Chapter 34
By Cliff
Beta and Clean up: Not done
Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop
20 June 3048 the second run
Canopus IV
It was seven jumps and just under 60 days to make the trip between the two capital worlds. Robert had all three dropships disconnect from the Styx and make the burn towards the planet. The trip out from FWL space had been uneventful, with the Styx not picking up anyone on its powerful Radar. They also did not find any more trackers, and they looked very hard to find any more of the little devices. They looked hard after every jump. Still they did not find anything, after they had made the second jump after finding the first batch. The total number of tracking devices had climbed to 123 after they did that first jump.
The last jump was delayed for four days, the one that brought them to this system. The four days had been by a request forwarded by all of the Cargo Masters. Each of the old salts had gone over the Trojan class blockade runner during the run. They wanted to do one more search to make sure that nothing might have been hidden, and then forgotten about. They had not found anything after two days. The four older spacers had not been happy with that result. So, they spent the next two days going through the ship again. This time they found a few odds and ends, but nothing major or that would break "The Protocols". When all of the Cargo Masters agreed that the dropship was good to go for the next phase. Robert had given the order to prepare for the next jump.
There was not any issue at the jump point or on the burn towards the capital of the MC. Jess and the other Captains were given the mission of taking care of this next phase of the operations. Robert, it seemed, had other tasks that he wanted to get done. He did not want any help, with whatever he was doing.
The crews first had to unload the almost fully loaded cargo ship. On the trip out to this part of space, they had already transferred certain items to the Lisbon Maru. That had happened while they were recharging the jumpship between stars. When the reactor had used up all of the fuel on the larger jumpship? Some fuel had been transferred from the other dropships to the old Tramp for her to use to charge the massive engine.
All of the hardware and software that was on the old blockade runner now? All were the "normal" items you would expect on a ship like that. As stuff was unloaded from the dropship, it was moved to a nearby warehouse. The warehouse would not only be the cargo storage area, but it was also the living quarters for the dropship's crew. The last items to come off of the old ship. It was the removable cabins that the infantry squad used, as well as the skeleton crews from the first part of the mission. The crews liked it for the week that they had planned to be on this planet. They had lots of elbow room and fresh air.
The Dropship's software was reset back to default, to wipe out any data that might be hidden or lost in the computers. When that was done? The local inspectors descended on the dropship like a pack of dogs on a three-legged cat. The White Rabbit was being sold to the local Government, and they would not take the word of some third-party inspectors. It took two days, and they had the run of the emptied dropship. The only time that Robert was around? It was when it was time to turn over the "keys" and get paid. He was running around the city and drop port doing who knows what. He was only accompanied by his escort for the majority of those "meetings". With full cargo bays the only job the Cargo Masters had, was to keep telling people no on whatever it was that they were selling.
After that new money hit the bank? Kimberly showed up with four other older people, which she did not bother to introduce to Jess. They seemed to know Robert or knew enough about him, that they could be friendly. They were members of the Family that had been close by or had been able to make it to this planet, in time to meet with someone from home. The fingers of an information network were slowly growing as Kimberly, Sophie and Lora went about their job.
Robert, Jess, the old captain of the White Rabbit and about a dozen crewmembers took three large hover people movers the next day. They had to go to the other side of the drop port. It was to the long-term storage area. The ship they were going to check out, was on the other edge of that area. It was the area that was where dropships were one step away from being cut up for scrap or used for some target practice.
When the transports had stopped, everyone emptied out. Robert and Jess remained standing near the vans but watching as their people entered the ship. Jess turned and looked at the other woman. "How did you find this?"
Kimberly Jay turned and gave the other woman a kind of half smile. "I had been talking with Commander Copeland, and he made a comment that stuck in my head. He had worried, that he might not have enough firepower to get out of a bad situation. I had been looking, but I was not finding anything better than the Trojan you all were working with. When news broke about the pirates you beat off? I had people coming to me, instead of me tracking down a dozen ethereal leads that turned out to be a waste of time and money. That was when this turned up." She pointed at the rounded egg-shaped converted military dropship.
