Emergence Cpt 3

==Chapter 3 - Emergenace==
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Captain's Office, SLS Sybil Ludington
Neptune Mothball Yards, Sol System, 2760-07-20
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As an antiquated heavy cruiser, the Aegis class, as built, lacked flag facilities, at least until the ships got refit in 2582 with smaller equipment, where the SLDF Bureau of Ship Design, BuShips, added flag facilities along with their zero-gee swimming pool. Noriko had therefore taken over the captain's office, off the main bridge of the Sybil Ludington, where she was currently once again going through the massive pile of paperwork that had built up on her noteputer.
There were days, Noriko though, that she felt like the upper echelons of SLDF leadership were not terribly supportive of the M-12, her current project. Generally, that feeling crept up on any day of the week that ended in "y".
Things had started well enough. Aaron DeChavilier was right, the THS Sybil Ludington had been Noriko's best choice, and the old Aegis class had been well tended to by the mothball yard's crews over the centuries. The small team she'd brought with her on her DropShuttle had worked with the local crews to start waking up the ship's systems that were still in good shape, and identifying the ones that would need overhaul.
Some things needed little to no work. The ship's stationkeeping and RCS thrusters were in good shape, because they were useful to Neptune Yards crews to keep ships from drifting into each other. Even the Sybil Ludington's primary fuel bunkers were in good shape, passing pressurization tests, and were now filled with a thousand tons of liquid hydrogen. If Noriko needed to move the old cruiser, the Sybil Ludington would be able to get underway at a stately one-tenth gravity of acceleration.
Leaving the Sol system, on the other hand, would be a bit more difficult. Besides their jump navigation database being centuries out of date, yard crews were still scavenging parts to replace questionable drive controller components from stored spares. The good news was the actual core of the Mark XIX Kearny-Fuchida jump drive was intact - getting the Sybil Ludington to be able to jump again was, essentially, a computer problem, one her team and the yard crew was well-equipped to resolve.
From there, though, things got complicated. Nobody could find any trace of what had happened to the old cruiser's class-10 naval autocannons. At first, Noriko didn't mind too much, as it seemed the perfect opportunity to upgrade the Sybil Ludington to 2582 refit standards, only to be expressly shot down when she tried to requisition the parts to do so. From what she'd been able to discern, the SLDF Bureau of Ship Design had signed off on the idea, since production of spares for the refit Aegis were far easier to come by, only to reverse course just days later. After the BuShips rejection, she got a separate letter from Aaron, apologizing, but suggesting she not push for weapons upgrades.
"Fine," Noriko had decided, "we'll just make the original loadout work." That, at least, wouldn't require signoff from BuShips, just a requisition from the Quartermaster's Office. So, she submitted her request for sixty Luxor-10 naval autocannons, which would allow her team to replace the old cruiser's original autocannons mounted on the Sybil Ludington, and leave them a dozen to spare. The request was denied, on the grounds that the Congress class frigates used Armstrong LN-10s, not Luxor-10s.
So, Noriko resubmitted her request, noting that the Sybil Ludington was an Aegis class heavy cruiser, not a Congress class frigate. Her order was once again denied, noting that, no, the SLS Luddington was a Congress class, not an Aegis class, and not in her chain of command, anyway. What was she trying to pull?
Noriko tried a third time, noting the hull number of the antiquated vessel, even including photographs. The Quartermaster's Office denied her a third time, noting that, no, the Aegis class didn't use the Luxor-10 anymore, either, and hadn't in ages. They were refit to the Armstrong II 35-Series and Imperator-20 naval autocannons. Was Noriko sure she didn't want those? "Those would be fine," Noriko noted, "if this was a refit Aegis, but this ship hadn't gotten the 2582 refit, and BuShips hadn't approved that refit for the Sybil Ludington. Can I please have my Luxor-10s?"
Once again, the Quartermaster's Office denied her order, noting there were no active vessels in the SLDF named the SLS Sybil Ludington with that hull number. Did she mean the SLS Luddington, the Congress class frigate?
Finally, on the fifth order request, Noriko noted once again that this was a reactivated Terran Hegemony Aegis that had never been refitted, wasn't approved for the weapons upgrade of the 2582 refit package, provided the Sybil Ludington's hull number, her budget number for the M-12 Project, and location at Neptune Mothball Yards where the autocannons should be sent.
Which, of course, is why they were being sent to meet the SLS Luddington at Columbus Base, in the Epsilon Pegasus system. Six hundred and ninety light-years away. Except, and she checked, the Luddington was being reassigned anyway, and probably wouldn't be there in the nearly six months the delivery would take. She was still trying to get it corrected before the order was actually assembled and shipped, but she wasn't getting her hopes up at this point.
As Noriko pondered her current misfortunes, the door to her office chimed. "Enter," she commanded.
Noriko's aide, Daniel Carpentier, maneuvered himself into the room, taking one of the guest seats. "Thought you might want some good news for a change, Admiral."
"Oh? Do tell."
Daniel looked at his own compad briefly. "First, Commander Montgomery reports that the system bus in the primary and secondary server rooms are compatible with the SDS computer racks, so the personality core racks we brought with us on the shuttle should be no problem to connect. In fact, he says we can do that whenever you're ready."
Noriko smiled. "That is good news. What else?"
"Nirasaki Computers Collective got the approved work order from BuShips, and should be here in two weeks with the additional SDS control gear and a team of experts to help install it," David replied, forwarding the message to Noriko's noteputer. "Their engineers said that, if the SDS gear is compatible with the 2372 spec bus on the Aegis, they should be able to have everything installed in a month."
Noriko opened the message on her noteputer, scanning through it. "And Montgomery says it's compatible, so a month might even be accurate. That's excellent news...wait, what's this about new repair drones?"
"They have a new prototype repair drone system. Cold gas thrusters for microgravity maneuvering and vacuum rating, with two built-in manipulator arms, but also quadrupedal legs for operating under thrust. But, the new models are also rated for ground operations, with a light armor and armament for XCT exploration duties. Has independent robotic controls, but can interface directly with the SDS AI for more complicated operations. And, take a look at the schematic diagram," David said, smiling.
Noriko studied the spiderlike machine's schematics for several seconds, finally looking at the diagram of its oversized abdomen. "Is that...that's a pilot's compartment!" she finally said, stunned.
"Yup. Third mode of operation, it can be manually piloted, or the onboard passenger can use voice command to direct the internal robotic controls. Supposed to allow science teams an all-terrain sealed XCT vehicle that can operate planetside to support exploration and colonization efforts."
"Daniel, this is a mini-'Mech. A battery-powered, quadrupedal mini-'Mech. This is amazing. How many are they sending us?"
"Just four," Daniel replied. "If they work out, they'll replace the previous drones entirely, and given the mission profile of the M-12, they intend to supply us with manufacturing equipment to produce parts, maybe even whole units. Said it probably won't mass more than a couple hundred tons."
Noriko just stared at the schematics for a moment. "That's fantastic news. Let's hope these 'Tachikomas' live up to the hype."
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3
Emergence 3
Emergence 3