Unlimited Power

[Laira Darkhold]

ArmaTech’s headquarters was in a state of disarray. Benji had moved things around and had taken over the vehicle bay as a new workshop given the enormous amount of large scale projects he had been called upon to complete in recent weeks. War was sparking up again, and for arms producers that meant profits would be on the rise, as would demand for new and better equipment from the galaxy at large. Titan Industries was in an uproar, and the Sith were scrambling to grab what they could. In the meantime ArmaTech was still operating as normal. With one of the industries juggernauts out of the game in any capacity it left opportunity on every other company’s doors. I wasn’t going to be one of the fools who let that opportunity escape me.

I walked into the workshop where the old duros was tinkering, keeping himself busy with random side projects while I worked on fleshing out ideas to pitch to him before he put them into the development process. After we were done here, he would send schematics out to our facilities throughout the galaxy to put them into production. “How goes the work old man,” I said to him as I approached my old friend, a smile on my face.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He often took kindly to good natured jabs, and often returned them in earnest when prompted, today would be no different. “Pretty good, though still surprised you can read the star map on how to get hear without some form of directions being read to you,” he said, chuckling at his own joke. I laughed a little bit too, since it was funny, and it was best not to take yourself too seriously in this environment. “What is it you had on your mind Draco. I can tell you want me to work on something since you came all the way back to Jabiim,” he said with a smile on his pale blue face. War had pulled me away from here and taken me to the front lines for the past few weeks.

“Well, I noticed the boys have to carry a lot of equipment in the field, and we need to reduce the weight they are lugging around out there as best as we can. Right now your average jetpack is huge by comparison, generators weigh a ton, and then armor is heavy as all get out you know. I want to start working on miniaturizing as much as we can, and reducing the weight on all the other stuff.” I said to him.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The old duros mused to himself for a moment, thinking about the issue at hand. It was a real and present problem that wasn’t being addressed on the line yet. Most governments and armies were more worried about making sure the troops had the gear they needed on the field, not that it was easy to carry, and that has been what they concerned themselves with for the past years. Some soldiers carried close to sixty kilograms around, and that was without significant personal equipment or protections beyond simple armor. The trend seemed to be that the more heavily armored soldiers were forced to carry less than what would normally be required and most troops suffered greatly because of it. When it came to crewed weapons this extreme was even more known, as the heavy generators required a soldier to carry it and just it, meaning he brought almost no other equipment with him into battle. “Well what is it you had in mind for this project. I can’t miniaturize everything all at once. Pick something we can work on and let’s work it till it’s finished.” He said, pursing his pale blue lips, and stroking his chin with one hand.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Generators were the thing that I thought of first. It was the first thing that came to mind. If generators were smaller or provided more power they could be used to effectively power shields, cloaks, and weapons for personal armor, maybe even increasing the overall survival rate of troops on the ground. “Power Generators,” I said aloud. “If we can decrease the weight of relatively powerful portable generators then we could include them in a soldier’s standard equipment. If we can do that, we can equip an army with powerful personal shielding and more suitable weapons.” I told the old duros. It was an ambitious plan, and one that would require lots of work and time, and more importantly resources.

He looked through some stuff, “There are a couple of old designs and maybe a new one or two that feature overcharged, pumped up power generators. I’ll do some research and figure out how they do that, and maybe we can through something into production.” He said after thinking about the topic for a moment. “What worries me, is how someone will be able to pack in a powerful enough generator in a small space. Normally with ships the ship is built around the generator, this is the opposite. We can’t build a person around this thing.”

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Benji spent a great deal of time researching old designs and minerals trying to find something that would meet the taxing requirements I had laid upon the system, but he was having little luck. He found numerous promising mentions, but had trouble tracking down actually designs of a generator. He couldn’t even find basic schematics for any of the larger ones. Apparently starship generators had been all the rage for people looking into power supplies, and no one cared to attempt to find out about those as time went by. He was having trouble shuffling through so much data, and at this point was on a caf fueled binge of obscure references and data. While I just sat around and waited for him to find something. I would love to help out the old man, but I just don’t understand engineering or electronics like he does, and I wouldn’t be of much help to him, so it was best that I stay quiet and out of his way and wait for him to find gold. He always does. Hours quickly turned into days of waiting, which in turned became weeks with little to no progress towards the end goal. So far, nothing had been discovered and we were still stuck at square one.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Almost a month of research and review finally led to an outbreak in the development process. No great leap, but progress nonetheless. It was something, and I wasn’t going to turn down whatever he had found if he thought it was promising. I walked into the larger, renovated workshop to see a tired, smiling Benji standing in front of a data terminal. “I think I found something we can use Draco, but it ain’t going to be easy and it ain’t going to be cheap. You are going to have to make some new friends if this works out, and you might not like all of them.” That wasn’t good news. Normally he would have a preference for working within the confines of the law and the Republic.

