0432 January 12th, 1648 AC Batavian Standard Meridian Date TimeDSC-013 Bonaventure CAP flight, Typhoon type Starfighter, Behind Cassandra
As the adrenaline of the intercept faded from her body, Lorelai felt her anxiety creep around the edges of her awareness, like tendrils wrapping across her skin. She took a deep breath, one that felt like it shuddered in her lungs, and she forced herself to think. There was just enough to do that she could bury herself in the numbers, vectors and sensor data. There was beauty in the precision of mathematics; unlike people, calculations never lied. It gave her some respite against the thoughts that threatened to invade her mind, but the moment that she heard Cassandra go through the comms procedure of the changing CAP flight, those horrid doubts returned in force.
“Sage Three, Sage One. We’re on station, ready to relieve,” Cassandra’s smooth voice ran both through her ears and her mind. It was like bedrock in the middle of a stormy sea, and Lorelai clung to it as the now familiar procedure began.
Lorelai recognized Judge’s voice through the comms, and she felt herself smile at the man’s voice. It was good that someone experienced like Judge was on standby… Stealth drone… Those are really rare, right? Ughhh… My stomach hurts. Someone like me shouldn’t be here… I barely passed… They just sent me there because I happened to be on the list of backups…
“Sage One, Sage Three. We’re all clear. Galaxy has the picture. You got the CAP,” she heard Cassandra respond to Judge. Cassandra is so nice… she’s so calm and confident… I wish I could be like her… Lorelai thought as she let the other woman’s steady presence calm her frazzled nerves.
“Copy, take some rest, Seraph, Siren. We’ll take care of any drones snooping around,” Judge responded again, once again just proving how superior an experienced pilot like Judge was to a barely qualified backup like Lorelai that was only good with technology.
Lorelai squeezed her eyes shut for a moment. It really begged the question: why was she here?
“Copy, RTB. Stars and Tides guide you,” Cassandra responded as their Typhoon’s vector changed under Cassandra’s expert hand, the markers in their shared Shine view marking the optimal trajectory to bring the Typhoon behind Bonaventure for an optimal landing position.
Centuries ago, when the speed of today’s warfare seemed like a wild vision of a science fiction novelist, carrier landings like this one were extremely hard. The oldest deep space carriers were more akin to mobile starbases, firing strike craft from launch tubes and decelerating to retrieve them. Modern systems, built around next-generation mass manipulation technology and implant tech, made landing on a moving starship at c-fractional speeds not only a possibility, but also something quite practical. Someone like me, just lucky to be good with numbers and with a high level of implant control is suddenly an asset… despite being a failure in all other ways. Uuuuu…
“Hey, Siren. You are low on arrested landings, right? Are you feeling up to doing this one?" The voice of Cassandra tore Lorelai out of the world of numbers and her beautiful equations, throwing her into the middle of unyielding, uncompromising reality.
No, no-no-no—she’s not—she can’t be serious, right? She can’t just… give me the Typhoon…
Lorelai felt like her chest and her heart were being squeezed by unseen hands, prompting Shine to send her the familiar yellow pop-up about her physical condition. Ahhh… I am such a poor fit for a pilot… I am sorry Ghost… Guhhh…
She really wanted to curl up into a ball and pretend that she didn’t hear her, but Lorelai knew that Cassandra was right. The Green Squadron reservists were those who barely qualified for carrier duty. And Lorelai’s own certification was about to expire, and the actual requalification process if her certification did expire was something she really didn’t want to do, either.
Though she was just a WSO, the Navy demanded a very high standard. Lorelai gulped and steadied her breath.
“I-I… I have control,” she finally managed to say. Whatever nerves she had, she knew she couldn’t falter here. I can’t allow myself to damage Cassandra’s career. She has so much on her plate… I-I have to do my best.
“You have control,” Cassandra’s steady voice confirmed in her ear, handing over control of the Typhoon to Lorelai. The diminutive pilot immediately synchronized her senses with sensors of the starfighter. While she knew that every pilot felt it differently, to Lorelai, it always felt as if to a degree, she herself became the starfighter. In a way it was a bit more reassuring than her own, frail body. Wreathed in composites and steel, she felt like she could do anything.
She pulled the immense form of the Typhoon in the standard pattern around the ship, matching her vectors with those of Bonaventure.
