Prowling among the Stars

[Salmakk]

Arendal-class Heavy Cruiser Arendal, edge of the Kashyyyk System

"Gentlebeings, please gather around the holo-projector to the left," announced the mon calamari, waving a webbed hand to the cylindrical object.

About a dozen people in the conference room slowly meandered over to sit around the holo-projector. The mon calamari engineer paused for a brief second as he surveyed his audience. So this is how Gir feels whenever they put him in charge of something. The mon calamari let the thoughts fade as he headed towards the projector. He fiddled with its remote, which clearly had been designed for human hands, before finally hitting the right button. The light above the projector began to waver as blue light coalesced to form a skeletal frame of a cylindrical object. The Caecius Project...it's too bad we had to reinvent the past to make up for this now. The mon calamari cleared his throat.

"As many of you know," started the mon calamari, "Incom's departure from the Republic has left us with a few supply issues that we've been scrambling to take care of. While the X-wings were among the most obvious, some other but vitally need technologies left with them, primarily our modern stealth ships. Rendili used to be able to supply us with a baffled engine, but with the system's capture by the Sith, we lost that source of stealth technology too. Consequently, we, the engineers at Lucerne Labs have hastened to reinvent some old technology for modern usage..."

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir stood at the back of the room, with his arms crossed. This isn't awkward at all...putting one of my company's projects on my own ship. Maybe they thought they'd be doing me a favor, letting me keep a closer eye things since those other projects have kept me away from the company at large. He quietly strolled over to sit behind the bulbous head of an alien species that he had never encountered before. Salmakk continued to talk about the history of stealth technology, including going over the basic principles of stealth design and the tactics of silent running. the general was well-versed in such tactics, as more often than not, he was the one countering those tactics as they were used by pirates, smugglers, slavers, and a host of never-well-doers who plagued the space lanes. Recently he had found himself dealing more with them than the Sith. It was odd to hear talk about using those tactics and technologies for the good of the Republic, though he had no doubt that they could be.

"...and so, the basis of our stealth engine system is not far removed from the ones used by the Ferret and Prowler-class recon vessels. Does anyone have any questions about the basic principles before the demonstration?"

"Is this technology scaleable?" questioned a uniformed man, "and if so, to what extent..."

The mon calamari hesitated to a second, "To a degree...."

"I can be more precise," said the general, drawing dozens of eyes on him, "most baffled drive systems cannot be used on ships larger than a corvette. And even on such craft, they are not very efficient simply because of the size of the vessel needed to be hidden, and the sheer amount of fuel needed to move such craft. In my career, most of the baffled craft that I've encountered have been the size of light freighters or standard shuttles. Only once, and I mean once, I have encountered a ship on a larger spectrum than that."

"What was it, if you don't mind me asking, sir?" said the same man.

"It was a heavy lifter," replied Gir, "a vessel that was being used by space wasp poachers to move the carcasses quietly after they'd killed their prey. Unfortunately for them, they had not been regulating their communications activity, which allowed use to get a good fix on them from a distance. If they hadn't, they may have been far enough away to avoid detection."

"So this drive doesn't make things invinsible?" questioned a bureaucrat.

"Just more difficult to detect," said Quee, "that's all any stealth technology does. It prevents it from being detected up to a certain distance, which could be anywhere from a hundred thousand kilometers, or even a centimeter away."

A brief silence permeated the room.

"Any other questions?" asked Salmakk.

"What is the demonstration?" asked a woman.

"We'll be taking a trip on a vessel equipped with the prototype of the Caecius drive on a test run to see if it can evade the customs patrols of Alaris Prime. Don't worry, we have coordinated it with the customs patrol so that they know we are coming, and when we come, that they shouldn't try and destroy us mistaking us a smuggling vessel. Any other questions?"

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

With Benji sitting by my side I listened closely to the presentation. I didn’t understand how any of this crap worked, but Benji had said he didn’t want to go alone. He didn’t really have any loyalty to the Republic and Lucerne Labs had kind of asked us to come last minute, so I had to drag him out here. And all of his stuff. He had to bring an assistant droid, and what felt like a metric ton of equipment with him to come and assist on its testing and monitoring. Lucerne was working on some kind of stealth tech and Benji had done some personal armor coated with Reflec back in the day so he was at least in the Know.

“I have a question.” The elderly duros said, standing up to be seen and heard properly. “On what basic principles does the engine work. I mean, does it utilize scattering vectrals, Tibanna X, or something different to cool the exhaust. And even with cooling the exhaust, what kind of time frame are we looking at from expulsion of the particles to undetectably cooled?” Well he certainly had a good idea of what was going on. I wonder what they must think of us, an old duros in work clothes and a mudslugger in full armor.

