I was thinking that there could be a new way to hold items. It would be called infuence. The more influence one would have the more ship/items they could carry with them into battle. One type of ship would be an upgradeable wingman (5 max per ship) which would use up 5 influence and have 50 attack, 50 defense, and 100 hull. The attack and defense could be combined with your stats to increase attack and defense. And with upgrading you could use CTP, Energy, EM, and mineral units to upgrade it.
what do you think?

Sounds pretty good, seams too much like political favor but might do.