Flyboys

Posted on Sun Nov 11th, 2018 @ 11:25am by 1st Lieutenant Klaus Gunther & Cadet Senior Grade Marcus Mattson

1,084 words; about a 5 minute read

Mission: Episode 96 - A Visitor From the Past
Location: CAG Office
Timeline: MD1, 1000hrs

CAG OFFICE

It has been a few days since Gunther returned from the Delta Quadrant expedition. He took his down time as soon as he debriefed, and saw to his ship, and his pilots. Returning to duty, he came to meet his new CAG. Eventually, he needed to see the new Cadet that was assigned to his squadron. Once he arrived at the door, he hit the door chime.

Markus had fully enjoyed his picnic with the station counselor when he had got message that he were to report to the CAG office an hour later. Though it made their date shorter, he had promised her to take her shopping later. Now however he has cleanly in his marine uniform, polished and perfectly straight thanks to Lt Monroe. He came around the corner and saw another marine outside the CAG office. "Sir." he said in respect as he came up behind the man.

Gunther turned around, and saw a young man in a Cadet uniform approaching him. The flight wings on his chest identified him as the cadet that was assigned to his squadron, and to him, when he was in Delta Quadrant. "Cadet Senior Grade Mattson, I presume." He offered the cadet a handshake.

"Yes sir." the cadet saluted, but his hand soon lowered to shake the officers hand.

Klaus returned the salute after he shook hands. "It is great to finally meet you. So how do you like your Training Scorpion?"

"She is a little sluggish and she pulls a little to the side, but she is growing on me. She has quite nice responsive thrusters. Let me do a glide maneuver."

"If you mean sluggish as in it does not turn like an Eagle, you are right. But piloting more than makes up for it. You also have more RCTs on a Scorpion, so you have to use your controls to focus on reaction control. Only then can you keep within the turning radius of an Eagle. On the other hand, a single disruptor hit will not instantly evaporate your plane, unlike an Eagle. The Scorpion also hits harder, once you graduate out of this training variant. "

Marcus nodded, he had read up all about the craft so he knew the limitations. That was why he had compensated for it's slower turn rate with simply turning off the engine and glide across space, then using thrusters to turn the ship towards target or attacker because that made the craft free from turning without fighting the force of momentum. This also meant that he could turn the ship faster simply by turning off the engines, turn the fighter and then go full speed with the engines again. This of course meant massive G-forces on him but he knew how to combat this. He had in fact killed a simulated pursuer by turning the ship around, shot the fighter then turning back to his target to continue his persute. Of course this had some drawbacks as well, this maneuver did create greater distances between him and the target and it did leave him more exposed to enemy fire. But as as the Lieutenant had stated, the ship was more tanky than most. "Yes sir. I stated, turning off the engines and using the thrusters to obtain a sharper turn arc is possible, not to mention it would surprise most enemies."

Klaus was impressed with this Intern. "Cadet, I found a way to keep your inertial dampener functioning when you conduct the Slide Maneuver. If the Boss isn't home, I can show you, if you have time."

"Thank you sir." Marcus knew this would make it much easier and he could pull off more radical maneuvers. But all dampeners had limits so an upgrade would up his performance. The young man did wonder if the Lieutenant knew about his past, having nearly nose planted a training craft in boot-camp for pushing the craft far to hard. This had resulted in the loss of his left arm as well as psychological scaring. But he was sure that his superior would find out soon enough when going through his records.

"The Squadron Bay is not far from here. We can take a quick look until CAG calls us back here. Call it time management." Klaus said, as he motioned the Cadet to follow him.

Marcus didn't miss a beat. He was just a cadet so he couldn't say no. "Of course sir." he started to head towards where he was gestured towards.


When a squadron wasn't on standby in the shuttlebays, their ships were located in large areas adjacent to the shuttlebays. The 12 Scorpion Type fighters, and Mattson's Training variant, were located in the room Klaus led the pair into. Besides the individual "nose art" on each ship, and their unique registry numbers, all of them had the same markings on the upper nacelle, an illustration of a Specter, a Federation Marine Emblem, along with the Squadron Designation "MFA 2". Klaus walked to the ship at the very end of the line. The nose art depicted a typical Earth frog holding a Phaser Assault Rifle. Under the side window, the name "Lieutenant Klaus Gunther, "FROGGER"". He had a different Combat Information Officer on every mission, so there was no name aft of the cockpit. Behind the nose art were eight Klingon Rebel "kill markings", four Pirate kill markings, and 3 Kazon kill markings. Fifteen kills all together.

The young cadet was impressed by the craft, he had made it his own with custom faceart and all. Maybe he would get the chance to that. "You named her sir?" he ran his hand over her wing.

Klaus managed to smile as he remembered how he got his call sign. "No, Frogger is my call sign. They gave it to me in Aerospace Combat School for an ACM I perfected."

The cadet was fascinated by this. Not only because of difference of opinion when it came to the need of naming a ship to get closer to it. But also that this man got a name after a short-bodied, tailless amphibians. For some reason he could see people tormenting the man with doing frog sounds at the academy. "I was given the call-sign 'Silver Fox' for some reason. I have yet to discover why. But I like it."

"In my experience, I am sure the reason for your call sign will be revealed." Klaus gave the cadet a wink. "It will be more fun than asking your instructor.

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