Jorus Merrill
is mek bote
[member="Alna Merrill"]
Reduce, Reuse Recycle
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:50 AM
Word of his conversation with @Alna D'Lessio had filtered through the Vagrant Fleet, apparently, and the quiet woman called Ori'vod had sent them a set of coordinates. Now the Gypsymoth dropped out of hyperspace alongside Alna's ship, and Jorus looked out over a deep space battleground.
He tapped the comms. "We may be a dozen light years from any Sith world, but this is still their space. If anyone owns space. I'm nervous as feth about this...but look at those pickings. Wonder how Ori'vod knew this was going to be here."
Far away from any solar system, fleets had met in battle, and this was the battlefield, the refuse. Dark, silent, tasty.
post #2 Ashin Varanin
Posted 02 August 2013 - 02:06 AM
Some said Omega Pyre had mastered expansion, but in Ashin's brief tenure as Empress, she had added to the Empire as much space as all of Omega Pyre's current holdings put together. Ten thousand worlds bowed to the flag -- innumerable conquests and campaigns. And among all of them, a few had been forgotten. This was one.
A few months back-
The Chimaera's bridge crewers remained unnaturally still, right on the edge of an indrawn breath. Perhaps they felt honored; perhaps they were terrified.
The Dantooine defense fleet, reeling from a sharp and sudden blow under Tirdarius's aegis, had run here to a rally point. Sith spies being what they were, the Chimaera waited.
"Orders, Your Majesty?" said the captain, voice neutral.
"Those are hardened paramilitary," she said, and it sounded far away. "And leftist farmer fanatics. We'll never take them alive." She stood from the command chair and walked up to the viewport as Dantooine's most stalwart defenders dropped out of hyperspace and scrambled to respond to the presence of an Imperial armada.
"As good a time as any," the Empress murmured to herself, and touched the Force. 'Touch' might have been too gentle a word. She grabbed it, clawed at it, bent it to her will as she nurtured her rage. Space itself tore, right in the middle of the defense force. The leftover Imperial Remnant ships -- some of them quite good, to her eye -- went into overdrive as their sensors registered a huge hyperspace event, and massive gravitic lensing. Cerenkov radiation, line-of-sight issues -- the scientists and sensor operators had words for what she was doing.
The Force storm chewed into that fleet like Voracitos through a buffet. Broken ships filled the aether, torn apart, cast partially into hyperspace, bits of them strewn across distant starscapes.
She had lost enough people today. And sometimes, a lesson needed to be taught.
post #3 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 02:11 AM
"Would you look at that...that's not turbolaser damage. It's like someone tore these ships apart with tractor beams..."
He was still, for the moment, talking to the comm.
post #4 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 05:34 AM
"Speaking of which, I've got mine all fired up." Alndys reported, as her big, square Wayfarer-class crept closer to the ruins on impulse engines. This was a graveyard - steel and bodies as far as the eye could see. But to Alndys, this represented little more than raw, potential money... albiet at the risk of Sith. Thankfully, they usually placed less stress on piloting than their Jedi siblings.
Turning on what passed for long-range sensors in her old boat, Alndys stood up and clipped her mic and earbud in. "I'd be surprised if there's any air left in that wreck. Are we going to try cutting through the hull, or extracting the parts by hand?" Alndys asked Jorus as she stepped into the recently all-but-emptied cargo hold.
post #5 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:18 AM
"Well, if I've tuned things right through gaps in the armor, there's hibridium in there somewhere." He danced Gypsymoth around the hulk of a corvette and set down on the hull of a big cruiser. Magna-clamps locked the freighter against the hull. Slipping on an earpiece, he headed aft to get a space suit. "Delicate stuff. But let's see what kind of access we can get through these holes -- from this angle, it looks like something did a passable job of trying to rip off the back end of the ship. If we're lucky, there'll be stressed-open internal structures all the way down. I'm not reading any power, so gravity won't be a thing. Maneuvering jets and pellet pistols all the way, at least until it's climb time and we gotta worry about suit rip. But air...well, guess we'll find out."
He traded the headset for the helmet comm as the suit sealed up around him. The hangar doors opened, and a world of salvage healed his soul. Over and away, well within sight, was Alna's ship.
"Shall we?"
post #6 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 10:16 AM
"I'm bringing a welding kit. Never know when a blast door wants to be stubborn." Alndys replied as she quickly changed into suit. Going from the Wayfarer's grav field out onto the wreck of the ship was a bit disorienting, but not overly so. After a moment to check her systems and make sure everything was in order, Alndys adjusted the belt holding her welding tools and other devices, then took a couple steps to align her internal sense of up and down. Everything seemed to be working properly.
"Born ready." Alndys replied, giving a slight salute as she began making her way carefully towards the back of the ship, where the point of entry would be. "Pity we can't just drag the whole mess to some planet. We'd be beyond rich, just from the durasteel alone." She sighed, clicking on her helmet lights.
post #7 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 11:55 AM
"Cutting torch sounds about right. I've got a little, uh, lightsabre knife, but it's not something I'm comfortable combining with a spacesuit glove. One brush and it's decompression, and not the relaxing kind."
He disengaged his magnetized boots and fired his thruster pistol behind him. His feet skidded over the surface of the hull until he reactivated the boots and cancelled his momentum at the edge of the nearest gaping hole.
"Yeah," he said, directing a spotlight down into the hull, "this sure wasn't turbolaser damage. Nothing melted, just torn apart -- look at those wires. Well, my estimate for this thing's value just went up. Look how many of the guns are intact. Forget the durasteel; we walk into Moreau Station or Mos Eisley with a cargo hold full of turbolaser galven circuitry, and I can buy you a drink that isn't recycled water. This place is so good it makes me wonder why Ori'vod hasn't scavenged it yet."
He reoriented in midair to go into the chasm head-first, and 'ascended' into the hull, spotlight everywhere.
post #8 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:04 PM
Alndys bounced after Jorus, more than comfortable getting about in a vacume. Taking a moment to carefully align herself, the tall salvager lept towards the rent portion of the destroyer, using a slight nudge from her jets to flip over and catch a piece of metal. With that leverage, she pulled herself inside, taking a look at the damage. "Can't be ballistic, it's not neat enough. No remains or clutter, so I doubt it's an asteroid." She mused, before ponderously running her glove over the metal. "...I've seen this kind of damage before. A speeder that'd been pulled apart by a rancor." Alndys explained, looking over her shoulder. "Just yanked it right in two."
The backside of the ship begged the question - if this had been the speeder, what was the Rancor that'd done this to it?
"You know what, though? No electrical damage - forget the gun circuits." Alndys said with a visible grin. "How much do you think an intact Imperial mainframe is going for? Ship logs, personnel records, every dirty secret this ship saw." The Salvager explained. "Some might pay top dollar for that kind of information...even just to hide it."
Granted, her suggestion was motivated partly by a desire to know what the Hel had happened to the ship.
post #9 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:13 PM
Jorus blinked, and blinked again. "Mainframe... holy feth, Alna, it's a smorgasbord. Cruiser this size has gotta have at least a twelve-peta. Let's see what we can find."
They had to clear away some frozen bodies to enter the main access shaft that would put them closest to the mainframe. Jorus handled the task with a grimace, but with long familiarity. "No Imperial uniforms," he said absently, re-engaging his magnetic boots inside a warped corridor. "No telling how long this has been drifting here, either. My best guess is, we're close enough to Dantooine and Gravlex Med, and the Sith Empire conquered both of'em only a few months ago. There were naval actions over both, too. I'm betting someone got away, and the Sith were waiting for'em. Maybe they wanted to test some kind of, I don't know, tractor beam superdreadnought?"
A sick feeling settled into his gut.
"Feth, I hate Sith. Doesn't matter what you bring to the table, they've always got some dirty trick or other. Every dang time." He squinted up at a sealed door. "Yup. This looks like the computer room. You got that torch handy?"
post #10 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:18 PM
"Always a dirty trick, and two more. Never got along too well with Sith - or Jedi, for that matter." Alndys agreed, manuvering close enough to the door to be of some use with her cutting torch. "Tell you what, though - if we pull this off, we'll be doing a damnsight better than recycled water." She joked, as the torch clicked, then clicked again before firing up. "I'll send your ass to Zeltron for a vacation!" She laughed, as the well-used torch began doing it's work - leading a narrow line down the side of the blast doors, then the other, carving an aperature big enough to fit through. "Granted, we'll likely have to carve it out of the heart of the ship - or dismantle it." Alndys pointed out as she worked.
post #11 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:27 PM
"I'm down for some carving if this really is as good as advertised. Worst case scenario, I go back and get my little lightsaber and a patch kit, just in case, and we see what's up. I'd risk it for this haul."
He planted a magnetic grabber on the door slab and pulled it free with a grunt. Inside-
Well, it was beautiful.
"To get any data off this gorgeous hunk of circuitry, we're going to have to run a power cable in here. Either that, or read it once we get it out. Which first, ya think?"
post #12 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:35 PM
Alndys put a hand on her hip as she looked up at the towering fortune of computer that made up the ship's massive mainframe. Cripes, even if there wasn't any worthwhile data on it, that amount of hardware represented a payday the likes of which Alndys D'Lessio hadn't seen in years. The sense of discovering something lain abandoned like this? Made Alndys' job worth every moment. "...no sense cutting it up before we know that there's anything on it." She decided.
Alna turned to Jorus and dimmed her helmet lights so she could address him without blinding him. "I've got a few cables back in the Wayfarer that should reach here. If I put the support systems in shutdown, I think he's got enough power to get it going. C'mon and help me get them going - they're heavy."
"You've got the proximity sensors on your ship running, right?" Alna asked as she drifted back towards the hull breach they'd entered from. She didn't relish the idea of turning off her alarms, but she had docked slightly closer than Jorus had. Hopefully his ship would give them warning if they had sudden company.
post #13 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:41 PM
"Oh, definitely," he said, magna-stomping his way back down the corridor to the breach. "That ship's my home; half the time it's my toddler's home, too. Better believe I've got all manner of sensors rigged - hyperspace reversion, motion, counterscan, weapons, everything. If a mynock sneezes within ten light-minutes, Gypsymoth tells me about it. Nothing but the best for my kid. Truth be told, that's what's been eating my paychecks. I'm, uh, a Commander in the Omega Pyre Defense Force. It's sort of a new thing. I needed money for the kid, the Hutts wanted me to break legs or ship spice...yeah."
He clambered past the freeze-dried bodies, and fired the thruster gun, jetting back through the chasm towards the outer hull. He slouched against the Wayfarer's hull beside the hatch, pondering Alna and her space suit.
"Mind if I come aboard?" The invitation had been implied, but it was always best to ask, when it came to tramp freighters and the people who called them home.
post #14 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:50 PM
"Yeah? I wouldn't have ever pegged you for a father." Alndys admitted, though she sounded impressed as they made their way back.
She bounced through the open bay of the Wayfarer, through the atmospheric filter. Gravity re-asserted itself, and Alndys popped her helmet off with a light, pressurized 'hiss' to take in the familiar air of her ship. The Wayfarer's cargo bay was part storeroom, part workshop, with shelves of parts and tools along the back wall shored up by half-destroyed droids and ship parts. In the middle of the bay was an OS-I1 Ranger in pristine, sparkling condition. "Come on aboard - excuse the mess." Alndys invited as she stepped around a dissected, sporty speeder she'd picked up on Tatooine and was mostly through restoring. "I've met a couple of you Omega Pyre folks. Nice enough people to work with. I do a lot of my business along the Corellian Trade Spine, so... in my best interests to make friends." She chuckled.
"Need anything before we do the sweaty work?" Alndys asked as she began unspooling thick power cable that had been fitted onto a winch - likely so she didn't have to wind it back up after doing things like this.
post #15 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:59 PM
Jorus popped his helmet's viewport, but kept it on -- for the proximity notifications, if any showed. "Well dang, you've got an OP interceptor sitting in the middle of your hold. I'd imagine you've been making very good friends. And no, I don't need a ton. I kinda want to get at it, and see what killed that ship."
He grabbed a small hoversled and levered it under the coil of power cable. He'd spied external outlets; this should be relatively straightforward, if he could keep from breaking the cable on the jagged metal of the rift.
"Love the ship, by the way. Plenty of room for whatever. Gypsymoth has the dual cargo bay setup, so it's not as open as this. This feels like a workshop. Love it."
post #16 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:05 PM
"It IS a workshop." Alndys laughed as she fiddled with a control panel. She popped her helmet back on and drained the power out of every non-essential system on-board, so they'd have more juice to power up the mainframe. "My parents were a salvage team in this ship. When they passed away, my siblings and I divied up what was left of the business - and I took the ship. Apparently, being a junker isn't good enough for my brothers." She explained cheerfully. "I was born on this ship, and I live on this ship, you know?" Alna explained as she followed Jorus out of the cargo bay - the lights slowly turning off in the Wayfarer.
She attatched the auxilliary power cable to the external coupling, and began leading Jorus and the hoversled back into the wreckage of The Chimaera. Alndys let Jorus do the heavy pushing and pulling, while she cleared his path of corpses and navigated the unspooling cable around jagged metal and choke points.
post #17 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:09 PM
"Oh, I hear that. I was born in hyperspace -- true story. It's still where I feel most at home. I feel sorry for folks who get hyper-rapture. Then again, maybe I've got it already."
He wedged the cable into places where friction wouldn't do it much harm -- rounded crossbeams, eyelets, that kind of thing. When they came to the main corridor, he just left the hoversled and shoved the whole remaining mass of cable down the hall.
It was just, barely, long enough.
Cracking his knuckles, he plugged the mainframe into the Wayfarer's power grid.
