The Heart of the Republic (Alyesa, Vaudin)

[Popo]

Popo sat in a conference room within a nondescript building on Anaxes. He'd invited a pair of individuals to speak with him and, hopefully, give insight and improvements on an idea of his.

Papers, folders, and datafiles covered the table from where he sat, each detailing bits and pieces of the project, often literally, and with varying degrees of complexity. This was to be the start of a grand project. Something to inspire the Republic. Something to cause dread in their enemies. To create shining examples of what the Republic stood for, what it was out to do, and to give the citizens hope and security that the Republic would be there to keep them safe at night.

But before they could do this, they had to start with the core of the matter. First, they had to build the Republic's heart.

[member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Alyesa Praxon"]

 

[Long Gone]

She strode down the heavily guarded corridor of the Grand Senate Chambers on Anaxes, well the temporary Senate Chambers. She had a meeting with the Supreme Chancellor, one of urgency. Apparently, he had called upon her engineering skills and that of Incom Corporation for something vital. He didn't quite elaborate but it sounded like a program to which the former Coruscant Senator could get into. She had taken up the post back on Alderaan at the request of the ruling House of Alderaan and the Supreme Chancellor. She held a newly minted X109-EXGIN Engineering Datapad in her right hand as she walked passed rows of guards, and as she ventured deeper into the Senate Chambers, the guards began to get more armored and armed.

She knew she was getting closer to the Supreme Chancellor, a soft sigh escaped her lips as she adjusted her light grey and blue tunic with her free hand. Unlike most Senators, she chose most of the time to wear informal attire to most functions, associating with the common people of the Galaxy unless there was an event that called for such a thing as a dress or other means of formal attire. Within the heavily secured datapad was a wide variety of schematics and designs and different components to which the Supreme Chancellor would have a chance to look at, depending on what he had to throw at her.

It was this for that, show me your goods and i'll show you mine type of deal.

It would be interesting to say the least.

As she approached the Conference Room, she was approached by two guards to which she raised a holographic badge that reflected her credentials and shortly the two parted ways and allowed her entry. Alyesa quickly strode in and approached the massive marble black table, dropping the datapad onto the end with a loud thud and a chuckle. "Supreme Chancellor, it's been a while." She said with a rather large smile. "To what do I owe you this honor?" The doors behind her would close with a soft hiss, leaving Alyesa to stand on the other side of the table before the Supreme Chancellor. She never realized how big the Hutt was until she was in such a small area like this Conference Room. The last time she saw [member="Popo"] was at a lecture she gave about the state of the Republic from a Security Council perspective.

 

[Popo]

Popo had the habit of people walking in and startling him at the most awkward of times. This time was no different.

The Hutt was enjoying a Hutt-sized mug of hot chocolate with whipped cream and drizzled chocolate on top when the doors opened and @Alyesa Praxton entered. He didn't hear the doors at all, nor did he hear her footsteps. He was too enthralled in the wonderful, lovely, alluring taste of hot chocolate passing over his taste buds. When the datapad hit the table, Popo jumped slightly and choked a bit on the chocolate drink.

He pulled the mug away as quickly as possible while making sure not to spill the hot chocolate and set it on the table beside him. The Hutt gave a quick nod at Alyesa as he tried to clear his throat from nearly inhaling the hot beverage.

"Miss Praxton," he managed to get out between attempts to clear his throat. "I'm so glad you could come. I'd like to borrow your help on a project of mine."

Popo started gathering a few files, heedless of the large, fluffy, white, whipped cream mustache on his upper lip.

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Popo"] [member="Alyesa Praxon"]

It was no secret Vaudin Miir had a past filled with less than legal activities, it was also no secret those activities involved piracy. He had spent years as an engineer on the Frigate called The Flying Huttsman and was made a captain of a frigate of his own after the pirate band had grown rich. Long story short, Vaudin had spent more time in the belly of a ship than he had with his feet dirt side.

