Endecott Engineering - Market Layer

[Thexare]

(// Other people can bring their own engineering/repair requests and whatnot to the shop if they want, but this'll probably be mostly my own projects.)

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Eight three-level hangars are situated along the outer edge of the entry level of Canberra Star City. Each one houses approximately two ships on the "ground floor", for lack of a better term, and two more each on the floors above and below, with a lift in between that technically gives room for a fifth. While some were immediately claimed by the Fleet and Commission, the central hangars were generally preferred in the immediate partitioning of space for faster launch capability. As a result, the Endecott sisters were able to request one off to the side for their own purposes.

They quickly turned it into a private workshop, with some support from Aquila Defense Systems. Here they offer repairs and a variety of modifications to fighters, shuttles, and freighters, including engine overhauls, shield retuning, and gun calibrations. Ultimately, though, that's done primarily to fund their pet projects.

It's an orderly hangar, with all the tools kept in their proper place, and the sisters' three ships parked impeccably. On the lower level, a drab black-and-rust colored CSV sat on the left from the entrance, a black and orange Taurus-class shuttle sat to the right, and a matte black Camara with white detailing sat on the lift.

Like almost every day, Colleen and Shay are here once again, picking apart another odd bit of debris vaguely reminiscent of parts of a Nyx. Colleen, a thin, pale woman with whitened hair and an occasional involuntary twitch, was carefully working the cover of an access panel off. Her younger sister was a stark contrast, with black hair, dark lipstick, a healthier glow to her skin, and considerably more graceful movement as she cut jagged edges off the corners for easier handling using a handheld plasma cutter.

"Shay, can you bring the plasma cutter over here? I'm not getting anywhere with this."

"Sure. Can you run it, or..?"

"Sorry, I've..." Colleen trailed off, lowering her head and closing her eyes.

"Got the shakes again? I thought you said the medication was helping." Shay replied, looking her sister over.

"It is, but it's... there's still some tremors. I don't- I don't want to mess this up."

"I'm more worried about you hurting yourself," Shay said, an implicit reminder of caution in her tone. "Alright, step back, I'll get this thing opened up."

As Shay worked, a hooded, androgynous Kusari figure entered the shop and waved Colleen over. Shay nodded and continued her work while Colleen went to greet their gust.

"Hey, Perry. Something I can help you with?" she asked, back to her typical cheerful tone.

"You do realize you could just buy a Nyx, right?" Agent Paracusia asked, their voice just as ambiguous as their face but their tone distinctly friendly.

"If that's what we wanted, we would. But ever since the Congress decided not to help Shay build a Gitano, we've been working on sourcing the parts to one-up them."

"That's a lot of work for a grudge."

"Eh, Shay wanted to build a ship anyway. We're just changing the plans slightly."

"I see. Well, back to what brought me here. You got this from that... unfortunate business in Tau-29, right?" Colleen nodded. "The Commission was wondering about the Helios wreck."

"Nothing usable but the metal," Shay called out, turning off the plasma cutter and walking over to the visitor. "The hull's remarkably intact, but from what I could see it looked like a series of explosions ripped apart the interior. Best guess? Something blew up in the hangar, took out a fighter that was in for repairs, and the chain reaction started there. But that's just a guess, you'd have to ask Crayter to be sure."

"That won't be necessary. It doesn't really matter what happened, the wreck's not going to be useful... unless..." Colleen tilted her head to the side a bit as Paracusia drifted off in thought. "Sorry, citizen, that's classified," they said with a good-natured half-smile. "But while I'm here, would you be able to go over the Premonition's engine system? It's had some odd knocking, Aquila says we'd probably need to replace the whole thing but that's a total rebuild that the Commission would rather avoid."

"Sorry, Perry, but that old PRISM prototype is a pain in the ass," Shay replied, shaking her head. "We could have a look, but honestly I'm inclined to trust their assessment. Standard rate, of course."

"Of course. I'll tell Escher, see what he thinks. Commission work is never done." With that, Paracusia turned and left.

After their departure, Shay and Colleen walked back to the chunk of salvaged Nyx and looked over the access panel. "Sorry, Colleen, I thought you'd want to see." The older sister immediately recognized what was behind the access panel: the fuel system. Or rather, part of the fuel system, roughly severed from the rest by the fighter's explosion.

And that was enough to say what the rest of this chunk of ship was - almost entirely unusable.

"Damn. There might still be some usable fuses and valves, but... it's just scrap." Colleen sighed and shook her head. "Sorry sis, I really thought I had something this time."

Shay shrugged. "That's salvage for you. We need to get something larger out there, bring back more material for next time. See if you can get Aquila or the Guild to help us secure a Rock Badger, we may be able to turn that into a decent salvage platform. I'll see about pawning this off on the next Junker that stops by Canberra." Colleen nodded and ducked out of the hangar, while Shay stuck around to mind the shop.