The Founder: Part 1

[Soeht]

“Oh, go ahead,” said Darius, “I just had a small lunch. I do have some thing I want to ask about for this project you said you head.”

Daella grabbed the plate and began to eat. She took small bites with a long pause between each.

“So, you said this was a big project?” asked Darius.

“The biggest project the One Sith will have for a long time,” said Daella.

“I understand that this is a top secret project as well,” said Darius.

“Yes,” replied Daella, “Your involvement in the project must be a secret until the very end. The Republic must not catch wind of it being built.”

Daella eventually finished her plate. Darius kept his eyes glued on the woman. Daella glared at Darius. The woman began to sweat. Her body became numb and stifened. Something was not right. Observing this, Darius grinned.

The woman had apparently been caught in a trap.

 

[Soeht]

“A neurotoxin meant to paralyze Wookiees,” said Darius, “That is what’s coursing through your veins right now.”

Daella slumped back into her chair. Her face grimaced as she twitched her muscles in an attempt to move.

“You think you’re so stealthy now?” questioned Darius, “You’re no longer a nobody like you used to claim.”

Darius took a chair to the lunchroom table and pulled it out. He placed a foot on the chair and rested an elbow on his knee.

“There are eyes on you, Darth Junra,” said Darius.

Raising his voice, Darius told Daella, “You think this project could just be a complete secret to everyone? We know the damage that you are capable of. There’s no way we’d allow you to make further moves without our notice.”

Darius took his foot off the chair and kicked it away.

“And now, that bounty is mine,” he claimed with a grin on his face.

 

[Soeht]

In her struggle, Daella’s eyes began to glow a bright orange. She continued to physically resist the toxin that paralyzed her.

“Call me SIS Agent Garen,” said Darius, now revealing a more truthful identity, “Let’s call this little company just a means for the Republic to gain secrets to your new ships.”

Garen walked over to Daella. He carefully examined her appearance.

“I was told not to confront you directly,” claimed Garen, “But I figured your guard was down at the right moment. That bounty will definitely pay for the price of this illegal toxin - and more.”

Then, Garen leaned close to Daella. She glared at the SIS agent. Garen grabbed the bun at the back of Daella’s head and pulled back. She winced in pain.

“Though, I can’t believe the Sith have such a beauty in their ranks,” said Garen, “It’s a shame, really.”

 

[Soeht]

With her breathing quickening, Daella seemed to be in a moment of panic. It had been a while since she was not, in some way, controlling the situation. Yet, it was clear to anyone sensitive in the Force that she was digging deep within her limitless well of emotions.

Grabbing her chin, Garen told Daella, “Maybe I’ll have to remind you of what you’re missing from the Republic.”

A high pitched chuckled followed from Garen.

“Or from what I’ve heard, you’ve never had the experience with anyone but that Diana Moridena,” he added.

Upon hearing Diana’s name, Daella’s eyes dilated. Her heart sank.

A second later, a searing hot, purple plasma blade pierced Garen’s chest. Daella had regained control of her body and easily stabbed the man. Garen squeeled in pain and released his grip on her. Daella then shoved him into a wall behind him. Garen, still conscious, slid to the ground.

 

[Soeht]

Slowly, Daella stood back up. She still sweated intensely. A few drops fell upon her lightsaber’s blade and immediately vaporized. She turned to Garen.

“H-h-how?” questioned the wounded man as he clutched his wounds.

“Your superiors were right,” claimed Daella, “It was unwise to confront me.”

Then, Daella began to approach Garen.

“Y-you shouldn’t be able to move!” yelled Garen. The fear on his face was a sight to see.

“The Force allows me to purify my body of toxins,” said Daella, “My body is my own. No one but my Master can command me.”

Granted, there was a limit to the technique that Daella described that would be the same for most Force users. Should the toxin that infect her be quick in inducing death, Daella would have been helpless. Luckily, the only thing dangerous about what Garen had used was that the poison paralyzed her body.

 

[Soeht]

“That’s not fair!” yelled Garen, “That’s not right!”

“This galaxy is cruel,” commented Daella, “Much more so than I.”

Daella then raised her lightsaber, “As much as I despise you, I’ll make your death quick.”

Garen’s last moments were in tears. He did not have the will to say any more words before he was beheaded by Daella.

Hearing some suspicious noises in the conference room, another member of Imperial Starship Inc. walked in to check on the situation. As soon as he saw Daella with her purple lightsaber standing over Garen’s body, the man ran out to inform security.

Before Daella could even exit the room, four guards ran in with blaster rifles. Daella made quick work of them. She continued to push through the rather small office building. She annihilated everyone that she saw.

It took several minutes before she reached the “executive” floor. Here, she would have met the ringleaders of this covert Republic operation.

 

[Soeht]

At the top level, Daella continued to cut down those she saw. Eventually, she walked into a server room where a lot of the “company’s” information was stored. She saw someone in a business suit franticly typing away at the holokeyboard.

