Star Wars Roleplay: Chaos

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Funding renewal

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ATTN: Jessica Med-Beq

I know that you're flying around the galaxy in your own pursuit of glory, of intellectual stimulation and of novelties, and that you have cranked out a few products for us to sell, but we have run out of money to develop more products, be it starships, components or whatnot. But please, if you want to continue developing products you should come to the quarterly board meeting alongside the rest of the C-suite. You are the one best placed to press the case for more funding because you are in the thick of it in a daily basis.

Charzon Loulan
CEO, Ringovinda StarYards

-----------------------------

Jessica read the message sent by her boss. She knew that, with the R&D budget running out, she was going to be angry. With the quarterly board meeting coming soon, she was nervous: she knew that Ringovinda StarYards' future depended on cranking out new products and additional components to match. She appreciated the technological freedom Charzon gave her, but even that ended up costing a pretty penny to actually make use of. And, even if the components were sold internally for a significant chunk, the main freight companies that sought to refit weapons, especially Maersk Star Freight and Bluth Company. This time around, Jessica totes her lover around as some observer without voting rights: maybe Summer was good enough with mind tricks to use them without having to say anything. Or so Jessica hoped for - if it actually came to that. As they are about to leave Druckenwell...

"I know, Summer, you're pleasant to have around me, but I have to go back to Ringo Vinda for business reasons. My boss complains about one thing: we exhausted our R&D budget a little prematurely and the current vision is that for each new large ship we develop, new components must be released and introduced on it. You know, I could make every credit Charzon asks for count"

But, if Summer had the technical ability of even Marcia, or the vision of Charzon, it would no longer be simply a Design Triumvirate, but a Design Tetrarchy. Summer knew that Jessica was highly talented technically, and she had the brains to out-think a lot of problems. Jessica had developed some sort of God complex since the day she realized she could pull out an AI (Hammurabi, but that's because of bureaucratic problems if it hasn't been released yet, not through any fault of her own) out of thin air back on Tatooine, and almost all by herself. She knows Summer is supportive of her almost to a fault, but that's probably because Summer was her lover to begin with.

"The corporate budget is due to be decided soon"

[member="Summer Sovereign"] [member="Charzon Loulan"]
 
Summer would listen and frown "I could try something that should work but I dont know if it will." Summer loved being around Jessica and she would not see her business go out and under so she would do anything to help her love "I love you Jessica"

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]
 
"Charzon, while grateful for what I do, was repeatedly asked by many on the board of directors why did the corporation make so little effort towards the construction of combat ships, hence the rift between us and the rest of the board. it's not the corporation as a whole that is running out of money, only the R&D department"

The only combat ship that Ringovinda StarYards actually built was the TIE Reaver fighter. Ringovinda Motors, on the other hand, built the minesweeper tank. As far as Ringovinda StarYards building combat vehicles, or its subsidiaries doing such, these were the only vehicles. Not even the Neimoidian Yacht or the AT-AT barge would be considered combat ships, much less the Ultima. By now, they know how much weapons to fit on a 1000+m cargo ship: roughly 1 turbolaser equivalent per 10m of length, 1 squadron per 700m of length, rounded to the nearest squadron. Charzon would not repeat the same mistake as she did in previous times: fitting too many weapons would defeat the whole purpose of even it being a non-combat ship, and that proof of development is not a guarantee that everything will be fine. As Summer took the captain's seat, Jessica adds on another business problem to the one discussed while Summer did the pre-flight checks.

"I also remember being asked on multiple occasions why Ringovinda Systems had released so many shipboard weapons if Ringovinda StarYards mostly built non-combat ships. The main reason being that it reduces maintenance costs, it also reduces entropy for the clients"

[member="Summer Sovereign"]
 
Meanwhile, back on Ringo Vinda, Charzon is preparing the grand conference room for the quarterly board meeting alongside Marcia. The entire C-suite has been summoned back to Ringo Vinda for that meeting, which is supposed to last for a few hours. Never has there been a clear rift within it about the vision and long-term direction, as well as what they want out of the research funding. They acknowledge that there is something to show for the nearly 130 million credits in research funds they have spent last quarter, just that there seems to be some sort of mismatch between the ships and the components being developed. Everyone outside the Design Triumvirate will question the apparent discrepancy. Yes, Maersk Star Freight and Bluth Company seem on the verge of ordering Ultimas and Traquias, with the Mandalorian-owned Air Alderaan and Dantooine Express both expressing interest in either the Rasta Sub or the Exodus.

