Beginnings of Pride

[Taeli Raaf]

The time had come to begin fully committing Krayt Industries's resources to ramping up development and growth, and to show they were ready to leap onto a wider stage, Taeli had decided that it was time for the company to begin the Pride Project. With the recent upheaval of the galaxy and the disappearances of trillions of beings, the company was running at half staff, and she recognized that was a problem right now. But this project was too important right now, it could be a catalyst for the expansion of Sith power in the galaxy and impose order upon the chaos raging across worlds.

To rectify everything, she had begun employing new workers and seeking out help for the project and that was what had brought her to where she was now, to seek Emeritus Industries help in designing and working on the beginning stages of the new Star Destroyer. Walking towards the main office, she wasn't certain how this meeting or the subsequent project would go, but she was hopeful.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Ordinarily, Emeritus Industries worked alone. They especially did little if any business whatsoever with the Sith, considering that they were a primarily Protectorate-based corporation. But with roughly half of the Protectorate - and the galaxy at large - having disappeared, Circe knew that there was one thing that could help prepare for whatever was coming - coalescent technological work. It was because of this that she had come to Krayt Industries in order to assist on the project known as Project Pride. Emeritus did have the designs of successful ex-CIS and ex-Imperial Star Destroyers in its databases, and it knew how to craft such ships.

Which was why Circe was going to do her best in order to acquire information from this. She hoped she could come away with perhaps a partial copy of the blueprints for this starship, and perhaps info from the One Sith's remaining TIE Detonator stocks, in order to provide a baseline droid programming for their new Scrapmetal-class Drones.

"Well... What more can you tell me about what we have here?" had Arcanix been briefed, she would likely know about Circe - powerful illusionist and sorceress, and a Sith Lord who once controlled a third of the Sith Empire as well. She also had led the harassed company known as Subach-Innes before its dissolution, and was here out of some sense of obligation, perhaps.

Maybe even, shudder, a sense of moral duty?

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Hopefully the beginning of a new age," Taeli said, sitting down. She had heard of the woman before her, most everyone had but she assumed she had died around the time she had actually joined the One Sith.

"I won't lie, this entire situation with the disappearances has me on edge, and only made it clear to me this project needed to be jump started to bring order to these people. A new generation of Star Destroyer, a step onto a bigger stage for Krayt Industries, but I need your help in this. I'm prepared to offer you whatever designs or tech you need to make this possible."

Sliding a datapad with the early, but current specifications of the Star Destroyer to Circe, she would accept anything the woman had to offer, whether it be advice, material aid, joint work on the project, whatever she was willing to offer. Luckily for Taeli, her chief engineer had not been among those taken and he was feverishly assembling a team to make this project a full reality, even requisitioning a shipyard specifically for the project and deploying a security cordon around the area where it would begin.

"What do you say, Miss Savan?" she asked, bowing her head slightly. "Will you help me in this endeavor?"

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Ordinarily, I would say no. Emeritus Industries' alignment as of now rests firmly with the Omega Protectorate. However, with the current galactic situation, I more than believe we are on the verge of another extragalactic invasion, the likes of which we will have never seen before. I'll gladly help you, in exchange for two things." She paused.

"First, I want a copy of the blueprints for all Krayt-produced starships, including this one. Second, I require a TIE Detonator's droid brain to extract code from. My company is working on a similar device, and in order to make sure that such project is functional, I require base code to work off of in order to speed production times for the currently produced chassis. Once we reach an agreement on this, we can immediately get to work producing these specialized starships. I also may require your assistance with something regarding the disappearance - but we can discuss that later."

If she didn't agree to give the blueprint copies, Circe would simply request the blueprints for the ship they were working on right now. However, she needed the blueprints ultimately for leverage - if her company was accused of treason, the intricate designs of the ships for Protectorate analysts to look over would likely assuage their concerns.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Enigma"]

Taeli almost said no flat out when the woman across from her asked for all current Krayt blueprints, that was almost completely unacceptable for a business as those designs could wind up in the hands of their enemies, although she could appreciate why she might want them. Treason was a high crime for everyone, and she suspected this was more of a bargaining chip for such a thing than to steal her designs . . . still . . .

"I could give you the blueprints for our Open-Market models, but not the ones exclusive to the Sith," she answered. "I rather not be tried and executed for treason myself, but the second condition I would be happy to comply with, as we aren't using those old TIEs anymore. I'm sure I could have one or a few sent to wherever you deemed necessary."

She was curious about what Circe might have in mind about the disappearances, but that would indeed be a matter for later.

"I could possibly sweeten the pot a little more to get rid of the sting of not getting the Sith exclusive blueprints by also promising, in a contract, to provide you with anti-matter for use in whatever you deem necessary, if you are agreeable to those terms?"

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Perhaps a level of renegotiation is required. I'm willing to accept solely the open-market models - so long as you provide me with a copy of the blueprints of this starship that we're working on. Not attempting to be hostile or anything, but I will have helped design it, and for future designs of Emeritus Industries, the blueprints may prove to be useful. I have Star Destroyers and whatnot to work on, after all... The Pluton's been unused and I need to win some contracts on a larger scale."