Robert was still and then added his own information. "I was thinking about maybe a converted or upgraded Mule, or something like that. I was not even thinking about something like this." He looked at Kimberly and gave her an approving nod. "Were we come from, that is a purely military ship, and too valuable to use in other ways besides its core designed function."
Kimberly licked her lips, and then bit down on her lower lip. It was like she was fighting back the urge to say something. What it did was draw both Jess and Robert's eyes to her. Robert tilted his head and gave her a look, which she did not pick up on right away. Jess broke the silence.
"Kimberly, if you have something you would like to add? Just come on out with it. We won't bite your head off." Jess said the last part with a soft chuckle.
Kimberly was not buying it, and then she relented with a shrug. "I have been working on something on the side. Lora let me know about your first run. You listed that you wanted to buy a larger dropship, and that they did not need to be fully functional. I found one. But you already had three dropships, and the Tramp only can lift three ships? I didn't know if you were still looking for them or not. But I found something about six months ago. I didn't want to bring it up or put too much effort into it. Not if you were now not looking for something like it." Kimberly's SAFE's job was tracking weapons sells between the FWL and any border states. This had given her a large list of contacts that she could get away with for a limited amount of personal use.
Robert let his eyebrows go up a little. "What did you find? And yes, finding a large dropship is important to us. It also does not have to be fully functional. What they need to be? They need to be structurally sound, the life support work, and have a power distribution system that can be quickly repaired. That is what our "Partners" want, for some unknown reason".
Now it was Kimberly's turn to let her eyebrows go up. "Well, don't say I didn't warn you." Kimberly was about to levitate out of her boots.
She was still not sure if she wanted to bring it up, and then relented. "In this system. I found an old Behemoth class dropship. It's in a close orbit near the jump point you came in on. The history on the bird is a bit on the thin side. About the only things I do know, is that the engines gave out. That is why it was left in this system a decade ago. All the cargo has been pulled out, along with all of the twenty-assigned small craft. The hull is okay, but only just. It's thinner in some places than it should be, but the hull is sound. It was last inspected about two years ago."
The Behemoth class dropship was a truly massive design. It was a 100,000ton bulk cargo transport, which was so big. That they were built and lived their entire lives only in space. They could not land or take flight under the pull of a normal planet, or even from some larger asteroids. They were so massive. That they alone, almost massed as much as a Merchant class jumpship. The engines took a lot of work and massed almost as much as three of the Union class dropships that he was looking at now. They also could carry over 74,000tons of whatever you wanted to, from one star to another. Robert had a plan to move something like this, maybe not as big, but he had a plan that he had worked out while they were still working the first mission. It was just too bad that they had not been able to practice "the plan"… ever. Everyone knows about the plans of mice and men.
Robert nodded as he went over the base plan in his head again, before saying anything. "Okay Kimberly. What's the catch?"
Now Kimberly smiled at both of them. "The catch is, that the seller is a jerk. She kept the list price at 640 million C-bills. No matter how many times it has been brought up that it's not worth near that much. She will not come down off of the price, not one C-bill."
Jess's eyebrows went into her hairline, but she held her tongue. She only looked between the woman and her commander with wide eyes. The SLDF Navy had given them two jumpships and two dropships, to sell to give them the capital to purchase items along with selling the old SLDF cannons. The number that Kimberly had just said? It was almost more than they had left in the banks. If they used all of the money in those accounts, they would have some explaining to do. It would be a huge problem recharging those accounts by any major level, after it was gone.
Robert had kept his face like stone, and with an even tone. "Kimberly? That is a very healthy number, and one I will not pay. Even if I had access to that kind of money."
