The Mosquito and the Crimson Holy Cross

[Hidamari]

Claes paced slowly around the table in thought, "We had planned to unveil our schematics at the Council of Dons at some point after we had ironed out all of the flaws, this latest setback delaying that even further." She revealed and stopping near to Erika, "so to answer your question yes, I would be more than glad to perform this service to yourselves and our other kin, though again I do ask that you allow us to give it some time so that you are not made a mockery of, should the craft fail again, it wouldn't do to have you look bad on our behalf." Claes said making a small curtsey to Erika before she continued walking around the table slowly.
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"Hey, every advantage to stay ahead is appreciated. Besides, the Dons have been sitting on their hands for over a year now with no hearings. Good luck getting anything done with them anytime soon." Espinosa shrugged, "Besides, Olmos and the rest of the Crimson Council will bloody well erect a statue in my honor even if they knew you planned to share it. No matter what; everyone wins." Espinosa relaxed a bit, placing a hand on her cocked hip and immediately losing the prim-and-proper posture she'd had before "So. We're settled then?"
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Claes looked up at the ceiling in thought, after a few seconds she walked over to Erika and held out her hand "Yea.. id say so."
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Erika clapped her hands together "Fantastic-- I'll start getting things moving then. I'm going to need a list of all the supplies you'll need-- coordinate with your engineers and send us the list and I'll make sure my staff are on board one of the first transports here." She reached down to one of her belt's pouches and pulled out her gloves, slipping them on again as she prepared to make her departure.
Espinosa began to gather herself and make for the hatch, when she paused, opening another pouch and producing a small flask from within it's confides. She opened the lid and downed a small sip of the contents before reaching out, flask in hand to Claes, offering her a drink "Armando family tradition to drink to the conclusion of a deal, go ahead, s'not anything too strong; just some moscato d'asti"
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Claes began to follow Erika as she made for the hatchway down into the secondary communcation center. "Si.. Grazie" Claes said thanking Erika for the gesture, taking a quick swig of the liquid, frothing it around her mouth a little to get the taste while handing Erika back the bottle, after a few seconds Claes swallowed the drink "aah.. dios mio, this is expensive stuff, tastes good, Grazie" She responded with a grin, "after you signorita" Claes offered, motioning her had for her to go first.
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"Expensive, but worth it. Some of the preists on Tarxien make it from the vineyards in the palace gardens." Espinosa repocketed her flask, stuffing it in place and clasping the pouch on her belt again before proceeding to the hatch and checking her gauntlet-screen. "If we're done here then, I do believe I have a small army of technicians and engineers to get moving so, it'd likely be best I return to the Mgarr--"
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"hm, well since you are requesting the ship plans, wouldnt it be better for you to take a tour of the vessel before departing?" Claes asked heading down the hatchway after Erika had also done so.
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Pausing, Espinosa glanced back at her gauntlet and looked over a few things as Claes finished climbing down the hatch. "I think I can spare a few minutes. Lead on then" She said, gesturing for Claes to take the lead with her free hand behind her back.
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Claes lead on, Erica Veneto stood on the bridge waiting for her Commandante to appear from the corridor to the rear of the room. "The Misericorde class has a minimal crew requirement of one hundred and ninety, we just about scratch that number, we have enough space onboard to house a total of three hundred and thirty crewmembers." Claes announced as they walked, never having given somebody a tour but knowing enough about the ship to easily be able to give one.
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"A little bit higher on the requirements than the Storta so, no surprise there. I imagine a lot of that is engineering staff for the hangar?" She ambled side by side with Claes down the halls, looking around the interior as she went with her hands behind her back, a curious look on her face.

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"we've never been able to afford that many mind, but it's there if we suddenly get a spike in productivity." Claes said as they emmerged from the small corridor again, "This is the bridge, It has most of the systems you would expect of a typical cruiser class vessel, it has two extra stations here" Claes said nodding to Erica whom was holding Angelica. Claes took her daughter in hand and Erica curtsied to both Espinosa and her Commandante before dropping down the anti-grav hatch and leaving the bridge. Angelica coo'ed quietly in her mothers' arms as she directed Erika around.

