Chapter 42
“Welcome aboard the Hephaestus, Mr. Itsuka.” Anastasia Avilova smiled and motioned for him to follow her through the corridors of Montag Company’s command center for its new Martian operations. She effortlessly sidestepped around people moving to and fro on some business or other, keeping her ears open for any bits of information she could use.
“Uh, Orga is fine.”
“Then call me Anastasia, at least when it’s just the two of us.” She could practically hear him squirming. Ten years ago, when she was younger and dumber, she probably would’ve entertained a fling with the teenaged mercenary. Now, she knew business and pleasure were better off far away from each other. There was no need to ruin a highly profitable venture with messy interpersonal issues.
“Uh huh.”
The two entered a fairly traditional office meeting room: rectangular table, seating room for a dozen people, large display screens on every wall, and potted plants in the corners. She motioned for him to take a seat, then waited for the doors to close before saying, “Mr. Mirconen doesn’t speak highly of you.”
She caught his face cycle through confusion, shock, and then suspicision as he planted himself in a seat. “So… you know Todo. I take it you know his boss?”
“Not personally, but I do know who he is.” Avilova gave him a reassuring smile. “He asked me to pass on a message. He’s quite pleased at how everything has worked out.”
Orga relaxed a bit, his expression barely changing. “That’s great, but what does that have to do with this?”
“To the point. I can work with that.” Avilova sat down, then worked a control under the table to bring up an image of Mars behind her. “To be equally frank, Montag Company’s involvement in this operation was going to springboard into a long term infrastructure improvement program across all the colonies. However, you have now completely altered our time tables.”
The teen frowned. “I don’t understand.”
She gave him another smile. “Well, it turns out that vaporizing rock is far faster than excavating the old fashioned way. So now I have a sizable amount of personnel and equipment that will no longer be occupied for months, allowing me to move them wherever I want.”
“Sounds like a good thing,” Orga said slowly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Glad we were able to help.”
“Well, you can still help.” Avilova leaned back and smiled. “You see, there’s a mutually beneficially arrangement that can be had here. The Chryse spaceport is charging an obscene amount of money for the ability to use their facilities to land HLVs. And we would need to use them on a fairly regular basis, not just to support our Chryse operations, but for obtaining supplies, rest and recreation for our personnel, things of that nature.”
Slowly nodding, the teen added, “But if you had somewhere else to go, somewhere cheaper, that’d be better.”
“Exactly. Mr. Montag is willing to cover half the cost of construction of a multi HLV landing pad at your base. In exchange, Montag Company will bill you at a discounted rate for construction, and expects a lower fee to use your facilities.”
Orga leaned back, deep in thought. Avilova kept a bland, pleasant expression on her face – there was no need to oversell this, not when the benefits were so blindingly obvious. She could see him come to the realization, and waited for the inevitable.
“Alright, I’ll take the deal. But you have to deal with the red tape.”
Avilova grinned. “Oh, I’m sure the city government will be most cooperative. They were very interested in a potential collaboration with us and your Doctor Vass in designing and constructing a new medical complex, along with a number of other infrastructure upgrades that have been deferred for quite a while.”
He looked at her, then shook his head. “Remind me to never to get on your bad side.”
“Oh, I don’t think you need to worry about that,” she said with a sly smile. “You seem like someone who picks things up pretty quickly.”
A most interesting expression came across his face, but the teenage mercenary quickly recovered. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Well, we have a nice presentation explaining the overall process. While you sit through that, we’ll draft a preliminary contract for you and your staff to peruse.” She tapped another button on the control panel and slipped out of the room, making her way to her office. While nowhere near as large or fancy as Boniface’s office, it was large enough and well furnished enough for her needs. Slipping into her seat, she pressed a button and leaned back, waiting for the recipient on the planet to receive the call.
Avilova smiled as she saw the row of dominos falling in her mind. With a foothold in Chryse, it wouldn’t take long before Montag Company’s operations on Mars would expand enough to justify a regional director. And after a few years handling planetary operations, well… the sky was the limit in the coming age.
Here’s to business, she thought as the line came to life with the image of Chryse councilman. “I have good news. Tekkadan’s quite amenable to our arrangement…”
It’s good to be back home, Kudelia Aina Bernstein thought, pulling on her best casual business attire. She was back on Mars to represent the Arbrau government in Chryse’s negotiations with the Montag Company, and get the Admoss Company involved in those infrastructure programs. She was hoping to build a pipeline for impoverished youth to get safer, if not totally safe, jobs that would allow them to get out of the slums.
That said, before that, she had a month’s worth of anger and anxiety to unleash on Orga and Dr. Vass. It’d been percolating ever since she delivered that message to Makanai, and she needed to let it out now that it wasn’t going to be a distraction.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat and steaming mug of coffee for breakfast, she made her way to the Wednesday Tekkadan Mars Branch meeting alongside Mikazuki. She pulled up a seat at the table, and took a good look at everyone else. Aside from Mikazuki and Akihiro, the only one who didn’t look tired was Takaki, who’d joined her on this trip to represent Earth Branch. Even Nevara Char was there, in her capacity as captain of the Thrill Seeker.
“Alright guys,” Orga began, “I know this is earlier in the day than we usually start, but Kudelia’s on a schedule, and we need her input on this.”
She nodded in acknowledgment and waited for him to continue.
