A Noblesse Oblige to Quality

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Gir Quee"]

It was time for a new warship that could challenge the monsters the enemies of the Republic were fielding on the battlefield. In space that is at least. . . . .Camellia Swift had no aspirations of any sort that her company could come up with something on the spot that could aid in the battles on land where space wizards forwent logic and even common sense in battles. Where giant worms existed and people who could punch said worms, or cut down squads of veteran soldiers without taking a single hit, or even so much as deal acknowledge such soldiers existence as the fates of worlds depend on them alone apparently.

But that was not the subject for this time.

The One Sith's Darkblade class was a terrifying weapon indeed. The amount of firepower at its disposal was simply horrible, a heavy long ranged hypervelocity gun on a ship that size? In addition to an array of long ranged turbolasers, ion cannons, and much much more that would be terrifying to list? The only other vessel that existed that could challenge that beast was the Watts class heavy cruiser, but those had been phased out. Decommissioned and thrown away after the debacle of Baktoid at Drunckenwell.

Rendili Stardrive was hoping to fill the void left by the Watts class then. The ancient shipwright, a quality and capable company who thrived on its shipbuilding expertise, was not about to pass up the opportunity to take a shot at rising in prestige in the modern era. A ship that could replace the Watts Class and challenge the Sith's Darkblade would undoubtedly bring the shipyards that built it much favor.

Of course with Republic politics being what they were the young Rendili woman running Rendili Stardrive found herself doubting the ship her company was designing would go to them depending on the direction they took. Regardless it didn't hurt to get the opinion of some of their military officers. And so Gir Quee, a new person she had not met yet, would hopefully be arriving soon. Once he did she would run him through the concept, and then show him the ship, and hopefully even give him a brief show. Though the ship was still waiting on the development of one its major weapon systems.

 

[Gir Quee]

[member="Camellia Swift"]

Captain’s Quarters, Vinnath-class Pocket Carrier Crescent Light, near Rendili

“Highly unusual.”

“But the Senate authorized it,” reminded Gir, “I guess this is something big, if they’re willing to let us use the Crescent.”

“I don’t like it,” said Salmakk adamantly, some hundreds of light years away.

Gir paused before staring back into his adoptive brother’s bulbous eyes, “We’re not selling out, if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

“Gir, on one hand, I know that to be true,” said the mon calamari engineer, “but there is such a culture clash between our two companies.”

“That’s why I’m handling it,” reminded Lieutenant Quee easily, “I don’t expect you to like the normal corporate world Salmakk. Lucerne Labs is an outlier in the galaxy, and fortunately or unfortunately, we’re going to have to work with the big companies from time to time, that is, if we are to help the Republic.”

His wrist chrono began to incessantly beep. With a quiet swear, Gir frantically fiddled with the device before silencing the alarm. He glanced up to see the last vestiges of an amused grin fade from his brother’s face into a stern solemnity he had often seen in his adopted father.

Salmakk slowly nodded, “I leave it your hands, brother.”

“Take care Salmakk, I’ll let know everything that happens, I promise.”

The holo-projector’s thrum went silent; the distant visage of his brother collapsed as the channel was cut. Straightening out his uniform, Gir strode out of his quarters through the minute capital vessel to the bridge of the starship. A vast world swathed in blue and green dominated the viewport, but his eyes immediately ignored the world, focusing on the metal superstructures which orbited the world; the famous Rendili shipyards. Toka, his communication’s officer, cleared his throat.

“We are proceeding as planned, captain,” said the mon calamari, “do you feel ready to meet her?”

Gir shrugged, “Don’t know enough about her, but if Grant says she’s good, I’ll take his word on it.”

“Grant is someone I don’t trust.”

