The Founder: Part 1

[J3C0]

Mierin stood within the center of a small room, before her sat a Chiss on his knee's. His hands were bound behind his back, and flanking behind him were two Imperial Royal Guards, each one holding a long Force pike, each adorned in bright crisp red robes. They stared ahead, not looking at Mierin or the prisoner, almost...inhuman. Beneath the masks of course there were people, but the armor seemingly took a bit of that way.

The Sith Purebloo paid them no mind, instead focusing on the Chiss that sat before her.

His red glowing eyes never wavered away from her Pure yellow orbs, both of them trying to stare each other down. Mierin however had one thing the man didn't have, a smile. The Chiss's face was all serious, all stoic and in control. Yet she wore a smile, an unusual thing for her.

There was a tactic behind it though, a thought behind her expression.

 

[J3C0]

This man had been one of the few to survive the assault on the asteroid, he had been one of the leaders of the Chiss rebellion. He was also one of the few that had yet to be broken beneath Mierins thumb, his resolved remained stoic and strong despite enduring hours upon hours of torture by her Royal Guard. It had taken time to break the others, yet they had all eventually broken.

As it turned out however, all of their information had been useless. Supposedly it was all kept compartmentalized, none of the information was to be spread out among each of the cells, instead it was kept in compartments to prevent interrogation from working. Yet this man, this one man, knew it all. He was the leader of this cell, and thus only he could truly know what the plan was.

Amusingly he had attempted suicide when Mierin had come calling, though that had quickly been stopped.

She had constricted his throat with the force, and had made him throw up the pill he had taken in order to end himself. An amusing thing really, one born of desperation. Now his look told of an anger that would not subside.

 

[J3C0]

She squatted down in front of him, slowly lowering herself to meet his eyes.

“Lian.” She paused for a moment. “May I call you Lian?”

The Chiss' lips turned down into a scowl. They were very particular about what they called their core names here. The custom was an interesting one, Chiss had two names, one for the outside, a makeup of their family name, personal name, and station, and then what they considered their core name. Chiss were incredibly antsy about their core names, only close family and friends were allowed to use that particular name,

Unfortunately for Lian, Mierin didn't quite care for that custom, and thus it didnt apply to her.

 

[J3C0]

“Why do you resist us?” She asked calmly. “So many of you have already fallen. So many of your Kin have seen the light. Why bother resisting? Why seed more war, more chaos?”

The Chiss remained absolutely silent. His lips thinned however as he listened to her words. There was doubt within him, she could sense that much. It was not enough however, he would need to be broken completely and utterly to make this worthwhile for her. Lian here needed to repent, he needed to utterly denounce the Rebellion and call the One Sith his one true gods. It was the only way that this little trip would prove worthwhile, the only way that this little journey would actually be a boon to her.

“The Ascendancy wants us here, the Ascendancy needs us here.” Her words were interwoven with the force, small tiny weavings of invisible strands. They slipped into the Chiss' mind and began to work their way into his thoughts.

Mierin was an expert in this, using the force to bend and break people to her will. It was called Dominate Mind, and for Mierin it came as easily as speaking.

 

[J3C0]

The will of the Chiss was strong and though his mind began to twist and bend, his head shook. He realized that something was wrong, he realized that his thoughts were being manipulated and changed. His red eyes blinked again and again, he tried to think, tried to dispel the thoughts that Mierin was placing within his mind. His red eyes surged open all of a sudden, and his both spewed with spittle.

“STOP!”

The man screeched at the top of his lungs, but Mierin only answered with a laugh.

She touched his cheek a warm almost loving gesture of running her nails down the side of his face. The Chiss shook, clearly uncomfortable on a whole new level, his lips turned down into a snarl, showing teeth like a dog. Clearly he knew what she was doing, and he knew that he was helpless.

“Really? Thats all you have to say?” Her voice was steady as a rock.

 

[J3C0]

“I...I know you're in my mind. You-you-you”

He began to stutter and stammer as his mind broke under the pressure the force applied. Mierin didn't let up even as he lost his speech. She simply kept on pushing and prodding, pressing the force into his mind and ravaging his his thoughts to suit her own means. To her it was a game, this man had almost no resistance to the force, no training against her touch. It was almost too easy, too simply to bend his mind to her own will.

“No...No the Empire is Evil...the Sith are evil.”

Lian muttered to himself, stammering slightly.

“These...these aren't my thoughts. I don't want the Sith to control the Ascendancy. It will mean death, war.”

He began to trail off, his mind deceiving him further and further. The force flowed through his brain readily now, pushing and pulling thoughts, implanting memories and pushing out old ones. It was a beautiful art, an intricate weaving of compulsion the likes of which only a master could create.

 

[J3C0]

“Lian.” Mierin said catching the mans attention. His eyes snapped up, looking at her own and staring into her soul. She could see confusion on his face, she could see his trying to work out what was going on, she could see that he didn't know what was happening, and it made her smile. The Sith Pureblood controlled him now, she could twist him and change him in whatever way she truly desired. It was a beautiful thing, the compulsion of the mind.

