This Prize Has Teeth

[Orick T'ane]

Location: Armor-class Corvette Matthew Lucerne

The Aimless Ranger landed lightly at the docking bay, Orick sighed as the ship landed softly, that's my baby, You know you're getting a face loft soon, don't you. He placed a hand on the control panel and smiled. The ship was more a part of his life any anyone or anything. Well at least for now, Ana might change all of that. He knew that Lucerne Labs was one of the few Republic friendly shipyards around, and he needed a place that wouldn't leak any details of his ship to anyone.

The Ranger desperately needed a refit, and he needed to get the weapons systems reattached and upgraded, he had been flying defenseless for too many years. With his increased work with the Republic and the recent work he had been doing with a certain ghost withing Republic Intelligence, he would need a few surprises. He had been sitting on a couple of modifications for the ship for some time now, and while he wasn't afraid of installing the mods himself, he would rather have a professional team do the work.

He powered down the ship and strapped his pistol belt on, adjusting the holsters so that they sat in the proper places, one on his hip, the other at the small of his back. Once that was done he went towards the cargo bay, side stepping the damage that had been done when he had transported that rancor to Bastion. Several deck plates were torn apart and ripped right out of the floor. Stupid beast had gotten really close to destroying my ship. But the job had allowed him to pay for the refits. The trade off had been a necessary evil, one that he hoped he wouldn't deal with anytime in the near future.

He hit the switch that would open the cargo bay doors and shook his head as the doors opened slowly and with a loud squealing noise from the hydraulics. He was beginning to wonder if he had enough credits in his account for all of the work that he needed to get done to the ship.
As he stepped off of the loading ramp and onto the landing pad a Weeqyay technician walked up and met him, " How can I help you today, sir?" He was asked as they met.

" I have an appointment with [member="Salmakk"]. Can you let him know that Orick T'ane is here." He knew that he was a bit early but he had learned that it was better to be early than to keep people waiting.

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk looked up from his design terminal, and then briefly glanced back down at its chrono display. A little early for his appointment...but better early than late. The mon calamari stood up and stretched. It's probably best that I get up anyways and stretch. I was beginning to hit a stone wall with the project anyways. A break will do me good. The mon calamari spared a glance at the bothan female sitting across from him.

"I'm going to see Mister T'ane."

"So I gathered," replied the bothan with a toothy grin, "I'll still be here, plugging away at the Howlrunner. Come back when you're ready for real work."

"This is real work, I'm about to get my hands dirty."

"You just keep telling yourself that," half-snicked Azira, "you're just trying to escape the office."

"Maybe."

"Well, try not to get too much oil on yourself while you're out there. I'll make sure Gai doesn't blow anything up with half-crazed schemes."

"I heard that!" shouted the duros from behind his cubicle, "don't worry Salmakk, I'll blow up all the things!"

That brought a brief flicker of a smile to Salmakk's face. He only half-shook his head ruefully. And that's why I don't let them deal with the customers. The mon calamari strolled out of the office, his mind switching from building a starship from the ground up to modifying an existing design. Modifying a ship could be both a pleasure and a headache. On one hand, he probably didn't have to worry about designing such trivial things as water lines for the refresher system, but on the other hand, depending on the design, he might not have a lot of leeway for engineering options.

The engineer emerged from the corridor to stand before [member="Orick T'ane"] and his ship. Salmakk stretched out a webbed hand to the man.

"Salmakk, at your service," said the mon calamari, turning his bulbous eyes to face the freighter, "so tell me about your ship..."

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick took the Mon Cal's hand into his and gave it a firm shake, Orick wasn't a huge believer in the need to shake hands when he met someone, however he wasn't against it if the person wanted to. " Nice to meet you. " He Sighed heavily before answering, " Well, this baby is old. I know that the original design concept dates back a long time ago. I'm not sure how old my ship really is, but it's a couple hundred years. I've had it for around four years now, and the guy I bought it from had it a while. it's pretty close to how I bought it, baring a few new scratches and dings." He ran a hand through his hair as he tried to think of anything else. " Oh, the Republic did a quick patch job on it a while after a rough ride from them."

He watched [member="Salmakk"] as he spoke, trying to gauge how the Mon Cal would suggest things. " I don't expect miracles, I just want to give her a new lease on life." He had grown attached to the Ranger over the years, referring to his ship as his home and his job all in one. It had always been the one thing he could rely on in the galaxy and he was hoping that this trip to the shop could get it the upgrades it needed to become the ship he always hopes it would be. " It's an old Corellian design, and I'm not sure about how much modification it got before I picked ti up. The only mods I know about are the smugglers hatches scattered throughout the ship. I never needed the space so I left them as they were." I never needed the space, but I was sure glad to have the space. His thoughts returned to the present. " Do you think it's possible given the shape of the ship and it's age?" he asked, hoping that the answer would be what he was hoping for.

