Chapter 36

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

10 Oct 3048 the second run

Ltzehoe

In a flash of energy that rushed out of one point of space, so far from the nearest star that it was invisible to the naked eye. From a jump point this star was only another point of light under the most powerful telescopes. This star was just only a little brighter than the uncounted others visible from this lonely position in the deep, cold, and so empty part of space. Only 60 seconds after the 660meter long ship appeared in this system. Now energy waves of a different type were leaving the null gravity point at the speed of light. This set of waves were meant to be picked up, but this set was on a different frequency range than the first set had been. These were meant to be picked up and "read". They also were directed to one office, in one building, on the entire life supporting planet.

Robert looked around with pride in "his" ship, as the personnel around him went about their jobs. Robert was sitting and letting his second in command and captain of this ship do his work. After a few minutes, he could not wait any longer. "Jules, have you been able to find The Egg?"

Jules walked over to the convoy commander, thanks to the Colonial supplied artificial gravity deck plating. "Yes, sir we have. They are 100,000 miles away on a heading of 36 and down 75 degrees from the docking collars. We are still waiting for a reply to our challenge. It should be here any second, now. They might have been asleep, it's not like those small craft you bought were built to detect a jumpship coming in."

Robert nodded, "Good. When traffic control contacts us? I want to launch the Lisbon Maru towards the planet. I don't fully trust the engines on the new White Rabbit, just yet. She will be staying with you. The Hobgoblin will be staying at the jump point also. Her captain messaged me, last night. He wants to run some training missions with all of their craft. I think that out here, would be the best and most secure place to do that training."

The orders were given, and Robert left to board the Mule class dropship. Jess and the others that would be going planet side, were already in their rooms on the transport. They were just waiting for Robert to board the dropship and the word to be given to release the clamps.

During the run to this stop. The White Rabbit 2 had been inspected for any more tracking devices. When none had been found on all the ships? They had looked for a second, and then a third time for any hidden spying devices every time they did a jump into an empty star system. None were found on the newest dropship in the SLDF Navy. They could not do much else in those empty star systems. So, Robert ordered that any vacant cargo space on the modified Union be filled with important cargo from the Lisbon Maru. Anything that was small enough to pass between the Mule and Tramp to the modified Union was moved by hand.

The Mule class was going to be at risk, so the items that "must" get home had quickly filled the cargo bays of the Union. Robert was planning to top off the Mule class, on this last stop. The Styx was filled to where it was just shy of it being unsafe to operate. All so that the Mule could pack in a few more tons of cargo.

Robert was in his cabin waiting for the feeling of the large dropship to start moving. He didn't have to wait long, before the thud of clamps unlocking could be felt throughout the dropship. Then the harder thud of the smaller jets pushing the massive vessel clear of the jumpship, so that the massive plasma engine would do its job and not damage any of the other ships. It would take five days for the dropship to make land fall. It would take three days for the little Mark VII landing boats to tow the "Big Egg" to close the distance to the Styx. The Styx would need two more days to finish charging the drive, after the "Big Egg" was attached to her spine.

The pair of small craft were running their engines at the maximum power setting, until they started to overheat. They were burning threw fuel a lot faster, than they should. This was not that big of a deal, because the small craft could take fuel from the 100,000ton dropship, while they let their engines cool down again. Robert was kept in the loop of the major events that had taken place behind him. It was a great learning experience for all of the crews, as they practiced what they had seen in the Bivouac system. It was done, and no one was hurt to any degree that it would affect the mission at this late stage.

When the Lisbon Maru landed at the drop port. It was given a landing site that was close to the main drop port buildings. It was a prime spot on the facility. One that should have been filled with one of the four other dropships, which had already made port call. There were a mixed of combat dropships, except for another Mule class that was already on the ground. By the look on the scorch marks on the drop port, Robert was guessing that this planet was seeing a lot more business this year compared to the last few decades.

Robert was betting that the Union was the same one, which had caught a ride, on the same jumpship that had dropped off the Behemoth in this system. As soon as the ground was cool, and the fuel transferred to top off the tanks of the dropship. A very well-known hover car was coming out to the just landed dropship. Robert was on the bridge when she was sighted heading their way. He had just enough time to get down to the personnel access ramp, before the hover car was in the shade provided by the dropship.

Duke Terry was behind the wheel and jumped out of the hover car, when she saw Robert coming out to meet her. She gave him a beaming smile that few that knew her, would have believe that she was capable of giving to anyone. Jess was only about ten steps behind Robert, coming down the access way. With one bit of information, and that was the lack of damage on the dropship? It had answered a question that Terry had been trying to work out.

