UEE J. M. Straczynski, Pegasus Class Escort Carrier, Centauri System, 11:17:04 Sol Std Time, 7th February
“So, how was your trip?” asked Lt. JG Picaso ‘Pablo’ Gaerardo as he and Lt. Commander Talia ‘Svetlana’ Simonova sat down in the wardroom of the ‘Straz’ to eat their meal, her eyes fixed through the glasteel porthole that looked out into the Centauri System.
‘Pablo’ asked again “Talia, how was your trip?”
She looked over at her RIO and replied “Sorry, it was weird, and you know I can’t really talk about it.” Her final glance made sure ‘Pablo’ knew the conversation was over.
Switching gears ‘Pablo’ continued ‘Well, while you were gone there was another skirmish, lost a Hornet but splashed 4 Cutlass’. Not too far from our encounter a couple weeks ago. Purple Talon Clan. They said there was a Scythe that actually got the Hornet before the Harbingers could arrive on scene. It was ‘Mongo’ and ‘Legs’.”
Talia looked down at the table “Yeah, I heard on the way back, sorry to hear it, they were a good crew. Did you say a Scythe?”
“Yup, came down on a vector with the star behind them and just tore right through the Hornet. They never had a chance.” ‘Pablo’ explained.
The low din of other conversations in the wardroom was interrupted by the General Quarters klaxon.
The loudspeaker blared “Dingo Flight report to Briefing Room 4, Dingo Flight report to Briefing Room 4.”
Talia jumped up and looked back at ‘Pablo’ as she headed towards the bulkhead door, “That’s us , let’s go. ‘Gomez’, ‘Postal, double time.”
The four crew members entered the briefing room and grabbed their flight suits and helmets from the lockers with their callsigns on them then made their way to the front row of seats near the display.
Standing at the display was Commander Miles Jonathan Smythe, callsign ‘Spider’, Commander Air and Space Group or CAG for the ‘Straz’. A seasoned combat pilot himself his briefings were known to be brief and to the point.
As his flight crews sat down the display flicked to life and he began. “We received a distress call from a small convoy .3 AU from Nul V 3 minutes ago. Our current AP Patrol is on the other side of the system, we’re close enough to launch a new patrol and you are it. QD coordinates are being loaded into the NavComp on your Harbinger’s as we speak. Your orders are to proceed to the site of the distress call and provide escort for the convoy. Your target is 3 Aurora’s hauling some ore. They had a hired Civilian Hornet escort but it suffered a mechanical and returned to Nul V and they were nervous being out in the black on their own. Step time is now, I want startup in 3 and you better be off the ‘Straz’ in 5. Hopefully it’s just a milk run but we all know what happened to ‘Mongo’ and ‘Legs’, be careful out there. Dismissed.”
The two crews stood to attention and saluted and then made their way to the hangar deck.
In typical Fighterpilot pre-mission banter ‘Pablo’ began “Man, I can’t wait to dish out some payback for ‘Mongo’ and ‘Legs’. Let’s see those bastiges try and get the drop on The Big Fighter. 110% badass, on patrol, oorah Dingo Flight, oorah!”
“Death from the black, we got your back. Big Fighters forever!” replied Lieutenant Geoffrey ‘Gomez’ Scott, a tall human Martian, pilot of Dingo Four Five – Two, they exchanged high fist bumps as they walked into the hangar bay and separated to their Harbingers.
The Aegis Vanguard Harbinger is the largest manned fighter/bomber in UEE service, nicknamed the Turkey and the Big Fighter, the Harbinger is a very capable combat spacecraft. A fact not lost on their experienced crews. Talia tapped the top of the instrument panel glareshield as the engines rumbled to life, the last of her pre-launch superstitions “Take care of us big girl.” She looked over at ‘Gomez’, tapped the side of her helmet and held up her pointer finger, the hand signal to go to Tac 1, their primary tactical comm channel so she could request departure clearance. Once the channel was set he acknowledged with the quick nod.
Talia keyed the push-to-talk switch on her HOTAS “Straczynski TacCom, Dingo Four Five, Flight of Two ‘Turkeys’, Hangar Deck, Information Bravo, Anti-Piracy Patrol request departure clearance.”
“Dingo Four Five Flight, Staczynski TacCom, cleared for departure, once clear initial vector is 032, mark 091, then proceed direct preloaded NavComp target 1.” came the voice they all knew as TacCom Terry.
Talia repeated the clearance, signaled to ‘Gomez’ to pull into a hover and retract the gear. Once she saw his Harbinger’s gear go up she pointed towards the hangar deck force field and slowly moved the flight of Big Fighters forward.
As the flight cleared the forecastle on the ‘Straz’ Talia arced the flight up to their initial vector to clear the Pocket Carrier’s flight path and waited for the three beep signal from the NavComp they were clear of the big ship’s local distortion and she hit the A/P Master, the computer announced ‘Autopilot Engaged, Wingman NavComp Connected. Quantum Travel Engaged’ and the two Harbingers lurched ahead into the blur of QD.