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk eyes plied over the angular and boxy hull, taking care to appraise what he saw. While he was no expert in corellian designs, nearly every conventional starship worked on the same principles, and was wore down by them in the same. He thought he saw several areas that were patch jobs, perhaps from where previous owners had repaired anything from micro-meteorite impacts to laser cannon impacts and worse. He wondered if [member="Orick T'ane"] had repaired several of them himself from various run ins. The mention of smuggling compartments made him even more curious about the ship's history, and possibly that of its latest owners. Gir, what have you gotten us into? But then again, every nation seemed to have someone officially not associated with them to do some of their dirtier work. But to Salmakk's knowledge, the man standing in front of him could be a completely legitimate businessman who had bought the ship in a police or customs froce auction after it had been confiscated from everyone else.

"Judging by the fact that you flew it here," started Salmakk, "it would seem to suggest that all of the basic systems are fine and functional. Is there anything you're particularly looking to do with her?"

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick nodded at [member="Salmakk"] as his frank statement about the ship being space worthy. " Well I was hoping to give her an engine overhaul, something a bit speedier maybe, she's not the fastest ship around anymore. I really want to get the defenses back online, If you can notice there's the plates welded on the front there where the gun emplacements used to be. Also the defensive turret on the dorsal, the last owner ended up selling the guns for cash. He wasn't the best freighter captain around, I'm almost positive that he's the one that installed the smuggler hide holes." he ran a hand through his hair as he sighed, " There's a ton of cosmetic work that needs to be done as well. Several armor plates are pitted and scored from various things, mostly just the regular wear and tear of space travel. The hold was beat to hell and back by a rather pissed off rancor recently and it could use a few new deck plates. If there's any money left over a shield upgrade would be great as well. Also if your techs could give me a hand installing a couple of sensitive systems, that would be great. I'm worried that I'll fry the wiring if I try to install them myself."

He didn't want to think about how much money it would cost him to get everything he wanted to get for the Ranger. It would probably be cheaper to just buy a new ship all together, it would sure save him a lot of trouble in the end. But the Ranger was his home, it had enough of his blood in it to almost be considered family, and that's hoe he viewed the old ship. He had one of his contacts joke that he wads married to the ship, he had laughed at the time, but sometimes it seemed to be the case.

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk nodded in understanding. There were systems that even he wouldn't want to install just by himself, even if he did understand how they worked. A lot of such work painstaking attention to detail, and in many cases, was best suited for droids to handle, though certain things required a more organic touch to them. But the Matthew Lucerne had droids and techs in abundance, most of whom were getting ready to build the Howlrunner prototype, but the design for it was not finalized yet. It would be good to have them get some work done to help keep money flowing into the company and keep their skills honed. Salmakk's eyes briefly settled on the man. Did he actually put a rancor in that thing? Certainly a braver person than me. He shook the thought from his head as he brought up his datapad and clicked the screen a few times to bring up several products.

"All of that is certainly doable, but I think it would be best to start with the engines, and move them from there," said Salmakk, "if we did hull work first, we might have to undo some of the work we had just done in order to get to the engines."

The mon calamari handed the datapad over to [member="Orick T'ane"], "We do fairly fast sublight drives available that we typically used to power our starfighters and the concorde-class shuttle, but we also have some more arcane drive systems that you might find interesting. The Caecius drive system might be useful if you're interested in transporting...ah...certain things that you don't want other people to see. For hyperdrives, we also a couple of Zephyrs available, which are a bit faster than standard, and have the added advantage of being able to go through interdiction fields if need be.

This is a bit of a tangent...but what kind sensitive systems did you need help installing?"

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick smiled as he replied, " I have been sitting on a ECHO DED-3 and a Copycat: Kaleido. I don't really have the experience needed to wire those into my systems with the precision to not break something. They aren't cheap and I would hate to have to pay for new ones. The ECHO would work perfect with the Caecius engines. Together they would make the ship practically invisible from a distance." He was thinking of the advantages that having a combination of systems like that, it would allow him to get much closer to a planet before being spotted, especially if there weren't other ships on the area.

He looked back down at the data pad and began looking over the specifications of the Zephyr hyperdrive system and tilts his head, " This hyper drive system looks promising as well, it's a great way to avoid pirates, or interdicted blockades. However, I can't help but wonder how much extra room having both upgrades would require. I make most of my money from the space inside the ship. If I lost too much, then it's not profitable any longer"

He wasn't really as concerned as he sounded, but to pull of the merchant cover, he would need to sound like he was concerned about it. " Engines are the best place to start, I agree. There are plenty of hull plated that need to be replaced, so taking them off to replace the engine makes the most sense." Orick wouldn't pretend to be a technician when it came to ship design, but he knew how the process worked and followed everything [member="Salmakk"] proposed.

