You guys need to watch Perun, a great and magnificent channel if I do say so myself.

Sorry for being short. I don't know what to add to this chapter that wouldn't impede with the flow of the story.

…..

Leirra Zuraiys

Oceans crashing down to a barrier of sand, strange new familiar birds circling above land. Gripping the loose salted wet earth of Herrans, an ocean smaller than the land surrounds. Fishermen throw their nets at the small sea, capturing fish for their life fee. The wind was faint–barely noticeable, yet it's cold still able. Gold of wheat and green of grass mix but not blend, with ocean blue reflecting the sky of man. No rue in heart as calm settled in place, with no quickened breath of uncomfortable pace. How remorseful such a view will be blasted by bits, and accompanied by sounds of taints.

"Sir, are you sure there isn't another place to test this?" I asked my mentor while holding parts for the machine he was assembling. My focus was given to nature's canvas, knowing it would be an unwitting tester.

My master waved off my concern, seeing it to be unfound. "It's just blaster bolts, Leirra. We're not testing anything to destroy this place." He extended his arm toward me, and I complied, giving to him the barrel that was finally attached to the machine. "This is the only place where men that watch are sparse, no imperials that will question, and safe to test this beast." He smirked, attaching a wire at the trigger after mounting the blaster with a tripod and no scope.

"What about the people over there?" I pointed at a group near the pier and small boats. "What about them? They're in the waters or near it, would it not be unsafe for them if we test it here?"

Reshim walked back and I followed him as we took cover behind a makeshift barricade. "A non-factor, they are safe, we are shooting further off the sea, and everyone here is tight-lipped, there's a reason why I picked this place. Besides, it's only one shot—don't worry too much." He gave me the string. "Pull the string, you deserve it, your creation after all."

Taking the string I smile. "Thanks, " yanking it, the sound of a heavy bolt leaving the barrel and splashing from the sea and the absence of an explosion made us look at each other with a grin of our own. Almost sprinting we look at the blaster and quickly check if it is overheating or not.

"Is the cooling unit holding, lad?"

"Not even scratched, sir, " I replied.

"Barrel and magnetic launcher for the bolt?"

"Good as new and not even strained by it," this time I was giddy. "The Tibana cooking chamber also seamlessly works with the power pack, " I said with awe. Reshim put his hand upon my shoulder and patted it, "we did it, " I slowly muttered, "WE DID IT!!" I jumped no longer able to contain my joy.

One year of work finally paid off! Learning under Reshim of all the things I needed to know about making a blaster, all those hours in the workshop, learning the proper tooling, how to machining certain parts, basic thermo and gas dynamics, it finally paid off.

"Congratulations, Lad. This is an event marked for celebration—c'mon let's go tell your parents what you've accomplished."

"But we haven't even tested its reliability. Shouldn't we fire more shots to know which part will fail? " I told him my concern.

"We can't do that here if that's what you want," Reshim said with pity. "That'll put the Empire's eyes toward us. One shot from this thing is alright but tens of thousands will rouse imperial suspicion. And with them asking us for this weapon to inspect it; they'll know instantly about the armor piercing Tibanna gas."

"So we can't do a stress test?"

"We can't, and it is not that important considering this is a simple design and is easy to make, but it will be preferable if we can. Unless of course you have an idea on how to do it."

The thing is I have an idea, a crazy one at that, but hey the both of them making this into an armor piercing blaster was already crazy so…eh why the heck not.

"I have an idea for that but we need my father's help," I can't believe I'm going to do this.

……

Bas Zuraiys

His son and his mentor entered his office presenting their blaster. Bas stared down at his son's first blaster. It was a weird thing to hold, yes, but not uncomfortable. His son told him that this was a precision rifle—which he thought to be a waste. The thing looks like it could be easily classified as a light repeating blaster with more work put into it(1). It has the characteristics to be one, long magnetic barrel launcher, stable stock, and reliable ergonomics for sustainable fire, the only thing that is missing is a decent cooling system. With just enough development this could be a great light-medium repeating blaster, a waste of potential in his opinion.

Still, the blaster has its quirk that isn't common amongst its brethren, like this trigger that is too satisfying to pull, a rail system, and the oddest of them all: "Why is there a handle for the magnetic barrel?" he asks his son, not understanding the use of such a part.

