Recon: Guinea Pig Squadron

[Corrax Talrus]

Location: CRN-Surprise, Cadi System, near Coyote Outpost​, Rattatak
Mission Briefing:

​Operation: Dust Demon​

​Objective: Assess operational readiness of X-22 Drexl​ prototype Recon Starfighter​

​Immediate orders: Rendezvous with Intelligence Director Winslow on board CRN fleet transport nearby Coyote Outpost, coordinates embedded​

​

​"​Those are torpedo's, you sodding nerf-bucket! Slow down!"​ Corrax' voice echoed through Hangar-2 on board the CRN​-Surprise as a hover lift relocated crates of munitions at alarming speeds.​ His irritation was palpable at the moment, as he oversaw the near deconstruction of the bay in order to accommodate a ship far larger than this deck was meant to handle. Not only that, but they had to be able to offload several prototype fighters into the bay. The usual compliment of Scythe's​ occupying Hangar Bay Two had been crammed into Hangar Bay One, much to the dismay of One's flight deck crew.

The strife that existed between intel and fleet was as old as time, Corrax knew, but that didn't make things any better. The head-in-the-clouds mentality of the intelligence division often ran afoul of fleet's practical demeanor. Today it exhibited itself in the culmination of orders for them to move from patrol on the far side of the system with virtually no warning, rendezvous in the middle of nowhere, and make room for a fleet transport on an undersized flight deck. From there, orders should be fairly straight forward - test the operational readiness of a new recon fighter.

As CAG on board the Surprise, Corrax had been privy to some up-front intel on the new fighter - the X-22 Drexl​-class Starfighter - and while there were some exciting features, overall he wasn't impressed. It would be an interesting few days. The fact that Director Winslow was coming personally on board for these tests was a bit ominous, but Corrax hoped the man just really liked space travel. He'd never met the director, but what he'd heard marked him as a brilliant man that you didn't​ want to cross.

Corrax sighed as he looked over the flight deck; the MagCon shields' soft, translucent glow casting an ominous hue over the barren landscape. It's going to be a long few days,​ he thought to himself.

 

[Alleycat]

CRN Surprise
Hangar-2

Mia Conner always drew the short straw it seemed nowadays, and sure enough her task from the CAG was to make sure all the Scythe-class starfighters were moved from Hangar-2 to Hangar-1, then tucked in nicely. The major repositioning of all of the Surprise's fighters to the one hangar bay was to make room for a special arrival of some sort. It was on a need to know basis and the Commonwealth Flight Officer wasn't on that list. It bugged the former Flight Captain of the 181st TIE Corps, but she chose her destiny and that was to be no longer a member of the First Order nor to carry her old rank; that part of her past died when Daska Tess did. She was starting from scratch again except for the experience earned already… It was humbling to say the least.

After finishing her designated job, "Raven" returned to Hangar-2 to see what else she could do to help [member="Corrax Talrus"], her superior. The dirty blonde pilot's disgruntled voice echoed throughout the hangar bay as she entered. Either the man was more than tense due to whatever was going to happen next or he was just in a bad mood. Could be both, but Mia had no idea how or what made Red Leader tick. Better to play it straight until they got to know each other better.

Walking up to where the CAG stood giving orders and intriguing critiques of the hangar deck crew, the long-legged golden blonde stopped a couple of feet away. Mia waited until he was done, then cleared her throat, standing in a well-fitted flight suit with her hands clasped behind her back at parade rest.

"Captain Talrus... The Scythes have been successfully moved to their new berth, though if we have to scramble it will be a slow launch with how tight all of the fighters are packed into the one hangar. Is there anything else I may help you with, sir?"

 

[Corrax Talrus]

Corrax had been trained for many things in military service, but counter-intelligence and all that wasn't one of those things. As such, on a good day he may well not have noticed [member="Mia Conner"] as she walked up behind him. Today was not a good day. He didn't jump when she cleared her throat ... at least, not much. He did, however, let out an audible sigh of relief to see that it was one of his pilots. He realized that in the short time between hearing the sound and turning around, his mind had already filled in the blanks and identified it as some deck hand coming to report a problem. He felt a certain camaraderie with his pilots, though. They thought the same way and had the same priorities.

Her report on the Scythe's​ was a welcome one, as it meant one less thing he had to worry about. He did, however, feel a pang of guilt for saddling her with moving-duty. He'd make it up to her.

"Thanks, Connor," he said, motioning nonchalantly for her to walk with him. She was right about the slow launch problem. If anything came up, they'd be thoroughly up a metaphorical creek. "Actually, I do have something for you to help me with."

Corrax walked the short distance from where they were to the pilot's ready room at the back of the hangar and toggled the door command. He held his arm out, politely waiting on her to enter first, then entered behind her and input a Clearance-2 lock after closing the door behind them.

"In a short time, Director Winslow from CNI will be landing a fleet transport in this bay," he said, pulling out his datapad and linking it with the briefing room holoprojector. "Thus the reason for the ridiculous game of musical Starfighters we've been forced to play today. Sorry for the frakked duty roster."

A moment later, the holoprojector came to life, blue pixels flying upward from the base of the briefing platform at the front of the theater. In less then a second, the pixels coalesced into an incredibly accurate rendering of the X-22 Drexl​-class Recon Starfighter. The Starfighter hovered above the table, rotating slightly while walls of text appeared left and right, cycling through details of the craft.