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk nodded in understanding. He had only heard about such devices, though he had never encountered one personally. But he quickly shifted his focus to a more immediate concern.

One of the problems with working on more exclusively military projects was that he sometimes forgot that different needs had different engineering parameters. A military probably wouldn't mind trading off cargo space for both of the drives, but the man standing in front of him had a point. He would have to have a decent amount of cargo space. Always tradeoffs...Salmakk made an approximation of a human shrug towards [member="Orick T'ane"].

"It's hard for me to say how much space it will take up in your ship," mused the engineer, "I don't know the engine systems that your ship currently has, but if they're much older and inefficient models, they might take up just as much space as these more advanced systems. If you would allow it, I'd like to have a cuople of my engine techs get a look onboard. They can get an estimate about how much space we have available to work with if we take out the old engines, and you can make a better informed decision for us to better meet your needs. Did you have anything particular in mind for its armor? I'm afraid Lucerne Labs haven't developed any specialty armor yet, but we have some well-established connections to their vendors that make armor..."

 

[Orick T'ane]

" Your techs are good to go, I left the ship unlocked, all the access panels are overridden for them." He stopped and gave hin chin a scratch, he hadn't thought about the types of armor that were around, only that it was in need of new plating. " Honestly, I don't plan on using it for much combat. I'm not really concerned about the kind of armor plating, as much as I am about having some new plates on it. Wear and tear takes it toll. If I have to rely on the armor, something went terribly wrong." He chuckles slightly. He knew that no matter what happened there would be a time for the armor to do it's job, he just hoped that it had a chance of surviving the hit taken.

He scrolled back through the data pad and looked at all of the things he wanted to add, " We haven't even talked about upgrading the deflector shield. But I can't afford much more space being taken up, so if I have to scrap that, then I scrap that." He wasn't really happy about the idea of losing an upgrade, but he needed the cargo room to make his cover seem more plausible. He needed to be a smuggler and freighter captain for this to work, but if he had no room on his ship for cargo then it would set off alarms.

Orick nodded and handed the data pad back to [member="Salmakk"], " I have heard great things about you guys, so I'm hoping that you can work your magic on my girl here. she deserves some spa time." He chuckled a bit at the reference that the shop was a spa, btu for him the ship was family and it sounded wrong to think he was taking it to the shop.

 

[Salmakk]

"We try our best," said Salmakk, waving a few of the newly arrived techs and their droids to start inspecting the Aimless Ranger, "for armor plating, there are a lot of options, but most of our previous civilian customers prefer something light-weight if they're not expecting to be in any fights. they find it's better for fuel economy and their ship's handling. If you're looking for just the baseline plating, I'd consider Titanium. It get's a lot of flak from spacers who think of the old Tie fighters that seem to litter the place, but it was also the plating used on the original X-wings. It'll get the job done, and its common enough that repairing shouldn't be a huge issue anywhere you go. But it won't provide a whole lot of protection, other options to think about might include Agrinium is more of a durable armor that's still light, but it's more expensive than titanium. Logistically speaking, it's not as common as titanium, but you'll be able to find stocks and repair people for it at most major ports and many smaller ones. Another option would be to use a combination of Desh and Terenthium, which is only slightly more expensive than titanium, but much more durable. the problem is that it's something that isn't commonly found, so repairing it if it does get damaged might be a pain.

Of course, there's always durasteel. Common and durable, and slightly more expensive than titanium, but it won't be helping your fuel economy or handling any."

[member="Orick T'ane"]

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick watched as the techs swarmed over the ship, he hoped that none of them got hurt with all of the chewed up plating in the cargo area. " I do want to get more efficiency out of the armor if possible, titanium is a good choice, but I would rather use Agrinium if I can. I really want the maneuverability out of the ship if I can get it and fuel economy is almost as important as cargo capacity to me. If you have any of those Desh/ Terenthium armor plating lying around then that would be great too, I can't argue with saving a few creds and getting the same quality." He stuffed his hands into his pockets and shrugged " Lets assume that I will need to be able to take a few hits from pirate lasers while I try to get away. That's the baseline for armor ideas. " He didn't think that mentioning that he might have to tangle with capital ships from one government or the other would be a possibility as well.

He watched the techs for a second as they walked around in the now open ship. They neared the engine repair panels and he realized just how much work would be needed to get the engines out and replaced. He wondered of that alone would break his budget. Kriff it, if I need to I'll empty the accounts to make this happen I will. His thoughts drifted to the many times that he had nothing but the Ranger, when everything else had been lost, he had the Ranger. He would go broke again to ensure that it survived as long as he did.


