Space Rocks and Bug-Out Bags (The Underground - secret base construction)

[Jorus Merrill]

ERIDA SYSTEM
UNKNOWN REGIONS

The planet Erida would work for the following reasons. It had suffered recent trauma at the hands of the Sith, but only a few. Its location was remote, forgotten, and close enough to hostile space, friendly shelter, that under-construction hyperlane, and the Underground's primary weapons sources. Its government had proven amenable to talking with Jorus, for local reasons and because he'd shined his shoes real nice. Its technology was sublight-only, or had been before he'd brought in short-range class-10 units, all the local starship and reactor gear could support. The Eridans were having a pretty good time, all things considered, exploring the nearest systems for which he'd given them hypercoordinates. There was more to that relationship, but the bottom line was, the little base taking form in the planet's asteroid-field rings wouldn't be disturbed. The locals might even let them use a beach or something on occasion.

The base had started life as a highly modular Shokita-class deep space station, of Mandalorian make. He'd seeded Shokita variants all over the Mara Corridor and Wild Space, even as far as the Rishi Maze; this model of starbase had served him well, and his friends too.

He'd asked them to bring what they could find -- technology, pieces of starships, components of other kinds of stations. Whatever might help.

[member="Chloe Blake"] [member="Noah Corek"] [member="Callisto Scarlett"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Khaleel Malvern"] [member="Jaani Doosun"] [member="Flint Michigan"]

Anyone interested in being part of the Underground and helping make a secret rebel base, plz to this.

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

The two Jo'Henry's and an Okyaab-Class freighter dropped from hyperspace near the asteroid field. Vaudin sat in a fully loaded "Bantha" with 510 tons of gear and advanced components. It wasn't much but it was what he could get for now. He activated a subspace radio, to short of range for Interstellar communication, but also to low frequency to pick up unless you were close and looking. He dialed in the old system and sent the communication.

"Jor?" He said happy to be back in the saddle, so to speak, "this is Vaud. I come bearing gifts. Two Jo'Henry's an new Okyaab-Class and enough gear to get us started. Where do we want it?"

He scanned the system. It was a mineral rich asteroid field. With the right kit they could possibly mine what they needed to make any number of things. Who knows what those asteroids held.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

"Vaud! Good to hear ya." Unconsciously, he slipped a little way back into the cadence of the Vagrant Fleet. The Bullet Time's sensors scanned the old Bantha, outlined the three smallish ships within. Small, but high-value, and well suited for independent operation in the Unknown Regions.

"That's some lovely work right there. Think we've got a third Jo'henry coming in later. Between the manipulator arms for station assembly and the plasma jets for these tasty rocks, yeah, we've got the makings of something interesting here. My sensors aren't tuned for ores. Looking forward to taking one of those out for a run, seeing what we've got around. Wait a sec...Okyaab? That the one with the built-in HIMS? Dead useful for Unkonwn Regions hyperspace disturbances, those things are."

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Vaudin grinned to himself. He didn't know how they had done it but some Mandalorian with some pull had found out about a resistance and donated the freighter and whatever the thing held.

"Jorus!" He said glad to hear a friendly voice, "Damn good to hear ya. The Okyaab-Class came with a full hold and a message that said 'more for the asking -Jasper' I don't lnow who owes you or who you made buddies with but that sounds like they like us."

Vaudin guided the ship carefully into the asteroid field and made to dock with the station.

"I'm inbound and starting docking procedures. Let's get this thing going."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

"Jasper, is it...I'll have to double-check a thing or two. If our benefactor's who I'm thinkin', there's probably a lot more on the way, and some real good intel to boot." He chewed his lip in thought and made a mental note to comm Rave, who was probably his best contact with the Mandos. That wasn't saying much. He made another mental note to rectify that.

The Bullet Time had limited cargo space, so for this run he'd had to prioritize high-value, low-volume gear -- specialized tools, processors, software and the like. Things that helped transform a vanilla Shokita station into something worthwhile.

