. 02

Once again, Thanks to those that read and voted and especially to the 6 that left a comment, as for the title to this story it was supposed to be Ripcord 02 followed by the parts. I'm really not sure what happened or how I missed it, but I have changed it and what you're seeing is all there is, so far. As always, I am the sole originator of this story, and any mistakes are of my own doing and any resemblance to any person living or dead is purely unintended and coincidental. This story may not be reproduced, copied or redistributed by any means known or unknown without the authors permission. If you like what you read, please remember to like, vote, follow and comment. Please remember to be careful out there and don't drink and drive.

Now on with the story.

Location: Epsilon Omega 25.14.06

Date: 05/22/2612

Time: 0214.44

'I checked one last time as I had Kitty close up all hatches, we were green across the board and showing pressure in the ship. I was fully loaded and even had managed to contact a few people I had meet in the Ostie realm, they were willing to connect with me to recover some of the AIs I had recovered from their destroyed fleet. We'd meet at a neutral space station near their border, I'd also be able to off load some of the heavy metals and many of the other items I'd managed to recover, I'd also off loaded some of the other unmentionable items that I'd brought along with me.'

'I made my drops and even sent Troy a coded message during my trip out, letting him know that I'd struck gold, so to speak, and was going back in for more. I spent most of my return time looking at the strange symbols surrounding the transport shuttle and was trying to decipher them. The good thing was that I now had access to all the intel that Eric had stored on his memory banks. I had also raided the Intel centers of every ship I could gain access to; I think that short of sector intel I now had the most intel of any ship out there.'

'Anyone who knows anything about combat, knows that intel is more important than just about anything else, you could have the latest, newest weapons but if you had no idea from where and when your opponent was going to show up, you just had some really pretty paper weights. Very little could happen without knowing what your opponent was libel or capable of doing.'

'I had managed to decipher most of the symbols that surrounded the transport and after checking 3 times really couldn't believe what I was reading. I had Kitty try to figure out its trajectory and try to project where it was. There had been whispers that this was supposed to bring an end to 13 years of border incursions, special ops missions and out right open hostile warfare. I still wasn't sure who had popped off the first shot, but it had kept the fighting going for another 9 months.'

'Those 9 months had cost both sides over 1,348,000 additional lives before they finally came to their senses and called an end to the shooting. There were now hundreds like me trying to make a living by cleaning up the multiple battle fields and were trying to reopen the space lanes to traffic without the ship's crews having to worry about hitting a Gravidic, Plasma or an X-ray mine, all of which could ruin your day.'

'It took me the better part of 5 days to return to my scrap yard, the station had been just a little pissed that I didn't need any services other than a dock to offload. I figured that I had enough fuel, food, water, parts and other sundry items to keep me going for several years all free of charge. I would drain the fuel, oxygen and water tanks of the other ships before I had them cut down and made into new steel, it was all mine.'

'I slowly edged into the Bell and shut down while I waited for the bay to pressurize, I had already donned my suit, I needed to go check the plant and then I was planning on going out. I had seen the remains of a Frigate that the drones had pulled over and were dismantling, I figured it would take at least another 5 to 7 days for it to be fully dismantled.'

'The remains of the big boys, i.e. BB's CV's and the like I would go over to them; it would just be easier than trying to haul then stabilize several thousand tons of battle steel. I went over to the Ulithi and could see that my ordnance stock was growing, the drones had obviously cut into one of the magazines, these ships had been combat loaded so their mags were filled to capacity and then some.'

'I remembered seeing an AE back in the baggage train that hadn't looked to torn up and I had managed to salvage its AI, but I really hadn't had the chance to go aboard and really search its holds and see what her storerooms held yet. She had taken 2 hits to her engineering section and 1 to the main crew/bridge area and from the discoloration to her point defense systems she'd stopped several more from hitting her.'

