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Corvette
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- Class 3 (primary)
- Class 15 (backup)
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- 150 passengers (maximum capacity)
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- 4000 metric tons of cargo
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- Transport
- Mobile HQ
- Trade Ship
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- "'Just for once I'd like for us to get a ship which isn't older than my grandfather."
- ―Nikora Rhan
The Hyperion, originally designated Scorpio, was a salvaged and refitted Sphyrna-class Hammerhead corvette owned by the Dead Ends, a failed prototype group of organic salvagers in servitude to the Collective. One of the first of its run and considered to be too far gone to be worth restoring to military standing, the corvette was refitted to pilot with a minimal crew and stripped of anything of worth. The Dead Ends used the ship to scavenge from battlefield relics like so many salvagers, to bring weapons and equipment back to their masters. An ambush by pirates while attempting to prize weapons from a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer left the ship crippled and only intact so it could serve as bait. This event led to a chance encounter with the crew of the Yastobaal and the Free Droid Enclave, and allowed them to defect to Clan Odan-Urr. Following the Yastobaal's departure along with the more frustrated elements of the Enclave, the damaged Scorpio becmae the group's mobile HQ in the Kiast system. Following extremely extensive repairs which would see the ship all but completely rebuilt, it was renamed to the Hyperion.
Description
At the time of its crew defecting to Clan Odan-Urr, the Hyperion was on the verge of total collapse. Between age, damaged inflicted upon it by the pirates, its systems and weapons stripped and given to the Yastobaal, it was little more than a pressurised hull with a set of engines fixed into place. Tellingly, much of the vessel had been patched up with multiple jury-rigged repairs and patchwork fixes.
After its refurbishment the vessel was heavily reworked. Many previous patch jobs and temporary modifications were removed and fixed over entirely, or sections of the ship redesigned to directly integrate them. While its original smuggling compartments have been removed, many new sections serve to better suit a crew living permanently on the ship or utilising it as a trading hub. A combination of elements salvaged previously by the Dead Ends, artistic choices, and the need for utilitarian design elements has led to a contrasting blend of ornate artistry and decoration and blunt functionality.
Much of the vessel has been intended to serve as much as a home as a trading vessel, with expanded quarters, recreational facilities, and storage areas for essential parts. With previous smuggling compartments and hidden rooms no longer needed along with a substantial reconstruction, the Dead Ends were able to make use of the extra space by directly integrating it into newly designed areas.
History
Salvage Scow
The exact origins of the Scorpio remain unclear. Already decades old and with little more than a name an markings of an obscure fleet upon her hull, the vessel was found in orbit above Yavin 4, having seemingly drifted to the gas giant after being abandoned by her previous crew. With severe damage in multiple locations and her escape pods all having been launched, the Technocratic Guild opted to salvage the vessel purely for the value of its hull. Though initially planning to repurpose the vessel as a freighter, the effort put into reconstructing the ship proved to be far more arduous than first planned. As such, the repair crews involved were ordered to stand down, and the vessel was instead pressed into service as a flying test-bed for Collective technologies.
The reconstruction process was used to experiment with automation technologies that were being utilised across the Collective fleet, serving to better refine the process and integrate them with older technologies. At the same time, the older and more modular construction of the Sphyrna-class allowed for weapon pods to be freely added and removed, with its primary reactor serving to test-fire new weaponry that was deemed too hazardous to be trialled on valued vessels. As the Collective fleet rapidly expanded, the need for the Scorpio was gradually lost. The ship would have been sent to be broken down for scrap, were it not for the emergence of a failed experiment. Despite the project having been rejected, a number of tank birthed beings were already complete. Originally planned to serve as an expendable batch of figures to handle logistics and support operations while freeing up droids for more pressing duties, the need for them had disappeared as the Collective's ranks had swelled. Rather than wasting the opportunity, they were instead granted the Scorpio and tasked with hunting down and salvaging anything of worth from old battlefields.
