Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale

by cliff.west

This is a spinoff story. It takes place after "But a somehow a most melancholy" and" Hunted Tribes". Please read those before this bit of work. I will not be recovering those stories, but re-reading them will help you fallow this story. This fiction also will be slow on the combat action.

52. Chapter 52 20 Dec 3049 Xi second mission

Chapter 52

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

20 Dec 3049 Xi second mission

Dunianshire

Rear Admiral Xi looked over to Colonel Mann and Captain Gaeta. They were on one of the Colonials ships that had been "rented" for this mission. On this trip, more of the Colonial City-State personnel had been cleared to have dealings with the Inner Sphere. Whatever was going to happen, they all had signed documents that said that they accepted the consequences of those actions. More than a few within the SLDF were skeptical, in that they would stick to those signed pledges. It was one thing to say you would do something, and then to do the task when the chips were on the table in it was your life.

"Captain and Colonel, I think it is time to go our separate ways. When we are ready to be picked up? We will give you a call. Or we will catch a ride over to Cate's Hold, like we had planned. If things go sideways for any of us, the rally point is Ltuze." The three officers shook hands, and thanks to being on a Colonial made ship. She walked to one of the eight newly attached docking points, and then to the one that held her ride going to the planet a few days travel away.

Getting out of this system was going to be a lot harder to do, and still keep the two ships cover identities intact. When asked? The ships would tell the traffic control, that they were not looking to pick up any more charters at this time. This was due to them being on a very tight timeline for their current charter. The two ships even were venting a little hydrogen and other exhaust gasses into space around them, to make it seem that they were using their reactors to charge their drives. When the old Colonial ships were short by about 24 hours for collecting a "normal" engine charge? The two ships were gone, with a little charge into the local area made by a mobile HPG as cover. It had been mounted into one of the ships to help cover their tracks from any curious onlookers.

The "modified Leviathan and Liberty" class ships had winked out of space, just as the Monarch was put into the final approach line up, for landing at the main drop port. While the Monarch class liner was in orbit waiting for an open landing slot on the drop port below them. A radio message was sent to the Main Headquarters of MMM for this planet. Soon more messages had passed back and forth, and they were handled by each key person's staff. Soon a meeting was set up between the two main players after the dropship was cleared to land.

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The meeting was going to be in two days, after the liner was safely on the ground and refueled in case of emergencies. That was a very quick turnaround to get a meeting with one of the top MMM Presidents and the most senior one on this planet. It was only because of the past dealings with this person, that it was even possible in the first place. Oh, and she was one of the largest shareholders of the company that was not a family member of the current CEO on Canopus. You know little things like that have a way of moving mountains, even ones that don't want to be moved.

Xi used the "free" time to get some shopping done along with most of the passengers on the ship she had landed with. While some were just shopping, others also did some shopping, but they also were doing some data mining at the same time. The Xi had a contract, and she wanted to make sure the other side was abiding by that agreement. It was the whole trust but verify on the sly kind of thing. But if her people turned up something that was off? Then she would be very public, with her wanting to verify what the frakk was going on.

When it was time for the meeting, it was held in what used to be "The Casino" of the dropship. The Casino had been ripped out a long time ago, but it did make a nice office space and additional passenger rooms for the mission to use. Xi made sure that it was set up close to what her office on the Station had looked like, before she had made this run to the Inner Sphere. This level of comfort in her surroundings would give her an advantage, in any negotiations that she was going to have to deal with. The one change was that it held a lot of recording and jamming equipment. It was to protect the meeting from anyone that carried a bug, or that might be outside of the dropship but wanting to know what was going on inside. Thanks to Robert's other supply runs, these systems were much improved. Now that SLIC had examples of what the locals could do and how they did it. it was not that hard for them to come up with some counter measures.

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Mike McDonogh was brought into the meeting room, and his escorts were allowed to wait in a side room out of the sun and in air-conditioned comfort provided by the dropship. McDonogh found that he was looking forward to this meeting, and that was very rare for him. He had used the time between the radio messages and the appointment, to gather all of the information to support any questions about their past agreements that might come up. He was wondering what was going to happen with this meeting, that had not been planned for. The one thing that he knew for sure. It was that it was going to lead to some interesting and possibly be explosive, in more than the way that term was used in most types of business meetings.