He walked along dress more like a professional gambler than a senator but this was not a senate hall this was a private meeting and so he wore his black boots and trousers along with a white shirt and engineering vest. His long Iktotchi horns framed his sharp featured face as he walked to the door and hit the code to enter. Leave it to Popo to have a number code that read "Dance for Popo." When letters were appiled, dirt old Hutt.

Vaudin walked in to see a woman he had yet to meet and his supreme Huttiness Popo sitting at a table with stacks of various items for the planning. His grey eyes squinted as he walked up and he produced a pair of old reading lenses then took a seat.

"Well I'm here." He said pulling out his datapad and stylus, "where do we start?"

 

[Long Gone]

Alyesa raised an eyebrow as she looked up from her datapad and to the Supreme Chancellor, a sigh escaped her lips as she turned back to the schematics and chuckled softly, her index finger coming to tap her upper lip.

"Chuba Tchu whip cream Un Maskey" She tapped it softly with a smile before going back to speaking Basic. "If you wanted a real mustache, I think they have transplants for that you know?" She quickly flipped the datapad down and slid it across the table towards the large Hutt, various schematics flipping across the screen as it went sliding effortlessly towards him. It would slide gently to a halt infront of him, of course, the schematics would be browsable once the Chancellor was able to clean himself up.

Her gaze shifted over to [member="Vaudin Miir"] as he took a seat and then to the door, she could hear the soft hissing as the room sealed itself and the soft clicking of motivators activating to engage obviously privacy screens. This definitely was going to be interesting.

[member="Popo"]

 

[Popo]

Popo's eyes widened slightly and he snagged a napkin from nearby to wipe his lip. The Supreme Chancellor of the Republic with a whipped cream mustache. It was almost as bad as the time his secretary had walked in to find the Hutt singing along and dancing to the radio with a mop on his head, lip-synching along with the female singer in the song that was playing. Thankfully, that hadn't got out to the media, otherwise that could get... awkward.

Popo nodded to [member="Vaudin Miir"] and [member="Alyesa Praxon"] as he picked up some folders and held them in his hand. He knew the datapad was on the table, but he knew most of Incom's work by heart already, which was why he'd called Praxon in. What he didn't know, he could browse in a minute. Miir was a different story. Popo didn't know for sure of the man's past, but knew enough from his days in the Cartel. Miir might not have a company brand to his name or a book with his autograph on it, but the man knew ships and the man knew them well. The two of them would do the job nicely, the Hutt felt.

"Long and short, nothing leaves this room," Popo said, remotely sealing the door from his spot at the table. "This is, for the moment, top secret. Nothing in, nothing out. Understood?"

 

[Long Gone]

“I don’t see why anything would, no one from the intelligence briefing is present, so I believe we’re fine.” She said with a grin on her face as she looked to the Supreme Chancellor. Her hands came up to the table, clasping together tightly as she leaned back in the Corellian leather chair. It was rather comfortable, of course she wouldn't expect anything less from someone like [member="Popo"], he spared no expense when it came to ensuring his loyal Senators were comfortable and what not.

Of course, he also spared no expense ensuring that traitors were dealt with accordingly too and the Republic was well guarded. This had to be with the latter of the two, as the look on his face wasn't grim enough.

“What exactly is this about Chancellor?”

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Popo"] [member="Alyesa Praxon"]

"Understood." Vaudin said simply as he spied some designs that looked like ship systems.

Vaudin sat up in his chair and looked over at the Hutt. Je leaned on the table with his forarms and folded his hands on top of each other.

"What are you up to you swarthy thing you?" Vaudin prodded.

He gave a typical scoundrel's grin as he looked at the woman and back to Popo.

 

[Popo]

Popo set a pair of folders on the table, one for each Senator. Within held the general requirements, needs, and design basics that the project required.

"The Republic-class," the Hutt said. "A ship measuring three kilometers in length and designed to act as the shield and sword of the Republic. There are two planned and only two will be built as of right now. The problem is, we don't have something to power such a ship. Today's session and project is to create a power plant that will power the Republic-class entirely. As you can see, the power output requirement is very high. Theoretically, we will need four reactors."

