The next big thing

[Irys Arist'lar]

Spoiler

Irys looked through the viewport of the Gunray-class Majesty. They were in a low enough orbit that the pure white orb new revealed several great mountain ranges. She could see grey peaks casting shadows longer than any ship in the Abrion navy. Speaking of which... Irys turned to look out of the starboard port. There hung the sister ship of the Serenity. A Collateralhulk class, a monstrous vessel that carried huge volumes of starfighters and bristled with weapons. Except this one didn't. The Serenity had been built around its ion pulse cannon, and it had been decided that any further ships of the class needed more cost effective infrastructure. She was here as a representative of Hoersch Kessel rather than the navy, and they would be working on new engine systems for the ship. Sienar would be working on the prototype, of course, whilst rothana engineering would be testing the hangar fit for the vehicles and starships they supplied to the Abrion navy.

Another day, another dollar.

Marek was A-Okay with this style of living. He didn’t need to fight people to prove himself. He needed to do business work. And that was why he was here, on Rothana. There was a lot to be discussed with the shipyard. He knew that @Irys Arist’lar had wanted to discuss with the engineers something about engines for a ship, and to sling some HKD designs, or whatever. He even heard that [member="Sasha Santhe"] was supposed to make an appearance.

He really hoped so, needed to get his assistant back. Why had Alana gone off with Sasha anyhow? Could not be good for Marek’s future as a nocturnally active male. Still, he was here, he was going to do the duty (hehe doody) to Abrion, and get Rothana Engineering working for the right department within the Techno Union.

Sending out a message to the rest of his consultants and CEO compadres, and hoping that [member="Darell Irani"] didn’t try to buy the entire world into the fold of Ty’rel. He could have a base here, maybe two whole manufacturing plants, but… did he really want the world?
There was fething snow.

[2/20]

Objective: A

[member="Sasha Santhe"]

Irys stepped out from the shuttled on to the battleship grey deck of the Scimitar platform. The circular defense station mounted a phenomenal amount of weaponry, as well as plenty of docking space on its arced pylons.

The station had been towed into position to protect the ACA assets, especially with criminal networks and terrorist cells now working so close to their borders. They probably should have met on the construction stations, but those facilities were particularly functional. The Scimitar station had plenty of conference rooms, comfortable quarters and computing. She’d arrange for a number of data banks to be set aside for simulation and engineering work.

Hopefully over the next few weeks to companies involved would set out a plan, get some sims done, and start construction on the new Collateralhulk class.

Hopefully Marek had done his usual duties and arranged some catering, and entertainments. Irys didn’t much care as long as there were competent engineers and caf. Lots of caf. Lots of good, strong caf.

Objective Alpha

Marek was really okay with knowing that [member="Darell Irani"] was off doing whatever it was Ovmanis do. He was working to secure Rothana Heavy Engineering, perhaps for his own gains, but it would serve the Techno Union, or else Marek would have put up a fuss to the Duke of somewhere. But there really wasn’t much time for that right now. He had his own work to do. After discussing with the shipyard, he made sure to secure a location for a meeting with Abrion brass, Techno Union engineers and the shipyard representatives. A NIathal-class shuttle arrived to deliver the catering and chefs.

Marek liked to travel in style. And he even brought his favorite Bothan’s favorite caf. You’re welcome, @Irys Arist’lar. He wanted to get this Collateralhulk off the ground, so to speak, as much as the Bothan. Giving people work, and getting the project out would do a lot for the Union. He only hoped [member="Sasha Santhe"] would be on time to help with the joint project.

Objective A, in orbit. Marek Starchaser | Irys Arist'lar It was a sad sad truth that Darell Irani could not be at multiple places at the same time, it simply wasn’t feasible with today’s level of technology or his own mastery of the Force. Maybe just maybe after a few more years of experimentation and ponderings he would be able to perfect the technique that would allow him to properly compartmentalize his mind into different segments to such a degree that those sectors could simply project their presence in separate locations. A perfect blend of efficiency and omnipresence, it would have been a thing that would have made the likes of Ovmar proud, but in the meantime… Irani would have to content himself with the usage of properly groomed and competent assistants. In question was one of Ty’rel Holdings lead engineers, Ryron Burian, the infamous brother of Ryran Burian. The Burian Brothers were two of the greatest minds that the Galaxy had to offer, both engineers in different appliances of science. The first order of business was the construction of shipyards over the planet of Rothana, shipyards which would apparently be used for the betterment of the Collateralhulk Project. It was only logical that the company who had created the shipyards over Hypori and had a history of creating the coreships of the regular Lucrehulks, would help in this endeavor. Yes, Irani had acknowledged that supporting the Techno Union would be a smart choice. Besides, Starchaser wouldn’t let him hear the end of it if he didn’t help his brother out. The man was absolutely impossible sometimes.

