The Quest

[2ndAcr]

 5 March 3051
      New Avalon

  After the telling of 2 stories, in which SGM O'Malley actually got some digs in on his Lieutenant, an hour had passed. Finally Hanse Davion needed to get back to business.

 "Donald, it was nice to meet you and get this little misunderstanding cleared up. I have some business to conduct so if you would be so kind as to accompany Quintus here and provide all the information he needs, you can be on your way home and back to business." Hanse never stood up, nor did he ever stop eyeing Donald like a bird of prey just waiting to pounce.

 "Your Highness, it was a pleasure. By your leave sir." Donald said as he rose stiffly and moved smartly for the office door with a smirking Quintus following.

 After the door closed, Hanse turned back to his guests. "This next part is going to be unorthadox as heck and way out of norms, but what isnt unorthadox about this entire affair. I have discussed things with Ardan here and we came up with something we think will help everyone involved. Now I cannot have a mere Lieutenant in charge of all the defense forces of Mackolla. So, Lieutenant Mitchell, you are a Lieutenant when not in your capacity as commander Mackolla Defense Forces. You will be promoted per normal while assigned to Mackolla. As Commander Mackolla Defense Forces, your rank is Colonel, but only when in that capacity. Example so we are clear, visit say New Avalon on leave, your a Lieutenant, but in your capacity of Mackolla Defense Force your a Colonel. You get paid as Lieutenant by the AFFC, your Colonel pay comes from Mackolla. Yes, you get paid twice. Your mission is to keep Mackolla, it's space and any operations launched from Mackolla safe. SGM O'Malley, your now a CSM and in charge of keeping this young officer on the right path and safe."

 Lieutenant Mitchell's head was spinning, this was confusing as hell, but all he could do was nod and say "Yes sir, your highness."

 "You will also have a letter from Ardan and myself to smooth over any problems you might have from any AFFC troops you might request or be in temporary command of." Hanse said this last part smoothly.

 "Now, time is pressing, so I will let Harry here brief you in the rest of the way. Harry, as always, good to see you again, I doubt I will have much time before you leave. Good luck and keep in touch." Hanse shook Harry's hand and then the hands of each man as they left the room.

 When the small group finally got in the awaiting car Scott turned to Harry "Jesus Christ Uncle Harry, it is really true? All of it? Holy shit, I thought I was going to die in there."

 "Told you today would convince you." Harry chuckled to himself.

[2ndAcr]

 6 March 3051
  New Avalon 

  Kelly had gone and gotten Donald from his hotel and brought him to Harry's temporary house. As Donald sat down as indicated Harry got him a Scotch and water no ice. "I believe this is how you took yours Donald."

 "Thank you Harry, what do I call you now anyway?" Donald asked

 "I am Harry to you Donald, family. Now we need to come to terms on some business." Harry said

 "Quintus Allard already explained it all to me Harry, I lost one scout to confiscation due to piracy actions by the crew. The other Scout was bought by the AFFC and assigned to Mackolla Defense Forces, I already have the check. All items recovered on the last recovery mission were also confiscated by the AFFC. We are square Harry, you do not owe me a dime. Quintus asked me if I wanted to contribute to the Mackolla Defense Force willingly, of course I said yes. So I transferred 2 Merchant Jumpships to it. Signed them over to Quintus this morning. They will be at Rentz waiting on you. Heck, anything to get out of THAT line of fire. I hope you know what you are doing Harry, these are powerful people your mixed in with now." Donald had downed his Scotch at the end

 "Donald, I still feel in over my head. I don't know anything about running a planet." Harry replied honestly
 "But Hanse is loaning me a House Davion household staff to help train my own household staff and keep me up to speed on stuff."

 "Probably be all spies Harry." Donald said a little quieter than he would normally, he knew Kelly was skulking about. "Just be careful and keep my son safe Harry, that is all I ask."

 "Scott is going to be fine Donald. Besides did you see CSM O'Malley, he is a monster. Plus there is Scott's aide, you have not met him and doubt you will anytime soon, he is one serious person.

 They talked small talk for over an hour before Harry announced he had to pack up.

 3 hours later Harry, Scott, CSM O'Malley, Honos and Kelly arrived at Harry's ST46. Awaiting them was Quintus Allard with 6 small crates. Harry went to talk with Quintus along with Kelly.

 "I did not expect to have a send off Mr Allard." Harry said as he shook Quintus' hand.

 "A parting gift from Prince Davion and myself. Kelly will have our people secure them. Hanse said he would hate to see something happen to you, so he presents these to help you on your way. Inside are 6 older version Black Boxes. They are for shipboard use only, they are K2 versions with encryption. Kelly will brief you on them. I assume Donald filled you in on our arrangement? Good, the Merchants will be at Rentz awating on you, I will have vetted AFFC crews aboard them. Good luck Harry."

 As Harry reached the ST46 where Scott awaited "Uncle Harry, what about my platoon, this ST46 is not big enough and I do not see them."

 "Don't worry Scott, I was assured they will be at Rentz awaiting on us, I was told by Ardan they had to go pick up your new tanks anyway. Which by the way, I thought you were a Mechwarrior?" Harry assured Scott

 "Short story and short career Uncle Harry, come on, I will tell you."

 

[Daryk]

Copy/paste error there?  ???

[2ndAcr]

 Yeah I screwed that up. Fixed it

[Daryk]

All good... and I'm really wondering where ROM's hand was in all this.  Donald might be innocent, but he could also still be guilty as charged.  Nice work muddling the picture!  :thumbsup:

[2ndAcr]

 21 May 3051
        Rentz

   Over the last couple months Harry had briefed Scott and O'Malley on the armor regiment they had recovered. They immediately started making plans on how to use all the equipment. Harry also got with Kelly and they went over the Black Boxes Quintus Allard had given them.

 Now they had arrived at Rentz and Harry was on board a AFFC Star Lord that carried the troops from the Davion Heavy Guards and Scott's Platoon. All the other ship captains were present also. It would take a while to get everyone to Mackolla he thought to himself. "We need to move this entire group to Okefenokee, from there we will shuttle everyone to our destination." Several of the civilian captains objected even after Harry offered to pay them for the additional jumps. "Fine, you three are released. Transfer the Monarch to the AFFC Star Lord, put one Mammoth and one Mule on each of the Merchants."

  Harry had Kelly fire off a message to Mackolla and had Gale to have Mikael bring the extra Star Lord to Okefenokee using the Scout crew they "trusted" but he wanted armed guards on them. It was a risk he had to take. The Merchants would be staying with Harry anyway at Mackolla.

 After everyone knew the plan, Harry returned to Money Wagon and the small fleet moved to Okefenokee.

 6 June 3051
     Okefenokee

 Harry shook off the jump effects and soon saw on the sensor display "unknown" over a sensor contact. He listened as the AFFC commander began giving launch orders but suddenly Mikael familiar voice came over the radio "Harry, good to see you again, it has been too long my friend."

