A Shelter for all Mankind

[Laira Darkhold]

Taris

The cityscape covering the grasslands in the northern hemisphere of Taris stretched for miles in either direction from the tower Draco stood on. With him were Rach Vizla, sporting his Kathol Liberation Ring, an honor he considered very important and displayed such an honor openly and proudly. The elder Mandalorian was outspoken and boistrous, and absolutely confident in his abilities. Aten Vizla, Rach's younger cousin, was also in attendance having taken the mantle of second-in-command in the past and handled the day to day operations of the Clan. The young man lead the clan through most issues, ensure the boys got fed, paid, sheltered, and equipped during their off time. Kept the fortress manned and ensured the call went out when the Alor decided to march to war. Marcus Roc, the Tanaab born businessman waited with the trio of Mandalorians. Marcus's only job was to keep ArmaTech above water and keep the clan supplied with weapons and funding.

"Well, as you can see, the corporate city on Taris will be complete with Phase One in two weeks, then we can get started on Phase Two and have production underway on all major projects, aside from shipbuilding." Marcus wasn't exactly on schedule with production but the designing and manufacturing of the Hecr and To Vhin starfighters during a stressful move of the company had resulted in a number of delays. "The factory on Roxuli can be obliterated at your leisure."

"Good. The One Sith were never quite fond of our products once the Wrath and the Hand left them." Draco's new stance left him with little options but to slowly cease production for the One Sith, much as he was working towards ending production for the Techno Union, though that government was no defunct. Concord Dawn, Taris, and Concordia would be enough for the company to maintain, stuck on the Mandalorian Road and with a fleet of manufacturing dreadnoughts in unclaimed, uninhabited systems.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Draco turned his attention from Marcus to the elder Mandalorian warrior leaning against the desk. Taris was almost complete, at least enough to get working and enough to keep up with the manufacturing needs of ArmaTech, which was all he needed to know about it for now. His own interests lay in Alderaan more now than with the company he built. He wasn't like Danger or Kuhn, who wanted to rule the galaxy through Maximum Overbusiness. He wanted a simple life at the end of the day. He knew he wouldn't get a life that was too simple, but quieter than it had been in the past.

"Rach, you had something you wanted to talk about?" The Mandalorian's grey eyes turned their attention to the older warrior. Whatever he was here for would hold some importance to the Clan, and seeing as the older man had asked for all four of them, it would likely have something to do with Draco's own interests.

"I had a couple ideas about some tech you could use. And, well I could use." The Old mandalorian, tapped on the transparisteel window. "That out there is miles of buildings with redundancies. The city could run without any number of them. This building is the only one that is needed to keep the city's operation at optimum levels."

"Yes, that is why it is defended with anti-air weapons and protected by a theater shield in the first place."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Rach nodded, the city had some defenses scattered around throughout it, areas for defense, though it lacked any serious anti-orbital threats in the city. Mostly it relied on the corporate and Mandalorian defenses of the planet and star system. The theater shield was good solid defensive tactics, and Taris wasn't exactly undefended. "Yeah, but those things are designed to fail. That is the whole reason you had the World Guardian designed as an alternative to primary planetary shields, so that at least it could do some damage before it was circumvented."

Draco arched and eyebrow and Aten decided to pipe up in the conversation. "The World Guardian hasn't seen extensive use. Right now there are three planetoids with the system installed, and that is Alderaan, Aldera, and Concordia. The only planet featuring extensive defenses is Concordia, with the moon intended to be a fortress by the end of the year." Orbital and Anti-orbital installations around Concordia were increasing, and the Mandalore System contained numerous satellites, defense platfroms, and a Tra'Kranak Space Station, along with a Vigilance Early warning grid set around the system. With planetary shields around the moon and the planet, it was easily the most defended system under the Mandalorian clans influence.

"Yes, it hasn't seen extensive use, and probably won't any time soon. Rach, what point were you getting at." Draco asked, moving the conversation along, back the original discussion.

