BoTH Chpt 7

==Blood on the Horizon - Chapter 7 -==
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===Trouble Shooting===
"I don't want to do this," I looked at the LF battery and the K-F Drive. "But I need to." 
 
Floating in and around the drive, I worked through the checklist that I had downloaded, the voice of Betty walking me through the steps to ensure that I didn't miss anything. 
 
Starting with the helium seals, I moved through all of the systems, replacing what needed to be replaced and doing basic maintenance. Now that I understood most of the underlying theory, I needed to familiarize myself with the physical processes and repairs that were needed. 
 
"This one's blown," I removed the seal and pulled my tethered pack to me, grabbing a new seal out before allowing the pack to float away.
 
{{"Always check the seals before moving on,"}}> Betty's voice reminded me. 
 
"Running tests now," I replied to the somewhat comforting voice. "This seal's good, time to move on to the next one."
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"Alright, helium seals are good," I muttered. "Now I get to check the small parts of the drive." 
 
Pulling myself down a bit, I switched on the work light that was clipped to the chest of my uniform before removing the first of many panels that led to the interior of the drive. 
 
"And these are supposed to be the small electronics," I shook my head. "It's not exactly hard to tell which board is fried when they're this large."
 
I moved through all of the circuit boards, pulling each and every single one out as I went over them, making sure the connections were solid and that there were no parts that needed to be replaced and re-soldered.
 
"One board out of twenty isn't awful," I replaced the damaged board before pulling myself out of that section and moving onto another. "Now let's see what the computers have to say."
 
I pushed a control and used the small amount of thrust to float over to the main computers and began turning them on. 
 
{{"Reactor online, Kearny-Fuchida drive online, scanning systems now,"}} I waited a few minutes while the computer ran through the scans. {{"Warning, fault detected in section D-10."}}
 
"That's the link between the LF battery and the drive," I moved to that section. "Damn, I'm going to have to replace most of the links before I try to jump."
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===Trying to become Iron Man===
"So, I know this is probably cliche as hell," I said into the camera I had found. "But I'm going to do the whole Iron Man testing thing while I've got the chance."
 
"This is Nighthawk test number one," I pulled the helmet over my head. "We're going to start with a basic walk and move on from there." 
 
Shifting my weight, I tried to take a step forward and fell right onto my face. 
 
"Well, that didn't work all that well," I pushed myself up onto my knees. "This could take a while."
 
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"This is Nighthawk test number five, I think I've managed to get the first step down, but we're about to find out."
 
Pushing forward with my left foot, I cheered as I stayed upright, moving at a slow walk through the room until I stopped back at the pedestal the armor had been on. 
 
"Test number five was a success. I'll conduct more tests tomorrow."
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===Progressing through the Repairs===
"K-F Drive is mostly fixed," I wrote down. "I've got to track down the replacement link to the L-F battery before I can finish that," I glanced at my exposed biceps. "Workout routine seems to be showing some minor results. And I managed to survive more than five minutes in the sims."
 
After I finished writing everything that I could think of down, I leaned back in the chair and stretched while yawning. 
 
"So, what do I have left?" I asked as I looked down at the nearly full notebook. "I'm not going to climb back into the Nighthawk or the simulators for the day. And there's not a chance in hell I'm working on the K-F Drive until I've had time to study the linkage between it and the L-F Battery."
 
"Whelp," I stood up. "I might as well check out the Confederate dropships that are currently attached to the ship. Might be something useful there."
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===Exploring the Confederates===
A few weeks later…
"Last page," I looked at my notebook as I floated down through the hatch to the first of the dropships. "Let's hope they still have paper somewhere."
 
"Let's get the power up and running," I followed the signs down to the engine room. "I want to know what to call this ship." 
 
Refueling the onboard secondary reactors only took a fraction of the time it had taken to refuel the Manassas. 
 
"Alright," I powered up the secondary reactors and grinned as the lights flickered at first and then stayed on. "Let's see what your name is, old girl."
 
"The Last of Us," I hummed as I went through the computers on the bridge. "If only you knew."
 
Pulling up the cargo manifest, I downloaded it to the wrist device before heading down to the mech and aerospace bays. 
 
"Four Warhammers," I checked the manifest before nodding. "So far it looks like they maintained good records. But let's see whether they're the standard variants or if they're something special."
 
"It's probably a good thing that you can't tell whether the mechs are standard variants or advanced at first glance," I looked at the panel that detailed the specs on the four mechs in the gantries. "Because just these four would be enough to make a terrifying lance."
 
"They really loaded up on the spare parts too," I looked in one of the storage bays. "Probably can't deploy for combat until this is all pulled out and moved for use, but it's still impressive. The Stingrays are nice birds too."
 
Moving through all of the cargo bays and closets, I triple-checked the manifest, ensuring that all of the numbers were accurate and updating them if they were off. 
 
"Missing two Fusion Engines," I noted. "I bet they took them to the planet for use as generators."
 
"Handful of small lasers and some PPCs are missing as well," I wrote down. "They left the ER large lasers and ER PPCs though."
 
Then, finishing my work, I left the cargo bay, it was time to inspect the other dropships. Maybe there was a surprise or two waiting.
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Chapter 7