Capacity Building

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"]

The Lost City of the Jedi had been their grandfather's greatest secret. He'd sunk a ludicrous amount of money into its restoration, into a place that he'd only shared with the two of them, their great-uncle, and Chloe Blake. His house and his holocron vault, both now empty, made for a decent place to have a talk with her half-brother.

On the veranda, looking over the pristine, silent streets, Alec sipped R'alla mineral water and thought about death.

"So we're agreed, Casp." Another long sip. "About what has to happen next, the capacities we need to build for the Clan. And I think I've got our next move worked out. How would you like to go shopping?"

 

[Caspian Rekali]

Lost City of the Jedi, Yavin...

The Lost City of the Jedi was one of Ember Rekali's greatest kept secrets from everyone including most of his family, friends, and even the Clan. The exceptions to this of course were Alec, Caspian,and Chloe Blake. For years all the way to the day he died Caspian spent lots and lots of time here with his grandfather working out, running, training, learning from the Warlock of Yavin the ways of the force, the ways of the witches, philosophy and much more. While Yavin was their home the Lost City was even more of a home to the young Warlock.

It was isolated and hidden, almost always quiet and the perfect place if someone wanted to be alone. While also being the perfect place for him to have a talk with his half sister [member="Alec Rekali"]. Caspian stood alongside his sister on the veranda overlooking the beautiful, silent streets. Once the Lost City was their hidden vault where a variety of treasures and equipment were kept. However in recent times with everything going on in the United Mandalorian Clans and the dispute with the Mandalorian Empire, things have changed. Preparations were being made and the vaults were emptied, valuable artifacts were stored in far more secure places.

Caspian listened as his sister confirmed the end result of the conversation they had just had, both siblings were in agreement of what needed to happen next for the safety and security of the Clan. He nodded in confirmation, he gave her a curious look as she mentioned about going shopping "For our clans continued safety significant preparations will need to be made. You can count on me to get it done sister. Share with me your thoughts."

 

[Ashin Varanin]

If Alec was heir to Ember's business sense, strategic side, and flair for grand theft, [member="Caspian Rekali"] had undoubtedly inherited the Witch side, the Forcer side, the formality, the tradition, the more personal kinds of power. Caspian was a Rekali's Rekali, a Mandalorian Witch, and he knew his side of things as well as Alec knew hers.

"It's like we discussed in the big meetings over the last few weeks. We need flexibility. We need total ownership over our supply chain, from harvesting to manufacturing. Ultimately I'd like for us to be able to build our own ships to fill every niche along the way, but we can only do that so fast, and I'm not comfortable waiting.

"I'm going to give you custody of a few hundred million credits, Casp. I want you to get out there and find us the best mining, salvage, refining, and manufacturing ships on the market. Take a team of cousins who work in those industries, for advice."

 

[Caspian Rekali]

It was ironically symbolic for Alec and Caspian to be technically considered half siblings, both of them inherited different halves of their legendary grandfather. Caspian knew to a degree business, more so strategy, but his sister was a prodigy in all of those fields and she excelled in them. While his focus was on an entirely different avenue that she couldn't hold a candle to, two sides of the same coin.

Alec's plan was brilliant and her concerns were well founded Clan Rekali needed to be completely self sufficient for the next steps they were taking. Harvesting all the way to manufacturing they needed to own it all, they weren't just cutting out the middlemen, they were cutting out pretty much everyone involved. Naturally the only one she could trust to get the job done right and in the time frame she wanted for her plan would be her blood family. Salvaging, mining, refining, and manufacturing ships. Everything they would need to begin creating their own starships, space stations.