When he opened the door to what should have been a largeish entertainment area? He was not that surprised that the room was both smaller and that it was not the Casino at the same time. It was still a place that someone could lose a lot of money in, just the same. He saw the same woman sitting on the other side of the meeting desk, and it looked like she had not aged a day. He knew that he had been finding more and more new gray hairs every time he looked in his bathroom mirror. When the hatch closed behind him, the woman at the head of the metal desk looked up.

Xi did not have to look at her watch to know who was in her office. "Ahh, Mr. McDonogh. You are early. Thank you for coming out to see me on such short notice." Xi looked towards Mike's right hand and sees the thicker than normal case it was holding. "And it seems like you have brought "the books" for me to look at. Then I think we can get started."

For the next two hours, the pair of them went over the accounting books one painful page at a time. At least they went over the books, which were related to the businesses involved in their one deal. MMM never let anyone outside of a very small handful of people see the complete set of books for the whole company. Both of them knew that this level of books could be faked, but it was illegal. And if these books were faked? It would get out to the general public, and that would be devastating to MMM on many levels. The public would lose confidence in MMM, and the government of the MC would follow soon after that. But the big issue, was that Xi was one of a few major shareholders in MMM that was not a mutual type fund or other group. This gave her a lot of power and influence, if she chose to use it as a wrecking ball.

Xi looked up from the stack of hard copies and digital records spread all over the massive briefing tabletop. She had a friendly smile on her face. From what she had just read? It would seem, that her idea of giving them the plans for a "downgraded" King Crab had worked out. At least it was a downgraded machine compared to what the SLiE had in their cache sites. Still she wanted to hear it from the man, which had done all of the management and the sales of the 10 million C-Bill that each of the machines cost. That was not an easy task. Even just keeping up with the amount of spare parts, that they were also selling on the open market was a massive undertaking.

Xi had kept the smile on her face, but it was a little more tight looking to Mike. "You have been selling King Crabs as fast as you can make them. And your largest buyer was the MC military after all, and more than a few of them are going into the mercenary units they like to work with."

She was not going to say I told you so, not at this level of a meeting. "I did see were ComStar was buying them, and also along with other spare parts for that type of machine. But over the last few months, there was a major shift on that front. Now they have seemed to have taken a backseat to the FWL and even to the Combine? They are almost down to numbers matching what the Confederation have been purchasing from you."

McDonogh smiled and took a drink of juice a steward had dropped off in the room an hour ago. "I was surprised to find out from our marketing department. That there were a handful of King Crabs known to be still in operation around the house lords, even before the 3039 war. Now there seems to be a few dozen walking around on top of what we knew about. As soon as we posted an updated product list, at the normal places. We were not flooded with orders for spare parts, but it was heavier than some in my company had anticipated and it has stayed that way. As you noted, we were supplying some of the larger Com Guard formations. But that has dried up except for some small deals, maybe from units that have issues getting something threw the normal ComStar supply chain. That started not long after "The Issue", that we had after your first run of weapons to us. They have been replaced by request from the Combine, and a few coming from all the way from the FedCom. I know, from a private email, that the FedCom military is looking to put back in operation a few captured machines of their own. I have ten bays in operation, and I will have a real production line for them early in the New Year. It will push production up from between twelve and eighteen machines a year, to as many as forty new machines of that design a year. That is almost more than what the whole company was making a few years not too long ago!"

Xi folded her hands on to the top of a mix set of digital and hard copy records. "And how has the aerospace side of things been doing?"

Mike sat taller in his chair as the ball was thrown right back into his court. "Oh, they are doing good, but it's too early to tell in any detail. We have been splitting up our production space into new builds and repairs slots. Right now, we are about at a 50/50 split on using our facilities for repairing dropships or building new airframes. I hope to start moving towards an 80/20 split, at least on Dunianshire. Right now, we have 6 leopards being built, along with 2 new Unions, 1 new Fortress, and 3 new Lions."

Xi did a little "come on" hand jester for the other man to keep talking, after he had stopped talking for a few long seconds. Mike did a little head nod, but he leaned a little more forward in his high back chair to be just a little closer to Xi. It was like he didn't want any outsiders to hear what he was about to say.

"We still are looking at all of the data we were able to recover from the Athena Corporation assets. I can tell you that it was a lot more than anyone thought was still laying around gathering dust and mold. Our own R and D department is banging their heads on their desks back at the main office on Canopus. Granted we were not looking at making anything larger than a few dropships for the last ten decades. In the first months of looking at that data. They found information that help fix the machines that were making the hull and jump cores for Diamond Garter made Merchant ships. We are up to producing 3 new Merchant class jumpships a year. That is alone bringing in almost a billion C-Bills each year into the company, before the cost of building them is taken out."

