บท 50: Interludes: Mad Science
Interlude: Rebirth I
Republic R&D Center
Location classified
Coruscant
"Dr. Solumn, it's almost done." The single blood and flesh surgeon in the room in front of the Director spoke aloud.
The Human medic was busy overseeing six spherical medical droids which were working on a clone trooper who had been grievously wounded a few months ago.
"Is it going to work?" Solumn asked.
"It's too early to say sir – though the initial tests we're running are positive. The subject will live this time, that much I can promise."
"We need much more than simple survival or even partial recovery." The Director mussed. "Besides, the latter can be achieved with commercially available meditech."
"I'm know, sir. However adding so much tech into a body, especially one as wounded as Ark here was..." The Human shrugged.
"We both know that it's not impossible. There are more than a handful cyborgs more enhanced that our prototype here." Solumn looked unimpressed.
"True, sir. However, there's one huge difference – they're practically an work of art – not something than can really be mass produced. Further, we don't have access to the research of the people who did those enhancements, Most are beyond Republic space and those here are very well hidden." The surgeon grumbled.
"What are the prospects for Ark?" Solumn sighed.
"Quite good actually. His missed limbs were replaced with state of the art combat prosthetic – we built them from lightweight armor alloy for increased durability. They will make him about four times stronger." The surgeon sounded proud of himself.
"We were expecting ten-fold strength increase." The Director wasn't impressed.
"I know. There's a problem with the connections to the blood and flesh body – those joints simply aren't durable enough. In latter models which are more enhanced than Ark here, that problem will be solved. Speaking about durability – we've coated his bones with bio-neutral ceramic alloy which makes them very hard to break. Further, his spine is reinforced by cybernetic implants and so is his skull."
"That's good to know. Side effects?"
"We had to implant him with couple of devices that help his bone marrow generate the proper amount of blood cells. We even went a step further and poached a few thing from Project Ascension – his blood is not more efficient, coagulates much faster and as a beneficial side effect, Ark will be highly resistant to a lot of poisons and toxins."
"Well, that's good at least. Still we'll need much more than this."
"We know, Director. Ark here's just our first prototype. We're just finishing installing his bacta injectors and will start on the sub-dermal armor grafts soon. That will give him unprecedented survivability in combat, though nothing like what we're planning. Unfortunately, a lot of the tech we'll need for Stage II is still theoretical or in the early stages of development. The good news is if Arky here's successful, we'll be able to return tens of thousands of soldiers back to the field withing four months. What we learn from Stage I will be invaluable for the next part of this project."
"Hmm… This is better than I feared, though not as good as I hoped."
"We'll get the job done as soon as possible, Director."
=RK=
Ascension I
Republic R&D Center
Location classified
Coruscant
"Director!" Doctor Scrin – a Kaminoan mercenary, who was the leader of project Ascension exclaimed when she saw the Duros enter her domain. "You're just in time." She waved a long, thin arm at him and smiled. "The first batch of volunteers will be decanned shortly."
"From your reports I understand that Stage I has been an unmitigated success." Solumn stated after he nodded a greeting.
"Indeed!" Scrin's head bobbed over her long neck and she beamed. "Here we aren't constrained by what peak species performance is supposed to be." The scientist scoffed at the mere idea that her work should stop at what evolution had achieved.
"That was never the idea. We need something more." The Director nodded in agreement. Thanks to this war, they were not only allowed but expected to push the boundaries of science beyond what anyone had dreamed in ages. It truly was a great time to be a scientist!
"We have reasonable safe gene therapy that can bring people to their species peak performance within three months. Once that has been tested," Scrin grinned, "We'll be ready to push further into the next level."
"Good. Walk me through what you've achieved." The Director ordered as they walked further into the facility.
"First were the easy things – stimulating muscle growth, increasing bone density without compromising the skeleton, making the blood more efficient." Scrin waved a hand. "We got that done by combining already existing research and therapies then improving upon them. It took a couple of months, but it was quite simple." The woman spoke dismissively.
"You did much more than that." Solumn stated as they reached a sealed door.
"Of course!" Scrin scoffed and went to the scanner on the left side of the door. "We improved reflexes and reaction times by tweaking neurotransmitters and upgrading the nervous system. As a side effect, our test subject have increased pain thresholds, but their appendages are a bit numb." The Doctor shrugged as if it wasn't a problem.
