Shiny New Tech

Posted on Thu Feb 27th, 2020 @ 11:12am by Division Admiral Thomas Lasky & Commander Moni Nasao PhD & Lieutenant JG Rachael "Ripcord" Yamaguchi-Cullen & Lieutenant Colonel Pollux "Jetfire" Knoxx & Colonel Anthony "Ironhide" Raynor & Lieutenant Commander Kthaara 'Leadfoot' Taavoro
Edited on on Sat May 15th, 2021 @ 4:53pm

Mission: Mission 17: The Drug-Dimmed Tide
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke
Timeline: 0900Hrs - December 16th, 2390

The last few days had been frustrating. After having his schedule set back thanks to the Klingon cigar incident, Aerin Ranval was not overly thrilled. His R&D team had been forced to help the ship get itself back together again. It didn't help that the chief engineer and much of his staff seemed to be short a few marbles. But now there was finally time to do the simulation he wanted. Aerin looked at the pilot roster. They where going to be short some pilots, but there was little he could do about that. He would have to make do with what he had. But for now, he was looking for people to command the simulated Harbinger class battleship.

Aerin found looked the ships Airboss as well as currently acting XO, Teval and said," So how much experience commanding a starship do you have.

Teval shrugged, "Eh a few days."

Aerin nodded," Good you just volunteered to be the captain of the Harbinger."

"Wha." Teval replied in surprise.

"Now I need a tactical officer," Aerin asked impatiently.

Teval didn't really want to ask Jacen due to how busy he was so he suggested," Well, there is Moni Nasao, the security representative for the pod."

"Call her in."

Tevqal tapped his combadge," Teval to Moni Nasao, can you report to the pilot sim center."

Nasao was at the security area, nicknamed 'Stationhouse'. A smile graced her lips. "On my way.."

"I'll also need a ships pilot," Aerin asked, still working on something on his PADD.

Teval knew who to call for this one," Teval to Rachael Yamaguchi, can you come to the pilot sim center."

Rachael response was quick. "On my way sir." since she was junior to everyone, she addressed everyone as sir.

Aerin and Teval simply waited for the CAG, Wing commanders, Squadron commanders and flight leaders to arrive so he could brief them on the simulation.

The doors opened and in came Rachael Yamaguchi, followed by Mani Nasao. "You called sir?" Rachael inquired.

Moni Nasao blinked her large eyes. "Sir?"

Aerin wasted no time and asked," Lieutenant, How much experience do you have running shipboard weapons systems."

"I've had some... but only a few months worth sir." she responded evenly.

"Perfect," Aerin commented," You have just volunteered to be a tactical officer for this simulation. He handed a PADD detailing the Harbinger class battleship and the weapon systems."

Nasao blinked. "Say what?" she commented softly as she accepted the PADD. "Mmm...Ooh.." Nasao blinked as she began reading the data on the PADD in her claws. "Very nice..."

Aerin then turned to Rachael, "Rachael, how good are you at starship piloting."

"I flew Roanoke out of spacedock." she answered. "I have over ten thousand hours of flight time in various Starfighters.." she paused. "I have two hours flying Starships."

Aerin nodded, "Good, you just volunteered for ships pilot." Karryn Azzerin then came over and Aerin added, "Alright Karryn will bring you to the bridge, and show you how to work the new weapons systems."

Moni Nasao and Rachael Yamaguchi both share a look. "Alright... " Nasao commented

Aerin sat and waited while Boomer, and several of the other pilots wandered in. Aerin decided to wait until all the officers of the group where present before explaining the scenario.

1st Lieutenant Vlenda T'kalla found her way to the briefing. Not being senior staff, she stayed in the background and quiet.

Boomer raised an eyebrow as several other pilots all began migrating in, before long everyone was gathered.

Aerin looked around the room, and immediately noticed that several of the officers where missing, most noticeably the CAG and the 2nd wing commander. He did know about the dead squadron commander, however he doesn't know the situation around that. But he figured that Boomer was very competent. So Aerin began his presentation to the officers.

"Alright the reason I brought you in here is that we are going to begin a series of tests involving new fighter and anti-fighter weapons and technology. So all of you can expect to be doing a lot of training involving the cutting edge in technology. The first test will involve the wings flying against this Cruiser, and the missiles that it carries. This is basically a test for the targeting software on the missiles. My only request is that you guys get creative." Aerin brought up a projection of the Harbinger class Battleship on the viewscreen with the listed specs, along with the specs of the Improved Standard Quantum missile.