It was evident that their long-term survival was not planned. Even after being largely refurbished and up-gunned with additional turbolasers, the Scorpio remained a sub-par corvette with little beyond its cargo capacity as a noteworthy addition. Even as a salvage ship, it lacked the tractor beams, cargo pods, and equipment which would have made the task viable. Seemingly realising this, the group began referring to themselves as the Dead Ends in a moment of gallows humour, and the name soon stuck. However, proving the strengths that they had initially been sold to the Collective's overall command on, the crew quickly adapted to the tasks they had been given.
Typically utilising the ship's bulk and relative firepower to threaten rivals into backing off, the corvette was used for quick smash and grab operations. The Dead Ends would use their knowledge of vessel layouts and identifying the most valuable components for retrieval, use small groups in EVA to dismantle and then retrieve the parts needed. Although far from foolproof, the general plan proved effective enough for the group to typically salvage any item they were sent after with few complications. Dispatched further afield as the years went by and to more remote derelicts, they were nevertheless still regarded as ultimately expendable by the Collective. Even the loss of Nancora and later Meridian Prime space station did little to change matters, in spite of hopes from the crew that they might earn their place.
Eventually, isolated and learning of events more by second hand accounts than direct sources, the Dead Ends began using their limited freedom more to their own benefit. With Nat having emerged as the group's de-facto leader after developing a talent for command, they brokered a handful of deals with other groups. Always concealing their true role and never departing with enough to raise concerns with their leaders, they traded basic supplies and even some secondary salvage to make their lives somewhat easier.
Burning the Flag
After nearly eight years of operation, the Scorpio's voyages would be brought to a sudden and violent end. Given the task of hunting down a Resurgent-class Star Destroyer which had been damaged and then abandoned in orbit over a gas giant, the Dead Ends would pursue their usual strategy to claim the wreck. After seemingly finding it with no opposition, the corvette isolated one of several large breaches in the hull which had seemingly caused by high power energy mines. Seeing it as an easy operation, the ship was brought in to close proximity against the Star Destroyer's hull, enough to directly deploy a crew to its interior. This would soon prove to be a mistake. Although undetected by the initial scans, several ion mines activated and took the Scorpio offline. This was then followed by an assault from several gunships, emerged from the other side of the Star Destoyer. Utilising pinpoint torpedo strikes they severely damaged the ship and left it drifting before disappearing once more.
Nat was quick to recognise that the attack had been intended to stall and cripple them, indicating that their attackers were likely attempting to draw out bigger prey. While it had avoided their destruction it would give them only a limited amount of time before the pirates, as she theorized that was what they were, realised they were alone and raided the vessel. The crew began to enact hasty repairs trying to bring the ship online enough to at least fight its way clear, but severe damage to the main reactor had severely limited its power output. Without enough energy to power shields, weapons, and engines, they would be swiftly destroyed by any strike. Several plans were put forth to try and salvage anything that could be used to patch up the ship from the Star Destroyer despite the risks of more traps, but rescue would come from a surprising source. A lone GR-75 medium transport designated the Yastobaal had jumped into the system, following the same path that the Scorpio had only a short time before. Using tightbeam transmissions, the group was able to forewarn the transport of the possible threats, and guide it in toward them. To their surprise, the ship was one belonging to Clan Odan-Urr of the Dark Jedi Brotherhood. Both sides were initially hostile, and all the more so once it appeared that the Dead Ends had led them into a trap. Yet, with neither vessel likely to survive a confrontation with the pirates, an agreement was made.
Working with the Jensaarai Nikora Rhan and the workers of the Free Droid Enclave on the ship, they were able to transfer much of the weaponry from the corvette onto the smaller transport. After repairing the Scorpio enough to have it fly clear at full speed as a distraction, the Yastobaal followed it a short time later once the pirates had been drawn out. Although the plan proved successful in wiping out the pirates in the attack, it took its toll on the Hammerhead corvette. Already mauled from the first strike, entire sections of armour plating were torn away, and the makeshift repairs threatened to breakdown entirely. Worse still, a schism which had been threatening to emerge within the Enclave finally came to a head, when the Super Tactical Droid commanding the Yastobaal, Wolf, mutinied against Rhan. However, this did not go fully as planned. The majority of the droids on both ships held not nearly enough ill will against Rhan and the other organics to outright mutiny against them, and in working with the Dead Ends they had seen the Collective crew as being closer to the droids they tried to liberate than any oppressor. Several of them, Nat in particular, had already been offered membership within the Enclave and an opportunity to break away from the Collective.
