Bet you can't guess what this thread is about.

[Coren Starchaser]

There was work to be done. Things were changing in Coren’s home, and he needed to make sure the people he was responsible for had the proper tools. That was why he was out here at Seltos, and why he requested [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] to meet with him. He had gotten wind of a phrik mine and he needed some for his purposes. A Levantine project. And something he was hoping to pull in to use against the Sith on a personal level. Sure, the man loved his ExCon gear that was created and crafted by Silk, but he had a need for something a bit more lightsaber resistant, and wanted to make sure that others in his group could utilize this as well.

He had flown out here in the borrowed Niathal. He had a need to start working on another ship, but he was only in the planning phase. He had other things on his mind. Spark Finn and Sage Bane things. He was trying to triangulate where she was. Where they were. If he could find a ship? That was all he needed. Coren Starchaser would be on that vessel like white on rice.

He was breaking into the systems that would let him see where ships were. It wasn’t that hard, and he was going to start matching for ships that were at Naboo at the time where Coren received the message from Spark.

But he was going to have his computer run that in the background. Touching down on Seltos, he made his way to the meeting spot, funds from the Sanctum’s Frontiers Corp was going to help him pay for this mining operation.

There was a lot of work to be done. Mining, producing the armor and then hunting down the snake-armed Sith.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


It was dev thread time again. This meant mining a restricted materiel called phrik, spending some talking about designing armour and then making it. Maybe testing it as well. Well, Siobhan would probably not call it dev thread time because unlike her writer she lacked meta knowledge.


Anyhow, on with the actual plot, since this post sort of has one. Once upon a time, or rather a few months ago, Seltos had still been under the weak, faltering rule of the Omega Protectorate. Like with so many things in the galaxy, Akala had mucked this up when trillions of souls were teleported into the netherworld and chaos spread across the stars. An effort to reclaim the planet had been made, but failed. The government was as stable and corrupt as could be imagined, but several corporations had planted their flag on the planet.


All because it was rich in phrik. So it stood to reason that sooner or later Siobhan would take an interest in it. So when she got the call from Coren Starchaser, a member of the very prolific clan of Starchasers that seemed eager to populate the galaxy since they had been very fruitful and mutiply, she was very amenable to his proposal. While she did not know the man personally, she had heard good things about him and thought she could trust him. Firemane could help manufacture the armour he wanted for the Levantines, make plenty of money and establish a presence on the planet. He could go use his armour to fight Sith, Levantines would get nice armour that would provide protection against lightsabres. Win-win.


In any case, shortly after Coren had landed Sio's yacht broke through the atmosphere and then descended down from the sky, touching down on a landing pad close to his. A couple moments later the Countess would arrive herself at the meeting spot, along with minions, namely guards, labour droids and so on.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Dev thread, dev thread, what you gonna do, what you gonna do, when they meta you?

The biggest trick to this thread, of course, was not making a phriking pun for the phriking title, because phrik that, y’know?

But he had so much he wanted to get done in this thread. Mining phrik, and using the first prototype of the armor to get the kinks out, and match where the phrik should be established. All the while using the Niathal’s computer to hunt down the Sith known as Sage Bane so Coren could use the new armor, punch him in the face, rescue the girl known as Spark Finn and save the galaxy. There had been a communication burst, well, he was waving a few, from Naboo and at least one other world. The trick was to match the ships in system with the data given to him by [member="Sayl Bane"].

He knew of Seltos, of course, Corellians were living here. More so now, after the resulting Akala and One Sith destruction (he was letting himself believe that the evil bible thumping Force users had something to do with it) of his homeworld left them drifting in the stars. The Starchaser clan was one such family, and lucky for Coren, the black sheep of the family seemed destined to not spawn.

Which was good, because Marek Starchaser was a bantha genital.

The armor he had in mind was going to be an expansion on Silk Holding’s ExCon, but more combat focused, more skirmished focused. A changing armor for a changing galaxy.