“Grant is someone I don’t trust with relationship advice or wine choices,” admitted Lieutenant Quee quietly, “but he knows the corporate world. She has to be something to keep all this going…”

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Slate Estrada"] [member="Blackhot"] [member="Tricia"]

Well, life was certainly filled with surprises. When the call came into her office that a ship had entered local space for Rendili and was submitting Republic codes, Camellia found herself a little surprised to hear their ship's signature matched those of the reportedly new Vinnath class carrier corvette. It definitely was an interesting design, following that same aquatic appearance that all Mon Calarami designed vessels had. It looked like some sort of squid like creature had taken to space, the only oddity about the craft was that unlike many of Mon Cal's other designs it was quite small comparatively.

The coloring was also a little different, which was actually to the Rendili woman's liking. It still fit the theme of Mon Cal's Aquatic designs, a white squid, but the red mixed in made her think of many signature ships that used the white and red scheme from Rendili Stardrive as well. Anyway, point being was she was a little surprised that such a relatively new design was under the command of the officer she was meeting with. It was definitely interesting, part of her wanted to have her techs see what the systems were like. Still, that could come another time. For now she issued orders back to the controllers she had preparing for Gir Quee's arrival send back landing assignments for a shuttle in one of their hangers. Or if needed where the Vinnath could set up a docking tube along the station.

Soon enough they could get to business on what she needed from him and who he was associated with to bring the Noblesse class warship to fruition. The frame was already being constructed, and that was hardly much work just timely. The reactors, two Proton-8 reactors of Rendili's design (A reactor that is 1/4 the size of old destroyers I-a2b reactors but could supply all the power), was expensive and tedious to put together so that was still underway. However, what was needed was the joint work together to get the last few systems she desired for the new ship line. Specifically the linear accelerator cannon she had her teams developing to match the hypervelocity gun the Sith's Darkblade wielded, and a anti-concussion field generator she wanted on her Noblesse to increase its durability.

So she wasted no time heading down to where Gir Quee would embark on Rendili Stardrive's station. Where the first of the individuals to help her in this endeavor would arrive.

 

[Tricia Kalamack]

[member="Camellia Swift"] [member="Gir Quee"]

Tricia's defender came out of hyperpsace, she had told two of the jedi to take her there to help out or something she was sleeping and rolled over in her bunk onto a telekinetic disc of force energy while she scratched her backside and one of the padawans came in. "Ah master Tricia we are near Rendili do you want to talk to them?" Her eyes shot open as the tri-colored eyes flicked around blinking away the sleep and she spoke. "I'll talk I suppose, these are the ones who provide the pudding for the order right?" The padawan looked at her and she spoke. "That was a joke, these are clearly the ones who handle something..." She touched her feet to the metal floor as the chill came to her and Tricia rolled her shoulders going to the console while the padawan chased after her. "Ah master your modesty." Tricia took the robe and activated the com while she stood there scratching her chest for a moment leaving the robe opened. "This is master Tricia I'm here for someone to help."

 

[Gir Quee]

Vinnath-class Pocket Carrier Crescent Light, Rendili StarDrive station

As the Light drifted towards the hangar, most of the bridge crew spared glances at the massive vessel being to taking shape in front of them. Gir knew little about the specifics of ship design, except for the Light, which he commanded, but even he could make out the bulbous shape of some sort of reactor along with the beginnings of the frame. But while he managed to keep his focus on the documents in front of him, others had not.

“Are they building a warship, or superweapon?” questioned Toka, eying the bones of the massive superstructure.

“Well, we could use one...”

“That’s enough,” said Gir, finally looking up from his console, “we don’t know what that really is yet. For all we know, that’s something else, and not why I’m here. Maybe that’s a new type of transport that will carry thousands of troops to retake Alderaan, and not a real warship. Who really knows for sure?”

“Well sir, I doubt it,” said Toka, “but your point still stands.”

“Thank you Mr. Toka, that will be all.”

