FORSAKEN - Target: Zero

CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX

"That's going to attract unwanted attention," Theleema said.

"What about this one?" Gorin peered inside the next hangar.

"That's a custom job for client. It's not for sale."

The team peeked through the gate. What they saw inside made them wander in mesmerized. The starship resembled a symmetrical modern take on the old XS stock light freighter but smaller, well-armed, and equipped with all manner of state-of-the-art sensors. Three massive engines jutted from her back in a delta configuration, flanked by a pair of four wide bar engines. Her hull appeared to be made out of brushed titanium and bronzium. She had a wide horizontal disc over the port side, and two large parallel rectennae flanked by two smaller on the starboard.

"That is—" Syrran said.

"Beautiful—" Theleema finished the sentiment.

"What do you have here?" Gorin said. "Are those YT-1000 engines?" He knew what to ask to get a fellow technician going.

"That my, friend," Chopjob said with great pride, "are the sublight drives the CEC is currently testing on their upcoming YT-1760, which are faster than anything the company has ever produced before. They are augmented by two wide bars of four Girodyne SRB42. All of them are enhanced by SLAM acceleration motors for greater thrust, and each is fueled by two rippinnium fuel slugs for increased range. This baby can achieve a top speed of 100 megalight per hour, and 1,750 kph in atmospheric flight. I moved the central engines back to better access them, kept the full ring corridor, and added an engineer station. To avoid diverting energy from the Quadex power core, I added a Kuat Systems Engineering XF-16 power generator to feed the weapons and deflectors."

"What about the hyperdrive?" Syrran said.

"I modified a class 1 CRC H2-1, to a class 0.6."

An impressed Gorin whistled.

"That would make it—" Syrran said.

"The fastest ship in the galaxy," said Chopjob, bursting with pride. "I promised Quay Tolsite she'll make the Kessel Run in record time."

"Quay Tolsite from the Pyke Syndicate?" Theleema said.

"He hired me to build him the ultimate self-contained spice runner. It's my magnum opus, the Outcast. I ordered a brand-new YT-1300p light freighter with an extended, armored, central cockpit for four crewmembers: pilot, co-pilot, a multi-comm/sensor, and navigator/assistant gunner stations."

"No viewports," Jarriss noted. "Is it instrument-flight only?"

"No. High-resolution sensors transmit the visual data surrounding the cockpit, acting as ample viewports without sacrificing armor integrity. You can't tell the difference. I used the same technology on the ventral and dorsal quad laser turrets' viewports. I also upgraded the particle and ray deflector shields with Kuat Drive Yard military-grade ones. Then, I re-skinned the hull with reinforced impervium plates laminated with agrinium, making her as tough as capital ships. She is invisible to scanners and manages reduced friction in atmospheric flight. I also installed thrust trace dampers to capture and cool the engines' exhaust gases before discharge, to conceal them from sensors.

"As you can tell, I love the old XS stock freighter. So, I added not one, but two side cargo holds which can accommodate fifty metric tons of freight each. They have wide-load cargo ramps and freight elevators, protected by retractable AX-108 'Ground Buzzers,' and engineering bays in case ground vehicles are hauled. Since I built them from scratch, I placed the dual HSG-67 side-mounted laser cannons farther forward to allow for extendable docking rings on the airlocks. I even added the four fontal proton torpedo launchers like in the XSs."