Fox's Den, New Avalon. March, 3057...
"Someday, your Majesty, I'm going to elect to eat a bullet instead of coming when you call." Elizabeth Ngo wasn't in her usual attire, she wore a suit, but it wasn't black, the shirt was crisp and white, and the shoes were polished brogans instead of lady's flats. The Dress uniform of the Kowloon Coast Guard.
It was a loaner-of sorts. Admiral Li had packed it, with specific insignia of rank dating to Kowloon's long-lost days of pre-Rim Worlds independence.
Victor barely looked up, "Theodore, Elizabeth Ngo, Elizabeth, the Coordinator of the Draconis Combine and Gunji no Kanrei, current term First Lord of the Star League, Theodore Kurita."
"Sir." she straightened up. "Your checks cleared, sir."
"I'm sure they did. you charged enough." Theodore said it with a twinkle in his eye.
"Probably not." Liz amended, "or you'd be screaming for guards to strip my hide as a phennig-pinching lyran bitch."
This made Theodore laugh. "You did not mention she would be so...salty, Victor."
"She is having a mild day. Must be new medications." Victor cracked.
"There's nothing I could do here, that you can't have me doing at home, Majesty." Liz noted, "Why am I here?"
Theodore gestured at the map on display. "What do you see here?" he asked.
"Six trillion C-bills in estimated losses, sir." she said abruptly, "not aggregate, that's the price for replacements if it all goes right, not including reconstruction costs to rehabilitate those worlds."
"We can lower that, surely?"
"Sure, in theory, you only have to out fight them one-on-one in duels in a non-contested area." Liz said, "Which unless the technology has gotten better between when I left Tharkad, and when I arrived here, ain't happening, so it's alternative Bravo, which is to show the Clanners the difference between a boxing match and a riot."
"meaning?"
"make war, sir." Liz stated, "The Clans have an edge in tech, but we have production, they spend a lifetime crafting each one of their soldiers to elite levels, we have manpower and a bullet will kill an elite man just as well as it kills a gutter-man, you just need a lot of bullets. This is the same situation that prevailed in the Shoah on Earth-the Germans had superior tanks, aircraft, and training, but limited numbers and a really terrible logistics situation, while Japan was overextended with poorly planned logistics and had no secure routes of escape or reorganization. On both fronts in the mid-20th century, the Allies were able to swamp them with 'good enough' equipment to overcome them with numbers and production, while replacing losses and having sufficient slack to learn from early mistakes."
"Go on..."
"one of them, one of the Clanners, is a heavy investment to replace, they had a hell of a bite taken out of them at Tukayyid, it'll take them years to make that back, they can't afford to lose men or equipment." she folded her arms, "We can. Our strategic weaknesses are shrinking, and our strategic strengths are augmented by that shrinkage. We have new production fleets in the works, they have leftover designs they've upgraded, but not as far as we have, or can-naval parity's a ways off, but we're catching up. Control of the high ground as the enemy showed everyone, controls and dictates the battle at the bottom of the well."
"you can't land troops if you can't land, am I right?" Victor said it rhetorically.
"I think we demonstrated that pretty adamantly, Majesty." Liz answered with a nod, "The enemy has warships. lots of them, they might not have all of them up and running, but that doesn't mean good things for our side unless or until we can negate that edge."
"do you think it possible?" Theodore asked.
"You have a production line at Dieron, one at Luthien.." she rocked her hand, "The First Prince has fleet yards at Alarion, Pandora, Tharkad. I know this, my company built or re-built the damn things. The Free Worlds League sent requests for licensing for tooling to my corporate board by Comstar, with a threat that they'd go to Krupp if we turned them down, about the only House Lord I'm not sure about, is the Cappellans-no requests, not even a damn spy taking pictures that we can tell. Assuming they have their naval yards sorted at Gibson and a few other places, and assuming the material demands my customers are filling are proportional, There's eighteen trillion in warships either in service or under construction. which at thirty percent losses, means about six trillion in breakage once they go up against the Clans...assuming the enemy is about equal quality to the two Clan naval attacks on Kowloon."
"How do we improve those odds?" Theodore asked.
"Nukes." Elizabeth stated, "used even under Ares Convention rules, nuclear weapons are a decent force multiplier. the Clans like to leave point-defense to dropships and fighters, which is fine if you're fighting wall-of-battle engagements. If you leverage the improved point defenses of current era designs, and add nuclear strike fighters and missiles, maybe cut that butcher's bill on our side in half when they roll in the heavies...but someone needs to tell the idiot planners at Mount Asgard that ramming is not a viable tactic. some of the tooling design requests my people are getting are basically reinforcing the bows of ships to effect a ramming attack, which is moronic. these are not steam boats in shallow seas."
Theodore looked thoughtful, "so when did Michael Hasek-Davion turn into a girl, Victor?" he asked.
Victor laughed, "Liz, I wanted you here to confirm what my Champion was telling the First Lord."
"I could've done that over HPG, Sire." she said, "You needed an unschooled, wet-behind the ears headcase for that?"
"How many nuclear warheads will you contribute from that stockpile of yours for this?" Victor turned serious.
******.
"I estimate you'll need around two thousand. when and where are they to be delivered?" Elizabeth responded.
"Two Thousand??"
"If I knew I was making an arms deal, I'd have brought stats and pictures, but I know wht most of your fleets have for delivery systems." Elizabeth continued, "So...gimme a list of sizes and types, and We'll ship them to wherever you need them."
"What sizes?" Theodore asked, interested.
"um...five KayTee to Ten Megatons." Liz said offhand, "I can..um...I'm trained. The sunshine badge isn't just for show. once I realized I was asymptomatic after treatment from my little adventure getting shot, I took the handler's course. set off my first egg out in the Snark belt in December."
"you're barred from enlistment, Liz." Victor said seriously.
"Yeah, but there's nothing in the law forbidding me from joining a paramilitary association." she replied, "Like...the Coast Guard Association. even got a little rank pin out of Li's personal stash of heritage items-as Duchess I hold the Presidency...See?"
"I pronounce you incorrigible, and non-deployable." Victor said semi-seriously. "five thousand warheads, all standard types."
"okay. when do you want them?" she didn't blink.