Quoted By:
A contract for the Throne itself was impossible for you to pass up. The prestige alone would have been worth it to you, but the price they offered only sweetened the deal. Which was why you found it infuriating when the Imperial Envoy seemed rather confused to be meeting with you and instead demanded to see Jack.
In the end you suffered the indignity of waiting outside the meeting room while Jack finalised the business deal.
At some point the R&D department had gotten round to designing an updated worker drone to shill as a package deal.
—-----------
Jack came back from the meeting with a sour look on his face.
“What’s wrong? Did the deal fall through?”
“No, we got the contract but the Raihans are up to their usual bullshit…”
You frowned at the blanket statement. “And what is this ‘usual bullshit’ the Empire is getting up to?”
Jack blinked for a moment as he remembered who you were. “Oh, sorry I didn’t mean… let’s just say I’ve done business with the ‘Throne’ before and I’m under strict NDA.”
“I am a partner in this company. Such things should not apply to me.”
“I don’t think the Empress would see it that way,” he looked at the ceiling thoughtfully. “Ah fuck it. I can’t be assed. Before you came along I got commissioned by Arcturus himself…”
—--------------
“... so I was basically their dirty little secret; I designed and built them ships, and they pretended that they were secretly churning them out all along. Paid me handsomely to keep my mouth shut, but once the Far Halo yards came online they never contacted me again.”
“Until now.”
“You probably already know this but the Throneworld is gearing up for war; all their research bandwidth is directed towards upgrading the navy. No time to design and build industrial ships to shore up their economy. So they’re gonna buy one off us, if they like it, they’ll cut us a licensing deal where they pay us under the table while pretending their glorious shipwrights have pulled a legally distinct design out of their asses.”
Well this was juicy, perhaps there was some way you could use this information to your advantage…
—--------
The construction of the Janus went by without incident and coincidentally finished about the same time as you were sending the last of the Herons off to the Car’cass militia.
>7.2 Mil Scrip spent on raw materials for 3 Herons
>12.48 Mil Scrip received as payment for contract completion.
>Net gain: 5.28 Mil Scrip
>13.5 Mil Zelas spent on 40kT CM and 25kT RM
>8 Mil Script spent on 1kT EM
>Raihan Janus Order built and delivered
>Gain 35.7 Mil Zelas
>Current Finances: 0.26 Mil Solar Credits, 10.28 Mil Saurain Scrip, 36.5 Mil Raihan Zelas
>Prestige gained from completion of Militia contract, walk-in buy chances increased to 40%
