Making their first steps into the naval contracting industry, the
Me-Shali Conglomerate began by purchasing several hulls from other
Brakiri corporations to experiment with before embarking on totally
new designs. Among these purchases were one of the Ak-Habil's Corumai
dreadnought hulls, and several Halik. Examination and testing proved
that while the Halik was an adequate escort frigate, it lacked a
heavy punch, and the Corumai had quite a few glaring flaws. Having
made the significant investment to acquire the hulls, the Me-Shali
proceeded to attempt to correct them.
The Corumai's most glaring problems were its significant power
shortage and its low maneuverability. Experimentation quickly proved
that there was no way to fit into the hull a reactor large enough for
the weapons suite the Ak-Habil had planned for the ship. Slight
improvements in the reator were possible, but expensive, so the
Me-Shali engineers stripped out four of the power-intensive graviton
beams and replaced them with pulse cannons purchased from the Narn.
(In another experiment, the graviton beams were fitted to the Halik
frigates in an attempt to match the Abbai Tiraca or the Centauri
Vorchan, replacing the two forward graviton pulsars.)
The strain on the reactor solved, the Me-Shali were able to make
some slight upgrades to the engines and reactor, but the fundamental
maneuverability problems of the ship remain.