She still had the smile on and planted a kiss on the commander, and after pulling a way. She made a show of looking around. "You're early! Not that I mind that you are here. I was worried when word came that there was a big attack on the main drop port on Dunianshire. Your travel plans had you listed as stopping there, before you came this way. Did something change your mind?"

Jess stopped walking mid stride, and snake quick turned to look at her commander. This was the first time, that she had heard that the travel plans Robert had filed had them going to Dunianshire. Robert could feel the look and turned to face Jess. He had made sure that only he had seen that information of his people. He had filed this in his mind under OPSEC.

"Yes. Something came up, that made me decide to change our plans at the last minute." Robert's mind went back in time.

Months earlier.

Robert was setting in the meeting room going over different ideas. He was tired of reacting to someone always making the first moves against his command. He felt it was time to have them move to his tune. With a sly smile he started writing down some notes on a notepad that would never leave his ships. Before they had landed on the planet called Canopus. He had asked Jess to track down some information for him.

Robert had not slept, but he was still fired up. "Jess you remember that MMM dropship repair crew, which was set up on one end of the main Drop port?"

Jess had no idea what he was driving at. "Yes sir? That is if you mean the light damage repair unit that was near us, I do. Why?"

Robert had a half smile on his face. "Good, you do remember them. I wanted to refresh my memory. There was a repair pit for commercial spheroid type dropships up to 12,000 tons, and next to it was a warehouse looking repair area. That one was for aerodyne and spheroid type ships and other large transports up to about 5 to 7,000 tons or more. Is that about, right?

Jess was very confused. "Yes sir, that sounds about right. I would have to get with the Cargo Master on the White Rabbit. He spent more time with them, than anyone else."

Robert was looking down at his note pad again. "Please do, and ask him if he remembers that Solaris team, they were all crazy about. On second thought also have him come by my office when he has some open time."

Jess had done as she had been asked. She digitally sent him the information, and then did not think much about it. When they had landed on the capital world of the MC. Robert had searched for a shop that he would not tell anyone about. He had made all the contacts himself and in person. It was only after they had been on the planet for a few days, that he had shown Jess something.

Robert had called Jess into the meeting room. It was late and after he had returned from a meeting that he had only took his escorts to. When she had entered the room. Robert had pushed a cheap plastic covered cloth package over to her. She quickly opened the package, to see a safety helmet with an attached safety jacket. It was very high quality and looked like they had cost a pretty c-bill to have made.

It looked exactly like the combination safety sets that the MMM used on the drop port. The only difference was a very nice screen painted logo of the Solaris team that she had told him about. She had agreed that it was the same style, that the MMM crews had worked in and the logo was the correct one. Robert had thanked her and they both had set out on the way to check on the new Union.

What she did not know, was that he had ordered 100 sets of the helmet/jackets. The logo on the back was not the only modification to the safety set. He had each of the radio trackers sown into the jackets back panel and the remainder were hidden in the removable helmets. Now that the modified safety gear was done. He made arrangements to have the items shipped off planet on the next ship making a stop at the right system.

With that done. He had sent a coded HPG message to McDonogh. In that coded message, he had lied to the head of MMM. The message said that they had been approached by a group to carry out a raid to his planet. He had told the head of MMM, that the target was going to be the dropship repair areas at the main drop port. He did not tell the head of MMM, about the trackers in the jackets he was sending under a fake name directly to those teams. He had told the head of MMM that he was faking a travel plan, because they seemed to be set on setting up his people after turning the MMM raid down. Robert passed along the window of dates, that he thought the attack might take place on the drop port. The rest they say, is history.

14 Oct 3048 the second run

Back on Ltzehoe

All of that had replayed in his head in a flash, that was only two or three seconds in the world outside of his brain. "Attack? What attack?" Robert made his face go still and he made sure he didn't look any were near Jess.

Terry could tell that something was off, not bad, but just a little off. The look that Robert was getting from Jess, who was close to him, was setting off major warning bells for the planetary Duke. She shot Robert a look and then decided to play along. "A mixed force of a Battalion size unit attacked the MMM dropship repair areas on Dunianshire. They jumped in system at a pirate point and put out three military dropships, that made a very high-speed run to the planet. The security and local defense force were ready for them, when they touched down on that section of the drop port."

Robert had his poker face on in full force. "That was lucky of them. I'm glad that I changed my mind, about making a stop there. Do you have any more of the details on what happened? Why would attackers go after that repair area? Were they trying to grab another dropship? I wonder what their objective might have been."

