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New Dawn in the Sun's - Chapter 10[]
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Negotiating from a tough position[]
Hayward Arena
Solaris VII, Lyran Commonwealth
May 11th, 3016
The clash of 'mechs that they were here to observe was audible even in the sound proofed suite that they were watching the match from. Harry hadn't wanted to do business here, but Brandon O'Leary had insisted. To some watching the debut of a new heavy Battlemech would have been an honor, but to Harry it felt like O'Leary was rubbing his success in the Brockton delegations face. He had to know they were just as invested as he had been in rebuilding their family 'mech works, there was no need for him to be this blatant about pointing out he had succeeded while they were still trying.
"An impressive 'mech." Harry managed to keep his jealousy out of his voice. "It is in production? Not just a prototype?"
"The first lance is already off the production lines." Brandon stated proudly. "We would have debuted two years ago but the Archon had first call on our production. It was one of the deals we struck in order to obtain our tooling."
"Still I would have thought you would put your Merlin into the mercenary market, not entered it into the class four limited matches." Brenda observed, she was less effected by this display then Harry was and her political experience let her hold on to her temper better. "It seems a bit wasteful."
"Advertising." Brandon said sourly. "Much as I think of my work no ones going to accept it as is without proof its as good as I say it is. Putting the Merlin into the games was the fastest way for us to obtain the recognition that we deserve. No matter how well we do in the circuit, especially given we're competing in the limited category, everyone's going to hear about the Merlin and see its better qualities for themselves."
"Have you thought about licensing? Our Basantapur…" Harry began only to be cut off.
"No. Trading some data to Trevlu is possible, especially in regards to a field which Mountain Wolf is looking forward to abandoning in the future, but beyond that I'm not able to help you." Brandon shook his head.
"Not unwilling, unable." Brenda's voice was contemplative.
"You made a lot of enemies back in three thousand when you disrupted the Centurion deal. Lockheed-CBM has a lot of weight, and I'm not willing to go up against them." Brandon stated pleasantly, not showing his true feelings. He was well aware that there could be advantages Mountain Wolf would reap if they partnered with Trevlu, but the political realities constrained him.
"Lockheed still got the data they were after though…" Harry's brow furled in confusion.
"But not everything. They were looking forward to getting an intact line for a minimal investment. Your counter offer meant they needed to buy everything, rather then just moving tooling from the suns. Even with the additional cash that Jalastar ponied up for the missing tooling Lockheed's bottom line had a hole in it that you could drive a DropShip through. The board hasn't forgotten or forgiven that, and they're more then willing to go out of their way to inconvenience you. Mountain Wolf might be the apple of the Archon's eye now, but we aren't a heavyweight like Lockheed is, and slights are remembered for a long time in this business." Brandon was firm on this point.
"But there will be no problems with the MacEnroe Motors data?"
"Both our lawyers have gone over that deal, and it has the Archon's stamp of approval." Brandon grinned as he said that. The Brocktons were going to be reducing his debt to the Archon, for what was in his view data that would be useless in a few years. Given he had succeeded in bring Mountain Wolf back out of the Militia market he thought that other companies would be following him, reducing the need or desire for militia grade gear. "It's a done deal, and I don't have any problems with it."
"But no interest expanding on it." Brenda said in understanding.
"It's not that, I'm uninterested in what you have to offer but…" Brandon sighed and leaned back a bit in his chair. "You've already drawn the ire of Lockheed, what possessed you to also annoy Coventry? Right now, you're radioactive in the Commonwealth business community. If our deal wasn't practically done, and approved, I would have had you out the door as soon as you showed me your newest offerings. Coventry is just deploying their MML Commandos, and you show up with your own version?"
"Our system has been cleared by Commonwealth lawyers," Harry stated defensively. "We checked."
"It still looks like it's derived from industrial espionage." Harry opened his mouth to object but Brandon overrode him, continuing in a voice of iron. "Yes, the idea has been around for a long time, usually as something merc techs threw together for a FrankenMech, but no one before Coventry made that concept into a production weapon. What you have is different enough to patent as a separate system, but having it ready to go as soon as Coventry debuted their version is the problem. You annoyed Coventry, like I said, and, this is the more important bit from my perspective, you showed the entire sphere your investment in industrial espionage. There's no way you could have moved as fast as you did without some damn good spies. You might play fair with me, but I can't trust that. So in order to protect my own secrets its best if we leave things as they are and go our separate ways."
