Devastator Risen (Lucerne/MCS Development) Complete

[ADM. Reshmar]

Mon Daca System

The Scythe-class Battlecruisers shuttered slightly as it slipped out of hyperspace above Mon Cala. Normally such a chore would not effect the ship in the slightest but the vessel had sustained some minor damage in its battle against the Dauntlass Heavy Cruiser at Kelsier. The ship would need some time in a dry dock slip patching the heavy prow armor and repairing the weapons batteries that had been disabled during the battle.

Reshmar looked at his home world before him. Swirling white clouds lay against the azure blue of the ocean outlining designs only the imagination could make sense of. At this distance the small land masses were nothing more than dots spread out and visible through the clouds. He knew one of those were his private corporate facility and his Villa. His home when he was on world and the current headquarters for the Mon Calamari Shipyards.

Durring the battle of Kelsier Reshmar had received a urgent message from his lead Engineer. It had simply said It is found. Reshmar knew immediately what the man had been referring to when he said it. He had been asked about certain history of Mon Daca and sat in on several discussions about its past with Admiral Quee. He had been interested in one battle in particular and Reshmar was happy to discuss his homes history with the man. As time had past these meetings had forged a bond between the two officers and knowingly at the time forged the base for the Directorate's formation.

Now after months of searching for something which no one knew for certain was still there Reshmar's team had found it. Lost to time and buried at the bottom of Mon Daca's deepest ocean. Reshmar watched the world grow as the ship moved into orbit. He waited for the ship to finish its approach then opened a channel to his Engineering team.

"Mister Gurif, I have arrived. Have you secured the site and set up the environment bubble?" Reshmar asked the Mon Calamari now looking back at him in the monitor. The bulbious eyes of the Mon Calamari male rolled a bit as he answered.

"We have been working on that but the depths at which we are working are causing problems. We can not free swim at these depths and the few Quarren we have which can are working as fast as they can with our Deep Ocean Vehicles to get the habitat complex into position. I estimate three more hours before we can go down sir." said the engineer. Reshmar nodded and looked at his chrono.

" Lets make it six hours Miter Gurif, no need rush the Quarren. I will see to getting the ship into a slip and join you then." Said Reshmar setting his chronos timer. He nodded at the engineer and closed the channel.

"Captain Take us into slip seven for repairs. You have the Con" Reshmar said as he stood and walked out of the bridge to salutes from the captain and his crew.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar sat at his desk aboard the Scythe looking over some last details he needed to get done before departing. His work seemed to never been done now that he was Owner and CEO of the Mon Calamari Shipyards. And now with this new undertaking he and Admiral Quee were beginning his time was very limited. This however was something he would make time for. He knew the importance of the find. Admiral Quee would be most interested in what his team has found, if that was in fact what they had found. It could be just another dead starship hulk buried in the sand and dirt at the bottom of the ocean. This was all they had found so far. If this was indeed what he had been looking for he knew his friend would want to be there. HE knew the man would drop anything he was doing to be there in fact. He assumed the man was still at Kelsier cleaning up the system after the battle. HE hoped anything he had going could be left to Master Raaf and her team so Gir could join him. He puched a button and the familur voice of the ships communications officer answered.

"Admiral sir, What can I do for you?" said the officer. Reshmar waited a second to think about just how he wanted to tell his freind about what he thinks he has found.

"Comm, open a channel to Admiral [member="Gir Quee"]."

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar waited for the communications officer to finish setting up the link and the face of Admiral Quee to appear. The man had the same passive look on his face as he always did. It was set in concern and thought like Reshmar most often seen it. Reshmar knew something was not right at Kelsier, it had been eye opening as to the capabilities of pirate organizations currently in operation. How they had acquired a ship the size of a Dauntlass Heavy Cruiser was something Reshmar wanted to know. How they acquired a cloaked Droid controlled Recusant destroyer was something which shook Reshmar to his core. Such a vessel plying the space and commerce lanes was a nightmare and could not be allowed. Hie fear was they had not seen the last of these pirates or what ever the group had been. For them to have the resources they did at Kelsier lead him to believe that may not be their only base of operations. He now looked at the face of Gir Quee feeling the same concerns and thinking the same things he knew his friend was thinking.

"Admiral Quee, I know you are busy but I have news."

 

[Gir Quee]

A flicker of curiousity briefly swept over Gir's blue eyes.

