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Chapter 35 - A Long Journey[]
28 December 2785
Cephei (Unclaimed)
"We completed the damage surveys on all the ships and finally boarded one of the mystery ships, they are Trackers, six of them. I didn't even know any still existed. They were decommissioned so long ago none of us have ever seen one. If we have your permission, I want to make an attempt at installing one of those stored cores into one and lock down the hull so that we can power that ship up. If it works, we know what to expect on the other five. If we get it back to Mackolla, we can make everything permanent with the Pressurized bay on the Olympus." Warrant Officer Bart Cooks said
"Permission granted to make the attempt. If my count is correct, we have seven ships that we can take back to Mackolla, is that correct?" Major Patricia Flores asked
"Yes, ma'am, the New Syrtis Carrier, two Conestogas and four Aquilla Transports." Warrant Officer Bart Cooks replied
"I see here your recommendation for the Athena is to scrap her. No way to salvage her?" Major Flores asked
"No easy way. They snapped the keel clean thru and she has a 13 degree offset along the keel line. It would take a Yardship and a full tear down to repair her. We are better off just stripping her down to her bones and shoving her into the sun. My estimates is roughly 600 tons of standard armor, 41 x NL/55s, 3 x NAC/30s, 22 x White Shark launchers, 4700 standard heat sinks, one reactor and the jump core are salvageable. No ammunition onboard, guess they removed that, same for the New Syrtis Carrier, no ammunition onboard. Those are just the high points, there are still thousands of tons of stuff that could be repurposed for something else. I can detail fifty people to start tearing her apart, not like we have not done it before and we have all the stuff to do it. But it will be a long process to complete." Warrant Officer Cooks replied
"Very well, proceed as you see fit. Prep one of the Aquilla Transports for return to Mackolla, I will have one of the Tramps escort her back. They can bring back more spacers so that we can move more than one at a time back to Mackolla. That core grinder should have arrived by now and it needs to be brought out here and put to work. You still have the idea of mounting it on board that stripped Snowden?" Major Flores asked
"Yes, ma'am. I just need to get a good look at the thing so that we can start the modifications to mount it. We can move it as needed and it should work out quite nicely once we get started and work out any issues." Warrant Officer Cooks replied
"Very well, might as well rip anything you need off the Athena to make that happen. We will move the Aquillas first and then the Conestogas. We leave the New Syrtis until the General says to bring it in." Major Flores said
"Yes, ma'am, I will make sure they are ready to move on your orders. I will say this for those old ships, their cores are not as delicate as the newer ones. Not to mention, they were designed to be charged with the reactors so they only take three days to fully charge. But they will not win any speed race, that is for sure. Their transit drives are pretty weak, but they were not designed for speed, but dependability and they have that in spades." Warrant Officer Cooks replied
"Might as well get the fully functional Snowden mounted on one of the Tramps, actually, mount the stripped one also. You get the people started and then go back to Mackolla, mount the core grinder there, it will be easier in the Olympus' bay than out here anyway. We will make this trip back as profitable as possible." Major Flores ordered