"I'm glad that the second condition is easy enough to work with. As for the antimatter - I'll hardly say no to a worthwhile resource such as that. In fact, I might even go so far as to suggest we utilize an antimatter reactor for these vessels. Emeritus has experience with such considering that one of its Star Destroyers, the Ranator, was the first to utilize a 2:1 matter-antimatter reactor on a wide scale. Some of our fighters also use similar technology."

Antimatter was also highly explosive, but containment failure could be marginalized by speeding up the combustion of the two materials and overcharging both the shields and all weapons, bleeding off excess energy.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"As long as I don't see these exact ships popping up among Protectorate fleets, I can agree to that," Taeli replied. She had already been planning to have three anti-matter reactors for the ship, but if she had Emeritus's expertise on optimizing them, that would be all the better. The woman before her certainly knew how to drive a hard bargain though, but that was what was needed at this level of the game.

"We would have to keep anti-matter shipments secret, possibly delivered to a neutral system and then have your company pick them up, just to avoid those pesky laws and hostilities that exist between the two governments. Otherwise, I believe we have a deal yes?"

Bringing out a second datapad, she pulled up the current open-market blueprints for the starships they built and handed them to Circe, but before letting go she added, "I hope you don't try and replicate these, I would hate to have to enforce copyright."

Taeli was certain she would understand exactly what she meant, but it needed to be said. Having the blueprints did not necessarily mean she wanted to see her ships popping up in enemy hands. That would be annoying to say the least.

"So what shall we work out first for this project? I'm open to suggestions on modifications to the design specs I already have written up of course," Taeli said, letting go of the datapad.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"They won't be, I can assure you of that. The same goes for the open-market ships as well." She nodded. "The antimatter shipments I can have delivered via cargo freighter. I assume they'll be magnetically sealed, of course - the last thing I need is more manpower lost at the behest of sabotage or an 'accident.'" She was sure the woman knew what she meant by such.

"Your chief issue is focusing too much on high-power turrets and turbolasers. You need to be focusing on more turrets with less powerful guns to provide superior overall protection. Not to mention that the design will take a lot longer to be disabled, and more turrets can be utilized if running on low power. Not to mention the superiority of mass drivers compared to turbolasers. The Pellaeon-II proved such, at least."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Enigma"]

"They would be delivered how I would deliver them to my own facilities, there is no reason for such . . . accidents to occur," Taeli said, smiling slightly. She did always enjoy a good word game, but down to business and as Circe outlined what she would change to the designs already, Taeli started tapping her chin in thought.

The mass driver idea was certainly interesting and different, considering what most ships used in combat. Less power consumption and immediate damage to a ship's hull, rather than fighting through a ship's shields first then through the hull. The ion cannons could fill that role, and the mass drivers would make quick work of enemy forces. She was personally sold on the idea, as it would make the Star Destroyer more unique than other ships in its class.

"I like the idea as more power can then be diverted to other systems, such as the shields and engines if need be," Taeli said, pulling up the schematics on a holo-projector and activating her re-design pen that interacted with the projection. Highlighting the turbolasers, she replaced them with mass driver cannons on the 1800 meter long hull.

"How would you feel about the spacing of the defensive guns throughout these areas?" she said, highlighting the flak guns and point defense lasers and re-positioning them into smaller battery groups and spacing them more across the ship to cover a wider area.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"I'd suggest side and rear battery groups in order to provide a degree of protection from flanking corvettes and frigates. Have the anti-fighter guns lined first, followed by the main guns - that'll make sure that any enemies end up getting flak'd before dropping ordnance on the heavy hitting weapons. Should still allow you to focus most of your fire on larger ships a significant distance away, of course."

She paused, looking the design over even moreso. "What sort of fighter complement are you considering fitting in here?" That seemed to be a respectable question, considering that the vessel overall looked balanced. Similar to the Bandon and Pellaeon-II.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Enigma"]

Making the suggested modifications, Taeli highlighted and moved the guns around so they could provide an outer layer of defense before they reached main guns and also moving a few batteries t the sides and rear. No need to risk the engines after all, as she had seen too many ships get disabled by such attacks before during the battles she had been in.

"We would be aiming to have room for six squadrons of fighters and/or bombers and/or a mixture of the two," Taeli said, highlighting the hanger bay next so it was pulsing a slight blue. "Not as many as a ship like this could have, but I feel six is plenty as most other ships in the class either don't have that many or are equal in number."

"Before she forgot, she zoomed into the internal systems of the ship and added in three anti-matter reactors to provide the power for the vessel, not sure what Circe would think of the idea, but three seemed like they would be enough to power a ship that size and have plenty of excess power to divert to needed systems when needed.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Interesting tri-reactor design... Should provide more than enough power, but I'd like to make a suggestion in order to provide this ship with an ill-forgotten capability." Gently borrowing the design pen, she removed the foremost reactor, stretching the hangar bay to fill the space. And within the hangar bay space was located a single prefabricated garrison base, which would allow the Star Destroyer to more adequately contribute to ground battles through the deployment of these preconstructed command posts. After all, they could also be linked together in space to form a sort of improvised defensive platform against corvettes and smaller ships.

