Signals in the Void 7

("Signals in the Void" is my attempt at an in character fan fiction revolving around my adventures in exploration.)

Jimmy looked around the maintenance room that they were using as a small staging area and figured if they started to find some good stuff in this old station or were planning on staying for an extended period of time, that they would need to upgrade to a larger area.  One of the senior members on the crew will determine when that is as Jimmy had just signed on.  Readying his salvaging equipment and hefting his backpack holding his torch cutting equipment he turned around to see some of the mercenaries and a few members of the science head off down the hall.  Walking over to where the salvage team was gathering he overheard a few whispers about the new group of mercenaries they were with and how unnatural they seemed.

The new mercenaries were a little unsettling for him, probably because of the intimidating factor that the drop-suits provided.   But as unnerving as that may be Jimmy felt a whole lot safer with a couple of these mercenaries around.  He'd never done field work before and was quite unsure of the dangers that existed.  The stories the old timers would tell back at the main stations were downright crazy when it came to working out in the field, but you could never tell if it was always like that or if maybe they had exaggerated a little bit.  Seeing as they have mercenaries with them right now, some of those stories were looking a little less far-fetched.

Now that the salvage group as was ready, the salvage boss waved for the group of mercenaries that was with them to lead the way.  Our job is to find some good equipment to take back, but also to provide any quick fix the science teams need done so that they can gain access to different data systems.  It is simply amazing the state of disrepair that can happen in a large station like this and the things that will choose to fall apart. 

As they walked down the main corridor Jimmy watched as the mercenaries took their job quite seriously and were sweeping the rooms and areas ahead along with sending scouts further out.  They hadn't picked up anything dangerous on their initial scans and so most mercenaries would probably just take it easy and would consider watching over the science and salvage teams as baby sitting.  Since the station was pretty dark and dang creepy, Jimmy didn't mind it one bit.

Making it to the power room the salvage team started their first task of getting a decent power link to the science team over in the command room.  Considering the place was a complete wreck Jimmy was hoping they wouldn't need to spend too long playing handy man.  Moving over to a generator on the other side of the room Jimmy leaned down to see what the damage amounted to and was surprised to find that the entire system seemed to have been gutted already.  This was unusual and asking around it seemed everyone else was seeing the same thing.

This setback was probably going to extend handy man time considerably, since it appears that they now need to build a jury-rigged generator.  Looking around the room Jimmy felt reassured to see that the mercenaries were watching the doorways.