CHAPTER SEVEN: The New Tactical Reality
Battlestar Pegasus – Port-side Landing Bay – Launch Control
'Shooter' - the Launch Control Officer (not to be confused with 'Straight-Shooter' Macklin) - sat in his control booth as the viper was placed into the launch tube. The hatch behind the launch tube was shut and the Shooter began his pre-launch dialogue with the viper pilot as the catapult linkage attached to the nose landing gear of the viper..
"Verify all systems check", Shooter requested.
"All systems green. Cockpit integrity set", was the reply.
"Opening access hatch", Shooter said. In front of the viper, the forward hatch opened, causing the air to blow out down the now-open tube and into space.
"Verify all engines green", Shooter next requested.
"All engines green. Thrust building up", the pilot replied.
"Core Command confirms you're cleared for launch", Shooter stated. The pilot gave Shooter a salute, indicating that the pilot was fully ready. Shooter activated the launch control switch, causing the catapult to release, pulling the viper down the tube. The viper accelerated and then the viper was in space.
Viper Combat Qualification Flight
"Lords, it's good to be back in a viper again, Bojay", Tricia exclaimed as she took full control of the viper and gave it a quick roll.
"It's good to see you flying in a viper again, Sheba", Syke's voice came over the communicator. He was up in CIC watching her from the Core Command Console next to Lieutenant Annan.
Tricia had been reminded by Captain Syke that since she was to fly in vipers again, that she had to regain her combat landing and launch qualification. The qualifications required five combat landings - in a hands-on configuration - and five launches within a one hour time frame. Tricia did not have any intention of objecting to that. It was wonderful to be back in the cockpit of a viper again. She expertly brought the viper around and on a course to land back in the bay.
"Silver Spar Group Leader requesting clearance for combat landing approach", she communicated formally. Annan's came onto the communicator.
"Silver Spar Group Leader", Annan communicated, "You're right on the wire. Call the ball".
Silver Spar Group Leader. She liked the sound of that. Being Deputy CAG did have its share of perks, she thought. The only time when flying that she would not use it would be if Syke was flying at the same time.
"Understood, Ginnie", she replied. Calling the ball".
Tricia was aligned perfectly with the flight deck. She brought the viper in fast, simulating a combat landing. The flight deck seemed to rush up to greet the viper; a lot faster than a raptor landing, Tricia thought. Without automatic landing control, a hands-on combat landing took a fair amount of skill - which all pilots had to master in order to earn their wings in the first place - and to keep up the skill afterwards, but it was no problem for Tricia.
Her fighter touched down effortlessly. The viper slid forward on its landing gear and came to a halt. Combat landings did not allow for the luxury of a vertical landing. As Tricia's viper came to a halt, she activated her taxiing controls, maneuvering the fighter onto a nearby elevator platform.
With the viper's engines still idling, the lift lowered down to the launch bay. This time, the launch bay did not re-pressurize. As the lift came to a halt, Tricia taxied the viper off the lift - which then elevated itself back up to the flight deck. The viper then moved into an empty launch tube, where the catapult linkage latched back onto the landing gear. The access hatch closed and the forward hatch opened as Shooter went back into the pre-launch check. One down and four more to go, Tricia thought…
Battlestar Pegasus – Combat Information Center
Sitting beside Annan, Syke smiled. It looked like Tricia would be back up to full qualification very quickly. It was a good way to lead by example, he thought. And bearing in mind the new patrol schedules, it was imperative that all of the pilots in the wing were fully up to par.
Both wings were now launching their patrols in threes rather than pairs. It would now be three patrols per wing per shift, which meant each squadron would have at least one patrol probe up at one time. It was a schedule that would draw on the pilot's reserves, but given the potential threats such as the Optus Sector minefield, more aggressive patrols were required to avoid any other Cylon surprises. Any fields of debris were to be avoided, and the rules of engagement meant no more avoiding combat. The likelihood of the Cylons using such tactics to maneuver the Pegasus into another trap made these new counter-tactics necessary.
The Pegasus was now heading towards the nearest star to them. While there was no direct evidence of Cylons thus far discovered here in the Anotian Sector, they could not be sure that this sector had similar traps like that earlier minefield. That's why Syke needed to get Tricia viper re-qualified as soon as possible. With multiple flights patrolling, both he and Tricia would need to keep tight tabs on the wing, which meant that both of them would be doing a lot of flying. But first, he had to give the all-clear to the outgoing raptor probe. He took his attention off Tricia's re-qualification flying and turned to the Annan in order to check on the status of the reconnaissance probe.