'I took the small type 4 out and helped haul in the debris that had floated into the edges of the gas clouds that surrounded this open area, there was no way I was going to head too deeply into the nebulas gas clouds. I knew that the magnetic fields could screw with your nav systems if you went in to deeply, so I was playing it safe and sticking to the fringes, just the first 1000 miles or there abouts. I really did need to do something each day, I hated being bored it was a dangerous thing for me to be.'

'Over the next month I managed to make 4 trips, 3 to a station and the 4th to a point in space where containers were simply traded. Don't bother asking what it contained, all I'll say is that I was paid quite well, in gold, for the contents, also I was given a list of items that they really needed. I let them know that I'd contact them if and when I came across the items in question. I knew where the items were and could lay my hands on them without much of a problem.'

'Heading back, I had Kitty scan the containers that had been transferred to me. She found several hidden trackers; I had her block as I headed back into the cargo bay to remove them. I never thought of myself as paranoid, but even paranoid people have enemies, so I was just suspicious of everyone I meet. Especially those like the ones I had just finished dealing with, I quickly detached the trackers and fixed them to a survey rocket and dropped out of hyper, launched the rocket then headed back into hyper.'

'I took up the correct heading this time and 2 days later I slid back into Bell after checking my perimeter warning sensors and dragging another Ostie frigate over for recycling. From the size of it I suspected it would take 3 or 4 days to be ripped apart and turned into new battle steel and precious metal blocks. Some of the most precious items were Oxygen bottles, Hydrogen tanks and Water tanks, water could be cracked to make breathing air and Hydrogen for fuel.'

'In space there was no such thing as too much breathing gas or water, while there were ice comets and planets that held liquid water, hauling liquid water, at 7+ pounds a gallon, out of a gravity well really wasn't cost effective unless you were really in a jam. Last I'd heard it was around C25K a gallon depending on which planet you were lifting from, a low Grav world would allow you to climb out easier, thus it would cost you around C14K to C18K a gallon, if you were lucky that is.'

'I went to 8 Ball and checked on the repairs to her after landing, so far so good, most of the faults had been repaired or replaced and spoke with Billy the AI. He was happy that I had chosen to repair his 'body' so to speak, I really think that he was bored at being a hanger queen. Nothing was really wrong that a little chasing down of the 'wire run gremlins' and some spare parts couldn't fix. I fully armed and provisioned him as a just in case ship then moved him in next to Kitty.'

'I now started my next big project, seeing how I had 3 partially functional ships, was to find the transport. I went to its last known position and took up a heading, based solely on a few fast video scans and part of a captured lidar scan from our side. The one thing I quickly noticed was that it had the big red "DO NOT FUCKING SHOOT ME" circle around it when painted by the lidar. The second thing was that it was burning hard to try and escape the lead being freely slung around, it had been a free fire zone, and I really don't blame the captain.'

'I knew that Kitty had a better burn profile, so I had her dial it back some and turned her loose along the same trajectory. I sent out several sensor drones ahead of me looking for the ion trail that that style of engine put out. The only problem was that the nebula had lots of ion trails, so I was looking for a needle in a field of haystacks. Fortunately, the power band I was looking for was fairly narrow and 3 hours after I started looking drone 4 got its first hit and after adjusting the other sniffers trajectories, the hits just kept on coming.'

'I could see that its track was taking it towards a large cloud arm, I had prepared for that and readied several marker beacons for deployment. I popped the first one out around 200 miles before I entered the cloud and then every 750 or so miles, I had 40 aboard so I could search around 30,000 miles or more if I stretched the spacing even more. I kept my speed down for this search.'

'10,000 miles in I started finding parts and pieces that when scanned came back with an ostie signature, I really couldn't tell what it was, but it was quite large, larger than what could have come off a fighter or ship of my size, so I suspected that I was on the right track. I slowed even more as pieces continued to pop up on my screen, most were small, but the larger parts told me this ship had been under attack, I just didn't know who was doing the shooting just yet.'

