Private Some Assembly Required

[Under Foot]

D E N O N
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The sign read Squib Reclamation and Waste Management.

If there was a garden spot on Denon, this wasn't it. District Three, Moonfall as it was known, was a lifeless pit. Almost literally. A large, mined out crater in the planet's surface was the most prominent feature of the region. Overmining had led to the exhaustion of the planet's resources, and manufacturing moved closer to the spaceport for the materials that were being imported to the planet. As a result, most of the factories in this area were now rotting from decades of disuse. The structures weren't even sound enough to be used as hideouts or bolt-holes, so gang activity had dwindled.

The landfill was practically the last business left still operating in the district, but there were few places where a landfill had the ability to expand operations. The disrepair and neglect facing District Three had allowed the Squib to prosper in the noble field of waste management!

Today's laundry list of gently used treasures included a refrigeration unit, a broken autochef from a GR-75 transport ship, actual laundry, and something that was decomposing. Definitely animal. Hopefully not a body that was going to get CorpSec breathing down his neck later.

So that last one was just going to go into the incinerator without a further thought!

No mess. No fuss. And no questions asked.

A win-win if ever a Squib saw one!

Plus, he never knew what Denon was going to bring through his door. Someone looking for a pivar spinner? Focusing lens for a lightfoil? Lint trap for a 844 model vacuum droid?

When you ran a junkyard, the sky was often the limit. And then only because the Corporate Authorities put a cap on how high he could stack the trash.

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

Dennon not a world amalia found herself at often or ever if she could help it. But her ship was having problems the her personal luxury yacht 3000 was having engine problems. And to make matters worse her mechanic was injured in the resulting damage forcing them to land and find help repairing it. As amalia walked out of her ship which was largely unmanned even in war times like these she made a killing because of it as she looked over district three it was definitely not paradise or even looked like it was lived in.


She walked towards what looked like a landfill hoping there where people she wore a black form fitting pinstriped suit with her hair back in a ponytail. Walking through the landfill she looked at the Junk she knew dennon was bad by rumor but she didn't expect the conditions to be this bad that's when she saw the squib "hello there I was wondering if you could help me out" she said loud enough for him to hear as she walked forward.

Under Foot

 

[Under Foot]

There was a lot to get done today.

There was a pile of droid parts that had been stacking up for months. And that would need to get sorted into the appropriate piles: Astromech parts, partial or complete droid chassis, miscellaneous droid components...

"Hello there I was wondering if you could help me out"

The two tails twitched, his ears perking up as the small alien turned to look down from the mountain of droid parts that he was presently standing on. It was a humanoid in a suit.

Aw, chit. Was it the Corpos? He'd fired up the incinerator, but he'd paid the bribe to the Environmental Regulatory Committee for this fiscal year! Was she here to say that the annual bribe assessment had gone up!? They'd just raised it last year! And the year before that! Didn't these corporate people understand that people had budgets!

Sliding down from the pile of trash, the diminutive Squib dropped back to the ground. "Absolutely, yes," the fox-like alien chirped brightly. Was she a Corpo? Was she a customer? "Reeilownyfflam-Fflewddur the Twenty-Seventh, at your service, for sure," the Squib supplied with the same cheery bravado.

Put the best face forward. Maybe this was a customer!

"What can I interest you in today?"

Please don't say you're with the revenue service. Please don't say you're with the revenue service. Please don't say you're...

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

She looked at the squib and watched his reaction. She could feel his nervousness and she let out zeltron pheromones to make him more a ease and happy around her. "That's a long name mind if I call you reeil for short" she said with a genuine smile on her face. As she stood there hoping he would feel at ease with her attempts to ease him.

"My ships broke and Needs repaired I was wondering if you could help" she said giving him a genuine smile. Sue wanted to get home and was willing to pay well "I can pay very well" hoping to get his help.

Under Foot

 

[Under Foot]

The Squib's ears twitched.

It was a customer! Well, that was a relief. Another round of corporate bribes wasn't scheduled until the next fiscal quarter. He needed to move a couple of outstanding debts out of the way before those came due. Which, hopefully this transaction would help with.

"Squib names are long, for sure. My human friends call me Under Foot," the fox-like alien remarked. "If it's parts, equipment, and labor you need, look no further! Squib Reclamation will get you go go go in no time!"