Then, the man turned around. While fear had consumed him, he still had an air of resilience within him.

“While you may kill us all,” began the man, “You won’t be able to take information from us. I just wiped out all our records.”

Indeed, this man had. There were no longer digital copies that Daella or the One Sith would have been able to obtain about this SIS operation.

Instead of killing the man though, Daella ran up to him and bashed the pommel of her lightsaber on the crown of his head. It instantly knocked him out. Daella would then take him to be interrogated by One Sith officials and move on with her business.

 

[Soeht]

The seventh day arrived. Daella silently stood before the mirror of her bathroom. She observed a just barely noticeable increase in her waistline. The amount of food that had been given to her this week was incredible. Yet, it was clear to Daella that she gained some weight in fat.

Yet, the day had just begun. She expected to hear from Titan Industries. Daella quick did her hair and got dressed. She decided to head for the Imperial Palace.

Once Daella reached the Imperial Palace, she received a message on her datapad. It was a holomail from Jason - titled “Reactive Project Estimation.”

Daella read it. The estimation was quite extensive. Taking a seat, Daella stayed there for nearly six hours as she went through the entire estimation with near obsessive attention to detail. She took note of what Titan Industries wished to do.

Bottom line though: this was to be the most expensive starship ever constructed by the One Sith at its time.

 

[Soeht]

Most of what Daella saw in the estimation was satisfactory. It laid out the groundwork for the designing and construction of the superweapon.

However, it would require a lot of effort on Daella’s part to keep the project a secret. As she had been saying this entire week, the project required a plethora of exotic materials. She would have to gather quite a bit of it personally.

Since she was at the Imperial Palace, Daella went to the Dark Lord and informed him of the progress of the project. He gave his approval and allowed Daella to continue to manage it.

Then, she departed from the palace and Coruscant all together. She was on her way to Copero. The journey itself took a day. During the time, she began to plot of a route throughout what areas she could safely reach. She had to get support from Velkoz, though.

 

[Soeht]

Once Daella reached Copero, she quickly met up with Velkoz. They began to talk about the preliminary designing of the starship. They were eager to begin construction. The first task they had, though, was to create a power supply that was strong enough to charge the weapon.

Daella was brought into a conference room with many experts on power engineering. There were doctors that had done tons of research on hypermatter annihilators.

The challenge for the team was to design a hypermatter annihilator that was small enough to fit in a capital ship while also powering the weapon. Daella looked at some of the rough drafts that these engineers had came up with. It was quite crude, yet she had some idea of where this was going.

While Daella had read the abstract of the schematics before, she was somewhat curious about why they would use a hypermatter reactor and asked for an explanation.

 

[Soeht]

One engineer immediately stepped up to answer Daella’s question. It was obvious that he was looking to impress a leader of the One Sith - as well as the project manager.

The engineer explained that a hypermatter reactor could create an enormous amount of power simply by destroying hypermatter. Compared to other sources of power, it was one of the most efficient when it came to the mass of reactant matter compared to energy output. Hypermatter reactors were also widely used technology already - put in ships from capital class to starfighter size.

On the subject of hypermatter itself, the engineer said that it was tachyonic matter that existed in hyperspace. When constrained by realspace, these charged tachyons were annihilated as they accelerated to infinite speeds within a reactor. This was why a hypermatter reactor could output so much power with so little fuel.

Yet, it lead to one of the main issues of hypermatter reactors.

 

[Soeht]

The engineer continued his explanation as he delved into the dangers of a hypermatter reactor. Hypermatter itself was instabled and posed a great risk to any process using it. A simple malfunction of the reactor would vaporize the entire starship using it. If the reactor was destroyed in a precise manner, the resulting explosion would have devastated surrounding starships.

It was also noted by the engineer that a hypermatter reactor was a huge capital investment.

Because of this, other avenues of powering a starship were still in use - such as solar ionization reactors.

Yet, no power source besides a hypermatter reactor could be created to power this superweapon. Because of that, Daella and the One Sith had to deal with the potential dangers of a hypermatter reactor.

Curious as to whether or not the reactor had any further benefits for the ship, Daella asked the engineers if they had any idea of that.

 

[Soeht]

Another engineer told Daella that the process of converting the energy present in hyperspace into high unstable particles made this tremendously destructive in real space. Because of this, a hypermatter reactor was idea for the superweapon as it could directly feed the laser’s power.

The engineer went on to add that the energy delivered into the target would be so great that it was likely to cause the target’s atoms to split into matter-antimatter pairs and annihilate themselves - thus increasing the destructive potential of the superweapon. He also went on to add that it would create hundreds of mini-singularities that would rupture the barrier between realspace and hyperspace for a brief moment.

Daella was confident in these engineers to have explained this much about the reasoning behind a hypermatter reactor. She inquired about whether or not they would need her help in acquiring any exotic materials. To her surprise, they claimed that they would have no need as they would use existing hypermatter reactor technology and simply expand on it.

