____"You sure we have enough space for all this salvage, Yang?"
____"We saved space! Having six mechs put together instead of sorted into salvage compartments is way easier to deal with."
____I looked at the parade of mechs cramming into the mech bay. Never in all my years had I seen such a choice pick of salvage. That would certainly be worth a few more points to the MRB. After confirming the mechs we would keep ready and signing off on some work orders to repair them all back up to full strength, I headed for navigation. Sumire would know the latest profiles of the nearby systems, and I wanted to check on what options we had for jump paths.
____If we were going to vist 170 systems, I only wanted to stop at the ones that were worth it. Alloway looked promising to me, but Sumire shook her head.
____"It's not a bad place, Commander, but the jump point is a week and a half away from where the action is. Any other system we can get to from Joppa would take a week at most, and several are half of that time."
____It took until chow time to sort through the options, but by the end of it I'd decided on a plan. We would head to Hibuarius, which was probably a little too tough for us right now, but there were bound to be some easier contracts to start with. After that, we would make a long arc through Magistracy space. It'd probably take us several months to clear those systems, but I didn't see any big roadblocks.
____Before getting underway, I asked Darius about the markets for equipment and local recruits. The salvage from a Cyclops caught my attention, but it was the variant without the advanced combat computer, so I decided to leave it be. As the engines pushed us out of orbit, I checked on the latest feedback from the MRB. Not a bad start, I thought.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Days Remaining: 1190 ____ Career Points: 64,107 ____ Career Rating: Unknown
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
____I looked down on the green planet as we entered orbit of Hibuarius. Much better than fighting on a moon. Decent pick of contracts too. The Free Worlds League had a recovery mission, the Capellans also had a recovery mission and an assassination contract, and the local government had postings for three battles and a convoy ambush. We'd start with the easier missions and work our way up.
____Sugar was feeling better, and had been working on her gunnery during recovery - enough to quality for a 5 rating. Hopefully, nobody would catch any shrapnel on these missions; the local talent pool was full of raw recruits with the exception of a master mechwarrior that wouldn't even consider us until our MRB rating was about quadruple of where it was now. Repairs should be easier than before though with that new scaffolding being fully operational. Farah's next project was the power system - she seemed optimistic that it wouldn't take much longer than a week and a half to bring everything up to a safe standard.