"We have plenty of Vipers but no pilots." - Jake Hudson
Chapter 9: Act of Contrition
"We have plenty of Vipers but no pilots." Commander Hudson said as he looked at the group of senior civilian and military leaders in the fleet. This informal group was made up of him, Commander Adama, Commander Bakerson, and President Roslin.
"Our local Michelson is producing MK VIIs and salvaging MK IIs at a far faster rate than even the best training facilities back in the colonies could pump out. In terms of current people with piloting experience, we currently have about 50 reservists with piloting experience, though only about two-thirds of them flew vipers. Data is still being collected on civilians but there should be at least a few hundred who have previous flight experience and are not critical to piloting other craft in the fleet."
"The main issue is that we have only a few flight sims that were meant for the museum." He said. "As I said about the Michelson they can build more of them but that's going to take a few weeks to get up to the numbers that we need. and that's not even the fact that bringing pilots to a simulator isn't the same as the real thing. They need fight time."
"At the very least I know someone who can be an instructor as she was qualified as one." He turned to Adama. "Lieutenant Thrace was an instructor, according to her file she almost became an instructor for the Advanced Tactical Training course. I think she's the right fit for the job, and unfortunately, I don't see anyone else who is better."
The pilot briefing room was filled with fleet reservists, old and young. Kara had skimmed what files she had available on them and while not the most impressed knew that this group at least had potential. To make things easier for her she had split the list into a combination of two groups so she could interact with each more easily. In total 47 reservists had been pilots with 38 of those having flown some form of Viper. Considering that the demand for raptor and shuttle pilots was a bit less when compared to just as great as for Vipers she was training them separately later.
"Attention!" She snapped, walking up to the podium. Everyone was quick to salute and stand up, indicating that at least they wouldn't have to relearn basic military discipline. She had never fancied herself as a drill instructor but her mother had been one, and she was half considered that she'd do a halfway decent job of it.
"Alright alright at ease." She said to the group. "So you all were pilots once and due to the rather unfortunate situation we're currently in you're going to have to do it again. We need everyone who can get into a Viper, or Raptor to be piloting them."
"We don't have enough sims to go around so you'll be heading straight out to the Vipers, in fact, old MKII and MKIII. We have both available. Who's flown an MK II before?" She asked. A few hands went up, mostly old people who were probably only on the reserves in the name. But they still had flown a viper before and were probably better than a nugget. There were two younger ones, one that had a bunch of tattoos and another that looked to be some sort of upper-class guy.
"Where the hell did you two ever fly a MK II?" She asked. They probably wouldn't have flown any in their active service as part of the fleet, as they were too young.
"Dad's private sector collection." One said.
"Not that it matters but it would be incriminating if I told you." The other said. Those tattoos looked like gang signs on his arm that indicated what that meant. Pirates commonly flew MK IIs and MK IIIs as well, as they had operated in similar areas towards the end of the first war. Most of the pilots had flown MK VIs or MK VIIs and the latter would eventually succeed the numbers of MK IIs and MK IIIs that were currently being used.
Starbucks soon began taking the pilots out to see how they were. She mostly had them perform l basic flight maneuvers but in a few cases, she had them do a mock dogfight when she thought that they were good enough. One of the oldest people in the group seemed to be one of the better pilots.
"So what's your name, rank, and call sign?"
"Major Kenny "Danger" Logans, I was a squadron leader back here on Galactica during the first war. Hell, I shared more than a few drinks with your Commander, and he probably remembers me."
Starbuck chuckled. "I'll let him know." They did a mock battle and while his technique needed some work due to his age being a bit old it still wasn't bad especially how long ago he had been active. He had ended his service a few decades ago being the captain of a heavy cruiser but was happy to help with whatever was needed. Starbucks made a note of this role; as much as they needed pilots, if a spot for a commander or executive officer came up he would be a good choice.
Next was the rich kid, one Denny "Trust Fund" Lincoln. His father was a wealthy industrialist who owned several of the biggest companies in the colonies before the holocaust. Despite his call sign his father had only let him have occasional amounts of the family wealth and made him find his way in life. He had joined the colonial fleet before becoming a racing pilot, winning more than a few competitions. He was skilled in the cockpit and in the battle came close to winning against Starbucks.
The final noteworthy pilot in the group was the one that Starbuck thought was in some sort of gang. The gang member looked like it and flew with a style that indicated that he was obviously once part of one.
"I know you're a gang member, if you tell me now I'll keep it quiet and not bring it up in the future," Starbuck said.
"I'm Lieutenant Martin ``Lawbreaker" Smith, and I was in the Eastern Alliance for quite some time before I decided to retire." He said, before explaining a bit more about his career. He had shot down over two dozen colonial pilots in his raids and had been one of the senior pilots in the organization for some time. He had been a squadron leader in colonial service and had been the CAG of a heavy cruiser for the alliance, in fact, one of the indigenous designs that they had built in one of their many secret shipyards. He had eventually earned enough money to call it quits and be set for life and hoped to retire quietly.
However with the holocaust of the colonies that retirement was shattered. And so he would be flying vipers once again, though this time against the same people he had once tried to shoot down.
