Did someone order landing gears?

[Jessica Med-Beq]

The prototype of a landing gear designed for use on larger capital ships was almost ready: hydraulics, large and small, as well as a large reinforced alusteel shock absorber about a meter thick and 15 meters across, divided into fourteen equal parts, designed to withstand hundreds of thousands of tons at once. It has the added bonus of being able to pose as a retracted heavy turbolaser emplacement when retracted. Jessica, called the "landing gear lady" internally, also took part in designing the Maersk-class bulk freighter, which had seven of these landing gears onboard. But landing gears had to have computerized actuation, which would take mass off the ship as compared to having an intricate network of hydraulic controls spread over hundreds of meters.

"I'm afraid, boss, that, for the Pullmans, Bowsers and Tofolks, Zambonis even, we always purchased our landing gears externally. I was called in because future plans called for landing gears on larger ships. No one here could design such things as software for actuating landing gears, not even Marcia: my specialty is hardware and thermohydraulics"

"We need to have the avionics done before it can be tested and, from there, be fitted on an actual ship. Avionics are critical here. i think I know who to contact about avionics as it pertains to landing gears"

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Being a business Jedi, Sor-Jan had learned to expect the unexpected.

Having the One Sith order a bunch of HoloLinks? Hadn't seen that one coming. A job designing the entire software infrastructure for an Imperial base? Never imagined he'd be on that invite list. He'd become the dumping ground for all of [member="Matsu Ike"]'s unwanted or excess aurodium, contracted by none other than [member="Siobhan Kerrigan"] to design Fireman's communications encryption protocols, and built an entire communications security backback for the Silver Sanctum Coalition.

But computer assisted landing gear?

...this was new.

Well, this was different. It wasn't exactly 'new.' At the core, any computer program was going to be nothing more than switching out zero's for one's. Primitive systems did nothing more than switch something on or off. Even more complex systems still demonstrated this primitive behavior, usually adding some kind of sensor to aid the process in determining what or when to switch something on or off.

The particulars were almost inconsequential to the programmers. Variables that avionics specialists could fill in later. The basic principles or design was essentially the lightswitch applied to hydraulics.

It would be interested to get a closer look at the landing systems. For as often as he flew or worked on his own ship, the landing struts and their operating protocols were a part of starship mechanics that he'd have to admit taking for granted. So long as it was working, he didn't even think about it. And if it wasn't working, it wouldn't exactly be something easily fixed. Or noticed. You'd probably never know you had a problem until you were hard down on duracrete and skidding across the tarmac.

So the boy was eager and curious just what [member="Charzon Loulan"] had in mind.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Let's see: the landing gear lady said that she left Kuat Drive Yards because of an engineering dispute over whether frigates and cruisers should be designed with landing gears. She said that, whenever possible, ships up to 1,700 meters long should have landing gears, and sometimes even larger ships, especially if they are used for freight on some level, whereas current engineering big wigs at Kuat Drive Yards would draw the upper limit at 400 meters, and sometimes not even ships that long" She turned to the engineer she termed the landing gear lady. "Jessica, tell him about why you couldn't trust Marcia"

If Jessica were around KDY's design offices when the Imperator-class Star Destroyers, alongside their subclasses, like the Tector-class, were first commissioned, they would have had landing gears and they would have inspired that much more terror into civilians back in the Imperator's day. Were the capital-ship landing gear guys at KDY Jedi when Order 66 was enacted?

"Marcia, whom I would have thought could have gotten the job started, turned out to be more of a targeting computer expert that had to deal with systems having only two internal degrees of freedom: You know most hardpoint-mounted weapons have two internal degrees of freedom: rotational and elevation, some have only elevation"

Even Charzon is mystified about Marcia's lackadaisical attitude towards working on systems that were seemingly outside her area of expertise. Targeting software had eight degrees of freedom, as applied to hardpoint-mounted weapons: the elevation, the bearing, which are internal to the turret, as well as the spatial coordinates of the target relative to the turret (3) and the relative velocity of the target (3), the last six were termed external degrees of freedom. In contrast, landing gears, at least how Jessica designed them, had thirty-one internal degrees of freedom but no external ones. The train of thought goes that sometimes one needs the pad to be placed further forward or further aft, or to be placed futher port or starboard, lower or higher, and even the nine plates could be independently oriented if that ensured the ship's stability on uneven terrain. Each plate thus have two degrees of freedom apiece.