Xi still was smiling at the man. "I saw that in one of your conclusions about an hour ago. I understand that you have been pumping all of the profits, minus our licensing fee, into increasing production across the board of all of your active designs. If you do not mind. Can you show me the improvements on the ground-based units?"

McDonogh gave a full tooth filled smile. He was very proud on what he had been able to do with the facilities under his control over the last few years. By now he did not notice her odd word usage, or the accent that she sometimes slipped into her speech patterns. "I would love to Margret. I can't show you the tech school that we are supporting for our next generation of workers, but I think I have this afternoon free. Would that work for you and your escorts?"

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24 Dec 3049

Dunianshire,

Main MMM Manufactory site.

Xi was impressed as she looked around the huge facility. The site had seen a lot of improvements from the last report she had seen about this area of MMM. On this trip she had not only brought her six "guards" or escorts for this trip. For this task? She had brought the head of her technical team with her in place of just another meathead to tag along. She had been a little worried, that she was bringing too many people for this display. That is until the head of MMM entered the same room that she was standing in. He had almost a dozen hangers on, following behind him like human pearls on an invisible string.

Mike McDonogh quickly walked over and hooked his arm around Admiral Xi's left arm. He pulled her over to a huge window overlooking the working space, that spread out over a few football fields worth of area. "I took the time you gave me, with that first set of refreshed old Star League PPCs to increase output for my whole division. My facility already makes the Party-Kill Heavy PPC to fit to our Manticore tanks and Leopard class dropships that we are turning out on Duniashire. First, I shut down the line and pumped a lot of money into a much needed refreshing of the production line. I don't remember when that was last done on that line. It could have not been done going all the way back to before the fall of the Star League."

"And before I allowed production to get underway again? I had them set up for a second production line, using the first line as a template mixed with information from my science department to make the new type of PPCs. When the news broke of those ER PPCs first started coming onto the market. It put an almost freeze on new sells for the older style PPCs as replacements. When it loosened back up again? I was ready, and we were able to increase output by about 25 percent, on top of what we needed for our expanded output of those key end items."

The President pointed to one area that was separating the older line by a hip high wall. "I know that we were getting a second run of those ER PPC's and I took your note to heart. I had no idea, if you would be back with a third support run or not. That area over that short wall is where we are making the New Majesty Metals Royal Flush class Extended Range PPC's. They are copies of the first particle cannons we purchased from Captain Copeland. By the end of January? We will be making almost as many of them, as we can currently make on the Party-Kill lines."

Now he pointed to the far wall and waved his hand around a little. "The next building is where we have put into production of what we call the Armstrong Spitfire Ju-22. That is what we call our copy of the KWI ultra class cannon. When the new production line opens for the King Crabs. I will use the building cubicles, as they empty to offer factory refits of any number of different core designs. We will be supplying almost all of the components for those offered factory refits. Between what ComStar had to pay for, or otherwise supplied, or Captain Copeland, and your people supplied. My company has over tripled the output of finished weapons in each of mechs, aerospace fighters, and atmospheric fighters, and even tanks classes compared to our historic norms."

He turned and looked up into the tall woman's eyes. "We have been using those weapons, that we got from you, to cover our current output until the production line has worked out their issues. I still could use any extra ones, that you might still have sitting around in your warehouses." Mike raised an eyebrow as he went fishing.

He raised one eyebrow. He "knew" that in the last meeting he had with her. That she had said that the last shipment, contained all of the ER PPC class weapons that her people were willing to trade. But that had been before and almost a year ago. What had changed back at her well-hidden home in that amount of time? He had no idea, but this at least gave him an opening to find out what was their game. Besides old Star League tech weapons were in very high demand even as it seemed like rumors kept floating out about increases in production coming from each of the great houses.

Xi smiled at her guide. She knew that he was fishing, and she had a good idea on why he was doing so. Before he had entered the room to start his little show and tell. She had been talking to her head tech, about what they had seen out that large picture window overlooking the weapons production line. He had been the one to point her to look at the other line, and what it looked to be making. Having the company President confirmed what had been guessed at, and then opening the floor for her next move? Well that was too perfect of timing for her to let it go.

