Outlaw tech

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This article is about the term. You may be looking for the company, OutlawTech.

Outlaw tech TofG — A Sullustan outlaw tech

An outlaw tech was a technician whose specialty lay in unorthodox mechanical work that was questionable by factory and safety standards (if not outright illegal). This ranged from performing repairs and modifications on smuggling ships to building and modifying military-grade hardware such as weapons, explosives, and communications equipment. Under the broadest definition, this could even encompass technical crew working for pirates.

Several outlaw technicians lacked the formal training possessed by professional engineers, but instead got by on their instinctive mechanical genius. Given the nature of their business, an outlaw tech's work could be a mix of anything from salvaged parts and space tape to stolen military hardware and top-secret prototypes. Some were skilled enough to reverse-engineer complex devices and even develop their own, able to exceed anything else on the market (legal or otherwise). They tended to be efficient, competent, discreet, and mobile; they often changed their base of operations to avoid security forces and the competition or otherwise operate out of remote or hidden areas, such as Shug Ninx's Spacebarn.

Many outlaw techs also tended to become utterly absorbed in their projects, sometimes forgetting food and rest while they worked. In light of how often things such as ships and weapons needed repairs, the outlaw techs were a critical part of the underworld.