A Little Airshow
Posted on Mon Sep 24th, 2018 @ 10:14pm by Captain Paulenna Sallem & Major Sam Braddock
2,127 words; about a 11 minute read
Mission:
Mission 1: The Return to Faltan
Location: Faltan Station Flightline
Timeline: MD05 - 1700 Hours
After his brief meeting with Colonel Haversford, Sam went off in search of the Captain that the Colonel had mentioned. The sun was up and burning and beneath his flight suit, Sam was beginning to sweat a bit- planetary heat was a shock to him every time he went from a shipboard assignment to one planetside. Heading towards the building that jutted up and overshadowed the flightline, he returned the salutes of the junior officers and enlisted personnel as he passed. Finally reaching the building, he entered the sliding glass doors into the air conditioned building, the air cooling the sweat on the back of his neck and sending a chill down his back. Upon entry, he rendered a quick salute to the Federation flag and made his way over to a wooden desk where a rather old Gunnery Sergeant sat. The man looked up and saw the man in front of him.
“Is there something I can help you with, sir?”
Sam looked around for a moment. “Yeah. Can you tell me where to find Captain Sallem?” He asked before glancing around the room again.
The Gunnery Sergeant shook his head. “At this time, no sir, but I’ll page her for you.”
=A= Captain Sallem, your presence is requested on the quarterdeck. Captain Sallem to the quarterdeck. =A=
Sallem had been in the Command Building getting off the comm with a rather unpleasant Faltan with their Air Traffic Regulator. Tapping her comm she confirmed the order and headed to the quarter deck. When she arrived she saw the not-unattractive blond human who was taking command of the Squadron.
"Major Braddock. Captain Sallem reporting as ordered." She said snapping the superior officer a salute.
Sam returned the salute. “At ease, Captain.” He said “Colonel Haversford is sending us on a little show of force mission. The Air Wing will be doing a bit of close border flying just to show them that we won’t be messed with and he’s advised me that you know this area better than anyone. Now, I don’t know the land and I could use some help, so you can either fly with me as my TSO or take your own bird. What do you think?”
"To be blunt Sir, I'd rather my own fighter." She said with a grin, "We've only run a couple of flights so far but it's actually pretty easy to get oriented here once you're looking at it from the right angle."
Sam nodded. “All right then, meet me on the flight line in 10 minutes. We’ll get a flight plan in the air. In the meantime, I’m putting the department on alert status. If anyone is at home or on leave, get them back here and ready to go.” He said quickly.
"Yes sir." She replied before heading to the hanger, ordering the pilots to alert as she went. Less then 10 minutes later she was behind the controls of her Valkyrie waiting for the Major's order to launch.
Sam strode over to his Gryphon and climbed into the cockpit. Strapping himself in, he flipped the swiches to activate his engines for atmospheric flight. Pulling on his helmet, he felt his suit seal along with it and the flow of oxygen started with a slight hiss. His HUD engaged a second later with numbers and symbols filling his vision. Gunning his thrusters, he pushed the plane up slowly and deactivated his landing gear. Opening his comm channel to Sallem, he spoke.
“Alright, so the plan is simply to do some flybys and maybe a quick sonic boom or six, just to show the capabilities of our fighters. Under no circumstances are we to penetrate their airspace. I’ll also be setting a speed limit of Mach 2.5 only. We don’t need to start ripping buildings out of the ground at full impulse. Captain, I think it’ll be best if you fly lead for the first half of this rotation. We’ll switch on the way back.” Flipping on his sublight thrusters, he pushed the fighter up to a cruising altitude of 10,000 feet and waited for Captain Sallem.
"Copy that." Paulenna said maneuvering her fighter into the lead. "Those mountains forms the back edge of Starfleet territory, you should be picking up the sensor pickets along our eastern side. That's Faltan City Air Space. We're suppose to have a joint use agreement in place but as of this morning it's suspending." She said, pushing her fighter a little bit higher.
Sam looked down at the sensor display and noted the pulsing red lines that indicated the edges of their borders. Adjusting his course to bring him right behind Sallem’s fighter, he adjusted his sensor intensity to pick up as much information as possible. If a Tarkanian sand flea so much as twitched below them, he wanted to know about it. “Alright, let’s rattle some windows.”
Sallem took her fighter into an arc before levelling out at 7500 feet and accelerating past the sound barrier.
Sam clicked his stick and throttle forward and pushed his fighter faster and faster in the same direction. He
watched the numbers tick up on his HUD’s speed indicator until he hit Mach 1.6, breaking the sound barrier shortly after Sallem’s fighter did. He was sure that the denizens of the city below could hear the twin rumbling thundeclaps above their heads and we’re either looking up or running for cover. Sam pushed his fighter into a loop to prepare for another run. Hearing an urgent beeping from his sensor panel, he ignored it and continued to complete the maneuver.
“Proximity Alert. One mile.” The computer said, following this with a more urgent alert. Looking down at his sensor display, he could see two fighters trailing him at close to Mach speeds. Slowing down slightly, he broke off and banked sharply to port. Taking a look, he could see opening a channel to Paulenna and the Command Controller, he spoke quickly but calmly. “Patrol Two and Base, I have two unidentified bogeys trailing me at speed. Please advise.” Keeping the channel open, Sam leaned on the stick and pressed forward, executing an Immelmann turn along with a barrel roll. If these pilots wanted to bag him, he didn’t plan on making it easy for them.
