personal3 Chapter 45 - Chapter 9 (2024)

Once I had a chance to sit everyone down, they all showed up fast. Everyone knew exactly what sort of ramifications would come from this sort of find and even if they had other things to do, they showed up fast. Captains Haesteinsson, MacTavish, and Cicerelli were seated together in the makeshift conference room, with Doctors Sokabe and MacAllister next to them. Wen Ho Lei, head of the porters sat next to them with Erik Mastersson of the Supply Staff sandwiched between him and Lieutenant Adamski sitting to my immediate right. All of us had serious expressions and I knew there that even Wen Ho Lei, who had the stereotypical belligerence of someone used to manual labor for a living realized that now wasn't the time for arguments and that we needed to get a strategy in place for preventing the spread of information.

Thankfully, I had just the thing. Barton Matthews had faxed over brand spanking new NDAs for everyone as soon as he was able to draft them up, and I had plenty of C-Bills to throw at the problem, even if the Baronial Treasurer on New Ålborg, Pauliina Kokkonen, had asked a number of pointed questions about why I wanted so many C-Bills from the treasury. When I told her my cover story, that I'd come across a cache of RWR Equipment and had commandeered the cache for the Baronial Guards, she'd been sympathetic, but still wanted to meet with me on New Ålborg along with the rest of the Barony's Administration just as soon as my business was concluded.

That was what we started the meeting with, of course. The NDAs were handed out to each of the people present by one of Lieutenant Adamski's men, he and the entire Security Contingent having already signed their NDAs and received their bonuses. The official documents were placed in front of everyone as they looked them over. More to pass the time with an explanation than anything else, Wen Ho Lei spoke up first.

"What's all this?" He questioned.

"Non-Disclosure Agreements. By the time we leave, everyone is to have signed one, from you all down to your newest personnel. Your bonuses and benefits are contingent on signing." I stated.

"Bonuses?" Questioned Doctor MacAllister.

"Everyone here that signs will not only receive a bonus of between one and four million C-Bills but will also have any debts paid off, Courtesy of the Treasury of New Ålborg." I nodded.

"When you say between one and four million C-Bills, how do you decide who gets what?" Questioned Erik Mastersson.

"It's based on rank. In case you're wondering, only Captains Haesteinnsson, MacTavish, and Cicerelli are getting four million here. You all are getting three million, same as Lieutenant Adamski here. Everyone else who has a position above the entry-level will be getting two million, while entry-level positions will be getting one million." I replied.

"And you want everyone here to sign? Under threat of legal action?" Questioned Doctor Sokabe.

"Not just here. This is going to go out Company-Wide soon enough." I answered.

"That's a lotta scratch." Pointed out Captain Cicerelli.

"It's got to be at least four-hundred-million C-Bills." Agreed Captain Haesteinnsson.

"It isn't like he can't afford it. Just selling off the Tramp-class Jumpship we found here would be enough to more than cover the cost." Shrugged Captain MacTavish.

"It's actually a lot closer to half a billion C-Bills, and Linda is correct. I will be selling off one of the two Tramp-Class Jumpships we found to make back the money. Of the excess C-Bills, roughly half are going back to Past Prologue while the rest go back to my treasury on New Ålborg. That isn't important, though. What is important is that everyone signs the NDAs." I nodded.

"Why is Lieutenant Adamski not signing one?" Demanded Wen Ho Lei.

"All of the security personnel on-site have already signed theirs and received their bonuses." I answered.

"When?" Questioned Captain MacTavish.

"As of two hours ago." Informed Lieutenant Adamski.

With that confirmation, nobody seemed to have an issue with signing the NDAs and once I'd had time to look over the paperwork, they'd all get their bonuses as well. From there, we moved on to the new security precautions and vetting procedures I was putting into place. Surprisingly, Erik Mastersson had several things to contribute here. He'd apparently done a stint in the LIC before transferring to the Supply Corps to finish out his career with the LCAF and knew a thing or two about counterintelligence as a result. With his and Lieutenant Adamski's experience as a commando, we had our protocols refined further to the point where, once implemented, our security measures should deter most attempts at infiltration.

Of course, privately I knew that if an organization like ROM really wanted, they could get agents in here, which was why it was paramount that Iron Land remained off the maps until I was sufficiently entrenched enough that getting rid of me would threaten to flip over the board in this section of space, making my removal too costly in terms of ancillary effects to casually attempt. Doing so would take, years, however. In the meantime, my Baronial Forces will have to make do with RWR Equipment while I carefully build up my power base out here. Having found one of Amaris' Caches would be less provocative than the truth, after all. Of course, I planned on Equipping the Jomsborg Hussars with some of the SLDF Stuff, but the whole point of not folding them into the Baronial Forces was that they could act at a remove from me strategically.