Terry had been very concerned, when news reached her about an attack that she thought might have been targeted on the man she had feelings for. She had a vivid memory of how she felt when she had read the HPG supplied message. She turned and slipped an arm threw the commander's arm. It was a sly move, that Robert noticed coming and let happen anyway.

"Why don't you, Jess, and your escorts come have a meal with me? I will even let you pick my brain about the attack, and on some other topics." She was using the sweet voice that made Jess fight down a grin, which tried to show on her face. She was also starting to like Duke Terry more, and Jess could tell that she really cared for her boss.

Jess turned and waved to two large "deckhands" that were standing by the hatch entrance to the large Mule Class dropship. The new pair quickly made their way down the access ramp and climbed into the back of the hover car. The task of escorting Copeland was very sought after by the crew. It allowed them to scout the best areas and restaurants on any given port. They would use this information when they were off shift or trade this information to the rest of the crewmembers.

It was not anywhere near the normal mealtimes, for the locals. Duke Terry took them to her house/command center. The meal was in a smallish dining room that Jess and Robert had shared with Terry before. While they waited for a steak and sides "dinner" to be brought out to them all. Terry started catching them up on things. She started with what limited facts that the news had broken about the attack on the MMM facilities on the main drop port.

The loss of life had been low. This was mainly because the MMM repair facility had been shut down for some reason two days before the jumpship had arrived at the pirate point. The defending units had taken a beating, but they had almost wiped out the ground attackers. The dropships had been able to pull some of the attack forces out of the ambush, but not that many made it back to the ships. The ones left behind had blown their cockpits apart or ate a bullet, instead of being put on public trial as pirates. The dropship repair areas would be down for between a month to a few months, all to do the repairs needed before the facility could be put back into operation. But it was being advertised that it could have been a lot worse.

The group stopped talking when the thick cut steaks cooked to order came through a side door that leads back to the main kitchen. Robert was not eating like he was enjoying the meal. Jess could tell that the information about the attack was bothering him. Jess already had a working idea of why the "pirates" had attacked the areas that Robert had asked about. Robert had used them as bait, or maybe decoy was a better term of what he had done to the MMM facility. Terry thought that this was a dangerous game to play with the most powerful company in the MC.

Jess was feeling bad for her commander and tried to change the subject away from the attack on the MMM Facility. "So, Duke. How are things here? Have you had any more of your own pirate attacks?" Jess was looking at the female duke, and she thought that she might have said something wrong.

Terry put her fork and knife down in mid cut and looked levelly at Jess. Then she turned to talk to Robert. "Things have not been quiet, since you left. The pair of Vulcan fighters have paid for themselves a few times over already. They are not the best at ground support attacks, but they have taken out a few fighters that seemed to have not known that we had them. They even got a few good bites out of a Leopard, which tried to make our lives hell, again. I don't think he will be back anytime soon, unless he was able to find an engine replacement. They even got a few hits on a Merchant class jumpship, but she got away before they could stop her jump."

Now it was time for Terry to change the subject to something that she wanted to talk about. "I think the people over at MMM are going to be looking at some heavier Aero fighters. I heard that their light Sabers had a problem dealing with the attacker's transports. The dropships were reported to have some upgraded weapons all over the place, and they were not afraid to use them."

Robert swallowed his latest bite of very good steak. He was not going to rise to that bait just yet. "Really, to bad I sold off the fighters I had on hand. I was able to pick up more mech parts, which might be useful to you. They should fit, and I paid for them out of my own pocket so my partners will stay out of my books."

He shot Jess a look and then gave her a wink. "I will be looking at the same trade, like we did before. I think Jess might have a few items that she might want to talk to you about."

Terry gave a tired smile. "That is good news. That brings me to something else. Thank you for getting that jumpship out here. All most all of the jumpships, we have been seeing lately, have been ComStar operated Explorer Corps vessels. I about had a heart attack, when that Behemoth separated from the jumpship. Even with the warning you sent via HPG, it was a hell of a training event for my people. I had my people make regular contact with your people on that craft, after the jumpship left. I would have loved to have been able to turn them into a training event with my fighters, but it was too far out."

Terry was smiling a little more now. "That Union that came out? Well it is picking up a huge amount of ammunition. I was able to swing buying a sweet little JVN-10 Javelin off of them, and I still have cash on hand. We also have been running a few joint training events with them. They will be picking up a ride out in a few weeks, to take them to where their contract wants them. They would not have been able to get out here, if you had not chartered the run in the first place. Are you sure you won't pick up a few tons of ammunition, before you leave?"

She had a pained smile that said she had been joking. "The spare parts will be nice. We have been having to order and pay for shipping out of the nose, for them to come out of Dunianshire. That is thanks, again to these ComStar pain in the arse."

