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Chapter 275 - What Could Go Wrong[]
Alpheratz (Outworld Alliance)
18th October, 3047
It had taken over a week to arrange a meeting with Brandon O'Leary, CEO of Mountain Wolf Battlemechs, and that had only happened because Chief Warrant Officer Harry Caldwell had threatened to quit purchasing any more Merlin Heavy Battlemechs after having bought a full Battalion worth and looking to buy more. Losing that amount of money could cost lower level managers their jobs and no one wanted to lose their job. He had still been forced to wait over an hour before being shown into the fairly large office.
"Please, have a seat, Mr Caldwell." Brandon O'Leary said with a broad smile.
"Thank you. It has been quite difficult to get to speak with you." Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell replied as he sat down in the plush chair.
"Sorry about that. Most purchases and such are handled at a lower level than myself. The fact that we could find no record of you purchasing those Merlins raised some doubts. Which I still have myself." O'Leary said
"Purchased thru some middle men. We try to keep a low profile, and the purchases were in small quantities." Caldwell told him.
O'Leary frowned slightly as he said "That sounds nefarious. I do not sell to those that break the law, Sir."
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Merlin Heavy 'Mech
"I assure you, we are legit. Search and Recovery Inc, under contract with the Federated Commonwealth. The main reason I am here is that I have in my possession a full company of Night Hawk Battlemechs that your company used to manufacture. I would love to work out a fair trade for them. Maybe you can put them back into production." Caldwell replied
"It was a good Battlemech. I piloted one quite a lot during demonstrations. I still have the last two known to exist." O'Leary told Cadwell
"You actually have two and you're not trying to put them into production?" Caldwell asked
"Everyone is wanting the newest tech and weapons. It takes money, a lot of money to even add an additional production line. The NTK-2P is a good Battlemech, but I doubt it would sell real good right now." O'Leary said
"You said 2P? The ones I have are NTK-2Q models. Fully decked out with Star League tech.", Caldwell replied
"None of those exist. They have not been built since 2853 when the 2P started being built.", O'Leary stated
"Well, I have twelve of them, fully operational. Plus another dozen GM 210 XL engines, and enough spare weapons and double heat sinks that you could easily build another twelve with them.", Caldwell replied
"I have never even seen an operational NTK-2Q. What exactly do you want for everything?" Brandon O'Leary asked
"I was hoping to get another 40 Merlin Battlemechs." Chief Warrant replied
"No way. Not even close. I want them, but I am not about to give away the farm to get them." O'Leary said
"Let me sweeten the pot then. What I have with me plus ten tons of gold ingots. Surely you always have need of gold ingots." Caldwell carefully replied
"I told you, I do not do business with those that break the law. No one just has ten tons of gold ingots just sitting around. Not legally anyway." Brandon O'Leary said firmly
"We do have that much. Not with me of course. Legally mined and refined into ingots. Now, would that be agreeable to you?" Caldwell asked
Before Brandon O'Leary could answer, a knock on his door caused them both to turn towards the door as it opened. "Penelope, I said to not disturb us." But it was not Penelope at the door, two large men entered the office and looked around before stepping aside to allow a third man into the room. This man caused Brandon O'Leary to leap to his feet, startling Chief Warrant Officer Caldwell.
"I am sorry for the sudden interruption, but I was just informed that Mr. Caldwell was actually on Alpheratz and I wanted to meet him myself." Neil Avellar, President of the Outworlds Alliance said as he held out his hand.
Chief Warrant Officer Harry Caldwell slowly stood and took the offered hand. "Mr. President."
"Please, both of you sit back down. I am curious as to what Mr Caldwell has brought to you anyway. Relax, Mr. Caldwell, your General Mitchell will be here in January along with a representative from the Federated Commonwealth. Well, actually on Valasha. Since you came to see Mr O'Leary directly, I am going to assume it is a Battlemech or parts to a Battlemech. Mr O'Leary, this man or should I include his unit, recently delivered to us a lost cache of equipment for a fair price. How they found it I would love to know, but the bigger question is how many more such sites might be inside our borders and could they also be located?" President Neil Avellar said
- Epilogue
- President Mitchell and SaRI would fuse the one world nation into Thazi Confederacy, taking in number of habitable worlds near Thazi. Mitchell's small nation would grow with rescued slaves and struggling periphery neighboring worlds. While transitioning into the Thazi Confederacy, the nation would be compelled by it's dramatized citizens limit contact it's Federated Suns & other Inner Sphere powers. With rise of the Sons of Plunger pirate state lurking just outside of Thazi Confederacy's borders of the quasi-democratic state. While not calling for dismantling of it's SaRI's military, nation's resource would be decaded to maintain nation's secretive existence due to not having strength of the Sons of Plunder's Warship fleet. However, their specialized forces would wage shadow war against the pirate nation misleading them thinking no worlds near Thazi was worth their efforts to invade. It would not until rise of young Captain Roberts her privateer group in 32nd Century sparking war against the hated Sons of Plunder would the Thazi Confederacy come out shadows openly.
The End
- Note from Author
- I never heard of the NTK-2P nor found stats for it, it is a strictly fluff canon variant. The following non-canon basic stats based on the NTK-2Q, Downgraded NTK-2P version : 12 Single Heat Sinks (4 heat sinks split between both side torsos, 2 per side torso)
Standard Fusion Engine
Large Laser (CT)
2x Medium Laser (One each per Arm)
Extra half ton of Standard Armor (Over existing armor)
Retains its 6/9 Move speeds.
- Note from Wiki Editor
- So...this is where it ends. The author's real life commitments prevented the story being fully fleshed out rest of the story. However, this story is linked to other author's work which has tie in in the distant future from where this story ends. Thus the Epilogue was devised with permission of the author to conclude the story in this fashion.