My ideas for Harry Potter and A Galaxy Far Far Away I do not own any of the characters, universes or anything else I might mention. These are my ideas for kossboss ’s story Harry Potter and A Galaxy Far Far Away https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13768935/1/ If kossboss decides to use any these they are more than welcome to. Idea 01 – Harrower carrier-battleship Idea 02 – Starfury Aurora and Thunderbolt Idea 03 - Runabout Idea 04 – Delta Flyer Idea 05 – Shipping & HPI’s fleet Idea 06 – the Galactic Network Idea 07 – Miscellaneous ideas Page 2 of 23 Idea 01 – Harrower carrier-battleship Exterior Fill in the gap at the front, creating a solid hull. Remove the floating ‘wings’ from the upper hull, leaving it with more of a solid tower design. Move the love handles to be in line with the back of the ship. Put the port and starboard hangar doors where the love handles are now. Keep the hangar doors recessed to provide cover for incoming fire from ships in front. Extend the port and starboard front hull sections back to just before the new hangar door location. The tower houses several hangers for startfighters and other Runabout or Delta Flyer type craft. The hanger doors face backwards to protect the from incoming enemy fire from the front and side. Page 3 of 23 The advanced ion engines copied from the Scimitar, improved and up-scaled by Harry. The carrier-battleship will have redundant shielding systems covering the entire ship. This will mean that if the enemy is able to overwhelm the first layer, there is a second layer ready to go. By the time the enemy has worn down the second layer the first layer should be fully charged again and ready to take over. An idea for a future upgrade is to install a custom shield system into the bow that projects a wall-like shield in front of the ship as a first line of defence. The outer hull can be made from layers (like plywood) of Damascus durasteel alloys to offer the greatest amount of strength and energy dispersion. HPI should develop a better navi-computer that can quickly calculate hyperspace jumps without the help of an astromech droid. I know some ships have navi-computers that can do this, but they all seem to be pretty slow. Yet astromechs can do the calculations faster than the navi-computers seam able to. An astromechs computer can’t be that big, so it’s not a size thing that makes navi -computers so naff. Weapons On the raised triangle on the dorsal hull, place two heavy ion cannons. These can be used to incapacitate larger enemy ships making them easy targets for the turbo lasers. Four octupple barbet heavy turbo laser batteries, on either side and in front of the tower. This gives you 12x8=96 heavy turbo lasers. Covering the rest of the dorsal hull are numerous heavy and medium turbo laser turrets, giving full coverage in all directions, including a couple of turrets on each side able to fire behind. The whole dorsal hull should also have a full coverage point defence system, designed to take down incoming missiles and enemy fighters. This should be made up of rapid fire laser canons of various power and configuration, all mounted on rapid traverse turrets. Along the ‘trench’ up either side of the ship , from the bow to the hangars, are multiple missile and torpedo launchers. Each launcher should have a separate and independently shielded magazine. With 20 or 30 launchers on each side of the ship, it should be easy to overwhelm even the largest enemy ship’s point d efences, or target multiple ships at once. Page 4 of 23 All dorsal hull weapons, ion canons, turbo lasers and laser canons, are mirrored on the ventral hull, doubling the number of weapons on the ship and ensuring there is no safe area for the enemy to hide from its guns. I really don’t know why ships is Star Wars have mostly empty hulls when they could fit a lot more weapons on there, especially when they leave half the ship completely unarmed. The sloped hull, being thickest at the stern and thinnest at the bow, means that the weapons can all fire towards the enemy with the guns to the rear firing over those in front. Even if the enemy pulls alongside the harrower, 50% of its guns can still target the enemy ship, with the sloped hull still allowing those guns nearest the centre of the ship to fire over those towards the edge. The port and starboard hangars have blast doors that can protect the ships insides from incoming fire in the even an enemy pulls alongside the Harrower. The love handles contain magnetic fighter launch tubes. These allow the ship to rapidly launch its full complement of ‘alert fighters’ in less than 10 seconds. 