31 (DSV Nautica) Cerebri
The Architect stood on the barren landscape of Celebri, New Ayr's lone moon. He was under pressure now. He was always under pressure of course, but this was different. He had to build a warship unlike any the universe had yet to see, or at least that the Ayr'een had to see. His acolytes were on standby, waiting for the stellar foundries to bring back a suitable sized piece of Auril, their will metal. It would be no easy task. The only time they had been able to create a ship on this scale was long ago, when they could freely use their star before it went supernova.The Auril creating process was extremely convoluted and difficult under the best circumstances. The metallic elements of asteroids and space debris was collected and escorted to a star, wherein they would use the immense heat of the corona to vaporize the debris. Collecting the vapor and rearranging the structures on the atomic level gave circular carbon ball, with titanium and diamond reinforcement. This, of course, made for a Very VERY hard material. This structure would not be possible, however, If not for the master blacksmiths' using their will to twist the atoms into these configurations and binding it all together. Once bonded, the substance was nigh impenetrable. Tests had flown ships straight into the ground at 18 km per second, leaving them completely intact, albeit stuck. Nor would any system allow a crew to survive such an impact, but nevertheless, it demonstrated the strength of the metal. Now they needed a slab 15 kilometers long, 6 kilometers wide, and half a kilometer thick. Of course they never wasted any of the scrap, simply throwing it back in the stellar forge with the rest of the material, ensuring 100% efficient recycling.
Their ships were carved from this metal, unlike other races that bent and welded girders together, using nuts and bolts. The Ayr'een carved their ship from these massive blocks, making for one piece construction. The entire ship multiplied and focused the will of the crew to astronomical levels far exceeding any individual by far. The downfall came in the crews ability to pilot the ship. The dragons were the only race that could seriously threaten these ships. Their will allowed for them to cut right though this reinforcement with ease, something the Ayr'een learned the hard way. The conduits were reshaped into weapons, and gave all ships new offensive capabilities.Conduits and circuits were everything. Conduits carried the vast will energies from the power core all over the ship, covering every square centimeter of the hulls that were multiple kilometers in size. These conduits allowed broken hull to be repaired, air inside to be filtered, weapons fired, engines run. The entire ship was the weapon. The engine. The sensors. The life support. There was no critical point in the ships construction. The whole ship was one multifunction machine.
The architect drew up the schematics for the prototype for the
first generation of black ops battleships the Ayr'een would ever make. Even in war, stealth was their game."Master, the foundry crew is on their way." "Thank you."The black ops ship wasn't the only thing on his mind. He had to do something he never thought he would have to. He would have to design a new generation of weapons for their protectors. They had the bodies and the power. They just needed the control. That was the key to their strength. Control.In a sense they really had not had full control of what they could do, harnessing their full potential and meeting the threat. Instead, they had been trying to tiptoe around it. The dragons were stronger than them, for certain, and they had the advantage, but they wouldn't be able to hold the Ayr'een back from AU-945.Space began shimmering mere kilometers away from the moon's surface, twisting and turning, before folding in on itself and revealing a sky much further away that should have been. A wormhole had stretched open, created between the forge and the anvil. An absolutely massive rectangle of metal began to slide through, parallel to the moon's surface. This would be the ships building block. They would begin to sculpt this monolith until they reached the final product.
The block touched down in eerie silence, kicking up lunar dust. The architect linked with his sculptors, providing them the schematics for the ship and their part in particular. All this was done with a simple thought relayed to others. The block began to glow as will energy hit it, carving away at it meticulouslyThe matriarch watched the Architect's progress with a remote probe from the city. He was making good progress on the battleship. A secondary screen held the designs for personal weapons that were designed to direct and use will power, the same way their ships worked. Their rapiers were efficient, but when you fought you had to have the advantage. Range would be an advantage here. The new weapons would be a terror on the battlefield. An offence to all they held dear. The council had voiced their concerns, rather hotly. An abomination. Going against their core principles that made their empire so great. Was it so great, however? They had no allies, they were shadow against the black sky. Any trace of their presence was so insignificant no race thought anything of it. They would not enslave, intimidate, or dominate lesser races. The only thing that would change is they would now have a face to the universe.