The normally talkative mon calamari quickly clammed up, leading the rest of the bridge crew in uncharacteristically quiet mood. Gir turned his attention back to the documents. Setting up Lucerne Labs into the semblance of a normal company had proven to be a nightmare, even with Salmakk’s influence. If a company was supposed to be a human, he was fairly certain that he had managed to get it to the bantha stage. They had been fairly good about quickly coming up with improvements of existing technology on their own, but this venture would be different. They would be working with a different company, which meant that much of the free-wheeling creative culture of the Labs would have to been somewhat reigned in on to ensure that production deadlines would be met. Gir almost wished that Salmakk’s proposed design solicitation for an anti-concussion field generator hadn’t met with success. They were still a young company just barely walking in some ways, and yet here they were, working with one of the titans of the industry. He reread Salmakk’s submission solicitation once more, ensuring that he had a reasonably firm grasp of the concepts at play.

Anti-concussion field generators were commonplace, even on tramp freighters thousands of years ago. It made sense, as micro-meteorites and a host of even the smallest space debris smacking into a ship’s hull could obliterate it just by the kinetic energy built up by its sheer velocity. Most existing generators of this sort had been so commonplace to be overlooked as ancient, mature technology. But history spoke of a far more powerful version installed on a tyrannical government’s prison to protect it from assault. That generator had been capable of warding off fleets of warship firepower or rogue asteroid strikes. How Salmakk and his motley team had managed to recreate that technology was a mystery to him, even if they had somehow managed to scrounge up part of the technology blueprints, a likelihood given many of their student members had access to university data on such old technology. But he was sure it would be a simple reconstruction of that device, or simply overpowered version of the more commonplace one. No, Lucerne Labs innovated and improved technology, but it did not blatantly copy it.

“Feeling nervous sir?” asked Toka quietly, popping up behind him.

“A little,” admitted Gir, “look Toka, I’m sorry if I came across as being a bit irritable. I’ve got a lot on my mind right now, and well…”

“I understand sir.”

“Thanks,” said Lieutenant Quee, “it looks like we’ve docked. I’m heading down to meet her. Inform me if anything comes up while I’m away. All right?”

“Yes sir.”

 

[Jaxon Wyatt]

[member="Camellia Swift"]

Day before the gathering, Rendili Testing Field:

A single Rendili Starfighter tumbled alone through space, its seemingly erratic maneuvers giving the impression that it was out of control. That was far from the case though, as dozens of adjustments were being made to the ship each second. Diverting power between the engines, shields and weapons system according to when it was either optimal to dodge, block, or attack, respectively. Constantly fiddling with the output and thrust vectors to perform rolls and tight loops with such rapid succession that it could even make a onlooker nauseous, nevermind the state of a pilot. However, in the cockpit, Jax was the picture of serenity, his breathing slow and measured, and his hands neatly folded in his lap away from the yoke and throttle. He didn't even have his eyes open, as information from the fighter was being directly fed cyborg's brain through a cable attached from his neck to the computer console.

In his simulation, he had to snipe at orbs zipped around him, unable to be attacked until they materialized to strike. There was always multiple orbs that materialized, so he had to mind avoiding damage while still trying to attack a fleeting opponent. The conditions of the simulator accurately represented the type of environment that starfighter experienced during heavy fleet engagements. However, no matter how hard he trained, Jax acknowledged that flying a space saturated with millions of beams, slugs, and missiles involved just as much luck as skill. Still never hurt to try to improve your chances though, that's why he was still around now.

After a couple hours, he finished the simulation with a new personal record. Not since manning his first X-Wing 30 years ago, had he felt so comfortable in a fighter. Rendili had really stepped up their game in the past few years under their new leadership. The manufacturer was now on his shortlist to help him with a personal project he was working on, but that wasn't the reason he had come to Rendili today. While he considered starfighters the backbone of the fleet, good starships were just as vital, and now the Republic Navy was lacking a suitable replacement for the FUBAR that had been the Watt's line. He had some contributions to make to the project, and hoped the collaboration between Rendili and the sharpest military of the Republic would produce some developments to improve the Republic Fleets as a whole.

