the LB 5-X-AC, that we came up with together. Those new weapons are going into our front-line units first, and then working their way down to the lower priority units."
The Lord Protector could see that she was not hitting the right note in explaining. "Admiral Adama, what do you think of the Zug? You have worked with her for a few years now."
Bill Adama was a little taken back by the sudden question that seemed to be way off topic. "It is an impressive machine. I would have loved to have a dozen of them to fight the Cylons. Then they would not have survived trying to attack us."
The Lord Protector gave a sly smile. "That brings me to my point. When the Star League went to its final war. She had 280 other members of her class, alone. From what I remember in my Naval warfare classes, the SLDF navy had almost 500 capital warships alone. That did not count what the five major houses and the larger of the outlying states had in commission. That also does not count cruisers and smaller warships, or even Casper type drones, kind of like the Nike. While the SLDF was bleeding herself white? The other major powers were in a massive built up of their fleets. I also cannot tell you how many ships were in mothballs or were just listed as armed transports during that time."
Bill Adama went white as a sheet, and in a soft voice that carried across the desk. "By the gods." He was trying to picture that size of a fleet in his mind, and it was just shutting down on him.
The Lord Protector took pity on the older Colonial. "Admiral in any conflict." She stopped talking and changed the track she wanted to try. "We are going to lose machines faster than we can replace them. We have learned this the hard way, once before. As we lose machines? We will have to replace them with less capable systems, that will cause higher losses. Right now, we had to decide to make aerofighters instead of more advanced ground Battlemechs. What happens when we need to make more Battlemechs? We will have to make do with fewer fighters. That math changes a little, with you guys. With you building and manning the Avar production lines? This has let us replace our combat losses, and even start replacing some of our older light machines with the craft we are buying from you. We know, due to the Kowloon Coast Guard ship. That the Clans are coming, and soon. At least it did in their timeline, all to be replaced with this demon spawn Word of Blake."
Laura and Bill looked at each other, but it was Laura who replied. "Madam Protector, what can my people do to help. Our futures are locked together, so how do we work through this problem together?" Laura pulled over a cut corner pad of off-white paper to write on. She was not interested in using one of the slowly growing number of digital devices found in the City State.
Jennifer tried not to smile. This subject had come up often at her level, and on many news entertainment shows. The Colonials were small in number, but they had two large Battleship/Carrier type vessels to man. As well as taking the lead of manning and maintaining the SLS Kaga, a Samarkand class carrier. They still had a deep pool of highly experienced space trained personnel to draw on. They also were still flying the small Viper VII's, but they were making more and more of the 35ton Avar Omni fighters to fill both navies' fighter wings. Besides making small jump engines and ammunition. They were not putting a lot into other areas of the SLDF in Exile order of battle, right now. They were working on an infantry force unit made up of people who had failed out of the small space marines, fighter and Raptor schools. But the math said that they would only be able to form a Battalion worth of full time Infantry.
The Flight School they were opening up, was using what was left of the Mk II and the recovered MK V Vipers before the students moved on to Viper MK VII and the fleet for final training. Her people were planning on sending all of their young entry level pilots threw there, to get the basics of flying down. That would lighten the load on the Wolverine small Aerofighter academy. The first full sized class had started at the beginning of this year.
"One thing that you are doing already, that is a great help. That is your baby boom, which you are having. This is not going to be a short war, unless we lose it. Still we need you to find the resources to start manufacturing more military components. If you can find the funds to invest in building the manufacturing lines for say, our clan tech third generation Heat Sink. Each combat machine needs between ten and twenty of them to work. If you can make that last number a week? It would have a ripple effect for other projects my people are working on. The same is true of the 1ton class of pulse lasers, the ones called medium pulse lasers. If you could get a few built each week? It also would have a positive effect on the battlefield. All of these items would leave only a small footprint in your city. Me, I would love it if you could find the funds to build a factory to make the upgraded Mars heavy tank. We picked up the plans for it about fifty years ago."
When Adama and Laura gave an odd look. The head of the 3313th Brigade passed over a noteputor to the pair, with the basic information of the tank displayed. Adama was a spaceman, but even Laura was impressed with the massive 100ton tank. That is right until, they got to the estimated per unit cost to build the monsters. Both of the Colonial's heads shot up when they hit the line that held the number of 21 million in the local currency for each tank.
Laura was gob smacked, so Bill had to be the one to say something. He had been the one who had to fight for the budget every year with their elected leaders. "I'm sorry Lord Protector. But there is no way that we can afford to make something like this. Much less build a factory to build and support the making of something like that."
He looked back at the image of the heavy war-machine and shook his head. "I do not know when we would be able to do something on this scale."
