O Light to Us That Wander Here

[Ultimatum]

Again the Jedi spoke the truth, this was perhaps another defining trait of organics. They were more interested in that which could be achieved quickly and easily than what took time and effort. Most seemed to prefer the easy path, which inevitably led to weakness in the person or their society as a whole. Ultimatum preferred to work quality into that which he produced, excluding that which his clients asked for. Having a foundation technology that was well defined allowed for it be expanded upon easily leading to greater gains in that realm.

This fighter was merely the beginning, a baseline from which a fleet would be constructed. If this were its most basic building block, then the greater ships would be truly fantastic. This would be a truly magnificent construction, perhaps one that would rival that of greater galactic powers. That was a possibility that both concerned and exhilarated the droid. This was only the beginning of what would hopefully stand as a monument to the possibilities from an Artificial Intelligence.

"Is there anyway I may aid in that? Distribution of knowledge?" Ultimatum obviously could not teach a person in the ways of the Force as well as a Jedi or Sith. Nonetheless, he could give the basic information on a technique. The droid had memorized all information that he had collected from a Holocron, for the purpose of making certain such knowledge was not lost. He actually looked forward to getting rid of the Holocron, perhaps this would be a good time to get rid of it. Such a holocron was better kept by those that knew how to contain it. He would ask a bit later.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"No it shall be alright, lets get this fighter up and going for now and maybe later. We have more projects that can be worked on and we have some of the better things to work with." She said it while looking with her hands over her shoulders and prepared for just about anything they could set up. matsu wanted to work on more of the projects they were doing. She had a number of new ideas and new projects they should be able to start really working on mor of the bigger things. "We'll be able to work on other projects with the information on some of these new things. So many more ideas."

 

[Ultimatum]

The droid understood. Becoming distracted was far too easy when there were so many possibilities in such a small area. Ultimatum was appreciative of Matsu's willingness to help. She seemed to have at least a similar concept of what it was to work without thought of personal gain, perhaps that was incorrect but Ultimatum believed that she did. Something that few organics understood, and a trait that was all too often taken advantage of by those that did not have such a sense. That was something that he saw as the perfect example as to what organics could be. They could look beyond their immediate needs and desires and could look into what would aid the greater good.

Information was sent his way, the basic fighter was near completion, in fact it was currently complete. As far as flight and general capabilities it was ready to be tested, it was however not outfitted with weapons, extra shielding, or similar tech. It would not be a fully functional craft, however it would be able to test the concept. Once it was proven that the ship could handle the rigors of atmosphere, it would not be too much more difficult to add the features required to fully prepare it for combat.

"Understandable. The starship is about ready for a test, if you would like to view its test we can move to a viewing room to monitor it."

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"Yes lets go and view it." They had been working on many things for themselves, they had a task here to develop all of the new things before she was walking with the large droid and prepared to work or offer her own bits of information on what they could get. She had a few ideas for what they might be able to improve upon. She had been looking at some of her old designs and working on them using the new information that she had been developing. Ways to improve upon things like the Watts and since she had the old baktoid designs she would be able to develop new ideas hopefully instead of some other things. "Lets see what we will be able to do."

 

[Ultimatum]

Smiling, Ultimatum turned and led the way to a room made of mostly transparisteel with a number of viewscreens along the walls. Information was being routed from the comms room and the fighter to the viewscreens. The information was mostly raw statistics of the ship's performance and how the systems were holding. Ultimatum was keeping an eye on the viewscreens, through it he was able to tell of any inefficiencies that might have appeared. Thus far none had, but the ship was only just about to leave the hangar, which they could see from the room.

While definitely a transparisteel room sticking out of the shipyard slightly was not a tactically valuable asset, it was more of a target than anything else really, it was built in such a way that if this room should be compromised the hull doors would simply shut, effectively making any breach nonexistent. Ultimatum always put functionality above aesthetics, even if he did enjoy some aesthetics.

The ship was just leaving the hangar, its small form could just barely be seen thanks to sudden movement. "Nothing wrong yet, definitely a good start."

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

A very good start indeed when she was going over it with some attention, looking at the details until she was sure fo a few things on her datapad. "Well if it had scratched the wall it would have added character as my friend would say." She said it with a small laugh and was prepared for a number of things that could go wrong but the droid was a lot better at computing the dangers then she was. Things going wrong were still likely as there was always something a computer wouldn't or couldn't figure out until that first trial but they usually made things pretty solid.

 

[Ultimatum]

The fighter floated out of the hangar and flew in a wide loop around the viewing room before flying towards the planet. The ship's statistics seemed to point to it being fine, no obvious weaknesses. Ultimatum assumed that any true issues would become evident once the starship began maneuvers in the atmosphere, where it was intended to work. The stress that would be experienced in an atmosphere were exponentially greater than might be found in space. The difference lay mostly with the massive friction caused by air, however the gravity and magnetic field of the planet would also play a part in the stresses experienced.

