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Chapter 2
What if a smaller Colonial ship survived the Fall of the Colonies? Follow the Centaur Class Chiron
Ofis B Culepla Asteroid Belt
Colonial Faststar Chiron CIC
Lt. Cmdr Ronda Jasper looked at this new asteroid belt. Fairly close to this star by stellar distances at least and with a fairly heavy asteroid belt. Nothing spectacular but "dense" by the low standards of a solar space. When the Chiron jumped to Culepla Belt (what is with this solar system and their use of snake names Jasper thought as an aside) a meeting was requested from Maxon Mining Inc. The owner seemed almost glad to hear from the Chiron which was a bit concerning.
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Ofis B Culepla Asteroid Belt
Maxon's Respite
CEO Office
Jessi Maxon was glad to see the Colonial ship Chiron. Usually the Blue Boys were a pest with looking at manifests and exact counts of ores (the government loves it's taxes after all) but the BS that had been going on with the Rollins Consortium had reached a point that outside help was desired.
Rollins Mining had either been ripped off by Jessi's father or just had bad luck. Her father before his death had always denied that he paid the survey crew that did the Ofis systems official survey to hide some of the results but the old man had certainly jumped on the opportunity to get a 50 year contract. Just wish that however the Maxon's got that contract that it wasn't such a pain in the ass and a bit more profitable.
Having to pay twice normal wages and and to purchase an old Gemenon Gramadas class to keep the miners family and place for the down time was expensive but after the nonending harassment on New Hadrian what other choice did she have? Apparently only her miners would get drunk and cause problems after being cooped up on a tyleum refinery for 2 months. Or that her worker's family would all find their power cut off to their town.
But these most recent attacks were different. Honestly it seems outside Rollin's usual bag of tricks. Starting 3 months ago a freigher would jump in and sometimes steal some parts or destroy items. Worst was 10 days ago 2 unregistered freighters had jumped in and boarded one of her freighters and stolen the cargo. Luckily no one had been seriously hurt and it could have been one of the various pirates or possibly separatists (not that there is often much difference). Still make a big enough fuss about this and maybe this Chiron will tell their Admiralty and then Virgon might have to replace Governor Gregory Rollins (especially since he hasn't been in the system for about 6 months).
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Maxon's Respite Meeting Room
"Thank you for coming Commander" said Jessi. "I hope you understand my concerns. I have 20 ships and over 2500 employees and their families working for me. My kids and granddaughter are here on board the Respite and honestly I don't feel like the Virgon SDF and colonization bureau have done anything to deal with the long running issues in the Ofis system. These attacks by what I believe are members of the CIF (Canceron Independent Front) are outside my ability to deal with."
"I do appreciate that you are out here far from support" said Cmdr. Jasper. The CIF thing was almost certainly not correct. Still this is on the edge of Colonial territory and general theft and piracy while not rampant are not unknown. "Right now I am waiting for my wing of Vipers. How would you feel about us doing some training exercises in this area?"
"Not sure what that would entail exactly" said Maxon.
"When my Vipers arrive they will all be trained as a squad" said Jasper. Or at least she hoped so. "Still the Vipers and Raptors practice along with the deck crew. This usually takes a month of so." Jasper left out the part where fraking Nagala decided to skimp on the "secondary" ships to keep his overpriced Battlestars up to looking pretty. This part really should be done in the Colonies but a ship was needed here ASAP so the Chiron was sent. And then the delays caused things to be even more frakked.
'Still I do have some new Raptor crews. They could practice Search And Rescue or tracking on your ships" said Jasper. "If that would not be an issue for you we could start tomorrow."
Maxon was surprised. This Commander didn't seem to be indifferent and at best she thought the Chiron would just park in this solar system. "Alright Commander that seems workable. Let me talk to my people to make sure they don't misunderstand a Raptor getting ready to "attack" them" and also to see about getting them a little less spread out."
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Chiron Officers Wardroom
Jasper after returning back to the Chiron had called a meeting with her senior officers. Her officers were not exactly happy. Lt. Anders was possibly most frazzled as tactical would have to figure out how to use 4 Raptors and the Chiron to "defend" the 18 ships that were currently in the Ofis B system. Lt Tonis (Juno) seemed interested. Tonis is in charge of the Raptors and 3 or the 4 crews are new together. Only Raptor 2 with Matchbox and Wombat have been flying together for a long time. The others need some practice especially Ensign Stevens (Panda).
"Alright everyone you heard the Commander. LTs. Greene and Tonis I want your people ready for extra flights. We are going to be doing SAR training and simulated combat drills" said Major Marton.
"Yes sir" said the officers as they filed out to give their people the new duties.
"Sir this seems like busy work to me but the raptors and the deck crews can use the practice" said Mashon.
"Yes major. Also I know that this Maxon is using us. The CIF or any other of the various "liberation" groups aren't involved but whether pirates or corporate fighting taken to far we need to keep an eye on it."
"Yes sir" said Marton. "Any day now the Colonial Guard will take over for us."
"Fraking smartass" said Jasper.
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Ofis B Culepla Asteroid Belt
Chiron CIC
"Major we have an emergency message from a Libran Dreams" said Lt. JG Stevenson. "They are saying that the Cylons have launched a massive attack on New Hadrian."
"Lt. message all Raptors and go to Condition 1" said Mashon. "Commander to the bridge."
Author notes.
The Ofis system was found before the War but not surveyed until about 20 years ago. Ofis B did have the better richer asteroid belt but New Hadrian was in Ofis A. The Rollins Corporation basically bought the whole system but decided to sell off the rights of Ofis B to one of their old partners the Maxons. Either the survey crew that checked out both systems were bad at their jobs or Robert Maxon (Jessi's father) bribed them. Whatever the answer when Robert died the Rollins tried to bully the younger Maxon by slowing down parts (their orders on regular shipping to New Hadrian got lost or broken), or arresting the Maxon employees disproportionately. The general issues caused high turnover so Jessi Maxon bought what is basically a barracks ship which she fixed up for families and paid her employees more. They now have little to do with Ofis A and just sell and purchase directly from the Colonies. Maxon Mining is in short in debt and can't lose their contract.
"Blue Boys" is a somewhat disparaging term that people use for the Colonial Navy. Also the Colonial Guard does exist but is very small and for empire building reasons the Colonial Fleet never quite agrees to the loss of budget but the Fleet doesn't really like these minor policing duties. It's not "their job" but there isn't anyone else to do it.
Piracy is a minor problem. If it gets more than that the Admiralty will send a couple of Battlestars and deal with it. But the Fleet is more than a bit "stretched". If a war with the Cylons ever happens they will need the Battlestars. And the Colonies must be defended. These subcolonies or mining systems though at times need protection. Ships like the Chiron are high in antifighter weapons (for their size at least) but somewhat low on heavy weaponry. Something like a Colonial Mover with a few welded on guns aren't much of a threat to any military ship. Plus the logic is if a war with the Cylons ever restarts all the mulitpurpose ships can then be added Vipers but for now can also be used for whatever is needed.
Cmdr. Jasper took an odd track. She did not pass the basic test for flight (like in the military entrance exam) and for no real reason never served on a Battlestar. At first this was no issue but the LSO or CAG track is faster to become a senior officer. She did well on her smaller ships and got sort of "stuck". This somewhat delayed her career but instead of blaming the part of Admiralty that pigeonholed her into smaller ships she has taken a weird pride in not being on a Battlestar and isn't always fair to pilots. She is aware of this bias but it does effect her world view.