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.

43. Chapter 43 6 March 3049

Chapter 43

By Cliff

Beta and Clean up: Not done

Reviewed by Hotpoint and Cannonshop

6 March 3049

Cate's Hold

The Zephyr popped out of in-between space at the zenith jump point of the Cate's Hold system. They used the HPG trick to fool any maybe watchers, to show that this ship was just another visitor. This jump point had been picked because of the information that Robert's mission had uncovered. This was the least traveled entry point to this system. There was not another jump ship or living soul at this point or within a few tens of billions of KMs when the modified Colonial ship "popped" into being.

Felix did not have to give many orders to his crew as he felt the ship "arrive". The great ring had kept turning during all four of the last jumps. That was the way it had been designed to work, but they had wanted to make sure that anyone from the Inner Sphere would not notice it. He did look around the area. "Threat! Are we clear?"

The radar operator was taking in a lot of data. So far, as best that he could tell? There was not anyone near them. "Sir! Scope is clear out to six light seconds and growing."

Felix turned to look at the mission commander. "Colonel, we have entered the system clean, or so it seems."

Lt Colonel Sarah Mann was about to have a problem breathing. She knew a lot about this system. She had been here three times before this mission, and she had been one of the ones bitten with the "Lost Unit" bug. She had studied this system and read every report, and she knew things. Like she had known that there were not any jump point stations. She had been both upset and happy when it was reported that not one, but two tunnels had been found.

"Commander, please pass along who we are and that we are coming down for some prospecting and to stretch our legs."

All Felix could do was nod his head. He understood that this was the primary mission, but he did not grasp if it was that important. He had no idea how maybe finding a few weapons, which were hundreds of years old would be worth this amount of effort. Still he did what he was told. When the first messages were sent out, and they had been replied and acknowledged them being in the system. The Tug, two Lions, K1, and the slightly vismoded Cargo King separated from the 4000foot long ship. They would be making a steady 1g burn from the jump point to orbit. When the rest of the dropships left the Zephyr? They were filled with most of the "extra" personnel living in the ring on the modified Colonial ship.

Felix turned to his command center. "Okay, I know that we are alone out here. But I want all weapons turrets manned or slaved to the fire control systems. They are to stay under cover, until ordered."

This ship might have been a civilian ship before the Cylon attack. By now that had changed. Now this ship was armed with Laser AMS in two dozen locations. It also had a dozen Class 5 HODs, and over a dozen different lasers. She was not packing what would be called anti-ship or anti Basestar weapons. They would there to clear the skies of any Cylon Heavy Raiders that might be found. Those weapons were equally effective against human crewed fighters and dropships.

It was only a three day burn for the little convoy of dropships to make it into orbit. Just as they settled into orbit, they had not asked to land yet. This waiting was causing not a small amount of issues for the people on the ground. Captain Fallstaff looked over to the mission commander. He was going to be the ground commander, but he knew that you had to be careful with newly promoted Lieutenant Colonels.

"Colonel Mann, the local traffic control called again."

Colonel Mann let out a bit of air out of habit and almost lost her lunch. They all were in 0g, and she was not liking it. "Tell them, that we are a Mercenary support unit that just came off a contract on the Fedcom/DC lines. We are just doing some R and R while we wait to start a new contract." This was not the first time, that she had given this directive to those on the ground.

Mike Fallstaff was also not liking the 0g. "I did, but I will send a reinforcing message. Can we fire up the "prototype" radar?"

Mann almost smiled, but only almost. "You know? That sounds like a good idea. They sound like they are getting a little nervous down there. Make sure you let them know about the "prototype" before you put power to it. The sooner we can start, the sooner we can get gravity back."

The idea was that they were going to orbit for a while "looking", and then this prototype ground penetrating radar would fire up to help them look. The downside was that the idea of being in orbit, under 0g hadn't sounded that bad when this plan was put forward. They could just land in the area Jess had found, what they needed to find. The good thing was that those few orbits, was that it let them see that there were over twenty other "active" search sites on the planet below them. All of those active search sites would help cover for them.

The small convoy of dropships spent the next three hours blasting the planet with "low" powered Radar. When Colonel Mann had enough of floating around her cabin? She contacted the communication section, to let the locals know that they were coming down and where they wanted to land. Colonel Mann was quickly informed, that after they landed. They would be visited by an official within hours of landing, to handle any paperwork that needed to be done.

