Duty, 12: Me and That Army
07 Sep 2022Meowers
Well, looks like the silence is broken now. Just received a new set of orders from AXDF top brass. Nothing secret or dangerous though. So, the first one on the list was to wrap up any tech and logistical experiments I'm running now and put everything into a somewhat final we-can-go-like-that shape, letting the locals handle their logistics on the same level of quality, but with minimal interruptions. Can't say it was much of a work to do, I was doing that for several weeks already and that little local militia fleet finally started to look more military and less rag-tag. Angry, militarised rag-tag bunch that can kick arse, I say, hah.
Was quite a novel thing to do, you know? When joining AXDF, I said I'm an engineer, of sorts, on top of being a combat pilot, and I look for Marshmallow by myself mostly, and seems like they noted it. When I was performing something that could be done solo, AXDF tech crew presumed I knew what I'm doing; and in case of more serious works my assistance was welcome. I guess some of them even thought that I'm a kind of an unofficial consultant who knows Fer-de-Lances in and out, hah. Didn't mind sharing the knowledge, these ships are rare in AX fleets, so every little bit helps.
But what I had to do here, apart from patrolling through nearby systems and sometimes helping the techs personally, was like a strategy videogame. Their repair teams were quite good, however they never thought about logistics on that level, it was just like... One of their pilots may come back saying "oh, the Thargoids got my canopy again", and, depending on a severity of the damage, the reply will vary from "go to the warehouse and find yourself a new one" to "have this can of glue and stop weeping". And the modifications, too. Some of the parts were old like a dinosaur shit, but still working properly. However, applying any of that engineering shamanic stuff, in an attempt to make the upgrades on different ships less or more even, was totally unsafe.
So... I had no other choice than to dip into it and sort it out on my own. Cruising on that little electric car around the hangars and warehouses, when I wasn't on a patrol, with the datapad in my hand, like a kind of a business lady, hah. So, a complete list of their ships with loadouts, modifications, internal and external modules, present technical conditions, etc. Also... Ammo, fuel, coolant, heatsinks, filters, other stuff consumption graphs, lists of things we have here in our storages, things that are easy to obtain and not so easy to obtain, modified, unmodified... Everything should've been noted, calculated, standardised as it's possible, made interchangeable, so, in case of green shit hitting the HIP 29991 fan, we won't run out of something important unxpectedly. Serious business!
Oh. I'll share some top secret info with you folks. With 35 Chieftains here, if 29 of them are spaceworthy and 26 are fit for combat, and 'Low' Thargoid threat level, so, skirmishes here and there, but without serious battles, locals tend to crack 0.75 main thruster mountings beyond the repairability point, per week. Whatever that means, I have to sleep with that in my head! Hah.
And yeah, the 'fourth pilot' solution. We're a full wing now. A guy approached me the day before yesterday and said he has been ordered to join. Name's Peter. Peter Mitchell. Never seen him before, but honestly, I'm bad at remembering faces and names of people with whom I don't interact much. So, let it be just 'a stylish-looking local chap in his early 30's and his standard AX Chieftain'. Officers confirmed that, yep, he joined the planetary forces not too long ago and became particularly interested in getting into my wing, when he got to know I've been told to find someone. So, they tested him, provided with one of their basic ships, put him into a roster, and now, sent to me when he was considered an adequate candidate. Hmm. Anyway, he had some flights with them already, I guess he knows what stick you use to turn the ship, and hope he knows how to shoot as good as he knows how to look stylish. Yet to see him in action, but target practice and 'just flying in formation and looking at the empty sensors' routines were okay. Maybe a bit talky, but okay, welcome, Peter.
I had an idea about him thinking AXDF is massively superior or something like that, he was... Trying to make an impression, maybe. Hah. Bought a big pack of beer after the first patrol with us, was cracking jokes, telling about his recent stuff and so on. Had to interrupt him abruptly once, saying that 'this shy boy', I mean David, eviscerated more Thargoids than he may have possibly seen in his entire life, and I don't drink alcohol for my personal reasons and no attempts to persuade me can change that. Or... Hah. Did he choose my wing because there's two women and one young guy that looks too shy? Ah. Whatever. Maybe one day I'll go ask Christine what's her take on that. I just want to see him shooting those bastards at least not worse than 'your average local pilot'.
So, that was about the recent days. Have to wrap that up and go headbutt the pillow, there's a massive thing planned on tomorrow. Includes shooting Thargoids! Okay, shooting Thargoids after they've been shot. Hah. I've mentioned those wreckages briefly, those crashed Thargoid Interceptors scattered around the town, and the fact they were generously covered with acid neutraliser, but now we have to get rid of them completely. It means, we will tie them to transport ships, they will lift them into space and set onto reentry trajectories, and then we should shoot them to tiny pieces, making those pieces effectively burn in the upper atmosphere. And, hey, why didn't make it a fun way? Locals gathered their passenger vessels as well to make this an attraction to people, hah.
Yeah, also got a message from Mion on the private channel this evening. There was a nicely-done photo attached to it, with me walking along the lined up ships, I presume it was this morning, before the patrol shifts started, during the routine loadout check, so, I was walking along the line, with that datapad in my hand, looking at the ships... And the text below, "Everything is perfect on this picture". Hah. Glad to see someone appreciating the stuff I'm doing here.
Okay, they will have kids on those passenger ships tomorrow. I guess you have quite a peculiar childhood, being raised in a place like this.
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Peter Mitchell