WCGW Chpt 35

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==Chapter 35 - What Could Go Wrong==
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4 July 3041
Inner End (Federated Commonwealth)
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Chief Zuniga had ridden with the small ferry crew on the Monarch Dropship to the planets Space Port. Inner End might be out in the boonies, but like almost every Space Port, it did have a functional maintenance facility to help service and repair Dropships. Chief Zuniga led the maintenance facilities chief engineer over to the Monarch when he suddenly stopped, "Zuniga, I know this piece of shit. You guys actually bought this? Sweet mother of pearl you got royally screwed."
"Yeah, the boss got snookered, and now it's my problem." Chief Vincent Zuniga replied
"Well, this is what I know about this turd. Mechanically, she is sound. Used to do passenger runs out here for many years. The engines on the Monarch are reliable as hell anyway. Had to be 3 or 4 years ago when she was last down here. She still got that funky smell? I thought so, her last owner was a cheap bastard. He never wanted to pay us what we wanted to hunt and kill that damned thing, since we could not give him a set price. Hell, how could we, we have no clue what it was going to take. It's time and labor until we track that damned thing down, and then we will know what it's going to take to fix the damned problem."
"The interior, well that is an easy 4 Million C-Bills. All the staterooms are trashed, it all needs to come out, and be replaced. Probably cost more to try and salvage the crap anyway. So, what do you want us to do with this? Blow it up? That would be fun." Chief Engineer Jones explained
"I wish. Find that damned odor and kill it. I don't care what it costs. Gut and replace the staterooms. BUT, I want some changes made. Triple the fuel tank size on this thing. Three hundred tons at least. All those lower shops and casino, rip them out. I want a big medical bay, two MASH theaters and the ability to bed 20 patients. Field kitchen installed. I want you to take this down to 22 First Class, 34 standard and 220 second class staterooms. Install a expanded Zero G gym and exercise room in the lower deck. Take the additional space left over and by my rough calculations we should be able to install a 300 ton insulated tank. I want a full-on pumping hook up to the outer hull complete with extended hoses. I want a full-on purging setup, in case we ever need swap what we are carrying, fuel, water, helium, I want to be able to totally drain that tank, purge it clean. That should eat 100 tons or so. I want top of the line equipment for that setup.
That should leave me with a 800 ton or so cargo capacity. Those are rough numbers I did on the way back while playing with the ships schematics down in the engine room. The boss bought this thing, but he handed it off to me, well, I don't play with turds, so I am going to spend some money turning this turd into some sort of jewel." Chief Zuniga said
"Big job, Zuniga. It's gonna get expensive pretty fast. How long I got to get this done? No way I have everything on hand, going to have to ship some stuff in and that gets right expensive right quick." Chief Engineer Jones said
"Three months. I want this baby polished up and ready to go in three months time. Do a good job and your liable to get more work from me. He has some more ships coming in and lord knows what is going to arrive or in what condition. Only way the boss will learn a hard lesson is for it to hit the wallet good and hard." Chief Zuniga replied
"Okay, we got nothing on the schedule so let me grab the boys and start tearing stuff apart. At least a massive gut will make hunting and possibly fixing that odor issue easier." Chief Engineer Jones said
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9 July 3041
"Are we ready to depart?" Leftenant Colonel Mitchell asked
"Yes, we are. Fully loaded and ready." Ship Master Sarah Campbell replied, having gotten back on 30 June and spent a week decompressing on the surface before heading back to her ship.
"Then let's get this party started Zenith Jump Point is where we want to arrive. Davis wants to play on that Tramp Class Jumpship a little." Leftenant Colonel Mitchell said
"Nav, sound jump warning." Master Sarah Campbell ordered, giving everyone aboard 5 minutes to get ready for the jump.
Toten (Outworlds Alliance)
Twelve minutes later the Invader Jumpship, now renamed SaRI Express, materialized at the systems Zenith Jump Point. After a full after jump diagnostic Ship Master Sarah Campbell announced "Secure from Jump. Sound the all clear. Inform the Intrusive that they can undock when ready." Intrusive was the renamed Intruder Assault Dropship.
Ten minutes later, a light and dull thump feeling announced the undocking of the Intrusive. Ships sensors quickly got a reading on the long-abandoned Tramp Jumpship, the Intrusive and shortly later 2 smaller objects as the Intrusive launched her two Hellcat Aerospace fighters. The Intrusive and Hellcats started moving to intercept the Tramp.
It did not take long for the Intrusive to reach the abandoned Tramp Jumpship. Hovering over the pilots, Chief Zuniga said "Collar one is the one we used last time, so we will do so again."
"Collar one it is." The pilot of the Intrusive replied
"I will be down at the airlock to verify a good seal if you need me." Chief Zuniga said patting the pilot on the shoulder.
