Hear Me Baby, Hold Together (The Underground)

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sam Turain"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Eliza Steele"]
Other Underground members should feel free to join if they want; I've only tagged those who responded to the interest check thread.

Ord Mantell
Dingo Darr's Chop Shop
(Underground Safe House Cherek-Besh)

"All right, folks," said Jorus.

He and a handful of experienced hyperdrive mechanics had gathered here, plus some talented folks who'd expressed interest in learning how to overclock a hyperdrive.

"What we've got in the warehouse next door is three hundred Nubian Star Drives S-6 generators that I picked up for dirt cheap. With the right core, and we've got plenty of good cores, they'll hit point-seven, like on the J-type diplomatic barge. With the right core and the right tweaks, like on the J-type star skiff, they'll hit point-five reliably. Well, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but I know more about fast hyperdrives than anyone short of Freia Kallea, an' I've run a couple prototypes up past point-two on occasion without, you know, dying. I've put together a prototype with the S-6 and tested it pretty hard, and the highest it'll go that's stable, with just the right mods, is between point-three and point-four. I recorded everything I did to get the drive that way. So what we're going to do is partner up, add the exact same mods to every single one of these three hundred, and then strap'em to hypercapable drones to test'em and time'em. Maybe we'll get a few dozen really, really fast drives out of it, and even if some of the rest have meltdown issues, most should wind up around point five or point six, which is plenty fast.

"Any questions?"

 

[H3xle]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Eliza Steele"]



Ord Mantell
Dingo Darr's Chop Shop
(Underground Safe House Cherek-Besh)


Sam felt better, being out of the academy uniform. He had on his more comfortable (because they're tailored...crime does pay after all) lightly armored street clothes. In them, he looked like the smuggler that mom and dad raised, straight down to the pair of blaster pistols hanging from a well-loved belt/holster combination. Sam stood there as Jorus spoke, listening intently. He'd been in a couple of the mans classes at the Academy, a symposium and had done one or two jobs for him with the Underground. Listening to Jorus seemed to be the major by line of Sam's career at this point.

'Hey, I've never been steered wrong by him, and now I get to tinker with some drives to make them go crazy fast!' Sam thought to himself. He absently wondered if this would count for any credit at the academy...'What would they list it as..."Extra Credit: Engineering" with a course description that is classified?' He didn't voice his question, honestly if he was a student for the rest of his life and still allowed to smuggle or command ships as well, he'd do it.

"These mods to the hyperdrive, are they going to be using common components? Is this something we'll be able to do on the fly?"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sam Turain"]

"For supply chain reasons, we're going to be using three kinds of cores -- an upscale Sienar one, a sort of bulkier Koensayr one, and a Silk one. They're all open market, same as the rest of the components, and I've tested all of'em. Downside is, they're fairly pricey. Not enough to offset the fething astounding amount of money we saved on the generators, though. As for duplicatin' this in the field, Turain, I'd imagine you'd be able to tune a drive up by point-two to point-five -- maybe take a two to a one-point-five, take a one to a point-eight, that kind of thing."

Last time he'd seen Turain had been in Command Studies 1492: Intro to First Contact. A reminder, if Jorus needed it, that he wasn't the only one living a double life. Wouldn't it be hilarious if jury-rigging hyperdrives for the Underground counted as transfer credit? (He'd taken a peek at Turain's grades -- just to check that the man actually knew what he was doing with a hyperdrive -- and been impressed in some areas.)

"More questions? Better to get'em all out now, an' don't be afraid to ask once we've started either."

 

[Coren Starchaser]

Right, working together. Coren could totally do that. He enjoyed working around [member="Jorus Merrill"], the man was a genius, and to say that Coren looked to him as an absolute rival, when the latter got his standing in the Force back, was an understatement. Maybe Coren wasn’t as blood thirsty as some Dark Jedi, but he had the passion and the drive to work it harder, make it better, and do it faster, because it makes the Underground stronger, and then maybe he’d take Jorus for a bit of a challenge around the galaxy. But right now? Focus, Starchaser. There is mechanical work to be done.

He’d made it out to Mantell, another Ordinance world, one his father had made sure he was familiar with, where the safehouse was. And now the fun began. Merrill gave the speech about the hyperdrives and Coren nodded, looking over to [member="Sam Turain"], whom he knew he recognized. Academy? Fringe? Right, Coren lived a few lives.

