A Dark Blade

[J3C0]

The slant ankles and the cut ridges of the ship made it appear almost blade like. Ending in a short stubby tail of engines and extending outwards towards the prow. It was beautiful in its own way, minimalistic in a sense. She traced her finger across the paper for a few moments. The ship resembled nothing she had ever seen before.

It was true that in this day and age the starships were far more slim and less robust than the Derriphin she was used to, yet this looked almost...fragile.

“The ship will need to be specifically designed for its purpose. Slim profile, small weapons platforms, and even smaller insides.”

She nodded as he spoke.

Mierin understood the need for all of this. He would not be making a carrier or anything of the sort. No he was crafting exactly what she had asked for, a ship that intoned firepower like nothing else, a ship that commanded strength among the stars. More strength than any enemy could push.

“Will it not be fragile?” She voiced her thoughts, thinking of the sturdy armor her ships had had in the passed.

 

[J3C0]

Jason shook his head.

“No. At least not more than any Star Destroyer.”

Mierin looked at him unbelieving. She didn't think that one could sacrifice nothing and gain something, especially given the relatively small profile of the ship. Part of her began to doubt eh Shipwright and his vision, though only silently. She was still well aware of who she was talking to, and she didn't want him to become...enraged by her doubting his words.

“Were sacrificing a hangar, crew space and cargo in order to fit on more firepower.”

She frowned again. So he really had taken her words to mean something. She supposed it was a good thing. At least this way he could be inclined to forge something completely new.

Which she supposed this ship was. Her fingers moved away from the drawing, and her thoughts began to encircle the vessel that he was envisioning. It would provide a center point for the One Sith fleet. It would not be a vessel to journey alone, or one to penetrate deep into enemy lines. This would be a hammer, and nothing more. Her lips pursed.

“It is a ship meant for war.”

 

[J3C0]

Of course many would claim that their ships were meant for war, but the fact was that not many were entirely meant for war. Even the foreboding Star Destroyers were not meant only to do battle, they were made to subjugate, to control and patrol entire star systems. That was the function of many ships, fight in the battle, and then secure the system after wards with fighters, troops, and everything else the ship could muster.

The vision of this ship, was entirely different.

It would serve as an engine of war. A massive wall of firepower meant to eradicate the enemy, and then move on to the next. There would be no pauses in between to secure worlds, no rest stops. This ship would go from battle to battle until there was nothing more to destroy.

Mierin wanted to purr.

“You've done well Jason.” Mierin said as she raised herself from the desk. This was exactly what they needed. They needed a ship meant for war, for battle. Something that would utterly crush the Republic. Other ships could be built to serve the functions this would not, but it would supply them undoubted superiority in space. “Very well.”

He smiled.

 

[J3C0]

Coruscant would be reached soon, and from there work could truly begin. The visions that she saw would come true, and the dreadnoughts could begin construction. The Dark Lord had truly been wise to send her for this man.

She shivered slightly as she remember his touch on her mind.

“It still needs more work.”

Mierin snapped out of her dazed world and regarded the Shipwright with a smile. Her yellow eyes were aglow with something, perhaps joy. The facial piercings in her nose crinkled slightly, rubbing against her flesh as her smile turned into a grin. He was afraid she was going to rush him, push him to complete the designs for the vessel before they were ready.

“Do not fret.” She said patting him on the cheek. “You have all the time you need.”

Jason Kolyat was used to dealing with other Sith, but Mierin was in charge of this project, and as always the Hand of the Dark Lord required perfection. When she delivered these ships to the Dark Lord, each and every one of them would be perfect, each and every one of them would be ready to destroy swaths of the Republics fleet.

 

[J3C0]

The man looked up at her, seeking the truth that lay in her words.

When he found it he nodded and then gazed back at his work. He moved to pick up the pencil, but was stopped by the soft hand of the Darth. She smiled at him and shook her head. “We arrive on Coruscant in 11 hours. Allow yourself some rest.”

He looked at her strangely.

Yes he really had dealt with other Sith too long. Mierin would not allow Kolyat to work himself to death. She would not allow him to go on every night for hours upon hours pouring over the same problem. She would not allow his mind to break. The Pureblood needed Kolyat to remain at his finest. She would need him in the months to come and she would not have him fall into disarray just because she pushed him too hard.

