09-10-2016, 12:30 PM
Chapter 5: Did not feel like making anew thread so soon. Rank hath its privileges
Lady Cynthia, Commanding 2634-2638
Cat-a Log: The shuttle arrived at Lovely Shipyards ten days after my receipt of orders, I met with the squadron regent Lady Baroness Janice Sheridan. She was glad to see someone with my combat experience on her team. The 652nd was a near carbon copy of the 452nd, two Saturn class light cruisers, three destroyers, two Tyche, one Hermes, and one Oracle scout corvette. However another light formation called a DESTRON was added to our formation.
The 6521st consisted of one Tyche, three Vulcan class Frigates and six of the Pheobe class light attack vessels. A Lady Knight named Jessica Steinberg commands the DESTRON. This gives our force a greater punch as well as the ability to screen further away from the main force.
Lady Janice commanded from the other cruiser the Fable, her flag skipper was Lady Nicole Winters. The three destroyers were skippered by Ladies Wynona Fowler, Roberta Shultz, and Joanne Peters. The corvette was under Ms. Lisa Santino. The frigate skippers were Ms. Peterson, Ms. Babcock, and Ms. Sylvester. I did not concern myself with the LAV crews. Her executive Ms. Ingersol commanded the LAV’s from one of the frigates. The LAV’s were almost a hindrance but they could dock with the frigates or even better yet, the Intrepid could hold four in lieu of two corvettes. However they were our answer to the Newton.
After meeting with the Squadron regent and other senior commanders I went to my ship. Turned out that I was not the only one arriving at the Feline for the first time, however I was in my shore dress uniform and well quite a few people missed the single Pie insignia on my turtle neck. One of which was a particularly unobservant weapons division officette.
“Hey Cynthia, long time no see!”
“Oh Hi Wendy what’s up?”
“Oh not much I got my new posting, seems someone in DIRPERS has a sense of humor, I’ve spent most of my career in Neptunes or Diannas and so they think I would be the ultimate weapons officette for a Saturn.”
“Well you are a Kommandette, and so that is one possible posting, and as a new four pointer even I know you just don’t have the seniority for a Neptune’s Weap O.”
“Yeah, so what did you get some staff position?”
“Hmm something like that, my boss is Lady Baroness Sheridan.”
“Oh wow the squadron regent cool, that explains the shore dress, heck girl most of the time you are in shipboard like the rest of us, even when something else would be more appropriate. I am on the Feline, perhaps I will see you around, care to take a look at her?”
“Well silly that is what I am doing..”
“Oh an inspection, way cool, of course since I’ve not reported in yet; please don’t hold it against me if the weaps div is a mess alright?”
“No problem so who is in charge?”
“Oh the right now the BDCO is, as the executive or skipper has reported yet, no one knows much about the skipper, but scuttlebutt from DIRPER says she has some time in cruisers and a bit of reputation, not unlike a certain staff officette I know…”
“Er right, well here is the dock.”
Ms. Stienbaum the Executive was waiting at the gang plank. She did not know about my arrival yet either. Being shorter than Wendy and standing behind her, my Executive did not see my insignia either.
“Ah you must be Kommandette Travis, I am Gloria the Executive, and who is that behind you?”
Before I could announce myself. “Oh that’s Ms. Parker she works for the Squadron Regent, on an inspection or something, also my friend.”
“Ah right, Ms. Parker glad to meet you, alas the Ship’s Mistress hasn’t reported yet, so I am an in command.”
“Ok sounds good Ms. Stienbaum permission to board?”
“Permission granted, where would you like to go?”
“Oh how about the BDC and then the primary briefing room, I am expecting a gram from Her Noble Ladyship.”
“Right this way, oh and Travis, come along as well, there will be a department head meeting in a few minutes.”
I followed behind, again laughing to myself that no one seems to have noticed my insignia, of course that is why Shore Dress is used in informal functions, as all of the ratings wear the same thing, just that the enlisted have their hearts on the sleeves.
Anyway we proceeded to the BDC where I left Gloria and Wendy to talk things over, before strolling into the commo shack. The duty Lewtenette was the first person to see my insignia and was about to call the deck to attention, I motioned her to be silent, and told her that none of the seniors have noticed, so just play along. She smiled and then handed over the parchment envelope that had my appointment orders and assumption of command orders, I signed them in Ink and then gave them back to the commo officer, Miss Rusticov.