"Alll right. Let's see what we can do...how are you with computers?"
post #18 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:12 PM
"Passable - but I would't call myself a slicer by any means." Alndys admitted, watching the mainframe power up. "I've run across a couple ships like this before, though. Maybe I'll get lucky and some of my old access codes will work." She approached the main terminal just as it becan booting up, wiggling her fingers. The last time she'd been in a position like this - and the time before - both mainframes had been much smaller and she'd had to hire a Slicer to get her in. Alndys had gotten her credit's worth, though, by watching over their shoulders as best she could. Straining her brain to remember all she could, Alndys set to work.
post #19 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:19 PM
"The more I see of this ship, the more I figure it wasn't Imperial, at least not recently. Imperial-made, sure. I'm betting the operating system and access codes should be plenty antiquated. Makes your odds better, anyway." He squatted beside an access panel and peered inside the mainframe.
"And all those popsicles out there...yeah, they weren't Imperial either. Farmers from Dantooine is my bet. I'd have said Gravlex Med, but I haven't seen any Anx so far. Freaking Dantooine gets this done to them. How they even got a cruiser this size, well..."
He grimaced. "That's not how you run an insurgency, that's for darn sure. Small ships, deniable ships."
post #20 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:24 PM
"Putting anything less than trained soldiers on a craft like this is just asking for a tragedy to occur, anyway." Alndys said off-handedly. "So many things could go wrong, so manly little problems you need a trained eye to see. A water 'vaporator runs until it breaks, you can fix with anything off hand. Farming combine? Just about the same. But the engines on a cruiser start going..." She shook her head, tak-taking away at the console. Alndys may not have known much about running an insurgency, but she DID know hardware.
"Failsafe maintenance codes worked - I'm in!" Alndys chirped triumphantly. "Let's take a look at what we've got..."
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:38 PM
@Alna D'Lessio
"Yeah, they did this all -- oh feth, you're in! Sensor data?"
And, on a little screen, they watched as this cruiser -- Icarus, its name was -- and a host of others emerged from hyperspace to find an Imperial flotilla waiting for them.
An Imperial flotilla that didn't engage. Jorus squinted at the telesponder traces. "That's the Chimaera -- the Empress's flagship. But they're not launching fighters, they're not-"
The sensor data went insane. Gravimetric readings, Cerenkov radiation -- everything. As if an immense hyperspace event had been created.
As if someone had made a wormhole appear, with technology or with their brain.
Jorus found himself lost for words.
post #22 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:43 PM
"This... this can't be right." Alndys muttered, squinting at the screen. "Ships' report is acting like their hyperspace went berserk, but it's flagged as questionable - meaning that that's the computer's best guess as to what happened to it." She leaned down, looking over the readings again. No Fry particles, so it couldn't have been an energy core meltdown or a massive lasgun. This wasn't just baffling, it was becoming downright spooky.
All of a sudden, the wreckage of the ship seemed much larger, much darker, and much less empty to Alndys D'Lessio.
"I wasn't wrong in that something tore the ship in half. But they'd have to be drifting next to a black hole to do this kind of damage." Alna said, turning to Jorus as a chill went down her spine. "If we bring this mainframe back with data like this, nobody's going to believe it."
post #23 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:52 PM
Jorus rested the forehead of his space suit against the mainframe with a hollow 'clunk'. "Yeah. Not a soul. I mean, if it's a question of selling it, we can offload the data no problem. Omega Pyre will buy it -- I can almost guarantee that much. I've got enough pull with them, I think. Shed enough blood for the company. But feth, this is insane. Superweapon test? Some Sith thing? And with the Empress dead at Roche, and the whole Empire up for grabs while the Dark Council tries to hold it together -- why hasn't this been used again? Too fething many questions.
"Let's, uh, think of happier things. You think if we cut out the rest of the doorframe, and that one tight place back where the corridor got pinched, you think we could get this whole mainframe out if we turned it sideways?"
post #24 Byrec Lasood
Posted 02 August 2013 - 02:54 PM
Logistics. He wanted to talk logistics.
That was good. Alndys didn't know anything about supernatural forces ripping a starship into parts, but she could eyeball a measurement like it was nobody's business. It was nice to be able to Do something, control something that was going on. Pushing off on the ground, Alndys floated up to the ceiling and took in the mainframe. "...should be able to, yeah. Might have to cut away on a corner when we get to that one bend, though." She decided. "And if that's the case, we're going to be out here for awhile. I've only got the one plasma cutter, just sold off the last of my droids what might be able to help out."
Alndys pushed off on the ceiling and landed gingerly on the ground. "Let's get this data uploaded before we start, though - be a shame to bust this thing up in transit and lose it." She glanced over at Jorus, offering a sidelong smile. "I'll send the data to your ship, we can load the hardware into mine."
Simple enough deal - the Wayfarer was powered down, so it couldn't receive the upload. And the Gypsymoth didn't have as much raw storage as Alna's ship. But since the data and the hardware was worth considerably less without the other half, it was more an offer of a promise not to cheat the other out of their share. As nice as Jorus seemed, this WAS her first run with him, Vagrant Fleet or not. Better to be cautious.
post #25 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:07 PM
Jorus offered a lopsided smile through the viewplate of his helmet. "Works for me. Send away whenever you like; if you wanna start with the plasma cutter, I'll go topside again and get that little lightsaber of mine. Might as well send the data to both ships while you're at it."
He floated away down the now-familiar main corridor and ascended through the immense rent in the cruiser's hull. The vessel's infinitely slow rotation -- perhaps due to their landing -- changed the stars beyond the lip of the chasm. Following the power cable up, he scanned the starscape visually. No harm in verifying Gypsymoth's proximity sensors.
On the flat armor, he jetted past Alna's ship and passed through the Gypsymoth's airlock. His little double-ended lightsabre clipped to his space suit's belt, and he grabbed a patch kit and one of those emergency rescue bubbles, the collapsible kind, just in case. The consoles already hummed with activity -- the Icarus's sensor data incoming, it looked like -- and he headed back to Alna, ready to start cutting things.
"How's it coming?"
post #26 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:13 PM
Once Jorus left, Alndys sent the data along to his ship and then got to work. She took a couple of measurements, bounced down the corridor to eyeball the turn, then went back to the computer room to reckon some more. They WOULD need to chop away a portion of the hull to get the column-like mainframe out of the room and to the Wayfarer safely, but not as much as she'd initially thought. That was a good thing, meant they'd be off this spooky wreck before fried nerves or hunger convinced her to take a break from, and thus lengthen, the job. It meant that they might be done within a couple hours.
"Doing good." Alndys reported, looking 'up' at Jorus as she worked on the ceiling. She was busily burning away at the casing holding the computer core in place, the mainframe already powered down and unplugged. "I marked the corner I want cut away with some chalk - if your knife won't go deep enough, this should only take me about ten minutes more to finish." She explained, looking back to her work.
post #27 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:28 PM
Jorus pulled the little double-ended lightsabre from his belt rather carefully -- space-suited fingers weren't known for their dexterity. "That bit right there, yeah? On it."
He re-magnetized his boots and walked up the wall to squat beside the top of the doorframe. "Chalk. You really are a pro. Get lost in a derelict capship once too often?" He activated one sky-blue blade, a bit less than a foot long, and began carving through bulkhead. "Oh, hey, you might find this interesting. I used to know a Jedi, long story, and he showed me how he used to go through capship armor that was too thick for a lightsaber. Same thing applies here, at a guess."
He drew two parallel lines in the metal, blade turned in from each side. A long bar of metal with a broad, flat triangular cross-section floated free. Then he narrowed the angles and did it again, and used a prybar to remove the second still-glowing bar, this one with a chevron cross-section. Under that, well, the remaining thickness of blast door was only a couple of inches, and he did that with a single slow cut, careful not to toast his suit against the glowing sides of the channel. He repeated the process as necessary, drawing deep lines in the blast door, and the whole thing came free.
"Dead useful, this. I've got no patience for a lightsabre; I built this thing for knife-fighting and this kind of work."
post #28 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:43 PM
Get lost in a spaceship? Lucky guess. "Yeah, guess you could say that." Alndys chuckled quietly. Chalk was a good tool to have around, whenever you needed to mark something - to be followed, to follow it back, or just to tell someone where to go or what to do. AND it was cheap as dirt.
"Trick, huh?" Alndys asked jovially as they worked in seperate areas. She liked to talk while she worked - it was a rare treat, seeing as how she spent the lion's share of her time working alone. "Tell me you're not just cutting triangles and whacking out the strips with a bar or something." She scoffed. Didn't take a Jedi to teach someone one of the oldest welding tricks in the book - at least as far as a woman who'd learned to weld before she'd worn a bra was concerned.
With a meaty 'chunk' that Alndys couldn't hear because space, but could feel, the Mainframe slid free of it's casing and drifted a couple inches forward.
post #29 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 04:27 PM
"Not triangles," he said with great, misplaced and self-mocking dignity. "Chevrons. But hey, I grew up flying ships -- doesn't mean I grew up fixing them. I am a thoroughly average mechanic. Now flying, I can fly anything."
He used magna-clamps to shift the chunk of bulkhead, then stowed them on his belt. No point in using magnets on a computer. "All right," he said. "I figure we gotta treat this like an accel/decel to just shy of lightspeed -- pull the top down until we're half-way, then start pushing it up to cancel out momentum. Freaking zero-gee. Oh good - you unplugged it before you moved it."
Slowly and carefully, the mainframe spun to fit down the corridor, and began moving thattaway. It was an extremely tight fit.
But he could fly anything. He guided the mainframe around the corner and through the bodies, aiming for the breach.
post #30 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 05:03 PM
And so he could, it seemed, fly anything. Alndys let Jorus do his thing, acting as a pair of extra hands whenever he needed them - she still had plenty of fuel left in her jets, so once they'd cleared the mainframe from the wreck, it was child's play to get it loaded up into the Wayfarer. Since the ship's Antigrav was powered down with the rest of it, they nudged it against the floor of the cargo bay, then set about strapping it down - which was easy enough. Alndys had no shortage of straps, or things to hook straps to. Once it was secure, she turned the ship's systems back on.
Air came rushing into the cargo hold, and gravity reasserted itself. The result was a deafening clatter as all of Alndys' tools and scrap clattered down from where they'd been hovering, and the hiss of air rapidly filling the cargo bay. Once systems looked nominal, Alna took her helmet off and shook her many braids out.
"...that went remarkably smoothly." She admitted with a bright grin, moving around the mainframe to check the straps and ensure everything was in order.
post #31 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 05:59 PM
He let out a long breath and traded the space suit's helmet for an earpiece comm, just in case something set off the Gypsymoth's proximity alarms. But this was deep space, a forgotten derelict. If anything came here, it would come because it had followed them somehow or other. And there was no reason for anyone to track them. Any of the people who'd heard them laying plans to come out here would have been able to get the location from Ori'vod themselves.
No, they were alone. He could afford to be less on edge. His fingers moved to the buckles of his space suit, but there was no politesse in inviting himself to stick around. Disguising the abortive motion as best he could, he examined the mainframe.
"I wonder how Ori'vod knew about this," he said.
And then it clicked. He felt his eyes go wide. "Alna, there was a...there was a mission to Naboo, maybe half a year ago, around the time this ship was destroyed. Chloe Blake and I went to make contact with the Gungan leadership, and we found a woman living in Otoh Gunga. She was, well, she felt cold. Looked right through ya. We turned the whole affair over to our bosses at Omega Pyre, and they had some kind of a meeting -- and it was the Empress. It was the fething Sith Empress. I met her, is what I'm saying. I met Ashin Varanin...
"And it's Ori'vod. All scarred and dirty and unassuming, and missing that arm, and talking like normal folks instead of an aristocrat -- I didn't recognize her. And Ori'vod keeps to herself; I've only seen her face once, that day that everything went nuts on Moreau Station. I bet Chloe hasn't seen her face yet, and she's the only one who could draw the connection. The Empress isn't dead, Alna -- she didn't die at Roche. She's hiding in the Vagrant Fleet. She is the Vagrant fleet.
"Frack." He sat down heavily on a service bench.
post #32 Byrec Lasood
Posted 02 August 2013 - 06:07 PM
His revelation earned Jorus a condescending, skeptical smile until he explained his reasoning - slowly, it made sense. She'd heard only bits and pieces of the same story, but hearing it all laid out like that really made a pile of sense. Taking a moment to digest this, Alndys frowned, squinted, frowned again, then shook her head in that order. A pile of sense.
"I'm... gonna go grab a drink." She decided, now that the work was done - for now. Perhaps they'd decide to load up the gun circuitry into the Gypsymoth like he'd suggested at first - maybe not. For now, though, it was clearly time to take a break and evaluate just what the odds were that she was working for who he thought they were working for. "...I'm gonna grab you, one, too." She added, pointing to Jorus as she stepped out of the cargo bay and into the canteen of the Wayfarer - to return shortly with two bottles of Besbin wine, and two glasses.
post #33 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 08:34 PM
Eyes vacant, the Warden of the Sky stripped off his space suit and accepted a bottle and a glass. Only once he'd down't about half of it -- the glass, not the bottle -- did he hold it up to the light and snap at least half-way back to reality. "You carry glasses around. Nice ones, too. Feth, maybe I'm just an old bachelor, but I've never stocked anything that wasn't some kind of plastic. Or metal, I guess. Too many years as a blockade runner. I'd forgotten how glass is -- I mean, it's beautiful stuff. I always wanted to learn to blow glass."
He pounded down the rest of the glass and filled it again, with Sarge-like haste.
