Destinies Adrift

[Salmakk]

In the past...

“...but they don't understand how good they have it these days,” mumbled the old man, “they never saw the days of darkness that we went through.”

“Dad, I hope they never do,” said the blonde woman, resting a hand on the aging engineer's shoulder, “but they can carry on your vision. I'll make sure they do.”

“Bah, a new generation of engineers isn't enough to keep the labs going. It is not the knowledge Helen, it's the spirit. That's what concerns me. They're treating it like it's some extra-curricular activity to pad their resume.”

Helen Lucerne hesitated, wondering if she should follow down that path, but quickly dismissed the thoughts from her head with a quick shake of the head.

“Dad, they get it. Every generation works and thinks just a little bit differently. I think you're being hard on them. You like Salmakk's project, didn't you.”

Matthew Lucerne bobbed his head up and down, “Never heard of his world, but they make a fine team of engineers that know how to get things done. Todd could learn a thing or two from them on end-user experience.”

She hesitated and held her tongue again. Todd is going to be pissed if Dad goes off on another one of his tirades at the kitchen table. And Mom's not here to diffuse the two of them. Ticking time bombs, the lot of them, and one day, we're all going to be at the end of the fuse with no bomb tech nearby. Matthew pushed up with his arms to raise himself off the workshop chair. Instinctively, the daughter moved to hover behind him, her arms spreading out to provide extra support or to catch his fall. But the old man ignored her movements, ambling out of the shop with the support of cane made out of Kashan wood. She trailed in his wake as they meandered through the now almost empty house. Three generations of Lucernes had once lived in their ancestral mansion not even a decade ago. Now it was only the two of them. Ahead of them, the kitchen light abruptly turned off, prompting a moan of indignation from the old man. He ambled around to face his daughter.

“That light again...didn't you tell that droid to fix it yesterday?”

A flurry of emerald blaster bolts flew out of the darkened kitchen to fill the corridor with deadly light. Matthew Lucerne fell onto the floor never to rise again, with his daughter following shortly behind him.

 

[Salmakk]

“He's dead...but how?” blurted out of the mon calamari.

Salmakk huddled around the university holo-projector along with several other engineering students. In front of them, the visage of a quiet man with blonde hair and horned glasses spared a glance downwards before slowly looking back. He sighed.

“I...don't know exactly. I came back home when neither he or my sister started returning my calls,” said Todd, “and I found their bodies lying on a hallway floor, with blaster wounds on them. Someone shot them, and the security feed does show a faint image of what seems to be some sort of weird droid lurking around the house's perimeter several nights ago. I think it was an assassin droid.”

Salmakk slowly bowed his head, “I am sorry for your loss Todd.”

“Ah, thank you,” said Todd quietly, glancing downwards once more, “we had a our little scraps from time to time, but my father was a good man. I'll miss him, and I know all of you will too. He thought that the Labs would be his greatest legacy...but...”

Salmakk cocked his head to the side, “Yes?”

“I think he wanted me to take his spot when he left, at least on some level,” said Todd, raising his eyes to meet Salmakk's, “but it's not me. I think it should be you, Salmakk. He always spoke glowingly about your work. You should be Matthew Lucerne's successor.”

“Those are big shoes to wear.”

“Big boots,” corrected a man next to Salmakk.

“Er, yes,” admitted Salmakk, “big boots. I don't know how he did it all...”

A slow smile crept across Todd's face, “Me either. But I'll have a courier bring everything he had here to you, every snibbit of note written flimplast, every datacard, every recording I can find. It should help a bit, if you can help wade through it.”

“But what about Dueno?”

“Dueno agreed with me,” said Todd, “he thinks that you should have it. Besides, he is having a kid soon...sorry...”

“I understand. The Labs have never made any of us much money. At least for a full family.”

Todd nodded, “Then you understand. I was planning on proposing to Evelyn this weekend...but well...making funeral arrangements has sort of ruined the mood of things around here for that sort of thing...”

“I'm sorry Todd.”

“So you'll do it?”

“Someone must,” said Salmakk, “your father put too much work into this project to let it fade away so easily back into the abyss. I'll do what I can, though I make no promises to fully reaching his legacy status.”

Todd nodded, “That's all we can do.”

 

[Gir Quee]

The present...

Vinnath-class Pocket Carrier Crescent Light, somewhere in deep space

“I just thought that after our last conversation, that you would be more enthusiastic about our endeavor.”