“Lian listen to me.” She touched his face, gently stroking his cheek. “The Sith have taken Copero. We've taken Csilla, and soon we will take the rest of the Ascendancy.

He stared up at her, not quite understanding just what she was saying.

Perhaps she had used too much strength. Perhaps she had pushed too much of the force into his mind. She shrugged slightly, knowing that it didn't truly matter. If he was to be a simpleton after the compulsion wore off, then so be it. She only needed him for one thing, and that was to show the rest of the rebels that he had renounced his way, to show them that the One Sith were indeed the right path.

 

[J3C0]

“The Rebellion has failed. You have failed.” She sounded cruel now, but he needed to lean this. “But there's hope for you.”

Lian looked up at her in astonishment, his eyes shone brightly and his expression became one of adoration and happiness. Oh yes, he truly believed in her words, he truly believed what Mierin was saying was actually true. Lian waited eagerly for what she was about to say, eagerly waited for her words. He was a slave true to form.

“You can renounce them. You can tell them that you were wrong, that you were wrong to doubt us and that the Sith were right in what they did. You can tell them all. You can show them the truth.” The force intertwined with her words like soft music, flowing through her and towards Lian.

The Chiss simply sat and stared, amazed by his own thoughts.

 

[J3C0]

“H-how?”

He asked, his voice breaking and stuttering. He was unsure of what to say, unsure of what to do to best please his new Master. He was an interesting specimen, she would not have though he would break so easily, but apparently the force managed to break him as easily as a dried twig. It was somewhat disappointing to the master o the force, disappointing to learn that even the Chiss were weak.

“How will I tell them?”

Oh he had become a simpleton alright.

In her overly strong use of the force Mierin had corrupted his mind a bit too far. She had taken and twisted him a tad too far, and now his mind lay barren and destroyed, a useless thing that would require directions and control at all times. Pity really, the Chiss were normally so controlled and logical, this man would never be again.

 

[J3C0]

Mierin patted the newly formed idiot on the head, standing up slightly as she looked one of the guards in his visor. The Imperial Royal Guardsmen turned to her, his head swiveling ever so slightly as she looked at her expectantly. The guard were well trained, each and every one of them an expert in all forms of combat, each and every one of them utterly loyal to Mierin.

“These men will take you to a room.” She said softly, more addressing the guardsmen than Lian. “There you will tell them of all the awful things that you have done, of all the awful things the Rebellion was going to do, and of how you now renounce it all.”

Mierin looked down at the Chiss again, a smile on her face.

“Can you do that for me Lian?” She said the words with another push of the force.

“Y-y-yes.”

The Chiss stammered out the words, and then was slowly lifted to his feet. The Imperial Guards slipped their arms beneath his shoulders and then lifted him to his feet. The trio then began to walk out of the room, marching towards the door and quickly leaving The Sith Pureblood on her own.

 

[Soeht]

The look of the ship was then decided. It appeared much like any other Sith star destroyer. The superlaser would shoot out of the front. While it would not have been an exact concave disc, it did provide enough focus for it to have been able to accurately hit capital ships.

The hull experts continued to talk about the ensuing design of the hull. Due to the size of the hypermatter reactor, they did say that they would have to increase the size of the ship in order to compensate for it. To that, Daella was fine. She believed that perhaps it would allow for more supporting fighters in the hangar if that was the case due to the exponential increase in volume just by a small increase in the ship’s length.

The meeting did not take very long after that, too. Once it was over, Daella waited in the conference room for the next group to come.

 

[Soeht]

Shortly after all the hull experts left, those in charge of the targeting systems arrived. There were a few engineers. Most were software programmers. They had been working on a way to make the ship be able to target capital ships with ease.

One of the problems with targeting that they discovered was just that the ship’s shape would make the line of fire very narrow. To accurately target opposing capital ships, the starship itself would have to be able to rotate and turn effectively. With that, its line of fire in a short period of time increased to wide angles.

However, Daella had planned to keep the starship protected with a star destroyer above and below it. With that, it meant coordination with the fleet must be critical. Another option would have simply been to add two more star destroyers to the superweapon’s fleet.

 

[Soeht]

However, Daella was surprised to hear from the engineers that the superlaser had a maximum range. She thought that such a thing was not possible. Yet, one engineer was kind enough to explain it to her.

“Well,” began the engineer, “A solid object would most likely travel in the great vacuum of space nearly indefinitely. It would be countless ages before it ever came to a stop - so long as it struck nothing.”

Then, the engineer began to wildly gesture his hands as he said, “But for a laser, it is essentially excited electrons and electromagnetic waves. They’re full of energy that has to go somewhere. That energy is not being contained within the superlaser. The fact that it radiates light is the clearest sign of it. You require no math to see that, after all.”