"This was...a very good idea," he said, examining his second glass. "A really, really good idea. Without this, I'd be wondering whether she knows that I know -- whether she remembers me." He didn't mention why the Empress would remember one tramp freighter pilot. "Without this, I'd be wondering if she knows who I am, or whether this whole trip was just some bizarre test of loyalty to the Vagrants -- feth, I need more."
He drank.
"You are, without question, my hero right now. Hope you realize that."
post #34 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 08:45 PM
Alndys switched between drinking the light Bespin wine from the bottle and glass, keeping more or less quiet. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd taken the glasses from some Omega Pyre nobody's destroyed ship - they'd been intended as a wedding present was her best guess. By the time he'd finished his bottle, Alndys had about half of hers remaining. "I'm pretty good at spotting a crisis waiting to happen." Alndys said simply, having read in the hard lines of his shoulders and the tensing of Jorus' hands that he was having some major, dark thoughts bouncing around in his skull. Lorrdian! Useful language.
It was small wonder he and Sarge were buddies, of a sort. They appeared to react to stress in the same ways.
"Take the time you need." Alndys insisted, offering over her bottle - not for him to slam back, but to refill his glass. Make it last. It was her last bottle of wine. "It sounds like you've got a story to tell, anyhows." She invited, lighting a cigarette. The pack was set on the hood of the speeder she was resting her behind against, an open invitation for him to help himself.`
post #35 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:08 PM
"I'm, ah, noticeable to some," he said, depositing her half-drunk bottle on a workbench. Sliding down, he put his back against the bench. "It doesn't get talked about much, but I'm a Warden of the Sky. Yeah, we're real. So when she met me, it wasn't as the pilot, it was as the Warden. And that is...no good. But thanks to your excellent wine, I can ignore all of that.
"Look, there's not a lot to me, y'know? I've fought in half a dozen revolutions that went bad, I've got a kid from my one moment of genuine stupid that didn't involve a Sith and a gun, I've been in love with Chloe Blake for years and never done anythin' more than hold her hand. That's me in a nutshell. So just, like, ignore my whining and my fears and whatever. Thanks for the wine."
post #36 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:22 PM
Alndys shrugged passively. "I go weeks without seeing another soul, sometimes. That's normal for me." She said blithely. "Today, I worked with ya, and I'm sharing a drink with ya. And we can chat about whatever the hel you want." Alndys smirked and sipped out of her wineglass, leaning back. "Because it's rare enough that I get a moment like this, I'm willing to listen to just about any topic you want to yammer about."
"Besides, from my experience? Complicated men tend to be bad. Or Unhappy. Usually both." Alndys joked.
post #37 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:38 PM
"Well, thank feth for that. Lets the rest of us average joes have a shot at whatever, while the special folks -- well, let's put it this way. How..."
He trailed off, and didn't seem to realize that he'd trailed off.
"So you and Sarge -- how far back you two go?"
post #38 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 03 August 2013 - 02:07 AM
"About a month or so." Alndys produced after a bit of thought. "He was looking for someone to haul that ship over there, stumbled into the Wayfarer, and that was pretty much it." She explained with a faint smile. "Keeps to himself. So do I. Guess that's why we get along." Alna said with a shrug. "Did you bring your kid out here? I'd hate to think he's alone on your ship, while I booze his daddy up over here."
post #39 Jorus Merrill
Posted 03 August 2013 - 08:57 AM
@Alna D'Lessio
Jorus felt his eyebrows ascend his skull. "Didn't realize I was bein' plied with liquor. Of course, that's sort of the point of bein' plied with liquor. No, I don't bring my kid on salvage missions. She's back on Moreau; Sarge makes a great babysitter. He's the godfather, y'know."
He smiled vaguely and drained the last drops from his glass, unwilling to drink the rest of her bottle. "So if you ever see a pink-skinned ten-month-old in a diaper crawling around a shadowport, that'd be my kid. Mara, her name is. First family I've had in a while. Never really knew her mother.
"Frack. I'm babbling. Tell me 'bout you."
post #40 Byrec Lasood
Posted 03 August 2013 - 09:29 AM
Alndys chuckled quietly. It was a good thing he hadn't brought his kid - that'd mean she'd be tempted to lower her opinion of a man who'd turned out to be a pretty great co worker. "There ain't much to tell. I was born in the Salvage business, and I've worked it my whole life." She explained, refilling her wineglass before leaning back on the hood of the wrecked speeder. "It's a whole lot of finding messes like this one, and carving the choiciest bits out. Sometimes, it means going back for a second round." She explained. "Of course, I've got to be at least a little good at sales to make my living - and a touch lucky - but I've always gotten by."
Alndys smiled faintly. "I can't imagine doing anything else. I don't want to. Out here, I'm not accountable to anyone. I can go and come as I please, and I get to see everything the galaxy has to offer." She explained wistfully.
She anchored herself before going off on a tangent. "...I've got some brothers and a sister scattered along the core planets, but we don't really talk. Oldest of 'em even has the keys to mom and dad's old warehouse, on Corellia, so I guess he's doing alright. Haven't seen the inside of that place in at least ten years, but last time I did, he had a while bunch of fighters in there - good ones, too. A-wings, mostly." Alndys explained. "I can't imagine how boring it must be, to be anchored to one place on one planet, for the rest of your life. But I guess they're happy. They must be - none of them ever called me for help."
"...but then, I'm the youngest. So maybe when they think 'help', they don't think of me." Alndys admitted with a sly smirk.
PAGE THREE MISSING
Posted 03 August 2013 - 11:38 PM
"Lying to these people is askin' for a long walk off a short pier, but you make a compellin' point." The space suit's helmet locked into place with a tidy snick, a sign that he'd done pretty decent at the maintenance side of things and hadn't bumped against the wreck as hard as he remembered.
Jorus stopped out onto the hull and fired his thruster pistol behind himself. A deft second and third shot cancelled his momentum and sent him drifting into the second gap. His lightsabre flared to life in his gloved hand, and he began cutting through warped I-beams and pulling them away from the mess that quite possibly concealed the salvageable heart of a capital-grade cloaking device.
"We're walking away from this with more money than we planned. What you gonna do with your share?"
post #62 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 03 August 2013 - 11:49 PM
"No idea." Alna admitted, glancing up from her work a few feet away from Jorus. She pondered the question for a moment, then chuckled. "Maybe I'll take a little vacation. I hear Zelton's a nice place to spend a wild week." She pointed out jovially, though her tone implied she had no real of going there at all. "Someplace new, and fun. I think that's what i'd like to do with my take." She explained, busily cutting away at the hull. "What about you? Any big, lurid plans to share?"
post #63 Jorus Merrill
Posted 03 August 2013 - 11:59 PM
@Alna D'Lessio
"Wouldn't mind taking another crack at Zeltros myself," he admitted, to his own surprise. "First time didn't go so well. Wound up with a couple of seriously stressed friendships, and a baby. And that's one story I don't plan on blathering about. Not my finest hour.
"But yeah, I think you'll like Zeltros. The Zeltrons don't care who you are, they just like you, whoever you are. They're great at making folks feel welcome -- and meaning it."
He deactivated his sabre and pulled a chunk of I-beam away from the shredded internal structure of the cruiser. The gigantic beam floated away, sending soundless reverberations through the hull whenever they collided.
"Figure with my cut of all this, maybe I'll get a little house. Maybe just one of those apartments in Nar Shaddaa's guts, some kind of little home somewhere. Don't know what I'd use it for, apart from a place to hang my hat that isn't Gypsymoth. Or...maybe I'll save it. See, I told you I did some time with a few rebel groups. Well, there's word coming down the grapevine that the Sith Empire's getting bad, like, really bad. Time comes, they might need a new Rebel Alliance, and that's, well -- that's one call I wouldn't refuse. So I might just hang onto the money, just in case I need to put my shoulder to the wheel."
post #64 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 12:25 AM
"You make Zeltros sound pretty appealing." Alndys admitted with a grunt, yanking at her own I-Beam. "People make it sound like... urgh!" The I-Beam fell out of place at last, sending Alna spinning slowly across the area until her RCS put her back into positon. "... like a nonstop orgy. And I don't know but that wouldn't get... you know. Painful, after most of a day." She explained with a sheepish chuckle. "But if there's parties and lounges, I'd consider it. Might need to hire on someone who knows what's where, though - know anyone who'd play tour guide for booze and lapdances?" Alndys asked playfully, as her plasma cutter went to work cutting into the Durasteel Hull once more.
"Now, I try to stay away from polotics. Bigger than life heroes and bad guys, big ideals, big battles." She explained. "Little lady like me is like to be trampled underfoot, and nobody'd notice. Nobody'd care. No thanks." Alna pointed out.
post #65 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:23 AM
"Oh, there's a dark side to Zeltros, that's for sure, but anyone who thinks the whole planet's like that has never been. Or they have been, and someone led'em wrong, or they're the kind of people you want to avoid if you can."
He cut a ragged square in a panel of crumpled durasteel. With nowhere to grab it, this one required the magna-clamps. He put his back into it, blessing zero-gee, and the panel began to shift, revealing itself to be a good three inches thick.
"Can't say as I can argue with that," he said, grunting. "All those rebel groups, it was always little nothing folks like us doin' the work, and those big larger-than-life types at the top, showing up whenever. You can start a group and have it be good working-class types -- I could make a whole rebellion just based on you and me and people like us -- but the instant some hyped-up Force Master shows up wanting to play hero, the whole game changes. And we all just turn into supporting characters. Makes me glad I can't use the Force for anything more than hyperspace piloting and the odd bit of hand-to-hand. I mean, don't get me wrong, some telekinesis would be nice right about now -- but then I'd lose all appreciation for work. I wouldn't feel like we'd earned-"
The panel floated free, revealing a shattered machine like a nuna drumstick twenty metres long.
"-one thoroughly wrecked cloaking device with probably thirty kilos of hibridium inside. And doesn't look like anyone's been in here before. Feth this is a good day."
post #66 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 03:19 PM
Alndys leaned over to see what he was talking about, spotting the ruined device. She gave a low whistle of amazed appreciation, before putting a hand on Jorus's shoulder. "You're turning out to be one hel of a good luck charm, Merrill. I might just have to keep you around long-term." Alna joked, before moving back to his right so he could make the aperature a little bigger with his handy mini-saber while she worked on widening out her half. They'd need a good bit of space for all the raw, profitable material that'd be coming through there in short order.
post #67 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 04:55 PM
Jorus carved away what he could, quickly and economically. "Yeah, well, suddenly I feel like I'm pressing my luck. I kinda want to grab the hibridium and get out. Maybe it's just that I never get this lucky, and I want to take what I can get; maybe it's something more. I've always trusted my gut, and it's always led me true. Either way, don't let me cut anything else while I'm on edge. Heh. Bad pun."
Stowing the lightknife, he floated into the cloaking device's maintenance chamber and began prying out the hibridium core. "But yeah, any time you need a spare set of hands or a tour guide to Zeltros, give me a call. The ODF is pretty good about giving me a little time to myself when I need it. I like working with Sarge and Chloe, but Sarge is Sarge and Chloe doesn't have a passion for this stuff. She's the definition of wanderlust and kind of hung up on identity, not gonna lie. She's a Warden too," he amplified, wrestling with the hibridium. "Best one I know. Wants to go everywhere and see everything, and so she does it..."
He shrugged, and the core popped free. "Anyways, this is nice. I don't get enough of this."
post #68 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:01 PM
Alna helped him guide the precious metal core out of the now-useless cloak, taking infinite care not to bang it against the housing or a wall - it was worth considerably more intact, and double that in perfect condition. It was a miracle it'd escaped the... whatever happened to the ship... intact. "I do most of my work myself." Alna admitted with a faint smirk that her helmet hid. "Not that I mind being alone in my own company, but sometimes it's nice to have a guy around to help with the heavy lifting." She chuckled, as the core finally slipped free and floated in zero gravity, guided by the two salvagers. "Do you have the equipment to keep this stationary on the Gypsymoth?"
post #69 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:20 PM
"Bet I do. Well...feth, maybe not." He navigated the core through the hole that they'd carved in the putative ceiling -- the original, undamaged chamber's wall, at a guess. Rather than use his thruster gun, he pushed off by hand, and he and the core floated gently towards clear space.
"I don't have any stasis or antigrav containment, or a spare inertial dampener. Best I've got is bubble wrap, I kid you not. With the galven circuitry, I was just gonna wrap it in burlap and blankets and strap it down tight. Feth. You have anything better? I mean, we could cannibalize an inertial dampener from the wreck, but that's not something I'd want to trust, and my gut keeps telling me get gone."
post #70 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:40 PM
"Yeah, I get that feeling." Alna admitted. "Let's make do with bubble wrap. Should be alright once we get into hyperspace - just be careful docking with it." She explained, guiding the jet-blue metal column towards the Gypsymoth with Jorus. "If we wrap it tight and shore it up with some wedges, strap it down - it ain't moving for awhile, you know?" Alna suggested.
"Cheer up. We've both got long-range sensors going. Once we get this secured, we can tear out the gun wiring and get the hell outta here." She promised. "I'll buy you a drink, and we can talk about this trip to Zeltros once we find a buyer."
post #71 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:51 PM
"Now there is an itinerary worth following."
The Gypsymoth's hangar opened wide. He frequently left the artificial gravity off, both to save battery life and because he really didn't mind living in zero-gee. It also helped when it came time to load heavy heavy things. Straps, wedges, bubble wrap and tough packing blankets conspired to cement the hibridium onto one of the deck's shipping hardpoints. Once they were both satisfied, he powered up the gravity and noted no real shifting, apart from a smattering of explosively popped bubbles.
