Stealthing up a Starfighter (Republic)

[Kian Karr]

Kian Karr sat quietly in the waiting room of the Supreme Commanders office. Recently there had been talk of resurrecting the Jedi Starfighter Corps, and while Kian wasn't a Jedi Ace, he was aiding in the process of building the force back up to its former glory. Already the Galactic Republic military had provided two excellent fighter designs for the Jedi to use exclusively, the J-1 Interceptor and the Jedi-Class Heavy Starfighter. But Kian couldn't help but feel there was still something missing....something Kian himself was often very fond of.

Stealth.

That was why Kian had set the appointment with [member="Gir Quee"] to discuss the development of a stealth-variant of the Jedi-Class Heavy Starfighter. Kian hoped that the Supreme Commander would be interested in seeing the Jedi Starfighter Corps resurrected and if so, he would likely be able to convince the Commander to help him.

"He'll be right with you." The receptionist said glancing up at Kian.

"Thank you." Kian said, crossing his hands over his lap and closing his eyes. Kian searched back through his memory, trying to recall if he had interacted with the Supreme Commander in any official capacity. Searching through his memory, Kian seemed to recall an evac on the planet Zeltros during the One Sith assault several years before....and while he couldn't be sure, he believed it had been the Supreme Commander who had pulled him and the royal family out of the hot zone.

 

[Gir Quee]

"Sir, Master Jedi [member="Kian Karr"] is here to see you."

Gir glanced up from his desk and briefly made eye contact with her, "Thank you Atril, please send him in."

Kian Karr. I feel as if I should know that name...He briefly pondered it, but he could only draw a blank. But when the jedi walked in, he seemed instantly recognizable. It suddenly clicked into place in his memory. He had been sitting on that cramped Rendili-built shuttle on what normally was a pleasure world. Zeltros, I met him on Zeltros when we evacuated the royal family. That had been nightmare, and one warped by the phermones of the native Zeltrons. The whole experience seemed like a distant dream from another life, though he realized that it had not occurred too long ago. The man rose from his desk to walk up and shake the Kel Dor's hand.

"Master Jedi, it is an honor to see you again," said the blonde man, "and pleasure to meet you again under better circumstances. What can I do for you today?"

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian met the Supreme Commander's handshake, with his outstretched, talon covered hand, shaking it firmly. Looking at him then, Kian was certain that he was the man who had pulled him out of fire and his smile broadened under the mask.

"It certainly is." Kian said bowing his head. "Things were so chaotic after that battle, I never had the opportunity to thank you for pulling me out of that hell." Kian said chuckling, his voice deep and amplified by the mask. "Thank you, Supreme Commander." Kian added and settled into the chair opposite the head of the Galactic Republic military. Commander Quee seemed a man right to the point and that was certainly Kian's preferred style as well.

"Well, Supreme Commander, it would seem that the Jedi suddenly find themselves with a number of promising Jedi who are interested in establishing the Jedi Starfighter Corps once more." Kian said sitting back in the chair. "While the J-1 Interceptor and the Jedi-Class Heavy Starfighter are good ships.....they lack the stealth capabilities of the former Stealth-X's." Kian said, bringing up the fact that Incom had left the Republic and taken their tech with them.

"I was hoping you'd be willing to discuss modifying a few of the Jedi-Class Heavy Starfighters into a stealth fighter to help fill the gap." Kian said. "The Jedi-Class is heavier than the Stealth X and slower, but it packs a punch and the added stealth capabilities could be very beneficial."

[member="Gir Quee"]​

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded as he took in and processed [member="Kian Karr"]'s thoughts. The formation of a Jedi Starfighter Corps piqued his interest. Some of the greatest pilots in history had been jedi, and who had not heard the tales of the Skywalker family's piloting exploits or of the countless other jedi of old. Some of the holos he had reviewed in the archives of ancient battles during his academy studies had shown that jedi could be phenomenal pilots. It would be good to have them flying among the soldiers, pilots, and sailors of the Republic Defense Forces. He could not easily pass up an offer to make that a reality once more for the Republic.

