I can show You the World...

[Alkor Centaris]

From where he stood atop the apex of a Halbegardian tower, Alkor sipped his ale leisurely. The gentle wind flowed past him as he watched several fighters go through routine flight exercises on the horizon. Late day sunlight bled orange and red over the city, and the rivers looked like veins. A civilization built on ancient ruins and brought into the current era by human ingenuity, Adumar's fiercest city demanded respect from every onlooker. It was not chance that brought Centaris to its highest point.

"Tell me, Kurayami," Alkor greeted as the man walked up the steps behind him. The elites would not have permitted anyone else to pass. It was a favor between warriors that the meeting would be held in so sacred a place. "What do you think of the state of our galaxy?"

It was strange. The handful of times that the men met, Alkor had understood that something about their combined heritage was entwined. It went beyond Corellian blood, their starfighter pilot roots, and them both being warriors. He had delved for hours at least once into ancestries, and he found no conclusive evidence about either of them. It did not help that Alkor had never known his father.

He gestured toward a table behind him without looking to the other man. On it, a large vat of Namana Liquor waited. There was silence between them for several moments as Alkor skimmed the mountains to the west, then turned around. "I'm genuinely curious," he added finally. "I'm not asking to punctuate any sort of hidden point."

Several elites moved on the steps beneath them. It seemed that they respected Alkor enough to allow him free movement, even while they had internal problems. Alkor spent several hours outfitting them with Droids to bolster their security, which allowed them to allocate precious and limited troops to other tasks. As Bloodborn ascended the tower, he would have noticed the presence of SD-9s, fully kitted out for anti-personnel.

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

Kurayami made his way slowly up the steps of the tower listening to the starfighters as they ran through their standard training regimes. Alkor had called him here for some reason, why hadn't been made entirely clear. Something about business, but that was all he had gotten. With his acquisition of Nubia Star Drives it would be interesting to see how this meeting developed.

As he approached Alkor he placed his hands non-chalantly in the pockets on his flight jacket. Today was an odd day in that Kurayami was not wearing his armor, he was dressed in simple khaki jeans, combat boots, and an dark gray flight jacket with the Aquila squadron symbol on the back and '013' in a yellow black letter outline beneath the collar of the jacket. Underneath, was a plain black shirt, his helmet held loosely in his left hand.

He knew that Adumar was rather enamored with pilots and swordsman so it made sense that they would allow two men who showcased the highest tier of skill in said areas, Alkor's question came right before Kurayami introduced himself, an interesting question indeed.

"The state of the galaxy, you ask? I should say that the galaxy is rather unstable right now, planets seemingly change hands and alliances everyday. Why do you ask?"

The question was not an odd one in retrospect, but it had caught him off guard at first. What Kurayami found more intriguing though was the sense that not everything was as it appeared. Yes, both were Corellian, Alkor had demonstrated impressive piloting skill, and he had heard of his skill with a blade, and the fact that Alkor was accused of rather heinous crimes back home. His eyes narrowed in thought, perhaps he was looking too deeply into things again, he had a bad habit of doing so at inopportune moments. He shook his head, an outward sign that he was clearing his mind of such thoughts. When Alkor gesutred towards the table Kurayami approached and took a seat pouring himself a glass of the Namana liquor. He sipped at it as Alkor turned around, placing the glass down gently before responding. His tone was even and calm carrying no hint of accusation or annoyance.

"Even if genuine curiosity was the impetus for you to ask at first, I am no fool. I know well that there was some point you wished to address after hearing my answer. No need to dance around the topic, we both own rather successful companies and you mentioned something about wanting to talk business, so tell me Alkor. What is it you are looking for from Nubia Star Drives, what does Balmorran Arms have to offer in return?"

One could never accuse Kurayami of being the greatest of wordsmiths, but he made sure that he was clear in his question and that he got the point across. He had seen the SD-9's on his way up, but he had paid them little attention. It was the first time in many years he had encountered such models of droid, but last time there had been far more of them and they had been shooting. It was a good reminder of how much getting shot hurt, as was Sullust. He shrugged and brought the glass back to his lips as he waited for Alkor to respond.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"Ah, apologies, I'm so used to talking with people who believe such things."

