Copeland Supply, Salvage, and Resale

by cliff.west

This is a spinoff story. It takes place after "But a somehow a most melancholy" and" Hunted Tribes". Please read those before this bit of work. I will not be recovering those stories, but re-reading them will help you fallow this story. This fiction also will be slow on the combat action.

39. Chapter 39 22 Jan 3049

Chapter 39

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

22 Jan 3049 Zephyr's run

New Circe

Colonel Felix Gaeta looked around his command with pride. There was a meeting going on at one end of the command center, that was made up of mid-level parts of his CIC staff. The newest modification to this ship had been the additions of the 7th and 8th drop collar. That hadn't worked out as well as hoped, after they had been first installed on the Colonial made ship. They had just failed the last round of testing, and his crews were finishing up the required repairs those tests had caused. All of the collars were spread out forward of the great spinning living area ring and going towards the pointed nose of the ship. Those two drop collars would have to be fixed and fully operational, before they started their next mission. They were not planning to be used, but they needed to be operational. A jumpship with a quarter of its capacity offline, would draw a lot of attention. It would be kind of like being seen with an arm in a cast, while you walked down the street. It is just something that is noticed, and more importantly remembered.

Felix was proud, and at the same time worried about the upcoming mission. He had been pulled into a meeting with both "The President" and "The Admiral" four days ago. It had been such a short notice meeting, that they had sent a Raptor to bring him down for it. That was when he had been told that he had been rented out to the SLDF Navy, again. He would be in command of the ship, but the overall mission was under the SLDF Navy command. As he watched on a screen mounted high over the center of his command center. The "Mission Commander" and her staff were arriving on his ship, with her own ship. He watched them successfully dock to one of the open collars as smooth as glass, and Felix could not help but be impressed with how smoothly the small ship had attached to his craft.

They were being carried by what the locals called a K1 class drop shuttle. The small ship was attached between a Lion and an Elephant class dropship. On the other side of his ship, were another Lion and a Cargo King type dropship. The last dropship had been found by one of the SLDF ships many years ago. It had been dead in space, in the Kesai system. It was a lot of firepower to be carrying around by a civilian "jumpship". That was not all of the assigned lift, which was supported by 400 additional crew and support staff living in the habitat ring. Only about a third of the total population on this mission were from the Colonial City State. He wished it was a higher number, but so few had passed "The Protocol" tests that it was impossible. Still only about a dozen Colonials on this ship had passed all those very painful tests.

Felix was lost in thought, when the hatch to the Bridge slides open. Felix looked up and saw the mission commander enter the command center. "Admiral Xi. Nice to see you, again. You are the last ship, and according to my orders. This is the time that you will be briefing me on our mission statement and detailed orders."

Felix's back was ramrod straight, as he spoke very formally to his mission commander. Felix pointed to a small room off to one side of the very public CIC. Xi just nodded her head and started to walk to the side room.

When the metal door was closed behind the pair, Xi turned to look at the ship's commander. "Colonel Gaeta. We are going to the Inner Sphere. The first part of the mission is to take me to the Duniashire system. We are to try to work out a treaty, details that are only cleared to your senior political leadership and mine. When I am done, we will move on to Cate's Hold. At a certain time, you will take me to rendezvous with a SLDF Navy escort. Then you will take your ship back to Cate's Hold and stay at the jump point of that system. When the mission to Cate's Hold is done, as dictated by the landing force commander? You will collect your dropships, and then you will take a least time course back to New Circe." She passed over a data pad that had classification markers slapped on all of the sides. This device would have a more complete and detailed set of orders, with signature blocks filled out to prove that the orders were valid.

Felix was just looking at the woman, after taking the offered data pad from her offered hand. He had known some of this information from the private meeting with The Admiral and The President. "Thank you, Admiral Xi, but I thought that Colonial ships were not allowed that close to the Inner Sphere. It has something to do with the risk of the discovery of our type of jump drive."

Admiral Xi smiled at the dusky skin man. "Yes Colonel, but that rule is being put on hold. It was after all of the testing of your ship and the modified mobile HPG, which you started carrying a few months ago. We have worked out a way to just have the HPG send an energy wave to the next system, at a set time before you jump in. To anyone watching and with "normal" systems that can detect an E-wave. It should look like your ship has made a short jump of between one and ten light years. To mitigate the risks, we will only be going to those two inhabited systems I have told you about. All other jump points will be to open space and not near a star. We will not even be stopping by systems that we know are devoid of life on this trip."

Felix nodded his head in understanding. This explained some of the test that his ship had been doing for the last six months, between missions to recover high tech trash in the local area. "I wish that I had been brought into the loop, about the reasons for those tests." Felix did not notice, but his hand drops to his new leg and started to lightly scratch it.

Xi had a tight lip look. She had been in Felix's shoes before, and she had hated being kept in the dark about the reason for a given seemingly useless mission. "That was not my call Colonel. Your ship also has the latest modification of your current jump drives, with the most updated computer support for it. I can tell you, that after this mission. Your ship will be going back into a deep repair cycle. What the big brains will learn on this trip, will take us one step closer to what they have been calling "Super Jump" technology over the last few years. That is, if we do not have any major engineering issues of any kind. Are we ready to go? Query Affirmative?" Xi felt like it was time to remind the ship's commander that she was in charge of this mission, and not him.

Felix felt his spine get a little straighter, at the command tone she had used on him. "We are ready to leave, whenever you give the orders ma'am. Our updated computers will let us make the trip pretty quickly. All I need is the course, and we are on our way."

They did not leave this system that soon. The K1C had not held that many people, and they would not be staying on the clan made craft, while they made the move from New Circe. They all would have rooms on the great ring, which spun around the needle like main body of the ship. Then they had to wait for the star system's Traffic Control to clear them. It would not be good for anyone to have a jump field interfere with a ship that was coming in, and Traffic Control ran a very tight ship. On the way back? They would get an entry point and time from the "outpost" ships, for them to arrive at a "Parking Spot". If they missed one of the "outpost" ships. They would have to use one of the "normal" jump points in this star system. Three hours after Admiral Xi and the select members of her staff had attached to the oddly shaped Colonial ship, it disappeared from the New Circe system.

The Zephyr was not the Styx. This massive ship was using the engine that her builders had intended for her to use. She was able to make the trip extremely fast, and it was only a 3-week trip for the newer ship. The data for the end jump locations had been pulled from past resupply missions, and the massive amount of data that Copland had gathered on his trips back and forth. Also, they did not have to stay near a star to provide power and to allow the engines to cool down. The ship also did not take any "dog legs" between its two main ports. The path had been plotted out to be as straight as possible, between New Circe and Duniashire.

Helios Beta

Henry "HH" Hewitt rubbed the stubble growing on his face and looked in the mirror. He was seeing too much white in it, for a man who was only 32. War has a way of ageing a person faster than any other time. He had been the youngest special mission ship's commander for Colonial Intelligence. CI commanded very few "warships" and those ships were a very closely held secret. Even Hewitt did not know how many warships belonged to CI before the Cylons had attacked.