I then went to back outside to the BDC and leaned over to Ms. Stienbaum, “If you would be so kind I would like to attend that department head meeting.”
“Sure thing might as well see the senior staff.”
I then followed behind and motioned for Miss Rusticov to follow with my copies of the orders.
We arrived at the briefing room Wendy came in first, to announce that the Executive was coming in, the whole group snapped to attention. I looked around and noticed that Ms. Watson had to be the one in grease stained orange coveralls, a good sign for an engineering officette. Ms. Davis was in the dark blue pressure suit that pegged her as ASK, while Miss Kimber’s dark blue and purple suit with the diamond of a Majourrette gave her away. As for the rest, Ms. Porter had to be the Kaptain with the Astrolabes, Ms. Watts the gears, and Ms. Schnieder the crossed axes. Stienbaum walked in and took the head seat and motioned for the others to sit down.
“Greetings Ladies, well the latest shuttle had our Weap Division Officette, so all of the major department heads are present. Oh, Miss Rusticov, why are you here?”
“Ma’am I have an important communiqué from the Squadron Command…”
“Oh good, let me see it.”
“Sorry Ma’am by regulations I have to read it out loud.”
“Really, ok, go ahead Miss Rusticov.”
“Yes Very well effective this date, Her Imperial Majesty’s Starship Fast Attack Cruiser 232, christened the Feline is under the command of its new Mistress, Lady Equetassa Cynthia Parker, signed by Her Noble Ladyship Baroness Janice Sheridan and Her Ladyship Cynthia Parker…”
Before she could finish, both Gloria and Wendy gasped audibly, the rest looked at them and finally turned my way, Ms. Schnieder was the first to see the pie rather than chevrons, and so called the room to attention.
“At ease, ladies, thank you Miss Rusticov, you may return to your station. Ah Ms. Stienbaum I believe you are in my chair?”
“Er uh yes your Ladyship…”
“Ma’am will do fine, sorry for the ruse, but since my dear friend Ms. Travis seems to be very myopic today I could not resist. Anyway since I am new to the Feline, please continue with your meeting, I’ll chime in if I have any questions or input.”
The briefing was detailed but actually quite short, with the exception for Wendy, who having just arrived; each department head discussed the status of their department. We were about 80% filled, a few Kaydettes and junior enlisted had to come in from training along with some other transfer personnel. All in all I was quite pleased with the state of the ship. After the briefing I dismissed everyone but Wendy, Gloria and Wanda. “Ok well some of you know me by reputation and others well a lot more intimately, this is my first command, but I was the Executive of the Foxglove during Mango and Direrum.”
“You were there Ma’am wow, how about you Ms. Travis?”
“Oh no I was babysitting Goldstone at the time, but trust me Cynthia, er Lady Parker…”
“No you had it right the first time..”
“right she definitely knows her stuff, by the way thanks for the assignment, now I don’t have to wonder about DIRPER’s sanity.”
“Well I still do, DIRPER works in mysterious ways, anyway we will put the ship through its paces, I know how fast these buckets are supposed to go, and where we can go even faster in an emergency, we will also work closely with our destroyer, as the Saturn-Tyche combo is about 80% more effective than just the Saturn by herself. Wanda I want you to brief me later on the status of Ship Ops and Info Ops. Wendy in two days I want a written report regarding the status of your division, to include magazine inventory and status of all weapons, also get familiar with the new improved particle weapons and point defenses we are packing. If my experience in the Ex Fleet means anything, we can expect being attacked by Thetas, Trigs as well as Newtons, we can out run Dolci’s and Pascals, and the Corp bastards like to concentrate their big guns on our cap ships, we can use that against them. Any questions? Good get back to your departments once we have a full complement we will depart the dock for trials and shakedown, dismissed.”
The rest of the time in dock went by quickly, Wendy gave me her report and I was not disappointed. I also found out from Wendy, that both Barbara and Terry were close by. So using the Mistress’s launch, basically a shuttle with a one shot drive, both Wendy and I went to take care of “personal business.”
