Star Wars: From the Clone Wars to Starfaring Heroes

Chapter 116-117 - Lorona Company's Cooperation Intent (4k)

“According to the charter of the Independent Galaxy Confederation, the nomination of the Supreme Commander requires an absolute majority of votes.” Speaker Lauvis tapped the surface of the control panel lightly with his knuckles, producing a crisp sound, then stepped back half a step, giving space to the voting senators. “Now, please begin the vote.”

As soon as the speaker finished speaking, it was as if an invisible gate had been suddenly pulled open, and the long-simmering tension in the council chamber erupted instantly.

Hundreds of senators jumped up from their seats almost simultaneously, quickly forming groups of varying sizes, and discussing their voting intentions in hushed tones.

"General Tann..."

The heavy pressure that had previously enveloped the entire room now transformed into a dense chorus of conversation.

The only ones who didn't join the chaos were the members of the "alliance," who had already completed their unified voting process.

And General Severn Tann, who was at the center of this storm.

She stood there like a silent statue, unmoved even as the senators hurried past her, deliberately keeping their distance.

Raine's gaze fell on the tall figure of Admiral Trench of the Hatch Clan, and he strode toward him.

Finding Trench in the crowd was not difficult; his unusually large stature stood out like a beacon in the observation deck.

Long before Severn Tann's name appeared in the officers' reports, Trench was already a legendary figure in the Confederate Navy.

His presence alone was seen as a strong endorsement of General Tann's nomination.

The other officers watching seemed to sense some invisible boundary and consciously kept their distance from him.

"Brigadier General Bontri, may I have a moment of your time?"

Rein paused, turned around, and said with some surprise, "Commander Dimura..."

Commander Dimura of Amplicon casually raised his hand in a salute, then smoothly turned to the skako beside him, who was fully encased in steel armor, and gestured for introduction: "This is Mur Danto, a representative of the Technological Alliance. We have a proposal we would like to discuss with you."

Ryan's gaze swept quickly across the two men's faces before he turned back to make sure that Trench's position hadn't changed.

"I prefer direct and straightforward communication."

Raine said in a steady voice, devoid of any emotion.

“Very good.” Dimura breathed a sigh of relief, took a half-step forward, lowered his voice, and said directly, “Brigadier General Bontri, let’s get straight to the point… Given that General Tann is about to assume the position of Supreme Commander without question, her office will soon become the core of Confederate military affairs. The Lorona Corporation and the Technology Alliance wish to establish a strategic partnership with General Tann’s office to launch several key projects.”

“Isn’t it a bit premature to talk about this now?” Renn frowned slightly, his gaze shifting between Dimura’s confident face and Bont Danto’s expressionless visor. “The voting isn’t over yet, and the appointment hasn’t officially taken effect.”

“Not at all,” Mur Danto immediately interjected, his deep but exceptionally clear voice coming from beneath the Skako visor. “In business competition, seizing the initiative is the lifeline. As soon as this voting farce is over, our competitors will pounce on that Pantora like sharks smelling blood. What we need to ensure is that the Technology Alliance gets an exclusive contract.”

"It seems you have extraordinary confidence in General Tann's election and the future policy direction." Ryan's tone remained calm, but his eyes held a thoughtful look.

“Officer, if you still have even a shred of doubt,” Mur Danto’s voice held a firm tone, “then consider this: if our proposal is approved by the new general’s office, all star systems under the Technological Alliance will cast their votes in unwavering support.”

Renn instinctively took a breath.

This is way too blatant.

Fortunately, they were located far away from the buzzing holographic camera robots.

The other party's intentions are laid bare before us.

They wanted to seize the new power center of the Supreme Commander before the other giants of the military-industrial complex could react.

Once Tann takes office, the old practice of Count Dooku and the Secret Enterprises Council privately allocating contracts will be difficult to continue.

All military projects and budget allocations will go through the office of the separatist army's supreme commander.

