NationStates Jolt Archive


Partial Completion of Port Harris (Story)

Conquest Inc
27-12-2005, 08:58
The Financial Times
December 27th, ----

Director Praises CEOs, New Naval Construction Announced
High LEO, CI space - Early this evening, Director Richard Zheng concluded his tour of the Port Harris superskeleton with a brief oratory, praising Mssrs. Rheinhardt, Liu, Hammond and Akimoto for their continuing cooperation and highlighting the first new naval construction since Conquest Incorporated’s founding. “These four captains of industry have worked harmoniously to bring progress to CI and its loyal shareholders and employees, and nowhere is that more evident than in the Port Harris project.”

Mr. Zheng spoke from the administrative center of Yard A, West Strut – the first, and as yet only, portion of Port Harris to be completed. Yard A is approximately 9.5 km in length, and includes eight berths that can be lengthened, shortened or widened at will. “It’s all adjustable. The berth walls will be moved to accommodate whatever size of ship we want to construct,” says Adolph Hürst, one of the many thousands of engineers on the project. “The design maximizes efficiency – we’ll never be unable to start construction of a new ship because a berth of appropriate size isn’t available.”

Hürst’s beloved berths are now home to the structural skeletons of Aggressor (http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/huzzah001/AggressorDestroyers.gif), Belligerent (http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/huzzah001/BelligerentDestroyers.gif) and Champion (http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/huzzah001/ChampionDestroyers.gif) class destroyers. These ships will be the foundation of CI’s newest subsidiary – the Conquest Incorporated Corporate Security Services. “While the terrestrial component of the CICSS is only being amalgamated from existing firms – Rheinmetall Arms, TerraTech Defense Systems – the naval contingent is being built from scratch,” Zheng explained to gathered reporters and market analysts. “If CI expects to remain relevant in today’s universe, it must have the capacity to defend its assets.”
Conquest Inc
28-12-2005, 05:23
The completed Port Harris will be an exceptionally substantial installation, measuring a staggering 33.6 kilometers. The facility will feature sufficient space for “dozens” of simultaneous construction projects, according to one of the project supervisors, Ronald Denton. “It’s gonna be huge. I mean, most interstellar nations have starship manufacturing capacity, but Conquest Incorporated’s heavily invested in an extraordinary future in mass production. The bigwigs are betting that manufactured ships and goods will be CI’s highest grossing product type. If they’re right, Port Harris will be inundated with work orders.” Mr. Denton added jokingly, “If it’s not, we can just build a fleet and start pillaging the sector.” His aides, probably used to his joking, laughed more reservedly than did your correspondent.

The shipyard will be tasked primarily with military and security work, as CI has purchased two class C civilian yards for commercial construction from Zeppelin Manufacturers. These yards are already turning out resource collection ships in large numbers, for possible deployment in the Verniian Free Expansion Zone and in the Belt. These vessels include the Prospector ("http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/huzzah001/ResourceCollector.jpg) class resource collector and the Trading Post ("http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c52/huzzah001/ResourceController.jpg) class resource controller. Freighters of various kinds are also slated.

The first destroyers will be ready for action inside of three months, according to corporate sources.