That was when the shocks started to come into the scratch-built command group. It was as report after report was made by the different teams were reviewed by the mission commander. First was that all of the food, clothes, and small arms were gone from the Station. In fact, there was only about 70,000 tons of cargo left in its massive 139,000ton capable cargo storage bays. More than a few hundred tons of those stored supplies had been used just to get the craft back in operations to support life. A lot more would be needed to make it fully mission capable.
All of the ballistic type weapon systems on the station had full loads of ammunition in their various ready bays. The items in the cargo bay, as it turned out were the types of items that someone would need to run the station. All of the construction or terraforming equipment was also missing from the massive cargo bays. The surveying team had filed a report suggesting that it might be down on Shaky somewhere. There was not much hope that much if any of it would be useful, due to the conditions on that unstable planet.
The next massive hit of a surprise was found in Bay 3. That bay was not just a cargo bay. It was also a 50,000ton capacity full pressurized repair facility, and floating in it? It was just a 17,000ton Lee class dropship. The crew that had found it had no idea what the dropship was. The only thing they knew, was that it was a massive Military Spheroid with lots of guns and massive engines sticking out of its butt. A few hundred images were taken of the ship, and they had been transmitted off station with more questions than answers. The station computers had been effectively wiped of all data, and it had not helped them work out what the huge dropship was. It was not known if this was intentional, or just the effect of the deep space radiation.
When the crews had finally been able to get Bay 4 opened. They found another 50,000ton capable bay just like Bay 3. This one was found empty, and they were a little let down after word had spread around about the found dropship. It took both teams three days to force open Bay 5, or as is normally called “The Main Bay” on this station. The wait was worth it. Not only was this a huge 150,000ton Pressurized repair bay, as designed. It was not empty. It was a 20,000ton Military Spheroid, but this class was well known to Clan Wolverine and its military trained personnel. They had not had access to one, after they had left the clan core worlds behind. The few that clan Wolverine had access to had been needed by the defending forces, to buy time for the fleeing ships.
Images were again taken of the Colossus class ship, and the whole bay filled with the needed equipment to make it a small yard ship. Special attention was paid to the open and what looked like ripped out components of the drive section of the war craft. Also, around the repair bay were several odd open squares like metal frame works. Some were not completed, and others were complete, stacked, and tied down to almost to the height of the repair bay. No one had thought to count them. If it was that important? Then the person who reviewed the images back on New Circe, could count them.
###################
It was at the one-month mark that a full meeting was held for the whole project. The meeting was held in person or watching from in close orbit around the massive recharge station. Work had not stopped, as the command groups were at the status update meeting.
Commodore Milo Franks looked around the room. The meeting was being held on a Colonial ship and not the station. This was for the simple reason of comfort provided by the artificial gravity. His second in command was Barry Garner and he was seated to his right. He gave his second a nod of his head. This was his meeting to manage, Commodore Franks was there only to act as a big hammer if it was needed.
Barry nodded back to the Commodore. Barry had already found out that this man was a lot different from the first Star league commander, that he had worked with. Barry took a breath and tried to channel some of Bill Adama into his demeanor. “Okay, we need to start with the planetary investigation teams.”
Another Colonial sat up straighter in her chair. “We are still looking the planet over. We have been using Raptors and low flying dropships equipped with both DRADIS and Star League scouting equipment like the Beagle Active Probe, to gather as much detail as we can. It would seem that the software update after Troy has increased the data intake by about 35percent. As first reported, this planet is well named. We have recorded what we would have called a major ground quake on every day/night rotation of Shaky, that rates at least Mag 8.9 on the opened scale. So far, we have not found any humans or evidence of artificial construction on the planet’s surface. I know that the Star League Corps of Engineers and DoME have a history and a well-deserved reputation of being able to hide massive structures, even right under the local’s noses.”
This statement got a round of chuckling from the members of this meeting. “We are still looking, and we are making a detailed map of the small planet. What do we know about this world? Well, it’s green and full of animal and plant life that fly, swim, and walk, for now. I say for now? Because there is very little doubt that it’s headed for another major ice age, in the near future, geologically speaking. We have not found anything that shows this place was terraformed. It’s almost like they were trying to hide, what they did for the terraforming. We would like to have more time to keep looking to see what we “MIGHT” find.”