Stepping down from his Niathal, he proceeded over to [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]. He gave a kind of awkward bow-salute-thing to the Countess. “Thank you for joining me. Had it on good knowledge the mines here are partially represented by you, and its easier than having to work on my own to get the Phrik I need.” There was an astromech following him, one that would keep him updated on the ship’s system that was trying to match the ship with the transmission from Naboo.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


Siobhan liked it when people bowed to her or saluted. See, she was just a bit vain. Probably had spent too much time hanging out with Eldorai aristos. "Pleasure meeting you, Mr Starchaser," at that she stretched out her hand. "I've heard good things about you. I take it you have a plan drawn up for the armour you'd like designed? You can fill me in on the way. I've had a chat with the local government and we've secured mining rights." Since the details are not so important we can presume the aforementioned chat occured offscreen via holocom. Suffice to say Siobhan's arguments were persuasive and whoever was in charge of Seltos was delighted at the prospect of capitalism uplifting his planet.


Since Siobhan was trying to be more diplomatic these days we can presume she did not threaten to raze the city if her demands were not met. See, that would have given her dark side points and if she got too many of those she would get yellow eyes and veiny skin, which would impede fade-to-black-scenes with the ladies. "The mine we've secured has not been exploited much so far, so we should be able to get enough phrik."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Two things about Coren Starchaser. One, he was ex-military, ex-Imperial style military, and that was a tough nut to crack, giving respect where it was due, which was everyone around him. He was a former Force user as well, before he was mind wiped and put in cryo, perhaps the only reason he rose to be declared a Master by his comrades in the Underground, so he gave a lot of people respect. Bows or salutes.

And two? He wasn't crazy. Kerrigan's reputation wasn't hard to find, and he was going to respect her for it.

He had his plans for the armor, as rough of an idea as they were, a sort of prototype, at least with the systems involved in a really light armor. The rest would be Firemane's creation. Design for starships? That he could do. Armor was a new ground for the Frontiersman. "So, its that easy, getting rights?" He grinned at her as he followed along.

"That sounds perfect. I know the galaxy is changing, and I want to prep something for the Sanctum members who need a little extra on the Rim." He'd heard murmurs about a merge in the galaxy, but he was worrying about his own first. Then he'd help the rest.

And first was always Spark.

Ok, [member="Sage Bane"], can I focus on the phrik and say I found what ship you're on?

Even if Coren was a fan of dark side points, because they were hella effective, it did risk making him vieny. Unless the writer unchecked the box to show corruption.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


"Just took creds and promise of bolters," Siobhan said with a casual shrug, then she gave Coren a nod upon hearing his following words. "Sounds good. Sith and friends are on the rise, the Sanctum can't expect to be left alone in its little corner unmolested. Good to see there's people there who see that. Galaxy's going to the crapper." Coren felt like a good guy, so she allowed to be blunter than she usually would have been with a business partner.


Had the merge already been decided on? Or were people still negotiating, what with the Sanctum not having a unified central government and all that? This question shall be resolved by using the time and tested method of handwavium, since it does not directly influence the plot.


"Anyhow, let's get started. I've sent some of my people down to the mine," she added, heading towards the mine. As much as the Countess tried to ignore it, she was not getting any younger and walked with a strongly pronounced limp. Likewise her injuries made her unable to move well without a cane.


At least it was a nice cane with elaborate Eldorai runes on it, but it was the principle of the thing. Still she did her best to appear as proud and indomitable as she liked to think she was. Probe droids had been dispatched into the mine and very soon our protagonists would be receiving an update upon phrik deposits and so forth. Then worker droids would set to work. Later a formal outpost would be constructed for Firemane. At this juncture it would be a fairly basic installation, but with the potential for future expansion.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Bolters were definitely something special. Coren could understand how that'd work, of course he also knew the power of the credit. He had plans, unlike most Starchasers, he was one to look at the big picture, even if he lived in the moment. Yeah, he was sometimes a prepper, that was all. "It has me a bit nervous. The Primeval are on the rise, the Sith are out of control and no one is reaching out to keep them in check." Well, he had a few people, Omegas, the Underground, some to stand against the Sith. He could solo it, but this was an RPG, it was always better with a party.

"Yeah, even if we're not going to war, we've got important work to keep protected. I'm speaking with Silk Holdings to work on new combat vessels as well." Just enough to give the Frontiers Corps some armored backup, against pirates they were fine, but an enemy fleet? Not so much.

Coren was a member of the Frontiers Corp, it was just a bit of where his ships docked and where their data was turned in. That all would come around naturally.

Now was the time to focus on the here and now, the mines and the data about Spark.

Not that he had a vendetta.

Only a little one.

