OOC: The following occurs during the middle of Pillars of the Commonwealth during the trip between Brosi and Meridian.

From Raising the Pillars of the Commonwealth: Decayed Hope

"Call a meeting of the board and make sure Sol is there. I read up on the situation you mentioned to me. This is really bad and not just for Meridian. The Meridian Sector has a lot of worlds in it and many of them have large populations. A cure needs to be found and I think we can do it. Once I get the boards permission, Sol and I, along with a contingent of scientists and hi-tech equipment, will be going to the Meridian Sector."

In Flight to Meridian

Knowing that the flight from Brosi to Meridian was in fact going to be a rather long flight made it a rather simple choice as to whether or not to bring something to work on along the way. It only made sense that since there was nothing else to be done that he and Sol should be working on something to benefit the company as well as the Commonwealth. Naturally, the optimum idea would be to design a craft of war for the Commonwealth to buy a contract on so that CTI could manufacture the vessels.

"So, Sol, I had this idea for a ship. Quite the little devil it will be when we finish the actual designing process."

Digging into one of the bags that rested at his feet, he pulled out a drawing in blueprint form and layed it out on the table in front of him and between him and Sol. The drawing depicts a gunship size vessel with tripodial formed engines and a long, slender, barrel like center to the ship.

"It's going to be a beast of a ship, Sol. In the center you see a large rail gun. That was the basis for the design. Engines are on the tips of the three wings. We need to determine other armamants as well as shielding and hull capabalities. Probably should come up with some new form of fighter to go along with it since it will have external racks."

Sol looked up from the schematic and nodded.

A Few Months Later…

Magnetic Force Powered Projectile Launching Platform Prototype 2-B idled at low power just outside of the Dostra System’s asteroid belt. Its main armament pointed down range. Down range being a crumbling planetoid about 40,000 kilometers away.

“Sol don’t fire the main gun!” begged the chief technician. “The forces are just too great! It’ll tear the ship in half!”

“Yink… you’re a competent scientist… don’t get me wrong, but you designed the gun not the superstructure. We’ve been out here for weeks, and the board is demanding results. Prepare to fire!”

Sol took his place at the captain’s chair. Through the central view he could see the cannon’s rudimentary ion boosters moving the cannon in place. The boosters were very basic, but would serve prototype purposes.

“Main cannon aimed,” said the gunnery officer.

“Load one regular slug,” ordered Sol.

The bridge was situated right above the cannon, just in front of the engine pylons. From here, Sol could here the huge slug clank into place.

Sol pulled his crash webbing tight, and put his mouth guard in. The last thing he wanted was to be rolling around on the shaking deck in pain because the force of the blast had caused him to bite his tongue off.

“Fire…”

The gunner mashed a red button, tensing up as he did so.

The ship began to vibrate and shake uncontrollably as the slug rocketed out of the barrel. Then Sol heard a loud sound. The sound of welds braking. Then a final ripping sound… Out the bow view port, Sol could see the main cannon floating away into space. The force of firing the cannon had ripped the ship to pieces. Luckily the bridge was the only habitable part of the bridge so there were no casualties.

Sol looked behind him to see Yink fixing him with a mean looking “I told you so” type of glare.

"Well son of a bitch..."

Killian sat aboard the Galant Wind a short distance, but a safe one, away from where the prototype floated in space. Floated because it was now in a ton of pieces with the main barrel floating away from the rest of the ship. The bridge was discernable amongst the wreckage and he breathed a sigh of relief for that, glad people had survived.

"Get the rescue ship in there and get the guys out."

A large ship quickly moved forward to complete the process of rescuing the people on board the now drifting bridge of the prototype. Off in the distance, not visible to the naked eye, the target had exploded. It's unstable nature cupping with the force of the prjectile shattering the target. THe results were relayed in by another vessel.

"Well, at least we know it works. Need to talk to Sol about something to fix the problems."

Leaning forwards in his chair, he pressed a communications button to relay to the bridge of the prototype.

"Sol, your ass better not be dead. We have some work to do."

A Few More Months Later…

The last few months had been very hectic for CTI. The last test of the rail gun had not been a complete failure. The rail gun had worked, but the platform that made gun mobile had failed… miserably. It had been determined that steel alone was not strong enough to hold everything in place.

