Slackers of the Inner Sphere
Chapter 38: Slow Boat To Astrokaszy
SS Wildfire
Zenith jump-point
Haappajarvi system
Federated Commonwealth
4th November, 3064
"Twenty-four more jumps, and that's pushing it harder than I really feel comfortable, given the fact that we've just rebuilt the cooling system." Baker sat at the navigators station, hands folded across his lap, "The more direct rout would mean crossing the Capellan Confederation and the Free Worlds league."
"Very bad idea." Kobayashi stood near the hatch and shook his head, "As a former, all be it very junior, member of Free Capella, Privet Shen has an standing warrant for her arrest if she ever re-enters the Confederation..."
"...and I'd be put up against a wall and shot if I ever go home after what my former XO tried to pull." Swindelli finished for the layer as he sat in the Captains chair, spinning around in slow, lazy circles, "Anyway we can trim it a little?"
"Major, as it is we'll be passing through five uninhabited systems, three of which don't even appear on modern star-charts because they were nuked back down to bedrock during the Reunification War." Baker raised his hands in mock surrender, "As it is, we're using an out-of-date stellar atlas, navigational computer that has more quirks than I'd like and a hyperdrive that has to be periodically hit with a very large hammer to work."
"I though they fixed that back at Shoreham?" Swindelli asked.
"They didn't even know where to start; no one alive has ever worked on a ship like this. I think we were lucky to get the rest of the problems fixed." Baker frowned, "I may be able to jerry-rig a patch for the NavCom using parts from the Buccaneer on the rear docking collar." He paused, "Talking of which, did anyone ever get around to seeing just what it was carrying?"
"No; the Genecaste distracted us." Kobayashi waved it away, "The manifest says its parts and technical supplies for a SLDF outpost on Detroit."
"Technical supplies could mean advanced microprocessor-chips or other lost-tech goodies." Swindelli raised an eyebrow, "Want to go take a look?"
JumpShip L. Ron Hubbard
Nadia jump-point
Beid system
Federated Commonwealth
4th November, 3064
"We have received a communication from the Righteous Indignation." Hawksmoor scanned the print off in her hands, "They say they can be in position to intercept the Mercenaries as they cross the boarder into the Periphery, if they stick to the projected course."
"Signal back that we will keep track of the Mercenaries and try to ascertain just where they will be crossing the boarder." Jamal was sat back in his chair, the hood of his robes of office pulled up over his head, casting deep shadows across his face, "Remind them that I want no survivors; dead men tell no tails."
"As you wish, sir." Hawksmoor started to turn, then stopped, "Sir, what of the Manei Domini? We still don't know who sent them, and there are at least two more unaccounted for."
"We have enemies, even within the Order." Jamal dismissed her concerns with a casual wave of his hand, "There are those who would rather work against us then with us, even as we attempt to see the vision of the Blessed Blake to fruition."
"We could contact Terra." His subordinate suggested, "I'm sure that if we were to explain our actions..."
"We would be declared heretics and disavowed." The Precenter growled, "No, the only way out of this, this insanity is to see it through to the end; our fate is now liked to that of the Mercenaries." He seemed to shrink even further into the shadows, "Blake's will be done."
"Blake's will be done." Hawksmoor bowed her head and back out of the room.
DropShip Star Dancer IV
Zenith jump-point
Haappajarvi system
Federated Commonwealth
4th November, 3064
"Four cases of self-sealing stem bolts and a dozen boxes of reverse-ratcheting routing planers." Baker looked at the dust covered manifest stuck to the side of a cargo pod, "Well, they've got to be worth, let me think, bugger all?"
"I've got supplies for a field hospital over here." Kobayashi gestured towards a hatch, "Doubt the medicine will be any good after so long, but we may be able to off load some of the electronic equipment."
"I want the medic from the Bulldog to go over it first and see if there's anything we can use." Swindelli looked around, and noticed a hatch half hidden behind a couple of crates, "What's through there?"
"Only one way to find out." Baker grabbed one of the boxes and carefully moved it to the other side of the walkway, mindful of the fact that while it lacked weight in zero-g, it still had mass and momentum. It took a while to completely clear the hatch, and even longer to rig a temporary power source to the mechanism and find a way to override the lock.
"Whatever is in here, someone didn't want it fond." Kobayashi remarked as he activated a pair of large chemical glow-sticks and tossed them through the open hatch. They span slowly end-over-end, until they illuminated a single crate in the middle of the room. The lawyer look at it and swallowed hard, "I'm not sure if I should feel disappointed, or worried."
"Let's find out, shall we?" Swindelli let the way, the click of the magnetic plates in the bottom of his shoes echoing off the far bulkheads. Reaching the box, he pulled off the dust cover and let it float off into the darkness.
