A Critical Meeting

[Thexare]

Alice was unperturbed by Billy's questions, seeming to have expected them already. "Yes, the R40 was originally designed for exploration, but it was designed for a customer that had the Omicrons in mind. So it was made to be resillient, easy to maintain, and adaptable to a variety of threats. Hazardous clouds, Corsairs, over-gunned Hunter knockoffs, and so on. While some proprietary hardware is involved, most of it can be replaced if needed with relatively standard off-the-shelf parts; we do intend for the R40 to see wider-scale sales when our production capacity expands. Right now, the main limiting factor is the lack of a full drydock we completely control. The chief advancement of the R40 system is our new comparative multispectral analysis system that runs off a dedicated hardware core kept in a secure location, specifically to minimize the kind of risk you're concerned about. In short, if the CMAS takes a hit in combat, you've probably got a very large hole in your ship already. Most of the custom work that'll be specific to your ship is a simple matter of fabricating the right components so everything fits together properly, and a bit of custom firmware configuration, the majority of the hardware should still be standard-pattern R40." Alice pulls a form out of the stack and slides it across the table to Billy and continues, "As for maintenance costs, as you'll see here costs are based directly on hardware production costs, plus a standard per-manhour expense. This is the same price scale used in our contracts with the Octavarium Mercantile Guild, so if you have any concerns about prices, you can verify with them; we rely on OMG for most of our material shipments and a significant portion of our sales. For the first four years, maintenance expenses are capped at no higher than the current rate as of signing the contract. By the end of the initial maintenance contract, I expect the cost to decrease; Kwinana's operations are expanding, slowly but surely, allowing us to process more materials in-house rather than importing everything from Liberty, Bretonia, and Gallia."

"Still damn weird getting things from Gallia legally," Darren laughed.

Alice nodded. "Mm. I'd say it's a welcome change, except now Kusari's gone on the warpath. You know, again. Anyway! Software and firmware updates are free of charge as long as the system is installed, standard deal. Now, the other detail, interior amenities. Most of us in Aquila aren't that familiar with the Raiders, but I believe we can round up some retired Raiders that'd be interested in helping us get that right. There's a lot more flexibility in creature comforts than in scanners and shields, it's easier to design around a client's preferences there." With a smile, she asked, "Does that cover all of your questions?"