Phase 10 Part 1
Disclaimer: I do not own any movies set up in the Marvel Cinematic Universe or Star Wars movies, cartoons, games, books, or comics. They belong to their respective copyright owners. This story is not created with a commercial aim. It is not for sale or rent.
Stark Industries offices
New York
While a new corporate HG complex alongside a large penthouse for yours truly was under construction, more and more of running SI happened from a leased office space in one of the many skyscrapers within the city.
It was early 2011, and the last fiscal year had just ended, which meant it was time to analyze where we were right now and where we would take the company based on everything that happened last year. The board of directors was present, most of them in person; the same was true for the directors of the most important departments, though many of them were present virtually.
"This has been one of the most profitable years in SI's history, especially accounting for lucrative long-term investments that we expect will be licensed to print money in practical terms," Pepper said. In a couple more years, she could get the reins as CEO giving me more free time to pursue other objectives.
"Sadly, it's not all good," The new leader of our Legal department declared. Her predecessor had to retire unexpectedly due to finding himself with an unpleasant case of cancer. That threw a wrench in some of my plans, forcing me to assume all CEO functions late last year.
"We continue to hear grumbling from both the Senate and Congress about more hearings. There are at least two more civil suits in the exploratory phase over the death of US servicemen due to our negligence in handling the weapons we produce," Caroline Freeman continued. "After the investigations were completed, we should have been in the clear legally as far as the government is concerned. Your cooperation did help in that regard, Mr. Stark. Sadly, politics are involved, and they don't have to make sense. Then there are the civil courts…."
"That is why we pay you the big bucks, Mrs Freeman. The odds are good. It might get worse in that regard before the situation approves. From contacts within the military and from the investigation, we know there are between twenty and forty unaccounted Jericho missiles. The only saving grace there is that at most half of them have repulsor warheads; the others are conventional cluster munitions. While still nasty, their destructive potential is nowhere near the same," I noted. "Does Legal has something else pending for this meeting?"
"We covered the major points of interest, Mr. Stark."
"Good. Next, the Finance department, when will we be able to afford new major acquisitions without compromising ongoing efforts or the reserve liquid assets we need to take action if an interesting opportunity presents itself?"
That, of course, meant a significant breakthrough ahead of schedule by either our R&D departments or others across the world. Such good luck was something we would ideally take advantage of early. It wasn't something corporations usually did – assets just lying around weren't working to make you more money. However, in our case, we were waiting for many relevant technologies to advance so we could jump in and make good use of them, which would require money at hand, perhaps a lot of it.
"It depends on the scale. Another acquisition like Star Wars in short to medium term would require paying in part with shares or liquidating assets. While we did make nearly unprecedented profits, most of them are now reinvested in fusion, infrastructure building, or building multiple manufacturing plants with government assistance that would harness fusion power next year," Pierce Johnson, the Chief Financial Officer of SI, reminded us. "We can go up to a billion right now, no issue. Two to three in early summer or September, no issue. Perhaps four sometime in the autumn. A lot would depend on if the expected demand levels for various products are as projected, and the same goes for developing various products and systems. Optimistically, take the upper figures as gospel, Mr. Stark. Realistically, bet on the lowers, barring an unforeseen disaster. Do you have anything you want us to focus on?"
"We are basically in a waiting pattern for many of our ongoing projects to reach completion or a more useful state. Most of this fiscal year will be reasonably calm, barring any opportunity that presents itself. However, once commercial fusion begins coming online next year, all bets will be off."
A summary from R&D followed. No surprises there. The only major, instead of incremental advancements, came in two forms.
"Mass-producing rugged blasters as side arms would require certain advancements in material science. Without it, we can't keep the price and reliability down to a reasonable point. That said, we do have good news about larger weapon variants. We expect to have the prototype runs ready for testing by the military late this spring," Jackie Li reported. This time someone managed to corral him into a proper suit in time for this meeting. Whoever his new personal assistant, slash minder was, needed a raise.
