Hard as a dragons scale

[Arumi Zy]

ZyTech Research and Development, Corellia
Arumi's Office

For far to long Arumi had sat stagnant on what was possibly his companies greatest achievement, the alloy known as Cryonium. It was a very special and unique material that absorbed energy and was able to store and discharge it in high enough quantities. This property alone made it very valuable and he had future plans for it, but right now he was looking for the easiest and most efficient use of the material in order to begin bringing in a steady profit to fund his future endevors, including the Stormcrow interceptor and the Magnasig line. Of course those projects were much further down the line then what he was intending to create.

His office was a chaotic mess of schematics, data sticks and holo projections with formulas, compositions and measurements that only he understood how it went together. His method was far more chaotic then any engineer or scientist, one part of one equasion was beside parts of a second and a third while the rest was strewn across a dozen other holoscreens. This was how he worked, Chaos bred order and order was the ultimate goal in all of creation.

A smoke hung limply from his lips as he sat behind his desk his head slumped down between his palms “ E-v 36/7 B “ he murmured as he thought about the math he was working on. An equation calculating the combined effect of multiple energy sources on his special alloy Cryonium. So far he had figured out the disipation and decay rate and had not yet managed to extrapolate the what he would come to call the safe disipation rate. This was as far as he needed to make it for the night atleast, so he closed down his holoscreen and leaned back exhausted. With a sigh he moved over towards the wall and keyed in a few buttons causing a bed to emerge from the wall. Morning would come soon enough and he had more then enough to do.

 

[Arumi Zy]

Sleep was never an easy thing for the former sith lord, it was a symphony of screams and a torrent of faces from the past, faces that he had ended and slaughtered. That was the curse of a sith, that was the curse of one who had been so chaotic and so damaging to the galaxy that he had once considered himself a cancer to the order that he had so desperatly thought that he was enforcing. Yet his dreams still gave answers and insight into the world around him and were more often then not inspiration for some far off plan or scheme.

This night he remembered a battle from a thousand odd years ago, outside of the Kessel system when a rebel military had engaged a band of Republic peace keepers. The fleets traded mighty blows and they began to quickly disintigrate into nothing as their shields faded. Their armor melted and withered so quickly that they had no chance. Had they had armor that could withstand the punishment then they might have had a chance to at least escape. His eyes opened from his slumber and he looked up with a look of an idea.

He lept from his bed and threw open his holoscreen and brough up a drafting program. His fingers worked in quick concert as he began to draft the design. Layer after layer he began to sketch out the very beginnings of what he had envisioned. His first complete draft was that of a solid Cryonium plate, he began to run the diagnostics on it. Though it would absorb massive amounts of energy before it began to wither it would shatter all at once, and it would crack against direct strikes of force. He scowled as he went back to the drawling board. This time he layed three plates together, much more bulky and worked slightly better but the same issues would arise.

He scratched his chin for a moment before he took a thin slive of Cryonium and stacked it onto a thin sliver of durasteel. He continued to layer ultra thin slices of Durasteel and Cryonium until he had a solid plate of material. He grunted as he loaded the new design into the diagnostic software, he began to apply different sources of energy and damage. He scratched his chin and scratched it until it started to lightly bleed. The combination of Durasteel and Cryonium sheeting provided a satisfactory amount of energy absorption and disipation without cracking or to much plate frying in one instance.

 

[Arumi Zy]

The schematic complete Arumi returned to the slab that served as his bed and laid back down crashing into a deep sleep. This time his dreams were empty and his mind only thought of the plate that he had designed. His calculations and inumerable symbols and energy types swirled before his darkening mind. Kinetic, thermal, nuclear, radioactive and so forth all of each a different part to an equation that begged for him to complete. But none of those were important to what he was trying to accomplish at that moment.

Morning came quickly to Arumi and before he could have his first cup of stimcaf a data stick with the schematics was in hand. He had what he needed but now he needed to figure out how to put it all together, Cryonium was a tricky alloy to work with and heat was his biggest factor. Its melting point was high, to high to be added to be bonded to the Durasteel in any normal method.