"Alright, I'll take care of everything Alec don't worry. I'll keep you in the loop while I'm building up our own starship division. Do you want me to attempt to buy blueprints for this ships, or any specific type of ships as well?" Caspian asked, crossing his arms while he looked back over at her.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"] [member="Samael Rekali"]

"Good thought. Blueprints if you can swing them -- it'll help us accelerate our own shipbuilding programs, and bridge the gap between now and full self-sufficiency. But ships alone will do fine, whether or not you can get blueprints. Oh, do me a favor and keep Uncle Samael in the loop, too. He knows expeditionary ships inside and out; he's a resource and then some. If you want to talk any of it through, or if you get some killer deal and knock all this out of the park, just come on back here whenever you're ready." Alec drained the last of her mineral water and set it aside, resting her boots on the veranda railing. "I'll be here, based here, for a good while. It's a wrench to leave the Kathol branch of the family, but it's what's gotta happen for the moment.

"Oh, right. While you're out, another factor to consider: finding more areas of space that are impassable to anyone but us, places where prospecting would net us a mint. Ideally, nowhere near Mandalorian space or the Mando Empire."

 

[Caspian Rekali]

Caspian gathered a small cabal of cousins not long after his meeting with Alec, and left Yavin on his task. He was gone for a little over a week before his ship landed back at Port Shardrock. He had gone from planet to planet working with his handpicked team on the task set out before him: Find ships that will let Clan Rekali begin its transformation into self sufficient ship production. Essentially cutting out the middleman and expanding their resources. Great progress had been made so far towards these goals, and he had found a lot of suitable options. Some he liked more than others, but anything worthy he had prepared in a file.

The young Warlock returned to the Lost City of the Jedi and approached his sister back on the veranda, it was a beautiful view of the city and the perfect place to discuss business. He set two drinks of R'alla mineral water and sat down at the table next to his sister "It's good to be home again dear vod. I have made great progress thus far." Caspian said as he took a sip of the drink, pulling out a datapad. He opened it up to the project file he prepared for his sister. Inside was a file of various ships and space stations that were being considered, as well as locations in the galaxy for potential mining sites away from the Mandalorian factions.

Spoiler

VT Archon-Class Repair Station
Concordance-Class Asteroid Mining Barge *
Kkt 74 Cricket Construction Vehicle
VT Dark-Net Seedship *
Goten-Class Dry Dock Station *
Hgg 343 Warthog Construction Vehicle
Hyperspace Assisted Launch Cyclic Onramp Halcyon
Johenry-Class Rare Minerals Mining Vehicle
LongArm Salvage and Repair Cruiser
Lwhekk Aleph-Class Manufacturing Ship *
Reclaimer-Class Repair Vessel *

"I've prepared a list of ships that I've found that might suit our goals nicely. Some are more ideal than others. I've made notes by the ones that I have found to be better suited including the Seedship." Caspian took a long swig from the water before continuing. "I've put down various potential locations that we've found so far. We lose a lot of potential territory given nation territory and ownership of certain areas. Certain systems while they have potential, the risk of far too high for it to bear any fruit." Caspian added.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"]

"I agree. No point in poking around the Pacanth Reach or the Deep Core, for example."

She took about a quarter of a bottle of R'alla to work her way through the list in companionable silence.

"Well, you know I flew a Jo'henry for years -- Grandpa gave it to me for my first ship. They're great boats, best asteroid miners around in my opinion. Only problem is, you can only get'em used. They're not even their own class: they're Huttese cargo sleds that Silk Holdings modifies for its own use. The upside of that problem, though, is that we can get the original sleds dirt cheap all up and down the Pabol Sleheyron and the other Hutt lanes. Very very easy. We could probably pull off a modification program comparable to the Jo'henry to tide us over in the medium term. Might even be able to get a couple of real Jo'henry's for reference and short-term needs.

"Let's see what else we've got here...oooh, the HALCYONs." You could find those space trains all over the former territory of the Fringe, the Protectorate, and the Moross Crusade, among others. Most of them were still connected in one way or another, and most of the defunct lines had been repurposed or reclaimed by Silk, but every now and again you could find some old HALCYON transfer nodes floating in deep space. The skyhooks were too static, not mobile at all, but the transfer nodes had actually influenced the Rekali stations.