"This is the tower control station, the bridges direct line to the Hangarbay and its functions, we can control everything in the hangar from here if needed." she said confidently, "All incoming craft are screened from here, scanned and allotted a specific time frame for their stay, unless they are part of the squad in which case they are simply put back in their racks." Claes continued.
Angelica leaned over to try and grab Erika's hair as the Inquisitor stood closer to Claes.
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"Well. Crew certainly won't be an issue I suppose. Though saying that at this point almost feels like gloating-- which isn't my intent" She paused, looking down at the child grabbing for her hair and reaching behind her head, tying her silver locks in a bun with a pair of clips, and disregarding the child. "Clever retaining control access to the hangar from up here though, another prevention method against boarding actions I suppose?"
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"The shield itself prevents people boarding, before your ship landed it was scanned by a beam at the entrance to the shield grid, the shield can detect the residue that the scan leaves against your ship and allows it to enter the bubble, without the scan on your ship the shield would remain solid to your vessel and you wouldnt be able to enter" Claes commented moving closer to the console and activating it, showing her the four nodes that are currently inactive on the hologram display, at the mouth of the left side entrance to the ship.
"while this does create a very secure system it makes emergency landings almost impossible to do which can be hazardous, but it prevents us having to lower the shield and depressurise the bay." she said leaning with her back against the console. kicking off from that she walked over to the three man communications station, which was much larger than the typical one person unit on most ships Misericorde's size.
"Mamaamama!" Angelica yelled and turned to her mother and began playing with her face. "And here is the control surfaces for the Galacticus and all other related imaging and scanning equipment, telemetry comes from down the hall we came through, from the room under the observation lounge, and the room under the Galacticus motor room, this all gets fed into this machine so trained personnel can quickly and easily tell us whats going on out there and how to direct the ship."
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"Well, partial allowance of vessels during combat is preferable to just sealing the hangar doors and not opening them until an engagement has concluded I suppose." She followed Claes to the comms pannel, her eyes locking on the different screens and darting back and forth. "Sensor ranges like these are usually only found on the Sarissa and Ranseur-classes-- color me surprised and quite impressed you've been able to minimize it like this." She leaned in close on some of the displays, scanning it's feed up and down "Something like this would be oh-so very useful as a command centre in an engagement-- forget what I said earlier, this actually looks more detailed than the Naxxar's own scanners-- Well done on the Galacticus indeed"
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"Thank you ma'am" Claes said saluting, before breaking with a slight grunt forgetting to keep it casual, "scusa.." she asked in apology.
"Si it is a significant advancement to anything else ive seen, there was once a time when I was looking for a Sarissa to move to, but instead we settled on this, we were a little more wealthy back then. Now? well.. it is as you have been made aware... come" Claes asked, Angelica playing with her mothers chin. Rather than taking the antigrav chamber Claes took the stairs down so as not endanger her baby in anyway, which took a little longer.
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"If I were you lot, I'd look into possibly getting some new benefactors. Seems whatever plantations you have aren't paying the bills sufficiently." Erika commented turning to Claes "Forgive my rabid curiosity but mind my asking whereabouts planetside you all have claims? and how many?" Espinosa followed Claes down the stairs, keeping a hand waist-level behind her back with the other on the railing.
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"We have my birth plantation -the Lazurati familia plantation, the Leslie familia plantation which is several hectares of good land, both on the southern hemisphere, and recently the Agulla plantation as well as the recently captured plantation once belonging to one of the smaller Garcia families... what a battle that was" Claes said looking up the ceiling with a grin, "Its about a thousand miles due east of the central spaceport on the northern hemisphere. however like the others it has already been reaped, and we are waiting until it is ready again for harvest." Claes said as they walked down the stairs. Angelica was looking back and Erika and laughing ambiently, "mamama...." she gurgled, "mama's here, hush baba.." Claes said quietly but softly to her child.
"As for benefactors, well... the powers of Malta are very transient at best.. it is difficult to secure a decent level of funding when our operations are in ruins like they are now." she said.
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"you all sound like you're about set once the harvest starts again truth be told. And theres plenty of places for work you know. I could think of a few places now that I could use your people, and even this vessel--" she said, stomping a boot down on the hull plating to emphasize the point "-where it'd be useful. But one thing at a time I suppose--" Espinosa glanced down at Angelica for a moment, her eyes going soft before they darted away and she shook her head only briefly, returning to her neutral expression and staring straight ahead.
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They reached the bottom of the first stairwell, Angelica laughed playfully at Erika's face for a moment Claes turned to the inquisitor wondering what she was doing to make her child laugh, as she only ever seemed to laugh if Horacio played peekaboo with her. Since Erika looked like she always did Claes continued as normal "do you like children, signoritta.. I appologise if she offends you in some way" Claes asked unsuredly.
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Espinosa's tone dipped a little, getting quieter "She doesn't, don't worry about it. Children and I have never really gotten along; we live with the choices we make and move on. Anywhere else I need to see that's had major changes?" Her tone returned to normal and her expression the same as she looked at Claes dead-on.
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Claes looked at Erika, turning to her fully and lowering her head, "this might sound disrespectful, but if you ever need somebody to talk to, i would be willing to listen" She offered placing a fist across her front sharply as a sign of respect. "s..scusa, signoritta, I know what its like to lead a troubled life, I mean no disrespect" she added a moment later realising she may have seemed very disrespectful. Turning around Claes lifted her head and said no more about it, her mothering nature coming out naturally as she heard Erika become solemn for a moment.

