Nico appeared in the bay for a few minutes before heading back upstairs again with a Tech Adept harness attached to her back and an assortment of devices carried in the additional mechanical limbs. Max couldn’t be entirely sure, but it looked like a media blaster that was used to strip Mecha Paint, as well as a sanitization unit.
The ship was supposed to have already been sanitized, but if they left enough moisture in the air that the interior rusted, either they didn’t do a good job of it, or something was leaking from above them.
[Major Miller, send someone from repair to the level above the hangar and see what it looks like up there. Major Nico suspects that the ship’s hatches might have been left open to the elements for all these decades, so the corrosion might be fairly bad on the surface, and there might be leaks.] Max told his Executive Officer.
[Got it. I have just the person for the job. It will take a strong stomach and enough experience to know what it will take to clean up that mess if it is as bad as you say.] The Major replied, and Max saw an older Sergeant heading for the upper structural levels of the ship.
This time the report didn’t take long at all. The Sergeant had finished the inspection before Nico even reported the rooms as clear.
[Zero damage, no leaks, all fittings, and lines look pristine, and the area shows no signs of wear. I believe that it was purged of atmosphere after sanitization.] The man reported, letting Max breathe a sigh of relief.
Two bad rooms with a well-preserved storage bay and structure were well within the level of damage that they would be able to handle.
The third Battalion had the opposite problem. Their interior rooms and structure were pristine, but the door to the main bay had been left open by almost a meter, and there was a thick layer of dust and debris over everything.
The storage bay was made of a durable alloy, and the paint should withstand almost anything, but the same was true of the side rooms in Max’s bay and they still ended up looking haunted.
Third Battalion moved all their Mecha back out into the station, while the crew cleansed the hangar so that they could enter, but after that, they declared that everything was serviceable, though they weren’t impressed at the idea they should all be housed in one of the back rooms, or use both as bunk rooms and set up their cafeteria in the Mecha hangar.
Max sent the rest of the Regiment their design plans for housing when he saw the complaints, which calmed down all the pilots, but it also brought a new round of complaints. This time from the logistics and provisioning staff, who hadn’t planned for the Regiment to use up so much of the material that they had brought with them to renovate their living quarters.
General Yaakov wasn’t taking sides in this battle though, and he ordered them to work it out on between themselves. The end result was that the Regimental staff backed down when they were asked if they would like to swap quarters with one of the Battalions so that they could use minimal materials for their comfort, and the Battalion could sleep in the existing quarters.
Once they had seen the issue in person, the complaint about resource usage ended, and the Regimental staff started cleaning and setting up their gear in the old crew quarters. There were some complaints that the place felt haunted to them, but with a fresh coat of paint all over the ship, General Yaakov hoped that those complaints would die down in a few days.
The renovation effort was going to take them at least two weeks, to set up, build the Mecha maintenance facilities and storage supports, and refresh every room and hallway on the ship. This Reaver group had been almost purely a trading group, with only a small military force from what they could determine, making them an easily ignored vessel should they come across hostile forces.
Taking over rivals was great, but taking over a bulk freighter was about the most work you could possibly do for the lowest reward. All the money was in capturing technology after it was built, not in grabbing a hundred thousand tons of bulk ore, which the ship was designed to haul.
The ship was ominously named the Dutchman. It was a name that carried no weight here in Kepler, but in Max’s life, the Flying Dutchman had a long history with terrestrial sailors and wasn’t a name that someone would pick for a modern vessel.
Max wasn’t the most superstitious of people, but this vessel just seemed to bring it out in everyone, right down to the usually level-headed Battalion Commanders. The only two who didn’t seem to be doing some sort of purification ritual in the landing bay were Major Miller, who was too busy, and Max himself, who was likewise too busy, but at observing the others, not at an actual task.
[How are the rooms coming along Nico?] Max asked, seeing that everything else had started coming along on schedule.
[Nearly finished. I have stripped and sanitized both rooms down to the bare metal, and I will put a fresh coat of paint on as soon as the sanitizer dries. Give them two hours after that and the paint should be ready for the staff to start moving the kitchen facilities in.
I recommend keeping the freezer room as just a cold storage room and kitchen though, we don’t have any other temperature-controlled storage areas, and the open areas of the Hangar can be used for training.] Nico responded.
[Got it. I will update the directions. Did you find the cause of the rust? Is it a serious issue?] Max asked.
[Not at all. The temperature control unit was left on the entire time that the ship has been here, and the drain was plugged, making the condensation back up and spill over the roof of these two rooms, which led to them being extremely humid, and then their deterioration.
The underlying alloy structure is still solid, it was just the trim pieces and some fasteners that deteriorated. I welded everything that needed it and used the small Printer on the Tech Adept Harness to replace the corroded-out fasteners and such. All it needs is paint now.]
That was much better news than Max had dared to hope for and put the Battalion well on track to a comfortable deployment. Things were starting to look up on this old Reaver vessel.