Barry nodded to the other Colonial. “Please make sure you update your mapping data packets, on the fleet’s mainframe. We want to be able to have as detailed information, as we can get just in case. You never know, we might need this planet in the future. Next is the status update of the star system as a whole.”
This briefer was a Captain in the SLDF, but older than most of the 06s that held that same rank. He had been called up from the reserve not long after the level of threat the Cylons had been realized by the general public. He was in charge of the two Light Jump Carriers, their fighters, and any other combat ship in the system. He always had the look, which seemed like he had bitten into a lemon even when he was in a good mood. He also was borderline angry all of the time.
“We have picketed the system with our limited assets. And so far, we have not detected any Cylons or other ships in the system or any evidence of others. That is beside the recharge station, which this system has been so kind to give us. It would seem, that this system was not occupied in around three hundred years. As most of you know. The first team, after the Nike, reported six artificial orbiting objects in this system. We have identified them as six stripped and more or less hulks of the Star Lord Class. They have been tagged with transponders, if we can recover them at a later time. We are still looking around, with our picket patrols. A star system is a large place to hide things. We have a due in, according to the HPG message I was given. We should be getting one of the Titan class jump carriers, in the next few weeks.”
Barry was tapping on the screen of a little hand-held computer that was SLDF issue. “Thank you, Captain. When you do your next alert and training exercise? Please pass to the flag any supply issues, after your last training review.”
The big part of the meeting was next, and it was the one everyone was looking forward to. It was the last briefer, and the head of the station’s reactivation teams. This was the whole reason that so many of the SLiE’s resources had been diverted here. “I will not go into most of the information that is widely known, already. The dropships in the two internal bays are finally positively identified as a Colossus and a Lee class dropship. Both of those ships? They are Royal type ships, but unfortunately they do not seem functional at this time.”
A soft rumble started going around the metal walled room from the physical attendees and the Teleop attendees. The Captain had a sly smile on her face. “Before everyone gets to excited. Query Affirmative. They both looked to have been stripped of a lot of engine and life-support equipment. In short? They are not combat ready, and we don’t have the parts, out here to make them ready. As far as I know. We do not even have the parts on hand, back in New Circe. At least not in any ready to use storage warehouses that I know of.”
You could feel the letdown cross the room like a wave of grey that could not be seen, but it very much could be felt. New Circe only could support a limited number of different types of dropships. That was one of the reasons, why getting rid of the two Trojan class ships was as important to the SLDF as a whole. It was from a support point of view alone. Those ships might be great and even needed, but they still might be scrapped in the end. That call would be made at a much higher level than anyone in this room would sit in.
“The two dropships on the outside of the station were both opened to vacuum. The Lion has a 5m long crack in the outer hull, and the Confederate has a 3m crack running through about the same area. The thinking is? That it looks to have happened, before and they were left behind when the Corps left. Again, the engine and life-support equipment were removed from both dropships. Not ripped out but carefully removed, and they even took the time to mark the loose wires. As some of you know already from the public reports back home. Query Affirmative. The Confederate class dropships are known to be maintenance hogs, even if it is considered to be a great raider. This type of Lion can carry two lances of mechs and a company of light tanks. We do not have enough of this class in operational service either.”
The Captain stopped talking and waited for a few seconds. When he started up again, he changed topics. “We have gotten most of the station back into operation, with the backup fusion plant coming online last shift. We will need to keep having support ships bringing in food and ice, to support the station and gravity time for the health of the crew. All of the repair bays seem to be in working order, with enough parts to keep it in working order for some time. We have the station, but it is going to take a lot of support to put it into any use.”
The briefer stopped talking again, and he took a sip from an open topped glass. That was something you could only do on a revolving style deck, or in an area that had artificial gravity plates made by the Colonials. “All of the weapons on the station have checked out, so far. And we will be able to start test firing each of them in a few days, as a final check out. I would like to put in a supply request for a few hundred tons of standard armor plate. I want to patch the outer hull of the station and add some reinforcing on places, that are known issue points for this design. After that? I would like to task the Hard Hat to move the Confederate and the Lion into the now open Bay 4. When we have time? We will try to get them up on shore power, and we can see what can be done with them. I think we can at least fix their hulls with what the fleet has on hand as spares. After that, it will be up to the Station to do the rest of the work.”
