Brand New Skin

[Laira Darkhold]

“Theoretically. We won’t know until we fabricate a few tiles and give it a thorough test run. I think hafnium carbide, or even Tantalum hafnium carbide as the backing for the tiles to save someone’s life.” He explained carefully, but without telling me what the actual compounds he mentioned were. “Start with hafnium I think,” he said, “It’s a lot cheaper and only a few hundred degrees difference. If we find out how much hafnium we need we can decide on a reasonable production cost on each set; body armor or otherwise.” Benji was rolling now. It wouldn’t be long until he was actually fabricating tiles, which was a good start to the next phase of the project. Like he always said the development process is many layers of design, fabricate, conquer, repeat.

“Well alright, what do you need from me?” I asked, hoping he would have something relatively easy for me to do.

“You can pour me ballistics jelly molds and fit heat and impact sensors on to them while I work on fabricating us a dozen plates of this stuff.” He said, pointing at a pair of molds and several sacks of something sitting off in a corner of the shop.

“Alright, shouldn’t be too hard to figure out, instructions are on the bag right. How bad can it be.” I said to myself leaning over to grab up the bags.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji was hard at work, and for some reason when he worked hard he continuously muttered to himself.”Ultrachrome would be better, but it’s too rare.” Then he would walk around or write down a page of notes on a sheet of flimsi and check on all the machines running in the shop making sure they were working steady and without any issues, then he would go back to sitting thinking aloud to himself. “Neuranium would be a very good thermal resistor, but again too expensive. C’mon Benji, think how do I increase the thermal resistance on the interior without effecting the thermal conductivity on the exterior. It shouldn’t be this hard.” I didn’t know what data he was working with, but he was worried about something going wrong on our first test. The ballistics jelly molds were nice though, fitted with thermal and impact sensors along with fake human anatomy within them to show bleeding and organ damage.

“I think it will be fine Benji, you don’t even know there is a problem that needs fixing yet.” I tried to relax him, but I knew that he was already thinking miles ahead of where I was. He was probably already trying to figure out a good limited and minor production series that could be offered for more money.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

It took several hours to press twelve tiles into duranium plates. The plates had to be heated to be malleable easily and then pressed under heavy stress, finally cooling into a denser more resilient material with much more survival ability than if they had been pressed differently. The process was long and not the most efficient in this shop, but I’m sure the tiles could be pressed thousands at a time in a proper facility. The tiles were uniform and easy to fit in the vests we had bought, tossing the blaster resistant plates out. An hour later, we were setting up in the warehouse section of the building, getting a firing range set up. Man I needed to build this into a training room so I’m not just sitting on my butt when I am here not working with Benji. “Alright, buddy. Let’s take a look at what we got for slugthrowers first. No use continuing if it isn’t good against what it is supposed to be good against in the first place.” Benji said handing me an Executioner. This would be a good test, hit four targets with standard Armor piercing rounds and two with High Explosive to take a good look at the damage they cause and the armor resists.