Jennifer, the Lord Protector smiled. She had given them the bat, now for the sugar. "I am not surprised. We all are in the same boat. I would like to address another issue. Your non-combat fleet is only supporting a few active ships. If you have the space-based production available on your manufacturing ships, to make Ferro-Aluminum Armor, Ferro-Fibrous Armor, or even Lamellor Ferro-Carbide? My people will buy every scrap of it. If you can make a hundred tons of any of those armors in a month? We will use it. We even have a dozen engineers, who can be sent over at the end of the week to help with the conversion."
Bill and Laura spoke at the same time in stereo. "What's the catch?" The Star League in Exile had been very helpful, but they also did not give anyone a free lunch.
Now Jennifer gave a full-face smile, and everyone on her side of the table cringed. "See Madam President, not just a schoolteacher. The price for the help, and for my people to buy that armor plate? It is that we want you to put a five percent income war tax, on everyone living in the City State. I will remind you, that this is a request. It is only about half of what all of my people have to pay. That is on top of the other tax's we assess, before we came together."
When the two Colonial leaders did not explode out of their seats, the Lord Protector continued with her demands. "We want those funds, from that tax, to be used to support only the war effort. I think we can call it a planetary defense tax. One that will run for the next three years, or until the war ends." It was well known to the Clan leadership that the Colonial leadership was getting a lot of push back from the religious sects in her area of control. They and the many different unions were used to being able to have all of their income and revenue from investments, to be totally tax free.
This was a political decision, so it was squarely in Laura's ballpark to have to deal with. She had been pushing for just something like that, with Bill working behind the scenes to help her. The Quorum was blocking it at every move. The different religious groups felt that they should not have to pay the government, for the money and other support they were given. They had been tax exempt, even in times of war back home. In fact, they had been pushing for government support, to help pay for the rebuilding of all of their temples and to give money for their priest to live on. Now Laura could hammer those ideas flat. After all, who could ignore a planetary defense tax? Temples and Union Halls were only good, if they were not blown apart from orbit by the Cylons.
"Lord Protector. It will have to be voted on by the Quorum, but I will pass it along. I will also tell them that it is a request coming from a senior member of the government. I think that it is a workable idea. I just have to remind them about the jobs, this would bring to our people. And that your people have been supporting and helping to protect us. It is time to start supporting the overall defenses of the planet. I just have to use small words to remind them, that it's their Fraking butt on the line behind those defenses." She did not say that all of those funds, would be used to build factories within the Colonial areas.
Bill Adama looked around the table. It was time to see if he could get something on the table, which he and his people would want. "Lord Protector. It would help Laura sell this tax plan, if we could connect it to something that might be closer to home for them. I would like to be able to tell them, that we are planning another raid into Colonia/Cylon space. WE would like to see about collecting some of the civilian wrecks. We can also spend some time looking for any more survivors. With more of those types of ships? We can cover more areas and recover more items, that both of our people need."
Bill held up his hands. "I'm not wanting or needing a commitment to this mission. Only that I can say that it is in the planning and evaluation phase. If it does not go? Well, she tried, and they are called the enemy for a reason." Bill was not that game on recovering more ships. He just wanted to blast a few more Basestars and other types of Cylons into atoms.
The head of the SLDF military looked over to the Lord Protector. "Lord Protector? That could be a good idea. We can look to "see" what we can do. All we would be out, is some staff time and midnight oil. Another attack on the Cylons home turf? That would keep them off balance. If they are off balance? They will have to spread their forces out some more to protect other areas. That would buy us some more time, and it would slow their scouting effort down. I say we get a planning committee together and see if it is feasible."
The meeting went on for another two hours. Bill and Laura were brought up to speed on everything to do with the supply runs and the maybe future that had been showed to them. They were told and shown what projects this supply run was already supporting. It was amazing what 10,000 tons injection of hard to find items can accomplish, in both the short term and long-term projects. Bill Adama was wondering how many projects that double or triple that amount of supplies would do for the Colonials and Star League. How they would get an infusion of that size still concerned him.
Bill was impressed, with what the new mining machine had been able to do in only a few weeks. It was almost enough to make him want the Colonials to have a few of them. But it was only "almost", because they still made his skin craw when he saw them again in an image today. He could not imagine climbing into one. He was also surprised how quickly the new spare parts had been put to use. He had no idea how much equipment had been deadline due to needed repairs. It was a major indicator that the SLiE was straining every muscle to try to fight the Cylons.