 

[Soeht]

Impressed by the work of the engineers, Daella left them to continue their design. She was eager already to see the completed reactor and witness its test phase. Yet before that, she had to check out other components of the starship before they moved onto the construction phase.

Luckily, Velkoz had already gathered the group in charge of the actual weapon design. Daella was put in another meeting with even more engineers. This time, it was a lot more varied of a group than last time. Yet, many of them were specialists in lasers. There was even one Chiss that was an expert on masers - who could at least provide some guidance and tips if there were any to have from the field.

When the meeting began, the engineers said that the weapon to be designed would be the most powerful ever. They said it even required its own classification - which they already dubbed:

Superlaser.

 

[Soeht]

The abstract itself did not mention the term superlaser. It simply said that it was a very powerful laserbeam that could annihilate planets. Because of this, Daella thought that the term was novel and commended the engineers for surprisingly being simple.

After that, the engineers began to go on about how to design this actual laser. They said that , according to the schematic, it would be best to do this by creating a device that merged several super laser beams into a single exceedingly powerful beam.

Because of this, a concaved front was necessary. Daella understood why this was an important part in the abstract about why they needed the hull to be shaped with a concave in the front.

The engineers said that it would be optimal to have seven tributary beams arranged in a circle around the dish with one beam in the middle to further help aiming.

 

[Soeht]

Daella wondered how the beams would even properly converge. She inquired about this and quickly got an answer from another engineer. He said that an invisible forcefield would be projected in the shape of a cone in front of the concaved dish. This allowed for the tributary beams to converge.

Further expanding on the tributary beams, he went on to add that each converging beam also had eight smaller beams that each convered into one of the eight Superlaser Convergence Chambers. The math was simple: there were 64 beam tubes in total that made up the superlaser.

To top off the superlaser, there was a special focusing lens that allowed for the superlaser to be intensified to even more lethal levels. All in all, this created a very powerful beam that did not destroy the starship carrying it at the same time.

Daella then asked roughly how much power would be used.

 

[Soeht]

The engineers glanced at each other. It was difficult for them to give a definite answer about that - causing them to be a little uncomfortable. One spoke up and said that the power necessary was variable depending on the size of the starship and the power supply available.

Having seen the plans for the power supply of the starship, one engineer quickly estimated that it would still use nearly the entire instantaneous supply of energy for a starship. Because of this, they said it was impossible for the ship to fire immediately after dropping out of hyperspace. They also said that it would be impossible for the ship to jump back into hyperspace immediately after firing a shot.

They said regardless of the power behind the superlaser’s shot though, the hyperdrive would still recharge in the same time due to consuming considerably less power compared to the superlaser.

 

[Soeht]

As for the power behind each blast, the engineer told Daella that they planned for a fully charged shot to be able to totally annihilate a terrestrial planet the size of Coruscant. They said that lower levels of charge were still highly effective in annihilating the enemy. One shot at sixty percent power would have been able to crack open the planet to the core - that or two thirty percent shots. A single shot at ten percent would have destroyed a capital ship at any size.

Daella noted that this made it an extremely beneficial weapon and commended the engineers for planning to make the superlaser easier to aim.

One engineer added that the amount of time required to charge the laser had a linear relationship with its level of “chargedness.” This meant that the amount of time to charge the superlaser to ten percent power is one tenth of the time necessary to charge it to full power.

 

[Soeht]

Daella understood the relationship between time and the power behind the shots. Yet, the engineers added a word of caution. While the physical superlaser had yet to be built, they were not sure of the specifics. Yet, each engineer was certain that abusing the superlaser by firing many times within a short time period would quickly degrade the laser tubes. Because of that, they recommended Daella to not have the superlaser spammed at every opportunity and will come up with a different limit to the firing rate before the superlaser was complete.

Wondering how much power was to be wasted, Daella asked what the engineers expected as far as heat generated that the superlaser poured into the carrying starship. The engineers said that there would hardly be any indication of inefficiency in the superlaser and that nearly all of its energy was actually used.

To that, Daella was impressed. It meant the starship was not likely to overheat.

 

[Soeht]

The engineers added that this high efficiency was because of the special focusing lens designed for it. They believed that this lens, despite being a critical part of the superlaser, would take the longest to develop and create. Yet, they claimed that the benefit would be worth it. Less real estate used to distribute heat in a safe manner meant more room for the hypermatter reactor.

Another engineer also added that the lens allowed for the superlaser to fire at ranges on the scale of millions of kilometers - or light-seconds. They also said that the superlaser traveled at nearly the speed of light within the vacuum of space.

Daella knew that this meant the superlaser would be impossible to dodge for any capital ship -assuming that the targeting systems were calibrated accordingly. Yet, a straight line of sight was necessary to obtain this - any substantially large vessel in the way of the beam would save vessels behind it (and far enough away).