The fighter screamed silently towards the planet until it began to hit the atmosphere where it began to slow and change angle so as not to burn up on direct entry. The information transmitted back suggested that it was moving beneath a quarter of its standard velocity, definitely something to keep in mind. However as it reached the lower atmosphere it began to speed back up, until it was at maximum achievable velocity. This fighter had been optimized for atmospheric speed and maneuverability, something that many starfighters were not truly prepared for. The fabled X-wing and TIE Fighter for example were both very capable in their own right in space, however planetary flight tended to be far less awe-inspiring. TIEs tended to have issues with strong winds and were really too flimsy to reach peak velocity and maneuverability while in an atmosphere. X-wings were not incredibly aerodynamic and therefore their standard velocity tended to be far lower when working in an atmospheric environment. That was where this fighter was intended to excel. Having been crafted with the purpose of working through air it was built to achieve speeds that dominated most other craft inside a planet's atmosphere. As one climbed however, its abilities were quickly outmatched by its competitors. Space was an area in which Ultimatum planned an entirely different ship. The segregation of planetary air combat and space would allow for more focus in both areas.

While under most organics circumstances, the use of two separate forces would have been less preferable to a single united force, so as to avoid issues with communications and compromising of interests, because both groups would be governed by the same being, Ultimatum, there would be no miscommunication or conflicting interests. The forces would be capable of working in perfect unison, thereby becoming an even greater force than if the two had been separate.

The fighter began its first set of maneuvers, as evidenced by a live feed from a holodisplay as well as a spike in the numbers reading out on the screens. Ultimatum took a moment to look at it closer, for a moment he had thought something was wrong. But it had passed to quickly, so he put his mind to reviewing the previous numbers. It took a moment to find it before he could focus on it. There was a weakness that had been revealed as anticipated. However, before the droid could actually send any message to the craft, the ship turned into a tight right hand turn, proving that it was capable of turning faster and somewhat tighter than most other starships. This proved fatal as a sheet of metal tore on the middle of the craft, there was a moment where the ship simply began to slow down, then the inevitable explosion. The broken metal had opened a new area for an incredible amount of air resistance, which caused the craft to slow down and moments later the stress had built up to the point that the craft would have ripped in two, except that the finely tuned engines were probably hit by some other piece of metal which through a series of events led to the explosion.

Ultimatum shook his head, "Unfortunate, but not unexpected. Did you catch what happened?" The droid pulled up the craft schematics on the holodisplay and had the occurrence of failure replayed showing the damaged areas for both of their benefits.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Matsu was watching it and she couldn't get the information and data across her eyes like he could to see it and she was going to have to review it when she was going. "It looked like the friction shield for going into atmosphere wasn't there and the ship came apart from the center when it tried to turn." She was looking over the data when she turned over to see the information that could be there. Matsu started going over more of it with a nod of her head trying to see some of the new information that could work with it. The atmospheric fighter that they had for herself and Sasori was designed with the shield they made that uses the same heat tech of the solar shield they made for flying into a sun with some f their ships.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum nodded, that was probably at least partly the problem. This was a new design after all, Ultimatum fully anticipated there to be a number of issues that might need resolving. However, he hoped that this was the largest issue. There was little in a starfighter that could be worse than a failure that caused the entire thing to fall apart. After the resolution of any frame based problems Ultimatum saw no need to bother [member="Matsu Ike"] anymore on this matter. In so far as the system optimization and computer programming Ultimatum believed that he could handle that.

"What would you suggest then? An additional layer of shielding?"

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Matsu was looking at him and spoke with a look on her face. "You can never go wrong with additional shielding in places and protection. " The extra layers could add some weight but what good was being light and fast if you were going to blow up or burn up. You didn't solve any problems with things like that." She stayed there prepared to develop more of the things that they had been setting up while she looked at it. "I would also look at some of the alloys for heat of course. That always comes in handy for strain. Madilon is great for making a lighter, stronger material that can handle stress."

 

[Ultimatum]

Her ideas were sound, speed was not the focus of a military craft, after all it had to be able to win a fight whether or not it could outrun its opponents. The idea of a super fast ship that was not as effective at fighting was really only a possibility when talking of transports. Even then it was probably more prudent to give transports more defensive capabilities. A reconnaissance was perhaps another craft that could benefit from increased speed with minimal offensive or defensive armaments. However, at this time, Ultimatum decided that such was not his concern at this time, that he would rather focus on the perfecting of this craft rather than the potentials of others.

"Mandilon, the alloy used in hyperdrives? Is that not a rather limited material to obtain?" The droid knew that he did not have access to any immediately ability to synthesize it, unless it was possible to use the Molecular furnaces, an idea that would probably entertain the droid's mind for a few hours at some point in the future. Of course, the question better asked was what the furnaces could not produce, perhaps aurodium could be made and that would at least maintain a strong backing for LOOM should Mustafar ever leave his control.

The droid began sending data to the constructors, which would add a more robust shielding system and increase the thickness of the ship's hull. It would take a little for the ship to be produced.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Matsu looked at him and... yes and no and yes... it helped when you had worked to develop technology to handle limited supplies. "Yes... and no... and yes... Sasori developed converters to program raw matter into the base of what we need to properly supply our own things. That way we are never without and it has done wonders for our wintrium production in the synthmesh. All of that to push it and even more so with some of the other things we like being able to make." The converters had been one fo the first bits of technology they had gone for to well help out a small growing copany that wanted to try and make a name for itself helping jedi.

