Best practices from the Clone Wars

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Even though the ladies Charzon seemed to treat as their favorite teammates to work with were useful to an extent, only one of these two ladies would be present today because Jessica got injured in the Kuat heist. Even though Charzon found Marcia to be a one-dimensional lady, more than anything else, if that one dimension was something that was useful in some capacity, she could live with it, and Jessica appeared to be the more rounded of the two, even if both Marcia and Jessica were rather, let's put it that way, boneheaded when it came to stealing stuff. And so was Charzon, too. Plus Jessica proved to be rather fixated on getting revenge at Kuat Drive Yards: was she satisfied now? Would the Ringovindian government pay [member="Celiana"], [member="Jaster Starfallen"] or [member="Silas Miu"] for their contributions to the heist, on top of awarding them the very same Silver Star decoration Jessica was awarded? By now Jessica is in some bacta tank on Alderaan, and many Ringovindians wanted to see her, their heroine, in the hospital. Charzon contacted one of the few Clone Wars veterans still alive today, a certain Tusken raider called Jakkor Kess:

"All right, Mr. Kess, because we know by now that, while we can have three Creveld-5s fitted, promising that the ship would burn roughly the same amount of fuel as the Invisible Hand did while, at the same time, having its maneuverability, and on a ship almost 40% bigger, we have no idea what the best practices for quickly loading and unloading freight on Star Destroyer-sized ships are, no more than we know about the best practices for firing arcs. We think that having retractable hardpoints both on the topside and the underside that can cover 360 degrees are a good idea but perhaps we are mistaken: none of us have actual fleeting experience"

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

Jakkor had been contacted by a ship designer who sought experiance when it came to Star-Destroyers. She had come to the right person. It had been eight hundred years since Jakkor had served on a Venator Class. He had always considered it one of his favorite starships,and next to the better imperior class that became the Imperial class. He had always felt the Venator was more artistic,and a true work of art. For that fact alone he had kept a holo of the Venator,and it's schematics.

He spoke to her in a kind tone while pulling out the holo,and activating it showing a hologram of the Venator,as he spoke he pointed at the ventral hanger.

"Well Ms. Loulan. You came to the right person. Their is not many Clone Wars Veterans that are still alive. Infact people like myself are a rare commidity these days. The best way to solve your little problem with the overall design is the ventral hanger. When I was a Jedi Commander of the 350th Attack Battalion during campaigns like Toydaria,or Ossus for instance. My men,and I thought that it would be a waste of resources,and troops to use Acclimator transports. Knowing they would be destroyed either by Antaircraft,or by enemy capital ships. So we used the Ventral hangers with it's long wide landing ramps,and we loaded,and unloaded troops,supplies,tanks,walkers,artilary. You name it when we landed the Venator's and began invasions."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Hmm... a ventral hangar door that could house two squadrons. That was Charzon's best guess as to how big a ventral hangar would have to be without leaving too much vulnerability to the underside. Marcia knew that ventral hangars were vulnerable spots for such implements but since it was going to be close to eight of the thirty-six landing gears, Marcia had to make sure that the point-defense turrets could be retracted upon landing, that is, when the landing gears are deployed, the hangar's point-defense guns would retract. Obviously some of the remaining 28 landing gears would be at the front and others at the rear. To Charzon it would be best for a ventral hangar door to be close to the center, but that would force the repulsorlift generators to be placed aft, with the Creveld-5s between them.

"I would guess two squadrons would fit inside the ventral hangar. Said ventral hangar has to be close to the center. Too big a ventral hangar and it creates a bigger weakness, too small and it would create a bottleneck. We could fit fighters much the same as we would on an Imperator: on ceiling racks"

"We go for a ventral hangar that can fit two squadrons, we need to make sure we have a point-defense turret around each corner of the ventral hangar. I could configure the targeting computer software required no problem" Marcia told Jakkor.

"I hope Jessica recovers soon: I need her help for what Marcia is proposing to do. We wouldn't want the landing gears disabled by friendly point-defense fire. Or that Marcia truly understands landing gear retraction protocols by now"

Two squadrons of TIE/rv Reavers would do the job nicely. They were designed with ceiling racks in mind due to them having similar chassis to the TIE/hb heavy bomber, which could carry 2x the ordnance of the TIE/sa bomber. Here the TIE/rv could carry as much as the TIE/sa but with an hyperdrive and shield generators. Despite them being a little less maneuverable than ARC-170s or Wroshyr-class fighters, they were still able to defend themselves against fighters.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

Jakkor was pondering on what he should say next. Ship design wasn't his speciality. He was only good at piloting them. Designing was for shipyards like for KDY they were the best ones. He thought for a moment when it came to the Ventral hanger. He knew of one instance during the battle of Coruscant,Anakin Skywalker used republic artillary as a point defense turret,and it worked wonders during the battle. His mind now drifted right back to this moment.
And thinking what he would say,as he was a bit confused.

