A Nova Upgrade

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Reshmar"] [member="Noah Corek"] [member="Ordo"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Shortly after the first meeting of potential investors and designers, the Admiral took aside half of the group and led them to an adjacent meeting room…or directed their holo-calls there. Whichever was the case.
“Thank you all for your willingness to work with me here. The Nova Cannon has the potential to be the most powerful ship-mounted weapon in the galaxy currently in use. It will also not be powerful enough to destroy planets, I do not want this temptation to hang over this project. Furthermore, I chose those people in this group for their reliability and ability to handle secrets. In the wrong hands this could be a dangerous weapon indeed.”

“So, the basics are included in your notes. This weapon is essentially a 1/64th scale Death Star laser. Now, 1/64th scale might not sound impressive, but considering the unimaginable power needed to destroy a planet, even a 64th of that is more than enough to severely hurt an enemy ship.”

“What I require for this weapon to become a reality is two things. Firstly I need some rather specific items. I need a class-seven power regulator to control and channel the energy safely. I have schematics and materials, but I lack the facility to manufacture it. I suspect that Lady Kerrigan might be able to assist here.”

“Next, I require a temporary mounting ship. Basically, we will be putting it on a temporary craft for testing before transferring over to my final destination. Reshmar and Ordo, I was hoping you might have a ship I could use. It would need to be a ship at least a kilometre long with minimal shield and power draws. This ship will essentially become a giant test cannon.”

“Finally, Mr Corek, I was hoping you might be able to find me some targeting and weapon specialists. Your position with the Pyre and the Protectorate allows you access to some quality staff, and I believe you could procure just who I need.”

“Are there any questions? My second in command will be on call through all of this to assist in any way possible.”

(The plan for this thread is to have 2-3 posts each getting the required doodads, then bring everyone together for a demonstration after a time skip. If I can get 15-20 posts I will consider this a success. Don’t get any more technical than you want, just keep it vague where needed.)

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]


Another day, another business meeting, another weapons project. Siobhan was attending via holocom, which was always a convenient way to do business. Personally Siobhan could see some use in a planet-killing superweapon, such as against Vong planets. Seriously, they did not count as people! Then again, history showed that none of the Empire's superweapons ever seemed to achieve anything.


Anyhow, manufacturing facilities and class-seven power regulator. Fair enough. Siobhan did not have much of a clue about complex technological design, but that's why she had smart people like Elanil Saedaris working for her, who could understand the technobabble and design fancy toys for her. Supposedly the death star's superlaser had been powered by a Force crystal, which sounded like magitek out of Warhammer to her.


"Firemane has adequate facilities that will be up to the task. Transmit the schematics and design plans for the power regulator to us, and I'll get my people on the project," she said smoothly, taking a sip from her water glass. The facilities on Mandalore and Arkas should do fine. Arkas was sort of run by Firemane anyway and the planet was still quite primitive, so secrecy could be assured.

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
“Thank you, Lady Kerrigan,” the Admiral said, nodding.

“The weapon itself will only be mountable on a Light Destroyer or larger. It has roughly the same power draw as 500 turbolasers, which as you can imagine is a substantial amount. Thus, the power regulator Ms Kerrigan is designing. When tapping a dam it is vital that one does not either drain the dam at once nor release too much of the pressure so that a rupture is caused.”

“It is my belief that this weapon will be completely unusable against any ships smaller than a Destroyer. The time needed to charge, aim and fire make firing at smaller targets unproductive. The power drain will also prevent the ship firing other weapons during the charging and cooling period. However, the results should be devastating enough for this not to be a problem.”

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]


Having received the schematics, Siobhan logged off and excited the conference. Well, it was a rather quiet meeting so far, but whatever. Anyhow, some time was spent consulting with researchers. Once you translated their science talk into actual Basic, the concept was not that difficult to grasp.


