[Techno Empire] Project Volkswagen

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"What purpose do you have for stygium?"

"Heavy ground-to-space missiles, outfitted with MIRV technology"

"Would you accept to mount batteries of such missiles on Maramere once completed?"

"Given that heavy ground-to-space missiles are usually used to intercept large landing craft, and light ones to intercept attack craft and other subcapitals, and also considering that large landing craft usually have better point-defense than subcapitals, I accept"

Long range is essential for any ground-to-space application of missiles. Same goes with surface-mounted hypervelocity cannons. Stealth technology is thus important when you want to launch long-range ICBM-sized missiles. Even though the term ICBM usually refers to long-range missiles as applied to ground combat, and definitely ranges long enough to qualify as strategic, strategic missiles had a range requirement. MIRVs make such missiles more survivable since MIRVs can make it more difficult to target all: whereas a single big warhead would be shot down easily by an antimissile octet, said octet could shoot down three or four out of seven warheads, with the remaining warheads impacting. To the blue-haired Jedi, all this talk of ordnance made her wish that she wasn't a Jedi Ace (and even Jessica, who had more of a hand in designing such things than actually using them, was a little dizzy) and thought that Jessica could easily fall to the dark side because she designed so many weapons.

[member="Acaleus Thorn"] [member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Acaleus Thorn]

This was going well. If the mere leader accepted the terms of the agreement, then he could began the mining process. Every delay cost him, as the workers and the time the equipment and vehicles where being rented had a price. And Acaleus didnt like to waste money like that "The problem is that i dont know what kind of technology could you provide us" "Cruiser, weapons and other security tech. That kind of things" "So you sell war" "I sell security. A knife can be used to cut meat or to kill" the last thing he wanted to hear was a talk about morality.

"You are not giving me enough reasons to accept the terms mister Thorn" "Well lets put it this way then. The 'army' you were talking about is a joke and i can take it out on my own" Acaleus thought for his own good, as he wouldnt say that out loud and began another angry argument "Then we will leave your planet without any resentment" that would mean he would be broke, but he didnt had any pacific solution.

[member="Lily Kilia"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily stepped in again, "Sir, by adding our security forces and technology to your military, you'll have greater power over who gets to mine here. While today we may have been able to sail our equipment, in the future you have the ability to blockade incoming companies seeking to mine your resources."

[member="Acaleus Thorn"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

With the heavy 533mm proton torpedoes, which are, to be fair, rather compact for a torpedo capable of delivering the firepower of heavy proton torpedoes, already worth 10 turbolasers' worth of firepower due to their ability to penetrate ray shields, Ringovinda Systems already got one component down: the MIRVs. Seven Morcuses to be embedded inside the primary vector, already taking up seven meters out of 20. Now they needed batteries of at least six Volkswagens if they wanted to actually mount batteries of those. With appropriate anti-missile octets and other point-defense around the batteries. Jessica called upon the first administrator once for the purposes of Project Volkswagen, but she never wanted anything to do with the design of assault concussion missiles. And she would never trust the first two admins. The main drawback of these things is not so much the Morcus but that firing a Volkswagen at point-blank range would be overkill on some targets - a certain distance is necessary to ensure that the Morcuses will be able to detach from the primary vector.

"That would require deploying about 120 missiles in 20 batteries to appropriately cover all the strategic areas of the planet"

"Do you have any idea as to how much stygium is required to build one such missile?"

"Cloaking missiles will only require a small amount of stygium apiece, probably about 10-12 kg each, maybe 15 kg"

"You are entitled to 500 tons of stygium"

[member="Lily Kilia"] [member="Acaleus Thorn"]

 

[Acaleus Thorn]

The leader looked up meditating for a while. This wouldnt be creating a relationship with the Techno Empire, but an upgrade to the comercial network of Enryu Corp. The leader looked at both of them "Alright, we have a deal. Tomorrow i will send to your camp some soldiers and someone in charge of counting the pounds of crystal you extract" "You dont trust us?" "No. And you better accept my terms too" now that Acaleus think about it, he brought by a fleet to a planet without any permission

"Alright. You can bring those to our camp" he would keep them in watch. Acaleus wasnt the type of guy that let someone poke around his property. Acaleus went back to his ship saying one last thing to the leader of the mere "Well keep on touch" he walked into the ship and waited for Lily.