His son perked up with his mentor chuckling as if knowing this would be his first question. Silently his son asked him to give the blaster back and then pushed a button at the body of the blaster to remove the barrel. Bas raised a lone eye at that, scratching his head not understanding the point of such a feature in a blaster, a precision blaster at that, he could understand why a heavy repeating blaster or any repeating blaster really would need such a feature, Force, he still remembers how his DC-15A was so prone to overheating that he wished he could just change the barrel and fire more shot. On a precision rifle however such a feature is useless, it doesn't need heavy sustainment of fire in a scenario where a precision rifle is used to suppress an enemy like a repeating and a heavy precision… blaster. Hmm, no, Leirra isn't stupid; there's no way this is a heavy precision rifle that could easily pierce stormtrooper armor, right?

"Leirra..."

"Yes, Dad?" His son responded

"I have a question, by any chance is this rifle rated to hold armor-piercing Tibanna gas?" his son and his master trembled for a second. Reshim, the bastard, just look away to the left and take a slight step back. "Leirra, answer the question."

"You see, I wouldn't call it armor-piercing Tibanna gas, more so a Tibanna gas that ignores any form of plastoid body armor," he nodded, deluding that it was an answer that could satisfy his father.

Bas's right eye twitch, face palming. "Please tell me you're not planning to sell this to the civilian market." That would be a disaster of epic proportions, this rifle in itself looks easy to produce with its mostly plastoid body frame and the simple tooling that most planets (and pirates) can remake with their own equipment. With a little more development like upgrading its powerpack and cooling system with the sacrifice of ergonomics (which is almost negligible considering the rifle his son made is hundreds of miles ahead of standard blasters in design) you could find yourself a headache for the empire waiting to happen, and if the empire has headaches they will try to remove it by targeting the core, and that core, with a mix of pride and horror: is his son. Oh Force, they'll hunt them down if they find out about it.

"Nope, this is just for me and no one else." His son gave him what was supposed to be a reassuring thumbs up, a very hard thing to be assured by as the object of his distress in his son's hands.

"No imperial sees you shooting that right?"

"Beside some fisherman at the Herrans sea, nope, no one saw us shooting it," his son answered. Now that lifts the majority of the unnecessary burden the duo put on him.

Relaxing a bit he finally asks the reason why the two of them want to meet him. "So why are you showing me this first? Is there something you want to ask?"

This time it was Reshim who spoke, "Well there is this one thing..."

"Well, what are you waiting for? Tell me." Bas pressed.

"Can you make a company under our clan's name? There's something I want to do with it."

Another request from his son, and once more this an odd one.

"And that is?"

"You know that developing a blaster that could pierce a plastoid is illegal, right? I was thinking why not give it to the empire, It solves most of our problems by giving it a legal reason to exist and the data on that stress test could help us to Improve the blaster (2)."

Silence fell into the room, Bas looked at his son's mentor who was as equally shocked as him.

"You want to give this to the empire?!!?" Bas screamed at his son. Leirra already knew how he and his clan felt about the Imperial and his giving his creation to them could only bring trouble. "Are you mad! Do you not see that our people accepting their rule is already strenuous as it is! Leirra, this is unthinkable!"

"Father, I'm not,"

"What were you thinking!! If… "

"FATHER!!!" Bas widened his eyes, and his dutiful son for the first time in his life screamed at him. "Please, listen. I'm not going to sell this to the Empire. The blaster I've made no matter how good it is will never be picked. It's not only me who will bid to win after all countless bigger and more well-connected corporations will be picked before me. While we are just designing this from our shed, it'll never win. They'll bribe the one who picked this rifle and I'm not going to bribe anyone. Please Father, this is just for us to test the design."

Hearing his son's calm logic made him rethink. What his son said was true. There are many reasons why companies win government contracts, bribes, and well-placed connections are far heavier factors than one would realize. The companies that will compete will have resources that far outmatched them. Realistically, for his son winning the bid no matter how good his design, is as good as zero. They won't win no matter how hard they try to win with Bas and even if the whole planet tries to support Leirra to succeed—they will fail. These companies are far larger in wealth, power, and relevance compared to Birren, an inner-rim planet that has nothing to offer except its grains.

"Fine, you've convinced me," Bas sighed. "But do you have any plan on how to convince the rest of the elders? You need their support to do this. Unless you want to do this alone and without them knowing and risk our family and clan being isolated by the rest of our people."

"I do tell them at the next council meeting that this is just a ruse on our part to gain imperial favor, to learn about our enemies' military capabilities, and to infiltrate its rank. Tell them that we're planting a spy inside. " Now that intrigue, Bas, well if all of this was true at least he'd say this is a good first move to plan the eventual rebellion against the empire, having intelligence inside would help tremendously in the fight, but knowing that this whole thing was for his son to just to test his rifle and bid in an unwinnable contract was quite disappointing. He hoped that the excuses his son made to the elder and council were true yet the reality of it all saddened him.

