To set the cause above the Renown (invite only)

[Gir Quee]

Bridge, Arendal-class Heavy Cruiser Arendal, outskirts of the Skuumaa System

Deep within the vast structure of the Arendal, Lieutenant Lod stood next to General Quee at the edge of the holo-tanks, watching holo-graphic rocks tumble around the general's little flotilla. Occasionally, one of 1st Beta Line's weapons emitted a brief, brilliant light. Milliseconds later, an asteroid would explode, blanketing its immediate with a cloud of dust. Gir shook his head and turned the duros.

“I don't remember getting the station in here being this hard,” said the blonde man with a sigh.

“That's because you weren't here for it,” reminded a familiar voice behind him.

Gir turned to the newly promoted Captain Herson and let a smile across his face, “It didn't seem that hard in the reports. Well, at least clearing a path out of here should provide some good gunnery practice for our crews.”

Lod shook his elongated head, “It's too bad the next one had to be bigger...ah, bigger sir, I mean...”

“Don't worry about it Lieutenant,” said Gir quietly, “I know what you mean.”

“Are you going to take command of that one too, once she's complete?” smirked Herson.

“I'm not planing on it,” mused General Quee, “I haven't even had a chance to completely break the Arendal in...still have that new ship smell...”

“You're just too good at your job, General,” said Herson, “that's all.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Several hours passed before the flotilla was able to completely clear and maintain a path large enough for Rogers One to clear the asteroid belt. Gir stood at the edge of the Arendal's holo-projector, watching a motley array of tugs latch onto the station with a mixture of tow cables, tractor beams, and several devices that Gir was not familiar with. Captain Herson walked up next to him and handed him a datapad. Gir glanced up at the lanky man.

“What's this?”

“That thing we talked about earlier in your cabin.”

“Ah...thanks captain. I'll...”

“...take a look at it later,” finished Herson, “I understand. Looks like the operation is going well.”

“By the book,” remarked Gir quietly, rubbing the datapad's case.

“Sir, you could go back to your cabin, if you would like,” said Herson, “I can handle this part while you review its contents before sending it off to high command.”

“Thank you for the suggestion Captain,” said Gir, “but I'll stay here for the moment. I'll be at my station though, working on it. I would appreciate it if you observed the towing operation, just in case...”

“Yes sir.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Gir strode up the chairs to his command chair, wondering if perhaps it would have been if he had lobbied for more of a flat or traditional corellian-style bridge. A brief spout of cool, recycled air washed over him as he plopped down into his chair. He spared a glance at the main holo-projector, but the operation seemed to be proceeding just as it had been planned. The lead tug had just ignited its engines, straining to pull the station like a bantha attached to a desert skiff. Gir turned his sapphire blue eyes to the datapad and plugged it into his console.

A holo-graph shot up in front of him, showing big, blocky characters of Aurebesh in blue-outlined characters. Gir clicked several buttons on the display's controls, shrinking the text so he could read it a bit more privately. He scrawled through it all, rewrote several sections, and attached several still holos taken by the survey ships right before the current operation. After encrypting the message, he sent the file off to the communications center, where the report would routed through several networks before it would arrive at its destination at the sector headquarters.

“Sir, the birds are ready to launch,” informed a wrinkly, aging bothan.

“Thank you, Arr'kya,” replied Gir, “you may launch them when ready.”

“Yes sir.”

The general turned his attention back to his terminal. A brief little pop-up at the edge of his screen announced that Mustang Seven and Eight has just launched. He immediately dismissed that notification to look at another one. I've got to take this. Quee punched a button on his terminal, pulling up a holo-feed of large, aging man. Gir let a smile blossom across his face.

“How's life aboard the station, Terrik?”

The other man snorted, “You know what it's like. It's a mess. But that's not why I called...”

 

[Gir Quee]

Terrik explained his concerns to Gir, but only after the general had rerouted the audio feed to his headset. It almost felt comical to Gir, the big man in front of him with the tiny voice emanating through his ear piece. But he managed to keep a stoic face while the other man listed out his concerns. Gir could only shake his head at the end of it.

