Mike Frantz
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That Guy
Posts: 721 
Affiliation: The Jedi Order
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Post by Mike Frantz on Oct 18, 2024 14:37:34 GMT -8
A series of landing pads just outside of the academy proper primarily used by visitors to the academy as well as housing for some of the larger starships of the Corellian Jedi.
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Mike Frantz
Member
That Guy
Posts: 721
Affiliation: The Jedi Order
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Post by Mike Frantz on Oct 18, 2024 15:26:20 GMT -8
*I lead my apprentice away from the archives and through the twisting corridors of the academy proper, nodding to many of the jedi we pass, though I don't stay long enough to chat with any of them. I don't want to delay the impending conversation any more than it already has been. Eventually we make our way out of one of the side entrances to the academy and out onto the auxiliary landing pads, passing by the control tower and a few dozen other ships and empty pads before arriving at a pad on the outskirts of the field. On it sat a CR90 Corvette in a state of disrepair. There were obvious scorch marks across the hull as well as a few pitted wounds deep into the hull that appeared to be the result of turbolaster fire. One of the upper engine assemblies was detached from the ship and set next to it and 3 of it's escape pod/turrets were completely missing from the hull.
With a bit of dramatic flair and a flourish I gesture with both hands to the assembled mess before us and gleefully exclaim. "Welcome to my newest project, once known as the Thunderbird she bravely defended Corellia from it's enemies for decades.... until the first order finally did her in. I've decided that that service deserves a more fitting end than the scrap pile and so she's going to be restored." I can't keep the excitement for such a project out of my voice, I never felt so comfortable as when there was grease on my hands and a ship in need of my care, though my voice and face relax into a more sober expression as I continue. "It's also far away from prying ears and curious eyes."
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Kay'li Raganella
The Jedi Order
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Post by Kay'li Raganella on Oct 18, 2024 16:30:55 GMT -8
Temporary Resting Place of The Thunderbird=Raja=Raja followed Mike out of the academy, momentarily lost in his thoughts. He didn’t pay much attention to the other Jedi they passed in the hallways as he focused inward, working to control the emotions that their conversation in the Archives had just stirred up: his parents, the threats they faced, his true mission on Corellia, his homesickness. By the time they got outside, his nostalgia and pain and fear had been silenced, and he was ready to give his Master the explanation that the elder Jedi had likely been craving for months.When the pair reached the pad at the far edge of the landing area, however, Raja’s pace faltered to a momentary halt, and he stared at the ruined Corvette in astonishment. “Wow” he said softly. He took a deep breath, and then wrinkled his nose slightly as the scent of burnt oil pricked his nostrils. His eyes traced from the missing escape pods to the scorched paint to the gashes carved by turbolaser fire to the disassembled engine. The ship told him a story, even without Mike’s explanation. Cracking an eager grin, Raja replied “She’s beautiful, or she can be.” He paused, looking down as his foot landed on something unstable. He rolled his foot back and forth over an object, then bent down, and picked up a metal bolt with mangled threads. Shrugging, he tossed it toward the edge of the pad. “Where do we start?” “And yes,” he added more softly, “This is a perfect place to talk about my mom and dad.”
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Mike Frantz
Member
That Guy
Posts: 721
Affiliation: The Jedi Order
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Post by Mike Frantz on Oct 19, 2024 14:54:08 GMT -8
*A genuine smile crosses my face at the excitement in my apprentice's voice. When I'd recovered the hulk after the siege of Corellia my plan was to use the ship as a project to aid in Raja's training, including giving us something to work on while disusing lessons or other conversations that would otherwise be handled sitting down or standing still. I'd never been much for either of those options and so it's good to see that the ship is already living up to it's intended purpose. In one practiced motion, I swing the blue robes off my shoulders and with a small will of telekinetic force send it fluttering through the air to hang off a jagged edge of the hall, and reach into one of the many pockets of the mechanic's jumpsuit I always wear underneath to pull out a small selection of electrical components and begin heading toward detached engine.* "I think first thing's first, we'd better get this engine back into working order and remounted. *Even as I approach the Girodyne Ter58 high-output ion turbine engine I began reaching out with the force, pulling components that were scattered around the engine assembly to me, becoming a small whirlwind of small parts as I almost instinctually began sorting the parts, dropping unusable bits off to a growing pile of scrap and adding useful bits to the slowly orbiting cloud of metal around me. Though there were carts full of tools and meters situated around the pad, I didn't reach for any of them, instead allowing the force and the finely tuned instincts of a mechanic with decades of experience to guide the my extended telekinetic hands to begin the process, focusing on the task at hand and allowing Raja to broach the subject we'd come here to discuss in his own time.
