(Dev) A Fish out of Water

[Tesh Aquer]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Tesh admired his new residence as he flicked through the holonet. Being an Admiral for a major criminal faction had its benefits, and the shiny new residence was definitely a leg up from the tight cabin he had on his old ship. Of course, needing a ship was why he was on the holonet in the first place. He needed a good ship, one that would serve as his personal flagship. He was contacting it out to Krayt, although he would have input on the designs. Currently he was trying to get ahold of Darth Arcanix, the head of Krayt.

He had his qualms about dealing with a Sith of course. At his old job, this would be seen as treason. However, this wasn't Mon Calamari and he wasn't on an MC80 cruiser. That's why he needed Arcanix's, and Krayt's, help. He had a construction yard on Makeb where the ship could be built, but the actual designs he would need to consult with Arcanix on. He was unfamiliar with the isotope-5 reactors that he was informed they would be using. Thus, he would need the assistance of Krayt. He was essentially a fish out of water on this one. He smiled a little at his own pun as he searched the Holonet, Finally, he got Arcanix's contact information. He quickly typed out a transmisson to her.

//begin transmission

Sender: Tesh Aquer, Red Ravens Fleet Admiral​

Recipient: Darth Arcanix​

Subject: In Need of a Ship​

Hello, I am Admiral Tesh Aquer, currently serving the Red Ravens. I am in need of Krayt's assistance on a new capital ship that I can use as my personal flagship as well as an assault cruiser. I was informed that you were using new isotope-5 reactors, and I would be interested in arranging the designs with you on this new ship. If possible, meet me at the Makeb shipyards. If not, we can share designs through transmission, although this method is not preferred.​

​

Thank you,​

Tesh Aquer, Red Ravens Fleet Admiral​

​

//end transmission

He sent the transmission away and arranged for a ship to Makeb. He needed to head there anyways to review the shipyards, so he might as well leave now. Hopefully Arcanix could meet him there.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"]

Taeli looked up from the book she was reading as her datapad pinged that she had received a message. Wondering who might have contacted her, she got up from her shuttle's seat and went to check.

So, it seemed the Red Ravens were interested in finally contracting Krayt Industries out for a new ship, and a rather large project at that. A new capital ship, right out of the gates for their new partnership, was . . . bold to say the least. Still, she wasn't about to say no to such an endeavor as it would help cement closer ties with the Ravens and Krayt.

Pulling up her message board, she typed, "I shall meet you, Admiral, at the Makeb shipyards where we can discuss what exactly you are looking for in your ship."

Sending the message, she sat back down at the shuttle controls, and switched the autopilot to head towards Makeb instead of Coruscant. It seemed business called.

 

[Tesh Aquer]

I'll be going to bed after this




[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Tesh has just arrived on Makeb when his holopad notified him of a message. He glanced at it as he stepped off of the ship and into the shipyard. Arcanix would be meeting him on Makeb. Good. Not so good was the shape of the shipyard. Apparently the workers weren't very interested in finishing the project, as some parts of the dock remained unfinished. However, the headquarters remained intact, and that's what Tesh needed. He strolled into the meeting room and cleaned up the desk a little. He may have been able to wipe the Gamorrean magazine Playpig off the desk, but he sure as hell wasn't wiping that out of his mind. He quickly made a memo before sitting down, notifying the workers that it would be wise to finish the dock on schedule, or else a reduction in pay would be necessary.

He set up the design holopad and glanced through the available ships from Krayt, trying to draw inspiration. Really, his only requirement was redundant shielding, a core component of Mon Calamari ships and something he himself valued to be one of the most important advancements in warship technology. His eyes caught on the Playpig again, and he casually dropped it into the incinerator shoot before walking back to the desk. He made himself some crabpuffs and surveyed the docks before settling down. Hopefully, Arcanix would be here soon.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"]

Arriving in Makeb, she could see the shipyards that would be the site of her meeting with this Admiral and made her way to the docking area. Sniffing in disapproval as she walked down the ramp, she could see evidence of decadence and laziness around her from these workers. Apparently, good help was hard to come by during these times, but she would soon fix that.

Lighting a fire under the workers here and making a note in her datapad to have them replaced with competent employees from Krayt Industries, she made her way to the command center and the office of the admiral, noting the unfinished areas of the docks and jotting away note after note. It was unacceptable work and it annoyed her that such laziness was persisting throughout everything she saw here.

