Chapter 26

We didn't take leave two and a half weeks later. I had only been back ten days and there were things I needed to catch up on. Shadow Brigade was now three full Regiments. In fact we were a bit larger than that with a Training Battalion and the Battalion I had 'purchased'. These were not to be hired out. One stayed here while the other one guarded HellHole. We had decided that three Regiments was as large as we wanted to grow. We might grow larger in the size of our BattleMechs but the number wouldn't grow any more.

As I have stated before we're over staffed in Techs/Astechs so we are larger than the basic 252 people per Regiment. A basic Regiment is 108 Mechs and 18 Fighters with a pilot for each Mech and Fighter and a Tech or Astech for each machine. Each of our Battalions has a Command Lance so we are 120 BattleMechs strong not the basic 108. We have both a Tech and an Astech for each Mech if we can find and hire them. We also have a small technical school going to provide us with more and to upgrade those we have. As an assistant tech or astech as they are known improves his skills and gets the proper certification he can move into the Tech level.

With the Infantry platoons, Artillery, and the other support units our three Regiments number over 2500 people. Of this about a third are married with families. Another 25 percent are married without family. Either they're children are grown or they haven't a family started yet. Not all of the spouses are employed by Shadow. If you count children, employees and their non-employee spouses the Shadow family is somewhere between 4000 and 4500 people. And this doesn't take into account the 600 employees at the Whitworth Production plant.

All of this is getting to the point that I am responsible for a third of this number for Phantom alone. We've grown in the five and a half years I have been with them. We've also started to spread out from the normal business of War.

We've formed a government. Again it is an extension of Shadow. It is a Triumvirate consisting of the Brigade Commander, one elected Representative and one of the Regimental Commanders. Right now it is Colonel Milt Jacobs. For each thousand people one representative is chosen. This person serves without pay for a period of one year with options for five more terms. No one can serve more than six terms, to eliminate the professional politicians. We do not have the normal political parties of Whigs and Tories, Lords and Commons etc. We have the Pros, the Cons and the Abstainers or Abs.

When an issue arises it is discussed by the representatives and then voted upon. At the vote we then know who is in each group. Each group then picks a speaker who will represent them before the Triumvirate. Each will explain the issue and why they have chosen their side. The Abs must explain what it is about the issue that caused them to abstain from voting either way. After making their presentation they are excused and the three Leaders discuss the issue and vote on it. If it passes then it becomes law, if it fails then it doesn't.

One interesting authorization the Triumvirate has is to remove a Representative from office. If the person is constantly in the Abs and can not support his position then they may be removed for not performing to the best of their ability or in the best interest of those they represent. A new representative will be chosen by those to be represented and will take his/her place in the hearings. All expenses for the representatives is picked up by the government. There are ceilings on expenses so that no one will get extravagant.

We have the normal governmental departments, Department of Defense; Education; Employment; Business, Production and Review; Treasury; and State. The BP&R is the largest. They cover things like Social Services, Reclamation, Conservation, Resources, Consumer Affairs, Toxic Substances, Transportation as well as Business Licenses, Production standards, Weights and Measures and all Safety issues. They also have divisions that actively seek more business for our Producers, to increase trade and find more markets for our products. We wish to support business while protecting the consumer, the planet and ourselves.

Over the years that we have been here I have continued to purchase large blocks of property. I turned much of my bonus' into property and we now own nearly 900,000 square kilometers. My Dad has an offbeat sense of humor. We have three mining operations going as well as two timber concerns. Shirt Tail Mining Company digs and processes Platinum ore. Digger O'Day Mining Company works the Iron/Nickel ores and Foiled Again Aluminum Company mines the Bauxite ores. Paul Bunyan Timber Company handles the two timber camps. One, the special hard woods is not a year round operation so the men transfer between the two camps as they are needed.

With nearly 300,000 sq. kilometers of agricultural lands this was still our problem area. A family even with Agribots can only farm so much. Finding the families who were willing to work to produce was not easy. At.5 megacredits each, Agribots are expensive and that's just for the small ones. You don't provide one to someone who is not going to work to get the necessary return for your investment. We are providing the seeds, necessary tools and fertilizer while basically they are providing the labor. As no one likes to always work for the other guy we have a plan by which they can purchase part of their holding each year by working it off. This allows a family with nothing except grit and determination to own their own place in a few years while working and making something at the same time.

With the growth of Shadow another thing that has happened is we spread out. We are all no longer located at New Hope. Phantom Regiment is located at Sterling which is on Beta, the second large continent. (We're real imaginative sometimes. This wasn't one of them. We've been calling the two major continents, Alpha and Beta!) As most of the family holdings are located on Beta this is where we have been building the Leofa homestead and when General Jones mentioned he wanted to spread out and place a Regiment over here I volunteered mine. Greg Karuska even established a small R&D facility here also. They had been working on some electronics equipment and some other things when I interrupted them a couple of weeks ago. They're only working on about fourteen different things now.

With a full Regiment I'm now a full Colonel and Zeke got kicked up to General. The only problem is that I am now so busy with Regimental business that I have little time for personal business and I need to be taking more of it off of Dad. While he enjoys that type of stuff I don't want to work him to death. Another thing about being over here I am on my own more. There is an Eleven hour time difference between here and New Hope the distance is so far. So you don't just stick your head in the door and say "Hey, General!" when a problem arises. There are two small Aerospace shuttles we use to go back and forth. It's only an hour and a half to New Hope by shuttle.

Zeke handled the people from Taurus when they arrived four weeks after we sent the report in. They accepted his explanation that nothing further could be learned and that they had copies of everything that we had. His explanation was simple. "Hey, if I wanted to hide something I never would have let you know in the first place. How would you have found out?" They couldn't answer that so they accepted his data and left us alone.

I got all the Regimental business caught up and even had the Training and Maintenance schedules checked over. That would make J.J. and George Peterson, our maintenance chief, happy. As long as everything was alright we had a company of BattleMechs each month go into the Mech bay for Preventative Maintenance. This way nothing major would catch us unexpected, we hoped. After each training exercise we always had a rash of problems to take care of which threw the PM schedule out of kilter but we tried.

I stepped out of the office and dropped all the papers I had finished working on into the Sergeant Majors basket, it was time to quit for the day. "Travis, I'll be gone for the rest of the day and probably tomorrow, tell J.J. please. Other than say hello to Billy is there anything you need or want from New Hope?"