This reminded me, that I would have to get in contact with Major McCormack and her staff, likely I'd do that while getting myself situated on New Ålborg. There was just too much to do to set up for what I had going on. First things first, though, was to ensure everyone signed their NDAs and start moving the Regimental Combat Team's worth of RWR Equipment from the Cache to Iron Land and from Iron Land to the Baronial Guards. That step was actually fairly simple, as the Baronial Guards detachment on Iron Land, a Combined Arms Regiment under Colonel Teodor Majewski, himself a descendant of Predlitz Refugees, was actually pretty eager to help me out. It might have just been his eagerness to get new equipment, though, seeing as what he'd previously had to work with was pretty markedly inferior.

Regardless, over the next few weeks, we ferried equipment from the Cache to Smeltertown on Iron Land, while I arranged for the sale of one of the Tramp-class Jumpships to the Duke of Apollo. Katrina's Father, Duke Michael Watson, was a busy man. While my father might be able to get a meeting with him on short notice, I wasn't so lucky, a state of affairs not helped by the fact that I had to wait for theClaremontto return from Columbus in order to actually do the meeting, as such things were normally done in person. Thankfully, my father wasn't the only one with K-Class Transmitters, as the Lyrans had been manufacturing them in secret for decades thanks to my father sharing a recovered example with Katrina's father. I could arrange the sale of the Tramp-class Jumpship, but still needed to meet with the Duke's factor to do so.

By the time I was able to do that, we were almost a month post-cache discovery. With a month to get to Apollo and seventeen days to return from there to New Ålborg, it would be over two-and-a-half months between me opening the Redoubt cache and actually arriving on New Ålborg to take up my position as Baron. Of course, I wasn't idle during that time, ensuring the Rim Worlds Republic Equipment got to my Baronial Guards thanks to the Baronial Guards taking one of the Two Star Lord-Class Jumpships out for a spin, distributing equipment to each of the three regiments in the Baronial Guards. I also made sure everyone in Past Prologue Ltd had signed their NDAs and ensured their bonuses were received and debts paid off, in addition to putting my security measures in place.

When theClaremontreturned, it did so with multiple Dropships stuffed full of equipment, after scraping out the rest of the Columbus Base of useful items. This included the drydock equipment, which could be used to upgrade the single, WarShip-Grade, repair bay in the Redoubt Port into a facility capable of constructing Dropships and smaller Jumpships or WarShips of under three-hundred-thousand tons. The upgrading process would take a while, though. The estimate was that it would take a year to complete upgrading if I didn't care about secrecy and twice as long if I insisted on keeping to my security and secrecy measures, which I definitely wanted to do.

At the same time, my factories on New Ålborg had, in the two months since I'd arrived on Iron Land from Blackjack, had begun reconfiguring to produce new ammunition types and were beginning to produce them and the reverse-engineered CASE Designs cooked up by Doctors Acker and Robbins. The Ammo was good enough to produce designs without any modifications, but the CASE stuff had notable workarounds built in, such as blowout panels and sloped armoring. The Ultra Autocannon we'd managed to knock together a design for by reverse-engineering the one on the Protomech had an unfortunate design flaw from the lack of complete technical information, however. The cooling jacket on the weapon was inefficient and the UAC produced more heat than it ought to have. Thankfully, the Memory Core from the Redoubt Facility filled in the gaps and allowed us to course correct. It'd still be another month before a new design that got rid of that flaw could be finalized, however.

In the meantime, our factories were producing a Rifleman Upgrade that utilized CASE and the specialized munitions with a pair of larger, Autocannon Tens, removing the smaller autocannons and large lasers, but adding an extra ton of armor and two tons of ammo storage. It was essentially an RFL-Three-C from thirty-twenty-six, only with CASE ammo storage and Specialized Munitions instead. The Dreams told me I had beaten Hanse Davion to the punch by six years in terms of design. These designs would later be upgraded with Ultra-Autocannons once we could begin producing them. In the meantime, the few we were able to produce on our own during this period would be used as training machines, along with simulators, as I planned to equip the Baronial Militia with the UAC-armed versions.