He briefly blinked as he tried to refresh his mind. What day is it again? He spared a glance at the edge of his console's screen, hoping to quickly catch a glimpse of it for reference. But instead, the man could only saw uploaded files of evidence to review. As much as he enjoyed the thrill of gradually unraveling mysteries, sometimes it was mind-numbling boring. He found himself frequently working in almost of a drone mindset, comparing various shipping records of both the criminal group and their victims. He had hoped to find some evidence of their network, possibly a common factor between them all, or an idea of what motivated their attacks. Yet so far, he had not found it. [member="Reshmar"]...has he found a missing piece or clue to this puzzle? Or is it something else? He cleared his throat and let a subdued smile grow across his face.

"Sorry, I'm afraid I'm not the most alert right now...probably time for a caf break soon..." he shook his head as if to shake his ramblings away, "but what have you found?"

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar looked at the man in the view screen with knowing sympathy. He knew how the man was feeling just by looking at his face. The lines at the edge of his eyes and the tinge of his skin from not enough nutrition were obvious to Reshmar's multi spectrum eye sight. He waited for the man to finish then spoke.

"Admiral Quee, My engineers think they have found something here on Mon Daca I think you would be interested in. I can not get into the specifics of what we are looking at or what we think we have here. The importance of the find and its probable implications are far too important for that. I think it would be worth your trip to Mon Cala admiral." Said Reshmar trying to convey he wanted the admiral to come without asking over a transmission. He could not come right out and say get here fast it is important. That would imply that what they had found was too important for him not to come and to anyone monitoring the channel that it would be worth whoever they worked for to check it out also.

"I will leave it to your decision. I just thought with your interest in archaeology you might be interested." Reshmar said once again eyeing the human admiral intently.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir blinked at Admiral [member="Reshmar"]'s message and unconsciously let his lower lip fall. This method of speaking is unlike him...He can't be talking about this mystery group though...not on Dac, can he? What could he find under the water...another riddle...His mind began to shift over from that analysis as he began to think of water world's oceans. His first thoughts drifted over to some sort of ore or mineral. Did find a particularly rich vein of a rare element? No, he wouldn't be so cryptic about that...this must be something artificial, something that he doesn't feel comfortable discussing on a comm channel because of its potential value...or danger...so often those things are intertwined these days...People so often think of it as a peaceful world...perhaps because of how the Mon Calamari have presented themselves to the outside galaxy...but how often have the Mon Calamari and Quarren warred over history? Then the wars with outsiders...CIS, the Galactic Empire, Krayt's empire, then Darth Luft's pirate empire...there is far more blood and iron in those waters than on most worlds. Gir felt a twinge of curiousity began to grow as he pondered those thoughts more.

He glanced at his wrist chrono, doing a double take to make sure he had read the time right.

"I will be on my way as soon as I can," informed Gir, "I'll be leaving Captain Welche here, so I'll need a little bit of time to brief and orient him to my work here..."

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar watched the image of Admiral Gir as he spoke. He could tell the man was contemplating just what Reshmar was meaning and what he was referring to. He knew Gir would understand that what Reshmar was speaking of was indeed worth his time. He knew that Gir knew he would not bother him with the request if it wasn't.

"Very well Admiral, I will have Mon Cala Orbital Command expecting you and have them relay the trajectory and co-ordinates once you have arrived in system. Until then." Reshmar finished and the comm channel went dark. HE turned his attention to his subordinate. "Captain prepare a shuttle It is time for us to go see what we have found."

 

[Gir Quee]

Several days later...

MRX-BR Pacifier Black Prince, near Mon Cala

Gir's eyes darted across the control board of the Prince. His eyes finally settled on the right switch, which he promptly pushed. The Black Prince began to slow down as it neared orbit with the world. Gir would much have rather had used his own shuttle, the Remember Hast. But the Prince was far more inconspicuous and battleworthy, both of which attributes that Gir prized when traveling around the edges of known civilization. Gir flipped a switch on his headset comlink to a predesignated channel.

"Mon Cala orbital command," started Gir, "this is the Black Prince with Captain Gir Quee at the helm..."

Is it really a helm on a ship this small? He shook the thought from his head.

"...I am requesting clearance and flight path to land on Mon Cala."

