From the Shadows I come

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli sighed as she entered into the area of Krayt Industries designed for creating armors. Her master had just sent a request to her to create four unique armor systems for Sector V's Four Horsewomen, and that was not going to be an easy task to figure out. The first one she was going to tackle was going to be for Xalia Nomura, the Horsewoman of Pestilence, mainly because it was going to require designing a stealth system.

"Lady Arcanix, we don't see you down here very often," the chief designer said, coming up to her. The division was small, she knew that and it was on her list of things to work on soon, but for now it would serve her purposes.

"We have a job to do, Kolsis," she replied, sitting down at a desk and pulling up the order on the terminal. "I hope you're ready for a very ambitious project, we have to design four unique suits of armor and we're starting with the stealth one."

The entire design team stopped what they were doing and crowded around them. Taeli could feel excitement bleeding from each member, and she could also tell they saw this as an opportunity to impress their boss and acquire an expansion of their division.

"Let's get to work, my Lady," Kolsis said.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Shifting through mountains of data from the past, Taeli and her team were trying to find a light-weight material to use as the basis of the armor that could also offer protection and flexibility. Grumbling, she had yet to find anything worthwhile until she flipped to the next data page.

"Electromesh," she muttered, just loud enough for her chief designer of armor to hear.

"It's a very good material, Lady Arcanix, highly flexible and resistant to blaster fire to a degree," Kolsis explained. "Melee weapons and sustained blaster fire will pierce through it though."

"I think this is the best we're going to get then," she said, downloading the data. "Have enough of the material brought to the lab, and make sure its matte-black."

"Yes, my Lady," Kolsis said, scurrying off to carry out her order while she went back to looking up stealth techniques. She had ruled out using a full stealth field generator as they were very rare and expensive to produce, something about the systems just involved a lot of scenery and complex trickery she didn't want to deal with. She did have a few ideas though for what she was looking for.

Pulling up the relevant files on a substance called Reflec armor coating, it sounded exactly like something that would be useful. It could absorb light and sensor scans to lessen the chances of detection severely. She would keep a note of all this for her personal use, she would need to develop her own armor eventually.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

It didn't take long for the matte-black material to be brought to the design lab, and Kolsis was even more excited when she mentioned what she wanted included on the suit that would be created. Part of the team immediately got to work mixing the components together to create the coating while another part started to cut and bring the suit together, including small plates of denser electromesh on key areas such as the chest, shoulders, and front of the legs.

Taeli busied herself with finding out elements to add to the suit to increase its stealth capabilities. Her eyes moved quickly back and forth across the screen as she read about another system that some bounty hunters and assassins used to draw away enemy fire from their position to sneak past the enemy. The technology, called a Doubler Suit, used a holo-vid projector to record a person's movements and could project them elsewhere to make the enemy focus on the hologram instead.

"Kolsis, have a holo-vid projector brought here at once, I think we are going to add a Doubler Suit function to this armor," she said from the desk, looking at her designer and the half created suit.

"Right away!"

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Hmm, an interesting affect," she muttered, looking at a spot of the electromesh material that had been coated with the Reflec material. The matte-black material was absorbing the light cast from the overhead glow lamps, but she was curious about other things. Picking up a small glowrod, she lit it and held it over the material. Again, the same affect happened, the light disappearing into the material and bending away what it didn't so nothing happened.

"Have we tried scanning it yet?" she asked.

"No, my Lady, we were going to test that when the suit was finished," a female Zeltron designer said, adding another layer of electromesh to the area that would protect the heart.

"I see," she muttered, a small frown creasing her face. She would rather have that function tested now, rather than later, but they were the experts.

Looking over at another station, she could see some of the other designers working on the boots when another idea popped into her head and she raced over to them.

"How hard would it be to integrate sound dampeners into the boots to eliminate footstep echoes?" she asked.

"Not too hard, my Lady," one designer, a Mirialian said, looking up from his work. "We can add those in now actually."

"Do that," she said, going back to her desk, unsure of what she could while the team worked on the armor. Pulling up a message file, she sent a message to her master explaining work on the first armor had begun. That done, she started up another research file and began reading it. So much research to do, so little time.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

As work on the armor continued, the suit mostly constructed but the coating was taking quite some time to reply, Taeli started thinking about something that had been plaguing her thoughts lately. Ever since her trip to Alderaan, she had started wondering how exactly she was Force Sensitive when neither of her parents were. Unless her mother and/or father were hiding their sensitivity, but that didn't make sense either.

