When Abraham Kepler docked with the facility where the ship was stored, everyone sprang into action at the same time, getting ready to move every mecha, all their support gear, and essential provisions to their new home.
This vessel was designed for bulk freight and Planetary Landings, so it wasn’t equipped for dropping Landers. Instead, it was intended to land on a Planet or asteroid and be loaded to the brim in a dedicated facility.
It, therefore, had oversized engines, and an extremely sturdy hull design, that wasn’t necessary for the average Kepler Navy vessel.
Since all the personnel that was transferring were either Pilots or Support Staff, everything would be moved by its dedicated operator. Even the repair materials had been preloaded into carts to be pulled by the Mecha so that the entire process could be completed in a single pass. They would have all sorts of time to get things sorted once they were on board since the ship was in need of renovation and didn’t have storage or repair racks inside, but Abraham Kepler needed to be gone again before it aroused suspicion.
It was only supposed to be taking on a small amount of Ore here, and delivering some food supplies, which gave them a reasonable window of three hours before someone might notice the extended stay.
General Yaakov, in his role as Regimental Commander, would be assigned a cover story as a traveling documentary maker. His family had a lot of connections in the film industry both within Kepler and in the surrounding nations, so he could pull off a cover story about making a frontier documentary for at least a few years, traveling with a Mercenary Band.
It wasn’t unheard of, filmmakers were known to do strange and seemingly suicidal things in order to get their movies made, and General Yaakov had that sort of overbearing and self-assured demeanor that made the story believable.
New Mercenary groups were likewise well known for taking strange and annoying jobs if the pay was right. An established force might turn down something like a documentary maker, but a new force usually couldn’t afford to.
As soon as the all-clear was given, the Mecha, beginning with First Battalion, moved out of Abraham Kepler and into the holding bay of their new home at a fast jog, clustered in a designated area near the far wall to give everyone room to get in and set up. First Battalion got the Port side front Bay, number one of six that the Ship contained.
The Cargo space aboard this vessel was positively cavernous, much larger than the Mecha bays of Abraham Kepler, even if you counted the Lander Storage. The ship itself was much smaller though, and Max was a bit concerned about what quarters aboard were going to look like.
[Nico, go check out the living areas. Tell me what you find and what we need to get them ready for the Battalion.] Max ordered since Major Miller was busy getting all of the Battalion’s gear organized and ready to be moved to their new home.
[Got it.] Nico reported, and Max watched as she hopped up onto the catwalk along the edge of the storage bay and disappeared into a side room.
There were no proper diagrams of the ship available to them before they arrived. Nobody had cared enough to make one or to transfer a copy from the ship’s computers.
Fifteen minutes later, everyone was aboard, but Max still hadn’t heard from Nico.
[Hey, what’s the holdup? Are we ready to start moving gear into the crew quarters or what?] He sent to her wrist device.
[The average Reaver Crew is about two hundred persons. With Support staff, First Battalion is two hundred. Then there is the Regiment’s staff that aren’t assigned to one of the five Battalions.] Nico sent back, confusing Max.
[And? Tell me what you’ve found.]
There was a short pause before Nico responded again. [The crew quarters for First Battalion comprise of two large rooms in Cargo Hold 1. One marked Hazmat storage and one marked Freezer. Both have been disused for decades, and not renovated, so they are rusty and have peeling paint everywhere.
I have gotten the lights working, and the air inside the rooms refreshed, but I suspect that the men will actually be more comfortable setting up in the Hangar and keeping these rooms for physical training and a Mess Hall.
Every Battalion is required to arrange its own provisioning and quarters, there will be no central facilities, so a mess hall is needed. I suggest using the Materials Printer to create a multi-level hab motel along the stern wall of the bay. At two Meters by three, that should be enough space to house everyone.
The staff can start refurbishing these rooms right away, and we can start serving in the Mess Hall tomorrow, once everything is ready.]
Nico really didn’t pull any punches with that description, but she did send a design schematic for the printers to create the living spaces, which could be locked together in individual units and had locking attachments so they also stacked safely in the bay. The interior of the rooms that were supposed to be crew quarters was a nightmare though. They were certainly large enough to hold two hundred bunks if you triple racked the entire Battalion, but that would be even worse than living in their Mecha for most of the Pilots.
The individual rooms were a much better plan, and they had brought everything with them, as the ship was known not to have any sort of facilities, beyond the basics for the initial crew, which would be taken up by Regimental supply and logistics staff.
[Clean that up as much as you can. Use a paint stripper if you need it, but I don’t want to scare the staff before they even get to work.] Max ordered Nico.
This was going to take some time, but Max could see the promise of this setup. Every Battalion got their own space, and they could do with it what they wanted, so they could express more individual personality than was usual for a Military force.