[member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Alyesa Praxon"]

 

[Long Gone]

"I see.." She said as she opened the folder and began spreading out the different schematics. "And what about Engines and repulsor technology..." She looked over the engine designs, they were fairly simple considering the request, minus the tweaks here and there for output. She would stand and bring her engineering pad back over to the design layouts and begin inputting calculations based off the schematics that [member="Popo"] had handed her. "You do realize if you maneuver this piping her, or adjust the coolant ratio to that reactor at this level..." She punched in a few more digits and then lifted the pad to show the Supreme Chancellor. "You can increase the engine output by another 4% at best."

 

[Popo]

"What about repulsor tech?" the Hutt asked, curious. "As for the engine restructuring, your math checks out. That would make it more efficient and produce that level of power, perhaps more."

The Hutt nodded once and scratched at his chin for a moment.

"The thing is, these reactors need to be fairly safe and resilient to use. That said, I'd like to be able to max them out when needed. Red-Line them, so to speak. I expect it'll push the limits of the things to the safety boundaries, if not beyond, but having an emergency power output for, well... Emergencies would be invaluable."

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Long Gone]

"If I may then Chancellor..." She took a moment to examine the schematics again and then her datapad, she manipulated some screens quickly and began crunching numbers and schematics. A few minutes later, she would spin the datapad back around and slide it infront of the Supreme Chancellor.

"Introducing, the QualMass Generator." She took a deep breath and began running through the schematics that the Supreme Chancellor introduced as well as ones to which she had stored. "This will optimize the Reactor output by 23%, of course you'd have to have them coupled and stacked around the primary reactor." She made a motion to each individual generator. "The process would be the same as if you had eight or nine main reactors, instead you'd only need four main reactors and 8 generators." She made another slide come across the datapad. "Another perk of these generators is they have a defensive capability..." She walked away from the datapad and moved to the holo-projector screen. She quickly thumbed the activation screen, a blue holoscreen of a vessel appeared in the center of the room, basking the room in an eerie glow.

Alyesa grabbed a laser pen from the table and motioned towards various points of the hull which highlighted. "If you suddenly had boarders, attempting to attach themselves to the vessel..." She pointed towards the aft section of the vessel. "The 15-20 QualMass Generators would be able to used to discharge an electric current through the hull of the vessel and essentially fry anything attached to the vessel..." She hesitated for a moment. "But you would need those generators just to be dedicated to that function..."

"So, I would say sacrifice cargo space in order to accommodate a defensive feature as such but then again, this is your project Supreme Chancellor."

[member="Popo"]

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] [member="Popo"]

Vaudin listened as the other two discussed the possibilities of the large capital ship. It would be hard to reduce cargo capacity on a ship of the size and maintain it's ability to sustain the crew for long flights and battles. He looked it over once more and nodded at the number and the ideas thus far. The generators were a good idea and it could certainly work but the space needed was the trouble.

"I've got nothing at the moment but a ship that size could use the same power plant of an average city hooked up to ion drives with probably very little effort." Vaudin reached out and picked up a glass of complimentary water and took a sip, "Stories on the hyper lanes is that the old empire powered their big eight kay ships and death star with a power plant the size of a backpack. I'm sure we can find a way to increase output and decrease space on a pair of good reactors, with smaller dedicated reactors for the shielding and SLAM."

Vaudin looked up.

"But that's just me thinking out loud here folks."

 

[Popo]

"How would that defensive system keep from frying all external sensors and guns, Senator Praxon-Organa?" the Hutt asked as he perused the data offered.

Popo looked at Vaudin a moment and nodded once.

"Yes, I remember when I was very young there were stories of such a thing. That was before the plague, though," the Hutt stated with a slight shrug. "What we have to work with here, though, is something powerful enough to move a ship of this size and mass, power the shields, and power the guns all at the same time. On top of that, as Senator Miir pointed out, this ship needs to be able to boost its speed, if only for a few minutes. The concept is a ship that can dart forward when gaps in the enemy formations are detected or made. Pry apart the enemy lines, as it were."

