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USS Thunderchild: A New Home

[ Ens Thomas Razor Ravon | Shuttle Transport to USS Thunderchild | 2371 ]
@patches

After finishing up on a message that he had prepared for Zephyr, Thomas stowed away his personal PADD into the backpack that he carried with him. He looked out the window of the shuttle as he saw the Thunderchild ahead. His heart was pounding in his throat as he wondered what would lie ahead.  He smiled faintly as this place would be his new home. A place where he'd get some action and put all those hours of practice and training to good work. The real work. The academy and the year of specialization had made the young pilot eager and ready to dive into the fighting.

The shuttle took a few more agonizing minutes as it docked onto the ship and when the all clear was given the various people filed out of the ship. The ensign took his duffel bag and walked down the ramp of the shuttle as he looked around at all the activity "Ravon, you're to report to CPO Liliana Walton." said the man who had picked him up in the first place. "Where can I find her?" he asked as the man grinned "Somewhere around this hangar ensign." The ensign nodded as he shook his head and looked at the beehive activity going on in the flight hangar.

Thomas sighed as he looked around for a Chief in a Conn attire. Eventually a woman stood out in the crowd. She must've been in her late twenties or early thirties. He made his way over to her as he kept the duffel bag swung over his shoulder and he cleared his throat "Ensign Thomas Ravon reporting for duty ma'am." he announced himself. He knew he outranked the CPO, yet as she was the one to report to he figured that he'd better treat her with respect. The whole rank thing never really bothered him since in the end they were all just people after all. That and his habit to bump against the system and authority sometimes made it easier to forget about rank.

Re: USS Thunderchild: A New Home

Reply #1 –
[ CPO Liliana Walton | Thunderchild Shuttle Bay | 2371 ] @Nolan

It was going to be a long day. She could feel it. One of the Peregrines on board was throwing an electronics fit and the maintenance crew seemed to be dragging their feet about fixing it, offering up excuses.

“This Peregrine is scheduled for flight today, Vince. I need it working.”

“I know, I know. We’ll have it ready in time.” The petty officer she was speaking with held his hands up in an appeasing motion.

“You better.”

Liliana let him go finally with a sigh and a shake of her head, turning her attention back to a PADD she held in her left hand. Wasn’t there supposed to be some new CONN officer showing up today? She pulled up her messages, but fortunately didn’t have to go far before the officer himself started talking to her.

“Ensign Thomas Ravon, eh? Drop the ma’am. I’m not your mother.” Despite the curtness of her reply, a warm smile indicated no hard feelings as she looked up at the taller man’s face thoughtfully. “You can call me Chief or Walton. You’re the new pilot then? Welcome to the Thunderchild.”

She jerked her thumb at the Peregrine opposite of them. “This Peregrine should be working. It’s not slated to fly today but I flew it yesterday. Get in it. I want to see what you know before it matters.”

There was no opportunity given for Thomas to respond before the energetic woman walked very quickly to the indicated runabout-sized ship, disappearing inside it with an urgent wave in his direction.

Re: USS Thunderchild: A New Home

Reply #2 –
[ Ens Thomas Razor Ravon | Shuttle Transport to USS Thunderchild | 2371 ]
@patches

The young pilot couldn't help but smirk as she told him to drop the ma'am. She hardly looked like his mother, he thought. Of course there was no real way of telling. "New pilot indeed. Glad to be on board. Chief." he answered as he looked around some more before his eyes rested on the Peregrine fighter. He had flown them during Tac Conn and he shifted his eyes away from the ship back to Walton.

As she pointed to the  peregrine, he nodded as she quickly moved over to the ship. He looked at his duffel bag and snorted as he simply dropped it on deck. He called out to one of the deck hands and requested if he could put it aside safely somewhere. The man grunted and told him he wasn't a bell boy but complied anyway as Thomas simply kept staring at him.

After that he ran over to her and the ship as he climbed aboard the ship and fired up the systems. Like trained he performed his pre flight checks, informing her of the various green statuses as he settled in on the pilot seat. He looked around the interior of the ship, feeling like it was a place he remembered. A point of stability in the changing life. "All systems green, ready to radio control to fly out chief." he informed the woman, unsure if he should call out to flight ops or if she would with their flight route.

Re: USS Thunderchild: A New Home

Reply #3 –
[ CPO Liliana Walton | Thunderchild Shuttle Bay | 2371 ] @Nolan

Liliana raised an eyebrow at the lack of duffel bags, given that the Peregrine had room enough for it. She sat herself down in the seat beside him, nodding affirmatively as the new pilot ran through the usual pre-flight checks.

“Good, good. We don’t have a flight plan filed, so flight ops are going to be a little confused. Just tell them we’re taking Peregine 7 out for a joyride or something. You should probably mention I’m with you, I guess. It shouldn’t be an issue since we’re not slated to move on for another six hours or so.” She cocked her head slightly. "Some of the flight crew here apparently want to name this one the Meerkat for some godawful reason. Some sort of Earth animal?"

She listened attentively as Ravon conducted his exchange with the person manning the flight ops role on the bridge while she fidgeted with her PADD. If she remembered correctly, it was a Vulcan at the moment. Those were always a little amusing for her to tweak with last minute things. Once he had secured the go ahead from them, she nodded again and smiled.

“Take us out. Nice and slow. 500 meters off the port side.”

Perhaps unusually for the talkative chief, she kept silent as the ensign did what she said, merely looking out of the window with a thoughtful look until they were clear of the ship’s flight bay.

“You know, with the discovery of the Dominion along with whatever those assholes in Cardassia are doing with their coup, Starfleet seems really rattled right now. Also, those Maquis making some real trouble in the DMZ. They’re using Peregines, y’know. Modified, of course, brimming with some pretty sizeable weapons if I’m hearing right.”