“I don't have any real authority over that part of the project,” said Gir quietly, “that's more political than anything else. Are you sure you can't get along with her? She's got great credentials and a list of impressive projects, including participation in the Arcadia project, underneath her belt...”

“Once was enough for me...”

“I can't help you there, Randy, she's already at the other construction site, already hard at work, or so I'm told,” said the general, leaning back in his chair, “we'll just have to work with it. Give it the best that you can, and I'll see what I can do to make sure that it's productive. If I can keep the two of you separate, I will. But Randy, I've got a lot on my hands already between the defense of the fleet, and keeping the project on track. I don't need you butting skulls with her on everything. If you stick to your lane, I'll make sure that she sticks to her's. Sound fair?”

Terrik grimaced, “I'll give it a shot, general. I owe you that much.”

“Good,” said Gir, “I'm not saying that your assessment of her is wrong, I'm just saying that I don't like to act on such things until I have personal experience. Fair?”

Terrik nodded.

Gir nodded in turn, “All right, Terrik, I have to get back to bridge ops, before they wreck your bedroom with an asteroid.”

That at least brought a small smile to the big man's face, “You do that.”

 

[Gir Quee]

“Sounds like you have another collision to worry about,” said Herson, eying a large asteroid tumbling towards the flotilla.

Gir shook his head, just as pair of ruby red bolts slammed into the asteroid, blasting it apart, “The joys of command. Terriki's a good man and solid worker, but he can be a bit more stubborn about his ideas than I'd like...”

Herson spared a glance at the general, “You're upset because someone has strong beliefs?”

A frown flickered across his face, “I'm upset because it doesn't look like the foundations of good teamwork.”

“I haven't heard that ideology since my academy days...”

Gir snorted, “As much as I dislike parts of that philosophy, it's proving to be annoyingly true. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad that Terrik has viewpoints and ideas of his own, it's when the conflict comes that bothers me...have you heard anything about this Glith?”

“Um...she's a quarren female if I remember a certain sailor's comments the other day who wears expensive clothes...”

The general ruefully shook his head, “I meant on a professional side...”

“Not much of anything, it's kind of odd I guess. I know she's up there in smarts...but I can't say anything that she's done.”

“Most of her things have been pretty hush-hush,” observed the man from Hast, “I'm not sure if it's because they're all pretty secret, or if there just isn't anything there.”

“Aside from some political patronage.”

Gir shook his head, “Possible, but I don't know of any, not that Salmakk's mentioned at least.”

“You talked to him about her?”

The general nodded. Herson tilted his head to side and stared at the general intently.

“And?”

Gir briefly blushed, “Well, he didn't know much of anything either. I knew more about her just from the briefing packet where they give a short little intro bio of everyone in the directory.”

“Weird,” observed Herson, turning his gaze back to the holoimage of the little Republic flotilla, “but it's not that Glith is some magical or mythical person. There has to be a reason behind it all.”

“I guess we'll see soon enough,” said Gir, glancing at his wrist chrono, “we're about twenty minutes away from the other station...I'm going to freshen up before I meet the other station and their people. You have the bridge, captain.”

“Yes sir.”

 

[Gir Quee]

The boxy hull of the Arendal edged through space, guiding the rest of 1st Beta Line as well as Rogers One through a less dense area of the system's Oort belt. In the bridge of the Arendal, Gir intently watched the holoimage of a slightly denser area of the belt ahead of them. Captain Herson picked out a n artificial object and promptly zoomed in on it. It grew fuzzy before inexplicably resolving itself to a well-defined image of an old, boxy factory station. Herson glanced at the general.

“I take it that's our destination? When did they move that station here? It wasn't here for the first survey...”

“No,” said Gir, sparing a glance at the lanky man, “it wasn't. They moved it about a week ago. The intent is to have that station, Kost One, build most of the parts, while Rogers One assembles them in the dockyard into a working ship.”