Robert could feel the heat in the calm voice, and he delayed any comment until after a few more bites of food. With Terry now visibly calmer to her dinner guests. He told her about what they have been threw on this trip, so far. He did not gloss over the attack that had almost wiped out their fighter support. Terry was surprised that they had faced that much firepower, and they had lived to tell about it. When he told her that they thought the attackers might have been ComStar or paid for by that group. Jess had tried to keep her face plain, but she knew she failed when Duke Terry turned to face her for a few seconds while Robert was talking. The woman almost had eyes in the back of her head to have seen Jess's face.

When Robert was done telling his side of the story. He had left off his part in setting up the attack, he thought was coming and had it land on MMM Instead of his people. Duke Terry knew that he was not telling her the whole story, but that was okay with her. She was not telling him everything that she knew about a lot of different subjects.

"We have had more problems with our local ComStar neighbors. The Explorer Corps and Com Guards are okay, but the blokes running the place are a different story. I had to confine most of them to the compound and special tourist areas a few months ago. I found out they were poking around and asking the wrong types of questions to some people that support the grey market. It seems like they would like a change of the local government." Duke Terry's tone was again soft, but it was ice cold. It was like the deep of space level cold.

Jess's eyes were wide, and her mouth was moving before she knew it. "Terry! Don't trust them. If they tried once? They will try again. Can you kick them out or off the planet? If you can't get them all, can you blackball some of the troublemakers from your system?"

Duke Terry gave Jess a sad smile. "Jess, I knew that I was making a deal with the devil, when they came out. So, no. I can't kick them off planet. I still need them too much, and not just because they built the only HPG station out this far. I will take your advice and keep an eye on them." She did not say that she was already starting to make some drastic plans, just in case. She was a survivor, and she would do her best not to be caught flat footed.

This was when Robert dropped his little bombshell. "Terry? We will be staying longer on this trip. The Styx is taking care of that monster, we picked up. When they get back? We will be leaving, so we have about ten to twelve days to get things worked out. I hope you don't mind us just kind of hanging out until our ride home comes back?"

Terry put her fork down and folded her hands together and sat her chin on the level part. She was looking at Robert and was batting her eyelashes at him. She was looking sexy as frak to Robert, but he was fighting it, right up until her soft almost purring voice made it to his ear.

"So, I get to have you to myself for a whole week. I think that I would like that. If you can spend some time away from your escorts."

Jess was taking a sip of water and started choking, when Terry turned on the charm. Now she understood why some men were so drawn to the Colonial President. She might be older, but she knew how to get a man to "see" her. Jess decided she needed to step in and reinforce something that she knew, that Terry already knew. She let her voice go very formal to let Terry know, that this was something. That this was not Robert's idea, but orders coming from their higher command.

"Duke Terry. This is something that is not possible or allowed. I'm not saying you would do anything, but what if something happened while he was with you and not escorted. It is something that would get Commander Copeland legally relieved of his command, by the other Captains under his command. He would pay the final price, when we got home."

Duke Terry was first looking closer at the other woman. The tone that she had used? It was not one she had heard in a while. The tone had a slight threat and a slight twinge of fear in it at the same time. Was what she was picking up, really what was meant? Terry turned and looked at Robert, who raised one eyebrow and he gave the planetary leader a slight head nod up and down. She had just thought it was Robert, which did not want to be away from his crew on his last few visits. Now this was a lot different.

Terry was quick off the mark. "We will just have to see how I can work around that little wrinkle. The women of the MC are not known to be that shy."

Now it was Roberts turn to choke a little at the tone, and then he waved his eyebrows at her a few times in a suggestive manner of his own. This odd gesture had both women laughing. The escorts setting further down the table, had no idea what was going on. But as long as they got a good meal and there were not any threats? They just looked at each other and shrugged shoulders and went back to eating the 24 oz. steaks, on their plates. Their generation burned up a lot of calories, even on a slow day.

The week went very quickly for everyone. Some questions were asked about why the Styx had left them behind in this system. It had been by a lot of the local merchants, and other people who stood out with this type of question. Robert knew it would not take long for the information to get back to the ComStar Compound. The cover story was that the jumpship was moving the huge dropship closer to its new owner's home. It would return, and they would leapfrog along. It was not like something like this had not been done before, and it was not even that rare of an event to have to work around. The "story" was bought and passed along to all corners of the city and drop port.

Robert spent most of his off time with Terry, and they seemed to enjoy the time together. That didn't mean that he was not working on getting cargos, to top off the cargo holds on the 3,600ton dropship. The tons of mech spare parts were handed over, and other items were loaded that were bulkier than the parts had been.

