New Pilot Orientation

Posted on Sat Oct 11th, 2014 @ 2:42am by Lieutenant Colonel Jillian "Phoenix" Sullivan

2,567 words; about a 13 minute read

Mission: Mission 86 - Discovery
Location: Pilot's War Room
Timeline: A Day After Five's transfer

The pilots' war room was really an elaborate classroom-like amphitheater with long crescent-shaped rows of granite tables with built-in PCs. High-back comfy black office chairs sat behind each PC and all five rows faced a massive display screen with a podium off to the right.

The podium was where Phoenix stood in her gray flight suit, the top part zipped down as usual so that she stood around in her black tank top.

On this day, most of the noob rookies coming in (though are few of the new pilots were veterans), were said to be above par in flying. The trade off she wanted, really. She could teach them to shoot better far faster than flying sharper.

But also one of the newer officers under her command was Captain Herondale. A man she really had not spoken to, but knew at least by roster. So it was important all incoming wing personnel attend this vital meeting.

"Have a seat," Phoenix told the assembled lieutenants and her XO. "Let's start this off by going row by row of telling me your names, flight hours, and sim hours. Also what planes you fly in."

Phoenix pointed to Wild first, "You start 'em off, Lieutenant."

1st Lieutenant Tom Lasky who sat in the third row waited silently as he considered recent events which had brought him back almost full circle as he mentally compared himself now to how he was then, he was much younger and much greener, also he was much happier then as well.

Jamie stood up and cleared his throat.

"I'm Lieutenant Jamie Wild, I personally have over 100 hours flight time between the Eagle and Valkyrie class fighters. I'm also proficient in shuttle operations. I have had over 500 hours on the simulator. As you can see I am a joined Trill. My symbiote is known by many names but is more commonly known as Anzai, it has many life times of experience with both engineering and flight and has some knowledge of none federation shuttles and fighters. I'm yet to earn my callsign"

Jamie didn't want to mention the fact that Anzai had in a few past lifetimes fought against the federation and had been in a group of what the federation considered a ruthless band of pirates, so he kept his mouth shut and simply sat back down.

Phoenix made a note in her PADD assigning Wild to Red Rippers, an eagle-class squadron. Then she continued down the line, making notes and adjustments to the various squadron rosters.

Once it was Fives' turn, she could only smirk to herself. He was in many ways more seasoned than the other noobs. Though life took him from his pilot's path for far too long, she believed.

"You're turn, Fives," she prodded gently.

Fives stood up, the same as everyone else had as he coughed softly to clear his throat. "I'm 1st Lieutenant Tom Lasky. Callsign Fives... I have close to twenty two hundred hours in various types of Warbirds, including Raiders and Peregrine's, I was one of the first to fly the Eagle into battle. I also have combat time in Runabouts as well... another seven hundred hours there.." he paused. "all in all pretty close to twenty eight hundred hours including my recent Sim time on the Redemption class Bomber sir." he explained. "I also have sixty eight kills of various types from Cardassian's to Dominion and even a few Klingons..." he explained.

"Fives will be my reel, for when the Scorpions arrive - at least until he recertifies himself," Phoenix explained, then pointed to each of the other pilots and took notes. "And now it's my XO's turn to introduce himself."

Alec listened to the other Pilots talk, almost showing of their flight times and kills really Alec knew that he was expected to do the same and he was about to. Most combat Pilots were the pretty boys of the fleet ever since the age of aviation they were called fly boys and the envy of all military's. "My Name is Alec Herondale" He said standing up and looking at the faces of the other pilot. "I cant tell you how many hours I've flown and sim hours don't count, not really." He paused gazing into the eyes of each pilot more intensely. "For those of you who are new and haven't flown in Combat then you're lucky, for those of you among us that have then you know my story already but just in case you dont.

I've been in this career for over 15 years I flew during the dominion war and I was even fighting above San Francisco when the breen attacked Earth I've lost two brothers both who were amazing pilots and I've seen a fleet of over 300 strong be completely decimated. Killing is not something I brag about but every day I live and every time one of them dies for their 'cause' that's something to brag about. The life expectancy of a Combat pilot during the Dimion war was only a week for my fighter wing on the frontline and at the height of the dominion war so let that be a constant reminder. No matter how many hours you've flown, no matter how many people you've killed there's always someone who has more." Alec sat down before remembering something standing up he smiled "Oh and it's nice to see such fresh faces here." He sat back down again.