Rhan was able to negotiate a deal with Wolf, allowing him to take the Yastobaal and those who agreed with him to join up with elements that had been left on Tatooine previously to salvage a Sandcrawler. From there they would establish a separate Enclave in territories too remote for organics to help continue their work, while the Scorpio returned to Brotherhood space with the rest of them. Although Wolf would retain the weapons upgrades to the transport, both sides agreed to these terms. The Dead Ends, after a makeshift medical suite was formed, had several obedience devices extracted from their cybernetics along with several suicide fail safes they had been unaware even existed. At the same time, the ship's IFF was removed and then destroyed as if to indicate an encounter with a hostile force, and further tracking devices gradually disabled across the vessel.
The ship would return to Kiast and remain on orbit over the planet, as both the droids and newly liberated Dead Ends sought to repair the heavily damaged vessel and slowly turn it into a more effective home for themselves.
And Unmoored Souls May Drift On Stranger Tides
Severely damaged and desperately requiring repairs, it was a miracle that the Scorpio was able to arrive in the Vatali Empire, and a greater miracle that it would arrive without being destroyed by the local navigational hazards or defense forces. While Nikora Rhan explained the situation to House Sunrider and Clan Odan-Urr, Nat organized the Dead Ends into long term repair teams. Using the salvage they had left and planning out a series of upgrades, efforts were made to first stablise the vessel and turn it into a temporary space station while its entire systems were overhauled and fixed. Nat would admit later on she regretted both the extreme measures this required and having to adjust to a new way of life, but it was preferable to the alternative to eventually dying on the whim of the Collective.
The group took no risks during the journey. Along with fabricating evidence of the Scorpio's loss in battle between debris, a fragmentary emergency message, and the destruction of its IFF beacon, the droids established a fabricated signal jammer about the hull. This was utilised during the journey, both to disguise its passage, but also to limit the risk to the defecting crew. Nat had known for years that obedience machinery lurked within her cybernetics and the same was true with many others. For long portions of the journey she was rendered unconscious and operated on by the Enclave's medical droids, extracting and disabling various parts and suicide chips. There proved to be many more than anyone had estimated, and even the ship had several they had never uncovered. Nikora's powers proved to be essential in uncovering them, though Nat was sceptical of her power to "talk" to machinery.
After the ship's arrival in orbit over Kiast, a series of awkward negotiations and messages were made. None had been forewarned of their arrival out of any risk of the Collective uncovering them, and Clan Odan-Urr were certain that this was a deception at first. However, those who sided with them spoke in their favour and the group was accepted with some suspicion. However, with the damage inflicted upon the Scorpio, the ship had to be reconfigured into a state where it would undergo continuous repairs, replacing damaged parts and stabilising what was left. Although an offer was made to have the clan repair the vessel in its shipyards or even to do so from the world's surface, Nat refused this. Along with the irritation she and the crew shared in being bound to a single world for too long, they needed a project to unite them following their new direction. So, the vessel remained in orbit as the Dead Ends, and whatever help the Enclave were willing to offer, slowly replaced the vessel's aged parts and began to piece it back together.
A Sacrifice for Things to Come
For the better part of a year the Scorpio would remain in orbit over Kiast, largely unable to move. Nat used this time to better experience time on the planet, bartering, exchanging, and offering anything of worth to try and fix as many problems as possible. This would see her visiting Tythas City to help deal with striking workers, and attempting to broker deals with the mercantile nobles of the Vatali. Although this would see the Scorpio restored enough to move under its own power and even restore some basic weaponry, the Dead Ends soon found several stumbling points. Unlike the lawless but isolated regions they had favoured, the Brotherhood's frequent wars with various enemies led to high risk situations that the ship simply couldn't endure. Even carefully picking sites which would see little conflict would offer little benefit, as the profit of such ventures was both limited and even then there was a risk of being preyed upon.
