A hyperspace lane wasn't a contract, it wasn't a project it was an undertaking of such proportions it could simply seem impossible. Your standard hyperspace lane was simple enough, all it required was a land of travel that didn't come close enough to a gravity well strong enough to knock you out of hyperspace, and a force to patrol it. These perimeters weren't what was being asked of him though for this project. He was to design a number not one, but several hyperspace lanes, create automated patrols for them, secure the sites for local governmental powers, and so this without seeming a threat to local authority.
His first decision was how to patrol them, anything bigger then fighters would cause some looks from local governments, more so in those areas outside of major faction control. Local warlords and systems simply didn't feel comfortable with anything as big as a corvette so he'd have to work with something smaller. The decision to go droid was an easy on for him, it allowed him to do longer patrols, and in the end it was simply more effectiveness per credit. Instead of creating a new model though he decided to go with an one of the more successful combat models of old, the droid Tri-Fighter. It would need some updating, but with its agility and power it would be a strong deterrent for most pirate types. Add to it, its use of discord missiles would enable it to disable larger ships simply by taking out key systems without high causalities.
First he was going to need a facility though, and given his level of funding that part was just fun. Choosing a planet well out of the way, and as close to impossible to spy on as could be Makeb seemed to fit the bill quite well. Constructing the base on one of the stone pillar cities that lie below the cloud level Eamon had originally wanted to construct the base in the oceans of the water planet itself, but given the costs and the already high security of the lab he knew better then to attempt that task, for now. An enveloping shield was used to protect the base given the scope of the project and it's high value of equipment. While the base wasn't made to mass construct war droids, it was more then capable of designing military grade droids and other weapons of war. The real joy for Eamon though was his holo lab, a large room with several hundred holoprojectors which could allow large projects to be displayed and played with at ratio. Several solid-state hologram projectors also allowed the team to literally touch and feel the projects moving pieces around during the design phase.
While worked continued throughout the rest of the base it was this room in which the Tri-Fighter MK II was designed and redesigned. Removing the droid pilot an reinforced droid brain was put in the cockpit the ship itself now the droid agent. Attaching armored photoreceptors to all sides of the fighter along with condensed radiation sensors meant the fighter would be able to 'see' a ship even if it was hiding inside the light of a nearby star. Explosions and even most force user tricks would be rendered pointless as they had no effect on the radiation sensors. The trick had worked wonders for the Droideka models, and in space they would be just as useful.
The next choice had lead to quite the argument amongst the team, the exchange of ion cannons for the laser cannons. Coming to a compromise the center cannon was exchanged for an ion cannon, but the others remained cannons, and with the new energy output of a modern power source they packed a bigger punch. The engines were refitted with modern models, but the triple engine design left to allow the Tri-fighter to keep it's agility in combat. Able to pull maneuvers that would put an organic pilot unconscious the Tri-fighter could nearly twist in space by shutting off one engine and diverting to it's opposite.
The modern droid brain were still limited in functionality though, while it could do all the math in flight and map it all out well enough it had no instinct no understanding of how far an organic pilot was willing to go. To counter that the original model had been slaved into a control ship allowing all the fighters to work in unison with one another, but for a patrolling fighter this was out of the question. Instead a highly encrypted network was built between each wing of fighters, its high level of security made it so that only fighters inside of it's own 'wing' could access the program, but when inside they could work in perfect unison. With the advanced connections the droid brains would work to force a target inside of another fighter's firing zone. While each ship by itself could be beaten out by a seasoned pilot with a comparable ship the droid brains grew smarter due to greater combined processing power as more ships were added to a wing.
Adding on the military grade encrypted communication unit that would allow it to communicate with the hyperspace beacons and RI bases the new Tri-fighters turned out quite well in his opinion. It was an example of a rather excellent design simply updated with modern improvements. Licensing wasn't a problem with this model as no one had used this particular model in hundreds of years, besides his lab was outside of any factions political control, who was going to tell him no?
His first decision was how to patrol them, anything bigger then fighters would cause some looks from local governments, more so in those areas outside of major faction control. Local warlords and systems simply didn't feel comfortable with anything as big as a corvette so he'd have to work with something smaller. The decision to go droid was an easy on for him, it allowed him to do longer patrols, and in the end it was simply more effectiveness per credit. Instead of creating a new model though he decided to go with an one of the more successful combat models of old, the droid Tri-Fighter. It would need some updating, but with its agility and power it would be a strong deterrent for most pirate types. Add to it, its use of discord missiles would enable it to disable larger ships simply by taking out key systems without high causalities.
First he was going to need a facility though, and given his level of funding that part was just fun. Choosing a planet well out of the way, and as close to impossible to spy on as could be Makeb seemed to fit the bill quite well. Constructing the base on one of the stone pillar cities that lie below the cloud level Eamon had originally wanted to construct the base in the oceans of the water planet itself, but given the costs and the already high security of the lab he knew better then to attempt that task, for now. An enveloping shield was used to protect the base given the scope of the project and it's high value of equipment. While the base wasn't made to mass construct war droids, it was more then capable of designing military grade droids and other weapons of war. The real joy for Eamon though was his holo lab, a large room with several hundred holoprojectors which could allow large projects to be displayed and played with at ratio. Several solid-state hologram projectors also allowed the team to literally touch and feel the projects moving pieces around during the design phase.
While worked continued throughout the rest of the base it was this room in which the Tri-Fighter MK II was designed and redesigned. Removing the droid pilot an reinforced droid brain was put in the cockpit the ship itself now the droid agent. Attaching armored photoreceptors to all sides of the fighter along with condensed radiation sensors meant the fighter would be able to 'see' a ship even if it was hiding inside the light of a nearby star. Explosions and even most force user tricks would be rendered pointless as they had no effect on the radiation sensors. The trick had worked wonders for the Droideka models, and in space they would be just as useful.
The next choice had lead to quite the argument amongst the team, the exchange of ion cannons for the laser cannons. Coming to a compromise the center cannon was exchanged for an ion cannon, but the others remained cannons, and with the new energy output of a modern power source they packed a bigger punch. The engines were refitted with modern models, but the triple engine design left to allow the Tri-fighter to keep it's agility in combat. Able to pull maneuvers that would put an organic pilot unconscious the Tri-fighter could nearly twist in space by shutting off one engine and diverting to it's opposite.
The modern droid brain were still limited in functionality though, while it could do all the math in flight and map it all out well enough it had no instinct no understanding of how far an organic pilot was willing to go. To counter that the original model had been slaved into a control ship allowing all the fighters to work in unison with one another, but for a patrolling fighter this was out of the question. Instead a highly encrypted network was built between each wing of fighters, its high level of security made it so that only fighters inside of it's own 'wing' could access the program, but when inside they could work in perfect unison. With the advanced connections the droid brains would work to force a target inside of another fighter's firing zone. While each ship by itself could be beaten out by a seasoned pilot with a comparable ship the droid brains grew smarter due to greater combined processing power as more ships were added to a wing.
Adding on the military grade encrypted communication unit that would allow it to communicate with the hyperspace beacons and RI bases the new Tri-fighters turned out quite well in his opinion. It was an example of a rather excellent design simply updated with modern improvements. Licensing wasn't a problem with this model as no one had used this particular model in hundreds of years, besides his lab was outside of any factions political control, who was going to tell him no?