"And that's that. At least we won't have to go inside for the galven circuitry -- it's just sittin' there, once we crack open the turbolasers. And, if we get impatient or worse comes to worst, we can just chop off the relevant parts of the turbolaser muzzles, stack'em like cordwood, and be outta here in an hour for purposes of followin' that itinerary."
post #72 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:08 PM
Alna laughed. "I can't tell if you're that nervous, or that eager to have me buy you a drink." She teased, slipping her helmet back on. While Alndy's instincts were telling her that the ship's wreckage was a bad place to be, her unease wasn't that intense to scare her off of it. Then again, Jorus had mentioned he had a bit of talent with the force - a talent she, herself, lacked. That was the main reason she wasn't insisting they leave without packed-full cargo holds on both ships, and was instead allowing that they just carve off the most valuable parts. Given the option, once the pricey bits were taken, Alndys would have packed in chunks of the hull rather than have empty space that brought in no Credits.
She gave the bundled hibridium an almost affectionate pat. "C'mon. Quicker we get those circuits..." She trailed off, knowing she didn't need to say the rest as she bounced out of the Gypsymoth's cargo hold. Clearly her good spirits were far from broken.
post #73 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:20 PM
The best way to handle her gentle and rather warranted critique was to press on with the salvaging -- and now came the easy part.
"Wait a second," he said, lightsabre sparking in a turbolaser muzzle. "We could bring back parts of weapons...or we could bring back whole weapons. I doubt a full-sized turbolaser would fit too well in the Wayfarer with that mainframe taking up most of your hold, and I really, really doubt capital-grade weapons would fit into Gypsymoth, but those quad lasers over there...feth, those are durable suckers. Chop'em off their armatures, stack'em like cordwood, we could fill both our holds with military-grade laser cannons.
"Yeah. When I go to buffets, I'm the guy that has to try a bit of everything."
post #74 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:29 PM
Andys paused and gave the quad lasers a considering look. The smaller weaponry would sell quicker than the captial armaments, anyway. "I know a man who'd pay top dollar for those." She promised. "Guy is a weapons nut. Deals on the level, too." Alna mused. Of course, she had reason to believe he'd be eager for her business again. "Think he'd more inclined to buy smaller weapons anyway. Let's do it." She decided, grinning as she holstered her plasma cutter. "It'll be easy work, too. Let's get it done."
"By the way - what is WITH you and the stacking things cordwood?" Alna asked good-naturedly, making her way over to the smaller guns. "I haven't heard anyone say that with a straight face since I sold a ventilation system to a gas farmer on the outer rim."
post #75 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:41 PM
"Cordwood stacks nice and tidy" he said, with self-mocking defensiveness. "Besides, I've spent my share of time in the Outer Rim and Wild Space. Dantooine, for one. That's probably where I picked it up. I knew this Zabrak girl, a farmer, a long ol' time ago. We spent a while together, but it never went anywhere. Anyways, I think it was something she used to say. Dantooine -- also where I learned to deliver baby nerfs, and hammer nails."
His lightsabre slashed through the connection points of one of the highly mobile quad lasers. Discarding the housing, he jetted back across the cruiser's hull to deposit it in Gypsymoth. Wash, rinse, repeat. Quad lasers everywhere.
"Maybe that's what I'll do someday, if this haul really pays off. Buy a little farmhouse on Dantooine. My ship and I tend to pick up strays; I've known a few as wished I coulda offered them a better home. That might be just the ticket. A little place to keep folks safe, and I could come and go as I pleased, visit whenever -- Gypsymoth's light enough that a hardpack dirt landing pad's all she needs."
post #76 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:55 PM
Alna wasn't about to let him show her up - she and her trusty plasma-cutter got to work, freeing Quad Guns from the ship's hull for later sale. "You? A farm boy?" Alna asked with an incredulous tone. "...I can see it. Think you'd retire pretty good, on planet." Alna began moving a pair of loose quad guns - thanks to the miracles of zero gravity - to the cargo hold of the Wayfarer. "Settling down with some Zabrak girl, working the land. What a boring happily ever after." She laughed "But a good one. If I ever come close to settling down, I'd kind of want to continue the family business." Alndys admitted cheerfully. "Have a couple of kids, teach 'em how to travel the hyperlanes and prepare them to succeed in the Galaxy... then hand 'em the keys to the Wayfarer when it's my time to go."
Alndys didn't mind working hard at all, but it was nice to be able to chat while she did so - rather than listening to books or saved music.
post #77 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:01 PM
"Oh, don't get me wrong." Those quad lasers didn't quite stack like cordwood, but close enough. Not too heavy, either, in zero-gee -- seventy, eighty pounds tops. "I'm never gonna retire, I'm never gonna raise my kid dirtside. I'd just like to have a little hidey-hole where I could provide for folks as needed something more settled than a ship. My kid sister, if she ever turns up. Other folks, too."
He grunted as he hauled a light ion cannon out of its housing. "No, this'll be me forever. I told ya, or I think I did -- I'm most at home in hyperspace, or the pitch black. A little farmhouse would be a place to visit, no more. Someplace to lie low, or wait for fuel prices to drop, or overhaul Gypsymoth when she needs it."
post #78 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:18 PM
"I wouldn't mind having a little nest to hang out, personally. I make it a point to not do things that make me need to hide out." She chuckled. "But a nice little place by a blue ocean, beautiful sky, where I can just disappear for a month or so and recharge... that'd be alright." Alna sighed, working at trying to weasel a turret out of a slightly pinched housing. It was slowly creaking free, but not before she put some pressure on it with the use of a flatbar from her belt. "Besides. I was raised on the Wayfarer, but even my folks knew that y'had to let kids run around sometime. Let'em go wild, just be kids."
"With five of us, things could get cramped. We used to spend a week or so every few months just... you know. Vacation. On Lorrd, or whatever we happened to be near." Alndys explained, sounding more than a little wistful. "I don't spend much time on Lorrd, but if I had kids, I'd make sure they did. They should know what it's like on the home planet, you know?"
post #79 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:22 PM
"Lorrd -- now there's a place I never got around to going. I don't mind my friends being able to read me, but a whole planet of folks who look at the angle of my eyebrows and know what I want for lunch? It's not like I've got a ton to hide -- and feth, I don't have a clue how many of those stories about kinetic communication are true and how many are just quasi-racist hearsay. Maybe it's just that I used to spend a lot of time with a mind reader I didn't much care for."
That was putting it mildly.
"So...clear this up for me. Correct my misperceptions. I've walked under a thousand suns; I'd hate to think there was a place I wouldn't go."
post #80 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:32 PM
Alndys laughed merrily at the hyperbole - it wasn't anything she hadn't heard before, after all. Hell, sometimes she'd used those misconceptions to her advantage. "No, no - no, I can't look at your eyebrows and tell you want a sandwich." She promised. "Nobody can. It's a language - not telepathy." Alna hucked a couple quad guns into her cargo bay, adding to the pile. "If you were to start talking in, say... Devronian, okay? I don't speak a word of Devronian, but I might be able to glean out what you're talking about if you have an angry tone, or a hurt one, or if you're smiling." She explained, paushing to stretch her arms out. "Kinetic Communication is a language, and it isn't an easy one to learn or pick up on. Which is kind of the point of it. Sure, you can point at something and communicate 'there' or 'that', and I know what you mean. You could reach for something and suggest you want it without saying a word. But I could make a similar gesture and say 'I suggest we go over there, just in case of emergency', just in the angle of my wrist and fingers, and the way I set my shoulders." Alndys explained. "But you don't know Lorrdian, so it doesn't convey. And because you don't know Lorrdian, all I can do is read the tone and make an educated guess as to what you mean."
To demonstrate, Alndys set her feet on the hull of the ship and stretched her arms out, head slightly to the side as though expecting or asking for a hug. "If I were to greet you like this, what would it mean to you?" She asked.
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:43 PM
"Depends on your face," he said, anchoring his magnetic boots to the hull, "and there's some glare on your faceplate. I once had a Houk give me that exact same welcome right before he tried to collect on a debt the hard way. I mean, my gut says hug you back. Is this the part where you tell me there's eighteen kinds of hug, and they all break down to subject-verb-object?"
He left his quad laser floating immobile beside him and shook out his arms, willing to let go of neuroses or Force instincts or whatever they were. "All right, teach me. Elucidate me."
post #82 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:50 PM
"Exactly. You can't tell. We're speaking similar languages, but they aren't the same. So don't be wary of Lorrd." Alndys laughed, using her RCS to hover over towards him. "It's just full of people who it's hard to lie to. And it's a bit dry, bad for your skin." She teased, patting Jorus' shoulder. "I'll show you some Lorrdian later, when we're not in space suits. Lorrdian in one of these is like speaking Common with a mouthful of rocks." Alna was exaggerating a bit, but was being more or less honest. "Not fun, I promise. When we take a meal break or pack it in, I'll show you a little applied Lorrdian."
post #83 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:59 PM
"I'll hold you to that." He noted the pat. For a relatively private person, self-possessed in the best sense, she had a thing for contact. Lorrdians. With a smile, he took charge of the suspended weapon and steered it through the hangar door. A webwork of straps clamped innumerable quad lasers to eyelets on the deck and the walls -- even the ceiling. A respectable distance, and a few especially secure straps, kept the assembled weapons away from the securely fastened hibridium core, and he'd managed to salvage a small cage, part of a sensor dome, to further guard the cloaking device's guts.
"We are...just about full up, and you're the one who knows where to sell off the guns. Where too, Commodore?"
post #84 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 10:05 PM
Alna, on the other hand, had gone for quad guns in bulk - when she'd filled up the Wayfarer's cargo bay, she'd begun putting them into the Gypsymoth. "Fondor Shipyard - arms dealer named Jak Sandrow." She explained, stepping up into the packed Wayfarer's cargo bay. "...bit of a hike, I know. I aught to give him a call ahead, make sure he's got the credit to buy... what to you think we've got? A poodoo-ton of Quad Guns, approximately?" Alndys joked. "Not so sure about the Hibridium and the mainframe. I'll have to do a bit of research on that." She admitted.
post #85 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 10:42 PM
"You're kidding. Sandrow? I fought beside him on Denon, and a couple other times, too. They say he walked through Chaos when Omni took Corellia." He surveyed the hall with folded arms. "If anyone can take a clartload of quad lasers off our hands, no questions asked, it's him. The hibridium and the mainframe -- don't worry about that one. I guarantee Omega Pyre will pick up the tab for both of'em. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure the Pyre is leaning back towards stealth tech in the near future; they'll be able to put this stuff to good use." He slapped the cage over the hibridium.
"And the mainframe -- well, they make their own computers, but when we tell'em what's on it -- suffice it to say I'm optimistic. And Fondor's the place where they'd upload. Looks like it's time to head back around the Core. For calling ahead, to Sandrow and the bosses -- you got a hypercomm? I know someone that's got one on Dantooine, a stone's throw from here."
post #86 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 10:48 PM
"Good deal. Killing three birds with one trip!" Alna loved the efficiency of it all. Not only would they make a fortune with all this material, she'd be selling it to a group of people who owned the territory she did most of her business through. That was always a good bonus, wasn't it? "I've got an old hypercom up in the cockpit. It's spotty, but it'll connect us." Alndys promised, bouncing back towards her ship with her flatbar in hand. "Like I said, I'm pretty sure Jak'll buy these guns pretty quick. He loves old guntech. And I promised him he'd be my first contact whenever I had some to offload." She explained, sounding slightly smug about that. She didn't like handling weapons, but she did like regular business partners.
post #87 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:06 PM
"Bet ol' Jak loved that." He sealed the hatch after her; the comm channel went slightly fuzzy. Re-engaging the gravity, he stripped out of his space suit and down to shorts, then headed up to the cockpit. The Gypsymoth hummed to life, and he transferred the comm connection into the ship's shoutbox.
"All right. This place has been fething close to home, but I am about ready to cut the cord." The docking clamps released, and Gypsymoth broke away from the cruiser's hull. "What do you figure -- Braxant to Hydian to Corellian Trade Spine? Feth, would I ever love to make a new trade route that goes crossways to the rest."
post #88 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:16 PM
Alndys climbed up into the cockpit, and the Wayfarer's heavy engines roared to life. Disengaging from the Durasteel hull of the capital ship, it rose into space as Alndys slipped out of her spacesuit in the cockpit. "Yeah, you bet he did." She chuckled. "I love a reliable customer. Sealed the deal with dinner and drinks."
Once back in her trousers and shirt, Alndys sat at the helm and flipped a few neccessary switches, making sure that the Cargo Hold of the Wayfarer wasn't about to detatch, as it sometimes liked to do. Systems looked completly fine, though, so that was a relief; the credits she'd been making recently had been more than enough to take care of the old workhorse's high maitinence costs. "Sounds like a good routing. You'll likely get there before me. This old boat likes to take his time." Alndys admitted, locking the course into the ship's computer. "And you might be able to extend the Sanctuary Pipeline, if there was a bit more security. Would sure as heck bring business outta the core planets."
"Alright, I'm locked onto your tail. Lead the way there, Jorus." Alna reported cheerfully, lighting a cigarette. "Once we get to the Hydian, should be nothing but smooth flying."
post #89 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:26 PM
The Gypsymoth's aftermarket engines, relics of old rebel campaigns, roared to life, and the flying brick of a YV-929 accelerated away from the derelict. Other broken ships spun slowly -- tombstones and graveyards for the stupid people who had tried to fight the Sith Empire. Jorus looped his course underneath a gutted corvette.
"All right, see you on the other side."
With a contented sigh, he jumped to hyperspace.
post #90 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:28 PM
Locking the engines into full thrust, Alndys trailed after - eager to see the payday from this haul. In short order, she was right behind Jorus, heading off to see Jak Sandrow.