3 tubes per side, with 10 fighters stacked in each tube, makes 60 alert fighters per ship. Interior Most of the internal space is stripped out and used as hanger space for fighters and starfighters. A few small maintenance corridors/tunnels crisscross the ship’s interior, these are just big enough for an astromech droid to traverse. The ship does not have a breathable atmosphere, instead being filled by a kind of halon fire- suppressing gas. (Halons are electrically non-conducting and have been acknowledged as the most effective universal extinguishing agent for aircraft use. They work mainly by chemically interrupting the reaction described as the 'Fire Triangle' (Fuel-Oxygen-Heat) which must be sustained for a fire to continue.) – while these tend to be banned on Earth as greenhouse gases, you can just make one up for in-universe use. This means that even if the ship’s shield and armour are breached, any fires caused would be immediately extinguished before they can start. The lack of a breathable atmosphere on the ship doesn’t matter because they a re crewed exclusively by droids, but does provide a small protection against borders. The only area of the ship capable of having a breathable atmosphere is the command decks in the tower. The command decks consists of the hanger for shuttles and the deck above which has a few sparse crew quarters and a Combat Information Command and Control Centre in case Harry (or someone else) needs to use the ship as a command ship. The command deck hangar has room for 3 or 4 runabout-class ships. Page 5 of 23 The other tower hanger is for the ship ’ s compliment of hyperspace-capable starfighters. This hangar is also filled with the halon gas. The main hangers use the track system Harry reverse-engineered from the Trade Federation. This system allows the ship to carry a truly huge number of fighter craft. This track system is used not only to store fighters in as little space as possible, meaning more fighters can be stored in the ship, but also for rapid mid-battle rearming of fighters. When a fighter enters the port or starboard hangar they are caught by a tractor beam and deposited onto the track system. Fighters are stored fully armed and ready to launch. 60 fighters are stored in the magnetic launch tubes ready to be deployed at the first sign of hostile craft. If the starfighter screen and the alert fighters aren’t enough for the size of the enemy force, they can provide a screening/delaying action while the rest of the ship’s fighter compliment is launched. For in-battle rearmament, the fighters would approach the port hanger, be caught by the tractor beam and deposited onto the track system. The fighter would be moved through the hanger towards the starboard hanger door. As the fighter moves through the hanger, robotic arms would remove the depleted blaster gas canister and batteries from the fighter. Then other robotic arms will install fully charged batteries and a full blaster gas canister. Then other arms will restock the missile hardpoints along the fighter’s wings. Once rearmed, the fighter is released from the track system and can fly out of the starboard hanger door. The whole rearmament process, from being caught by the tracker beam to flying out the other side, should be very quick (less than a minute). While the ca rrier has this capability the reality is that it’s unlikely a battle will last long enough for it to be needed. Miscellaneous After seeing just how powerful his CS fighters are compared to his ACs and CR90s, Harry has decided to focus on fighter combat; but at the same time understands how useful having a ship capable of both dishing out and absorbing massive amounts of damage can be, hence his decision to create a carrier-battleship. To get around Republic restrictions on warships, HPI should call the Harrower (maybe with a less Sith- y name) a ‘ Heavy Escort ship ’ officially, while stating that that’s exactly what it is: an escort ship for his trade fleets that have been facing increased pirate attacks blah-blah-blah. Page 6 of 23 The ship will: -Have its own connection to the C-Net (like the G-Net, but a totally separate network only for HPI use (see Idea 06)). -Have very powerful sensors and standard communications suits. -Have a Class 1.0 hyperdrive. -Use the fuel caps and only a small fuel tank. -Not be able to produce its own blaster gas, instead relying on storage tanks of blaster gas for both its own turbo lasers and laser cannons and for arming its fighter and starfighter compliments. -Have a small compliment of battle droids, or internal turret defences, to defend the ship in the event of boarders. The 1 st two of these finished should be parked just outside the Tatooine system. Hidden so that they are an ace in the event the planet it attacked again – the enemy can’t plan for defences they don’t know about. I’d park the 3 rd just outside the Naboo system for the same reason. The next few made should be sent to the hidden systems Harry has found. I’d avoid publicly using these as actual escorts for now, it would be better to keep them hidden until he is seriously attacked again, either at home, Naboo or one of his trade convoys. While