[member="Darell Irani"]
[member="Marek Starchaser"]

Objective A post 5
Writer post [4/20]

It was a shame, in Irys’ mind, that they were so far from the dock. One of the staff had pointed it out to her, just a speck in space. It was only visible when the sun was at certain angles. The Bothan knew the battle station was still close enough to defend the ships under construction. Her eyes were far less capable than its sensors. Despite so many bridges having windows, the prevalence of long range turbolasers, hypervelocity cannons and energy torpedoes these days ensured many battles were over before you even saw an enemy ship up close.

“Coffee ma’am?” Lieutenant Stil’dor said. He already had a cup in his hands, and he brushed her fingers as he passed it over and went back to his duties. It seemed like her workload would be busy for the week. A representative of Rendilli was also arriving. Half her time spent as an engineer for HKD, the second half negotiating with suppliers, the third half actually commanding her task force.

Best get on with it then! A small voice laughed inside her own head. “Suppose so,” she mumbled out loud to herself. She stepped into the conference room they had. Refreshments were already laid out along one wall, holo projectors to one side, and interactive desks on the other.

Moving to a lectern she pressed a few buttons. The lights dimmed a touch and two holo-images came to life. One showed a skeletal shipyard, much still under construction. The other showed a Collateralhulk, before highlighting its power grid.

“Morning everyone. Right all contractual arrangements are sorted for this working party, so we can crack on. Two problems: we need to accelerate the shipyards, we need to completely rip out and re-engineer the power gird on the three Collateralhulks under construction. We need a design that can be re-worked into the current vessels, and installed in the next batch.”

