Angels of Death (Anija Ordo)

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna pulled yet another armored panel from his Bes'uliik starfighter and set it aside. The starfighter was in various stages of disassembly and maintenance. A large amount of equipment stood nearby to work on the ship. He glanced over it all and noted everything from top quality parts from various companies to quality upgrades. How did he afford it? Very carefully.

Most were compensation for odd jobs pulled with Mandal Hypernautics, others were gifts from his clan. A few more were bought with his own money and one was made himself, with [member="Anija Ordo"]'s help.

At that thought, he looked over at the other Bes'uliik starfighter nearby. It, too, was in various stages of disassembly and similar parts stood by it as well. Betna pulled his helmet off for a moment and grinned at the woman working on the other starfighter.

"Whaddaya think, cyar'ika?" he asked with a laugh. "Better than working at a desk all day, huh?"

 

[Anija Betna]

Anija grinned at [member="Arrbi Betna"] and went to stand up, wincing as she bumped her head on the low-hanging fuselage. Frowning, she muttered a curse and rubbed her head. "Shab, yeah it is. There are days I'm starting at a computer screen or schematics for hours on end. It gets old after a while." Rubbing her head again, she leaned against the side of the bes'uliik as she watched him work. Digging a rag from her pocket, she wiped her hands and then at her forehead... but in doing so, she left a smear of grease behind. Not that she noticed, or cared really. "You know, the thing that I really enjoyed since Larraq hired me is... well. I like the designing aspect. But what I enjoy more is getting my hands dirty, and actually putting something together. it's very... satisfying..."

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"I hope that's not the only thing," Betna said with a grin and a sly look.

He picked up a few tools and started pulling parts out of the starfighter's fuselage. After a few minutes, a sizable pile of them stacked up nearby. Once done, he moved to the table and picked up a small contraption and started getting it ready. Inside was the stygium crystal he'd recovered from Aeten, though the larger crystal was now a series of smaller crystals after being cut and fitted.

The device was a cloaking field, designed to generate a field powerful enough to cloak the bes'uliik he was upgrading. It wasn't big enough to do much with anything larger, but for a starfighter, it was more than enough. He and Anija had sat down and designed it over a few days. They'd have gotten it done sooner, but there had been... distractions. Mainly the ones caused by a few of Anija's business suits, a few things she bought for nightwear, and, admittedly, some serious hormones.

"You sure this thing will work, cyar'ika?" he asked as he lifted the heavy, bulky device off the table. He should have used a crane and winch, but he liked to test himself on occasion. It helped that Anija was nearby when he did so, though. "It's not going to fry itself, or me, when I turn it on?"

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

A smirk tugged at her lips for a moment and she smacked [member="Arrbi Betna"] lightly in the shoulder before he moved away. "Nayc, that wasn't... all of it.." she said after a moment as she too went back to her bes'uliik and began fiddling with a panel on the starboard fuselage. That cloaking field he was now installing was one of her own design. She'd modified a design of his to fit the need for a cloak to disguise a vessel the size of the starfighter. As small as it was relative to some of the other craft the Mandalorian fleet employed, the cloak should work adequately. The only drawback was that is was a bit of a power hog. That, unfortunately wasn't something she could do much about. She'd tried her best to make the design as efficient as possible.

Another smile tugged at the corner of her mouth as she remembered the events of the last few days. Sure, they could have gotten this whole thing done a lot sooner. But there had been ... other concerns. She turned around again at his question, a datapad clutched in her hand, with a data lead plugged into the nearest dataport access. "It shouldn't... at least according to my simulations. But there's only one way to know for sure.." she said with a bit of a shrug.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Okay, so, find out and hope I don't blow up. What could possibly go wrong?" he said with benign sarcasm as he set the contraption on the fuselage.

He carefully cleared a few wires out of the way and slowly lowered it in. He felt the strain on his back and spine as he did so and was immediately filled with mixed emotions on the strain. On one hand, he should have used a crane and winch to not have to enjoy the pulled muscles and stiff back that would occur later. On the other hand, he may be able to push for some nice, affectionate TLC later on because of it. Then he realized that Anija was more prone to tease him and then make him move stuff around back home anyways.

Mando problems, it seemed.

"Okay, so, the blue wire goes into the blue jack? Or does the red wire go there?" he said as he started plugging in the blue wire without waiting for an answer. He was immediately rewarded with a bright spray of sparks and the feeling of low voltage arcing through his hand. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRGHHHHH!... Owowow... Okay, red wire into blue jack. Nevermind."

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

"Ah.. feth..." Anija muttered as she saw the electricity arcing over his hand and partially up his arm. She'd been about to tell him which jack to insert the wire into. As it was, all she could do was wince in sympathy, and reach over to try and help him disengage the wire from the jack after a moment. Gently, she pulled his slightly burnt hand away from the jack and kissed his palm lightly as she tried to distract him from the pain. As she did so, her eyes narrowed slightly and she lifted her left hand slightly, using a thread of Force to guide the cloaking device module into place. "Are you certain you don't want to use a crane or a lifter droid, cyare...?" She'd caught at least the general direction of his thoughts about later, and grinned aver so slightly as she kissed his palm again.