"Oh God..." Kobayashi looked at the various warning labels stamped all over the crates below, "We are in so much trouble."
"I think that's an understandable." Baker took half a step back, crossing himself, "How do we get ourselves into these situations?"
"Relax guys, it's not like they're going to be live." Swindelli cracked a smile, "I mean, they're getting on for 400-years old..."
"Tritium decay hasn't been a problem since the Age of War, and the Star League built things to last." Baker pointed out as he started to back away towards the hatch, "Word is ComStar has teams on stand-by across the Inner Sphere in case anyone digs up a couple of these things by accident."
"We should probably contact them first chance we get." Kobayashi nodded in agreement, "We could get into a lot of trouble is we're caught with..."
"Don't say it! I don't want to hear anyone saying that word, not once!" Swindelli raised a hand to silence the other two men, "We lock the hatch, keep quiet, and hope to hell that we don't get into any more trouble with the M.R.B.C over this."
They stumbled back through the hatch and Swindelli hit the controls to close it.
"Reset the codes: I want the three of us to be the only ones to have access." He ordered Baker, "And make sure it takes two codes to open it, just to be extra safe."
"Good idea." The Sergeant nodded his agreement as he got to work.
"If memory serves, ComStar have maintain a presence on the recharge station in the Shaunavon system." Kobayashi suggested, "We could let them know as soon as we arrive."
"That's still four jumps away." Swindelli lamented, then turned to face his two companions, "No one else finds out about this. No one!" He pointed an accusing finger at Baker, "Not even Hitomi. Word of this gets out, people are going to start acting jumpy, and things are bad enough around here as it is. We get the rest of this cargo inspected, and anything we can easily sell, we move over to the Bulldog. Then we restrict access to this ship."
"Agreed." Baker looked up from his work and nodded.
"For once we have unanimous agreement." Kobayashi looked ill at ease, but nodded his consent to the plan, "And may God have mercy on our souls if we screw this up."
SS Wildfire
Zenith jump-point
Safe Port system
Federated Commonwealth
20th November, 3064
Time passed slowly for all on the ship. Swindelli pushed them as hard as he could with small-arms drill and hours in the simulators, but even then, there was only so much they could do to stave off the inevitable tedium of deep-space travel. Books and manuals were read, Tri-Vid shows and movies watched, including a small stash of discs belong to the ships original crew. Others spent time redecorating the communal areas and crew quarters of their new home; a small bar was set up in the officers mess, and strict two-drink limit introduced. At Swindelli's request, Hitomi took over one of the machine-shops and started work on developing a counter to the cyborgs that they had gone up against on Shoreham.
"The standard ammunition I supply for the .75-Recoilless is custom-made Magnum round based on the .50 Action Express, which has been in production for well over a thousand years and is normally used for big-game hunting." the gunsmith stood behind a cluttered desk, her arms folded across her chest, "I've supplied them to SWAT officers and they've told me that they've been known to blow clean through even military grade body armour. That would imply that what we went up against was something much more heavily armoured." She looked Swindelli, "We're talking Battle Armour levels here; like, say, Elementals."
"You know, I never paid much attention to all the stories people pass around about Word of Blake." The Major lent against the bulkhead with his hands in his pockets and frowned, "I figured that it was the normal bull-shit you get about any clandestine organisation. But I shot one of them in the head and point-blank range and it barely even slowed her down."
"Which means we're going to need something a hell of a lot bigger than I've ever been able to make before now due to legal restrictions on what I can sell as a civilian gunsmith, but now I'm with you guys, the gloves can come off." Hitomi pulled a set of schematics from a folder and lay them on the work-top, "These are some of my fathers original sketches back when he was working on Land Warrior for the AFFC; it's a high-explosive, armour-piercing round based on the .30-06 Springfield cartage, but with a tungsten-carbide core around a military-grade high-explosive. The detonator is designed to blow the charge a fraction of a second after the bullet starts to deform, hopefully after it's blow through whatever you were aiming at. I have what I need to produce them for the triple-barrelled shotgun, but I'll need to remould a few tools if you want something your .75 can fire."
"Get started as soon as you can: something tells me we're going to need them again sooner rather than later." Swindelli nodded, "How many more .75's you got?"
"Six, with parts for four more." Hitomi cocked her head to the side inquisitively, "Why?"
"Because it just became our standard-issue side-arm." Swindelli turned and head for the hatch, "I don't want my people to be under-gunned next time we go up against those Blakist freaks."
To Be Continued...
The Slackers of the Inner Sphere:
All your bases are belong to us!