The Founder: Part 1

[Soeht]

“Don’t take me for a fool,” replied Jason. His confidence had certainly grown since the creation of the Dark Blade. [member="Darth Mierin"] would be proud.

“This project is impossible without the utmost efficiency,” claimed Jason, “There is no way we can build it in time for it to be used in a battle.”

After saying that, Jason began typing on a holokeyboard. A hologram appeared over the table displaying what Jason typed.

“As the owner,” began Jason, “We obviously need your requirements for this project.”

Daella had been thinking about what exactly they should do with the superweapon. She wondered whether to keep the schematics Darth Krayt had or to adapt it for something else. She placed her left hand upon her chin and began to think about the possibilities. She had to decide on what would best benefit the One Sith right now as well as how to make the weapon beneficial afterwards.

 

[Soeht]

After almost a minute of thinking, Daella had come up with some requirements that the superweapon should have.

“First,” she began, “The carrier of this weapon should be a starship no greater than one-point-six kilometers.”

Jason smirked at the mention of that.

“Do you know what this means for the power supply, right?” asked Jason, “Even if we could create the weapon, I doubt there will be much room in the interior of the ship beyond the reactor.”

“I understand,” answered Daella, “The weapon by itself should be more than enough firepower that this ship will ever need.”

“Roger,” responded Jason.

Continuing, Daella then said, “We will also need it to fire a full-power shot within the scale of minutes. Preferably, no more than half an hour.”

Jason’s eyes widened at the thought. Yet, he tacked it on to the list of requirements that the One Sith desired.

 

[Soeht]

Then , Daella said, “The control of it also need to be one-hundred percent internal. If anyone was to splice into the controls, I’m sure you could imagine what would happen.”

“Oh yes, I can understand,” answered Jason, “So, a separate internal control system that can only be used by the ship’s crew?

“Correct,” replied Daella, “With this, all threats will have to be internal in order for the ship to be jeopardized by hacking.”

“I imagine the communication systems will still be tied to the same subspace network that the One Sith use?” asked Jason.

“Yeah,” said Daella, “Commands will have to be relayed via voice to the targeting and weapon systems. I imagine the rate of fire won’t be incredibly quick, so the lag in command to execution should be minimal.”

Jason continued to type as much as he could onto his holokeyboard. The excitement on his face kept growing.

 

[Soeht]

After that, Daella and Jason continued to talk about the requirements for the project for nearly four hours. Even then, Daella had yet to touch upon the finer technical depths of the project or even some of the military and engineering standards that the One Sith had.

The sun had set at Titan Industries’ headquarters by the time that they finished their discussion. Jason seemed to be in a laughing mood by the end. He closed down his holocomputer - having uploaded the details to Titan Industries’ internal servers.

“I have to admit,” began Jason, “I was concerned that I would never get a project as grand as the Dark Blade ever again. Yet, it’s great to see that you found this technological marvel.”

Not wanting to delve into anymore smalltalk, Daella asked Jason, “How long will we have to wait for a quote and estimated procurement and construction time?”

 

[Soeht]

Jason gave her question some moment of thought.

“Give us a week,” said Jason, “I’m sure I’ll have the majority of the Naval Starships Division working on this. We’ll contact Velkoz when we are ready to start designing.”

“Then, I assume I business is finished for the day,” said Daella.

“It looks like it,” said Jason.

Daella stood up and began to turn to the door.

“I enjoyed talking with you today,” said Jason. Daella turned to him with a blank face. She was hardly emotive during the entire meeting - simply straight to the point.

Without a hint of hesitation in his voice, considering who he spoke to, Jason asked Daella, “Would you like to grab a drink, bite to eat in celebration of this new project?”

And without even a second of though, Daella stoically replied, “I must decline.”

She then turned back around and headed out the door.

 

[Soeht]

After her meeting with Titan Industries, Daella retired for a few hours of sleep. In the next day, she had plans to visit the Flight Unlimited Group’s offices on Coruscant.

It took a bit of time for her to travel to their offices. She had skipped breakfast in order to make it before midday. She eventually reached them and was greeted by a Duro businessman.

“Glad you could meet us again, Daella Apparine,” said the Duro as he extended a hand to Daella, “My name is Urgot.”

Daella shook the Duro’s hand and entered the offices. Again, she was offered food due to being the client. And again, since she was hungry, she accepted their offer.

Once Urgot and Daella sat down in a conference room, they began to go into details about the engines of the starship that they had planned to create.

 

[Soeht]

Urgot believed that what the One Sith wanted was a fairly straightforward process. As Daella explained, the One Sith needed to move just like any other ship of its size in realspace. Despite this, Daella urged Urgot to keep the project as secretive as possible.

Another thing that caught Urgot’s attention was that Daella explained that the ship was unlikely to move after firing its weapon. She also said that she needed the ship to be able to rotate fairly quickly. She stressed that the One Sith were likely to accept deviations from what they wanted in speed just for the ship to be able to rotate faster.