Kimberly had a sly smile and a twinkle in her eyes. "Lora and I would not let you buy, that hunk of junk for anything like that price. If you did? I would make sure that I had in writing. Something to the effect, that I didn't think it was a good value. Now what I was wondering. Is if you wanted to spend some of that thick stack of political credit, that you have made with the MC and her military?"
Kimberly Jay pulled out a portable phone and waved it in the air like a snack treat for a large and mean dog. The person that own this dropship had been a real piece of work, which she had to work with in her roll in SAFE. She had spent many a day wishing that they could just shoot the other woman and do the universe a massive favor.
Robert gave a shark like smile and nodded to the communication device. They spent the next two hours on the device talking to many different people. By the end of the calls. The massive dropship belonged not to one of the local banks, but to Commander Copeland. It would take two days for all of the paperwork to finally catch up to the new reality, but it was done.
When the last page was filed. Copeland's accounts were lowered by a little over 150 million C-bills. The MC did not get most of the money that left his accounts. But they would be getting rid of a space navigation hazard, and a nice chunk of currency was added to the General Fund. That was not the only large chunk of money that Robert had dropped in this planet's economy on this trip.
The Union was in a lot better shape, than it looked from the outside. It would be able to lift with very minimal work needing to be done. The Union was the base that the Trojan Class had started from. So, the White Rabbit's crews would not have that many problems learning how to work the new ship. When the paperwork was done for that ship. She went from Union Class Dropship Number 456, to the White Rabbit 2.
That night, at dinner, in the warehouse. Jess asked the question that had been bothering her ever since Commander Copeland had agreed to buy the largest class of dropship ever made by the hand of man. "Sir? So how are we going to get four dropships home, when we can only carry three? I know you have a plan, but I'm at a loss of how to do this." She was not going to let out of the bag at the Carrier could make its own interstellar jumps. Besides they still had to get out of the Inner Sphere occupied space before that ship could move on its own.
Robert told her his plan between mouthfuls of food, which had come off a food truck setup outside the warehouse to feed all of his people. It took about twenty minutes to go over the main plan, and two of the modifications to the main plan that he had worked out already. The other two plans were in case something when wrong during the move.
Jess was smiling. "I have got to start thinking farther out of the box, sir. That will also let us keep the two-small craft you picked up." Jess saw that Robert was getting ready to leave again, so Jess tried to get some more answers from her commander. "So, Commander. Why did you want to get that information about that Solaris team?"
Robert stopped in mid standing from the table and gave her a sly smile. "You will see. Right now, I have to go send some HPG messages. I will see you later. Remember we have that meeting with Kimberly about her primary mission." With a nod. He was moving away from the table, with a little something in his walk.
Robert was reviewing the data that Kimberly, Sophie and Lora had been able to gather. The group of Family women had no idea why he wanted data on a certain family, but they had done so. They also had gotten the latest copy of the ComStar release of Technical Readout 2750. He had already reviewed it and found more than a few holes in the data. He was betting that SLIC would find even more holes after they had seen the data. It did show that more and more Regular Star League Military weapons and technology were finding its way into use, if not back into some level of production. Kimberly had reviewed most of the data that they had gathered with Jess. There just was so much of it, that they did not have time. Kimberly had to keep her cover and too much contact would alert SAFE, that they had double agents in their organization. It was a fine line that she and Copeland were going to have to walk.
Now that Robert had some time, he popped in the data disk that was only labeled Ngo. He read the cover sheets and the bios for each of the living members of that family directly related to the one target. It was not enjoyable reading and before he had to grab some coffee, he pulled up the file of images that had been acquired. When he hit image number 15, he stopped. His hand was shaking as he enlarged one section of the image. He knew that face, and it was a face that should not be in the Inner Sphere. He went through a dozen more images, and he found three more images of faces that should not be. They were Cylons and they were in the Inner Sphere. Robert pulled out the data disk and returned it to his safe. Then he opened a bottle of something he did not even look at the label of. He would not so slowly get drunk and pass out in his bed.
