The “Hand of Starling”: Irian BattleMech Cover-Up? 10/13/3133
INN - Interstellar News Network
SHADOW: Well met, truthseekers! The “Hand of Starling,” the show The Republic
doesn’t want you to see, is back on the air! I’m your host, Shadow. With me as
always are my fellow Illuminati, Phantom and Wraith.
PHANTOM: Believe nothing!
WRAITH: Trust no one!
SHADOW: Welcome, gents. Before we begin today’s topic – The Irian Cover-Up –
our question of the week comes from a viewer known online as Draco041. He (or
she) says: “Starling group, what’s the deal with the alleged investigation into who the
Kappa killer really was? Are you guys planning to look into the possible tie-in with the
mysterious ‘investigations’ that Kristoff Erbe is doing on Towne?”
WRAITH: Good question, guy!
PHANTOM: Or girl!
SHADOW: Hehehe. Well, Draco, that is an excellent question. Naturally, as with all
suspicious activities in The Republic, be they close to home or “out there,” you can be
assured that “Hand of Starling” will ever be there, digging up the dirt and bringing you
the scoop. Knight-Errant Erbe’s activities here on Towne have not gone unnoticed,
and we’ll be sure to break the news to you soon!
PHANTOM: Hint, Draco: Think about ghosts.
WRAITH: Shush, Phantom. That’s for another time.
SHADOW: Right. Now, onto the topic at hand. Irian Technologies, based on one of
the secondary plants left over from Irian BattleMechs Unlimited, was rebuilt after the
planet Irian was ceded to The Republic under threat of war –
PHANTOM: Bogus!
WRAITH: Phantom, let him finish.
SHADOW: Thanks, Brother Wraith. Anyway, after the rebuild, the manufacturing
lines produced only one quick run of ’Mechs for the local militia, then were retooled
in accordance with Devlin Stone’s Military Material Redemption Program [MMRP] to
produce nothing more sophisticated than MiningMechs and ConstructionMechs.
Though far less profitable, the refurbished Irian plants have since produced their
walking plowshares instead of the titans of death that once menaced all of humanity.
But is this the truth, or merely what The Republic overlords would like us to believe?
People?
PHANTOM: It’s a sham, and I’m amazed that Stone got away with it for so long!
WRAITH: Complete tripe! Who would believe that any nation would close down
something as valuable as a source for new BattleMechs?
SHADOW: All right then, brothers. You said it; you explain it!
PHANTOM: Happily! The truth is obvious to anyone with eyes in his head and only
slightly less so to the legally blind. IrTech had a booming business before the Jihad,
churning out ’Mechs at a rate unprecedented since the fall of the Star League, what
with the sheer volume of orders coming in thanks to the Clan War, the FedCom Civil
War, and the relocation of the Word of Blake into Free Worlds territory. The League
was rolling in the funds from being the Inner Sphere’s arms dealer, and folks like
IrTech were at the head of the pack. The profits were high, the Irian plants were
expanding, and after centuries of subsistence-level production –
WRAITH: Right. And just from that angle alone, a company becomes a financial drug
addict. Nearly everything else that IrTech could produce became secondary to
military products, so when Stone came along and said, “No more ’Mechs!” the
corporate execs probably soiled their collective trousers. Suddenly, the lion’s share of
their profits were going to be flying out the window.
SHADOW: Uh huh.
WRAITH: Yeah, so what would any businessmen do in such a case? Relocate, right?
If they can’t build ’Mechs in The Republic, then the powers that be will have to do
without their services – and the jobs that go along with it. Not a good sign for a new
nation to drive away the big money makers –
PHANTOM: So then, Stone gives them a deal. He needs more BattleMechs, because
many of the folks voluntarily defecting to him are bringing battle-ravaged wrecks.
Sure, he can take those that he “decommissions” from the private citizens and mercs,
but there’s supposed to be a big show of destroying them, to prove he’s serious about
ending the reign of these so-called “kings of the battlefield.” So, to win over the now–
scared-poopless execs at companies like IrTech, he offers a secret deal to produce
BattleMechs for The Republic.
SHADOW: Which they did. But only for a limited run, right?
WRAITH: Come off it, Shadow; you don’t fall for that any more than we do. And
we both know that IrTech recently built two more production lines on Irian, despite
complaining about sagging profits from the oversaturation of the WorkMech markets.
These events obviously don’t add up. Add in the Stone angle, and it all makes perfect
sense: IrTech is producing BattleMechs even today. Stone wasn’t so stupid as to get
rid of all his gun makers, after all.
PHANTOM: Right. So Stone commissions a run of ’Mechs – unregistered ’Mechs,
perhaps – which he then stockpiles for his own private armies. I mean, if you run
through the figures, you’ll see that units like Stone’s Lament, the Triarii Protectors,
and even all the assorted planetary militias just can’t be filled by the few BattleMechs
that supposedly defected to The Republic after the Jihad. Because most junkyards still
seem to be brimming with wrecked ’Mechs, the question becomes, “Where’d the
new ’Mechs come from?”