Coren shook his head when the questions call came again. He may not be the strongest mechanic, using his brother to do the repairs on his ship, but he knew what he was doing, just took him some time. “Not yet, sure I’ll come up with somethin’ shortly.” Once he started working. Kinesthetic learner and all.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sam Turain"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Eliza Steele"]

"All right. We've got you working in crews of three, with a pretty even blend of experience and expertise. Nobody should be totally in the dark here. Now, I'll walk you through the first time slowly, then I'll come check your work. I think some of you have Force talents for machinery -- if you have'em, use'em to check your work for errors. Listen to your instincts. Same goes for the rest of you that aren't Forcers. Fun fact: everyone's a teeny bit Force-sensitive. Everyone's instincts are at least worth listening to. You get a bad feeling about this? Let me know. The drives are all disconnected and powered down, but last thing we need is a coolant leak or a bad quantum ricochet."

For the next two hours, he walked them through the mod. Starting from the S-6 generators and the Santhe/Sienar, Koensayr, or Silk Holdings hypercores, then adding other components as necessary, often with after-market connections, the crews began assembling their first prototypes on the chop shop floor.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Sam Turain"]

Gray-blue gaze blinked slowly as she shuffled into a group with someone named Coren. Sam she recognized. Datapad was pushed almost up to her nose as she breezed through varying hyperdrive schematics. That was just simple design stuff.

She was ready to get her hands dirty. Spacebook status worthy update, yo.

What she really wanted was to learn the hyperdrive language and delve deeper into technopath (NERD ALERT) skills via the force. "Spark Finn," she whispered as she slid up next to Coren. She held out her hand -shake-wave-fistbump-whatevs- but her focus wasn't on the fellow Underground member, it was clearly on her first love, technology.

(Slow-posting zone alert. I can usually just get one in a day so don't wait on me - I'll jump around based on where ya'll end up)

 

[Eliza Steele]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="Sam Turain"] | [member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Spark Finn"]

Arriving at Dingo Darr's Chop Shop that was not too far away the Afterburner Cantina, which she and her father [member="Remy Steele"] owned now as a side business, Eliza, dressed in her usual spacer attire, was flanked by her dependable and loyal ship mechanic, a LE series repair droid. She gave a friendly head nod to the others gathered, mainly strangers except for their reputations, before listening to what the sponsor of this Underground inservice had to say.

The petite brunette was a good little mechanic in her own right, able to fix and maintain most things on the Corellian Dawn, but "Buddy" did all the major upgrades and repairs for the Steele smuggling operation so that is why he accompanied the fiery Corellisi this day.

"Well what you waiting for, Bud… Get in there. See one, do one, teach one," she quipped lightly to the droid, then watched attentively as his team began working with the 'drive components; Lizzy sipping on caf in her well-used travel mug as she did.

 

[H3xle]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] | [member="eliza steele"] | [member="Coren Starchaser"] | [member="Spark Finn"]



Under most normal circumstances, Sam would be all smiles at the ladies present. He was instead engrossed in the learning of how to mod this stardrive. He did offer a nod to everyone who walked in, and even offered a smile to both Spark and Eliza, before turning back to the task at hand.

When Jorus turned them all loose on the stardrives, Sam took a pair of mechanics with him and began to strip out those pieces of the stardrive that came out first. Over the next three hours Sam spoke softly with his team mates. They compared notes where appropriate and made sure that each of them new what the others were doing and why, this was as much a learning task for all of them as a modding for marketable drives. A little over three and a haf hours later, Sam and his team wiped the grease from their hands and approached Jorus. They weren't the first team done, or the last team done, but they had poured over every inch of the drive to make sure it met the same specs they had seen in the demonstration.

"Sir...erm, uh. Jorus. When you're ready, our drive is ready for testing. If you've got a probe body for it, we can do the install ourselves..." Well, chit. How do you address a man who is your superior a hundred different ways, but not on a true mission? Sam quickly made up for his stumble with a quick smile and a relaxing of the shoulders. He remembered the engine they had just modded and he felt quite proud of himself.

 

[Andrasta Sitra]

The Kestrel still wasn't frakking working and that made Andrasta one upset puppy.