large capitol ships are often found in the planetary defence fleets of some of the richer worlds, particularly in the core, if HPI tried to sell this it would almost need a complete redesign since this is designed to be completely automated and doesn’t have the room to spare for large fuel tanks and life support systems in its current configuration. Page 7 of 23 Idea 02 – Fighter and Starfighter Harry should buy 1 each of several different fighter and startfighter models from different companies to get a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t. At the moment he only really has 2 examples of fighters to look at; the CloakShape and the Vulture droid. When Dobby learns what h e’s working on, the elf can suggest something he saw in the TV show Babylon 5: the Starfury. Idea 02a – Fighter: Starfury Aurora Along with being HPI’s primary fighter craft, this could be sold to other corporations and planetary defence forces. No landing gear, is held by 2 ‘arms’ that slide between the top and bottom wings either side of the cockpit from behind. Incredibly manoeuvrable, due to the ion engine pods on each wingtip. These allow for thrust in just about every direction giving the fighter incredible turning potential. Has 4 forward-facing weapons. 4 wings that can have missile/torpedo hard points installed top and bottom. Very good shields and Anti-missile ECM system for a craft of its size. Since these are just fighters they can be battery powered. By using 4 batteries, 1 in each wing, they can easily have a 12 hour flight/combat time – more than long enough for any sortie. The Vulture droid has a flight time of about 40 minutes. Also, not using fuel caps means a manned version can also be sold by HPI. It also means there is less chance of someone discovering his fuel caps from a wreck. In the event the pilot needs to eject, the whole cockpit of the Aurora is ejected. This means that manufacturing of the Aurora for both retail and HPI use is basically the same for both, only the cockpit module is different. In the HPI version the life support etc is striped out, the windows blacked out and the droid brains, C-net connection etc added into the cockpit space. The 2 ear-mounted guns, can either be 2 heavy laser canons, 2 ion canons or 1 of each. This could be a configurable option for the retail version. The 2 chin-mounted guns can be rapid-fire medium laser canons. Similar to what we see Slave 1 using against Obi-wan in Episode II. The retail version also comes with HPI’s pilot helmet (the one Anakin designed). Page 8 of 23 Idea 02b – Starfighter: Starfury Thunderbolt The Starfury Thunderbolt is larger than the Aurora, but needs to be in order to accommodate the reactor, hyper drive and astromech droid. Alongside being the escort starfighter for HPI’s trade ships, this can be sold to others as a long range recon, patrol and attack fighter. Has landing gear, but also able to use the same docking arms as the Aurora. While in Babylon 5 this is a two- seater, I’d make it a single - seat in HPIs design, the extra space behind the cockpit can be used to house an astromech and allow for a larger cockpit. I’d also remove the outside ‘wings’ from the design, since Star Wars ships don’t really need to be aerodynamic like B5 designs do. The Thunderbolt can use the fuel caps for the HPI version and in-wing/body tanks for the retail version. Like the Aurora the Thunderbolt has decent shielding and can have lots of wing-mounted missiles. It also has state of the arm missile defence systems; chaff, ECM, etc. It will have a Class 1.0 hyperdrive and a powerful sensor and communication system, including a C-net connection in the HPI version. The retail version should have enough fuel and supplies for several days of operation then it can be sold as a long range recon and escort starfighter, similar to what the ARC-170 claims to be but the X-wing does much better. Instead of 2 chin-mounted medium laser canons, the Thunderbolt has a chin-mounted rotary canon. This has an incredibly high rate of fire while maintaining the power of each shot. Its rate of fire and power of each shot is incredibly high (think the Avenger on the A-10 Warthog). Either side, above and behind the cockpit are the 2 heavy laser canons or ion canons, same as on the Aurora. HPI could use this rotary canon as their anti-fighter/-missile guns on their larger ships. Like the Aurora the cockpit module of the Thunderbolt ejects, making manufacture of both a HPI and a retail version fairly simple. The Thunderbolt can utilise HPIs navi-computer. The astromech is completely inside the fighter, making it safe from enemy fire, similar to the E-wing. Page 9 of 23 The retail version also comes with HPI’s pilot helmet (the one Anakin designed). ****** The Thunderbolt could be marketed to the Republic Judicial Department and the Jedi Order, as well as various planetary defence forces. If HPI can get