Barbara was quite surprised at seeing me especially as Lady Cynthia, and was even more surprised but pleased when I handed her a request for permanent partnership. The TGR had to sign off on it, but since she was on the Intrepid that was easy enough to take care of. I asked Wendy if she and Terry were going to follow suit, but she told me that both of them liked the present arrangements. Once the request was approved Barbara and I went down to Avonia and picked up a pair of commitment rings, as well as spent some quality time together, the suites that the aristocracy have access to are quite lovely. We both agreed that unless circumstances prevent it, we would get married at the end of this tour, which of course means that by IDOF regulations we would have to share accommodations whenever possible. When we returned back to the ships, both the Gopher and the Feline had a party in our honor.
A few days after my return we were up to 100% and took the Feline out to conduct the shakedown cruise. Midway through the cruise however we received orders to that the entire task force was heading for Goddard. It seems that the corp bastards are up to something, yet again. However this time more and more of the forces they will encounter are Imperial rather than House administered.
The 12th Starfleet was moving to Goddard and the Regent’s flag was also being transferred to that system, which would our new base of operations. We used the transit time to practice and hone our skills, both as a ship and as a full squadron. The Fable and her Tyche the Larch took turns attacking and defending against the Feline and our consort the Lollygag. Both sections improved dramatically, we also went up against the DESTRON both as a section and as a full squadron. Obviously the four ships working together proved to be overwhelming against the light squadron but we held our own when as a two ship element.
The LAV’s are quite formidable as long as they can remain in at least three ship elements, alone they are easy targets. The most annoying tactic, from our perspective was a massed LAV attack supported by one frigate, while the other frigates and the destroyer went after the other section. The LAV’s suffered horribly but in one attack the Fable and both destroyers were “lost” and the poor kitty, was severely damaged. Had our relative positions with the Fable been reversed we would have also been destroyed. We hope that the exercises proved to be an omen when fighting against the corp shit.
The 65th was the right flank element of the 121st Fleet, which was the lead element of the 12th Imperial Star Fleet. So as the primary screen for the 65th we were the extreme right flank and so arrived at Goddard second behind the 792nd CRURON which was the screen for the 79th ATG or the van of the entire formation. Because the entire Starfleet was heading for Goddard, space would be a premium. The three fleets of the 12th would take turns being on active patrol, and the 121st had honor of first rotation. The 79th and 87th ATGS would patrol the area, while the 56th BTG, 24th CTG were held back around Goddard. The 65th CTG was forward deployed to Tau, while the 17th ATG was forward deployed near Gold. Our last Task group was the new 11th STG or Support Task Group and it was also back at Goddard. So the 65th paid its respects to the fleet command and we headed for Tau.
While Goddard is primarily an agricultural world, Tau is a total colonial territory. The Empire settled it around the time Orion was first occupied, but even so most of the planet is uninhabited. Tau Town is the Imperial Administration Center and its surrounding environs total 25% of the population at 14 million. So the addition of a full Carrier Task Force, with close to 40 000 beings, would be quite a shock to the local economy. The 651st CARON, 653rd BATCRURON and 654th SUPRON remained in the Tau system. The 652nd CRURON and 655th CRURON took turns rotating patrol duties. The 655th was our sister squadron although they were tasked not as the screen but as a scout force, so they had two more Hermes and two oracles at the expense of the DESTRON. For the most part we left the LAV’s to patrol the near and far jump points while we did our patrol.
Our first rotation out was routine and uneventful. We received news that although Tau wasn’t attacked the corps tried to take on forces at Kuwait and Gold-Stone, they were repulsed with heavy losses. Our job was to keep the Corporate forces away, not to go looking for them, besides someone neglected to provide the 12th Star Fleet with any NGAL troops, beyond the boarding and security teams. However we did need to bring in a cohort of ground troops to establish the garrison on Tau. The garrison also included a liberty camp so when we were not on rotation we could spend some time on the ground. Unfortunately for me it seemed that the CARON was always off when we were on and vice versa. I actually looked forward for going back on patrol.