"Getting creative against weapons designed to take pilots down?" Jetfire looked very skeptic about this.

"So we try to kill an Ascension class lookalike.. using our entire wing." Boomer shrugged. "Okay, it sounds simple enough..." he merely shrugged. "When do you want this done by?" he asked the being giving the briefing.

Aerin smiled," When we are done with this briefing."

Boomer nodded. "Excellent.." he commented. "Then we will proceed quickly...how many attacks will be be doing against this Harbinger class ship?"

Aerin shrugged," Probably about 3 or 4 times, if no bugs in the missiles targeting software shows up."

"Alright.." he commented. "Everyone.. dismissed... go to the simulators and prepare for the mission." he commented. "I assume the software is in the system already and is ready to go.?" he said his question to Aerin.

"Scenario is all ready to go, I just have to initiate it when it is ready." aerin then left the room, eager to get started, as he went to the mockup bridge where Karryn was showing Nasao how to operate the new weapon system.

Aerin took his position at the master command console where he could control the simulation and then said to both pilots and the bridge Crew, Ok, is everyone ready,"

Teval nodded, he was a bit nervous," Yeah I'm good."

Boomer meanwhile finished checking into his simulator along with the hundred or so other pilots., he activated the system as had the hundred or so other birds all active as they were motionless relative to their target which he couldn't see with the naked eye as it was beyond visual range. "All Wings report in?"

The flurry of checks he got in response wasn't disappointing as he checked them all off one at a time. "Form up in Squadrons and prepare for attack runs."

Meanwhile on the bridge of the Harbinger class ship, Rachael Yamaguchi was making herself at home at the helm. "This is a nice ride..."

"Aye Lieutenant... she is a good ship..." Nasao responded as she noticed the young woman. Child was a more apt term for her as she was still wearing her Marine Officers uniform she had been wearing since she flew the Roanoke out of dock, that story was now making the rounds about the ships crew.

Nasao smiled. "Weapons ready..."

"Helm Ready.... the Firebird is ready to operate.." Rachael added.

Aerin simply hit a few commands on the console and said," begin."

Teval's reaction was immediate, "Begin a full sensor sweep of the area."

Nasao nodded her head. "Beginning sweeps... I have them... off to starboard... five million kilometers out sir.," she explained.

Rachael raised an eyebrow. "Nothing but open space for all directions sir... nowhere to hide."

"Very well, we open fire as soon as they get within missile range, Rachael, these missiles are vertically launched, so it doesn't matter what direction the ship is facing, we can still fire all missiles at them. So do your best to keep our distance, and use whatever maneuvers you think are appropriate. Noni, once they are in range, fire at will, two missiles per target, prioritize the Scorpions."

Rachael nodded. "Confirmed, running away slowly." she grinned. "I'm going to make this interesting..." she paused as she began keying in an evasive maneuver sequence.

Meanwhile Boomer had finally gotten his wing organized as he nodded. "All units. press the attack...." he commented as he goosed his engines forward, everyone else did likewise.

A minute or so later, back on the Harbinger's bridge. Nasao smiled. "two per target." she commented. "I will kill them all." and with that, she activated the weapons tracking systems. "I have targets..." and with that, she activated the firing system.

Rachael likewise smiled. "Coming to starboard, heading One Four Four mark Six One."

Teval gave the signal, once they got within range, "You may fire at will."

Nasao grinned. "Launching warheads now.."

The missiles erupted from their launch tubes. While the noble type normally carries 20 12 cell launchers, Aerin only activated 5 of the launchers for the simulation, but still 60 missiles left their launch tubes. Teval knew that the tubes take about 40 seconds to reload, so the fighters could still conceivably get close enough to fire. However as the missiles approached their target's, Teval watched as the air group went into complete disarray.

The fighters attempted to shoot down the missiles, but one pilot, David Hurd didn't properly check his target and didn't realize whom he locked onto until his own missiles targeted and destroyed Ironhides fighter.

Ironhide blinked. "What the fuck Hurd!" he growled. "I'm gonna fucking hurt you!" he yelled over the com.

