Chp-28: R&D Interlude
Freefaller
Not too sore, are you?
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Chp-28: R&D Interlude
Military Development Department Supervisor Yop Calio
Minda System, Ugea, Accordia, Imperial Island, R&D Laboratories
Things had been rough for the past few weeks. Their freedoms had been nearly entirely revoked, with only the sims left to play around with.
Make no mistake, Minda had far better conditions than all but the cushiest corporate labs, and even those were pushed by pure profit.
Here, they had been given a blank cheque and told to go all in. What they never realized was that in the pursuit of their technological dreams, they forgot to check their corners. When the governor had nearly died because of an infiltrator they had failed to catch, and who had only succeeded because they had rushed their projects, well.
The whole lab was lucky they weren't executed for incompetence.
A knock on his office door dragged him from his mind.
"Yop? Its Hry, I wanted to talk about a project?"
Yop sighed. He figured this would come at some point. "Come on in, then"
The doors slid open, and in walked a bulky pantoran. Hry was still relatively young, at about 23 years of age. He had studied engineering in his family's factory since he was incredibly young, and had dreams of building a variety of things since then.
He had been hired to the Mindan R&D team after leaving a corporate lab unsatisfied with his work. He had been here only a week, and was now encountering the same problem that they all had.
"I just…I wanted to talk about the sims. We're allowed to make simulated projects to test, but is there any way to get them approved for actual research and later production? That was the vibe I got from the recruitment ad at least."
Yop refrained from sighing, not wanting to demoralize the new recruit. "I was afraid this would come up. You see, the ad didn't lie, but it was also put out a few months ago. You see, around a month ago, we rushed multiple powered armor and light walker designs that we had been making on our own time into production. They were not ready, but we had gotten overzealous and wasted a significant portion of the budget on them before we stopped ourselves. When we tried to show them off as proof of concept, a saboteur took the opportunity to try and assassinate the governor with a bomb hidden on a prototype."
Hry's eyes were wide at this point. "We could've caught on if we had been more careful, taken more time, and been more cautious. But we weren't. You see, a lot of the people in the labs here are those who have incredible ideas and monumental skills. The kinds of people who have been studying and designing a set few projects almost their entire lives. One of the canceled prototypes, the A.E.G.I.S, was one of our engineers' life's work. She has been working on that suit of powered armor for the past 15 years, studying and learning, just so she could make one high mobility suit of combat armor. A dream she had had since she was inspired by some children's show."
"And now we can't do that, can we?" asked Hry, understanding glimmering in his eyes.
"No…no we can't" Yop responded. "Despite the massive amount of skill and resources and the sheer lack of restrictions as to how we develop the projects put in front of us, what we make is now restricted. At least we get things finished faster now. The TIE program had been developing steadily for nearly 6 months now, yet by putting all our efforts, and many sleepless nights, we were able to get functioning, safe prototype designs out just a month after the incident."
Hry's eyes widened. "That's…that's absurd! Ship development takes far longer than that! Not to mention the cost, the amount of custom parts, the testing…how?"
The older researcher chuckled, amused at the newbie's astonishment. "A combination of massive funds, incredible skill, logistical redundancies, and a healthy dose of fear. The governor essentially gives us as close to a blank cheque as he can, all our technicians and researchers and engineers are incredibly skilled, the TIE line has a massive amount of parts to draw from to reduce the workload, and we were all scared shitless thinking that if we didn't produce something worthwhile fast, the governor would have us killed when he woke up."
Another chuckle. "'Course, he didn't. Governor Mola may be young, younger than you even, but he's got a good head on his shoulder and works real hard. Every time I see him, he's got work in his hands and bags under his eyes."
Hry chuckled with him, but it petered off. "Does that mean…that we'll never get to use our personal projects again?"
"I don't know, kid." said Yop, mood souring. "I really hope so, but the governor only woke up a few weeks ago, and then there was the whole debacle with The Crowns, and now he has an entire new system to manage."
Seeing the newbie's mood falling, Yop perked himself up. As a supervisor, it was his job to keep team morale up! "But, I bet that if we can succeed with the TIE project, and keep both the StormTrooper armor and the LECA suits well researched, then we might be able to start petitioning the Governor for the ability to work on personal projects again. We'll probably need more evidence that the projects can work, and more approval, but still. The possibility is there. We just need to grasp it."
That seemed to life the Pantoran's spirits. "Thanks, Director. I just…I came here for a better chance, you know? More opportunities. Felt like I was lied to, but it's nice to hear that there's hope, ey? I've gotta go now, the LECA team is working on refining the current module line up."
