Hello again, everyone, and welcome back to my Halo/Star Wars short story collection.
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Disclaimer: I do not own the Halo or Star Wars franchises. They are the respective properties and trademarks of Microsoft Studios, 343 Industries, Bungie, Lucasfilms, 20th Century Fox, Disney Films, etc. Any material original to the franchises belongs to their respective developers and publishers. Any material not original to the franchises is of my own invention. I do not own any music listed in each chapter. Any music listed belongs to its original composers and/or artists.
Sol System
Special Assembly Plant Concord, Oort Cloud
May 10th, 0BBY, 1000 Hrs (November 24th, 2558, 1000 Hrs)
"What I don't get is why the Empire wasted all of their time and money creating a superweapon when they could've put the money towards something more useful. The fact that they haven't clearly shows where their priorities are and where they should have been. Leave it to a dictator to spend his money on something that is clearly a weapon of terror instead of something more benevolent."
The remark caught the attention of the rest of Admiral Sark's colleagues. Dr. Sana no Okuni payed the most attention out of all of them. "Yeah," he said. "If we get the chance, I would love to talk to Grand Moff Tarkin. He's got a little explaining to to do."
The others chuckled. They had been examining the schematics for the Death Star in order to find a weakness in the design, courtesy of their orders from Admiral Osman. Sark, however, also saw it as an opportunity to learn how a faction that was clearly less advanced than the Covenant could build a structure that was just under half the size of High Charity. Who knows? she thought. We might learn something useful from all this, maybe even how to build ships as large as what the Covenant has.
Then there were the newcomers to the team. Due to the seriousness of the situation, Osman had decided to send more people to Sark's team in order to provide her with expertise that the other members of her team didn't have. They currently stood off to the side, waiting to throw their piece in.
Glancing towards Okuni, she said, "Leave it to me to ask him on that, if we get the chance. Given that we can't, we'll have to make do with what we've got. Still, it is an impressive space station, and it works quite well. It's just that its main weapon was used on the wrong planet."
"Yeah," RDML Grayson agreed. He pointed at a section of the schematics. "Look at that central power supply. I might not know much about planet killing space stations, but I do know quite a bit about how to feed power to a station. The hypermatter reactor inside of this thing could generate enough power to supply the entire space station with power, and then some."
"That's not its main purpose though," Dr. Wolf said, her voice laced with a quiet anger. "It's designed to fuel the particle cannon that's capable of utterly destroying an entire planet. There's a secondary reactor that provides the station with power."
"That's correct," Sark said. "It's a very interesting design." Shifting the hologram, she said, "Look at this cross bracing here. It sounds to me as though they unwittingly took a few notes from Robert McLees. A nearly identical system is used in the Halcyon-class Light Cruisers as well as the Autumn-class Heavy Cruisers. It's what gives them their extreme structural integrity."
"It's not just that either," came one of the new members of their team, one Richard Fornell. A member of the UNSC Engineering Corps, Fornell was the expert when it came to large scale engineering projects. In fact, Sark knew that while she had designed the Infinity, Fornell had helped build the ship.
"And why do you say that?" Sark asked.
"They'd need metamaterials in order to build something of this scale." Examining another part of the schematics, Fornell said, "With a station of this size, normal materials won't hold up. Tell me, Admiral Sark, do you recall the Square-cube Law?"
Sark nodded. "I do. It states that when an object's size increases, the volume of the object increases faster than the surface area does. It's why we had to use more advanced materials in the Infinity's construction, otherwise she -" She stopped as a thought occurred to her. "Are you telling me that the Empire used metamaterials in the station's construction?"
"Precisely what I mean. With a station of this size, you would need some highly exotic forms of materials to even get close to the size the Death Star is. They also made a good choice when it comes to the shape of the station. Spheres are generally the strongest shape in nature, as there is no weakness in the design. It also helps hold things together, so I'm not surprised that the Death Star has lasted this long."
"Indeed," Grayson said. "The superstructure's well designed too. From what I can tell, they made extensive use of what they call Quadanium Steel. It's not as strong as the titanium alloys they use in the rest of the station, but it does make for excellent armor. The fact that it can withstand the stresses of spaceflight and its main weapon shows how well they engineered the entire station. Hell, there are even drydocks on the station, and that is an engineering feat all in its own."
"It sounds as though you admire the Death Star," Sark noted.
"I admire the engineering work that went into the Death Star to make it usable and habitable. I do not, however, condone its use as a planet killing superweapon. In fact, I'm quite glad that Galen Erso built into the Death Star the flaw that Jyn Erso said was there."