 

[Caspian Rekali]

Caspian looked down at the list of ships they were considering and pondered their options, before continuing "I'm wary of using space stations mainly because they're a lot less mobile than the other ships on this list, they'll slow down production significantly if we want a moving ship production fleet. The Johenry and the Halcyons are two excellent options. I think the Dark-Net Seedship and the Aleph-Class Manufacturing Ships are two ideal options. Additionally if we put the Alephs with Reclaimer-Class vessels I've been told through my investigations that they together act as a light mobile shipyard." He took a long swig of his drink, setting down the bottle. He would consider space stations and shipyards installed if the clan do in fact relocate.

They were vulnerable and wouldn't fit if the intention was to obtain ships that can salvage, manufacture, and push out ships as they go from system to system. "If we choose to relocate space stations and larger shipyards would be an option so that we have two avenues of production."

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"]

"The Lwhekk Alephs plus the Reclaimers -- that's a fascinating pairing. Whoever told you that had it dead to rights. I've run into the Alephs before, back when I was fighting for the Underground in the Neutral Zone -- the strip of space between the Lords of the Fringe and the Omega Protectorate. Nowadays...yeah, I see it now, says here that Arceneau's Haven Shipyards bought the blueprints and production rights from Iron Crown a few years back. We've done good business with Arceneau, and the Alephs could fill our short-term needs easily. The downside is...they're not all that great. They're based on retrofitted, jury-rigged Ssi-Ruuvi cruisers, of all things. Iron Crown sold them as curios, and there aren't many true manufacturing ships around. Not mass-market, anyway; like feth are we springing for one of those Theed Hangar Indispensable-classes.

"But yeah," she added after a long moment's thought. "Yeah, the Alephs plus the Reclaimers should stand us in good stead. The Reclaimer's a brilliant ship. Ever hear of Alna Merrill -- who made the Mara Corridor? She is or was a shipwright, a brilliant one, and the Reclaimer was one of her best. There's a long story there involving two auctions and an idiot Sith Lord. Remind me to tell you sometime."

 

[Caspian Rekali]

Caspian nodded as his sister asked the question about Alna Merril, and once she was finished he continued to go on. "I've come up with two possible locations where our people can be safe from persecution." Caspian said to Alec flipping the page in the file. There was two locations outlined with information about each location, the first would be the Colluctari Nebula, and the second the Dead Nebula. While the Clan itself could situate itself on one of their mobile worlds and inside their clan ships, hiding them in one of these nebula's would be ideal to conceal themselves from those who would wish to cause them harm. "Their both in far reaches of the galaxy and far from the sway of the Mandalorian Empire and the United Clans."

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"]

"These are intense, Casp." Alec scanned both files again, a more in-depth read-through. "A lot of unknowns here, but that's far from a bad thing. Very remote, but that's not a bad thing either. Looks like the criminal syndicates controlled the Colluctari for a long while. Not sure what's been done there since this survey data was compiled. There might already be people, dangerous people, with vested interests there. Or they might just have collapsed into nothing as usual.

"The Dead Nebula is right in the path of First Order expansion. We don't really have relations with them, positive or negative. I suspect they'd look down on us, but that's not always a bad thing either. The radiation in the Dead Nebula is maybe more of an obstacle than the super-high gravity on the Colluctari planet -- well, maybe that's not true. We can shield against radiation more easily than against gravity, even if the radiation is more pervasive.

"Yeah, these are interesting candidates. Let's find more along these lines. I'm going to forward them to Unc for a look, too." She interfaced with her datapad and sent both documents to [member="Samael Rekali"], their great-uncle.

 

[Caspian Rekali]

[member="Alec Rekali"]

"The First Order are a different breed from the Sith Triumvirate, and One Sith Empire respectively but they're all close allies to one another. There are security concerns to worry about if were based so close to their territory. Additionally there is also the Kathol Rift in the Outback that might be an option. We do have connections there." Caspian replied. It was far enough away from the mandalorian factions, in the backyard of their allies, and out of the way of the First Order's expansion. The close ties between the First Order and the Sith concerned Caspian, they could easily be influenced by their allies, and being that deep in their territory meant the quick arrival of allies or reinforcements few and far between if a confrontation was to take place. A good spot certainly for them to relocate but nothing was ever easy, or perfect.