"Look, sweetie, say what you will, just that the development strategy for the components doesn't seem to match up with the development strategy for the ships themselves. Either you cease developing shipboard weapons entirely or you start developing new combat ship classes, no matter the size!" the chief marketing officer told her.

"Boss, you spent about half that money in costs related to the major project - and you want us to pony up another so that you can complete another project worthy of a company multiple times our size! Let me tell you and your underlings, especially that walking computer you call Jessica, that we had trouble securing contracts because of your focus on non-combat ships!" the chief operations officer told her.

"Thanks to Jessica we were able to virtually drive Kuat Drive Yards out of the bulk freight business! We were able to secure the long-term loyalties of the three largest freight companies in the galaxy thanks to her!"

"Come on, Jessica, show yourself!" the chief talent officer shouted.

"I hope for your sake that the long-term loyalties of Maersk Star Freight, Bluth Company and Star Tours are all secured" the chief process officer commented.

"Star Tours is about to grow its way to tier-4, ladies and gentlemen, so that means additional business down the pipeline, and possibly an Ultima or two" Marcia added, in her chief digital officer capacity.

And possibly extra orders for the entire sub-1000m catalog...

[member="Summer Sovereign"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]
 
"There are people that just can't click with me. Many on the board seem to want Charzon to run this shipyard the same way other shipyards are run. "

And yet it's precisely how Ringovinda StarYards has undercut Rendili Star Drive, Kuat Drive Yards by focusing on the non-combat segments of the market: Rendili StarDrive has struggled with mobile drydocks, whereas Kuat Drive Yards has pulled out of the heavy freight market almost entirely even before the raid even happened - now they can't sell bulk freighters worth two beans. And even Suwantek Industries were as nothing compared to their former selves. There is a lot of shipyards building the very kind of stuff the other members of the board, such as Mon Calamari Shipyards, MandalMotors, Sienar-Jaemus Fleet Systems, Santhe Corporation, Hoersch-Kessel Drive. If they were to say that there was no room for growth in that segment of the market, perhaps. But the board members never, ever invoked that argument. Ringovinda StarYards' business was mostly one of noncombat ships and mobile drydocks.

"We built this business by being different from the other shipyards, by focusing mainly on the non-combat segment. The rest of the board thinks that, by becoming the same as the other shipyards of the galaxy, we can somehow grow while in fact I know we will lose the very heart and soul of the corporation - we will be entering a red-sea market. Somehow Charzon sees a market for non-combat ships 2+km long whereas no one else does"

Jessica feels as if Summer calmed her down after the jump to hyperspace was made. Far from it being a mind trick, it's just Summer's mental activity acting on her. Jessica may have a rough idea of her lover's intellectual makeup, it just seem that, because the space witch had a good feel for her in the Force, the space witch knows more about her than she knows about the space witch. And she knew that her space witch of a lover was very agile intellectually, not having to use psychotropic spells most of the time. And even if Summer had to, she knew she could pick Jessica's brain so long as she didn't need a psychotropic spell to make use of the Force in some other way.

"Summer, I know I can trust you at a spacecraft's controls. I'm wondering what else you're good at other than that and shooting with a blaster, despite having only one eye"

[member="Summer Sovereign"] [member="Charzon Loulan"]
 
Summer would smile at the question. "I can cook pretty well and I can do pretty well at hand to hand combat as long as they do not cross to my left side and I am good at designing buildings. My depth perception sucks though.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]
 
"Ladies and gentlemen, we should take a look at this. In the past two weeks, the stock rose by 37% precisely due to the completion of the past major project"

"Your vision doesn't make sense anymore: as more and more shipboard weapons are released, we struggle to sell them because we mount so little on our own ships. Better hope that you have a plan regarding starship components"

"Internal sales don't account for that much. It allows us to save the corporation money to build our own components whenever possible: it is advantageous to be as self-contained as possible when it comes to maintenance"

"I'd better hope Jessica makes it on time for the quarterly board meeting: here's our chance to approve the next big thing. The first item on the agenda is the quarterly orientation"