“First thing’s first – Eugene, what’ve you got on the Grazes?”
“Well, Mr. Yukinojo, Biscuit, and I took a good look at all the reports and sorted the best of the bunch,” the blonde explained, rubbing some sleep from his eyes. “We’ve got 60 that are ready to sortie, another 17 with various minor parts issues, and 8 with decent armor and parts damage we’d have to repair before they’re combat deployable.”
Nodding, Tekkadan’s leader looked over at Merribit. “I’ve heard that people are trying to buy some of the Grazes off of us.”
“Quite a number of organizations, actually, from all across the system.” The blonde woman consulted a tablet. “IOS wants at least 3 as an aggressor squadron, various mercenary groups want some… we’re even getting museums putting in offers.”
Orga stroked his chin and looked at his officers. “Museums, huh?”
“I think it has to do with how we keep winding up in all these system shaking events.” Nevara flashed a grin as she drank some coffee. Kudelia hadn’t spent much, if any, time with the Asari, but she felt a connection to the Orga she first met, back before they’d met the Thrill Seeker.
He gave a slight smile in return. “I like that. I’m thinking that if we sell any Grazes, it should be to people who aren’t likely to use them against us. I can’t see us pissing off any museums hard enough for that to be problem.”
There was a chorus of chuckling at the idea.
“Selling to museums would also let us double dip,” Biscuit interjected. “Most museums are in populated areas, so they’d need their Ahab reactors stripped anyway. We could turn around and sell those to IOS, either for cash or discounts on Shidens.”
“Yeah, well, let’s deal with that elephant in the room.” Sighing, Orga looked around the room. “Is there any reason we shouldn’t just stick with the Grazes we captured?”
There were a number of awkward glances, then Yukinojo spoke up. “Honestly, sticking with Grazes would make my life easier. We already have a lot of parts in inventory to keep the Ryusei-Go running, plus keeping the Waltraute up and running will probably be as much of a pain as keeping Barbatos and Gusion going. Even if we get a sweetheart deal from IOS, we’d wind up having to keep parts for four different types of mobile suits, plus we’d have to train techs for all four too.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet,” Orga replied. “Alright, here’s what I’m thinking, and I want you to speak up if you think I’m crazy. How about we sell the fifteen worst Grazes we’ve got to IOS and whatever museums are asking for them, including sell the stripped reactors to IOS. Then we split the rest between us and Earth branch, and start training up pilots on a rotating basis.”
“You want us to have… 35 Grazes?” Takaki’s face scrunched up as he tried to make sure he was doing the math right in his head.
“Yeah, that way both branches have 39 mobile suits each, in thirteen squads. That way there’s always at least one squad protecting the base.”
Glances were exchanged between the various people at the table, with Raeka finally speaking up. “Uh, sure, that sounds good, but that’s going to require a lot of people. Even with us around, I’m not sure you’ve got enough to go around.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on putting all the Grazes into action immediately.” Orga leaned back, deep in thought. “I was thinking more like… a small number at a time, rotating them in and out for training and maintenance.”
Nodding, Biscuit said, “If we do that, we can also cut back on the amount of deployments for our Gundams, and lower our maintenance costs there.”
“Plus it’d give you guys more free time,” Eugene added, gesturing to Mikazuki and Akihiro. “We lean pretty heavy on you and Shino, so having some new guys to pick up the slack would help out a lot.”
“Uh, I have a question,” Takaki interjected, raising his hand. “Are we going to train Earth Branch on Earth, or here on Mars?”
Orga looked at his officers.
“The Turbines are going to have a lot of ships tied up with towing the battleship debris.” Merribit looked around the table. “They might not be able to handle a large mobile suit shipment for at least six months.”
“We’re doing the shuttle runs to Earth and back already, we can just have trainees from Earth grab a lift on those,” Eugene pointed out.
“Yeah, but remember, you’re not just taking pilots,” Yukinojo added. “You’re going to have to bring mechanics over too. If we’re the only ones running operations with these Grazes, we’re the only ones who’re going to have opportunities to get hands on with maintenance.”
Rala T’Pani raised her hand. “So, quick question here – are we going to keep the Grazes the same, or are we going to refit them like the Ryusei-Go? Because if we do any kind of equipment changes, that adds extra training time.”
Once again, Orga looked over to Yukinojo.
“Well, we could upgrade them all to the Ryusei-Go standard, but you’re looking at a few months before the parts are made and delivered,” the chief mechanic replied, “but you’d have to find someone to make them first. And if we do go that route, you’re going to have to decide whether or not you want us to refit the batch for Earth Branch first, or let them handle it.”
“What do you recommend? Assuming we refit all our Grazes.”
“Personally, if you want to go that way, I think that it’d be best to stockpile all the parts here, then shipping the ones for Earth Branch’s Grazes with the mobile suits.” Yukinojo sighed. “That’d delay getting Earth Branch their mobile suits, but we’d also saving on shipping from Jupiter to Earth.”
“Alright, well, Biscuit, guess what your job is.”
“Write up all the options, compare and contrast, make a recommendation?” Biscuit said with a smile.
“See, that’s why we rely on you,” Orga replied, giving Biscuit a friendly clap on the shoulder. “Anyway, moving on. By now, you’ve all heard that Montag Company’s building us an HLV landing pad.” That had surprised Kudelia, until she heard it was a move to dodge the fees at the spaceport. “I’m thinking we can hire some girls and boys who can’t hack it in tougher jobs to handle an office in town as a point of contact.”
