A quick shower and a dry set of clothes later, I strode onto the bridge, sliding into my chair before glancing at the ceiling.
"Anytime SHODAN."
The screen before me flickered to life, and Eisen's somewhat weary visage once again dominated the screen, the main bridge of the Victory behind him.
"Kyle? Good to see you. As you've probably already been told, Confederate Intelligence has intercepted a transmission sent by one of the Kilrathi Destroyer's in the Ariel System. This transmission detailed your ship, and has Fleet HQ a little jumpy."
"Go on," I prompted, nodding slowly.
"I've been asked to transmit anything and everything I know or could speculate about the Jupiter's Thunder, and was wondering how much you might be willing to divulge."
I thought about that for a moment, wondering what Confed would do if they knew all the intricacies of my ship. Still, Eisen would probably already have a rather detailed description, so denying him his request would be about as pointless as it was rude.
"Captain, send me whatever report you have and I'll have some of my engineers go over it, and make sure it's totally correct in whatever details you and your crew've extrapolated."
"I assumed as much. Is there anything you'd prefer to tell Confed, personally?"
"You mean, like an attached message or something?"
"Yes."
"Sure... tell them I said Tolwyn's project is a waste, and while Taggart's is more elegant, it's still barbaric, and that I have a better suggestion. And that I'd like to talk to Taggart ASAP, if possible."
"Taggart? General Taggart? And Admiral Tolywn?"
"No, Tolwyn can stay in his little hidey-hole, plotting his heroic escapades or whatever. I'd rather talk to someone more.. amiable? Willing to listen, at any point.. and I think Taggart is in a better position to weigh all options. Not as much beaurocracy in Covert Ops."
"You certainly know the upper echelons of our military..."
"Grand Admiral," I said, looking away from the Screen and out the viewport at the Victory.
"Excuse me?"
"My Rank. So as to avoid any confusion, I'll go with a Grand Admiral Rank in the Imperial-" I paused, frowning, for a moment, before continuing, " THIS Imperial- Navy... as opposed to the Kilrathi's."
"Grand Admiral?"
"Yes. It's above all other's aboard the Thunder, so there's no confusion with the Chain of Command. Not counting naval personel, there are over thirty-eight thousand soldiers aboard this ship."
Eisen blinked, looking away from the screen for a moment, before nodding, "I can see where such modifications to command structure might be warranted."
"Yep. Anything else, Victory?"
"Not at the moment. When can I expect my Wing Commander back?"
"I'll get a shuttle prepped as soon as we finish speaking."
"Understood. Victory out."
"Thunder out."
The screen went blank, returning to its prior, wall-like color, and I slumped in my seat, looking around the bridge for a moment before sliding out of the chair, and making my way to the door.
"Archer, prepare a Lambda-class shuttle for our guests return to the Victory. What's come of the TIE conversions?"
"Still ongoing," SHODAN replied almost before I finished speaking.
"How's Nabiki's pet-project coming along?"
"Fairly well. It's a pretty straightforward design, so there's very little fabricating involved. Just adapting what already exists."
I nodded, making my way towards my quarters.
"Something wrong, Kyle?" Makoto asked. I slowed down, glancing at her and giving her a little smile before turning back to look at the hallway stretching out before me.
"Nothing much... and everything at once."
"How vaguely descriptive," Nabiki quipped.
"Wasn't it, though?" I muttered, suddenly changing direction and heading towards the dining area.
There were a few people eating, and, while I could have chosen to dine in the more private dining area, I didn't feel like making the cook get me a full meal, so I made my way to the food dispenser and got myself a bowl of cereal.
Sitting down at a corner table, I started eating, silently contemplating the way things were shaping up, and what would come soon.
Convince a war-ravaged government to give me a convincingly large taskforce to use as a diversion while my ship Hyperspace Jumps into Kilrah's gravity well and I douse the Emperor and whoever else is nearby in a random curse of my chosing.
"So damn simple," I muttered between spoonfulls of sugary... something. Looking down, I shrugged, not recognizing the shape, but recognizing the flavor as something akin to Cheerios.
"What's simple?" Makoto asked, her own bowl filled with ice cream.
"Oh, getting out of here."
Nabiki glanced at the exit, but didn't say anything, and I snorted at the unsaid comment. Makoto just rolled her eyes, then looked at me, one brow raised.
