Count Dooku shook his head helplessly. "Unfortunately, Madam Shu-Mai, whether we upgrade and replace them is not up to us, but the battlefield. The Defiant-class costs as much as 61 million credits, yet it takes four to six of them to ensure victory over a Hunter Class that costs only 59 million credits..."
He spread his hands and continued, "Even if we include the Hunter Class's enormous carrier air wing in the cost, it is still far below the construction cost of four Defiant-class ships. So upgrades and replacement are imperative. This is also a way to reduce our financial burden and improve industrial efficiency."
The fury on Shu-Mai's face could no longer be suppressed. Her body was even trembling slightly, yet she still said, "This is against the rules! It is not what we agreed upon! It is different!! I can promise to lower the construction cost of the Defiant-class as much as possible, perhaps to 50 million... no, 55 million credits, but the warship orders must meet the stipulated quantity!"
That was all she could say. In truth, she herself knew exactly how much padding there was in the cost of the Defiant-class light destroyer.
The design of this warship had originally been an immature blueprint stolen from the planet's shipyards when the Quarren Isolation League split from Mon Calamari, creating chaos in the process. The Merchant Guilds had then bought it at a high price as though they had found a priceless treasure, modified and refined it, and turned it into their own warship.
Back then, Shu-Mai had confidently believed that this would make the Merchant Guilds one of the powers capable of independently designing and building capital ships, qualified to stand on equal footing with the other major corporate giants.
With such a treasure in hand,