After a short walk and a turbolift ride he was in his Prototype division, his engineers and various researchers had yet to even arrive. That was fine enough for him, he had plans and they needed his full attention for now. He activated his foundry and began to key in the formula mix of Cryonium, he had to be precise, he had to be specific. To the nanogram Cryonium required precision of metal and combination. When the first batch was ready he poored it into the mold leaving him with a solid block of cryonium. To thick for what he needed but it was a good test run to begin his experiments to bond it with the Durasteel.

 

[Arumi Zy]

Arumi had a holoscreen up “ Experiment one, bonding of Cryonium to Durasteel. I will be using a flux cored Chrome welding agent as the catalyst. It will be layered between the Durasteel and Cryonium and a current of 120 amps will be applied. 120 amps is the standard energy used to weld with Flux xored chrome b32 agent.” his expiriment was prepared and he started the welding machine. At 120 amps the Cryonium began to distort in color turning orange and the flux began to smoke. “ Increasing to 140 amps” he said as he turned the nob up. The Cryonium went yellow and the flux popped and his as it burned out without bonding.

He moved over towards the welding station and spat as he seperated the Cryonium and Durasteel plate and wiped the slag from between them. “ A higher mix of welding agent might do better, I will try with B70 at 110 Amps” he moved back towards the weld machine and input the energy value. The Cryonium shifted color and the flux hissed and popped again. “ Will be moving to special alloy 142 B3 flux core” he said as he prepared his next expiriment.

“ Amps will be begin at 140, I will set it on negative current and began increaments of five amps per second” he turned the weld machine on and set the values again. He watched as the Cryonium began to steadily change colors and the flux burned out yet again. He scratched his chin as he threw the Cryonium plate and durasteel plates in the garbage. “ Ok I will try again with plates 12mm thick, I will use Chromium 137 welding flux rod at a value of 50, every second increasing by 1 until I have met the flux maximum burn out point”. The flux hissed and popped and finally burned out, he could already tell this was going to be a very long day.

 

[Arumi Zy]

Arumi sat down behind the break room desk, his head slumped and a smoke hanging from his lips. He had been working for hours and had not made any progress so far, he had gone through more then three hundred various fluxes and amperage combinations and none had manage to bind the materials. He took a puff of his smoke “ Maybe weld bonding isn't the way to go here” he murmured under his breath as he stood up. He snuffed his cigarette out in the sink and went back outside to the foundry. Already ot was a bustle of activity as engineers and other researchers were busy building prototypes and working on many other projects.

“ Lets try some micro sheets since I am not hot welding. Lets say .1012 should be sufficient” he began to stack the sheets beside his work station. “ Alright lets try this “ he stacked a sheet of Durasteel on top of a sheet of Cryonium and grabbed a tube of silicone based epoxy. The bond did not hold “ Expiment 2324 silicone based epoxy did not sufficiently hold the materials.”.

 

[Arumi Zy]

“ Experiment 3002, nickel based epoxy sealant applied with heat. Temperature will begin at 170 degrees celsius and continue until 500 degrees Celsius” he keyed in the commands on his console and sat back as he watched the heat pads began to spark to life. The slow length of the heat would protect the metals and allow for a slower expansion of the materials then a quick heating process. This would help to prevent stress fractures and cracking in the durasteel.

When the sound chimed that it had hit 500 degree's celsius Arumi took out a new smoke and lit it. “ Hold time will be 1 hour at this temperature. Nickel based epoxy should hold” he said as he watched the holoscreens that were relaying the information about the experiment to him. Crash, the light sound of a ultra thin sheet of metal hitting the ground roused him out of his day dreaming “ 3002, failure. Nickle based epoxy thyrite is a failure. Resetting machine” he murmured as he took a step back so his engineers could properly recalibrate the settings.

“ 3003, high intensity pressure and calcium carbonate bonding agent and a high temperature application. Beginning pressure will be 1 kilo per square centimeter, increasing 1 kilo per square centimeter every 30 seconds. Heat will begin at 70 Celsius and increase by 5 Celsius per minute. Time of experiment will be 30 minutes or until material has been broken” he sat there and waited smelling the scent of burning minerals. A crack let him know that it had failed to bond, he growled for a moment before jumping down. “ 3004, Magnatised pyrite, Slow heat”. He stepped back to the console why he waited for the his engineering staff to set up the next one.