The door slid open and revealed a large chamber filled with hundreds of bacta tanks. Almost all of them were full with beings of various species.
"We also tweaked various organs to make them more efficient, especially when processing various toxins and poisons are concerned. Thanks to the changes, Stage I subjects are expected to have a minimal resistance to nerve agents, though they will be by no means immune to them."
"Useful. How do they compare to the Clones?"
"At least as strong. Some will have better reflexes and they will be healing faster. The main issue was tweaking the gene therapy to work on many species. If we were going to improve just humans, Stage I would have been complete two months ago."
"I see. Good work. What have you cooking up for the next stage?" Solumn sounded quite satisfied with what was done.
"This will be the fun part – even more efficient organs as well as adding redundancies for anything vital. We already have thirty percent success rate in adding a secondary hearts in humans." Scrin beamed.
"Benefits?"
"Harder to kill subjects. With the improved blood we're developing, they will heal three to four times faster. The downside as with most of our enhancements will be increased calorie consumptions to fuel them."
"That was a given." Solumn nodded. There always were trade-offs. Scrin's job was to make the benefits worth it.
"We're looking into further strength and speed increase – about four to five times the norm. That would allow soldiers to carry heavy armor and weapons and will make outfitting the troops cheaper – I understand that the power armor we're developing will be very expensive and not practical to outfit everyone with."
"That's true. It's also one of the main reasons we're putting as much resources in this project." Solumn nodded.
"We won't disappoint." The Kaminoan declared solemnly. "We're working on upgrading the nervous system as much as we can – we hope for two or three fold increase in reflexes and reaction speeds. However, there's a hard-cap we'll be reaching with neurotransmitters. We won't get as good reaction as the Rebirth units that would replace or enhance the nervous system with fiber-optics."
"That won't be a long term project. We'll be combining the later stages of these two projects anyway." The Director waved a hand in dismissal.
"That would be interesting to see." Scrin nodded. "Next – we're looking at increased endurance, which will take some tweaking in most subject's systems. However, that won't be available before Stage II is well underway. We still have some problem to solve."
The Director shrugged. He had seen the failures. It was ugly and regrettable, but they learned from those accidents.
"We've also improved the vision of the subjects, added increased night vision and are working on adaptive lenses for the eyes – that should increase accuracy."
"That's splendid."
"We're also looking in biological sub-dermal armor and ways to increase the toughness of the skin without crippling side effects. Those two will be reserved for Stage II or III." Scrin mussed.
"You can always use the sub-dermal armor from Rebirth." The Director proposed.
"That's something we're looking in along with a synthetic alloy that should act as a replacement skin they are looking into. Unfortunately the latter's in the theoretical stages for the time being."
"Time frame for Stage II?"
"At least a month before we can start fully enhancing a test subject to that standard."
"I see. It's better than projected. I want Stage I's testing done ASAP and ready for distribution in the army before the new volunteer units finish training. High Com wants them enhanced before they're deployed."
"Within three months, right?"
"That's when the first new non-clone divisions will be ready for deployment."
"We'll be ready to implement mass enhancements in three months plus minus a few weeks but we'll need increased funding and resources to create the necessary infrastructure." Scrin spoke after thinking for a few minutes.
"Consider it done." The Director nodded.
=RK=
Interlude: The CIS and their toys
Techno Union R&D Center "Trinity"
Location Classified
Outer Rim
Count Dooku sat at the head of a long table made of black metal that was polished so much that it resembled a mirror. His current apprentice and one of her henchmen took seats to his right and a pair of heavily augmented humanoids did so on the other side of the table.
"Foreman Kleo," The Sith Lord nodded politely. "Congratulations are in order."
"The Union leaders simply did what was logical." Kleo's modulated voice showed no inflection. "You aren't here for small talk." The cyborg stated.
"No. Our time is precious and the war still rages. That leaves little spare time for the more refined things in life." The Sith shrugged. "In the last few months, the Republic has unveiled a number of advanced technologies and weapon designs that played a key role in halting our advance. We can no longer consider this war winnable in a short order. This poses certain problems." Isn't that the understatement of the century, Dooku thought.
"We're well aware." There was just a hint of annoyance in the Foreman's artificial voice. "Our R&D departments had worked hard to ensure our superiority. We have a number of technologies either ready for deployment or near completion." The cyborg paused. "However, they won't come cheap – producing them takes more time and resources than our current armies."