Gir took a deep breathe in of the deeply recycled air and slowly exhaled. He then met his adoptive brother's unflinching gaze.

“Salmakk, nothing has changed since then.”

“Exactly, so it shouldn't be an issue.”

“It is an issue,” countered Gir, “you are still keeping the plans and prototype of warhead in our parent's house.”

Salmakk threw up his webbed hands, “Where should I put them Gir, on your ship?”

Gir's face briefly lit up with a subdued smile, “That might actually give me some firepower. I wish I could, but here isn't good for business. It's not as if people can come anytime aboard my ship to take a look at them for demonstration.”

“You could demonstrate it to other people though, travelling around the star lanes...”

“No,” adamantly stated Gir, “I can't. Not with free movement. I don't have much leeway Salmakk...though still...I think you have a point. The missile would probably be easier to sell if it could be moved around to demonstrate. We need to get you a ship. Or rather, the Labs a ship.”

Salmakk cocked his head to the side, “I may know a ship from a technical standpoint Gir, but I can't fly it.”

“No-one on your team knows how to fly?” questioned Gir incredulously, “remind me not to fly a ship that any of you ever design...”

“But you have a point Gir. If I could travel, not only could the missile be demonstrated, but I could be a better version of Mister Lucerne. I could stop around the galaxy and personally work with others in the Lucerne Labs movement.”

“Exactly,” said Lucerne, “though the pilot thing...that's going to be issue.”

“I'm more concerned about the ship,” said Salmakk, “it will have to be large enough for all of my research materials and equipment, for long voyages. Todd offered me his father's equipment, if I can come pick it up. That could help.”

Gir sighed, “Well clearly a shuttle won't due...and I'm willing to bet that that's all any of us could afford by piling in our creds, if we're lucky.”

“So pull one of your connections that you've been talking too.”

“I don't think we have enough credit, either social or monetary, with any of them for something significant like a starship...unless....” said Gir, stroking his chin, “I know someone, who knows someone who might, might be able to do something for us.”

“That all sounds rather specific, Gir.”

The man ignored his brother's barb, “But it's no sure thing, and I doubt it's going to be your dream ship.”

“I can settle for functionality.”

“Good, because I think that's all I can get.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Bela's Parts Emporium, Telal

“I don't have here anything like that, Lieutenant Quee...sir.”

Gir stood glanced around the arid lot of “junk”. Mountains of half-functional droids, busted electronics, worn-out hulls, and assorted mechanical fixtures littered the salvage yard. Its proprietor, a muscular Dug that went by the name of Bela briefly spat on the ground just to his right. The alien's beady eyes gazed across the expanse of his horde before shaking his head again.

“Two months ago, I had here an old Rin Astrid hauler, but a twi'lekk snatched it here about a month before yer saved me out there. Whatda yer need a ship here like that for anyhow? Cutbacks in the fleet getting that bad?”

Gir shook his head, “No, my brother's looking around for something spaceworthy to conduct some experiments in. But I didn't want to break the bank...”

“Now hold on ther. It just has to be big and spaceworthy for that?”

Gir slightly cocked his head to the side, “Yes.”

“I have got just the very thing for him.”

“I thought you said that you didn't have any ships...”

“But I have here a genuine 'pace station of sorts.”

“Of sorts?”

“Well, I took out here most of the stuff that I could salvage and put it down here, but it still has a sealed hull and an atmosphere. I thought I could maybe someday use it for storage, but I never get out 'here, and I got plenty of room right here. Wanna take a lookski?”

Gir hesitated. Well, it can't hurt. Not if he's willing to give away...Quee nodded, “I'd like that, thank you.”

“Well, let's get here on yer ship.”

The two beings trotted a short distance to the Crescent Light's light transport, a modern if boxy affair. Gir hopped onboard, leading the dug to the cockpit before tightening the crash restraints. The dug eyed him.

“I didn't know that yerself was a pilot, Lieutenant?”

“Not a very good one, at least in the snubfighter cockpit,” said Gir, flipping up the start-up switches, “but this is more like a corvette to me. Just a very light version of one.”

Belu nodded sagely as the craft roared to life. Gingerly, Gir eased the throttle and pointed the ship's nose to the sky. He pressed the accelerator forward, sending the glimmering gig surging through the Telal's desert skies and into the great beyond. As they exited orbit, Gir noticed the Crescent Light maintaining its orbit as various people went back and forth on shore leave for a brief break in patrol duties. Not that there's much here, but sometimes its good to get to just get out. The dug began to point to one Telal's moon, more of icy chunk of rock than some grand celestial object. Gir slowly eased the gig into a gentle curve that took it towards the orbital body. It slowly grew into their viewport, along with a myriad of large tumbling rocks haphazardly orbiting the world. But as much as he looked, he saw no orbital outpost awaiting its demise. The dug slowly outstretched an elongated finger to point at one particular rock.