His girl was an Orion class Pocket Battlestar that was listed as being scrapped not long after the end of the first Cylon War. She had been flying under the name of Ogygia for the last decade, as far as HH knew. After undergoing her last modification cycle, she could pack a 20 Viper squadron and 6 Raptors for long term missions. She still packed a dozen primary guns that had been pulled from some Jupiter class gun turrets to replace her old worn out weapons. Her six pack of missiles silos were taken from the Valkyrie class of Battlestar. She also had the latest in spying and observation technology that the Colonial Intelligence agency could buy.

HH snorted, as he thought about his ship. Even with all of that technology, she had not seen the Cylons coming before the mushroom clouds were rising over Colonial cities. She had been hunting pirates around galactic north of Helios Gamma for eight months, before the Cylons came knocking. By the time that she knew about the attack, it was already over. HH had try to do what he could, but there was only so much that his one ship could do. As a twist of fate, the criminals she had been hunting ever since the 1st Cylon war had ended, had turned into her only allies.

HH had been able to keep his ship fighting, if only by a gray hair of his chinny chin, chin. She still had 150 people living in the ship, but "only" 60 had been left of her original crew. They had to convert a crew bunk room into a nursery and school a few months ago. He still had 20 Vipers in his launch tubes. Just now they were a mix of Mk Vii, and Vs, but only 6 could fly, in an emergency. The rest needed parts that had been taken off to keep the others flying.

The same was true of her 6 Raptors, now only 2 of them were able to fly and he was short missiles and decoys for those two. Fuel had also been a recurring issue, but thanks to her "pirate" contacts. She had been able to keep mostly full tanks after a few very close calls. That is until the Cylons found that one group while they were off loading fuel from a wreck, and they had been wiped out by the patrolling Basestar. Luckily that had only been a few months ago, so fuel was not that much of an issue right now. That was thanks to lessons learned over the last few years.

As HH pulled his last razor over his grey and black stubble, his eyes were drawn to movement behind him. He gave a smile as his "wife" and ship's nurse left his cabin, to get ready to start her day. She was a replacement, which had been working for a pirate/smuggling group he had been tracking before the Cylon attack. She was the replacement for the ship's new ships medical officer, who turned out to be a Number 4 Cylon. He had blown that Cylon out an airlock. HH had been lucky, and that he had not trusted the new crewmember. CI crews took a long time to trust "new" crewmembers, and not one person on his ship had "known" the new saw bones. When he had tried to upload CNP software onto his ship's main computers. He had been put in one of the extensive brig/interrogation rooms, that the ship had been fitted with years ago.

HH had kept the saboteur alive, even under the threat of mutiny after they had found out about the Cylon attacks. CI had a lot of tricks on getting information from an unwilling person, without killing them. It had proven a gold mine of information, and they had found out that it was not a human traitor but a human form Cylon. When they had stopped the third suicide attempt, of the self-number 4. HH had decided that they had gotten all they could from the human form Cylon. HH had called a full staff meeting, and after a few hours. It was decided that the Cylon had no idea where they were, or what they had been doing for the last few months.

It took three days to get everything ready for them to "kill" the Cylon. They used a little stage craft to make the Cylon think that the Ogygia was breaking up. The crew had a great time setting up the little game, and it was a major boost to morale. The Cylon had not enjoyed getting blown out an airlock, but the crew had a great time. They thought that the little "fire" air mask might have added 3 or maybe 4 minutes to the Number 4's life before he "died".

They had been gathering data about what the Cylons were doing, and occasionally they would pop the stray Cylon Raider, Heavy Raider, and the random Transport that got to close to them. But all of that combat and time without seeing a shipyard was wearing them out. He had no idea how much longer; he would be able to keep this crap up.

Hewitt entered the command center of his ship about half an hour before he was "scheduled" to start his shift. Sometimes he would arrive an hour early or a few hours early. Now that he had "a wife". He had started to at least stay off of the bridge for half a day. He looked around to the few stations around him. "Okay anything happened while I was getting some sleep."

Morton Deyo made a snort. "If you were just getting some sleep, I'm a cannon round." Morton's cabin shared a wall with HH, and it was a thin wall.

HH could only give a twinkle eyed smile back to his XO. He didn't say anything for a few seconds and then he tilted his head. He wanted an answer to his question, and the time was over for playing games.

Deyo used his chin to point to one of the high mounted screens. "We picked up a spike in Cylon band transmissions out by Troy. We are too far out to pick up anything definite, but we picked up some heavy weapons fire, including a single major nuclear detonation. Things have been quiet for a few hours now."

HH had heard a briefing like this a few dozen times, since the war had started. "Do you think it is more of those Cylon on Cylon attacks? Or do you think that they drop one of the Gods firecrackers on some of our people?" He had no idea why the Cylons had started killing each other, and he did not care. If the Cylons were killing other Cylons? That was just fewer Cylons killing his people.

Deyo gave a shoulder shrug that was the only answer he could give. HH was looking at the data, and then he looked over to his ship's fuel state. "XO plot a stealth approach to Troy. We might as well see what the Frak is going on."

Two days later Planet Troy.

HH was looking at the data coming in. They had spent the last 36 hours making micro jumps towards this planet. At the close of the first day of traveling, they had sent a Raptor to get a closer look at the planet. When all of the data came back, and they could see the orbital wreckage. They had started making faster micro jumps toward the battle site, but always on the lookout for any Cylons that might be lying in wait to kill them.

Now that they were in orbit over the planet, they could see what had happened to the surface below them. Both of his Raptors had launched to see what they could find on two different parts of some Cylon Freighters floating near the warship. All HH could tell was that the area around a place called Hades 1, was nothing but a lava lake that was supplying no less than 4 major rivers and a dozen smaller red, orange, and black streams running away from the fire lake. A massive dust cloud was spreading out from the Lava Lake and half a dozen other major volcanos in the nearby area. HH ordered the remaining Vipers to scan the area around the planet. He wanted to collect as much data as they could. But for the life of him, he had no idea what had happened.

When the second Cylon scout had popped in, and it had taken too long to shoot it down. HH ordered all of his craft to return. Most had been collecting data, but his Raptors had been collecting supplies from the wrecked transports. They needed to leave this area, before more Cylons showed up. A few Raiders and Heavy Raiders, he could handle. A Basestar was not on the list of Cylon units that he thought that he could take care of and lived to tell about it.

Early the next day, HH looked around the room that had been turned into a private meeting room by his crew. "Okay what do we know, what do we think, and what is a wild Fraking guess."

Deyo looked at his boss. "Someone from the Colonial military launched some kind of attack on Troy, and they targeted Hades 1 for special attention. We recovered a nose and tail from two different Vipers. Both were Mk VIIs, but they were not built in any planet under the Colonial Flag. We think they might have been made on a Mercury class Battlestar, but we are not sure. We also recovered a part of a Raptor, which we think is a Cylon copy and not built in Colonial space. We looked for other parts of the Raptor, but we only found the one wing."