Her Shine spotted the outline of the ‘ball’, the informal pilot nickname for the landing system. Unlike older head-up displays, it was projected into the Shine of the pilot. It gave the pilot in command indicators that told them whether or not the starfighter was correctly lined up with the ship’s vector. While it was possible to ‘hand-fly’ the approach, in reality, without the aid of the on-board systems of the starfighter, it was very hard to pull this off. Nonetheless, the Navy required pilots to make a certain amount of manual landings to keep their qualifications.
Please, please. Don’t fail me now, voice. Lorelai thought as she fought muteness and a panic attack. She gripped the controls, making sure to keep her hand on the joystick steady as she guided the symbols to all lock into place. “S-Siren, 4.6, ball,” she finally got out while preparing the gear and other portions of the starfighter for landing. It was stressful, but she leaned into the mental presence in front of her. Cassandra is here… She would help me if anything bad happened, she reassured herself as she waited for a response from the Landing Signal Officer on Bonaventure.
“Roger Ball,” the LSO acknowledged her vector as she steadied the Typhoon within the reference datum projections and other landing assistance Shine provided her with.
“You’re high,” she heard the voice and used her maneuvering thrusters to lower the Typhoon.
“Easy with it. Green. Green…” the voice continued, and she replied by easing up on the speed of her starfighter, getting into the green zone as she approached the final moments of her landing.
Deep breaths. Deep breaths, Lorelai. You can do this.
Finally, she entered the final part of the approach, the groove. Everything was lined up with only minimal adjustments with her maneuvering thrusters being necessary in this stage. The main part was just… the hardest one for Lorelai. Do not panic.
Cassandra was sending her a steady stream of information. If only I was so good in the WSO role… Am I even necessary here? A-Am I a burden?
N-No! Go away, mean thoughts! It’s landing time!
She didn’t get waved off even as the massive form of Bonaventure rapidly approached. She fought the instinct to close her eyes as she entered the landing space of the carrier. It felt as if someone threw a particularly heavy backpack and hit her in the chest, the G forces from the Mass-Manipulator Arresting Gear catching their fighter and halting it. Lorelai felt her vision darkening as the entire world became distant for a moment.
For a moment Lorelai was lost in her own world before she snapped back to reality. The familiar director on the deck was signalling at her with his hands. She had to clear the deck immediately! She steadied her nerves and set the wings of their Typhoon to fold. Slowly, with the help of the deck crew she finally managed to taxi the starfighter over to the deck parking spot. The yellow jacket gave her a thumbs up and she began to shut down the Typhoon according to her checklist.
D-Did I manage to do it well? She thought as she fought her urge to pass out right there and then in the cockpit.
0443 January 12th, 1648 AC Batavian Standard Meridian Date TimeDSC-013 Bonaventure, Flight Deck, Besides the Starfighter
After the Typhoon was safely landed the deck crew immediately surrounded it as they began doing routine checks and maintenance.
Lorelai was the second to disembark, pulling herself up from the cockpit as she climbed out of the protective kettle of the Typhoon and got out onto the boarding steps. She saw the brown fluff of Cassandra’s hair out of the corner of her vision as she tried to steady herself as the adrenaline faded from her body. She still felt a bit light headed as she stepped onto the deck of the ship, her body feeling unusually heavy.
I… I landed. I really managed to do it… But was it okay? All landings are graded… guhhh…
Her mind raced on and on even though the deck crew seemed very supportive of the two pilots. She stumbled down onto the solid deck, feeling a little bit of strength returning into her petite form. Hearing the noises of deck machinery and the murmur of voices of the deck crew walking back and forth was quite the stark contrast to the silence of vacuum and static hum of the Typhoon’s engines. The smell on the flight deck was sharp and biting, and, oddly, reminded her of standing next to the ocean. Tinge of salt and metal mixed with the traces of fuel and burnt propellant.
Okay. I managed to land just fine. They didn’t yell at me, Lorelai thought as she stepped forwards, away from the boarding steps. So lost in her attempt to cheer herself up, she didn’t even notice the shadow move out of the corner of her vision—
“You two! Just the rocket jocks I was looking for.”
Lorelai jolted forwards, so startled by the voice of Tony Acevedo she tripped over her own feet, and in a move that was as graceless as a rock, she smacked her head against the deck of the carrier.
