Revenant of Ages Past

[Salmakk]

Armorer-class Corvette Matthew Lucerne, somewhere in the Mid Rim

Three of Lucerne Lab's engineers huddled around a table in the corvette's dining room. Salmakk, the lead designer of the group, adjusted the nearby environmental controls to make the humidity higher and more comfortable for his aquatic nature. Gai, an almost mad scientist-like duros, ignored the new climate difference as he chowed down on his supper, a green and white dish of noodles and sauce. The table's last occupant,a creamy furred bothan female fiddled with a small hand-held holo-projector, which finally flared to life to reveal a proposal contract being put out by the Galactic Republic. The mon calamari engineer eyed the contract intently and then shook his head.

“The odds of us getting that contract are skewed against us,” noted Salmakk wearily.

“Well, the main problem is us not having some awesome weapon to mount on it, right?” questioned Gai, setting down his silverware, “Why not simply downscale my gun? It's certainly powerful enough against a tank...”

“Power concerns,” rebutted Azira, the bothan female,“it would probably need more power than a small ship or vehicle could reasonably hold, unless they were only going to use it for a few shots.”

“Maybe they only need a few shots...” suggested Gai, “if they're good shots.”

“It would never fly,” said Salmakk, “they want more than a few shots. If they only needed a few, powerful shots, they would have simply gone with missiles. No, this weapon needs to be on the smaller side, with multiple shots, and be reasonably good at piercing tank armor. Perhaps some sort of microrocket, or something else that uses chemical propulsion rather electrical...”

“Normal gun? I mean, one that shoots bullets with a chemical propellant?” asked Gai.

“Well, to that sort of velocity,”musd Salmakk, “You would need a lot of chemical propellant, or a really large shell. The problem then is as the shell gets bigger, the ammunition capacity goes down. Or alternatively, the actual bullet gets smaller as the shell size increases, so that it might pierce the armor, but it'll just be like a normal blaster pistol bolt once pass the armor. It's hardly worth that...And on top of that, we still have to worry about ammunition capacity, which can take up a lot of space on a relatively small craft...”

“There is one other option,” said Azira, “that's sort of on Gai's lines.”

“Do tell,” said the mon calamari engineer.

“I ran across a weapon called a Mandalorian Ripper during some research for the last cannon. Basically, it appeared to be a normal blaster rifle during most uses, but it could also propel a slug at very high speeds using the ancient principle of ablative laser propulsion. Basically,the blaster portion of the weapon would superheat a metallic propellant at the end of a slug and turn it into plasma. That plasma would then rapidly accelerate the slug out of the barrel at high velocities. From what I've read, we might be able to make a slug big enough to not only pierce armored vehicles, but also do some damage on the inside. But we're still going to have the projectile ammunition problem.”

“You said the Ripper also worked as a blaster rifle? So couldn't this upscaled version work as some sort of laser cannon?” questioned Salmakk.

“Maybe,” said the bothan, her fur rippling, “it's all very fuzzy information right now. The physics behind it is simple, and while we can start working on such a design right now, I think it'd help if we could actually get a hold of one these weapons.”

“I'll talk to Gir then,” said Salmakk, “he might know about someone who might have one.”

“They're pretty rare,” said Azira, “you'll probably have to give him some of the credits from our sales of our first Kalidors...”

“If this contract pulls through, it'll make up for more than that cost, I'd wager,” mused Salmakk, “I'll wire him the credits when I talk to him.”

 

[Salmakk]

Perhaps an hour had passed before Salmakk took to the starship's communications room, a small prism only slightly bigger than a closet. He squeezed in and shut and locked the blast door behind him. He fiddled with the projector, which finally began to display a calling symbol. Several minutes passed before it disappeared to reveal his adopted brother, who clearly had just entered his quarters. The blonde man gave his typical nod as a greeting.

“How are you brother?”

“Good,” replied Salmakk, “I have a favor to ask.”

