Here for the Payday(Mass Effect/Battletech)

[MarkWarrior]

Here for the Payday​

Date: January 25, 3002/2181
Location: Unknown

The King Henry V shook, a distant explosion rippling through her as she dropped out far away from the Zenith point that they'd plotted.

"Someone tell me what just happened to our ship," Captain Kaylee Frye ordered, pushing out from her captain's chair and beginning to pull on a vacuum-rated suit.

"Ma'am, I've got some sort of electromagnetic discharge here!" Chief Engineer Arnold Culver coughed. "I've shut down the drive and LF-battery, but they may be fried."

"Start running diagnostics and get me a list of what you need," Captain Frye finished suiting up, attaching her helmet to a small tether before stopping at the door. "Lieutenant, you have the bridge."

"Aye, ma'am," Lieutenant Samuels replied. "I'll keep the chair warm for ya."

Kaylee shook her head and secured her helmet before opening the door, stepping through it, and sealing it behind her.

"This is Captain Frye to the Messenger, the King Henry V has had a malfunction, we're checking the damage now, I'll be in touch with an assessment shortly."

"Messenger reads you loud and clear," Sheppard's calm voice responded. "We'll start running checks of our own here."

"Sounds good, Shep. I'll keep in touch."

Kaylee finished her trek to engineering and opened the hatch to darkness.

"Sorry, captain," Culver's voice echoed from underneath a series of consoles and wires. "I've got my hands full here with the drive, Clark's running the diagnostics on our connectors."

"Where do you need me?" Kayle asked, pulling her helmet off and rolling up her sleeves.

"Find a spot and start figuring out the damage. I still don't have a clue what happened here," Culver grunted.

"That's one of the things that we're trying to find out," Kaylee grabbed some tools and got to work. "But we've gotta start somewhere, so we might as well fix what we can while we're at it."

---

"So, start with the worst news and work our way up to the best news," Mark Hull gestured for Kaylee to begin.

"So, we were supposed to be jumping to New Syrtis," Kaylee blew a hair out of her face. "The K-F drive and Lithium-Fusion battery were working just fine the rest of the jumps. But on that last one, we had some sort of electrostatic buildup, it supercharged the Lithium-Fusion battery and fed it into the drive. In short, we completed the jump, fried the L-F battery, and are temporarily stranded here."

She sighed and crossed her arms.

"That's the worst news. The bad news is that we have no clue where in the Galaxy we are. Thankfully, the drive itself is fine, but we're going to be here for a while until we can figure out where we are."

"The good news is that we're set for rations and fuel thanks to us filling the Vagabond and Troy with extra supplies," Sheppard spoke up, nodding at Kaylee and allowing her to take a seat. "Most of our personnel are able to squeeze onto one dropship so we've estimated that we have around six to eight months worth of food, water, and other necessities"

"So, given our current situation, everyone is about to learn Stellar Cartography," the bearded man tapped the desk. "We're going to be pulling shifts and trying to chart our way back to the Inner Sphere. As we map out the next star, we're going to start running calculations to jump there. If there's a habitable planet, we'll stop and resupply as needed."

"And don't hold back on asking questions," Hull glanced at every member of the senior staff with a sad smile. "We'll take it slow. This won't be a problem that we're going to solve in a day, after all."

The small room quickly emptied out after they finished, each member of the staff dispersing to explain the situation to the men and women under their command as well as their dependents.

"Hey," Mark nudged Captain Frye awake in her chair. "Go get some rest, Kaylee. I'll keep things running while you sleep."

"You sure?" she asked, rubbing sleep from her eyes.

"I'm sure," Mark nodded. "There'll still be work left to do when you wake up."

---

Three weeks later…

"Alright, we're mapped out for the next star and made absolutely sure the K-F drive was intact and working," Kaylee glanced at me. "We have the coordinates and math to attempt a jump to the Class F that's twenty lightyears out."

"Alright," I wrote out an equation on a notepad, triple checking the math of the astrogator. "We should be good to make the attempt once we've made sure the math pans out."

"Is there a reason you're writing it out, sir?" Lieutenant Samuels asked.

"It's how I learned the math before putting it into the computer," I replied. "Had to do it the hard way before I was willing to plug it into the computer. Especially after that first misjump."

Samuels nodded as he put the pieces together and waited for me to finish before plugging everything into the computer systems. We weren't jumping until we were certain that we had a destination set and confirmed.

Unfortunately, the math to calculate a jump wasn't something that was done in a short time, a computer could spit it out within a fifteen minute window. But a person? That took some time, and by the time I had a set of coordinates it was nearly the next day.

"I'll plug them into the system and verify that both are correct," I nodded at Kaylee. "We'll jump first thing in the morning."

The bridge emptied itself of everyone but the lone Ensign assigned to keep an eye on things and myself.

I continued punching in numbers and then waited for the computer to spit out the results. Nodding as they confirmed within a few decimal places of what I'd done by hand.

After confirming it once more, I unstrapped myself from the chair and pushed off to float towards the door.

"We'll check everything again in the morning, Ensign Lovell, but we should be able to jump in the morning."

