James \u201cJaybird\u201d Thompson had been given secondary missions\never since the fall, which was only a month ago. Today he was on primary with a\nmission to do a micro jump and take out the refinery. His new electronic\nwarfare officer, \u201cPlano\u201d was strapped in because they were in a raptor launch\ntube. He looked a fat stuffed bear in his seat belts. There were only a few of\nthese on a Mercury class Battlestar. They were dedicated for special missions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Jaybird call sign had been hung on him by his mother who\nthought we looked as cute as a blue jaybird in his uniform blues. Waiting for\nthe combat jump had always been a problem in exercises for the Tauron native.\nIT made him itchy and it rarely happened with precision on complex options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It made him nervous. He checked the status board and found\nthat his wingman raptor 719 was in another tube and all systems were green.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPlano\u201d, the 32 year old pilot ordered. \u201cWeapons systems\ncheck.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRoger that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Jaybird adjusted his helmet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* * *<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Karla \u201cBlondie\u201d Knox was a platinum blonde, medium height\npilot with a chip on her shoulder. She was a Lieutenant with a decade of\nservice before the fall. A squadron XO she was expecting a promotion as the\nsquadrons were being re-aligned due to the heavy losses on the first day of the\nsecond Cylon war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Her squadron was in the tubes first and Captain Jenkins was\nleading the against any raiders that happened to get in the way. Call sign\n\u201cHiker\u201d had been the commander of a squadron for six years and was due to the\nCAG\u2019s injury on a fast track to being the next CAG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If that happened she\u2019d have her own squadron. She looked at\nher watch and tried to remember exactly when the combat jump was planned. Four\nraptors had jumped ahead to do recon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Knox was one of the fleets hottest sticks, they only one in\nthe last five years to have beaten Kera Thrace in dogfighting competition. It\nwas only a few tenths of a point nobody ever beat \u201cStarbuck\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She was considered the hottest prospect in the fleet talent\npool and had chosen to serve under Admiral Mueller among five Battlestar groups\nvying for her services. Mueller had taken the most recent simulator war games\nwith a highly controversial high-speed jump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He had burned a large portion of his fuel allocation getting\nup to a high speed under sub-light and then triggered the jump. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was harder to calculate but resulted in a ship that was\ndifficult to hit in the first critical moments after a jump. It took precious\nseconds for DRADIS and other computer-based systems to calibrate and take star\nfixes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The top Battlestar group, BS-21 had landed Knox, who was a\nheavy hitter in her own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
* *\n*<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In CIC Commander Eva Lawson felt the urge to pace. She felt\nas if her legs were cemented to the deck. She knew that pacing nervously would\nset the wrong message. The next step in the strike plan was to speak to the\nfour recon raptors that had been sent to make certain the coordinates for the\ncombat jump was clear of enemy forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It simply would not be acceptable to find themselves in a\nswarm of Cylon raiders on the other side. Her own written mission orders were\nvery clear: if the four raptors did not return the mission was off. Back out\nplan was to jump to emergency coordinates and then rendezvous with the Solaria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Commander Lawson looked over at Major Ramirez and mouth the\nwords \u2018Are they overdue? \u2018<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Major Ramirez ran a hand through her mostly black hair and\nnodded in the affirmative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cStart the clock,\u201d Lawson ordered. \u201cHow late are they?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThree minutes,\u201d Major Ramirez answered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now it was okay to pace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPrepare to change to the emergency jump coordinates,\u201d\nLawson ordered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNav is standing by Sir,\u201d came the reply of a crusty older\nNCO.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a characteristic beep and three blips appeared on\nDRADIS. The computer quickly identified the raptors as three of the four recon\nbirds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cGet them on wireless.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThis is Pony,\u201d the harried raptor pilot came on speaker.\n\u201cRaptor niner seven niner disintegrated after the jump,\u201d the man\u2019s voice was\nhigh pitched and filled with angst.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramirez was up and on a wireless connected telephone handset\nin about three milliseconds. \u201cPony report on disposition of cylon forces and\nsafety at the jump point. The Tauron Major was full of energy and vigor. She\nwas barking out her orders, nearly growling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe coordinates for the jump inbound are clear. We have\ndefinite track on one, repeat a single Cylon base star. They are running no\ncombat air patrol and are instead relying on the fueling stations fighter\ncover. We counted CAP at 50 toasters.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cDo you have coordinates of the base ship?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cYes Commander, transmitted.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ramirez leaned in close. \u201cWhat are you thinking?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cChange the jump point after getting in close and ending the\nmission early, That is kind of crazy isn\u2019t it Major?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very crazy Sir,\u201d Ramirez replied. \u201cRe-writing the\nstrike plan with forty raptors in the air is asking for disaster.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawson looked unconvinced and her expression froze for a few\nseconds. The clock clicked past five minutes behind schedule. \u201cRight,\u201d she said\n\u201coriginal strike plan or abort. Or do something out of the box.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThat\u2019s reckless Sir. Colonel Rogers would relieve you just\nfor thinking about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJump in two minutes, new coordinates right on the base\nstar. Transmit coordinates to the raptors, they are to adjust and hammer the\nbase star with a missile barrage. By the time that\u2019s over we should have a\nfiring solution for the main guns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cVipers launch on the other side?\u201d Ramirez looked ready to\njoin the party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNo hold them in reserve. Have the raptors verbally\nacknowledge the new jump coordinates. On my mark jump in ninety seconds. Mark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Someone adjusted the digital countdown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJump key is in,\u201d reported the FTL officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cNew coordinates are in,\u201d reported the NAV officer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cRaptors are checking in.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTask the SAR to see if pilots survived niner seven niner,\u201d Ramirez\nordered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFTL is spooled and ready,\u201d reported engineering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A quiet sense of anticipation settled in for the next sixty\nseconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cExecute combat jump,\u201d ordered Lawson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cJumping Sir,\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
James \u201cJaybird\u201d Thompson had been given secondary missions ever since the fall, which was only a month ago. Today he was on primary with a mission to do a micro jump and take out the refinery. His new electronic warfare officer, \u201cPlano\u201d was strapped in because they were in a raptor launch tube. He looked a fat stuffed bear in his seat belts. There were only a few of these on a Mercury class Battlestar. They were dedicated for special missions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[116],"class_list":["post-1069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book1","tag-book1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1069"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4648,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1069\/revisions\/4648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/battlestarmercury.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}