HH looked to the head of his supply department. He had been a pirate before the war, but he could work magic when it came to getting supplies of any kind. "We recovered 4 transport modules from what remains of over twenty transports. Some of the weapons damage looks to be KEWs and missiles." John didn't say anything for a second. "We also have seen damage, which looks to have been explosively melted."

HH could see the group start to get their feet back under them. "Well, Colonial military? Where have they been? Why have they waited until now to attack? And why did they go after Troy? Why not one of the major planets?"

Deyo locked eyes with his boss. "Maybe they have just started attacking major outposts. We had that issue over Caprica, and a few other planets that we found a couple of years ago. We also have been getting the odd reports about wrecked Cylon ships in places that no Colonial had been. We have been thinking that it was all caused by Cylons killing Cylons. What if it was not the case? Maybe we are not alone."

HH knew what his XO was going to say, just like the XO knew what HH was going to say. "If they are Colonial? Where have they been hiding all of this time?"

Deyo took a deep breath. "Ragnar?" That started the whole room to go crazy. This was not the first time Ragnar had been brought up.

The Ogygia had picked up the message from Adama, but by the time they had been able to get to Ragnar. They had not been able to get that close to the gas giant. The area was covered by over a dozen Basestars and Raiders thick enough to walk around the planet. Some of the capital ships had visibly been damaged. They also had detected the remains of Viper MK VIIs and some older MK IIs, of all things floating out from this planet. They had been back to that planet every few weeks, for the first year. They had been able to recover some Viper parts, before HH decided it was too much of a risk to keep stopping by.

Henry nodded his head. "Ragnar. I think it's time to pay that Fraking place a visit, again. We will continue as planned. But when we reach our planned end, we will just add one more jump. When we do? I want all of the kids on the two Raptors. If one of those two birds go down, I want to know about it right the Frak then. I should use one of them to do our scouting, but with the Create group gone. I don't have a group that I would trust with our kids."

Ragnar tunnel.

The Raptor was keeping an eye out, while staying hidden within the safe part of the gas giant. They had been on shift for almost 5 hours, and they had 3 more to do before they would be relieved in this hiding position. They were supposed to be working on a scan satellite to do this kind of work, but getting the data back to the Anchorage was causing an issue. Right now, the only way to do that, was to lay a few thousand miles of fiber optics lines between the two locations. That was out of the question, and borderline crazy.

The pilot hoped that they would find away, somehow. Because this task was so boring, that it was a risk that scout crews would lose their edge. There was talk about reducing the scout missions for only 4 hours on station. That was going to be an issue, all by itself. It was a two-hour trip down the tunnel each way. That was going to be an issue with the limited number of Raptors and crews. After the Battle of Troy. It was decided that not having a scout posted was too much of a risk for the Anchorage. That was why the Pilot and EO were out and exposed to any Cylons that might be around. So, they sat behind the first sharp corner of the tunnel. A great pillar of lightening encrusted cloud was between the Raptor and the "opening" of the tunnel.

The pilot about jumped out of her skin almost between eye blinks. A rounded nose of a ship started to come into the tunnel. "Holy Frak. Foot! Wake THE Frak up.! Why didn't you tell me something was coming?"

Foot was sitting up wide eyed. "My scopes are clear. Wait, I'm getting something! But it's not clear!"

HH was almost on his toes as he walked around his command center. He made eye contact with his XO and walked over. In a low voice, almost thinking that the enemy might hear them threw the hull of his ship. The XO of the ship started to speak. "Behind that gas pillar off our nose, is a Raptor. She's playing hard to get, but she is there. They might be getting a sniff of us through our stealth at this range. Ragnar is fraking with our systems like you would not be leave."

HH nodded and thought for a few minutes. His ship was barely moving as they entered the narrow lane. His computers didn't have the path, they only had the information that there was a "tunnel" to get to Ragnar Anchorage. He reached down and picked up a mic. "Raptor off my bow. This is Ogygia actual. Come on out, or I will blow you Frakers away." When HH put the mic away, he was met by wide eyes and open mouths. He had just blown their cover, and that was something that CI didn't just do in the field.

When the rest of the command center got back to their systems, they saw the small form of a Colonial Raptor come fully exposed to the pocket Battlestar. It was a tense few minutes, as the warship and the scout ship worked out if one of them was a version of the Olympic Carrier. By now the Anchorage and SLiE knew how long it would take for "signs" of problems to start on human forms in this place. The Raptor could not keep the Orion class ship there that long, but it could drag out the total length of time it was in the tunnel.

The Raptor was able to retreat down the tunnel, and it had suggested that the warship should stay in place until its return. After the small craft was gone from sensor range. HH ordered his ship to advance down the tunnel, but at minimum speed. He was not going to let his ship be a sitting target, if this turned into a trap. At this now current speed. It would take four hours to clear the tunnel, only he did not know this.

HH was not surprised, when two hours later he was met in the tunnel by 8 armed Raptors. What he was surprised by, was that 2 of the Raptors were old 1st war versions of that venerable design. 7 of the Raptors took up covering positions near the larger warship, and one of them advised the warship to increase speed to what was almost triple his current rate. The 8th Raptor returned deeper into the tunnel, to take up a hiding position near the mouth.

Colonel Bellamy was watching the war weary warship slowly come out of the tunnel. Charles looked over to his staff. "If their weapons power up? Blow them out of the sky. The Raptors are not to wait. Also have two more of the Raptors check behind them. Let's make sure that they are alone. I think this is a time to trust but verify."

The warship was now more visible, and Charles could see the battle damage to parts of the ship. By now, he could even tell that her sub-light engines were running too hot for this thrust rating. He was betting that was not the only major system that needed some attention.

HH was cool as ice as he stalks the CIC of his command. He could see the weapons on the Raptors. He about ordered his ship to leave, when two of the Raptors had peeled off and headed back down the tunnel. Only his training had stopped him from making a major course change. A voice from behind him brought him back.

"Sir! We are being told to dock at the main docking port. They also repeated the demand about not launching vipers, raptors, or activating weapons. This time they added that we are to report, if we have anyone in sickbay."

Henry looked over to Morton, who only gave him his own blank look. "Okay, do we have anyone in medical?"

The station that handles battle damage, also had a direct link to the medical department. "Sir, they report that the new guy assigned to Number 22 CIWS, has reported to medical about ten minutes ago. He looks to have some kind of bug."

HH gave a chin wave to a person standing next to a metal hatch between his bridge and the rest of the warship. Soon an armored guard would be standing in the medical department. HH and his staff had worked out some plans, after they had found out about the human form Cylons.

HH waited and watched, and he was impressed with what he saw. The file image of the Anchorage had held two main image types. One was from the 1st war, and the ones taken later. The later images showed a wreck of a station. He could tell that someone or group had invested some resources into improving this place, and that was not the Cylon way of doing things.