"Aye, sir," he nodded, his focus on the sensor console. "I'll keep an eye on things here."

"Is there something interesting out there?" I asked, pausing at the sealed bulkhead door.

"No, sir. I just don't like how quiet the system is," Lovell replied. "There's normally a certain amount of noise even in a dead system. Old radio signals, debris from jumpships, and dropships, etc. But there's nothing in this system."

"It's possible we're in a system that no one's ever been in before," I shrugged. "It makes sense we might not see any signals out here."

"I know," Lovell shrugged. "It's not an actual problem, I guess I'm just nervous. This is the first time I've ever been off the normal travel routes."

"Well, I think we're going to be off the beaten path for a while." I sighed. "So I think you're going to have to get used to the silence."

"I guess we'll find out after the jump, won't we?" the Ensign replied. "See you in the morning, Major Hull."

–
–

"Everything is in order," Captain Kaylee Frye confirmed, checking over everyone's work. "Sound the alarm and prepare for the jump."

"Aye, Ma'am!" Lieutenant Samuels acknowledged and slapped a button, sending a small burst transmission to the attached dropships. "Alarm is sent, powering up K-F Drive now!"

The entirety of the Marksman held their breath for what felt like an eternity as the drive's charge filled with the energy they'd stored over the last three weeks.

"Ma'am, Drive is charged and we are ready for jump," Samuels reported. "Waiting for your order."

"Initiate the jump, lieutenant," Kaylee ordered. "Let's find out if we're going to make it home or not."

Samuels flipped the switch and the King Henry V winked out of existence for a brief moment before rematerializing in the new system.

"Start initiating system scans," Kaylee ordered. "Unfurl the solar sail and start building up for another jump."

She opened a channel to the engineering room.

"Give me a status report, Culvers."

"Drive is functioning perfectly fine, ma'am," the engineer reported. "There were no issues at any part of the process. But I'm running extra diagnostics just in case."

"Keep me updated," Kaylee ordered. "We don't want a repeat of what happened."

"Aye, ma'am!" the channel shut down.

"Now, let's find out where the hell we are."

---

Date: February 19, 2181CE


Location: Amada, Omega Nebula

"Ma'am, we've got a sensor contact on the outer edge of the system," Helix Caleari reported, her purple complexion darkening as she focused on the computer screen in front of her.

"We're not in the military anymore, Helix," Asavaa Kyado laughed. "We're merchants now, we don't have to be on the alert every time something shows up."

"But what about possible pirates?" Helix asked.

"Send a comms signal," Asavaa shrugged. "I can let the girls know that there's another vessel in the system. But if I'm honest, you've been paranoid since we pooled our money and bought this ship."

"Look, I'm still adjusting," Helix replied. "Just humor me on this."

"Fine," Asavaa rolled her eyes. "We'll send a comms message and prep what weapons we have. "I doubt we'll have to do anything, but if they try to board, they'll be facing a group of ex-Commandos."

The lead Asari rippled with biotic power for a second as she smirked.

"Who knows, it might be fun to take on some pirates for a change."

Helix pressed a few buttons and a preprogrammed transmission was sent to the sensor contact on the outskirts of the system.

All they had to do now was hold position and wait for a response.

"Alright, you've sent the transmission," Asavaa crossed her arms. "Now, I'm going to grab a drink. You want anything?"

"Grab me an energy drink," Helix replied. "I'm going to be here for a while."

The small bridge of the cargo ship was empty aside from the two of them for the next few hours.

"The contact is still there," Asavaa glanced at the sensor readouts. "I don't think they're going to respond at this point."

"Wait," Helix tapped a few controls. "We've got a response, but they might be at a lower tech level. This is looking like it was transmitted hours ago and we just received it."

"Well," Asavaa prompted her now-silent friend. "What does the message say?"

"It's text only, it seems like they didn't understand the message on their end. But the response was in Systems Alliance English, or something coles enough for the translator to give me something to work with."

"So, you wanna see if we can talk the girls into checking it out?" Asavaa asked.

"Sure," Helix seemed more relaxed now that her fear of possible pirates had been settled. "Who knows, it might be some probe the humans lost or something. We could make some money off of it."

"Now you're speaking the right language," Asavaa grinned. "Let's go get some relics from the Human's past and sell them back to them, then go party."

"I could set some aside and pay for good training," Helix agreed. "I've heard that the Systems Alliance and Turian Hegemony are experimenting with Hard light tech. It would be cool to see some of it in action."

"I can't believe I forgot you're a prude," Asavaa sighed. "You need to get out, live a little!"

"I'd rather spend that time with someone I love than experience everything alone or with just friends," Helix shrugged. "Now, please focus up on helping me plot out this short hop before we talk to the rest of the girls."

"Yeah, yeah," Asavaa sat down and began helping. "I've got the hop plotted, we should be good to go if the rest of them give the go-ahead."

"I wonder what kind of probe it is," Helix muttered. "The most recent readings from our sensors are a little big to be a probe."

"We'll find out when we check it out," Asavaa smacked her friend on the shoulder. "Now come on, let's go."