the costs down for both the Thunderbolt and the Runabout, so that 1 Runabout and 6+ Thunderbolts cost about the same (or even a bit more given their versatility) as a Consular Class (~3m credits), it could be a big seller to a Judicial Department with a tight budget. It would also give them a much greater degree of flexibility and enable them to extend their reach. The Runabout can be their main transports, with versions outfitted as prison ships, or diplomatic ships etc, and the Thunderbolt can be the primary attack craft, even the Runabouts can be equipped with missile pods and more powerful weapons. The Jedi would like that they wouldn’t require a hyperdrive sled anymore, the sleds being a big liability in most of the galaxy in their line of work. And since it might actually come out as even more manoeuvrable than their current starfighter, it’s a win - win. Though they’d probably not fill all of the missile hardpoints, at least during peace time. Various other people might also purchase the Thunderbolt. Though it having a hyperdrive might be unneeded by a planetary defence force, it might just be what corporate security, bounty hunters or others need. ****** With Qui-gon often on Tatooine, he could try the prototype model and recommend it as a replacement for the Order. With HPI adopting the 2 models of Starfury as their mainline fighters, the CS fighters can be used, without the hyperdrive sleds, as planetary defence fighters. They can be stationed out of HPIs various space ports or just be kept in orbit of planets like Tatooine, or HPIs hidden systems. Without the hyperdrive sleds these are relatively cheap and work well in atmosphere as well as space. It would be a shame to scrap the ones HPI has, and it would be a waste of the license as well. HPI could also offer these for sale to others, though I doubt there will be a huge market for fighters in the next year or two until the first rumblings of the CIS start to crop up. Page 10 of 23 Idea 03 – Runabout This is the Danube-Class Runabout from Star Trek, it appeared in The Next Generation but was mostly seen in Deep Space Nine. The Warp nacelles can be turned into ion engines and the Warp Core swapped for a regular generator and hyper drive. Length: 25m Width: 14m Height: 6m (larger with optional mission pod) Crew: 2-4 Passengers: Varies by configuration For ease of explanation I’ve split the ship into sections. 1 – Cockpit 2 – Entrance 3 – Main hold 4 – Crew quarters 5 – Engineering 6 – External Mission Pod 1 – Cockpit There are 2 seats at the front for the pilot and co-pilot. (Though the Runabout can be piloted by a single pilot) Behind these and facing the sides of the craft are 2 additional crew stations that can be configured for multiple uses. At the back of the cockpit, either side of the entrance door, are the charging bays for the ship ’ s 2 astromech droids and a weapons locker containing 4 blaster rifles and blaster pistols to arm the crew if needed. Chargers for other droids, such as a PAM or protocol droid, can also be installed here. Beneath the cockpit, in the sloped hull, is a single laser cannon turret that retracts into the hull. Though the runabout has 2 astromechs these are not needed for calculating hyperspace jumps due to the state of the art navi-computer HPI have designed allowing for quick hyper space jump calculations without the aid of an astromech. 1 1 2 4 3 5 5 2 3 4 5 Page 11 of 23 Another HPI creation i s the ‘universal translator’. This is basically just the language translation function of a protocol droid built into the ships communications system. This allows for the pilot to communicate easily with other ships, planetary traffic control, etc without having to worry about not understanding each other. 2 – Entrance This area has both a ramp access and airlock for docking with other ships or stations. There’s a simple computer readout next to the ramp and airlock showing the atmospheric conditions outside the ship and the integrity of the airlock seal. A tractor beam emitter is located beneath this area and behind the turret compartment. 3 – Main hold This area of the ship can be customised by HPI to contain pretty much anything the customer wants, tho ugh there are some ‘standard’ configurations. -a cargo hold. -diplomatic quarters, containing 2 luxury suites, a lounge and conference room. -prison, including several cells and a barracks for the prison guards. -Troop transport, with a barracks and armoury. -Jedi, with no living quarters (the Jedi would use the crew quarters , as they wouldn’t use a separate crew), a meditation room/lounge, a training room, meeting room and a cell. This is meant for Jedi on long-term deployments. -Corpo, meeting rooms and suites. -Hanger; there is probably enough room for 2 or 3 fighters, with them being launched by being ‘dropped’ out of the bottom of the ship. 4 – Crew quarters This is the rear of the ship and contains the living quarters for up to 4 crew members, including: -Bedroom + fresher suites, albeit these suites are fairly small. -A crew lounge and kitchen area. -An emergency medical droid and possibly a bacta tank if the client wants. Externally, on top is another retractable single laser canon turret. A second tractor beam emitter, to allow the runabout to tow other ships/objects. A ‘chaf’ dispenser andf other ECM systems, to defend against incoming missiles. 