Today was suddenly looking up. Not to mention the profits for the month. "What kind of ship do you have?" the Squib inquired.

"I can grab my toolkit and then give you an estimate for the repairs."

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

Amalia was happy that he was willing to help a bit of good news after their surprisingly good landing. She wouldn't hear the end of it from her head of security. She knew he cared in his own way about her and her parents he was always super protective especially of her since her parents death but that wasn't hear or there.

She pulled a datapad containing her ships design and the parts ot needed. complimentary of her mechanic with a broken arm out of her coat. "Well under foot this is my ship and the parts it should need" she said handing it to him. It required a couple of major parts for her engine that suddenly failed hopefully he had the parts.

Under Foot

 

[Under Foot]

"Oh, SoroSuub," the Squib remarked.

The twin tails bounced, as the small alien perused the details that she handed. a luxury yacht 3000? The trade winds of fate had definitely blown a rich customer his way today. "Very nice, for sure, yes," Ree mused aloud, his ears twitching with thought. Did he have all these parts? Well, if he didn't, he ought to have something close enough to use as a substitute. "We have lots of parts for SoroSuub, indeed."

He'd need to put together a pull request for this, and then verify it against the inventory of trash that had sorted into salvage. For the rest, they might have to check the landfill to see if there were any larger pieces of a SoroSuub 3000 they hadn't cannibalized yet. "Okeeday, lady, protocol droid to show you to our customer waiting area while we pull these parts," the amber-colored Squib remarked, as a droid wandered over.

It wasn't actually a protocol droid. It was a labor droid. But he'd slapped a vocabulator onto it and all it really did was show people to the sitting area and offer them a cup of caf from the dispenser.

"Short time wait, for sure! Then you show Under Foot where you park ship and we'll patch it good to go," the Squib promised.

A few minutes later, the Squib had assembled an assortment of parts onto a grav sled, towed behind a small airspeeder. There was a toolkit in the boot, which the Squib imagined would have all the tools and equipment he'd need for the installation.

"We ready, for sure," the Squib announced, checking on the customer. "Just show me this ship and we'll have you skybound in short, short time!"

"Squib Reclamation guarantee!"

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

Under Foot

Amalia stood there letting him figure out what he needed. She was willing to pay and would double to atleast get her the crew and the ship home but wouldn't tell him that until she got word from her mechanic that the job was done right. "Well as long as the parts can get me and my people home in one piece that's all that matters no offense to your collection of parts" she said her mechanic would love it here.

Following his labor droid to the waiting area she drank some caf not the best but considering the circumstances she wasn't going to complain. Besides it's not like she was drinking Hutt bath water or something worse that she didn't want to imagine currently. Walking out and and sitting beside the squib on the small speeder " 3 miles straight west" she said sitting there as they took off one of the pilots was standing watch with a blaster rifle as the yacht sat there her mechanics arm was bandaged and in a sling

"There she is don't mind my mechanic with the broken arm she just doesn't like that her arm is broken" amalia teased the twi'lek "you hired me to take care of the ship and I failed causing it" the twi'lek said "well give under foot a hand since you know the ship same goes for the other pilot I'll help keep watch" amalia said.

 

[Under Foot]

The SoroSuub yacht was impressive.

The Squib wondered what it would be like to be an engineer on a starship. The story of his family, passed down through the generations, was that they had been nomads aboard a garbage scow, sailing the Corellian Trade Spine, before the Gulag Plague had brought their business to a halt on Denon. What had those early Squibs been like, four hundred years ago? Navigating and maintaining ships such as these...

There was a Twi'lek with an arm in a sling. That was apparently the engineer. "Let's see what you've got!" the Squib chirped excitedly. It wasn't every day he got to work on something as high class as this ship. "Your parts list included a linear converter, so I'm curious to see what kind of condition the drive plate assembly is in," the Squib ventured, as the pair wandered inside of the ship.

The small, fox-like alien ventured through the interior, guided by the Twi'lek, who pointed out a few of the affected sections. "The lateral controls must have burned out during re-entry," Ree commented, his amber fur marred with some soot and grease as he backed out of an open maintenance hatch that smelled of melted plastic and burned wiring.

"Super simple repair job, you bet," the Squib remarked, picking up a datapad and starting to draw up a task list. From there, he could start organizing what parts and tools would be needed for each task.

