Following A Hunch

Posted on Sun Jan 13th, 2019 @ 11:51pm by

Mission: https://wellington.pegasusfleet.site/index.php/sim/missions/id/5

"Hey, Frenchy, we're going to take the Wraith out for a test-drive." Calypso strode into the shuttle bay and waved at one of the Warrant Officers just standing around. It was one of the Marine pilots that was there for evaluation to handle the new Wraith-class special operations shuttles that had been requisitioned by the Major for the Raider team. In fact, it was because this Warrant Officer Third Class was so brand new to the thought process that Cally had chosen him for this job.

When Andi had approached her a couple hours ago with her concerns, Cally knew something was up. Andi trusted Hailey, quite literally with her life and she was suspicious of her boss. That made Cally suspicious and with the rapid departure of the shuttle that had survived the wreck of the Icarus, Cally had to move quickly. The Wraith was a very, VERY stealthy shuttle even without a cloaking device, with a sensor signature that was virtually invisible at anything over a light-second and difficult to detect even when right on top of it, which meant Calypso was rather confident that she could follow the other shuttle, but she needed the bare minimum of crew, so a single co-pilot was what it would be.

Tyler 'Frenchy' Lavaillier smiled at the Lieutenant, having heard of her reputation, was thrilled. If this was his check-flight, who better than this lady? "Of course, ma'am, let's go!"

Cally slid into the pilots seat and started bringing up the power systems, waving Frenchy into the other side's seat and to do the same, "Whiskey Echo Lima flight control, this is Siren requesting immediate departure."

"Roger Siren, state flight operations." The command from the senior petty officer was direct and authoritative.

"Whiskey, this is a C-SAR training flight in pursuit of Icarus training operation. Flash exercise." She bit her lip even as she brought the shuttle to a hover over the deck and remotely shut the hatch.

It only took a pair of seconds before flight control came back, "Copy, Siren, you are cleared for launch. Good hunting."

"Thanks Whiskey Echo Lima Flight Control. Siren clear." She turned off the comm and took the shuttle out of the bay and punched the impulse controls to overdrive in pursuit of the other shuttle just as it cleared into the anomaly to the other side. She engaged the stealth right before they entered the rift and came out the other side just to see the other shuttle go to warp. "Frenchy, get a trace on that, we're going to follow them."

That raised an eyebrow from the Warrant even as he did as ordered, "Siren, what's going on? This isn't an exercise, is it?" Suspicion tinged his voice, "Not my first rodeo, ma'am, I was a gunner on a bird like this before going to flight school and no offense, you don't take one of these on an SAR operation."

Cally crossloaded the course data and set a course to follow the other shuttle before sitting back, "Warn't, no it isn't. I don't know what we're going to be walking into, I don't know anything about what's going on aside from the fact that an experienced troop I know as well as a doc both came to me saying that something triggered them from the Marine who saved my life once upon a time. So here we are, hopefully just being overly paranoid and not being seen by anyone." She looked over, "You were a gunner? That could be useful."

"Six years, ended up on an assault transport as lead gunner on the squadron skipper's bird." Tyler basically preened, "Skip told me if I ever wanted to go for pilot he'd give me a good word and well, here I am."

"Well, Warn't, while we're following this lady, we're going to be running some exercises. When I said this is a search and rescue, that's my biggest fear that it actually WILL be one of those." Cally shook her head, "And as part of your training and evaluation for this bird is going to be getting ready for a covert insertion for said SAR operation. As I said, I hope we're going to just be watching something innocuous, but we're Marines, or were Marines, and we don't leave people behind, especially not when they may be alive. So punch of the simulator and let's put you through a basic assault landing first."

OFF:

Lieutenant Calypso Skyie
Chief Flight Control Officer
USS Wellington