He plastered a fleeting, tight-lipped smile at the mention of the StealthX. He doubted that even that action would conceal his feelings about Incom's departure, but such was his habit. The sudden turn of that company had made his job a bit more difficult, though thankfully he had the efforts of Lucerne Labs to partially offset its defections.

"You are more than welcome, Master Jedi. We all play our part for the good of the Republic, but please, just call me admiral," said Gir, turning his eyes briefly to gaze at the setting sun of Onderon before turning his attention back to the jedi in front of him, "it is unfortunate that Incom turned on us. Fortunately, we do have projects that aim to restore the capabilities that we have lost. A company that I am affiliated with, Lucerne Labs, has actually started to build products that can potentially help with your project."

Gir pulled out a standard-issue datapad and inserted a datachip from his pocket into it before handing it off to the jedi.

"The chip I put into the datapad has the basic information of all of Lucerne Labs products, but I think there are two items in there that I think you may find especially interesting. One of which is a stealth drive, and the other of which is a sensor countermeasure system based on the use of a multi-layered reflec impregnated Fiberplast hull, complemented by various sensor negators. Both of these were inspired by the systems on the old StealthX, though they can be applied to other craft..."

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian bowed his head respectfully and smiled. He was hoping that the Admiral would have a solution and the technology to put it into practice. Kian rose from his chair and extended his hand to shake the admirals.

"Sound perfect." Kian said, his mind beginning to run through the potential uses this technology and a few add-ons would have. "Why don't we see if your boys can throw together a prototype and we can give it a whirl?" Kian suggested and turned to leave. He was glad that the Admiral had been on board and was eager to let the man get back to his busy schedule.

"I'll be in touch in a few months." Kian said bowing and leaving. If they could pull off getting this stealth vessel built and ready, than the Jedi Starfighter Corps would have several solid vessel from which to base their operations out of. Kian just hoped they were able to pull it off.

​

[member="Gir Quee"]​

 

[Kian Karr]

Several Months Later

Kian had practically forgotten the work that the Galactic Republic Military was putting to work for the Jedi Starfighter Corps. The One Sith had invaded Telti and Kian had been forced to drop many of his side projects and aid the forces there in the defense of the planet. They had failed, but they had fought hard and fought well.

Then the call had come in from Military Headquarters indicating that the Supreme Commander had requested his presence aboard one of his capital ships. Kian could only imagine it was the test out the new stealth vessel. Landing the Blade of Dorin II in the hangar of the vessel, Kian quickly exited and made his way toward the gathered officers, where he was sure the Admiral was.

[member="Gir Quee"]​

 

[Gir Quee]

Champion-class Star Destroyer Obi-Wan Kenobi, somewhere in space

He wasn't sure who led who. If he went where the ship traveled, or the ship followed him. But the Obi-Wan Kenobi and him were quickly becoming inseparable, with the admiral only occasionally straying from its presence. That led to all manner of projects being tracked back to the vessel on the Admiral's heels. The very first Eidolon-class Stealth Transport had made its home in the officer's hangar, with it came several Lucerne Labs employees, officially off the book. Not only did they take care of the Eidolon's systems, but they took care in integrating and practically testing the systems found on the stealth transport and adapting them to the new jedi starfighter that Master Jedi [member="Kian Karr"] had discussed those months ago.

As he entered that specific subsection of the ship's hangar bay, his blue eyes darted towards the starfighter. He had never seen the craft, aside from in passing, but as a work in progress, he had never paid close attention to its details. Such things seemed to always be ephemeral, always changing as the technicians and engineers modified it to truly become stealthy. A sandy-haired man named Ponts, Lucerne Lab's primary test pilot, met him at the entrance to the room. Gir eyed him intently.

"How is it?"

"Fit to fly."

The admiral nodded, "One of the jedi is coming today to test it. You might be able to trick me, but I doubt that you will be able to hide any of its faults from him."

"Oh, I don't doubt that," admitted the other man, "but really, the ship is good."

No sooner had the man spoken than when the kel dor jedi entered the hangar's subsection. Gir once more extended a hand towards the jedi.

"Welcome aboard the Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Jedi," said Gir, sweeping his hand to point at the new starfighter, "your ship is ready for testing, or so they tell me..."