“There.”

“That asteroid?”

The dug nodded. Gir eyed the oblong-shaped rock skeptically. But as it tumbled, he noticed the tell-tale glint of metal, that tell-tale sign of civilization, break smooth across its otherwise rocky exterior. He slowed the craft down as they entered the field, but the rocks were still spaced fairly wide across, allowing even a neophyte pilot like himself the ability to easily steer clear of them. As they neared it, Belu pulled a round object out of one of his pouches and tapped a button, causing the metal slab to slide over and reveal a small hangar.

“So what was it?”

“I don't here know, a mine perhaps? It was a bad trade,” admitted the dug, “but that trickster got a good'un on me. Wasn't much to take except some data cores and a tractor beam projector. But I'm done with it. It's yer's now, if you want it.”

Gir nodded, “Thank you Belu. Let me take a look around.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Several days later...

“That is not an amusing joke, Gir.”

Gir eyed Salmakk, “Look, I know it's not ideal, but with the hyperdrive, it could work. You guys definitely have got the skill to make it something even better. And with Yuros getting lucky with that inheritance, you guys even got that shuttle to go with it. Think of it as a mobile outpost.”

“Which has not sublight means of propulsion.”

Gir wobbled his head from side to side, “Well, that's true.”

“I'm not sinking credits into a rock, Gir.”

“Hey Salmakk, it wasn't easy bargaining with Belu to get a hyperdrive on it in the first place. We're lucky some of your affiliates were nearby to help me with the task of installing it. It makes me much more appreciate of our engine techs onboard now.”

“What did you tell them it was for?”

“I don't think you want to know,” replied the Galactic Republic officer, “but they seemed to think it was neat.”

“You told them I'd be using it,” guessed Salmakk, leaning backwards.

“At least I didn't saw how you'd be using it,” said Gir, “Say you're using it as a target for your warhead if you must. But Salmakk, I can't do any better for you than this. Not right now anyways. Maybe we'll strike it lucky in the future...”

“No Gir, I must do it now. And as much as I despise it, I will try it,” said the Mon Calamari, “but only after I test it with a droid crew first.”

“Fine, that's fair enough. I wouldn't want to trust it either.”

“Have you travelled on it, brother?”

“No,” admitted Gir, “but I tested with a R-series unit. He was fine. Nothing bad happened to him, and the hyperdrive works fine too.”

“Wonderful.”

“But it gets more wonderful,” said Gir, “I think I got you a real steal from Belu.”

“What did you Gir? Don't tell me you bought something else for it...”

“Well...sort of...”

“Gir...”

“It wasn't so much a buy as a 'won' sort of deal...”

“Gir...”

“Look Salmakk,” said Gir, “if you don't like it, or can't find a use for it when you get there, you can toss it out the magcon field into deep space, all right? I promise I won't be too offended...”

 

[Salmakk]

Lucerne Labs Asteroid Outpost, somewhere in Deep Space

“How did he get this thing?” asked Azira, a creamy-furred bothan female.

Salmakk shrugged as he glanced around the rock-hewn wall, “One of his contacts. Gir always manages to rub elbows just right with every being he seems to run into. Some dug just gave it to him for who knows what reason. Maybe he was getting parking fines for it.”

Azira's fur rippled, “For this run down piece of rock? I can believe it, a bit of an eyesore and hazard in orbit, but still...”

“It is spacious enough for what Gir says,” said the mon calamari, “as much as I hate to admit it, he may have done something right.”

“For once?”

“I didn't say that,” said Salmakk, “he's done many things right, though not in the way that I would do them.”

“I bet.”

The two strolled along deeper into the outpost, reaching a set of blast doors. He typed a code into the console in the front; the doors slid open with a creak to reveal a dozen droids of various makes and models busy at repairing some sort of conduit. He noticed one modern astromech droid leading a quartet of ancient verpine-built hatchling maintenance droids in assembling some computer parts. In the midst of it all, a pale Duros directed the motley array of droids around. Salmakk's jaw dropped.

“Lai? What are you doing here?”

