Endeavor: The Shakedown (Trade)

Endeavor Count: 00:00:00:00 (Month:Day:Hour:Minute)

Endeavor Event: Zero Hour

Chester Von Sebastion enters the briefing room aboard the Erwin Siegmar, drapes himself across the chair at the head of the table, and looks across it at Shipmaster Asur Hopkins. Navigator Murirn Dannan, one of the seven bodies of Eta-7, and a scattering of other ship's officers fill out the other seats on the table.

“With everyone now here, let's get this meeting underway. I know some of you have been dreading this meeting and others have been looking forward to it with some eagerness. I'll start by saying this. Shipmaster Hopkins has done an exemplary job in the tasks assigned to him to this date and, despite the new offices that I have brought along, I see no reason to displace him from his current position. To clarify the chain of command, Shipmaster Hopkins is, and will continue to be, the Shipmaster of the Erwin Siegmar with Eta-7 serving as his Enginseer Primus and Navigator Dannan assigned to her inevitable position on his staff. I myself will take up my duties as the formation commander, with the Erwin Siegmar as my flagship. The four of us will also comprise the formation's 'flag staff' until further notice.

“Yes, we are a formation of a single ship at the moment, which makes my position somewhat superfluous without displacing Shipmaster Hopkins. Given that the Erwin Siegmar is a Mass Conveyor at heart, no matter how well armed, I expect escort ships to be assigned to the formation and my command before being deployed into truly hostile space. Alternatively, given that we are a mobile repair yard verging on escort-grade shipyard ourselves, we may end up salvaging further ships to add to the formation in time.

“Which brings us to our shakedown cruise itinerary. We passed the engine tests this morning, and I expect Eta-7 to bring any pressing engineering concerns to light before we clear dock to proceed. Barring complications, we are bound for low orbit above the Malignus Maximus and the first test of our shipyard arms, scanners, and salvage systems. From there we'll be heading in-system to the asteroid belts and filling our holds before making warp to the Gibil 2 shipyards.

“That being said, let's take stock of where we stand before proceeding. I know we are not Warp-bound at the moment, but is there anything that I need be aware of Navigator Dannan?”

“Negative Commander, the Warp is calm for the moment. I will advise if this changes.”

“Thank you. How fares the Erwin Siegmar Shipmaster Hopkins?”

“Consumable stores will complete loading in six hours, at which point we will be cleared to leave our berth. Crew morale is high, though I expect the usual shakedown rough edges is various departments. I'll get them squared away soon enough.”

“Excellent. Eta-7, status of engineering matters?”

“No concerns at this time.”

“Good. Any questions...? None...? Well then, meeting adjourned. Be sure to be aboard before we depart or we'll be leaving without you!”

The room chuckles obediently at Cheater's jest, weak as it was, and files out. Chester sits a bit taller, lets out a deep breath, and relaxes the mask of command that he had put on. There were still far too many thing that could go wrong on this Endeavor, not the least of which was his own performance right at the end of it: bartering the contents of the Erwin Siegmar's hold to the Techpriests of Gibil 2.

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

Endeavor Count: 00:07:00:00

Endeavor Event: Preliminary scans complete

Chester Von Sebastion rubs his eyes in frustration. Dataslates were stacked up on his desk showing numerous surface scans and hull maps of the Maligns Maximus. Lists of possible components to salvage and compartments to ransack. Fed up with far too many options with far too little information attached, Chester leans forward, drained his glass of iced tea, and sets about sorting the dataslates into neat piles. Unidentified classes of ship were set aside outright, alongside anything clearly of xenos origin, corrupted by the Warp, or any combination of the three.

This left precious few confirmed Imperial hulls to choose from, none of which were particularly remarkable. Of these only five enough were sufficiently complete to be worth dedicating significant resources to: three Hazroth class privateers, a Havoc merchant raider, and a Dauntless light cruiser. Chester decided to get some more information on each before committing salvage crews and armsmen to the perilous task at hand.

“Commander to Bridge.”

“Bridge here, Shipmaster speaking.”

“I've got a set of targets for deep scans for you Shipmaster. Let's see what there is to see before we send the men into harms way. Transmitting now.”

“I confirm five target wrecks, all Imperial in origin?”

“That's correct Shipmaster. I'd ask the Astropath to take a 'look' too. No sense in trapping ourselves in some Warp-spawnd pit or xenos-spun web this early into our careers.”

“Understood Sir, and I heartily agree. I'll have the result sent your way as they come in. Bridge clear.”

Chester leans back at his desk and lets out a sigh of relief. It might mean a more meager haul then was possible out of the remains of the Malignus Maximus, but that hulk was nothing to tangle with carelessly. Too many salvage crews had lost their lives that way and more then one ship had been permanently scarred extracting loot too hastily.

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

Endeavor Count: 00:07:10:00

Endeavor Event: Detailed scans complete

Chester reviews the detailed ship scans as well as their attached estimated salvage lists. The Ship Stores could only hold ten tons of components at most, so it was a matter of selecting the ten most valuable tons he could and hoping that the salvage crews or armsman patrols came across smaller treasures while they worked.

The first Hazeroth class had very little in the way of obvious valuable components, but Eta-7 had pointed out that it did posses an Auto-Stabilized Logis Targeting array. Nearly indistinguishable externally from an Imperial standard Auger array, particularly when powered down, it is both more sensitive and provides better fire control solutions then it's Imperial standard counterpart. Although old enough to be regarded as obscenely valuable archeotech, Auto-Stabilized Logis Targeting arrays are also considered borderline heretical by Techpriests for reasons that Chester did not fully understand. It could be a valuable piece of salvage or it might be not only worthless but actively dangerous to possess depending on just how hard-line the Gibil 2 Techpriests were.

The second Hazeroth held a prize that was of the 'boring but practical' and therefore valuable variety: a sunsear laser battery. The Erwin Siegmar mounted three such batteries herself, so keeping a spare on hand in storage could prove quite useful in case of battle damage. Alternatively there was a steady demand for components such as this, so it could be traded away for a fair, though not lucrative, profit.

The third and final Hazeroth shows no particularly valuable prizes, the most useful of the lot being a Mars pattern macrocannon battery. Uncommon at best this far from the Holy Sol system and the red regolith of Mars, it is not useful aboard the Erwin Siegmar but it should be of some trade value at Gibil 2. Mars pattern anything usually was to Techpriests in Chester's limited experience and more extensive training.

The Havoc class hull was almost as unremarkable as the Hazeroths before it but Eta-7 had all but danced with visible glee over the readings from it's void shied array. It had refused to comment further, but Chester was convinced from the rare display of emotion form a Techpriest that the void shield array in question was actually an archeotech pattern and thus quite valuable.

The Dauntless came with two prizes attached to her war-marked hull, The first sat in the ruins of her armored prow: a twin-barreled Titanforge Lance battery. Far older, rarer, and powerful then any mere laser or macrocannon, it was sure to fetch a fair price from the Techpriests at Gibil 2. The other stretched down her port flank like the gaping maws of eight hungry beasts: a Ryza-pattern plasma broadside. As with Mars, Ryza is a vaunted world famous even among non-Techpriests for its plasma weapons. A full broadside array of such weapons was immensely heavy, and equally immensely valuable even before the Ryza name was factored into the equation.

Chester sat back at his desk and started idly calculating what combinations of devices might fit into the ship stores and what profit he might expect form their salvage and sale at Gibil 2...