Surface of Neue Jaspis IIh - Newly-created clearing, a few minutes later
The powerful thrum of engines from over the treetops grew louder, rumbling the air and the ground around Oreza, Amelia, and Tam, and soon enough the hull of the aging Jinsoku freighter appeared above them, the dim sunlight glinting for an instant off of its off-center canopy. The big Nepleslian looked up from dragging one of the last bits of foliage away, and reached above his head, waving his arm in a big arc to draw the pilot's attention, then once the ship rotated slightly he continued with his laborious task.
The rumbling groan crescendoed further as the ship's forward velocity slowed, its aft section dropping slightly below the nose protruding from the main disc. A series of loud metallic clanks echoed through the trees around the new clearing as three heavy metal doors slid slowly open, extending the ugly but sturdy landing struts from its underbelly. Dust and debris started to fly as the ship's forward motion stopped and it slowly started to descend.
After several seconds of cautious descent, the Jinsoku's landing struts touched down, and the sound of the engines roaring gave way to a descending, flywheel-esque whine as they powered down, the hull of the ship settling down on the struts as they cushioned its weight.
Oreza kept his back turned to the flying debris as he got clear and dropped the long, ponderous limb he had dragged away, resting his hands on his knees to catch his breath. "Blimey," he muttered, and shook his head. Finally he stood up and looked at Tam, and extended an introductory hand in the direction of the ship. "Well, there she is," he said a little louder.
Amelia, who had been standing behind by Oreza's request, turned to regard the landing ship. The maneuver wasn't top-notch, which already told her that Crash wasn't on the helm, makind the astrogator somewhat wary of the situation. Nevertheless, she took slow and ponderous steps under the planet's high gravity to approach the first mate of the ship.
Tam watched the ship coming in for a landing and said "At least it looks to be in better shape than the Kevish class frigate I was stuck on last time." He looked the ship over as it was coming in and started towards the pile of his gear so that he could begin staging it for easier loading into the ship.
"You need help with that?" The astrogator asked from where she was, hands resting on her hips.
"It would be appreciated," Tam replied as he started opening a pair of gigantic freight containers. "I'm going to need to empty these of their packaged goods since I don't think they'll fit as they are into your ship," he said gesturing at the size of the containers and the ship that was landing. The Nepleslian woman nodded at that and started to move towards the containers.
"I think we should first empty the containers and stack the crates so that we can make fewer trips back and forth to your vessel," Tam said as he started hauling crates out from the container that was filled with Polyaramids. Amelia helped with the load, although slower. Not only was the gravity slowing her down but she also wasn't the strongest person.
Despite his apparent exhaustion under the conditions, Oreza didn't hesitate even for a moment to jump in and help with moving the crates to where the Gartagen was staging them. "How did you come to be stranded here with so much... stuff?" the big first mate asked as he entered the nearest container via the open doors on the end.
"We were with our transport vessel and we ran into a situation where our weapons were rendered nonfunctional. I contacted the CORE that was controlling the ship and requested my gear be dropped so that I could utilize it for auxiliary weapons to equip my team. It turned out the CO had a different idea and I was left behind when some of the new joins took a tactical nuclear weapon into the wilderness. It turned out that was a fatal mistake for those two as something in the woods killed them and the incessant humidity ruined the electronics of the device. Meanwhile I was left here with my gear trying to make primitive weapons for the others in order to allow them to have some chance of engaging at range." Tam replied as he gestured at what appeared to be a hand-crafted sling staff with a rope and loop made out of polyaramid fibers and a set of polished rocks.
"Impressive on your part," Oreza said over his shoulder, and stepped further into the container to grab a hold of the nearest crate. "I am sorry to hear about your comrades, however. Is there someplace in particular you're trying to reach?"
"Not in particular, I can't go home again. I'm actually looking for a new home I guess, there's nowhere else for me to go." Tam replied as he shrugged at Oreza's apology about his losses. Tam continued grabbing and stacking crates outside the container and as they stacked outside the pile inside began to shrink.
Oreza gave Amelia, who had been carrying a small crate at the time, a look at Tam's response, but said nothing. The astrogator didn't seem to react to the statement either, with her face being hid by the darkened visor of her helmet and the suit giving little in the way of body language.