Gir let a smile creep up across his face, “Well, I assumed that much by the unplanned call. What can I do for you?”
“I need you to rustle up one of your contacts and by me a blaster.”

Gir raised an eyebrow, “That's either a terrible start to a joke I hope, or it's one special blaster...”

“A very archaic one,” admitted Salmakk, “they call it a Mandalorian Ripper.”

“Sounds poetic.”

Salmakk shrugged, “I didn't name it Gir. It's a blaster that can also shoot slugs. I imagine that it's going to be pretty pricey, so I'm wiring you some credits which should take care of the costs.”

Gir nodded, “I'm guessing that this isn't just for you...”

“No, it's for the contract you forwarded to me.”

It took Gir a moment, “Ah...so this to be the secret weapon to getting the Labs on top.”

Salmakk nodded.

“I'll see what I can do brother, but I make no promises.”

“That's all I can ask of you Gir.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Altier-class Frigate Athena, somewhere in the Inner Rim

A holographic figure hopped from foot to foot in front of Gir. I might almost regret this...But the dug seemed so excited that Gir didn't feel comfortable pressing the issue any further. He merely waited until Belu settled down.
“Yes, yes Captain Gir,” said the junkyard dealer, “I know just a person. He came by the yard last month looking for such things. I will transmit the contact information and put out the word, though obviously not to track it back to you...I will merely call you a client.”

“I appreciate that Belu,” said Gir, “and if one does come through, the finding fee is yours.”

The dug nodded in acknowledgement and the channel went to static. Glancing at the small flatscreen console near the bottom, Gir noticed a series of aubesh letters and numbers scroll by. Well, that's must be who he's talking about. Might was well give him a call too. The man rapidly punched in a series of numbers into the console. Some minutes passed before he found himself looking at the rough, craggy face of a Kel'dor in what appeared to be some sort of mechanical shop. Gir cleared his throat.

“My name is Gir Quee, and Belu referred me to you about purchasing an exotic weapon. That is your business, isn't it, or do I have a wrong number?”

The alien eyed the man closely, “It is, but might I inquire what a Republic officer wants with such a thing?”

“Personal business,” said the man, “it's not professional related at all. I'm looking for a Mandalorian Ripper. Have you heard of such a thing?”

“Yes.”

“Do you have one?”

The Kel'dor paused, “I may have access to one, for the right price.”

Gir sighed, “How much?”

“Eight thousand credits.”

Gir managed to just keep his mouth from dropping, “Eight thousand? I am not saying that it's out of the question, I know it's not common, but I want to test fire it first...”
“For another one thousand credits,” said the Kel'dor, “I can meet you at a location of your choosing to test fire the weapon. Why not Belu's? Otherwise, you can stop by my shop here on Greinal, if you'd prefer...”

Gir nodded. I've never heard of it. Which means that it's probably not close, unlike Belu's...but if I'm going to save some leave days on this...there's only one choice.

“Belu's sounds agreeable,” said the man, “When?”

“Does seven days from now work for you?”

“How about ten,” said the man, “I have to put in the paperwork to go on vacation to go there.”

“I see. Ten days it is.”

“I'm very much obliged, sir.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Some days later...

Bela's Parts Emporium, Telal

A sand-filled breeze beat down on the two people as they wandered through the scrapyard. Coughing, Gir handed a trio of credit chips down to Bela. The dug quickly flipped the chips in his fingers before scanning them with his heavily scarred datapad. He mumbled a bit, but then looked up at Quee with what the man guessed (or hoped was a smile).

“I terd you I kne' someone.”

Gir nodded, “And that's why I keep on coming back Bela. Because you know people...the right people.”

A brief silence permeated between the two as they walked past several towers of junk, or what Bela referred to as “ass'ts”. With only the sound of their feet on the sand, Gir grew uncomfortable. He turned to look at the dug.

“How often have you worked with Mer Kand.”

“A time or tew,” muttered the dug, glancing around the piles, “he pays good.”