Mann had an area that she wanted her craft to land around. The set up was for the Mule/Cargo King to land in the center of the two known tunnels that Jess had found. The three more combat related ships would drop in such a way, that they would be outer defensive points. The K-1 was going to be set up near the Mule/Cargo King and close to the center of the formation. The K-1 would be her ride out to the jump point if and when, it was time for her to make it to any meetings.

It didn't take long for a camp to be set up around the area that all of the dropships had landed. Mann took a page from Jess's book. She had her people putting up tents, campgrounds, marked out sports fields and even a field kitchen or two. Only a few vehicles were off loaded and none of them were related to mining or combat.

The radar and other systems on the combat dropships told the Colonel that someone was coming out to them. The landing site was only a few hours' drive from the main space port of the planet. The mechs still inside two of the dropships were manned, but they still did not exit the craft. The weapons turrets would have to handle any surprises that might be in the local area.

There were two medium sized civilian hover cars that came out to the grounded dropships. They were directed to the grounded K1, by a traffic control point that they had set up after landing. What those two hover sedans saw, was a group setting up for some camping or maybe some light prospecting in an openish field. All of this was what you would expect seeing, knowing that this group had their own transports. Other than that? It looked like most of the other dig sites if a bit more organized, than some of the dig sites currently going on around the planet.

A woman from the second hover car was escorted to the K1. This was the locals first time on one of these craft, but she had been down this road before. What surprised her, was that she was shown into an office that she had been told was the unit's commander.

Mann looked up when her office door opened. She just pointed to a seat, and then handed off a digital pad to the escorting crewmember. Mann looked at the woman in what looked a lot like a police officer's uniform that the Colonials used in the city state.

Mann pointed her head to the chair across from her desk. "Thank you for coming out this way. I had planned to come see someone from your office in a day or two. I understand that we should let you know what areas, that we are looking for any of your local treasures to be hidden in."

Ronda smiled. She had heard this line before, and sometimes it was even true. "When my boss saw what you were landing with? It was decided that I should come out, as soon as it looked like you had settled down."

Sarah Mann put on a smile that she wanted down to the millimeter. "Really, four dropships caused that much of an issue?"

Ronda had an answering smile, that was equally fake. "Sometimes, but it was what those dropships might be that got some attention. Like, where did you get the Lions from?"

Mann now was very thankful for those books that Robert had brought back. "Oh, those two? We traded a crap load of mech salvage to the Wolf's Dragoons back in 41, when they were trying to rebuild."

Ronda knew about the Wolf's Dragoon's and what happened to them before, during, and after the 4th SW and the 3039 war. They were a mercenary unit, so them selling off some dropships that was extra to their now reduced needs. That was something that made perfect sense to her. "But what about that one with the arms?"

Mann now gave a fake laugh. "The Tug? That was what my father started this unit with when he left Federated-Boeing Interstellar. Do I need to tell you were we got the cargo hauler from? I think I still have the point of contact over at Federated-Boeing Interstellar, if you want to talk to them about getting one of your own."

Mann could not help but have a flash back to the Elephant class ship. It was technically a Tug glass dropship, but it carried almost 2,100tons of cargo, 12 battlemechs, 4 small craft, 4 infantry Platoons and 8 heavy vehicles. With the coming of the Colonials all of the tugs had been put back into service. Still even with only 40 of the 80 Colonial ships "active" at any one time, that was a huge fleet to support. With so many of those ships needing work, the tugs were quickly over tasked.

The Station along with support from ground side, had dusted off building plans and 4 more hulls were laid down while Bill Adama was still on old Kobal. The Syssiphus was the first of that group to be finished. 6 more upgraded Elephants were being built that would leverage the higher technology that was being built around New Circe. Rumors had it that 4 jump tugs, based on this higher tech version and massing over 17,000tons were on the drawing boards. Those would pull double duty as a tug and a light assault interstellar craft. But this was information that was not going to be talked about this far from New Circe.

Ronda had to give it to this woman. She had made some good points. "No, but I can't remember when I have seen a tug on the ground before. Now to business. Your message said you were going to be looking around for the old SLDF base. I assume that this is the area your looking at, or are you going to start looking more far a field?" The tone Ronda used was a little on edge. Having this large of a mech unit roaming around, was normally called a raid.

"Oh no! This is the general area, that we are looking in. At least the ones that want to look for it. Some of my people are just wanting to spend some time relaxing." Mann passed over a different electronic pad, this one had a section of the planet with a red square drawn on it.