There were nods all around the table.
“Which gets me to my next point… we’re going to have to start hiring sooner than expected.” This time, Orga’s sigh was deep and visible. “If we train up people to be mobile suit pilots, we’re going to be cutting into our pool of mobile worker pilots and infantry, and we’re going to need more people to fill those gaps. Especially since I’d like to have at least two pilots for each Graze.” He looked over at Kudelia. “And we’re going to need mechanics too. But I’d like to do our hiring in a way that doesn’t encourage kids in school to drop out.”
Well, that’s a pleasant surprise, Kudelia thought as she tried to come up with ideas on the spot. “Well, one thing that you could do is an apprenticeship program. That’s a kind of training program where you assign mentors to new hires to teach them the skills you need, while paying them a lower wage. When they complete the apprenticeship, you hire them on and pay them a normal salary.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, I don’t see any way a school would agree to let students out of school to go work for a PMC, so you’d only be able to work with them after school or on the weekends.”
“Mmm…” Orga rubbed his face and looked around the room. “I guess that could work?”
Yukinojo frowned. “Maybe if we’re just hiring older boys, ones with more education… and even then, you’re guaranteeing they can’t be rotated to Earth until they’re done with school. Might be easier for us to provide a mini-school of our own, teach them how to read, write, do math.”
“That’s money we’d have to spend out of our own pockets,” Eugene pointed out.
“Well, maybe the Admoss Company could work something out so you wouldn’t have to cover all of the costs,” Kudelia suggested, writing that down on the tablet in front of her. “I think that schools would be more comfortable working with us, so we could cut a better deal on your behalf.”
“I’ll take whatever help I can get on that front,” Orga admitted, before moving on from the topic.
As the meeting stretched on for hours, Kudelia snuck in peeks at the clock. She had appointments this afternoon in the city – the main reason she dressed up, otherwise she would’ve stayed in more comfortable clothes – and she didn’t want to miss those. To her relief, the meeting ended with just enough time for her to grab lunch and get back to Chryse, right after Orga announced a plan that would have the Thrill Seeker return to Mars once a quarter to use its cannon for excavation. She asked for a word with Orga and Vass, then waited for everyone else to file out.
Once that was done and the door closed, she looked at the two and went, “What were you thinking? Do you have any idea how worried I was that you’d get yourselves all killed?”
They looked at each other, then back at her, their chagrined expressions not nearly as contrite as she was hoping for.
“Well, we’re sorry for worrying you, but, ah, we had really good reasons to do all that stuff,” Orga said, rubbing the back of his head. His embarrassment did little to quench the flames of her anger.
To her disbelief, the Salarian doctor seemed more amused than properly apologetic. “Yes, it was all necessary to ensure humanity’s safety.”
“What?” She stared at him, daring him to make any assertion that would counter her righteous anger. “What are you even talking about?”
“Oh, it’s quite simple really. For humanity to stand a chance of surviving further contact with the galactic community, the gap between humanity’s technology level and the rest of the galaxy needs to be shrunk as much as possible.” Vass was quite self-assured in his manner, which infuriated her, especially since he was effectively deflecting much of her anger. “Everything we did was a calculated risk, strategically designed to not only accomplish that goal, but improve the balance of power in the system. Certainly, you can’t argue that further constraints on the Arianrhod fleet are not a positive sign.”
The Salarian’s reasonable tone shoved a wet blanket on her anger, and she found herself struggling to keep speaking up. “Are you sure about that?”
“Oh, it’s common sense really,” was Vass’ offhand reply. “The races in Citadel space and the Terminus Systems have had interstellar nations for thousands of years. Humanity might be an interplanetary power for centuries, but you have quite a ways to catch up in terms of technology. Honestly, if it weren’t for the Leviathan War around 300 years ago, even the smallest powers would be producing Reaper grade weapons.”
If there was one thing Kudelia Aina Bernstein was willing to do, it was admitting what she didn’t know. And the military was one of those things that she barely understood beyond some basic names, so she deferred to the experts. And when the most experienced of those experts, the one responsible for saving the solar system, said it was necessary… maybe he had a point.
Maybe.
She looked at Orga, who shrugged. “He’s right, but to be honest, I’m more than happy to keep a low profile. Should be easier to do now that we’re going to be up to our eyeballs in reorganization.”
“Ugh, fine…” Kudelia said, conceding the argument for the moment. She just didn’t have enough knowledge about the state of the galaxy to come up with a counterargument, and that bothered her. “But I don’t want to see you two getting my favorite people in solar system killed.” She looked at the clock and groaned. “Now I’m going to have grab lunch and run.”
She was halfway out the door before she stopped and pointed at the pair who’d caused her so many headaches. Don’t think I’m done with you two yet.”
As she rushed down the corridor with a rueful smile, all she could think was Family – you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them.
Downtown Chryse wasn’t usually a hive of activity, but it was today. Tekkadan had setup a stand in a public area, far away enough from the nicer areas of downtown to avoid a fuss, but not too hard to get to from the slums. There was a big crowd of impoverished children and teens, plus a smattering of better dressed teens, at the half dozen fold out tables.
