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Kit
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Dealer in Death - Outline
« on: January 05, 2008, 06:17:19 AM »
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Jason McCarver is one of the central players in the post-Star League world even though his name is not known by most common or even most government officials.  By taking advantage of the confusion that came with the Star League's disbandment and the subsuqent formation of the Terran Republic.  Through innovation and a willingness to operate in the gray areas of the law he has managed to put together an impressive power base.

During the war to reclaim Terra from the forces of the Rim Worlds Republic, Jason McCarver was in command of a flotilla of civilian cargo carriers that had been refitted to operate as military cargo vessels.  Mostly composed of Buccaneer transports he also commanded a pair of Mule class cargo haulers.  Their primary duty was to keep Kerensky's forces well supplied, a difficult task considering that the SLDF's traditional logistics network had largely been captured with the fall of Terra to the Usuper.

These trails would prove to give Jason McCarver, and the officers that worked under him, the skills they would need to survive with the official disbandment of the Star League.  While Kerensky's call to go on an Exodus from the Inner Sphere resonated with many SLDF personal Jason McCarver and those under his command found that loyalty to their families would not permit them to leave.  By the same token the newly formed Terran Alliance seemed a risky proposition.

Instead Jason and his men comendered their DropShips as well as several Jump Ships (becoming fugitives from the Terran Alliance with a large bounty on their heads to this day) and moved to the Free Worlds League.  There they set up a new cargo transport company which, in a bid to quickly build a customer base, agreed to cargo any cargo to any destination without any questions asked provided that cash was paid up front.

Initially there were some set backs because of this policy and several DropShips, including one of the valuable Mule cargo haulers, were lost due to the high risk.  Even so the deal proved too profitable to step away from since they were the only company to offer such a service and so could set nearly any price they wished.  In addition, the fact that they controlled several stolen Terran Alliance Jump Ships (something that was hidden from the FWL by setting up a second puppet company) they had much lower transportation costs than many competitors.  Finally, because of former affiliations with the SLDF they posessed highly detailed navigation maps which made it much easier to avoid border security and in turn increase chances of delivery.

Because the nature of the cargo carried by their DropShips was often of questionable legal standing Jason McCarver chose to expand his holdings in an innovative way.  Rather than put all of his assets into a single company so that they could be lost at the first sign of legal trouble he instead founded numerous smaller cargo carriers that operated in concert with each other but rarely interacted directly.  These companies spread to the neighboring Lyran Commonwealth, Capellan Confederation, and Terran Alliance before they ultimately arrived in both the Federated Suns and even the Draconis Combine.

Further improving his ability to serve the clients that frequent his businesses, Jason McCarver has started to bribe his way into companies that produce military hardware.  Usually given to middle management or unhappy Warehouse foremen, this has given him some access to weapon systems.  Sometimes just a few systems will be bought under the table, though in one instance a whole shipment of BattleMechs was misplaced and found its way into the hands of his clients.

Obviously the shady nature of Jason McCarver's business has made him and those who work for him a wanted man in every Successor State, however fighting his particular organization has proven problematic.  In many cases the employees working for his companies do not know their ultimate affiliation or even that anything they are doing is against the law.  In addition, because each company he has set up tends to be small (a dozen DropShips or a pair of JumpShips at the most) any time one of his splinter companies is found and shut down it proves to only be a minor setback.

Further complicating matters is the fact that recently many of his DropShips have started to make perfectly legitimate runs.  Speculation on the reason for this suggests that it is to make his assets more difficult to track down, but some economists have pointed out that the reason may be purely practical.  They point out that most illegal cargo shipments are likely one-way affairs, and if so then to return without some sort of cargo is a largely wasted trip.  If this reasoning is correct than it is possible that McCarver's clientell is much larger than previously imagined.

Perhaps more telling, however, is the fact that Jason McCarver has proven repeatedly that he is willing to serve the Successor States as well.  This is especially true of the small fleet of Jump Ships he has managed to pull together at great monetary cost.  One of the few officially civilian transport groups that is willing to risk jumps into hot combat zones the house militaries have gradually had to make use of all non-military transports (McCarver's included) in order to manuver their forces.  This has ultimately led to several interesting occourances. (see footnote)*

The result is that each Great House has been making use of Jason McCarver's assets even as they openly condemn his business practices (and especially his hand in the illegal arms trade).  In many cases this is because it is simply too difficult to determine which companies are controlled by him while in others practicality ends up outweighing legal concerns.  Still, the majority of McCarver's business is believed to still come from groups that usually work in the gray areas of the law: pirates and privateers, the syndicates, mercs, and smugglers.


