Wings of the Defender

[KamiFaby]

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Coronado, Glendalough Orbitals

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Garrus flew through the lanes without anyone even remotely caring about him. Suddenly though as he approached the California gate, a Navy Patrol halted him. They scanned the ship and gave Garrus the green lights to move on. As Garrus passed the gate, he had a quick thought about the ‘incident’ just now. ‘They already got their database updated with the information regarding my ship. Guess they have gone through the whole process beforehand. It might get tricky to forge the chassis number on the other Guardian. At least we have the number and we possibly can also get the scanner ID, although I might have to get help on that one. The Ratpack seems like they might be able to help me find someone or even have the knowledge to do so.’ Garrus had passed the first Lane and arrived at riverside by the time he concluded his thought.

While passing the quiet California system, he was most of the time in the chair and let the autopilot fly the ship through the lanes. The rest of the trip was as quiet as California, the occasional trader that passed him in the lane, the navy rookies that had a test flight with their repaired ships and every now and then a lonely freelancer crossed his path.

Entering Glendalough Orbitals vicinity, Garrus got hailed by the Station, asking who is flying the ship and under which callsign. “This is Garrus Hendrix, I’m requesting permission to dock at Hangar Bay P. I’m transmitting my access codes now.” “Acknowledged Sir, the hangar is already prepared. Welcome home.” Slowly the door opened, and the Guardian moved inside the station.

The mechanics were already waiting in the hangar for Garrus to arrive. He didn’t expect them to be here already although he might have taken his time for the trip. As soon as the Guardian landed, the mechanics moved closer with their tools. Garrus left the cockpit and nodded to the mechanics. “It’s all yours. Just make sure we have all the things intact if we need the whole ship to change the ID-Signature.” “'Aight, got ya Garrus. And ‘bout that ID-Signature-forgery-thingy, ‘ow’re we gonna do that? I mean, it ‘as to be perfect and we don’t know nuffin’.” “That’ll be my problem, although I have a plan already. Ever heard about the Ratpack? The ones leading the Freeport in Bering? They might know how to do that. And if not, they can be paid to find one who can do it. That’s why I asked you to keep the parts intact.” “Gotcha, so we tear it apart, check the parts and rebuild it. That’d be an easy task.”

The lead mechanic turns around and faces the rest of the crew. They were all listening and were already waiting to start. The Guardian was still unharmed, no signs of any damage and no weapons. “Listen up boys, we gotta tear that thing apart, make a plan where everythin’ goes and put it back together. Ya got me? Good, off to work.” He glanced into the faces of the crew and saw some grins here and there and a few even nodded. Turning back to Garrus, he started to laugh. “Guess they will ‘ave their fun.” With a silent nod, Garrus changed his direction and started walking. After a few steps he stopped, not turning around, with his head slightly turned to the side. “Keep it safe, I’ll be sending out a communication. I’ll tell you the details later, when I know what we need.” He now started to walk in a faster pace and left the hangar.

Shortly after Garrus had left the the hangar, the wings were stripped of their armor, that now was placed on the side of the hangar. Now the mechanics could start undoing the rest of the armor plating. Taking off piece by piece and marking them with a number, the pile of plating grew bigger and bigger. They carefully stripped each plating from its mounting points, separating any fixated wires and placed the pieces on a cart. Then moving the plating over to the rest of the parts. It took them a while to have all the plating stripped of the guardian, leaving only the ships internals visible. Because this step had consumed a good amount of time, the mechanics went on their breaks, leaving the ship to rest in the hangar.

After they returned, they continued to draw and craft their plans as this was one of the most important steps since they might have to rebuild the Guardian as well as for replacing internals on ‘Hope’s Guardian’. By the time they had finished the third layer of the plan, Garrus entered the hangar again. He walked straight to the lead mechanic and taped him on the shoulder. “I’ve got news regarding the Guardian.” “That’s good, what ‘ave ya got Garrus. And don’t tell me we ‘ave to get the ship together already, we only ‘ad time to make a plan of the first few layers.”