Meanwhile, Operation Hubcap swings into effect: the operation to chop-shop the stolen Imperium treasure ship, the Martin II.
Vaz and Goorp, master and mate on the Mercifuge, acutely aware that they will be made independently wealthy as a result, agree to be paid in two instalments: they are pleasantly surprised not to be stiffed.
178-1107 – Pandora Kuiper Belt
The Mercifuge is a specialised salvage ship, and this is key to the Drinaxian pirates’ plans. The Diplomat party on board the Recent Convert (formerly the Deepnight Amundsen survey ship) embark upon the location of a suitable icy body in the Kuiper belt of Pandora, where the Martin II is hidden.
It takes nine days to find a captured cometary body within a couple of days of the Martin II’s location, and the Mercifuge, using the fuel bladder fitted in her cargo bay for the Argona attack, spends almost a month flying back and forth between the freighter and the comet, purifying fuel during each return journey to save time. Eventually, however, she retrieves enough fuel to fill the Martin II, the Recent Convert, and to brim her own tanks.
In the meantime, the crew of the Mercifuge, comprising mainly tireless Shipmate droids, strip the Martin II of her manuevre drives, sensors, fabricators, weapons and screens. Some of these have to be stored in the hold of the Martin herself in order to allow the higher-value treasure items on the Martin II to be transferred to the cargo bays and empty vehicle bays of the Mercifuge and the Recent Convert, which would normally hold some 250 dtons of loot. However, much of the hold of the Mercifuge now contains fuel. Goorp, in the meantime, insists on rebuilding sections of the Martin II’s jump drive while the salvage and refuelling operation is underway. The uplifted ape is by nature reckless, but not when it comes to misjumps on the edge of the Great Rift.
The bodies of the dead conspirators are sampled for DNA then given a decent burial in space.
225-1107 – Acrid Lowport
Salvestes, Vaughan and Osha are moved – still in cold sleep – to the Recent Convert, which then departs for Acrid, carrying a hundred tons of vastly expensive treasure, much of it irreplaceable. Leaving most of this at Acrid, the Recent Convert’s hold is filled, instead, with illegal pharmaceuticals, alcohol, prohibited media content and several square kilometres of microns-thick, black, carbon-fibre wrap.
225-1107 – Cordan Kuiper Belt
Once the Martin II is fuelled and jump-ready, she attaches the Mercifuge to herself using the Swiftsure-class vessel’s massive, type-IV docking clamps, and jumps to the Kuiper Belt of the Cordan system, with the transponders of both vessels disabled.
The extra mass of the Mercifuge means that this uses up extra fuel, leaving her short of what is required for the jump to Exe. However, the Mercifuge is still carrying just enough fuel for the journey on to Exe’s outer system.
234-1107 – Exe outer gas giant orbital space
Shortly after the Martin II and the Mercifuge arrive, they rendezvous with the Recent Convert on her arrival from Acrid.
In Exe’s Kuiper Belt, the crew of the Mercifuge continue stripping out more equipment from the Martin II. The salvaged equipment is packaged in the carbon fibre wrapping and sent on a carefully-measured orbit for later collection.
After a few weeks, with the Martin II stripped of her jump drives, the Mercifuge accelerates her for 72 hours to pass roughly through the point where Hroal was awaiting her arrival, her course adjusted midway so as not to point back at where the salvaged components were placed.
Deanna worked to make the navcom look like it had been hastily wiped and reprogammed, in order to hide where the Martin II had been while still looking actively piratical. The comms systems on the Martin II were set up to secretly broadcast any activity on her bridge in clear to anyone in the system as soon as the Screamer goes off.
244-1107 – Exe Highport
The Recent Convert, with her cargo of illegal funtimes, heads to Exe highport and turns her transponder back on.
255-1107 – Exe outer gas giant orbital space
The Mercifuge then jumped out and, allowing time for the expanding, light-speed shell of her jump flash to be outside the system, the Screamer beacon placed originally by Hroal goes off. At the same time, the cold sleep defrost cycle on the ship’s cold berths goes off, awakening the remaining crew of the Martin II.
Finally, a note was left in the Martin II’s bridge, purportedly from the missing conspirators:
Goobye shipmates. Sorry to leave you in a bit of a shit situation with that worthless jackass Torsa, but Hroal wanted us to murder you all, so don’t be too mad about it. Any landing you walk away from is a good landing, right mates?
We can’t stop laughing that Torsa never even noticed us messing with the NavCom TWICE, nor did his stupid poncy Drinaxian stooges who thought they were being clever trying to spy on us work it out either. They didn’t even notice the Screamer!
Anyway, Hroal is an even worse arsehole than Torsa, no tears after we heard what happened to him, so we thought we’d just keep all the loot ourselves. We’ll have new faces, new names, new lives a long way from this dump of a Reach, and you never know – maybe we’ll see you again one day. We’ll be the rich bastards buying drinks.
Hey, Jagad – Give Torsa slap across the back of his fat greasy head from us!
The Irontooth Crew
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