 

[Arumi Zy]

“ 4709......” he said absent mindedly to himself, his staff had already gone home for the night and he was all that remained in his office minus a few janitors and plasma researchers. Neither of which helped him.... “ Plasma.....” he stammered “ Plasma as a catalyst, plasma is a super heated ionized gas.. I got It “ he said when as he tapped his finger on his console. His eyes lit up as he had an idea “ I;ve been looking at mineralization when I should be thinking more along the lines of metallurgical applications. Why Cryonium will not melt at a low enough temperature that it will bond with Durasteel...But...” he moved towards the foundry and grabbed a sheet of Durasteel.

He hooked it up to the heat machine and started to dig through his cabinets until he produced a fine powder “ Powdered Bronzium” he started to shake a very, very fine coat of powder on the durasteel. He went back to his console and moved the durasteel to the mold and keyed in for a run of Cryonium, he allowed it to only cool to the point it solidified then quickly moved the piece on top of the Durasteel sheet. He keyed in a few keys and the press came down ontop of the two pieces of material. After what seemed like an eternity of waiting he released the pressure.

“ It worked.... It worked” he chuckled as he took the newly forged sheet. “ A precise application of three PSI with a near molten sheet and a powdered metal with a lower melting point then both pieces will create a good bond” he kicked his heels together as moved into his office and grabbed his communicator. “ I need all engineering and manufacturing personel in within an hour. We are going full scale production until morning. Contact our Talus facility and tell them to get in 3rd squad, as well I need shuttles here in five hours.” he smiled as the production of the plates would go into full scale. He had the bonding down, now he just needed the thickness. He would commission thousands of plates with variable thicknesses, sheetings and layering.

 

[Arumi Zy]

Talus, Field Testing


The shuttles had been coming in and being off loaded for almost three hours now, the war house was filled nearly to the brim with plates. Most of the other equipment being stored had been shipped out to make room for the next couple of weeks worth of testing and development. Arumi had brought in his best team, well trained and disciplined soldiers who operated as both his private security and his elite field testing unit. Today was going to start with a bang as the first plate was being brought out to the firing range.

“ 47mm thick, Layered 2 Cryonium, 1 Durasteel. Material is heavy and has no flexibility. Test team will begin with various small arms from blasters to heavy blaster pistols. Ready firing line” he said as he took a step back and the security unit brought up their arms. “ Make ready” he barked “ Fire” he watched the stream of blaster bolts streak out impacting the metal plate. He stood there and watched for nearly a minute “ Cease fire, make safe” he said. As soon as the mercenaries had put their weapons down on the benches he was already moving towards the plate.

“ While most of the energy was absorbed and disipated with minimal evaporation the impacts caused far to much cracking. Two hair line fractures to the material extend from the top to the bottom and are all the way through the material. This would allow the vaccume of space to be deadly and devastating. This plate is far to heavy and to much Cryonium. Bring in Plate 002, 25mm thickness, layered 3 Durasteel, 1 Cryonium” he said as he moved back behind the firing line “ Make ready, Fire”.

“ 002 0 cracks, 47% desintigration. The amount of Durasteel to Cryonium is far to slanted in the Durasteel side. Personal small arms may be sufficiently blocked by this but anything heavier such as fighter canons or larger would peel through this like a knife through jelly. Plate 003....”

 

[Arumi Zy]

A thousand plates down and the field test had provided seven plates that could survive well enough to be considered an advancement on normal armor. They could take hits without frying away or cracking in only a few hits, each one of them was of variable thickness and between a 20 and 30 milimeters and various builds and combinations of layering and thickness of the plates. These various plates had been moved inside the testing facility to under go further stress testing and tension testing.

The first plate designated B-117 was placed in a large torque machine that was designed to bend the edges and apply various amounts of force to simulate the G's rendered on fragile points in flight. He had the presure alternating between 1 G and 7G which was far more then a fighter would most likely ever experience. The machine whirred and cranked and a loud crumbling sound echoed as the sides began to bend and fold in. this piece could not survive the rigors of flight even if the armor was capable of surviving hits.

