Building the Collateral - 96 - Early Access (Patreon)

When Morgan and Erica revealed what they’d done, I was admittedly torn. On one hand, it sounded like they got to enjoy and bond over some simulator time, with an accurate assessment of the younger lancer’s abilities properly conducted. Now we knew what she was capable of if pushed and in the right mindset for it, so there wasn’t any fear that her entire reputation was hearsay.

On the other hand, I was slightly aghast that the mercenary had taken my niece to do the equivalent of smurfing. It wasn’t that I hadn’t occasionally enjoyed the odd seal-clubbing in public matches for some MMOs in my previous life, but those usually were just rookies thrown into pro fights by whatever passes for a matchmaking system. In the case of these two lancers, the argument could be made that it was an accident.

It also could be argued as entrapment, but I digress. Hopefully it was just a one-off thing, though I’ll be watching Morgan’s omninet usage very carefully for a little bit. Just to make sure she didn’t get addicted to something like bullying through video games, that’d be a terrible trait to develop.

Speaking of games, I’ll admit that there was some minor curiosity on my part when I learned of Lancer Online for the first time. It really wasn’t so surprising in hindsight that this universe, with its obsession for giant robot fights, would have a native affinity for developing games which featured mechanized walkers punching it out. What was more interesting was more how it was run, alongside the rather intriguing background to it all.

At first glance, the multiplayer-only game touted itself as being the de facto platform for simulating realistic combat. It had a ridiculous catalog of both frames and chassis, even going so far as to include things as tanks and other sorts of vehicles that would make sense in a combined arms theater. Yet those at the same time tend to be quite neglected for the obvious stars of the show, that being the mechs themselves.

In that regard then, Lancer Online truly spared no exception. It included a depiction of every single known frame or pattern, and then some more that I don’t recall being in the books. Though they also had plenty of ‘lesser’ models at the same time, those sort of walkers that were technically serviceable, but either so niche or low performance that they fell behind the ‘minimum standard’ of an Everest.

Yet however, they were still a popular vehicle of choice all the same for a single reason: they were cheap.

That’s...hmm. You know what, when you think about it? I could only nod in appreciation that the developers recognized that sometimes, Diaspora powers without the backing of a larger megacorporation, or even of sufficient standing with a friendly one, had to make do. Just looking at Smith-Shimano Corpro as an example, their products were on the insane end of pricing on account of their absurd craftsmanship. Each of their machines was the closest thing to handcrafted in a galaxy with casual 3D printing.

Yeah, I still was trying to figure out what to say the day Morgan asks me for a Monarch. Because that’s not cheap at all.

Okay, so maybe they were on the extreme end of excessiveness. Have a gander at another company then, Harrison Armory. Their products were definitely more affordable on average, but I’d probably equate their very best to the same as the SSC when it came down to matching features to costs. All the big companies in the galaxy did, and HORUS has a policy of ‘if you have to ask, you are unworthy.’

So in a way, Lancer Online making the lesser frames cost so much less in terms of how the game valued those points looped around to being true to form, ironically enough. I took a glance at the rankings and for every team made up for frames from the major players, there was also a team that utilized quite understated platforms to achieve a degree of fame within those communities. Of course, there also as well were those that mixed the two concepts.

That was something that my younger self had labeled quaint, then thought nothing more of. Now as an adult and one in a position of leadership with a government no less, I could see that there was more at work here. It all stemmed from how Lancer Online, in their effort to brag total accuracy about their creations, constantly tweaked and adjusted pretty much every single offering in their massive catalog of offerings as new intelligence or analysis came out.

All, except one. Because they already probably had access to the most accurate specifications of the frame, being a subsidiary of that monolithic company too.

That’s right. Lancer Online and other games that this studio put out were under the GMS brand. They fully revealed the specs of their flagship product, GMS Everest, out there. Practically flaunted it even, as others constantly were being reverse-engineered in code from battle reports and leaked design documents.

Gutsy, but I’d honestly expect no less from their masters at Union; After all, they were humans who dared to claimed dominion to the stars.

Speaking of which, there’s been a rather interesting update on a very related matter to GMS. Before the entire matter with Port Barbarus had arisen, I had sent out a very polite inquiry to Libro Mayor Sistema. LMS was that financial subsidiary of GMS, with a rather powerful presence in the banking sphere within the Diaspora. While the various megacorporations of course did each have their own respective institutions, none could quite claim to have the same sort of monetary pressure as that of a firm backed by Metropolitans.

They’d at last gotten back to me, with some actually terrific news. My Director of Economics was even smiling, because we’d gotten what we wanted- and more. Our little government was now being bankrolled by Union!

Well, not exactly. There were a number of conditions, including only a limited presence within Cavia for the time being. But the fact that a branch office would be opening up in Kavgarad was huge, as it meant that any Cosmopolitan visiting our little place could spend with confidence, knowing that their expenditures were supported by a very well-trusted party. We locals also got the reassurance that whatever they spend, it can be backed up behind LMS guarantee.

To simply the matter, we basically were approved for transactions via a galactic payment processor.

The immediate effect was that foreign spending was definitely going to go up, as merchants now didn’t have to fret about needing cash on them for purchase, or trusting local credit. More manna options were available, more of their various accounts now opened for business. Once we got Port Barbarus properly cleaned up, I could see it becoming a bustling new port of trade that would benefit from all this increased revenue.

In the long term, I think that LMS was apprehensively testing the waters to see how well our markets would hold up to their presence. That was something that I did appreciate too, as Kaldun had mentioned a potential for terrifying price shocks whenever a financial giant suddenly made itself known to otherwise limited economies. Once things stabilized, I was absolutely going to go to them and inquire about perhaps obtaining a credit line through them for the Cavia Committee.