Brenda gave Harry a look, telling him not to keep pushing. Her instincts were telling her that they would only be running into a brick wall if they tried to keep pushing. Brandon O'Leary wasn't their only option, and it was better to leave things as they were rather than offending him. Given what he had said their best chance would be the Brewers, because if there was one corporation in Commonwealth space that had the political capital to go up against Coventry and Lockheed-CBM it was Defiance. Better to save what they could and use it where they had a chance of success.
"I see you have a substantial investment in dealing with infantry." Brenda said leading the conversation. "Is there a reason for that?"
"Requirements from Mount Asgard." Brandon's mouth was tight as he said that.
"Draconis Combine is on the border." Harry acknowledged, following his mother's lead in talking about the Merlin. "Unfortunately, you need the infantry defense, without it things can get a bit tight. Good decision on the Jump Jets, there were more then a few times when I was on the Drac border I wished I was riding one of the Capellan SE mods for my Thunderbolt."
"You usually ride a heavy?" Brandon turned to the younger man in surprise. "You brought…"
"A demonstration unit, my usual ride is more traditional," Harry's face displaying his distaste for his current ride as he said that, there hadn't been a reason to pull his real mech off the dropship so far this trip. He had spent most of his time at parties or business meetings, the only 'mech time he had gotten was when he needed to demonstrate that the Rotary Autocannon worked. "As much as we work with Thunderbolts in the refit yard, our engineers know our own products better."
"Not to your taste?"
"While we license them, the Icarus is a Corean product. Give me a Swordsman or a Whitworth and I'd be happier, I was low man on the totem pole in the demonstration unit we put together so I made do with what I'm assigned." Harry's light voice didn't betray the extreme reaction he had when he had found out about his assignment. The truth was more complicated, of course, but it wouldn't do to tell a rival about the issues Trevlu had with their larger Rotary Autocannon. Having one blow the arm off an Icarus due to an ammunition feed fault had been disastrous.
"I was under the impression that everything you produced was licensed, and yet you seem to have distinct preferences…" Brandon's inquiry was relatively light, but the question behind it was obvious for everyone to see.
"Whitworths are a complete reworking, everything but the torso of the Battlemech was changed out." Harry answered promptly. "We couldn't get the armor to bend the way the Hegemony could without compromising its structural integrity. Without those curved bits fitting the third laser in became a hazard during ejection, at least in our tests, so we deleted it for more ammo. Everyone knew about the leg issues, so we stole from our Swordsman designs for the legs, then stole the arms as well as it gave back hands which was another constant complaint. The end result is a 'Mech that we did most of the engineering on… of course this was back during the Second Succession War."
Harry knew that he was lying through his teeth, but accepted that as the price of doing business. Having defective tooling as an excuse was much more respectable than what had actually happened. The designs for the torso of the Whitworth had been passed on to the family through the good offices of Stefan Amaris, though his agents had declined to give the Brocktons the rest of the 'mech. It was a confusing decision, but Harry wasn't a psychotic mass murderer intent on killing his way to the throne so it didn't bother him that much that he didn't understand. Perhaps it had been the revival of the Talos which had interrupted the rest of the deal? Either way letting on a close connection to Amaris here would have been a mistake, especially after what had happened to Apollo militia when they tried to revive the Phoenix as a Militia Mechs. LOKI wasn't subtle and their message had been delivered loud and clear.
"Swordsmans the same I would imagine…"
"That was more reworking the internals to accept an engine and gyro package from the Outworlds," Harry had to wince as he said that. "They were supposed to be making the same thing but when we got our hands on the first shipment…"
"Proprietary design work?"
"Something like that," Harry shook his head. "I'm not an engineer, so I can't say if it was on our end or if it was on theirs… but considering their parts mate pretty easily with everything else in the Sphere? Or at least I've never heard of an Alliance built engine having trouble fitting into a non-alliance 'Mech. Corean was probably fucking with us even back…" Harry waved his hands indicating the distant past.