One Man's Trash is Another Man's Treasure (solo dev thread)

[Celeste Leon]

Raxus Prime. The Circlet of Tion. Nikata' Shining Gem. The Crown of Garbage. The Sultan of Scrap. The King of Trash.

It was the perfect place to come and make some money for a salvager. She had her permits and her Reclaimer, now she just had to find a nice place to start salvaging. She'd been here before when getting the materials together to pay off the bid for the Reclaimer. Now, she was just here to make some money.

She pulled the ship in close to a rather sizable mountain of metal and scrap and gave it a once over. Sure, it was big enough, but she was interested in the location. Too precarious a scrap heap and it became a danger to salvage. A quick glance through the sensors told her that it was safe enough to start digging through, so long as she started at the top. This made her a bit grumpy as most of the garbage was stacked at the top when she'd seen a large swathe of metal and other valuable scrap at the base. Leon leaned back in her seat and stared at the data that scrolled on her screen, debating on moving on to another, more profitable scrap heap or to stay and give this one a shot.

"If we keep going from scrap heap to scrap heap looking for easy credits, you'll spend more on fuel than you'll make on scrap," came the monotone and dry voice of her droid copilot, Pez. He sat in the other chair with a holobook on his lap and his cap on the arm of his chair.

Leon had snagged him from Hegemonic a little while ago and, so far, he'd been a helpful, though sarcastic, droid to her endeavors.

"And what do you suggest we do, eh?" she asked, fighting monotone dryness with dripping sarcasm. "What does the great Pez think we should do?"

 

[Celeste Leon]

Pez simply flipped a page in his holobook and was silent for a moment.

"Well, you could try digging from the top down," he said casually, still reading his book. "Though, after skipping the last dozen scrap heaps, one would think you're just here for the sightseeing, which is completely understandable. The view of the horizon is, admittedly, a wonderful greenish brown hue akin to the decayed flesh upon a month old corpse. Pleasing on the photoreceptors, I must admit."

Leon simply stared hard at Pez for a long minute, unsure of whether he was being serious or sarcastic as of yet. More than likely, she figured it was the latter. Another moment or two of hard staring, in which Pez turned another page in his book, and Leon huffed. She climbed out of her seat and pulled on the respirator and goggles needed to function in the open on Raxus Prime. Once those were secure, she made her way aft and, eventually, outside.

From there, she commed Pez who was, undoubtedly, still reading his book.

"Pez, bring us in a bit closer, please," she stated simply over the commlink. "The arms don't have the range needed to start shoving scrap aside."

No answer came, but the ship moved. Leon figured Pez was absorbed in his book and had, she tried not to think about it, moved the ship without looking. Again. She really didn't like it when he did that.

"Thanks," was her only reply. A moment later the manipulator arm got to work.

 

[Celeste Leon]

The majority of the scrap heap's top was garbage and junk. It wasn't valuable, except in bulk, and even then it was more worthwhile to get the better scrap. The worthless junk was carefully tossed away where it wouldn't cause a junk-slide and the few choicey bits were dropped into one of the Reclaimer's many cargo bins. It wasn't much, just a few large chunks of metal and what looked to be a half wrecked speeder bike, but it was something.

Occasionally she would pull out a droid, either in parts or whole, and have Pez look it over to determine if it was worthwhile. Generally speaking, he would tell her to toss the scrap away, but occasionally he'd tell her to toss it in the hold. Half of the time, it was actually valuable and she'd sell it for credits. The other half of the time it was a part Pez wanted to hold on to for a rainy day.

Droids. She'd never really understand them.

She shifted the manipulator arm to toss a bunch of garbage and trash down the mountain and then brought it back. The garbage she'd removed had revealed a nice piece of scrap. It looked to be what was left of an emplaced blaster cannon turret and, from what she could see, it had been tossed because the mountings had been shredded by something. The weapon itself looked intact, though it had obviously been scoured for spare parts before being tossed. Either way, it was easy money. It, too, went in the bins.

 

[Celeste Leon]

More scrap, more junk, more credits. At least, she hoped they'd make her more credits. She'd been doing well these past few months. Scrapping made a lot of money if you knew how to do it, but at the same time it wasn't a regular income. Some weeks you had great returns, the others you rationed your food. It worked out in the end, though.

