It was a rather busy day at Vieques Shipyard, well more engaged than usual at least. There's always something happening around the station or its docks, but today was a special occasion. Numerous Junker workers have been sent off out the airlock in their space suits as it was about time to close off the drydock which housed a Naval warship meant to be repaired for the separatists right at Liberties doorstep. It would be a very bad situation if an LSF scouting patrol caught glimpse of what was happening, and those are rather common these days.
Thrusting, swimming, pushing, pulling, welding, the entire day was filled with struggle to put the extra station plating to work, but soon enough everyone would realize that time had taken a tol on them, as there was no need to close off the docks for a long while. Some large plates had holes, some detached too easily, some were even missing, but you cant say that they themselves haven't nicked a few extra ones from the other half of the shipyard for this occasion. What goes around comes around. Patching some up, re-attaching, and even catching a few clumsy mistakes almost lost to the depths of Puerto Rico, eventually the Overlord would be fully concealed. It wasn't anything special, and it sure looked suspicious from afar, but better something than nothing they say.
Inside Vieques, the hallways leading to airlock exits and drydock supply depo's were cramped with people moving crates and boxes of certain materials that Harmony had brought in. Though Jericho himself was located in the planning room set up only two halls down from the docks while his boys supervised the operation. He knows how most Junkers are, and he'd rather not risk his reputation by having someone steal vital materials.
The room itself was nothing special. A large table, some chairs, a couch and a big holographic projection of the Discovery's damage control reports and original blueprints spread across the wall. While the main purpose of him being there was discussing how they are gonna' go about it with his lead engineers and worker directors, he was also waiting for Lena to arrive. For what other reason would you put a couch inside a planing room unless you're planing something?
Lena stepped off of her ship into Vieques. While she had personally overseen several of the deliveries to the station, she had never bothered to take the time to disembark from her ships, and this was a first for her. From space the sight of workers closing up the drydock, which, if you looked past the activity, held the remains of the Liberty Dreadnaught Discovery, was nothing less than inspiring, if concerning, given that until they completed the task, discovery of the ship would mean certain failure of their efforts to reactivate it.
Regardless, the ship was almost entirely hidden from view already, and it seemed that Harmony had made the right choice in approaching the Marauders. She had never met Jericho face to face, and while she was only here to oversee an upgrade of the ships cyber-warfare suite, she knew that they would be working in close proximity for the next period of time until the ship was brough back online. Steeling herself, she navigated the corridors and rooms until finally reaching the planning room.
A cursory glance displayed nothing more than what she had been expecting to find, although her eyes would narrow at the couch. Turning her attention back to her host, she coughed politely to indicate her arrival. "Jericho, I presume?"
At the time of her arrival, Jericho was deep in discussion with a short tattooed man, half his size maybe, about the warships electronic systems and the working process of the hull repairs and patches going in schedule with the module installments and "rewiring". He seemed focused on making the process smooth and efficient in order to finish it in a timely manner. The menacing looking man seemed rather giddy and obviously excited about his work, and the reasoning behind it was clear. Its not every day that a Junker gets to meddle with a Naval dreadnought.
A man close to the entrance noticed Leena enter, putting his arm up as if saying "hello". His mouth was sewn shut, and around his neck was an electronic neck-lock, the one you'd usually find on dogs in training, but the red flashing light on the side indicator was making it obvious the voltage was set to lethal. He'd shortly walk over to Jericho, poking him to get attention, once noticed swooning his head towards the female, signaling Jericho that the overseer has arrived.
Glancing back, the Marauder passed a holo-pen he was holding over to the short person with who he was conversating with before turning to face Leena, starting to walk in her general direction with the glaring eyes of a dead man, the rare sighting you can find in only the most regretless of murderers. But once they were finally face to face, his eyes lit up with kindness, showing a childlike welcoming smile as he greeted her. "Well hola there Leena-sweet! You're a bit behind schedule friend, wasn't expecting you this early. Si, I am myself!" Jericho reached in for a hand shake, his tone friendly and a bit higher pitched compared to his deep business voice or however you should call it which was heard while he was discussing work only a few moments ago.