The next two days were busy. The Union was cleaned up, and cargos and crews started to slowly shift over to their new homes. That is after they did a little test flight to high orbit, and then returning to the more active part of the drop port. One that also was nearer to where Copeland's people were staying. Robert had contacted several shipping companies, and now that 100k in c-bills had been paid to a Merchant class jumpship, the Behemoth would be leaving this star system.
It did not take long for a second dropship to be found that wanted to go to the same general location, and the small jumpship made even more money on the route they had already been paid to run. The two small craft took off and did a high speed burned toward the jump point. After refueling one last time at the station at the jump point. They would attach themselves to the side of the giant egg, and act as low powered tugs. The dropship had to be refilled with tons of fuel to help keep the tanks and the hull from being damaged at the jump point. It was only a little over 50 tons of fuel and air, a lot lower than the 600 tons it was designed to carry normally. They just needed enough to do the job and buying that much fuel and air at the jump point, would have been a huge budget hit.
The jumpship would be dropping off both dropships and the two-small craft at the Ltzehoe system. The best and most cost-effective use of the trip? It would have been to fill the over 70,000 tons of cargo bays with anything, even industrial sand would have been better than an empty ship. Robert did not have the time, money, or crew to do something like this. The massive ship was almost totally emptied. When they got to Duke Terry's system? The two craft would stay attached on the outside of the massive dropship like a pair of ticks on a dog. It was going to be hard on the crews, but Robert had no problem getting volunteers to take the mission. They would have the ship spinning fast enough to give them about a quarter G.
Robert made plans and contacted the offices of MMM on Dunianshire and published a space travel plan. The massive dropship was not the only items shipped out by Robert, but it was by far the biggest. At least it was the biggest, that anyone person and even group had sent out that way in a very long time. Robert had cashed in a lot of political capital, and he had to spend almost a week after the Behemoth left paying for it.
That payment was made in dinners, balls, and meetings with various locals in positions of power. It was the longest week of Robert's life. With his flight plans posted for his company. He could put a hard date when he was leaving this system. Robert made sure that he left on the minute that it was announced. Jess and the rest of the leadership was concerned that the Commander was being so adamant to stick to the published timeline. Robert just smiled as he sent reply after reply that he could not attend a given meeting, ball or dinner, because he needed to lift off at a certain time. Two rocks, one stone.
Return to Ragnar Anchorage.
It was dark in the areas between the stars. Then in a flash that was barely detectable, a very small ship was there. The slab-sided craft was quickly lost in the background of stars and interstellar energy. It would not move for some time. It was a lightly armed scout and it was deep into enemy controlled space. The longer it was quiet, the larger area that it could see and the harder it was for any enemy to see them.
From the front of the craft, all you could see was one copper suited person with a gold face plate covering their face from a copper colored helmet. The team had been around for some time, and they did not need to talk as they worked. Any type of transmission, even ones done by hard line, was a risk. The pilot looked down at the consoles and saw a blinking green light. That was all the EO in the back needed to "say", to let the pilot know it was okay to start the next phase of the mission. If he had detected any threat, he would have been more active in his alerting.
All around the black craft small jets activated and the craft slowly moved, but not enough to be seen against the background stars. When the craft was pointed in the right direction, a fraction of power was supplied to the high mounted main engines. With just a little push the craft was starting a six-hour trip to the target of today's scouting missions. It was a blue/grey gas giant that the Colonials and Cylons knew very well. They had fought a battle near it, and it was one that the humans had gotten the better of the Cylon battle fleet.
6 hours later
The small craft glided around the massive planet. After arriving in this location, and it was deemed safe, the jump engine was shut down to save fuel. Now that they were closer to a possible ambush, it was brought back online. A SLDF jump fighter could have done this job. It was both more heavily armored and armored, but it did not have the scouting equipment that a Raptor was built with and the crew trained in how to use it. At this thought the pilot looked out of the right side of the craft. Under that wing was what was called a second-generation Beagle probe. It was in passive mode, but soon it was going to be getting power to use its full capability.