Once her own powers manifested, why wouldn't they teach her to control them? Too many questions were lingering for her, and she knew she would need to meet her parents in person to answer them. Something she was a bit nervous about doing.

"My lady?"

"Huh?" she muttered, being startled out of her thoughts by Kolsis. "Yes?"

"I was asking if you had anything additional you wanted to add to the armor," he asked, looking at her curiously.

"I was lost in thought, my apologies," she said. "I can't think of anything else to add, but we will need to test the armor in both a combat simulation and normal test."

"How would you propose we do so?" Kolsis asked.

"I'll have to request Xalia Nomura to come here personally to run the suit through a trial when its done, how much longer?"

"The first coating is still drying, we will apply the second one in an hour."

"Very well then," Taeli said, leaning back in her chair. "Alert me when it's done."

"Will do."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

It took another two hours for the armor to be completely finished, where Taeli regretfully had taken a nap during that time, she was still at heart a student and always would be, but she usually didn't show those mannerisms around her employees or colleagues. It wouldn't do to show that side of her to them, might make them think she was weak.

"Ready for scanning tests, my Lady, and we still have some leftover material to test blaster fire on if you so wish," Kolsis said, showing no signs he had seen her napping.

"Let's get started then," she said, standing up and stretching. The armored suit was laid out on a table with scanning equipment all around it, all to send different sorts of scans and tests to make every signal could be absorbed. The design team had been joined by several of her technicians that had been preparing for another project testing and this would be a good small scale test for sensor negation.

The machines powered up and began sending different signals into the armor, with her techs looking at the readouts.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Normal scans aren't working ma'am, so I would say its a complete success," one technician said. "We're still waiting for the more advanced scans to come through, but I suspect they will be more of the same."

"Excellent," Taeli said, picking up a blaster and charging its power cell. She would personally test the electromesh's resilience to blaster fire, even though she wasn't the best shot in the world. She preferred her lightsaber and blades, but she could still use the Force to make her shots accurate for the purposes of this test.

"Begin live fire test one," she said, aiming the blaster pistol. Calling her command of the Force to her, she quieted her breathing and allowed the dark side to guide her hand. A blaster bolt, at full strength, ripped down the barrel and impacted against the extra electromesh. The material seemed to hold up fine to the single bolt, and she tested that on two more spots before switching to firing at one spot multiple times. The material couldn't withstand more than three or four bolts in the same spot, including even if they overlapped and weren't directly on the mark.

To test one other thing, she ignited her lightsaber and drew it across the material. It was easily cut in half.

"Send a message to [member="Darth Praelior"] that I need to have Xalia Nomura here to finish testing her armor system," Taeli said.

 

[Balaya Praelior Zambrano]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Xalia stood with the four four, the women selected from the elite of Sector five and each one receiving a special suit of armor. There were plans and while this might be a test for her she wasn't above letting the others see. It only served to display their power and strength while she walked her eyes flicking back and forth. The vahla was flexible and with the fighting claws stronger as she turned her head to Balaya. "My lord?" She said it questioning but the voice gave a nod tapping her shoulder. "Worry not this will prove a good day and we shall make it worth while all of you will go through this trial and help strength each other. Pressure makes diamonds, ease decay.... you will feel the pressure." Xalia smirked while she was walking now to go and meet the apprentice.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Master, and Xalia, thank you for coming," Taeli said as [member="Darth Praelior"] and the stealth expert for Sector V arrived. "Xalia, your armor is right here."

Gesturing, the electromesh suit was brought out for the Vahla to examine herself.

"It is made of flexible electromesh, with reinforced padding over vital areas, and a Reflec coating was added to the material to absorb sensor scans and light," Taeli explained. "Sound dampeners were added to the boots so your footsteps wont echo, sadly modularity of the system would be tricky since of one other feature we added in I think you might like. We added a Doubler Suit projector so you can send a hologram recording of yourself to another area to draw away enemy fire and such, so once you're dressed in it, we have a small obstacle course for you to run."

She didn't feel she needed to add it would all be live fire exercises since they were Sith. It was almost expected.

"When you're ready, follow Kolsis here to the start point and Darth Praelior and myself will observe from the observation deck."

