Act 04: Bigger and Better; No Compensation Required

[Captain Larraq]

Time: Past; After Empress Teta Invasion, Before Netherworld.
Planet: Nirauan
Location: Formerly Hand Fortress, current HQ of Clan Dem'adas



Rygel Larraq sat among two dozen scientists and engineers. Each of which was either a member of Clan Dem'adas or, like [member="Arrbi Betna"], was simply a 'guest' for this project. Housed deep within the armored confines of what was once the Hand Fortress, Larraq and the cluster of engineers sat within a large engineering bay. Computers and science droids of all types lined the walls and were organized into separate and sealed rooms of glass and steel. In the main hanger itself were dozens of large machines used in the manufacturing of large scale goods and prototypes. They were here for one reason and one reason only. [member="Olivia Dem'adas"] wanted a new weapon with which to wage war against the One Sith. The aging Canderous-class Assault Tank was showing its teeth and had shown its limitations at the battle of Empress Teta where nine such vehicles had been ground to a stop by a lance of three Sith Walkers and a number of support vehicles.

The woman wanted something better. She wanted the next generation of Mandalorian war machines, and she wanted them now.

So, of course, Larraq had been the obvious choice for this particular chore. After all, who could you trust if not family?

"So what are we doing for a primary armament?" Larraq asked of the engineers assembled in one of the side rooms. In lieu of a central table for such a meeting of the minds, they were making due with the computer stations that had filled the room upon their arrival. "Energy of Kinetic?"

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Kinetic," came Betna's voice from inside a pile of metal. His response echoed from out what looked like a giant length of piping perhaps a hand or two in width. How he had heard the question from within such a scrap pile was a mystery, but heard he had.

Sounds of clanking and shifting echoed down the pipe, but the Mandalorian was yet to be seen. Here and there metal rattled or vibrated as he moved around inside the pile, but no sign of Arrbi was to be found.

"You always want to go with kinetic with this sort of thing," he continued, the pipe giving his voice a somewhat distant and echoed quality. "People love ray shields and then stacking heavy armor behind it. Look at the Skocha, for example. Heavy armor, lots of slopes, and a ray shield overtop. Shoot it with a turbolaser and it just laughs at you. So, you bypass the shields. Rays don't stop projectiles very well, so you use a kinetic round to take advantage of that. Small-scale tactics 101."

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

"Fair enough." Larraq said as he glanced out the door of the briefing room at the giant pile of scrap that Mr. Betna had taken upon himself to crawl within for some unknown reason... Everyone else was in the briefing room acting like engineers while [member="Arrbi Betna"] had chosen to act like a child at a fast-food play-pen. "That leaves us with two more questions." Larraq said, slightly louder than he would otherwise need to speak to ensure that the juvenile-behaving Mr. Betna could hear him from within the mass of metal. He found himself tapping his foot lightly as he waited for the man to reveal himself from the confines of the scrap pile. <What is he even doing in there?> Larraq found himself asking silently while he was mid-sentence. <Is he trying to find something? Lose a contact?>

"What caliber projectile are we wanting to use, and at what velocity?" Larraq said as he tried to ignore the man's behavior and focus on the meeting. After a moment of pause, Rygel Larraq decided to clarify a bit. "Mr. Betna. You're familiar with the Skocha... What combination of caliber and velocity would be needed to crack that monster?"

 

[Arrbi Betna]

A large amount of screeching was suddenly heard at the end of Larraq's statement as metal scraped against metal. The pipe that Betna's voice echoed from shifted forwards, bit by bit, until the far end dropped down to the ground. It hit the deck with a sound as if a large gong had been struck against the very floor by the hands of a giant.

As the sound died out, Betna stepped from the pile and dusted his hands off before reaching back and grabbing more bits and pieces of metal along with a bag of tools.

"Caliber?" Betna asked as he moved to one end of the piping. He gestured at the length of metal. "This caliber. One hundred forty millimeters. Big enough to do business, small enough that you can probably sell it without breaking some arms treaty or another. Been fiddling with this thing for a bit now while your paper pushers were playing with their data streams and keyboards."

He moved to the back of the piping, now easily identifiable as a prototype cannon thrown together from spare parts Arrbi had found around the facility. It was mainly made from durasteel and salvaged metal, but the end result was the same: It might not function, at least not right now, but it was to scale and it definitely wasn't simply Betna goofing off.

"What do you think?" Betna said, gesturing to the cannon before crossing his arms. He'd stopped behind the barrel and stood facing the doorway. The cannon itself was still propped up on a fulcrum at the base, the front of the barrel pointing at the door and Larraq while the back end of the barrel ended a foot or so from Betna's waistline.

"Think it'll do?" he asked, oblivious to the placement of the prototype's positioning.

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

Larraq's face grimaced as the sound of metal on metal reverberated through the enclosed space. "Congratulations Mr. Betna, you made a tube." Larraq said as he glowered at the man when he finally revealed himself from the pile of scrap. "You do realize, we have something close to forty VCE Engineering Droid just sitting around waiting for us to give them instructions, right?"

