01:35 January 12th, 1648 AC Batavian Standard Meridian Date TimeDSC-013 Bonaventure, En Route to Vidar, Flight Deck
“Sage One, cleared for launch. Cat one.”
Cassandra heard the air boss through the carrier’s link, and while the crew chief outside of her Typhoon’s kettle couldn’t see her, she gave him a thumbs up both physically and through the local Ghost connection in the form of a ping. After the Chief gave the traditional thumbs up in return, she looked over to another member of the deck crew. This one wore the heavier duty suit, with a yellow marked jacket. The Aircraft Director was responsible for guiding the planes on the deck, and Cassandra’s turn was next. “I have control,” Cassandra said as she carefully used her Ghost to link herself to her Typhoon. The starfighter then slowly, carefully followed the hand signals from the Aircraft Director and Shine markers that seemed to float in the air, passing through the faint jade green illumination the San Batavia Republic ships used on the flight deck. It took a moment or two to get that far with both crew and her Shine guiding her, the deck abuzz with life.
“Steady now…” Cassandra said in a low voice, feeling Lorelai’s anxiety spike again.
“Engines… Green. W-We’re good. Linking sensors to our loyal wingmen Mirage IIs and Cluster with Sage Two,” Lorelai said and confirmed as the massive fighter craft slowly moved through the cavernous flight deck of the Bonaventure, passing along the deck markings towards the main yellow marks over the grav launch catapult. “Cluster link set, comms… g-green! We’ll be good to link fully after launch!”
As a matter of procedure, if the battlespace was safe, the pilots in the more capable fighter launched first to take smooth control of their Mirage II loyal wingman drones. The media in San Batavia Republic were always eager to remind the public why humans were always in control; everyone was familiar with the stories about the issues caused by the ‘smarter’ technology created by some of the other spacefaring nations of humanity.
The most recent—and in Cassandra’s opinion, one of the more dramatic stories—was about an ‘advanced AI’ drone fighter from the Technocracy further coreward that went rogue during a routine merchant ship intercept, shooting down the controller AWACS, and then commanded the cluster to destroy the merchant vessel, which had failed to obey the command to heave to because of equipment failure. With loyal wingman type drones, especially at close range, the ship could control the drones, but careful shuffling of control was always a part of the established procedures even if it might have been less efficient.
Cassandra stopped as she arrived on the yellow launch markers. Her Shine confirmed the outlines of the MMALS catapult emplacement, and she lined the fighter up with the indicators her Shine gave her. From the outside, the Typhoon was illuminated by both the faint jade green light of the carrier deck lighting and the soft light coming from the two light blue glowing grav panels, which slightly extended from the deck on either side. Cassandra quickly looked around, her Shine giving her exterior look around the fighter.
“Grav lock… On. Extending wings,” Cassandra said, her Ghost transmitting the command to unfurl them. It took just a few seconds for the wings to reach their launch sweep, and a couple indicator lights turned from amber to green as the little wireframe diagram confirmed that the wings were locked in place...
While it might have seemed strange to casual onlookers that dedicated starfighters had wing-like structures, modern designs contained some additional gravity coils within them, granting the fighter the incredible agility and manoeuvrability they needed to survive on the battlefield. While there was, of course, increased mechanical complexity and maintenance requirements compared to a more fixed design, it proved to be popular thanks to its performance and to the space it freed up on the carrier itself.
With the final checks done, the Typhoon’s systems pinged Cassandra that the fighter was ready for take-off. The lighting changed, as the guiding lights activated—blue for the starboard side of the fighter, and red for the port side.
The mighty starfighter was then lifted from the markings over the MMALS, the lights over the grav coils of the catapult illuminating the underside of the craft as it hovered above the deck. Cassandra retracted the gear before testing all of the control surfaces on the Starfighter and giving a light pull with the fighter’s engines and mass manipulators to confirm the engine and maneuvering thrusters were green in the safe environment of the magnetic launch field. There was one last thing that she needed to do, which was checking in with the deck crew. She ‘glanced’ over with both her head and the Shine-link of the Typhoon’s sensor suite, and she could see that they were giving her waves and thumbs up, showing that even from the outside everything was okay.
A slight hum began as the catapult tensed up, and she could feel Lorelai startle behind her as the fighter began to thrum with energy.
Cassandra looked over at the Shooter, marked as Lieutenant Commander James “Stroke” Henry, from Orange Squadron. The reinforced pilot suit-clad catapult officer swung his arms, the white stripes on his jacket sleeves clearly visible even on basic visual sensors, signalling for her to go to launch power. Cassandra grinned as she finally pushed the throttle with her Ghost, the mighty green light from the engine blasting behind the Typhoon deflected and dispersed by an energy field and a large titanium alloy plate.