Commodore Franks nodded and for the first time in the meeting, he joined into the meeting. He now was thankful that he had taken all of those notes when he had “talks” with his father “The Admiral” Franks. “I will pass that along to higher command. I think that it will also give you a chance to test the repair bays support systems, on something non-critical to the station and fleet. I know that in less than fourteen days, two hundred additional personnel will be coming out to man this station. We all know how important, that three more large repair bays could help our people. Query Affirmative. They would not be able to support the big warships, but all of the dropships and smaller colonial ships? They could use this. It would free up a lot of yard space, back home. Captain. Please bring everyone up to speed on what we talked about last night.” Commodore Franks looked at Barry, who was tilting his head at the mission commander.
The Colonial acting “Captain” was a little surprise at this order. “Everyone knows about the fighters and small craft that we found already. The Dropships were not fully loaded with combat equipment. That does not mean that they were totally empty of combat equipment, ether. We have not found any tanks, fighters, or even small arms on them. We did find 24 battlemechs on the two dropships that were in the Shaky Prime’s repair bays. We have fired them all up, and some of our people have checked out their diagnostic systems. That was the only way that we could find out what they were, in some cases.”
Barry stopped talking and used his finger, to slide to the right digital file on his little computer. This was something that he had not expected to cover in this meeting. He slipped just a little in his word choice. “I’m not a ground commander, and we will be sending the complete list about the mechs, when we get the word to do so. If any of you have an idea about how to use them here? I am all ears. To start with we found three 35ton mechs in the form of a Falcon Hawk, Night Hawk and a Talon. Now the Night Hawk is not the same, as what we now call Nighthawks. That has caused some confusion for everyone who has seen the reports.”
He stopped talking and then took a breath. “How about I just go down the list?”
He was met with nodding heads in an agreement to his statement. “Okay then! We found a pair of prototype Dragon Fires, a prototype 75ton Maelstrom, and a pair of prototypes of the 100ton Devastators. Those were the hard ones to workout, what they were. The Lynx, Cestus, Excalibur, three Shootist, a pair of Spartans, and Emperors. In a side storage area, off of Bay 5. We found a 95ton Nightstar and a 100ton Pillager. What I think higher command will like? Is the Riflemen II, a pair of Shoguns and of all things an Annihilator still wrapped in plastic. That is what we found, so far. I think that this is going to be it.”
One of the second officers connected to the ground teams, before being sent out this way, let out a bit of a whistle. “I thought the old SLDF like to only field a few different types of machines in the same Regiment. That is a short battalion, and it is a mishmash of machines like what the house units like to do. Why would they have three escort mechs like a Shootist in that small of a unit? That does not make any sense, according to their normal unit MTOs. Query affirmative.”
A second person was looking at the data and had been working on some ideas of her own. “They only took, what they knew they could support. They left behind prototypes and or low total production machines. They needed to maximize what they could support, long term, not the most cutting edge. That was smart, very smart, and some long-term planning. Too bad we do not know what happen to them, when they left here. query affirmative. The commander must have been highly skilled. I wonder why we have not found any tanks or aero fighters that should have been left behind for the same reason those mechs were?”
The second officer of the White Skies was flipping through images on his computer and zoomed in on something that stood out to him. “Shipping cubage. You can maybe only put 100 tons in a mercantile or Mec cube. You can put two 50 tonners in one, or a mix of a lot of stuff, but still only 100 tons. I saw a smaller version of these crates, for moving cargo trucks supporting Captain Copeland’s last supply run.”
She spun her screen around to show the rest of the room what was on her small screen. “I bet they reinforced them. Then they rolled in a heavy tank or some smaller ones, and then they loaded the cube onto a dropship. They might have used Bay Four. All they would have to do is load, and then stack the next cube on top of it. You keep doing this until you reached the deck head or deck mass limit for whatever dropship you are loading. That would maximize your cargo space, that you have on your other dropships. I bet you could take the wings and tail fins off the fighters and small craft, and then do the same with them. It would take longer, but I bet you could do it.”
