Human Edge

Octavian put in a request to meet with the Cargo Master, having downloaded his video from the previous day into his holo mapping software to begin a plan to find the missing missiles in the hold, or get ideas of where else to look.

After a few minutes, a harried looking man arrived. Middle-aged, clearly of chinese descent, balding, and surprisingly muscular, compared to the lean frames of the rest of the dropship crew.

"You Doc Oc? I heard you wanted to speak with me." He extended one hand, slightly greasy with some sort of chemical lubricant. "I'm Chief Shan. What do you need?"

He smiles at the man and shakes the hand, "I am, a couple of the companies cargo boxes didn't get loaded where we expected them. We know they came on board, they were checked in at the loading crane, but they didn't end up in the hold we expected. I am hoping maybe they either got misrouted, or maybe you loaded them somewhere else for weight and balance issues. I figured you would be the one to come to. We want to make sure we know where they are before we land so we can retrieve them when needed."

"Ah... might've gotten mixed in with our own supply. We'd burned a few tons of missiles a few months ago, scaring off some twits in a Leopard."

The man scratched his chin, and then went on. "Normally the ammo is stored on the north side, you could check there. Otherwise it might've gotten routed off to the south side for balance along with some rubbish the captain bought - our ammo is stored north side, split among a couple compartments, but ranges from compartments two to five. If not there, check the opposite side, so compartments four to seven."

"So basically anywhere but compartments 1 and 8" He smiles, "Ill do a scan on the North side this morning and maybe check the south after the briefing tonight. This missing boxes are two tons of LRM Ammo. If you find any please let the Sarge know. Any other hints on navigating the holds?"

"Well, they're actually split 1-8 north, and 1-8 south, not counting the vertical additions above and below. It's a bit of a mess."

The chief laughed.

"My main advice is to just look for the right labels, your stuff should be marked on the outside... if it wasn't, then you'll have to do compartment by compartment, and that could take a while. We've got a lot of unmarked storage with things the captain has picked up, things that were here before I came aboard. Nobody really goes through the south side, it's where most of the ancient stuff is."

"Bigger then I thought, I assume you don't have a master inventory list? "

"Not comprehensive, no."

The man sighed. "A lot of stuff on this boat was here before I was, and the captain never kept a formal tally. Claims he 'knows where he left things'."

Rubbing his balding scalp, he added, "I can say what we brought on recently, but I'm not sure that'll help all that much. Mostly we work from compartments 1 and 8 on each end, close to the doors. Not that much cargo needs to go in and out of the rest, on most trips, at least."

"Ok I will go take a look, I will map as we go and get you a copy if that might help in the future"

"If you wanted, I wouldn't mind, but there's plenty of stuff without labels, and opening them all up to check could take days, so don't slow yourself down too much now."

The chief chuckled. "I'm sure they aren't paying you to fix my inventory."