Thrace had been sure that this pilot was some serious stuff due to his past gang affiliation and the fact that he had shot down a lot of colonial pilots and she had been right. He pulled tricks both on the books and ones that she had never seen before, skillfully wielding the MK II like an artful instrument. Thrace won the mock dogfight but it was far closer than it normally was. She wouldn't tell him but he was probably one of the best pilots in the fleet, in the same league as Apollo, Chris, and her.
"Alright Lawbreaker, you almost got me. You're not going to be a part of all of the regular training; instead, you're going to be getting a few lessons taught by me and the CAG along with a few of the other pilots so this little refresher course is done so you can be a squad leader."
"Thank you, Lieutenant." Was his only reply. "But ma'am, what about my past..."
"As far as I'm concerned, it doesn't matter anymore. We all have fracked-up pasts. As long as you follow the law now, you'll be fine. If anyone raises a stink, I'll get commander fracking Adama myself to deal with it."
"So how are the pilots?" Lee asked Kara.
"Some are a bit sloppy but it could honestly be a lot worse." She replied and told them about some of the pilots that had done particularly well.
"This was supposed to be your work, Kara, why do you want me to teach some of these pilots?"
"Because you have the most experience in command. Sure I help a lot but there are only so many things that I know about commanding an entire air group. And we do need squadron leaders and CAGs if we are to grow the number of pilots." She said,
"Alright, I'll do it." He replied. "I thought you would always want to train more pilots." She had not been super enthusiastic about the matter, and it was somewhat confusing to Lee."
She sighed in response. "It's Zach." Before explaining how he only barely passed a good instructor would have failed him on the spot, but that she didn't because they were in a relationship.
"I wish that I hadn't done that." She said, not knowing that Commander Adama had walked up behind them.
"Regret not doing what?" He asked, and Thrace was forced to explain herself to the commander.
Adama was angry at the news, but he tried to hide it. This was a public place after all and he wasn't going to pitch a fit.
"Continue with your duties, Captain, Lieutenant." He replied, barely holding his voice together.
Lee and Kara walked out before they would have to face the wrath of Adama again. She'd be taking four of the pilots out for a spin, Lawbreaker, Danger, Trust Fund, and one of the pilots who had recently left the colonial fleet, Lieutenant Daniel "Danny" Sims. They'd be practicing the Thorch Weave, a tactic that had proven to be effective in the last war and one that the Cylons would hopefully fall for.
As they were practicing several DRADIS contacts began to appear. It was a squadron of Cylon raiders, 20 in all, and they began accelerating towards the fleet, which was interspersed around the asteroid field that was currently being mined by the colonials to get more resources. While the alert vipers were already in the process of being launched on Galactica and the other ships they would be too late for the Cylons to begin firing missiles into the fleet. While the colonial ships would probably stop most of the missiles there simply weren't enough ships to keep everyone in the firing arcs of the colonial point defense screen.
Thrace thought for a moment before making a difficult decision. "We're going to intercept those Raiders in time for the fleet to prepare to defend itself." She said as they rushed forward towards the raiders. She wouldn't have attempted this under other circumstances with green pilots or most of the reservists but these pilots had all shown to be effective at their trade.
The Cylons tried to engage at long range with missiles but not anticipating that the colonial vipers would be a large threat they didn't fire that many. Most that did were fooled flares and chaff. A few were fired back by the colonials which took out four raiders who were unlucky enough to not be able to dodge them.
In close range, however, the Vipers were truly able to show their edge. The MK II had been designed to be fast and maneuverable which kept it in the fight longer than other fighters. Soon raiders were being downed left and right.
But it wasn't without colonial casualties. Danny was a capable pilot but two raiders hit the cockpit head-on with a large amount of autocannon fire. The viper exploded, taking the pilot with him. Lawbreaker's viper was severely damaged and he was forced to eject. And Starbuck's viper was also heavily damaged, losing first her transponder and then complete flight control. It went into a flat spin as Thrace and the last Raider from the squadron fell into the gravity well of a nearby moon.
The moon's atmosphere eventually tore Starbuck's viper up which forced her to eject. However, the two remaining Vipers trailed her location, getting an accurate bearing on the fighter as it fell into the moon.
A SAR raptor was sent out to go and retrieve the pilots. Lawbreaker. But a mounting shirk on the moon forced it to abort the rescue of Starbucks.
Several hours later another raptor was launched to go and find Starbuck. But the area that she had supposedly landed in was clear of everything, and she and her viper were nowhere to be found. However, as the raptor was on its way up it spotted a Cylon raider following it.
It was Starbucks. She had written her name on all of the Cylon craft and waggled her wings to indicate she was friendly. Both of the Adamas were relieved when she returned successfully, and they watched as the raider flew into the Galactica.
An investigation into the ship would be undertaken, as any chance that they had to look at the ship would be used as they could gain valuable information as to its demand.
With the mining operations complete the ships of the fleet jumped to the next set of coordinates. The Cylons soon returned but found nothing but a little wreckage from vipers and raiders. It looked like the big pieces of the destroyed fighters had been salvaged by the colonials and now there was no indication of what had happened. More information was found by asteroids where they had been mined. Not a trace of equipment was found but there were clear marks where mining had taken place.
The colonials had been here. There was no doubt about it.