"In short, avionics specialists often tend to be so specialized in one thing that they find it difficult to work on a different system outside their area of expertise. Since Jessica mentioned targeting computers, Marcia knows best which bus to use to connect a particular type of hardpoint to a sensor array, and how targeting computers work, as well as maintaining such systems"

"The reason why I want the landing gears to be computer-assisted is that, even though the main implement is an hydraulically-actuated 15x15m slab of alusteel, to which all the various hydraulic systems are attached, I'd still want the landing gear to be able to cause the least damage to the terrain and hence it must respect the terrain's geometry. You understand that not all landing surfaces are smooth, and you'd want the ship to survive an emergency landing. You'd also want the ship to be stable"

"The main reason why I couldn't do what you asked, Jessica, was the requirement that it would have to fit the terrain underneath the ship for maximum stability" Marcia commented. "I know next to nothing about terrain detection"

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

Ringovinda Systems.

He'd heard of them, but this would be the first time he'd gotten a look at their catalog. If they did anything with freighters, he might even get some new parts for the Queen. And, who knew, they might even be working parts. A rarity in any Corellian design. Which, wasn't going to last. A working Corellian ship today was one just waiting for the opportunity to break down on you tomorrow. Now, people thought that Corellians clung to their ships in the face of a horri-bad reliability rating because of some misplaced sense of nationalistic pride.

The truth?

Sadism. Corellians were engineering sadists.

Entering inside of the corporate building, the boy paused to look around the lobby for a moment. When a passing protocol droid happened by, the boy flagged the automaton down and said, "Excuse me, but could you please tell [member="Charzon Loulan"] that Sor-Jan Xantha is here to see her?"

Landing gears.

...landing gears

For some reason, his mind was mulling over whether their next venture ought not to be some kind of auto-navigation system. Self-driving speeders, controlled by GPS-guided computers with a deep thinking artificial intelligence...

Was the universe ready for a self-driving speeder? He almost shuddered at the thought.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The help I requested is in the lobby, boss"

"Help has arrived, Jessica: not a moment too soon. Maersk Star Freight is about to order 70 Maersks, Star Tours and Bluth Company also are in talks with us to this end. Now we shall get going"

"Bluth Company, my first employer! Expect a minimum of 50 units"

Upon hearing the call of the protocol droid at the lobby of the Ringovinda Systems Research Center, Charzon arrives at the lobby, alongside the two ladies, especially Jessica, which was, to some among the landing gear team, more attractive than even Charzon was, probably more so to the Wookies since Jessica, while still human, is almost as tall as Wookie females were. Marcia, on the other hand, was quickly sent back to the weapons unit, long before she made it to the lobby, since there were two hardpoint-mounted projects and a bomber ordnance launcher project still waiting to be completed. With possibly as many as 150 Maersks on the books before the first Maersk even flies, that was the most successful launch of bulk freighters for a while. But what makes the Maersk so special is that it has greater capacity (in tonnage as well as in volume) than any other bulk freighter capable of landing currently on the market, while retaining the ability to be convertible in speed. Without its landing gears, the Maersk is not nearly as attractive as it otherwise would be.

"I'm Charzon Loulan, shall we see the landing gears for ourselves?"

"You see, too often, landing gears are taken for granted on any ships up to corvette-size, and Bluth Company pointed out to me at gunpoint that there was a market for cruiser-sized bulk freighters that could land, perhaps even Star Destroyer-sized. The Jessica landing gear, whose prototype is in a hangar reserved for the landing gear team, can theoretically equip ships up to Star Destroyer size. Not that Ringovinda StarYards can even build ships that big for civilian use - it seems that very few classes of cruiser-sized ships exist that have them, and they are all military transports. I'll fill you in on what I want out of the landing gear avionics once you have seen the prototype of the Jessica"

"Forgive her, the Jessica is her pet project that Kuat Drive Yards wanted to scrap. Speaking of landing gears, would you want replacement landing gears? I could supply you with free landing gears, the very same as used on the Neimoidian Yachts we produce"

"That was a stupid decision, they lost Bluth Company and Maersk Star Freight as clients. These landing gears promise greater flexibility for use among classes, unlike all other known landing gears for ships that size"

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

She was tall.