When everyone finished introducing themselves, she pinned up the pilots' assignments on the main viewer behind her, then cleared her throat to get their attention.

"Twenty-eight pilots in here. All noobs, save one. Greenhorns. Nuggets. Same difference, really." Phoenix shrugged and transfered her PC data to theirs.

On their personal screens were the flight precision stats of all pilots in the 181st, along with their overall ranking against the other wings of the fleet.

"You'll note my requesting noob pilots with above average flying precision, over people with better aim percentage has dropped the Wing's overall fleet ranking," Phoenix spoke with a frown, then shrugged. "I can teach ya to shoot better far faster than I can with flying smarter. Still... Fifteenth in Fleet standings are never to be accepted."

She took that moment to leave the podium, pacing in front of the screen itself. "Only seven of you noobs are likely to reach retirement, given our low-survival rate... But it's my job to make sure we are smarter at our jobs and prepared so that we beat those statistics. Anyone care to guess how we do this?"

Fives stuck his hand up, clearly he had an answer which was almost to be expected considering he had the rank of Lieutenant Colonel at one point as well as a half dozen medals but he dismissed all of that.

"Go ahead Fives," Phoenix allowed.

"Training... lots and lots of training.." he raised an eyebrow. "Against the system and against each other."

"Correct," Phoenix answered. "Your schedules will differ so that all squadrons have to work some night CAPs. Some squadron leaders have a training schedule worked in, others let their pilots decide their own. Regardless, if you do not take the time to train in the off hours, you will find yourself on milk runs permanently, and not in a fighter. Am I understood?"

Five's voice sounded off like everyone else's did.

Phoenix gave a nod and returned to her podium. From there she imputed a command to change the main display screen's wing stats, to a computer-generated program that showed three planes flying in single file, with transparent circles around each plane. The planes were also fairly spread out and flying around what looked like a Galaxy class starship.

"The 181st is the only wing implementing a new offensive strategy I've created, called 'Shield Trios'. Which relies greatly on sets of three flying closely behind one another..."

Phoenix chose that moment to alter the simulation. The planes grew closer together and their shield bubbles melded until the plane in the middle had tipple the protection. Then she pressed another series of buttons to show internal readings under each plane.

The front plane's shields and weapons systems were down to almost twenty-five percent. The middle plane's systems were all down near fifty. And the rear's systems were climbing up past seventy-five percent.

"What good is shootin' if ya aint got the survivability?" Phoenix posed rhetorically, then showed the planes start to leap frog while all but the one in the rear fired their ordinance on the Galaxy starship.

In it, the Galaxy shot a lot of phasers at the trio, but proved ineffective at the rate the fighters traded off positions. And when the Galaxy hit the fighter up front with a torpedo, the fighter veered to the back of the trio to recharge their systems.

"There are several things happening in this simulation. Most of which, revolve around timing and teamwork," Phoenix explained. "You'll note that in each trio, the rear plane's guns are silent, for the simple fact that they are recharging their systems' power. Positions change every thirty seconds so that no one's weapons gets too hot, or their shields give out. By matching the trio's shield harmonics to the same frequency, you triple your defenses as one melded shield bubble."

Phoenix then grinned as she showed a sped-up version of the simulation. And at the seventh minute mark, the plane in the rear was shot down. "...And no. This aint an impregnable strategy with one trio taking on a capitol ship and living to tell the heroic tale. Anyone wanna guess how you beat a capitol ship with this technique?"

Fives raised an eyebrow, the shield trios tactics were new to him, as he stuck his hand up again. "multiple weapons strikes from birds one through three with four providing support..." he guessed as clearly the tactic was something new to him.