Gir nodded. A billowing swirl of dust in the near distance dissipated to reveal a small tan starship that appeared to the naval officer to be an old shuttle, or a very small light freighter. He wasn't entirely sure which one, but judging by the quad laser cannon turret on top, he guessed that it had a few other modifications that may or may not be entirely legal. At the foot of the ramp, a gangly Kel'dor stood leaning on a rifle whose butt seemed to sink a little bit into the ground. I really hope that's not my rifle...When he saw the duo approaching, Kand heft the rifle up into a low ready position and strode out to meet them. As they approached, Gir shot out his right arm towards the alien, who quickly grasped it back and offered a predatory smile.

“Gir Quee,” noted the Kel'dor, “a short name, a good name on a planet like this. Bela, how is business these days?”

The dug seemed to merely twitch his head, “Good Mer, good.”

Gir nodded at the rifle, “Care if I test it out?”

“Let me run you through the controls first,” said the Kel'dor, who proceeded to show the man the weapon's operating procedures.

Several minutes later, Gir hefted the robust rifle up to his shoulder and pulled the trigger, sending a bright orange-red bolt into the sand near them, charring it black. He bobbed his head in satisfaction before flipping a few switches. After putting on some ear protection, along with his two companions, he tapped the trigger again. He didn't see the slug exit out of the barrel, though he certainly saw the plasma plume that came after it. Merely a meter away from the charred sand, a small crater formed. He removed the ear protection and turned to the Kel'dor.

“Seems like a good weapon. Why did they stop making them?”

The Kel'dor nodded, “For its price, you could buy several blaster rifles and several slugthrowers. It's only good selling point has been that it saved weight by combining two weapons.”

“Fair enough,” said Gir, handing over the remainder of his credit chips to the alien, “thank you for your time and service. If I have any further need to add to my collection, I will be sure to look you up.”

“That is most generous, Gir.”

 

[Salmakk]

Armorer-class Support Corvette Matthew Lucerne, somewhere in the Inner Rim

The three engineers strode over to a duraplast case resting on one of the ship's many workbenches. Unlike the countless other boxes of parts and doo-dads that littered the ship's repair bay, this one had a peculiar marking indicating that it had at one time been on a Republic warship. The duros immediately bolted for the box, but Salmakk snagged the engineer by the back of his jumpsuit and pulled him back, prompting Gai to moan.

“Look guys, it's finally here, okay? Let's go shoot something with it. How about TCW-112?”

Salmakk half-glared as he released the sometimes maniacal duros engineer, “Gai, we're not going to use it on a mostly functioning maintenance droid, even if you hate it.”

“It's called droid cruelty,” agreed Azira.

“Come on guys, it's just one droid...”

“No,” said Salmakk, striding over to unbox the duraplast crate.

He fiddled with the lid, but it didn't open. Azira pulled out a vibro-shiv from her pocket and simply cut through the magnetized seals. Salmakk gingerly lifted the weapon from its crate, while Gai quickly snagged a datachip sitting underneath it. The bothan leaned up behind Salmakk to glance at the weapon's controls.

“That's the one,” said Azira, turning to Gai, “are those the instructions?”

Gai glanced up his datapad, “They are. I want to shoot it first.”

Azira snorted, “Did it ever occur to you that I might already know how to, after researching it for so long...”

“Ah....”

“Don't answer that,” interrupted Salmakk, handing the weapon over to the bothan, “you'd best shoot it to make sure it's functioning properly.”

“At what?”

“It's crate!” suggsted Gai.

“That could work,” admitted Salmakk.

The woman shrugged, pulled the weapon up to her shoulder, and pulled the trigger several times; promptly incinerating the box and leaving char marks on the workbench. Her fur rippled.

“Sorry, I didn't it would be that powerful. Now there's nothing left for the slugs...”

“There's still the lid left!” said Gai, shoving it into Salmakk's rubbery hands.

The mon calamari promptly looked around the bay, noting its many other engineers, workers, engineers, and fellow shipmates. He shook his head.