The Technology Alliance and Lorona saw an opportunity to break the Liberty Duck Volunteer Engineers' monopoly and wanted the biggest slice of the pie in the new order.

Raine raised a hand, palm down, making a pressing motion: "It's the new heavy cruiser from the Freedark Volunteer Corporation, it's got you all excited, hasn't it?"

“Brigadier General Bontri, it seems we’ve reached an agreement.” Dimura’s lips curled into a knowing smile.

The "heavy cruiser" built by the Freedark Volunteer Engineers Corps made a high-profile debut.

Moreover, intelligence indicates that more are under construction in the shipyard, which undoubtedly solidifies the Liberty Dart Volunteer Engineering Corps' position as the Confederacy's top starship manufacturer.

Not to mention, they also control the design and production of the "Divine Will" class destroyers/carriers and the "Disobedient" class light destroyers that form the backbone of the Confederate Navy.

These contracts were clearly granted by Count Dooku and his secret corporate council, bypassing normal procedures.

However, once the supreme commander arrives, this path will be blocked.

The Technology Alliance and Lorona saw an opportunity to challenge FDVE’s dominance with their “super weapon” project.

A crucial piece of information flashed through Raine's mind: Watt Temple, the CEO (foreman) of the Technology Alliance, was himself a member of that secret council.

"What does Foreman Watt Temple think about this?" Ryan raised an eyebrow, his tone inquisitive.

“We haven’t received any direct instructions from Foreman Tambor since the Battle of Lylos,” Moore Danto answered crisply and without any pretense. “The Board’s opinion is clear: we can’t just let this opportunity slip away.”

This statement hints at potential disagreements or power shifts within the technology alliance.

Ryan wanted to ask them why they had specifically approached him, but then he thought that given these companies' intelligence capabilities, they must have had a good reason for choosing him, and asking further would be superfluous. "Alright," he said, extending his right hand, "show me your proposal."

"Brigadier General!" A hint of joy flashed across Dimura's face as he quickly took out a portable holographic projector from his pocket and skillfully inserted a small data chip into the interface. "Lorona Corporation has conducted in-depth research on your performance in the Battle of Kolumex. Considering the success of your use of the 'Tan' railgun' tactic, we propose a collaborative development of a completely new, epoch-making class of warships... an experimental ship."

The projector is turned on, and a beam of light projects a complex 3D design drawing.

What appeared before Renn was a warship with a peculiar structure. Its main body consisted of two huge hulls arranged in parallel and fixed in the middle by a thick connecting structure, giving it a unique "catamaran" structure.

The design intent of this ship is very clear; even without delving into the densely packed specifications, its purpose is understandable.

They plan to integrate the core propulsion system of the Tann railgun into the ship's interior, rather than using bulky external attachments as in the past.

Ryan immediately realized the crux of the problem, something the proposers were well aware of as well.

The so-called "Tann Railgun" is not a railgun in the traditional sense.

They called the ship an "experimental ship" rather than a "warship" because the idea of ​​integrating the "Tann Railgun" was never successfully realized.

The reason for this failure is that the "Tann Orbital Cannon" is not a common kinetic weapon in the galaxy that relies on electromagnetic orbits to accelerate projectiles.

Its operating principle is more complex and dangerous.

It is actually a "warp engine" device disguised as a mass drive.

Standard railguns simply cannot accelerate projectiles to near the speed of light.

The most powerful model may be able to reach an initial speed of 2 kilometers per second.

The projectiles fired by the Tann railgun travel at speeds of up to 10 kilometers per second.

However, this cost is extremely high.

To provide acceleration energy for a single proton torpedo, it would be necessary to drain the entire power output of a dreadnought's reactor and also require a powerful military-grade traction beam for guidance and stabilization.

The energy required is staggering, while the safety redundancy is extremely limited.

After all, they are drastically distorting the structure of spacetime, and any tiny calculation error or system failure could lead to catastrophic consequences.