"Si... there are a few more places i think you should see before leaving." Claes said continueing to walk them around, moving down to R&D.
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Espinosa's expression didn't change, maintaining eye contact "I appreciate it, but it won't be necessary." She followed Claes, her stoic pace and stance unchanging.
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The pair entered an elevator, and turned around to the door, Claes pressing the appropriate button to take them down to the Labs. "with a fleet like the one you have this area could be better served doing something else, but for us it is extremely important." Claes said as the doors opened, revealing a lot of people in white suits and helmets similar to space helmets, almost all of the walls were glass. with white borders, Claes -her baby- and Erika walked along a catwalk over the middle of the boothes, each trying to develope something. "we are now in R&D..." Claes said simply, Angelica began to kick up a fuss and began to cry, Claes did her best to hush down her baby.
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"Valetta has a few R&D labs, some of which we make use of, Ibiza and Bastia the same story. Corsica's still for the most part under the control of the Ghosts but... they've been notably absent from anywhere else. That may be changing soon, but we'll see.

Regardless: Unless it's something like a specialized research vessel, you're right; we typically don't bother on warships. I see your reasoning for it but this part would likely be ripped out for a more combat-oriented model."
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"understandable, here we are attempting to produce a new light scout vessel" Claes said pointing down to the right of them, where parts of a small new craft could be seen, "Over here we are working on duplicating a 'Thors Hammer' codename we recovered, so far 12 have been replicated successfully, unfortunately we will soon be unable to support all of this" Claes said as she turned to Erika trying to hush Angelica's tears down, "want to see more of this deck?" Claes asked, Angelica would not stop crying but she hadnt wet herself, figuring she was hungry claes half turned away from Erika and unzipped her flight suit, underneath she had a loose black, button shirt, she opened it and allowed her child access to her bosom where she began to feed hungrily. "if you wish, we can move on" Claes said not even mentioning it, and actually started to head back, as Erika didnt seem too interested.
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The Inquisitor shrugged, ignoring Claes attendance to Angelica out of respect and followed "Quite. Theoreticals never much interested me, I always preferred practical results- though I am impressed you've managed to replicate a 'Codename' as such. I've only seen a small number done so, so your people deserve for praise for that."[color=#7e3eb0]