"Oh! I might have something better than that, to trade this time." She made sure to keep her tone light and not to turn to look at the man she was arm and arm with. She was getting all the information she needed, from the slight reflection he was giving in the large window and the increase tension in his interlocked arms. She had no problem telling that he was very interested in what she had just said.

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McDonogh felt his jaw drop, and there was nothing he could do about that. To save a little face, he ended up falling for the bait that had been offered for him. "Oh? What might that be? You have a warship you are looking to get rid of?"

Xi kept the smile on her face, but she made a note about that last statement Mike had seemingly made off the cuff. It would seem, that Robert had been onto something, after all. It had only been in one line, in one of his many reports. But it had stood out to her, and to a few others after they had read it. Most of those that had noticed the line in that one report. They had not had….positive things to say for the half formed idea.

"Mr. McDonogh, I might have access to the plans of a new type of PPC. One that has the same range, heat output, mass, and bulk as the "normal" Extended Ranged PPC you have seen and that you look to have in low rate production. The key change is in the total damage output of this new weapon design. It is rated about 20 percent higher than what you have now. Would you like to talk some more about this?"

Mike's mind went into hyper drive at what this tall woman had just asked him. Everyone knew that the late Star League had the lightest, most dangerous, hardest hitting, and the longest ranged weapons in the whole history of man. What was just offered? It was something out of a fantasy book or used as a "what if" game after a few to many drinks after work. Then again? This woman had been honest, and whatever had happened on that last run. Her people had some big hammers. He had seen the report about the attack on the last run to recover 200 weapons. These people had used small craft to not only attack, but defeat 3 real warships. That spoke volumes about their tech, and that every one of them must clank when they walked into a room.

"Miss Xi? Please call me Mike. I think we should be on first names, by now. I normally would dismiss a statement like that out of hand, if it had come from anyone else. How do I know that you can deliver on that statement? And how could I reproduce something like that?" He had just punted the football or hot potato.

"Will Mike, then please call me Margret. I think for this to be worked out. We will need your head PPC engineer, my top tech, and us, all need to go down to your Royal Flush PPC production line and get a closer look around it."

Mike looked up into those eyes again, and he did not say anything. He was trying to work all of the angles about if this was true. All of the sudden, he half turned and made eye contact with one of the hangers-on about ten feet behind him. He pointed one long finger and waved to the one wide eye woman, who had a pocket protected company logo shirt on that was both stretched out of shape and had seen to many washes. She walked over on uneasy legs, and with a nod from Xi. Her tech walked over to join the group from her group of escorts.

The four of them left the main group and went down to the factory floor. They were followed, at a discrete distance, by the rest of their armed and unarmed entourage. The pair of experts were given a very detailed and up-close inspection of the Royal Flush PPC production line. It was two and a half hours of pain for the two others, that had no idea what the experts were saying most of the time. The experts had been having so much fun working on a problem together. That they did not notice the passage of time, or the pained looks that the two leaders had on their faces as they kept speaking the foreign language called Tech speak.

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When the "tour" was over, and they were going up a set of metal stairs away from the weapons production line. The pair of engineers had stopped talking in their native tongue as soon as the production line was behind them. When they made a turn to go up another flight of stairs? Xi made eye contact with her expert. She was given a nod and a quick hand sign by her engineer, that was in his off hand and out of sight of most of the group walking with them. Those two items were all that she needed to know, that the next step of the plan was workable and the timeline that was needed to make it happen. It was a lot shorter than had been hoped for in any of the plans, that she had worked out before leaving New Circe. This was very good news for both her and her people.

Mike did not take Margret back to the room overlooking the factory floor. This room was accessing an executive meeting room all the way at the other end of the factory. When he opened the door for her to enter? He was mildly surprised when she had her "expert" enter the room one step behind her. Taking her lead, he had his own expert come into the room with them. When the door shut, he flipped a device upside down that had been sitting on the center tabletop. He saw the look coming from not just the visitors, but his top PPC engineer also.

"Noise and sonic jammer. I think we want to keep this part of the meeting very quiet." Mike took a seat at the head of the long dark wood table, like he had done a few hundred times before. He did not bother to point for everyone to take a particular seat. They just did, even the socially inept engineers knew about what was required next.

Xi knew the ball was in her court. "That might be a good idea." She reached into a side pocket of her coat and pulled out a data pad. She made a show of putting her four fingers of one hand, and two fingers from the other onto the black screen. As they all watched her actions, the screen went active under her six long fingers. The only thing you could see from any angle, but straight on, was a screen full of "something". They were soon seated around the table alot closer together, than the spread-out configuration they had adopted when they first took their seats.

