I need an army.
That was the conclusion that I came to.
The problem, of course, is trying to identify exactly what that meant.
Were they going to be civilian to protect Tetersen?
Were they going to be expeditionary and go out to fight?
Actually.
Now that I thought about it, all that I could see was that I could recruit Combat Commands. The specifics were, well, missing.
I could pick the Attendant Jumpships, Experience, and Morale… but other than that I could just pick the general units that made up the command and nothing else.
It was, if nothing else, a little disappointing.
Hmmmm.
You know what, I'm going to do infantry.
Battlemechs are great and all but the production is all spoken for unless I construct new factories, which, like, I will, but not before the Combat Command creation order is sent through.
The solution then was to create the infantry part of the Combat Command, then add the heavier units afterwards.
So, go with what I could easily procure, Light Armour with the Utes and infantry with their standard infantry kit.
8 RP per Light Armour Regiment.
6 RP per Infantry Regiment.
14 RP in total.
No jumpships, I can always attach those after.
Haha, skip the rules, suck it System!
No need to create a super huge command that would take years to produce.
Wet Behind the Ears XP with a 0.5 modifier, I was going to add more units to them over time which meant that their XP was going to dilute down from what I can see in the reinforcement table. No point starting them at the fanatical XP level if they were going to reduce down into the realm of the Wet Behind the Ears anyway.
I was also going to need to build two of them.
After all, I needed to train them and you needed 2 Combat Commands to spar against each other to train or something.
Seriously.
Who wrote these rules? Do they even know how training works?
Eh, go with the flow, go with the flow.
So 14 RP in total to build 2 Combat Commands of 1 Light Armour Regiment and 1 Infantry Regiment Each.
Oh, and the loyalty of Fanatical which was a 2.0 modifier in RP costs.
So back to 28 RP for 2 Commands.
I can do that.
I had 22 Factories… ah.
The miitary factories were spoken for.
Right.
So I had 14 RP unspoken for.
1 Combat Command a turn.
Ah.
That was why I needed the Civilian Factories then huh.
Well, besides helping out the civilians of the Commonwealth, there was a benefit in it for me!
Yay, win win win, everyone wins.
Hmmm, I would also need a training Centre.
Gain 2 XP per training turn instead of 1, basically double. Reduced modifiers to get more XP for units with over 10 XP.
Unlimited training units per turn.
Yeah.
Training Centre for 50 RP.
My total costs next turn were looking to be;
50 RP to upgrade my regular fortification to a Capital one on Mount Utility
50 RP to upgrade the Capital fortification around the slipways.
14 RP to build a Combat Command.
8 RP Supply Cost for the Capital Fortification.
2 RP Supply Cost for the regular Fortification.
Hmmm.
Not bad.
I think I was going to need to start building more factories.
The composition of which I really had to ask some professionals for help with.
I needed more civilian factories so I could skim production off the top of to build my own Combat Commands.
I also needed more, like, military factories to provide the war material for them.
Tanks?
Yeah, I needed tanks too.
Ugh.
+Break+
Christine looked up at her fiance who was looking a little uncomfortable in front of her.
He was leaning from foot to foot, looking for all the world like someone with a secret to tell and unsure as to what he was allowed to say.
In other words, he looked uncomfortable.
"What's the problem?" She asked him, not even bothering with the title of 'Duke' or even his surname. He wouldn't even recognise it from her anyway. Strangely he was strict on it with others, always telling them to use his proper title in relation to them.
Boss, manager, sir, whatever was appropriate for them. It was just a little baffling, but if that was what he wanted then that was what he got she supposed.
Some would like to be called Duke everywhere, but he seemed to like 'sir' more than anything else. The same kind of title that anyone who was born in the Commonwealth had (if they were male), ma'am being the counterpart for the female part of the population.
It was just a sign of respect.
Ah.
That was why.
Now that she thought about it, the reason he liked sir more than the others was because it was a vocalisation of respect.
Probably why he liked to refer to others by their title, his way of showing respect.
She looked at him.
He looked at her.
"There's something we need to talk about. It's a bit of a secret." He said, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
She looked back and raised her own eyebrow.
Only, hers was an actual raised eyebrow. His looked more like he was constipated as both of his eyebrows raised up, his face being unable to raise a single eyebrow.
She hid her smile, it was cute.
He was being serious here, smiling would make him feel that she wasn't taking his seriousness seriously.
"Okay. We can talk here. It's quiet." She said eventually.
"No no, this is a sit down somewhere super private talk." He said with a shake of his head, "want to go to my room?" He asked, looking up and down the corridor like he was saying something blasphemous.
