ALJ Chpt 70

frameless|right|300px|link=A Long Journey
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==Chapter 70 - A Long Journey==
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13 April 2787
Mackolla (Federated Suns)
"Son of a Bitch, would you look at that, they really did find her." Admiral Lenard Mathers said alongside several top AFFS engineers as they looked at the FSS Chesterton, New Syrtis Carrier from the shuttle windows carrying them to where they could board her.
The shuttle performed several full-length passes down each side of the massive warship so that the engineers could examine the ship from the exterior taking notes the entire time. Battle damage was obvious, but it looked like mostly armor damage and only a couple of breaches in its armored hide being noted with obvious patches over them. Finally, the shuttle entered one of the massive hanger bays and the bay was repressurized.
Major Paulina Flores had commanded FSS Chesterton on the trip back to Mackolla and met the exiting AFFS officers on the hanger deck. Saluting and introducing herself to each one.
"Welcome aboard FSS Chesterton. She has been away from the Federated Suns for a long time, but she has returned." Major Paulina Flores said
"The Federated Suns commends you for returning her to us." Admiral Mathers replied
"I understand you wish to conduct your own damage assessment, but I also took the liberty of compiling our own damage assessment for your review along with some recommended upgrades that you might want to consider. There is no major damage that has to addressed, internal structure is sound and intact. Honestly, I have no idea how she even came to be captured, someone must have screwed up big time. But you are free to conduct your own damage assessment, and I have several of my own engineers standing by to guide you to where you want to go." Major Paulina Flores said
"We know the New Syrtis class very well, so we do not need guides." Admiral Mathers replied
"That may be, but there are several corridors that are still blocked with debris or that were completely severed by battle damage, my engineers know the way around those areas." Major Paulina Flores said
"In that case, we will begin our damage assessment, and your engineers can guide us around the locations in question." Admiral Mathers replied
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16 April 2787
"So, we all agree that she is worth what they are asking?" Admiral Mathers asked, and his engineers all nodded yes in response as he looked at each one. "Then that is settled, now, what about those upgrades they suggested?"
"They look very promising. Replacing the armor with ferro carbide will more than double her armor protection but it will be costly and time consuming. Replacing the machine guns with small pulse lasers will do wonders for point defense. Not sure about adding in more capital lasers, she is not meant to close with the enemy after all. Nor the expense of switching her single heat sinks to doubles. They also want to add in a Large Naval Comm Scanner, that was SLDF tech, but they say they have one to install. Though I'm also not convinced that they can complete this sort of upgrade, Lockheed Galactic has not built a ship in centuries, yes, their slip can hold her, but can they do the work?"
"I am told their maintenance slip is fully equipped to strip and replace a ships armor plating. It is a fairly simple maintenance task, though molding Ferro Carbide is not easy. Their time estimate to complete the work is six months, it will take that long to get her to Panpour, Galax or Delavan, and that is after we get a crew out here. Letting them do the actual work here gives us time to round up the crew, aerospace assets and then transport them out here by the time the work is complete. Doing the work where we would prefer, we are looking at possibly two years before she returns to service."
"Then we let them do the upgrade here. How much are they asking again?" Admiral Mathers asked
"The labor they are providing, but the AFFS has to provide the material or pay for it. But the total is 638,944,000 to complete the upgrade. They even say they have all the material right here to complete the upgrade. It saves us the expense of shipping it all out here and delaying the upgrade completion by up to six months. I see it as a bargain sir."
"It might be, but 4,538,944,000 is still a lot of D-Bills. But if you all agree, and I trust your judgement on this, I will pass our acceptance on to the First Prince. Are we agreed?" Admiral Mathers asked
Again, all nodded yes as their answer.
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