[member="Arrbi Betna"]

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"I'm fine," he said with a grin and came forward for a kiss. "Thank you."

He then took up a few odds and ends, mostly more parts and the tools for them, to finish securing the device in place. He started hooking up the wires and putting things back together using the newer, higher quality parts he'd set aside. It was a slow process, but Betna found it oddly soothing in a way.

He finished installing the component and reset the armored, beskar panel into place. Once done, he turned and bodily picked up Anija and threw her over his shoulder.

"Alright, time to go put the cloaking module into yours, eh?" he said laughing as he carried her over to her bes'uliik.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

She watched him for a moment, and only had time enough to nod before he picked her up and slung her over his shoulder like a sack of tubers. "I... guess.." she managed after a moment. When they reached her bes'uliik, she sighed and rested against him as she waited for him to put her down. When he did, she leaned up and kissed him lightly. "Now... can we try yto get the wires hooked up correctly this time..?" she teased as she traced his cheek for a moment. Then, she grabbed a couple tools and began removing the rest of the paneling that remained in the way.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"I thought you liked your men electricified?" Betna said teasingly.

He then moved to the table and found the stygium cloak device and lifted it up. Betna made sure he had the thing balanced in his hands and arms then made his way over yo the starfighter. He stood waiting patiently for Anija to finish up removing the panel so he could set the machine inside the Bes'uliik.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Smiling slightly, Anija carefully loosened the bolts on the last panel before she leaned it up against the lower fuselage of the bes'uliik. When that was done, she gently took the cloaking device from [member="Arrbi Betna"]. Making sure she had a solid grip on it with both hands and the Force, she turned slowly, and after a breath or two to steady herself, she stepped forward and slid the device into place. "Oh... I do..." she said over her shoulder after a moment.

"Besides, I'm glad we're finally getting this done. And none too soon, either. From the sound of things, we'll be mobilizing for Empress Teta soon." Her tone became slightly somber. Sure, they'd be taking on the Sith. but she still wasn't quite sure of what to think of [member="Ordo"]'s involvement. Frowning, she turned her attention back to the task at hand, carefully aligning the device on its mount before she secured it in place with the mounting bolts.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Sounds like it," he said neutrally as he handed her the tools and newer parts.

He wandered over to his starfighter and checked over the engine inside. He'd spent the last few days installing the thing, often staying late to do so. It was a custom job that he'd pieced together for the two Bes'uliik fighters.

He checked over the couplings and parts to make sure it was all in order. Once done, he checked over the mountings to make sure it was secure once more, then moved to do the same with Anija's ship.

After a few moments of checking, he glanced up.

"Looks like everything is in order back here," he said. "Mind turning on the ship to make sure everything comes up green?"

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Anija watched [member="Arrbi Betna"] out of the corner of her eye as she continued working. She had to admit... as much as he had a penchant for hurting himself when it came to working with technology. He was quite good at what he did. For the moment, she continued working on the cloaking device and checking to make sure it was secure. With that done, she glanced over again and saw that he had different tools in his hands.

Frowning for a moment, she moved to a different section of the fuselage and removed the hull plating so he could check hers as well. The engine itself had been stripped down and rebuilt. it worked well... at least in simulations. And it allowed for bursts of speed higher than normal. But only for short periods. Sustained use of the booster engines would cause them to burn out.

Jolted from her thoughts by his question, she nodded. It took her a couple seconds to scale the ladder and drop down into the pilot's seat. When she was situated, she carefully began going through the preflight warmup. Cold starting the engines wasn't a good idea. especially with an experimental engine involved. Slowly, she saw lights flicker to life on her control board, and then slowly change from yellow to green. "Engine's still yellow..." she said after a moment. "No... wait..." she said as she saw it slowly flicker over to green. "Green across the board..."

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna frowned for a moment and fiddled with the engine a bit more as the power output wasn't at maximum. He tightened down some hardware and manually rerouted the power output. When his scanner showed that the engine was optimum levels, he nodded once and looked up again.

"How's the power levels?" he asked, raising his voice over the engine noise. "You hitting one hundred percent or is it still hovering in the nineties?"

It was still a prototype, despite the work put into it. He expected there to be a few snags here and there during the testing, but that was alright. It was just a matter of getting the power output to stabilize at one hundred percent on a reliable basis. The thing still had issues and would burn out with constant use, but it when it did, it wouldn't stall. Or, at least, it usually wouldn't stall out.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Anija frowned, and eyed her control panel for a few moments as she watched the engine's power output levels. As she did so, she saw the indicator creep upwards. "Better now.... 98%... 99... 101... Hold on... that's too much, we don't want to blow the circuits...." her voice took on a bit of an edge as she glanced over her shoulder in [member="Arrbi Betna"] 's general direction. The bes'uliik's canopy was still open, so she could see him crouched near the rear of the starboard fuselage.

