9 hours before the attack.
Eva “Yevka” Lawson, call sign Joker was used to picking fights with LSO’s and winning. Pilots look down I’m these important officers. If they were real officers they will be flying not directing traffic. This was the attitude throughout the fleet.
LSO stood for landing signals officer. These officers with the air traffic controllers before flight decks on the Battlestar.
Traffic was heavy due of the snap flight exercise called by the CAG. Network systems were down on the ship. Automated landing systems were also down. Hundreds of pilots were flying out to maintain a very powerful combat air patrol or CAP.
The purpose of the exercise was to keep planes in the air just in case the enemy decided to take advantage of a crippled ship on the frontier.
Well it might look like an aggressive exercise I kept a lot of guns in the air. This was necessary this close to the border. Manual landings meant a lot of bouncing and scratching on the flight deck’s.
Maj. Eva Lawson have not even bothered to learn the officers name. She was a major. She was the CAG. His rank, experience, an opinion does not matter.
After two solid hours in the air she felt as if her buttocks had turned into a pool of lead. She switched up the exercise and lead a squadron of 75 vipers in for a combat landing.
She heard radio chatter in her ear, the flight deck was clear but the LSO was ordering her to abort the approach.
Combat landings with the most important landing exercise too fighter aircraft. The speed with which is watering completed a combat landing and got the birds onto the deck could me the difference between destruction and escape in actual combat.
She decided to override the instructions from meet Landing Signal Officer. It was time to tell that pilot washout who was boss. Unless there was an accident or other hazard you did not tell a squadron of vipers to abort Final approach when you’re landing deck was empty.
“Sorry LSO we cannot abort coming in hot.”
A stream of curses filled her helmet. Obviously, this clown was wound up too tightly and was losing it. LSO types had to deal with insults from pilots all the time.
She actually had to lower the volume on her headset the curses is became so loud Parent the man has obviously lost control of himself.
She turnover command of the squadron to a captain and ordered that her fighter have priority on the mag lock landing decks. This guy was still yelling in her ear and melting down.
And she was helped out of her Mark VII viper a tall balding captain lock on to her like a missile and approached her. It was the LSO spouting out regulations and what danger she put her pilots in the landing crew was in.
First you tried being reasonable: Look Capt. I’m sorry but we need practice and combat landings.”
It was as if he had not heard a word she had said. “You will not override my instructions on my landing deck”, he said. “you pilots think you can do whatever you want whenever you want will not on my fracking launch landing deck!”
Next she try to look bored and distracted and disrespected him by ignoring most of what he was saying. He got into her face and yelled some more and she stepped back and put her small hand on his chest and said “Stop right there captain!”
The man was just picking up steam he started swearing again in the language she did not understand. Finally she interrupted him. She pointed at her rank insignia. “I’m a major you are a captain and you’ll shut the frack up right now”
In her mind she wondered whether she would be demoted for pissing off this pencil pushing pilot washout. She didn’t care she wanted to hit him and it was all she could do to keep her fists at her side and not balled up.
The man just couldn’t stop talking he had totally lost control of his emotions. Three members of the decking intervened to keep him from charging forward and knocking over the major certainly ending his career.
“Alright captain,” she spoke softly so he would have to quiet down to listen to her words. “if you want to write me up and go to command go right ahead. But right now stop embarrassing yourself and walk out of this deck while are you still can”
He turned, he left muttering to himself as he headed back to the station. Gerald Franklin what’s from Scorpia. He had had a series of incidents about