Wings in the Sky

Posted on Sun Sep 22nd, 2019 @ 5:42pm by Captain Abigail Laurens & Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine & Commander Ichiko Gail & Lieutenant Jack Carver & Warrant Officer Koh Ottasu & Warrant Officer Callisi Veera

Mission: If You Like Pina Coladas
Location: Planetside Airbase

Three Ts'usugi and a human sat at a table, enjoying a few drinks and laughing. Or at least, as casual a laugh as most Ts'usugi allowed themselves. Two were dressed in casual flight uniforms of a star empire not entirely unfamiliar to the Federation but not technically part of her numbers yet. The third wore a simple, comfortable shirt.

One, the second female Ts'usugi, wore a hat that looked straight out of a western holosim. She kept playing with the brim, and giggling whenever she did, must to the amusement of the others. "They really wore these?" she asked, and there was a nod from the others, "Apparently, yes. During the conquest of the western part of their homeworld."

Ichiko had sent the message a few minutes ago to her captain and the flight wing commander. An invitation to meet the newest additions to the crew, and to meet the newest members of the flight.

Shaille, the lone human at the table, at least for the moment, laughed at the reaction the Ts'usugi was having to the hat. It was something that still amused her, the way they reacted to the smallest nuances of human life and history. She cast an affectionate glance at Koh, her hand resting lightly on his arm for a moment before she picked up her drink and turned her attention back to her companions. "Really, when it comes to human historical fashion, the cowboy hats are probably one of the better choices we ever made," she shook her head slightly.

Koh gave Shaille a smirk, and gave her hand against his arm a touch before he picked up his own drink. "It needs room for the ears, though." he pointed out. "Or at least slits. Otherwise, it'll pin the ears back, and when they want to snap forward..."

"They're going to fling the hat right off." the other Ts'usugi lady, Callisi by name, mentioned with a giggle. "Try it on." she offered the hat to Ichiko, who put it on gently. She had to admit, it looked good. Without the hat to cover her head and face, Callisi's eyepatch over her left eye stood out a little more than she was comfortable with.

Abigail walked into the Airbase, Jack by her side, the two of them having come directly from the restaurant after they had received the invites. It wasn't hard to spot the table they intended to join. The three Ts'usugi cut quite an obvious presence in an otherwise humanoid dominated environment. It was as they approached the table that she actually really noticed the hat, suppressing a smile as she sank into the seat next to Ichiko. "Nice hat," she said with a smirk. "Now you just need the boots to go with it.

"No kidding." Jack smiled, tipping his imaginary hat to the assembled group. "You're rocking that stetson, Commander Gail. Real Cowgirl thing going on there." he added in amusement, his gaze now going over the other two assembled Ts'usugi. He was unfamiliar with the uniform, but he could tell a pressurized flight suit with connections for life support, targeting info and comms when he saw one. "And this must be my two new pilots? Jack Carver, CAG. Pleasure to meet you both." And a nod to Shaille. "And you, miss."

Ichiko gave a nod, and then handed the hat back to Callisi. "It's her's. I'm just trying it on. But thank you. Allow me to introduce..."

And with that, the two Ts'usugi flight officers stood. Ichiko motioned to each of them as she named them off. "Koh Ottasu, and Callisi Veera. Blink pilots, wing leaders. And the newest addition to the security team for the ship, Lieutenant JG Shaille Levine." a pause, "I hope I'm pronouncing that correctly.

Abigail nodded slightly to each as they were introduced. "Welcome," she said with a smile.

Koh and Callisi stood at attention as they were introduced, casual but respectful. "Good to meet you." Koh started, "Koh Ottasu, callsign Ghost." His introduction was followed by Callisi, "Callisi Veera." her shock of brown hair hidden well under the stetson she reclaimed, before she removed it to run her hand through her hair, and when she looked Jack in the eye, there was no doubt that there was something off about the new recruit.

The eye patch over her left eye.

"Call sign, Dead Eye."

Jack did notice, but didn't make a point of it. He'd ask about it when they were alone, some time. It was strange to him, a fighterpilot missing an eye, but she had obviously proven that it wasn't a hindrance to her, or she wouldn't be here.

He stood straight as well, though at ease, as the two were introduced. "Jack Carver, flight leader, Starfleet 16th Heavy Fighter wing, Revenant Wing. Pilot of Revenant One, No Mercy. Callsign Jackhammer." he rattled off, relaxing a bit after. "It's a pleasure to meet you. And please, feel free to relax. We're off duty, we can go through the whole sir-and-ma'am-and-rigomarole back on the ship." he offered with a smile.

