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Topic:  Echelon: Vehicle Mechanic Ancillary Skill
Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Leading Crewman (LCRW)
 
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  Echelon: Vehicle Mechanic Ancillary Skill
June 14, 2011 7:38:05 PM    View the profile of Echelon 
Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran lay on his provided bed aboard the large ship: the Dead Gun. Currently the ship was being massively repaired by a fleet of mechanics and technicians that worked non-stop. The noise that the repairing process created annoyed the hell out of most people, but Echelon was fine with it all. He often watched mechanics work, and he picked up on how to use tools. It was a good expirience for him because he hoped on becoming a vehicle mechanic.

Currently he was dreaming about his home on Coruscant. The tall buildings. The flying speeders. And the mass amount of polution. Suddenly he felt someone shake him, and he awoke. Standing in front of him was his friend and mechanic, Feldon Bols. Echelon rubbed his eyes and sat up.

"Hey Ech," Bols said, "there is a broken Lambda-class T4a Shuttle in hangar 2b. I thinks there is something wrong with one of the Ion drives, but I need you to fix it. I can't because they need someone who can micro fuse reactor plating together. I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"Sure. I guess," Echelon replied in a sleepy tone. Bols patted Echelon on the back and left.

He sat up and walked to the nearest turbo lift. He pressed several buttons and with a jolt, the high speed elevator sped downward. After a minute or two the turbolift stopped and the door opened. Across him there was a door and a keypad.

He walked over and tried to open the door with the keypad. The keypad said in a mellow voice, "Access denied. Officers only."

Damn! How am I going to get into the hangar?

Then the door opened and an officer stepped out of the hangar. He was dressed in the standard Vast Imperial Navy officer uniform, and he walked in an egotistical way.

"Ahh," he said, "you must be the mechanic Bols sent down. Follow me."

The officer led Echelon into the hangar. In the middle was an Imperial shuttle.

The officer turned to Echelon and said, "I have to attend a conference, and this ship is broken."

"Can't you use another ship?" Echelon asked.

The officer frowned and said, "I refuse to use any other ship! This is the one where I got my promotion!"

Stuck up son of a bantha...

"Well, I'll try and fix it."

"Good. I can't be late to this meeting. You'll find all of the tools you need in the tool box." He pointed to a wheeled box with drawers next to the shuttle. The officer walked out of the hangar leaving Echelon alone.

Time to get to work!

He went through the tool box and grabbed a flash light and a fusion cutter/welder. He climbed inside the shuttle and opened up the Ion drive access hatch. It gave him a view of all of the technical and mechanical parts of the Ion engine.

Ion engines work by fueling an internal fusion reaction (this can be fueled by power cells, on board generators, etc.) that creates highly-charged particles. These particles are directed out of the space craft's exaust port which propels the craft.

He turned on his flash light and examined the parts. It seemed this craft's fueling system was power cell fueled. He examined the wires coming out of the power cells. None of them were damaged, but the wires went through and came out of a little cell. The cell hung freely with the wires, and it was about the size of a water bottle. Echelon touched the box, and it was hot. He grabbed the fusion cutter and cut the cell open. As the top came off, a small plume of smoke came out.

After the smoke cleared, Echelon examined the cell. It was some sort of resistor, and the wires going through it were split and charred.

It seems a power malfunction caused the resistor to overload which cut the power supply to the ion drive. No problem.

Echelon cleaned the wires, and spliced them back together. He fused the top of the resistor back on.

Good. But what caused the power malfunction?

He looked at the power cells. They were each about the size of a milk jug, and they were lined up next to each other.

Nothing looks wrong there.

He then got up and closed the hatch. He walked over to the cockpit, and turned the terminal on. With a few simple commands he accessed the top speed the craft had ever achieved: 950 km/h!

Wow! The craft is supposed to only go 850 km/h. The controls must have glitched which made the Ion drive call for more power. The resistor was overwhelmed by the amount of power that it failed. The controls must be recaliberated, so that won't happen again.

He accessed the caliberation program and set everything to default.

Time to test this out.

He sat in the pilot's seat, and turned the primary ignition on. Then he turned the repulsorlift engines on and flew out of the hangar.

The moment of truth. Will the Ion engines turn on?

He flipped the Ion drive on...and they started. Relieved, he flew above the Dead Gun and came back into the hangar. He climbed out of the shuttle and picked up his tools. The officer came in the hangar and asked, "Did you fix it?"

"Yes sir," Echelon replied.

If the Ion drives stopped working when the shuttle was in space, how did the pilot get back to the ship?

"Good work. Did I tell you that we came flying into the hangar at extreme speeds?! The pilot said that the engines had stopped and he couldn't slow down. Good thing the ship's tractor beam slowed us down."

That's how.

The officer and his crew climbed aboard the shuttle and sped away.

Time to take a nap!

OOC:
970 words. Also halfway through this I realized I had to do a repulsorlift system, so I apologize for me not doing that. Hopefully this will be good enough. I also didn't have a lot of information to work with, so I had to do some improv.
FM/LCW Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/B-3/S:82 "Nightshrike"/W:245 "Scimitar"/ISD Halcyon Warrior/TF:A/2Flt/SFC/VEN/VE [SoA]
Trykon
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Trykon
 
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  RE: Echelon: Vehicle Mechanic Ancillary Skill
June 14, 2011 9:03:58 PM    View the profile of Trykon 
Nice post, Echelon.  You pass for Vehicle Mechanic, but as is my way, I'll also offer some suggestions for future improvements. 

First off, a relatively minor point: As I understand it, the starfighter's engines also generate most of the power for the other onboard systems, including the repulsorlifts, so is seems impossible to just "turn on" repulsorlifts and have them function with totally non-functional engines.  My knowledge (of this made-up machine) is admittedly imperfect, however, and you did say you improvised with what little information you yourself had, so it's not a terribly big deal. 

Second, though: the scenario described in your post - wherein a mechanic asks someone else, who's not trained as a mechanic, to do his repair job for him - doesn't make a lot of sense to me.  It's not totally impossible, I suppose, but it's terribly unlikely.  Since it's not the focus of the skill mission, it's not going to effect you passing, but it's something to think about moving forward: are my characters acting like real people do?

Good job.  As I said, you passed - you shouldn't feel like you need to offer disclaimers when you post, okay?  You're doing well!  There're always things to work on, for every writer, but you've got a nice base set of skills. 

-WO2 Trykon
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Echelon
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Echelon
 
[VE-NAVY] Leading Crewman (LCRW)
 
Post Number:  46
Total Posts:  546
Joined:  May 2011
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  RE: Echelon: Vehicle Mechanic Ancillary Skill
June 15, 2011 6:23:03 AM    View the profile of Echelon 
Thanks for the suggestions!
FM/LCW Finbar "Echelon" Bandoran/B-3/S:82 "Nightshrike"/W:245 "Scimitar"/ISD Halcyon Warrior/TF:A/2Flt/SFC/VEN/VE [SoA]
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