48

While I was at my office at VMI headquarters, my mind wandered how these days my life was complicated, with too many hats to use. From Prince Consort in the Aurigan Reach to Governor of New Vandenberg to CEO of a big conglomerate (to simplify my life I had negotiated for V4RU to be absorbed by VMI, increasing along the way my shares and consolidating my hold on the company) to owner and commander of a mercenary unit (which by the way remembered me that I needed to find a competent replacement for Vasseur, his second in command, while a genius at administrative work and real good at the logistics side was unfortunately sub-par in the combat side of the business) and to member of the inner circle of Thomas Calderon. Sometimes I didn't even know which hat I was wearing at a given moment… 

In a blur, I shook my head and told myself to get back to work as I had a lot to do with as always a lot of ambitious and far reaching plans that would probably go further without me.

The first phase would be to start the Penetrator line, now that the problem of the AMS production had finally been resolved. 

Once this model was in production, the Marauder 3R line would be deactivated and upgraded to the standards of the Royal 2R, followed by the upgrade of the producing lines for the Warhammer 6R (Royal 7A) and Thunderbolt 5S (Royal 5Sb). These lines were relatively easy to upgrade, even if it would be expensive and time-consuming because the complete blueprints for both 'Mechs and production lines were part of the New Dallas data core.

The Archer 2R model would then be upgraded to the ARC-5TC wit a new Endo-Steel Chassis, Freezers, CASE in both torsos, Artemis IV for the LRM and a little more armor. The upgrade of the production of the Marauder II from the 4A to the 5TC would only take place after the peace with the Capellans. Before that , the Concordat military wanted all the Assault 'Mechs they could get and were unwilling to have the production line interrupted, even if the CCAF was performing at a lesser level than initially expected. After so many years without any capacity to produce Assaults, I think they just wanted as many as they could get their hands on during this conflict.

All these upgrades would take years to complete and require a very large amount of cash, but VMI in recent years had made a lot of money and Thomas wanted the upgrades, so the plan would be approved one way or another.

I had just reviewed the plan when Dr Murad came into my office. A quick glance at the clock confirmed that time had passed quickly and that it was indeed time for the meeting she had requested.

'Boss, by the end of this year we should have finished the third and final slip for the construction of the Invaders. We also have 3 slips already fully operational dedicated to maintenance of JumpShips, that can take any model from the Scout to the Monolith. So, what are the plans for the future? Continue to expand both the construction and maintenance areas of the shipyard, or are we going in a different direction?'

'While some of your team can go to Mechdur and do a upgrade of the maintenance facilities there, with an eye for future expansion, I have another job for you, my dear Doctor. The priority on New Vandenberg is to increase and improve the production of military material. With plans to upgrade several production lines to royal grade, we will need a much larger production of Endo-Steel, Ferrous-Fibrous, Freezers, Ferro-Aluminum, at least four times the actual production more if possible, all the while we will be creating the lines to produce 270XL and 300XL engines. 

Farah kept quiet for a few moments absorbing the news. 'Ferro-aluminum and XL engines… Do you also want to modernize the Fighters lines ?' after me nodding, she continued 'Can do, boss. That is going to take some years, I assume that our space operations are going to stay at current capacity for that time?'

'Well… when you are confident that your people have everything controlled, you can go to our installations in Illiushin, and look at the Union production line that VMI has on that planet. See if you can improve the output or add the CV variant. Give me a report before taking any action.'

'Ok boss, it seems I have plenty to do up the end of the decade.'