"The thermal exhaust port," Okuni said. Highlighting it, he said, "I have to admit, Galen Erso really knew how to sabotage a design. According to the schematics, the thermal exhaust port goes directly down into the reactor module for the Death Star. A single, well placed missile could easily cause a catastrophic pressure increase that would damage vital components in the reactor module. If those components are destroyed…"
"… then it's goodbye Death Star," Dr. Wolf said. "I have to admit, the Innies probably couldn't do a finer job in terms of sabotage. Hell, even ONI Section One would be deeply impressed by Galen Erso's work. Still, there's something that this tells me."
"And that would be?"
"That the Empire is careless about the placement of these thermal exhaust ports on large installations. If we end up using a similar system, we'll have to be careful as to where these ports are at, or we'll have to design an alternative system that eliminates this weakness entirely."
"That we can agree on," Sark said. "If we build a station with such a thermal exhaust port, we'll make sure that the ports are always off-centered and that they have armored grates. We might even decide to use a series of smaller tubes to vent the heat, rather than just one large one. The latter is literally painting a target sign onto that spot and inviting the enemy to blow it up." Zooming in on another section, she said, "The way the station is structured is also quite interesting. According to the schematics, the surface decks of the Death Star are designed concentrically, with gravity oriented towards the core. Below that, they're stacked, with gravity oriented towards the station's southern pole. No wonder the station can hold so many people and so much cargo."
"Yeah," Okuni said. "Krennic might've been a heartless, soulless bastard, but even he knows a thing or two about space station design. Hopefully, when we send the fleet to that galaxy, Lasky can have us talk with Krennic so that we can have a nice chat with him."
"Indeed." Changing the topic, Sark said, "There's also something else that we're going to have to consider as well."
"And that would be?" Dr. Wolf asked.
"Their form of FTL communications," Sark said. "This is your field of expertise, Dr. Wolf. You've got the floor now."
"Thanks," Dr. Wolf said. "According to the intelligence that Lasky and Cortana were able to send back to us, the Galactic Empire makes use of what it calls the 'HoloNet' to communicate at superluminal speeds. It's, effectively speaking, the Galactic Empire's equivalent of WayPoint or even the 21st century's InterNet."
"I gathered as much as well," Grayson said. "The method of transmission is also ingenious as well. According to that same intelligence, they transmit information using micro-scaled hyperspace tunnels known as S-Threads. In fact, from what Cortana could gather for us, the small size of these S-Threads makes HoloNet Communications practically impossible to corrupt or intercept by Galactic Empire standards. To intercept the transmission, you need a spoofer and transmitter at each relay station."
"Easier said than done," Sark said. "However, that is by Imperial standards, not UNSC or ONI standards. If we're going to be able to gather information on the Galactic Empire, we need to find a way to gain access to these S-Threads."
"That would be a huge breakthrough in signals intelligence and communications interdiction!" Dr. Wolf said. "If we could gain access to those S-Threads, not only could we trace the location of any Imperial installations in the entire galaxy, we could also intercept any communications they send along those S-Threads, or even upload false information to confuse the Imperial Military!" Pulling out a notepad, she began to furiously scribble notes onto the pad and any pieces of paper she could find.
"While Dr. Wolfe is busy getting her thoughts into order, let's discuss the rest of the information on the Death Star," Sark said. She turned her gaze towards the fifth member of the team. "James McGlenn, any ideas?"
RADM James McGlenn, a tall man with thinning gray hair, peered at the design. As a member of the Materials Group division from ONI, he was the expert in weapons development. "From what I can tell, the Death Star is so well armored that even our MACs would have trouble penetrating the 'crust' of the station. To penetrate the hull, we would need to either make indiscriminate use of the NOVA Bomb, or we would need to develop a new weapon system capable of penetrating the hull."
"We could talk to the Swords of Sangheilios for assistance in that matter," Grayson suggested. "They built High Charity, which was twice as large as the Death Star and more heavily armored as well."
"Very true," McGlenn agreed. "Their excavator beams could easily cut through the Quandanium Steel that serves as the Death Star's main armor. To cause any meaningful damage, though… that'll require something more powerful entirely. What about you, Eric?"
Eric, another tall man with brown and gray hair, looked at the design. He too was brought on by Osman from the RKD Group, a think tank that ONI hired frequently. "We could put some time and research into developing nuclear shaped charges," he suggested
McGlenn looked at Eric "Elaborate, please?"
