1st Lt. Garrek Kanos
New Member
Rimma Trade Route:
Vandelhelm Cloud: Ribos Mining Corporation - 847 ABY
The small hangar bay aboard the mining depot was a welcoming atmosphere this morning. Well, just the idea of work really, to distract Hux from what had happened the fortnight in the mess hall. Being the station's notorious Gran, Broley's hot-headed antics always seemed to target him whenever they crossed paths. Ever since Hux bested him in the Cloud Cup, catching his eye during down-time, it was inevitable that Broley would taunt him with veiled threats, accompanied by the chiding laughter of his two faithful compatriots. Dude was a bully, simply put. No physical altercation came out of anything last night, but that would have been different if perhaps Hux had been more assertive, confident, and less passive concerning confrontations altogether. Every once in a while, he pondered if it was really considered peace if you're just delaying what may be inevitable conflict. He just didn't want to suffer any time in the brig with suspended pay. His loan was hefty on his YT-1930. ...He was shrewd when it came to speed. Avoiding a beaten face and ensuring his fix for fast-paced travel? Seemed a no-brainer.
Freshly showered, he sighed, pushing the ordeal out of his mind as he approached his company's modified Mantis mining craft docked snugly in its port-side alcove. The sounds of compact drills, conveyor tracks and cranes went down to a muffled lull as the canopy clamped shut over him. His employers having installed clock switches into each of the worker's crafts, he pressed his thumb against it to read his print and log his starting time, ten minutes before his scheduled shift. Opening his comm channel, he promptly strapped up and put on his helmet, awaiting for dispatch to give him their release into the asteroid field outside. Sure enough, not even thirty seconds after his time was logged...
::*static start* Morning, Hux.:: The low, gutteral voice of Jetsum, the station's Besalisk dispatcher flooded the roomy cockpit.
Finally clamping his breather helmet under his jaw, Hux answered, "Mornin', Jet."
::Ready to beat Broley again in quota?::
Hux huffed in a mixture of both amusement and annoyance as he fired up his stabilizers and gyro-grav well, hearing the whine of power rise and course through the ship. "Look at the records, Jet. I shouldn't have to tell you that one." Half the station knew of their rivalry.
::Well, regardless, Cap'n Sumi says corporate's gonna start auditing for more phrik, along with the standard quota of oridium.::
Hux leaned his head back with a low-sigh, helmet hitting his chair. "...'course they are..greedy sons'o nemoidians.." he whispered, disregarding whether Jet heard him or not.
...Which Jet did. ::Hehe! Thankfully we don't get paid according to our opinions. Figured I'd let you know first, rather than..well, you-know-who. Love to see the clueless hot-head's face when Sumi cracks down on him. ...You're cleared, by the way.::
To be thankful, or to be wary of another reason for confrontation with Broley, Hux wasn't sure. But it was good money to stay ahead of the game. Thumbing his signature PDA he took with him literally everywhere, strapped onto the thigh of his tattered jumpsuit, the synthesized acoustics [0:00] trickled life into his ship's speakers. Turbines fired up to standard, he disengaged the docking clamps underneath the main fuselage, and pulled his flight wench to engage thrust, gliding his downward triangular craft out to the center of the hangar. "..'preciate it. Seeya in a few hours."
::Force with ya, Hux *brief static*:: Jet closed the channel.
"...The Force, huh?" Hux cleared the hangar's threshold and shoved the throttle forward in his pure fashion, jetting off towards the densely congested 'cloud' of asteroids in the near distance, chiding himself silently at the thought of actually being able to be so legendary to wield such power. "...Must be nice..havin' something like that on your side."
[0:30] Reaching the first few floating boulders, he brought his ship down to a steady glide, maintaining a keen eye, letting proper caution take its influence on his flight path. Weaving and bobbing accordingly, he traveled deeper into the field than most would deem necessary; however, considering that Jet just told him that Ribos was looking for more phrik deposits along the cloud, those dwellings lay within the much larger hunks of stone. It would take an average pilot around thirty to forty minutes to circumnavigate a feasible route, at steady speeds. But he somehow managed to operate his craft beyond what most others did. The truth of difference remained as unchecked as the inherent reason for Hux. He just flew faster...and faster..[1:30]....and faster through the field, building momentum that coincided musically well with the build of his adrenaline and focus. Feet on point with the retro and dorsal thruster controls in his now dampening sweaty gloves, he used his nimble craft's thin shape to its full advantage, skimming by rocks, circumventing their erratic traffic patterns with intuitive ease.