The second rotation was mostly uneventful except at the end the 95th CTG arrived to relieve us. So we headed back for Goddard. By this time AIDOF had moved some orbital docks and stations to support the 12th Star Fleet, so when we returned off our five months of patrol, the 121st went to a maintenance and refurbishment rotation. The 122nd was on outer patrol and the 123rd on inner patrol and training.
Personnel rotated out, including Ms. Stienbaum, she was sent off to Finishing School. I was impressed with Ms. Porter that I made her acting Executive, with the recommendation that she be promoted and fill the slot. Miss Joyner, the DBDCO became acting BDCO and so on. Barbara became her group’s matriarch and she requested that Terry become the executive, but that request was denied, as Terry became the executive for the 651st Pursuit Group, one of the two groups carried by the Intrepid.
The Intrepid went into the maintenance dock about a cycle before the Gopher and two cycles before the Feline. However for a time of about four cycles all four of us did not have a ship available. Being in charge or the executive of formations consisting only of Raptors, the aerobabes were also grounded while their ships were laid up, as AIDOF did not provide an orbital aerospace platform.
They had their hands full with administrative tasks, but since the dirtside compound was for all of the elements of the 12th Star Fleet, they had an easy time. I permitted my Weaps Div chief as much time at the liberty camp as possible, while we were waiting our turn in the maintenance dock. Likewise Barbara and I spent as much time together on the Intrepid or Feline as possible. She and Terry had a small cottage at the liberty camp when both of their ships were off line, which meant Wendy and I double dated quite often. However I could not show too much favoritism so Wendy had to stay up on the ship when I went down sometimes, or vice versa.
But after the second cycle of being back was complete and the Feline went into the maintenance dock, we were without a home too. So I booked a resort estate, the perks of being a Lady and the four of us had an incredible time on Goddard. Midway through the fourth cycle I received word that the 12th Star Fleet was going to be permanently stationed on Goddard so that we might as well be looking for permanent quarters. As befitting my status, I met with the Governess of Von Braun, Countess Gloria Pitt, and put in my petition for my own estate. As the mistress of a light cruiser, I was promised a large townhouse at Roswell Urban Domain. I used my back pay to help finance the home and so moved in to the “Parker” Manor, Although Barbara called it the Parker house.
Lady Cynthia, Commanding 2634-2638
Cat-a Log: The shuttle arrived at Lovely Shipyards ten days after my receipt of orders, I met with the squadron regent Lady Baroness Janice Sheridan. She was glad to see someone with my combat experience on her team. The 652nd was a near carbon copy of the 452nd, two Saturn class light cruisers, three destroyers, two Tyche, one Hermes, and one Oracle scout corvette. However another light formation called a DESTRON was added to our formation.
The 6521st consisted of one Tyche, three Vulcan class Frigates and six of the Pheobe class light attack vessels. A Lady Knight named Jessica Steinberg commands the DESTRON. This gives our force a greater punch as well as the ability to screen further away from the main force.
Lady Janice commanded from the other cruiser the Fable, her flag skipper was Lady Nicole Winters. The three destroyers were skippered by Ladies Wynona Fowler, Roberta Shultz, and Joanne Peters. The corvette was under Ms. Lisa Santino. The frigate skippers were Ms. Peterson, Ms. Babcock, and Ms. Sylvester. I did not concern myself with the LAV crews. Her executive Ms. Ingersol commanded the LAV’s from one of the frigates. The LAV’s were almost a hindrance but they could dock with the frigates or even better yet, the Intrepid could hold four in lieu of two corvettes. However they were our answer to the Newton.
After meeting with the Squadron regent and other senior commanders I went to my ship. Turned out that I was not the only one arriving at the Feline for the first time, however I was in my shore dress uniform and well quite a few people missed the single Pie insignia on my turtle neck. One of which was a particularly unobservant weapons division officette.
“Hey Cynthia, long time no see!”
“Oh Hi Wendy what’s up?”
“Oh not much I got my new posting, seems someone in DIRPERS has a sense of humor, I’ve spent most of my career in Neptunes or Diannas and so they think I would be the ultimate weapons officette for a Saturn.”
“Well you are a Kommandette, and so that is one possible posting, and as a new four pointer even I know you just don’t have the seniority for a Neptune’s Weap O.”
