The two argued back and forth but they largely repeated the sa argunts. Ves hadn’t been able to co up with a compelling argunt to convince the Mudriders to partake in the defense with all their heart, so Ves simply chose to be firm and unyielding.
Certainly, he felt a little bad about the Oodis Mudriders, but compared to his own benefits, why should he care about the well-being of so random rcenaries?
"Are you not a rcenary?" Ves pressed, having just reminded himself of lkor’s advice. "Do you still wish for the Oodis Mudriders to exist after this assignnt? If the ch Nursery falls, your rcenary corps is ruined. You’ll lose every opportunity to clear your records of your black marks."
Commander Husaan frowned. "Is the alternative any better? You’re throwing us to the at grinder!"
"That’s because you signed up for this job! You wanted to prove your valor, right? Then do so! Proving your courage ans you should stand up to adversity when everyone else tells you to run away! It’s disgraceful of you to hear you try so hard to shirk your duty. Do you need a reminder on what a high-risk assignnt entails? It’s not a walk in the park, for heaven’s sake!"
"Even if you’re right, you are going too far with this! You are not our commanding officer. Your word isn’t law! Don’t think that I won’t dare to pull my forces out of this deathtrap of a complex if I think you’re about to throw away our lives!"
"If the ch Corps hears about your words, they’ll scoff at them. The nature of combat doesn’t allow us the privilege of choosing our battles. The Vesians are spoiling for a fight. So what? Countless pilots of the ch Corps are doing their duties right now without any complaint! If they can step up, why don’t you?"
"That’s because the ch Corps enjoy the best training and the best equipnt! Their chs are all top-notch machines while my Mudriders are working with five to ten year old chs!"
"Boohoo. I’ve seen your chs. You can’t fool a ch designer’s eyes. Your ch models are all robust designs. They’ve got plenty of life in them yet!"
"And we’ll risk losing most of them before the end of the week if we cash head-on against the ch legion!"
Obviously, Ves did not manage to shake Commander Husaan’s position. After a brief mont of silence, Ves decided to resort to the carrot rather than the stick.
"If the Mudriders do this for my, I won’t skimp on the rewards."
"We’re already entitled to the highest class of hazard pay as well as compensation for any damage we might incur. Still, no matter how much money you throw at us, it won’t make the dead co back to life."
"I’m not talking about more money. How about receiving a couple of exclusive chs in exchange?"
"Are you kidding ?" Husaan began to turn his back to Ves.
"Wait a minute! These aren’t your average chs!" Ves quickly followed up on his statent. "You must have heard about the LMC and its latest model, right? The Blackbeak’s characteristics fits perfectly with the Mudriders. It’s mobile, resilient and doesn’t require frequent resupply. I’ll personally fabricate two top-tier gold label Blackbeaks for your rcenary corps."
Although it sounded ridiculous that Ves attempted to bribe Husaan with a couple of chs, the rcenary commander couldn’t help but halt in his tracks. He knew about the renown of the Blackbeaks. They were excellent ch models and their quality surpassed the machines that the Mudriders currently employed.
Two chs might not sound like much, but the rarity and status of any gold label ch from the LMC could not be belittled. Ves worked hard to elevate the value of his handcrafted chs exactly for monts like this. Commander Husaan knew what kind of treasure that Ves was offering.
"I’ll also add in one of the first copies of the laser rifleman ch that’s currently in developnt. I can’t say too much about the design, except that it shares most of the traits of the Blackbeak and will certainly outclass any of your current rifleman chs."
As much as Commander Husaan acted tough, every rcenary was a ch geek at so level. They passionately slobbered over chs and could talk in detail about them to their fellow rcenaries. They favored different brands and followed the exploits of various famous ch designers.
As an up-and-coming ch designer, Ves hadn’t managed to build a huge following outside of Cloudy Curtain, but his talent was more than evident from the teoric rise of the LMC.
This might not be so important to Husaan personally, but he did not think about his own benefits.
Rather, he thought about how owning three prestigious chs would affect the renown of the Oodis Mudriders.
Outfits that owned and flaunted rare and valuable chs attracted a lot of attention, for good and ill, but mostly the forr. Husaan fell silent as he thought about how he could use the gold label chs as an opportunity to revive the Mudriders after surviving this assignnt.
He could already see it now. With the surge of interest from the possession of the exclusive chs, the Mudriders could easily replenish its ranks even if most of the new hires would never be able to pilot the valuable machines. In effect, their combat effectiveness only played a secondary role compared to their fa. It was enough to treat them as mascots.
Husaan looked at Ves with a speculative look, but the ch designer kept his expression neutral and composed.
Ves did not open his mouth again because he did not want to fall into a trap. It did not cost the company a lot of resources to fabricate those chs for the Mudriders. That did not an that Ves was eager to fall into a one-man bidding war and be forced to raise his offer to a ludicrous level.
Three chs was enough.
He did not know what Husaan was thinking about, but the man offered up his hand for a shake. "Deal."
