Shiney and Chrome

Posted on Fri Apr 6th, 2018 @ 5:18pm by 1st Lieutenant Caleb Jennsen & Major Patrick Smith

Mission: R&R
Location: Flight Deck

With most of the fighters now on board Smith was starting to relax. They had just 6 hours to get the final flight docked, stowed and ready to go again. This batch thankfully came not with the bases hodge podge of amateur fliers, (Pat was a bit annoyed at one dinging the paint as he landed) but instead the Hephaistos's first full time Squadron leader. Up until this point Smith had been rotating the folks through trying to find someone to bring on, with clearly limited success. Standing now in the flight control center he was on call to Iota Flight.

"Barn this is Mighty H. Requesting transfer of command for Manticore Squadron to Phoenix Actual," he requested over the comms.

"Phoenix Actual this is Iota. Transferring command to you now. Your Squadron leader is 1st Lieutenant Jennsen, Manticore Actual," the control tower on the orbit facilities replied.

"Very good Barn. Confirming transfer of command to myself. Closing channel," he stated shutting down, not waiting for the reply that wouldn't have come anyway. "Manticore Actual this is Hephaistos flight control. Report status."

"Hephaistos control this is Manticore actual, I've got your last dozen birds coming in. Greens across the board. Reading to begin landings on your call." Jennsen said, sitting behind the stick of the fighter he had arrived at the station slightly ahead of the arrival of the Hephaistos and had spent most of the time training the newbies who would be making up most of the Hephaistos' pilots.

"You are green light for landing. Don't scratch the paint on the way in if you wouldn't mind," Smith replied. "Will see you on the deck. Hephaistos tower out."

Jennsen smirked as he brought his fighter in ghosted the deck as he set it down on the landing line. He hopped out of the cock pit and pulled his helmet off. He saw a man striding purposefully across the deck towards him with Major's pips on his collar. Caleb made a few quick comments to the deck hand was now doing post flights on the fighter. "Major Smith," Caleb said snapping to attention as the man approached. "Lieutenant Caleb Jennsen."

Snapping to attention and returning the salute Pat got right to it, "At ease Lieutenant. Welcome to the Mighty H. Glad to finally have someone who knows what they're doing around here."

The Lieutenant looked over his shoulder as the remainder of the squadron was coming into land. They weren't terrible but certainly a lot rougher than the Lieutenants landing. "The joy of standing up a new carrier. I haven't seen flying this rough since my time as an instructor."

"You and me both. Not to rush you but if your good to go I need to brief you for the upcoming missions," the Major said.

"Of course," The Lieutenant replied keeping step with the Major as they approached the edge of the flight deck and moved into the command and control facilities off the deck.

Patrick lead the way into the briefing room and indicated to the Lieutenant to sit in the front room, taking a seat there himself after grabbing a pad from the lectern. "Alright, so here's the deal. We've got a planet to do a full survey on, followed by a system wide survey followed by a quick survey of nearby systems."

Jenssen nodded, "Are we intending to use the air wing to help scout, or just keep the H covered in case things go sideways?"

"H will maintain orbit and support the operation on the planet. I want to use four pairs of fighters, one fit for air superiority and one with the sensor suite in each pair to do the surveying. It should allow us to cover more ground quickly and investigate anything of interest," the Major replied.

"Understood. How are our other squadrons looking, to be honest the group I flew in with isn't quite in top form." The Lieutenant said, "But, with the sensor feedings coming directly to the H and our pilots not overly focused on analyzing the data as it comes in we should be able to make it work."

"If they can't fly in a straight line and push a button to activate some sensors I think we have bigger things to worry about," Pat commented rather unsure as to whether some of the green pilots could. "Anyway I'll fly escort for flight 1 and you can take the escort for flight two. That way we have two solid birds out there looking after the recon birds."

"Understood sir, I'll do up the duty assignment for the rest of the squadron." The Lieutenant replied.

"Perfect. Go get yourself settled in. Marines Officer bunks aren't far away and compared to most posts," he paused giving ah rather chuffed looked, "At least we actually have our own quarters here. For real though they're pretty snazzy."

The Lieutenant smiled, "There are some perks to a boat this size." He said before exiting the room to go get settled.