“What brings you to my 'office' Midshipman Huckle?”

“Target practice Sir. Specifically, the need for a range of sorts in light of upcoming re qualification drills.”

“Oh? Oh, yes, they would be due when we get back wouldn't they. I'd forgotten about them. Hm.”

“The cargo hold has sections long enough, and empty enough, to work Sir... but I'd really prefer a better backstop then a half empty cargo container. None of the weapons onboard are rated as hull-breaching but they'd still mark up the deck and bulkheads something fierce.”

“And you have something in mind?”

“Yes Sir. The crater on Clouwell one dash seven. If it really is a crashed ship, and the scans and analyses sure do look that way, then there should be a spare piece of exterior hull or armor plating or three lying about. Such material is a bit of a bear to re-shape, but we do have plasma cutters and chemical catalyst welding kit available. I can make up a shot trap backstop no problem. Combine that with a holo projector for a target and a few sensors for scoring and we'll have a proper practice range.”

“I like it. Work up a set of plans for the computer to check out in terms of code compliance. We'll probably have to wall off a corner of the cargo bay to make it work... You'll also need to dig up some sort of range master program so that the ship alarms don't go off all the time while people are practicing.”

“Can do Sir!”

"While you are at it check to see if there is a holographic sparring practice program too. I recall the Royal Marines are more gun focused, but the Surveyor's Corps follows the Navy tradition of hand-to hand qualifications too. Hells, there might even be official ones on file that we could download over the FTL comm link.”

“Now that you mention it Sir there probably are. And the Royal Marines would have the same lying about for field expedient targets and scoring programs too. I'd need to build an armored cover for the holo projector as well. We only have government issues ones, not Royal Marine or Army field ones, so any stray round would probably crater them... I'll have the plans and programs ready for review for you in a few days Sir.”

“That's fine. We'll swing back by Clouwell one dash seven at least twice. I'd like to make a try at refueling from Clouwell one anyways. We can stop off for a few hours to snag off some scrap hull plating on the way.”

November 27th, 8252

It takes a day for the HMSCS Night Horse to reach, and pass close enough to, Couwell 1-7 for Midshipman Huckle to take one of the two shuttles and a contingent of automatons and descend to the surface. You are a bit nervous at detaching him and his party as without a communications relay in orbit you will periodically lose contact as different celestial bodies block line of sight. Initial reports are promising however, including locating a large section of hull plating, so you leave him to it and proceed onward.

November 28th, 8252

It takes a full day of calculations to line up the Night Horse for its upper atmospheric pass through Clouwell 1. Although you are reasonably satisfied that the computer has things right the lack of any external navigation assistance has you worried. You order the Night Horse left in low orbit while you set up simulated attempts using real-time data from the ship's sensors. Privately you decided that you need to get three successful simulated attempts in a row before you will comit to making the actual run.

November 29th, 8252

It takes only six simulated runs over the course of a single day to get your three consecutive successes. The first run goes well enough, a gravity riptide event triggers an abort on the second try, the third run hits an atmospheric storm that would have caused significant damage, and the last three all go swimmingly. Wary of finding another atmospheric storm the rad way you expend two extra orbits re-checking your planned harvesting route and gathering weather data. Satisfied that all is clear you head in for the actual dive.

Dipping the hydrogen harvesting scoop into the upper fringes of Clouwell 1 proves far easier then you expect with all of the extra practice that you put in. Staying a bit higher then you had practiced, trading harvesting speed for safety, you finish topping off the Night Horse's fuel reserves in seven hours. Harvesting complete you return to low orbit and set course to return to Couwell 1-7 to retrieve Midshipman Huckle and his work party.

November 30th, 8252

Midshipman Huckle's shuttle lands without incident and you head down to both welcome him back aboard and receive his report in person. He comes to attention as the automatons set about offloading several large pieces of light gray metal plate.

“Welcome back aboard Midshipman! At ease. How did things go?”

“You have my written reports Sir, but it went better then expected. It took three attempts to find a good landing zone down in the crater. After that actually finding and retrieving sufficient bits of hull plating was surprisingly easy. Two work shifts later we had collected everything we needed. Spent another five hours checking things over just to be safe and then back up to low orbit to wait for pick up.”

“Excellent! And the digital half of things?”

“The range master and sparring programs Sir? I did find standard issue programs and left them downloading via the FTL comm link when I left. I'll give it all a once over, and then triple check it again just to be sure, before starting actual construction. You can expect a progress report on that front before we depart for the Gayle system.”

“very good Midshipman. But take a proper shower and rest before you set in on that.”

“Aye aye Sir. The air in this void suit is getting a bit rank.”

December 1st, 8252

Midshipman Huckle's progress report is brutally honest. Actually integrating the standard issue programs into his designs for the shooting range and sparring dummy is complete but used up far more man hours then he had planned on. The shooting range needed the addition of a range master's station to control things as well as an extra 'armored' cable run to the sensors and holographic projector. The sparring dummy on the other hand has turned into a full up sparring ring, complete with a dedicated sensor suite and recording cameras, to go with the holographic projector for the dummy / sparring partner. On the other hand these changes to accommodate the standard Surveyor's Corps sparring program also comes with training and adaptive practice sub-programs which is quite nice.