When the Ogygia docked to the "North Pole", HH was in the air lock waiting. He looked at a screen, which was being fed by a very non-military video camera mounted on the other end. He could clearly see four armed guards, and they were not human form Cylons, they were too large. He knew that his XO was standing on the bridge with his finger on a detonator, which would cut the airlock from the ship and fill this part of the station with flying high-speed metal.

When HH exited the craft, he could see the guards relax at seeing him. A tall and very fit woman stepped forward in spoke in an oddly accented Caprican. "Good, you are not a Cylon. It would have been a shame, to blow your ship apart. The station commander will see you. Do you have a copy of your logs, Captain?"

HH was not in a military uniform of any kind. CI didn't go into that before the new war, and now he just did not have time for things like that. He gave a nod and made a little show of moving his hand away from his hip mounted pistol. He then tapped a cut cornered book in his non-firing hand. He fell into step behind the tall woman. As he past the standing guards, he noticed that they were big and wide enough to be pro sports stars he remembered seeing on the entertainment shows.

They exited the access point into a main loading, storage, and sorting area of this large deck. As they walked, he could tell that there were a lot of people working on the hull. He could see that the old images had been true. This station had been a wreck, but they were trying to fix that, and they were working very hard. He could see a short pile of half a dozen different diameter pipes in the general area along with boxes of fittings.

They made a short turn, and the tall woman knocked hard on a hatch that looked like it had been freshly painted. HH was shocked when he stepped into the room. He would have expected that the Commander's office would be deeper in the station. Then again, he knew that this was designed to be an unmanned station after the 1st Cylon war.

Colonel Charles Bellamy looked up from his paperwork. "Good to finely put a face to your voice, Mr. Hewitt. I'm Colonel Bellamy and I'm in charge of this part of our operation. Before we dig too deep into feeling each other out. Did anyone report to your med bay after you entered Ragnar atmosphere?"

CI trained people had to be fast on their feet, or they would never had made it out of basic training much less advanced training for their first assignment. "I don't know why that is a concern to you, but yes one person reported to my med bay with flu like symptoms."

Charles reached over and pushed a button on a thin data pad, and then looked over to the "captain". "Do you know why the Colonial military put this anchorage here?"

HH could not help but be taken aback. "I assumed that it was because it was hard as Frak to get here, and that DRADIS is about fraking useless after a few dozen meters."

Charles gave a small smile and put his hands down on his desk, and locked eyes with the other man. "Well, you're right on two counts. I would have thought the same thing. I did my time in the Navy, but I was working on a civilian ship when the war started. Admiral Adama told us, that towards the end of the first war. They found out that there was something about Ragnar that hurts Cylons. Do you know that the Cylons can look human?"

HH's mind was reeling. Admiral Adama? So, they have at least one Battlestar, and maybe more. "Yes, we found one not long after the war started. We caught him trying to upload corrupted software into the controlling computers on my ship. We also know that they can download into new bodies, so it's hard to kill them."

Charles was surprised, but then again, he thought that this ship was from Colonial Intelligence. He suspected that they did not give out commands of a vessel this size to just anyone. "Do any of these faces look familiar?" Charles passes over a second data pad.

HH took the device and as he flipped through images. He was looking at the images closely, but he also was amazed at how fast the little device worked. He thought that this was a few generations ahead of the top of the line devices his command had been testing. Then he stopped at an image labeled Number 5. "This is the one in med bay."

Charles took the device and looked at the image and made a face. "I would like my people to take care of this. We know a few things about how to handle them, without letting them escape with information that they could use against us."

HH pulled out a little radio from his inside jacket pocket. "46/2/87. Morton, a security team is going to enter the ship and take a person out of medical. He is one of them."

Four hours later.

Charles was letting the other man eat a few bites before he interrupted, to continue the interview. "That is a Fraking story Captain Hewitt."

HH let his fork drop to his plate. "Your one to talk Colonel, and I still know your leaving out a lot. I will just leave it, that you found some help on a planet not on our charts. And this is going to be a support base for recon into this area of space."

Charles gave a curt head nod. "That will work. And you have not said so, but you're Colonial Intelligence. As soon as I can get word back to the old man. I will see about making sure you're officially moved over to the Colonial Navy with rank to match, and the same will go for your crew. Now what can I do, to help your mission and mine?"

HH had to smile, after the second hour of the meeting. He had let Deyo know, that the Anchorage was going to send a Raptor out to "the spot" and guide the Raptors with the kids back to home base. "Well we need fresh food for a start."

Charles could not help but snort. "We are awhile away from having any hydroponics to produce our first batch of fresh food. We are living on ration packs, and some of them are a little strange. If all else fails, we have a few years' worth of ration meals that the stamps say are still good."

HH let his face fall, and his eyes got a haunted look. "After what I have seen. Ration bars are good as gold. I have seen people eat their clothes, due to hunger. If you don't Fraking want them? I will take every brick off of your hands. I know a few groups that could use them. How about a shipyard for my ship? What about ammunition, fuel, and things like that?"

Charles now smiled and put down his glass of fruit juice. He had "let" the ship's crew cycle off and stop by the Star League MASH. While they were going through a detailed check out. The Star League field kitchen was fired up for a few hours. Each person got vitamin shots, and as much food as the medical team would let them eat. They even were given a "Brown Bag lunch" to take back with them to the ship.

"A shipyard is out of the question, Captain. I do have some trained people, but mostly they will just be eager hands. We also don't have any parts for an Orion class warship. We can help get your Vipers and Raptors put back into working order, and fuel is not a problem. We will make sure you have full tanks by the end of this shift. Ammunition might be an issue. We can send over a couple of pallets with a dozen Lightening-Javelins on each one. We can do the same with 30mm and 50mm KEWs. I don't know if we have cannon rounds that will fit your primary guns. And I know that we don't have any Nike-Hercules missiles for your launchers." Charles was looking at the data file he had pulled up for an Orion class warship fighting in the 1st war.

HH felt his mouth drop open, before he could stop it. What the civilian turned Colonel had just offered up was something out of a dream. Fuel and food would have been worth his right eye and almost his first born. "That would be great! And cannon rounds are something we can get from someone else. They are old Jupiter Battlestar guns. Some of the groups out there make their own ammo for their own defensive weapons, which share the same pedigree. We could not use Nike-Hercules, even if you had them. Now if you have some Nike-Ajax for a Valkyrie. Then we can talk some business. I also know of a group that took out a Basestar not to long ago, but it ran them dry on that type of missile."

Charles let a smile go to his eyes. "It is a funny thing, about that. I might be able to send over a dozen Nike-Ajax. We don't have nuclear warheads for any of them, but I do have a few Ajax's that I'm not going to be able to use right now."

Two weeks later

HH looked at a newly installed monitor on his command deck, it was one of the many new or fixed stations all around his ship. He was watching as the grey/blue hell world dropped away from them. The last two weeks had been amazing. He knew it was all in his mind, but he felt cleaner. His ship smelled cleaner, and it somehow felt more alive. He had a crew back to 150 full time members, but some would still need some training. They had been POW's only a few months before. He had left any children that did not need to be nursed back on the anchorage. They were all back to being in the "real" military. They had a timeline they were to keep, and no more just floating out in the deep of space waiting to die. They had a mission that depended on them.