Of course, Sor-Jan was quite short.

Granted, size was a matter of perspective. Ewoks and most Jawas looked up at him, and he was at least eye-level with Tynnans. Still, all things being equal, he'd have to say she was tall for a human. Or human-ish. Who could tell these days? "Xantha," the boy supplied, bowing respectfully toward the lady as she introduced herself. "Sor-Jan Xantha," the young Anzat noted, as he straightened back up.

A second joined them, introducing what seemed to the crux of the matter that they had contacted Corellia Digital about. To top it off, it seemed an offer of free parts was on the table after all. "Your offer is most gracious," the boy responded in kind, holding his tongue in cheek as he very stoically added "...but, if you saw my ship you might think twice about putting your parts on there."

If nothing else, touching the Alderaan Queen ought to be enough to void the warranty. Though, even since that crash landing aboard the First Order station over Skye the landing struts had been a little... out of sorts. A replacement would probably be a good idea. At least until the next damn fool's idealistic crusade.

Between the two talking, the boy was starting to identify the areas of concern for him "Flexibility," he echoed, picking up on what seemed the major issue for them. And for him. Flexibility meant some for of articulation. That articulation, in turn, translated into a system for the computer to guide or control. Perhaps even shape. "How many total independently moving parts does one these landing gears have?" the youth asked, as he began to fathom what the variables for the C2 system would be.

[member="Charzon Loulan"]​

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"There are fourteen shock absorbers, which can be rotated horizontally, and individually set to different elevations as well as lengths. The flexibility..."

"The flexibility Jessica talks about is the ability to outfit these landing gears on a wide array of ship classes"

"They're flexible in more than one way, boss: all that Marcia was able to do to get the job started for the landing gear, was doing it as if the landing gear was some sort of bottom-facing turret that had one rigid barrel. In so doing she took care of two components: the main rotational bearing and the main elevation actuating system. But she didn't think that what she calls a barrel would actually extend and retract, even when the barbette remains static"

Jessica shows the Anzat computer expert just how many of those components there are on this humongous contraption she calls a capital ship-grade landing gear: the main shaft has, like she said, the main elevation actuating system, it can also extend and retract so as to fit uneven terrain. That was the whole point of having 14 shock absorbers capable of being extended, retracted or rotated along the azimuth and the vertical axis. The base of the contraption was already larger than the cross-section of a Neimoidian Yacht, and that's when it is fully retracted, almost 20 meters high. Charzon, on the other hand, is awed at the number of actuators present on the device: while it is designed by capital ships in mind, it requires all too many actuators. For comparison, the landing gears on Neimoidian Yachts had six or seven actuators at most.

"One more thing: the main reason why I want the landing gear to be computerized is to be able to land on uneven terrain and still keep the ship stable. To this end, I would want to connect the landing gear actuation system to the terrain detection systems, use the data fed into the landing gear actuation system by the terrain detection systems and then it would fit the terrain"

"The art of massive landing gears is almost lost to the galaxy of today, so I have to ask whether the designers of the landing gears we saw on the Acclamators, Venators and core ships of old were Jedi; post-Clone Wars, landing gears remained almost entirely confined to ships that are at most 400 meters long"

"The reason why I want a ship equipped with those to land on uneven terrain is mostly because of safety"

"You see, more than ever, Ringovinda StarYards lives and dies by the landing gear, more than even hyperdrives. We now pledge not to build ships without landing gears, even if, one day, we were to build Star Destroyer-sized bulk freighters"

Many think that a Star Destroyer-sized bulk freighter capable of landing on planets would have very, very limited customer bases. Not even Maersk Star Freight, let alone Star Tours or Bluth Company, would be able to get more than one. Civilian shipbuilding have different restrictions compared to military shipbuilding: the Maximum Battleship whose feasibility studies have been commissioned referred to tier-II maximums, and the maximum dimension is simply 500 m times the tier. Military standards deviate from civilian ones past 1,000 meter long: 1,700-meter, 2,400-meter, 3,000-meter.