"Roger that." He nodded at The Countess. "Are you working on securing the mine permanently?" Weren't they worried about the Techno Union? Granted, he felt that they could probably be used to pull away from the One Sith alliance.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


"Small mining facility. The Techno Union and their Sith friends aren't far from here, but our troops and the Eldorai could use the phrik. So we'll set up a small operation for the time being," she answered. Sio's opinion on the Techno Union was strongly coloured by the Druckenwell holocaust. To her it was still the same government and she had been personally involved in that battle, having been one of those Masters who tried to stop the cataclysm when the shipyards started falling.


At the same time she had an eye for business. Moreover, she was thoroughly disillusioned by OP. "Keep me posted on those ships Silk is making for you. I may purchase some. Can't afford to lag behind with the Sith spreading across the stars like locusts." There was a strong degree of revulsion in her voice whenever she spoke of 'Sith'. She had largely settled down, but that did not mean her hatred had abated. Though her appetite for adventure had been reduced. However, galactic events made her doubt that she would be able to have much peace with her family.


A Firemane minion approached the pair, giving Siobhan a salute and passing over a datapad with information. The Countess gave it a quick look, then passed it over to Coren. "Survey reports from our probes. They've found a significant phrik reservoir. We'll begin extracting it now. It'll take a good while. Probably best to get some stimcaf."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Coren had been in cryo during the time of the Druckenwell Holocaust. But he had a nephew who was a complete jackwagon without any honor who was running the Techno Union, so that was the in-character reason to knock have Coren against them. OOCly, that was because Corey wanted to make sure they could swim without him. And anyone who teamed up with insane Sith, (yes there were some who weren't) needed to get themselves checked before they wrecked themselves.

Technically the man was in his early 40s, but practically? Nearly two decades in a cryo nap (lets make numbers fluid) gave him that youth, physically speaking. He was here to party. And if that meant wrecking Sith? So be it.

He nodded as the Fireman lackey approached. Taking the pad, he was speaking about the ships. "Of course. Silk makes a good product, the new CEO seems to be taking a big interest in a new variety of tasks, but their war ships..." He grinned. "Some of my favorite." If you counted Santhe products out.

"Stimcaf sounds good. Can go over the designs."

And mine, and datamine as well.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


Stimcaf was duly delivered by a minion. Nicely brewed just the way the Starcaf ads always said it would be. In the meantime, Firemane's labour droids set to work and started mining. The process would take time, though this writer is glossing over most of it because writing about automatons tirelessly going through the process of extracting phrik is not the most interesting thing to write about. Well, at least this one thinks so.


The droids had been provided by ARGH, Firemane's subsidiary, which meant that they were efficient at their work, though occasionally one or two of them got funny ideas such as wanting manumission trade unions. Siobhan blamed @HK-36. The 'Iron Knight' had clearly been a bad influence on his kind. Then again, grumpy droids were preferrable to insane, genocidal ones such as Moira Skaldi.


Suffice to say over the process of several hours bit by bit phrik would be extracted, loaded in containers and then put on repulsorsleds and then eventually get delivered. Meanwhile our protagonists could talk about the design for how long they needed.


Siobhan sipped her stimcaf. It tasted nice and kept her awake. For some reason she still preferred Atrisian green tea, for which she blamed [member="Mirien Valdier"]. "Sounds good. Do outline your thoughts on the armour design. I understand it's inspired by Silk's Excon suit, only obviously with a focus on combat, especially against glowstick wielders."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

As long as it wasn't one of those yellow minions that took over anyone's facebook when they hit their mid-thirties, the Firemane minion would be fine by Coren. It was nice, for him, he didn't have to worry about running anything. He just was here, all an operative and a mission at hand. No ship to captain, no missions to command. Just mining, locating a ship and shooting the breeze about an armor special. Plus this writer never wrote with Siobhan's much in the past, and the meta commentary was fun.

Always.

And look how many times they were asked to edit! Zero.

Writing about droids doing mining, or ship virtual intelligences doing datamining wasn't very exciting, though those things needed to happen. Develop phrik for armor and find a target for the Starchaser who didn't succumb to a religion based Force use. Just ends justifying means.

"Yeah. Well, I love my ExCon, Silk and Eschan did a number on that armor set. So, I'm taking a bit of creative license with it, using some of the designs. And expanding. We need a few extras, even if we're not working on skirmishing, but exploration leads to a lot of random terrain. Loading it with verbal commands, to access air tanks, a nitrox mixture. More oxygen than nitrogen, ends that risk of decompression sickness. Plus some mobility idea. Jump jet on the back to help give a bit of speed and shock movement. You're familiar with the Razorhawk by Iron Crown, right?"