Rothana Heavy Engineering ​

[member="Venussia Sasko"] | [member="Elias Truden"] ​

~~~​

[8/20]​

See, this is where the beauty of the moment came to be. Because you might wonder why a huge conglomerate such as Ty’rel Holdings might be interested in a company such as Rothana Heavy Engineering, sure it was a glory of yore, a callback to a time when things had been much more simple and relaxed. But Irani wouldn’t have spend dimes on a simple nostalgia trip, would he?

The answer to that was already underlined, of course not. There was always a bigger play going on, some plot that only Darell saw clearly. This time it wasn’t Rothana that truly interested him, it was the assets that it could hold, its former imperial connections which went back to even before the Dark Ages of the Gulag and back towards the time of the Galactic Empire.

It had been Rothana who was firmly established as one of the companies that had worked together closely with the Imperial R&D department. A department which had been known for its cutting-edge research in almost every field known to mankind, but just as known the research was, it was just as secretive in nature.

A few hundreds of years of darkness would do that to a department already fractured and dismantled before the Plague had hit.

But Darell believed there were still facilities out there, defunct of course, unoperational definitely, but they might still have some vestiges of clues towards the research conducted. After they had managed to either find said research, or conclude that there wasn’t any, the holding company would probably be sold off to the Techno Union for a reasonable profit.

The foot sliding up his leg made Irani tilt his head just a little bit, he leaned back and under the table softly patted her leg and then motioned towards Elias.

‘Sasko and I are going to take a tour of the underground facilities, Truden. I want you and Cadell to take a transporter and meet with [member="Marek Starchaser"] and [member="Irys Arist'lar"] . Ty’rel is helping them with the construction of the shipyards and a new Lucrehulk model. Coordinate and make sure our interests are protected.’

With that done he waited for Chuck to sign the papers, for Ven to get her designer heels in place and after that would rise from his seat, offer a hand to Sasko so she could stand up.

Today would be fun.

Underground facilities. I wanted to live with the illusion that it wasn’t what my mind told me it was. Oh wait, I actually very much really lived with the illusion that it wasn’t what my mind told me it was. Tongue twisting mind bender that one. I nodded at my boss as he helped the defenseless woman out of her chair. Fingers drumming on the table I followed without saying a word. I wasn’t angry, just very curious.

Mostly as to why he would send me on a meeting with people he knew and that he worked with considerably more than I and especially to oversee a project that he seemed to be more vested in than myself.

But Tyrel Holdings was all about teamwork! One link was important to the other. I would gladly do this for the pay I was being provided as long as it kept Iron Crown going strong. Smile still holding I looked to my chief and nodded again.

“Marek and Irys.” I put the names to memory. “Got it.”

As the others stepped into their transporter I decided to give them the much wanted privacy that they needed for the next few posts. Personally I was going to meet with the mercenary that had become my subtle little ghost. We could take the next transport. [member="Marek Starchaser"] and [member="Irys Arist'lar"] were important people but what was the words, professionally late or modestly late? One of them.

Eventually one of them arrived and I stepped into the shuttle. Just as always me and the merc didn’t really talk much. It was more of an occasional staredown. A battle of wills as macho á macho tried to determine who could look the most pissed out of the two of us.

I never won.

Eventually we arrived. I stepped out of my transporter and let myself be led to the others. Hopefully the sarcasm wouldn’t be dripping next time.

OOC/ We're 8/30 done for the ship dev. I'll pick up the pace next week. [member="Sashe Santhe"] [member="Darrell Irani"]



Irys paused for a moment and activated the next part of the presentation. "We still don't fully understand the technology behind the Ion Pulse cannon - to an extent. At the very least we've been struggling to maintain it, and certainly haven't been able to reverse engineer it to create more."

The display altered, showing just the Collateral-hulk. The hull faded until it was a transparent ghost image. Now the power grid was highlighted. The array of capacitors used were shown being charged, before finally the main weapon was fired in a brilliant blue display.

"It may seem counter-intuitive, but the incredible power grid Sienar put into place actually hinders operations without the main weapon. The capacitors, which both charge the main weapon and shield the batteries from the firing sequence massively reduce efficiency. At the same time, this is a very expensive setup, so we're paying extra for reduced performance.

"As you all know starship modifications are fantastically expensive. Cutting through each bulkhead is prohibitively expensive. We're considering using the vessels in production with the current power grid in either a limited carrier capacity, or in the case of one vessel, as a training ship. For the full produciton however, we need a new solution. So time to get some ideas in for any further changes whilst we're here. Once the grid is in place and the new hulls are built, we're ruling out any further modifications for ten years."

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

“Why don’t we revisit the armour specification?” one of the Saiba groups called out.

“Armour upgrades are relatively easy to carry out in dry dock,” Irys replied. “We need to get the ship back into production, and quickly. There’s no way we can roll out with the current design and the pressure is coming down to get it onto the line.” Irys replied testily.

“Hypervelocity cannons,” came the reply. “They’ve been used to great effect against the Techno Union fleets recently.”

“You’re thinking some kind of ablative armour, or reactive armour?” Irys asked, intrigued.

“Oh no. Something quite different, but it would require building into the design of the ship from the start. That’s why I mention it now. I’ll need to think on this, and put some ideas around my team before we put something concrete forwards. We’re recruiting some people who specialise in this area, so I’ll get something to you soon?”

 

[Hira Mitsae]

[member="Irys Arist'lar"]

The recruiting of Yuuzhan Vong Shapers to the fold of the Saiba Group had been a testy subject to the say the least, most people did not like the Vong, most people… were really interested in exterminating the lot of them. Which is basically what had happened on Rodia all those months ago, but some people had other ideas- not necessarily better ideas, but different.

