For a Moment, There Was Hope [Space Vehicle Design Quest]

It's done.

The modular tunneling system is swift and easy to integrate into the Abilkhan prototype. There are some teething issues: Hull geometry takes weeks to line up with the modular equipment and you've had screaming arguments with Nabiyev over power draw, but it's done. Abilkhan has a functioning full prototype, then a first run at a production model, then, in December, its first true chassis rolls off your production line in Baikonur.

By March 2113, it's off to trials in Quebec and Low Earth Orbit. By April, the Musabayev K-111 is on the market.

The first batch hits the asteroid belt in July, purchased by a Kazakh mining firm. Glowing reviews return within weeks. Miners and maintenance personnel alike love the K-111, and orders are flooding in.

In February '14, you win the Quebecois contract.

By December, you have a new problem:

Musabayev inherited a lot of skilled engineers, scientists, and similar personnel. It didn't inherit businessfolk or a large workforce. As a result, you've sold many more K-111s than you can actually produce.

Your two extant assembly lines finish a K-111 every day, more than half of which are promised to the Quebecois contract. Your third assembly line has run into a snarl of parts shortages, while your spaceborne lines at L2 aren't going online until '19. You're looking at a six year backlog on extant orders, and four and a half years to fulfill the Quebec contract. Especially as Team A's construction vehicle is shaping up to be fairly competitive, which'll eat even more of your limited access to new assembly lines.

Without new lines, you're looking at the possibility of the Abilkhan being obsolete almost the moment its first production run is finished. But, well, if new lines were easy you'd already have them.

Miss Nabiyev puts together an emergency New Year's Eve meeting to decide on a path forward. You, her, and Nabil have become the de-facto project heads, and so it's up to you to set your vacation time on fire and come up with a plan immediately.

Nabil's suggestion is conservative but practical: Accept the fuck-up. The K-111 is under budget, you can reinvest that money, and some of the proceeds from the Quebec contract, into hiring some specialists and getting two more assembly lines going within a year, albeit at brutal price markups. You limit orders and raise prices until it's done, the Quebec order should be finished by '17, and you should get that backlog down to four years. Maybe three if you're lucky.

It's brutal, and will cut into the landmark success of the K-111, but so long as nothing else goes wrong it should work out. And it won't require a more painful compromise.

Your option, when you outline it, gets a hiss of disapproval from the Kazakh employees. Still, they consider it by the time you're through with the explanation. Musabayev and KazakhCosmos had a pretty unpleasant split, but KazakhCosmos got a lot of the industrial specialists in that split and are clearly interested in rapproachement. You could get government assistance in getting the new assembly lines working, political pressure to move you up the waiting lines on parts, and advice on making sure this doesn't happen again. It'll mean KC will lean on you in the future, but as a big Kazakh success story, you can lean back and it'll be cheaper than doing it yourself.

Nabiyev's suggestion shocks you, coming from the mouth of an avowed anarchist. She wants to accept private investment from CMIC and central asian retail investors. CMIC already has spare production capacity, and could easily bend some of it towards new K-111 lines. They'd also provide a ready supply of investment for future projects, lessening some of your brutal budget concerns. But, well, you'd be accepting monetary investment, and so become beholden to the whims of your investors.

And finally, the spectre at the back of your minds. Unsaid by anyone in the meeting, yet monumental in its presence:

Quebec.

Quebec would view opening a production line in Montreal or Gatineau, or maybe even in the still-smoldering wastes of Quebec City, as a favor you were doing for them. Labor's cheap. Dispossessed, educated types are plentiful. You could probably more than make back your cost in subsidies.

Sure, you'd piss off the Americans, but they're Americans. No-one in Asia is obligated to give a shit about them anymore. Sure, you'd be contributing to some genuinely horrific labor practices, but the economics are inarguable and you can offer humane conditions at your offices. Sure, you'd piss off the entire Musabayev workforce, but they'll come around in a year, maybe two.

The economics are inarguable. The question is simply if you can stomach the politics.

By the new year, you have an answer.


How do you handle the bottleneck?
Remaining Budget: 2


[ ] Limit orders, raise prices, and reinvest in production lines. (Limits success, eats remaining budget. Hazard [4-2] = 2 Hazard)

[ ] Accept KazakhCosmos Assistance (Gain additional political backing in exchange for political interference on future projects.)

[ ] Accept CMIC Investment (Gain additional funds in exchange for corporate interference on future projects.)

[ ] Accept Quebec Outsourcing (Further ties with Quebec. Deeply unpopular, guaranteed success.)


Musabayev K-111 Astro-Miner

Payload: 8
Utility: 10
Weight: 8
Maintenance: 4
Unit Cost: Medium
Hazard: 0