He looked at both Ms. Loulan,and the engineer he assumed was also helping with the design he said.

"So if I understand this correctly. Your worried about the ventral hanger being exposed,and to work around protecting it with point defense turrets. You may correct me if I'm wrong. I am not very familar with the design of ships all to well,but I may be happy to transfer the holo to you,and your staff. If that will help you that is."

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Jessica would be happy to see that; plus I would make her believe that we successfully stole something from the debacle at Kuat"

"Jakkor seems a little perplexed. I believe he doesn't have a clue as to who Jessica is: he might not have read the newspapers or the holonews lately" Marcia told the two other people. "Mr. Kess, Jessica is the product manager for the variable-geometry landing gear. She had a burning desire to get her vengeance at Kuat Drive Yards after the latter scrapped the variable-geometry landing gear project"

"Jessica rose to stardom here on Ringo Vinda after we attempted to steal schematics from Kuat Drive Yards for some of their more obscure ships, like a prison barge that could carry 100k prisoners. She wanted to have Marcia and me go along some help hired by the Ringovindian government to take a potshot at One Sith-controlled KDY. But such stardom doesn't last very long. Anyway, how much for us to make a backup copy of these schematics, Jakkor?"

"The current government in power on Ringo Vinda is 1) aligned with Jedi and 2) pretty fanatical. They paid the protagonists about 100k-150k apiece and, to the government, Charzon and I are just support roles, we were paid 40k each for that"

Jessica was awarded the job because the employer had a longstanding policy to favor local contractors in awarding contracts of that type. The only thing in her file that would have made her a suitable candidate was the fact that she was a former KDY employee. She had no experience of combat, she had no experience of thievery, her combat skills were highly limited, and her slicing ability was okay at best. She had, simply put, a nearly-superhuman drive to exact vengeance at KDY.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

Jakkor was pretty surprised from hearing this. He gave a bow of respect to both [member="Charzon Loulan"] and the one called 'Marcia'. He then took his holo,and inserted a small thumbdrive into it making a copy of the Venator Class Star-Destroyer,and it's schematics. He then said in the same kind tone as he said earlier after taking the drive out of the holo.

"Excuse me for my ignorance ladies. I have been gone from the galaxy for a very long time staying out of the eye of any Galactic Governments. As far as anyone is concerned I don't exist. Now I would very much like to meet this Jessica. I would like to give her the design of the Venator Class to her personally as my gift to her for her hardwork at the shipyards. You may use whatever you want with it retrofit it. Manufacture them,improve them. I don't care. As for compensation on the other hand,money is of no concern to me,but I would like a new ship."

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I would probably have to say, if you want to see Jessica for yourself, go to the Aldera Universal Medcenter on Alderaan. She will be bathing in some bacta tank somewhere in the trauma ward, or freshly out of it, when you arrive on Alderaan"

"Poor her, she took a hit from an incendiary bullet, third-degree burns in her legs, and it's now confirmed: the four protagonists are all awarded the Silver Star" Marcia told Jakkor.

Which means that Jaster, Celiana, Silas and Jessica are all awarded the Silver Star. Probably the Venator's schematics would satisfy Jessica's vendetta conditions. But on the escape of the Maersk of Lanteeb, covered by a Pirate Lord, the original party, Star Tours had to drop off Jessica at the closest allied medical facility, which was on Alderaan, at the expense of extra flight time compared to Commenor due to it being a detour. Star Tours had to delay the Maersk of Lanteeb's schedule two days because of this medical emergency, through no fault of Star Tours.

