Juneau Shipyard, 9.6.827 A.S., 0800 SMT Juneau was abuzz with the news of a newly constructed Atlantis-class assault carrier being destroyed, but the most popular talking point around the massive station was the fact that the Fifth fleet had recovered nearly all of the crew who had found their way to a barely functioning Osiris-class battleship. When she was towed into drydock one, she was just a bucket of bolts with life support and quarter impulse power. Since his reinstatement, Rear Admiral Grey Evans had been overseeing the project alongside Captain Luke Briggs.
"Well, Evans, we sure do have our work cut out for us,"Briggs said."I think our main priorities should be restoring life support to decks twelve and thirteen, then work our way through the ship starting in engineering repairing all of the electrical systems and internal sensors."
"I'll leave that in your capable hands. Take half of the engineering crew down there and get started. I'll take the other half and start putting the bridge back together so we can start working on attempting to upload our updated software into this old thing. I've got to give it to the Order, they did one hell of a job stripping this thing down to the bulkheads. If we divert all available personnel, I believe we can have this thing up and running within two weeks."
"Sounds like a plan to me. I'll grab a team and head down to deck twelve to see if we can get life support functioning without being boosted by the station. Hopefully it's just a matter of a blown relay."
With that, the two men parted ways to begin their respective projects to get the Zagazig ready for her introduction to the fleet under the name L.N.S. West Virginia.
Juneau Shipyard, 27.6.827 A.S., 0800 SMT After weeks of maintenance on the newly acquired Zagazig, she was finally ready for her first test flight.
"All hands, this is Rear Admiral Evans speaking. Seal the airlocks and prepare for launch. Briggs, head down to engineering and monitor progress down there."
"Yes, sir."Luke saluted and walked off the bridge to head down to main engineering.
Some minutes later...
"Briggs to the bridge, we're ready to proceed."
"Very well, Nav, activate maneuvering thrusters, take us out slow and steady."
As the battleship left the drydock, Grey breathed a sigh of relief.
"Hot damn, we made it out of the drydock in one piece. All hands, prepare for cruise speed."
Down in engineering, the loud hum of the cruise engines coming online was a reassuring sign that the vessel was nearing completion.
50%... 60... 70... 80...
As the engines neared ninety percent, several relays exploded and the engines powered down.
"Evans to engineering, what happened down there?"
"Several of the older relays that we didn't replace have exploded. We're dead in the water until we can get them repaired. Rough estimate is that it'll take four hours once we get towed back to Juneau."
"Ah shit, here we go again. All right, I'll call Juneau to send a ship out to tow us back in.
West Virginia to Juneau, our engines have malfunctioned and we're dead in the water. Requesting assistance."
Acknowledged, we're sending the battleship Akhetaten your way. ETA five minutes.
"You heard the radio lads, it seems West Virginia has suffered complete engine failure. Mary, I want you on navigation, Marcus; make sure all systems are go for launch." Christopher picks up the radio a few moments later "Control this is Captain Edwards, all systems are fully functional, our engines are on and we are exiting drydock three. Edwards out." Christopher turns off the radio "Emanuel, Howard, I need you two on the hangar, get to the shuttle, you will be boarding West Virginia for repairs. I hope you aware the Virginia is also an Osiris-class ship, so you'll have no trouble taking a look at what's wrong with their engines. I want the problem solved double time, lets be as proficient and professional as possible, understood? Christopher says as he looks at the two young Lieutenants. "Yes sir, we will do our best." Christopher looks at them in the eyes "Your best? Losers always whine about their best. Winners go out there and do their jobs efficiently. Now off we go." He nods at the two men, signaling them to leave and head to the hangar, as he follows them in this last minute decision of him to join the two men. He nods to Marcus, and he understands that command of the ship is now in his hands.
"West Virginia, this is Marcus Adams, second in command of the Akhetaten. We have you on our scanners and are approaching your position. Please stand by, a shuttle will be coming your way with an engineer team and Captain Edwards on board. Lets hope whatever they can fix you up, else we'll have to tow you back in Juneau forcefully." The Akhetaten approaches Virginia and comes into a full stop right near the ship. "Shuttle A1-3, this is Marcus speaking, you are cleared for launch, good luck." Marcus' voice echoes from the loud speakers as the hangar bay doors open and the shuttle launches into space, heading towards Virginia's dockbay. "West Virginia, this is Captain Edwards piloting the Shuttle A1-3, we are requesting permission to dock, over."
Battleship West Virginia, 27.6.827 A.S., 0805 SMT "Captain Edwards, you are clear for docking bay two, welcome aboard."
While waiting for the shuttle to dock, Grey made his way down to the second hangar. Hangars 1 and 3 were presently filled with materials slated for retrofitting the ship, while hangar 4 still had a couple of Bastet-class fighters, courtesy of Admiral Solandros.
Some minutes later...
As the shuttle touched down, Grey closed the hangar doors and re-pressurized the hangar, then left the control room to greet his saviours.
"Captain Edwards, welcome aboard the West Virginia, formerly known as the Zagazig. A fine piece of Libertonian engineering we recently repossessed from the Order."
The two men shook hands and Christopher let out a brief smile, even though it was hidden by a mask, Grey could easily tell he was smiling from the twinkle in his one uncovered eye.
"Thank you for having us, Admiral. Tell us, what happened to your engines?"
"Well, we took the old girl out for a trial run, and everything was running well until we attempted cruise speed. Apparently the old relays in this thing are not made to handle the extra load our updated technology puts on them. I suspect it'll be a simple matter of retrofitting some of the ones left over from building the Bogue onto here, but I must admit, I am out of my area of expertise. I'm used to dealing with Atlantis and Overlord-class battleships. The Osiris is a whole new ballgame to me."
"Yes, that would certainly do it. The relays that this ship was originally built with were meant to handle state of the art hardware, more than twenty years ago. But I fear that you will continue having these issues until you do a full overhaul of the power grid."
"Well, damn. I hope you can at least get us back to Juneau in once piece, given that you and your crew are most likely the most well-versed on this class of ship."
"As ironic as this might sound, Admiral, the timing of your engine failure was pretty amazing. Just a few hours ago we had a few LSF engineers come over and help with the fine tuning of the Akhetaten, and a few days before those two very smart lads joined her crew too. We did get some valuable knowledge from the engineers that came aboard to take care of the optimization process of our equipment and weaponry, but I don't want to give you false hopes before visiting the engine room. Without further ado I think we should be headed there." Christopher replies to the Admiral as him and the two men left and headed towards the main engineering part of the ship's engine. Them being aboard an Osiris, they knew exactly where they were going.
After a few hours, the Admiral is called to the Engine room. "Admiral, the news we have for you are not good ones, unfortunately. West Virginia's reactor requires a complete overhaul, and the entire power grid of the ship will have to be replaced... We.. did find a solution to have the ship be completely operational, but only for a few minutes. This thing there. Christopher says as he points to a very peculiar object they installed on the ship's reactor. "This little component has the energy capacity to power up a ship the size of the Osiris, but only for a few.. -very few- minutes. Should be more than enough to get her back to Juneau, however. I am afraid that this concludes our repairs to your ship, Admiral, there's not much more we can do here."