"Those systems are designed to fail. Important buildings are then the first ones to be targeted and immediately afterwards, things are thrown into disarray and further defense is disorganized. Even if successful, its days or weeks before normal operations are returned." The older mandalorian fumbled around in his pockets for a moment. "I had the idea when we installed a cloaking device around the Royal Palace on Aldera. The structure is still lightly defended, but Hibridium is too hard to come by for extensive use on non-military, ground-based installations."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

When the Mandalorian produced the small holoprojector from his pocket, it activated showing a number of existing technologies. With only minor inspection, cloaking devices, sensor masks, optical shields, and defensive shields were all being shown on the device. "Important buildings, like this one need to be independently shielded. This one is supposed to have Bothan Assault Cruiser grade shielding once complete, even. Well, even that is circumvented, and its not like those are very hard to handle. A good bomber squadron with intruders can handle those shields."

Draco nodded, while the defenses were there, they were not immense or infinite. A theater shield could be flown under, and AA guns could be avoided. A Wing of starfighters through the city could result in the system being disabled and the tower being destroyed without much fuss, then it was just bombardment or landing of troops. "Yeah, alright. But as you said, we can't afford to cloak every important structure. Cloaking just the Administration towers would be costly. Do able, but costly. Very costly considering the only attacks on our corporate cities have been us in disguise."

Marcus likely knew that, especially since only cities being moved have been destroyed or leveled are the only instances in which attacks have taken place since the creation of the Corporate cities. They were large and took time and resources to move, so covering up those moves were hard. It was easiest to just ensure schematics were wiped out and the primary systems to operation were removed. "True, but the potential for attack remains, and this will be something your friends on Alderaan will probably appreciate. Basically, we hide the important structures with an advanced, powerful optical shield. It may not work forever, but it buys time and isn't guaranteed to fail like the other systems. Use of sensor masking equipment can keep the energy readings from being detected, and will keep attacking starfighters and starships from being able to pin point where they need to hit. The longer they are in the air looking for it, the more likely the droid fighters and AA can gun them all down."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The Mandalorians in the room all seemed to be working out some tactical nonsense that meant nothing to Marcus. The only thing that mattered to Marcus was that ArmaTech would be the ones producing the design, and making it feasible to the scale of production they seemed to be interested in. "With Taris entering phase two, and Concordia already in phase two of construction, its important that we don't strain their facilities. Already we are heavily reliant on the Argent-class fleet to produce large quantities of our real production market designs. The Board wants to produce a number of civilian craft as well as spearhead a couple of civilian projects that have been on the back burner for the better part of a year. If you want this put into production, I need to be able to sell it."

Draco looked at the man from Tanaab. What he said was true, and despite the feelings about it in the room, this was a meeting of four equals, all necessary for the clan and companies to flourish. The Alor, the leader whose word was law in the field. The Clan's leader in Aten who kept the juggernaut turning and was the ruler of the day to day operations. While Draco worked hard to remember those members of his clan, Aten was the one that was readily approachable. Rach, the elder, the one with wisdom to guide the clan onward into the future and offer advice to the younger men, as well as the best fleet officer Draco knew that was willing to follow him. And then Marcus, who despite being far from a warrior was a genius when it came to business management and had it not been for the clan's oversight of his endeavors and strict demands, he likely would have turned ArmaTech into a household name ingrained in every mind from Bakura to Helska.

"He's right. Anything you make today needs to be open for the market. Restrict to non-Sith Organizations for now, Marcus. I haven't been able to work out a deal with the Sith Triumvirate. If I am able to, we may offer to provide them with some for a small discount. I'm trying to get a few things from them. I'm also interested in getting to Iego and studying the old CIS defenses there for your other projects. You want to expand the civilian product line, we will come up with something for you."