Reaching the door to the command center, she took a moment to steady herself and calm down her annoyance. Opening it, she put on a smile and said, "Admiral, it is a pleasure to meet you."

 

[Tesh Aquer]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

"Pleasure to meet you too. I'm glad you could make it here today. This type of thing works best with face-to-face communication no?" Tesh said as he got up and shook the Sith's hand. "I have some interesting ideas for carriers and frigates too, but this is about making a flagship. I don't know much about the capabilities of an isotope-5 reactor. Care to fill me in?"

Tesh gestured to the Sith to sit down across the table from him, the hologram ready in case it was needed to visualize designs. He had a couple ideas, but those designs would be more fitting for an antimatter or hypermatter reactor, not isotope-5. He grabbed a creampuff from the table and munched on it quietly as he moved to be directly across from the Sith. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw one of the workers chasing another around with a fusion cutter and he scowled deeply. Trusting a criminal syndicate to hire competent workers was a huge mistake. If only he had some Mon Cal workers.... He shook the thought out of his mind as he tried to block any recognition of his home planet. The longer he thought of what he'd done, the worse he would feel about it.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Of course Admiral," she said, taking the offered seat. "Isotope-5 reactors are highly energized, giving off more energy for systems than most standard reactors . . . but that does come with a few problems. Given the nature of the material, isotope-5 reactors can be unstable because of the intense gravitational warping the element does. So they do require regular maintenance, of the competent variety, to make sure the systems stay within normal parameters, otherwise they will tear a ship apart. But other than that, they are able to provide vast amounts of power so the risk is very much worth it."

She had sensed the two workers run past in the Force . . . and her disguised disdain for the Ravens' workers increased dramatically. Not to mention, she had detected a faint whiff of spice in the air as she walked to the office and she could feel several workers were . . . impaired. She knew this wasn't the fault of the Admiral, but how was she expected to get any work done with such incompetent workers.

"A flagship, or perhaps several of the same capital ship," she mused, tapping her chin. "I understand you want a flagship, and quite possibly in the Mon Cal style, but perhaps making it into a capital ship for Raven fleets?"

[member="Tesh Aquer"]

 

[Tesh Aquer]

"Unstable and requiring competent workers? That is certainly a challenge. Hopefully the threat of dying a horrible death if the reactor goes critical will be enough to keep any...reluctant workers on their best behavior. The vast amounts of power do sound nice. The old MC80s may have been good when they were first made, but reactor technology certainly passed them up. It will be nice to be able to command a ship with some extra power for a change," Tesh paused for a second to take a breath, keeping eye contact with [member="Darth Arcanix"] . The isotope-5 reactor was certainly tempting, and hopefully it would be worth the risk. Presently, he continued his talking.

"I understand the needs of the Ravens. Maybe once the fleet is larger I can have a true flagship, but for now I would settle for a more faction-wide ship style. We Mon Cals understand how hard it is for a foreigner to get used to our ships, and I would hate to hoist it upon my fellow commanders to learn about a new style of ship in such a short time. However, there are certain Mon Cal design philosophies I would like to adhere to. Mainly, this would be excellent shielding with some sort of triple-redundant generators. We don't have infinite resources like some others, so it would be wise to protect any major assets." He nodded his head softly as he spoke, and paused, giving the Sith a chance to respond.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"]

"Trust me, I think the . . . quality of the help will be going up," she said, a look of disdain crossing her face as she sensed a distraction between two workers in a closet somewhere. "My workers from Krayt Industries will be handling this project, so we need not worry about . . . lackluster performance on this."

"That could be easily incorporated," she said, pulling up the design files. "Redundant shield generators or equivalent technology would easily fit into a design that would suit your needs. I was thinking heavy versions for the turbolasers and ion cannons, four guns in each battery, with twenty batteries of each. We would also have flak guns and point defense systems to protect it against missiles and enemy fighter craft."

Frowning slightly, she continued saying, "What would you like the size of the hanger to be?"

 

[Tesh Aquer]

"Two Alliance standard wings would be fine," Tesh replied. He paused, and added for clarification, "That would be 72 ships. I plan on developing a supercarrier soon that should be able to hold an enormous number of snubfighters, so this would only need a standard sized complement. Your weaponry sounds about right. I usually go slightly heavier on ion cannons over turbolasers, but this would still work. After all, this is purely for ship vs ship combat, so heavy weaponry is always appreciated, as are the redundant shield generators."