Yet she had managed to start getting the work done to get the YT-2400 back up and operational, mostly through several small contacts she had made on Nar Shaddaa over the recent months, it had been one of those contacts that had seen to the transportation of the freighter to the space station operated by Andrasta’s newly found ‘associates’ so that she was closer to the actual action at least in her books.

Passage to Ord Mantell had come cheap and easy and while finding this Chop Shop was a little bit harder Andrasta now stood amongst what could only be described as the biggest mixture of oddballs she had ever laid eyes upon.

It felt just like the ol’ days.

The man known as [member="Jorus Merrill"] seemed to know what he was talking about and went on to describe the task he had at hand, a series of hyperdrives that he needed over-clocked. Something that Andrasta had done in the past and the Kestrel Star had boasted a severely over-clocked hyperdrive until it destroyed itself in the black hole.

The component she had at hand was one of the Koensayr models and after an extensive run through by Merril Andrasta dove straight into it.
The best thing she had realised was that in all honesty Hyperdrive technology really hadn’t changed that much in the eight hundred year jump since he last foray into modifying one, the conductors were all the same, the wiring was all the same and the core was identical only boasting different manufacturing marks.

Grabbing one of the fresher components Andrasta took a hydro-spanner and started to rip through a series of older more cumbersome parts, each one being pulled out and discarded on the floor. The Koensayr seemed to have more older alluvial dampers that sat on the rear wall of the casing, these were pulled out by Andrasta even if not originally in the briefing and replaced with a set from the Silk Holdings which seemed to hold a better range of ability in Andrasta’s ‘professional’ opinion.

A quick spark of a weld and they were in place leaving the Kiffar to ponder over the slightly rusty generator for the null quantum field and whether or not she should completely replace that too.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He nodded to [member="Jorus Merrill"] who was having them break into groups. Coren knew enough to get by, his brother should be here, the good one, not the one who left the Treader, and he’d be able to mechu-deru things, a little. Y’know, enough that a side NPC could do. He smirked at the quantum richochet. “Yeah, no need to hyperspace the safe house to… wherever.” Yeah, there were times when Starchaser was a wise-ass.

And there was a face he knew, or at least the name… Steele? Corellian from what he recalled. He’d have to keep an eye on her.

Right, groups. That was… well, the Fringe-based pilot was just going to kind of get filtered. One thing his father taught him was to adjust with the flow, like sea grass in a break-zone. You may look frail and weak, but working and surviving in one of the harshest and most active environments? That was what happened. And he was put in a group with the slicer chick. That cute-nerdy girl who seemed a bit awkward, well, a lot awkward. And cute here by the fact that she was decades young for him. This one was a tricky one, huh?

“So, you ever worked on a hyperdrive before?” He had, a few times. Keep it from melting through the ship, keep himself flying. Real basic stuff. Looking at her hand, he quirked up an eyebrow. “And Coren Starchaser.” He couldn’t gather what to do, but the girl was focused. “Let’s get to work?”

[member="Spark Finn"]

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sam Turain"]

Jorus sank onto his haunches. "All right, let's see what we've got going on here. Let's see..."

He was the sort to talk to himself a little, just in sentence fragments, as he looked over a piece of gear in progress. A hyperdrive wasn't just any gear, either. One day, back during his Omega Protectorate naval career, he'd sat down and figured out how many months of his life he'd spent neck-deep in one drive or another. The number had gotten obsolete quickly. He couldn't remember it anymore.

And for all that, sometimes it just didn't...click. If there'd been any justice, his Force connection would have shaped itself to the task. He'd have picked up hyperdrive-related mechu-deru sometime along the way, by experience if nothing more. Some kind of instinct that told him for sure whether the mods were good. He didn't have that kind of shortcut available, just like he couldn't lift a pebble, swing a sabre, or look good in burlap. So he took his time examining the drive, then slapped his knees and stood with a grunt. "Looks solid to me, Turain. And look, just call me Cap'n Merrill. It's served me well enough. I'll have the drone sent in; go ahead and bolt'er in, and we'll send it up with a few others shortly. I've got a ship standing by ten light-years out to time our little friends here, see what kind of a drive speed we're working with."

