You Know I Used to Glide

"A friend of mine supplied me with Dreykov's current location and the strength of his forces. Currently, he's staying in a unit of a condominium. The entire building belongs to him and often serves as a center for Black Widows. The Condo is in Battery Park, but he doesn't only own this building. There are other nearby buildings used as lookouts. Some of these lookouts are single units. 

If you want to attack the primary base, you'll either need to slip through the Widows on the lookout, or you will need to take down some or all of these lookouts.

The more time you spend on doing this, the less time you'll have to get to Dreykov. If you take too long he'll slip away. This man is difficult to locate," Master M'tz debriefed the three teens in the presence of Master Shang-Chi and Zaran. 

"The three of you will formulate a plan of attack and capture the Widows along with Dreykov. The police could interfere if you make too much noise. The quicker the operation the better," Zaran spoke to the three. Strange as it seemed, Zaran became both a training partner and advisor to the group of teens. 

"I want a plan before tomorrow's attack. Do what you need to prepare. The three of you have exceeded this week's goals, but don't let that make you arrogant. These Widows are dangerous individually and in a group they are a formidable fighting force. You may go," Master M'tz watched the kids leave. 

Walking down the ramp the three were led to the Mercury Cougar Sol and Gar started calling the Rancor.

The beast of a machine is painted dark green with purple accents throughout. Yellow and white headlights are like the eyes of a spawn of hell. 

"Take a look at the insides. V6 and I finished everything this morning. I know you're thinking, 'The insides looked nothing like a car.' That's because this is between a car and a spaceship."

Gar walked around to the other side of the Rancor and pressed some buttons to open two small doors. "This is the astromech socket for V6. He can use his scomp link to plug into the ship and run all the repair equipment. The doors open as a platform extends from within and falls to the ground. This platform assists the astromech to enter the socket. Come here V6, show them," Gar commanded the little droid. V6 dutifully approached the platform and was lifted into the droid dock. The small doors closed as V6 tweedled from within. 

"We can access the pilot and gunner seats through the canopy. The driver's side door doesn't open, but watch," The canopy split into two sections. The pilot's portion moved to the front. The canopy behind moved back. Instead of facing forward, like the pilot, the seats were flipped around facing the back. The seats in the back were three gunner stations. "I reduced the trunk to make room for the blasters and cannons controlled by each gunner. It makes it easier for the gunners to get in and out of the speeder," Gar continued showing off the features of his Rancor.

"Check out the side gunner's seats. The seats are locked but the helmet gives the feeling of being able to rotate with the guns, which can rise and detach from constraints giving them 360 degrees of cover fire in a circle. It also allows it to rise to about 75 degrees vertically. However, the guns can't fire below the canopy. I'm thinking about having rotating guns on the sides, but that will have to wait until after tomorrow night."

Sol's excitement was palpable as he looked at the central gun, "What about the middle seat?"

Smiling at his friend he pointed at the blaster cannon on the back, "The gun is less agile. It can fire straight back and crank up to a 45-degree angle, but the central gunner is responsible for other support systems like communications and tactics." 

While Gar and Sol discussed the central gun, Natalie moved around to the pilot's side and looked at the controls, "It looks more like an aircraft wheel than a car's wheel, "The wheel had a 'W' shape instead of the round one used in most cars. "Good eye Natalie," Gar came next to her to point out the features of the pilot's seat in more detail. Notice that the neck of the wheel isn't short and stubby like in a car. It can move vertically."

Sol turned when he heard this and looked closer at the steering wheel, "Why would you want it to do that?" 

Smiling, Gar introduced the feature he was most proud of, "I designed it this way so that the car is more like a land speeder. The car wheels are fake. They're more like landing mounts; I've added mini-missiles to the tires. Anyone who sees it rolling will think it's a car, but if they shoot the tires, there's a droid brain in the tire that will track shots and fire little missiles along the same route as the attack. Relying on the repulsors, the speeder can hover about six feet off the ground."

Natalie's eyes sparkled, "What about the rest of the controls?"

"Everything else controls other systems the pilot might need. Anything that removes rain from the windshield, holo-screens, maps, readouts, scanners, a targeting computer, and other devices. 

I never showed the trunk, but that's where I've stored your helmets, mini-locker, collapsable kitchen, and tools," Gar smiled as he looked at his Rancor. 

"Did you make this for us?" Sol asked quietly. 

"The Rancor is for you, Sol. It's one why I made sure V6 had a nice droid dock. I feel that after tomorrow it may be a long time before the three of us are together again. I don't know if we'll be separated because of our new masters, but I have made a few preparations. 

"Natalie, I've remodeled a bus for you using labor droids, mostly. The bus is an RV, more or less."

"When did you have time to create a bunch of droids?" Sol couldn't help but ask. 

"I didn't build any droids, I bought a couple of them along with some plans and had the droids I bought make other droids from our scrap collection. I can explain this later, it's not that important," Gar said without explaining where you could buy droids from on Earth. 

"I don't know where you're going or how many people will be with you, so I built four busses, altogether, or the droids built them. If you plan on taking your sisters with you along with Master Shang-Chi, you'll find them useful. Each bus has an R2 unit and two speeder bikes. There are a lot of features. The point is, I wanted to give you two something useful," Gar smiled. 

"Let's take the Rancor out for a ride, and maybe check on Dreykov's situation," Gar smiled and sat in the pilot's chair. Natalie and Sol climbed into the back. Sol sat behind Gar; while Natalie sat on the Speeder's port side. 

"Buckle up!" Gar yelled from the front. The Rancar shot off before the canopy closed.