Moving Unseen

[Taeli Raaf]

Taeli smiled as she had finally arrived at the design she wanted to make to uphold her end of the deal with Alric Kuhn from the auction to acquire L&L Robotics. Alric had mentioned he would be more interested in something stealthy, compared to a powerful warship, so she gone scouring through old files and such to figure out the best path to take.

Ruling out a stygium cloak because of how rare they were, and she didn't want to reveal she was working on designs for just such a thing for her own personal forces, she had landed on the old StealthX fighter and how it avoided detection.

"Jaxson, new project," she said into her comlink and she could almost hear the whoop of excitement, even though her chief engineer was hard at work with her in designing the Sin series of ships for the One Sith.

"What's on the agenda, my Lady?" he asked.

"The stealth ship for Blas-Tech," she replied. "I've figured out what exactly I want on it."

"I'll be right up to your office," he said, the click coming across the line as she could feel his excitement bleeding into the Force from the next floor down.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"So what did you decide, my Lady?" Jaxson asked as he sat down in the chair across from her.

"This," Taeli said, spinning the display of her terminal around so he could see the StealthX fighter with the old Lancer-class Frigate next to it. "These are the two designs we will be basing our contract obligation on."

"How so?" the chief engineer asked, excitement blazing in his eyes and Force aura. The man could already guess what she would say, but he wanted to see if they were on the same wavelength here.

"The stealth capabilities of the StealthX would be added to the a small frigate design, similar to the Lancer so they could serve as hidden escort craft for Blas-Tech convoys," Taeli said, getting up from her chair and activating her office's holo-projector. She had recently installed it so she could pull up schematics to interact with, adding or subtracting when needed. Pulling up a small frigate, about 250 meters in length, she picked up a stylus and began adding features as she explained.

"Given that it is designed as a stealth ship, we can immediately eliminate the idea of extra armor or shielding," she said, reducing the armor and shield generator down. "With that though, we can add more to the engines to allow it more maneuverability and speed."

As she added more power to the engine systems, Jaxson said, "We should retool the engines to burn the TibannaX isotope then, it burns a black efflux trail so the ship would be impossible to find that way."

Nodding at her chief engineer's advice, she added that feature to the developing schematic as a note.

"The hull will be matte-black and have small speckles throughout it to have the ship blend in with space around it," she said, tinting the hull slightly with black and small specks.

"Sensor negators and a gravitic modulator to foil sensor scans and mass detection," Jaxson added, looking at the specs for the StealthX. "With the shields reduced, we have plenty of power to divert to those as well. Armament is going to be light though because of that."

"Indeed, I was thinking we would go with twenty quad laser cannons that can be retracted into the hull," she said, adding each cannon to the hull and noting that they could retract into the ship to hide them when not needed. "Firing weapons will reveal the ship though."

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"A problem for every stealth ship that doesn't have a cloaking device," Jaxson said nodding. "I do propose it does have hanger space enough for one squadron of fighters or for shuttles to land in it."

"I agree," Taeli said highlighting the hanger space, shrinking it slightly with her stylus. "I think also there should be officer space within, just in case Alric or one of his executives wants to use it as a mobile office to run Blas-Tech or Titan Industries from."

As she spoke, she highlighted part of the ship and added in an office suite within the ship that wouldn't be vulnerable to fire immediately. So far, she was quite happy with how things were coming together. She felt it would be quite useful for escort duty or scouting missions for Blas-Tech for keeping their operations moving.

"What would you think of using the WhiteNoise Transmitter for its com system?' she asked.

"It would certainly keep their communications secret," Jaxson mused. "We would need to supply several to Blas-Tech though, as you know the drawback of it."

"True, very true," Taeli said, adding the transmitter in. The transmitter would hide all comm signals from the frigate to the other convoy ships since the signals would blend into the background radiation, or once they were established on a planet, they could also have secret communications with the groundside facilities to organize defenses.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Anything else, my Lady?" Jaxson asked, looking over the holo closely. He had an idea about how he optimize the ship's engines a little more so it would be slightly faster than normal since it was not much bigger than a corvette. But, he wanted to keep that a surprise for Arcanix.

"None that I can think of," she replied. "How soon can you begin construction?"

"We will start the prototype immediately, my Lady," Jaxson said, downloading the decided upon schematics to his datapad. "I shall have a progress report for you as soon as possible, my Lady."

