Can't Touch This

[Laira Darkhold]

The Protectorate Blockade Runners I had purchased were fine ships, excellent for what I had in mind even, but they were not how I wanted them. I wanted them to be damn near untouchable. Everything from missiles, Starfighters, and capitol ships, I wanted them all to be left in the dark, untouched, and unseen. I wanted these few ships to have it all. Speed, maneuverability, defenses, and stealth, oh yes it needed stealth. Only then could I ensure that it could escape combat and evade the massive capitol ships that roamed around out there. I needed my new executives to be protected, and well the third, that one was for me. At least for now it was. I had accumulated quite a number of sub systems and stealth operations, as well as a massive suite of countermeasures and now I had them in tow towards Mandalore, where my good friends at MandalHypernautics would assist at stripping the ships down and rebuilding them around the massive number of systems I had acquired for them. My COO Lady Kay and Chief Engineer Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha would be safe, and would most likely be pleased at being given these fancy new toys. Along with all the security I intended to provide them, hopefully they would be able to travel freely across any borders in these.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The Indominus Rex reverted from Hyperspace, with the corvettes in tow, well technically they were being piloted by small groups to Mandalore, but the way they hugged close to the Indominus they might as well have being towed. The Indominus, and the corvette’s cargo holds where laden with the gifts and purchases ready to be implanted in to the corvettes. Personal Ships for the Executives of ArmaTech Combat Systems to fly around the galaxy in, carrying its precious cargo from one world to the next. The administrators of the MandalHypernautics shipyards were expecting me, and my ships, and so there were few alerts to ring out. Nothing unexpected upon the arrival of a cruiser like the Indominus. I had anticipated such a world to be very well protected, and I had not been disappointed. Literally dozens of battleships and destroyers floated above the near sacred world of Mandalore. I nodded to the communications officer, “Patch me through. I don’t know if [member="Captain Larraq"] is waiting personally, or if he is just having his subordinates handle my request.” The officer quickly brought on a communications line, the small hologram on my captain’s chair flickering to life in the image of a man.

 

[Captain Larraq]

Larraq had been in his office attending to the business of running a small economic empire when a call was patched through to his desk. He hadn't been waiting for one, but he had been aware that one might be coming. "Mr. Vereen." Larraq said into the comm as he afforded himself a moment's break from reading the hundred or so papers that demanded his attention. "Welcome back to Mandalore. I'm afraid I'm a bit busy at the moment, but my people and facilities are at your disposal. I've been made aware of your current project and have set aside a few births at one of my shipyards for your use. You should be getting coordinates transmitted to your ship now. The station's a five-stack of Goten-class Dry Dock Stations and is more than equipped to handle your project."

Larraq stared at the stack of papers for a few more moments... "I'd love to come up there and see what you're upto Draco, but I'm just too busy at the moment." He said into the communicator. "I'll try to swing by and take a look in a few days, but I can't make any promises right now."


[member="Draco Vereen"]