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

A lot of moving parts.

Very complicated, getting that level of synchronization to operate seamlessly. Even with the right software and processors, it was going to be a mass of interconnected systems. A fault in any one of which could lead to systematic failures in all the surrounding gears. That was going to be great when it worked, and hell when it didn't. And it wasn't going to take much for something to get out of alignment.

The discussion about the Clone Wars era ships almost passed him by. "They weren't, no," the boy answered, though it might well have been a rhetorical question. "The landing gears on the Acclamators and Venators were all built by KDY's subsidiary, Rothana Heavy Engineering," he recalled aloud, without even really thinking about it. He should know, he'd had command of Republic frigates, assault ships, and the Venator-class Sentinel had been his command ship during the Clone Wars. He made it a point to know every inch of his ships, and the limits of what they could do. It was the only way he could adequately maneuver them effectively in combat.

The landing gears on those ships had often been things of necessity. The time it would take to shuttle an entire clone army division onboard was staggering. Loading the army on board with the ship on the ground had been a more efficient and effective way of loading and unloading that volume of personnel and equipment. "The Jedi weren't informed of the Clone Army or the construction of the Republic star destroyers until shortly before the battle of Geonosis," he recalled, before looking back up at the pair. "Hindsight being what it is, we should have asked more questions then... but, no, the Jedi weren't involved in the ship designs."

Though, now that he thought about it...

"However, I was recently on Boz Pity, studying the ruins of a crashed Venator on the planet's surface," the youth supplied. After all, before he'd been either a Republic General or a Computer Programmer, he'd been a Jedi Archaeologist. And, on occasion, still was. The ruins had been of the Intervention, the ship carrying the 501st Legion under the command of General Skywalker. At eight hundred years old, exposed to the elements, many facets of the ship were not in the best of conditions... but the mechanical draftsmanship was all quite apparent all the same. "I should have some fairly comprehensive schematics of the ship, if you'd be interested in seeing them."

[member="Charzon Loulan"]​

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

For some reason Charzon thought that the Great Purge, which began in 19 BBY, was responsible for the end of the jumbo landing gear and hence the suspicion of Jedi being involved in the design of the landing gears. Now that she knows that Rothana Heavy Engineering had no Jedi in its landing gear team at the time, the Wookie, who mostly tended to the hydraulics on the Jessica prototype in the hangar, growled in surprise. He knew that the main difference between core ships' landing gears and those on the Acclamators/Venators was the length-elevation combination of the main actuator.

"And they weren't designed for landing on uneven terrain either, if I recall correctly. Now I do not know why today's KDY would scrap a landing gear that would fit a wide variety of capital ships that can be used on uneven terrain; the landing gears fitted on Acclamators or Venators are not designed with uneven terrain in mind and hence have a small number of actuators, too. They are bigger and hence fit a more narrow range of ships. Technology-wise, they are just like the landing gears on the Neimoidian Yachts as far as the number of mobile parts are concerned but much larger than even the contraption before our eyes"

"Bluth Company once toyed between ordering Super Transport XIs and Maersk-class bulk freighters but Bluth Company demanded landing gears on all their ships, which Kuat Drive Yards wouldn't do, and I left KDY in the wake. And they wouldn't allow either Bluth Company or Maersk Star Freight to obtain freighter versions of the Acclamator: they'd think it would be impractical for civilian freight companies to operate. That was completely stupid on their part, they would have had a landing gear that would fit Imperial-II frigates, Super Transport XIs, Acclamators, Venators, all the way to the Imperators/Tectors"

"Please forgive Jessica at any mention of Kuat Drive Yards: she has a tendency to rant about how they would eschew landing gears for uneven terrain or for civilian freighters when anyone mentions KDY by name, and who would have ordered such ships if they were available on the civilian market"