*In one particular encounter some JumpShips later discovered to be owned by Jason McCarver helped transport a large Draconis Combine military force into the Federated Suns for an assault on a planet.  After the DropShips had disconnected the JumpShips lingered in the system much longer than necessary to charge their K-F Drives and made excuses to the DCMS about their continued presance in the system.  Their intentions became clear soon enough when the Federated Suns troops began a general withdraw from the planet and the small group of JumpShips offered to aid the evacuation... at a price.  Not in a position to compromise, the Federated Suns accepted the terms and left the system on the same JumpShips that had brought the invaders to their system in the first place.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #1 on: January 05, 2008, 10:12:30 AM »
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Wow, great read. I'd classify these guys as smugglers. They remind me somewhat of Tours of Duty, company profile from Fanbook 3 - Mercenary Guild. Tours however seems alot more straight forward then these guys.

Two things. One very minor nitpick, Terran Republic not Terran Alliance. Two how are these Dealers of Death affected by the Succession War practice of simply destroying jumpships? Have they managed to avoid such fate using their connections and superior navigation thus far? Have some of their fleet been damaged? And if they have avoided the same fate as many "legitimate" merchants has jealousy started to bloom? Meaning that trading companies like NETC hate them and try desperately to criminalize their assets?

Great stuff! Smiley
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #2 on: January 05, 2008, 06:26:30 PM »
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I will change Terran Alliance to Terran Republic in my copy.

To answer your questions, they have been effected by the destruction of Jump Ships as well, though to a somewhat lesser degree because they have the Star League jump maps.  More than likely this has mostly resulted in them raising prices and making greater use of 3rd party Jump Ships (probably when their operations are lower profile or going into safe areas).

Their fleet is probably nearly always taking some damage, after all they will deliver anything to anyplace which exposes them to a lot of risk and also makes many of their jobs illegal.  I would say that them losing the odd DropShip is common enough that have ways to compensate.  More problematic is when one of the puppet companies gets found out and their assets seized.  On the whole it would not effect proffits much, but could seriously hamper operations in an area until a new power base could be established.  Most likely losses are replaced by the purchase of small transport companies rather than buying individual DropShips from manufacturers.

I would bet that companies like NETC do hate them and would go out of their way to criminalize their assets.  In part because their access to the Star League maps makes it easier for them to get around trouble spots and also because their willingness to take illegal cargo gives them an unfair advantage when it comes to setting other prices (they can undercut their competitors because they make it up in the smuggling market where there is little competition).

As far as the company assets, here is what I have been able to figure would be realistic:

Lots of DropShips, mostly Buccaneer's because of how common they are, but also a decent number of Mules.  Obviously some have been converted to carry military goods like Vehicles.  The ability to carry 'Mechs and/or AeroSpace assets is also probably present on some ships, though much less common (harder to steal a 'Mech or Fighter).  They probably have a couple of the more common and cheaper military type DropShips such as the Union to cater to military type outfits, but again these would probably be one of their more rare assets.

Their JumpShip assets are not nearly so extensive, though still impressive considering the sacking of civvy jumpers.  Mostly the Merchant class JumpShip which has been around for more than 200 years at that point and is the most common one in the InnerSphere (makes them easy(er) to get and hide).  I am not sure what would be a realistic number for the time period, but I think between 30-60 is probably good.  For high volume missions I expect that they also own 1 Star Lord class JumpShip for its 5 docking collars.  Maybe 2, although their location would always be closely guarded (and probably protected by a merc outfit being paid very well to keep their mouthes shut).

I think it would be kind of cool if the group had access to a single WarShip, something small like a Vincent, but honestly I do see it happening.  Even in the best of times the houses kept a close eye on their WarShips and I just cannot think of how they would let one get captured by pirates, even something so insignificant as a Vincent.  Maybe they found a derlict floating in space somewhere, but even so how would they repair it without drawing attention?  Perhaps way down the road the company could get something like that, but until then no.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #3 on: January 05, 2008, 07:00:29 PM »
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I would try to stay away from specific numbers of jumpships. Might use the more generic dozens. Instead of saying 30-60. I agree with your dropship assesment. What about Dictators and older droppers? Warships I also agree. Only the Houses and perhaps the Regulators have warships at this point. Shipyards and techs to repair derelicts are probably too in demand by the Houses to get away with freelancing. Perhaps a HQ space station in void space somewhere. I could see these guys working with the Syndicate which is almost like a criminal confederacy. Would they try to horn in or take over other smugglers?
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #4 on: January 05, 2008, 08:16:40 PM »
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I expect that they probably would use older droppers, the only reason I gave the example of Buccaneers and Mules is because those are the ones that are (I believe) still made at the time period.  Honestly, if they could get their hands on it they would probably find some use for it.

