N.B. Comment replies on the bottom of the preceding page, for all two of you who care.[/i] 
As one of that select and venerated elite, I can assure it was appreciated.
some members of the Legion Navy had been sounding the alarm for a good deal longer than others (most curiously, the earliest proponents of such a rework had originated from the Mining Department of all places).
The traditional home of all excellent engineers who's fate is to be overlooked by political types. Though given the terrible consequences of being the subject of political attention being overlooked is often the best option, as the Legion Design Office will doubtless agree.
shipyard spaces were freed on the commissioning of Bad Intentions and Blatant Insult.
Legion ship naming policy remains on-point and culturally appropriate.
At this point, the reader could be forgiven for attributing this as a heinous blunder on the part of the ship design staff. Indeed, failing to inform the chosen candidates about each other’s involvement was an oversight with no rational nor strategic basis, and the head of the ship design offices could not expect much in the way of future career advancement.
Did he even want career advancement is the question? What better way to avoid unwanted promotion into the political shark pit than this?
neither Lord Grand Admiral Argyron nor Lord High Admiral Macaria were willing to back down and admit error, thus both continued to express their support for the class, however reluctantly and however secretly glowering over having been forced to agree with one another by unforeseen circumstances.
Legion Doctrine is clear here - one must continue to blindly and violently support one's original plan, even once it has become apparent it is a bad idea.
This is not to say, of course, that alternatives were not explored by the Conference nevertheless. Perhaps the most compelling revision was presented by Lord Admiral Gaia Pandia, who advocated for a Bellerophon variant which was better-suited for the critical commerce raiding role:
I admire the shear gumption in calling the commerce raiding role critical and not even admitting the possiblity that such an outrageous suggestion needs anything as boring or prosaic as evidence.
Lord High Admiral Makedon - with the assistance of his subordinate, Lord Admiral Pothos Aleus - had devised the first primary-carrier-role ship class in Legion Naval history. Perhaps acutely aware of his precarious standing in doing this, Lord High Admiral Makedon was quick to emphasize that this proposal was not necessarily meant to replace the Bellerophons as a mainline fleet scout frigate, but could perhaps be considered as an experimental proposal meriting a squadron’s worth of ships to be constructed as a proof of concept.
It does indeed resemble an experimental carrier being too small, with far too few aircraft, a lack of proper facilities and so on. He should have stuck it all on a destroyer sized hull, which would also be too small but would at least address the worst of the criticisms and concerns.
This observation was followed by a period of uncomfortable silence, which was only resolved by Lord Admiral Criasus, who noted that while his colleague’s question held substantive merit for discussion, it would have properly been raised in that morning’s session, and thus the session would regrettably be forced to move on towards more relevant topics. Thus, the Lords Admiralty were once again saved from the introspective horror of feeling a bit silly about themselves by the minutiae of procedure.
If the Legion ever find a way to weaponise bureaucracy and use it against their external enemies (instead of their internal rivals) they will conqueror the galaxy in a couple of weeks.
At any rate, with only three sessions left plus the closing remarks, there is perhaps some light now at the end of the tunnel? We shall see.
Traditionally the light at the end of the tunnel is the oncoming train. But in deference to our setting, perhaps the light is an opening Aether Rift?
As you noted this is probably the best outcome that was possible given the calibre of the assembled leadership, which is admittedly a fairly low bar to clear. Are the Standard and Raider variants inter-buildable? Look like they might be close, its a BFC, guns and one sensor swap so maybe? A small detail I suppose. Interesting the preference is for upgrades and not new builds, there were other options there (new build Standard IIs for the fleet and refit the older Is into Raider variants for instance) not pursued. The conference is thinking upgrade to their existing fleet and not expansion of the number of available squadrons.
