FUJI R&D #2
FLEX
Karl nodded as Nikki gave the update on Shadow. "Figured he would be alive. A man doesn't survive everything he's done to get taken out by a botched sabotage." He was thinking about the whole experience with the Wyverns...they were bad enough that there was never a serious chance they'd be considered as replacements for the fleet--which meant that they were actually never good enough to be a serious risk to anyone in the fleet, either. Part of him was tempted to chalk Koffel's whole thing up to an attempt to sabotage the Delta Fleet fighter wing and assault forces, and part of him was convinced that Koffel was just grossly incompetent and sunk way too much money into building prototypes that never had a prayer of passing muster.
But the test pilot in him also looked at the whole thing from a different perspective...the Wyverns had been designed and built by people who had no appreciation for what combat aircraft went through, and what kind of demands, at a bare minimum, they should fulfill to be taken seriously. That was the reason the Stolys, and the Deuces that followed them, had done so well...they were built by people who got it, they understood the missions and the demands. And while he doubted Stolyarev would ever get a chance to make it off Earth and back out to Fuji, he felt like the legacy of the man's program should be protected. If those shuttles were going to be retired, they needed to be retired in favor of a better bird, not just a newer one.
Mentally, he started building a criteria list...at some point, he'd submit it to the Fleet, and they could show it to prospective contractors, and say, "Your shuttle MUST be at least this good or you've wasted your time and ours." There was still a chance the products wouldn't live up to their promise...but it beat having any idiot with the credits and the contacts building what he thought would be a good shuttle, especially when that idiot didn't know anything more about the demands of combat than what he saw on a Captain Lightning vid.
Deep in thought, and getting deeper, Karl grabbed what was left of his meal and started walking toward the shuttle back to Fuji...