"Good, Bothawui is closed now. We finally got pulled out of that planet and are relocating to here. I was wondering if the Mandalorians would be reclaiming this planet anytime soon?"

"Unlikely. I'm working on moving to reclaim Alderaan and there is a push for Cathar, Ord Cestus, and Agamar's reclaimation. Taris isn't on the list as of yet for full reclaimation, but there are a number of corporations represented here. It will work out sooner rather than later."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Marcus shrugged, "The One Sith never took an interest in our armor or weapons like the Republic or Techno Union did. Even Hegemonic used to buy our weaponry prior to becoming defunct. Speaking of which TA5 schematics are still around, but in reduced number. I only have them produced out of Taris for now, and in small number." The potent battle droid had been extensively studied and developed by Hegemonic and ArmaTech for a while, and knowing that they were the only ones able to continue to produce a few of them was reassuring. As of right now, that wasn't what was important.

"Good. Keep working on closing Roxuli and opening Concordia. That city should be done soon and production can go back to what it was." Draco turned back to Rach and looked at the little holoprojection. "Rach, you are going to need to go into more detail before I can pass on this and get a design team working on it."

Aten decided to retake the conversation, having a bit more technical experience with the design process. "Rach has a solid idea and decent basis of existing technologies to get moving with a design. Nothing in it is overly complex or difficult to produce. Sensor Masks exist for the sole purpose of hiding signature readings, including energy output. Optical shields will need to be fine tuned, prepared, and modified to fit the bill. That's the hardest part of all this is getting the optical shields to operate as they are supposed to. Then using building and plant based shields based off small grade theater shields, I think it will work out." The idea was solid, most importantly because there wasn't much new about the idea, just the application of the technology. It could work out, and selling it to civilians and pacifist would buy the company points. And it might buy him some points with Faith as well.

"Go forward with the concept then. Marcus, see what R and D can whip up for us in the next three days. I don't expect a full size prototype, just a proof of concept."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The Mandalorians nodded and began making their way out, while Marcus had already sat down behind the desk to begin typing a set of instructions and requisition orders for the design team from the Research and Development division. There was much to do, but all Draco was looking for in three days was a proof of concept, a small scale working prototype about the size of a starfighter. The bigger versions would be made from that without serious issue unless they had to shop parts and fabricate a large number of pieces from scratch. Those would be harder to come by, but not impossible.

"Alright, meeting adjourned then. Marcus, we can start working on some things for the civilian line. I know its very small right now, but we are turning more towards civilian and non-military applications. Takes time." Draco's voice resounded across the room as the Mandalorian turned to leave from the office in the Administration building of the new corporate city. Soon the headquarters of ArmaTech would be on Taris completely, and the corporate city would be booming to supply the few governments they supplied with what arms they produced. Right now with the Techno Union defunct, the Mandalorians were the only ones that used their products with any consistency, and even then it was sparse. Most of ArmaTech's monetary gain came from smaller transactions to local planetary defense forces and law enforcement.

"Yes sir. I'll get a team working on this project and hopefully we can show a proof of concept, then a field test and have it in production by the end of the quarter." Marcus was a pragmatist at heart. This idea was useful and would hopefully get some of the draw and attention it deserved from the market.

The four men went their separate ways, with plans to get back together at the end of the week to see the proof of concept demonstrations. Rach was looking into getting things together for a field test, but that took longer to plan properly, so the design team had some time to get a prototype working and ready for them.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Three Days Later

By the time Draco arrived the other three men had been waiting for more than a few minutes, a few glasses and a bottle of whiskey had been set out. By the looks of the bottle it had only recently been cracked open and only a few drinks poured out of it, likely not more than three for the men as they waited. "Sorry I'm a little late. How about someone pours me a glass of that, and then we get to it."

Marcus poured a glass of dark gold liquid and passed it off to the Mandalorian who had just arrived. "The design team worked up something, its big enough to show off, but it needs to be scaled up for production. Basic principles are based off Optical shields just as discussed. Nothing incredibly fancy, but it works like Rach described." Marcus clicked a few buttons on the data terminal on his desk and few images appeared in the middle of the room.

