LPI Leavenworth

[Zapp]

Several months ago...

A Heavy Lifter fumbled through the debris field, one of many that was armed with heavy equipment and scores of engineers. John Clements stood on the bridge of one, an eager glint in his eye. It had taken some time, but he had called in as many favors as he had left in his lifetime and he was sitting on a small fleet... to restore the Leavenworth to pristine condition. Some called him crazy. Others wanted him to disappear. The CEO of the LPI let him do it just to make him shut up. He had made a plethora of noise throughout the ranks of the LPI, raising hell and making a demagogue of himself. Clements was damn lucky he hadn't been fired.

And now, a dozen Heavy Lifters latched on to the Leavenworth's depressurized hulk, spewing out envirosuit-fitted engineers to restore pressure. First point of repair was the engines, then they'd move the ship to Baltimore and get the structural integrity restored to be capable of jumping. The rest of the ship systems were slated after that, but by the schedule and plan, it should be completely restored in a manner of months. Clements had some of the most dedicated engineers, each of them friends or former-underlings of his from the Navy, working on this.

* * * * *

A short time ago

The Onatrio incident shook up the higher-ups of the LPI something fierce. Nearly losing an entire system to the SCRA was unacceptable, and they realized that holding more firepower in their collective pockets would be a very nice thing. So they investigated Clements' progress, and found a team of engineers falling about, sleep-deprived from being pushed and pushing themselves too hard. Considering the costs and the benefits as they saw them now, as opposed to how they saw them when they ordered the ships decommission, the Board of Directors allocated resources to repair the ship.