Alkor took a sip of his own drink and turned to face the man as he reclined against the railing. "Words are weak things in a galaxy where blades and blasters determine strength," he stated as he considered the flavor on his tongue. "And yet, a bit of pressure here, an accent there, a single word to the right person-" He flicked the glass with a finger and it made a hollow sound. "-and you can make the entire galaxy turn their weapons in whatever direction you want."

He placed the drink down beside him and watched Bloodborn for a moment before he continued. "The Dark Jedi Order once believed that they were so powerful that they should never be wasted. In combat, a warrior does not speak idly. Consider the Sith tradition of Dun Moch, utilizing speech and discreet actions to manipulate a situation to your advantage. It has merit, insofar as it allows the user to gain the upper hand against a weak minded enemy. Any proper warrior understands this, and accepts that once weapons are drawn, words are wind."

The Dark Jedi Master flipped the glass, and it plummeted toward the rooftop where it shattered.

"In the end, a glass is still a glass. On its own, it is weak, and it will easily break. A man who relies on one aspect of their training is doomed. That is why I propose something stronger. Alone, Balmorran produces droids and weapons. Alone, Nubia Star Drives creates starships without weapons. We both fulfill a niche that if combined could be made quite effectual."

Alkor kicked the shards along the roof idly. "I understand the core values of your company forbid technology that kills in their design. I respect that notion in times of peace. At war a company does what it must to keep up, or it goes under. I know you understand economics, Kurayami. You know that when governments go to war, they reallocate their assets in order to prepare for the coming battle. Their money ceases to go where it otherwise would. Consider the ramifications to a corporation that does not keep up with the times."

"What I'm talking about is a most lucrative venture for your business. All I'm asking in return is for you to act as shipwright and designer for the Dark Jedi."

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

"The way you asked the question is what clued me in, plus it is an odd question to ask during a business meeting between two companies that seem so different in philosophy. Admittedly I am not offended, nor do I hold anything against you for trying to conceal your purpose in asking, standard enough protocol in a case such as this."

Kurayami's response was calm and measured, taking another sip of his drink when he finished speaking. Until a dea lwas made it would not be a good idea to drink too much, if he could help it. As Alkor spoke his piece about the way in which control could be gained over who was trying to kill one another, his eyes narrowed in thought. The man had a point about such things, it truly seemed to take rather little to turn the tide of an entire battle even to one's favor.

"Dun Moch is useless against any enemy with a shred of willpower. As you said, words are useless against a blade or a blaster bolt. Let your actions as a warrior speak for you. Something I have never understood about the Sith honestly, they try to get in your head, play mind games...and yet they are supposedly very powerful both as duelists and wielders of the Force. Yet they try to undermine your abilities as a warrior, even when you know you outclass them in all areas. If i go into a battle with that level of confidence then what effect should your minor taunting have? None. A put up or shut up philosophy is what I ascribe to. That is how a warrior proves their worth. Not boastful words and petty insults."

It was clear he agreed with Alkor on the point, and yet the last two sentences seemed to have a highly venomous tone to them. It seemed to imply that he had fallen victim to such in the past or was close at one time to someone who had. He quirked an eyebrow at Alkor's use of the glass to define where Nubia Star Drives currently sat, and proposed changes to their operations. It was no secret Kurayami knew fighter craft and smaller ships well, but he was no capital ship expert even if he had served onboard many over the years.

"So what you propose is that I amend the operations of my company to supply your Dark Jedi with ships designed to kill? Because we are in a time of war...interesting, most interesting. The thing about Nubia Star Drives is that though our ships are unarmed it takes a hell of a beating to even drop the shields, and our clients are usually diplomats who are in less need of weapons emplacements....

That said however, I do see where it could be a very profitable venture, ad I can understand the necessity of doing such things. I will think on it. If I do accept however I have conditions. I will not make large ships over the size of a freighter. Why? Simple, they are not the type I know well. Also, the weapons emplacements are to be completely invisible during normal operations, this is done to keep the image in the public eye as that of a peaceful company. You will list the vehicles you acquire from me in such as state as having been modified in an aftermarket capacity. This means we will not service the weapons systems or related tech...openly. If you find these terms agreeable then I believe that you have found yourself a willing partner.