Christine felt the urge to ask if he was about to say that he was a virgin and he had no idea what sex was.
She held it back with considerable difficulty.
"Okay, lead the way."
As she followed him through the offices that made up their growing organisational base of operations Christine marvelled at just how big things were getting.
Entering his office, he locked the door and activated the anti-spying devices that her clan mates had put in place.
"Right, so, we need to start at the beginning." He said, sitting on his desk and looking at her.
Christine simply sat on the chair and looked up at him.
He paused, looked down at her, then sat down on the other chair that sat in front of his desk.
His leg jumped up and down.
Then he looked at her again.
She turned her eyes away from his leg and her cataloguing of his little quirks.
"Right. So. I have a System." He said, looking at her.
The young woman who had heard this before nodded.
"No, I mean, I have an actual System."
She nodded again, this time with confusion.
"Right. Right. I… ah. Right. Context. Right. Okay, think of it like a game right? You know those games that the guys on the factory floor play?" His hands were waving down below now.
She looked at him and cocked her head. "What game?"
"Don't you talk to them about their games? Like, it's interesting to know what they're interested in right?" He asked, looking at her with a raised eyebrow.
Christine looked at the screen that pretended to be a window. She didn't whistle but it was a near thing. How was she to answer that she didn't particularly care about the games that they played in their spare time?
"Right. Okay. More context them. Imagine the design system for the machines that we have right? You know the ones where we design the metals bit for the lathes and stuff?" He asked, hands once again expansively waving over the air in front of him.
"Yes… I get your point." She said, thinking of the many tabs that one had to press through, how everything was nested in dozens of other menus, how the user interface made her wish for the ability to go back in time and throttle the designer.
"Well, that's basically the System I have." He said, Christine nodded, sounded about right.
"As in, like, it's in my brain, and when I go to sleep, it makes me use my resource points and then… stuff happens. I start calling people and then I start building things and then… and then stuff. Then, like, recently I could start seeing it while I was awake which is pretty scary right? Right? Stuff?" His voice started questioning as he looked at her.
Christine looked back at him.
He looked at her.
She looked back at him.
He looked at her, eyes tearing up.
She patted him on his arms.
"I believe you." She said. She didn't of course, the man didn't do magic, everyone saw every step of the process. But he would believe her. That was what was important right now. He shared something that deeply personal with her for a reason, she couldn't betray that trust now.
He brightened up and grinned, blinking away his tears.
"Great. I knew that you were the best." He looked so incredibly relieved that Christine couldn't help but feel her heart melt a little. "Like, seriously, I can't wake up unless I design something, then I start calling people and buying things and talking to people and then we have a jumpship line and then I need to start the next turn."
Her fiance had a mental illness and he hallucinated this so called System of his. Which explained a great deal actually. It made a great deal of sense of why he would just stare at the sky occasionally or poke and prod with his finger at something only he could see.
To be a genius one had to be insane, she had heard this before and now she believed it. Things made so much more sense when you looked at it through that lens.
Still.
He shared that with her.
No matter how much it scared him and how he could have hidden it, he had shared it with her.
Dammit.
She needed to share the truth about herself as well.
The Clan had rules on this… but, well.
She had overheard Huu talking to one of the factory managers a while back.
His words had caused her to snort with laughter until she caught herself.
"If the boys tell you to keep a secret from Ms Christine, would you sir?" He had been asked.
"No? Why would I? I'm going to be married to her. She's infinitely more important to me than anyone else right? Like everyone's position automatically subordinates under hers the minute we're married. That's just how it works."
Well, he had told the truth.
She needed to tell him the truth about herself.
They were getting married in a few months.
If he was able to share his darkest secrets, she would be able to.
It was only fair.
She grinned.
The Clan could shove it.
+Break+
So.
Wow.
It turned out that my fiance, other than being… um, I knew nothing about her actually. Ah fuck.
I'm a terrible person.
I need to take her out on a date and actually talk about things. Like, wow, I'm a shitty person aren't I?
Um.
Yeah.
Fuck.
I had no idea what she liked and disliked and I never even asked in the… 4 months? I think? That I knew her.
I'm shit.
Anyway, compartmentalise!
Christine was also part of a secret society.
Like, kind of like a cult.
Which, was, well… I didn't particularly care?
It wasn't like they actually did anything except make kids from dead people. Well, maybe I should phrase that differently, but they basically just kept bloodlines alive right?
Like, that was a thing?
Good I suppose?
Like, I didn't particularly care.
It was all knowledge right? They didn't do anything to me besides keep me safe from the many people that wanted me dead, so that was great.
Actually, the positives of them far outweighed the negatives.
