Capítulo 3 – Aplicación al diseño de un divisor de potencia en banda dual
3.2. Diseño de un divisor de potencia en banda dual mediante líneas metamateriales
Perhaps one of the most critical occurrences regarding the future of Ares deals with the mega’s relationship with the UCAS, the nation that borders Ares’s Detroit offices. Fallout of the Excalibur’s abysmal failure— among other minor things that aren’t worth going into here—led to a noticeable falling out between Ares and
the UCAS government. President Colloton and the Joint Chiefs’ lack of confidence in Ares resulted in the ex- piration—or in the most extreme cases, outright revo- cation—of countless defense contracts. Though most Ares subsidiaries felt little direct impact from this turn of events, by comparison Ares Arms, the corp’s flag- ship brand, was left to twist in the wind, and only quick triage could save it.
At this point, Knight started cementing ties with the UCAS’s southern neighbor. Through some stroke of luck, the CAS had managed to escape the worst of the Excal- ibur’s bad reputation solely due to their military having far fewer defense contracts with Ares, none of those be- ing for the ill-fated battle rifle. One of the most blatant overtures of Ares cozying up to their new dance partner came in the form of Damien Knight getting Chuck Ras- come vetted as an Ares’s Corporate Court justice. Ras- come had been a lawyer, lobbyist, and occasional poli- tician in the CAS circuit, and Knight putting one of their citizens in the Big Courtroom in Space was a bold step.
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Didn’t Chuck run for CAS prez one year? I think he was onsome small-party ticket.
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Kay St. Irregular>
For the record, Rascome is now officially an Ares citizen.Only citizens of the represented corp can be vetted as CC justices.
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Cosmo>
Yeah, but I’m sure he’s still got plenty of friends and familydown in Atlanta.
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Hard Exit>
Isn’t that the idea?>
Kay St. IrregularOne of the more interesting—or tragic, depending on your point of view—outcomes of Ares’s falling out with the UCAS is that the board is seriously considering relocating its HQ from Detroit to Atlanta. The UCAS is fighting against this move in every way it can, including taking the war to the shadows, because the departure of a AAA mega and all of its many citizens from Motor City would gut the city’s economy. On the other hand, At- lanta is looking forward to an influx of new Ares citizens and all of the money they’ll bring with them. In essence, the UCAS and CAS are in a bidding war over Ares’s fu- ture, and whichever deal works more in the corp’s favor is the one the board will ultimately choose. But smart nuyen is on Atlanta: it’s stupid to stay in a neighborhood where you know you’re not really wanted.
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That’s what Ares people would like you to think—or at least, that’s what they’d like UCAS officials to think. UCAS and Ares are so tightly bound, though, despite all the recent problems, that it’s tough to see the nation getting outbid. They’ll do what it takes to keep them, even if it means helping them move to another city in the nation.>
Sunshine>
I understand land is available in Chicago. Certainly someof Ares’s newer executives would be interested in that location …
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Mr. BondsCULTURE
As I said before, the foundation for understanding how Ares works is to have a firm grounding of the way mil- itaries work. Militaries—the successful ones, at least— focus on strong top-down leadership, clear communi- cation, efficient practices, self-reliance, and constant
training. The only major difference is that Ares tends to wage war with nuyen rather than ordnance.
As a megacorp founded in the former United States, Ares takes its cultural cues from North American/UCAS society. Ares corporate leadership constantly reinforc- es the ideas that each employee, be it a division head or a lowly intern hoping to earn corporate citizenship, has the drive and wherewithal to excel and “be all that you can be.” Leadership also encourages employees to embody the three official Ares values: hard work, family, and security.
Hard work is motivated by performance reviews and commendations not unlike military decorations. Just like in the real military, promotions are based largely on merit, although a fair amount of office politics can still factor in. After surviving the first six months of basic training, an intern—a “private” in office lingo—is auto- matically promoted to a full employee/citizen—a private first class, if you will—but beyond that, the number of available positions become more and more scarce. This results in an increasingly competitive work environment
that encourages employees to work harder, if not nec- essarily smarter.
Family is demonstrated by a general esprit de corps shared across the whole corp. Though Ares employees don’t see themselves as a somewhat literal family in the same sense that Shiawase or Horizon citizens do, they all espouse the notion of “We’re all in this together.” So while some notable rivalry exists between the different divisions and subsidiaries, it acts more like the one-up- manship between siblings, much how the UCAS Navy and Marine Corps still take jabs of opportunity at each other despite them both fighting for the same side. Ri- valries aside, Ares employees are staunchly devoted to the corp. A good part of what makes Ares all one big happy family is that everyone goes through the same kind of training regimens, which are often harsher than the kind of “motivation” a military drill instructor ham- mers into recruits. Outsiders might view this as a form of indoctrination or brainwashing, but the corp benefits by having everyone feel like they’ve all crawled through the same trenches together.
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The takeaway here is if someone offers you a job toextract an Ares employee, odds are the target isn’t going to go willingly or quietly.
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SticksSecurity, in terms of the buzzword on the compa- ny’s mission statement, means a lot of different things,
depending on whom you ask, what the employee’s job is, and what tier in the corporate hierarchy they sit. The overall corporate ideal is akin to national security, both for Ares itself and its “home” nation, which—for the mo- ment—is the UCAS. This means the corp fiercely guards its extraterritorial borders on the physical, astral, and digital planes and often lends troops to its bordering na- tion where necessary. Upper leadership also focuses on operational security (OPSEC), which in office parlance means protecting trade secrets, hiding hostile moves from competitors, masking military maneuvers, and so forth. For the average peon, though, security is a more personal thing. Ares employees value security in terms of fiscal and job security. Many labor under the impres- sion that, should their position or department ever be eliminated, the beneficent Ares will find some other use of their talents rather than revoke their citizenship and kick them to the curb.
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I’m guessing the whole brainwashing thing doesn’tprevent Ares from actually showing someone the door.
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Axis Mundi>
One thing Cosmo left out from this section is thatAres employees have become increasingly paranoid of late. Ever since Young Nick bought it, there’s been this undercurrent of people always looking over their shoulders, being distrustful of new faces, and so on. It’s as if they think everyone they meet might actually be a flesh form bug spirit.
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Sticks>
Or maybe the paranoid employees are the flesh forms …>
Axis MundiTABLE OF
ORGANIZATION
Before a major restructuring effort following Crash 2.0 and the acquisition of Cross Applied Technologies, Ares was organized—and I use that term loosely—in an inefficient, bureaucratic rat’s nest. A subsidiary re- ported to the closest regional division rather than to its functional division, which in turn reported to Ares HQ in Detroit. For example, Ares Global Entertainment’s HQ is in Paris, which fell under the jurisdiction of Ares Europe, located in Copenhagen, and Copenhagen then reported to Detroit. To tangle the web even further, some subsidiaries, such as Knight Errant or Ares Space, were treated as autonomous entities that reported directly to Detroit, and Ares Arms had become large enough to establish its own regional divisions.
The restructuring effort made a host of sweeping changes. Each of the functional divisions—Arms, Heavy Industry, Aerospace, Services, Consumer Products,