personal3

As I entered the meeting with my Baronial Council, I could tell that they had been waiting for my arrival. General Jorgensen possibly was the most calm out of everyone, as you would be if you were a commander that just got a huge influx of brand new equipment you'd otherwise be unable to field. His craggy, weathered, face was pulled into a relaxed smile thanks to receiving his new toys. That stood in stark contrast to my Minister of the Treasury, Pauliina Kokkonen, who was possibly the most agitated as she frowned when I entered, her mood seemingly matching her black hair and black suit for darkness. Everyone else fell somewhere in between, with Natalia Macszek, my Minister of Science and Technology probably being the happiest next to General Jorgensen and Viktoria Kovar, my Minister of Industry and Energy being the most agitated aside from Pauliina Kokkonen.

Of the others, Alec Jonsson and Adam Simowitz, my Minister of Justice and Minister of the Interior respectively were impassive. Alec was generally unflappable since his position as Chief of the Police meant he saw all kinds of stuff come across his desk. Adam Simowitz on the other hand had cultivated a look of disinterest that never gave away what he was thinking, which given that the Ministry of the Interior was essentially the Espionage and Intelligence Branch of the Baronial Government was probably a good thing. Aside from them, Oleg Kowalski, my Minister of Foreign Affairs seemed to be more exasperated by how long it had taken me to arrive than angry, Viktor Huber, my Minister of Trade and Commerce was looking cheerful, and Ellie O'Neill, my Minister of Health and Education was looking annoyed at something, though I couldn't figure out exactly what.

"Finally, we've been running on inertia save for a few directives since your father died. Maybe now we can actually be proactive about everything." Muttered Oleg Kowalski.

"Speaking of those directives, I have to say, the schematics you gave us for the CASE Ammunition storage and Specialized Munitions were ingenious. Did you pull those out of whatever cache you and Past Prologue visited?" Questioned Natalia Macszek.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't force a sudden shift in production like that again, by the way. First, we have to shift over production of some of our medium mech factories to manufacture Riflemen, then you send us a design schematic for an entirely new Rifleman Variant. You're lucky you took a few months to get here because it took us a while to get the factories up to producing your new toy, let alone the specialized munitions. Fortunately, your father hired the best people money and his charisma could buy." Sighed Viktoria Kovar.

"Speaking of the New Rifleman Variant, what were you thinking of doing with it? You gave us a lot of Rim World's Republic Army equipment that outclasses it in a lot of ways. I'm not complaining, mind, the Rim World's Republic Army equipment was greatly appreciated. Especially those Rampages, though it'll take a bit of retraining for some of my boys to move up to an eighty-five-ton Assault Mech from the Marauders and Riflemen they're used to. Give us a couple of months though and we can have them worked up. I'm just wondering what the plan is for the new Rifleman." Informed General Jorgensen.

"First we focus on production for the Militia Units supplementing our Baronial Guards, then we go to export." I said.

"Export, who do you believe will buy from a periphery nation? You're not planning to sell to the Oberon Confederation, are you?" Queried Oleg Kowalski.

"No, the Duke of Apollo will buy. I already sold him a Jumpship. Speaking of which, how are we on funds now, Pauliina?" I asked.

"While the cash injection from the Dropship Sale more than covered the loss of funds from your acquisition of that Rim Worlds Republic equipment, we had to retool our factories over the past few months in order to produce your new Rifleman Variant. While they were doing that production of spare mech parts, one of our primary exports, had to be temporarily halted. We actually lost money getting them into production. I hope you have more than just vague plans to export Riflemen Variants in the future to Apollo to make up for it?" Questioned Pauliina Kokkonen.

"I do have plans. Ellie, I sent you some schematics to look over earlier today, can you go ahead and tell everyone what they were?" I Questioned.

"Schematics for Star League-Grade Jamerson-Ulikov Water Purification Filters and Star League Era Storm Nullification Engines. LosTech that's invaluable for anyone trying to live on a hostile or toxic planet. We can make them, but it'll take some time to get the factories into production. I also want to claim the first dozen or so water Purification Filters produced for use on Zertarum so that we can begin using some of the more marginal water on the planet." Pointed out Ellie O'Neill.

"That's why we aren't going to be selling finished products, we're going to be selling a license to produce the filters." I nodded.

"To whom?" Queried Viktor Huber, interested.

"Csesztreg. You plan to sell the license to Duke Horvath of Csesztreg." Intoned Oleg Kowalski.

"I do. The recent spate of fighting on Csesztreg has damaged their water purification systems left over from the Star League, and they weren't functioning so well to begin with." I nodded.

"Csesztreg is one of the main sources of heavy metals for the Lyrans. They rely on their Water Purification Filters pretty heavily in order to keep up the flow of materials. Without them, the water on-planet will quickly become toxic from the runoff. I'd imagine that Duke Horvath would pay quite well for any technology that allows him to keep them running. I can negotiate that license, but it will likely be a lump sum payment and an agreement not to sell the technology without giving us a percentage. It will be a large lump sum payment, but still a lump sum. I hope you have another option for continued trade?" Pressed Viktor Huber.

"I do. How are we fixed for the production of specialized ammunition?" I asked.

"Ammunition production is easy, even the specialized ammunition you managed to reverse engineer. That was actually the easiest part of my job over the past few months." Answered Viktoria Kovar.

"Because I figured we could begin exporting it to the Lyrans. The Duke of Apollo is a trustworthy client, I figure we can sell to him as a test run." I responded.

"We will have to increase security around the factories, and I will have to have funding for new surveillance equipment. Ammunition may be low-hanging fruit, but with the Water Purifiers also, it is better to be prepared for people to begin sniffing around than to be caught unawares, no?" Spoke up Adam Simowitz.