This is what I waited for so long, this is what it means to fly Navy!
Then she noticed the anxiety from Lorelai with a quick positive check on their final sweep check. And here it is. Cassandra thought, giving a quick thumbs up to the Shooter.
“R-Ready!” Lorelai confirmed.
Shooter turned around making a wild swing, signaling the crew operating the catapult and then, the world blurred for a moment, everything swinging and stretching for a moment as grav launch kicked in, the Typhoon going from zero to combat speed in just a fraction of the moment. Cassandra felt Lorelai’s heart race as they soared into the open void, the universe turning into a blur of colours, too fast for even their own augmented senses to keep up.
“Tower, Sage One, spaceborn, departing,” Cassandra called as she turned the nose of the aircraft, moving outwards from the carrier to the Sage assembly point.
“Sage One, Tower, maneuver and maintain, contact Galaxy,” She received a confirmation in return. She then flicked the contact over to Lorelai, letting her handle the comms with the AWACS.
She got back a pulse of anxiety and determination.
“G-Galaxy, Sage One, launched, checking in,” she said quickly, slightly stumbling over her own voice but managing to adhere to the procedure so far.
“Sage One, Galaxy, we got confirmation on Passage Two and Passage Three. Passage One out of range, but we got their signal. Connecting you to the Cluster. Your loyal wingmen are… Clear. Connecting to Cluster,” the voice of the AWACS operator reported. Cassandra felt the pair of Mirage IIs connecting to the network.
Cassandra patiently waited for Sage Two to flicker online in her Shine before proceeding to task Liner with her job for this patrol. “Sage Two, Sage One. Got you on Cluster. Proceed to the assigned patrol vector.”
“Sage One, Sage Two. Got it. Safe stars, Seraph!” she heard Liner through the Cluster.
“Alright, Siren, you got the sensors, alright? Point it out if you notice anything strange. We’re the CAP flight. It’s better to be paranoid,” Cassandra said as she vectored their Typhoon to the assigned space.
“Y-Yes. Got it Cas- Seraph!” Lorelai immediately responded.
Cassandra focused on their Typhoon and their pair of Mirage II wingman drones as they flew through space, changing their vector. In the kettle, a set of slight jade green lines with orange outlines were the only trace of Liner and the drones assigned to her, even with her own augmented vision giving Cassandra a far superior Mark 1 eyeball than the aviators of the past. The only thing that even identified those distant trails as belonging to Liner’s flight were the details her Shine had printed out in her vision. She blinked to switch to a ‘sensor fusion’ false-colour view as she guided their starfighter over to the assigned sensor contact marked as Orange One.
She focused on the Cluster. “Sage One, Sulfur Lead. We’re on station, ready to relieve.”
“Sulfur Lead, Sage One. We’re all clear. Galaxy has the picture. You got the CAP,” she heard Meal through the Cluster.
Cassandra smirked. So the Orange Squadron CO himself decided to hand off the duties to the Collision Hazards?
“Copy, you’re clear to RTB, Meal,” she responded as she quickly checked over the cluster and distances again.
“See you at the ship Seraph,” Meal responded before vectoring his own Typhoon back towards the ship, preparing his wingman drones for a landing.
From his more cordial tone of voice Cassandra wondered if he truly felt that way, after all it was Meal who questioned whether or not Green Squadron should fly at all…
She shook her head. In the end, it didn’t matter. They were here, and they were going to prove them all wrong.
02:16 January 12th, 1648 AC Batavian Standard Meridian Date TimeDSC-013 Bonaventure CAP flight, En Route to Vidar, Typhoon type Starfighter
“C-Cass- uh… S-Seraph. You’ve been looking at that… sensor read… at about 13,500 ms out? It feels… wrong, doesn’t it?”
Lorelai mentioned what Cassandra was looking at, pointing out what seemed to be an asteroid contact on the shared Shine. She is good at sensing what I feel, Cassandra thought as she zoomed in on the contact with her Shine.
“Yeah Siren, it really feels… odd. I am not sure why though…” Cassandra muttered as she looked at the contact. Even though it didn’t really do anything, she felt the urge to squint as she tried to resolve the distant speck in her vision, but even though she was backed by both Galaxy AWACS and the sensors onboard her Typhoon, it was just too damn far for the sensors to confirm the contact.
“Let’s check that rock out, shall we? Better safe than sorry,” she said to Lorelai, watching her WSO’s nervous, eager nodding. Well, she is determined. I better hold my cool together as well.
“Galaxy, Sage one. Investigating contact, 56 starward, 13,500 ms. Request you hold picture. Presumed rock, vectoring closer for direct sensor sweep,” Cassandra broadcasted to the Galaxy through the Cluster.