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Eliza Steele"] [member="Sam Turain"] [member="Andrasta Sitra"] [member="Coren Starchaser"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

The blond-technopath was vaguely aware of the new arrivals: a brunette that sounded Corellian and a woman she envied for her darker skin. The tats were pretty sick, too. Sandy-brows rose in surprise as her transporter to the safe house finished first, already talking to Captain Merrill.

"Starchaser," pale-face scrunched in thought. "I've heard that name before but can't place it." Thrusting out her arm, she pushed the screen of her datapad into Coren's face, hairs away from bumping his nose with no regard for personal bubbles. "Let's combine these two models. We've got enough parts here. And no, I've never worked on a hyperdrive before but technopatheeing," yup, she just made up a word, "is kind of my thing."

She was already mechu-deruing (another made up word) the feth out of it.

"And I'm about eighty-seven percent sure it won't blow up on us as we're working it. But don't worry, I can force bubble about as good as I can mechu-deru."

It wasn't mechu-deru vitae because @Darth Adekos wasn't around to bring her to the darkside with sarcasm.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

She was something, huh? Having heard his name before probably wasn’t, what with Marek, that exiled family member of his running around the galaxy with his corporate dreams. Depending on the circles [member="Spark Finn"] kept, but that wasn’t really anything Coren knew about. What he did know was that this girl wasn’t the one to keep bubbles. Sure, that worked for some people, but Coren was one of those that didn’t really worry about space. Just stay out of his mind.

He tipped his head at the blonde when she started speaking. Combining two of the drives made sense. What surprised him was that she was a technopath. Those were starting to pop up more and more in this galaxy, and were a bit interesting to him. He knew his brother could basically hear what made a machine work, so that was something, no level of mechu-deru, but just… well, he called it a knack. Really, something all pilots should trust, but Coren would never claim himself that good, just a bit of psychometry and a knowledge of his vessel. “Sounds good to me.” He nodded, looking at the parts.

“Y’know, the Force is a bit more than numbers, right?” All about the feeling and riding it. Well, that was how Coren looked at it. Still, nothing like a hydrospanner in your hands when you’re working one something like this.

 

[Arkyn Rane]

I woke up to shrill beeps and aggravated whirs. Something sharp and hot was poking me in my side. Really hot.

"Okay, okay, I'm up! You little shavit..." I rubbed the sleep from my eyes, grumbling about overbearing astromechs. I was gonna scrap the little tin can as soon as I could. He'd make a nice trash bin, now that I was thinking about it. Or toilet.

I'd docked at a spaceport on Ord Mantell as a layover on my way into the core, but old friends had called in favors, so here I was, still on the planet, coming down from a night of egregious alcohol consumption.

Arnine wheeled over my big toe, beeping about the meet at Dingo's. As if I'd forgotten. I didn't forget favors. Or promises. "Yeah, yeah, just keep it down, will ya? Those were trandoshan spirits I was drinking last night."

He beeped even louder, head spinning 'round and 'round.

"Oh please, they're no less toxic than your cooking." I stumbled to my feet and to the fresher. When I stepped out, I was a new man.

Well, a clean one, anyway. I still felt like I'd been spat out by a Sarlacc. I was never going to get into a drinking contest with a Hutt ever again, Force as my witness.

Never.

I dressed in a grey flight suit, combed my hair with my fingers, and left my beloved ship in the hands of Arnine and Rex, my astromech and pilot droid, respectively.

I took my time getting to the chop shop. I was already late, so why hurry? Besides, Ord Mantell was pretty easy on the eyes compared to some of the places I'd been. The vast junkyards and sprawling mountain chains gave it a touch of character. And if I moved any faster I was going to trip over my feet.

Before long I was dragging myself into Dingo Darr's, an unlit spicestick dangling from my lips. It had been three years now since I'd taken even the smallest puff; I kept the thing around to remind me of who I used to be, how far I had come, and who I was now. I never even had cravings anymore.

Most every face in the joint was unfamiliar to me. Even [member="Jorus Merrill"]. Oh, I'd heard of him - rumor was he'd smashed some Sith Lord in the nads with a shotgun - but I'd never met him. Likewise, [member="Eliza Steele"], [member="Coren Starchaser"], [member="Spark Finn"], [member="Andrasta Sitra"], and [member="Sam Turain"] were all new faces to me.