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I listened respectfully to [member="Captain Larraq"] . I had hardly expected him to personally assist, though it would have been nice and welcomed. I knew he was a busy man, and that running through helping out me wasn’t on his to do list. Which was fair enough, he had things to do, and people to see. Maybe later in the week he would make it up here to see the ships I was giving a serious overhaul, but that was a maybe, nothing definite. I knew the feeling of not having the time to do things well, I was getting close to that as it was. That was the reason I had hired [member="Lady Kay"] and [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"] . So that I could have a little more time to do other things. Already I had felt the pressure lift off my shoulders. I just hoped that I hadn’t added too much to theirs, as to remove the burden from one person and place it on another wasn’t the Mandalorian Way. I hoped that they would let me know if they needed a break, but they both seemed to stubborn to ask for time like that, and would probably stay busy whether I wanted them to or not.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The ships arrived at the Goten-class space dock I had been directed to, parking the corvettes there and letting the hundred plus ArmaTech engineers off the Indominus to mingle with the MandalHypernautics workers and ship builders. Together they would install equipment from several different companies, such as ArmaTech and MandalHypernautics, obviously. MandalTech had supplied their advanced Hyperdrives, complete with Hyperwave Inertial Momentum Sustainers. Iron Crown had supplied numerous countermeasures and defenses, persuaded by credits to supply them. The power generator had been purchased from Tenloss, being a strong Hypermatter annihilation Reactor, to supply power to the multitude of advanced systems. Even still it wasn’t likely that they would be able to all be functional at the same time. Lucerne Labs had provided several stealth systems in addition to the Active Camouflage that MandalHypernautics would be providing. Mine and Lucerne Labs Stealth Coating however wasn’t exactly made to go on this sized ship, but I was going to try for it anyway, to attempt to give it a passive stealth system all the same. My engineers had told me a dozen times over that it would be too large of a ship for those systems, but I was going to make them try anyway. Worst thing they could do was fail, and I didn’t really need it, I just wanted it.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I disembarked the Indominus at the space dock, with a half dozen project chiefs following in my wake, muttering and whispering to themselves so as not to disturb me and the conversation I was going to have with the Mandal Hypernautics administrator who would be assisting me with this refit. I call it a refit, but it is much more like a complete remodeling and addition, much like one would do to a home they were making drastic changes to. Really the only thing that wouldn’t be adjusted would be the frames of these ships. The complex dual drive system that was going into it would basically tear apart the engine assembly and they would only be similar in appearance, not in function though. They would be equipped with both Mandal Hypernautics Overdrive Engines and Lucerne Labs Caecius baffled Ion Drives allowing the ship both stealth drives and powerful enough engines to leave an engagement, though they wouldn’t both be able to be active at the same time. I strode up to the Administrator and he bowed in greeting, obviously expecting me, “Hello Mister Vereen, it seems I’ve been assigned to assist with your project. If I could, I’d like to go over the design and make some suggestions and familiarize myself with it.” He said, asking for the design.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I waved over at my engineers, calling them over. “How about the lot of you go wander off and go over the design of the ship while I take a tour of your space station. I’ve been feeling the need to stretch my legs and don’t want to hold things up. I’m expecting my COO and Chief Engineer some time, contact me when they arrive in system. I’d like to meet them at the dock. Last time they meet me in the middle of a project they had to find me first.” My assistant nodded in response and made a mark on his datapad, quickly calling the air traffic control of the station to inform him of my employees’ eminent arrival, and that he needed to be notified when they arrived. Then he fell in line behind me while the engineers mingled speaking to one another. I walked away, off towards the entertainment section of the station, my assistant keeping a respectable distance, with a pair of black armored security walking in line with him. The addition of security was new to me, but I liked having back up when I needed it. I intended to go into battle with a contingent of the warriors with me, and have my executives escorted by a group of them.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

They had been trained by one of the best Mandalorians I could find, and then practiced against other soldiers, making each fire team brutal in combat. The fact that then they had been cybernetically enhanced and outfitted in phrik armor only made them even more deadly. With a squad of them behind me, we could certainly punch above our weight class. As I waked through the enormous space station I stopped at several places of entertainment, looking inside long enough to get a feel for the place and then moving to the next one. Most of them were just cantinas, but I lingered at the holo theater long enough for my assistant to purchase tickets for one of the shows. Since he had bought them I might as well make use of them, I thought. We sat near the back, with the guards the row behind me, my assistant in between them, and their pistols strapped to their legs and their rifles lying across their laps. They were a fearsome sight; more than enough to ward off any would be assassin long enough for me to react.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I sat and watched the video, depicting some ancient Jedi master defeating a Sith Lord, and sealing his spirit away on Yavin Four. They really liked to overuse those places that had been famous for one or two battles didn’t they? None the less, once the movie was over my assistant rushed to give me progress reports about what was happening with the ships. “Sir the engineers have collectively struck the Blackest Night Stealth Coating and the Countermeasures package. They are still working on implementing the other system into the design, but are having trouble as it was meant to go on a much larger ship. They want to strike it as well, with your permission.” He said, awaiting a reply to send to the design team.

“Tell them to use their best judgment. If they can’t keep it they can’t keep it. If they feel like they can, then they should.” I told him. I trusted the engineers I had hired. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have hired them in the first place. ArmaTech was large enough that I could no longer keep up with each project and each employee. I had for the first several growth spurts, but at a point it became too much. I had worked alongside them before, acted as a foreman rather than a CEO and stayed with them, until it was too much work for one man.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Even with the help I had received I was never going to be able to keep up with the immense amount of Employees ArmaTech currently employed. We had grown from three employees to several million on a half dozen planets, an aide station on Iego, providing those that lived there with all of their necessities should the desire it, and plans from Lady Kay heading up a specialized portion of the company that would focus on that aspect of life. At that point the name ArmaTech Combat Systems wouldn’t make much sense anymore. My assistant snapped me back to the here and now. “Sir, they have elected to cut it from the design. They apologize but it is simply too large.” He said.

