The Longest Naval Yard

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Jessica was placed in a delicate situation. While of course, there were the ubiquitous conflicts of interest that commonly arise when one was holding so many different positions in seemingly disparate spheres, Jessica was still a lady of integrity: she would not attempt to unduly influence the decision-makers. Therefore to her, it wasn't Jedi business, despite her provisional position and role on the Jedi Council. Provisionally at least, she served on the Jedi Council and was the go-to person for all military matters pertaining to the Order, and not simply because she was the commanding officer of the Tenth Sector Army in the post-Rift environment. That, even though she knew that sector armies, while theoretically holding ground-based military power over entire hexes, in practice a sector army headquarters is not doing all that much beyond bookkeeping. Nevertheless, with the Jedi Council being left in the dark about the construction or expansion of shipyards for naval use, she decides to go write to one of the Senators to get to the bottom of the matter, while still on Ession to take care of Jedi business:

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

Your Excellency [member="Adron Malvern"]

I may be wondering what role do you play on Senate committees pertaining to armed forces, or appropriations. Perhaps, if naval yard expansion is in the cards, given our rapid expansion, I could enter negotiations pertaining to the procurement of adjustable drydocks. My company manufactures a series of adjustable drydocks which, together, can service ships of sizes anywhere from 50m to 3km. Please let me know what works for you.

Jessica Med-Beq
CEO, Ringovinda StarYards

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

 

[Adron Malvern]

Adron sat down at his desk, taking notice of the notification on his holoterminal, a small flashing blue light that easily caught his eye. He tapped the button, bringing up a message onto his screen. As he leaned back into his chair his eyes scanned over the screen. By it's format he could tell the message was from The Dominion, Serenno's new host.

The Dominion had waited a respectful time after Adron's family tragedy to contact him about business, but never the less life must go on and The Count had his own responsibilities to see to. Taking in the message Adron sighed softly, not knowing precisely how to reply, yet he did such regardless:

​--------------------------------

To all it concerns, primarily [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

It pleases me to be engaging with a representative of your Coalition and am very interested in hearing any and all propositions that are brought forth to Serenno. To start I will be the sole Senatorial representative of my planet and all of our holdings. Because of this I have prominent powers to engage in any negotiations I see fit, so consider me your main point of contact. As for Naval Yard Expansion, Serenno would be honored to host a contract with your company. I am sure we can come to a mutually beneficial arrangement.

As I'm sure you know Serenno is a rather wealthy world, because of this we have generally hired Private Mercenaries to come to our defense. Under The Dominion we would like to host our own military, for this we will need your dry docks and starships. What offers do you have for my planet? I look forward to speaking to you soon.

Count Adron Malvern
7th Count of Serenno
Senatorial Dominion Representative

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

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Jessica feels that she had to seal that one final deal before she could just accept a reduction of corporate responsibility. True, she has been responsible for leading the major ground-bound project of the company, with the expansion of ground offerings initiated in the wake of the Chiloon Rift campaign. She promptly receives the message from [member="Adron Malvern"] while she continued another online meeting pertaining to the ground project, which was fragmented into several items. Of those items, the tank and the mortar were completed, the APC was at an advanced stage, and so was the MLRS rocket artillery. The missiles were not quite as advanced in developmental stages, and she accepted it for what it was: the Dominion provided some of the funding for the development of these new items. She types up a reply to the senator, asking not only for a meeting to be held regarding the topic, most likely in person.

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

Your Excellency Adron Malvern,

Oh, I agree that negotiations should take place regarding the orbital naval yard. Now, before the negotiations begin, here are the products on the table in these negotiations: a line of mobile, adjustable drydocks that can service, depending on the model:

• Egroeg-class adjustable drydock, which can service ships up to 300m in cross-section
• Sacul-class adjustable drydock, which can service ships up to 1000m in cross-section
• Jyn-class adjustable drydock, which can service ships up to 2000m in cross-section
• Tiplar-class adjustable drydock, which can service ships up to 3000m in cross-section

More details, such as the number of units, are to be hashed out later. Before I make plans for travel from Ession, I would like to know where and when the meeting is held, please.

