Katz looked reluctantly at the map, "very well. If there is no other choice..."
He folded his arms, looking thoughtfully off into the distance, weighing the potential security risks against the potential gains. Everything could come to disaster if the location were to become public, but could the IMG miners be trusted? What sub-sects of the enigmatic group could they cultivate a relationship with who possessed the resources needed.
While Robert and Premier Katz exchanged few words, Jack was carefully listening every one of them,
all the details need to be examed before taking any real actions. I gotta say I am not pleased with Civilians getting involved so much in this operation, but seems we do not have many other choices here. Jack replied, as others directed their attention to him. We did have several....let's say "talks" with IMG, mostly concerning technology matters, as few of our pilots expressed desire to fly one of their vessels but there was few issues with it, and I must admit IMG Directors were discrete and very co-operative when it came to confidentiality between our groups. So, perhaps we can trust them, what is your say on this rest of you gentlmens? Jack finished to expand this discussion a bit more.
Ben Warner who had previously been silent, preferring to listen and observe until he could provide his own opinion and suggestions. Folding his hands infront of him, leaning slightly forward while just gazing at Jack he nodded slightly.
"Desperate times call for desperate measures, I have aided these miners several times against Outcast incursions into Tau-23, from what I have observed of them the miners are competent and perhaps willing to aide us as long as we continue to aide them against the Outcasts in the area assailing their vessels." he commented calmly, taking a short breath before pushing his view. "But we must not forget that these people are a Corporation, profit is a high-importance thought to them, we must always be aware they may sell us out to a House such as Kusari, thus we must tread carefully in what we tell them of what we are doing." he finished, closing his eyes briefly in thought as he let his opinion sink into the minds of the other High Command members assembled.
"We must keep it as secret as it is humanely possible. I think. As far as it is possible, we must keep the location of our installation secret. Trust is not something we can give out, because just one spare word means our base is doomed. I think we could get the IMG's assistance in moving the rock, but letting them know of our base location to help us in digging it out is a dangerous proposition. I believe Admiral X here is negotiating with them, he'll know best what are our options with them.
Let's look at the various problems we have here then, We need Men, Materials, and Money.
We can get some men from our organizations, but we need more. There was a suggestion of intercepting Slave Shipments and offering them a chance to work with us, as well as taking a few labourers from Zoners. How feasible is that?
For Materials, Again we will have to depend on our own production facilities, and shipments from Zoners. Will that be sufficient? I believe not. We will have to bring in several key resources from outside sources, The IMG again, is a viable option. But we have to look for options. Any suggestions?
Money....has always been a problem, Right?" He smiles, and continues.
"The Zoners are swimming in money, so to speak, but I doubt they will empty their reserves for us, so we will have to arrange money from our other backers. Blackmailing, extortion, will have to come......
That is the gist of it. We need to expand on all those plans if we are to succeed."
Katz blinked, a bemused smile finding its way onto his lips.
"Blackmail, and extortion are two methods... though I have found the methods of openess and honesty also quite effective... The key to achiving our goals is to dangle a greater prize in front of a person, and allow their own greed to make them..." he chuckled, "Pony up as it were..."
He stared pensively at the maps, "we could attempt what the Liberty Navy achieved with Willard Research station, carving the base out of the ice would make it go significantly faster. In fact... the Coalition has specific mining equipment for the Siberian Ice fields that would do the trick... handily. Combined with the Order's already well adapted and winterized technology..." he nodded out of the windows at Toledo's snow blasted surface.
He fished in his pocket and produced a pen, flipping open a portfolio one of his aides handed to him, and jotting down some notes while doing some calculations. "I am trying to work out how much one of our mining operations would cost, replicating the ice mine on a larger scale... This will take me a few minutes, so please continue..."
The Rear Admiral has been listening all the time, since all these negotiations, the planning and approval procedures are an interesting, but a quiet new and widespread experience for him.
He nods to the Premier and raises his hand to get the others' attention aswell. "If I may add something to this....", he looks at everyone, waiting for their approval "...I think the amount
500 billion is a rather large sum.
If we could reduce it to at least something around 350 to 400 billion, I would be quiet happy and our goal
could be achieved much faster.
As Admiral D'Souza already stated....it's all about the money and before the funding is not assured, we
better should not overextend oneselves on building this station.
But I trust the Premiers abilities on that.