“Work can begin when we arrive.” She said, the force pressing in on his mind.

Slowly Jason nodded, standing from his seat and wandering over to his bedroom as if compelled. Mierin simply watched him for a moment, and then bade him a good night. As swiftly as she had come, the Pureblood left the room.

“Watch that he does not work again until we arrive on Coruscant.” She told the guards. “I want him well rested.”

They nodded slowly, and then saluted as she left their presence.

 

[J3C0]

It was almost exactly 11 hours later that Merin found herself standing on the loathed bridge of the Star Destroyer. On one side of her was the Captain of the Vessel, and on the other was Logan Kolyat. Both seemed eager, though she suspected it was for entirely different means.

The Captain would likely get reassigned after this mission, both by his request and her command. Kolyat on the other hand was finally about to see where he was going to work, and that likely excited him more than anything else had within the past few months. Well...except perhaps for those native women, apparently some of the guards had been asking him questions and he had quite a bit more fun than one would expect.

Settlement girls were always rather forward.

Another few minutes passed, and suddenly the Crimson Wraith lurched. It was only a slight feeling, the drop in your stomach you sense on an elevator, or the feeling of a plain falling due to turbulence. Yet as the Star Destroyer dropped out of hypserspace, Mierin felt that kick in her gut.

Almost immediately splayed out before them was where Jason Kolyat was to work.

The One Sith's new Shipyards.

 

[J3C0]

“I don't remember Coruscant having Shipyards of that size.”

Kolyat said almost in awe of what he was seeing.

Likewise, the Captain besides Mierin seemed to be wearing the same expression. The Crimson Wraith had only been gone for a month or two, and progress on the shipyards it seemed had been immense and fast. The massive array of drydocks was nearly complete, and housed within it were a dozen or so small ships finishing up construction and testing systems. She smiled at the sight of it, though she was not as surprised as the others.

She had known what to expect upon arrival.

“They are yours, Jason.” That was an overstatement, but she was trying to get him excited about this. “Your vessels will be planned, built, and christened within these shipyards.”

As she spoke the man almost pressed himself against the glass of the ship, pushing against it and opening his eyes wide. A slight smile erupted on Mierins face, though she attempted to hide it for some reason.

Pride shown within her.

 

[J3C0]

The captain turned to Mierin, his eyes narrowing slightly as he looked at her. He did not believe that the One Sith were capable of this, that they had built such a massive arrayed facility in only a matter of weeks. The Pureblood to her credit simply smiled at him, a placating smile that told she knew of his doubt.

Mortal men feared what the force could do.

“The Crimson Wraith is to dock with the station. From there work will begin.” Not on their ship of course, but on the project. “Captain.”

She prompted the loathed man, and quickly he scrambled away from her and towards some of the ensigns. They moved away from the viewport and began to carry out her orders.

The Star Destroyer floated towards the drydocks, edging its way through Coruscant System space and making its way along. Half a dozen hails immediately rang through, command posts, golan defense platforms, and a thousand other ships that needed to get out of the way before the Crimson Wraith could cut its path to the drydocks. Mierin didn't care about this however, she simply busied herself with Jason.

 

[J3C0]

“This is immense.”

The man began to blither on.

“This is impossible!”

His confidence wavered.

“You're not asking me to build a ship! You're asking me to build an entire fleet! You're asking me to build engines of war the likes of which have never been seen! You're...you're...you're”

Before he could go on Mierin laid a soothing palm on his shoulder. She silenced his objections and made him to be quiet for a few moments, putting an index finger over her lips and sushing him as a mother would a child. She smiled at him, and simply pointed him to look out the Viewport. Not at the shipyards this time, but instead at Coruscant.

“Coruscant.” The beginnings of her speech were not subtle. “Thousands of years it has been the center of the galaxy. For thousands of years it has been the capitol of Order. It has been the jewel of people, and the pride of a hundred different nations.”

“This is what we are defending Jason. This is what we are creating. Order.” Again the force flowed into her words and pressed into his mind.

The panic on his face seemed to disperse and disappear. The fear in his eyes drained away, and the lack of hope turned into a bright smile. His gaze turned towards the massive city world, and Jason nodded firmly to himself, as if reaffirming his purpose in being here.

 

[J3C0]

She said nothing for a time, letting him contemplate the world before them.