SHADOW: What about all the technology deals over the past few decades?
WRAITH: A drop in the bucket. Besides, what we’re seeing is all new. It’s not like
this is without precedent. In the days of the original Star League, the Terran
Hegemony refined BattleMech design and production constantly, to ensure that their
machines were both more numerous and more sophisticated than anything the other
Great Houses had, and to maintain their dominance. Stone, having essentially formed
his own version of the Hegemony after the Jihad, knew he couldn’t keep the realm
secure on promises of peace. He needed an edge, but because he’d sold folks on a
popular pacifist line, he couldn’t well amass an army in public, could he?
PHANTOM: Hard lock and fire, Wraith. Thus was born the secret plans to stockpile ’
Mechs. Oh, and Wraith, you forgot about ComStar. They managed to hide an army
for centuries while spouting the neutral pacifist’s line. Of course, with a monopoly of
HPGs, they didn’t have to reveal their teeth until the Clans showed up.
WRAITH: Good point, Brother Phantom.
SHADOW: So, then. What we have is IrTech, under threat of lost profits after the
MMRP goes into effect, threatening to leave. Stone, looking to keep jobs in The
Republic, and needing to arm a secret army, strikes a deal. Flash forward 60 years.
Now IrTech, crying poverty because they “only produce WorkMechs,” is nonetheless
building more plants? Does it all add up? Why call attention to themselves that way?
WRAITH: Well, two things: First, it reinforces a party line and probably brings in
support money from the government, thus sustaining the company’s ambitions at
lower overall cost to them. Second, like any great conspiracy, the government hopes
it can be debunked by making it public. Hiding the scandal in plain view, because any
reasonable person would try to hide the crooked things he’s doing, right?
PHANTOM: Spot on, Wraith!
SHADOW: Aha! The truth revealed?
WRAITH: As clear as Zaniahan crystal sheets, Brother Shadow.
PHANTOM: The only real question is, “Where have all the ’Mechs gone now?”
SHADOW: A worthy discussion for next time, perhaps, as we’re out of time here.
And with that, we vanish into the ether. Come back next week, truth-seekers, as the
“Hand of Starling” reaches to pull back the veil of conspiracy to bring enlightenment
to all!
INN - Interstellar News Network
SHADOW: Well met, truthseekers! The “Hand of Starling,” the show The Republic
doesn’t want you to see, is back on the air! I’m your host, Shadow. With me as
always are my fellow Illuminati, Phantom and Wraith.
PHANTOM: Believe nothing!
WRAITH: Trust no one!
SHADOW: Welcome, gents. Before we begin today’s topic – The Irian Cover-Up –
our question of the week comes from a viewer known online as Draco041. He (or
she) says: “Starling group, what’s the deal with the alleged investigation into who the
Kappa killer really was? Are you guys planning to look into the possible tie-in with the
mysterious ‘investigations’ that Kristoff Erbe is doing on Towne?”
WRAITH: Good question, guy!
PHANTOM: Or girl!
SHADOW: Hehehe. Well, Draco, that is an excellent question. Naturally, as with all
suspicious activities in The Republic, be they close to home or “out there,” you can be
assured that “Hand of Starling” will ever be there, digging up the dirt and bringing you
the scoop. Knight-Errant Erbe’s activities here on Towne have not gone unnoticed,
and we’ll be sure to break the news to you soon!
PHANTOM: Hint, Draco: Think about ghosts.
WRAITH: Shush, Phantom. That’s for another time.
SHADOW: Right. Now, onto the topic at hand. Irian Technologies, based on one of
the secondary plants left over from Irian BattleMechs Unlimited, was rebuilt after the
planet Irian was ceded to The Republic under threat of war –
PHANTOM: Bogus!
WRAITH: Phantom, let him finish.
SHADOW: Thanks, Brother Wraith. Anyway, after the rebuild, the manufacturing
lines produced only one quick run of ’Mechs for the local militia, then were retooled
in accordance with Devlin Stone’s Military Material Redemption Program [MMRP] to
produce nothing more sophisticated than MiningMechs and ConstructionMechs.
Though far less profitable, the refurbished Irian plants have since produced their
walking plowshares instead of the titans of death that once menaced all of humanity.
But is this the truth, or merely what The Republic overlords would like us to believe?
People?
PHANTOM: It’s a sham, and I’m amazed that Stone got away with it for so long!
WRAITH: Complete tripe! Who would believe that any nation would close down
something as valuable as a source for new BattleMechs?
SHADOW: All right then, brothers. You said it; you explain it!