Ronda's eyes shot up, as she reviewed the data on the screen. "That is a large section of land. Like sixteen lots! You want to dig up the whole area?"

Mann laughed and it was a true laugh. "Oh God no! That is just the area that we do not want people to come into while we are here. We have been in combat a long time, and we want to be able to not have to worry about strangers getting under foot for the next few months. This seemed to be the easiest plan to meet those goals."

Ronda could feel her eye's getting narrow. Her mental alarm bells were ringing, but there was nothing she really could do about it. "That is going to cost." Again, it was not out of the norm for prospectors to want to keep any other eyes at bay from what they were doing. "I will need 15,000 C-Bills. You will get half of that back if you mitigate your excavation sites before you leave. We are tired of people leaving holes all over the countryside."

The meeting went on for another half hour. It covered the do's and don'ts, and they also talked about any past issues. After midnight tonight, the land Mann had marked out was there's for the next six months. That was the standard length of a contract if you wanted to be legal with your digging. Now anything they recovered "belonged" to the people who found them. And if you believed that? You needed to be fitted with a "I love me jacket."

The next meeting for the Colonel in hiding, had been one more meeting with a local. It was the meat factor, and the ground team would be eating very well. The space team was not going to have it as nice. But soon a small craft that the Syssiphus had carried would be loaded down with nice cuts of meats, and some other things that were going to the jump point.

While it might look like a camp was finished being set up outside the dropships. Most of the specialist were getting rest, or they were trying to get some sleep. It was not every day that you were selected to help dig out two collapsed tunnels into a long hidden SLDF base of some kind. When the sun went fully down. The first team on patrol left the Assault dropship, that was also a tug. She let out its first team to make sure people were staying away. They were a team made up of a modified Wolverine IIC, but this one had lost the Large Pulse Laser for a longer range PPC. The other team member was a Modified Royal Black Knight.

The Beagle active probe would reach out to see anyone, that might be trying to sneak a peek at the new arrivals. There were eight Black Knights and four Wolverine IICs carried by the Elephant. The Black Knight was the second most produced Mech in the history of the SLiE. The Lions could have carried more, but they were mainly carrying mining and hauling equipment for the mission. Instead of trying to spread out the support, one ship had been identified for each type of unit needing support for this mission. That had been the plan, anyway

Only two machines were out at any one time. Thanks to the data brought back by Copeland and some very good art skills? The Black Knights were made to look like battered BL-7-KNTs and not the more dangerous modified BL-6b-KNT that had never been seen in this part of space. The cover story was that they were recovered from the 3039 War. By now it was well known that the DC had been able to put back into the field some of the older designs. Then they had lost some of the mechs to the FedCom and Wolf's Dragoons.

Even then? They would not be moving that much during the daylight shifts, and they would stay undercover as much as they could at night. The only time that the full mech company would be seen at any one time? That would be if they were attacked by a combat force the duty unit could not handle. Then they would hammer anyone flat, before making a hard burn out of this system. They were also working to make sure. That they were not connected to Copeland, or even close to anyone known to be friendly to his company.

When the clock said that it was local midnight? The huge bay doors to the Lions opened, and three truck mounted teams left the ship. One team would be going to what was assumed to be the SAS's tunnels. A "couple" had set up a camp, not unlike what Jess had done when she had found them, earlier in the day. A second team when to the "main" tunnel that she had found. The third team was the cover team for the other two "working" teams. They would also be looking for more of the base. Their key job was to dig around the area Mann had reserved. Those holes had a secondary mission. They were to give a place for the other two teams to dump any spoils coming out of those other two excavations. Stealth was a keystone in the planning of this attempted recovery mission. No one thought that it would last for as long as some of the leadership wanted. But they wanted to try to keep it as quiet as they could, for as long as they could.

Mann could not sleep, and she made a few trips around to the three different teams working through the night. She spent most of the time down in the SAS bunker. She was a little disappointed, that there was not any progress in removing the blocking rock. She had to be repeatably told. That the teams needed to get lights set up first, and then they would survey the area. It would not do anyone any good, if they started to move a rock and then have more rocks fall onto their heads. It was not long before she grew tired of looking around the old living quarters, and she went back to her ship to get some sleep. She ended up sleeping for almost a dozen hours. This was also supposed to be a short but a much needed vacation for her.