“Yeah, so what did you get some staff position?”
“Hmm something like that, my boss is Lady Baroness Sheridan.”
“Oh wow the squadron regent cool, that explains the shore dress, heck girl most of the time you are in shipboard like the rest of us, even when something else would be more appropriate. I am on the Feline, perhaps I will see you around, care to take a look at her?”
“Well silly that is what I am doing..”
“Oh an inspection, way cool, of course since I’ve not reported in yet; please don’t hold it against me if the weaps div is a mess alright?”
“No problem so who is in charge?”
“Oh the right now the BDCO is, as the executive or skipper has reported yet, no one knows much about the skipper, but scuttlebutt from DIRPER says she has some time in cruisers and a bit of reputation, not unlike a certain staff officette I know…”
“Er right, well here is the dock.”
Ms. Stienbaum the Executive was waiting at the gang plank. She did not know about my arrival yet either. Being shorter than Wendy and standing behind her, my Executive did not see my insignia either.
“Ah you must be Kommandette Travis, I am Gloria the Executive, and who is that behind you?”
Before I could announce myself. “Oh that’s Ms. Parker she works for the Squadron Regent, on an inspection or something, also my friend.”
“Ah right, Ms. Parker glad to meet you, alas the Ship’s Mistress hasn’t reported yet, so I am an in command.”
“Ok sounds good Ms. Stienbaum permission to board?”
“Permission granted, where would you like to go?”
“Oh how about the BDC and then the primary briefing room, I am expecting a gram from Her Noble Ladyship.”
“Right this way, oh and Travis, come along as well, there will be a department head meeting in a few minutes.”
I followed behind, again laughing to myself that no one seems to have noticed my insignia, of course that is why Shore Dress is used in informal functions, as all of the ratings wear the same thing, just that the enlisted have their hearts on the sleeves.
Anyway we proceeded to the BDC where I left Gloria and Wendy to talk things over, before strolling into the commo shack. The duty Lewtenette was the first person to see my insignia and was about to call the deck to attention, I motioned her to be silent, and told her that none of the seniors have noticed, so just play along. She smiled and then handed over the parchment envelope that had my appointment orders and assumption of command orders, I signed them in Ink and then gave them back to the commo officer, Miss Rusticov.
I then went to back outside to the BDC and leaned over to Ms. Stienbaum, “If you would be so kind I would like to attend that department head meeting.”
“Sure thing might as well see the senior staff.”
I then followed behind and motioned for Miss Rusticov to follow with my copies of the orders.
We arrived at the briefing room Wendy came in first, to announce that the Executive was coming in, the whole group snapped to attention. I looked around and noticed that Ms. Watson had to be the one in grease stained orange coveralls, a good sign for an engineering officette. Ms. Davis was in the dark blue pressure suit that pegged her as ASK, while Miss Kimber’s dark blue and purple suit with the diamond of a Majourrette gave her away. As for the rest, Ms. Porter had to be the Kaptain with the Astrolabes, Ms. Watts the gears, and Ms. Schnieder the crossed axes. Stienbaum walked in and took the head seat and motioned for the others to sit down.
“Greetings Ladies, well the latest shuttle had our Weap Division Officette, so all of the major department heads are present. Oh, Miss Rusticov, why are you here?”
“Ma’am I have an important communiqué from the Squadron Command…”
“Oh good, let me see it.”
“Sorry Ma’am by regulations I have to read it out loud.”
“Really, ok, go ahead Miss Rusticov.”
“Yes Very well effective this date, Her Imperial Majesty’s Starship Fast Attack Cruiser 232, christened the Feline is under the command of its new Mistress, Lady Equetassa Cynthia Parker, signed by Her Noble Ladyship Baroness Janice Sheridan and Her Ladyship Cynthia Parker…”
Before she could finish, both Gloria and Wendy gasped audibly, the rest looked at them and finally turned my way, Ms. Schnieder was the first to see the pie rather than chevrons, and so called the room to attention.
“At ease, ladies, thank you Miss Rusticov, you may return to your station. Ah Ms. Stienbaum I believe you are in my chair?”