5 – Engineering This section runs along the top of the Runabout, covering the length of sections 2, 3 & 4 and including both engine pylons. This section contains the reactor, fuel tanks, Class 1.0 hyperdrive, ion engines and the primary sensor and communication arrays and the shield generator. Above this, over section 3, is also the external hardpoint. This is where the optional mission pods can be installed. Page 12 of 23 The advanced ion engines make this very fast at sublight speeds, often giving fighters a run for their money in a straight line. 6 – External Mission Pod The Mission pods can include pretty much anything you can think of. Some examples are: -Advanced/specialised sensor or communication systems. -Missile/torpedo launchers. -Turbo laser turret. -Ion canon. -Additional shield generator. -A fighter dock, though there is no access to the inside of the Runabout so the pilot would have to remain in their fighter, or use a droid or drone fighter. -Recognisance drones, used to scout a planet or system. ****** While HPI might keep 1 or 2 of these shuttles as the Star Wars equivalent of a corporate Leer Jet, for if Shmi or someone needed to go somewhere, I’m not really sure they’d have much of a use for them. I mostly think this will just be another thing for HPI to manufacture and sell. When Harry takes Qui-gon and Obi-wan to Russan, they can take a HPI Runabout (the prototype perhaps) in order to keep the magical and Sith aspects of the Marauder hidden. The Republic Judicial Department and Senate could have use for these ships in various configurations. The Judicials could use them as enforcement craft with upgraded weapons and a fighter escort. They could have a version outfitted as a troop transport, or prisoner transport, etc. While the senate could make use of the ship for diplomatic missions. Other corporations could also find uses for them, as could planetary governments. As a marketing stunt, HPI could gift 1 to the Queen of Naboo, though the Naboo government tends to favour Nubian ships of all kinds, this might be a way for HPI to get their foot in the door, as it were. It can also be sold as a small cargo ship, similar in capacity to a YT-1300. This would appeal to legitimate transport businesses as well as smugglers and bounty hunters alike. The Runabout could become a very popular and common ship across the galaxy. 6 Page 13 of 23 Idea 04 – Delta Flyer This is the Delta Flyer class shuttle from Star Trek, it appeared in Voyager. Length: 15.1m Width: 8.5m Height: 4m (larger with optional mission pod) Passengers/Crew: up to 4 This is HPIs personal shuttle. Where the Runabout is for people who get driven, the Delta Flyer is for people who drive themselves. The Flyer is smaller and less customisable than the Runabout. Entering the Flyer is done via a ramp at the rear of the ship. The Flyer has a laser canon on either side of the cockpit, fixed facing forwards. The Flyer has 1 micro-missile launcher on either side of the rear compartment, also fixed forwards. The second compartment on either side is used for a chaff/flare dispenser as part of the Flyer’s ECM suite. Or these can be combined and replaced with a laser canon turret on either side. It has an external hardpoint on the rear dorsal hull, this can be equipped similarly to the Runabout, however the hardpoint is smaller so can only handle smaller pods. The Flyer has 2 decks, well, 1.5 decks. The lower deck is more of a crawlspace, meant mainly for astromech droids and contains the ships reactor, Class 1.0 hyperdrive, ion engines and shield generator. Fuel tanks are in the lower deck and spread through the hull. The HPI models will also have a C-Net connection. The upper deck is the habitation deck and can come in a number of configurations. The cockpit is at the front and contains a single pilot’s seat and 3-4 auxiliary stations depending on the variant. Behind and slightly above the cockpit are the main living areas of the shuttle. Depending on the client’s needs these can be outfitted in a variety of configurations. Behind and slightly below this area, is the entrance and small storage area. A fold out medical bed can be installed in this area with a medical droid. Page 14 of 23 Here are a couple of possible layouts for the upper deck. 1 with a more expansive living area and smaller cockpit, and another with a larger cockpit and limited living areas. With a better thrust to weight ratio than the Runabout, the