“Actually building the whole thing here then?”

“It's really the only way,” said the general, “the Renown-class is too large to not attract any attention, and unlike the Arendal, it's a fresh design not built on a merchant ship hull.”

“I didn't think it was that far along in the process to have everything figured out...”

“It isn't,” replied Gir, “but the core design of the vessel of the reactor, engines, and living quarters has been approved, and they'll continue developing everything else around that as construction continues. I forget what that exact concept is called...”

“Daring.”

“Or desperate,” said the General quietly, “I don't think they really wanted to build it this way, but the loss of Rendili and Kuat has pushed them to rush it into design. I'd be willing to bet that the original design team is still working on their own ideas, even as our own finishes it...”

“So there could be two Renown-classes?”

“That's a whole another political furball,” said Gir, “I don't think the ship we're building here will be called the Renown, I think it'll end up being called something else.”

“Like what?”

Gir shrugged, “I don't know. I've heard a couple of suggestions, such as the Defender, Regade, Swift-class...”

“Do you have a favorite name in the running?”

The man from Hast shook his head, “Not yet.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Kostos One, Skuumaa System

A wave of warm air washed over General Quee and and his retinue as the hangar access doors flashed open. He felt eyes upon him immediately as he entered the station, but one figure stood out to him. A green-eyed gaze immediately met his own as Randy Terrik fell in beside him. Gir glanced surreptiously and almost sighed.

“Is something wrong already?” questioned Gir quietly.

“Yes and no.”

“I dislike ambiguous answers about as much as I dislike Sith...”

“The overall situation is good, but Glith has already dictated production orders for parts of the design that you haven't seen yet.”

Gir raised an eyebrow, “But parts of the design that have been approved by the Fleet?”

“No.”

“No?” said Gir.

The man from Hast almost rocked back on his heels, running against the flow of the corridor. Gir turned his eyes back into Terrik's to gaze the overall severity of that infraction. He knew the man well enough to read him to a degree. It's bad enough to be a legitimate gripe, but...but it could be that anything that Glith does could lead to some exaggerated feelings...perhaps more of a polarizing figure? The general quickly strode forward to recover the lost momentum of his abrupt if brief stop.

“Where is Glith?”

“The briefing room, along with everyone else.”

“I'll talk to her after the general briefing then,” decided Gir, “thank you for letting me know.”

“Yes sir.”

Terrik pealed off from the group of military officers, but Gir still gazed at the man as he disappeared to enter the briefing room through another door. Doesn't want to be seen with me...that's defensive looking. The man shook the thoughts away. I don't have the time to think about this now. The doors whisked ahead of him, admitting him into a two-tiered briefing room whose center was occupied by a pair of holo-projectors. A pair of blue, rotating Republic crests hovered above the projectors, but a single figured stood in between them. Gir noted her race and exquisite clothing before drawing a conclusion: That's probably Glith...He strode towards her and stretched out a hand towards her.

“General Quee, project lead,” greeted Gir.

The woman grasped it, “Glith, master engineer for the Renown II project.”

Gir almost froze. That's not a position I was aware of...He'd have to double-check all the documents now, just to make sure that she was that, or if he had overlooked some amendatory document on the long list of updates in his latest set of orders. Gir forced a brief smile on his face.

“Well master engineer, I'll see you after the briefing, we have some items to go over.”

“Yes General.”

 

[Gir Quee]

“This isn't up for discussion,” said Gir slowly.

The conference room was now empty, save for two other people besides the General. Gir's blue eyes turned from Glith and then to Terrik. Terrik managed to hide any pleasure he felt at Gir's rebuttal, but the man from Hast found the quarren to be completely unreadable. It'll be awhile before I'm able to fully read her expressions. The female cocked her head to the side.

“But the sensor array is the only one available on a mass scale that will meet the fleet's requirements and preferences.”

“I don't like being bypassed on this,” replied the general, “that, not the actual sensor array chosen, is the issue. What if they had changed the core requirements, and you were unaware of it because I hadn't informed you of that?”