In the meantime, I had to finally meet with my Baronial Council, Major McCormack of the Jomsborg Hussars, and the Commander of my Baronial Guards, General Arne Jorgensen about everything I was planning. I'd start with the Baronial Council first since they'd need to be brought into the loop regarding the various upgrades and colonial ventures I had planned. Then I had to meet with General Jorgensen regarding my goals. I was planning to be able to recapture Butte Hold from Redjack Ryan no less than nine months to a year from now, and he would need to be brought into the planning for that. Major McCormack was a bit trickier.

Apparently, my father had sent the Jomsborg Hussars out to take a contract for Garrison Duty to Baron Truder of Waldorff, who'd been spooked by the then-recent assault by the Draconis Combine on Csesztreg. The Hussars were two years and four months into a three-year garrison contract and unable to be recalled without breaking their contract. Thankfully, the Combine had since had their offensive halted and turned back, thanks in large part to the Hussars freeing up the Forty-Second Lyran Guards from Garrison Duty on Waldorff to participate in the counterattack on Csesztreg. Unfortunately, the Water Purification facilities on Czestorig were failing due to the fighting that had taken place. Fortunately, I was now in a position to offer replacement Water Purification Technology thanks to the samples recovered from Columbus.

I would make the offer to Jon Horvath, Duke of Csesztreg once I'd had everything squared away on New Ålborg with the Baronial Council and General Jorgensen. In the meantime, I'd sent Captain Gomez and theClaremontout to the Dark Nebula to check out Pavise Outpost and Camelot Command. I gave her the command codes for Admiral Straczynski and General Tomino in case of Mark Thirty-Nine Attack Drones, along with enough Dropship and Aerospace Fighter Firepower to swat the Drones out of space in case the command codes didn't work. Needless to say, these were also covered by the NDAs I'd had everyone sign.

For now, though, I had a meeting to attend with the Baronial Council. Hopefully, everything would go well, since this would be my first time meeting many of these people. You only ever got one first impression, after all, and these councilors were all different people from the ones who'd served my father on Butte Hold. I decided to make the best of it, dressing up in my fancy dress uniform that went with my capacity as Commander in Chief of the Baronial Guards. Silver epaulets, braids, and piping with red accents all on a uniform that was so navy blue that it bordered on black was accented by my badge of office as Baron and a fur half-cape. The whole thing was topped off with boots polished black enough to see your reflection in them.

I carried my Szabla and Laser Pistol, as always, but the whole ensemble made me feel just a tad ridiculous. Unfortunately, I had appointments to keep. As I made my way to the Conference Room in the Baronial Palace, there was no time for second-guessing my attire. The Council would either appreciate that I'd put in the effort and dressed up or they wouldn't. Either way, I'd have to learn to work with them, even if they found my outfit as ridiculous as I did.

I could only hope they'd be as willing to do that as I was. . .

XXXX

AN: OK, so here we move the timeline ahead a bit, getting a sneak peek at some of the things that are being put into motion, while others have yet to reveal themselves. As stated, Jozef is using the RWR Equipment to equip his Baronial Guards, using the cover story of finding an abandoned cache of Amaris equipment that's close enough to the truth to actually be easy to tell with a straight face. It also invites less investigation than having a bunch of SLDF Royal Gear show up out of nowhere. Stefan Amaris was a squirrely bastard and that's just documented historical fact. Who knows how many stashed Mechs he cached and just never told anyone about?

Of course, the drydock stuff from Columbus is being used to carefully convert one of the WarShip Repair bays into a proper construction facility, but it won't be operational until thirty-twenty-two and will only be capable of making Corvette Classes and Pocket WarShips. Thankfully, even a Corvette is overkill right now and by the time the Clans Arrive, he'll have a much larger slipway ready, no longer requiring the kind of secrecy that he's using right now. In the meantime, he's also begun work on a better version of Hanse Davion's RFL-Three-C from thirty-twenty-six that he plans on arming Baronial Militia with, as well as making export models for sale to the Lyrans.

Unfortunately, while reverse engineering CASE and Specialty Ammo Types went well enough, the UAC's suffer from heat management problems, though that is going to be fixed thanks to pulling the Memory Core from the Redoubt Base. It'll still take time to finalize a perfected design, though. Them's the breaks when reverse-engineering, though. He's also sent Captain Gomez to check up on Pavise Outpost and Camelot Command in the Dark Nebula in the hopes that there might be stuff in there to salvage. Right now, though, he has just a sh*t ton of meetings to go through to get stuff properly set up.

The first of those meetings is coming up next.

Stay tuned. . .