'As I crossed the 17,000-mile mark, I found my first body, it was definitely an ostie, and from how he'd been garbed he'd been a member of the Imperial Guard. Now that little tidbit piqued my interest, there had been a rumor running around that one of the ostie princesses was going to come to marry the young prince here in the Confederation.'

'I, like a lot of the others like me, merely put it down to wishful thinking and a great story to tell while traveling between planet falls. Now this little item had just popped up, Imperial guards don't just go for joy rides unless they're guarding one of the Imperial family. I started scanning farther ahead. 2 hours later I was slowly circling the freighter, or what was left of it I should say.'

'From the amount of damage I could see, it looked like at least 6 to 10 Wasp class fighters had been swarming around it. The F/A-49C Wasp was a small attack fighter that packed a large sting, it was armed with a small plasma canon that could in large enough numbers take down a BB. They were small, fast, very maneuverable, carried a wide selection of weapons and very hard to hit, especially at long range. If you could see them that is.'

"Kitty, give me a spherical 360 scan out to max range you can achieve, also scan for life signs." I said and parked us as close as I could then headed to the port airlock and suited up, I strapped on a small plasma canon. If there were any live IG aboard their personal shields could shrug off the mini rotary gun that I could carry. I grabbed an assault shield and attached a power sword to my waist, I'd tangoed with them before and damn near lost my head to one of their power swords, they did very well in close combat and a ships passageway was the very definition of a CQB fight.'

'There were almost no places to take cover behind and you had to clear every hatch you passed then lock them down so no one could slip around behind you and hit you from behind. So, you either cleared it or put a mag lock on it to delay anyone trying to sneak out, you could weld it closed too but that also took time. Everything you did took time, and time was a valuable thing when you hit a ship. Unless the crew was all dead they would be preparing a very warm welcome for you.'

'I did a combat jump between the 2 ships and mag locked on to the freighters hull then quickly made my way to the boarding hatch. I placed a power driver into the emergency slot and hit the button, the hatch started too slowly open. I watch a puff of atmosphere escape into the void followed by a frozen crewman's body that drifted out, I led with the plasma canon and shield, but the lock was empty.'

'I opened the inner door after closing the outer one and forced my way in then braced for any incoming fire. And nothing happened. I pulled out the hand scanner and turned it on then waited for a return, all I got was a blank screen for life forms but there was a return for a portable power unit. I slowly got up and headed that direction.'

'30 minutes and 6 blown hatches later I was standing in a saferoom near the center of the ship, the power unit was powering a cryogenic capsule. There were 20 very dead Imperial Guards and 10 other dead people, 7 were female and the other 3 were older males, all were finely dressed. The kind of dress that a courtier would have when standing near the throne, when the King spoke or made public appearances, he was always surrounded by those who tended to his needs. I had always noticed how richly they were dressed.'

'I quickly disarmed the standing guards and stripped them of their gear and found that half of those now frozen were females also, I knew what I would find in the pod and scrapped the frost layer off the window and looked in, the face that greeted me was absolutely beautiful. I'm not sure how long I staired at her but when I finally moved, I felt slightly drained I checked the connections for the pod and found that the power unit was close to dying.'

'I quickly attached the pod to the unit I had carried with me and checked the bio readouts, as far as I could tell she was still "alive" so to speak and the pod could easily be moved. I headed out and combed through the ship locating her baggage train and the extra items that her guard had stashed aboard.'

"Kitty, back up to the hatch I went through and open the port bay door, I have some items to send over to you." I said looking at the pile of things that was quickly growing. "Send over a couple of the boys, they're going to earn their recharge tonight." She laughed and told me that there the ship was open to space just 40 yards to the right from my present location. I looked in the proper direction and saw a hatch marked "off limits, engineering section". If that section was open, then one of the Wasp had hit the O2 tank that was back in that general area.'

'An hour later the items in question had been off loaded, including my sleeping princess and Kitty was piloting us out of the cloud, picking up each beacon as we passed. I had hooked the pod up to the main power system on the Claw and after stowing the items I'd taken with me, I'd showered, changed, stowed my suit in its slot, got a bite to eat and headed for my bed. For some reason I was tired, I'd only been awake for 34 hours, why in the name of the gods of the underworld would I possibly be tired?'