[member="Lily Kilia"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Lily followed the older man, generally pleased with the peaceful agreement. Blood shed was blood wasted. Now they could mine the Stygium wihtout worrying about interference from the Maramere.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"] [member="Acaleus Thorn"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Be warned: extra stygium beyond the 500 tons you're allotted will require you to supply additional defense equipment; we'll post our own troops here to count the amount of crystals you'll actually mine"

"I know stygium is tightly controlled and costs quite a bit to off-worlders, so I'll trust that the audits will actually be accurate"

"I know that we have had some differences in the past, Jessica, but at least you can show gratitude and at least leave a chance to other interested parties"

"Very well, now mining can begin for real"

That was a rather hefty cost all right, and I can understand the mistrust of the locals. Nevertheless this Imperial project is going to be something big, she thought. But never, ever, would most Jedi understand what is required to build MIRVs. Plus now that the actual mining work could begin, Jessica made an offer that made use of her rather limited ability to use the Force: Electric Judgment, pyrokinesis, cryokinesis. All that she could use pyrokinesis/cryokinesis for in battle is to render an opponent uncomfortable wielding a weapon; other than that she can use these Force-powers for rather mundane, utilitarian purposes. If only my Force-power matched my knowledge of the Force, she thought. I know for sure that I know more about the Force than some Jedi Knights, and even some Guardian-type Jedi Masters, and not just because my wife once suspected me of simply knowing too much about the Force to use it back then, but then again, my wife tends to hold me in too high a regard sometimes.

"If you need any small electronics recharged, bonfires lighted/extinguished or icy drinks made, I'm here for that"

[member="Lily Kilia"] [member="Acaleus Thorn"]

 

[Acaleus Thorn]

Venus closed the hangar door and take off towards the mining camp. Acaleus stopped on the short hallway that connect the rest of the ship with the pilot room and turned, looking at Lily "I dont know you that well so i will assume that your conception of this universe is pacific and you live an easy comfortable side of it" he was mad about how things could have turn or could turn if the mere leader decide to attack the mining station. It wouldnt be the first time someone stab him in the back like that, but he would make sure it would be the last. He looked to the ground and gain composture

"The Techno Empire cant use their resources on a scale invasion on a planet for now. We may have to deal with this alone and prepare for the worst if the mere plan to engage on us. This isnt the kind of battle we are prepared for winning" or maybe the mere would stick to their word and nothing wrong would happen. But Acaleus woul never trust them totally.

[member="Lily Kilia"] [member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Poor Jessica. She would never, ever suspect that the Mere would just audit their resources for some heavy missile batteries! Over the bonfire she would simply use pyrokinesis to light the bonfire and then cook for the organics in the mining crew, which was almost entirely droid-based, so she had to cook for only a few organics, five or six depending on whether the Jedi being rescued is counted. Once the 500 tons of have been properly vetted, her plan is to simply return back to Geonosis, design and then build those small cloaking devices (maybe not miniature though) while the droid equipment was a little, well, low on power. There Jessica just made the calculations in her head pertaining to how much of an electric field she would need (or muster if the requirement was higher than her ability to provide for the power) in order to recharge the mining droid's power pack. That was going to be a good start, as she grows in power, so will her ability to use Electric Judgment.

"Wow! You should teach me to use these powers sometime"

"Me too! When you started out as a Jedi, the staffers told us how much better I was compared to you, now the tide has turned!" Julie told Jessica.

"Julie, the key words here are when I started out as a Jedi"

[member="Acaleus Thorn"] [member="Lily Kilia"]

 

[Lily Kilia]

Sbe listened carefully to man's words. Her response came slow and clearly, every syllable perfectly enunciated, "I've never known comfort. Far from it. I was an orphan on the streets. And there it was every man for himself. Believe, my I know what betrayal is. But all it takes is one person to change all that. I guess that's why I place faith in people." the details of her life weren't important. He'd said he didn't know her and that he didn't trust the Mere. Well now he knew her. And even if he didn't trust them, she would until they gave her reason not too. "If the Mere turn around and recant their agreement I'll be the first one to bring reenforcements. I'm not Techno Empire. The New Republic may be small, but we have a fleet. The Mere can't take us both."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"] [member="Acaleus Thorn"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"By now I'm a rather advanced Padawan, but at my level of power you'd be better off using Electric Judgment for utilitarian purposes. For that matter, beginners in Electric Judgment should also use it to that end"

But, if Julie struggled with thermodynamics or statistical mechanics, E&M was not going to be much better, and, in fact, could be worse. These two things were beasts that stomped even Jedi with some computational power. Pyrokinesis or cryokinesis was simply playing around with the idea of playing with molecular speed, one way or another (vibrational if solid, rotational if liquid, translational in gases, plasmas or supercritical fluids, although people rarely used pyrokinesis to create plasmas or supercritical fluids) and, as such, it required an amount of computational power that made it more accessible compared to Electric Judgment. Meanwhile, an exhausted Jessica watched over the mining crews as they mined for the stygium crystals. Once the quota of mining as agreed with the Mere has been met, a few hours later, the Mere guards watching over Jessica's location after rigorous weighting of the crystals being mined in the Haunted Straits.

"Cease mining operations immediately!" the Mere guards told Jessica.

"That was a little fast to reach the agreed-upon 500 tons..."

[member="Lily Kilia"] [member="Acaleus Thorn"]