"A free Neimoidian Yacht perhaps. It may remind you of some Separatist dropship, but a lot has changed in the intervening 870 years or so" She turned to Marcia. "Because the ventral hangar defenses require Jessica's input, you go to Alderaan in Jakkor's Neimoidian Yacht"

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

He looked at [member="Charzon Loulan"] raising his hand up to stop her,and then he speaks. I appreciate that,but I was wondering if your shipyards may have something with a bit more firepower,and can serve me well in my journeys in the Outer Rim. More something similar to the design of TIE Fighters,but the size of a small freightor,perhaps something similar or reminescent of Darth Maul's Scimitar starship if you will. I hope I'm not being overly picky with my taste in design."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"You think that a ball turret-mounted forward quad laser, capable of firing on a 180 degrees arc forward, and still be controllable by one pilot using it simultaneously with flying the ship, wouldn't cut it? One would think that a light freighter with a quad laser would have two joysticks: one of them for firing the ball turret on the right and the flight joystick on the left. I myself have a Neimoidian Yacht and, although I didn't fight with it much, I still use it for my business trips, mostly around Republican space. When I do fight however, I let my R9 unit handle gunnery while I pilot"

"If what you're thinking about is a turbolaser, know that turbolasers are usually not mounted on anything sub-capital and quad lasers are among the most powerful weapons you can fit on a sub-capital like the Neimoidian Yacht. Sure, some weapons manufacturers market turbolasers as being usable on sub-capitals like the Neimoidian Yacht but they are usually no more powerful than quad lasers" Marcia told Jakkor.

That was something Ringovinda Systems would never use for a marketing strategy. However, they couldn't let Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps get away especially since a third Indispensable-class unit was launched from orbital yards over Naboo: the Lake Country Refuge. Jakkor wanted to see Jessica as he appears to have eaten the Battleon Town News poison. An operation of corporate espionage that was part of a bidding process among Ringo Vinda citizens: the Ringovindian government would only fund one project of cloak-and-dagger operations aimed at the Sith from the civil service, of which Ringovinda StarYards was technically part, while a few more bids were accepted from private contractors. The Ringovindian government spent 600,000 credits in the salaries of the six people included in the Kuat raid on their payroll, withheld an extra 100k in payroll taxes (on Ringo Vinda payroll taxes are 100% paid by the employer), and 2.4 million in transportation and equipment costs, assuming that the financial reports as released by Taking Off on a Star Tour in Marcia's guest column regarding the Kuat raid are correct.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

Jakkor thought about it a bit more. He could use the nemoidian yacht for right now. After all nothing could replace The Outlander. He then spoke in a respectful tone.

"Alright. I can use the old sepie ship for now while me and Marcia are out to go see Jessica,and give her the Venator Design. Could you modify my current ship. It's of Corellian Design a VCX-100 class light freightor."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"What kind of modifications do you want to your VCX-100?"

It's just a question of ordering the right components, much like the landing gear business called for external software stuff. If he wanted an automated kitchenette, he would just buy a Roto-Rooter and have the technicians install it. But Marcia did what she could to implement the protocol that would allow the point-defense turrets around the ventral hangar to retract when the landing gears extend, before she is to get to the point where Jessica's assistance is required. To Marcia it seems simple enough, it's just a question of encoding something like this so that the underside point-defense turrets would retract upon landing:

if (landing_gear_extension=1) /* when landing gears are extended */

run underside_point_defense_turret_retraction; /* retract the underside point-defense turrets */

----------------------------------------

int main(void)
underside_point_defense_turret_retraction

{...}

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

He thought for a moment. The Outlander was over 800 years old in need of some upgrades. After some thinking he looked at Ms. Loulan and spoke. "I would like the best moderns specs you can offer.it's over 800 years old,and I got it from a junkyard. I need the usual weapons,shields,hull plating,engines. The works."

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Here's the deal: you rent this Neimoidian Yacht to go to Alderaan with Marcia, free of charge, and you have until the VCX-100 refurbishment is complete to return it here; the VCX-100 will be up to modern standards in a week or so. What you're asking amounts to a refurbishment of a VCX-100 using mostly components in use on Neimoidian Yachts. Alusteel armor plating, Watchtower collision avoidance system, Roto-Rooter automated kitchen, as well as either a bubble-mounted quad laser or a dorsal one, your choice. And all the other systems usually covered in a refurbishment"

With Jakkor storing his copy of the Venator-class ship schematics, Jessica won't realize that the Kuat heist has been only a partial success: they did not get the schematics of what they wanted, but they got the locations of wrecks of what they wanted. The aftermath of the heist has only been discovered in full after Jessica was hospitalized. Yet, with the Silver Star awarded by the Ringovindian government, she now has something to show for her vendetta.

[member="Jakkor Kess"]

 

[Jakkor Kess]

[member="Charzon Loulan"]

Jakkor nodded,and put his hand out to shake hers,and he said.
"Well Ms Loulan. You got yourself a deal. I promise I won't scratch her up,and bring her back the same way she left here. I'll take the bubble mounted quad laser. So in exchange for the scematics I get my ship modified to modern standards."