" B-117 failure" Arumi said as he signaled for the piece to be moved on " Move on B-219 " he sat and watched as the new plate was put into place. The various presses and pneumatic stampers were ready to begin on the next platew.

 

[Arumi Zy]

Out of the handful of plates that had survived ballistic and the gravity and tension tests only 5 managed to go past to the next stage of field testing. This process was designed to test all of the features all in once by mounting them on a faux fighter and placing them in a room designed for one very specific thing in mind. Mocking the conditions a pilot will face in an actual space fight, it was one thing to test them all variably and controlled but the variables would be randomized. Half of a frame was fitted with the plates and they were set on their own actuator that would make it move and barrel roll and any other thing a real pilot might do.

" Start test, Plate B021" he said as he began the test. Starting at 0G he started to activate other features such as debris and radiation, then activated a turret system. The craft frame jerked and jostled as it mocked through the barrel rolls and 90 degree turns, the Gs steadily increasing. A blaster bolt slammed into the plate and it held up leaving a scar and heat damage but not deep enough to cause anything serious. The G's increased to 3 and went into a barrel roll followed by a 90 degree verticle thrust, topping at 7 gs the plate cracked right down the blast signature.

 

[Arumi Zy]

The faux dog fighting simulator had weeded out all but 2 plates, C110 and K217. Each one of them had performed above expectations and prediction and this left him with a quandry. How was he going to weed out one over the other and decide which would move beyond the prototype stage and into production. He sat there scratching his chin with a cigarette dangling from his lips as he thought, it wasn't a big difference in the plates. In fact it was less then a .001 mm difference in them. But that could be the difference between some poor sods life and death.

He had an idea and stood up and walked over towards the two plates, he eye balled them both for a second or two then in a flash had his lightsaber in hand. He started to slash at each plate and then thrust his lightsaber as deeply into each one of them as he could. Counting to three he then pulled the blades out and deactivated them. " Measure the depth and width of each mark, i want to know which one held up better" he said as he walked away from the plates starting to feel overwhelmed by the depth of it all. He had never given such thought and detail to any single product and it had tested him to his greatest depths. Of course now he had to figure out how to put it all together and assemble it on a fighter craft.

 

[Arumi Zy]

K217 was the surviving plate seeing a milimeter less damage then the other plate had sustained in the lightsaber test. This was a big difference when someones life was on the line. The plate had been brought to the application center to begin the process of figuring out how to assemble it onto a fighter craft or other light ordnance. This process would be much less time consuming then the design and creation process but would still provide its own challenges for Arumi and his engineering team. One being trying to figure out a way to wrap it around a fighter body without having to create each piece custom.

He had looked at making each piece subtly curved and at adding the pieces while they were still freshly pressed and warmed to see it that would make them a little bit more maleable. The first attempt with the pieces produced to have a slight curve to them ended with a vessel that would be bulky and more rounded then he had wanted. While the super heated plates proved to be to hot to be moved without causing damage to the equipment or the plates. This was a minor annoyance for Arumi because he could use the force to move the plates but that would be far to unfeasible.

Arumi commissioned a new frame and started back on the drawing board, using the X-Wing frame he looked at it and crumpled his forehead as he thought.

 

[Arumi Zy]

By creating plates with various degrees of slope and bend in them Arumi had found a way to by pass having to create unique plates for each model. Several dozen plates of various slope and bend would be needed in order to properly assemble the Plating on the frames of the vessels. This would help to cut down on drag and the bulkyness he had found when using flat plates. The new problem that he had now was two fold, how to fill in any of the gaps that would be there once the plates were started and how to mount them on the frame of the vessel itself.

He had considered using powdered bronzium but the hold would be to loose for what he was trying to accomplish and it would cause to much extra work requiring that the frame be produced at the same time as the plates. This would prevent it being used as an after market upgrade to peoples ships and fleets. He had spent a considerable time looking at the plates and the frame and had a holo projection of the X wing frame up.

