New Fields

[Jeron Verity]

Galven was studying the hangar of his new headquarters as he was suddenly called upon over the comms. The broadcast system was not fully functional, so it was sorrowfully expected. "Supreme Imperator, we need you on the engineering level, we ... have a problem with supplies, and cost..."

"Supply and cost? You're telling me we expended all the credits I pulled from my account already?" Galven turned, shaking his head as he headed toward the inner entrance to the facility.

"No, Supreme Imperator, but the numbers have been ran, ...we need to talk."

Galven shrugged, heading toward the turbolift inside and taking it down to the engineering level.

 

[Jeron Verity]

The turbolift reached the Engineering level and opened for him, allowing him to proceed. As he exited, one of his engineers was waiting for him just outside. "Sir, the Head Engineer is waiting for you, in here."

Galven watched where they were walking after nodding the the engineer, following him. "Do you know why the Head Engineer couldn't speak to me over the comms, Engineer?"

"It has something to do with our supplies of Durasteel, sir. Anyway, he's inside, I should be getting back to helping on the lower levels."

The two saluted each other and Galven entered the Engineers office, who was doing work on his terminal, running numbers, schematics strewn across his desk...

 

[Jeron Verity]

The Engineer perked up and gave a salute as he realized the Supreme Imperator had entered his office. "Sir, you've arrived." He said, grabbing a datapad and quickly rushing over to Galven to show him. "Supreme Imperator Galven Solomon, sir, this is the data I've been running so far."

Galven took a hold of it and looked it over, scrolling through the data and sighing. "Alright, I get it, we can't keep buying this durasteel. Do we have a fix for this?"

The Engineer gave a shrugging expression, slowly taking the datapad back and checking through some things. "The planet we're on does have some metallic minerals and deposits within its crust, and it shows to be stronger the deeper our scans go. But there's nowhere near enough for mass production.... maybe if we tossed it in with the Durasteel mix, we could get more metal for half the price?"

"Sounds risky," Galven noted, "It might weaken the Durasteel, it might give it horrible traits. Have we even figured out what the minerals are yet? We've only been able to work so far out of the facility."

 

[Jeron Verity]

The engineer shook his head, "No, sir, sorry. You could assign some of the scientists to work with us and see if its workable, if it would even be worth it, but otherwise... we would need to force our future ideas into motion, before we're ready."

Galven shook his head, pondering the situation, "No, no, no... we can't do that, we're not nearly ready enough. If we have this metal shortage, we surely can't start. I mean, it's based on it... but -- The scientists," he sighed, "I'll assign some to work with you. Get some workers, mine some of the minerals in the crust on the lowest level. We don't need any unsecured mining operations on the outside surface. Airlocks on the bottom floor, so we won't need to worry about oxygen loss. You'll get your tools and scientists, just supply me with something I can use."

 

[Jeron Verity]

"Understood sir, I'll get back to you as quickly as possible with what we've discovered." The engineer added.

Galven gave a nod, albeit he didn't want to do this. It would cost a lot to R&D such a project at their current infancy, but they have no way of increasing the credit pool they had at the time, so something had to be done. "Is there anything else you need?"

The Engineer checked through his datapad and pondered. "Without a dedicated mining operation, we can't use any mining vehicles, we'll need more ...industrial grade mining tools, hand-held, sir."


"I expected such. You'll get your budget, you handle what you need. I expect a status update within twelve days." Galven said. They both nodded, saluted, and Galven left the engineer to what he needed to do.

 

[Jeron Verity]

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The day finally came, that the engineers and scientists had been working diligently to get something satisfactory to the Supreme Imperator. However, he didn't even give them a chance to call him up on the final day. If it didn't work out today, they would have been in an even deeper money pit than they were before.


"Alright you two. My best scientist, and my best engineer. Tell me... what we have." Galven said as he crossed his arms, waiting for imminent disappointment. Not to put down his best people, but it's been very rare that anything has worked for them in the past, and he wasn't going to get his hopes up just yet.

The engineer and scientist looked at each other as they debated who should speak to him and take any possible punishment, with the Engineer felt it was his plan, so he should do it. "We've discovered something... we think... you might like sir. We have no idea." He said as he walked over, handing Galven a datapad, describing the new alloy they created.

 

[Jeron Verity]

"It's extremely strong, but it's increasingly harder to shape or mold. That, in itself, is a problem, and a benefit." The engineer brought his hands together, "But that isn't all there is. This new metal has absolutely no resistance to electrical systems. While we could put it inside of terminal components, as a complete armor for ships, or flooring, it could be lethal to our people." He said, watching for Galvens reaction.

He was scrolling through the information, seeing the tests that had been run, "And is this painted, or is this natural -- the color, an off-blue?"

"Well, at first the materal wouldn't even appropriately bond with the solutions to make durasteel. We found by supercooling it, it made the items to be malleable. When we let it come back to room temperature, it created that color. Like heated metal is red, and then cools to its natural color."

 

[Jeron Verity]

Galven didn't move, but his eyes looked about for a moment, as he thought of the possibilities of the metal. "So... it's too strong to be made into proper cabling, but too receptive to electricity as armor. I think this is usable."

As he said that, the engineers and scientists smiled, feeling like they had satisfied their Supreme Imperator.

"But... we can only use this in certain situations. Insulated behind non-receptive metals, this could be used for structures... if we wanted to. And internal components, and massive cables, this could find a use. This won't outright replace Durasteel, but we could use this... this... this could be what we need. Even if just to turn a profit, this material could help us. How much have we made?"