Despite his critisism, Larraq regarded the crude prototype that [member="Arrbi Betna"] had put together. "Yes, that looks like it will do." He said as he tried to be polite to the man that his interim CEO had chosen to recently marry. That, and despite the man's occasionally crude behavior, he was the primary designer of the stealth technology that was currently being expanded upon and utilized by the thousands of engineers that he employed. "And one-hundred forty millimeters sounds fine." Larraq said, pausing for a moment in thought. "Do you have any ideas in regards to ammunition, accelerant, or ideal projectile velocities?" Larraq asked as the collective heads of gathered engineers turned to regard Mr. Betna with scrutiny.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna thought about Larraq's question a moment as he scratched at his chin, completely oblivious to scene around him. A moment or two later he spoke as he bent down to pick up more tools.

"Ammunition would definitely be solid slugs. Maybe... discarding sabot for anti-vehicle roles. High explosive if you want to shoot light vehicles and infantry," he said as he got to work on the mock-up's breach. "Not sure on the velocity, but it'd be pretty high velocity. You're probably not going to punch a Skocha's front armor on the first try, especially with a badly aimed shot, but that's a moot point. A 'soft' kill will knock it out just as sure as actually blowing up the vehicle. Rear armor is more likely for actually punching the hull."

Betna sat on the ground and picked up a few more pieces and parts from here and there. He slowly began attaching and bolting them together bit by bit. As he worked, he kept speaking.

"You'll need a fin stabilized sabot round for anti-vehicle roles, though. Definitely fin stabilized. Without the stabilization, the round could tumble over a long enough distance, especially if the sabots themselves affect the spin of the round at all. As for propellant, you could go rail accelerated, but in my experience that could go badly. Someone hits the coils and the tank goes boom if you're unlucky. The feedback of power through the system can lead to catastrophic failures throughout the vehicle. Chemical propellant could do it, too, but then you risk the chance that a penetrating hit will blow the ammo rack and detonate the tank, which is just as bad. There are other alternatives, though."

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

"The fin stabilized rounds are a solid choice." Larraq said absently, momentarily forgetting the small swarm of other engineers and focusing instead on the subjects being brought up by [member="Arrbi Betna"]. "Do you think a HESH round could knock out a Skotcha?" He asked as the idea came to him. He knew that the primary targets these tanks would be dealing with were Sith Constructs and the Vong War Beasts that they tended to enslave. But for some reason, he couldn't get over the idea of creating a product that would put that slimy hutt it his... 'its' place. Mandal Hypernautics might have the distinct advantage in naval products, but the fat slug was renowned for his tanks and the other... odds and ends he was known to produce.


"Wait... What do you mean there are other options?" Larraq said, nearly dropping his datapad as he snapped back to reality and his fore-brain was forced to pay attention by the more primitive parts of his brain. "Outside of magnetic coils and chemical propellant... There isn't really anything on the market that can match that sort of efficiency. What the frell do you have in mind?"

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Well, there's steam power and tension power. I mean, we could rig up a sort of trebuchet on the front if you really want to be unique," Betna said off-hand. "That said, if you want the biggest bang for your credit..."

Betna jabbed a finger at a nearby technician or scientist, he wasn't sure which and, frankly, didn't much care.

"You," he said, his tone that of a man of authority. The man in the lab coat half turned. "What happens when you create the opposite of matter?"

"Antimatter," the scientist answered blandly, clearly annoyed at Arrbi and his pile of scrap metal.

"Okay, now what happens if you combine antimatter with the proper matter equivalent?" Betna asked, clearly leading into something.

"A powerful explosion," the lab coat answered, his tone more annoyed than before.

"Now, antimatter doesn't react except to the matter it's the opposite of, right?" Arrbi inquired, a grin opening wide on his face. "And both types of matter can be made into something the size of, say, a dinner or saucer sized disc, right?"

"Yes and yes," replied the irritable scientist.

Betna grinned once more and turned back to Larraq. The bigger Mando crossed his arms over his chest and nodded his head at the gun itself.

"Rig up a piston and you're golden," he said to the corporate leader. "Just need something durable enough to contain and direct the explosion. I suggest either Phrik or Beskar."

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Captain Larraq]

"That... sounds interesting." Larraq said as he sat down his datapad and considered the implications for a moment. An antimatter reaction could quickly and easily catapult a projectile to some fairly insane speeds... which would be fairly deadly no matter what the ammunition was. "At the very least, it's worth researching." Larraq said before turning his attention towards the men and women assembled between himself and Betna. "I want half of you working with Mr. Betna. Start crunching numbers and fine tuning the design. Get me projected velocity and kinetic damage potential by the morning and a working prototype by tomorrow afternoon... minus the antimatter or live ammunition." Larraq said as a number of heads in the room turned between Betna and Larraq, wondering which had the crazier ideas. "As for the other half of you, I want alternative options researched and a formal proposal for five different primary armaments."

<And in the meantime.> Larraq thought to himself. <I'll have to go brief Olivia on our progress.>