"I'm sure you will," she smiled, and gestured that he was dismissed. Even as Jaxson left the office, he was pulling up his comlink and calling on the lab to begin constructing the skeleton of a 250 meter frigate and he expected it to be done once he arrived in space to oversee and dictate what they were going to be working on.

Taeli leaned back in her chair, and pulled up her files about where to expand to next. She still needed to get the operations on Widek up and running, so she decided to begin planning that part of expansion, and figuring out where to expand their weapon and armor design facilities to.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Jaxson scowled as he arrived in space and seeing the skeleton wasn't fully finished. Never mind that the only unfinished section was the very front and they were almost done with it, that wasn't fast enough for the man and if it wasn't good enough for him, it wasn't good enough for Darth Arcanix in his mind.

"Alright listen up," he said, bringing his team together. "Right here on this datapad is what we're going to be building on that frame out there. Each of you will receive a copy and we will begin."

Once everyone on his team had the schematics, they immediately went about ordering and gathering the needed materials for the project that was codenamed Invisible Hand. It took some time, more than Jaxson would have preferred, but eventually they were able to get what they needed. Coruscant was useful in that regard at least, that one could get whatever they needed, even if it wasn't done completely legally at first.

In her office, Taeli received the first report that the frame was done and materials were being gathered for the rest of the systems. She smiled to herself as she continued work on plans for the company's expansion and going over expense reports. While she wished Alex would take a more active role in the company sometimes, Taeli didn't mind all the paperwork. It suited her just fine.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Over the next few days, Taeli continued to receive updates about the state of the project and the difficulties the build team were experiencing. She had a feeling the ship wouldn't be going into mass-production given just how expensive some of the materials for it could be, but she had hoped for at least minor production.

Given the latest report, she had to downgrade her expectations to limited production, which was saddening in a way. Regardless, Jaxson was sitting in her office again, going over what had been finished and was still being worked on.

"And finally, we have determined that with the amount of TibannaX we can procure that the ship is not suitable for even minor production," Jaxson said, finishing his presentation. "My deepest apologies, my Lady, but the special systems involved are hampering to any mass amounts of production and our techs have never worked on a stealth ship before."

"The fault isn't yours, Ary," she replied, her hands folded on her desk. "It is an ambitious project, with materials we have never used even when the company was under Banshee. I doubt Alric Kuhn will not care about that as long as he gets enough of the ships to be useful. You say the hull is coming together exactly as we planned though?"

"Yes, my Lady," Jaxson said. "We've been very careful with the hull plating as it is not as thick as other ships, decreased weight and all, but it is working perfectly in blending in with the stars. The complete hull will be done within the next few hours then the specialized equipment will be installed.

"Very well, keep me updated," she said, dismissing the man.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Jaxson scowled as he watched his workers almost drop one of the sensor negators that was needed to stop enemy forces from scanning and detecting the frigate.

"Watch what you're doing or I'll personally shoot you," he said from his post. The hull had been completed, and he was actually rather proud about that, as it would render recognition by sight almost impossible. Still, the specialized equipment was going to take time to test and install, and judging by what he had just witnessed, his workers were starting to feel the pinch of little sleep. He had been pushing them to the end of their limits to keep everything on his schedule.

"Jaxson, why do I sense your workers are exhausted?" Taeli asked, entering the post where her chief engineer was monitoring the construction and moving of the equipment.

"Must keep to the schedule. . ." he started to say before she raised her hand, asking for quiet.

"Your workers need sleep and rest, send them home and we will allow the equipment to wait a day to be installed," she said, making sure her words carried to the workers below. "We are ahead of schedule currently, and while I love your zeal, we cant have it running the workers haggard, can we?"

"No, my Lady," Jaxson said, nodding. As always, he would defer to her judgment on such. "The hull is done at least, so we need only install the equipment and test it."

"Tomorrow then, for now everyone may go home, including you, my friend," Taeli ordered. She felt a wave of relief from those around them, gratitude towards her flowing through the Force. Loyalty was important to her, and she had gained her workers' loyalty even more by giving that order.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Turned out that Taeli had decided two days rest was needed, and after a slight scolding/praising of her chief engineer, the project had resumed at full vigor. Taeli was personally overseeing the next aspects of the Invisible hand project while Jaxson was on forced paid vacation to the nearest resort world to de-stress a bit.