"Most of the B series of droids are practically useless in the field. The new shielded armor the Republic deployed on Geonosis made the B1 and 2s totally obsolete. Even the SB subtype are heavily outclassed." Sev'rance spoke for the first time. Her voice was flat and annoyed.
"We know. Analysis shows that continued production of B series for anything but naval crew and maintenance units will be strategic mistake." The second, so far unnamed cyborg stated.
"This is Ilreth – one of the Unions primary strategic planners." The Foreman introduced his companion.
Dooku gave the second cyborg a nod and waved him to continue.
"We've already ceased B1 and 2 type production and are shifting those lines into either SB subtype or BX Commando series. We're introducing gradual upgrades in armor and firepower to our SB droids though outfitting them with shields will be difficult in the short term – there are some design issues with using the components of our Destroyer lines and we don't currently produce another shield and power plant small enough to fit in their chassis." Ilreth stated.
"I trust you're solving that issue?" Dooku was less than pleased by that information.
"We have multiple teams working on the problem." Kleo interjected.
"Analysis on the data brought by agent Tann and her unit shows that our most effective counter in the short time will be to shift our ground forces composition into SB and Commando heavy one." Ilreth continued as if he wasn't interrupted. "However, our projections show that if we are to win, the Confederation will need new and more powerful types of droids."
"It's true. All but the Commandos were almost useless. Once the Republic outfit a significant number of units with their new gear, most of our fronts will collapse." Tann added.
"We all know the problems on the ground. Solutions?" Dooku frowned.
"We have plans for certain prototypes, though they were deemed too expensive and unnecessary by the council." The Foreman sounded smug.
"Enlighten us."
Kleo tapped a button on his right arm and a holographic image came to life above the table.
A streamlined humanoid droid was standing at attention. It's armor was all made of sharp angles and obviously made to resist blasters and slugs. While it had a superficial resemblance to the Commando droids, it had more in common with Grievous' Magna Guards and the SB series.
"This is the SBX 1 concept." Ilreth spoke in his bland emotionless voice. "It combines the best series of our current combat models with increases durability, agility and it's smarter than the Commandos. It's programing includes improved tactical analyst algorithms, strategic modeling as well as self-updating system allowing them to actually learn, not simply extrapolate from previous data as our current BX units. In fact, programing wise, the SBX type are close to our tactical command droids though not as smart – that's simply not required."
"That might be useful." Sev'rance muttered.
"Why aren't we already deploying them?"
"We only build a single prototype – it was deemed too expensive and too good for the role it was supposed to fill. According to everyone the BX series were more than good enough and the SBX were simply a waste of resources." Ilreth reported.
"We'll need them to replace the Commando droids in their roles across the board as well as a power multiplier attached to our more regular forces." Dooku said. "I want production to start ASAP."
"I'll see to it, my Lord." Kleo stated. "Next."
The SBX image was replaced by a two and half meters tall behemoth. This machine appeared to be hunched forward. It stood on two curiously shaped legs, which had a metal shield protecting the front side of their vulnerable joints. The arms were surrounded by built in weapons – a flamethrower, a heavy repeater on the left and a laser cannon above the right. There was a missile pod above the left shoulder and a large cannon sticking above the right.
"This is the Titan concept." Ilreth started speaking. "It's protected by a prototype tank grade armor, three shield generators and built in laser AMS." The cyborg sounded almost giddy. "This design is a direct answer to the new republic gear – most of its internal components are of the shelf and we're already producing it's weapons in one form or another. It's role will be two fold. First assault – directly engaging enemy hardened positions and large groups of infantry. Second role is battlefield coordination and command. The Titan will have a modified Tactical Command droid programing allowing more efficient use of our forces in its area. We're already building a prototype. Once any major flaws are removed a we can field test it, we'll move into mass production if the Titan proves to be a practical design."
"That's it?" Sev'rance looked less than pleased.
"The rest is incremental upgrades of our current units – more powerful weapons for the SB series and improved small arms for the rest of our droids and biological units." The Foreman answered.
"Analysis proved that we have an advantage in indirect fire artillery. The lack of sufficient such units on Geonosis is one of the main reasons the enemy suffered minimal casualties in comparison to our own. We recommend increase in production as well as focusing research on improving this type of technology." Ilreth added.