After the meeting, Bill and Laura took some ground transportation to the edge of the city. They could have asked for one of the VTOLs, to give them a lift back to the Colonial City. The pair wanted to experience what was now the first land route connection between the Clan controlled areas and the Colonial City. The ride home to the Colonial city was on one of the new eighteen passenger 4ton hover buses that had been carried on the Lisbon Maru.
The route they were on, had been a slowly expanding in length and width of what was at first just a narrow mud trail. It still was mostly a dirt road, but it was now wide enough for 2-way traffic all the way to New Kobal. In fact, growing sections where being worked on that could hold four lanes of traffic wide. In the future. It was planned that it would be paved with something strong enough to be able to shift heavy combat reinforcements both ways, if they were attacked. It also would improve the trading between the two cultures.
As this road was expanding and improved. It was reducing the number of VTOL cargo and dropship lifts that were needed to support the trade between the two cultures. A second but still smaller road was being cut to the sea. There were other "trails" that were being cut to the growing farming areas and mineral mining sites throughout the city-state territory. They would slowly grow as there were hands and shovels to do the work.
Besides the driver, Bill, and Laura. They were the only ones on this run of the buss between the two developed areas. The trip back would be full of mostly younger Colonials heading to the big city for some entertainment for the night. They were just finishing flashing across a shallow river at over 100 mph in the late afternoon light. Laura looked at Bill, she figured that she might as well use the time they had alone. The driver had a thick armored glass separating the driver from the passengers.
"So, Bill. What are you thinking?"
Bill was staring off into space, not really looking at anything. His mind, as Laura had guessed, was working on several ideas at once. He was about to ask what she was talking about, but she gave him the old schoolteacher look and this changed his mind.
"I was thinking. About how to get the most bang for our current defense budget. What do you think about getting the Blazer Rifle line set up, but putting it in the University? We could split the cost between the two different budgets. The school would run the manufacturing during the day, as the students learn about Direct Energy Weapons."
He raised an eyebrow at his wife. She would hate the idea of students making weapons of war. "I would think that it would be a very popular class. I know that I would like to take it. I think it will at first slow down production. But if we ran three or four classes a day? That would move production to as close to 24 hours a day as you can get. Output, I bet, would still be lower than if we just did OJT and put in a dedicated factory for the weapons. But we would be learning a lot from it, while we were making that type of weapon."
Laura bit her lower lip. She did not need to tell Bill, that she did not really like the idea. But she was not coming up with a better one. "I might be able to sell that. But they are going to be wanting part are all of the profits on what they are making, with the student and instructor labor."
Bill got an odd look on his face, but the craggy face did not smile. "You can tell those over educated Frakers. That as soon as they can duplicate the machines, to make another line. Then they can sell all of the ones they want. Until then? They are supporting the war effort that is saving their lives and their school buildings." He set his jaw and looked over his wire frame glasses, just like she used on people.
Laura knew the look, "that said he was not going to budge", and she had to admit. That it was a sound plan. On top of a sound plan? It was one, which she thought she could sell to a certain group of people. Everyone would get something out of it. Then she decided to push. Bill Adama had a very sharp mind. She also knew that he very rarely only had one iron in the fire at a time.
"Okay, what else are you thinking about?" Laura turned to more fully look at her husband sitting in the seat next to her.
Now Bill raised his chin, it was a "tell" that he did not want to bring something up. Laura returned the look with a tilted head, and a raised eyebrow. If Bill wanted to sleep with both eyes closed? He knew that he had better spill the beans.
"I have been doing some work on the side. Do you remember the mission, which was sent out to raid the Cylon fuel mining base? The one that Felix was a part of and that the mission commander was such an ass."
Bill saw Laura nod her head. That mission was hard to forget. "Well, our people were able to pick up some large armor fragments from one of the Riflemen II's that was almost blown into scrap. I turned them over to our manufacturing ships, as soon as I could. They think that they can make what they called Ferro-Fibrous armor. I don't think it is going to be as good as what they can make, because we don't have any test samples to test it against the armor they make. I don't know about the Ferro-Aluminum, but as soon as you can get the hoop dancing done. I think we will be able to turn out the armor plate that they want. I think we will be able to do this a lot sooner, than they think that we can. If we can get that help for a certain length of time? What else can we use those brainpans for while we have access to them?"
Laura was both surprised, and not. He had not told her about this little plan about the armor scrap, but it was also a military matter. "So, what were you thinking Bill? That was a lot of planning and forethought. You must have at least an outline of a plan, which you had already mentally laid out."
Bill still did not smile, but he had a self-satisfied look. "I did some checking, when they started talking about those walking Cylons working with our people. I spent some time, reading and asking questions, whenever I had the time and target to ask. I figured, if we had a falling out after that mining raid? We would at least have an idea of a new type of armor plate to try to make, that was better than what the Cylons were known to use. When things worked out? I had our people keep trying to find new things to sell to the Wolverines."