"Yes, please, relax," Abigail said in agreement. "Now if memory serves, the three of you have been reassigned from the Delta Quadrant?" she asked with interest. "I hope the journey wasn't too stressful for you and you've had at least some time to relax since getting here."

They returned to their seats when 'relaxing' was mentioned with Callisi giving Jack a bit of a quick nod in appreciation. Koh was the first to give an actual response, "Not stressful at all Captain. It's a sixteen hour transit from our leg of the woods to yours, so there's that. The actual trip over was very nice. I kept apologizing Shaille about the lack of view. See, Ts'usugi ships close their viewports when we go into the Dark. What you call 'Warp'. It's taboo. Stops us from looking out."

"And stops anything else from looking in. Or so the legends go." Callisi added in her best attempt at a spooky tone. "But no, Koh's right. It was a nice trip. Got to do a little Alpha sightseeing on the way. The Dalacari craft we were escorting wanted to watch a binary star system for a few hours to collect data. It was pretty, I have to admit." she grew quiet for a moment, "Then, we were back on course and we made the drop here. Two pilots, two fighters, one two-seat trainer, and a third fighter marked as salvage for parts."

"Until you get the fabricator used to the parts." Koh added at the end. "As far as relaxing here, we've been here for, what would you say?" he turned to Shaille. "Three hours? Four?"

"Wait, four ships?" Jack quirked a brow. "Maybe if I moved - ... and made some space for - .... yeah. That could work." A nod. "Four ships is fine. Two operable fighters, a two-seat trainer and a salvage one? I can fit that."

Callisi gave a smirk, "Well, three ships and a parter, but until we whittle it down to the frame, yeah it's technically a fourth ship."

"Should have been a little more specific on the manifest." Koh offered.

"Apologies about any inconvenience, Mister Carver." Ichiko finished. Terms, accepting blame, offering apologies. It was odd to see all three stages of the standard Ts'usugi apology in action.

Abigail's attention turned from Callisi to Koh before settling on Ichiko where she offered a quick shake of her head. "No harm done, we will manage. We can have Operations clear the cargo hold that we used for the Trions and utilize that space as well if needed."

"For the salvage parter maybe, but I'll have to clear space for the active ones anyways. Don't worry about it though, I can manage." he smiled. "Just have to play some tetris."

"Tetris? Which one is that?" Koh asked. "Is it the one with the net and the little yellow ball?" before Callisi chimed in, "Is that the one with the weird scoring system?"

"I've never played Tetris, so I can't say." Ichiko clarified, then turned to Jack, along with the glances of Koh and Callisi.

"It's the one where different shapes fall down and you have to organize them in a hurry or you lose." Jack mused. "So, Koh, Callisi, would you tell me a bit about yourselves? Why'd you become a fighter pilot?"

Callisi gave the first nod, "Well the first thing you have to understand is that service in the Imperial Navy is mandated. Everyone of able age and body serves for at least one term. If you like where you are and want to keep going, it's rare to get a no. That being said, one of the greatest pieces of recruitment propaganda..."

"That's putting it lightly." Koh said with a smirk.

"... is the aerocraft demonstration. That's where all the kids get to see the fighters in action with staged battles and then meet the pilots. The heroes of the day." Callisi smirked, "So of course, here I am. Little girl. Toy fighter in one hand, balloon in the other, and I'm watching the show. I'm awestruck." she put a lot of emphasis on that feeling.

"That feeling, that awe, stuck with me my whole childhood. I wanted to be a pilot more than anything, even..." a pause, "... even after."

"Still."

Koh gave a smirk, "Not going to lie, that's how they hooked me. Turns out, I was pretty good at it. Got offered a choice: Pilot a shuttle and ferry folks and goods, or be a pilot."

He motioned to himself. "The ... the shuttle pilot's uniform isn't this color." he clarified. Just in case. "From the first Blink to the fiftieth, to the hundredth, it's a feeling. It's a rush." Koh paused for just a moment, "It's an experience. I couldn't tell you what it's like. They say no two people experience it the same, and we don't really sit and chat about what we saw. It's, kinda taboo. The Blink touches your soul, they say. So, we don't really air that."

"But as for me, pretty much the same. Caught mine at a auto rally. Celebration of speed, really. Someone told me the Blink Fighter was as fast as they came, so I had to try out."

Callisi found her voice again, "But we did it all for the same core reason. The reason we hear in our hearts everytime we light the ignition of our fighters." and then Callisi cleared her throat before she recited something. An inspirational message maybe, or a pledge of allegiance.