“What do you mean?” I asked quizzically. I needed more information before I just went ahead with whatever he has in mind. Especially if it involves people I normally wouldn’t like having around.

“Well I found talk about an ancient design. It’s been used a few times in the last four thousand years, but never the scope you are talking about. I am talking about using Isotope-5 Fuel Rods in this generator.” He finished, smiling deviously.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“What the heck is Isotope-5?” I asked. I didn’t even know exactly was in a normal generator, why the heck would I know what was in a rarer style of generator. Even still the name did sound familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it on where I had heard it before.

“Isotope-5 was discovered and lost back in the Great Galactic War, I don’t know; let’s call it four thousand years ago. The substance is volatile and extremely powerful. It’s long lasting and carries immense power per milligram, and reactors using the substance were known to make weapons and shield much more powerful. We would need a lot of it, a continuous supply almost if this works. That’s why you may consider making new friends with the local government, and probably with the major government that controls the planet.” He said. It wasn’t a bad plan, but I was unsure who to cozy up to if I wanted to conduct an enormous mining operation on the planet.

“Alright, well what do you need other than that. I can work on the Isotope-5 but certainly that can’t be all you need for this.” I said, waiting for him to give me instructions beyond just telling me he needed me to make new friends.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Oh yeah,” his eyes darted down on to the data-terminal he had been sitting at before I arrived. His fingers tapped keys and he started glancing through open tabs as I walked over to stand beside him and watch over his shoulder. He had dozens of articles and documents open, as well as journals from ancient Republic soldiers who had been deployed on Makeb. “Here it is,” he said stopping on a journal entry of a Republic Captain. “This talks about a factory on Makeb, dedicated to building Isotope-5 powered droids. I need one of those droids, or preferably one of the power generators it would have put into those droids. Do you think you could manage hunting one of those things down for me and bringing it back here in one piece so I can study it and bring it up to par with the technology that is around currently?” He asked, almost rhetorically.

Have I become that predictable that he simply assumes I can go grab what he needs or wants. “Yeah, I guess I can go looking. What does the thing you are looking for look like? I need to know so I can identify it if I think I find it.” I said to the old duros.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

He clicked a few keys on the data-terminal and pulled a small datacard from it handing it over. “Use that when you scan a droid and you should find what you are looking for, just be careful. Some of those droids sported weapons that got named Megaton Annihilation Heat Cannons. I doubt they got named just for the sound of it. I would guess it’s fairly powerful, and Isotope-5 Droids are known to sport heavy shields and big guns.” He said, issuing a clear warning. I wasn’t sure about whether or not I would run into any active droids but, I might, and it was best to know they weren’t known for playing around.

“Megaton Heat Laser, that’s got a nice ring to it. You may have just found yourself your next project after this one.” I told the old duros jokingly, but it wasn’t a bad idea, either. Who knows it might just come to fruition in the near future. Life was tricky that way, sometimes stupid ideas worked out for the best. “I’ll head out that way soon, but for now I am going to get some sleep and rest up before I head out hunting some super droid.” I said to him, heading back up the stairs to the living quarters. This could wait, and wasn’t something I needed to do right this second.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Normally plans like this required proper planning, organization, and testing, but I was just going to wing it, like I normally did with things like this. Best not to put too much thought into it. That normally left me with plenty of options and availability if something did happen. And it was a lot more fun this way. In the morning I ran diagnostics on all my gear, checked my ammunition and decided to take my new MKI bolter with me and its Ion rounds rather than something more damaging. I always had a veritable armory with me at all times anyway, and I was strong enough to turn most droids into mince without much issue, especially if they weren’t made out of something like Beskar or Phrik. “Alright, I’ll be back with your crap as soon as I can get out there and find it.” I told Benji as I said goodbye to the gang that lived on Jabiim. After a short farewell I mounted my ship, the Cutting Edge and left the stormy planet, heading for the distant outer rim world of Makeb. Hopefully I could have some fun on this planet and still get my work done without being away for too long, but only time can tell.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I took the Cutting Edge out from Jabiim towards what used to be Hutt Space in more ancient times, but was now held by much more accommodating overlords. The Red Ravens. They were a notorious gang and criminal syndicate, but I had endured a few interactions with their president, not all of them good, and believed that they would at least be reasonable, if I encountered any of them on the forsaken planet. Besides their president was easy on the eyes, so bumping into her wouldn’t be so bad. The G9 Rigger zipped through hyperspace, especially ever since I bought those new Hyperdrives for it. Class point six was nothing to gawk at and I certainly didn’t mind the shorter trips in between missions. Sometimes it was great to have short trips, especially on the fairly good chance I was wounded and needed some serious medical attention. I had a pair of bodyguard droids these days to protect the ship and pilot the hulk if need be, or if I was feeling lazy and didn’t want to do it myself. I decided to take a more scenic route, and stop at Nal Hutta long enough to refuel and get some supplies and food stuffs. I had had a padawan devour most of my protein bars at one point so I could use the non-perishables.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The stop at Nal Hutta was uneventful, just resupplying the ship and having it inspected for minor wears and tears. Nal Hutta was right at the border of Red Raven’s space and wasn’t under their control, one of the reasons I decided to stop here and make sure everything was in working order before I dived into their space and took rare and expensive things from their planet. Normally I would have asked before I raided the place, but under these circumstances I wanted this to be more on the down low, rather than broadcasting a message to anyone and everyone about what was going on here seeing as we weren’t sure it was going to work out yet. I didn’t like making promises I couldn’t keep, especially ones that were based on conjecture and circumstance.