Owwwww… she thought as she picked herself up to all fours, gradually getting up on her legs again with the help of Cassandra’s hand. Uuuuu… I am glad I was wearing a helmet. De-oxidised Titanium-50 Grade 38 Alpha-Beta Phase Alloy sure is hard…
“Are you alright?” Cassandra asked while Lorelai dusted her flight suit off. She took a deep breath and gave her a slight nod and a sniffle. A-Ah… I am okay. I shouldn't worry her.
Tony was still fully dressed in his heavy duty suit, so she couldn’t see his face, but Lorelai was quite sure he was grinning.
“We heard about you guys out there, they had a fucking drone all the way out here?! Goddamn, truth be told I offered ya’ll drinks as a formality, a motivator even - I didn’t expect anything to be out here! How’d it feel to get some?!”
Lorelai shuddered as she recalled the tension she felt during the drone intercept. I am sure glad Cassandra was the one flying…
“Not bad,” Cassandra said with a chuckle, giving Lorelai a pat on the back. “This makes Siren one of the first pilots among Greens to score a kill.”
“Uhh… H-Half… Half a kill,” Lorelai managed to stutter out.
Tony laughed as she heard her, waving a pad which he was holding dismissively.
“Hey, half or not, I’m a man of my word, you’ll get your drinks. I’ll see you two rocket jocks in the bar when we clean up,” he said, giving them a wave before returning to the rest of his work crew.
Lorelai let out a sigh of relief as she felt the tension in her shoulders dissipate, her shoulders slouching slightly forwards as she exhaled.
“Alright Lorelai, I am getting called for a debrief with the rest of the officers about the drone we shot down. I’ll see you later,” Cassandra told her, giving her a little wave and a reassuring smile.
How does Cassandra deal with all of this stress? She must be under so much more pressure than I am… I really hope I am not adding much work for her… Surely she would prefer someone else.
Lorelai gulped to clear her throat and quickly nodded before the one reassuring presence on the flight deck disappeared. While Cassandra handled that, she had her own great task to overcome. She glanced over the faint jade green light from the window of the LSO platform on the port side of the flight deck.
R-Right… now to my own debrief… I have to be confident, she thought as she straightened her back.
She began walking, passing the deck crew moving their fighter over to the elevator to bring it back into the hangar, while another brought up freshly refueled and serviced Typhoons to replace the on-flight deck reserve.
Of course, from the sound of the voice, Lorelai knew that she had already met the LSO before. He was one of the regulars that rated and assisted even in simulator landings; Lieutenant Commander Marcus “Sharky” Carlson from Orange Squadron, and he was the one that would be grading her. As she continued walking she took off her helmet, affixing it to her belt for the moment.
A-Ah… The numbers made sense… but actually landing in a situation like that… It is much harder than I thought. I wish there was a way to calm down and ensure that everything will happen exactly as I want it to. Feeling the right angle rather than calculating it is harder…
Soon enough, after navigating through corridors and sets of stairs, she entered the LSO platform. The tall blonde man simply looked over to her, returning her nervous salute. When she lowered her hands, Lorelai’s hands began drifting left and right, with her right hand gripping onto the sleeve of her jacket.
“Alright… Siren… A little high at the start. You managed to correct it, but it was slow. You managed to settle in the groove and flew it on. You were good on the wire. OK pass.”
Lorelai exhaled as if she forgot to breathe. She raised her hands in front of her chest as she felt her lungs expand, the slight trembling finally stopping. She fidgeted with her fingers as she tried to find the right words.
“U-Umm… Thank you… Sir,” She managed to get out in a low voice.
“Doing my job Siren. Now… Dismissed. Get some rest,” he gently said with a light smile.
Perhaps… Uh… Taking out the drone made them… hate us less? Lorelai wondered. Maybe things would improve after all.
0500 January 12th, 1648 AC Batavian Standard Meridian Date TimeDSC-013 Bonaventure, Flight Country, Command Briefing Room
Cassandra entered the now familiar command briefing room, walking over towards the central holodesk. She was still suited up, her helmet on her belt. After all, there was no time to change with the situation changing like this.
Instead of a salute she gave a brief nod over to Radish and Winkel who were already at the table. Whether Radish approved of her presence or not, they would have to work together. She also saw the familiar navy reg bun of Commander Anderson, representing the ship itself. She knew there would be a larger meeting as well, but a preliminary assessment was necessary before they would handle the data to the spooks.