In a month, they would be back or dead. But the kids needed schools, and the anchorage was better set up for that kind of thing. His ship still could use some dock yard time, but she had a full set of armor and weapons again. She was packing a full set of operational Vipers VII and V, and all 6 of her Raptors were good to go. He had traded one of the newer Raptors for an older one that held a tail gun. That would be a surprise next time a Raider got on their tails. His ship had a full load of "freshish' food and 3 tons of just post-war ration packs. The later were going to be traded, along with some of the Nike-Ajax. He had 6 in his silos and another dozen in the magazine. Deyo thought that they could trade four for a full magazine of cannon rounds and maybe some Intel.

The Ogygia was back on mission of espionage and reconnaissance. She also just might bring the fight back to the Cylons, in a few ways that were not in the CI handbook. One thing was for sure, she was going to start making things painful for the Cylons. And now she might not have to do it alone or by playing by many rules. He had a smile on his face, and he looked over at his now real wife as she patted his hand. She knew what he was thinking, and she agreed with him. They still might be hiding, but they were not out of this war.

15 Feb 3049 Zephyr's run

Duniashire system

Working in the Traffic Control of the systems only Olympus class recharging station, was not an easy job. As the operator worked his system, an attention signal sounded off in his ears. The operator took a few seconds to review the data, which was starting to come in from a new source. It was just another day at the jump point.

"Officer of the day. We have another emergence wave. It looks to be a small one. Maybe, 90 to 120 seconds out?" Now his voice went up a few notches, as part of his brain processes more of the information. "It does not match any reference files."

The officer of the deck today, was Captain Lisa Rumbels. This was a job given out as a "reward" for her actions against the last pirate attack. She was going to have to be out here for another 6 months. Now, after that? She would have her command back. The latest rumor had it, that her unit's light fighters were going to be replaced with heavier units coming out of the FWL. To say that she was not ready or wanted to take a shift at the systems main interstellar Traffic Control, that was an understatement of a lifetime. That did not mean, that she didn't try to do the best job that she was capable of doing. Soft shoeing was not in her nature, she was more of a take the bone in her teeth and push through type person.

Lisa checked the readouts and then looked at the schedule. They did not match. "Send the notice to the CAP and fire up the main Radar."

The Radar energy was leaving the great station, just as a ship came into this system. The energy waves came back to the million-ton station, at the speed of light. That was when things changed, and Lisa was the first person to notice something was off. All of the old hands were waiting for their systems to tell them what to do next. They had been doing this job for years, and they had fallen into a set pattern of how they did things. This also was the second most traveled to system in all of the MC. What could be new? Lisa had known from recent experience what could be new.

"Good God! Tracking flush everything! Look at the size of that monster!" She was yelling, and that got everyone in the room moving at the quick time.

Communication kicked in first as they realized that their boss was upset. "Sending standard greeting and request for information."

The man running the radar interrupted. "Getting secondary returns on main receiver. She is 4000 feet long. There is a structure on one end of the ship. It's reading over 1200 feet going around the main hull, and its turning like a grav deck. What the hell kind of ship is this?"

Just as the alert fighters were about to leave their bays. The CAP's fighters were starting to angle to see what had just paid a visit to their home system. Having a ship that was a third longer than the massively long Monolith stop by to say high, had kicked the alert button of the station. The alert fighters had no problem picking up the massive ship on their active systems, as soon as they were pointed in the right direction.

The communications station's operator slumped in her chair, but she didn't unstrap in Zero g. "We have a reply from the target. They are calling themselves the long-ranged merchant vessel Zephyr. They claim Outer Worlds Alliance registry, and they would like to launch one ship towards the planet so that they can conduct some business."

Lisa felt her own shoulders relax. "Okay, she is just another trash hauler. With all of the housekeeping stuff you are going to be sending, ask what class of ship she is. Keep the current CAP close to her, for now, and turn over the alert birds back to their commander."

Felix turned and looked at the mission commander, and he raised an eyebrow. He had been expecting… something different. So far things had broken just as both of them had been briefed, and what he had read in the reports that had come from Copeland's runs. If he had been over on that station? He would have gone to a full war footing and launched everything with a weapon, and he would have put marines on a ship type that they had never seen before. Admiral Xi just looked at him, kind of like the way that Bill Adama had done to him a few times. He held his tongue and watched what was going on.

"Ma'am! The 6 fighter CAP is in an orbit between us and the station, but they are no longer coming directly at us. They are sending over the same information, and the same SOP that they sent to the Styx the first time she stopped here. The only deviation has been a request to know what ship class we are." The communications tech was as amazed as the rest of the CIC. They had been training hard ever since they had left New Circe. To have everything happening just as they were supposed to, was so strange that they were all on edge.

Xi had a satisfied smile on her face. "Colonel Gaeta. There are only five or six core or standard jumpship designs in the whole Inner Sphere. That does not mean, that those are the only ones that a system like this might see over the years. Tell them that we are a modified Leviathan, of the sub class called Zephyr. And now, I think it's time to use the contact information that Copeland got for us. As soon as we have our first reply. I want to launch my K1."

Six hours later, the Modified Royal K1 drop shuttle left the jump point. As the craft left. The massive ring going around the long ship was just reaching 1g of pull for those staying on the ship. All of the rest of the Colonial made AG plates were turned off. They had only one set of "inspectors" scheduled to arrive, but it was expected that there would be others. Or at least that was what the command staff of the jumpship were planning on.

It was a four day burn to make it to the planet but finding a landing spot at the drop port had not been an issue. Explaining that the small craft only needed a small area to land, that was basically what a Landing boat used. Now that had been more difficult. That bit of explaining had taken longer, than setting up a meeting with the head of MMM on the small ship after they landed. When they made orbit? The landing area was changed from the drop port to the small craft landing strip, but only after a ST46 had made a close pass of the K1. After that? Things went better for the dropship's command staff getting a proper sized landing spot.

McDonogh was on his way to the drop port when his security team sent a message to divert him to the small craft airfield. He was intrigued. He also made a note, that he had received the message very quickly. Now that the importance had been proven about the level of information, which could come from "the assets". He would be given any new messages as quick as humanly possible, if not just a little faster.

McDonogh had taken two hours to personally call around, after the first message had crossed his desk. He knew the only group who had access to these codes, and they were not currently in system. The only new group in the whole star system, was a group that had come in on a modified Leviathan class jumpship. They had said that they were from the OWA, before the smallest dropship ever seen in living memory had started burning towards the planet. They were not connected with Copeland Supply Salvage and Resale. But were they new players? And how had they gotten their hands on this code group?

When he pulled into the jetliner airfield, his driver had to drive all the way to the end of the passenger handling buildings. When he made the last turn, he was greeted with his first real world view of a K-1 class drop shuttle he ever had seen. He only knew about it, because he had looked up the blasted thing after reading a report from his security team. It looked like a very small Mule class, or he might have been looking at a Mule from a great distance. The outside was a little flame scarred, but what dropship did not look that way in this day and age.

