A poster just raised the idea of Heros in the game - I'd like to raise another - mercenaries. I really liked that aspect of ofther games. Here would be a chance for that luck attribute to be useful - you'd get hire-on orders.

"suddenly lord chunky the battle general appears and offers to sign on with his fleet of 4 heavy fighters - the cost will be 2,000 credits - do you wish to accept?"

Anyway, it could be like the precursor "you found a bunch of corvettes" event but with a modal "yes / no" to accept, and a ding on your bank account. It seems like the facilities are mostly in place (after all, you can get a dialog box with plusses and minuses for random events)