Matters would be made worse by an increasing tally of malfunctions on the vessel, from either long term damage which had not been realised or simply had burned out from accumulated wear and tear now the Dead Ends were tied up with more pressing jobs. An unending cycle of fixes, patch jobs, and failures would ensue, leaving the crew working around the clock but gaining no benefit. Nat refused to abandon the ship in spite of this for two clear reasons. The first was simply that selling it for scrap would earn nowhere near enough to earn a new vessel of any viable size for their needs, and the second was pure sentiment. The Scorpio had been their home for as long as they had known, and they didn't wish to abandon it when it could be fixed.
Salvation would come from an unexpected source and at a high price. A private collector had been invited onto the ship and asked to examine a number of valuables. Although not interested in the items offered, his attention was caught by another item in the cargo bay - The Spitfire. The fighter variant was an outright antique, long past its prime and usually regulated to parade flights or museum pieces. The collector was amazed to see a Royal N-1 Starfighter outfitted for combat still, and even more amazed to learn it was one he recognised. Tarvitz's actions had been near legendary on the Outer Rim, and the Spitfire was closely associated with several famed battles. As a result the collector was more than happy to offer above its asking price, even accepting the extensive modifications to the vessel.
Nat was concerned as she had only recently been gifted the fighter, and with its long service was extremely hesitant to part with it. It took Rhan to sway her opinion, citing how they needed the Scorpio more than the Spitfire and the fact it was better left to be preserved by a collector than meet its end in a fireball of broken metal. Seeing this as a means to better preserve Tarvitz's memory, and with the permission of the two astromech units associated with the ship, Nat would sell it on. This would bring in more than enough materials to bring the Scorpio back into working order. Although still undergunned, all other systems were back to full operational status and much of the decaying and damaged systems were fully replaced. So much of the ship would be altered that, by the end, Nat and the Dead Ends would opt to give the vessel a new name The Hyperion.
Onto a New Horizon
With the restoration of the ship into a flightworthy status, Nat attempted to utilise the Hyperion as a sprint trader, bringing goods to worlds rich enough to afford specialist cargo but too out of the way to attract major corporations. This venture proved lacking as the Hyperion did not have the advanced hyperdrive of other dedicated trade vessels, and as such crew were soon returning to their old role of mechanics and starship salvagers.
Modifications
Automated Systems
Although the Sphyrna-class could be piloted by a single crewman if required, an extensive series of autonomous systems throughout its design served to significantly reduce its optimal crew requirement. Even in its severely dilapidated state, each of these were functioning at maximum capacity and allowed the entire vessel to be controlled from either the bridge or engineering if needed. These were further augmented by the Brotherhood upon its defection, but only enough to remove any safeguards left over by the Collective and improve upon the cruder original designs.
Recreational Facilities
A major overhaul from the previously sparse environments with little in the way of creature comforts, the Hyperion benefits from several recreational facilities to help benefit the crew during extended voyages. Along with a lounge area, cantina, library, and gymnasium, a full Holodrama theatre has been added toward the rear of the vessel. A major addition is a series of flight simulators and arcade machines, turning a previously disused smuggling compartment into a small arcade area. Most of these have been built from parts scavenged, bartered, or salvaged from derelicts, creating something of a mishmash of aesthetics despite their best efforts. Although certainly for entertainment, the significant reduction to mental fatigue is undeniably beneficial during extremely long voyages.
Storage Areas
With the Hyperion serving as much as a personal voidborne home as a vessel, the crew made sure to have expanded areas away from the main hold. Kitchen facilities, mechanical component bays, emergency tool units, and galleys are present across the vessel. Although some are relatively cramped and rustic in design, they serve the purpose of ensuring that each section has enough local supplies and parts to keep the ship in fully operational shape without the need to return to dock for years at a time if needed. While a far cry from the hydroponics facilities that Rhan wished to add, it is enough to prevent the Hyperion falling into disrepair or food stores taking away valuable space for cargo runs.
