Mandalore's Open Orbit

==MandalMotor Shipyards SL==
<<106 PP; O7 Sector, Mandalore>>

The extend construction of the shipyard gave the small fleet of factory ships ample opportunity to help out. Their systems, however, were not set up to make any individual piece larger than roughly a starfighter. Most of their work cycles however, were spent churning out the prefabricated ship parts used by the Imperium. This basically held the shipyard up to the standards of the modernization program already in force in the Imperium. While the station would lack the standardized computer system of the Imperium, its secondary systems, equipment & even the conduit lines would all be Imperium standard. That would make any repairs, or changes to the station as simple as pulling the old part out of its socket & replacing it with a new part. As the other clans were in many cases not in line with Imperium standards, the factory ships started by churned out the sockets that would be welded into place as well.

The man power the Imperium had on hand was extremely limited, unfortunately. So instead of trying to do all the work themselves, they focused on teaching the in-station workers the proper way to install the sockets. Once it was clear they had the hang of it, the Citizens would shift to spot checking the various sockets being installed. The actual pieces of equipment would be stored until they were ready to be installed. With the use of the sockets, it would take seconds for most pieces of equipment to be locked into place & begin functioning. Only the largest of the equipment would take minutes. Sockets were even constructed for shield & weapon systems. Those would take much longer to switch out due to the sheer size. All the equipment on the station would come from those factory ships. There were only a few exceptions. The first was the weapon emplacements & shields, as the factory ships lacked the ability to make objects on that scale. The second was the operating systems had been stripped out of the computer consoles. The slot specifications for the computers would be sent to the people in charge of the shipyard project so they could provide their own software for the station. In this case, it was due not to difficulty, but the fact that the station wouldn't be running under Imperium control & would need to be operated by those outside the Clan.

Aboard Ipy’minen

Suus and Viez, along with other workers and intendants, were waiting in the landing bay, watching the display of Mandalorian might. Ships, horrifyingly symmetrical, identical, each a seed that torn from the flesh of their land, rolled, hammered, melted, folded, welded, impelled with a cold heart of fire to larger ships, equally with identical in their birth, from an umbilical of blue steel girders in space, to here, where they ruptured, releasing their cool atmosphere which condensed immediately in Ipy’minen’s hot bowels, disgorging metallic soldiers in the hundreds into the wide, but claustrophobic and intensely alive ship.

Suus surveyed the crowd of armoured Mandalorians, and he could feel the memories of his ancestors clawing to his consciousness. He did not recognize some of the markings that adorned their helms and suits, but he did see the importance that these creatures ascribed to them. They were marking their domains, their roles and their importance. It was so subtle, Suus was certain that to his companions, they appeared to be lifeless machines, without autonomy, like their ships. However, he was still confident that they were more than they appeared, especially the Mandalorians, who prided themselves on being inclusive, inviting all races of the galaxy to join unto their creed, people and don the hardened metal shell.

The children of the Yun’o, the Yuuzhan Vong, were more.

Their shape, their form was not the working of a craftsman, but of an infinitely wise being, that planted them in the fertile womb, where they were birthed as a part of a dynamic and interconnected web of life, growing, feeding, developing, in a harmonious cycle until now, balanced on the pinnacle of the caste that was life, they were poised reach out in a way that would mark their escalation from sapience to demiurge.

Their leader approached.

The Intendants were arrayed in a V-shape, with Suus at the tip, Viez to his left. All had their arms raised, elbows bent, fingers splayed wide. Fearsome markings, stories of loss and triumph and implants that marked each their own journey to attain the true form snaked around their arms, written in tattoos which was a test of devotion in its own right. Their Vonduun’te Skerr Kyrric were flared and raised, displaying an iridescent black edge that emitted a throaty bass hum. They snapped their limbs straight, which punctuated the humming with a thunder crack. Slowly, they arched their arms again, repeating the whip crack in time with the hum.

Today would be a celebration of life.



With a final snap, the rumbling hum stopped and there was a lull. Suus began to approach, keeping his tattoos and arms aloft, with long, deliberate steps. His armour glistened as he moved and he was aware that the ceremony of welcome left him and his crew terribly exposed, but he extended the honour of revealing the history of the Yuuzhan Vong, the ship and his personal journey to the assembled crowd and to Kaine. The tizo wyrm had whispered a translation to him, but there were formalities to observe first. A villip hovered nearby, repeating the conversation in Basic and Mandalorian.

“To the most excellent Supreme Overlord of the Man-da-lor’o, welcome! May your pain be exquisite.” Suus snapped his arms straight, then relaxed, allowing them to pop back into joint, the skin rolling as displaced bones found their places again. He rested his hand on his chest and hissed. “Even the gaze of Yun’shuno is too merciful for our sin and we accept your insult of not being worthy of the name Yuuzhan. The death of your brave warrior shall be upon us.”

The host with him joined him in the low hiss of grief, clasping a hand to themselves, gouging a hole for where one of Yun’shuno’te eyes was expected to sprout.

