This is an automated archive made by the Lemmit Bot.

The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/KamchatkasRevenge on 2024-12-03 00:59:38+00:00.

Jerry

USFS Crimson Tear - War Room

Up in orbit, the mood in the war room was almost as cheery as Stanley Arnesen’s down on the field of battle.

Today’s training was going even better than predicted. The simulated enemy, drones, hard light constructs and a variety of actual combat mechs with low powered and simulated weapons were holding their own in the scenario. Sort of. While the resistance was spirited and the simulated soldiers were making a fight of it, the Crimson Tear’s newest combat team was handling their new toys beautifully, and were working together like they hadn’t just started running joint drills only a week ago.

It was also proving to be an excellent test for various new Undaunted munitions like the missile with a trytite penetrator that had ‘hit’ Stanley Arnesen’s mech. When you gave the boys in R&D a budget and told them to get creative you sometimes got some very nice toys and that was looking to be one of them.

The holo tank smoothly shifts to views to another view as Chief Warrant Officer Milintra switches their feed to cover a view as Doc Hancock’s rapid assault tanks, really a form of heavily armed and armored high speed hovercraft, cut into the enemy flank like sharks into a school of guppies while the Huscarls led by Doc’s own wife, Samantha, call sign ‘CUTLASS’, finishes off the curve ball they’d just thrown the 3rd MACS in the form of enemy air assets.

Jerry looks up and makes eye contact with his counterpart from Cannid Solutions. The corporate, progressive yang to Khan Hammehand’s more traditional, conservative yin, Chief Operations Officer Natra Sharptooth more than lives up to her name. She was a devil to negotiate with and her smile was particularly toothy even by Cannidor standards.

She’d been pressing the Undaunted pretty hard on some of their latest weapons acquisitions, and was trying to determine if they might want to acquire a license to any Undaunted weapons in turn. Jerry had proposed some war games when she’d questioned what exactly the Undaunted were doing to do with all this stuff doctrine wise, not expecting them to actually have an answer ready and waiting.

So they’d set up some significant training ops at Cannid Solution’s testing facilities on the moon of Gol’Shan, which orbited the world of Primus, where Cannid Solutions’ corporate headquarters was.

3rd MACS had hit the ground running and been tearing shit up from the word go after they finished their initial training on their new machines and weaved their way through more advanced maneuver training.

Thankfully Jerry had been able to wrangle the services of the Hancocks and a few other key personnel away from Admiral Cistern.

“Well? What do you think, Natra?”

“I think you Undaunted are a little too good at this shit. I haven’t seen such a well drilled combat team in awhile. You boys and girls fight like you mean it!”

There’s that toothy smile of hers, so shiny and bright it’s actually reflecting light from the holo tank.

“I like it.” Natra pulls her communicator of out pocket and flips through a few screens. “Alright. With all this in mind, I think our relationship with the Undaunted isn’t just a good one, or even a valuable one, but a lucrative one. Once you get your toys picked up, come down to Primus, enjoy the capital for a little while and then you’ll meet with the board. I can’t determine or force an endorsement to the council of Matriarchs. Not even if I was the CEO instead of the COO. Corporate by laws, tradition and some other red tape. I’m sure they’ll deal though.”

Natra takes a moment to stretch, giving her back a firm crack.

“As to the rest. Seems like you’re using those RATs well. They don’t get a lot of sales in Cannidor space but they’re popular, especially in cultures that don’t have a power armor tradition or shy away from the cost of power armor. Those new modifications you specified are pretty neat too. Nice of you to license the cannon to us as part of the contract.”

The Cannidor executive seems to absentmindedly pat part of her jacket, like she was reaching for a pack of smokes after she’d quit.

“Of course well trained power armored troops can knock off tanks at most scales by the half dozen but that’s what you bring your own power armor to the party for. Those new Undaunted suits are pretty nice too. Those Grenadier heavy tanks of yours are extra nice. Reminds me of an armored support vehicle that the Cannidor used back in the days when open warfare was still a thing, but updated for power armor use. There is a lot of potential there.”

She strokes her chin, pacing around the table before looking at Milintra.

