Collection 68 (Patreon)

Collection

Chapter 68

-VB-

Duchess Catherine Humphreys

Andurien IV

3007 March 20

Catherine stared at the odd device that dominated the room it was installed in. There were technicians installing the thing, and she and her family waited for it to turn on so that they may purchase licenses from the Arlaoskas Union. 

And as she stared at this “License Pod,” she couldn’t help but feel that this was what she may have been looking for to destroy the Capellan Confederation and get the Andurien Duchy its independence. 

Oh, she knew that she did not have any monopoly over this device or any of the Union products flowing into the League at an increasing pace. 

Poor worlds wanted tools to fix their situations. 

Rich worlds wanted the Union’s luxuries like “brain synth.” 

Mercenaries and soldiers alike wanted a piece of the Union arms like the GM Kai.

But the true power that the Great House only recently rediscovered was the power of the warships. 

Oh, she saw those horrid videos showing the end of ComStar. Of the battle over Jupiter. Of the tense wait in the orbit of Earth. And the swarms of those … things.

Battlemechs had been the staple in the Third Succession War because there was no other means that provided the most “bang for the buck” - as the Taurians and Davions would say - due to the limitations in interstellar travel.

But now, between those “stargates” and increasing number of Mule-class jumpships plying the trade routes, there was a sudden surplus of jumpships with dropship collars available to transport troops. 

So her plan was simple. 

She would get herself multiple licenses, including that of the cheapest warship that the Union was willing to sell. She wouldn’t use it for herself but purchase sub-licenses to grant her most talented family members and generals so that they may lead her soldiers into battle against the Capellan Confederation. And when she conquered enough of the Capellan Confederation, she would use her house’s newfound status to declare independence from the Free Worlds League while they still lagged behind her. 

Last she heard, Mariks were still debating on whether or not they would purchase any licenses from the Union.

She understood why, but it was one she didn’t worry about. Because the implication of purchasing a license was that the Union held soft power over anyone who used their products. Catherine didn’t plan on turning on the Union as long as Arlaoskas was content to play the factory. 

And she had played into that fear of leverage to convince the Parliament to delay purchasing any licenses in an official manner. Oh, she didn’t say this outright or even hint it, going out of her way to state otherwise, while making sure that the installation of the License Pod would remain as hidden as long as possible. 

But once she made purchases of warships, the cat would be out of the bag and she would have to move quickly before the Parliament or other notable houses of the League moved to purchase their own. 

Because time was running out for her.

Her train of thought broke as the License Pod lit up and made a gentle hum.

“Alright,” the Union technician said as he stood up and turned to face them all. “The Pod has been successfully installed and it is operational. And just a bit of note before you walk in there, the Pod can be rather intrusive in collecting your biometric data. This is intentional so as to prevent others from stealing your license and product. Once your data has been gathered, you will be able to access the product purchase menu within the Pod. You can make your purchases in any currency, and everything has to be paid in full upfront. The Union also does not do returns as we can guarantee that our products are in full operational status with defect or damage. Any questions, my lords and ladies?”

“No,” Catherine said as she stepped up. “I will be the first to use this device.”

“Very well. Then step on in and the Pod will start the process.”

---

Catherine felt violated. 

It was … not a deep seething and self-loathing feeling but one more similar to an intense pat down.

The thing that irked her the most was the “stool sample collection.”

… Ugh.

The indignity. 

Whatever. It was done and she won’t have to ever worry about it again. 

She put her clothes back on and walked over to the only seat within the Pod. She sat down and waited. 

Mere moments later, the Pod’s dim interior lit up and projected flat holographic screens in front of her. And there was a title at the top of all of these screens: the Fleetmaster’s Catalog. 

She took a deep breath in and began to peruse the items offered carefully. 

And winced at the price tags on each of them. 

The license for the “Slasher”-class Corvettes were five billion Eagles by itself, sub-license was an additional one hundred million Eagles, and each Slasher cost one billion Eagles. That was twice the cost of a Merchant-class Jumpship and thrice the cost of the Mule-class Jumpship that the Union also made. 

Just fielding four Slashers would cost five billion for the initial license, four hundred million for sub-licenses, and four billion Eagles for the actual corvettes. It would be a total of nine point four billion Eagles or close to all liquid assets House Humphreys possessed at this moment. 

As expensive as that sounded, industrial concerns and analysts she contacted to estimate the cost of homegrown warship production priced the potential effort at somewhere around … three hundred billion Eagles. 

Just to finish the warship shipyards and related industries.

And that was before considerations about how projects tended to balloon in cost.

The realistic estimate was half a trillion Eagles before she even got to produce her own warships.

Compared to that, four corvettes for the cost of maybe ten billion Eagles was very cheap.

It would still hurt her house’s finances, though.

She was about to make her planned purchases when something else caught her eyes. 

State Level Mech License: GMS Everest.

She opened it up on the screen and looked it over. The Union advertised the Everest as “all purpose and modular generalist light mech” suitable for light duty operations like scouting, patrols, and garrison duty. 

Now, Catherine might not be a mech jockey, but she knew she was looking at a good mech when she saw it. And this was a “state level” mech license, which meant that she wouldn’t need to sub-license it out, just hold the license for herself and instruct anyone under her to make and use the mech.

And as for how one would make or use an Everest, there was a comprehensive list. She could buy Everests in bulk from the nearest Union trade post… or purchase a “Size 1 Printer” from them, haul it to her place of her choosing, and simply feed the printer materials it needed to make the mechs. And without human input, the printer would produce the mechs. 

She also remembered that her duchy did lack the mechs necessary to hold any planets she might conquer. A quick and dirty math in her own head made her blink.

Oh, she’d forgotten to calculate the garrisons needed to hold all of those worlds. She wouldn’t have been able to conquer a third of what she and her strategists only projected they might be able to with the warships. 

If that was the case, then she might need to buy one less warship to afford the Everest license and printer. 

Again, she did the math.

The Union guaranteed a minimum of a hundred “prints” from a Size 1 Printer, assuming that no one actively sabotaged the printer by putting in junk materials or messing with the printer itself. A hundred 35 ton light mechs…

Her eyes widened. 

It would actually be cheaper and faster to buy the Printer and Everest License than it would be for her to buy a hundred Firestarters. Three billion Eagles cheaper, actually. 

And if that was the case, then this was actually what she needed to do.

-VB-

While the Federated Suns took to the GM Kai and M1KUs with fervor, it was the Duchy of Andurien who first embraced Union products at all levels on a state level. Anduriens were the first to purchase a state level license of any kind, the first to purchase the still anomalous Printers, and incorporate their purchases to their state apparatus, including their military. 

The wider Free Worlds League lagged behind the Anduriens in adoption of Union products. Between their already successful war against the Capellans and the inability of the Lyrans to purchase Union products due to the actions of Archon Alessandro Steiner, most of the League’s houses and provinces didn’t see the need to repeat Andurien’s level of investment. 

Except one. 

Seeing the Lyrans fumbling and the League focusing on the Capellans, the Silver Hawks Coalition members pooled their resources together to purchase a different state level mech license from the Arlaoskas Union: the Metalmark-class 35 ton Light Mech.

Between the optical illusory weave, flash grenades capable of temporarily overwhelming mech sensors, and rail rifles that punched through armor like they weren’t there, the Lyrans came to hate the Metalmark in the decades to come.