So far, so good on the ship design. The promise of a more competent crew and workers was also very good. To be honest, the workers at the docks deserved to be fired. They had had plenty of time to complete it and several stern warnings. Now they paid the price. A full competent crew and workers could get the docks finished in no time and run a ship well. Especially a ship as important as what the Sith was cooking up. The weaponry and shielding matched what he needed almost to the dot. He was never a huge fan of missile weaponry on capital ships, so the lack of said weaponry didn't bother him very much.


[member="Darth Arcanix"]

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin had just arrived at the semi-constructed shipyards on Makeb and was furious at the sight of the slacking workers. This is embarrassment, she seethed! The building project manager let her know that the Admiral and Darth Arcanix were in the headquarters meeting room. "Thank you," she said to the project manager barely disguising her rage. "I will pay my visit now but when I come back out I better see your workers actually working or I'm going to line up everyone out there execution-style and shoot them all in the head, starting with you."

She tried to calm down and by the time she had entered the meeting room she was breathing normally again. "Hello my friends," Tmoxin said sweetly. "Don't let me interrupt you. But I've brought some gifts from Antecedent. Crabpuffs for you straight from the Dragon Palace Casino tea room and some Cambylictus berry tarts for you Ms. Arcanix."

"How are the building plans going? Is there anything I can do to help?"

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Tesh Aquer"]

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]

"Thank you, Miss Temi," Taeli said, nodding her head in greeting at the woman who was in charge of their first contact and the Raven's military production. "I would say the work is going quite well, and that's fine for the starfighter compliment. If you want I could bump up the ion weapons a smidge to keep the feel right for what you want, Admiral."

Thinking though, and blocking out the distracting workers in the Force, she realized a small problem that might be prevalent in the design. It would be slower most likely, but then they could compensate with thicker armor on top of the redundant shields.

"Although Admiral, doing what we have planned will mean the vessel will be a bit on the slower side of things. We could easily compensate for that with thicker armoring on the hull, if you would like that."

 

[Tesh Aquer]

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]

"Thanks!" Tesh said as Tmoxin handed him the plate of creampuffs. The Mon Calamari delicacy was close to his heart and never far from his stomach. The way the crabs squirmed when you bit into them was one of the best feelings in the galaxy. Of course, not a lot of species felt the same way, so he usually didn't eat them in the traditional style. Instead, he kept the crabs under control as he ate the creampuff, trying not to draw attention to the squirming creatures.

"The plans are going fine. We had a lot of similar goals, so this shouldn't take very long to design. By the way, Ms. Arcanix, I think having the ship be a bit slow would be fine. I'm not trying to outrace anyone. That's what all of my small ships are for. This is for some good ole' pummeling and bombardment. The thicker armor would also work great. My first goal is to keep people alive, my second is to kill the enemy. Better defensive capabilities is always better in my book."

He pulled out a chair for Tmoxin and gestured for her to sit down if she wanted to. It would be better to have her consulting on the plans too. After all, he wasn't the only person in charge of the fleet. Any big decisions would need her approval anyways, so he might as well have her onboard from the get-go rather than discussing it later.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]

"So this is what we have so far," Taeli said, activating the small holo-projector on her datapad and bringing up a rough model for both the Admiral and Ms. Temi to observe. Highlighting each section, mainly for Ms. Temi to see what they had already agreed upon, she also was reinforcing the model in her mind and making minor tweaks.

"I would suggest the bridge is here, in the middle of the superstructure, with a secondary bridge hidden further back to make sure if one is disabled, loss of coordination and vital systems are not hampering any fleet action," she said, highlighting the designated areas.

 

[Tesh Aquer]

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"] (dialogue in bold when on mobile)

"Redundancies. Now that's something a Mon Cal can get behind," Tesh joked as he looked over the design "My only concern is being able to see the battle from the bridge."

The ship design was a bit stubby, but power was more important than looks. The triple redundant shielding and the redundant command deck looked good. The safer the ship was, the better. He always preferred to avoid the loss of life, and that was even with the enormous resources of the Mon Calamari. Now, with the smaller fleet of the Red Ravens, it was even more important to save lives, and the ship design accomplished that. Of course, they hadn't gone over the weapons yet

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]

"The bridges would have sensors and holocams to project real-time images," Taeli said, chuckling a little. "It would look like you could see out a window, but tit would just be an image constantly being updated. Now, as we discussed before you arrived, Miss Temi, the weapon layouts."