----------------------------

Present Day:

Jax had long traded his flightsuit for his dress blues as for the gathering. He was accompanied by a small entourage of engineers from Tezmond Solutions. Based in Chaandar, he have let them hitch a ride on his corvette on the way to Rendili. They were there to help develop weapon systems and share their research on some new munitions. He had also come with a small flight of Xetese pilots acting as his security detail, but he had granted them unofficial leave after they had arrived to the station without a hitch. It could be the last time they would be seeing a glimpse of the Core for a long time. While he had a list of the other attendees of the gathering, he had never worked with any of them personally. usually stuck out in his little corner of the Outer Rim. Hapes was where he was born, but he considered the Outer Rim his real home, his wife and children living on Dac.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Jaxon Wyatt"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Slate Estrada"] [member="Blackhot"] [member="Tricia"]

Rendili was stepping up their game, that was why all those people were being invited to come and participate in this next grand undertaking. Because despite their adherence to quality, Rendili knew its renewed product lines still lacked sufficient capabilities. For one, despite the atmospheric edge and heavy ion cannon the Rendili Starfighter boasted over the classic X-Wing, there were fighters in production from other companies that were more powerful than the average snub fighter on the block. Secondly because many of the designs from Kuat Drive Yards and Tenloss filled the Republic ranks despite their age and exploited weaknesses, although Camellia would be the first to admit some filled roles no Rendili warship did yet.

But there was no role left within the Republic's ranks to replace the decommissioned Watts class Baktoid had once built for the Navy.

So Rendili Stardrive had every intention of filling that abandoned post with the Noblesse class. Hopefully, hopefully with the three individuals who had arrived so far and the others to come, they could make the ship a reality. They would all be directed to meet in the hanger Gir Quee had also had his vessel guided to dock near. Right next to the construction berths where the first of the Noblesse class was being constructed. Where it could be seen being put together, along with the first of the two Proton-8 reactors which would be buried deep within the superstructure. If one looked closely as well, where there was a lack of frame within the center of the ship just below the reactor that ran from stem to stern, they might consider it strange there appeared to be no compartments or sections along that way. Because in fact it would be the space where the Linear Accelerator Cannon, a giant Railgun essentially, would run through the ship to act as the main cannon. A weapon to match the Hypervelocity guns, a form of Coilgun if one was aware, that were used on so many other ships.

Standing in the hanger where her guests were arriving, Camellia smiled as Quee's Vannath Pocket Carrier enter the bay, along with the shuttle carrying Jedi Master Tricia and her associates, and not to mention the group of Tezmond engineers looking to contribute as well. Communications would open as each likely started to leave their ships. "Welcome to Rendili Stardrive everyone. Those of you called here today may have something of an idea why en enterprising shipwright may have called you out here, others of you may not be aware just yet. I will do my best to elaborate, but first I hope that all of you had a pleasant trip out there, and if you all desire we can more comfortably speak in a diplomatic suite here on the station before showing you the project up close."

 

[Tricia Kalamack]

Tricia looked at them all as she stood there and guessed her part, she had been throwing with Siobhan Kerrigan ships around when battles broke out and on Drunkenwell threw section of the shipyards as they dropped down. She was here more then likely to throw things around and see if someone like her or Siobhan could give the ship a bad day. They had thrown lucrehulks at each other for fun on Atrisia. "Well I'll be here, just tell me when you need me to throw people around or scrub their memories so they don't remember building your special ship."

 

[Gir Quee]

[member="Camellia Swift"]

Gir strolled out of the airlock that connected the Crescent Light with the shipyard, hearing Camellia's words echo through the station's local loudspeakers as he moved to join the group. Unlike many of them there, Gir was no engineer. No, the man from Hast was merely a representative, though he knew his brother's technical work relatively well despite not being an engineer himself. He rounded several corridors and exited a blast door before he joined the group. He quietly slid in behind a pair of engineers from Tezmond Solutions. I guess we'll be moving to that Diplomat Suite soon.

 

[Taran Holt]

All things considered, Taran wasn't entirely sure what he was doing here. He was hardly a technical specialist, and he had a pile of senatorial work that Avadar Kellam had dumped on him at the last minute. Give with one hand take with another, eh? That was how things worked in the senate, and no doubt Avadar thought that with Anaxes as the temporary capital he was now tremendously important. The old bastard would get his comeuppance eventually, but for now there were more important things to deal with.