“Well, it would be a simple change...”

“Then by the same logic,” said Quee, “it's not going to hurt to wait for my authorization. The fact is that Terrik has proposed an idea to me for the design that I am considering, and it involves the sensor array's output and input compatibility with another computer system. I would like to make sure that the two systems can communicate with each other. If not, we're either going to have to find a slightly less powerful sensor that still fulfills the basic requirements, but not the fleet's preferences.”

“And if we can get this other system to be compatible with the chosen system...”

“That will be fine, in this case,” said Gir, “let me back up a bit. We're just getting started, and we're used to working in different ways. So for the moment, until we fully get to understand how the basics of each us likes to work, let's over-communicate, so to speak. I'd rather you tell me about something than not, even if it's the inspiration you got from eating at the cafeteria today. Now with that said, Terrik, why don't you talk about the system that's going to link up with the ship's sensors.”

Gir's gaze turned to observe the man. From personal experience, he could see the man's hesitation between those green eyes. But Randy quickly shrugged to cover up his discomfort.

“Well, after studying the recent Battle of Prakith with Commo-, I mean...General Quee, we came to conclusion that a spinal-mounted weapon is a frequent limitation in a lot of recent designs. Some ships were too slow when it came to tracking opponents with such big weapons, while other ships had to move themselves, and thus take their gun off the target, and consequently loss most of their firepower in the process, so I thought we'd revisit a really old Republic concept that dealt with this same problem...”

 

[Gir Quee]

“The Scythe?” questioned Glith curiously, “you want to base it on that old thing?”

“Yes,” stated Gir, “but with a more moderated cross of fire.”

Terrik briefly cleared his throat, “The general is not convinced that putting all of the weapons in the cross of the fire is best idea. So only about half with on the forward blade, while the rest will be located throughout the hull in a normal star destroyer-like design.”

Glith seemed to ponder the thought, “So you're assuming that the ST2x targeting computers plugged into a series of DERs will be equal to the original cross of fire of the Scythe?”

“No,” replied Gir, “the exact precision technology that they used has been lost to us. The few examples we have found in the archives show a lot of modifications, likely just to keep them in some sort of operation. But the principle remains the same, just as it has throughout all of warfare.”

“Concentrating fire on the weakest point found by the networked DERs, to get the most bang for buck of the turbolasers,” said Terrik, “probably not even close to the scythe's punch, but enough to be equivalent to some of the spinal-mounted weapons we're starting to see a lot of.”

Glith glanced down at the rough wire frame of the new ship and made eye contact with them, “You know that this design will not be as strong in providing firepower in a vertical plane compared to other ships.”

Gir nodded, “Only a little over a quarter of the ship's firepower up and down.”

“The general and I talked about slanting the blade to allow more of the guns to shoot upwards, but it would interfere with hangars that will be occupying the blade.”

Glith rotated the model, “I suppose you'll have more guns be able to fire from the rear of the ship as well, given that all of the blade weapons are mounted on the edges of the blade.”

“But they still have a blindspot if a smaller ship gets in at just the right angle,” sighed Gir, “but no design is perfect. It'll likely have to be deployed with an escort vessel too given that it won't have a huge fighter complement or point defenses...”

Terrik nodded, “The bane of all assault-type designs...”

 

[Gir Quee]

“That looks hideous,” observed Herson, “is that before or after an Immortal crashes into it?”

Gir felt a smirk jump across his face. In the commander's quarters, the two men watched the holoimage of the proposed warship slowly rotate around its central axis. Most of the vessel looked like a boxy star destroyer, not too far away from a Nebula-class Star Destroyer in size and shape, except for its bow. A pair of raked, massive superstructures rose up the tip of bow. The “blade” wasn't as elegant as the Scythes, and Terrik frequently compared it more to the bow of a Rendili Hammerhead-class frigate. Gir had to admit, it did look like that, except it was more ugly. The man from Hast shook his head and tapped a button on his comlink, halting the image's rotation before the image began to transition into something else.

