Blue Star Enterprises

Chapter 3-24

Vitor stepped out of the airlock and was greeted by a group of mercenaries, which included Marine Galloway. He nodded to the Marine before turning to the leader of the group. "Team Leader Jallen," Vitor said as he accepted the man's outstretched hand and shook it. "I take it you'll be my guide?"

"Yes, Captain. If you'd follow me I can show you what we've discovered so far."

"There are indeed five ships under construction or there were. Something happened to the third destroyer and its parts were scrapped or used on the other two ships. We asked the prisoners and the few surviving pirates about the missing ship but whatever happened to the vessel happened before they arrived and none of them could say what that was. There are always the ones still in stasis to speak to but we decided not to wake any of those people until we knew more."

"That's probably for the best," Vitor said as they turned down a passageway.

The fewer people they had to corral the better.

"The ships are mostly complete, but they are missing most of their weapons, some internal systems, and a few need external finishes. Most of the work was on hold because the pirates were waiting for the remaining parts to be delivered. Apparently, there was a trade that was scheduled to happen."

Vitor groaned. "You don't mean the one between them and the unknown corporation do you?"

Jallen shrugged. "The surviving pirates weren't sure and the woman who ran this place didn't live long enough to tell anyone."

"Alright. For now, let's assume that was the case. Are the ships space-worthy and can they jump into FTL?" Those were really the only two things that mattered to Vitor right now. The rest Kane could figure out.

"The Hawks engineers are going over them as we speak, but I haven't heard anything to indicate any major concern. We'll arrive at the first cruiser shortly so you can get a more updated picture of their condition directly from them."

Vitor nodded. "And the civilians?" The mercenaries had discovered hundreds of active stasis pods on the station. If the logs were accurate, the pirates had kept the families alive. It was a small miracle.

"A bit malnourished but overall in good condition. It took some convincing, but once we assured them that they would eventually get back to their homes, they were eager to cooperate."

The group arrived outside a large airlock that had tools, parts, and people scattered about. Vitor was a little surprised to see so many people having assumed the mercenaries would have moved them into one area. It seemed this group of civilians were communicating with the Hawks engineers.

He recognized Chief Engineer Sullivan from a few of the meetings they had on the journey out here. She walked over to greet him once she was finished.

"Captain Krieger, Team Leader Jallen," the woman spoke as she nodded to each of them.

Not wanting to beat around the bush or take up the woman's precious time, he simply stated what he wanted to know. "What are we looking at?"

"A mess," she said. "It'll be easier to show you."

They moved through the crowd and into the large ship. When he saw the missing panels that allowed him to look through multiple compartments, he turned to Jallen. "I thought you said they were mostly complete?"

"They are, structure-wise," the short engineer responded without breaking stride. "The pirates focused on making sure they were operational to ensure they could move them if they needed to. Of course, that assumed they had the fusion activation crystals, which they didn't."

"Is this the ship that had the power buildup during our fight?"

Sullivan nodded. "The woman that ran the station tried to kick start the reactor using the station's power to force an overload. Some of the prisoners didn't agree with her course of action and the woman didn't survive the disagreement."

The group entered the reactor room and skirted around a congealing pool of blood.

"Did you bring the crystal?" Sullivan asked.

Vitor nodded and reached into his suit and produced all five crystals Alex had given him. Since none of them were labeled Sullivan had to try three before one worked.

The reactor hummed to life, slowly building power. Soon the ship lights started flickering on, washing out the work lights that had been strung up.

"Now that we have power, we can get a better idea of what needs to be completed. Jallen, leave two people to guard the reactor." The TL nodded at the woman's command and picked two of his team to stay behind. The rest followed them to the bridge.

A few of the Hawks people were already on the bridge going over the systems when their group arrived.

"Report," Sullivan stated.

"It's a cobbled-together mess, Chief," one of the engineers stated. "Some of the systems are so old I'm surprised they even work, while others look to have been ripped out of other ships without having their buffers cleared. They are throwing all sorts of errors since they can't find their linked systems. Then there are the homegrown components that I'm surprised are even functional. I'm sure the other ships are just as bad."

"Will it fly?" She asked.

"If that's all you need it to do, then yes. Some of the problems like the buffer issues, we can clear up, but Alex is going to need to do a complete overhaul on these if he wants them to do anything other than look slightly menacing."

"That will be for him to decide," Sullivan stated. "Do your best to clear up any issues, but don't spend too much time on these ships. We still need to repair our ships before we head out."

The man nodded.

They continued the tour, visiting the other ships. Each had similar issues to a varying degree.

"Any possibility that we can find the reactor that this belongs to?" Vitor waved the last activation crystal.

Chief Engineer Sullivan took the offered crystal and tucked it away. "I'll ask around if there are any reactors in storage but I somehow doubt it. I get the feeling that the other destroyer had a catastrophic failure. If it hadn't I would have expected to see one of the remaining destroyers with a much more finished interior just from the recycled parts."

