- OOC:
- And here's the (not) anticipated sequel to my intro! :P Part 2 of 2.
10 minutes later..Hades had opened the rear access hatch of his Interceptor, and attached the hyperdrive to the main reactor. He was in the process of tweaking the reactor's power output when the mechanic finally turned up. He rose from his crouching position, turning to the mechanic, hand extended in greeting. The man shook it firmly.
“I'm Demetrius Aita, Callsign Hades.” he introduced himself, looking at the man. The mechanic stood about Hades' height, but with thinning grey hair and dark brown eyes. He looked like a veteran of the VE, and the Master Chief's insignia on his shoulder testified to that.
“I'm Lorik.” Lorik turned his gaze to the fighter. “So we're just dealing with a standard interceptor?”
“Correct.” Hades indicated it with a twitch of his head. “I installed it already but I'm not sure if I got the power output right. The motivators seem to be a bit loose and the inertial dampeners don't look too good. Do you mind if you take a look at them?”
“That's what I'm here for.” Lorik replied, stepping forward. Hades stepped aside and gestured to it with his arm.
“Be my guest.” Lorik nodded at the invitation and peered closer at the recently-installed hyperdrive. He then knelt, getting down on one knee to look into the smallish hyperdrive.
“Hmm..” Lorik said as he reached in and fiddled with it somewhat. “Contrary to what your datapad says, this is a
crappy hyperdrive my friend.”
“How can you tell?” Hades frowned.
“Well, first off, the power intake is far larger than it should be – meaning it's using outdated technology or there's a problem with the power cables. Secondly, as you noticed, the motivators are shoddy. They shouldn't even be in that position in the first place. The motivators are normally one of the inner-most workings of the 'drive. Finally, you also noticed the inertial dampeners looked bad. I'll give it to you straight, if you go into hyperspace with those things.. well it'd be a miracle if you came out in one piece. More likely to come out in one...super-stretched piece.. Oh, and I also noticed the failsafe is not intact. Meaning, if you tried to jump in the influence of a gravity well or planet you'd probably kill yourself.”
Hades' frown deepened at the mechanic's increasingly negative prognosis.
“Well, what can we do to fix it?” He asked, not sure what to do. The mechanic stroked his chin thoughtfully, squinting at the shoddy hyperdrive.
“Well.. for the power, you can install additional power cells, or if it's the cables, you can replace them with new versions. The motivators.. not much we can do there. We
can tighten the connection, but they're still fairly poor quality. It won't cause any permanent damage, but they may fail now and again. The inertial dampeners..hmm. You could refit the 'drive with newer models. Other than that we can tweak the temperature compensation functions of the dampers and the reverse thrust. That
seems to be the problem. But you'd want to run tests, first. As for the fail safe.. you'll have to get a new chip.” The mechanic answered, semi-helpfully as Hades did not undersand all of his answer.
“Temperature compensation functions? Chip?” Hades responded, confused.
“Temperature compensation functions. That's what a transpacitor or Hyperspace shunt does. Getting rid of excess heat to prevent damage to the internal compartments. Your 'drive seems to have a transpacitor.. which is a good thing” The mechanic added, seeing the confused look. “A transpacitor is more reliable and efficient than a shunt. As for the chip, it's a little, thumb-sized electronic chip which handles the gravitic calculations. The thing that figures out when you're within the influence of gravity and stops your hyperdrive from making a jump if you are.”
Hades nodded, enlightened.
“So how will we go about this?” he queried. He was still unsure as to how to repair such things.
“Well, let me check something first.” The mechanic answered mysteriously, sticking his head inside the compartment which contained the new hyperdrive. He emerged a few moments later, with a smile on his face. “Good news is, we'll only need two additional power cells. I can get them now. The motivators aren't as bad as I first thought, but still are bad. You can probably tighten that with a hydrospanner. Or one of those little screwdrivers, if you're one of those pedantic nit-pickers. The inertial dampers would be easy to replace, but costly, while the repairs would be easy as well. BUT success is not guaranteed. And I can get that chip thing-y with the cells.”
“Sounds too easy.” Hades grinned, “What's the catch?”
“No catch.” The other man said, raising his comm as he stood up. “Ah, this is MCPO Lorik, I need to requisition two standard TIE interceptor power cells along with a hyperdrive failsafe chip. Starfighter-model.”
“Roger that, Master Chief. Which bay?” The voice on the other end came back shortly.
“Bay 3 alpha.” Lorik responded, rolling his eyes at Hades to indicate his frustration with the office folks.
“It will be down shortly. Requisitions out.” The voice came a final time. Lorik didn't bother responding and turned to Hades, who nodded at the man. “let's get to work on the motivators, and the inertial dampers first.”
“Alright.” Hades shook out his arms to get some blood flowing, before reaching down to pick up his mechanic's pack. He had a hydrospanner and several other tools. The man looked over Hades' shoulder as he crouched down to access the hyperdrive. Hades crawled forward and looked at the motivator.