 

[Balaya Praelior Zambrano]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Xalia looked at her master now more then ever. She listened and looked at the armor stepping forward to receive it and the others went to work. The Matukai moving in and speaking. "Pretty but won't compare to my skin in a fight, nothing breaks a Natukai's power on the battlefield." Xalia rolled her eyes but she knew the girl was right, the others moving up. "The reflec should protect and obscure you, in a fight it will be a dangerous gambit as they'll still see you but under the right circumstances well, given your fleet of foot. THis could get you in and out for things with the right dirstraction." That techie gearhead they had was a great source of being plain and simple. The only one left was the soldier as she stepped forward wearing the heavier AAA armor. "It will do." Her voice came out mechanical but firm while she waited for their master. "GO and have your show." Xalia nodded and moved to get into the armor while she removed her gloves first. The small scars on her knuckles where the claws came out making for a small sight. "Alright lets dance."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Noticing Xalia taking her gloves off, she made a mental note to have gloves made that wouldn't require her to remove them for her chosen weapon to appear.

"Let's begin, your objective is to simply make it through this obstacle course which is equipped with lasers, advanced sensors, and so on. Good luck, and I hope you have a productive time."

Walking up to observation, she sighed internally as the test began and Xalia made her onto the course, while around her the other Horsewomen made comments and [member="Darth Praelior"] watched. She still had three other armor types to develop, but perhaps meeting the actual Horsewomen would help her understand them better and adapt the armor choices for them accordingly.

 

[Balaya Praelior Zambrano]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Xalia looked at the armor while she wore it, flexing her muscles underneath for a moment. Then she was looking at the course while stretching out. Her blades not coming out yet before she was hopping back from foot to foot. The lack of bones was a benefit at times while she moved. Her body picking up speed before and jumped flipping forward to watch at the lasers. Her body contorting in the air while she touched down finding a place to kick up and flip again going forward. A smash of her foot against the wall, a twist and going over another laser. Xalia didn't smirk over say it was easy, that was the kind of thinking that got you killed while she was moving. Her body folded up, a crouching motion while the blade extended out, the sound coming with a shlick from the blades going through flesh. The sensors were there while she starred at it and jumped spinning around. The slash coming while she went for the sensor itself, sometimes the best way to stop a dangerous situation was to just kill everything that would be able to see you. The armor would be great while she touched the ground noiselessly, her suit doing the work for her. She looked to see what her master was thinking while moving forward for the rest of the course. It wasn't going to be this simple or short.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"She's doing quite well so far," Taeli said to [member="Darth Praelior"] and to the assembled members of the Horsewomen. The armor system was holding up fairly well from what Taeli could tell, allowing the Vahla to have full range of motion and flexibility. Light and scans keep being absorbed by it as the Vahla moved past several scans and light traps, before more rotating turrets deployed to open fire on her.

"You certainly know how to pick your servants, Master," Taeli commented.

 

[Balaya Praelior Zambrano]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Xalia paused for a brief moment looking at the turrets as she started moving. She couldn't take a hit, she couldn't survive the blasts but she could work to outrun and move around them. She knew her master was looking upon her as the voice in her ear as she was moving. "Yes they are, each one chosen from the finest and for their skills. Sector Five might now be the most populated but it does have some very unique worlds.. even more so it has unique prospects with some of its force nexuses." Xalia was a little proud while she jumped up, her body enfolding while she slashed into a turret swinging around on the bottom to twist it and point at another. Her hands gripping it to aim at another turret and fire upon it. Her eyes tracking the other things while she kept moving towards the end letting the light go into her armor.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Praelior"]

"Almost done," Taeli muttered, watching the Vahla make mincemeat of the course. She was very good with her fighting claws, and her abilities spoke of a high degree of training and natural ability. No wonder Balaya had recruited her into her elite unit. Xalia finished sizing up the rest of the course and began moving again.

"I do believe this was a successful test, Master," she said, noting Xalia was almost at the exit and nothing major remained in her path. "What do you think of the armor system?"

 

[Balaya Praelior Zambrano]

[member="Darth Arcanix"]

Xalia looked at her master now while she was focusing. With the test over the vahla stepped up to meet the others while retracting the claws with a shlick sound of blades sliding through the flesh. She could hear her master and there were plans, oh such plans for the others she was guessing. "Yes it is Arcanix and you both have preformed wonderfully." Xalia bowed while she spoke her head tipping so the hair spilled forward. "Thank you my master, this armor is very light and better to move around in. Thank you as well Lord Arcanix."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

[member="Darth Praelior"]

"I prefer Lady rather than Lord, but you're welcome," Taeli said, nodding at the Vahla. Turning to Darth Praelior she continued by saying, "We will get to work on the other three armor systems as soon as possible for the other Horsewomen."

She had a few ideas about what they would create for the others, but it would take a little time before any were put together. Still, the first armor was not complete and Taeli had a good idea of what went into crafting a unique armor unit. Funding would be allocated to the armor division from just this performance, but she would need to figure out where she could set up a new facility for such. Time for that later.