 "Good to see you Mikael, prepare for transfer of dropships, we will talk soon as we touch down on our destination."

 Harry switched to the laser lock on the AFFC Star Lord "Colonel, please stand down, that is my ship over there, please have your dropships dock with her sir. Once your ships are away, the AFFC Star Lord is released to return to regular duty."

 When the colonel acknowledged the orders, Harry breathed a sigh of relief. He was almost home, it was still weird saying or even thinking of Mackolla as home. For 30 years MST Star Lord had been home.

 30 June 3051
     Mackolla

  The small fleet materialized at the Zenith Jump Point at their new home for the time being. All 11 dropships began undocking and heading for the planets surface. Aerospace fighters launched and flew escort, some close in, some ranging further out. Harry guessed they just wanted to stretch their legs so to speak. He knew the feeling.

 The Davion Heavy Guards were on an Overlord and 3 Condors. The 325th Aerospace 2 Leopards and the Overlord.

 Just a few more days Harry thought, then the hard work started.

 11 July 3051
    Mackolla

   Never had the locals seen so many Dropships landing in all their life. But it was the mass overflight of the 325th Aerospace that really wowed them. The 325th over flew the now sprawling space port and did some overflights of the area to get a feel for the ground surrounding the space port.

  Harry was on the tarmac with the people off his shuttle watching as the Davion Heavy Guards exited their dropships. All of Harry's people, they now numbered almost 2500 with all the locals hired on were there watching also. Harry saw George and some of his senior people approaching. As they arrived, Harry introduced Scott, O'Malley and Honos to everyone. As he shook Georges hand, Scott noticed a AFFC APC approaching the gathering group. It halted about 25 meters away and Scott saw the AFFC Colonel in command of the Davion Heavy Guard garrison approaching, as he drew close Scott started to salute when CSM O'Malley stopped him "This is Mackolla sir, your a Colonel in charge of all defensive force here remember."

 The AFFC Colonel saluted Scott, which he returned smartly "Sir, where shall we billet the men and equipment."

 Scott looked at Harry who said "We have prefabricated buildings on the Mules, we will get started putting them up right away." Turning to his team leads "Paul get everyone over to the Mules and let's get started assembling those buildings, have the construction crew here, flatten us an area for the buildings. We have a bunch of work to do."

 Scott took over then "Colonel for the time being have the Davion Heavy Guard billet on the dropships until we get the buildings put up. Post some patrols around the area."

 Harry looked at his people swarming towards the 2 Mules and then back at everyone else "Let's head over to the Admin building and get to the serious work."

 Once inside the Admin building conference room, Harry introduced the Challenge crew leader, the Mining crew leader and the McRae rep. He had Clayton take the mining leader and show him what they had here. George smiled at that "Harry those miners don't have near enough equipment, this planet is chock full of resources. They are in for a surprise. Clayton has been real busy. There is another continent on this planet separated by a big ass sea. I let Clayton take Tug One over for a look see. There is not a person on that entire continent we could find but boy, is it loaded with metal's and ores. Clayton said he could retire there and probably not get it all found and logged. He is barely 30."

 Harry smiled at the thought "George, this is Cal Hamerbug he is Challenge Systems chief engineer, he wants to get started putting the shipyard together. Have Albert and Tug Two take them up and let's get started up there. I wish you were going, but I have to put Cal in charge up there."

 "I understand Harry, I have gotten used to being on the ground. Cal, come this way and I will pull Albert and his people from the work detail and introduce you to them."

 Harry could no longer contain himself "Scott, how would you like to make a few more jumps and together we go see what is really out there waiting on us?"

 "Uncle Harry, my mission is here, not out there. As much as I want to go, I have to get to work here." Scott really wanted to go have a look see.

 Harry looked at his young nephew and knew he was right "Okay Scott, I had to try."

 "Uncle Harry, if you go, I must insist on an escort. My job to protect any mission from here also." Scott was adamant about it.

 "Okay, you better get them read then, we leave for the Jumpship tomorrow." Harry was wasting no time.

[2ndAcr]

 15 July 3051
        Mackolla

 Harry had departed for the MST Star Lord on the 12th, with him was a squadron of Aerospace fighters from the 325th Aero on board a Leopard CV, a company of Infantry from the Davion Heavy Guard aboard Tug One. Kelly went with Harry taking one of the Black Boxed with them. Harry said this was a sight seeing tour and not a serious recovery mission so only 1 salvage crew of 30 led by Paul was going. The other 50 stayed behind to help construct the shipyard.

 Scott, O'Malley and Colonel Daly spent the last 3 days working on a recruitment and training program for the Mackolla Defense Force. Scott's Platoon had spent the last 2 days going over their 4 new Patton tanks, and then they started tackling the 48 Merkava tanks stored in the warehouse. They needed 144 personnel for the Battalion of Turhan's, 108 personnel for the Battalion of Zephyr and 240 personnel for the 48 Merkava's. 492 people just for the armor regiment. CSM O'Malley was keeping a list of needs:

 Armor Regiment 492 people
 AC/5 ammo    1000 tons
 LRM15 ammo  1000 tons
 SRM4 ammo   1000 tons
 MG ammo         200 tons
 SRM6 ammo   1000 tons
 AC10 ammo     200 tons
 LRM5 ammo    200 tons

 Scott's platoon had looked over the recovered ammo and no one trusted it, so Scott ordered it destroyed. All of it had to be replaced and they also needed ammo for training purposes. The Davion Guard Mech Techs had looked over the 4 destroyed mechs and deemed them not worth salvaging. Scott planned to use them as training targets. One of Scott's SGT's and Honos were today riding one of the VTOL's checking areas nearby suitable to construct a firing range.

 Scott wanted to have a minimum of 3 Infantry Regiments, with one of them Zero-G trained. He knew this was a lofty goal but he was going to need them to safeguard all the orbital stuff. For infantry equipment, they had 140 standard rifles captured from the merc infanty. To achieve full staffing meant roughly 3000 personnel.

 Aerospace was going to be harder to come by, Scott knew he could not train those locally. He was having trouble even coming up with a number needed to secure this system. Even talking with the 325th's commander did little to help with a number. His answer was all Scott could lay his hands on.

 George and Dr Garcia had spent all the months Harry was gone going thru every manual that was shipped with the shipyard and factories and had hard numbers worked out for the amount of material's needed for every standard Jumpship, Dropship every produced that they had plans for. The amounts were staggering. They needed a massive infrastructure built. Refineries, forges, steel factories, heck they needed everything built on planet and some items would have to be orbital. They had the raw material, according to Clayton's survey's but they had to build a massive infrastructure to turn those minerals into useable material. This continent was excellent farming country but the other continent was resource rich and not good for farming at all. Their current plan was to make that continent the industrial heart and the mining heart of the planet. Problem was, there were no people over there. They would have to build everythng from scratch. It was a huge undertaking.