Time passed slowly, so Taran took to reviewing the tablet with the scant briefing information he had. Something about filling the gaps in the Republic Navy's ranks and weapon design. Great, subjects he did not know or care to know about. At least the young Captain in charge of the whole thing was cute. Always got to look on the bright side, you know? Suddenly the fact that he was still wearing full senatorial regalia was a stroke of luck. How awkward would it have been to try and make smalltalk with someone you had to salute? Well, at least he could provide assurances that Anaxes shipyards would be ready to support the project if necessary. As if they had something more important to do than churn out warships to confront the Sith.

A chime sounded, indicating the shuttle had left hyperspace and was headed into the Rendili system. It was the queue for Taran to start digging through his things for his ribbons. He had packed them, right?

 

[Jaxon Wyatt]

(([member="Camellia Swift"]: As long as you're getting one or two responses per cycle, then just keep posting. Despite me barely having internet for a while, I'll make this thread my top priority.))

From inside the hangar where the group had assembled, Jax caught his first glimpse of two ships of the Noblesse class already in construction. Well, the first time in the flesh anyway; he had insisted on at least be sent a barebones schematic of the designs before he had been willing to leave his fleet to come down all the way to the Core. Usually working with nothing larger than frigates or light cruisers, the Noblesse was much bigger than he was used to. However, there was much to like about the design. It started with that giant main gun that basically served as the base of the ship. A 1000 meter gun, powered by those proprietary Rendili reactors, could easily knock out another starship with one direct hit. If used for planetary bombardment, then it could easily vaporize even the most entrenched encampments - or maybe a mega-city at once. He would probably never see himself commanding one of these monsters, but the basic principles behind the design could be scaled down for other uses.

"Thank you for inviting me, and let our collaboration be fruitful."

He walked up to shake hands with the young executive and officer, returning her smile with an easy grin of his own. Usually the one to be towering over people, like the Xetese engineers in his company, Captain Swift actually had a couple inches on him in her boots.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Jaxon Wyatt"] [member="Taran Holt"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Tricia"] [member="Slate Estrada"] [member="Blackhot"]

They would indeed be heading to the diplomatic suite soon, but first a pair of updates reached Camellia to make her aware of certain situations first. First of which was the arrival of Senator Taran Holt in-system, a bit of good news considering a Senator's support on the project would go a long way in pushing the Noblesse design to become an approved naval warship for the Republic. The second was the announcement of an update from Rendili Stardrive's engineering team, stating that the Linear Accelerator Cannon, the aforementioned overly large and generously powered railgun, had been completed off site in the test zone that had been scouted out for safe operation to fire the weapon. It was a lot of work to have the weapon taken out there, constructed by itself, and powered by its own generators, just to fire a few times before being taken apart. Especially since it would be a bit underpowered compared to the on ship model, but she wanted the general idea to get across.

"It's a pleasure to have all of you here Mr. Wyatt. If everyone would follow me then though. I'd like to have everyone join me within the diplomatic suite so we can begin the presentation on why everyone has been gathered here. Most of our discussion there will cover the basis of a class of warship Rendili Stardrive is considering producing in bulk for the Republic, should it find such a vessel encourage. At the very least we intend to make one. Here's to hoping this project is everything everyone might be hoping for." Smiling to her guests, Camellia signaled them to follow her as she headed toward the hanger exit that would lead them down the hallway to a diplomatic suite prepared ahead of time. An aide was awaiting them at the exit where Camellia paused only a moment to tell the other woman to inform Senator Holt of the matter at hand and to lead him to them when he docked. Hopefully by the time everyone sat and was offered refreshments he would arrive.