Fortunately a solution had been found. The ship had been fitted with three large shock absorbers. In theory, these absorbers would absorb the huge amount of kinetic energy produced by the discharge of the main gun. This energy would then enter a generator in mechanical form, and then would be stored in a bank of batteries for later use.

This was a solution to two problems plaguing the ship. The ship was under powered. The cannon used a huge amount of energy when fired. During a battle situation, with shields up and point-defense cannons firing, simulations showed that the ship’s reactors would not be able to keep up with power demand. This would take care of it.

“Let’s try this one again.”

Sol sat down in the same captain’s chair from the last simulation. As a matter of fact, this was the same bridge from the last simulation. The bridge module of the prototype had made it through the first test fire almost undamaged. When the new prototype was built, the old bridge had simply been welded into place.

“Load one regular round.”

The gunner flinched when this order came. He turned around to give a reluctant nod.

Gulping, he managed to get out, “round loaded.”

“Fire.”

The gunner’s finger came down on the button, and the whole ship began to shake. Then… everything was okay. The shock absorbers had performed well. Energy supply read outs showed a few extra terra watts.

"Alright then. That test actually went rather well."

There were a bunch of different ships out in space with them, all belonging to CTI as this was a closed test. The rest of the galaxy had no idea what it was that was being developed by the company on Brosi. There were also four hulks of ships that had been purchased cheap as downgraded materials. They still had the same hull ramifications as when they were in use, but they weren't manned and most of the systems had been removed.

The schematics for the prototype had been brought up on his datapad and he was skimming over them. The majority of his attention had come onto the different projectile types. They had been designed for specific uses, but they hadn't been tested with the exception of the regular slug that had been launched and hit the rock in the far distance months ago. Though the ship had failed, the slug had worked.

"Sol, test the different slugs on the wing of unmanned uglies and on the hulk of that old destroyer, alright?"

A few weeks later…

Sol looked over to his friend Yink. The day of reckoning had come. The final prototype of the Lance Class Gunship was ready along with its load out of mixed ordnance. In orbit around a rather large planetoid in the Dostra System’s asteroid belt was what many CTI employees had taken to calling the scrap fleet.

A derelict marauder corvette along with an assorted squadron of ancient headhunters and a flight of Y-Wings made up the Lance’s test subjects. The marauder had been outfitted a shield generator of a class usually associated with star destroyers. This was done to better gauge the Lance’s gun effectiveness against larger opponents. All ships of the test fleet were unmanned.

“Load one standard round. Fire when ready.” ordered Sol.

The gunner nodded, slipping in his mouth guard. His tongue had accumulated many cuts since testing had begun.

“Firing.”

The cannon belched huge flames, and the projectile impacted with its target, shattering narrow section of its shields. The cannon was loaded again, this time with a hollow point shell. The slug hit the same spot, and greatly shattered that area of the hull. The cannon was loaded yet again with an explosive slug. This slug was designed to go after unshielded sections of a ship’s hull. The slug slammed through the ship’s failing shields, incinerating a large section of the hull.

Then the cannon was loaded one last time with a proximity slug. The timed fuse of the projectile caused it to explode among the squadron of fighters to the disgraced corvette’s flank.

Sol smiled as looked upon the scene of pure destruction. Targets neutralized.

"Excellent work. Very excellent indeed. Nothing better than seeing the work we've done come out in such an excellent product."

Killian stared out the viewport of the Gallant Wind at the newly made carnage of a few old ships. They would be scrapped and melted down so that they could be put into good use in the future. Metals were a precious commodity for CTI and no metal would go wasted. At least not while Killian was still in charge of the company along with Sol.

"Begin construction of four of the Lance's here on Brosi. I have something better planned for the shipyards at Thosa. A new design which can be sold to those that wish to do trade with others or just transit goods."

"I'll radio it in, sir."

With a nod to Nina after he looked over to her, he smiled before turning back to the viewport. The Lance prototype began moving back towards the planet where it would lay in low orbit with a small, ever present guard of fighters. Meanwhile, on the outer edges of the system, Commonwealth fighters constantly swept for anyone spying on them.

"Very well done, indeed. Our first product for the Commonwealth. Should make them happy."