Arriving at Number One Admiral Slayed on the Frontier Trader headed to the spaceport while the rest of the fleet and the other travellers went to the gas giant. While the fleet scooped fuel and started purifying it Slayed inquired at the spaceport to see if there were any people who could be hired as crew. In particular he needed engineers but any stand out candidates would be welcome as the ships were all undermanned.
Finding three such people with appropriate references and the right outlook he hired them on the spot. With his ship refueled and with supplies in the cargo hold for the rest of the fleet, he too headed to the gas giant.
While around the gas giant the travellers quickly decided that the Lab Ship would slow them down too much. They had eight more jumps to do and without fuel scoops and with slow fuel processors refueling at gas giants would take too long. Not only that but the lab ship had no weapons or armour so would also be a liability should anything go wrong and a space battle ensue. Reluctantly they found a place to hide it on a small moon around the gas giant and cleared the computers before shutting it down and hoping it would be there when (or if) they returned.
After transferring the newly hired crew to the fleet and wishing the others well Slayed and the Frontier Trader jumped for Thebus where the routine would be repeated. Look for crew, refuel, take on supplies for the fleet, then meet the fleet at the gas giant before heading out two days ahead of the rest. This way they hoped to travel to Wildeman relatively unnoticed.
Thebus
While he officials and security forces on Number One were friendly enough, on Thebus Slayed was welcomed and given an escort to the station by a passing system defense boat. He was able to find nine suitable crew members and once they, the fuel and the supplies were on board he headed to the gas giant rendezvous.
Once there the travellers discussed their next few jumps and worked out that at the current rate of progress the mercenaries would be at Wildeman before them. It was decided that at around Torpol they would split the fleet and send the ships with longer jump range on ahead with some engineers to get the repairs started on the secret base.
Oghma
At Oghma Slayed found only three recruits, but among them was an engineer so he counted it a success. Meeting up with the fleet he transferred the new crew and jumped to Torpol.
Torpol
Arriving at Torpol the procedure was again repeated, this time resulting in only two crew, but one an exceptional pilot and the other an engineer. When Slayed met with the fleet the next stage of the operation was put into effect.
For the majority of the fleet the next system would be Blue, but the Far Scout would jump on to Arunisiir. Jaggad had reminded them that there was a Patrol Corvette hidden on that planet - one that had been downed by the party when they were trying to work out what to do with Jaggad's treasure ship. If they could repair the corvette then it might be a useful decoy for the attack on the convoy.
Slayed, Gobbo, a pilot and an engineer would man the Far Scout. With them would be First Officer Jaggad and three others as a second crew. If the patrol corvette was there and repairable Jaggad and her crew would stay to start the repairs. If it was not there they would just stay on the Far Scout which was heading to Wildeman.
The rest of the fleet would be on Arunisiir 10 days after the Far Scout. If the corvette were usable it and Goff;s ship would jump to Wildeman while the rest of the fleet took an extra jump to get there. The idea was to get as many people to Wildeman as possible to start repairs to the base so that the mercenaries and fleet would have somewhere secure to stay while they waited for the convoy to arrive.
Blue - Fleet
With no ship heading to the planet itself (as Blue was not particularly friendly) the fleet scooped and purified fuel at a gas giant and then jumped for Arunisiir.
Arunisiir - Far Scout
The hidden corvette was on the other side of the planet from the space port in an area with no inhabitants. They managed to get there unseen (they assumed) and their luck was strong as the corvette was exactly where they had left it nearly a year earlier. It didn't look like anyone had been there at all.
Quickly they assessed the damage. They would need many spare parts but the Arunisiir space port had a scrapyard and so while Jaggad and the second crew got settled in the Far Scout went out towards the 100 diameter limit and then approached the space portas if they had just jumped in.
Quickly refueling and again taking on extra supplies they filled the cargo bay with spare parts. When they left they went out to give the impression they were going to the 100 diameter limit but instead took a wide arc back to the patrol corvette. There they unloaded the spare parts and supplies then left for Wildeman, leaving Jaggad and her three crew to repair the corvette. The corvette crew now had 8 days until the rest of the fleet arrived.
Repairing the Corvette
Jaggad and her crew drove a hard pace. The main damage sustained to the corvette was to armour, hull and manoeuvre drive. They first patched up the hull to make it spaceworthy. This didn't fix the hull entirely - it was still badly damaged - but it did mean that the ship could enter the vacuum of space and hold up in jumpspace if they needed to leave in a hurry.
They then changed focus to the damaged (but not destroyed) manoeuvre drive. Repairing this would give them more thrust - useful for getting to the gas giant when the fleet arrived - and would also give manoeuverability if they got into a fight. Once this was done they quickly moved the ship to a nearby body of water and fulled the tanks. With fuel purifiers on they returned to their hiding spot and started work on the armour. This took, a while as there had been large holes in some places but they had enough spare part to fix the armour.
With the ship now ready to fly they spent the rest of the time repairing more of the hull until the rest of the fleet arrived. They didn't have enough spare parts or time to completely repair it but it would have to do. They also spent some time removing any traces of imperial navy insignia or colours to parts of the hull or armour that didn't need fixing.
To be continued...
Status:
Far Scout about to arrive in Wildeman.
Fleet about to arrive in Arunisiir at gas giant.
Patrol Corvette being repaired and preparing to meet fleet out at gas giant.
Planned:
Goff's ship and Patrol Corvette to jump to Wildeman to help repairs.
Remaining ships in fleet to jump to Pandora gas giant and then to Wildeman.
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