"The two big things we have for this year are related to medical and exoskeletons. I'll go with the latter first. We have the first powered exoskeleton variants ready for limited field testing by the military and civilian variants we can release to the public. The latter come in three types – full exoskeletons, or, everyone keeps calling them, exosuits. Second, we have lower or upper body support systems, respectively. We also have a passive variant of the latter two subtypes. Depending on the type of work a person does, they won't necessarily need a full exosuit, whether powered or passive. This diversification will allow us to reach more businesses that couldn't previously afford or needed the full package. The construction, industrial, and resource extraction sectors would be our primary targets for the powered exosuits and partial movement support variants."
"That's good to hear," We were that much closer to proper powered combat exoskeletons now. "The next point is the stimulants?" In theory, those were easy to make, with what the galaxy I was accustomed to considered regular, commercially available laboratory stations.
Replicating the same here on Earth required state-of-the-art facilities here on Earth. Yet, once I had those built as needed, it was a matter of a few months off and of tinkering to get basic adrenals of all types ready for testing.
"Animal trials of the stimulants are more than promising. So far, we are finding no unexpected side effects. Unsurprisingly, prolonged use results in a chemical buildup within the body that the liver and kidneys might struggle to deal with, but that is only to be expected. Testing also confirmed what you suspected, Mr. Stark – using the stamina boosters alongside strength and adrenaline boosters has the effect of mitigating any damage reaching near maximum human capability might cause to the muscles and tendons. Needless to say, we are looking at years of testing before we get Federal approval for human trials, much less permission to sell them on the open market. On the other hand, the military is highly interested in the stimulants, and we will be in talks with Pentagon representatives about further development," Dr. Hayes explained.
A few hours of tedious, mundane stuff followed before the meeting finally ended. At least I could declare it an unmitigated success.
"Mr. Stark, your next meeting will start soon," One of my bodyguards reminded me. She was from SWORD, so she was one of my government-sanctioned minders.
"Get the cars ready, I'll get a cup of coffee, and we'll head down to the garage."
SWORD satellite offices
New York
The next meeting was an acute reminder that Sword was a rival of Shield, no matter that their spheres of interest should have been different and with minimal overlap. Unsurprisingly, there was ongoing jockeying for budget and relevance. In practical terms, that was to be expected. Until recently, some of Sword's duties were Shield's not so long ago.
It didn't help that anyone with two brain cells to rub together would be aware that in the future, with expansion in space on the horizon, Sword would outstrip Shield in reach and capabilities. That was already happening when Sword was barely getting off the ground. While Shield had competent commando teams, Sword's few bases worldwide had air-mobile mechanized platoons as quick reaction forces. At the end of the day, the two organizations were meant to counter threats that significantly differed in scope and threat level.
As a direct consequence, Fury wasn't a happy camper. Not that I've ever seen him happy.
Today's meeting was a small affair. It was just me, Generals Danvers and Miller, and two more Councilors who overlapped in oversight over Shield and Sword – Pamela Hawley and Hinata Akira.
"Tony, good you could make it in time," Hawley greeted me after the door of the secure conference room sealed behind me. "We are aware that the timing of this meeting wasn't the most convenient."
"Sadly, it wasn't critical enough to get me away from the board faster," I noted while making my way to the nearest leather chair.
Say what you will; Shield and Sword had access to comfortable furniture when they wanted. The reverse was true – they also had specially designed chairs to make people as uncomfortable as possible, either because someone in power didn't like a particular visitor or to keep an interrogation target off balance.
"We've reached a few decisions that directly involve you, Tony," Hawley continued.
"Over my explicit protest. We can either trust him, or he should not be here in the first place!" Danvers objected.
"I second that," General Miller offered. Considering how close Fort Drum was and how convenient its location was, the place was now a Sword base as well and one of the primary places for testing many of my new inventions.
"It's a case of trust but verify. Our strategic situation makes the risk worth it at any rate, and the benefits, well, we deem
them outweighing any possible downsides," Hawley primly sipped her tea while giving nothing like a proper answer.