The EO sitting behind the pilot was tired, but everything seemed to be going okay. They had tracked some wreckage at hour number 4, but it was light and moving away from the planet. He did not need the computer to tell him that it was the remains of Vipers and Raiders from the last battle in this area. They had not seen anything on their systems, but their systems could not penetrate more than a dozen meters into the nearby gas giant. That was one of the reasons to hide it here in the first place. He kept the pilot on track for "The Tunnel" by slight adjustments to an indicator on her dash. When they were close, he felt it was worth the risk to use one of the craft's systems.
"Lips, Tunnel is 30 degrees down and 1200 meters ahead. Scopes are clear."
Nora "Lips" Clellan looked toward the directions she had been given. It didn't look any different from any other part of the planet in front of her. But the information and location had been pulled right from the Flagships databanks. There was not any reason to believe that it was wrong, or things had changed. The Tunnel had been there since before the 1st Cylon War.
She adjusted her course and the Raptor responded to her commands. The craft flew as directed, while still maintaining full stealth mode. After it punched threw a thin outer layer of dull blue clouds, they were in the lightening illuminated tunnel. Crank did not say anything more, and just before the first turn in the mapped tunnel. Crank powered up the SLDF made scouting system.
Nora was not surprised when it did not add that much to the information coming into her stations. It was going to be another hour of flying. For an hour they were sitting on the edge of their seats, thinking that a Cylon ambush was waiting behind every pillar of clouds that lined the edges of the tunnel. The ripple firing of powerful lightning bolts and the planet's ability to render DRADIS and any other sensor gear ineffective, did not help with their nerves.
7 hours after arrival in system.
Lips was a little surprised, when a screen near her left knee changed from static filled nothing into an outline of a triple stack of dinner plates with a pipe attached at the bottom. Maybe that Beagle probe was worth the mass. When they made the last turn, she could see her target. It was the Ragnar Anchorage, and the three great decks were still slowly turning as she watched. Lips did not smile, but so far, they had not found any Cylons. Part of her brain told her it was because this place was known to badly affect them at the cellular level.
As Lips flew first over and then around the station, she was not impressed by what she saw. She had not been able to see it, on the last visit the Battlestar Galactica had made here. One part of her hoped that it had looked better back then. Her eyes kept being drawn to the top "dinner plate" that held the Battlestar docking point. One of the six sections looked….unfinished. The voice of her EO brought her back to the rest of the world, as she was looking at the half-finished section.
"Lips, it looks clean. There is still some power, and it is almost a perfect match from what the Bucket recorded, when she left with the rest of the Rag Tag fleet. I know the guys back here are ready to get some elbow room."
Lips could not help but turn and look to see deeper into the back of her craft. Being just as quiet as the two Raptor's crew had been were 6 large SLDF marines in full battle rattle. The only items that were not SLDF issue, were the Colonial made space suits they were wearing. "Well let's see if anyone is home." She put words into actions, and the nose of the craft dropped. She did a haircut pass over the top plate of a station. She landed at a Raptor port at the intersection of the bottom plate and the power and support structure at the base of the station.
The Battlestar had attached to the top of the station on her only visit here, and they had found a human form Cylon waiting on them. Lips was not wanting to find any surprises, which they might have left for any returning humans. When she attached to the lower dock, you could not have felt the connection on the small craft much less on the larger station. When the hatch opened the small squad started to exit, just like they had been trained to do back on New Circe.
Lips could not help herself. "Don't forget where we parked. And if you bring any company back with you. I will leave all of you Frakers here."
Lips had to smile as the last huge marine paused at the hatch only long enough, to give her a single finger salute. If the group did not return in two hours or any Cylons were detected by the Raptor. They would be left behind to maybe die alone, and every one of them knew it before they had signed on to do this mission.