“Sage One, Galaxy. Alright, stretch your wings if you insist. We’ll be on standby,” she heard the AWACS operator.
He wasn’t wrong… This far out, even though they were rapidly decreasing the distance between them and the contact, it still just looked like one of the millions of rocks within the asteroid belt. Absolutely average, with an albedo that was consistent with the rocks around it. It was completely, absolutely, utterly normal.
Except there was just something… strange about it.
She ran the numbers and they just felt… artificial? The deviation wasn’t even enough for the system to flag it on sensors, simply flagging it as sensor read error. She made sure that the Typhoon had intercepted the contact, and she shuffled her position with her wingman drones per standard intercept procedure.
“Siren, when we get to about 11,000 ms, blast it with a long range sensor pulse. If it’s something… Fishy… We’ll at least know it isn’t a rock,” Cassandra said, focusing on the target as she vectored their fighter to it. I really hope I am wrong… She thought, hoping that it was just paranoia, but…
As they got closer, she silently cursed herself. For once, she really wished she was wrong.
“T-This return… It doesn’t make sense!” She heard from Lorelai as the active sensor ping hit the strange looking ‘rock’. For the briefest of moments, barely tens of milliseconds apart, the sensor return changed, shifted… forming into something that it definitely wasn’t… until it snapped back to pretending that it was just merely a rock.
Cassandra’s hands clenched. “Bollocks… Galaxy, Sage One! Stealth observation drone, long range! Intercepting! Requesting weapons free!” Cassandra shouted into the network as she pushed on the throttle of the Typhoon, accelerating the starfighter to cross the distance to the strange signal as soon as possible.
“Sage one, Galaxy. Hold fire. Resolving signature… Resolving… Got it—that’s definitely a stealth drone! Weapons free! I say again, weapons free!”
Cassandra had already moved. The Typhoon thrummed as the jade-gold engine plume grew in size behind both Lorelai and Cassandra. Whatever it was, whoever it belonged to, it didn’t matter. She needed a clear lock to get through to it.
It still wasn’t clear… Closer… Closer! Come on…!
Stealth systems were hard to target, but luckily, drones like this had their limitations.
At this close range the drone’s sensors finally kicked in, consulting its pre-determined mission parameters, the electronic brain of the unwanted observer taking a moment to realise it was being intercepted. It quickly spun around and began burning, and thin lines bloomed on Cassandra’s Shine, indicating its burn towards the asteroid cluster.
Cassandra pushed the Typhoon all the way to full AB, forcing the drone to speed up as well to increase the distance. But it had to slow down, disrupting its stealth capabilities as its mass manipulators compensated for the aggressive maneuvering. Cassandra eased on the throttle, positioning the Typhoon behind the drone.
As she flicked two Cherubims to Lorelai, she finally saw the form of the enemy. An unusually large drone, looking like an arrowhead with a ridge up and down and two engines, coloured in neutral greys with no markings and two smaller type engines at the back. To make this fast burn to safety it simply had to give up stealth.
“Sage one, fox Two!” Lorelai shouted, panic in her voice as two Cherubim missiles streamed forwards from one of their Mirage II drones. Cassandra counted as the drone cranked, burning forwards before launching flares and countermeasures and following up with a harder turn. The Cherubims were going to miss but…
She flicked a Malakim missile to Lorelai. “S-Sage one, Magnum!” Lorelai followed up the two Cherubims right after.
The signature-guided Cherubims were followed by the larger, more capable missile from the Typhoon’s weapon pylons. The electronic brain of the Malakims were designed to seek out the loudest, angriest sources of electromagnetic radiation and gravitic perturbations, and it flew towards the drone like a moth to a flame. It screamed through the void, faster than the most advanced starfighters in the known ‘verse, and then—
“S-Sage One… Splash one! A-Ah… I repeat... Splash one!” Lorelai muttered in utter disbelief, looking at the small burst of radiation that faded into a field of debris and shattered spacerocks around it.
“Galaxy, Sage One. We got the bogey. Transmitting sensor read and returning to formation. We’ll sweep the edge of the asteroid field on the way back. Seemed to be some kind of large stealth drone, probably an export type,” Cassandra reported while vectoring the Typhoon around, slowing down to cruise.
“Sage one, Galaxy. You got one hell of a nose for those drones. What the hell was that?” The AWACS operator asked while transmitting the data to Bonaventure.
“No clue, but I sure as hell hope the spooks will know more,” Cassandra said as she tried to calm her hammering heart. Lorelai was hardly better, and she felt the WSO fight against her shuddering breaths and rolling gut as she tried to also calm down her heart rate.
“Well Seraph… Siren… I guess you got that kill,” Galaxy said.
“Half of one…” Cassandra reminded him. “... it’s a drone, after all.”