“Oh, hi there Salmakk, and miss bothan lady,” said the duros, setting down a datapad, “I heard Gir was leaving some things for you, so well...”

“You had to check it out.”

“I couldn't resist checking it out after plugging that drive in. It is very elegant for its age you know.”

“So what did my brother leave me with?”

“Oh, I took the liberty of starting the assembly,” said the duros, “I got my own droid Sparks there leading the droids that Gir somehow wrangled out of Belus in some gambling tournament. But anyways, the Crescent Light logged in a semi-recent derelict out there, so he gave Jui-Jui the coordinates to pull what he could off and put it here on the outpost.”

“What is it all?”

“I don't know, that's half the fun of it. I think it was colony ship though. There's the waste recycling, and I think it's a real Rendili unit too from one of their dreadnaughts originally, and then there's the computers, but I'm guessing there were just the basic ship computers, nothing special...”

“He gave me a bunch of junk then.”

“He gave you a working vessel,” said the Duros, “if you want it, and I want it, and I want to take a look at everything he found out there. And I've tossed some of it, you'll be glad to know. I hear we're heading back to the Lucerne mansion after this to pick some things up too.”

Salmakk sighed, “Who told you?”

“Jui-Jui. He said that if I didn't play with anything here, that you might let see and try some of the stuff he had built up over the years.”

“I see that worked well.”

“I couldn't help myself Sal, Sallie.”

“Don't call me that, ever, ever again.”

“Fine, fine,” said Lai, “but Sal-”

“Lai...”

“I'll shut up now.”

“Not until you tell me that you've tested everything here.”

“Oh yeah,” said the duros, “I even took it for a few jumps. Had to. Works fine. And once Sparks gets finished over there, we'll have a real control him to control everything, instead of just relying on that hard-wired astromech I put in by the hyperdrive to control the thing.”

“I feel like this will be the one adventure that I'll never need to take again,” said the bothan.

“Me too,” agreed Salmakk, “once we get to the Lucerne mansion and take out all of that equipment, we'll redo this place into something more...presentable.”

 

[Gir Quee]

Some weeks later...

Gir Quee strolled into the halls of Lucerne Lab's Outpost facility. The former asteroid colony was not at all the near barren hunk of rock that he had originally acquired. Some more aesthetic-conscious members of the Lab had taken the time to set up some cheap, thin plas panels across many of the halls and to divide up some of the caverns into cubicle offices. It almost would have made the place seem like a claustrophobic office buildings somewhere near the Core except several holo-projectors projecting images of their homeworlds' terrain across plas. Salmakk gestured him over into a larger cubicle whose walls were covered in the rolling seas of Hast.

“It looks much better than when I last saw the place.”

“It is better,” affirmed Salmakk, gesturing for him to take a seat in front of his old desk.

“Even got the home furnishings, I see.”

“Gir, I owe you an apology. This has worked out better than expected. There's plenty of space to work with here for what we're working on now.”

Gir shifted his head to the left, “I'm going to emphasize the 'now' part of that. Thinking of expanding soon.”

“We need production facilities, Gir.”

“I thought you guys had Lucerne's workshop stuff here. I heard you even used some of that to make even more tooling.”

“Well, yes,” admitted Salmakk, “enough that we have even managed to make several dozen missiles. I've even armed the Outpost now with a couple of tubes, for testing and demonstration purposes of course.”

“And they've worked out right?”

Salmakk nodded, “So far. I chalk that up to Lai's constant tinkering and Azira's meticulous attention to detail.”

“Well that's good.”

“But we can't manufacture them on a big level yet.”

Gir shrugged, “We license them out then until we have enough credits for a factory.”

“Gir, I understand that you're trying to take us there, and that you realize that we can't go on like we were before, but I wonder if we will change quickly enough...if things progress with Oshtra...”

“Well, I imagine marriage on a place like this as being...”

“She wouldn't have it, Gir.”

“I don't do magic, brother,” said the lieutenant, “I just point people where to go and who to talk to. You're and your people are doing the hard work, and it's mostly on you at this point. It looks like the Outpost is becoming the node of the Labs from what I've heard. I hear we've got volunteers coming in and staying for a couple weeks pretty soon.”

Salmakk nodded, “Have to give back to the volunteers, let them see their projects come to fruitition. We have the ability to make things now. Important things Gir. There will be more projectiles coming in larger than the missile.”

“A shiny new ship for me?” said Gir, flashing a smile.

