Scorpio (corvette)
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[ Source ] |
- "'Just for once I'd like for us to gain a ship, and it not be old enough to be my grandfather."
- ―Nikora Rhan
The 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 would use 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 would leave the ship crippled and left as bait. This would lead to a chance encounter with the crew of the Yastobaal and the Free Droid Enclave, and allowing them to defect to Clan Odan-Urr. After the Yastobaal's departure along with the more frustrated elements of the Enclave, the damaged Scorpio would become the group's mobile HQ in the Kiast system.
Description
At the time of its crew defecting to Clan Odan-Urr, the Scorpio 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.
In spite of being home to the Dead Ends for nearly a decade, the vessel is highly utilitarian in design, with little in the way of real comforts or even personal decorations. Although this is gradually being changed following its transfer over to Odan-Urr ownership, far more pressing repairs are being focused upon by its crew.
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 mor 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, would each have a number of their cybernetics removed which were to encourage obedience and even a number of suicide devices none of the crew had known 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.
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.
Smuggling Compartments
Due to its nature as a salvaging vessel of legally dubious nature, areas across the ship had been hollowed out an enlarged. Various service hatches, utility ducts, and other locations served as easy smuggling compartments. While relatively small scale, along with being hidden only from visual scans and searches, these were intended to transport the most valued salvage pillaged from derelict vessels. Even prior to their defection, the Dead Ends used several of these as rare placed of privacy and celebration, with one area a short distance from the bridge being barely large enough to serve as a small lounge.