Take the good parts, leave the rest to rot.

[RC 212]

Cinnagar- Space.

[member="Noah Corek"] [member="Zatten Black"]

Colap leaned back in the seat as they approached the desolated space fields around Cinnagar. Having been the seat of a massive battle there were hundreds of wrecked and destroyed vessels floating in orbit. A giant asteroid field of hollow empty vessels. Where others saw junk however Colap saw only treasure, and lot of it.

Beside him in the seat his corellian Wolfhound Solar slept soundly and he reached over to scratch him behind the ears. A cigar blazed away in the corner of his mouth as his free hand flipped switches on the dash.

"Alright partner, I'm running a mass scan to determine the vessel with the highest density. Most likely that'll be the one we strip. High density will tell me she's still in a somewhat less destroyed condition, which means better parts."

Colap loved wars. Wars were good for business. chiefly because once folks destroyed each others fleets they normally left the destroyed vessels to rot, as it was cheaper for them to build new ones. That meant there was no shortage of free scrap so long as war raged on.

 

[Zatten Black]

"Sure hope we don't get caught out here, Cap. Having an officer of the Protectorate and another of the Silver Jedi probably won't help your case if we get stopped. Sure, I dress like a Sith, but the Ones usually have a record of all their Knights."

I checked that all the air seals and straps on my armor were good, and they were, of course. Of course, I left my helmet off for now, but I could put it on, and the autoseal would fix it up.

I slicked back my hair, and grinned.

"Of course, anybody who's not actually a Sith will probably end up with a bad case of dead. Me and the General ain't slouches. And I'd be willing to bet there's a lot more weapons on this ship than I could see."

[member="Colap Ticon"]
[member='Noah Corek']

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

Colap laughed a hearty chuckle as they sped on. The ship was a flying confusion box, intended to throw enemies off his trail. It was an old Action IV Interceptor. He swivelled in the seat to face the Dark Jedi.

"You guessed my secret! Yeah there’s a tractor beam some ion cannons and few concussion missile launchers. They're all hidden up under retractable panels though and I got a license as a Civilian cargo and passenger freighter. No one's gonna bother us till we start ripping apart a ship, then we might have a problem."

 

[Zatten Black]

"Of course I guessed... Interceptors have more booby traps than a Trandoshan hunting range. Any good tactician would know to stay away from the end with the barrels."

I grinned and drank from the bottle of whiskey I always kept on me. I spun around in my suit, letting the cape flare out around me.

"This is the most badass piece of metal I've ever worn, and it's vacuum-sealed, too. Air tanks and everything. My favorite birthday present."

[member="Colap Ticon"]
[member='Noah Corek']

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

"Looks like you skinned a wookie and nailed 'im on a piece of metal." Colap snapped back, a chuckle escaping at the end. He loved to poke fun at people, made the time go by faster.

It was then that the scanners beeped and he thumbed another switch, projecting a hologram readout of a Xo'Xann star destroyer. As it rotated he frowned at the image closely inspecting the projection. There was a few sections with holes, a lot of plating damage but all in all she seemed to be almost in a perfect shape. Perfect as could be after taking a massive beating.

"Bingo!" Colap said, slamming his faceplate down and spitting the cigar free. They seals locked with a hiss and the gray armored suit powered up. Solar awoke in the seat and began to stretch.

"Alright looks like a downed SD, which is a sweet deal. It'll give us a nice hiding spot too. Im'a fly us in the hangar and set us down then we can pop out and strip here. Go back to the engine room and grab my black box of tools will ya?"

Colap strapped his harness on and grabbed the yoke, manuevering ever so slowly as the throttle came to half power. Wit ease he managed to sail through floating debris and towards the dark cavernous hangar.

 

[Zatten Black]

I grabbed the black box, and locked my vacuum-sealed helmet on.

"We're good to go, Captain. We stripping everything, or we gonna try and fly it out? It'd probably work with a minor refit. And it'd be worth a lot."

I felt the jolt as the freighter hit the artificial gravity of the Destroyer's hangar.

"Wish we could strip the exterior plating. My 'vette could use some bulking up."

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

The man had a valid point. If the beastly thing was still in enough of condition to keep they theoretically could sell it off to the highest bidder and split the profits. On the other hand plating was plentiful and he could patch on more of that later.

"Yeah sounds like a plan." Colap shot back as the landing gear touched down inside the hangar. Moving towards the air lock he snatched up two safety cables and tossed one to Zatten.

"Here hook this on your belt. wont do you any good to go floating off."

Solar began to plodd after him as he hooked the d-ring to his suit and spooled out half the thousand meter line, clipping it to a roller on his belt.

"Stay boy, this aint a trip for you."

The Wolfhound looked at him with a sad face but Colap was resolute. The Hound would freeze to death and that was that. Colap gave one last check of his vacuum seals, pushing a little air out and sealing them up tight as possible. With a last glance around he turned towards the airlock stepping through.

"Alright lets do this!"

 

[Zatten Black]

"It's not likely we'll go flying off. Didn't you feel the jolt when we hit the hangar? Life support's out, but gravity isn't."

I clipped the tether to my belt, and stepped off the freighter. My feet failed to float away from the floor.

"Are we gonna try to figure what's burned out? Or do we just start taking 'er apart?"

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

"Welp if we wanna figure out what’s down, we should head to the engineering room. If this baby's got any power left in her bones we can turn on the terminals and run a full diagnostic. It may be that we need to jerry rig some cables and engine parts. If we have to we can kill life support, and gravity to reroute the power."

