Beware the Republican Mascot!

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Since maximum elevation will ensure maximum range, the muzzle velocity being 2 km/s, I'm afraid the results will be felt a few hundred kilometers away"

Dulvoyinn's gravity being 90% standard, and on the one hand the drag will be felt mostly in the early and late stages of flight. On the other hand, 2 km/s is not enough to escape from a 90% standard gravity well unpowered; you'd need about 5.2 times that. If you simply assumed that there was no drag along the chord and constant gravity, then the expected range would be about 400-500 km. On the other hand gravity varies by altitude, and you would expect drag to be felt in significant amounts from the first and last 15 seconds. Punching fifteen holes in the mountain at the expected ranges, that was going to cause some serious damage: a crater with a 50-meter radius where the shell landed. And that's assuming the maximum elevation of 45 degrees will actually achieve maximum range as in the flat-ground case; here one has to take into account the curvature of the planet. Now that the first burst of 15 seconds has been prepared for firing, the technicians deploy a camera drone to assess damage.

"But why do I always have the impression that the Force is using me, and some other people with superb intelligence, as a reagent for psychotropic spells? I can't use the Force..."

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

Her statement brought a small smile to Vaulkhar's face. One that would only be noticeable had she been looking at it.

"The force works in mysterious ways, my dear. Maybe your actions are unconsciously guided by it, or maybe your actions are caused by the force. It's not something you ever really know. It's just a personal feeling."

Vaulkhar shrugged and sat comfortably as he waited for the test to begin.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Madam, the elevation is at 45 degrees, this is the maximum elevation of this thing"

"Fire!" she ordered to the test crew, with the HVG trained at the mountain range.

Now that the first 15-second burst of the hypervelocity gun has been fired, the occupants of the upper turret housing thank the Force for the shock absorbers as the explosive shells are being fired at a mountainside location about 500 kilometers away. Since there are hardly any ships inbound or outbound from the polar regions of Dulvoyinn - in fact from and to Dulvoyinn in general - the risk of accidentally hitting a ship in low orbit seems not to be a concern. But 2 km/s is not practical for surface-to-space weaponry unless one mounts that thing on an asteroid. The main reason why orbital platforms exist is that turbolaser bolts, and even HVGs, cannot achieve escape speed even on tiny planets the size of Azure (~5000 km in diameter). Part of the recoil is absorbed by a counter-current due to Lenz's law, but because the resulting magnetic flux reversal is insufficient to absorb the entire thing, the remaining recoil must be absorbed using the shock absorbers mounted into the turret.

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

Vaulkhar's hands immediately shot up to his ears, where he covered them as the sound echoed around the area, bouncing off the surrounding machinery and work stations. It hurt. A lot. He should of know what was going to happen and it definitely didn't help him remain orientated in the slightest. Taking a moment, he simply knelt down and began a series of simple breathing exercises. It hurt.

"Ouch!"

His voice rang out, screaming the word when he meant it to not be as loud.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Hypervelocity guns make a lot of noise from within, you'd expect as much from a shipboard weapon capable of projecting one-ton explosive shells at 2 km/s"

The trick is that enemies won't hear it from without, at least in space combat. They only hear what their own ships' internal systems make as far as noise is concerned. But on a ground mounting as is the case here, Jessica knows that the velocity curve of projectiles in atmosphere is a decreasing function of the range even when accounting for the varying gravity field. At 370 km or so from the compound, the first volley of 15 shells explode against a mountainside crater. The "Ouch" Vaulkhar referred to is multiple-fold: the ears of the gunners, most of whom are wearing earplugs, and both Jessica and Vaulkhar plugged theirs before it fired. Vaulkhar was the only one that complained about the noise, whereas Jessica had some earplugs from the moment the hypervelocity gun was ready to fire. That is far from pretty, and Jessica knew it: holovids with HVGs often seem to portray only the firing and the damage done and never the inner workings.

"Nearly four hundred kilometers away from here, there will be a pretty big mountainside crater: try chucking a half-ton of tritonal inside an alusteel shell. That's around 200 times the amount of explosives in a proton torpedo your average starfighter carries"

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

"Oh wow!"