“Er uh yes your Ladyship…”
“Ma’am will do fine, sorry for the ruse, but since my dear friend Ms. Travis seems to be very myopic today I could not resist. Anyway since I am new to the Feline, please continue with your meeting, I’ll chime in if I have any questions or input.”
The briefing was detailed but actually quite short, with the exception for Wendy, who having just arrived; each department head discussed the status of their department. We were about 80% filled, a few Kaydettes and junior enlisted had to come in from training along with some other transfer personnel. All in all I was quite pleased with the state of the ship. After the briefing I dismissed everyone but Wendy, Gloria and Wanda. “Ok well some of you know me by reputation and others well a lot more intimately, this is my first command, but I was the Executive of the Foxglove during Mango and Direrum.”
“You were there Ma’am wow, how about you Ms. Travis?”
“Oh no I was babysitting Goldstone at the time, but trust me Cynthia, er Lady Parker…”
“No you had it right the first time..”
“right she definitely knows her stuff, by the way thanks for the assignment, now I don’t have to wonder about DIRPER’s sanity.”
“Well I still do, DIRPER works in mysterious ways, anyway we will put the ship through its paces, I know how fast these buckets are supposed to go, and where we can go even faster in an emergency, we will also work closely with our destroyer, as the Saturn-Tyche combo is about 80% more effective than just the Saturn by herself. Wanda I want you to brief me later on the status of Ship Ops and Info Ops. Wendy in two days I want a written report regarding the status of your division, to include magazine inventory and status of all weapons, also get familiar with the new improved particle weapons and point defenses we are packing. If my experience in the Ex Fleet means anything, we can expect being attacked by Thetas, Trigs as well as Newtons, we can out run Dolci’s and Pascals, and the Corp bastards like to concentrate their big guns on our cap ships, we can use that against them. Any questions? Good get back to your departments once we have a full complement we will depart the dock for trials and shakedown, dismissed.”
The rest of the time in dock went by quickly, Wendy gave me her report and I was not disappointed. I also found out from Wendy, that both Barbara and Terry were close by. So using the Mistress’s launch, basically a shuttle with a one shot drive, both Wendy and I went to take care of “personal business.”
Barbara was quite surprised at seeing me especially as Lady Cynthia, and was even more surprised but pleased when I handed her a request for permanent partnership. The TGR had to sign off on it, but since she was on the Intrepid that was easy enough to take care of. I asked Wendy if she and Terry were going to follow suit, but she told me that both of them liked the present arrangements. Once the request was approved Barbara and I went down to Avonia and picked up a pair of commitment rings, as well as spent some quality time together, the suites that the aristocracy have access to are quite lovely. We both agreed that unless circumstances prevent it, we would get married at the end of this tour, which of course means that by IDOF regulations we would have to share accommodations whenever possible. When we returned back to the ships, both the Gopher and the Feline had a party in our honor.
A few days after my return we were up to 100% and took the Feline out to conduct the shakedown cruise. Midway through the cruise however we received orders to that the entire task force was heading for Goddard. It seems that the corp bastards are up to something, yet again. However this time more and more of the forces they will encounter are Imperial rather than House administered.
The 12th Starfleet was moving to Goddard and the Regent’s flag was also being transferred to that system, which would our new base of operations. We used the transit time to practice and hone our skills, both as a ship and as a full squadron. The Fable and her Tyche the Larch took turns attacking and defending against the Feline and our consort the Lollygag. Both sections improved dramatically, we also went up against the DESTRON both as a section and as a full squadron. Obviously the four ships working together proved to be overwhelming against the light squadron but we held our own when as a two ship element.
The LAV’s are quite formidable as long as they can remain in at least three ship elements, alone they are easy targets. The most annoying tactic, from our perspective was a massed LAV attack supported by one frigate, while the other frigates and the destroyer went after the other section. The LAV’s suffered horribly but in one attack the Fable and both destroyers were “lost” and the poor kitty, was severely damaged. Had our relative positions with the Fable been reversed we would have also been destroyed. We hope that the exercises proved to be an omen when fighting against the corp shit.