Man did I need a female assistant. This guy was too apologetic. He had been around from back when I was keeping up with everyone, but he had become very apologetic, knowing that as long as the product is good, it doesn’t matter to me how it gets to that point. With these ships I had literally just bought some of everything I could find and shoved it into a ship design.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Arriving on the station had been easier than she thought given the horror stories that she'd had heard ship captains tell when she was just a wandering mechanic for hire. Coming of the transports landing ramp she stepped lightly and bounced a little every other step as she had her headphones on and drummed her hands in the air with the song she was listening to. "There's a Peeping tom sat outside my window, He's been there for days And now it's only gotten onto Sunday and I think it's time to play~♪" She sang out as she walked along the corridor leading from her transport towards the main station, a few of mandal hypernautics's engineers stared as she walked passed them but some of the Armatech engineers that had worked with her had grown used to working around the near ever cheerful Cernun. She stopped at a viewport and looked over the ships being built, all from simple frames to half finished ships, and she smiled highly. "We soooo need one of these stations." She said to herself as she thought of what could be done with such a station but she then shook it off. She had come to see [member="Draco Vereen"] since he had requested her presence and well she hadn't had time to set up her own workstation/lab to begin with while she had familiarized herself with her department and it's "Rising stars" as some of the brightest were called.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

My assistant tapped me, “Sir Miss Zeibitha has arrived on the station.” He was his normally overly apologetic self. He had failed to update me before she had arrived and now she had already gotten aboard the station before I had been alerted to that fact. I simply nodded and began the slow walk back to the births that had been allotted to my project. I was an excellent station, but I lacked the funds currently to be able to afford one. Maybe once my other projects closed out, I would purchase similarly sized stations for Roche and Gallos. I already wanted to purchase Harvesters for each mining site I had, and with the Mandalorians opening up Concordia and Aeten to ArmaTech and the Techno Union allowing their planet of Bothawui to be built upon, it was a time of expansion for the company.

I approached [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"] upon the space station my three followers hanging back at a respectful distance. “How are you Zreame?” I asked as I approached her, holding out my arms wide. Through the veiwports the three Blockade Runners being pulled apart down to the frames to be rebuilt with the myriad of systems.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame had found her way to the births allotted to Armatech and stared out the viewport at the ships being pulled apart and rebuilt, turning off her headphones and letting them rest around her neck. She alway's liked going on stations since they were always well lit and she didn't need her night-vision goggles because the sun never set on a station. The Blockade Runners were a very interesting design and offered great modification capabilities. 'Wonder if a ship like that can be piloted by a single person?' She thought as she looked over the cockpit of the ship and scanned over it a little with her eyes.

Hearing [member="Draco Vereen"] behind her she turned around and saw him holding out his arms wide as he spoke. "Great thanks and you?" She said as she hugged him, it looked like one and she never turned down one. "So this is the project you contacted me about?" She then said as she pointed towards the viewport, a crane moving an engine part passed it as she pointed towards it. She had to hand it to mandal hypernautics they knew how to impress.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