Zach Lowe sidestepped into an alley and ran his sweaty hands over his pompadour, pinning the manilla folder his father insisted he carry under his arm. His father was annoyed that Zach had no interest in working for him, but he was willing to allow him to work for Tekkadan… as long as he finished the current school year. Luckily, the ads Tekkadan had thrown up everywhere had mentioned that you could work for them on the weekends only, and while Zach loathed giving up his free time, he had to admit, having money in his pocket would make up for that.
“Well, if it isn’t my man Zach Lowe.”
Zach spun around and found himself staring at a familiar face he’d never thought he’d see again. Brion Jeffries had been a pretty guy at school, friendly and charismatic in all the right ways. Even Zack, who wasn’t necessarily the most popular guy around, had crossed paths with Brion a time or two, due to mutual friends or acquiantances.
“Br-Brion! It’s been forever! What’re you doing here?” As Zack leaned forward to shake the other teen’s hand, a wide smile spread over the other boy’s chocolate colored face.
“Well, I saved myself some time and got my GED not long after I dropped out. Didn’t want to waste a year on shit that wasn’t going to matter if I wasn’t heading to college.” Brion almost leaned against the wall, then thought better of it. His thin blue blazer wasn’t that nice, but wall was grimy and rough enough to ruin anything decent. “Got myself a job at Chryse Daily, doing news reports.”
Zach squinted in confusion, trying to place the name. “Isn’t that a…”
“Gossip rag?” Brion laughed out loud. “That’s all of the news places! But you gotta start somewhere, you know?”
“So, ah, what’s up?” Zach leaned around the corner and looked at the Tekkadan stand.
“Well, I heard from Rhonda that you were looking to get in with Tekkadan,” Brion replied. “Way I figure it, you’re a shoo-in. Remember when you helped save my paper when that ancient ass computer crashed?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m looking for a guy I can rely on to get me true facts from inside Tekkadan.”
Zach took a step back. “What?”
“I know you’ve got a smart brain in there, my man,” Brion said, tapping the side of his head, “so follow me here. All the other joints in town, plus a few of my coworkers, are already trying to get guys on the inside. It’s the obvious play, right – get somebody who can break big scoops on the group that’s already shaken up the system a few times.”
Nodding, Zach waited for the other teen to get on with it.
“Now, most of the competition is going to use kids right out the slum, because they’re cheaper. But they’re probably also going to want the latest, hottest info as fast as they can get it. That means they’ll get caught.” Brion locked eyes with Zach. “I’ll level with you – I hate my boss. He’s lazy dumbass who pays us all in pre-paid cards and takes all the credit if anyone comes up with a good story. He’s probably got a half dozen guys trying to sucker some of those kids out there for a quick buck. And sooner or later, he’s going to do the one thing the streets say you should never do to Tekkadan.”
Brion held up his hand. “I know you’ve always been a bit of a straight-edge – probably why you wanna join Tekkadan, besides the adventure, space guns, and alien babes, am I right?” Zach grudgingly nodded. “So let me tell you what the streets say about Tekkadan – ‘don’t fuck with them boys.’” Brion held up both hands this time. “I have no intention of fucking with their business. I don’t want to know if they’re going somewhere to do something. But if something happens… I’d like to hear about it, and as much of the why as you can get. And I don’t mind waiting a bit to get it – in fact, I’d rather have that than get you shot.”
The uncertainty and skepticism were so plain on Zach’s face that Brion felt compelled to add, “You don’t have to make a decision now. And if you don’t want to do it, I get it. No harm, no foul, neither of us get hurt.” He locked eyes with Zach again. “But I think Orga Itsuka is a smart businessman. And it’s always smart to have someone in your corner.”
Subtext and deeper meanings were always something that went over Zach’s head in school, but even he could put together a decent idea of what Brion was saying. “I’ll think about it.”
“Alright then, talk to Rhonda if you’re willing to do it.” Brion’s face broke into a broad grin. “We’ll have nice sit down somewhere, work out all the details. 50/50 cut on the money I get from a story – I gotta eat, you know?”
“Uh, yeah.” Zach watched Brion disappear into the back alleys, then swiped his sweaty palms on his trousers. He looked around the corner again, and licked his lips. He wasn’t used to making heavy choices like this, and he knew it.
You know what? He thought to himself. Maybe all that “one step at a time” stuff they talk about at school isn’t bullshit. Worry about getting into Tekkadan first, then figure out what to do later.
He nodded to himself, then walked around the corner and joined the throngs of people in front of the stands. It wasn’t until after he filled out the application and clipped his resume to it that he realized he’d taken a big step towards a new future for himself.
He just didn’t know what that future was.
Author's notes: So, this will be the last Tekkadan chapter for a bit, because we're going to be spending some time with Macky and Gali-Gali for a while.
Tekkadan here is facing the consequences of A) being a much bigger player on the political scene, and B) their own success. In canon, it seemed more like their impact and notoriety was confined to military circles and the upper echelons of Arbrau. Here, they're pretty publicly at the center of solar system shaking events, so now they cachet they didn't have before. Now they're someone who can offer interesting favors, as well as an even juicier target for newshounds and spies (granted, that last one is more of an issue for Earth branch).
As an aside, when I first thought about having someone in Tekkadan have ties to local media, I was going to make another OC, before realizing that there were a lot of underdeveloped characters from S2 I could use instead.