“Unfortunately, that's the before picture,” said Gir, “it might look better if someone rammed it...but looks aren't everything here.”

The image turned to the current view of the warship, a skeletal frame of mirrsteel with a bulky main reactor in the rear set just against the ship's massive engine block. A myriad of droids, shuttles, and an army of vaccuum-suited workers swarmed the incomplete warship. There were shifts working around the clock, and the new ship was still on schedule for its construction surprisingly enough, yet Gir felt uncomfortable.

And Herson knew it.

The captain shook his head, “I'm assuming I'm not here for the defenses task list you sent me...”

Gir shook his head. While the general had taken up to managing the project and marshalling resources, he had delegated most of his military responsibilities to Herson, including the arrangement of several minefields and the local roving patrols. But it had been quiet. There was very few reasons for anyone to visit the unihabitanted Skuumaa system these days, except on Republic business.

“No, it's about the crew for the Steadfast.”

“It has a name now?” said Herson, tilting his head.

A slow smile crept across his face, “You didn't hear that, and it's completely unofficial, but that's what it looks like it's going to be. They need training.”

“Uh-oh...”

“That's right,” said Gir, “you'll be involved with this. It won't be hard. Some of the gunnery teams will be doing practical rotations through the Arendal and the Audacious, since several of the weapons systems are similar.”

“We don't have a cross of fire.”

“Not every weapon on the Steadfast is in the cross of fire.”

“Fair point.”

Gir handed him a datapad, “This is the proposed training schedule. The gunnery crews are being housed in the station right now, so it'll be a quick shuttle hop to the other vessels.”

Herson shook his head as he looked at the datapad, “Only gunnery crews here? No-one else?”

“Power and engineering,” said Gir, “are already onboard the Steadfast. They have their quarters right next to the main reactor, so they're already getting the training and practice on the actual ship itself. No, I have the gunnery crews here already because I intend to have several of the weapons systems operational soon. That way, if the Sith do find us here, the Steadfast will have some defenses of her own while we escape...”

 

[Gir Quee]

Some time had passed before Gir stood in the navigation bridge of the Steadfast, watching the bridge crew and their instructors conduct practical training. His eyes wandered around. The general found it an almost too traditional arrangement, with a command walkway separating several lower crew pits where most of the bridge crew worked. Perhaps it was because it reminded the man of the old Imperial ideology with its tiered hierarchy; it did seem to be a miniature version of the bridge found on the ancient Imperator-class star destroyers and even some more recent Kuat Drive Yards designs. He felt a shudder ripple through his body at the thought. Are we really becoming more like them, or is just practical science that dictates this design when the ship is this large...it is efficient, or so they say. But the Steadfast, like some more recent Republic designs, maintained a full battle bridge deep within the ship's heavily armored carapace, where the ship would be run in a battle. It was a more secure facility, though he found it rather obnoxious to work in due to its lack of viewports and more claustrophobic and cramped interior. A voice beckoned from behind him interrupted his thoughts.

“There you are, sir.”

Gir turned to face Captain Herson. The lanky man led a small contingent of the Steadfast's new crew. The general glanced over them all but found that he did not recognize them. Well, there's always more of them coming aboard every day as the ship nears completion. Herson cleared his throat.

“Troops, your official commanding officer, General Quee,” informed Herson, “sir, may I present to you the DER pit crew of the Steadfast.”

“It's a pleasure to meet you all,” said Quee, making eye contact with each of them, “has Captain Herson been treating you well so far?”

There was a bunch of nodding, and a little mumbling of agreement, but few solid words. Rank must still be intimidating them a bit. That's not unusual though with an unknown superior. He shrugged off their lackluster response even as Herson met his eyes.

“We're about to go see the DER pit.”

Gir blinked, “They have working it now?”

“Glith figured out the glitch a half hour ago. She said it should be fixed by the time we get there.”