The giant cannon would be tapping into the ship's reactor. One could imagine it like a reservoir with a large pump. The repulsor would be the valve that tapped the energy and directed it to the big gun in safe amounts. Ergo it would have to be able to unleash the power, but in safe amounts, then close off so that it did not get overloaded or drain all of the rest of the ship's vital systems. After all, it would be very embarassing if your super cannon fired once...and then everyone aboard because it had drainef your life support.


Heavy risks...but the priize. Many things could go wrong unless they got the details right. She quickly made her way to a Firemane factory where she was supposed to meet her wife, Tegaea Alcori. On the way she turned thoughtful, though less because of the technical details and more due to the destructive power the Nova cannon might have. How big an asteroid could it blast?

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
Tegaea Alcori had received the schematics by the time Siobhan returned. She had some of her technicians and scientists waiting.

“Welcome back,” she said to Siobhan. “Staff, as you can see, the regulator is merely a larger sized version of what we have in place for existing capital ships. Where those divert small amounts of power for weapons or shields, this has to divert a controlled steam of power for a small amount of time.”

The technical details of the discussion which followed mostly went over Tegaea’s head, and presumably Siobhan’s too. They hired eggheads who knew this stuff.

So whilst the scientists and researchers argued and drew lines on blueprints, Tegaea took her wife aside.
“I’m wondering if you’ve considered the applications for this weapon regarding Kaeshana’s…problem?” she asked quietly.
The exodus was in full swing, but with only a couple of months until judgement day this might give them some way of mitigating the crisis, though likely not prevent it entirely.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar sit listening to Stahlmann describe his vision for the project then ask him and Ordo about Test platforms for the weapon. The shipyards had ships in the mothball fleet which were large enough and would be suitable for the project but it was the sheer power of the weapon which gave him pause. To mount such a weapon as a spinal mounted system was the easy part. to keep the ship together when it fired was another story.

"Admiral, I believe the shipyards can facilitate the needed platform Unless Mr. Ordo had something else in mind. I feel I must raise caution here at this point."

Reshmar keyed a sequence into his datapad and a hologram popped up in the center of the room.

"Just a rough estimate at the power consumption of such a weapon and the tensile force it would exert upon the star ship frame, Here you see the weapon, though energy based, will exert a considerable amount of kinetic and inertial force upon the hull. The yards could recommission an old hull from our reserves for the project but it or any ship we used to test this weapon would need considerable reworking of the internal framework to make such a weapon viable."

Reshmar entered another set of commands and a image of an old cruiser which had been maintained as a reserve training vessel. The ships hologram rotated them zoomed in.

"I believe we could re-enforce the central cross structures here and here, and then add a shock system to limit the force radiated from the weapon itself. Outside this I can not recommend to the shipyards we have any part in the project. Stabilization and survivability of the host vessel and its crew would be the foremost concern of the shipyards if we undertook this project."

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Reshmar"]
“A very good point, Mr Reshmar. I agree with your analysis. Additional strengthening of the hull struts will be required. Additionally, I think if we added some quadranium steel reinforcement as well it would be for the best. We will also need to ensure that the power flow does not cause excessive heat. Do you have something which could be used to dissipate the heat? A ceramic shielding or such?”

Along with stress, the weapon might well create large amounts of heat which would cook any crew in the vicinity unless the heat was somehow negated.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

Reshmar nodded as Stahlmann spoke then looked over a list of items on his pad. There it was, ample stock available. Many alloys would work as the framework of the mount but he knew of two which would be more suited and more importantly were in stock at the shipyard.

"Quardarnium would be a good choice for a mount but I think I have an alternative. The shipyard has a large stockpile of Dallorian and Hadrium. These would offer a stable heat frame with better heat resistance than Quadranium. while not as strong we could use a double strut system to make up for any loss we may see from not using the quadranium. As for the dissipation, I will have to crunch some numbers but I believe we have something that will work."

