NationStates Jolt Archive

Secretary of Defense, Joe Kowalski, was sitting on the bridge of his Super Star Destroyer, waiting for the DemonLordEnigma people to show. This was the coordinates, and he felt safe. This was mainly due to the numerous MAC cannons in orbit over Earth that his country had placed to supplement their large minefield and space fleet. The AI, called Mark or 2201 New Hope, crackled onto his pedistal.

"Commander Kowalski, DLE ships are approaching. They're ten minutes out. Should I send them a message?" the AI asked.

"Yes," Joe relpied, "tell them that we are free to use a conference room in here, or one inside a dead volcano where we used to test new weapon systems. Whichever he prefers."

"Message sent, sir. I suggest you get into your Dress Blacks." The AI responded, referring to the dress uniform of the CM Space Corps. He was the only one of the three Kowalski brothers who had moved to the New Marine Corps when it came into service. HOwever independent it wished to be, the SC would always be part of the regulars, even though the uniforms and pay were much better.

The DLE ship broke off from the main fleet dealing with the othe problem and flew towards the rendezvous point. As it approached, it was easily seen to be a DLEMB10, a ship barely larger than a fighter and with a very small crew. The ship glinted from the sun and the firepower being unleashed only kilometers away as it approached, its armor sporting the occasional burn spot where the lasers had overpowered the crystal matrix. The ship was easily dwarfed by the massive star destroyer CM was using.

"Sir, we're approaching Crazed Marines. Shall I ask for docking clearance?" Leutent Format asked.

"Yes. And let them know we have brought the item in question and plans for it," Major Ferd said.

"Sir, I still object to giving them the advantage of graviton shielding. Even if the discovery it does help protect against temporal weapons is important, I don't see why we have to trade that away," Format said.

"Look, we're trading it because they have a powerful reactor we can use that isn't disrupted by just blowing up the local star. And it uses a material we can actually get ahold of in our own territory," Ferd said.

"On what? One planet? We've only found it in small amounts, and that's on a planet later destroyed by an ion storm. How are we going to get more without trading something else?" Format asked.

"It's present on Terrasot," Leutenant Goma said.

Ferd and Format both turned and looked at Goma. They had never heard that before and were slightly wondering where she got it from. Format had a sneaking suspicion the answer was made up.

"A few mines were found awhile back and the government now suspects the Star Gates were produced on Terrasot. Look, it's what the Star Gates are made of," Goma said.

It was at that point that Format noticed the response from the CM ship to her query about docking.

Joe Kowalski was walking to the docking bay in his new Dress Black. He had a small package in tow, roughly the size of a barrel. He approached the DLE ship and said, "Welcome. Here is our end of the bargain. It is a Naquadria reactor. It can produce more energy than anything we've seen before, including M/AM reactors. It fuses the branch element of Naquadah called Naquadriah. So much power and its simply maintainable. Now, we'll hammer verything else out in the conference room. That is just a gift." Joe then led them to the conference room. They wanted a new ship mainly for anti-temporal patrols. Of course, graviton weaponry wasn't all that new, but they needed more of a defense than just mines.

Ferd bowed his acceptance of the gift, as it would be useful in the immediate future. Behind him, carrying a package that looked suspiciously like it carried a beer keg, were Goma and Format. The fourth member of the crew, a vampire named Beli, was signalled to stand at the door to the ship until they returned, at which time (as is DLE custom) the gift would be taken into the ship. Then, they were ready, knowing fully well every sensor in the ship would be picking up the high levels of gravitons around the DLE group.

"I would say what the package is, but it is one of our best-kept secrets and not something we share lightly. We've purposefully put out many false leads and outright lies about this device to keep others from stealing it, and now is not exactly a time when we are going to simply reveal it in public, even if it is the public of one of the most secure ships in Earth Orbit," Ferd said.

As the DLE crew stood there, many observations could be made. The earlier crews of DLE ships encountered had a relaxed, almost unmilitary appearance. These people were unmistakably military, standing at attention and doing their best to show no signs of strain. The normal movements of the average person were controlled with a formality that only a boot camp could install while their way of speaking was more controlled. This was a stark difference only the presence of true war combined with experience could have caused in the nation.