"Have you discussed your plans with the captain at all?" the first mate asked, turning with a grunt as he hefted one of the crates in his arms and started to head for the stack outside.
"I've discussed it a small bit with her via communicator messaging, however I have not had a chance to officially offer my services to your crew as of this moment," Tam replied with a shrug as he grabbed a stack of 4 crates in his arms and carried them outside to the other stack of crates and began a fresh stack beside it.
Meanwhile, Amelia fumbled with a crate that was larger than the ones she had been picking up. The astrogator's upper half tilted to one side, like a ship about to capsize, and then stopped when she arrested the movement by putting one leg in front. She righted herself and then piled the crate outside, on top of the growing pile.
As he lugged the crate along towards the pile, Oreza stepped aside the astrogator with a lurch, moving to brace her with his body before she toppled over, even though the gesture proved unnecessary. Another groan rumbled in his chest as he hefted the crate atop the stack and took a deep breath, turning to get another. "You intend to stay with us, then?" he said, wheezing slightly. "Assuming she's agreeable to it, that is..."
"I'd be willing to if your crew can see a use for my skills." Tam replied as he continued grabbing crates and hauling them to the pile seemingly not exerting any effort at all as he picked up stacks of 3 or 4 crates at a time to take out and stack up.
Oreza did a double-take at the comparatively tiny Gartagen's manhandling of the heavy cargo, blinking once in mild surprise before turning his eyes to Tam. "Well, I can see at least one use already," he commented with a slight, jovial smile hidden beneath his beard.
About that time, a hissing sound suddenly came from the now powered-down little freighter landed nearby. From underneath, a rigid ramp pivoted to the ground from a fulcrum near the center of the disk, slowly lowered by two solid-looking hydraulic pistons. A pair of tall, sturdy-looking boots were visible descending the ramp even as it was barely cracked open, following it to the edge the entire time its angle steepened. By the time it came to rest on the blasted-apart soil, rock, and vegetation beneath them, a young Nepleslian woman emerged, ducking her head beneath the hull and standing to her full height once she was clear. Her boots covered her legs to just past halfway up her calves, where a pair of dark greenish-brown cargo pants were tucked in. Tucked into that beneath a black leather belt, an earthtone utilitarian tank top that fit snugly against a fit, athletic-looking torso. A hastily-hand-brushed, thick head of short auburn hair was swept to one side over an angular, yet somehow subtly soft face with unreadable, unremarkable eyes, her nose and mouth covered by an obviously homemade rebreather mask.
The young woman stepped over a splintered tree trunk, and with a measured, slow, and deliberate gait, moved through the heavy gravity towards where the trio were stacking crates. Her eyes went straight to the Gartagen, obviously the one she didn't already recognize, and placed her hands on her hips as she appeared to size him up. "You Tam?" she asked bluntly.
"Yes I am, I'm going to guess you are the commander of this ship." Tam replied calmly as he looked the new woman over.
"Keen guess," the young woman answered flatly, and looked at Oreza and Amelia, then at the huge containers just on the edge of the new treeline. "You got all that to bring aboard?" she asked, with a little more inflection. "Not exactly a light packer, are you?"
"It's everything I have, I may as well bring it with me since I hope some of it will be useful to you and your crew. The containers are being unloaded for easier loading into the hold. I'll transfer half of the remaining pay now that I've seen you, the last part will be transferred once I am on board and we lift off this planet," Tam said as he started typing on his wrist mounted computer.
"Fine by me," the captain replied, then looked around as if on alert for some sign of danger. "And I got all the more reason for us to step it up," she added, still looking around. "A few minutes ago one of those little drone-bots we spotted on approach peeled a section of the hull off. I'm gonna go see if I can patch it, but I dunno how long before its buddies come back for seconds." She turned her eyes to the astrogator and her first mate meaningfully. "I'll send Shrie out here to help, but I'd say y'all better pick the most important stuff first, in case we need to leave in a hurry."
The astrogator gave a quick thumbs up to the captain, lowering her arm so that both were braced against her legs as she tried to catch her breath again. On the comms, she breathed heavily.