 Water on planet was no problem, the large ocean on planet was fresh water. George already had a big sticky note made out to have Harry finish removing that Invaders reactor plant and getting it back here. As far as they could tell, they would not have to import anything but finished goods to get things up and going. And trained people, that was the largest hurdle. A lot of jobs were going to take extremely skilled people. The locals on planet had existed on a pre-industrial level. High tech trained they were not. Importing the amount of trained people was going to be a security nightmare. They did not even have enough trained people to operate their current jumpship fleet fully. This was not going to be fun or easy.

[2ndAcr]

 23 July 3051
        NC38754

    While everyone on Mackolla were trying to come up with a plan for each of their respective area's. Harry was doing the same aboard the MST Star Lord. He knew he had plenty of time doing nothing but sitting at jump points while they recharged. He knew they needed cash, and they needed it badly to get this thing off the ground. He wrote down a list of his spare assets and what he thought he could get for them:

 1 Jumbo  200 mil
 3 Mammoth 1.3 bil (400 mil each roughly)
 1 Star Lord  1 bil
 2 Scout     600 mil (300 mil each roughly)

 Harry was at a impasse, he knew he needed those Dropships to carry raw material into orbit plus finished material into orbit (once those could be made on the ground that is). Going on a mass buying spree for specialized factory equipment was going to attract some serious attention. Some equipment he could have Challege Systems purchase in his stead and not attract serious attention. A Germanium processing plant is probably going to attract attention. This was not going to be easy, it was going to be extremely hard.

[2ndAcr]

 30 July 3051
        NC39441

  Harry was getting antsy, they were 19.6LY from his life's goal, one little jump away from where the recovered Rim World log said the battle occurred and the distance matched perfectly with the jump coordinates recovered. Even Mikael and Gale were feeling the excitement building. Just 8 more days and they would make the jump. These far out, Harry had told Gale to take it easy on the recharge flow. The MST Star Lord was an old girl, lovingly cared for, but a old lady with a lot of miles on her.

 During the long stretches of boredom, Harry had taken to going onto Tug One and watching the Davion Guard infantry practice Zero G warfare. Their commander had even asked to take his men out using MST's EVA suits, Harry had vetoed that plan. It was not worth the risk. Paul had been teaching them forced entry techniques, that was the reason for the request. Maybe on the return voyage. Harry made a mental note to recover the Invader at NC38754 and complete the recovery of the ships reactor plant. George would be happy about that, plus they needed the power it could provide.

 6 August 3051
      NC4196

   The day had finally arrived, Harry gave the order to Gale to jump and the MST Star Lord made the jump to their life long goal. Arriving at the systems Nadir Jump Point. It took what seemed a frighteningly long time for the sensors to come online Harry thought to himself. Finally the sensor operator turned and said "Multiple sensor contacts here Harry, and I mean a bunch."

 Harry and Gale just looked at each other and smiled. Harry reach for the intercom and had the Leopard CV break loose and have the onboard fighters do a sweep. With that done he headed for the small craft bay to head out for a look see himself.

 As the 325th squadron's Aerospace fighters launched, Gale listened in on their radio frequency as they called out sightings. "Sweet Jesus, would you look at that, the war book is calling it a Congress Class Frigate, damn she is huge. Look at that huge hole in her bow, DAMN."

 "We just did a flyby of what looked to be 3 dropships lashed together with steel cable to a damn Lola III. I ain't never seen them dropships before."

 "We got another Lola III further out than the initial cluster, she is had hit, huge hole ripped into her."

 "I got another radar hit further out, going to check it out."

 "Bobby, what the heck is that ship, war book cannot class it, look at all them damn dropships attached. I count 8 collars, what jumpship has 8 collars? Monolith has 9."

 "We just located a big ass Riga according to the war book. Holy shit, look at the size of her. Another radar return, heading to check it out."

 "Have a Star Lord about 31 thou km from the whatever that big ass jumpship is, has 4 dropships attached."

 "Did a flyby of a shot to pieces Pinto, and I got eyes on something else"

 "I got a distant contact, heading to investigate."

 "I must be seeing things, that is another damn Lola III, we got a whole damn fleet out here."

 "Distant contact is another damn Pinto, also shot to pieces. What the heck these salvage guys have, a dadgum crystal ball? Anyone know what the price of all this is? I cannot add that high."

 Harry was onboard a S7A bus just staring out the window at the Congress frigate. They were 10km from it and it filled the window. All these years, all the nay sayers, all the heartache, it was all gone. His entire side of the family was finally vindicated. Here was years worth of work salvaging these ships.

 Harry finally broke himself out of his trance "Tug One, detach and let's get some of these further out ships gathered in. Do not board anything at this time. Let's just round up the strays today and get them closer in." To his pilots "Let's go take a look at that Lola III with the dropship cluster."

 It was going to be a long, long day Harry thought to himself.

[Mackon]

They are going to have to expand their cemetery  :'( a lot.

[2ndAcr]

 7 August 3051
          NC39441

  Yesterday was a long day for Tug One, she had spent over 13 hours pushing the spread out derelict fleet into a closer cluster. Now it was time to do some boarding. MST Star Lord only had 4 collars available, so he had decided to have Tug One recover and bring the 3 unknown Dropships tethered to the Lola III back to MST Star Lord. The company commander volunteered his troops to be transported to the unknown jumpship by 3 S7A buses with 6 salvage techs and do a survey of the ship and her dropships. Tug One had enough EVA suits aboard for it after all. Harry's 4th S7A would transport 12 salvage techs to the Star Lord and survey it. That left 14 salvage techs to assist in the recovery of the 3 unknown dropships.

 There was currently no need to survey the warships, Harry had no way to recover them anyway. They would await another mission. One Harry was already planning for. The next mission would involve both Star Lords, both of the Tugs, both Merchants, one of the Scouts and Aqueduct. Plus every salvage tech he could pry away from the shipyard construction. As Harry sat on MST Star Lord's bridge thinking, Gale watched Tug One and the buses heading towards their assigned targets on the ships plot board. 325th fighters slowly patrolled the immediate area.

 Tug One reached the tethered unknowns and EVA suited salvage techs began the process of cutting each one loose so the Tug could grab them one at a time and return with them to MST Star Lord. It was estimated it would take 2 hours for each unknown to be cut loose.

 The S7A carrying the survey team for the Star Lord arrived and began the task of breaching an airlock door for entry.

 The 3 S7A assigned to the unknown Jumpship arrived and it took over an hour of searching the hull to find an airlock door to breach.

 "MST this is team 4 (the Star Lord team), we are making entry now."

 Paul who was leading the EVA crews assigned to the unknown dropships recovery called in "Harry, Paul here, we got some time before Tug One returns, how about I take 3 people and take a look in this Lola III?"

 Harry had wanted to hold off, but it was Paul "Okay Paul, just a quick look around, be careful in there." Something was nagging at Harry's memory but he could not put a finger on it, something did not add up. "Gale I am going to be in my office, ring me if something happens."

 "You know I will Harry, something wrong?" Gale said but never took her eyes off the plot board.

