Sequel to 7 Points
By Chaoseternus Chapter 28: Thundersdawn
RSS Thundersdawn
Tau'ri Fleet Support Facility, Mars Orbit
"Well?" Commodore Peters asked, a little annoyed at the waffling she had been receiving off the supposedly brilliant fighter designer.
Grimacing, Civilian Specialist Henry Demont let out a short sigh and decided it was probably safest to come totally clean, "for a first generation craft the Lancers are pretty good but…"
He hesitated, prompting Peters to glance annoyed at her watch, Henry caught the hint.
"They are flawed"
Peters shrugged, "no fighter is perfect, no craft ever is"
Henry grimaced, "yes, but most front line fighters don't have more patches and hot-fixes than your average Windows installation"
Peters glanced up surprised at the acid tone, "They aren't that bad, surely"
Henry nodded, "they are that bad. They may have manoeuvrability to spare, acceleration to die for considering the engines in use but they lack armour, cant carry any of the heavier ship buster missiles that are slowly becoming available, and their sensors are sub-par for their size but no space to build in more capable ones"
"The batch two…"
"Are not the answer. The prototype literally shredded itself on its third test flight, you know that. The Impulse drives have too much power for the basic structure of the fighter to handle and there is a real limit to how much we can strengthen that which has already been reached. Commodore…"
Henry sighed, wearily rubbing his forehead, "I know you like the Lancers, you saw most of the design and initial development but that's it. The Lancers have reached the end of their useful life as a frontline fighter"
Peters glared for a moment, and then nodded, "that's it?"
"That's it"
"We do have seven squadrons of the things you know" Peters spat out, her mind already going over the process of arranging a replacement.
"Four of which are planetary defence squadrons, one of which a training squadron. There are only two squadrons equipped with just the Interstellar variant and they are unfortunately where most of the problems lie. Face it, they spend more time being maintained then they do actually on the ready-op lists"
Peters leaned back in her heavy, faux-leather seat with a sigh, "We can't replace them in a hurry, that's for sure"
Henry looked up puzzled, "Why not?"
"We would need to create and test new designs for a replacement Dog-Fighter first, then arrange resources to build them, to retrain the pilots which would involve taking each existing squadron off the line one at a time…"
Henry smiled, "Forget a new design, we have one. It's just a case of persuading the Colonials to allow us to build Mark VIII's under license"
Peters glanced up slightly shocked, "The eight is a rebuilt of a two chassis, how good can they be?"
Henry smiled proudly, "well they haven't actually flown yet but according to the Sims we've run, they will be a little light on missiles but even before Adama get on the case, their manoeuvrability was above par, they use Impulse drives so speed is exceptional, as is range and fuel is… well" Henry shrugged, "something we can make with some trouble, extract from any source of water just slightly easier but were working on it. Enterprise gave us the basic principles of an advanced Deuterium converter before they left through the Intergate and Sciences are working on those. It'll mean a reduced dependence on Naquadah which has to be found first, let alone mined"
Peters looked Henry dead in the eye, "are you recommending a move to the Viper VIII?"
"Yes"
Peters sighed, her hands tapping on her desk as she thought. Finally, she said, "I want a full report on why we should dump the Lancer off you, and one on why we should pick up the Viper plus alternative courses of action"
"Yes Commodore" Henry nodded, swiftly walking out the room.
Peters just sighed, if Henry was right…
But they couldn't make such a big change as this without more evidence, she tapped the Comm. button for her assistant, "I want a full survey on the Lancer, pilots, maintenance personnel everyone. Flaws, issues, honest opinions the works"
Peters closed the channel at the confused "Yes Ma'am" and cursed, it was her job as second in command of the RSS to spot things like this well in advance and bring them to Fleet Admiral Thompson's attention, it seemed she had dropped the ball though.
And with the safety of Earth at stake, that wasn't a good thing.
Peters groaned, then reached for the Intercom to call Henry back, if he thought the Lancer was that bad, what were the rest of the fighters and small craft like?
Unfortunately she needed to know, and fast.