Library and Vault
Taken from the Fang's archives, the Library was a more condensed design of what was housed within the castle. Multiple texts were held on display among armoured shelves, and the overall organisation ultimately remains unchanged. This was intended to allow for easy starting should the Yastobaal ultimately take the place of the Fang in training students. Failing this, it was meant for the same structure to be implemented in a new location. The contents of the library were both numerous and varied, with examples of documents from across the galaxy covering a wide variety of subjects. first of these detailed historical eras and cultural documents that were seen as important to the Jensaarai. These covered philosophical examinations of the original Jedi Order, the Jensaarai, the Sith Empire, the Brotherhood, and Luke Skywalker's reformed Jedi. The books covering these organizations were varied, detailed, and come from the minds of many authors.
There were many which were as critical of the groups as were are praiseworthy, citing various shortcomings or oversights which led to their downfall despite their strengths. Such works were gathered so that those seeking the knowledge that the Jensaarai guard are not blinded by propaganda or rose-tinted depictions. To permit such a limited viewpoint to take hold of students or scholars would be to repeat the very mistakes that Tarvitz and Rhan both sought to rectify. Most of these were datadiscs recovered from New Republic libraries prior to the propaganda-driven purges of information. These cover a multitude of eras leading from the Great Galactic War through to the most devastating of the unsung wars, with many minor conflicts between them. A few ancient scrolls were kept among them, held in stasis fields to preserve their fragile works.
Many more were various items and archives that Rhan was able to rescue from the Jensaarai during their own purges of knowledge. These were typically more practical in nature, covering mechanical engineering studies and forgemaking techniques. Some delved into the art of Sith Alchemy, others also held an examination of minor splinter-groups and Krath cults from across the centuries, but most were intended for teaching students. It was for this reason that the archives retained a number of documents based upon lightsaber combat techniques.
Items seen as too dangerous or valuable for access even to students are held in a hidden vault. These were stored in a vault that was molecularly bonded to one corner of the room. To remove or alter it in any way would require cutting through military-grade reinforced armour plating on every side, along with the vault's own considerable defences. Gene-locked, code-locked, and guarded by a series of shifting questions based on Jensaarai philosophy, it was intended to be almost impregnable. Hidden away within a section of a connecting room and shielded from sensors, the vault was almost impossible to find save for those that knew of its existence. It was just as secure from efforts to breach it within as it is outside, and with good reason. A number of items were simply of cultural or even personal value, such as a seven-string hallikset and an Alderaanian moss painting, or relics from prior Great Jedi Wars. Alchemically treated weapons such as sapphire blades and The Ruin of Kings were kept to one side while the subjects of ongoing research, such as Collective cybernetic implants, were held in shielded sub-vaults.
Yet the vast majority of the vault's contents consisted of ancient scrolls, texts, and books tens of thousands of years old. These works consisted of documents thought lost to the ages or commonly dismissed as mere legends, penned by figures such as Arca Jeth, Naga Sadow, and Nikkos Tyris. Most covered philosophy relating to the Sith and Jedi Order, while a few others documented techniques exclusive to one Order or the other. Tomes detailing all knowledge of the Old Ones and their associated spirits, life extension techniques, and surviving copies of the Dark Side Compendium, were but a few of the other documents held there. Perhaps the greatest prize of the archives was a group of recovered holocrons leading back to the era just prior to the Great Galactic War, retaining the memories of Jolee Bindo and Darth Vectivus respectively. The third was badly damaged, and efforts to repair its systems did not meet with any degree of real success. While the holocron is clearly Jedi in origin, the identity of its creator remained unknown. In the wake of the The Myrkr Crusade this was later joined by a holocron that supposedly held the teachings of Darth Marr, but this was disputed given that it was seemingly recorded at a date following his death. These were all warded as much by sorcery as technology, dimming their presence in the Force and working to hide them via a number of techniques that mask their presence to the wider universe.
The most frequently accessed section of the archives was the area on training documents kept for students. Rather than covering subjects directly relating to the Force, culture, or history, the documents found here detail more directly practical subjects of knowledge. Close-quarters combat tactics, means of infiltration and sabotage, resisting interrogation, escaping captivity, guerrilla warfare, wilderness survival, and resource acquisition, were but a few of those found there. Others detailed secondary means such as negotiation, avoiding direct combat, and squad-based tactics. These worked to teach students as much about survival among the universe as direct combat, covering areas that are usually utilised by soldiers rather than Force users.