 

[Jeron Verity]

The engineers went silent as the scientists looked over at them from this response. That was what they didn't want to hear. "That's... another problem, sir..."


Galven gave an unpleasant look. Even working through all those problems, and still more? "Speak, Engineer. This either works or it doesn't, don't stall."

The engineer quickly nodded. "The problem with producing this metal is very time consuming, and how very little of the mineral we get in each excavation. Just from the time you've given us, we've only produced about a hundred tons, and it doesn't seem like we'll get much more out of that time. Even with machinery, there is very little of this mineral within the crust, and we have to separate it and supercool it. What's worse is... the minerals we get that are closer to the surface, reduce the strength quality of the end result. We have to keep going deeper to find more and for it to be of better quality."

 

[Jeron Verity]

Galven took his hand to his forehead and rubbed it, becoming more and more stressed by the second. "It's like Ithought, we just can't catch a break. Well, if this is all we have, we have to make it work, right?" Galven shrugged, handing the datapad off to the engineer.

"I want this stuff put into large cabling, and put onto the ships and fighters we have. I want to know what we have to work with, and see how the ships fair with these added. This could stablize power output and fix the problems we have with power in the facility. But while you're doing that, I want people working on mining more of this stuff, and making more metal. Before anyone gets party-happy or starting to think of names, let's see just how much worth it has in actual field testing. Alright?"

The engineer agreed, thinking that would be the best course of action. "Thank you for this opportunity, Supreme Imperator. We'll do all we can."

Galven saluted, "That's all I can ask," before he left the room.

 

[Jeron Verity]

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It had been a little longer than a week, and finally the Hangar itself was usable, which helped the engineers and scientists put this new metal on fighters and run tests on them, have only been doing small tests on the Virgil-class Corvettes they had in space. Galven left his office as he was called to see the final tests of the metal being completed, a sort of sideshow being conducted, which Galven gave the men a break from their constant working to see what their fellow men and women have designed for them. Though this may cause a little bit of anxiety stress for the engineers and scientists, this is what the men would be eventually flying with, and they needed to know what they were dealing with.

"Alright people. Tell me some good news," Galven asked, leaning against a support structure as a majority of the men and women gathered beyond him, to watch this 'show.'

"We only put a little bit of the armor on this TIE fighter," the engineer spoke up, showing the blue metal circling around on the ship. "We've discovered that, in order to use this metal as a protective layer, shields are undoubtedly required. But we figured our future ships would all have shields, so this doesn't seem to be an absolute problem."

 

[Jeron Verity]

The engineer walked around to the front of the TIE fighter, the cockpit area. "If unshielded, and the ship is struck with any electrical weaponry, the armor will grab it, pull it in, and highly electrify any systems it touches. More than likely short circuiting or overloading any touched systems. If we were to cover the fighter in this armor, the electricity absorbed would, unfortunately, reach the cockpit, and even with the cockpit being shielded or protected by insulation, it may incapacitate the pilot."

The engineer looked down, knowing that Galven was giving a look of disapproval. "But we have a great many benefits and upgrades we could apply to this, especially in combinations. The armor makes the fighter a little heavier, and harder to control. But we can find better designs to improve upon this, and make the armor better suited for it. A chunk of this armor, over top another armor, can protect anything underneath it, giving protection to critical systems, though leaving other parts of the ship at the mercy of direct hits to lightly armored places. Heavier... also means harder. While the ship would be slower, it could take more damage."

The engineer smiled, realizing he hadn't even gotten to the best part.

 

[Jeron Verity]

"If we were to... connect this armor, with some old and known AR-0B, it could improve the benefits of the AR-0B. With lasers and some other, damaging, electrical weaponry, the AR-0B would absorb the damage, which could be transferred from the metal alloy. Now... this doesn't give immunity. In fact this could be detrimental to the pilots much more than just covering the ship in the metal. Again, very little should be used, or it could electrify and incapacitate the Pilot. The combination of these two metals wouldn't provide impervious fighters, but take away more risk to the pilot from ordinary weapons. Though a direct hit from a turbolaser would kill the pilot, if not ... destroying the fighter, excluding intense electrical burns."

Although a very saddening detail by the end, it was discovered that the potential risk could be avoid, albeit with greater damage to the pilot inside if more damage was produced.

 

[Jeron Verity]

Galven stepped forward as he took all this in, watching the Engineer go over the benefits and disadvantages of the new product. "You keep going up and down, and up and down, and I can't tell if this metal is worth it or not."

The engineer shook his head, as the pilots were in somewhat of an agreement with the Supreme Imperator. "No sir, no sir. I'm just telling you all of the bad so there are no unforeseen accidents in the future. This armor has great capabilities, but in small amounts. If we used this in components, and in small amounts in armor, we could improve protection in critical areas, and improve electrical flow for critical systems. It's like acid or lava, sir, both very devastating if control was lost over them."

 

[Jeron Verity]

"Good," Galven said, "we can make our ships prettier, and give some small benefits to fighting even with our few numbers. And this is all still expensive, you know."

"Yes, we understand this sir. But I think we've made a plan to produce this metal alloy enough to make profit from it and fix our current budget, along with continuously buying more materials." The engineer nervously said, watching the crowd and the Supreme Imperator.

Galven clapped, rousing the pilots and officers, "You found a solution to our problem, all of you have. Do you know what the solution is called, yet?" Galven asked.

"We've come to call it... Swatrium, sir."