Live for the Swarm

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli stood on the bridge of one of the Avarice-class Bulk Cruisers that Krayt had begun developing, admiring the design of the bridge as it was reminiscent of older Imperial models. Ever since she had begun her dealings with the Remnant, she had to admit she enjoyed their aesthetics much more than the Sith. That being said, she was smiling even more as she had already commissioned the development of the third ship in her Sin project.

It was an ambitious project, but after Manaan, Taeli knew the Sith needed a restructured fleet and wider naval capacity in terms of what type of ships they could pull upon. One thing she had noted was the lack of hanger space in ships, besides the compliment of starfighters from the Immortal that had died there. She had been guilty of this as well, with the designs for the Tenebris not having any hanger, but time to look towards the future. So, she had decided the next ship would be focused around Gluttony, or as she was calling it, the Gula-class Fleet Carrier.

"Everything in order, Jaxson?" she asked.

"Construction is about to begin, Lady Arcanix," her chief engineer replied with a grin.

"Excellent," Taeli said, looking into space as several ships carrying the needed materials headed towards the shipyard in orbit. "We will remain in system until the first Gula is ready."

"Very good, my Lady," Jaxson said, moving off to leave Taeli with her thoughts.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Watching through the viewport and stars as construction drones and ships began to off-load the materials to begin constructing the Gula, Taeli turned her thoughts towards other things, mainly about her newly knighted apprentice and her newest apprentice. Sophie had proven to be everything that Taeli could have hoped for in her primary apprentice, the one who see her will be carried out . . . well once she became a higher ranking leader within the Sith. Zerrene's first lessons had gone well, and Taeli could that eventually she would be a very deadly instrument to carry out missions.

Regardless, she was brought out of her thoughts as a ping on her datapad alerted her to a message.

"Reports from the yard state that most material is off-loaded and the workers ready."

Sending a reply to begin work immediately, she watched as thrusters fired up once again as construction drones and ships began flying out to the construction zone. The tractor beams would keep the materials from moving and make sure everything was in place while work on the skeleton began. Pulling up the schematics, she sighed internally at the sacrifices she had made in the design to accommodate the increased amount of starfighters that would be contained within each Gula.

"A shame we couldn't have the ship be faster, but sacrifices had to made and losing the offensive and speed for defense and hanger space were appropriate for this ship, don't you agree?" she said to her chief engineer.

"Indeed, my Lady," Jaxson agreed. "At your command, I shall make my way to the yard to personally oversee the construction."

"Off you go, my friend," she said, gesturing and Jaxson left the bridge to begin putting his own personal mania and drive into the project.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Jaxson arrived on the Type III shipyard and immediately began getting to work, throwing himself into the organization and motivating the workers even more. With Jaxson on site, along with Taeli watching from her current ship, the workers could feel pride and slight anxiousness to not disappoint either the chief engineer or CEO.

In space, Taeli watched as the first sections of the skeleton started to be built, the durasteel frame slowly but surely coming into shape. Even as the skeleton, starting at the aft section, began to grow longer and longer, Taeli once again started to consider things within her own position. She hadn't been to see her parents since she left Lorrd so long ago, and while she talked with them often, they didn't know what exactly she had been up to or what faction she had actually joined.

She knew her mother would be . . . unhappy in the extreme as she knew her mother hated Sith from her time as Mandalorian commando. Her father might be more ambivalent as he studied the Sith Empires and Republics from the past, but he might back her mother in saying they were disappointed with her for becoming a Sith and becoming evil. Sighing internally, Taeli knew she needed to deal with this situation, one way or the other, but there was work to be done now. She could deal with it later when she could sneak back to Lorrd to see them.

"Make sure Jaxson knows I want everything done as quickly and efficiently as possible," she said, knowing her chief engineer didn't need the reminder. He always came through on that end.

"Yes, Lady Arcanix," a com officer said.