Reshmar looked over the scrolling text on the pad then selected a set of invoice numbers and material tests.

"In a perfect world Besker would be the best choice but as it is not available. I think i have another option. If we could have someone locate enough Dunite, we could make an ablative heatshield that could dissipate the amount of heat are expecting. Perhaps a cellular heat shield with layers of Hadrium and Dunite. the Hadrium would offer a stronger structure and dissipate a portion of the heat while layers of Dunite would carry the heavy lifting so to speak. I would also recommend a thermal shielding system also, this would work as a backup to contain any heat not dissipated by the ablative heatshield."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Siobhan was happy for the technobabble to be over. Especially since most of the eggheads were just your usual scientists and did not look like Miranda Lawson or Elanil Saedaris! However, she turned quiet and serious when her wife took her aside.


"I was thinking about it on the way," she said with a sigh. "The power of the cannon is impressive...but it's not a death star laser. We can probably mitigate the crisis a lot, but not spare Kaeshana from destruction. But it's a shot." She did not want to give in to potentially false hope. The dilemma remained that the elves might just be fleeing to Tygara so that they could later fall to Sith tyranny...but by all accounts their homeworld was doomed. "I say use it. If it gets finished in time."

 

[Tegaea Alcori]

[member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]
“It’s worth a try though. I fear it will merely break it up into pieces, but we have to attempt it.”

Meanwhile, the scientists had come to their conclusions.
“Directors, we believe we have found a solution,” the lead researcher said. “We believe that by combining the ARGH graphite reinforcement with liquid nitrogen cooling we can produce a power regulator which accurately distributes the power and releases it safely. My thoughts are that this particular regulator should be able to accurately access and contain the energy required. We believe a second reactor will be necessary specifically for this purpose though.”

Tegaea turned to Siobhan. “Just as well Tempest retrieved the designs for that new reactor then, yes? I’m accepting what they say at face value as I don’t understand the specifics, but is there anything you can think of that we need?”

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Reshmar"]
Stahlmann nodded. This was why he had convened this meeting; to allow ideas from outside the box to emerge.
“I agree with your proposal, Mr Reshmar. If you are able to put this into production I feel like we will have a good chance of pulling this off. Is there anything else in the design you feel needs to be tweaked?”

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"]

Reshmar paused and thought about the project overall. The power from the core would be borderline unstable even if they got a working regulation system. Heat was a factor but he felt confident they would get the issue in hand. Radiation would also be an issue but that could be dealt with easily enough. The main issue was the kinetic and inertial force. Energy weapons had little to no recoil force when fired, most weapons smaller than a turbolaser had non. But something exerting this much energy could in some cases work like a photonic laser thruster. Starship have no real limitations to tractor force, and weapons of this caliber have never been tested on this small a scale. He feared the act of firing the weapon would move the mass of the vessel it was fitted to causing problems with targeting or worse.

"Admiral, I would like to bring up the issue of a dynamic stabilization system. I would suggest a series of micro thrusters be installed to stabilize the vessel when firing. While I am sure the weapon will fire, and with the modifications I have suggested to he structure the ship survive. I fear photonic thrust will be achieved when firing such a large amount of energy from such a small massed vessel."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Tegaea Alcori"]


Siobhan nodded to her wife. "We could use it in combination with the MD. Last I heard, Elanil ironed out the last technical issues. And conventional ships. Should produce smaller chunks," she said quietly. Probably still not enough to totally destroy the massive asteroid, but sufficient to mitigate the damage.


Then the senior scientist arrived and launched an artillery barrage of pure technobabble. Siobhan nodded along, for she was no researcher, though what was said sounded sensible enough. In response to Tegaea's query she shook her head. "I don't think so. Let's get the show on the road and test it. I'll have to promote Tempest soon. She's doing good work."

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Reshmar"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Ordo"] [member="Noah Corek"]
“A good idea. The installation of Inertial Compensators will also assist here I think,” the Admiral said with a nod.