The quick 28 million mile jump was going to take about 38 minutes to cover. As the Harbinger’s streaked towards Nul V Talia thought back to the files she was reading on the way back from Rytif about the hybrid armor and the murder of Pyotr Knollzinski’s family. The files made her head swim, a gifted engineer with access to amazing technology and with connections to two of the most powerful non-military starship manufacturers in the Empire. The Office of Imperial Naval Intelligence files Mallone provided suggested that Knollzinski had found a way to produce the Mjolnyr armor and was out fighting pirates, vigilante style.
While the Imperial Senate and OINI quietly appreciated the vigilanteism it was clear to Talia that they really wanted access to the technology and the man. It appeared that Knollzinski had taken an alter ego, J’onn J’onnz which she tracked back to a 20th century comic book character, The Martian Manhunter.
She had laughed out loud when she found it, Knollzinski had been born on Mars.
Knollzinski had been on a tear for the last 14 months she learned. Three times as many attacks on pirates as she had heard about, OINI estimated that fully 15% of the Purple Talon Clan had been killed. His weapon of choice was speculated as some kind of overgunned Constellation Andromeda or an equally overgunned Mustang Beta.
‘Pablo’ came over the intercom “‘Svet’, we are 45 seconds out, scanners show the convoy ships near broken moon asteroid field.” The exit from quantum travel was always a risk since sensor accuracy is adversely effected by the tremendous deceleration from two-tenths the speed of light. Talia instinctively tensed up as the star blur changed indicating the terminal deceleration from QD.
The two Harbinger’s dropped out of QD 3km from the Aurora’s and took up a combat spread.
“Eye’s out Two. ‘Pablo’ give me a sit-rep.” Talia barked over the ship-to-ship and intercom.
“3 targets, Aurora’s, at 2.8 clicks, bearing 015, mark 005. Ship’s registrations coming up, uhhh, wait a sec the transponder’s don’t match, oh shit.”
Please note that this is a work of fan fiction, set in the Star Citizen universe. The marks and properties, 'Star Citizen', 'Squadron 42', 'Cloud Imperium Games', and 'Roberts Space Industries' are property of Cloud Imperium Games Corp. and Roberts Space Industries Corp ("RSI"). All rights in content, including places, characters, concepts, and ships produced and created by RSI relating to said marks and properties belong to RSI.
“So, how was your trip?” asked Lt. JG Picaso ‘Pablo’ Gaerardo as he and Lt. Commander Talia ‘Svetlana’ Simonova sat down in the wardroom of the ‘Straz’ to eat their meal, her eyes fixed through the glasteel porthole that looked out into the Centauri System.
‘Pablo’ asked again “Talia, how was your trip?”
She looked over at her RIO and replied “Sorry, it was weird, and you know I can’t really talk about it.” Her final glance made sure ‘Pablo’ knew the conversation was over.
Switching gears ‘Pablo’ continued ‘Well, while you were gone there was another skirmish, lost a Hornet but splashed 4 Cutlass’. Not too far from our encounter a couple weeks ago. Purple Talon Clan. They said there was a Scythe that actually got the Hornet before the Harbingers could arrive on scene. It was ‘Mongo’ and ‘Legs’.”
Talia looked down at the table “Yeah, I heard on the way back, sorry to hear it, they were a good crew. Did you say a Scythe?”
“Yup, came down on a vector with the star behind them and just tore right through the Hornet. They never had a chance.” ‘Pablo’ explained.
The low din of other conversations in the wardroom was interrupted by the General Quarters klaxon.
The loudspeaker blared “Dingo Flight report to Briefing Room 4, Dingo Flight report to Briefing Room 4.”
Talia jumped up and looked back at ‘Pablo’ as she headed towards the bulkhead door, “That’s us , let’s go. ‘Gomez’, ‘Postal, double time.”
The four crew members entered the briefing room and grabbed their flight suits and helmets from the lockers with their callsigns on them then made their way to the front row of seats near the display.
Standing at the display was Commander Miles Jonathan Smythe, callsign ‘Spider’, Commander Air and Space Group or CAG for the ‘Straz’. A seasoned combat pilot himself his briefings were known to be brief and to the point.
As his flight crews sat down the display flicked to life and he began. “We received a distress call from a small convoy .3 AU from Nul V 3 minutes ago. Our current AP Patrol is on the other side of the system, we’re close enough to launch a new patrol and you are it. QD coordinates are being loaded into the NavComp on your Harbinger’s as we speak. Your orders are to proceed to the site of the distress call and provide escort for the convoy. Your target is 3 Aurora’s hauling some ore. They had a hired Civilian Hornet escort but it suffered a mechanical and returned to Nul V and they were nervous being out in the black on their own. Step time is now, I want startup in 3 and you better be off the ‘Straz’ in 5. Hopefully it’s just a milk run but we all know what happened to ‘Mongo’ and ‘Legs’, be careful out there. Dismissed.”