Reduce, Reuse Recycle
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:50 AM
Word of his conversation with @Alna D'Lessio had filtered through the Vagrant Fleet, apparently, and the quiet woman called Ori'vod had sent them a set of coordinates. Now the Gypsymoth dropped out of hyperspace alongside Alna's ship, and Jorus looked out over a deep space battleground.
He tapped the comms. "We may be a dozen light years from any Sith world, but this is still their space. If anyone owns space. I'm nervous as feth about this...but look at those pickings. Wonder how Ori'vod knew this was going to be here."
Far away from any solar system, fleets had met in battle, and this was the battlefield, the refuse. Dark, silent, tasty.
post #2 Ashin Varanin
Posted 02 August 2013 - 02:06 AM
Some said Omega Pyre had mastered expansion, but in Ashin's brief tenure as Empress, she had added to the Empire as much space as all of Omega Pyre's current holdings put together. Ten thousand worlds bowed to the flag -- innumerable conquests and campaigns. And among all of them, a few had been forgotten. This was one.
A few months back-
The Chimaera's bridge crewers remained unnaturally still, right on the edge of an indrawn breath. Perhaps they felt honored; perhaps they were terrified.
The Dantooine defense fleet, reeling from a sharp and sudden blow under Tirdarius's aegis, had run here to a rally point. Sith spies being what they were, the Chimaera waited.
"Orders, Your Majesty?" said the captain, voice neutral.
"Those are hardened paramilitary," she said, and it sounded far away. "And leftist farmer fanatics. We'll never take them alive." She stood from the command chair and walked up to the viewport as Dantooine's most stalwart defenders dropped out of hyperspace and scrambled to respond to the presence of an Imperial armada.
"As good a time as any," the Empress murmured to herself, and touched the Force. 'Touch' might have been too gentle a word. She grabbed it, clawed at it, bent it to her will as she nurtured her rage. Space itself tore, right in the middle of the defense force. The leftover Imperial Remnant ships -- some of them quite good, to her eye -- went into overdrive as their sensors registered a huge hyperspace event, and massive gravitic lensing. Cerenkov radiation, line-of-sight issues -- the scientists and sensor operators had words for what she was doing.
The Force storm chewed into that fleet like Voracitos through a buffet. Broken ships filled the aether, torn apart, cast partially into hyperspace, bits of them strewn across distant starscapes.
She had lost enough people today. And sometimes, a lesson needed to be taught.
post #3 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 02:11 AM
"Would you look at that...that's not turbolaser damage. It's like someone tore these ships apart with tractor beams..."
He was still, for the moment, talking to the comm.
post #4 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 05:34 AM
"Speaking of which, I've got mine all fired up." Alndys reported, as her big, square Wayfarer-class crept closer to the ruins on impulse engines. This was a graveyard - steel and bodies as far as the eye could see. But to Alndys, this represented little more than raw, potential money... albiet at the risk of Sith. Thankfully, they usually placed less stress on piloting than their Jedi siblings.
Turning on what passed for long-range sensors in her old boat, Alndys stood up and clipped her mic and earbud in. "I'd be surprised if there's any air left in that wreck. Are we going to try cutting through the hull, or extracting the parts by hand?" Alndys asked Jorus as she stepped into the recently all-but-emptied cargo hold.
post #5 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:18 AM
"Well, if I've tuned things right through gaps in the armor, there's hibridium in there somewhere." He danced Gypsymoth around the hulk of a corvette and set down on the hull of a big cruiser. Magna-clamps locked the freighter against the hull. Slipping on an earpiece, he headed aft to get a space suit. "Delicate stuff. But let's see what kind of access we can get through these holes -- from this angle, it looks like something did a passable job of trying to rip off the back end of the ship. If we're lucky, there'll be stressed-open internal structures all the way down. I'm not reading any power, so gravity won't be a thing. Maneuvering jets and pellet pistols all the way, at least until it's climb time and we gotta worry about suit rip. But air...well, guess we'll find out."
He traded the headset for the helmet comm as the suit sealed up around him. The hangar doors opened, and a world of salvage healed his soul. Over and away, well within sight, was Alna's ship.
"Shall we?"
post #6 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 10:16 AM
"I'm bringing a welding kit. Never know when a blast door wants to be stubborn." Alndys replied as she quickly changed into suit. Going from the Wayfarer's grav field out onto the wreck of the ship was a bit disorienting, but not overly so. After a moment to check her systems and make sure everything was in order, Alndys adjusted the belt holding her welding tools and other devices, then took a couple steps to align her internal sense of up and down. Everything seemed to be working properly.
"Born ready." Alndys replied, giving a slight salute as she began making her way carefully towards the back of the ship, where the point of entry would be. "Pity we can't just drag the whole mess to some planet. We'd be beyond rich, just from the durasteel alone." She sighed, clicking on her helmet lights.
post #7 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 11:55 AM
"Cutting torch sounds about right. I've got a little, uh, lightsabre knife, but it's not something I'm comfortable combining with a spacesuit glove. One brush and it's decompression, and not the relaxing kind."
He disengaged his magnetized boots and fired his thruster pistol behind him. His feet skidded over the surface of the hull until he reactivated the boots and cancelled his momentum at the edge of the nearest gaping hole.
"Yeah," he said, directing a spotlight down into the hull, "this sure wasn't turbolaser damage. Nothing melted, just torn apart -- look at those wires. Well, my estimate for this thing's value just went up. Look how many of the guns are intact. Forget the durasteel; we walk into Moreau Station or Mos Eisley with a cargo hold full of turbolaser galven circuitry, and I can buy you a drink that isn't recycled water. This place is so good it makes me wonder why Ori'vod hasn't scavenged it yet."
He reoriented in midair to go into the chasm head-first, and 'ascended' into the hull, spotlight everywhere.
post #8 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:04 PM
Alndys bounced after Jorus, more than comfortable getting about in a vacume. Taking a moment to carefully align herself, the tall salvager lept towards the rent portion of the destroyer, using a slight nudge from her jets to flip over and catch a piece of metal. With that leverage, she pulled herself inside, taking a look at the damage. "Can't be ballistic, it's not neat enough. No remains or clutter, so I doubt it's an asteroid." She mused, before ponderously running her glove over the metal. "...I've seen this kind of damage before. A speeder that'd been pulled apart by a rancor." Alndys explained, looking over her shoulder. "Just yanked it right in two."
The backside of the ship begged the question - if this had been the speeder, what was the Rancor that'd done this to it?
"You know what, though? No electrical damage - forget the gun circuits." Alndys said with a visible grin. "How much do you think an intact Imperial mainframe is going for? Ship logs, personnel records, every dirty secret this ship saw." The Salvager explained. "Some might pay top dollar for that kind of information...even just to hide it."
Granted, her suggestion was motivated partly by a desire to know what the Hel had happened to the ship.
post #9 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:13 PM
Jorus blinked, and blinked again. "Mainframe... holy feth, Alna, it's a smorgasbord. Cruiser this size has gotta have at least a twelve-peta. Let's see what we can find."
They had to clear away some frozen bodies to enter the main access shaft that would put them closest to the mainframe. Jorus handled the task with a grimace, but with long familiarity. "No Imperial uniforms," he said absently, re-engaging his magnetic boots inside a warped corridor. "No telling how long this has been drifting here, either. My best guess is, we're close enough to Dantooine and Gravlex Med, and the Sith Empire conquered both of'em only a few months ago. There were naval actions over both, too. I'm betting someone got away, and the Sith were waiting for'em. Maybe they wanted to test some kind of, I don't know, tractor beam superdreadnought?"
A sick feeling settled into his gut.
"Feth, I hate Sith. Doesn't matter what you bring to the table, they've always got some dirty trick or other. Every dang time." He squinted up at a sealed door. "Yup. This looks like the computer room. You got that torch handy?"
post #10 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:18 PM
"Always a dirty trick, and two more. Never got along too well with Sith - or Jedi, for that matter." Alndys agreed, manuvering close enough to the door to be of some use with her cutting torch. "Tell you what, though - if we pull this off, we'll be doing a damnsight better than recycled water." She joked, as the torch clicked, then clicked again before firing up. "I'll send your ass to Zeltron for a vacation!" She laughed, as the well-used torch began doing it's work - leading a narrow line down the side of the blast doors, then the other, carving an aperature big enough to fit through. "Granted, we'll likely have to carve it out of the heart of the ship - or dismantle it." Alndys pointed out as she worked.
post #11 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:27 PM
"I'm down for some carving if this really is as good as advertised. Worst case scenario, I go back and get my little lightsaber and a patch kit, just in case, and we see what's up. I'd risk it for this haul."
He planted a magnetic grabber on the door slab and pulled it free with a grunt. Inside-
Well, it was beautiful.
"To get any data off this gorgeous hunk of circuitry, we're going to have to run a power cable in here. Either that, or read it once we get it out. Which first, ya think?"
post #12 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:35 PM
Alndys put a hand on her hip as she looked up at the towering fortune of computer that made up the ship's massive mainframe. Cripes, even if there wasn't any worthwhile data on it, that amount of hardware represented a payday the likes of which Alndys D'Lessio hadn't seen in years. The sense of discovering something lain abandoned like this? Made Alndys' job worth every moment. "...no sense cutting it up before we know that there's anything on it." She decided.
Alna turned to Jorus and dimmed her helmet lights so she could address him without blinding him. "I've got a few cables back in the Wayfarer that should reach here. If I put the support systems in shutdown, I think he's got enough power to get it going. C'mon and help me get them going - they're heavy."
"You've got the proximity sensors on your ship running, right?" Alna asked as she drifted back towards the hull breach they'd entered from. She didn't relish the idea of turning off her alarms, but she had docked slightly closer than Jorus had. Hopefully his ship would give them warning if they had sudden company.
post #13 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:41 PM
"Oh, definitely," he said, magna-stomping his way back down the corridor to the breach. "That ship's my home; half the time it's my toddler's home, too. Better believe I've got all manner of sensors rigged - hyperspace reversion, motion, counterscan, weapons, everything. If a mynock sneezes within ten light-minutes, Gypsymoth tells me about it. Nothing but the best for my kid. Truth be told, that's what's been eating my paychecks. I'm, uh, a Commander in the Omega Pyre Defense Force. It's sort of a new thing. I needed money for the kid, the Hutts wanted me to break legs or ship spice...yeah."
He clambered past the freeze-dried bodies, and fired the thruster gun, jetting back through the chasm towards the outer hull. He slouched against the Wayfarer's hull beside the hatch, pondering Alna and her space suit.
"Mind if I come aboard?" The invitation had been implied, but it was always best to ask, when it came to tramp freighters and the people who called them home.
post #14 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:50 PM
"Yeah? I wouldn't have ever pegged you for a father." Alndys admitted, though she sounded impressed as they made their way back.
She bounced through the open bay of the Wayfarer, through the atmospheric filter. Gravity re-asserted itself, and Alndys popped her helmet off with a light, pressurized 'hiss' to take in the familiar air of her ship. The Wayfarer's cargo bay was part storeroom, part workshop, with shelves of parts and tools along the back wall shored up by half-destroyed droids and ship parts. In the middle of the bay was an OS-I1 Ranger in pristine, sparkling condition. "Come on aboard - excuse the mess." Alndys invited as she stepped around a dissected, sporty speeder she'd picked up on Tatooine and was mostly through restoring. "I've met a couple of you Omega Pyre folks. Nice enough people to work with. I do a lot of my business along the Corellian Trade Spine, so... in my best interests to make friends." She chuckled.
"Need anything before we do the sweaty work?" Alndys asked as she began unspooling thick power cable that had been fitted onto a winch - likely so she didn't have to wind it back up after doing things like this.
post #15 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 12:59 PM
Jorus popped his helmet's viewport, but kept it on -- for the proximity notifications, if any showed. "Well dang, you've got an OP interceptor sitting in the middle of your hold. I'd imagine you've been making very good friends. And no, I don't need a ton. I kinda want to get at it, and see what killed that ship."
He grabbed a small hoversled and levered it under the coil of power cable. He'd spied external outlets; this should be relatively straightforward, if he could keep from breaking the cable on the jagged metal of the rift.
"Love the ship, by the way. Plenty of room for whatever. Gypsymoth has the dual cargo bay setup, so it's not as open as this. This feels like a workshop. Love it."
post #16 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:05 PM
"It IS a workshop." Alndys laughed as she fiddled with a control panel. She popped her helmet back on and drained the power out of every non-essential system on-board, so they'd have more juice to power up the mainframe. "My parents were a salvage team in this ship. When they passed away, my siblings and I divied up what was left of the business - and I took the ship. Apparently, being a junker isn't good enough for my brothers." She explained cheerfully. "I was born on this ship, and I live on this ship, you know?" Alna explained as she followed Jorus out of the cargo bay - the lights slowly turning off in the Wayfarer.
She attatched the auxilliary power cable to the external coupling, and began leading Jorus and the hoversled back into the wreckage of The Chimaera. Alndys let Jorus do the heavy pushing and pulling, while she cleared his path of corpses and navigated the unspooling cable around jagged metal and choke points.
post #17 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:09 PM
"Oh, I hear that. I was born in hyperspace -- true story. It's still where I feel most at home. I feel sorry for folks who get hyper-rapture. Then again, maybe I've got it already."
He wedged the cable into places where friction wouldn't do it much harm -- rounded crossbeams, eyelets, that kind of thing. When they came to the main corridor, he just left the hoversled and shoved the whole remaining mass of cable down the hall.
It was just, barely, long enough.
Cracking his knuckles, he plugged the mainframe into the Wayfarer's power grid.
