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Pinagg began his work immediately after you assigned it to him. He picked a few of the minor members of your department to help him with the Mk. II model. A name that had come from the marketing department, and one you all found hilarious as it was basically a total lie. Anyhow, his work took some time, but in the end, his Genosian mind came up with several ways to push down production cost. Surprisingly, only a few of them were related to the design itself. The biggest improvements were found on the production lines, with several suggested changes that lowered the overall costs for building a single ship. This not only helped with the Light Freighter, but also the overall performance of your company.
Vulkan Light Freighter Mk. I -> Vulkan Light Freighter Mk.II (-2 Cost)
Vulkan Shipyards gain Trait: Efficient Production Line (-1 Cost on total Ship cost)
Sadly, his side project took some time and energy, so he couldn't help with the first phase of the corvette project that started around the same time. But thanks to the suggested and implemented changes in the company's production line and the slight changes in the ship itself, the sales numbers had taken an upswing. The Vulkan Light, as many started to call it, had quickly become a regular sight in the Sector.
Thanks to the Vulkan Light Freighter's growing success and the modifications made by Pinagg, your father even gave you extra money to get some additions to your department. After some thoughts and a small meeting with both Pinagg and Shen, you decided to request a simulator for performance tests. One that wasn't almost forty years old and had the newest data on how ships and their compartments behaved during all kinds of maneuvers. It would help test materials and parts significantly more thoroughly before feeding it to the great simulator and hopefully reduce the number of flaws that could carry over into the final design.
The day it was delivered and installed, you all gathered around it like a bunch of giant kids. Grinning madly, you began to test how well the simulator worked together with the team. This was done by running several crazy experiments on the simulator – they got more outlandish the longer the day went on. Tomorrow you would use it properly, but today was play day!
-1 Stress
"I can't believe they got away with that! They invaded a peaceful world, starved the civilian population, were condemned by the Senate, and could still keep their weapons?" You shook your head and looked to your father in the hope of an explanation. The older man sipped on his drink and didn't seem as shocked as you felt after hearing the Senate's decision to not disarm the Trade Federation. "What kind of justice is this?"
"A political one, my son. You see, the Senate might have voted for disarming the Trade Federation if the Naboo hadn't called in pirates and mercenaries to help them out. Now half the core worlds fear an uproar of criminal activities in the Mid Rim sponsored by scared local governments. And the other half don't like the shakeup of the status quo. Before Naboo, most Mid Rim worlds were happy enough to leave most of the defense actions be taken care of by the Judicial or Core World forces they called on."
"And that changed after Naboo?"
"Of course, the Trade Federation not only pressured Naboo, they blockaded and even invaded the world! And the Republic did nothing to help them, not with the Judicial or some Core World forces. Only the Jedi helped some, but that was it. Naboo had to free itself. That has changed how we Mid Rimmers see the galaxy, it's suddenly much grimmer and scarier than before. The population wishes for assurance such a thing can't happen again, so the governments pour more money into the System Defense Forces. And they start buying weapons wherever they can find them. The Core suddenly sees a Mid Rim arming up, which changes the status quo on a grand scale. Even if most SDF's can't afford the heavy stuff like the Core can, Naboo has shown the galaxy that you don't need that purse if you have the right commanders. They see the Trade Federation as a natural counter to a suddenly more military Mid Rim. As long as our forces and the Trade Federation stare down at each other, the Core doesn't have to worry about us. Because nothing changes."
You slowly nodded as you understood the cutthroat logic behind your father's argument, even if you didn't like it one bit. This new situation was just asking to turn into another Naboo – if not a real war.
Why couldn't the Core see that?
Or did they and they... just didn't care?
You weren't sure what scared you more, the possibility that the Core didn't notice what they were doing, or that the Core did it on purpose.
Finally, the day came where you had the time and the resources to start the corvette project. Given the growing tension all over the galaxy and Mid Rim systems, the industry was quick to respond with all kinds of military hardware. CEC had released first information on a new upgrade kit for their CR-70, called the Vanguard C20 retrofit. They promised that it would bring up even older corvettes to the new standard set by the CR-90's. And Rendili StarDrive had released the Sühyrna-class corvette, a more modern version of the older Hammerhead-corvettes of the High Republic era. The fight for customers had started, and it began to heat up with each passing week. But for now, no clear trend seemed to have established itself, which made father confident that the more modular approach you planned to offer would get attention.
But first, you had to begin the design of the ship with the frame, as was proper. You had several established frames you could pick from. Shen was in favor of a relatively small frame, saying that they could be produced faster. He was sure that he could squeeze enough weapons to give even normal-sized ships a run for the Blue Milk. You weren't so sure about it, but would give it thought.
[ ] Classical Design
Name: Mk. 1 Corvette Frame
Size: Normal
Compartment Space: 15
Advantage: 2
Flaw: 1
Cost: 3
[ ] Patrol Design
Name: Mk. 1 Patrol Ship Frame
Size: Small
Compartment Space: 10
Advantage: 1
Flaw: 2
Cost: 2
[ ] Fleet Corvette Frame
Name: Mk. 1 Fleet Corvette Frame
Size: Large
Compartment Space: 20
Advantage: 2
Flaw: 2
Cost: 4
[ ] Vulkan Frame
Name: Mk. 1 Vulkan Corvette Frame
Size: [ ] Small, [ ] Normal, [ ] Large, [ ] Extra Large
Compartment Space: ???
Advantage: ???
Flaw: ???
Cost: ???
