The Argo was hanging motionless adjacent to the Shikoku jumpgate in Kepler. Running cloaked, the ship was waiting for any traffic that might be heading in or out of the system. The trade routes between Liberty and Kusari were the old faithful of supply lines, and could always be counted on to produce convoy's rich with goods.
After watching his fuel burn away minute by minute, Antares paced on board the bridge of the ship, strumming his chin occasionally. Suddenly, the scanner chirped indicating ships, and he turned his attention out the view port to the jumpgate. Three transports had appeared with a flash, and were starting to form up. Antares raised his hand to Jonas and bid him to hold. As the ships approached the trade lane, Jonas moved the ship closer to the rings. Antares sat in his chair with a plunk and hit a button on one of its arms, dropping the cloak. The turrets followed a burst on the rings causing it to overload. The ship began to move around and encircle the group.
After a few tense minutes, the lead ship agreed to pay a standard 'toll'. They took off towards Ames and Antares silently signaled for the cloak. The ship entered the lane as it disappeared and shot towards the station as well.
After dropping out, the ship veered away from the station and went to cruise, off towards the gap between dark matter nebulas, on the way to the Galileo jumphole.
"Alright we'll keep this heading a few more minutes then head back to Blackport 66. Good job gentlemen, a decent patrol for today. " Antares spoke loudly over the sound of the engines roaring. At that moment, the scanner once again began to chirp. The crew all looked up and at each other in anticipation of another target, and what the captain might do. Jonas and Rister both climbed over the scanner screen to get the details.
"Something on scanner sir, not far, on the edge of the nebula. But..." Rister called out with a scratchy voice, and hesitated.
"But?"
"Well it ain't movin' sir. It's just sitting there." Rister finished.
"Aye sir, thermals show no heat or energy signatures. Not from here. Pretty cold chuck o' metal by the looks!" Jonas reported.
"Dammit" Antares spoke aloud. He knew what it could be. People rarely left space garbage out here long. New wrecks are few and far between due to more modern tracking technology. "Lay in a course and take us in, drop the cloak for now".
The ship appeared again and its flood lights engaged illuminating the bow of the ship. As it approached the object, the glimmer of light from the surrounding lighting was catching on its metal surface.
"Close range scanning now sir. Shows as a...well I'll be! Its an old Starflier sir! Dead cold, and looks beat up, but intact." Jonas read.
"Now where did this come from?" Antares thought aloud, "Well this is something. Alright folks get the tow cables locked onto it pronto. We'll haul it back to the Blackport for now. I'll throw it at Sunny, he'll figure out where this clunker is from. He'll deal with it. Get moving, you know how I hate bein' caught out in the open!" he finally barked.
The men got moving and in a few minutes the ship was back to getting under way, albeit slowly. With the thick rock density of the clouad, hauling a fighter behind you was no easy task. Too bad Argo's bay couldn't hold her he thought. A whole fighter was just too big.
Not long later they waddled into sight of the station, and made for the closest landing bay. It had been quite a day, with quite a haul. Not only that but finding a jockey to dump the wreck on would be a piece of cake...he hoped.
As the ship came down onto its repulsor pad, and tractor beams took a hold of the starflier, Antares reached up from his seat to grab a hand held mic wired to the ceiling. He keyed in,
"Station controller, this is Captain Antares of the Argo. Get on the {AFC}- channel and get me Sunny...I've got something I think will be up his alley..."
Sunny was in his private office in his private suite on Blackport enjoying a cold glass of imported Bretonian smooth whiskey while filing some paperwork and management of the base's supply. It had been a slow morning that day and he had enjoyed sleeping in again.
He didn't notice at first the transmission blinking on the main screen from the control access deck of the base where operators were allowing ships in and out. He usually lets them take care of things, giving them strict orders not to allow any unwanted attention and if there was signs of trouble to notify him and the base immediately, especially the people manning the storage areas. There was no blinking red lights or beeping that would take place in situations like this so Sunny didn't notice at first. As he sipped from his whiskey he turned to the direction of the screen and noticed the transmission.