Helios Gamma

Acheron Asteroid Belt

HH looked over to his XO, as their ship popped into a new location in what used to be Colonial owned or controlled space. It had taken them two weeks to get to this location, and it still was not where they "wanted" to be. As data comes into the Ogygia's CIC, everyone held their collective breath. Slowly data came in of their surrounding area. As those data points came in, the command center could start making out the different local rocks of this part of the asteroid belt. It took them about twenty minutes to come to the conclusion that "nothing" was nearby, that was not already mapped out by the ship.

HH looked at his second in command. "Morton, have Raptor 6 prepped. It will need to take a pilot, crew, and me. If you don't hear from me in 72 hours? Get back to Ragnar as fast as you can, and report what we found so far. And that this area is now marked unsafe, and possibly compromised to the Cylons."

Morton Deyo made a sour face. They had been over this plan many times since they had left The Sand. This contact mission should have been his job. It was not right to risk the Captain of the vessel, on a possible trap or other small group combat missions. He didn't want to argue, at least not in front of the rest of the staff, but he felt he needed to try one more time.

"Are you sure this is the right call, Captain?"

HH knew what his XO was getting at. He walked over and patted his friend on the shoulder and gave him a curt head nod. Morton gave a reply of a head nod. "Old Number 6 will be ready, when you get to the launch bay."

HH was strapped into the 1st War Raptor, and he was the third person on this craft. It had a pilot and a tail gunner already to go when the warship Captain stepped into the hatch. The pilot was a recovered POW and she watched him adjust the seat, to keep him safe. But he was also moving it so that he could see out of part of the massive glass covered cockpit. When he was ready? He gave her a nod, and the small craft floated up off the deck within a few heartbeats. It flew down the short metal tunnel into the cold of space, without a word being said to the warship or between the crew of the small craft.

The small craft cleared the Orion class warship and flew for another few minutes, before it "popped" out of the local area. Just as it left one location. It arrived at appoint in space, that was well away from the warship. It was just on the edge of the capabilities for the modified and updated old warship to "see", but only if it knew where to look.

HH waited until the pilot had finished her post jump checks, and he powered the jump engine down. He was going to be doing double duties, as the EO and passenger. The other crewmember made sure that no one came sneaking up behind on them. "Pilot, when you are ready. You may start your approach, but make sure you stick to the flight path we used on our last visit."

With his orders given or more just reinforced from what the crew had been told before they had left. HH relaxed and watched as the craft change course and it gained speed. It did not take long for the Old Number 6 to close on a large battered rock in space. The rock was huge, like a huge mountain range lost in space. It looked like a dead, blasted, hunk of rock that was as lifeless as the surrounding rocks. It looked that way, only as long as you didn't get to close to one part of the abused rock.

HH knew what and where to look, and he could see the hand of man on this rock. When the old scout craft dropped down into a crack, that was like the Grand Canyon on this body, he almost got a little vertigo. After they had traveled some distance down that valley, with huge walls of rock passing by the craft at an amazing rate. He could see at least two twin gun turrets sitting on small hills, that could have come off of an old Jupiter class Battlestar. It looked like the old Raptor could have flown down each of the twin barreled weapons. HH knew that it was only an optical illusion, and they kept flying down the stone valley.

The craft was now flying more slowly, and it made a sharp turn to "go up" a small side valley. HH could see the solid wall in front of them, as soon as they made the turn off the main valley. This was where he saw the first change from his last visit. He knew that there were gun turrets in this location, but they should have been the small types of KEWs. Ones that could have been taken from some old warship and used to counter any Raider, Viper, or other small craft from using this landing bay and natural choke point.

What greeted HH today. It was a pair of twin mounted cannons that HH thought might have come off of a Valkyrie class warship. This type of combination cannon and missile launchers were kind of unique to that class of warship. "Okay, that is new. Pilot send the message."

The pilot was looking wide eyed at the four heavy guns. Then she looked over to a pair of "rocks" to each side of the heavy cannons, that looked to be hiding CIWS weapons. It was with shaking hands, that she hit the button to transmit a set of coded "beeps" to someone behind those guns. She was willing to wait, as long as those guns didn't fire at her.

It seemed like time was dragging by, before the two twin heavy weapons mounts started to slide to one side. Soon the twin barrels super elevated, so that the Raptor was not in their line of fire. With the weapons not threatening them, the small craft slowly started to advance.