 "I don't know, something does not add but I cannot pin it down." Harry said as he left the bridge. After reaching his office, Harry read the log again on the battle. Nothing in the log answered his nag. For 3 hours he tried to quiet the nag, finally his radio chimed "Harry, go ahead."

 "Team 4 here Harry, you will not believe what we have on this Star Lord. We have 1 Mammoth and 3 Mules attached. Mule 1 has what appears to be a crap ton of vehicles in it. Mule 2 and 3 are packed with Mechs. I have no clue how many or what type, but they are full. The Mammoth is packed with shipping containers. Big ones, we pried open 1 container and it had a fighter plane in it. No clue what kind. What do you want us to do?"

 Harry thought about it for a second, "4, reseal the container and give me a quick survey of the Star Lord."

 "Harry, we already did that, the whole back end of this Star Lord is gone. The core is wrecked totally. She is going no where. We would have to rebuild her entire engine room area."

 "Roger 4, reboard the bus until further orders."

 "4 Roger, return to bus and hold."

 Harry called Team 3 "Team 3, what do we have over there?"

 "3 here, we are 1/2 way done, we have 2 Aqueducts, 2 Jumbo and 4 Mammoth attached to this big sucker. Jumbo 1 looks to contain a crapload of infantry equipment, lots of wepaons, uniforms, boots, combat gear and such. Jumbo 2 contains Mechs, I don't recognize most of them. Mammoth 1 is loaded with scaffolding, a crapton of it.We are just now starting on the last 3 Mammoths."

 "Roger 3." Scaffolding? What did that mean, Harry thoght to himself. Now to call Paul "Paul, Harry what have we got?"

 "Harry, we have a big ass ship, we made it to the shuttle bays before wreckage stopped us. It looks as though someone pushed a bunch of Aerospace fighters inside this ship. I see slots for 6 planes, but we have at least 20 pushed in here. Some lashed to the ceiling. We did not even try to enter the cargo bay proper. You ain't landing in here or launching from here. It was almost like someone gathered them up and stowed them for a later recovery operation."

 Now that was something to sink his teeth into, Harry said to himself "Okay Paul, exit and return to recovery operations."

[Mackon]

Scaffolding? Maybe a snap together repair dock?

I love this type of stuff  ;D treasure hunting and discovering lost ships and loot! Really enjoying this, thanks much.

[2ndAcr]

 7 August 3051
         NC39441

    After Tug One secured the 3 unknown dropships to MST Star Lord, Harry sent it after the Jumbo loaded with Mechs, at least he knew they would be useful by either selling them or for the Mackolla Defense Force.

 The other Mammoths attached to the unknown Jumpship, the crews could not determine what they held. Bunch of stuff, packed to the gills is all they could say.

 It was very late when the Jumbo was secured to MST Star Lord. They still had 5 days until recharge was complete. Tomorrow, Harry was going to head out and board the Riga with all 30 salvage crew and see what they could see.

 8 August 3051
       NC39441

   Harry let the people sleep in this morning, besides they had to give the EVA suits time to recharge good. After as good a breakfast as can be had aboard a Jumpship, Harry boarded Tug One for the flight over to the Riga. It was a one hour flight over and upon arrival, Tug One expertly locked itself to the derelict Riga. Paul demanded that his people go first since Harry had not done EVA operations in years. It took some time to force the ships airlock doors open, but finally they had access to the ship and began boarding.

  Harry new from the flyby's that the bridge was destroyed, he wanted to take a look at the ships engine room. It took 3 hours to gain entry to the engine room, due to all the debris blocking doors. All of the teams had discovered some remains on all the ships. But aboard the Riga, there were many still aboard. Finally, Paul signaled Harry to come ahead into the engine control room. No one had been aboard an actual warship in hundreds of years as far as Harry knew. But between himself and Paul, they found a manual that described how and where to hook up external power lines. Paul sent some of his people to check the closest hookup noted to power up the ships engine control room computer system. It took some doing but the crew finally located it on the outer Hull. Standard Star League hook up, they had the exact power cables to hook up from the Tug. Paul gave the order to rig external power. Time was running out, so Paul ordered everyone back to the Tug to change into fresh EVA suits.

 After returning to the Tug and everyone into new EVA suits, Paul, Harry and 14 salvage personnel reentered the Riga and made it to the control room in just over an hour. Paul and Harry shared a look and when Harry nodded yes, Paul began powering up the computer system. The computers refused to boot up, Harry made some room as Paul called for a few more people that came over with them and they began trouble shooting, a bunch of blown fuses were located. Spares were quickly located in a locker and replaced. Finally the computers began booting up and automatically running diagnostics. The first computer full booted up was labeled Damage Control Master Computer, this was the one Paul focused on. As he carefully selected different options, he kept grunting to himself, but his intercom was on and it was driving Harry crazy.

 "Paul, either turn your intercom off or describe to me what your grunting about for Hanse Davion's Sake."

 "Sorry Harry, it is telling me what I already know, ship has hull breaches, no power to any part of the ship but here. That last one is a NO DUH, we only applied power here. Let me go back to the main menu, ah, last automatic diagnostics listed by date. Harry, what was the date of the battle here?"

 Harry had read the log entries so many times he knew it by heart "26 June 2766"

 "Great, and look what we have here, 26 June 2766. Hmmm, multiple entries on that date, heck there are a ton of them. Guess it notes every time something goes wrong. Let me check some of these other computers real quick. Hmmmm, okay stand by." Paul consulted the map again "Section 4 are you up? Good, on the hull there is a panel marked 77A, take another power cable and rig it there please." Returning to the Damage Control Master "Sorry Harry, need power to the actual engine room for those computers to finish their task. Oh, did not see that menu option, Engine and Jump Drive Faults Last Ten Events, now that is what I am talking about, yes, let me see that please. Hmmmm, last jump fault, lost communication with navigation computer. Wow, Harry this core might actually be intact and functional. Engine Thrust One, last event, loss of fuel flow. Next, Engine Thrust 2, last event, lost power supply. We might even have working engines."

 Harry was taking it all in but saying nothing. Paul continued "Let me check Reactor Faults...." At that moment lights started flickering on inside the engine room "Okay I can see the reactor from here, great big beam sliced thru the power and control connections to the control booth here, caused an automatic shut down. Simple enough fix. Now that we have power, we let the computers check jump drive integrity and all that good stuff. It might take a while so let's return to Tug One and get into fresh suits."

[2ndAcr]

    9 August 3051
           NC39441

 Harry had called off the Riga evaluation for the day upon their return to Tug One, Paul thru a hissy fit but Harry stood firm and promised Paul they would go back today. This time, it was Harry, Paul and 4 salvage members going back into the Riga. As they reached the control room, Paul went straight to the computers and began checking them, finally he turned to Harry who saw a weird look on Paul's face "Paul, you okay?"

