Snippet #337
Candace put down the latest report of her sister’s insanity and knew that she needed an explanation for what she had just read. Reaching over to her intercom she pressed a button. “Justin, dear, can you come to my office, there’s a report that I’d like some more information on.”
And like her husband was in her office. Not a good sign, it suggested that he knew about what she had just read and knew that she would be upset, shoving the report, which was a newspaper article in his face, she uttered only a single word: “Explain.”
“I’m guessing saying that your crazy sister is being crazy isn’t going to cut it.” Was his snarky reply.
“No it isn’t.” She shoot back.
“Okay then, it’s a bit of a long story, but here goes. You might have noticed all those reports about Federated Suns missiles being unusually accurate during the war?” She nodded her head in reply. “Well it begins on Halstead Station back in 3012, remember the raid?” Another nod, accompanied by an expression that suggested she wasn’t impressed with how he was stringing her along. “Well we recovered a lot of civilian level information on LosTech during the raid, not detailed enough for duplication, but useful in that it allowed for the focusing of research because we knew what could be done. One of the items described was a Narc Missile Beacon, a specialised missile fired from a specialised launcher that instead of exploding when it hit grappled it’s target and then functioned as a homing beacon for modified LRM’s and SRM’s. Despite the detailed technical drawings of the grappling mechanism we where unable to duplicate it beyond a physical level, but reproducing the homing beacon and modified missiles, those are possible, or at least reasonable facsimiles thereof, which just leaves the problem of somehow getting the homing beacons onto enemy ‘Mechs, while having infantry implant them during leg attacks was suggested and used, chance led to another option appearing.”
After all of that he had to pause to take a breath, giving his wife an opening. “Interesting, but it doesn’t explain why my sister has ordered the destruction of all vibrators and other sex toys in the Capellan Confederation destroyed as ‘Objects of foul Davion subversion’.”
“I was getting to that, OK? Well the next bit shows why it’s a bad idea to identify the Successor Stats as Great Houses, because part of the reason House Davion still rules the Federated Suns is House Davion’s immense wealth, which grants them a great deal of soft power, you’d be rather surprised at the scope of their investments.” A scowl told him to get on with the story. “One of these happens to be a sex toy manufacturing company located in the Magistracy of Canopus called Happy Time.”
“I can see where this goes, Hanse had the homing beacons installed in the Happy Times Extreme vibrator and arranged for the heavy marketing push it received, my sister has recently found out about it.”
“Pretty much. Happy Times, has until recently, been a manufacturing only outfit, producing other peoples designs but the CEO noticed that there was a gap in the market between what they where producing for other people and what could actually be produced, at sent a request up the line for funding for more advanced tooling and design work, which is how Hanse found out that he even owned the company but the moment he saw the request for funds he saw the possibilities.”
“I can’t imagine that the Magestrix was very pleased with this plot, what with it likely getting the Magistracy involved in Hanse’s little war, and I have trouble believing that Hanse would write off such a large investment.”
“The Magestrix found the entire idea hilarious. As for the security aspects, she’s more worried about the League attacking then the Confederation, and this actually protects against that, as now no one can be sure that any given factory on Canopus itself at least isn’t actually owned in whole or part by Hanse Davion, which means that attacking it would mean starting something with the FedCom. The fact that the Magistracy gets a cut of all beacons produced, all non-sex toy likely helps.
“As for writing off Happy Times, not really, someone pulling something like this is a possibility with any electronic product, and they can be disabled by simpley taking the battery out.”
So the above grew out me me thinking about what would actually be contained in the university library on Halstead Station, which is not actually that much, a university library would have more technical documentation then a high school or public library, but not very much more (Think about how much on building something like a JSF or even an Abrams tank in a university library) and the most informative would probably be from something like Jane's. This idea also says that as Halstead Station was a mining world, it's university mainly focused on mining; agriculture, specifically hydroponics; and metallurgy. Of course this idea also had them getting all other sources of information stored in the university, like say research data on advanced Endo-Steel.