A 2500-meter bulk freighter, like those they haven't seen from the Clone Wars. Hoersch-Kessel Drive could build the 3000-meter-long Lucrehulks but there are no clients whatsoever for these: the last known users were the Techno Union but its successor, the Techno Empire, cannot buy those things. And even the largest of Maersk Star Freight, Bluth Company or Star Tours, themselves the largest spacelines in the galaxy, couldn't fly ships any larger than the Ultima. Even though the main thing they would sell to the galaxy would be mobile drydocks, one would think that major factions would have loved a few mobile drydocks. Or non-combat ships. They just read the latest edition of the Financial Herald which, like Taking Off on a Star Tour, is a weekly magazine. Of course, they would run daily stock exchange news on the HoloNet but more in-depth coverage of business developments is done on a weekly basis.

[member="Summer Sovereign"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]
 
"I trust that you would take good care of building and taking care of the garden once we will move in. I can safely say that I have no talent for garden design, at least compared to you"

As they arrived near Ringo Vinda's orbit, from the south, they drop out of hyperspace in the docking bays reserved to the employees of Ringovinda StarYards since Jessica is onboard that ship. Now that Jessica has a better feel for what they can hope to get out of the relationship, she feels less guilty wearing that business suit that she only seems to wear for occasions such as major board meetings. Otherwise she would rather wear lighter dresses especially if working down on Ringo Vinda's surface - Ringovinda StarYards isn't as uptight with dress codes as was the financial sector. This business suit feels like having armorweave on her. So much heavier, so much tighter... Jessica had no idea whatsoever as to what to expect out of this meeting. She knew that Ringovinda StarYards was to make a decision about its design and R&D budgets, but she couldn't make sure whether her princess of a lover could be allowed to attend the quarterly board meeting as an observer.

"It must feel great to be the lover of someone capable of designing an AI out of thin air almost all by herself: you've got the right feel for me"

[member="Summer Sovereign"] [member="Charzon Loulan"]
 
With Jessica being the last to arrive, Charzon understands that she made the best effort possible to come as fast as possible, but that her business brought her to the far corners of the galaxy. And with the whole board being assembled in the grand boardroom, with Summer as an observer, who promised to keep quiet, and everyone getting ready for the quarterly board meeting. Charzon was seated where she usually would for board meetings on such business. Thankfully only quarterly board meetings were required.

"Ah, finally, Jessica, you're back. I'm a little, let's say, perplexed. You were able to design an AI by yourself in a matter of days, just that the budget has run dry for us to design other things. Now that we have the quorum we can begin the board meeting. Anyone moves for the board meeting to open?"

"I so move!" the CFO told the assembly.

"Who wants to be the secretary?"

In accordance to the bylaws of the corporation, the chairman of the board is by default obliged to be the speaker in board meetings but nonetheless can take a speech turn. However, the secretary, which mostly is there to take minutes, can be anyone among the staff, usually someone outside the Design Triumvirate, or even outside the Board in general. And Summer, the observer, is one that keeps quiet.
 
The main reason why the quarterly board meetings are universally hated among board members is their bureaucracy: several board members likened it to senatorial proceedings. For this reason they are held at quarterly frequencies; more often and the morale of the staff would decrease, less often and strategic issues would not be able to be addressed in time. With KDY's refusal for their attempt at reparations, Jessica suspected that their commercial rivalry was way too big to swallow their pride, despite the fact that KDY hardly sells Super Transports anymore, let alone the Xs and XIs. Today's big issue is going to be... budget. And, while most agree on most non-R&D line items, the one contentious line item would be R&D budget. But upon seeing an unsuspecting Kolda act as the secretary, despite being the head of the accounts receivable team, said budget is the first item in the agenda after said agenda is approved.

"Anyone moves for the agenda's approval?" Charzon asked.

"I so move"

"I'll be taking speaking slots" Kolda told the assembly.
 
"Fellow board members, we have exhausted our 150-million R&D budget a little too fast. We have grand plans for the company's future, but it cannot be accomplished without new components or ships. Marcia and Jessica here are the people most familiar with the life cycle of component and ship development, they know how expensive these things get"

"Ships we currently build could be converted into carriers with minimal development cost" the chief process officer countered.

