BoTH Chpt 42

==Blood on the Horizon - Chapter 42 -==
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===How they Died===
Location: Abandoned World, Codenamed EidolonDate: May 22th, 3003
"I want extra generators brought in and set up here, here, and here," Ford began to organize the work sit. "I fully expect for us to find more data centers in those locations if they exist."
 
"I take it there was something interesting?" I asked, taking a sip of my coffee. 
 
"Yes!" Ford turned to me, a manic glint in his eyes. "In fact, I believe there is some that will assist in your endeavors."
 
"Oh?" I raised an eyebrow. "I'm listening."
 
"Well, while most of the data here will take time to sort through, I did manage to go through some of it last night," he dug through a stack of papers before handing a folder to me. "Look it over later, but I think it'll be useful for you."
 
"Thanks," I tucked the folder away into a backpack. "Anything else interesting come up through the night?"
 
"They died to some sort of accidental bioweapon," the Doctor held up another folder. "Seems that they had some scientists with them, and they continued their work in secret."
 
"Do I need to start Quarantine procedures?" my coffee cup creaked as my hand tightened around it. 
 
"No," Ford shook his head. "While bacteria and other diseases can lay dormant for years, most wouldn't be able to hang around for over two hundred years. I also had our people who specialize in such things go over everything to confirm that information. We are as well as we can be." 
 
"Good," I relaxed my grip around the cup. "I'll be out inspecting the spaceport if you need me for anything. And I've got a couple of platoons of infantry around if you need anything critical."
 
"Go, see what salvage you can find. We will be here for a few months regardless," Ford waved me away. "Just make us aware if you are able to find any data that may point in the direction anyone may have fled or that may lead to what happened fully here."
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===Salvage Options===
Date: May 24th, 3003
"So, how did they manage to get their hands on these?" I asked, my hands on my hips as I looked out at the small fleet of old Dropships and Dropshuttles scattered across the ferrocrete spaceport. 
 
"Well," a nearby Ensign replied. "The 'Modern' version of the DRoST was made in 2480, or something around that time. And the Reunification Wars weren't for another century or so, and given the cargo space, and everything else."
"It means that they were sold on the open markets for a pretty penny," I looked at the half dozen dropships in front of me. 
 
"We'll need more time to see what we'll be able to get up and running," the junior officer replied. "But I figure that they'll do us right if we're able to get them in decent shape."
 
"Yeah," I stroked my beard at the odd ship. "I think they will."
 
"Anyway, there wasn't a whole lot of recoverable hardware on board aside from the dropships themselves," Hober continued. "But they had a lot of old military dropships here," he pointed out some of the Spheroids that were parked here. "And if we can get some of those up and running, I figure we can either use them, or sell them off to the museums that'll want them."
 
"There's over fifty dropships here," I responded. "I'd love to have the people to man every single one of them and bring them with us, but we're just not. So see which ones should have priority repair, and what we can do to fix or bring them up to modern standards and let me know how long it'll take." 
 
"Wilco, Major," the Ensign turned to continue directing the salvage crews into several dropships. "Just wanted to keep you up to date."
 
"Thanks," I sipped at a fresh cup of coffee. "I'll make sure you guys get properly rotated out with fresh crews. Based on what I'm hearing from the good doctor, we're going to be here for a while."
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"So, I'm going to start with the bad news," Sheppard began the briefing. "There's not a whole lot of 'Mech or Vehicle salvage here. We've managed to find some Ancient Vehicles, it seems that the 'Mechs weren't as well maintained or stored. They're useful only for what parts we can strip from them to get them working again." 
 
"I thought we managed to find some artillery pieces though," Naomi said after Sheppard indicated she could speak next. "I'm pretty sure I supervised their recovery too."
 
"We did get about two lances of Ballista clones," Sheppard agreed. "But if we hadn't found the 'Mechs that we found before, we'd be in pretty big trouble insofar as salvage goes this run for the ground forces," He changed to the next slide. "Now, for the good news. We got a transmission from Captain Frye and the teams working on the Jumpships. It looks like they've managed to get one of the Leviathan's main power systems up and running. So far, all of their checks show that the K-F drive is good and they're pretty confident they'll be able to get the second one jump capable if given enough time. To shift to the other good news," a picture of the spaceport shown on the projector behind him. "Provided that we manage to get the ones that we've picked out up and running, we're projected to salvage at least five dropships from the spaceport. Three DRoST IIbs, and a couple of the spheroids. Crewing them will be a bit difficult at the moment, so we'll be short staffed on the ground until we can get back to somewhere with a better recruitment pool."
 