Jessica Med-Beq
CEO, Ringovinda StarYards

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

 

[Adron Malvern]

The options before him were few but they were a nice set of options to have. For Serenno to host it's own fleet it would be most productive for it to have it's own drydock. Though the authority to set up such a transaction was technically above him Adron was sure he could manage to receive the council's blessings on the matter. For that he would need a decent amount of time, it would likely be best to invite this woman to Serenno for a more in depth conversation.


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

To [member="Jessica Med-Beq"],

After reviewing the options set before me I believe we can move forward with talks of construction. I would like to invite you to my home at Blackgate Manor on Serenno to move forward with these transactions. I look forward to meeting with you.

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

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

As is the case every time she had to pilot ships herself, Jessica performed the topology calculations in her head for charting a course to Serenno before the ship would make the jump to hyperspace. She could almost do it without having to use the Force as a painkiller, but she had to use the Force as a painkiller because for all her computational power, using all of it at once will cause pretty big headaches. And make her impossible to miss in the Force within a certain distance of her, more than simply because her Force-signature, which is otherwise not much different from a run-of-the-mill Jedi Master, because her brain glows that much more brightly when her computational power is used in full. My brain makes me glow in the Force with light; the more intensively I use it, the more intensively it glows. Perhaps... perhaps I can exploit the Force-glow of my brain, and then outwardly project the light-side energies contained in it, for Force-light. At the price of big headaches, of course, she thought, while making a mental note to herself to be brought back she feels the need to use Force-light. A few hours later, she has seemingly recovered from her headaches, and arrived over Serenno, making her descent towards Blackgate Manor, whose coordinates were provided for by [member="Adron Malvern"]. Upon arriving with her Neimoidian Yacht at the manor's landing pad...

"Greetings, Jessica Med-Beq has arrived for her appointment with Senator Malvern"

"I will guide you to my master" the valet told Jessica.

 

[Adron Malvern]

In preparation for Jessica's arrival Adron had tea and biscuits prepared for the two to enjoy over their talks. While it was a basic meal that he never cared for it seemed the most fitting for the evening. Mainly since the Lord was not inclined to have a full meal serviced for the evening. He sat in his study, perusing the many drydocks that had been made available to him, waiting for the official's arrival to his home world.

It was not until there was a knock at the door that Adron pulled himself from his own thoughts. "M'lord. Your guest has arrived," An elderly man called through the door. Setting the datapad to the side he returned the man's hail. "Bring her in, please."

As the door was opened to Jessica she would see that a portion of Adron's desk had been cleared of it's natural clutter for her to operate from. A rather comfortable chair sat in front of the space across from him as well, with a warm cup of tea and biscuits set out for the two.

"Please, have a seat Mrs. Med-Beq." Adron stood, offering a polite bow as he spoke.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Courtesy refreshments were provided by her host [member="Adron Malvern"] in the study, to which she was brought in by the very valet that greeted her at the landing pad. The manor was much larger than most of the McMansions she knew management-level workers on Bimmisaari lived in or even the mansion she owned on Dulvoyinn, but par for the course of the lords on Serenno. The only thing she knew for sure was that, due to the intended purpose of the Serenno Naval Yard, for which the flagship rumors abound, all four sizes will be purchased and that the main issues remaining will be centered on how many and their cost. And the seat Adron offered was plush, comfortable, easy for her to sink into, and that was a relief after she had to bow her head below nearly every door after the main entrance due to her near-Wookiee morphology. Once she is seated, the negotiations began in earnest, with a datapad at the ready to print out the resulting memorandum of understanding, knowing that the actual contract may as well not be Adron's to sign.

"Greetings, milord. I trust that the business will be pleasant to the people of Serenno. The main item of business left to resolve is the scope of the naval yard, which, in turn, determines how many units of each model will be required"

 

[Adron Malvern]

Considering his words before speaking Adron would appear wise for his age, yet obviously still lacking in physical experience. He took a sip of his own tea, savoring the taste. "Well we don't necessarily need to rival Kuat." He spoke with a hint of amusement in his voice. "While Serenno's high council is....skeptical about moving towards advanced militarization they are also wanting a mass purchase for these drydocks. So much so that they are almost willing to reformulate the budget around them....I am not so inclined."

Adron wanted a mass militarization more than anyone, however he did not wish to put his planet's economy at risk for such a thing. "We'll start off with a purchase of one unit per model this year. If all goes well and we are able to amass what is needed, we may look to renew the contract during the next cycle."

