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It was obvious to you that you’d need more work crews. The best products in your catalogue were capital ships and trying to sell anything else would be an exercise in futility. At least until you could offer better strikecraft and frigate designs, but reviving the R&D department was unwise without stabilising the business first. Most of Jack’s old work force was unlikely to come back, having found new work elsewhere.
Your first impulse was to just ask your family, although your siblings would definitely ask for something in return.
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You sent a message to your older sister Shirin. She was the current head of House Shimada and had made the bold move of petitioning the throne for rulership of Shima colony. Said colony was rife with anti-imperial sentiment and had only recently been brought back into the fold; basically an unstable fief full of disloyal subjects. None of the other houses wanted to deal with that, but Shirin saw an opportunity to prove herself.
Your older sister gave you two options:
A single work crew in exchange for a Suppressor Assault Carrier or three work crews made up of criminals, dissidents and other undesirables from Shima colony. The penal labour force, while large, would be a liability in the long run, but an entire carrier was a steep price for only a single work crew no matter how skilled.
Meanwhile Jack had asked around and found some crews he could hire; the problem is they were Blorg. Most species found the Blorg repulsive, and non-blorg generally refused to work with them, there was also the added problem of having to decontaminate any ship they had worked on due to their aggressive symbiotic microbiome. On the upside their physiological needs were less than most other species and they were easy to entertain: in short they were cheaper.
Jack also mentioned that one of his contacts clued him in to a potential labour force made up of pioneers from the Solar Union. The only problem with them was that the Union had indoctrinated them in preparation for forming a stable human centric society. Combine that with the fact that they suffered at the hands of the Saurians during the current border conflict and you had a workforce who would throw a fit if you ever did business with the lizards.
Who to hire?
>Promise your sister a ship in exchange for a single work crew.
>Take on a penal labour force. (Three work crews)
>Hire three Blorg work crews.
>Hire two work crews made up of Solar Union pioneers.
