Chapter 62;
Armourers In Excess
Bo-Katan watched from the cockpit as she guided the Kom'rk in towards the world the Hydraxius called Tanakred with something approaching disgust. The world was plagued by a poisonous cloud cover and as they descended she watched the atmospheric alarms with a critical eye. The guide-path they were to follow was clearly defined and very narrow, but well within the ships ability to handle. "Status?" Pre Viszla asked as he stepped into the cockpit.
"Shields holding, so are atmospheric seals. We're sixty kilometres from the primary forge of the Fabricator General." She said adjusting their course, and suddenly they were beneath the smog layers and a stunned silence filled the cockpit.
"Dank Ferrik..." Pre said as they raced in under the cover, the sensors were screaming about the dozens of target locks made and lost in as many seconds as they proceeded along the continental plate of the forge. A river of what they thought was lava at first passed between steel canyons before lifting from the bed over a lavafall into vast crucibles. Machines crawled over the surface conducting various tasks. "Is it?" He asked.
"Beska... Adamantium. It's liquid adamantium..." She said checking the sensors. "They're pouring it into some kind of mould. Osi'kyr! It's a starship frame!"
"A cast frame would be so flawed it could never withstand the stresses." A woman behind them both said. One of the armourers. "Let me see." She moved into the cockpit and took a seat, calling up the data on another of the computers at the side.
They passed over the first of the moulds and into another section and a deep sound emerged from the armourer. "By the first blades... they are using graviton furnaces to purify the material in the mould." And then they were past it heading towards a yawning cavern where they saw thousands of armoured vehicles being loaded into massive containers for transport before slipping into another yawning passage where their guide line ended and Bo-Katan lowered the landing gear, raising the wings.
Three more Kom'rk craft settled down and the Mandalorians within marched down the ramps.
Bo-Katan examined her wrist computer. "Don't remove your helmets... this hangar is radioactive." And then as the hangar doors closed behind them, colossal armoured doors fifteen metres thick, there was a roaring as the air was flushed from the hangar and replaced with the taste of recycled air. Only then did other doors open and a series of men and machines began to emerge. All escorting the bizarre cybernetic overlord that was the Fabricator General.
"Welcome to Tanakred Pre-Viszla, ah, I see you brought armourers as well as warriors." He said, his voice sounding like mechanical stresses on metal before an elucidator translated it into basic for them. It was not the Gothic they had some experience with. "Let it never be said Clan Viszla does not honour its agreements. You may have seen it on the way in, but we have prepared a megatonne of adamantium as a prepared ingot for your people."
There was silence.
They hadn't been moulding a piece for a ship at all. They were moulding
megatonne ingots for use by their shipyards. "Yes Fabricator General, we did see the mould beyond. If I may, this world seems to be terrifically toxic." Pre said as he moved closer to the strange mechanical abomination. And that started the party moving towards another door where they were headed for another section entirely.
Once more the elucidator began to translate for the Fabricator General. "It is yes, life on Tanakred is restricted to contained environmentally secured environments. The amount of pollution, radioactive outflow and toxic emissions of Tanakreds industry have long since poisoned the world past habitability." They came to another storehouse and the armourers were beckoned forwards. The cyborg turned to face them. "For the majority, the production of small scale adamantium equipment is prohibitively expensive and ill suited for general use, here we have a series of new Terminator Armour reconfigured for use by standard humans. These suits are large, bulky and somewhat restrictive, but all but invulnerable to small arms fire."
One of the armourers, the woman from before moved up to one of the suits separated and sitting on the racks intended to hold it and lifted one of the pauldrons, with some slight difficulty. "I can see why. Such a thick piece of beskar might even resist lighter starfighter weapons. But the mass is almost prohibitive, how do warriors so armoured move."
"The armour is powered." The Fabricator General said. "As you might observe with the pauldron the adamantium is layered over ceramite for enhanced thermal resistance compared to the metal alone." Metal tentacles gingerly took the piece from her and restored it to the rack. "Unfortunately, our forging processes lack sufficient delicacy to reliably produce armour using the material for our forces. Hence our agreement."
He referred to the price of the trade. The Imperium would provide one megatonne of adamantium annually for fifty years in exchange for the knowledge the armourers brought. Not everything they knew of course, the secrets of Mandalorian weaponry were there own, but the trick of producing personal armour light enough to operate in without powered assistance was part of the price. The other was that they would work with the Imperium to improve their jetpack technology with the grav suspensors used by the Imperium's own jump packs.
The warriors presence was more easily explained. Pre-Viszla spoke. "I want to see the ship."
The Fabricator General turned. "Very well."
Once more they were moving to see the other thing that they had come for, loyalists from various Mandalorian shipbuilders had come here to work on this project in secret. The price. The best Mandalorian troops would remain in Imperium space and take up roles training their Astra Militarum. For a hundred years that deal would remain.
And what had they bought with it?
"Dank Ferrik!" Pre-Viszla said as
he looked into the hangar bay that they had been lead towards.
"One point two kilometres long. Core structure is spine-grade Adamantium. Armour is two metre thick adamantium sheeting over a one metre ceramite plating. I understand that those were your specifications, but it felt unnatural crafting armour plating so... light." There were looks exchanged between a number of the Mandalorians at the idea that was light armour. "Most of the other components are as you supplied, the drives come from the CEC, armaments supplied by Mandal Motors and other subsidiaries, internal systems provided by your requested manufacters, repulsorlifts for ease of departing planetary surfaces, tractor beam projectors, ion cannon and turbolasers. It also has a spinal lance weapon with the associated plasma reactors to power it. Your people will be trained to maintain those systems, but more serious issues will require work here." The Mandalorians stared up at the ship in awe.
"With this, Satine will never be able to recover political ground. How long to produce more?" Pre-Viszla half asked, half-demanded.
The Fabricator General shook its cyborg head. "The designs for the majority of the craft are on this datapad, we will be able to supply the Adamantium plates and skeleton, but we do have our own production quotas, if you wish us to produce further craft, you will need to come to an arrangement with Lord Hydraxius, and fair recompense."
Bo-Katan studied the ship. And smiled. "The Mythosaur." She said, she thought to herself. Pre-Viszla turned and his eyes had widened.
"And with one stroke, you have named our new flagship!" He crowed.
