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38 hours. 47 minutes. Timer just crossed 12 seconds. The ship's rattling worse than before, engine going full blast for the last 10 hours. Halpert's headache remains at it's worst, his mood taking a deeper downturn the longer he stays awake. Approaching was a rift, one Halpert knows all too well, Halpert takes the shortcut by flying directly into it whilst cruising. A risky decision, considering his ship's condition and his high degree of fatigue. Taking it shakes the Pulsar enough to almost knock Halpert out. Tau-37's Malvinas Cloud serves as a peaceful momentary stop, as Halpert chugs some water to keep himself alive.
"You know, I should be paid for this. Staying awake for almost 40 hours is gonna kill me."
His trip from the other end of the Omicrons has been a long and uneventful one. Hoping his ship arrives in one piece, Halpert is greeted with the calming skies of Tau-37, the warmth of the twin suns slowly washing over him. It takes him a moment to realize that he missed the Freeport and flew into the ice crystal field. Circling back, a docking request was made with Freeport 10.
"God I need sleep, don't want to piss off the Maltese."
A small message was sent to Alejandro, giving them notice of his arrival. With one room booking made and elevator ride later, Halpert stands upright at the end of his bed and faceplants himself into a deep sleep.
Eliminador to Freeport. Requesting clearance to dock.
Traffic was heavy at Freeport 10. For the Edge Worlds, at least. A spot was about to clear in the landing sequence. Due to the Eliminador being a larger vessel - a Tridente class gunship - It could take a second before the mooring commenced. Alejandro checked his radar. All clear. So far, at least. Although it was a freeport, and nothing wrong was expected to happen, you could never be too cautious. IMG and far Gallic patrols were sometimes spotted, and the journey to as planned.
He leaned back and-
Access granted. Commencing mooring procedures toward the Eliminador. Finalizing procedures.
-Sat back up with a start. The ship had the docking process automated with the station, but just in case anything needed to be said on the comms channel.
Everything went smoothly. Harabero stepped out onto the grounds of the Freeport. This is where his... client? business partner? Whatever their relationship was, this is where Leon Vicci was to be. And where he would find what needed to be adjusted of the ship. While he was not too knowledgable in technology - only a brief understanding of it - There were some others within the Starfleet that would be more able to work with such tools. However, at least it would be fun to see the testing and potentially see some experimental weapons in use, as well as that being a benefit to expand their own knowledge. Of course, the information that would be exchanged in return was the main cause.
Now, where would this Freelancer be...
Alejandro hoped he would find a clue of his whereabouts. Some Zoners were already looking at him strangely, as if a Maltese was an irregular sight in Tau 37.
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The warmth of the twin suns envelopes Halpert's face. The blinds open and the lights slowly turn on. With the windows open, the skies greet Halpert's rested eyes. Sitting up, a loud yawn roared throughout the room. Once he was up and moving, Halpert notices a small package on his bedside table. There was a note, unfolding it, it read: We noticed you weren't doing so great. The attendant had to pickup the pens you accidentally knocked over. To make sure you're okay, we sent up some food. On us, enjoy.
Previous to his sleep, running hot for over a day without any food, Halpert was not going to complain. He sat down at the table in the main room and scoffed the food. The sight of Tau-37 paired quite nicely with a free meal, and as Halpert finished up he noticed a large warship that looked very similar to other Maltese ships he's seen on his journeys. Could very much well be Alejandro. After brushing up on his appearance, as much as he could, he took a trip down to the landing area.
This is where he met with this same warship up close and personal. Behind him, sat the pile of panels and bolts that was his own ship - the Pulsar. The group of people infront of him was a mix of differently dressed people. He was very familiar with chain of command, however he was not familiar with the Maltese, especially Maltese when met in person.
Halpert stood next to his fighter and waited until someone with more of a commanding presence notices him.
"Well, this is it. Which one of you am I waiting for...?"
Kali class borderworlds light fighter. Hmm, was this the one Senor Vicci spoke of? Most likely, he recognized the man in front of the vessel, the chances of it being a different person would be low. There was a few crew with the gunship, and he wouldn't be needing them. A drink could probably do them some well, as long as they dont end up with a death threat on some fool Zoners that spilled their glass. That would waste time, and he would rather they dont go off on during their job.
Perez, Ortiz, Amati, go find yourselves a drink before you get bored with the ship. Dominguez, Romano, watch the ship. If anyone comes close you can test out your new weapons. Blast the Zoners if they come close.
Harabero grins and tilts his head to one Romanos modified pocket cannon, still bearing the insignia of the Order agent it was taken from. The Zoners glance away and head in the opposite direction.
Well, it was time to get to business, then? As the crew gleefully head to the bar or stay with the ship, the Don walks toward the man next to the light fighter. He waves a hand and gives a call.