***​

Though Jorus wasn't one to call honest work boring, he treasured his mug of lum at the end of the day, and he'd made fething sure that one of the first areas of the station with functional utilities was the part occupied by a certain nameless Undergrounder with a business sense for libations. The Red Shift -- thus proclaimed the holosign. He met Vaud in the new cantina-slash-coordination-center with a bunch of holodiscs.

"The plan's to drink and plan some more," he said. "Now that we've got the core unit running, we've got options for spreading out, trying different functionalities."

He slurped a little more lum.

[source]​

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

Vaudin nodded as Jorus spoke. He wiped the heavy foam from his top lip with the back of his hand and leaned on bar. He pulled a bowl of assorted nuts closer and set it between them.

"Two things I'm pretty good at." Vaudin joked, though in truth he had been worse in his younger days. "In a location like this I was thinking we work on the tractor beam system. Keep the asteroids where we need'em and worse comes to worse we reverse polarity and throw some rocks. What cha think?"

 

[RC 212]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

Word had come down to Vassara of yet another job. And so she had mounted the Gypsy Caravan, her L19 freighter and made her way across the galaxy. After a couple months of rough salvaging and running from Reavers in deep space she had amassed quite a contingent of parts in her cargo bay. The problem was whenever she and Silas set down, the local authorities started asking questions. This unnerved her and she immediately lifted off from each planet, hopping to the next.

As the months had gone by with no buyers for her scavenged reactor parts, she had grown desperate and even paid a visit to the notorious but tucked away pirate station at Tortuga.

It was her she had heard of the Underground, and a courier sympathetic to the resistance had slipped her simple note, scrolled on parchment with a set of hyperspace coordinates.

"You might find your cargo is appreciated here. As for me, do not ask, you never saw me."

She had simply nodded, knowing better than to ask excessive questions. Excessive questions got you vaped, and quickly.

As Silas and her neared the asteroid base, at her set of delivered coordinates Vassaras finger furiosuly worked the holo displayed controls of her vessel. She sent out a shortwave ping, scanning for life forms and second she sent a shortwave transmission. It was simple and short.

"This is Vassara Rexis, Captain of the Gypsy Caravan. I've received word that reactor parts may be needed here. Please reply for confirmation."

"You think they'll buy em?" Silas asked.

Vassara leaned back, placing her hand behind her head.

"Well they are illegally salvaged hypermatter reactor parts from pub ships. But basing on how sketchy the courier was, I doubt these folks have any compunctions against stealing illegally scavenged parts."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

Jorus snapped his fingers. "Man, do I have the perfect kit for that. There's a...uh...you know your paperweight? There's another with some, mm, tractor-beam-related stuff on it. At a really big scale. Chloe and I dug it up-"

He paused and grinned as [member="Vassara Raxis"]' transmission got routed to his earbud comm. "Gypsy Caravan, this is Captain Jorus Merrill of the Gypsymoth. I'm on the station -- we've got the core module up and running, even got a little cantina going. Your cargo's welcome here, and we can pay what's fair for it. Come on aboard, have a drink with us, and we can talk details."

 

[RC 212]

[member="Jorus Merrill"]

"Looks like they want the parts. Score!"

Vassara pumped her fist before returning her finger back to the controls. Blue lights flashed as she tapped her way through the landing sequence moving ever so slowly into the hangar. Silas grunted, drinking a cup of Caf beside her. They had been up for many hours and they were both getting tired at this point.

"I'm just ready for some food. I'm hungry."

"Yeah me too."

The landing gear whirred out with the sound of grinding metal. Vassara made a mental note to the check that later. As the Freighter descended she started her landing sequences and suited up. She wore a black jacket with red trim and a gunbelt hung low on her hips, dangling her Czerka Machine pistol and Fighting knife.

Silas and her made their way down the ramp and into the base, as it were. To the Red Shift....

 

[Azula Tindara]

Jaani didn't have a great deal of assets, hell most of his goods fit in the leather backpack he carried around with him. Anything larger was typically hunting or exploration gear that sat in containers at the back of his small ship.

But he did have credits.