"Hyperdrive more difficult, for sure, eh," Ree mused aloud, peering up at the Twi'lek as he offered, "We can replace the alluvial dampener and then bypass the artesiatic dampener." Why did SoroSuub hyperdrive designs use both an alluvial and a separate artesiatic dampener? That was just over-complicating the process, increasing maintenance, and making repairs more costly and complex than they needed to be. Which, now that he thought about it, was probably exactly the reason SoroSuub had designed it that way. "That'll get the coupling motivator back on-line, for sure."

That should be all that the ship needed to get it back up into space and on its way. "But also, when's the last time you did a coaxium change?" the Squib inquired. "It should have been done during your 10,000 lightyear maintenance, but we can do that for you today if it wasn't!"

"Other than that, I'd recommend replacing the plasma phase coil before your next thousand lightyears," the Squib offered, lowering the datapad and then waiting to see what the customer wanted.

Was it going to be the bare minimum to get back into space? Or were they going to be doing a coaxium change and replacing a phase coil. "It should still be covered by your warranty," Ree added. At least, for the phase coil anyway. That would allow him to send that part of the bill to SoroSuub if they did replace it. Which would allow Ree to charge Amalia less and also over-charge the manufacturer!

A win-win if the Squib ever saw one.

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

The blue twi'lek followed along with the squib through the ship. "The drive plate assembly is half shot I have the spare parts for it its just hard to do with one hand" she said pointing to a box next to the drive plate assembly. On the ground she then followed him to the lateral controls that she pointed out "yeah I was hoping to have a mechanic with two functional arms to try and fix it" she said.

Thinking about it she agreed "that would work for the hyperdrive and get us going" the twi'lek said. Listening to underfoot talk she walked off to check "miss teral would kill me if I didn't check although she got this serviced a month ago" she said checking the coaxium "it needs changed if you would check the plasma phase coil and change it please I need to go talk to miss teral about the quality of her ships service in my absence" she said. Momentarily leaving underfoot alone to work on things.

There was soon some debating going on outside as amalia and the twi'lek came walking inside amalia chirped up "thanks for letting me know about the plasma phase coil and the coaxium sorosuub is getting an earful when this ship is fully running" she said to underfoot. The twi'lek shivered when amalia said they where getting an earful as she knew what that meant. Well "If you two need anything I'll be outside keeping watch leyka underfoot let me know if there's any further complications" amalia said said walking back out.

Under Foot

 

[Under Foot]

The Squib was making notes.

"Okeeday," the small alien answered cheerfully. "I'll order the coaxium and we'll do a flush of the flow regulator." Typing out a quick receipt on the datapad he was carrying, Ree made several additional calculations, which were then subtracted as he opened a new ticket for billing SoroSuub under the ship's warranty.

The Squib then turned the tablet-like device around in his hands and extended it up for her to review. "We'll replace the air filters and clean the carbon scrubbers for free," the Squib offered, as he allowed the woman to inspect the repair estimate for herself.

Barring any questions about the charges, Ree ventured back to his landspeeder in order to grab his toolkit. While he was there, he tapped the front of three helmet-shaped objects. Each sprang into a short droid, even smaller than the Squib.

"You get started on the lateral controls," Ree stated, pointing to one of the DUM-series repair droids. Then, to the second, he said, "You get started replacing the air filters." Finally, to the third, the Squib said, "You're with me."

In short order, the ship was filled with the sound of power tools whirling, clanking, and hammering. The hiss of pressurized air, driving pneumatic tools or flushing the air filtration system. It was a cacophony of noises, a mechanic's orchestra, as the Squib conducted the music while the three droids marched around at the fox-like alien's orders.

A fuel hauler arrived about an hour into the repairs, with the Squib exiting the ship in order to finalize the preparations for supplying the hyperdrive with the new coaxium. Hoses were run back and forth, as the used coaxium was drained away. Then it was another twenty minutes while the Squib oversaw the flushing of the hyperdrive's flow regulator, before they began the process of re-fueling the hyperdrive.

For Amalia, this was probably incredibly boring, as hours ticked by while the Squib and his trio of repair bots attended to the various items off the list.

Finally, as the sun was setting on Denon, a considerably-less-than-clean Squib popped up. "Ship ready, for sure," Ree offered. Inside the ship, the droids were going through with some shop cloths, cleaning up any grease or soot from the work.