The obvious targets in this regard are the Traquia and even more so the Ultima. And, to a lesser extent, the Exodus. The Ultima could be built into a 10-squadron fleet carrier, but most carriers did not exceed 1500 meters in length, and converting cargo space into hangar space was a rather simplistic process if no additional weapons were to be added. Perhaps the chief process officer would be thinking of some process of that variety. He knows many makeshift carriers, like Fortressa, Super Transport XIs, were built from converted cargo ships. Few would even dare build carriers that big, even when the baseline ship was to be devved first (like Hoersch-Kessel Driveworks).

"Do you want us to simply become a purveyor of carriers?" Marcia asked.
 
"It is more expensive for us to develop cargo ships out of carriers than the reverse given our design philosophy regarding combat complement for cargo ships. For most manufacturers, like Kuat Drive Yards when I worked for them, the reverse is true"

Especially in the 1000+m segments, where the Traquia and the Ultima were practically designed with carrier operation in mind. Because dedicated carriers usually demanded some measure of armament, usually so that it could defend itself even when the craft complement was completely destroyed. It was easy for a Traquia or a Ultima to expand to 8 or 10 squadrons respectively, knowing that much less cargo or passengers would be carried onboard. Suwantek was almost driven out of that business because the TL-6000 was unarmed, and all three of their biggest clients found that operating armed ships with point-defense, armed almost to carrier-standard, saved them the expense of operating escort fleets. In fact the regulatory authorities denied the first version of the Ultima, having too many weapons to be classified as a non-combat ship, with the final version of the Ultima having less than half the weapons complement of the original.

"If we became a purveyor of carriers, we might stand a chance at securing those special contracts for something other than mobile drydocks"
 
"While it is important to talk about the long-term vision, we haven't touched the budget being requested" the CFO said after the COO's turn was made. "The Design Triumvirate is requestng 250 million credits - what would Jessica et al be able to conjure up for that amount of money?"

The CFO had very, very little contact with Jessica for the quarter. What he doesn't know is that the removal of Jessica's Force-roadblocks would render her that much more productive. He made these calculations assuming that Jessica was still the same as her pre-Kuat self. Charzon knew that the intellectual transformation undertaken by Jessica post-Kuat forced her to revise her forecasts of what she would get for a given amount of money. But she nevertheless acknowledged that, no matter how much she could get out of Jessica simply by picking her brain any time a design project came around the corner, all of this came at a cost. A sort of "Carnot limit" for R&D design costs. And Lyth, that As-Aki microengineer that was a regular hired hand in these times when money is tight, was almost on equal terms with Jessica from that standpoint - these people were the kind of people shipyards banked on especially because they had the ability to provide proof of development for regulatory purposes.

"I'm surprised Jessica isn't a space witch: if she can pull out an AI from thin air by herself in just a few days... if there is anyone here capable of accomplishing the grand projects Charzon outlined in preliminary meetings, with just that amount of money, Jessica can" the chief talent officer commented.

"Point of information addressed to Charzon: what exactly are those projects?" Kolda asks.

"Namely designing and building 2500 and 3000-meter-long non-combat ship classes"
 
"You have to remember that, while the defense industries are highly competitive, we know that there are segments that are overlooked by most traditional defense contractors: we built our success on going after what's traditionally overlooked and we supply nearly all the light-sided factions in minesweepers"

Personal protection, including but not limited to, small arms, is a popular area where there are like 30+ manufacturers on the market doing just that. Their margins of profit are rather slim given the intense competition in that segment of the market. And combat vehicles, as well as warships, while a market segment where the barriers to entry are much larger, were a highly popular sector with little margin for profits if one produced conventional warships or attack craft. Botajef was kept afloat mainly because it was a de facto subsidiary of MandalHypernautics even though they have a very, very limited catalog of products. And unarmed freighters are now out of favor, especially since the Big Three all operate armed freighters, especially Star Tours: whether back in 1 BBY or today, there is one thing on which Star Tours will never eschew on their ship. Weapons. They know space lanes are dangerous and they are most vulnerable to pirates on their approaches from and to planets.