"Pamela, get to the point. What shenanigans are you up to?" I demanded.
"We are once again going to give you enough rope to hang yourself, Tony. Considering your altered background, you are uniquely positioned to be among the people making first contact with aliens, ideally a friendly one. You naturally won't be alone and will always have close oversight."
"So some people hope I'll use this rope to hang myself, while others hope they will profit from my situation? Or if we are to be extremely generous, they hope Earth will profit from it?" I asked. I had to agree with the Generals; if they didn't reasonably trust me, this was a stupid thing to do unless those who trusted me enough ran over the arguments of any naysayers due to internal politics.
Sadly, due to my position, gaining a complete picture of the politics surrounding Sword and Shield was a slowly ongoing long-term project. The same was true about subverting the organizations. The Illuminati were in the same boat, though I already had my foot in. Usually, that tended to be the most challenging step with such organizations. The rest was a matter of time, effort, and finding the right opportunities to exploit.
"We've spent many meetings creating contingencies and with me giving lectures on what to be wary of when contacting alien cultures," I pointed out. "There are professional diplomats who should be a good fit for this position."
"There are such people who will be a part of any first contact meeting, Tony. Your expertise couldn't be replicated by simply telling tales," Hawley countered. "Either way, unless you refuse, it's a done deal," She smiled at me.
We both knew I wouldn't refuse. There would be a lot of accolades to gain from a successful, friendly first contact, and Hawley wasn't wrong; I was better positioned not to fuck it up due to my experience and, more importantly, the Force and the emphatic abilities it granted me.
"I'll play the diplomat if the opportunity appears. What's next on the agenda?"
"Weapons and equipment, again," Miller huffed. "It's not like we haven't been telling people the truth! Unless you are ready with another miracle, Mr. Stark?"
"No miracles. The first batch of powered exoskeletons ready for testing outside the laboratory will be completed soon. You'll get it, followed by General Scudder receiving the second production run and Shield. Despite Fury's insistence on getting the good stuff, first, the US military and Sword are paying the most for advanced equipment, so you get first dibs. This is my official position as SI's CEO, and I'm sure our contracts confirm who gets priority on newly developed equipment."
"That's infantry scale. What about heavier weaponry?" Miller asked.
"Jake Li, who runs my weapon development division, assured me that you will have heavy machine gun and autocannon scale prototypes to play around with in the foreseeable future. His estimates are a bit too optimistic. We will need to wait for the fusion reactors to come online and begin utilizing their power to create new alloys in practical quantities outside the laboratory before we can begin mass-producing infantry-scale blasters that are both cheap and rugged enough to be worth it. I can guarantee that we will continue to offer your people the next best thing to hand-crafted marginally improved variants to see what works best in the field. The feedback will be invaluable for designing the first mass-produced blasters."
"So you're going with that as an official name now?" Danvers asked.
"When the shoe fits. In practice, the weapons are close enough to what Lucas got to show on screen. Eventually, we might get some kind of stun mode incorporated or a non-lethal variant for military police and regular law enforcement. It's infuriating how much I could do with proper equipment that, back in my day, I could just scavenge from a damn junkyard!" I shook my head in frustration.
"The stimulants we've been hearing about?"
"Those things, if done right, are safe and have been around for thousands of years if my memories are correct. The biology was close enough to human norms that, with some testing and tweaking, I could replicate them. However, what needs state of an art laboratory to produce, I could brew in mass with a desk-sized portable lab bought off the shelf!" I ranted. "You know, some days I'm sure I'm pushing the uplift program so hard so Earth could become a decent retirement place in a few decades."
"It's better reasons than most. I look forward to enjoying my retirement in a world that's straight out of good science fiction. Just don't make it into a corporate dystopia or something like that," Miller chuckled. "You were saying about weapons?"