"John... John, wake up she's awake." Kitty said turning the lights on in my cabin. I rolled out of bed and ran aft to the bay where I had stored her, shit I didn't even know her name or how old she was. I stopped into the med bay and grabbed the emergency med pack that I had mounted by the hatch, just in case. Fuck, just in case seemed to be how I had been living my life for the last several months.'

'Entering the bay, I could hear the pod issuing commands in the Ostie language with Kitty providing a running translation. Apparently, I managed to hit the right buttons at the right time as the locks released and the top popped open. I pulled the med scanner out of my bag and ran it over her body, she needed fluids and several medications that I now had aboard thanks to having raided several ships med bays.'

'I removed a cuff from her arm and lifted her off the pad she'd been laying on for the last 17+ months, for her it would seem like just a few days or even weeks. I do know that most thought her dead just like all the rest of the expedition on both sides, maybe when she had a little time to recover, she'd be able to answer some the questions I had, like how and what the fuck had happened to cause this shit show.'

'I laid her on the bio bed and strapped her down as much for her safety as my own, I do know those that awoke from prolonged time in a cryo tube tended to need time to readjust to being asleep for so long. I spiked several bags of fluids and slid in the needle, yes even in the 26th century needles are still being used. I gave her a mild sedative based on the recommendation from the emergency med comp and after checking the infusion machine, I headed for the bridge to check in up there.'

'In space you got one free fuck up and you'd already used it when you decided to go into space, here you had little to no time to make decisions when the shit hit the fan. Especially if you were a one-man operation like I was, I was up so I did a quick walk through looking for problems and trying to stay ahead of the small maintenance items that popped up every minute of the day. After a few hours I headed back to bed to catch up on some of the sleep, you never seemed to get enough sleep when you were running from point to point.'

'By the time we landed back Belleau Wood I was actually somewhat rested and had caught up on the task that needed to get done, including the cycling of the waste, hydroponics and reclaiming tanks, not the most glamorous of jobs, in fact they were a downright shitty job.'

'I had suited up and gone to check on the repairs to the other ships, I was pleased to see that both supply ships could now hold atmosphere and soon I hopes to move in things that required controlled conditions to keep them useable. I managed to restart the hydroponics space and started and started using it to filter the atmosphere on the Bell.'

'I had only planted a small part of the oxygen beds as it was just me and my new guest, plus the seed for these beds was very valuable and many ships had let their hydro beds die off or they simply didn't take care of them. A ship with a working well tended hydro bed was worth quite a bit more and I planned to find myself a quite out of the way place and disappear into it. Few people still realize how much combat takes out of a person and don't give us the time we need to find ourselves again.'

'One of the other good things was that Eric now had control of his "body" as I chose to think of the ship that he resided in. He was also jump capable, we'd salvaged parts and pieces from 6 different ships to make this happen, I also hoped to get the other ships jump capable. I waited until the latest scrap hull had finally been cut up and recycled before I chose to move us farther into the debris field, and up next to my next victim, a large ostie BB that I had searched several times and already raided for parts to fix a few other ships up that I knew could be repaired with a minimum of fuss and cost.'

'The move took place just after 2100 ships time and took 2 hours to get to where I wanted us to anchor. I already had a lead on another plant to help speed up the reclaiming of the ship's hulls. I had made arrangements to check the plant over and if it worked bring it back with me, I had already checked its dimensions and knew that it would fit in the storage bays and had all of the parts.'

' I had loaded the Claw up with several tons of battle steel, aluminum, copper, precious metals, quartz glass blocks, silica and about a dozen other items that once I took them to a space station would net me a large paycheck. The other good thing was that it also came with 6 more salvage drones that would help speed up the work. I would wipe and reprogram the drones and plant in order to make sure no one left any unwanted bugs or tracker programs installed when they sold them.'