"How goes the recon probes, Ginnie?" Syke asked Annan.
"Raptor Probe has reported their readiness to launch, Captain", Annan informed Syke. "Two raptors will launch on this probe. Razor is in command, with Newguy as his wingman. Newguy is taking one of the RSO trainees on board", she added.
Syke nodded. Gorde had persuaded earlier Syke that this would be the quickest way to break the rook RSO's in.
"Clear them for launch", Syke directed. He sat back as Ginnie Annan activated the lifts that elevated the raptors up onto the flight deck. Both raptors were armed with Scarab III SSM's. It was a pity that they didn't have Peregrine gunships, Syke thought.
Annan monitored both raptors powering up and then launching themselves out of the bay. Both Syke and Annan monitored their progress as they accelerated ahead of the Pegasus. Then he saw the two flashes of light as the raptors made the FTL-jump.
"Now we wait", Syke said to Sanders, who had just walked up to him. Sanders nodded. Syke turned his attention back onto Tricia as she made her third combat landing. So far, so good...
Raptor Probe One
The raptors exited their FTL-jump just outside the system. Dutch keyed his line-of-sight secure laser communicator.
"Everything okay, Newguy?", he asked.
"No problems here, Razor", Gorde replied. He looked behind at his new RSO trainee, Petty Officer Third Class Jason Dundee. Gorde knew that Dundee had previously worked in CIC at the dradis console, so he knew how to read sensors. Still, it was different being in a scout ship rather than secure in the nerve center of a battlestar. His own training session back on the Astoria during his ROTC training summer last year made him realize that fact.
"Okay, Newguy", Dutch answered, "Let's start getting an initial scan of the system".
"Start a low level scan, Jason", Gorde directed to his RSO. As Dundee was new to the world of flight crews, he did not yet have a call-sign. Dundee did a thumbs-up gesture, and activated the active sensors. The raptor started its survey. For Gorde's part, having an RSO with the same first name was going to take a little getting used to, but call-signs would soon take care of that.
"We've got a system that looks like it has five planets in all, Newguy", Dundee reported after a few minutes, "three Gas Giants and two rocky planetoids. I'm punching up the co-ordinates now".
Gorde looked at the data. He then keyed his communicator.
"We've got two targets for survey, Razor", Gorde reported, referring to the solid planets.
"Yeah, that's what we're reading too. Boxer", Dutch said, referring to Jake Watt, his RSO, "we're not picking up any EM readings either, so they're not looking hostile, but let's keep things safe. We FTL jump: one to each planet and go to passive sensors. Only go active if passives don't pick up anything. Okay?"
"Okay, Razor", Gorde acknowledged, "I take dibbs on the outer one".
"We've got the inner one. If we don't contact each other sooner, rendezvous back at this location in four hours", Dutch ordered.
"Will do", Gorde replied, "We're moving out now. See you soon".
With that, Gorde punched into his navi-comp the co-ordinates for the selected planet. He then activated the FTL drive. As Gorde FTL-ed, Dutch was getting his navi-comp ready for his jump. The survey was now under way.
The raptor exited it's jump at about one hundred clicks over the planet. Gorde reminded Dundee to stay on passive sensors until they were fairly sure that the planet had no hostiles. Gorde knew that Dutch would be following the same precaution at his planet. Gorde looked out of his cockpit canopy at the planet below. It was a typical airless crater-blasted sphere of rock. It was not a usual position for him as for so long, he had been used to sitting back in the instrument bay using the scanners. It was weird having to wait on the RSO information for a change...
"Newguy", Dundee reported, "the passive sensors are detecting nothing. Shall I go to active sensors?"
"Let's wait until we complete one full orbit before we do so", Gorde replied, "because as this is an airless world, we would not be able to pick up any wireless 'bounce' from the other side".
"Understood", Dundee acknowledged. Gorde smiled. Being a teacher was actually quite satisfying.
"Uh-oh", Dundee suddenly reported, "passive sensors are picking up EM indications on the horizon".
Gorde's satisfied demeanor faded. "Punch the sensor data up here to the cockpit", he ordered. Dundee complied.
Frakk! Gorde thought. Dundee was right. There were EM indications and as no humans had as yet come to this sector of space, which could only mean...