Vaulkhar unintentionally raised his voice as she spoke to him. He could barely hear her or himself for that matter, after the shooting. His natural blindness caused his hearing to get slightly better as he aged. And with that, came the weakness he was currently facing. His head was beginning to pound from the pain of it all, but it was not world ending. It was simply a nuisance. He looked upward at the gun and then off in the distance, completely interested in the series of events that transpired before him.

"I would like to buy a set of blue prints or something of the sort from you. They don't have to be anything special, normal would be fine."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"I hope you or your faction have deep pockets: the schematics are worth about the same as the finished product devoid of ammunition"

The cost of schematics tends to increase slower than the price of the items past a certain point. For example, the recipe of the 10-credit Ziro pizza (assuming several toppings on a Hutt-size pizza) could be worth 5-10k, schematics for a 1,000-credit blaster would be worth 30-50k, and a hypervelocity gun worth 300k is worth about as much as the weapon itself. One would imagine the blueprints of a 450M Star Destroyer (built by Mon Calamari Shipyards) to be sold for about 3-5M. Jessica hoped that, before it could come to fetching a blank data disc to store the schematics inside it she would make the price known to another party willing to buy them. For a monster cannon such as a HVG Normal HVGs that do not fire explosive rounds, let alone 380mm-caliber ones, only counted for 20 turbolasers for regulatory purposes. If the One Sith's 240mm/83 Mk74 was worth 60 turbolasers with 4 tubes, Jessica had to guess that a standard HVG, worth 20 turbolasers, would be a dual 203mm turret or something like that.

"For regulatory purposes this thing is worth 90 turbolasers so you'd expect schematics for it to fetch a pretty penny"

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

"Name a price, I'm sure I can pay for said schematics. It wouldn't be much of a problem, considering my father is the emperor of the Pacanth Reach. Known as the God King, to some."

Vaulkhar's posture straightened as the clumsy, foolishness that surrounded him somewhat dissipated as he mentioned his father. He looked to her and simply nodded. He desired the blue prints and if she did not give him a price soon, he'd simply take them. It wouldn't be much of a problem. His hands came together beneath his sleeves as he took somewhat of a peaceful pose, offering no obvious showing of harm to her. But around him the force was pulled towards him as he prepared himself if necessary.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"That's 500k for the schematics, and said schematics include the ammunition's schematics"

A little on the expensive side, Jessica conceded, but the Emperor of the Pacanth Reach was just a ruler of a minor faction that had actually little use for HVG schematics until/unless the Pacanth Reach played host to a major faction in the future. Knowing that regulations would force a minor faction to equip a ship at most 1000m long, they would only be able to manufacture a limited number of HVGs, unless they wanted to license-build HVGs. If you want to equip the standard dual 203mm hypervelocity guns, you can do so on any cruiser at the cost of 20 turbolasers' allowance. But a 380mm triple turret? That would require a ship in the kilometer-length range to do without risking the whole ship, and even then you could only mount one. No one would even suspect that a space wizard would even have much of a role to play in designing ships. But as she prepared the data disc containing said schematics...

"Space wizards, oh space wizards, are you a descendant of Kazdan Paratus?"

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

"That my dear, is doable."

Vaulkhar grinned as he reached down to his belt, his hand slipping into his robe momentarily. After a second, he pulled it out and he had a simple communication device within hand. Taking time, he calibrated the device and clearly activated it before raising it to his mouth. The device itself was nothing special, capable of connecting to various communication channels that remained open, also clearly able to pick up on closed channels if programmed to do so. It appeared as if his eyes met that of Jessica's through the blindfold as he opened his mouth and began to speak.

"Lord Vaulkhar here." The sound of muffled, quick words could be heard from the device by Jessica, along with what sounded like loud and frequent beeping. After a few seconds, the sound would cease. "Yes, I have indeed made contact with the target. Please bring out the contents necessary for plan A." Another series of rather words could be heard. "No, she has agreed to sell the schematics, there is no reason to kill her. Five hundred thousand credits, please." And with that, Vaulkhar returned the communication device back within his robe and his hands returned to their usual place, before his chest, tucked into the sleeves. As time went on, eventually Vaulkhar looked in the direction in which he arrived, the sight of two armed men walking beside a well dressed man with a brief case became apparent. Behind the procession of three, three others followed. All three of which were dressed in robes and lightsabers hung at their hips.