“Our mission is reach out to other sentient beings and humbly offer what we have learnt of the form and to test our own form as to its worthiness, not to kill.” Suus stood at rest before Kaine, his blue eye sacks flaring before he made his appeal. “Allow us to make amends, resupply and continue on our way.”

The Ipy'minen - Outer System

Kaine took in the Yuuzhan Vong's ritual wierdness and shenanigans without emotion. With all the ritual arm waving and rumbling humming, it was starting to feel like the inside of a Killik hive at mating time. Clearly these vong were a few hairs short of a wookiee, he thought. Certainly not like the ones he'd fought so long ago. He'd never seen or heard anything like the experience aboard Ipy'minen.

There were some rumblings of unease among the Australis commandos as the Yuuzhan Vong went through their ritual, but no one fired. Kaine himself stood motionless watching the Vongese leader. His hand tensed around his gun as the being stepped up in front of him. He was about to pronounce sentence, when the Mand'alor spoke.

Damocles asked good questions. It might be interesting to hear what sort of tale these Vong had concocted to explain their venturing out into the galaxy once more. Certainly they'd need a better explanation than that they'd become pacifists.
Certainly their warships weren't unarmed, so that was hardly believable. Maybe their religion had changed, losing a war of a scale of the extragalactic invasion they'd staged would do that.



Kaine added his own addendum. And, why the hell would we let you continue roaming the galaxy armed to the teeth?

Killing them all was a possibility, maybe take a few trophies. Even though these Yuuzhan Vong seemed far less warlike than previous incarnations, Kaine wasn't going to lose sleep over spacing the lot of them. They'd want to have some damned good reasons for a Mando'ad to just let them walk away, doubly so after shedding blood. Currenly the old General was considering a range of options, but he wanted to see the Mand'alor decide their fate. This was an opportunity to see how Damocles handled himself.

Returning to realspace after exiting hyperspace, several bulk freighters accompanied by a security escort composed of Tra'kad-class transports wink into view. After slowing to ahead dead slow the ships, which will have already been identified by military and planetary traffic control's interrogation systems as possessing IFF transponders establishing that the vessels belong to Clan Bralor, request authorization to make for Keldabe spaceport. Having departed from Agamar, the ships have come to deliver shipbuilding and engineering materials, along with resources useful in other industries on Manda'yaim; the latest of Clan Bralor's contributions to the ongoing effort to, under the guidance of their new Mand'alor, rebuild and renew the Mando'ade and their homeworld.

Once the ships have been cleared to proceed, they increase speed and begin maneuvering onto their assigned flight path, beginning the trip from orbit to Keldabe.

Mandalore's Orbit - Shipyards - Under Construction

Right through the battle in the outer system, deliveries and construction on the new MandalMotors Shipyards continued apace. With the habitation blocks in place, the crew had brought the station online for the first tests of the systems, and with some minor hiccups, all was now in the green. The new docking area had increased the pace of construction, allowing more resources and specialised equipment to be brought in, and the expanded workforce had settled into a regular but rapid routine.

Outside the habitation blocks, where once had only been the vista of the planet Mandalore below, now stretched kilometers of girders, docking arms, drydocks, and massive graving docks. There were docks sized for corvettes, gunships and frigates, larger docks for cruisers and destroyers, and a few more gargantuan. They sparkled against space with the flares of light from thousands of welding torches, as thousands more spacesuited and droid workers jetted around the massive structures, completing fitouts.

With the expansion of the yards to this stage, they were now capable of holding and producing large numbers of small and medium craft as well as a goodly number of capital class ships, foremost of which were the Keldabe, Kandosii and Kyramud classes, updated designs incorporating the most modern of weaponry. There were those few huge docks, which could potentially build even more massive vessels. Currently MandalMotors had no plans to build such, nor had any such design been laid down as yet, but the influence of Kaine Australis on the project ensured that the capability was there in case Mandalore needed it one day. A lone vessel ordered for Clan Australis took shape among the vast expanse of yards, where only a single dock had any construction going on at all.

Being a Mandalorian Shipyard, the megastructure was designed unusually well armed and armored, with defensive shields comparable to those on a warship. These defences were being added piecemeal, as the yard itself was prioritized. Currently the defences were only at around 10 percent of their planned outfitting, and no shields had yet been installed. Likewise, without the added forges, factories and integrated manufacturing plants, the yards could as yet produce nothing. That was the next phase of construction. She had the framework, a massive skeleton. Next up, the Mando'ade needed to add some muscle and skin to complete their creation.





(Artist's impression)

Not far away, the lone Australis Keldabe battleship remaining on station, Doomhammer, rode shotgun on the Shipyards. Now dwarfed by the kilometers of yards, the ship was still very much needed to protect the vulnerable structure as it evolved.

An orbital control employee picked up the call, requesting a meeting with The Mand'alor. After a brief check of his records, he opened a line back Kamioxx Onowr, You can find the Mand'alor on Concordia. Settlement coordinates being transmitted now... A datapacket would arrive a few seconds later, containing the location for Kamioxx to head to