She gave me a hug, which I had indeed gestured for then she pointed out towards the ships. “I'm doing very well myself, and Yes it is. Those are going to be our personal vessels when they are done, but the Engineers need some help with it, and well I just buy things and make demands of things. It needs to be able to be piloted by an individual, and its turbolasers need to be able to be manually operated or slaved to the pilots controls, depending on how many people you have travelling with you.” I said to her, nodding towards the ship. “They just need a helping hand it all, the people over at Mandal Hypernautics are covering the construction, we just need to approve a design for them to use. The hull is going to be stripped down to the frame and rebuilt based on the number of modifications I’ve already asked for.” I told her, turning and gesturing for her to follow. She was brilliant when it came to these things, and with any luck she would help get things settled with the engineering team. I started to lead her down towards the conference room the engineers had set up. On a personal level I hardly knew Zreame or Kay, I would have to fix that soon. We would all three have to sit down and learn about each other and about our company.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Her eyes widened a little with her smile as she heard she would be allowed part in the making of those ships. "So one man piloting system and the ability to slave the weapons to the pilot controls or a secondary station next to the pilot for weapon controls." She repeated after [member="Draco Vereen"] and then followed him to the conference room, seeing a few engineers she recognized and had helped with minor projects made her smile to them. When she was fully inside she looked at the holo projector showing the developing design and she walked toward it and looked it over a bit more, making minor adjustments to help the designing flow a little and give it the ability to be reinforced a little more. "So I take it you all know the specs and what it should be able to do." She then said as she moved to sit down on one of the chairs allocated for the executives.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I let [member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"] handle going through the designs, making adjustments as she did so. Nothing major, no system or tech removed and nothing overly audacious added or removed for that matter. I had made sure to include several luxuries in the ship for personal use, in order to turn the ship into more of a home away from home instead of just a transport for myself and the girls. She was skilled in this sort of thing, and I had my time heavily occupied by other projects and affairs, so I was really just relaxing watching them work. I could use the break, so I walked over and sat in one of the plush couches against the back wall. When Zreame asked if everyone was familiar with the design the engineers responded with various, “ayes”, “yays”, and “yes’s”, but I decided to be different, and truthful. “Not really,” I said, half spoken, half muttered. It wasn’t a lie. I had just scrolled through a manifest and selecting things I wanted in the ship. Its actually design completely escaped me, as did how to build and how to put them together. Really I was just the money behind the whole thing.

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame giggled a little when [member="Draco Vereen"] responded to her question and smiled. "Well then let's arrange all of the systems into the design and see what we can fit and what we can't all right?" She said as she brought up the holo projectors hand controls and added all the systems into the surrounding area around the base skeleton of the ship. She watched and spoke with the other engineers and the way things began to sound would probably make it hard for any one that wasn't versed in engineering to not think it was gibberish. When they had put all of the parts into the ship she looked it over and then had to ask Draco a question. "Are all the stealth systems necessary? I mean don't get me wrong I like them and all but for some reason i think it's a bit over kill and if it wasn't for that generator we wouldn't even be able to get of the ground." She said as she moved the bed into what would be the main bedroom of the ship.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I let Zreame take the lead on the project for the most part, just sitting back, barely paying attention to what was being said about the ship, leaving all the minor decisions up to Zreame. I felt the project was fine in her capable hands, and besides I couldn’t have been very helpful with this anyway. When she turned and got my attention, she had a question about the stealth systems. I believe she thought there were too many in conjunction with the electronic warfare and countermeasures, and she was probably right about that. “Well, that is why we bought the generator. I guess you could strip out the QQ-45H countermeasures and the LLT-12 Erebus array. They are fairly redundant with the other systems and take up quite a bit of space on the ship from what I can see.” I said, looking up to her, “But really it is up to you.” I told the cerun. I felt like she needed the confidence of having my support and trust, but I could be wrong. I really needed to sit down and learn about her and Kay soon so I would know them on a personal level.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]

 

[Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha]

Zreame nodded and flipped her hands and took those systems out of the design and opened up a bit of speed by reducing the speed and she then placed her hands on her hips and nodded with a satisfied smile. "I think we are done with the design." She said as she sounded quite proud of the design herself. "Well I think we can get this to the boy's in the berth and then those of you that want can oversee it if you want." She then said to the other engineers and watched them leave the room as she moved to [member="Draco Vereen"] and sat next to him and leaned back as she stretched a little. "Mhn~ that was a soo worth the trip over here. Thanks for asking for me." She said with a smile and gave him a friendly punch to his shoulder, though it was more like a nudge than anything. "So want to go hit the cantina for some food and drink while we wait for the mechanic to get started?" She asked as she gave him a 'my treat' gesture and expression.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I waited for her to finish work, then she made the proposal to go grab something to eat at a local cantina on the large station, “Absolutely, but as a gentleman, I’m buying. I can’t have my stellar reputation of generosity be tarnished by letting you buy me dinner.” I stood up, gesturing for her to lead the way, and followed closely behind her to the cantina on the station. It was a simply poorly lit place. We grabbed a table and the two black armored guards that shadowed me stood just inside the door of the restaurant.

A waiter walked over, asking “What will it be?” when he arrived. I wasn’t sure what Zreame ate as a Cerun so I simply motioned for her to order whatever she wanted instead of attempting to order for her.

Construction on the ships was simple. Following Zreame’s design, the systems and defenses could be added, and with the workers from Mandal Hypernautics it wouldn’t take very long at all to refit the three ships. In fact they would probably be completed by morning.

[member="Zreame Ithrac Zeibitha"]