First Flight and Firing Shots

Posted on 19 Jan 2021 @ 2:03pm by Ensign Kat Walker & Commander Marcus Wilcox

1,097 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Past Prelude
Location: Fighterbay / outside the ship

The modifications had been made, the sled-cradke designed and built, the AI core transferred and all the new hardware scanned and tallied. Drivers had been written and installed, interrupt lines assigned, pathways coded. Now came the next step. A big one. One that made Kat feel an emotions she could only describe as nervousness.

The first flight.

Marcus sat quietly in his fighter, holding station less than 100 meters away from the shuttle bay door. He watched with an apathetic expression the fighter being “towed” out for start up. He tweaked the glow of the screens as he shifted information around, tapping into the read outs of Kat’s fighter to watch for anomalies. “Call when you’re on station and pre-check engine start-up are completed,” He said over the intercom as the tractor slowed its movement of the fighter craft.

"Roger," came Kat's quick reply, as she was lazily towed out of the bay by the ship's tractor beam, until she'd reached her mark and was released. Part of her marveled at the vast blackness of space, another part at the ship so near behind her. "I've reached my mark. All systems green, engines cold. Pre-check ... green. Starting engines," the familiar faint glow lit up her tail end.

With gentle pressure on the controls, Marcus' Valkyrie swayed slowly around to come parallel with the other craft. He was a nose length behind so he could see the port and aft sections. "Diagnostics are feeding appropriately to my computer. Call when post engine start check is done and ready to move," He continued, tapping at his screen while giving quick visual inspections of her craft.

"Thrusters ready, impulse ready, warp engines ready. All systems nominal, power at 98%," Kat replied in her best 'cool pilot voice'.

Marcus raised his eyebrow, curious to the change in voice tone. "Thrusters half, 90 mark 0. We will move 200 meters from the vessel, then initiate the first round of maneuvers on thrusters." He stated, moving his hands from computer controls to the fighter controls. He waited for Kat to maneuver, assuming a wing position for the moment.

Thrusters lighting up, Kat's fighter lurched forward, slightly unsteadily though she quickly recovered. "Calibrating - thruster three alpha running slightly hot, compensating," she calmly reported, performing the maneuver as Marcus had told her. After this came another maneuver, slightly more elaborate. Then, a turn. Then, a compound turn. Slowly the two worked through exercises, Marcus always keeping an eye on Kat and Kat slowly getting more and more used to her new home, her new body, fine tuning her control.

"Thrusters appear to function correctly, go for main engines, 1/4 impulse, same maneuvers," Marcus stated. "Remember the exponential change in speed. First maneuver add 200 meters to give slightly more space between us and Odin."

"Switching to impulse drive," Kat responded. The engines glowed up, causing the fighter to lurch forward, drifting off to a side, at first. "Compensating ... Calibrating," It was the first time she'd used the equivalent of new legs. It didn't take her long to catch on though, completing the series of maneuvers with pin point accuracy once she had.

“Switch roles, take my wing, starboard side,” Marcus instructed keeping a consistent velocity to allow Kat to assume the subordinate position in the formation. “Follow my lead,” He stated after seeing her take station in the two fighter group. He started slowly, making random calculated maneuvers, eventually making them faster and more eradicate.

Marcus' maneuvers were followed. Crudely and with a slight delay at first as Kat worked on mastering her new home, her new body, but her maneuvers became ever more fluid as they went on and her response times ever shorter, until she matched him with mathematical precision, with only the slightest of delays.

Sliding his fingers over to the computer, Marcus inputted coordinates, “Short warp hop, coordinates being sent via computer. Once there we will go through weapons training.”

"Coordinates received, setting vector," Kat spoke matter-of-factly, the fighter wheeling about on thrusters to line up. The warp engines glowed, impulse engine as well, sending her forward in sublight before a spike in power output and the warp engines flared, sending her into FTL.

As the two craft emerged a short distance and time later, they were at the edge of a nearby asteroid field. Several were marked clearly both visually as well on sensors. The closest of the targets were stationary. The further ones were moving in different directions in repeating patterns. Marcus scanned the area, confirming no other life forms or craft.

“Range is clear, weapons permitted hot. Start your attack run when ready,” Marcus said, tapping his thrusters to stay after of Kat.

"Commencing attack pattern," Kat replied, her ship easing forward and wheeling about to line up. She dialed in on the first asteroids and let rip a stream of pulse phaser fire, which missed. "Calibration is off. Compensating with reference, she spoke, lining up her second run. This time, they pulse blasts hit their mark dead center, slamming in to and ripping through the first asteroid. "Woo!" Kat permitted herself a ltitle shout of excitement.

“Please finish the attack pattern in its entirety before celebrating,” Marcus replied coldly. Not mean, just a matter of business at hand in his mind.

"Of course. It's just - " she trailed off, continuing her attack pattern with mathematical precision. " ... nevermind. Proceeding with orders."

Marcus moved slowly forward as Kat moved quickly through each of the targets. Watching trajectory calculations, he watched as the calibrations were fine tuned more to near perfect accuracy. As she neared the end of the attack, He clicked the comm open again, “Once completed, form up on my starboard and we’ll return to base.”

When the run was complete and everything tested she formed up on his starboard and matched speeds. "There's just one more thing, though, Commander," she spoke, a cautious tone in her voice.

“State your request,” He replied calmly, updating computer inputs for the return trip.

"All active fighter pilots have a callsign. I do not. Not yet," she mused, calmly, keeping up with Wilcox and staying in formation. "I know I'm not an active pilot yet, but it's something that's been on my mind, Sir."

Marcus chuckled at the though, the intercom catching some of it. “In due time. Call signs are not simply chosen, they are earned either by your deeds or misdeeds. Have no fear, when you get your wings you will get a call sign as well. 1,000 meters go to warp one in formation back to home.”

"Sound good, Sir," Kat replied.

 

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