 

[Jaxon Wyatt]

Jax took a seat in one of the cushy armchairs, not minding much if his uniform got ruffled as he relaxed back into it. His Xetese companions sat beside him to the left, chattering amongst themselves in their native tongue. His current suit of neural implants came with a powerful translator tool that deciphered their words in real time. Unsurprisingly, much of their conversation revolved around what they had seen so far. While they liked the idea of the gun being built into the superstructure, they were concerned with the fact that a railgun setup had been chosen.

By design, the rails would be pushed apart due to Lorentz forces, and the rails themselves would expand in size as they were heated by friction and electricity. This could prove to be highly problematic as the gun basically served as the spine of the ship, creating incredible internal stresses. Another issue was that railguns were prone to rapid erosion as armatures grinded down rails, not to mention the additional heat stress as the armature was vaporized into plasma. Servicing the gun or replacing It completely required digging into the very core of the superstructure, which could mean very lengthy and expensive maintenance cycles. Hopefully Swift would address their concerns in her presentation, or they would bring it up themselves.

He made a notes from their conversation as he accepted a tall mug of mocaccino from one of the lovely attendants. A sweet blend of premium espresso, chocolate, milk and sugar. It was a rare treat for the captain, his diet for the past few months consisting exclusively of rations and prepackaged food reheated in cafeterias as "hot" meals (something he could have accomplished himself with an electric stove or chem bag). With that said, the food wasn't bad...it just wasn't particularly good either, not when you when you had to eat it every single day. He had heard of Tezmond working on a new method of producing and distributing fresh ingredients. If that was the case, he would become one of their most ardent lobbyists for procurement.

[member="Camellia Swift"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir quietly ambled in everyone else's wake. He spared a glance at the massive starship frame, his sapphire blue eyes settling on the central framing which would house a railgun of some sort. His mind drifted back to his last experience with such a weapon, with the duros engineer Gai exuberantly demonstrating his creation to everyone. Yet Gir wondered how Gai would look at such a much larger weapon. His faint exposure to the engineering world had demonstrated to him that scale did not change the fundamental laws of science. Rather, it only tangled even more laws together. His mind drifted to the pronged-shaped barrel of the weapon that Gai had designed. Lucerne Lab's own version had to occasionally their Gadolinium-derived rails replaced periodically, but that was a relatively simple barrel swap that could be performed by astromech droids or crewmembers in vacuum suits. He guessed that this new starship would have access tunnels that would allow sections of the rail to be replaced at a time, rather that a continuous kilometer long rail. Gir guessed that such as a task would require a shipyard-sized facility or at the very least another large craft with a tractor beam projector. He shrugged the thoughts away and settled in the diplomatic suite like many of the other delegates.

 

[Tricia Kalamack]

[member="Gir Quee"] [member="Jaxon Wyatt"] [member="Camellia Swift"] [member="Taran Holt"]

Tricia listened and nodded her head for that. Well new ships were always welcomed she supposed though while she walked her mind was bouncing around and bored so she just hovered with the force while she sat in mid air slightly rotating in the back. "New ships are pretty but..." She gave a yawn. "Tiring, just tell me where to throw things and we'll see given how many ships were scrapped and thrown away that have been in service already I think next time I blink someone will be trying to make better versions of these." She said it to no one more herself and was looking at the humans while going into the room. Only things that came to her mind were how unremarkable most of this was having fought on Valen when the need for new ships had been there against the axis.... though they had destroyed themselves and crumpled now they were just trying to make new things to replace all that had been thrown away for nothing. Even she wasn't that far gone mentally she'd throw away functioning things for nothing.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Jaxon Wyatt"] [member="Tricia"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Taran Holt"] [member="Slate Estrada"] [member="Blackhot"]

Everyone was indeed correct, and they would be told such soon enough once Camellia began to explain everything to them, but for now she would begin with introductions and their reasons for being here. Once they were all within the diplomatic suite, which was stocked with refreshments beforehand seeing as they could be there a while, from water to fine wins to that swill of Corellian Ale, Rendili Stardrive's CEO would begin her presentation on the Noblesse class Light Destroyer. A new warship for the Republic, a battleship that would crush all but the heftiest of enemy vessels. Something that was an expensive enough undertaking to warrant the support of the individuals she called upon who could both push the bill for the Republic, as well as support the other components of the design.