Ay! Is this Senor Leon Vicci? Senor Alejandro Harabero here.
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"What?"
In case Halpert had missed something during his sleep, he quickly looked around to see if any Bustard-Class ships were docked. At this time, there were only three in sight: His own, Alejandro's warship and a Zoner transport.
"I'm Halpert Kennedy, the one with the idea for a new ship. Not Leon, he has no idea about this."
A small datapad is pulled out from his pocket. Lightly shaking it in front of Alejandro.
"I got my ideas recorded on my little doo-hickey thing. So, do we want to do this here?"
Little embarrassing. How did he get the names mixed up? Nevertheless...
My mistake. Ehm, where would you be thinking? As long as it is in a reasonable location, I don't see any issues with the area we choose. I suppose here would be fine.
Harabero glanced at the Kali class fighter
If this is the vessel giving you trouble, perhaps it might do us well to see it in person while commenting on it. Might make things easier, however, there is no right or wrong answer here.
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"It rattled a little too much going through the rift from 23 there."
Both had their eyes on the Kali-Class for a moment. Halpert wrecking his head over on how to proceed, bringing up his list on the Datapad while switching on a couple of other programs on his device.
"Guess we'll do it here then. Won't risk flying this thing any further. You got a way to tug the Pulsar along on that ship of yours if needed?"
He motions to the marvel of Outcast engineering that overshadows his own tiny ship.
We could potentially "give you a push" across, to where you need to be. This gunship will have enough space for yourself and whatever you need to bring. Depending on where you need to go, we could probably take you.
Harabero wondered where he wanted to go. First he would like to get an idea of what to do, then? The possibilities were limitless. Provided they could offer something worthwhile.
In any case, tell me what your thoughts are, what we should do, what you want to be done. Before we can adjust anything, I need to know what we are adjusting. So, go on. Tell me your thoughts.
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"Well I don't have much. What you see here is all I got."
Halpert's device was equipped with a camera, tied to a couple programs, this enables him to take a picture of his ship and have the software generate a side by side display. On one side, displays his ship as it is, with all the equipment and hardware is has mounted. On the other side, displays the same layout, but with different specifications.
"I only just set this thing up recently, asked some tech guys a while back to make this part easy for the two of us."
Taking a brief look at the information displayed, Halpert nods along to everything shown, making sure all the basic details were in order. He then presses a button to maximize the display, showing only the Kali-Class's hardware setup.
"Like I said, I'm not quite technically inclined, this thing will have the specifics, however I'll explain the basics of what I'm after."
Halpert turns on one other program and switches back to the ship's info, handing over the device to Alejandro.
"Right, so what you see here is my ship as it is. The pile of crap that is the Kali-Class, equipped with not so crappy hardware. A Starflier Network Beacon, Visual Suppressor and a special Bluebird thruster I found in Shikoku a while back. You'd notice that the weapon mounts have been scorched... our crew back when we lived in Kepler kinda ruined these points. Leon wanted to make sure we didn't use weapons. Nothing too special, right? Oh, and I wanna mention it again because it's going to kill me, this thing buckles under normal speeds... just don't fly this thing."
He motions Alejandro to swipe across, switching from the Pulsar to Halpert's idea for a new version of Kali-Class, or at least the best he could put together.
"Now, cut me some slack, I only had about 40 hours to put this together, in between taking the lanes, gates and rifts to get here."
At the very top of the information page displays the class of the ship, one side has a three quarter view of a ship very similar to the Kali-Class. The major differences were the absence of all weapon mounts, bottom engine, top fin. Alongside this, additions included an antenna-like dish protruding from the nose of the ship and the surrounding hull plating around the cockpit appearing to be a bit thicker. The other half of the screen displays the specifics of the vessel.
"This is the Vector-Class. The idea behind this ship is to build the best scouting ship in Sirius. No weapons, pure speed, best sensor suite to mark locations and to top it all off... the cockpit to be reinforced so I don't get a headache while I fly it around. Do you want to know the actual specifics?"
Halpert tries to temper his excitement over this new ship.
Hm. That could be interesting. A pure scout vessel? He did say that the Starfliers did not get into conflicts, but for a Maltese... it was an alien subject for there to be no weapons for defense. Nevertheless, there was a contract. The decision did not affect him, regardless. Besides the pay, of course.
Very well. You could just send the additional information and statistics you desire over toward my own or the neural net aboard the Eliminador. Now that I know what I can be able to find what you are looking for...
He takes a pause
We should be able to move on toward the next steps that we need, yes? I could contact the ship designers across... nevermind. Point is, what are the steps you are thinking of, the next one to take. As I said, I'll need all the information I could get before we can begin working on it.
![[Image: PVArGCT.png]](https://i.imgur.com/PVArGCT.png){kind=small}