"This is what you need to truly be capable of multitasking. I only suggest that you do this because the One Sith will be forced to fight a ground war as well as a space one. Prefab garrison bases will definitely help create the necessary lines of battle to fight back against any sort of invasion. Well, unless we have enemies that are hundreds of kilometers in length or diameter."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Enigma"]

"I see your point, and it would definitely help with coordinating ground forces," Taeli said, nodding and also cracking a smile at the small joke at the end. Well, she hoped it was a joke at least, she didn't fancy fighting enemies that large at any given time. "What would you say to trying and adding a secondary bridge within the superstructure, just to avoid the mishaps that happen when the primary is attacked?"

She had seen and heard stories about entire Star Destroyers being destroyed or knocked out of commission because of their primary bridge being destroyed and not having some sort of back-up to continue overseeing a battle or operation.

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"A battle bridge?" From experience, even the more hull-integrated bridges such as those of Tulak Hords could prove to be broken down. That was why battle bridges - secondary bridges - were definitely necessary in the design. The last thing she would need would have to be a couple of frigates coming around and trying to blow things away to disable the ship.

"Regarding the hangar itself... How do you want to proceed with a launch installation? Should there be a forward launchway, side ones, or an open area at the bottom of the ship for fighters to exit at their leisure?" Such would certainly determine the overall defensibility of the ship.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"I think a bottom one might be best, eliminates vulnerabilities on the sides and front that could be exploited by enemy craft," she replied, once again highlighting hanger after adding a battle bridge into the superstructure of the Star Destroyer. "It would allow for rapid deployment of fighter squadrons, but it might delay their effectiveness for a few seconds."

Taeli tapped the digital pen to her chin for a few moments while she thought. The ship was definitely taking on a more unique look than other current ships of the line, especially if they went with the hanger being underneath.

"What would your opinion be on the bottom one, Miss Savan?"

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

"Assuming you use a bottom hangar opening, I suggest you have a series of launch tubes that are angled forty-five degrees down, facing fore and aft. Each tube can be used to launch and retrieve fighters, allowing for proper output without there being a big hole on the underside of the ship. A suicide drone or two could easily fly through the shield and destroy the ship with a few well-placed explosions. Each launch tube should have no less than three separate doors, along with the exterior forcefield. This will prevent any using of the tubes as a weak spot. The doors should be quick enough to operate that any attempt to fly in or otherwise fire weapons through the tubes into the hangar bay can be intercepted by the last door."

That was a big flaw she'd seen in the Imperial designs. A very big flaw indeed - hopefully, such would not be the case for This ship.

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Hmm, you bring up a good point," Taeli said, thinking it over when her mind flashed to an older model of a Sith ship. "Perhaps we go to another choice then, with the front launch bays such as what were on Harrower-class Dreadnoughts from the old Sith Empire. It would allow ships to be deployed much faster into battle, and of course they would have blast doors and shields over the entrances. to avoid attacks. And I suppose they would also have more protection in a way because they would be covered by the main guns of the ship."

Hanger placement was always important and it would indeed decide where the weaknesses of the ship would be. Decisions, decisions.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"True, but then you've got a spot that, while it only somewhat less vulnerable, is still vulnerable. If I'm using a Pluton-class battleship, and I focus all the firepower of those massive hypervelocity guns on your hangar door, the shield will go down, the door will break, and your ship will suffer massive internal damage. What degree of damage, no one's sure of, but it would definitely be critical." She smiled. "The inclined launch tubes will give you exactly what you need - proper protection and ease of use."

What else was there to tinker with?

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Launch tubes it is," Taeli said, moving the hanger onto the bottom and adding the tubes, with shields and the three sets of doors. Looking over the design further, she looked at the engines and were okay with using three, but then Circe might have other ideas. Reagrdless, it looked like they were almost at a final design decision and could begin drawing up the plans to construct the first of its kind.

"Can you think of anything else?" she asked, wondering if she had any further suggestions.

[member="Enigma"]

 

[Onrai]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Fit the ship with a redundant backup hyperdrive, powered by its own fusion reactor. In the event that main power gets knocked offline, you can still save the ship by activating the hyperdrive and getting the hell out of there, regardless of the overall damage. With three reactors, you should have enough power to fit in a secondary hyperdrive along with the backup currently fitted in there."

That would be a primary hyperdrive of Class 1, likely, a secondary(backup) of Class 10 or so, and probably a Class 15 powered by the fusion reactor. Ships were becoming a valuable commodity.

"If I may ask... What is your actual name? As well, how many ships have the One Sith fleet had to mothball or abandon due to lack of crew? With the current crisis, I'm surprised you'd have the necessary full crew for a new type of Star Destroyer, unless you're relying heavily on droids and automation."