Flyer is faster and more manoeuvrable at sublight speeds. The Flyer also comes with HPIs navicomputer and Universal Translator. There is 1 astromech droid as standard, with a built-in charging station on the lower deck. A PAM droid charger can also be included. ****** Harry could have 1 of these made as a personal ship for Shmi, Sugi, Anakin, etc. If Harry uses magic on these personal ships they could fit full sized missiles/torpedoes in the launchers and use fuel caps. These could be sold to the general public as ‘family transports’ or similar. ‘Rich kids’ could also want one. The Flyer could also be popular with bounty hunters. They could be sold to the Jedi as well. Not as big as a Runabout, these might be preferable to the Order. Jedi using a Delta Flyer would also be seen as less aggressive than them rocking up in a starfighter. Though the Flyer and Runabout come with fairly weak weapons as standard, HPI could offer ‘after market’ upgrades, simil ar to how CEC does. Page 15 of 23 Idea 05 – Shipping & HPI’s fleet While designing the Harrower carrier-battleship, Harry decides to have a look at the rest of his company’s ships and the way they move freight. Deciding to start with the purpose of his ships and ‘design up’ as it were, Harry thinks to implement something from Earth he has seen but doesn’t know a lot about personally, yet: shipping containers. These are metal (plastoid?) boxes of a standardised size and shape. 1 is double 2. 2 is double 3. This standardisation makes stacking the containers very easy, as well as calculating how many can fit within a given space (i.e. a cargo hold). A similar series of tank containers can be used to ship gasses and liquids, such as water, fuel and blaster gas. These are basically a space frame of the same dimensions as the normal cargo containers, but without the solid walls and simply containing a pressure vessel to hold the gas or liquid contents. Using the same space frame from the tank container, a hopper version can be created. These can be used to hold particulate cargos, such as food and aggregate, etc. The hopper design makes it easy to load and unload. By selling customers cargo containers, some will have to pay for larger containers than they strictly need in order to fit what they want HPI to ship. Loose cargo can be charged at a higher rate than cargo containers. I’m not suggesting HPI turn into the Trade Federation and start price gouging etc, but standardised containers would make transportation easier. I’m not sure if standardised shipping containers would work in the galaxy, but Harry does need a means of shipping fuel and blaster gas. Space ports HPI now operates several space ports and will probably build or take over more of them. Harry decides to create a general design for a space port that can be used as a template for all future HPI built space ports. HPI Space Ports will have 2 subterranean levels as standard. The first sub level contains storage for things needed for the space port to operate, such as fuel, water and blaster gas for sale to ships. Food, spare parts and other consumables for sale to ships could also be stocked on this level. 1 2 3 Page 16 of 23 Beneath that is the second sublevel, this contains the power reactors, Holonet transceiver and G- Net connection as well as a shield generator that covers the port and maybe some small area around it. A hangar for HPIs defensive fighters could also be located here. I’d advise against having a blaster gas generator in the space port, as it would draw even more attention if they are selling it to star ships but never have it delivered. Also, this posses a risk if the space port is broken into or taken over. HPI might want to look into building or taking over a refinery to produce their own fuel to sell so they don’t have to keep buying it off others. They can’t use the fuel caps for fuel they’re going to sell since it doesn’t last long enough. Unless Harry can work on something similar to the blaster gas machine, but for the fuel. Though this would be a LOT more complicated and probably not possible. By having a holonet and G-Net connection in every space port it ensures the G-net will always have a ‘visible’ holonet connection. HPI should still set up hidden holonet connections floating in black space as well. Because the G-Net has the connections everyone knows about, they are less likely to go looking for any hidden connections. From the space port G- Net service can be sold to the local populace, even on planets that don’t tend to have holonet connections. Excess power can also be sold to the local grid. Water and blaster gas can also be sold via HPI’s shop in the port. HPI can keep a few squadrons of fighters at each space port to help in defending it, the hangar could also have space for an extra company or two of battle droids to supplement the port ’ s normal droid security. The space port should have a