The rush fed his insatiable appetite for rapidity...and it was what often got him into serious trouble. Numerous traffic infractions, court attendances, not to mention the fines that came with them. Didn't help him feel any less 'stuck' in his current position.
Speaking of trouble....rounding the corner of a stone the size of Ribos' hangar bay floor, another smaller stone travelling at no less than 80 kph veered into view, impending to cross paths with the Mantis. Hux's eyes grew wide as he depressed the left retro thruster to the floor, giving the dorsal wench a sudden yet smooth yank to the lower right, allowing the stone to dart right above the top curvature of his craft whilst still brake sliding to a vector exempt from collision with the rock he just circumvented. The small stone burst into sparks as it collided with a jut of the inverted boulder, sending small shards of deposits and debris in all directions. Before Hux would give his thrusters a spurt to escape the danger, another boulder, appearing out of nowhere crashed into a 'medium sized' asteroid right before him. His mind completely emptied of anything else, his focus and positional awareness granted him the nads to pull the gutsiest maneuver any sane flight instructor, space force, or employer would revoke his license for...he flew straight towards it, mere meters ahead. No other choice, as he didn't know where the two bodies would go, except where they had just been at point of collision. Cracking together before him, [2:32] time slowed down as scolding hot chunks of buried metal and sediment flew in darts of sparks, whizzing past his canopy. Some pinged off his hull, probably leaving some burnt scoring trails along the dorsals. Milliseconds of prayer and hope flashed through his mind and escaped in a loud bated breath as he kept his ship trained on the new opening before him, teeth grit.
...and out he went... [2:50] More muffled explosions occurred behind him as debris from that collision caused others. "Get away, get away! C'mon...go, go, go, goooo...!" Speeding away from the momentary inferno, the next few stones in his vicinity were thankfully not that threatening to his fleeing vector. He was in the clear.
------------------------------------
Finally comfortable enough to slow his Mantis down to relatively sane speeds, Hux realized two things as oxygen began filling his body with relief and his head with momentary anxiety. One, his flight recorder will tell on him later. Two...he reached a viable point for mining. Those deposits looks ripe with metallic ore, bound to carry the resource he'd be paid decently to collect. The monstrosity he'd set his eyes on minutes before in his trek inward, he'd finally reached. It was literally the size of a rural city on one half side. But it wasn't that rock he'd be mining into. It'd rather serve him as a 'vantage corner' as he mined a smaller, more manageable asteroid whilst being able to maintain a safe distance from the surface of the larger one. Their rotations tended to remain slower. Aided by proximity sensors all along the hull and dorsal fins, it was a technique well known to all miners.
He spotted his first mark, relatively sized a bit longer than his craft itself, primed his tractor beams, and got to work. Two miniature tractor beams were implemented using a different control scheme along the cockpit's roomy interior. Two separate wenches on either side of the dash and levers along both sticks allowed for optimal control and holding abilities of most any mark. Hux used one tractor wench while aiming with his main control flight stick. Once the stone was relatively stabilized in center view, he engaged the second beam. Within seconds, the mark was in his grasp. Priming the mining lasers, he fired them up. Light blue streams of energy drilled into the stone, albeit creating a polar opposing force to the tractor beams, which--in turn--pulled the metallic deposits ripped from the innards into compartments on the bottom invertices of the Mantis' triangular hull.
Sighing out one last huff of relief from his recent escapade of recklessness, Hux slumped back into his seat, allowing the tension to seep out of him best he could. His head buzzed with....something. He relied well enough on his proximity sensors to bid him time enough to veer away. This part of the field had most likely been charted before in the many years of Ribos' presence, always a shortage of workers though. Too dangerous, apparently. Not to mention the impossible quotas. Even Hux thought it a miracle to meet such standards every standard month...but he did. And when he didn't, he was still in the relative lead.
Whilst letting the cutting lasers do their job, he'd use his PDA filled with literally anything from games, to music, to previously hacked files on military grade hardware, intel-siphoning software, matrices encoding programs....anything he could toy with later.