Now, to enter the segment of the market a civilian version of the Acclamator would have filled, Ringovinda StarYards will soon release the Rasta Sub, which was in development for a while and would be able to land on planets using twelve Jessicas. Jessica would secretly hope that it will force KDY to come to terms with reality and produce a freighter version of the Acclamator, which would have a lesser hyperdrive rating than 0.6, as well as less weapons, and hence necessitate less power, which meant more volume for cargo. But then choosing between a civilian Acclamator and a Rasta Sub would be largely a question of whether one needs landing gears for uneven terrain or not. Otherwise they promise similar economics and modularity, or so Jessica would claim. How easily Jessica would see credit signs over her head if the Rasta Sub had similar successes to that of the Maersk: she was promised 1/7 of the profits on the production of Jessicas in exchange of lending her first name to the resulting landing gear. Not only she'd get her revenge for KDY, but also benefit Ringovinda StarYards in the process.

"Except that Acclamators and Venators would have required a lot more Jessicas than they actually ended up having landing gears: whereas the Acclamator and the Venator have three and six landing gears respectively, they would have required four times as many Jessicas because the Jessica is smaller than these landing gears"

"There are almost 200 actuators in this piece of technology"

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The small boy just blinked.

Two hundred actuators.

Two hundred actuators. On a single system.

The was two hundred possible points of failure. Assuming reliability was a factor, which it would be difficult to say that it wasn't when the component parts in question would be shoulders the gross weight of the ship in myriad gravity. Never mind upkeep, the routine maintenance alone would be staggering. The landing gear would likely need its own supporting droid corral.

Though, for the size of ship they were talking, such a demand probably wasn't unreasonable.

"Well, I can tell you that synchronizing two hundred actuators, even with multiple inputs along different axis, won't be a problem," the boy supplied finally. If they could design an operating system to operate an entire starbase, a single landing system was simple by comparison. "Do you already have a terrain mapping system in mind to use? Or would you need us to assist in the development of that?"

[member="Charzon Loulan"]​

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

Now the reasons quoted by Kuat Drive Yards to scrap the project were making sense to Charzon, even though Jessica never talked about why KDY scrapped the project: maintenance costs were too high being the main one. With 200 actuators, KDY claimed a Jessica would require an astromech unit or two to stay close at all times. The trick is that most private starship operators, and certainly independent spacers flying ships like Neimoidian Yachts, so named because the product chief is a Neimoidian, which have become a common sight around Ringo Vinda and, to a lesser extent, Cato Neimoidia, take landing gears for granted; Bluth Company is one of the few that don't. It never had a single landing gear failure for over twenty years, despite operating 500+ ships at all times during that timeframe. In fact, it has one of the best safety records in the galaxy.

"All major factions require capital ships with landing gears to be equipped with ground proximity warning systems (GPWS), and even light freighters in the case of the Republic. Terrain mapping systems are part of what makes a GPWS work. A GPWS uses radar altimeters to detect terrain around a ship. Sometimes I wonder who could even build a ship with landing gears that does not have a GPWS and still be in operation. There would be no way to sell anything in the major markets that could land that doesn't have one"

"Is a GPWS something that, on a capital ship, has a holographic projection module, underneath which is contained a device that can scream Pull up, Sinkrate, Too low, terrain?"

"I'm all too familiar with the droidic voice that would yell Sinkrate, Pull up, Too low, terrain, boss. You know I'm not the one to trust in order to test-fly a ship, regardless of whether you're talking about a Neimoidian Yacht, or a Maersk, let alone a single-seater TIE Reaver! So long as you're only asking me to test a ship's landing gears or GPWS, no problem. I even was onboard the maiden flight of the Neimoidian Yacht! Often inexperienced maintenance crews conflate a TCAS with a GPWS, but since the terrain mapping system is a GPWS component..."

"Traffic collision avoidance systems must be installed on all starships, unlike a GPWS; the mistake you are describing often happens with small craft or corvettes"

Traffic avoidance collision systems (TCAS) are mandatory on all starships, regardless of whether they could land or not, and often maintenance crews would have to work on both the TCAS and the GPWS at the same time, especially those working on sensor systems. The Wookie technician growled in agreement upon hearing Charzon's description of when these mistakes could occur.