The two crews stood to attention and saluted and then made their way to the hangar deck.
In typical Fighterpilot pre-mission banter ‘Pablo’ began “Man, I can’t wait to dish out some payback for ‘Mongo’ and ‘Legs’. Let’s see those bastiges try and get the drop on The Big Fighter. 110% badass, on patrol, oorah Dingo Flight, oorah!”
“Death from the black, we got your back. Big Fighters forever!” replied Lieutenant Geoffrey ‘Gomez’ Scott, a tall human Martian, pilot of Dingo Four Five – Two, they exchanged high fist bumps as they walked into the hangar bay and separated to their Harbingers.
The Aegis Vanguard Harbinger is the largest manned fighter/bomber in UEE service, nicknamed the Turkey and the Big Fighter, the Harbinger is a very capable combat spacecraft. A fact not lost on their experienced crews. Talia tapped the top of the instrument panel glareshield as the engines rumbled to life, the last of her pre-launch superstitions “Take care of us big girl.” She looked over at ‘Gomez’, tapped the side of her helmet and held up her pointer finger, the hand signal to go to Tac 1, their primary tactical comm channel so she could request departure clearance. Once the channel was set he acknowledged with the quick nod.
Talia keyed the push-to-talk switch on her HOTAS “Straczynski TacCom, Dingo Four Five, Flight of Two ‘Turkeys’, Hangar Deck, Information Bravo, Anti-Piracy Patrol request departure clearance.”
“Dingo Four Five Flight, Staczynski TacCom, cleared for departure, once clear initial vector is 032, mark 091, then proceed direct preloaded NavComp target 1.” came the voice they all knew as TacCom Terry.
Talia repeated the clearance, signaled to ‘Gomez’ to pull into a hover and retract the gear. Once she saw his Harbinger’s gear go up she pointed towards the hangar deck force field and slowly moved the flight of Big Fighters forward.
As the flight cleared the forecastle on the ‘Straz’ Talia arced the flight up to their initial vector to clear the Pocket Carrier’s flight path and waited for the three beep signal from the NavComp they were clear of the big ship’s local distortion and she hit the A/P Master, the computer announced ‘Autopilot Engaged, Wingman NavComp Connected. Quantum Travel Engaged’ and the two Harbingers lurched ahead into the blur of QD.
The quick 28 million mile jump was going to take about 38 minutes to cover. As the Harbinger’s streaked towards Nul V Talia thought back to the files she was reading on the way back from Rytif about the hybrid armor and the murder of Pyotr Knollzinski’s family. The files made her head swim, a gifted engineer with access to amazing technology and with connections to two of the most powerful non-military starship manufacturers in the Empire. The Office of Imperial Naval Intelligence files Mallone provided suggested that Knollzinski had found a way to produce the Mjolnyr armor and was out fighting pirates, vigilante style.
While the Imperial Senate and OINI quietly appreciated the vigilanteism it was clear to Talia that they really wanted access to the technology and the man. It appeared that Knollzinski had taken an alter ego, J’onn J’onnz which she tracked back to a 20th century comic book character, The Martian Manhunter.
She had laughed out loud when she found it, Knollzinski had been born on Mars.
Knollzinski had been on a tear for the last 14 months she learned. Three times as many attacks on pirates as she had heard about, OINI estimated that fully 15% of the Purple Talon Clan had been killed. His weapon of choice was speculated as some kind of overgunned Constellation Andromeda or an equally overgunned Mustang Beta.
‘Pablo’ came over the intercom “‘Svet’, we are 45 seconds out, scanners show the convoy ships near broken moon asteroid field.” The exit from quantum travel was always a risk since sensor accuracy is adversely effected by the tremendous deceleration from two-tenths the speed of light. Talia instinctively tensed up as the star blur changed indicating the terminal deceleration from QD.
The two Harbinger’s dropped out of QD 3km from the Aurora’s and took up a combat spread.
“Eye’s out Two. ‘Pablo’ give me a sit-rep.” Talia barked over the ship-to-ship and intercom.
“3 targets, Aurora’s, at 2.8 clicks, bearing 015, mark 005. Ship’s registrations coming up, uhhh, wait a sec the transponder’s don’t match, oh shit.”
Please note that this is a work of fan fiction, set in the Star Citizen universe. The marks and properties, 'Star Citizen', 'Squadron 42', 'Cloud Imperium Games', and 'Roberts Space Industries' are property of Cloud Imperium Games Corp. and Roberts Space Industries Corp ("RSI"). All rights in content, including places, characters, concepts, and ships produced and created by RSI relating to said marks and properties belong to RSI.
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