Who We Are and What We Do

Posted on Wed 25th Apr, 2018 @ 8:09pm by
Edited on on Thu 10th May, 2018 @ 5:07pm

1,179 words; about a 6 minute read

Mission: Brushfires
Location: Pilot's lounge
Timeline: MD5 2000hrs

MacBain was in the room at 1945 where sixteen of his pilots waited for him. Soon after he arrived, the rest came in, none late. Gunny Harris closed the doors at 1955. Ranulf handed out PADDs with the squadron set up and current duty schedule. A lot of eyes bugged out when they saw they were going to be flying the next day.

"Please note your Flight, and your Element number. I have assigned Element leads and wingmen based on the information I have. Those positions are not written in stone, they are more like smoke in the air right now. Those of you flying tomorrow, I expect you to be in bed by 2200. I kid you not, this is not a party; recent pirate attacks have made this high alert status necessary, and anyone out in the black not paying attention is as good as dead. Worse yet, you miss something and you might get other people killed.

"Tomorrow morning, I take over the squadron, my flight is 10. We will be the Lancelot flight. I am Lancelot-11. Duffy Brant, stand up. You are my wingman, and you are Lancelot-12. Gavin Hawke, you are Lancelot-14; Ryder MacCloud, Lancelot-13. We are flight 10 of the BlackKnights Squadron." He waved for them to sit.

He went over the other flights as well, the three pilots on CAP and Ready-Alert were leaving so he had all his pilots here. The rest of the flights tonight were all pilots departing, and his 0530 launch would begin his command of the BlackKnights. He called up each flight of four so they could see each other.

Flight 20 were Aban, This was one of three flights lead by 2nd LTs who had been on the base. Raulf believed in seniority unless proven otherwise.

Flight 30 were Bedivere, This flight had one of two of his remaining 1st LTs.

Flight 40 were Ector, this flight had the most Senior pilot remaining, a 1st LT who would be the Squadron XO for now.

Flight 50 were Galahad, another flight lead by a 2nd LT who was remaining in the squadron.

Flight 60 were Tor, the third flight lead by a 2nd LT.

Once the flights were introduced and they had their duty schedules, Ranulf cleared his throat loudly. "Now you have seen each other, and you know what you are to do. What is the threat that warrants such high vigilance? USS Samurai was attacked from ambush by a Lyran Battlecruiser and two Romulan Light cruisers believed to have crews of mixed races. For those of you are not familiar, Samurai is a Sovereign class, one of our best warships. She destroyed all three pirates but the fact that they were willing to attack at all ... even from ambush, should mean something to each of you. These raiders are dedicated and persistent in whatever purpose they have. Keep that in mind while you are off in the black."

Ranulf went over searching for cloaked ships for the next half hour, explaining the anomaly caused by a cloak, the ways to track a cloaked ship by engine emissions. The Raptor had advanced electronics available, so their ride was an advantage for the search. He ended the lecture with a point.

"The cloak hides a ship from vision, sensors, and most detection, but the ship still has mass. Even if you can not detect the cloaked ship, it is there. So if a freighter or any ship inbound or outbound reports some anomaly collapsing their warp bubble, I want you to jump. Call for the ready-alert fighter and request back up. You see, the warp bubble precedes the ship. It does not have eyes, but like sonar, it will detect mass. When it closes on a cloaked ship, it will push back, and if it is collapsed far enough, it will force the ship from warp. A pretty common tactic for raiders. Send out smaller craft to box a ship into dropping from warp for the axemen."

Walking down the center of the room Ranulf nodded his head toward Gunny Harris. "This is our squadron chief tech. He is my plane captain. I want each of you to get to know your own plane captains. The techs are vital to us achieving our mission.

"Now, you are not getting any free time really, you have arrived in the eye of a storm, so deal with it. Anyone shows up unfit for duty, they will not launch. The ready alert pilot will take that flight. First offense is twenty-four hours extra ground duty, at my discretion, and the offending pilot takes the patrol for the person who flew the mission.

"Second offense is being grounded and court martial. If for any reason, you are ill, call it in so we can allow for that. We are each other's keeper, and as long as you are a BlackKnight, every Knight is your brother or sister. You might squabble, but I expect each of you to be willing to lay down your life for family."

Ranulf dismissed Gunny, and he left, but he closed the door behind him. "The next fifteen minutes, meet your fellow flight team pilots. After that, you are free to go."

Ranulf waved his three new arrivals over to an empty corner. "I'm Ranulf MacBain, I was assigned to Bergen the last three years, and this is my first command. I picked the three of you, because in your files, you three were the best of the best of your class. Ryder was east coast, Gavin and Duffy were both west coast graduates. Top marks in all areas. I chose you three, because I need you to keep up with me, be dependable, and to keep everyone else alive when we are in the black. Being picked by me is no picnic. So tell me and the others something about yourselves?"

Ryder MacCloud stood straighter. "Thank you for selecting me, Sir." He stopped talking abruptly, as he could not think of anything else to say!

"Gavin Hawke, here, Sir. Though I guess you knew that already. What Mustang wanted to say is you won't be disappointed in having us in your flight, Sir. We will keep up and watch your back, Captain."

Duffy Brant smiled, with a cocky expression. "Thank you for your faith in me, Captain. I see I am flying with you in the morning, so if you will excuse me I am going to turn in."

Ranulf greeted each pilot with a hand shake. "Dismissed, Ghost. I will see you bright and early in the morning." Ryder was gone, having vanished while he spoke to Brant. Hawke was still there and they spoke a while. Both had early morning patrols so they returned to quarters.

Ranulf went home, but not to bed. He had to prepare a training schedule. He made up one for the pilot going off the patrol shift for the next morning. He scheduled one of the departing pilots to fly with Ghost on the morning of the second day, so he would have more time to finish the training schedule.

 

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