WCGW Chpt 23

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==Chapter 23 - What Could Go Wrong==
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5 May 3041
Inner End (Federated Commonwealth)
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Petra Claus, Project Lead Fairchild Dornier, was led inside the large warehouse to meet Master Sergeant Harry Caldwell and Chief Vincent Zuniga. Once again greetings were exchanged, but Petra Claus never let her eyes move from the aircraft in front of her. As an Aeronautical Engineer, she knew exactly what she was looking at. She had seen the drawings of the Samurai Aerospace Fighter once built by Fairchild Dornier until their factory had been destroyed on Mizar. She let her eyes wander down the sleek lines of the fighter until they located an engine sitting on an engine stand. Without a word she started walking in that direction until she could touch it. She allowed her fingers to lightly move over the small data tag with its stamped information. A shiver ran down her spine as she read:
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Fairchild Dornier 
Model Hermes 250XL
Serial SLDF2143851
Manufacture Date 4/2764
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She did not even turn around when she said, "Where the hell did you find this and are there any more of them?"
Master Sergeant Caldwell and Chief Zuniga had been sharing looks between themselves watching her, he cleared his throat "So you actually know what we have found?"
She spun on her heels "Something that has not been seen in over 250 years. Not intact anyway. This engine has not been manufactured since around 2860 give or take a few years. Though rumor has it that Battlemechs will soon start seeing XL Fusion engines returning to production. It has always been fairly rare and unique for Aerospace fighters. We have a Samurai in the entrance to our company headquarters, though it is a SL-25. This, this is a SL-26, built for the Star League Defense Force itself. I have seen the design drawings for it, have dreamed of actually building one, actually seeing one fly again."
"You want to see it fly? Because we have actually flown this exact one twice, but only at night. Our pilot loves the damned thing." Chief Zuniga said
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An hour later, as she heard the Hermes 250XL start, Petra Claus thought her legs would fail her. Then when the SL-26 Samurai actually taxied to the runway, raced down the runway and into the air she was sure that she had experienced the ultimate in pleasure without actual sex. After several passes, the Samurai taxied back into the large warehouse and shut down its engine.
"How much do you want for her?" Petra Claus asked
"How about you make us an offer. And to one of your questions from earlier, we have 3 of those engines. The one right there, and two more still in their shipping crates. That one was salvaged from a wreck. Could be damaged, so we just stare at it." Chief Zuniga said
Petra Claus was silent as she thought things over silently. She knew many engineers like herself wanted to return to building high performance Aerospace fighters. But Duchess Carmilla Strauss, CEO of Fairchild Dornier, had said many times the expense to rebuild the factory on top of working off just drawings was too much. But here, they had working copies. With spares, so that one could be torn down for reverse engineering. She walked along the Samurai, letting her hand caress it's smooth skin.
"Four Million for each engine and 12 Million for this Samurai. One and only offer. Take it or leave it gentlemen." Petra Claus said, her back still to them. She closed her eyes, praying they took the offer and make her dream come true.
A quick look between Master Sergeant Caldwell and Chief Zuniga, shared nods of silent agreement. "We accept your offer." Chief Zuniga replied and then quickly "With one condition."
Petra Claus slowly, almost seductively turned around to face them "And what condition might that be?"
Chief Zuniga almost swallowed his cigar stub, which he only allowed himself when on a planet's surface "We would like options to purchase 12 of them at cost if you ever get her back into production."
Petra Claus smiled, just a hint of her pearly white teeth showing between her lips "I can agree to that. Gentlemen, you have made a dream come true. Of that, I am sure."
Over in the smaller warehouse that served as the groups housing Sergeant Major Pullman shouted, "We are in the money folks!!!" This shout brought everyone in the building to where he stood looking at the bank account Captain Mitchell had setup before leaving for Sevon. Displayed was the account balance: 27,543,463.00 C-Bills
"It seems Captain Mitchell had some success. We got a transfer of funds via Comstar from Sevon National Bank for 25 Million C-Bills. Though I would have thought we would have gotten way more than that for what we found." Corporal Davis replied
"Son, money is money. I learned a long time ago to not look a gift horse in the mouth. This mainly tells us that our adventure just got extended." Sergeant Major Pullman said as the crowd clapped backs between themselves.
Across town, Briscoe Osbourne walked down the steps of the Federated Commonwealth Courthouse with a broad smile on his face. Hired by David Mitchell to petition the government to award the Invader Jumpship and Intruder Dropship to him since they captured the vessels during an act of piracy and brought the pirates to justice. While rare, these types of claims were not unheard of, most of the time a unit just takes possession of the vessels. This David Mitchell was rolling the dice and going totally legal. It was not unheard of for Governments to just lay claim to such vessels once they are impounded.
Interstellar Expeditions owned the ships in question. This had added some difficulty in the proceedings, but testimony from the crews taken by the Customs officers, interrogation of the prisoners had caused Interstellar Expeditions to drop their protest to the proceedings. Probably afraid this would go public, and they could be facing many lawsuits from all over the Inner Sphere and Periphery, he thought. Either way, the matter was now sealed from public view, neatly swept under the rug. Both ships had been signed over by Interstellar Expeditions to the Federated Commonwealth who then by the judge's order were awarded to David Mitchell under salvage rights.
It was a nice payday, his fee is 1% of the value, so he made 3 Million C-Bills for his work. Which was not exactly done yet, he still needed to get the vessels registered in David Mitchells name before he could take possession of them from Customs.
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