A Steel Hide

[Popo]

Popo's Diary

With the plans for the Republic-class underway, I decided to take a look-see at how exactly to protect it. Shields are great, but when they fail that leaves just the armor to cope with the damage. With a ship like this, the armor has to hold up to a brutal punishment. Why? Because when they go down the enemy sensors will spot it and everyone jumps in for the kill. This means the armor has to hold out against that kind of volume of fire. Doing this isn't so simple, though. Ultrachrome and Phrik and such would be perfect, but they're expensive and hard to get. That's not even taking into account the forging processes and application methods, or even repairs when it gets damaged. All of that means more cost, more taxpayer credits, and more time in production and for repairs.

So, I have to ask the questions of how to do it, how to make it, and how to maintain it. I've requested help from the Tenloss and Incom R&D departments. With their help along with my own know how, we should come up with something.

 

[Popo]

My own thoughts on the matter are both interesting and sobering. The obvious route is thick, heavy, durable armor. Problem is, while the stuff is technically weightless in space, it still has mass. Weight is just how heavy a thing is with gravitational pull. The ship isn't going into atmosphere, it's not designed to, so weight isn't a problem. Mass, however, is an issue. Too much mass, then the ship is far, far slower than the tentative schematics and designs determine. I don't need a three thousand meter speeder bike, but I don't want this thing moving like me when I fell through those wooden stairs and into the huge vat of honey that one time on Kuat a year or so ago. I could barely move enough to get out of vat. Hell, I barely made it out of the building to find water and soap to hose myself off. So, the key here is to find the proper mass to protection ratios. I think I'll set up a computer program to help out with that calculation. I know Tenloss R&D has something similar. I'll borrow that for the basis of the thing.

 

[Popo]

I managed to get a hold of the computer program that Tenloss R&D uses. It's pretty... basic, but I can work with it. I'll just have to broaden the parameters and increase the computing power. Once that's done I can build up on it and expand the program itself to incorporate the scale of the project. Simple enough in planning, but I expect it'll take a while to do. That's okay, though. I should have more to work with by the time it's done.

On a side note, Tenloss R&D sent some notes back. Not the greatest news, but at least I know the limit. They suggested that the possibility of removing the space from individual molecules or even atoms could create nearly impenetrable armor. The plus side? Good luck getting through it or even scratching the paint. Downside? It makes me look like a Zeltron bikini model. A nearly 1,000% increase in mass at least. I'll admit, it's tempting to do, but we're back at the "Hutt in a Honey Vat" issue. The ships would just be too slow to do much of anything short of making a star system look pretty and drawing in tourists. That said, I can take the idea and use it as an extreme end. Sort of balance the scale, so to speak. It's a start, at least.

 

[Popo]

I had the idea of layered armor. A sort of... composite, so to speak. Similar to the armor of the Skocha MBT. It works well on tanks and armored fighting vehicles, so in theory it should work on starships as well. I sent a memo to Tenloss R&D to do a few trial tests. Make up a few plates of the stuff and run them through starship testing. See what happens. With luck, maybe I'll get what I'm looking for. If not... Well, at least it's one less avenue to have to explore.

I'm hoping the reports from Incom get here soon. I could use some of their insight on this. With luck, that'll be here by the end of the week. Hopefully, they'll have good news, but even if they don't it at least helps me get a direction in place to run with.

 

[Popo]

I had another idea for an armor type. I figured that, with tanks and such, spaced armor helps keep the tank protected. It works by having two or more layers of armor plating separated by open space. The idea is that penetrating hits will expend the majority of their energy on the first layer and not be able to penetrate or damage the other layer or layers. Admittedly, it's mainly for kinetic and solid projectiles, but it might work on energy weapons, too. I tossed it at Tenloss R&D. I'll see what they do with it.

In the meantime, the computer program is coming along nicely. Very few snags and very few glitches so far. The basis of the program is pretty much done, I just need to update some parameters. Once that's done, I can adjust the programming and expand the system for scaling purposes. Once that's done, I just need to run it a few times and work out the bugs. Should do nicely.