"It's much easier to make larger blasters. While their firepower, endurance between maintenance cycles, power, and ammo efficiency wouldn't be nearly as good as variants built with better materials, they would be good enough for testing purposes. Repairing those inferior models fundamentally will be similar to repairing and maintaining the mass-produced ones we will get in a few years. They should allow you to get a proper doctrine for use and figure out how best to incorporate energy weapons in the current combined arms environment."
I glanced at the Japanese representative, who kept taking notes, yet said nothing since the meeting began. All I could get from her through the force was cool interest at observing the discussion at hand.
After months of consolidation, skirmishing, and NATO air strikes, Iranian government forces finally launched their long-anticipated offensive in the North. Motorized and mountain infantry, with artillery and drone support, struck from Aslan Duz and Kalibar, linking at the junction of routes 12 and 27. Irregulars and Revolutionary Guard elements fought to the death holding Khoda Afarin and were ultimately destroyed by the Loyalists.
After consolidating in the ravaged town, the Iranian military swung west, moving parallel to the border with Azerbaijan and Armenia. Fending off ambushes along the way from irregular forces, the motorized thrust reached Safarlu village, which is now the site of the street-to-street fighting against a battalion of the Revolutionary Guard. That is expected to be the largest obstacle this prong of the Loyalist attack should meet on its way to the village of Hammedan.
At the same time, mountain infantry backed by IFVs struck up the Hashtyan, aiming first to liberate Jlghran, Joheni, and Hashtiyan. With those towns and villages secure, the western prong of the offensive would continue up the mountain road until it could eventually link up with road 11 further north.
Meanwhile, the armored forces that opened the way for supplies from Turkey last year have been fully rebuilt and reinforced. They are steadily pushing from Nushin to the junction of roads 11 and 14. Reaching that point would allow the Iranian Loyalists to swing around Lake Urmia and complete the encirclement of Tabriz, where major Revolutionary Guard formations have been digging in since last fall.
The months-long NATO air raids and cruise missile strikes, including an ever-increasing deployment of Jericho missiles, have ensured that most mobile elements the radicals possess have been significantly attired, making them incapable of conducting offensive operations.
Euronews
The Second Afghan War intensifies. ANA division strength formations rebuilt over the winter and launched offensives against Jalalabad and Herat, covered by Coalition air power and backed by a Coalition regiment of mechanized infantry each. The Taliban and Ten Rings insurgents are falling steadily back, facing overwhelming firepower. Pentagon spokesman confirmed using over two hundred Jericho missiles with specialized warheads and fifty with conventional cluster munitions to shatter enemy defensive positions meant to slow down or even stop the allied advance.
CNN
Considering logistics constrain and the drain caused by the Iranian civil war, the Coalition and ANA forces in Afghanistan declined to attack Kandahar province at this time. Instead, ANA forces have dug into defensive positions between Kandahar and Kabul, backed by NATO mechanized infantry and tank platoons.
BBC World News
Special forces raid in Belarus destroyed a stockpile of Stark Weapons ready for sale on the black market. The NATO-affiliated commandos took into custody a dangerous international arms dealer. We are yet to receive more details beyond confirmation of the raid by NATO officials.
Euronews
Demand for incorporating increased security measures against terrorist attacks and teething issues delay the construction of many fusion reactors across Europe. The most optimistic expectations of the first reactors coming online by December 2011 will not happen. The revised realistic completion and ignition date for the first reactors under construction is summer 2012. One thing everyone agrees about is that Europe will be energy independent by the end of 2013. That includes fossil fuels needed for cars due to ongoing campaigns to upgrade gas stations across the continent and many cities with a distributed network of recharge stations.
Forbes Magazine
The tenth of June this year will mark an unprecedented meeting between major car manufacturers from across the world in Brussels to discuss finalizing EU standards for electric cars, recharge equipment, batteries, and generally the logistics of transitioning from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.
Once again, EU standards will become the world standard. The only surprising thing is that corporations are moving ahead of the curve for once. They are ready to negotiate instead of suffering increasing fines and the threat of losing the EU as a market.