There were a pair of large armored and armed personnel at the only open hatch of the small craft sized dropship. "Well this must be the place?" He didn't know that he had spoken aloud.

Admiral Xi was in civilian clothes, and she had started making her way to the hatch to the outside world. Thanks to Robert Copeland and SLIC, she had a nice bio on who was supposed to be at this meeting. She had a plan B, if it was not him. That one was going to be less fun for her to have to work with, but she would make do if she had to. When the hover car came to a stop at the base of the drop shuttle? She had no problem identifying the man who straightened his expensive business suit, before walking up towards the hatch. When he was close enough? She exited the small craft's main hatch but waited for the man at the top of the loading ramp.

"Mr. McDonogh. My name is Margaret Xi, and we have a mutual friend. Copeland Supply Salvage and Resale." She wanted to get this out in the open right at the start.

McDonogh saw the woman exit the small craft and watched as she moved. It didn't take him but a heartbeat to know two things about this stranger, before she had said a single word. One was that it was not Robert or Jess, despite the use of their codes. The other was that the person might be in a nicely cut suit, but she was military to the bone.

"Miss Xi? Nice to meet you. I take it, that you work with Captain Copeland somehow." Mike put his working face on and tried to do a little fishing before things got too deep.

Xi gave a sly smile. "You can say that. With the issues he ran into on the last run, I decided that I should keep that a little on the quiet side. I would appreciate it if you would also agree to that. Now, would you mind having the meeting inside?"

McDonogh looked at the woman, and then stepped towards the hatch. It was not the first time that he had done a deal in a dropship. It might have been a long time, until recently, but he had done it before. The one driving question he had, was would this be worth his time. The briefing room was only two hatches in from the main hatch to the odd little ship. The door was open, and another guard was pointing toward it as he entered the small ship. Admiral Xi was only a half-step behind him going into the small but specially outfitted room.

The meeting room was… Spartan, and Xi took a seat at the head of the small table. "Mr. McDonogh, Captain Copland thinks very highly of you and your company."

McDonogh did not smile, and he kept is face very still. "I made some good deals with the good Captain. Will I be seeing him anytime soon?"

Xi knew about the trackers that Robert had put into the jackets and helmets, it had been in his reports. It was a nice little trick, and it just showed how far out of the box that man could think on any given day. "I do not know. What we are going to be talking about, is separate from any of your dealings with that company. "

McDonogh blinked and pulled some key data points from that short statement. "So, you don't run that company?" He had a mental bet, for the last few minutes. It was that he was about to be dealing with that Captain's boss. Now it looked like there might be another game afoot, and he was about to be drawn into it. Mike had to use his quick mind to it's fullest power, to quickly come up with some ideas about what was going on today.

Xi gave a laugh that was very genuine. "My dealings with the Captain and his company, are more complicated than I am willing to talk about in this meeting."

McDonogh could feel his eyebrows move, against his will. "What kind of deal are you thinking about? We have a backlog on orders right now, but I'm sure we can work together."

He was thinking that whoever that emblematic captain might work for, was now looking for some major weapons to purchase. This was something he knew how to get ever last cent for his company. The words were flowing. He had known that this woman was military, and so she must be looking at getting some mechs or fighters. The words were falling out of his mouth more out of muscle memory, than he was really thinking about it.

Xi let out another deep laugh as the man got a full head of steam, with what she suspected was a well-practiced speech. "Your company has a nice little catalog, and I did spend some time reviewing it before contacting you. You have three different light mechs, two types of medium, and a heavy class mech. You now are offering a few "upgraded" offerings of at least two of those designs on the open market. You also recently started almost flooding the market with Clint parts and more complete machines. Those are not what I am looking at."

"Okay, what are you looking at?" Mike's mind shifted to the one item that Copeland had bought in some numbers, Leopard class dropship engines.

"The Captain said that you had been working on rebuilding a few assault class machines, but you can only turn out a small handful a year. How would you like to have the complete plans for something like that class of machine? When I mean complete? I mean complete with TT&S, as well as plans for the construction of its communications systems. You will need to design the weapons, that you currently are not building for your other systems I'm afraid."

Now his eyebrows shot up into his expensively cut hair, and his jaw fell open for a few seconds. "You have the full designs for an Atlas?!"

Xi didn't even bat and eye at the other man's shock. "No." She passed over a few sheets of paper, which she had been playing with in her hands while she had been talking. "I'm talking about the King Crab. You already make the Vlar, and from what a little birdy told me. You have a few extra 300 series engines that are not being used to make new machines. I have the complete plans for the KGC-000 with the Dolban VirtuTalk and Dalban HI-Res TT and S. That is what I'm offering you and your manufacturing company. If we can come to an understanding, that is."

McDonogh now had his feet back under him, for the most part. This was not the first time "someone" had come to them offering something like this. It had never been referenced to a top of the line 100ton assault mech. Granted they did not have the proof, that they could come up with the data for the late Star League weapons. It takes thousands of pages of design plans to make even a 20ton machine. He had no idea how many pages it would take to make something that was five times larger. He was betting that it was going to be massive.

"My company might be interested, but how do we know that they are complete. If they are complete? What is it going to cost us?" Mike was keeping his voice as level as he could, but he was betting he was failing.

Xi settled into her chair a little deeper. "We want 10 percent of the sales price of every machine that you make and sell of this design."

McDonogh now coughed and he was glad he had not been drinking anything. "10 percent! We will lose our shirts. It will cost tens to hundreds of millions just to get this set up. We have been trying to sell the few rebuilt Atlases for years. They cost so much, that the clientele for something like that is very rare."

Xi smiled a cold smile. She had been brought into most, but not all of the data that had been "recovered" from that small coast guard ship. She knew that a major war was coming, and any weapon would be snapped up as fast as it could be made. It would not matter where it was made, buyers would flock to any production sites around the whole Sphere to buy whatever might be available. She was betting that they would not balk at the 10 to 11 million for a mech like this.

"10 percent, after the first five are sold on the open market. That should be enough for you to breakeven, before we start getting our cut. I'm sure you can sell as many as you make to the military of the MC, if you are doing something other than rebuilding a few battle-damaged big boys without a solid logistics plan. And if not them? I don't think that it would take much effort for you to trade them to the FWL for a tall stack of M-bills, if they have the right weapon loadouts."

McDonogh had to think about this, and she had a valid point or two. They were selling almost as many 75ton Marauders to the FWL and other groups, as the MC could afford to take into service. Now that MMM had a reputation of having top of the line mechs for sale, more people were coming to buy them. The MC had not minded, that much, about the number of mechs MMM was selling outside of her boarders. They got a sales tax, income tax off the workers increased paid hours, and an export tax on all sales going to the FWL or other buyers outside of the MC. The CC and FedCom were even getting an additional "fee" hit on the "special" parts they were getting from MMM to repair all of those Clints.

