Surprisingly, the Little Boss was receptive to the idea. "I always wanted to see the Coalition with my own eyes. My old man always nags about the power of the gangs operating in the center of the star sector. It’s about ti I take a look."
Ves did not expect Dietrich to offer to co in person. "It’s not necessary for you to accompany . I can make do with any decent pilot."
"No no no, you deserve better! While I’m not as good as the old coots who have been with my father for centuries, I can still hold my own!"
After several attempts to change his escort, Ves gave up. At least the Little Boss offered to accompany him for free. Though his caliber was nowhere near a bodyguard worth ten million credits, he was not a pushover. That should be enough.
"Say, I’d like to ask a favor from you." Dietrich smiled with more than a little slyness. "Since you’re a fancy designer, you should know a lot about chs, right? I’d like you to tinker with my ch. Just a tune-up is okay."
"I’m not sure that’s a good idea. It will take ti, and I need extra materials-"
"Haha, no worries. We have a small stockpile of spare parts. You can grab anything you want as long as my ch gets better. As for the ti, well, we both know it won’t take an entire month to reach Leemar unless you take the cheapest spacelines."
Since he was loaded with money for the mont, Ves already reserved a first-class seat aboard a premium spaceline. It took little effort for Dietrich to reserve the seat next to him and also pay for the privilege to bring along his ch. Naturally, the war machine would be safed and stowed in the cargo section of the giant passenger ship.
"Alright, just head over to our base in Freslin. You know where it is. I’ll clear you to use anything from our workshop and storage."
As Ves hung up, he sighed. Seems like he was pretty much stuck with Dietrich. Besides, it might not be a bad thing to develop a closer relationship with the heir of Walter’s Whalers. His n could keep an eye on his workshop in his absence. He didn’t fully trust his basic automatic security systems to keep out determined thieves.
After a brief trip aboard an aircar, Ves arrived at the sa dilapidated-looking base where he first t Dietrich. Thankfully Dietrich looked fresh this ti, wearing a smart suit that belied the power in his limbs. Unlike Vincent, the Little Boss was a warrior to the core. He did not let his excesses affect his combat capability.
"Right, you’re finally here! Lem bring you to my ch. You’re going to love her. She’s been my beauty for well over two years. She’s a veritable classic!"
Dietrich unceremoniously dragged Ves into the rusting workshop area. Several oil-stained technicians were conducting haphazard maintenance on the chs stowed inside. They walked up to the very end of the workshop which revealed an imposing silhouette of a dium flier.
Well, Dietrich was right in one aspect. His ch was a ’classic’. It was actually a National Aeromotives Harrier VCX-4B. While it was a currentgen design, the design ca out at the very start of this generation’s comncent. It was an aged design with a couple of premium features.
National Aeromotives only entered the ch market a generation ago. Its main products were still shuttles and aircars, so their accumulated knowledge concerning flight was very substantial. Besides brief forays into land chs such as the Caesar Augustus, all the other chs NA manufactured specialized in flight.
The Harrier was not a typical workhorse unit, though it shared many features with standard currentgen frontline models.
It focused mainly on endurance and therefore relied of fuel rather than direct energy to sustain its airti. Its beefy flight system was capable of switching between energy saving mode and high intensity flight mode at the cost of weighing a bit more than other flight systems.
This made the dium ch carry only a fairly light amount of armor for a dium ch. Still, NA always excelled in developing heat-resistant armor, so the Harrier fared pretty well against energy weapons.
As for its weapon complent, it mainly relied on its ballistic rifle to dish out the hurt. While it weighed down the ch even more, it allowed the Harrier to devote most of its energy to power its flight. The Harrier was capable of carrying a sufficient amount of shells if it decided to forgo most lee weaponry.
Dietrich proudly approached the ch’s foot and slapped his palm against its armor. "Look at this beauty. Can’t you see how lovingly I treated her all this ti?"
Ves had to admit that the VXC-4B was well-maintained. Evidently the technicians under the employ of the Whalers didn’t dare slack off concerning Dietrich’s personal ch. It must be the only ti they actually earned their pay.
As Ves had little experience working on finished chs, he might as well take the chance to study the Harrier. He borrowed the workshop’s diagnostic tools to scan the Harrier from top to bottom. The readings told him that the ch had over a quarter of its parts replaced, and not all of the new parts were standard. In particular, it was difficult to get replacent armor plates from a source other than National Aeromotives directly. Naturally they charged sky-high prices for replacents.
