A New Hope for O-Theta

[Soban]

Freeport 8, Living Quarter D, Meeting Room A

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Jonathan rose and offered the hand across from him a firm shake.

“Greetings, Mister Lieber. Just wait until you see the ‘decorations’ I have planned for the Corsairs at Corfu.” He let out a brief chuckle at his own attempt at humor, then motioned for his guest to sit.


He glanced down at his datapad saying: “Daumann’s representative should join us shortly. In the meantime, I’ll outline the essentials.”

With a swift tap, the projector brought Corfu’s current layout into view.

“In short: our objective is to transform Corfu into a station far more resilient than Freeport 9 ever was. Something capable of anchoring the Omicron gateway and holding it, even under pressure. We’ll be relying primarily on your logistics capacity to supply the materials needed to achieve that.”

He exhaled, the weight of the task settling in his tone.

“The undertaking is… considerable. And you’ll have to tolerate the locals, as with any Freeport. The good news is we’ve recently barred the worst of them.”

He continued, more businesslike: “On the engineering side, we’ll draw on both our own experience and Daumann’s expertise. We already have a clear framework, enough that we’ve begun expanding storage capacity in preparation for the first supply runs.”

Another press opened a dense requisition file, line after line of material requests. The total cost at the bottom sat firmly in the hundreds of millions. Cayran gestured toward the growing list.

“Colossal, as you can see. The first phase is straightforward: armor the new storage modules and reinforce the existing station sections. That will form the foundation for the expansion modules that follow.”

He leaned in slightly.

“For the opening delivery, 20,000 units of Ablative Armor will suffice. Corfu will purchase it at 102 SC per unit, and we will add a 20% premium to account for distance, risk, and handling. The same margin would apply to future phases, if that sounds acceptable to you.”

He met his interlocutor’s eyes, waiting for an answer.