Welcome to the Famil Biz (Arlo)

[RC 212]

Jast 1 Freighter
Near Exocron

[member="Arlo Jast"].

The kid was her nephew. she'd picked him up a few months back after one of her uncles or something had contacted her Ma and Pa. They had their own thing going on, trying to rebuild their shattered home world of Corellia.

So she got stuck with him. Which was odd because she was not the role model type. Nevertheless he'd expressed an interest in Shipbuilding, so today he was gonna a tour of her HQ and learn a little something about builidng ships.

"So tell me about you Arlo? Why'd I get landed with you?" She asked, leaning back in her Captains seat and sipping on some Caf mixed with Whiskey.

"Not that I'm against it. Just wondering how I drew the straw."

 

[Arlo Jast]

[member="Hala Jast"]

Go off and finally see the galaxy like you've always wanted, his uncle said. It'd be fun, he said. So far the last few months of Arlo's life had been turbulent, to say the least. Back on Nar Shaddaa, he had finally scraped together enough credit from a couple swoop races to afford himself a nice little vintage speeder. And then it was only like a day or two afterwards that his uncle kicked him out, telling him to go live with some other relative instead.

Hala was cooler than his uncle, apparently, which Arlo was glad about. Or at least she was cool enough to drink caf mixed in with some whiskey. "Well, uncle kicked me out from his place in Nar Shaddaa. Ditched school just one too many times, I guess," Arlo answered with a grin as he inspected the freighter cockpit with apparent interest. Piloting speeders was one thing, but man, flying space freighters like this one would be a whole another deal.

The teen shrugged at Hala's second question. "I dunno, we both have interests in starships I suppose." Arlo hadn't heard the exact specifics, but he did have some vague ideas about the Jast family business that his uncle suggested getting involved in. "Hey, can I try some of it?" he added randomly, pointing at the drink Hala was sipping. Because really, who wouldn't want some caffeinated teenager running around their freighter.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Arlo Jast"]

Out on the rim there wasn't much law. The kid was already out of school, so he'd definitely chosen his own path. And he had his head at least part of the way on straight. He wanted to do something, rather than be a bum. In fact out here, whoever had the bigger guns or gang of dudes with gun was the law.

"Frak it sure dude."

She passed the cup off and got up to get herself another. Then she came back.

"If you're gonna roll with me and learn the biz, you can drink. Just don't get stupid on me and we'll be cool."

They were still a way out. Now was probably a good time to go over the fundamentals of ship design.

"What you know about designing a ship kid?"

 

[Arlo Jast]

[member="Hala Jast"]

"Oh sweet," Arlo said with a smirk as he took the cup from Hala. He nodded to her remarks on drinking, as he inspected the liquids inside the cup. "Alright, I gotchu auntie." Taking a quick sip or two of the interesting mixture, Arlo's eyes shone with excitement when prompted about what he knew about designing a ship. Well not too much really, he thought.

"Hmm I did have some experience helping design custom speeder bikes..." he began, scratching his head and trying to think of everything he knew about what a ship would require - one that could fly across freakin' space, and not just go over land using repulsorlift.

Arlo decided to take another sip before answering. "Well, any ship design I guess you should start with a target customer individual or group in mind? To figure out what approximate dimensions you'd like for the vessel, and to then decide what power generator or reactor would best economically suit the ship." He paused, waiting for Hala to teach him what her fundamentals for ship design were.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Arlo Jast"]

She nodded, sipping her own drink.

"Well you are halfway there nephew. You gotta dig a little deeper. Say I wanted a ship that was anti starfighter. I want it for cheap and I want it mass produced. What kind of reactor would we be looking at. What kind of weapons?"

She was pushing him now, forcing him to come up with new ideas.

"A good bet is you want regular engines, and never forget, we can use salvaged items too. Just because they were manufactured by a different Company doesn’t mean that they will always be under that companies control. For example I use TIE engines alot. They are fast, cheap and you can salvage them from any First Order or Imperial battle field."

 

[Arlo Jast]

[member="Hala Jast"]

Arlo listened carefully. An anti-starfighter ship, huh. "Hmm well I suppose if you want cheap mass produced ones, you'd want to get reactors and weapons that deliver the biggest bang for your buck," he responded, putting down his drink and deciding that it was already enough whiskey for him at this point. Arlo could tell his aunt was trying to force him to do more thinking, which made him slightly nervous with his limited knowledge.

"Oh.. regular engines, sure that makes sense." He nodded as Hala gave good suggestions and coupled them with personal experience. Arlo had definitely heard about all those different types of TIE fighters, and how ubiquitous they were these days with so many imperial remnant groups around. "Wow, salvaging stuff from battlefields.. that's karkin' cool," he commented. "Can I come salvaging with you sometime?" Arlo added half-pleadingly. He had not seen a real galactic space battle before. Seeing just the aftermath of it would still be awesome, he thought.

"Do you carry weapons around with you all the time and stuff? And like take along buddies with you on those trips?"

 

[RC 212]

[member="Arlo Jast"]

Hala grinned.

"Arlo from here on out, you are coming everywhere with me. Since you can't stay in school, you're gonna learn from the school of hard knocks. I'm not over protective like my siblings. Just keep your head about ya, I'd hate to see ya get killed."

She didn't know her sister all that much, nor her husband. She really didn't care and the fact that Arlo had been dumped on her made her even more apt to not care. That was the mark of a poor parent. Nevertheless he was hers now, and what she said would be his boundaries was not their concern any-more.

"Just keep it on the low. I don't wanna hear any crap from your mother. No posting on Spacebook."

She paused, checking the starmaps on the Nav Computer, then swivelled back to Arlo.

"Ok next part. You need to balance Guns, Speed, Features etc. This all comes with its own cost. Space and power are your two currencies when putting a vessel together. We will start real simple. Here's my data pad, build a fighter design."

She passed it of and took another sip, eyes roving over the many gauges on the dash.

Now she would see what he could do...

 

[Arlo Jast]

[member="Hala Jast"]

Hard knocks, eh? Arlo's eyes shone with excitement as Hala said she would be taking him around places. He nodded eagerly in reply, looking at Hala as she swiveled to and from the navigational starmap. "Right, ofcourse!" he said with a grin of his own. "I promise I'll behave."

The teen took the data pad from his aunt, and happily tapped away at it. "Woah, is this what you do in your free time? This is kinda fun," he said as he pieced together different modules, trying to take into full consideration what Hala had been saying about space and power being the currencies for designing a ship. At first, Arlo put one too many guns on his design, making it needlessly burdensome and therefore eliminating any potential for decent space or speed. Then he added one too many boosters to the back of his ship, giving it crazy speed but quite literally nothing else. Fiddling with his aunt's pad for some time, Arlo finally seemed to arrive at a design he seemed relatively content with, giving the pad back to Hala for inspection.

The design was a simple one, that of a small fighter needing and accommodating only one pilot. Two small canons attached near the front, a cozy and somewhat tight fitting cockpit, and pretty powerful engines at the back that would make this fighter a more speed-focused vehicle. "I guess there could also be like a railgun mounted on the top, or something," he added.