"Of course, Hry. Don't let me keep you."
As Hry left, Yop couldn't help but smile.
They had messed up, but there was a path to redemption. A chance to push forward.
They just had to grasp it.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi there folks! Shorter little thing here, just felt like I hadn't expanded on the R&D team, or why they are just so damn fast. As shown above, they like to rush. Alot. While things like better software and the like are easy for them, the mecha projects were rushed prototypes, and while TIE variants seem to be coming out quicker, they really put their all into them. Also, the TIE variants are not in full production. Even with The Crowns put down for good and Minda back up and running, it will take time for both the designs to be refined, and the factories to be built. The only produced TIE's are the retrofits. No Rangers, Patrollers, or Whirlwinds just yet, outside of a select few testing versions. R&D has learned their lesson, and are taking their time.
The only reason the LECA's are being used is because they are simple enough to produce and design compared to entire starfighters and the like. Because they were the most simple of the mech projects, their prototypes ended up being the most stable. A few weeks of tweaks and the like, and a solid 30 or so were ready for use in Kaelas Kill'em All operation. Sure, there are definite tweaks and upgrades and refinements to be made, but their basically scaled up droids mixed with scaled down walkers, and none of the elements that made either difficult to make. That is, a droid's AI or a walker's mass.
Also, for the StormTrooper armor I showed in the last chapter, that is not the power armor variant spoken about during the tech expo chapter. It's the modified version that is being produced on the orders of Kaela after she explained to the techs that their version was overengineered. This suit has better protection and more advanced tech than regular armor, but has no powered exoskeleton like the original concept. Just better armor with more gadgets.
All in all, I wrote this to stave off my Project Stardust addiction. It's a surprisingly well made fleet battle game on roblox that has a ship unlock tree for like half a dozen franchises. From Star Wars to Yamato to Battlestar Galactica, it has it all. But, if your like me, your stuck grinding 10 mil xp for the Tier V Onager and crying all the way because these FUCKING PLEBS keep voting for close range brawler maps, and all the ships leading to the Onager are MISSLE BOATS that need to be FAR AWAY. Shit pisses me off.
As always, feedback on the story's future is highly appreciated. Also, for some reason, was struck with the urge to write a PJO mercenary fic based about a OC-SI merc who does work for the magical human underground. Let me know if that sounds interesting, cause its really just like a two line description right now.
Thanks for reading.
-Freefaller
Military Development Department Supervisor Yop Calio
Minda System, Ugea, Accordia, Imperial Island, R&D Laboratories
Things had been rough for the past few weeks. Their freedoms had been nearly entirely revoked, with only the sims left to play around with.
Make no mistake, Minda had far better conditions than all but the cushiest corporate labs, and even those were pushed by pure profit.
Here, they had been given a blank cheque and told to go all in. What they never realized was that in the pursuit of their technological dreams, they forgot to check their corners. When the governor had nearly died because of an infiltrator they had failed to catch, and who had only succeeded because they had rushed their projects, well.
The whole lab was lucky they weren't executed for incompetence.
A knock on his office door dragged him from his mind.
"Yop? Its Hry, I wanted to talk about a project?"
Yop sighed. He figured this would come at some point. "Come on in, then"
The doors slid open, and in walked a bulky pantoran. Hry was still relatively young, at about 23 years of age. He had studied engineering in his family's factory since he was incredibly young, and had dreams of building a variety of things since then.
He had been hired to the Mindan R&D team after leaving a corporate lab unsatisfied with his work. He had been here only a week, and was now encountering the same problem that they all had.
"I just…I wanted to talk about the sims. We're allowed to make simulated projects to test, but is there any way to get them approved for actual research and later production? That was the vibe I got from the recruitment ad at least."
Yop refrained from sighing, not wanting to demoralize the new recruit. "I was afraid this would come up. You see, the ad didn't lie, but it was also put out a few months ago. You see, around a month ago, we rushed multiple powered armor and light walker designs that we had been making on our own time into production. They were not ready, but we had gotten overzealous and wasted a significant portion of the budget on them before we stopped ourselves. When we tried to show them off as proof of concept, a saboteur took the opportunity to try and assassinate the governor with a bomb hidden on a prototype."
Hry's eyes were wide at this point. "We could've caught on if we had been more careful, taken more time, and been more cautious. But we weren't. You see, a lot of the people in the labs here are those who have incredible ideas and monumental skills. The kinds of people who have been studying and designing a set few projects almost their entire lives. One of the canceled prototypes, the A.E.G.I.S, was one of our engineers' life's work. She has been working on that suit of powered armor for the past 15 years, studying and learning, just so she could make one high mobility suit of combat armor. A dream she had had since she was inspired by some children's show."
