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It took a while for Montgomery Mcintyre to adjust to the sudden silence, it had been months since he hadn't heard the ever present humming of the Torments engines, felt the vibrations through the battered hull of the ship. Not that this station didn't have its own challenges; everywhere he looked he received murderous glances from Corsairs or heard a brawl somewhere around the corner. That said, at least his Corsair 'counterparts' seemed somewhat open to collaboration.

It quickly became apparent that examining the blueprints for the 'Murmillo' class was competely off the table, leaving only a single alternative on the table: a grueling manual examination of the ships engines, and trusting on input from the Corsair Engineers.

Montgomery looked around with an odd sense of surrealism once he was onboard the Parabellum; the combination of outdated liberty tech and what he assumed was Corsair tech was an odd sight to say the least. As the task at hand was to assess the degree of influence Liberty tech still had on the design, the tour was not contained to just Engineering, giving the Torment team a unique insight of the inside of the vessels. "Doubt maybe people have seen the inside of one of these." Montgomery murmured to himself, earning a grin from his Corsair colleague who added: "Not willingly, gringo." The crew continued, a silent prayer in their minds for those poor unfortunate souls that might have been captured and taken onboard over the years.

After the tour concluded and the general state of the vessel, which had already been determined by the crew of Rhodes Shipyard, was shared, the real work could finally begin. Based on their findings at the end of the day, the Torment team estimated the Parabellum to consist of roughly 60% Corsair technology and 40% on replicated, outdated, Liberty technology. The latter was likely baked so deep into the design that it was practically impossible to get rid of without building a brand new ship from the ground up.

Fortunately, the Engines of the Parabellum seemed to be almost unchanged from its original Liberty design, meaning that even if they ended up having to build a completely new engine, an upgrade could still be feasible. The next phase would be to test the engines for their current performance and compare the findings to Insurgency standards. That however, would wait till after a nights rest.

Montgomery let out a loud groan as he got up from his improvised bunk in the 'guest quarters' of the shipyard. Calling it that was a generous, but Corsairs weren't exactly known for their hospitality towards outsiders so he figured this was probably already quite the 'honor'. After eating some breakfast the Engineer joined the rest of his team in the hanger.

"Buenos dias gringo!", a booming voice called out to him, the same Corsair that had given him the tour the other day by the looks of it. "How was your beauty nap hm? Up so late, we have work to be done! Rápido rápido!" Montgomery had to admit this much, as loud and as violent as the Corsairs were, their enthousiasm for life was quite impressive. "Yes yes, rapido indeed." the Engineer said, giving the Corsair a faint smirk before grabbing the data pad from the man.

The Corsairs had been thoughtful enough to provide records on the performance of the Parabellums engines, which should lead to a speedier conclusion, all that was really left was to take it back to the Torment and compare the data to that of its engines, though even a quick glance already seemed to confirm what Montgomery had already expected.

Montgomery signaled his team with a whistle, time to head back home for now, a hope that was quickly shattered by the same cheerful Corsair who had handed him the pad. "No lo creo amigo, you get to go, but your homres? They stay here. Make sure you don't try anything sospechoso comprende?"
It seemed that, while their cooperation was appreciated, suspicions were still high. It made sense really, he was pretty sure the Captain didn't trust the Corsairs fully either after all.

After having informed the rest of the team they'd be staying on Rhodes for now, and assigning them tasks to do while he was away, Montgomery finally went back onboard the Torment.

"Welcome back chief Mcintyre" a friendly greeting from one of his teammembers in Engineering, but there was little time to get comfortable, there was work to be done after all. With a small nod towards the Ensign, Montgomery went to his station and started running the analysis.
Running the data with the Torments engines themselves wouldn't be particularly reliable information, while he didn't know much about the Murmillo class, it was clear that it wasn't as bulky or sizeable as an Arbiter after all. Fortunately Insurgency standards were well documented, including former seperatist Overlord, which came a whole hell of a lot closer.

After several hours the analysis was finally complete; the Murmillo's engines were indeed underperforming in terms of fuel consumption, no doubt due to its foundation of highly outdated Libertonian tech. Insurgency Overlords were able to maintain far more favorable consumption rates by adapting Border World Engines on far larger vessels, as it was far more easier to come by up to date versions of those than their Liberty alternatives.

With a sigh Montgomery shook his head and scheduled in an appointment with the captain, it was time to discuss options.

The decision had been made, bringing an end to Montgomery’s reprieve on the Torment. Captain Perez had felt strongly about going with the plan of upgrading the existing engines with Borderworld technology; not only would the required parts be more easily available for the Corsairs, but it might also hinder the Corsairs ability to fully grasp Libertonian technology. If any Corsairs asked about the Engines color being different, they could always try and shrug it off by claiming it was a feature and not a bug.

Fortunately the first part, alongside the relative ease of upgrading the engine as compared to constructing completely new ones, would lead to an easy ‘sell’ to the Corsairs. Though he was glad the Captain had taken the responsibility of informing them, all Montgomery had to do himself was actually apply the modifications.

Chief Engineer Mcintyre took one last look in the mirror before tidying his uniform and stepping outside the Torment, back onto Rhodes Shipyard. Several engineers followed him, bringing the required parts from the Torments storage on several industrial carts. They’d be able to make the modifications to the Parabellum as a proof of concept with some of the spare parts of the Torment, but the Corsairs would have to get their own supplies for any future modifications.

Once they were reunited with the Engineers that had stayed behind on the shipyard Montgomery gave a loud cough to get everyone’s attention. "Alright everyone, listen up." he was greeted by the tired eyes of his staff, it was doubtful many of them had been able to get a proper nights sleep these last few days. "I know everyone is tired, but we’re in the final stretch of this project. Let’s make sure we knock it out of the park so we can all go back to our quarters, aye?."

With a halfhearted ‘cheer’ the Torment team went to work, working strenuous hours deep into the night, accompanied by little else than the sound of their blowtorches and their Corsair ‘supervisors’. Fortunately their Corsair counterparts seemed interested in the techniques they were using, occasionally giving them something to talk about during the work.

Several days later of tinkering and testing, the engine was finally ready.

With a sigh of relief Montgomery took his team back to the Torment to enjoy some well deserved rest, after informing captain Perez of their success of course.