Euronews
Phase 10: We are not the best vacation spot right now
=SI=
Part 1
=SI=
=SI=
Part 1
=SI=
Stark Industries offices
New York
While a new corporate HG complex alongside a large penthouse for yours truly was under construction, more and more of running SI happened from a leased office space in one of the many skyscrapers within the city.
It was early 2011, and the last fiscal year had just ended, which meant it was time to analyze where we were right now and where we would take the company based on everything that happened last year. The board of directors was present, most of them in person; the same was true for the directors of the most important departments, though many of them were present virtually.
"This has been one of the most profitable years in SI's history, especially accounting for lucrative long-term investments that we expect will be licensed to print money in practical terms," Pepper said. In a couple more years, she could get the reins as CEO giving me more free time to pursue other objectives.
"Sadly, it's not all good," The new leader of our Legal department declared. Her predecessor had to retire unexpectedly due to finding himself with an unpleasant case of cancer. That threw a wrench in some of my plans, forcing me to assume all CEO functions late last year.
"We continue to hear grumbling from both the Senate and Congress about more hearings. There are at least two more civil suits in the exploratory phase over the death of US servicemen due to our negligence in handling the weapons we produce," Caroline Freeman continued. "After the investigations were completed, we should have been in the clear legally as far as the government is concerned. Your cooperation did help in that regard, Mr. Stark. Sadly, politics are involved, and they don't have to make sense. Then there are the civil courts…."
"That is why we pay you the big bucks, Mrs Freeman. The odds are good. It might get worse in that regard before the situation approves. From contacts within the military and from the investigation, we know there are between twenty and forty unaccounted Jericho missiles. The only saving grace there is that at most half of them have repulsor warheads; the others are conventional cluster munitions. While still nasty, their destructive potential is nowhere near the same," I noted. "Does Legal has something else pending for this meeting?"
"We covered the major points of interest, Mr. Stark."
"Good. Next, the Finance department, when will we be able to afford new major acquisitions without compromising ongoing efforts or the reserve liquid assets we need to take action if an interesting opportunity presents itself?"
That, of course, meant a significant breakthrough ahead of schedule by either our R&D departments or others across the world. Such good luck was something we would ideally take advantage of early. It wasn't something corporations usually did – assets just lying around weren't working to make you more money. However, in our case, we were waiting for many relevant technologies to advance so we could jump in and make good use of them, which would require money at hand, perhaps a lot of it.
"It depends on the scale. Another acquisition like Star Wars in short to medium term would require paying in part with shares or liquidating assets. While we did make nearly unprecedented profits, most of them are now reinvested in fusion, infrastructure building, or building multiple manufacturing plants with government assistance that would harness fusion power next year," Pierce Johnson, the Chief Financial Officer of SI, reminded us. "We can go up to a billion right now, no issue. Two to three in early summer or September, no issue. Perhaps four sometime in the autumn. A lot would depend on if the expected demand levels for various products are as projected, and the same goes for developing various products and systems. Optimistically, take the upper figures as gospel, Mr. Stark. Realistically, bet on the lowers, barring an unforeseen disaster. Do you have anything you want us to focus on?"
"We are basically in a waiting pattern for many of our ongoing projects to reach completion or a more useful state. Most of this fiscal year will be reasonably calm, barring any opportunity that presents itself. However, once commercial fusion begins coming online next year, all bets will be off."
A summary from R&D followed. No surprises there. The only major, instead of incremental advancements, came in two forms.
"Mass-producing rugged blasters as side arms would require certain advancements in material science. Without it, we can't keep the price and reliability down to a reasonable point. That said, we do have good news about larger weapon variants. We expect to have the prototype runs ready for testing by the military late this spring," Jackie Li reported. This time someone managed to corral him into a proper suit in time for this meeting. Whoever his new personal assistant, slash minder was, needed a raise.