 

[Ultimatum]

Of course, Molecular furnaces could be converted to create such materials, an oversight the droid decided to avoid repeating in the future. Truthfully, as far as the droid was aware the furnaces could replicate any material, if it was breaking down the atomic structure then it could be rearranged in any way required. With that thought Ultimatum sent a command to begin producing an amount enough to mix with the other materials for the plating. Hopefully that would circumvent that issue. Now he had to send commands for the construction of a new fighter to begin. With the previous ship already made, the machines were already optimized for the construction and thus they could be able to make the next one even faster this time.

"Well, I would say that this is an oversight on my part. The next test shall begin in a few minutes. Have anything that you would wish to speak of while we wait?"

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Hmm did she have anything else... No not really as the jedi master shook her head. "No I do not, let us continue and see about these tests." She was looking at it and aside from really what would be new information and some work on projects like her heralds armor that would be developing and using the shielding unit she was testing and designing here there was not a lot going into it. She wanted to work on it and push forward with brand new ideas while strengthening the others. There was a number of designs that she was putting into it and there was some information that could easily be shared with the droid to develop it. "Though with the testing for the shielding, we might be able to put it into the future project that has been worked on. Armor that will serve a function better for it and do a lot of what you are wanting to develop here.

 

[Ultimatum]

Time passed while Ultimatum mulled over the words. When the fighter was finished and being prepared for launch the droid replied, "I should hope that we attain what needs to be done here before any attempt is made to translate the technology into other craft. If there are chinks in the proverbial armor of these armor and shields then it needs to be sorted out before it is moved into other ships."

The new fighter lifted off from its bay and flew out of the hangar. It was following the route of its predecessor near perfectly, so as best to recreate the circumstances that led to the previous ship's demise. The data flows began again, most of the numbers being similar to those that had appeared the first time. Of course, it was not now that Ultimatum was concerned about in regards to the fighter, it was at the same turns in atmosphere that the droid was looking forward to seeing. The metal was holding and Ultimatum noticed that the decline in numbers that had appeared before, with hindsight the numbers had obviously indicated the degradation of the armor plating. This meant that the plating and the frame itself was holding for the time being.

The ship dipped down into atmosphere and began the maneuvers, when it reached the tight turn that had spelled doom for its compatriot the ship simply followed the intended route and continued into the next set of maneuvers. Unlike the previous ship, this one continued until it once more returned to the hangar. This test lasted about ten minutes, it was not intended to check the longevity of the craft but rather the intensities with which it would need to be used.

Ultimatum turned to [member="Matsu Ike"] saying, "I believe that this was a success, the stress damage exhibited by the craft is well within sustainable reaches. What do you think?" The droid brought up visual depictions of the particularly tight turns.

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

Matsu gave a small nod of her head when she was looking at it and with the droids tests a success and her own for the shielding that would be used in the soldiers. It was giving her a nuber of ideas that would go forward to test out all of the new things. She was looking at him and had to agree that it seemed to have been a successful test. "I agree and am glad I was able to help, I cannot wait for see the finished product itself." Matsu was standing there and she was ready for it when she wanted totest out and work on other things. She had some ideas for the different and better designs they could use this information and equipment for.

 

[Ultimatum]

Ultimatum was definitely happy that the endeavor was over for the moment. The other parts of the ship had appeared to be in working order, and had all been previously tested in their own right and together. This test was one of the final ones before the ship would be prepared for mass production. With this the production of a full military was beginning to take shape. This galaxy was controlled from space, however the center of all fleets was still planets, if one could not get access to the raw materials to make ships or power them then a fleet was more useless than a grounded ship. That was where the need to become independent of planets was a certain goal. If one could build a fleet that never had to rely on a planet for materials then there would be nothing stopping it from roaming the galaxy at will.

Such was the wishful thinking of a droid who knew the state of the galaxy. That one day he could build a fleet not bound by the confines of distance but by the limits of imagination. There would be nothing out of reach if one could simply break that which held one back. What was the extant of the galaxy when one could step onto the universal stage? The idea was one that had the droid truly yearning for technological advancements, but he knew that this galaxy was not prepared for the responsibility that such an ability would require. Further, the world was not far enough to be capable of that.

"I shall send a squadron of them once they are produced. A gift for your help in this work. For now that is all that will be done, this was an enlightening venture and I hope that it has aided you as well. Is there anything you would like to have tested while you are here? My facilities are at your disposal." The droid gave a polite bow as he finished.

[member="Matsu Ike"]

 

[Matsu Ike]

[member="Ultimatum"]

"Thank you." She was looking at it all and there was most definitely a number of things she could think of to have around here and work on some parts of it. Wanting to turn over more of it in her mind when they were working on some things. It was a lot easier then Eol Sha for testing even though that planet was closer. Less chance of danger from the fire breathers who could end up posing for them a problem in testing equipment. Other parts that she was looking at and working to develop would be what came next. As Matsu bowed and started to leave the two escorts she had in the ship were massive and built like brick walls that wouldn't let up. The projects small beginnings as it were.