Jorus Q. Merrill
I'm a Vima-da-Boda, honey
OUT OF CHARACTER INFORMATION
- Intent: A ship for a Jedi team, as requested.
- Image Source: Elite Dangerous fan art; internal view by me
- Canon Link: N/A
- Permissions: Mystra-class by Atlas Drake
- Primary Source: Mystra-class Picket Carrier
- Manufacturer: Uukaablis, modifications by the Wretched Hive
- Affiliation: The Jedi (pink slip owned by Julius Sedaire)
- Market Status: Closed market
- Model: The Bezharl
- 'Impatient trickster' in a Corellian dialect
- beh-ZHARL, 'zh' pronounced like 'treasure' or 'explosion'
- Mystra-class Picket Carrier, heavily modified
- Production: Unique
- Material: Durasteel hull, glasteel viewports
- Classification: Personal Transport
- Length: 200 m
- Width: 110 m
- Height: 30 m
- Armament: Low
- Defenses: High
- Hangar Space: High (2 squadrons, space usually occupied by personal craft)
- Hangar Allocations:
- Starfighters: 1 squadron
- Support Craft: 1 squadron
- Hangar Allocations:
- Single Craft Hangar: No
- Maneuverability Rating: Average
- Speed Rating: High
- Hyperdrive: 1.0 (primary drive); Aing-Tii fold-space drive (unrated)
- All standard features
- Basic Jedi training/operations setup
- Aing-Tii 'fold-space' instantaneous transportation system
- Merrill Lighthouse navigational aid (yes, it can be turned on and off)
- Advanced deflector shields
- Advanced medical suite
- This ship has a full-scale Aing-Tii instantaneous interstellar transportation system. This system offers unmatched response time and bypasses both navigational hazards and interdiction.
- This ship blends in well, particularly in former TKO/ORC/OPA or CIS territory and especially in the Rim regions. In the Kathol, Elrood, and Quence sectors, for example, it's damn near background noise.
- This ship carries stock advanced alien deflector shields.
- This ship carries a stock advanced medical suite.
- The Aing-Tii drive requires at least three Masters united in meditation, at least one of whom must be intimately familiar with Aing-Tii fold-space drives or techniques, and thus is reserved for emergencies. In most circumstances, the main drive (class 1.0) is plenty.
- Ysalamiri and similar interference will prevent the Aing-Tii drive from functioning. Serious mental interference toward the meditating Masters could limit the drive's precision or responsiveness.
- Anyone within 500 light-years — pirates, invaders, slavers, alien unmentionables — has a good chance of detecting the Lighthouse, understanding the general intent of its signal even if encrypted, and jumping directly to it.
- The ship has a basic weapons loadout (laser cannons, turbolasers, ion cannons, and warhead launchers) that is underpowered for its size.
DESCRIPTION
In 870 ABY, following a costly victory at Dromund Kaas, Julius and Tessa Sedaire tracked down an old mechanic named Jorus Merrill. They caught up with him on Socorro and requested that he customize a ship for a strike team of Jedi Masters. Jorus agreed to come out of retirement for this one job, if and only if he had full creative freedom. Jorus called on the support of the Wretched Hive, the legendary mobile chop shop that he'd once captained, as well as the old Krevaaki outlaw tech Dingo Darr. As the project was too large for the Hive's hangar bays, the mod took place aboard Jorus' old long-haul bulk freighter, the Gossamer.
Their goal was a ship in the light capital/medium transport range, requiring a minimal crew but capable of moving and supporting a handful of personal craft. The vessel needed to be fast but unobtrusive, capable of keeping a low profile. Jorus selected a familiar Uukaablian picket carrier, a common sight in the former territories of the Outer Rim Coalition/Outer Planets Alliance and much of the former Confederacy of Independent Systems. After the collapse of the OPA, Uukaablian picket carriers were a normal choice for planetary defense forces and independent shipping concerns due to extreme hangar space and the Uukaablian's trademark high-quality shields. All told, the base ship blends in.
Disdaining the 'everything and the kitchen sink' approach to outlaw tech customization, Jorus focused on a few signature elements, as well as mitigating the original ship's vulnerabilities. The centerpiece of the mod project was the installation of a genuine and vanishingly rare Aing-Tii fold-drive. Jorus, Julius, and the Hive had spent decades in the Kathol Outback, and old friendships and connections won the day. Julius' longtime home, Uhl Valaviteco, had boasted an Aing-Tii-derived drive of its own, which influenced Jorus' choice to commit serious resources toward obtaining and integrating the genuine article.
The second signature piece is Jorus' own invention from bygone years, a so-called Merrill Lighthouse that can emit high-energy omnidirectional hyperspace radiance to serve as a navigational beacon, even in the depths of the Unknown Regions. The radiance backlights hyperspace turbulence between the lighthouse and an observer: a clear signal means a straight-line jump is perfectly safe. The radiance is coded with jump coordinates for the lighthouse, and can be encrypted. Its range is up to 500 light-years, five times as far as a standard capital ship transceiver. It took every ounce of Jorus's skill to wedge the damn thing inside the ship's available power and system capacity: the modified Mystra-class spaceframe was at the extreme bottom end of the range of ships that could be refitted with a Lighthouse.
Beyond those two pieces (the fold-space drive and the Lighthouse), modifications focused on ensuring a handful of Jedi and droids can operate the ship. Various holds have been converted into Jedi training space, a briefing room, meditation areas, a small library, a lightsaber workshop, and other Jedi-specific odds and ends. Jorus was a career Warden of the Sky who got recruited to be the Jedi Order's Master of First Knowledge once upon a time, and who ultimately left the Jedi — and then control of the Force — behind.
He drew on that experience to make what appears to be a bog-standard Jedi training setup. In point of fact, the library includes subversive titles like Deep Black Sea: The Companion Besh Survival Guide, recipes for Skor Smoked Whale Hotpot and various iterations of Zonju Cave Cactus juice, a shocking amount of freespace-anarchist theory disguised as Form I manuals, maps of the Torrential Burp and the Aquavit Zigzag, spiritually corrosive contact information for various denizens and establishments in Zoronhed, and the Merrill-Blake Star Map. But that's only if you go digging.
Last edited:
