WCGW Chpt 199

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==Chapter 199 - What Could Go Wrong==
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Thazi (Independent System)
28th February, 3045
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"That is a pretty crappy thing to do to us." Brigadier General Herbert Horbaugh said after being told about the message and the packing of the maintenance schedule basically cutting SaRI off at the knees.
"It is no major surprise. I might not like, not at all, but the First Prince has always had his own agenda out here, we were just the perfect folks to help him out at the time. We made a ton of cash off them in the process. It is not the First Prince's fault that the new commander of Wokha, this Vice Admiral Unger took the reply and ran with it." Major General (President) Mitchell replied
"Your taking this awfully easy, Sir. I figured you would have fired off some scathing reply." Captain Nathan Davis chimed in.
"I am annoyed by the turn of events, but not surprised. It just means I have to shift the way we have been doing business some. We now know for certain that we have to make our own way out here. We might get support at times, they are still a prime customer, but they also have their own agenda and goals, and we might not factor into that agenda. I spent last night calming myself down some. I had all sorts of bad ideas as sort of a two can play that game, but then I realized that all my idea's would probably result in Hanse Davion delivering a few Regimental Combat Teams to our doorstep backed by those Warships next door to keep his project secret." Mitchell began
"So, I have decided that we will have a three month stand down once the Onverwacht operation is completed. Which if everything goes to plan, means the civilians are here by 16 March, the rest of the unit by mid April. Then we go into our stand down." He paused and waved someone into the conference room. "This is Captain Sam Falconi, he commands the Intrusive. Have a seat Sam. Tell the others what you told me this morning." Major General (President) Mitchell said
"The General asked me how the AFFC handled normal maintenance for the Navy. Simple answer is refuel and maintenance sites. Not even real repair bays, but way more mobile and quicker to setup and tear down. They are simple frame works, sometimes they have a sheet of plasi-steel wrapped around the frame. But usually, the work is done via EVA suits. When they do put up the tarps, as we called them, they could pressurize to an atmosphere which allowed more delicate work to be done outside of a full pressure suit. Your still in Zero G, but you can work without a full suit, just a normal engineer suit and emergency hood in case of a puncture." Mitchell continued
"We could build one here to help handle our needs if we had the material. It would cut the 1-month maintenance checks down to a week to ten days. That was the AFFC standard, or AFFS standard, which was adopted by the AFFC. It will not handle the overhauls; those require a full-on yard setup with all the special equipment. Nor can it handle battle damage or major repairs. The AFFS or AFFC deployed them from a Mammoth Cargo Dropship when they are operating a long way from shipyard support. If my memory is right, the normal checks are once a year, the overhauls are every 4-5 years. That would be a Chief Zuniga question." Captain Falconi explained
Mitchell nodded and looked at Captain Davis. "Nathan, new assignment. I want everything you can dig up on Olympus stations out here. Try find any noted former SLDF naval sites, support sites, or anything that might provide us with what we need to handle our own stuff without making a yearlong plus trip back to Galax and such. Unless you are your usual workaholic self and already have that info."
"There was supposed to be an Olympus Station right here at the Nadir Jump Point. But we all know it is not there now. Boulsi, right next door also was reported to have an Olympus Station at the Nadir Jump Point." Captain Nathan Davis replied
"Captain Davis, your now a Major. We never did complete a full system survey here, did we?" Major General (President) Mitchell asked
"No sir, we did not do a in depth survey. Simple scans during flybys and observations via the navigation telescopes." Captain Falconi answered
"Well then, we are about to do a detailed survey. Captain Falconi, prep the Intrusive for a long-range survey of this entire system. If there is something man made out there, I want it found. Then we will go pay Boulsi a visit. If I can convince Chief Zuniga that it is vital to our continued operation." Major General (President) Mitchell said
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