"And now we can't do that, can we?" asked Hry, understanding glimmering in his eyes.
"No…no we can't" Yop responded. "Despite the massive amount of skill and resources and the sheer lack of restrictions as to how we develop the projects put in front of us, what we make is now restricted. At least we get things finished faster now. The TIE program had been developing steadily for nearly 6 months now, yet by putting all our efforts, and many sleepless nights, we were able to get functioning, safe prototype designs out just a month after the incident."
Hry's eyes widened. "That's…that's absurd! Ship development takes far longer than that! Not to mention the cost, the amount of custom parts, the testing…how?"
The older researcher chuckled, amused at the newbie's astonishment. "A combination of massive funds, incredible skill, logistical redundancies, and a healthy dose of fear. The governor essentially gives us as close to a blank cheque as he can, all our technicians and researchers and engineers are incredibly skilled, the TIE line has a massive amount of parts to draw from to reduce the workload, and we were all scared shitless thinking that if we didn't produce something worthwhile fast, the governor would have us killed when he woke up."
Another chuckle. "'Course, he didn't. Governor Mola may be young, younger than you even, but he's got a good head on his shoulder and works real hard. Every time I see him, he's got work in his hands and bags under his eyes."
Hry chuckled with him, but it petered off. "Does that mean…that we'll never get to use our personal projects again?"
"I don't know, kid." said Yop, mood souring. "I really hope so, but the governor only woke up a few weeks ago, and then there was the whole debacle with The Crowns, and now he has an entire new system to manage."
Seeing the newbie's mood falling, Yop perked himself up. As a supervisor, it was his job to keep team morale up! "But, I bet that if we can succeed with the TIE project, and keep both the StormTrooper armor and the LECA suits well researched, then we might be able to start petitioning the Governor for the ability to work on personal projects again. We'll probably need more evidence that the projects can work, and more approval, but still. The possibility is there. We just need to grasp it."
That seemed to life the Pantoran's spirits. "Thanks, Director. I just…I came here for a better chance, you know? More opportunities. Felt like I was lied to, but it's nice to hear that there's hope, ey? I've gotta go now, the LECA team is working on refining the current module line up."
"Of course, Hry. Don't let me keep you."
As Hry left, Yop couldn't help but smile.
They had messed up, but there was a path to redemption. A chance to push forward.
They just had to grasp it.
—----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi there folks! Shorter little thing here, just felt like I hadn't expanded on the R&D team, or why they are just so damn fast. As shown above, they like to rush. Alot. While things like better software and the like are easy for them, the mecha projects were rushed prototypes, and while TIE variants seem to be coming out quicker, they really put their all into them. Also, the TIE variants are not in full production. Even with The Crowns put down for good and Minda back up and running, it will take time for both the designs to be refined, and the factories to be built. The only produced TIE's are the retrofits. No Rangers, Patrollers, or Whirlwinds just yet, outside of a select few testing versions. R&D has learned their lesson, and are taking their time.
The only reason the LECA's are being used is because they are simple enough to produce and design compared to entire starfighters and the like. Because they were the most simple of the mech projects, their prototypes ended up being the most stable. A few weeks of tweaks and the like, and a solid 30 or so were ready for use in Kaelas Kill'em All operation. Sure, there are definite tweaks and upgrades and refinements to be made, but their basically scaled up droids mixed with scaled down walkers, and none of the elements that made either difficult to make. That is, a droid's AI or a walker's mass.
Also, for the StormTrooper armor I showed in the last chapter, that is not the power armor variant spoken about during the tech expo chapter. It's the modified version that is being produced on the orders of Kaela after she explained to the techs that their version was overengineered. This suit has better protection and more advanced tech than regular armor, but has no powered exoskeleton like the original concept. Just better armor with more gadgets.
All in all, I wrote this to stave off my Project Stardust addiction. It's a surprisingly well made fleet battle game on roblox that has a ship unlock tree for like half a dozen franchises. From Star Wars to Yamato to Battlestar Galactica, it has it all. But, if your like me, your stuck grinding 10 mil xp for the Tier V Onager and crying all the way because these FUCKING PLEBS keep voting for close range brawler maps, and all the ships leading to the Onager are MISSLE BOATS that need to be FAR AWAY. Shit pisses me off.
As always, feedback on the story's future is highly appreciated. Also, for some reason, was struck with the urge to write a PJO mercenary fic based about a OC-SI merc who does work for the magical human underground. Let me know if that sounds interesting, cause its really just like a two line description right now.
Thanks for reading.
-Freefaller