He almost considered adding in Admiral [member="Reshmar"]'s name. But tossing a name like that might give away information about the purpose of his visit, which could be bad if they wanted to keep whatever Reshmar had discovered under wraps. And Gir was becoming very curious about what that was. On his way to the world, the former admiral had done a bunch of research on potential finds in the area, but that had only opened up the horizon of possibilities. GIr was beginning to think that whatever he would find would be foreign of nature. If it had been of Quarren and Mon calamari origin, it probably would have been well-documented and easily available information to Admiral Reshmar. Still, he couldn't rule that out completely. It could be that Reshmar had found the historic wreck of a once-grand mon calamari cruiser. That narrowed down his list of potential finds considerably, but that still left dozens of potential Imperial and Sith war machines as potential finds. Secretly he hoped that Reshmar had found a certain behemoth, but he knew better than to get his hopes up. He would just have to keep an open mind until Admiral Reshmar revealed his discovery to Gir.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar sat looking over the reports of the days research when the call came. He put down his data pad and pressed the button opening the channel which was blinking for his attention. The voice on the other end was that of his aid who had been monitoring air traffic communications channels all day.
"Sir, Admiral Quee has arrived in system. shall I intercept his com channel?" the man asked and Reshmar acknowledged that he should. A few moments later another flash let Tian know the call was connected to his desk and that air traffic control had been informed this was a priority visitor and was to be handeled by Fleet command. The channel hissed and the voice of Gir Quee was on the other end.

"Ah Admiral Quee, it is Reshmar, I have sent you co-ordinates to a landing pad near my villa. Please make your way there and I will send someone to greet you." said Reshmar pressing a set of commands into his desks command screen. A woman walked in dressed in a flight suit and smiled. He long dark hair had been tied up into some sort of knot at the back of her head and her eyes were a brilliant blue that reminded Reshmar of Mon Calas ocean. He motioned for the woman to walk to a set of chairs and sit then turned his attention back to Gir

"Admiral I am glad you could visit I look forward to our meeting and dinner. I will see you once you get to my villa."

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

The Black Prince sailed across a sea of clouds. A light turbulence rocked his ship back and forth as he browsed the local news headlines. Doesn't seem like there's any announcement of the find either...not even the world's archaeological publications hint at some new undersea excavation. Looks like he's got whatever he's found well-under wraps... He glanced to see drops of moisture coagulate across his cockpit's canopy as the ship's autopilot took the Prince through layers of clouds towards Admiral [member="Reshmar"]'s villa. The MXR-BR Pacifier broke the last layer of clouds, allowing the former Republic officer see sparkling azure seas that covered most of the world. He spared a quick glance at the HUD, noting the ETA and estimated distance from the admiral's villa. He blinked. Already? The blonde man looked up to see Reshmar's private island rising up from the glimmering oceanic expanse. He took over control from the ship's autopilot and abruptly scaled back his ship's speed. The inertial compensators struggled to keep up with his maneuver, and Gir could feel remnants of the force of inertia press against his chest. He pulled up on the ship's yoke, taking it up in a corkscrew maneuver that ended with the Black Prince settled on the villa's landing pad.

Gir unbuckled his straps and walked down the ship's ramp onto solid ground. He halted and closed his eyes, indulging in the sensation of the wind brushing up on his skin. He took a deep breathe in of the world's air. Almost feels like home...it's got about the right humidity...but maybe that's why the original mon calamari settlers liked Hast so much. Gir tapped a button on his comlink, causing the Black Prince's ramp to rise up flush with the rest of the hull. He opened his eyes and walked forwards to villa's entrance. Now to finally find out what he's found...

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar stood in the Doorway of his villa watching as [member="Gir Quee"] ship landed. The admiral hand handeled the landing like a pro and the craft came to rest on the landing pad. A cool breeze whisped by Reshmar as air from the ocean swept in across the lower levels of his villa up and onto the landing pad. A storm was brewing to the west and the scent of rain was already presence on the wind. Reshmar looked off towards the clouds in the distance boiling up and turning dark. It was common this time of year for storms to frequent this part of Mon Cala. Reshmar would have the villa locked down and prepared for the storm but where they were going the weather made no difference. Reshmar watched the ramp lower and Gir walk down the ramp and away from his ship. He watched the ship ramp move back into place as Admiral Quee began walking to the villa. The Admiral had just begun walking towards him when the man beside Reshmar spoke.

