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New Dawn in the Sun's - Chapter 16[]
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Rebuilding Self Confidence[]
Zenith Jump point
Daneshmand, Free Worlds League
December 12th, 3016
"Even with the staff you brought along this isn't going to be an easy sell." Harry stated flatly. The failure of their Commonwealth adventure was firmly fixed in his mind, he had thought that they had an easy path to achieving their goals but that hadn't proved to be the case.
"Dame Catherine is invested in aerospace, as a former fighter jock she knows it like the back of her hand, and being a canny politician. She plays to her strengths." Brenda gently chided her son. "Losing Andurien Industries completely is not something she is willing to continence. They needed to sell their production equipment for the Intruder to Andurien Aerotech to repair what they could after the league retook Andurien. Losing the Excalibur as well? That's going to finish off the company, which is an economic hit she cannot afford to take. Her Mosiro Mechworks might have kept the archipelago in the Duchy, but it's been bleeding money at an unsustainable rate."
"I don't doubt she'll be interested in what we're selling… what I doubt is that she's going to be willing to deal." Harry countered. "We do have a lot to offer her, but the price isn't going to be something she is willing to pay. Especially not given her political position. She's on the outs with Atreus, going to a foreign supplier for anything is going to be politically difficult."
"I'd say it's a gamble, she did invest the time and funds into rebuilding Irian…" Brenda pointed out. She was well aware that it was a weak point in her argument, if the Brocktons got what they wanted the political capital the Dame had earned would be burnt.
"Possibly, I'm just not getting my hopes up." Harry's down tone was enough to convince Brenda that this wasn't just about the industrial deals they had been striking. His attempts at courting while they had been in the commonwealth hadn't gone well, to put it mildly. The only families who had expressed interest in him were those looking to loot Trevlu, and they hadn't hidden that. It had been a congo line of humiliation for him, and after his experience on New Avalon, she was worried that his self-confidence had been badly damaged.
"Chin up, from your father's last letter things are looking up at home. Between Roger and Prakash's efforts our social isolation is looking like it's going to be a thing of the past by the time your kids are ready to start dating."
"If I manage to have kids that is." Harry grumped out. "You really think things are going to be any better on Andurien than they were on Tharkad?"
"Can't be worse," Brenda acknowledged. "So, what's your guess on what the Dame is going to do with what we're offering?"
"She's going to pull a hostile takeover, Andurien Industries isn't a company her family owns, but if she can pull them into being a subsidiary of Andurien Aerotech?"
"Probably. She does seem to be determined to concentrate as much industry into her family's hands as possible. So, the question we need to ask is what is she going to be willing to pay us with?"
"My guess? Data. Her people working on Irian seem to have done more repairs than replacements if the news feeds we've gotten are anything to go by. She might be willing to let us license the Stingray, but given how protective of that design the Humphreys have been?"
"Point." Brenda pursed her lips as she considered that. The Stingray should have been licensed out to more than one manufacturing location given its prevalence in the FWLM, but at the moment it was confined to one production site. Andurien Aerotech's factories were surprisingly productive, especially for a Liao-built facility, which made Brenda suspicious. Liao production of any type was infamous for its shoddy workmanship, and that Andurien Aerotech produced enough Stingrays for the entire FWLM made her think that there was something else going on there. That was part of the reason she had been open to taking this side trip before heading home. While buying machine tools had been a bust, they had achieved the bare minimum of their objectives in the Commonwealth. That didn't help Harry though, he would need some political capital of his own when he took over as duke, and the trip hadn't given him that. There were no additional orders for Brockton made goods, and the majority of their profits were being spent buying engine kits from Defiance Gibbs, necessary but not a visible benefit to the people of Brockton. The family had kept their population, and the planetary government happy, by bringing home business. Without a major win to his name, Harry would be forced into being an agricultural salesman, a position that she knew he would hate. Harry was his father's son in that his interests lay outside of the life sciences, and he found agriculture to be boring.