"We heard it at the graduation ceremony, spoken by the Emperor to the graduating class. Roughly translated, I think it's close to... Greetings my starfighters. You swear this oath to defend our frontiers and allies against all threats, and the Koldaran armada."

"It's not an exact translation." Koh warned. Callisi gave another nod, "There's a bit lost in translation, but that's pretty much it. We're defenders. We're pushing back the enemy line to give civilians the time to evac. We're driving home the point of the spear. You don't draw the front line on a Ts'usugi map, cause the front line is wherever we are."

"Ora." Koh gave a nod, and Callisi followed, "Ora."

Jack listened with his full attention, offering a smile as they finished. "Well, I'm really looking forward to seeing you two in action, and getting some stick time on a Blink fighter - after proper briefing of course. Likewise I'll get you two some stick time on a Gryphon and a Razor. Good pilots know the capabilities of their allies."

"I've seen some Blink fighter propaganda." he added. "Very impressive stuff. Beautiful ship, too. Sleek, aerodynamic. Seemed to have a lot of power and very agile handling, if a bit light on weapons and shields."

"The blink drive is incredible to experience," Shaille interjected. "It's impossible to describe how it feels, but it is really something else."

Abigail laughed as she listened to them all. "I'm just going to smile and nod and pretend that I understand what you're all talking about," she joked lightly.

There was a pause in the air. Koh turned to Ichiko, "Would you?" and Ichiko shook her head, "Oh no, by all means, please. After you." to which Koh gave a nod and took a breath.

"The average velocity of a aerosuperiority Blink fighter craft is about, at maximum velocity about two thousand kilometers per second, as you measure it. Maybe more. All that motive energy feeds into the system that powers up the blink drive."

Callisi took over, "So, Ts'usugi never abandoned their subluminal flight just because we found something faster. So the mode of intrastellar flight became the Blink drive. When it's powered, it's only powered for a split second. But in that split second, the craft travels at eighty seven percent the speed of light. So, it covers about two hundred and fifty thousand kilometers, in the blink of an eye."

"We've got next generation inertial nullifiers at work, keeping us from becoming spring jam." Koh did point out. "It's just, the experience is weird. For some, the blink is just a moment. Hardly remembered. For others, it's a lifelong experience in the briefest of moments."

"So that's the Blink Drive. Aerospace superiority, posturing, positioning, and evasion."

Abigail blinked slowly, her gaze turning slowly between them all. "Right. I see." She shook her head and laughed. "Now I'm quite sure you all did that deliberately. Don't you know you should be nice to the person who can fire you out of an airlock and make it look like an accident?" She asked teasingly.

"Certainly not." "Of course not." "Perish the thought."

It was hard to nail down exactly which child of Ts'usu said which statement, but it was clear that each of them did say some form of politically soothing statement.

This amused Jack more than he'd let on. At least, in company. "Instead of FTL drives, small Ts'usugi craft have what's called a blink drive. This allows them to make a precision hop at subluminal relativistic speeds. In tactical terms this allows them to instantly get out of a hot situation, and opens up new flanks and lanes of attack. Think of it this way, my Gryphons are sledgehammers, these blink fighters are precision scalpels." He explained.

"Can you blink into or out of atmo?" he asked the two pilots.

Each of them shook their heads negative. "No, only in a relative vacuum. Once the air density reaches a critical point, the Blink engine will not engage." Koh started.

Callisi nodded quickly in agreement, "Though, the upside to that, is when the Blink drive is suspended, the excess energy that would get routed to it instead is routed to the inertial compensators. Makes us a little more nimble in situations where we can't use our craft to the fullest."

Ichiko sipped her tea, "They're remarkably designed machines."

Catching the expression on Abigail's face, Shaille leaned forward slightly. "Just smile, nod along and say 'uh huh' are random intervals," she said with a grin. "They can't help it."

Abigail laughed softly. "You could be right. Just so long as they all know what they're on about, I'll be happy. But if our survival ever comes down to me knowing the finer points of fighters, well, we're all doomed!"

"That's what you've got me for, Abigail. I'll be Astraea's sword and shield." Jack mused. "Any time you need something protected or attacked, you come ask me. I'l handle the rest."

Koh raised up his glass, followed by Callisi and Ichiko. "Well then, to the Astraea."

"Astraea to ushiro." Callisi chimed in, a soft smile on her features at the thoughts of the adventures to come.

Abigail looked around the small gathering, a smile on her face as she took in the new faces. "To the Astraea, and her family."

"The Astraea, and the home she represents." Jack raised his glass as welll.