"Sir, The transport is ready and waiting for you and Admiral Quee at the sub launch." Reshmar nodded without a word and waited for Gir to reach him. When he did Reshmar reached out his webbed hand and spoke.

"Welcome back Admiral Quee. I am sorry to have pulled you away from your schedule but I believe you will appreciate the reason I did so." Reshmar grasp Gir's hand to shake it and spoke once again.

"I trust your trip here was not too much of an imposition and was uneventful." said Reshmar shaking the human admirals hand.

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir firmly grasped Admiral [member="Reshmar"]'s hand and shook it. There were few people that Gir trusted as much as the Mon Calamari admiral. If he had called Gir away from the Directorate's war, Gir knew that it had to be interesting if not important. Gir released his grip from the admiral's webbed hand.

"It wasn't terribly interesting in and of itself," murmured the man from Hast, "though I did see my first Star Cab in the wild, so to speak. Over a light year away from Munto Codru and still trucking it on a sublight drive. Some of them must be crazy...but perhaps there is value in older technologies. They must have done something right when they designed it for people to still be using it in this day and age."

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar laughed thinking about the old ships. They were indeed ancient and outdated. The old ships were very rare and Reshmar himself had never seen one. He released Gir's hand and spoke. "Somtimes you just have to stick to the classics" he said laughing again. Reshmar turned and motioned for Admiral Quee to walk with him. HE then turned towards the pads egress door and walked away from the shuttle and the moist air of his home world.

"Gir, I think what I have found will be of intrest to you. At first we were not sure if we had actually found what I had suspected it was but we have confirmation now" Reshmar handed Gir a data pad with a technical readout with the words Inquisitor five in bold lettering at the top. Reshmar slowed as the neared the door and watched Gir as he realized just what he was looking at.

"It is in good shape considering it has been on the ocean floor for eight centuries. I have a team of Quarren excavating it now. It is too deep for Mon Cal to dive without gear. Once we can get to it with a submersible we will go down and see if we can access the outer hatch. Apparently there is still atmospheric containment in sections of the hulk." said Reshmar as he turned to watch the access hatch open to the elevator lift. HE once again motioned to the human to follow him and he walked into the lift.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir's eyes widened as he read the datapad. While a world devastator had occurred to him as being one of the possibilities, he had rated it as a remote one. If he was to have made one guess about what Reshmar would have found, he guessed that it would have been an Acklay-class Mobile Fortress. Building a new version of that complicated vehicle would have sold well on both Hast and Dac, which would have bring in enough credits to the Labs for Gir to be interested. But the strategic implications of finding a world devastator were far more reaching. They weren't finding a product that could simply be refined upon and then resold. Instead, there was a possibility to acquire technology that could be further refined and then put into use for the Directorate's own benefit.

He blinked. But we're getting ahead of ourselves...it's doubtful that the starship is still entirely intact with its history...but there remains a good possibility that there's still someone useful onboard. Gir followed Admiral [member="Reshmar"] into the lift.

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

The lift stopped ad a small underwater platform with a odd submarine docked to it. The wate pressure at this depth was marginable but where they were going it was very high. Many of the non calamari or quarren team have been suffering from fatigue and hemeraging if they spent too much time on the lower platform. Reshmar admited to becoming light headed last time he had gone down. He knew the humans would have issues if they stayed too long on the lower platform but he also knew Gir would want to be there when they opened up the hull of the ancient war machine.

Reshmar turned and motioned towards the vessel then spoke as he began to walk. "The depth at which we found this is far too deep for Mon Calamari physiology. The Quarren can swim the deep but it is at their threshold as well. We have been doing most of the work with submersable droids and laser drills equiped drones. The sediment covers nearly ninty percet of the vessel but were clearing it away pretty quicklly. I am told the bottom starboard too th brunt of the crash and most of the lower decks on that side are flooded. Sonor does show much of the ship still dry and from what we can tell there is a faint power source still running environment in section. It is my understanding these did not have much crew to begin with, and there is no way humans could have survived down here this long. You and your men will have limited exposure time here due to the pressure. " Reshmar opened up the hatch to the submarine and waved his hand in. "After you" he said waiting for Gir to embark.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir ducked down as he entered the craft. Almost immediately he felt an odd sense of familiarity as he looked around the craft's interior. Part of it stemmed from his early days as a bluewater sailor, but he just as quickly recognized that many controls were different, though he didn't know if that was because of the model's particular make or if he just didn't remember them after such long time away from the occupation. His mind wandered back to [member="Reshmar"]'s report about the vessel's condition. From what he had seen of the droid starships in the archives, they tended to be fairly symmetrical. If the starboard side was crushed, they would likely be able to figure out what that side had looked like simply by examining the port side. But that would not be an easy task for him at such depths. It'll almost certainly have to be done with droids and drones...unless they have some pressure suits available for us to use...but even then, you can only stay in one of those suits for so long...I wonder...Gir turned to face the mon calamari admiral.

