Birds of War

Posted on Sun Feb 21st, 2016 @ 10:59pm by Lieutenant Lynsi Mason & Lieutenant Colonel Edward Maxwell & Colonel S'er'in'e & Lieutenant JG Jason Rawles & 2nd Lieutenant Scooter Porkinsky

Mission: By Dawn's Early Light

Marine Capt. Hayden led his group toward the inbound Sojourner force. His wingman Porkinsky reported through a crackling com-line, "Cap! My sensors are noised out. All I've got are big blips!"

"Heavy jamming. Control, do you copy?" There was no response, to which he muttered, "I love ten foot radio range." A powerful starbase encryption burst displayed on his HUD. "Starbase is mapping the jamming emitters for us. There's not much we can do about the shipboard ECM, but some of them are burning out in space. Fighter control is painting the first two. Nakada, Irani, take it out!" He broke hard with his wingman in tight. "Leads focus on the target. Wings watch the sky."

The scene on the table was a mess as fighters engaged, icons flew about the holographic display in a dance to the death as one tried to gain position on the other. Communications were out which an unfortunate element of conflict but a wise one, disrupt communications, cut off the supply of orders and force the enemy to work independently, lose force cohesive unity. Without the ability to direct fighters to where they were needed or indicate by word targets of opportunity. S'er'in'e saw through the display the sensor pulse put out which streamed some information painting two targets with lasers. These would do no damage at all but the 'tag' as it was often called would shine brightly to everyone, this was a target. Even as the station engaged with its main weaponry the smaller ships of the enemy fleet knowing they could do little to the station until the larger ships had whittled down the shields focused efforts on swatting the starfleet wasps.

Ed had quickly changed from his tactical clothing into his flightsuit in the Exocets locker room. His bird had been delivered there from the transport ship. He was still a command rated pilot and was entitled to have a bird at any duty station. How else was he supposed to keep up his currencies? As he strapped himself into the fighter, he ran through the old routines in his mind. He hadn't executed a real Weasel mission in the last five years, but he still knew how to do the job. Once his startup sequence was complete he flipped to an open channel to let everyone know he was in the game.

"All stations, all callsigns, be advised. Reaper is on site and ready to go hunting." He announced as he released the mag clamps holding his bird to the deck.

"Understood Reaper." He saw Reapers icon appear on the table as the two sides battled on. "Take exit vector Seven Alpha for positional battle entry." S'er'in'e hoped to put this asset in the best entry position for Maxwell to begin his work. Though not part of his CAG unit, the asset at least for now proved of use.

"No worries CAG, it's your show. You've got a lot of ECM interference, so I thought I'd offer my services as a Wild Weasel, if you can spare me a wingman. These guys were my nuggets and I'll be damned if I'm gonna sit in Ops while they're getting into a furball."

Jason Rawles watched as his assignment went from Callsign:Chaos to Callsign:Reaper, but double clicked his helmet comms, then click over to Reaper's private channel, "Colonel, this is Callsign Razor. I've got your 6, sir." He informed the man. "I'll do my best not to let anyone ding that paint on that pretty little hot rod you've got there," He said with a grin.

"You better be bringing your 'A' game son." Ed acknowledged. "We're going jammer hunting. We might get one or two before they realize what we're doing but then everyone out there's gonna be gunning for us." He explained as he shot his bird out of the hanger and into the swirl of fighters outside the station.

"Never leave home without it, sir!" Jason replied, making a tight barrel roll and taking out to incoming fighters. His ship zipped through one of the resulting explosions, the shrapnel of the destroyed ships plinking off of his hull like rain. "It's both our lives on the line if I do."

Lieutenant Lynsi "Blaze" Mason had been in the thick of the battle from the beginning, though she wouldn't have had it any other way. She managed to keep her station while the Sojourner ships hung in space, but as soon as they opened fire, she was on the move, the rest of her flight staying close. The plan had been to draw the cruiser's fire away from the station, but she hadn't expected the Sojourners to be bringing so many birds of their own. That just meant more hunting for her.