There was no arguing that Coruscant was beautiful. Any world that one compared to it paled quite easily. The massive city world was glowing, covered in intricate gold and white lights of power. Buildings artificially alight at all times. It created an alluring map of spinning circles and romantically drawn lines that were more pleasing to the eye than any dancer Mierin had ever seen.

Aesthetically, from this far away Coruscant was one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. Jason seemed to agree, and as the two of them stared at the world, he only said two words.

“Yes, Order.”

Mierin smiled.

 

[J3C0]

Several weeks has passed now, and the design of the ships had come to such a point that early construction of the ships skeletal systems could actually be carried out.

It was one of these skeletons that Mierin observed when a man found her. Before he could speak however she raised a hand, silencing him. Her eyes were scanning the make-up of the ship. Watching workers toil away on the massive durasteel frame. Bright lights flashed and blared, massive sparks jumped out into the abyss of space, and as metal was melded with metal she stood in awe at the sheer size of the ship.

She had commanded Star Destroyers yes, but she had never seen one built.

Within her age, this ship would have been considered a behemoth. The Skeletal structure itself took more metal to create than an entire Derriphan class battleship, the type of ships that Mierin had used as her flagship during the days of the Ancient Empire.

It was a wonder that such a thing could exist, let alone dozens.

 

[J3C0]

As she watched for a time more the man next to her looked on urgently, beginning to quiver slightly s he ached from the contents of his message. Mierin could only frown and look down at him, her yellow eyes sinking into his flesh like teeth. She had found this relaxing, almost as relaxing as meditating, and now something was about to disturb that. She didn't relish that one bit. Finally however she found strength within herself, and let out a loud sigh.

“What is it?” Her voice rang out in the empty halls of the shipyard, most of the workers being consumed in creating her new fleet.

The man let out a breath, and finally told his tale.

“Its Jason sir. He's asking for you.”

Something told her that it was not quite that simple, and that by ask the man more meant screaming. She let out another sigh, and then turned away from the messenger, beginning to make her way towards the main design center, only a few moments away from where she had been observing from. She tried not to stray too far away from Kolyat, lest he become..erratic.

 

[J3C0]

The past few months had gone surprisingly smoothly.

Jason Kolyat had taken to his task in earnest, and he had begun to work with this team almost immediately from the time he set foot aboard the Shipyard. The Design team worked day and night, catching proper sleep only under Mierins watch. The eventual plans they acme up with for the Ship were superb, and greater than Jason had at first envisioned.

With progress being made so swiftly, it had been easy to convince the Dark Lord to begin construction sooner, rather than later.

Now with the Ships beginning to be built, there was more pressure on Kolyat and his design team to finish the rest of the specifications, though they were hardly in danger of falling behind. Most everything was finished, and it was now just a matter of fine tuning the pieces. Though Kolyat himself insisted that it was no issue at all and that he would have it done in no time.

Mierin rounded another corner and walked up a set of stairs. She could hear the yelling cried of Jason.

Another sigh escaped past her lips.

 

[J3C0]

Unfortunately, with the pressure of the ships becoming complete, Kolyat was becoming more and more erratic. They were still months from being whole of course, and they would have to be tested which took even more time, but she was under the belief that Kolyat thought that once the ships were complete, there would be no more use for him.

The idea was silly of course.

After the Dark Blade Dreadnoughts were complete and successful Kolyat would find a very healthy home in one of the corporations that were owned by the One Sith. He would be designing ships and using his gift extensively, at least if Mierin had anything to say about it, which of course she did.

Slowly she rounded the last corner, finding herself standing in the doorway of the main design room where Kolyat was throwing a fit.

 

[J3C0]

“DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I'VE WORKED ON THIS!?”

The man screamed at the top of his lungs at what seemed to be a young woman.

“I TRAVELED ACROSS THE ENTIRE GALAXY IN ORDER TO WORK ON THESE SHIPS. AND YOU!”

He pointed a finger at the young woman, aiming a small pencil case at her head that struck her, and then subsequently bounced off without doing any damage to her what so ever.

“YOU COME IN HERE AND RUIN IT!”