"Oh Alec there was a ship I wanted to show you, a relatively new design fresh off the shipyards: the Hephaestus-Class Factory Ship. It's filled with advanced manufacturing equipment to adapt to produce nearly anything, and its internal structure can be modified with different layouts and and equipment. It just might be what were looking for." Caspian pulled up the file of the ship for her.

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"]

"I wasn't aware that the First Order had anything but contempt for the One Sith. That's interesting and unsettling that they're allies. The Kathol...I keep coming back to the Kathol. We've got a whole branch of the family out there, multiple facilities, hyperspace monitoring, comm relays. All we really need to rule the deep Kathol Rift in our own little way is to crack the puzzle that nobody's been able to crack: we need to figure out how to insulate our astrogators from the hallucinations. We figure that out, we can be the waystation providers and guides and protectors for the deep Rift. I'd thought of using voidsteel, but that'd insulate our astrogators from their abilities as much as from the Rift's influence. It's a puzzle that Grandpa was working on a bit, but even he couldn't find the right solution."

Alec looked through the specs of the Hephaestus, then whistled. "Holy feth, Casp, what a find. That has to be the best factory ship around. Only hitch is that we're going to war with the Republic, and this is a Lucerne Labs product. Lucerne bleeds Pub blue. They'd never sell to us, unless we did it through some kind of intermediary who was willing to burn a bridge. Or we could always steal it, but stealing things tends to ding them up, and I'd never dent a beauty like this. Guess we'll just have to keep our ears open for opportunities, and take what lessons we can for making our own eventually."

 

[Caspian Rekali]

"We'll just have to pick up where grandfather left off then. If we can crack the final piece to that puzzle the Kathol Outback would be perfect. I'll gather a team and put them to the task." Caspian replied. Alec was right the outback's rift was perfect for a secure home for the Rekali Clan. It was out of the way of most galactic affairs, secure and with plenty of friends and connections around.

While he completely agreed with her that the Hephaestus was the perfect factory ship he knew compiling the work that it would be rough trying to get a hold of one of them. Unless Lucerne suddenly stopped contracting for the Galactic Republic, they stole one, or they had a third party source purchase one it would be difficult to get a hold of one of these factory ships. However Caspian did have a brainstorm on the subject of someone else buying one for them. "Grandfather was beloved by a lot of people and he had a lot of friends and pupils even outside the Mandalorians, I'm sure there's a few favors we could call in to get one of them to help us."

[member="Alec Rekali"]

 

[Ashin Varanin]

[member="Caspian Rekali"]

"Sure, but he also made a lot of enemies along the way, especially at the end. Not all of his friendships stand up to current Mandalorian foreign policy. Besides, most of his old students and friends were the purest of loners - Seydon of Arda, Fabula Cavataio, Skye Mertaal, Chloe Blake, Jaxton Ravos, Anija Betna. They're not people who would have the kind of connections that could net us a ship like that." She got her boots off the veranda railing and stood, stretching. "But it's something to look into for the future. Solid work all in all, Casp. Go ahead and do the Kathol thing, and maybe hit up the witches on Aaris Three while you're at it; they might be worth connecting with."

Night was coming, and the Lost City's artificial daylight dimmed along with it. "I'm going to miss this place," she said. "Selling it was a wrench, but it's worth a lot of money that the Clan can use, and it ties us down, Yavin does. I'm sure we'll make boltholes along the way wherever we go; it's what we do, after all. And Chloe will be sad, but in the end, the Clan needs the money. Gotta make choices pragmatically, not for sentiment. Gotta be smart about managing the Clan's assets, smart and frugal. But in the end, I think we'll get somewhere solid, plenty secure for all of us, and that'll be worth it."