Another day aboard the ISD-II Hammer means another day of repairing star fighters, we watch over

Second Lieutentant Howe as he explains his day to day life as a mechanic.

I usually wake up around 0600 to have a fresh and early start to the day. Along with my other

mechanics, we all share the same living quarters and space. The day begins with a hot shower, a quick

trip to the café, and then straight to the hangar.

Finishing off his coffee and snack, Howe proceeds to the Hangar with his other mechanics.

“Woo boy, would you look at this mess” says Senior Lieutenant Growes. The TIE Corps sure does a great

job at banging up these TIEs. “Just look at this fighter, its missing a panel, the instruments are all gorked

up, and theres fur everywhere! Who is training these guys to fly? Well, on the bright side at least the

pilots made it back to the hangar.”

Growes was a straight shooter, a grizzly older man, he usually says whats on his mind without thinking. I

always commended him on his no beating around the bush attitude.

“Howe, hand me that spanner, the torch, and my repair kit box. This is gonna be a long day”. “Sure

thing, here you go” says Howe.

We begin work on repairing the TIE, replacing the damaged panels meticulously and cautiously, as not to

injure ourselves again. The last time we fixed up one of these fighters a panel snapped and fell, landing

on one of our men. Thankfully we wasn’t too injured, just a few broken bones. We move all the broken

parts onto a droid lifter which carries it away to salvage. Using the crane, we load in a brand new panel

and secure it to the ship.

“Alright Howe, bring her in slowly. Slowly. SLOWLY YOURE COMING IN TOO FAST”. I try to avoid hitting

one of the arches and slow down the crane. “It’s not easy using these things, they’re a little too quick on

the controls”. “Yeah well, take it easy. We’re not in any rush, we get paid by the hour remember so lets

take it slow. Speaking of, its break time.”

“Break time already? But we just started!” “Yeah Howe, you see the thing is, if we’re not rested we

might make a mistake. A slip up. Don’t want to end up like that last guy, he worked himself to the bone

for a few credits. Now he’s gone for good.”

“Oh wow...what happened to him? Did he get hurt and have to quit?” “Nah, he was too old for service,

so he retired down planet side. Got himself a nice gig off shore, think he might be working the hotel

these days”.

We wrap up our break and continue working on the TIE fighter we were assigned to. After repairing the

interior cockpit, cleaning up all the fur. The ship was fit for service again.

“Great work today Lieutenant, see you same time tomorrow”. says Growe and he swings a dirty rag

onto his shoulder. “Yeah, see you tomorrow! I’m gonna hit the showers again, this was a messy job”

I proceed back to my quarters, hit the showers, and prepare to end my shift for the night.