Providence in Flight

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Hypori. Knowing that the pet project of one [member="Count Morcus"] which is closest to completion was to rebuild Providence-class ships for future Confederate usage, and that the closest equivalent on the market, the Tambor-class, was considered heretical, Jessica was tasked to design a ship that was more faithful to the original version than the Tambor was. Just updated to the current technological standards. The nearly-completed Providence-X prototype was ready for flight. Here was 1,088 meters of destroyer-carrier, capable of carrying six squadrons, here chosen to be 60 vulture droids, 40 tri-droids, and 20 Hyena-class droid bombers, all of which come in squadrons of 20, unlike fighters in factions that make use of organic-piloted fighters, which are larger but, as a result of their increased size, come in squadrons of 12. And four Sheathipede shuttles used as lifeboats for the officers. Jessica meets with the rest of the Design Triumvirate in the hangar, accompanied with the test crew for the maiden flight of the Providence-X prototype, whom they feel is spaceworthy.

"[member="Maxerian Gron"], since you're one of the few organic fighter pilots we have, you are the flight leader for the vulture droids and tri-droids we have stored in here. But before we can test the command-and-control systems, you are welcome to help out if we find any issues. Oh, my name is Jessica, and the one on my left is Marcia, while the one on my right is Julie" Jessica told the Mustafarian.

"I might not have the technical expertise of Marcia or Jessica, but there's a reason why I train all the organic cruiser pilots of the Confederacy" Julie commented.

"I'm more familiar with the computer systems: targeting computers, entertainment, command-and-control as well as the diagnosis systems. But yes, I am the one in charge of the development when Jessica is absent, and that is often" Marcia told the rest of the group.

 

[Maxerian Gron]

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

The Intrigue flew softly inside the now restored Providence-Class ship, truly a marvel. The bounty hunter was a fan of history so reading up on the CIS and the technology they had, and to now see it in person was actually something that was quite nice. Of course this was something he predicted based upon the fact that this was the CIS reborn. He only wondered where they scavenged up all the parts for such a beauty. If the Mustafarian had to guess, he would presume from old war sites or old production facilities. Either way if he could grin, one would of formed beneath his breathing mask. Hey a bounty hunter could have some joys in life.

Maxerian left his hip within the docking bay as he made his way to the command deck. He was called up after the events of Hypori. He figured it was because of his timely arrival, but he didn't think too much on it. In truth he let a few B-1 Marine droids escort him to his end location where he was met by a female and her two companions. He crossed his arms as the main one began to speak followed by her two compatriots. Well that was sudden. They just met and already he was getting promoted to flight leader. Not the typical thing he expected being a bounty hunter and all. Not that he opposed working as a team. He wasn't one of those broody bounty hunters who kept the whole lone wolf for life mentality, but still leading an entire group of droid starfighters.

"Well Jessica that was unexpected," Maxerian's common was very harsh. It had a growl to it as well as strain. This was also combined with a little bit of a muffled sound because of his mask. It was only natural considering his species. Most bug-like races had a hard time speaking common for good reason as their bodies weren't made with that in mind but with some practice it was possible it just generally did not sound nice. "We only just met but I do like it when one can see talent when it stands in front of them."

"Also Julie was it Maxerian requires no training. My skills are great." Maxerian also had an ego problem.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Although I'm sure you can pilot a Providence-X just fine, piloting a Star Destroyer-sized ship makes use of different skills vs. piloting attack craft" Julie told [member="Maxerian Gron"].

"By now you have realized that the Confederate military uses loads of droids for rank-and-file tasks: Confederate doctrine dictates that organics are precious assets, and should not be needlessly expended: they should be treated with respect as warranted from their skill. The Confederacy never believes in conscription of organics, nor does it believe in militaristic patriotism or military recruitment drives and, for this reason organics fill the topmost ranks on down"

While droids could feel emotion, emotional droids in the Confederate military were mostly the domain of B1s and Super Tactical Droids. Sometimes they could be crying over casualties but that's often when operations backfire, at other times, said operations could backfire because of droidic malfunctions. But it would generally take an enemy capable of reprogramming droids to be betrayed. As for how piloting capital ships vs. attack craft is concerned, yes, you need to know about things like current vector, available thrust (and hence acceleration) in all directions, stress of a given turn in both cases but it's just too different: while Julie could herself have been an attack craft pilot, she knew at the onset that piloting Star Destroyers was something the then-Silver Sanctum Navy neglected.