"Meet the X-22 Drexl​-class Starfighter," he said, somewhat unenthusiastically. "It's a single-pilot recon bucket that we've been asked to run through its paces."

Corrax moved closer to the front of the room, inspecting it as if for the first time. "I'm not sure what the whole game is, but I know that there are at least a couple of these coming on board within the next hour and that we get to experiment. Want to be my wing?"

 

[Winslow]

The TTW-1000 Carrier Cruiser But Not Forgotten exited hyperspace uncomfortably close to the vessel known as Surprise. The almost thousand meter long ship, a Commonwealth Naval Intelligence owned cruiser, had been accompanied by two Heavy Assault Frigates. It was in and of itself quite the sight to behold. Clearly, Naval Intelligence took no chances when it came to the delivery of the new Starfighters. Ever since the Commonwealth had made their debut on the intergalactic political scene, much had changed as new enemies started to look in their direction. Perhaps, a factor in the increased security could also have something to do with the presence of the Intelligence Director.

A few minutes after But Not Forgotten had arrived in system, a cargo shuttle had left the ship and made its way towards Surprise, floating through the emptiness of space towards hangar bay two. Upon reaching the hangar, the rectangular in shape metal box slowed its pace, its engines heard roaring as it made its way through the magcon shields, landing feet extending towards the floor of the hangar as it touched down with a hard thump. The blasts of air that had swept the hangar along with the roars from the engines slowly subsided and soon silence filled the hangar for a moment, a buzzing noise heard from the craft soon after, breaking the silence, as its disembarkation ramp that was situated at the very front of the shuttle slowly lowered itself towards the floor. Inside stood Director of Intelligence Winslow.

His stern, light blue gaze slowly inspected the hangar he had landed in as he descended the ramp, his heavy steps resounding throughout the hangar. He was a large man, perhaps not necessarily in height, but at the very least in width and mass. Despite his age, it was clear that in his youthful days he had been of an athletic build, his arms showing the signs of having been used from an early age. A scar stretched down his left cheek, now but a mark on his greyish skin, the color a sign that he rarely saw sunlight. The scar stretched its way down past his lower lip, it almost being entirely concealed by a large black mustache that adorned his face.

A crew of various flight mechanics and personnel, as well as a pair of black armored CNI Security Officers exited the craft behind him, slowly beginning to roll the two Drexl Class Starfighters that had been within the shuttle out into the hangar.

“Who of you are flight deck responsible?” He asked, his voice rough as he extended a datapad forward for the one in charge to sign, held in his large gloved hand.

[member="Corrax Talrus"] :: [member="Mia Conner"]​

 

[Alleycat]

"You are welcome, sir," Mia answered with a simple nod of her golden head, then the flight officer trailed closely behind [member="Corrax Talrus"] as he indicated for her to follow him to the pilot's ready room.

Once inside the CAG locked the door and made his way to the holoprojector, then hooked up his datapad to it. This intrigued Mia as she knew what he was about to share was on a need to know basis. It felt like old times when Admiral Kalast would call her in for a top secret meeting, well almost.

The seasoned pilot tilted her head from side to side as the 3-D hologram of a fighter craft came to life. Raven's keen blue eyes studied it, then she quirked a blondish-brown brow and replied after a moment of thought.

"Interesting design and concept … And yes I would very much like to be your wing for this testing. If you have the preliminary specs, I would like to review them before we fly."

A few moments passed, then an alert sounded that a ship was inbound for the hangar bay. Mia flashed a small sideways grin at the captain as he stood next to her. "Seems that hour just evaporated. Good thing we are ready to receive our guest, hmm?"

[member="Winslow"]

 

[Corrax Talrus]

"​Frak,​" Corrax swore under his breath as he canceled the connection between his datapad and the briefing table. Warning klaxons were blaring, alerting anyone on the flight deck to clear out. He was amazed that they had been able to find a sound as annoying as that one. Corrax initiated a connection between his datapad and Conner's, quickly transferring initial specs and authorizing her to view them. "Specs are in your files, study fast," he said giving her a sardonic smile.

He deactivated the clearance lock on the door and moved into the hangar bay to watch as the large transport passed through the MagCon and set down. As soon as it was officially set, flight technicians moved about the hangar to ready for the offloading of the new craft. Corrax watched as a large man descended the ramp, followed by various flight personnel and security-types.

Corrax approached at the man's question, offering a salute before responding. "Director Winslow, I'm Captain Corrax Talrus. It's an honor to have you aboard, sir," he said, standing at attention before one of the Big Three.

Corrax watched behind the man as two of the prototype craft were offloaded from the shuttle, their hulls a dark, matte-black. Different then the initial prototype specs he'd had, but looking quite nice he had to admit.

[member="Mia Conner"] | [member="Winslow"]​

 

[Alleycat]

Before they exited the pilot ready room, [member="Corrax Talrus"] quickly downloaded the specs to the new craft to her datapad. It was a good thing Mia kinda had a photogenic mind. She perused over the stats with haste, then followed the captain out to the hangar bay where the large transport had berthed.

Mia quirked a blondish-brown brow up as the prototype ships were moved onto the flight deck from within the transport. They weren't quite like what was noted in the downloaded specs, but she guessed the two pilots would know soon enough how close the starfighters were to the written word.

The long-legged blonde fell in behind the CAG and threw up a salute as well when he greeted Director [member="Winslow"] and his entourage, who had accompanied the delivered package to the Surprise, then Raven dropped into parade rest after their acknowledgement.