"So... Want to take your mind off your problems for a while?"
I gagged on a mouthfull of oats, barely managing to contain the spray of partially chewed food before glaring at Makoto as I wiped milk from my chin. Swallowing the suddenly bland mouthful of oats, I frowned at her.
"Not that!" She cried, somewhat indignantly. A few heads turned, but went back to their own business when they realized just who'd spoken up. Then looking down at the table, she quietly amended, "at least, not now." I smirked at her, before looking at Nabiki, who was busy looking at a corner.
"So," I said, nonchalantly, "What'd you have in mind?"
"I thought we could spar a little, you know?"
"Oh. Yeah... that..." I trailed off as I thought about it. Glancing at the bowl, which was slowly turning to mush, I stood up, moving to dump the remains away.
"That sounds really good, actually."
Makoto smiled, and took my hand, and we made our way to the larger Hangar, where we had practiced before.
"So... How do you want to start this?" I asked, glancing at her and then at the glossy floor. Instead of answering, she leapt at me, her foot descending rapidly towards my head. The sparring intensified from there on, continuing at an insane level of intensity for a good half-hour. Neither of us were conceding, and we both tried to one-up the other in any way possible.
Dodging a few fairly obvious punches, I wondered where my aptitude for on-the-fly modifications to my attacks stemmed from. I was always creative, but somewhow, when I was sparring with Makoto, my creativity was exponentially greater.
"Captain Eisen wants to talk to you, Kyle" SHODAN's disembodied voice spoke, surprising both Makoto and I.
"Ahh... right," I muttered, moving towards a small viewscreen near the doors.
"Kyle speaking."
"Admiral? We're currently making preparations to head to Dealius Station, and I thought it best to inform you before we begin moving off."
"Understood. Have Blair and your other two pilots made it over there, yet?"
"They just arrived, and are currently filling out SitReps."
"Oh? Forgot they'd have to do that. I'll tag along, and stay out of sensor range of the station so I don't end up giving the boys and girls there a scare."
"I could call ahead and warn them."
"You could, but while my existance is out of the bag, I'd rather keep my presence a scret for now."
"Understood. Will you be initiating radio silence, then?"
"Somewhat. The shuttle Blair was sent over with had a holoprojecter on it, We can communicate through that, since Confed technology doesn't have that ability, yet."
"Understood. Am I to assume the pilot will be left with us to assist in the device's activation?"
"Yes. Tell him to call for verification, and I'll make sure he understands what's going on."
"Roger that, Admiral. TCS Victory out."
"Thunder out."
Turning to Makoto, I shrugged, then looked at the ceiling, "SHODAN?"
"Yes?"
"How's the TIE conversion going? Done yet?"
"Yes, Kyle. Pilots are being trained now. Would you like the World Devestator to be reset, or do you intend to convert more TIE-Fighters?"
"Keep it handy, for the moment. I can't really think of a reason to keep any standard TIEs around, but before we start cutting into our numbers, lets start getting the pilots trained."
"Acknowledged."
Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, and I reached back to give my wife a hug as best I could. Pulling away a moment later, I leaned down to give her a quick peck on the lips. Instead, she grabbed my head and held me in place until I felt her tongue tease mine. I responded, wrapping her in a much easier embrace, and I felt her start to sag in my arms.
Breaking off the passionate kiss, I looked at the door, then grinned.
"SHODAN, teleport us to our room, if you could..."
A couple hours later, I strode onto the bridge, the white Grand Admiral's uniform reflecting the bridge lights smartly. Standing over by the Communications center, Nabiki, clad in the maroon IU uniform, turned to look at me, and smirked, before glancing back down at whatever she had been looking at when I entered. Sittign down, I turned toward the transparisteel window, before asking, "Where's the station?"
A monitor nearby flickered to life, and an asteroid-based Cenfederation outpost appeared, the Victory already docked and, I assumed, stocking up on fuel and supplies.
"Anything from Eisen on the 'holonet?'"
"Nothing yet, my lord," the communications officer said. I turned towards the monitor displaying the outpost, and asked if SHODAN had completed mapping the galaxy and the more basic hyperspace routes.
"From the information provided, the most pertinent routes have been mapped accurately."
"Sounds good," I said, turning to Nabiki. "How goes the tractor motifications?"