What say you Alkor?"

Now that he had the terms laid out plainly he finished off his first glass and awaited Alkor's answer, the second glass would be celebratory if the terms were accepted. If they were not the second glass would at least provide a nice buzz on the way home.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"I see no reason we cannot reasonably comply with these terms," Alkor responded through a casual sip of ale. "Balmorran is an arms company, and we would have no reason to shunt the blame for where our weaponry came from. Plausible deniability works in your favor this way as well." Alkor understood the way Phaygus did business better than most men in the galaxy. Honesty and integrity tempered by brutality and efficiency made the Balmorran native more than a force to be reckoned with, even without the aid of the Force or the backing of an empire. Coupled with their friendship, Alkor had every reason to respect the man. Hell, Phaygus would never have sent anyone else to act as liaison than the Dark Jedi Master. None of his suits had the testicular fortitude to wheel and deal with Goliath on the Galactic scale.

"No one in my employ is able to create fighters. At least, none of them can on any real scale. I might get one prototype a year that's space-worthy, and none of them fly like a Corellian ship." They were both open and honest about their heritage here. "My mother gave me the name of a spacer who was a dear friend of hers in lieu of her own surname," he said suddenly." Jethro Centaris was a nobody, and he was certainly not my father. That said, I have no idea who the man was, or what my mother's surname was."

He glanced toward the other Corellian with a thoughtful expression. "I bring this up because for all these years, I never dreamed of going home. I never once thought I would speak to another one of my people who did not want my blood to answer wrongdoing. Corellians belong in the sky, Kurayami. We yearn for freedom, and in every breath we seek to be among the clouds."

Alkor placed his second glass down on the table and sat facing Bloodborn. "Let's show the galaxy what it really means to fly."

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

"You speak true Alkor. We do belong in the clouds, among clear skies and those tainted by the heat of battle. Corellains made a name for themselves because of their ships and our natural piloting abilities. I wasn't selected for my position as squadron lead for no reason. When my lead recommended me for the next to bear his rank, it was among a full squadron of other Corellian men and women. That was who I was competeing against in every flight, though I worked alongside them. We were fighter pilots, of course we pushed each other.

You say you get a single prototyped fighter in a year, and that isn't even Corellian designed. Well I can easily change that for you. Though we need a proof of concept fighter to go off of. I'm thinking something with lines that hearken back to ancient fighters renowned for excellence, a bit of the Nubian design aesthetic. Faster than anything else, better maneuverability than any other fighter ship in service. I'm talking to the point that without Force Reflex it would be a death trap, on par or better than the ancient Jedi Starfighters.

As for my parentage, I haven't seen them since I left the CDF and joined Aquila all those years ago. Decades since I was home, mthers name was Aliira. Don't recall her last name before her marriage to my father. It was never a discussion that had any reason to come up. I knew I was Corellian and that was enough.

I care little for the sins committed by others, no matter how grave. When I learned the Force, I studied from both Jedi and Sith alike. It isn't only the action that is evil, it is the intent behind it. Did you commit an atrocity to save others, or simply because you could? Either way it matters little, the end result was the same. I have no want to spill the blood of a brother from my home."

He raised his glass again, taking another swig as he pulled out a datapad and began to go through multiple blueprints. This datapad had no connection to the outside world, no network connections at all. Within were stored only designs that Kurayami had tossed around in his spare time. He took elements from a few and made a few minor changes to what was there, adding panels and thus length, but making it very low to the ground when landed and only a few meters in width at its widest. He would show this image to Alkor, an odd mash up that bore resemblance to Jedi interceptors, Nubian N-1 Starfighters, Darth Maul's infiltrator, and an A-wing all brought together in a single design.

"So, working design that I was thinking of for luxury airspeeders, but could very nicely converted to a starfighter. Keep all the weapons packed close together for maximum effect. Figure in flight they can be covered by retractable hull plates. Allowing us to seem unarmed, yet still dish out pain when need be. Simply list the area we choose to mount them as service bays, or expansion bays. Then the plans look to be aimed at being unarmed meaning these were modified after the fact and aren't truly a Nubia Stardrives project."