"Has any thought be given to floating the vessel off the ocean floor? It goes without saying I suppose that if we raise it above water, we run the risk of additional corrosion and revealing its presence to the public...but what if it was only given enough buoyancy so that it rested in a shallower depth?"

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar stepped into the submarine and watched a man close and seal the pressure door. Gir had stepped into the vessel in front of him and was not turning to ask a question. Reshmar listened to his friend and took a seat in one of the subs crash couches. The thought had crossed his mind and was still a possibility but for now the sediment around the massive construct hindered any attempt to float the beast.

"We have considered this option. But until out drones and the Querran have dug it out of the ocean floor it is not a viable option. We have considered installing a series of shield projectors to surround the site and with propper medical supervision we can send non Querran in to work." said Reshmar as he relaxed in his seat and fastened his belt.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded in acknowledgement of Admiral [member="Reshmar"]'s response. in many ways, using something like a hydrostatic field generator was a superior solution to his offhand idea of floating the wreck upwards. It would disturb the structure less, which meant that if the hull was unsound, they wouldn't find out by watching the wreck fall apart as it was raised upwards. Moreover, by keeping it on the floor of the seabed, it remained much more concealed from any prying eyes. With hydrostatic fields in place, he would even be able to walk through the world devastator's hallways without having to wear a bulky suit. That would certainly make the whole process much more enjoyable and efficient. It seems like he's thoroughly thought through the salvaging operation...now it's just a matter of going there...

His mind wandered to the fates of the other world devastators. A good number of them had been destroyed or lost at the Reborn Emperor's attack on Dac. One had been captured by the New Republic and put to use recycling scrapped ships over Da Soocha V. But political outcry had ensured that Devastator's own destruction. Gir began to wonder if the same thing might occur here. He guessed that such a technological monstrousity, even in the right hands, might engender some protests that might eventually force them to destroy it. We might only have a little bit of time with it before we are forced to do away with it. Best to get the data that we can on it while we have it. Gir sat down and looked at the mon calamari admiral.

"Does the world government know that it has been found?"

 

[ADM. Reshmar]

Reshmar paused a moment before answering Gir's question. The current governmental body of Mon Cala was fragile and while the king was a friend to MCS many political leaders of the world were not.

"The King knows as does the prince and the royal families security chief. Other than that and the personnel here currently no, no one knows." answered Reshmar. The find was top secret and Reshmar knew if some of the less loyal members of the Mon Cala knew they would insist the find be shared with corporations more loyal to them. That was not happening. Certain Mon Cala corporations were less than benevolent and He did not want to see the tech they would find getting into the wrong hands.

[member="Gir Quee"]

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir nodded in acknowledgement as thesubmarine neared the wreck. He felt that there was something being left unsaid by his friend, but he wasn't interested in possibly making [member="Reshmar"] feel uncomfortable, especially as Gir himself was not a mon calamari. But it seemed to Gir that no matter what world or culture that you worked in, there was always politics, especially when something so potentially powerful presented itself. Gir made a note to himself to pay more attention to the politics and working relationships of the ocean world.

Gir felt the submarine's velocity gradually decrease to what felt like his own walking speed. We must nearly be there if we're moving this slow...or we're moving around some obstacle that requires a delicate touch. Gir had spent only a little time in submersible vehicles on Hast, but he knew that operating one could easily be as challenging as operating any starship. Like starships, submarines tended to move in all three axes. Unlike starships, submarines frequently had to deal with frequent obstacles larger than the ship itself, and on top of that, currents. If rumors were to be believed, many worlds on which submarines operated also tend to have some rather dangerous aquatic species quite capable of destroying the ship or killing its crew. Gir briefly began to wonder if he should have brought some sort of weapon along in case they encountered something along the way to the wreck, or even inside it.