"The two big things we have for this year are related to medical and exoskeletons. I'll go with the latter first. We have the first powered exoskeleton variants ready for limited field testing by the military and civilian variants we can release to the public. The latter come in three types – full exoskeletons, or, everyone keeps calling them, exosuits. Second, we have lower or upper body support systems, respectively. We also have a passive variant of the latter two subtypes. Depending on the type of work a person does, they won't necessarily need a full exosuit, whether powered or passive. This diversification will allow us to reach more businesses that couldn't previously afford or needed the full package. The construction, industrial, and resource extraction sectors would be our primary targets for the powered exosuits and partial movement support variants."
"That's good to hear," We were that much closer to proper powered combat exoskeletons now. "The next point is the stimulants?" In theory, those were easy to make, with what the galaxy I was accustomed to considered regular, commercially available laboratory stations.
Replicating the same here on Earth required state-of-the-art facilities here on Earth. Yet, once I had those built as needed, it was a matter of a few months off and of tinkering to get basic adrenals of all types ready for testing.
"Animal trials of the stimulants are more than promising. So far, we are finding no unexpected side effects. Unsurprisingly, prolonged use results in a chemical buildup within the body that the liver and kidneys might struggle to deal with, but that is only to be expected. Testing also confirmed what you suspected, Mr. Stark – using the stamina boosters alongside strength and adrenaline boosters has the effect of mitigating any damage reaching near maximum human capability might cause to the muscles and tendons. Needless to say, we are looking at years of testing before we get Federal approval for human trials, much less permission to sell them on the open market. On the other hand, the military is highly interested in the stimulants, and we will be in talks with Pentagon representatives about further development," Dr. Hayes explained.
A few hours of tedious, mundane stuff followed before the meeting finally ended. At least I could declare it an unmitigated success.
"Mr. Stark, your next meeting will start soon," One of my bodyguards reminded me. She was from SWORD, so she was one of my government-sanctioned minders.
"Get the cars ready, I'll get a cup of coffee, and we'll head down to the garage."
=SI=
SWORD satellite offices
New York
The next meeting was an acute reminder that Sword was a rival of Shield, no matter that their spheres of interest should have been different and with minimal overlap. Unsurprisingly, there was ongoing jockeying for budget and relevance. In practical terms, that was to be expected. Until recently, some of Sword's duties were Shield's not so long ago.
It didn't help that anyone with two brain cells to rub together would be aware that in the future, with expansion in space on the horizon, Sword would outstrip Shield in reach and capabilities. That was already happening when Sword was barely getting off the ground. While Shield had competent commando teams, Sword's few bases worldwide had air-mobile mechanized platoons as quick reaction forces. At the end of the day, the two organizations were meant to counter threats that significantly differed in scope and threat level.
As a direct consequence, Fury wasn't a happy camper. Not that I've ever seen him happy.
Today's meeting was a small affair. It was just me, Generals Danvers and Miller, and two more Councilors who overlapped in oversight over Shield and Sword – Pamela Hawley and Hinata Akira.
"Tony, good you could make it in time," Hawley greeted me after the door of the secure conference room sealed behind me. "We are aware that the timing of this meeting wasn't the most convenient."
"Sadly, it wasn't critical enough to get me away from the board faster," I noted while making my way to the nearest leather chair.
Say what you will; Shield and Sword had access to comfortable furniture when they wanted. The reverse was true – they also had specially designed chairs to make people as uncomfortable as possible, either because someone in power didn't like a particular visitor or to keep an interrogation target off balance.
"We've reached a few decisions that directly involve you, Tony," Hawley continued.
"Over my explicit protest. We can either trust him, or he should not be here in the first place!" Danvers objected.
"I second that," General Miller offered. Considering how close Fort Drum was and how convenient its location was, the place was now a Sword base as well and one of the primary places for testing many of my new inventions.
"It's a case of trust but verify. Our strategic situation makes the risk worth it at any rate, and the benefits, well, we deem
them outweighing any possible downsides," Hawley primly sipped her tea while giving nothing like a proper answer.