Vandelhelm Cloud: Ribos Mining Corporation - 847 ABY
The small hangar bay aboard the mining depot was a welcoming atmosphere this morning. Well, just the idea of work really, to distract Hux from what had happened the fortnight in the mess hall. Being the station's notorious Gran, Broley's hot-headed antics always seemed to target him whenever they crossed paths. Ever since Hux bested him in the Cloud Cup, catching his eye during down-time, it was inevitable that Broley would taunt him with veiled threats, accompanied by the chiding laughter of his two faithful compatriots. Dude was a bully, simply put. No physical altercation came out of anything last night, but that would have been different if perhaps Hux had been more assertive, confident, and less passive concerning confrontations altogether. Every once in a while, he pondered if it was really considered peace if you're just delaying what may be inevitable conflict. He just didn't want to suffer any time in the brig with suspended pay. His loan was hefty on his YT-1930. ...He was shrewd when it came to speed. Avoiding a beaten face and ensuring his fix for fast-paced travel? Seemed a no-brainer.
Freshly showered, he sighed, pushing the ordeal out of his mind as he approached his company's modified Mantis mining craft docked snugly in its port-side alcove. The sounds of compact drills, conveyor tracks and cranes went down to a muffled lull as the canopy clamped shut over him. His employers having installed clock switches into each of the worker's crafts, he pressed his thumb against it to read his print and log his starting time, ten minutes before his scheduled shift. Opening his comm channel, he promptly strapped up and put on his helmet, awaiting for dispatch to give him their release into the asteroid field outside. Sure enough, not even thirty seconds after his time was logged...
::*static start* Morning, Hux.:: The low, gutteral voice of Jetsum, the station's Besalisk dispatcher flooded the roomy cockpit.
Finally clamping his breather helmet under his jaw, Hux answered, "Mornin', Jet."
::Ready to beat Broley again in quota?::
Hux huffed in a mixture of both amusement and annoyance as he fired up his stabilizers and gyro-grav well, hearing the whine of power rise and course through the ship. "Look at the records, Jet. I shouldn't have to tell you that one." Half the station knew of their rivalry.
::Well, regardless, Cap'n Sumi says corporate's gonna start auditing for more phrik, along with the standard quota of oridium.::
Hux leaned his head back with a low-sigh, helmet hitting his chair. "...'course they are..greedy sons'o nemoidians.." he whispered, disregarding whether Jet heard him or not.
...Which Jet did. ::Hehe! Thankfully we don't get paid according to our opinions. Figured I'd let you know first, rather than..well, you-know-who. Love to see the clueless hot-head's face when Sumi cracks down on him. ...You're cleared, by the way.::
To be thankful, or to be wary of another reason for confrontation with Broley, Hux wasn't sure. But it was good money to stay ahead of the game. Thumbing his signature PDA he took with him literally everywhere, strapped onto the thigh of his tattered jumpsuit, the synthesized acoustics [0:00] trickled life into his ship's speakers. Turbines fired up to standard, he disengaged the docking clamps underneath the main fuselage, and pulled his flight wench to engage thrust, gliding his downward triangular craft out to the center of the hangar. "..'preciate it. Seeya in a few hours."
::Force with ya, Hux *brief static*:: Jet closed the channel.
"...The Force, huh?" Hux cleared the hangar's threshold and shoved the throttle forward in his pure fashion, jetting off towards the densely congested 'cloud' of asteroids in the near distance, chiding himself silently at the thought of actually being able to be so legendary to wield such power. "...Must be nice..havin' something like that on your side."
[0:30] Reaching the first few floating boulders, he brought his ship down to a steady glide, maintaining a keen eye, letting proper caution take its influence on his flight path. Weaving and bobbing accordingly, he traveled deeper into the field than most would deem necessary; however, considering that Jet just told him that Ribos was looking for more phrik deposits along the cloud, those dwellings lay within the much larger hunks of stone. It would take an average pilot around thirty to forty minutes to circumnavigate a feasible route, at steady speeds. But he somehow managed to operate his craft beyond what most others did. The truth of difference remained as unchecked as the inherent reason for Hux. He just flew faster...and faster..[1:30]....and faster through the field, building momentum that coincided musically well with the build of his adrenaline and focus. Feet on point with the retro and dorsal thruster controls in his now dampening sweaty gloves, he used his nimble craft's thin shape to its full advantage, skimming by rocks, circumventing their erratic traffic patterns with intuitive ease.