Robert was not the only one working the local markets. Jess traded two salvaged Hovertech Quad systems that had come off a scrapped Bulldog tank, for literally tons of high-quality fabrics and cloth. The local Militia leader was blown away at the deal they had fallen into. Duke Terry had told them that it would have been possible, but they had not believed it. Jess did not under list the price of the missile launchers. It was just that they were so hard to come by, and the local items were quickly replaceable. She was taking a lot of stuff, but it was stuff they could replace. A Hovertech short ranged launcher did not grow on sheep like good wool did, so having a backup set was a relief for the local militia supply department.

The only stressful time had been when a Merchant class jumpship arrived in system. It was another ComStar vessel. It was not until sometime later, that traffic control found out it was working for the Explorer Corps. A Leopard launched from the ship, and the Union launched from the drop port only after the Leopard had landed about a kilometer away. That was because this jumpship had passed a message to the Union that their ride was delayed. The delay was because it had a slight helium leak on its jump engine. The Union could wait or catch a ride with them.

The Mercenary Union took the ride and burned towards the jump point. The command staff had to decide what to do. In the end, they decided to take this offered ride out system. They were not getting paid to sit around waiting past a certain amount of travel time. Past that allotted time, all of the cost would come out of the mercenary units pay.

The leopard was carrying a lance of medium mechs that had just finished a raid on a pirate band about 45 light years away. They were planning on staying for about a month on this planet and enjoy some R and R, as well as resupplying their missile boat heavy unit. It also would give them a fixed site to do any needed repairs on their mechs. The mech parts would come out of their supply stocks, but half of the techs doing the work were going to be locals.

Robert had been worried about the new unit, until Terry had said that she knew them and had worked with them before. She told him that they were packing a pair of Dervish and a Trebuchet, along with the commander manning a nicely rebuilt WHM-6R Warhammer. The fighters were a pair of 25ton Thrush fighters, which were only flying due to the amount of space tape wrapped around their outer hulls. That had been the only really stressful time for Commander Copeland and the crew of the Lisbon Maru, when the two fighters over flew the drop port before the Leo had landed.

The only other maybe issue, had been when Robert had listened into a call that had come into Duke Terry's official device. It had come from a senior Adept over at the main ComStar compound. She had at first asked, and then she had demanded. That the Com Guards should be able to put a guard point up at the drop port. With so many attacks, that they could connect directly to Robert's company. They felt that it was a good idea to have a heavy tank, like their Magi, keeping this supply company under close observation.

To most people, having a 70ton Late Star League era tank watching you would be very intimidating. Robert and his people were not in that group. They know that those large weapons were just cooling jackets on a few medium class lasers, and a pair of heavy machine guns. It just did not have that much firepower to threaten someone, even someone with a civilian cargo dropship.

When it was time to leave, Terry became very clingy to Robert. Jess was thinking that Robert had planned for this, because instead of a dawn or midnight launch that was normal. The launch was not scheduled until 10am local. Robert was on the bridge, and everyone else could see, the by now recognized hover car that was sitting beside the main drop port support building.

When the Lisbon Maru lifted off, on its red and orange color pillar of fire in the warm air. Its ride out of the solar system was not even at the jump point, yet. The dropship was over halfway to the gravity null point, and now slowing down, when the long jumpship ripped its way through space to the null point. It was right on time to pick up the Fleet commander.

Robert sent a message back to the life supporting planet, when it was still attaching to the Tramp class ship. It was a personal message from Robert to the local planetary Duke. The Styx did not break out her energy collecting sail when she settled into space, but she had pulled power from the fusion engine it had been built with. They would only be in this system just long enough for a reply to be sent back, and for Robert to receive it. All before space was ripped apart again, and the jumpship fell through the hole in the universe it had made.

The first stop was the solar system that was dead, and without planets or life of any kind. It was now called the Split system. The "Egg" with its two attached small craft started burning their engines to move the 100,000 ton ship the 300 miles to where the Jumpship had re-entered the system. While the Hobgoblin was releasing its clamps, so that the larger unpowered dropship could attach in her place. While Robert and the Maru were on the planet's surface. The Styx had been checking out and preparing her second drive for long term use.

The Hobgoblin spun up its own Colonial supplied jump engine and, in a flash, both interstellar ships were gone from the Split system. The time between the Styx arriving and the newly attached cargo ship leaving was three hours. They had a full day of traveling before they were going to take a break from the stress. It was at the agreed upon end point for that day of travel. That was when news of the after-inspection results were presented to the Convoy commander.