"Hmm. Any chance of getting those other ships operational?" There were still five frigates docked at the station. They wouldn't have enough crew to fly all of them, but one or two should be possible.

"No," she replied with certainty. "Where do you think most of the systems for these new ships came from? They were taken directly from those outdated frigates. The same is true with the weapons systems, which is why the cruisers and destroyers are using undersized weapons as well as being short on turrets. At best we can come back at some later date and salvage everything here."

Vitor shook his head. "This is a one-and-done mission, Chief Sullivan. Alexander told me to make sure there was nothing left behind for pirates to use in the future."

"Probably for the best," she stated. "We're going to want as many people as possible then."

"For what?" Vitor asked in confusion.

"To strip this station for all it's worth. The gravity plating alone will be worth taking, but there is the reactor, the stabilization systems, and even the guns, assuming any of those are still intact. I know Alex probably meant to simply blow the place up, but I also know he needs these components. No point in letting them go to waste. I would take the entire station if given a choice, but an FTL drive big enough to transport an entire station doesn't exist, or if it does, I haven't heard about it."

"Fair enough," Vitor admitted. "First we fix our ships as best we can, then make sure the captured ships are capable of making the trip back. Once that's done, we load the civilians and the stasis pods aboard the Talon. I don't think any other ship has the capacity for that many people. Then we strip this place for all it's worth and send it on a course for the moon or the planet, whichever is quicker."

The next few weeks were a mad scramble as anyone who wasn't required crew aboard the fleet was tasked with helping the engineers.

The first ship that went into the dock was Fury, while the others patrolled to ensure no pirates returned. It was also the one that took the longest to fix, even with Alex's bots doing the majority of the heavy lifting.

Next up was Eden's Might. The hull breaches were easy enough to patch, but one of the main bulkheads had been cracked in half when they were struck by the station's railgun. A temporary patch was welded in place, but Alex would need to look it over when they returned.

Resolve had taken less damage than the other two ships, but a few armor panels had to be recycled and replaced.

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The onboard smelter on the Talon sped up the process by quite a bit since this station didn't seem to have any advanced production in place. It also helped speed up the completion of the armor components for the cruiser that was still missing most of its plates. The end result looked like a patch job but it was functional. Alex could fix that if he wanted to.

The bigger concern was the anemic propulsion systems that had been added to these ships. The cruisers were more than large enough to be equipped with Class 8 thrusters or at least some Class 5 civilian ones. Instead, the pirates had packed in nine Class 4 thrusters and called it good.

Even if those nine engines produced the same thrust as two Class 8s, the added weight reduced the overall acceleration by a significant amount. The reactor was also underpowered for a ship that size.

The same could be said for the two destroyers, but to a lesser degree since ships that size still used Class 4 thrusters.

If he only took the ships into account, Vitor wasn't sure this mission was worth the effort. They were cobbled together, underpowered, under-armored, and lacked sufficient armaments to justify their use as anything other than visible deterrents. Vitor sure as hell wouldn't fly one of them into battle. Alex was going to have to tear them all apart and rebuild them if he wanted these vessels to be anything other than additional tonnage in his fleet.

Only the addition of the components from the station, and all the people they rescued made this mission worthwhile in his eyes. When they returned, he would be sure to point this fact out to Alex in case the man got any bright ideas to try something like this again.

Vitor was all for rescuing people from pirates, but he would prefer that to be the main goal of the mission and not a secondary goal. He understood where Alex was coming from when he made the choice, but it sat poorly with him.

After two weeks of laborious work, the first Cruiser undocked. The Hawks' people had finally finished getting the ship's systems up and running as well as familiarizing themselves with the controls. A few days after that, the second cruiser undocked and joined the first waiting nearby. None of the pirate ships were equipped with tight beam laser links so they kept any radio communications to a minimum to prevent their communications from being intercepted.

The two destroyers ended up being more stubborn and required an additional week to make ready, pushing their stay here to a full month before both of those finally undocked as well.

"Station's clear," he heard over the radio as the last of the mercenaries returned to the Talon aboard the drop ships.

The fleet all gathered a safe distance away from the station and waited. Soon, two bright flashes could be seen, followed by a rush of debris out the side of the station. A few carefully planted charges created holes in the side of the station and allowed the air to rush out the side, pushing the station into a decaying orbit. Without power, there would be nothing anyone could do to correct that.

Vitor still kept the fleet there until he saw the first signs of the station being tugged faster toward the surface as the moon's gravity acted on it. Once he was sure there would be nothing left, he turned the fleet around and made for the closest jump point. They would make a few test jumps to ensure everything was working correctly, and then it was time to head back to Unokane.

When he thought about Eden's End, he was surprised to find himself missing it slightly.