Change of Command Briefing

Posted on Sat Apr 5th, 2014 @ 1:38pm by Lieutenant Colonel Edward Maxwell & Commander Brian Ratchford & Lieutenant Lynsi Mason

Mission: Picking Up the Pieces
Timeline: After Regional Security

Ed felt better knowing the situation in the surrounding space, but he wasn't exactly reassured about the surrounding space. Resources were stretched thin in this sector and repairing the damage to the station was taking up time and personnel that could be doing other things to help increase security and sector wide readiness. Somehow he had the feeling this wasn't going to be the peaceful posting he had been led to believe it would be. Once he was done with the changeover briefing with Mason he would have to locate his quarters, unpack and then start looking around the station to see where he was going to let his son go and where he wasn't.

As he entered the Flight Control office's he looked around for Mason, but didn't see her anywhere in the area. Expecting to find her in his new office, her old one, he made his way there. The door opened with it's customary swishing sound and Ed stepped into his new office.

Lynsi was just in the process of cleaning out her things. She only had a handful of belongings in the office since she knew she wouldn't have it long. She didn't want to take it over at all when she was given the interim assignment, but since the job had her spending less time with her squadron, she needed to be closer to the main flight operations center. Personally she was glad to have a new boss. She had been missing her Pythons, and wanted to get back to the nest. She looked up as soon as she heard the accompanying swish of the door. "Major, I was just getting things cleaned up for you."

"Relax Lieutenant." Ed said waving his hand. "Commander Ratchford will be joining us shortly. I thought it the best use of everyone's time to include him in our briefing so I don't have to track him down later. Once he arrive's we can get this meeting started. In the meantime, how do you feel about having holo emitters put on the birds?"

Blaze gave him an inquisitive look. "On the inside or the outside?"

"Probably the outside." Ed said and took a seat on the edge of the desk. "I'm thinking we put the veteran pilots in birds with holo emitters attached and have them fly the patrols and such while we keep the nuggets in close for training and evaluation."

Lynsi nodded as she considered the suggestion. "Make it look like we're flying more birds than we really are... They won't be much use in battle, but hopefully it will make potential enemies think twice about attacking. That sounds like a great plan."

"You hit the nail on the head Blaze." Ed nodded. "Think we've got more birds out than we do while we get the nuggets ready for action. Deter them without wearing out our people. Make them think we've got a bigger stick to swing than we really do."

"We still need to make sure the nuggets get plenty of stick time. I'm sure you're not satisfied with just simulator training. That should at least ease the number of birds out on a sortie, maybe leave some of the more experienced pilots teaching while some of the nuggets fly?"

"Blaze, you really need to get out of my head." Ed laughed. "Last time I checked our files, I was the half Betazed and you were the human."

Blaze laughed in response. "Maybe being in your head isn't a bad thing. It would certainly help us work as a more coherent unit."

"That also sounds like something an old girlfriend said about relationships." Ed chuckled and shook his head. "And since you happen to be about the only person onboard the whole station that I know right now, how about dinner or drinks tonight? You can point me towards the good places on the Promenade."

"Are you hitting on me, Reaper?" Lynsi asked with a laugh. "I know a place you might like. There is an Archan restaurant on the station, a bit of local cuisine. I'm sure you've never had anything like it."

"Now that would be most unprofessional of me, wouldn't it?" Ed asked with a wicked grin. "Besides, you're the one who said getting into my head wasn't a bad thing, or was that bed? They do sound so similar after all."

"They do sound similar, but it might not be good for either of us if I start dating my commanding officer days after he comes aboard. But we can keep the idea under consideration." Blaze grins in response, already very happy with the personality of her new boss.

"Well that sounds promising." Ed chuckled. "Not sure what my boy would say to that either. You'll have to meet him once he arrives day after tomorrow, maybe you can go down with me to pick him up from the docking bay."

Lynsi was humbled by the invitation. "I'd like that. How old is your son?"

"He's 13 now." Ed smiled and pulled a picture of him from his flightsuit. He handed it over to Blaze. "He's my buddy. He was living with his mother on Earth. She passed away recently, and he decided he wanted to stay with me rather than her parents, so I put in for a transfer and here I am."

Blaze took the picture and studied it. She could definitely tell that he took after his dad when it came to looks. "I'm so sorry to hear about his mother. But he's a handsome young man." She handed the photo back to Ed. "Does he want to be a pilot too?"