HH had to tap and point off to one side of the craft as they closed on the stone cliff, that mounted the heavy weapons. There was a massive opening that was hidden by a rock overhang, that was the size of a good sized Battlestar. It was the mouth of a landing bay that had supported a huge mining operation before the 1st Cylon war.

It had been surveyed after the war, but it had been found not to be worth the effort to clean up, repair, and then bring back into production. Then it had been forgotten about in all of the rebuilding, that was required after that long and bloody war. That is, it was forgotten about by everyone but one small group of humans. They had no problem doing some repairing and a lot of clean up, so that they could use the place.

Tomas Fraser watched as an old design, but fresh-looking Raptor was deposited off a small landing turn table into the main "bay" of his command. Only about half a dozen groups, outside of those under his direct orders knew about this place. He would have preferred that fewer people knew about this place, but there were so few humans left. That he felt it was not that much of a risk with the current amount of people that knew how to get here.

He had to fight down a slight smile, as a man, that he recognized, as the commander of the only warship that was known to still be under the command of humans and not Cylons exited the old warbird and looked around. Tomas schooled his features and he waited for the Captain to be brought to him. Tomas was wondering what he would think, of what he was going to be shown.

HH exited the craft and looked around the large open space. As he turned, he could see the large and heavy steel doors that was the only hint that this at one time was a major space port. HH could see 6 other and larger cargo or other spaceships spread out in the landing and loading area. He was mentally matching each craft with ones he had seen before. He was not sure, but he thought about half of them were different.

HH waved for his Raptor team to stay in the craft, when he saw two people come over with pistols in low military thigh holsters. This should be his "escort" to see the boss. HH was subject to a very detailed but fast security pat down, that left him light his holdout pistol and pocketknife. It would have been strange if he had not been packing, even before the Cylon attack. It was a long walk to see the Boss. HH made sure to make mental notes of anything that had changed or items that might be useful to help his new mission.

HH had an idea of how big Momus base was, but after so long in his small ship. It felt like he had almost circled the asteroid after only a few minutes of walking. He was just about to ask his escort where they were going. When they stopped at a hatch that was just like the other fifty, they had already passed. One of the twin escorts rapped on the door, and it opened before anyone could have replied to the knock.

HH entered the room, and he quickly knew that he had not been in it before today. He knew that he had been in a room like this before, but he could not remember where. It was the windows behind the desk, that was keying off something in the back of his mind. He was lost in thought, and he almost did not catch what the other man in the room said and he recovered very quickly. "Good to see you, Boss Fraser. Looks like you did some scavenging since my last visit. Where did you get those additional heavy weapons at The Wall?"

Tomas gave a snort that almost made him laugh out loud. "Your one to talk. Where did you get the old Raptor? And do you still have your pocket Battlestar?"

HH took a seat and let a smile come to his face. "I found a few odds and ends after we last stopped by. And yes, I still have my girl. Morton is waiting on the edge of the Belt. I would like to send a message from my bird to bring him over. I have some things we might be able to trade."

Tomas rocked back into his chair and a tooth filled smile split his face. "I like trade. Yes, you can bring Ogygia in. You remember the rules?"

HH gave a nod of his head, and then reached into his inside pocket for the small device resting there. He only needed to click it twice and wait for three clicks to come back. Within a minute and a half, a highly encoded message was sent from the old Raptor to a certain spot in space. When HH looked up from his device, he noticed that Boss Fraser was watching him very closely. HH could read the question in those eyes.

"They should be here in a few hours. I came ahead to make sure you all were still here, and to work on this deal."

Tomas let the smile fall off his face. "How many people are you going to want to come over and stretch their legs." Having enough O2 and at the same time having room to at least swing a cat, was very hard to find. Anyone who landed on this rock would have to pay a tax, to use that air and that living space.

HH let the corners of his mouth drop just a few millimeters, and he pitched his voice very low. "Before we get to that. I need to ask a favor."

Tomas went on guard and kept his face very still. Asking for a favor in this day and age was very risky, for both parties involved. HH saw the face change on the crime boss, and he felt his heart starting to race. "What do you mean, Captain?" The boss let a dangerous edge come into his voice.

HH heard the tone, and he very slowly reached into his jacket pocket. He pulled out a thin stack of cut cornered papers and pass them over to the commander of this outpost. He let the pages fall onto the desktop of the man in charge of Momus base. It was with a side long look that Thomas reached out and took the pages with faces printed on them.

