Parts Is Parts

Short summary- The crew is hired by Admiral Sharpe to help salvage the Victory, one of the Glory's sister ships, lost at the Battle of Sturges.

Introduction

After emptying the 1188th's supply cache on Aphrodite (Second Deal), the crew of the Yellow Submarine return to Boros. Captain Sata contacts Todd Wilkins, a salvage dealer and Lennon calls his medical supplier, Rob Ecklar, to sell some of their loot. The ship also needs repairs and her monthly maintenance, so Jackson takes care of that. Lang powers up the old Alliance computer they found and begins hacking it. Jackson shows up with a few bags of charcoal, to everyone's puzzlement.

Once Lang breaks into the computer, they discover most of the supplies were already gone. The computer also includes records on many Alliance personnel on Aphrodite during the war, including the the Butcher. Wilks comes to the captain and says he needs some time off, then goes and talks to Saxon. Wilks packs some gear and extra beer, including both his rifles and they leave the ship in Saxon's SUV. Lennon and Sata discuss the supply records and wonder if the equipment might have been sold off to any underground groups, like Admiral Sharpe. Concerned that they may have interfered with something, Lennon contacts Admiral Sharpe. They eventually decide that Preston and the other surviving members of the 1188th have been selling the supplies since the war ended and living large on the profits. The Admiral calls back and asks to speak to both Lennon and Sata, he has a job for them and also wishes to meet with them personally. He gives them rendezvous coordinates deep in the Black, between Georgia and Red Sun. Sata calls for an immediate lift off, and discovers Jackson and Howard were having a barbecue on the cargo ramp and selling to the locals.

Blackjack Guests

After liftoff, Lennon does his usual rat search, slightly hampered by Wilks' absence. He actually finds a rat and is joyous in his success, proving to Jackson that it can happen. Sata has Lang and Jackson check the ship thoroughly for homing beacons and the like. The ship arrives at the coordinates, but finds nothing. Sata reasons that they are a day early and isn't worried. During a game of cards, Jackson bribes people with his winnings to try his new moonshine, which isn't any better. They are hailed by the Anne Bonney, one of the Independents' blockade runners that disappeared after the war. She sends across the shuttle Helga, one of the Glory's shuttles. Admiral Sharpe and his chief of staff, Saul Potter, come aboard and ask to speak privately with Lennon and Sata. Admiral Sharpe is very concerned. His agents have passed Lennon's message along to Bartholomew Hanson and the rest of his surviving members of the 15th Nightstalkers. Hanson has accused Sata and Lennon and the crew of being huge traitors and killing one of his men. Since Sharpe knows they are not traitors, he wants to know what is going on. Sata and Lennon explain Hanson's plans to suicide a nuclear armed freighter into the Norfolk skyplex above Londinium and how they foiled his plans (Bloodcoats). And, that one of Hanson's men attempted to kill Sata on Silverhold (Reporter and Rifle Interlude).

Sharpe is enraged by Hanson's attempt at terrorism in the name of a war they lost, and especially that it was aimed at his own homeworld. He questions Potter about the number and locations known for Hanson's men and declares they will have to do something, he will not have people capable of such acts associated with his group.
But that's not the job. Sharpe and his people have been able to get most of the Glory's system up and running again, but they need some things impossible to get, like missiles, and would like a source of other ship specific parts. One of the Glory's sister ships, the Victory, was lost at the Battle of Sturges. Sharpe wants the Yellow Submarine and her crew to search the debris field, find the Victory and, using rocket boosters he has aboard the Anne Bonney, boost her out of the debris field to where the repair ship Moradin can get at her. Lt. Qin and two of her assistants will come along to help. In partial payment and to assist them, the Moradin is on her way and will give the Yellow Submarine an upgrade to her onboard computer. Captain Sata agrees and they transfer the boosters, a radio beacon and some Zero-G cargo moving gear onto the the Yellow Submarine, along with Qin and her team. The ships part company and the Moradin arrives the next day to refit their computer. After the work is done, they head for Sturges. Lang immediately hacks into the new computer to check it out and put his little codes in place.