 

[Popo]

Okay, got the reports back for composite armor. The results aren't exactly great, but they're not horrible either. The composites Tenloss uses for armored vehicles is sturdy and durable, but don't hold up to starship scale weapons very long. R&D figure it's roughly equivalent to standard, starship-grade durasteel. Not what I wanted to hear, but I can work with it somewhat. I sent orders to have the composites swapped out to see what worked better. If they can find a composite mix that holds up better and is both cheap and light enough to keep this ship out of planetoid speeds, it should work out.

Magnetics came to mind just now. Maybe there's a way to make passive armor. Not a physical thing, per se, but a... energy armor that isn't a shielding system. Maybe a way to... "push" incoming fire away. Deflect it before impact possibly. Not sure if it'll work, but it's a thought. I'll think more on it later. For now, I need to work on this program.

 

[Popo]

Okay, more reports from Tenloss R&D. Spaced armor worked out, kind of, but apparently not only is it just as heavy, if not heavier, than durasteel, it's also more difficult to replace. I thought about making it modular, but there's still the weight issue. One more dead end, but, in turn, one more approach knocked off the list. I'll just have to move on to other methods.

Maybe I could do a type of ablative armor. Something that's designed to absorb the maximum impact of an energy or kinetic hit and break off. Sort of chip or flake or generally abrade off with the damage. It'd save the armor underneath from the majority of the damage. At least, it would until it's gone. It's a thought, though. I'll run it by Tenloss R&D.

 

[Popo]

The computer program is almost done, just needs some tweaking. Still no major bugs or glitches, which is great. I'm hoping with the last round of expansions and data input, this thing will be good to go. Fingers and toes crossed.

The latest round of composite armor testing came back. Not much better than the first round, but it's something. It's holding up better and is more durable than durasteel, but it's still just as, if not heavier than, ship-grade durasteel. I'm hoping more testing will turn better results. With luck, I'll hear back about that soon.

Still waiting on the Incom reports. I've not been too worried about them getting here ASAP, but the sooner they do, the sooner I can pursue avenues of approach or cross them off the list. I'll shoot a comm message to [member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] later today. See if I can get things expedited.

 

[Long Gone]

I wasn't sure what the Supreme Chancellor wanted.

I was trying to take a shower when his line kept buzzing through, and even a busy message wouldn't keep him at bay. I told myself: "It must be important." I groaned angrily and stepped out of the shower, soaking wet, hair matted down across my face and grabbed my comlink. I was thankful it didn't have video as I accepted his call. "Supreme Chancellor, what is it?" I said as I wrapped a towel about myself and moved around the refresher. ~No where to sit~ I thought to myself, well, there was one place. I lowered the lid to the toliet and took a seat on it, my legs crossing as I listened intently to his message.

Oh, it was urgent.

~I thought I had sent those reports over last night...?~ I thought to myself again, as I brought a finger to my lips and looked up at the ceiling. Then it dawned on me, I fell asleep in the Research Department again. That damned Stealth-X project was time consuming. My schedule had become more and more crammed than I had realized.

"I will get those to you right away." I said with a smile, it didn't matter that I smiled, he couldn't see it. I stood from the toliet and the sound of flushing echoed in the background and I scrambled to close the connection.

~Hopefully he didn't hear that!~ I thought in a panic.

I quickly made my way to the computer terminal and began sending the reports and tweaked programming on Incom Corporations end to the Supreme Chancellor, hopefully, he would like it. ~I like it.~ I thought to myself. I never realized how much I thought to myself until today....


[member="Popo"]

 

[Popo]

Note to self: Try and time my comm calls a bit better. It avoids toilet flushing noises in the future. Anyways, the reports came in from Incom almost immediately, which lets me get on with things.

Incom had a few ideas, most were similar or the same as Tenloss R&D. That said, the two of them are giving me an idea. I don't think I'm going to get away from the mass issue, but I'm going to hold off on that call for the moment. At least until I get more reports back in from the current testing going on.

In the meantime, the program is done completely. I'll run it through some tests really soon. Hopefully it'll hold up without crashing.

 

[Popo]

Alright, the program crashed twice. I have to go back and figure out what's wrong with it. Looks like a coding issue at the heart of it, but the question is where in the coding is it?