“I will join you all for this,” said Gir, turning his gaze back to the crewmen, “you have one of the more interesting jobs of this starship, and maybe one of the more important ones when it comes to battle...”

 

[Gir Quee]

The group navigated through a motley array of yard workers, construction droids, marines, and sailors as they strolled down several corridors to the main turbolift lobby of the bridge tower. Gir warily eyed several of the laser traps which helped control access to the room. But the automated blasters did nothing. Herson inserted his code cylinder into a data-port, which briefly rotated the device before releasing it again into his hands. Gir eyed all of the DER crewmembers.

“I see that all of you have been issued your code cylinders. Don't ever forget them,” said the man from Hast, “at best, you won't get far within this ship without them. At worse, one of those turrets up there might decide to light you up. If that happens, you're going to have a bad time.”

A brief chime announced that the lift car had arrived. The group shuffled into the car before it sped away towards the bow of the ship. He turned to face Herson as the rest of the crew began to chit-chat among themselves.

“Was Terrik with Glith when she fixed the pit?”

Herson shook his head, “No, why? Have they been fighting again?”

“No, but I wanted to make sure we weren't about to walk in on any...oh...situational difficulties.”

Herson ruefully shook his head, “I suppose you can't always just tell civilians what to do.”

Gir nodded, “Something like that. Or rather, it just seems to take longer...”

“And with more effort on your part.”

The car stopped, after traveling almost two-thirds of the ship. Another chime announced that the front doors were opening, admitting the crew into yet another lift lobby guarded by marines and laser traps. Several of the marines straightened up at the general's approach, but he quickly dismissed any formalities with the wave of a hand. The group wound through several corridors and a stairwell before nearing the Steadfast's DER pit. The blast door in front of them whisked open to reveal a circular amphitheater-like room, with holoimages of sensor readouts projected against its white walls. A jump-suit figure rose from one of the desks to approach them.

“General Quee,” said Glith, “I take it Herson told you that I got it working again?”

Gir nodded, “What was it?”

“Minor chip compatibility issue, but I fixed it by using an older driver. I guess the latest update is a little buggy still.”

Herson shook his head, “Running a new ship on outdated technology? Sounds about right...”

“If it works...” started Glith.

“That remains to be seen,” said Gir quietly, turning around to face the rest of the crew, “go ahead and man your stations. Start going over the basic diagnostics and run a few scans yourself. If there's anything not working, let me know, and I'll try to get it fixed as soon as possible. After that, we'll run a simulation.”

 

[Gir Quee]

"Well I'd say that went well,” said Herson, watching the last of the DER crew exit through the doors.

Gir nodded in agreement. The simulations had gone almost flawlessly, except the time it took for them to complete the targeting process, but he guessed that was something they'd get better with practice. Herson strolled over to a holo-projector and flipped it on once more watching the simulated turbolaser batteries of the Steadfast converge onto a distant target before turning it into dust.

“Is this really going to work as well as it did in the simulations?”

“It should,” said Gir, “the ancient Galactic Empire pioneered it on a much larger scale with their torpedo spheres. You find a weak point or a fluctuation somewhere in the shield, and hit it with everything you got. With so many weapons being in the Steadfast's blade, the converging strike should enough to simulate the effects of one of those so-called spinal weapons, not unlike a proton beam.”

“It's got to have all of the weapons hitting that weak point it at the same time then, I take it.”

Gir nodded, “Fire will have to slacken for a bit before all of the guns are realigned to hit that one point. It goes without saying this is really only going to be effective on bigger targets, like heavy cruisers and the like, as a lot of smaller ships will simply be too fast for all of the guns to accurately track at once. The converging attack more or less has the same strengths and weakness of any normal spinal-mounted weapon.”

“Except it doesn't have to just be a spinal weapon,” said Herson, “I'm assuming they can fire just like normal long-range turbolasers?”

