How Hard Can It Be? A Battletech Arms Manufacturer Quest

Vanigo · 2022-01-07T02:22:22+00:00

Red Shore Militia Base Repair Shop Aylmer, Free Worlds League March 19, 2910 "So, can you fix it?" Sergeant Renza of the Aylmer Militia at least had the grace to look sheepish. "It" was the shattered remains of a Vedette Medium Tank that the militia's vehicle recovery teams had, in a fit of blind optimism, hauled back to the repair shop after the latest pirate raid. Benjamin "Benny" Freeman, chief technician, split his time between glaring at the sergeant and glaring at the wreck. The frame was bent, most of the turret was missing, along with the Armstrong J11 autocannon, the engine block was cracked, the left suspension was a total loss, and the only good news about the crew compartment was that the crew had already bailed out. "The hell kind of question is that?" Sergeant Renza winced. "I know, it's a wreck, but damn it, you know how hard it is to get new tanks out here. Especially tanks that aren't fucking Scorpions." Benny scowled at the wreck. "Well you'd better get started. It'd be easier to build a new damn tank than get this thing back into action." "Can you... do that?" "No." As the sergeant beat a retreat, Benny waved over a couple of astechs to start cutting the wreck apart for scrap, and Lou Becker, one of his technicians, stood up from inspecting the wreck and waved for his attention. "You know, boss, we might actually want to keep thing thing around. Gives us an excuse to make spare Vedette parts." Benny stopped, and turned that over in his head a couple times. She had a point. Thanks to the Right to Repair Act of 2788 (pushed through by vigorous FWLM lobbying), military repair facilities could produce any parts they needed for vehicles they were repairing, patents be damned, as long as they only used them internally. They couldn't make spare parts ahead of time, only parts that needed to be replaced on machines that were in the shop. But since practically everything on this Vedette needed to be replaced... "Huh. Yeah, that could work. All right, boys, new plan. Shove 'er in a corner somewhere; we'll 'do our best,' fail, and stick the parts in storage for later. Give us something to do in downtime." Fort Henry December 1, 2911 A rumbling series of booms echoed across the firing range. Firmly attached to the firing bench, an unlicensed but perfectly legal copy of an Armstrong J11 spat 80mm shells downrange in burst after burst. After a few minutes, firing ceased, and a hush settled over the range as the gun cooled. Eventually, Lou and a few assistants went out on the range to examine the shot groupings and the state of the gun itself. A couple hours later, Lou was on the phone with Benny to share the good news. "Yep, everything checks out. No damage from firing, and accuracy is well within specs. It's probably better than half the guns the militia's using." "Good. Nice work, Lou. And that's the last piece of Broken Betty. You know, I didn't think we'd actually manage to make everything?" And they had made everything. Aside from the electronics (which they'd imported in July) and the handful of salvageable parts they'd identified from the wreck, they had now fabricated an entire Vedette, one spare part at a time. More than once, in a few cases, when they'd swiped a part for another damaged Vedette as they'd originally planned. "Think we should try and put her together?" Benny mulled that over for a couple seconds, then replied, "I think, legally speaking, we have to. The brass will be happy, at least." "'Till they see the bill." Red Shore Militia Base Repair Shop January 9, 2912 The small conference room at the edge of the shop was something of a mess. The walls were scuffed, the carpet was stained, folders and loose papers had been hastily stacked up at one end of the cheap table, and someone had drawn a cartoon Urbanmech on the whiteboard. It was perfectly functional, though, and the soundproofing was good enough that the noise of the shop floor was barely noticeable. Two men sat at the table: Benny Freeman and Colonel Aaron Larch of the Aylmer Militia. "Well, Colonel, there are two main problems. The first is legal. We built that Vedette nearly from scratch, but there's enough of the old one in there that we can call it a repair job and it'll stand up in court. If we start building totally new Vedettes, Quikscell will nail us to the wall. We'd need to license the design, or else come up with something of our own from scratch." Colonel Larch frowned slightly but nodded in understanding. "I assume that's not easy." "Certainly not. And the second problem makes it worse. This is a repair shop, not a factory; we don't do mass production. If we weren't doing anything else, we could make two, maybe three tanks a year. More realistically, we'd be lucky to manage one. Obvious problems aside, that makes getting a license even harder; Quikscell won't take us seriously." "Hmm. I guess that makes sense from where they're standing. So in short, we'd need a factory to get anything much done." Benny nodded sharply. "Exactly. I'm sorry I don't