"I actually came across something that might be useful for you there. I'm sending it to your noteputer now." I nodded, sending off a data signal to Adam's noteputer. The data contained the schematics for the M-Eleven-J Sneaksuit I picked up, along with SLDF-Grade Counter-Intelligence Software and Equipment. As he saw what I sent him, Simowitz's eyebrows raised considerably as he saw what it was I was going to be making for him.

"Where did you find this? Active Stealth Sneaksuits? Advanced Facial Recognition Cameras? Advanced Analytical Software? With this, any spies or saboteurs won't even know they're being tailed or even that we've picked them out of a crowd." Breathed Adam Simowitz.

"The same place I pulled the other schematics from. The same place I pulled all the Rim World's Republic Army equipment from." I said, sending those schematics over to Viktoria Kovar's noteputer as well. She looked them up and frowned.

"The Software should be simple to produce, same for the Cameras. The Sneaksuits will take some doing, though. I don't suppose you pulled any advanced Industrial Schematics out of wherever you found all of this stuff?" Questioned Viktoria Kovar.

"Not as yet, though I'm hoping we can rectify that in the coming months. In the meantime, can you and Minister Jonsson handle securing our factories and facilities against spies and saboteurs?" I asked.

"If the Ministry of the Interior can find them, my boys will be able to capture them and hold them, don't you worry about that." Boasted Alec Jonsson.

"Perfect, now, Natalia. I have information that should help fix the flaws in the UAC that our current designs have. I also have a number of schematics for various things I'll be sending over to the Ministry of Science and Technology later today. I want teams working on it that you can trust not to leak the information. Teams used to handling our highest level of classified technology." I prefaced my data package to her.

"Of course, we vet everyone working for every government department. I know just the people." Agreed Natalia Macszek.

"Good. In that case, here's just a sample of what I have for you to work on." I nodded, sending out a databurst containing information on Ferro-Fibrous Armor, Endo-Steel, SLDF-Grade Advanced Fire Control Systems, Guardian ECM Suites, and Kawabata Weapons UACs. As she got a look at what I was sending her, she swore, reached into her handbag, pulled out a cigarette and lighter, and lit up, taking a deep drag off her cigarette to calm herself. Then she looked over at me and asked me the question I'd been dreading this whole time.

"That's a lot. Combined with the schematics for the other stuff and the Rim World's Republic Equipment, I have to ask, just what did you manage to stumble on out there?" She questioned. So I told her. I told them all. How we'd managed to stumble across not one, but two caches of Star League Era equipment and schematics, how we had the locations of others that Past Prologue was going after. How we had to play this very, very, carefully, or else the entire Inner Sphere was going to come down on us to snake this treasure trove out from under our feet, and how this could be the genesis of something great for all of us. 

Through the Oratory and Diplomatic training my father gave me, I attempted to sell my Baronial Council on my plan. Somehow, whether it was the thought of all of them having slots as high nobility in a polity on the rise, my charisma, loyalty to my father, patriotism, or the potential rewards to be reaped, I was managing it. By the end of my speech, I could see they wanted to buy in, they just needed a little extra push. That was when Adam Simowitz spoke up.

"You are your father's son, at least. With that kind of luck, you can either hitch yourself to it or step out of the way, because trying to stand against it is like trying to stand against a blizzard. I think perhaps that hitching ourselves to your plans will be very profitable for us all if we survive." Intoned Adam Simowitz.

"We'll survive. We'll all make sure of that, besides, with all this equipment and technology, even the Dracs or Lyrans will have to make a concerted effort to snuff us out, and we're on good terms with one while the other is still fighting a Successor War." Agreed General Jorgensen. 

With that endorsement, the dam burst open and the floodwaters of agreement streamed forth, picking up my Baronial Council and sweeping them up in a tide of affirmation. Somehow or other, with a little help from Minister Simowitz and General Jorgensen, I'd managed to get the Council on board with my plans. Now all we had to do was carry them out carefully enough that we'd be able to set ourselves up nicely before anyone could even think to crack down on us. That, however, was going to be easier said than done and take time and careful effort. Fortunately, the Inner Sphere was busy with a Successor War that didn't look like it would calm down any time soon, while ComStar was busily sniffing around Wolf's Dragoons rather than the periphery. For how long, I couldn't say, but one thing was for damn sure.

I planned to take advantage of what grace period that bought us. . .

XXXX

AN: Apologies for the unannounced absence, I recently purchased BG3 and fell down a gaming rabbit hole. I'm trying to get chapters out for my stories now.

In this Chapter, we get to meet the Baronial Council. It's an abridged version of a Presidential Cabinet. A lot of things are merged for example, like Industry and Energy or Health and Education. There are only eight departments compared to the fifteen in the US Presidential Cabinet, as well. However, I figured for a relatively minor state like Jozef's eight was a decent number. You'll note that the names of the Cabinet Members all share a certain theme. That's because the Barony is heavily weighted toward people from the former Principality of Rasalhague. A lot of Jozef's Cabinet has roots in places like Predlitz, Radsdadt, New Bergen, and so on.

This of course makes most people very anti-Combine, which given how the Dracs are basically just the IJA in Space, isn't exactly unjustified. What it means, however, is that people in positions of power will be very willing to play various caches and reverse-engineered LosTech close to the vest to avoid Draconis Combine Espionage and what have you. It certainly helped Jozef sell his cabinet on being very careful about everything involving his plans.

At any rate, the next chapter will see some of the Baronial Guards training on their New RWR Equipment.

Stay tuned. . .