Boomer decided not to bother shooting back as he began an evasive maneuver only to die at the hands of Berg Houges who collided with him.

"You little candy eating Andorian freak! When I get out of this simulator Your gonna get my hammer!" Berg shouted.

The missiles managed to wreak utter Havok. Several pilots simply started to run away, while almost all the scorpions got taken out and a few Valkyries got taken out. The rest of the group lost all coordination.

Eight Ball's fighter started to jerk wildly. "What are you doing?" Vlenda T'kalla asked.

"There's some kind of rat in my simulator!" Eight Ball shrieked. The fighter flew around making sporadic turns.

A missile was locked on Eight Ball. Lynx maneuvered the missile chasing her to crash into the missile trying to hit Eight Ball. Then, Lynx turned her fighter around and ran.

T'kalla cursed as she tried to evade the missile and slammed into her fighter.

Taffy dodged the missile locked on her. Her mike opened and she was singing "Not the man they think I am at all. Oh no no no...I'm a rocket man!" she stopped singing "Oh sorry! Didn't know my mike was open."

Teval looked at the results of the chaos, and then commented lightly," Um, did one of the pilots just kill one of his own teammates."

Aerin nodded," Yep." The pilots situation was worse than he thought.

The second round of missiles was loaded, and then fired, with more chaos being inflicted among the ranks. However, sideswipe and several of his wingmates got the idea, to start weaving around like crazy, and managed to confuse the targeting locks on 8 of the missiles, causing them to lose their lock. Unfortunately, as their weaving was done next to Tainer, which caused, in addition to the two targeting him, a total of 10 missiles to converge on Tainers fighter. Another pilot got the bright idea to fire a full spread of missiles at another missile. Unfortunately he missed and hit wicked witch instead. Another two tried to duplicate Sideswipes maneuvers, unfortunately they where clumsy about it and converged on crosshairs, killing all three fighters.

Crosshairs immediately yelled on the comm system," You blind fucking idiots, I'm gonna kill you."

Tainer blinked as he watched his fighter get erased. "What...what the fuck!!"

Lynx did a perfect Immelman turn into Berg's flight path. Berg let out a loud scream as the missile chasing Lynx and the one he was trying to evade slammed into him. Lynx fled the fight again.

Eight ball did a complex corkscrew evasive maneuver. Taffy dodged her missile again and T'kalla again failed to evade her missile and exploded.

Eight Ball continued to spin around. "You may cease showing off now Mr. Nakamura." T'kalla told Eight Ball.

"I can't. My controls are stuck." Eight Ball said in a distressed voice.

"What's wrong Eight Ball?" Taffy asked.

"I puked in my helmet." Eight Ball replied.

Rachael Yamaguchi watched as she turned the Noble slowly to port. "Lets see.. I have two of them running..wait only one of them..." and with that she turned the Harbinger as if she would turn a fighter. "You... are mine!" she growled. "Lets see... who are you?" she tapped the display before her. "Aww.. its Camshaft.." she chuckled.

Nasao looked at the young pilot. "Shall I terminate?"

"Mmm.. please do."

Nasao launched off two warheads, the two women watched as the last guy was shattered by fires forged in the centers of stars.

Teval slowly sat down in the command chair and put his hands in his face. He didn't quite imagine that the pilot situation was this bad. Aerin was at least satisfied, but he wasn't sure if he really wanted to conduct more tests. He knew that there where bugs in the targeting software, which means tracking those bugs down. The problem was, he wasn't sure if the pilots would cooperate. Or complete the sim without killing each other.

After the Harbinger slaughtered the survivors thoroughly, though he noticed that the targeting of the missiles was successively getting worse, so he was thinking that the software had a snowball effect. It got particularly bad when they fired 10 missiles at a lone fighter but only 1 hit. So Aerin opened the comm channel," Hey boomer, you want to call further tests off."

Boomer had seen enough. "Cancel further tests.." he commented evenly as he heard a growl from one of his pilots. Ironhide growled. "Hurd, you moron. you killed me."

"You got in my way cowboy."

Ironhide saw red as he as he opened his simulator, he climbed out and went over to Hurds simulator, he opened it, reached down as he hauled the other guy pout before he began beating Hurd with his fists and feet. "I'm gonna fucking kill you."

