Public Illegal Salvage: Nestab

[Jope Rudemo]

​

Data. It was the new platinum in these parts. Core space had filled up on the frontier between the New Imperial Order and the Galactic Alliance really quick. Despite being on somewhat even footing with one another working in tandem, both sides of the house always were hungry for intel. Intel moved every piece on the board and off the board in the shadows.

In the great game, we're all just pawns.​

Jope mused as his TIE Fighter floated close to the Sat comm uplink. the mass of the ageing construct was twice the mass of his fighter. The crumbling sensor package data was still of use to right buyer. Who wouldn't want a log of the transponders that moved through the system in the last 30 days? Despite the fact that the data was beamed securely elsewhere, an upfront link could take that data at the source.



Which is where he found himself. Strapped into his orange and tan vacsuit, TIE Fighter snug up against the side of the thing. He popped the hatch and clipped his tether cord to his belt. With a kick he was able to float up and out. The front of his fighter had been rigged with a winch and tow hook for this exact reason. He grabbed the hook and kicked off. A short flight later he snagged the hook on the sat comm station, securing the fighter in place.

"Alright we're on."

On the other end, his support ship and employer responded,

"Nice. Ok look for the conduit and plug the transceiver in."

 

[Declan Frost]

'Information is the lifeblood of the galaxy.'

To Declan, this wasn't just a simple platitude that he spouted, but a way of life. It was the truth of existence and only a fool would ignore this simple fact. Good information was often the difference between success and defeat in all aspects of life, and Declan had made a point of having as much information as possible. He had spent a considerable amount of his family's fortune in the first years after his father had started to have Declan take over the day-to-day operations of House Frost's holds, just building a strong and nearly complete information network. As a result, he now had spies and informants all over the galaxy, as well as significant taps into the data streams of most of the major governments. What he couldn't buy, he would often resort to simply stealing, tapping directly into information sources directly.

The net result of Declan's efforts had been not only the return of his initial investment but a considerable gain in House Forst's holdings. While House Forst might have been considered the seventh family in The Ten of Kuat, currently, they had almost as much funding and influence as House Kuat themselves. Now when Declan made his vote to the board of KDY, it held considerable sway among the other houses, as Declan had proven he had the knowledge and foresight to advance the shipbuilding company forward, when House Kuat had made several blunders as of late, including its failures during the invasion of KDY shipyards.

But while the war had given the company the advantage of more profits with the sale of vessels to the Alliance and Jedi Order, it had created several holes in Declan's personal information network. Holes that would need to be plugged and quickly if Declan expected to maintain his advantage. Which is what had brought Declan out to the edge of Alliance space along the border with the New Imperial Order.

He had received word through unofficial sources, that a group was tapping into the information network in this region, and may be willing to negotiate for access to the tap. It was the exact type of opportunity that Declan needed to repair the damage the war had caused, so he had decided to come himself, rather than send one of his agents. While he would have preferred to travel in the luxury of a different ship, Declan had decided that it wouldn't have been wise to deal with this group as himself. Rather he had decided to use his persona of Dekker, a sometimes mercenary and bounty hunter as well as the Kom'rk-class fighter that he had purchased to go along with his alter ego. He had spent the last few years building up a minor reputation for Dekker, giving him the freedom of doing missions for himself under the anonymity of the bounty hunter's trademark face mask, and a space to hide his lightsaber.

As his ship dropped out of hyperspace into normal space at the coordinates the invitation had supplied, Declan began to transmit the code he had been given on the provided private frequency that would indicate he was a potential buyer and not a hostile. Meanwhile, he began a scan of the area, not only with his ship's systems but with the Force, feeling out any potential hostiles. He had never actually dealt with this group before and wasn't sure what to expect.

"This is Dekker of the Enigma," Declan called out in the coded frequency, after not receiving a response for some time. "Looking to make a purchase."

 

[Jope Rudemo]

Out in the black sound doesn't carry. But alarm klaxons blaring inside your helmet do. He had no sooner found the port and pulled a data cable free than his helmet exploded. someone somewhere had tripped one of the early alert cans They had laid down. Nothing fancy, just a one way wail if someone shows up.

"What or who the hell is that?" He queried, silencing the main speakers.

There was a brief pause.

He pulled a cable spool from his belt and began connecting the wires to a small black transceiver device, no bigger than a caf cup, strapped to his chest.

Hope I don't get shocked. this definitely saftey 101 non compliant.​

He was rewarded with a click and thankfully not shocked to a crisp.

"We got a potential buyer. Can you make visual?"

Jope cast about with his eyes, one hand firmly on the tether to his fighter, ready to rip out at a moments notice.

"Negative. Have em meet you where you're at. I'm almost done and more drive plumes and croneau rad bursts are gonna ping a whole bunch of networks we don't want them to ping. Short answer keep em outta here boss. Don't get the Feds on either side down on us."