After the resupply was completed I boarded my ship and headed out towards Makeb in search of these mysterious and powerful droids that supposedly existed from long ago. It seemed like I made trips like this more often than I fought against the Sith it seemed. Even Still this was a trip that would make fighting the Sith easier, and just might make folks last longer or survive more battles against them. They liked Yuuzhan Vong Bio-Tech, well we were going to show them what real Technology could do.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

My ship arrived above Makeb, the arid world covered in dense mesa’s of varying vegetation and wildlife. Supposedly some of the creatures had been mutated by Isotope-5 early in their evolution, and the deep surface of the planet was where the mining had actually been completed. The worst thing about the planet was that the rare mineral found here disrupted sensors and targeting equipment, making it impossible to simply scan the planet for what I was looking for. I figured the best way would be to track down one of the ancient Hutt palaces on the planet and look for any of the droid there. With the datacard Benji had given me I would be able to scan them for what I was looking for without having to do so individually.

“This is Pomp and Circumstance requesting permission to land.” I called over the comm system. Seconds later, “Cleared, continue on current course.” Air Traffic Control let my ship down without much issue, I used a false ID transponder for just that reason. It was good that I wasn’t so well known in the galaxy yet. I had only been around for a short time, and I wasn’t a public figure anyways so most people wouldn’t just recognize me.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I walked from my ship, leaving it in the space port where it would be safe. The guards weren’t just going to let folks go mess with it and my droids were aboard to defend it somewhat if need be. They weren’t the best droids but they were nice. Maybe one day I would design some nicer droids with a better combat protocol than those. But that was neither here nor there. For now I needed to focus on getting the Isotope-5 from this planet and the droid power cores that Benji had told me about. The arid climate of Makeb was kept at bay by my armor’s temperature regulator and climate control system, keeping me comfortable, but from the sensor on my helmet I could tell it was hot and dry on this planet. No Tattooine, but still I couldn’t understand why someone would choose to live on this planet. I started by going to the office of public records to research ancient Hutt Palaces that made use of droids powered by the rare substance. The office wasn’t hard to find, just there were hundreds of books and records to search through and it was going to be an arduous process. Not something I was looking forward to spending hours or days doing.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

After the first day of digging through piles of data I went and bought a protocol droid to do it for me. I couldn’t stand sitting reading books and getting nowhere so I passed off that work to a droid who loved it, or didn’t feel anything about it, or heck he might hate it but he doesn’t have a say in the matter. It took him significantly shorter than it would have taken me. By the end of the second day he had me two locations and a possibility of a third. The first was a palace owned by some Hutt named Drubo, the second Toborro the Hutt’s palace, and the third, Borga the Hutt owned a palace on this planet. The Droid marked that Toborro’s palace was known to host several Isotope-5 droids. I guess I better check it out first since it was known to have a couple of them lying around at one point.