Credits he didn't really have a use for. He had no real interest in property, luxury vessels, any of the typical vices of the rich. In truth, beyond a night's stay at a spaceport, a drink and a meal he didn't really have much of a feel for how the galactic economy worked or the value of a credit. Jaani had a case of metals to the worth of one hundred thousand credits sent securely towards the endeavour. A token sum really, more to show his intent. It wouldn't pay for much on the scale of building a station, but perhaps it would get a team of labour droids on site for a few months, or whatever else [member="Jorus Merrill"] could think to do with it.

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Jaani Doosun"] [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Vassara Raxis"]

Raxis showed up at the Red Shift just as Jorus was downing his second lum and looking over a bar of refined lommite, a sample from the haul Doosun had sent. "Hey there. I'm Merrill, this horndog's Vaud-" Best to get that out of the way. "-an' this is the Red Shift. I hear you've got a load of parts for a reactor -- a nice one. This beast still runs on standard fuel cells, so needless to say, it's probably an improvement. Tell me about your payload."

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Vassara Raxis"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Jaani Doosun"]

"He means horned dog." He said lying through his teeth as he lifted his glass and took a long drink. His other hand pointed at his thick down turned horns.

He drained the glass and reached over the bar to the tap to pour another.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

"Well greetings y'all!" Vassara blurted. She sat down, brushing her black oily hair back and quickly rounding it up, readjusting her ponytail. Her face had a jet black tattooed pattern on the left side and her eyes beamed a mixture of blues and greens. Silas her companion sat beside her, clad in grubby orange jumpsuit and a mess of black hair to match hers.

"The haul I got is an actual hypermatter reactor, broken down and missing a few components. You'll need to find a few power couplings, but those are standard for any reactor."

If they were running on fuel cells, that meant fuel had to be shipped here frequently. This reactor was her bargaining chip, her crown jewel and way into the fold.

"You'll have to keep in mind the parts aren't exactly...legally obtained. Which I am guessing by the looks of you gentlemen is perfectly acceptable. Tell me about these rumours. About this underground of yours?"

She was desperate to know, no needed to know. Anything that struck back, no matter how small at the Sith was a personal victory for her. After they had annihilated Alderaan she hated them. All of them.....

 

[Allyson Locke]

Bars and pubs...oh and cantinas, I seemed to constantly find myself there always. I walked into this one with a tablet holding my attention. Using my eyes, I scrolled the page upwards reading about what was going on here. I had caught wind of this Underground stuff and decided while the old man was away I could find something interesting to do and busy myself with. My mission in life was to touch at least every engine...organic or non organic once. Terrible, I know. Hey but I'm young I gotta explore. Okay enough with the dirty thoughts, anyways I headed here after hearing a bunch of the underground crew liked to be here or something. Tucking the tablet away in my jacket, I headed towards the bar.

"Corellian Whiskey please, on the rocks - extra rocky please." I'm a lightweight I thought quietly, no, not really I just couldn't afford a taxi speeder home. Looking towards my right I over hear a woman talk about the Underground. My ears turn red, as I become even more intrigued in the matter. Doing my best not to eavesdrop too much - never mind I eavesdrop the hell out of them. This was the Underground I had been looking for, scooting closer I poke my head around. "Underground, yes? Got a box a parts for them - took a job ya know the usual." I look at each of them - how am I supposed to know who is with this underground or if they're just baiting hoping to catch someone. Feth, why do I get myself into this junk?

Spoiler

[member="Vassara Raxis"] [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Jaani Doosun"]

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Vassara Raxis"] [member="Jaani Doosun"]

Noah sighed as he sat in the corner of the cantina. 'Heh, story of my career.' Noah though to himself as he fingered the mag release of his custom AR-35 and set the rifle and mag on the table when a certain group of thugs walked by and thought he looked like a easy mark. Even when the automatic rifle was shown to the group, they still didn't back off, that was until Noah unclipped his Bodo Baas gunbelt and the multitude of weapons on it made the men step back a bit. Finally Noah leaned forward, letting them see the t shaped visor of his helmet. "Trust me, try it and you'll end up with bullet holes in you."