"I'm behind schedule, so you didn't expect me early?" She asks with a raised eyebrow. "Oh my, I do so hope that you merely tripped over your words and didn't actually mean to say that." Her voice is light and playful, and whilst she had just teased Jericho about his fumble, it was obviously good natured. Accepting the handshake, she glances around the room. Gesturing at the workstation, she continued. "Shall we then? We're eager to have the ship back in our hands, and I'm certain you want to pry it apart as soon as you can." her words are accompanied by a half wink thats almost unnoticeable.
After letting go of her hand, there was a light sign of embarrassment in the form of a very, very feint blush on the dark tanned man caused by what she said. Though after hearing her remark it did not make him even one percent upset, he simply took a moment to laugh at himself, patting her on the shoulder while doing so with a bit of uncontrollable force for someone so big (you know, the bro pat). "Give the Hispanic hoodlum a little break Leena-sweet!" Jericho said with a great smile, clearing his throat shortly after with his expression going back to that of a business man, a murderous one at least, instantly prepared to go back to work. "Si, lets go over the plans."
Looking towards the creepy mouth-sewn man, he leaned his neck a bit pointing at the little cube which stood in front of the Overlord blueprint projection. The man nodded, quickly moving to grab the thing, then limping over to the pair, handing the object to Jericho before retreating back to his post. Placing it in his palm, Jericho would press the small button on the side of the cube, letting a large projection pop up between the two showing a 3D model of the ship, with green colored patches filling up the missing parts of the hull. Should someone touch one of them, they'd show the exact materials required, estimated time of repair and the progress of processing the raw materials in stock. Jericho faced Leena once more. "Shall we take a seat senora?"
"Of course." Lena says as she sits down, her hands flying over the 3D model of the ship, examining and analyzing the task ahead of them. Turning to face Jericho again, she speaks. "My biggest concern is the electronic warfare suites upgrades. They'll need to be installed into the ships hull itself, and while we find ourselves in an optimal situation to do so, I worry that our timeframe might restrict us from successfully completing it." She produces her own PAD from her jacket, and using it to project some schematics, shows Jericho an attempted software and hardware package that will allow the Discovery to interface with the Trade Lane Sensor network.
Jericho would take a seat besides her, though not too close for the sake of keeping it as professional as it gets for a Junker. This way he had a clearer view of the entire projection, and of what Lena was pointing at. His eyes were set on following wherever the separatist's hand would move, though his look and overall expression showing obvious concentration, he listened to every word she said carefully. After Lena finished, he'd reach in to the model, touching the middle to drag it upwards, and split the projection in two showing the insides of the ship while bellow it, a timetable of material processing showed itself.
"During the warships downfall, all inishal (yes, he did have trouble pronouncing it) damage was done by the reactor explosion. The longer it sat in the nebula, the radiation of Puerto Rico and the fact it was constantly smacked around by wandering space rocks made the damage worse, making a significant chunk of the remaining plating hollow, missing its modules that is." His voice was deep, and serious, even though his manner of speech showed Jericho wasn't made to be an absolute professional, rather the kind that shows it best with his practical work, though that wasn't as bad as one would think, as even the more inexperienced workers or physical labor grunts are able to understand him that way.
After finishing his first sentence, the man grinned before continuing. "Now, people would say that only makes this job harder on us, but I say it only does it as far as credits go. You see, we have to smelt certain processed materials and make the new parts one giant plate by plate, right? Well, instead of creating space for the electronic systems, how about we change up the molding, and have all the hardware necessary be thrown within the inner layers of the hull? If you can adapt your thing a bit, we can make them split panel by panel and mapped, which would mean in case of any damage, you can simply open up the electronics map and see which, uh whats the word again? Right, sectors! Which sectors needs replacing." Finishing his speech, he'd turn to face Lena with a curious look, wondering what her answer will be, though a bit inpatient, he'd put the finishing blow in early. "And it saves us time! Since, we're fusing two jobs into one senora."