“Okay. You see the connection of the motivator to the main 'drive? Yep, that's it.” He said as Hades indicated the connection with the hydro-spanner. “Well you're gonna want to be very careful. You might damage the null quantum field generator. Just as if tightening a bolt, but infinitely more careful.”
Hades did as instructed, the hydro-spanner reaching the connection and turning it slightly, with a thunk as it connected. He continued turning – carefully, carefully.. until he felt the resistance increase significantly. He withdrew the tool.
“Yep, that should do it.” The man told him. “Alright. Now for the reverse thrust and transpacitors, you're gonna have to access the main processor. That little port on the left hand side. Yeah, that's the one. Plug your datapad into it.”
Hades again did as instructed, plugging in his datapad, watching the systems diagnostic come up. It blinked green a few times, before blinking red when it came to the inertial dampers, focusing on – just as Lorik had expected – the transpacitor and the reverse thrust settings.
“So.. select the transpacitor. Alright. Now the heat output should be the last option. That's the one. If you crank it up... the right option. There. Put it up to the maximum safe temperature. Alright, that should do it. Now go back to the inertial dampers. Select the second option. Ah.” The mechanic led him through each of the stages, coming to the final stage – the reverse thrust. “Now, you've gotta turn it off first. There we go. Now-”
“Crank it up to the maximum safe thrust?” Hades quipped. The mechanic smirked.
“You're getting the hang of this. Yep.” Lorik replied briefly, good-humouredly. Hades again, did what the mechanic had told him to and when done, exited out of the diagnostic, before re-entering it and running a full systems test. The inertial dampeners blinked green, but when the diagnostic passed the power requirements, the system blinked orange. The failsafe didn't even show up.
“Master chief?” A voice echoed from behind them. Lorik turned and Hades stood, turning as well.
“Aye, that's me.” Lorik confirmed. A young crewman stood in front of them with a datapad and a small container.
“You requisitioned two power cells for an interceptor and a failsafe chip?” The crewman asked. Lorik nodded. “Alright. Just place your ID on the 'pad and we're done here.”
Lorik stepped forward, pulling an ID holo from his pocket and placing it face-down on the man's datapad. The pad beeped, and the crewman handed over the container, nodding contentedly.
“Master Chief.” The man nodded shortly and turned striding back the way he'd come. Lorik opened the case and turned to Hades, reaching in and handing the power cells over.
“Well, we should install the power cells first. If we were to do it afterward, we might fry the failsafe chip. I
think that's what happened to the last one, after you increased the power output.” Lorik instructed him again. Hades nodded his understanding, sighing slightly. He closed the hyperdrive compartment and opened the reactor case, careful not to bump the fuel lines. There were two power cells already installed, and had connectors for additional power. Hades knew how to do this. He leaned in and switched off the power – thereby preventing any surges or sparks from occurring. He slowly placed the first cell down, making sure it aligned perfectly with the already-installed cell. It did, and a soft beep came from the reactor indicating the power was connected. Hades did the same for the other, and again a beep emanated from the reactor. He switched it on once more and waited for the orange light to turn green – it did, indicating that the power output was now at optimal capacity. Hades grinned and retracted himself from the reactor, closing it.
“Perfect. Now the chip should be perfectly simple. Just plug and play, so to speak.” Lorik told him. Hades opened the hyperdrive compartment once more and crouched down. He saw a port near the one he had accessed before, and looked questioningly up at Lorik.
“Aye, that's the port.” Lorik confirmed his unspoken question, handing him the chip. “Be careful. The chip is quite sensitive. Alright, you'll want it to go in face-down, with the smooth edge facing outward – that's the way. There should be a sharp click when it's connected and the hyperdrive software should automatically-” There was a 'ping', short and clear. “-detect it.. as it has done. Alright, now you're going to have to run a diagnostic again.”
Hades reached for his datapad and plugged it in again. The diagnostic started, all sections showing green. The failsafe came up as grey – unknown. Hades selected it, and it said 'detecting'.. it was that way for several moments before another soft ping emanated from the hyperdrive. The failsafe was now green and showed that they were currently under the influence of gravity – the
Atrus' own gravity. Hades grinned once more.
“..aaand it looks like we're done!” Lorik said cheerfully. Hades slid out of the hyperdrive compartment, disconnecting his datapad and shutting the hatch before getting to his feet. “You should run tests before you use it, and you might want to think about getting those motivators replaced – but it should work fine. Give me a shout if you need any help.”
“Will do. Thank you, Master Chief” Hades said, extending his hand gratefully. Lorik shook it firmly and smiled.
“It was nothing. Till next time, Senior Crewman.” The man nodded at Hades before turning and striding off toward the turbolifts. Hades smiled and turned back to his TIE, a sigh of satisfaction escaping his lips. Now all that was left was to run the tests. A good day's work.
- OOC:
- Word Count: 1,946. Total Word Count: 3,115.
AAR: Part 2/2. The mechanic arrives and diagnoses the problems of Hades' hyperdrive. They make repairs to numerous parts of it and end up with a job well done and a friendship formed.