Robert was looking around the group, glad to be in the main meeting room of the jumpship, with its artificial gravity plates. "Okay we have a fuel leak, and we just found it. Why? And how much will this impact our trip home?"

The Head of the engineering department of the long jumpship was not comfortable. "Sir we think it might have happened after that ambush in the Xanthe III system. We got in a hurry, and the White Rabbit docked a little fast after all of the fighting. The feed lines coming from the main Tylium tank to the engine, runs very close to that docking collar. We never thought to check the fuel levels, after we shut down the system after our last use of it. The Styx had not taken any battle damage. It is on our post combat checks to check for leaks, but it is not on a daily, weekly, or monthly inspections check lists.

The jumpships chief engineer made a sour face. She knew that this was all her fault. "That oversite has been fixed and it will be checked. Right along with any other expendable on the ship at least monthly or after any of the missions' ships reports a serious incident (SiR). The leak was very small, and it vented to the outside of the hull. It did not set off our gas detectors, we set up to detect any type of leak. We are looking at a way to counter this issue. The Hobgoblin was under half full when we left Ltzehoe. We knew she was low on fuel after all of the battle damage she took. The plan was to top off her tanks when she was almost dry. She does not have enough fuel to make it home on her own. At least not with what she has left in her tanks."

Robert had his stone face on. He was kicking himself for not catching this before now. He was briefed every week on the status of everything from food to air, on all of the ships under his command. He had completely overlooked this one type of fuel.

"Okay the Hobgoblin cannot make it home with her current fuel load. Can we?"

The engineer still didn't want to look at the convoy commander or Captain Vaun. "Sir, we don't know. We are running over 85,000 tons heavier than was planned for or computer modeled for the trip back home. We had a reserve, but the Hobgoblin was going to eat into some of that to replace her leaked fuel. I can tell if we're going to be short, after we have done a few more jumps and see how much over the projected consumption line we are using."

Robert drummed his fingers. "Okay, we will stick with the plan for tomorrows jumps. What I want to know, is how many times we can do the 18-hour fast charge cycle on the K-F drives, without killing ourselves. We might need it to get back home, before we run out of air, water, or food."

Everyone knew that you can fast charge and engine, but it took a toll and should only be done if you really had to. Normally a fast charge was pulled from a fusion drive in a few hours. Spreading out the charge over 18 hours of trickle charging? That should lower the stress on the core, but it was still not good for the drive in the long run.

The next day the travel back to New Circe went just like the other trips, the change was the last jump. It did not use the Colonial built drive, but the old drive that took up a lot of the length and most of the mass of the core ship. It did not save that much of the Colonial made fuel, but it saved some. They traveled this way, as far as they could. Before the Colonial supplied fuel was almost depleted from the long ship's emergency water tanks that had been converted to a new use.

The meeting had all of the fleets ship's Captains and the XOs in the one room. Robert was looking around the room, and he schooled his features. Some might have thought that he had many choices, but he only had one. "We are down to the last ton of jump juice. We are 500 light years from safety, not home, but to the nearest checkpoint jumpship. I want the last of the Colonial fuel transferred to the Hobgoblin. This amount of fuel should get them all the way home, much less to the checkpoint ship. They will make contact with the jumpship that is supposed to be there and report our fuel issue. I will be giving the Captain of the Hobgoblin a copy of the Styx's planned route. We will not be sitting still and waiting for help, while they are gone. We will keep making our way home using our normal jump engine, just like the ships have done on the other resupply runs." Robert stopped talking and looked around the room.

Captain Jules Vaun was eye locked onto his Commander and friend. "Sir, do you think it's wise to send our only escort away?"

Robert nodded to his long-time friend. He had brought up this question, when they had been working on contingency plans in the cabins away from any crewmembers. It had taken some time, but they had worked together to have a good reply. It was the reply; he was planning on giving to his planted question. He started to slowly turn his head as he spoke.

"On the most direct path, it is 500 light years of travel. If we jumped from start to star? It is closer to 600 ly? That is almost 20 jumps, or at best case? That is five months, if not eight months to get all the way to the first checkpoint. If we are that overdue? We will have to go all the way home, and you all know the protocols. I also do not want to be out here getting closer to any Cylon Fleet, which might be out looking for us and our friends. We still have the updated weapons on the Styx and two of the dropships have weapons. I don't trust the weapons or power supply systems on the New Egg to be of any real value in case of combat."

Robert had made eye contact with each person, one time, and now was going back around the table. "Does anyone have a better idea? Please bring it forward, and I will evaluate it."

Jules joined Robert as he looked around the room. Not one person had a better idea, now that the facts had been rubbed in their noses. They were so used to covering the distances on the way home that the numbers just blended into the background.