"The Tractor beams modifications are done. All that's needed now is outfitting."
"You can handle that, Nabiki." She nodded, and turned back to whatever she was doing, and I quirked a brow. "What's got you so interested," I asked, moving over to the console she was paying so much attention to. Peeking over her shoulder, I realized she'd tapped into the communications between the outpost and Confed HQ, and chuckled.
"Anything interesting go through yet?"
"Quite a bit, actually. Tolwyn didn't particularly care for your assessment of him or his skills, and berated Eisen for listening to someone not in posession of all the facts," Nabiki said this with a sly grin, before continuing, "After that, however, Taggart contacted Eisen, and was much more receptive to your comments. He's on his way here, apparently, and Eisen is currently explaining his report to some random bigwigs back Earthside."
I nodded, then looked at space thriw the viewscreens for a moment, "What's Taggarts ETA?"
"A day, give or take a couple hours. He's only a few jumps away, apparently."
I nodded. "Well, we'll have to see what happens then..." I said, trailing off. Glancing at the stars outside, I turned towards Archer, "Our pilots running exercises... have their drills been modified to reflect possible Kilrathi fighters or maneuvers?"
"Somewhat. We don't have much to go by, really, just what we saw in the last system. What we have, we're working with, and SHODAN is currently workign with whatever information she stole form the Confederation to develop more accurate Simulations."
I nodded my head, turning to look at the wall SHODAN Usually chose to make an appearance on, before shrugging and turning towards the door.
"Sounds like a good start. Nothing like having command of a ship and crew that works like a well-oiled machine. I think I'll go down to the flight deck and watch the pilots train in the Defenders."
"I think I'll go down to the barracks for a surprise inspection," Makoto said with a little smirk. I quirked my brow at her, to which she grinned, "I remember doing it on occasion back... well, you know. If you're going to inspect the pilots, I may as well inspect the soldiers."
"I'm..." I started, before stopping. While it wasn't an inspection I'd planned, it would undoubtably been considered one by anyone on the flight deck. Nodding once to Makoto, I grinned, "A surprise inspection it is."
"Hold on a second..." Someone said behind me. Turning, I saw Nabiki standing near the door with a grin on her face, "this sounds kind of fun... think the Science department would be up to a surprise inspection by the Intelligence Ubiqtorate?"
"Sounds like a plan... Lets do it."
Emerging from the hall onto the flight deck with Captain Archer behind me, Inspection datapad in hand, I made my way towards the most senior officer visible, a Colonel.
"Who's in charge here?" I asked, wincing slightly at the over-used and uninformed question.
"I- I am, Milord. Is something the matter?" the Colonel said, paling slightly.
"Not yet... I'm conducting a surprise inspection of the wing."
"I was not infor-"
"You know, it surprises me how often people, when confronted by a 'surprise inspection,' explain that they weren't informed... You do realize the irony of the situation, don't you, Colonel...?"
"Dowreau, Lord Kyle. I apologize... We shall endeavour to impress you."
"Sounds like a winning propsition. As we speak, Admiral Tendo is inspecting the Science Division, and my wife is inspecting the Imperial Army Barracks."
Colonel Dowro smirked slightly, before turning to a nearby officer, "Inform the pilots that Lord Kyle is here to inspect them on their piloting skills."
"Yes, Colonel," the tech said, before speaking quickly into a microphone. I moved over to the large transparent window that looked out at the space below the Thunder, before glancing down at the graphical radar system that displayed all space around the Jupiter's Thunder.
------------------
And that's what I've got for NASIF3... Sadly, I'm really NOT in a Wing Commander mood at this time, and writing more of this was taking more and more effort, as it went from a joy to a pain...
As such, I've decided that, instead of letting the series die, I'm going to move on to NASIF 4, Which I've already started, and, when I get back into Wing Commander, I'll quickly finish this section up...
I appologize to the readers who were enjoying this segment, and, unless I die, I'll get back to this part, because I understand the frustration of finding something I come to enjoy being unfinished...
In the mean time, enjoy the next part, in which my avatar enters a universe he doesn't know all that well, due to a... dislike he and I share for the Genre.
Actually, I love the series, but at the time I started NASIF, over a year ago, I didn't... and I thought it'd be fun to mock my own earlier ignorance. So... look forward to Not Another SI Fic Part 4!