As the battle ranged on, she was of two minds. One mind was pure instinct, her thoughts transmitting to her hands, reacting to the controls, and moving her craft exactly where she wanted it to go. She felt like one with her machine, her only object was to destroy the enemy. But she knew that alone wasn't enough. Her other mind was trying to make sense of all the chatter, and not just from her squadron. Calls from command and other squadron leaders filled her headset. She filtered through it like an expert, listening to key phrases and only responding to the messages that directly impacted her or her squadron. But in the midst of the chaos, one name stood out: Reaper.

"Now's a fine time to tell me you were back on the station, Reaper!" the Claymore leader growled. "Don't think you're getting off that easy." She dodged a Sojourner disruptor bolt and returned fire, hitting the fighter's engines. "You and I are going to have to talk!"

"Last minute addition to the game Blaze." Ed said by way of apology. "I'll explain after this is over and we're back on the deck." Lynsi's reaction might have been more than slightly unprofessional sure, but what the hell. He'd have been just as surprised if he had been in her place. Best he could do was try to keep it to a minimum and keep things professional until this mess was over with.

S'er'in'e growled hearing the chatter over the comms. He growled again this time over the comms to let people know he was listening. "Cut the chatter pilots and focus on the engagement at hand, this is a combat situation not a social gathering, save the meet and greet for later." He was displeased at this break in professionalism, not what he expected of his team at all.

"Heads up: Bogies coming in, six o'clock... looks like... old Tellarite bombers," Jason said, trying to pick out the details of the silhouette in the mass of bright red. "Looks like they're trying to bring in the big guns."

"I see 'em," Blaze replied, her ego still a bit bruised after S'er'in'e's admonishment. She knew better than to chatter like that during battle, but still, she couldn't believe Ed was back. "Jinjo, you're closest. Can you get a shot?"

"Affirmative, Boss," Ensign Wynn acknowledged. He maneuvered his fighter into a better position, moving for a strafing run. Phaser pulses streamed out of his fighter, hitting one of the bombers square on the dorsal side. It was a direct hit on the first one, and the bomber burst apart, triggered by the detonation of it's payload. "That's one down, but there looks to be a whole lot more."

Ed shook his head briefly to clear his mind and focused on his fighter. It'd been a long time since he'd done a weasel mission, but it was one of those things that you never forgot how to do. Unfortunately, he may have been under-exaggerating the hazard level of this sort of mission to his new wingman. He flipped a switch on his controls, causing a hatch in the top of his fighter to slide back, allowing the Ajax system to slide up and lock into position.

"System deployed, diagnostics show green. Scanning for jamming signals." He announced as he let the system do it's thing. Suddenly eight icons popped up on his HUD and his eyes narrowed. "Eight jammer's identified, could be replacements waiting to go active too. Commencing lock on."

The Ajax system scanned for the emissions that were jamming the sensors of the fighters, and to a degree the station. Given enough time the station would eventually 'burn through' the jamming and be able to direct the fight, but that took time, too much time in a fight this size. It was time that could cost the lives of pilots he'd commanded for the months he'd been at 3-3-2 and he'd be damned if that was gonna happen on his watch, official or otherwise. The system would pick the nearest source of emissions and then guide Ed back and forth across the emissions, tracking them in a sort of funnel pattern back to the source aircraft. Once that bird was pinged, Ed just had to blast it and the process would repeat with the next one and so on until they were gone and he could join in the general melee of the fight.

"Stick tight to me back there Razor, this is where things get real interesting, real fast." Ed said with a wolfish grin on his face. He was back in his element and it was time to show how he'd earned his callsign oh so long ago.

"You'll have to fly harder than that to lose me, boss," Jason said, grinning broadly as he followed Reaper's course tightly. A few sojourner ships tried to pursue, but Jason made quick work of any before the could interfere with Reaper's goals. "You'd think these guys would be better than this," He quipped over the line.

--------------------------------------------

Lt.Col Maxwell
Maj S'er'in'e
Lt. Mason (Von)
Lt.Jg Rawles (Li)
2nd Lt Prokinsky (St. Louis)