"Okay, I think that we can do that. If the data is good." McDonogh half stood and offered his hand to the tall and striking good looking woman. They would not get paid until well after MMM had used the supplied data to make a short run. If they had wanted a few million C bills up front? Then he would have been more suspect of this deal.

Xi first took the hand, and then passed over a thick folder that held the contract. "Good! This is a copy of the contract. You can have two of your people come over tomorrow, and they can review all of the plans. When they are done? You sign and I sign, and then all you will have to do is make the damn things. Oh, and then you will have to sell them." She let a devilish glint into her eyes as she adds the last part.

McDonogh took the folder and started flipping through the thick set of pages. He thought the deal was done. He was thinking that giving Copeland those codes had again, paid off. At least this time, he did not have damage done to a major company asset first. He was not surprised that he was still upset about that little game that Copeland had played on him. His train of thought was interrupted when he missed what the woman had just said.

"I'm sorry. I missed what you said." He was a little embarrassed.

Xi raised an eyebrow and repeated herself. "I asked. How are the plans going, to making the Union class ship?"

This time McDonogh was not surprised about what he was asked. "They are not going as well as I would like. We had some setbacks, which we are having to pay for. Ones that I had not expected to need to do, when I came up with the idea." Mike felt a little heat come out into his voice, as an image of the repair list had hit his desk about the cost to rebuild both military units. That was on top of the cost list to rebuild the two dropship hangars, and the damage those damn Long Tom rounds had done to the local area before the Fortress had lifted off.

Xi had to hide a sly smile, she had a good idea about what costs he was referring to. That was thanks again to the contacts that Copeland had so quickly developed. "That might turn out to be useful. Have you thought about doing all of the groundwork, so that you can build something larger? Like say up to an Overlord class vessel?"

McDonogh snorted and got his mind back into gear, and he focused back on this meeting. "I did think about that some time ago. But it would double the cost of the project, and we are only looking at expanding our rebuilding slip for repairing Unions." He was not going to let information like that out, at least not for free.

There were basically four levels of dropship pit. The cheapest one was just a landing cradle. If you about doubled the money, you got one that could also do light repair work on commercial dropships. If you again doubled the money, you got a pit that could do about mid-level work on commercial and light repairs on combat dropships. Doubling your cost got you the ability to rebuild or build commercial ships and mid-level work on combat ships. The last level was building or rebuilding a combat dropship. That did not count the cost of making the items needed to do the work in the first place.

"I can see that in the short term, it would cost more. Then again, it would allow you to repair almost every combat mech carrier dropship in the whole MC. I also happened to have the specs and data sheets for the Anacon B1781 engine. It is not as complete, as for what we have for the King Crab." This was not totally true. The SLDF navy could make these engines, anytime they wanted or had the raw materials to do the job. Admiral Xi did not want to have too many magic wands of information. It could scare MMM off.

McDonogh was in the battlemech building business, but he loved the aerospace part of his company. He looked up to the metal covered ceiling, and his eyes kind of glazed over as he went deep into thought. "Anacon…..Anacon B1781? I know that name….. Where do I know that name from?" All thoughts of the damage done by the attack on his facilities were now forgotten.

His eyes shot all the way open. "Lion! You have two Lion class dropships on the jumpship you came in on. You have more? How many more? Where did you get them?" The words more or less fell out of his mouth, before his brain could stop them.

Xi let her smile fall and made it looked like she was having to fight to not let something slip. "Not as many as we need, but we are not the only ones that use that class of ship in this part of space. There are a few hundred out there, that I understand only just need engines to get them back into combat operations. I would bet that the Wolf's Dragoons are also looking for some repair parts for this type of dropship. You do know? That the Anacon B1781 series engines are just a modification, of the same engines used in the Fortress class dropship."

Again, McDonogh's jaw was swinging in the wind. "I would love to do something like that, but there is no way I could get the funds to do something like it. It has been a cat fight, to just get the funds to expand the repair pit into something a little larger in military grade dropships."

Now Xi bites her lower lip, this next step was going to be key for the future of her people. "So funding is the main issue?

McDonogh looked down his nose at the woman, and he took some time to do some pretty deep thinking before he jumped on this landmine. "You can fix most problems, if you throw enough money at it in a short amount of time. In this case? I have the people that know how to do the work, and make the machines, to make the parts for my original plan. I just need a lot more money to get the plan back on track."

Xi was told to push for this next goal as hard as she could. She was lost in thought and mentally reviewing all of those inventories and the reports, which Copeland had generated or caused to be generated. "Funds?" Her eyes shot open. She had been practicing her acting for months with SLIC. She made her face go very still after her little show.

"So how is the work being done on reverse engineering those extended ranged PPC's, that Copeland sold you?" Xi's voice was as level as ice.

McDonogh did not know where this stranger was going with that statement. This was so far off script, that it should be a new meeting. It was not that much of a guess, what his company would be doing with one or two of those weapons. Still, it was not something that the average person would know about. He knew that he needed to play this a little cagey. He did not want to leave his company open to an objective raid, to get all of their hard work taken or destroyed before it had even started to payoff. He also didn't want to let on, about all of the other goodies that they had recovered from the failed "pirate" raid.

"Not as well, as I would like. We are further along on what we are calling the Armstrong Spitfire JU-22, which is already in low rate production. We might be at the steady, but low rate production for the ER PPC by the end or middle of this year. That is, if things work out. They are thinking about calling them the Royal Flush." Mike made a sour face about the choice of names for his company's copy of the H class weapon.

Xi was smiling again. "Then the rumors that you have a full production line running on Canopus for the new PPC, is not true."

McDonogh's head was spinning. "I heard that one. I think that our Public Relations people are going down the wrong road, on trying to crush that idea. The harder they try, the faster the story spreads."

"But what if it was true? What would happen, if you had a hundred of them in 90 days? Then another 200 weapons about six months after that? They would be right at 600k for each of them. But think about how much that would add to your bottom line, after you put them in mechs."

Xi was tapping her finger on the metal desktop. As the head of the supply runs, she knew that her people only had 400 more of the old Star league H class ER PPCs. When they had first left Clan space, they had been the leaders of the PPC technology. They had been replacing and or slowly trading the royal tech H class PPCs to the others. All as they replaced them with the Improved Extended Range Particle Projection Cannon (IER PPC) that they had developed. Those older weapons were still in use and fitted to third line units and in cache sites that had been cleaned out, when they had made the run from Clan space. Still they had over 900 of those IER PPCs, which she was looking at selling in the near future. That number would only grow, as more of the newer Long Ranged PPCs were made to replace the IER PPC in lower and lower priority units.

"GOOD GOD! You can make that many of them!" McDonogh was out of his chair like a shot, and his voice was booming.

Xi was shaking her head, and she pointed for him to retake this seat. "No, that is just what are in excess to our needs." She smiled on the inside. She had not spoken one lie to this man, and she was proud of that feat.