"So we've got a lot of work to do then," Peterson said as he studied the dropships. "What's the cost of getting some of those that predate the Reunification War up to our current standards?"
 
"Some of them will be easier than others," I took Sheppard's place. "But given that we're going to be here for at least six or so months if what Doctor Ford is telling me is correct…"
"We'll have some time," Sheppard finished for me. "But we will need to prioritize what we really need for future growth."
 
"And IE has promised that they won't be publishing results of their findings for at least a decade," I cracked my neck. "So, we'll be able to come back and grab whatever we might have missed the first time around."
 
"What do we want to take with us?" Paige asked. "We can afford to be a bit picky here. We don't have to worry about logistical pressure as much as a lot of merc units on account of the Phoenix."
 
"Personally," I highlighted the Aerodynes. "I want the DroST. I think they'll be good for infantry deployment." 
 
"They do have pretty big cargo holds," Peterson agreed. "I kinda want the Jumbo," He pointed out the lone Spheroid that towered over the others. "Sure, we've got a lot of cargo space on the Phoenix, but I'd rather not put all of our eggs into one basket. And besides, the big girl can't land. So we can use the Jumbo as a cargo ship to transfer whatever we need from the cargo holds to the surface." 
 
The other officers agreed with Peterson before each speaking in turn on what they'd like to try and salvage and recover. 
 
"Hold it," I held up a hand. "The Jumbo is the only thing that's on the list for certain at the moment," I wrote it down on a notebook. "So, now we'll go through the pros and cons of all the others before making a decision on which ones we want to focus on."
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===Eureka Moment===
Date: June 27th, 3003
"You said that you had an idea?" I spoke to Doctor Rogers. 
 
"Yes," she flipped through the file folder that Ford had handed me over a month ago. "This research holds the key to something that people have been trying to crack for centuries. And now that I can see it, it's so plainly obvious that it makes us all look like fools!"
 
She stood up and began pacing behind her desk. 
 
"So, put it for me in layman's terms," I said after a minute. "I'm smart, and I know enough to maintain a Dropship, or even a JumpShip, but I'm not an inventor or an engineer." 
 
"These researchers had been working towards localized miniature fusion on a scale that's minuscule in comparison to today's reactors. She flipped to a section with diagrams and equations scribbled all over it. "It'll take us time to understand the equations and the shorthand, but they were close to a breakthrough that would allow someone to shrink a fusion reactor to under a ton in mass. Now, it wouldn't last for near as long as a 'Mech's reactor without refueling, but given the benefits."
 
"It means that you could do something like," I smiled. "Mount it onto a powered exoskeleton?"
 
"Maybe in the future," she muttered. "But the applications are so much broader than that once we've managed to get the technology refined to a level that would satisfy me."
"I'll take your word for it," I smiled. "Now, I've got some more work to do if you don't need me for anything else."
 
"No, I just wanted to let you know that I'll be keeping the job," Rogers smirked. "As long as I keep getting to work on interesting things like this, you can count on me to keep the rest of the crazy people in line."
 
"You got it," I shook her hand before heading out. 
 
"Maybe I should reveal something else soon," I muttered as I stroked my beard. "Would be nice to have a chance against the Clans in fifty years or so."
 
But all of that was for another day. For now, there was plenty of work to be done before the folks from Interstellar Expeditions were satisfied and willing to leave the goldmine of a system that they had found.
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===Salvage Report===
Initial Salvage Report(Rough draft found among documents)
Date: February 16th, 3003
Author: Head Mechtech Jerome McAllister<br>
 
'Well, it's not the jackpot we'd hoped for, but I certainly wouldn't say that a lance of heavy 'Mechs is something to scoff at.The influx of antique 'Mechs is a bit of a pain. (Especially given how much extra work we have to do.) But with the Phoenix's Machine shops, we're going to be able to accelerate the refits.So far, we've managed to collect a Gladiator that's been around longer than my home town has been, along with one of the older Rifleman, and that's just what we salvaged from the pirates! On this abandoned rock, we've pulled out an Archer that's only barely holding together, a Griffin that masses five tons more than it should. At least the Thud's basically the same as what I've worked on before. It'll only a few minor modifications to make to get that machine up and running.There isn't much else left around this area. And I've got enough work for my techs to be busy for the next three months. The armor swaps are just the easy part. I'm concerned with the state of some of these reactors…It'll be interesting to see what changes we can make once we modernize some of these machines. Even if we do have to strip them down to the skeleton and rebuild them.And now I'm realizing that this isn't what the boss meant when he asked for a report on the salvaged material. I'll need to scrap this and get something a bit more official done.Signed. Jerome McAllister
 
;Author's note: Set before the haul on Eidolon
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Chapter 42