"The Galactic Alliance, the Techno Empire and the New Republic are the main users of the minesweeper tanks. Silver Jedi never thought Sith Lords could use minefields, or otherwise just go with sapper droids, if you're not the Ringo Vinda Territorial Defense Force, that is, in which case they only field these as tanks" the chief communications officer added.

"Their minesweeping capabilities are rather restricted: they all operate only a squadron or two each. The Silver Jedi think they can commandeer any number of RVTDF armor units at any time whereas they need to have permission from the planetary government before doing any such thing" the chief security officer told the board.

"Point of order please! We're not yet at the marketing strategy" Charzon hollered.

"For 150 million during the last quarter we were able to design products that nearly drove Kuat Drive Yards and Rendili StarDrive out of the bulk freight and mobile drydocks markets respectively. But one big competitor remains or two in the bulk freight market: Hoersch-Kessel Driveworks and maybe MandalHypernautics. If there is money left after these big projects are accomplished, then we can consider converting what we already have into carriers. But know that there is only so much we can get for a given amount of money when it comes to ship design"
 
The cold hard truth was that MandalHypernautics was a throw-in in Jessica's intervention because she fought the Mandos on Kashyyyk. They had no bulk freighter in that market segment. But Jessica knew that larger ships were more expensive to develop, and require more proof of development before the regulatory authorities could approve their use, especially with the projects as Charzon outlined them. The Ultima alone was the single most expensive item of R&D in Ringovinda StarYards history, that was a very costly endeavor, draining nearly half the R&D budget from last quarter, and the Egroeg, and Sacul costing about 8M between them to design. The Traquia, Rasta Sub and the Exodus all cost about 10M each to design, the Maersk 7M, and 30M between the remainder of the components and ships. Charzon forecasted that a 2500m bulk freighter and a 3000m one would cost 75M apiece to design...

"MandalHypernautics never built cargo ships in the target size range: only HKD actually had. The larger they are, the more expensive they are to design. If documents dating from the pre-Naboo era are accurate, it cost them about 150 million to design back in the day but that's HKD not having a person on the level of a Bevel Lemelisk, Umak Leth, or even Walex or Lira Blissex" the CFO commented.

"Suppose that Jessica is the same as any of these people. Charzon, how would you fit these things into the budget?" the chief talent officer asked.

"With Jessica in tow, for 150 million we can get both the 2500 and 3000m-long ships designed, rather than just one or the other. In comparison, design work for converting the Ultima into a fleet carrier would cost us about 2-3 million, maybe less"
 
Apparently her space witch of a lover is almost completely unfamiliar with the content of the discussions and kept quiet: she had little knowledge of the development cycle of a starship. Most debates revolved around it, and Jessica knew it would not end well. And Summer, apparently. Her timing was rather well-chosen to cast the mind tricks across the board room. Calling the question (or previous question as sometimes seen in books that talk about parliamentary procedure) was the one way to end these sterile debates. Here a two-thirds supermajority was required. Which meant that, of the 11 members present today (CEO, CRO, CDO, CFO, COO, CPO, CTO, CCO, CSO, CLO and CMO), 8 would have to agree for the motion of the prior question to be passed. Only the chief marketing and legal officers didn't take the floor during these sterile debates, because they feel it is neither a marketing nor a legal issue. Jessica had to stop the proceedings before anyone else's time is wasted, and she knew that everyone hated the meetings; she was no exception.

"I move the question of R&D funding to be called!"

[member="Summer Sovereign"]
 
"All those who want the question called, say aye"

In accordance to the code of procedure in use, a voice vote is required for calling questions. Not only a 2/3 supermajority was required, calling questions would force the board to make a swift decision. Hopefully Summer would be efficient enough not to make the board reconsider calling the question. For better or for worse, Charzon will soon find out whether that line-item would be allowing her to proceed with her plans for the quarter.

"All those who so not want the question called, say nay"

More than anything else, Charzon knew with more accuracy where each R&D credit went than most other corporate entities did. Surprisingly only the chief process officer denied the funding being requested, and he was also opposed to the question being called. But once the money is allocated there was no going back. Ringovinda StarYards knew that, as it became a multi-billion enterprise, especially in a competitive sector such as shipbuilding, proper R&D funding is one of the most critical budget areas. Hopefully they give it proper attention.

[member="Summer Sovereign"]
 

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