" Hmm" he murmured as he watched one of his engineering technicians come into his office. The man was an odd looking fellow, skinny and had on thick glasses. He was good at his job and normally worked on weapons, in fact he designed the DMR that ZyTech had just put out. " Sir i have an idea, its a little strange"

" What is it Ecklson?". " Well sir what if we mount a normal skin on it, like really thin but we put in bolt holes and then rivet the Cryonium plates onto it? I mean it might lower effeciency a bit, but it adds a little more protecting and fixes one of the problems. Plus we can then use the plate to add in liquid metal to fill the gaps". Arumi smiled at the man " Well there is a reason i pay you the big bucks isn't there. Tell Sheamus to ffab one up".

 

[Arumi Zy]

The newly fitted X-Wing was sleek with a chromatic red sheen to it, a sign of the Cryonium layer that made the very top of the Ablative plating. The vessel was factory except for the newly fit armor plating, weighting a considerable bit less then a standard fit fighter. Arumi stood beside the ship and looked it up and down for any defects in the assembled ship. This ship was the first ship to ever be fitted with this ablative plating and it would have to perform to the highest of standards. That is why Arumi had chosen the X-wing, the history of it proved to be reliable and the future of it seemed limitless. Of course he had no intention of producing X-Wings himself, but they would make an excellent test platform.

Arumi ran his finger up one of the liquid metal bonded grooves, filling the 1mm difference between it and the plating. He intended for it to be like that so the plates could be easily identified for repair purposes. The plating was unable to be patched or repaired and had to be replaced section for section do to the way the plates were designed. It would be impossible to make any kind of patch that could be layered in a proper way without compromising the integrety of the plate themselves. This would be a minor set back but mos of the users would most likely not be jumping from one battle to another and would have the time to fix the armor. All in all it took nearly 35 plates with 3 different designs and slopes in order to properly fit the X-wing out.

" So how to package it" he murmured to himself as he strode back to his office. He looked at the charts and he scratched his chin as he thought about it. " Hmm, i got an idea. If we assemble the plates into a standard config. Have 5 standards, and 6 of the sloped of various designs with the rest being filled in on an individual bases that could work. The price will cover us having to ship out an extra plate or two as part of the package deal and then tailor it to that specific customer. Will be a bit more work but customer satisfaction is one of the most important aspects of commerce".

 

[Arumi Zy]

The ZyTech headquarters was a hustle of activity and bustle of flurried activity, it had finally been completed. The next great invention of their enigmatic and aspiring leader. Arumi had sent out a notice to all of his employees marking today as a celebration for the accomplismnets and the progress of everyone who had worked on the project. He had made today a celebrity day of partying and had issued out everyone a bonus.

" Today is a great day" he announced to the assembled throng of employees and prospective buyers who would be looking at the new invention and hopefully purchasing it. " If you all will direct your attention to the holoscreen" he said with a smile on his face. The screen flickered with the ZyTech logo " for many years people have looked for a solution on armor that was lightweight and durable, able to be an escape option for wounded craft. Today we have succeeded in this, we have managed to improve on the standard armor and give fighters an emergency out. Able to withstand far more fire power then normal plate, Cryonium Ablative Armor will cut down on combat losses" he said as the screen flickered on.

The Holovid had an X-Wing flying through space going through manuevers " At 1350 local time around the planet Manaan one of our medical freighters was attacked by Trandoshan raiders. Two troops transports with five fighter escorts. We had been testing our new plating and we received the emergency transmission. We had two fitted X-Wings with Ablative on them, i flew one and Mioko Taksia our head pilot was piloting the second. Being fitted out with live ordnance we went to our freighters rescue. The battle was fierce and last for only a minute and a half." Arumi allowed the video to begin playing showing both fighters darting through the enenmy vessels. " Within the first thirty seconds we had downed two escort fighters, at one minute one transport" the video continued to play.

" At a minute fifteen Mioko took a torpedo depleting his shields and was crippled. The plate absorbed most of explosion and left just enough for Mioko to pull out and take several lazer blasters and escape. By one minute thirty i had downed the last fighters and crippled the the last transport. We notified the local authorities and we escorted our freighter and Mioko to dock on Manaan. While the plates had to be replaced after the engagement without them Mioko would have been killed." Arumi smiled as the onlookers cheered, unaware that the Trando mercs had been paid by an annonymous benefactor to assault the freighter.

Cryonium Ablative plate was ready to be rolled out into the open market.