“One day, Gir,” said Salmakk, “we owe you that much, though I will not promise when.”

“I wouldn't worry about it brother, I'm just breaking in the Crescent Light still.”

“It's a small ship.”

“But it's my ship.”

“Let me give you the full tour Gir, then you can see what we've got for your efforts.”

 

[Gir Quee]

The two strolled along the corridors of the converted asteroid base, quietly chatting about family life back home. Gir had not known about Salmakk's fiancee; despite the advancements of technology, space travel still sundered some intimacy between the brothers apart, as Gir was not always in a position to chit-chat about the normalities of life given the expense of the holo-net and his limited free time. They rounded several bends before entering what Gir originally guessed had been an ancillary hangar, judging by its ability to maybe hold a pair of small shuttles. But there no starships present, despite the active magcon field. Instead, Lai was scurrying about with a couple of droids, fiddling with a hefty conduit cable which fed from the wall into a shrouded object near the hangar's end. Gir raised an eyebrow and glanced at Salmakk.

“Don't get me wrong brother, I'm impressed by your progress so far...but-”

A loud clang echoed across the rocky room as Lai tossed a tool aside onto the floor.

“but if you guys aren't quite ready yet, I'll understand.”

Salmakk slowly shook his head, “Lai, what are you doing?”

The duros quickly rose from the conduit and turned to face the pair. No sooner had he done so then when several droids quickly edged closer together to continue the alien's work. Lai sheepishly grinned.

“I had to do some last minute repairs...”

Salmakk moaned, “You fired it again. How far did you charge it?”

“Too far,” admitted Lai, “but I had to know the limits of my design, just had to. I ended up frying one of the filaments in the cable, but I think I soldered it right now.”

Gir briefly tilted his head to the side and down, “But whatever you fired is working?”

He nodded vigorously, “Much better than the first two, it's fully finalized and perfected now...mostly.”

Salmakk half-rolled his eyes, “Let's cut to the chase. We were trying to duplicate a certain ability of another weapon, but it didn't work out right the first couple of times Gir, but I will swear to you that part is fixed now. And I only trust it because I've been over the design a lot of times.”

“But it was my project,” emphasized the Duros, “well, aside from the cooling system, Azira's programming, that old turret design-”

“All engineering builds off of other's accomplishments, Lai,” said Salmakk, “I think Gir understands that well enough.

Gir nodded.

“Oh, right then,” said Lai, striding over to the weapon.

The duros grasped the gray covering sheet and yanked it, but the cloth still held fast to the weapon. One of his astromech droids quickly rolled over, grasped an edge of the sheet, and promptly yanked it by retracting its arm back into its body quickly. The sheet made an audible swish before flying over to cover the astromech droid, which mournfully warbled, but Gir quickly turned his attention to the weapon and frowned.

“A turbolaser?”

Salmakk sighed, “Not quite.”

 

[Gir Quee]

“A mass driver cannon!” exclaimed Lai, dropping his corner of the sheet, “isn't it beautiful?”

“Ah, definitely in that wabi-sabi sort of way,” suggested Gir.

Looking closer at the weapon, Gir could see an exposed pair of heavy metallic prongs sticking out of the end of the barrel. He squinted his eyes. Must be be a railgun of some sort...His sapphire blue eyes swept across the barrel shroud to the base of the weapon, but it seemed utterly unremarkable aside from the thick durasteel housing. Lai pointed to the pedestal, in which Gir noticed a dual-feed magazine which pushed the shells into the mass driver's breach.

“See, those are some of the shells I came up with.”

Gir nodded slowly, “I see that.”

“Gir, that actually is something to be proud of,” said Salmakk, “Lai has come up with a dizzying number of shell types that the weapon can fire, which could potentially give you lot of options in any future combat-”

“But this is the most basic one,” said Lai, hefting up a what appeared to be a solid slug of metal, “it's just a simple durasteel slug with a ferrocarbon penetrator in the middle. Sparks, give it a whirl!”

Salmakk began to utter a protest, but was quickly drowned out by a series of warbling sounds from Lai's astromech droid. Gir began to slowly edge backward as the war machine began to loudly hum. Lai suddenly waved his hand down to signal Sparks. The cannon let out a whoosh and slowly recoiled backward as it released its shell. The shell surged through the magcon field and smashed into a relatively nearby asteroid, creating a brief, bright flash on the rock that was oddly silent. Yet the hit created a huge cloud of dust that obscured any more observation from the hangar's occupants. Lai giddly dove into his massive toolbox, jubilantly pulling out a pair of macrobinoculars to observe the carnage. After a brief glance, he shoved the observation device into Gir's hands and guided him forward. Gir raised the device to his eyes and fiddled with the controls. As the dust began to dissipate, he too noticed an impressive crater on the large rock, that was not so much wide as it was deep. He couldn't quite tell where the hole ended. Gir handed the device over to Salmakk, who then began his observation. Gir eyed Lai curiously.