"Pamela, get to the point. What shenanigans are you up to?" I demanded.
"We are once again going to give you enough rope to hang yourself, Tony. Considering your altered background, you are uniquely positioned to be among the people making first contact with aliens, ideally a friendly one. You naturally won't be alone and will always have close oversight."
"So some people hope I'll use this rope to hang myself, while others hope they will profit from my situation? Or if we are to be extremely generous, they hope Earth will profit from it?" I asked. I had to agree with the Generals; if they didn't reasonably trust me, this was a stupid thing to do unless those who trusted me enough ran over the arguments of any naysayers due to internal politics.
Sadly, due to my position, gaining a complete picture of the politics surrounding Sword and Shield was a slowly ongoing long-term project. The same was true about subverting the organizations. The Illuminati were in the same boat, though I already had my foot in. Usually, that tended to be the most challenging step with such organizations. The rest was a matter of time, effort, and finding the right opportunities to exploit.
"We've spent many meetings creating contingencies and with me giving lectures on what to be wary of when contacting alien cultures," I pointed out. "There are professional diplomats who should be a good fit for this position."
"There are such people who will be a part of any first contact meeting, Tony. Your expertise couldn't be replicated by simply telling tales," Hawley countered. "Either way, unless you refuse, it's a done deal," She smiled at me.
We both knew I wouldn't refuse. There would be a lot of accolades to gain from a successful, friendly first contact, and Hawley wasn't wrong; I was better positioned not to fuck it up due to my experience and, more importantly, the Force and the emphatic abilities it granted me.
"I'll play the diplomat if the opportunity appears. What's next on the agenda?"
"Weapons and equipment, again," Miller huffed. "It's not like we haven't been telling people the truth! Unless you are ready with another miracle, Mr. Stark?"
"No miracles. The first batch of powered exoskeletons ready for testing outside the laboratory will be completed soon. You'll get it, followed by General Scudder receiving the second production run and Shield. Despite Fury's insistence on getting the good stuff, first, the US military and Sword are paying the most for advanced equipment, so you get first dibs. This is my official position as SI's CEO, and I'm sure our contracts confirm who gets priority on newly developed equipment."
"That's infantry scale. What about heavier weaponry?" Miller asked.
"Jake Li, who runs my weapon development division, assured me that you will have heavy machine gun and autocannon scale prototypes to play around with in the foreseeable future. His estimates are a bit too optimistic. We will need to wait for the fusion reactors to come online and begin utilizing their power to create new alloys in practical quantities outside the laboratory before we can begin mass-producing infantry-scale blasters that are both cheap and rugged enough to be worth it. I can guarantee that we will continue to offer your people the next best thing to hand-crafted marginally improved variants to see what works best in the field. The feedback will be invaluable for designing the first mass-produced blasters."
"So you're going with that as an official name now?" Danvers asked.
"When the shoe fits. In practice, the weapons are close enough to what Lucas got to show on screen. Eventually, we might get some kind of stun mode incorporated or a non-lethal variant for military police and regular law enforcement. It's infuriating how much I could do with proper equipment that, back in my day, I could just scavenge from a damn junkyard!" I shook my head in frustration.
"The stimulants we've been hearing about?"
"Those things, if done right, are safe and have been around for thousands of years if my memories are correct. The biology was close enough to human norms that, with some testing and tweaking, I could replicate them. However, what needs state of an art laboratory to produce, I could brew in mass with a desk-sized portable lab bought off the shelf!" I ranted. "You know, some days I'm sure I'm pushing the uplift program so hard so Earth could become a decent retirement place in a few decades."
"It's better reasons than most. I look forward to enjoying my retirement in a world that's straight out of good science fiction. Just don't make it into a corporate dystopia or something like that," Miller chuckled. "You were saying about weapons?"