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Kay'li Raganella
The Jedi Order
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Post by Kay'li Raganella on Oct 23, 2024 18:42:34 GMT -8
Temporary Resting Place of The Thunderbird
=Raja=
His master had come prepared with a mechanic’s outfit, no doubt in the interest of preserving his Jedi robes, but there was no preserving the robes of a padawan Raja’s age, regardless of the task undertaken, so it didn't really matter what he did. As he removed his outer cloak to reveal the equally-green but more comfortable and flexible tunic and pants beneath, any sufficiently astute observer would notice that the boy had already worn his left elbow and right knee threadbare.
Tossing the cloak over the corner of a rusty packing crate, the blond-haired boy took two steps toward the engine rack, then froze as the elder Jedi went into action. He watched with a mixture of surprise, awe, and confusion as Mike demonstrated a totally alien approach to what Raja had expected to be a familiar activity. After a few moments’ observation, however, he understood, and nodded to himself as he made his way closer to the detached engine assembly. He’d never worked on anything the size of The Thunderbird, but as he inspected the interior and exterior of the damaged engine, he saw an immediate resemblance between the Corvette's ion turbine engine and the much smaller engines on his parents’ YT-3000 light freighter, which he had helped overhaul on multiple occasions.
The engines, like much of the rest of the ship, had laid in ruin for weeks, and any residual radiation from the exhaust had long since dissipated, but there was a characteristic smell that seemed to linger over the internal components of almost any fusion-powered ion drive system, regardless of size, manufacturer, or exact reactants used. Raja sniffed a couple of times, and then flared his nose and scowled slightly at the familiar but not entirely pleasant scent.
~
A Distant Memory
It was too familiar. Because he’d smelled it three years ago, and he and his family and everything they owned had reeked of the stuff for weeks afterward.
In hindsight, the problem with buying your fuel from a random guy out back of the seediest spaceport in the sector was that you really couldn’t be sure exactly what you were putting into your engines. But when the choice was between taking a chance on a black market salesperson from an undocumented alien species or watching your family possibly get eaten alive, Raja understood why his dad had made the choice he did. The contaminated, diluted fuel had burned long enough to get them to safety, so it had worked.
Being alive hadn't made the inevitable cleanup any more tolerable for the eight year old, however. Each of the heavily modified Gyrodine SRB71 engines had to be removed, disassembled, and thoroughly cleaned with solvents that had smelled only slightly better before the engines would relight long enough for a second star voyage.
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Temporary Resting Place of The Thunderbird
“Everything my mom said in her letter is true.” Raja began pointedly. “But there’s more I need to tell you.” Mike's shower of parts continued, so he looked for something he could do that would not be in the line of fire. He kicked the side of one of the tool carts, and a drawer labeled ‘Spanners’ slid open. “My parents can’t come home. They can’t go to any Jedi planet. They left to find my uncle, but it’s not just that anymore. They are being hunted by some aliens they met in the Unknown Regions.” His voice took on a somber, wistful tone as he selected a spanner, and began testing the tension in the bolts holding together the outer shielding of the engine.
“I’m going to need your help to rescue them.” He hesitated, waiting to see his master’s reaction before he proceeded.
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