You know, some days I hate those guys in the assault
lance. And some days I love 'em
They're an assault lance. Their job's to stand there and
get shot at. I do get that, and I appreciate all that. It does mean that they
give me a lot of work to do. Nikola's Carronade
seems to come back from every damned fight minus most of its armour and an arm.
Not even the same arm each time, either. And don't get me started on trying to
keep the Vulture together. I swear, the Foxes must have purposefully engineered
it only to use proprietary parts.
But then they also have their moments of genius, and I'm not
just talking about Randy's taste in drinks (which is, incidentally, impeccable.
I don't know if it’s something he learned in Journo school,
but the guy can pick a drink for every occasion). Like take what they came up
with today which was genius and might just have been the breakthrough we've
been looking for in ending this trainwreck of a campaign.
We 'acquired' a huge stash of parts from the Royals when
we retook the base from 'em. Most of it was the usual crap that you find lying
around, but there was also some new stuff that had, apparently, been a
down-payment for their double-crossing us, the bastards. I'd given it a quick
once-over to check that it was usable and compatible, and been pretty happy
with what I found. Good quality gear built to Star League standards. What more
could a tech ask for?
But Randy gave me a suggestion, and I thought it was
worthy following up. He threw the idea of checking the serial numbers at me,
and that turned up an interesting result. All the parts had a common serial
numbering system, which is both good and bad. Good because it means they all
came from the one place, and bad because damn it, they're like nothing I've
ever seen before.
They all start with "OB1", and then go off to
an insanely long alphanumeric code, longer then any other damned numbering
system I ever saw. I couldn't even begin to guess what it actually means, mind
you, only that it means that they call came from the same manufacturer and,
presumably, the same place. I mean, hell, I could probably throw them through a
detailed isotopic analysis to confirm that, but right now, I figure that
they're all coming from the one factory.
I've never seen an "OB1" code before, and It
doesn't appear in any of my guides either. I've certainly never seen a number
system like this either, which doesn't tell me where the hell it's come from.
All I can say is that OB1, whoever, they are, definitely are a quality manufacturer
who I'd buy from again. Well, presumably, if I knew who they were to begin
with.
But that brings me to paint number two. Some bright spark
(again, pretty sure it was Randy) cane up with the idea of running a Geiger counter
over them. I hadn't given that a thought, simply because the Royals hadn't seem
to taken any special precautions with handling or storing them or the like. But
it was a bright move, as there was an ever so slight but definitely there to
see increase in the radioactivity of the parts.
It's not enough to kill you or give you cancer or
whatnot, but I definitely wouldn't recommend licking 'em or the like. However,
it also suggests to me (and Nikola) that these parts could have been stored
somewhere with a higher then normal background rad count. And here we are on a
continent where the north half of it was full of old SLDF ruins that got that way
after the League nuked 'em back in the first Succession War.
Now if you ask me, it's pretty clear what we've got here.
Star League-era parts (Could even be SLDF itself), probably sourced from some
long-forgotten manufacturer who had an arcane code that fell off the record
books. It makes sense, and there's plenty of precedent; after all, who
remembers Merryweather?
My bet is that they were left in a SLDF storehouse and
forgotten (or even deliberately hidden) during the exodus. The Eagles then nuke
the base, but the cache survives in a storehouse or whatever else for hundreds
of years. Pelzer then finds this place while he's planning his coup and figures
he can use SLDF-quality parts to buy off Mercs for his cause.
However, it also tells me (And Randy and Nikola) that
Pelzer's operating from out of one of these ruins, possibly one that's less
collapsed or mostly underground or the like. A couple of centuries should have
been enough for most of the background radiation to have decayed, making it
safe to use - just not actually inhabited, because the northern half of the
continent is still pretty damned desolate. It also means that we could have a
lead on finding this bustard and flushing him out.
So yeah, today I love those guys. Strange how these things
happen.
PS: On a later inspection of
the pile, I found a couple that had "OB3" codes instead of OB1. They
still had the same super-long and convoluted system of characters afterwards.
So maybe they're different branches of the same thing, or even different sites
in the same system or world.
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