"Do so." Dooku nodded after a moment. "Space." He stared grimly at the cyborgs.
"The unexpected effectiveness of the Guardian system and its mass deployment rendered our current doctrine obsolete." Kleo actually grumbled. "As you know, we relied on massed droid-fighter swarms as a major power multiplier. That strategy is now rendered obsolete. Further analysis concludes that all existing small craft – from fighters and bombers to heavily protected assault shuttles are unsurvivable in Guardian dominated environment. Further, long and medium range missile and torpedo strikes will be heavily degraded or neutralized before hitting a target."
"I'm aware of the implications. I need solutions." Dooku glared at he cyborgs.
"A possible tactic is one demonstrated by the Republic above Ryloth and Geonosis. Pin-point hyper-jumps into point-blank range followed by massed torpedo strikes. Unless a hyperspace exit is calculated perfectly, the Guardian systems of a fleet will be able to significantly degrade such attacks. Other counter include a deployment of gravity well generators to ensure that any such strike is dragged into real space at a safe distance."
"The Republic isn't ready to deploy interdictors at this time. I want small craft outfitted for such strikes in the immediate future before the enemy can adapt." Dooku ordered. "Still, that's a very short term solution."
"We're aware of that. Ilreth." Kleo let a note of amusement into his voice.
"While we'll continue production of Munificent class ships, we won't be expanding it. With our fighter contingent neutralized, a trade of multiple Munificents for Republic cruiser will no longer be to our strategic advantage. We propose to shift the frigate's role back to their intended one – raiders and escorts. We propose increased production of our latest class command ships – the Providence class dreadnoughts as the main combat unit of our navy. We'll be modifying most of them to reduce or remove the carrier role and use that space for more weapons and armor."
"That's an idea I like." Dooku nodded. "What about small craft?"
"We're playing with various designs and upgrades that may make them of a limited use against Guardian equipped targets but even prototypes are some time off. The good news is that we just finished testing our own version of that system – the Umbrella. It's production lines will be ready within the week and we estimate that in two months all our capital ships will be outfitted with it. Any new or still unfinished ship will be receiving it."
"That's the kind of news I want to hear." Dooku smiled for the first time since the meeting began. "What other plans to enhance the effectiveness of our navy do you have?"
"Multiple, including two rather controversial strategies."Ilreth stated.
"I'm listening." Dooku leaned forward. He felt that he'll like what he was going to hear.
"First, our most powerful ships – The Subjugator class. We'll need more of them, especially after the Corellians entered the war. We're proposing some modifications so they can fit different combat roles. Second, we want to expand the production of Lucrehulk type – above Geonosis they did best, though the lack of Umbrella made them very vulnerable to small craft strikes – once our Vultures were torn apart by the Guardians and enemy fighters, our battleships were simply overwhelmed. We want to introduce a few distinct variants of the typical Lucrehulk for either system defense or assault of heavily protected systems."
"I'll want more information later. What else?" Dooku asked.
"There's a certain project that's in the prototyping stages right now." Ilreth started. "It's about a new type of battle cruiser which while quite expensive and relatively slow to build may prove a game changer, especially in view of the Republic Star destroyer program."
"Speak." Dooku ordered.
"I'm talking about the Bulwark program and the Bulwark Makr I battle cruisers, which it has produced." Ilreth pressed a few buttons built in his arm and the image of the Titan was replaced by a ship that was a cross between a flying brick which had it's edges rounded into sloped armor giving it an ellipsoid look. There were two stubby drive section attached near the back of the hull, though they were dwarfed by the main engines of the behemoth.
There were a lot of turbo-laser and Ion canon emplacements visible and those were just the main guns – there were scores of smaller weapons presumably for the Bulwark's Umbrella.
"The Bulwark Mark I is projected to be the most powerful ton for ton warship in known space. Most well protected too – it has enough armor to ram through smaller ships without shields and emerge with minimal damage." Ilreth actually sounded excited. "The first prototype will be ready within the month. I'm requesting authorization for mass production once all major problems are fixed."
"Once the prototype is ready I want a comprehensive report on its performance, problems, how many of those ships can we build in a reasonable amount of time and how it will effect the production levels of our remaining space forces." Dooku ordered. "You said something about controversial tactics?"
"I'll see it done, my Lord." Ilreth nodded. "About the tactics we're proposing..."
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