Xi sat straighter in her chair and put on her work face. If she could deal with Francis Callahan? Then Mark should be a piece of cake. She passed the data pad over to the head of MMM. "These are the plans of what we call the Bear Slayer class PPC." That was not the "real" name for this old weapon systems, and she never would say that name outside of the hidden planet she called home. This was the "product name" that had won in a voting contest across high command.

Mike knew something about the Star League long range PPC. He had been deeply involved in setting up the Royal Flush production line, that was a direct copy of what was known as the H class ER PPC. He lasted about ten pages into the data on the screen, before he knew that he was in over his head. He passed over the pad to his expert in making these types of weapons. He could see the pages flying by and the approving noises coming from her, as her fingers worked, and the images changed. Then the screen went dark without warning. She let out a shocked grunt, at the suddenly changed screen that had been so fascinating just a second before.

Xi meets those two sets of eyes with a knowing smile. "That is only to give you a taste, and to prove I am not playing any games with you or MMM for that matter." She looked over to Mike's expert. "So, what do you think? Is it valid or am I full of something that you need to scrape off the bottom of your shoes?"

Mica was wide eyed, and she was having a hard time not hyperventilating. She looked first at the strange woman, and then back to her bosses, bosses, bosses, boss. "It looks workable, but I don't know how long it would take to get the line in operation to make them. It could take us years to get this into production and maybe not even then."

Xi looked over to her left. "Doctor?" After she said that one word, she almost physically cringed. Someone with his skills would have caused an invasion of whole worlds, just to acquire someone with his level of skills in anything like weapons.

Doctor Terje Milorg kept his face as still as he could, that means not very still. Quickly he found that he was still not good enough to keep his body under control much less his face. He bought some time by not looking at the people on the other side of the table from him. "Three weeks. All of the equipment is almost new, even if it is not the best, or what I would have preferred to have to use. But with the team we have, and some help from the local line maintenance staff? We can have them making Bear Slayers, in three weeks from the time we start on the project. If it takes 4 full weeks? I would be surprised, but stuff can happen."

Xi nodded her head toward the doctor. Then she looked over to the other man, and she could not help but give a snarky smile at the wild faced local. "Three weeks to get them into full production, of the most advanced and deadliest PPC known. Now, what is MMM willing to pay for something like that?"

She knew that she had just dropped a bomb on them. There was more to getting a new weapon system into deployment, than just making them. You still had to come up with all of the software patches, just so that a unit could hit a target with those new weapons you had just spent millions of C-bills developing. There had been dozens of stories about whole major weapon systems like mechs, tanks, and aerospace fighters, which held fire control systems that could not handle a given weapon for a number of different reasons. Then again, while they were doing that testing to make the fire control systems work properly. MMM could be stockpiling the new weapons, which might be a game changer for the whole inner sphere at a rate of a dozen or more a month at low rate production levels.

It was easy to come up with a value that Xi could accept for this opportunity for MMM. This was going to be a flat payment deal and not one, like the King Crab deal, that was reliant on production numbers being trusted by both parties. It was not going to be cheap, and it was going to take some time to get the massive payments put together. This one was going to take approval from the main office. Even Mike did not have the pay grade to cover this type of investment. It was just over the cost of 3 Merchant class jumpships. Mike was betting that they would have to release more stock, or they would have to ask the MC government for a capital loan to cover the cost. Both of those options held their own risks.

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Xi was happy when she made it back to the Monarch class dropship called the White Skies. When she went to the office that was set up for her use, she was greeted with a note waiting on her. The test of the Type 5 Tac Fax had been done by sending a message to Cate's Hold, and it had been successful. The three other test points were going to take longer to reach and even longer for a reply to be sent back to her. The next test points were spread out at 500ly, 800ly and 1000ly from Dunianshire heading towards New Circe.

The SLDF made sure to use any mission to accomplish as many tasks as they possibly could, if not a few more. Two birds and one stone was a notion that was almost ingrained to the core of the SLDF. Xi understood the need for the tests, and even agreed with them. If this version of the Tac Fax worked as well, as had been hoped? It would be a game changer technology for the SLDF, that would break the 50ly limit of a single class A HPG.