Colap gave a quick look down the halls. Dead bodies were stuck to the floor, blood flash frozen across the bulkheads making it a garish scene. Normally his stomach would turn, but he was too drunk to care at this point. Besides after the Coruscant salvage mission, dead bodies came natural to him.

"Looks like it on the right, lets go!"

The helmet lights on the side of Colaps helm flipped on illuminating the halls in a harsh white light. they moved silently down the halls, Colap counting paces to keep track of the area.

 

[Zatten Black]

The concealed lights on my suit winked on as their light sensors read the sudden lack of brightness. Six points of light pulsed into the darkness, and I grimaced at the blood-soaked corpses that littered the halls of this ship.


"Is this all from depressurization, or loss of life support?"

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]


"A little bit of both." Colap remarked as they moved deeper into the ships bowels, illuminating the void darkness of the cavernous monster. As they stepped over the flash frozen dead and made their way to the lifts he looked around wearily.

There was not always safety on these ships. A reactor leak or worse, Reavers had been known to hide in derelicts. Even so close in orbit it would be a perfect place to lay nest...

Pushing dark thoughts aside he pointed to a set of corpses.

"See how they're heads were smashed open, thats from the rounds impacting and breaching the hull. As soon as the bits of skull and brain hit over here." Colap swivelled to illuminate the splatter on the opposite bulkhead, "The atmosphere went out and the emergency doors closed, flash freezing this compartment to keep fire from breaking into safer compartments."

And sure as poodoo there was a locked door. The door to the engineering bay...

 

[Zatten Black]

"Locked, huh?"

I drew my sword, and stepped up to the door. A few solid whacks at the door would probably take a chunk out of it.

"Stand back, Captain."

I leapt at the door, spinning, and cut deep into the outer layers of the blast door.

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

When the sword hit the doors Colap moved a bit farther back, not wanting his head taken off by the mad swings of the weapon. The cigar inside his helmet went out, and the oxygen tanks showed twenty minutes reserve. They needed to get the main power back on and quickly, or it might be a one way trip.

The door was pretty busted up and Colap stepped forwards, delivering a massive kick and then another and another until at last it popped free of the frame and smashed to the floor.

The Engineering room was empty, save for the destroyed corspes of the crew who no doubt had been trying a desperate act to save the ship and their comrades.

"Thats pretty." Colap mused dryly, picking up a corpse and tossing it out of the terminal chair so he could sit down.

"Lets see..."

A couple keystrokes revealed that Zatten indeed was a genius.

"Ok there’s two couplings in the back of this bay, they should be the disconnected ones. If we get those on I can run the engine diagnostics and determine what the fix is to move this hunk of junk."

Colap leaned back in the seat.

"You got it?"

 

[Zatten Black]

"Always. And there's spare oxygen over here, in case you're running out."

I stepped up to the console behind me, and wrenched it open, revealing a few busted circuits.

"You got any spare wire? I can fix this quick, if I have wire to rewire this with."

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

Colap nodded and looked under the console. No dice.

Usually engineers had supply locker or closet where they stashed their tools. As Colap wandered around the room,opening and closing doors and lockers he began to grow flustered.

"Kark it it's here somewhere!"

Then he opened a large toughbox in the corner.

"Bingo, spare parts, here!"

Colap kicked the toughbox and pushed off on the wall, using the leverage to slide it across the deckplates to his companion.

 

[Zatten Black]

I pulled the box to me with the Force, and promptly hit myself in the face.

"Fuck. That hurt."

I pulled out the wrecked wires slowly, hoping that nothing else would come out. Nothing did. Lucky me. I found a good, insulated wire in the box, and carefully threaded the copper wires into the cut-off where the old wire had been destroyed.

"We should have the computer, at least, in a few minutes. I've got to be real careful about this."

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

"Take your time, I dont feel like dying!" Colap laughed at that last thought. Maybe if he didn't feel like dying he shouldnt be trying to steal an abandoned Sith ship away from right under their noses.

He shrugged at the thought and went back to looking at the terminal as power juiced into her veins, giving him a wider range of options.

"You're pretty handy buddy!"

 

[Zatten Black]

"Ha, you better believe it."

I finally connected the last copper thread, and the emergency lights died off, and the main lights reactivated.

"We've got some power. Not willing to test the life support by taking my helmet off."

I spun to the computer console, hitting the voice sensor.

"Computer, systems diagnostic."

"Go fuck yourself."

I rolled my eyes. This computer had a sense of humor.

"Computer, just do the damn diagnostic. I wanna reactivate the ship."

[member="Colap Ticon"]

 

[RC 212]

[member="Zatten Black"]

Colap was a little taken aback at what the computer had to say. It wasn't every day you saw this type of thing.

"Whats the problem?" He asked, looking around the room to see the area in lights.

The whole room was covered in flash frozen blood and corpses. He shook his head, wishing he could light a cigar.

"You think the air's ok?"

Without waiting for an answer he popped the seal on his helmet and, viola! He lived!

"Thank god for that!"

Colap lit up a cigar and let it blaze away as he sat down next to Zatten.

"Try doing a command override, here found this in an engineer locker when I was looking for the wires."

Colap passed over a small card, riddled with circuitry and patterns. The card hopefully would override the system and make it do as the dead engineer in this case wanted it to do.