After a few more details and updated information passed to all the ship's commanders. The meeting was over. The fuel was transferred via a hose near the access hatch to the modified dropship. It did not take long for all of the Colonial supplied fuel to be moved to the smaller ship. The colonial made fuel was very dense.

Four hours later, the Modified Leopard winked out of space. It was followed ten minutes later by the larger ship. The small carrier was not jumping as far per jump. But in two hours? It had already passed the Styx, in deep space. The Styx did not deploy her jump sail after her jump. It would not have done her any good. There were no stars nearby to collect the energy off of, to use to recharge the drive. The fusion engine was going to take the next 48 hours to charge the massive jump engine. It was going to use up the onboard fuel the jumpship had, but there were still tons of fuel on the massive Behemoth and Union that they could tap.

The Hobgoblin was not only going to have to make the jumps to the outpost ship. It was going to have to take the time to be checked and pass all of the inspections according to protocols after she got there. That would only take a day or three days, tops. Then it would be allowed to go to New Circe. Only after the HPG on the outpost/checkpoint jumpship had sent a faster than light message to alert the home system that a major issue had come up. The Leopard could not just tank up and bring fuel back to the Styx. The Leopard could do many jobs, but a tanker was not one of them.

Moving a few hundred tons of unstable fuel between the stars takes a lot of fuel all alone. It would take many small jumpships like her to carry enough fuel for the Styx to get home again, and it was not like the Styx could give them a lift after transferring the fuel. Not with full docking collars, and few tie-down points. It would take time for a ship large enough to get to the Styx, fuel her, and then make it back to the home system on their own.

The Styx had been on her own for over a week now, and she had traveled almost 100 light years since the Hobgoblin had gone her own way. She was in an empty spot in the space between the stars, but it had been exactly 30 light years from her last spot before she had come here. She was almost ready to jump again, but it still would be a handful of hours before she had a full charge on her massive drive.

There was an emergence wave that the Styx picked up and set the ship on alert. "Sir, we have a wave! It's a Cylon or Colonial drive. It's huge, well over 500,000 tons!"

Captain Vaun hit a button and alarms sounded threw all three of the attached ships. The odds were that this was a SLDF ship, to have found the Styx on the planned route. It would have been very bad luck, if they were Cylons. The Cylons like sending Raiders and their larger cousin Heavy Raiders out as scouts, and none of those craft had been seen. That didn't mean that it was a risk the command staff was going to be willing to take. Besides, it was good training for the rest of the ship's crews. Plus, you never know, it could have been Cylons.

The radar operator was working her station, just like she had been trained. "Sir, it's the Rickenbacker!"

Jules handed a twenty-league script bill to his old friend. Robert had said, from the first day after they had found out about the fuel leak. That it would be the Black Lion class ship, which would be sent out to them. What Jules had forgotten, was that the Black Lion had been the go-to ship for all other supply runs. Her massive fuel tanks and cargo space had supplied those multiple year trips many times in his clan's past. She also had the equipment to refuel a jumpship as well as dropships while still in deep space, and without needing any space port support. All she had to do was get close to the empty jumpship, which had not deployed its jump sail and run a hose over to them. It was not unlike refueling a vessel at sea.

On the screen at Robert's knee an image of a middle-aged woman came through the static of the high bandwidth image. Before she could say anything. Robert smiled and started talking. "Captain Jeannet! Good to see you again. It seems like your ride has gained a few tricks."

Captain Karin Jeannet had a comment, which she was planning on making about helping Robert after he had run out of gas on the highway. To have him jump first, had ruined her train of thought. Oh well. "Good to see you Robert. We were just finishing up some test jumps of our new jump engine, when we got the word about your dry tanks. We had a half crew and full fuel tanks, so Admiral Franks sent us out. Please disable your station keeping drives, until were done. There are a lot of people back home that are looking forward to your arrival. I understand that the draft copies of your reports have made for quite the reading, again."

Robert nodded, and Jules opened up another channel to the battlecruiser. This let Robert talk but with Jules listening in out of camera range. "So, Captain. What is this new jump engine, you are packing? They read as being Colonial or Cylon made. I thought the Colonials were out of military capital scale jump engines after the Bismarck took one?"

Captain Jeannet was sitting in her command chair, but her long hair was hanging down her shoulders. This little clue was all that Robert needed to know, that this ship had just gotten out of the yard being upgraded with a lot of Colonial tech. The woman just smiled at him over the airwaves. Technically he out ranked her, because he was a mission commander. But it would be a very dumb civilian jumpship commander who tried to order around a battlecruiser madam.