 "Harry, this ships jump drive checks out perfectly. This baby can jump. All we need to do is charge the drive back up. We got no navigation computer, but we can feed information to the drive same way we did the Star Lord. I know the Star Lord had a functioning nav computer, but it is the same thing here, we can use MST Star Lords navigation computer to feed the information directly into the core here. We can actually bring this baby back home."

 "Paul, what if we lose her again? I don't have 30 more years to find her again." Harry was waging an inner war with himself over this suddenly.

 "Harry, what was the purpose of finding her? To say we did or to actually salvage her and bring her home? We were going to bring her home and to do that, we have to jump her back home. Sooner or later we are going to have to jump this ship. If we do it now, well that is one less ship to worry about getting home the next time. We have everything we need here to jump this baby home now." Paul pleaded
 
 It took Harry a long 5 minutes to finally answer "Your right Paul, we will tender jump this ship back home, it is going to slow us down charging 2 drives but we will take out time and take her home with us. First we need to secure all the remains of the crew in quarters for proper burial back home. Have Tug One push her clear of the derelicts and I will inform Gale and Mikael of what we plan to do."

  "Okay Harry, I will ask for volunteers for that task. It is a grisly and nightmarish task." Harry could tell Paul was not looking forward to the task at hand.

   19 August 3051
            NC39441

 Today was the day, it had taken 4 days with the help of the Guard Infantry Company helping out to secure all the remains inside the ship. 131 remains were accounted for aboard the Riga and secured inside crews quarters. Paul and Mikael had spent a full day reading up on how to do a full bore tender jump to make sure they got it right. The manual made it seem so simple. MST Star Lord was now 50 thousand km from the Riga, she was programmed to hit the Zenith Jump Point of NC4196. Normal margin of error for a warship was like 500km, Mikael took no chances and programmed the MST Star Lord to be almost 40,000km from the Riga's target point. He triple checked his calculations and then triple checked them again, finally he looked at Harry and nodded.

 Harry looked at Gale "Initiate Riga jump drive and let us all pray. Gale we jump 5 minutes later please."

 As Gale mashed the remote jump button she responded "I been praying ever since we found this damn fleet Harry." Both watched as the Riga blinked out of existence. They both looked at each other and help up both hands, each had their fingers crossed. Hearing mumbling, Harry turned around and found Mikael saying a pray.

 8 minutes after the Riga, the MST Star Lord materialized at NC4196 Zenith Point and found the Riga exactly 39,882 km from where they sat. A very loud "Thank you, Star League Ship Designers and Thank you Mikael!!!!" exploded from Harry. Everyone on the bridge cracked up laughing.

 "Gale would you please tell Tug One to go fetch our new friend please so we can start all over again."

[snakespinner]

From a business perspective you do not consider selling valuable much needed assets.
You look at the value and funding required.
You then look at a loan, as your partners are the First Prince and 2 of the biggest companies in the FS, I don't think you would have any problem with finance.
Before you start find a chief financial officer to handle this, ask Hanse for recommendations.  :thumbsup:

[Dave Talley]

lease the excess shipping to the folks running the factories, make a little money while still maintaining control, maybe keep the scouts for conversions to Quetzalcoatilus type
(cappelan scouts that lost their drop collars, so a aero hangar was built in, capacity of 12-18 planes iirc

[2ndAcr]

 All those items are in my head.

  9 September 3051
        NC38754

  First the unmanned Riga materialized at the Nadir Jump Point followed minutes later by MST Star Lord. Gale had Tug One detach and head over to recover the Riga for recharge of both ships. Harry took this time to call Kelly into his office "Kelly, I think we need to break out the Black Box and send a message to Mackolla. Let them know we will be stopping to recover the reactor plant from a derelict. But even encrypted, we say nothing about the Riga."

 "You got it Harry, not a word about our friend. You know First Prince Davion is going to have a cow when you tell him about it." Kelly could not suppress the grin on his face.

 "I know, the look on his face will be priceless. Heck just paying us the salvage fee will cost them a fortune. This Riga has got to be worth 15 billion at least fully functional. All that time in meetings and we never discussed salvage or finders fees. Now that is a hoot." Harry did not even attempt to hide his smile.

 9 September 3051
       Mackolla

   It was amazing Star League tech and the precision of their manufacture that had the pressurized shipyard completely assembled in 3 months time. Even more amazing is both of the orbital factories had been completed also. As a test, Tug Two had pushed the Scout Shadow into the shipyard and the Challenge Systems techs were training locals hired by Mitchell Aerospace and Shipyards over 800 of them had taken their first dropship ride up to the shipyard. They would learn while they repaired the Shadow's minor damage.

 George was meeting with the mining rep in his office "George, we need a lot more equipment. The Germanium deposit alone is huge. I got the basic mining operation started down there, we can remove 2000 tons a day for processing. I currently have them just putting it in some big piles. We got enough prefab housing down there for roughly 500 folks, that construction company is almost done with the small space port we are building, big enough for 2 Mammoth's at a time.

 I got another small mining operation going on the other continent and they are ripping out 1500 tons of titanium, 4000 tons of Iron and 2500 tons of assorted other minerals and metals a day. Same thing, we are just piling it up right now. We got housing for 300 people there. But we are going to need more, a lot more. I need more of everything, housing, mining equipment, dump trucks the works."

 "I know, trust me I know, but until Harry is back, we make no moves on that front." George knew he could make a decision and Harry would back him, but this was all so new to George. "Now, I hate to rush you, but Colonel Mitchell is about to arrive and take over chewing me out like you did, so just keep doing what you are doing."

 As the mining rep left, Colonel Mitchell appeared in the doorway "I assume he was here giving you the same speech I am about to do?" Scott smiled as he said it

 "If it is about sending ships out to fetch stuff, yes he was. I assume that is what your here for too?" George smiled, he thought Harry's nephew was extremely bright and had grown quite fond of him.

 "Pretty much summed it up. I need that ammunition and all that infantry gear. Recruitment has been outstanding and I got almost 4000 people in our version of basic training right now. I plan for basic training to last 4 months and then 4 months in advanced training. The people selected for Zero G training will spend another 4 months on that. I need trained mechanics for the tanks also." As he spoke Scott had wandered over to the huge plot board in Georges office and studied the writing on it. "Wow, you been moving some dirt, that is a lot of material sitting around. I need to start planning on securing those sites with some troops."

 "You can't yet, I don't have the housing for your troops at any of those sites yet. Scott, everyone needs more of everything. I don't even have enough crews for the Jumpships we do have in system. I need trained space crews, trained everything too. Hell, I need trained people to look at all that and tell me what it really means. I have spent my entire life in space, I am a expert engineer and salvage expert up there, but down here managing all this? I am just flying in the dark here." George explained

 "George take it easy, Harry will kill me if you have another heart attack. We will make do, we have so far. When Harry gets back, and I hope it's soon, I will force him to find some staff that are experts at this stuff to help you out. I promise." Scott tried to take the edge off George. He knew George missed being up there in orbit and jumping from system to system on the hunt. "I will leave you alone now, I best go find Honos before he gets into another fight with one of the Guard Mechwarriors."