Just think of the scene created by Raine's improved "Tann Railgun" salvo during the Battle of Kolmex, and you'll understand.

More than a dozen warships were vaporized by the high temperature in an instant, and tens of thousands of lives were wiped out.

The core principle of the "Tann Railgun" is to compress the space in front of the warhead to an extreme degree while stretching the space behind the warhead to an extreme degree.

By manipulating the spacetime structure in this way, the warhead was able to locally break the speed of light limit.

In the understanding of Raine, a non-physicist, this essentially created an extremely unstable miniature warp bubble.

Using such a device on the outside of a ship is dangerous enough; what if you put it inside a warship?
Considering the need to accommodate the enormous energy generator, the complex space warp propulsion system, and the layers of redundant equipment and protective structures that must be installed to ensure basic safety...

The interior space of this envisioned "experimental ship" would be almost entirely occupied by this giant cannon and its auxiliary systems.

It will essentially become a platform designed specifically to carry this super weapon, possessing almost no other combat capabilities besides its main gun.

Then there's the critical fire control problem.

While the built-in system theoretically allows for more direct aiming calculations, Rein is highly skeptical that its accuracy can reach the level of a traditional mass drive.

To put it bluntly, the success of the "Tan Railgun" in actual combat largely relied on Severn Tann's own battlefield intuition and Force perception.

She kept trying different shooting parameters during the battle until she hit the target.

The improved version of the Kolmex was successful simply because the target area was large enough and the number of projectiles was large enough; even so, the hit rate was pitifully low.

This means that this will be an extremely long research and development project, and its cost will be astronomical.

The Lorona Corporation and its technical alliance needed to design and build a completely new weapon system from scratch, as well as a completely new hull to house the system.

Will it succeed?
Ryan couldn't be sure; perhaps by the time it actually entered service, he would already be long gone.

Is it really feasible?

On the other hand, Lorona is known for designing unconventional and high-risk unique hulls, while the Technology Alliance possesses a wealth of cutting-edge, even unorthodox, technological reserves.

If anyone in the Milky Way has the potential to realize this crazy idea, it might just be them.

“Lorona Corporation will be responsible for designing the special hull required for this unique catamaran structure,” Dimura explained opportunely, clearly noticing Rein studying the blueprints. “This is our core competency. Meanwhile, our subsidiary, Lorona Defense Industries, will work closely with Bakhtoyd Fleet Ordnance, a subsidiary of the Technology Alliance, to jointly develop dedicated warheads and space-warp launch systems. And—”

"Furthermore, the central R&D department of the Technology Alliance will immediately launch in-depth research on the core theoretical model of the 'gravitational particle accelerator,' as well as the forward-looking development of the supporting fire control system," Moore Danto added seamlessly, his electronic eyes flashing red beneath the Skako visor. "Brigadier General Bontri, I don't want to hide the risks. This project may succeed, or it may fail completely. But I firmly believe that even if it ultimately proves to be a dead end, thoroughly verifying a 'null hypothesis' itself is an indispensable step in the development of science and military technology."

“…I understand your attitude towards scientific exploration,” Ryan said, crossing his arms. “That’s not my biggest concern. What I’m worried about is the time this project will take and the bottomless financial investment. If you had proposed this plan after the war, perhaps I could have considered it—”

“No!” Moore Danto’s voice suddenly rose, carrying a strong sense of urgency that Rein hadn’t anticipated. “It must begin now! No one can guarantee that Severn Tann will still be in the position of Supreme Commander after the war. Only she has the courage and understanding to approve such a high-risk, high-investment project. This is not only about exploring the boundaries of technology, but also about huge commercial interests, Officer! The Technology Alliance Board of Directors has already stated that it is willing to invest all necessary resources.”

"Invest all necessary resources...?" Renn repeated the words softly, trying to suppress a hint of sarcasm that might appear on his lips. "Is this an official decision of the entire technology alliance, or does it merely represent the... enthusiasm of your R&D department?"

(More to come later)
(End of this chapter)