Highlighting the weapon batteries, she continued saying, "As per your suggestion, Admiral, I would say the new weapon layout would be eighty heavy turbolasers, grouped in twenty batteries of four guns, eighty-eight heavy ion cannons, grouped in twenty-two batteries of four guns each. Then there would be ninety point-defense laser systems scattered across the ship, and sixty flak guns, with twenty covering the rear of the ship alone and the rest scattered among the hull."

She had bumped up the ion cannons to fit more with the Mon Cal theme the Admiral was looking for, and she was sure he wouldn't mind too terribly much.

 

[Tesh Aquer]

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]



"The extra ion cannons were just what I needed. Shredding through shields is always a good idea, even if you lose some firepower when it comes to tearing througg the hull. However, I have plenty of ships that can handle that sort of thing," Tesh said as he examined the design of the ship. The nature of the weapons placement was good; very few spots were left uncovered. The point defense systems were always a must for him. Too many people wandered around with missiles and torpedoes. Having the point defense lasers could help shoot the majority of them down.

"This appears to be in good order. My only suggestion would be to move some more of the cannons to the bow of the ship. Since it's going to be a little slow, I would rather be able to shoot them as I move closer. Other than that, have you decided on a model name for the ship? We Mon Cals tend to go by fairly simple names. MC80, MC120, you know. I'm no good at creating names."

 

[Tmoxin Temi]

Tmoxin was impressed by the ship design so far. It wasn't the luxury vessel that Gaillard Corporation was building but it also wasn't outdated. It was the perfect warhorse of a ship that she had envisioned for the Raven flagship. She had spent her own Navy time in a primitive Hapan Battle Dragon and this was a far cry from that antiquated model.

"Excellent work to the both of you," she said inspecting the design. "Admiral, I know we're not close to finished but how many men would you need to maintain this vessel? I'll need to find you a crew."

She looked over at Ms. Arcanix. The mutual agreement they had forged recently was beginning to pay off and she hoped for the Sith Lord as well.

[member="Darth Arcanix"] [member="Tesh Aquer"]

 

[Tesh Aquer]

"For a ship this size, I'd say about 5,500 as a fullb complement and 1500 as a bare minimum." Tesh said thoughtfully. He had based his assumption off of the Mon Calamari cruiser, or MC80, and gone from there. He'd had to add in the extra gunners, but the estimate seemed appropriate. Hopefully [member="Tmoxin Temi"] would be able to supply the crew, and a good crew at that. They would have to be better than the people working at the dock, that much was certain.

"Yes this looks like the perfect warhorse ship. Hopefully you can make a quite a few of these. They will be perfect for assault and very sturdy," Tesh added. He chowed down on another cream puff as he mulled over the ship's qualifications some more. It looked pretty much perfect for what he needed. A few of these ships would be a very powerful combination, especially paired with the other ships the Red Ravens had. [member="Darth Arcanix"] had done a good job

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Tesh Aquer"] [member="Tmoxin Temi"]

"I'd say that is an accurate number, and I plan for this to be the pride of any fleet for the Ravens," Taeli replied. "We should have this up and running at minor production levels, so you should have plenty of them for combat duties. As for a model, I was thinking of something related to the overall image of the Ravens . . . something symbolic for them, but also possibly a homage to you, Admiral, and your people."

"I would suggest something along the lines of the Krakana-class Assault Cruiser?" she said, tilting her head in thought.

 

[Tesh Aquer]

"Krakana? That seems fitting. This certainly seems a lot deadlier than a krakana, though. Everything seems to be in order about this ship. You have done an excellent job [member="Darth Arcanix"], it has really been a pleasure working with you."

He wasn't lying. It was nice to have someone else do most of the work, for once. He had had to cover for people so many times on Mon Cal. It was like everyone expected him to do all the work himself. He was an admiral, not a god. Plus, that sort of stuff was better left for the R&D folks. The name was a nice touch, too. He had had a krakana fillet once, as a celebration for becoming an admiral. It was one of the best things he had ever eaten. Of course, crab-stuffed cream puffs far surpassed that. Unfortunately, he had eaten all of them.