"Certainly. I did some archival research into the technologies developed during the 20th and 21st centuries. According to my research, the United States of America, during the 1980s, began conducting research into nuclear pulsed propulsion via Project ORION, not to be confused with the Spartan-I Program of the same name. DARPA managed to get their hands onto the information, and began preliminary work into the development of what they called 'Casaba-Howitzers.'
"Now the technology needs some definite refining, but the way the Casaba-Howitzers are designed enables them to create beams of plasma capable of cutting through just about anything. A sub-kiloton Casaba-Howitzer, for instance, could bore a 10 foot tall, 100 foot long tunnel into a mountainside. As the yields go up, though, the efficiency decreases, though that is likely due to limitations of the technology they had."
Grayson whistled. "Damn, now that's impressive. If we could refine the technology to where it would be viable at megaton or even gigaton yields…"
"…then we would have a very impressive weapon on our hands," Sark said. "In fact, against Imperial ships and space stations, Casaba-Howitzers might be our best bet." Querying the AI in the meeting room they were in, she said, "Montgomery, have you been gathering our discussion as part of an audio recording?"
"Yes, ma'am," came the AI's voice.
"Good. I want you to split the audio recording into smaller chunks via topic. Understood?"
"Yes, ma'am."
"Very good." Turning her attention back to the others, she asked, "Can you suggest to the UNSC Ordinance Commission that idea?"
Eric shrugged. "I'd need the backing of at last a Rear Admiral to bring the suggestion to HIGHCOM. They ultimately decide what's worthwhile or not."
"I can do that for you," McGlenn said. "I'll put in a request to HIGHCOM for funding and research on that front. It could be that Casaba-Howitzers might be the way forwards here. A NOVA Bomb scale Casaba-Howitzer could punch a hole clean through the Death Star. Hell, even the smaller ones would likely cause a significant amount of trouble for any Imperial ships."
Just then, Wolf walked back over, having finished getting her thoughts into order. "I think I know of a potential way to intercept those S-Tread based transmissions. We could use Slipspace to do it."
Sark cocked an eyebrow. "Elaborate, please?"
"We know that Hyperspace lies above the plane of reality that we all inhabit and live in, and we know that Slipspace is the same thing. Perhaps Hyperspace is just one of these hidden dimensions that makes up Slipspace. If we can figure out a way to access Hyperspace using Slipspace, we could find a way to get into the S-Threads and intercept the transmissions inside."
Grayson's eyebrows went up. "That's… that's genius!" he said. "We'd need to modify one of our WAVE/SLIPSPACE COM buoys or Relays to do that, but if it works, we could have a way to get into the S-Threads, could being the operant word here."
"Exactly," Wolf said. "While it might very well be possible to penetrate Hyperspace using Slipstream Space, we'd still need to find a way to access these S-Threads. It could be something as simple as opening up a small Slipspace portal into one of these S-Threads and planting a modified COM buoy there to listen in on them, or it could involve a method so exotic and unique that we haven't even considered it before."
"Agreed," Sark said. "It's definitely something worth considering. Like I said with Dr. Okuni's idea, I'll speak to Admiral Osman on the possibility of getting funding and materials in order to see if these ideas are even viable. At this point, though, all possibilities are open."
"Agreed," Grayson said. "There is one thing that we can all agree on though."
"That being?"
"Imperial warships are really bad compared to our own. If you don't believe me, just look at the schematics." Tapping a few commands into the room's holotable, Grayson pulled up a schematic of the Imperial I-class Star Destroyer.
As soon as she saw the design, Sark had to resist the urge to laugh. "Is this their so-called 'Star Destroyer?'" she asked. "If so, then someone definitely needs to go back to the academy. I can already tell you off the bat that this is a really bad design."
"Tell me about it," Grayson said. "Let's go over the reasons why it is a bad ship first. Who knows? We might learn a thing or two about how the Empire regards its Navy, or even some ideas on how to make our ships better."
"That we definitely can," Dr. Wolf said. "I, for one, don't understand why the bridge is in such an exposed position." Pointing at the rear section of the ship, she said, "That, to me, looks like a target sign. Any commander worth their salt would be able to put a MAC round through the bridge and, in doing so, kill all of the command personnel in the ship. Why would they put it there in the first place?"
"I think I know why," Eric suggested. "From what the intelligence we've gathered tells us, the development of projectile weapons in the Andromeda Galaxy stagnated after the discovery of Tibanna Gas. This meant that energy weapons were the main focus of that galaxy's technological development. As such, without powerful projectile weapons, you wouldn't have to worry about a MAC blasting the ship off. A simple ray shield could simply block the bolts.
