MNS Amalfi was approaching Maltese shipyard hidden within the Austera Nube cloud. Vessel was noticeably damaged, one of its five engines was barely functioning and some of its armor panels were blown off. Comandante de Marco grabbed communication headset and requested permission to moor and repairs. She had to wait a several minutes before her requests were approved and Amalfi approached one of the mooring points.
Her vessel needed repairs - that was obvious. But that wasn't the only reason of her arrival - she was here to meet Alexandra Amelia herself and have some talks about Amalfi's future modifications. Comandante de Marco left the repairs at the hands of her executive officer, and ventured deeper within the massive space installation.
As she walked through the endless corridors, she had to ask a few times for a direction, as she never ventured that far into the station. Later, she eventually arrived at her intended destination.
She was dressed in her uniform - which was clean and good enough for this meeting, at least by her own book. There isn't much room in Guardia for vanity anyway. Comandante de Marco walked up to the reception.
"Buongiorno, I'm Comandante Fiorella Arianna de Marco from the Guardia Svizzera, I'm here to speak with Alexandra Amelia from Hispania Imperial, I was invited to meet with her. Grazie.", she nodded at the receptionist and kept waiting for the answer.
Valletta Shipyard wasn't anything special, as far as the interior of the station was concerned, however a variety of individuals frequented the station, even allies of Malta in some cases were granted clearances to be on the station for business dealings.
Alexandra just finished such a meeting with one of her many associates. She wasn't wearing anything special, considering that she was on an Outcast installation after all.
She was heading to the receptionist to check in regarding any new arrivals when she heard the name "de Marco".
She approached the woman, wanting to find out if it's the person she was expecting.
"Excuse me, you wouldn't happen to be señorita de Marco, a member of the 'Guardia Svizzera' now, would you ?"
Fiorella notices the woman and formally salutes, "Buongiorno, si, I'm comandante Fiorella Arianna de Marco, I have an appointment with Alexandra Amelia.", then she pauses for a moment as she slowly recognizes Alexandra's face from the communication channel.
"Pleasure to meet you in person, signora Amelia.", Fiorella smiles politely and continues, "I arrived as soon as I was able. How are you?".
Comandante is slightly over 1.9m tall and speaks with deeper voice. Her posture and facial expression look relaxed - she is among other Outcasts in the friendly territory after all, but there are some small signs of worry or fatigue in her face.
Alexandra's guest was quite on time, which was rather rare for her previous meetings with others, though she noticed that the comandante wasn't looking too well. Despite recent developments, Alexandra had no unusual signs of stress, or change of overall behaviour, she got used to the ever changing atmosphere of most situations.
"You're quite on time, I like that. I've just finished a meeting with a guest of mine, though I could use a drink. You don't seem to be too...'happy' so to say. I've got a room prepared for us, with some refreshments, you can come with me now, or we can meet there, if you need a breather. I'm also curious what exactly that 'minor setback' you referred to in your transmission was about."
The curiosity was rather noticeable on Alexandra's tone, but it wasn't demanding. She was merely wondering whether the comandante's mentioned setback had to do anything with her worried look.
Fiorella is a little bit surprised - she was very well aware of her fatigue, but she tried to do her best to cover it. But even her acting has its limits and she nods at Alexandra before she speaks with her signature accent again - being member of one of those Maltese minorities living in the Venetia region. The event which caused her vessel to suffer damage and seek repairs at Valletta isn't secret anyway.
"Just one unlucky engagement with gallic mercenaries and LSF in Cortez System. We have lost the battle, but we live to fight an another day. However, sneaking through Taus with damaged destroyer hadn't allowed me to have a full rest. Nothing too serious, signora Amelia.", she explained and nodded at Alexandra, "Si, maybe we can move to more appropriate room to continue our discussion. And - I could use a drink as well.".
"After you, signora Amelia.", Fiorella says with a polite smile.
With the introductory pleasantries done, they decided to move to the arranged room to get to the deal. The room itself wasn't anything special, though the furniture and overall look made it feel like something of a conference room. Alexandra picked a random chair, and sat down infront of de Marco.
"Well then, let's get to business then. We can handle most of the construction and assembly matters, however we'll need specifics. Our engineers can come up with their own ideas, but it's your vessel, and I assume you have specific modifications in mind, and you want to decide the location of the hangar space yourself. If that is not the case, we can discuss it here, or perhaps later.
We'll also need the required materials for the project, though I already mentioned that before. We can get to what I want in exchange later.
So, what do you say ?"
Followed Amelia into the conference room and sits down as well, but not before Amelia sat herself down first.
"Si, Signora Amelia. While our plans aren't finished yet - but I have a general idea what needs to be done.
As far as I'm understand - full docking bay from Stortas was to improve their overall performance - by allowing them to have more crew and more provisions for their missions. While I can't save any internal volume by different armor, weaponry or shield system without compromising its combat performance significantly, my chief engineer proposed idea of reducing the crew and replacing them with more automated systems.
Since most of the crew aboard capital vessels serves as means of damage control, maintenance and manning equipment according to the wishes of senior officers, I believe that it's possible to save up a lot of volume by allowing computer and robotic systems to handle these relatively simple tasks. By greatly reducing these general crewmen numbers - we should be able to fit the hangar bay into the Storta again without compromising its combat performance significantly, although I expect some minor differences.
I've already been experimenting with this idea when I acquired those humanoid robots for my own ship. Although, their decision making routines are very basic and I was able to use them only for some cleaning and minor maintenance duties. For any more serious automation - I'll need to make a significant modifications to my vessel's computer systems with more advanced software.
I've already begun procuring such software from Lane Hackers and I'll procure more advanced computer hardware from some 'no questions asked' company.
It's not without its drawbacks, however, as more powerful computers will require more resilient powergrid. My chief engineer thinks, that by making current powergrid more robust with better cooling should be 'good enough' until we find a more powerful powerplant, which can fit into Storta's compact hull, if we will find anything like that at all.", Fiorella paused within her long monologue for a moment.
"As you can see, I plan very major modification for my vessel to free up volume for the hangar bay. It will be quite a lot of work to replace all those data lines and computers within the vessel and to make sure that all these systems are well connected and functioning. While I'm not poor and our Clan can afford to operate few capital vessels by itself - I don't have required access to shipyard queues beyond routine maintenance and repairs.
What will you want from me in return, Signora Amelia?"