"We might be able to convince her to throw in a copy of the Capellan archives from when they held Andurien." Harry worried his bottom lip as he said that. "It's not the sexiest information around but it's something that the college could use. Moving away from being known solely for the life sciences would reduce the stigma its graduates operate under. I think we could get support from New Avalon to put together a damn good Capellan culture and history department."
"That…" Brenda thought about the idea for a moment before continuing. She was well aware of the tension between New Avalon and New Syrtis, as was Harry evidently, and what he had just proposed would take advantage of that tension. It was good to see that her lessons on politics hadn't gone completely to waste. "Is a good idea. Do you have an idea of the valuation we should assign to the data?"
"It's going to be Star League vintage information, my guess would be that it's going to be heavily concentrated on cultural and security issues." Harry speculated aloud. "That said Andurien was a Commonality capital during the Star League, and we haven't managed to capture one of those. The archives will be a treasure trove for historians, and MIIO, so it's going to be expensive."
"That I knew, the question is just how expensive it's going to be for us to get our hands on it."
"Data like that… I'd say about half the cost of what we're going to be offering Dame Catherine, if not more. Information is power, and control over information has made the high nobility into what it is today. We're going to be asking for a copy of what the Humphreys consider their birthright, especially after they lost so much when Kanata was nuked. I know that for a copy of the alliance-era cores we've kept, I'd be pushing for a price in the trillions of pounds range, at the very least."
"Partial credit, I would argue," Brenda grinned as she pounced on the teachable moment. "You're underestimating the cultural factors in play. Yes, information is a nobles birthright, but the information we'd be after if we put a deal like the one you're proposing on the table would be tainted in the Humphrey's eyes. Keep in mind that they hate the confederation with a passion verging on fanaticism, that's going to devalue the archives."
"They can hate the Cappies all they like, they'll still fight tooth and nail to keep control over every scrap of information they gleaned from them. It's a trophy if nothing else."
"Trophies would be original copies of the documents that are in the archives, physical things they can bring out to show off," Brenda argued back, pleased that Harry wasn't just accepting her word. "If they valued the data for itself they would be using it."
"You think they aren't?" Harry asked, slightly surprised. "After the Humphreys School of Warfare was nuked the Humphreys training academy was set up awfully quickly, and you know which enemy they're focused on."
"You're thinking that they're using their data like the Brewers are?" Brenda asked, mildly impressed by the speculation.
"At least a part of it, Humphreys has too good of a reputation for producing officers who understand the Capellan mindset and who are well versed in impromptu combined arms. You would never get them to admit it, but both of those specialties imply to me at least that they've used their extensive access to Capellan documents to build their curriculum."
"The League is known for their focus on combined arms…"
"The FWLM favor using their lighter conventional elements as scouts and skirmishers, think an epee, the Anduriens tend to have heavier elements in the mix and are closer to our hammer and anvil tactics, something we picked up from the Capellans and refined." Harry shook his head in disagreement. "The RCT formations we use are better than anything the Capellans field, but the same idea is present in both our RCT tactics and the CCAF's use of their militia formations. Hold ground with tanks and infantry, and use your mechs as the maneuver element and breakthrough unit. The difference is our tankers and infantry are professional, and we can use them offensively if the situation requires it, whereas the CCAF emphasizes the defensive aspects of such tactics and does it on an ad hock basis."
"So how do we use our speculation to our advantage during the negotiations?" Brenda was glad to see Harry coming out of his shell. She was of the opinion that had he acted like this when they were in the Commonwealth he would have gotten better offers. Putting her on point for the negotiations had robbed him of some of his self-confidence. Part of that was her fault, she had after all given him a spectacular tongue-lashing about his lack of preparations, but mostly she blamed his father. It wasn't intentional, but his decision hadn't been the best from the perspective of getting Harry ready to inherit. Letting him fail and learn on his own would have been wiser. The display of confidence in him would have helped him recover from his mistakes on New Avalon.