A few hours to shower, eat, and sleep was the best choice for the three humans. Jager didn't spend the entire time under the same stress as them.
A firefight was not 'all in a day's work' for them. Ensign Connelly and Ensign Booth seemed to be taking it in their stride. Blakes plan would take much, if not all, of the stress out of the job they had here.
"We got visitors coming through the launch bay airlock now." Jager rugged voice got everyone's attention.
There's no way the kids would kids come back here. there are too many bad memories. And Aubrey hadn't alerted them to other ships in the area.
Only Blake seemed unconcerned. "Stand down, folks. Friendlies coming in."
The airlock rolled open to revel two armed and armoured beast scuttle in.
"Say hello to Thing one and Thing two everyone. Our new friendly neighbourhood Battle Bots. Give me a few minutes to add my own special touches."
The medium-sized repair bots had been transformed. Gone were their manipulation jaws. Their front section had been replaced with a curved reinforcing Glacis plate. Similar skirting had been added around their sides and rear. They could effectively go 'hull down' and become fixed offensive hardpoints.
On their tops was a domed twin laser turret, similar to those on the ships hull. These, though, had been made from upgraded laser carbines. The turrets arc of fire could hit anything more than a metre around the bots.
Blakes upgrade of the Battle Bots took about 10 minutes each. The result was armour that was light yet more durable, and lasers that packed more punch than those the humans carried.
"A lot of internal upgrades on these boys, that's what took all the time. Better power plant. Smarter target recognition. Superior tracking."
"Their current processing would be close to a Class 5 a.i sir. Only semi-autonomous. They require a mission package to be uploaded with general scope, though with time, they will learn and improve, sir."
Thank you, Aubrey. You have outdone yourself. You have a promising career in weapons manufacturing if you choose to give up this free-booting adventurers life."
Blake wouldn't want to lose Aubrey for anything, though. Not if he could morally help it.
The team packed up and headed out again, this time with T-one and T-two in the lead, followed by Jager on his own Grav Sled. 40 minutes got them back to the Engineering Bay.
The bots rolled into the bay, going hull down in the doorway, with Jager behind them to call targets in case the bots weren't up to the task. The humans stayed well back this time.
Jager started the fight by tagging the nearest drone with a single shot. From there, the bots took over. The twin turrets on the bots fired once every second, a half second delay between each gun. The drones kept coming, sliding to the side in strafing attacks, trying to find a way around the armour.
The drones just weren't smart enough to adapt to this new enemy. The Battle Bots, however, were very quickly learning from their targets. 30 seconds into the fight, the Bots started targeting the antigrav lifters on the drones.
The drones started dropping, unable to stay in flight. And though not destroyed, the fallen drones were unable to bring their weapons to bear.
From that point on, it was a slaughter.
Once all the drones had been downed, they were systematically executed by the Battle Bots.
From Jager first shot to the final blast from T-one, only 3 minutes had passed.
Booth would have been worried about that much laser fire around equipment they planned to salvage, but captain Fishers skill made that concern redundant.
He moved forward once Jager gave the all clear. The Bots rolled off ahead to circle the Engineering Bay from opposite sides, their turrets swerping the area. It was the largest interior area after the mechanical bays.
Incredible amounts of power were needed to move a Dreadnought, and equally Incredible systems were needed to keep the ship running.
Similar bays were spread over the ship, with different primary roles. This bay was for the engines and thrusters.
It also housed the Gamma Deflector, the Refractory Emitter, and the Wave Cyclotron.
"So what first Booth?" Blake had no idea what any of the items on the list were. In fairness to him, most people didn't. Even in this universe, people were happy things worked without knowing why.
"Wave Cyclotron captain. A Cyclotron is a particle accelerate. In this case, the Cyclotron accelerates waves of particles. It gets increasingly complicated from here on. In the most simplistic explanation, the particles are harnessed for energy."
"Fair enough. What do you need to get the job done?"
" The rest of the repair bots, captain. That will make this a lot faster, a day or two instead of 3-5 days. We'll be getting the Gamma Deflector at the same time. The Refractory Emitter is in another part of this bay. That's a day as well, on top of."
Blake just nodded. Booth wasn't the type to exaggerate. If he gave a timeframe, nothing would make it quicker unless he was given better tools. Or more tools in this case.
"You want more repair bots? We'll hunt down as many as you need."
"A few more small and another medium will be helpful. Don't get anyone hurt to get them, though."
"Of course. That's a given. Funny thing to hear from an ex-pirate." Blake smiled as he said that, letting Booth know he wasn't serious about being a pirate.
"Yeah, yeah. Bigtime pirate I was. I got myself into that mess cause I got myself into another mess. Truth is, I'd been fixing up junk for a guy named Torst."
"Now Torst knew I had gone through Dominion Republic Academy Flight Training, Majoring in Avionics. Don't ask why they still call it that cause I don't know. Torst also knew I got kicked out of DRAFT. Ironic acronym, right? I got kicked out for hacking into the records system."
"My buddy was failing his physicals, barely. He had trouble at home with his family. I was just trying to help by bumping his test score to just over a passing grade. Got caught. Got kicked. Torst knew I'd been through the Academy, that I had skills. So he gave me a job fixing stuff for him to sell or repair stuff on commission. Well, a part I repaired went missing. I'm pretty sure Torst sold it. Couldn't prove it to anyone, nor the owner of the part."
"So the owner sent some of his lads to get the part or the money to replace it. Found that out from the shop neighbours who heard the last moments of Torsts life, including Torst handing my name over to take the blame.
I didn't have much choice but to get off the station. One ship was looking for a Navigator and leaving soon. The Gresham."
Quite a lot of information to get, thought Blake. Maybe he needed to get some things off his chest?
"OK, we'll hunt down some more repair bots for you. We need to replace the mid-size bots anyway. We'll leave one Battle Bot with you as security, just in case. The repair bots are heading here now."
Booth just nodded and went back to work circling the unit he was soon to start disassembling.
Blake gathered the team and the second Battle Bot and headed back to the launch bay on the Grav Sleds, leaving one for Booth's use if he needed.
The second mechanical bay was much like the first. A frigate sitting in the bay, forever waiting for repairs it would never get. Blake thought it would have bern stripped already as salvage, if not for the bay not being accessible without repairing the bay doors.
They found six small and two mid-size repair bots, which Blake Diligently repaired, upgraded, and sent three of the small and a mid-size bot on their way to Booth.
Blake repaired and upgraded two more Grav Sleds as well, bringing their total to 5 Sleds.
"Sir, I have decided to change my designation to better suit my improved Class as an a.i. It will also be less complicated to separate my title from the ships."
"Really. How do you wish to be addressed now." Blake hoped this wasn't the start of some kind of a.i schizophrenia.
"Neo, sir. I am indeed an entirely new entity now. It seems appropriate."
"No problem. Neo of the starship Aubrey. We won't be changing the ship name. In honour of your ancestors."
Thank you, sir. And very amusing."
"Neo, how much of the Dreadnought have we explored so far?"
"Approximately 10%, sir."
"Damn, this thing's big. Any estimate as to where the science sections are likely to be, Neo?"
"No more than suggested by ensign Booth. Along the central spine."
Blake sighed, though he wasn't surprised. They expected to spend a week here, remodelling the Aubrey and grabbing what treasure they could salvage. It was likely they would be back here again in the future, too.
"More of the same then"