"Depends on what day of the week it is." Ed laughed as he took the picture and looked down at it fondly. "Some days he wants to be a fighter jockey like me, others he wants to be a doctor and sometimes he's a scientist. He'll figure it out eventually." He chuckled and slipped the picture back into his flightsuit.

As he did so, a chime at the door interrupted the pilots' conversation, and the door slid open to reveal Commander Ratchford in the archway. "Sorry I'm late, Major," he said, stepping inside. "We had a bit of a security incident on the promenade that I had to deal with. I hope I'm not interrupting?"

"Not at all Commander, just pilot chit chat and getting to know each other." Ed shook his head. "Now that you're here though we can work out the rotation for the squadrons. We do feel that the plan to put the holo emitters on the birds is worth looking into, so I'll have to see the engineer's when we finish to see if it really is feasible though."

Brian nodded. "I believe it's been trialed on Starships already, so the engineers should be able to scale it down for you." He moved to take a seat in the room, nodding slightly in greeting to Mason, who he'd worked with until waiting for Starfleet to send them her new superior, though he hadn't spent much time with other than the obligatory meetings.

"Let's go over the basics, Blaze feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here." Ed said as he looked at the chrono. "About this time, Express should be fully off patrol and be starting maintenance. Claymore's veterans are in the A group I believe and should be on patrol with the B group in class or simulated flying in the holodeck. Your squadron is the alert squadron for the next few hours. Nothing major inbound within the next hour to hour and a half. All in all, pretty normal at the moment."

Blaze nodded in response to the CAG's update. "That's right. Python's on hot standby. We can launch in less than fifteen minutes, though we've been working on improving that."

"Get that fixed Blaze. I want half your squadron sitting on alert five." Ed corrected. "Anything you want to ask or contribute Commander? I almost feel bad dragging you down here for just that much information, but Gunning made it clear you need to get out of your office more."

Brian chuckled at that, before deciding that whilst he was here, he had better make sure he had at least one question to ask. "What emergency protocols have the two of you got in place, aside from launch timeframes, for tactical alert situations? For example, an approach to the station of unidentified, potentially hostile ships from differing vectors?"

"We've got patrol's running around the clock. Each patrol is half a squadron, with the other half on alert while they conduct training. Each half gets four hours on patrol and four hours training. Usually each half is broken up into four ship elements and each element in a different sector of the station's perimeter. If we get ships inbound from different vectors, we'll divert the nearest flight to them to provide interception." Ed replied. "If they do turn out to be hostile the next nearest elements will join in while we scramble the alert group and raise the 15 minute alert squadron to immediate readiness and the off duty squadron will move to standby."

"What's your contingency for ships coming in on, say, seven or eight different vectors? Especially ships that would be large enough to potentially pose a serious danger to a smaller number of your fighters?" The commander asked. In the century they all lived in, the four points of the compass weren't the only directions one had to think about anymore, afterall. Space was very much a three dimensional affair, and ships could be coming in from any direction at any given time. His main concern was understandably split between protecting the station, whilst simultaneously protecting the lives (as far as was possible and practical) of the pilots who would be out on these patrols.

"Commander we're not here to wage the battle alone. We're here to enhance the abilities of the starbase and it's assigned garrison vessels. You've got to know when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. I'm not going to throw my pilots lives away piecemeal when it's not needed. If we cant handle the situation we pull out of the immediate danger zone and let the stations defenses and garrison ships start to do their jobs. Once we've regrouped and the starbase defenses have stripped away some shields, we'll swarm back in and add out two bits to the fight."

Brian nodded, obviously satisfied with that answer. He hadn't worked with many fighter pilots throughout the course of his career, and he was glad to see that some of the reputation he had heard about being gung ho was just typical Starfleet hyperbole. "Good," he said aloud, before looking between the two officers. "While I'm here, is there anything else either of you want to bring up?" he asked, conscious that they'd already covered most of the briefing information already, but wanting to give them the opportunity whilst he wasn't locked in his office under a mound of paperwork.

"I think we've got everything covered for the moment Commander. There's not really anything you can help us with as far as getting our nuggets a little less nugget like." Ed said with a wry smile. "Engineering might be able to help us lighten the load a bit, but that's a separate conversation with another person."

"I'm just worried about our nuggets becoming deep fried and crispy," Mason added. "Other than that, I don't think I have anything else to add, sir."

"Right, well I'll leave you to making sure they're only likely cooked," Brian said, continuing the food theme as he went to make his exit. "Anything you need from me to get things moving, just let me know."

"Aye sir. I'll let you know if anything comes up." Ed agreed. "Come on Blaze, let's go down to the Engineers."