“We're not shooting slugs in here,” remonstrated Salmakk, “it'll poke someone's eye out after it bounces off eight barrels and four walls, at least with our luck.”

“We could put on space suits...” suggested Gai.

“Won't be necessary,” said the bothan, who had begun its basic disassembly, “I know the design well enough to see if there's anything missing, but there's not. The only mystery to me has been the patented chamber, which was fuzzy on all the historical holos because of its patent. But I can see that clearly now.”

“How long do you think it will take to replicate it?” questioned Salmakk.

“Well, a day or so. Look, it's not that chamber itself that's so hard, but how they focused the crystals so precisely...oh, that's how they did it. There's a ring of crystals inside the chamber itself, almost acting like some sort of composite beam to ignite the plasma...and here I thought maybe it just built up enough convection heat for it ignite...”

“So how long?” questioned Salmakk.

“Give a day...just to be sure. I want to make sure I'm not missing anything before I make that part of the Seure.”

 

[Salmakk]

Several days later...

Azira smoothly rotated the knobs of the holo-projector, zooming in on the details of the weapon's firing mechanism. Around her, a handful of new engineers, Salmakk, Gai, and TCW-112 clambered into the minute conference room on the corvette, quickly snatching up all available seats. Salmakk excused himself from one of the seats, handing it over to a young raven-haired woman from Anaxes. The mon calamari solemnly walked over to the bothan.

“Do you feel ready?” questioned the mon calamari, “if you're not ready...”

“I'll be fine,” said Azira, turning around to face her audience.

Salmakk mutely nodded and sidestepped to lean against the conference room's wall. Her fur briefly rippled as she cleared her throat.

“You've all been working on part of our latest project,” said the bothan, “and many of you have been wondering about the hold-up. Doubtless, some of you saw that old blaster being tested around the bay...”

That drew a few snickers. Gai had managed to briefly secret it away without Azira noticing before chasing TCW-112 around the maintenance bay. The droid squeaked more than a few times as Gai snapped off several shots, almost hitting it once. Beyond irritated, Salmakk had decided to have the droid constantly hover over Gai as a sort of discipline. Azira shook her head.

“Some of us are better shots than others...In any case, upscaling a design like the Mandalorian Ripper is not a mere case of copying and enlarging blueprints. The natures of physics and chemistry do not simply increase on a linear scale, as most of you already know. It required some minor chamber redesign as well as changing the facets of the focusing crystals needed to ignite the metal propellant at the end of the slugs. Luckily, most of this was easily accomplished because we do have a highly skilled staff, that's many of you, and some fairly good software. But the physics of scale difference are not the only difference in this design over the ripper.

Because the Ripper was a handheld weapon, it has some features not desirable for an vehicle-mounted weapon. The obvious is controls, and the mechanical trigger has been replaced with a standard electronic-actuated firing mechanism, which is a fancy way of saying that we took the parts of an existing laser cannon design. Not less important is the cooling system, as you can see here. The original Ripper was air-cooled, but that wouldn't really work too well with the weapon being placed in the confines of a vehicle. We needed something more reliable and more effective, especially since it's a larger weapon, it produces more heat. This is somewhat offset by having a larger radiating surface just because of its enlargement, but there are other variables. To that end, you can see here the dalorian alloy ducting that runs across the barrel and chamber here, along with the cyrogenic cooling coils here, and finally the heatsink that absorbs most of the convection heat and run its out to here, which on our current design, is the wingtip edges. But obviously it will run to different places on different vehicle designs...”

 

[Salmakk]

Sparks flew across the workbench as Gai, clad in safety gear that almost made him look like a cyborg, seated the barrel blank of unhardened dallorian steel alloy onto the four-point cutter which would give the barrel its characteristic twist rifling. As it the cutter plunged deeper into the barrel, the shower of sparks began to fade away, prompting the duros engineer to hurriedly pump in coolant fluid down the shaft to ensure that neither the barrel nor the cutter overheated. If the barrel overheated, it would become warped and dangerous to fire. If the cutter became overheated, it would swell up to become immovable. TCW-112 hovered around the duros, squawking out at the alien. But Gai merely smiled, turned to the droid, said a few choice words, and watched as the droid tumbled onto the ground lifeless in a clatter.