More of the skeleton was appearing, and where it had been completely built, drones were flying in to begin building decks and lay out the sheets of durasteel.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Two days later, Taeli watched as the entire skeleton had been completed and how entire crews of workers and drones were working feverishly to make everything up and running. From what she had been hearing from Jaxson, the workers were more motivated now than ever before because this entire series of ships would be the cornerstone of a new era for the company. Plus, it didn't hurt they would be receiving a large bonus for completing the work quickly.

A constant stream of data was rolling into her datapad, most of it just progress reports, but a delivery had just arrived for the shields that would cover the large hanger bays from being bombarded. They might be at a bare minimum now, but Jaxson had reported that his electrical engineers were already starting to install system into the sections of the ship that were already built into the skeleton.

A ping alerted her to another report.

"Bridge systems have been off-loaded, along with life support. Will be installed within the next 36 hours, decks one through five are complete and hanger apparatus has begun to be assembled."

Taeli smiled.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Work was steadily going according to schedule, even though it had taken several more days for other vital systems to arrive in system, but that was fine considering they needed to have escorts to avoid Republic raiders. The engine units, sub-par though they may be, had just arrived along with the first shipment of the defensive weapon systems so technicians had begun installing these while work continued on the final sections of the frame and hull plating that needed done.

Taeli and her engineering staff had transferred to the half-completed ship to tour and see the work for themselves. Jaxson was busy overseeing the installation of both the bridge systems and hanger control systems so they could begin bringing in the Wrath starfighters that would make up the first Gula's fighter compliment. They would need to test how fast they could deploy ships, but that would be for later.

"As you can see, Lady Arcanix, work is progressing at a remarkable pace," a technician explained as they made their way to the bridge. Power cables, pipes and what not littered the corridor as they were installed into the deck walls. Several power couplings, not powered currently, were hanging from the ceiling.

"It is rather impressive," she agreed as they passed through where the blast doors for the bridge would go. Several consoles had power already as they needed to at least have life support and artificial gravity to work on the inside of the vessel.

"It would be more impressive if we weren't behind," Jaxson grumbled from where he was wiring a com system in. "The engines are just now being installed when I clearly requested they be started two hours ago."

"Not everyone has your zeal, Ary," Taeli said with chuckle. "Everything is fine, we don't to rush and overlook anything."

"Don't worry, my Lady, I'm checking over every surface and system myself as we go," Jaxson said, nodding to himself as the com system crackled and came to life. "So far, we are having no problems except for slight delays."

"Which is fine as long as they don't push the schedule back, I want this ship done soon," she said, sweeping from the bridge and her entourage followed as she went to tour the rest of the safe zones in the ship.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

The engines, it seemed, had proven slightly troublesome to install as the older systems had taken some clever modifications to make them compatible with the current systems they were installing onto the carrier. Taeli was currently standing in the hanger control area as they were testing the shields for the bays themselves while also testing flight control systems and analyzing how many fighter squadrons could fit onto the deck.

"It would seem calculations are we could fit seven squadrons of fighters onto the hanger deck, my Lady," a technician said as he went over more numbers. "It might be ever so slightly cramped for space, but it would not be anywhere near performance crippling."

"That's what I wanted to hear," she said as another technician was testing the hanger light systems that would designate where a ship could launch from and land. The red and yellow lights were working fairly well, but a few bulbs weren't lighting up and she could hear the technician yelling into his comlink to have someone look over that section of the power supply. A swarm of workers converged on that spot, monitoring and calibration equipment in hand.

A message from Jaxson reported that the first weapon placements were about to be brought online and the hull had been completed. Work was going well, she thought, it wouldn't be too much longer until the ship was ready for its first test cruise.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Point defense lasers, laser cannons, and flak guns flashed as the weapon systems were tested while Taeli watched once again from the bridge of her Avarice-class bulk cruiser. The ship had been tugged out of the shipyard temporarily for the weapon testing as the engine units were still being fully brought online and work was still going on for most of the other systems beyond life support, artificial gravity, and weapons. Everything was working fine as the ship had non-damaging rounds fired at it and the defenses easily intercepted and destroyed them.

