Shu Mai shivered for no reason. She looked around. The atmosphere in the parliament had already been whipped into a frenzy; many people were shouting and arguing loudly. Yet several others sat high above them, utterly still, watching events unfold with cold eyes.
The InterGalactic Banking Clan, the Trade Federation, the Corporate Alliance, the Fourth Group, Dawn Star Planet—along with the progress of the war, they had become the true core of the Confederacy of Independent Systems. Once, the Merchant Guilds under her command had also been one of the foremost major powers. But now, the war had widened the gap in strength between them more and more.
The Merchant Guilds simply had no core competitiveness. Even their primary warship—the Defiant-class light destroyer—was in fact built under license from the Technological Alliance.
To put it more bluntly, they had no core strengths that they could bring to bear in war.
In the past, neither the InterGalactic Banking Clan nor the Trade Federation had possessed such core strengths either. The InterGalactic Banking Clan had clung to its Generous-class frigates for what felt like a lifetime. The Trade Federation's Luukri-Hok-class battleships were converted cargo ships, while the Deceiver-class destroyers they had invested in were actually designs from Rendili StarDrive.
Yet at some point, the Trade Federation and the InterGalactic Banking Clan had suddenly gained the ability to design and build their own large warships. Moreover, the vessels they produced were no weaker than the Galactic Republic's warship designs—if anything, they were stronger!
So when they suddenly proposed upgrading the fleet in parliament, Shu Mai realized that there was no one who could stop them!
Not even Count Dooku!
As Shu Mai looked again at those few people, then at Poggle the Lesser, Archduke of Geonosis, and Wat Tambor, Foreman of the Technological