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Chapter Sixty Four Finally reaching the furthest most edge of their patrol sector, Green Squadron forms up on their leader to, once again, go over their field directives. As the last ship signals its proximity alarm, the commander of this squadron breaks comm silence with two distinct clicks on their flight frequency, signaling the entire squadron to modulate down two frequencies for their final briefing. As she hears the confirmation click of her pilots, Captain Orme Tallage girds herself up for another rallying speech. Her squadron is green in more than name, as most have never seen actual combat in their lifetimes, and she is adamant that they are prepared for the fate that awaits them in the space surrounding their homeworld. “Each of you signed on for this assignment with the hopes of becoming heroes… Well, this is your chance… However, I would rather you come out of this experience as hardened pilots. Heroes are usually lauded posthumously, but pilots live through the hard times and come out all the better for it. So, it is my hope that we have no heroes in this squadron, though the odds are we will have a few, but I want to see each and everyone one of you at our next pre-flight briefing. Is that understood?” She waits to hear if they are able to answer, and with only a fractions of a moment’s hesitation, her com is soon filled with a resounding, “Aye, aye Captain!” Her heart warms with their enthusiastic response, “Very well, you all have your orders, and your assignments. Take your comms back to battle frequency, and run your final checklists before forming up for patrol. Once everyone is in position, we advance in comm silence, until the signal is given… Is that understood?” Soon her cockpit is filled with the confirmation clicks of each of her pilots today, and she turns her modulator back to its original frequency. Going through her own ready station checklist, she is surprised to find one of her wings signaling her on her private comm frequency. Reaching over to activate the voice pickup she answers the call, “Roger, Three… What don’t you understand about comm silence?” There is what seems like a very long pause before Green Three answers her in a voice barely over a whisper, “Captain, slugs registering in Sector Omega.” Captain Tallage suddenly realizes that Lt. Tryashoenu has already spotted a Kuati patrol and is alerting her in the prescribed protocol. She sends the affirmative response and then activates her pulse transmitter before going on the battle frequency to give the coded orders to her squadron. “Greens, form up on me and prepare to fan out... We have a lot of space to cover before the night’s through.” With her words every ship is on alert and acknowledges her code with a double click on the comms. And as they make their way towards the supposed Kuati trap, the pilots begin their prearranged chatter. “Green Three, was that your girlfriend I saw you with last night? Or was that one of those pigs from Gammorr?” “Better than that reptoid I saw you dancing with the other night, Five.” “Cut the chatter, you two… The cap’s liable to send the lot of us to the brig if you ya-“ “That sounds like a great idea… Now stay off the battle frequency before I have the lot of you court-martialed.” “Aye, aye, Captain.” “Green Leader, when are we getting dirtside again?” “You keep up this chatter and you may never see the port cities in this lifetime, Four.” Soon, Captain Tallage notices the Kuati vessels beginning to close the gap between her flight group and theirs on her scanners. In less than 10 units, she’ll be staring down the batteries of that particular flight of Kuati ships, and the anticipation is almost more than she can bear. As she begins to countdown the time before their sensors would normally have been able to detect the Kuati’s she receives confirmation through the pulse receiver that her own fleet is on the ready for her final signal. “Five… Four… Three… Two… One.” “Green Leader! We’ve got inbound!” That was Green Two, right on schedule. “Copy that, Two. Green Flight, prepare for evasive maneuvers… Green Six, signal the Commander and get this info out-…” Her transmission is abruptly cut, and she and the other members of her squadron begin to fly erratically in response to the apparent lack of communications. That is when there pulse transmitters kick in. Undetectable to the Kuati modulator jamming systems, the pulse beams act as a back up comm system to allow perfect communication between the squadron members and the rest of the fleet. Quickly responding to the requests for engagement by her squadron, Captain Tallage puts her entire team on standby for just the right moment. For now, her team will fly without cohesion or apparent skill. That is, until the fleet is moments from entering there quadrant of the patrol area. After that, Force help the Kuati’s.
Creator: PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
*SPECIAL NOTE: Due to circumstances beyond our control, the rest of the story will be written by PtrsonsZOO (Jennifer)
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