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Yama nashi, ochi nashi, imi nashi
I think the beginning of the end for Acerbia Heavy Industries (AHI) really was when we lost the contract to supply Georgia with light personnel carriers. Eduard said it was nothing personal and that it was more a political decision based on social changes but it hit us hard. A good portion of the workforce became demoralized by that and we had our first round of layoffs in the company's history.
While some of our best sellers like the Wyvern 155mm self-propelled artillery unit and the Sea Sprite interceptor gunship languished in warehouses across the globe we weren't renewing any contracts. Mullah Omar apologized and said that he had no need for conventional weapons anymore, that the face of warfare was shifting more to the squad and individual level. He suggested we start producing dirty bombs in Samsonite suitcases or Louis Vuitton patterns to keep up with demand but I just couldn't see us retooling the factory floor for small arms production. Also none of the crews had any experience with plutonium.
A spate of bad publicity continued as with each conflict we came out further behind than before, either by consistently backing the loser or by supplying to both sides.
There once was a time when a tank wouldn't roll through our factory doors and out onto the transports unless we had christened it and added the company logo under a saucy depiction of a babe astride a large projectile. CNN would always pan in on the burning shell of the vehicle and there would be our logo, emblazoned out with tritium-enriched paints that glowed in the dark, a feature our competitors never copied.
And then finally things went from bad to worse when my partner signed the multi-million dollar contract to supply the world's video gaming companies with virtual tanks...
Jun.29.2005