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"If a man looks back on his life and tries to count all the mistakes he made, he will sooner find madness than a proper figure," Alkor replied quietly as he stared off toward the rivers far below. The Adumari skyline was a different manner of beautiful than the crystalline sea of clouds that Corellia boasted, but it was something in its own right. The people of this planet prided themselves in honor, in swordsmanship, and in their starfighter pilots. X-Wing jet screams sounded off in the distance as the fighters ran through their daily routine and danced through the air for the pleasure of those grounded far below. If he reached out, Alkor imagined he might even graze the hull of one of the ships as it went winging by.

Times may change, but the Corellian in his heart never would. It was sobering to look back on the horrors of his youth with nothing but bitterness to swallow. "I'm far too pragmatic to think much of the provocations of the individual," he answered with a slight smirk as he regarded Kurayami. "Everyone is different, but not everything happens for a reason. Sometimes people simply act, regardless of whether or not they considered the ramifications of their action beforehand. In that, chaos is stirred and the pot comes to a boil over and again. They are all microscopic reactions to the same, original sin."

He leaned forward conspiratorially and added, "there are actually people out there who believe some sick bastard decided creating all of this would be amusing," he laughed. "Imagine that. Not simply a Force, but some all powerful entity that set all of it in motion."

The Jen'jidai glanced down as Kurayami produced the fighter plans and his interest was instantly piqued. "But then, creation is not always a divine comedy, is it?

"How soon can we anticipate a prototype?" he asked suddenly.

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

"Which is the reason I have never tried to count them. I know there are many of them in my past so I wouldn't even want to try."

There was no denying that Adumar had a beautiful skyline, or that in many senses it reminded him of home. The sounds of the X-Wings as they ran through their exercises, brought his attention to watching them for a few moments. Mentally he tried to work out exactly what would be next in the series of maneuvers and found himself critiquing each move made. In his mind he flew against each fighter overhead, matching his wits against theirs, trying to think 3 steps ahead was a challenge but was good practice as well.

"I care little for divine entities, though if one did set everything in motion for their amusement, then they would have to be one masochistic motherkarker, no doubt. I try to run through as many situations as I can in my mind, from likely to nearly impossible to try and figure out how I would react. What I would do. I find it helps me remain adaptable to any situation at hand."

Once Alkor brought his attention to the plans and asked about the prototype, Kurayami shook his head slightly. Sipping at his drink before answering.

"What you see here, I just brought together other elements from different designs that I had drawn inspiration from in the past. Blended the elements into what you see there. I have no idea as to statistics as of yet. No plans for what loadout it would carry, how many or even what type of engines, or materials. No idea even about shields. I just know that we focus on three things to show the galaxy what a fighter can be. Speed, maneuverability, and firepower. Every one of these must be top tier. So the question is now what to give this thing for specs so we can get a couple prototypes going."

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"Event Horizons," Alkor mentioned offhand as the other man brought up the topic of engines, "the RZ-1 has some of the best engines on the market in terms of speed. It would take some doing to adapt them to this time period and some serious tech work to calibrate them for a modern interceptor, but they make a strong case for quickest on the market." Alkor pointed toward the ship's frame and traced a finger above where the pieces would tie in. "Unless you wanted to sacrifice on atmo to do something with twin ions, like Kuat did with the TIE-Interceptor once upon a time. Ideally we could marry the two ideas and nearly quintuple the finished product, but short of a force user with some handle on stabilization method, no one would be able to pilot the thing."

He glanced up to Kurayami and quirked an eyebrow. "The pilot might as well by flying an adrenaline shot," he emphasized the utter insanity of the proposition and remained silent for a moment to watch the face of his friend light up with amusement. Of course two Corellians would enjoy the idea of breaking airspeed records and cutting a swath through realspace.

"It'd take a real ace to do anything with a weapons loadout on a ship like this," Alkor assessed, "targeted systems would be practically useless at those speeds, so you'd be good for little more than strafing runs and annoying the hell out of other pilots in a dogfight. If all we're doing is playing with the abilities of our fighters, though, this is a good way to figure out where we stand in terms of raw engine power and capacity."