Finishing the receipt, the Squib held the datapad out so that Amalia could enter her credit information for the transaction. Unless she wanted to pay using hard currency. Then he'd take the taxes off, because under the table deals on Denon were always the best deals on Denon. She'd get a ship repaired and he'd get income that didn't have a transaction record that the Corporate Authorities could trace.

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

Amalia listened to under foot and then walked out she figured this would take awhile after a few minutes. She noticed underfoot walk out and got 3 repair droids she always found them hilarious to watch do their jobs since most had what seemed like a personality. "Lurda how's the southern area look" she said as she stood there "it's dead mam" he called out they would keep watch as long as it took.

The twi'lek was in the ship "that's not how you put in an assembly it goes the other way" she Said to the droid. When amalia saw the fuel holler pull up she walked into the ship and changed to get more comfortable instead of a suit top she had a bikini top as she walked out he might aswell get some sun while she was here. Much to the frustration of her pilots as they all kept watch for the watch "hey lurda what do you call a blond in a bikini top and dress pants" a twi'lek male chimed up "what salva" a human called out "an unfashionable tease" they both laughed. Amalia smirked "I guess there's two men who won't be going with me to zeltross" she joked.

As the sun began setting she saw underfoot walk up "hopefully she's ready" she joked as he finished the receipt. Looking it over she smiled and pulled out two credit chits both containing the cost on the datapad and put them in the squibs hands. As the twi'lek confimed the job was completed "keep both you know youd make a killing if you could travel i could help with that if you want get you set up with a ship a whole lot of those repair droids if you want" she asked as her Two pilots walked aboard. "Or set you up on a better planet maybe where ever you wanted to do" she said looking down at him awaiting his answer.

Under Foot

 

[Under Foot]

Help him... get a ship of his own?

Captain Reeilownyfflam-Fflewddur. It had a certain ring to it. He would tell the ship where to go. Anywhere, in the whole galaxy of stars. Or, even beyond the galaxy. Sail the Rishi Maze. See the wonders of the universe...

For a moment, the Squib's large blue eyes looked upward and wondered about the possibilities. His tails fluttered as his ears seemed to stretch toward the sky as an extension of all his hopes.

It was at times like these, he remembered the first time his father had taken him to watch the sun set from the scrap yard. "Son, look to the horizon," the Old Man had said. "Everything that the light touches... is something we can make money off of."

Ree, in his youth, had questioned the profit motive. What about humans? Humans always seemed to want to do something simply because they could. Because they wanted to.

"Adventure," the Old Man scoffed, with a dismissive wave. "Excitement," he remarked, with another scoff. "A Squib craves not these things. Only the most fiduciary mind, the most serious of business acumen can take a galaxy as crazy as this one and turn it into profit."

Captain Reeilownyfflam-Fflewddur. It was a nice thought. But it wasn't who he was meant to be.

"Thank you, but Denon is my home," the Squib answered finally, even as his ears drooped slightly as he did.

Amalia teral​

 

[Amalia teral]

She didn't say anything she watched him standing there she could feel his feelings. She looked up at the stars aswell and felt the wanderlust of the space and all it offered it was amazing but outerspace was also dangerous. She would understand if he refused and wouldn't push it any further.

Taking command of a ship felt amazing it was a rush lifes relying on you and Just the everyday things of running a ship it felt amazing.

She then looked down at him when he answered she noticed his ears droop slightly "I'm sorry that I made you feel sad I didn't mean to hurt you" she said getting down to his level and placing her hand on his cheek. She let her pheromones run while letting there be an area of pure happiness between her and underfoot and around them. "I want you to know that if you need anything call me" she said handing him her holopad data.

 

[Under Foot]

The Squib's ears perked up, his tails bouncing up and down, as she touched his cheeck.

"Thank you for trusting Squib Reclamation for your repairs!" Ree offered cheerfully, finalizing the receipt and then sending her copy to the contact information in the holopad data.

Proper documentation was key. For the transactions that were on the books, that is. Otherwise, the trick was making sure the absence of documentation was consistent.

Departing the ship, the Squid made his way back to the landspeeder and started loading the droids up as Amalia's ship prepared to depart.

He might not be getting to seek out new civilizations or boldly go where no Squib had gone before, but he had something that was just as good to the true businessman...

...another satisfied customer!

Amalia teral​