"My Lady, the Gula is reporting a slight flux in their energy systems, but its being attributed to the engines being tested," an engineer said from an observation monitor.

"I want it isolated to make sure that is the cause," she ordered.

It didn't take long for the engineers and workers to find out that a feedback loop was occurring every time the starboard weapon systems fired. Quickly isolating the problem area, they were able to correct the problem and even strengthen the energy supplies to make sure it wouldn't happen again. The engines had now been fully installed and the hanger systems were ready to have a squadron stationed on it to test launching and landing.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Well?" she asked as the first squadron of Wrath-class starfighters were brought onto the Gula. They would be tractor beamed in first, but once they were, pilots were being briefed on the test to the launching procedures and landing. Taeli was standing behind the workers stationed at the hanger control consoles, some actually for hanger control and others monitoring the systems.

"We're all ready to begin," one of the flight control officers said. "At your command, my Lady."

"Begin," she said, distracted by a message ping from Jaxson stating that all bridge systems were finally up and operational. Everything was so close to be finished, and she was surprised it had only taken less than two weeks to finish it. The zeal and efficiency of her workers were no doubt the reason, but she wouldn't complain at all. It just meant they could everything settled with the systems and perfected before they deployed it in a fleet battle.

The pilots made their way to their fighters, clambering in as they were checked over once by the hanger deck crew that had been brought in to maintain the deck. A few minutes later, the first fighter launched from the ship, followed shortly by the others. Not one hitch hindered them, but they would need to check to see if it worked as smoothly with full capacity.

"Have them return to the ship, and bring the other five squadrons on board to test the launch procedures again," she ordered.

"At once, my Lady."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

The next phase went just as smoothly as the remaining Wrath-class starfighters were loaded onto the Gula-class carrier and put through the launching procedures. While there had been some gridlock, everything had worked out and all the fighters had successfully landed back inside the carrier. Every scrape of information was being gone over to better streamline the launches as it did take almost five minutes for every fighter to deploy. Good, but it could be better.

Taeli was touring the ship, along with Jaxson, as a final once over of the ship to make sure everything was ready.

"Excellent work, as always," she said, giving Jaxson the praise he deserved. She could feel his sense of pride at her approval wash over him briefly before he clamped down on it.

"Final tests are still underway, and some of my technicians reported a few loose bolts here or there. Also the shielding system for the ship is still being brought online and analyzed."

"Final details," she said, waving her hand. "Admit that it is truly a marvel that we got this ship done in the time we did."

"That I can freely admit to," he chuckled, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "Excuse me, my Lady, my attention is called elsewhere."

"Of course," she said, watching the man walk off to speak with several engineers doing readings on the power couplings that ran along the corridor.

Taeli had to admit that after this ship was done and in production fully, it would be time to start the next Sin series ship. All in good time though, all in good time.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"All systems clear and ready?" Taeli asked from the bridge of the Avarice. The running lights for the Gula were lit, everything had been loaded onto the ship as they began to take the ship back to Coruscant for approval from the Sith naval officers.

"We are all clear, my Lady, another successful ship prototype built and ready," Jaxson said, and small smattering of claps filled the bridge. "I have to say, this makes me want to sink my teeth into the next ship."

"Very soon, my friend, very soon," she said, her mind already turning towards the next ship. She couldn't decide which design to pursue next, but the Gula-class Fleet carrier was ready and falling in with her Avarice. 1200 meters long, twenty laser cannons, eighty point defense lasers, twenty flak guns and a hanger able to hold six squadrons. It was a strong addition to the One Sith arsenal.

"All craft jump to hyperspace," she ordered and the ships made the jump from Sev Tok, on the way to Coruscant.