Isn't That Beauty?

Posted on Fri Aug 30th, 2019 @ 6:42am by

742 words; about a 4 minute read

Mission: What Stalks The Night
Location: Fighter Launch Bay 3
Timeline: Backpost: Prior to Planet arrival

Luthar stood at the doors to the Hanger Bay where contained within was his squadron of fighters, pilots and assigned techs, it was a sea of them as teams went about routine work on the various craft present.

Looking at the sea of combat craft made Zan miss flying, flying was what he was trained to do, when he was in the cockpit of his fighter he felt more at ease. Initially he went unnoticed and not that he minded that really, he was fine with that as it gave him time to look around, then his eyes fell on his own prized craft. This was not his original craft from the Ascension Dreadnought, it was brand new, still holding that clean off the line look as it sat there waiting for a call to action

The old craft that had been his companion for nearly three years now lay somewhere in some refurbishment facility to be reassigned no doubt. As with any pilot there runs the chance they get attached to what they fly, the adage of 'look after your gear and your gear will look after you' was pretty cemented in the squadron and the engineering readouts and maintenance reports showed it.

"How you holding up sir?" One of Bradshaw's engineers asked. "Sure is a sight isn't it?"

"That she is, that she sure is. Hey you sure the Chief is ok with a team of you guys helping out on the short term down here?" Luthar replied taking another good look at the view before him.

"If he wasn't, I doubt we'd be here sir." The engineer answered. "Besides, minor fabrication work, its not inconvenience what so ever."

Luthar's paint scheme was nothing special, black paint on every leading surface so that from head on, it was all black. All the squadrons fighters had this scheme including the large black feathered avian on tail fins, thus earning them the nickname 'Nighthawks'.

The trim of his cockpit canopy had a small plate on it that had his name, rank and callsign on it, it was strange seeing such a thing that was clean, polished. It was the kind of thing that belonged in the 'case' since he was so used to seeing his dirty, scratched, marked or other some such.

The 'case' as they called it was a records room, or a history room of pilots and craft which was a tradition they carried over from the previous ship, thankfully the pilots there managed to clean shop and put everything back on this ship. Service files and pictures of fallen pilots, mementoes of battles picked up such as the metal shard that mortally wounded a past fighter would eventually end up here. If there was a room where people could get a feel of what they have been through, what they do and the dangers involved then this was it. He was just glad to have nearly every pilot from the other Dreadnought with him, some decided to go elsewhere and honestly he couldn't agrue, they had seen some things. "Hey, before you go can you thank the rest of the team for me, I'd do it myself but with the size of the hanger thats a tall order?"

"Will do." The tech walked off to carry out the last orders for the fighter he was helping out with.

Zan walked around and while he was being nosey at what others were doing he saw one of the pilots from the previous ship. "Hey, I've never seen a hanger so busy."

"Yeah, they have their hands full." The pilot answered.

"How you getting on with the new additions?" Zan asked.

"Not bad, a few of us have been gathering in the mess for chats, story telling that sort of thing. Hard to meet everyone though because there are so many and the ship is huge with so many hanger bays." Came the reply. "Great for a walk if you need a wake up though."

"Yeah, I asked Lt. Bradshaw the Chief Engineer for a hand replicating some custom parts, little additions that kind of thing." Zan spoke.

"You are not the only one, I've seen some people already painting the noses of fighters, you should see some of it, there is some talent there."

"I hope they are just as good on the stick as they are with the brush...." Zan spoke softly.


****


(NPC Engineer & Pilot played by Lt. Bradshaw.)

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