The Raw Deal

Posted on Tue Oct 23rd, 2018 @ 4:03pm by Warrant Officer Koh Otassu

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/4
Location: Flight Hangar - Flight Command Office

Boots hit the deck at a brisk pace as the resident Blink Pilot made his way to his wing commander's office. Office was such a loose term, but it fit for the time being. In the twenty eight paces it took for Koh to cross the distance to Jack's office, he had gone from livid to angered to merely displeased on the surface but inside, he was a fission grade bomb.

He took a breath to center himself. It was unbecoming to storm into your commander's office. It was also unbecoming to do so in a rage. So he took a breath and centered himself. Ears perked, and his heartbeat at a calm and steady flurry, he sounded the chime to be admitted.

Koh would find the office empty. Jack was discussing things with Alex Setine, and it would take a few minutes for Jack to get back to his office. When he did though he looked pensive. A nod to Koh as he sank into his chair and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples. "Hey Koh." he muttered, quietly. "Tell me something good. I could use something nice."

Patience was the river that the sons of Ts'usu would drown in. "Sir." he began, "Well, the render for the Specter in the hollow room is finally finished and tested." he offered. "I gave the bays of those who didn't come home a proper Ts'usu Naval sendoff. Superstition, I know, but I'd rather not take the chance."

"I'm afraid that's all I got for good. What's left is mediocre, standard..." he paused, "And Shockwave. Though first off, you took a bail. You alright?"

"Physically? Yeah. Mentally? Well, I'll have time to reflect on that when all this is over." Jack mused, opening his eyes again and turning to face Koh. "I'm fine, don't you worry about me. How are you holding up? How's Specter? Any damage?"

"She took a few shots but they didn't have a chance to chew through the hull. I fabricated some repair materials and patched up what I could. Might put a call in to Engineering to run a comparative. She's designed to be nimble, but her shields are there for a reason." the rabbit mentioned. "As for me, you'd think time in the Imperial Navy would get you ready for sudden shifts in command structure or changes from up on high but no matter who's flag they fly, it's always a pain in the tail.. and never at a welcome moment."

"Any word on who this adviser is?" Koh referred to Shockwave by the term he used in combat.

"A long suffering war veteran from some parallel universe Federation, on the losing side of a long war." Jack sighed. "Apparently he got put in charge of my fighters by the higher ups. Why those higher ups didn't deem to inform me is beyond me. Would've saved a lot of headache." A pause. "And possibly two lives."

Koh had little to add to that, just letting it linger for a moment. "I guess we're lucky we missed the wars. The Kholderan, the... Who were they? Dominion?" he mused. "As a pilot to another, don't dwell on the what ifs. Just make sure the higher ups have everything somewhat lined up before our next sortie."

"Or, if you need a solid distraction... Like I said, the render of the Spectre in the hollow room is finally ready and about as close to real as it gets."

"That's for when this whole thing is over and done and behind us. Right now I need to ensure all our fighters are fueled, loaded and in peak fighting condition. Minus two, that is. If my core block is not too damaged I'm thinking we marry it to the main body of Reaper to my core block, bench Reaper's flight crew and reorganize Black Sheep into two flights of three rather than four. It's not ideal, that's the hand we've been dealt." Jack was mostly thinking out loud. "What do you think?"

"Sounds good to these ears. Let me know when you want to get started on that. No son of Ts'usu ever turned their back on hard work." Koh said, a touch of pride obvious in his tone.

"Mind you, Reaper flight might not like it, but it'll free them up for prep work and buffing out dents." he said with a smirk. "When we've got a few minutes to just sit and chat there's a few things from home wrong I want to see about adding to the fleet. Nothing like rainbow bolts or solid matter slugs but, maybe something to help the wing keep its... Feathers? Tails? I don't know how to end that analogy but, might be worth a chat."

"Reaper's flight crew are professionals. They'll understand." Jack mused, booting up his console and opening some files. "Go ahead, tell me what's on your mind. Least I can do is listen while doing my paperwork."

"We worked up something with the Dalacari drones and their Thinking Engine to help coordinate and communicate. Called it Swarm Logic Processing. Quick and simple, everyone shares sensor data, no blind spots unless the whole flight gets surprised. Send a drone for recon, everyone sees what it sees. Lose a drone, everyone knows the last known good location."

Koh kept saying 'drone' but there was no guarantee it was just drones...

"Implementing it here might be tricky. Could release a swarm of pure recon drones, line putting the feelers out. If we're gonna prorate it, might need to have a chat with that one engineer... What was her name..."

"Renee Salchin?" Jack suggested. "I like your idea, but one thing to look out for is information overload. You can't just keep heaping information onto a pilot's visor and expect them to be able to make split second decisions taking all of it into account. Information overload is already the reason our Gryphons have two crew, one to handle the piloting and one to handle the weapons."


"Yes!" Koh acknowledged her name with the added effect of a snap of his fingers. After which, he returned to a more relaxed posture and cleared his throat, "But yes, a lot of the information we got was processed and feed into the craft systems. Simplified, really. Hilariously sometimes, with icons of heads and color palettes. I'll show you, you'll laugh." He assured.

"Anything I can take off your hands?"

"Get with Lieutenant Madison and see if you can help her oversee the post sortie checkups on the fighters. Let her know my intention to marry my core block to Reaper's main body, see how far you two get with that. I'll do my paperwork here and then it's probably off to a staff meeting for me." Jack looked at Koh. "Not a fan of those. Especially now."

Koh gave a nod, "Consider it done chief. Madison, she's the...." and Koh gave a brief description of Madison. Hair color, height, the usual. Nothing demeaning or even provocative, so points for that. Once the identity was confirmed, he gave a nod. "Good luck with the higher ups. I just hope what we all get out of this was worth the price."

"Don't hold your breath." A nod. "Thanks for checking in. Good work out there. If these same bad guys attack again I'm going to rely on you to blink in behind the controlling fighter and take it out while we tangle with the drones."