Chapter Seventeen: Salvage and Recovery
"Well, the Captain really nailed this one." Staff Sergeant Packer said as they opened the rear hatch on the Quickdraw. "The whole thing practically buried itself, must've been moving at it's max speed when it lost it's foot."
"Damn!" PFC Mendoza said to Sergeant Packer and Private Jenkins who were peering in with him. "Someone forgot their maintenance, look at those straps." Where the five point harness was attached to the seat had frayed and snapped, causing the pilot to snap her neck against the roof when the Quickdraw's foot got taken out from under her.
"Alright, let's haul the body out and get to the Vagabond, we have some astechs who want to take a look at this thing and see if they can get it up and running again in a couple of weeks." Sergeant Packer told the duo with him. Waving at the Jabberwocky that they were using as a partial salvage 'mech. The three JabberWocky's with them each grabbed a 'Mech and began to drag it to the Vagabond where the techs and salvage people did their jobs. The last Griffin, the one that the pilot had surrendered in, was still able to move on it's own power and so Lieutenant Peterson was piloting it into the cargo bay now.
While most of the Infantry platoon helped out with the 'Mech salvage, the dropship engineers and the tech specialists that were a part of the Marksman were diving into the massive wreck to see if they could get it either up and running or what they could salvage if they couldn't.
"Try it now." Chief Petty Officer Victoria Jewel called out from the reactor room. The Spaceman apprentice assigned to her flipped the switch that she had connected this to. "Turn it off, and let me check one thing." She called from the other room. "I'm looking for one burnt out conduit and I've narrowed it down to two."
"Wait one," She called while fiddling with some equipment. "Alright, try it one more time." The power flickered. Come on you stupid piece of crap work!" She yelled and kicked the reactor. When she kicked it, everything came on and stayed that way. "Alright, now I'll check with Petty Officer Taylor and see if the engines are still operational. You go and see if the Captain need any assistance with the computer systems."
"Yes ma'am," the Spaceman apprentice called and headed towards the bridge where the captain was. Captain Mark Hull, the commander of the Mercenary company was a strange man. SA Bruce mused to himself. He had mandated cross training with everyone and himself had trained with everyone. He had never had to qualify with a rifle or heavy machinery before joining the Marksman. He did like that everyone knew what the different jobs entailed though. The infantry guys he hung out with could assist people like Chief Victoria just as well as he could and he could back them up in a firefight if necessary.
SA Bruce shook his head. That was enough woolgathering for now. He had work to do.
"Why is this stuff so heavy?" Asked Corporal Lamb as she helped Private Mckay pick up a crate of material that they had taken from the pirate's storage. "And where is Sheppard? Wasn't he supposed to help us with this?"
"I am," Sheppard said while picking up a crate the same size as the one they were struggling with by himself. "I'm doing all of the work here with Corporal Dunham and y'all are just struggling here."
Corporal Dunham was a beast of a man, 6 foot four and two hundred and seventy five pounds of pure muscle. But, he was also one of the few infantryman with a classical education. He was one of the people that took to the cross training the best. "At least we only have a few crates left," Dunham tried to broker a peace between the two parties. "What's even in these things?" he did ask, hoping that at least one of the 'Mech pilots would know.
"Small arms and SRM launchers." Sheppard replied, "The pirates had been stocking them for years before we got here." He placed the last crate on the pallet they were loading. "Alright ladies get the straps and lash this thing down. We want it to not move when they carry it over to the Vagabond."
"Yessir, the two female 'Mech pilots responded as they moved over to the ratchet strap and began to strap down the crates while Dunham climbed the ladder to the Jabberwocky they had been assigned and got everything ready to carry the crate over to the Vagabond.
Seeing as they had loaded everything else up, they got comfortable while waiting for Dunham to return.
"So… How'd you get hired?" Lamb asked, referring to the other two. "I got started by being on the Janus when he jumped in but how'd y'all sign up?"
"Well," Sheppard started. "Mckay and I served together in the AFFS together until we got injured in a Capellan raid, Captain showed up at the bar we were at and offered us a place." Mckay just kept quiet while Sheppard told their story.
"What Sheppard isn't saying, is that he almost refused until I tore him a new one for refusing to get his leg and back fixed." Mckay snorted and told the rest of the story not leaving out the bits that Sheppard did. "We both had to be medically discharged and hadn't been wise with our money so we couldn't afford the care we needed." She kept going. "The captain took one look at the injuries and offered to pay for them regardless of whether we signed up to join the Marksman or not and the same goes for a lot of the NCO's and infantry around here."
PFC Nathan Rook stared in awe as the Captain flawlessly navigated through Star League era systems without having to double check a manual. Even after his years and training in the AFFS, he couldn't get into systems that quickly. Hell, he didn't even know that that back door existed until the captain showed him. Reaching into his cargo pocket, he grabbed his small notebook and pen that he kept on him and started scribbling down notes. Pausing periodically to ask questions, he just observed and took in what he was seeing. Working with the Captain was really fun, he was down to earth and had stopped moving quickly in what he was doing several times to show Rook exactly what he was doing.
"Captain?" Rook finally decided to ask. "Where'd you learn how to do all of that?" Seeing as the Captain was done, he figured now would be the best time to ask.
"Would you believe me if I said a Warship?" Asked the Captain with a strange look in his eye, like it was an inside joke or something.
"C'mon Captain, tell me where you really learned it." Rook insisted, not finding the Captains joke all that funny.
"Well," The Captain paused. "Lots of practice, my dad did a lot of computer work on older and newer systems and I picked up a lot from him. And I took on the family business a lot back then you know?" The captains eyes grew a little sad at the mention of his family. "Well, I hope you managed to pick up a thing or two from this old man." Captain Hull said as he packed up his notebook and 'Noteputer. "Call me up if you need help with the rest of it." he called over his shoulder as he walked away.
"Well, this was a milk run." Chopper called out over the Aerospace only comms to the rest of Wardog Squadron. "We didn't even have to shoot at anything. If it stays like this; I might just stay on permanently." He joked with a hint of seriousness to his voice.
"Chopper, quiet on the comms." Blaze interjected. "We'll discuss possible options with the rest after we are off shift." Everything went quiet for a good fifteen minutes before Motormouth chopper opened his mouth again to break the peace.
"Cut out the chatter Wardog." Interjected Mother Goose, the pilot and acting intelligence officer of the Wardogs. "We're getting word from the Marksman that the massive dropship is space worthy and that it's about to lift off we are transmitting escort positions now."
"Copy that Mother Goose, we are on our way to transmitted Coordinates,." Blaze replied.
Both Blaze and Chopper stared in awe as the massive dropship eased itself off of the moon and begin to accelerate to a good orbit. The Dropship had some dents and dings, but overall aside from a few areas that the pirates had messed with, it was still in good shape. And clearly the internals still worked properly.
"Blaze! Look at the size of that thing!" Chopper chattered away.
"Size isn't everything." Blaze replied. "Take a closer look, it's unarmed and will need to be covered by fighters in order to get anywhere in a hostile enviroment."
"Wardog Squadron, we see you on our flanks, you may want to return to the Puma and get ready to make for the Zenith, we are leaving and heading back to Concordat Space for now." The big ship transmitted as it began to turn and then make for the waiting King Henry V and the other two Jump ships there.