"My Lady, the gravatic modulators have just arrived and are ready to be installed," one of the technicians reported.

"See to it, everything is going quite well so far," she said, smiling over her datapad. All the sensor negators were up and running, and she had already scheduled several ships in the area to scan the under-construction ship to detect it. So far, not one had been able to get a full sensory scan of the small frigate, just as Taeli had wanted. The WhiteNoise transmitter had also been installed yesterday, with several other installable transmitters loaded in the cargo hold of the ship for Alric to disperse amongst his convoys so they could be in contact with their unseen escorts or if he needed to message someone in a system he was visiting secretly.

Everything was going quite swimmingly and it would appear the Invisible Hand would be ready for its first shakedown cruise soon.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

Another day later, with her chief engineer back and begging her not to send him to a resort again, all systems had been installed within the Invisible Hand and Taeli had decided it was time to have a test cruise with it. Orchestrating a few of her company's ships to be modified temporarily to fire tags instead of live lasers, she had set up a mock ambush on a convoy that the Invisible Hand was supposed to be protecting.

They were set up to begin on the outskirts of the Coruscant system, fully armed Sith warships keeping the testing zone clear of anyone trying to get near it.

"Let us begin," she said. "Objective is for the convoy to reach the shipyard, the Invisible Hand its fighters providing protection from a sudden ambush by 'pirates' consisting of two squadron of fighter craft and a corvette. Captain, give the order."

"Yes, my Lady," the captain of the Invisible Hand said, saluting. The lead convoy ship, a Strider-class Bulk freighter had been temporarily equipped with a WhiteNoise transmitter so they could secretly communicate with the frigate guarding them. It might be an unconventional test, but it would be effective.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

As the faux convoy began moving, Taeli and the engineers on board the Invisible Hand monitored every little detail while the military men and women went about their duties, treating as an actual escort mission as Taeli had ordered them to do. Three minutes in, the corvette that was being used dropped out of hyperspace and disgorged a squadron of fighters, another squadron of fighters dropping out of hyperspace to the left of the convoy.

"All hand, report to battle stations," the captain ordered. "Have pilots get to their ships and prepare to launch to counter, all quad lasers extended and primed to fire."

"Yes, Captain!" one officer yelled as the bridge exploded into activity that Taeli and the engineers worked around. The faux pirates began to accelerate towards the seemingly unprotected convoy, only two lightly armed freighters on the outside appearing to be the only escorts. As the starfighters started flying towards the convoy, the Invisible Hand slid silently into position, relaying information to the lead freighter to maintain course while they dealt with the enemy.

"They just used a mass detection scan ma'am," an engineer said, running up to Taeli. "Our gravatic modulator fooled it successfully, and we have negated any other scans they've been using. They think we aren't in the system currently."

"Excellent," Taeli said with a smile. The faux pirates might know the Invisible Hand was here, but they couldn't see where it was, even as it prepared to launch a surprise attack of its own.

 

[Taeli Raaf]

"Open fire, short bursts and then move to a new position," the captain ordered as the "enemy" starfighters began to move into attack runs.

"Yes sir!" the gunnery officer said. Short blasts of heavily depowered quad lasers flashed out of the gloom, appearing for all the world like they had manifested from nowhere. Two fighters were hit and stopped moving immediately, their pilots ordered that if they detected a hit to stop their craft from moving and acting as though they were confirmed kills.

The half of the other fighters began to move towards where the unexpected laser bursts had come from, the corvette joining them. The others continued on to begin harassing the convoy, even as the Invisible Hand deployed its own fighter squadron. A small dogfight broke out, even as the frigate opened fire again with its lasers, taking out another two fighter craft and confusing the lieutenant that was in command of the "pirate" forces.

It lasted several minutes longer, with the Invisible Hand being detected and attacked twice, but every time that happened, the captain would order a micro jump to the other side of the area and then re-engage. All enemy fighter craft were stunned, and the corvette had been forced to retreat.

"A successful test," Taeli said, smiling hugely. "I believe its ready for limited production, yes?"

"Indeed, my Lady," Jaxson said form his station. "I think we should name the entire product line the Invisible Hand-class frigate."

"I agree," she said. "I hope Alric likes the ship."