"[member="Aut-X"] will come along any second"

"Commence testing of the ship-wide neural net!"

[member="Summer Sovereign"]

 

[Maxerian Gron]

"Bah it's all the same to me, just a bunch of buttons and switches, but with these large crafts case I get to order someone else to do all the button pushing for me," Maxerian scoffed. Okay he was understating what it took to pilot a cruiser a tiny bit, but what was one going to do. Again the Mustafarian did take pride in boosting his own ego. It also didn't help that his profession was bounty hunting so that even doubled the ego. Yeah it was a pretty good combo honestly at least to Maxerian others probably didn't think the same. "Yes I realized," He spoke at first to Jessica's statement looking around for a moment.

Even if it wasn't plainly obvious by the ship itself and its staff, Maxerian did enjoy history. Considering his world used to be a part of the original CIS there was still a lot of history recordings, and such. This helped him learn much about the past, and was what originally intrigued him by the original CIS. Heck it was the reason he worked so hard to restore his own personal ship. He saw that it used to be used by old CIS officers so finding the wreckage of it well he just had to repair it.

"I figured the second part as well," There really weren't too many organics around as he expected. He also had a feeling her wording was there mostly to flatter himself as he was an organic himself. That of course he didn't mind it made him feel even more important boosting his already over-sized ego. Yes that was very good indeed. "So what you want me as a personally assault pilot or are you asking me to try and control something a bit larger?" He heard the other lady mention an Aut-X that must of been another droid.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"OK, it's a trick of button/switch-pushing, I'll let you pilot this ship. You will realize that it is going to be a lot slower than attack craft"

"Ship-wide neural net operational, no major issues to report"

"Everyone, to the bridge. From there we can start the engines"

The three ladies, alongside [member="Maxerian Gron"], were headed towards the bow of the ship, where the main controls for piloting, the engines, the shields and the reactor are. As with all ships capable of carrying attack craft, the bridge also contains a tactical display capable of coordinating attack craft all the same as the mothership itself. Jessica has more than happy to go through all the motions for the ship to be ready in time for the main happening. It was tense, it was the first time the Vanderhing engines would be used in an operational capacity on an actual ship. To provide 25 giganewtons of thrust each at normal power, 50 when emergency thrust is activated for 30 seconds. Very useful on the Providence-X when fighting other destroyers, or even heavy cruisers. The main hallways were designed to allow tanks, or even vulture droids in walker mode, to pass through it, so there was enough space for everyone when they make their way to the bridge.

 

[Maxerian Gron]

"Don't tempt me human," Maxerian snarled in his typical harsh bug voice. He would do it and he would probably only have moderate success in the process, but hey that's what happens when one tests a Mustafarian, Bounty Hunter's abilities. Still he followed Jessica as she led them all to the bridge. As they walked through the halls of the ship he couldn't help but look around around at the fine craftsmanship that went into it's creation. Maxerian was a tinker and mechanic himself, having rebuilt his old CIS fighter on his own from ancient Clone War debris. It was like walking through a piece of history on-board this Providence Craft.

It was a funny thing though, despite this craft being thousands of years old, in Maxerian's mind it still held up to many of the most modern crafts. To be honest he thought most CIS built ships were more advanced than those that came afterwards with the Galactic Empire. Of course that was all just his opinion on the matters. Finally when the four of them reached the bridge the bounty hunter continued to look around.

Maxerian looked towards the varies droids on board. It was a mix of Yellow and blue. Command and pilot B-1s. Of course he could only assume they were there for the more menial work, and it was the organic commanders or perhaps even an even more sophisticated droid his did most of the planning and flying of this craft. "So we are here, now what?" Maxerian asked trying to probe at all of this.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Just a few tests in flight. This is a test of the hyperdrive. That one is pretty much the same as on an attack craft with hyperdrive"

"Destination?"

