Inspecting the Wings

Posted on Tue Feb 25th, 2020 @ 4:34pm by Division Admiral Thomas Lasky & Post Captain Tirion Fordring

Mission: Mission 15: Old Ghosts
Location: Various Locations - USS Roanoke
Timeline: 1400Hrs, December 7th, 2390

Teval watched from the tower, as his sister, the wing commanders, maintenance chief, and three maintenance techs where determining the condition of 2nd wings fighters, that had just come in this morning. From what he heard from the first few fighters, it already wasn't going well. This day had been crazy enough to begin with, with the red alert incident a couple of hours and all.

Whitepaw supervised as Petty officer 2nd class Abbado showed two other maintenance techs, Petty officer 3rd class Winter Skywere and Crewman Apprentice Zenka Kramp how to inspect and maintain the fighters. Though whitepaw can tell that the condition of the fighter wasn't too good, as Abbado proceeded, the number of Italian curse words grew in frequency. It didn't take too long before every other word was a curse word. Whitepaw could only shake his head. This was the third fighter that was a complete train wreck. They only inspected three, including this one.

Wukari could only stare at the dingy looking fighter, thinking,' This is going to be a long day.' Zarloos stood next to her, with fives, on his other side. Hakaya leaned on the back wall, tapping her cattleprod constantly, waiting for some pilot to come and start making a fuss.

After an absolute flurry of foul language, Abbado pulled himself out from under the fighters, with the two younger techs following. "Fucking starfleet, giving us a bunch of fucking piece of Shit Fighters," he exclaimed as he gave the fighter a short kick.

Fives stood in silence but the look on his face gave it away. "Another one for a rebuild Abbado?" he inquired with a smile. "Idiots assign us a pile of crates.."

Abbado wiped the grease off his hands, " Its an over sized fucking paperweight. Might as well push the bitch off the hangar deck and call it a field loss."
Fives shook his head as he sighed. "Fucking hell Starfleet... we needed to have our fucking day ruined.." he turned to one of the maintenance techs. "Turn this piece of sit into a hanger queen... strip it.."

the young man nodded. "Willdo Fives..." and with that he ran off as Fives turned his attention back to the assembled people. "So.. out of the ones we've inspected.. do any of them stand a chance of getting out the door?"

Abbado shook his head," Two wont even start, this one will burst into flames as it leaves the hangar."

Fives sighed. "Jesus.." he shook his head. "So.... someone tell me... how many of these pieces of shit should we bother to inspect...?" he inquired but he sighed a third time as he knew the answer. "should we call in more guys?"

Whitetail was busy cradling an oncoming headache," 45 more birds to inspect. Its going to be an all nigher."

Wukari sighed and stared at the ceiling, wondering how she ended up with this assignment.

Fives paused. "Alright... I'm gonna take a two hour break around dinner... but then I'll be back to help with this.." he explained. "I'm not leaving these guys to process these shit cases alone... especially if I'm in charge.."

Master Warrant Officer Tirion Fordring approached with a massive pack on his pack, he stood in at 7'6 and was a massive sight on any hanger deck, Ensign T'Var was walking beside him and she was much smaller. She stood in at 5'7. "Major... I'm Master Warrant Officer Tirion Fordring, I heard you needed...... what the fuck?"

"Yeah Master Chief. Don't need to call me sir. I'm Fives... everyone calls me Fives..." he commented. "We're doing an inspection tour... what you in for?"
"Your new senior Maintenance Engineer for the Wing... I see I arrived in time.." he rumbled. "Who owns this turd?"

Fives chuckled as he turned to the Vulcan. "What are you in for Ensign?" he inquired, she wore air wing colors so she had to be useful."

"I'm supposed to be the new maintenance officer Fives," replied T'var in an almost friendly and a very tactful voice. Meanwhile Teval made his way down from the tower to meet the new arrivals.

Fives blinked, this was something new to him. "Excellent. well you guys picked a great time to get here... as you can see.. we got fifty or so of these crates from hell... so we're all gonna be inspecting them.."

Fordring rumbled. "Pulling an all nighter?" he inquired

Fives nodded. "Yep..."

"I'll join you on the all night routine, my wife will appreciate the extra time to sort thigs out for our quarters... even if they will be on the small side."

"Then it is only right if I do the same," T'Var stated.

Teval looked at the vulcan ensing and commented," So I guess you are my new maintenance officer."

"Yes I am," T'Var replied simply.

"How long have you been in starfleet," He inquired.

"About three months commander."

Teval looked a little puzzled,"You don't know it by the second."

"Its a waste of time and is impractical," T'var replied in a simple manner," Besides, Vulcans that do that like to show their arrogance to an illogical degree."

Teval was completely taken aback by that statement, and was unable to think of what to say. He could have sworn he saw a small smile as she said it. Hakaya, Wukari, and Zarloos turned heads and looked at her surprised.

Fives smiled as he chuckled softly. "Nice... a Vulcan who's practical.. excellent." he commented "Lets move onto the next bird.." he added as he thought 'I did not see that coming'

Fordring rumbled. "More broke birds for our viewing pleasure"

Abbado and his students went to the fourth bird, with whitetail watching again, while said to T'var," Well I think we can get along then."