"Alll right. Let's see what we can do...how are you with computers?"
post #18 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:12 PM
"Passable - but I would't call myself a slicer by any means." Alndys admitted, watching the mainframe power up. "I've run across a couple ships like this before, though. Maybe I'll get lucky and some of my old access codes will work." She approached the main terminal just as it becan booting up, wiggling her fingers. The last time she'd been in a position like this - and the time before - both mainframes had been much smaller and she'd had to hire a Slicer to get her in. Alndys had gotten her credit's worth, though, by watching over their shoulders as best she could. Straining her brain to remember all she could, Alndys set to work.
post #19 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:19 PM
"The more I see of this ship, the more I figure it wasn't Imperial, at least not recently. Imperial-made, sure. I'm betting the operating system and access codes should be plenty antiquated. Makes your odds better, anyway." He squatted beside an access panel and peered inside the mainframe.
"And all those popsicles out there...yeah, they weren't Imperial either. Farmers from Dantooine is my bet. I'd have said Gravlex Med, but I haven't seen any Anx so far. Freaking Dantooine gets this done to them. How they even got a cruiser this size, well..."
He grimaced. "That's not how you run an insurgency, that's for darn sure. Small ships, deniable ships."
post #20 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:24 PM
"Putting anything less than trained soldiers on a craft like this is just asking for a tragedy to occur, anyway." Alndys said off-handedly. "So many things could go wrong, so manly little problems you need a trained eye to see. A water 'vaporator runs until it breaks, you can fix with anything off hand. Farming combine? Just about the same. But the engines on a cruiser start going..." She shook her head, tak-taking away at the console. Alndys may not have known much about running an insurgency, but she DID know hardware.
"Failsafe maintenance codes worked - I'm in!" Alndys chirped triumphantly. "Let's take a look at what we've got..."
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:38 PM
@Alna D'Lessio
"Yeah, they did this all -- oh feth, you're in! Sensor data?"
And, on a little screen, they watched as this cruiser -- Icarus, its name was -- and a host of others emerged from hyperspace to find an Imperial flotilla waiting for them.
An Imperial flotilla that didn't engage. Jorus squinted at the telesponder traces. "That's the Chimaera -- the Empress's flagship. But they're not launching fighters, they're not-"
The sensor data went insane. Gravimetric readings, Cerenkov radiation -- everything. As if an immense hyperspace event had been created.
As if someone had made a wormhole appear, with technology or with their brain.
Jorus found himself lost for words.
post #22 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:43 PM
"This... this can't be right." Alndys muttered, squinting at the screen. "Ships' report is acting like their hyperspace went berserk, but it's flagged as questionable - meaning that that's the computer's best guess as to what happened to it." She leaned down, looking over the readings again. No Fry particles, so it couldn't have been an energy core meltdown or a massive lasgun. This wasn't just baffling, it was becoming downright spooky.
All of a sudden, the wreckage of the ship seemed much larger, much darker, and much less empty to Alndys D'Lessio.
"I wasn't wrong in that something tore the ship in half. But they'd have to be drifting next to a black hole to do this kind of damage." Alna said, turning to Jorus as a chill went down her spine. "If we bring this mainframe back with data like this, nobody's going to believe it."
post #23 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 01:52 PM
Jorus rested the forehead of his space suit against the mainframe with a hollow 'clunk'. "Yeah. Not a soul. I mean, if it's a question of selling it, we can offload the data no problem. Omega Pyre will buy it -- I can almost guarantee that much. I've got enough pull with them, I think. Shed enough blood for the company. But feth, this is insane. Superweapon test? Some Sith thing? And with the Empress dead at Roche, and the whole Empire up for grabs while the Dark Council tries to hold it together -- why hasn't this been used again? Too fething many questions.
"Let's, uh, think of happier things. You think if we cut out the rest of the doorframe, and that one tight place back where the corridor got pinched, you think we could get this whole mainframe out if we turned it sideways?"
post #24 Byrec Lasood
Posted 02 August 2013 - 02:54 PM
Logistics. He wanted to talk logistics.
That was good. Alndys didn't know anything about supernatural forces ripping a starship into parts, but she could eyeball a measurement like it was nobody's business. It was nice to be able to Do something, control something that was going on. Pushing off on the ground, Alndys floated up to the ceiling and took in the mainframe. "...should be able to, yeah. Might have to cut away on a corner when we get to that one bend, though." She decided. "And if that's the case, we're going to be out here for awhile. I've only got the one plasma cutter, just sold off the last of my droids what might be able to help out."
Alndys pushed off on the ceiling and landed gingerly on the ground. "Let's get this data uploaded before we start, though - be a shame to bust this thing up in transit and lose it." She glanced over at Jorus, offering a sidelong smile. "I'll send the data to your ship, we can load the hardware into mine."
Simple enough deal - the Wayfarer was powered down, so it couldn't receive the upload. And the Gypsymoth didn't have as much raw storage as Alna's ship. But since the data and the hardware was worth considerably less without the other half, it was more an offer of a promise not to cheat the other out of their share. As nice as Jorus seemed, this WAS her first run with him, Vagrant Fleet or not. Better to be cautious.
post #25 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:07 PM
Jorus offered a lopsided smile through the viewplate of his helmet. "Works for me. Send away whenever you like; if you wanna start with the plasma cutter, I'll go topside again and get that little lightsaber of mine. Might as well send the data to both ships while you're at it."
He floated away down the now-familiar main corridor and ascended through the immense rent in the cruiser's hull. The vessel's infinitely slow rotation -- perhaps due to their landing -- changed the stars beyond the lip of the chasm. Following the power cable up, he scanned the starscape visually. No harm in verifying Gypsymoth's proximity sensors.
On the flat armor, he jetted past Alna's ship and passed through the Gypsymoth's airlock. His little double-ended lightsabre clipped to his space suit's belt, and he grabbed a patch kit and one of those emergency rescue bubbles, the collapsible kind, just in case. The consoles already hummed with activity -- the Icarus's sensor data incoming, it looked like -- and he headed back to Alna, ready to start cutting things.
"How's it coming?"
post #26 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:13 PM
Once Jorus left, Alndys sent the data along to his ship and then got to work. She took a couple of measurements, bounced down the corridor to eyeball the turn, then went back to the computer room to reckon some more. They WOULD need to chop away a portion of the hull to get the column-like mainframe out of the room and to the Wayfarer safely, but not as much as she'd initially thought. That was a good thing, meant they'd be off this spooky wreck before fried nerves or hunger convinced her to take a break from, and thus lengthen, the job. It meant that they might be done within a couple hours.
"Doing good." Alndys reported, looking 'up' at Jorus as she worked on the ceiling. She was busily burning away at the casing holding the computer core in place, the mainframe already powered down and unplugged. "I marked the corner I want cut away with some chalk - if your knife won't go deep enough, this should only take me about ten minutes more to finish." She explained, looking back to her work.
post #27 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:28 PM
Jorus pulled the little double-ended lightsabre from his belt rather carefully -- space-suited fingers weren't known for their dexterity. "That bit right there, yeah? On it."
He re-magnetized his boots and walked up the wall to squat beside the top of the doorframe. "Chalk. You really are a pro. Get lost in a derelict capship once too often?" He activated one sky-blue blade, a bit less than a foot long, and began carving through bulkhead. "Oh, hey, you might find this interesting. I used to know a Jedi, long story, and he showed me how he used to go through capship armor that was too thick for a lightsaber. Same thing applies here, at a guess."
He drew two parallel lines in the metal, blade turned in from each side. A long bar of metal with a broad, flat triangular cross-section floated free. Then he narrowed the angles and did it again, and used a prybar to remove the second still-glowing bar, this one with a chevron cross-section. Under that, well, the remaining thickness of blast door was only a couple of inches, and he did that with a single slow cut, careful not to toast his suit against the glowing sides of the channel. He repeated the process as necessary, drawing deep lines in the blast door, and the whole thing came free.
"Dead useful, this. I've got no patience for a lightsabre; I built this thing for knife-fighting and this kind of work."
post #28 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 03:43 PM
Get lost in a spaceship? Lucky guess. "Yeah, guess you could say that." Alndys chuckled quietly. Chalk was a good tool to have around, whenever you needed to mark something - to be followed, to follow it back, or just to tell someone where to go or what to do. AND it was cheap as dirt.
"Trick, huh?" Alndys asked jovially as they worked in seperate areas. She liked to talk while she worked - it was a rare treat, seeing as how she spent the lion's share of her time working alone. "Tell me you're not just cutting triangles and whacking out the strips with a bar or something." She scoffed. Didn't take a Jedi to teach someone one of the oldest welding tricks in the book - at least as far as a woman who'd learned to weld before she'd worn a bra was concerned.
With a meaty 'chunk' that Alndys couldn't hear because space, but could feel, the Mainframe slid free of it's casing and drifted a couple inches forward.
post #29 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 04:27 PM
"Not triangles," he said with great, misplaced and self-mocking dignity. "Chevrons. But hey, I grew up flying ships -- doesn't mean I grew up fixing them. I am a thoroughly average mechanic. Now flying, I can fly anything."
He used magna-clamps to shift the chunk of bulkhead, then stowed them on his belt. No point in using magnets on a computer. "All right," he said. "I figure we gotta treat this like an accel/decel to just shy of lightspeed -- pull the top down until we're half-way, then start pushing it up to cancel out momentum. Freaking zero-gee. Oh good - you unplugged it before you moved it."
Slowly and carefully, the mainframe spun to fit down the corridor, and began moving thattaway. It was an extremely tight fit.
But he could fly anything. He guided the mainframe around the corner and through the bodies, aiming for the breach.
post #30 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 05:03 PM
And so he could, it seemed, fly anything. Alndys let Jorus do his thing, acting as a pair of extra hands whenever he needed them - she still had plenty of fuel left in her jets, so once they'd cleared the mainframe from the wreck, it was child's play to get it loaded up into the Wayfarer. Since the ship's Antigrav was powered down with the rest of it, they nudged it against the floor of the cargo bay, then set about strapping it down - which was easy enough. Alndys had no shortage of straps, or things to hook straps to. Once it was secure, she turned the ship's systems back on.
Air came rushing into the cargo hold, and gravity reasserted itself. The result was a deafening clatter as all of Alndys' tools and scrap clattered down from where they'd been hovering, and the hiss of air rapidly filling the cargo bay. Once systems looked nominal, Alna took her helmet off and shook her many braids out.
"...that went remarkably smoothly." She admitted with a bright grin, moving around the mainframe to check the straps and ensure everything was in order.
post #31 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 05:59 PM
He let out a long breath and traded the space suit's helmet for an earpiece comm, just in case something set off the Gypsymoth's proximity alarms. But this was deep space, a forgotten derelict. If anything came here, it would come because it had followed them somehow or other. And there was no reason for anyone to track them. Any of the people who'd heard them laying plans to come out here would have been able to get the location from Ori'vod themselves.
No, they were alone. He could afford to be less on edge. His fingers moved to the buckles of his space suit, but there was no politesse in inviting himself to stick around. Disguising the abortive motion as best he could, he examined the mainframe.
"I wonder how Ori'vod knew about this," he said.
And then it clicked. He felt his eyes go wide. "Alna, there was a...there was a mission to Naboo, maybe half a year ago, around the time this ship was destroyed. Chloe Blake and I went to make contact with the Gungan leadership, and we found a woman living in Otoh Gunga. She was, well, she felt cold. Looked right through ya. We turned the whole affair over to our bosses at Omega Pyre, and they had some kind of a meeting -- and it was the Empress. It was the fething Sith Empress. I met her, is what I'm saying. I met Ashin Varanin...
"And it's Ori'vod. All scarred and dirty and unassuming, and missing that arm, and talking like normal folks instead of an aristocrat -- I didn't recognize her. And Ori'vod keeps to herself; I've only seen her face once, that day that everything went nuts on Moreau Station. I bet Chloe hasn't seen her face yet, and she's the only one who could draw the connection. The Empress isn't dead, Alna -- she didn't die at Roche. She's hiding in the Vagrant Fleet. She is the Vagrant fleet.
"Frack." He sat down heavily on a service bench.
post #32 Byrec Lasood
Posted 02 August 2013 - 06:07 PM
His revelation earned Jorus a condescending, skeptical smile until he explained his reasoning - slowly, it made sense. She'd heard only bits and pieces of the same story, but hearing it all laid out like that really made a pile of sense. Taking a moment to digest this, Alndys frowned, squinted, frowned again, then shook her head in that order. A pile of sense.
"I'm... gonna go grab a drink." She decided, now that the work was done - for now. Perhaps they'd decide to load up the gun circuitry into the Gypsymoth like he'd suggested at first - maybe not. For now, though, it was clearly time to take a break and evaluate just what the odds were that she was working for who he thought they were working for. "...I'm gonna grab you, one, too." She added, pointing to Jorus as she stepped out of the cargo bay and into the canteen of the Wayfarer - to return shortly with two bottles of Besbin wine, and two glasses.
post #33 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 08:34 PM
Eyes vacant, the Warden of the Sky stripped off his space suit and accepted a bottle and a glass. Only once he'd down't about half of it -- the glass, not the bottle -- did he hold it up to the light and snap at least half-way back to reality. "You carry glasses around. Nice ones, too. Feth, maybe I'm just an old bachelor, but I've never stocked anything that wasn't some kind of plastic. Or metal, I guess. Too many years as a blockade runner. I'd forgotten how glass is -- I mean, it's beautiful stuff. I always wanted to learn to blow glass."
He pounded down the rest of the glass and filled it again, with Sarge-like haste.
"This was...a very good idea," he said, examining his second glass. "A really, really good idea. Without this, I'd be wondering whether she knows that I know -- whether she remembers me." He didn't mention why the Empress would remember one tramp freighter pilot. "Without this, I'd be wondering if she knows who I am, or whether this whole trip was just some bizarre test of loyalty to the Vagrants -- feth, I need more."