After Ves left the ch stables, he silently sighed in relief. He only went out on a limb there. Although he could have raised the price if Husaan remained stubborn, even he had his limits.
It was an extrely unpleasant experience to be blackmailed by the rcenaries that you had already hired. The rcenary Association heavily frowned upon what happened just then, although exchanges that happened under the table always took place anyway. This was one thing that no rule or regulation could abolish.
In any case, while Commander Husaan placed a lot of importance on those three chs, the bureaucrats of the rcenary Association would likely swipe away the report within the blink of an eye. After all, it was just three chs. Ves might as well offer a fruit basket instead.
Just after Ves left the ch stables of the Mudriders, a lot of shouting and movent erupted from the place. Even if Commander Husaan let himself be pursuaded by Ves, it was another challenge entirely to convince the rest of his n to go along with lkor’s defense plans.
Ves left them to it and returned to the command center. n and won dutifully labored to bring the ch Nursery’s defensive asures up to full readiness. While Sanyal-Ablin controlled most of the defensive systems, a handful of other functions remained in control of Ves and his forces.
lkor looked up from a projection of an intricate battle simulation. It showed a large amount of miniature Vesian chs punch through the outnumbered chs from Sanyal-Ablin and begin to divide and surround each separate group of chs.
anwhile, the chs outside the base that represented the Whalers and the Mudriders stood in place, well away from the fight. They never moved forward for a single instant during the entire battle.
The simulation painted a very grim picture of what would happen.
"Ves." lkor raised his head with a hopeful expression. "How did your talks go with Commander Husaan? Did he relent on his stance?"
"It took so convincing, and I also had to throw in an incentive, but he finally agreed to station his chs at the front."
"Thank you! You’ve been a lifesaver for ! That’s just what I needed!"
With the tentative cooperation of the Oodis Mudriders, the defenses at the walls stood a much better chance of surviving the initial push. lkor showed Ves of how the battle might play out.
"If the Vesians stick to the most convenient strategy in their playbook, although I have to ntion that there’s no guarantee they’ll stick ot it, then our job will be to put up enough of a fight to make them reconsider."
Ves picked up on the distinction between lkor’s words. "You don’t think there’s any hope we can defeat the Vesians?"
"Impossible. All the evidence we’ve gathered suggests that the 3rd Imodris Legion is a standard Vesian Legion. That ans that their chs are designed and built to military standards and their ch pilots went through strict, systematic training. There’s no way they’ll expose any flaws for us to exploit. We have to beat them fair and square."
The problem with beating them fair and square was that the ch Legion specialized in those kinds of fights much more than irregular ch outfits.
"So if we can’t defeat them, we just try to bleed them as much as we can in the hope they get scared of all the blood they lose?"
"Essentially, that’s the plan." lkor nodded without sha. "It’s a different story if the ch Corps is stationed here, but all we have are a handful of disparate ch forces, and we’re still outnumbered to boot as well. The only factor that’s in our favor is that the Vesians won’t be setting out for a fight to the death. They only want to do a quick smash and run attack."
Ves nodded. "We’re not important enough to force them to sustain massive losses. Now that I think about it, it’s already generous for the Vesians to send out two ch companies to destroy only three ch production lines. In their eyes, we are targets of opportunity."
"Exactly so. The 3rd Imodris Legion is hitting over twenty star systems at a ti. They aren’t necessarily out to inflict massive damage to our industries. They are attempting to put a dilemma on the ch Corps forces stationed in the Bentheim System. Will they move out to reinforce the besieged star systems? Will they split up to help each system at once, and risk getting ambushed, or will they choose to abandon so systems in favor of more strategic ones?"
All of them posed very interesting questions, but Ves left the problem for the higher ups of the ch Corps to co up with a response. Ves knew well enough that Cloudy Curtain ranked at the bottom of their priorities. He could not count on the ch Corps to provide any tily assistance.
Ves studied the simulation along with lkor. With the help of the Mudriders, the Vesians chs had a much harder ti trying to penetrate inside the complex. However, the simulation turned a little fuzzy then, which indicated that the AIs found it difficult to predict what would happen next.
lkor slamd his fist against the tabletop. "This buggy system!"
"Even if the AIs could make up their minds, we can’t rely on their results, lkor. It’s all up to fate right now."
"You’re right." He sighed. "I predict that the Vesians have to sustain up to twenty percent losses to make them reconsider their raid. They won’t shy away before then, because they’re trained to accept adverse losses in the course of their duties. Their willpower can’t be shaken. We can only hope their commander is rational enough to weigh the risk of further losses just to smash a single manufacturing complex."
With those words, Ves left lkor with the final planning. Ves did not have much to bring to the table. Before the Vesians made their landing and revealed their chs, Ves could not even use his expertise as a ch designer to identify any potential weak points.
Ves returned to his office and helped coordinate the evacuation of personnel and the buttoning down of various valuable equipnt.
Everyone moved to prepare for the incoming raid. Over ten hours went by in relative quiet, only to be broken when the planet’s perennial cloud cover montarily parted to make room for a large number of ch transports.
The Vesians descended from orbit.
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