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Gebiet 42, secret Raumwaffe installation in the Große Weite plains, western Leonism

Prokonsul I. Klasse Gaius Julius Kirschnegg looked in awe at his latest pet project. The Supreme Commander of the Raumwaffe had inherited from his disgraced and deceased predecessor, Vizekonsul Leonhardt Schulte, a military space program of unparalleled dimensions - some in his own service even called it megalomaniac.

The Raumwerft (space(-ship)yard) in Area 42 was an enormous installation, stretching 20 by 20 kilometers in the middle of Leonism's huge and barely populated steppe, the Große Weite. In the mountains west of the area, near the border with Custadia, the mining city of Tannenberg supplied the foundries with the necessary raw materials.

The starship factory, the first of several planned installations in the Imperium, was already churning out R44 aerospace superiority fighters and had finished its L/KRV corvette assembly line recently. The first three ships were ready for their acceptance tests. Their predecessors, the Morgenröte and the Sonnenwind, had been hand built prototypes. Optimised for mass production, the Imperium hoped to churn out the corvettes at a speed of one per month this year, and hoped to improve on that in the next years.

But the plans reached farther. The "L" in the L/KRV designation stood for "leicht" (light), so naturally there was to be a heavier corvette, designated "KRV", 150 m long compared to the 100 m of the L/KRV, heavier armed and armoured, and with a hangar to carry starfighters. The R44 was too bulky for that role, but lighter, more compact craft were already in development.

Right now, Gaius Julius Kirschnegg was visiting the KRV prototype, the Erlösung (Redemption). In the gigantic hangar next door, the even larger "FRG" (frigate) prototype was in an early stage of development. Kirschnegg, whose branch had played a very minor role in the Imperial Armed Forces until very recently, was aware of the chance the South Sea conflict offered to him. Only his vessels were fast enough to react to unexpected developments in time, while the three traditional branches, Heer, Luftwaffe and Marine needed plenty of time to deploy their forces. This was just the time to secure more funding and influence for the Raumwaffe, and set in motion his long-term plan to make it the dominant arm of the Imperium, ahead of the nowadays hugely influential Heet and Luftwaffe, which had so far played almost no role in this conflict.

OOC: While everyone is posting interesting non-canon RP, I'd like to point out that this is canon and the Imperium is working on significantly expanding its space forces, in line with its superior Scientific Advancement rating of nearly 900. Wheter these forces will be deployed in time for the current war mainly depends on that conflict's duration and any unexpected developments in the near future...