"Anytime SHODAN."
The screen before me flickered to life, and Eisen's somewhat weary visage once again dominated the screen, the main bridge of the Victory behind him.
"Kyle? Good to see you. As you've probably already been told, Confederate Intelligence has intercepted a transmission sent by one of the Kilrathi Destroyer's in the Ariel System. This transmission detailed your ship, and has Fleet HQ a little jumpy."
"Go on," I prompted, nodding slowly.
"I've been asked to transmit anything and everything I know or could speculate about the Jupiter's Thunder, and was wondering how much you might be willing to divulge."
I thought about that for a moment, wondering what Confed would do if they knew all the intricacies of my ship. Still, Eisen would probably already have a rather detailed description, so denying him his request would be about as pointless as it was rude.
"Captain, send me whatever report you have and I'll have some of my engineers go over it, and make sure it's totally correct in whatever details you and your crew've extrapolated."
"I assumed as much. Is there anything you'd prefer to tell Confed, personally?"
"You mean, like an attached message or something?"
"Yes."
"Sure... tell them I said Tolwyn's project is a waste, and while Taggart's is more elegant, it's still barbaric, and that I have a better suggestion. And that I'd like to talk to Taggart ASAP, if possible."
"Taggart? General Taggart? And Admiral Tolywn?"
"No, Tolwyn can stay in his little hidey-hole, plotting his heroic escapades or whatever. I'd rather talk to someone more.. amiable? Willing to listen, at any point.. and I think Taggart is in a better position to weigh all options. Not as much beaurocracy in Covert Ops."
"You certainly know the upper echelons of our military..."
"Grand Admiral," I said, looking away from the Screen and out the viewport at the Victory.
"Excuse me?"
"My Rank. So as to avoid any confusion, I'll go with a Grand Admiral Rank in the Imperial-" I paused, frowning, for a moment, before continuing, " THIS Imperial- Navy... as opposed to the Kilrathi's."
"Grand Admiral?"
"Yes. It's above all other's aboard the Thunder, so there's no confusion with the Chain of Command. Not counting naval personel, there are over thirty-eight thousand soldiers aboard this ship."
Eisen blinked, looking away from the screen for a moment, before nodding, "I can see where such modifications to command structure might be warranted."
"Yep. Anything else, Victory?"
"Not at the moment. When can I expect my Wing Commander back?"
"I'll get a shuttle prepped as soon as we finish speaking."
"Understood. Victory out."
"Thunder out."
The screen went blank, returning to its prior, wall-like color, and I slumped in my seat, looking around the bridge for a moment before sliding out of the chair, and making my way to the door.
"Archer, prepare a Lambda-class shuttle for our guests return to the Victory. What's come of the TIE conversions?"
"Still ongoing," SHODAN replied almost before I finished speaking.
"How's Nabiki's pet-project coming along?"
"Fairly well. It's a pretty straightforward design, so there's very little fabricating involved. Just adapting what already exists."
I nodded, making my way towards my quarters.
"Something wrong, Kyle?" Makoto asked. I slowed down, glancing at her and giving her a little smile before turning back to look at the hallway stretching out before me.
"Nothing much... and everything at once."
"How vaguely descriptive," Nabiki quipped.
"Wasn't it, though?" I muttered, suddenly changing direction and heading towards the dining area.
There were a few people eating, and, while I could have chosen to dine in the more private dining area, I didn't feel like making the cook get me a full meal, so I made my way to the food dispenser and got myself a bowl of cereal.
Sitting down at a corner table, I started eating, silently contemplating the way things were shaping up, and what would come soon.
Convince a war-ravaged government to give me a convincingly large taskforce to use as a diversion while my ship Hyperspace Jumps into Kilrah's gravity well and I douse the Emperor and whoever else is nearby in a random curse of my chosing.
"So damn simple," I muttered between spoonfulls of sugary... something. Looking down, I shrugged, not recognizing the shape, but recognizing the flavor as something akin to Cheerios.
"What's simple?" Makoto asked, her own bowl filled with ice cream.
"Oh, getting out of here."
Nabiki glanced at the exit, but didn't say anything, and I snorted at the unsaid comment. Makoto just rolled her eyes, then looked at me, one brow raised.