“Welcome aboard the Hephaestus, Mr. Itsuka.” Anastasia Avilova smiled and motioned for him to follow her through the corridors of Montag Company’s command center for its new Martian operations. She effortlessly sidestepped around people moving to and fro on some business or other, keeping her ears open for any bits of information she could use.
“Uh, Orga is fine.”
“Then call me Anastasia, at least when it’s just the two of us.” She could practically hear him squirming. Ten years ago, when she was younger and dumber, she probably would’ve entertained a fling with the teenaged mercenary. Now, she knew business and pleasure were better off far away from each other. There was no need to ruin a highly profitable venture with messy interpersonal issues.
“Uh huh.”
The two entered a fairly traditional office meeting room: rectangular table, seating room for a dozen people, large display screens on every wall, and potted plants in the corners. She motioned for him to take a seat, then waited for the doors to close before saying, “Mr. Mirconen doesn’t speak highly of you.”
She caught his face cycle through confusion, shock, and then suspicision as he planted himself in a seat. “So… you know Todo. I take it you know his boss?”
“Not personally, but I do know who he is.” Avilova gave him a reassuring smile. “He asked me to pass on a message. He’s quite pleased at how everything has worked out.”
Orga relaxed a bit, his expression barely changing. “That’s great, but what does that have to do with this?”
“To the point. I can work with that.” Avilova sat down, then worked a control under the table to bring up an image of Mars behind her. “To be equally frank, Montag Company’s involvement in this operation was going to springboard into a long term infrastructure improvement program across all the colonies. However, you have now completely altered our time tables.”
The teen frowned. “I don’t understand.”
She gave him another smile. “Well, it turns out that vaporizing rock is far faster than excavating the old fashioned way. So now I have a sizable amount of personnel and equipment that will no longer be occupied for months, allowing me to move them wherever I want.”
“Sounds like a good thing,” Orga said slowly, waiting for the other shoe to drop. “Glad we were able to help.”
“Well, you can still help.” Avilova leaned back and smiled. “You see, there’s a mutually beneficially arrangement that can be had here. The Chryse spaceport is charging an obscene amount of money for the ability to use their facilities to land HLVs. And we would need to use them on a fairly regular basis, not just to support our Chryse operations, but for obtaining supplies, rest and recreation for our personnel, things of that nature.”
Slowly nodding, the teen added, “But if you had somewhere else to go, somewhere cheaper, that’d be better.”
“Exactly. Mr. Montag is willing to cover half the cost of construction of a multi HLV landing pad at your base. In exchange, Montag Company will bill you at a discounted rate for construction, and expects a lower fee to use your facilities.”
Orga leaned back, deep in thought. Avilova kept a bland, pleasant expression on her face – there was no need to oversell this, not when the benefits were so blindingly obvious. She could see him come to the realization, and waited for the inevitable.
“Alright, I’ll take the deal. But you have to deal with the red tape.”
Avilova grinned. “Oh, I’m sure the city government will be most cooperative. They were very interested in a potential collaboration with us and your Doctor Vass in designing and constructing a new medical complex, along with a number of other infrastructure upgrades that have been deferred for quite a while.”
He looked at her, then shook his head. “Remind me to never to get on your bad side.”
“Oh, I don’t think you need to worry about that,” she said with a sly smile. “You seem like someone who picks things up pretty quickly.”
A most interesting expression came across his face, but the teenage mercenary quickly recovered. “So, where do we go from here?”
“Well, we have a nice presentation explaining the overall process. While you sit through that, we’ll draft a preliminary contract for you and your staff to peruse.” She tapped another button on the control panel and slipped out of the room, making her way to her office. While nowhere near as large or fancy as Boniface’s office, it was large enough and well furnished enough for her needs. Slipping into her seat, she pressed a button and leaned back, waiting for the recipient on the planet to receive the call.
Avilova smiled as she saw the row of dominos falling in her mind. With a foothold in Chryse, it wouldn’t take long before Montag Company’s operations on Mars would expand enough to justify a regional director. And after a few years handling planetary operations, well… the sky was the limit in the coming age.
Here’s to business, she thought as the line came to life with the image of Chryse councilman. “I have good news. Tekkadan’s quite amenable to our arrangement…”
It’s good to be back home, Kudelia Aina Bernstein thought, pulling on her best casual business attire. She was back on Mars to represent the Arbrau government in Chryse’s negotiations with the Montag Company, and get the Admoss Company involved in those infrastructure programs. She was hoping to build a pipeline for impoverished youth to get safer, if not totally safe, jobs that would allow them to get out of the slums.
That said, before that, she had a month’s worth of anger and anxiety to unleash on Orga and Dr. Vass. It’d been percolating ever since she delivered that message to Makanai, and she needed to let it out now that it wasn’t going to be a distraction.
After grabbing a quick bite to eat and steaming mug of coffee for breakfast, she made her way to the Wednesday Tekkadan Mars Branch meeting alongside Mikazuki. She pulled up a seat at the table, and took a good look at everyone else. Aside from Mikazuki and Akihiro, the only one who didn’t look tired was Takaki, who’d joined her on this trip to represent Earth Branch. Even Nevara Char was there, in her capacity as captain of the Thrill Seeker.
“Alright guys,” Orga began, “I know this is earlier in the day than we usually start, but Kudelia’s on a schedule, and we need her input on this.”
She nodded in acknowledgment and waited for him to continue.
“First thing’s first – Eugene, what’ve you got on the Grazes?”