I caught most of Captain M's instructions, but not all, on account of my tardiness. Just enough to really kark things up, if I hadn't happened to be a full on technological genius. Droids, ships, engines, explosives...if it was made of metal or ran off a power source, chances were I could fix it, remodel it, or strip it down and turn it into something else entirely. For all that genius though, my hangover hadn't disappeared, and despite what I'd told Arsix, trandoshan alcohol was deadly if consumed in large quantities. I wasn't going to drop dead or anything, but I felt like I was about five minutes away from vomiting out my spleen.

I kept my innards down, barely, and managed to lose myself in flux capacitators, anti matter modulators, gravitron couplings, and all sorts of techno-doodads. And then...

I vomited my brains out. Not literally, of course, but it certainly felt like it. Everything in my stomach came spewing out of my mouth in a rancid, bubbling, green spray. Someone less shameless would've been embarrassed. I was just glad it didn't feel like monkey lizards were dancing in my stomach any more. "Sorry folks. Really, really sorry." I wiped my mouth on my sleeve and smiled. "I feel better though, if that's any consolation." My partners didn't seem to think much of that.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Sam Turain"][member="Kale Arkin"][member="Coren Starchaser"][member="Spark Finn"][member="Andrasta Sitra"][member="Eliza Steele"]

Jorus gave a long slow blink as that Arkin kid puked all over Dingo Darr's Chop Shop. "Well...feth," he said at last, his attention torn from the mechu-deru that Finn and Starchaser were pulling off. "You able to clean that up on your own, Arkin? Yeah? Good."

At this point, the disparate collection of Undergrounders had been at this for...quite a while. He'd lost track of time, personally. Suffice it to say, the hypercapable drones were piling up, ready for testing. Work had been done. Time wasn't relevant, right?

His stomach growled.

"Executive decision. I'm ordering out for tomo-spiced Karkan ribenes from the best hole-in-the-wall on Ord Mantell. We've been at this a while; you've earned it. Besides, nothing says quality hyperdrive mechaneering like a little tomo-spice barbecue sauce in the lateral quantum splice. Don't bother stopping what you're doing, but yeah. Food's on the way. There's a whooole lot of drives left to rig."

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

She adjusted the black-rimmed glasses up the bridge of her thin, pale nose and looked over at Coren from her cross-legged position on the floor. She was getting nice and cozy with their assembled hyperdrive-hybrid. Glacial-blue eyes twitched.

"I know."

Nose crinkled against the smell of fresh vomit and soon after their boss muttered about eating some ribs. She just hoped the smell of vomit was gone by the time they arrived. She continued the conversation with Starchaser like there had been no pause.

"Numbers. Codes. Machines. They're more reliable to me through the force. They always feel the same, like a familiar puzzle. And they won't try to mentally mind-frak me. They're...safer."

She adjusted another part of the machine with the force, invisibly connecting inner circuits that the hydrospanner would be unable to reach.

"You been with the Underground long? You seem adjusted. Really comfortable around everyone here." Perhaps a twinge of jealousy lingered in her tone.

 

[Coren Starchaser]

He was glad to see that she had the spunk to work on this. Coren wasn’t lazy, but if someone else was going to take the forefront, that was fine by him. He could fly the thing, make the hyperdrive work, but he always needed a helping hand when it came actual maintenance. He smirked at her and nodded. Well, at least she understood that bit. He had no idea who was the one instructing her in the Force, or if she was like him and going about it on his own.

And being mind-frakked? “Well, seems you’ve got some issues with the Force then? I mean, I can dig the numbers and codes. But typically I let the astromechs handle that, well, aside from when I’m flying, that bit of navigation is all on me.” He grinned as he watched her some more. Interesting kid.

Stepping closer and hunkering down on his heels, bouncing on the balls of his feet, he reached out with the Force towards [member="Spark Finn"] so that he could see what she was doing in the Force. Best way to learn is to watch the ebbs and flows from her. He spun the hydrospanner on his palm and watched her continue her work.

“Been around long enough. Its paramilitary, that’s kind of like home to me.” The man did help lead a paramilitary Imperial-style Fighter Wing and Storm Commando platoon. “So, knowing the types of people…” minus the ones that vomit. “Is familiar. But you, you’re something new for me.” He nodded.