A moment passed as Adron pinched the bridge of his nose. "Now the fun part. Price. I'd be lying if I said i am knowledgeable about the price of these things. So I trust, you being a fellow senator, you'll give us a good deal." The boy propped himself on his desk with his elbows, resting his chin on his hands as he did so.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"That combination will make a fine addition to the maintenance of heavy destroyers and battlecruisers but give a limited ability to service escorts, cruisers and even light destroyers because escorts and cruisers simply outnumber the destroyers in the current inventory"

Jessica didn't have a confirmed seat in the Senate, unless the Jedi Order was allotted one seat in the senate, in which case it would be hers, at least on a pro tempore basis. One unit of each a year: while practical for the maintenance of the destroyers and the battlecruisers, cruisers on down might be maintained elsewhere. Also, today's Kuat is not what it used to be: during the Omega War, Kuat's internal troubles cost them a large portion of their shipyards, and even before then Ringo was able to get ever-increasing shares of the civilian bulk market as well as the mobile drydock - he would instead be talking about Ringo Vinda, Fondor, Rendili, Gyndine or Mon Calamari, she thought, while having a feel for where Serenno would fit in the whole system of naval yards: admittedly she is a little unfamiliar with the system beyond Ession, other than there are numerous gaps that need to be addressed. And she would be reminded that the whole question of pricing will soon be coming up. And, in fact, it did. [member="Adron Malvern"] will be a little perplexed afterward.

"The list price of these items is around 700 million, especially due to the sheer size of the Tiplar: after all, the Tiplar is designed to service battlecruisers, which can sometimes cost much more than that. But I believe I can do 600 million instead for the agreed-upon combination for this cycle"

 

[Adron Malvern]

Even with a substantial discount, over two billion credits was ridiculously pricey for any transaction. So much so that he knew he would indeed need the backing of the other Count's for such a move, however he knew they would agree given light to recent events. "Over two billion credits. Well I don't particularly have that in my pocket, but yes I believe that will be doable." He stated, no love lost in his tone.

"Now you said these drydocks will service our battlecruisers and destroyers well enough but not our smaller cruisers, correct?" He took a moment to consider the words before dismissing them for the time being. "Very well, we will discuss that at a later date after I have convened with the Council."

Adron gestured to the woman's datapad absently as he continued. "I trust you can produce a copy of the agreed upon contract? The Council of Serenno convenes in three days. During that time I will discuss this with them, though seeing as how The Dominion wishes to host a military base here I do not foresee a denial. In fact they may be encouraged to purchase even more drydocks, though I do not believe such is....practical at this very moment."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The total amount of getting 1 each of those is 600 million, since the Tiplar alone is 300 million, and 200 million for the Jyn, 100 million for the Sacul, with the Egroeg for free as a bulk discount, so, while it's still rather expensive, it's better than what I previously implied"

What would be even better is that the total amount being 600 million will be made clear on the final contract. That's over one billion less than what [member="Adron Malvern"] initially expected. Even so, Jessica suspected that 600 million was still more than what House Malvern could handle. So Jessica just entered those terms into the "contract datapad", which allows one to produce a hardcopy of the contract in two copies: one for Adron, one for her in the current case. Perhaps the political implications of the naval yard were the reasons why it was impractical to expand beyond that set of drydocks: aggressively pursuing guns over butter often proved impopular on planets like these, she thought to herself, while accepting that the Serenno Naval Yard was If it was up to her, she would probably add in an extra Sacul and a half-dozen Egroegs: then they could be able to service escorts in a more consistent fashion. Once the actual numbers and terms are printed, she hands a copy to Adron, while explaining the reason of why that naval yard would have a limited ability to service the escorts, half-expecting him to sigh of relief a little bit.

"It's just a question of fleet numbers, really: all fleets will have more escorts than they will destroyers or battlecruisers"

Julie, another board member that seems much more distant from actual corporate affairs now, knew that, from her Silver Sanctum Navy days, squadrons often comprised a destroyer + escorts, while battlecruisers served as sector fleet flagships. And some high-value systems may have a battlecruiser as a flagship, but some systems can make do with one squadron or two with a heavy destroyer (usually taken to be 1500-2000m) each.