:::::INCOMING TRANSMISSION:::::
FROM: STATION CONTROL
TO: PRESIDENT OF AFC - FUNNY SUNNY
SUBJECT: REQUESTING ATTENTION
URGENCY: MEDIUM
Mr. President,
The ship by the name of Argo has requested permission to dock and has dragged along with it an unexpected find. A small wreak of a ship has been found and is needed attention. We are requesting your call on what to do, sir. The wreak seems to be mostly intact apart from being heavily damaged from radiation and beaten up. It is a light fighter too.
Awaiting your response on the matter. We will inform the captain of the Argo to await your call.
Thank you
:::::END OF TRANSMISSION:::::
Sunny read the notification and it grabbed his attention. He knew there were wreaks around the area and even a broken down trade lane o two, but he didn't expect them to be of any great value. He knew though that whatever Antares brought it would be interesting. He responded quickly.
:::::INCOMING TRANSMISSION:::::
FROM: FUNNY SUNNY
TO: STATION CONTROL
SUBJECT: REQUESTING ATTENTION - REPLY
URGENCY: HIGH
I will be down to check on what has been brought in about an hour or two. I would suggest before I come down there be submitted a generic damage report of the vessel. Please note the damage taken to all parts of the ship and what can be salvaged and what cannot. I would also like the identification of the craft if possible.
Please relay this information to the hanger crew and find an avaiable workshop for the craft. I will be down soon to check the findings.
Quote:Sunny had asked Christo to a look at the Starflier down in the hangar to see if it could be made operational. The wreck dated back to before the Nomad conflict, and it did not seem likely that the power plant was up to modern specifications. Everything he had ever read about Starfliers indicated that the ship would max out at a Core value of around 1,000 whereas modern light fighters ran at an average output of 8,500.
[img=right][Image: 5LSigOz.jpg][/img]
In keeping with his prior military training, Christo suited up and evacuated the bay. It turned out to be a good thing that he did so because the reactor had been breached during whatever had destroyed the ship. Overpressure inside the engine compartment released a cloud of dust when he pulled the hatch loose. The radiation monitor did not go off, further evidence that the Core had died long ago. Ignoring the small robots that began cruising around the room vacuuming up the dust, Christo went back to work. He paused for a moment when he noticed the initials CJG and an attempt at a date scratched into the hatch cover. This had been someone's one and only ride...
It would take some time to clean out the space, but Christo thought that he might be able to fit a Stargazer plant into the engine compartment. He chuckled to himself, thinking that it would be the first time someone saw a Stargazer as an upgrade.
While he was inspecting the engine compartment, he realized that several components of the frame would need to be replaced. It was also obvious that the ship would need to be rewired; at least the cockpit seemed to be structurally sound.
Stepping over to the workbench, Christo began writing up requirements for repairing and replacing components. It looked like the challenging project, but the rewards could be a ship that was even faster than anything they had now.
Quote:Christo sat at the workbench, pondering the list of tasks that he had made up for the Starflier project. None of the individual elements was all that convoluted, but it represented a lot of work.
It had already taken a good hunk of time just to gather parts and components. Encountering an Outcast destroyer at the New Tokyo>Honshu jump gate had made for interesting times. Fortunately, the captain of MarchMadness had been slow off the mark and it had been easy to get away.
Someone else had already removed the rotted struts, so at least he wouldn't have to do that. The new framework was going to have to be handcrafted, but he had brought in enough Super Alloy* to outfit an Armored Transport.
Newport might not be as polished as some places he had worked, but the shop and garage were up to better standards than most military fighter hangars. It might take a couple of weeks to get the ship rebuilt, but Christo figured he had this one down pat.
After he got the computerized lathe programmed, he decided to break into the whiskey he had gotten from Freeport 4.
Quote:Gutting the wiring had been a task for the 'bots, and so had rewiring. While that was going on, the weapons mounts had been pulled with the help of a molecular fission torch. New mounts would have to go in, but the stuff the bird had been built with was smaller and lighter than a modern mount. He also made a note to get some sort of gift to the Junker Congress for the supply of cutting torches.
