This aint cheap...

[RC 212]

Location: Raxus prime

Junk, it was everywhere here. Jack had taken a little side trip to tweak the engines and systems one more time before they got to work on her weapons and other modules. The Vessel lay atop a garbage mound and he was in full Aliit'Gam, digging through parts seeing what was there.

Dak had a small speeder bike which had a net attached to it. Occasionally He found an odd wire or good oscillator he need and tossed it in. It was getting to be very late in the day and Jack whirled to check the ship. There were more than one pair of scavengers on trash island. the last thing he needed was his ship getting tooled out.

"Got everything?"

"I think so." He said, removing the helmet. This was gonna be a short trip. All he needed to do was install some extra auxiliary switches and an oscillator or two.

They walked back into the ship and Jack sat down, slowly stripping off his armor until he was in his old spacer attire.

"Alright kid, go get the tools."

 

[RC 212]

And he was elbows deep in the grease once more. He had installed about three or four Oscillators by the time Dak came back with extra parts. There were a few heat shrouds and other components like a modular swivel for the engine block. Jack grunted and tossed the swivel piece back into the airlocks.

"That's about as useful as Bantha Crap kid. Got any more heat shrouds? Wanna keep her contained."

"One more."

Jack took it, sliding the massive metal sheet into place between the engine block and the bulkheads and sealing it with a double weld. The torch flared and cast sparks as he worked, shadows flickering and dancing upon the bulkheads. Finally he grabbed the hyrospanner from nearby and bean to blast the components.

"I need the tweaker wrench kid. Gonna give her one last squeeze."

Jack reached his greasy hand up through the deck.

 

[RC 212]

The heat down here was sweltering. As the wrench was passed down his brown eyes bored laser holes into the block. Starfighter engines were fast, and this ship could match them now. But what Jack really really wanted was for it to be hands down the fastest. The fail-safes were already off, completely gone which left the engine somewhat vulnerable to rupture. But there was one last thing he could do.

Increase the fuel pressure. Which happened to be a series of valves under the fuel pump under the main block. with shaky hand Jack got in there, slipping the old wrench into place and twisting. The bolts all twisted with ease, the valves coming wide open and all final fail-safes removed. An energy spike wouldn't be a good thing, but she gobbled so much power he figured she'd just absorb the extra into the engines any-ways.

"Done, I'm coming up!"

Jack threw the wrench up through the hole and climbed out, wiping his oily hands on a nearby rag and grinning to Dak. She was fully functional now, and he hoped he'd knocked extras drag off her.

"Fire her up kid, we're going back to Mos Eisley. Shadowport ten."

 

[RC 212]

Location: Hyperspace.

Jack kicked back as Dak opened up the throttle, bringing the roaring ship to full burn. The engines were running solid now, fuel rich and tweaked to perfection. There was a minor cough as the lines absorbed extra shock and then they blasted off, scattering a maelstrom of trash and metallic debris everywhere.

Two pedals pressed to the deck and they fired thrusters, correcting her angle inside of half a second and blasting up straight away from the rag tag trash moon.

"Coordinates for jump are locked now."

"Got it."

He didn't even have to ask the kid, Dak just already knew what to do. His scrawny hands threw the lever one last time and he felt a lurch as they rocketed into hyperspace, stars streaming by in blinding white lights.

 

[RC 212]

Location: Hypersapce.

Jack opened his log, making another entry with quick scribbles.

<<Start>>

< Haven't got a name for her yet. But it should be epic, some of the greatest names are epic. i installed an extra pair of oscillators giving her increased protection against spikes. Extra auxiliary power conduits to shuttle those charges away from the main hub and into the secondary systems. Still haven't figured out the weapons yet, On the way right now.

Figured a few Flex Tubes would be good and an extra grand could get me a mechanic to install the final touches. All the stuff I've been gobbling up from Silk holdings. They make some of the best stuff for starfighters and Freighters. Never know this might be a new ship class. Schematics are almost complete too, sending a copy out as soon as I can. Raxis out>>

<<End>>

"We got our contacts on the ground ready?" He asked.

"All of em. Standing by to refit and re arm the vessel. Now we just need newer armor."

"That's later kid, I'm more concerned about getting her flushed out and right."

 

[RC 212]

The Ground: Mos Eisley.


All his parts had come in and this was the final push to assemble the last of her. Jack set the vessel down with blinding speed, after market jets firing in multiple bursts. In the hangar was all manner of mechanics and engineers. He had spent over a million credits in loans and this was his last half a million credits. And it was all going to these folks to help shore up the last of the systems.

The vessel was being stripped of everything extra and jack watched as compartment by compartment was cleaned out. Rivets cut and deckplates lifted. The Engineers worked round the clock to reinforce the hull with a spiderweb series of Quadainum cylinders. Any kind of kinetic or blaster damage would be spread equally over the inner frame, allowing the ship to withstand extra massive hits.