"Lok" Jessica told the bridge crew, while Marcia is at the engineering station. "Oh and [member="Maxerian Gron"], please, take the pilot's seat; Julie will be in the copilot seat on your right"

With Jessica seated on the captain's throne, she watched as the B1s were taking up other stations: security, sensory, to name a few. This ship was almost ready to be brought to operational status. Oh, of course, the few organics among the crew onboard the Providence-X were going to be a little uneasy because Maxerian was at the helm rather than Julie, whom everyone in the flight department trusted inside Ringovinda StarYards' structure when it came to cruiser-sized ships and larger, but B1s, for all their emotions, would simply trust virtually anybody that isn't a complete fool, and B1s far outnumbered organics here. As the preparations were made for the ship to jump to lightspeed to Lok... for its very first hyperspace jump, knowing that the tensor field generator and the inertial compensator would work if it successfully made the jump from Geonosis to Lok. Usually those things are necessary on ships to successfully make hyperspace jumps. That much she knew.

 

[Maxerian Gron]

They were going to Lok? Whatever for Maxerian wondered. The whole planet was a ball of sulfur, something he was actually quite used to coming from a planet such as Mustafar, where the sulfur fumes coming from the lava flows were quite powerful. Well whatever the reason was for needing to go to this planet, the bounty hunter wasn't going to question it. "Very well Jessica," he said as he walked over to the pilot's station. He grunted looking back at Jessica's own station before turning back looking down at the control console before him.

Much was similar to that of a normal fighter craft though some stuff was completely unique. A lot of power routing controls, engine, and much more. It was quite nice actually. Maxerian plopped back into his own chair, waiting for whatever command was going to be given. He put on the com-headset at the pilot station. "I am in position." It seemed as though they were going to make him pilot the hunk of metal after all.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Course laid in to Lok, boss" Julie told the rest of the bridge crew.

"Tensor field generator, inertial compensator activated"

"Lightspeed to Lok!"

After the failures on Ryloth and Stalgasin, the Confederacy Executive Council turned to Lok as a morale-booster among the Confederate population. Their morale severely affected by these disasters, the population desperately needed to see some successes in even if it meant capturing a... ball of sulfur for hypermatter production, much like Sarapin has been during the Clone Wars. Probably Tythe/Nelvaan or Christophsis would be next if Lok is successful - a failure may very well mean the end of the [Third] CIS as they all knew it. [member="Maxerian Gron"] was used to such balls of sulfur, or volcanic planets in general, she could tell that in the Force. The Confederacy usually imported its hypermatter, from the aforementionned Sarapin (in the case of their Core possessions called Vulpter and Cato Neimoidia) or Bothawui in the context of Geonosis. That ought to help out with the hypermatter supply.

"Lok, like most volcanic planets, is suitable for planetside hypermatter refining: solar radiation passes through magma and then into the core; when the resulting hypermatter comes out, along with the volcanic gases, it can then be refined and sorted out from the gases"

 

[Maxerian Gron]

At the call Maxerian began messing around with his own station and command board. Setting the coordinates to Lok, and watching as his Navigational Computer went about doing as it was designed to. This was more so for his own benefit of getting a lay of the location they were going to before even arriving there. With a few more keystrokes and the flip of a few switches, he prepped his own station for hyperspace. "Bah Lok is also home to pirate and raiders let us not forget," Maxerian said calling back. With one more button press the Providence whipped through space at the speed of light.

From their current location the trip would be exceedingly short, and just like that as the ship left one side of space it reappeared near the sulfur planet. From the deck of the providence the planet looked so desolate. The population on it must have been quite small, much like Mustafar. Those type of extreme planets tended to not be the most hospitable for visitors, and as such the natives had to adapt. From Gron's knowledge he knew the planet used to be the home of some old raider clan or something. But still that also meant it would be easy to stake the Confederacy claim to. "Location reached."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]