Chester Von Sebastion of House Von Sebastion stands at the observation blister and stares out into the dry dock at his 'new' command. It will be his first ship, granted as was the tradition of House Von Sebastion on his eighteenth birthday, but it is not exactly a new ship. This too was common for members of house Von Sebastion. The Oasis shipyards did produce new craft wholesale: ores mined form the extensive asteroid belts deeper in the Riptide system, refined and processed in orbital stations into usable materiel, and slowly assembled and fitted out. More common though, and the source of Chester's soon-to-be command was the partially stripped remains of the Space Hulk Malignus Maximus. Reduced to perhaps two thirds of its original size, estimates still ranged between fifty one and one hundred and fifty salvageable hulls crammed together into that ball of wreckage.

Chester shakes his head. He had wished for a new-build ship especially if it meant getting one of the escort ships instead of a bulk goods carrier. He had dreamed of commanding a Sword or Falchion class destroyers, even a humble Cobra class would have been suitably dashing, but instead he had been relegated to this ungainly amalgamation of metal and cargo holds by the name of Erwin Siegmar. Chester sighs as he looks over the hull. Universe-Class Mass transporters were huge, clumsy, slow, and boring ships and the Erwin Siegmar looked to be a particularly moribund example of the class. The weapon emplacements look battered and disused, the ventral surfaces are coated in ungainly salvage clamps, the port and starboard broadsides are festooned with folding small craft piers and asteroid mining facilities.

Chester sighs. If he is going to be relegated to a boring life then at least he has a boring craft to go with it. Without working weapon batteries house Von Sebastion would not dare risk a ship on a dangerous trade route. Chester reckons that he would have the time to build up the resources needed to refit some actual firepower within a few trade endeavors given how much a Universe-Class can carry, even one as down-at-the-heels as the Erwin Siegmar. Chester grins as he realities that the routine nature of repeated cargo runs would also give time to indulge in his passion for the study of archeotech. With luck he may even be able to acquire a few new samples at one of the many trade ports that surely lay in his future.

The click of shoes on metal grating alerted Chester to the approach of another person.

“The Erwin Siegmar. She doesn't look like much does she Captain Designate Von Sebastion?”

“No, no she doesn't. Navigator Dannan I presume?”

“Murirn Ni Soar Dannan, Navigator Minoris... for the next few days at least. I believe that we are slated for a briefing aboard her in the next half hour?”

“Thirty four minutes from now by my chrono. Shuttle should be announced in a moment.”

An attention chime dinged over the vox system and a gravely per-recorded voice droned out a shuttle boarding call.

“And there it is. May I escort you Lady Navigator Minoris?”

“I thank you but I think it better that we go separately. Wouldn't want the gawkers to get the wrong idea.”

. .-. .-- .. -. / ... .. . --. -- .- .-.

Chester Von Sebastion scrubbed at his stubble to prevent his jaw from bouncing off of the deck. The Erwin Siegmar, despite her hodge-podge outfit and apparent decrepit state, possessed a bridge worthy of a much larger and prouder ship. The stations were clean and well arranged with both ample computer support and space for necessary assistants. The captain's command throne had a clear view of every station and a full set of repeater displays to show any and all information that a captain could want. Most interestingly the sunsear laser batteries were shown as fully operational, although powered down while in dock.

“A most impressive ship Shipmaster Asur Hopkins. Not exactly your average Universe class is she?”

“Indeed sir. Erwin Siegmar is a Loki II class ship, converted over from a Universe class, hence the shroud over her new weapons batteries. We're due for a shakedown cruse in the next two weeks to give everything a test.”

“And what does 'everything' entail in this instance Shipmaster?”

“The essential systems have not changed Sir so I expect no trouble with them. The supplemental systems are all well-established but with the new Auxiliary Plasma bank installed all the power routing has been re-done. Accordingly our shakedown cruse is designed to test all systems. On clearing dock and passing our engine test, stage one and our first destination is low orbit over the Malignus Maximus. There we'll be deploying the space dock piers and servicing as a local station while scanning for salvage targets. Next step is to fold in the piers and engaging the salvage clamps, retrieve our selected components, and secure them in the ship's stores.

“Stage two lies in the inner cauldron of the Riptide system, particularly the outer asteroid belts. Again we'll be deploying the piers to support local operations while using the observation dome to map asteroids. Then wold up the piers again, bring the asteroid mining system to bear, and fill up the four main holds with ore.

“Stage three is to make warp for HJG-1034 and the Gibil 2 Mechanicus station there. We are to trade away the gathered ore and components for any repairs and / or fine tuning required to bring the Erwin Siegmar to full operational status. If we have surplus we might be able to leverage it for actual upgrades.

“By then I expect to have further orders from House Von Sebastion. Perhaps further salvage work here in Riptide, or asteroid mining. Given the Erwin Siegmar's new weapons systems perhaps a station in a more distant or dangerous system.”