“Well, Mr. Yukinojo, Biscuit, and I took a good look at all the reports and sorted the best of the bunch,” the blonde explained, rubbing some sleep from his eyes. “We’ve got 60 that are ready to sortie, another 17 with various minor parts issues, and 8 with decent armor and parts damage we’d have to repair before they’re combat deployable.”
Nodding, Tekkadan’s leader looked over at Merribit. “I’ve heard that people are trying to buy some of the Grazes off of us.”
“Quite a number of organizations, actually, from all across the system.” The blonde woman consulted a tablet. “IOS wants at least 3 as an aggressor squadron, various mercenary groups want some… we’re even getting museums putting in offers.”
Orga stroked his chin and looked at his officers. “Museums, huh?”
“I think it has to do with how we keep winding up in all these system shaking events.” Nevara flashed a grin as she drank some coffee. Kudelia hadn’t spent much, if any, time with the Asari, but she felt a connection to the Orga she first met, back before they’d met the Thrill Seeker.
He gave a slight smile in return. “I like that. I’m thinking that if we sell any Grazes, it should be to people who aren’t likely to use them against us. I can’t see us pissing off any museums hard enough for that to be problem.”
There was a chorus of chuckling at the idea.
“Selling to museums would also let us double dip,” Biscuit interjected. “Most museums are in populated areas, so they’d need their Ahab reactors stripped anyway. We could turn around and sell those to IOS, either for cash or discounts on Shidens.”
“Yeah, well, let’s deal with that elephant in the room.” Sighing, Orga looked around the room. “Is there any reason we shouldn’t just stick with the Grazes we captured?”
There were a number of awkward glances, then Yukinojo spoke up. “Honestly, sticking with Grazes would make my life easier. We already have a lot of parts in inventory to keep the Ryusei-Go running, plus keeping the Waltraute up and running will probably be as much of a pain as keeping Barbatos and Gusion going. Even if we get a sweetheart deal from IOS, we’d wind up having to keep parts for four different types of mobile suits, plus we’d have to train techs for all four too.”
“Let’s not get ahead of ourselves just yet,” Orga replied. “Alright, here’s what I’m thinking, and I want you to speak up if you think I’m crazy. How about we sell the fifteen worst Grazes we’ve got to IOS and whatever museums are asking for them, including sell the stripped reactors to IOS. Then we split the rest between us and Earth branch, and start training up pilots on a rotating basis.”
“You want us to have… 35 Grazes?” Takaki’s face scrunched up as he tried to make sure he was doing the math right in his head.
“Yeah, that way both branches have 39 mobile suits each, in thirteen squads. That way there’s always at least one squad protecting the base.”
Glances were exchanged between the various people at the table, with Raeka finally speaking up. “Uh, sure, that sounds good, but that’s going to require a lot of people. Even with us around, I’m not sure you’ve got enough to go around.”
“Well, I wasn’t planning on putting all the Grazes into action immediately.” Orga leaned back, deep in thought. “I was thinking more like… a small number at a time, rotating them in and out for training and maintenance.”
Nodding, Biscuit said, “If we do that, we can also cut back on the amount of deployments for our Gundams, and lower our maintenance costs there.”
“Plus it’d give you guys more free time,” Eugene added, gesturing to Mikazuki and Akihiro. “We lean pretty heavy on you and Shino, so having some new guys to pick up the slack would help out a lot.”
“Uh, I have a question,” Takaki interjected, raising his hand. “Are we going to train Earth Branch on Earth, or here on Mars?”
Orga looked at his officers.
“The Turbines are going to have a lot of ships tied up with towing the battleship debris.” Merribit looked around the table. “They might not be able to handle a large mobile suit shipment for at least six months.”
“We’re doing the shuttle runs to Earth and back already, we can just have trainees from Earth grab a lift on those,” Eugene pointed out.
“Yeah, but remember, you’re not just taking pilots,” Yukinojo added. “You’re going to have to bring mechanics over too. If we’re the only ones running operations with these Grazes, we’re the only ones who’re going to have opportunities to get hands on with maintenance.”
Rala T’Pani raised her hand. “So, quick question here – are we going to keep the Grazes the same, or are we going to refit them like the Ryusei-Go? Because if we do any kind of equipment changes, that adds extra training time.”
Once again, Orga looked over to Yukinojo.
“Well, we could upgrade them all to the Ryusei-Go standard, but you’re looking at a few months before the parts are made and delivered,” the chief mechanic replied, “but you’d have to find someone to make them first. And if we do go that route, you’re going to have to decide whether or not you want us to refit the batch for Earth Branch first, or let them handle it.”
“What do you recommend? Assuming we refit all our Grazes.”
“Personally, if you want to go that way, I think that it’d be best to stockpile all the parts here, then shipping the ones for Earth Branch’s Grazes with the mobile suits.” Yukinojo sighed. “That’d delay getting Earth Branch their mobile suits, but we’d also saving on shipping from Jupiter to Earth.”
“Alright, well, Biscuit, guess what your job is.”
“Write up all the options, compare and contrast, make a recommendation?” Biscuit said with a smile.
“See, that’s why we rely on you,” Orga replied, giving Biscuit a friendly clap on the shoulder. “Anyway, moving on. By now, you’ve all heard that Montag Company’s building us an HLV landing pad.” That had surprised Kudelia, until she heard it was a move to dodge the fees at the spaceport. “I’m thinking we can hire some girls and boys who can’t hack it in tougher jobs to handle an office in town as a point of contact.”