Daella perked her brow at that. Yet, the engineer continued.

 

[Soeht]

“In order for electrons to emit light, they essentially have to release energy,” said the engineer. Several other engineers gave him an odd look.

“It’s a very roundabout way of saying it, but yes. To emit light, energy must be spent,” he said, “Otherwise, it would just be a black bolt traveling through space much like a black hole.”

Daella began to connect the dots on the reasoning behind why the superlaser would have a max range. Still, the engineer continued, “So, at a certain point, the superlaser loses too much energy in the form of radiated light and other electromagnetic waves at a certain time. Since the superlaser travels constantly at near the speed of light, we have been able to approximate this maximum effective range for it.”

 

[Soeht]

A hologram appeared at the center of the table. It showed a mock model of the starship to be constructed. In front of it was a planet that was not to scale. A line was drawn from the planet to the mock starship. Then, a little note was added near the line to indicate that it was roughly 200,000 kilometers from the planet.

“This is similar the distance between a planet and a normal moon,” said the engineer, “And it is at this distance that I recommend that the superlaser never fire at something larger than a capital ship at full charge.”

Adding to the reasoning behind that statement, the engineer said, “The reason for this is that the electromagnetic waves - gamma, micro, et cetera - would simply be too intense at that close of a range. Any ships - including the one carrying the superlaser - would be utterly and totally destroyed in an instant. Does this make sense?”

Daella nodded her head. There was merit to the engineer’s reasons behind the minimum range of a full charge blast.

 

[Soeht]

The engineer added, “Yet for blasts below thirty percent power, the minimum range can be measured in just a couple hundred kilometers - very feasible to maintain while in space. Obviously, I don’t recommend firing any shot at point blank ranges.”

Daella nodded her head again - understanding the message that the engineer was trying to make.

“Now, for the optimal range,” said the engineer, “That would be anything within two million kilometers. This is, obviously, quite a long distance away. But anything further from this point will simply make the shot less efficient. At that point, the energy lost to light and other electromagnetic waves emitted from the superlaser would start to severely decrease its effective power. That’s the point in which what would have been a planet killing shot becomes far less effective. Chances are, it will still devastate the planet but it won’t shatter it.”

 

[Soeht]

There was more for the engineer to add, though, as he said, “And for lower levels of charged shots, their effective range just scales down linearly from there. So ideally, you want to get as close to the two hundred thousand meter minimum range. Safely, of course.”

Daella easily understood what the engineer was trying to say and nodded in agreement.

“There is a maximum range, though,” began the engineer, “That’s in the event that you absolutely had to destroy a capital ship with a fully charged shot at an extreme distance away. I estimate this to be four hundred twenty million kilometers.”

Daella perked a brow at the mention of such an outrageously large number.

“This would, essentially, be like shooting across a solar system. It’s close to four astronomical units,” said the engineer, “I’m certain though that there would never be a need for that long of a shot.”

 

[Soeht]

“Yet even with a fully charge shot,” continued the engineer, “At that distance, the power behind the shot would be the equivalent of a capital ship destroying one within optimal range.”

With that, Daella understood the firing limitations of the superweapon. The distance required to destroy a planet was far - yet it should be manageable for the One Sith fleet to secure space that far away. In fact, Daella imagined that when they first use the device the enemy will have no idea what they would be trying to accomplish at the distance of two hundred kilometers away.

“I must advise you, my Lord,” said the engineer, “Should the superlaser strike a capital ship - say, something larger than four hundred meters long, then it would effectively block its shot even at full charge. Still, that would be enough to completely destroy a fleet.”

 

[Soeht]

The rest of the meeting was not that informative for Daella. She had already gathered what she needed to make strategic decisions with the superlaser. It seemed that firing its laser at lower charges would be the safest approach. It sounded to her that many things could go wrong if they were ever discovered to be capable of destroying a planet with it. If any of the Republic admirals were as sharp as her, they would know that a suicide run to block the path of the superlaser with a star defender at point blank range would be the best means to destroying the starship.

However, Daella did not have a lot of fate in the Republic’s admirals. A lot of them relied on the same tactics of old. She believed that they relied on superior numbers and technology - both of which would not be in the Republic’s favor for long.

 

[Soeht]

After the meeting with the target system specialists, Daella went to go see how the beginning of construction was going for the superlaser part. She took a shuttle out to the shipyard and got to see several structures toiling away at creating tributary shafts.

Daella met with the supervisor of the superlaser’s construction. He told her how they planned to connect the tributary shafts with the hypermatter reactor soon. The fact that the superlaser was fed directly by the reactor rather than having the reactor convert its power to something else helped tremendously with the efficiency of the laser.

The supervisor the nwent on to describe how they intended to have the amplification crystals fitted to the structure after they finished the tributary shafts. These combined with eight tributary shafts each would create a powerful beam - up to eight of them.