"You're on the right track," Phoenix winked, then put four more sets of trios into the picture, running different attack lines, and let the simulation run. In five minutes, the Galaxy's ship was dead in the water from a multitude of planes swarming around it and focusing on one specific system as a unified front, and moving to the next one, then the next one... Three planes, however did not make it to endgame.

"Strength in numbers... Mass numbers, using the same trio strategy. And it is something devised by myself, but currently being perfected real-time as well as in simulator." Phoenix did not say that pridefully, but rather factual. "That's why all of you ace-flying noobs are here. An' I guess I'll take questions 'bout your assignments and the like before I set ya loose to your Squadron COs."

Jamie looked over his assignment then simply nodded, the tight formations and point to point precision flying were simply not a problem. He had scored very highly in his flying ability and even taken part in the academy precision flight display team, he knew he could fly anything within millimeters of another craft through the middle of a storm but his shooting was poor and only at 55% accuracy. He could fly anything through the eye of a needle if asked but he couldn't hit a bull in the backside with a base-fiddle.

"Ya good Fives?" Phoenix asked for she knew this would take several tries before he would be on par with the rest of her squadron.

"With mor time sim, yessir." he responded evenly for he was nothing if not honest, sometimes brutally so because he wanted everyone in range to know what he was thinking, also he never fed anyone bullshit even if they needed to hear crap.

"Anyone else?" Phoenix asked to the assembled pilots.

"You've come up with a good plan Commander but what if they to have fighter support?" He asked posing the question. "That formation works well against one large ship but against Multiple weapons systems firing at a close group of fighters it could be suicide" Alec had taught at the academy to and he knew a few tricks himself and he was impressed with the tactic.

"It's Phoenix," the CAG corrected and then nodded to the XO. "This is a capitol ship bombardment strategy. If we are asked to give a distraction, we use this tactic to swarm an enemy capitol ship, or we simply use it to take down an enemy ship when our big boys cannot. But it is not made for dogfighting, unless you are good at keeping your trio behind enemy boogies."

Fives raised an eyebrow as he spoke up. "Phoenix..." he didn't know who the new guy was so he would introduce himself to the newbie later. "This conversation is academic, no matter how we decide to mob capital class starships, we're still going to lose people, what we frankly need is better shields for our warbirds rather then speed, also more powerful sensor jammers and spoofers will be helpful in this regard as well."

"I agree... But Fleet see us as expendable and acceptable losses they can easily replace," Phoenix noted grimly. "Still... We will work on dogfighting tactics too. I don' think any of us should lax on that either."

"No... but that was the biggest killer of pilots during the Dominion War... " Fives commented, clearly speaking as a combat veteran. "sure, we've come a long way since then but... I still see the same flaws..."

"There are flaws to every strategy. And what we are attemptin' ta do is considered very advanced. An' we'll think of more tactics to develop for various other situations too," Phoenix promised.

Fives nodded. "Permission to speak bluntly?" he usually inquired when he usually had something nasty or something very direct to say.

Alec looked to Phoenix and nodded "I have no problem with anyone speaking bluntly it means its telling us you're saying what you think without bending it."

"Well, fleet frankly can kiss my ass on them considering us expendable." Fives responded bluntly. "I am not expendable, nor is anyone else, if anyone from Fleet has issues with that.... then they had better not say it around me.... or someone's going to the infirmary..."

"Then you're clearly in the wrong trade lieutenant. Like I pointed out pilots don't live long in conflict. We're the smallest most vulnerable target and instead of threatening to put people into the infirmary I would suggest turning that aggression into the cockpit as you fly you might find you wont have to be expendable." Alec said with crossed arms.

Fives regarded the new guy with a rather cold smile. "Ironic though... isn't it... I survived three wars and now I get to listen to this." he commented evenly. "Besides... I did ask and you granted it." he said it in a tone that indicated that the Captain had neither his attention or his respect. "I have no troubles drawing up tactics... but I prefer to design my tactics to suite my enemy.... whoever he, she, or it may be." Fives then shrugged.

"Fair enough," Phoenix spoke, watching her XO and Fives both with intrigue. "You lot are dismissed then."

Fives nodded to Phoenix, he had no interest in pissing her off as she seemed to have a vested interest in him as he turned and left without a word.

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