Chaotic Clusterfuck 35 (Patreon)

Commissioned by Definitely Not Dio

Chaotic Clusterfuck

Chapter 35

-VB-

Armsmaster stared at the construction site. 

“You are building a pier.”

“That is the first step, yes,” Alan Marris said. “I’ve got permission from the state and the city.”

“And you intend to build a … shipwright.”

“That’s right,” he replied. “Brockton Bay doesn’t have a medium to large-size shipwright of its own, even though Boston and New York City do. Most of the ships are custom-made by unlicensed manufacturers, 

When Director Piggot ordered him to investigate what Marris was doing now, he thought that Marris might finally be muscling into illegal activities. It was normally what the rich did when they thought they had the manpower and money to cover their … issues. Instead, the initial briefing regarding Marris’s latest move was a new company, a subsidiary of his current main company, the Marris Water Treatment and Care Corporation. 

Marris in Brockton Shipwright. 

A horrible name but one that stated exactly what this business intended to be. 

Considering how thorough the man was with his paperwork, he expected to find the permits if he looked for them in the state and the city’s filing cabinets. 

“Why a shipwright? It is not a profitable business.”

“Says who?” Marris asked with a knowing grin. 

“... CIA.”

Despite having been relegated to international civilian-only matters, CIA continued to publicly publish data they gathered. One such data was the profitability of specific types of businesses, and his computer told him that CIA reported a sharp decline in the shipbuilding industry. 

Part of this had to do with an increase of shipbuilding industry in Canada and Mexico. The former provided high tech manufactured ships while the latter made … pirate ships. Pirate ships made in Mexico weren’t low quality. There were laws in the United States and Canada about the kinds of ships that civilian ship manufacturers could build, and useful pirate ships couldn’t be converted fishing boats in this day and age. 

For example, many pirate ships associated with the ABB often used the Reliance-class cutter, whose blueprint was released sometime during the late 90’s by a particularly desperate American shipbuilder. Easy and cheap to build, its most important quality was durability in an era of pirates where parahuman abilities could and would sink fishing boats easily. Purpose-built military ships like the Reliance-class cutter, despite being outdated, could survive attacks that would otherwise leave many pirates under the waves. And, for a very specific category of parahumans, the Devil Fruit Users, staying above the waters was very important because they could not swim at all. 

Building a shipwright right here in the bay was … 

Concerning.

“You know that Brockton Bay hosts many pirates,” Armsmaster stated. 

“I do,” Marris hummed as he continued to overlook the construction site where some of his parahuman employees worked alongside a local construction company. He even had a yellow safety helmet on. 

“You intend to sell ships to those pirates.”

“Actually, I wanted to sell ships to merchants,” he replied. 

Of course, that would be the standard answer. 

“I mean, have you seen the state of the seas these days? A simple fisherman can’t go out to catch fish in peace because there’s a very good chance that they will get caught up,” he scoffed. “You know they leave Brockton Bay’s fishermen alone - you know, they don’t shit where they sleep - but that’s not the case for most people outside of the city. And you know that the navy is … not exactly what it was a few decades ago.”

Armsmaster didn’t say anything. Although the seas and oceans became an even more important subject after the First Impact shattered all continents, the United States Navy received the same budget as before during and after the Parahuman Silver Age. Global trade had also shattered during the First Impact, and it was everything the government could do to keep the navy’s budget the same as it was. Increasing it was out of the question because they had already reduced so much more elsewhere to do exactly that. 

The government wasn’t filled with idiots. They knew that the navy’s importance had jumped post-First Impact, not lessened in value. Even then, the country had fewer resources from large swathes of its land sinking underneath the ocean, its national economy had been broken, public infrastructure was gone in so many cities, and random parahumans rising up to play warlord or cult leader hadn’t helped. 

And by the time the Protectorate came to be and country got a bit of stability, pirates had already taken root everywhere. 

“So you want to sell your ships to law-abiding customers.”

“Exactly. I’ll also start hiring people to do everything from delivery, welding, and inspections, so it’ll pull people away from the pirate economy ecosystem.”

“And what exactly will you be selling? If you have done your research as you suggest, then you know that you cannot build purpose-built armed ships.”

“I know that there are way too many laws for me to even fathom building actual warships. But if I just make heavily armored and moderately fast ships that can be easily fitted with some of New Hampshire’s own manufactured guns…”

“Brownings have been proven to be ineffective against half of the pirates.”

“Oh, I know that. But Virginia has a company called Alliant Techsystems Incorporated, and they make really good guns. I think the gun was called … Bushmaster III?” he hummed. “When I last called them, he told me that it was completely legal for civilians to buy them, especially with changes to recent federal gun laws.”

Armsmaster paused. “... I see.”

“Oh, and other equipment like military-grade radar, chaff launchers, and GPS are all things I can sell. And lasers.”

“What?”

“Hmm? Did I say something?”

“You just said lasers.”

“Yes, lasers. Like the kinds of things that kiddies use.”

“You are leading me away.”

Marris just shrugged. “Lasers are used for a lot of things, including guidance computers and tracking.”

Armsmaster was highly suspicious of Marris.

“Anyways, I also intend to do high quality maintenance for ships, too. That way, I’ll maintain a steady income stream even when I’m not actively selling ships.”

The director might not like all of this … but Colin didn’t see a way for her to put a stop to this.

“Very well.” And then he turned around and left.