Changes in the Wing

Posted on Sun Jan 22nd, 2017 @ 9:05pm by Major Edward Maxwell & 1st Lieutenant Jericho Alexander & 1st Lieutenant Klaus Gunther

1,039 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 93 - Warrior VS Warrior
Location: SB 400, CAG's Office
Timeline: Mission Day 5

Ed walked out of the General's office, with a new oak leaf sitting on the collar of his shirt, and headed for the turbolift. Looks like there were more changes yet to be made within the Wing, now that he had the authority to make them. He was in need of a few new Squadron Leaders after the fight at Arcanus and his own promotion.

Tapping his commbadge, he gave his first order as CAG. "Lieutenants Alexander and Gunther, report to the CAG's office in ten minutes."

Ten minutes later, Gunther rung the door chime to the CAG's Office.

Jericho put his helmet on the shelf and headed for the CAG office. He stepped in right behind Lt Gunther.

"It's open gentlemen." Ed called as he set the second box on the floor next to the other one. He hadn't even had time to unpack before the Archanus deployment. He stepped back behind his new desk as the pilots entered the room.

Gunther entered the office, and stood at attention in front of the desk. This was the third CAG he has reported to in the four years he was posted in the 181st. He awaited the other pilot before formally reporting.

"Lt Alexander, reporting as ordered, Captain" he said, nodding to Gunther.

Gunther nodded back.

"At ease gentlemen, take a seat." Ed said as he looked over the two Marines in front of him. "As you can see, I've been moved up to CAG. I was rather surprised to say the least considering I got here just as we were deploying. So between my move up and our losses, we've got some restructuring to do. Frogger, you're being moved to Squadron Leader for the Specters. Fenris, you're moving to Squadron Leader of the Roughriders. Unless the guys at Command decide to send us some new Squadron Leaders anyway, but lets not hold our breath shall we?"

Jericho gave Ed a puzzled look. "Squadron leader? I'm just an Element leader, Sir. That's a big step" he said, "Not to be disrespectful, Sir."

"How do you think I felt?" Ed snorted and shook his head. "I've been here, what three or four days. I arrived a Captain and DCAG, less than a week later I'm a Major and CAG. You handled things well over Archanus, but if you think it's too much to take on I can see about finding someone else to take the position. Your call."

Characteristically, Gunther just nodded, and listened. He knew that we was capable of leading a squadron, he was just not expecting it.

"I'll take the position, Sir. Just don't promote me yet. I'm not ready for bars" Fenris laughed.

Gunther listened as he thought about Specter Squadron in Alpha Group. Then he remembered that they flew in Scorpion Class Fighters, and a smile started to form on his face. "Thank you Sir."

"Don't scratch the paint on those new Scorpions either Frogger or I'll bust your ass myself." Ed said with a smirk. "Okay gents, lets get down to numbers. To summarize this," he said holding up a Padd with a report from the maintenance chief and the medical department, "we're screwed. Another six birds are so messed up internally they're scrap. Luckily we can use them for spare parts before we fully scrap them and with the parts we can get two more birds back in the air. For an additional net loss of four birds on top of the ones we lost in the fighting. Medical on the other hand, grounded eight pilots for the next two weeks pending reevaluation at that time, including me for my busted ribs. I'm open to ideas at this point."

Gunther responded, "Well Sir, we only took a couple of groups with us on each transport. It is safe to say Delta and Gamma Groups took the brunt of the losses. We can take them off line for now, and rotate Alpha and Beta Groups into their spots on the MEU Transports, when there is a deployment. Their new ships are more capable anyway. In the meantime, we can combine the surviving Delta and Gamma Group pilots to constitute one squadron in each group. That would leave us with only two squadrons to reconstitute, instead of four. The only question would be if we keep the older Eagles in Delta and Gamma, or replace them with newer Eagles, or even newer fighter types. Fighters are more easy to come by than pilots."

Jericho looked at Gunther briefly. "I'm in agreement with Lt Gunther. Maybe some newer birds might improve the survivability of the pilots" he remarked.

Gunther nodded in agreement. His only additional thought was that the pilots handled the fourth generation Eagles well, but 5 to 1 odds contributed to the losses. Still, something like the 5th Generation Eagle, or the Scorpion, would have cut the losses.

"I can request the newest version of the Eagle, but that doesn't mean we'll get authorization to have them here." Ed said, agreeing with his pilots. "Given both the strategic and tactical value of our location and our ability to rapidly deploy, I think I can make a strong enough argument to get them though. I want you two to oversee the reconfiguring of the squadron assignments. Anyone gives you any flak, they come to me and I'll handle them."

Jericho saluted the Major and Gunther. Then waited to be dismissed. Maybe he and Gunther should put their heads together and work simultaneously.

"Okay you two, off you go. I want reports every other day at least on progress with the reassignments. Leave maintenance and medical to me. Dismissed." Ed nodded to the Padd on his desk he'd read from earlier.

Jericho nodded then turned to Gunther. "Lt, maybe we should do this as a cooperative effort. We're both still kind of new. Let's team up to be thorough" he suggested.

"With pleasure," Gunther replied.

Jericho whooped with excitement. Together, friends could conquer anything. He considered Gunther his friend.

And Jericho felt the same. After being subjected to a fight of that intensity, a bond was definitely formed between those two, as well as with their CAG.

"So your squadron suffered the least. Let's start there" Jericho said.

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