have any good news for you, Colonel -" But Colonel Larch raised a hand to interrupt. "I'm sorry, but humor me for a minute. How hard would it be to build one?" That brought Benny up short. "Huh." His eyes unfocused and his hand rose to his chin in thought. "You know, I have no idea. I don't know a thing about running factories." "Well, then, who would know?" Whiterock Motors January 15, 2912 Which is where the story comes to you. As the CEO and majority owner of Aylmer's largest tractor manufacturer, you're the closest thing the planet has to an expert on tank factories. It's not particularly close, as the engineer to your right has just explained at great length. The largest thing you build is an 8 ton combine harvester, and even the light Scorpion tanks that militias across the Inner Sphere grudgingly tolerate weigh in at 25 tons. To your left, Colonel Larch looks back over the notes he's been taking. "I see, thank you. Frankly, though, I never expected setting up a tank factory would be easy. The real question is, can we do it at all? We don't like to admit it, but the militia needs more tanks, badly. Even a small tank factory on Aylmer would make a huge difference." "And it's not like there's any shortage of other buyers," adds Benny Freeman from across the table. "It's a big job, but there's an absolute fortune to be made if we can pull it off." It was true enough, as you'd known even before preparing for this meeting. Demand for tanks wasn't as desperate as demand for battlemechs, but anyone producing a halfway decent tank could count on selling as many as they could make, usually with a long waiting list. Only wartime price controls kept prices from ballooning out of control. The fact that tank factories weren't springing up like mushrooms wasn't for lack of trying, though. Technical personnel and high-quality factory machinery were both hard to come by in this day and age, what with the whole "civilization is falling apart around us" thing. On the other hand, you already had some decent factory techs, and with the militia offering to send over some people who knew military engineering, you might just be able to make this work. And if you do... it'll pay off big, on a number of levels. By the end of the meeting, you'd agreed to investigate production of: [] Heavy APCs - Relatively simple - Less scarce, lower cost per unit - Lower military impact [] Light tanks - Difficult - Fairly scarce - Significant military impact [] Medium tanks - Very difficult - Scarce, higher cost per unit - Increased military impact [] Something else? Unfortunately, you definitely don't have enough money on hand to tackle this project. You're going to start by trying to raise capital from: [] The planetary government [] Local investors [] Investors in other systems [] Somewhere else? Also, this is definitely a risky venture, and you don't want it to bring Whiterock Motors down with it if it fails, so you're going to spin it off as a separate company called: [] Company name (write in) In the meantime, why don't you tell us a little more about yourself? Vote by plan, please: - [] Name - [] Gender - [] Description Pick two advantages: - [] You were a mechwarrior in the FWLM until a bad PPC hit left you with a tiny bit of brain damage; you're basically fine, except that you haven't been able to use a neurohelmet since. The good news is, you have more than a dilettante's understanding of military operations, and still have some contacts in the military. - [] You come from a noble famliy. You don't stand to inherit unless multiple older siblings die, but certain doors may open more easily for you. - [] Whiterock Motors is actually a pretty sizeable business; you produce a wide range of tractors, combines, and other agricultural machinery, and even export them to nearby worlds. You start with additional capital. - [] In addition to Whiterock Motors, you have a stake in a small electronics manufacturer. Importing communications and targeting systems isn't actually too impractical, but with this talent pool available, you might not need to. - [] You're a pretty decent engineer yourself. You don't have much time to get your hands dirty these days, but you can usually tell when someone's trying to sell you a crock of shit. - [] You have a good rapport with your employees. Happy workers work harder, and are less likely to cause problems. - [] Write in? Vehicle category, target investors, and company name are separate votes. Name, gender, description, and advantages are a single vote by plan. Please format your votes accordingly.

Thread starter Vanigo
Start date Jan 6, 2022
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Created: Jan 6, 2022

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As the implacable grind of the Third Succession War drags on year after year, everyone needs more tanks. They'd rather have more mechs, but by and large they'll take what they can get. But with civilization itself groaning at the seams, setting up new tank factories is no mean feat. You don't intend to let that stop you.

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