[member="Salmakk"]

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk nodded in understanding as he rapidly punched in commands into his datapad. A materials list began to populate his screen, displaying their various quantities aboard the Matthew Lucerne. He glanced at the hull of the Ranger and began to roughly estimate the area of its hull. After a few quick calculations, he quickly ruled that they would have just enough desh / terenthium to plate the freighter, assuming that his calcuations were accurage. But they did have more than enough titanium to plate two Rangers. The mon calamari engineer scrolled down to view the amount of agrinium. That should be enough for the Ranger and perhaps a starfighter. Well, we can do that then assuming we restock as scheduled. He turned his bulbous eyes back to [member="Orick T'ane"].

"Well, all of the materials can provide basic protection. I'm afraid we don't have our full stocks of desh / terenthium available, but we should have enough to plate your ship assuming that we do some more accurate measurements and don't let any of it go to waste. Titanium we have in abundance, and we should have enough agrinium to plate your ship as well. So it's fully up to you. If it were me, and if I were trying to decide between the desh / terenthium mix, or the agrinium, I'd take into account how long you plan to keep the Ranger. The desh-terenthium mix has a lower initial cost than agrinium, but I think that when it comes to long-term use, it's going to be more costly to maintain, simply because the materials are harder to find and the base substance of agrinium, aluminum is fairly resistant to corrosion on its own..."

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick chuckled and shook his head, " You should be a salesman and not an engineer. That statement makes perfect sense in the long run. Go ahead and use the agrinium. I plan on keeping the Ranger flying for a long time. " He knew that [member="Salmakk"] was right, he was just sure that he would be broke when this was all over.But his girl would be flying right again, and that was enough for him. He cared too much about everything that the Ranger provided for him to get rid of it.

" I'm comfortable with everything you have suggested so far. You're the expert on starships. I was hoping that we could finish out the planning with the weapons systems. There used to be a pair of laser cannons mounted on the from there by the cockpit, and a dorsal mounted dual point defense laser cannon battery. If you have anything that matches those weapons I would appreciate it. I've spent too much time running away from pirates without the ability to fight back. It'd be nice to get some hits back in while I run for my life." He was glad he had been paying attention to the memo's that were going out to fleet officers about new starships and technology. Lucerne Labs was proving to be a great asset to the Republic, and iit was living up to the reputation he had heard it had.

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk blinked at the mention of the Aimless Ranger's lack of guns. Certainly a braver man than I. I don't think I'd fly on one without guns unless it was either escorted by one with guns, or it was just a short trip between a planet and something orbital...like a space station...He quickly tapped a button on the datapad, indicating to the techs and droids present that [member="Orick T'ane"] had opted for agrinium plating. The mon calamari began flipping through his datapad's pages, looking at various invoices and records to see what weapons they had on stock.

"I suppose salesmen and engineers are at their heart occupations concerned about understanding options and making the right choice," offered Salmakk, "I'm afraid that Lucerne Labs hasn't quite taken the plunge into manufacturing anything super spectacular when it comes to laser cannons, though we have our own versions of point defense laser cannons, dual laser cannons, repeating laser cannons, autoblasters, and like weapons. Any of those should be able to fit into those slots fairly easily: their power usage and size should be fairly similar. I know you didn't mention warheads, but we also have the LLT-7 general purpose warhead launcher available. It's an adaptable piece of kit, probably capable of firing any kind of munition or warhead you can find on the market, from space bombs and heavy rockets to more typical proton torpedoes and concussion missiles..."

 

[Orick T'ane]

Orick nodded, "This is a good point, as an engineer, you would have the understanding of the things you manufacture and produce. it's just refreshing to hear the honesty from someone not trying to skim me out of my creds. I love the idea of the warhead launcher, it allows me to be flexible with the ordinance, picking up whatever is available on the market I'm shopping in. that alone is worth the cost of the launcher. If it's possible to adapt it to the Ranger I'll definitely take one. Everything else is just simple weapons systems. I'm not sure that the last owner did much else but sell the weapons off, all of the connections and mounting brackets should still be there. that should be the one easy adaption to the ship."

He was finally seeing the end of the tunnel for the Ranger, it would be nice to get her back into the shape she was in before she had been sold off to pay off debts. He looked forward to the final product, a refurbished and revitalized Ranger. " where do I sign?" He smiled at @Salmakk.

 

[Salmakk]

Salmakk quickly flipped through a few screens on the datapad, settling on the dreaded billing paperwork. The engineer then handed the datapad over to [member="Orick T'ane"], even as techs and droids continued to swarm over the old tramp freighter. Ships could be a lot of work, but he knew they were well worth it to the spacers that relied on them. Some of them probably thought of them as an extra part of the family. Or so Gir had once told him, not that Salmakk agreed. To be sure, the mon calamari could see a certain pleasing aesthetic to some of them, especially those from his own culture, but they were more interesting to him in their mechanical nature in how their systems all worked together to bring about something that was almost an organism. Perhaps that's why people grow attached to them...