He turned the readout on its side with a quick swipe and indicated the dorsal section as well as several ideal placements. "We can utilize maneuverability thrusters here, here, and here," he jabbed, "to allow the ship to handle quick turns and perform combat maneuvers quicker than a comparable interceptor. To trade off, we'd need to go light on armor and shielding anyway. Thrusters like that can interfere with redundant shield arrays."

Alkor coughed softly and took a step back. "As for weapons, I think we can come to some kind of agreement in that department."

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

The grin that broke out on Kurayami's face at the mention of Event Horizon's similar to the RZ-1's threatened to split his face in two. He couldn't deny that such an idea was a tempting one for someone who had as much history with the A-wing as he did. He was sure they could squeeze one Event Horizon into the frame, but bringing up the ion thrusters made him think through other types of engines they could utilize as extra power.

"That is the plan. We can fit a J77 in the centerline, right behind the cockpit, in the stub wings, at the base, we have enough room for two smaller engines. If we could develop a scaled down engine with the same performance as a full sized Even horizon that would be best. Save on the weight while retaining the thrust ouput. Basic three dimensional thrust vectoring is a good start, but to give even more tricks to this thing, I figure work in an electromagnetic thrust vectoring system worked in at either the very from of the nozzle or at the very end, allowing for far more extreme vectoring performance. Force Reflex would be a necessity to even stand a chance of getting anywhere safely with the speed and rate performance we are talking about."

He exploded the plans and pointed to a couple locations just in front of the the canopy and just behind. He drew a couple boxes in each. in the front he labeled it as being a place for advanced targeting sensors as well as a Phantom 4x short range sensor jammer. Moving on to the area behind the canopy he labeled those sections as being needed for advanced inertial compensators. A hollow area in each stub wing he place a question mark with GM next to it. Gravitic modulators. For the weapons he had a few ideas.

"What I was thinking was advanced sensor clusters, Miradyne 4x sensor jammers up front. Behind us two advanced inertial compensation units, and perhaps even a gravitic modulator in each of the wings. Just to give us the greatest amount of advantage as possible.

As for the weapons I was thinking of mounting them in the nose of the fighter, clustered together. Tightly pack the spread of fire allowing for maximum damage over the minimum amount of dispersal. But not just any cannon. I was thinking 72x twin autoblasters, up to 8 in total mounted around the nose and converging at a small point a few hundred meters in front of the fighter. It may sound like overkill, but keep in mind that the bolts aren't quite as powerful as standard laser cannons. Or we could drop either 4 repeating lasers, 4 heavy lasers, or in an act of pure insanity, 2 heavy repeating cannons, on the ship to give it a good punch. Any of those loadouts have one major drawback though.

In total we would have roughly five to ten seconds of continuous fire before needing to let the guns cool for thirty seconds so as not to melt the barrels. The fewer guns the longer we get to fire, so I like the idea of the 2 heavy repeating cannons. If we pull off the deisgin then we are looking at having the fastest most maneuverable craft, period. But no one outside of us would be crazy enough to try and fly them.

He took a moment to think about possible construction materials.

"We could use carbo plas for the frame, and a composite of durapalst, myoflex, and crystadurium for the hull plating. Not very resistant to much of anything, a few glancing hits after shields down and we would be looking at a pretty explosion and nothing else. However it is incredibly lightweight and should be able to handle the extreme g-loading that the airframe and hull would be undergoing as long as those compensators stay on."

[member="Alkor Centaris"]

 

[Alkor Centaris]

"So for as long as the pilot can continue to be better at tag than his bogey, you mean," Alkor jeered with a wry grin. "It's not capable of taking hits, but then, it's not meant to. My kind of fighter- quick, to the point, and made for face to face flight rather than that boring starfighter screen crap you see so much of." It was true, the fighter they were considering did not have the capacity of the heavy workload most starfighters were geared toward. The difference was, in terms of dealing with other starfighters, an interceptor type ship was unrivaled and could do much worse for foiling the plans of a fleet commander who thought that his pilots were in for an easy time. "The weight and compensator units would definitely give us an edge in terms of speed and maneuverability in comparison to similar ships," Alkor agreed.