There were nods all around the table.
“Which gets me to my next point… we’re going to have to start hiring sooner than expected.” This time, Orga’s sigh was deep and visible. “If we train up people to be mobile suit pilots, we’re going to be cutting into our pool of mobile worker pilots and infantry, and we’re going to need more people to fill those gaps. Especially since I’d like to have at least two pilots for each Graze.” He looked over at Kudelia. “And we’re going to need mechanics too. But I’d like to do our hiring in a way that doesn’t encourage kids in school to drop out.”
Well, that’s a pleasant surprise, Kudelia thought as she tried to come up with ideas on the spot. “Well, one thing that you could do is an apprenticeship program. That’s a kind of training program where you assign mentors to new hires to teach them the skills you need, while paying them a lower wage. When they complete the apprenticeship, you hire them on and pay them a normal salary.” She sighed. “Unfortunately, I don’t see any way a school would agree to let students out of school to go work for a PMC, so you’d only be able to work with them after school or on the weekends.”
“Mmm…” Orga rubbed his face and looked around the room. “I guess that could work?”
Yukinojo frowned. “Maybe if we’re just hiring older boys, ones with more education… and even then, you’re guaranteeing they can’t be rotated to Earth until they’re done with school. Might be easier for us to provide a mini-school of our own, teach them how to read, write, do math.”
“That’s money we’d have to spend out of our own pockets,” Eugene pointed out.
“Well, maybe the Admoss Company could work something out so you wouldn’t have to cover all of the costs,” Kudelia suggested, writing that down on the tablet in front of her. “I think that schools would be more comfortable working with us, so we could cut a better deal on your behalf.”
“I’ll take whatever help I can get on that front,” Orga admitted, before moving on from the topic.
As the meeting stretched on for hours, Kudelia snuck in peeks at the clock. She had appointments this afternoon in the city – the main reason she dressed up, otherwise she would’ve stayed in more comfortable clothes – and she didn’t want to miss those. To her relief, the meeting ended with just enough time for her to grab lunch and get back to Chryse, right after Orga announced a plan that would have the Thrill Seeker return to Mars once a quarter to use its cannon for excavation. She asked for a word with Orga and Vass, then waited for everyone else to file out.
Once that was done and the door closed, she looked at the two and went, “What were you thinking? Do you have any idea how worried I was that you’d get yourselves all killed?”
They looked at each other, then back at her, their chagrined expressions not nearly as contrite as she was hoping for.
“Well, we’re sorry for worrying you, but, ah, we had really good reasons to do all that stuff,” Orga said, rubbing the back of his head. His embarrassment did little to quench the flames of her anger.
To her disbelief, the Salarian doctor seemed more amused than properly apologetic. “Yes, it was all necessary to ensure humanity’s safety.”
“What?” She stared at him, daring him to make any assertion that would counter her righteous anger. “What are you even talking about?”
“Oh, it’s quite simple really. For humanity to stand a chance of surviving further contact with the galactic community, the gap between humanity’s technology level and the rest of the galaxy needs to be shrunk as much as possible.” Vass was quite self-assured in his manner, which infuriated her, especially since he was effectively deflecting much of her anger. “Everything we did was a calculated risk, strategically designed to not only accomplish that goal, but improve the balance of power in the system. Certainly, you can’t argue that further constraints on the Arianrhod fleet are not a positive sign.”
The Salarian’s reasonable tone shoved a wet blanket on her anger, and she found herself struggling to keep speaking up. “Are you sure about that?”
“Oh, it’s common sense really,” was Vass’ offhand reply. “The races in Citadel space and the Terminus Systems have had interstellar nations for thousands of years. Humanity might be an interplanetary power for centuries, but you have quite a ways to catch up in terms of technology. Honestly, if it weren’t for the Leviathan War around 300 years ago, even the smallest powers would be producing Reaper grade weapons.”
If there was one thing Kudelia Aina Bernstein was willing to do, it was admitting what she didn’t know. And the military was one of those things that she barely understood beyond some basic names, so she deferred to the experts. And when the most experienced of those experts, the one responsible for saving the solar system, said it was necessary… maybe he had a point.
Maybe.
She looked at Orga, who shrugged. “He’s right, but to be honest, I’m more than happy to keep a low profile. Should be easier to do now that we’re going to be up to our eyeballs in reorganization.”
“Ugh, fine…” Kudelia said, conceding the argument for the moment. She just didn’t have enough knowledge about the state of the galaxy to come up with a counterargument, and that bothered her. “But I don’t want to see you two getting my favorite people in solar system killed.” She looked at the clock and groaned. “Now I’m going to have grab lunch and run.”
She was halfway out the door before she stopped and pointed at the pair who’d caused her so many headaches. Don’t think I’m done with you two yet.”
As she rushed down the corridor with a rueful smile, all she could think was Family – you can’t live with them, you can’t live without them.
Downtown Chryse wasn’t usually a hive of activity, but it was today. Tekkadan had setup a stand in a public area, far away enough from the nicer areas of downtown to avoid a fuss, but not too hard to get to from the slums. There was a big crowd of impoverished children and teens, plus a smattering of better dressed teens, at the half dozen fold out tables.
