D Batería - mantenimiento, carga, cambio
4.8 Recoger, transportar y depositar unidades de carga
Russia has also branched into other forms of materials develop- ment and production, such as mining and metallurgy, taking advantage of local expertise in working specialty nonferrous metallic alloys such as titanium, osmium and platinum. One pet project is the production of room temperature superconductors, which often use Russian metallurgical expertise to turn the lan- thanides and other rare earth metals into workable alloys.
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Many of the best lanthanide veins lie east of the Urals, in Russian Siberia and Yakut. Z-IC hires a lot of merc help to pro- tect their strip mines from Yakut shapeshifters and Interior Army shakedowns.>
Raskolnikov>
Z-IC Russia doesn’t invest a lot in pharmaceuticals or biotech, but they’ve taken particular exception to CrossCorp’s recent entry into the Russian business scene. It’s pretty irrational; Cross isn’t putting a lot of effort into pharmaceuticals and is more invested in the “squishier” parts of biotech.>
Corp Watcher>
I think Z-IC just likes picking fights because they’re so firmly entrenched. They bet- ter be careful, though. Overconfidence has brought many others low. Look at Fuchi.>
EyeballIn fact, Zeta-ImpChem is so confident of its unassail- able position in Russia that corporate honchos have nominated one of their own as the next General Secretary: Sacha Folyin, a retired Z-IC executive who decided to “change careers” and enter politics. Folyin’s old school and an ICI alum- nus from the pre-merger days.
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Folyin and Z-IC also know a lot of aristos around Europe and can draw from them blue-blood money and other capital. Folyin recently hit the Grand Tour, meeting and greeting nobles, dignitaries and VIPs, all in a drive to sup- port his bid for the General Secretary’s seat.>
Gorky>
He spent a lot of face time on the Grand Tour with one par- ticular face: Johnny Spinrad. Folyin met Spinrad in the meat at least a half-dozen times, and after Spinrad’s “accident” in Salzburg last December, the old Russian sent him an interesting “get well” e-card that I heard included a lot of juicy info on Saeder-Krupp’s moves in Russia.>
Corp WatcherYAMATETSU
Almost five years ago, Yamatetsu Chairman Tadamako Shibanokuji suffered what would become a fatal stroke, caus- ing the chairmanship to pass to his son Yuri. Because Yuri is an ork, his ascension to the board brought heated opposition from corporate headquarters. To overcome it, Yuri moved Yamatetsu headquarters—lock, stock and barrel—from Kyoto, Japan to Vladivostok, Russia. The Big Y already had a substantial busi- ness presence in Vladivostok and elsewhere in Russia, so the move made excellent business sense in more ways than one.
Since then, Yamatetsu has gone out of its way to ingrati- ate itself with its new landlord, investing in numerous joint projects in the Russian Far East. Whether reviving Russia’s space program at Svobodniy or modernizing the Pacific Fleet with Yamatetsu Naval Technologies, Yamatetsu was more than willing to help out. These efforts paid off. Yamatetsu has entrenched itself firmly in the Russian power scheme, and now looks ready to spend some of its accumulated favors.
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East of Lake Baykal, Yamatetsu is the authority in the Russian Far East. They’re more than willing to let the various Russian mil- itaries fight the Yakut rebels, but for ordinary Russians, Yamatetsu provides everything they need. Best advice: don’t work in the Russian Far East if you’ve got a Yamatetsu bounty on your head.>
BizwatcherIn an effort to increase its stature in Russia, Yamatetsu is backing Sonia Mikhalina, a former cosmonaut and technical consultant to the Svobodniy launch center. Mikhalina gained acclaim in the 2040s for her explorations of the dark side of the moon, at a time when the Russian public felt depressed about its losses in the Euro Wars and the ineptitude of the Democratic Reform Alliance. “Sonia Stargazer” became a Russian media sensation during the Probe Race from her numerous news appearances explaining the technicalities of that unofficial megacorporate competition.
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Sonia may be a whiz when it comes to space, but she does- n’t know the first thing about planet Earth. If it weren’t for her Yamatetsu media handlers, Vladimir Danko and Prelate Bogdanova would have walked over her like a red carpet on premiere night.>
Spinmeister>
That’s exactly what she wants them to think. Sonia discov- ered the power of celebrity as soon as she got back down, and she’s spent her time refining her craft. She may need some pol- icy wonks to make up the substance, but Sonia’s got the media public feeding from the palm of her hand.>
StarstruckTrouble at the Top
Since Yuri’s first year as chairman, when he withstood a board challenge and moved the corporate headquarters, he’s kept a low profile, letting CEO Saru Iwano and his new busi- ness partner, the free spirit Buttercup, soak up publicity while Yuri worked quietly behind the scenes. Publicity is once again coming his way, however. Early last month, Yuri announced that he had been diagnosed with Methuselah’s syndrome, a genetic disorder common in many orks, in which the body ages at an accelerated pace. In his statement, he remarked that Yamatetsu was already developing a treatment plan requiring months of genetic therapy at the corp’s Shibanokuji
Orbital. Yuri expected to begin treatment by the end of the year, and a transition plan is in the works to handle the suc- cession during his absence.
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Holy drek! Nobody saw this coming. Hang onto your hats, folks, it’s going to be an exciting six months.>
Corp Watcher>
Actually, if you compare the footage from the press confer- ence to when Yuri announced Yamatetsu’s move five years ago, you can see it’s already started. I guess he’s been under- going Leonization, because some of the symptoms appear out of order. Other than that, he could have pulled off the charade until he had to leave. I wonder why the advance notice?>
RikkiCROSS APPLIED TECHNOLOGIES
Cross Applied Technologies is a relative newcomer to the Russian scene. After the fallout from the Corp War subsided, Cross decided to establish a presence in Russia’s biotech sec- tor, a region Lucien Cross sees as a vast untapped market ready for exploita—er, development. After establishing a beachhead in Moscow and St. Petersburg, Cross moved eastward into the western Ural Mountains to set up development laboratories and production centers, primarily located around Perm, Kazan and Kirov.
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Development laboratories? More like hunting lodges, where Cross expeditions suit up before crossing the Urals to pursue exotic paracritters and rare Awakened plants in Yakut and the Timen Ridge in northeast Russia. Of course, in a place this wild, many times the Cross hunters become the hunted, particularly by Booryazmei and his wyverns.>
KravenSo far, CrossCorp has stayed out of the current power play in Moscow. The corporation had to fight an uphill battle to pen- etrate Russia and has faced particularly fierce opposition from Zeta-ImpChem (which hates competition, particularly in the interior) and the Russian Orthodox Church (which opposes Cross’s biotech research.) The corp devotes what little influ- ence it has with the National Supreme Soviet to making sure it doesn’t lose any strategic ground.