The 65th was the right flank element of the 121st Fleet, which was the lead element of the 12th Imperial Star Fleet. So as the primary screen for the 65th we were the extreme right flank and so arrived at Goddard second behind the 792nd CRURON which was the screen for the 79th ATG or the van of the entire formation. Because the entire Starfleet was heading for Goddard, space would be a premium. The three fleets of the 12th would take turns being on active patrol, and the 121st had honor of first rotation. The 79th and 87th ATGS would patrol the area, while the 56th BTG, 24th CTG were held back around Goddard. The 65th CTG was forward deployed to Tau, while the 17th ATG was forward deployed near Gold. Our last Task group was the new 11th STG or Support Task Group and it was also back at Goddard. So the 65th paid its respects to the fleet command and we headed for Tau.
While Goddard is primarily an agricultural world, Tau is a total colonial territory. The Empire settled it around the time Orion was first occupied, but even so most of the planet is uninhabited. Tau Town is the Imperial Administration Center and its surrounding environs total 25% of the population at 14 million. So the addition of a full Carrier Task Force, with close to 40 000 beings, would be quite a shock to the local economy. The 651st CARON, 653rd BATCRURON and 654th SUPRON remained in the Tau system. The 652nd CRURON and 655th CRURON took turns rotating patrol duties. The 655th was our sister squadron although they were tasked not as the screen but as a scout force, so they had two more Hermes and two oracles at the expense of the DESTRON. For the most part we left the LAV’s to patrol the near and far jump points while we did our patrol.
Our first rotation out was routine and uneventful. We received news that although Tau wasn’t attacked the corps tried to take on forces at Kuwait and Gold-Stone, they were repulsed with heavy losses. Our job was to keep the Corporate forces away, not to go looking for them, besides someone neglected to provide the 12th Star Fleet with any NGAL troops, beyond the boarding and security teams. However we did need to bring in a cohort of ground troops to establish the garrison on Tau. The garrison also included a liberty camp so when we were not on rotation we could spend some time on the ground. Unfortunately for me it seemed that the CARON was always off when we were on and vice versa. I actually looked forward for going back on patrol.
The second rotation was mostly uneventful except at the end the 95th CTG arrived to relieve us. So we headed back for Goddard. By this time AIDOF had moved some orbital docks and stations to support the 12th Star Fleet, so when we returned off our five months of patrol, the 121st went to a maintenance and refurbishment rotation. The 122nd was on outer patrol and the 123rd on inner patrol and training.
Personnel rotated out, including Ms. Stienbaum, she was sent off to Finishing School. I was impressed with Ms. Porter that I made her acting Executive, with the recommendation that she be promoted and fill the slot. Miss Joyner, the DBDCO became acting BDCO and so on. Barbara became her group’s matriarch and she requested that Terry become the executive, but that request was denied, as Terry became the executive for the 651st Pursuit Group, one of the two groups carried by the Intrepid.
The Intrepid went into the maintenance dock about a cycle before the Gopher and two cycles before the Feline. However for a time of about four cycles all four of us did not have a ship available. Being in charge or the executive of formations consisting only of Raptors, the aerobabes were also grounded while their ships were laid up, as AIDOF did not provide an orbital aerospace platform.
They had their hands full with administrative tasks, but since the dirtside compound was for all of the elements of the 12th Star Fleet, they had an easy time. I permitted my Weaps Div chief as much time at the liberty camp as possible, while we were waiting our turn in the maintenance dock. Likewise Barbara and I spent as much time together on the Intrepid or Feline as possible. She and Terry had a small cottage at the liberty camp when both of their ships were off line, which meant Wendy and I double dated quite often. However I could not show too much favoritism so Wendy had to stay up on the ship when I went down sometimes, or vice versa.
But after the second cycle of being back was complete and the Feline went into the maintenance dock, we were without a home too. So I booked a resort estate, the perks of being a Lady and the four of us had an incredible time on Goddard. Midway through the fourth cycle I received word that the 12th Star Fleet was going to be permanently stationed on Goddard so that we might as well be looking for permanent quarters. As befitting my status, I met with the Governess of Von Braun, Countess Gloria Pitt, and put in my petition for my own estate. As the mistress of a light cruiser, I was promised a large townhouse at Roswell Urban Domain. I used my back pay to help finance the home and so moved in to the “Parker” Manor, Although Barbara called it the Parker house.