AR PROVENCE
Location: MÉR MÉDITERRANÉE, TEMPORARY DRYDOCK, NEAR MONACO BASE
"Get 'er in, guys, come on", shouted Monaco's quartermaster on the radio, "we ain't got all day."
The Pasquale Paoli, a Bustard-class "Civilian" Carrier, for her annual refit, was underway in its temporary dry-dock in a cleared patch in the Mer Méditerranée. Out of sight from everyone. The annual refit became a sort of ritual for her crew, and all the ruckus caused by its arrival near Monaco Base, leaving all the current crew get some "R&R", whether it's in the high-end brothels aboard Monaco, or on solid ground on Planet Marseille, and rotating its crew for the next year.
"We've got a wing of friendlies comin' our way, boss, what're we gonna do?", asked one of the space traffic near Monaco Base, the quartermaster picked up the wide-band radio-set in the command room, "Boys... i ragazzi... get the fuck out, an' keep this entire perimeter out of reach from any of our guys for now, got it?", a succint "Iè" was heard from the wing leader, as the command room watched the wing of Mistrals Noir break formation and leave this cleaned-up portion of the nebula.
Heavy Lifters after Heavy Lifters, towing the powered-down Bustard, probably "borrowed" from EFL, kept coming and going, they were on the clock of course. HQ would naturally start asking question where the fuck one of their Heavy Lifters would go AWOL for more than a few hours. Not that the Unione Corse didn't have them; it was simply cheaper to put a few hundred Gallic Franks in the pockets of a few EFL pilots who would look gladly the other way, lest they be met with another option, rather than waking up the entire maintenance crew.
About everything relating to the Pasquale Paoli was done so. Covertly, "the Corse way", some would say. This year's refit was special however. The usual was on the to-do list, such as updating the firmware of everything necessary, taking out the trash, replacing old interior systems with newer ones that was also "borrowed" from a shipment that has been intercepted a few days ago. "Serendipitous", one might think. However, her armaments was aging as well. While she was still pristine, as she remains in Provence as one of its stalwart defenses, she saw very few combat compared to other Corsican capital ships, and yet her crew was always handpicked, the most veteran pilots, engineers, gunners, security, boarding parties, even the janitors. instead of having a ship with half of its crew having a "sword of Damocles" (blackmail is such an ugly word, don't you think?) hanging above their heads if they didn't do their jobs, such as cleaning the shit out of a cramped toilets of an Asco gunboat,
She was, after all, the symbol, of the Special Operations Forces of Provence, the paramilitary of Provence, and many other names and nicknames and sobriquets attributed to this sub-organization within the Unione Corse. If anything, her way of functioning was closer to a House's capital ship than anything. Appearances must be kept pristine, if deals must be done, or if guns must be drawn.
Regardless, having a crack team of a crew wouldn't help her aging equipment. Right down to the bearings of the turrets, rust, or accumulated gas residue would make some turrets less responsive, which also had the effect of pissing the gunners even more when in combat.
![[Image: 4YNVxKW.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4YNVxKW.png)