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Long Gone]

She took a deep breath and pointed to various points. "It all depends on where they land. It can be a concentrated system, the hull can be layered with the components needed to generate the current, and should they land on Point A, B, or C." She pointed at three dots on the hull. "Then you can fire three seperate salvos in a concentrated area without damaging systems that already have been compromised potentially."

She shrugged lightly. "This is the mere development for future purposes of integration Supreme Chancellor, the QualMass themselves don't have to have that feature right now." She shrugged again and sat back down. "We are wanting to be able to maximize output of a ship, you use these Generators ontop of the Reactor, I promise you, you'll barely go in the yellow at full shields and all weapons systems engaged."

"All you're talking is eliminating some cargo space, we don't need to be hauling much cargo with us, do we?" She raised the laser pen between her hands as the room lit back up. "So the ship will still be faster and lighter than you're thinking."

[member="Popo"], [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Popo]

"Hmmm... sounds a bit complicated to me," Popo said with a slight frown. "We'd have to route that power to the hull somehow and those reactors would take up weight and space. Cargo capacity I can deal with, at least to a point. The Republic-class isn't going to be an expeditionary vessel or a long range attack ship, so having years of supplies on board isn't necessary, but I'd rather have the supplies and not need them than need them and not have them."

Popo scratched his chin as he looked over the reactors, a decision finally made.

"Tell you what," he started out. "With four hypermatter reactors, we should have plenty of power. However, I like your tech idea for the QualMass reactors you have here. That said, they're not really able to produce the spiked power output needed for that speed boost. Plus I'm not sure how it'll not fry the systems on the hull as yet. For now, we'll leave them off. However, we'll leave space on the schematics and make sure that we have enough design room to add them later as an upgrade, mainly because I like the idea, but with a ship this size it'll probably require a very specialized installation. In short, we aren't putting them on with the initial design, but once appropriate materials come together and we can get a specialized QualMass Reactor in order for these ships ready, we can install it. I can fund the program as well. I should have some credits slotted for R&D somewhere I can allocate to the project. Help speed it along."

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Long Gone]

"I think Incom has some spare credits left from Research and Development into the Stealth X that we can afford to dump into this, as you know if the Republic fails...well..." She trailed off and motioned with her hands idly before turning back to the schematics and gathering up a few documents for later use. She would ensure that she saved the QualMass Generator schematics for deployment whenever the Supreme Chancellor was ready for them...

For now, she would be curious to see what his true intentions were for this design as a whole. He had sent her that odd message when she was in the shower the other day...

 

[Popo]

"The Republic will not fall," Popo said sternly, tapping a Hutt-sized finger on the table as emphasis. "We will hold out and we will retaliate. Only one shall stand and I'll be damned if it isn't the Republic."

Popo picked up a sheaf of papers and handed one each to the two Senators.

"How do these safety parameters look? Hypermatter tends to catastrophically fail quite... spectacularly. I'm thinking with these failsafes, safety measures, and some redundancy built in that we don't have to worry about the ship going up in vapor if something misfires. Thoughts?

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

 

[Long Gone]

"Personally, I see no issues with the failsafes." She nodded softly. "I do however, believe you need to tighten up security at different stages and also at the entryways of the rooms themselves." She motioned with her hand idly. "I'd rather not have a sabatour or someone who is hell bent on seeing our mighty ships go down in flames or the Republic go down in flames be able to do so by flipping a simple switch because we overlooked something, you know?" She would say with a smile as she turned to look back at @Popo. "Other than that, I believe we're on the right track."

 

[Popo]

"Maybe an emergency shut down sequence?" Popo asked as he glanced at the data. "Or perhaps more checkpoints? I'd rather avoid a 'one way in, one way out' type of situation. That could cause problems if the entryway is damaged or taken."

The Hutt pulled up more data and plans, setting them on the table.

"The fuel supply will be somewhat larger than normal. I'm actually debating on whether or not we should remove most of the hangar space and use the vacant area for fuel storage. Maybe an emergency blowout vent? A sort of way to vent all of the fuel in the reactors in the event of a reactor failure? Just another failsafe idea I just had."

[member="Alyesa Praxon-Organa"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]