"In fact, even though I did only hardware work with connecting the landing gear with the GPWS, we will release a new GPWS that will even allow to synchronize the data in it with the landing gear itself; the one used by Kuat Drive Yards on the Acclamators and the Venators is not compatible with the Jessica, that is, the very device before your eyes"

"You never dared talk about why KDY would scrap the project before! Are you telling me that Kuat Drive Yards would have to fork over the costs of designing a new GPWS? We have our own GPWS almost ready for production and should be usable onboard frigates, cruisers, and we even planned for the possibility of outfitting it on ships as large as battlecruisers, let alone flagships, even though flagships are usually built without landing gears"

"Come to think of it, Star Destroyers is the largest size civilian operators find practical to operate, and no faction ever expressed a need for a battlecruiser able to land on a planet, or to refit one to do that; there are only two known civilian models of Star Destroyers for sale in production... only one of which can land on planets. That's how Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps grew to become a tier-IV company: such a ship is a major project capable of propelling a corporation to tier-IV if successful once released, especially since Theed Hangar was best known for small craft or corvette-sized luxury ships before that"

And the Indispensable-class, built by Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps, is built to tier-III limits, have landing gears, but they are using the very same as the landing gears on the Venators (to the tune of 9 apiece). Whereas the Connestoga-class sold by Silk Holdings, which is built to tier-IV limits instead, does not. If Ringovinda StarYards ever was to build to tier-III or tier-IV limits (probably one class apiece) everyone in the galaxy can be certain they will have landing gears, even if it meant outfitting as many as 36 on a 1500m-long ship or 60 on a 2000m-long ship... the number of landing gears required of a particular model on a ship is seemingly proportional to the largest dimension of the ship to the three-halves. Ringovinda StarYards was clearly on the path of building the largest ships in the galaxy capable of landing on planets and ventures where not even Kuat Drive Yards, Rendili StarDrive, Hoersch-Kessel Drive would dare go.

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

"Indeed, the galactic conflict of the time is what drove the need for Republic capital ships to be able to land."

Short of another Clone Wars occuring, the boy couldn't see a Star Destroyer needing to land so to off-load a few thousand soldiers onto a planet. And, with the galactic map fractured across myriad political factions, it seemed unlikely that such a universal-in-scope galactic conflict would be possible. At least for awhile.

Synchronizing the ground proximity warning system with other hardware or computer processes was more of his own expertise, so that was the part of the conversation he was most interested in. "It sounds like you need a computer programmer," the young Anzat noted aloud. "Is there anything Corellia Digital can do to help with the production of your proprietary GPWS? Or help with the software synchronization with the main computer?"

Developing landing systems for bulk cruisers. Definitely not what he'd had in mind when he bought a failing data disk company on Drall. Which wasn't a bad thing. They'd gone into all sorts of avenues he hadn't anticipated, from hologames to communications to... landing gears.

He was going to draw the line at the waste management system, however.

[member="Charzon Loulan"]​

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"The one thing I would request from Corellia Digital at this stage would be the synchronization of the landing gears with the main GPWS computer. Other than that, we can consider the landing gear to be finished: we did all we could about the landing gears themselves. Repulsorlift generators are going to be our next item: none of the aforementionned classes could actually land without repulsorlift generators, and software designed for repulsorlift generators is actually fairly simple"

"Our main concern is about software maintainability. If we needed to make updates on it ourselves, due to some hardware upgrades, it might be best for us to buy a copy of the source code so that we can modify it ourselves to suit the needs of the new hardware. How much for the source code? I would think the code isn't overly complex but maintainability requires well-commented code so that the documentation of the software is intelligible to maintenance crews"

"I'll warn you, Jessica: the cost of the source code will be borne out of the cashflow on the Watchtower collision avoidance system, which contains the GPWS. So ask the Watchtower product manager about how much his team can afford"

