Collection 64 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 64

-VB-

John Wu

New Syrtis

3006 September 4

Just a year ago, traveling to the regional capital of the Federated Suns as a Capellan would have been unthinkable. 

In fact, if the MIIO and DMI didn’t catch him, then the Maskirovka would have caught him and dealt with him for “daring to spend money and time in their most hated nation.” 

And to be fair, John still didn’t like the Federated Suns even after all of the peace that he and the rest of the former Capellan worlds were expected to “enjoy.”

But this was where the trade was. This was where money was, and he was here to make money! 

The biggest advantage he had so far was the Mule jumpship itself. Though it had the same name as the Mule dropship, his Mule jumpship barely had half the cargo capacity of a single dropship. 

That said, his Mule jumpship was so heavily armored, heavily armed, and fast compared to even dropships, he was pretty certain that nothing short of a dedicated assault dropship would take him on. 

Which meant, if he really wanted to, he could run blockades for even more profit. 

But that’s not what he was doing because there was an even better profit to be had right now. 

Arlaoskas products. 

Specifically, the fleetmaster wanted him to call these “union” products. 

He had a hundred tons of high-spec laptop computers that would blow everyone's minds. He also had two hundred units of five-ton cold fusion reactors. Had he been a stupider man, then he would have sold those to the confederation… but, well, he was quite liking his family’s new lot, and the confederation would try to ruin that. 

But most importantly, the rest of his cargo hold was taken up by battlemechs designed by the fleetmaster himself. The fleetmaster did warn him that the mechs weren’t the best that he could produce but would outdo any other mech in their tonnage. 

He brought his jumpship to land on the planet’s biggest spaceport and came out to talk with the harbormaster himself. 

The New Haven Landing Field, despite its name, was a spaceport with proper tarmac, dropship repair crews and facilities, and so on, and its harbormaster was a mirror of the well kept spaceport: a tall, clean-shaven, black eyed, and handsome middle aged man who looked a lot like the other middle aged men his clan liked to bring him to try and get their daughters to marry. 

“Good morning, Captain Wu. I am Harbormaster Hasek-Erenton. I have it on this manifest that you are from the Union?” he asked as he looked down at his noteputer. 

“Yes, I am,” he spoke in standard Star League English. “And this is the first Federated Suns port I’ve stopped at… and I have a gift for you.”

“Oh?” the man looked on guard immediately. 

“Are you a man familiar with computer terminologies?” he asked.

“I … am.”

“Things like RAMs, hertz, bits…?”

“Yes.”

“Well, I am not too familiar with them aside from how much storage a computer has.”

John nodded graciously. He snapped his fingers and one of his servant-sailors stepped up with a suitcase in hand. He opened the suitcase and inside of it was a single “Union” laptop in its prestigious black and green plastic package. 

“Factory fresh laptop from the fleetmaster’s own factory,” he said. “Would you like to hear its specs?”

“... Sure?” he looked unsure. 

“First off, it has one terabyte of storage capacity.”

The harbormaster froze. “What?”

“Its sixteen core CPU apparently runs at 6.5 gigahertz each. Its built-in ram sticks provide it with 128 gigabytes of memory. It is probably the most powerful computing device outside of what’s running my jumpship.”

The servant stepped forward and offered the laptop.

The harbormaster gingerly took it. 

“... Thank you.”

“It’s my first time in the Federated Suns world! I wanted to make a good impression,” John smiled. “Now, let’s get you aboard to get that manifest matched with my cargo.”

The harbormaster followed him to the cargo bay, and John did his best to show it off. 

Because he knew as everyone else did that the harbormaster was one of the few people on any planet with connections to the elites of that world. Because everyone wanted to know what was coming and going. Sure, that connection might be indirect or removed twice or thrice, but that connection was there.

And he wanted the harbormaster to alert the elites of this world so that they would come and buy his shit as quickly as he could sell them. 

Because aside from the cold fusion reactors, he had mechs to sell.

As the harbormaster took in the cargo bay, his gaze slowly locked onto the mostly white and blue battlemechs curled up into fetal balls and locked along one wall of the cargo bay. They looked very cramped with how low the cargo bay ceilings were and how closely the mechs sat curled up next to each other.

“... I don’t recognize those mechs,” the man admitted. 

“You wouldn’t. These are new mechs that the fleetmaster himself has created. He gave them a really long name, but shortened, he called them GM Kai.”

“GM? Did General Motors have a hand in their creation?”

John shrugged. “How would I know? But I was told by the fleetmaster himself that these mechs are proprietary technology and license. Told me specifically that no other mech will be able to defeat these if they are of the same weight class. Or even ten tons heavier.”

“Really?” the harbormaster hummed. 

“Really. That’s why I’ll be selling them at six million C-Bil-. I mean seven million Pounds each. Can’t forget that ComStar and their money’s no longer a thing.”

“Seven million?! You could buy a heavy mech with that. Or a low end assault mech!”

“Oh, yes. You certainly can. That’s because it is a heavy mech at sixty tons. It has only a pair of AC/2’s and jump jets built-into its torso but it has other weapons that it can carry into the battle like how infantry would carry theirs into battle,” he said as he gestured to the other wall, where other products - like the cold fusion reactors - sat alongside the weapons he bought. He opened one of the cases open and showed it to the harbormaster. “This is AUGM ‘Penetrator’ AC/10. It has a higher accuracy, range, and rate of fire than your average AC/10. One of these comes with each Kai you buy along with a large laser rifle that even other mechs with fingers can use… assuming their fingers aren’t too thick.”

The more he talked, the more the harbormaster grew intrigued. 

It took an entire hour for his entire inventory to get matched with the manifest, excluding the one laptop he gifted to the harbormaster, just in time for lunch.

By this time next week, he would have sold everything. With each laptop, reactor, and mech, he made a profit of four thousand, eight hundred thousand, and two million Pounds each. 

When he returned home to Victoria and then to the Victoria Fortress Station, he used that money to get more goods and even put money in the bank for another Mule jumpship purchase in the future.

As for the GM Kai… 

That mech made waves.