He looked down at his hands, that were folded in his lap. "I was able to swing a tour of the Cache site. They have between 100 and 150 of those walking war-machines still in storage. They are all what they have left, from when they started running from the other Clans. That does not count the tanks and other propelled weapons. Did you know that the armor plate on their 100ton Pulverizer II cost 20,000 a ton? Now get this. It takes almost 20 tons of the stuff to cover its outside for each one of them?"
Laura had no idea about the numbers, but the simple math she could do in her head. That was almost half a million in SL script in armor, per machine. Before she could start working on the number of machines in the main depot or Cache. She wanted to make sure that she was on the right line of thinking. "Not all of the machines, have that much armor. I remember they lost some of the lighter machines on that raid of the Cylon fuel mine."
Bill smiled; she was picking up more military related information than she thought she knew. "Yes, some mech and fighters only have a few tons of the armor for protection. My long term plans? If we can make what they need for current use of both militaries. I was going to start trying to talk them into refitting all of the machines that they have in storage, with our new higher tech armor. I had all the engineers from the two production ships and the Beast get together. If we are just making Ferro-Fibrous Armor plates of the same quality as the SLiE? We can have an output of almost 100 tons a week. We could do that for about three months, before we would have to cut it back to more normal output of about 50 tons a week. We could maintain that level of production until we can add some more manufactory facilities for our people to man."
Laura was blinking at her husband. There were a lot of "ifs" in what he had just said in that speech. And each of those "ifs" were showstoppers. "That could help a lot, with our trade issues. Why have you waited before telling me?"
Bill shook his head from side to side. "The project was only ready for the next step, less than a month ago. I was trying to work out how to get the SLDF people over to help push us over the finish line. One that would not break the bank, or somehow cause any issues further down the line for you with a certain person over in the Quorum."
Laura smiled a little and then it fell from her face. "Bill, is it me? But they are giving me the feeling. That they are still not sure about launching a second supply run. I think it is a worthwhile idea of my own. If you could add something to the shopping list on a second supply run? What would you like to add?"
Bill Adama had been thinking about that, since he had heard about these supply runs. He was the head of the whole Colonial Defense force. "Laura the problem is not what we want, but what we can afford. I would love to be able to have one of those large space stations, I think they call it an Olympus class. That would help out with our military and civilian fleet support. I was reading some of the reports that came up from the coast not long ago. I also think both the Wolverines and our people are weak in sea or larger waterway combat control or policing ability. After that wildfire, I have found myself jumping at shadows. Fixing that blind spot would be top on my list, but right behind it would be some artillery. Maybe something like what they call a Long Tom. The Wolverines like the shorter ranged Thumper and Guided missiles. I would like to drop heavy rounds on my enemies as far away as I possibly can. The third item on my mental list of new military equipment, is some counter Raider capable track or wheeled systems. I was looking in one of the weapons books, which they brought back and put on the network. These people have been fighting each other for a very long time, and they have made weapons to fill all kinds of niches. Do you think, that if I submit a shopping list? That it would push them into green lighting the launching of the next run?" Bill was taken care not to push is wife to hard.
Laura did not say anything for a few seconds. "I don't think it would hurt. Why don't you get a list together? I will see if any other departments might want to add something, reasonable to it. I will submit it threw political channels, to the Lord Protector's office. I will have to check in on the legal issues, like what happens. If we get something on the list we submit, but we can't afford it at the time of delivery."
This was a good ice breaker and the two made small talk for the rest of the hour's long trip back to the Colonial built city, that was in the middle of the massive wood lands and slowly growing farm fields. They got off at the third stop within the city. By the time they exited the hover bus, it was almost half filled with younger people. The two leaders were given looks, but not one of the younger riders approached them.
By the next morning. The news services would be carrying on about the powerful leaders, using the new hover buss services put into service between the two key population centers. Most of the other news would be focused on the power couple being on a date night. It would not be for weeks, that the reason for the two to be in the Star League capital to make it into public knowledge.
Notes
Even allies keep a few secrets. Just because your allies. It does not mean that you share everything. And yes, they do spy on each other.
Old school medium lasers: It was noted that the Viper VII could not generate and "surge" enough power to use clan grade medium lasers. This will not be an issue with any newer designs coming off the lines, that know about lasers in the first place. The Colonials now have enough medium lasers to field one on every Viper VII with a few leftovers for spare parts.
Link to Cannonshop's new story. Working title "Teaser for a Proposed…thing". It is on the BattleTech forum page. . ?topic=67637.0