Which, like, I kind of felt bad about I guess? Bringing everyone to this planet of… bloodline archivists?
That was what they were in the end wasn't it? Bloodline archivists.
Huh.
Funny.
Anyway, I needed to give back, pay back good with good.
And what better way to do that than to build the future factories in the sky?
Right?
That way all the people that came would be in space and therefore, wouldn't be causing problems by wandering around on the planet's surface.
Then they could, like, build a tourist trap or something, like Mandurah for the Perthians to drive down to on the weekends and go 'woah, so rustic, let's go crabbing, woah, a meth addict, woah,' and then return home.
Right?
I could do that.
Mmmmm, that was the least I could do.
There was also talk of designing Mechs for the people of Tetersen (her clan) so they could get respect from te many people that would show up?
I didn't quite get it.
Like, why would they need the respect I wondered, but if it was that important, then I supposed I needed to focus on it.
The Griffin and the Commando were certainly interesting enough. But, honestly, I wasn't particularly wedded to the idea of a single build.
I was building things that could be used by civilians and military personnel alike.
I was building things that would save lives.
They could also take them.
They could do both was the point I was trying to make. Sticking guns on it and calling it a day was a cop-out then, I needed to do something… wait a moment.
I had to design these bloody things with my own two hands.
Why not just… add in rails to the internal bits?
Like, add in rails and then make the rails separate enough to be like… self-contained systems.
So if you wanted a PPC, then it would come with the heatsinks needed for it included?
Or if you wanted a bunch of lasers, then they would have their heatsinks there too?
Or a plow… well, probably not heatsinks for that, but a harvester would definitely need them!
Ha!
This would work.
I think.
I think two chassis to begin with would be a good idea.
Yes.
Right, time to get to work.
From what Christine said, there was going to be people from Comstar (the weird ones?) who would want me dead, and the Free Worlds League would want me dead, and the Combine would want me dead, and some corporations (not Lockheed/CBM for some reason) would want me dead… yeah.
There were a lot of people who wanted me dead and I needed to build the things to keep me safe in the face of all this… deadness.
Comstar was the biggest threat though.
Better upgrade every fortress I could into a Capital-5 one. Only subterfuge could deal with those and I wouldn't need to deal with nukes raining from the sky.
Which… apparently could be a thing where Comstar was involved.
+Break+
CREATING COMBAT COMMANDS
To create a new Combat Command, a player must first determine its composition. The new Command's exact composition and Weight dictates its cost. The cost is modified based on the Experience Rating (Green or Regular) of the Command and its Loyalty Rating (Questionable, Reliable or Fanatical). This cost is then doubled if the Command will have attendant JumpShips, which has an effect on the transportation cost for the unit (see Movement, p. 291). Once this total cost is subtracted from the Faction's remaining Resource Points, the new unit can begin its existence on any world within your Faction except an 'Other' world. It is available for immediate use, such as combat and transportation.
WarShips require a number of turns equal to their RP production cost to finish construction and must be placed at a factory world during construction. If the factory world is conquered during that time, the WarShip is lost.
+Break+
Total RP Turn 12 2991 + 1 Year 4 Months
36 RP 12×3 Ute Factory - 3x1.5 Regiments per Factory per Turn (108 vehicles) - 18 RP in Use
24 RP 12×2 20 Ton Utility Truck Factory - 2x1.5 Regiments per Factory per Turn (108 vehicles) - 12 RP in Use
24 RP 12×2 Commando 1B Factory - 2x7.5 Battlemechs per turn - 2 RP in Use
24 RP 12×2 Griffin 1S Factory - 2×5 Battlemechs per turn - 2 RP in Use
12 RP 12×1 Eagle R6 Factory - 1x1.6 Aerospace per turn - 2 RP in Use
12 RP 12×1 Irrawaddy Factory - 14.5 Month Build Time - 12 RP in Use - Newly Built
12 RP 12×1 Margaret Factory - 12.41 Month Build Time - 12 RP in Use - Newly Built
12 RP 12×1 Una Factory - 16 Month Build Time - 12 RP in Use - Newly Built
24 RP 12×2 DC3 Block 2 Factory - 4.5 Month Build Time - 24 RP in Use (adjusting Production model) - Newly Built
Building
24 RP 12×2 DC3 Block 2 Factory
24 RP 12×2 Kohima Ersatz Factory
36 RP 12×3 Eagle R6 Factory
RP Bonus Calculation = 1.0 (Indytech 3) + 0.3 (Lyran Bonus) + 0.44 (Economic Treaty) = 1.74
RP One Time Bonus 300 RP Turn 12
Turn 13 = 300 + 264×1.74 = 300+ 459.36RP = 759.36RP