He drank.
"You are, without question, my hero right now. Hope you realize that."
post #34 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 08:45 PM
Alndys switched between drinking the light Bespin wine from the bottle and glass, keeping more or less quiet. She didn't have the heart to tell him that she'd taken the glasses from some Omega Pyre nobody's destroyed ship - they'd been intended as a wedding present was her best guess. By the time he'd finished his bottle, Alndys had about half of hers remaining. "I'm pretty good at spotting a crisis waiting to happen." Alndys said simply, having read in the hard lines of his shoulders and the tensing of Jorus' hands that he was having some major, dark thoughts bouncing around in his skull. Lorrdian! Useful language.
It was small wonder he and Sarge were buddies, of a sort. They appeared to react to stress in the same ways.
"Take the time you need." Alndys insisted, offering over her bottle - not for him to slam back, but to refill his glass. Make it last. It was her last bottle of wine. "It sounds like you've got a story to tell, anyhows." She invited, lighting a cigarette. The pack was set on the hood of the speeder she was resting her behind against, an open invitation for him to help himself.`
post #35 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:08 PM
"I'm, ah, noticeable to some," he said, depositing her half-drunk bottle on a workbench. Sliding down, he put his back against the bench. "It doesn't get talked about much, but I'm a Warden of the Sky. Yeah, we're real. So when she met me, it wasn't as the pilot, it was as the Warden. And that is...no good. But thanks to your excellent wine, I can ignore all of that.
"Look, there's not a lot to me, y'know? I've fought in half a dozen revolutions that went bad, I've got a kid from my one moment of genuine stupid that didn't involve a Sith and a gun, I've been in love with Chloe Blake for years and never done anythin' more than hold her hand. That's me in a nutshell. So just, like, ignore my whining and my fears and whatever. Thanks for the wine."
post #36 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:22 PM
Alndys shrugged passively. "I go weeks without seeing another soul, sometimes. That's normal for me." She said blithely. "Today, I worked with ya, and I'm sharing a drink with ya. And we can chat about whatever the hel you want." Alndys smirked and sipped out of her wineglass, leaning back. "Because it's rare enough that I get a moment like this, I'm willing to listen to just about any topic you want to yammer about."
"Besides, from my experience? Complicated men tend to be bad. Or Unhappy. Usually both." Alndys joked.
post #37 Jorus Merrill
Posted 02 August 2013 - 09:38 PM
"Well, thank feth for that. Lets the rest of us average joes have a shot at whatever, while the special folks -- well, let's put it this way. How..."
He trailed off, and didn't seem to realize that he'd trailed off.
"So you and Sarge -- how far back you two go?"
post #38 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 03 August 2013 - 02:07 AM
"About a month or so." Alndys produced after a bit of thought. "He was looking for someone to haul that ship over there, stumbled into the Wayfarer, and that was pretty much it." She explained with a faint smile. "Keeps to himself. So do I. Guess that's why we get along." Alna said with a shrug. "Did you bring your kid out here? I'd hate to think he's alone on your ship, while I booze his daddy up over here."
post #39 Jorus Merrill
Posted 03 August 2013 - 08:57 AM
@Alna D'Lessio
Jorus felt his eyebrows ascend his skull. "Didn't realize I was bein' plied with liquor. Of course, that's sort of the point of bein' plied with liquor. No, I don't bring my kid on salvage missions. She's back on Moreau; Sarge makes a great babysitter. He's the godfather, y'know."
He smiled vaguely and drained the last drops from his glass, unwilling to drink the rest of her bottle. "So if you ever see a pink-skinned ten-month-old in a diaper crawling around a shadowport, that'd be my kid. Mara, her name is. First family I've had in a while. Never really knew her mother.
"Frack. I'm babbling. Tell me 'bout you."
post #40 Byrec Lasood
Posted 03 August 2013 - 09:29 AM
Alndys chuckled quietly. It was a good thing he hadn't brought his kid - that'd mean she'd be tempted to lower her opinion of a man who'd turned out to be a pretty great co worker. "There ain't much to tell. I was born in the Salvage business, and I've worked it my whole life." She explained, refilling her wineglass before leaning back on the hood of the wrecked speeder. "It's a whole lot of finding messes like this one, and carving the choiciest bits out. Sometimes, it means going back for a second round." She explained. "Of course, I've got to be at least a little good at sales to make my living - and a touch lucky - but I've always gotten by."
Alndys smiled faintly. "I can't imagine doing anything else. I don't want to. Out here, I'm not accountable to anyone. I can go and come as I please, and I get to see everything the galaxy has to offer." She explained wistfully.
She anchored herself before going off on a tangent. "...I've got some brothers and a sister scattered along the core planets, but we don't really talk. Oldest of 'em even has the keys to mom and dad's old warehouse, on Corellia, so I guess he's doing alright. Haven't seen the inside of that place in at least ten years, but last time I did, he had a while bunch of fighters in there - good ones, too. A-wings, mostly." Alndys explained. "I can't imagine how boring it must be, to be anchored to one place on one planet, for the rest of your life. But I guess they're happy. They must be - none of them ever called me for help."
"...but then, I'm the youngest. So maybe when they think 'help', they don't think of me." Alndys admitted with a sly smirk.
PAGE THREE MISSING
Posted 03 August 2013 - 11:38 PM
"Lying to these people is askin' for a long walk off a short pier, but you make a compellin' point." The space suit's helmet locked into place with a tidy snick, a sign that he'd done pretty decent at the maintenance side of things and hadn't bumped against the wreck as hard as he remembered.
Jorus stopped out onto the hull and fired his thruster pistol behind himself. A deft second and third shot cancelled his momentum and sent him drifting into the second gap. His lightsabre flared to life in his gloved hand, and he began cutting through warped I-beams and pulling them away from the mess that quite possibly concealed the salvageable heart of a capital-grade cloaking device.
"We're walking away from this with more money than we planned. What you gonna do with your share?"
post #62 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 03 August 2013 - 11:49 PM
"No idea." Alna admitted, glancing up from her work a few feet away from Jorus. She pondered the question for a moment, then chuckled. "Maybe I'll take a little vacation. I hear Zelton's a nice place to spend a wild week." She pointed out jovially, though her tone implied she had no real of going there at all. "Someplace new, and fun. I think that's what i'd like to do with my take." She explained, busily cutting away at the hull. "What about you? Any big, lurid plans to share?"
post #63 Jorus Merrill
Posted 03 August 2013 - 11:59 PM
@Alna D'Lessio
"Wouldn't mind taking another crack at Zeltros myself," he admitted, to his own surprise. "First time didn't go so well. Wound up with a couple of seriously stressed friendships, and a baby. And that's one story I don't plan on blathering about. Not my finest hour.
"But yeah, I think you'll like Zeltros. The Zeltrons don't care who you are, they just like you, whoever you are. They're great at making folks feel welcome -- and meaning it."
He deactivated his sabre and pulled a chunk of I-beam away from the shredded internal structure of the cruiser. The gigantic beam floated away, sending soundless reverberations through the hull whenever they collided.
"Figure with my cut of all this, maybe I'll get a little house. Maybe just one of those apartments in Nar Shaddaa's guts, some kind of little home somewhere. Don't know what I'd use it for, apart from a place to hang my hat that isn't Gypsymoth. Or...maybe I'll save it. See, I told you I did some time with a few rebel groups. Well, there's word coming down the grapevine that the Sith Empire's getting bad, like, really bad. Time comes, they might need a new Rebel Alliance, and that's, well -- that's one call I wouldn't refuse. So I might just hang onto the money, just in case I need to put my shoulder to the wheel."
post #64 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 12:25 AM
"You make Zeltros sound pretty appealing." Alndys admitted with a grunt, yanking at her own I-Beam. "People make it sound like... urgh!" The I-Beam fell out of place at last, sending Alna spinning slowly across the area until her RCS put her back into positon. "... like a nonstop orgy. And I don't know but that wouldn't get... you know. Painful, after most of a day." She explained with a sheepish chuckle. "But if there's parties and lounges, I'd consider it. Might need to hire on someone who knows what's where, though - know anyone who'd play tour guide for booze and lapdances?" Alndys asked playfully, as her plasma cutter went to work cutting into the Durasteel Hull once more.
"Now, I try to stay away from polotics. Bigger than life heroes and bad guys, big ideals, big battles." She explained. "Little lady like me is like to be trampled underfoot, and nobody'd notice. Nobody'd care. No thanks." Alna pointed out.
post #65 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:23 AM
"Oh, there's a dark side to Zeltros, that's for sure, but anyone who thinks the whole planet's like that has never been. Or they have been, and someone led'em wrong, or they're the kind of people you want to avoid if you can."
He cut a ragged square in a panel of crumpled durasteel. With nowhere to grab it, this one required the magna-clamps. He put his back into it, blessing zero-gee, and the panel began to shift, revealing itself to be a good three inches thick.
"Can't say as I can argue with that," he said, grunting. "All those rebel groups, it was always little nothing folks like us doin' the work, and those big larger-than-life types at the top, showing up whenever. You can start a group and have it be good working-class types -- I could make a whole rebellion just based on you and me and people like us -- but the instant some hyped-up Force Master shows up wanting to play hero, the whole game changes. And we all just turn into supporting characters. Makes me glad I can't use the Force for anything more than hyperspace piloting and the odd bit of hand-to-hand. I mean, don't get me wrong, some telekinesis would be nice right about now -- but then I'd lose all appreciation for work. I wouldn't feel like we'd earned-"
The panel floated free, revealing a shattered machine like a nuna drumstick twenty metres long.
"-one thoroughly wrecked cloaking device with probably thirty kilos of hibridium inside. And doesn't look like anyone's been in here before. Feth this is a good day."
post #66 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 03:19 PM
Alndys leaned over to see what he was talking about, spotting the ruined device. She gave a low whistle of amazed appreciation, before putting a hand on Jorus's shoulder. "You're turning out to be one hel of a good luck charm, Merrill. I might just have to keep you around long-term." Alna joked, before moving back to his right so he could make the aperature a little bigger with his handy mini-saber while she worked on widening out her half. They'd need a good bit of space for all the raw, profitable material that'd be coming through there in short order.
post #67 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 04:55 PM
Jorus carved away what he could, quickly and economically. "Yeah, well, suddenly I feel like I'm pressing my luck. I kinda want to grab the hibridium and get out. Maybe it's just that I never get this lucky, and I want to take what I can get; maybe it's something more. I've always trusted my gut, and it's always led me true. Either way, don't let me cut anything else while I'm on edge. Heh. Bad pun."
Stowing the lightknife, he floated into the cloaking device's maintenance chamber and began prying out the hibridium core. "But yeah, any time you need a spare set of hands or a tour guide to Zeltros, give me a call. The ODF is pretty good about giving me a little time to myself when I need it. I like working with Sarge and Chloe, but Sarge is Sarge and Chloe doesn't have a passion for this stuff. She's the definition of wanderlust and kind of hung up on identity, not gonna lie. She's a Warden too," he amplified, wrestling with the hibridium. "Best one I know. Wants to go everywhere and see everything, and so she does it..."
He shrugged, and the core popped free. "Anyways, this is nice. I don't get enough of this."
post #68 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:01 PM
Alna helped him guide the precious metal core out of the now-useless cloak, taking infinite care not to bang it against the housing or a wall - it was worth considerably more intact, and double that in perfect condition. It was a miracle it'd escaped the... whatever happened to the ship... intact. "I do most of my work myself." Alna admitted with a faint smirk that her helmet hid. "Not that I mind being alone in my own company, but sometimes it's nice to have a guy around to help with the heavy lifting." She chuckled, as the core finally slipped free and floated in zero gravity, guided by the two salvagers. "Do you have the equipment to keep this stationary on the Gypsymoth?"
post #69 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:20 PM
"Bet I do. Well...feth, maybe not." He navigated the core through the hole that they'd carved in the putative ceiling -- the original, undamaged chamber's wall, at a guess. Rather than use his thruster gun, he pushed off by hand, and he and the core floated gently towards clear space.
"I don't have any stasis or antigrav containment, or a spare inertial dampener. Best I've got is bubble wrap, I kid you not. With the galven circuitry, I was just gonna wrap it in burlap and blankets and strap it down tight. Feth. You have anything better? I mean, we could cannibalize an inertial dampener from the wreck, but that's not something I'd want to trust, and my gut keeps telling me get gone."
post #70 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:40 PM
"Yeah, I get that feeling." Alna admitted. "Let's make do with bubble wrap. Should be alright once we get into hyperspace - just be careful docking with it." She explained, guiding the jet-blue metal column towards the Gypsymoth with Jorus. "If we wrap it tight and shore it up with some wedges, strap it down - it ain't moving for awhile, you know?" Alna suggested.
"Cheer up. We've both got long-range sensors going. Once we get this secured, we can tear out the gun wiring and get the hell outta here." She promised. "I'll buy you a drink, and we can talk about this trip to Zeltros once we find a buyer."
post #71 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 07:51 PM
"Now there is an itinerary worth following."
The Gypsymoth's hangar opened wide. He frequently left the artificial gravity off, both to save battery life and because he really didn't mind living in zero-gee. It also helped when it came time to load heavy heavy things. Straps, wedges, bubble wrap and tough packing blankets conspired to cement the hibridium onto one of the deck's shipping hardpoints. Once they were both satisfied, he powered up the gravity and noted no real shifting, apart from a smattering of explosively popped bubbles.