“TibannaX used by the Galactic Alliance centuries ago was able to dissipate after only a millisecond, and anything more than a centisecond will be highly compromised.” He added on the end, I guess just to show how informed he was.

[member="Gir Quee"][member="Salmakk"]

 

[Salmakk]

"The exact principles are dependent on the type of drive being used in the drive, ion or chemical," replied the mon calamari engineer, "but both drives in the Caecius system use vectrals to contain and then spread the exhaust across space. I cannot give you an exact number at the moment for each one at the specifics, as the prototype is still being optimized, but a rough estimate would probably be less than a second for particles to cool to ambient temperature from the ion drive once the particles clear the vectrals. It's worth noting that it will not likely be heat that will make their use detectable, but rather their slight radioactivity found in the exhaust of all ion drives. Because of how the exhaust will be scattered combined with naturally occuring phenomenas such as ion winds, it should be fairly hard to detect except by highly specialized sensors focused on close ranges. For the chemical drive, it will be close to a millisecond to cool off. This cool off will take place within the space enclosed by the tandem sets of vectrals, meaning that once it leaves the engine pod and enter space, it will already have been cooled off. Any other questions?"

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji pondered for a moment, having not yet returned to his seat. He seemed to be thinking about something he felt was important. “Yes, you mention it works on using a dual drive system. What will the tradeoffs be when used in vessels, if any. The size of an additional fuel tank, the baffled drive itself, and any other sensor negating equipment that will be absolutely necessary to be competent, the ship will have to shrink in certain places.” Benji looked rather pleased with himself. Back on Balmorra he had been Project Administrator for Balmorran Arms R&D, so obviously he was used to this kind of meeting, but it all seemed alien to me.

“I would suggest a thirty percent decrease in armament across the board. If it were to be primarily fitted into a special issue Starfighter the remaining weapons would still allow it to be a devastating superiority craft. Also the possibility of stealth capable dropships haven’t escaped me.” He turned to glance up at the general at the back of the room. “Could you imagine the ability to launch troopships right after reversion and have them be able to swing around and enemy fleet to land troops safely?” He obviously had more input, but I felt like tapping his arm and calling him down. He turned back around and sat down, more embarrassed he had begun ranting.

[member="Salmakk"] [member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded in agreement, "There are a fair amount of applications for this technology. Other vessels that could benefit from this technology could include reconnaissance ships, probe droid deployment vehicles, and the like."

Salmakk cut in and eyed the old duros warily, "The specifics of the other craft that could benefit from this technology are still in their conceptual phases. Tradeoffs will likely have to made to include such technology, but I think that any speculation into what those tradeoffs would be speculative at the moment."

"Salmakk is right," replied the general, "but we need to ensure that everyone can understand the benefits of this technology, and see it firsthand so that can take it back to their respective...departments."

He bit his tongue. And I almost said projects. While everyone in the room had been cleared for the project, not everyone in the room had been cleared to know what project personnel were present. He briefly glanced at [member="Draco Vereen"] and the old duros. If they only knew that both of the projects that he mentioned are already underway, and that their presentatives are here...but then again...maybe they do, and that's why they're here. The man from Hast shook the thoughts away before turning his gaze to Salmakk. The mon calamari nodded in understanding.

"I think we are ready for the demonstration phase," said Salmakk, "if everyone will please follow the marine stationed at the door. He will be escorting us to the hangar to board the vessel."

Gir fell alongside [member="Draco Vereen"] and the duros, "Do either of you know how to fly?"

 

[Laira Darkhold]

When the general approached me and Benji, I tensed up. I was pretty sure Benji had over-stepped his bounds with all his questions and suggestions anyway, so this was probably the shut up or leave warning. But then he asked if we knew how to fly. Now I was no ace, but I had a knack for it. “Yeah,” I said, relaxing a bit. I guess he didn’t have a pilot lined up for this demonstration. “I can, I certainly ain’t the best at it though.” I walked alongside the general until we made it to the hangar. “I’ve got to know what I’m doing at what in nine hells I’m flying though. I ain’t familiar with every ship in production you see.” I didn’t mind talking to a general so much. I had been out of the military for long enough that all those procedures and formalities had abandoned me.

“Draco, don’t be modest with the good general. You haven’t crashed a ship since your time enforcing for Gardoza’s crew. And even then you were being shot at.” Benji chimed in. He turned his head to the general, “Benji Idiro, ArmaTech Combat Systems. I made the Arbiter line of armor being marketed to your leadership.” Benji shifted to walk a little behind the General and I. “I’ll need to set up monitoring equipment on the ship in order to get proper readings from the engine outputs if that’s okay?”