 That brought a smile to George's face, he had heard about the last 2 fights. He had won both and that just made the Guards more likely to try him. "Yeah you better."

[2ndAcr]

 Right now everything is already owned by Mitchell Aerospace and Shipyards. I am slowly working out the details. There are really no rules for this area. Mining, amounts per day, etc.

 There really is no one else in system to lease any shipping to.

[2ndAcr]

 10 September, 3051
          NC38754

   Tug One had latched onto the derelict Invader once again, and after 5 long hours of work they had the ships reactor assembly removed from the Invader and placed inside the cargo hold. Since they had days before they jumped, Harry had them strip the Invader of anything of use. Over the next 2 days they removed the drive initiator, field controller, the ships computer system. Harry finally gave the order for Tug One to transfer the remains of the crew onto the Riga for burial on Mackolla. Once that was done Tug One aimed the Invader at the systems star and accelerated the derelict to 1.5 G's before releasing her.

 All that was left to do now was finish recharging operations and make the final jump to Mackolla.

 Harry had spent the last 2 days with 4 of MST Star Lord's crewmen inspecting the 4 salvaged Dropships attached. The Star Lord's chief Tech had verified that all dropships amazingly enough had fuel aboard and that it looked as though all 4 dropships reactors had been powered down by their crews. The 3 unknown dropships showed battle damage but nothing severe or compromising, thankfully there were no remains discovered aboard any of the dropships. Harry would not attempt a reactor restart until they reached Mackolla. He was currently floating inside the Jumbo's cargo bay, he had counted every Mech inside, and he had no clue what any of them were. Inside were 144 Mechs, what looked like several hundred tons of armor plating and spare parts. Indentification would have to wait on their return. After 2 hours inside the Jumbo, Harry exited and motioned for the techs with him to seal the hatch. One more jump, Harry thought to himself as he returned to his office to continue planning the huge salvage mission ahead of them.

  28 September 3051
            Mackolla

 The emergence wave caused by the Riga jumping into the outer area of the Zenith Jump Point caused wholesale panic of the Mackolla Defense Forces. The pilots of the 325th aboard their Leopard CV were scrambling to their fighters while the ground based squadron did the same thing. That panic only magnified when the Riga materialized and only slowly subsided when it was followed minutes later by the MST Star Lord. Harry opened communication with the Leopard CV.

 "AFFC Leopard, this is Harry aboard the MST Star Lord, sorry about the surprise but we did not want to announce this to the world."

 "Geez sir, glad it is you, I was just trying to figure out if my life insurance was paid in full."

 "You can breathe again now, I want you to take up a close patrol our friend please. Until we get her moved into a closer orbit anyway."

 "Roger moving to close patrol."

 Harry turned to Gale, pass the word, let's get everyone boarded and get to the surface. Radio Tug Two and have her come snag the Riga and let's take her into a closer orbit of Mackolla. Also radio George and inform him we have remains and funeral to prepare for again."

 "You got it Harry. Safe flight down."

 Harry boarded Tug One and they began the long flight home.

[2ndAcr]

 10 October 3051
          Mackolla

  Tug One had landed 2 days ago, Harry was in his office when George and Scott knocked on his door, looking up he waved them inside and to the chairs. As George sat he said "Glad to have you home Harry, you rested up?"

 "Yeah George, sorry I wanted to postpone any serious talk until today, but I needed some ground time to rest up. But since you brought reinforcements with you, I suspect I am about to get ganged up on." Harry said as he put away the notepad he was working on and brought out a new note pad.

 "Sort of, we need to discuss a ton of issues Uncle Harry. We need way more of everything. I will let George cover that part. For mine, I need ammunition, I need trained mechanics, I need equipment for my infantry, heck we need to discuss a Mech force because no way a armored regiment and a couple infantry reg are going to hold this planet if someone comes in force. We need to figure out some kind of Jumpship schedule for getting that material to us but also how to do it and maintain security at the same time." Scott let go at Harry first.

 "Let's start with Jumpship schedule, I had a lot of time to think while out there, we will use the AFFC crewed Merchants and setup a relay. We will post one, at what the old Star League star map calls Giverny, the other one will be at Okefenokee. I will have Mikael wipe Mackolla coordinates from the Merchant based at Okefenokee from it's nav computer. Only the ship at Giverny will have the coordinates to here. That will work as a stop gap for now. It is not the greatest but for now it will work.

 Right after we arrived in-system I had Kelly send Peter a secure message to inform Quintus Allard of the supply requests both have you had filled my email box with while I was gone. This morning, Peter informed me that obviously they have been busy. Sitting at Okefenokee are 14 AFFC cargo dropships loaded with all sorts of things they think we need. I also had Peter send a pre-agreed upon code word letting them know we have something substantial. Now, Scott, you need to get a move on, you are leading the fleet to Okefenokee. Make sure we are secure. Both Star Lords and both Merchants are going." Harry stated

 George and Scott just sat there and then looked at each other. "You have been busy Harry, or should I say our benefactors have been busy, but what about people, we need trained people a bunch of them across the spectrum of all skills." George said

 "That takes longer, everyone has to be MIIO screened before coming here." Harry stated

 "Harry, all that material is great, but without the trained people it is useless to us." George was about to continue when Harry held up his hand "Patience, please have some patience. Those 3 men on New Avalon know the importance of what we have out here, they are not sitting on their backsides. I don't have word in personnel yet. Now Scott you need to get moving, go get our goodies."

[Mackon]

IDK, if your army/navy were a bit more established I'd suggest going and raiding pirate worlds, rescuing slaves. But you have a long way to build up until you have the strength for that kind of force projection.

[2ndAcr]

 21 October 3051
          Mackolla

  Scott and all the jumpships left today for Okefenokee. The Riga was now in a orbit around Mackolla 2 days away, Harry had both Tug One and Two begin the grim task of recovering the remains for burial. Dr Garcia was bugging Harry about going up to the Riga, even the Challenge Systems head tech was pestering him about going aboard to begin a damage estimate.

 "Look, a damage estimate is great but we have no way in hell of even repairing anything that huge anyway. You will get a chance to board her in due time. We have a funeral to plan and prepare for first. Now let me say, great work on getting the shipyard and factories assembled in record time. How are our new employees handling their new jobs?" Harry said trying to end the constant pestering.

 "Your previous salvage guys assigned to the shipyard are fantastic, took some time to get it in their heads that the new job is build not take apart. But they are great techs, excellent problem solvers. The local's, well the follow directions ad retain most of the knowledge good. We have had to transfer about 150 of them to ground duty, they kept getting sick in Zero G. We finished repairs on the that Scout jumpship. I am curious as to how soon we can actually begin building something. I really want to see that baby doing what she was designed to do." The Challenge Systems rep stated. "Even though she is a repair yard, there is not much difference in repair or build. There is some, but from what I can tell and what Dr Garcia here has explained to me, she is more than capable of building ships from scratch."