At 1 hour and 45 minutes, Lips and Crank were getting more on edge as the time past. One of them would only be 5 to 10 meters from the hatch that connected the station to the Raptor at any one time. When they heard steps coming their way. Lips had jumped into her pilot's seat. Crank had pulled his Laser pistol from his holster, and he waited to see if he was going to kill a Cylon with the new weapon or not.
Much to his relief, it was most of the boarding team. They were not running, but they were checking every corridor they passed at the very fast walking pace. The point man flipped up his helmet and his laser rifle was pointed to the corridor ceiling, when he was a dozen meters from the hatch. "Clear so far. I left a 2-man team at a major intersection down the way. Let's download, and you can get the other team. This place is Fraking huge!"
Crank nodded and then went to help the rest of them unload supplies. The reason that the Raptor could only pack in 6 marines, was that the rest of the space was needed for emergency supplies. After the supplies were unloaded, both the Raptor and the combat team were not out of the woods. The now 4-man team would wait for any returning human craft. The Raptor would still have to leave the station, make it down the Tunnel, and then wait for at least 10 minutes, before it could exit the tunnel, and make it back to the mother ship. If they saw any Cylons along the way? The mission was blown, and it was all over but the dying.
They did not see any Cylons, and every 4 hours another 6-man team and supplies were landed at the base of Ragnar station. As each group landed, a more detailed sweep could be made by the growing number of personnel. They were taking their time, so that no one or nothing could slip in behind the slowly growing number of clearing teams.
24 hours after first breach of Ragnar Tunnel.
For the first time in who knew how long, a Colonial civilian ship arrived at the tunnel mouth of Ragnar. She was still a civilian ship design, but now she was armed if not armored as a warship. The Boreas was an old Rising Star class liner that had seen better days, even before the Cylons had renewed the war. The SLDF and Colonial Navy had taken her in hand and done some work on her. They could not do anything about her armor or lack of armor skin. They did add a dozen laser anti-missile systems on the top and bottom of her hull. She also was now packing 4 Raptors, 2 Kirghiz class jump fighters, and 2 Avars light fighters. This had reduced her twin vent like hanger bays from being able to carry 8 large shuttles, down to one medium sized cargo hauler for this mission.
Captain Peter "Moa" Phipps was looking out the command windows of his lady, as they made it around the last turn of the tunnel. Now he could see the open pocket that would be his base of operations for the next few months. "Looks just like it did, when I left it the last time." He could not help himself and the words just fell out. Luckily only his XO heard them.
Senior Lt Aamodt could not help but smile at the munchkins comment. "Yea, it looks like a hunk of junk. But at least the Cylons did not blow it out of orbit. Can I launch the shuttle?"
Captain Phipps was thinking about his next set of moves. He should be able to attach to a secondary docking clamp, but he did not know if that was safe. They had 200 repair and other specialty skills people still on his ship. The shuttle would take them over at two dozen at a time. They also still had another 100 security personnel to help clear the place of any traps or hidden Cylons. "We will stay in close orbit. Launch the shuttle and keep it making runs between us and the station. We stick to the plan, unless something changes."
Just as Captain Phipps was sitting in his office doing paperwork, his desk alert beeped and then a voice came over the speaker. "Sir, one of the EOD teams has found another device. It was on the Battlestar hatch on the north pole of the station. They report all corridors, major command or support areas are now clear. They are starting a detailed room by room search of the base as we speak."
The Captain looked at his desk mounted clock. "Good, let them know I will be over there at the start of my next shift." He had a lot of paperwork to do, but it was less now that he did not have to worry about 1,800 passengers and 320 crew. Still he had over 700 bodies to look after, and that meant he had to do some paperwork.
The next day
Peter was walking around the metal corridors of his "New" base. He was being escorted by Ragnar's new Chief of Engineering and 4 armed bodyguards. He was distracted from the briefing, by a small shower of rusty metal coming from the ceiling of the corridor. The head of Engineering noticed the look and the short shower of rust.