tractor beam as well, this will help in the event a damaged ship is going to crash into the port. Splitting the freight and passenger parts of the port will allow HPI to maintain a cleaner more professional looking port from the point of view of the passengers. This won’t always be possible, since some passengers travel of cargo ships, but the dedicated passenger ships can be docked in the same area with quick access to the passenger terminal. The terminal will include everything a normal space port would, such as the means to book passage or arrange local transportation. It will also include a shopping mall with both HPI and other company’s shops along with eateries and a bar. There will also be a message board. Ships Along with his new carrier-battleship and fighters, Harry also takes a look at his current ships, the ACs and CR90s. He decides to create a few different variants of each ship: The multi-purpose ship. The cargo ship. The light escort ship. Page 17 of 23 -The multi- purpose ship is basically exactly what he’s got now. It has room for cargo and passengers and a hanger. These will continue to be used on low capacity routes. -The cargo ship removes the hanger and passenger quarters so that all of the available space inside is used for cargo. They still have the external fighters. These will be used on routes with some danger, but that are too small for a larger, bespoke, cargo ship. -The light escort ship replaces the cargo and passenger space with hanger space. They also have the internal atmosphere replaced with the halon gas. These will be used to escort other HPI ships and provide protection. HPI Cargo Hauler Alongside the redesigned ACs and CR90s Harry will also design a custom cargo ship. This will be designed to make use of the HPI shipping containers and use the track system to move them around inside the ship and for loading and unloading. A dedicated passenger ship (ferry) I was thinking something like a traditional cruise ship, not like a modern cruise ship. Like the Titanic, ships that have sleeping and recreation provisions, but are mainly to get you from point A to point B (unlike modern cruise ships that are designed to be your destination). Kind of like a flying hotel or sleeper train. These can have suites of various sizes, several bars and restaurants and lounges. These ferries will be crewed by droids, but the hotel will be staffed mainly by organics. The ship’s crew will take care of maintenance and flying the ships, etc. The hotel staff will see to the passengers and be bar staff, waiters, etc. The organic ‘hotel manager’ can act as captain. For a small fee, G-Net access is available to the passengers. A luxury cruise liner (cruise ship) If HPI wanted to get into the holiday business, they could also operate a cruise ship, similar to our modern version of a cruise ship, being a floating (flying) resort. They could offer the rich from core worlds cruises touring the galaxy, stopping at various sites of significance, such as Alderaan and Naboo. The cruise would not be limited to the core and outer core though, and can extend to the outer rim, stopping at Naboo and even moving out into Hutt space and stopping at Tatooine, there they can visit a pod race. You know, normal cruise stuff; if there are any interesting astronomical features along the way they could stop for some sightseeing. Things like nebulae or massive stars o r a black hole, things people, even in Star Wars, don’t see very often, if ever. For a small fee, G-Net access is available to the passengers. By including the passenger ships in HPIs regular trade convoys ensures there are several heavily armed ships escorting them to protect from pirate and slave attacks. They could even be followed at all times by 1 of HPIs light escorts. Page 18 of 23 Idea 06 – the Galactic Network If Harry can create the paired mirrors using runes, instead of enchantments, that will massively expand what HPI can do with them. By using robots to produce 1cm square mirrors with all the runes pre-engraved, Harry can ‘activate’ them in bulk just as he does with the fuel caps. By using runes and robot production, the actual G-net connection device would only be about the size of a Zippo lighter, including the mirror and connection ports for the regular network infrastructure. This will mean that they can be installed in a lot more places as the device doesn’t take up too much space. The small 1cm mirrors can also be packed closely together in the data centre. I suggest HPI create an internal version of the g-net, the Company Network or C-Net. The C- Net would basically be like a company LAN or WAN, completely separate from the greater G- Net apart from a single connection between the two in the data centres (for spying). This has several benefits, such as making sure that all of the HPI traffic is kept separate from the regular network traffic and adding an extra layer of