Looking to them he nodded.
“Thank you, Mr Reshmar, Lady Kerrigan. I believe we are ready to begin manufacturing the first test.”

(Time-skip after your posts.)

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Reshmar sorted his pad and the notes he had taken and nodded back.

"Very well Admiral, I will see to it the test platform is brought out of the dry dock facility and made available for us to begin the modifications. It will take about seventy two hours before I can get the ship to one of our refit docks. But after that I expect the modifications to take no more then three weeks."

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Reshmar"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Time passed. Using the advanced manufacturing skills of the Dac shipyards and the ingenuity of Reshmar and Firemane, the weapon design proceeded.
In the end it came to be a weapon of considerable power mounted on a reinforced cruiser designed for this very purpose. This test ship would be naturally useless in battle but it would provide them a good testbed to work from.

And so, two weeks later both Reshmar and Siobhan were invited to come to an uninhabited system near Dac (in person or by holo) to witness the test of the Nova cannon.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"]

Reshmar had arrived in the system early to double check the systems and the modifications made to the cruiser. The work had gone rapidly and the canon mounting system had been completed a full week before scheduled completion date. Now they group would see if the work they had put into the system would pay off. He had thought about watching the demonstration from the safety of his personnel shuttle which might have been the better idea. But in the end he had faith in his design and in the Calamari technicians skills. He would see this through aboard the test ship.

"Ok, I need a go, no go for weapons test. Communications?

"Go."

"Tactical?"

"Go."

"Engineering?"

"Go."

"Weapon monitoring?"

"Go."

"Navigation?"

"Go."

"Damage Control?"

"Go."


Reshmar looked over the monitor one last time to see all systems were operating in tolerable limits and the weapon system was primed. The list was green and the weapon was charged. He unlocked the safety lock on the triggering system then initialized the final countdown.

"Admiral, All stations report Go for weapons test. All systems green and stable. You have a free trigger. Test will begin on your mark."

 

[Siobhan Kerrigan]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"], [member="Reshmar"]


And so it was time for a field test. Well, sort of since they lacked an actual enemy. Firemane had worked tirelessly to get the repulsor up and running, now they would hopefully be able to behold the fruit of their labours. On the appointed time Siobhan was on the bridge of the test cruiser, waiting for the final preparations to be made for the test firing.


For a change she had decided to wear uniform. It had taken some persuasion to convince her not to load it with medals. After it had been pointed out to her that it made her look like a tin pot dictator from a third world planet. Undoubtedly she would later punish Chesna for that comment, which was what the elf wanted!

 

[Kyrana Gould]

[member="Reshmar"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Noah Corek"]

And so it came to this, a test.

Putting together all the components, they had assembled the weapon on a slow, flat cruiser and moved it into position carefully. With Corek’s targeting and engineer crews they had found the right settings to calibrate the weapon to. With Reshmar’s design they had procured the test ship and installed the weapon. With Siobhan’s manufacturing they had made the weapon, and designed it knowing it would work first time.

It all came down to an anonymous moon light years from civilisation. As the cruiser came around, Stahlmann stood on the bridge and watched as the controls came online.
“Prepare primary ignition. Mr Corek, Mr Reshmar, Lady Kerrigan, your efforts have led us here. Watch and savour this moment….”

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Friedrich Stahlmann"] [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] [member="Reshmar"]

Noah sat in a chair on the bridge, he had 'convinced' three of the crewmen to give him, Gideon and Ilona their chairs, well he had basically glared at the three of them and they got the message pretty quickly.

Taking a swig from the canteen on the belt of his digitized grey and black camo fatigues Noah passed it around to Gideon and Ilona before getting in back and hanging it back on its holster, right next to one of his custom M9-T11's.

"Me and my guys and girls will savor it when our work actually comes to fruition Admiral. Until then we'll be content to sit here and watch and wait." Noah informed Stahlmann.