“Right ho, ears on.” I said as I chambered the weapon and took aim at the targets down range.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji quickly covered his ears with the ear protection and I light off a pair of four-round bursts at each of the four targets for the standard Armor Piercing rounds. It didn’t look too bad, but from thirty meters it was hard to tell about actual damage. “Alright Draco, the next set, swap the mags” Benji said, muffled from the ear plugs I was wearing. I thumbed the switch and let off a four round burst of high explosives into the next set. A quick step off to the right and I was lined up on the next set of plates, letting four more High explosive rounds go down range. “Good, good. Let’s check them out. Hopefully they aren’t too bad off.” Benji pulled off his ear muffs and walked down range. I unchambered the weapon after pulling the magazines out and walked out to meet him at the molds where he was carefully inspecting the tiles. I gave the sensors a quick glance across the board. Not bad, only the two high explosive ones were in the lethal ranges and even then just barely, and that was just tiles, no suit, no heat or kinetic dampeners, just the plates and they had held up really well. The only tile completely broken was struck four times, so not bad for an initial test.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Good, these held up nicely, and those were full tiles. Any real armor would be much smaller tiles anyway. Try with the blaster now, I would like to see those results up close.” Benji said. I was a little disappointed with the strike tolerance of the tiles at the moment and wanted to bring it up, but he was right, might as well get a good solid test run in before we started poking and plugging holes in the design. We made our way back to the safe zone of the range and I prepped the vanquisher for use. It was a powerful weapon, one of the strongest single man weapons in existence, so it would give us a great idea of what kind of resistance the tiles had to blaster rifles. I took careful aim and put four good solid bolts into each of the first four vests. Then I manned the E-Web for the over kill factor of let’s see how the tiles are left after a bolt from the powerful weapon. A few seconds later smoke was trailing up from all six tiles we had tested. Not the best sign but it was something we could work on. Benji looked a little defeated seeing a piece of one of the molds hanging by its fake intestines.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji wasn’t too happy with what he found. Not a good start for all the hard work he had already put into the product and it hadn’t hardly yielded acceptable results. Its slugthrower protection was good, but the tiles fractured and needed to be refined heavily before they could be relied on as body armor, and given the showing so far, tank armor was absolutely out of the question. The tiles fractured with each hit, so after a few rounds they were too broken up to adequately stop enemy munitions from puncturing. That wouldn’t be too much of a problem and could be fixed by smaller tiles or even a dual layer to prevent gaps, but then there was its effectiveness against blasters. The Syndite had done exactly what it was designed to do, spread the heat throughout more of the tile, resulting in it having increased stress fractures and partial melting from reacting with the hafnium attempting to resist the heat. The counter forces had caused the syndite to melt and the hafnium to fracture. Again not a good plan if you were hoping to survive. After a few good strong bolts to the tile it was hardly stopping the energy at all, and resulted in the ballistics jelly mold being torn to shreds by the high energy projectiles.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji sat in his workshop trying his hardest to come up with a solution to the problems that had presented themselves. We felt pretty defeated coming off several days’ very hard work and even longer of planning to have failed so badly. Because of that he was slow to get moving and slower to keep working on the project. He looked like he wanted very badly to quit and find something else to do. That said, I wasn’t going to let that happen. We had a solid plan and an even better idea, and I wasn’t letting that go to waste. But he needed a break. He need some time to regroup and attack this a different way, so I figured the best thing to do was to leave on a supply run to get everything he might need for phase two, or even phase three if we got that far and needed it. “Alright so we took a rough hit in round one, but it’s time to shake it off and get to work on round two. Every problem has an answer so it’s time to come up with guesses to fix this one, go grab everything we need to get started working on those guesses and then try again.” I tried to sound confident, but I am sure he noticed I was disheartened by recent events.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Alright, you are right. While you are out I’ll take a break and come back to all this stuff when you get back. Combining the two ceramics isn’t going to work out the Hafnium it took weak in solid tiles to be primary protection since that would greatly decrease its effectiveness against slugthrowers. It looks like we are going to have to include a better insulant rather than a thermal resistant ceramic. Perhaps a good thermal paste or equivalent to make a back layer of the tile?” He said walking over to a data terminal to begin working on a list to give me.

“Okay well what will you need, so I can get going as soon as possible?” I asked, a little anxious about him staying working on this very difficult project. He seemed burnt out and he looked like he needed a good break.

“I could use a good amount of Neutronium, LI-900 silicon carbide ceramics, titanium, and tungsten carbide. I think if I arrange those properly I can come up with something that will work out. Go check out Roche for those. The verpine always have that kind of stuff on hand, and I need a cargo bay full of each of those. I could also use an Electroplating machine from them and a foil diffusion bonding apparatus.” He said, and based on all that it was fairly likely he had come up with a stable idea.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The list was complete and I was under way within the day. Rain, pelting the hull of my ship the whole way up and out of the atmosphere. Not too long of a trip out to Roche I thought, knowing I had dealt with the verpine before and they had been accommodating, mostly interested in combining our technological efforts together. I hoped the trip wouldn’t take too long, but part of me wanted to let Benji rest and recuperate for as long as possible. I keyed in the coordinates to the Navicomputer and waited for it to plot a safe path to the asteroid field. It didn’t take too long, but it could have been shorter. With some of the money we make off this project I am going to get a new ship, with bells and whistles.