"Down below, everyone was suited up in the Marine Combat Suits. That way they did not have to worry about a little tear killing them, armored as they were. It did not take long for the light thump to announce that they had docked with the Tramp Jumpship. Chief Zuniga, also suited up like everyone else verified a good seal and that the bay was isolated before opening the air lock. "Let's get to it. Sergeant Davis, you head for the bridge with your team. Everyone else, your with me. We are going to strip this poor old girl for everything she can provide us."
Sergeant Nathan Davis led his team of engineers from the Intrusive towards the bridge. It took 10 minutes to reach the bridge. Once they forced the door, he wasted no time moving to the ships long dormant navigation system. Quickly he opened several access panels and started removing data drives, stowing them in a bag attached to his belt. He had spent many long hours talking to the crew of the SaRI Express on what to recover. He now had four drives. Drive One stored the most current Star Chart uploaded into the ships navigation system. Drive Two saved all the ships jump history of the last 5 years. Drive Three should contain a backup of Drive One and Drive Four was usually for the ships navigator where he could store special information denoting pirate points, safe uninhabited jump routes, observations and notes. To Sergeant Davis, they were worth more than the abandoned ship he was standing on.
Under Chief Zuniga's watchful eye's, a combined team from the Intrusive and SaRI Express removed heat sinks, quickly discovering that the ship had weapons installed and removing those not destroyed. In the cargo bay, what few remaining shipping containers not recovered the first time were transferred to the Intrusive's cargo bay and secured. They spent 18 hours salvaging all they could from the derelict Tramp. Having to swap oxygen tanks twice for safety. Once back onboard the Intrusive, Chief Zuniga said "All that is left is what remains of the jump core, too bad we cannot grind that down for salvage. Millions right there."
"Maybe someday Chief Zuniga, we still own her." Leftenant Colonel Mitchell said "Let's get moving and get over to the closest station, recover what we can from there."
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11 July 3041
Gently docking with the station, they had named Station Three, they boarded thru the cargo bay. Splitting into several different teams, once again suited in the Marine Combat Suits, they searched the station for anything not "fixed" to the station. Leftenant Colonel Mitchell had been very clear during his briefing "If it is permanent, bolted or welded down we cannot touch it. But if it is held by cargo straps, tie downs or removable clamps, it is all ours and we take it."
The first things to be carefully removed were 13 Mining Mechs. This alone took 9 hours to accomplish. Chief Zuniga stood next to Leftenant Colonel Mitchell, secured to the deck by the tiny electromagnets on the suits feet. "Damn, we cannot touch any of this already mined ore?" Looking at what had to be over a thousand tons of Germanium ore in one of the cargo bays.
"Not a single pebble. Damn shame isn't it." Leftenant Colonel Mitchell replied
"That just totally sucks sir. Bargain harder next time, much harder." Chief Zuniga said with an ounce of disgust in his voice at the thought of leaving all this behind
"I hear you Chief, I really do. Come on, let's get back to SaRI Express for a good rest and grav deck time before we head out for Station Two and see what it holds for us." Leftenant Colonel Mitchell replied
"Still about 200 tons of spare parts containers and a K-1 Dropshuttle that we cannot take back with us right now onboard." Chief Zuniga said
"Next trip, now that we know it's here, we will leave a shuttle behind to grab it." Leftenant Colonel Mitchell said
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19 July 3041
Docking with Station Two was uneventful until they were forced to cut thru the cargo bay door, which refused to open even with a temporary power hook up from the Intrusive. Once thru the door, there were quite a few smiles inside the helmets. Before them were another 16 Mining Mechs, until Chief Zuniga tossed the water on them. "No way we can fit those Mining Mechs from Station One once these are loaded up. Going to be another trip for those."
It took two days to load the 16 Mining Mechs aboard the Intrusive, along with roughly 250 tons worth of shipping containers. Another K-1 Dropshuttle was found and had to also be left behind. 
Over a small moon, the closest to where the Intrusive was docked with the station, Captain Neil Palloy reefed his Hellcat into a turn for another look at what he had just zipped over. "Viper, was that what I thought it was down there?" he asked his wingman.
"Damn sure looked like a DropShip down there." Lieutenant Christine Balder replied
"Make sure your cameras are running on this next pass, let's get some good pictures for the Colonel to look at." Captain Palloy said
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20 July 3041
Looking at the pictures brought back by the Hellcats, Leftenant Colonel Mitchell asked, "What do you think, Chief?"
"Looks intact, has obvious battle damage though. I cannot tell anything else from these pics. But damn sure looks like the same type as that first wrecked Dropship we found. Rare one, really rare, what was it called?" Chief Zuniga replied
"Titan Fighter Carrier Dropship. Capable of hauling and supporting an entire wing of Aerospace fighters." Captain Palloy answered
"Yeah, that's it. So, we go down and take a peek or what, Colonel?" Chief Zuniga asked
"Might as well, at least we will have a clue if it's pure salvage or recoverable." Leftenant Colonel Mitchell said
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