In all honesty, this whole project - besides getting sidetracked - had gone rather quickly once they'd sat down and gotten to work on it. Now, all they had to do was finish installing all the hardware and then testing to make sure it all worked. The most difficult part had been to pretty much overhaul the bes'uliik's computer and power systems and bring them up to current standards.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Um, one second," he said with a frown. He fiddled with the capacitors for a moment and adjusted a module on the underside of the engine. It was still a finicky thing, but the engine didn't seem like it wanted to blow up or fry itself so far.

Once done, he re-scanned the engine once more. Everything turned up fine except one coupling. He adjusted the part a bit and rerouted power once more until the scanner came up full green.

"Okay, try it again. I think I got it that time."

The starfighters were getting there and it wasn't a long job, thankfully. Just a bit time consuming for the two of them. Mostly because of the earlier distractions, though the engine had taken a good amount of time as well. The computer systems were updated and modernized and the HUD no longer looked archaic, which was good. All in all, it was fully updated and worked with everything from new installations to helmet systems. So far, so good.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

Anija watched the power levels fluctuate for several seconds before they leveled out at an even 100%. When they did, she gave [member="Arrbi Betna"] a thumbs up. "Kandosii. Looks stable now..." she said over her shoulder. "Might want to stand back a bit... I'm going to give power to the thrusters." Having said so, she waited a few seconds until she sensed him move away. Then she triggered the thrusters. Orange and blue flame shot out of the engine exhaust ports for a moment before she killed the power to the engines. "Well, they look to be working just fine... and I don't think we had a blowout on any of the power junctions..."

 

[Arrbi Betna]

Betna moved out of the way to let Anija test the thrusters and watched both the engines and the thrusters as they powered up. Everything looked okay from the outside from what he could tell. Once they were off, he dove back into the engines to double check everything.

"Okay, yeah, nothing's blown," he said after a moment. "Everything's still intact and nothing's knocked loose. Scanner's showing that everything's still green. If everything is green up in the cockpit we can move on to what I was working on earlier this morning when you came into the hangar."

He started getting his tools together to put the panels back in place. They didn't need to check his Bes'ullik. He'd run through tests last night and this morning. He just hadn't gotten to the stygium cloak just yet and had wanted to make sure Anija's starfighter was good to go.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

"Yeah, everything's still green across the board up here..." she said, eyeing her control panel for a moment. She leaned her head back in the pilot's seat and rubbed at her temples for a moment. "Though. I have to say that doing this is at least a bit more enjoyable than number-crunching all the time..." she smirked slightly, just waiting for ANNE's inevitable comment. Number crunching..? came the soft voice in her ear. I'm the one that makes sure your calculations are accurate, Anija. Don't forget that. Anija frowned slightly, as ANNE's tone sounded decidedly... smug.

She sat in the cockpit a few seconds longer before she shut everything down and hopped down the ladder to the hangar floor. She could hear the ticking of the engines as they cooled. Once she was back with her feet firmly on the floor of the hangar, she grabbed s herself some tools and began to help [member="Arrbi Betna"] bolt the hull panels back into place.

 

[Arrbi Betna]

"Yeah, after a while you itch for something other than desk jobs to do," he said with a grin. "Taking the occasional mercenary job or bounty helps. So does working on projects. And spending time with a certain someone."

He grinned wider at his last comment as he started handing up armored panels to his lover. He had his mind and heart set on asking for her to marry him, he just didn't know when a good time would be. With Ordo... With the situation they had found themselves in, he didn't want to put too much on her too soon. Stressing her out was the last thing he wanted to do, much less risk her saying 'no'. Not that he thought she would, but the little voice of doubt in the back of his head was afraid of that answer. His father always told him whenever a young Arrbi had returned home heartbroken and tearful that the worst any girl could say was 'no', but it still hurt despite it all. It was odd how emotions worked sometimes. It took only the slightest trigger to change them, but despite that many were constant and unchanging. It took Anija's love towards him, and his towards her, for him to realize that. Realize, but not understand, really.

Perhaps that was how life worked. You realize things, you learn things, but you don't understand them. Maybe, in time, he would someday. For now, he had work to do and a certain question to figure out how to ask down the line.

"Almost done?" he asked cheerily.

[member="Anija Ordo"]

 

[Anija Betna]

As she bolted the last corner of the panel into place, she nodded. In the process, she narrowly avoided smacking her head on the underside of the fuselage. "Yeah, that's the last panel. And from what I saw when I had her powered up, everything looked green across the board. That's a good sign, really. And it hopefully means we won't have to do too much more tweaking." She'd caught the direction of his thoughts, and she smiled to herself. If she were being honest, she couldn't wait for [member="Arrbi Betna"] to ask that certain question. But, with everything that had happened lately, she was glad he'd decided to wait. She still wasn't sure what to make of the situation with [member="Ordo"] following Coruscant.