Amusement played across Mierins face, if only because she knew that the young woman had very likely only made a minor mistake. In fact for all she could guess the woman had knocked the pencil case Jason had thrown onto the ground, and that was the cause of this particular outburst. This was the trouble when your head designer and engineer was unstable, you had...incidence.

The sheer brilliance of him outweighed the cost however.

 

[J3C0]

“Please don't yell at me sir.”

The diminutive woman spoke as quietly as a mouse, Mierin had to strain in order to actually be able to hear her. Jasons reaction was not amused in the list, he continued to scream at the girl and fumbled for something else to throw at her. For some strange reason he picked a paper model. The model flew through the air, and then crashed to the ground several feet before it was actually able to hit the girl surprisingly unharmed.

“I WOULDN'T YELL AT YOU IF YOU DIDN'T SCREW UP EVERY TWO SECONDS!”

Mierin blinked.

She had never even seen the girl before, and that likely meant that she was either a new addition to the team, or she had kept her head down and her work was done correctly. The Sith Pureblood decided on the latter, given that the girl looked rather disheveled, as though she had not slept in quite a bit of time.

“YOU'RE ALL IDIOTS ALL OF YOUUUUUU!”

Kolyat began to spin around, pointing at everyone in the room.

 

[J3C0]

His finger stopped on Mierin, and suddenly his voice trailed off.

“UUUuuuu...”

The Sith Pureblood simply raised an eyebrow, and Jason Kolyats finger was slowly lowered to his side. The anger was still within him, that much was easy to gauge even without the force. Her cold stare however quickly abated Kolyats rage and turned it into shame. Mierins gaze had that effect on many people, and it was a practiced stare that she turned on people when she was disappointed.

“Jason.” Mierin said calling him over to her. “What has she done?”

She had to ask after all, perhaps the girl did indeed deserve punishment.

 

[J3C0]

The Shipwright waited for a second, and then let out a deep angry exhausted sigh the likes of which someone would expect from a battle commander that had just received news about an encroaching enemy company. Stalking over to her Jason Kolyat did not at all seem pleased with his research crew, or indeed the situation he had been placed into by Mierin and her cohorts.

His steps were more like stomps, a child protesting against his mother, and when he finally reached her it was easy to tell that he would rather have kept this to himself.

“She destroyed the original design drawings.”

Mierin raised an eyebrow. The original design drawings? The ones that he had created on the Crimson Wrath? Those should no longer be in use, they should no longer matter in the least in fact. Sure they were the basis of the work, but it should have been far outstripped by now. In fact those drawings should have been scrapped long ago.

Confusion ran across her face, confusion answered by more yelling.

“AND NOW I CAN NEVER LOOK AT THEM AGAIN!”

 

[J3C0]

Ah.

So that was it then. Kolyat had hoped to keep the drawings as keepsakes. Unfortunately for him it would not have been so anyway. Any and all plans for these ships would have been confiscated and likely destroyed by the One Sith as soon as construction was finished.

Now that they were destroyed however, there was no need to say that.

“Is this true?” Mierin asked turning to the tiny human girl who stood aghast in the corner. As soon as the Sith Pureblood turned to her the scientist went absolutely stark white, her skin turning to the color of marble and her face quickly draining of blood. She tried to speak for some time, stuttering and stammering words until finally Mierin waved her hand in annoyance.

“Yes ma'am, I accidentally spilled caf on them.”

 

[J3C0]

Mierin rolled her eyes. It was like working with children! Spilled Caf on some drawings? She had half a mind to have the girl beaten and have Kolyat shot in the knee for wasting her time. Instead however she could only sigh and close her eyes, pinching the bridge of her nose in utter annoyance and consternation as she thought about what “punishment” to exact upon this girl for her great crime.

Of course she wasn't going to do anything too harsh, that would be ludicrous.

“You are docked a weeks pay.” It would be put in against taxes and she would receive the money at the end of the year anyway, no need to harm the girl income in any true fashion. “And will clean the Design room for the next month.”

There were droids for that, but it was an easy, if not demeaning punishment that would satisfy they insane mind of Jason Kolyat. The girl, understanding what Mierin was trying to do nodded furiously, immediately taking on a chastised visage and lowering her head as if she had just endured the greatest of all punishments in the galaxy.

“Jason. Get back to work.” Her tone remained flat, but almost gleefully the Shipwright rushed back over to his desk.

Things had gone his way after all.