The Captain of the S.S. Beam-Buster, a Jast Salvage Ship nearby laughed and responded back.

"I get it. I'll have em meet us one system out."

"Cool."

He un-clipped the transceiver and laid down adhesive gel, ramming it into the gel underneath a tangle of wire where it would enjoy natural camouflage.

Meanwhile Declan Frost received his reply with a set of coordinates to re-route to.

 

[Declan Frost]

"Coordinates received," Declan acknowledged after receiving the transmission from the salvage ship parked nearby. Declan couldn't help but be relieved that they were not remaining in the vicinity of the SAT COM system they were actually tapping into illegally. The salvage ship and its TIE fighter could have a plausible reason to be near the unit if an Alliance or Imperial ship showed up. After all, there was plenty of broken ships and debris that could be sifted through and be turned into profit, and no one would question their presence here, but Declan's ship was a fighter. IT would definitely look suspicious to see them meeting out here.

Making the quick jump to the nearby system was relatively easy and uneventful, he wasn't even in hyperspace for more than a minute. Leaning back in his seat, Declan allowed himself to start to think that maybe this was going to be a relatively easy mission. After all the individuals he was here to meet were only interested in the profits he could give them, they had what he wanted, he had what they wanted. Easy. However, as the ship made the transition back into normal space, the alarm klaxon began to blare through the entire cockpit. Sitting up quickly he pulled up the alert system to see what was happening, only to see a wing of Imperial patrol ships on the edge of his scanner range.

"For Kriffin Sithspit," Declan spat out, flipping on the basic stealth devices and shutting down active systems, hoping the Imperials hadn't registered his arrival into the system. If they had been an Alliance patrol he was confident that he could easily talk his way past any scrutiny of his appearance in the system after all Dekker was a registered bounty hunter and had done several contracts for the Alliance, but with the Imperials, he wasn't so confident. As of late, the reports from the front lines of the conflict showed the Imperials were in a shoot first ask questions later kind of mood.

"Vaping Imps, let's hope the salvagers can avoid them," Declan said to himself as he tried to allow his vessel to blend in with a nearby stray group of asteroids. There was no way to warn them about the patrol without giving away his position and defiantly catching the attention of the Imperials. "By the Force, let's hope this doesn't turn nasty."

Jope Rudemo

 

[Jope Rudemo]

Declan Frost

Luckily for him and Captain Talvor Ames of the S.S. Beam Buster, they had an ace up their sleeve. As he slid into the rigged TIE fighter and fired up the engines, he let out a small smirk, slamming the hatch shut.

All too easy.​

He fired his twin ion engines, going for a medium thrust to create space between him and the orbit of nestab, before he slapped the hyperdrive.

On entry to system his dash lit red with transponder codes and he grunted. Up ahead a pair of Gunships as already bearing down on the Salvage ship. He pushed the thrusters again, letting loose this time.

Hope our friend doesn't bounce.​

No sooner had he closed some vacuum than comms rang.

"Unidentified ship this is a routine inspection. Power down your engines and prepare to be boarded."

Talvor was trying to stall. Jope cut in.

"You guys are pinging the wrong ship bud. I know your dockmaster, your supervisor and likely their supervisor."

"Who is this?"

"Don't worry about that. Beaming you my blockchain now. You can read between the lines."

There was a few moments of pause and then the comms stayed silent as the grave as the gunships pivoted, vectoring fast and hard from the area.

"How'd you do that?" He heard Talvor call over the mike.

"I flew for 20 years with the Imperial Navy across a bunch of organizations. I got a clearance high enough to scare off any shakedowns. They know this is neutral space and they know I know enough people to make their life as a gunship pilot real short. Anyhow, where's our contact?"

"Dunno. Come on into the docking bay, I'll put out an all clear on the crypt net."

Jope nodded, scratching his beard as the other hand popped a piece of caf gum into his mouth.

"Yea that's a good idea. Sooner we get the hell outta here the better."

"Concur."

He vectored down, and fired thrusters, sending the small TIE Fighter screaming for the docking bay of the boxy salvage vessel...

 

[Declan Frost]

'Now that is interesting,' Declan thought leaning forward into his seat as he watched the Imperials pulling away wit only a minor threat and not a single shot fired. He had expected at least a some nasty words thrown back and forth for a bit, maybe even a quick boarding action before the Imperials left the salavager alone, but they had left with almost politness. Sure this was technically neutral territory between the Alliance and Imperial controlled space, but that had never actually stopped them in the past. What ace did these savangers actually hold? And how could Declan get his hands on it?

As he had expected the limited bit of stealth technology that the ship had equipt had managed to allow him to slip past without either the Imperials or the Salavger noticing him. It wasn't a perfect cloack, or even a military grade stealth system, just enough that passive scanners would slide off him without actually detecting him, unless they went to more active searches. He had used it a few times to get him out of scraps in the past. And luckily today it had helped avoid any actual Imperial entanglements, and even better allowed him to catch a glimpse of something potentially even more valuable than the small slice into the holonet traffic control system.