Gir nodded, “This is true. We're going to have to take into consider one other thing, and that's the converging nature of the attack means that it be blocked more easily too. It won't be too hard for them to employ screens of smaller craft or dovin basals to independently block each of the turbolaser's beams before they join up. But tradeoffs have to be made everywhere in life.”

“I'd wager that's something that no amount of technology can fix.”

“No,” agreed the general, “that'll have to come down to the commander's discretion...”

 

[Gir Quee]

“Let's start 'er up,” said the crew chief below him.

Gir stood at the command walkway of the Steadfast, overlooking the massive hull of the warship through the bridge viewport. He found the newly completed 'blade' of the warship to be an irritating eyesore to the vista that he normally enjoyed from such a viewpoint, but he supposed that wasn't high on the design priorities list. Lieutenant Lod strolled up from behind him.

“Ah, sir...”

Gir turned to face the duros, “Yes?”

“Captain Herson is about to leave the Steadfast for the Arendal.”

“I see.”

“Were you going to see him off, sir?”

Gir shook his head, “We talked at lunchtime. The matter is now settled, but thanks for reminding me.”

A voice rose up from the crewpit, “General Quee, all systems are go. We can move whenever you'd like.”

General Quee nodded, “Helmsman, take us away and follow the Arendal's lead.”

“Aye sir.”

The bridge crew's volume began to increase as docking clamps were released from Rogers One and various last minute communications were made with the same station. For the first time, Gir could feel the whine of the engines vibrating through the polished decks. The stars around him began to move as the Steadfast's lateral thrusters pushed the ship away from the slipway. Ahead of them, the Arendal's bright blue thrusters flared as it lead the rest of the 1st Beta Line away from the Oort belt. Gir paced down to hover over the helmsman station and the nearby engineering stations.

“How are we looking Krieg?”

“Good sir. It just feels like we're running all of the sims and tests again, not like the real thing, if you know what I mean sir.”

Gir nodded, “It almost does seem unreal after being stationary for this long. If you, or anyone else gets the feel that something's not 100%, let me know.”

“Yes sir.”

 

[Gir Quee]

General Quee strolled down the walkway with Lieutenant Lod in tow. Occasionally, he would stop and peer down to observe one of the station's below. It felt a little awkward to the man, being so invasive or even stalkerish, yet he wanted to see firsthand how the ship's controls and her crewmembers were working in a real life situation. So far, everything seemed to be running smoothly, which was more than what he could say when had launched the Arendal. The man from Hast reached the end of the walkway and glanced up through the transparisteel viewport to see the black ocean of space. His gaze faltered and swept down the rows of weapons mounted on the ship's hull. He pivoted on his feet.

"Weapons, give me a test of all of the weapons, starting with the highest and moving downwards."

"Targets sir?" questioned a voice rising up from the crew pit.

"Asteroids or simulated, whichever. I just want to make sure all of our weapons are functional before we get too far out."

"Yes sir."

If he had learned anything from the Arendal project, it had been quality control from the start. Hopefully this time around, they wouldn't have any weapons malfunctions, especially after the weapons had been inspected by their crews and the contractors. A cascade of bright ruby bolts erupted from the sides of the vessel, and the general could even see the long-range turbolasers mounted in the ship's blade lash out at even distant targets. After a few seconds, the guns fell silent. Gir cleared his throat.

"Any malfunctions?"

"Negative sir."

"Continue with the drill then."

"Aye sir."

A smaller number of mass driver cannons began to fire. And again, there were no malfunctions this time. The warhead launchers were tested, then the various point defense weapons. But nothing malfunctioned. That, combined with the ship's cruise, made him feel relatively secure about the ship's spaceworthiness. Gir turned to face Lieutenant Lod.

"You have the datapad?"

"Yes, here sir," said the duros, handing it to him.

Gir scrolled down the pre-typed letter and signed his name at the bottom with the stylus, certifying that the ship was fully operational within the Republic Navy. He tapped a button, transmitting the letter to the ship's communication's center, where it would be rerouted through a secure network to the local Fleet headquarters until it reached the highest echelons of the Admiralty office. One more down...