Hurd could do little more then huddle in defense as the enraged west Texan laid into him with his fists before someone shoved them apart. "That's enough."

Ironhide meanwhile punched Boomer in the face, the acting CAG spat out a mouthful of blood. "That's it...you all fucking suck.... useless... all of you.... you are a fucking disgrace!.... flight status is Revoked": he roared at the top of his lungs. "all of you.. get the fuck off my hanger deck.... " and with that he kicked Ironhide in the leg. "All of you... get out now..."

Teval whom walked into the simulator room with Aerin and Moni, saw the situation unfold, and he was not happy. He came Yelling, "Hurd, Ironhide Get your asses over here now!"

Boomer was seething in rage as he tried to calm down but found that he couldn't

Hurd had a smug look on his face where as Ironhide knew was what coming. the Texan had taken a couple of shots to the face and looked far worse then Hurd did as both men approached the smaller being.

"Sir..." Ironhide addressed him.

Hurd grunted. "What do ya want?"

Teval looked at both of them," You know, I am getting fucking sick of this mental retardation from you fucking idiots. Hurd had that been a real battle you would have killed someone you fucking moron. You want your flight status back, it will have to go through both mine and Ironhide's and Boomers approval. Ironhide, Really, you hit the fucking CAG, I expect you to know better."

Teval then turned to Moni, "Moni, Throw these two idiots in the brig until I say otherwise."

Nasao nodded. "Consider it done." and with that she unsheathed her claws. "Lets go!" she snarled.

Teval then went to Boomer next, "Boomer, I need you to come with me."

Boomer nodded, blood streaming out of his nose as he followed the smaller being, he then pulled off his helmet as he removed the extra layer of soft wool so he could wipe his face. "Fucking hell Ironhide.." he whispered as they reached their destination but he kept his silence.

Rachael meanwhile was seated at the Exec's station, she was reviewing the recent action on the small monitor. "Mmm..." she heard the door open as she spotted Commander Teval and Lt Commander Lasky. She leapt to her feet. "Sir." she greeted them both.

Teval said to Rachael, "Hey, can you leave the room for a bit."

Rachael nodded as she pulled the isoliner chip she was reviewing. "Aye sir." and with that she turned and quickly departed.

Aerin sat at one of the chairs while Teval then proceeded to deal with Boomer. "Look as much as you want to punish everyone, that shit don't work. Unfortunately we are not at the starbase anymore and heading to the DMZ, so I need at least some of the pilots to be flight capable, therefore I am revoking your order to pull everyone's flight status. So take the rest of the day to cool off, then come back tomorrow, and start putting together some flight tests for everyone. Now those that committed friendly fire or crashed into other pilots, will get their flight status revoked. But taking both wings off flight is not possible. So I want you to pick out the best 60 pilots of both wings and keep their flight status active, because that is the maximum amount of functional birds we have. You can revoke up to 36 pilots, but if you have to revoke more, then its got to go through me, because I cant cut the combat capability of the ship with us being out of dock."

Boomer nodded his head. "Alright.." he paused. "These guys all suck... I'm going to seriously beef up their training, this shit is gonna end... one way or another."

Teval sighed," yeah I know that, and i know you are under a lot of strain without Phoenix and Wukari to help you out. We are all feeling it. Torilla can no longer assume her duties So I had to take over as XO. Siaxx can no longer do her duties either. Engineering is a circus, Security is a trainwreck, and the pilots are about to go to war with each other. So yeah, i know you are under a lot of strain, But I need you to calm down and take a breather."

Boomer listened to the other officer. "Okay..." he commented. "I'll sort these pilots out.."

Teval nodded, and that's when Aerin piped in," Also if you don't mind, I do need to continue running tests on the missile software, so if you can organize your best 12 pilots to help me out that would be very helpful."

Boomer nodded. "I'll have your guys.. ,mostly will be my senior guys... I also want one of my best pilots back... Rachael Yamaguchi... you guys have her.. I need her back."

Aerin replied with," I'll only need her when we run these tests, outside of that, she can do what she likes."

"Lovely..." Boomer knew he wasn't getting Rachael back. "I'm sorry Firebird." he muttered. "Very well.. I'll get back to you by Oh Nine hundred tomorrow.."