True, the chance isn't zero merely near zero of his son winning the contract and with that giving Birren a good position to spy on the empire, it's just a statistical impossibility for his son to win. Bas, previously angry that his son proposed to sell his creations to the empire now wants him to win after his son explains his excuses for the council to approve of this move. 'If only all of those excuses were true, and they have a chance to win. ' Bas lament.

"Alright, but you must be the one that proposes and tells this to the elder and the council, not me. This is what you want, this is your decision and a path you make of your own. Convince them Leirra, then you'll have my support. "

"Thank you, Father," his son hugged him and then left his office. Reshim bowed to him and then followed his son.

For the first time in his life, Bas wished that the empire was more competent and reasonable to choose his son's clearly superior design yet he knows that will never come to pass.

…..

Leirra Zuraiys

Convincing the council was easy, surprisingly. I've underestimated how much of an impression I have left on them. Having a reputation as a gifted genius traveled fast in the social circle of Birren and with the workers of our farm spreading rumors of the gift that was given to me by the Force; the council of Birren accepted my proposal rather easily. It also helps that the Hashtun is highly superstitious as a society and the gives that the force has given me was interpreted as some sort of a sign that I am blessed (and also that I am a Zuraiys and part of the richest and influential family in Birren.). And with that, I have the blessing of the council to offer my work to the Empire.

Because I am still young and not of legal age, Bas is the one who will be written as the head of the private company and handle every administrative hurdle that would come forward. I don't have any official position but as my mother and father's heir, there's no need for me to have one.

The next thing to do is decide where to propose or bid on my design. The Imperial conventional military and the stormtrooper core are immediately out of the question, not only because they'll be the ones that could deal more damage to any future rebellion if they chose my weapon but also because the type of weapon I've made will never fit their criteria. The two of them want cheap and reliable pieces of equipment; concepts that are incompatible with my sniper.

While my blaster is reliable for the standard of Earth, some of the design choices I've made make it very unreliable by Star Wars standards. And I won't be surprised if my decision to put a removal barrel would be grounds for immediate elimination for any consideration to be adopted because of the sheer nightmare of having to add an extra part to a logistical chain. And sure the process of manufacturing would be easy because of the materials I used and easy to produce designs, but don't be fooled, cheapness sometimes could be an illusion when compared to the time of production and how much quality you could sacrifice to reduce those times and cost to achieve the same or similar result, and this is not something you could make an inferior copy to expect near results.

I rely too heavily on precision manufacturing with the CNC machine and customs cast for the plastoid (Another expensive thing to make) that I forget that Star Wars, for all of its advances in mass manufacturing, failed compared to Earth when it comes to machines that are for specialized parts limited to production. The sheer size of the galaxy makes it unprofitable for small companies unless they have quality products to make a profit, this resulted in the abandonment of investment in personal machines of manufacturing like 3d printing. There is a visible concerted effort by big businesses to make personal manufacturing machinery underinvested so that there would be no competition at the local level and make profit for the manufacturing power of large corporations. In short, it's in big business's best interest for local small planets to be dependent on their products(3).

The only way I could see this blaster being accepted is one, I build Birrens manufacturing capability in the next few months (unfeasible), two, let other larger companies produce it under license (Just no), or third find a better customer that will willingly buy an extremely specialized piece of equipment and not afraid of cost, which lead me to my other potential customers.

The I.S.B and Imperial Intelligence (I.I.).

These are organizations that would want specialized equipment and wouldn't outright look past the blasters and even consider testing it and if I advertise and put a case of my product for them to even consider it.

Of the two the I.S.B seems the least likely to want it. They are from a civilian organization that is under COMPNOR (Commission for the Reservation of the New Order.) a weird mix of the F.B.I., N.S.A., and the SS (4) most of their members are officers that have little to no military training and their scope of work is mostly geared to the preservation of the new order, by this they mostly send their agents that are mostly pencil pusher to fields supported by assets from the military, there is no pressing concern in their part to adopt a new long-range accurate weaponry and more to be interested in pistols and carbines like weaponry. That, and they are the most zealous of Palpatine's supporters.

Which just left the I.I, Force, they need a better acronym. The empire's premiere organization in dealing with foreign actors and right now is the tip of the spear in the Empire's reconquest of the Outer-Rim, their operations are more covert, behind the enemy line action, assassinating key figures, and other C.I.A (5) stuff you could think of; their organization is smaller in size and funding as time goes on as the Empires enemies go thin, but because of that, per average their members are given better equipment and training. They always wanted to have the best equipment they could get their hands on, resulting from the extreme rigor and hardship of their tasks, and there is none from the large companies that would leer at them with the funding they have compared to the I.S.B and the military branches, big companies would rather focus on the ones that'll give them the most profit so it is not uncommon for unknown, small, and medium-sized companies to supply them with equipment, meaning me bidding my blaster would be taken seriously. Plus the rebellion is mostly under the task of the I.S.B. to monitor, so giving the I.I.better equipment would not hurt the rebellion if they chose to adopt it, no matter how impossible it is, it's better to have precaution after all.

