Endeavor Count: 00:07:10:20

Endeavor Event: Salvage Targets Selected

Chester Von Sebastion nods in agreement with himself. While sending salvage crews after multiple components in multiple hulls would likely find more useful and or valuable artifacts, the expected profits from two components massively outweighed rolling the dice with wanton abandon on components of lesser or dubious value. The Ryza pattern plasma broadside and the void shield that Eta-7 got exited over would do.

“Commander to Bridge.”

“Bridge here, XO speaking.”

“I have salvage targets for the crews XO. Need to wake the Shipmaster?”

“No Sir. Send them on over.”

“Sending.”

“Plasma broadside and void shield confirmed Sir. I'll forward along an ETA of component retrieval when that becomes available.”

“Very good XO. Commander Clear.”

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

Endeavor Count: 00:17:00:00

Endeavor Event: Salvage Results

Chester gives a sigh of relief as he reads the last update on the progress of the salvage crews. Eta-7 had sent three of it's bodies to supervise the extraction of the void shield 'in person' and managed to recover it with little reported difficulty. Chester knew that there had been some but the relatively tamed nature of the Malignus Maximus and vigilance on the part of the salvage crews and their attached armsman detachments had kept losses to a minimum. With the world of Oasis so close hiring replacements had been a trivial issue, although it had dragged on Chester's time. Thinking over the matter, he made a note to procure a seneschal for his command staff alongside a steward for more domestic matters.

Eta-7 had also turned over a curiosity it had uncovered during the salvage efforts: a combat confessor's flail of high quality that still bears detailed inscriptions and engravings depicting the core of the Imperial Creed as preached by the Ecclesiarchy. Having no use for it himself, Chester had dispatched it as a gift, with his compliments, to the office of the Bishop of Oasis in a bid to smooth over any ruffled feathers. There had been no response as of yet but in truth Chester did not expect one as the Office of the Bishop of Oasis was currently vacant, pending the arrival of a new Bishop from Viking in the Tichel system.

The extraction of the Ryza pattern plasma broadside had taken the vast majority of the salvage crews and over a week just to carefully disconnect everything that was to be extracted. Even disassembled and stripped of non-essential accessories for transport it filled over ninety five percent of the Erwin Siegmar's stores. In fact it filled every cubic meter of volume in the stores not taken up by the void shield or the narrow 'roe paths' used to check on the cargo during transit. While Chester knew that he could not mount the weapon, he did expect it to fetch a hefty value in trade. Chester was still debating simply using the profits form it's 'sale' to bolster his available resources or to invest it directly into improvements to the Erwin Siegmar.

The salvage crews working on retrieving the plasma battery had managed to re-equip themselves to a fair degree, with new weapons cropping up all over the place. The armsmen assigned to watch them had confiscated most of the larger 'toys' for their personal use, but freshly acquired pistols, shotguns, carbines, and blades were quite evident. The reports indicated that they had been used well in fending off marauding hullghasts. Accordingly both Chester and Shipmaster Hopkins were inclined to allow the salvage crews to keep their not-quite-legal gains so long as the rate of violent crime aboard ship did not increase too much.

The not-quite-bribe to Shipmaster Hopkins of a beautiful pair of dueling pistols had probably swayed his opinion. Chester knew that the power ax delivered to his quarters had certainly influenced his decision. An older copy of the venerable Mezoa pattern weapon, it had an air of steady, dogged dependability. It now sat on his weapons rack alongside his Mordian pattern power sword and wraith model 'duelist' plasma pistol. Chester wasn't sure which melee weapon he would carry on a regular basis, but that was for a time in the future. Now that the salvage (and other treasures) were stowed aboard it was time to move to the next phase of the shakedown cruse: asteroid mining.

“Commander to Bridge.”

“Bridge, Shipmaster speaking.”

“I believe we are ready to proceed to the next phase of the Endeavor.”

“I concur.”

“Proceed at your discretion then, we have main holds to fill.”

“Course set and recall message sent to all salvage crews. We'll be underway within the hour.”

“Very good Shipmaster. Commander clear.”

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

Endeavor Count: 00:19:00:00

Endeavor Event: Asteroid Mining Begins

Chester watches the tactical display in the strategium attached to Erwin Siegmar's bridge. Fed by the same sensors as the bridge consoles, the holotable's built in cogitator translated the signals into a three dimensional projection of the Erwin Siegmar and the other objects around her, updating it as new data arrived. At present the vast bulk of the other objects on the display were 'ghost returns' form interference but more then a few valuable asteroids hid in the clutter.

Chester eyes a side display that shows possible mineral yields form confirmed asteroids and strokes his chin in thought.

“Simple iron ore is perhaps the easiest to get, albeit at some risk given that cluster of possible slash probable 'junk' asteroids just there.”

He pauses to point out the 'debris cloud' surrounding the largest cluster of iron-rich asteroids.

“That's a bit too harry for my liking. We'll go for radioactives instead. The Kestrel Belt is lousy with them, which is the reason for much of the sensor interference, at lower risk of losing mining craft and crews to accidents. We'll stop off at Oasis to replenish any losses from radiation poisoning before making warp for Gibil 2.”

Shipmaster Hopkins nods in agreement, “we have a crew reclamation facility aboard, so the servitors will take the brunt of the losses and be replaced by the foolish souls who slip up on safety drill and get themselves hurt. The crew clans don't like seeing their ex-kin used like that but they understand well enough. Better to lose the truly expendable then to waste valuable manpower.”

“Do we carry murder-servitors then?”

“No, nor do we have any combat servitors worth mentioning. Not enough room or power in Erwin Siegmar's hull for their upkeep. Perhaps we could squeeze them in if this haul is worth enough to the cogboys of Gibil 2.”

“Perhaps, perhaps not. Loki II class 'merchant raider' or no, the Erwin Siegmar isn't a combat hull. If we initiate a mass boarding action it had better be a cleaning-up action else we'd just get shot to shit on the way in.”

“I can't argue with that Commander. Phase two is a go, target is radioactives.”