I haven't given any thought to any specific HQ type thing yet, though a hidden HQ station would be possible.

Yes they would probably work with the Syndicate and other criminal groups (in fact, criminals are probably one of their chief customers and the Syndicate would make a logical close business partner).  I do not see the group trying to horn in on other smugglers, but rather they would try to take them over.  This could either be done through undercutting the competitor prices locally until they agree to join up or by reaching other agreements.  Use of force to gain new operations would be out of character for this group but not unheard of, although it would almost always be through the use of hired guns.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #5 on: January 05, 2008, 08:27:16 PM »
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Nice, i like the Dealers. Wink

Looking forward to seeing more.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #6 on: January 05, 2008, 10:12:22 PM »
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Nice work, I like it.

I haven't had much of a chance to work on the Syndicate, but I will do my best to tie in the Dealers in my write up. Their informal partnership would be a logical one as suggested. Kit, if you have any ideas, I welcome your input.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #7 on: January 09, 2008, 08:08:24 AM »
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Good story, I believe you are correct about Mules and Buccaneers. Buccaneers were first produced in the early 2700s. They seem to have been built forever once they were first produced.
I agree with Takiro about being cautious with numbers given about Dropships.

Everyone would like to have warships, problem with warships are once you have them they are high maintenance. Great to have around, neat to write about but like everything else that shoots its high maintenance and a huge intial expense.

If you were going to bring in the dark side of the universe (also known as the underworld) then your warship would be a major liability to you. If you dock, had repairs done by outside crews for example it would be a fairly simple matter for the underworld to sabotage your expensive warship or even blow it up. That is one of the reasons only major powers even here on earth are the only ones that have warships. They can afford to screen the workers every day. They also have the power to deal with anyone foolish enough to mess with their warships.
Of course you could leave all of that out and go with a sort of Star Wars approach, were just getting everything repaired is hard enough without really bringing the underworld fully into the picture.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #8 on: January 10, 2008, 07:33:42 AM »
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Like I said, I doubt they would have a WarShip although I think it would be really freaking cool.  My thought had mostly to do with the problems of getting one, but yes even if they did have one it would be a huge problem just to keep it running.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #9 on: January 10, 2008, 09:02:16 AM »
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Oh you have no idea how cool I think it would be to have warship capability in the OA.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #10 on: January 19, 2008, 10:48:33 AM »
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Might have a light at the end of the tunnel for warships in the OA, if the Raven Alliance becomes canon.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #11 on: January 23, 2008, 03:03:31 AM »
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Assuming this was in the cannon universe.  Maybe.  Unfortunately we don't know what is going to go on with the Clans yet because nothing has been decided, as far as I know, for Shattered Dawn.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #12 on: January 23, 2008, 08:56:38 AM »
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You are correct Kit. I said MIGHT be a light at the end of the tunnel.
I am writing a short synopsis on how, why, etc. this may all happen, but of course it is just my imagination at work.

The distance involved to move Snow Raven would be impossible for any other Clan. As Clan Snow Raven has the largest fleet, one of the medium populations, and most likely access to that mega ship they built for the Ghost Bears. I believe they could make the move to the OA.

But they would have to be looking at long range possibilities on their investment. Truthfully they're cutting a deal with the Davion’s would make more sense, as they hate the Dracs already.

If they were closer to the Free Worlds League with all its open space and similar values in trade that would be a huge change in military might in the IS. Though if you are following "Dark Age" Clan Wolf is now entering Marik space as an ally.
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #13 on: January 29, 2008, 07:49:12 AM »
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Quote from: Techwarrior on January 23, 2008, 08:56:38 AM
If they were closer to the Free Worlds League with all its open space and similar values in trade that would be a huge change in military might in the IS. Though if you are following "Dark Age" Clan Wolf is now entering Marik space as an ally.

The dark ages never happened.  They are a lie perpetuated to try and kill CBT.  Cannon officially ended sometime around 3067ish.  Tongue
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Re: Dealer in Death - Outline
« Reply #14 on: January 31, 2008, 02:03:21 AM »
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Quote from: Kit on January 29, 2008, 07:49:12 AM
The dark ages never happened.  They are a lie perpetuated to try and kill CBT.  Cannon officially ended sometime around 3067ish.  Tongue
Damn Skippy.
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