McDonogh returned to his seat, but he needed a little while to get his breathing back under control so that he could speak in a normlish tone. "That is going to cost my company alot of capital."

Xi now waved a finger at the man. "That is why I suggested fewer of the weapons, on the first load. That would give you time to sell or use them and then sell enough of the finished products, to have a fresh bank. After the second load? We then can see what else you might be able to work with us on acquiring. That should at least free up the production cost of the weapons. The sales of the second load should give your company a massive shot of additional income in short order."

McDonogh let out a belly laugh, in-between gasps of breath. "I cannot wait to see Copeland and let him know we are partners." He was not going to tell this woman that It would be a cold day in hell, when MMM would be locked into a single supplier of anything. They would buy the weapons, but they would also keep working on getting their own line up in running.

Now Xi looked visibly angry, and only a little of it was an act. "Do not talk to Copeland or anyone related to that Supply and Salvage Company, about this deal. He is just going to have an issue finding as many of the ER PPC's to sell, in the future as he was expecting. We still will be trading them the extra ultra-class cannons and a few other odds and ends. If you do not want issues, from some of your competitors finding out about this deal? They might cause you a lot of issues about you getting these weapons. We will be keeping this deal classified, and we suggest that you do the same."

The idea of making sure that there was a split between Xi and Copeland's mission, had come from the head of SLIC. It was expected that this part of the mission was going to be compromised, and it would be compromised in a very short amount of time. That could have an advantage, if it was compromised in just the right way. There were plans to handle that contingency and others, if it didn't break the way the people with the big brains thought that it would.

Xi was happy that she had been able to accomplish so many of the goals, that she had been asked to do on this planet. Now she had one more goal to try to finish, and it was the real reason that this K-1 had been selected for this mission. One of the liners would have been a better choice for this mission after all, and it would have not drawn so much attention.

"Mr. McDonogh, is this your current stock price?" Xi passed over a data pad that was showing a live feed from the planet's stock exchange.

Mike took the device and after checking the screen, he pulled his own handheld and check the stock price. He was not surprised, that it was in sync with this woman's device. "Yes, and I'm happy to say. That we are up about 15 percent over last year and at a 5-year high. I think we will be at a 7 or10 year high by the end of the year."

Xi did not smile this time, and she took the data pad back. "Yes, I reviewed a lot of the information on the investing sites. I found that a lot of them think that your company is over stretched in the near term, and they think your stock is overvalued. I might have a way to make them eat crow and help cover some of the cost of things."

She rose from her chair and opened a well-hidden door on one side of the briefing room. On heavy shelves were bars, more bars, and plates of gold and platinum. That hidden room was the whole reason that this ship had been selected. Only half of these metals had come from New Circe banks. The other half had come from what Adama had been able to pull from wrecked banks around Colonial space. This was not all of what had been pulled out, but it was a lot of what was left for the City State to have access to.

Mike had no idea what was in the hidden area, but the gold and silver colors was a hint. He slowly rose from his chair and examined the small side room. He had no idea what some of the markings were on the bars and plates, but most of the others told him what he was looking at. It was a fortune in metals, that made even his heart skip a beat. He picked up a few without thinking about it, and they were as heavy as he expected them to be.

Mike put down a 1inch thick plate of silver metal that he knew was not silver. "Okay Miss Xi. What do you have in mind?"

Margret Xi walked up and stood beside Mike as he looked at the valuables in the walk-in safe. "Before we get into that. What do you know about the current assets of Diamond Garter Shipyards and the Athena Corporation?"

Now it was going to pay off that Mike always had the aerospace bug. "Diamond Garter Shipyards makes a merchant class jumpship every few years, but they have only been a marginal business after the last war. Now the Athena Corporation, they used to make a warship of the same name. It was the only major warship the MC ever made. After the SLDF took over the last time, there is not much left. Why?"

Xi pitched her voice low, like she was trying to keep a secret. "The people I work for, want to buy a 15 percent stake in MMM. For this stock buy, that you will not release to the general public until you have to release your taxes. You will move MMM more into the Aerospace side of the business, then it had ever been in the recent past. MMM will buy Diamond Garter Shipyards and other Ex Athena Corporation sites, and then start working on getting them back up and running on Canopus."

That was not the last meeting between Admiral Xi and some of the senior people in MMM. They worked out a list of deals and methods of repayments, dates, and location for the transfer. Much to the joy of the crew and Admiral Xi, they were able to lift off right on the original planned time. What was kept from MMM, was that Clan Wolverine and the City State were not going to be just 15 percent owners in MMM. She would be buying another 5 percent of that company on the open market. It would be held in a bank account on this planet. If things worked out? The Star League in Exile and the Colonials would slowly take more and more control of the largest weapons manufacturer in this part of human occupied space.

The five day burn from the planet to the jump point, went without any issues. The K1 had been able to join a group of six other dropships heading to the same jump point, not long after reaching orbit. It was a nice safe little convoy of mutual protection. The small ship attached to a docking point, on the odd looking "jumpship". It could have landed in the small craft landing bay, but that would have been seen as "different enough" to have caused it to be remembered. The K-1 attached to an open collar, just like any other dropship in this system.

When the Zephyr left this system, it did not report where it was going to be going next. While the Colonial ship had been in that system, some of the crew had been working on a side project. It was a type of transponder, which was very illegal to have on your ship. When they were about 60 light years out of this system. The Modified "Leviathan" named Zephyr from the OWA would be gone, for the time being. She now would be the Leviathan called the M/V West Wind that had just left the FedCom and DC boarder areas.

They were not going to Cate's Hold, just yet. Admiral Xi needed to get back to help plan out some of the changes, which she had made possible with her few days of meetings. The Zephyr made it out of the Inner Sphere, and all the way to an area were one of 6 and growing number of Olympian class ships was doing her patrols and training crews. The Demeter would take her modified K-1 to another ship, which would carry it all the way back to New Circe. The Zephyr still had the mission to take all of those dropships along with the personnel and equipment, that where assigned to do a mission. A mission that was a long way back the way that the ship had just come.

Notes:

Does the MC have a SEC? I have no idea, so I just sort of winged out a few rules.

Why the King Crab? I had to weigh the King Crab vs Atlas. In the end, I decided that the King Crab was a more likely design that would be pulled to leave with the SLDF. Besides MMM is already making the Var 300. They do not need any Star League tech to make the KGC-0000. For the KGC-000 (yes that last 0 is important) they would "only" need Ferro-Fibrous with Case.

Why buy out MMM? Currently they have plants on two different planets. And they can draw on the whole MC for support and supplies, but it will be a long-term plan.

old Orion Class Pocket-Battlestar Ogygia. Crew 150-200 and 20 vipers (6 working), 6 Raptors (2 working). 12 primary guns (larger guns from Jupiter class Battlestar refitted), 32 CIWS (updated with late Jupiter class 50mm KEWs), 4 missile silos (updated from Valkyrie Battlestar with two more tubes total 6). Serving mainly as a light espionage or reconnaissance ship with updates to this technology every few years.