Zach Lowe sidestepped into an alley and ran his sweaty hands over his pompadour, pinning the manilla folder his father insisted he carry under his arm. His father was annoyed that Zach had no interest in working for him, but he was willing to allow him to work for Tekkadan… as long as he finished the current school year. Luckily, the ads Tekkadan had thrown up everywhere had mentioned that you could work for them on the weekends only, and while Zach loathed giving up his free time, he had to admit, having money in his pocket would make up for that.
“Well, if it isn’t my man Zach Lowe.”
Zach spun around and found himself staring at a familiar face he’d never thought he’d see again. Brion Jeffries had been a pretty guy at school, friendly and charismatic in all the right ways. Even Zack, who wasn’t necessarily the most popular guy around, had crossed paths with Brion a time or two, due to mutual friends or acquiantances.
“Br-Brion! It’s been forever! What’re you doing here?” As Zack leaned forward to shake the other teen’s hand, a wide smile spread over the other boy’s chocolate colored face.
“Well, I saved myself some time and got my GED not long after I dropped out. Didn’t want to waste a year on shit that wasn’t going to matter if I wasn’t heading to college.” Brion almost leaned against the wall, then thought better of it. His thin blue blazer wasn’t that nice, but wall was grimy and rough enough to ruin anything decent. “Got myself a job at Chryse Daily, doing news reports.”
Zach squinted in confusion, trying to place the name. “Isn’t that a…”
“Gossip rag?” Brion laughed out loud. “That’s all of the news places! But you gotta start somewhere, you know?”
“So, ah, what’s up?” Zach leaned around the corner and looked at the Tekkadan stand.
“Well, I heard from Rhonda that you were looking to get in with Tekkadan,” Brion replied. “Way I figure it, you’re a shoo-in. Remember when you helped save my paper when that ancient ass computer crashed?”
“Yeah?”
“I’m looking for a guy I can rely on to get me true facts from inside Tekkadan.”
Zach took a step back. “What?”
“I know you’ve got a smart brain in there, my man,” Brion said, tapping the side of his head, “so follow me here. All the other joints in town, plus a few of my coworkers, are already trying to get guys on the inside. It’s the obvious play, right – get somebody who can break big scoops on the group that’s already shaken up the system a few times.”
Nodding, Zach waited for the other teen to get on with it.
“Now, most of the competition is going to use kids right out the slum, because they’re cheaper. But they’re probably also going to want the latest, hottest info as fast as they can get it. That means they’ll get caught.” Brion locked eyes with Zach. “I’ll level with you – I hate my boss. He’s lazy dumbass who pays us all in pre-paid cards and takes all the credit if anyone comes up with a good story. He’s probably got a half dozen guys trying to sucker some of those kids out there for a quick buck. And sooner or later, he’s going to do the one thing the streets say you should never do to Tekkadan.”
Brion held up his hand. “I know you’ve always been a bit of a straight-edge – probably why you wanna join Tekkadan, besides the adventure, space guns, and alien babes, am I right?” Zach grudgingly nodded. “So let me tell you what the streets say about Tekkadan – ‘don’t fuck with them boys.’” Brion held up both hands this time. “I have no intention of fucking with their business. I don’t want to know if they’re going somewhere to do something. But if something happens… I’d like to hear about it, and as much of the why as you can get. And I don’t mind waiting a bit to get it – in fact, I’d rather have that than get you shot.”
The uncertainty and skepticism were so plain on Zach’s face that Brion felt compelled to add, “You don’t have to make a decision now. And if you don’t want to do it, I get it. No harm, no foul, neither of us get hurt.” He locked eyes with Zach again. “But I think Orga Itsuka is a smart businessman. And it’s always smart to have someone in your corner.”
Subtext and deeper meanings were always something that went over Zach’s head in school, but even he could put together a decent idea of what Brion was saying. “I’ll think about it.”
“Alright then, talk to Rhonda if you’re willing to do it.” Brion’s face broke into a broad grin. “We’ll have nice sit down somewhere, work out all the details. 50/50 cut on the money I get from a story – I gotta eat, you know?”
“Uh, yeah.” Zach watched Brion disappear into the back alleys, then swiped his sweaty palms on his trousers. He looked around the corner again, and licked his lips. He wasn’t used to making heavy choices like this, and he knew it.
You know what? He thought to himself. Maybe all that “one step at a time” stuff they talk about at school isn’t bullshit. Worry about getting into Tekkadan first, then figure out what to do later.
He nodded to himself, then walked around the corner and joined the throngs of people in front of the stands. It wasn’t until after he filled out the application and clipped his resume to it that he realized he’d taken a big step towards a new future for himself.
He just didn’t know what that future was.
Author's notes: So, this will be the last Tekkadan chapter for a bit, because we're going to be spending some time with Macky and Gali-Gali for a while.
Tekkadan here is facing the consequences of A) being a much bigger player on the political scene, and B) their own success. In canon, it seemed more like their impact and notoriety was confined to military circles and the upper echelons of Arbrau. Here, they're pretty publicly at the center of solar system shaking events, so now they cachet they didn't have before. Now they're someone who can offer interesting favors, as well as an even juicier target for newshounds and spies (granted, that last one is more of an issue for Earth branch).
As an aside, when I first thought about having someone in Tekkadan have ties to local media, I was going to make another OC, before realizing that there were a lot of underdeveloped characters from S2 I could use instead.