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


And so let the attack of meta continue. Whilst our protagonists spoke, the droids continued mining. Soon the first loads of phrik would have been extracted and put in containers. Meanwhile Siobhan heard what Coren had to say whilst he described his concept for the armour.


"I see. Sounds solid. Multipurpose for combat and exploration in hazardous terrain then. I recall the Excon coming equipped with an Echani shield. That should be handy as well. Could theoretically make two variants of the armour. One at a very limited production with phrik plating, the other without phrik that's available to the broader mass of the Frontier Corps," Siobhan said thoughtfully, taking a sip from her stimcaf. She thought for a moment, then nodded. "The Razorhawke manoeuvring system? Yeah, I've heard of it, never saw it in action myself though. Expensive piece of hardware. You want to incorporate propulsors like that?"

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Double the Development, Double the Meta

Droids were the best things the galaxy had to offer. NPCs were boring. They wanted you to ask about their name and their parents and where they grew up. And then somehow you end up taking them for a drink and they start blowing your phone up when you never call again. Droids didn’t ask for you to call back. Droids were effective. They also could do a lot of the heavy lifting.

And Coren’s little astromech, which might get subbed so it can get used for whatever it does and not get reported was doing the linking type of star wars wifi thing to his ship. It was getting a result. The ship he was looking for [member="Sage Bane"]’s ship, or at least a decent chance of it, would be sent to his datapad.

But that was turned to silent, this might not be a date, but [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] was downright terrifying.

When the Countess in question mentioned the Echani shield, he nodded and jotted that down. See, it might be on the sub, but being able to shunt off an attack didn’t hit Coren’s mind. “That’s a good call.” As for the two variants. “I suppose it’d be hard mine enough phrik to arm the full Frontiers Corps. And yeah, Razorhawk is expensive, hard to fly from what I’ve seen. Looking to do a bit of jump assist. For getting out of groups, or over obstacles.” Or jumping at someone and slamming you and your armor’s weight on them.

Whichever.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


Because Firemane wanted to earn corporate social responsibility brownie points, they had consented to hire some Seltosian natives although most of the work was being done by droid NPCs. The natives could do fulfilling tasks such as provide catering services for the Firemane guards or repair droids if they had been damaged for some reason. Most of the work was still done by bots because they were the reliable sort, good at heavy lifting and generally did not grumble about wanting minimum wages, trade unions and stuff like that.


For someone who had been born in the gutter Siobhan Kerrigan was a rather reactionary sort these days. Again, this was the fault of the Eldorai court. As for Coren's little astromech, it definitely ought to be subbed to the Codex! For her part Siobhan was oblivious to the fact that Coren was getting messages from it or his quest to track down an evil Sithy.


In any case she gave Coren a nod. The jump assist sounded quite reasonable. Jumping at someone and slamming yourself and your armour's weight into them met with her approval as well. After all, she liked battering ramming.


"Agreed. Useful for evading hostiles or just jumping and ramming them. I guess duration will be limited. Maybe a bit more than ten minutes, but it should be useful. If I recall correctly, the Excon suit is compatible with Silk's Lightbringer sensor node. That should be handy to incorporate as well. Useful heads-up about Sithies stalking around." This writer freely admits that they are quoting stuff from Coren's sub. All credit goes to Corey for it! "Our subsidiary, ARGH, has developed an advanced jet propulsion system. The Leovi's wings class. You familiar with those? They come in a jetsuit and a jetpack variety."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Yeah, Coren wasn’t in the corporate game as anything higher than a pilot or a consultant. He liked that. Being an instructor at the Astro Academy was enough for him. That and taking point with the Frontiers Corps while it was assembled a bit more fully. Especially with the shift of power occurring around the corporate sector and wild space.

He saw the message, but it wouldn’t matter from here if he needed to grab it or not. The ship would still be the ship of Sage Bane with or without him chasing it. Maybe if the Sith knew that Starchaser was after him, he’d shift his tactics. But the ships the Sith would identify him using were changing, once this was done? He’d be back aboard the Rising, but until then? He preferred anonymity.

He was nodding. “Yeah, the exploration aspect, plus battle tactics. We can use it to do some serious damage. I’m figuring we can get a few minutes of sustained flight, or just use it in a burst function.” The latter was his plan. How to modify it for aquatics usage though, that would be a trick. Corey wasn’t sure he put the Lightbringer node in. It should be. That’ll get added. And really, its just Corey trying to be like Jon without coming off like ‘diet Jon’ or ‘Jon lite’. “Never heard of it. Guessing it might be the jump-packs I’m looking for?”

