Well Phrik

[Laira Darkhold]

(Phrik Mining Thread)

Back on Seltos, again. Ugh I hate this place. It already tried to kill me once, and I was going to give it another shot. I wonder if that customs officer reported what actually happened, or if he let it go out of sheer embarrassment of being left bound to a sticker bush by a perp. Ha, good times. The Dragon had barely withstood dragging a pair of mining droids down here, and I had brought along a group of four BX-Series droids for security. I wasn’t going to be the one lugging this heavy crap up from the mine. I figured the same mine would need to be excavated again, but it would save me the trouble of having to deal with customs, and if I was lucky I could leave it in better shape and maybe return her. Seltos sounded like a good place to put a mining campus, but so did Alderaan and Roche. Especially since I recently joined the Republic. I mean, me joining the Republic and ACS joining the Republic were two different things, but I’m not sure everyone will see the difference. At least no one with a grudge against me or the Republic. The droids chattered away as I sat in a chair, watching them work at removing rubble from the mouth of the cave.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

After about an hour of the droids constantly working at excavating the ruins of the mine shaft they cleared a path through the debris. It appeared as though there were hundreds of small cave ins from my last stay on Seltos. The Holo-Map I had of the mine would be completely useless then. At least the mining droids had a scanner for detecting minerals in the ground. Maybe they would be able to locate a sufficient vein of Phrik. I wasn’t here for much. Benji had said all he needed as about two kilos, but after all the cave ins and the resulting destruction of this mine it would take a while.

Me and the droids only made it down about a dozen meters until we found the next cave in. Ugh, this was gonna take forever, maybe I should move on and find a different mine. About the time I started to consider packing up shop and relocating one of the mining droids chittered something. Its sensors were showing a small vein about thirty meters through the rock and clay of shaft wall. Well that’s lucky. I might as well stay and let the droids do their best. Worst case we book it after giving this our best shot.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Not as slow going as I remember. These two droids were hauling away, clearing a tunnel to the Phrik vein. They had cleared about five meters in an hour with almost no hiccups. Once, one of the droids had fallen over and had to be helped back up, but that wasn’t so bad. I didn’t even do that, I had one of the security droids I brought do that. Man having money and reliable droids took most of the hassle out of this job. I can’t imagine how much a mining boss makes here for how little actual work. The only real problems were the thin air and the possibility of the whole thing falling in on itself again like last time.

The air down here was thin, making it hard to breath without my helmet on, and even then I could see I was drawing a small amount from my helmet’s internal air supply. I would have to go back up, to side in order to refresh my oxygen containers and get a good breather while these things worked. And I wasn’t really worried about a cave in. Last time I made it out when I was a kilometer deep in this shaft; this time I am only sixty or seventy meters in. I could run out of this in less than ten seconds if I had to.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Already three hours down in the mine, and I was on my way back up from the work site. My oxygen levels had depleted down enough that I decided I had better head on up and refill all my canisters, and get a nice good breath of fresh air. To my right and to my left a BX droid followed diligently. They were worth the money, even if they were relics from a dozen generations of technology ago. I know nine hundred years is a long time in tech, but these things were awesome for what I paid for them. That guy I got them off of had no idea what he was missing.

I could still hear the grind of drill, excavator arm, and engine whine from atop the mine. It felt good to have my helm off. Even with all the temperature controls, it matted your hair and put weight on your neck. If you wore them too long your neck would get sore. I heard one of the droids chatter up in my direction. I turned to one of the BX droids looking for a translation. “Sir, they require assistance. There seems to be a development at the work site,” it hummed with mechanical methodology. I hated the voice droids have.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Fine, let’s go see what it is,” I sighed. Droids never could work without some supervision as it turns out. The two droids followed me back down the mine shaft, which only took a minute or so. It didn’t take but looking at the situation to see that some of the clay became loose and under stress from bearing additional structural weight and had collapsed in on the two mining droids. Really there was no big deal. The droids just needed to be turned right-side up and then they needed to clear the waist high barrier between them and the exit, as well as all around them. If only they could program a droid to take care of other droids, but that would be a miracle. I guess if Benji’s friend was as good as he says he could manage that little errand.

I put the BX’s to work helping out the mining droids. I could only imagine how mining droids, said to be top of the line didn’t notice clay falling in on them, but hey, win some loose some. And right now, even with this set back, I was winning. A good day so far. Joined the Republic, got a nice signing bonus from them, and maybe I’ll be able to sell them some tech after all this.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

For some unknowable reason, it took six of the galaxies best droids an hour and a half to pull themselves out of clay and move it out of their path. I can only guess as to the processes they had to have gone through. ‘Move clay’ sees more clay fall right where it was working. ‘Move clay’. Almost like an infinite loop of special. This is why droid programmers make so much money. They make a stupid droid and then sell ‘Updates’ to make it barely functional. No wonder Benji has more money than I have ever seen, and I sold and protected Spice shipments.