So she would look them all in the eyes with a gentle smile, thanking them for arriving as she gave each of them a nod, before she started speaking once they were all settled. "Again I would like to thank all of you for coming, and Master Tricia especially for her early comments on this project's relevance. As many of you likely know, the Republic has had a number of contracts with the Baktoid company. However, after the incident at Druckenwell and the revelation of their killswitches on all their products, many of the designs purchased and utilized by the Republic from Baktoid have been decommissioned. Now I do not know how many of you follow the manifest for our Naval Forces, but a chief warship among the ranks was the Watts class Heavy Cruiser, a Baktoid design no longer fielded or produced for the Republic Navy. Again I am unsure how many of you are aware of the Sith's forces either, but their own Navy fields an utterly destructive warship labeled the Darkblade class Light Star Destroyer. It currently outclasses any ship the Republic can put out into the field except the very largest, and the only ship we had coming close was the Watts class. Since they've been decommissioned with Baktoid's decline, we are left at an immense disadvantage against the One Sith in space combat whenever they deploy a Darkblade. I assume this allows you all to begin to understand where I am intending to go with the discussion now yes? There is a gap in our armed forces with the loss of several of our heavy warships due to baktoid's poor practices, and to that end Rendili Stardrive is looking to fill that role with a new design. The Noblesse."

She would wait for them to all have the information sink in so she didn't overload them. Camellia hardly wanted to go into the specifics of the Darkblade design, and her potential specs for the Noblesse design, right after providing the opening speech.

 

[Jaxon Wyatt]

[member="Camellia Swift"]

He didn't know much about the Darkblade in detail, but if the Noblesse was to be used as an indicator of its destructive capability, then that was worrisome indeed. Swift seemed confident that her ships could match these Darkblades, but he wanted details on their design to make his own assessment. Wings and flotillas weren't going to be cruising around with heavy warships, so they would need alternate methods to deal with a Darkblade if they had the extreme misfortune of coming across one.

"Can you provide more information about the Darkblade? What is it about this ship that has some people shaking in their boots? Then, what features of the Noblesse do you think makes it a worthy contender?"

 

[Gir Quee]

[member=Camellia Swift"] [member="Jaxon Wyatt"]

Gir quietly watched the proceedings. While he had never encountered a Darkblade class, he had heard rumors of it. A star destroyer like ship with impossibly thick defenses and some sort of central projectile cannon capable of quickly ruining most other capital starships. He didn't know if he should put much stock into mere rumor though, wondering what Republic Intelligence had managed to concretely glean about the vessel. Gir narrowed his eyes briefly. But even rumors often contain a grain of salt...

 

[Caid Centurion]

Caid traveled in a fitted business suite for this particular 'assignment'. The tall naval officer had been detached from a recent but fortunately brief stint commanding one of the Jedi Order's Praxeum vessels. While Caid did not ordinarily keep much awareness on the tempo and pulse of politics within the Republic Military, it had recently become clear to him that he would have no other choice. After reporting to the convoluted and admittedly ransacked office that passed for Republic Military Command, Caid had quite unceremoniously been told that he was being assigned to a planetside pre-commissioning unit. Upon further questioning and discussion, Caid learned it was for a new Expeditionary Assault Group - the first of its kind in recent years.

Following the passing of the Military Expansion Act by the Republic Senate, the Senate had, effectively, directed the creation of the new unit. A small congregation of Senators and other politicians had apparently pushed ahead in selecting individuals that would push the effort forward. Caid recognized...nobody on the list, but he was not terribly surprised by that reality. Sure...he'd probably heard a few of the names here and there from various initiatives, but he'd never met any of the individuals. Well...apparently that would be changing today.