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Salmakk"]

 

[Gir Quee]

"There will actually be two ships," replied the general, briefly turning his gaze from [member="Draco Vereen"], "one that has the drive installed, which one of our trained test pilots will fly, and another carrying some observers. Mister Benji, if you wish to set up your equipment on that ship, it would be ideal. If you would like Sergeant Major, I was going to extend the opportunity for either of you to fly it. Otherwise, I will voluntell one of the Arendal's shuttle pilots to fly it."

"You didn't have a volunteer lined up already?" questioned Salmakk.

"Lieutenant Tbiers was going to fly," said the general, "but I approved his emergency pass to Metalorn because of a family member's death. I could even fly it."

"Brother," replied the mon calamari, "I would prefer you stay with the testbed, just in case..."

"I know. Well, what would you say, sergeant major? Would you like to fly today?"

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Flying isn’t so bad. “Sure boss. I’ll fly the shuttle. Don’t expect anything too fancy though.” I said with a smirk. Getting in good with the military command already, I thought. Look at this, trusting me to fly around some important folks already. I looked back to Benji, hoping he didn’t have to make a run to our ship to get equipment. Security here was tough and he would have to be reprocessed if he left the secure area. “You need anything, or just the Sensor Patch?” I asked, expecting a poor response.

“I have the Sensor Patch with me. It’s just to get full records of the sensor data taken by the observation ship, so that I can scour it for the data I am looking for later. I want to know what kind of performance this engine has against military grade sensors looking for it. I assume the Arendell will also be collecting data on its performance.” Benji said, pulling a small data chip from his pocket and holding it to be visible to the General.

“I best get strapped in then General. It’s been a while since I flew a VIP shuttle, so need to familiarize myself with the controls.” I said stepping up the ramp onto the shuttle. Benji stood with the rest of the observers waiting to be told what to do.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

"Yes," replied Gir, "the Arendal will be collecting data from a distance."

"Along with the observation ship and the customs ships," said Salmakk, "we should have several good data sets."

"I'm going onto the testbed," said General Quee, gesturing at a black-painted Concorde-class Shuttle, "I will see you gentlemen later."

The general strode down the ramp and away from the group, letting Salmakk to accompany Benji and [member="Draco Vereen"] on the observation shuttle. Gir strode over several meters towards the shuttle, where a pair of armored Republic marines quickly fell in behind him as he boarded the testbed starship. He neared the cockpit to see a lanky man wearing a gray jumpsuit embroidered with the star logo of Lucerne Labs. the sandy-haired man turned a glance to him.

"Welcome aboard General, or should I say, mister president."

"General would probably be most appropiate," replied Gir, settling into the co-pilot seat, "you feel comfortable with flying this?"

"It's not that unsimiliar to the standard model," said Ponts, "at least in terms of basic controls."

"Why don't guide me through the process then during the flight."

"Yes sir."

Gir grabbed one of the headset comlinks setting on the ship's dashboard and put it on, "Arendal Flight Control, this is Caecius One, requesting permission to launch."

"Caecius One, you are clear to launch. Happy flying out there, General."

The comm channel closed between them with a brief buzz of static and then a metallic-like click. Gir turned his gaze to watch Ponts start up the starship, but was surprised to find out that aside from two steps, it was identical to the process on his own shuttle, the Remember Hast. The sandy-haired man soon had the ship's repulsorlifts running, taking the ship in a gliding motion before it dropped off of the ship's hangar deck and plunged into the black void of space. In the distance, the general could see their destination, the swirling green moon of Alaris Prime. Ponts turned his brown-eyed gaze to face the man.

"So how many ships are out there looking for us," said the test pilot.

Gir turned his head to face the man, "About a dozen, depending on which vectors we take into the world."

"Well, better get started on that now," said Ponts, flipping several switches, "the vectrals should be pretty tight now, holding the ion exhaust for as long as possible before releasing it. Gotta be careful though, this thing moves like a tub with them in that closed position..."

As long as they can't track us easily...I wonder how the observation shuttle is doing...

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Alright boys and girls stay calm and keep to minimal rummaging around back there,” I said over the speakers. My co-pilot was a Galactic Republic flight officer, whose name I haven’t learned yet. “Alright buddy, let’s take her out nice and slow, give these big wigs a smooth ride.” I said to him. He looked a little younger than me.

“We need to wait for clearance, sir.” He responded as I powered up the engines and lifted the shuttle off the deck.

“I’m already in the air, and they knew we were leaving anyway, how could they possibly not know what was going on?” I asked, stang red tape, they will figure out what’s going on in a few seconds.

“Shuttle One you are cleared, after crossing the integrity field pull to a heading of mark three point one.” The comm channel buzzed a little as the channel opened and closed.

“See, they got it.” I responded as I pulled into the flight path I had been assigned. These controls weren’t much different from CEC controls that I was used to, so I didn’t need to worry about that. “Starting Active Sensor scan. Handle that, will ya.” I nodded to my co-pilot. In the back I could hear the VIP’s moving around, keeping an eye out for the prototype shuttle.