 

[Andrasta Sitra]

“Well Frakk.”
Ripping out the alluvial dampers hadn’t turned out to be the best of ideas it seemed. The wiring had in fact been intrigated throughout most of the rear build and Andrasta was now sat in a heap of hyperdrive parts and torn wiring.

Rising to her feet Andrasta wiped a forearm across her sweaty brow, leaving a dark trail of engine grease in its place. She had to work out a solution for this and quick before something else went wrong.
She could rebuild what she had pulled out, basically relying on the Koensayr’s modularity to compensate for lack of rebuilding instructions or she could see if the Silk Holding’s unit would still fit, however then she would have to completely custom make the rear panel and map out all the wiring herself.
“Ain’t nobody got time for that.”

All she needed was an idea.
Then a lightbulb shattered above her head.

“FRAKK!” Andrasta’s arms sped over her head to stop the shattered glass from pouring onto her, but then she saw it, as simple as night and day. “Bingo.”
Walking over to one of the Senier units against the wall and slipped the protective panelling off and let it hit the floor with a loud bang. Taking a look inside she quickly did some calculations with her head and smiled to herself. “Should work.”

The screeching of Andrasta pushing the Siener unit across the workshop floor would have been enough to send most people insane, but for Andrasta it signalled progress…or something like that.
A hydrospanner managed to give her all the…leverage…she needed to very ‘gently’ remove the Siener alluvial dampers along with nearly the entire support panel, these were then placed within the shell of her existing work in progress. The fit while not entirely perfect sat with enough room for her to whip up a makeshift support beam using the metal off the Koensayr’s original panelling.

She had a harder time with the wiring, mostly because the Koensayr seemed to use a two wired system that ran most of the energy in a circular motion around the entire system in a constant flow, however the Siener unit relied on a heavy streamed single flux. It made Andrasta go through a complex series of rewiring and connections that fused the two systems together, chances are it would completely meltdown when engaged, killing them all; but if it worked, it should increase the required power by nearly three hundred percent that would give the system a boost to at least bring it up by another zero point one or two.

 

[Arkyn Rane]

"Yeah, yeah, I can clean it up." I was a scoundrel, not a mongrel. I wasn't so lowdown as to leave a steaming pile of vomit for someone else to clean! Unless, of course, I could get away with it. Captain J-man mentioned ordering food; now that my stomach was empty, I was starting to feel hungry, so I was all for it.

Technology never ceased to amaze me. We had FTL travel, all sorts of shield generators, colony ships, and despite all that, or in spite of it, rather, people still used mops to clean floors. I mean, how backwards was that? Luckily for me, this was a scrapyard, pretty much, so it was nothing to craft a vacuum out of random spare parts spaced throughout the shop. Two fans, a dozen copper circuits, one ion battery, a chute, and a garbage sack later, and the vacuum was assembled. I found some fruit scented odor killing spray, and used it liberally to kill the rancid smell. Twenty minutes later, the place looked as good as new.

That's when I noticed [member="Andrasta Sitra"] combining components from two separate drives. I glanced at her work, then back at the scowling group I'd been with. Later, suckers. The transpacitor in that drive was junk anyway.

"Hello there, miss," I said after I had walked over. "That's a pretty righteous build you've got there." Ambitious too. I couldn't say that I would've used that particular configuration of circuits. I didn't have a cautious bone in my body, but I'd seen one too many hyperdrives meltdown to chance it. Arnine would say that I've only ever seen one real hyperdrive meltdown, but in my book, that was more than enough. Charred and liquified remains of ionized flesh was quite the deterrent. "If it works, you think the Gravitic sensor will be able to keep up? A millisecond to slow and..." It'd be a quick death, at least.

 

[Spark Finn]

[member="Coren Starchaser"]

Slowly, she brought herself out of the technometry-zone, scooting back. Fingers came up to gently massage the sides of her temples. Sandy-brows lofted at his comment.

"You say that like I'm some sort of datacode instead of a person. I think she's ready for your special touch," Spark indicated from the model to Coren. Yes, the hybrid-hyperdrive was definitely a she in the technopath's mind.

Finn remained tense as she sat, not withdrawing her connection to the machine completely. Explosions were always a possibility and she didn't want to end up like that kid's recently cleaned-up pile of vomit. "And paramilitary? What group were you...are you with?"