For the next few minutes, the two men talked about what those pages meant. HH gave more information to this man, than he had given to the master of the Sands. He told the crime boss all of the information they had on the human form Cylons and how they could be downloaded into new bodies. It had taken the most time to explain, that those few models of human forms would take all of their memories back with them when they got those new bodies. What Tomas Fraser did with this information, was not HH's concern.

What did HH get for this information? The base's commander ordered that HH and his crew would have free rein of the station, without paying the air tax. When he was done. Boss Fraser looked back over to the maybe CI man.

"It is not often that I get surprised like this Captain. I thank you for your information. If you don't mind, I would like to change the subject." Tomas was rewarded with a slight bow from the seated man. "Thank you. Captain Hewitt, what do you think about my new office?"

HH was blinking in surprise, but he concealed this reaction by making a show of looking around the large room. It was not that much different in how it was decorated, but it was at least 4 times as large as the last office he had met this man in.

"It's a lot bigger, but it looks like you're going to need a while to decorate it. That is unless you have a box store the Cylons don't have under guard?" HH knew he was missing something, and he went on edge.

Tomas smiled and rose from his chair, and as he walked over to the dark row of "windows" He sent one side long look to the other man. After he walked the few steps, he waved for the other man to join him. When HH joined the pirate commander, he watched as a few buttons were selected at the base of one of the dark windows. It was only due to HH's training that he didn't ask any questions while he stood there.

Slowly lights mounted behind the glass started to glow and get brighter as they warmed up. As they warmed up, HH was able to see better what had been hidden in the dark behind the clear window glass. It was a rift or very narrow valley, that looked to have been covered over with metal plates and wired for power. As HH looked around the valley, he could see the window let him look down deep into the covered area. He saw that the "floor" was flat and paved with what looked like the same material that was used at planet side space ports.

It was an impressive covered landing pad. HH thought that it must have been used to bring in the massive mining equipment needed to first set up this base. As more lights came up to full power, HH saw two wrecked ships on the landing area below him. It took him more than a few seconds to realize that they were parts of a Valkyrie class Battlestar. His head whipped around without him wanting it to, but at least he did not open his mouth.

For once Boss Fraser could not keep his normal game face on. "We found the nose from Yashuman over Caprica. That is where we got those new cannons you saw, and a few other things. The engine block? We have no idea what ship it came off of, but it was on a ballistic orbit not far from the belt. It took a lot of work to get them here.

HH now had his feet under him. "Well that explains how you were able to hide so many ships, when the Colonial Navy spent months looking for them a few years ago. But why are you showing me this?"

Tomas smiled, but he didn't look at the other man. "I know you won't give me that ship, in exchange for living here. To put it bluntly, I need your ship, captain. What I propose is a trade. My people found an electronic repair ship. Somehow all of the air locks opened and killed the crew. I can get it here. But it is going to take a long time, and it most likely will not be able to do its job properly after I get it here. If you can get it here? I will use this bay, my people, and the parts from those hulks to repair your ship. It is not a repair bay or slip, but we can make it work to do some level of an overhaul on your girl."

Nothing was agreed to full in that meeting. HH and Tomas had many meetings that slowly grew in number of attendees. More details were worked out to support this mission. You would think that dealing with criminals, that it would have been easy to make a deal with them. As it turns out, they used more lawyers than even your average large group of politicians. It took three days of solid work to get everything worked out. One of the keys, was that Tomas made sure to have one of his cargo shuttles added to the mission with a hand-picked crew. They were to make sure he got his recovered ship from HH.

One week after the agreement had been worked out between the one-time crime boss and the undercover CI captain. HH was finally able to start to relax, as he saw the huge floating rock come into view on the screen mounted in his command center. The whole trip had been uneventful. They had not even seen any Cylons, during the whole operation. It had been stressful for the crew and for the old warship, thinking that a Cylon Basestar was going to jump in near them at any second. Towing something like this also had used a lot of fuel and stressed the already over used engines on the warship.

HH was ready to get this job done. There were two main reasons that he had accepted this mission. One was that his ship needed some attention that Ragnar could not fix while they were floating inside that envelope of that gas giant. Besides, they hadn't had the parts or the trained personnel to do that kind of work. The other reason was his adjusted mission statement. The flattop style electronic repair ship would help this group of survivors to not only survive, but maybe they would be able to help others.