With his vastly improved chanics skill, Ves noted that whoever repaired the armor had so skills, but did not account for every factor. He guessed that the ch’s center of balance was slightly out of alignnt, which affected a host of things that did not result in anything good.
"I can see it needs so work. If you don’t mind, I’ll be taking so things apart and replacing them with sothing else."
"Be my guest, Ves. That why I’ve invited you here for. As long as you can make my baby run better, I’m okay with anything."
It was reassuring to hear Dietrich place so much trust in Ves. For now, their interests aligned. The bonds between the two tightened as they mutually sought to take advantage of each other. Ves wanted to shelter under the umbrella of the Whalers, while Dietrich sought to enlist a high-end engineer.
Ves went to work on the Harrier. He first took out all of the replacent armor and set them aside. He then inspected the internals underneath and made a few calculations. If he wanted to reset the center of balance, then he had to move stuff around. One bad habit that National Aeromotives never shook off is that it inherited Jason Kozlowski’s penchant of stuffing too much goodies in very little space.
Fortunately, the Harrier wasn’t so bad in that regard. NA certainly tried to curb their habits as much as possible so Ves didn’t have to risk bumping into sothing delicate when he moved a couple of minor components around.
One limiting factor was that over a quarter of the internals were dedicated to supporting the flight system. Ves lacked the expertise to play around with these components without screwing up the ch’s flight capabilities. His background in ballistic weaponry was also too shallow for him to tweak the ballistic rifle, let alone understand it completely.
"I should try to plug this hole a bit once I have so DP to spare. I can’t rely on beginner’s knowledge concerning weaponry forever if I want to keep up with the higher echelons of ch designers."
Overall, the ch technicians had done a good job keeping the Harrier in shape. Ves did not have to correct any glaring errors, just minor misjudgnts.
He did add one little surprise. His hands sneaked into the pouch carrying all of Lucky’s gems and withdrew a dusky jasper. The round gem’s appearance evoked a layered landscape, though Ves paid little attention to that. The unassuming gem had a property of improving the ch’s agility by 1%. He sneakily installed the gem inside a well-protected alcove where technicians were least likely to inspect.
"Hopefully it will do its job." Ves muttered and turned his attention to putting the ch back together.
He took the replacent armor plates to a hamring tool and lightly worked them over so they conford a little better to the Harrier. The mistake the technicians made was to think it was sufficient picking any random armor plating that weighed about the sa and shape it in the exact way as the old one. In reality, each armor exhibited different properties and should always be treated from a fresh perspective.
After Ves put the armor plates back in, he requested Dietrich to enter the cockpit and test the ch. The re-tuned machine moved fluently and with grace despite the large flight system getting in the way of its movents.
"It feels great! It’s like all of my aches and sores have gone away."
The improvent was marginal, but every little bit counted. Both Ves and Dietrich were satisfied with the work. While the ch’s specs hardly moved, Dietrich piloted his ch more naturally.
Ves realized that tuning existing chs might not be a waste of ti. It took very little effort and investnt on his part to bring up a ch back to full functionality. If Ves ever ran into a dry spell of orders, he could advertise his abilities as a ch tuner and earn so pocket money by tinkering with older chs such as the Harrier.
After making sure nothing blew up in their faces, Ves said goodbye to Dietrich and finished his other preparations. He stopped by at Sanyal-Ablin’s office and paid a little extra money to keep his security suite functioning even when he was away for an extended period of ti.
"It is regretful that you declined our offer to escort you to Leemar." Robyn added after they dealt with this matter. "While the main space routes of the Coalition are well-patrolled, nothing is absolute. And that isn’t even taking into consideration what can happen planetside."
"I really do wish I can hire your bodyguard, but my financial situation simply doesn’t allow it." Ves excused himself as he stood and left for the exit. "However, that doesn’t an I will pass you by in the future. Once I get a good volu of sales, I’ll be sure to take advantage of your other services."
"That sounds wonderful, Mr Larkinson. We are always ready to serve your needs."
When Ves returned to his workshop, he packed up his luggage and made sure to stow away all the loose tools and bots. He turned off and set the 3D printer and assembler into hibernation mode. As Ves turned off the lights, he wondered how much would change once he returned from Leemar.
"Hopefully I’ll co back as a triumphant apprentice to a renowned master."
Ves had a fitful night of sleep as his excitent was hard to suppress. He lived, studied and worked in the Bright Republic for his entire life. Never had he stepped foot on a star beyond the borders of his familiar state.
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