Commodore Franks nodded and raised an eyebrow. “That is an interesting idea, and it makes since. They took an idea and then used it to an unusual end. It would not be a great idea in a combat deployment. But if you were not going to need them for a long period of time? It is a good Fraking idea, and it fits very nicely with the evidence we have seen out here. Looks like Copeland’s runs had an unexpected payoff.” As “only” a Commodore, he was not read into all of the unexpected payoffs. As a member of the Franks family, he had heard more than a few tidbits of data.
###################
The meeting went on for some time, but all of the big things were put out already. Every week the meetings would be held, but little new information would come out. The mechs were sent out along with the old fighters to New Circe on a supply run between the two star systems. The fighters were replaced by a pair of new Colonial crewed Avars and two lances of SLDF jump Kirghiz. The requested armor plate was sent, and now with the expanded crews. The outer hull of the station was very quickly repaired, and work was started on detailed inspection and spot repair of the two smaller combat dropships.
One by one. The spare parts were worked out and handmade, in more than one case. It didn’t take long for the larger but easier repaired Lion, to be moving under its own power. It would sit at the jump point for a few weeks before it was taken out of system. The ship that had taken out the Lion had brought some groundbreaking news from home. The first test from using salvaged Cylon jump engines with SLDF computers had finally worked, on two of the test ships. This brought up a very important issue that they might be able to “fix”. The Olympus class recharge station with its fully functional repair bays was in an empty, and more importantly exposed system. It would have been a major diversion of the limited heavy and light combat units of the SLDF to protect it. That was a type of diversion that would hurt the SLiE very badly.
That was when it was brought up about the captured Cylon Resurrection ship, at a high-level meeting on New Circe. The captured massive ship had been put into orbit far out system, over the Newgate mining outpost and prison as soon as it had been brought into this system. No one knew or agreed, on what to do with the “sleeping” Cylons. Even after almost two years, it was still a touchy subject, for not only the Colonials, the SLDF, and the POW’s that had come over to the human side of this conflict. So far about one hundred human forms had been “awaken”, as a test. But without a core program? It was not easy to predict what was going to happen with them. The recovered POW’s from Troy had been trying to help, and it had “Saved” a dozen of them that had died due to injuries and accidents.
The Cylon ship was huge, at close to two million tons of mass. It was larger and more massive than the Colonial Mercury class Battlestar. The captured ship needed an equally massive jump engine. Just taking it out of the ship was a massive undertaking by a huge number of Station’s crew to do the work. When the massive Cylon made jump engine was pulled from the oddly designed ship? It made it easier for the people in this system to sleep better at night, knowing that the ship would not be able to leave the system. If something happened? The only thing it could do, was use its very undersized intersystem plasma drive to move around the outer star system.
At first the massive jump drive was taken to be studied on the slowly expanding “Station”. It was very valuable, but higher command knew there would come a time that it would be better used somewhere else.
With the successful integration and testing of the first capital Cylon jump engines into a SLDF Navy ship, ideas flowed. Some of those ideas were flawed, but some of the others might have sounded just a little crazy. After a lot of computer time and about half a day of SLS Nike’s undivided attention, a plan was put into action that would use the latest recovered assets. The engine was pulled out of the classroom and wrapped in a thin skin of armor plate, that had been recovered from a wreck a few hundred light years from this system. Then it had been pulled out of the cargo bay on “The Station” for one more and maybe the last test of the device.
The massive Cylon made device was too big to fit in one of the cargo bays on the modified Riga class ship called SLS Yukon. It could be moved, but after all it was 120,000 tons of engine. It was not something the SLDF Navy or the SLiE normally moved around in interstellar space. The Yukon was not traveling alone, but with three ships of colonial manufacture. They were carrying a variety of items, but the most sought-after was the Colonial made gravity plating. It was the total production for the last three months, along with all of the stock held in the reserve. They would be using a lot of the skill learned by the Styx and Zephier’s crews to carry this off. The massive Cylon engine had to be attached to the flat part, near the nose of the warship. Each of the jumps would only be about half as long as was possible for the weakest jump engine in this little convoy. The shorter jumps were hoped to make it easier on this one of a kind engine. Some of the engineers thought that they were whistling in the wind, but the ex Cylon POW’s from Troy had not been able to identify any issues with carrying the engine in this way. Then again, no one had tried to move something like this before.