The rush fed his insatiable appetite for rapidity...and it was what often got him into serious trouble. Numerous traffic infractions, court attendances, not to mention the fines that came with them. Didn't help him feel any less 'stuck' in his current position.
Speaking of trouble....rounding the corner of a stone the size of Ribos' hangar bay floor, another smaller stone travelling at no less than 80 kph veered into view, impending to cross paths with the Mantis. Hux's eyes grew wide as he depressed the left retro thruster to the floor, giving the dorsal wench a sudden yet smooth yank to the lower right, allowing the stone to dart right above the top curvature of his craft whilst still brake sliding to a vector exempt from collision with the rock he just circumvented. The small stone burst into sparks as it collided with a jut of the inverted boulder, sending small shards of deposits and debris in all directions. Before Hux would give his thrusters a spurt to escape the danger, another boulder, appearing out of nowhere crashed into a 'medium sized' asteroid right before him. His mind completely emptied of anything else, his focus and positional awareness granted him the nads to pull the gutsiest maneuver any sane flight instructor, space force, or employer would revoke his license for...he flew straight towards it, mere meters ahead. No other choice, as he didn't know where the two bodies would go, except where they had just been at point of collision. Cracking together before him, [2:32] time slowed down as scolding hot chunks of buried metal and sediment flew in darts of sparks, whizzing past his canopy. Some pinged off his hull, probably leaving some burnt scoring trails along the dorsals. Milliseconds of prayer and hope flashed through his mind and escaped in a loud bated breath as he kept his ship trained on the new opening before him, teeth grit.
...and out he went... [2:50] More muffled explosions occurred behind him as debris from that collision caused others. "Get away, get away! C'mon...go, go, go, goooo...!" Speeding away from the momentary inferno, the next few stones in his vicinity were thankfully not that threatening to his fleeing vector. He was in the clear.
------------------------------------
Finally comfortable enough to slow his Mantis down to relatively sane speeds, Hux realized two things as oxygen began filling his body with relief and his head with momentary anxiety. One, his flight recorder will tell on him later. Two...he reached a viable point for mining. Those deposits looks ripe with metallic ore, bound to carry the resource he'd be paid decently to collect. The monstrosity he'd set his eyes on minutes before in his trek inward, he'd finally reached. It was literally the size of a rural city on one half side. But it wasn't that rock he'd be mining into. It'd rather serve him as a 'vantage corner' as he mined a smaller, more manageable asteroid whilst being able to maintain a safe distance from the surface of the larger one. Their rotations tended to remain slower. Aided by proximity sensors all along the hull and dorsal fins, it was a technique well known to all miners.
He spotted his first mark, relatively sized a bit longer than his craft itself, primed his tractor beams, and got to work. Two miniature tractor beams were implemented using a different control scheme along the cockpit's roomy interior. Two separate wenches on either side of the dash and levers along both sticks allowed for optimal control and holding abilities of most any mark. Hux used one tractor wench while aiming with his main control flight stick. Once the stone was relatively stabilized in center view, he engaged the second beam. Within seconds, the mark was in his grasp. Priming the mining lasers, he fired them up. Light blue streams of energy drilled into the stone, albeit creating a polar opposing force to the tractor beams, which--in turn--pulled the metallic deposits ripped from the innards into compartments on the bottom invertices of the Mantis' triangular hull.
Sighing out one last huff of relief from his recent escapade of recklessness, Hux slumped back into his seat, allowing the tension to seep out of him best he could. His head buzzed with....something. He relied well enough on his proximity sensors to bid him time enough to veer away. This part of the field had most likely been charted before in the many years of Ribos' presence, always a shortage of workers though. Too dangerous, apparently. Not to mention the impossible quotas. Even Hux thought it a miracle to meet such standards every standard month...but he did. And when he didn't, he was still in the relative lead.
Whilst letting the cutting lasers do their job, he'd use his PDA filled with literally anything from games, to music, to previously hacked files on military grade hardware, intel-siphoning software, matrices encoding programs....anything he could toy with later.