Even still four and a half hours was still faster than I had thought we would be in this rotten hole. I just hate sitting around waiting for something to happen. It always inevitably does. I left them there and walked back up the shaft, letting the crisp dusk air touch my face. I hated being down in here, and really didn’t care to go watch droids work away at something. Next time I will raid a mining facility that’s already set up, rather than setting up my own out the Dragon and having droids work around. Maybe I should hire some muscle. I don’t know if the Republic would appreciate doing a raiding mission later down the line, but hey you never know about politicians.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Five hours alone with six droids in a hole is a rough day. Six hours is a bad week, and seven hous is pure agony. I felt like my mind was gonna melt from sheer boredom, but somehow we were nearing the finish line. The droids had reached the phrik ore in the rock and had begun working at extracting the about I needed, about two kilograms worth of the stuff, a lot less than the last time I was here. This particular vein was bigger than that, but not by much. By the time we smelted and fitted it there would be less than three kilograms of the rare metal. Then again I was walking around in like twenty kilograms of it, and that wasn’t so bad. There would always be more out in the galaxy.

Only ten minutes at the actually metal and the dang droids were already breaking down. Apparently their drills were not equipped to extract Phrik. Just another scheme from droid makers to make more money, I’m sure, but the fact remains that I am stuck without drills or Phrik. Only one real option at that point. Solve all your problems with wanton destruction and random acts of violence. Two quick shots from my pistols downed both droids without problem, but that Phrik Ore was another deal all together. “Oh screw this hole” were the last words out of my mouth as I fired my MM9 Missile Launcher.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Well the whole cavern shook like a demon coming out of a refresher, but it held together. The BX droids were cowering like I had just fired a rocket in a mine shaft. Oh, wait. That’s exactly what I did, and from the look of it, it worked perfectly. Once again wanton destruction solved all my problems with absolutely no negative side effects. The Phrik ore I needed was right there, a little worse for wear but nothing too bad, and free from the rock face. Good for me. I needed this win today. “Come on you four, let’s go.” I said as I turned to walk back up the mine shaft. It was a quick walk and the droids followed me obediently.

A few short seconds later the five of us were standing out in the open, not but a few short meters from my ship. Unfortunately there were seven beings between me and my ship. Looking them over, it didn’t take long to recognize the leader of the group as the man who sold me the BX droids. Something about his look told me he didn’t come all this way to ask how they held up. “Look here bud, you don’t want none of what I got today. I’m in a bad mood and looking to take it out on someone.” I said menacingly.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

“Oh, I don’t think that will be a problem I have to deal with” he said glancing at his associates. Beside him stood three humans, a duros, a bith, and a trandoshan, all armed with various weapons and wearing light armor. “Besides, we have you outnumbered eleven to one.” He said motioning for his associates to take aim.

“I think your math is a little off, oh, nope, I understand you now. Never mind, disregard.” I said as the BX droids trained their weapons on me. “But even eleven to one, YOU, as in you specifically aren’t walking out of here.” I lowered my hands around near my pistols. I figured that would make him react the way I wanted.

And just as planned “Now, now. Don’t go trying anything. Go ahead and keep your arms up away from those pistols.” As I raised my arms I opened up with my flamethrower into his face. It must have hurt pretty badly too, because he started screaming right away. So did the bith and a human next to him. By the time I grabbed for my pistols one of the BX droids was all over me, trying to drag me down. I dropped an EMP grenade off and activated my shields. Sucks to take all that into the shields, but in this case it was necessary. Benji was at least gonna have to work for his dinner tonight fixing it.

 

[Laira Darkhold]

Stang Seltos, always trying to kill me with cave ins and mercenaries and double crosses. Too bad I’m as tough as I am otherwise I would be dead by now. The good news for me, was bad news for these wannabes. Three of them fire roasted, the four droids disabled from an EMP blast and the last four beings weren’t as brave after seeing all their friends dead. But trying to ambush me like this wasn’t something I was just gonna let go. I started popping off shots at them as the retreated. I mean they were shooting back too, but they weren’t very good with those rifles they were toting. It didn’t take but a few minutes to finish of the mercenaries.

As I walked up the ramp to the Dragon, the leader of the group’s burnt hand reached out and grabbed my foot. “Help me” he rasped through a burnt throat.

“You tried to have me killed, so I ain’t helping you live, but I can ease your passing.” I drew my pistol and pulled the trigger. “Best I can do given the circumstances mate.” The startup sequence for the Dragon didn’t take as long as I was hoping. I don’t much like killing folks that way, but there wasn’t anything I could do for him. Them’s the breaks boss.