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On August 27, 3052, Thomas Calderon abdicated the throne of the Taurian Concordat and Edward Calderon took over. The official line was 'health reasons', but only a small group knew that Thomas had been diagnosed with a degenerative brain disease, for which there was no cure, only palliative care.
The civil war in the FWL continued, with the rebels, i.e. the anti-Thomas Marik / WoB faction, even though they had no WarShips, confronting this "über" weapon with a high number of Aerospace Fighters, much more than they were supposed to have. Those who paid close attention could notice that many of these extra Fighters were models that could easily be found in the nations bordering the FWL, even if they were not the most advanced variants.
Even if it was at the costs of great loses, this threat and its efficiency were enough to cause sufficient damage to the Word of Blake Warships and to force them to be more cautious.
In September, 3052, news started to circulate that Thomas was not the real Thomas Marik, but a substitute, certainly inserted by a shadow organization, be it the Word of Blake or more probably the extinct Comstar.
Although few believed at first such a rumor,Thomas Marik's supporters denied everything, calling that a desperate attempt to undermine his position. But the fact that no one was able to get access to the original tests of Joshua and Isis Marik, tests said to come from the Atreus Central Hospital and that no further test was made to deny the accusations, gave credits to it with more and more people starting to believe them
An unofficial / non factory produced version of Dragonfly MM-3, was created specifically for the Revenants. The Large Laser on the nose was replaced by an extended-range one and the armor by Ferro-Aluminum, making the MM-3R (Reach / Revenants) considerably more lethal than the already deadly MM-3. And also turning a very expensive Light Fighter into a even more expensive one.
In November 3052, Andrea Stirling (CO of Sterling Fusiliers) and Tony Rubensky (CEO of Cosara Weaponries in Northwind) visited Coromodir VI.
Both of them and the Elders of Northwind (which Andrea represented), were dissatisfied with the level of support the Federated Commonwealth provided to Northwind. On one hand, Cosara Weaponries wanted technical support to modernize the factories in Northwind, so that they would be able to produce the most advanced variants of Crab and King Crab and increase their production capacity without forgetting the creation of a HGN-732b production line that the company had bought the rights for and that the Northwind Highlanders regiments wanted in large quantities. On the other hand, both the Northwind Highlanders and the Elders wanted to build a dockyard in the system to support at the same time, the various JumpShips that the regiments had and the commercial ones that various companies in the system controlled.
In both cases, the FC had provided little more than vague promises. Knowing the good relations of Coromodir with the Wolf's Dragoons and the solution that the St. Ives Compact had obtained from the Taurian Concordat for the modernization of their production lines, both planned to obtain similar conditions for Northwind.
While several championed the idea to go directly to Taurus and Edward Calderon, to negotiate, other rightfully pointed that, while Northwind was a semi-independent world, it was not a fully independent one, with connections and obligations to the Federated Commonwealth. Having these kind of negotiations with a foreign power, even if it was one at the moment friendly with the Commonwealth would probably cast a shadow on the relationships with the Federated Commonwealth. On the other side, Jean-Luc Bassot was known to have made several deals with the Wolf's Dragoons without repercussions while Outreach was a world with a status close to the one of Northwind, . And everybody knew that his companies had the necessary expertise. In the end, the council decided to go to Coromodir and negotiate with the Arano-Bassot family.
After several days of tough negotiations, an agreement was reached that benefited both sides.
Coromodir Heavy Industries was awarded the production rights of the Crab, King Crab and Highlander, and for the next ten years a Northwind Highlanders regiment would serve in the Reach, rotating home each year to be replaced by another. In return, CHI would provide technical support, training, the high-tech components needed to upgrade the Cosara production lines in Northwind as well as helping to build a dockyard in the system. None of the help from the Aurigan partners was financial.
On January 13, 3053, the first Pinto class Corvette was launched by the shipyard at Mechdur. After a few political maneuvers, it had been decided to name the ship TCS Keona Arano after the first High Lady of the Aurigan Coalition.