A quick glance also confirmed what she felt on her own face: bags under the eyes of Radish and Winkel. Clearly, the incident necessitated both the CAG and the Intel Officer being woken up from their slumber. Luckily, modern technology had ways to support this military lifestyle. Anderson passed her a cup of coffee before Radish simply flicked on the holographic sensor data.
“Alright, what are we looking at?” he asked simply, nodding over to Cassandra.
She simply linked her Ghost to the holoprojector while holding her coffee cup in her left hand.
“Quite characteristic for a stealth drone. No pylons, no hardpoints, no ordnance. It’s like an arrowhead,” Commander Anderson said. “Its EM countermeasures were top notch. Probably similar level to our own tech. Engines were large for a drone, but they had the same limit most stealth tech has. It couldn’t do a full burn while maintaining its low signature,” she added as she went over her own notes.
Cassandra zoomed in on the footage from the battle itself. The analysts already made a small, holographic 3D model formed from dots on the screen in front of them, readouts on the performance it displayed during the brief intercept running besides it on their Shines. After Commander Anderson finished updating the rest of them, Cassandra continued with the debrief.
“The contact first appeared as an asteroid. No movements, no emissions. At first it got flagged as a sensor deviation and logged as an error. I have made the call to close with the contact and confirm.”
She mentally pressed ‘play’, and the sensor recording of the intercept began to move forward.
“We ran a sensor pulse when we closed in. That’s when we noticed it was an odd return before returning to masquerading as a dead rock. It looked exactly like the examples of stealth in those SFARP lecture animations, so, congratulations to those that made them. That’s exactly what it looked like,” Cassandra said in a dry voice, eliciting a snicker from Radish. It was an eternal discussion whether the Strike Fighter Advanced Readiness Program was practical or not.
“We committed to intercept and the drone made attempts to burn for the asteroid cluster. It dropped stealth for maneuvering and sensor burst, which gave us a firing solution,” she finished replaying the brief intercept.
“I’d make a guess here that it tried to get a vector to transmit the data it collected, but from its vector it most likely failed. It doesn’t seem characteristic for pirates to spy on the Navy like this.”
Cassandra took a sip from her coffee cup as she finished, and she waited for the inevitable comments.
Radish frowned.
“This seems to confirm what the Captain mentioned. Someone definitely knows about Bonaventure deploying…” he said with an exhausted sigh as he let his head fall.
Winkel shook his head. The intel officer took over the table, and with a few mimed hand gestures, he zoomed in onto the holographic form of the drone.
“All surfaces were angled. Its engine output was surprisingly difficult to identify. The countermeasures were launched from the back. It didn’t have that much in the means of jamming, but it did use it. That means that it's running on pre-programmed instructions with some autonomy. The signature of its engines is harder to read, but it seems like one of the export models.” He bit the inside of his cheek as he looked up some information in his Shine, his eyes going distant for a moment before he gave the entire room a glance. “I’d say Technocracy or the Determinist State. Maybe something more rimward would be possible. Perhaps the Aequi Authority. That is all that we know. There wasn’t enough debris for a comprehensive analysis,” he said while going over the form of the drone.
“I will be suggesting we heighten our readiness level during the next portion of our trip,” he finished as he looked towards Radish.
The CAG sighed again, glancing over towards Cassandra. There wasn’t quite as much scorn in his eyes as before, but it was still quite clear that he disliked her presence.
Or the fact that she was actually proving to be useful to the entire ship was making him supremely offended.
“We’ll need the reservists to meet our standards sooner rather than later. Commander van Ness, do you think they will be in shape to fly when we reach Carmarthen?” he asked, his voice as stern as always.
“They will have to be,” Cassandra said with a singular raised eyebrow.
“Very well then. I’ll be expecting progress reports on a daily basis. I will see all of you at a command briefing after we go FTL. Luckily for us, Vidar pickets extended their coverage along our route after this… incident. Dismissed,” Radish said, rubbing one of his eyes with his right hand.
Moments later, in the corridors leading to green squadron flight country, Cassandra tracing through her memories of the drone intercept with her Ghost. She played the scenario over in her head, looking at it from multiple angles…
The anxiety began to grip her again, and it felt like her lungs were being squeezed by unseen hands.
Someone really didn’t want them to depart for Carmarthen.