Phoenix Squadron receive their orders
Posted on 09 May 2016 @ 12:52am by Lieutenant Jonathan Kilmartin
1,326 words; about a 7 minute read
Mission:
History
Location: USS Phoenix, Starbase 565
Timeline: Prior to Transfer
A whirlwind of emotions had engulfed the CAG since finding out that his stint on the Phoenix was more than just a brief sojourn. One thing was for sure though, if he was going to lead this… rabble… he needed a bird and someone to look after her. It was for that reason that he was back on the flight deck and on the lookout for someone in particular.
Coming to a stand still, he looked around and decided there was one only one thing for it…
“Specialist Abaddon,” he yelled.
Daria wasn't exactly surprised someone was yelling her name; it happened on occasion and in special when she had done something she shouldn't, but Daria was pretty sure she had been behaving lately. She was working the graveyard shift more often and staying out of trouble. The yelling today was unexpected, but the deck was busy and loud and she assumed that was the reason.
Sliding out from under the wing of a raptor, Daria sat up and looked about before she pushed herself up. She wiped her forehead with the back of her hand and glanced at another deckhand who indicated the CAG. Daria dropped a wrench on the toolbox and walked over where the captain was standing. "Sir."
Kilmartin looked over the woman who had been hard at work and nodded slowly. "How long have you been here, Specialist?"
Daria's brow furrowed slightly at the question and she pursed her lips. "Aboard the Phoenix you mean?" she asked giving him a thoughtful look unsure of why that information was relevant. "A few months sir," Daria answered and bit her lower lip, eyeing him quietly for a few months. "Why?"
"I want you to find me a bird," the Captain requested, still looking the woman over as she queried him. "I want you to find me a Valkyrie and I want you to personally maintain it. I want it to be the best damn fighter in the Air Group."
Daria, a little taken aback by the sudden change in her role, nodded slowly. "Ummm yes sir, of course. I'll get right on it."
Kilmartin nodded and started walking away when the ships internal communications opened and a message began to be relayed from the CIC.
“Action stations, action stations! All hands to battle stations, all decks set to condition one. This is no drill. I repeat, this is no drill!”
Kilmartin turned and glared towards Daria again. "Get me that bird, now!" He exclaimed before rushing off to get his flight suit.
Kilmartin’s time on the Phoenix had been short but eventful. In less than 48 hours he had been made Acting CAG of the Phoenix, the Training Unit had been activated and the ship had been ordered to intercept a Borg vessel in the Alpha Quadrant. Now, the two flight pods of the Phoenix were in a state of chaos following the call to battlestations from the ships commander. Valkyrie pilots and Knuckledraggers alike began to flee in different directions as they prepared to make the Air Group combat ready in time.
Zipping up his flight suit, the ships CAG stood in the centre of the port hangar deck with several pilots around him as others were signalled to join him. Next to him, Captain Belinger stood and spoke to the Deck chief. Their conversation was very hushed until the point that he had all the information he required. Turning back to the new CAG, Belinger spoke out. "We have six of eight squadrons operational. The rest are lacking fuel and ordnance or their launch systems are fried."
If there was one thing that Kelly had learned to appreciate in her time as a pilot, it was the fleeting few minutes that she managed to grab every now and then for a hot shower. After a long and brutally exhausting day of drills, following weeks of long days full of drills and little sleep or time to relax much, she had finally found a few minutes in which she had stolen away to the showers to enjoy something more than a brief scrub. A five-minute-long hot shower followed by a couple of shots of synthahol and some rack time were the order of the rest of Kelly’s day, until the bone gnawing klaxon sounded followed by the announcement of action stations interrupted her shower. With no time to dry off, Kelly grabbed her flight suit and pulled it on over her wet, naked body, barely able to get it on before she rushed out of the showers and towards the flight pod with her viper.
Charging down the ladder and towards her fighter, Kelly came to a stop beside her Valkyrie as the deck crew started pre-flight.
“What the hell is going on?” she snapped as she grabbed her gear from the crew chief.
“No clue, Lieutenant, but your bird’s armed, fuelled, and ready to go. Mount up and we’ll put you in the tube.
Strapping the last of her gear on, Kelly charged up the ladder and practically jumped into her Valk. Flipping the start up switches, she powered the primary systems on and started running through pre-flight.
The room was dark and all that Mario could see or hear were the small dim lights below the bunks and the snoring of the other pilots in their rack. Mario hadn't been able to sleep. He felt he had made too many mistakes in the last training flight. It seemed recently that he was always so tense and nervous. It had been fine until 'that' Ensign Agreyas had shown up last week. He wasn't sure if it was her flight skills or how great she looked. He had been too nervous to talk to her directly, yet.
When the claxon sounded, the lights sprang on and everyone jumped out of their bunks. There were frantic looks by many, but all were frantically getting dressed as fast as they could. With his boots on, Ens. Drake grabbed his flight jacket and ran out of the room headed full bore toward the lift to take him to the flight deck. He wasn't the first out of the billet, but definitely not the last either.
When Drake's group of 8 pilots arrived on the flight deck they saw that their birds were still in line and nowhere near ready for launch. It was so difficult sometimes to get all geared up and ready for something and then not be able to do what you were trained to do.
Wally arrived on deck geared up and ready to fly, though his flight status was still something of a mystery to him, he would report as ordered and await instructions.
Drake's group of pilots were all antsy, wanting to have their Valkyrie’s brought up and loaded on the launchers. Mario looked over and saw other pilots that seemed to be in a similar situation. He called out over all the loud machinery and launches, "You feeling a bit anxious too?"
Wally looked toward Mario and nodded as he responded in the same volume. "Wouldn't be ready if you didn't."
Finally, the Valkyries for Drake's flight group were brought into the launch bay and the young pilots scrambled to their assigned fighters. Ens. Drake climbed up and jumped into his cockpit. He shook his head, trying to clear his foggy thoughts. He slipped a small white tablet out of a sleeve pocket and popped it into his mount. He felt he needed something more than adrenaline to stay at his best right now. The canopy came down, pre-flights were done quickly and 8 more vipers were loaded into the tubes.
Kilmartin climbed into the cockpit of his Viper and began the start-up sequence. He slid his helmet on and locked it in place before reaching out to activate the communications equipment on the fighter craft. "CiC, CAG. All Valkyries are manned and ready for launch."
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