“Keep the active sensors on thermal and ion trail scans in order to evaluate the ship properly.” The co-pilot said. He was right, so I flicked that data to be the one appearing before the observers, but I kept the other scans running. Benji wanted a full set of data to use.

 

[Gir Quee]

Concorde-class Shuttle Caecius One, somewhere in the Kashyyyk System

"Moving the vectrals to closed position," reported the test pilot.

Somewhere in the stern of the vessel, the circular series of vectrals which completely enclosed the engine nozzles would move to their most constricted position. Because they were solely being used to scrub the ion trail, and not aid in steering, the shuttle's maneuverability would be somewhat less than normal. Gir turned his gaze out to view one of the conical patrol craft used by the local customs service of Alaris Prime.

"Think they're scanning for us?" asked the sandy-colored man.

"Most definitely," replied Gir, "and they might be able to get a lock on our FST profile if the engines don't work right..."

"Or someone doesn't fly right," added the pilot, "but I'm fairly sure that I've engaged the vectrals at a safe enough distance that they shouldn't be able to pick out an ion trail out here super easily."

The general nodded, "One hopes at least."

"You don't sound too confident. This is proven technology sir, we're only duplicating and synthesizing it work with other technology."

"True," admitted the man from Hast with a brief smile, "but that's life. You're probably right, we should be good at mid-range."

"You want to signal the observation shuttle to make sure we're good."

"Nah," replied Gir, "the customs forces might cheat and use their communication's systems to locate where we are if we were to make a comm transmission. We'll wait to the end."

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I hated trips like this. For me it was about keeping steady and staying in the proper flight path, it’s not like I was fighting anything or planning on fighting anything. The Observers in the rear of the shuttle were standing looking at a view-screen that showed the thermal and ion scans via a live feed. Trails criss-crossed the system, but there was no sign of the prototype ship in the system, at least not where the ship should be. Via the other scans I could see, as well as the co-pilot, that there were faint Electromagnetic signatures crossing through the system. That’s got to be them I thought to myself. Benji would be able to use this to work on his little pet project back at ArmaTech to try and make up for what these drives lack, but as for scrubbing Ion trails and heat dispersal, this little venture seemed to have paid off. From what I could see there were no readings on the ship, so I flicked the thermal scans to detect even minute changes fluctuations in heat for the observers too look at. In the back I could hear Benji and the Mon Calamari going on about compiling the data with the Arendall’s more powerful scanners and how the drives were preforming as was expected, if not better. Good, glad he found a nerd friend to talk shop with.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

"Oh...that one's getting kind of close to us," noted Gir, pointing at a conical patrol craft.

"Time for the chemical drives then," replied Ponts, flipping a few switches, "and just to be on the safe side, I'm going to change our course in a second."

A slight tremor reverberated through the hull as the ship switched over to its limited, chemical thrust drives. They briefly continued forward on a straight line before Ponts gently turned the craft to the left. Yet the patrol craft seemed to edge closer to their proximity, though neither of the shuttle's occupants could tell if that was from luck or they had somehow given off a sensor signature. The pair of men glanced at each other before nodding in agreement. The two began to rapidly hit switches on the craft, powering most of the ship's systems off to lower their sensor signature further, though that in itself was no degree that they wouldn't be detected. I hate silent running...but if it works...

"Think they're cheating?" mused Ponts.

Gir shrugged, "Hard to say. But in the end, does it matter? It's not like our enemies aren't going to be playing by the exact same rules."

"I'd agree if we actually had a real stealth hull, instead of something briefly glossed over in Reflec."

"But that should be enough for this test, assuming silent running," countered Gir, "even if it isn't ideal for combat ops."

"Well, looks we're in luck, the patrol ship is continuing on its course. If they did detect us, they think we're staying in the same spot, or that we're on our original trajectory..."

"Thank the Maker for that. How much fuel do we have left?"

"Enough to make it to the star port on full throttle..."

"Well, saves time rather than by drifting here on inertia."

"As you wish, general."

[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Several starships approached the Caecius, but none ever appeared to notice the ship's presence. Ponts took the craft in gentle rolls and banking maneuvers as he weaved the modified shuttle around the world's orbital traffic. Gir turned his gaze from a nearby bulk freighter to watch the other man evenly increase the ship's acceleration.

"You haven't slammed acceleration once yet," observed Gir.

"Well, that's not really part of the deal," replied the pilot, "doing so might make some of the exhaust escape the baffles without being fully scrubbed...it's not as much an issue with the chemical propulsion as much as it is with the ions...but you know, habits. So where too boss?"

"Back to the Arendal," replied the general, "I'm going to break comm silence. I'd say its to safe to say that we have a successful demonstration of this technology."