I cancelled further tests with composite armor at Tenloss R&D. The latest batch came through sub-par which tells me that composite armor, for now, isn't feasible. That said, I think I'm over complicating things. I looked back over the initial reports from Tenloss R&D and the recent one from Incom. Both suggested removing the space between atoms and molecules to kind of compress the material down. The problem is that a piece of this stuff the thickness of flimsi weighs about as much as I do. I think I'm going to fiddle with the concept of this for now. See if I can find that sweet spot between protection and durability versus weight and bulk.

For now though, I gotta fix this program.

 

[Popo]

So, I must have messed up on the coding in more than one area. I knew that the lack of glitches and errors was misleading. I should have triple checked everything it seems. The system runs for a few minutes, but then crashes. When inputing data into the thing, it crashes. When you try to exit the program, it crashes. It once even crashed the computer it was on. I'll have to look at the program's foundation coding and see if I miscoded something.

As for the armor, I put in a request for information from both Incom and Tenloss R&D. I know Tenloss has some equipment for the project, but needs more. If Incom has equipment, or can get a hold of some, then we can get this cranked out at double the rate predicted. From there, we can actually design the armor. I'm fiddling with another computer program in my downtime. I hooked up a couple of Class Two droid brains to a computer and then plugged in a Class One brain to the same server. It didn't blow up and didn't fry itself, so I think I can run them along with the math and physics needed to figure out the armor itself.

I just... need to get them... to stop playing Sabacc. The class twos keep trying to take on the class one. I'm... not sure how to feel about it, honestly.

 

[Popo]

Still hashing out the programming error. It looks like I messed up parts of the initial coding, but then also compounded it by somehow putting a logic loop in the expansion coding. Plus, it looks like a file or two in the original programming was corrupted later on down the line by something I did somewhere.

I took the day off from fiddling with the armor specifically, other than to read a few reports. Tenloss R&D picked up more equipment and personnel for the project, which is good. If Incom does the same we can crank out the armor plating like no tomorrow. Hopefully.

I set up to fix the program in the small research office attached to my quarters. Well, "small". It's actually pretty large sized, even for me. I put the computer with the class one and class twos nearby. I can't get them to stop playing Sabacc in their downtime and they focus pretty quick on the armor when prompted, so I guess it's okay.

I put a few hundred credits down on one of the Class Twos. If I lose, the Class One gets the credits. No idea what he wants with them though. The Class Twos just want the prestige of beating a class one. If they win, I get a full day of nothing but computer processing from the Class One. All in all, not a bad trade off. And I get to keep my credits.

 

[Popo]

Good news, I think I'm halfway done fixing the program. Bad news, I've lost almost nine hundred credits to the droid brains' Sabacc game. This is ridiculous. The Class Twos seem to have a plan for beating the class one. Hopefully it works out. If anyone finds out about this... Well, they'll laugh mostly. That's pretty much it.

Anyways, the program is about half done. Apparently I just needed to recode a few things and fix that corrupted file or two. Now it's just rechecking the systems and fixing the coding issues I find while I do so.

On a side note, I took a whack at the armor for an hour or two today. I had the Class One brain run some tests for me and crunch a nice, long, complicated series of numbers for a while. Compressing Durasteel would be too heavy and creating all the armor out of it would kill any engines I put on the thing, so that's out of the question. I set it to crunch the same numbers on Alusteel, Quadranium, and Glassteel. Honestly, it was half out of hope of finding something that would work and half to try and distract it enough to let the Class Twos win a sabacc game while it did both at the same time.

So far, no luck.

 

[Popo]

Almost done with the program. I just need to rework some surface coding and run a few tests. Once that's done, then I can get back to work on using the thing for mass and maneuverability tests. With luck, I'm thinking this will be ready to go in a day or two.

More reports from Tenloss R&D. They've acquired more equipment and staff and have run tests on the machines to make sure they perform to the specifications needed. The machines they purchased were Molecular Furnaces, I forget where though. Probably an outside contractor. Those in use by some of Tenloss' mining concerns and subsidiaries to mine and refine Alusteel and Durasteel should do very well. I need to put in a call for more advanced gravitic equipment. No idea how those work just yet, but I'm sure I'll get the run down sooner or later.

I put a call in to Incom and [member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] to purchase their own Molecular Furnaces and gravitic equipment. If they need to, I can have them mine and refine alongside my mining subsidiaries, though hopefully they'll have their own to go to. Either way, we need to get this rolling.