"Patrol one to base, they look like Faltan patrol craft." Paulenna replied on a channel, "They top out at about mach 1.3, they've shown up on a couple of our runs, they usually shadow us from their side of the line." She said.
Sam heard this information and decelerated quickly to just above Mach 1.2 so that he was behind and starboard of the two bogies. “Computer, open channel to pursuing craft.” The computer beeped its affirmative. “Attention pursuing fighters. This is Major Samuel Braddock of the 4th Marine Expeditionary Unit. Alter course and return to your base, if you continue any aggressive action, we will be forced to respond-“
Sam was interrupted by a loud and unbroken tone coming through his helmet speakers along with a red pulsing message -MISSILE LOCK-. Sam sighed and opened a channel to Paulenna. “I’m being painted. Initiating evasive maneuvers. Care to distract the other guy? ” He pressed his throttle into the red and shot straight up into another loop, clicking another switch that caused a compartment beneath his wings to open and fire Iridium Flares that sparked against the surrounding sky to hopefully disrupt any targeting lock with a flood of EM radiation and heat.
“Attention Starfleet Fighters, this is Flight Lieutenant Fuza Rholbo of the Faltan Defense Force. Break off your from your hostile flight path or we’ll be forced to to engage.” Came the Faltan Fighters Pilot over the comm.
Sam spoke up. “Lieutenant, we are engaged on high speed patrol flights in Federation territory. You currently have missiles armed and locked on me. If you fire, we will be forced to enter your airspace and neutralize you. Bear in mind, we have superior weaponry and fighters. If you engage us, you will lose.”
”Don’t threaten us, Starfleet. Withdraw from hostile exercises near our border or we will have no choice but to open fire. Leave now!” Came the response.
Sam grimaced, the tone still blaring over his helmet speakers and resisting any command to turn it off. “Negative, Lieutenant. I have my orders. Break. Off. Now.” He said, enunciating his words carefully. Muting the channel, he switched over to Paulenna and Command. “Patrol Two and Base, Faltan fighters are continuing their pursuit and maintaining target lock. Requesting permission to treat pursuers as hostile and approval for disabling fire.”
Paulenna had entered a series of maneuvers and put greater distance between the two Starfleet craft, causing the Faltans to break formation and handle them individually. =/\= "Faltan Patrol Craft, we maintain a treaty and a joint use agreement, we are operating under Section 4 of the Federation-Faltan Accord, hostile actual against us is a breach of this accord." =/\=
”If you want us to continue honouring this agreement then you ‘Governor’ killing bastards better return back to that station of yours.”
"We didn't kill your Governor, all Starfleet personal were accounted for at the time of incident." Paulenna replied.
The fighter following her opened fire, despite having no where near a clear lock the projectile rounds buzzed passed missing her by a dozen meters. =/\= "Patrol to base, we have been fired upon." =/\=
Sam smiled slightly as he activated his guns and banked to Starboard, bringing him in line behind the first fighter. Adjusting the power setting of his phaser cannons, he fired a single low power burst that collided with the left fighters wing in a shower of sparks. This was what he lived for- the thrill of narrowly avoiding death by a hair. As the fighter kept coming, he flipped the safeties off of his microtorpedo launchers and locked on.
“Last chance, Lieutenant. You can break off pursuit and return or we will blow you away. Your call.” Sam said, his voice perfectly even.
”Don’t make this a political game. Go home now.”
Sam sighed ‘It’s not a game anymore.’ He thought. Switching back to his phaser cannons, he increased the power setting and fired on the left wing, turning it to molten slag that blackened, then glowed against the darkening blue sky. With another burst, he took out the port engine of the aircraft, which belched a dark purple smoke, then flamed out. Opening a channel to Paulenna and the wounded fighter, he spoke in a measured tone. “Patrol Two, splash one bandit. You are clear to splash opposing bandit if they fail to break off.” Switching just to speak to the flight leader, Sam pushed forward slightly.
“I’ve wounded you, Lieutenant. Go home or crash into the city- it’s your choice. I will not have your blood on my hands today.”
”My Government will hear of this Starfleet! This is not the end!” The Faltan Flight Lieutenant replied before cutting the Comm and broke off.
Sam let out a silent sigh as the fighters flew off over their own lines and back to relative safety. Deactivating his phase cannons and disarming his torpedoes, he reactivated the safeties- causing the matter/antimatter containment fields to re-engage. Adjusting his course, he continued on the patrol route. Less than a second after he did so, his comms activated and he heard a nondescript female voice over his helmet speakers.
“Patrol Flight, this is Base. You’re ordered to return to base at best speed and report to the Commander. Base, out.” The comms then went silent before Sam could respond. Speaking to Paulenna over the comms, Sam tried to joke.
“Well, it looks like we’re in trouble. Form up and we’ll head back. If we get out of this, the first round’s on me.”
Paulenna moved into formation and the pair headed back to base.
===== Ten Minutes Later =====
The fighters touched down and taxied into the hanger. Shuttling down her engines Paulenna hopped out of the craft as it was swarmed by ground crew. She crossed the flight line and fell into step next to Major.
Sam looked over to Paulenna as they made their way closer to the MEU Command Building. “You flew well today. Well enough to impress me anyways. Now, once we get in there, I’ll take the heat from the Colonel. The last thing I need is you getting grounded for a mess I caused on my first day. Understood?” He asked, not breaking his stride.
"As you wish Sir." She replied before falling silent and following the Major.
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