"Very well, check the escrow account when you have the time, you will find the money there." Tam said as he looked at the boxes and started considering them. "I believe the ones that would be most useful would by my personal equipment and the hermetic container of rifles for your crew." Tam said as he started collecting his personal gear and stacking polyaramid crates into stacks of 6 to make it so that he could carry as many as possible to the ship.
The captain, without another word, turned on her heels and lumbered back to the ship, ascending the ramp once more and vanished inside. Oreza cleared his throat, sucking in another few heavy breaths to steel himself to start hauling another crate, and made for the nearest stack that Tam regarded as most important. "All right," he replied. "I'm afraid our only option is going to be to drag them up the loading ramp and through the ship to the cargo bays. The exterior loading doors are too high." The big Nepleslian paused a moment with his big bear paws on either side of a crate, and looked up at Tam. "Unless you think you can toss them in this gravity?"
"Do you have someone to catch them, I don't particularly want to dent the inside of your ship by accident?" Tam asked curiously as he hefted a crate.
Oreza grinned a little at the Gartagen's greater concern with damaging their ship rather than injuring himself. "I doubt that will be an issue, unless you're even stronger than you appear to be already," he answered. "The loading doors would provide a large enough target. If you can just get them over the lip, we can be just inside and shove them in place." Looking back towards the ship, then sizing up the comparatively short Tam, he laid a hand on the back of his head, and looked back at the ship. "With a good heave, you may even be able to just lift them above your head and push them in. What do you think, Amelia?"
"What?" The astrogator asked, carrying another crate to the ever-growing pile. "I. Uh... I guess. That works," she said between every breath, raising a crate to place it on top of the others. Amelia glanced towards the ship, then at the location of where Sienna was standing. Everyone seemed quite calm despite the captain just telling them that something ran off with a piece of the ship, as small as it could've been.
"Right," the first mate said conclusively, clapping his hands together. "Let's get to it, then, while we still have time." He touched the side of his helmet again. "Dakkar to ship. We need every strong, available back out here on the double."
Concordia Veil - Dorsal Hull
Sienna set her jaw as she strained as hard as she could, grunting tightly as she hefted the arc welding machine the last few inches up the central airlock ladder and shoved it over the side of the opening with a bang. Immediately she relaxed her arms and leaned heavily on her elbows, bent over the hull with her torso sticking halfway out of the ship, her feet still planted on the ladder beneath, each one rung apart. The back of her hair was damp with sweat and her breath came in labored heaves, even through her rebreather mask. She muttered a wheezy curse as she sighed, and with another groan of effort she lifted herself the rest of the way out of the hatch, and rolled up onto her feet.
Still panting, she put her hands on her hips and glanced toward the section that Shrie mentioned had been "burglarized" in a sense - a rectangular area about three or four feet long and two or so wide. Exactly the dimensions of the section the Lorath had brought back, which was lying beside it with a welding mask and a pair of heavy gloves. The captain held up her PHC and remotely activated the maintenance drone dormant within the ship, instructing it to come up and help her with the repairs. She was strong, but she'd never be able to maneuver the heavy durandium plate by herself, especially in nearly double its normal weight. Once the message was sent, she moved to the hole and picked up the welding shield, securing it to her head with the faceplate still flipped up.
As she waited on the drone, she turned her head towards where Tam and the others were busily transferring cargo onto her ship, chewing softly on the inside of her cheek. Something about their situation concerned her. Perhaps it was the fact that a rogue drone had tried to scavenge a piece of their ship while it was still warm, or maybe it was the fact that she knew absolutely nothing about the apparently exceedingly wealthy Gartagen she had agreed to take aboard. Or perhaps it was simply the fact that she, as a freighter captain, had a one hundred percent failure record over the course of her career to date.
A clattering sound and a short clunk made her turn her head to see the Emrys maintenance bot emerging from a small port near the engines, above where the aft engineering section was located. Still trying to catch her breath, she snapped her fingers smartly at the machine and pointed authoritatively at one side of the cut-out section of hull, just before she positioned herself on the other side and squatted down, preparing to set it back in place with the robot's help.