On a side note, lost another four hundred credits to the droid brains' card game. I swear that Class One is cheating.

 

[Long Gone]

I looked down at the comlink and sighed heavily. It wasn't because the Supreme Chancellor was calling, it was because things were so busy these days. I couldn't stand it. We had traitors to deal with, bounties to put out, and people to recruit. It just seemed like an endless stream of work, but that is what I signed up for. The Republic needed me, the Republic needed people like my boss, @Popo. I picked up the comlink and listened to what he was asking.

It was a simple request, one which Incom Corporation would gladly be able to field for the Republic and the Supreme Chancellor without hesitation and even at cost of making. We could afford it, I could even put it into my own personal expense if needs be. I had nothing better to do with my life but live and die for the Republic I so loved.

Was that an odd thing that I cared so much for the Republic? I didn't seem to think so, there was nothing else in my life.

I let the Chancellor know, his items were enroute and would be there shortly.

 

[Popo]

Alright, Incom is on board so hopefully we can get this done. The program is finished and seems to be running fine. No crashes so far. I'm hoping it stays that way, honestly.

We've managed to get more advanced gravitic equipment, but don't ask me how it works. I haven't a clue. I just know it somehow uses gravity or gravitic waves or something and kind of... pushes the materials together. Not a clue, but it's making neat things. The Molecular Furnaces are digging up and breaking down loads of ore, which is great. Now, we just have to figure out the right density for the armor material. We need to find out just how dense we can make it to maximize protection, while keeping it light enough to move with the engines. Plus, we can't over compress the stuff. That would be bad. Really bad. Big Ka-boom bad.

I have the droid brains working on some density physics at the moment, though they still sneak a card game in occasionally. It's annoying. They should be working and not playing karking card games, but each time I uninstall the game program, the Class One makes another and shares it with the Class Twos.

...

... Wait...

 

[Popo]

Okay, so, now the droid brains are mad at me. Well, the Class One mainly. I figured out how the Class Twos kept losing and making me lose money. The karking Class One made a rigged sabacc game from scratch! I deleted the card game and put in a standard, tournament legal game of sabacc. The Class One is upset and has purposely given me unrefined data as payback. This, in turn, had me give the unrefined data to the Class Twos which took most of their computing power for the majority of the day. This meant they couldn't play Sabacc and that the Class One had all day to practice with a legal deck.

So, now, I have somewhat unrefined data instead of fully refined data. On the plus side, it's all correct, I know that much. I just have to... condense it into something more readable and understandable.

I'm not even going to mention the simulator program. It crashed today. Again.

 

[Popo]

The Class Twos are calmed down again, but the Class One is still angry. Apparently it's upset that it can't win as easily anymore. To bad for it. It has, what? A few thousand credits from me? It can deal.

The program crashing is being fixed. Apparently I forgot to recode the expansion sections of the program, so I'll do that today. I swear, if this crashes again, I'll hurl this computer through a wall. Or just get very, very angry. Either way, it better not crash.

The raw data was crunched finally. This was at an 82.3% compression rate. The weight, obviously, increased. Unfortunately, it increased the weight by about 839.42%. It's a start, but not quite what I was wanting. I sent the data off to both Tenloss R&D and Incom requesting testing on that type of material. If the durability is good, then we can slowly scaled own and find the sweet spot between weight and strength.

I have the droid brains working on another sample. Hopefully it'll be finished tomorrow.

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"]

 

[Long Gone]

I couldn't figure out why [member="Popo"] was always talking about how he kept losing money to some Class One? I thought by now that he would have learned his lesson, but maybe he was just a slow learner or maybe he was just that stubborn. It was too bad, he appeared to be on the intelligent end of the spectrum in my opinion anyways. I would have to show him how it was done in the end. I couldn't understand why the Supreme Chancellor was having such an issue with this program, it was a simple algorithm which he was overlooking the binary code under the seventh layer. Fortunately, for him, he had me to assist. I ended up taking a copy of the program when he wasn't paying attention and assisted him in resolving the issue.

I sent him a comlink that was beyond secure with the attached program that was showing a 87.2 percent compression rate. All the variables had been calculated in and the weight had been increased by about 850%

I ensured to back it up and keep the samples for myself to implement on the newer designs.

I hoped he would like it.