 "Again great work up there. We are working on the problem as we speak on getting the equipment in place to begin the real work. Once we have the ground operation ready to support your efforts up there, I can start give you a date when we start operating. You were informed this was a long term operation correct?" Harry told the Challenge engineer

 "Yeah, I was informed it was long term. I been wondering when my family will be joining me, I also have requests from my married crewmembers I brought."

 "I will work on that really soon, promise." Harry said as he made a note on his notepad. "Now, on to other things, we brought back 4 dropships, 3 of them I have no clue what type they are just that they have a ton of weapons on them. I would like for you to assist my salvage teams on restarting their reactors and bringing them inside the repair yard. They have all suffered battle damage and need repairs anyway. Dr Garcia, I would ask that you assist in figuring out what type they are and such please."

 "Not a problem, Mr Mitchell, this has been a dream assignment for me. All the Star League tech I have ever wanted to put my hands on. We have full specs on every dropship in service during that era in the manuals that were recovered. Should be just a matter of matching what we see with the books." Dr Garcia had a gleam in his eye at the thought of playing with more Star League tech.

 "Glad to hear it, now I have to cut this short as George is wanting to bend my ear some more about planning. Plus I want to go over and see how that reactor plant we recovered is coming along." Harry said as he rose from his desk

 8 November 3051
       Okefenokee

   Scott was on the bridge with Gale, who he had only met a couple of times. "Capt Crumney, your the expert here, so what do we do next?" Scott was looking at the plot board showing the huge mass of Dropships waiting on them, he counted 8 Mules and 6 Mammoths. But amongst the cargo dropships was a small Fury class dropship.

  "Scott, call me Gale. First we have the dropships dock with us unless you want to inspect every ship and it's contents. You did not bring any troops with you, so that is going to take a long time." Gale said with a thin smile.

 Scott visibly winced at the slight rebuke. It was a huge over sight on his part. He had Honos with him and that was all. As he thought about his response, he saw the Fury begin to head towards the MST Star Lord. "Gale any communication from that Fury?" He asked as he pointed to it's moving dot on the map.

 "Comms, contact that Fury and find out what he his doing please." Gale said now firmly watching the Fury's symbol.

 It took 4 minutes for a response, "Gale, says he has a message to personally deliver to the commander of our flotilla. He is requesting docking instructions."

 Gale looked at Scott "Well Colonel Mitchell, your the commander of this flotilla so I guess that means he wants to speak to you. That Fury can carry a full company of troops so if this is a boarding action, there is not much we can do about it anyway."

 Scott thought for a second and then his back straightened "Gale, me and Honos will meet the Fury, lock down the bridge and engine rooms. Mikael order all navigators to be ready to erase their entire jump logs and navigation computers. Be ready to purge everything if this goes bad."

 With that said, Scott left the bridge with Honos and moved to the docking collars. Passing one of the armed techs aboard the ship, Scott took the mans pistol and gave it to Honos.  "Don't do anything until I do Honos, I am trusting you on this."

 Honos hooked the pistol belt around his waist and gave Scott a slight nod "You can trust me sir, by my honor."

 2 hours later, the Fury finished docking with MST Star Lord, Scott had spent the time as best he could. He had the bay doors locked and armed crewmen ready to repel boarders. The airlock cycled and finally opened, and much to Scott's surprise, the first man out was none other than Quintus Allard himself.

 Scott found his voice "Sir, we did not expect you. We had no word."

 Quintus just smiled "Good, that means security is working well. Your uncles message peeked our curiosity so we drew straws and I won. I will accompany you back to Mackolla and see this grand prize your uncle found for us. Care to tell me what it is?"

 "Sir, I will leave that to Uncle Harry, but you will not be disappointed. It is some sight." Scott said with a smile. "Now can I show you to the bridge and have quarters assigned to you?"

 "Lead on my boy, lead on." Quintus said returning the smile, which sagged some when he spotted Honos near the door with a pistol on his hip. With a lower voice to Scott "Arming the prisoners now son?"

 "Honos is not a prisoner sir, he is my aide." Scott defended his actions

 "We shall see my boy, we shall see. Lead on, I am tired."

[Mackon]

2ndAcr, why the Riga? Out of all the Jumpships and Warships, I mean. Was it the most repairable? The biggest and best?

[Daryk]

I'm surprised they tossed the Invader.  The germanium alone was worth a pretty penny, and they discussed how they just didn't have the gear handy to recover it the first time.  I'd have thought a parking orbit would make more sense so they could eventually come back for the scrap.

[2ndAcr]

 All will be revealed soon. I am reworking some of my notes to cover it. Plus I am trying to calculate the ratio of Germanium to Titanium for a jump core. Nothing to go on canon, so I am kind of winging it on this area. Planet management has never really been covered in depth anywhere I can find. So trying to work out all the problems faced when trying to kick start something. Even with a repair yard and 2 orbital factories, stuff just does not happen overnight.

[2ndAcr]

 9 November 3051
         Okefenokee

    All the AFFC dropships had been docked, Scott and Quintus were enjoying breakfast in what was usually Harry's stateroom/office. Scott was not used to dealing with such high ranking people and kept his mouth closed and eyes ears open. It made for a quiet breakfast because Quintus Allard was not a huge talker it seemed. Must go with being a spy master Scott thought to himself. Finally Scott worked up the courage to engage in conversation.
 
 "Sir, what all is in the dropships if I might ask?" Scott inquired

 "Well, how about you tell me what Harry and you all found that drug me all the way out here first?" Quintus replied eyeing Scott.

 Scott did not know if this was a test or not. He suddenly regretted opening his mouth at all. This was not a man to irritate. "Sir, Uncle Harry gave specific orders to say nothing to anyone about our find." He hoped that would cover his ass.

 "Orders huh, you take orders seriously do you?" replied Quintus, even though his eyes narrowed some, Scott thought he detected a softening in the man's usual ominous tone

 "Yes sir I do. Uncle Harry is the ruler of Mackolla so appointed, I am head of the Mackolla Defense Force, so I work for him." Scott said hoping it was good enough of an answer, he really did not like fencing with this man.

 "So in your capacity as Commander Mackolla Defense Force your asking me to reveal the cargo on those dropships to ascertain if they pose a threat, is that correct?" Quintus replied again, dammit Scott though, verbally fencing with this guy was no fun. He could not come up with a answer quick enough.

 "It is all in how you phrase a question my boy. Your first question allowed me to easily deflect it back to you, the way I phrased it would have left me no choice but to answer your question. Lesson one from an old man." Quintus said with a smile.

 Scott just stared at his coffee for a few seconds before replying "Yes sir, lesson learned. Next time I will phrase any questions and leave no out for someone."

