The next day, I managed to not only get caught up with, but ahead of schedule.

  Even better, every time my mana had filled back up, I'd used Scan and then Repair. It took ten uses of each to see my first improvement. At the second level of skill, Scan now only used 9 mana, and could give me a slightly increased sense of how to help a machine. Repair had also seen a level up, now using only 9 mana a second and could repair 1.1 Kilos of material. These were great increases that improved my efficiency, making it easier to complete repairs.

  However, I'd been so focused on getting ahead, I'd run out of several vital materials. Koples, the Hutt that he was, only sent me supplies once a month, and we were 16 days away from the next resupply. So I got ready to do what I'd always done in this situation, go to the Heap.

  The Heap was the local junkyard, and it was run by a cn of Jawas. They charged for access but it wasn't a bad price. And they never charged by weight, unlike some of the other scrapyards around here. The major problem with the Heap was that the Jawas did nothing to keep their yard safe. You were likely to get jumped by womp rats, and worse, if you didn't bring along help.

  I didn't have any help, but in true scrap rat fashion, I'd crafted a solution. A rigged up old portable turret. It would retract down into a backpack and was easy to carry. It packed a hefty punch for its size. It also ate power cells like Hutts eat Ktooine paddy frogs. For those times when the turret wasn't enough, or when trouble was just too close, I'd salvaged an old EE-3 bster carbine. I'd heard those were once a favorite of bounty hunters. So far, both weapons had worked great, but now I could easily make a few adjustments. A Scan and Repair on them had them looking as good as new, even recharging their power cells.

  I strapped on the turret and slung the EE-3 across my body. I hung two water canteens from my toolbelt. They wouldn't st all day but I was used to going thirsty. Then I grabbed my junk cart from behind the repair station. People might make fun of me for it, but I loved my improvised transport.

  It was an 2.5 meter long, 1.5 meter wide ftbed cart. Of course, I'd fitted each of its wheels with their own motor and power cell. Then added a simple control yoke to the front of the cart. It was slow and ugly compared to any speeder, but it was five times faster than me when empty and three times faster than me when full. It was cheap and easy to maintain, and anything beat walking in this heat. I'd also spped on a roof over my seat, for a little more sun protection.

  I locked up and left notice that I was going to be out for the rest of the day. On went my hood, face scarf and sunshades, then I was off to find more materials.

  The Heap was only a couple of klicks out, and the area was pretty clear of wildlife in this midday heat. So nothing happened on the way there. Even the Jawas were in a good mood today, their cn had found an abandoned transport near the Dune Sea, and were pnning on fixing it up. Jawas always seemed to want to go back to their old nomadic ways. Or maybe they just wanted to stay away from the Hutts. However, that wasn't good news for me though, because once I'd bought my freedom, I'd need pces like this to be able to earn credits.

  Paying them the access fee, I tried not to let it get me down. It wouldn't be hard to find my own scrap out there between the cities and towns. I just had to be on the lookout for some junked droids to fix up and help me scavenge. Maybe today I'd get lucky.

  I rolled my cart out to the far edge of the yard were I knew the zy Junk Haulers liked to dump the "fresh" trash from Rekarsh. Jackpot, there were at least five new pile to pick through and no one else around today.

  I set up my turret by the central mount of used treasure and parked my cart between the turret and the scrap pile. That would discourage most cim jumpers and sand vermin.

  I spend the rest of the day digging and poking through those heaps. While I didn't find any trashed droids, I did two mostly intact speeders. Sadly the processors they were missing made it pointless to try to repair them, so I wasted no time in breaking them down, that's a lot of wiring, plenty of capacitors, motivators, power cells and the chassis and engines were a good source of several useful metals.

  Other than a couple of womp rats I'd been left alone. The little buggers, made for poor eating. Even if they were tasty, the chance of getting womp rat fever was way too high. So I left their bodies there for whatever'd come along after I'd vacated the area.

  I'd also found and loaded my cart with a bunch of appliances, like cooking units, trash processors, entertainment units, holounits, and even a messed up industrial droid charging station. Now that was a nice find. I'd keep that st one to sell, though I had to pull it apart to be able to move it. The capacitor alone weighed more than me. Thankfully, I could roll it. The bronzium shell would hold up just fine to a little sand and rock.

  That should be enough scrap for now. Spark, it wouldn't be my problem anymore in a few days. So, no need to over do it now. I waved farewell to the Jawas on my way out of the yard.

  Dusk had fallen and that was a real problem. Lots of critters came out to hunt. My cart wasn't fast enough when loaded down to outrun many of the predators out here. I strapped down my turret on top of my pile of recimed goodies, and activated it. Its targeting unit wasn't going to be much use while moving, but a couple of shots might warn off a few beasts. As a precaution my carbine stayed in my hand the whole way home, but it wasn't needed this time.

  While it'd taken me all day to find all this good junk, it only took me an hour to get it all into the repair station. The time consuming part would be smelting the metals down into ingots.

  While I set the smelter to heat up out back, I fixed up a bowl of nutri-slop. I desperately needed to replenish my lost energy. Once I'd been fed, I fed the massive makeshift smelter a load of cut up scrap. Thankfully the smelter could separate out the various metals by using a density sifter. That finished, I put the droid charging station mostly back together before hitting it with a Scan and Repair.

  Repair burned through my mana incredibly fast, which meant this unit was one of the better versions. Though it also meant it would take several uses of my ability to fully restore, that was fine by me, because once it was fixed I could sell the station for a small fortune. A few hundred credits easy, maybe a thousand if I bargained hard. More than enough to get a simple speeder and a small auto excavator. Though if I was going to forge my own way out in the wastes, I'd need a small Moisture Vaporator Unit, and that wasn't going to come cheap. Maybe, I should stay for another month or two. Wait to pay Koples off.

  No, that was fear talking. It was hard living out there and harder still to find profit. I was rightfully worried, but I had a feeling I'd be able to make it.

  I threw another load of scrap into the smelter. Then moved the finished ingots into storage. Then I sorted out and stored the components that would be useful as they were.

  When I opened up tomorrow, I'd be well stocked.