Over the next three weeks teams were escorted under heavy guards to the MMM facility, to work on what had been called the Royal flush ER PPC production line. It had turned out, that the offer of three weeks to finish the task had been a little optimistic. It had taken three weeks and four days to start low rate production of the Bear Slayer class weapon on the converted line.

The first one had come off the line before the end of the third week, but it had failed the QC test that had been run on the weapon. The fourth weapon had passed all of the required tests, and so had the fifth weapon. The licensing agreement deal was done with those two weapons passing the minimal tests. MMM agreed to not sell the plans for the new weapons, without written approval by Xi, but they could sell the weapons to whoever had the deep pockets to pay for them. Mike had been gobbed smacked, when Xi told the man that she would take stock options for 60 percent of the cost of her part of the deal. Right at that statement, he knew what Xi was working to. She wanted to own most of the company that belongs to his family.

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28 Jan 3050

Dunianshire

Admiral Xi was looking at the reports on her display and drummed her fingers on the desktop while she read threw them. They were about what was being loaded on the modified dropship, and it mostly was a list of items that would only go to the SLDF Military. She even had rented two Mule class ships for a quick run to Cate's Hold. This was not a supply run. It was a military operation, and they would get the products of anything that was pulled in from the operation. Even a company the size of MMM did not have that much capital ready to use. The MC government had come through with a nice sized loan, without interest all for just the hint about the new weapon. When the rented dropships were filled sometime this afternoon, they would be sent to Cate's Hold without the White Skies. Access to the MMM dropships were part of the fee for the new weapons and the help required in modifying the production line.

She had already seen the pre released news story about the new ER PPCs, that were about to hit the market supplied by MMM. MMM was offering the Party-Kill, Royal Flush, and the soon to be released Bear Slayer class of particle projection cannons on the market. They were going to be putting on the market a PPC for any budget, at least that was what the press release said.

It also just so happened, that one key thing that was agreed on. It was that one group would not be able to get one of these new weapons. They were units or anyone connected to ComStar or associated entities to that group. This was by order of the senior leadership of all of MMM. It would seem, that this company did carry a grudge. When Xi had made the comment about carrying a grudge. Mike had smiled and said that MMM did no such thing. That was why they had taxidermist. That way you could just put them in the corner instead of having to carry them.

As it would happen, MMM's Dunianshire office would still make the Party-Kill brand of PPCs until the third quarter of 3050. That was before the Home office demanded that they stop wasting the time, raw material, and man hours making them. It would take longer than three weeks to get the second line into making the superior weapon without Xi's people to help. The Canopus office of MMM would make any of the older Party-Kill PPCs, if they were needed for something. Very quickly MMM needed every Bear Slayer they could get out of the door.

This "request" had come from the head of the MC herself, Emma Centrella. And it had not been in pretty words, when she had summoned the head of the whole MMM to her office. She had demanded to find out why, they were not making more of these new Bear Slayer class of improved ER PPCs. MMM's Canopus facility would make any spare parts or new built older age of war tech weapons, that might be needed until a Bear Slayer line could be built on Canopus. And Emma Centrella wanted one constructed on her capital planet as soon as possible.

There were plenty of those older weapons coming up for sale on the second and third hand markets, all as newer weapons replaced them on front line combat units across the Inner Sphere. For a short time, there was a spike in price for any weapon that could be made was bought off the spare parts market as fast as it was listed. Soon a Bear Slayer PPC armed Shadow Hawk would be a top seller for all of MMM, but the same armed Clint was closing the gap. They were the hot sellers, and they were out pacing the up armed Marauders and Manticores. If MMM had wanted to book orders for machines not built yet? They could have sold out a 4 or 5 decades worth of production in that first year.

Xi was thinking about all of those possible changes, that were soon to come to this area. Any pirate in this section of space was going to find within the next year a new place to work, or they would be put 6 feet under. She was brought back to the world when a knock was given to her office hatch. The enlisted man entered and passed her a Tac Fax from Cate's Hold, and he waited for a reply. She had to read the six pages a few times, before it hit her "what" they had said. The young man was waiting for orders from his Admiral, and he was just as pale as the admiral was. He had been the one to receive the faster than light message, and he had read it.

Xi looked up, and she had to fight to keep her tone level and clear. It was times like this, that you didn't want to over stress your crew when things had gone sideways like this. She was going to have to jump all the way to Plan Z. "Please send a message to Mr. McDonogh. I would like to set up a meeting on our ship as soon as he has time. Let him know it is about a business opportunity, which might be beneficial to him and his company."

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