Chapter 3: Fourth Floor... Tools, Guns, Keys to the telephone network.

Chapter 3: Fourth Floor... Tools, Guns, Keys to the telephone network.

1 week later…

"Well, there's only one dropship left." I said to myself as I wrote down the last of the items that I had physically inspected and crossed referenced with the listed manifest and quartermaster's noteputer. There seemed to be more spare parts then had been originally listed in this drop ship. The final Confederate didn't have a listed inventory. The previous two had been filled with lanes of 'Mechs, aerospaace fighters, and enough spare parts to fight an entire campaign. There were even a couple of interesting ones that I didn't think existed anymore. So I had a mixed weight company of 'Mechs as of my last count. I also had four Aerospace fighters in this Dropship to add to the total amount of hardware I had found.

One of the odd things I had discovered while exploring was that the Manassas had been outfitted with a lot of top tier equipment for long distance travel. This included some manufacturing capacity. I could create and use automated systems to both repair and refit any of the hardware that I had in the dropships.

I sagged a little bit as I waited for the last Confederate dropship to finish opening it's transfer doors. I was exhausted. Non stop work for several months on end would do that to you. In order to get the K-F drive operational I had disconnected the experimental module and made repairs to the actual drive. I had left the experimental one disconnected though because I figured that it may have been the reason for the original Misjump. When I reached the cargo area of the last dropship, I began to go over the manifest that was located on the main terminal.

"I'm so dead." I said when I navigated my way through to all of the tech on board. There was a small 12 ton Mobile HPG on board to go with the one on the Warship. "Comstar was already going to kill me for the Warship alone. But this… I'm going to be the most wanted man in all of the Inner sphere if this gets out."

Before entering the correct command codes to delete the Mobile HPG from the cargo manifest I powered on my Iphone and entered in a series of notes as well as the correct numbers for where the parts and HPG were. I also memorized those numbers because I knew that this would change the balance of power for the entirety of the Sphere if I did this properly.

"Well, it seems like I have a decision to make." I said to myself as I entered the bridge. Which one did I go to? Did I take my newly found wealth with me to the Davions? Did I turn everything over to the Lyran's in the hope that I would be made a noble. I shot to my feet and headed for the Noteputer I had left over by the engineering console. "What was the year again?" I asked myself as I navigated to the calendar application that was on it. "March 30, 3000. If I make moves over to the periphery, I can meet Katrina and see about befriending the power trio." Moving over to the Navigation console, I plotted a course that would take me through stars used by the SLDF Navy and outside of the usual routes that one would go through in Combine space.

The journey to the Periphery would take a period of a year and a half. And I knew that I would be alone for a long time. With that in mind, I began to collect a series of reading material that included the military doctrine in use by the SLDF at the time of the Exodus and a lot of science and material engineering. I would be spending a lot of time on self improvement and seeing as I was alone I might as well enjoy geeking out over the giant stompy robots.

5 minutes before first jump…

"I hope I don't have TDS." I said out loud as I strapped myself into the navigation chair. "I really hope this works." I began to prep the Warship for the Jump. "Jumping to the next system on my mark." I commanded out loud. I might as well get my fun in. Especially if this doesn't work. "Three, two, one, Mark." I pushed the button and crossed my fingers while praying. There was a small flash. Was that eyeballs? Myself in a Warhammer dueling another Warhammer with a spider painted on it. Then everything stopped. "It worked!" I shouted as I cheered on. The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step after all. And I had begun my journey