[color=#7e3eb0]"And sure" She said, responding to the question regarding continuation of the tour "I do like the increased interior space to be honest- better reminds me of the Mdina, one of our Sarissa-class interior's by size. Some parts of the Mgarr are pretty tight and some of the smaller crew quarters could barely pass for cupboards, much less areas meant for sleeping"
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"Si she is very spacious, we have pulled out most of what used to be down here, i actually dont remember what that was anymore" Claes mentioned, getting back into the elevator with Erika in tow. "I would show you the engine core but they are doing maintenance on it as we speak so it will not be possible, instead I can show you the main addition the Misericorde brings to the table" she said proudly.
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"Out with the old and in with the new I suppose" Espinosa thought aloud, following Claes and shifting slightly in the elevator, glancing back at her gauntlet again as it chirped briefly, and the holographic display came to life covering her forearm with what appeared to be messages. She flipped through a few and disregarded the rest as the elevator was underway. "This would be the hangar then, yes?"
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"Si, signorina" Claes answered with a nod, Angelica continued to feed despite the sounds around her, Claes didnt disturb her daughter and continued as normal. The doors of the elevator opened and they stepped out, taking a right the pair walked a little way before turning left and re-entering the Control tower, all the personell kept there eyes to front while saluting Claes and Erika as they entered, knowing what would happen if they gawked at the commandante while she attended to her daughters needs.
"This is the main tower, signorina, all information from the hangar below and the cargobay beyond is fed up here and then directed around the ship to where it needs to go. be that inventory information, food supplies, which fighters are in the bay and which arent, etcetera" Claes spoke, before remembering, "at ease" she commanded before turning to Erika, all the men and women in the tower returned to their duties. Claes motoned for her to follow her out of the door to the right of the tower.
They walked onto the Catwalk which ran about 18 meters up around the perimiter of the hangar, you could see everything in the hangar from these walkways, and there were several ladders at varying intervals incase of emmergency.
"The hangar bay is 3400 cubic meters in volume, it can be used to house up to twenty four scout fighters of scimitar class or smaller, or 8 Sabre and or cutlass sized vessels. However unless more storage space for ammunition is created it wouldnt be possible to fully provide the extensive logistical support needed to refuel and re-arm a wing of bombers of that size. and due to the size of the racks its not really possible to house many kinds of ship here, like the more recent fighter designs our engineers have come up with. The bar would need to be re-organised to house them due to how wide spread the wing bases are." Claes spoke confidently as they moved around the walkway heading towards the first of the fighter racks.
"Currently the Fenice D'Oro has been set up to provide for our squadron of twenty four scimitar, as you can see just over there" Claes pointed to the already clearly visible fighters stacked into the bays, three to a bay.
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"So far the Cross's been focusing more on the Conquistidor series than the standard Borderworlds series. The newer vessel designs are far easier to modify on a larger scale in terms of cost. I don't recall the Gladius being much larger than a scimitar.." She thought aloud, trailing off as her emerald eyes gazed up and down the hangar. Espinosa came to the side of the catwalk, leaning on the railing and looking over the activity below as crew members ran back and forth carrying varying sizes of equipment and supplies. Her extra guards remained in their place on the deck, eyes affixed forward and having hardly moved while the fourth member of Erika's entourage followed up behind the pair with his rifle on it's strap over his shoulder. A moment later, the Inquisitor pushed off from the railing and came back to Claes's side and the trio resumed their walk.
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They walked down the long catwalk over the entry shielding below and towards the fighter storage racks, "Each gantry has a single person sized elevator which gives people access to their ships without them needing to run across the hazards that are often littered around the hangar, power lines, ammo carts, and the like" Claes mentioned as she turned, pointing to the scaffolding to the left of one set of scimitar, showing the single person elevator inside of it. using it herself first to get to the hangar floor and waiting for Espinosa to follow.
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Walking over to the elevator, the Inquisitor descended and came besides Claes as her guard remained up on the gantry. Stumbling, she stepped forward towards the commandante and following her along the hangar deck. "Can't say I've been on a ship that has an elaborate one of these honestly- the Ranseurs-class come pre-built with multi-level launch rails, every Sarissa-class I've been on employs the standard single-level inverted hangar with the launch catapult in the underbelly, same as the Storta's."
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"I know, we went over all the specs of every ship, the larger capital vessels couldnt cut it because we didnt have the money to crew such a large ship, not to mention they are unweildly and we need to be moblile. and the stortas single launch catapult just couldnt cut it either, so we settled on this design, we took the old destroyed Razgriz destroyer La Falange D'oro, and rebuilt it from the ground up" Claes said as the walked towards the back of the hangar towards the huge open doorway to the cargo bay area.
"Since the ship was reborn again from the ashes of its former self, we renamed the ship from The Golden Phalanx, to The Golden Phoenix, to better reflect its true nature." Claes explained. she looked down as she felt Angelica finish suckling, carefully putting her right arm and bosom back into her flight suit, then placing Angelica over her shoulder to gently wind the baby as they walked.