PHANTOM: Happily! The truth is obvious to anyone with eyes in his head and only
slightly less so to the legally blind. IrTech had a booming business before the Jihad,
churning out ’Mechs at a rate unprecedented since the fall of the Star League, what
with the sheer volume of orders coming in thanks to the Clan War, the FedCom Civil
War, and the relocation of the Word of Blake into Free Worlds territory. The League
was rolling in the funds from being the Inner Sphere’s arms dealer, and folks like
IrTech were at the head of the pack. The profits were high, the Irian plants were
expanding, and after centuries of subsistence-level production –
WRAITH: Right. And just from that angle alone, a company becomes a financial drug
addict. Nearly everything else that IrTech could produce became secondary to
military products, so when Stone came along and said, “No more ’Mechs!” the
corporate execs probably soiled their collective trousers. Suddenly, the lion’s share of
their profits were going to be flying out the window.
SHADOW: Uh huh.
WRAITH: Yeah, so what would any businessmen do in such a case? Relocate, right?
If they can’t build ’Mechs in The Republic, then the powers that be will have to do
without their services – and the jobs that go along with it. Not a good sign for a new
nation to drive away the big money makers –
PHANTOM: So then, Stone gives them a deal. He needs more BattleMechs, because
many of the folks voluntarily defecting to him are bringing battle-ravaged wrecks.
Sure, he can take those that he “decommissions” from the private citizens and mercs,
but there’s supposed to be a big show of destroying them, to prove he’s serious about
ending the reign of these so-called “kings of the battlefield.” So, to win over the now–
scared-poopless execs at companies like IrTech, he offers a secret deal to produce
BattleMechs for The Republic.
SHADOW: Which they did. But only for a limited run, right?
WRAITH: Come off it, Shadow; you don’t fall for that any more than we do. And
we both know that IrTech recently built two more production lines on Irian, despite
complaining about sagging profits from the oversaturation of the WorkMech markets.
These events obviously don’t add up. Add in the Stone angle, and it all makes perfect
sense: IrTech is producing BattleMechs even today. Stone wasn’t so stupid as to get
rid of all his gun makers, after all.
PHANTOM: Right. So Stone commissions a run of ’Mechs – unregistered ’Mechs,
perhaps – which he then stockpiles for his own private armies. I mean, if you run
through the figures, you’ll see that units like Stone’s Lament, the Triarii Protectors,
and even all the assorted planetary militias just can’t be filled by the few BattleMechs
that supposedly defected to The Republic after the Jihad. Because most junkyards still
seem to be brimming with wrecked ’Mechs, the question becomes, “Where’d the
new ’Mechs come from?”
SHADOW: What about all the technology deals over the past few decades?
WRAITH: A drop in the bucket. Besides, what we’re seeing is all new. It’s not like
this is without precedent. In the days of the original Star League, the Terran
Hegemony refined BattleMech design and production constantly, to ensure that their
machines were both more numerous and more sophisticated than anything the other
Great Houses had, and to maintain their dominance. Stone, having essentially formed
his own version of the Hegemony after the Jihad, knew he couldn’t keep the realm
secure on promises of peace. He needed an edge, but because he’d sold folks on a
popular pacifist line, he couldn’t well amass an army in public, could he?
PHANTOM: Hard lock and fire, Wraith. Thus was born the secret plans to stockpile ’
Mechs. Oh, and Wraith, you forgot about ComStar. They managed to hide an army
for centuries while spouting the neutral pacifist’s line. Of course, with a monopoly of
HPGs, they didn’t have to reveal their teeth until the Clans showed up.
WRAITH: Good point, Brother Phantom.
SHADOW: So, then. What we have is IrTech, under threat of lost profits after the
MMRP goes into effect, threatening to leave. Stone, looking to keep jobs in The
Republic, and needing to arm a secret army, strikes a deal. Flash forward 60 years.
Now IrTech, crying poverty because they “only produce WorkMechs,” is nonetheless
building more plants? Does it all add up? Why call attention to themselves that way?
WRAITH: Well, two things: First, it reinforces a party line and probably brings in
support money from the government, thus sustaining the company’s ambitions at
lower overall cost to them. Second, like any great conspiracy, the government hopes
it can be debunked by making it public. Hiding the scandal in plain view, because any
reasonable person would try to hide the crooked things he’s doing, right?
PHANTOM: Spot on, Wraith!
SHADOW: Aha! The truth revealed?
WRAITH: As clear as Zaniahan crystal sheets, Brother Shadow.
PHANTOM: The only real question is, “Where have all the ’Mechs gone now?”
SHADOW: A worthy discussion for next time, perhaps, as we’re out of time here.
And with that, we vanish into the ether. Come back next week, truth-seekers, as the
“Hand of Starling” reaches to pull back the veil of conspiracy to bring enlightenment
to all!
| October 13, 3133 |
