Chapter 16

With all 3 forces eliminated and his status as a Blooded gained, Jial felt a weight lifted off of his shoulders. There were no more local, external threats that could bother him which meant that he could act more freely and without restraint.

Jial gave Sidon and Suxon 30K in credits to take them off-world and purchase some mining droids to get all of the Stygium. The pair took off in one of the ships that they had liberated from the deceased pirates so Boxe and Zilvarth could still use their ship in case they needed to engage in combat with any fighters or smaller star ships.

With them gone and the area secure, Jial decided to take a small break from his Force power training, he decided to use his Premium Ship Summon. 

Jial walked over to the spaceport and stood in one of the small hangars before activating the system.

'System. I want to use my Premium Starship Coupon.'

[Understood, Host. Please select the role you wish for your ship to specialize in in one word.]

'Scouting,' Jial was able to easily decide on what type of ship he wanted. He needed something that would help him learn about the other groups on the planet as well as get a chance to get the drop on anyone who entered the system. If he was able to incorporate the Stygium on the craft as well, it would be the perfect stealth ship. 

[Understood. Host has gained an X-70B Phantom-Class Prototype. The item has been sent to host storage.]

'Phantom-Class? I've never heard of anything like this before. System, give me a rundown of the ship.'

[Understood, Host. 

X-70B Phantom-Class Prototype: A prototype starship of the reconstituted Sith Empire. The X-70B Phantom was designed to pass for a civilian luxury shuttle, despite its array of hidden components. Its bridge was shielded by the forward armor plating and was equipped with advanced, precision flight instruments. Their powerful sensor arrays had the ability to scan the interiors of other ships, even over large distances.

Its interior features custom wood paneling and cushioned seating, and within the X-70B is a luxurious central lounge with a gaming table and recessed food coolers, as well as long-range communication holoterminal. Attached to the lounge is a medical bay, behind which was a spacious cargo bay. The X-70B also included a conference room, intended for both briefings and entertainment of potential intelligence sources.

Length: 24.3 meters

Width: 28.6 meters

Height/depth: 5.4 meters

Hyperdrive rating: 0.4

Shielding: Equipped

Hull: Stealth plating

Sensor systems: High-power sensor array

Countermeasures: Limited-use cloaking device

Armament: Heavy laser cannons and Missiles system

Communication systems: Long-range holotransmitter]

'This thing is amazing. The Premium Summon is truly living up to its name,' Jial was glad that he had gotten such an amazing ship. This was more than what he had expected. Although he knew that recon ships had limited stealth abilities and powerful scanners, he never expected to get one that could even scan the interior of other ships. 

'Wait. I'm thinking too small here. If it can scan ships, what stops it from scanning the interior of ground facilities? What on Lok were the Sith planning on doing with these things?'

Jial was thinking of the various capabilities of the ship with a small smile on his face. After letting himself daydream for a minute or two, Jial decided to summon the ship and see it in person. 

'What the hell? This thing looks amazing!' 

The System's description didn't lie when it said that it looked like a luxury shuttle. The sleek design of the ship would make Jial think about robbing the thing if it wasn't his. The dark grey color of the ship fit its role perfectly and made it look even more amazing. 

Jial walked up to the side of the ship before pressing a button to lower the ramp. He then walked up to check out the inside of the ship. He walked through the engine room, captain's quarters, main hall, medical bay, and the various other rooms that the ship had. 

"Boxe. You busy?" Jial called the Mandalorian over the comms

"I was just about to go and do some exploring. If you got something more exciting though, I'm down to ditch that," Boxe replied immediately. With all of the opposing forces eliminated, there was not much to do. 

"Was just about to refit my new ship and personal stealth generator with the Stygium crystals. Can you bring them over?"

"You got a new ship?!" Boxe was surprised to hear that Jial had gotten his own ship. "I'll bring them over in a second."

Whenever she asked him what to do with acquired ones, he said that those could just be left to the lower-ranks. She thought it was weird that the leader didn't even have a personal ship but she just did as she was told. 

'I wonder what it looks like.'

Boxe arrived at the hangar a few minutes later but her jaw nearly dropped off of her face when she saw Jial's ship. She had never expected him to have such... exquisite tastes. 

It was only when Boxe joined Jial in the engine room that she could understand what he had was no ordinary luxury ship. 

'That hyperdrive is too powerful for a ship like this. And so is the generator. This thing definitely has some hidden features.'

"Here you go, Boss," Boxe dropped the box of crystals on the floor. Jial was lying on his back and inside of a small panel, fiddling with something. "What the hell is this ship?"

"A ship from the Old Sith Empire. It's supposed to be an advanced recon ship with cloaking tech, a few weapons, and some dangerously powerful sensors," Jial spoke while he continued to work under the ship. "How good are you with ships?"

"I'm the one that fixes ours every time my brother crashes it. Not as good of a pilot as my old man though," Boxe told him honestly

"Good to hear. You able to upgrade the stealth generator?"

"Leave it to me," Boxe took the box and walked over to where she assumed the stealth generator would be. After hearing the ship's purpose, she was able to guess how the Sith had designed it and where certain systems would be to work the most efficiently. And her guess turned out to be correct. 

Boxe arrived at the location before popping open the generator. She saw that it was using some older crystals that most people used when they couldn't get a hold of Stygium. Boxe carefully took out the old crystal before replacing it with a Stygium crystal of nearly identical size. 

Boxe ran a diagnostics check on the system, making sure that it was working perfectly. All the tests came back green.

"System should be working better than before," Boxe told him. Jial had crawled from under the space he was in and was wiping his mask with a piece of cloth. 

"Good. All we need to do is give this ship a test run. You wanna do it?" Jial offered her

"Really?" Boxe asked from under her mask, excited to test out the ship. 

"Knock yourself out. I spent a long enough time away from studying. Gotta get back to it," Jial knew that he needed to continue studying so he gave up on having fun. "Just make sure you are back in less than an hour. We still need you around here."

"Hehe, no problem," Boxe rushed to the cockpit, taking a minute to enjoy the look of the main lounge. 

When Jial got off the ship, he noticed the lights of the ship turn on signaling that the engine had been activated but he couldn't hear a thing coming from the ship. The ship's stealth capabilities were truly superior, even without the cloaking. 

"Boxe. Engage the cloak now."

"Roger. Engaging cloak," Boxe began pressing buttons on the console before before ship's cloak had activated. The entire ship disappeared instantly in front of Jial's eyes. There was no silhouette like with his personal cloaking field.

"Boxe. Can you read me? Boxe!" Jial called through the communicator but there was he got no reply. 

Boxe then turned off the cloaking field before talking back to him. 

"I could hear you by using the sensors but normal communication was cut off. How on earth is this thing able to do that?"

Ships that were cloaked, were usually unable to use their sensors while cloaked since the cloaking field blocked all sensors. For the ship to be able to still receive messages, it meant that either the cloak was really bad or the sensor was very powerful. And since she had installed the crystal, she knew just how amazing the cloak was. 

"Perfect. Reengage and you are clear to take off," Jial told her

Boxe activated the cloak once again before activating the repulsors. Jial still couldn't hear the engines and was not even sure when Boxe had left the hangar. But when she returned an hour later, she had brought back a surprise for him as well as the next set of choices that he could make. 

[Multiple Paths Detected]