At the 13th Dock of the Lunar Military Industrial Plant:
“There’s a problem.”
“What is it, Director of General Affairs?”
“Using that ship as-is would be too much of a stretch. We had the other captured ships thoroughly refitted, but not doing the same for this older ship could leave us open to criticism if he fails, with the lack of maintenance as the excuse.”
“Then have it maintained.”
“How should we handle the budget?”
“Chief Financial Officer, any ideas?”
“Well…the only option would be to use part of the maintenance funds granted by His Majesty. Those funds were provided under the guise of ship maintenance, but no specific ship was designated. We could allocate a portion.”
“That could work. Director, let’s go with that plan.”
“You’ve thought of something?”
“Yes, we give him a very small amount and leave the maintenance entirely to him. Being completely inexperienced, he’s bound to fail at that stage. I wouldn’t be confident taking on such a task suddenly either, so for someone fresh out of school, it’s an unreasonable request. My prediction is that he’ll either waste the allocated budget or fail to complete any usable maintenance at all.”
“Ah, that would indeed be sufficient grounds for demotion. What do you think, Director? I support this proposal.”
“Well, Chief Financial Officer?”
“Yes, the budget granted is 600 billion gold, so instructing him to carry out combat-ready refits including armaments with just 1/10th, no, 1/20th of that – 30 billion gold – should work, I think. How’s that?”
“And how long is the scheduled refit period for that aerospace frigate?”
“The dock inspection hasn’t finished yet, but word is the main engines need replacing. In that case, we’re probably looking at a year at minimum.”
“Very well, have him do it in a quarter of that time – 3 months. The nobles can stomach that delay. This is settled then.”
“Yes, we’ll appoint him as the acting captain of an aerospace destroyer, keeping his current subordinates. Additional crew may be needed, but we can assess that once maintenance is underway. The initial orders will be maintenance within a 3-month period. As for the remaining details, there’s the ship’s registration and name, its affiliation, and so on.”
“Who cares about trivial details like that? It’s an impossible task anyway. General Affairs is fine. Whatever position he’s in, this failure will stain his record. But if it’s General Affairs, at least a line failure won’t impact his background. Speaking of which, what is he up to now?”
“Yes, he should be arriving today or so. We’ve had that frigate navigate to the Lunar dock.”
For a moment, the military officials felt an ominous premonition.
The fact that they had assigned what was essentially a training voyage – having the freshly graduated officer navigate the ship –
gave them a sense that their plan might backfire.
To dispel that ill feeling, they all convinced themselves it would be fine, since Bruce had zero prior experience with maintenance beyond what was covered in school.
With no further reason to remain in the meeting room, the high-ranking Coast Guard officers dispersed to attend to their respective duties.
After all, they hadn’t been able to do any real work for the past two days.
Just determining how to handle Lieutenant Nao Bruce had consumed two full days.
Completely unaware, the man himself was soon approaching the Lunar dock.
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“Captain, we have an incoming transmission. A military spacecraft is requesting permission to board.”
“Respond immediately. Grant them permission to board.”
“Yes, sir.”
“This is the aerospace frigate. You are cleared to board. Please advise the boarding procedure.”
“I will transfer via personal mover. Requesting to board through the airlock beneath the bridge. Permission requested.”
“Permission granted. We will await you on the bridge.”
No more than ten minutes later, a chief petty officer who introduced himself as a guide arrived on the bridge.
“Chief Petty Officer Thor from the Lunar Factory Area Guide Division. I will now guide this ship into the 13th Dock for docking.”
“I am Acting Captain Lieutenant Nao Bruce of this vessel. I hereby transfer command authority to you.”
“I assume command authority. Thank you for your efforts so far. Let’s work together a bit longer.”
After that greeting, he immediately moved next to Kasumi, who was at the helm.
Issuing various detailed instructions to Kasumi and Maria, he operated the ship.
Outside, support tag spacecraft under his command assisted.
Even with the reduced one-eighth gravity, landing on the lunar surface without the main engines was a nerve-wracking task.
But the entire docking process only took about an hour, although the work was quite nerve-wracking.
thanks to Kasumi’s superb piloting skills and especially the exceptional expertise of the guide officer Thor who had boarded.
This was a military port specializing in repairs, after all.
Landing damaged ships was probably routine here.
With the external tug craft’s cooperation, docking on the lunar surface went perfectly smoothly.
Immediately after landing, the Dock Master of the 13th Dock arrived on the bridge with subordinates in tow.
My role was simply to hand over the ship to the Dock Master.
“I’m Keel, Dock Master of the 13th Dock. Welcome aboard, Lieutenant – I’ve heard about you.”
“Thank you. If I may proceed with the formalities first?”
“Ah yes, of course. Chief Petty Officer Keel. I’ve boarded to take charge of this vessel.”
“I am Acting Captain Lieutenant Nao Bruce, currently in command of this ship. I hereby transfer all command authority to Chief Petty Officer Keel.”
“I assume command. Your efforts are appreciated.”
“We will now disembark.”
“You are cleared to disembark. It may take some time, but rest assured I will return this ship to you in like-new condition. Please convey that to the Director General.”
“Understood. I will directly relay Chief Petty Officer Keel’s words. Thank you.”
With that, we disembarked together.
Thanks to not just military activities but also tourism and resource development, the Lunar region was quite developed within the Kingdom.
Due to the much lower gravity compared to Earth, few actually lived there, but many did work on the Moon.
Shuttles connecting it to the capital planet were constantly ferrying people.
We just needed to get the paperwork issued at the dock office before returning to headquarters.
“Captain, Captain! We can do some sightseeing here, right?”
“What are you talking about? We’re still on duty. Outings come after we return home. Same goes for work.”
“Eh? What’s that about, never heard it before.”
“Really? At the orphanage, they always told us that whenever we went out together. Well, if you’ve never heard it, no need to worry. But our mission is to report to the Director of General Affairs at headquarters with these documents. Unfortunately, the transit shuttle between here and Farren Spaceport runs every 20 minutes. No time for sightseeing. Let’s head to the shuttle terminal.”
It takes about an hour by transit shuttle to get from the Lunar base to Farren Spaceport.
When we arrived at Farren, the Director of General Affairs was waiting for us at the immigration gate.
I was surprised, but handed him the paperwork and reported on the ship’s navigation.
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bruh these coast guard officials are just outright sabotaging him at this point so i really really want someone to have recorded this meeting or people realize they’re doing this and it still didn’t stop them
I don’t see this going well for the Nao haters for some reason.
Thanks for the chapters.
Instead of support or external “tag” craft, isn’t “tug” better?
fixed, thanks
thanks to Kasumi’s superb piloting skills -> Thanks to Kasumi’s superb piloting skills
Thanks.