"She needs a lot of work, but it's nothing we can't fix with enough bodies, and supplies. The fuel tanks are almost at the same level, that was reported after the last ship topped off before bugging out. They are just under a third full, and that was where we found the first demo charge. It was the end point for about 80 percent of the traps we found so far. We have not found that one Cylon the Admiral left behind. That alone kind of confirms that they did return, at least for some time. My head EOD chief said that 40 people could set up the number of charges, that we have found in around two or three hours if they knew what they were doing."
The Captain nodded his head. "That make sense, we know that the radiation will kill them. Besides the fuel, what supplies were left behind?" The plan was set up, under the idea that the station was going to be totally stripped by the Cylons. If it was knocked out of orbit? SLiE would put a ship inside this area, and they would run operations out of it. They were already ahead of the game, with there being enough fuel to refill every ship in the rag tag fleet one more time. Then they would need to start worrying about fuel for their starships.
"We were told that a half dozen type D warheads were left behind. We have not found them, but we have found enough of the 30 and 50 mm KEWs rounds to refill the Pegasus three times over. We have a few hundred anti vipers' missiles in the C loading deck." He made a sour face. "We have found tons and tons of survival rations that say they are still good to eat, but I'm not willing to try them. We are finding stuff just thrown around. And I will not let anyone open a crate, until after someone from the EOD teams had cleared it. We have found four traps that way, on boxes saying that they were anti-radiation meds. We are still going through the station's different compartments. She is still pulling enough hydrocarbons and oxygen from the planet to run the generators, but only just. The rest are rusted crap."
As he was talking more, and brighter lights came on around them. Peter Phipps looked over at the SLiE Navy and Colonial trained Engineer. R C Davis was also looking at the new lights, he did not need to see the look to know that Captain Phipps wanted to know what had just happened. "That was quick. That should be one of those lightweight old Ford 120 fusion generators, which they had pulled from some old Thorns. That will be supplying the power for this deck, and it will be a backup if we lose main power. As soon as the artificial gravity deck plating is checked out, we can stop this damn spinning. Each of the three support decks will have its own Ford plant. The plan is to get all three online, before we put those big frakers in the old generator room."
Phipps could not help but smile as for the first-time, this area now was not in half gloom. That just showed how much the station had waisted away. "What about life support, live ability, and the jump engine?"
The engineer stopped walking and looked to the captain. "Sir, this station was never designed for long term living. The Life support is limited to air, water, and fuel to run the generators and station keeping OMS. There is a total of 6 fraking latrines and 1 emergency shower, on the whole fraking thing. We are going to need Boreas for a while longer. The jump engines are a total loss. I would bet that they used some Tugs to move her here, from whatever junk yard they found her in."
"Well Frak. I was worried about the living conditions, when it turned out that no one had a copy of the schematics. Looks like we will have to breakout the Wolverine field camp and MASH truck. I want them set up in one of the 5 airtight sections on A Deck."
A deck was the topmost of the massive rings that made up the station. It also was the closest to the docking point for major warships, and it was the one that the Battlestar Galactica had used on her one and only trip into this area. The captain looked around the area. "Well it looks like we have a lot to do, to get this fraking thing ready for its next mission."
The Engineer jump about a meter off the deck, when a leg fell through the ceiling not far from them. "I just hope that the Cylons don't come looking for us."
Captain Phipps laughed and the other man shot him a look, which showed he was worried about the senior officer's sanity. After a few seconds he stopped laughing. "I would not worry too much about them, right now. If things are even going close to the plans that I was briefed on. The Cylons are more worried about the Zug and her escorts, than an old rusty station that they booby trapped nine ways from Sunday."
Notes:
Kimberly Jay's new office. It would not take much to convince SAFE that they needed someone on Canopus. If only to keep an eye on the sudden increase in Star League grade weapons coming from that political unit.
Ragnar Station or anchorage. It looked like it was on its last legs in the show. But it would make a nice base to operate out of, as long as the Cylons think that it is still empty.