"We're going on silent mode and altering our course to the north of the source", Gorde announced, "Get your cameras and EM receiver recorders ready. I've got a bad feeling about this".
"I'm on it", Dundee replied crisply as Gorde made a slight course correction. Their former course would have taken them directly over the suspicious area and he wanted to make sure that no one down on the planet would see them, hence the course change. It should still allow Dundee to get good readings though.
With the engines cut off, they were now emitting no ion residue and with the active sensor platform down, no EM emissions were coming from them. To all intents and purposes, they were an inert piece of space junk. Gorde watched the relayed camera feed as the raptor came closer and closer to the point of nearest approach.
As the raptor drew nearer, Gorde could now clearly see what it was. It was a Cylon sentinel post! Gorde saw the communications and scanning dish arrays on top of a mountain, with a number of defensive batteries ringing the complex, and there was an immense hangar door built right into the side of the mountain a couple of hundred feet below the summit. The warbook had information on this type of complex from the last war, and it said that this post would be expected to have a squadron of raiders as part of its defensive complement.
Gorde silently thanked the Lords of Kobol for their FTL-jumping to the other side of the planet from the location of the sentinel post. That was also why there were no initial EM indications from the scanners. But now that they had discovered the post's existence, did it also mean that they were seen as well?
"Jason", Gorde asked, Are you picking up any indications of increased EM emissions or increased wireless communications?"
"Negative, Newguy", Dundee replied, "nothing beyond the level when they were first detected. I don't think they spotted us".
"Let's hope you're right", Gorde answered, "because this ship wasn't built to take on a squadron of toasters. We're going to continue to coast back to the other side of this planet, then we'll jump back to the rendezvous co-ordinates. Finish taking your readings as Actual will want to see everything".
As Dundee continued gathering the intelligence, Gorde started to plot out an FTP-jump to the rendezvous. Razor will need to know about this ASAP.
It took thirty minutes to round the terminator and get out of sight of the sentinel post, but once it was done, Gorde got Dundee to do a quick scan of the surrounding airspace. Assuming that the post had a complement of fighters, there was a real chance of patrol craft.
"No other traffic in the vicinity, Newguy", Dundee said, "It's all clear back to the rendezvous point".
"Okay then", Gorde answered, "we're jumping back". After a short countdown, the raptor made the jump. Dundee did not care for effects of it any more than Gorde did, but it was short-lived and they found themselves back to where they started. Now, to wait for Dutch...
Battlestar Pegasus – Silver Spar Wing HQ
Tricia had just finished her fifth and final combat landing, and after securing her fighter for refueling, headed back to the administration annex. Ensign Vansen was waiting for her with a hard copy for her.
"Here you go, Sheba", Vansen said with little fanfare, "Your re-certification for combat operations in vipers. The original is already in your file. Congratulations".
Smiling, Tricia took the form. She had really missed the feeling of flying high-performance fighters. True, the vipers did not have an FTL-capability like the raptors, but the viper was far more maneuverable, and packed quite a punch. She pocketed the form.
"Where's CAG?" Tricia asked.
"Ah, that's the bad news", Vansen replied, "He's conferring with the other squadron commanders, which means you'll have to stay here for the time being, helping out with all this beautiful paperwork".
Tricia rolled her eyes. The viper flying was a heck of a lot more fulfilling than handling wing paperwork, but that's what went with the Deputy CAG's job, she thought wryly. She went to her desk and started going through the latest readiness reports from Spar Squadron One. The sooner this was over, the better, she griped. It was things like this that almost made her wish that she was back flying raptors.
Raptor Probe One
Dutch's raptor had FTL-jumped back to the rendezvous point where Gorde was waiting. Gorde had waited for a little over half an hour and had used the time to go over the accumulated intelligence with Dundee. Gorde was pleased that the new rook had done well. Now, with the return of Dutch, they could finally get the ball rolling.
"Nothing useful found on our world, Newguy", Dutch reported, "how about you?"
"We've got trouble, Razor", Gorde replied, "We've found a Cylon sentinel post".
"Send me over what you got", Dutch ordered. Gorde nodded to Dundee, who transmitted over the secure laser communicator the intelligence on the post. Both of them waited while Dutch and Watt went over the data.
"We'd better get back to Home Plate", Dutch finally said, "Actual is going to want to know about this".