Sturges Bound

Along the way, the crew plans on how they are going to elude the Alliance patrols. Some plans are practical, some not. Eventually, they call Senator von Alksburg and ask his assistance in getting them a legal salvage permit. The senator is very happy to help and the next day they receive a wave from him with a one year general salvage license. In the meantime, Jackson is interested in Lt. Qin and starts getting to know her. She seems receptive to his interest.

Reprisal and Victory

The ship arrives at the site of the battle and is queried by the patrol. After a pause to update records, they are cleared and begin searching. On the second day, they find a possible contact and move in. However, it is not the Victory, but another Londinium ship. They have found the LNS Reprisal, a Havoc class destroyer. Since the Glory uses many of the same weapons and components, they decide to board her and see what they can find. Lennon and Howard stand by in the shuttle Lovely Rita in case of injury, while Sata stays aboard ship and the rest look for parts. They pull spares and some medium missiles from her, then Lang breaks his arm moving a crate of railgun rounds. Lennon flies the shuttle in to pick him up, then Howard flies them back while Lennon treats Lang. Jackson finds the ship's armory and they loot it of small arms. The ship also has an Eagle class armed shuttle, Jackson pulls her railgun, planning to mount it on their ship.

After searching the Reprisal, the crew moves on to look for their target. They do find the wreck of the Victory the next day and loot a few pieces, but since they are boosting her out whole, leave most of it aboard. Lennon and Howard are again on the shuttle, and Lennon gives Howard an impassioned speech about how sad the fate of the Victory was, sent to her destruction by her new political masters and segues into a bit about the lost artifacts of the Beatles. A Scorpio class salvage vessel passes them. They mount the booster packs on the Victory, but decide they want to look around a little more so they are not nearby when the Victory begins moving. The engineers board the shuttle and Lennon flies them to the nearby derelict of an Osiran destroyer.

Surprise Attack

The Scorpio returns, having snuck up on the Yellow Submarine from behind the hulk of the Victory. She grabs the Osprey in her claws and delivers an EMP pulse into the ship, disrupting her controls. The Scorpio, the SS Demetrius, begins to fly away with the ship. Sata calls to Lang to suit up and meet him in the cargo bay. They arm themselves with cutting tools and breaching charges taken from the armory of the Reprisal. Sata and Lang exit the ship and crawl along the hull of the Scorpio, planting charges on the arms' hydraulics, and their shuttle. Lang welds their dorsal airlock shut and Sata plants a line of scrappers' gel on their bridge. Lennon flies heroically in pursuit. Sata tries to get the salvage ship crew to talk to him, but they ignore him. Lennon calls and threatens to ram them with the shuttle if they don't release the Yellow Submarine. The captain talks to Sata, but isn't cooperative. Lennon closes in and drops Jackson, Qin and her team on the ship, they begin sabotaging the ships' engines by cutting the fuel lines. Sata blows the charges on the arms and the shuttle as well (that was by accident). The grappling clamps open and the Osprey tumbles free. Lennon docks the shuttle with the tumbling Yellow Submarine in a fantastic move and Howard boards her to get control. Lennon flies back to pick up the crew.

With the ship's engines disabled, Jackson goes to her underside airlock, but one of the crew is already out. Jackson fires his gauss shotgun and misses, and the recoil knocks him off the hull. Jackson uses the shotgun as a reaction unit and fires again, pushing himself back to the ship. Safe on the hull, he pursues the Scorpio's crew member, shoots him with a baton round, then forces him at gunpoint back into the airlock. Jackson welds the airlock shut, then rejoins Sata and the rest. Sata triggers the scrappers' gel, burning out the ship's bridge windows and depressurizing it. All the boarders are picked up by shuttle and they return home to their ship, then leave the area. The Victory's boosters are fired, sending her on a slow journey out of the debris field.

Departure

On their way out, Sata hails the patrol and tells them they were attacked by a rival salvage team. Sata has to go across and file a report before they leave. Lt. Qin gives them a course to meet the Moradin to drop off her and her crew and some of the parts they found. On her last night aboard ship, she takes Jackson to her quarters and they are there all night…

Epilogue

The Yellow Submarine docks with the Moradin to transfer personnel and equipment. The Moradin's captain, Richard Liao, offers to trade repairs on the ship for some of the weapons they looted from the Reprisal. After a couple days of repairs, the Yellow Submarine returns to Boros.