Salmakk turned his head from the focusing crystal station to observe the source of the commotion. But the duros merely shrugged, causing the Mon Calamari engineer to glower underneath his own duraplast mask and transparisteel google set. I don't have time for this...not if we're too complete the prototype soon. He turned his attention to the artificial red crystal in front of him and began to operate the controls, turning the crystal through mechanical means and observing the machine precisely cut it with a plasma torch. He spared a glance at Azira, who was busy fuddling with the parts for the prototype's magnetic containment field.

She rapidly typed in a few commands, exchanged some words with the droids coding alongside her, and got back to testing the field itself with a handheld fusion torch. Finally, they had gotten it right, and the ring-shaped aperature managed to fully contain the oncoming heat from the torch. On the real weapon, the containment field would have to be able to ensure that the plasma didn't leak out of the chamber and destroy the rest of the weapon itself. She began to incrementally test the field with the droid's assistance, slowly raising the temperature while the droids monitored a variety of sensors set up around the metallic ring.

Around them, almost the entire bay was focused on producing the other parts necessary for the Seure's prototype. Astromech droids and workers welded the cooling system onto the base housing that Gai had finished earlier. Other engineers carefully machine the test ammunition, taking care to make sure that the measurements were just right with digital and holo-graphic calipers while yet others molded the metallic propellant before soldering it onto the solid ferrocarbon and durasteel rods that would serve as the weapon's slugs. After a full day's work by nearly sixty people and dozens more droids, the Salmakk took a plasma fusion stylus, and engraved the Seure prototype with his name, before handing it off to the others present to sign it themselves.

 

[Salmakk]

“We're not putting a slug into yet, Gai,” said Salmakk grumpily, “not until we're sure the whole laser cannon aspect is working properly.”

The three engineers stood around the prototype mounted in on a tripod at the edge of the Matthew Lucerne's hangar bay. The black ocean of space was a mere meter from their faces, yet none of them paid it any heed. Gai was too obssessed with running his hands all over the weapon, while both Salmakk and Azira were too obsessed with Gai's obsession to notice much else. The duros turned to Salmakk and gestured at the datapad the mon calamari held.

“Well fine then, can I fire it on blaster mode first? Please?”

Salmakk spared a glance at the bothan, but she remained unreadable. Salmakk shrugged and set down the datapad down on the ground before starting to edge away.

“Fine, but give me some time to get away from it before you fire it,” warned Salmakk.

Gai nodded, causing Azira to quickly stride away with Salmakk to the safety durasteel bulwark. Satsified with his comrades safety, or more likely satisfied that he wouldn't be yelled at, Gai picked up the datapad and pressed a button. The gun made a humming noise before firing a bright orange-red bolt into the depths of space. He giggled and tapped the button some more, causing more bright bolts to steady pop out of the weapon's barrel to thunder into space itself. Salmakk peeked a head over the bulwark to observe.

“Okay Gai, it looks like that part's working...Gai...stop wasting the blaster gas...otherwise, it's coming out of your salary.”

“You're such a killjoy Salmakk.”

 

[Salmakk]

“I want to fire it.”

“No.”

“Please.”

“For the last time, no,” stated Salmakk adamantly, “you got to fire the blaster part first, now Azira gets the honor of firing the slugs first. After all, it was her idea...”

“But I already risked me life on this weapon...” said the duros.

“And fortunately, we didn't have use to use the company life insurance policy,” noted Azira wryly with a grin, “tell you what Gai, after the first two shots, I'll let you expend the rest of the first test ammuniton.”

“But that's only three rounds.”

“Which is one more round than I'm firing,” noted the bothan, “everyone put on their hearing protection.”