Trailed by a number of assistants and political aides, Caid exhaled heavily. This 'new job' was already much more politically charged than your typical vessel or Line command, but he supposed that he shouldn't have been surprised at all. They were running late largely because of some issues that had arisen on Anaxes prior to their departure some days prior. He didn't arrive in the system with some fleet as, for the most part, he was still working on allocating the necessary resources. Caid had held off on notifying any of the other members for that precise reason...officers would be drawn in as necessary.

Reaching the diplomatic suite, Caid motioned for his entourage to remain behind. His flag aide handed him a briefing folder which he accepted with a subtle nod of the head. Pushing open the doors, Caid closed them quietly behind him before making his way to an empty seat. Silver-green eyes swept the visages of those assembled as he settled down, opened the briefing packet, and gave his full attention to [member="Camellia Swift"]. Caid had, unfortunately, not been invited by the corporation directly. He had instead been directed to attend. While it would make sense that the Senate sent notification of his participation, he did not rely on such an assumption. His office had sent over a notice of intent to participate anyways. No doubt the command wouldn't have been recognized since it barely existed.

 

[Camellia Swift]

[member="Jaxon Wyatt"] [member="Tricia"] [member="Gir Quee"] [member="Taran Holt"] [member="Slate Estrada"] [member="Blackhot"] [member="Caid Centurion"]

In all honesty Camellia was paying little mind to people appearing late, who would be approached by one of the company's own aides who would repeat and fill in any information they had missed by coming into the diplomatic suite after the fact. Which wasn't much at the moment, honestly the only concern was really for the senator Taran Holt. Caid Centurion's arrival at all wasn't entirely unexpected. A notice had indeed been received by Rendili Stardrive's offices, however, that didn't mean it wasn't considered a surprise or oddity that he did. Personally Camellia knew very little about the man now sitting in the room as she gave her presentation, but she did know he was rather. . . .in the know about what was going on in the upper echelons nowadays.

All the same though, whatever meaning his participation had to offer would wait to be figured out later. Mr. Wyatt had just so kindly gave her the very opening that Camellia had been wanting desperately to move things forward. She would give him a nod of thanks and acknowledgement as she answered. "Certainly. The One Sith's Darkblade Class Star Destroyer is approximately a one thousand meter ship abouts from reports, with power readings and hull blister verification from sensor readings indicating upwards of eight hundred capital class weaponry, mostly turbolasers, with several ports identified in various encounters as heavy warhead launchers. Smaller protrusions along the surface of the craft may be light defensive emplacements, but we are unsure as some of our calculations may mistake them for sensors or other components. Combat has also shown that the craft is heavily shielded, redundant class we assume, perhaps even containing a backup generator. I encountered a pair of these vessels at Kuat during a brief and clumsy skirmish that went nowhere, but never got that far myself against them. However, the most frightening aspect of these ships is that they each bear a ship mounted variant of a hypervelocity gun, with rather frightening range and power output. The only things that we know its weak at is that it lacks fighter support of its own and is rather slow."

Now she knew that since most of these people had at least a minor say in military matters that they knew what a Hypervelocity Gun was. But briefly glancing over it certainly wouldn't hurt as she began. "To that end I have begun to put the design of the Noblesse into the works. I fully intend to have this ship match the Darkblade, and perhaps even then some! It will be equipped with two, though perhaps we could get more depending on the budget, Proton-8 Reactors. These are a Rendili designed reactor that match the output of the I-a2b that Kuat ran for the original Imperial Star Destroyers, but at one fourth of the size. Essentially this means these reactors take up much less space on the ship, but still generate enough power to run a 1600 meter destroyer. By employing both these on the Noblesse, I hope to power the same amount of shields as the Darkblade, but also allow it to be faster and field a anti-concussion field generator which I hope to request be supplied by Lucerne Labs should the Republic support the project. Thus the Noblesse will be much more durable and resistant to damage, especially from the Projectile Coilgun that is the Hypervelocity Cannon the Darkblade uses. In addition to match that Hypervelocity Cannon it is my intention to install a Railgun, Linear Accelerator Cannon, into the framework of the Noblesse. In essence a weapon to match theirs. I will answer any questions on this if there are any before I continue."