"So... Want to take your mind off your problems for a while?"
I gagged on a mouthfull of oats, barely managing to contain the spray of partially chewed food before glaring at Makoto as I wiped milk from my chin. Swallowing the suddenly bland mouthful of oats, I frowned at her.
"Not that!" She cried, somewhat indignantly. A few heads turned, but went back to their own business when they realized just who'd spoken up. Then looking down at the table, she quietly amended, "at least, not now." I smirked at her, before looking at Nabiki, who was busy looking at a corner.
"So," I said, nonchalantly, "What'd you have in mind?"
"I thought we could spar a little, you know?"
"Oh. Yeah... that..." I trailed off as I thought about it. Glancing at the bowl, which was slowly turning to mush, I stood up, moving to dump the remains away.
"That sounds really good, actually."
Makoto smiled, and took my hand, and we made our way to the larger Hangar, where we had practiced before.
"So... How do you want to start this?" I asked, glancing at her and then at the glossy floor. Instead of answering, she leapt at me, her foot descending rapidly towards my head. The sparring intensified from there on, continuing at an insane level of intensity for a good half-hour. Neither of us were conceding, and we both tried to one-up the other in any way possible.
Dodging a few fairly obvious punches, I wondered where my aptitude for on-the-fly modifications to my attacks stemmed from. I was always creative, but somewhow, when I was sparring with Makoto, my creativity was exponentially greater.
"Captain Eisen wants to talk to you, Kyle" SHODAN's disembodied voice spoke, surprising both Makoto and I.
"Ahh... right," I muttered, moving towards a small viewscreen near the doors.
"Kyle speaking."
"Admiral? We're currently making preparations to head to Dealius Station, and I thought it best to inform you before we begin moving off."
"Understood. Have Blair and your other two pilots made it over there, yet?"
"They just arrived, and are currently filling out SitReps."
"Oh? Forgot they'd have to do that. I'll tag along, and stay out of sensor range of the station so I don't end up giving the boys and girls there a scare."
"I could call ahead and warn them."
"You could, but while my existance is out of the bag, I'd rather keep my presence a scret for now."
"Understood. Will you be initiating radio silence, then?"
"Somewhat. The shuttle Blair was sent over with had a holoprojecter on it, We can communicate through that, since Confed technology doesn't have that ability, yet."
"Understood. Am I to assume the pilot will be left with us to assist in the device's activation?"
"Yes. Tell him to call for verification, and I'll make sure he understands what's going on."
"Roger that, Admiral. TCS Victory out."
"Thunder out."
Turning to Makoto, I shrugged, then looked at the ceiling, "SHODAN?"
"Yes?"
"How's the TIE conversion going? Done yet?"
"Yes, Kyle. Pilots are being trained now. Would you like the World Devestator to be reset, or do you intend to convert more TIE-Fighters?"
"Keep it handy, for the moment. I can't really think of a reason to keep any standard TIEs around, but before we start cutting into our numbers, lets start getting the pilots trained."
"Acknowledged."
Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around me from behind, and I reached back to give my wife a hug as best I could. Pulling away a moment later, I leaned down to give her a quick peck on the lips. Instead, she grabbed my head and held me in place until I felt her tongue tease mine. I responded, wrapping her in a much easier embrace, and I felt her start to sag in my arms.
Breaking off the passionate kiss, I looked at the door, then grinned.
"SHODAN, teleport us to our room, if you could..."
A couple hours later, I strode onto the bridge, the white Grand Admiral's uniform reflecting the bridge lights smartly. Standing over by the Communications center, Nabiki, clad in the maroon IU uniform, turned to look at me, and smirked, before glancing back down at whatever she had been looking at when I entered. Sittign down, I turned toward the transparisteel window, before asking, "Where's the station?"
A monitor nearby flickered to life, and an asteroid-based Cenfederation outpost appeared, the Victory already docked and, I assumed, stocking up on fuel and supplies.
"Anything from Eisen on the 'holonet?'"
"Nothing yet, my lord," the communications officer said. I turned towards the monitor displaying the outpost, and asked if SHODAN had completed mapping the galaxy and the more basic hyperspace routes.
"From the information provided, the most pertinent routes have been mapped accurately."
"Sounds good," I said, turning to Nabiki. "How goes the tractor motifications?"