Christo's initial survey had missed a series of fractures in the canopy near the hinges, making that a replacement item. Fortunately, the Starblazer had the same model of canopy, even if it was using upgraded materials.
After fitting the canopy, a Starblazer computer suite had gone in. It would need tweaking that someone else would probably need to do, but at least it didn't require a build from scratch.
Most of the rest of the work was figuring out mountings and interfaces for components that were functionally the same, but had evolved into different shapes, sizes or configurations. The biggest problem was adding an additional access way to get at part of the engine. The original apparently disengaged and lowered out on its own internal crane assembly, but the new engine was too large for that port.
Sunny had stressed that they wanted something that could be made a production, therefore not unique or a hobby project, ship. That being the case, every step was documented, and all of the parts were precisely measured; no bubblegum and duct tape for this girly.
Quote:Sunny would expectantly come down to where the Starflier now rested to see how work had progressed. He had been around repairing one of his own racing ships and adding some tweaks when he remembered about the project that Christo was working on. He'd thought he'd drop by.
The workshops had been fully renovated over the past several months with upgraded features. Since the central part of the base was not spinning anymore with the outer parts of the base now spinning and stabilizing the base, the central core was now with no gravity. The floors were padded so that it would be possible to walk on if you wanted too but while working on ships it was much more easier to go with zero gravity and be able to move freely around the ship and into places with ease.
He walked into the workshop hanger and saw the Starflier hung up on stretched cables so it wouldn't fly around everywhere. He didn't see any sign of Christo anywhere so he walked over and jumped up to cling onto the side of the ship and look at the progress around. Making a quick spin around the ship he scanned where the work was at nodded a little to himself. Seems there was still a lot of work to do to just have the ship up and running at minimal settings.
He got down and went over to where a notepad was stuck to the wall and opened the interface, looking through some of the noted recent documented progress...
Quote:A door partially obscured by a pile of crates cycled open, and Christian stepped out of the head. His eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of someone getting into things on his workbench before he realized it was Sunny.
Drifting over to the bench as quietly as possible, he tried to score a point by getting close enough to touch Sunny's shoulder without being caught at it. With the reflexes for which the AFC was known, Sunny kicked off the bench, spinning in mid-air. He'd seen movement in the reflexion from a piece of chrome on the countertop. The two ended up more or less on top of each other, then spun away in a flurry of strikes and counter-attacks that put Sunny on a trajectory for the Starflier and Christo headed for the parts crates he'd just come around. No one was injured, but encounter left both of them grinning ferally.
Once they had their bodies under control, Christo launched over to the bench, grabbing a handy support strut. He started talking, his frustration evident in his obvious accent.
"Sunny, we got a problem, yeah?
I got the Stargazer plant crammed into tha engine compartment, but, even with tha best converters I been able ta find, I canna use more than 75% of tha power. Tha load is too light for more than tha, even with everything I can hang offa it. Go any higher and tha thruster blows. No way around it with tha stuff we got available right now. I got power ta burn, but we canna get tha speed you're wantin without somethin tha can handle a bigger output.
Only thruster I can think of tha could get tha sorta output frum is a Cruise Disrupter, but I never seen one tha large."
Christo met the club leader's eyes steadily, hoping that the man could manage one of his famous maneuvers.
Hyun comes busting through the door with a huge grin on his face "Wow, that was some tangle I haven't seen people fight like that since the time I saw two blood dragon lords fight over a girl." He says as he twirled a wrench in his hands. "Could you use a fresh brain?" he asks Eyes gleaming.
Christo looked over, his habitual grin sliding into place.
"Heya, kid!
Yeah, tha Marines taught me ta fight zero G. Sunny an me started in on this when tha grav was out in tha Cherry an' tha cheeky bastard tried ta swipe me whiskey as he went sailin' by.
Sunny was grinning back but then looks up to see the new kid walk up expectantly... though somehow he was not too surprise by his appearance.
"Christo, this here's Hyun. Talked to him a few days back at the bar an' told him hookin' up with you. He wanted to get on some handy work. Says he's alright..."
He folds his arms and looks back at the ship. "So what do you think of her?"
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