Boss Fraser had told HH a little secret. This base had never been a major support base for the pirates. It had only been mainly used to make cheap ammunition, sometimes to hide from the Colonial Navy and as a storage point. Now they needed to scrape together whatever they could find to not only support the base, and any ships that were now using it. They needed that vessel to help keep the base capable of supporting life.

HH did not start breathing again, until a section of the rock started to move below his ship. Until it had started to move, it had just looked like any other part of the asteroid gliding below them. HH would have to pull the second ship into the narrow valley, and all the way down to the floor. There was nothing that HH could do, it was up to his crew. He was very relieved again, but this time it was when he saw the "roof" starting to close over the top of his ship.

Three weeks later the Orion class warship was rising out of the camouflaged valley/repair area. It had been a very busy few weeks, for the crew of the warship and support members from the pirate base. HH's crew had helped with the repairs. Sometimes they were the teachers, but a lot of the times they were the students as they worked together. Was the repair work as good and as complete as a regular Colonial drydock? For the most part no, but it was better than anything else the warship had access to currently.

The warship's crew had help with some training on the recovered ship when they were not working on the warship. The electronics repair ship had even been able to help with the repairs on the warship, after the first week of its landing on the special made support structure. The recovered ship was soon focused on three main projects, beside general support to the base.

One project was additions to the number of both algae vats and real food production labs the base had in operation. The second was laying the groundwork for making lightening javelin MK1 anti-Raider missiles. They were to be not only fitted to all of the craft working out of this base, but they were also to be loaded into homemade box launchers as a counter Raider/Heavy Raider battery. The third area, that the ship was going to support, was to greatly expand the bases ability to produce nuclear weapons. That the base could even make one of those weapons had come as a shock to HH. That it was turning out one or two every year had left him gob smacked. They were going to make as many as they could, thanks to an old 1st Cylon war fission/breeder reactor the base had been built with. This rock had a lot of radioactive ores, as well as a nice seam of Tylium they could access.

HH's additional "payment" for helping recover the repair ship and helping get it ready to support those other missions, had been a full load of fuel, and full bunkers of heavy coil gun ammunitions. HH had traded a few of his Nike-Ajax missiles, along with a "pallet of a dozen lightening javelins for 3 nuclear warheads for the Nike Ajaxs missiles in his silos. Some seeds and help in the grow rooms, had gotten him an intel dump from the pirates. His staff had already been surprised by the amount of data that they were having to go through for a few packages of seeds.

HH was looking at the data on Canceron. The pirates had run three missions to the planet's surface already. They had dropped off some weapons and pulled out several dozen people that they could find. There seemed to be a whole lot of people that had been hiding in small groups around that water rich world. After they finished this run. HH knew that all of this data was going to be very helpful for the people supporting the rebuilding of Ragnar. He puts the data aside and turns out the light on his desk. It was late and his wife was already asleep.

Notes:

Acheron Asteroid Belt, Momus base. Commander (Boss) Tomas Fraser. 6 x Jupiter turrets, 2 twin Valkyrie turrets, many CIWS. Pallet launcher for Lightening-Javelin 2x12 launcher.

The now modified Colonial ship Zephyr. 4000 foot long ship, 8 drop collars, armed with 5 LRMx20, 10 Medium lasers, and 6 ER Large lasers. All of those weapons had been pulled off of recovered wrecks. 24 LAMS locations. 12 Class 5 HODs were added just before this mission. Hard points being fabricated to mount recovered capital weapons of autocannon and missile types. Her power rooms cannot generate the needed power for capital Gauss or other energy weapons. Those capital weapons will be mounted on the Nose, FL/FR, AL/ AR, and Aft.

Ground Team for Jess's toy box. Elephant with 8 modified Royal Black Knights and 4 modified Wolverine IICs. Both mechs look like "normal" Inner Sphere versions of those machines. 2 Long range Shuttles (the other 2 small craft bays are empty. They might be needed for something else. 2,100tons of empty cargo bays with two doors. 8 heavy mech recovering trucks, they will have to move stuff from the dig sites to the dropships. 4 platoons worth of workers. K1 is the HQ and to keep eyes out of the other dropships. The Cargo King is for extra cargo pulled from the ground or what can be bought locally and brought back to New Circe. The Lions are each carrying 8 workmechs, 12 light trucks of different types and different tools for the mission.