Mission Prep

Posted on Sun Sep 12, 2021 @ 7:09pm by Lieutenant Jaro Antos
Edited on on Sun Sep 12, 2021 @ 7:11pm

Mission: Mission 1R - Vigilance Be Our Shield
Location: Shuttle Bay - Briefing Room
Timeline: M1D1 2030 Hours

[Shuttle Bay – Briefing Room]

“Sounds like this mission might be what we need to test out our flight team,” Jazmine stated sitting back in her chair in the small briefing room that held six personnel at a time.

“No doubt about it,” Antos responded as he also sat back in his chair taking the opportunity to survey his surroundings, which was to be his new home. The briefing room was located on the upper level of the shuttle bay, adjacent the flight operations centre, otherwise known as the ‘Tower’. The latter was the nerve centre of flight operations in and out of the Hornet.

Like the Tower, this briefing room had an overhead view of portions of the shuttle bay below. Antos’ gaze was momentarily directed there as he watched the giant shuttle bay doors exposing the surrounding space slowly open. There was a muffled but still audible klaxon and navigational lights flashed, including directional lighting for the incoming spacecraft that was about to land in the shuttle bay.

The blueish hue of the forcefield shimmered against the backdrop of space as the shuttle bay doors fully slid open as if a pleasant reminder that it was steadfastly keeping the cold and pressure of space at bay.

As he expected, a type-18 shuttlepod soon made an appearance as it penetrated the forcefield and continued on course into the shuttle bay, following the guidance of the directional lighting on the runway portion of the shuttle bay. Antos’ sharp eyes caught the name inscribed to the side of the shuttlepod – Juno.

He knew with the arrival of this shuttlepod, the Hornet now had her full complement of auxiliary crafts, which consisted of two type-11 shuttles, two type-8 shuttles and four type-18 shuttlepods.

Antos turned his gaze back to the briefing room.

He was seated at the head of the lone polished mahagony table at the centre of the room. The longer sides of the table had two chairs on either side, which were currently occupied by the other individuals in the room with him. At the other end of the table, there was an empty chair facing Antos.

To his immediate left was Jazmine, the otherwise bubbly Chief Petty Officer had a serious look on her face, with no trace of humour. He was quickly admiring her ability to be quite deft at knowing when to be serious an when to infuse humour to defuse tension.

“How would you like the flight team postured sir?” Chief Petty Officer ch’Thranne asked. The Andorian Crew Chief was ever so practical. Like Jazmine, he also did not seem as humorous as the first time Antos had met him.

Antos turned to face his right where the Crew Chief was located. He was seated to Antos’ immediate right and seated next to him along that side of the table was Flight Ops Chief Zeldana, whose Tellarite feature was inscrutable…at least to Antos.

These three, in addition to himself, represented the senior leadership of the flight team on board the Hornet. Jazmine was the de facto second in command and lead pilot. Although not quite yet formal, it seemed to him like a foregone conclusion by now. Not only had Jazmine been keeping the flight department running before Antos arrived, but she had also been invaluable in helping him get acquainted with his role, from personnel review to duty rosters to technical specifications and capabilities of all auxiliary crafts assigned to the Hornet and the ship itself.

It was not often discussed, but the Monarch class was a fairly new starship design and that usually meant a new engine configuration in addition to other capabilities that was prudent for any pilot to be familiar with, and much more so the Chief Flight Control officer.

ch’Thranne was the Crew Chief who oversaw all the service techs, also known as deck hands, who largely maintained the fleet of auxiliary crafts that were part of the manifest of the Hornet, including maintaining the shuttle bay itself.

Zeldana was head of the Flight Operations team, which as her title suggested, put her in charge of the crew of specialists responsible for ensuring the safe operation of all flights both in and around the ship. This included traffic controllers and the various role contained within astrogation.

“Let’s double duty shifts as space and equipment allows and put the rest on active standby,” Antos instructed. “ch’Thranne, I want your team focused on ensuring all our auxiliary craft are in optimal readiness to be deployed, should they be needed. Oh, and one more thing, regarding the shuttle project, the Captain and Commander gave their blessings so feel free to pull in whatever resources you need to get a prototype ready.”

“Understood,” ch’Thranne nodded.

“We’ll be coordinating the evacuation effort and won’t be actively participating, unless there is a need to do so. I suspect Operations folks on the Bridge will largely do the lion share, but Zeldana, we might need your team to monitor space traffic more closely. I hear the command and control module we are getting installed has got some fancy gadgets/capabilities that may of be of use to you."

"That is an understatement," Zeldana replied matter of fact. "It's going to prove especially useful with the multitude of ships that will soon be flooding this system, not to mention the arriving Klingon and Gorn ships. I expect the area to be a very dynamic and busy environment within the next few hours. ”

Antos next turned his attention to Jazmine.

“Yes…I know, place all the rooks on active duty,” she said with a smile referring to the pilots.

Antos smiled glad to see that there was some humour in Jazmine’s voice. “Let’s double Bridge duty assignments and have the rest in shuttles ready to launch should we need them or in flight ops helping with flight control.”

“I might need one or two for the shuttle project,” ch’Thranne chimed in.

“You got it,” Jazmine answered to both ch’Thranne and Antos.

“I’m going to take the first Bridge duty rotation,” Antos announced, which he suspected was what was expected. "But also, put me in for the shuttle project. It seems interesting."

He paused before adding, “Questions?”

Hearing none, he stood up and tugged at the end of his uniform to straighten it. “Dismissed.”

So far, this had been a busy first day. He suspected there was nothing left for him today and he longingly looked forward to going home to Aiko, having dinner and getting some sleep before the mission began in earnest tomorrow.