I just could not stand if we would leave the station behind because of some financial problems.
If we can get the Zoners involved, why not and if you wish me to contact them as soon as that point is
decided, I would be happy to do my duty."
Julian leans back and waits for a response, a confident smile raises on his face as he tasted the tea which was
just served.
Ben leans forward, his eyes narrowed in mild concern.
"Comrades, there is one problem with an Ice Asteroid base, the crystalline structure of the ice would be difficult to mine through without causing massive fractures during the boring process, we would need to pinpoint the sections of weakness in the crystal's structure and reinforce them, if we cannot do that than any drilling would be for naught..." he comments softly.
Katz finished his calculations, nodding in satisfaction at the savings.
"It becomes viable when we consider the Ice solution, but Ben is right... the rock, as it is, is very unstable, concentrated firepower from heavy mortars could vapourize the whole thing. We'd have to reinforce it and install proper shielding... But we can't do that when the only real option is here..."
Katz stood and gestured to an aide, who called up an SCRA recon scouts images and scans of a large ice rock.
"This rock fits our needs, however it is perilously close to the Alpha jump hole... we would have to attempt to move it away from there if we have any hope of attempting to reinforce it, or install shielding. Now... I don't know how much experience the Order have with the Maltese Navy, but they won't exactly sit still knowing we're attempting this. And judging by the two red signals on this image, I would hazard a guess that the Outcasts already know we were looking at this particular rock..."
The Admiral was flanked by four guards as he walked towards the the bar. He was wearing The Order's traditional flight-suit but with a covering which masked his head. He had also retained his leather gloves.
His guards wore the same flight-suit; two of them were carrying heavy machine guns and two were carrying pistols. They arrived at the entrance of the bar, where one of The Order guardsmen said no guards were permitted inside the room.
He shrugged and walked inside. He knew his guards were fast enough to get to and protect him if anything happened.
There was a seat for him and he took it. The Premier had just stopped talking. "The Outcasts would send three battlegroups just to chase a a confirmed Coalition fighter anywhere in Tau 37, let alone so close to their hole. As for towing the ship, unless you are invisible, no-one that tows it, is going to be left alone."
He had made his entrance. "I gather you have already covered the weaknesses in an ice-crystalline base for construction, so let us go over the strengths. Completely undetectable, if made right. Water mined from ice asteroids is not scanned for location, it is confirmed by sight. Adding to that, the Outcasts searching for the Independent Miners Guild base in Tau 37 are only scanning asteroids because they believe no-one will be crazy enough to build an ice base. Just to clarify, the same stealthy nature could be attributed to asteroid bases, however, they are still somewhat detectable, more so than ice bases."
X quickly changed the topic to his report. "In my absence, I have been overseeing the preliminary deployment of the Wedjat in this operation. I need not say any more regarding them. Apart from that, contact with the ICMG| has been made, and they are willing to travel out to the Omicrons to meet us. It is just a matter of whether the SCRA| will be staying a bit longer to meet them with us. I need to get back to them with a time, so as soon as we come up with one, I must inform them."
A sigh overtook him, and his whole body showed it. He was tired. The last few hours had been maniacal. "I have sent three members of the Wedjat to Coalition space in the matter of the Storm gunboat. Once everything is settled, they will begin re-fitting it with Order transponders and some of our equipment, and then utilising it special operations most likely in Gallia. I have also been sent a report that the Social Credit is having some trouble getting it's guns because of some fitting error. I have my assurances from Order engineers this will be resolved as soon as possible. Apart from that, the Havana should be undergoing repairs and refitting, if this is not done already."
X glanced around. His report was fast and left little room for chatter or interaction, it seemed. He then motioned to the bartender to bring him a glass of water that was just a few degrees above freezing.
Robert puts both his hands on the table quickly, and starts speaking.
"So the main question here is amigos, we have reports from our agents in various parts about possible base sites.....which are we going to choose? I think the risk in Tau 37 is....too great. Outcasts patrol all around the system, it will hard to do any of the activities that we need to keep flowing in order to construct a base."
He gets up, and makes a few gestures with his hands.
"The main thing we need here is a back alley, a road by which we can sneak in the shipments we need for the base, with little-to-no detection. Tau 37 is not helpful for this seemingly as there are few ways in and out and all well known. Do we have alternatives?"