The journey to Roche was fairly easy, nothing of note occurring in the short trip to the asteroid field, after all Jabiim and Roche were fairly close to each other, and Roche sat right on the Perlemian Trade Route so the whole trip was just Mara Corridor to the trade route and then straight to the system. Once I reverted to real space I turned on the comm system and waited. Before I began my approach to Nickel One they would certainly chime in and ask for identification.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I landed on the primary asteroid without any trouble, verpine waiting to greet me as I descended the ramp, “Welcome back, mister Vereen.” They said with a polite bow. “May we inquire as to your sudden, unannounced visit?” They asked inquisitively. Good, I wouldn’t have to play around and shop for what Benji needed.

I decided to address the one in front; some people thought the shared a hive mind so I guess it might not matter, but normally, man in front is the shot caller. “I have come because I need to purchase some fairly mundane materials, in large quantities though. I also need an electroplating machine and a foil diffusion bonding apparatus.” I said to him. His antenna twitched as I mentioned the equipment.

He turned his head to the others and addressed them in their own form of communication. “Someone sounds like they are making metal matrix composites. You have in the past promised to assist the verpine in exchange for mining rights. We can offer some assistance if you are doing experimental work with composites and we will call your agreement satisfied.” The other verpine chittered rapidly, antenna twitching with anticipation. It was a hard deal to pass up, especially with the snags Benji had been hitting on his own.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Alright I will take one of your experts back to Jabiim to assist, if that would be okay with you.” I wasn’t excited about bringing in the verpine, but if it was help and settling a past deal, I couldn’t hardly pass the offer up. Besides they were offering an expert on metal matrix composites which happened to be what we were working on right now.

“Excellent, obviously the Verpine hold no rights or privledges in the project involved beyond the increased benevolence of our working relationship. Keeva, here will accompany you home.” He motioned to a female Verpine and then a dozen drones began loading the ship with minerals and materials. “It will take several hours to gather the machines you require, however it should not be long, Keeva will escort you while you are on Nickel One, and as always, may your future endeavors be financially beneficial.” He held up a hand and turned to swiftly walk away, his job and his mission complete.

It was only three of four hours before the ship was loaded with all of my required materials and machines. I brought the verpine I would be leaving with aboard and ensured it was comfortable in its quarters and started the trip home.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The trip back to Jabiim was a little more awkward than I had hoped. Keeva, the verpine mineral specialist didn’t speak unless spoken to, didn’t leave the room I had loaned it without permission, and didn’t use anything without being given express permission. It meant I almost had to follow the insectoid around to ensure it wasn’t trying to eat something but I hadn’t told it that was alright. I guess it was some kind of respecting the host kind of thing, or maybe when I had told it to make itself at home it had reverted to some kind of pre-adulthood state of mind. Either way it was weird for me. I knew that Benji wasn’t going to be happy I brought him help at first, but he would warm up if she offered any real information to the project.

When we finally arrived on Jabiim the weather wasn’t as bad as it often was, having let up on the Razor Coast somewhat. The ship landed without issue and Benji walked out to greet me, only to see our visitor first, and as assumed he was somewhat surprised and upset about being brought what he considered a babysitter. It was going to be a long few days.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He pulled me aside as droids unloaded the ship and Keeva moved to stand out of the rain just within the building awaiting further instructions or permissions. “What the heck are you thinking bringing me a verpine. I don’t need the help and we don’t want them to steal our ideas here.” His concerns weren’t without logic, if she reported our findings and our intentions here to her superiors they might be able to complete the project first or be able to produce it mass quantities before we could, getting their product on the market before us.