"And that's that. At least we won't have to go inside for the galven circuitry -- it's just sittin' there, once we crack open the turbolasers. And, if we get impatient or worse comes to worst, we can just chop off the relevant parts of the turbolaser muzzles, stack'em like cordwood, and be outta here in an hour for purposes of followin' that itinerary."
post #72 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:08 PM
Alna laughed. "I can't tell if you're that nervous, or that eager to have me buy you a drink." She teased, slipping her helmet back on. While Alndy's instincts were telling her that the ship's wreckage was a bad place to be, her unease wasn't that intense to scare her off of it. Then again, Jorus had mentioned he had a bit of talent with the force - a talent she, herself, lacked. That was the main reason she wasn't insisting they leave without packed-full cargo holds on both ships, and was instead allowing that they just carve off the most valuable parts. Given the option, once the pricey bits were taken, Alndys would have packed in chunks of the hull rather than have empty space that brought in no Credits.
She gave the bundled hibridium an almost affectionate pat. "C'mon. Quicker we get those circuits..." She trailed off, knowing she didn't need to say the rest as she bounced out of the Gypsymoth's cargo hold. Clearly her good spirits were far from broken.
post #73 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:20 PM
The best way to handle her gentle and rather warranted critique was to press on with the salvaging -- and now came the easy part.
"Wait a second," he said, lightsabre sparking in a turbolaser muzzle. "We could bring back parts of weapons...or we could bring back whole weapons. I doubt a full-sized turbolaser would fit too well in the Wayfarer with that mainframe taking up most of your hold, and I really, really doubt capital-grade weapons would fit into Gypsymoth, but those quad lasers over there...feth, those are durable suckers. Chop'em off their armatures, stack'em like cordwood, we could fill both our holds with military-grade laser cannons.
"Yeah. When I go to buffets, I'm the guy that has to try a bit of everything."
post #74 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:29 PM
Andys paused and gave the quad lasers a considering look. The smaller weaponry would sell quicker than the captial armaments, anyway. "I know a man who'd pay top dollar for those." She promised. "Guy is a weapons nut. Deals on the level, too." Alna mused. Of course, she had reason to believe he'd be eager for her business again. "Think he'd more inclined to buy smaller weapons anyway. Let's do it." She decided, grinning as she holstered her plasma cutter. "It'll be easy work, too. Let's get it done."
"By the way - what is WITH you and the stacking things cordwood?" Alna asked good-naturedly, making her way over to the smaller guns. "I haven't heard anyone say that with a straight face since I sold a ventilation system to a gas farmer on the outer rim."
post #75 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:41 PM
"Cordwood stacks nice and tidy" he said, with self-mocking defensiveness. "Besides, I've spent my share of time in the Outer Rim and Wild Space. Dantooine, for one. That's probably where I picked it up. I knew this Zabrak girl, a farmer, a long ol' time ago. We spent a while together, but it never went anywhere. Anyways, I think it was something she used to say. Dantooine -- also where I learned to deliver baby nerfs, and hammer nails."
His lightsabre slashed through the connection points of one of the highly mobile quad lasers. Discarding the housing, he jetted back across the cruiser's hull to deposit it in Gypsymoth. Wash, rinse, repeat. Quad lasers everywhere.
"Maybe that's what I'll do someday, if this haul really pays off. Buy a little farmhouse on Dantooine. My ship and I tend to pick up strays; I've known a few as wished I coulda offered them a better home. That might be just the ticket. A little place to keep folks safe, and I could come and go as I pleased, visit whenever -- Gypsymoth's light enough that a hardpack dirt landing pad's all she needs."
post #76 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 08:55 PM
Alna wasn't about to let him show her up - she and her trusty plasma-cutter got to work, freeing Quad Guns from the ship's hull for later sale. "You? A farm boy?" Alna asked with an incredulous tone. "...I can see it. Think you'd retire pretty good, on planet." Alna began moving a pair of loose quad guns - thanks to the miracles of zero gravity - to the cargo hold of the Wayfarer. "Settling down with some Zabrak girl, working the land. What a boring happily ever after." She laughed "But a good one. If I ever come close to settling down, I'd kind of want to continue the family business." Alndys admitted cheerfully. "Have a couple of kids, teach 'em how to travel the hyperlanes and prepare them to succeed in the Galaxy... then hand 'em the keys to the Wayfarer when it's my time to go."
Alndys didn't mind working hard at all, but it was nice to be able to chat while she did so - rather than listening to books or saved music.
post #77 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:01 PM
"Oh, don't get me wrong." Those quad lasers didn't quite stack like cordwood, but close enough. Not too heavy, either, in zero-gee -- seventy, eighty pounds tops. "I'm never gonna retire, I'm never gonna raise my kid dirtside. I'd just like to have a little hidey-hole where I could provide for folks as needed something more settled than a ship. My kid sister, if she ever turns up. Other folks, too."
He grunted as he hauled a light ion cannon out of its housing. "No, this'll be me forever. I told ya, or I think I did -- I'm most at home in hyperspace, or the pitch black. A little farmhouse would be a place to visit, no more. Someplace to lie low, or wait for fuel prices to drop, or overhaul Gypsymoth when she needs it."
post #78 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:18 PM
"I wouldn't mind having a little nest to hang out, personally. I make it a point to not do things that make me need to hide out." She chuckled. "But a nice little place by a blue ocean, beautiful sky, where I can just disappear for a month or so and recharge... that'd be alright." Alna sighed, working at trying to weasel a turret out of a slightly pinched housing. It was slowly creaking free, but not before she put some pressure on it with the use of a flatbar from her belt. "Besides. I was raised on the Wayfarer, but even my folks knew that y'had to let kids run around sometime. Let'em go wild, just be kids."
"With five of us, things could get cramped. We used to spend a week or so every few months just... you know. Vacation. On Lorrd, or whatever we happened to be near." Alndys explained, sounding more than a little wistful. "I don't spend much time on Lorrd, but if I had kids, I'd make sure they did. They should know what it's like on the home planet, you know?"
post #79 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:22 PM
"Lorrd -- now there's a place I never got around to going. I don't mind my friends being able to read me, but a whole planet of folks who look at the angle of my eyebrows and know what I want for lunch? It's not like I've got a ton to hide -- and feth, I don't have a clue how many of those stories about kinetic communication are true and how many are just quasi-racist hearsay. Maybe it's just that I used to spend a lot of time with a mind reader I didn't much care for."
That was putting it mildly.
"So...clear this up for me. Correct my misperceptions. I've walked under a thousand suns; I'd hate to think there was a place I wouldn't go."
post #80 Alna D'Lessio
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:32 PM
Alndys laughed merrily at the hyperbole - it wasn't anything she hadn't heard before, after all. Hell, sometimes she'd used those misconceptions to her advantage. "No, no - no, I can't look at your eyebrows and tell you want a sandwich." She promised. "Nobody can. It's a language - not telepathy." Alna hucked a couple quad guns into her cargo bay, adding to the pile. "If you were to start talking in, say... Devronian, okay? I don't speak a word of Devronian, but I might be able to glean out what you're talking about if you have an angry tone, or a hurt one, or if you're smiling." She explained, paushing to stretch her arms out. "Kinetic Communication is a language, and it isn't an easy one to learn or pick up on. Which is kind of the point of it. Sure, you can point at something and communicate 'there' or 'that', and I know what you mean. You could reach for something and suggest you want it without saying a word. But I could make a similar gesture and say 'I suggest we go over there, just in case of emergency', just in the angle of my wrist and fingers, and the way I set my shoulders." Alndys explained. "But you don't know Lorrdian, so it doesn't convey. And because you don't know Lorrdian, all I can do is read the tone and make an educated guess as to what you mean."
To demonstrate, Alndys set her feet on the hull of the ship and stretched her arms out, head slightly to the side as though expecting or asking for a hug. "If I were to greet you like this, what would it mean to you?" She asked.
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:43 PM
"Depends on your face," he said, anchoring his magnetic boots to the hull, "and there's some glare on your faceplate. I once had a Houk give me that exact same welcome right before he tried to collect on a debt the hard way. I mean, my gut says hug you back. Is this the part where you tell me there's eighteen kinds of hug, and they all break down to subject-verb-object?"
He left his quad laser floating immobile beside him and shook out his arms, willing to let go of neuroses or Force instincts or whatever they were. "All right, teach me. Elucidate me."
post #82 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:50 PM
"Exactly. You can't tell. We're speaking similar languages, but they aren't the same. So don't be wary of Lorrd." Alndys laughed, using her RCS to hover over towards him. "It's just full of people who it's hard to lie to. And it's a bit dry, bad for your skin." She teased, patting Jorus' shoulder. "I'll show you some Lorrdian later, when we're not in space suits. Lorrdian in one of these is like speaking Common with a mouthful of rocks." Alna was exaggerating a bit, but was being more or less honest. "Not fun, I promise. When we take a meal break or pack it in, I'll show you a little applied Lorrdian."
post #83 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 09:59 PM
"I'll hold you to that." He noted the pat. For a relatively private person, self-possessed in the best sense, she had a thing for contact. Lorrdians. With a smile, he took charge of the suspended weapon and steered it through the hangar door. A webwork of straps clamped innumerable quad lasers to eyelets on the deck and the walls -- even the ceiling. A respectable distance, and a few especially secure straps, kept the assembled weapons away from the securely fastened hibridium core, and he'd managed to salvage a small cage, part of a sensor dome, to further guard the cloaking device's guts.
"We are...just about full up, and you're the one who knows where to sell off the guns. Where too, Commodore?"
post #84 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 10:05 PM
Alna, on the other hand, had gone for quad guns in bulk - when she'd filled up the Wayfarer's cargo bay, she'd begun putting them into the Gypsymoth. "Fondor Shipyard - arms dealer named Jak Sandrow." She explained, stepping up into the packed Wayfarer's cargo bay. "...bit of a hike, I know. I aught to give him a call ahead, make sure he's got the credit to buy... what to you think we've got? A poodoo-ton of Quad Guns, approximately?" Alndys joked. "Not so sure about the Hibridium and the mainframe. I'll have to do a bit of research on that." She admitted.
post #85 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 10:42 PM
"You're kidding. Sandrow? I fought beside him on Denon, and a couple other times, too. They say he walked through Chaos when Omni took Corellia." He surveyed the hall with folded arms. "If anyone can take a clartload of quad lasers off our hands, no questions asked, it's him. The hibridium and the mainframe -- don't worry about that one. I guarantee Omega Pyre will pick up the tab for both of'em. Between you and me, I'm pretty sure the Pyre is leaning back towards stealth tech in the near future; they'll be able to put this stuff to good use." He slapped the cage over the hibridium.
"And the mainframe -- well, they make their own computers, but when we tell'em what's on it -- suffice it to say I'm optimistic. And Fondor's the place where they'd upload. Looks like it's time to head back around the Core. For calling ahead, to Sandrow and the bosses -- you got a hypercomm? I know someone that's got one on Dantooine, a stone's throw from here."
post #86 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 10:48 PM
"Good deal. Killing three birds with one trip!" Alna loved the efficiency of it all. Not only would they make a fortune with all this material, she'd be selling it to a group of people who owned the territory she did most of her business through. That was always a good bonus, wasn't it? "I've got an old hypercom up in the cockpit. It's spotty, but it'll connect us." Alndys promised, bouncing back towards her ship with her flatbar in hand. "Like I said, I'm pretty sure Jak'll buy these guns pretty quick. He loves old guntech. And I promised him he'd be my first contact whenever I had some to offload." She explained, sounding slightly smug about that. She didn't like handling weapons, but she did like regular business partners.
post #87 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:06 PM
"Bet ol' Jak loved that." He sealed the hatch after her; the comm channel went slightly fuzzy. Re-engaging the gravity, he stripped out of his space suit and down to shorts, then headed up to the cockpit. The Gypsymoth hummed to life, and he transferred the comm connection into the ship's shoutbox.
"All right. This place has been fething close to home, but I am about ready to cut the cord." The docking clamps released, and Gypsymoth broke away from the cruiser's hull. "What do you figure -- Braxant to Hydian to Corellian Trade Spine? Feth, would I ever love to make a new trade route that goes crossways to the rest."
post #88 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:16 PM
Alndys climbed up into the cockpit, and the Wayfarer's heavy engines roared to life. Disengaging from the Durasteel hull of the capital ship, it rose into space as Alndys slipped out of her spacesuit in the cockpit. "Yeah, you bet he did." She chuckled. "I love a reliable customer. Sealed the deal with dinner and drinks."
Once back in her trousers and shirt, Alndys sat at the helm and flipped a few neccessary switches, making sure that the Cargo Hold of the Wayfarer wasn't about to detatch, as it sometimes liked to do. Systems looked completly fine, though, so that was a relief; the credits she'd been making recently had been more than enough to take care of the old workhorse's high maitinence costs. "Sounds like a good routing. You'll likely get there before me. This old boat likes to take his time." Alndys admitted, locking the course into the ship's computer. "And you might be able to extend the Sanctuary Pipeline, if there was a bit more security. Would sure as heck bring business outta the core planets."
"Alright, I'm locked onto your tail. Lead the way there, Jorus." Alna reported cheerfully, lighting a cigarette. "Once we get to the Hydian, should be nothing but smooth flying."
post #89 Jorus Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:26 PM
The Gypsymoth's aftermarket engines, relics of old rebel campaigns, roared to life, and the flying brick of a YV-929 accelerated away from the derelict. Other broken ships spun slowly -- tombstones and graveyards for the stupid people who had tried to fight the Sith Empire. Jorus looped his course underneath a gutted corvette.
"All right, see you on the other side."
With a contented sigh, he jumped to hyperspace.
post #90 Alna Merrill
Posted 04 August 2013 - 11:28 PM
Locking the engines into full thrust, Alndys trailed after - eager to see the payday from this haul. In short order, she was right behind Jorus, heading off to see Jak Sandrow.