Overall, the meeting with Urgot about Flight Unlimited Group’s involvement with the project was productive. Daella was able to get their agreement to contribute while also maintaining their secrecy.

As they were leaving, Daella said goodbye to Urgot by saying, “Thank you once again for your services. Titan Industries will be in contact with you about further details.”

 

[Soeht]

Then, Daella departed from Flight Unlimited Group’s offices. The sun was beginning to set at this point. Another day had gone by. It was time for the young woman to retire.

After waking up, Daella was quick to get dressed and ready to go to another company. This time, it was General Spacetronics.

Daella took half the day to travel to their offices. Coruscant’s airtraffic was especially congested. There was a concert featuring the band Quagglium.

Once Daella reached General Spacetronics’ offices, she was greeted by a Nagai female. She was very polite to Daella and, like the rest of the people before her, were very quick to offer her hospitality. And as usual, Daella accepted.

When they made it to the conference room, Daella began to talk to the Nagai woman about the control systems necessary for the ship. The Nagai woman made sure to record everything Daella said.

 

[Soeht]

Daella described how the ship would have a segregated control structure: one will be for the systems necessary to tie with the One Sith’s subspace network. This would be things such as the communication systems.

Beyond that, Daella made sure that the Nagai woman understood that the rest of the systems needed to be segregated and hardwired. This included weapon and targeting systems as well as power management.

While security was always high for military ships, the Nagai woman found this request to be very interesting. This meant that either they would have to install twice the amount of instruments in order to send information to the weapon consoles and central consoles, or to simply have all status be reported by people.

The technical challenge before them greatly interested the Nagai woman. She promised both General Spacetronics’ support for the project as well as their secrecy. With that, Daella had completed yet another meeting.

 

[Soeht]

Before the day ended, Daella got on a private interstellar shuttle. She left the Coruscant system and took a hyperspace journey to Empress Teta. The journey took over twelve hours, so Daella took the opportunity to sleep.

Fortunately for Daella, it was morning when she arrived on Empress Teta. She was awoken by her attendants and quickly prepared herself for another meeting with another company.

After landing, Daella found herself at Koros Spaceworks’ headquarters. She was greeted by a handsome human male that was likely to be mid thirties. He introduced himself as Sion.

The two went inside. He offered Daella breakfast at the company’s expense and she accepted. The two talked a lot about the previous project she brought to them: the Vanguard-class Heavy Cruiser. She told them that despite not being the project managers, she had to rely on them for much of the Reactive project.

 

[Soeht]

Curious, Sion asked how Koros Spaceworks could help the One Sith. Daella explained to him that a lot of parts would need to be manufactured. While Csilla and Copero could produce a high amount of starship material, they would need a lot more assistance from other shipyards in order to meet the deadline that the One Sith had.

Daella said that Koros Spaceworks would need to create a lot of the frame for the ship and many miscellaneous parts. Sion received a package detailing contacts at Titan Industries that would further explain the scope of work.

For Sion, this did not seem to be glamorous work. Yet, the pay would be great for the company and would further secure their financial future. However, it was clear that they would have to spend a lot of time on the project. Still, Sion accepted the task charged by Daella and signed the contract.

 

[Soeht]

After her meeting with Sion, Daella had completed yet another successful meeting with a company. She quickly reviewed the list of companies that were involved.

First, Titan Industries. They were to be the engineering, procurement, and construction company. They would do most of the upper level designing, buy and distribute materials, and manage the assembly of these materials into a cohesive starship.

Second, Arakyd Industries. They would be contributing a great deal to the main weapon of the ship as well as its targeting systems. They would also be assisting the next company in controls.

General Spacetronics. They would assist in the creating the controls. Flight Unlimited Group. They would be designing the movement systems of the ship.

Finally for now, there was Koros Spaceworks. They would be creating a lot of the miscellaneous parts for the starship.

Daella could see that they were already getting a diverse, varied team for the project. She hoped that this would allow for an extreme level of precision in all levels of the starship.

 

[Soeht]

Moving on in the day, Daella boarded her private shuttle. It was time to return to Coruscant. She spent a second night in a row on the shuttle.

When she arrived on Coruscant, Daella quickly went to Merthyog Communications. They had an office on Coruscant as well and had been involved in the Vanguard project.

Daella met with their representative - a Weequay male that could speak Basic. As tradition, she was offered hospitality and accepted. She took a mental note that the taste of the food was above average.

When they got to the heart of the meeting, Daella explained what the One Sith needed for the communication systems of the ship. The Weequay took note of what Daella required. He found it interesting how they were keeping a segregated control system for the ship.

In the end, Merthyog Communications had a good foundation to start designing. Daella took her leave after the short meeting had been complete.

 

[Soeht]

Three and a half days had passed since Daella met with Titan Industries. It had been some time since she saw her master. Daella took the rest of the day to return to the Imperial Palace and give a report to the Dark Lord as well as receive her lesson in the dark side for the day.

