Getting "useless" goods.

[Sir Lord Ash]

You know, Zer.... Gray, there is nothing but useless junk up here. I don't know if it was Cerberus or the Empire, but shits been blown to hell. Maybe it was the Empire. Cerberus's weapons never left this kind of scoring.

I'm telling you, Jay, Zora said he left special items for us here, and knows that they are floating in space. Hell, hes fabricated some of the goods up there. Now shut up and keep looking before I take back that ACE armor.

This is my armor, foo.

JAY!

Fine. Jay out.

Gray sighed as he continued picking around Connor Island. Little from the battle a long while ago still showed on the abandoned island city. This war needed to be over so that the refugees could head back home and start rebuilding. Gray would be more than happy to help with the rebuilding here.

Gray wore nothing but simple clothing here, and didn't seem to carry any weapons besides his two lightsabers. He wasn't planing on staying here for too long: he had other plans, but he needed to open up the underground up for his boys to get in and search the place. He had a number of forces up in space searching the wreckage of the shipyards for anything that could be used to modify their ships: mainly weapons. His newest ship, after Solrain was stolen from him, had able weapons, but those he wanted replaced with much better ones, and even more, seeing as her power output would have no trouble handling it. Hell, putting more power to engines would be an addition to the weapons.

It was about a half hour before Zero ambled to the towering structure that was the old HQ building for Cerberus. It was in even more ruins now, but at least it was stable on the inside, and on the way to the underground. He had some troopers fallow him, showed them the codes to access anything, and then left the underground, just as Jay landed outside, his ACE armor glowing a soft red from heat. The outer armor was nicely roasted, but the extra armor that was glowing was a good addition to it.

Its all opened up. Get what you want from down there, and keep our forces searching space. Any weapons that would go to a Solrain or Leonidas, like those heavy turbolasers I love so much, tac them on or haul them into the cargo areas of the ship. If tehre is a MAC cannon or two, like Zora said there should be, tac those on and once we have all we can carry, we will leave to get everything installed, and we need a ACP point defense system. I need to go find some smart Jedi or someone to solve the problem with the good Aku dude and my daught... Suzuka.

Alright. Don't hurt yourself now, we still need you, even if you aren't back to normal yet.

Yea...

Gray walked away, hands in his pockets, and zoned out as he walked to Normandy which was about 20 minutes away at his pace. The time went faster, it seemed, and Aku was waiting for Gray at the bottom of the ramp. His light eyes showed something Gray couldn't name, but he didn't inquiry what was on the aliens mind.

Suzuka's asleep in her quarters. Where are we going now?

We are going to see the Jedi. Its just me, you, and Suzuka going there. Everyone else with the Knights have their jobs to do. We have a lot of work to do in a small amount of time. I will tell you what I have planned when you prove your trust, but for now, you only know what you can deduce.

I understand. I will be in my own quarters if you need my assistance for anything.

Gray and Aku went their separate ways when they were up the ramp. Five minutes later, the yacht took off for space, leaving the small force here to gain all the materials they needed.

[Sir Lord Ash]

I swear, they both are so far off their rocker...

You and I both know that the old man is far from being off his rocker.

That voice... So familiar. Is this by chance...

Thats right, Jay, its your old buddy Kayla Johnson. Haven't talked to you sense the Imperial attack. Hold up, ill open up the rest of the complex and explain some things to you. Head down that hall until you hit a dead end.

[/b][/i]

Open the rest of the complex? Everything should have been opened, unless people were pulling a quick one. He shrugged and began to walk back down the halls to where a dead end was suppose to be. Surprisingly the wall wasn't there anymore.

Proceeding down still, he was surprised to see that it opened up into a command center overlooking a huge, what would it be, a holding center or storage facility... No... It was a factory complex, in ruin and used for storage now, but that didn't change what it was. So this was where they made the magic happen. It was massive.

If your going to let your jaw drop, then put your helmet back on. Big oaf.[/b]

Jay closed his mouth and shook his head, then looked at the woman who talked to him. Kayla somehow went up when he was looking out, and surprised him. She looked different, light colored hair much longer than when he last saw her. Her eyes still held that lust for something he couldn't name, which he always saw sense they spent the night together so long ago.

Hey, I never knew about this place until today. I thought all the production was done up in space or in one of the factories on land.

How do you think we got the prototypes and that armor you are wearing right now. C'mon, use your brain a little. We have so many weapon emplacements down here it's not funny. We can overhaul at least two ship with hundreds of new weapons, all you need to do is get all of this up to space.

Thats not very hard. We have a Nimitz waiting, as well as a Leonidas. Don't have Solrain any longer: it was stolen, and that hit Gray pretty hard. Here's a tip: never trust an AI, no matter what sides its on. A Federation Admiral now holds control over it. Show's how good a person she is.

So then it wasn't a mistake. The new flagship is that Revenant, then. We can really open that thing up. Its generators make more power than it can use. I think we can get rid of the excess power, and overhaul it with an APC system. Lets see... For that Revenant, if I am correct... it holds just over 200 laser turrets... I figure we can add nearly 300 new items.[/b]

Kayla brought up a hologram of a Revanant, showing all the weapons on it, and what type they were.