Besides, depending on how today went, she might even see about purchasing the sole rights to mining this mountain alone.

The last few scoops of garbage had revealed that someone had tossed a few advanced computers away. Granted, they were trashed and any information on them was long gone, but the various components and even the materials in them would make a good amount of money. Seeing as she could find more of these things here and there in the scrap, this might just be the cash bantha she was looking for.

More garbage rolled downhill and more junk filled her ship's compartments. So far, only one bin was being filled and it only held enough to cover the bottom. If this kept up, she would be making a karking ton of credits today.

 

[Celeste Leon]

Luck was with her today as more computer components were found and loaded up. Of course, she found huge amounts of trash, too, but at least there was something to be gained from it despite the work. She needed to listen to Pez more often, she figured. Not that she'd tell him that, though.

Junk and scrap and parts went into the bins. At one point, she spotted what looked to be the command chair of a YT ship. At another, she spotted what appeared to be parts of a construction tug that looked like it had met the wrong end of a cannon. She pulled the chair up close and looked it over. It was more comfortable than the one in the Reclaimer at the moment, but the amount of stains, tears, and grease coating the thing made her toss it aside and down the ravine. The construction tug, however, was something she could sell. It landed in the bin with the rest of the junk.

A few more minutes and she pulled the leg of what looked to be a walker out of the scrap. It was solid metal and in good condition, so it, too, found a home in her salvage holds. A few more scoops of the arm and more computer parts and the occasional droid came up. The droids were tossed away and the computer parts were kept. Soon enough, she had the first bin filled, though admittedly the construction tug carcass and walker leg took up a lot of space. She could only hope they'd sell for a high price.

[member="Ayden Cater"]

 

[Celeste Leon]

Junk, junk, and more junk. Slowly but surely she was working away at the mountain and, for all intents and purposes, it was paying off a lot. There was a lot of trash at the top, but beneath the garbage was a nice amount of valuable things. The mainstay of her credit flow was at the bottom, sure, but there were some nice and pricey finds up here at the top.

A minor shift in the junk revealed the broken prow of what looked to be a Mandalorian ship. A few minutes of rummaging and the small bow section of a Shantual shuttle appeared. It was only the bow section, for the moment, and nothing else. It looked like it had seen better days, but everything seemed more or less intact. It found a home in the compartments on Leon's ship. She could easily sell that bit.

Another scoop and she'd hit more droid parts. These, however, weren't the usual droid parts she'd found before. This looked like a hulking monster over a protocol droid.

"Pez," she called over the commlink, lowering the arm to the cab so he could see. "This worth anything?"

"Not much, but enough to make it at least partially worthwhile," came his reply after a minute or two. "I think it's a mining droid. Maybe Mandalorian."

Leon shrugged and lowered the droid carcass into the bin. It might not be the junk gem she wanted, but credits were credits.

[member="Captain Larraq"]

 

[Celeste Leon]

A few more swipes of the arm on the Reclaimer and she saw the end of anything valuable. At least, nothing valuable in this section of junk. She rummaged a bit more, rooting through discarded cables and tangled mounds of wire and parts before bringing the mechanical limb back in and calling this section quits. She wasn't worried, however, as there were plenty more spots to start rooting and, to be honest, it wasn't that bad of a haul so far.

"Alright, Pez," she spoke into the comms. "Bring us around and down maybe... forty or fifty more feet. I think there's not much left here to take at this spot."

Once again, the ship moved without an answer from Pez. Once more, Leon seriously wondered if the droid had moved the ship without looking. Once more, Leon seriously wondered what the return policy was for Hegemonic droids.

All thoughts of refunds dissipated once the ship leveled with the section she wanted to scrounge through and more work appeared at hand. She put out the ship's manipulator arm and went to work.

Down here was mostly what looked to be armor plates, many of which looked buckled and bent. Some were still attached to one another, telling her that they may have been a part of the same wreck at one point in the past. She was still musing over what ship they came from, the manipulator arm at work trying to separate the plates into manageable pieces, when parts of the pile began shifting.

When she noticed the beginning of the trash-slide, it was almost too late...