"This is Enigma to Beam-Buster," Declan replied after receiving the al clear signal on the encrypted channel they had used before jumping into the Imperial patrol. "Ready to make a deal when you are. How would you like to do this?"

Jope Rudemo

 

[Jope Rudemo]

Declan Frost

The Beam Buster would Comm back its coordinates and an invite to come aboard.

Meanwhile in the hangar of bay of the aforementioned vessel, Jope was climbing from his cockpit to crest the ladder strapped to side of the dingy and battered TIE Fighter. She was painted all black with only orange accent trim. He'd done it himself after reconstructing it from salvage.

If one looked closer past the carbon scoring, cratering and flashy paint, they'd notice this TIE Fighter had some extra love put into her. A small shield package, extra power capacitors and updated inertial dampeners made her more than just a common pack hunter. FellHammer as he called her was the next level between interceptor and TIE standard. Fast, but not too fast. Armed but not too armed. But she could take the hits and keep rolling.

Captain Talvor approached, clad in a gray vac suit with the customary cigar between his lips. Jope reached down and grinned, drawing a spice stick from his belt. He lit the end and let out a puff of smoke, matching the captain's stance and speed as they approached where the guest hangar was.

"Nice job out there Jope. Real Clean."

"Not too bad yourself old timer. Kept this bucket O' bolts from getting blasted. You owe me one by the way for saving you from those imperials. I expect a case of beer at the next port!"

Talvor rolled his eyes and laughed.

"Ever the mercenary. You'll get your case hotshot. Provided we don't get karkin vaped before we make it back."

"That always is this trick init? Fly, salvage, get chased, survive, get paid, repeat."

They approached the guest hangar. Talvor thumbed the panel for the doors. With a whine and whoooosh they slid back to reveal the bay. They both stepped inside, keeping their conversation on as they waited....

 

[Declan Frost]

"This is going to be fun," Declan said aloud to himself after receiving the coordinates and docking instructions so he could start the negotiations. The little side adventure with the Imperials, while ultimately uneventful, had been educational. Now though he was eager to actually get to the part where he could talk to someone else. He was kind of bored of talking to himself, and even though the people he was about to meet were not allies, they were at least not his enemies and he would enjoy the intellectual dual. Still, maybe he should find a companion so he wasn't always talking to himself on these long missions away from Kuat, maybe a droid, or someone he could trust to accompany him when heading out like this.

Docking with the 'Beam Buster' wasn't a long or complicated procedure, most of the time was spent leaving his hiding spot and making his way to the scavenger vessel. After that, it was only a matter of moments before Declan, after putting on his helmet to cover his face, found himself exiting his vessel and stepping out into the hanger. A Hanger that seemed to house an ancient, yet well-maintained TIE fighter. Declan couldn't help but stop for a moment to visually scan the fighter. While the original design for the TIE had been created long before Declan's time, back when he had been apprenticing with his Father at Kuat Drive Yards, he had become familiar with the TIE production line. Despite its limitations, mostly from its lack of shielding, limited armor, and no hyperdrive, the model was still popular. That was mostly due to its relatively low cost and modular parts that made repairs easy to accomplish. Back then Declan had proposed a few simple modifications to the design to his Father, such as beefing up the power core and armor, adding a small shield and hyperdrive, upgrades small and light enough to not compromise maneuverability, yet give the fighter more versatility. Even though he had created blueprints and mock-ups for the next generation TIE, as well as a cost-benefit analysis, his father had ultimately rejected it. He had claimed it was due to the cost that it would have added to the model, but Declan had suspected it had more to do with the board not wanting more powerful fighters that were cheap and easy to make available on the market cutting into KDY profits. Now that he was a voting member of the board, he had to agree with them. Still, he had kept the upgraded blueprints in case he ever decided they would come in handy.

This TIE while a base model in its original production, had been modified with similar changes he had proposed, over what appeared to be its decade of service. Declan could see the added energy capacity, modifications to the weapons loadout, and even what he guessed was a hyperdrive and shield package. Declan couldn't help but be impressed. Few people had a real eye for the design of vessels, and while the modifications were slapped onto an existing design, they were still elegant. Maybe the owner would appreciate a few suggestions. For the right price.

"Hello friends," Declan said as he moved away from the TIE and walked over to the two men nearby. He assumed one was the owner of the TIE and the other was the captain of the scavenger ship. From their presence in the Force, Declan could tell that while the captain was technically in charge, he deferred heavily to the other man, and trusted him. "Looking forward to making a deal with you, especially after our uninvited guests."

Jope Rudemo (Sorry for the long wait, work kinda got the better of me.)