Corey was also counting posts. Hi, Factory Judges.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


"I think you could incorporate it. It was designed before we assimilated ARGH, but it's a nice design. Rocket boots and gauntlets are made out of Echani graphite. The jetpack can keep you in the sky for longer periods of time, the jetsuit can lift even heavily armoured soldiers. Graphite structure protects the vital systems from damage in combat, reducing the risk of explosions or jet malfunctions. The rocket gauntlets can be used as weapons, too. Downside is that the system is very heavy and uses up plenty of fuel. We can run some tests with it though once we have a prototype," Siobhan said, sipping what was left of her stimcaf and finding out that by now it had become lukewarm.


As for messages, Sio got one as well since her datapad beeped. She casually levitated the 'pad into her grasp with telekinesis and had a look at the transmission. It was the progress update from the mining crew. "Looks like things are going smoothly. First load of phrik has been extracted. Enough for some prototype suits." Well, that had gone fast! Presumably in actuality several hours had passed since the mining droids started digging, even though it might not seem that way to our two protagonists. As they say, time flies. Besides, we have now reached sixteen posts.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

He nodded as she spoke. He could really use that jump jet. “Well, it’d be easier htan trying to break into Iron Crown for their designs. Silk and Eschan have a few designs, but nothing I saw that would work here as well as I’d like. If Firemane is interested in helping with production of this armor set, it’d be helpful.” After all, they were doing the mining operation. “I’m thinking to not focus so much on flight as on surprise lift. Back and boots would probably be all we need. Don’t need something in the hand, we’ll be carrying weapons, mostly.” That was how explorers worked in most peoples’ minds.

Sword and pistol.

Flintlock, of course.

They were pirates.

If sixteen posts were several hours, how fast would the last three take? “Good to hear. I’d like to get working on at least weighting one of the suits properly even if we don’t use phrik for it, testing and the like. Hire a test… pilot?” He looked at her, knowing his meaning was fine, but he was missing the nuance he wanted. “Might be good to see what a standard loadout of the armor itself would need for lift strength, add in a few kilos of equipment and the like.”

Science.

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


The last three posts would obviously take as long as the plot demanded! Thanks to the awesome power of handwavium. "Agreed. You can get to that. Work out the bells and whistles. I imagine you want something light weight with plenty of mobility. The phrik is being taken to our improvised base. And once we have a suit we can run the tests and see how it holds up in combat. And we can incorporate the jump set. I'm down for Firemane supporting the design like this. I assume I'll be getting a phrik suit for free?" Siobhan joked.


Couple moments later a speeder arrived for them. It would take them to the base where the phrik was being refined and stuff. This writer feels a time skip upcoming so that at the end of the thread our protagonists can suddenly have a finished model of the Vanguard Combat Armour.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

The next armor was going to be able to change into a Starfighter.

100% Handwavium Alloys.

“I mean, I have the prototype. Just need to weight it, and get your jumpjets there. From there? It’s a matter of balancing the strength of the jets and any form of power armor additions to make it so the soldiers can carry the weight and move.” He nodded. This was the exciting yet sometimes boring part.

“As for a suit of it? Of course. Production team and the higher ups in the Frontier Corps and Defense fleets, is where we’re looking to send it.”

He looked at his caf and made sure to finish the last bit. Same temperature as a Skywalker in a tauntaun.

Lukewarm.

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]


The handwavium is a pathway to many abilities some consider to be...unnatural. Is it possible to learn this power? Sometimes even from a Jedi.


"Excellent. Then we're in agreement. Pleasure working with you," Siobhan said cheerfully. And so the steps would be taken to fully construct the Vanguard armour. The prototype would be weighted, a call would be made to a factory on Abregado-Rae to send for the Leovi-wings class personal jet propulsion system, tests would be fun. Armoursmiths and droids would toil for hours on end in order to properly refine the phrik and then create the armour.


By the time they were done the first suits of the Vanguard Armour would have been created. Selected Patrollers and officers would get nice armour, the rest of them would get one that was nice as well but lacked phrik, and Coren would obviously have a shiny exemplar in order to go on his crusade. Oh, and Firemane presumably made money. Win-win.