Helike Class Auxiliary Corvette

The Helike Class Auxiliary Corvette is perhaps the most successful guerrilla marketing ploy in human history. When Jovian Moon Yards entered late into the commercial inter-system spacecraft business, many investors and pundits wrote them off as company over extending themselves. Sure, JM Yards had decades of experience at building intra-system mining ships, but the freighter market was already dominated by the Big 3 of EconoLine, FYM, and Inner Earth Dock. Numerous small companies had tried to break into the market, but had little to no success. Problems within the supply chain and production runs lead to cost overruns of the Themisto class and soon JM was looking at a major disaster when JD Power declared that it was the worst freighter on the market.

As the Board met to try and figure out how to salvage the situation, a junior executive spoke up. He proposed attaching every spare mining laser they had to one of the unsold Themisto and then making a supply run to the pirate infested Dracaro system. The spectacular explosion of a pirate raider made great marketing material and public interest soon picked up. That is when the executive had his second great idea.

Hiring the dashing Captain Louis Armatage, JM Yards helped him outfit the Privateer's Bane. Captain Armatage then hired a photogenic and capable crew of rapscallions and JM embedded a camera crew in their ranks. Pirate Hunt became one of the most popular entertainment VODs in all of human space as people clamored to watch "the Captain" and his crew battle pirates and engage in zany hijinks. Moral purists had a fit over what they called "televised murder", but that only increased the show's popularity. Sales of Themistos soared, as pirates could tune in weekly and see examples of what happened when they guessed wrong. Some people also wanted to emulate Captain Armatage, and with much fanfare, JM Yards officially launched the Helike class. Even the destruction of the Privateer's Bane with all hands did little to slow the growth of JM Yards, as the final climactic battle between Captain Armatage and the cowardly Black Bart Hutchinson (who engaged Privateer's Bane at 3 to 1 odds after luring them into an ambush) became the single highest view count of any televised entertainment series in human history.

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