security between HPI’s networ k and the public network, just in case a slicer does manage to get some access. With the small size of the connection it means that a c-net link can be installed in every ship and fighter HPI operate. This will make it impossible for the fighters to have their communications jammed, which would be catastrophic given the reliance of the DCU to communicate with each other. To facilitate the thousands of c-net connections on the data centre end, Harry is going to have to design a system whereby the mirrors can be added and removed via a robotic arm, sort of like a pick and place machine. With the optical cable(s) that connect to each mirror held in a standard fitting, the robotic arm can place the mirror into the fitting in the correct orientation. The optical cables are then connected to a network switch as normal. With each fighter and ship having a c-net connection it means that some of the connections will become defunct as the other end is destroyed. The robotic arm can simply remove the corresponding mirror from the data centre and replace it with another mirror. This way the c-net will have thousands of connections but the only hardware that needs replacing is the mirror, the regular network equipment will stay the same. Just like unplugging an old computer and replacing it with a new one in the real world. Even the network addresses can be reused once the original terminal has been removed, by having an internal company network also means thousands of addresses aren’t being taken up by HPIs fighters an d droids in the main G-Net. Harry may also decide to put c-net connections in some of the HPI battle droids as well, certainly things like the tank or transports, maybe even the larger droids along with a powerful local communications system to hopefully reduce the chance of line of sight comms being jammed. Page 19 of 23 Or, given the small size of the gen2 connections (the Zippo sized ones), a C-Net connection can be installed in every DCU directly. G-Net services Along with data storage, HPI could offer other services over the G-Net. At the time when Harry left Earth the Internet and World Wide Web existed and Harry would have been aware of them, but things like instant messengers wouldn’t come about until a few years after he left. That being said, things like websites and email were both around. Also the Star Wars universe clearly has things like online shopping, since that’s how Harry buys his ships. They also use the holonet to send messages and have video calls etc. These are all things HPI can offer over the G-Net. In fact, the video call quality would be even better over the G-Net than the holonet. News sites are also a thing. Once the Clone Wars start, If HPI starts having issues caused by propaganda HPI could start their own news site on the G-Net to get the truth out there. Page 20 of 23 Idea 07 – Miscellaneous ideas Books for sale HPI could publish various works of fiction from Earth. The selections they offer will need to be curated to hide their origins but offering books, comics, music, etc. would raise less eyebrows than films or TV shows. These would be an easy money maker since they would be purely digital and could be sold over the holonet/G-net. ****** Droid power Putting a fuel cap in every droid is a bad idea, it’s going to raise both the cost and co mplexity immensely, not to mention the risk of discovery. Every single droid doesn’t need a fuel tank and generator, pretty much every other droid in the galaxy is powered by some kind of battery. Even in the original trilogy films, R2-D2 has to be plugged into a charger when Luke goes to Degobah. HPI’s space ports, ships and other facilities can have droid charging stations for all of their droids. Or, HPI can create a ‘charging droid’; basically a self -propelled reactor with enough charging cables to charge a company of droids. Battle droids that are posted as sentries in a certain location can have a grid connection installed at their sentry location with an auto disconnect so the droids can leave their post immediately if needed. ****** HPI’s new starship computers HPI can offer retrofits to add their new advanced computer systems to a customer’s existing starship. Similar to how he offers to retrofit vocalisers to people astromechs. Navi-computer HPI should develop a better navi-computer that can quickly calculate hyperspace jumps without the help of an astromech droid. I know some ships have navi-computers that can do this, but they all seem to be pretty slow. Yet astromechs can do the calculations faster than the navi-computers seam able to. An astromechs computer can’t be that big, so it’s not a size thing that makes navi -computers so naff. Universal Translator Another HPI creation is the ‘universal translator’. This is basically just the language translation function of a protocol droid built into the ships communications system.