"last but not least is the cargo area here, about third the volume of the hangar but twenty times the storage capacity of the storta equivalent" she said confidently stepping to the side and helping Erika and her aide out of the way or a passing cart. "we store most things we need for the fighters in here, ammo is stored over there in those big crates, hullpanels are here" Claes revealed, kicking the large crate just to the right of the blast door. "and just to make sure that the loading and unloading doesnt get in the way of hangar activities most ships larger than a freighter use the rear cargo bay hatch to load, and unload cargo, unless the ship is one of ours and in need of a serivicing itself." Claes explained turning to Erika, wondering what she thought of all this.
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"Fitting name I suppose. Color me surprised the Ghosts would hand over any tech to another familiga. Casa rivalries have done nothing but get greater and more agitating over the past couple of years. Different times I suppose" She paused, following Claes to the cargobay door, looking around it's frame and briefly behind her at the fighter racks before returning her attention forwards, listening to Claes's description of the bay. "Good way of doing things I suppose, but would it not make more sense to leave the rear bay door for landing vessels and only keep the front two bays available for launches?"
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"we cant endanger the supplys we have on board during excursions into the field, so the right side..." Claes said turning and pointing down the huge hangar to the right side shield, "... Is for Entry, and the left side is for Exit, only in cases of emmergency do we use either side for both, and never do we allow the cargobay door to be opened during our excursion exploits." Claes said directing them out of the cargo hold, walking casually now back to where they had started as the tour was over.
"And indeed they are tight gripped with any of their tech, but do keep in mind that the storta was scrap, it wasnt at all usable for any purpose when they gave it to us, which is not only reason why they gave it to us, but also the only reason we could afford to take it to begin with." Claes said with a sigh as Angelica burped from her mothers careful motions.
So thats all there is to it, besides the experimental power system we are using, which was salvaged by the junkers congress and then rebuilt into the ship.. Our engine room is at least twice the size of the storta RM-2 varient.. it is quite impressive.. and because of all this extra weight we are carrying around we added an additional RM-2A Livigno class cruiser propulsion units to aft and starboard." Claes mentioned.
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"different configurations would operate differently I suppose. Was just a curiosity really; I've only had issues with launching-landing vessels once before, and it only resulted in a few scratches and a woefully dented flight deck. I suppose that was luck.." She followed, heading back to the landing pad, tapping a flashing holographic image formed on her gauntlet and returning her attention to Claes as the white and red clad soldiers came and formed a single 4-man line behind her.
"You should really give a shot to the improved MK2 Primrose reactors by the way; they're an expansion upon the Ghost's original design by some members of the Navy; should be a good bump to the core efficiency with next to no increase in scan-profile." she mused, walking up to Claes and offering a handshake in a full proper military stance with a hand behind her back, it's professionalism comprimised slighty by a smirk. "This was nice though, color me very impressed. For what little you had to work with, you Mosquitoes have managed to pull off some pretty nice results here. I'll get things moving on my end and the retrofits should be finished in no-time."
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Angelica burped again quietly over Claes' shoulder, she stood upright properly and shook Erika's hand, "Gracias, signoritta Espinosa, I look forwards to welcoming your men and women on board, once all repairs are complete and tested for further issues, with everything ironed out we would be glad to pass you the designs of this fine craft." Claes smiled letting go of her hand as Angelica burped again and began to coo' quietly.
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The roar of the Cross's Dromedary began to fill the hangar again as the vessel touched down on the deck, the ramp extending and two of Espinosa's guard stepping aboard, waiting onboard and looking back at the Inquisitor while the other two flanked her on either side as she stepped back

"Good to hear it." She brought her clenched fist to her chest and planted it firmly over her heart with an audible 'thump'; apparently a salute of the Cross's. She broke stance and began to step back onto the ramp; grabbing the railing while her guards filed in behind the Inquisitor. Espinosa spun around, working her way up until she was aboard, her guard disppearing behind a bulkhead in the side of the vessel as it began to move again with it's thrusters jetting off in every direction. Espinosa hollared against the noise "Gloria a Malta , Comandante. Possiamo attraversare di nuovo percorsi!"
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Claes saluted the White Dromedary as it left the hangar shield, holding her fist to her heart as Erika did. "Sarebbe un onore, amante inquisitore Espinosa" Claes said quietly to herself as the ship began to leave. turning around she began to walk towards the cargo bay in order to tell the Eduardo to expect and be ready to receive further personnel to help repair the ship, and that they should be treated as VIP's while on board.
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The Dromedary slowly inched forward as Espinosa closed the hatch, the white hull a stark contrast to the bright red logo on the door. The shuttle's engines fired again, this time more forcefully as it jetted out of the hangar and made its way to the Mgarr in the distance; already with its engines turned to Cartagena and it's fighter escorts flanking the shuttle and the destroyer as it departed.

~End