"You are right. All the big boys took all of the extra engines, which the first run Admiral Adama launched netted. What we are packing are some test engines. They were pulled out of the wrecks from the first ambush of the Cylons we worked together on. The lab coat guys were told to cough one up. We were picked to see if a recovered Basestar's jump drive could work as well as the "normal" Colonial ones with our systems."

She gave the small camera a sly grin. "As you can see? They work, and they use less fuel than the Battlestar versions. We even were able to get AG, LBXUAC's and a boat load of laser Anti-missile systems all over the place. I'm looking forward to seeing what she can due, if they ever let us go on an active mission. We have been acting as a test ship and training ship for too long. The lack of trained space crews have me sitting around, as they take my people to fill out other slots."

Robert could hear the pride beaming threw the intervening miles of empty space. "That is good news Captain Jeannet. I'm glad those drives look to be working out. Having five fully upgraded capital warships would make anyone think twice about paying us a surprise visit."

He did not have to say that her ship was the fifth most powerful ship in the fleet. That was a big drop from her spot at number three, just five years ago. You did not want to make a Battlecruiser mad at you, if you were just a merchant ship. So, he held his tongue about anything that might be taken as a criticism of her newly modified command.

Captain Jeannet was listening, but then her eyes narrowed some and her voice went very light and good natured. That was a sure warning sign that she was about to let her personality out of the box without a leash. "So, Robert. Is that a bump sticking out of your little jumpship? Or are you just glad to see me, Query Negative?"

Jules snorted, and it was picked up on the microphone. Robert had to fight to keep his face still, and he was very glad he was on a private line. "Now Captain? You're a married woman. How many grandkids do you have now, a few dozen? It's not that we are not glad to see you, but you're not the Styx's type. That bump, as you called it, is a Behemoth Class dropship." Robert had been dealing with this woman for more than a few decades, and he knew how to handle her. Most of the time, he could even do so without making her mad. But only, most of the time.

Now it was the turn of the other Captain to snort loudly. The screen pulled back and now the convoy mission commander could see the "ship's shirt" on the other officer. There were very few people who were authorized to wear something that said. "I went to Merope and all I got was this lousy T-shirt", while on duty or this close to the Inner Sphere.

"Robert that was a low blow, even for you. You know better than to bring up grandkids, to a woman of my age. So that is what they have been talking about. It is one big Fraker. I can see why you ran out of jump juice. You are carrying something that masses more than a Scout class jumpship. Were you able to fill it up with goodies before you came back?"

Robert knew the last question was going to come up. "No. We did not have the time, and carrying three other dropships? That would have made it hard to do, and still keep our cover story. Don't look at it to closely, the engines are not functional. Maybe some lab coat kids can figure out how to fix them. I was just told to look for a large dropship. I have found one. Now we will see if it fits with what they were looking for, or not." Robert gave a slight shrug on the screen. It was only slight because he was in zero g. They had cut power to the AG plates to save energy and fuel needed to jump the ship across the stars.

While they had been talking the two ships had closed together, and automatic fuel lines had snaked out of the huge warship into the side of the cargo jumpship. Soon refined tylium was flowing into the empty tanks of the Styx. It would not take long, only a few hours. It was just long enough to fill the Styx's empty fuel tanks of the unique fuel. It would be enough to get them home with a safety margin required by well-meaning regulations.

Before the Tramp class was allowed to jump out of this system. The Battlecruiser took care of all the inspections, which would have been carried out at the outer check point before coming to stop at the L1 point at New Circe. That would have been a waste of time, and as the other ship commander has said. There were a lot of people who were waiting on them.

Rickenbacker did not make it back to New Circe with the Styx. It turned out that the modified recovered battle damaged Cylon jump engine was not ready for prime time. While they were still 4 jumps from home, half of the master cautions lights had gone off on the engine. She was going to need her own mission launched to help get her back to New Circe. Her captain was not a happy woman to need this help. The engineers were not happy that a ready source of capital sized jump engines was not going to pan out just yet.

Notes:

Plot issue. It sucks when you roll a natural 20 for a catastrophic issue on your jumpship. Yes, I use dice rolls to help my story along. It helps with the writer's block, and it keeps the writing and story as much a surprise to me as it is to you.

Black Lion support. It took over a year for the other fleets to make it from New Circe to the Inner Sphere. How would you get fuel and water over to the rest of the jumpship fleet? Why not a super-sized version of a KC-10? Not every ship's captain would have been briefed on how or what the Styx was trading in the Inner Sphere.

Leapfrogging dropships. The Inner Sphere is short jumpships. This might be a way for them to move extra dropships when you did not have enough jumpships.