Jessica may well be driven by revenge, and by now it's not only directed at Kuat Drive Yards, but also at Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps. Yet Theed Palace Space Vessel Engineering Corps only sold their Star Destroyers in the single digits, perhaps even as few as two: the Indispensable and the Ayrix. Maersk feel that stygium was too expensive for them to maintain especially for bulk shipments, and that a lot of frequent stops was needed to operate a Star Destroyer in commercial freight service, perhaps more than what is economical in the context of containerized shipments. Bluth Company not only demands that their ships be equipped with landing gears, they also demand that they be able to land on uneven terrain, which rules out the Indispensable-class for their flagship. Naturally a civilian operator's Star Destroyer will be its flagship, and a testament to its might, and often highly customized so no two civilian Star Destroyers will be exactly the same even within the same class.

[member="Sor-Jan Xantha"]

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The boy gave a nod at the request.

"Easily done," he affirmed. [member="Marque"] would have the GPWS and the landing gear married up like a Lorridian wedding before the day was out tomorrow, most likely. As for the cost, "I'll have my accountant run the numbers and give your finance department a call," the youngling commented offhandedly. He never liked discussing money. He wanted the business, as it was a new partnership opportunity, and [member="Charzon Loulan"] wanted the software. So, there was obviously a way to make it work. And, if Corellia Digital had to make some concessions for that, he was willing to for the sake of opening up a new market.

"In addition to the source code, we can provide you with technical assistance if you want," Sor-Jan added, as the conversation shifted more to long-term support for the plan. "It could be as nominal as technical support over the comm to supplying you with technicians or advisors as you evolve the technology over time," the boy remarked.

It was the same deal they had with the SIlver Sanctum Coalition for communications security and software systems. It allowed the customer peace of mind, while giving Sor-Jan and Corellia Digital some reassurance of a long-term relationship with the customer at the same time.

 

[Jessica Med-Beq]

"Most satisfactory, so I'll accept your offer. I guess that the accounts payable team would not be horrified because there are already 150 units of the cruiser version of the Watchtower on order, and almost 700 units of the small-craft variety. Tell your accountant to also send a duplicate of the invoice to the Watchtower product manager and another one to Jessica so that everyone involved is on the same page and they all have a record, even though the accounts payable team will be responsible for making the actual payment"

That is, every Maersk-class ship on order will have one, as well as all Neimoidian Yachts. Maersk Star Freight ordering 70 Maersks and already planned on giving names to the first 26 of them, Bluth Company ordered 60 units and Star Tours ordered 20 units. A few private spacers ordered small-craft versions, but most of the production is earmarked for use on Neimoidian Yachts. It appears that the Pullman has fallen out of favor to the benefit of the Neimoidian Yacht... Plus all Novroskis the Banking Clan has ordered will receive the upgrade at some point.

"You might be a loose gun at times, obnoxious even, Jessica. Your motives may be a little questionable and the last one makes questionable business sense at best. But if it floats your boat, if it allows you to keep going, may the Force be with you. By now I should launch a hiring process for a software engineer, for the landing gear team"

"You remember that I was promised 1/7 the profits from the production of Jessicas. A software engineer is going to cost us..."

"How much do you think a software engineer is going to cost the landing gear team?"

"A software engineer is going to cost us the profits of a dozen Jessicas or so on a year-on-year basis. It can't be worse than what Corellia Digital is going to bill us for this. How much do you expect Corellia Digital to bill us for?"

"About 200-300k credits, maybe as much as 500k. The software isn't that complex"

 

[Sor-Jan Xantha]

The interplay between [member="Charzon Loulan"] and the Wookiee was quite interesting, to say the least.

"If you like, I could make a few recommendations," the boy remarked. Given his line of work, he knew of a number of programmers, slicers, and engineers who were all savvy with computers. Aside from the people he had working for him, there were any number of freelancers who were typically looking for short term work as they bounced from planet to planet. Stannon, the Tynan engineer who worked for [member="Mir Nehrahn"], was one. Probably the best, in fact.

Then there was that Antarian Ranger, what was her name..?

Ah, yes, [member="Willa Isard"]. She seemed very capable and competent in technical matters.