“They assured me they weren’t interested in stealing the concept, only that we would consider their help when we did put it on the market. I have been thinking we might open up the facility in Roche in order to continue our relationship with the Hive.” I attempted to put a good spin on the idea, make it more appealing to him, but to no avail. He wasn’t interested in hearing about the future when his present was in what he considered jeopardy.

“Oh, and I am sure we will be able to build a factory large enough to mass produce this composite on their tiny rocks when we aren’t even done with it yet. Keep your focus, right here, right now until we are finished with this, alright?” he asked, but more demanded.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji proved the reasons he was smarter than me. It wasn’t all the education and the experience, it was the wisdom he had, his intuition about what to do and when. I relented and tried to remain out of his way, but that almost wasn’t allowed. He would not be left alone with Keeva, even if I needed to leave for just a second he would walk out of the shop and wait in the kitchen, mumbling about Balmorran Arms sending an assassin to take him out and put a stop to him before he became a juggernaut in the arms industry. Keeva did turn out to be helpful. She was more aware than Benji about percentages to be used in metal matrix composites, alloys, and what properties would be transferred or shared through what process. Together they decided to begin working on a Syndite ceramic laced with neutronium spiderwebbing to diffuse energy, heat, and electricity more efficiently. A metal matrix composite of tungsten and silicon was going to be the greatest feat, intended to adjust the thermal and electrical resistance of silicon to the strength and resilience of tungsten, but it was a difficult process that they were struggling with, attempting to adjust the mixtures and molecular make-up of the matrix to provide the strongest substance with the properties they desired.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“If we use the foil diffusion bonder to bond the silicon to the tungsten at a forty to sixty mix we should be able to achieve the reaction we are after. At that percentage the silicon will be consistent enough to maintain heat and energy resistance while the tungsten will still be very resilient. When we combine it with the syndite-neutronium it should allow for proper heat distribution while protecting the composite properly.” Keeva suggested, offering a possible solution to the current problem. As it stood the tungsten was conducting too much heat from the syndite towards the interior, which would result in the metal behind melting and warping, fracturing and weakening the tile.

“Leave out the tungsten completely, mix the silicon with duranium. The duranium is known for being heavily heat resistant and is much lighter, and it works well with neutronium as it is. Mixing with silicon at a twenty five-seventy five mix would have only slightly less tensile strength and much more heat resistance, which is what we are after.” Benji was glad to have someone to talk shop with, despite his paranoia and stubborn resistance to bonding with the verpine. “The goal is to grant as much heat resistance as possible without weakening the syndite. We will reinforce it with carbon nano-tubes anyway which will assist in its tensile strength.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Keeva and Benji were hard at work, making hundreds of small five centimeter by five centimeter tiles and testing them in mass. Benji said they were making and testing one hundred each of one hundred samples in order to gather conclusive data. Keeva simply said that optimal results are not the same as realistic results in the field, which is certainly true. Basically all I did was carry things from the workshop to the test range and ensure the automatic weapon system was functioning properly. They were working on one hundred different mixtures and combinations of materials that it became hard for me to keep up with what they were doing. Syndite and Neutronium remained a constant; however other materials such as tungsten, duranium, bronzium, and silicon came and went in different degrees and extremes. The most successful test seemed to be the bronzium, silica combination for what I was able to gather but they were still only testing against blaster weapons, hoping to limit the options before moving to test the tiles against slugthrower rounds. Benji mentioned that tank armor would consist of ten centimeter by ten centimeter hexagons double stacked and hot isostatically pressed into a duranium plate made to fit the vehicle in question, but other than that he was vague on what the differences between body armor and tank armor would actually be.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji continued to be untrusting of Keeva, but they seemed to be working along at a fair pace. By day seven they had taken the ten types of tiles with the highest blaster resistance and were preparing to test them against high velocity slugthrower rounds. “If you could just ensure the automated weapon has the ammunition it requires and make sure it doesn’t overheat while we are testing that would be best. I don’t think you can accurately help us catalogue the results, Draco.” Benji told me, and he was right, so I decided to stick with what I am good at and maintain the weapons like he asked. Benji moved over and carefully documented the tiles from each batch and then walked behind the safety line, “Lane’s hot,” he called as a safety measure and then the automated weapon sprung to life, firing a number of rounds at each tile. Testing ten tiles from each batch with the same number of ammunition allowed for proper data to be taken, then afterwards, using new tiles more ammunition would be fired into each one. It was a long process and one that Keeva suggested in order to mass test rather than test one type of tile at a time like Benji and I had been doing.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