T'Var nodded in agreement,"I find its easier to work together when I try to make friends with people. Besides, I'm a brand new ensign, I have a lot to learn still."

Teval nodded, then looked up at the massive warrant officer, "So your my new Master warrant officer huh, your as big as Varkon."

"You'll do fine Ensign." Fives commented. "Considering you're not an ego case... which means you'll fit in fine.."

Fordring chuckled at Teval's comment. "Well it could be worse... my children might com down here and try to pet you." he said evenly. "my youngest is larger then you." he added with a bemused smile. "So.. what are the pilots like?" he inquired. "are they at least semi-competent?"

Fives was the one who answered. "Nope... half of them are worse.. and rest are scattered between good and acceptable." he answered. "we're working on that however."

Teval didnt say anything, as the level of Italian curse words grew, yet again, which told him that yet another fighter was useless.

Fives sighed. "Goddammit." he commented without any malice in his voice at all. "Why am I not astonished by this?" he inquired

Fordring raised an eyebrow as he regarded the fighter "Who looked after these pieces of crap.." he shook his head. "I got a full workload for the next two weeks..."

"No one," commented Wukari, disappointed." These things sat out in a storage yard for some time, we arent really sure for how long yet."

"Oh fuck..." Fives muttered. "Explains a few things.." he paused. "can we build new fighters from scratch?"

Whitetail looked at Fives and gave his expert opinion," Not with the resources on this ship, it take us way longer to build new ones."

"Alright..." he commented. "Chief... have your guys go in and rebuild these fighters... if it takes six weeks then it takes six weeks.. no rush.." he commented. "I'll put the pilots in the simulators instead." he added.

Teval gave the matter some thought, then asked whitetail," How many fighters are for sure operational."

"Forty Three," He responded without looking at Teval.

Teval then turned to Fives, "we will need to do launching and recovery exercises anyway, to train both the pilots and the deck crews."

Fives nodded. "Yeah. once we have a good working number of birds, we can proceed with pilot workups." he smiled as he heard a clattering sound from nearby.

Several security guards were carrying a crate of weapons each, the forth man had dropped his crate and the contents inside had gone everywhere, upon closer inspection Fives realized that the items in question were in fact grenades.

"What the hell are you doing on my fucking deck, you grabassitcal piece of aphibian shit!" Fives blew up the way a volcano would as he marched over to the crewman recruit who was trying to refill the containers while the other three guys were helping him.

Fives reached down and yanked the forth crewman to his feet as he roared in the crewman's face. "You dropped GRENADES on my flight deck....What in the name of the seven hells is wrong with your ugly ass..."

"I'm....trying to...gather...-"

"Silence, I do not give you leave to speak.." Fives roared. "You three... get this shit cleaned up and get the fuck outta my face... you.. with me..."
The crewman blinked as he followed. "Teval... you using the crane?"

Teval just shook his head," No, we are going to need the lift crane." he pointed his thumb at the front of the tower," Varkon got the dunce stool installed though."

Fives smiled. "Whats your name moron?" he inquired. "Sir, Crewman Bremer sir." the fool responded. " The dunce stool will suffice." he added as he grabbed him by the shirtfront. "come with me shithead."

Bremer followed, or rather he was half dragged behind Fives, moments later he was tied to the dunce stool and everyone proceeded to ignore him as he cried to be set free.

Fives growled. "Fuck me and the goatherder." he commented to himself as he went back to where the guys were gathering around the next fighter. In retrospect Fives decided, he just needed to follow the sounds of his Italian stallion and his swearing.

Teval just looked at the idiot crewman tied to the dunce stool, but then a very loud flurry of curse words caught his attention, as he saw a pigeon flying around.

"Uh, o.k., Where did that bird come from."

"Inside the fighter," Wukari replied, with an equally dumbstruck look.

"How did they bring in the fighters again," Teval asked whitetail.

"They just simply used a very large transporter to beam the things in whole this morning."

"Ah."

Fives blinked as he raised an eyebrow. "Three Pigeons." he sighed. "Chief..?"

Tiron Fordring came over, one could hear his massive footsteps. "Fives?" he commented.

"Catch them for me... please and thanks... I want to keep them in a cage."

"At least there is no fucking nest," Abbado commented.

Hakaya decided to have a little fun chasing the pigeon, and as Teval observed, she was pretty good too, as she managed to catch one within 3 minutes, and giving the bird to teval for him to hang on to. Though the bird struggled against Teval's arms for a good minute, it eventually calmed down while Hakaya caught the second one.

Fives was cheered by the sight of Hakaya chasing the birds, he didn't mind as everyone seemed cheered up about it.

He did ask for people to catch them and he wasn't going to complain how it was done. "Very nice." he turned to Abbado. "Talk to me Goose?"