"If we could find two smaller engines that could match the output of an Event Horizon when paired, we would be talking about a ship with literally twice the speed. Do you think that's feasible, and do you think we can find engines like that on the market? Otherwise we would need to have our engineers work something up." It meant more time before the finished product could be tested, but it also meant that they could rely on the engine to do what they wanted. Alkor was more than willing to make that compromise if he had to. "I don't think we're talking realistic figures for a smaller engine to be able to generate that kind of raw power," he stated to punctuate the point. "Not without a critical structural issue rising after prolonged flight. We don't want to run engines with that kind of fault."

He turned and stared out at the horizon again, this time deep in thought. "Or could we?" he tilted his head slightly. "It's not impossible, but we would need to deal with a scaled fuel injection." The Corellian exile pursed his lips and closed his eyes for a moment. "The fighter would require a hefty amount of fuel," he said after a moment, "and the chassis would need to allow for separate lines in several areas. If we had the fuel only in one central location, that would make for a much larger target."

Alkor gestured now toward three areas they could hollow out for compact fuel storage. "If we do this, it will both minimize the danger zones of the craft and balance the weight across the nodes. It would require three separate instances of fueling, and for the pilot to be apprised of all the tanks at once, but we're already talking about a craft that will require mountains of micromanagement. Why stop at the small stuff?"

With a quick blink, Alkor pulled up an article on the holonet. "They use a similar system in podracers," he noted, "you can divert power or fuel from one engine to the other in a pinch. We could use this to help maintain a steady flow of energy throughout the fighter over a longer period of time. That would cut down on the possibility of overload as well."

[member="Kurayami Bloodborn"]

 

[Kurayami Bloodborn]

"Exactly. We just need to be able to stay on the other fighter's six for longer, and not even much longer. Most dogfights are a matter of seconds to a minute long. In that time your chances of living drop drastically the closer your enemy can get to pure trail. We need to minimize that by maximizing the amount of available energy.

The engines will present a challenge yes, but if we manage to develop something with a similar power output in a smaller package then we get exactly what we need without any excesses. I have plenty of faith in our techs that we could manage to work something out that would be a viable solution. What you mention about podracer devised solutions is an interesting one and could also allow for us to stage the combustion. Have a preliminary injector that is a more coarse spray to provide higher temperatures in the chamber at startup, then a secondary assembly that produces a nearly invisible mist of spray so that we burn as much fuel as efficiently as possible while converting as much power as we can manage from every drop. Similar to an afterburning engine, however it would be even more similar to a turbine that can manage supercruise."

He pulled up a J77 Event Horizon engine and pulled the absolutely necessary systems from the cowling and rearranged the engine into a slightly smaller frame, a sleeker look to it and utilized scaled down parts from the J77 in two custom designed small cowlings resembling those of the X-wing's 6L5 fusial thrust engines. Alkor had pointed out three rather good locations for fuel cells and the design of the lines seemed to be rather well placed, he was sure some tweaks would be made, but that was part of the fun with these projects.

"As fir the weapons I'm liking the idea of 2 single heavy repeating cannons. High firepower and decent fire rate while being able to pump out around 7 seconds of continuous fire beofre waiting to cool down for 30 seconds. Only problem is there aren't many starfighter scale heavy repeaters, so my thought is to take something similar to the R-9X heavy cannons and push the fire rate up to that of a repeater. Plus fewer weapons means less weight. Also easier to distribute the weight of two weapons than multiple ones. Not to mention with them mounted far forward in the nose it will help offset some of the weight in the back as well. The gravitic modulators wouldn't do much for speed or maneuverability, but would help with staying off mass scanners. Definitely a plus. If we can manage to tool the engines to run on Tibanna X that would be rather nice to help mask thermal output as well. The less of a trace this leaves, the better."

He made the changes on the fly as he spoke, his eyes glued to the design as he made the edits and set rough sketches of the engine units off to the side of the datapad screen.

[member="Alkor Centaris"]