Walton finally set her PADD down and checked something on the console in front of her. She powered up the shields and pointed at the energy readout on the screen.

“These are meant to be fast ships. Couriers. I’ve flown them almost entirely as such. It’s lightly armed. Two phasers. Look at that. Can you imagine flying this thing in combat? There are hardpoints enough for a couple torpedoes. Maybe additional phasers. They’re talking about doing the same modifications to Peregrines that the Maquis have done, but Federation-style of course. I expect ships like the Thunderchild will be among the first to get entire squadrons of them.”

She tapped her fingers on the console before gesturing at the pilot’s console in front of Thomas. “Well, Mister Ravon, show me what they taught you at the fancy pants Academy. Put this thing through its paces.”

Re: USS Thunderchild: A New Home

Reply #4 –
[ Ens Thomas Razor Ravon | Shuttle Transport to USS Thunderchild | 2371 ]
@patches

Thomas grinned as he nodded at her request "Flight ops, this is Peregrine 7, beginning test flight for ship performance." he called out to the controllers "Meerkat? Why would they want to call it Meerkat?" he asked as he received a reply from flight ops "Peregrine 7, you aren't scheduled for any test flights." Thomas shook his head "Confirmed, this is on request of Chief Walton." An audible sigh came from the other side as the person replied "Fine, you are cleared for departure Perigrine 7, make it known when you'll return. Flight ops out."

Hearing the order from the chief, Ravon lifted off the Perigrine gently from the flight deck. It felt rather sensitive in comparison to the ones he had flown at the academy, yet he quickly adjusted himself to the controls before he took the ship out on a slow pace before banking to port side. He looked atthe sensors and out at the open space before he checked himself if they were far enough from the shuttle bay.

Thomas looked over her as she spoke of the Maquis and their adapted peregrines "Can't say I've seen them before. Have you?" he asked curiously.

He nodded as he looked over the available armaments on the ship and confirmed that shields were on. He glanced over the other readings quickly before he looked back at Walton. The idea of having squadrons of combat styled Peregrines made Thomas itchy. Would he be among one of the first to fly them? It certainly made his body tingle as he felt like he was born to fly.

As she told him to show her what they had taught him at the academy he smirked "Aye aye ma'am." He couldn't help but call her ma'am in that moment as he powered up the thrusters at full impulse and pushed the Peregrine's engines to the fullest. He performed the traditional moves that they taught at the Academy by the books before he turned the ship to face the Thunderchild. "That's what the academy taught me, this is what they teach at Tac Conn."

He barrel rolled the ship towards the Thunderchild before performing the newly learned evasive and combat maneuvers. It pushed the ship to the limits, making the hull creak at times yet the pilot seemed very much in control. Of course he performed admirably in a situation where he wasn't actively getting shot at. Or whilst his systems weren't blocking out due to damage. The pilot however enjoyed every bit of his first free space flight.

Re: USS Thunderchild: A New Home

Reply #5 –
[ CPO Liliana Walton | Peregrine 7 | Space around the Thunderchild ] @Nolan

“I haven’t seen any in person, but there’s been some internal memos passed around about what to expect when flying in the DMZ to all ships. The documentation there is descriptive enough.”

Liliana watched thoughtfully as Thomas put the craft through a series of maneuvers, showing first the basics that every pilot knew and then the bits that the new combat flight trainers showed him. She wasn’t surprised to see that it tested the Peregrine’s frame and inertial dampeners. They were similar to what she had seen and done before, but almost entirely as a stunt to show off skill than something they actually expected to do in combat. She nodded at him when he finished, smiling slightly at the look on his face.

“None of us really expect to find ourselves in combat. I don’t what brought you into Starfleet, but for me, it was a ticket to see the stars in areas that the Rainbow’s End would never venture to.” Lily looked out of the viewport at the cosmos they were floating in. “I’ve lived my entire life out here in the black. A lot of the others are from planets. They tell me they miss their homes. Few of them seem to understand it when I tell them that this –“ She waved at the stars. “- is my home.”

She reached over to deactivate his impulse engine controls, transferring them entirely to her side of the long console.

“All you’ve got now are thrusters available to you. How familiar are you with flying ballistic?”

Re: USS Thunderchild: A New Home

Reply #6 –
[ Ens Thomas Razor Ravon | Peregrine 7 | Space around USS Thunderchild | 2371 ]
@patches

It was an interesting notion to learn that the Perigrines might get updates at some point for better armament and the sorts. As he put the Perigrine through the rookie sets of flight he felt quite good about himself as he looked over at Walton to see her smile. He assumed he was doing well and admirably, perhaps even better then expected. Of course, this would be the thought pattern of every rookie.

As she spoke about the reason he joined the fleet and what she called home, Thomas cringed lightly as he shrugged "I... I sort of..." he adjusted the flight path lightly to make sure he could lose attention slightly to talk towards the CPO "I don't have a home. I was born in the same blackness you call home. I never got any feet down on a planet to get raised, my home was a starbase... As much as you could call a starbase home. I suppose I'm out here to find my purpose in life. To find a place that I can call home."

The impulse engines were suddenly deactivated and the only thing available to him at the moment were his thrusters as he quickly tapped the controls to stabilize their flight path before Walton asked him how familiar he was with flying ballistic "Just the basics really... I know how it works theoretically but we haven't trained that much about it." he admitted as he kept it to simple course corrections. He assumed she wanted to see how good he was in actual flight and so he did his best to perform, the ship losing control on some occasions yet being stabilized after a while by the pilot's actions.

Clearly though, it showed that he wasn't used to flying in this way.

- FIN
 
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