"It's much easier to make larger blasters. While their firepower, endurance between maintenance cycles, power, and ammo efficiency wouldn't be nearly as good as variants built with better materials, they would be good enough for testing purposes. Repairing those inferior models fundamentally will be similar to repairing and maintaining the mass-produced ones we will get in a few years. They should allow you to get a proper doctrine for use and figure out how best to incorporate energy weapons in the current combined arms environment."
I glanced at the Japanese representative, who kept taking notes, yet said nothing since the meeting began. All I could get from her through the force was cool interest at observing the discussion at hand.
=SI=
After months of consolidation, skirmishing, and NATO air strikes, Iranian government forces finally launched their long-anticipated offensive in the North. Motorized and mountain infantry, with artillery and drone support, struck from Aslan Duz and Kalibar, linking at the junction of routes 12 and 27. Irregulars and Revolutionary Guard elements fought to the death holding Khoda Afarin and were ultimately destroyed by the Loyalists.
After consolidating in the ravaged town, the Iranian military swung west, moving parallel to the border with Azerbaijan and Armenia. Fending off ambushes along the way from irregular forces, the motorized thrust reached Safarlu village, which is now the site of the street-to-street fighting against a battalion of the Revolutionary Guard. That is expected to be the largest obstacle this prong of the Loyalist attack should meet on its way to the village of Hammedan.
At the same time, mountain infantry backed by IFVs struck up the Hashtyan, aiming first to liberate Jlghran, Joheni, and Hashtiyan. With those towns and villages secure, the western prong of the offensive would continue up the mountain road until it could eventually link up with road 11 further north.
Meanwhile, the armored forces that opened the way for supplies from Turkey last year have been fully rebuilt and reinforced. They are steadily pushing from Nushin to the junction of roads 11 and 14. Reaching that point would allow the Iranian Loyalists to swing around Lake Urmia and complete the encirclement of Tabriz, where major Revolutionary Guard formations have been digging in since last fall.
The months-long NATO air raids and cruise missile strikes, including an ever-increasing deployment of Jericho missiles, have ensured that most mobile elements the radicals possess have been significantly attired, making them incapable of conducting offensive operations.
Euronews
The Second Afghan War intensifies. ANA division strength formations rebuilt over the winter and launched offensives against Jalalabad and Herat, covered by Coalition air power and backed by a Coalition regiment of mechanized infantry each. The Taliban and Ten Rings insurgents are falling steadily back, facing overwhelming firepower. Pentagon spokesman confirmed using over two hundred Jericho missiles with specialized warheads and fifty with conventional cluster munitions to shatter enemy defensive positions meant to slow down or even stop the allied advance.
CNN
Considering logistics constrain and the drain caused by the Iranian civil war, the Coalition and ANA forces in Afghanistan declined to attack Kandahar province at this time. Instead, ANA forces have dug into defensive positions between Kandahar and Kabul, backed by NATO mechanized infantry and tank platoons.
BBC World News
Special forces raid in Belarus destroyed a stockpile of Stark Weapons ready for sale on the black market. The NATO-affiliated commandos took into custody a dangerous international arms dealer. We are yet to receive more details beyond confirmation of the raid by NATO officials.
Euronews
Demand for incorporating increased security measures against terrorist attacks and teething issues delay the construction of many fusion reactors across Europe. The most optimistic expectations of the first reactors coming online by December 2011 will not happen. The revised realistic completion and ignition date for the first reactors under construction is summer 2012. One thing everyone agrees about is that Europe will be energy independent by the end of 2013. That includes fossil fuels needed for cars due to ongoing campaigns to upgrade gas stations across the continent and many cities with a distributed network of recharge stations.
Forbes Magazine
The tenth of June this year will mark an unprecedented meeting between major car manufacturers from across the world in Brussels to discuss finalizing EU standards for electric cars, recharge equipment, batteries, and generally the logistics of transitioning from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.
Once again, EU standards will become the world standard. The only surprising thing is that corporations are moving ahead of the curve for once. They are ready to negotiate instead of suffering increasing fines and the threat of losing the EU as a market.
Euronews
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