ECLIPSE (part VII)

“So far it sounds good.” I prompted.


“I was hoping to enlist you as a test pilot for my new modifications. Dure-Lite has its own, of course, but I felt that a racer's experience and knowledge would be better suited to the task. The problem is that Dure-Lite frowns on outsiders being given access to its technology. Watching you race, though, I could tell you were both daring and more skilled than the pilots we had available so I decided to approach you, I just didn't expect you to find me first.” he finished a little breathlessly.

“Well, Orlan, it seems we are in the perfect position to help each other out.” I smiled and clapped him on the shoulder. “The timing is perfect, too. I need to leave tonight to tend to my business and using one of your modded ships, I can give it a very thorough flight test in the process.”

Orlan then walked me through his modifcations and expectations of the ships new performance specs. I followed most of it until he tried to explain his calculations that linked shield harmonics to repulsor field phase inversions. The ship was impressive. Longer than a standard Headhunter by at least two meters it had a larger power core and a partially integrated hyperdrive. Two of the four wing tip cannon had been replaced with Orlan's new dual functioning repulsor-shield emitters. Apparently they functioned by pulsing both the shields and repulsors in tandem. This, theoretically, would allow the ship to survive not only energy blasts but all out blunt impacts as well. Orlan said the ship would likely just bounce off of anything it hit, to a point. The things were as big as the cannon they replaced but twice as thick. Orlan assured me the next generation would be smaller. There were added repulsor coils in the nose as well. Some of the standard sensor equipment had been removed, but a hardwired R4 had been installed to take up the slack.

Having finished my 'tour' I invited Orlan to accompany me to The Shaft for a Corellian Ale or two to celebrate our newfound partnership. I needed to pick up some things here anyway as you know. I also wanted him to meet you since he might need to contact me in the future by indirect means.

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SO far this is it.....need time to continue but that is hard to come by lately. This story still has a good ways to go and should get quite interesting. This is being told from Tenric's point of view, but the story has already been written as a multi-author fan-fic call "A Shadow in the Force"......stay tuned.