"Greetings Captain, you have brought the credits I hope?"

"Indeed my lord, exactly as you requested, five hundred thousand. Before authorizing this transaction, we spoke to your father for approval. My apologies, my lord."

Vaulkhar's lips drew back into a tight frown momentarily, but quickly slipped back into the warm smile he had worn since his arrival.

"It is fine, Captain. What did my father say? He approved I assume."

"Yes my Lord." And with that, the man simply referred to as the "captain" stepped forward, holding out the briefcase to Jessica. As he did so, he opened the lid, revealing rows upon rows of credits. All of which were in perfect condition and shined within the light. "I hope these are to your liking, madam. We would ask to see the schematics before the credits are handed over though." With this said, the two armed gunman, both of which dressed in charcoal gray battle armor stood beside the captain, rifles held, pressed to their chests.

Vaulkhar could be seen in silence, smiling as he watched the trade off begin.

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Jessica just activated the holoprojector on the data disc with the schematics on it, revealing a wireframe diagram of a 380mm/50 hypervelocity gun, tentatively called the Summer, as asked by the party that was to be a possible end-user of the HVG. Now that the holoprojector showed a cutaway diagram of the HVG:

"And you would probably want to license-build them if you find their performance satisfactory. Of course it might be a good idea to conduct your own tests, probably orbital, before asking to license-build these things: they are impractical to operate on land"

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

"Ah, magnificent. Captain, can you take a look at that and assure it is not a hoax?"

"Yes my Lord!" The captain immediately stepped forward, inspecting the holoprojector. At no point did he attempt to take it from Jessica, rather he inspected it through sight alone, every so often letting out a hmm or huh. After a moment, he turned back to Vaulkhar and nodded. "They are the real deal, my lord."

Vaulkhar turned away from the Captain and moved towards Jessica. He took the brief case directly from the captain and held it out towards her. While doing so, he reached out to grab the holoprojector from her. He kept the warm smile and friendly persona up. In reality, he found himself enjoying the conversation and enjoying which direction this had gone. And he wanted this to go smoothly. Considering the two armed and well trained guards at his back, and his three apprentices, if things went south, people would die. And he didn't want others to die.

"I suppose this is a done deal then, my dear."

[member="Jessica Med-Beq"]

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Consider the deal done. You may now take the holoprojector with its contents"

As far as its impracticality on the ground is concerned, it was a small price to pay to get a weapon that the New Republic would use to terrorize enemy fleets, especially when facing large ships like heavy cruisers on up. Capital ships were slower the larger they got, so heavy weapons such as the Nekogal, the Bulkhunter (where one tube was worth 12 turbolasers for regulatory pruposes), the Lusankya, worth 30, were definitely designed to hunt down frigates (and, in the Lusankya's case, cruisers) and bigger. For corvettes and fighters, quad lasers were used, and rapid-fire light turbolasers. With Vaulkhar having bought the backup copy, now they must produce another one so that HVG production may begin without further delay.

[member="Vaulkhar"]

 

[Vaulkhar]

"I'm glad to hear it."

And with that, Vaulkhar grabbed the holoprojector and handed her the brief case.

"I suppose I should warn you," he started as he turned away to walk off. "If these schematics are fake, I will find you and kill you, miss." With a raised arm he waved goodbye as he set off. Turning to follow him, his small entourage took up step behind him and the small group walked off. As they exited the facility, they moved towards Vaulkhar's ship, where he arrived and his party soon followed suit. As the ramp was lowered to his cruiser, he was met with an aggressively beeping Astromech and a Protocol droid whom both greeted him in kind. He returned the gestures to his droids before returning to his room.

As the ship eventually took off, Vaulkhar set up a private communications line between himself and the planet of Panatha. The line was met by his father, the Sith Lord known as Darth Carnifex. As the two spoke, the scene faded away.

- END -

Spoiler

Good stuff, see you on the skirmish.