Quarantine

Sparrow's next stop was at the armory. There were 4 getens inside working when he arrived, Kai, Akira, and then the two cloners he had changed during the battle. They had named the two Echo and Reverb and had tried an experiment.

Kai had used the knowledge they had accumulated to make a new implant for them. It basically provided the same type of flash pump training ability that was used for the spaarti clones. Both the method of delivering the training and the quality of the training itself was a vast improvement over the rather slipshod work of the arkanians and they considered the experiment a success.

The chips had the capability to make a pretty big difference to their ability to defend themselves out here. Growing effective, mature clones in a few weeks would allow them to field an army in a fraction of the time it could be done any other way.

The two clones also proved another, older theory. Nature versus nurture. The two were unfailingly cheerful and helpful and likeable. Considering he had effectively murdered both their previous selves, he considered that a win.

The four were working on the new heavy armor they had been developing for the legion and at least at first glance it seemed to be done.

The armor plates looked thicker than his commercial armor and the suit had an intersecting plate design. It looked to him like there would be very few, if any weak points once the full suit was on.

Akira wordlessly picked up the helmet and showed it to him and he instantly loved it. He could see the team had, since they couldn't use anything mandalorian inspired, dug through some historical files and patterned the helmet after the helm worn by an ancient soldier in the days of swords and steel. It made the armor look sort of rough and primitive compared to what he was used to but judging by the intelligence of the group working on it he bet inside the tech was as good as any.

"What do you think?" Kai asked as he approached.

"I certainly like it so far. How much did we manage to pack in?"

"Its about 20% heavier than what you are wearing but most of our troops shouldn't have an issue with that. The alloys used and the forging method should give between 30 and 40% more protection."

Echo picked up, "We got all the goodies in there, cable shooter, darts, wrist comp, mini-missiles."

"Its fully pressurized and good for a short time in vaccum," Reverb continued. "We repurposed some filters designed for those droid things and managed to get about 60 minutes or so out of the air in the suit. We can design an exterior tank later if needed."

"For the best feature you're going to have to try it on." Akira said with a grin.

Never one to pass up on playing with the latest toys Sparrow removed his commercial armor and quickly put on the new set. He moved around, testing the range of motion, and found it, surprisingly, at least as good as his other set. The helmet had a full HUD and he scanned through the various readouts and displays with interest.

Once he figured he had the basics figured out he asked Akira what to do and she told him to engage flight mode.

"I thought we agreed that jet packs would be too mandalorian." He asked as he triggered it.

"We did, although I still disagree."

He was astounded when the thick back plate of his armor spread and reformed into actual wings. They looked kind of like aircraft wings and he could see them adjusting as he moved around.

"We haven't quite got the drive system worked out yet. We have a rocket system that will work but I would really like to find the material we used in my galaxy to superheat air with electricity, that would increase the range quite a bit." Said the engineer.

"Even without power it is capable of a glide mode that should get you to the ground safely." Reverb added.

"All right guys, this is first rate work. I am super impressed. Do I get to keep it?"

"Sure, we will just make the second set better." Akira laughed.

"Don't make me pull rank on you woman." Sparrow shook a fist at her as he gathered up his old armor.

"Kai, hows that other project coming?"

"Come on down to the east hanger and I will show you."

They walked down to the hanger, chatting casually along the way, and had to pause for a rather long security code at the hanger door. Sparrow knew they had also been scanned from head to toe. This was the most restricted place on the recently named Legions Pride.

Once they got inside they saw a tiny machine sitting there, it sort of looked like a missile or a torpedo.

What it was was their final line of defense.

Before they had destroyed the original exo ship they had swapped out all the advanced systems for ones from a sith fighter. They kept the high tech systems until Kai built this.

This ship had no passenger or pilot space, no atmosphere, no hatch. It was literally all the weapons and drive systems and nothing else. The only way it could be flown was by a synth actually interfacing from inside it.

It was the best security measure that Sparrow could think of, and he still questioned if it was enough. The weapon in that ship would literally penetrate anything, in their galaxy versions of it had been used to destroy whole planetary civilizations by cracking the planets crust. It was an awesome responsibility.

He had done the best he could, he decided. Hopefully his precautions kept the power of the particle beam to this single example, which would only be used in defense of Nathea and only by the synth.

"So it's finished?" He asked Kai.

"Yes, we tested it yesterday. The cavern in the moon will be ready next week and then we will have it on station."

Omni spoke then, "We have a rotation set up and there will be a synth within range at all times. This ship will be ready to deploy in 60 seconds."

"And you have it set up so the duty synth will be comfortable? Time is going to drag on this duty, I hope."

"Yes Sparrow, no worrries."

"All right. Anything else you need to report?"

"Nope, everything is moving along on schedule. We really do need that advanced manufacturing

equipment though, lack of ability to do complex electronics is killing our production numbers."

"I have the requests out there through all our contacts, hopefully Omni will hear soon."

"I haven't heard anything yet." Omni said.

"As soon as we do we will let you know Kai. I really appreciate the way you have gotten us going here."

"Its not just me, Echo and Reverb are excellent engineers as well."

"A fact that continues to amaze me."

Kai laughed, "same here."

"I better get going, I still need to swing by and see Tao while I am here so I can get back to testing that beach."

"Enjoy Sparrow." Kai said as he headed back off to the forge.

Sparrow played around with the settings on his new armor as he headed for Tao's office in the bowels of the ship. Their resident spy took his job extremely seriously.

Sparrow found him, as usual, collating reports. It seemed most of the mans work was simply going through the reports of all his various agents and comparing them. Honestly the job would drive Sparrow insane.

Another thing that would drive Sparrow insane was that Tao had created at least a dozen copies of himself who acted as his main field agents. What made it even more odd is that he chose different species for all of them.

Sparrow had asked him why he just didn't see if Omni had any other spies in his memory but Tao calmly informed him that he would not trust them even if the synth did.

Tao had built a growing network of agents and contacts but, so far, they hadn't needed to do much. He was gathering info on any factions or planetary governments which could pose a threat and constantly monitored the remnant.

Today's report was much like the others had been. No notable threats or opportunities had surfaced. Sparrow asked him to put the word out for his people to keep their eyes open for the type of manufacturing gear that Kai wanted but that sort of equipment was rare this far out.

Sparrow then finished off the bulk of his day answering messages and checking reports. Omni would be more than happy to take care of that kind of stuff for him but Sparrow was always conscious that he needed to pull his own weight.

After his work was done he headed to one of the ships gyms and spent some time training and

managed to get in a few rounds sparring. He went to bed content with his day.

Down on the surface, a third droid entered the shadowed tunnel beneath the city and Quat, who was in control at the moment, made a log entry about the time and location.

The next morning when Sparrow woke up Deux gave him his morning briefing. During the briefing he mentioned that the three droids had all gone missing at the same location. Sparrow doubted it was anything too dangerous but he decided to grab a partner or two and go check it out.

Deux was, of course, all in favor of going so he went and took control of one of the sith battle droids they still had. The synths preferred the sith droids because of the more smooth and fluid movements they were capable of.

None of the other getens were available, or at least inclined, to accompany him so Sparrow went with CJ's suggestion and pulled a couple of newly minted legionaires from among the combat clones that had matured.

Tony and Raul were more than happy to come along once Sparrow described the mission. It seemed a better way to pass the time than more drills and training.

The four went to the armory and gathered weapons and equipment for the trip to the site. It was probably overkill, they thought, but better safe than sorry and, at the very least, it was some good training. After getting their equipment together and tossing it on a shuttle they headed to the mess for breakfast and caf before descending to the surface.