"Aside from the birds in it, that one is shockingly in better shape than the others, but still not flyable," Abbado replied as he went to the next fighter. He opened the fighter up only to swear extremely loud as a bunch of hornets flew out. The hangar deck promptly went into chaos, as everyone ran away from the fighter to get away from the angry insects.

Fives along with everyone turned and fled. "Hornets!" he called. "Everyone off the hanger.. now.. RIGHT NOW!!!!" he roared at the top of his lungs.
The raging insects mostly chased the nearest person too them, which was unfortunately Abbado. Everyone else fled to the tower, but Abbado ran right by the trapped crewman, before being the last one into the tower, closing the door behind him and sealing the angry insects outside, but not without earning a few painful stings.

"That was different," Toval commented, out of breath and still holding the terrified pigeon.

Hakaya sat in one of the chairs, out of breathe herself, with the still struggling pigeon in hand, wile wukari looked out the front window, and noticed several of the hornets stinging the crap out of the crewman chained to the chair," Oh, we forgot about him."

Fording rumbled. "The Hornets could kill him." he commented. "Computer, seal the hanger bay, all intakes." he commented.

"Command confirmed." the computer responded as Fives was strongly tempted to simply drop the hanger force field and vent it all into space. realizing that Bremer would suffer a most violent death. "Could we have the idiot crewman beamed out of the hanger while we vent it?"

Teval looked as the hornets seemed to run out of venom, and they finally left the whimpering crewman alone. "No, we will just deal with the hornets the old fashion way, no need ot waste all the air, plus it take a good 30 minutes to repressurize the hangar bay and set our work schedule back by a good bit. I'll just ask varkon to deal with them, since they cant hurt him." Toval put in a few commands into the computer console and put up a force field around the infested fighter, trapping the vast majority of them inside, he then turned to Fives," Unless you want to have some of the miscreant pilots clean it up as punishment."

Fives smiled. "As much as I would like to... no.. I want them to learn. not get hurt or killed."

He knew they were pressed for time. "Varkon would be a good choice." he commented.

The inspection of the fighters took another several hours to complete, at least the Scorpions, which where newer fighters, where in much better shape. But all 36 Valkyries failed their inspections miserably. Whitetail figured that it would take three weeks of round the clock work to get most of them up and running. Some of them also bore scars of shoddy and incomplete repairs, from whatever was the last battle that they fought in. In addition, they found several more, but thankfully smaller hornets nests, at least a dozen rats, a further two more pigeons, a young sparrowhawk, a robin, three cats, and four cardassian voles that ate the wiring of three fighters to the point of being complete write offs. Unfortunately the voles proved to be far too fast, and Hakaya only managed to catch and kill one.

So Fives, Hakaya, Toval, Zarloos, Wukari, and Tiron all sat discussing what do do about the wildlife problem. The cats where easy enough, though a bit scared at first, they where relatively tame, as Hakaya had one a Bengal cat purring in her lap, while the other two sat on the consoles in the tower where the group was sitting. One was a silver tabby Maine coon, the other was a Russian blue.

Fives regarded the sight as one that to him had such symmetry. "A cat, petting a cat... now that's hilarious."

He turned to Toval. "Did we catch all the pigeons?" he inquired. "Maybe we can find a use for them...?. any thoughts?"

He inquired as the russian blue regarded him with his dark eyes before reaching out to touch him with his paw.

Fordring rumbled. "he likes you. pet him.." he watched the cat almost step onto Five's leg as he plucked him off of his leg as the cat began to purr at him.

Hakaya looked at the third cat, a very fluffy, though somewhat small silver tabby maine coon feline. Teval reached over and picked up the cat, which meowed in response, and that's when hakaya noticed that cat was female, and had a very plump belly. Teval cradled the cat, and she purred in response. So far they had managed to catch five of the pigeons, but two of them where still flying around near the top of the hangar deck.

"Think that one might be pregnant," Hakaya commented.

Wukari reched over and petted the cat in Hakaya's lap, but then said," Yeah, but you know what our big problem is, and that's those cardassian voles."
Fives nodded. "Cardassian Voles... loose on the ship.." he sighed. "We are gonna need to do something about that.... ideas anyone?"

Teval sighed," Well, the pod is quite well compartmentalized from the rest of the ship, so we will just have to be careful to make sure that they don't escape the pod. We will erect force fields separating the pod from the rest of the ship, but yeah, I suggest we pull all the spare hands we can get, armed with phasers, to search for the little bastards. We are going to have to tell Tane about this one though, particularly since three of our valkyries are complete write offs.
"
Fives nodded. "Consider it done." he commented with a smile. "I'll have the pilots do it.... all of them." he then smiled. "we'll need everyone we can get.. I'll talk to the skipper... wake her ass out of her drunken stupor and make her useful."

"Some of these animals, we can make sure they are well, then adopt them out to members of the crew.." he found himself looking at the russian blue who was looking back at him.

"I can see me keeping this one... Siaxx might want one for herself... the birds can also be tamed somewhat..." he paused. "the third cat will need a home... I suspect that will take minutes at most with people fighting over them." he added

"Lets take these guys up to sickbay and see what Siaxx can do for us." he commented.