Joe quickly picked up on the change in the DLE personnel, but let it go when the keg arrived. He was thirsty after all and his friend Jack Daniels was on shore leave. He led the guests to their quarters first and then to conference room at their leisure. In the room were a few holograms. First was the beloved Asguard Mothership, in all of its NG-designed glory. Next, was an ISD, followed by a model of this very Super Star Destroyer. Also, there was a model of the same type reactor Joe had given his guests. Finally, there was a to-date model of the Super Death Star they were building. He led the men to their chairs, and began with a joke.
"You know, between wars I was a carpenter. I was working with this guy who had lost 5% of his mind in China. He told me once on the job, 'You know, Joe. I've cut this board three times and its still too short!' Crying shame he didn't realise what he said until a few minutes later." Joe then began laughing.

The DLE troops allowed themselves slight smiles before their faces returned to the controlled military look. They had not been in the rooms for long before comming straight to the conference room. All records of activity in their rooms would show that all they did was contact the local DLE ships to find out about what was going on at the front, to which they planned to return to shortly.

"You'll have to excuse us if we are abrupt. Our nation is at war and we are eager to get back to the front. Format, unwrap the device," Ferd said.

Format did, revealing that the object was definitely not a beer keg. For one thing, beer kegs are typically not see-through. For another, beer-kegs usually contain beer instead of two green discs with a blue orb between them.

"This is the graviton generator. The device is deceptively easy to replicate, and yet on a technology level is still millenia beyond what we should be able to accomplish. It took us ninety minutes to figure out how to build the thing in massive numbers and ninety years to actually understand it. It's very dangerous as just about any nation with portable computers has the technology level to build it while being very safe due to its fragility. The mathematics behind how it works is the complex part. I've included the plans for our graviton shield generators and have not included a failsafe in this generator, so you should be able to build one after a five-minute scan of it. And as it stands, we have yet to even find a power level that stresses it, so we don't know its maximum output level.," Ferd said.

"Our government allowing this trade is an exercise in trust. We don't want to see these devices scattered all over the galaxy and in the hands of every Jane Blow that comes along. At the same time, they are a requirement of our shield design. The amount of generators needed is very large, and your ships will likely stick out like giant neon signs in the middle of tents as a result. And you must be careful with your larger ships, as the gravity well the shields create can disrupt solar systems if you travel at FTL while the shields are fully active. Luckily, we have no evidence it happens outside of FTL, and that's due to the dispursal nature of gravity. As long as you keep your shields from being in battle mode all of the time, there should be no side-effects from them," Goma said.

"While we were sent here to have an open mind, I can tell you we already know what we are after. The Naquadria reactor would solve fuel issues we are having and allow us to break the one kilometer threshhold. So, we are willing to trade for the plans of how to produce one and a sample of naquadria," Ferd said.

Joe looked a little worried, "Well, this is not what I was expecting. I was hoping for the designs of your destroyer. We have been trying to make a ship that includes graviton technology other than mines for years, but have had ships simply collapse because of too much deck strain. We need a rugged and tried design to start out with. Our graviton technology isn't that far away from yours, just you have pursued it farther than we have. Now, in exchange for this design of ship, we are more than willing to compensate you with the design of our fleet's workhorse, the Asguard Mothership which has been given the nickname of Spielzeug des Teufels or Toy of the Devil. Forgive me if my German is a little off. Is displaces just over 35 million metric tonnes and has around the same weaponry as an SSD, with the Thor's Hammer on board which can abduct or destroy infantry with minimal of effort. Also, we will give you designs for Naquadah generators, Naquadriah generators, and how to extrace Naquadriah from Naquadah. The formula for Naquadriah's energy production is roughly E=(M^2)(C^3). As I said, VERY powerful."

The DLE crew looked at each other, puzzled for a moment as to how to respond to that, and then decided to go ahead and reveal certain details.

"If we were to give you the plans, you'd be quite disappointed with the ship. The armor is too weak for it to land itself and certain too weak for it to withstand a large gravitational field. The ship would be easily crushed if it encountered even a small black hole," Ferd said.

"The secret has never been the ships, but the shield emitters. What they do is surround the ship in an unstable graviton field. The instability of the field means you are constantly replacing gravitons, and even more so during battle, but also that the gravity only goes away from the ship itself. A stable gravity field has gravity that goes in all directions, including inward. We find most nations make the mistake of trying to create a stable gravity field instead of trying to create an unstable one, which is why most fail. Most of out technology relies on unstable gravity in order to work," Goma said.

"Oh, I see. Then maybe you could help us design one of our own..."