"Scalable shield generator. Its mid sized, for buildings, it can handle a full plant if it needs to, and its a pretty powerful encasing shield. When active, the shield doesn't register on sensor readings, it hides the buildings under it in the attempt to disguise them as standard local terrain. Sensor mask keeps the energy readings from being detected, so it won't be too suspicious to inbound enemy vessels." He tapped a few other buttons and brought up a live feed to a demonstration where a short-haired blonde engineer was waiting beside the holocamera.

She quickly introduced herself as the design leader, and started on technical jargon Draco didn't much care for. She rambled, mostly directed at Marcus since he was her boss, about power readings, scalability, and other information he needed to know to make an informed presentation to the board. "So when can we get a look at the system in action?"

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The woman fumbled through some pieces of flimsi-paper, and skimmed across a number of other datapads before looking back up at the men watching the holocamera from the administration tower. "It will take some time to fabricate a prototype for field testing. Maybe a week?" She asked, waiting to hear from the four men watching the screen. She expected at least one of them to make a nearly impossible request. Rich and powerful people almost always did something like that.

"A week. I've got other things to do than wait on Taris for it to be built." Draco looked at his companions finishing his glass with a gulp. "How about we meet back in a few days to take a look at it. I've got things to see to on Alderaan, and I know Rach has some stuff to see to." The Mandalorian set the glass down and the monitor turned off. "One week, we will take a look at the finished product in a field test."

Rach nodded from the back of the room. "Its difficult to get a solid field test down for something like this. I'll see about contacting some pirates anonymously and get them to raid a facility protected by the prototype. We will work on standard rapid response times. Should give us enough time to look at how resilient and how capable the stealth systems are." The older Mandalorian, tapped his finger on the arm of his chair, contemplating where and what to use the prototype to defend.

"If we have to transport and install the system we will need an extra day or so." Marcus spoke up from behind his desk in the room. "Not too much, but it might matter given how much time you want to give us before contacting pirates. Once hired they might go straight for the objective, and we may need some extra time."

Rach gave a single nod of acknowledgement from the back of the room while Draco continued organizing the quartet of men. "One week, Rach will provide a locale, and then we will convene here to observe the site remotely."

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Eight Days Later.

The four men sat back in the office on Taris waiting for the show to begin. According to Rach, the pirates would begin their assault of the remote location in short order and the system would be tested. Given the location's remoteness it would have to hold out for one hour before Mandalorian ships arrived to reinforce the system and drive the pirates from the system. An hour of holding out seemed like a long time, but it was actually the shortest period of time before a rapid response force could arrive.

"Alright, so how long do you think it will be before the pirates attack?" Draco asked quietly while he got situated in the arm chair he had claimed for himself, adjusting it slightly so that he could speak to everyone in the room easily and watch the screen on the wall that would be showing the pirates attack.

"Ten minutes. They checked in a moment ago." Rach said, lounging in his own chair waiting. He didn't seem to think the situation wasn't very dangerous, but he had anonymously hired pirates to attack a small research post on the mid rim. There were people there, but he didn't seem worried.

After awhile the attack began, and the small research station used the optical shield to hide throughout the attack. Rather than being specifically targeted, the pirates were forced to commence wide area strafing runs. The information they had was solid, but not precise. After about seventy minutes, Mandalorian ships arrived and the pirates began to flee. Not all of them escaped, many were caught by Interdiction fields and tractor beams.

Draco sat watching the sensor and data readouts for a moment. It turned out good. What did strike the shields didn't pierce, and the strength of the large scale ground shields were more than capable of holding out for a while, though once struck, the pirates were able to start circling the shielded area with a bit more precision. "It looks good. See if we can manage putting it into production for sale. I would like to make money off of our hard work."