Short answer - nothing bad is going to happen as a result of what the preferred shareholders do!
They can't force the company to pay the dividend. The board votes on that every quarter. The existing board still has a large majority. I do expect the new members to have a voice on the board, but they will be a minority.
Even though I want my dividends, clearly it's in the best interest of the company to use existing cash to start phase 3. I doubt that many people would expect the company to delay the start of phase 3. The money to pay the preferred shareholders should come from a partnership, or even better, a buyout. But phase 3 needs to kick off ASAP.
The company would jump for joy if the preferred shareholders converted their shares. A preferred shareholder can do that now, but it doesn't make sense to do so. And it would help the company, not hurt it.
I see the preferred and common shareholders as having a similar objective right now. Everybody needs the company to succeed to have their investment pay off - and nobody is happy with the share price. I know there are always some people who claim to be in for the long term and say that they don't care what the stock price does short term. To some extent, I can agree. But that wears thin after a while.
It won't be too long until the common shareholders will be clamoring (as much or more so) for the company to strike a deal to get some cash and to get the share price up. We don't know what Spiro is hearing, but I'm guessing that the large shareholders are already giving him a gentle nudge to do something to gain Wall Street confidence and get the share price up. If they diluted now (I don't expect that), it would probably get ugly. I expect a partnership.