With that, I've made up my mind.

Imperial intelligence is the only realistic option that I have and the least morally dubious. They are very selective of their equipment even if they are desperate. That means I'll get a better report stress test from them, meaning they'll be harsh in their review, which I find to be exactly what I'm looking for.

Besides, there's no way they would pick my design.

….

I'm sorry for this one. There's too much technical speech here. That is too bureaucratic for the average person to enjoy.

…..

Imperial Intelligence Officer

Code name: Adler, Special Operations.

Location: unknown.

The air is dull blue, as clouds gather on top, signaling a coming rain, high mountains were in the back of his target and swinging grass followed the pattern of small patches of hilly land. Adler observes from a scope that the I.I. has provided for him. It served its function marvelously; there was no glitch on the computation display and no discomfort for him to look at the roundel moving mock target, he zeroed the scope matching to a magnification that was instinctual for him to do, he had done this uncountable amount of time already, so the only thing that could make him miss his shot is the blaster he is holding.

Taking a deep breath, he squeezed the trigger feeling a light kick push him slightly from his prone position. The target hit perfect dead center, the same result its predecessor had done before, with no major improvements like always. Alder sighed, how many times has this happened? Doing the same test over and over—testing for a new rifle that is always similar no matter how they changed its name and design, the result is always the same. There is no progress to be made for 4 years he had shot rifle after rifle in his off time for the I.I. waste credits to justify their five years of fruitless weapons research. All in an effort so that the Empire could give them more funding to spend an illusion of productivity, if they used the credits efficiently and had extra; the brass is afraid if the imperial administration subtract those funds, making it more measley.

So here Adler is proning, shooting blaster after blaster that gives the same result or no immediate breakthrough and improvement that require immediate procurement, all in an effort so that his organization could be more cost inefficient. He should be fighting in the frontline somewhere in Minban not this place but those more higher than him want to make this test legitimate in the eye of imperial inspector to assure them that this is a real program and not a desperate attempt to preserve funding, and to achieve that they call in their greatest shot to test rifles that was submitted and give them detail reporting of its flaw to the blaster manufacturer and imperial inspector, all in an effort to look like they are trying to keep up this farce. ( Summary for the concept above (6))

He hated all of this! He first joined the intelligence community under the umbrella of republic intelligence, and when that organization was purged of any undesirable by the Emperor and his right hand man, Vader. Adler, being a new recruit at the time, was just retrained in some aspects of ideological beliefs but other than that the transition was smooth. He joined for the republic and the republic is no longer—turned into an empire and he's alright with it. One of the reasons he joined was for the betterment of the galaxy and the empire goals are aligned with his. Even then, Adler won't lie to himself; this whole operation could be more efficient—and less corrupt, more putting substance into their work rather than faking the result like what he's doing right now.

If only the I.S.B. wasn't made after the empire's founding; maybe this whole thing would be efficient, but no! Those idiots, civilians, know it all, inflexible morons who just show that they are working lacking any professionalism and elite organization should have. He doesn't understand why the emperor gives the job of internal security to those fools and he never will. When the I.I., is clearly the least corruptible, more professional, and not shackled by inflexible ideology. Yet for some reason the emperor favored the I.S.B by giving them more budgets than the I.I. Who is struggling to make big companies look at them for government contracts.

Individually they are better trained and funded than their lesser sister; they can't afford to lessen those expenditure, their job is demanding by providing unbiased intelligence to the navy, army and stormtroopers core is hard work when you have to infiltrate organized resistance compared to lowly rabble the ISB is used to, he bet if the ISB is being given a task to fight an organized rebellion they will fail because of their arrogance. Still the lack of budget made them unable to make expensive programs like a network of galaxy wide spy satellites and have to rely on the navy's equipment which they work closely with; they share the same value with them for being apolitical, well at least the old guard of the navy, he heard that the new officer is grasping for more power these days.

While the ISB could spend their money carelessly and recruit and promote often without merit. They can't. They recruit stricter than them and have to find creative ways to be more effective with the funds they have to improve and to retain budget when they are being too effective to be efficient with their spending by using it wastefully on a dead end program. That's why they just accept any blaster rifle there is even from some unknown planet.