“I have to admit, I'm impressed. How does it work?”

“Well, the Rhongomyniad-”

“The what?”

“The Rhongomyniad cannon,” stated Lai, “look, I didn't come up with the naming conventions. Salmakk told me to pick a name of a mythological weapon, and I liked the name Rhongomyniad. It's complicated sounding like my cannon, all right? Anyways, the Rhongomyniad is a railgun, but unlike a normal railgun, Azira and I were able to make a charging mechanism that allows it to use variable power inputs. In other words, we can either have it use a lot of small power to shoot out bullets really quickly or at low power, or we can charge it up over time to send one projectile very quickly, like the speed of light, except minus a few thousand kilometers per second. I mean so quickly that it's almost like a hypervelocity cannon. No, it is a lesser form of hypervelocity-”

Lowering the macrobinoculars, Salmakk loudly cleared his throat, “I think my brother is aware of the very basics of physics and space weaponry, Lai.”

“Oh, right then. Anyways, it's not quite as powerful as the big guns everyone else is making, or super accurate at long range,” said the duros, “but it's small enough to use in normal turrets, which I thought was a useful tradeoff.”

Gir bobbed his head in agreement, “I could agree to that.”

“But the best part is that I've come up with a canister shot.”

“Like a flak cannon,” explained Salmakk, “except not quite as far-reaching in terms of shrapnel radius. Still...”

“It fits in with the concept of dual-purpose,” noted Gir.

“Except there are so many options,” said Lai, “more options than any of us could ever think of...it's multi-purpose.”

“I see,” noted Gir, “So what are you going to shoot next?”

 

[Gir Quee]

Gai grinned and unclipped a comlink from his labcoat, “Come in Outpost control, this is Crazy Gundark. I repeat-”

“Gai,” stated a monotone voice dryly, “what is it? Did you trip another circuit?”

“Outpost control, please move the small targets towards the test bay for a demonstration for Lieutenant Quee.”

“Oh....on it,” said the disembodied voice.

The duros engineer turned back to face the Republic officer, “In a few minutes, a group of smaller asteroids of will be maneuvered in front of the magcon field for my second demonstration. As you can see, the Rhongomyniad has two magazines feeding it, but they can be switched to feed only one or the other.”

The duros tapped a button on his comlink. A second later, a loud click emanated from the weapon and echoed throughout the hangar. Gir glanced at Salmakk, but the mon calamari engineer merely shrugged.

“Now the weapon is set to fire what I like to call flak-burst shells,” announced Gai, “each of these shells consists of a miniaturized seismic charge wired to a basic proximity sensor, all surrounded by hardened durasteel balls of different sizes. When the shell gets in the proximity of an object, the seismic charge is detonated, flinging the balls all over the place.”

“Like a shotgun?” asked Gir.

“Exactly so. The finer pellets packed in there are useful for destroying missile barrages while the larger ones are good against starfighters.”

“So it's like another flak cannon.”

Gai made an odd noise which Gir took to be that he was weighing his words, “No.”

Gir raised an eyebrow, “How is it different?”

“Well, compared to normal flak cannons, these shells are a smaller blast radius, but the individual projectiles in them are more larger and carry greater inertia, making them more of a threat to smaller ships.”

“I see.”

“Look!” said Gai, pointing at a group of floating rocks that drifted uniformly in front of the cannon, “there they are. Sparks, do the thing!”

The droid warbled again. A second passed before the cannon fired again, making an odd thump sound as it recoiled. The flak-burst shell had barely entered the group of rocks before it exploded, spraying its round shot in an iron blossom which tore apart the small asteroid formation. Dust once again obscured the view, causing the three to pass back and forth the filtering macrobinoculars to get a better view. After several seconds of observation, Gir handed the device over to Salmakk, but turned his attention to the duros.

“Do you feel that it is ready for production?”

The duros nodded, “Salmakk already approved it.”

The mon calamari took his eyes from the device, “If Gir or anyone else can find a buyer...”

Gir sighed, “That's always the catch.”