Aftermath, new conclusions

Posted on 25 Mar 2021 @ 6:34am by Lieutenant Commander Roman Kavalar

Mission: M2 - Sanctuary
Location: OC. Flight deck
Timeline: MD1 - 1030HRS
811 words - 1.6 OF Standard Post Measure

The sounds of the Valkyrie class superiority fighters muffled engines from within the pilots compartment quieted down as Roman shut them down before exiting his fighter, the rest of the shut down process he was leaving to his TSO. Outside he stretched his legs for a moment then removed his open helmet feeling, smelling and hearing the sounds of the now familiar flight deck. There was still the telltale signs of weapon score marks from the recent attack, any major breaches had been patched but the cosmetics of making the place pretty had yet to be done. That was not his immediate concern as he walked purposefully forward.

There were other fighters about, some parked ready to be mounted and loaded into launch tubes, some under maintenance and others on patrol as normality returned to the starbase but he was in no mood to greet his fellow pilots and his crew chief who usually met him after a flight knew when to steer clear as he approached, nodded in greeting but walked past him towards his fighter.

Off the flight deck and deeper into fighter pilot country, past the aerospace briefing room, past the stand-by room until he got to the changing room to get out of his flight gear, A quick change and he finally got to his office. Once inside he summoned up some water in a aluminum water bottle from the replicator to quench his thirst. Sated for the moment he turned his attention to his desk and summoned up a 3D map of local space, he then added tactical overlays, showing fighter patrols and other tactical units such as starships, automated sentries and the like. Each representation had an ID and who the units belonged to.

"Computer colour code the units that belong to Adm. Sepandiyar's present taskforce, those that belong to Obsidian Command and mark the rest as the same colour". Staring for a moment he heard the sound of his door chime interrupting his thoughts.

"Come", he replied and the door whooshed open. Entering was his number 1, Lt. Gregor Ulrich, call sign Winter. Gregor paused at the doorway not sure if he should remain but Roman waved him in as he took a chair, one of two on the front side of his desk as well as a couch up against a wall Roman was at time likely to catch some shuteye on.

"Gregor?", Roman started, taking another sip of his water.

Gregor Ulrich was an experienced pilot and leader, he had lead his own squadron but chose to take a drop in position when he'd Roman was transferring off to stay with him. Perhaps not his smartest career move but Gregor was one of those people who at time danced to his own tune,
as he sat in the other chair, "Whats up, you left the flight deck in a hurry?"

Roman ignored the question, "Hows Shade?", he asked. Shade was Ltjg. Angelica Steiner and her fighter had been downed in the defense of the starbase and they'd had to eject in their escape pod. They'd been later picked up by a search and rescue team but the pod had been damaged and so the fighter crew had been subject to exposed space for some time.

Gregor shrugged, "Shade will recover, her TSO. not so lucky, hes being shipped out back to Earth for long term care. He may not make it back. Whats this?", looking at the map.

Roman followed Gregor's gaze and got out of his chair, "Damn", he replied regarding Shade's TSO. then focus on the map. "From a tactical point of view the attack on Obsidian Command was well timed, if you read some of the reports we were attacked from outside and within, parts of the station seemed to fail at the right time and the attacking forces seemed to know they could attack us and we weren't ready for it".

"I do not like where you're going with this, are you saying this was an inside job and was planned", Gregor replied in his accented voice.

Roman shrugged, "Maybe, its likely but you know what was really interesting and fortunate..."

Gregor waited but when Roman didn't say anything, he prompted him as his interest was piqued, "Yes?"

"The Adm. taskforce showed up in the nick of time, now I get they responded to calls of help getting to them but a more speculative person might think they mobilized in force pretty quickly to get here as if they were expecting an attack of some sort like this to happen and we know some admirals do like to play their games".

"Have you voiced this theory yet?", Gregor asked, a tone of concern filtering through.

Roman smirked, "No Gregor, only to you, its above our pay grade. Besides we have a bunch of replacement pilots to train and integrate".