After the extensive testing of ten types of tiles they reduced the number again, to five and built several full size tank armor tiles. These were massive ten centimeter by ten centimeter by five centimeter hexagons double stacked in an alternating pattern and pressed into duranium. A pair of cannons were set up in a breezeway outside because of their massive size. A turbolaser and a 120mm cannon each fitted with armor piercing anti-tank rounds or settings in the case of the turbolaser. Benji cleared the firing lane, at the end of which plates of twenty five tiles sat. “Fire one,” I called as I prepared to fire the first weapon, the round blaring to its target and fracturing one of the tiles, most of the penetrator round however spun off to the side of the plate, having been snapped by the sudden change in direction. “Fire one,” as the next plate was fired upon. This continued until all the targets were struck by two anti-tank rounds. The process was repeated quickly for the turbolaser, noting that the turbolaser struck several, normally four or five tiles, damaging them all. The plate with the highest strike tolerance for both weapons was selected, though it appeared that their ability to deter slugthrower rounds would always be greater than their ability to stop turbolaser fire.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji and Keeva did hundreds of tests on that type of tile, having it shot with thousands of different rounds over the next two or three weeks of testing, using a variety of weapons and a thousands of individual tiles of both infantry armor and tank armor sizes hoping to find every weakness and strength within each tile and understand how it is resilient against each weapon. Shrapnel was hardly effective, while blaster weapons were the most effective. Even lightsabers required effort to slice through, unlike the lazy weak slashes that lightsaber combat was known for. The minor resistance to lightsaber was probably its most unexpected trait, however the syndite and neutronium mix conducted the heat from the weapon across such a wide surface that it had the difficultly of chopping wood with an axe. Given the ability to enhance their strength with the Force, equipment, or other forms of strength enhancing techniques the ability would rarely see play in battle, but if it surprised one Sith and allowed a single trooper to escape with their lives it would be worth it. The tiles Slugthrower resistance was immense, able to stop two or three anti-tank rounds in its vehicle form, and most anti-personnel rounds were much less effective, taking numerous rounds to the same tile to render it useless. Blaster protection was significant, but not as much as other personal armors in production.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“The final result we came up with is a syndite-neutronium ceramic reinforced by carbon nanotubing and lined with a bronzium-silicon heat resistant metal matrix composite, allowing for it to survive the heat of a blaster bolt without cooking the man or metal on the inside.” Benji said, detailing the tile for his logs while Keeva worked on something else. “The problem I see with this stuff is that after being heavily damaged the tiles will have to be replaced, and it is difficult to recall every suit for optimum repairs. Most will have to be replaced with a liquid metal epoxy rather than heat pressed into the plates, and some would be better off being scaled rather than being pressed into a plate in the first place when it comes to body armor.”

Keeva finally spoke up, “The idea was to create an armor to substitute phrik or beskar from and that is the result we have achieved. Phrik and Beskar outclass the ceramics in every way, but they are too expensive and rare to mass produce, and while this equipment is expensive it is significantly cheaper than those metals. The issue will be building a dedicated factory to produce the tiles seeing as there are so many composites within them to be produced alongside the vehicles they were meant to armor.”