"So what does it do when it fails then?" Jack asked, as he scratched his head.

The mechanic gave him a savage smile, brown teeth poking out from underneath his cracked lips.

"Nothing, the quadanium rods will shatter and break of course and then it's up to the normal hull structure to prevent damage. Basically you get some free hits."

"Sound's good to me." Jack said, watching as they cut even more holes in his ship.

 

[RC 212]

They kept working straight through the night too. When Jack came back the next morning everything but the cockpit and the refreshers was scuttled. They added two mall cabins, and a dozen smuggling hatches, designed to be hidden compartments in the walls. One holdout compartment was put in the deck, allowing him to use his age old tactic of hiding when boarded and then ambushing the intruders.

Jack spit onto the ground and whistled to the Deck Chief, whom trotted over.

"What the hell is that thing on the back?"

"We added a secondary engine. Figured you'd need it for extra speed."

Jack rolled his eyes, getting very Irate.

" I already have the main and I tweaked it, now I gotta power something else!"

"Well we uh, decided with the superstructure inside we'd draw down the shield’s permanently and as you wanted flex tubes and other goodies they drain much."

"So I got two engines and half shields?"

"Yes."

Jack crossed his arms, mulling over it for a minute. It wasn't a bad precedent, and it could work.

"Alright we can take her like that I guess. How long before we get my hyperdrive stuck in there?"

"Come back tomorrow, still working out the kinks with the secondary power cables."

Jack shook his head again and rolled out, heading back towards the Cantina's for the night.

 

[RC 212]

The Next day:

Again Jack was back, this time with a bottle of whiskey in his hand and drunk as a skunk. He'd been here watching them for some time. Finally they had figured out how to slave the last L-HARC to the Hyperdrive, but there was a slight complication. Using One generator to run the engines Exclusively and power the fuel pumps left them in a tight space.

The Deck Chief waved him over, and his boots tapped a steady beat as he moved towards the beauty. she had multicoloured plates now, like something out of a bad spice trip.

"Figured it out Cap'n. But we had to reroute some systems. You still have a dedicated generator for the main systems and backups. However once you fire up the hyperdrive you should be good to go any ways. You can't run weapons while you spin up the drive, or shields."

"That's acceptable, probably out of them if if trying to get away anyhow. How we coming on munitions? We got those magazines installed."

The Deck chief flipped through the manifest checking each detail.

"Yep, got four flex tubes, two each wing, and then we managed to set in two tubes on the top of the craft. All forward facing. We got the Shield Cutter mounted swivel on the underbelly. Should have a mean armament."

"What's my loadout?"

The Chief flipped a few more pages.

"Four magazines installed in the wings with an auto-feed system to the tubes. You have the following. Buzz Droid Missiles, Proton Torpedoes, Cluster Missiles, and Nano Missiles. They track, the clusters are basically clusters of concussion missiles."

Jack cracked a grin. She was armed and assembled, now he was just waiting on the final systems to come through from Iron Crown or one of those places.

 

[RC 212]

Silk holdings was the place he was waiting on, and silk had a good bunch of parts he wanted. Wanted to get them on here too. But they were fairly standard parts and with the exception of a few difficulties he could make do letting the mechanics handle it. As the mechanics worked her over on last time and added the plating and other odd and end back on Jack walked around in a circle admiring the Vessel. So much work had gone into it, it was pristine almost. Angellic.

Dak popped out from the nearby mechanic shed and waved. Jack waved him over to where he was standing and looked the kid dead on. He was a good first mate. Smart and courageous, all qualities Jack Admired in a person. Shaking his head he clapped a hand on his shoulder and spit once more.

"Whaddya say we go get a drink kid. The parts should be in by tomorrow and I got a final log to make."

"Sound's good, found a new place three blocks from here. Pristine too, real nice ladies."

"Always with the ladies kid, careful you don’t sink yourself."

They walked down the street and into the newest haunt. Jack grabbed a table and made one last log.

 

[RC 212]

Jack opened his log one more time and wrote:

<<Ship Finished. Still don't have a name for her but was thinking along the lines of Rogue Gypsy or something like that. An homage to [member="Jorus Merrill"] and my mother, whose ships both had Gypsy in the title.

Final parts were put in today. Lots of missiles, smuggling hatches, two L-HARCS, a Fuel/Ration converter and other things. That's got to be one of my favourite parts of the ship, I can recycle just about anything. Good for those real long jumps into space.

There was one other thing I was hunting for but haven't been able to get a hold of. Ultrchrome armor. Unfortunately it seems super rare and nothings come up as of yet. In the future will keep an eye out for the commodity.

Sending the final copies of the schematics to Aija and James soon. Real soon, but for now I got drinking to do, so Jack Raxis, outta here.>>