 

[Kian Karr]

Kian strode through the hangar and stopped short of the group when his eye's fell upon the ship that was isolated from the others.

The ship was darker than the original designed Jedi-Class Heavy Starfighter, clearly a result of the fiberplast and reflec addition as well as the paint scheme meant to keep it visibly hard to detect against dark backdrops. Kian nodded approvingly as he looked a the vessel and turned to see the Admiral coming forward. Kian accepted the outstretched hand and shook it firmly.

"Thank you Admiral." Kian said glancing around the hangar, "This is a nice ship you've got there....and that is one beautiful looking ship." Kian said smiling. He had wished he'd brought a more skilled pilot to fully take the starfighter through the works, but Kian was no novice either.

"Excellent." Kian said, bowing respectfully to the Admiral and then turning back toward the ship. "Here goes nothing!" He said and ascended the boarding ladder.

​

[member="Gir Quee"]​

 

[Kian Karr]

The moment Kian hit open space, he began to take the vessel through the rounds. He performed a series of typical maneuvers, some rolls, dives, and scissor maneuvers as he got a feel for the controls. The vessel had greater maneuverability than the basic model Jedi-Class Heavy Starfighter, at least while the stealth systems were disengaged. Once engaged, however, the vessels maneuverability dropped to within the normal range for the starfighter that it was based off of. Kian didn't mind it. He had gotten used to the lower maneuverability of the Jedi-Class compared to his former J-1 Interceptor. The benefits of the vessel were its harder hitting weaponry and its more advanced shielding.

Without room for an astromech droid to run the diagnostics, Kian began to shuffle through what information he could gather. He quickly discovered that in order to accommodate the added tech, the size of the torpedo tubes were reduced, lowering the number from twelve to eight torpedos as well as the removal of the Ion Cannons. However, the ship still had a decent number of torpedos and the four laser cannons, as well as an additional Shadow Bomb. Kian hadn't used Shadow Bombs much in his time aboard his Jedi-Class, but knew that they were beneficial to have.

"Feeling pretty good so far, Admiral." Kian said pulling back and forth on the stick, maneuvering the ship side to side and then performing a barrel roll to place him on a trajectory back toward the command ship. "How effective are the new stealth systems?" Kian asked as he brought the vessel in for a landing. "Any flaws we should know about?"

[member="Gir Quee"]​

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir watched, or rather, tried to watch the jedi test out his craft, but it quickly disappeared from his view when it jumped out of the Obi-Wan Kenobi's hangar bay. He rapidly punched in commands into a large datapad that he held, pulling up the powerful sensors of the massive star destroyer. But try as he might, he could detect where the starfighter was. He typed in some more commons, directing the sensor crews to scan for specific patterns of the engine wash or to find the FST cross-section, but they could find nothing unusual. For all intents and purposes, [member="Kian Karr"]'s ship seemed to have vanished into the abyss of space.

He felt a little wash of pride in his heart, but a little apprehension seeped in as well. It was good that the ship was difficult to detect. But at the same time, he was worried that if something happened to the prototype craft or the jedi master, they would not be able to find him. Well, all I can do is wait. the ship has been tested before, so it shouldn't have any lemon systems on it that might explode him or anything like that...Minutes passed before the dark hull of the starfighter rose up into the hangar bay and drifted forward to land. He felt a wave of relief wash over him. As the jedi master strode over towards him with his inquiry, Gir shook his head.

"I would say fairly effective. We weren't able to detect it," said Gir, "at least not with any sensors that we possess in this fleet. We'll have to keep an eye out though, as technology is always evolving. There may well be a sensor out there that can detect it, but it's certainly not common, nor in our possession. But we can always innovate to rise and meet that challenge when it comes to us. This isn't to say that the stealth systems are perfect, but we know their flaws and how to minimize them on the battlefield. I'd be careful of atmospheric flight if I were you because while all of that will hide you from sensors, they'll still be able to spot you visually if they have a really light-colored backdrop behind your ship. But still, it's nothing that can't be solved with a little planning, or your skills as a pilot."