"The Tractor beams modifications are done. All that's needed now is outfitting."
"You can handle that, Nabiki." She nodded, and turned back to whatever she was doing, and I quirked a brow. "What's got you so interested," I asked, moving over to the console she was paying so much attention to. Peeking over her shoulder, I realized she'd tapped into the communications between the outpost and Confed HQ, and chuckled.
"Anything interesting go through yet?"
"Quite a bit, actually. Tolwyn didn't particularly care for your assessment of him or his skills, and berated Eisen for listening to someone not in posession of all the facts," Nabiki said this with a sly grin, before continuing, "After that, however, Taggart contacted Eisen, and was much more receptive to your comments. He's on his way here, apparently, and Eisen is currently explaining his report to some random bigwigs back Earthside."
I nodded, then looked at space thriw the viewscreens for a moment, "What's Taggarts ETA?"
"A day, give or take a couple hours. He's only a few jumps away, apparently."
I nodded. "Well, we'll have to see what happens then..." I said, trailing off. Glancing at the stars outside, I turned towards Archer, "Our pilots running exercises... have their drills been modified to reflect possible Kilrathi fighters or maneuvers?"
"Somewhat. We don't have much to go by, really, just what we saw in the last system. What we have, we're working with, and SHODAN is currently workign with whatever information she stole form the Confederation to develop more accurate Simulations."
I nodded my head, turning to look at the wall SHODAN Usually chose to make an appearance on, before shrugging and turning towards the door.
"Sounds like a good start. Nothing like having command of a ship and crew that works like a well-oiled machine. I think I'll go down to the flight deck and watch the pilots train in the Defenders."
"I think I'll go down to the barracks for a surprise inspection," Makoto said with a little smirk. I quirked my brow at her, to which she grinned, "I remember doing it on occasion back... well, you know. If you're going to inspect the pilots, I may as well inspect the soldiers."
"I'm..." I started, before stopping. While it wasn't an inspection I'd planned, it would undoubtably been considered one by anyone on the flight deck. Nodding once to Makoto, I grinned, "A surprise inspection it is."
"Hold on a second..." Someone said behind me. Turning, I saw Nabiki standing near the door with a grin on her face, "this sounds kind of fun... think the Science department would be up to a surprise inspection by the Intelligence Ubiqtorate?"
"Sounds like a plan... Lets do it."
Emerging from the hall onto the flight deck with Captain Archer behind me, Inspection datapad in hand, I made my way towards the most senior officer visible, a Colonel.
"Who's in charge here?" I asked, wincing slightly at the over-used and uninformed question.
"I- I am, Milord. Is something the matter?" the Colonel said, paling slightly.
"Not yet... I'm conducting a surprise inspection of the wing."
"I was not infor-"
"You know, it surprises me how often people, when confronted by a 'surprise inspection,' explain that they weren't informed... You do realize the irony of the situation, don't you, Colonel...?"
"Dowreau, Lord Kyle. I apologize... We shall endeavour to impress you."
"Sounds like a winning propsition. As we speak, Admiral Tendo is inspecting the Science Division, and my wife is inspecting the Imperial Army Barracks."
Colonel Dowro smirked slightly, before turning to a nearby officer, "Inform the pilots that Lord Kyle is here to inspect them on their piloting skills."
"Yes, Colonel," the tech said, before speaking quickly into a microphone. I moved over to the large transparent window that looked out at the space below the Thunder, before glancing down at the graphical radar system that displayed all space around the Jupiter's Thunder.
------------------
And that's what I've got for NASIF3... Sadly, I'm really NOT in a Wing Commander mood at this time, and writing more of this was taking more and more effort, as it went from a joy to a pain...
As such, I've decided that, instead of letting the series die, I'm going to move on to NASIF 4, Which I've already started, and, when I get back into Wing Commander, I'll quickly finish this section up...
I appologize to the readers who were enjoying this segment, and, unless I die, I'll get back to this part, because I understand the frustration of finding something I come to enjoy being unfinished...
In the mean time, enjoy the next part, in which my avatar enters a universe he doesn't know all that well, due to a... dislike he and I share for the Genre.
Actually, I love the series, but at the time I started NASIF, over a year ago, I didn't... and I thought it'd be fun to mock my own earlier ignorance. So... look forward to Not Another SI Fic Part 4!