All three of them adjusted their earmuffs and tapped switches on them. Salmakk turned around, making sure that the rest of the hangar bay was unoccupied of other organics who might hear the weapon's shots and damage their auditory senses. Satisfied that there weren't any, he gave the bothan female a thumbs up. The woman nodded, crouched behind a duraplast crate, and tapped a button. Even with the electronic sound-reducing earmuffs, they could hear the weapon fire (and in Gai's case, see it too). She waited a few seconds for the weapon to cool down on its auto cycle, and manually counted the time on her digits too before she hit the button again. Another loud roar pierced through the air as the weapon fired yet again. Gai almost snatched the datapad out of her hands to tap the firing button, only to be thwarted by the Seure's safety, which prevent the gun from firing while it cooled down. Unsatisified, he promptly switched it to blaster only, and tapped a button, watching a bright orange-red bolt fly out of the vessel once more, which in turn set back the cooldown cycle more. Grumbling, the duros waited until he could safely fire yet another slug, and began to tap the button again as soon as it had reset. Watching the duro's antics, Salmakk turned to Azira and gave a knowing look. She merely shrugged and threw up her hands palm up.

 

[Gir Quee]

One week later...

Gir strolled off of the ramp of his transport to meet a familiar trio of engineers at the ship's ramp. His adopted brother stretched out a web hand to him, which the Republic officer promptly grasped, while he briefly nodded at both Gai and Azira.

“Well Gir, I have the holo-recorders ready,” stated Salmakk plainly, “I think you will appreciate the effort you put in to acquire that blaster. We have a real good working weapon now.”

Gir gestured at the laser-cannon like weapon mounted on a pedestal not too far from his transport, “I take that's it?”

“It is,” said the mon calamari, “I don't know if you saw that box floating just outside the hangar when you left...”

“Let me guess, it's our target?”

“It is,” said Salmakk, slapping Gir on the back, “you're too smart to just be a navy man, Gir.”

“I can tell the obvious from time to time,” admitted Gir, eying the distant box, “but it doesn't look like too impressive of a target.”

“Oh, you're wrong there-” said Gai, walking towards the man before Azira abruptly yanked him back.

Salmakk nodded, “He's actually right. It's not crate Gir, it's made out of layered structural-grade durasteel beams covered with titanium and durasteel plates. I some electronic scrap in the middle. It's all designed to replicated what the inside of a modern repulsor tank could look like.”

“I see,” mused Gir, “I'm guessing this is aimed for that gunship project.”

“It is.”

Gir nodded.

Salmakk turned to Gai, “You may press the first button-”

Before he had finished, the duros had already done that. The Seure-class cannon began to fire its characteristic red-orange bolts at the target, charring and eventually piercing through the plating. The weapon stopped firing, and a tractor beam operator on the Matthew Lucerne promptly maneuvered the box to present an undamaged side. The engineers began to put on their earmuffs, after which they handed a set to Gir who promptly put one on. Salmakk once again signaled the duros engineer, who hit a second button. A loud crack reverberated throughout the hangar before fading away. The box now had a solid hole going through it, though Gir could not tell where it stopped.

“That hole looks kind of small from here,” noted Gir.

“It is,” admitted Salmakk, “but that's the nature of penetrating weapons. The hole is small, but the damage inside is massive, as you will soon see when the box comes back into the hangar bay shortly. When the slug penetrates through the armor, it creates a lot of friction which generates more heat that suffuses the slug. The slug is already hot oftentimes from friction in the atmosphere as well as from the plasma which propelled it. That typically superheats the metal to the point where it explodes inside the target, spraying the inside with superheated metal shards. It might not look like it did much damage from the outside, but the inside is torn apart as you soon see, almost like a fragmentation grenade went off inside it. If there was anyone in it, any sensitive electronics, or any fine mechanical parts, it would be a safe bet to say that they would be ruined or seriously damaged. Gir, I do not want to see such weapons come to pass, but this is a monstrosity that I can live with, knowing that it will be on the right side of the battlefield, saving lives like your own.”

“One day you'll make good on your promise,” said Gir quietly, “it's almost all but a certainty now.”