I think we can leave the long range turbolasers. Everything else can be stripped. Replace the turbolaser turrets with our six barreled heavy turbolaser, which will drastically improve power and lessen power consumption, relative for its size. The once quad laser turrets into turbolaser emplacements, our tri barreled of course. Maybe up the power on those ion cannons, add in about 50 tri barrel rain gun turrets, and we can even stick a MAC cannon on it, right... here, and eventually another one on the other side. Time estimate... if we work dead hard on this project alone, we could have it done in a day or so. Shall we get to work?

Yea, lets get going.[/b]

Jay and Kayla began to make their respected calls. In space, Altair made it way next to a now, massive, now active shipyard, which was directly over Connor island. It's Iris opened and the huge tractor beam activated. It hit the ground over this hidden factory, which ceiling's opened up to the open air. Instantly, conveyor belts began to carry weapons to the glowing beam of light, and then they were sucked up to space.

The shipyards's own tractor beams would grab the weapons before they entered the Nimitz and pull them out of the light, so they could be used. While this was being done, Ezio entered the shipyards, where, as soon as it was docked, pylons dropped down so that the numerous workers could begin stripping off the weapon emplacements.[/center]

[Sir Lord Ash]

HEY! WAKE UP!

Jay jumped up and yelled when Kayla yelled at him to wake up. In fact, he fell from his chair. He heard Kayla laugh as he slowly got to his feet, and she really started to laugh when he crossed his arms and gave her the evil eye.

What's the matter? Why did you wake me up?

Hehe. Because, this ship is nearly finished having the weapons installed. Its gonna be a while yet before we get the APC system up and running, so we have also given an overhaul to the targeting station with that of a Solrain Dreadnought. It can target smaller objects, but we have accuracy issues, or course. What APC weapons we do have installed are around major areas, The MAC cannon isn't fully installed yet, and is just a large, scary, giant cannon under the ship.

So thats how far we are so far? Thats better time than I thought. How long have I been asleep?

About eight hours. Its been a full night on Bestine, but everyone is working hard, and no work is left undone. It wont be long now before everything is finished here.

Jay grinned then looked up at the ceiling of the control room. He could imagine seeing what the Ezio looked like now, with larger, stronger weapons. It could dish out a shitton of firepower now, and even more when it was finally finished.

[Sir Lord Ash]

It was nearly 18 hours later before Kayla and Jay were in space on a Normandy yacht. There were more here than what Zero had, and he seemed to have a small fleet of these crafts. Jay looked out the window at the handy work done to Ezio. At a distance, it didn't look any different, but as they closed in on the large ship, they could see its larger weapon emplacements, and the small dots that were its ACP defense system. Jay wish now that he could command that ship, rather then be the ground troop commander.

Well, what do you think?

I'm impressed. Tell me about all the changes.

Easy. All weapons save the long range turbolasers, ion cannons, and missile launchers were stripped. The turbolasers were replaced with out six barreled heavy turbolasers. 100 total. The once quad laser turrets are now our tri-barreled turbolaser emplacements. We've added in... 130 tri barreled rail guns? 20 ventral, dorsal, port, starboard, and the remaining 40 around the bridge, engines, and three hangers. They have their normal fire, as well as being able to fire flak, so they make a really good point defense system alone. Add in the thousands of ACP weapons and you got yourself a nearly impenetrable point defense system. The icing on the cake is the MAC cannon, a shortened one of that found on a Solrain. It fires a 1,200 ton tungsten slug at 1,000 Kilometers a second every 45 seconds. Shorter barrel, same slug, slower shot, higher rate of fire. You have 80 shots.

To top it off, we've overhauled the targeting system, bringing it up to par with the targeting of a Leonidas or a Solrain. I just wished we could have messed with the shield system, but its already advance enough, and the power output that the generators make... I wish he could figure it out. Good thing we stole the details by examining this ship. It will come in useful for our newest project. Don't tell anyone about it, though.

What are you planing now?

Nothing at all. We will keep in touch, but I think that the few days spent here is enough. Stay any longer and you could draw unwanted attention. Say hi to Zero for me, alright?

He's grown up now. He goes by his old name, Gray Rumo. Well, it was nice to see you again after so long, Kayla.

[/b]

Kayla nodded, smiling, then piloted the yacht to a hanger. It landed, and she opened the ramp. Without a glance back, Jay left the yacht, heading to the bridge of Ezio. Once there, he was greeted with a surprise.

Acting Captain Roras. Word from Normandy's AI is that Captain Hikari is now deceased.

WHAT?!?!

She was taken to Byss, and Commander Gray went there alone. Shortly after his arrival, her life-signs nulled and he has yet to report in. We can only assume the worst.

Alright. I am now acting commander of the Black Knights. Send a small scout team to Naboo, as that was the last place Shina was recorded going, and see if we can find anything else from there. Everyone else, we are heading to the deep core. I wan't Nu Beta ahead of us, and collecting information on Byss and what forces are there. A full on attack at this moment could be foolish. Spying only, and wait for my orders, and to see if Gray is even still alive.

Jay fell easily into a commanders role. The Ezio slowly slipped away from the shipyards, and the trio of ships that made up the Black Knights glided away from the planet and eventually entered hyperspace.[/center]