On the next day, Daella made plans to meet with yet another company. This time, it was Taerab Starshp Manufacturing. She took the journey to their offices on Coruscant and was greeted by a young woman named Irelia.

The woman seemed very enthusiastic. Daella did not show much emotion, though. She was offered food, per the routine, and gladly accepted.

The following meeting went into detail about what Daella required from the hull. She said that it needed to be light more than anything in order to increase the acceleration of the ship.

 

[Soeht]

Irelia was concerned about what would happen with a lighter hull. Such a thing, without very expensive compounds, was inherently weaker. Daella told Irelia that such a thing was likely the future. The deficiencies of a weaker hull would be compensated by the extremely powerful power supply of the starship feeding the shield generators.

The justification for desiring shield generators over more hull was simple. Daella said that more hull would simply increase the mass of the starship to intolerable levels - making it slower. She also said that damage to the hull was irreparable during battle nearly all the time. Meanwhile, a shield generator would always be repairable unless completely destroyed via sabotage.

Yet, Daella stressed that the shape of the ship was very important. She required the front of it to be concave at the least yet still structurally sound. Irelia said that this would be difficult, but it would be a task that they would undertake anyway.

 

[Soeht]

Daella continued to talk to Irelia about the hull of the ship. She said that she would also like for the ship to maintain a wedge-shape. This allowed for a lower firing profile that necessary. Daella believed that there likely would not be enough power for a lot of other weapons than the main gun, yet the wedge-shape would also allow for maximum firepower to be directed forward while also maintaining its defensive advantage.

Irelia already understood the importance of such a design and happily obliged. Though, she said that some deviations from this may be necessary in order to compensate for the concaved front.

The meeting took a couple more hours. Daella was assured of the company’s support in the design of the hull as well as their secrecy. Having completed her task for the day, Daella bid her farewell and departed.

 

[Soeht]

The dawn of the fifth day arrived. Daella traveled to the offices of TransGalMeg Industries. She was greeted by a protocol droid. It was much like the last time she went to TGM. She did not see a single organic. They were highly reclusive. Daella wondered if they even had anyone on Coruscant.

Still, TGM had been very reliable with the creation of the Vanguard-class Heavy Cruiser. Because of that, she came back to the company that had experience in designing a One Sith power generator for a starship.

This would possibly be the most important company of the early development of the Reactive project.

Daella and the droid sat down in a conference room to begin their discussion. Daella munched on a rolawich that the droid provided. It was somewhat stale in her mouth.

“What might we do to serve?” asked the Droid in a voice much more monotonous than Daella’s.

 

[Soeht]

“There is another project for TGM,” began Daella, “What we need from the company is similar to how you contributed to the Vanguard project.”

The droid inquisitively asked, “Are we to design another power generation and supply system?”

“Correct,” replied Daella, “However, it will be much different than the solar ionization reactor of the Vanguard. This will be a hypermatter reactor. A large one.”

Curious, the droid asked, “How large of a ship will you be designing?”

“It is not the size of the ship that is the issue,” said Daella, “It is the firepower of it. It is simply too power for a solar ionization reactor. I believe most of the ship’s interior will be dedicated to the hypermatter reactor and main gun.”

“Do you have any information for us to use?” said the droid.

Obliging the droid, Daella handed it the datapad. The droid began to study the schematics of the superweapon.

 

[Soeht]

After some time of looking through the information of the superweapon, the droid looked up to Daella and said, “What you need is something that will be very expensive to make. It may be impossible.”

“The One Sith will go through any length to make this a reality,” said Daella, “Exotic materials necessary will be acquired. You have my word.”

“In that case,” began the droid, “It is possible for TGM to assist you. This will be a single reactor, not redundant?”

“Because of the size constraints of the ship,” began Daella, “It will be a single reactor. Critical service, naturally. It requires the utmost protection and monitoring.”

“Some new products have been released to the market recently,” said the droid, “TGM can make due with the small space.”

The discussion continued for nearly the entire day. At sundown, it was time to leave. TGM had the information they needed to get started.

 

[Soeht]

The sixth day soon arrived. The pattern repeated again. Daella got dressed. She traveled to another company. She was greeted by a representative, a charming middleaged man named Darius.

Bowing quite low to the Sith Lord, Darius greeted her, “Welcome, Lady Apparine! I am so glad you could be visit Imperial Starships Incorporated.”

Imperial Starships Incorporated was a new company just created. They had a large amount of capital backing them. It seemed as if they wanted to get involved in the One Sith’s shipbuilding industry. Daella wanted to see what they could provide to the One Sith in regards to the Reactive project’s design.

“Well met,” replied Daella, “Rise.”

Darius stood back up.

“Allow me to guide you to our lunch room, My Lady,” said Darius, “I’m sure you’re famished from your trip here.”

Daella followed Darius to the company’s lunch room. There was a plate of luxurious food ready for her. There was none for anyone else.