"This, however, is not how things went in our galaxy. As you all know, we didn't develop energy weapons until just a decade before the end of the last war, which means that we kept on refining our projectile weapons for the better part of six centuries. On top of that, their computer technology is not as advanced as our own, which means that combat ranges are inherently closer. As such, while putting the bridge at the back here might seem like a really bad to us, to them, it might seem like a good idea because of the state of their targeting technology and their weapons development."
The others nodded. "That does explain a few things," Grayson said. "Still, the idea of putting the bridge in such an exposed position…" he shook his head. "I just can't figure it."
"Me too," Sark said. "I also believe the position is wrong too. Ideally, you want the bridge of a ship to be in the center of the ship. It's a design lesson we haven't implemented yet, but we do know that the Swords of Sangheilios design their ships in that way. We just have to reconfigure UNSC ships to use the same layout, though that'll take time we don't have."
"Then we'll have to focus on new ship designs," Grayson said. "Moving on from that, though, another flaw in the design is how close the crew is to the upper portion of the ship." Zooming the schematics in on a section of the hull, he said, "According to my research, most of the crew on the Star Destroyer are housed in the upper section of the superstructure."
"That seems like a waste of space," Eric remarked, "unless there's something I'm missing that is."
"You'd be right too. According to Cortana's intelligence, most Star Destroyers make use of what is known as a 'Solar Ionization Reactor.' According to that intelligence, they work by using the ion and magnetic field of what is effectively a miniature sun to provide power for the entire ship. The reactor, though, is so large that it forces the crew to inhabit the upper superstructure of the ship."
"That does seem like a waste of space," Sark agreed. "Our nuclear fusion reactors are much smaller than that, and they generate a similar level of power too. Still, the idea of a Solar Ionization Reactor seems promising. What do you think, Eric?"
"It does," Eric mused. "We probably wouldn't use the reactor type, but given that it appears to be a giant nuclear reactor, we could use some of the principles it uses to make our fusion drives more efficient. I'd need to study an intact SIR to be sure, though."
"We'll probably get one soon enough," Sark said. "What else do we know about the Star Destroyers?"
"Their weapons arrangement is quite strange," James noted. "From what I can tell, the ship is generally designed to be used in broadside attacks, and the turbolasers mounted on it are arranged specifically for that. They're mounted too low to be used in a frontal attack, though they could simply dip the ship's nose down to achieve that. It's much different from UNSC naval doctrine."
"Agreed," Sark said. "We generally mount our guns on all sections of the ship, rather than on the top and bottom only. It's like these guys are trying to fight in a two dimensional matter when space is a three dimensional domain. It's possible, but really, really dumb."
"There's something else as well, Vice Admiral. Thanks to the intelligence Cortana sent us, we have actual combat data on how our ships fared against these Star Destroyers. From what I've been able to gather, our frigates hit well above their weight class when it comes to facing Star Destroyers. One of the Infinity's Strident-class frigates was able to overwhelm their particle shields and cause significant damage to the hull. According to combat footage, the hulls of Imperial ships are vulnerable to hypervelocity MAC shells."
"What about our Anlance-class frigates?" Sark asked.
"They did quite well too. Their laser weapons were able to significantly reduce the strength of ray shields with each hit. Their main laser guns were able to generate enough power to cut into the hulls of those ships too. As for the Infinity, well… we really don't need to see the combat footage to know how Imperial ships stack up to her."
Sark nodded. She'd seen the combat footage for herself. To say that the Infinity was superior to every Imperial ship in the Galalctic Empire's Navy was like saying the sky was blue. "Agreed. As far as I can tell, we've got quite a bit of information to go through still. I'll speak to Admiral Osman on the possibility of gathering enough funding and materials to test out our theories.
"In the meantime, however, we need to get to work." Looking at the others, she said, "Okuni, Richard, you two will get to work studying the Death Star's blueprints in order to find out anything else we don't know about how it stays together. Dr. Wolf, see if you can contact your colleagues and get them onboard. If we can find a way to access those S-Threads and listen in on Imperial communications, it'll give us a major advantage in the war to come. Grayson, try and see what you can find out about the power supply of the Death Star and other Imperial Ships. James, you continue working on that Casaba-Howitzer idea while Eric will help everyone else out. Is that understood?"
"Yes, ma'am," the others replied.
"Good. Get to it. If we can apply the lessons we'll be learning before a war breaks out, we'll have a major advantage once the UNSC goes to war."