Darell Irani had stepped foot on Rodia with the idea of recruiting the Yuuzhan Vong, pull them into the Saiba Group so they would work for them. It had helped that these particular Shapers were more interested in saving their own hides, then to care about the countless lives lost on Rodia.

Politicians, give them a different organic system, believes and make them love pain. But they stay politicians, no matter what Galaxy they are from.

It had taken a while to truly… integrate them into the system, of course. They had tried to rebel twice already, the first time Irani had simply chastised them, without killing and bloodshed. But the second time the Sith Lord realized that they needed to really see what they were dealing with.

So Irani dealt with it as he always did, pro-active and with just the right amount of violence. In the end the Vong started to settle into a rhythm, they were given enough freedom to experiment; as long as the experiments would fit the farther schemes.

They weren’t totally loyal yet, but that would come.

Today Irani had sent a detachment of those Master Shapers with the Saiba Group engineers to help the design of the Collateral-hulk, they might provide some further insights.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

To say that Irys was surprised by the solution that was brought back to her several days later, was an understatement.

“You have to understand, this is just a draft,” the engineer protested.

Irys tried not to gawk at the holo-image. The Saiba engineers, together with their Yuuzhan Vong shapers, had completely reworked the superstructure in a miniscule amount of time. It had taken the first group five years to put together the first designs and they had picked it to pieces and put it back together in a week.

“So these, these in green, they’re organic?” she asked.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

“Yes indeed. Think of it like a building. Durasteel bars and duracrete. The Yorik Coral forms an outer shell that provides an incredibly durable outer shell. However, that’s not all. Quadranium frame runs through the coral, giving it immense strength. Coral also runs through the decks of the ship. Even though it can crack, it’s self-healing and gives the whole structure immense strength for no additional weight,” the engineer continued.

Irys reached out a hand, and she manipulated the holo image. She turned it back and forth, scrolling in and out. She knew this structure like the back of her hand. “You’ll need more reinforcement there,” she explained. When we ran the sims before, we found the central structure could contort and the stress would fracture the outer pylons.”

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

“Hey, as I said this is…”

“A draft,” Irys replied curtly. There was an awkward silence. “I’m impressed, really I am. The speed at which you’ve produced this is astounding.”

“Oh,” the engineer replied. He looked slightly taken aback. “Well…that’s great…”

“You don’t sound too pleased Dr Tairns?” Irys asked, her fur shuffled quickly, a clear bothan expression of confusion.

“No, no, it’s nothing. Just you erm, have a bit of a reputation for not being easily please.”

There was a second awkward silence. “I am not,” Irys asserted. “However, this is excellent work. I’ll have the parameters for our full simulation suite sent in the morning. I’ll remind you, that the numbers we use to test the capabilities is based on our best intelligence about current and future enemy weapons. As such it is highly classified.”

“Got it.”

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

Irys was in her office, attempting to run through the numbers of Saiba’s proposal. It was costly. However, this mesh of organic and artificial technology wasn’t easy. The frame had to be finished in dry-dock and then readied for the coral to grow into the right shape around it. If the coral was grown incorrectly, it had to be decomposed and the process started again.

As such, Saiba’s proposal accounted for a naturally high level of risk, which meant the manpower required was significantly higher than other options. Still there were a lot of things about this the government would like. The bidding had been opened up to lots of small enterprises, who were carrying out work on thousands of sub-components. Each ship constructed ensured thousands of jobs were kept safe within the Techno Union, and thousands more were created.

There were lots of positives the politicians could spin when explaining the cost to the taxpayer.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

Irys was in her office, attempting to run through the numbers of Saiba’s proposal. It was costly. However, this mesh of organic and artificial technology wasn’t easy. The frame had to be finished in dry-dock and then readied for the coral to grow into the right shape around it. If the coral was grown incorrectly, it had to be decomposed and the process started again.

As such, Saiba’s proposal accounted for a naturally high level of risk, which meant the manpower required was significantly higher than other options. Still there were a lot of things about this the government would like. The bidding had been opened up to lots of small enterprises, who were carrying out work on thousands of sub-components. Each ship constructed ensured thousands of jobs were kept safe within the Techno Union, and thousands more were created.

There were lots of positives the politicians could spin when explaining the cost to the taxpayer.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

Of course, the war against the so-called Rebel Alliance had the support of the populace. Fighting Omega had been a grim, attritional war against a well-prepared super power. Many had died, and for little gain. The rebels, however, were politically extreme terrorists. Just the kind to get people riled up, and to give the defence ministers a boost to spending.

Having worked there for a long time, Irys knew just the people in naval acquisitions to get in touch with. She arranged a few “warm up” meetings. Much easier to get people on side, before you slapped a thousand page document on their table and asked for approval.

This was going to be a hard sell, and approval for this level of funding would take time.

 

[Irys Arist'lar]

Suddenly recalling that three data disks of simulation data had arrived, she slid the paperwork off her desk. Dimming the lights, she activated her holo-display. A familiar image appeared: the Saiba design with yorik coral, though slightly modified. Those modifications, she noted, included her suggestions for structural integrity.

The first run started, showing a head on hypervelocity round. The round slammed home, hitting a branch of coral head on. It cracked, and great splinters were left drifting. However, there was very little stress placed on the main structure. Another round hit, again the layers of coral taking the brunt.

A different holovid showed the detail up close. The round impacted the coral, but instead of giving way like durasteel, it cracked. The tungsten round forced its way between two jagged edges of coral, which scraped along the edges of the round. As the round melted, these jagged edges induced a turbulent flow, and it lost its penetrative power.

“Fascinating,” Irys remarked.