According to the map it was fairly close to the main city on the planet, well at least it was on the same continent as the main city so it wouldn’t be a far ride on one of my old BARC speeder bikes, so I wasn’t too worried about flying out there and back in a day.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

I took off from the city on my BARC Speeder heading for the palace to Toborro the Hutt, one of the ancient Hutt Grand Moguls, the former leaders of the Hutt Cartel during the era of the Great Galactic War, which admittedly was over four thousand years ago. As I approached the place I sought I brought the speeder bike high and did a spiraling descent, getting as good a look at the place as I possibly could before I brought the speeder bike down towards the palace. I took it slow and kept my sensors and eyes on the place, looking for a way into the building, but I was having some trouble navigating it. The palace was enormous with a giant courtyard that could fit a small cruiser, and several buildings as part of the complex. It was run down, but surprisingly in good condition for being four thousand years old, never the less, Benji had said that it was possible these droids would still be active and that they were often equipped with incredibly dangerous weapons, so I thought it best to err on the side of caution. Better to be safe, then to wind up dead on this rock.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Finally finding my way in, I parked the speeder on the mesa, dismounting and moving along the edge of one of the mesas. I had to take a flight of stairs and a bridge across from one mesa to another to finally reach the access point. It was a simple emergency door that was set ajar for some reason. Maybe when the power to the building fell it just kind of slid open without have the magnetic seals on it anymore. Either way it didn’t hardly affect me. It was my way in and nothing more and nothing less. Still it was something to ponder while I aimlessly wandered the halls with my sensors active, waiting for something to come across them. Ugh, it was mind numbingly boring for me, walking through the palace, being able to see through several of the walls and doors of the palace, keeping moving at a steady pace, looking and making a lot of noise trying to attract any droid that might be out here hiding in this place. Finally after two hours I heard the pounding of metal feet coming in my direction from around a corner. Using my sensors I started to get a read of the machine.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

The pounding of metal feet continued to grow until finally it came within range of my sensors. It was massive, easily ten meters tall, looking somewhat like a llama, alpaca, or camel in appearance, with heavy armor plating covering its main body and two massive laser cannons protruding from its chest. A pair of smaller blaster cannons were set in its head, no doubt meant for anti-personnel duty. The bestial creature struck forward, finally rounding the corner. I had enough time to scope out cover, and get a good bearing of the room realizing how much space I had to work with against this thing. Even in the main corridor, it wasn’t a lot of space compared to the sheer size of the droid. It was most likely going to be capable of rapid fire and filling the hallway with its laser cannon bursts. It rounded the corner, taking a second to analyze me before engaging. It was a second I wasn’t going to let go to waste. Extending my left arm, I fired off one of my anti-vehicle rockets, sending the missile straight for the droids vulnerable head, where I hoped its processor was. The missile’s flight was swift, but was interrupted by a shimmering yellow golden shield, emanating from the droid.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

It reared its head, light building up in its main laser cannons. I activated my jetpack, taking off, peeling away from the droid, heading off to one of its sides. The beams of energy erupted, taking out the wall, leaving a gap to the open air in the building, rumbling and reverberating throughout the room. Not good. That meant if I got hit by those things, I was a goner. And that wasn’t a good thing for me today. I hadn’t been expecting a droid of this size and its power was leaving me in awe, but I was moving, trying to come up with a plan to disable the blasted thing. I landed on top of a column, about level with what appeared to be the head and released another missile, causing the shield to flicker this time. That was good news. Perhaps the laser had a significant energy drain and made the shields go inert for a short while and they may take time to recharge or recycle to be able to stop attacks again. So what was the plan? Wait for it to try the big laser cannons, then fly on top of it and ride it out of here like I’m in a rodeo. Yep sounds like the best plan I could come up with in five seconds.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Its head spun around, releasing a torrent of blaster fire, but I was already on the move again, darting low and to the ground, its blaster cannons following close behind me. I disappeared behind a column, hearing blaster fire impacting the other side. It wouldn’t take long for the droid to get frustrated and charge up its big lasers with me hiding. I carefully clicked another missile into my wrist rocket system. For a second, I thought its yellow blaster cannon bolts might chew through the column before the droid would use its laser cannons. Then as expected I could hear its laser cannons charging, the telltale whine of capacitors over charging and generators cycling as they were known to do when pushed to their limits like that. I bolted from cover, darting to the center of the corridor, it shifting to track me as I did so. I needed to time this right, but I couldn’t get to crazy. There was a tank sized hole in a different wall from its first blast. Finally the lasers started to emit their fearsome power and I burst upwards in a flurry of smoke and exhaust. It tried to track upwards put in the end I barely out maneuvered it. Twisting in midair I was able to get a bead on it and race towards it, hoping I would get there before it was able to cycle its shields.