“Could you get me a view of the walker unit please?”

Milintra makes eye contact with Jerry who gives her a subtle nod and she quickly switches views.

“Anything particular you’re looking for angle wise? Or footage you’d like to review? I can pull just about anything up and stick it next to the live feed.”

“No, the live feed’s fine, I’m just looking at overall performance. The load out you selected is unorthodox Admiral Bridger but I have to say I quite like it. Good mix of energy and ammo based weapons, capable at most, if not all ranges. It’s solid. Might even try marketing a mix like that one. The missiles are a hard sell but plasma torpedoes or something similar would engage a lot of galactic palettes at the cost of a little range and fire power.”

“Not like I can copyright a mixed load out, though part of me wishes you’d continue to let your customers hobble themselves.”

Natra barks with laughter, slapping her thigh.

“I just bet you would. Not that they need help, most people won’t care about slightly improved combat performance or an advantage in some situations. A full energy weapons load out with maybe a rail gun for flavor will continue to adequately serve the needs of ninety eight percent of the galaxy and the two percent are so far out of the rest’s league they might as well be practicing another form of warfare entirely.”

The massive Cannidor business woman sighs contentedly.

“Honestly this is almost like relaxing into a bath for me. I was a warrior once upon a time. Been out of it for a long while now, but my frustration then, and I suspect your frustration now, is that my people no longer make war. We fight battles. It’s a galaxy wide problem that the ammunition thing’s always illustrated beautifully. Most warladies, generals, pirate queens or other assorted ‘leaders of fighting women’ are content in slapping lasers into most everyone’s hands and considering the weapons side of logistics more or less a done deal.”

“You know…” Jerry begins. “You sound a lot like someone else I know in your line of work…”

“If you mean Khan Hammerhand, you’re not wrong. We have different methods, but I’ve never once said she’s poorly informed or incapable. I have a lot of respect for her steel too. The woman can turn out power armor that should count as works of mechanical art. Except they let the wearer fight like a war goddess. I never had an issue with the Hammerhands, save they’re conservative, hide bound and don’t see a point in making weapons that are good enough instead of perfect, or selling to the greater market outside the warrior clans. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the clans that formed Cannid Solutions wanted to do things our way, instead of the traditional way.”

“I’m glad you can still get along. We’d certainly like to get along with both of you.”

“I bet. Well the galaxy’s plenty big enough for the both of us, and it surprises me not at all that Hammerhand is happy to get her claws into a new warrior house where power armor is the name of the game from what I’ve heard. I won’t try to compete for your family contract of course. In the end, I think of it like this. Nine times out of ten, we’re arming soldiers. Warriors? That’s a whole different animal. Not that we don’t have some nice toys they’ll probably enjoy too.”

“I see. Well… Eventually as a clan we will have soldiers as well…”

Natra laughs. “Oh well played. I hear from my sister who runs a chain of restaurants that recently signed a contract with your family conglomerate that your head wife Lady Sylindra’s the ruthless negotiator in the family, clearly you’ve been taking notes if you didn’t have the skills to negotiate properly to start with. I’m sure we can make sure whatever world you seize has a very well armed militia and security service. Especially if the Undaunted might be interested in partnering with us in the development of new kinetic weapons?”

Jerry smiles. “Neatly done. Actually I can do one better on that. I do have a letter for you from Admiral Cistern and Undaunted R&D asking to develop a joint R&D center for kinetic weapons and other fun toys. Cannid Solutions gave the Admiral a pair of uninhabited worlds near Cruel Space a year back now…”

“…And I hear you crazy monkeys have been terraforming one of them!”

“Waste not, want not, especially so close to the borders of Cruel Space. The other world is as was originally described, a barren moon with a flimsy excuse for an atmosphere, but plenty for testing. A base there could get a lot of work done, and we’d like to invite Cannid Solutions and a few other trusted partners to join us.”

“I’d be a fool to refuse. I’ll send Cistern a message and we can turn the details over to the lawyers.”

"If you’re interested in kinetics, I have something you can chew on now. If you think it’s… worth a little so…

Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1h5b5c9/oocs_of_dog_volpir_and_man_book_7_ch_3/