 "Good, learn what others can teach. As to your question, we have scoured high and low to aquire needed machinery. We have a metal processing plant capable of producing 1500 tons per line, it has 4 lines, per day. Now all of these are peak production times mind you. We have a dismantled orbital Germanium processing plant that can process 2500 tons per day at peak, metal extruders, wire extruders, a plant for the manufacter of plastics does about 1000 tons per day, a armor producing plant that does 100 tons per day, more complicated process you see, but can produce any armor invented to this day. An unholy amount of mining equipment I will not even try to remember, adjustable forms and molds for the common types of jumpships and dropships. About 15,000 tons of assorted ammunition. Thousands of tons of basic supplies, entertainment equipment etc. And enough prefab housing for something like 20,000 people. Oh and last but not least, we have 12 brand new Stuka's, 24 Corsairs of the latest models for your defense force and the pilots to fly them for you, they belong to you, not the AFFC. All have been fully vetted by my office." Quintus finally ended

 Scott just sat there dumbfounded, that was a huge list of stuff, it must have cost a fortune and he said so "Wow, all that must have cost a small fortune. We could use the housing but we don't have near enough people to use 20,000. Guess we could store it and assemble as needed."

 "Oh, I guess I forgot to mention I need you to pick up 2 Mules here in 2 months time. On those Mules are 28,000 people willing to resettle to Mackolla, all have been vetted by my office. If I remember my numbers right, 6,000 of those people are experienced metal workers, smelter, miners, orbital workers, some ship construction folks, plastic makers, some accountants, a full MIIO team of 24, 12 on each dropship for security. About 400 space crewmen, pilots, navigators. Again all vetted by my office. We took the number of jumpships you currently run and multiplied total crews by 3. Gives us some extra. And with me on the Fury are a present from the First Prince, he sent your Uncle 12 of his folks to help run the planet and your Uncles landhold." Quintus was enjoying the stunned look on young Scott's face.

 "I know someone on Mackolla who is going to be extremely happy to hear this news." Scott said with some humor

 "You must mean George Schroon, I heard he was pulling his hair out and a little in over his head. Sorry he had to go get himself grounded." Quintus said

 "Sir, I am not even going to inquire how you know all that." Scott said with total shock

 "I see and hear all my boy, nothing gets by me, remember that." Quintus said with a wink

[2ndAcr]

 Okay, question for everyone, KF Core are a Germanium and Titanium mix/blend. So what percentage of each do we think they are?

 I got no canon answer for that so need a best guess. Or something to work off of. I am thinking 40/60 germanium/titanium

[cawest]

Okay, question for everyone, KF Core are a Germanium and Titanium mix/blend. So what percentage of each do we think they are?

 I got no canon answer for that so need a best guess. Or something to work off of. I am thinking 40/60 germanium/titanium

70 germanium
20 Titanium
10 a mix of others.  something that is very conductive.  (silver?? gold is not that great but it does not corrode.)

[2ndAcr]

 So you lean more Germanium than Titanium? Only thing I have seen canon is Germanium Titanium spun into a specific pattern etc

 I am reading it as a Titanium Germanium alloy...……….first is usually the greater part

 Even at a 40 Germanium 60 Titanium the smallest core still has to have 19,000 tons of Germanium and 28,500 Titanium for a Explorer Class

 Tramp Class is 95,000 tons Germanium and 142,500 Titanium

[2ndAcr]

 9 November 3051
        Okefenokee

      It was dinner time on board the MST Star Lord, once again Scott and Quintus were in Harry's Stateroom. Scott had been thinking on the security issue of skilled labor. As dinner wound down, he decided to see how Quintus reacted to it.

 "Sir, I been thinking about the skilled labor problem. Since we do not have a HPG on Mackolla, we control all inbound and outbound ways into the system and on or off the planet itself, could we not relax the vetting process for workers who will stay on planet? We vett only those that will actually know what we are doing there." Scott asked

 "Interesting idea, but their Employer would be Mitchell Aerospace and Shipyards and that is a huge clue right there." Quintus said, he was curious about the young man's ideas and problem solving anyway.

 "True, but since Mitchell Aerospace and Shipyards is registered in the Federated Suns, yet has no known facilities in the entire Inner Sphere does that not also leave a huge hole in security?" Scott replied

 Scott could see he struck a nerve from the visible wince Quintus made before answering. "My boy, you just stumbled upon an issue we let slip by us. This will not do and I will rectify that upon my return to New Avalon." The boy is smart, none of us even thought of that error. Quintus thought to himself.

 "Okay, so by that measure, we could create subsidiaries of Mitchell Aerospace like say, Mitchell Mining, Mitchell Metals, etc etc. Then the workers on Mackolla proper would have no clue we had a orbital shipyard right above them. Only that they go to work for say Mitchell Mining and spend all day mining. Almost anything is better than spending months vetting folks and having a trickle come in. Dr Garcia, who is extremely smart by the way, and George did some math and figured Mackolla could sustain and support a total population of 1.7 billion people. We currently have a hair over 3 million. They also did some more math and decided that to fully exploit the resources and put them to use, we needed a work force of over 350,000 just on the planet surface and another 15,000 for the orbital shipyards and current factories. That is over 10% of our population right there. I have another 4500 people training for the Defense Force." Scott stated

 "10% leave a lot of people to work." Quintus said in reply

 "Current census conducted 4 months ago gave 845,000 men, 931,000 women and 1.35 million children under 18. A third of our population are scattered in small towns and are mainly farmers. We need them doing what they are doing. When you look at the big numbers, you start running out of people really fast." Scott continued to make his case

  Quintus was impressed, Scott continued to surprise him "So is this all theoretical or do you have an idea in mind besides opening the door to mass migration?"

 "Mainly theoretical, just some ideas me and George have kicked around over the months. Of course that number comes down some the more automation we get. So for example, that metal factory you got out there, any idea how many people it employed?" Scott asked

 "I am not sure, it is an old factory, I want to say on order of 3500 per shift, 3 shifts per day 10,500 people." Quintus hazarded a guess

 "Okay, that is one factory producing what 6000 tons of metal a day at full capacity. That is raw metal, now we have to convrt that into what we need, alloys, wire, armor etc etc.......every step of the way we chew into available work force. And they calculate supporting just what we have now, if I know my Uncle Harry, he is going to want to expand the operation and now our work force supply takes another cut. I mean technically, from what I have gathered from George and Dr Garcia and the Challenge Systems rep, that shipyard could, technically mind you build another yard and so forth. No where near as sophisticated on automation but imagine what would happen if they try it and that thing spits out another pressurized shipyard in say 4 months time, heck in a year our work force needs quadruple. Now in theory, from what I have gleaned, our current shipyard could spit out a Invader in 3 months time if all material is available at start, 4 per year. Now if another, not as fancy shipyard kicks say 2 per year. You follow me sir?" Scott knew he was making his point as he could see the wheels in Quintus' head spinning

 "Yes, I am getting your point, that would consume a bunch of material really fast. Not to mention the manpower equation. I will give it some thought over our journey. But for now, tell of your plans to safeguard this huge investment we have out there on Mackolla." Quintus said as part of his mind went over the very convincing argument just made.