ADS: Like A Phoenix

[Thexare]

"Project LIMELIGHT never did get properly finished," Victor stated abruptly from behind the Director.

"Yeah, somethin' about us getting run out of our home," John replied irritably. This was his own office, how does Delacroix do that?

"You misunderstand. That wasn't an accusation. I remember the circumstances quite well," he said calmly, pacing around the room. "We sent the plans out to the Hessians, in lieu of actually helping build the ship. We still have those plans, I trust?"

"Yeah. We make backups like you make plots."

"Smart." Victor smiled, as much as he ever does anyway, He leaned over to the second monitor, currently unused, and pulled up a series of ship diagrams. "There are a number of very interesting platforms on the open market now. The successor to the Corvo is a very well-defended corvette that the Zoners sell openly. Orbital's producing some small passenger craft that have plenty of room for alteration. A newer model of the Democritus has an expanded cargo bay. And then, of course, there's the Bustard." Complete diagrams of each ship were pulled up in sequence as he spoke.

"Be a lot easier if we could get some examples out here to have my people pick apart. Might need a proper shipyard for the larger ones."

"I had considered that, yes," Victor said, standing and walking toward the exit of the office. "There's a Taurus in the docking bay, have a look at your leisure. Start with standard SEW/C refits, the Fourth Fleet could use a supplement to Paranoid. And get me a copy of those Muninn plans, in case they never made it to the Hessians. I repay my debts." Before Jones could respond, Victor closed the door and left.

"I hate that man sometimes," Jones muttered, examining the diagrams. Ideas quickly formed for potential refits, though, there were definitely useful ships here. Recon and control systems were an easy enough starting point...