"Give me the next rifle," he told the officer beside him. She gave him the blaster and he raised a lone eyebrow at it, the thing was—slim, the slimmest blaster rifle he had ever seen, short as well for its designated class, it looked more like a common infantry rifle and even then it's shorter than rifles from the clone wars. Taking it from his fellow officer he was surprised once more because of how light it is, normally that would be bad for stability yet it still heavy enough to be comfortable to not feel like a toy like other precision rifles, it's made out of—plastoid? Now that's unique.

It came in with a deployable bipod and by the looks of it, could be easily removed with a railing system. And a railing system for a bipod? Huh, that's weird, usually the bipod is built in. Looking at the barrel it has a detachable barrel!! That would make it easy to replace when there's a mission where he can't maintain his barrel after a mission ensuring high mission tempo!! It's like this thing is made for light infantry and special units in mind!!

"Uhm, sir, where's the screw placement for the scope?" his junior officer asked in confusion. He looked at the place where the scope was supposed to be and he raised a lone eyebrow.

"Did they send anything more than this rifle?" he asked his junior.

The young woman nodded and gave him a piece of metal that is awfully similar to the nape of the bipod. Sitting up for a second, he took the piece of metal from her and the scope to combine the two together. The two of them looked at each other as if something clicked.

"This rifle is going to be amazing isn't it?" He said more of a statement than a question towards his junior officer.

The woman was still in awe looking at the blaster. She works for the logistical part of the organization so her seeing this thing must be a dream come true, a modular rifle that doesn't need special tooling to change its accessory. And is that drool in her mouth?

"Junior officer, Cardien—manners," he reminded his fellow officer.

"Uhm, sorry sir, won't repeat that, sir!" She saluted with a red embarrassed face. Adler just shook his head at the young officer's conduct then installed the scope to the rifle. Not forgetting to disconnect his blaster to the power pack he dry fired the blaster.

Click

Adler was silent, his body passive, face stoic, and hid his face not to be seen by the young officer with his right arm.

The young logistic officer was confused, mouth gaping and was thinking that the rifle must have such an atrocious dry fire that it made her superior overwhelmed with emotion. Concerned about Adler, Cardien grasps her superior arm, "Sir are you ok?"

"Y–yeah," was that a sniffle she heard? "Yeah, I'm alright, it's just, by the emperor, the trigger… "

He motioned his arm for her to try, the young woman followed and lifted the rifle to shoulder it and dry fire herself and was quickly befuddled forgoing the proper conduct near a superior officer. "Wtf?!" She sputtered, "Why is the trigger this good??!" It was smooth as butter and so satisfying!! "Sir, this is an amazing rifle."

Alder replied with a grunt, taking back the rifle from his junior officer who was quite unwilling, he reattached the power pack and squeezed the trigger with an almost orgasmic feeling. The shot hit true; the rifle hit was not dissimilar with the other competitors and gave the same result. Yet…

"Who made this?" he asked the junior officer.

"Some new company in the inner-rim sir, human dominated but is effectively in the middle of nowhere." hearing her description made Adler grin. Inner-rim, human dominated, and in the middle of nowhere, that's just screaming for immediate ground for approval! Especially for organizations like the I.I.

The brass wouldn't like it to end this farce program with a satisfying result but no way in hell he would let this rifle not be adopted!!! "I think we have a winner."

…..

Ah. I love writing about fictional intelligence agencies who hate each other and are non cooperative even though they are on the same side to secure more funding and prestige.

Thank God that's not what happens in real life. :)

1. Ohio defense ordnance new light-medium machine gun for SOCOM. Yes, it's a light-medium machine gun, not a medium/medium-light machine gun. The military and its weird naming classifications.

2. Man this reminds me of a specific rifle development, I can't put my finger on it.

3. I'm surprised that big businesses aren't trying to impede personal 3D printing progress. If the tech is advanced enough it could drive many businesses in the world to bankruptcy.

4. Personally I think the I.S.B is more similar to the N.K.V.D and gestapo; they are the same in function and origin. But my Mc doesn't know his history so he's going to take a more general (wrong) opinion.

5. Nah, the Imperial intelligence is mostly similar to the D.I.A not C.I.A, they serve mostly to disseminate info for military operations while ISB is internal. Also I know their official acronym is M. I. (Imperial Military Intelligence) I thought it would be funny just seeing I.I. Now the Abwehr, I mean the I.I is the organization I chose because… well.. that's a secret

6. If they have extra money they will lose the same amount of those extras in the next budget planning. To waste more money they make a fake procurement acquisition program.

More common than you would think in real life.