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vaudin Miir"]

[member="Vassara Raxis"] and [member="Allyson Locke"] got a chuckle. "Yeah, I'll buy anything you've got, don't care what the provenance is. And as far as the Underground goes, someone trusted you two enough to send you here. This place is secret, middle-of-nowhere from the great powers' perspective, an' I'm hoping to keep it secret for a good while. So welcome aboard...excuse me."

Some of the other resistance fighters in the Red Shift appeared to have taken a dislike to [member="Noah Corek"]. Jorus slipped out of the booth and draped his arms over the shoulders of the two biggest ones. "Folks, this is Noah Corek. He's the man that got you those sniper rifles on Sharb."

"...oh."

"Just remember, folks. This is our secret base. This is the station bar inside our secret base. If you're here, you're one of us. Don't let me catch you bringing anyone here who ain't."

As the group of resistance fighters moved off to get a table, Jorus grinned at Corek. "Same goes for you. This is friendly territory. Come on, I've got some folks to introduce you to." He gestured back at Vaud, Allyson and Vassara.

 

[Noah Corek]

[member="Jorus Merrill"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Vassara Raxis"] [member="Vaudin Miir"]

Noah laughed at what Jorus said. "Jorus, your telling a man who ran some of the most sensitive black ops missions for the Republic that are so classified that not even the Chancellor knew we were doing them. I've never told anyone, not even my daughter. So why do you think I'd tell anybody about this place?" Noah asked as they strolled over to the table Jorus had been at before. Noah's eyes scanned the table, there was a black haired woman, certainly a spacer by the looks of her. A Iktotchi who seemed to ooze both the air of a politician and a soldier. And finally there was the odd man, or woman, out. A brunette that really didn't look like she belonged here. "Jorus, what kinda circus have you dragged me into this time?"

 

[Vaudin Miir]

[member="Vassara Raxis"] [member="Allyson Locke"] [member="Noah Corek"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

"So you knowingly wanted to fight with people who you knew must be fellow members of the underground resistance?" Vaudin said finally turning on his stool and seeing the two women. He wiped the foam from his top lip and looked back at Corek

"Kro Var. Op space. sniper." He said pointing as he finally placed the name before looking at the woman who boasted about reactor parts, "Captain R-r-r-r" he began casting a pleading eye at the barkeep who whispered 'Raxis' "Raxis. Good to meet you. I'll arrange payment immediately."

He looked to his side as he turned around to go back to his drink and saw the young brown haired woman as she ordered a drink and said something about a box for them. Vaudin was typically a blunt sort of man, practical, who's love for the finer things was only out done by his love for a starship's deckplates beneath his feet. "I'd love to see your box. Of parts, that is."

'Blew it on your first swing nice work Miir.' He thought as he turned to the bar took out his data pad and began requesting their cargo manifest from the hanger crews.

 

[RC 212]

[member="Noah Corek"] [member="Vaudin Miir"] [member="Jorus Merrill"]

Vassara winked at the horned man and nodded.

"I bet you would space boy!"

She slid her datapad across the table, the files containing her manifest open for his reading. Then she grasped her freshly delivered drink and took a sip, pointing at Noah.

"I've seen you before, you have a few mentions in the Holonet. Mostly as a Protectorate Operative. Tell me more about the Protectorate."

She was fishing, looking for another job. You could always catch a fish with a big worm, and hitting on ones ego was quite the bait. Her skilled eyes examined his body language, flicking between the lot of the table.

"Hear you were a super soldier, saved the galaxy!"

 

[Jorus Merrill]

[member="Vassara Raxis"][member="Vaudin Miir"][member="Noah Corek"][member="Allyson Locke"]

"There was a time the Protectorate did what needed doing, and did it well. Stopped the Bando Gora, for one." Jorus shrugged eloquently. "Then they elected a droid.

"Anyways. Between the parts you lot have brought in, and a good hypermatter reactor to power it all, this place could really be something. We've got the base Shokita model to work with, and my wife and I found a Ssi-Ruuvi-Fringe Lwhekk Aleph factory ship a while back, abandoned. Maybe you saw it on the way in. The station won't be the biggest or most impressive around, but it'll do everything we need it to do."