A little too bold and forwards? Perhaps, but it was a plan that Kaldun and Veronica agreed with me on. The NHPs ran the numbers and concluded that if we were able to obtain a loan from LMS, we would basically be able to properly dictate our budgets however we saw fit in the near future. The upfront cash injection was a significant thing that could help with obtaining immediate security, and the remainder we could invest it into our own works for returns later. It of course all depended on the interest rate, which I did have faith in Union not wanting to exploit-

Hmm, wait. Hold on.

...Union might not want to exploit the Diaspora in accordance of their Utopian Pillars, as they would want to uplift all eventually to match the Core worlds. Yet at the same time, that path could be plagued with plenty of ‘sacrifice’ to others in the name of such pursuit. Paranoia was perhaps speaking, yet at the same time, I knew it was better than to rely on the word of very distant administrators. Even if their intent was truly pure, the execution along the way may fall prey.

Come to think of it, that was how Cavia fell to House Hessin in the first place. So I fear that the people might also remember that too quickly, and then look to blame the person who signed them onto this argument. Which, um, would be me.

Right, can’t settle on these potential boons just yet. I had to keep working, which in this case meant acknowledging that LMS could not be the only lender. Rather, it was probably a more careful choice to make sure that we didn’t bind ourselves to a single entity entirely.

The question, then, was what other options were out there.

As mentioned before, each of the big megacorporations did have their own little in-house means of handling such things. Kaldun especially was quick to recommend Harrison Armory’s system, that being the Purview Exchange. It was a middleman service run by a subsidiary to ensure the flow of scrip between the system was guaranteed. Plenty of legionaries used it to send back funds to their dependents no matter what front they fought at.

A tempting option, yet one which would also tie us closer to our SecComm cousins at the same time. It also felt a little too much like attempted compensation for the still-missing dockyard, as we’d be tied to the scrip so tightly in such a scenario. So despite Kaldun’s disappointment, I put that option to the side to consider alternatives.

Veronica invested and dug up the Smith-Shimano Corpro option for my consideration. The Yinhang Enclave was a financial firm that had fingers in many pies within the Constellar, owning assets on multiple Skyhooks even. They practically dabbled a little bit in everything, seeding multiple fields and rejoicing if even one sprouted. So they technically were an option.

Just not one that we qualified for, as they accordingly were quite a close-knit and insular organization at the end of the day. To even approach them, one had to apparently already meet their personal standards, which involved a...fair bit of standing with Smith-Shimano Corpro itself. That, or I’m way off in my estimation of how favored your have to be to meet one an entire division leader itself.

Just to be sure, I did check with Kishi and Hermetic. Both stopped insulting each other for a moment to flatly tell me that I’d have to do something akin to inviting a Skyhook into Cavia to attain that much goodwill so quickly.

Alright, so there went that option. Maybe it was a little petty too, but I asked Veronica to alert me if Yinhang did poke around in time in Cavia, as while they cared much for those who approached them, they were far less discriminate in being the ones who did the investing. Kaldun echoed my sentiment, stating that they did have known schemes about sitting on the board of just about everything with their dabbling. That felt a little rich coming from a Harrison Armory NHP, but the general sentiment was similar enough.

Going down the list then, third option: HORUS.

Um.

No.

I’d like to not have my administration end up reliant on a cell out there that robbed banks with jester masks. The fact that I mentioned it as a joke to Jean and he asked which one I was talking about was enough of a clue to stay the hell away from HOURS and centralized banking. Because clearly, they only did withdrawals.

Then there was IPS-N, which...ugh, that’s painful. Because out of all the other options so far, they objectively had the best and clear-cut option. Their credit system were designed for galactic banking especially, so it was especially meant for bankrolling things like fledgling governments in the Diaspora. Sailors on those long voyages needed the assurance that their hard-earned paycheck after the journey was good, so their megacorporation made good on it with their own system that I really wanted to partake in.

The problem was that unfortunately, the Cavia Committee was apparently not well-liked by local representatives of the conglomerate.

It wasn’t so bad as to just bluntly ignore my overtures, but the messages of refusal I got back were quite cold and distant. Judging from how they worded these replies, I inferred that they still were in bed with Vice Admiral Ibutsu, or at the very least these contacts were hedging their bets that he could win it all. Given that Ibutsu now held a very public grudge against me, his old friendships with them meant that they couldn’t just so easily betray their former ally even post-Half Committee collapse.

Talk about a headache, but Veronica also pointed something out that I appreciated. They were talking instead of just ignoring me, which meant that they wanted to keep diplomatic channels open for whatever reason. So their investment with the vice admiral wasn’t so ironclad to rebuff all attempts, or maybe whatever part of IPS-N supported him was faltering. Whatever it was, it still was an option for the future; an admittedly far one yes, but we could still reach for it in time.

Alright, so that’s the megacorporation lineup for alternatives and honestly, I’m not liking these options. If one were to twist my arm and pick one, I guess I could pick Harrison Armory, but at great reluctance. They worked, yes, but I was hoping for something a bit less SecComm flavored. As it was, my administration taking money from both the former and current leaders of Union felt a little suspect.

Thankfully, before I talked myself into letting Kaldun sign us up with the Harrisons, a new option arrived. One that I had rather foolishly overlooked, but mostly on account of not having an immediate in. I was technically disinherited after all and House Moores wasn’t that close in the first place to our distant cousins.

But House Amarr was far more related, and so too was my cousin by extension. Idris already did sport me a loan after all, so why not go to the circus and ask for some more cash there?